April 28, 2014 Dancing!

Devon is doing great! He never mentions in his letters that he is the District Leader. And his district is all Native speakers! He is the only American or English speaker in his district!

You can email him at:

devon.ridd@ldsliving.net

Or write him:

Elder Devon Ridd

c/cuesta de Davalos n.2a, 6i

Guadalajara 19001

Spain

So, a few things from your letter! My companion is from Bolivia! there were a lot of South Americans that came to Spain when the economy went bad down there! So Elder Peredo want to tell you thank you for saying that if he studies and learns English he could get a good job - maybe even for the church. It has given him some good motivation and he has that as his goal now!

I can't wait to talk to you on the 11th! I don't know what time but if you want to coordinate with Courtney or whatever I will do what you want! I'm very much looking forward to it!

I can't believe Nicole will be 13!

Also, we are teaching a black man named Godspower. Just thought you should know...

I got a sweet package this week from Aunty Shelley! It was a cute little package but it had one of the best letters inside that I have ever read in my life! I felt so loved and I was laughing so hard! Aunty Shelley is so funny! I absolutely loved what she shared with me and for the little goodies! So tell her thank you so much from me for that!

Well, this week we had a little miracle here! We were inside of the Sunday School class at church on Sunday and my companion felt the need to go outside and there was a man standing at the door! His name is Ricardo and he had found the address of the church online! He is from Honduras but has lived here in Guadalajara for 18 years. His brother and cousin live in the sates and are members of the church. They have been telling him for a while about the church and explaining lots of things to him. He told us that on Sunday, God told him that it was time for him to go to church, so he came. We showed him around on Sunday and wrote down his number and plan to meet with on Tuesday. My companion was in Azuqueca and I was with a pretty new Elder here doing exchanges. So, in the lesson, Ricardo explained to us that he was ready to change his life and to follow Jesus Christ. I asked him, "if you knew that this church was the true church of Christ, would you be baptized?" and he said, "well, it's just that I already know that its the true church!" so I said, "alright, you are getting baptized the 10th of May!" Two weeks from now! He is so awesome and so prepared. We are so so grateful that Heavenly Father has prepared him so much and that we are going to be able to help him join the church! I am so grateful that God gives us these miracles in the mission to help us keep going! It's awesome!

We had a ward party where we celebrated all of the different countries in our branch! It was so great! We had tons of investigators and lots of people did dances from their countries and there was lots and lots of food. I  made a little table for the United States and bought some Burger King and some Lays chips and put them on the table haha. I also sang God Bless America in front of the whole branch! It was pretty funny - I will see if I can send a video! (we didn't get a video - but if we do - I will post it here!)

Thanks for everything! I love you! Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Ridd

Feliz Pascua! April 21, 2014

Easter was really weird here! We didn't eat with any members and they didn't do anything special in church. The whole week though is called Semana Santa and the Catholic church runs the whole city the whole week. It is freaky what they do here. It felt like war all week.I'm serious, they bang these big drums all day and dress up like the KKK and carry around statues of the Virgin Mary and a bloody Jesus and that is how they celebrate Easter!

It is so sad honestly and I just wanted everybody to be happy and to realize that Jesus is happy and that he lives! I am so grateful that I was able to study about Jesus and that I have my testimony! 

I didn't receive your package yet (yikes) but I did receive a package from the Mills! They are awesome! They sent me a little Easter package and I loved it! Sister Mills is very nice. Tell her thank you for me please mom!

I was able to make some cookies this week for some members with the recipe that you sent me and they turned out alright! I didn't have anything to measure with or to do the conversions so it was literally all with a spoon and guessing and some how they turned out alright! ha ha - I guess that was a miracle for this week!

It is raining really hard today so we are not going to do some of the things we planned - we will probably just go back to the piso and write letters. Thank you for everything that you do for me. I love you so much. Thank you for all of your words of encouragement and advice. They help me a lot! I have a family here on earth, they are so good to me. I want to share my life with them through all eternity! Families can be together forever - through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can!

Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Ridd

April 7, 2014 - with Pictures!

Hello mother!! Do not worry about the long email! I skimmed! :) Yes, conference was great! I only got to see 3 of the 5 sessions because of the time difference and all of them were in Spanish but I still loved it! I got that message too that we really need to stay strong and firm in our beliefs in this crazy world! I though a lot about how blessed we are as members and as a family to have the gospel in our lives.

Everything is going well here. The English class lady is named Inés and her kids are Adriann and Melania! We are working with them lots and we also have some other great investigators. We are seeing lots of miracles here in Guadalajara that come from hard work and obedience.

Can you believe I get to talk to you guys in 3 weeks? I don't know when Mother's day is in the states but it is the first Sunday in May here! Is it the same there? I am pretty excited for that!

Well, I put lots of spaces in the email this week so it looks like I wrote more (usually it is just one long paragraph) I hope you guys have a great week this week! The church is true! I felt the Spirit really strong this week. My testimony was really strengthened. I realized that every time I share the Plan of Salvation wit someone, my testimony grows. I am so grateful that we know why we are on this earth and that we know God's plan. I teared up a few times during lessons this week (thank you for the genes Mom!) when I shared my testimony about the Plan of Salvation. It is a perfect plan. The Book of Mormon is true and there are so many consejos in the book that can help us make it through the world today. I love you all!! Have a good week this week!

Love,
Elder Ridd

 Just so you can see that we eat Kebab in Spain too!

 oh, what's up Spain?! #nofilter

Guadalajara missionaries - including our new sister from Argentina - Sister Ferrari

March 31, 2014

Please feel free to write him here:

Elder Devon Ridd

c/ Cuesta de Dávalos n.2a, 6i

Guadalajara 19001

España

or email him:

devon.ridd@myldsmail.net

It is so great to get everyone's emails! Will you please thank the Johnsies and Grandma and Grandpa Ridd for sending me letters! They were great and tell them I love them so much! Mom, you know you don't have to write me such long emails. I love them but I feel bad! It must take you like half an hour to write them! Thank you for sending me an American flag - I love America!! I also got a letter from Mairi too so tell her thank you for that too please!

Well, mom, I am sorry about the Suburban! But, I was glad to hear about your spiritual experience at the Women's Meeting. What a cool experience to be able to watch that broadcast with Nicole and Aunty Alice. You are a great example to me and to a lot of people. If you were on your mission right now, you would be a sister training leader for sure. Ha ha ha and Mom, I think I inherited my crying all the time from you so thank you for that.

We are still teaching that woman and her kids from English class! The kids are great. She is kind of lonely and has her ideas a little bit mixed up about the church but her kids really have a desire to learn more and it is awesome. We still have the problem that she lives in a little pueblo but we are just excited that we can visit her.

There are lots of miracles happening here. they are little and people might think that they are coincidence but we know better. For example, last night we visited a lady and her family who we found in the street and she is less active too we found out, she wants to come back to church which is awesome, and then after the lesson we got back to Guadalajara and we had about 20 minutes left to proselyte so we went to a park next to our piso and there was a man sitting on a bench almost like he was waiting for us to show up and talk to him. So we had a lesson with him and we are going to meet with him again on Wednesday. The Lord has put people in our paths we just need to be obedient and follow the spirit. The church is true! Just figured I would throw that in there!

Thank you for everything and for all of the love and support! Have a great week this week Mom! I love you!

Love, Elder Ridd

March 24th, 2014 8 Months In!

Thanks for the email Mom! I did get the package. Thank you so much, I loved it and I love you! No more money will be necessary thank  you.. and you don't have to keep sending me packages or letters in the mail or anything don't worry. If I need something I will let you know :)! (Such a big difference between my two missionaries! Courtney is begging for more letters in the mail!)

It seems like you guys are just getting cooler since I left! (this just makes me laugh)  I'm glad you guys are enjoying yourselves! Ha ha everything is good here! You asked me about writing in my journal - actually, the truth is that I have been pretty bad about writing in a journal...bad actually. There is just no time! And if there is time I'm just too pooped to write anything! Excuses.. I know.

As usual, I don't have a lot of time today but I want to tell you about one experience that happened last week. Elder Peredo and I were walking home to eat lunch and I saw this lady walk by - she was holding a "How to Learn English" book. So of course I turned around and talked to her and got her information and told her about our English class. Then when we were finally able to meet with her it turned out that she is an inactive member with two teenage kids who aren't baptized. She lives in a pueblo just outside of Guadalajara and we have to take a bus to get there, but we took the bus and talked with her for a good while and her kids are just awesome and I just know they are going to get baptized. Definitely the hand of the Lord and a miracle! We are very grateful for her and for someone to teach! She lives like 8 or 10 kilometers away and the bus schedule is terrible at night and in that pueblo so the other day we had to run all the way in the pitch black wilderness to make it home on time! That was pretty fun!

Today is my 8 month mark! Can you believe it? I'm a third of the way done!  It seems really weird.

Everything is going so well here. Thank you all for your prayers. I hope everyone has a good week!

Love,

Elder Ridd

March 17, 2014 (a short one)

Just a reminder that he would love to hear from you!

Elder Devon Ridd

C/ Cuesta de Davalos n. 2a, 6i

Guadalajara 19001

Spain

Hi Mom!

No, I don't need any pictures to hang up in our apartment! We aren't Sister Missionaries! I'm so glad you guys had a great week this week. 

Everything is going so well here! We are finding people to teach! Thank you for being such a good example to me about being a good strong member of the church. I wish there were members here like you and dad. I wish there were members here like anyone in our ward! We sometimes feel like we are struggling more with the members than with our investigators! 

I will share more next week about some of the spiritual experiences I have been having here in Guadalajara. Keep riding that bike Mom! I laughed when you said you got pooped on and how it reminded you of your mission. I have already been pooped on by pigeons three times so I know what that is like! 

I haven't gotten anything in the mail from anybody but I am hoping to this week! Have a great week! I love you!

We did go to the zoo last week. It was lame but it was free.

March 10, 2014 with pictures!!

He would love to hear from all of you! You can email him at 

devon.ridd@myldsmail.net

or you can send him a letter at

Elder Devon Ridd

c/ cuesta de Davalos n. 2a, 6i

Guadalajara 19001

Spain

Well dang! My family is so cool! You guys are just a bunch of adventurers! (he is talking about my working out of town and Alan and the girls meeting me in Iowa so they could go to Nauvoo etc...) Thank you for sending me that stuff! Please keep giving my address to people! I definitely look forward to letters. Tell Nana that I got her package too. Tell her thank you very much and I loved it and I love her!

So, I've lost weight! I look good now! I just eat sandwiches and cereal. Dad knows what its like! It is so nice to be able to drink the tap water here - I am not used to that! It's so much more European here compared to Las Palmas. It's like you were asking about at Christmas - everybody has to buy thier daily bread here! There are panaderias every 5 feet and it smells so good!

My Spanish is getting pretty good! I know it's going a lot better but I realize now also with a native companion just how much Spanish I don't know! The youth have their own words ya know? But I know it will come with time. People here tell me I have a Canary Island accent!

I am actually chatting with Courtney right now. She is so great. She is going to be such a good missionary.  I feel so blessed to come from our family. We are going to the zoo today so I will send some pictures of that next week!

I love you!

Elder Ridd

Catching some rays on the roof while there is sun!

I drew this on a chalkboard at the church because everyone is always making fun of me for being so American! BTW I would love if you would send me a big American flag to hang in my room

To go with my Arizona flag that gets passed down from one Arizona missionary to the next. 

This is right next to our apartment

The view from our apartment