No hot water, No Food and No Room all in one week!

This week was hectic!! I had to do so much, first of all we had 2 baptisms, Luz and Juan Carlos, it was awesome, Elder Chambi baptized Luz and I baptized Juan Carlos, it was a good service. I bought cake and soda, I always make the services fun so that they always remember it, I also take pictures and print them off and give it to them with my testimony on the back. This is something I have always done so they can have a good experience.

So Wednesday I wake up, I turn the shower on and the water heater breaks, and cold water starts coming out. It’s winter here still so it was freezing! Then I get changed and we go to eat at our pensionista, while we were there she says elders I can’t serve you anymore. I’m starting to travel more to visit family. I’m like oh great, I took a cold shower and now we don’t have anyone to give us food. So we finish there and get to the room to study and the phone rings, its the zone leaders. They say Elder Ridge, Sister Perez called, (presidents wife), and says that you guys have to move houses, because there was a 15 year old girl that lived in the house, and they were like you have until Tuesday to find one so one week. I’m like this stinks! I took a cold shower, I don’t have food and I don’t have a room, I have to go look for a place to live, what could be worse.

So then that night we had Luz’s baptismal interview, we go to her house to take her to the church and we get there and she’s like I cant go, im like why? My older brother won’t let me, why wont he let you I said, because he said that I have to do other tings that are more important. So then we talked to her mom and she’s like I want her to go but he is getting physical and he will hit her if she goes. Her brother is like 22 I think, I was so done with the day that was awful I said to her mom, if he has a problem with this go to his room, tell him to come here to this door where I am standing and talk to me face to face because I want to talk to him, she’s like ok, she left, she comes back, and says he says he doesn’t want to leave his room, I’m like you got to be kidding me, she’s like no, and then Luz was like, he’s afraid of you. I kind of laughed a little, that’s the first time anybody has said that ha-ha, it kind of took me by surprise, but in the end she was able to go and she passed and was baptized.

There was so many things we had to do this week, we found a room, its pretty nice, and our new pensionista is the District President, he has his own pizza restaurant, we ate pizza every night, its not as good as the pizza up there but it works.

So this morning we got up at 5 in the morning to move, we got done in two hours, we still have to organize everything in the afternoon, but everything worked out, we are in a nice house, we are eating pizza, we had two baptisms and to top it off we were walking yesterday and a lady said Elders I’m a member but my daughter isn’t and I want her to be baptized, we were like ya ok we will do it, it ended up being a good weekend.

But the thing that really stunk is that I get my package from the zone leaders, I go to my room all excited to open it but I look at the box and it is in a different box, they changed the box when it gets here sometimes to check what’s in it. It says 100 percent Peruvian, im like great, I open it up, and not to my surprise, my ties and socks were not found, I yelled ! ellos freaking me robaron!

I did love the rice krispie treats and wheat thins, I took a box to the pensionista, she’s like what is it? I’m like its a cracker eat it its good it taste like pizza, she’s like really, im like ya, then she says but how do I eat it, I laughed and said hermana just eat it, she ate it and loved it she couldn’t stop, she called them the little pizzas and shared the box with everyone saying try it try it, they are little pizzas, I was laughing.

We have interviews this Tuesday so President will be here, to answer your questions, I don’t know my address but we now live by the chapel, there is a park by the chapel and we live in front of it on the 3rd floor, and when we go to the roof, you can see the ocean, man I picked good, good house and pensionista.

I sold my iPod to Elder Rich’s companion, the assistant Elder Santiago, he is from Guatemala, he called me all the time and bugged me, Ridge I want your iPod I want your iPod, im like fine I will sell it to you, 150 dollars, I wasn’t listening to it that much, and I didn’t listen to it for 6 months in the jungle, and I was thinking, there is better iPods that will come out by the time I get home, I will just sell it and buy a better one when I get back, then after that the thought came to my mind, hey dummy, you don’t have any money to buy an iPod when you get back, I kind of regret it but oh well, its not that big of deal, I will just buy one later on.

Next week I will tell you what I would like for Christmas but I for sure don’t want a lot, just a little package because before I leave I will give a lot of clothing away to the people here that need it more like young men in the ward that’s going to serve a mission people like that, but other than that nothing else really happened this week, thank you for the package, thank you for the support, I love you guys so much.

Love Elder Ridge

Doing Good!!

Please send me that new bible that would be awesome. All my scripture reading is in Spanish so that would help me. My comp and I are doing good, we get a long great and we are always laughing, I am helping him because he is sad that he is still junior companion but he is directing the area and everything. I don’t know the area as well as he does so he directs and takes charge, he is awesome. He was in the Bolivian army before the mission so he is disciplined and obedient, he is a good guy, we get a long way well.

My branch is Los Jardines. This Saturday we will have two baptisms, Luz and Juan Carlos they are awesome. Luz is 14 and Juan Carlos is 35, I’m excited for their baptisms, and the month of October will be a good month, we are trying to get 5 baptisms for that month. We are working hard to have those baptisms.

Yesterday we had a special conference, it was a satellite transmission direct from Salt lake, it was only for Peru. Elder Jeffrey Holland spoke and President Uchtdorf, it was really good. Eder Holland gave his testimony in Spanish and it was so powerful, Juan Carlos loved it. They basically talked about how if you want more temples you have to pay tithing and be more active in the church, and get more missionary’s in the field, but it was good I liked it.

I have to send a package home filled with jungle stuff, hammocks, snake heads, scripture cases of jaguar and snake skin, stuff like so look for it.

Loving Barranca

Well this change will be fun. So, Wednesday I had to say goodbye to my son, it was sad. Last change was the fastest change that I have had so far. Wednesday I got on the bus with my companion Elder Chambi and we headed up north. The bus was a normal bus it had TVs and DVD, it was like a 4 hour bus ride and the highway is along the ocean, it was awesome. We got here in the city and I like it a lot better than Lima. It’s more opened here, it reminds of Manti. It’s a normal city but really small. It’s more calm here. My area is awesome! It’s on the ocean so every time I walk out the door from my house I see the ocean, it’s tight there and I love it! Thursday we went to see the beach, it is way clean and nice. It’s not that big of a section but it awesome, I will take some pictures, I love this mission, two months ago I was in the Amazon Rain Forest, now I am on the Pacific Ocean. I have the best mission ever.

Here it’s a district not a stake so I'm in a branch. It’s a little more difficult because there aren’t a lot of members that comes but there are a ton of returned missionaries so they help us a lot. One of them served in the Provo Utah mission, I was talking to him Sunday, he speaks good English. His first area was in American Fork/Highland area so he knows where we live. He said he loved that mission so much that he didn’t want to come home, I can understand why. I said to him it’s different up there(Utah) isn’t it? He’s like ya way different.

Yes, they do give me a lot of fish here and its nasty ocean fish, I liked the fish from the Amazon but the ocean fish is gross and one day they gave me fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I couldn’t believe it.

When I got here there was only one person that was progressing for baptism but now we have 5. We have two young men who’s grandparents are members, a girl that is 14, 2 men that have 35 years, and we have other people that are progressing. There is a lot of potential in this area. I'm really happy to be here.

My pesionista is alright, she’s way nice and her cooking is descent. She lived in Japan for 15 years so she knows Japanese. My Spanish is going to get a lot better, I'm the only gringo in my zone, I will be speaking Spanish 100 percent this change, it should be fun. My room is clean and the shower is hot so im happy but its way colder here because of the wind from the Ocean. I’m doing good and I’m really happy.

Transfered to Barranca

Well the changes came in and I’m pretty happy, I’m leaving Lima! No I’m not going to the jungle but I’m going to Barranca, Norte Chico, it’s like 6 hours north of here in a bus. I’m pretty excited because that part of the zone is right by the ocean and it’s a lot cleaner, from what I heard. My new comp is Elder Chambi, I think it’s the same Chambi that’s from my group. He is from Santa Cruz Bolivia. I’m pretty excited. I travel Wednesday in the afternoon.

I’m staying warm and the fleas left so I don’t have them anymore. The air here just absolutely sucks, when you look at Lima on google earth you just see smog and clouds, I live under that. I think there have been three days this whole change where I have seen the sun, it’s kind of depressing.

This change was really fun, I really enjoyed training and helping my companion. I learned a lot this change, it was a really fun change. This week nothing new really happened, I ate cow stomach again, I hate it when they give me it but also this week I ate a different part of the cow that I haven’t eaten before and it was actually pretty good, I actually really liked it. Yesterday I ate cow heart, it was pretty good, now I have eaten, cow liver, brain, stomach, lungs and heart. I’m sure next time will be the intestines, gross, but all the missionaries tell me that in that part of Peru Barranca I will be eating a lot of guinea pig. I have yet to try it so I kind of want to. The other day we had chicken soup, here the chicken soup is different, the soup consists of noodles, carrots, potatoes, chicken breast, chicken brain, chicken liver, chicken kidney, chicken neck and the famous chicken feet. I have had this soup so much it doesn’t even faze me. I will send you some pictures of me sucking on the chicken foot, it’s actually not bad it just has a lot of little bones and not too much meat. My favorite food here is aji de gallina, it’s so good.

Great Week for Blue Eyes

8-31-09

Well, this week was normal, nothing really exciting happened. We didn’t have any baptisms. We do have a couple of people who are getting prepared. Maximo for the 12th of September. He was going to do it for the 5th but he has to travel and will be gone for a week but he still wants to do it. He is 74 years old and every Sunday he leaves early in the morning to be able to get to church because he lives in hills a little bit high up and he walks slow with a cane but he still comes. He has so much faith to be

able to do that but he is excited to get baptized. His son is a member so he is helping us too. Also on the 12th we have is a young girl named Monica. She’s 14 and she always comes to church but her mom doesn’t give her permission to get baptized but we had a member go to her house and talk to her mom and it worked so now we are helping her get baptized.

The temple was really cool. It was good to go back. Last time I was there( 7 months ago) I understood some but not everything. This time I understood everything in the session because I have more time with Spanish

. When we were there it was also the day that the missionaries in the CCM come so we were there with a couple of new missionaries, fresh from the states. They all asked me how long does it take to be able to speak and be fluid and is it hard, stuff like that, I was asking them stuff like what’s happening in the states. It was fun. After that we didn’t go to KFC. We went to a Polleria or a chicken restaurant, we eat their style of fast food, its fried chicken with French fries and salad, called Pollo a la Brasa.

This change has gone by so fast, next week we will know the changes, I have know I dea what will happen, so we will see what happens. The weather is warming up here, we are entering spring, by the way we don’t even have crushed ice down here, that don’t even use ice that much. Right now I weigh 82 kilos (180), can you tell me how much that is in pounds, I think when I got here from the jungle I weighed like 78(171) to 80(176) kilos, now I’m like 82, tell me how much that is in pounds. For my Halloween package I would just love some homemade cookies, chocolate chip or the Halloween ones that we make every Halloween but I will let you know later more stuff. I don’t need any clothes. I’m pretty good, with all the stuff you guys bought before the mission, it has lasted me until now without any problems.

The other day we were walking down the street and this girl came up to me and she was a little crazy. She asks me why are the movies form the United States are so violent. I said I have no idea, I don’t make them, and she goes on about how she doesn’t like them because they are bloody and stuff, and then a dog barked on the roof that we were under and she said that’s my dog and I was like really what’s his name and she said Rambo, I laughed, I couldn’t believe she was talking about the bloody movies and how they were bad and her dog is named Rambo. To top it off, she asked my hand in marriage, ha-ha yes, she started talking about how women always get married to men because of the money but I want to get married to you because you have blue eyes, will you marry me? I was like wow, I didn’t know what to say, I was like well it was good talking to you we have to go over there and I think your dog is waiting for you in your house, we will pass by another day, good bye, and she like ok I will be waiting here. My companion started making fun of me, he’s like I didn’t know you have your little girlfriend in the mission, we were laughing so hard. Don’t worry I won’t bring a Peruvian home ha-ha.

Weeks 8-17 and 8-23

August 23rd

Sorry I didn’t write you guys Monday, we are going to the temple today(Wednesday) so today is our pday, thank you mom for not calling the offices worried, right now its six o clock, I’m kind of tired, we had to get up at 5 this morning, to answer your questions. The weather here kind of stinks, it’s like in the 60s or 50s but it’s a humid cold so it goes to your bones and it seems colder than what it is and in the afternoon it heats up so I start of the day freezing, in the afternoon sweating a little and at night freezing, but I’m keeping warm enough. I do miss the jungle heat but I love the hot showers.

Training my companion is going good, I really do like. My pensionista is awesome, she cooks so good and their are way active and strong in the church. Her food is way clean.

Last Tuesday I gave a training in our zone meeting and Elder Rich walks he is now an assistant to the president, and sits down for my training. It went pretty good Elder Rich liked it. It was like half an hour long. The offices are not close but they are not far, the zone I’m in is the neighboring zone to Tahauntisuyo where I was before, and yes we walk a lot, and there is a couple big hills in our area that are straight up, my legs are getting a good workout and I think they are getting bigger with all the climbing on stairs. My area is more calm, there are a couple of groups (gangs) but they leave us alone for the most part. In my area I have Plaza Vea and Metro which is awesome. I was blessed with something like that. Plaza Vea is like their Wal-Mart, it’s pretty nice but also there is a KFC in my area. A KFC!!!! It’s so funny some people think that it (KFC) was invented here, that and they think that coca cola was invented here too. I just lightly laugh and ignore it. Well, everything seems good there and busy, Uncle Scott wrote me and I enjoyed his letter. I’m really happy for him and Karen and that everything is going good. I can’t believe that Sara is a senior, that’s crazy. We also had the two baptisms last week. Joseph Perez and Katy it was way good. I baptized Joseph, the water was so cold, I was shivering so bad! I couldn’t pronounce his name, I had to say his name again, everyone was laughing, saying we have never seen a gringo shiver so much, it was funny. Then the bishop baptized Katy, before we started the service I’m walking in the hallway and I seem him the door of his office. He said “Elder Ridge come here”. I’m like what and he said come in my office for a second. Me and my companion go in, and I said “yes bishop can we help” He looks at me and says “how do I do it” I’m like how do you do what and he says “ how do I baptize her” I’m thinking oh gosh so I had like a 5 minute lesson with him on how to baptize someone. The Bishop didn’t know, I thought it was funny, and when he got in the water with her he had to do it three times. He did the exact same thing that my companion did. He tried to do it all soft, the third time I learn over the balcony I’m said “Bishop! throw her down harder! He’s says oh, ok and did it right. That’s all that really happened this week. this weekend we won’t have a baptism but we might the 5th of September . We have some potential investigators so we will see. We only have the rest of this week and next week and then there is changes! The time is going by fast almost too fast. Yesterday I hit 14 months, now I’m going for 15, that is crazy! thank you for sending that package for me and my comp, I can’t wait to get it, thank you so much for the support, I love you guys so much,



August 17th

We only had one baptism last Saturday, but this Saturday we have two, Katy and Joseph. They wanted it for the 22nd of August instead of the 15th but they are all good and excited. We baptized Jian Franko on Saturday and it was a good baptism, well planned with the help of the members. Now Jian Franko’s mom wants to get baptized. She is living with her boyfriend, so she can’t just yet. We had 11 investigators in church so we have some good potential in these coming weeks. Jian Franko wanted my companion to baptize him. I was so happy because I wanted him to do it, so he could have his first baptism in his mission. It was funny because I had to teach him how to do it, so we were practicing in the room before because he is a small guy, and way skinny and I think he comes up to my name badge on my chest. We were practicing how to baptize, and he dropped me on the floor, it was funny, I was laughing so hard. We get to the baptism and he gets in the water and I have my head over the balcony making sure he is going to do it right. He is asking me questions like how long do I hold him under the water? How fast do I do it? I was like just do it normal, put him under and pull him out, don’t do it really fast but don’t do it slow either. He says the prayer and says it right, puts the hand over the nose and starts to put him down, he put him down so slow with no strength that he held him under for like 3 seconds and his arm was sticking out. I’m thinking oh great, he is going to be so embarrassed, he pulls him out and I lean over and say “hey you have to do it again because his arm came out but this time throw him down harder”, and then he did it again right but it was kind of funny. I was teasing him after, but it was a good experience. I’m so blessed with the companion I have, we get a long great, we are always laughing and making fun of each other. I’m really trying to teach him to have fun with the mission and to enjoy it but to work too .This change is flying by way quick, next week I will have 14 months crazy! My church here starts at 9: 30 so we are in church at the same time.