Short but we will be talking soon!!

Well this week was much better!!! We have found a lot more people to teach. We have a few baptisms planned out for May 8th and May 15^th. A man named Zenon, he is like 65 years and he is from Cuzco. Our recent convert Susy referred her friend Laydi and a couple more people that we are teaching this week. We are going to challenge them to baptism.

Mothers day is in 2 weeks, that’s crazy!!! well that’s it for this week sorry its short but we will talk in like 2 weeks, I just need to know about what time is everyone going to be there at the house for mothers day so we can plan it, well I love you guys, thank you so much for the support.

love elder ridge

Baptism in shallow water.

Well this week was a good week. We had the baptism of Susy and her confirmation on Sunday. Her baptismal service was kind of funny, I baptized her and what happened is that Elder Morton and his companion had a service before us so they left and we came in and so I was thinking that the baptismal font would be filled. So we start the service do everything and I go to the font with her and I walk in and I realize that the water was up to my knees. I’m like oh great, there is barely any water, literally, it was up to my knees. I look at her and I tell her “you have to help me out when you go under, you completely have to go under but there isn’t any water so you have to make sure that everything goes in”, she goes ya ok I can do it. I say the pray and say amen and I look and she was already going down without me, she just through herself back so she could help me but she did it so fast, she basically baptized herself ha-ha, I just had to help her up. It was kind of funny but everything turned out good. She has a lot of friends in the church already. She is a good girl.

Now we are really trying to look for people to baptize. We don’t really have that many people right now. We kind of got rejected this whole week. I still miss Ventanilla, it is a little bit harder here but we are making the best of it.

I am in the wards San Carlos and the branch is Trapiche and the stake is called San Felipe. Yes I got the package. I loved the candy. My companion and I ate everything in 2 days, but the pop tarts I ate for breakfast. Man it was good. Our house is really small, it has two rooms, and a bathroom, one room has tile and the other has wooded floors. We have a balcony so its kind of nice but its way small. We live a block from the church on a street called San Mateo in front of a clinic. If you want to look it up on goole earth. The chapel here is huge, its two story and it had an elevator and they take good care of it.

So I read dads letter, thanks dad for writing it, don’t worry I am going to finish strong. My goal is to baptize my last weekend in the mission but if not I will still be diligent until the end.

I love you guys and thank you so much for the support

love elder ridge

p.s. I’m in Lima but in a district called Carabyllo

The New Area and Pizza Hut Pizza and KFC!!

Well this week was a really long week and there was a lot to do. First of all the farewell in Ventanilla was a little hard. I had to say goodbye to all the converts and members and pension. I really miss that area and the people and everyone was sad that we left. Elder Montellanos went to the jungle. Wednesday we went to the change meeting that we always do in one of the churches. We got the whole zone together and sent them to their new areas.

We got to our area late like at 9 at night, we walked in and the room was a mess!!! Thursday we had the meeting in the offices with all the zone leaders. Friday we had to clean the room, it took all day!!! We organized everything.

Saturday we left to go work, we found a girl named Susi and she is 16 and she has attended the church several times and her friend is a member. We challenged her to baptism and so she is getting baptized this Saturday. She is a way smart girl. We are starting of good with a baptism.

The members here are way nice and they have accepted us way good, we have a ward, its really little and a branch. The branch is tiny. We meet in a house, its the first time I have ever seen this, its a little house and we meet there. We got to bless the sacrament it was a neat experience, I think like 30 people came, our pensionista is alright, she only gives us dinner, we eat our own breakfast in the room, we have an allowance to buy breakfast that the church gives us, of course we buy milk and cereal, but the pensionista isn’t one of those sweet pensionista that gives you American style food or cooks whatever you want and baby you. She kind of just gives you what she cooked that day, rice with chicken or rice with potatoes, it kind of stinks. I’m just hoping to tell her to give me fruit at night so I can eat more healthy. She is a nice lady but she aint no chef like the other ones I have had.

It’s kind of weird being in our pensionista’s house because she is 50 and she just got married to a returned missionary from Bolivia that served here three years ago. Yes he came back and got married to her. He is 25 and she is 50 and she is not a hot 50 year old. She looks like she is 50, but they are good people and are strong in the church.

The area has its poor parts and rich parts but there is nothing commercial here. There aren’t any stores or anything cool, its just houses so when we buy food and stuff we have to go to another zone. It’s not too dangerous here but there still are some parts that are a little.

Sunday we ate with a member that is way awesome. He is a English translator and has a lot of money. His English is amazing, he talks so fluent, he doesn’t pause to think and ask how do you say, he really knows it. Sunday we ate with him and he got pizza Hut Pizza with KFC and Inka cola. It was so good.

My companion is Elder Quintana and he is from Santiago Chile, he is a nice guy and we get along just fine. Our room here is really small and there isn’t hot water, which mean if I finish here I will have 8 months showering with cold water in a row plus the six months in Iquitos. That’s 14 months of my mission showering with cold water. I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of excited to get home and shower with hot water.

The zone that I’m in I a huge zone, there are 16 missionaries, 8 companionships, Elder Hyde is here and Elder Morton, I think we will finish together here, I am way excited!!

Love elder ridge

Los Cambios!!

Well the changes are here. I’m going to a Zone called Santidad, its still in Lima. My new companion is Elder Quintana, he is from Chile and he is from my group. I’m way excited!! There are only three Chileans in the mission and I’m going to get one of them. I know him a little bit he is a way cool guy. I think that Elder Hyde and Elder Morton are going to be in my zone. There are also Sister missionaries that are going to be in my zone for the first time, we will see how it goes. It’s going to be a fun change.

Well this week was really good, it was kind of easier, we had the multi zone meeting and the weekend conference. The conference was really good too, we were able to watch it in English. I liked Elder Christofferson’s about the scriptures and of course from Elder Jeffrey Holland, he always gives a good one.

This week I had to do a lot of babysitting with the missionaries. There were a lot of problems, I had to get after a couple of them, but I had a good zone that worked hard, we had good success.

My ankle is fine. My camera is good. Yes I’m going to send a big package home with pictures, I will do it, don’t worry, and I will keep an eye out for my package here, next letter will be longer, I just had to do some things with the changes and everything but next week will be longer and more detailed, thankyou for the support, I love you guys so much,

love elder ridge