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Last Week, Last Baptism and Last Email - Maybe!!

2010-06-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we just got back from Lima and it was awesome!!! It was a well planned p-day and I’m pretty proud of it. We went to a museum and went to the City Center and went and bought some stuff. Well I bought a lot of stuff. I bought everything for you guys and stuff, beanies, alpaca fur, alpaca ties for the guys, coasters, Peruvian clothes for Karra and couple things for Mimi and Pop. I’m going to leave everything here and just take souvenirs.

We also had Margarit’s baptism, it was good. The Stake President came to help us out because he is form our ward, it was great. Now we have other people that are going to get baptized, we have a woman and her two kids and we still have to take to the husband and other son which will be a family of five. I won’t be here but the work goes on.

This week we have the farewell for the missionaries and President Perez and Sister Perez. It will be a nice going away party for us. Missionaries that have served in his time are going to come from all over Peru and maybe other countries so we will see how it goes.

It sounds like you guys are way busy which I’m glad, you wont be so trunky!! I feel good because I can honestly say that I have served a good mission, and that you guys are more trunky than me ha-ha.

I might write you guys next week, if not no big deal I will just see you two days after. I might call you in the airport to let you know if the flight is delayed or anything. Yes I know I’m going to get home really tired so in the airport everyone can be there that’s fine but after when we go home I would like to be with just you guys and mimi and pop in the house before I get released.

Thursday I would like to go buy cloths and see a modern mall and I would love love to see a couple of movies, I want to see three, transformers 2, batman, and 2012, as for food I just want one gallon of milk with cinnamon toast crunch.

Well I love you guys, thank you so much for the support, I will see you next week!!!!!!! love elder ridge

The Longest Week and Winding Down

2010-06-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well this week was the longest week of my mission. We got rejected all week and having that happen on one of the last weeks of my mission made me a little trunky. Things got better Sunday, we has 10 people just show up to church. We had a family that want to get baptized and they are getting married this week so if everything goes good we will baptize another family the 26^th. We have 3 more people that are going to get baptized the 3rd of July. It is a momo and her two kids, the husband wasn’t way excited to do it but we will keep teaching him. Margarita is going to get baptized this Saturday, so we will have more stuff to do.

This week will really be the last whole week to work, because next week is the zone meeting farewell that we do at the end of every change and then I will have days to go visit my converts and members to say goodbye. This week will go by fast because we are going to have a baptisms and I’m also going to do a work visit with Elder Briggs on Friday so its going to go by quick.

About Mary (we got a phone call in Utah from a Mary in Inguitos ) this week, don’t worry I don’t have a little jungle girlfriend, I only gave our phone number to my converts and only some families, only a few ones that I got really close to and not crazy people, I can’t really remember but I think Mary is the mom of the girl I baptized there so its from the family of my convert. If anyone else calls just tell them this, llame en tres semanas por favor.

No, we have not moved yet, and if we do it, will be in the same zone we will just live with the missionaries that are in the zone and yes we will have a pencion. It will be for like a week nothing more.

Love Elder Ridge

Baptisms, work visits and Moving

2010-06-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well this week was really good, there was a lot to do. First off we had two baptisms. Harold(the family) and Anna, they went very well and they were really excited it was a good service. I baptized Harold and my companion baptized Anna. Now we are going to have a baptisms the 19 of June, its Margarita, we had to put it one week farther because she didn’t come to church because one Sunday a month she has to take a test for school so next week she will go.

This week we are trying to find more people because the people we find will be baptized for the 26 of June, my last weekend, I really want to baptize the last weekend but if not no big deal I will keep working.

I did two work visits this week, I think in Dads time they said splits but on Wednesday I went with Elder Neilson, he is from my group, he is from las Vegas. Then Friday I went with Elder griffin, that was fun, we worked hard but it was way fun to be with him and work together. What happened was my companion kind of didn’t pay attention to the time I told him to change back so we ended up staying two nights together, it was awesome.

We also had a lot of things to do as Zone Leaders again this change. Basically what might happen is where we are living they want to reconstruct it because the assistants and office workers are going to live here for the division of the mission. So they are kicking us out and we will have to go live with other missionaries next week, so my second to last week I will have to move. That’s another thing that will make me really busy and not be trunky. The Sisters in the zone are doing good. We had one that wanted to call her family this week so we had to go to her house and talk to her and make her feel good but now she is good.

Well, I’m pretty excited to get home in three weeks but I don’t think it has hit me yet. I don’t know if that’s bad or good.

Well I love you guys so much, I cant wait to see you, thanks for the support,

love elder ridge

Strong to the finish!!

2010-06-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

Well this week was a very good week. We have found a few good people to teach. First of all we have Harold and his two children this weekend that we are going to baptize. A little bit about Harold. He is 29 and he was once married and had his two kids then he got divorced later on in time he got to know a girl that is a member of the church and they started dating and stuff but fell in the lay of chastity and the she got pregnant, I think she is like 20, what Harold did is he accepted it like a man he stayed with her, they got married so he can support his new family. Now he wants to repent and get baptized and get sealed with his wife and his 2 soon to be 3 kids. His wife is nine months pregnant, Harold is a great guy and he already looks like a member.

There are a lot of guys here that get the girls pregnant and leave them, I have seen it so much!!!! In the jungle its worse, I have seen 14 year olds pregnant, but I’m glad Harold accepted what he did and now wants a better life, this Saturday is going to be his baptism.

This Saturday we also will have a girl named Anna, she is 25 and all her family are members, she just never wanted to get baptized until when we showed up and taught her, she is a nice girl.

Then we were knocking doors one day and found this family that has been inactive for 20 years, they have two kids, Margarita who is 15 and Alex who is 10, Margarita is getting baptized this Saturday, she is really smart, and she is way cool, her family came to church this Sunday all dressed up and everything and they said that it felt good to be back, they are an awesome family.

This week we will find more people to teach. The zone is getting better, Elder Griffin is my district leader, he is doing good, Elder Briggs is in my zone too, its good to be back with them, Briggs too is working good.

Last week we had to do all the changes in the zone and everything and we had the interviews with President, everything went well, I gave a thirty minute training and how to teach more effectively and to challenge someone to baptisms, it was pretty good, my interview was pretty good with president, we talked about the zone he also asked how I felt to be finishing the mission, I told him that I really feel good for the work that I have done and that I have worked pretty good my whole mission, we talked about some things about the division of the mission, it was good.

Well my schedule seems way awesome and easy, I thought I was going to have to take English and Math and all that stuff but that will be next semester. The Peruvian teacher is fine, I would like to talk to her it might be a little easier for me if a talk about Peru with her. I’m not worried at all about my pronunciation, just a little about my grammar but not too much, I’m actually more worried about the English I speak ha-ha. My companion is doing good too we get along and we work good. I’m just happy I’m finishing this change.

It’s Winter here so when I get back I’m going to be sweating, I also have a runny nose I hope that when I get back it will go away. In a couple of weeks we are going to go to the center of Lima and I will buy some stuff for you guys. Last week we did eat lunch with the old pension it was fun, we told stories and everything.

The mall here has Burger King and Pizza Hut and KFC and McDonalds and China Wok. We went last p-day and bought something from Pizza Hut, six soles for a pizza roll and a drink. In our room we just use the owners fridge.

Well thank you for the support, I love you guys so much

love elder ridge

Seeing Familiar Faces

2010-05-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well this week was a busy week!!! First of all we had the changes so I went to my new(old room) it was cool it kind of felt weird but I’m enjoying it here.

Wednesday day all the zone leaders from the jungle and from barranca stayed the night for the zone leaders meeting Thursday, we stayed up until like 1:30 at night talking. I was hanging out with Elder Layton the whole time. So we got up and went to the zone leaders meeting and it was good. it’s a long meeting, it was from 8 in the morning to 5 at night, it’s all day but it was way good. Then all the missionaries flew back to the jungle but Elder Layton stayed with us again so he could go to the CCM for the meeting with Elder Jay Jensen, from the Seventy, Friday morning. So I was with Elder Layton for like 2 days it was fun.

Elder Jensen gave a great talk about the music and he spoke in Spanish too. I also saw Marc jay, he is doing good, then I saw a kid that was on the youth council with me I think he is from Highland 27th Ward. I said hi to him and talked to him on Friday. He finishes in August. If you can find his name that would be great?

My new comp is a good guy, he is from Porto Viejo Ecuador, he is 13 months in the mission, we work good together. Well, I got here and there was nothing in the area, the missionary here last change finished and was trunked out so we are working pretty hard, first of all there was a man that came to church and wants to get baptized with his two kids, his wife is a member and active the husband just never wanted to get baptized until now, so my last change

I’m going to baptize a family and complete the family. I’m way excited, it is such a blessing, finish the mission with a family, and we also had a girl come to church, her whole family are members but her, even here daughter is a member so we went and taught her and she wants to get baptized June 5th, man this change is going to be good but way fast, so I have to enjoy it.

In the zone there are 18 missionaries, its the second biggest zone in the mission, I must be doing something right ha-ha. The members where really happy to see me, my converts have all moved away but one is still here, its Suria, she’s the one from Puno and she is here visiting. I walked in and she was there, she is way active and even has a calling, she ran over to me so happy, it was way good to see her. I then went and saw my old pencion from Columbia and she freaked out, she was so happy.

Wait I just got a phone call from the assistants there are going to put another compañiship of sisters in our zone tomorrow, that means that in the zone there are going to be 20 missionaries y 8 sisters. This Friday we are going to have the interviews with President and then after that things will be a lot calmer.

I got a letter from Bishop Wright and he mentioned that he wanted me to do a fireside thing with the youth when I get back. He wants me to prepare a power point with pictures and stories and with spiritual experiences, im looking forward to it.

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

love elder ridge

Changes and going back to the Start!!

2010-05-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well the changes are here and I’m not staying here but I’m not going to the jungle either!

I’m going to go to Tahauntisuyo, yes I’m going to the same area where I started. I’m way excited I’m going to the exact same area. When I was there it was a junior comp senior comp area but since then it has changed to a zone leaders area so I will go back to the same members and see them again and the converts. I’m way excited.

There is hot water but there isn’t a pencion so I will come home nice and skinny I hope. My new companion is Elder Alonzo from Ecuador. He has I think a year in the mission but he has had a lot of success. He seems like a good missionary and he will help me not be trunky ha-ha.

It’s kind of cool, I lucked out and have had a lot of companions form different countries, from Canada, the states, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile its pretty sweet. I would really like to work with South America and Central America later on in life.

Well this week as for the work was good, we found a lot more people to teach and some people with dates to get baptized but we are both leaving the area so we are leaving the area better than when we found it like a eagle scout would do ha-ha. I’m kind of sad leaving my companion he was way fun and the zone is doing really good. We are planned to finish the month with 50 baptisms but now I’m going to go to another zone and see if we can lift it up.

Lets see for my birthday ya I think I will wait to get home to celebrate it. Sunday in the afternoon we were walking like at 4 in the afternoon and I look at my comp and go hey, today is my birthday, he goes oh that’s right, hey happy birthday, I said thanks and we just keep walking and working and that was the only thing that we did, I will just wait to be with you guys to celebrate it.

Just so you know I did get my package and I loved it, it was way good especially the beef jerky, I have the box ready and everything I just have to send it, I will next Monday, its because there isn’t a mail store here but where I am going to be there is one so it will be easier.

This coming up week is going to be crazy, we have the changes Wednesday then all day Thursday we have the zone leaders meeting and then Friday we are going to go the CCM to have a meeting with a couple setentas (70’s) wow this week is going to go by fast, well guys I love you and thanks for the support, enjoy the photos, its me and elder Pug with Marco Antonio and his family in Pucallpa.

love elder ridge

Mother's Day Call

2010-05-12T07:23:00.001-07:00

Sunday May 9^th (Mother’s Day)

The family was able to talk with Elder Ridge on Sunday. He sounds great and we can definitely tell he has been speaking Spanish for two years. He was struggling a little with his English.

He has had some good success in his current area and told us about a baptism he had on Saturday. The zone that he is in is doing great and he has a couple of missionaries he started with (Elder Hyde and Elder Morton) and they are working hard and having good success and a good time.

Currently, Elder Ridge does not have a pension to cook his meals so he and his companion eat breakfast and dinner in their room. They purchase food at a local market. They have milk(warm in a box), cereal, fruit and hotdogs. They eat lunch with member of the ward and branch they are serving.

Elder Ridge comes home on June 30^th, so his mother loved the fact that she could tell him, she will see him next month. He loves his mission and all the wonderful experiences, and he says he is continuing to work hard. However, he is looking forward to coming home and see family and friends.

Here is Elder Ridge’s short email.

Well it was good to talk to you guys, everyone sounded good. I cant wait to see you guys. Next week I will write you about the changes. Like I said I’m pretty sure I will stay here. I also need photos of me before the mission to put on my farewell video that the mission does, if you can scan them on the computer, I would like one when I was a little kid, maybe a baby picture, just send pictures of me before the mission, playing sports and stuff like, send a couple of funny ones too, I need these pictures before June, well thank you so much for everything, I love you guys, elder ridge

Working hard and keeping mom on her toes!!!

2010-05-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well this week was a little bit harder for in the work. We had a couple of people getting prepared for baptism but they didn’t go to church so we went to go visit them and they don’t really want to get baptized. So we are only going to have a baptism this Saturday for Zenon, he is a good guy and way excited to get baptized.

Other than that we are really looking but we are getting rejected a lot, even the members reject us, we will go to their houses to visit them and share something with them and they won’t have time or have to go somewhere. We have had like three days with absolutely nothing. I feel like im in the states ha-ha.

Everything is good, we are still happy and working hard. My companion is the best, he works real hard, and teaches good, we get along really well. This week we dropped the pensionista, now we eat fruit at night. My companion wants to loose weight before he goes home and he goes home right after me.

The zone is doing good, we have 35 people with a date for baptisms for this month.

Just so you know I will call either Thursday or Friday or Saturday to set up a time, it will be the short call to set everything up. I don’t know when I will call but it will be one of those days. It will be a surprise, I know mom will walk around with the phone all those days ha-ha.

well that’s it for now, thank you so much for the support, I love you guys and talk to you in a couple of days!!!

love elder ridge

Short but we will be talking soon!!

2010-04-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-04-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-04-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

More Baptisms and "Where is the Ice?"

2010-03-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well what happened is that myldsmail is upgrading everything to a gmail version so I had to change my mail and everything got messed up and I was rushed when I did it but now everything is alright, I just want to thank mom for getting me my number and confirmation date. Mom I love you are the best!!!!!!

Well, this week was another amazing week, first of all we had four baptisms this weekend. Yovani and his daughter Yovanna, he is 34 and she is 8. Carlos Leon who is 33 and he got married Saturday to a member. These families now have the goal to go to the temple and get sealed. Then we had Berenize, the stake secretary’s daughter who is 26. Next week there won’t be any baptisms because of General Conference so my companion and I finished together with 11 baptisms. A total of 3 families and 5 men that can receive the priesthood. Some of the men already have received the priesthood. My companion and I were really blessed this change and the Lord really prepared people for us. This was one of the best changes of the mission and I’m going to miss this area.

We had the interviews with President and everything went well. President was really happy with the zone for the success that we had this change. We finished with 28 baptisms as a zone and 397 baptisms as a mission this month, we are doing really good.

I also found out that I am leaving this next change but I don’t know where and I’m staying as a zone leader. I might be going to Tauhantsuyo where I started the mission which would be the best. That area is now the zone leaders area so I would get to finish with all the people I started with. Or I might be going to Tarapoto to finish in the jungle but we will see. I’m honestly fine with any decision.

Today for p-day we played soccer and then we watched national treasure as a zone, remember we are allowed to watch movies sometimes. When I was playing futbol I rolled my ankle in the first 10 minutes of the game, just like football I play rough and when I rolled it I kept playing, not too smart. It’s fine but hurts a little. The first thing that came to my mind is go get some ice, then I was like wait, Peruvians don’t believe in ice, they say it makes you sick. I’m not kidding, but its doing good.

This Friday we have the multizone meeting so I will be able to see everyone it will be fun.

love elder ridge

Another Great Week!!

2010-03-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hola como estan,

Well this week was another great week. First of all we had the baptism of Santiago. It was a great service. He stood up and gave a great testimony. He is going to be a great leader.

Now we have three more baptism this coming weekend. Berenize, the daughter of the stake secretary, she is 26, then we have Yovani, his wife is a member, we are going to baptize him and his 8 year old daughter to complete the family.

Then we have Carlos who’s girlfriend is a member he is 30 years old. Last night we went to Carlos’ house and he was like I have some news, me and my girlfriend are getting married this weekend before the baptism so we can already be a family and get sealed at the year mark. I almost jumped out of the seat from excitement. This weekend is going to be awesome if everything goes good.

For the general conference we are not going to baptize anyone but for April 10th we will have three more. A young girl who’s mom and sisters are members. A man named Randolfo, his wife and daughter are members, he’s like 65, and a guy named Carlos, a friend of a member, he is like 25. We are really working hard and we are getting really blessed. We still have one more but she didn’t pass the interview because of some problems so she has to have a interview with the Stake President so we might have that baptism this weekend too.

This Tuesday we have the interviews with President. Today I have to prepare a training on how to get more people to attend church. I’m kind of nervous, so today I don’t really get a p-day, we have to go get something from the offices, I think we are going to do a little bit of shopping down there. The offices are like an hour away. The temple is like 2 hours away. Our house is pretty clean. It has tiled floor, we shower with cold water, like I have said before I haven’t showered with hot water since I left barranca, since octobre, that’s like 6 months. Dave and Danna are building a house?

I honestly think you guys are more trunky than me haha. Well im glad everything is going good at home, thank you so much for the support, I love you guys so much!!!

love elder ridge

Great Week and Loving the People

2010-03-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, everything is going good here, this weekend we had three more baptisms. The daughter of the family we baptized last week Doris, her friend Ruth and her friends little brother Dare. It was a great service. We did a massive baptism. The whole zone went to our chapel and we did it, the spirit was really strong.

In the middle of the service my companion was baptizing and I was waiting in line and I look back by the doors of the room where all the people were and there was a kid named Alex who is in my ward and is a little handicapped, standing in the hallway looking in at the service. Then I see him collapse hard. Boom he goes to the ground and starts making noises, a seizer, he has epilepsy. One of the district leaders runs and grabs him and I run and shut the two doors that were opened so that the people didn’t see it. I told two young men to stand there and to not let anybody leave. Then I helped grabbed the kid and we dragged him in to another room and put him into a chair. He wasn’t foaming from the mouth or biting his tongue but he was still moving and couldn’t talk. I called two other young men and said stay here with him I will be right back, I left the room and walked to the font right as my companion was leaving and I went right in and baptized two people, then I left soaking wet and sat with Alex for a little bit, until he felt better. Some people saw but not a lot of people so the service went on just fine, it turned out to be a good service.

This next week we are going to baptize Santiago Sosa, he is the man!! He is going to be a great leader. He already has friends and everything. Then the 27th we are going to baptize Bereniz, she is 26 and her dad is a member, he is the stake secretary, and another man named Carlos Leon, his girlfriend is a member, and another guy named Yovani, his wife is a member. We might be able to get some more too. We are really working hard. My companion is great.

A little bit about my area, its all wooden house, its all sand, there are always fleas, there are dogs that are dying all over the place, it always smells because the majority of people don’t have pluming, like I said it is one of the most poorest city’s in Peru, the people litery live in the dirt, they just put a mattress on the sandy floor and sleep, but im loving it, we are have success and the members are awesome, I think I might finish the mission here and I really wouldn’t mind, I have grown to love this area and the people, not just this area but everywhere I have served.

Baptisms with more to come!!

2010-03-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

This past week was awesome, first of all we had three baptisms. One is José Mendoza, he is 65, he is a great guy and also Gonzalo and Odisa. They are mom and dads age, it was a great service and we confirmed them on the spot because we had the stake conference. They both were crying, the spirit was way strong. Right now we have 10 people that are going to get baptized that are sure ones, we have another family and we have a man named Carlos, his girlfriend is a member. He came to the conference and so we took out his direction and went to visit him, we went later Sunday in the afternoon and we knocked the door and he opened it we went in and we sat down, I was like how is everything going? He goes really good, I’m going to be really open with you guys, my girlfriend and I want to get married and I want to get sealed in the temple, do you think you can baptize me? I was kind of surprised, I looked at my companion then at him, I said ya sure man why not, how about the 27th of March, he’s like sounds good, he is a way cool guy.

We have a couple of other people too, things are really going great right now, me and my comp are awesome and we work really hard and good together, we have a goal to baptize 15 this month. I’m pretty sure we will get it.

I’m really not that trunky and I’m really staying focused except Friday we went to eat at a family’s house and she gave me cow stomach soup, I have had the cow stomach before but in soup never. The whole time I was taking it down I was thinking, In n out burgers, in n out,in n out. It was pretty gross.

We just got back from the Temple, I had to get up at 4, I’m pretty wiped out.

love elder ridge

Great Week

2010-03-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

Well, let me just tell you that this week was awesome. First of all my new companion is way cool he is from Santa Cruz Bolivia, his name is Elder Montellanos, he is huge. I’m taller than him but before the mission he was a body builder. He is way nice and we work hard together.

Up until Wednesday we had nothing in the area, we had to find a lot, in this week end we found a ton, and were are challenging everyone. Right now we have 9 people that are going to get baptized.

We have a family of 4, the Dad is named Gonzalo his wife Odisa and the two daughters Doris and Daniela. They are way prepared and ready to get baptized. When we challenged them we put the date for the 6th and he was like wow I would love it but I don’t think I can save up enough money that fast. Can we do it for the 20^th? We laughed a little and said no don’t worry its free and he was like oh, in the catholic church you have to pay 50 soles it was kind of funny but they are way good.

Then we have a man named Jose Mendoza, he has 65 years and is ready to get baptized. Then we have the kids of una familia, which are three. Their parents want to but they aren’t married, so this Saturday we will have three. Ganzalo Odisa and Jose and the next we will have the daughters Doris and Daniela and the three kids from the family.

For the 20th we will have a man named Santiago in English its James, he contacted us in the street and was like teach me about José Smith, we entered his house and he taught us ha-ha, he says I know that Joseph had that vision and God and Jesus Christ appeared and then Moroni showed him the plates and it was the Book of Mormon. We were kind of surprised that he knew but so we taught him and he is going to get baptized.

This change is going to go fast because we have so much to do between me and my companion and the zone, its going to fun. Yes we heard about the earthquake but we didn’t feel it. Everyone is talking about how advanced Chile is because the quake was huge but only 700 died and the quake here a while ago was less powerful and killed 100,000. The houses here are not real strong. Also we have a mouse in our room, I have been trying to kill it for a week, and this morning, I was sitting on my bed and I see it run out from underneath my bed and I get up fast and grab the broom and chuck it like a spear and it hits the mouse against the wall and dies. My companion was like nice throw. It was awesome, it made me miss hunting, well thank you so much for the support, I love you guys so much.

love elder ridge

Changes and Christmas in February

2010-02-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, the changes are in, I’m staying here and Elder Duarte is going to Iquitos. My new companion is Elder Montellanos. He is from Bolivia, Santa Cruz just like Elder Roca and Elder Chambi. He is from my group too. I know he is way humble but I’m pretty sure he is a fun guy. I’m way excited to get going.

So we had the baptism of Claudia, everything went well, she is so awesome she goes to all the mutual activities and is doing the personal progress thing that the young woman do. She is the best!! We had new people come to church, a family that went to church before and they came back so we are going to teach them. They seem way nice, this change should be a fun change.

Oh and I got my two packages (Christmas and Valentines), I got them Friday, it was awesome, I loved the pictures and the food was good, I loves the ties too, thanks Mimi and Pop for my paisley white tie, I’m so happy they finally came. I really enjoyed it.

As for the monkey that was mine, it wasn’t Elder Layton’s that died, I know laytons monkey, that’s thing is mean and it yells and yells, and it doesn’t let you touch it. Mine would curl up on your lap and grap your hands and fall asleep.

Friday we had a meeting and President did announce the Mission changes. I’m so happy that it’s going to divide because it shows the work we are doing here but also its going to happen when I leave so it won’t effect me. I will be more excited to go home then see the mission split.

Caving Lima Style, Talks, Teaching and a Companion's Sacrifice

2010-02-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

This week was a good week!!!

First of all P-day we went to the beach and then we went to some caves with flashlights with some members. It was way fun. It was no Timpanogos Cave. The caves here it was filled with trash, smelt bad and graffiti everywhere but it was still fun.

Yesterday was a good day, way spiritual!!! First of all we gave talks in Sacrament Meeting. I talked for like 15 minutes and then at night there was a Stake Fireside about Missionary Work. Because we are the Zone Leaders we had to give other talks for 10 minutes in front of the Stake. I talked about Daniel and the lions den and that if we do as Daniel did and are obedient and trust in God and put the things of God first in our life, God will protect us and bless us just like he did with Daniel. How the lions sometimes can be those trials and difficult times in our life’s or even temptation but if we are prepared we shouldn’t have to worry, I thought it went well.

I also taught the Gospel principles class. We just got a new teacher put in the class. So Sunday she gets up and talks for 5 minutes and says amen and looks at me. So I had to get up and teach but its alright because she is learning, it was a good spiritual day yesterday.

We did get the news about the missions. President is going to talk about it this Friday but basically it doesn’t effect me, it will be after I leave, I will finish the mission with President and the mission, I will be a true norteño. My last change it will be a fun despedida with President and everyone.

This Saturday we are going to baptize a girl named Claudia she is 14, she is such a cool girl and way smart. She was prepared, she goes to all the activities in the church and all her friends are members.

I also got news from Elder Roldan. My second companion here, one of my favorites. If you remember his parents are Evangelists(I think that’s what it is in English), his Dad is a pastor for the church and once Elder Roldan got back his parents kicked him out of the house and never want to see him again. Right now he is living with another returned missionary from this mission and now teaches in the mtc in Guatemala, I loved him so much and I feel so bad for him, it makes me appreciate the family that I have, thank you so much for all the support, I love you guys so much.

love elder ridge

Visit with Pres. and Sis. Perez

2010-02-08T19:02:00.001-08:00

This week was a real busy week. We had interviews on Friday with President Perez. It was way good but my companion an I had to do so much. We had to clean the room and make sure that all the missionaries were good. We did a couple of splits, then we had to prepare a training to give to the Elders and the Assistants and President and his wife. I talked for 20 minutes and my companion talked like 30 minutes. It was way good, also Sister Perez visits all the rooms to see if they are clean so I went with her and one of the Assistants. It was fun going around in the car with them and looking at the rooms of all the missionaries. I got to get to know Sister Perez better, she is way nice.

We haven’t had really that much time to work which kind of stinks, but we did have 13 new people come to church. We have appointments with them this week, we are going to go and challenge them to get baptized.

To answer your questions, my pensionista is way cool she is blind, her daughter lives in the United States. A gringo came back and got her and she has lived there for 9 years so she has taught her mom she knows how to cook good. At dinner I usually ask for watermelon so I can lose weight. Our room is kind of big, its nice way nice way nice, I have seen better but I have seen worse, it has a tiled floor so that is a step up but we don’t have hot water so its cold. I haven’t showered with hot water since I left Barranca in October. It’s starting to get hot so the cold showers are not too bad but still, it doesn’t feel good.

There are always fleas, I don’t have them that much because I take my pills and they are working but this city is a sandbox so it is filled with fleas. This zone is the poorest in Peru, I’m not kidding, its bad. It’s really humbling and after all I have seen in Peru, I’m still being even more humbled being here. My area has road and dirt but because we are zone leaders we have the nicest area, the other areas are very humble. I’m about an hour away from the offices and I think like hours from the temple but the temple is closed for the usual maintenance stuff, so we cant go to the temple so in 2009 I went to temple once, kind of stinks, the next time I will go will be in march.

In my area we walk a lot but when we travel the zone we have to take the vans. Yes we have a cell phone and we use it to call the Assistants and they call us. More than anything it’s for people to call us if there is a problem.

love elder ridge

Splits and Stake Training

2010-02-01T16:11:00.001-08:00

Well this week was kind of normal. We had to do some busy work and we did splits twice. Tuesday I went and worked with one of the district leaders it was good. Then Friday my companion visited the other district leader and his companion came to my area. He is just started out the mission but we had a gringo day. His name is Elder Evans from Idaho. We were having fun working we went to bed and he just started throwing up and felt sick. He is still getting use to it down here. I told him to go to bed and to rest. He slept all morning, I felt bad, it made me remember when I first got here. It was hard to get used to it.

This week also we had a visit from one of the assistants. They visit the Zone Leaders, it was fun and I learned a lot. Yesterday we had a stake meeting. All the leaders in the wards, Bishoprics, Relief Society, Elders quorum, in the whole stake came. My companion gave a training about the correlation meeting. We had one hour to deliver the training. My comp talked for about 15minutes and I talked for 40 minutes. It was way good and the Stake President loved it. Afterwards I sat down I just thought, I’m 20 years old and I just trained all the leaders in the stake. My companion and I felt good after. We are trying to better the work with the members.

love elder ridge

All is Well in Lima

2010-01-25T19:29:00.001-08:00

Well, this week was a good week. First of all we had Stephanie’s baptism, Elder Duarte baptized her. It was a good service, and Sunday we had a lot of people come to church and this week we are going to go and challenge them to get baptized. We are way excited to get going this change and this week we have a lot of potential here. The zone is doing all right, we have to get better. I kind of came in when it was dying so it kind of stinks but this week we are going to do splits and a lot of stuff to get them excited to work. Me and my companion are doing good he is awesome, we work good together and we get along so well, he is from Bogotá Columbia, he is very loving with everyone, he is awesome.

As zone leaders we have to do a lot of busy work but we still have enough time to work, last week we didn’t work at all in the morning, we had to go do little things, busy work, but in the afternoon we have time. The next time I go to the offices will be at the end of the change and yes we will go to the temple but we don’t know when.

elder ridge

Elder Ridge in Pucallpa

2010-01-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

This is video taken by Gwen Rich on her Trip to Peru with her son Elder Landon Rich. This takes place at a Family Home Evening (Noche de hogar) at the Pucallpa Ward.

Dad Repented and Got the Blog caught up

2010-01-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

For all of you readers of Elder Ridge's blog. I have to apologize for falling behind for over a month. With the holidays and the birth of our first grand child, I did not get the blog done. I have repented and have the blog up to date. Please take a little time and go back and read all the posting that were posted today, with the proper dates in the title.

Elder Ridge has has some great experiences over the past 6 weeks. Hope you enjoy reading about his adventures in Pucallpa.

Adjusting to Lima

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well I’m here in Lima. It is not my favorite city, but things are going great. I’m learning a lot about being a Zone Leader and everything. My companion is Elder Duarte. He is from Colombia. He is a really good guy who really loves the people. He reminds me a lot of Mister Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He is the same, how he talks and everything, he is really loving with the people.

My ward is called Ventanilla. I’m in the center of the town, the beach is in my area too but it’s not like a nice California beach. The members are way nice and we have a ton of people to teach. It’s just my companion, the members love him so much they just give us people to baptize. This weekend we will have a baptism of the niece of the pensionista, she is nine, the pensionista is awesome, she gives us cereal and other good food but doesn’t give us that much so it will be good, I will be able to loose some weight.

That’s crazy that Landon Rich is getting married. Well things are going great here, thank you for your support, I love you guys,

love elder ridge

1-11-2010 Death in Pucallpa and Transfers to Lima

2010-01-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

Well this week was a good week, we have found new families to teach that want to get married and get baptized. 2 families, they are way nice people and they like the church a lot. This week was a week to find more people and we did find some good people so we are way excited for them to progress.

Some sad news is the other day when we were eaten dinner with our pensionista, the owner was like Elder there is something wrong with the monkey she is kind of depressed and sick. I was like what, bring her here I will take a look at her. Thinking I know something about monkeys, he brought her to me and she had the saddest little face, I could tell she was a little sick, she curled up on my lap and fell asleep, then like 5 to 10 minutes after she sat up and looks and me and then just throws up all over my leg. I kind of took me by surprise because I have never seen a monkey throw up, let alone on my leg, I got up and cleaned up and put her in her little hammock. Then the next the guy comes to window and says Elder I need you to dig a hole for the monkey she did last during the night. I was kind of sad, put later I found out that the owner killed her because he gave her flu pills for people, that’s what did it.

We had to give talks yesterday, I gave a 15 minute talk and my comp 10. I talked bout the fall of Adam and the importance of the Atonement, then I taught the gospel principle class about eternal marriage. I think I confused them ha-ha no I think I did a good job. It was a good Sunday and the twins that we baptized are now deacons, they got the Aaronic Priesthood.

So here are the changes, the Zone Leaders just got them. I’m leaving, Im going to Lima!!!! I’m going to the poorest place in all of Peru and the most dangerous, its called Ventanilla, I have never ever wanted to go there because its so bad but the cool thing is im going to be a Zone Leader!!! I’m way excited, I’m kind of nervous, I’m going to have a whole zone now not just a district, my new companion is Elder Duarte, I think he is from Ecuador, I’m kind of excited, next week I would like another long letter from Dad about being a Zone Leader, any advice would help. I’m flying out of here tomorrow at 6 in the afternernoon, so I will finish my last six months as a Zone Leader. I’m so excited I can’t stand it. Well that’s it for this week, wish me luck, I love you guys and thanks for the support,

love elder ridge

1-4-10 A Great New Year!!

2010-01-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

This New Year was kind of cool. First of all what happened is that Marco Antonio wanted to go to the stake activity with his wife to dance and enjoy the new year and getaway from his old friends. He didn’t want to drink before his baptism but he couldn’t go because he had to sell fireworks to make enough money to feed his family for the weekend but we wanted him to go.

So what we did is Thursday night we went to his house at 7:30 and helped him sell fireworks, we grabbed a bunch to go sell and we went to the members house in the area and they bought them, we explained the situation and they were willing to help out, we only had a hour and a half to be out, we have to be inside at 9, and we earned 180 soles to give him, which was enough to feed his family for the weekend, we got back to his house and gave him everything and he was so happy, it was way fun helping him and getting the members involved. He decided not to go the new years party in the stake center because he decided to stay at home with all his kids and enjoy it with them. He is such an awesome guy.

At night, the owner of our house cooked us chicken and banana and we ate with him when the new year came, it was pretty fun.

Saturday we baptized him and the twins, it was way fun, Macro Antonio’s son baptized him and confirmed him and now their whole family are members, it was such a good day for everyone. Then we went to his house Sunday night and was telling us the blessings he has reviewed that he has some guys that want to work with him. The family is really happy right now and they have the meta (goal)to go get sealed in the temple in one year, I cant wait to go hear about it next year, it was an awesome weekend and I’m way happy!

We have changes next week so next week you will know the changes, I’m praying to stay here another change with Elder Puga, this change has gone by so fast, we are way good friends, we had success together, I would be so happy to stay here with him.

We have more people to baptize, yesterday several people came to church for the first time, this week we have a lot of people to challenge for baptism, I’m way excited for this week, the district is doing good. We have a goal to have 30 baptisms this month, 10 for every companionship, I really don’t want to leave, I love the people here and everything is going good, and I just don’t want to go to Lima, its awful there, if I go to Lima I will finish there, I want at least one change more here but we will see, thank you for the support I love you guys

elder ridge

12-28-09 Christmas Call and a White Christmas in Peru

2010-01-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

We had a great conversation with Elder Ridge on Christmas. He was able to speak with the entire family and listed to his dog bark and his new niece cry. It was so nice to listen to him and growth we can see and hear in him.

Here is his weekly email.

Well it was good talking to you guys too, I’m glad that everyone is doing good and everyone is happy. Karra sounded good too and buddy.

Everyone in my companions family are members and very active but his dad is not a member, he likes to drink too much, but all his brothers and sisters have served missions and his brother in law is a stake president. He gets a lot of support from his family and they live good in Guatemala, he was born in the church too.

This Saturday we are going to baptize Marco Antonio to complete the family, he is awesome, we went to his house yesterday and he was reading the Ensign of the conference talks, he was sharing everything that he had learned about with the family, it was way cool, he cant wait for his baptism.

Then we are going to baptized Paolo and Anthony, they are twins and are 12 years old, we are pretty excited to baptize twins. This week is going to be a week for finding, we have to find a lot of people now to teach.

This New Years Eve we are going to be with Marco Antonio and his family at night for a little bit but other than that it will be a normal day to work but we kind of have to be safe because of all the drunks but we will see how it goes.

You don’t have to buy cereal, the milk here isn’t that good so it wont make it any better. I loved the pictures they were way awesome, she looks way cute and it feels good to see the mountains, well thanks for the support and I love you guys so much.

elder ridge

12-21-09 Finally an Uncle, Baptisms and a Great Family

2010-01-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

Emily had her baby!!!!! Finally I’m an uncle, the baby looks good and healthy, I want to hear her voice when I call, you will have to pinch her or something. Emily looks out of it but she looks good, I’m so happy that everything went good with the birth, I can’t wait to see her in 6 months.

This week we had three baptisms, Eduardo he is 20, and Juan he is 85, he is way old, my comp baptized him and had to do it way slow but he did it Juan was so happy, then Freddy he is 26, there was a lot to do.

Saturday was a busy day for us, all the baptisms were at different times, we where running around trying to pick people up and get the keys to the church then the font wasn’t working, it was crazy but everything turned out good, this Saturday we are going to baptize Jackie, she is nine her parents are members.

Now we are also going to baptize a man named Marc Antonio, all of family are members his wife his kids, one of his kids is going on a mission to Argentina in a couple of weeks but Marc was a drunk, two months ago I found him drunk in the street, every time we went to go talk to him he was drunk, until Tuesday we caught him at his house and he wasn’t drunk. We were talking to him and I was like do you need help with anything can we do some service in your house and he said yes im going to build chicken incubators, so we went the next day and helped him build them.

I was just talking to him getting to know him and he brought up the topic of baptism and I’m like well we can help you drop your habits and we can complete your family and you can start off the new year way good, how bout we baptize you the 2nd of January. He says like ya that’s fine, I want to get baptized now, it was awesome. We go to his house everyday making sure he isn’t going to smoke or drink he came to church, its way awesome, his family is so happy.

We have twins that we are going to baptize the 2nd as well, the are 12 years old, their family are members, things are going good with my companion, he I so awesome, we get along way well, we work way good together.

So here is the deal for Christmas, om going to call you Thursday to set up a time for Friday, I have no idea when I will call you Thursday, I have to do baptismal interviews, appointments and we are going to eat in the stake presidents house for dinner, I might call you in the morning or in the afternoon or at night, just make sure someone is there to answer me im hoping someone os there to answer me, thank you for the support and I love you guys,

love elder ridge

12-14-09 Visit from Landon and Sister Rich

2010-01-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

This change is way fun with Elder Puga, we get along so well. I always get him laughing. This week was a good week. First of all on Tuesday as you already know Elder Rich came with his mom, it was awesome. We did that activity that I play with the members, they love it, but ya I was there translating while Elder Rich was talking and when he gave his testimony in front of everyone I was translated and she started crying. It was a cool experience, she also took photos of me and filmed talking to the people explaining the actividad to the people. It was way fun playing with the members being there with Landon and hi mom. Ask her for the photos and footage, that should hold you over until I get home ha-ha.

This weekend we will have three baptisms, Eduardo 20 years old, Juan 85 years old, Freddy 26 year old, then we have a little girl that will get baptized the day after Christmas, named Jackie. We have a couple of people that want to get baptized but we are trying to get them married.

It was hard translating for Gwenn, not because I didn’t know what they were saying in Spanish but I had forgotten the words in English, like family home evening, she had to help me with that one, in Spanish its night of home, noche de hogar.

elder ridge

12-7-09 Awesome New Companion and Parrots

2010-01-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

This week was a good week, Elder Puga came and he is awesome. He is tall and light skinned. He looks like a gringo ha-ha, he is a nice guy. He is kind of quiet but we get along. He likes to work too, so we are doing really good.

Right now we are preparing 4 people for baptism for the 19th and we will have more around Christmas, hopefully a family, there is a missionary that just got back and we went to teach his parents and now they are wanting to get married and baptized, its such a blessing, we are working with them so we will see how it goes.

Yesterday Elder Evans, a missionary that just finished came to visit with his parents, we were talking for a little bit, we took a picture, his mom said that she was going to send it to you. Also Elder Rich is coming tomorrow, we are going to have a activity tomorrow night and him, his mom are going to be there. I’m so excited to get to know his mom, I know she will take pictures and send them to you. I can’t believe I’m going to meet her, after all this time im going to see her here in Pucallpa, who wouldn’t of thunk it. When I was talking to Elder Evens parents I was talking so stupidly, my English was awful, I felt so dumb, its going to be the same with Landon’s mom ha-ha oh well.

The other day we went to visit a less active family, the kids are members but the parents aren’t, its a little far in our area, its kind of where the jungle starts. We where there and she comes out with a roasted bird on a stick, I asked her what it was and she said it was a parrot, she let us try some, it was alrght, parrot won’t be my favorite, she tells us that in front of he house there are always parrots in the trees, we didn’t realize it but sure enough. They were flying around. They are about the size of a dove but really colorful, she said that her son always goes out and kills them with a sling shot and brings them back to eat. I was like, before the mission I hunted. She’s like here you go and gave me and my comp a sling shot and we went in front of her house trying to kill parrots with a sling shot but we didn’t have any success, she was laughing watching us and so were the neighbors ha-ha. It was a good way to gain the peoples confidence. We are going to teach them this week, it was awesome. I went parrot hunting in the jungle with a slingshot, man I love it here.

11-30-09 New Companion and a trip to Lima

2010-01-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well, the changes are here, im staying!!!! I’m way excited, my new comp is Elder Puga, I heard he is a cool kid, it should be a fun change, we are going to be together for Christmas, he is from Guatemala, I’m way excited to get going. My companion elder Neito is going to Lima.

This week we baptized Emerson, he is 10 and his family are members, he comes from a little village down the river to come to church, he is way cool.

Last week I ate turtle, it was kind of weird, some times they eat monkey here, I kind of want to try it. This might be the last time im in the jungle. I’m going to work hard and enjoy the jungle.

We have a family that wants to get married and baptized, its a returned missionaries family, he got back last week and now his parents want to change, we will see how it goes with them. There is a lot of potential in this area and I’m way excited to get going with a strong companion.

The meeting with Elder Pino was really good, we all got to go up and talk to him for a little bit, it was really good to get to know him. He talked about the importance of our calling as missionaries and working hard and how we should be.

We went and stayed the night where I started out the mission again in the Tahauntisuyo house, I got to see some people from my first area, it was fun, Tuesday after the meeting we had all day to do nothing, me and schofield and Briggs and McDowell just talked the whole afternoon while our comps slept, it was nice to talk English.

I’m way excited to hear about the baby, I hope everything goes ok and the baby is healthy, I am kind of happy I wont be there so I don’t have to hear Emily yelling at Scott, YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!! and other stuff, I can pass on that but im way excited to hear about it.

love elder ridge

11-23-09 Gringo Day and a Turtle

2010-01-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was kind of fun, I had my gringo day with schofield, we took a lot of pictures of places, went to eat out, went to a store here where they sell dr pepper, snickers, m and ms, mountain dew, we bought a couple of things then we order pizza at night, we also went to some appointments don’t worry, it was way fun,

I also had to do a lot of interviews this week, it was a good week, still had to drag my comp everywhere, I’m pretty sure we will be changed, we will see next week, one thing you can send in the next package is a white tie for baptism, I lost my other one when I was in lima a while back, I will let you know when I get it, the other day a member was like here elder take this and she gave me a hammock, sweet! its pretty sweet, she bought me a hammock, im trying to pay here but she wont let me haha, ill give her something.

Today we leave to lima at 4 and we get back Tuesday night, today we are going to eat turtle for lunch, we went to the family’s house yesterday because we are going to baptize their nephew and they were like look what we are going to eat tomorrow and he brings out a big turtle alive, they were like ya tomorrow in the morning we are going to kill it and your going to eat it, im like sweet I hope it taste good, so we will see how it goes.

Dave’s car looks sweet, still want a truck though, no im not thinking in worldly possessions, im not trunky either, im working hard, its not a sin if I say I want a truck haha, geez dad.

Moms birthday!!! wow mom is 50, she’s getting older but she still isn’t old yet. Send me pictures of Thanksgiving and you should buy Inka cola again, it feels like its getting hotter here, next week I want you to tell me want is the temperature down here in Fahrenheit, they only have Celsius down here, I want temperature with humidity, so the wards splitting again, that’s weird, when I get back there will be new families and new faces, it doesn’t even feel like I have a ward because it has changed so much over the years, well next week you will know where I’m going, who with or as what, just so you know I might take a little money out today just in case of emergency in the airport, well it sounds like everything I going good up there and everyone is doing good, thank you so much for the support, I love you guys so much,

Love elder ridge

Busy week of Baptisms, Motokar theft and fishing for Piranha

2009-11-19T07:02:00.000-08:00

Well this week was crazy, we had to do so many things. We had 4 baptisms on Saturday. Martin is 23 years old, he has a huge goal to serve a mission and he is already really active and does so much stuff with the activities. His uncle is our ward mission leader he helps us out so much. Then we had Peter who is 18. Peter is going to serve a mission too. His brother is a member, he takes us around in his motokar wherever we need to go. Then we had Kevin that’s 15, his brother is a member too, he is a cool kid, and Cecilia who is a single mother, she is a nice girl, she is 18. We all baptized them together so the pictures are pretty cool.

Martin didn’t get confirmed because something bad happened to his uncle, our ward mission leader. I was there in the church waiting for them to come and they didn’t come, I was thinking they always come what happened, you know me I started worrying and worrying all through church. I had a feeling that something bad happened, after we went to their house to see what was happening and Teofilo, our ward mission leader, was driving his motokar going home for the night at like 12.00 at night, Saturday. Someone called him from the side of the street for a ride, he pulled over and the guy pulled out a gun and grabbed him and put the gun to his head, another guy left from the bushes with a knife and grabbed him and pulled off the motokar and took off, he was lucky they didn’t kill him. Martin had to go help him so they couldn’t come to church, next week he will get confirmed. They are recovery now, it is sad because Teofilo drives his motokar for his job to make money for his wife and recent born baby. Now he doesn’t have a job, he is really worried.

This week I will do a gringo change with Elder Schofield, Wednesday, I can’t wait, I need a break from my companion, yesterday he decided that the Sabbath day is for everyone and missionaries shouldn’t work and decided not to work, he just wanted to sleep. I’m really learning patience this change. I didn’t yell or anything but I realized I have a lot of Dad in me ha-ha. He ended up working.

I’m glad you got my package, you guys can enjoy, just please be careful with the Anaconda head, put that in my room or something.

We are not going to Iquitos anymore, we are going to Lima next Monday night and we will return Tuesday night here, it kind of stinks but im way excited.

Today we are going to go to a small jungle really far from here and we are going to go fishing for piranha, its going to be awesome, well thanks for the support, I love you guys so much.

love elder ridge

Visiting Iquitos

2009-11-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today we are going to play football!! American football, its going to be sweet. As a district leader I work normal but I just have to do more papers dealing with numbers and calling people and doing interchanges. I interview people for baptism, that’s my favorite part is interviewing.

Well this week was real fast. We had interviews with President, that was pretty cool. We did practices how to teach and I had to challenge him to baptism, I think I did a pretty good job. He did give us some good news, Elder Pino for the Seventy is going to come visit this mission. He is going to visit the missionaries in Lima, then Tarapoto then Iquitos. He is not going to be able to come here to Pucallpa, so President is flying us to Iquitos!!!! November 26th, I thinks its Thanksgiving. We are going to be there for the whole day so I will be able to go visit members and converts, I’m so happy, I never thought that I would ever go back. I’m way excited to go there for a day.

Our investigators are doing good, we are going to have 4 baptisms this weekend, Martin, Peter, Kevin, Cecilia. I’m way excited, and im going to do an interchange this week so it will be a busy week. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and I talked for 15 minutes. It was cool to see the pictures at Elder Rich’s homecoming. I showed Elder Schofield the pictures, it made him trunky, he is going home in three weeks. I’m going to do an interchange with him next week, we are going to have a gringo day. He said all he is going to do is eat cereal all day. I’m with him on that, I can’t wait to drink milk. Also here in the zone is Elder Briggs, my first companion in the MTC, we also hangout together on pday, he is doing good, that kid is awesome.

Answers to Questions, good investigators and a Great Bishop

2009-11-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

To answer your questions:

My companion and I are fine now, just had to break him in a little. He complains sometimes but I just say I don’t want to hear it in a nice way. He is working hard with me.

My zone leaders are Elder Rodriguez and Elder Schofield. Elder Schofield is going to finish this change and he is awesome. He is teaching me a lot on how to do the things as a district leader.

The food here is the same, its not that good. I’m already getting skinny. They always give me like rice and a little piece of meat like chicken, or chicken feet or cow stomach. It’s not that good. I kind of miss a Carls Jr.

In my room there is a refrigerator but not a microwave.

The shower water is cold but it feels good because its so hot here and yes I sleep in a mosquito net. I put the net around my fan so the fan is like right there in the bed to keep me cooler but I still sweat at night. I shower at night and in the morning and I enter sweating and leaving sweating. However, I love the jungle.

I am not taking my garlic pills because there aren’t any fleas here but there are tarantulas in our room and they are big.

I do wear my boots when it rains and yes I left a piece of luggage in Lima.

This week was a good week. We found a lot of people to teach. Yesterday we had 18 investigators come to church. 4 are getting baptized on November 14th and 1 on the 21^st. This week we have people to visit to challenge them to baptism.

This month is going to be awesome, one of our investigators is Martin, he is 23 and his uncle is a member, he wants to be a missionary, he is in second nefi, he comes to church and goes to the activities, he is awesome. He is one of the strongest investigator I have seen. We also have a family. The dad and mom are married and have three children, two are members, the daughter that isn’t is 14, we are really trying hard to baptism them, they want to get baptized, but they didn’t come to church so we are going to visit them and see how things are going.

We also have a couple of families that want to get married and then baptized, it would be amazing to marry a couple families and baptize them but they have problems with their papers and stuff so it might take a while.

Also I don’t think I told you guys but last week I had my first interview with Edgar who is 50. I was nervous but I did it good and the interview was really spiritual. I asked him who he wanted to baptize him and he said well this interview was really special so I want you to do it. So I was like ya if you want I can do it, so I baptized him last Saturday, it was a cool experience. I baptized the first person I interviewed.

I have a couple of interviews this week I’m so excited.

When you go to see Elder Rich tell him I say hi.

They don’t celebrate Halloween here in the jungle. They know what it is but they are not into it like we are in the states.

Our new pensionista is the Bishops wife, she cooks good. The Bishop here is awesome. He does so much for the Ward. This ward actually has home teachers and visiting teachers. It’s the first time I have seen it here in Peru. There are also ward missionaries and they actually work with us. This ward is way cool. There is attendance of 200 on average on Sunday. It gets pretty filled up in sacrament.

Everything is going good, the work is going great here and I hope it stays that way.

Well thank you for everything, thanks for the support, I love you guys

Love Elder Ridge

Pucallpa is Awesome

2009-10-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Pucallpa is awesome!!! It’s just like Iquitos but its not city, its more jungle and my are is huge!! I have two wards, Viste Alegre and Centenario. I’m on the edge of the city so and the end of my area its just jungle. There is a lagoon on the outskirts of my area, im going to go and take pictures one day. We live in the center of Viste Alegre and to get to the end where the jungle is it takes, 45 minutes by moto. The chapel isn’t even in my area, we have to travel 15 minutes in moto to get there.

My companion is Elder Nieto. He is from Chimbote Peru. He has 6 months in the mission, he is a nice guy and humble but we don’t get along. He is a little anti social and he doesn’t want to work. The first night he told me he wasn’t going to work on weekends because he likes sitting in member’s houses. I told him that wasn’t going to happen. I think I will be using my patients this change.

The area is cool and the members are awesome. On Sunday we have to do interchanges with members so we can go to both wards. Right now we have a couple people progressing for baptism. We will see how it goes with them. I’m still getting to know the area and I still feel lost.

Our room is really nice, it has tile floor and walls. When I got here it was a mess, I had to clean it, here in the jungle its a rule that we have to have two fans in our room, we only have one and it was my companions so I had to go buy one so I could sleep at night. It’s hot here but the rainy season is starting so it rains a lot, I think in the 4 days I have been here it has rained 3 days. We don’t have a pensionista now but we found one. The bishop’s wife is going to do it, she is nice. When November starts she is going to do it, I hope she cooks good, they haven’t giving me anything gross to eat yet... yet, im sure something is waiting for me.

The weirdest thing that did happen to me is we live in kind of like a duplex, one side is us and one side are members, but we have a front yard with a gate, in the front yard there two dogs and a monkey, a little baby monkey that’s in a cage and when the dogs are put away we can play with it but when they are out the monkey has to be in the cage. So the other day we come to the room and the member comes out and says oh elders the monkey got out of the cage and the dogs were out. The dogs starting playing rough with the monkey and the monkey died. The members said “elder ridge can you dig a grave for him”, I was like ya that’s fine. So on Saturday I had to dig a grave and bury a monkey. Not that many people can say that they have done that. I took pictures of it so I will have to send you some.

They really accept us here, every door we knock on they say come in, we are always teaching but the people that progress is different. A lot of people are not married here, they just live together. If there was a mass marriage we can baptized a lot of families. I’m trying to work really hard to get a family baptized.

Back to the Jungle!! Pucallpa

2009-10-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well the changes are here and I’m going back to the jungle!!! I’m going to Pucallpa!! It’s by Brazil(it is a large city on the east of Peru, close to the Brazil western boarder) and it’s going to be hot. My new companion is Elder Neito. Someone told me that he is from Peru but I have never heard of him, we will see how things go. Elder Chambi stays here but he is going up to senior companion. The cool thing is that I have to leave tomorrow in a bus to get to Lima and then im going to stay the night in my old house. I will be able to visit my converts, and then Wednesday im going to fly in the morning to Pucallpa!!! They say its kind of like Iquitos but not as much city, I’m so excited I can’t stand it, I’m going back to the Amazon jungle.

This week was so awesome, we baptized Santa, I baptized here and Sunday Elder Chambi confirmed her. Also Juan Carlos received the priesthood last week and this week we were teaching him how to bless the sacrament, so Sunday I had the blessing to sit next to my convert and bless the sacrament together, it was so awesome, not many people can say that, I taught him good, he did it his first try, I had to do it twice because I messed up, he was laughing and said I did it better than you my first time, we were laughing, Sunday was such a good day. Also Rendy came to church in a suit, he is so excited to be baptized I’m kind of sad I won’t be able to be there. Elder Chambi and I ended the change good with three baptisms which is good for Barranca, we baptized the most in the zone, it was such a fun change.

I’m pretty sure I will be in Pucallpa for Christmas, get ready for horrible reception again, thanks for everything, I love you guys, next week I will be in the jungle!!!

Good Tasting - Guinea Pig

2009-10-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

que tal,

Well to answer your questions, I haven’t sent the package yet I will try to send it today, before the changes. There is a member that washes the laundry here, every Monday in the morning we drop it off and Wednesday in the morning we go and get it. We kind of walk but not really, my area is flat, but here in Barranca we are allowed to take motos and in Lima we cant so we ride in the little motos here to get around.

My pension lives close to us and we share the same penionista with the zone leaders because they live down the street and my zone leader is Elder Maldonado, its awesome, he is a fun leader, we always talk about when we were companions, its fun.

My apartment is nice because it has two rooms, one to study and one to sleep, it has an entry room where we do exercises and it has a kitchen, there is nothing it but its our room. Our bathroom has hot water now and its really nice because it is new, just painted, its tiled, tiled floors, and its the third floor so we can go up to the roof and see the ocean, its really nice.

My area is....not safe, not at all, Elder Chambi has been here in Barranca for a long time but he has just been changing areas inside the zone. He has been robbed three times with knifes, his camera got robed and everything so that’s why I only carry like 5 soles on me, and when we went to take pictures at the beach, we had members go with us because by the beach its worse.

Well, this week was mas o menos, first of all we were going to have three baptisms this coming weekend but only one come to church, we are going to baptize Santa, she is 37, her sister is a member, she is really nice and really excited for her baptism, the other two are gong to get baptized but the 24th, but im pretty sure im leaving this area so I wont be here for there baptisms but the important thing is that they are gong to get baptized.

This week I finally ate what I have always been waiting to eat, cui cui, guinea pig, a lady gave us for lunch, and its good!!, there isn’t a lot of meat, but its soft white meat, its good, I took pictures, you can see its little rat feet and claws, it wasn’t bad.

Yesterday I was talking to the missionary that served in Provo, and I asked him what was his favorite fast food in Utah and he said carls jr, im like ooooohhh my gosh I totally forgot about carls jr, it made me a little trunky. Tell Mimi and Pop that I do receive their emails and I love reading them and I enjoy them. I’m really excited to hear about the deer hunt this year, it doesn’t matter if they don’t get anything I still want to see a picture of them in the mountains!!!!!!!!!!, last year you didn’t send me one.

Package from Home

2009-10-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

To answer your questions:

For breakfast we eat like eggs and bread little stuff like that, but every night its pizza, its good.

In our new house NO we don’t have hot water and it stink! I have been taking freezing cold showers for a week now but the owner says that a hot water heater will be here soon, but im getting used to it, the weather still hasn’t heated up so the shower is really cold, but I just suck it up and get in. With the girl, we lived in like a indoor apartment complex, with only like 3 apartments, we lived in one, her and her mom lived in another, last change when I wasn’t here in this area Sister Perez came and said Elders you have to move, so when I got there Elder Chambi told me he had to move so ya we moved.

Tuesday my package come for Halloween, it came fast I couldn’t believe it but it was in its box normal, I loved the food, but im getting fatter because of that package so next one for Christmas don’t send a lot of candy, I have to get good looking before I get back, I don’t want to get fat!

I decided to give my companion the new Spanish bible you sent. I figured he would need it more than me, I can buy one here or buy one in the states but its a little more harder for him, so I opened the box and said Elder Chambi my family sent you a present, and I tossed it to him and his face lit up he was so happy, he was like thank you so much and he starts flipping through the pages and Melissa’s (Elder Ridge’s younger sister) pictures falls out and he’s like oh this must be for me too. Tell your sister thanks for sending me her photo and I’m like no that is mine give it to me it was funny we were playing around, he told everyone in the zone that, Elder Ridge’s family sent me a bible and a picture of his sister but he took it away. Everyone’s like Ridge don’t be like that and stuff, it was funny, we were all laughing.

We had interviews with President Perez, it was pretty cool, my interview was awesome. Then we had the conference this week, I had to watch it in Spanish because I’m the only gringo but I understood just fine, I really like Elder Jeffrey Holland’s talk and there was a Seventy that gave a good talk, I cant remember his name, but it was good, he talked I think it was Sunday morning, when he talked about the missionaries in Russia, and how they were answers to prayers generations after, it was good.

Right now we have 4 people with baptismal dates, for 17 of October.

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

2009-09-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-09-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T17:25:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Hot Showers and Great Success

2009-08-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well to answer your questions. Our room is really nice, its well tiled and it was just built so the walls are clean and it just looks really nice. The bathroom is pretty good, not like my first one here, but we have hot water, so in the morning I just stand there under the water for ever because it has been 6 months showering cold water out in the jungle. My mattress is not very good, all the mattresses here are made out of hay, that’s how all the mattresses are here. No we don’t have a fridge because only in the jungle do we get a fridge.

The ward here is good. The members are pretty fun and this ward is a little more organized than most. Yesterday we gave talks, my companion talked for 3 minutes and I talked for about 12 minutes. It was pretty good. Man I can’t believe I can actually give a talk longer than 5 minutes now and in another language. Our mission ward leader is way good, he is a returned missionary and he helps us a lot.

Well nothing really exciting happened this week, I got used to the city so I feel comfortable here. It’s weird because when I first got to Peru last year I was so scared and I thought everyone wanted to kill me but now I feel at home. It feels very normal now. I know when I get back to the states I will have to adjust big time.

Our investigators are doing well. We will have three baptisms this weekend which will be awesome. On the 22nd we will baptize a man that was baptized at age 8 and now is 30 but he lost his baptismal record so we have to baptize him again. It counts for the mission and it counts as a family of gold because his whole family are members so this is a blessing, I really got blessed to enter into this area and start having investigators. I really wanted to start my comp off good and get him in water and its going to happen.

New Area and Training a New Companion

2009-08-06T16:39:00.001-07:00

Congrats Emily! and good work Scott. (Elder Ridge’s sister is expecting his first niece and he just found out)

A lot happened this week, yes I left the jungle, it was way sad, I was there 6 months, I love that place and the members there, but it was good to change, we flew out Wednesday at 10 and got to Lima at 12, it was a cool flight because the sky was clear and you passed over the Andes, they are huge. We arrived in Lima and its cold, like humid cold.

I went to the meeting for changes, I saw Elder Roldan and we were taking a little bit, it was good to see him. I am going to the area he left so he was telling me all about it. My area is La Pascana in Comas. It is pretty sweet and it’s big. The chapel is 2 stories, the members are pretty friendly, my room is way nice, it’s pretty ritzy for Lima. My pensionista is way cool and cooks so good, I’m worried that I might get fat here.

(Elder Ridge has the privilege and responsibility of training a new missionary. They refer to trainers as Dads and the trainee as their son.)

My companion is Elder Zarate from Huancayo Peru, I think it is a little bit outside of Lima like 6 hours. ( It is east of Lima) He is a brand new missionary so I’m his dad. He is a nice humble guy, he is the only member in his family and is a convert of 2 years. His family doesn’t really support him, they didn’t want him to go on the mission, and because he left they are not going to support him when he gets back its very sad but he is awesome and he is learning fast.

I’m trying my best to teach everything so he can be a good missionary, sometimes I have to use my patience because he is learning and I’m used to companions that know a lot and we can work together normal but I’m teaching him a lot.

I got your package. I love the rice krispe treats and the pictures and the candy, it was a good package.

We have some investigators in the area. Right now we have the Bishop’s niece named Katty that we are going to baptized on the 15th of August. A young man named Joseph also for the 15th. Joseph’s is 12 years old and his dad is a member. Another young man named Juan Franko he is 12 also and should be baptized on the 15th. We also have a lady named Sandra who is scheduled for the 22nd. We also have a family, they have already been coming to church but were never baptized because they just live together so they are trying to get married and they said that their papers are almost done, so we are hoping to get them married and baptized. That would be awesome, a family of gold. I’m really hoping to have good success this change to start my companion started off with a good mission. We are trying to get 6 baptisms this month.

The other day we were in the street and this big black guy came up to me and yelled in my face what are you doing in my country you (BAD WORDS) in Spanish, I just walked around him and looked at my comp and said man I love this city, and he laughs. Aren’t mission great and full of all kinds of experiences.

Leaving Iquitos with Love, Success and Memories

2009-07-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

7-27-09

Well, the changes are here and ya there is a change, I’m leaving the area here, I’m going back to Lima, I kind of knew that I was going to Lima. I’m going to the zone Comas, the good news I getting a kid, yes I’m going to be training! I’m pretty happy about that, I get a kid, I have no idea who it will be or where he is from but this means that I’m entering a area new with him so I’m going to be lost ha-ha, I am way excited to get to the city and start working with him. I’m really going to miss this city, I love it here.

Saturday we baptized Franco, he is 15 and he is awesome, he is so funny, we had some problems with his family and his parents, but everything ended up being good, we ended this change with 5 baptisms which is pretty good, I’m hoping to get in to my new area and baptize more.

7-20-09

This week was a good week, to start off we had three baptisms on Saturday, it was a good experience, as a zone we had a massive baptism so we all did it in the same church and 25 were the baptized. Jaivee and Kasandra and Victor got baptized but Joel didn’t. He had some family problems and couldn’t do it. This week end we are going to baptize Franco who is 15 he wants to serve a mission so bad same with Jaivee there is a young man in my ward named Diego he is being a good friend and is getting them both to get excited to serve missions.

I’m way excited for next week because we will know where I’m going and who with and as what and all, I really think I’m going to Lima.

Baptism and some Great Investigators

2009-07-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had Nicole’s baptism and I baptized her, it went well, right now we have 4 people getting baptized the 18th and at least one more person the 25th but we could possibly have 3 more for the 25tht, so it would be 4 for the 18tht and 4 for the 25th. The 18th it’s a 10 year old boy named Victor, a 12 year old girl Kassandra, a 14 year old boy Joel, a 17 year old boy Jayvee. The 25th we have a 45 year old woman named Faustina, we knocked on her door and she let us in and she was sick and she asked us if we can do anything to help so we explained what a blessing is and we gave her one and we taught her and she said that she wants to get baptized on the 18th. We said no you have to wait for the 25th because you have to go to church two times(its a rule here) but she said that she knows it’s true, she could feel it when we were blessing her and she got better the next day, she is a nice lady.

Last night we had a sweet thunder and lightning show, it was awesome, nothing else has really happened this week, we are just really working, things are going good here.

Two Week Post

2009-07-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the post for the last couple of weeks.

July 6th

Well, this was a good week! Right now we have 4 people getting baptized. One for the 11th and the other three for the 18th, and we will have two more for the 18 but we have to work out their dates. We had 8 investigators in the church so it was a good day. The work is going good right now. The two people that don’t have dates yet but still came to church was Jayvee, we were teaching him back with Elder Zuniga, and the niece of our pensionista, she came to church and loved it.

Today we are going to the zoo again to take pictures with the snake. Saturday my District Leader came and visited with my companion. I was able to go to another area with a gringo to celebrate the 4th of July. We ordered pizza and soda, made signs and took pictures. We made the best of it, it was way fun. My companion is from Arequipa Peru. He is a gymnast. He used to do the bars and those two rings in the air. He is ripped!

June 29th

I’m way excited to be here with my companion, he is way cool, we work way hard. This week we found 25 new people to teach and we have 4 people getting baptized, a little girl named Nicole, a boy named Victor and a young women named Cassandra and young man named Joel. Nicole is scheduled for the 11th and the other three are for the 18th so it should be good. They came to church on Sunday. Their parents were inactive but now they are coming to church again and the kids want to get baptized. We are really working hard to find a complete family.

I did hear about Michael Jackson, everyone here was talking about it and playing his music in the streets to honor him, here they really follow the states and what’s happening up there. The big news from the States I still hear down here.

Today we went to the jungle to a little village it was pretty cool, everyone was looking at us weird, all the gringos, we went to where there never had been missionaries, and it was pretty cool.

My companion and I are working way hard to get a lot of success. We had our interviews and President asked me what did I do before the mission, and we talked about my goals for the second half of my mission. I told him I want to have a good second half and that I am going to apply a lot of things to be a better missionary, and some stuff like that, and he looked at me and said Elder Ridge, this last year you will progress really fast, prepare yourself and strengthen yourself it was way good. It made me feel good.
We have a goal this change to have 5 baptisms and one family, so I’m way excited to work this change and get things going and have some success. I can’t believe I have been out a year, I only have one year left so I got to make the most of it, I’m going to work hard but smart and I’m going to enjoy it.

Catch up post (May 4th to June 8th)

2009-06-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

June 8th

Our investigators are doing alright, we had a few individuals and a family and they just started to not progress and weren’t coming to church so I said to Elder Roca we need to drop them and start knocking doors to find some more. So we started knocking doors and we found this man named Segundo, we talked to him and taught him a little and took out his baptismal date right then and there and he is getting baptized the 27, he is a nice guy, a little shy, his thirty and is single.
I’m kind of change trunky ha-ha, but we are still working and everything. The weather is in the 80 down here lately it has been cloudy and rainy but when the suns out its pretty hot, but no they really down have a winter, the people tell me it’s cold in Lima. I want to stay in the heat I like it.
The thing that’s happening here is the indigenes people or the people that live with no electricity and live in little villages are getting mad because people are drilling for oil on their land out in the middle of nowhere. So they are coming into the cities and killing the police and people. Nothing like that is really happening here in Iquitos but in Tarapoto it’s kind of dangerous. The missionaries there couldn’t leave their rooms for three days to work, for us it was only two days, so don’t worry it’s not that bad here. Some of the members asked me what do you do in the states when this happens, I told I have no idea because these things don’t exist in the states, they couldn’t believe that there aren’t little villages in the states filled with indigenes people who run around naked ha-ha.
So yesterday we were visiting some members and we stopped by the house of a family and the dad was like hey Elder Ridge come here I got to show you something, I was like what , he told me that his computer has this program where you can see where you live, I told him it’s called Google earth, he goes how did you know its new, I said I just know these things, I don’t want to say that its old news in the states. So he’s says show me your house. So I showed him and he zoomed in on the house, he was like wow that’s your house, I told him yes and I kind of didn’t want to because of how big the house is, so he goes now watch this and he pushes something and puts the view as if you were walking down the street, I was like no way that’s awesome, I could see the cars and Melissa is out front walking. I couldn’t believe it, it made me trunky for the rest of the day ha-ha.

June 1

Well, I’m glad you guys got my photos and are enjoying them. (It only took 10 days to get a package from Iquitos) We will be posting all pictures in the near future in a new album.
We have two weeks left in this change and I am excited to see what the changes will be. I’m really hoping to do a jungle hop, go from one place in the jungle to another. I really like the jungle.
This week nothing really happened. Wednesday we couldn’t leave to go work because they had a strike and it was pretty dangerous in the street, so we just rested and studied. It was kind of off and on this week so we had to be careful in the streets.
Well nothing else is really happening. Today we are going to a gringo restaurant to eat lunch with the zone, I have been there before, and the food is so good.

May 25th

The biggest thing here that we do for service is painting because everything is cement and the paint is always falling off so we paint a lot and it’s no professional job but they like it.
The investigators are doing good and we have a lot of people that we are teaching but no one is accepting a baptismal date, but we will have some in June. I’m really trying to work smarter, I’m studying more and trying to make my teaching better and my Spanish so I will be able the apply the things and be a better missionary and help the investigators.
So back in march when I was with Elder Zuniga we had interchanges with the district leader, something that is normal, I went to his area with his junior comp and my district leader came to my area with Elder Zuniga, so I was in the other area that day working good with the other missionary, contacting, teaching. We found a guy named Richard and sat down and taught him the restoration and everything. Well at general conference in April I was standing there talking with other missionaries and this man came up to me and said Elder Ridge do you remember me? I said your face looks familiar but I’m sorry I don’t. He said you taught me the first lesson in my house and guess what I got baptized last weekend. Wow I said congrats, I felt really happy and joyful that he got baptized, I felt pretty good, but also that same day in March I was with another missionary and I said “hey lets go contact some people, and he said ok, I said you go contact that person and I will contact them, he said ok and went and contacted a lady while I was talking to this lady and her daughter, and told them about the church they seemed interested. I got names address and set an appointment, well a couple weeks later I was talking to my district leader and he said hey Elder Ridge you contacted a mom and her daughter that one day and now we are teaching them and trying to prepare them for baptism, I was pretty excited, as time went I asked how they were doing. He said we are still working with them, but she is having trouble working on Sunday stuff like that, well 2 weeks ago he told me hey guess what, the whole family is getting baptized, the mom dad, the daughter that 18 and the son that is 20, I was like wow sweet, so they all got baptized I was so happy.
Well last Friday I had interchanges and went to the district leaders area again and his companion there said lets go visit the family that just got baptized that you contacted, so we went and we were sitting down talking and I asked the mom, do you remember me, she said no, but I have seen you somewhere, I told her, back in march right here in front of your house I contacted you in the street and told you about the church, she said oh my gosh yes I remember, she grabbed my hand looked at me and said thank you, thank you so much, because you talked to me that day I have received so many blessing for me and my family and will receive more, I am so thankful to be in this church and I am sharing it with my friends. I told her well I’m really happy for you and your family and this church will bless your life and she said you are always welcome here and we talked some more and we took some pictures and left. After I left, I felt so happy and joyful I can’t explain how I felt, I was thinking wow just one little contact in the street the whole family got baptized, I felt pretty proud even though I had nothing to do with it because I was just an instrument the Lords hands. I felt so good that day and was thinking you never know what can happen from just a little invitation, so that what happened to me this week, it was a good week.
I have had a lot of good experiences, thank you so much for your support and I love you guys.

May 18th

Yes I got my birthday package and I loved it! it was so good, the candy the ties, it was all good. For my birthday we went to a family’s house they are so sweet, and we made pizza, it was so good, they sang happy birthday to me. . My pensionista made a cake and her family sang, it was a good birthday.
Today we got to go out and work in regular cloths because there was some protesting going on and President wanted everyone to wear regular clothes to be safe, nobody took us seriously when we are in our p-day clothes.
Sunday morning it rained so hard that all the houses flooded and nobody could go to church, we got to church and there was us and the bishopric, we had to start church an hour later and still only 10 members came, it was sad, we have to push back all the dates of our investigators.

May 11th (Post Mothers Day Call)

Yes it was good to talk to you guys, it sounds like everything is going good and everyone is happy including buddy (Elder Ridge’s dog)
We had a great time talking with Elder Ridge. We did not have the best telephones connections and had to call back a few times but it is always good to hear his voice. He is doing great and is loving his mission. It doesn’t sound like he has an accent but he did have trouble thinking of words in English and often used different wording than we are use to. It sounds like he is really into his language. He told us a lot stories about Iquitos, the members and the investigators. He is having a great time in the Jungle and hopes to stay in the jungle awhile longer.

May 4th (Pre Mothers Day Call)

Well the changes are here and I’m going.... nowhere, I’m staying here with Elder Roca. I will try my best and do my part hopefully things will work out.

Saturday we had Jorges baptism, it was really good, I baptized him.

I’m really excited to call you guys this weekend and talk, it will be the same as last time, I will call you Saturday to set up a time for Sunday. The Mission President gave us a hour of internet now so it will be back to normal.

I have no idea what made me sick, I don’t know if it was food water or what but right now I’m good. I burned the cads but now I have to send them, there is nothing in my area where I can do it and I have to wait every p-day. This week we really have to work hard to get more investigators to get more baptisms, every person that we had stop progressing so we really have to work hard to get more.

Yes, Mom I’m using the repellent, don’t worry, well I’m glad that everything is going good over there, I love the pictures of the family, everyone looks good, I’m really proud of Dave, he looks really happy. (Elder Ridge’s older brother graduated from UVU) Melissa looks great, I’m glad she is enjoying lacrosse, well guys I love you so much and thanks for the support and I will call you this Saturday!

Catch Up Post

2009-04-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have been negligent to get this out for 3 weeks now. This is a long post so please read all the way to the bottom. Elder Ridge is having a great time serving the Lord in Peru and especially in the Jungle of Iquitos.

April 27th

Last week for p-day Elder Roca and I went to the houses that are floating, and they have bridges in between the houses. It was so awesome but it was a humbling experience seeing the way they live.

We didn’t have the two baptisms that were planned, Jorge got sick and Rosario didn’t want to make time for it. She says she is so busy but wants to do it; Jorge will be baptized next week.

Yesterday in church only 15 people showed up because Saturday night it rained so hard that every house flooded. We helped some families get water out of their houses Sunday afternoon, we used brooms and dust pans, the whole time I was thinking man this would be easier with a wet dry vac, and they don’t have vacuums here.

The other day we were knocking doors and we found this lady that raises parrots and macaws that are huge, she didn’t want anything to do with the church but she asked me if I wanted to take pictures with her birds so I have some sweet pictures with those, the jungle is awesome.

My health is good, well right now it is good, I didn’t tell you guys but I was sick for two weeks and lost a lot of weight but right now I’m fine, everything is good with the comp he is a good guy and we get along.

April 20st

The ward is awesome, the members are really nice to us, some of them are way funny however, there are a ton of inactive. Average Church attendance at church is only around 50 people. They are really nice and humble. Our Ward Mission Leader helps us, he is leaving for a mission in May to Columbia.

A typical P-day we usually we go to the internet place to write in the morning then after we play soccer or go to that zoo or for example today is free day so me and my companion are going to get some stuff done, my pictures, his pictures, visit some of the river stuff that we have wanted to do.

Well, we had Anita’s baptism it was way good. Roca baptized her, and she was confirmed on Sunday. This week we have Rosario’s baptism and Jorge baptism. Rosario didn’t get baptized but she wants to on the 23rd which is a Thursday so we will do that for her, Anita will be baptized this Saturday I’m excited for that, we have this kid Jorge and Enrique, their parents went inactive and came back so we have to baptize them, we had a family come to church Sunday but they are living together so we are going to get them excited to get married and then baptize them hopefully.

April 13th

So my Easter Sunday lunch consisted of this. I go to the member’s house and we sit down, we are talking having fun, then the sister brings out the soup, she gives me the soup and I look in the soup and see a big white ball that looked like white ground beef. I’m thinking to myself wow this should be fun, you’re not suppose to ask what it is before you eat but I was like what the heck I can take it, so I asked sister, “what is in the soup, is it meat? it looks good.” She says oh elder it is so good you’re going to love it, it very healthy, ok but what is it, its blah blah she said a weird name I haven’t heard of, I said what’s that, well its cow brains, I said mmmm can’t wait to eat and dug right in, trying to get the thought off my mind that I was chewing on a cow brain, so now I have basically eaten every part of the chicken and every part of the cow, man I could go for mimis apple pie right now ha-ha, that was my Easter lunch.

The other day we were walking down the street and I look in a window and I see this tucan sitting in a house, I was like look Roca a tucan lets go contact that person, so we went and I have some cool photos of a toucan on my arm just chilling there.

A Boxer, Mosquito Net and a Hungry ATM

2009-04-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

March 30th

First of all my new companion is awesome. We get a long and he is humble. Before the mission he was a boxer so he is big. We have the same time in the mission, I lead the area and meetings and lessons cause he doesn’t know anybody but he reports to our district leader and stuff, we are pretty even. That’s what I wanted this change was some one that I could be equal this change, we already have learned a lot together, this change is going to be good. Elder Layton is sitting next to me and we are telling stories and stuff, he is so funny, I haven’t seen Elder Hyde yet but I have talked to Elder Roldan, he is doing well.

I have not been sick yet here in Iquitos. We do sleep in mosquito nets and they are hot, it’s like a hot box. President is coming Tuesday so hopefully then I will get my package.

April 6th

Well, yes the ATM machine ate my card, I couldn’t believe it, the whole time I was thinking, Dads going to kill me haha, natural reaction. Yes I got the package that you sent, its awesome, thank you so much, I love the shirt and the candy, everything got here just fine including the chocolate.

Yes,I heard the they are sending Elder Cheesman back to Bolivia and couple others that I know. I am happy for them to go back so they can start helping the church there.

We got to go to every session of conference, my favorite talk was Jeffrey R Holland too, it was a amazing. I remember when the announced Larry Gibson (our Stake President has been called in the General Young Men’s Presidency) but I didn’t know it was him, I didn’t but two and two together. I saw Tim Wright singing like always.(A friend from our California Ward sings in the Tabernacle Choir)

Everything down here is good. Our investigators are good, we have found new people to teach that will get baptized, Willer’s brother wants to get baptized now so we are going to teach his brother and his mom, we have a couple of 10 year olds that parents fell away and came back to the church and want them to get baptized. Anita is way good, she is processing and attending church she attended conference and she liked it.

Changes and a Great Missionary Example

2009-03-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

So we have changes! I’m staying here in Las Castanas and Iquitos, and also I’m getting a new companion, Elder Zuniga is going to go to Lima and my new companion is Elder Roca, I think he is from Santa Cruz Bolivia. We are the same group so we have the same time, that is what I wanted, someone with the same time, so we are going to be young guns tearing it up. The missionaries that are coming here in the zone are Elder Hyde, Elder Layton, Elder Rolden and Elder Griffin. I get to be with Elders from my group and Rolden, I’m way excited to start this change.

We had the baptism of Alcidis, it was so good, his dad baptized him and on Sunday he got the priesthood, he is thinking about a mission and I’m trying to get him excited about it. The girl Anita is getting baptized the 18 of April.

We have a new investigator that is getting baptized the 11 of April, her name is Rosario and she is a teacher. A 10 year old boy in her class gave her the Book of Mormon and right after he died in an accident so she same to church on Sunday and we taught her. Thanks to that little 10 year old boy she is getting baptized. She is 40 years old and divorced, her kids don’t live with her.

The Work is Good!!

2009-03-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, this week nothing really happened, we didn’t have a baptism but next week we will have a baptism. His name is Alcides, he will turn 18 I think next month, his dad is member. I’m pretty excited to get him in the water so he can serve a mission.

Willer, our recent convert, we were talking about seminary because he is taking it and he was like oh guess what I’m taking mission prep too. I was so happy when he told me that, he is preparing to go on his mission.

I had an interchange with elder Lynch this week he is our zone leader he is from West Valley, it was so weird talking in English. It was fun. For a little time we went to play with the monkeys in our area, we have two that hang out in a park. Nothing else really happen! Found other people to teach that will start progressing for baptism, oh ya next week you will know if I get changed or who my new companion is, next week we have changes, I’m hoping I stay here!!!

Success and Cool Stuff

2009-03-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Missionary Work

Well to start off first we had the baptism of Sebastian, that was pretty good, I baptized him. Our family of gold didn’t come to church so I was heartbroken but they still have their date for baptism. They are having some doubt and are starting to be unsure about things but we are still going to work with them. We found a couple other people to teach that we will start teaching this week. Alcidis is still doing good, he came to church with us yesterday, he is a cool kid but really quiet. We lost Jaivees date, he were so excited to get baptized. We went to his house Sunday morning and his grandpa came to the door and was like he doesn’t want anything and boom slammed the door in the our face, I was so mad, we are going to go see him to see what’s up,

General Information and Cool Stuff

For our email we go to the main plaza of Iquitos in this big internet store. There are also stores in this part of town that burns pictures onto discs. Pday we can play soccer like always, I’m ready to beat Bobby in soccer. Today a member of the ward is taking me and my comp around the city to visit some places like rivers and other cool places. Something cool about the Amazon is they have a pink fresh water dolphin. My Pensionista is awesome, her food is way good and clean. There is a lady that does the laundry for the whole zone. I took money out to buy cool stuff, I have a case for my Spanish Book of Mormon and it’s Anaconda skin and my Bible cover is Jaguar skin, and some other cool stuff.

Golden Investigators and much more!!

2009-03-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

Well, this past week was awesome, we had the baptism of Willer, that kid is so awesome, he is already signed up for seminary classes and received the priesthood yesterday, he’s 17 and he wants to serve a mission, he is such a cool kid. Our other investigators are sweet, this Saturday we will have the baptism of Sebastian, I’m excited for that too.

Another awesome thing that happened this week is that we found a family of gold, we were walking and talking with people knocking a few doors and I saw a sweet dirt bike and we were like lets go knock that house, and a guy came to the door and was like come in, so we came in and we taught him, Ulises and his wife July, they have two little kids a boy that’s 6 and a girl that 4, we taught them and he liked it so then we went back another day and taught them the plan of salvation with him and his wife for 2 hours, we talked all about how families can be together forever and they were asking so many good questions it was awesome, we went to their house on Sunday to take them to church and he was all ready in a shirt and tie and she was all dressed up, they are both lawyers so they have a lot of money, we went to church in their car, it was so awesome, they are set to get baptized the 28 of March, we are really praying for them to get baptized, I want them to get baptized so in a year towards the end of my mission I can go see them get sealed, that would be so awesome, he says that he knows the church is true, there are such a cool family.

Yes, we eat a lot of bananas or papaya. For breakfast we usually eat like a sandwich thing it’s bread with either meat in the middle or avocado or butter and some type of drink like juice. For lunch it is always chicken and rice sometimes it’s different like soup or beef and rice but it’s always rice, I have eaten rice every day since I got to Peru, it gets old, and dinner is the same thing, rice chicken sometimes soup, always fruit like papaya. The food here is good and I haven’t gotten anything weird, I have only gotten fish like once, I’m lucking out with that because I haven’t gotten any fish since I have been here.

To the Amazon I’m like a 5 minute ride in a motto taxi, those things are fun, zipping around the city in one of those. my ward is pretty big and the attendance is alright, there are a lot of less active but we visits them and there are some that are starting to come. The Bishop is way good and is funny too. Our apartment is little, we have a separate room where we sleep then we have a bigger room where the kitchen is and where we study, in our kitchen its only a sink and a little refrigerator to put water in, and then we have our bathroom, it’s as nice bathroom but it’s cold water, and there isn’t a toilet seat so you’re sitting on the porcelain which is normal down here.

Baptism, Zoo and Bananas

2009-02-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

This week was pretty good. Sunday we had a lot of people show up for church. One of the people is getting baptized this Saturday. Willier is 17 and way excited to get baptized. We also have Sabastian, the 9 year old, all of his family are members but him so this is an easy one. We have Alexander, he is 26, he didn’t come to church yesterday but he still has his date and is progressing, he showed up to church last week with a book about Joseph smith, so we taught him and he is way cool. The family of gold left for the dads work but will come back in two weeks so we are going to continue when they get back.

Last p-day we went to the zoo. It was way cool. You get to hold stuff and it’s like there isn’t a person with the animals either. You walk around and there are big parrots sitting there and you can walk up and put them on your arm. I have pictures of me holding a baby sloth, a huge boa constrictor. I did have a zoo guy with me for that one haha. It was awesome!!!

My teaching and my Spanish is way better. This week I realized that I can understand pretty much everything. Sometimes we will ask people who can speak Spanish better, and some people say me and I laugh. Since Elder Zuniga is from Costa Rica, he has a different accent, and they don’t know that he doesn’t know a ton of English.

The food here is really good so much cleaner. I love the maduro banana, its’ so good, it’s like a soft banana, fried a little bit. Man its good!! We eat banana for every meal even breakfast.

Loving the Jungle, the Ward and the People

2009-02-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

Iquitos is freaking awesome. It is so green and my area is way cool. It’s mostly city and the people are way humble and awesome. I pictured the jungle to be jungle like walking down the street and seeing monkeys in the trees and snakes in the trees but it’s not like that, my area is city but it’s still way cool. The roads are cement and there are roads that are dirt. It rains every morning because we are in the rainy season, but it’s still hot. I wear my boots a lot because of the mud. We live in a little apartment that is part of a house of a member. We walk to our pension for breakfast and dinner like the last area but its closer. Iquitos is cleaner than in Lima. There is less dust and there aren’t that many dogs.

In one part of my area there are monkeys in a park chilling on leashes so I took a couple pictures of me playing with them, one is big, I have picture of one on my head. . In my area there is a big soccer stadium, so you guys can look on google earth and see what my area looks like. My ward is called Las Castañas. This morning Elder Zuniga and I went to write our letters to the President at a place that overlooks the Amazon River. It is so green and big, there were some houses floating there and guys in little canoes fishing. Everything here is moto. They don’t have cars they only have motorcycles, there are so many in the city.

The members here are cool, we sat down in Sacrament meeting and the Bishop gets up and says well we will now have our first talk by Elder Ridge. It was cool to get up and talk in Spanish without any problems. Right now we have a family of gold that we are teaching. They live in a wood house and don’t have electricity so we teach them in candle light, it’s cool, they are awesome. There is this boy in the ward that is 9 that was waiting for his uncle to get back from his mission so that he could baptize him but now he wants me to baptize him so he is getting baptized on the 7th of March. The people here are awesome, they welcomed me with open arms, literally, I had a couple little kids run up and hug me first time seeing them on Sunday. We get accepted like crazy too, when we knock on doors almost everyone says come in and teach me but thing is getting them to progress.

I am going to the Jungle!!!

2009-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well we have changes and I know your excited to hear so here it is............ I’m going........ to..... IQUITOS! I’m way excited! I’m freaking going to the Amazon River, Wow,!!!!!

My companion is Elder Zuniga. I already know him because he was here two changes ago. He is way cool and is white as I am but he is from Costa Rica, he speaks a little bit of English but not a lot, he is also District Leader so I will get to know all the areas in Iquitos. I am way excited. It is so hot there, everyone tells me that you will die because of the heat. Man I am so excited I can’t stand it!

I leave Wednesday morning and I have to put my stuff in the offices on Tuesday. I can only take one suitcase that weighs 40 pounds there. Today I am going to take out money from the bank just in case I need it while traveling.

Well I didn’t give the blessing one of the counselors did, because the Bishop announced it wrong so we just went with it. Our baptism was cool because the girl Lorene wants to serve a mission, she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting before she got confirmed, it was awesome. Javier was cool too, it was good to finally get the teaching done and get him in the water.

I have not gotten my third package yet an since I am leaving I don’t think I will ever get it. My health is good. I am drinking water. I don’t have fleas that much. Yesterday I ate cow lungs, it was gross. I will try to get you some pictures. Well, I love you guys, next e-mail will be about the Amazon Rainforest! Man I am way excited!

Short and Sweet

2009-02-05T17:04:00.001-08:00

Well, I don’t have a lot of time but this week was awesome, we had two baptisms on Saturday, it was awesome. My zone leader is telling me that I have to go right now so I can’t talk right now. I hate this 30 minutes thing!! Next week I will write you guys more detail because next week you will know my changes. Thank you, thanks for the support, I love you guys! Sorry

Golden Investigators

2009-01-27T18:35:00.000-08:00

This week was great. We had 153 contacts and found a family to teach, so we will start teaching them. We are going to baptize Javier (he is 12) this Saturday. We are also working with Lorene, she is awesome. She is also getting baptized Saturday. We went to her office and she had bought paintings of Joseph Smith and Moroni which where expensive. I walked in her office and she was like look what I bought, I was like oh my gosh, she was like it was expensive but look its Joseph Smith the Prophet and Moroni with the plates, I was like ya wow, it’s good to have a investigator of gold like that.

Things are going good with my companion, he is away good teacher and we get along, we don’t have any problems, he is a pretty humble kid, his family is members, they converted when he was two so he has always been a member.

My Spanish continues to improve. I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting for like 8 minutes. I got up and talked the whole time without stopping to think of a word, it was pretty sweet. Elder Cheesman still he helps me with my Spanish, I can talk all day and understand like 95 percent but I’m still not fluent but it’s coming fast.

I haven’t stopped sweating in the past 2 weeks. It’s pretty hot and I’m not even in the jungle.

Email time limit causes short Posts

2009-01-27T18:29:00.001-08:00

The Lima Peru North Mission has been put on a email limit of 30 minutes every week due to some missionaries not following the rules. Therefore, his emails have been short and these posts will be short. We hope that his mission president will see the need we have for a longer email time. Last week we did not post due to a very short and personal email from Elder Ridge.

Golden Contacts and "Should not have asked"

2009-01-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well, so we had the changes, Elder Roldan left and Elder Maldonado came here. He is awesome, he is from right here in Lima, an area call Los Olivos. (Los Olivos is in the Lima province and appears to be in the Central Mission) We work hard and we get along so this change will be fun, he is a good teacher. We had a sweet lesson with this lady named Estel. Her daughter is a member but she isn’t and I have been talking with her since I got here but we went there for her to meet Elder Maldonado and we talked to her about the importance of baptism and she broke down crying saying she has been putting it off and that she needs to get baptized. She told us to baptize her in two weeks we are going to baptize her. It was awesome the spirit was way strong. We also had a member bring her friend to church and she was like hey I want to get baptized in this church. She said I already prayed about the church so we were like great! We said of course we will teach you and baptize you. She is pretty excited.

I finally got sick, first time I have been sick since I have been here. I had a fever and pounding headache, I couldn’t even walk but it already passed so I feel better. Last week I was at lunch with a family and this lady gave us this meat and I was eating it and I was thinking huh this kind of taste like steak but not really, so I was half way through eating it and I decided to do thing that you are not suppose do,Ii asked her what it was, and it was cow liver. haha I barley finished it, the image got in my head haha, it was gross.

Transfers, Baptisms and New Years Eve

2009-01-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well changes are here and I’m going......... no where!
HaHa I’m not going anywhere, it’s cool, when I first found out I was a little disappointed cause I
want to go see another part of the city or the jungle but it’s all good I won’t mind being in this area and this change is 5 weeks. Elder Roldan is leaving me though which is sad, my new companion is Elder Maldanado he is from here in Lima, he is actually the companion of Elder Taylor right now, and Taylor told me he is amazing, he works really hard but he makes things fun and is a really cool guy so I’m pretty excited to get him. The next change ends 11 of February so I know I will go somewhere then. Elder Cheesman is with me still which is awesome, we both are staying and getting new companions, we have been there together since September. Wow time goes by fast.

Our baptism was awesome, I baptized the 10 year old Jeanpier and Elder Roldan baptized the 8 year old Jericho. Ivan is going to get the priesthood so I’m pretty excited for him, he showed up at church yesterday with tie and white shirt and a briefcase, it was awesome, he is going to be a Bishop one day.

Our news year was pretty cool, we stayed up until 1 in the morning, here it’s a little different, they do fireworks here but there is no regulation on what type so there were big old pipe bombs going off shaking the windows. I have footage of the fireworks going off like 20 feet above me in the air and it’s raining ashes, it’s dangerous, they light off so many fireworks that we couldn’t see the sun the next day, the also burn these life size dolls. (Customs associated with the New Year are intended to bring good luck- a popular tradition is to dress up a doll - (or effigy) with old clothes and then burn it, which signifies getting rid of the old, and making a new start.) It was so hot that night form all the fires, our room was filled with smoke.

We went to the temple, that was way cool, my Spanish was a lot better than the first time I went. Elder Cheesman and I were outside the Temple and this lady walked up to us and we said, hi how are you in Spanish and she goes, hi elders how are you in English and it took us by surprise, we were like oh, how’s it going. She was from Dallas Texas visiting temples, with a guide, it’s so weird to hear people talk to you in English in the street, it takes you by surprise haha. Our Latin companions don’t know a lick of English so I literally talk in Spanish all day every day.

The Phone call at Christmas

2009-01-05T17:25:00.001-08:00

We had our Christmas call with Elder Ridge. It was so good to hear his voice, although we have had more opportunities than most missionary parents. Since Elder Ridge traveled to Arizona for a month and then to Peru, we have had a couple extra time to speak with him.

He is loving it in Peru!! He has not been without his challenges, most of which are in this blog. He is really doing well with his Spanish and sounds great. He bore his testimony in Spanish to the whole family on speakerphone. Although we could not understand it word for word, we could get the just of what he was saying and we could feel the power and spirit of his testimony. We realized how much he has grown.

He says he is not home sick at all, although he misses a few of the comforts of home. (Carpet, taller shower heads that don’t shock you, fresh water)

We got to hear stories of conversion and cultural differences. All in all it was a great call and we look forward to his emails every week and we are counting the days until Mothers day when we will talk again.

Food for the Body and the Soul

2008-12-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from the early Christmas. We are so happy that Elder Ridge and Elder Roldan are working hard and having a great time together.

I have heard that some missionaries have to cook their own breakfast and dinner but we don’t have to in this area, our pension is awesome, she is from Columbia and her food is good and clean. Maybe in other areas I will have to do my own thing with food. Speaking of food, I think it was Friday, ya we were at a members house eating lunch, it was soup which is always sketchy here, you never know what’s going to be in there, so ya I’m eating and I look down and there it was, the whole entire foot of the chicken, three toes and everything, now the first time i just found a little piece of the toe and kind of pushed it to the side, ya I couldn’t eat around this thing it was huge. Elder Roldan was like eat it you little girl, so I was like fine whatever and put part of it in my mouth cause its huge and ate everything, I picked all the little bones out of my mouth, the nails too, it actually wasn’t that bad, I would eat it again. I’m pretty sure I can eat anything now, but its funny, nothing startles you more than pulling up a huge chicken foot in your soup.

The other day we were contacting in a park and we found a guy from Spain, that was pretty cool because he speaks Spanish, but he uses the European form, it threw me off at first cause they don’t use it here but ya I could understand him. I like hearing different people talking, their accents and stuff.

Well our investigator Lady fell through, we went to her house and she was hiding from us so she is done. it made me mad, I don’t understand it when people progress, progress, progress and then they decide they are done and hide from us. Ivan will be baptized this month, he is amazing, he reads and attends and has so many questions, he is way good. We also found three families to teach but they aren’t married so that will take some time but we are teaching them and working with them. We found a guy of gold yesterday. He wants to go to church and learn more. We taught him and it was way good, he will progress. The woman Rosa decided that she still wants to live with her boyfriend so we are still trying to work with her. Things are getting better, we are not getting rejected as much so that’s good, man who ever said a mission was easy is an idiot, this has been the hardest thing I have had to do, being patient with the language, with our investigators, getting rejected, but it’s part of the mission, I love being here and enjoy serving the Lord. It’s amazing, I love seeing the people progress and seeing them change their lives.

Turtles, Christmas comes early and It's a Small World

2008-12-08T16:34:00.001-08:00

Elder Ridge sent a second email with this picture attached with only this explanation. “this is me with the turtles that live in our house, they are huge” More to come on this I am sure once Diane writes her email this week.

So I got the packages and I loved them! I got them on Friday and we opened them on Saturday. Everything was amazing, the ties, the candy, everything, thank you so much. Elder Roldan told me that was the most he has ever gotten for Christmas in his life so thank you so much for doing that for him. He was so excited he started jumping off the walls. Saying “wow look, look what I got, thank you so much these ties are awesome”. So ya he says thank you much, It was the best Christmas he has ever had.

We found a family to teach, they are way good, they travel to the United States a lot but still don’t know English. We did get rejected this week too but we did have some success finding a few more people to teach. The thing that stinks is our investigators didn’t come to church so we have to push their baptism back another week which stinks We will get them baptized don’t worry.

Last p-day we were in plaza vea buying stuff, which by the way they have American soda and candy but it is way expensive, it’s like a Walmart. They have everything I could need, its way nice. So ya we were in there and we saw two other missionaries and we were like wait a second they are not from our mission. So we went up and started talking to him, it was a Gringo and a Latin and I was talking to the Gringo and they were from the Central Mission which is just the other side of the street, but anyways I was talking to the gringo and he is from American fork, and I was like no way and I said I’m from Highland, and he said I have family in Highland, do you know the Ormsby’s. I was like ya they live two houses down from me there are in my ward. He said that they are my cousins, his name is Elder Tholl. They were there buying food with their pensionista. He has two weeks in the field. He is suppose to be in Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission and got put in Lima Central, so there are still problems there. Tell the Ormsby’s that I saw their cousin down here in South America, he is doing ok.

Great Companions and a Great Area

2008-12-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Elder Roldan is way sweet (great) and we get along way well, and he helps me out with my Spanish and teaching. (Picture of Elder Rolday and Elder Ridge on P-day)
Yesterday I gave a talk in church about missionary work, I got up and
talked for 10 minutes without anything written. The Bishop asked me and Elder Roldan Saturday at 10:30, and yes the whole thing was in Spanish, I had to pause and think two times to think of the word but I got it, it just took me a second to remember it. It makes me laugh at myself, for my farewell I could barely get 7 minutes in and now I can get 10 on the spot and in Spanish, wow I was lazy before haha.

The ward is pretty good, there are only 40 active members and a lot less active. Our Ward Mission Leader is way sweet, he is so funny, and likes working with us. The members are way good.

Things are a little bit slow right now. We had 140 contacts this past week, we talked to 140 people in the street and knocking doors and two said ya come in, only two, it was a rough week but things will get better. (Picture of Elder Ridge with his area he serves in behind him)

My Spanish is coming way fast, I can talk all day to Elder Roldan all day, I’m not fluent by any means but there are a lot of words that have clicked that I don’t have to think about what to say or translate but when I’m talking all day. I still have to think a lot of what I’m going to say, like stop and think what’s that word
in my mind, but once I write a word down that I don’t know and use two or three times in one day, I got it down. It’s coming way fast but I do lack a lot still.
I still have a ton to learn.

Elder Cheesman is awesome, at night we talk and hangout, he is way cool. Sometimes when we are talking we will say a word in Spanish and sit there and think, what’s that word in English? It’s funny. Elder Taylor left and went to another zone, but we had so many good times together, they made my first 6 weeks fun. It is cool that Elder Cheesman still lives with me, so things are going way good. I’m loving life right now, I’m way happy to be here. I still want to go to the jungle but I can wait. (The three amigos - LtoR Elder Cheesman, Elder Taylor and Elder Ridge)

A New, New Companion - Thanksgiving Peru style and Christmas comes early

2008-11-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well a lot happened this week. First of all we did the changes on
Wednesday and I said good bye to Elder Lima. I got my new companion Elder Luna. We went to our room to unpack his things and he was looking at the member list and
he said, wait hold on, this is my sister. Yes, his sister lives in our area.
He is from the south part of Lima and she moved here during his mission. We called the zone leaders and he had to have a emergency transfer. The transfer didn’t happen until Friday so Wednesday and Thursday we couldn’t do too much cause they live and work way close to our house.

Friday we went to the offices at 11 in the morning to switch companions, so now my new companion is Elder Roldan. He is amazing!! Elder Roldan is from Guatemala so he talks
a little bit different and that is good cause I like to hear different accents. His story is a sad one. He is the only member in his family and was baptized one year before his mission and has a year in the mission so he is a really new convert. His family doesn’t write him and the only person that does is his brother in law and he hasn’t received a letter from him in 4 months. All of his family are evangelic and his parents are the pastors of their church. He is way funny and we get a long way good. He knows the Bible like the back of his hand. He also knows the Book of Mormon really well. He is a way hard worker but we have a lot of fun, while we are working. I’m way happy for this change. It is way fun contacting people with Elder Roldan because they start bashing us and all he does is quote scripture and asks one question and they go uuuuhhhh. They don’t know what to say. It’s way funny!! We were talking with this guy in the park and he said I don’t believe in God and started laughing and we asked him, where did you come from? He said my parents. We then asked him, where do your parents come from? He said from their parents. Elder Roldan asked where did it all start and the guy was like uuuuhhhhhh. I still don’t believe in God!! It was funny, some people sometimes.

We will have 3 sure baptisms in the next three weeks. First is a Lady, she is 22 and she is progressing and everything and she lives with members that give her support so its way good. The other is Ivan, he is like 35 and is awesome. One day he just showed up at sacrament and he said, “I love your church!!! I have been to so many and yours is the best one, I feel so calm and peaceful here”. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and he was asking questions about the
Book of Mormon. He is reading it and everything. He was like so Moroni is the
son of Mormon and Lehi is the father of Nephi right? We were like yes exactly, he
knows a lot. Then we have Daniel who is 12 and he has been to church 8 times but at another ward but lives in our boundaries so we didn’t know who he was so we are going to start to teach him and he was like when can I get baptized? Then we have Rosa, she doesn’t have a date yet because she has to work things out with her divorce but she has a son on a mission and she attends every week and goes to classes and has been doing that since I got here but she will get baptized this change if she works everything out, she has no doubt or anything. We have found a lot more people the weekend so we are going to get some more
baptisms.

Ya down here there is no such thing as Thanksgiving, most people don’t even know what it is but I thought it was last Thursday so we had a party in our room with me and Elder Cheesman, we drank Inca cola and ate crackers, it was a bumpin party haha. We took some pictures.

The other day we had a dog fight out in front of our house while we were getting ready to leave for breakfast so we got to watch the whole thing, the dogs down here fight like lions its crazy, I have never seen anything like it before, but ya there were two dogs and one ripped the other one up, and was way sad and I watched the whole thing, people ran over and pushed the bigger one off the little one and the little one couldnt even walk away it
was sad.

I decided to buy myself a Christmas present this year and that is a guitar, I bought it this past weekend, and it is way sweet, it is all black with a cool design around the hole and it sounds amazing, and it was 50 dollars American, yes you can by stuff down here that cheap, it is probably a 300 to 400 hundred dollar acoustical there and it came with a case so i can put it on my back when I get transferred. Elder Taylor had one so we always played it at night or on p-day and I got pretty good so he left and took it so I bought one to have my whole mission,
Elder Roldan can play the flute too and he has one so he plays some sweet songs and he can also play some hymns, its way cool.

Transfer Week

2008-11-17T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hola,

I get a new companion this week, his name is Elder Luna and he is transferring in from Iquitos so he is coming out of the jungle. I’m staying in this area at least one more transfer. I hope Elder Luna is way cool and wants to work.

Things are good, but our area is slow right now! We have two people with dates for baptism and a couple new investigators but there could be a lot more. Our investigators didn’t come to church so their date was pushed back. When we are not teaching we are suppose to go out and find people and talk with everyone on the street which I love because it makes my Spanish so much better.

My fleas are better, I still get bit every now and then but I don’t have problems with them anymore. Our room is pretty big my bed is the same size as my bed at home (Double) and we have wood floors, our room is way big.

I did go to immigration this week with Elder Layton and Elder Ellison and that was way fun because there were gringos there from America and we talked to them in English, which was a little weird but it was cool. We went to downtown Lima it was cool. The Temple was way sweet and I took pictures.

My Spanish is a lot better and I can say a lot, I can talk with anybody on the street but drunk people and little kids. They are way hard to understand especially little kids, who use so much slang.

Breakfast of Champions

2008-11-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

For breakfast we eat mostly bread and bologna!! We eat it with hot milk which is disgusting. Sometimes we get one fried egg and chocolate milk But it’s nothing like an American breakfast. It’s just food to put in the belly that’s how breakfasts are here but our dinners are pretty good.

I haven’t gained weight but I haven’t lost weight either. I walk so much so I could lose weight but I eat so much that my stomach is a pop belly(Elder Ridge loves water but has to drinks a lot of soda pop because he can't drink the water), so I look like one of those starving kids in Africa, not that bad but I do have a pop belly but my face and arms are skinny.

Elder Taylor and Elder Cheesman are awesome, they help me and we hangout and talk at night when we get back and stuff like that, its pretty sweet, they are way funny guys.

We didn’t watch Batman last week, we watched the Best Two Years and played ping pong and had a barbeque it was fun. Tomorrow we are going to the temple. I am excited!!

The other day we found someone that spoke Qechua so I spoke a little bit to her, only what’s your name and where are you from cause that’s all I know, its way different than Spanish.

I heard all about Obama being President, that’s all I heard all day in the street, everybody in the street was like hey gringo! Obama is your President awesome right? I just said whatever and after a while it just got annoying so this guy said the same thing to me and I said I was from France and he was like, oh...really? and I said yah, he said oh ok and walked off and my comp was laughing.

Quake shakes Peru capital Lima, no damage reported

2008-11-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

The big thing that happened this week was we had a descent earthquake. We came back after lunch to start our fast and I was on my bed praying and Elder Lima was on his and all of a sudden I hear this deep, deep noise kind of like a rumble and I looked up and asked Elder Lima what’s happening. He was already off his bed starting to run and said we need to go now lets get out of the house it’s an earthquake. So I got up the windows started rattling and everything was moving and I could feel the ground move but not too much cause I was running. One thing about earthquakes that I didn’t know is how much noise they generate. It’s the deepest rumble I have ever heard and it’s loud but it was pretty sweet. It was my first big one but Elder Lima said that it was actually a small one compared to what can hit Peru. I don’t want to find out what a big one is like. Everything was shaking, it was crazy.

Uncle Dave this one is for you!! We had a police chase outside our house. The cops were trying to catch this teenager. Instead of getting out of their car and chasing him on foot, they stayed in their car and tried to run the teenager over. The car was drilling the curbs and bushes trying to run this kid over. It was fun to watch because the cop wouldn’t get out of the car so the kid got away. Uncle Dave, is this how you do it in the US. Maybe you can add this to your driving course you teach. (Elder Ridge’s Uncle Dave is a police office in California and teaches the rookies how to drive)

The work is good we have a couple of investigators on date for baptism. Yesterday we had two people show up at church and said “I like your church and I want to take the lessons, so that was pretty cool. They are getting baptized on the 23rd.

On P-day we write home from 10-11 usually, sometimes it changes. After that we do an activity as a zone like play soccer or go to the zoo something like that, then go to our lunch appointments at 1 or 2 and after that we can do what we want until 6, usually we just go back to the room and hangout with other missionaries or go buy stuff at the store. Today this is what we are doing. I can’t believe it when I heard it. We are going to watch batman, yes the new batman, in our mission the Mission President lets us watch movies with his approval, I think its weird that he lets us watch movies and I don’t agree with it but I have to be obedient haha.

Questions and Answers!!

2008-10-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

We asked Elder Ridge a series of questions. Here are the questions and his answers.

Question: What are you drinking?

Answer: We get a lot of water from the mission, but I just drink the tap water because I figure I’m just going to get a worm anyways...just kidding. We do get those water jugs but we don’t drink it very much because its not that hot yet. I usually drink soda and the drinks that the members give us for lunch and breakfast and dinner. It Is usually this apple juice stuff or some sort of fruit drink. It’s not bad but most of the time I go buy soda at the store.

Question: Any fleas or bug challenges yet?

Answer: I have no bug problems yet. I do have one flea bite but that’s it. I haven’t taken my (garlic)pills yet but I will in the summer when all the bugs are out.

Question: Where do you use the internet to email us? How long do you have to e-mail?

Answer: To use the internet we go to a internet place that has a bunch of computers its just a small store and there are a ton of these stores everywhere. I have an hour to email.

Question: We saw that you used your ATM. Any problems with the ATM?

Answer: No problems with my ATM card. I just wanted (needed) some cash. I got 100 soles out which is equal to thirty dollars.

Question: What is your typical day like?

Answer: My typical day: I wake up at 6:30 and shower and get dressed then walk a mile to my pension (to eat breakfast) and then walk back. We then do personal study and companion study and language study. Then at 10:30 go out and work or teach until 1. We have lunch bwtween 1-2 with a member and then after that we work until 6. We have dinner from 6-7, then we work until 9. We then plan for the next day, talk and write in my journal, then sleep.

Question: When will you be able to go to the Lima Temple?

Answer: I have no idea when I am going but I think it is this transfer. This transfer ends November 19 so I hope by then. I had a great week last week. On P-day we went to the Zoo. The Zoo was cool. I really like the jungle section, I want to go to the jungle so bad. I took pictures so I have to send them to you. (We are really looking forward to getting some pictures)

On Wednesday, we went to the CCM and had a meeting with Elder Christofferson. It was amazing!! It was all in Spanish because he speaks Spanish. I got to shake his hand so it was good.

On Friday, I had an exchange with the district leader and it was amazing. We worked way hard together and we get a long way well. He is from Arizona. We talked to a lot of people and found seven new families to teach. It was so fun walking with another gringo down the street talking English and then walk up to someone and start speaking Spanish. It takes them by surprise.

A quick story! Yesterday we were in the street talking with someone and this guy walked up to us and started bashing me about the Book of Mormon and I was like WOW hold on a second...... you speak English? This guy was from South Carolina and he started bashing me and then he stopped and started talking about how hard it was to learn Spanish and just comforting me but it was so weird talking to him in English. I ended up just saying sir I don’t want to bash, lets just have a nice conversation in English and he was like ok.

Today we are playing soccer so that should be fun. I can’t believe I hit 4 months, it has gone by fast, and this next transfer I hit 6 months, its crazy! The Spanish is getting better, it gets better everyday but there are some days were I can’t understand a thing and some days, I can understand everything. Today is a good day because I can understand everything going on around me. I have started to dream in Spanish. My dreams are always people talking and they are speaking to me and I can’t understand them but I’m speaking Spanish to them and I know what I’m saying.

Thank you for everything, I love you all and thank you to for the support.

Love Elder Ridge

Great Update

2008-10-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well , I didnt get to eat guine pig they just gave me chicken and rice oh darn.

My companion is from Southern Peru (Pictured in White) he was baptized at the age of 12. He has 14 months in the mission .

My pension (A pension is someone who feeds Elder Ridge and Elder Lima morning and night. They eat lunch with members.) is a member and we have to walk about a mile to get to her every morning. She is way nice and her food is always good. Another member in the zone does every missionarys clothes (laundry)in the zone.

The women I baptized calls me her padrino(godfather) because I baptized her. Her son is getting baptized on the first of November and he is twelve years old. We had a baptism Saturday, it was the girl Poala the one cutting my hair my first day and said I want to take your lessons. She bore a awesome testimony. It was pretty sweet.

I have not been sick yet. Our living conditions are way nice. Our area is the nicest in the zone if not the whole mission. We went to a other part of the zone for a inactive member reactivation and we visited all the members that were inactive. The area was in the hills and it was pretty different it was all dirt roads little shacks. I realize how nice I have it in my area and makes me appreciate America.

My Spanish is coming along. Everyweek is better. I understand more and can say more everyday. Elder Cheesman and Elder Taylor help me so so so much with the structure of sentences and words and all those things. If it weren't for them I wouldn't know what I know now. I can speak a decent amount of Spanish I just can't understand a lot. Only like 70 percent and usually it's just getting the gyst of it but it will come.

Today we are going to the zoo so that is why I am writting early. Wednesday we have a meeting with Elder Christofferson at the CCM (MTC in Lima Peru) so I am looking forward to that. Friday I am going on interchanges with the district leader for the day and that will be nice cause he is way cool and he is one of the missionarys that was kicked out of Bolivia.

I don't know if you have heard but sometimes the shower shocks you haha. I accidently put my head to the shower because I'm taller than it, so I always have to croutch and when I put my head to it the whole shower lit up and I was shocked. It felt weird so I have to be careful. This is the second time that has happened haha.

It's starting to get warmer here. It's cold in the mornings and nights but in the afternoon its warm, a perfect temperature.

Loving the Continsuyo Ward

2008-10-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Wow it was weird to talk to Dad today. (He called to get his social security number to apply for a residence card.) Today Elder Layton, Elder Hyde, Elder Ellison and myself went down to the south part of Lima to get the I.D. card we need that lets us fly in the country. I need that card when I fly to the jungle someday. It was way sweet to hang out with those guys for a p day.

I’m in the zone Tahauntinsuyo which borders Independencia, I work in the ward Continsuyo. Things are going good, the Spanish is progressing everyday. The work here is good, we have 8 baptisms set for the end of this month. The other night we were talking to a person and I heard all these people yelling and dogs barking and my companion said “let’s go we have to get out in the street. All these people were running out of there houses and I was like what s going on? It was a templor(earthquake) but I didn’t feel it but everybody else did.

This Sunday I’m going to eat guinea pig so that should be fun.

The other day I was eating some soup and I pull up a spoon full and looked down and was taken by surprise because in my spoon was the toe from a chickens foot, nail and all. I didn’t expect it but I ate it and it. It wasn’t that weird. I finally got chased by a big dog and my foot wasn’t doing the trick so I got a little scared but it was ok. Peru is pretty sweet.

The people here are way nice and humble. It is like 60 degrees here so it’s a little chilly but i don’t really need a sweatshirt or anything because it’s starting to warm up. (Peru is leaving their Spring and starting into Summer) Our room is pretty big and my shower is hot water but when the power shuts off it gets Freezing, which happens a lot. My bed is the size of a twin, but let me say this, United States Missionaries have it easy the way they live. (This is a jab at his brother and brother in law )

Serving in the City and loving it!!!

2008-10-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Elder Ridge has been official welcomed to Peru and to the Lima North Mission. He is serving in the city just north of Lima. The winners of the contest are: Theresa Hyde, Gwen Rich and Scott and Emily Neilson. Thanks for playing.

I am in the Tahauntinsuyo area. I had my first baptism!!! Yesterdsay I baptized Rosio in between sessions of conference. My first baptism was amazing! Rosio is 6 months pregnant so does that count as two? The water was way freezing but i got it done my first try in spanish. It was sweet.

Conference was in English for the gringos so that was nice. I saw Tim Wright in the choir a lot. Things are going good. It is great to have a Peruvian companion. My spanish is coming along pretty well. The other day we had a multi zone conference and I got to see everyone from the MTC. It was a good reunion.

I'm so jealous about the deer hunt but oh well I am where I need to be. I want to hear all about it. There are alot of dogs down hers, but I don't need any dog repellent, my foot works fine.

Peru is "Way Cool"

2008-09-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

We recieved the first Peru email from Elder Ridge on Monday. He must be really busy and very excited because he neglected to tell us where he was assigned. Well, that means you have time to vote. (see the previous post for details)

So ya WOW.....WOW nothing could have prepared for this. Not Mexico not Jamaica it's totally different but I love it!!! I was culture shocked the first day or two because of all the things that happened around me but I'm used to it now. What everybody says is so true. There are dogs everywhere here but they don't come up to you they just do their own thing. The food is different but I have not eaten anything wierd yet. My first meal here was at a members house because members feed us for lunch.

When I flew in I went to the (mission) office. I was picked up by the assistants and when I got to the office Elder Rich and Elder Herdt were there to greet me and we talked about Peru, it was cool. President Perez is awesome.

My companion is Elder Lima from southern Peru and he helps me out a lot with my spanish. It is very difficult because I don't understand everything so I'm lost all the time. However, everyone has said my accent is way good but you need to learn more words. I have to work on my spanish. Elder Lima is way nice. It is so amazing down here.

We set like 5 baptism dates already, they accept it here like crazy but it is so hard to get them going.

Everyone looks at me down here because I tower over all of them. It is way coll down here and I love it and ya its spring so sometimes it gets cold.

Peru Here I Come!!!

2008-09-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Elder Ridge is officially on his way to Peru. After a terrific experience in the Arizona Tucson mission for a few weeks, waiting for his VISA (Not a credit card) Elder Ridge is traveling to Lima Peru today. He starts his long trip this morning at 6:00 am from Tucson Arizona and will arrive in Lima Peru at 11:00 pm after stops in Salt Lake City and Atlanta. We talked with him briefly this morning from the Tucson airport. He had some great experiences in Arizona, and it a fantastic part of his mission. However, he is ready to get to Peru and serve where the Lord has called him to labor.

We would like to make this part of Elder Ridge's experience interactive so we want your vote (Details of how to vote at the end of this posting). As Elder Ridge arrives in Lima, he will meet with his Mission President and will be assigned somewhere in his mission. His mission, for those who don't know, is a huge mass of land that ranges from the coast to the Amazon Basin. Based on what we know about the mission, we understand there are 3 basic types of assisgnment areas for a missionary in his mission.

"The City" as pictured to the right. This is a portion of the mission that is north of Lima and is along the coast and west of the Andes.

"The Tourist Jungle" as seen to the left. This area is East of the Andes and is considered jungle but not quite part of the Amazon basin. The picture to the left is of Tarapoto that is a large city in this type of area.

"The Deep Jungle" as pictured to the right. This is the city of Iquitos is the largest city in the world that can only be reached by plane or boat. There are no roads into this city and is in the middle of the Amazon basin with the Amazon river running along side the city.

Now it is time for you to vote. Where do you think Elder Ridge will have his first assignment. Will it be "The City" or "The Tourist Jungle" or will it be "The Deep Jungle". You can register your vote by clicking on comments at the bottom of this post. Type in your vote and any other comments in the comment section. Stay tuned for both the answer and who guessed correctly.

Monday Sept 15, 2008

2008-09-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! alot happened this week!!! Elder Berg and I were riding our bikes past a park and someone yelled "Mormon's"! So we went over there and started talking to these guys and one had a basketball. So we said "Hey you want to play a quick game of basketball?" They said "Yes" and so we played and we schooled them in our ties and everything! They couldn't believe it, they were shocked becuase they hadn't been beat in a couple of years. After we were done playing they were tired and so we sat down. Then I said "okay now we beat you so we get to teach you." They said "Okay" we asked them what religious background they were and they said Catholic but they want to be Christian instead. ha ha ha. I thought that was funny coming from a Catholic. There names are Alex and Rudy. Alex has a girlfriend and she is 17 and they have a 5 month old baby. Rudy is 16 and we have been teaching them. The Bishop is going to marry Alex and his girlfriend and They are all going to be baptised on October 11th. It is so amazing how strong they are! They all prayed for the truth of the Book of Mormon and they all say without a doubt they know it is true. We also have several others we are working with. They don't have a bapsism date but they will very soon. We are also working with a lady that is a bartender but she doesn't want to do it any more. This area is starting to grow and it is awsome!!!!!

We were riding past a gate the other day and the gate was opened. We thought we could go in and knock on the door so we went in. Once we got in the gate I see this hudge pitbull taking off after me. I think I am going to die becuase it was the biggest thing I had ever seen!!! It gets about 10 feet from me and all of a sudden it gets yanked back by a leash. I didn't see a leash so I thought I was done for. I was a close call!!! The Lord does bless us. Tell everyone "hi" for me and I hope to call you soon because I will be leaving for Peru.

September 8, 2008

2008-09-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

I am on the border!!!

Douglas Arizona is pretty sweet! I am right on the border. I have lost a lot of weight here because it is really hot here and I’m always sweating. I borrowed a bike from a member and it is a really nice trek mountain bike so we ride everywhere, we have a truck but we only use it to go to church, on p-day and to go to district meeting. Our district meetings are 150 miles away. There is only one ward here and it is English and Spanish. There isn’t that many people in it though but it is a ward. We are not allowed to cross the border because it is out of our area but you will see some pictures of me at the fence. We are the only missionaries here. The closest is in Sierra Vista which is 150miles away. We are over Douglas, Bisbee, and San Jose. We are both English and Spanish but we mostly teach in English. I have taught a couple of people in Spanish but not that much. The big thing here is border patrol. There are a lot of people in the ward that work for the border patrol cause they all served missions that they spoke Spanish. Douglas AZ is tied with San Diego for how many people try to get over. There is always helicopters flying over and stuff it’s pretty cool! There are a lot of dogs here. I have been chased two times!!!! The members feed us well but I am still can’t wait to go to Peru!!

Transfered to Spanish Speaking - Douglas Arizona

2008-09-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

September 3, 2008

I have been transferred to Douglas Arizona which is on the border of Mexico and yes I will be using Spanish now so I am pretty excited. My new companion is Elder Bergg and he is from Lehi and we graduated the same year. He has been out 9 months and I am the first Elder he has trained. Arizona has the most awesome skies. The sunsets are way cool and it is really hot! It’s at the end of the monsoon season so every night it rains and I’m not kidding...it rains! I have never seen it rain so hard in all my life! I’m not kidding!

There are lighting storms every night and its way cool! The cactuses are huge! My new area is just dirt.There are no plants haha so its basically Mexico. When I get here I heard the area is really slow but it is what you make of it. When I leave the whole town will be converted. There is no such thing as a slow area!

We get fed pretty well but I run now every morning. I have lost weight and I can run a mile in 6:30 so I’m getting back into shape. It’s weird because no body has grass down here, its all rocks and there are no gutters. The roads are the gutters so when it rains the streets turn into a river and it flows like 2 feet deep it’s cool. I am always wet because I sweat so much! I cant wait to go to Peru and have it even be hotter!

My First Area (Rincon East Area)

2008-09-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

September 1, 2008

So Tucson is amazing! When I got off the plane I was picked up by one of the senior missionaries and he dropped me off at the mission office. I was there for about 4 hours and then the Assist’s picked me up and took me to Elder Lybbert and Elder Baker. They were zone leaders but Elder Baker was called as an Assist. He had to leave earlier and get trained so I took his place so technically I was a zone leader but not really.

Elder Lybertt could’nt drive so I had to drive everywhere. The mission vehicle is a 4 door truck, its pretty sweet. It’s a brand new Chevy Colorado. I don’t like the actual vehicle but it is fun to drive.

I served in the Rincon East Area and it was way cool. We were over 4 wards and the members were awesome but I was English speaking. I have been English speaking the past week so that hasn’t helped me with the language. Right when I showed up they said “alright lets go we have an appointment”. So off we went teaching!! My first night I committed this girl (18 years old) to baptism. It was the first time I had ever taught anyone and she is getting baptized on the 27th. We also have 4 others committed to baptism. We worked really hard and because of it we have added 14 investigators in the past week.

On Sunday I spoke in church. They always pick out the new guy so I talked for 20 minutes! Can you imagine that! I didn’t even look at the paper the whole time. I talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. When I was finished the Bishop got up and talked about how he couldn’t believe I have been out for only 4 days and my parents must be proud .

LATEST 411

2008-08-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Elder Ridge in now Tuscon and we are waiting to here more information. Stay Tuned for more 411

8/27/08

Today Elder Ridge called from the Salt Lake City Airport. He is on his way to the Arizona Tucson Mission to serve temporarily while he waits for his visa to Peru. Elder Ridge was in good spirits and is excited to get out in the mission field after 9 weeks in the MTC. If he could not go directly to Peru, he thinks it is cool that he can say he served in two different missions and he outlasted his brother and brother in law in the MTC.(They only were there for 3 weeks) Elder Ridge is the man!!!

E-MAIL 8/20/08:

So this week was way good! Yesterday and devotional Dallin H. Oaks spoke to us and that was way cool cause i was on the front row and i have never been that close, he talked on how to keep the spirit and the importance of the sacrament. it was cool. So when i get home i don't ever want to hear Scott or David say man the mtc was
fun but i couldn't wait to get out of there, ya i have been here three times more
than them ha ha i don't want to hear it! I bought a Peru shirt so I'm sure you will see it in some pictures. i want hear about school and work everything so send me some dear elders. I love you guys so much and thank you so much for the support, hopefully next week i will have the information of where I'm going and when so we will see. I love youguys so much. Yo quierro ir a peru ahora! Pero esta bien porque nesecito aprender mas paciencia.

Love Elder Ridge

ELDER RIDGE'S FIRST E-MAIL:

Hola mi padres!( hello my parents)

I now know the entire first vision in Spanish and have learned a lot more vocab. i have also learned a lot about the gospel as well. the food is alright and i am used to the sleep. Elder Hyde and I talk a lot more and play basketball and stuff. or in my district there are 10 of us and 4 are going to Peru and the rest are going to California and everyone is way cool. so the myth that they teach state side missionarys more and they hit Spanish harder is false cause we are all in the same program, i am in class about 10 hours studying language and gospel and it is the same class room so it gets hard sometimes. so yesterday i bumped into Cassidy Hilton from Rocklin and he is going to Argentina and his companion is Cameron Drennon haha, it was so fun bumping into them i couldn't believe it, ya and by the way i only get half an hour every Wednesday to email my parents and only my parents. I love you guys so much and thank you for all the support you have given me and the letters even though they are repetitive haha. I love you guys and everything
is good.

Love Elder Ridge

ENTERING THE MTC

2008-08-18T21:08:00.001-07:00

When Elder Ridge went into the MTC there were many tears and much excitement. The girls of the family, of course, had the hardest time letting go. Elder Ridge is so excited to serve a Full Time mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was so excited that he didn't cry at all going into the MTC. He is happy to learn the Spanish language he has always wanted to go on a Spanish speaking mission ever since I can remember. This is his Dream Mission!

Family Vacation

2008-08-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

This was the last family vacation we took before Elder Ridge left. We were able to go on a cruise to Jamaica, The Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel Mexico. It was so much fun. We snorkeled swam with Sting Rays, and played on gorgeous beaches. It was the best family trip we have ever been on and Elder Ridge was so excited to get to Cozumel Mexico and use what little Spanish he knew at the time.