11-23-09 Gringo Day and a Turtle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Ridge

Doing Good!!

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

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

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

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