December 27, 2010

Well this week was really strange, we weren't really allowed to go out and work most of the week because it was the Christmas weekend, so we sat in our apartment and did map work most of the day (organizing all of our paperwork and figuring out where to go over the next few weeks) so that was good to do, but it was driving me crazy being inside that much. It was really great to call home and talk to everyone, so that was really good. These next few weeks should be good, we should be having a baptism on January 8th, so that's really exciting. It's really cold here, it snowed a bunch and we were stuck inside, so that was crazy, but the snow is pretty much gone now, Well I gotta go, Love you all!

Love,

Elder Rider

December 27, 2010

December 13, 2010

Dear Everyone!

This week has been really good. We taught more lessons and got more new investigators than we ever have in the past, which I am so thankful for. My new companion Elder Segundo is really awesome, we work really well together, and I'm grateful to be serving with such a great companion.

It is getting really really cold here, (at least for me, because I'm from St. George where it's warm) and me and Elder Segundo don't have a car, so we bike EVERYWHERE. so I'm freezing cold from about 10:00 in the morning until about 9:00 at night, but it's all good, it's worth it. The mission is amazing, I see so many miracles and great things every day.

Elder Segundo and I should be having a baptism on Saturday if all goes well. It will be my 4th baptism, which I am so grateful for. Heavenly Father truly has blessed us with success and helped us do his work.

Well I love you all, and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Rider.

December 6, 2010

This week was really great! I got a new companion, Elder Segundo, who is from Georgia, but before that he lived in Brasil, (he was born there) and he speaks Portuguese! Which I thought was cool. He is a way awesome missionary, he's been on his mission for 4 months, and I've been out just over 2 months, so we're both pretty new, but we work really well together. We've been biking all week long, and on Saturday the temperature was about 35 degrees, and it was snowing on us, it was so cold because we were out on our bikes. It was a really good day though, we got 3 new investigators during that time, which is awesome. I had my third baptism this last sunday! It is the daughter of a less-active family that we've been trying to re-activate. The mom has been coming to church regularly since we started meeting with them, and the dad is coming around. When we first started going over he wouldn't even open his scriptures, but now when we come he's so excited to show us what he's been reading. He served a mission in Salt Lake about 10 years ago, but has had some hard times since then, so hopefully we can continue to help him. Their daughters name is Jaz, and she is 9 years old. This week was really really good, we've been doing alot of service, helping people rake their leaves and clean up their yards now that fall is almost over. Things are going really really great on the mission. I love you all and miss you all and will see you all soon! (22 months) :) haha

Love,

Elder Rider

November 29, 2010

Hi everyone!

This week was really good, we had Thanksgiving, we ate 3 meals that day, we had lunch with the Bishop and his family, and then we had dinner with one member family, and after that we went and had dinner with another member family, so needless to say I ate so much food I wanted to die. It was great though, the members out here are amazing. We should have a baptism next week, so I'm really excited about that, it's a girl named Jaz, whose parents are members but are less-active. We've been going over every week and trying to re-activate them, and we've been teaching their daughter Jaz about baptism, and they've been coming to church and everything, so that's really exciting. We also have another baptism coming up in December, and one scheduled for January, so the work is going great here in North Carolina.

My companion Elder Anderson finishes his mission today, and goes home to Idaho tomorrow! It's crazy to see him leaving, it kinda makes me feel like I am going to be here forever haha, but it's good :) So tomorrow I'll have a new companion here in my area with me, which leaves me in charge of the area and all the investigators, which I'm kind of nervous about, but it will be good. I'm learning so much on my mission, and I am seeing the gospel reaching out and changing people's lives. It is wonderful. Well I gotta go but I love you all and will see you soon!

Love,

Elder Rider

This last week went really well. They had Stake Conference here, and got a new Stake Presidency, so that was really fun. Elder Snow and Elder Cook from the quorums of the 70 came and reorganized the stake, so I got to meet them. And on Monday (yesterday) we had mission tour, which is where an member of the quorum of the 70 comes and instructs the missionaries for a day. The 70 that came was Alan F. Packer, who is the son of Boyd K. Packer. It was really awesome to meet him and spend time with him, and learn from him. This week we got 2 new good investigators, one of whom we tracted into, her husband answered the door and was telling us to leave, but she was inside the house and yelled out "let them in"! She later said she didn't know why she yelled out, she just felt peace when her husband opened the door, and she wanted to know why. It was really humbling, and has been a wonderful week. I love you all!

Elder Rider

November 15, 2010

How's everyone doing? North Carolina is great, although it is starting to get colder, and it rains a ton! which is great until you're biking in it every single day haha :) I had my second baptism yesterday! Her name is Emily Downing, and she is awesome. She has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and is truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father has blessed me so much in my mission it is hard to comprehend. I feel like my mission is straight out of the Ensign, haha. It's incredible what the Spirit can do, how it can touch peoples lives and help them to change, and how Heavenly Father prepares people. We're teaching a man named Bobby Woolard, who is in his 70's, whose wife is less-active. She joined the church about 20 years ago, but he was always against religion and didn't want anything to do with it, and was a big part of the reason she went inactive. We stopped by a couple weeks ago to see how they were doing, and they invited us back to teach him, he wanted to be taught the lessons. So we taught him twice in the last couple weeks, he's had some health problems lately (a couple strokes) that have really humbled him and opened him up to things. The last lesson we taught the Spirit was really strong, and he realized something was different, he said he'd "never felt anything like this in his life". We invited him to be baptized on Dec. 11 and he agreed! It is amazing what the Lord can do, if we just follow him.

We should have another baptism on the 28th, if all goes well, and two more (one of those being bobby) that should happen in December, Heavenly Father is truly helping me have success, which I am so grateful for.

Well I need to go, but I love you all and miss you all, and can't wait to see you all again. I want to let you all know that I know this church is Christ's true church restored to the Earth, That Joseph Smith was a prophet called by our Heavenly Father, and that the Book of Mormon is true, and that if we read it every day then everything else in our lives will fall into place. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Rider.

November 1, 2010

Well this week was definitely my "initiation" if you will into the south. We went tracting up and down all sorts of back country roads, we helped pick cotton (yup, i even got a picture), and ate all sorts of weird southern foods. It was really good though, we got 2 new investigators, and had 8 investigators come to church, and set up another baptism date, so we have 2 in November, and 1 in December, so things in the mission are going really well. It's already been 1 month, 23 to go, and the time is starting to fly by already. The days are going by really really fast. I definitely love it here. The area is so so so so green, although it is starting to change colors, and there are old tobacco barns and old buildings all over the countryside just covered in ivy, it is really really beautiful. I miss Saint George though, I never realized how much I liked it till I came out here, but now I do :) But I am loving the mission, and loving the people I serve, and I'm so grateful to the Lord for letting me be his servant out here in North Carolina. I love you all,

Elder Rider

11/1/2010

Hey Andy

 I don't have a whole lot of time, but i do have a couple minutes. First off the mission is great, I'm loving it already. I'm not even that tired at 6:30 anymore, i was at first, but that's going away. We had our first baptism like you said, and we have 3 more coming up, 2 in november and 1 in december, which i'm way excited about I'm journaling every single day, and loving the mission more and more. I love the people I serve so much, and my love for them grows each day. That's funny about the tires, haha but i'm glad you sold the malibu so good. I'm excited for you and Carly, and wish that I could be there, but i know you two are awesome and love each other. Tell aimee i'm excited for her and josh, and that I love you all, talk to you later.

 

Elder Rider

 

october 25, 2010

So I've been in North Carolina for 1 week now, and it's going great! I'm in a city named Greenville, and I cover the Greenville second ward, as well as the Greenville College Branch, which covers the East Carolina University campus, or ECU. The area has been really slow for a long time, in the last 14 years they've only had like 2 baptisms, but we're going to fix that. My companion's name is Elder Anderson, and he's from Burley, Idaho, and he has been on his mission for 23 months, so he goes home in 5 weeks, this is his last transfer. We had our first baptism on Saturday! A college student named Hope Echols, who had been taught for some time, but we were able to help her keep her baptismal date and be baptized, so that was really incredible. We also set 2 baptismal dates in November, for Emily and Alex, so we should be having at least 2 more baptisms in the coming month, and we have one more girl named Mary who I think will have a date within a week or two. The lord has blessed us already so much with this success, and I can't wait to keep serving. North Carolina is really really green, and it rains alot, and I am already starting to talk like them. sometimes I do it without even trying haha. Well I gotta go, I 'm out of time already, but I love you all and miss you all, and you are all in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Rider

P.S. I'll be sending some pictures in my e-mail next week.

10/5/2010 #2

Conference at the MTC was amazing, that's good to hear that Aimee and Chelsey came over. I'm glad that you guys are still doing stuff with her, I care alot about her so that's good to hear. And I bet dad was so excited to hear about the temple being built. I was and am so excited about it and i've never even been there. Thanks for sending the letters, as well as my patriarchal blessing, that will be a big help. I wish I could've been in the MTC men's choir during conference, but unfortunately when I got here they already had the choir picked out, and they were all elders learning a language, cause they'd been practicing for 4 weeks, which is longer than i'll even be here. that would've been amazing though. haha yeah i saw dad didn't write me, perry didn't either, at least i didn't get one from him. The MTC is so full of the spirit it is unbelievable, and I've never felt the spirit so strongly as i did during conference in my entire life, especially during priesthood session. almost all of the talks during priesthood talked about missionaries and mission work, so it related to me perfectly. I only can e-mail on tuesdays, as well as write letters, so only once a week :( and we are definately busy. I can't believe it's already been a week. I leave here on the 18th, so 13 days and i'll be flying to north carolina, I can't believe how fast the time goes. The days are long, but looking back they go so quickly. I get to go to the temple today at 3:30, and i am so excited for that. I love the temple. We got to watch a movie sunday night called the Mountain of the Lord, about the building of the Salt Lake Temple, it was really awesome.

I love you so much to, and i'm trying my best to not waste my time and do the best work I can for the Lord

Love,

Elder Rider

10/5/2010

That's cool about the Ivins carnival. I got your letter and read that jonny had a good time. Did you get to see the max the magician? I have seen him before to, and it's a lot of fun. Conference was so great, I don't think that I have ever gotten that much from conference. So many talks i felt were given directly to me. It helped my testimony grow more than anything else in my life so far I think. The spirit at the MTC is so strong, I can't even contain it sometimes. This is the first time in my life that I have felt the spirit bring me joy. I've felt the spirit before, and it always makes me teary eyed, but i've never had it bring joy to my life in this way, it is incredible. My companion is Elder Garvin, and he is from Yuba City, California, near Sacramento. He is also going to North Carolina Raleigh. There are 3 districts here at the MTC of 10 missionaries, that all came in last wednesday with me, who are all going to Raleigh. There are 26 elders and 4 sisters going to Raleigh on the same plane on the same day, so that will be pretty fun.

I also have to roomates who are going to Tacoma Washington, Elder Johnson and Elder Ethington. They've been here for 1 week longer than me, so they leave next week, i leave in 2, on october 18. They are both from northern Utah and are awesome guys.

A regular day consists of waking up at 6:00 (not 6:30, cause then the hot water is gone by then, if you get up at 6:00 though you get first shower) after that we get ready, and then study from 7:00 to 7:45, then we eat breakfast, and usually go and teach lessons to mock investigators for practice. It was really hard to do that at first, but it's getting easier. Then we have class until 12:30 when we eat lunch, and then we usually have personal, and then companion study time, and teach another lesson, and then eat dinner at 5:30, and then we have class from 6:15-9:00, and we usually teach 1 lesson during class, so we teach 3-4 lessons per day. At 9:00 we schedule for the next day, and then go back to our residence hall, and get ready for bed like brush teeth and whatnot, and then at 10:00 we write in our journal and have room prayer, companion prayer, and personal prayer, and then go to bed at 10:30. That's an average day. it's mostly study, class, and teach, but it's really good. Oh, the address that you guys put on my letters to me wasn't right, so i must've given you the wrong address, it's supposed to be

Elder Jeremy L Rider

MTC Mailbox #201

NC-RAL 1018

2005 N 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604

The letters you sent were missing the MTC Mailbox #201 line. They still got to me, but the mailroom people said I would get them faster if it had all the address, so anyways, no big deal. Well it's getting to be lunch time, and i still have to read the other e-mail you sent me. I can only e-mail and write letters on P-days, which is every tuesday here at the MTC, it will probably be a different day on the mission, so i'll let you know. But i can receive letters and packages every day, so that's just some info for ya :) haha

Love

Elder Rider