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