May 23

Things are going good here though, I did finally get transferred. I am in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which is where the University of North Carolina, or UNC campus is, so we cover the campus, which is going to be a lot of fun. This place is where Michael Jordan played basketball in college before he went into the NBA. College basketball here is these peoples life, haha. My new companion straight from the MTC is Elder Pfleger, (pronounced Flager) and he is from Boise, Idaho. The new assignment as District Leader is good, although I do find myself having even less time than normal to do things, which I didn't know was even possible, but things are going good. We've been here since last Tuesday, so almost a week, and I am starting to figure out where I am going, we've just been riding the buses around trying to understand the roads in this crazy place.
We should be having a baptism this Saturday! A man named Isaac Lee, which we are really excited for. We are happy about that. The only bad news is, he is the only person in the area that is being taught, so other than him we have nothing to do, so we are going to have to start finding some people to teach. It will be good though. I am excited.

Well, that's what is going on here, not a whole lot else, I hope that everything continues to go well for you all back home. I love you.

Love,

Elder Rider

May 16

Well, lets see, I get transferred tomorrow! Today is my last day in Greenville. I am going to be training a new missionary from the MTC again, so I am excited for that, although that means that neither of us will know anything about the area that we are going into, we will just have to figure it all out as we go along. It will be good though, I am excited. I am also going to be a District Leader, so I'll be responsible for 8-10 missionaries, which makes me kinda nervous, but it will be really good. I'll have to run District Meetings every week and run all of the numbers for the districts areas and all of that fun stuff, but it will be good, I am excited. But yeah, that's what is going on here. I miss you and love you, and I can't wait to see everyone again in 16 months! (can you believe my mission is 1/3 over?) I love you all,

Love,

Elder Rider

May 9

The mission is going really well, I'm about to be transferred (for the first time haha) on may 17, so a little less than two weeks. I wonder where I'll end up. Anyways, the time spent with Elder Scott was amazing. Did you know he is short? I am taller than he is, which I thought was really strange. I don't know why, but I always pictured him as being really tall. It was amazing though. He came to Stake Conference here in the Kinston Stake, which Greenville is in, so we got to go to both sessions of conference with him, plus he held a special meeting that we were able to bring investigators and recent converts to, and he would talk with them, and answer their questions, and then the saturday before stake conference he had a 4 hour meeting with us missionaries, which was amazing. He talked, and Elder Cornish of the 70 who was with him talked, and then he just let us ask questions about anything. It was really spiritual. So that went well. His testimony was incredible. He said "I don't say this to be prideful, but so you will understand what I will say next. I am an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hold all the keys of the Kingdom of God, and I am a special witness of him. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives. I know he lives, and my testimony of him isn't based on my scripture study, or on prayer, but on fact. He is a glorified, resurrected being of perfect love, and I can certify this because I know him." It was incredible to hear him bear witness of the savior, the spirit was so powerful when he did so.

So we are e-mailing on Wednesday instead of Monday because this week was temple trip! but that takes the place of our P-day, so we worked all day Monday, and we just got back from the temple today and are e-mailing before we go out to work tonight. The Raleigh temple is really quite small, in fact I think it's about the size of most stake centers. It is an amazing temple though, it is very beautiful, and the spirit was just as strong inside of it as it was in the Saint George Temple. I loved going, I have really missed being able to go to the temple all of the time. It will be another 6 months before I can go again, but it was amazing to go.