August 29, 2011

Things are going good here, we didn't get hit too much by the hurricane, just a lot of wind and rain, and the power went on and off. We had to stay inside all day on Saturday, so that was no fun. I don't know if we will get to go help out again, most of the damage is pretty far from where we are, so probably not.

This week has been alright, we didn't have any investigators come to church because of the hurricane, but we still taught quite a few lessons, so that was good.

Things have been hard here, but they are getting better, which I am grateful for. That is funny that sister Falconer called you. She said she was going to, but I didn't think she really would, haha. She is a great lady, she really liked me for some reason, haha I'm still trying to figure out why.

Well, I need to run, but I hope that everything is going well back home, hopefully next week I will have a little more time to write and tell you about the people we are teaching. I just wanted to let you know that I know this gospel is true, and I know that Christ can take care of us, even through trials we don't think we can make it through. I have felt him helping me through these past few weeks, and I am so grateful for that. I love you and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Rider

August 8, 2011

Things are going really good out here, we are teaching like 25 people. We are teaching a lot of families who are refugees from Burma, (by Thailand) who don't speak English, most of them are having their kids translate (who are 8 and 10 years old) as we teach, which is difficult but it has been working. But we met one guy named on the bus who doesn't speak hardly any English, but somehow I got his address, and he said we could come by. So we went over to teach him this week, and him and his son were there, so we started to teach both of them, and neither of them spoke English. So it wasn't working. It took me 10 minutes to help them realize I was going to say the opening prayer. So I prayed that we would find a way to communicate. After the prayer, we tried to teach them about prophets, and they just could not understand us, and we could not understand them. Finally I said "do you know anyone who speaks English and Karen" (the language they speak) and he said "my friend". I said where does he live, and he said in apartment B59, This man lives in B60, so next door. I said, is he home, and he said yes, so i said, can you get him? So he went next door and got his friend, who is named. When his friend came into the apartment, he saw us and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at us really strangely. So I got and introduced myself, and he said "you'll be surprised at what I tell you". so I said "what are you going to tell me" and he said "I am a Mormon!". I was like wait, what? he said yeah, I'm a Mormon, I got baptized 5 months ago in Florida, and then moved here and could not find the church. So then he was able to teach them, and now he is helping us teach all of the families that we are teaching from Burma! It was an incredible miracle, I still have trouble comprehending how it all worked out. Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for us, and more importantly, for his children we are trying to teach. It was incredible.

The only bad part of the story is I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED TOMORROW! So I won't get to teach any of these people anymore :( So that is really sad. I don't want to leave, I have only been here for 3 months, I feel like I just got here. So I am sad about that. I don't want to leave, but what I want doesn't really matter, it is what Heavenly Father wants that matters.

I love you and miss you, and the family.

Love,

Elder Rider

July 25, 2011

Well I hope that everything goes good for you all at the reunion, that will be fun. :) It is really hot here, this week it got up into the 100's, and with the humidity it was like walking into an oven. St. George gets hot, but it is nothing like this. But maybe that's because I wasn't outside in a suit all day either, haha ;)

But yeah, the teaching is going good, hopefully one lady will be getting baptized on August 20th, which we are really really excited for. Although I might not be here then :O transfers are on august 9th, and I might be leaving. Hopefully not. This week we found 2 families to teach who are from Burma, One family speaks Karen, and the other speaks Mizo. They are amazing. They invited us right in, although only the little kids speak English. Their 10 year old translates for us as we teach, but it is really fun. They invited us to go to a Burmese wedding so we can meet all their family to teach them. Right now we are teaching 10 of them, but apparently we might start teaching a lot more. So that is really really exciting :)

Well, I need to go, but I miss you and I love you all, and I hope that you are all doing well back home, and that the reunion is fun for all of you.

Love,

Elder Rider

July 18, 2011

That is great that Lisa did good on her farewell talk. I can't believe that she is already leaving on her mission. But then again, in 2 months I will have been gone for a year :O That is really great that she is going though, she will change a lot. It is crazy how much the mission changes us. I feel like an entirely different person.

The reunion sounds like it will be fun. I will miss being able to do that, it was always a lot of fun to go up there. I miss camping. Mostly I think I miss being able to do nothing. haha I haven't had time to just be lazy in forever. As bad as that sounds. It will be fun to get together with everyone to. I do miss the family a lot. The mission is really great, but I do miss all of you.

Oh, so I forgot to tell this to dad, maybe I'll shoot him another e-mail before I sign off. Guess what we did today? We went over to Durham, to Duke campus, which is a school here in N.C. and we saw Duke Chapel, which is this huge Methodist cathedral, which was really cool. It is huge, like Notre Dame or something like that. But that's not the cool part. After that we went to Duke Library, and guess what they had there? That we could pick up and touch and read and everything? An original copy of the Book of Mormon. It was really really awesome. We even got to take pictures of it, and I have pictures of me holding it, which was really great. So yeah, when you and dad come and pick me up, since we'll be pretty close, we might have to go and look at that Book of Mormon, it was really neat.

We are still teaching 10 people, in fact we are actually teaching a few more than that, we found some more people to teach this week while we were out and about, which is exciting. Now we are just trying to help them all get baptized. They are mostly all coming to church and reading and praying, they just all need to give up smoking. Everyone in North Carolina smokes, and it is hard for them to overcome it all. If all of our investigators would quit smoking, we would have like 10 baptisms in a week haha. But they are trying, they are great people.

Anyway, I gotta go, but I love you and miss you, and the whole family. I hope you all have fun at the reunion!

Love,

Elder Rider

July 11, 2011

It sounds like everything is going good back home, that is great! Things are going really good here, I can't complain. We are teaching alot of people, we have 10 investigators right now, which is more than I have ever had at one point on my mission, and while I dont' think we will have a baptism in July, we should be having several in August, which we are very excited for (assuming I don't get transferred, which is possible).

I can't believe that Lisa is about to leave on her mission, that is crazy. So many things are going on back home, with Kim graduating, Perry driving, Andy and Carly being pregnant, his house, Lisa leaving, Aimee and Josh got married, things will be so different when I come home haha. At least that won't be for a while.

Love you all,
Elder Rider

July 4, 2011

Being a District Leader is good, it can be a little rough because I'm the one who is held responsible if the numbers don't look good :) haha but it's alright. Our district is doing really good, I am over 8 missionaries, and each area is improving more and more, so that is really good. Our investigators are doing well. They are reading their scriptures for an hour every day, and they've been trying to quit smoking for some weeks now, and last time we were there they gave us all their cigarettes and said, "we are done. From now on, we are non-smokers", so that was really exciting.

Anyways, what else is going on back home? Things here are good, just hot, and I am tired all of the time. But I guess that's what being a missionary is all about. By the way, I have been out for over 9 months! Where does the time go? Well, I gotta go, but I love you and miss you and the family. Tell them all hi!

Love,

Elder Rider

June 27, 2011

Things here are good, we're teaching a lady, who I think I told you about last week or so, she is doing great, she will hopefully be getting baptized in July, as far as the people who got baptized, they are all doing great, super excited, they come every week, and have callings now, so that is really good. The wards here are amazing, not that Greenville wasn't, but the wards here understand how missionary work has to go, how they have to be involved, and how to help people transition from non-member to fully active member. it is awesome, all we have to do is teach and the wards do the rest.

Anyway, not a whole lot is going on here either, transfers are tomorrow but I am staying here with Elder Pfleger, so that is good, not a whole lot of change.

Well, I love you and miss you, and will talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Rider

June 20, 2011

I'm glad that Dad had a good Father's Day. So Andy and Carly are going to have a baby!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!??!!??!!?!??!!!?!??!?!!?!?! What in the world? That is so crazy. I can't even comprehend that. I will be an uncle? and my parents will be grandparents? WHAT!? I bet that has to be the weirdest feeling ever. That is exciting though.

Things are going good here, we're teaching 4 people right now, but only 1 of them is really progressing or doing anything, the rest are just kind of letting us come by and visit, so I don't know how long we'll keep going back, it's not doing them any good if they don't act on what we teach. The wards are great, and the members do a lot. It is getting really hot here, like 95-98 degrees, with the humidity, so that's no fun. It is hotter than Saint George with the humidity. Of course, I might be biased because I am always outside and in a suit. haha

Anyway, things are good here, I hope it's good back home. CAN YOU BELIEVE I HIT 9 MONTHS IN A WEEK AND A HALF?!?!? Where does the time go? Well, I love you and miss you all, and I hope things are good back home.

Love,

Elder Rider

June 13, 2011

North Carolina is great, and as far as the baptism's go, things are just crazy here, Heavenly Father just takes care of everything. The one this last week was J, his wife is a member, and he had been taught on and off for 19 years. (which is a lot) We'd met a couple of times but nothing to serious came of it. Then he called us out of the blue and was like, I read and prayed, I'm ready to be baptized. So we went and taught him, he'd already come to church a bunch, and got baptized! so that was awesome. :) We are also having a baptism this weekend, which is another cool story. It's a way awesome lady who actually used to live in Saint George! and she's moving back in 2 years, so that will be awesome if it happens cause I'll be able to make sure she's doing good, but anyways, she was being taught by missionaries in Durham, NC, and she moved here 3 weeks ago, and we started teaching her, she knew the Book of Mormon was true, she just had a couple little concerns, mostly family related, but she got over those and is good to go, so she is getting baptized this week which is awesome. We're also teaching a part member family that is really awesome. She's the non-member, but she loves the churches emphasis on families. He's been less active for years and years, he's originally from California. 2 weeks ago they just walked into church, he was like, I'm a member, I want to be active, and she wants to learn about the church. So we are teaching her :) She has a problem with smoking, but she really wants to quit, so we're hoping we can show her how to lean on the Savior and quit, and then she wants to be baptized once she quits, so that is incredible. The retired baptist minister has been out of town so we haven't gotten up with him recently, which is a bit of a bummer, but things are going good, as far as we know he is still reading and praying. The greenie comp. is good, he is a great missionary, super excited to be out here. He sings and dances all the time. It's kind of like being companions with a musical. but it's good I suppose ;) At district meetings I present training lessons based on what our district is struggling with. For example, right now we are finding a lot of people to teach, but the ward members aren't very involved in teaching the investigators, in all 3 areas I'm over, so this week we will probably talk about how to help the members get involved to friendship and help the investigators come to church and stay active after they're baptized. but yeah, sometimes President Cotterell gives us specific lessons, like the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion, and sometimes he lets us choose.

So yeah, that's what is going on here, Elder Rider

June 12

Things are going good here, we are still teaching the baptist minister. He said the other day "you know, it's hard for me to believe this, but it's even more of a stretch for me to believe that Joseph Smith made all of this up" so yeah, that's going pretty good :)

The threesome has been good, but it is over today! We thought it was going to be for all of june, but it ended up not happening that long, which is good. I don't hear from my previous companions often, but every once in a while, they all seem to be doing good.

Things are going good here on the mission. It is getting hot and humid, which is a bad combination, but I can't complain to much. We should be having another baptism this weekend, so I am excited about that. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much, and he continues to every day. I am so grateful for him and all that he does for us.

Love you all