May 4, 2009

Hey y'all!

How is everybody doing? I’m excited to talk to you guys! it will be nice to talk, but it feels like i just saw yall, haha time flies when your having fun. Also yes im still companions with Elder Thayn, and he is the district leader! he is way sweet. We have not gotten to do any service yet for people, but im doing great my health is great! I love every minute. We did have transfers this last week, which means one of the guys i was living with finished his mission and went home. So he gave us alot of stuff. He gave me some way sweet ties, also he gave me two nice jackets that i can wear in the winter! so im set with that. they are like the overcoats and stuff. But so we got one new elder living with us. His name is Elder Kailiponi, he is Samoan but was born in Hawaii! he is way sweet! he is just like all the other poly's i know! he even speaks a little spanish which is way sweet.

But we are doing so good out here. we had a great week with the work. A few weeks back we got a referral about this girl that is from Lima peru! and her cousins are members and she wants to know more, she also had ordered a video from the church, so they have us missionaries go drop them off and maybe we can get an investigator out of it. So we took her the movie and her mother lives with her as well. And we taught them the first lesson, and they both were crying as we gave the part about the first vision. It was amazing. So we have been going back to see them a few times. They are definitely elect, i think they will be my first baptism! they both said they felt they had been missing something there whole lives. And we know its the gospel. They want it. They have been reading alot of the book of mormon, and they came to church yesterday! it was so perfect, everything seemed to just be going perfect! they loved church and they just seemed so comfortable there. Our little group of hispanics in the ward is starting to grow. We have been working har dand we see the blessings of it here now. We hope to visit them again this week, they give us Inca Cola each time we go, and i just think of Jr all the time. haha Its cool that im getting to teach some of the same people from where my brother served. Ill keep you posted, and ill tell you more about them when i call next sunday. But they are so great.

Yesterday was so great at church. We only had three investigators, but i felt so great and happy, its true what the lord says, every soul is great in the sight of god! We also had a lady that the english elders had gotten the refferal for but never went to see her. But she just showed up yesterday, and turns out she is spanish, and she wants to learn more! You can tell she is searching for the truth but just has questions, but i know that the gospel can answer these questions! I love it so much out here! I will tell you guys more when i call. Im really bad at writing emails, i think i get so excited about what i want to say that i write to fast and my mind just jumps from thought to thought that i leave stuff out. haha but oh well. They are just amazing and i really hope to get them baptized, they are so great and so good to us, they want us to come eat with them like everyday. haha but they love to talk so we know when we go see them its gunna be like 2 hours before we leave. haha but they are awesome.

yesterday at church was just great, we had probably about 12 hispanics there mostly members, but it was just so great to see them there together, they are so humble, and just great people, i have really come to love these people.

Also on saturday we went on exchanges, and i went with Elder Kailiponi but we went to work spanish, so i was senior companion and he speaks, but he speaks very little, this gave me such a confidence boost because i had to really try myself and see how much i knew, and i did really good, we had some really good success and found some good people. It was amazing im really progressing with the language and im getting real comfortable with speaking to people now! i still got lots to learn but im loving the learning experience.

I love this work so much. Each day is great and full of miracles, i see miracles each day. I know this church is the true church. I know jesus christ was our savior and lived and died for us. I know we have a loving heavenly father who loves us and wants the best for us. I find so much comfort in the knowledge i have, i love to see the changes and things we can help people with in there lives. This mission is amazing. Its everything i hoped it would be while i was home. I love this work, How great it is.

I love yall so much! Take care P.s. this is a good chapter 4 nephi, i havent read it all yet, but its pretty cool,my companion and i were talking about some of it the other day, you guys should check it out. I love you.

Love,
Elder Michael Riding