September 21, 2009

Dear family,

Hey y'all! how yall doing? i hope all is great. Man everyone sounds real good. I really do like my new area alot. We eat every tuesday with this family that is from Colombia. Not like columbia in South Carolina but the Country, they are way cool! then every wednesday we eat witht this family from Mexico. Then Thursday we eat witht this family from Guatemala. So it is way cool. Cause for the first time inthe mission yet there are like alot of families in my area that are active. Like they are members that are endowed and stuff. Itsreally cool. There is the family from Guatemala and they have a son that is 18 and getting ready for the mission and he is way cool. he and i translate together we switch off. haha i sing all the hymns though he doesnt like to sing. haha we are going to have two baptisms this week though. One at 4 this sarurday and then at 6 this saturday. One is a 9 year old boy that his Mom and Dad are less active's he is a way cute little kid.Then the other one is a guy named fernando! he is the Man, he is always so upbeat and so excited when we come, he always says how the gospel has changed his life so much. He is so outgoing to whichis great at church he just goes up and talks to everybody. He is learning english. But he is willing to learn so he always asks how to say things. I like my comp though he is a good guy. He is 22, he struggles alot with the language, but its okay that just gives me a chance to help him out, i help him out with it, sometimes i think he feels embarrassed and so he tries to to play the tough guy role, but its okay i just love him, and try to serve him. we do bike evryday though. I love it i had like a bunch of crashes though last week though... haha Head over hills... haha because one of my brake handles broke. and so i just had front brakes for a bit, so we went down a hill... and then down i went haha. buti bought a new handle. It was way awesome though last week though there was a huge rain storm. I mean huge! and it hit when we were on our bikes! haha it was so much fun riding in the rain and man riding a bike in the rain with glasses... haha dont worry i made it home safe. we were completely soaked! haha it was so fun. My comp was a little mad but i just thought it was like a cool adventure. haha man this week we did way good though. As a mission our goal is to have at least 14 new investigators for the week. My comp and i had that by wednesday of last week. We also have 7 investigators with a baptismal date. Its just because i have learned to be a lot more bold. I have learned this from a talk that they give to us in our binder they give when we first get out. Its called "a Challenging and Testifying missionary" i have really been studying it this week and i have just been challenging everyone i see. Even using it in my contact just saying "We are representatives of the Savior Jesus Christ we are looking for the pure in heart and those that want to have a closer relationship with our savior and want more hapiness,and that want to be part of his church through baptism. We testify God has called a prophet named Joseph Smith and through him he has restored his church, would you be one of this people we search for?" we do something to that nature. But Im being alot more bold and it truly has payed off. Remember a few weeks ago when i said that i needed to find out how thelord wants ME Elder Riding to do his work, ad this week when i was preparing to give a training in our district meeting, i was reading that talk about being a challenging and testifying missionary, and that is how the Lord wants me to be. To have a firm conviction inside to challenge all to come unto christ. I know that aas i do this i will see so much sucess because i must testify with the spirit and invite all to come to christ cause that is my purpose. To Invite others to come unto christ! Also I have gained such a very strong testimony that we have so much to offer that the Lord has given us, that we have testimonies that can only touch the hearts of some people. Ther are so many people here like members and investigators, that i just love because they make my testimony stronger just cause they are so christlike. We must truly try and strive to become more like the Savior. We will be so much happier! Man i love this mission im so glad i am still so young and have so much time left in my mission. I wanna be a missionary my whole life. Helping people without questioning just saying whatever you need we will find a way and get it done is the only way to be. That is what i have learned and the type ofmentality i have tried to achieve. I love this ork so much. Sorry im such a bad writer i just type fast and my thoughts get so scattered. Man im so excited to be an Uncle again! Good luckwith everything i love you all so much, each and everyone. If you ever need anything ill do it takes to help. This work is so great, but we are fit for the task the Lord stengthens us. Take care tell everyone hi and i love them.

Love y'all!
Elder Riding

Yah two baptisms this next week. Keep them in your prayers! please!