March 1, 2010

Dear Family,

How is everyone this week? That is funny Sister Smith met Granger yeah her and I served together in the same ward for a little bit. She is a nice sister. I also got Bear's announcement Crazy Huh? Man little Bear is growing up! haha So did Heather and Jon live in Greenville when they lived here? Man that is crazy! Yesterday at church i had to translate from spanish to english, just in case if people come that cant speak spanish, that was a bit interesting... I was getting all confused. haha This week was really good we found a lot of good investigator's this week, and have some potential coming up in the near future. Bad news though haha i bent my rim on my bike this past week, and so i was using this other bike that we had in our apartment, and my companion and I were walking back to our bikes last night that we had parked and locked up to a pole while we went to go teach some people. And my companion says..."Why aren't are bikes over there?" and i say what??? Sure enough our bikes had gotten stolen! haha My companion being his second week in the mission with a brand new bike was just so upset! and we searched around for them but couldnt find them anywhere, and so we ended up walking home about 8 miles haha. Man it was a crazy experience, but all is well, i just feel bad for my companion, we are going to find it though. This week i had some really humbling experiences, just with coming into an area starting from scratch and covering a big area on bikes AND being a Zone Leader. Its a lot to handle, i was doing so real sincere praying, man this work is hard, but it is so rewarding. I would never ever trade any or the trials and hard times for anything. We are struggling to find the Lord's elect but i know the Lord will provide! Like on Tuesday we were just knocking and we found this guy from El Salvador who had investigated the church in his homeland and still had his Book of Mormon we taught him and he is way awesome! I really hope he goes somewhere. One thing i learned was how important it is to teach by the Spirit! There is no other way to teach, must follow what feelings the Lord gives us. Im sorry this is short but my time is running low. Just know that im doing great, and im trying to work harder and harder each and every day, I still have so much i can learn and do better at. But please pray for my companion and i that we will have success. I love you all and i love hearing about your activites. Take care family, Keep the Lord close by, he wants to hear from us, kneel and seek him. He will answer.

Love always,

Elder Riding

P.s. Dont worry about the bike ill figure something out.