Bonjour

Elder Yang, Elder Larsen, and I on our first day in France at President's house just before one of the best night's sleep in my life.

Bonjour
Commet ça va tous le monde. J'espère que vous avez passé une bonne semaine. Comme d'habitude je vais très bien. Donc this week hmm not a whole lot new has happened. I did go on another exchange, this time with Elder Birk. Elder Birk is one of the four missionaries here in Pau. I actually knew Elder Birk in the MTC. He is one transfer behind me, meaning, I had my first Sr. Companion experence. It was really cool. We had a fun time. It was also really encouraging to see how much I have improved. Just seeing where he is at and realizing that in one transfer I have got to where I am at. But of course after feeling so good about where I was, I immediately felt a wave of humility. The last couple days I have seen how much I still need to do in every aspect of missionary work. I imagine it will be like that throughout this intire mission experience. That's how it should be and at least I am improving.

So I did get an Email from Grandma Murdock. Thank you Grandma for taking time to do that. I love the 59 section of the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm excited to go and read the 23 verse after writing this email.

So it sounds like a lot of the same old same old back home. Kids coming and going. Dad, you having to go out to field trips often and Amy, I am sorry, you are having these crazy sicknesses. I really hope that school will go well to. Work hard now. It will be so worth it graduation day.

A while ago we met a man from Iraq. He is studying at the university and is extremely muslim. We contacted him and he said that if we expect to convert him we would not do it, but that he would talk to us about religion. So we met with him three times now. His name is Hussain, I might have mentioned his name before. He was right though. We didn't get anywhere with him. It was awesome getting to know him and learning more about the Muslim religion. The best part of this experience was that after talking to him, I gained a greater testimony and am more greatfull for the restored gospel. I know that it's exactly what it is, Gods church restored. Its perfect and It brings so much joy. If only everyone could understand it. I know that I don't even fully understand it, though I am trying. I just hope I can help people understand it as I do.
Je vous voudrais dire que je sais Jésus-Christ est notre rédempteur. Il a souffert pour chaque on de nous. Je sais que Joseph Smith a été le première prophète de nos jour. Je sais que Le Livre de Mormon est vrai. Aussi Je sais que Dieu nous aime plus que nous pouvons savoir. J'aime cet évangile. C'est pourquoi je suis ici. Je vous aime, et j'espère que vous avez une bonne semaine.
Elder Ritter

Better Late then Never

Dear Family and Friends,
I am writing so late because Monday was Zone Developement and Tuesday we did our exchange with the zone leaders.

First of all, I finally got the "dearelder package". It is a sweet little package with exactally what any missionary would want. Thanks so much. We even busted out the beach volley ball thing and were playing beach volley ball baseball this morning after studies while lunch was cooking. Oh, did I already tell you that I would like some bannana cream pudding jello mix stuff for my birthday so I can make a pie. That would be a sweet b-day present. But that is still a ways away so don't worry about that yet.

Next, I went on the exchange with Elder Gessel. It was a good exchange. I learded a ton from him. He is a great missionary. I was a bit nervous because I had to lead us around Pau. It went really well though. We never got lost. Exchanges last 24 hours and in those 24 hours we taught five lessons. It was cool. We basically went from rendez-vous to rendez-vous.

One of those Rendez-vous stuck out to me more than the others. It was with Mme. Grenet. She is one of our newest amis. She is super cool. We were contacting in Centre Ville one day and I asked her, "What's the roll of Jesus in you life?" She said, "Not much." We continued the contact and taked about the first vision and fixed a rendez-vous. Since that initial contact we have taught her twice. She has read a lot of The Book of Mormon and she came to church last Sunday. She is progressing well and she has even prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. It was so awesome hearing her decribe how she had felt the spirit. It is one of the things that makes all the hard work worth it. I just hope that this story ends well. Pray for her because, as you know, opposition can easily come to those who are coming to accept this gospel.

It's been a lot of great days here latley. I have been having a lot of fun because the better I can speak, the more I can get to know those around me and that is fun.

I was so sorry to hear about Ken Hamblin. And also about the mounds of homework that Amy has. Hopefully that all goes well. I think this e mail is a bit shorter than usual. Sorry about that. I'll have to make up for that next week. Love you all and have a great week.

Love Your Son and Brother

Elder Ritter

A Sweet Chateau in Pau France and Conference

It sounds like you all had a great conference weekend. I did too of course. I actually didn't get to see all of the sessions though because the member in charge of the satellite couldn't fix the receiver, so I didn't see the talk that you mentioned from priesthood session, dad. Pau went without priesthood and the first half hour of the Saturday evening session, which was broadcast Sunday morning. I also didn't hear Elder Holland's talk that you mentioned mom because the Sunday evening session was broadcast too late here in France. I look forward to the Ensigh so I can read those talks. They sound awesome. It was very strange not being in Utah for conference. It was cool though to be one of those people in a different country that was mention every time when talking about the blessings of modern technology. We actually watched what we had the opportunity to watch in English so I was happy about that. In Pau they have an little TV that we missionaries watched conference on in English and a projector in the sacrament room translated in French.

Thank you all sooooo much for what you do. It means so much to have people supporting me. I especially felt close to you all this conference weekend and could definitely feel you love. I love you all so very much

Elder Ritter

Photo From Elder Ritter's MTC Days

We received this photo a few days ago from France. It is a photos of Elder Swainston, Elder Ritter, and Elder Coleman from their MTC days before they each took off for their respective countries of service.