November 16, 2009

Thanks everybody for being so awesome and sending me birthday emails. They were so fun to read. I will say that I had a great birthday, possibly the best one yet. We had three amis at church, it was the primay program, we had a pretty dang good number of rendez-vous, and the best part is that Isabelle talked to the bishop and scheduled her baptism for the 5th of December. We are all so excited. After church we gave her a calendar of all we have to teach still and then bore our testimonies of baptism. The Spirit was very strong especially when she prayed. At one point she thanked our Heavenly Father for sending the missionaries to her. I think I really know now why I'm on a mission. I think I always did but now it's sure. I don't think I have felt more joy then at that moment when I realized just how much this gospel truly means to people. It's so amazing. So, yeah, pretty much it was an awesome birthday.

For celebration of my birthday we went and taught Valentine, the 15 year old daughter of Isabelle. Isabelle having tasted of the fruit desired that her whole family taste of it also (she is an amazing mother). Valentine doesn't believe in God for the moment and I think that she uses evolution as an excuse to not believe in God. All she needs is to be educated and feel the spirit. That would be sweet Dad if you could send your testimony in French no pressure though. Yesterday night we went to Isabelle's. She had a cake there for me. She even bought me a present (body wash haha! It's either a French thing or I really smell). We four missionaries were there with Isabelle's family, Valentine and Ange (5 years old). We basically sang I am a Child of God (Elder Gibbons plays guitar so it was sweet) and then all four of us missionaries testified of when we all truly came to know for ourselves, that God was there, and that we are his children. We then commited everyone to pray to know that God is there, that he does love us, and that he does have a plan for us. It was so awesome and once agan the spirit was so strong. Later we heard from Isabelle that Valantine was so touched that she started crying. I guess that's a rare thing too. So Isabelle taught her how to pray and again asked if she was going to pray and Valentine said she will. It's so amazing the power of this message and the joy that is brings to everyone. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is THE Church of Christ. I know that Joseph Smith restored it in our days that that God is there he loves us so much; enough to send his son Jesus Christ to redeem us all. I know that to be true and I know you all know that to be true. Thanks for your examples.

So a couple follow-up things, BYU Basketball, that's already starting? That's sweet. I must say out of anyone on the Lone Peak Basketball team Tyler Haws is the coolest. It was never fun to lose to him but after getting to know him at AMP I will say he is a nice, cool, humble kid. So don't worry too much about it, go on ahead and cheer, haha.

Also, for Thanksgiving we are putting on a ward missionary activity for people to learn a little bit about the Holiday. It's going to be sweet espically if we can get a lot of amis to come. We met one girl here who is an exchage student from Georga USA. She said there are 48 other American exchange students in her group, all studying here in Pau. So we are going to try to get them all to come. That would be so crazy! It would be like being back at college or something. So yeah, we will be throwing a ward party for Thanksgiving. I'm so excited!

All in all I am doing great. I hope you all are too and the work here is going great also. Pray for me and our amis. It has help so much already. Thanks for all do do for me. I love you all.

Elder Geoffrey Ritter