Thanksgiving Celebrated in Pau, France

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in France, but this year it will be celebrated here in Pau. We are having a Thanksgiving ward activity this Friday being runned by two American families. We are all very excited and I think I wrote a bit about it in the other e mail from last week.

Also about Christmas, I'm not exactly sure where I will be. I know that I still have that calling card with enough money, but Elder Gibbons said he is always at a members house who offers to let them use their phones. I'm not even sure if I'll be here in Pau so I can't tell you exactly what will happen, but I do know that I have enough money on the calling card still.

Not a whole lot has changed for the email that you should get today from last week. Isabelle is still going well. We have taught Valentine a couple times. she has prayed and is going to start reading so we are excited to see how that goes for her. She just has a hard time believing in God. OH but Isabelle has asked me this week if I would be the one who baptizes her. So I will get to be in the water if all continues to go well. She seems pretty dang solid so I have faith that it will. I am so excited!

I'm loving it here in France. I still wish I was better at speaking French, but I can't complain. I am very blessed. Keep me in you prayer as well as Isabelle and her family.

Love you all and have a great week.

Elder Ritter

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

Baptism Scheduled

Hey Everyone, I just want to start off by saying sorry that it is now Thursday and I am finally getting you an email. This week has gone by amazingly fast because of all the unusually things that we have been doing, which caused us to finally take our preparation day today. First of all, we had zone conference Monday and I did get my package, so that was great! Then we had an exchange with the zone leaders on Tuesday, which is always a great experience. Then yesterday, we were at chez Mme Isabelle Grenet helping her repaper her wall. We also had quite a few other rendez-vous yesterday leaving no time for preparation until today, which is not a complete preparation day because we where back at Isabelle's house finishing the job. And when I say finishing the job, I mean wall papering her room AND also setting a specific date for her baptism. Yesterday we talked about her baptism. We asked her if she knew The Book of Mormon is true. She told us her story about how she came to know that The Book of Mormon is true. It was so powerful. We then asked if she wanted to be baptized and she said, "well yeah, because I know that The Book of Mormon is true that means every other part of this church is true so its just normal that I would be baptised eventually". So we all decided to pray about when and set a date when we came back, which was today. So that's exactly what we did and if all goes as scheduled she will be baptised December 5th 2009. I was baptized Dec 6th 1997. Wow, that's crazy, I don't even know why. Elder Gibbons and I are very excited and hope all goes well. Please keep her in your prayers.

So Dad, Happy Birthday Yesterday! I have not put anything in the mail yet. I will do all I can to get something in the mail Monday. Sorry, but I just want to wish you a bon anniversaire! I hope it was great and that you spent all the money for both our birthdays. It's always funny how there ends up being enough for my birthday even after yours. Which reminds me, thanks for the package it was sweet from what I've seen so far. I have not opened the wrapped box yet since I figured I should save something for my actual birthday. Thanks so much. Dad what did you get, anything cool? I imagine that you did. The family seems to always take care of us like that.

Once again sorry that this email has got to you so late but that just means that you don't have to wait too long until my next one so that's a plus. Life seems to be going as usually for you all, the same is for me. A lot of exciting things are in the air like Ward Thanksgiving activities and sweet amis, yeah life is good. I wish you the best and love you all.

à la prochaine,

Elder Ritter

Pretty much I think you are doing a fantastic job with the packages and am going to trust you with the Christmas package. I don't need much, I am getting kinda sick of the ties that I have though ha ha. Also I will send the approved music list for another time hopefully Monday but I'm sure you can send Ricks CD and then I'll try and get it approved. That's if you can get one from him. Merci beaucoup Vous tous êtes le meillier Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup; allors passer une bonne semaine!

Elder Ritter meets Elder Holland

So today is a rainy day in Pau, not too rainy though. It's still pretty nice and the weather has been perfect this whole week up until now. We have really been blessed. Wow, and what a week it has been. There where so many wonderfully joyful moments and then those times when nothing seems to be going your way. Elder Gibbons and I have been working very hard this week and have seen the fruits of our labors. We taught 12 lessons this week and found 5 new amis. It was a great week but the crazy thing is, we very well could have done better. Mostly, we could have done better because we didn't have a cell phone all week. I never thought a phone was an important part of missionary work until getting here and then not having one all week made us realize just how important they are. We couldn't confirm Rendez-vous and call amis to tell them if we where running late or even call members to help us teach. It was a mess, but like I said we were very blessed this week because we had a great week and that was because we worked hard. I have been learning so much from Elder Gibbons and have come to realize how much more I need to learn to become the missionary I hope I can be. I am learning and becoming a little better each day is all I can ask for.

Also this week we had the amazing blessing of meeting Elder Holland. He came to Toulouse and we had a Mission Conference. I guess mission conferences are very rare and with Elder Holland that is even more rare. I got to shake his had and talk to him for about 2 seconds. It was an amazing experience and when he taught us with the spirit... It was just amazing. It helped me realize just how much harder I need to be working. It has really excited me to do just that.

Megan/ Amy asked what I do on Sundays. Well, Sundays are pretty much exactly like any other day. We go to church in the morning, but after that we go out and work for the rest of the day teaching and finding amis. If we are lucky though we get members to invite us over for dinner or lunch. We try hard to make that happen. It helps so much to have the ward helping out in the missionary effort.

So in terms of photos I will send one today but after emails we are going to get some sweet photos of us outdoors, ha ha so Mason will be happy ha ha. So I'll send some of those next week. Also, yes I mom I have been receiving the photos that you sent. Thank you, they are awesome!

Hey I also just want to give a little congrats shout out to little Benji the button Benjamin; and Jana congrats "SOOOOO Exciting News" (as Wei would say).

I hope you all have great week. I'll try my very blessed to do the exact same. Please pray for Elder Gibbons and I. We have had a good start but we need all the help we can get. We are weak and without the Lord we can do nothing. So the more prayers of faith in our direction the better.
Catch you later,

Elder Ritter

Ps Thanks for sending that package. That is so awesome of you all. I am very excited to get it and hopefully it is here before next Zone Conference. I love you all so stinking much. You keep me going strong.

Dad you mentioned bbq sandwiched in you email. You have no Idea how good that sounds right now, haha. I'll have to get invited over by one of the American families in the word or something haha.

Bye

October 26, 2009

Today is transfer day, meaning that this morning I woke up, went to Toulouse, dropped off Elder Moon and picked up my new companion, Elder Gibbions. He is awesome! It was a bit sad to see Elder Moon go though. Just a bit about Elder Gibbons. He is from Utah and has been serving for just about two years now. This is actually his last transfer. He had been serving in Toulouse up until now as one of the assistants to the president. For those who don't know, that is like one step above Zone Leader. He is a great hard working missionaire and he also seems to know how to have a good time too. I am very excited to work with him and I know I will learn so much. I still am in Pau though, so that is exciting. I just hope I know the ville well enough to get Elder Gibbions up and running. Which literally will take no time.

So that's all my exciting news at least I think it is exciting.

Hmm, this letter is making to be a very short offering. I think its mostly because we don't have much time at all because I had to go to Toulouse and back today and still get all the other Prep day stuff in. Sorry for that. I will write much more next week I promise.

I will tell you about Mme Grenet though. She is doing well and she actually came to church yesterday. I think felt the spirit again. It is so awesome when amis come to church. She seems to be progressing well still. The ward is also stepping up and welcoming her amazingly. Thank you for your prayers on her behalf.

I love you all so much and will talk to you soon,

Elder Ritter

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