Funny thing happened on Rachele's Birthday

First of.............Happy Birthday Rachele!!!!


As we were driving to Logan today, we received a mysterious phone call.....it was Bobby! He got permission from his Mission President to call Rachele before she left on her mission. So he decided to call on her birthday. We stopped at Maddox in Brigham City and had lunch while we talked to him. And yes, I did rub it in that I was eating a hamburger. He sounded awesome! He had lots of advice for her but the one thing he told her was to be obedient! Yes, that came from Bobby. We talked to him for about an hour. We had a good time. Rachele was especially happy to talk to him. It was hard for her to hang up. All is awesome at the Riddle home!

A Branch for Fiapre

Well hello everyone
Its been a fast week. Did I tell you about the lady we are teaching named Bertha? Well if not she has a sister that is coming to visit from the states and she just sent like six boxes six feet tall to Bertha. All of the boxes were filled with American food. Yesterday she gave us American Coke and Chips Ahoy. Oh my gosh, so worth pulling water from a well for  her!:) Well good news from Fiapre this week. We were made into a branch on Sunday. They called a Branch President and everything. This is great news because it means the Church is growing in Fiapre. Well thats all the news I can think of. The package you sent me is in Kumasi it came up last night. I will not get it till the mission splits and the new president comes to visit us. Maybe it will come up earlier if the Thaynes go down to Kumasi. The duty is going to be $26.90 thats some how plenty money. ha But its ok I have money to pay for it. Hopefully it will get to me soon. Well here are some pictures.....

Love
Elder Riddle

Upper Left: Local Waterfall. Upper Right: Bob's new hair cut "Its Hot" he said (the weather not the hair cut).
Lower Left: All the Missionaries at the Waterfall. Lower Right: Two Watches (tan line)

Two Down!!!

Rachele gave her farewell talk today in church.  She is ready to go!  Her talk was on prayer. She has turned into someone who wants to serve the Lord.  She will do a great job in Canada. Pictures are of the Farewell lunch at the Lions Club Hall.

"Pre" Farewell Party

We decided to take Rachele to the Strawberry Days Rodeo for one of her last big hurrahs.  Just a few pictures to show!

Rachele's Farewell Invitation

Burning weed.......??

Hello Family
How is everything going? Well for me, we just had our transfers last Wednesday. Nothing that really effected me because I am being trained still. But we got a new Elder in our apartment. Elder Udo he is fresh from Nigeria. Elder Mensah is training him. We just got news that Fiapre is becoming a branch which is a good thing because it means that we are growing here in Fiapre. So last week we cleaned the weed patch in front of our house. (no not the drug Weed)  Now we have to burn it. Some of the weeds were as tall as I am. So now we have a nice clean yard. The Thaynes, the couple missionaries,
have a goal to put in a volleyball net in our yard. So we started construction on that the other day. Its going to look nice. I will send pictures when we finish it. I hope everyone has had a great week and I hope Dad, Grandpa and Nick all had a wonderful Fathers Day. I wish I could have called home for that. But I can't, so Happy Fathers Day a day late! I love you all and thank you for your prayers.

From Ghana With Love
Elder Riddle

Lori was lucky today and was able to have a conversation with him. This is that conversation

Bobby: Take this how you want either good or bad......
I am going to stay in the Kumasi Mission for sure. They are still
trying to figure out what our transfer scheduel will be, but it looks
like I will be coming home 3 weeks earlier. Which means I will be
coming home with Luke Fitzgerald. (luke is a friend of bob's from pg)

Lori: Have you met the new president for that mission yet?

Bobby: No, he is coming the first of July. The week after that he will come up to meet with us in Sunyani. And the mission officaly splits on July 1st.

Lori: Are you excited to stay/meet them?  Will all the elders you are with right now stay in the new mission?

Bobby: Yes, this was the last transfer in between mission boundrys every one that is on this side of Ghana will stay in the Kumasi Mission. And Yes, I am excited to meet him. He is from South Africa. Oh, random, I don't know but did you ever get a letter form Elder Belnap (bob's current companion)

Lori: We got a letter from your trainer the day you came out of the MTC, with a letter from the Pres. But thats the only mail we have received. Tell us how your week goes... how the food is and what an average day is like if you have time

Bobby: Oh, ok sweet. Well the food is good. I told you about fufu. Its really good. I will send pictures soon. There is banku which is kind of like fufu but its not mixed together in one bowl. I eat a lot of egg sandwiches. Usually for breakfast I have one and a drink called milo(me lo) kind of like chocolate milk.  Our day is like we usually go see a member aroud 11, come back for lunch at 12, go back out around 2, have about 4 lessons thru out the day and come back home around 7. Its been good.

Lori: We forgot to put your sim card in the package.  We will mail it to you.-- can you buy them there?  Take lots of pics.  Send us pictures of your companions and those you teach.

Bobby: Yo Mati (ok i have heard) that is twi. I will see how much they are. I might just print some off and send them in letters so i can still have my card

Long Week in Fiapre

Hello Everyone

What a long week in Fiapre. Well I am all better from malaria, it was no fun. I really don't know what to say, not much has been going on.  Just teaching some un-serious investigators, which is hard because they tell us they want to learn but never keep commitments. Oh, ok I have one story. The other day we taught a man named Brother NaNa, ya random name but thats what the names are like here. Any who, we went and started our lesson and asked one question "who is God"?  Two hours later, after him talking about the Abrahamic Covenant, African religions, and down to Joseph that was sold in to Egypt, we finished the lesson and felt somehow mentally raped (sorry for the language). For two hours we sat there and just listened to this man. We said maybe 10 words. I DONT WANT TO GO BACK TO SEE HIM. He is crazy!!!!!!!!   Well I guess we will try to calm him down a little.  Elder Bunker is coming home this week! I don't know when his homecoming is but you guys should go to it. I think he is in Scotts ward so talk to him about it. I love Ghana and I miss you all.  But I know this is where I am meant to be.  I love the people here, I really do.  They are so sweet to us. Well thats all I have today.  Love you all.  Have a wonderful week. I will write more on Monday.
Love Elder Riddle

To the Center of Ghana and beyond.......

Hello Everyone 

First of all, I am doing great! The malaria is all gone! But last week was the worst week of my mission. Believe me you don't want malaria its not fun! It starts off by your body just hurting, then moves to a stomach ache, and then head aches, and then for the rest of the time you have everything at the same time! Not fun!

Well its been a fast week here in sunny Sunyani, Fiapre.   Its gone fast really!   Monday & Tuesday I was still sick, so I stayed in bed most of the day. Wednesday & Thursday I felt a little bit better and we went to see some members around our apartment. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I felt normal, and like a normal missionary, we worked very hard those days to make up for the days I spent in bed. Today I feel great we had our p-day and we went to some sweet water falls about 2 1\2 hours away form Sunyani. In that same area is the center of Ghana, so we went to visit the center of Ghana. I got some sweet pictures of both the waterfalls and the Center of Ghana. The Center of Ghana is such a joke, really, they fenced off a area about 10 ft by 10 ft and colored the fence the colors of the Ghana flag its pretty funny. Yesterday I had some great fufu from one of my Jr. Mothers (Ma Bertha) she is a great lady. She says she wants to be baptized but is waiting for her husbands approval. which, by the way  is coming along. Maybe some time this month we will have a baptism! Sweet! Oh fufu is one of the foods they eat here its hard to explain but i have pictures. On July 1 the mission officially splits, so that week I will have a new address. Don't worry if you send something to the Cape Coast address. It will still get to me! Well I don't think anything else has happened, so this is my letter for this week. I love you all. I know that your prayers helped me get feeling better.

Thank you all!

Elder Riddle