Turkey Day in Canada??

HELLO FROM NEWFOUNDLAND!!!!!

Things are going great here...last week went by ever so fast! Monday we (sister Ott and I) started Family Home Evening with the branch...we had several people show up..including 2 less active members and 2 non members!! We are having it again tonight, then it will be on hold for a couple of weeks while we set up the Nativity...the Nativity is an activity that the branch here has put on for the past several years...they collect over 200 nativity sets, and set them up in the church, then we open it to the public to come and see!! We are hoping to get a lot of referrals after the nativity is over!! Well anyway tonight for FHE I think we are playing the Price is Right!! Should be very fun!!
Well last Tuesday we did not do anything out of the ordinary..we (like Bobby) had many lessons fall through! :P Same as Tuesday for Wednesday! Thursday was a busy day...we got to see a lot of people..then the Davis's (the senior couple) invited us over for dinner...SO GOOD!!!! Like Bobby we got everything you would normally eat on thanksgiving...including a turkey! :D Well Friday we got to visit a few people, but most of the day was spent planning for the next week...I do not like weekly planning...we are in the office for way too long!! Saturday...Transfer News Day!! I am staying in Bay Roberts for at least another 6 weeks. Not sure what will happen after that...they might kick me off the Rock aka Newfoundland. Sunday was soooooo Good!!! We had two of the less active members that we have been meeting with show up to church, as well as two non members (neither of which are investigators) The lessons were so good...so what everyone of the less actives needed to hear!! After church we went knocking...The Lord DOES answerer prayers...we found an new investigator...Her name is Doris...we will be seeing her again on Wednesday. we are also still teaching Pauline...she is moving very slowly...she is very scared so we are taking it very slow with her.

You will have to tell Kelsey congratulations from me!! That is so exciting!!!!

And Mickey I am so proud of you for decided to be baptized!! I wish I could be there to see...but Know that I will be thinking of you!! :D

I got the "not a Christmas package" package!!! Thank you!!! the head bands are so cute!! and Very WARM!!!

I am so excited to find out what the Baby is going to be...

Will you send me (if you can) a real..like in the mail... picture of the family?

Well I cant think of anything else that is going on!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!

Love Rachele

Thanksgiving at the Davis's

Rachele and Sister Ott Thanksgiving Day

A little dirt is all I need!

Hello Everyone 

This week has been a little slow. Most of this week all of our lessons have failed so that made my week a little bad. But, what killed my week, is some information I got form the Thayne's. You know how last week I was talking a lot about the gold mining town that we go to called Kenyasi? Well I got a call from The Thayne's on Tuesday night and they told us we are no longer to go to Kenyasi. Freak!!!!  I guess President Holmes did not get it approved that missionaries could go to Kenyasi before he told us to go there. The Area Presidency found out and told him to not let the missionaries go there!So that killed my week, but then came Turkey Day and Elder Larsen and I went on splits so we could both go to the Thayne's for dinner. It was probably the best food I have eaten in Ghana. They made everything you would have at a thanksgiving back home. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, the only thing we could not get was turkey, so we had chicken (just as good ....right?) But what made me happy was not the food but the "family" that was there. Now, not to get down on the Thayne's but they do TOO  much for the missionaries up here..... way to much!  Well because this was the best food I have had on my mission I got a little sick on Friday. I guess I need to have a little dirt in my food or else I get sick. Sister Thayne is a good cook but her food is to clean! hahaha but the rest of the week has been a normal week a lot of work to do, honestly. We have about 10 investigators that are some how serious and we are hoping to give 2 of them baptismal dates this week. We pray that everything works out. Well that's my week for you. I will send you the Christmas picture today as well.
I love you all, and Michaela I am so happy that you are getting baptized on Saturday 
From Ghana with love 
Elder Riddle

Making FuFu...Bobby's Favorite

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAELA!!!!!!

Hello Hello!!

Another week has gone by...they go so fast!!!

Happy Birthday Mickey!!! I thought about you all day yesterday!! How was it? How does it feel to be 8? I wish I could have been there..It looks like you had lots of fun!

This week was a normal week...we see the same less actives and the same members each week...We also saw one of our investigators...We are thinking of dropping both of them..Neither are progressing. It is the most frustrating thing..to be in a lesson where you can feel the spirit bouncing off of the walls and the person says they know it is true..then they are not willing to do anything about it. I want to shake them!! Well we are really trying to find new people to teach. The people here in Newfoundland are really stuck in their ways...They don't want to listen to anything you say...they are very nice..we just have not found the ones that are prepared to hear the gospel at this time...We will keep looking.

We had a less active come to church this week!!! (Michele) So exciting! You can tell she is thirsting for the gospel...she is reaching out, and wanting to do what is right.

We are also starting Family Home Evening with the branch...we are playing some games tonight and having a quick lesson. Just something to get people more involved. I hope  more than just the missionaries and the branch president show up!

We hear transfer news this week..Saturday..I am pretty sure that I will be in Bay Roberts..So I have been told by a pretty reliable source :) but you never know...that could always change. I want to stay!! haha
We are starting to get ready for the Christmas Nativity..I don't remember if I told you about it or not, the branch, every year, gathers nativity sets and sets them up in the church..I think last year they had around 200...then it is open to the public to come and see all of the nativities. I hope that will bring a lot of people in and have more interest to the church.

It is starting to get cold here. It was -3 last night!!!! I HATE THE COLD!!! Everyone here likes to make fun of me...I don't think that they understand that I am use to living in the desert of Utah!! haha We are going to go help Michele (the same less active that came to church yesterday) put up Christmas lights in her yard today...she says that I need to wear 10 hats and 5 pairs of gloves and a snow suit! haha...It is kinda true..I would not be so cold if it were not so humid and wet! I Will survive!!!

I am trying to think of what else we did last week...We went knocking...we went to a few lessons (I wish we had more!!)

I heard that President Leavitt has been sending you emails...Well to all of the parents..He said he is telling you what we are doing on Christmas...So what are we doing on Christmas...he has not told us anything! haha other than we will have a mission wide conference call.

Oh speaking of conference call...do you think there will be a way for Bobby and I both to call at the same time? I hope we can figure that out...if it wont work, I think I will have access to Skype. Let me know what you want to do.

I have been reading the book of Ether this week...I Love Chapter 12...It talks mostly about faith, and if we have faith, that is when the Lord will show us miracles. It says the word "Faith" 37 times in that one chapter...(I guess faith is only a little important ;) I think this is something that I need to work on...HAVE MORE FAITH!!
I am so excited..I am almost finished with the Book of Mormon...and then I get to start all over!! It is amazing to me, no matter how many times I read it...It is different every time!! I learn something (usually more than one thing) new every time I read it!! I love it!! and I KNOW it is true!

I am excited for this week...I know great things will happen this week!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!

Love Rachele

Jungle Gold

Hello Family 
You you asked about calling for Christmas you said something about Rachele and I talking at the same time. That sounds good to me, but I was going to ask the Thaynes if I could use their iPad to Skype home that is if i am in Sunyani by Christmas (the transfer ends on the 19th of December so I don't know where I will be) but I will keep you informed. Ok, so because of the area and my calling as the district leader I get to go to a town called Kenyasi. Have you seen the TV show called Jungle Gold? Well this town Kenyasi is one of the mining towns. But, the TV show is not filmed there...... dang. EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH THERE...... YES! And the mining company is from America so that means I see Americans.... yes! We go to this town once a week, usually Saturdays. We are trying to start up a branch there so people don't have to travel the 45 min drive every Sunday. There is even a member there that wants missionaries to stay so bad he is starting to build a house for them. He is a
powerful member and we are planing on baptizing his wife next month. Everything is going good here in Africa the work is going forth little by little (small small). However, I just found out that one of my investigators from Fiapre, the one that her church is paying for her schooling. Well, she wants to be baptized but her pastor just came to her house and told her that if she does not start coming to church often they will not pay for her schooling any more.  It just is sad that the devil has so much influence here because the truth has only been here
for a small time.
Well those are my stories for the week. I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving. And start listening to Christmas music for me, ok?
love you all
From Ghana with Love
Elder Riddle

11/12/12

Dear Family

Hello How  is everything going? How is the snow? Is there snow? Well let me tell you I miss the snow I miss it very much. It is getting hotter here in Ghana. I can tell because I got a heat rash on my chest from the straps on my backpack. But don't worry, Sister Thayne took care of me. She told me what to do. Its getting hotter and it has stopped raining, that means things are going to be getting more expensive, because things need to have rain for them to grow. Lets see what has happened this week..... Oh, I  moved to my new area and  got my new companion. My area is huge. It needs two more missionaries but our apartment is not big enough for another companionship. So, for now, just a ton of walking for us. My companion is sweet. His name is Elder Chiweshe. He is from Zimbabwe, he is a real sweet kid and I am glad I get to be with him. You can tell he knows what he needs to be doing and why he is dong it. Oh, I think I forgot to tell you this, but about 3 months ago, when I was in Fiapre my recent convert moved out of Fiapre. Guess where he moved to... thats right he moved to Estates, my new area. So I go and see him often, even right now I am emailing from his email cafe. So thats great. Oh, I got the Halloween letters they were great. Thank you for that. Honestly I never would have thought I would  be missing Halloween but I do. Its probably me just missing candy... really! Well I will write you all very soon thanks for everything you do for me. Oh, sorry I cant find a letter M anywhere that has an africa feel to it. But I told the Thaynes to keep an eye out for me. They said they will take the picture of me and send it to you guys. Well I love you all, and think of you all the time!
From Ghana with Love
Elder Riddle

11/12/12

Hello Family!!

Sounds like you all had a very fun weekend. I can not believe that it is colder there than it is here!! It is 3 degrees out today...negative 5 with the windchill. 

We are not really doing anything fun today...we will just go grocery shopping and head home.

We are still teaching our two investigators...Pauline and Tiffany...Pauline is progressing, but she is very scared of change. Tiffany has been taught a lot in the past few years... her boyfriend is a less active member. This week has been a really slow week. 

Oh we got our new senior couple!! The Davis's. They are from Sandy, Utah. They are so nice. We are taking them to meet a lot of the members and less actives. They are going to be great in the area. 

Thanksgiving is coming up! I think one of the members or the Davis's will prob feed us..they all know that American thanksgiving is coming up! 

I heard that Obama is president again...I guess I cant complain, because I did not vote, but all the members here wanted Romney to win. Oh Elder Romney I guess is cousins with Mitt. I had no idea until after the Romney's went home. 

I feel like I had a lot to tell you, then when I sit down to write it I cant think of it haha

How is Amanda and Nick? When do they find out what the baby is?!! I am excited to hear. 

I bet Mickey is excited about the Baptism!!!! That is so neat.. 

Well there really is not much going on up here...other than a lot of teaching and mission work. Still working with the same less actives..actually one of them...her name is Michele came out to a church activity this week!! That is like ground breaking news!!! Now we just need to get her to come to church!!!

Transfers are coming up...We will find out what will happen a week from this Saturday. I am pretty sure that I will be staying in Bay Roberts...Well that's what president told me a week ago. Thats exciting about Bobby..District leader and new area. Good for him!! He will be a great district leader! 

Well I should probably get going...I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!

I will see if I can do something more exciting this week so I can write about it next week!! :D 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Love, Sister Riddle  

Storm?? What Storm???

Hello Hello!!!

Thank you for not calling the mission office when you did not hear from me. If you don't hear form me....I am fine...I just don't have Internet access. They canceled the Internet at the church because no one is using it (except for the missionaries.) They had it set up for family history, no one here knows how to use it.
This week was a good week...normal missionary week. On Wednesday (Halloween) we went out to eat before we had to be in by 6pm. We went to this little cafe type of place..they had the news on so we got to see some of the aftermath of the storm. Sandy did not hit us at all...we had our normal Newfoundland weather...Gray, fog, rain, mist...today is really windy...but I think this is all normal fall weather!

Not to much else is going on this week. President Leavitt (mission president) came up to Bay Roberts...he took us out to breakfast and talked a lot about what he wants to do with the mission. This man loves numbers...but every number represents someone! He told us that eventually he wants to have a Sisters District...with a Sister District leader...that will be kind of interesting. He talked how he eventually wants to open up another sisters area here in Newfoundland...I would not be surprised if it happened sooner rather than later.

Thank you for talking to the Martins...I was going to ask you to find out if they are ok. Will you get me their zip code (I have their address i just forgot the zip code) so I can send them a letter. You can just google Berkeley Heights Zip Code..I would if it were not against the rules to use google.
Oh I sent a Bday package for mickey...I hope it gets there by her bday...I also put in my SD card.

The work is going well her in Bay Roberts....we have two investigators..Tiffany and Pauline...I think I have talked about both of them a little. It is hard to get in to see Tiffany...She lives up in Carbonear, which is a 20 min drive away...we only have so many miles that we can drive a month so we only get to go out there about once a week. Well Tiffany has been taught before...she has two daughters and is living with her (soon to be husband...if we have our way ;) Well she told us that she believes everything that she has been taught, and she will "Eventually" get baptized...What does that even mean!!! Either you will or you will not!! AHHHH Sometimes I just want to shake people!!
Well Pauline I have told you...lost her daughter about 5 years ago...the Elders did a great job teaching her, but mostly just let her vent to them about the loss of her daughter. Well we started teaching her a couple of weeks ago...we finally got her real concerns out of her. She feels as though she is not worthy to use the atonement...saddest thing I have ever heard... to feel so lost that not even God can save you. Her lessons are always so amazing..the spirit is always so strong...I don't think I ever come out of her house with dry eyes.
Well lets see what else is going on...as of yesterday I have been out 4 months..I don't know where the time has gone.

You asked for more stories a while back...I don't know if I told you about the very fun Knocking day?! haha well Sister Ott and I were on our way to St John's for a district meeting or something..this was a while back... well the night before we had made some calls to some old potential investigators to see if we could come stop by...when anyway while we were driving we got a phone call from a man that I guess we called the night before...Well I told him who I was, and if we could come see him sometime...He thought we were prank calling him..a few minuets later, his wife called us back and used some very colourful language, and told us not to call back. Well later that night we went knocking and found a man that was not to happy that we interrupted his supper...he too used some very colourful language and told us he did not know who "mormon" is and he did not care to know him....well we continued knocking..we knocked on another angry mans door...he came to the door...looked at us and said "are you kidding me?" shut the door...and we walked away (Laughing) Just wanted to share with you some of the responses that we get as missionaries hahaha we had a good laugh.

Oh I would love to call in with Bobby for christmas if you can make it work!

Well I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!

Talk to you next week (If you don't hear from me on Monday I will hopefully email on Tuesday!)


Love Sister Riddle

Transfered and called to be District Leader

Hello Everyone

How is everything going? Well this week has been very busy. On Thursday we
got up around 4 am because we had to get on a bus to go to Kumasi for a Zone Conference. We had to be in Kumasi by 9am. We learned a lot from President Holmes (mission President) he is changing up our mission this transfer. He just called new Zone Leaders and District Leaders. (we will get to that in a minute) He even called a new Assistant. After the zone conference we left Kumasi around 4:30pm and got back home around 8pm. That bus ride kills me every time we have to go down to Kumasi because it is not a normal road. (the roads are worse than Pleasant Grove roads). 
So we got transfer news on Saturday..... President Holmes called me to be a district leader. The funny part is that I am being transferred but I am staying in Sunyani. I am just moving to a different branch in Sunyani called Estates. Its like moving from Pleasant Grove to American Fork. I will be the District Leader for 4 missionaries including myself, my companion, and the zone leaders. It should be interesting! 

Well nothing much else has been going on. Oh, my new companion is Elder Cheweshe from Zimbabwe. He is the Elder at Estates. He is really a cool Missionary. He just finished his training. He has only been out for 3 months. hmmmm what else can I tell you about. I know missionaries are not supposed to have pets, but this pet is we have is really a future dinner. We had a chicken sneek in to our compound and we kept chasing her out, but she kept coming back and soon we found out why... because she laid some eggs in our bushes. So now we have 1 mama chicken and 5 little chicks running around our compound. Its pretty cool, really. So I told you that we finished our goat pen, but we have not caught all the goats yet. Hopefully we will do that tonight. Well
thats about all from me this week. Thanks for everything! Love you all!
From Ghana with Love
Elder Riddle

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!
Looks like Watermelons....