Its so cold here!!!! -18 last week!!!

Hello from...not Newfoundland, but New Brunswick!!!

Sorry I did not have time to send individual emails....

Mom, Dad, Alex, Mickey:

I am so gald that you made it back home from Hawaii safe and sound...and right into a snow storm..you all kinda deserved that! I cant wait for the family trip to Hawaii in 2014!!!! :D Now back to real life...school and work?! And boys Alex?! You still need to email me!!!

Amanda, Nick, Kaylee:

Looks like you had a fun warm weekend too!!! I am slightly jealous..I miss those red rocks!!! Nick...I am not going to lie...You look like a mountain man! Haha It kinda thru me off...seeing Amanda and Kaylee standing next to...you? Is that really you in the pictures? Kaylee looks like you are ready for summer!!! I love your new swim suit! Hey so what is your new sisters name? You should tell me...who am I going to tell half way around the world?! Amanda you look so cute!! Miss you all so much!!!

Bobby....You went monkey finding?! Haha I cant wait to see pictures of that! Congratulations on your baptism this past week...that is so exciting! We are hoping to get one of our investigators on date tonight. We shall see what the spirit says when we get there. I love the spirit!!! I love being able to trust so much in God that we are given in the very moment what we should say to someone...it scares me thought...not to have that (well as much as we do now) when we go home!

Well the first part of the week was really good. We had a few lessons! We had the most interesting thing happen last Monday. So we got this call from a girl her name is Samantha and she was a recent convert in New Jersey (she was baptized in Oct). She is going to school in the very same are that I lived in!!! Ahhh I miss Jersey!!! She called and said her grandmother had just passed away and she needed to get out of her family house and she always went with the missionaries in New Jersey and she wanted to come out with us. So we decided to take her with us to different lessons for that night and it was a pretty good time. She told us her conversion story and how she came to know the gospel was true. Samantha is also preparing to go on a mission in the next year or so. She has such a strong testimony and we had a really good time with her.

Well I finally met one of our investigators Trissa! It was such a great lesson. It was directed by the Spirit completely! We talked about faith, Godhead and then we also taught her how to pray. She is still really nervous to pray, and wont pray in front of us. Maybe she will say the prayer next time.

I am not sure I have told you about Sandra and Butch? Well Sandra is a recent convert, and her husband is Butch. The previous missionaries have never asked Butch if he wanted to learn (slackers!!) well we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he is reading!!!! He said he is reading to learn more about the Mormon religion. We told him that is what we come to do, is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help people come to learn more about the gospel. He said "I know that is why I am learning." We are so excited to help him learn.

Brendan (a less active member).. We are trying to meet with him about once a week and help build his faith in God. That is something he is struggling with. He knows that God is there to help but he doesn't feel like God loves him or that he can care about him which is sad. We read with him a bit about Faith and challenged him to read the Book of Mormon. We are hoping that he acts on the faith that he has and be able to receive and have the faith to get his answers.

Friday finally came!!! We had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn!!!! We left Saint John at 5 am and drove to Dartmouth NS which took 5 hours. We got to see all of the sisters...I got to meet the other two sisters that I have never met...Sister Hart and Sister Broadhead. I also got to see Sister Rust!!! Miss her face!!! We had training that day from President Leavitt which was so good!! We all learned a lot and did role plays that helped us understand more for our area. Friday night we went to the temple. It has been almost 7 months since I went last. I have missed the temple so much. It felt so good to go back...I think living in Utah we always take it for granted living so close to a temple. The temple is always so peaceful and amazing. I don’t think I ever leave without knowing something that I need to do.

Sister Hart's parents all made us orange t-shirt that say on the front "when all else fails, send in the sisters" on the back are two scriptures and then our name tags are on the sleeves they are so cute and fun. We slept in the basement of the mission home (which was not very comfortable) the furnace broke the night before so it was a bit chilly and the furnace made so much noise durning the night...it was so hard to sleep. All night it sounded like someone was hitting the ceiling with a boot..stupid furnace!!!! but it finally started working again.

Saturday we woke up at the butt crack of dawn again to head to Peggy's Cove for the sunrise. It was so beautiful but so freaking COLD!!!!! There was ice on the rocks! We went penguin sliding across the rocks!!! I sent pics. President made us take a lot of pictures...maybe I will see them one day and send them to you. We had some more training on Saturday, lunch and then headed back home to Saint John again another 5 hours. It was a really fun time. Learned a lot!! cant wait for our next sisters conference!!

Well I cant think of much more to add! Hope you all have a great week!!!

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

Love, Rachele

Landlords in Hampton

New Assistants and Rachele

The Cold Ocean

Peggy Cove Light house

Rachele and Sis Larson

Rust, Davis, Riddle

Rust, Riddle Davis

Rachele and Sis Davis

SIster Rust and Rachele

Sisters Conference

Lots of Snow

Sun Rise at Peggy's Cove

We had a baptism yesterday!

Dear Everyone 

Well hello, how is everyone doing this week? Anything fun going on? I hope you have enjoyed your week just like i have. This week has been a long week because I was waiting for transfer news, but then I found out that this is going to be a 7 week transfer...so next Saturday I will find out if I am finally leaving Sunyani. I have been in Sunyani for just over 9 months. I think I will stay one more transfer in Sunyani as a district leader and some time in march get transferred out of. I will find out next week. 
This week has been a very good week. We had a baptism yesterday! (Jan, 27) that was my first baptism in 5 months. His name is Joseph. We have been teaching him for only about 3 or so and he believes everything to be true. He is also a friend to one of our members in Estates so it is good that they can help each other stay active in the church. The baptism went very well in all the areas in Sunyani (Fiapre, Estates, Penkwasi, and Nkwabeng) we had a total of 6 baptisms. It was a very spiritual service.
Oh, so we had an activity to day for our p-day, and in sunyani there is not many things you can do for an activity. It is usually playing football (soccer) or something like that. But there are some other places we can go but the only problem is that we have to get them approved by mission president and that it costs plenty of money to travel there. These two places are Kentempo falls (waterfalls) or the Monkey Village. I have been to both of these places. But today we went to the Monkey Village again and it was freaking sweet! We fed the monkeys bananas and one almost jumped on Sis. Thayne. It wanted the banana she was holding.  We also went to this Monkey Village to preach the gospel... OK not really but while feeding the monkeys I remembered that i had a book of Mormon in my bag, so me being a missionary, gave the monkey the Book of Mormon (don't worry I have pictures of this) It was hard to get him to take it but I figured out that if I held a banana and the Book of Mormon in the same hand he would grab the Book of Mormon. It was a great trip today and its the fun that i needed this week.

Well I hope you all have enjoyed your week. I hope it was the best yet! 

I love you all thanks for everything you do 
From Ghana with love 
Elder Riddle

Elder Riddle in a tree

Elder Larson and Elder Riddle

Bobby Feeding the Monkey

Missionaries

Everything is Great!

Hello Everyone !

First of all how is Hawaii? Sounds like your having fun... don’t forget to buy me something ok? ok! 

So lets see, what has happened to me this week? Honestly this week has been a little dull,  I am not going to lie. Just the normal missionary stuff, you know riding bikes, having some lessons, and eating some fufu.

This week we have had some success! We have planned a baptism for the 27th of January. And he is not even going to school! Honestly thats the best part that he is going to stay here and not move or travel or anything. Our other baptisms we have planned they have had to move or go to school. But, this is my happy week! I have not had a baptism in 6 months, so I am very happy today, but I will not be totally happy until he is standing in the water.   
I honestly can not think  of anything that has happened this week. 
um... Elder Larsen and I went on splits. Its funny because missionaries are supposed to go on splits to help each other learn, but Elder Larsen and I go on splits to cut our hair, because we are the only people that can cut white people hair. Don’t worry we teach people too. In fact that day, we taught 5 lessons. It was a powerful day!
Well this next week, on Saturday we a getting our transfer news. I can’t even guess what is  going to happen to me. Elder Chiweshe and I are both on the chopping block and anything can happen. I guess I can’t guess where God wants me to go.  
This week I have been reading in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy, freak the Old Testament is hard to understand, but thats why we have prayer! I have come to love reading the scriptures. I have read the New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and I am in the Old Testament.   I love the scriptures. There is something on each and every page that you can learn. Its the best.

Well, I am sorry I did not write much this week, its been one of those weeks  that nothing interesting happens. But don’t worry, I am doing my missionary work and having some fun also. Everything is great!

From Ghana With Love 
Elder Riddle

Falling on the Ice

Hello!!!! 

Dad: I love your hat!!!! I am so glad that you decided not to listen to Alex and buy it!!! 
Mickey: I also hate the taste of the ocean! How was snorkling? I bet you got to see all kinds of fun things. What color are the fish there? Did you find any fun sea shells? 
You guys look so warm!! It was negative 18 this week!!!! Consider yourselves lucky! 
This week has been good...minus the cold weather! I think I told you that I am serving in two different wards..well last week we went to the Saint John ward, and yesterday we went to the Kenabacasis ward..aka Hampton! It was great! there are some many people that I still dont know. It is going to be a lot harder to get to know everyone than it was in Bay Roberts!!
I can not really think of much that we have done this past week...meeting with a lot of people...we are teaching a man from Germany. He has already read almost all of the Book of Mormon. He understands everything that we teach. The hardest part of teaching him is helping him understand the translation. He is reading the Book of Mormon in German, but other pamphlets and things that we give him are in English. We wont be able to see him this week, but we feel really strong about committing him to baptism. I have only been to one lesson with him, and I think the other sisters only taught him once. Well we are teaching a few other people..Lynn, Lee (our landlords son) I think that is all that I have met. 
oh so funny story for you!!! Saturday we got a bit of snow...well we went to our first lesson, Sister Davis was walking behind me, all of a sudden I hear this loud thud...yep she fell on the ice!! She sat there in pain for a few minuets. Then got up! She hurt her ankle. Well a few hours later we were going to another lesson...I dont know if you know this but as missionaries we have to have someone back us up when we are driving...well I was backing   the car up and..yep...down I went!! The only battle wound that I have is a bruise. We basically wanted to give up for the day! 
This week is going to be a really fast week! We go to sisters conference on Friday and come back on Saturday. We are spending a few days in Hampton, then we will be back in Saint John. 
Well I think that is all the exciting stuff that is going on. 
Have fun in Hawaii!!!! Soak up the sun for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
like Bobby said...Send me something fun! :D 
Oh and I want to see more pics! 
Mom: why are you not in any of the pictures?! I hope you are having fun! Stay warm :P

Amanda, Nick, and Kaylee!!!
How are you? Are you wishing you were in Hawaii?! Just wait till I get home and we can go ;) So how is work going Nick? anything exciting happen? I thought of you the other day...We went to teach a lesson, this guy, he is a less active member. He lives in this really sketch apartment building, and his neighbour is a drug dealer...and he offered him a job hahaha the first person I wanted to call was you! 

Well we were teaching this lesson yesterday. This guy is really confused as to why God is putting him through all these hard times. It was one of the most guided lessons that I have ever taught. The spirit was so strong. I think at that moment I realized how much I can not do this work by myself...this is not my work. I am here for the Lord...I will do and say what he wants me to do and say! I think this is a lesson that I needed to learn. I think it counts for my entire life. The Lord will guide me in all things to do...not just in this missionary life, but in everything I do! 
I love it here!!! I know that we all go through hard times, but I know that we are not alone. Christ knows how we feel, and can help us through everything that we go through. I know that this is something that I needed to learn! (I think I learned it the hard way) The church is true! 

Alex: ps you still need to catch me up to speed,,,whats going on with you and this boy?!!! 

I hope you are all doing well!!! 
I miss you all so much!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!!

Goodbye Bay Roberts :( Welcome to Hampton and Saint John! :)

Hello Family!!

This week...well another crazy week!!!! Its hard to even remember how the week started. Monday....oh my goodness!!!! I got Screeched in!!!! I am officially a honorary Newfoundlander!!! Hahahaha. This all consists of dressing up as a true Newfoundlander...rubber jacket, rubber pants, and rubber hat...just what you would wear to go fishing!!! well then you have to eat some different Newfoundland traditional dishes...smoked capelin?, cod tongue, cod liver oil (pill form, thank heavens) a scrunchin? (fried pork fat), hard bread, and a shot (of purity syrup, non mormon version would be to use screech . Oh and you have to kiss the Cod!!! haha it was so much fun!!!! I will send pics.

well on Tuesday...lets see...oh yes, we had a zone training.. we had to drive to Grand Falls (about a 3-4 hour drive) The church there is...kinda funny! mom you would like it!! its a condo! haha I will send pics. well the zone training took up the entire day.

Then on Wednesday I had to be to the airport at 5:30 pm. so most of the morning was just normal day. One of the other elders was also leaving Newfoundland so we left together. I got into Halifax and the Assistants picked us up. They dropped me off at the Sisters (serving in Halifax) apartment. Guess who is serving there!! Sister Rust!!!!!! It was so much fun to see her again! We had so much fun. 

Well the next morning, Thursday, I had to be up and ready to go by 4:50. Some Elders came to the apartment and picked me up. Then we all met at the mission office. (More Elders :P ) Well after loading every one's stuff on the "transfer van" (the Assistants drive) we were off to Muncton New Brunswick. I think it was about a 3-4 hour drive...I tried to sleep but lets just say I love the elders! They really like to talk early in the morning!! All I wanted to do was sleep! I was the only sister on the transfer van...by the time we got to the church in Muncton I wanted to poke my eyes out. Well the sisters came to pick me up, and off we went, back to Hampton and Saint John. When we got to Hampton, I thought it was time for bed...well I was so wrong!!! It was not even noon yet!! The rest of the day was spent doing service (at the library) and going to a dinner appointment. 

Friday...We had a couple of lessons to go to and then we had to weekly plan. (we are still not done with that yet!) I think we had a dinner appointment that night too. 

Saturday...more weekly planning. more lessons. more food haha

Sunday was really good. we attended the Saint John ward (we serve in two different WARDS...not branch's) well we went to church and got to meet more people. then that night the mission presidency (President Leavitt, and his counselors, and of course Sister Leavitt) came and put on a fireside. It was really good. then it was home to bed!! 

Which brings us to today. I still don't have any idea what we are doing this week. we spend half the time in Hampton and the other half in Saint John. oh did I tell you that we have two apartments?! haha its kinda funny. Its nice not to have to drive back and forth to sleep! 

lets see what else can I tell you?! I cant think of anything!!! 

I am so excited for you all to go to Hawaii!!! I wish I could go, but I would rather be here...even though it is cold!!

The weather here has not been too bad yet..I hear that it gets colder than Newfoundland, but you should check out pictures of the storm that they just had!!! I heard they got around 75-100 cm of snow!! I think that is almost as tall as me!! haha I am so glad I missed that (only by a few hours!!!!) But I have been told that our turn is coming her in New Brunswick. When Newfoundland gets snow New Brunswick gets it worse (so I hear.)  When we left our apartment this morning we walked out into Newfoundland....there was, and is, so much fog!! 

Well I hope you all have a great week!!!! Have a safe flight to Hawaii...soak up the sun for me!!!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Love,
Rachele

The Young's

 

The Moore's

The Parsons

Preparing to be Screeched

Screeched

Grand Falls Church (its a Condo)

Grand Falls Church

Preparing the way for the People of Ghana.

Hello everyone 

This week has gone by very quickly! This week has been a tough one! We have had two baptismal dates fall thru because they have to go to school. Its kind of making me mad because I have finally found people that have been prepared to hear the gospel but can't be baptized. Its hard, but I know that they will be baptized one day, maybe not by me, but it does not matter who baptizes them.  I have figured out that I am here in Ghana to prepare people for baptism. I am here to help the missionaries that will come to the Kumasi mission. I am helping them! I have only seen one of my investigators get baptized, but I don't care, some one will come and have the baptisms that I didn't ! Yes, my mission is hard, BUT I am enjoying Ghana. I love it here. I love the people and I love teaching them the gospel!

This week...... hmmmmm lets see, what did we do. We taught plenty of lessons.  15 lessons, it was sweet. It was hard work but it was fun. We are keeping busy teaching 10 investigators (3 are progressing) and teaching 5 or 6 recent converts/less active members. 

This past week we also got a new branch president. He is a RM and wants to help us grow the branch. So, he is giving us his time. He wants to go teach with us at least 2 times a week. This will help us so much because people see me (white man) and see a white man church. But if we take one of their brothers with us to see them, it helps them see that this church is also for them. So our area will be growing very soon. We are actually planning on a baptism on the 27th of January (we just pray that he won't travel or go to school). Here is to hoping! 

Yesterday (Sunday)  I hit my 9 month mark on my mission. Freak, it has gone by so fast. I cant believe it, it really does go by so fast! But every time I think of how much time I have left, I force myself to sing the hymn "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today" I don't want to focus on going home when I still have a long time to go. 

hmmm... I cant think of anything else we did this week. We mostly just ride our "bikes" (ha if you can call these bikes you have to fix them once a week) around town from lesson to lesson. Its kind of funny when I ride past people on my bike. They think its amazing that a white man can ride a bike!  *just different mind sets here 

Well I think I am finished for this week. Don't worry, I am keeping healthy and strong, No sicknesses. Well enjoy this week. Have some fun for me in the cold 

Love you all 

From Ghana with love 

Elder Riddle 

Branch Olympics

Hello Everyone! 

How is everything this week? For me this week has been long, but also very good! This week we traveled to Kumasi to have a zone conference. We were instructed on how to hold our weekly planning every week. It was really good because weekly planning has never really been instructed on, it is usually left up to the traditions of the missionaries. So, it was good to have everything set straight.  On Friday and Saturday we had our Branch Olympics. We had each branch in Sunyani compete against each other in different types of games. It was so funny because Ghanians are so competitive. Lets just say there was a lot of yelling! 

So not much has happened here teaching wise. Even the kid that has a baptismal date can't be baptized because he is not coming to church so we are kind of bummed about that but we are still teaching him. Because of these olympic games, we had members invite their friends. After the games on Saturday we had a meeting with all the non members that came to play and introduced them to the missionaries in their area so it was good! Because of that we got 4 referrals and we taught one of them the other day and he excepted to be baptized when he prayed about it. That was the first time I have invited someone to be baptized in the first lesson. Its usually in the 2 or 3 lesson that we invite them. Iam happy this week because we are finding prepared people to teach. Well, I think that is about everything that has happened this week sorry this letter is short but I am running out of time to email 

oh happy 2013     the Myans were wrong!

love you all so much 
from ghana with love 
Elder Riddle

Best Football team in the world
 thanks for the gift family 

    

Christmas Breakfast
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Riddle

Elder Chiweshe's Birthday dinner

 I realized I never sent you pictures
 of me doing my wash.
 So here you go enjoy! 

TRANSFER WEEK! New Brunswick or Bust!!

Hello Everyone!!!!

This week has been a bit crazy out in Newfoundland....I spent the first half of the week in mount pearl. Sister Huppe went to a leadership training in Halifax, and we needed to be in a trio with her companion Sister Nelson. We had a lot of fun. After we took Sister Huppe to the airport, we went out to eat...well it was New Years Eve, and everything was closed....except for McDonald's...so went to McDonald's. Yes Bobby it was very good!!! :D Well after we were done we were getting up to leave, the couple that was sitting next to us we could hear making little comments about our name tags so we went over and started talking to them. It was so cool we were able to teach two different lessons at the same time because there was three of us there. They are both very interested and the Mount Pearl Sisters, I am sure, will be teaching them soon!!!

Our investigator Pauline committed to baptism...AGAIN. This is the third time...if she does not come to church next week then we will have to drop her...which is so sad. She is so prepared and understands everything!! Well because we got her on date we had permission to call the assistants. (this is after I got that email on Friday) so I called Elder Unger (assistant) and told him about Pauline, then told him about my email. He told me they sent it to the wrong person and I was not being transferred. Then he says "I cant lie" I knew he could not tell me where I was going, But he did give me a big hint. He said "you might be the new zone leader in NEW BRUNSWICK" Well the next day was transfer calls...they thought it would be funny to call Bay Roberts last...they start calling at 8:30 our time and did not call us till 3. AHHH... it was the longest wait of my life!!!! Well they finally called, told Sister Ott where she would be (here in Bay Roberts with Sister Nelson from Mount Pearl) and they went on the tell us where all of the other sisters were going..except for me. They finally asked if I wanted to know where I would be...UMMMMM YES!!!!!!! Well I am going to New Brunswick. I will be serving in two areas...Hampton and Saint John (not to be confused with St. John's Newfoundland.) Well I am pretty sure that President Leavitt is setting me up to train a new sister in the coming transfers. I am pretty sure when that happens that I will be in Hampton. My new companion is Sister Davis (remember Sister Davis that served in Mount Pearl?! Yes the same one!!! I am so excited!!)

Well a lot of Saturday I packed...I HATE PACKING!!! It is so hard to get everything that you own to fit in two large suitcases, and one carry on. Oh by the way I had to go buy a new bag...The small duffel that I left with was not going to cut it..I hope that is ok?!  Well I have not had to cook a meal since I found out that I am leaving...we all of a sudden have dinner appointments coming out of our ears!! haha we are headed to see the Parsons (less active) and Nellie (less active) for dinner and supper. then tonight at 7  we have been invited to Family Home Evening with the ward...AKA going away party. They do this for every missionary that comes and leaves Bay Roberts!

Lets see..what else can I tell you?! Oh ya...I leave on Wednesday around 6:30pm I have no idea who will be picking me up...I am pretty sure I will be staying in the mission home that night, then I don't know if I will be going to transfer lunch or if i get to go on the transfer van at 4:30 in the morning...I am hoping to go to transfer lunch (where all of the missionaries that are close to the mission home come for lunch, and exchange companions and stuff...then those who are to far to drive in ride on the transfer van)

Well I think that is all that I can tell you...I don't think I did anything else this week. I am so excited for you guys to go on your trip!!!! You can only go without me if you promise to send me lots of pictures :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!!!!!!

Love,
Rachele