"Whats that Noise"

Hello Everyone!
Sounds like such an exciting week. How I wish I could be there! Brooklynn is so cute! I love her so much..and I have never even met her! Send lots of pictures!!!

This week has been a pretty exciting and busy week for me. A lot has been going on. We have talked to so many people. A lot of return appointments. And we even started teaching three new investigators.

Monday:
I finally made it onto someone's Facebook page! Haha We went to go contact a referral from a member. I don't even remember what her name is. We knocked on the door, in a matter of seconds someone opened the door. She look at us rolled her eyes and said “NO! I am not interested!” She slammed the door. Started yelling some not so nice words. Well later in the week we went to dinner with the members that told us to go visit this lady. They said that she had vented about us on Facebook. I guess that is a goal I can cross off the list ;)
I hope you had a great birthday Dad. Next year I will be home to celebrate your 50^th!! :D I was really hoping Brooklynn would come on Monday so that I would not have to wait another week to see pictures. I am just really glad I don't have to wait again!

Tuesday:
I guess Tuesday was our only slow day. We had dinner with a member, Courtney. She is so great. She has been a member for almost two years. The gospel has helped turn her life around. We did a lot of knocking and contacting people on Tuesday. Just another day as a missionary.

Wednesday:
We had exchanges on Wednesday. Sister Miehe (from Hampton) and I worked here in Saint John. We had a lot of fun, and worked really hard. All of our lessons fell through that day, except for our dinner appointment. We had dinner with Sister Raeburn. Sister Raeburn owns a hostel here in Saint John. She has people in her home from all over the world. Right now she has a young girl, Gabrielle, living with here. Gabrielle is going to school, so should be around for a while. We did not get to meet Gabrielle, but she is interested in coming to church and learning more about the church. We are excited to meet her...hopefully soon!! Well we exchanged back on Wednesday night.

Thursday:
Well I think Thursday was one of our busiest days of the week. We had an appointment with Holly. I love her. She is so great. We get to see her almost every week.  And then there are people like Lisa.  We taught Lisa The Plan of Salvation. She loved it. I think this is one of the lessons that I love to teach the most. “It just makes sense” is what everyone always tells us. Watching someone learn about the Plan of Salvation for the first time is amazing. Their face lights up, they now have a reason and purpose in this life. They now have something to work toward. “IT JUST MAKES SENSE.” I learn something new every time I teach a lesson. I always walk away from a lesson having greater understanding for it. I have learned so much about the plan of salvation...more the plan that my Heavenly Father has for me. The things that he wants me to do and the person he wants me to become. It is all beginning to make MORE sense. Well we went knocking on Thursday night. We started knocking Ready Street. After about the 5^th house where no one was answering the door, we decided we needed to go to another street. So we went to Charles Street. Well we started knocking, not finding too much more success than we did on Ready Street. But something told us to keep going. I have to tell you that a lot of the houses here have weird entry ways. Some houses you are suppose to go in the first door and knock on the second and then other houses you are suppose to knock on the first door. So we really never know what to do. So we standing at this house. We looked in the window and there was a door at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top. We did not know if we should go in or knock on the outside door. So we stood there for a second when this lady from up stairs yells down to us from the window. We start talking to her and she tells us to come up. Her name is Erika. She is a full time mom. She is about 30 years old. And lives with her 4 year old daughter and boyfriend. She says that she has been looking for a church to go to. She was raised Catholic, but has not been for a long time and does not really even know what they believe. She is very interested in learning. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her, and before we even asked her to read it she says “well I will be reading this tonight!” How great!! We taught her more about the Restoration of the Gospel. She loved it! We asked her to be baptized and she said yes. So she is now preparing for baptism on May 18^th. Oh almost forgot to tell you that we moved Lisa's baptism date to May 11^th. She is so ready, all she needs to do is finish the lessons and keep coming to church! Well we finished up at Erika's and had to drive to Hampton to spend the night.

Friday:
Mission Tour with William R. Walker of the 70. He is on the Temple and Family History Committee. Such an amazing man. We had to wake up at 5:30 to drive to Moncton on Friday morning. We had a training from Elder Walker until 4. Then we had to drive back to Saint John for a dinner appointment at 6. That's all after last weekend when we had to wake up at 3:30 to drive to Fredrickton for stake conference. Can I just tell you that when I get home I will be sleeping for about a week...strait!!! But it is always well worth it. I learned so much from Elder Walker. He talked a lot more about what to do after the mission than he did about what to do while on the mission. Scary thought! The mission is never really going to end..is it? Not in 6 months...Maybe closer to 8 ;) Well after being trained on what to do after the mission I no longer need to think about it! I wrote everything down, so I can refer to it when I am home. In one ear out the other.
Friday night finally came...how excited I was to go to bed! I was exhausted!! We finished our planning for the next day and our heads hit the pillows. I am pretty sure I was asleep before my head hit my pillow. Well for some reason I sat up in the middle of the night “something was not quite right” I looked at the phone..midnight!! “Great! 6 ½ more hours to sleep!!” was my first thought. Remember that I was really tired. As I was looking at the phone Sister Sandberg yells from across the room, “Turn off the alarm” the alarm was not going off. I put the phone back and tried to lay down to go back to sleep. Sister Sandberg says “whats that noise?” I replied that it was probably the pipes or something. (the pipes in our apartment are always making weird and loud noises.) After saying this I sit up and say whats that noise. We both jump out of bed. Head for the door of the apartment, open to find out that the fire alarm in the building is going off. We look out and see people leaving. So what do we do? First grab our name tags?! Of all things...thats what we grab first! Then the keys and the phone. Then a jacket. Then shoes. We are out the door in a matter of seconds. I did not even grab my glasses..so I am pretty much blind. Well we go stand out side with everyone...then we realized that they are drunk. So we decide to go sit in the car. (after all we are out past curfew ;) We sent a text to our District leader to let him know that we were out and what was going on. About 15 min later the fire department shows up. They go in and check everything out. They get back into the truck and leave. I guess the party down stairs got a little too out of control. Well only 45 min later we are back in bed ready to go back to sleep. Well about 5 in the morning we get a phone call. Haha Elder Prince calls to make sure everything is ok. Then we go back to bed...again!! What a great night!! I just want to sleep!!!

Saturday:
Nothing too out of the ordinary happened. We got to see Ester and the girls. They are so great! I just love them!! We also taught Erika. She is still doing great. She still wants to learn. We talked about the plan of salvation. She also wanted to know what our belief on marriage. We talked about families forever and asked if she wanted that? She agreed that she did. This was one of the most amazing lessons that I have ever been in. As we were talking about the temple. I said “if it is your desire to be baptized and your boyfriend also wants to learn and be baptized. In one year You can enter the temple with your family and be sealed for all of time and eternity” In my mind I saw them at the temple..dressed in white. Being sealed to one another. How amazing. We are always told to envision our investigators at the temple, but this time it was so real. They will one day go to the temple as a family. I know this. As long as they make the right choices.

Sunday:
I still love Sundays!! Lisa and her boyfriend came to church!! So great. We are going to start teach her boyfriend this week. The Elders called us last night and told us that they just found us 2 new investigators. The week just keeps getting better and better. This is going to be a great week!!

So I just read Bobby's email. Did not realize that we get to call home so soon. I am getting very excited!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!! 
Love,
Rachele

Transfered to Boukrom Kumasi......

Well hello everyone!

Sounds like this week has been good for everyone. I got emails about missionaries having baptisms, missionaries getting called to train, an email from a good friend that I have not heard from in a while, and I got news that I have a new niece. So, its been a great day so far. This has helped me because I have been stressed these past few days because I am being transferred to Boukrom Kumasi. After being with Elder Roach and finishing his training, President Holmes is taking me and Elder Roach and sending us to different parts of Kumasi.I will be serving with an Elder from Fiji! I have been in the Kumasi mission for a year now and have not served within 3 hours of main Kumasi town. I think President Holmes realized this, and now he is sending me right  in to the thick of it. I am glad that I had this chance to serve in Tamale. But my time has been stopped and I am going to Kumasi. I am very happy with this transfer because I don't have an assignment... I am just a normal missionary. It feels great, no pressure on my shoulders.

This week has been a good week. We had some good lessons and we were even going to give a baptismal date next week. But, I guess thats up to the next missionaries that come.

hmm I cant really think of any thing else that happened this week, my mind is focused on how I am going to pack my LIFE in my 2 suitcases...... yeah thats going to be fun!!!! 

I am also looking forward to calling home in a couple of weeks! Mom and Dad have you figured out what we are going to do yet for that?

Well my life is boring;)  I don’t have much to say. I hope all is going well for you all.

The Church is TRUE!
From Ghana With Love 
Elder Riddle

Great Week!!!

Hello Everyone!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!

Oh what a good week!!! I really can not believe that it has been 7 days since I emailed last. So crazy!! So much has happened this week. The Lord truly blesses those that are obedient and work hard. Dad I started expecting miracles...and you know what? I have seen many miracles this week!

Monday: I think last Monday was one of the busiest Mondays that I have had on my mission. We had to do all of the normal laundry, emailing, and shopping, then we had lunch with a member. Sister Crilley (Relief Society President) invited us over for lunch along with Heather (a recent convert.) We had a lot of fun. That night we taught Erin. She is doing pretty well. I don’t even know where to begin with her. I can not even wrap my head around the things that she has been through in her life. She reads The Book of Mormon all the time, I think she is already in 2 Nephi. She recognizes that it brings comfort into her life.  I have prayed for miracles to happen here in Saint John, and I know they will start with her. She is going to surprise herself. She is going to learn all of these things and become a very happy person. She is amazing. The church needs her, and she needs this church!!

Tuesday: We had a district training on Tuesday morning. Our zone leader Elder Clark surprised us by being there. He is such a great missionary. Elder Prince always does such a great job with the trainings. I always feel like I can truly “take over the world” (only with the Lords help) after we leave these meetings. Tuesday night we went knocking on a street called “Alexandra St.” We met this great guy, Joe. He was very nice, when he opened the door he came out and talked to us for about 20 minuets. He is held up on the fact that we have a prophet. (He is very catholic.) He asked us how we knew this...one of my most favorite questions to answer....its only a one word answer....PRAYER!!! We asked if we could leave a Book of Mormon with him to read for himself. He agreed. He said “I will read it and I will pray about it and I will let you know what happens.” We decided to give him a few days to read, so we will be going back tonight to see him again.

Wednesday: One of our investigators, Barb, dropped us. We called to set up another appointment, and she said that she wanted to stick with her own church. 
Well we also went to visit a potential investigator this week, Lisa. Lisa is 22 and a full time student, and has a full time job. She referred a visit from missionaries through mormon.org. She has been looking at the website since October. She also listens to the Mormon channel every day. We went to see her the week before last and ended up teaching her dad because she was not home. We taught her the restoration. THE EASIEST LESSON I HAVE EVER TAUGHT!!! It was almost too easy. When we taught her dad we left a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. She read the pamphlet and did all of the extra study questions in the back. PREPARED!!! She knew everything we were teaching. She was answering questions before we even asked them. Well we asked her to be baptized and she agreed. She also came to listen to Elder Holland this week end!!! So good! We don’t get to see her till Thursday because she has finals this week. But we are very excited to see her.

Thursday: Well the only lesson that we had lined up for the day was with this guy named Steve. We met him a couple of weeks ago while we were knocking, and he asked us to come back. 

Friday: Weekly Planning! I don’t think there was really anything that was too exciting on Friday.

Saturday: We had dinner with the Hurtado family (Ester, Rosa, and Cloudia) I just love them. The girls are so cute, and hate when we have to leave. They got a new baby kitten. So cute...so yes I had to hold it. I know I could hear you the whole time mom....but I could not resist...Which you know was not so good for me later. But hey I survived!! We taught the girls about missionary work. Read from their Book of Mormon stories book about Aaron. They are growing in the gospel so fast! They love church and love learning about Christ.

SUNDAY!!!! THEY DAY WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!! We had our stake conference in Fredrickton. About an hour and a half away. There were a lot of missionaries there, and a lot of members coming, so they asked all of the missionaries to sit in the primary room and watch it on a tv. We all of course agreed. Lisa came!! The first three rows were saved for non members, recent converts and less active members. So we took Lisa in to get her a good seat. There was room for her and she was fine sitting by herself, but then we were told that we could not leave her to sit by herself (the guy that was telling us this was in the stake presidency) he winked at us and showed a seat in the second row. Elder Holland is amazing...but even more amazing in person!!! The meeting was full of the spirit. Lisa cried the whole time, and said she had goose bumps. Yes that is the spirit testifying that it is so true!

The church is so very true! I know it with all my heart. I heard words from an apostle this weekend and I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. He gave us an apostolic blessing. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever experienced. I want you all to know that you were all included in that blessing. An apostle of the the Lord has truly blessed you. I am so very grateful for the sure knowledge that I have, Joseph Smith truly is a Prophet of the Lord. We have a living modern day prophet Thomas S. Monson. Christ lives and I know I can live with my Heavenly Father because of the sacrifice that Christ made for me. I love it and I know it...and I always try to live it!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

This will truly be the best week!

Love,
Rachele

Snit Flats

Yet another week gone!

This week has just flown by. Its crazy, it feels like I was just emailing you last week, but here I am again.  This week has been alright, but its been hard! In Tamale we have been trying to find the most Christian areas and just focus on them. So far we have found 3, mostly christian areas. The problem is we have 4 companionships in Tamale. So, one companionship was left to find their own area and that was me and my companion. So for the past 3 months Elder Roach and I have not been working in one area. We have been working in many different areas which just adds to my stress levels. But, this last week we met with President Holmes and he told the Zone Leaders to go and find a new area and let my companionship have their area.  Sweet! Now I have an area!!! But, in this area we let the Zone Leaders keep their progressing investigators. So, we had to start off fresh. This week we have been contacting the crap out of an area called Snit Flats. This area is a very nice apartment complex where a lot of Christians live. So far we have found 5 new investigators. Its been great! At this apartment complex there are maybe 30 different buildings. The only problem with this area is that it is far away from our chapel. It takes us about 30 or 40 min to get there everyday. So people that are there are going to have a hard time coming to church.

Lets see..... nothing to eventful has happened this week. 
Monday was a normal p-day just wash and cooking. 
Tuesday we had a district meeting the only thing we talked abut was what we need to do to build unity in our zone, which is a very good topic. Wednesday  I went on splits with our DL and the curse of the District leader / Zone leader splits hit us in the face. This curse is....  whenever you go on splits with your leaders, ALL of your lessons fail. And that is what happened to us. So we walked all day 
Thursday - Sunday this is when we started going in to our new area and contacting everyone!

Oh, I forgot to tell you, we have an investigator named Michael. He is great. We have taught him about the restoration and all that good stuff. After we taught him all he said was "this is something I will need to pray about" Alright sounds good to us!  We are meeting with him again on Saturday so we will see what he has to say. Another good thing, his wife Emilia sells fried rice. So about 3 times a week we go and visit her and buy fried rice its great.

Well I think that is all I have to say this week. Love you all, have a great week!

From Ghana with Love 
Elder Riddle

"A stone cut out of the mountain with out hands"

Hello Everyone! 
Hey, how is everything going? I hope everything is going well. I heard about the problems that are going on with North Korea, whats going on with that? 

This week has just flown by... we did not have many lessons this week, in fact we had 3. My lowest lesson numbers for my entire mission! But, it is not my fault. We only had Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday to have lessons. The rest of the days we were in Kumasi for our zone Conference. It was a good meeting. I liked everything that was said, but like i said it made us have low numbers. Also, this Sunday President Holmes came to Tamale for church. It was freaking sweet! We had plenty of investigators there. I think we had more investigators than members. So President talked a ton about the Book of Mormon and why we have it. And then he talked about how the gospel would go forth to all the world. He told them that they are a part of the prophesy found in Daniel ch. 2 which talks about how the gospel will be like a stone cut out of the mountain with out hands and it shall role forth until it fills the earth. It was a freaking good lesson. I thought our investigators started to understand that this is the true church! Very powerful Sunday

Well that was last week, and today we are starting off fresh. I have washed my clothes and done everything i need to do except buy food. I will do that after emailing. I feel this week will be different, in a good way.  

I really don't know what else to say. There was nothing else that happened this week hmm let me think.... well while standing in the parking lot of the Bantima chapel (where we had our zone Conference) while we were talking to other missionaries my companion threw up! I guess he had been feeling sick but did not want to tell me. It was kind of funny but he is doing alright now. He feels much better! Well there is my story for the week!!! hope you just loved it!! 

Well thats all for me. Sorry its short again, but hope you all have a good week.

From Ghana With Love 
 Elder Riddle 

ps. i forgot my camera today so you will have to wait until next week for crocodile pictures sorry 

Great things!!!

Hello!

What a great week this has been. There has been so much going on this week its hard to remember everything. We have had great success this week. We are teaching two investigators (Erin and Barb) Both of them have committed to be baptized. Erin on May 25th and Barb on May 18th. So exciting!!

Monday:Lets see Monday morning was just like any other. We did laundry, grocery shopping, and emailing. Then we went to the nature park with the Elders. Monday night we had dinner with the Woodruff's. I love them. They have two kids (Madlynn and Victor) Too funny!! Madlynn knows everything about any kind of dog you can think of! She is very smart. Victor loves freeze tag (we play every time we are there.) Great members. We also had a lesson with Heather and Brendan. Well Brendan texted us earlier that day and asked if his sister (Erin) could sit in on the lesson....Would we really say no?!! I don't think so!! Well we taught Erin the Restoration. She seemed interested. She said she would read and try to pray to know if it is true. Erin has been through a lot in the past few years, and has a hard time understanding that God loves her. 

Tuesday: Every Tuesday morning we have our District Training. They are always helpful and fun. Elder Prince is our District leader. (lets just say he does not have any sisters...we have trained him pretty well.) The rest of Tuesday was a little less productive. Not much happened that day. 

Wednesday: We always have breakfast at The Cosman's on Wednesdays. Bro. Cosman is our Ward Mission Leader, so he invites us over for breakfast while we have our weekly update meeting. The rest of that day was just like any other ordinary missionary day...not much went on. Knocking and contacting people. 

Thursday:  We had a triple blitz for our area. Which means both the Zone Leader (Elder Clark) and the District Leader (Elder Prince) come and work in our area. Oh and their companions as well. These are two of the best Elders that I know. They are the hardest working, and most focused.  President told us that we are the only sisters in the mission working with the elders like this..he said he wants to see how it works before he has everyone else do it as well.  We have a total of 19 Sister in the mission, 6 more coming in three weeks, and only one leaving. 

Friday: oh weekly planning day! Love it...  We also had some lessons on Friday. We got to see Holly..Finally!!! We have not seen her forever! she has been sick and busy with work. Ps she does the best Donald Duck impression ever!! haha. Well we also had a lesson with Barb (the first time) She is such a nice lady... but she is great. She has been baptized baptist. We taught her the restoration, and asked her to be baptized. She said she would! So exciting!! We will she her again this week. 

Saturday: ok so we found this really cool part of our area...I think its called the Kingston peninsula. WE GET TO TAKE A FERRY TO GET THERE!! So Fun!!! We had a referral from mormon.org. Her name is Lisa, and she requested a missionary visit. Well she was not home, but we talked to her dad for a while, he invited us in and let us teach him. He said that he did not know if he wanted to know more, but he would sit in on his daughters lesson when we came back. Such a great family!!! All they need to do is listen!! Well we have a lesson with Lisa on Wednesday, so hopefully her dad will be there too. 

Sunday: yesterday was our missionary Sunday  I was asked to speak...I was not really given a topic, and when I was, it changed five minuets before I spoke. One thing you learn as a missionary is to expect the unexpected!! Well I did not have to speak long, only like 3 min. I was asked to talk about how deciding to go on a mission has changed me. I did not even know where to start! There are too many ways that it has changed me!! It may have been one of the hardest decisions that I have had to make, but I know I made the right one!!! I know I am here for a reason, I have met so many amazing people on my mission. I have come to know my saviour. 2 Nephi 22:2 has become one of my all-time favorite scriptures. I am so grateful for everyone who has encouraged me to serve, and supported me at home. I will never forget the process of making this decision.   I love it here...This week is going to be the best week!!!!

I love you all so much!!!
I hope you all have a great week!!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!!

Love, 
Rachele

PS Elder Holland is here this weekend!!! :D

For I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left...

Hello Family!

What a great weekend! I love conference! I have learned so much this week end. 
Sorry in advance this letter will be short we have a lot going on today. 

WOW...Half way? Really?! It really hit me the other day while I was studying, I only have 9 months left. There is so much more that needs to be done, yet there never seems to be enough time to do it all. I really like how Bobby said that he wants to end on "empty." I too have set a goal for things that I want to accomplish in the next 9 months. I have been reading a really good talk called the 4th missionary. It talks about how to become the best missionary that the Lord wants you to become. 
This is something that I think of often. WHO DO I WANT TO BECOME. The list is very long, and there is no time to waste. Time is too short to put "me" on the back burner. After all is that not why we are all here. To become that which our Father in Heaven wants us to become? 

This week has been really...slow. I guess slow will be the word for the week. A lot of the less actives and recent converts that we are teaching we could not get into contact with this week. Everyone seems to be busy at the same time. We have been doing a lot of knocking this week. Trying to find people, families to teach. 
We had a really neat experience today. We were getting out of the cart to go into the store to buy our weekly groceries. Well the man that was gathering up all of the carts stopped us. He said "when is your service?" I told him when church is, and continued talking to him about the church. He is pentecostal. He said that we would be interested in coming to church for a couple of weeks to see what we have to offer. He said "it cant hurt right, I mean I am not going to loose anything" Well we continued talking. He has heard of the Book of Mormon, but also believes the Bible (king James version) to be true. He agreed to us teaching him. We have a lesson this Wednesday evening.!  We are always told that the Lord is preparing people to hear the message that we come to share, and most of the time we have to find them and invite them. Its not very often that they come looking for you. How prepared he must be!!
Oh I almost forgot to tell you about Pete and Cheyanne. They are two of the Elders's investigators. They have been taught for about 2 weeks. We went with the elders to teach a lesson the other day. I just love them so much! They are preparing for baptism. Their baptism date is April 27th. They are getting married on the 20th.!! I love seeing people's lives change when they come to know that the church is true! When they truly come to know Christ. 

Well I cant think of much more to add. Sorry this email is short today, we promised the elders we would do something fun today, and we have an early dinner with a member later!! 

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

Love,
Rachele

"Crikey" Did you say Crocodile??

Hey everyone 

This week has been a normal week. We taught some lessons and we even found some new investigators, which has been good! One of them was a family of 5. They are freaking amazing! Both of the parents have lived in England and know about the church, and the things they know about the church are good things. They both like the church. The dad, Sam, watches American Politics so he knows about Mitt Romney, and he said he should have won! SO I like this family!!!!!

This next week I hit my 1 year mark. I have been thinking about how I have grown on my mission. I have grown a lot. Being on my mission I have learned so many things, things I would not know if I was back home. I have been thinking that because we had low numbers this week that I need to make changes. I don't want to feel like I can relax now because I am on the down hill side. I want to make the last half of my mission just as good as the first half. I don't want to slack off and fall behind. I want to finish on empty! So this past week I made a goal for my self to finish my mission on empty, do everything I can to help the church grow here.

Today we had a cool p-day activity! We went to a place called Paga. Its a town right on the border of Ghana and Burkina Faso (we could have gone out of Ghana). In this town they have a crocodile pond so we went to see some crocodiles. It was freaking sweet! So what you do is you buy a chicken (5 cedis) and the people go and call the crocodiles out of the pond. Then you get to go and touch it if you want (i did, pictures will come next week), but after everyone is done taking pictures with the crocodile they give the (live) chicken to the crocodile! Holy crap! I did not know how fast a crocodile could move! It just went after that chicken and when it finally got it it took 1 bite and then swallowed the chicken whole. Iit was freaking crazy! 

This next week is going to be a joke.... we have Tuesday and Wednesday to teach people, and then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we are going down to Kumasi for Zone Conference. I hate the road from Tamale to Kumasi it is so bad! I was thinking today ...the main roads they use (their freeways)  are like our roads in utah going thru neighborhoods, just 2 lane roads. They don't have any big fancy highway system. And it stinks because the roads here are just like Utah roads with pot holes everywhere its just crazy.

Well I am sorry I did not have much to say this week. I just can not remember what has happened and I feel really tired because i have a bad head cold so I can't focus.

love you all 

from ghana with love 

Elder Riddle 

How to bake a cake in Ghana!

Hello everyone! 
Hey sorry for not a emailing yesterday..... here in Ghana they celebrate Easter almost all week. They start on Good Friday and end on Monday, so on Monday (yesterday) everyone took the day off so everything was closed. It is really weird for Tamale because everyone here is Muslim and they don't believe Christ died, so I don’t know why they took the day off. But, they did and the emailing cafes were closed.

hmm this week has been both good and bad... maybe I will start off with the bad so we can end on a good note. So Ruth, our most progressing investigator asked her dad if she could be baptized and he said no. That just sucked. But then I decided to be bold and call the dad and ask him why! We have taught him all of lesson 1 (the restoration) so as I was talking to him he was giving me the usual reasons why she could not be baptized, "oh we have our church already" that kind of stuff. But then I asked him "have you done your part to find out if our church is true? Have you read the Book of Mormon that we gave to you?  and he said he might. Maybe here in Ghana ALWAYS means NO. So I don’t know what to do now. 
The good news about this week... the zone leaders are trying to help Tamale get started faster so they have been going on splits with all the senior companions. This entire week Elder White and I have been on splits and we have been talking to every single person we see and talking to them about the church. If they are Muslim we would ask them, do you know where some Christians live and they would help us. So because of talking with everyone we found 13 new investigators and some have families that we have not met yet so this is going to add to our teaching pool so much. I think some of these investigators will be baptized. 

Yesterday was Elder Roach's Birthday so I decided to bake him a cake with the cake mix that you sent me for my birthday. But, there was a problem... we don’t have an oven! So, I had to get a little creative.... I got a big pot and put 3 rocks in the bottom of it then I put the cake mix in a small pot and put that small pot in to the big pot. Then a paper over the top of both of the pots to keep in the heat and then the lid to the big pot and then 2 bricks on top of the lid.   Yes, I know I am supper smart! (pictures will follow) and yes it worked... don’t doubt me.

Well it sounds like everyone had a supper good Easter. Mine was ok, I guess, nothing to exciting happened. But I think its funny that I gave my farewell talk 1 year ago its crazy. 

Well I think that is all I have for you guys this week. Enjoy General Conference, I won’t see it for a long time! And when I see it, I doubt I will see all the sessions.

love you all.
From Ghana With Love 
Elder Riddle 

TA-DAH

Guess Who's Coming!!!!

Hello everyone!

I so wish I was in St. George with you last week! The weather here is warming up, but today is really rainy and wet! This week has been a good week. The work is still really slow here, but we are doing a lot of finding.

Monday we did not have any miles on our car so we did not do anything really fun. We hung out with the elders and thats about it. Monday night we had dinner with the Crilleys (Sr.). They have us over once a month. They are the nicest people I know! I love them. After dinner we stopped by a less active, Dian. You would never believe the way that some people live. I have seen so much on my mission it breaks my heart. Especially when they know how much the gospel can bless their lives, and choose not to partake of the blessings. 

Tuesday was a busy day. Sister Davis had to start packing. We also had lunch with Sister Crilley (daughter in law to the other crilleys.) She is amazing! She is the Relief Society president! She is a great sister. She has 2 young boys (that she adopted) their family is beautiful. We also got to go visit the Woodins: Mike and Crystal. I think I have told you about Mike (11) and Crystal (13)...recent converts of almost a year. We are teaching the new member lessons. The kids love it when we come over. They are very eager to do the things that we ask them to do. I KNOW the gospel has blessed them as a family, and will only continue to do so as time moves on. Well after the Woodins, we had dinner with Bishop Ross and his family. Bishop is a funny guy. But it is really hard to tell when he is joking and when he is not. I have learned so much from him. Every time I see him he asks me "what did you learn today? Everyone is suppose to learn something new everyday." It catches me off guard every time he asks me.  I have to sit there and think about what I have learned. Looking back at the day I usually find more than one thing that I have learned, and I am also more aware of the tender mercies of the Lord. This is something that I am trying to look for each day. 
Well Tuesday morning we got a call from a sister in the Hampton ward..Sister Duecett. She told us that she had a friend that was in the hospital, and she would like to receive a priesthood blessing. She asked us to find someone to come with us to see her. We called brother Cosman (ward mission leader) and asked if he would go. He came, and he brought his son with him. It was such a neat experience to go visit this woman (non member.) She has seen the miracle's that come from blessings. I am very proud to have men in my life that honor that priesthood! 

Wednesday we had our ward mission correlation meeting. Where we are always served breakfast! We then went to visit Holly. Oh I just love her. She has such a strong testimony of the church, she reads her Book of Mormon everyday, she does good things, but she does not come to church. It seems like such a small thing, but it is one of the most important commandments that we have been given. Church is where we truly can feel the spirit and learn from it. But the most important thing is the sacrament. I never realized how important the sacrament really is. We receive the greatest blessings when we go to church and partake of the sacrament, if we don't do that, then we are not promising to follow Christ. Holly has a difficult time coming to church, and I know it is the work of the devil trying to get her not to go...he knows the happiness that we can and will have if we attend church. 
Well we also got to go see Heather and Brendan (less active).  Next Sister Davis did more packing. Then we got to go visit some of my most favorite people ever...Ester, Rosa, and Cloudia!! We taught them the word of wisdom. I think the girls really liked it. And Ester has some great questions. Which makes me think that she is really understanding and wanting to change. I love teaching this family. I have seen so much happiness in their lives as they attend church, and as they have us into their home to teach them. Well for dinner we were invited over to Butch and Sandra's house. Sandra is a recent convert and her husband Butch is not a member. They are one of the funniest couples that I have ever meet. Butch is so nice, he made us a pizza pasta. yummy!! 

Thursday: Transfer day.. Well we had to be in Moncton (2 hours away)by 9am. The assistants bring all of the missionaries that are going to be serving in New Brunswick or PEI to Moncton in a big 12 passenger van. Then they take all of the missionaries that are going anywhere else in the mission from these places and takes them back to Halifax. Well this is where I met my new companion  Sister Sandberg. She is a new 19 yr old sister. She is from British Columbia. I love her. She is very excited to be here!!!! I can not believe that it has been 9 months!! It is terrifying to me!! I only have 9 months left...and I have been told that last half goes faster than the first. I am not ready to go home...I don’t know if I ever will be...sorry..I love you all at home, but this life, serving the lord, not thinking about yourself...its amazing!!!!! I can not think of doing anything else! The next few weeks will be so different than the rest of my mission. Training. I don’t even know how to explain it. For the last 9 months I have been working with very experienced missionaries. They knew what they were doing, and I was able to follow their example, but now, its different. I have to be the example, I am the most experienced. Crazy!! I am always reminded by the elders that I serve with of how old I am. Not only am I the oldest in real age, but I am also one of the oldest mission wise. The elders that I am serving with have only been out for up to 7 months, and they are all 3-4 years younger than me. Its weird!! and they won’t let me forget it! haha

Well the rest of the weekend was full of normal missionary work. Knocking...a lot of Knocking...we met this man yesterday who says all religions are a cult...because the catholic church owns a country inside of a country!? makes no sense!! We had a Muslim lady try to teach us yesterday. haha that was neat we told her that we were here to teach her and she said not thanks. 

So guess what happened in church yesterday?! We are having our stake conference in a few weeks and the stake president (president Spragg) is from the Saint John ward, so he often attends our meetings, but he got up and said that a very special visitor would be attending stake conference...Elder Holland!! So exciting!! I can not even wait!! The next several weeks are going to be gone before you even know it...this week is Conference (ps I cant wait for that either!!) then we have Stake conference two-ish weeks after that...then we have our mission tour where a member of the seventy will be coming. 

Well I think that is all the exciting news here! I miss you and love you all!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!! 
I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,
Rachele