This week has gone by fast!

Hello everyone!

How is everything going? This week has gone by fast! Honestly I don't know where it went.

Monday- we did nothing just emailed and the normal stuff. Nothing to special 

Tuesday- we had our district meeting and taught a couple lessons.

Wednesday- I went on splits with another elder in our district (Elder Atandji from Togo) we had an alright day. We went with one of the relief society ladys so we could have some member present lessons. Which ended up us visiting ALL of our investigators and telling them about a missionary fireside we are having on Saturday. 

Thursday- was a normal day we taught plenty of lessons and even found 4 new investigators.

Friday- we had our weekly planning were we planned to have close to 30 lessons next week!!!  God is blessing us with investigators!

Saturday- We had a service project at the church. We helped the members clean the chapel and the out side of the church. It was a good time and we got to talk to the members about missionary work. It got them excited about the gospel.  Later in the evening we had our fireside. We watched 17 Miracles. It was an ok fireside, it got the members and investigators feeling the spirit, but there were some problems with the activity because some things the branch president forgot to do.

Sunday- I taught Relief society!! Mom, I now know how you felt. I taught because this week was missionary week and it was my job to get the  relief society excited about missionary work.  After church we had a baptism!!! His name is Paul. He is a powerful man and he is excited to be a member.

This week has been good and to top it off i got 3 packages two from you guys and one from Jason and Erika. I loved everything that I got thank you all.

Love you all.... have a great week! 

From Ghana With Love 

Elder Riddle

here are some pictures of my week

1. Our church building 

2. The Buokrom Elders 

3  Elder Sharma and I

4. Me After Cleaning the Chapel 

5. Elder Sharma Paul Me

"Fishing Trip"

Hello Everyone,

This week has been a very busy week. The busier we get the faster the time goes by. I can not believe that Brooklynn is already a month old! Crazy!! 
This week it has been raining NON STOP!!! I guess I should have expected the spring to be wet and cold!! So much has happened this week, I can not even remember everything. We had our first exchange with the Sister Training Leader (Sister Hart). Sister Sandberg went to Moncton and I stayed in Saint John with Sister Lewis (from Sandy.) She is great!! I love getting to know all of the new missionaries in the mission. 
Sister Sandberg and I have had a hard time finding people to teach. We decided that something needed to change so we fasted all of thursday. Amazing things happened. No we did not find any new investigators but we saw true miracles. The Lord is truly guiding this work. I am so grateful to be his "friend."  

John 15:13-16
 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Well I think the most exciting thing that is happening around here is that Lisa will be baptized this Saturday at 1! I am so happy for her! I have loved teaching Lisa. I love watching her grow and accept the gospel. We taught her parents the other day. They are very nice and supportive, but still seem very skeptical. I think that they will continue to grow in interest as time goes by. 
Oh so I sent some pictures. I sent some from our "fishing trip" we surprised the Elders last Monday for Elder Prince's b-day. Lisa and her boyfriend Chris took us all fishing...only the girls caught fish!! :D We had lots of fun! I am sorry I have not sent more pictures, time is too short!!
I forgot all about Memorial Day! They don't celebrate it up here. I am glad that you all had a fun time! I bet you are all happy school is out! BEST DAY EVER!! School does not get our for the summer here till the end of June. but then they don't go back till September. 
Sorry this is so short! I will have more to say next week!!

Oh my ward mission leader Brother Rob Cosman is going to be in Salt Lake this week. He said that if there is anything you want to send me he would be happy to bring it back with him. I think it is is tradition with the missionaries. He travels a lot for work so whenever he goes to one of the missionaries home towns he goes and meets the parents. 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE you all so much!! 

Have a great week!
Love, 
Sister Riddle 

Sister Sandberg, Sister Riddle, Elder Prince, Elder Dubyk

One of the fish I caught

Lisa, Sister Riddle, Sister Sandberg

Another fish I caught

Sister Sandberg, Sandra, Sister Riddle

"SHAMU"

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing? I got the package that you sent me! THANK YOU!! I love it!

This week went by faster than any other on my mission thus far!!! I can not even think of everything that we did. We talked to a lot of great people. We also talked to a lot of...interesting people! On Saturday we went knocking and the entire street no one was interested in talking to us. One guy came to open his door, yelled just a second..so we waited..and waited...and waited. We stood there for about 5 min...he never came back! We talked to this other guy that was not so happy that we came and knocked on his door. He said that he was not interested started closing the door and said “Kick a cat” and as we walked away he yelled “SHAMU” haha I am not really sure what that means other than please leave. But we did have some great experiences while we were knocking yesterday. We talked to this man who was very nice. He was not interested (they never are) but he told us about this (I think it is a vegetable) edible plant called a “fiddle head” It sounds pretty good, I guess I will have to go find some. We also talked to this lady..don’t ask what her name is because I could not even pronounce it when she said it. She immediately invited us in. She said that she had been watching us across the street. She said that we looked hungry. She told us to sit down and eat. She gave us some really good Banana bread and milk. We talked about her belief in God. She said that she was not interested in learning more, but that she is very mindful of others and try’s to be like Christ. Such a nice lady. Well we did talk to this great family. They have meet Elders before. They are interested in learning!! They asked us to come back when the entire family was home. I am so excited to teach them this Wednesday!!

Well Lisa is doing great! It has been so exciting to watch her grow. She is excited for her baptism. We even started talking about the program for the service. She is starting to invite family and friends to attend the service. Her boyfriend Chris came to church with her again yesterday...he even stayed for Sunday school.

Well I can not think of much else to tell you. Sorry again this email is short...Tomorrow is Elder Prince's birthday so we planned a fun surprise for the Elders. We are taking them fishing...Well I guess Lisa and Chris are taking us fishing!! Should be lots of fun!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!!

Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Rachele Riddle

"The only good cat is a dead cat"

Hey everyone!

This week has been a good week. We have been able to accomplish a lot.  Elder Sharma and I have been trying to get the young men excited about going on missions. So, we have been taking them teaching with us sometimes. We have many lessons we will go on splits with them. Its cool to see the excitement in them. So this week we were able to have many member present lessons. I think we had about 15. It was cool and its good because our investigators get to know some of the members of the church and when they come to church they have a friend. 

This week has gone by so fast, I feel like I just talked to you yesterday but its already been a week! Crazy how time flies when your doing the Lords work. This week I realized something.... Elder Sharma has been in Buokrom for a long time and I think he will be transferred in 3 weeks (we are already in our 3rd week of this transfer WHAT?)  So I am starting to think that I will get a new companion next transfer. One of the Elders that is in our apartment told me that he thinks I will be training. Oh crap... lets just hope he is wrong! I don't think I know my area well enough to train.

So I was going to tell you a story, but I think I will just send you a picture because they say a picture is worth 1000 words. Next week I will tell you the story ok?

Pictures

#1 home work in Ghana 

#2 my new area 

#3 kids at a recent converts house 

#4 the 1000 word photo    *hint...... the only good cat is a dead cat 

Mothers Day! Preparing for a baptism!

Hello Everyone! 

Sorry I am going to make this short since I just talked with you last night. It was so fun to hear you all!
Things are going great here in Saint John. I told you that Lisa is preparing for baptism the beginning of June. We are working hard to find more people to teach. The ward here is starting to get really excited about missionary work. They have seen us bring so many people to church and they are looking for ways to help us. It is so exciting to see the ward catch on!! 
This past week has been great. We had a zone training in Fredrickton on Saturday. We have a new zone leader Elder Gross. He is going to do a great job..a little nervous right now, but he will get the hang of things. You asked about Sister Leaders yesterday. Its kind of cool how fast things get organized and set up in the church. The Sister Leaders have already been called and trained. We start going on exchanges with Sister Hart next week. 
I cant wait to see these pics of Alex from prom!! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!

I will have more exciting things to say next week!! :)

Love,
Sister Riddle

Mothers Day! We had a Baptism.

Hello Everyone!
Well another week gone by. I know I talked to you guys yesterday, so I won’t make this a long email. 

We had a baptism!! Their names are Nancy and Beatrice and they have been coming to church for a year and a half so we have been teaching them and their mom gave her permission for them to be baptized. We have been teaching the mom small because she cant speak English (but you found out yesterday that I cant even speak English!) and the mom told us that she wants to be baptized too. But, she wants to join with her husband. so soon we will have a new FULL family in our branch.
Oh ya, when we were at their house the other day we were filling out their baptismal record their little sister (who is 6) asked where her paper is. We had to explain to  her that she needed to be 8 to be baptized. The face she made at us was not a good face. I will always remember what she looked like when we told her she has to grow before she can be baptized. She looked like she was about to cry! She ran to her mom and told her that she cant be baptized. Her mom had to explain to her again that she is not old enough.  Then yesterday at their baptism you could tell that she was so excited for her sisters. It was a very powerful day for us.

Well, thats my story for you 

From Ghana With Love 

Elder Riddle 

Arrived in Kumasi

Hello everyone 

This week I won’t make my email long so we can talk more on Sunday.
But this week has been good. Transfers are going well. iI came into my new area and have already had 2 free meals and 4 baptismal dates. So its going well. The only problem is that my area is huge. It is a very big area and I cant figure it out. I told my Companion (Elder Sharma) the other day while we were walking our area "if you asked me right now, where is our apartment?, I would not be able to answer you". ha but slowly I am starting to figure it out.

Today we had a combined zone p-day and we had three zones together playing football. It was a good time. We got some new missionaries in our mission last week and most of them are in our zone. They kept on asking me how long I have been on my mission. I did not want to make them feel bad, so I told them that I have been here for 5 months. Little do they know that I will be home by the time they are 1 year.

Yesterday we had a stake conference. In Kumasi there is only one stake so the committed members from all the wards, branches, and groups were at the stake center in Dechempso Kumasi. 
It was just cool to see all the members that came. Honestly, I have been out of Kumasi for so long it surprised me how many members there are here. It was a great day.

Well I will call you guys on Sunday at 8:00 Ghana time 

From Ghana with love 
Elder Riddle

Calling home, transfers, and much much more!!

Hello everyone,

So we got to attend the CES Broadcast last night. The Hampton Sisters came down and stayed with us last night. Sister Rust informed me that yesterday was our 10 month mark. I thought I just said I have been out for 9 months!! Where in the world does the time go???? I really can not wrap my head around time in the mission field.

I think it was this week that we were out knocking, We talked to a pastor and his wife of another church. They were very friendly people. Very active in their faith (obviously) but they said something to us as we were leaving that I have thought a lot about... The man said "Thank you for dressing the way you do. You look very nice and very important. The world is becoming very ugly with the way some woman decide to dress."  Thank you for dressing the way you do...I have thought that over and over. How grateful I am to know who I am and not wanting to dress any lower than what I am worth.

This week has been a great week! I have really learned so much. I studied Confidence this morning in my personal study. I was reminded of the scripture D&C 121:45 which talks about having your confidence wax strong in the presence of God. I have been thinking a lot about confidence this week, the difference between worldly confidence and spiritual confidence. Confidence to the world means that you are good at something and you know it, but spiritual confidence means that you TRUST IN GOD. Work diligently and trust that God will make it all work for the best. My favorite scripture is 2 Nephi 22:2 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." This scripture has become my favorite scripture so many times! I have related and learned so much from this short scripture. The word trust really stood out to me in studies today. In order for me to grow in confidence I need to have more trust. Trust in the Lord with all my heart!! And then do what I have been taught to do.

Sister Sandberg and I have been working really hard this week. We have talked to so many amazing people. The weather is starting to warm up...when I say warm up I mean I no longer need to wear a coat. Which is the best thing ever!!!  We have spent a lot of time out at the park. So many people go to the park during the week. We have been able to talk people at the park and invite people to learn more. I was able to teach a man about Joseph Smith yesterday while we were walking around the park. It is so neat to see the expressions on the faces of those who hear the first vision for the first time. You can truly see the spirit enter into their heart, and testify to them it is true. I have been able to pinpoint the exact moment when someone decides not to learn more. They say the eyes are the window to the soul..and it is so true. You can see their spirit jumping for joy when we talk about the gospel, then something happens satan steps in and tells them it is not true. And the window to the soul closes again. It is one of the worst feelings ever. To see them so close and then choose not to hear more. It truly breaks my heart.

We had an amazing lesson with Lisa this week. Lisa is so great. I have never met anyone that truly wants to know truth like she does. 
So another 6 weeks have gone by and it is time to start a new transfer. I will be serving in Saint John with Sister Sandberg for at least another 6 weeks...maybe longer!! I am so excited! There is so much work that needs to be done here! So many people to find and teach. I love it here!! 

So yes I will be calling home this week! like last time I will only have an hour to talk...so have your questions ready ;) I can not wait to talk to al of you!!!!

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

Love,
Rachele