Merry Christmas!!

So...the letter we got today from Bob said "hey sorry for the short email but I will be talking to you in 2 days "....that was it except for these photos!

Merry Christmas!

Kente Cloth

Making Kente Cloth

UPDATE: I just got an email form Missionary Travel.
Bobby will be leaving Ghana on April 1st and be home April 2nd!!!!! (16.5 hour Flight)
 Merry Christmas!

Grateful that I can bless the lives of the people here in my area!

Hey everyone!
How are things going?  Things are going great here. Just having a good ol time waiting for Christmas! I got the packages. Everything is still all wrapped up and looking nice!  I did enjoy the candy though :)

This week has been good and really fast. I feel like I just emailed yesterday.  Yesterday, we made history in the church... we had a special stake conference and they split the Kumasi Stake. Now we have the Ghana Bantima Stake and the Ghana Dechemso Stake. Its cool to see the church grow. At the conference we were able to hear form President Holmes and Elder Curtis. It was very cool to see how the church is growing. I also got to see some of my recent converts! They are all doing great and are strong in the gospel. Some of them have callings and it makes me happy to see them.

Well this week we are having our Mission Christmas party. We are all getting together and having some fun on Thursday. It should be good and fun.  So next week is Christmas and I don't really have a planned time of when to call home. I will have to discuss it with my companion. One of us will call in the morning and the other in the evening...  so I will let you know next week.  

We are having a baptism this week!!!! If she passes the interview... her name is Sister Pat. She is very powerful. She has a huge amount of faith. When we first met her she did not even go to church. She did not know she could pray for herself and she just did not understand the gospel. But, as we have been teaching her she knows that everything is true! She just accepts it right then and there. Whenever we teach her,  she always asks "why?" and then we explain it better and she just says "OK". She has a very powerful testimony.  The other day she got very sick and her mother took her to the hospital. She spent the night in the hospital. While she was sleeping she had a dream and she told us the all she saw in her dream were Elder Kaufusi and Elder Riddle and then she woke up. She figured out that she needed to have a blessing (we have not taught her about priesthood blessings yet) but she figured it out by herself. So the next day she called us and we went and gave her a blessing. She is doing great now and she is looking forward to her baptism on Sunday!! I know the priesthood is in this church and I am so grateful that I can bless the lives of the people here in my area with it. 

love you all

From Ghana With Love 

Elder Riddle 

Worn out in the work!

Hey everyone.

How are things going?  How is the cold? Don't worry, I am also starting to get cold as well here.

Well, this week has gone by fast. Yesterday as we were going to church I said Were we just here yesterday? Man weeks are flying by. This week we have had a ton of let downs. We have been trying to give baptismal dates but our investigators are all leaving for Christmas soon. It is killing our teaching pool.  But, we will keep on doing the work as best we can.

Today we had a zone activity and we just came together as a zone and played some games and talked. I have 3 former companions in this zone Udo, Chiweshe, and Sharma and my companion. That is cool! It was good to see and talk with them.

There is a rumor around the mission that we are going to have a Christmas party on the 19th. That should be good. The entire mission should be getting together.

I am sorry that I don't have much to say this week. But, you all should be getting to talk to me on christmas.... its only like what 16 days a way?!!!!!

Well this week has made me very tired... dad always told me how tired he got on his mission, not physically but spiritually and now I know how that feels. This week has taken a stick and beat me until I was both physically and spiritually tired. But, I know tomorrow I will feel a ton better.

well i love you all 

have a great week.

From Ghana With Love 

Elder Riddle

The church is true!

Hey guys, how is it going?

It sounds like you guys enjoyed your Thanksgiving. How was the food? I can't even imagine how good the food was and how much there was of it! So, what are the plans for Christmas? Are you guys staying in Utah ?   I saw the pictures you sent me and man everyone is getting so old (not mom of course) but Kaylee looks like she is 10, Mic looks as if she could now beat me up, and Alex is starting to look like Amanda... sorry Amanda I was not saying you look old... Rachele is starting to look responsible . Nick looks like a skinny Santa. Amanda... looks very stubborn still  but ya, everyone is changing. I don't know about dad because it seems he is afraid of the camera!

This week has been a very challenging for me. We have been having problems with one of our investigators, sister Afia. I have talked to you guys about her before. She understands everything we teach but this week she has been acting like she does not know us and it is blowing my mind! I don't know what to do. Its not easy being a missionary.

We have had some success this week. We have been able to see some new people but the new people are college students. We have given baptismal dates to some of them but they are all leaving kumasi for the Christmas break in a few weeks. So, we will have to wait until they get back but that is not until February!!!!!!  The work is starting to slow down for us a little bit because everyone is getting ready for Christmas.

So mom was asking me some questions about my apartment and I just realized that I have not said much about it.... but in our apartment we have 4 elders we have a fairly large apartment its about the size of my apartment at Dixie.. it has 2 rooms a bathroom, a study room, a kitchen and a large room that we use as our washing room. We have lights (most nights) and we have water. When we have lights which is normal for Ghana. We live on the top floor of a 3 story building. Its great climbing the stairs every night.  

Well thats about it right now. Nothing to cool going on just some teaching and a ton of walking!!! I love it! The church is true! 

From Ghana With Love 

Elder Riddle

Elder Riddle and one of the Members.