Zone Conference and Miracles in Phibunmangsahan - 2/12/18

On the สองแถว back from Phibun 

 Found at the local park

A cool wat in Phibun

Sitting on a slide

Hey everybody!

I hope you all had a pretty fresh week.

This week was way good! We knew that we were going to have zone conference this week on Thursday and Friday in Roi Et, so we decided to get some work done in Phibunmangsahan on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

We had amazing miracles when we went there. On Tuesday, we left our house in Ubon at about 6:50 AM with four Books of Mormon. We gave a Book of Mormon out on the way over to Phibun and talked to a really nice lady on the สองแถว that we took to get there. We arrived at about 8:15 and got to work. We started riding around, trying to find a less active member, and on the way met two other people. One of them was a traditional Buddhist guru who was interested in learning, so we gave him a Book of Mormon after sitting down with him and teaching a bit. We then found the less active member’s house, but she had apparently moved to Bangkok. We did meet with her sister who was interested, though. We sat down and taught her some more. We then continued on in a neighborhood a little bit outside of Phibun where we met two sisters: J and D. They were sitting outside of their house and called us over. We sat down and talked with them and gave them a Book of Mormon. They were wayyyy amazing. On our way back to Ubon, we stopped by a smoothie place and talked with a worker there. He showed some interest, so we gave him our last Book of Mormon that we brought. It was a really good day. 

On the next day we went back and followed up with those that we met before. We also went to the house of J and D, and ate and taught them. We were probably at their house for about 2 1/2 hours, because throughout the time there, many of the 10 siblings stopped in and decided to listen as well. That whole family is so amazing. J has also already tried sharing the gospel with one of her close friends. and she wants to learn too. On our way back, we were called over by another person outside of their house and she wanted to learn too. So we gave them a Book of Mormon and taught her a little bit.

Next we had zone conference! Zone conference was really good this month! We had training on our desires and expectations. It was so good! President Johnson shared a quote by Dallin H. Oaks that I really love. 

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming." 

Whenever we don't know if we are doing the things we should be or being who we want to be, we have to remember where all of that starts from. When we want to change anything about ourselves we need to start with our desires, because everything we do - all that we think, say, prioritize, wish for - starts from our desires.

Another cool thing that happened this week! President Johnson gave us the okay to start working more in Phibun and try to prepare them for a group over there. I'm so excited for that, because the people of Phibun have never really had an opportunity to hear about the gospel or see its blessings in their lives! I can't wait to help the people over there come closer to their Heavenly Father and their Savior.

I'm so thankful for all of the blessings that I've seen this week! As well as for the blessing of being able to serve the Lord.

Have an awesome week! I love and miss you all!

Elder Ridd

Zone Conference in Roi Et
Photo credit: Sister Terri Johnson 

Elder Ridd and Elder Larson
Photo credit: Sister Terri Johnson

Phibunmangsahan is The Place To Be - 2/5/18

Just got off the plane 

Cool sun pic

On the plane

Us with Ut and a plate of bugs

Hey Everybody! 

Sorry to interrupt your Superbowl partying! This week was way solid! 

On Tuesday we were able to help out a potential investigator by doing a lot of service at his shop. We helped sweep around outside, because there were soooo many leaves, and we also helped clean up his bushes and stuff. We then hopped on a bus to Bangkok at about 7:00 PM and got there around 4:30 AM. We got to eat breakfast with one of Elder Larson's recent converts and then went and got Elder Larson's visa renewed. We weren't too sure if we wanted to take a bus or a plane back to Ubon, so we looked up the bus schedule. The buses only left at crazy times so we decided to take a plane back to Ubon. It was only about and hour and a half plane ride, but it was a strange experience. 

The rest of our week was pretty normal until Friday. On Friday we decided to go to Phibunmangsahan, which is another city in our area. I don't know why, but this place is way awesome. All the people are super friendly, and the city is really pretty as well. After we took a truck to Phibunmangsahan, we rode our bikes about an hour and a half away to find a less active member named Ut. We met with him, and he turned out to be amazing. He hasn't been to church in about 3 years, but his testimony is so strong. He has been a member for about 30+ years, and was our bishop's old young men's president. He says we're the first people to reach out to him in about 2 1/2 years and he really wants to come back. The only problem is that he lives about 2ish hours away from the church and his only mode of transportation is an old motorcycle. He talked about how good it would be to have a branch in Phibun. He says that he has a lot of friends who he wants us to try to teach. During our whole visit with him, the Spirit was extremely strong. We plan on going to visit him and his friends this upcoming week. He also gave us some bugs to eat and we did. They were very strange.

This week is also going to be zone conference on Friday and Saturday. It will be weird, because we will be getting Facebooks, haha.

Also - President and Sister Johnson finish their mission this July. The church just released the name of our new mission president: Todd Hammond. He is apparently the Stake President of a YSA stake in Idaho.

I hope you all have had good weeks! I love and miss you all!

<3

Elder Ridd :)

Photo credit: L. Srichanruen

Improv Road Trips and My Memory is Bad - 1/29/18

Visiting a member

N's baptism last week

Hey Everybody!

I hope you are doing well! This week was pretty sweeeeeet. Let's see, we went to the zoo on Monday, and that was way cool. They gave us a golf cart and we drove through the zoo. It's kind of like a mini safari here, haha. We got to see a lot of cool stuff, but it was also kinda fun to see the animals' surprise as a bunch of white people cruise by in a golf cart. 

This week we had two switch offs. On Tuesday afternoon/all of Wednesday I was with Elder Saydyk in Yasothon, while Elder Steele and Elder Larson were in Ubon. Yasothon is a little over an hour away and is pretty rural. I liked it a lot. It turns out that Elder Saydyk is from Kingswood, Texas! Which is crazy close to home (The Woodlands, TX), so that was really neat. He is an awesome guy, and we saw a lot of cool things happen on the switch off. 

On Thursday, my phone got a notification from the church app that I need to restart it to get an important update. Without thinking I was like, “Okay, why not?” and did it. When my phone started up again it asked me to enter my password to get in, but I had apparently changed it to a very strange password that I almost never use, so I forgot it. After about 15ish tries it locked me out and it was pretty much just an expensive flashlight for a while. Amazingly, right after my phone became a very pretty, high-tech brick, I remembered my password at the least useful time. I then decided to do a factory reset on it and I'm going to drop it off at the office in Asoke on Wednesday, because we have to go to Bangkok to do visa stuff for Elder Larson. The office elders will be able to upload all the church stuff onto it again for me and bring it to my zone conference on the 9th, and then I'll be good to go. So I did lose a bunch of photos and stuff, but at least my phone will be functional. I'm going to use a password that I will actually remember this time. Lol.

On Friday we had switch offs with the Zone Leaders in Roi Et. I was with Elder Rose, who is awesome. Roi Et is a way cool city that's about 3 hours away. 

We were working on Saturday in Ubon like usual when Elder Larson and I both saw a little bus going to a very rural place in our area called Trakan. We both had a feeling we had to go there, so we threw our bikes on top of it and rode it for about an hour until we were there. When we got there we started looking around for some less active members in the area. We were asking around to find some of the houses, but we didn't have any success. We were kind of questioning why we felt the need to come all the way out here, when we decided to ask this couple that we saw if they knew where to find the house. As we were talking to them, they asked why we were looking for these people. We told them that we were from a church and that we hadn't seen them in a while. They said that their son has a friend who is a member of our church. We asked about who they are, and the friend is apparently our ward mission leader, TM! He is an awesome guy. We asked this couple if they’d be interested in learning more about the church and they said sure! So we are going to try to find time to go back visit them! I'm convinced that they are the reason we both felt inspired to go all the way out to Trakan!

So yeah, this week was really busy - haha. It was also really awesome. I know that the Spirit will inspire and prompt us if we just stop and listen. It would have been really easy to just say, "Trakan is far, and there's not point in going right now." and ignore the prompting; but if we listen to the Spirit and act on promptings, I know that we will be blessed and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father. 

I love being a missionary. Thailand is such an amazing place. I'm so glad for the opportunity to be serving. 

Thank you all for being so loving and supportive!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Ridd <3 :)

Some zoo animals

Albino Porcupine 

Bye Bye Birdy :( - 1/22/18

Cool restaurant on a river, where we ate.

Really creepy path to a Wat that we found.
It was almost abandoned, so it was kinda creepy. 

Hello Everybody!

This week has been a rather solid week! I hope that you have all had some similarly enjoyable weeks. 

This week has been a lot of the same as other weeks, but that means it was amazing! Ubon is way awesome and I love it. There are so many strong members, interested investigators, and crazy random people. I love them all. 

We have a member here named J. She is awesome and she gives amazing referrals. Most of them are really interested. We were actually able to have a baptism for one of them named NA this week! He is a cool dude, and he's way funny. 

This week our bird died. His name was Jay. He was a baby pigeon. And now he is wherever dead birds go. The day after his passing, Elder Larson was destroyed by a disease that may or may not be related to the bird. He was throwing up all day, so we didn't do too much that day, haha. He got a lot better after that, and right now Elder Larson is fine, so that's good. We called the disease "Jay's Revenge." 

This week should be a good one! I will be on switch offs in Yasothon tomorrow because Elder Larson, the district leader, is gonna be switching off with them. It should be a pretty good time. 

Today, I think we're going to the zoo. I am not actually sure what we're doing, but it should be a pretty solid time.

Thanks for all of your love and support! Have good weeks, everybody!

Miss and love you all! <3 ;)

Elder Ridd 

We found some people to teach here. 

Random place we biked past.

Ubon Ratchathani! 1/15/18

Elder Ridd and his new companion, Elder Larson

When you gotta warm up a bird, you have to be creative.

Hey Everybody!

I hope you have all had good weeks! 

This week has been pretty good! On Wednesday, Elder Xaiyavong, Sister Bleum, Sister Munro, and I went bowling with a bunch of members, which was really fun. On Thursday, we went to the office for transfers. Elder Xaiyavong and I said goodbye, and then I went on an 8.5 hour bus ride with Elder Larson to Ubon.

Elder Larson is an awesome guy. He's from Austin, Texas and is wayyyy funny. We live in a house with two other elders here and it's really fun. The ward here in Ubon is way awesome. There are lots of really active and cool members that are always down to help out or meet. The weather here is cooler than Bangkok which is also really nice, since Bangkok was burning all the time. I'm really excited for this next transfer! I feel like we'll get a lot good things done here in Ubon. 

Fun story of the week: We found a baby bird chilling at the church with no family, for about two days in a row. We decided to take it under our wing and help it live in the world. We gave it a solid bath, and it now lives in our backyard. He is already looking like he's improved a lot. He makes me happy. :) 

I also ride a bike now! That's way fun, and it feels a lot better than just chilling in a taxi in traffic forever when you need to get anywhere, haha.

I hope you all have a great week this week! I want everybody to remember that miracles are real and they happen everyday. You just have to have enough faith to believe in them, pray for them, and act towards making them happen, and you will see them in your daily lives.

Thank you all for your love and support!

<3

Elder Ridd

The End of Thonburi - 1/9/18

Me, Brother T, and Elder McCown

Elder Hunt, feeding a member's bunny in Bangkhae.

This man. He has more skill than I will ever have in my life. He was sitting on the edge of this truck as it was driving over tons of bumps, but he just kept eating his food. 
What a hero.

Hey everybody!!

I forgot to tell you that my p-day was changed to Wednesday this week for transfers. Sorry, haha! I hope you guys have had a good past week and a half.

This week has been good! I spent the majority of it still swapping around with everyone in Bangkhae until this past Friday. Elder Xaiyavong is back!!!! He's way good still and I missed him. He's such a way cool guy. 

I was able to come to Thonburi a few times and we were able to teach Q, who is the guy who walked into the church wanting to learn, and T, the monk, as well. They are way good, but especially Q. T has been a monk for the past 30 years, so the problem for him is that if he joins the church, he has to stop, which would lead to him not having a home, clothes, or any money, which would be a little problematic for him. 

Yesterday I got a little bit sick. I don't know what it was, but I was throwing up a lot of the day. I’m better now though! 

So, yeah! Transfer calls came in! So for Thonburi: Sister Bleum will stay here and be training a brand new sister and Elder Xaiyavong will be here with Elder McDonald from my MTC group. Sister Munro is moving to Bangkaen (it’s another part of Bangkok, different from Bangkhae) and will be follow-up training a sister from Laos. And I will be going to… drumroll please…Ubon Ratchathani!! It's wayyyyyyyyyyy east and borders part of Cambodia and part of Laos. It should be way different, and I'm excited! Of course, I will miss Thonburi and everyone here, though. I will be companions with Elder Larson, who I've met before when he served in Bangkok last transfer. He seems like a cool guy. 

Something I've taken away from this week is that you should always do what you know the Lord wants you to do. I got this from Elder Xaiyavong's example. When he was coming back to Thailand, his mom really didn't want him to continue his mission. He told her how much it means to him and why he knows it's important and she finally let him go. I know that sometimes doing the right thing can be hard or go against what other people think, but I know if you it is what the Lord wants you to do, you will always be able to do it.

I hope you all have great weeks! Keep being amazing! 

I love and miss you all!

Elder Ridd <3

A solid block of gold of a member who helps make gold jewelry.
This thing weighed a lot!

This man is playing a risky game by trusting these power lines to support his ladder. 

So Many Switch Offs

Random street art

Elders Hunt and Eckersley in Thonburi

Hey everybody! 

I hope everybody had a great Christmas! I guess it's still the last day of the year for most of you! Let me tell you, 2018 is pretty solid.

This week was interesting. I've pretty much had a different companion each day. Elder Xaiyavong is still in Laos. I'm not sure when he'll be back. I went back to work in Thonburi for Tuesday night/English class, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. It went pretty well. 

Whenever I'm in Bangkhae I'm usually with Elder Hunt and Elder Eckersley. They're way awesome. Let's see, some of the highlights of this week were teaching a monk, finding 4 new investigators in 1 day, and having a way fun Christmas. We got to visit President and Sister Johnson's house for Christmas, and that was nice. 

We got some sad news this week. Elder Xaiyavong's dad passed away on Tuesday. Please pray for him and his family! 

All of the elders here in Bangkhae are way cool and I'm glad I'm able to work with them. 

I hope you all have an amazing new year! I love and miss you all! Be safe.

Love,

Elder Ridd

The Johnsons' house on Christmas