Zone Conference and a Good Dam Trip - 6/16/18

The dam area and lake trip

Posing with Elder Johnson, featuring Elder Phasay in the back

Hey Everybody!!

I hope you all had way good weeks. Sorry that I didn't respond too much last week! A bunch of our English students took us to one of the largest dams in Laos. We went there for the majority of Saturday and we were given permission to stay out a little later than usual because it was considered an English class field trip. At first it was really sketchy, because they brought us into a really communist conference room and we had a random informational presentation about it. Pretty much the dam was funded by China because they're communist buddies, and China takes the majority of the energy produced from it. Claaaassic. We took a tour of it and then we also went sightseeing at a resort on the biggest lake in Laos. It was way cool because there was a storm coming in and it looked really cool on the lake.

This week was a really good week! We got to teach the last few English classes of this term. The term starts up again in August, which will be weird, because all the elders here besides Elder Phasay and I will have finished their missions by then. We will get two other elders out here in Laos, but we still don't know who they will be. 

Also! Two investigators, P and G will be baptized this Sunday! They are both really amazing and I'm excited to see them serve the members here in Laos! They both have amazing faith.

This week was also our last zone conference with President and Sister Johnson. That part of it was pretty sad! They are way amazing people and have so much love and faith. I'm glad that I've been able to serve under them for the past year. It's so weird that they're going home already! I'm glad that they'll be coming up to spend their last Sunday on their mission with us in Laos though! 

We also talked about a talk given by President Oaks in 2011 called "Desire." One of my favorite quotes from it is as follows: "We should remember that righteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive, or temporary. They must be heartfelt, unwavering, and permanent." If we have the right desires, we'll be able to have the power to be able to achieve them with God's help. I think that's a pretty neat thought. It was a way good zone conference. (To listen to or read this talk, please click here).

We're also looking for a new house out here pretty soon, because right now we live in a kinda sketchy, bug infested concrete box. So that's neat.

So yeah, that was pretty much our week this week! I hope you all have some fun stuff to do this week. Stay fresh.

Love you guyz! 

Elder Ridd 😁❤️😘👍

The zone

The Beginning of the Rain - 6/9/18

Elder Johnson (left) and Elder Ridd (right) with a friend

Brother C celebrating

Riding bikes while a storm is coming in

Eating random corn that English students bought for us

Hey Homies, 

This week has been pretty good. I hope all of you have had good weeks too!

Church on Sunday was good! We had about 130 people come, so it's about the usual. On Monday I went to the church to help do the tithing for the branch. It was a fun time. We also threw a tiny party for Brother C, because it was his 1-year anniversary of being baptized. He is awesome. He pretty much lives at the church 24/7 and protects it from being robbed, which he has done on numerous occasions. He's a cute 60ish year old man, so that was fun. 

Tuesday was an okay day. I felt kinda sick, but I'm better now. On Wednesday, Elder Fjelsted and Higginson went to Bangkok to give training to other missionaries at Zone Conference about how to make English classes better. They will be there until later today.

Elder Phasay and I spent almost all day Thursday at an internet café, working on our English teaching course, because that finally came in. We're about halfway done with it now, so we probably only need one more day of working on that for it to be finished. Our work visas finally came in, so that's good too!

Sundays here are probably some of the craziest days ever. We do about 4 days worth of normal missionary work in one day, because we can only teach investigators at the church, and Sundays are the days that are usually most convenient for them to be there. We pretty much run around swapping companions and teaching a mix of investigators, recent converts, and less active members. It's a good time.

Today we are going to one of the largest dams in Laos with our advanced English class, because one of the people we teach English to is in charge of it and other dams here in Laos. We teach to really random and powerful government people, so it's fun. I don't know how much time I will have to respond, so please be patient ❤️❤️. Also I have to give a talk in Lao tomorrow as well, so wish me luck! 

Also, it's beginning to be the rainy season! So there a lot of random really huge thunderstorms. They are way awesome to watch, and even more fun to bike through. 

I hope you all have great weeks! I wanna hear about what you guys are all up to, and I promise to get back to you all at some point.

Keep being amazing!

Love and miss ya, 

Elder Ridd 😘

Yours truly

Communism is Interesting - 6/1/18

Hey everybody!!

This week has been a good week! I was able to meet with a lot of members here in Laos. They all have amazing faith, and I’m really impressed by all of their testimonies.

It's really strange to see all of the communist things here. There are so many flags that I'm not really phased by it anymore though. We went to a celebration for some kids graduating from elementary school the other day, and it was super weird to see all of these children celebrating communism. But hey, it's interesting. 

Weeks here are really full and busy. We teach English twice a day, Monday through Friday. Between that, we visit lots of members and try to meet up with investigators at the church. We usually bike an average of 30ish kilometers a day. There are a few really good investigators and some have baptismal dates that are coming up pretty soon.

We visited some members a few hours north of us yesterday. They are reeeeaaally amazing. About a year ago, the government shut down the church here in Laos. During that time, the members would either not go to church, or have to get up at 3 in the morning, drive to the Thai border, cross it, and go to the nearest church. The members here would make that trip every single week for about 6 months. They are truly wonderful examples of faith.

I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to serve all of the people here in Laos!!

I hope that you all have amazing weeks! Keep being awesome.

I miss and love you all!

Elder Ridd ❤