Sept. 10,2012

Momi, It’s great to hear from you again. This week has been a huge week filled with a lot of changes in the mission. We had an emergency transfer again! I was in Santa Marta in Almendros, I have now returned to Barranquilla, but in another stake. My new area is near the barrio Cuidadela (my favorite area and ward) named Trupillos in the Hipodromo stake. There are three stakes here in Barranquilla and I have served in every one. The other day I think it was my second day here and one of the old members from Ciudadela saw mi and remembered my name and called my name while we passed by. It was my old ward mission leader Hermano Perrnet. He was super excited to see me and I gave him a huge hug. It all passed by like a memory the time I served in ciudadela. After I had a huge smile and was thinking to myself how grateful I was to have served in that ward and work with the members there. One of my converts I baptized Hermana Belsy Bustamante is going to come see me sometime because her daughter(Katherine) is marring the secretary for the ward I am serving in right now in Trupillos. So I got to talk with the daughter who helped me teach her mom and help her get baptized this last week at church. This week was great and I am way excited to be able to work here in Barranquilla again. Today my companion and I had to move out of our house so I spent all day moving our things from one house to the other. We are ready to go for this next week. To be honest the sun doesn’t really affect me all that much. I do have a lot of fungus on my feet. and on my hands, but I am working on making it better so don’t worry ahaha. I apply anointment, but it doesn’t go away. Three more months and I will be going straight to freezing weather up in Idaho. I know that I need to help you out a lot with the things for school and things that will be happening in the next few months. I think I will be coming home on the 19 th of December. I don’t know when you will be getting the information about my flight and all because President Gaviria doesn’t like us to be thinking about all that. Oh I heard that the temple in Barranquilla will begin to be constructed next year! :) I hope that I might be able to come back and see that. You dad and I could make some plans in the future. Well my new companion is named Elder Garzon and he is from Colombia, Bogata. All my companions that have been from Argentina and Colombia I have liked the most. We have been working really well together and that’s what really counts. We see if we can get a baptism this month. I haven’t had a baptism in a while. In my old area in Santa Marta we were going to have this coming up week, but I got called away. I am just glad I got to participate and help someone get closer to Christ. That was one thing that I felt so strong about in the Conference with Elder Holland is that he and I have the same testimony and that is I know that Jesus is the Christ and the savior of the world.my mission has helped me understand more of the importance of him and the role that he should have in my life. Even though I knew it before we need to draw closer to him as much as we can. to do our best effort. its sad to hear that president smith will be released soon, but I do know that his time has come and passed and like my mission has come and passed we keep progressing. Returning with honor is just that as we continue to live the gospel and apply what we learn to be able to say we did our best. Skyler sent me a message this week and told me about the visit Elder Holland had at BYU and it was basically the same thing. Everyone needs to live their lives like missionaries. It’s my goal to live up to that now and afterwards. I am excited to go to BYU-I and be with new people and meet new people. I know that I will probably not be living with people I know as roommates and that’s ok. It doesn’t matter where I live either. What I want is to be in the same ward with Shayna. If you have any more questions I don’t have a problem with responding. The fact that I worry about detracting myself lets me know that it’s ok. That I won’t do that. haha. So whatever I can do to get school all settled let me know. The passwords I usually use are (riddles04) or (codyridley). Well I hope I answered all the questions. I love you very much. Sincerely, Elder Ridley