Ritchie, Max

FIRST WEEK IN THE FIELD!!!! I am finally in Puebla!! It has been a long process just to get to this point, but it's finally here!! Honestly, this has been a really long and hard week, but I am already seeing God's hand in all things which is good and I look forward to what the rest of my mission has in store for me. So I left at 8 in the morning last Monday, and it was so sad having to leave my district and everyone else at the CCM. So, we got on a bus and drove to the airport where we got on another bus and then we were on our way!! The drive to Puebla was soooo cool. We drove through the mountains and we passed through all these fields with farmers with their donkeys carrying carts. We also drove through a national forest in Puebla and it actually reminded me of Idaho a little bit. But, after like 2 1/2 hours, we finally arrived in Puebla!! When we got there, I met my Mission President and his wife, Presidente Jensen y Hermana Jensen!! Then the next day, all 18 of the new mis...

Hello everyone!! I just finished up my last week here at the CCM! I leave for Puebla on Monday and I literaly couldn't be more excited!! But it was a crazy final week here and so much happened!!! First and foremost the CCM itself still has been treating me really well. We went to the Temple again today and it was awesome once again. The weather has been absolutely perfect and I'm sorry for all of you back home in the cold and in the snow while I am here getting mad sunburned. But I am going to be sad to leave this place because they are preparing the CCM for Christmas!!! They're putting lights on all the trees and replacing all the flowers with beautiful poinsettias too. I'm really gonna miss the CCM and also my district too. We've learned and grown together and also we've had so much fun during these past 6 weeks. Just the other day I beat an Elder in my district so bad in an arm wrestle that he fell out of his chair. Also, this week we've continued to teac...

It was another amazing week here at the CCM but in this email I really want to focus on the Mexico City Temple! I'll start off with a story about the dedication of the temple. This temple was a really big deal because it opened the gate for a lot of Latinos to receive their saving ordinances in Spanish. There were a lot of problems with the government in order to build one here though. But, with the great faith of the 12 apostles, in order to build a temple in Mexico City the government needed to own the temple. As a result, since 1983 the Mexico City temple has been owned by the Mexican government. Anyways, President Hinckley gave the dedicatory prayer and in the middle of it he stopped and with great enthusiasm declared, "Oh, hello Father Lehi. Welcome to the Temple. This is a great day for you and your posterity." In the Celestial Room on that sacred day in 1983, the ancient prophet Lehi from the Book of Mormon was at the temple. His posterity and him are experiencing ...

"You've applied for the job and now it is time to get to work." This quote by our casa leader pretty much sums up my life so far during my time here at the CCM. I have never had so many spiritual and sacred experiences during such a short time during my life, all while learning spanish. I absolutely LOVE the CCM (Centro de Capacitación de Misionero). The grounds are absolutely beautiful. There are so many palm trees and flowers it literally feels like the temple grounds. We are surrounded by big mountains and they all have the most colorful houses on them. The sunsets and sunrises here are also amazing. Something so cool too is that we all live in houses. Our house has 24 elders in it and it can get a little crazy sometimes but it is such a cool environment to be in as well. The spirit is so strong on these grounds you can have a spiritual experience wherever you go. All of the buildings are named after prophets and they are all so nice and beautiful. They also have the m...