Ritchie, Max

Hey Everyone!! I hope you all had an absolutely amazing Navidad!!! We had kind of a busy week and our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were absolutely crazy so let's just jump into it.     Ok so first of all, on Christmas Eve, basically all of the plans that we had ended up being cancelled or falling through so for a majority of the day we had nothing to do. So, we shopped at Walmart for gifts for our district and taught one lesson but in the night is when things got crazy. So, basically we didn't have food or anything so we decided to go downtown and get Little Caesars for dinner haha. And then we had like 20 Pass-a-Long cards to give away and we did that and had some nice street contacts. But we realized that all the buses were done for the night, and it was like 8:45 at night and we couldn't get home... so we walked. We decided to put our credit cards and money in our socks, juuuuuust in case we got robbed. So, we walked for like an hour in the darkness through the sketch...

Hello everyone!! There is one week left until CHRISTMAS!! It feels very weird being 75 degrees here everyday, but it's coming up!! I hope everyone has had time this Christmas season to ponder and give thanks for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. In the Spirit of the holidays, I am dedicating this email to my adventures this holiday season. But first, I have an announcement.  I HAVE A NEW TRAINER!!!  His name is Elder Dunn and he is an absolute DAWG. He is a part of the Air Force and so now I literally have had 2 companions that are part of the Armed Forces and I have loved that because they know how to work hard. So, we kinda have realized our area is in absolute shambles, and we made a pact we are going to change that. He is soooo funny and we get together so well. Also, he is a white guy from Maryland and we get SO many gringo comments I absolutely LOVE it haha. Also, we have GOT TO WORK and it is awesome. I am finally becoming the missionary I've always wanted...

For my email this week I only want to share a powerful experience I had. After lunch with a certain Hermana in our ward, she noticed that my companion was a little sad and down and she asked him what was wrong. He responded, "I miss my family". Then she started talking to us and because she, along with all the other Latinos here in the Motherland, speaks Spanish insanely fast, and I kind of started to space out and started to look around. I looked to the left, and I saw a picture of the Idaho Falls Temple on a mantle in her house!!! That place is so sacred to me and it shocked me to see it. I looked back at her and she said two words to us.  "Dios Sabe"  which means " God Knows ". I have never had the spirit hit me so hard in my entire life in one moment. Afterwards, I understood Every. Single. Word. We are often taught if you want to access the gift of tongues, the spirit has to be present. And that's exactly what happened. She went on to explain...

ANNOUNCEMENT!!! EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  This Friday, December 9th, is my mom's (Holli's) Birthday!!! I could care less where you currently live in the world right now or who you think you are, but we all need to come together to wish her a very happy birthday. I'm talking birthday calls and texts, absolutely LIGHTING up her socials, and showing her tons of love on her special day. Since I'm out here grinding in Mexico, I won't be able to be there physically for her and that's something I need all of your help with!!! Thank you so much!! Anyways, this week was really interesting actually because we had my first zone conference!!! It was so much fun and we actually squeezed so much into just one day. So, to start off we absolutely got trolled by our mission. All week we were preparing to return to the Mexico City Temple for the conference, but found out the day before that we couldn't and had to switch to a Plan B, but the Plan B was amazing!! So, m...