Don't Play With Your Fufood - 9/25/17

Scambio in Ascoli Piceno

Anziano Ridd with his friend, L

Fufu, with soup on side

Hey Family!

This week was exciting with the opening of the first church building in Pescara.

Our awesome investigators made some good progress this week. One awesome thing that happened is L, the footballer from Liberia, totally did a five day fast to get his answer if the church is true. He is now running down the path to baptism.

Also the opening of the church happened this week. It was amazing. The members in this area have been faithful for so long and worked very hard, and are now seeing some of the fruit of the labor. With the opening, we had the full stake presidency there and also President Pickerd. Then we had a ton of investigators and non-members from the area show up. The chapel was full, and it was a great sight. Pescara sta crescendo!!

A highlight I had is that IG and B showed up. B looked like a Laurel, hahahah. She and IG stayed all 3 hours and loved it. The other youth were awesome in friendshipping them. All in all, it was a very wonderful and historical moment in Pescara.

This upcoming week is General Conference. It will be super cool, because right before, we have a zone conference. So I'm getting ready for some spiritual TNT. Go listen to the prophets speak this weekend!! Click here to listen or watch inspiring talks from General Conference, held this Saturday, 9/30 & Sunday, 10/1.

And finally, Sunday night we ended with fufu night with A, L, and F. For those who are not educated in African cuisine, fufu is a very famous African dish that consists of fufu (a dough made from pounded yam) and soup (depends on the style). We had okra soup and fufu made by the wonderful chef, F. It was delicious and an extremely interesting experience. I recommend it, if you ever get the chance.

Love you all!

Anziano Ridd

 Awesome full double rainbow

The Popstar of Pescara - 9/18/17

Our new church! 

Hey guys!!!

This week was a rollercoaster ride. But like any rollercoaster, there are ups and downs, but if you are a fan of the unexpected you definitely finished satisfied. And so...let's go for a ride.

At the beginning of this week, along with our investigators that we have been teaching for the past few weeks, we picked up a few new ones for whom I am very excited. On Tuesday night, we called up out buddy LU. We played some b ball, then taught him about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was pretty dang interested and decided

to give it a try. When we met him at the church a few days later, he was a fireball. He had read and prayed and had some great questions. We taught him about how he can grow in faith and learn the truth using Alma 32 and it hit him. He said as he read the scriptures he felt at complete peace and all warm. He continued to describe and eventually said, "It is like someone took a needle and stabbed me in the heart... but it's not the pain part." The spirit of God like a big old needle. Did I mention that this guy is 17, speaks English, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, he raps in Spanish and Italian, he beatboxes, he is a cook in cooking school, and is a professional magician? And we met this Cuban friend balling up at the park. What. A. Stud. (Click here to read Alma 32). 

We also have some sick other new people, like AL, but maybe I'll include more down the line for these guys.

So all week, I was straight up hyped for Friday. Friday was the day MK returned to Pescara. Or so we thought. As we were organizing appointments with MK, we realized that he was planning on coming to Pescara later... which meant some problems because he needed a

baptismal interview to be baptized next week. Well, as we talked with him and his father more, we learned that Mark had changed his decision. But thank goodness it was only his decision to live with his mom here in Pescara, not baptismal decision. He is getting residency in Rome, so he will be where I met him the first time, in Rome 1 and will be baptized there! I'm excited, but of course there's always that part of me that wishes to see him get baptized. He will be in Pescara this week though, so we will get to see him and show him the NEW CHURCH!

The new church is so amazing. Guys, there is a DRINKING FOUNTAIN in the church. That's some state of the art stuff right there. It's beautiful and I can't wait to fill it this Sunday!

What touched me the most this week was that three of our investigators had some of the most sincere prayers to find the truth. That's very important, because an eternal truth is that if you ask with real intent, and seek, then you will ALWAYS find. These investigators will always receive an answer to know that the Book of Mormon is true as long as they continue to pray with sincerity and read the Book of Mormon. I know that to be true, and to be true always.

I love y'all tons!!

Anziano Ridd

PS - My companion (an amazing singer) and our investigator (who is an amazing piano player) put on a mini impromptu show in the center piazza of Pescara. There was a large crowd and a great opportunity to share the gospel. He became the popstar of Pescara that night.

Modest is Hottest - 9/11/17

The church near our house

Hey fam!

Wow, these weeks go by pretty quick. This week was pretty awesome and full of success. Let's look forward a bit. MK gets home this Friday from Rome, where the other missionaries were teaching him, and is excited for his baptism the week afterward! This next Sunday is our last in the old chapel, and then we go to the new chapel.

This week we met with some great investigators, and even gave a few some baptismal dates. LA and KE are two guys from Africa who are making great progress toward Jesus Christ and membership in his church. They came to church and loved it too. We have a bunch of other investigators who are progressing well. We also gave a bunch of our

investigators to the sisters, because they are girls and they can teach them better than we can. :)

This week I was asked to give a talk. Often this happens and they just assume I'll talk about missionary work, but this time I was given an assignment to speak on MODESTY! So yeah...I talked about modesty while the other talks were about the Book of Mormon...I'm a little bit confused still, but - go modesty!

A sick miracle happened this week. AR, an investigator from the Philippines, moved into Pescara so it's now way easier to meet and come to church! It's so awesome, because he is searching hard for the truth.

That's all for this week! Love y'all!

Anziano Ridd

Below are some additional photos from last week - Ortona, the castle, and the church we vistited on Pday.

Goodbye Sisters!!!

The castle in Ortona

Hey family!

Today was the last day in Italy for my sisters (MTC group). That means that it's been 1 1/2 years since the MTC. Sometimes it's crazy to see how far we have come.

This week was cool. We taught a good amount and have been always doing work. I went on a scambio with Anziano Mayer this week. He is a stud from Missouri. We enjoyed our time together and the opportunity we had to work.

Today, for Pday, we went to a little town called Ortona. It was pretty dang awesome and we saw the castle there. It also has the church where the apostle Thomas was buried. So I'll attach a bunch of sweet pictures so y'all can see what I have been up to.

We taught the plan of salvation this week. I always had liked to divide the lesson up into three parts: Where did we come from, Why we are here, and Where we are going. Logical right? Anyways, this week I have been feeling that the plan of salvation can be taught in a different way. So this week, we taught the plan of salvation completely centered on Jesus Christ and his purpose. I learned a lot from it and it was very effective. One thing I learned is that many people don't know why Jesus Christ is our Savior. In fact, a lot of people don't know why we have need of a Savior. So, take some time this week and think - why do you have need of Jesus Christ? What did He do for you? I know that He saved us from inevitable death - of the physical and spiritual sort - and through Him we receive the strength to change and progress. Only through Him can we receive the power to overcome these things.

I love you guys! Have a great week!

Anziano Ridd

PS – Shout out to my amazing parents who have their anniversary this week!