Templo de DC!!- Mar 9, 2016

Hey all!

First off, just going to apologize for the short emails the past few weeks... I know my whole mission I haven't really been too bad at writing a good portion of an email but really, with things here just trying to make the best of every day its just so crazy!

Ahhh so we had transfers last week.. I'm in a trio now! Hna Peabody, who was my comp earlier in the mish came to us! Poor thing she has to deal with me again but oh well. We all have fun! Thought I'd make it through my whole mission without a trio but--the Lord had different plans!

I'm loving the work in this area, sooo sad I'll be finishing my mission here but happy at the same time..makes my heart hurt, but it's a good ward! We are seeing a lot of success and craziness with the work but just running running!! I LOVE being a missionary!

Email is short again, went to the temple today--which is why we changed our PDAY--but don't worry I'll be emailing Monday! I LOVE the temple, there is truly such a special spirit there.

Pues, todo bien aquí.. Les quiero!

Hasta Lunes ;)

Hermana Riddle :)

We went to Guapos... Best place ever. Gonna miss it.

Riah told me in her email today that there is NO WAY she is getting trunky!  She said it's quite the opposite for her. She said that she hits the ground running each day and that its "all heart from here!" She said that they are trying to do everything they can and have as much fun on their P-days because there is not much time left for her and Atkinson.  Poor Hermana Peabody has to go along for the ride but I am sure she will enjoy all the fun things they are doing and the fun sights they are seeing in DC. Not to mention, this is a new area for Peabody so I'm sure she will just love it! I have a feeling that these quick, short letters are going to be a thing from here on out. But..I'm ok with it because in 6 more weeks I get to hold this cute Hermana in my arms!

February 29th:)-Feb 29, 2016

Hey!! Not much time again this week things were crazy and we went to DC.. but it was awesome!! You know you only really get a day like this once every 4 years! ;) Man I really love this place!! Today we went to the Library of Congress with Dany and we got our own Library Cards!! #special

This week has been SO full of miracles and amazing things that just can't be compiled into words in time!! Sorry for the short emails, I know some of you appreciate it and some don't.. haha ;) I'll try to be better!! :) 

Transfers are this week so there's no telling where I'll be going or who I'll be with next!!! I'l let you all know next P-Day!! ;)

Con amor,

Hermana Riddle

PS You can see the capitol building with construction on it if you look in the back really hard haha :)

Even though Riah's group letters have been short, her letters to us have been a little longer.  We have been spending the past couple of weeks just hashing out things with school, Mexico, and all of the appointments and such that have to be set up for the week after she comes home because she will only be home 10 days. We've had a lot to get arranged!  

Also, a couple of weeks ago when she went to Mt Vernon, there was a member named Jorge that took the missionaries there.  Well, he happened to come to Utah to visit his girlfriend who served in the Washington DC South mission about 3 1/2 years ago.  We were able to meet up with him in Provo and he brought some stuff home for Riah so that she wouldn't have to send so many things home.  He brought a lot of the heavy things like all of her books. Spanish practice books, her ENGLISH scriptures- (I'm surprised she gave those up), and most of the pieces to her Magic Bullet mixer:)  All of her letters and cards that people have sent her up until now were sent home too!  Wow!  She has been so blessed to hear from so many of you!  Thanks for keeping in touch with her:)

HOLY COW- Feb 22, 2016

HEY ALL!!!

This week has been LOADED with miracles!! Ahh!! Where to start?? I really wish I could just tell you all everything!

Well, I'll just start with a few funny things that happened this week... haha. We went on exchanges and I was with Hermana Bliss... haha, we were knocking doors and HA like an hour later we go back to our car and it's GONE. Long story short we got TOWED. A few phone calls, hours, rides and $160 later we were able to retrieve our car and make a funny story out of it. :) Next funny story so we drove into DC practically last night, which is outside of our mission.... haha, we missed an exit on the way home and it took us to the airport which is basically on the Potomac River borderline and this cop turned his lights on and made us stop... He could tell we were confused... but--he pointed us back in the right direction so we were able to make it home safe and sound!! Ok, last story.. this one's for you dad!! Long story short one night our blender smelt like it was burning, basically blew out, we immediately pulled it off, held it over the sink, and the bottom just fell off.. 1/2 a tub of ice cream GONE. ((If you are in my family you know how sad that is...))

As for miracles, I'll just begin with Tuesday. So we met a kid named _______ who is 14 years old and is AWESOME. He wants to come to church but unfortunately wasn't able to come yesterday.. he wants to be baptized so we asked him to pray about the 19th of March and he said yes!!! Yay!! We also have another investigator who's the son in a family that  is getting sealed in the temple in April and he will also be baptized in March :) His name is _______!!

With that being said, we also were able to have a couple AMAZING lessons with ____, who is around our same age and is the son of a member who went and picked him up from Peru and brought him here a few weeks ago!! We were sitting in the church with him and his dad on Friday night and were just discussing some things when all of the sudden he started to bear an amazing, powerful testimony expressing his thoughts and feelings about what we were teaching and his experience with the church for the past 2 weeks that he has been here. He was talking about how he feels he has found what he has been looking for, even though he didn't even know he was looking for it, and that he has never felt a desire to go to church in the past but that he has such a desire to learn and doesn't doubt that the Book of Mormon comes from God! As he was talking he said, "I don't know if my dad knows this, but something I've dreamed is that I'll be able to one day wear my own plaque with Jesus Christ's name on it and represent Him as a missionary. I want to be able to one day do that." We were all just left in shock, and it brought tears to all of our eyes. The spirit was SO STRONG in the room I can't even describe it, and everyone was just smiling.

Ahh, the power of missionary work. I can testify to you all that this mission has not been mine. The best way I can think of to put it is as Jesus said: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." I can honestly say that I have been TRULY blessed on my mission to understand the authority and power of my calling. It is a calling that is truly beyond my own comprehension, and I know it comes from God. I have felt the help of the Lord as I look back through every moment on my mission. There are times where we may feel alone and we feel as though we have turned to God for answers, but that they aren't coming. I can say that I have felt this way and I know we all have--BUT. Something I do know is that as we look back we will eventually ALWAYS be able to figure out the purpose and meaning behind everything we have gone through in this life, whether it be us looking back the next day, month, year, or even if necessary the next life--we will see the purpose of it all. I trust God and His judgment and KNOW that He knows what is best for us, for He contains all wisdom!!

Well I love you all, and I hope this was sufficient for this week!! Sorry about the past few haha!!

Hermana Riddle ;)

Ok so first pic is that front taco is the cow tongue one from last week.. it wasn't too bad!! My comp ate the brain soo....

Second pic is of me and Hermana bliss after we got towed... as you can tell we laughed it off haha.. whoops.

FELIZ DIA DE AMISTAD- Feb 15, 2016

Hey all!!

Short on time again! Things are just zooming by out here in DC!! 

They just changed our Stake Presidency this past week cuz the Old Stake President, President Bush got called to be mission president in Honduras!! So this past weekend we had stake conference and had some general authorities come from the quorum of the 70s, Elder Sinclair and Elder Echohawk. They were awesome!!

Quick story though. So we got another snowfall today and couldn't drive our cars, but it's still P-day right and we live OUT of our area. Well, it's Washington's bday today and we have been planning to go to Mt Vernon since it is free today, and when we found out we couldn't use our cars we were super bummed. Well, we were DETERMINED so we went down to our leasing office to look up bus routes and the Spanish Elders that live in the same complex as us that actually work in our area were there, and then our District Leader called us and happened to be out here too! So we all just called up the mission leader from the Old Town ward and he was like sure let's go! But with a rule we have as sister missionaries we have to be in the car with someone who is a female of 18 yrs or older if there are going to be males in the car. So we called a member that lives close and she came with us too!! We all just piled in in Jorge's huge van and it was HILARIOUS. We all made it to Mt Vernon and there was tons of snow and everything but we all had a blast haha.

Then we went and ate Tacos de Lengua. (That's cow tongue..) They were super good!!

Sorry this is super short and not all that uplifting but thought I'd just let you all know I am still alive and breathing and all is well here in the mission! Loving every second of it!!

Les quiero mucho!!

Hermana Riddle :)