April 28, 2014 Dancing!

I have a plea - as the mom. Please pray for Courtney. She has been to two doctors this week and is headed to Paris tomorrow. She has been plagued with a debilitating migraine for almost 2 weeks. She has never had headaches so this is all new and very painful for her. She just wants to work and be a good missionary and she is getting down. 

You can email her at

courtney.ridd@myldsmail.net

or write her a letter:

Les Missionaires

Soeur Ridd

31 rue de la Roe

Angers 49 49100

France

Well, this week was just full of adventures!

On our pday last week we decided to go on a run to this beautiful park because NOTHING was open because of the Easter holiday so we couldn't' even do our grocery shopping! It was so gorgeous! It turned out to be a LOT longer of a run than we anticipated but it was so much fun!

And then the unthinkable happened! TWO more gray hairs! Good times on the mission! haha

This week we also tot to go to a ville called Nantes for our zone conference. It was so fun to see missionaries from our zone and to be edified and uplifted by our wonderful zone leaders. They gave a great talk about ow we need to decide whether we are going to be "Lamans and Lemuels" in our life or "Nephis" in how we approach hard times and trials. I loved that!

Of course, we had to take fun train pictures on our long train ride home! :)

Then we had such a fun ward party here that was a costume dance party (why they did that in April, I have no idea but it was still fun!) Soeur Denning and I dressed up like sister missionaries from the 90s (a little tribute for you mom!) and the ward thought it was so funny!

We were a little worried though because it was a dance party and technically we're not supposed to dance

But our zone leaders and district leader said it was okay so...

It was such a fun night to get to spend with the members! The ward here really is amazing and they all are so welcoming! We taught them how to do the "Boot Scootin Boogy" and they taught us all these old French dances - it was a blast!

And some of them really went all out in the costumes!

There was a cake contest - I think ours was the best (a lemon yogurt cake with homemade sprinkles and everything) but someone won with a delicious Speculoos (it's like Biscoff) cake. It was SO GOOD!!

It was really cool too because there is a family in our ward from Nouvelle Caledonie (New Caledonia) and they did a special Polynesian dance for us! It was just like home!! :)

Then - this week our district's health has just fallen apart! I've had maybe a sinus infection with a terrible headache all week (no fun) and our poor Elders got such bad colds! So we made them this little "get well kit" with lots of things to help them!

and they (when they found out I keep getting worse) brought me one back yesterday full of snickerdoodles and the nicest little book of notes! They are so awesome! I am so blessed!

This week has been a struggle with my health and in trying to not get down about it, but I have learned a lot! One of our zone leaders gave me an ear-full for not going to the doctor earlier. He said that by not going to the doctor and staying sick and still trying to do missionary work, I wasn't allowing myself to feel the spirit. I thought about that more and I realized what a stubborn person I am and I've come to realize that being stubborn is just a sneaky form of pride. When we are stubborn we're not allowing ourselves to be open to the spirit and to let the Savior help us change. I'm really going to try and work on that!

I'm so grateful for all of you and your prayers and all the letters that I received this week. It really helped me a lot and I can feel of your love and comfort so much right now. Every prayer helps so thanks for all you do for me. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Avec amour, 

Soeur Ridd

Joyeuses Paques Everyone!

(That is how you say Happy Easter!) Here in France they still celebrate it on Monday (for an extra day off work I think ha ha) I hope you all had a wonderful week leading up to Easter and had a great day yesterday in remembering our Savior and all He did for us and the amazing gifts He has given us from his Atonement and Resurrection!

This week was a pretty fun week! We had one day where we were put as a trio with Sœur Tane from Tahiti because it was exchange day and her new companion wasn't going to be there until late at night. So she came to our rendez-vous and contacted with us. It was so fun! She is so cute and her and I have become really great friends! She's so fun and it's like a little taste of home being with Poly family! :0 I was helping her learn English and she helps me learn French and Tahitian! She's such a hoot!

We got to do a lot of finding through contacting and porting (going door to door) this week sharing our Easter message again and it was so amazing to be able to bear testimony of the simple truths that we know to be true but I know that every time that I do, my testimony is strengthened so much of our Savior and the great sacrifice he made for us and the eternal blessings we receive. I will never get tired of the beauty of France that we see when we go out, so sorry (but not really) if you get tired of my pictures! 

Church on Sunday was really special for us. There was a special program about Easter that our ward put together. The 4 Elders and I sang "Il Vit, Mon Rédempteur" (I Know that My Redeemer Lives) and Sœur Denning played the piano. I loved that opportunity! I felt the spirit so strongly as I bore my testimony in French through that song. I think everyone felt the spirit so strong too! They were all crying and coming up to us saying how we sounded like angels. There were some really great talks and I just loved hearing all about the Resurrection of Christ all day. I love how that's what our church really focuses on - not just the crucifixion, but that on the third day he WAS resurrected and the today he DOES live again and because of that we can too. That is such a blessing to us and our families! Speaking of family - I missed not having a family Easter picture this year so we took our own!

It was really cool this week at church too because we had a foreign exchange high school student from the U.S. who is living with a family here come to church! She is so from Utah and she is so cute and just immediately became best friends with us Sœurs! She said she is planning on going on a mission too and so it was cool to be able to testify to her about how much missions can bless you while I am actually on my mission!

We had a lot of our rendez-vous (appointments) fall through this week that we had planned for sharing our Paque message with families in the ward so that was hard. But we did get to go to a family yesterday for lunch. Holy. Moly. I am STILL full on Monday afternoon! And that was their "petit gout" (little taste) before their big Easter dinner. Ha ha. It's crazy how much we ate. It was cute though - they wanted to make us "American food" so we had grilled chicken and sausages and steak with frites (they don't like it when you call them French fries) and salad and bread (of course) and cheesecake for desert! Wow! it was way good. But seriously so much food! That family (the Ravaneaus) are so amazing! They are one of the real spiritual anchors in the paroisse (ward) here. They love the missionaries and we always have so much fun when we are with them! One of their little boys is 10 and he is such a crack up! We have lots of fun with him taking pictures and making silly faces!

It was so nice too - he gave us his Easter bunny! And here in France they don't play around with chocolate or give it up freely! And this bunny was not that waxy fake chocolate - it was the real deal! It was so good, we decided to have that and our peeps that you sent us mom for dinner because even at 9:00 pm we were too full to eat. So that was probably the healthiest and best Easter dinner that I have had - ha ha!

I just want to end this special post for Paque with my simple testimony that I know that Christ is our Savior and redeemer. I know that He suffered for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and walked a lonely road so that we don't have to. I know that even when His very apostles betrayed Him, He was still strong and did the will of our Father in Heaven up to his death so that we can repent of our sins and become clean. I know that He felt our sins, sadnesses and struggles and that He can not only help us in this life through comfort, but also after this life He will be our advocate with the Father. I know that because he rose again on the third day that we will ALL be resurrected and have the opportunity to live with our family and loved ones for all of eternity. I know that this church is true and I love every moment I get to share that with the people here!

Thanks for all of your support and love! Thanks for those who write me letters and send me packages! They are always like little treasures from heaven and I love them so much! I love you all! I hope that you have a wonderful week and can find a way to share your testimony with others! 

Avec amour, 

Sœur Courtney Ridd

April 14, 2014 - Miracles!

Remember you can email Courtney at:

courtney.ridd@myldsmail.net

Or you can write her at: 

Les Missionaires

Soeur Ridd

31 Rue de la Roë

Angers, 49 49100

France

Wow! This is the first week of my second transfer here in France! The time is flying by! This week was just full of miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. It was truly a great week to help me get ready for Pacque (Easter)!

So, Monday my horrible viral eye infection came back. It was pretty bad this time! I could hardly walk outside because of how much the sunlight hurt it! So we went back to the pharmacist and he gave me these eye drops and stuff to help but I was so nervous and sad  because he said it would take 5 to 10 days to start to heal. Also, the next day we were going to be having a special Conference des Soeurs in Paris with all the sister missionaries in our mission for the first time. I wanted to be able to go SO bad! So I called our District Leader and Monday night he came and gave me a blessing that I would be healed and Tuesday morning I woke up and my eye was perfectly fine! My testimony has grown so much on my mission but ESPECIALLY in the mercy that the Lord has for us and the power of our faith. It probably doesn't seem like that big of deal, but for me it was! Our AP (Assisitant to the President) told us this week "There are two ways to live your life: 1. nothing is a miracle or 2. everything is a miracle". So this week I really tried to look at everything as a miracle and it changed everything!

Seriously, just being in France and seeing so many beautiful things is a miracle!

So the Conference des Soeurs was so amazing! I got to meet some amazing sister missionaries and really feel the strong spirit that we have! It was a great time. President and Soeur Poznanskie spoke to us about the influence that we can have on our missions (especially on the Elders) and really just made us feel so good about ourselves - they are amazing! And I was so happy because I got to be reunited with my MTC compn

The second part of our day in Paris for the conference was full of workshops! We learned about skincare and made some Christ centered gifts to give to our amis. In one we got go "shopping" for fun little accessories that members from aruond France had donated! It was so fun! and Soeur Poznanskie is so cute - she always wants to make sure we look good!

That night the sisters from Cholet who are in our district spent the night and it was one of their birthdays so she bought macarons in Paris and we all ate them - OH MY GOSH SO GOOD. Haha but so expensive... they were like 2 euros each. But definitely worth it! :)

The next day we had our weekly district meeting in Cholet!

It was pretty sad though because it was our last one being all together so we had to take a picture together as a district! The numbers we're holding up are how many transfers we've been here in France... yup, Elder Teh and I are babies.. :) haha

While at our district meeting we made a goal for every companionship to contact and port (go door to door) with 150 people by the next Tuesday. That is A LOT of people to try and get in! But we all stuck to it and we were given the challenge to do Easter contacting and relate everything back to what we talked about to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's been such a neat experience to really bear testimony of it THAT many times. And it's been fun to go to all these different parks and do contacting because the weather has been so nice :)

Toto, I don't think we are in Arizona any more!

Okay, so another miracle from this week - in France it's really hard to talk about religion with people because they are all Catholic or don't believe in anything and "don't feel like wasting their time on discussing it." So imagine getting 150 NOs! It's been rough. BUT on Friday, we were in this beautiful park and we see a pregnant mom pushing a stroller and immediately we "go in for the kill" and it was SO amazing. She was so ready for the gospel!! We explained why we were here and started talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and her eyes just lit up! And the next thing we know she's asking when we can come to her house!! It was such an amazing experience we almost started crying right there. We really have not been having a lot of success at all and the work has been so slow but we've had a few miracles like this happen to us this week. I know that the Lord is preparing His children to receive the gospel and is placing them in our paths for us to sharie it with them, we just have to be patient and diligent!

I have loved these couple weeks leading up to Pacque. I LOVE sharing my simple French testimony about the blessings that we have because of our Savior. I hope you all have a wonderful week leading up to Easter and can really feel the love the Savior has for everyone of us on that special day. I know that he died and rose again the third day so that we too can live forever with our families.

I invite you all to watch this wonderful video! I love you all!! Thanks for all your love and support! Bon Pacque!

Avec amour, 

Soeur Ridd

April 7, 2014 General Conference!

Remember you can email Courtney at:

courtney.ridd@myldsmail.net

or send her a letter at:

Les Missionaires

Sœur Ridd

31 rue de la Roë

Angers, 49 49100

France

This is my last week of my first transfer in France! I've been here almost six weeks! Time really is flying by and I'm only 19! I can only imagine what it's like for old people... ha ha just kidding Mom ;)

Sorry if you get tired of me talking about food... but when you're on your mission in France, how can you not? This week for our District Meeting we were in charge of the dessert and we made Pavlova - everyone was impressed that I knew how to make what you see in "the pâtisserie windows!" - thanks for teaching me good momma!

For some reason THREE TIMES this week while out porting we missed our buses to get back home at night! So a couple of times we were the only ones on the bus because it was the late late bus! Good times. I feel like we run more to buses and trams than we do when we work out... 

The weather this week was seriously like Utah weather. One day it was like sooo warm and sunny and then the rest of the week it was like Scotland weather - if it wasn't raining there was just a constant mist. It was great. 

But on the warm day (luckily) we were out pretty far in to a different area of a city not in our sector visiting a less active and missed our bus again - by like 2 seconds - and so of course (being girls and not being allowed to port out there) we took pictures! It was so pretty!

And I took the opportunity to look for new people to teach!

This week was Sœur Denning's year mark! We had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader that night and missed the last bus that went out at night... of course. So all of us missionaries had to walk home. We live an hour away on foot. It was fun though! And because we switched to daylight savings time the sun doesn't really set until 9 or 9:30 so it was pretty light!

Our good friend Lenaig (a recent convert in our ward) always spoils us when we have lessons with her and this week she took us to a place called Tommy's Diner and oh my goodness it is so cute! It's decorated like the 50s with pictures of Elvis and The Beach Boys and stuff everywhere. They serve burgers, French fries (they just call them fries though...) and milkshakes and all that good stuff! The hamburgers are weird shaped but still so good!

Wow! General Conference was AMAZING! I especially appreciated being on my mission. I didn't realize how much I truly love it and how blessed we are in America to be able to watch it live!! Here the sessions are from 6:00- 8:00 PM and 10:00 - Midnight and these dedicated ward members here COME TO THE CHURCH AND WATCH THEM! It's so amazing. We only got to watch the morning sessions live and the Saturday afternoon session on Sunday afternoon, but it was so amazing to know I was watching it the same time as you all! We were pretty lucky to be able to watch it in English too! All of us missionaries here in Angers watched it in the library in the ward building. 

And we have such great Elders! They called us like 2 hours before the first session on Sunday (the Saturday afternoon session for us) and said to come to the ward building because they made lunch for us!

I loved all of the talks so much! I could just go on forever and ever about all of them, but I especially loved Elder Holland's talk about defending our faith with COURTESY and COURAGE. That's what we should do in our every day lives and that's what we have to do as missionaries. We have a lot of people here who spit at us and tell and call us a cult and slam doors on us but how we react and show our faith with courtesy can do more than any words we can throw back. I loved his strong testimony about how IT IS WORTH IT to defend our faith no matter what happens because of it.

I also loved how so many of the talks were about our path to discipleship and how Christ-like love and charity are the most needed characteristics in the world and that is how we become true disciples of the Lord. That's something I think we can all do a little better!

And one of my most favorite talks was by Russel M. Nelson when he was talking about how we need to be TIED to God. Not just following Him, tied to Him. We can only go in one direction when we're tied to something so if we are tied to God then we will always be following Him and then we cannot fail!

I know that President Monson is a prophet of God and that he speaks directly to US for OUR day from revelations and inspirations he receives from our Father in Heaven who know all of us so perfectly. I have been reminded how truly blessed we are to have a prophet today. Being on my mission has really opened my eyes to how lost we would be without that. After conference I really just wanted to run out in to the streets and grab people and testify to them that there IS a prophet in our day and to come listen to his words because of how inspired they are!! Of course I didn't because it was late at night here, but it really made me even MORE excited to try and share the gospel with everyone in France! I hope you all get the chance to read back through the talks and really cherish every word! I love you all!

Thank you for all of your love and support! Have a great week! Je vous aime!

Avec amour,

Sœur Ridd