Ryder's Mission

Hey everyone! It's been a little while, just wanted to give a quick update!  Transfers hit this week, I'll be making the longgg journey from Moncagua 2 all the way to..... (drum roll please ) Moncagua 1!! For those who remember, there's 4 missionaries here in Moncagua, this just means I'll be traveling 30 minutes to my area every day. This means at the end of this transfer, I will have spent 1/4 of my mission just here in Moncagua, which is wild, time has been absolutely flying by. Other than that, we've had a whole lot of miracles here in Moncagua this past transfer! Just to make a quick summary, we put 2 friends on date yesterday (my last day in the area) and there are 3 of our other friends that are really close to getting baptized as well!! I'm a bit sad to leave, but luckily I'll still be in the same ward for all the baptisms, super excited! As for a quick spiritual thought, one of the things that has been on my mind a lot recently is trust; specificall...

Our second hour of church this week First week of English class!! Can't ever get tired of these views Hola everyone!! Sorry I didn't get an email out last week, I know I say this every week, but it's actually been an insane week, we've been working insanely hard, had some amazing miracles!!  A quick rundown of what went down: The past two sundays we've had were pretty much polar opposites. On saturday 2 weeks ago we had just around 18 people lined up to come with us to church this week (it was going to be incredible) but satan worked super hard, and we only ended up having 3, it was a pretty rough one. Buttttt the next Sunday (yesterday) we had 14 people from our area come (an amazing mirafle already) but then another insane miracle that's going to take some explaining: For the first part of context, there's a local fútbol team that's been using the little court we have at the church for their soccer practice. It's a big organization, roughly 75-100 ...

Some views!! A bit hard to see, but the band outside our window this morning Food shoutout of the week- member meal, most American food I've had for a while Hola everyone! Como están? It was another crazy week full of miracles!! I'll keep it pretty short, here's a quick rundown: 1. We have an amazing new friend named Karla, she was a reference from some other elders here in the area. She's been searching for "something missing" in her life, and of course we've been more than happy to help her out! We've been seeing miracle after miracle with her; first, gave her a pamphlet to read about the Restoration, and she actually read it!! (doesn't happen that often) Not only that though, but when learning about Joseph Smith, she told us that she understood his story and that she felt the same way, confused and searching for an answer. She was also able to come to church this last week, it was incredible and super spiritual!! 2. On the slightly less spiritua...

Cooking in Central America Thought this was funny, smallest mini-ex I've ever seen Food shoutout of the week- homemade chocolate covered pretzels, marshmellows, and peanut clusters Las vistas Hey everyone! Muy buenos días, como estamos? Man it's been an insane but great week, sorry in advance if this one is a little long!!  First off, gotta brag on some members. There's a older member named Alicia Amaya here with an incredible testimony. She has an insane backstory, family issues, health problems, financial worries, basically every problem you can think of, she's been through at some point in her life. Yet, despite (and because) of all these hardships, her testimony is one of the strongest I've seen! Not only that, but she wants sooo badly to share it, and the blessings she's seen with her family (and her family is hugeeee). Literally just about every time we visit her, she has some other non-member family visiting that she wants us to talk to, and we've see...

2 days of hard work Las vistas   Hey hey!! Como estamos pues?? This week was probably the weirdest week I've had in the mission- for a quick summary, had 2 blitzes (I'll explain in a bit) 2 intercambios, and spent 2 days helping the bishop build a fence, it was pretty crazy. As for other news, today we have cambios, I'll be staying in Moncagua with Elder Allgaier for this next transfer! I also hit 5 months of being a missionary a while back... it's crazy how fast time has been flying by! I'll start off with the blitzes! This is basically where missionaries from other areas come and spend the day/afternoon in one area, so we had 4 missionaries here in our area for a morning and an evening. Between that and intercambios (where we switch between areas) it's been a superrrr weird week. As for the service, this past week we spent from 8-3 thursday and friday helping the bishop build a fence around his property, reminded me of the good ole days on the ranch. But man, ...

La cena for new years eve, called carne asada (super good) The one Christmas dinner we had that wasn't pan con pollo!  Also, got to help make those tortillas (first time, it's actually a lot harder than it looks) The one that got me Hola a todos!! Como han estado?? Sorry its been a little while, last week was pretty crazy!! Just a quick rundown of what went down: The good:  We've had a lot of super cool miracles the past couple of weeks!! For the past 2 Sundays, we've had a lot of our friends come to church! One lady in specific is actually incredible- last month we helped her and her husband drop smoking, and she went from 10 cigarettes a day to 0 in less than a month (it was so hype) and now she told us that her goal is to come to church every Sunday this year, and happy to report going strong with 1/1 Sundays for 2025 The not so good: Remember the famous pan con pollo that literally everyone eats down here for the holidays?? To make a long story short, we were meetin...

Food flicks- first one is la famosa "pan con pollo" (literally just like what it sounds like, chicken with bread, its actually super good) Cleaning the baptismal font Christmas decorations!! Missionary budget cookies Hola everybody!! Como estamos?? Primera cosa: Merry Christmas!!!! It's crazy to think that it's already Christmas, man time is going by so fast!! I hope you guys all enjoy it, let me know if you guys have any crazy or fun plans!!! Our pday also got moved from Monday to today,  It's also been a couple weeks, so sorry if this email is a bit long!! It's been an absolutely insane couple of weeks though, I'll start with a couple miracles and stories!!  1: Baptisms!!! We had 2 baptisms this last Sunday (first baptisms in the mission!!) It was amazing, we've been teaching a family for just over a month, and their testimonies are actually insane! The day before the baptism, we were making sure they were ready and Tatiana (the youngest daughter of ...