Just serve God.

This last transfer a lot changes happened. All 3 of the Elders I was living with before left to another area and I received a new companion to work with in the same area I´ve been for the past 2 transfers. My new companion has never been in the city Matthias Velho where we´re working so I now have the responsiblity of knowing where everything is and introducing my companion to all the people in the area. While last week I was mostly following 3 Elders and doing what they told me to do, now I´m leading the way more. Throughout this last week I´ve learned a lot. There´s a movie that I´ve watched  on the mission called "On The Lord´s Errand" It´s a movie about the life of prophet Thomas S. Monson, and how he´s followed the direction of the Holy Ghost to do what God needs him to do, and seeked to serve others in every situation. This has helped me to change my views about who I want to be. Many of us in the world have wonderful plans and visions for what can do and become in our lives. The righteous man will humble himself and realize that following what God wants him to do is the best life he can have. Every day God has an errand for us to run and we have to decide if we´re going to take that errand. One night this week we had just finished visiting our investigators started heading back to our house. It was very dark and started to rain really hard. We got back to the house feeling relieved to get out of the rain and were exhausted from the work we had just done that day. I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 8:15pm. Missionaries are not supposed to go back to their house until 9:00pm. My energetic companion knew this too and we got our rain jackets on and went out to the main road to do some contacts. While we did contacts that night, every person that we spoke a word to stopped to listen to our message. Because we were out there on a rainy night, people recognized the importance of the message. We received a lot of names and addresses that night. That night I learned that you have to continue until you have done all that you can, even if your tired, and the Lord will bless you.

Obey

When Christ´s desciples asked Jesus what they need to do to enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus told them to become like a child who is submissive, meek, humble, and willing to submit to the will of the father. God has ordained leaders for us that we need to follow. When I first entered the mission field I had the idea that I was a really good missionary and that I knew how to do missionary work better than the others. The past couple of months have been a great humbling experience. I learning the importance of listening to others and trusting in my leaders to lead me in the ways of righteousness. Obey with exactness following the spirit and using discernment along the way and you will be greatly blessed. 

Grow

Everyone on the Earth has something in common. We are all sons and daughters of God who have been sent here to Earth to learn, grow, and prepare to live with God after this life. I have found that similar to plants, the most powerful part of life is growing. Humans basically grow in four different categories: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If we don´t continually grow in all four of these areas then we will feel that there is something missing in our lives and we will be wanting something more. Many people look at growing as an accumalation of music in their itunes library, more video games and movies on their shelves, buying a bigger house, getting nicer clothes, getting a nicer job, getting a raise or a promotion, or gaining more recognition. This is growth as to the world. These are some of the treasures of the world. We need to grow as to the things of God such as becoming physically stronger, eating healthy foods, learning new concepts and ideas, reading books, solving puzzles or problems, memorizing new information, developing musical talents, learning to work with other people, learning to see the good in everyone, recognizing your weaknesses, learning from others around you, reading the scriptures, learning moral lessons, being spiritually uplifted, developing your faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and more wonderful things. The best times in our lives will be when we are growing as to the things of God. Many people call a mission the best 2 years of your life because missionaries get to take a break from the things of the world and focus on growing as to the things of God. We were put on this Earth to interact with each other. I´ve found that the best way to learn about another person and have fun is to grow with them. Play physical sports with them, Study with them, Solve problems together, Simply talk with them, Share your testimonies with one another, search for media which spiritually uplifts and teaches that you can participate in together. I´ve loved learning and growing with my companion and we´ve had many great experiences together because of it. Grow with the family and friends you have and go out there to find some new people to learn and to grow with. 

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Gratitude and Adapting

Life is full of changes. Either we make the changes are our environment changes without us doing anything. Sometimes these changes are easy and sometimes they are hard. Whatever the change is, we have a promise from God that we can handle. In the Book of Mormon Nephi teaches that we never receive a commandment from God save he shall provide a way for us to obey it. That doesn´t mean that way is going to be easy. That´s means that way is possible. This has given me a lot of comfort as I´m trying to adapt to a lot changes being in Brazil. During this period of change I´ve found 2 things which help the most: gratitude and the will to adapt or change. In every moment there is always  something to be grateful about. If you ever find yourself in a less than happy mood simply write everything you can think of that your grateful for. Don´t stop writing until you´ve written at least 10 things that you´re grateful for. Our minds are constantly thinking, and it´s important to think about the good things, and how the bad things can be better in the future. When our environment changes that is an excellent opportunity for us to change and become better. We must always be open to change the way we do things. It´s ok to study other religions, just don´t belong to or be a member of two churches. By following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and seeing the blessings of this church I have found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be the only true church on this earth. That signifies that this is truly the church of Jesus Christ, not of another person, or diety. Always be open to learn something new. Always discern if what someone tells you is of God or of something else. Always evaluate your actions and think of how you can improve. Too often people blame the surroundings for their problems and never change. Things will get better when you begin to change and learn to love your surroundings. Become the person that loves your surroundings. Becomes that person who wants to be more like savior. Forget the bad things you´ve done before and look to your potential in the future. Because of the Savior that potential is always there waiting for you. Life is an incredible journey. Go.


Added by Mom

This past week we did a service project for the family that let me use their computer for skype. I told him a couple weeks ago that I did gardening on the temple before the mission and that I would be willing to do some gardening work for him. He told me to make a list of everything I would need to build a gardern. I gave him the list of materials and this last thursday he bought everything I told him to buy. So we went to house friday and built a garden for him. It was great to do real work again. the project took about 3 and a half hours to complete. He bought about 50 flowers, a tree, and 2 bushes. They let me design the whole garden and let me do whatever I thought was best. Here are some pictures of the service project and the baptism we had this week.

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Look who called for Mother's Day.....

I will be out of town next week so he got to call early.  He is happy and doing well and LOVING the food.  Soo fun to hear him speaking Portuguese to the people around him.

Josh first apartment pictures

Work

Hi, my name is Joshua Ritter. I am currently serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Porto Alegre North mission. I was in the Provo, UT Missionary Training Center for 6 weeks and I arrived in Brazil 5 weeks ago. My purpose as a missionary here in Brazil is to invite others to come unto christ and receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ by helping them to have faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to end. To help fullfill this work I am assigned a companion and we have missionary standards that we follow. I live in a small house with 3 other missionaries including my companion. Every morning we wake up at 6:30am, workout, study scriptures, plan for the day, and study Portuguese. I did not Portuguese before I left for the mission so that´s why I have to study it every morning. We go eat lunch with a member and then we walk around our area preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don´t yell in the streets or sell anything. We simply visit people in their houses and share the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If people receive this message and want to learn more we teach them more. As people receive our messages and accept commitments to pray about our message and go to church they have the opportunity to be baptized. Baptism is a wonderful ordinance which can be done by someone holding the Priesthood, which is the authority of God. After baptism they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and make a covenant to always remeber Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and obey His commandments. Here in Porto Alegre the church is growing very quickly. Many people here have been waiting for the message want to follow the example of Jesus Christ into the waters of baptism. We work hard every day to help people follow Christ. Every day we finish teaching at 9:00pm. At this time we return to our house, eat dinner, plan, and go to bed. One of the marvelous parts of missionary work that I´ve seen is the opportunity we have to completely forget about our personal desires and pleasures, and love to serve other people. I feel this more and more everday as I serve God. Yesterday I was doind a division with another Elder and we were contacting people on the street. We found a man sitting at a bus stop with a backpack and some blankets. We introduced ourselves and asked him if he would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. He told us that he had already been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was 14 years old. He hasn´t attended church in a long time. He lost his family and all his possessions. He has no where to sleep and nothing to eat. The other missionary I was with talked with him invited him to go to church again. Then I pulled out a book of mormon and asked if he had one. He said he had read it and loves the book of mormon, but he didn´t have one. So we sat down next to him and shared with him a scripture about humility. We left the Book of Mormon with him and said he is welcome to come to church and then we left. He told us that just before we had arrived there he had been praying for help from God and he said he received his answer.

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