Happy Birthday Mom

Dear Everyone,

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you and hope you had a great day! Sorry I couldnt email on monday, Pday got changed this week to wednesday so that we would have more opportunities to find people on monday. There is a letter in the mail for you and your present should get to you either by saterday or monday:)

So life is treating me good. Today I got to go to the temple with my district which was a blast! After the two senior comp couples took us all out to lunch. The guy who bused our tables was really nice and we actually blessed him, talked a little about the church, and gave him a book of mormon. He honestly was so nice! While I ate I felt like I needed to give him a card and say a little about the church. Doing that turned into the rest of the stuff i just said. Work Work Work. The days not over until your in bed haha.

This past week, Emily got baptized! Talk about super amazing! I was lucky enough to be the one to get to baptize her and it was unbelievably awesome. Elder Porter and I are so happy about it! We have even started teaching her mom lessons. Tonight we actually have dinner with the mom and the grandma (with a member with us of course). The grandma is super catholic but is thankful for the help this message brought to Emily. Haha the grandma is actually making a cake for the baptism we are having this saturday for Aaron. The pic I'll send with this will be of Emily and us before her baptism.

OHHHH. So remember how I gave a talk my first sunday here in my spanish branch. Well that talk was about 5 min with a page full of notes and a few days to prepare. This past sunday I gave another talk. The Branch president told us the morning of so I didnt have time to do a lot. I picked a couple scriptures I liked and planned on reading the last verse of Oh My Father because I love that hymn. I had a piece of paper that I just wrote a couple key points on and gave my talk.....My talk was amazing! I spoke for 15 minutes and my spanish just flowed out of my mouth (gift of tongues). My spanish isnt perfect but i was able to speak without stumbling at all. It was so cool! Im not saying its always like that but when the spirit is really strong, the spanish just flows. The day before that I went on exchanges with an elder who only speaks English so I spent the whole day talking by myself to people we met while tracting. It was fun. I love spanish. I'm still not fluent yet and have trouble understanding sometimes but Im making and seeing progress:)

OOoo. So the other day we went to see an investigator but they could only talk for about 5 min at the door. When se walked up to the door a 5 year old boy saw us and said "Hey! My mom is home." I was thinking HOLY MIRACLE WAITING TO HAPPEN. When we were leaving the investigators, we walk over and talk to the mom and have an awesome lesson. Life is so much fun when you look for the miracles.

One more cool story. My district leader (Elder Moodie, a friend of Kale and George Micheal's) and I were on splits the other day. We saw this girl walking down the street while we drove by. Elder Moodie was like "I think we need to go talk to her", I was like "THEN LETS DO IT!". We flip a u-turn and go park near by then literally run her down (probably a little scary to see a half mexican and a black guy ran after you). When we caught up to her we taught her, gave her a book of mormon, and asked her to be baptized. It was so amazing. She went from nervous that we had ran her down to super happy and thanking us for everything. Oh, then after that Elder Moodie and I taught a 16 year old Muslim kid who we asked to be baptised and he invited us back:)

Sooo, friend Elder Webster is sending you (zach) a cool photo of ray lewis on a wall in baltimore bc his brother is serving down there. I love you bro, you are always on my mind. You too Jackson. I love my shwinn!

I love you all so much. Love you mom and dad :)

Elder Nobmann Riddle#22

Weekly Letter - 29 May 2013

Hey President Harding, I hope everything is going great! The family that we found is really nice and has actually heard quite a bit about the church. We were at an apartment complex on our way to meet another family we had met a few days earlier. When we got to the door no one was home which inst the greatest but we kept on trying to find. We saw this kid around 17 years old near by and helped him tie a plastic truck to a tree. After, we talked about the church and read some of the book of Mormon with him. When we gave it to him he was pretty happy so we asked if we could say hi to his family. We walked over to his house and talked with his mom for a little bit. Turned out, she had read some of the book of Mormon a few years ago but doesn't remember to much about it. So, we talked a lot about that, the doctrine of Christ, and

Page 3 of 76

families with her then asked if when she knew this was true if she would be baptized on June 22nd. She said yes! So cool. I'm loving everyday!! 

Thanks for all you do. May the Lord bless you as you do His will! We love you!
President Harding 

THE GOOD STUFF...SHAKE AND BAKE

Hey everyone!

I'm doing really good out here and have a lot to share so lets get started. On monday I went to down town atlanta for Pday and played some ultimate frisbee with the district and some of the zone. Then some elders and I went to the bball courts and played against some guys that were all at least 6ft 2in and black haha. They were hilarious! I asked them if they had ever heard of the mormon missionaries and they said no. During the game I said if we win, they are all getting baptized. They started giving one guy on there team a lot of crap saying "Mike! If we loose this game, you gettin baptized boy!" Haha it was hilarious. Poor Mike didnt know what was going on. Every time he shot they would give him crap and every time he passed they would say he should have shot the ball haha. It was so funny. Oh, and the missionaries won but the other team miscounted the score so they "won" haha. It was so much fun! We left about 4 of the guys with a blessing. A blessing is when we start with a prayer then say "as representatives of Jesus Christ, we bless____with___. It's a way as representaives of JC that we can help people feel the spirit even if they dont want to know more.

Next, we had a zone meeting on tuesday that stressed the importance of inviting people in the firts visit to be baptized with a date. It was a really good meeting and the spirit was strong! Anyways, I took that and committed to our mission president that I would be obedient and do that. That day I went on exchanges with a missionary that is really nice. I learned to have more patience while I was with him because he was born early so its harder for him to learn as quick as others and he joined the church about 20 months ago. We taught and blessed a lot of people but didnt get any baptismal dates and I was feeling kind of like a failure. My district leader told us that things are always the hardest before miracles happen. They next day we changed back and Elder Porter and I went to work. We committed 3 ppl to be baptized with a date that day. The next day we committed 2. The next day we committed 1 and on saturday committed 1 more. In 4 days we found 7 ppl that excepeted a baptismal date. MIRACLES! The field is white and ready to harvest people...time to go to work! Man it feels good to be a missionary! Through obedience to the mission rules, obedience to our mission President, and faith in our Father in Heaven and Mission President, miracles happened. Faith first, Miracles second:)

Next, Emily, the girl I've talked a lot about, is getting baptized this friday at 630!!!!!!! I am so excited. Oh if only you all could see how much this girl has changed. In our last lesson with her on sunday, she bore her testimony to us about Heavenly Father and repentance. She said she doesnt ever want to sin again and some more stuff as she started to cry a little. AHHHHH, so amazing. She went from wanting to cut herself and die with no believe in God to wanting to be baptized so that she can have the spirit. Also, she speaks spanish but not very well but we taught our last lesson in spanish because we had a member there who spoke only spanish. When she bore her testimony to us, it was in spanish and was with the gift of tongues because we could all tell the difference in how she was able to speak much better spanish...so cool. So next letter you will all get to hear about her baptism. YEEEEEE:)

More Next... Elder Porter and I went to the hospital to visit a member but didnt get to talk with her because she was asleep. As we were walking out an asian lady stopped us and asked us to give her grandma a healing blessing. The lady is a member but the rest of her family is not. After we were done the member was crying. After that we went to give her mom a blessing of peace of comfort. Her mom is not a member (shes catholic) and only speaks vietnames but with the help of her daughter translating I bore my testimony to her and testified that the peace she feels is the holy spirit. We asked if she would take the missionary discussions and she said yes! MIRACLES!

There is one more story that I want to share but do not have enough time to share it. You'll hear about it next week. But, the lesson from the story is this: Look for the hand of the Lord in your life. It is much easier to be happy when bad things are going on when you dwell on the good things that have happened. Love you all.

Also, will you all please bless my heart with health. Idk what it is but since yesterday my heart had been feeling weird and almost has some kind of uncomfortable pain (not unbareable pain, just out of the ordinary feeling). And no its not the spirit or anything like that haha. But dont worry about me because the Lord blesses those that serve Him. Love you all so much.

Love

Elder Nobmann Riddle

Weekly Letter - 20 May 2013

This week has been filled with miracles! After our zone meeting, I felt pumped and ready to
ask people to be baptized. Right after the meeting I went on exchanges with Elder Baker. We spent the whole day teaching and blessing but not one would except an invitation. Elder Moodie said to keep our heads up because it is always the hardest before good things
happen. The next day Elder Porter and I invited and gave dates to 3 people. The next day we found 2. The next day we found 1 and the next day (Saturday) we found 1 more. It was amazing! I saw with my own eyes that the field is literally white and ready to harvest. After each of our encounters, Elder Porter and I prayed for more opportunities to find and gave thanks for what we have already been given. Everyday I think to myself that every person we talk to is dehydrated and needs water so they wont die. I remind myself that Elder Porter and I have water behind our back that we can share. So every time I think that I rationalize and think I do not need to extend an invitation, I remember how bad they need water. Whenever we talk to people now all I think about is inviting them to be baptized. I think of it like this: If there was a hurricane coming, we all would tell everyone we see and tell them that they need to prepare or leave. Some of the people might be so thankful and prepare or leave and others might not
care but the important thing is we gave everyone the information so that they can make a choice. Thank you so much for everything! Tell the family hi. 

Letter 3

Hey Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing great! I'm doing pretty darn good myself. I've officially been out on a mission for two months! Asombroso! Haha well, Atlanta rocks! I'm sick of food because everyone keeps feeding us. I love talking to people and hearing more stories about all the people here. Some people have gone through some crazy things in life, good and bad. When I hear these stories that people tell Elder Porter and I, I feel so sad for them. All I want to do is help them find happiness or comfort. The worst is when someone doesnt want to hear this message but all they want is happiness. I can say that when I leave Atlanta I'm going to miss the people here. Some cool things that have been going on around here is Elder P and I have been preparing 2 of our investigators for their biptismal dates. Aaron is amazing. I mean he is just so ready to be a member. He has been preparing his whole life to receive this message and doesnt even know it. The only thing that was in his life that we thought might be hard for him was to stop drinking coffee. But, we taught him the word of wisdom and hasnt had a cup since. This guy is a beast! Oh, funny story, the other day my comp and i were tracting and it was raining so hard. This guy in a truck stops us and starts talking to us about the church and good. We are just getting wet from head to toe while he tells us he is crazy haha. We taught him about the book of mormon and gave him one. By the end, my white shirt was sticking to my skin. But the whole time we were teaching him I felt like a beast haha. I kept thinking how cool it is to teach the gospel in the rain. I dont know haha I just loved it. Oh, tell Goerge Micheal that his friend "darkness" is my district leader:). I love you all and hope everything in life is going great.

Love 

Elder Nobmann

Weekly Letter - 13 May 2013

Dear President Harding, 
The two people that come to my mind when I think about inviting to baptism are actually a family of four. Elder Porter and I met them last week and had a great lesson with them. They seemed really interested in the gospel. I could feel that the spirit was there and that the family could feel something different. There are four members of the family; mom, dad, and two daughters. We invited them to baptism in the first lesson but need to invite them to be baptized with a set date so that they can have a goal. The other person I think of is Steven. He used to have a baptism date but stopped coming to church. he had said he has felt the spirit and felt different but we just need to buckle down and get him to church.

Question: Are we allowed to use Qtips? There is a piece of paper that says we shouldnt use them and so I havent been but I just want to know to be sure. Thanks. 

ATL Week 2

Hola mis favoritas personas!

Everything down here in ATL is great! I got myself a new tattoo of black jesus. Got myself some jesus shirts. You know, all the good stuff. haha only jokes...I promise. So my second week here has been great. Mom, I got your letter on friday just to give you an estimate of how long it took to get to me. I dont know how long Ill be here in the SUD(south)...until I get my visa i guess haha. I love all the people here. I love not being overwhelmed having to learn spanish and how I can speak both spanish and english before I go to argentina. My spanish is coming along by the way. I can speak ok but still am not fluent haha. Oh, Nana, I wanted to ask you if you could tell mom so she can tell me where our family is from in mexico. If you could let mom know that would be great:) I love you by the way and want you to know that I'm out here serving God. There are a lot of people out here with fears and problems that are going through it all alone. The beauty about life is we dont have to go through our problems alone. Our savior Jesus Christ suffered so we dont have to. Hey dad, i hear you got intouch with a lady from the UK about your music that want to hook you up with Universal Records or something. That is so cool. Blessings are on the horizon for our whole family, I can just feel it. Mom, I hope yoour mouth feels better. I've been praying for you. Just so all of you know, Im always thinking about you. That includes yall too(the wold pack). And Niki you already know that Im always thinking about you:) Oh, Dirty harry, I met a sister missionary here that knows Meagan your girl friend...wife. Her name is Sister Anderson and she was Meagans roommate at BYUI. haha. Crazy! She was showing my companion a picture of her friends and I saw Meagan and was like now way! Roll Tide babay Roll Tide!!!! ahah. Hey Zach and Jackson, I love all of you so much and miss you guys. Keep working hard zach and doors will open. Read 1 nefi 8:6-10. First we follow, then we go through trials, we pray, He then opens a door, and then we can find happiness. Well I love you all. I only get an hour to write but I love you. TTYL haha

E. Nobmann

Weekly Letter - 06 May 2013

The family that I see getting baptized soon is the Lemon family. Their daughter has been taking the descussions and it has really changed how she sees things. Her name is Emily and has had a very tough life. Her family is waiting to see how she reacts to what we teach before we teach them. It is so cool because Emily is doing so much better. I can tell that when we teach her she feels happier. Through her I believe that many lives will be touched. Emily has had bad depression and has tried to take her own life, so happiness is a big deal with her. She came to church with us this last sunday and that was great. She told us that she really had fun. I cant wait to see how many lives are affected from her happiness.