Another Christmas Come and Gone

Hello One and All,

Well where to begin. It was good talking to everyone yesterday. Kind of odd, seemed like we were really clutching at straws for conversation topics. Life in the mission is good, and I love being a missionary. The people here are fantastic and I love working with them. Hope all is well with everyone and that they have a safe drive home.

Love,
Elder Richards

Merry Christmas

Christmas Time

Hello One and All,

So some business items up front I suppose, Mom, I got the two packages, thank you very much. Dad, for the call let's do 2 pm Washington time. I'll call the conference number, we're allowed to call out.

So what has happened this last week. Well we had our Branch Christmas party which was a blast. Complete with delicious food, music, dancing, and piñatas. (Side note: when the sponge bob piñata hit the ground I was reminded of a zombie movie when the kids jumped on it and ripped it apart with their bare hands. It was graphic). We had 10 or so of the people we are working with there, and it was a lot of fun. We stole one of the table center pieces (a six inch wire Christmas tree) so we'd have a tree to put our presents under.

Our week was pretty good, a little bit all over the place. We are trying to get things moving along again now that it's after the baptism. All attention goes to things like that so afterwards there's always a scramble to try and get back into the normal swing of things. This next week will also be kind of crazy what with Christmas mission conference, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. It'll be a crazy but hopefully fun week. We'll be spending Christmas day with the Hernandez family, he's the branch president, they're a younger couple with two little kids, it will be a lot of fun, games and dinner and goodies galore.

Speaking of goodies, Elder Anderson and I send our thanks for the Christmas baked goods.

Well, I can't think of too many other things that need reporting. I'll be on the computer for a little while longer, so dad if you want to write back to confirm the time of the call or change it please do so. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Richards

It's Begining To Look a Lot Like Christmas

Hello One and All,

Well where to begin. We were very happy with a successful baptism this last Saturday. We got chewed out a couple of times about our poor scheduling by very stressed out relief society sisters who were simultaneously running a Christmas party, but I say our event was more important. So too bad for them. The baptism went great, the program even went over fantastic and there was a ton of support from the branch. It was super spiritual and awesome. Anderson baptized Omar and Alejandra. That just leaves Griselda (the mother) and Andreina (the oldest daughter). They're not quite there yet, but with time they will be.

One thing that me and Anderson are excited for is that tonight to celebrate the baptism, the Ramos family is taking us out to Chuck E Cheese's, where Andreina works. The last and only time I went to that place was when I was 17, and it was not that great, but I am hopeful and optimistic for how this time will go. It will certainly be with a better group for that kind of activity.

Christmas is in the air. The temp has finally settled in the mid 20's. There have been a few attempts at snow, but nothing of note.

One mystery that we are trying to figure out is as follows: Last night Anderson and I got home only to find a white bag complete with Bow hanging off our door knob. Written on it in mildly girly had writing was: "To Elder Anderson, With Great Admiration!" Inside said bag was a zip lock bag filled with home made cookies, and written on that baggie was "To Elder Anderson and Crew, Keep working hard!" So not only does my demotion to the title of "crew" make me feel like a "tree of no account", but also Anderson has some sort of secret admirer. We are absolutely stumped as to who this could be from. But that's ok, it made for a fun evening.

Mom and Dad, happy travels. You too Whit and Cody. Eric, enjoy hosting the folks. Mike and Jess, I don't know your plans but Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Richards

A Great Start to a New Transfer

Hello One and All,

Well I suppose I'll start with the transfer info. I'm getting shipped to Ecuador! No, I can't actually back that up. I'm staying here in Kennewick and so is E. Anderson. So we're pretty excited. So my address remains the same for another 6 weeks. To be honest we were a little surprised to find out we were both staying. We're some of the oldest Spanish speakers in the mission (weird when did that happen?!) so they usually tend to put us with younger elders getting started. But the Lord has a plan so we are happy.

Another bulletin of note and importance is that this is officially my last Tuesday Pday. From now on Pday will be on Monday. So any emails you want to get to me need to arrive on Monday. Apparently the first presidency has been encouraging mission presidents to make the change for a while now. It'll be interesting but we'll see how it goes. One good thing about it is that it will stomp out peve-ing once and for all. That means partying the night before pday, which some elders do. Fortunately no one around here.

Yesterday we started off the transfer with a bang and went out for some good ol' fashion tracting. I'm hearing from a lot of sources that the church is trying to phase out this finding tool, and I can understand why, it's not the most effective tool, but with out it I don't know what we would do when every other plan falls through.

Then last night we went and did a FHE with the Ramos family, a part member family we've been working with for quite some time. The father Abraham is a member, and he is married with three children, he's the only member. Last Saturday they came out to a baptism the ZL's had. So last night we had a lesson all about baptism. The spirit was super strong and when we invited two of the kids, Omar and Alejandra to be baptized they both agreed. Now they are on date for December 10th. We're very excited because this baptism can totally happen. This Sunday we're going to arrange a meeting with President Hernandez (branch pres) and Bro Ramos to make sure he can baptize his kids. Afterwards for the activity we played Mexican bingo, and I impressed everyone with my announcer skills. A good time was had by all.

Thanksgiving was good. Unfortunately every charitable organization in the state of Washington was completely booked so we didn't get to go help out anywhere, but we did have fun. We had dinner with the branch president and one of his councilor's families and the sister missionaries we serve with. It wasn't the most traditional feast, but it was still delish. Afterwards we all played games together and it was a ton of fun. I really am looking forward to spending Christmas here with the members that we have here.

Today we have to cut our Pday a little short because of an assignment we got from the AP's yesterday. They want us to take out the incoming new Spanish elders tonight and use them in a few lessons. So me and Anderson are going to split up and cover a couple of our investigators with fresh off the plane greenies. It should be fun.

Well I think that about covers this last week. I hope every one's doing good and keep on keepin' on. The church is true!

Love,
Elder Richards

Another Transfer Older

Hello One and All,

Well I guess some logistical stuff. I'll keep my eye out for the package, thanks for that. Thanks for the news on the various peeps, I can't believe David's almost done. I remember going out to lunch with him on his last day up in Provo. In regards to classes at BYU, I have no idea when that starts, I would imagine closer to the semester, I don't know. But yeah, I'll get some people on that.

So this was a good week. On Wednesday we got our first snow. Nothing stuck, and after about an hour it turned to rain, but it was magical enough that we've officially switched over to the Christmas tunes in the car. It was kind of crazy, some super rich member took the entire zone out to olive garden. It was my first time eating there, not gonna lie, I wasn't all that impressed, but a free meal is a free meal. And we were grateful regardless.

Afterwards we ran over to the therapists office because we thought we had an appointment, yeah turns out I'm crazy! But after an hour or so of waiting we figured out that it was the wrong day. But it was ok because we ended up meeting this less active lady who's trying to get her son on a mission and we told her what was up and what she needed to do and change. Lord works in mysterious ways.

Then on Saturday we had another snowy day, but again nothing stuck. Looks like we won't have a white thanksgiving this year, especially since today it feels like a Utah summer morning. Just a little chilly with some sun. But who knows, maybe we'll wake up to a winter wonderland.

Speaking of cold stuff, this last week we had to take a few days worth of glacial ice showers because I inadvertently turned off the hot water. But we're back to nice warm showers again.

There was a really fun branch activity last week for Thanksgiving. I don't think there was any turkey, but the food was still way good. There was this mole verde, oh goodness, so tasty. We had our part member family that we're working with come, and another investigator as well.

Speaking of the part member family. We had an FHE last night with them that was so much fun. We shared a spiritual thought and then played Uno with them. It was a great chance to loosen everyone up a little and just talk and have fun. Now we're good friends with the kids and that will help us out so much. They have a lot of potential.

Elder Anderson got a little sick last week so we were out of commission for a few days, but now we're back out hitting the pavement which is nice. I can't believe that this transfer is over all ready! This Saturday we'll find out about the new changes and I'll be sure to let yall know next week. Not too worried about change because I just got here and just opened the area, they'll probably leave me and Anderson here for a little while until things get more stable.

Well thank you everyone for all you do to support me. I hope everyone has a great and happy Thanksgiving filled with binge eating and quality family time.

Love,
Elder Richards

Sweatin' it up in Cold Kennewick

Hello One and All,

So real quick, apparently there has been some confusion from our mail carrier so the management has asked that Anderson and I both confirm our addresses with yall, so here it is:

Elder Stephen Richards
3030 W 4th Ave i206
Kennewick, WA. 99336

So yeah, that's us. Mom, I did get the package, after last Tuesday's email saying that it had supposedly arrived I went down to the office to ask and sure enough, it was there waiting, they just hadn't put the note in the mailbox. But today Anderson had a note in the box for a package, so hopefully they are now letting us know about our packages. Thank you very much for the contacts and goodies. I can see so much better now.

The mission conference with Elder Christensen was way good. We received a lot of insight and inspired council. We all got to shake his hand and have a short visit with him. He seemed really interested in my church heritage, i.e. life long member, son of a missionary etc. It was also really fun to be able to see a lot of my old friends and companions. Elder Bao is doing well, he's my comp from BC/Connell who stayed up with me when I was un poco infermo last may. I've had a lot of companions, and each of them has brought something new to the table and I've enjoyed working with each one. But if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be Bao. We had a blast working together and were really good buddies. Hopefully he can get into BYU as an international student, then the party can keep on going!

We had a miracle happen Sunday night. So when we first got here to Kennewick we found Jorge Mitchel who was so so so prepared for baptism. But then, he moved. We never got his new address, all we knew was that it was somewhere near by. But unfortunately we lost him. The number we had for him didn't work, we even tracted all of the apartments with the number 5 because we had thought he said he was moving to a 5. We even walked around the neighborhood constantly hoping that we would happen upon him. A lot of prayers were said and we even had a special fast. But it seemed he was gone for good.

Then on Sunday night we were walking down a dark street contacting old investigators from the sisters we hear a heavily accented "I've been looking for you guys!" We look around and there's Jorge jumping out of a car to talk to us. We got his real number and real address and are now vamping up to try and get him baptized before the transfer's up! God really does answer prayers, but in his own time.

I forgot a pretty funny story from last week. After a district meeting we were going out to lunch (a member owns a restaurant where we get a sweet deal) so it was me Anderson, and two elders in the back of the car. When we start driving and all of a sudden there's an angry bee buzzing all over the place. Lots of screaming and frantically wafting out the window. Fortunately there was no car wreck induced, and none of us got stung.

Yesterday we did an exchange with the ZLs. It was a lot of fun. I went with E. Fletcher into there area and E. Melchor was with Anderson in ours. Turns out I have forgotten how to teach on the fly in English. I was really struggling to come up with words and sentences that made sense. But it was a really good day and I learned a lot. Now we come to the title of the email. Our apartment has an exorcise room complete with steam room. (a ghetto one, but one non the less). So we closed out our exchange with a fantastic steaming. I steal feel great and loose. It reminded me of Cody talking about going to the Bath Houses in Korea for a zone activity.

The rest of the work here continues to go great, and I am loving being a missionary. Thanks everyone for your love and support and I always enjoy hearing from you.

Love,
Elder Richards

Remember Remember the 5th of November ...

Hello One and All,

So despite a fun movie quote it is in fact November here in Kennewick. The trees are turning pretty colors and the mornings and evenings are usually hovering just around freezing. No snow or ice yet, but it can't be too far off. When I was in Hermiston last year (Wow! it feels really weird to be able to talk about my mission a year ago!) the snow came shortly before thanksgiving. From what I've been lead to believe the weather is pretty similar here in the tri-cities.

Quick side note for mom: So I did know that the office is supposed to put a slip in my mail box when I have a package, but no slip was ever put in the box. Bummer, so I'll have to stop by there later today and ask them what's up. Also on a side note, it seems like every time I hear some sort of update on Kat she is injured.

So, this was a pretty good week. I'll start with an interesting story. So last Pday we get a phone call from a member up in Richland saying he has a referral for us and has taken the trouble of setting up an appointment that night and will meet us near by the apartments.

So we meet up with him and he seems like a nice enough guy. We never could find the referral so he said "let's go tracting!" As a common courtesy we don't really tract after 7:30 or so. It's too dark, most people are down for the night, and it's not a very effective use of time. But we said sure why not because he seemed pretty insistive. So we start contacting people on the streets and knocking doors and it becomes quite evident that this guy is nuts! Very socially inept and saying things that just aren't appropriate to say to strangers on the street.

I won't get into the details but it was rather uncomfortable. We eventually found a family and we had a pretty good visit with them, they have a lot of potential. After the exchange ended we called some elders over in pasco to ask them what was up with this guy, and they informed us that if we wanted to keep any of our investigators we had to ditch this guy as soon as possible. Well after a few more experiences with him we did so (it turns out that by good favor we are not supposed to take people out with us from outside our branch) so we thanked him for his help and invited him to "lift where he stood." In the end it made for a fun story and we found a super solid family that could really go places.

We also had interviews with President and Sister Greer this last week which were pretty good. I always enjoy a chance to sit and chat with them. There's a lot of amazing council this man has.

This next Friday we will be having an all day training with Elder Christiansen from the 70. It should be way good and I am very excited.

Well, life is good here in Kennewick, me and Elder Anderson continue to get along swimmingly. And we continue to find super awesome people that are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. I love all of you and thank you for your continued support!

Love,
Elder Richards

Happy Halloween

Hello One and All,

Well time just feels like it's flying by here in the wkm. Life is good and I am still very much enjoying my time here in Kennewick. So I don't feel like there's too much to report on. We do a lot of tracting. Every once in a while we have an appointment that goes through, but for the most part we are tracting. But it's ok, we get to have a lot of fun meeting a huge range of people. From vaguely offensive homosexual white men, to very accepting and interested Hispanics. There's all types of people here in Kennewick. Like a kid who came and banged on our gym's window while we were working out in the morning just to tell us about how he had slipped in the frost.

That's another thing, it is so cold here in the morning and evenings. Reminds me of my early Halloweens in Oklahoma when mom made us put on coats so no one could tell what we were dressed as. "I'm superman with a coat, look at the leggings...just give me the candy!" Hopefully someone picked up on that.

Church was way good this week. The branch took real good care of us, feeding us this last week. Last night I had some delicious tacos de lengua. It was good, but not as good as the lengua you can get back in Vancouver.

The sisters in our district had a baptism Sunday evening which was way cool. The branch came out and a bunch of the office couples from the mission as well, including President and Sister Greer. It was a big relief to see the investigator there, because apparently he pulled a run away bride at his originally scheduled baptism and did not show up. But they worked through his problems and he did it. He was so happy and excited about it.

We have found a few more really promising investigators. Jorge was going to come to church this last week but ended up getting pretty sick. Me and E. Anderson continue to enjoy one anther's company. Halloween was a little bit of a let down because the branch is so new and they didn't have an activity for it. Last night we were supposed to be in by 6 pm so as to avoid the tricker treaters, they don't like the competition. We spent a relaxing evening in the apartment conversing about things and getting caught up on letter writing. I'm actually still quite behind. (Speaking of which mom, how's Kat been doing?) We did have 1 kid come knock on our door, we had to send him away empty handed because we didn't have any candy. I felt kind of bad for him, trick or treating all alone in some shady apartments.

Well, life is good down here. I hope all is well with yall. The church is true.

Love,

Elder Richards

Back at HQ

Hello One and All,

So before I forget my new address is: 3030 west 4th avenue, i 206 (apt #) kennewick WA 99336. Also the mail box is 189, I don't know if that's important or not. And yes mom, I could read your little insert. Thankfully the mission has gotten me to the point where I'm virtually asleep with in seconds of lying down.

So, what is new. Well I'm in Kennewick now, and besides frigid mornings and evenings the weather is beautiful. We went to the temple this morning which was great. I learned a lot. One thing I did not know coming here was that the giant Spanish branch in Pasco split 2 weeks ago, and Elder Anderson and I are opening the area here. I'm a little baffled as to why I was chosen for a big important job like this, but hopefully all goes well. The branch is great, and everyone is super excited to help us out. Us and the 3 sisters cover it. The Branch President invited us to his office for a word and told us about how great the sisters are, but that he was so grateful to have elders to open up the new branch. We spent last week fasting a lot, but this week the branch answered the call of our stomachs so we are being taken care of again.

My new companion is Elder Anderson. He is awesome, and we've already gotten to be really good buddies. That's probably our biggest struggle right now, that it's so easy for us to get distracted cracking jokes or swapping stories. But we work well together and good things should be coming. He's from Tulsa Oklahoma, and was originally called to Mexico, but 4 months and several parasites later he came to the good ol' WKM. He's been out about 10 months all together. He came here from Toppenish (the Yakima area) the same time I came here. So we are both brand new here in the branch. Because we are the first missionaries in this area we are starting from scratch which means we do a lot of tracting and searching. It's already yielded some fantastic results and we should have some baptisms coming up real soon.

We are living in the Sisters' old apartment and they were moved to a small mansion in the area. All five of us cover the city of kennewick, so we work with them a lot to determine who teaches any given person. Those Sisters really cleaned out the apartment. Seriously, anything that wasn't bolted down was taken, including every last square of toilet paper. They were efficient. Our district is made up of us and the Sisters so there's five of us in the district. I'm still district leader and we do meetings in Spanish which is nice.

Yesterday we found two really good baptism potentials. Jorge we found while we were looking for his sister who we had helped bring in the groceries and were invited back. He told us how he almost got baptized a long time ago but moved to Mexico right before and disappeared. So we told him how we wanted to baptize him for real this time, and he was very responsive to it. We also found a part member family that we are going to try to get reactivated and baptized. This is a really good area and there is a lot of great potential.

Well, thanks for everything everyone. I love all of you and am seeing miracles here in the field. The church is true and God loves all of us.

Love,
Elder Richards

World Keeps On a Spinnin'

Hello One and All,

Well I suppose I'll start with the recent transfer information we received Saturday. I am getting transferred to Kennewick. Elder Swenson will be staying here and receiving the trainer of his MTC companion as a new companion. I'll be with Elder Anderson, I'm certain I've talked with him before but I just can't remember who he is. Anywho, he's been out a little less than me I think. From what I've been able to gather from the word on the street about my new area is that me and Anderson will be opening the work there. The Pasco branch just got split into two smaller branches and we'll be opening the work in the new branch. So it should be fun learning an area together.

I've really enjoyed my time here in Vancouver. It's been almost nothing but beautiful weather. It would be honest of me to say I'm a little bummed we weren't able to baptize anyone while I was here, but that's not important. There are now so many people ready to make this important covenant that weren't when I got here. I'm not attributing that to myself, but I'm sure a contributed a little bit. This is always a bitter sweet time when you go around saying your goodbyes and people are all crying. (Not me of course, it seems I no longer have that reaction). It's sad, but it also feels nice to see how much these people loved and appreciated me. Which is nice because I definitely love and appreciate them.

Jose continues to be perched at the edge of the font. I'm convinced he will join very soon, every thing's ready and he always tells us about how much he wants to do it. Our investigator sobered up and is doing soo much better. That was a sad goodbye, I've been able to see him progress so much in such a short period of time. He and his son came to church last Sunday which was way cool.

Like I said I'm sad to be leaving Vancouver, but I'm excited to be back in the tri-cities. On the one hand you're more connected to the information flow over there than out here in what we lovingly refer to as outer darkness (actually outer darkness is an area called Longview, but we are close neighbors). Also in the tri-cities there are Hispanics EVERYWHERE. I'll be close byish to the old Pasco neighborhood, so maybe I'll be able to say hello to some old folks.

Which reminds me, one big change (quick side note, mom's email just came in, thanks for that). Eric your arrested development quote cracked me up and I got a couple of glares from near by library people. Mom, in regards to the package, yeah we just found out about that yesterday because we went to our old members home to say goodbye and she mentioned how the package got there on Friday but then as she was signing for it she off handedly mentioned how I didn't live there anymore and the mail man instantly whisked away the package. So yeah it's somewhere in postage limbo right now probably. As for new addresses I don't know anything about that yet, I'll send it next week.

So the big change is that President Greer has consolidated several of the zones. So Hermiston (my first zone) was joined with Walla Walla and is now called Blue Mountain zone or something like that. And several others were joined together as well. So now we have these GINORMOUS zones with more missionaries. I have no idea why this is the case. I feel kind of like an old wine bottle with changes like this, but it's all good. As of yet I am not affected by the change.

Well, I think that just about covers things. Thanks everyone I love you all and the church is true. Next time you hear from me I will be in scenic Kennewick. Technically speaking East Kennewick zone, because regular Kennewick got consolidated into the Columbia River Temple Zone with a few others. But those are details and not important.

Happy Halloween!

Love,
Elder Richards

p.s. Happy birthday to Mike. Many happy returns. And from mom's email it sounds like Ben is hands down more inteligent than me. So, good for him.

Ding Dong Wedding Bells

Hello One and All,

Well another week has come and gone in the WKM. It's crazy hard to believe how fast this last transfer went and to think that transfer calls are just a few days away again. It's always a fun time of year (or transfer as it were). The other night I dreamed that I would be involved in training over in Sellah. So as I am always known to say: "vamos a ver" We'll see. More or less.

The work continues to go swimmingly here in Vancouver. The rain is constantly trying to settle in for the winter, but every couple of days it gets foiled by the sun. Today is one of those such days. Lucky for us it falls on a pday. (Call me crazy but I love doing missionary work in the rain.) Maybe it's because it keeps you nice and cool and not sweaty, maybe it's because of the common held belief that the more time spent in the rain the more attractive your future spouse will be, who knows. All I know is I like it.

This last Saturday we spent the majority of the morning giving service to the Escalona family whose oldest daughter was getting married that night. I set up and pinned more chair covers than I care to remember. My thumb still bares the marks of a thousand safety pin stab wounds. Fun fact: Josolyn (the girl getting married) and her family are converts from my dear old papi elder Montoya. And now I and my posterity get to witness the fruits of his labor. She married Joel a way cool recent convert/RM. The wedding was a nice diversion from the routine and a lot of fun. Plus Brother Woodland made his bomb potato salad. Another strange result of the mission, I now love potato salad. Whenever it's available at a dinner (which regrettably isn't often) I can't get enough of it. I guess my taste buds have matured some more. Sorry mom for years of smack talk against your potato salad, I just didn't know what I was missing.

We ran into a little stumbling block with one of our best investigators yesterday. We found him quite drunk and depressed about his lot in life. We talked him through it a little bit and prayed with him. Hopefully he'll have sobered up for tonight's visit so we can help him out more. He's a super nice guy and just hit his breaking point. I know the gospel can help him.

Jose continues to flourish as our golden investigator, he is in the process of searching for work, we're praying that he'll find something that doesn't require him to move out of the Vancouver area.

Hmm...well I hate to say it but I think that that is everything worthy of mentioning at the moment. There's always a lot more that goes on than what I write about, but I try to leave out the dull day to day stuff and just talk about particularly interesting things.

Anywho, I love all of you (whoever all this gets forwarded to) and hope all is well with you and yours. Thanks for the letter whit and grandpa. The church yes is true, and I truly love preaching it in the Lord's chosen language, espanol.

Much amor,
Elder Richards

Mingled Rain and Sun

Hello One and All,

Well, I haven't even started writing yet and I'm already burned out on writing. Crazy.

Last week was way good, especially conference. For half of the time we listened in Spanish and the other half was English. But it was such a good conference. My favorite statement came from president Uchtdorf when he said that Compared to God we are nothing, but to Him we are everything. He really hit the nail on the head with that one. And nothing like a little hell fire preaching from E. Holland. Fun times. Our investigator Jose came to a few sessions and loved it. He was so excited to hear a prophet speak.

I'm just finishing up an exchange from yesterday. Another elder in the district came and joined me for the day. Elder Dyas (pronounced Die-ez). We had a lot of fun, he's a convert of about 2 years, and has a lot of funny stories. We actually have a lot in common. He had a tape recorder that his lady friend on a mission sent. So I was helping him fill up a response tape (p.s. if anyone wants to send a tape I have a player that I can listen to it I'm ...just sayin).

Next week we have zone conference so that should be a lot of fun and very enlightening. We're also getting members at every appointment that we can, it's really a blessing to the work. Vancouver is really turning into a successful area. There's a lot of baptisms right around the corner. But I probably won't be here to see them come to fruition. Is that a real word? I'm not sure...oh well it's not important. It's always great to hear from yall. Keep up the good things in your lives.

Love,
Elder Richards

p.s. Thanks mom for the info on the contacts, 3 months is better than no months, and I could probably stretch it a little...

Back to Work

Hello One and All,

So, I guess there's a lot of things to say, I'll try to go chronologically.

Last Wednesday I headed off to tri-cities in a van full of missionaries. The following three days were filled with a lot of awesome lessons to be learned, and what I was most excited about, I got to work in my old area with my old companion Elder Bao. It was me him and two other way cool elders. We had a lot of fun, and since I already knew the area I got to go off with the other extra elder looking up my old investigators and having lessons with them. It was interesting to see that everyone I visited had been praying for me the day before, or feeling that morning that they were going to see me soon. It was so nice to be able to be back there. It was like going home, and I got to see almost all of my old companions and other cohorts which was great. We learned a ton of great things in the training as well. And leadership training wouldn't be complete without the carne asada barbq party for all Spanish missionaries visiting. See pic.

Come weekend time the church was back up and running which was good. We had our usual attendant Jose there, and then at sacrament meeting Alex and his son Josiah arrived (they came to the branch activity). They are super solid and I can really see them progressing far. We had a really good lesson with them last night, that we got out of a little bit late, but it was still really good. We showed them the restoration DVD and then explained about the priesthood authority being restored.

Today for Pday we went to the punchbowl falls in Oregon. It was a really pretty hike, but maybe not as grand and impressive as some of the other waterfalls we've visited during the mission. That's why I'm so late in writing, we were only just now able to make it to the library.

Congrats mike on a baby boy, that's way exciting! And Joy and Scott, you're little girl is so cute, I'm really happy for yall!

Here in the mission we're all getting excited for conference, it'll be way good, it always is. I can't wait to listen to the words of a prophet again.

This transfer is really flying by. It should be interesting to see where I end up for Halloween. I've always gotten transferred after 3 transfers in an area, so we'll see if the pattern holds true. Going back to BC Connell, really made me want to work there again, but hopefully we can get some baptisms before I go wherever it is I'll go.

Well, I guess that's all for this week, I love yall and hope you have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Richards

Vacation

Hello One and All,

Well life in the WKM is pretty good right now I suppose. I don't think there's any items of business to discuss, but thanks mom for the Texas package, I'll touch more on that later. Oh yes, and happy early birthday to mom and dad, the check should be coming in the mail...ok there's no check. But I am thinking happy thoughts your way!

So this last week was pretty good. The cultural event was a blast! It was a typical Spanish activity, the start time was 7 pm, so the opening prayer didn't get said until about 8:30ish! We got called and asked to set up so we were there at about 6 to make sure everything was ready on time. Needless to say I was a little stressed and impatient, but it was fun once it started. They had all sorts of cool native folk dances from Mexico complete with the authentic outfits and dresses. There were tables featuring Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Our branch mission leader Hno. Mendoza was kind enough to share the El Salvador table with me, so it also featured Texas. Everyone who went over to look got a big laugh out of it. And I had some fun "arguments" with some of the natives. Apparently they still feel Texas was stolen from them. Well, their loss. But if things are as hot down there as I've heard, they can have it. We had a new family of 4 show up that we had just started teaching, and they had a great time, it was so great! We finally got out of there at about quarter to ten, yikes! But we didn't want to leave our investigators there by themselves. The branch did great in fellowshiping them,

This last Sunday we were all set to have that same family come to church, plus a couple of other investigators when we get a call from the Branch President. Turns out the church burned down. Well not burned down so much as there was a small fire which caused the sprinklers to go off and make everything all wet so all meetings were canceled. So we scrambled to make calls and get permission to go translate at one of the other building's English services. We eventually did but could only get one investigator there, plus one from the sisters. So I got to translate on the headphones. It had been a while but I did pretty good. They were actually having their ward conference so the stake presidency was there and all gave great talks. The 1st councilor talked suuuuper fast, but the 2nd councilor and president were fine and I was able to translate theirs quite nicely I think.

So tomorrow morning I head out for Kennewick to have the 3 day training, I'm really excited, I hope I get to go down to my old area in Pasco to work during the evenings. I'll try and pull some strings. So I get kind of a mini-vacation, so it should be fun, although I would definitely pick working to sitting in meetings all day. But I'm sure I'll get to learn a ton to share with the district.

This morning we played a round of golf. It was a lot of fun, and I've improved a lot since the last time I golfed 10 years ago. It was a 9 hole par 3 course, and I hit a 75. Not too shabby I'd say...

Well thank you everyone for all the love and support, I do appreciate it. Mom made a reference to a package from Whit, I'll keep a weather eye out for that. Too bad about Utah and UT games, at least it sounds like we did good at UT. Utah however, ooh that was a sad night. The zone was constantly texting each other to see if anyone had heard any developments. Next year will be better. Speaking of texting, I finally put two and two together...if dad received the texts from the family we helped out here, and if mom received a text from Eric the day he moved into his apartment (as she mentioned some weeks ago) then that means you have texting now. Why the sudden change of heart? I thought there was a vendetta against texting. Oh well, church is true with or without texts. Have a super awesome week!!

Love,
Elder Richards

Almost Finally Settled In

Hello One and All,

So, we are almost finally settled into the new apartment. We finally got the mountain of kitchen supplies put to use or stored away. That just leaves the need to find a truck to go pick up our couch, and a few other homey touches. We are loving the new digs, and it is nice having a place of our own without walking on eggshells because other people live there. The only down side is the giant glass door that goes to our balcony in front of the study/living area. It kind of puts us in a fish bowl kind of environment. Or at least it feels that way to me.

This week has been a really good one. The highest lesson count I've gotten in Vancouver, so that's a good start to the transfer.

We had stake conference for all of Washington and parts of Alaska. President Packer, Elder Holland, a 70 and the Young Women General president spoke. It was a very good meeting, and our investigator Jose loved it. During the adult session we couldn't find the translating headphones that other investigators were using, so I had to sit behind Jose and whisper the translation to him for one of the talks. It had been a while since I translated a meeting, but I did all right. Eventually we were able to find some headphones and I got to take a brake while he listened to the provided translator.

I'm very excited for next week. Wed-Fri there is a mission wide leadership training in the tri-cities that all mission leaders will be attending. So I get to take a little road trip and go see all my old comps/friends in the mission which will be a lot of fun. And I have complete confidence in E. Swenson taking care of the area while I'm gone.

Well, I know I haven't written too much, but this last week was pretty straight forward, work work work. I'm loving it out here. Last week was a little toasty (mid 90's) But yesterday it was gorgeous, and today is a nice overcast that I hope sets in for good. (I'm not being depressed, it would just be a nice change of pace).

I love you all, and hope everyone is doing very well!

Love,
E Richards

A New Transfer

Hello One and All,

Well, the transfer news is that I and E. Swenson will be remaining here for another transfer. Maybe I'll finally see some rain. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for wanting it, but I've had nothing but sun for my whole mission, some never ending rain would be a nice change of pace.

Before I forget a couple of points of business for mom: Our new address is 4602 NE 72nd Ave. #72, Vancouver WA 98661. On the 16th of September our branch is having a culture night activity where everyone is bringing typical things from their home country, I was wondering if you might be able to send me a little box of typical Texas things to share with the Latinos up here. Other than a crazy big belt buckle I'm not too sure what all that would entail, but it would be nice. If you're too busy, no worries.

So our transfer started off with a terrific bang! We taught 5 lessons, and found 2 new investigators on the first day. I'm pretty excited for what this transfer is going to bring. There will for sure be some baptisms here in the coming month and a half.

The fleas have not moved with us I am happy to say. We moved, swapped out our mattresses for some nice new ones, and then sanitized the daylights out of everything else we own. It's so nice to have a clean apartment to come home to. We went by to see our old host members one day and Pokey (whom I have harbored much anger and resentment against) received a home haircut. He looks awful, quite literally like a rat. There are bald patches all over the place, his face and ears are miss-shapen due to uneven cuts, and his tail is down to skin and looks like a rat tail. I am no longer angry at him. I feel justice has been served and the score has evened up a little.

On the topic of our new apartment, I will send pictures once everything is organized, but it is so great. Yesterday we received SO MUCH stuff from all the different wards because the call went out abroad: "the missionaries need furnishings and appliances!" Now we are the owners of 3 microwaves, a George foreman grill/skillet, lamps, tables, chairs, odds and ends, and enough dishes to last through the rest of the mission. So over the next few days we will be doing a lot of storing and organizing. I can't wait to have everything in it's proper place...only to get transfered. It's all good. hat's the life of an Elder.

Well, thank you everyone for letters and everything. It was good to hear from you Mike. Whit, Cody, Eric, Jess, don't be strangers. I hope everyone is doing great. Go cougs! I was a good missionary and didn't look at the TV to see kick off. I love yall, and the church is definitely true!

Love,
Elder Richards

Itchy Vancouver

Hello One and All,

So, where to begin...mom I did get your email in time today, and your package came last night, thank you very much, it was a most welcome suprise. Also, I am on my last pair of contacts, so I don't know what you want to do about that. I do have my glasses, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to wear those, but contacts are definitely nice.

So, when E. Swenson and I opened up the package last night we could not stop laughing at one of the contents, a bag of cracker/cookies called "bug bites". The reason this holds such humor for us is because we are currently infested with...FLEAS! Yup that's right, Elder Richards serving in civilized Washington state has fleas. It is all to blame on our members stupid rat sized dog "Pokey". Needless to say I am not having an inside dog in the future (unless his hygiene is maintained constantly). The first night we figured it out we were both disgusted and afraid to touch anything, but now it's just part of life and hey, we move in two days so what's the big deal, just another fun story to tell afterwards. Oddly it turns out that every companionship in my district is having problems with their members' household dogs. Whether it is E. Dyas and DeLeon and gratuitous amounts of pet dander, or Sister Rico and Southwick and their dog that has a bathroom/throwing up problem. Is it gross? Yes. Is it hilarious? Oddly enough yes.

It's very hard to believe how fast this transfer has gone, this is the last week and then it's transfers. I hope that I have one more here in this area, one to enjoy a clean new apartment, two to finish E.Swenson's training, and three so that I can see all the awesome things that are about to go down with our investigators happen. In our district meeting we did the traditional transfer predictions, the votes were split for me, about half think I'll stay, and half think I'll go. If I do leave, I think I'll go to Hermiston. Not my first area in Boardman, but the same district in the other spanish area. I don't know why, but that's my guess.

We have one of our investigators, Ana, on date to get baptized in september, so we're excited for that. Jose continues to progress and learn every day, it is an absolute pleasure getting to work with him. Also we found this woman, Aurora, who has a ton of potential. So how found her is a little unique: We were walking around in one of our areas, a community called Fruit Valley. We saw a woman who at a distance looked kind of like she was hispanic. So, while keeping a safe distance, we kind of stalked her all the way home to find out where she lived. Low and behold she is mexican and has worked with missionaries before. Her friend/roommate Aurora is the potential golden investigator that we found. So maybe a little bit creepy, but I can totally see a whole family get baptized as a result. Vamos a ver.

Well I think that does it for me this week. Whit and Cody, it sounds like yall had a lot of fun in Vegas. A lot of the pictures looked a lot like you were in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Eric, thanks very much for the letter, I'm excited for all the awesome things happening in your life right now. I also will have my own washer and dryer in the new apartment, so you and me can be grown up buddies together. I'm super excited to be able to do laundry with out working around someone else's schedule. Mike and Jess, the kids are getting so big, it's crazy! And to everyone else I love yall too.

Love,
Elder Richards

p.s. I really wish I could go to the BYU UT game, that would be good. Be sure to give Ricardo a hard time about that one. Also, here's a picture of my current district.

Big Changes in Vancouver

Hello One and All,

So, life in the WKM continues to move on as usual. The big news I suppose would be the visit with Elder Perry yesterday. It was way cool and super spiritual. He also had his wife and Elder Clayton (one of the presidents of the 70) and his wife with him. For an 89 year old man ol' L. Tom has a spring in his step. After walking in he jogged up the stairs and then turned around said in a kind of amused frustrated way "oh sit down, sit down!" (We all stood up when he came in). Also, he was a lot taller than I would have imagined, he was way up there. The talks were way cool and I got an answer to my "inspired question". The Greers wanted each of us to prepare a question and look for the answer in what we were told by E. Perry, and I totally found the answer.

Dad, no worries about the no letter, I did notice, but you're constantly on the road and busy, it's all good. Whit, thanks for the note this week, sounds like Vegas is treating you well. Also, does apple pay you every time you promote their products to me or something? And thanks very much for putting together the package, I appreciate that.

So this last week has been pretty good. We got this couple with us to a church tour for the first time, it was really cool because they actually showed up. We had a member of the stake presidency with us who contributed some really good stuff in the chapel. At the end when we invited them to come to church the following day. The husband said yes right away but the wife was super hesitant about it. She's not too interested in the church it seems. They didn't end up coming on Sunday, but now we know that we can maybe focus things in on the wife and try to get her interested in it. We also went to this old investigator for a haircut, she's actively coming to church and paying tithing. So we plan on jumping on that opportunity. We're seeing her in a members home this Thursday and plan on inviting her to be baptized on a specific date. Hopefully that goes well. She also gave us some awesome coupons for the special treatment at sports clips (where she works) for the face massage and all that stuff, so I'm hoping my hair grows fast so I can go cash that in.

In regards to our moving. So we had interviews with Pres. and Sis. Greer this week. And president is asking me what we can do to revamp the work in Vancouver. The Spanish work is there, but it's struggling a little bit, we're going through a lot of changes. So now what it sounds like will happen is we might get 2 more Spanish elders and just completely restart the work here, which I think would be a way cool move. We'd get a lot more baptisms that way. So there would be 4 of us in the companionship. So now instead of moving in with new members tomorrow, we'll be moving into an apartment next week. Should be fun, I've never had an apartment as a missionary before. The 4 elder thing might not happen, but it's one of the options we're looking at.

I'm on exchange with Elder Dyas right now. Despite the Hispanic name he's totally white. He's been out for about 7 months, really cool guy and he's a convert of 2 years. Great testimony. We've had fun together. We went to WSU campus yesterday and filled out a form requesting permission to have a table and proselyte to all the students, hopefully that'll work out. His area is really struggling right now because they don't have a lot of support from the members. The members like them and feed them and everything, but they're not helping at all with the work. So I'm grateful for the areas that I have served in. It was a rough exchange as far as the work goes. So remember everyone, the missionaries need your help.

Well, I think that about does it for me this week. I love you all and hope every one's doing awesome. Hasta luego.

Love,
Elder Richards

News from Vancouver

Hello One and All,

Well today was a good day, it started off with a trip to the Portland Temple. It's absolutely beautiful and probably my new favorite temple. The Celestial room was absolutely gorgeous, and had two levels which surprised me.

The week was good, the district all preformed well. I had an exchange with one of the zone leaders, we actually sat next to each other on the plane coming out of the mtc, so it was cool to catch up with him and swap stories. It was his 11th month mark that day (he's English so he was only in the mtc for 3 weeks). I really enjoyed spending the day with him, and didn't mind that I had to talk to everyone because he doesn't speak Spanish.

We also found a particularly luscious blackberry bush that probably occupied 10 minutes of our time. Other than that nothing of huge note happened during the week. We went to go visit a potential and found the member daughter of one of the sisters' investigators and she asked us for a blessing. It was cool because afterwards she told us how every time she needs help or a blessing or anything the elders always show up right then. We weren't even looking for her, so that was a cool testimony builder.

Well, I know this is kind of short but I think that about does it for me this week. We're all getting ready to hear from E. Perry this next Monday.

Love,
Elder Richards

P.S.
Just so yall know, we'll be moving a week from tomorrow, I'll send the address next week. Every area I've lived in we've had to move, there's a lot of crap we have to get rid of from other missionaries so it should be fun.

Beautiful Vancouver Summer

Well today is a balmy summer day in Vancouver, we're reaching mid seventies today probably. Just thought I'd toss that in for all you folks enjoying Texas life right now. Another one of the fun things we have to enjoy this time of year is that Blackberries are ripening all over the side of the roads. It is awesome! Makes for a nice snack while tracting. Also the package came in on Wednesday, thank you very much for that mom and sister schaerrer. The book of notes from family and friends was especially enjoyable. Out of all the notes (children's scribblings included) the one I spent the longest time trying to decipher was dad's. And I thought my chicken scratch was bad....

So we had a very good week for the work. We got four new investigators through our area book efforts, with several more on the way. This week (Wednesday and Thursday) we'll be hosting a mini missionary, so that should be fun and exciting. He's a priest in our branch and is a pretty cool kid, so it should be fun.

One really cool thing we got to participate in was we sat in on an interview with our investigator Jose and one of the mission president's councilors. We were all pretty nervous going into it, (Jose, and President Hartley included). But it turned out to be a wonderful experience for everyone. I am blown away by Jose's desire to make right his mistakes. He is truly repentant and is working toward his goal of baptism. I say his goal because that is what he wants for himself, a chance to become part of the truth, his testimony is awesome and I am always glad that I get the opportunity to work with him.

One of the benefits I enjoy most out of working with a white companion is that it allows me to use my Spanish a lot more. Often times when working with a native speaker it is easy for them to do most of the talking, but with a greeny, I get to step up and talk. I like it.

In the latest mission news letter I saw that 4 of the people that I have worked with in the past have been baptized now. 3 of them back in Basin City, and one of them in Boardman. I was especially excited to learn about Jaenine back in Boardman because I had worked with her for so long. She really wanted to be baptized but she just couldn't kick smoking. Her health was steadily declining when I left and that was a story that I always wondered about. But she finally made it. I was so happy to find out. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to work and lay the foundation for other missionaries. That's what the work is all about, sometimes we reap, and sometimes we sew.

Well my time is about up, thanks everyone for your love and support. Remember siblings, I welcome any and all mail computer or other wise.

Love,
Elder Richards

p.s. yes mom, that was the right sweater, thanks very much. It always was my favorite and now I don't want to take it off when it's time to go out to work.

Fatherhood

Hello One and All,

Well another week has come and gone and with it, my year mark is just around the corner. That'll be a strange day, granted it feels like I've been out for an eternity, but a year seems to have passed by quickly. And the other big news would be my training a new missionary I suppose.

His name is Elder Swenson, he's from Riverton Utah. Youngest of 4 (2 sisters and 1 brother). His Spanish is as good as any white boy fresh out of the MTC, but he's constantly improving on it. We get along pretty well, he's a little quiet, but there's nothing wrong with that, when he has something to say he'll say it. He's a really good worker and we are currently trying to reestablish contact with all the former investigators in our area book.

One cool story we had this week was we were out tracting, it wasn't very productive or successful. We knocked on a door we saw a Hispanic guy go into, but he wasn't interested. We turned to leave and I said let's knock a door over on the other side. So we do, and this black girl, Jessica, answers. She lets us in and we start talking to her. I asked her why she let us in and she goes on to tell us how not 10 minutes earlier she had been praying real hard to God to do something and help her in her current struggles. Then we knocked. She was pretty impressed by that and recognized it as a sign from God. After a short lesson we referred her to the English elders, they tell us that she's golden. That's the life of the Spanish elder I guess, sending out referrals to everyone else.

Believe it or not but I'm actually getting a lot darker these days, we've been having bright sunny days everyday. Combine that with tracting and walking and you get one tan Elder Richards.The days are warm, but it's still only in the mid 80's. That's a heck of a lot better than what Pasco would be getting right now.

Well I think that about covers it for the week as of right now. Thanks for the emails, and I hope to keep hearing from everyone.

Love,
Elder Richards

The Start to a New Transfer

Hello One and All,

Well it was great to hear from you, mom, your email came just in time. To answer the question about when I started it was the 4th. And yes mom, copper may be getting old, but lets think positive here. Also, any word on where that cousin lives here in Vancouver?

So I guess the big news is we got the transfer information. I am staying here in Vancouver, E. Diaz will be going to Pasco, and I am expecting, that's right I'm going to be a daddy, or in other words I will be training a new missionary. I'll be picking him up tomorrow, so I'm excited to meet him. I don't know who it is, but Pres. Greer was telling me that he would be an Elder who doesn't speak Spanish (in the sense that he has been in the MTC trying to learn) so that should be interesting. Just to clear up all misconceptions, this is my first time training. I'm excited, hopefully we will be able to have some good success this transfer.

Attached are some of the pictures from our Pday waterfall hike a couple of weeks ago, it was a lot of fun. Some of those pictures were scary to take because my shoes have no traction left on them, and if you add in a several hundred foot cliff to that mix well, you see where I'm going with this.

This Saturday the branch will be having a picnic, so that should be a lot of fun, it'll be a real nice way to ease my greeny into things. Hopefully we can get a lot of people there. I'll be handing out a lot of invitations this week.

I guess a kind of funny story. We were oym-ing (street contacting) a lady at a bus stop the other day. We were having a lovely chat with her and things were good. We started to explain what the book of Mormon was because she had asked about that. I had just said "We believe..." When some old guy snuck up on us and says, "What they believe is that when you die you become a god and get your own planet!" And yelled other stuff at us, I didn't exactly keep a level head and kind of politely yelled at the guy as he was walking away. The lady we were talking to sympathized with us and asked for missionaries to come to her home, so we referred her to the English elders. Just another day in the life I suppose.

Well, I hope everyone has a super awesome week. I love you all and the church is true.

Love,
Elder Richards

Yet Another Last Week

Hello One and All,

Well I hope the mini reunion went great, and the big one for that matter. Sorry to hear about your health troubles Mike, that's got to suck. Eric, Happy Early Birthday, and many happy returns. Mom, I'm guessing that the word you meant to say was Hazel Dell, that's in my area, technically it would fall to the English elders here, but I would definitely go check things out first. Just let me know if you find an address.

Well life is pretty good this last week. We finally got some Vancouverish weather with clouds and even the occasional rain. Nifty! The big news we got from president Greer this morning is that Elder L. Tom Perry will be visiting our mission in August. So that'll be way cool.

Yesterday I did an exchange with one of the zone leaders, it went really well and we found a lot of people I can try back with Elder Diaz. It felt kind of good being the most Spanish fluent in the companionship for a day, it's been a while since I was with my only other white companion E. Powell. We went and had a lesson with Jose last night as well, so we are going to keep working with him and continue to try to help him work through a few things that have come to light recently.

One really cool thing that happened yesterday is that I oym'd (or street contacted) a deaf woman. There's a really cool less active kid (18 or 19, but he could pass off as 30) who likes to hang out with us when we walk through apartments. He speaks Russian, Italian, and is learning Spanish from us. He is also a professional asl translator. So he taught us a few things. I asked the woman if she would like to talk about Jesus, she said no thank you, but still I contacted a deaf lady. I also learned some valuable Russian from him that I haven't gotten to put into practice yet, but it's only a matter of time (there's a lot of Russians here).

I love you all, and hope to hear from everyone in the coming weeks.

Love,
Elder Richards

Finally a Rainy Day in Vancouver

Hello One and All,

So, let me think let me think let me think. I hate to say it but nothing sticks out in my mind about this last week. Thanks mom for all those birthday updates, it made me smile and remember a lot of people, maybe made me a little bit trunky, but that's ok it'll clear up before the day's through. Sounds like the family reunion will be awesome, hopefully Eric can make it.

So one neat story, yesterday we were out walking and this black guy in baggy pants, no shirt, and with tattoos all over his face neck and arms comes walking past us smoking a cigarette. We stopped to talk to him and ended up having a 15-20 minute lesson/chat with this really cool guy, Derik. He had had a troubled past (selling drugs and jail time) but he was turning things around and shared a real cool testimony of the bible with us. He was a really cool guy and we shook his hand, high fived him, gave him a hug, all that stuff, he was our buddy by the end of it. He kept telling us how he knew what he looked like, and people avoid him for that and he thanked us for talking with him because sometimes he gets lonely. Really nice guy.

We continue to work with Jose. He is really progressing, he's already finished Jacob in the Book of Mormon, but baptism is still a difficult subject with him. He knows he needs to be baptized, and he really wants to, but it's causing a lot of problems with him and his wife, she doesn't like the church and she doesn't like Elder Diaz and I. We want to catch her home so we can try to win her over, but if she knows we're coming she leaves the house. Hopefully she won't be a road block for Jose.

This morning we drove down a little past Portland to go on a hike with our zone. It was a lot of fun and I got some great pictures I'll send soon. It was another waterfall, but a lot tamer than the one in Pasco.

Well, I think that about covers things this week, hard to believe the transfers almost over. I love you all very much and I hope this weekend is a lot of fun for everyone. Be sure to take lots of pictures.

Love,
Elder Richards

Happy Fireworks

Hello One and All,

So I'm writing today because our Pday was moved to the 4th this week for obvious reasons. And this was our designated day for writing. So I'll start with the previous week and then work my way to the fourth. Thanks everyone for the letters. Happy early birthday to grandpa R. And in regards to your inquiry about package stuff mom, if you see my black/red zip up sweater, I would love to have that.

Now then, into the meaty letter!

So last week we had a church tour planned for our branch. We share the branch with the Spanish sister missionaries, so we were hoping for a good turnout of investigators between the two companionships. The branch got super involved and it was a really well run activity. The only hang up was that only one person showed up, our Investigator Jose. The other problem was that Elder Diaz and I had to go and pick him up for it (one of those "ox in the mire" situations). Despite the lack of attendance the activity still went well. The whole thing was focused in on him, but he wasn't uncomfortable with it as some people might expect. The coolest part of the tour was when we were in the relief society room. The relief society president had just got done explaining the program and we took him over to the font to show him that. As soon as I had it unlocked and starting to open, as if it had been waiting inside, the spirit came pouring up out of the font. It was super strong and everyone felt it. Jose really wants to be baptized, but his wife wants nothing to do with the church, or us for that matter, and it's really starting to put a strain on the marriage. Hopefully we can bring her around.

On Friday I think it was we had an interesting experience. The sister missionaries had given us a referral, it was in their area but they said that they didn't feel comfortable going over there for some reason. In the end we were a little mad at them for the terrible referral, but at the same time glad that it was us that went over rather than them. So here's how that went down: We pull up to the house and there's four men out front drinking (it doesn't matter what holiday it is, if it presents an excuse to drink the mexicans embrace it whole heartedly). We start talking to them and two of them (presumably brothers) are out of their mind falling down drunk. Another one (the "leader" of the group) is only so-so drunk. And the fourth guy seems very apologetic for the state that his friends are in. So we start talking to the medium drunk leader. The two very drunk brothers keep interrupting so I take them aside to talk with them so Diaz can talk with the leader uninterrupted. I don't know how Diaz's teaching went but mine was good given the circumstances. I rebuked one of them several times because he kept telling me about less than righteous experiences and motives he had had for attending the Mormon church. After being out front for about an hour (we had gotten there at roughly 8 pm) we are invited to the back yard for food. We accept (there is no saying no or reasoning with a drunk man sometimes). So we enjoyed a little bit of carne asada and more attempts to share a message. Eventually it starts to hit 9:30ish so I get up and tell them we have to leave, the leader angrily says to me "Sietate flacito, vas a salir cuando yo digo que peudes" which more or less means you'll leave when I say you can. So I sat back down and Elder Diaz starts nudging me under the table which I took to mean "don't worry I got this" (I later found out it meant "stand back up I'm scared"). Eventually we are able to say a prayer with them and then the leader wanted to show us his home (or give us a ride to his home in his truck) we flat out refused and left. We got home with a rather bitter taste in our mouths at about 10:30pm. We do plan to follow up with the fourth guy, he was interested and sorry about his friends.

Pday was a lot of fun. We went with a small group of Elders to bike. It wasn't mountain biking, more riding through "trails" in a hilly forest. Definitely different than mountain biking. It was a lot of fun. Me and Elder Diaz shared the bike of an Elder who hates bikes. I went first and had a lot of fun flying through the forest maintaining an acceptable amount of control on the bike. Then Edler Diaz took his turn. His turn ended rather abruptly when going down a rather steep hill he flipped with his back and came crashing down and landing in a heap at the bottom in some bushes and trees. The rest of us ran over and started to assess the situation. He was mumbling how he couldn't move his arm. I was pretty terrified because he had already broken his arm on a previous occasion before the mission, what if it rebroke? So we rolled him over stripped off his helmet and gave him a priesthood blessing. One Elder Anointed and I sealed. Afterwards we picked him up and helped walk him back to the car. Once we stood him up we figured out nothing was broken, we suspected it was a bad wrist sprain. He was in pretty good spirits. Once we got back to the nearest Elders' home we were trying to figure out what we ought to do. Suddenly we were brought around by the sickening sound of several pops and cracks. Elder Diaz had a very relieved look on his face, apparently he had just put his wrist and shoulder back in place. The swelling immediately went away and movement returned. We all got a slightly stronger testimony about the priesthood and we learned a valuable lesson, forest biking is similar enough to mountain biking that we shouldn't do it. Everyone was ok, and we enjoyed the remainder of our Pday.

During my fourth of July dinner I was thinking enviously of the delicious barbecue that had to be going on back in Houston. The members we ate with prepared us sloppy Joe's. That's not to say that I don't like sloppy joes, but that's not what you eat on the 4th of July! The fourth is meant for grilling and guacamole and blowing stuff up. That's what the founding fathers wanted! But alas, it's ok. Another fun fact is that the days leading up to the 4th it felt like I was living in a war zone. Every single second was filled with the sound of artillery explosions.

Well, it was a pretty all right week I suppose. This week we have zone conference. So on Friday I'll be driving a car full of Elders out to Longview (about 2 1/2 hours). Then the next day is some specialized training. So there'll be some really neat experiences in the coming week hopefully. I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to hearing from everyone next week.

Con Much Amor,
Elder Richards

Another Sunny Week in Vancouver

Hello One and All,

Well, I'm still here. Quick address update: my new address is 701 NE 108th St. Vancouver WA 98685. Any and all mail is very much welcomed.

Well this was a pretty good week I suppose. I'm still trying to get used to the significantly lower work load we have out here. That's not to say we're not doing things, we walk and talk to people a lot, but it's not like Pasco where we have investigators up to our ears. We are making progress with our investigator Jose, we resolved his concerns and he wants to be baptized again. He's on date for the 9th, so we're excited. We have a car, but we park it a lot to do what we call "loops". Where we walk in giant circles and talk to everyone who crosses our path.

We're trying to work with this recent converts husband. He's a really cool guy, also we're pretty sure he's in the mafia. His name is Gino Giovani Morelli. Yeah the name pretty much says it all. He even owns a delivery business. Probably delivering dead horses to guys who don't make their payment. I could totally see this guy plugging someone and then going home to play with his daughters. He likes us a lot and he takes good care of us.

Fun fact for Whitney, there's a ton of Russians here.

Elder Diaz and I get along pretty well, he's a cool guy, I like him. I had something I was wanting to say or ask, but for the life of me I can not remember what it was. Ooh I hate that.

Dad, what ever happened with my taxes? I hope all is well with that.

Well, I'm sorry this is a little short, but I can't think of what it was I was wanting to say. But thank you everyone for your love and support. Oh I totally remembered. The other day something happened to me for the first time on my mission. I was at lunch with a bunch of missionaries and I realized I was the oldest missionary at the table. When did that happen? I'm always the youngin'. I have a hard time grasping the thought that I'll hit a year next transfer. Craziness. Well I hope everyone has a fantastic week, I love mail by the way.

Love,
Elder Richards

p.s. I did not have to shave my legs, but the deal stands if the district ever lives up to the goal. I don't see it happening

The Life and Times in Vancouver

Hello One and All,

Well I'm finally starting to feel a bit more settled in. Thanks to Whit and her recent blog post about waiting a week, that really helped me keep my head on straight. So Vancouver is different. It is a world apart from Pasco. Pasco resembles the desert prairies of Utah, and Vancouver is what comes to your minds when you think of the evergreen state. They are so different, but I love it here in Vancouver. The weather is no where near what I was expecting. Every time you hear about the West Side it is coupled with comments of never seeing the sun. There have been several beautiful bright sunny days, granted I'm pretty sure that's due to the summer time. But there have also been dark dreary and rainy days as well. I really like it when it rains, that's one thing I do miss about Houston, the big rain storms, and those were seriously lacking in Pasco and Boardman, deserts. It'll some time rain right out here, but the more common is a constant misting that goes on for hours at a time. We have a car, but still spend a lot of time on our feet doing "loops" (walking in giant circles so as to look like we're going somewhere, but in actuality just talking to people we come across). The temp. is nice and mild as well.

My new companion Elder Diaz is way cool. We get along great. He's from Snowflake Arizona, both of his parents are Mexican, so he grew up speaking it in the house, so another native comp. I guess my Spanish is lacking enough to merit having 4 out of 5 companions be native. He's almost brand new. He was trained by Elder Hanson (my big Tongan comp from the mtc). In regards to training him-the church is trying out a new pilot program for training new missionaries with our mission to see how it goes. When a new missionary comes to the field he will be with his trainer for 12 weeks (2 transfers). During the 12 weeks they are given an additional hour of companionship study where there is a semi specific curriculum to study. In theory at the end of the 12 weeks the greeny should be ready, if called upon, to train. So Hanson got transferred after Diaz first 6 weeks. So I am technically continuing the training process, but I don't consider myself his trainer, I'm just a glorified greeny buster. It's kind of like when Quigon Jinn was killed by Darth Maul and Obiwan had to complete Anikan's training. Yes dad, that is a star wars reference.

So I'm doing that, and I'm also a district leader. The district is much smaller than Pasco, and has some english elders in it so I get to do the training in English which is easier. Yesterday was the first district meeting, it went pretty well. Numbers are super low here in comparison to Pasco, it's actually a kind of tough area. So the agreement was made if the district could make a certain number to report this week I would shave my legs. I don't think they'll make it, but then again I guess we'll see.

Vancouver is a city. So this is the first time I've worked in this environment, I've always been in the secluded towns in the middle of nowhere, It takes some serious adjustment, because now I can't talk to everybody. We cover several English elders' areas, so we have to try and find the Hispanics mixed in, and we send referrals of everyone else we find to the English elders. It's really different, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

It turns out I'm walking into some success. We have a guy on date to get baptized this Saturday. I'm not sure if we will be able to get him ready in time, but I hope so. Either way, he'll get baptized soon.

Well, I'm just about out of time, but thanks everyone for everything. I appreciate all you do for me. Happy Belated Fathers day dad!

Love,
Elder Richards



p.s. It sounds like I wont recognize the house when I get back.

The Close of Another Transfer

First off congrats to mom, you caught me in time, that was a close one.

Well, transfers have come and the big news is as follows: Elder Bao will be training here in Basin City and Connell. And I am getting transferred to the Vancouver West Zone. So there it is. My new comp's name is Elder Diaz, I've never met him, but he was in the latest mission news letter so he's pretty new I think. I guess I'll be greeny busting him.

I've really enjoyed my time here in Pasco, it's a little sad to go, I had a lot of success here and made a lot of friends, but I am excited to see Vancouver and some rain. The last few days we have been running around saying my goodbyes. It always feels nice to see people and how you've affected their lives. I guess for clarity sake I'll write down the baptisms we had while I was here: Maria Elaina, Alberto, Pablo, Adrian, Eli, Caily, Joan, and Zenaida. In the following transfer Bao's greeny will take part in the baptisms of Sara, Salvador, Maira, Alonzo, and Donna. This is a pretty fantastic area. The members help us out a lot and the people are very missionary minded. I'll be real bummed to miss Salvador's baptism, we tried to get it to work out to baptize him tonight before I leave, but his parents are really resistant which is unfortunate. I gave him my Houston Dynamo shirt to remember me by, and then he gave me a soccer ball from the pumas (his favorite mexico team) with different things he wrote all over it, it was really cool.

I guess transfers were probably the biggest news this week, nothing else really comes to mind. So I'll attach some pictures and call it a week. Thanks everyone for the emails, Whit, just the other day I was wondering what it was you would do during the days, now I know. Dad, Happy Father's day! Everyone else, I love you and think about you. Take care, the next time you hear from me I will probably be wet. (Because of all the rain in vancouver).

Love,

Elder Richards

p.s. more pics next week, now I'm out of time

Last Week of the Transfer

June 7, 2011

Hello One and All,

It feels like this week has gone on forever, but then again it was a good week. We went to the temple this morning which is why I am writing so late today. Thanks everyone for the letters, they were appreciated.

This last Wednesday we had an extremely drunk investigator jump in our backseat. He proceeded to talk about how much he needed our help and the "pinche diablo". We rebuked him for 10 minutes or so until we finally pulled him out of our car and walked him back to his apartment. The next time we saw him he wouldn't look at us and seemed pretty embarrassed, hopefully he gets over it.

We had another baptism. Zenaida Ruiz. It went super good and we had a huge turn out from the ward and the branch. Lots of her non member extended family came too. President and Sister Greer came down too which was way neat. I got to baptize her, I was pretty nervous because she had just had her knee operated on and I didn't want to undo anything, but it went great. Thankfully she is small.

We are supposed to have a baptism this week, but we're not so sure it's going to happen now, so we'll have to wait and see.

I ate chiva for the first time the other day. It was way good.

Well, I'm just about out of time, but I love all of you and the church is true and the work is going great out here. It'll be interesting to see what happens with transfers coming up.

Love,

Elder Richards

Mas Exito

Hello One and All,

Well this last week was a pretty good one. Last Pday the Palouse Falls was awesome. I have some really cool pictures I want to send home but as of right now I cannot find my plug in to copy pics to the computer. So those will be forthcoming. So yeah, the falls were really cool. The group of Elders I was with found this "path" (it was actually just a cliff with plumbing running down it we could use to help us climb) that took us right down to the base of the waterfall. It was really pretty and a lot of fun. We showed the pictures to Sister Davidson (a bishop's wife/our mother in this area) and she told us that we shouldn't send them to our mothers. So maybe I'll send the pics to Whit and she can decide if there ok for you mom.

My big news for today is that I successfully sewed a button back onto one of my shirts. I was pretty proud of myself.

Our baptism last saturday went through successfully. Her son baptized her and confirmed her, and it was really neat to see how excited she was to take this step. The service was a little stressful, because we hadn't sufficiently coordinated with the family so the program was not to there liking. I was getting dagger stares from the Daughter in law for most of my talk. But afterwords we ran into them at a restaurant and they invited us over to sit with them and we had a lovely time chatting with them and everyone was happy, so things worked out good in the end.

We had interviews with President and Sister Greer this last week. They went really great and I had an awesome visit with them both. They both thought my spanish story on mothers day was hilarious and that I did the right thing telling it in spanish. I'm now in the older half of spanish elders in the mission so it looks like I might be training pretty soon. I was talking with one of the zl's and he was saying that he's pretty positive that either me or Bao will be training next transfer, and that both of us will be training the following. So we will see what happens with that.

Yesterday we did a brief exchange with the ZL's I went with one to get our baptismal candidate interviewed for thursday while the other went with Bao to our dinner appointment. I was a little bummed out because it was a really cool family from the spanish branch. But the interview went well and Zenaida is ready to get baptized. She's really excited for this. Hopefully we can get her brother and sister soon. They both want it but they want to wait a little. When we met back up with the other elders we learned that at dinner Brother Alvarez had killed a goat. I was pretty bummed that I missed it, but baptisms are important too. I did watch the video that Bao took of it. It was really funny, also extremely bloody. But we won't dwell on that I suppose.

Life is good out here. Thanks for the updates on things mom. I love you all very much. The church is true.

Love,

Elder Richards

p.s. Mom, that picture you sent me actually looks exactly like where I live, except minus the mountains. We're in the middle of a orchards. There's a lot of farm land and sage brush, but it's still pretty in a deserty sort of way.

All Settled In

Hello One and All,

Well, life in the WKM is pretty good these days. We're all settled in and in a routine in our new home. Our address is 4500 sheffield rd. We even started running every morning, so needless to say I'm big and buff and fit. Actually there's a pretty substantial hill at the end of the run coming back to the house, and every time I get to the top I feel like I'm on the verge of having a heart attack. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger right? Also I get reminded just how bad of joints I have (there's a lot of creaking and cracking and clicking going on).

The week's work was pretty good. We did awesome with getting members present in our lessons which is always desirable. This Saturday we will be having a baptism. And then another one next week, so we're excited for that.

Today for Pday the zone is going to some nearby waterfall. It should be a lot of fun, I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Fun fact that dad and Eric will probably enjoy: This morning I was folding up laundry in our closet when I found an autographed football from Steve Young. I had to explain the significance of that to Elder Bao, but once he understood he thought it was pretty cool. I'd sneak it home for you dad, but it's autographed to "Trevor" sorry.

Mom, so this last week we went and visited this older member. She's almost 93, and still very active. She was a really neat lady and shared several cool stories with us. She also told us about a book that I thought you would really enjoy it's called Divine Signature The Confirming Hand of God, by Gerald N. Lund. The work and the glory guy. It's a compilation of inspiring missionary stories, and pioneer accounts from the good ol' days of persecution. And a genealogical question for you: Are we related to Robert Clifton? He's pioneer stock. The name sounded familiar to me for some reason.

On Friday we had a lot of mexicans asking us if the world was going to end the next day. Apparently some guy who predicted the end of the world back in 94 double checked his math and realized he forgot to carry a one or something and the actual end of the world was last saturday. We explained how not even the angels in heaven know when that will happen. But it did give us a few teaching opportunities, we asked people if they would like to know how God really communicates with us. And then...Prophets! So it was a good time.

On saturday we went to several parties, the first one was in the trailer park with all the spanish branch members. Hmno Cano was grilling and it was very tastey. Home made tortillas and orchata, what could be better. I had this awesome stew that you wrap up in your tortilla, I can't remember what it was called but I think it was pork or something...maybe chiva, I'm not to sure. But it was good. Then that night the ward had a dutch oven dinner over at this little private owned airport, that was also tastey. We had to run out early because one of our investigators called us and asked if we could come over right then.

Well, I think that just about does it for me this week. I'm really greatful to all of you for all that you do for me. Thanks Whit and Cody for the post cards, I have 4 to date (3 of them came yesterday). I hope all of you are doing good. Mom, could you do me a favor, get in contact with Ricardo, he wrote me a week or two back, but I'm not sure where to write back because I think the semester ends soon. Thanks everyone. The church is true, and God loves you.

Love,

Elder Richards