Hello One and All,
Happy Easter. Ours was pretty good. On saturday we were working in Connell. There was a big Easter Egg Hunt going on at the park so we went and starting handing out passalong cards like crazy. At the end of it we went and OYM'd the Easter Bunny, gave him a card and got a picture with him. It was pretty cool. Turns out he comes from mexico. That's what his wife told us, he was pretty dedicated to the bit and wouldn't talk. But we shook his hand and told him about the church.
We'll have 3 baptisms this week probably, which I'm excited are finally happening. One of them Alberto asked me to baptize him which I'm flattered/honored by. We blessed/named his baby on sunday, it was neat because I had never been in a baby circle before.
Yesterday it rained a ton so naturally we went tracting. We got some possible trybacks as a result. Well this email might be lacking in the length department, but I am rather tired right now and will close as is. Thanks everyone for letters, I love you all. Say hello to everyone for me.
Love,
Elder Richards
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Welcome back Eric
Hello One and All,
Well another enjoyable week has passed by here in the BC Connell. I was just catching up on Jess' blog, happy belated birthday to Benson. I hope you enjoy your Gecko, I remember Mike's old Gecko, that thing was mean, it bit everyone. So hopefully yours is better. A big welcome back to Eric, hopefully you can get out of the service asap and be nice and civilianized and move on with life. Mom, my easter package came in yesterday, (I opened it surrounded by 7 other elders and there was something of a feeding frenzy, but that's ok it was fun and there's still plenty left for me) thanks very much for that, also I got the Barnes and Nobles notification email, thank you for that as well. I am very excited for that to come. I guess that's my bad I didn't know you thought it was a church cd. We played one of the movements for our ballad junior year of marching band, it's been one of my favorites ever since. But my copy somehow got misplaced in whit's collection...hope you enjoy it!
So this week was pretty good. Unfortunately no baptisms. But we had three people interviewed and ready to get baptized any time as soon as we are able to get everything else worked out. I hope those happen before the end of the transfer. Last night was an exchange that was pretty fun. At the end of it all the spanish elders met up and slept at the ZL's apartment, so for those who know anything about missionaries and exchanges you'll know I use the term 'sleep' loosely. But it was a lot of fun. So I went out with a fairly new elder and inspected his area. We taught his baptismal candidate. Or that is we went over a couple of principles before he got up and used the chalkboard (we were in a church) to teach me everything he had learned since the missionaries started working with him. He went on for about 2 hours, so our night was kind of shot. But it was funny and cool to see how much he had retained from the lessons and church.
We did a lot of tracting this week and found a lot of potentials from it. It wasn't our best week number wise on account of zone conference and all that going down. We had a really fun lesson with a less active woman and her 3 young kids. The kids got really into it and we taught them primary songs and had a lot of fun getting them excited about coming to church. They will be key in reactivating the mother. She likes the church, she just hasn't been since she moved here. Really nice lady. Her oldest is 8 so maybe we can get him baptized (I don't know though because there father is pretty against the church.)
Well it was a good week, not too eventful. Enjoy the pics, we took them at a members house during a dinner appointment, it was pretty fun.
Love,
Elder Richards
Well another enjoyable week has passed by here in the BC Connell. I was just catching up on Jess' blog, happy belated birthday to Benson. I hope you enjoy your Gecko, I remember Mike's old Gecko, that thing was mean, it bit everyone. So hopefully yours is better. A big welcome back to Eric, hopefully you can get out of the service asap and be nice and civilianized and move on with life. Mom, my easter package came in yesterday, (I opened it surrounded by 7 other elders and there was something of a feeding frenzy, but that's ok it was fun and there's still plenty left for me) thanks very much for that, also I got the Barnes and Nobles notification email, thank you for that as well. I am very excited for that to come. I guess that's my bad I didn't know you thought it was a church cd. We played one of the movements for our ballad junior year of marching band, it's been one of my favorites ever since. But my copy somehow got misplaced in whit's collection...hope you enjoy it!
So this week was pretty good. Unfortunately no baptisms. But we had three people interviewed and ready to get baptized any time as soon as we are able to get everything else worked out. I hope those happen before the end of the transfer. Last night was an exchange that was pretty fun. At the end of it all the spanish elders met up and slept at the ZL's apartment, so for those who know anything about missionaries and exchanges you'll know I use the term 'sleep' loosely. But it was a lot of fun. So I went out with a fairly new elder and inspected his area. We taught his baptismal candidate. Or that is we went over a couple of principles before he got up and used the chalkboard (we were in a church) to teach me everything he had learned since the missionaries started working with him. He went on for about 2 hours, so our night was kind of shot. But it was funny and cool to see how much he had retained from the lessons and church.
We did a lot of tracting this week and found a lot of potentials from it. It wasn't our best week number wise on account of zone conference and all that going down. We had a really fun lesson with a less active woman and her 3 young kids. The kids got really into it and we taught them primary songs and had a lot of fun getting them excited about coming to church. They will be key in reactivating the mother. She likes the church, she just hasn't been since she moved here. Really nice lady. Her oldest is 8 so maybe we can get him baptized (I don't know though because there father is pretty against the church.)
Well it was a good week, not too eventful. Enjoy the pics, we took them at a members house during a dinner appointment, it was pretty fun.
Love,
Elder Richards
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Close To a Very Good Week
Hello One and All,
I suppose an apology is due first, I forgot that yesterday was Zone Conference, so Pday got moved to today. It's actually kind of a bummer. We have a Zone barbeque planned and yesterday was the perfect weather, today is dark and rainy. But that's ok. So, I guess to start off, Zone Conference was awesome. Monday morning instead of my usual district meeting the zone leaders called a special meeting to chastise the district for lacking in the numbers department. For the most part it was not directed towards me and Bao. But everyone learned something, and I think we'll all be better missionaries for it.
That night me and Bao went and stayed in the ZL's apartment to save having to drive to Pasco in the morning. Due to a lack of beds I slept back to back with Elder Huff who is my mission brother (we had the same trainer or "papi") about half way through the night I ended up on the floor because I just did not have enough room. Pretty lousy night's sleep, but that's ok. The next morning was Zone Conference which was focused all on the importance of using the Book of Mormon with our investigators. We all took a lot away from it.
Yes all of our baptisms went through. Maria Elena's baptism went great, there was no one there at the start of it, but by the end of it there was a good crowd from the branch. The branch president baptized her and Elder Bao confirmed her on sunday. Also we are now teaching two of her sons who will be baptized a week from Saturday which is exciting. Because it was her birthday we bought her a cake for the baptism. We asked the guy to write felicitaciones (or congrats) on the cake. About half way through the writing he asks us if it's ok if he puts a hyphen and continues below. Well, at that point it was a little late to ask us if it was ok, but yeah sure go for it, we didn't want to be rude. When he gave us the cake we saw that the skill level was just about as good as I could have done. We had a good laugh about it in the car ride home. He was a nice guy, and it was free, so we can't complain.
The other baptism for Eli and Kaily also went as planned. Kaily's uncle baptized her and Eli's friend baptized him. It was really cool, there was such a huge turn out from the ward that we had to have the service in the chapel to fit everyone. On Sunday I confirmed Eli, and one of the bishopric confirmed Kaily. Both of them have said how they have friends who want to talk to us, so the work will continue to go because of them.
On Friday we had Juan a recent convert come out with us. It was a lot of fun, and it ended up being a super productive day so he got to be a part of several lessons which was cool. It really got him excited for serving a mission which was good. We had a really funny experience at one door in particular. I won't get into the details but I was laughing pretty hard at the lady while trying to give my door approach while Bao and Juan did their best to stifle their laughing. But don't worry, we didn't offend her, we even got let in and taught a lesson. It was a fun day.
So that was the week. With all the baptisms we still had a super productive week with all our lessons. Yay exito! Happy bday to cody., Congrats on getting home soon to Eric. And mike and Jess, hope all is well with yall. Whit, I enjoy your blog each week.
Remember, the church is true. God loves you, and thank you for love and support. Enjoy the pictures!
Love,
Elder Richards
I suppose an apology is due first, I forgot that yesterday was Zone Conference, so Pday got moved to today. It's actually kind of a bummer. We have a Zone barbeque planned and yesterday was the perfect weather, today is dark and rainy. But that's ok. So, I guess to start off, Zone Conference was awesome. Monday morning instead of my usual district meeting the zone leaders called a special meeting to chastise the district for lacking in the numbers department. For the most part it was not directed towards me and Bao. But everyone learned something, and I think we'll all be better missionaries for it.
That night me and Bao went and stayed in the ZL's apartment to save having to drive to Pasco in the morning. Due to a lack of beds I slept back to back with Elder Huff who is my mission brother (we had the same trainer or "papi") about half way through the night I ended up on the floor because I just did not have enough room. Pretty lousy night's sleep, but that's ok. The next morning was Zone Conference which was focused all on the importance of using the Book of Mormon with our investigators. We all took a lot away from it.
Yes all of our baptisms went through. Maria Elena's baptism went great, there was no one there at the start of it, but by the end of it there was a good crowd from the branch. The branch president baptized her and Elder Bao confirmed her on sunday. Also we are now teaching two of her sons who will be baptized a week from Saturday which is exciting. Because it was her birthday we bought her a cake for the baptism. We asked the guy to write felicitaciones (or congrats) on the cake. About half way through the writing he asks us if it's ok if he puts a hyphen and continues below. Well, at that point it was a little late to ask us if it was ok, but yeah sure go for it, we didn't want to be rude. When he gave us the cake we saw that the skill level was just about as good as I could have done. We had a good laugh about it in the car ride home. He was a nice guy, and it was free, so we can't complain.
The other baptism for Eli and Kaily also went as planned. Kaily's uncle baptized her and Eli's friend baptized him. It was really cool, there was such a huge turn out from the ward that we had to have the service in the chapel to fit everyone. On Sunday I confirmed Eli, and one of the bishopric confirmed Kaily. Both of them have said how they have friends who want to talk to us, so the work will continue to go because of them.
On Friday we had Juan a recent convert come out with us. It was a lot of fun, and it ended up being a super productive day so he got to be a part of several lessons which was cool. It really got him excited for serving a mission which was good. We had a really funny experience at one door in particular. I won't get into the details but I was laughing pretty hard at the lady while trying to give my door approach while Bao and Juan did their best to stifle their laughing. But don't worry, we didn't offend her, we even got let in and taught a lesson. It was a fun day.
So that was the week. With all the baptisms we still had a super productive week with all our lessons. Yay exito! Happy bday to cody., Congrats on getting home soon to Eric. And mike and Jess, hope all is well with yall. Whit, I enjoy your blog each week.
Remember, the church is true. God loves you, and thank you for love and support. Enjoy the pictures!
Love,
Elder Richards
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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
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
Gettin' all Kinds of Wet
Hello One and All,
So another week has passed by, and a pretty good one at that. I guess first some business for mom. In regards to an Easter package, Reese's eggs are possibly the most delicious brand of Reese's there is. Useful things, I could really use a cd case. Also Sister Taylor gave me a box of junior mints and says it's from you, so thanks for that I suppose. The Taylors are really cool people.
So conference was awesome. We watched the first session after milking some cows and doing other farm work. I'll send some pictures next week, they're pretty good actually. Then we watched the first session with our members, after that we drove over to Connell to watch the second session at the church there. We were the only one's there so we flipped the tv around and watched from the more comfortable chairs on the stand. Priesthood session was particularly awesome. In between sessions we taught a lesson at the church to some people on track to be baptized.
Speaking of baptizing, this is going to be a pretty good week. We have a baptism tonight at 6 for the Basin City Spanish branch. Her name's Maria Elena, we've been working with her for a while, so this is exciting. Today is her birthday. President Whitby (the branch pres.) will be dunking her. Should be really cool. Me and Bao are giving the talks. Then on Saturday we'll be baptizing a brother and a sister for the Connell English ward. I'm pretty excited because these are my first baptisms since my trainer left. So hopefully from now on I'll be more successful with the training wheels off.
Last night we had FHE with Bishop Davidson and his family which was a lot of fun. Juan and Andres two recent converts came as well. So me and Elder Bao taught a pretty fun lesson about the ten commandments. Everyone enjoyed it. It's a really big family, and kids of all ages. They actually have a daughter who's serving down in Houston right now, I'm pretty sure. Also one of their older daughters looks exactly like a friend I had in college. It's borderline scary how similar they look. We also played games, sang songs, and participated in general merry making.
Well, I think that's everything notable of life as of now. The church is true. This is going to be a good week. And Jesus loves you. Thanks everyone for letters and support.
So another week has passed by, and a pretty good one at that. I guess first some business for mom. In regards to an Easter package, Reese's eggs are possibly the most delicious brand of Reese's there is. Useful things, I could really use a cd case. Also Sister Taylor gave me a box of junior mints and says it's from you, so thanks for that I suppose. The Taylors are really cool people.
So conference was awesome. We watched the first session after milking some cows and doing other farm work. I'll send some pictures next week, they're pretty good actually. Then we watched the first session with our members, after that we drove over to Connell to watch the second session at the church there. We were the only one's there so we flipped the tv around and watched from the more comfortable chairs on the stand. Priesthood session was particularly awesome. In between sessions we taught a lesson at the church to some people on track to be baptized.
Speaking of baptizing, this is going to be a pretty good week. We have a baptism tonight at 6 for the Basin City Spanish branch. Her name's Maria Elena, we've been working with her for a while, so this is exciting. Today is her birthday. President Whitby (the branch pres.) will be dunking her. Should be really cool. Me and Bao are giving the talks. Then on Saturday we'll be baptizing a brother and a sister for the Connell English ward. I'm pretty excited because these are my first baptisms since my trainer left. So hopefully from now on I'll be more successful with the training wheels off.
Last night we had FHE with Bishop Davidson and his family which was a lot of fun. Juan and Andres two recent converts came as well. So me and Elder Bao taught a pretty fun lesson about the ten commandments. Everyone enjoyed it. It's a really big family, and kids of all ages. They actually have a daughter who's serving down in Houston right now, I'm pretty sure. Also one of their older daughters looks exactly like a friend I had in college. It's borderline scary how similar they look. We also played games, sang songs, and participated in general merry making.
Well, I think that's everything notable of life as of now. The church is true. This is going to be a good week. And Jesus loves you. Thanks everyone for letters and support.
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