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
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
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
Tuesday, June 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
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