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