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