All Right Everyone Let's Do This One More Time

Hello One and All,

Wow, I can't believe I'm in my last transfer. Crazy crazy crazy, but push to the end right? So it has been a pretty crazy week. First off I'm being transferred. I know right? I'm being doubled into Benton City as the first spanish elders to work there, so it should be interesting. So much for living out the rest of my days in ease, looks like it's work work work. So until further notice my official address is:

Elder Stephen Richards
8202 w Quinalt Ave. Ste D
Kennewick, WA 99336

Like I said this week has been pretty crazy. So first a miracle story. Elders Broadhead, Weeks, and I had Elder Dyas with us on exchanges and we went out to the China Buffet for dinner. It was a pretty gross meal that consisted of left overs from the lunch buffet. As we were standing up to leave a woman sitting behind us asks us if we are business men or something, we explain that we are missionaries and she takes off talking all about how great Jesus is, she was very Pentecostal. While she is preaching to Elder Dyas and I, one of the chinese waiters walks up and asked Weeks and Broadhead where the church is at. He spoke very little english so communication was difficult. They kind of explained where the church was, but really all they could figure out was that this waiter was very excited to have a couple of mormons in his restaurant. He kept saying he wanted something, but he couldn't figure out the word for it. So he pulls out his smart phone and keys it into google translate and hands the phone to weeks saying "I want this". The definition on the phone says "baptize; to be baptized". So naturally we are freaking out about this, we hurry and get Elder Ng on the phone to confirm or clarify what this man is trying to tell us, and sure enough he has read the book of mormon and wants us to baptize him. Now we are working with our Manderin speaking Young Men's president to teach him the lessons. The funny thing was that as Dyas and I finally extricated ourselves from the pentacostal lady she said "I felt compelled to talk to you guys." Thankfully she did, otherwise the waiter wouldn't have had time to come talk to us.

We had a church tour on Friday, that no body came to with the exception of one family, but it was still a good event, and that family came to church on sunday, so it was good.

One of the crazy news was that Elder Tutttle was called to be the new AP. We've all been telling him it will happen, and it finally did. So he left saturday morning which was a bummer. So now our quatro is down to a trio.

I ship out on wedensday morning. Elder Weeks is also getting transferred. Elder Bao (my old comp) will become the new zone leader here. And weeks and I will not be replaced, we are currently under staffed so the fourpanionships are going away for a little while.

I love you all mucho and hope everyone has a great week.

Love

Elder RIchards

Still Got My Serve

June 18, 2012
Still Got My Serve

Hello One and All,

So first of some business. The mission office will be getting relocated after June 21st I believe, so after that date please send any mail (that goes to the mission office) to Elder Stephen Richards

8202W. Quinalt Ave. #D
Kennewick, WA. 99336

So yeah, there's that for anyone who wants to send a letter hint hint to anyone who wants to send a letter. But until the 21st it can be sent to the old address. Or it can be sent straight to me in

Yaktown, Elder Richards
906B S 41st Ave.
Yakima, WA. 98908

Yup, that mail box is getting awful dusty...
The exciting news of today was I started it out with Racquet Ball! Oh it felt good to be back on the court. I'm not terrible either, so I was very pleased with how I did, and my serve is still good. Thanks YMCA!

The week itself was a good and productive week. It started out with Weeks and I going up to Ellinsburg (a small college town) for an exchange with an English elder. It was good. As soon as we got into town the car died (thank goodness it didn't go out on the freeway) and we pushed it over to a chinese restaurant. From there we hoofed it over to the Chevy dealer to get a tow, and figure out what was wrong. It turned out that the negative cable to the battery was shot, and that it would take a day or two to get the new parts. So we walked the rest of the day. It was fun to be in a college town again, lots of young people running around. Soon Richards, soon....

Later in the week me and Weeks were teaching a mother and her two daughters when something interesting happened. We had taught the restoration and were going over the Book of Mormon when Elder Weeks used the frase "IF the Book of Mormon is true." In his defense that is a phrase that all of us use constantly and we don't really think about it. We say: If the book of Mormon is true, then it means that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the church is true, and so on and so forth. But the lady stopped him and says, "What do you mean if? Do you not believe it's true? Why should I read it if you don't know it?" We explained what we meant, and cleared up the situation. But it was interesting, I had never thought of it that way. It gave me a great opportunity to bare testimony of the truthfulness of the book, and invite the spirit in. If nothing else, it was a reconfirmation for me. A Tender Mercy you could say.

I also went on a few exchanges with Elders Tuttle and Broadhead respectively (the other two elders in our companionship), which were a lot of fun. The work is really progressing here. On Saturday Tuttle and Weeks were tracting in a trailer park when they saw a member's car (she's a branch missionary that goes on visits with us all the time). So they went and checked it out and knocked on the door, a lady answered and immediately says they’re busy come back later, but Tuttle leans over and says hello to Blanca (the member) the lady asks Blanca if she knows them and she says "Son mis hermanos! Espiritualmente." (They're my brothers....spiritually) So the lady lets them in and they have a good visit with her. The next day she came to church with her kids, and then joined us for dinner that night at Blanca's house. She told us how after the other Elders left she was reading from the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and fell asleep, and "dreamt with God" as she put it. She seems super solid and accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was a soft commitment, so no date yet, but it's a step in the right direction.

So the work is going well. I love all yall, and hope everyone has a good week. Remember, the mail box is getting dusty...

Love,
Elder Richards
p.s. Happy Father's Day dad, I hope the card has gotten there already.

A Beautiful Week

Hello One and All,

So first off the weather this week has been amazing. Overcasty, a
little rainy, and very cool border line chilly temperatures. It has
been perfecto.

It's been a cool week. We had 3 cool Lord's Time experiences, where we
were at the right spot at the right time when we needed to be there.

The work is going well. Love yall a lot, sorry this is so short.

Love,
Elder Richards

A Week of Highs and Lows

Hello One and All,

Well to start off, mom I do know about the recent zombie outbreak.
Apparently there's been more than one. We had a local soldier shop
owner give us the low down during a very enjoyable visit to his shop.
The Miami one actually isn't the most graphic one, there was another
one with a engineering student and his roommate, now that one is not
for the faint of heart. But I digress...

The week started out with a really good specialized training with
President and Sister Greer. It went really well. It was all about the
"elephant in the room", or that is to say, the fact that the mission
is not reaching the goals we have set and nobody is talking about it.
That's been one of my pet peeves, so it was really nice to have
President draw everyone's attention to it. We went over a lot of
statistical stuff, which is nice (I like numbers because they do not
lie). So now hopefully everyone is all jazzed up about finding new
investigators, so we can reach our baptismal goals. Now if only
president and I could talk about our Elephant...I digress again.

Wednesday was Elder Weeks birthday so we all joined him in eating
birthday cake Oreos (I had never heard of them either, not sure if I'm
a fan or not, they're very sweet) for breakfast. He got a package from
his folks, and I knitted him a slouchy beanie (dangerously slouchy
some would say). Then came balloon animals and silly string ambushes,
a fun day to be sure.

On Thursday the other half of our companionship (the zone leaders)
went to Vancouver for a zone leader conference. Afterwards we found
out that the conference consisted of them playing at the new visitors
center at the Portland temple, so they had it real rough. While they
were gone I got to drive around in the Chevy Colorado which was
sweeeeeeet, I love driving trucks when I get the chance. We had to take
it in to get the oil changed which took forever, so my patience was
pretty much shot (I'm usually so mild mannered). Then our schedule was
way open so we had to go out knocking and trying to find referrals,
(an activity that requires patience) and it might have ended with me
yelling at a guy that was hassling us on the street...maybe. But no
one got hurt, so we're good. Also some nearby teens seemed to get a
kick out of it. Thursday was equally frustrating in my eyes. Good
stuff happened, but in a very slow drawn out way,

We had an awesome FHE with a recent convert family where we taught the
Doctrine of Christ as found in the Bible. It went super well and
everyone seemed to really enjoy it. They're a really cool family, and
they love the missionaries so much.

When the zonies got back the flood gate broke and investigators
started jumping out of the wood works. We have a lot of good things
happening, we had 9 people at church, and 15 new investigators. So
we're really excited to see what the future will bring.

Hope everyone is doing well. Whit, enjoy pregnancy. Mike, how've you
been? Eric, if you're interested I know a middle aged lady who is
interested in dating you ...oh boy cowboy. Love you all very much, and
have a great week.

Love,

Elder Richards

Running Around like a Chicken with its Head Cu-....Well You Get The Idea

Hello One and All,

It's been a pretty good week. On Wednesday we went and helped out our Branch Mission Leader on his rancho. We planted crops and had a delicious breakfast. After enjoying some heuvos rancheros we went back to planting seedlings. Then Hna Lopez mentioned that they needed to kill 3 chickens. That's one of the things I've wanted to learn out here, is how to kill and clean a chicken. So I volunteer. After chasing down a chicken I am instructed to hold it by the head and swing it around in circles until the neck is severed. So I killed mine, Broadhead killed his, and then Tuttle went to kill his. We told him he had to swing really hard, so he did, and ripped the chickens head off, it took about two minutes for the thing to stop running around spraying blood everywhere, it was pretty intense. So yeah, turns out chickens actually do “do” that.

Our investigator Procoro got baptized which was cool. It almost didn't happen, but Elder Weeks and I were teaching him and he told us about how he didn't want to do it anymore. We were able to help him work through his concerns and get him to feel animado again about his baptism. His wife chose not to be baptized at this point in time. But she had a really good experience at the service, and now we can start working towards Procoro baptizing her.

There is some really pretty scenery up here, you just have to get out of the city. There's a 40 minute drive through a canyon right by the river that is particularly gorgeous. It's a nice town, a little ghetto, but a good town. Humble people that are ready to hear the gospel.

Love yall lots and look forward to hearing from you,

Love,

Elder Richards

Yakitty Yakama

Hello One and All,

Well I am all settled in up here in Yakima. First off, here’s my new address:

Elder Richards
906 B South 41st Ave.
Yakima, WA. 98908

Life is pretty good. I really enjoy my companions and apartment. We
have a ton of fun, and we work a TON. I had almost forgotten what it
is like to work in a big city where there's all kinds of people to
talk with. And boy do we talk with a lot. As far as dangerous
ghettoness is concerned, it's not too bad. Really it's better this way
for us, because the more humble the people are, the more open to the
message they are.

In this short week we already have a ton of potential, this weekend we
have a baptism of Procoro and Anselma Arrogoite, so that will be cool.
We have several other promising investigators as well. This should end
up being a very productive last 2 transfers.

So I know this is short, but I don't know what all to say. I hope
everyone else is doing awesome. Have a great week.

Mucho Love,

Elder Richards

Adios Boardman ...Again

Hello One and All,

It was awesome talking with everyone yesterday. Fun times for sure. So you pretty much know of my goings ons. On Wednesday morning I'll be driving down to Hermiston to catch a van going to tri cities. From there I'll jump another van (or maybe car) heading up to Yakima, and from there it's shank or be shanked! In all seriousness though, I am really bummed to be leaving Boardman/Irrigon, I've made a lot of really close friends, and it'll be sad to say goodbye. But I guess the Lord needs me to do something up in Yakima.

After the phone call yesterday we began what was the greatest mother's day ever! (Enclosed are some pictures of the merry-making). So I called from the Brownings' house, they are an awesome couple in the ward that got baptized about 5 or so years back. Really cool conversion story. And now they are working on getting all of their kids baptized, (they're all grown and gone, except for Tory, he got baptized a few months ago and is living at home, he's 24). So after the call we went out back and visited for a while. Sis. Browning went and picked up Kristyn, one of our investigators that she is basically a second mom to. I tried my hand at horse whispering again, and apparently I did pretty good because when I dismounted the Brownings asked me if I'd ridden before. Philmont trip aside, I haven't, and I don't think that really counted, (dad knows what I mean). Then we had a tasty barbeque. Then we played croquet, Bro. Browning whooped all of us. Then the sun had started setting, so we broke in Sis. Browning's mother's day present: a new fire pit! Jokes, Ghost stories, and toasted marshmallows. It was one of those nights that I won't soon forget, and was a lot of fun.

Well, enjoy the pics. I love you all and hope everyone had a very happy mother's day.

Love,

Elder Richards