Sweatin' it up in Cold Kennewick

Hello One and All,

So real quick, apparently there has been some confusion from our mail carrier so the management has asked that Anderson and I both confirm our addresses with yall, so here it is:

Elder Stephen Richards
3030 W 4th Ave i206
Kennewick, WA. 99336

So yeah, that's us. Mom, I did get the package, after last Tuesday's email saying that it had supposedly arrived I went down to the office to ask and sure enough, it was there waiting, they just hadn't put the note in the mailbox. But today Anderson had a note in the box for a package, so hopefully they are now letting us know about our packages. Thank you very much for the contacts and goodies. I can see so much better now.

The mission conference with Elder Christensen was way good. We received a lot of insight and inspired council. We all got to shake his hand and have a short visit with him. He seemed really interested in my church heritage, i.e. life long member, son of a missionary etc. It was also really fun to be able to see a lot of my old friends and companions. Elder Bao is doing well, he's my comp from BC/Connell who stayed up with me when I was un poco infermo last may. I've had a lot of companions, and each of them has brought something new to the table and I've enjoyed working with each one. But if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be Bao. We had a blast working together and were really good buddies. Hopefully he can get into BYU as an international student, then the party can keep on going!

We had a miracle happen Sunday night. So when we first got here to Kennewick we found Jorge Mitchel who was so so so prepared for baptism. But then, he moved. We never got his new address, all we knew was that it was somewhere near by. But unfortunately we lost him. The number we had for him didn't work, we even tracted all of the apartments with the number 5 because we had thought he said he was moving to a 5. We even walked around the neighborhood constantly hoping that we would happen upon him. A lot of prayers were said and we even had a special fast. But it seemed he was gone for good.

Then on Sunday night we were walking down a dark street contacting old investigators from the sisters we hear a heavily accented "I've been looking for you guys!" We look around and there's Jorge jumping out of a car to talk to us. We got his real number and real address and are now vamping up to try and get him baptized before the transfer's up! God really does answer prayers, but in his own time.

I forgot a pretty funny story from last week. After a district meeting we were going out to lunch (a member owns a restaurant where we get a sweet deal) so it was me Anderson, and two elders in the back of the car. When we start driving and all of a sudden there's an angry bee buzzing all over the place. Lots of screaming and frantically wafting out the window. Fortunately there was no car wreck induced, and none of us got stung.

Yesterday we did an exchange with the ZLs. It was a lot of fun. I went with E. Fletcher into there area and E. Melchor was with Anderson in ours. Turns out I have forgotten how to teach on the fly in English. I was really struggling to come up with words and sentences that made sense. But it was a really good day and I learned a lot. Now we come to the title of the email. Our apartment has an exorcise room complete with steam room. (a ghetto one, but one non the less). So we closed out our exchange with a fantastic steaming. I steal feel great and loose. It reminded me of Cody talking about going to the Bath Houses in Korea for a zone activity.

The rest of the work here continues to go great, and I am loving being a missionary. Thanks everyone for your love and support and I always enjoy hearing from you.

Love,
Elder Richards