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.