The Last Week

Hello One and All, Well, it's pretty crazy that I'm finally in the last week of my mission. It's happy and sad all at once, but mostly I am at peace with the idea that it is time to move on to the next chapter of my life. Really the only frustrating part left is how every night at dinner when people ask me how long I've been out I have to say oh, I have x amount of time left, (because it's easier than saying 23.whatever months). But oh well, I suppose I can't complain. Last week was a good one. We stacked cheese as far as lessons are concerned, and I'm hoping to do a repeat of it this week so I can go out on top. We found a lot of solid and good investigators as well. It's pretty crazy how much we've gotten done in the transfer we've been here. We've greatly expanded the teaching pool and found a lot of really cool people. I wish I could have spent some more time here to really establish some close relationships with the people. The members are awesome (for the most part) and the hispanic investigators are the bombs. The bishop here is a younger guy, really cool family. We drive past his house at least once a day because it's on the main street. They are always having pool parties, literally every day. And on saturday night we drove past and the pool was packed to capacity and a sheet was hung on the side of the house for an outdoor pool movie projector. That one was hard on me, but that's ok, I'll have plenty of time for things like that in a week. In the mean time I am getting stuff done. We've also taken to visiting yard sales on saturdays, because saturday afternoons are pretty well dead, so we go where the people are, and check out fun trinkets along the way. On sunday I came down with something, I'm not sure what it was but I felt terrible, but Elder Calder helped me push along till the end of the day, I went to bed a little early and now I feel much better, so there'll be nothing in my way. Well, the time just flies. I'll send out my last letter next week. Love yall and have a good week. Love, Elder Richards

Winding Up To Wind Down

Kathy Richards Message flagged Monday, July 23, 2012 1:33 PM Hello One and All, So to start off, the picture is of this ridiculously loud bell we found outside a door saying "impaired hearing, use hanging bell or knock loud, thanks!" It made me think of getting one for mom...and to answer your question in the picture the member sent, that is my current and final companion. He's killin' me off right. So another good week passed on by. We have taught a ton and been running all over benton city. The spanish work is booming. One cool experience we had was that we knocked into a woman named Maria who spoke little spanish, she spoke a dialect called Mysteca, from Mexico. We went back yesterday for our appointment, and she knew enough spanish that we were able to have a really good discussion with her. The spirit was pretty strong, I always like it when there is a need to keep things simple, like when teaching a child, or someone who doesn't speak spanish or english. We also found a woman while tracting. Something of a miracle because she was on the verge of moving into a shelter due to inability to pay rent. We've since gotten her into contact with the church and she is receiving help and coming to church as well. Now then, I can tell the difference between someone using the church and someone who legitimately needs help and doesn't want to take advantage of the situation (probably because I run into both instances a lot working with hispanics). She's a tiny little thing that is suffering from health problems, hopefully we can help out. Zone Conference was way cool. My last which was a little strange, but it went well and I enjoyed myself. Seeing all the old homies and whatnot. Gave my departing testimony which was strange. This friday I'll be having my exit interview with President Greer, so everything is wrapping up nicely. But I'm still working my tail off. Happy Bday to Eric, hope it was a good one. Happy Bday to Jacob(?) hopefully. Can't wait to see everybody again, have a good week and keep on keeping on. The church is true, the book is blue. Love, Elder Richards

Trapped Behind an Unlocked Door

Hello One and All, What a week. So life continues to get crazier and crazier the closer I get to the end. But I am doing my best to end on top. And both my awesome companion, and the awesome area in which I am serving are definitely helping me out with that goal. Zack's baptism went splendidly. It was probably the least amount of stress I've had about a baptism. Something always goes wrong, but not this time. The speakers were great (and brief) the baptism was good, the half time was good, a huge crowd showed up, everything went awesome. When all was said and done we got the whole service started and finished in just under a half hour. It was perfect. And he got confirmed on sunday, now everything seems to be on the up and up for zack. His mom was able to come to the confirmation which was good. As we were out tracting on saturday we stumbled upon a yard sale one of our investigators was having. We had just had the baptism, so we treated ourselves to a miniature pool table for the low price of a dollar. So sunday evening once all the reporting responsibilities were done, we had quite the pool tournament. I also accidentally broke our door (going from our bedroom to bathroom/kitchen area). But fortunately an expired student ID makes for a good lock picker whenever the door got accidentally shut. Last night we installed the new door knob so all is well with that again. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators in which we taught the doctrine of Christ. The spirit was super strong, and she was teary eyed most of the time. She kept talking about how she wanted to change and be one of those people that goes to church and does the right thing. We told her how those big changes are done through little things. Going to church, reading the scriptures, praying. Hopefully we can help her make those changes. This week I will be having my last zone conference, which means I will be giving my departing testimony. I'm excited about it I guess, but also I am struggling to believe it is actually happening. Well, I love you all, and hope all is well. This message I am teaching is true, and I am excited to spend the next 2 1/2 weeks dedicating every moment to sharing it. Love, Elder Richards

Locked Behind an Unlocked Door

Hello One and All,


What a week. So life continues to get crazier and crazier the closer I get to the end. But I am doing my best to end on top. And both my awesome companion, and the awesome area in which I am serving are definitely helping me out with that goal.

Zack's baptism went splendidly. It was probably the least amount of stress I've had about a baptism. Something always goes wrong, but not this time. The speakers were great (and brief) the baptism was good, the half time was good, a huge crowd showed up, everything went awesome. When all was said and done we got the whole service started and finished in just under a half hour. It was perfect. And he got confirmed on sunday, now everything seems to be on the up and up for zack. His mom was able to come to the confirmation which was good.

As we were out tracting on saturday we stumbled upon a yard sale one of our investigators was having. We had just had the baptism, so we treated ourselves to a miniature pool table for the low price of a dollar. So sunday evening once all the reporting responsibilities were done, we had quite the pool tournament.

I also accidentally broke our door (going from our bedroom to bathroom/kitchen area). But fortunately an expired student ID makes for a good lock picker whenever the door got accidentally shut. Last night we installed the new door knob so all is well with that again.

We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators in which we taught the doctrine of Christ. The spirit was super strong, and she was teary eyed most of the time. She kept talking about how she wanted to change and be one of those people that goes to church and does the right thing. We told her how those big changes are done through little things. Going to church, reading the scriptures, praying. Hopefully we can help her make those changes.

This week I will be having my last zone conference, which means I will be giving my departing testimony. I'm excited about it I guess, but also I am struggling to believe it is actually happening.

Well, I love you all, and hope all is well. This message I am teaching is true, and I am excited to spend the next 2 1/2 weeks dedicating every moment to sharing it.

Love,
Elder Richards

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Hello One and All,

Well contrary to the catchy song title, living here is not currently easy. Let me qualify that, the work is awesome and I am having a blast; But. It. Is. Hot. Last summer I didn't have to deal with more than the mid 90's in Vancouver, but here in the thick of things we get 105ish each day. So me and Calder don't have to be tracting very long before we are drenched in sweat. Another proof that summer has officially arrived is that last night I had the first Root Beer Float of the season.

So the 4th of July was fun. After watching the kiddie parade down main street, we went and started working with the Mexicans, (there was no way I was going to go get told off by white people for interrupting barbq's all day), and we ended up having a really successful day. We also made appearances at several bar b q's we were invited to, so by the end of the day I was feeling particularly fat. We ended the day at the church eating pie and watching the fireworks. A sister from the ward grabbed us and told us all about how a lady where her son is serving sent her a picture of him and his comp and it just made her day and she wanted to do the same for our moms. We thought that was pretty nice.

We have found a ton of new investigators this last week so we are pretty excited about that. One of whom is named Alvero, we had dinner with him last night and he is a stud. The nicest guy you've ever met. Zack, another investigator is all set to get baptized this saturday morning so we are excited for that. His friend from the young men will be baptizing him. It'll be awesome.

Well, the week flew by so I'm not to sure what else there is to report on. Love yall, try and stay cool.

Love,
Elder Richards

Benton City ...Familiar

Hello One and All,

Well to start things off, transfers went pretty well. Getting to see all my old buddies at the transfer site was pretty awesome. When I got to the tri cities I was with out a companion for a little bit. So I ran around with President Greer which was cool I suppose. He told me rich lawyer stories! And he also told me about the rich guys that he home teaches here in tri cities. One of whom has his own personal racquetball court, which I plan to visit soon.

Bnton City is pretty cool. It really reminds me of each of my past areas, but that just might be because I'm getting nostalgic. It's small, not the smallest I've been in. And it really feels like Basin City, Irrigon, Connell, and Boardman all rolled into one. There's even a few parts that feel like Vancouver. Elder Calder, my new companion, is awesome. He's from Bear Lake Utah, and has been out for about 10 1/2 months. He is way cool, and we have a lot of fun together which is nice. So we're always cracking up and having a good time while we're out working.

We're not the first missionaries in the area, but we are the first spanish speaking missionaries. So all the members are pretty excited about that. There is a lot of excitement and everyone wants to help out which is nice. There's a lot of good potential here. We've found 4 spanish families to teach. And we have a few english investigators as well. We have a young man Zach on date for the 14th. He's super golden, he shared his testimony at church yesterday. Missionaries started working with him about 1-2 weeks ago. So we are pretty excited about everything that's going on.

We live with a nice old lady. She does our laundry which is pretty convenient. We mow her lawn in return. Our small side area of the house makes me feel like I am in a hotel, especially the smell, which reminds me a lot of when I was working at my old job. Again, that might just be nostalgia though.

I'm a district leader again, so that was a surprise. My district is me and Calder, and then Tom and Nielson, who serve in another small town called Prosser. Tom is cool, he was in my MTC group, and Nielson flew out with us, but since he's english he is one transfer behind us. So yeah, we are a pretty old district.

I'll send some pictures next week of our 4th activites. Hopefully everyone is doing well, and have a happy 4th of July.

Love,

Elder Richards