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

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