SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #22: DEC 9, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON

DECEMBER 9, 2013

I hope you all are enjoying the snowy cold while it is 80 degrees and lovely sunny beach weather here every day. 

Our week started out slow with Sister Sullivan coming down with the flu.  And then surprise! I got the flu too.  Yay empathy!  But it was a short version of it, thank goodness.

Some trials in this area are car sharing...hard to get where we need to.  I'm trying to convince the other sisters that it is possible to bike in a skirt and that it doesn't matter that helmets look dorky...we're making progress. 

But the highlights of the week have definitely been trying to win over the hearts of the deaf members so that we can start teaching them and their friends.  And we are making progress! They all are very enthusiastic about us being here.  We went to the deaf sunday school on Sunday...yep i didn't understand all of it...but at least I said the closing prayer!

We had an AWESOME ward christmas party on Saturday.  Look at the facebook of Darcy Davis Fewkes for all the pictures! It was a Whoville/Grinch themed Christmas party and it was incredible.  I have never seen a better planned/decorated/organized/fun ward christmas party.  And the deaf members brought in total, 4 deaf non members to the party! Woo!  One of the deaf couples here asked us over for fhe! Progress!

I just adore these deaf members.  They all have incredible stories.  It takes humility to be able to function as a deaf person in a hearing world. 

But the best moment of the past week was last night.  We went and watched the Christmas devotional with this sweet young family.  Their oldest child Jeffrey is deaf.  He's in 3rd grade.  Oh my goodness he is incredible and his family is incredible.  He is fluent in sign and also learned to talk.  We had scriptures with them last night.  Jeffrey is sitting there on the couch with his dad and he is reading the new testament aloud, while signing it, while comprehending it and answering questions his dad asks. Their whole family has learned to sign..even the little kids.  The 5 year old sister said the prayer...completely in sign while speaking it as well.  Man, it was inspiring.  If that little boy can accomplish all that while being deaf...then surely I with my working ears can figure out sign language and be able to be confident in communicating with it. 

I played organ in sacrament meeting.  Everyone was so funny as they were so excited!! They haven't had someone to play the organ in forever! I find it funny that the people that I have been called to serve (the deaf members) aren't even being served by my organ playing...they don't know the difference.

Life is good! We are still trying to figure out what we're doing and trying to find people to teach...but the gospel is still true and always will be :)

Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: DEC 8, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON

DECEMBER 8, 2013

It was a pretty good week this week.

If you zoom in you can see Taibai 101 between the pole and the tree on the right.

On Monday we went to Costco again! I probably bought too much. The best investment though was a giant jar of Nutella. I've been eating Nutella-covered everything for the past few days. Definitely super healthy.

While we were in English class, a gust of wind blew and toppled all the bikes over Dominoe style!

On Wednesday as we were leaving a grocery store at dinner time, a middle-aged man stopped us and said he wanted to talk to us. He gave us his business card and told us he was a spiritual prophet. He showed us some pictures of ghosts and other things, and wanted to meet with us. On Friday, Elder Morgan and I were on exchanges and so we met with him at the chapel. Before we started talking to him, he showed us some videos of supernatural phenomena. We figured out that this guy goes around to church leaders all over Taiwan and tells them about ghosts and why ghosts are important. It was really interesting to tell him that we believed in the same things, but in a slightly different way. We shared a lot about the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptized, to which he agreed. We'll try to meet with him a few more times, but we'll see how it goes.

On Wednesday we also went to visit a potential investigator who owns a gelato cart. I really liked that visit. It's hard to find good ice cream places here, so we might be going back to visit him more.

If anyone wants to read a cool story about Elijah, go read 2 Kings 1:9-12.

Elder Morgan and I have been playing Chinese chess a lot recently. We play a game or two at 9:30 before we go to sleep. It's been really fun; it's a neat game. Definitely different than "western chess."

Something I've been thinking about this week is that there is really only one principle of the gospel. If we could all completely understand that God loves us, and could understand how he loves us, than all of the rest of the laws and ordinances would be unnecessary. Everything else in the gospel is just to help us learn about God's love, and we obey commandments and learn about the doctrine in order to understand that love better. 1 Nephi 11:17

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

田長老

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #21: DEC 2, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Well folks, I'm in paradise, it's decided.  I am having so much fun here in St. Augustine.  The ward is great and passionate about missionary work.  I love my companion and I love sign language! I have remembered and learned so much sign in the past few days.  

St. Augustine is a cool city right on the coast.  It's been cold the last few days...but shouldn't last too long and it'll get warm again soon.  There is a really cool downtown with a lighthouse and the old fortress (St. Augustine is the oldest settlement in the U.S...at least for European settlements). There is also an alligator farm we are told. 

My new companion is Sister Sullivan.  She is 22 and is from Draper, Utah.  She is getting her bachelor's degree in deaf studies.  So I am so glad she is here! Because she has had more experience with sign and deaf people than I have.  It is hard white washing...putting brand new missionaries into a ward with no companion that has been there before.  But we are slowly getting there and finding people to teach.  

A great family in the ward had us over for thanksgiving! So that was fun and made it a not-lonely day.  

We helped the Elders teach a less-active deaf member on Saturday. It went great! It really does make a difference when people feel like they can communicate and feel understood.  He prayed for the first time in 5 years and came to church yesterday for the first time in 5 years.   

At church, I was instantly assigned to be the ward pianist...no one plays piano! We sat with the deaf members of the ward and met them.  They are so great! And they are hilarious.  So there are several different types of deaf families here.  

-both parents are deaf, children are hearing, or there are adopted children who are deaf

-the husband is deaf, the wife is hearing, the children are hearing...all of them sign

-both parents are hearing...the child is deaf

-single sisters that are deaf

One of the hearing wifes interpreted sacrament meeting and they kind of spread themselvesout to help interpret priesthood, relief society, primary, young women.  There is a deaf sunday school.  We had a deaf investigator come to church yesterday which was fun!  They despereately need interpreters here.  They needed us to interpret relief society...I lovingly let Sister Sullivan do that...I don't think I'm there yet...but I will need to get to that advanced level soon!  We have had fun learning all of the church-word signs and praying in sign language in our studies and throughout the day.  We both LOVE sign and LOVE deaf people. We both love being here and hope to stay here for a looong time.  I would be content to spend the rest of my mission here with Sister Sullivan.  Missionary work isn't hard anymore...before, it seemed to be a test of endurance, but I am just so happy here constantly learning and striving to be a better communicator with these people that need the gospel and need to feel fellowshipped.

Life is good! Lesson for the week, don't try to have a conversation in sign while driving the car...doesn't work too well.

Love you all! 

Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: DEC 1, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON

DECEMBER 1, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

So on Tuesday, a ward member called the sisters and told them that she was making us a turkey. This ward member has never made a turkey before, but that's why she decided that she wanted to cook us one. So ALL day on Wednesday (because at first they didn't convert from F to C), we had a turkey cooking in the chapel kitchen. On Thursday morning, we all gathered and had turkey/pesto tortilla wraps for Thanksgiving! It was great!

We've been trying to get in contact with one of our less actives for about three weeks. But all three of the cell phone numbers, the home phone number, and the address for his work were all incorrect. On Thursday, on exchanges with Elder Weech, I tried all of the numbers again and we went to visit his work, all to no avail. But then, later that same day, Elder Lin and I just ran into him on the way home! We were able to set up with him and the next day he took us to a hotpot place. Hopefully, he'll be able to come back to church soon!

This week got COLD. It's not supposed to be cold in Taiwan! It got down to like 10 degrees this week! Of course, that's Celsius, and it means that the coldest it got was about 45 F. But it was still COLD, especially with the humidity! I think it's supposed to warm up again this week. And I'm still every day grateful that I'm not serving in Russia.

We're still having more adventures with our forever interesting investigator Li DiXiong. Last week when we went to visit him, he gifted us a bunch of food and also a basketball, which was really hard to get home on bikes. His handwriting is super interesting. Everything he writes is very calligraphic, whether in Chinese or in English. 

Every week in gospel principles class, the teacher will have everybody new introduce themselves, and then will usually write their name on the board, so that everyone can see the characters. Every time Li Dixiong has been introduced, he will always walk to the front of the room and spent a few minutes writing his full name in English and in Chinese, all in very fancy handwritting. Then he'll turn around and start to introduce his life from when he was born. Usually my companion has to get up and gently stop him so that we can continue with class.

Last night, the Christmas choir performed for the first time at the new member fireside. It went really well! We've spent an hour and a half on every P-Day for the past four weeks practicing. This week we start traveling to all of our performances. We have 11 throughout the next four weeks, and we travel all over the Taibei area. We're all really excited!

Ward council is always the biggest test of my language ability, because it seems that especially in ward council, they talk REALLY fast. They just start talking about all of the ward council things and it goes really fast. The real problem though, is that every once in while they will all switch to Taiwanese! And then I give up and don't understand anything. It's always really fun though. Our bishop is amazing. Every time he talks, he lights a fire under everyone listening. He's just super energetic and passionate about the gospel. This week in ward council he said, "Inviting is the responsibility of the leader. Choosing is the responsibility of the individual."

This week at a stake hiking activity, we went up into the hills behind the Neihu chapel. We went up to a little rest area where we had a short devotional and sang a few hymns. While we were there, we saw a guy who was standing on a rock above a small waterfall doing Tai qi with a bo staff. It basically just completed my image of Taiwan. My whole life, I will never be as cool as that guy.

Last week, the new sister missionary in our ward, Sister Han, had to learn how to ride a bike, because she'd never ridden one before! It was quite an adventure.

Well, that's it for this week. We're going to Costco again today!

Elder Richardson

田長老

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #20: NOV 26, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 26, 2013

Being transferred to St. Augustine, Florida! To be an ASL missionary! Yay sign language! There is a big school for the deaf and blind there, so lots of deaf people in the ward and in the area.  I will have a new companion, Sister Sullivan who I will meet tomorrow.  I'm excited for the new opportunities and challenges! Excited to have an hour of language study in the mornings! And excited to spend the winter on the Florida coast. 

We found out last Monday night that Sister Spendlove would be training a new Sister and that I would be leaving.  We had interviews with President Craig the next day and he told me where I would be transferred to and that I would be signing...which usually never happens.  So I knew a week in advance!  I have heard that ASL missionaries there is an answer to many prayers of people in that area...I guess I'll find out what that means when I get there!

We are working with some really great families here in St. Marys.  3 of them! They could all definitely be baptized in December.  I wish that I could stay here to see it out! But it will be good for Sister Spendlove to have them to work with and teach this next month while she is finding her way through training.

We've also been able to do some good community service this week. We helped cook and serve food to the homeless. We also helped put together food bags for Thanksgiving with a youth leadership group in the area. We will be helping to feed the homeless again at Thanksgiving (Sister Spendlove and her trainee will do so at least!)
We had a great experience with a new investigator where we were doing service tracting and went to help her with yard work. She asked some incredible questions and we taught her a lot that day as we were raking leaves and pulling weeds.

I have felt myself become really comfortable with teaching about the gospel principles...especially the restoration.  I feel like I am able to explain them really simply.  But I still learn more and more about them whenever I study them in Preach My Gospel.  It's great!

I'm going to miss the people here.  A lot. 

An investigater family

Sister Angel -- my life inspiration!

Rachel ... one of the craziest and inspirational people I have ever met.And she is 70!

Byrd and Sister Cook

Brother Adams...our ward mission leader...I don't know why I look sad in this picture...I am happy, i promise!

Lena...another one of my life inspirations. One of the most holy women I've ever met.  And she's a psychologist.

We had a fun experience eating dinner with a pentecostal preacher and his worship/praise band this week.  They put me on the piano to play the chords and even made me sing at one point.  It was fun/funny.

Food adventures of the week: went to another local seafood restaurant with an investigator...had yummy oysters and crackers, STING RAY, tilapia, shrimp, hush puppies, fried okra, fried mushrooms, fried butterfly shrimp, fried green tomatoes, clam...lots of food.  Then today, we had TWO lunch appointments...it's hard to say no to people.  We had one at 12 at a mexican restaurant, and one at 12:30 at this lady's house.  Both were DELICIOUS, but I was so stuffed and haven't eaten the rest of the day and probably won't. 

There is this family that is basically Mormon, they just don't know it yet.  They believe all of the same things as us, but we are still trying to help them understand the concept of prophets and priesthood authority.  But we went to their monday night family devotion last night that they do every week where they sing, have a lesson, pray, and have a treat.  Hello family home evening and perfect convert family! They'll be great.

Last week we kept getting storm alert texts about Tropical Storm Melissa, hooray! But it never got past the Azares islands...wherever they are.

Had my last district meeting with my district here...I'll miss them a lot! Elder Craynor had me bear my testimony since I was leaving.  We had interviews before the meeting in the morning so Sister Spendlove and I organized a lunch for everyone.  I used a pink table cloth and had pink plates and napkins, just to bug the Elders, it was great. 

I hope that you all have a GREAT!!! thanksgiving! I get to call home in ONE MONTH! It will go by in no time.  I have no idea what I'll be doing on Thanksgiving...but it'll be an adventure.  The gospel is restored and we are all so loved by God and others! Don't forget to look up!! If Nephi can be grateful for the raw meat he had to eat in the wilderness..then we should be able to be grateful for EVERYTHING.  Have a happy week!

Sister Richardson

Also, my new address is
420 Villa San Marco #201

St. Augustine, FL

I don't know the zip code...you'll have to look it up.

ELDER RICHARDSON: NOVEMBER 24, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

Greetings from Neihu! I'm still here in Neihu with Elder Lin, and I'll be here until (at least) the first week of January. After that, I will probably be leaving for a new area. Maybe.

We got a new missionary in our apartment. Elder Deal left for Taoyuan, and we got Elder Zeng. He is also a native missionary, so we're half and half now. It means that we mostly speak Chinese in the apartment instead of English. Last night they switched to Taiwanese so that Elder Morgan and I wouldn't understand, but then we just started talking in really thick Southern accents so that they wouldn't understand our English. It's going to be a fun transfer.

This week my companion and I have been focusing on finding. We spent a lot of time this week talking to people on the street. We talk to a lot of unprepared people, but we have to sift through a lot of unprepared people to find the prepared ones. But that's what we've got to do in order to do the work that the Lord needs in Taiwan right now.

It's starting to surprise me how in some cases it's much easier to speak Chinese than English. This past week we've run into a couple of people who only speak English, and it was really hard to not switch back into Chinese. It mostly happens when talking about missionary stuff, like talking about the Book of Mormon on the street and such. It just surprises me sometimes.

The Taiwanese people are terrible at shaking hands. I rarely get a firm handshake here, especially on the street, but also at church.

Don't have a lot of time this week, but I'll do better next week!

Elder Richardson

田長老

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #19: NOV 18, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

NOV 18, 2013

So this past P-day...we went to Amelia Island in Florida at Fernandina Beach.  Our district met up at this member's home that had a private dock.  We caught lots of fish! Nothing too huge, but they cooked it up for us and we ate it and it was delicious! BUUTTT  the treasure trove of the day---I was pulling in my fishing pole to get ready to go inside, and then all of a sudden there's something on it.  And I reel in this sting ray.  Pretty fun.  Maybe I'll get an alligator next time.

It's another week of doing the Lord's work, so it was great!

Here are some highlight moments:

-This great African-American family that we tracted into came to church! Mom, Dad, and 2 boys.  They really liked it!  Hopefully they will keep coming.  We are excited to commit them to baptism this week.  Everyone at church was so excited that they were there and were very welcoming!

-Had a great zone conference this week.  Finally got to meet the mission nurse that I've talked to on the phone so many times.

-Got a letter from Sister Johns in JAPAN!

-Having two dinner appointments in one night...our bellies ached.

-I love singing in lessons when we meet with people.  It's a great way to bring the spirit and make something personal to the person we're teaching.

-Had a district p-day on amelia island.  Went fishing and watched the birds flying over the water.  It was so peaceful and serene.  The setting reminded me a lot of the sea of galilee.  I caught a fish and a sting ray!

-Having people I'm talking to on facebook ask me for help with things they're struggling with!

-When people ask us about our church and want to learn more!! Miracles falling into our lap.

-Inviting and committing someone to baptism yesterday!

-When people want to see us and invite us over! Especially investigators and less-actives...it's the best.

-Testifying of true principles like going to church and reading the scriptures and how it can bless people's lives!

-Went to a seafood restaurant with an investigator.  S. Spendlove and I shared a gator burger which was actually pretty good.  We also got shrimp and grits....it was so so delicious.

-Went to another African baptist church with an investigator.  It was an experience.  There was incredible singing and an incredible jazz pianist.  But we enjoyed going back to our church afterwards and feeling like we were home there.  But there are lots of good faithful people here!

I have learned a lot this week as I do every week.  I love the feeling of being molded into the person God wants me to be.  I know that God exists and teaches us all throughout life! He will give us answers if we ASK! The restoration might never have happened if Joseph Smith hadn't asked for knowledge.
Love you all!

Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: NOV 17, 2013

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON

WEEKLY LETTER #26 -- NOV 17, 2013

洗禮了!

We had a baptism!

After a busy and frustrating week, we were able to see 蕭智元 (Xiao1 zhi4 yuan2) make his first covenants with the Lord and be baptized and confirmed! I don't really feel like I did anything as a missionary; he was already so prepared and willing to make commitments that baptism just came naturally. It was cool to participate in his confirmation yesterday. I'm really excited for him starting his life as a member of God's church!

I had a really great exchange last Tuesday with Elder Montierth up in Jilong (Keelung). We were planning to teach their investigator who was about to be baptized, but the investigator wasn't able to make it. But we got to meet with the member who was planning to be at the lesson. Elder Montierth called the wrong person in the phone the night before, so this member was actually a less-active who hadn't come to church in a few years. It was an incredible lesson. The spirit was there so strong, and we testified multiple times about how coming back to church would influence his life. He had been going through some difficulties recently, and I think Elder Montierth's mistaken phone call might have been just what this member needed.

Everyone is freaking out here because it's supposed to get down to 14 C this week. My companion every day wears a thick sweater and a scarf while I wear short sleeves. I always tell people that at my house it's probably below 0 degrees, and they can't quite wrap their heads around that.

Sometimes kids are scared of foreigners. The babies always stare at me because I'm white. It's a good opportunity for contacting the parents though!

Yesterday we had the primary program in our ward! It's cool that it was just like home, just in Chinese!

That's about it this week. Transfers are on Friday, so I might still be here in Neihu, or I might be somewhere completely different!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

田長老

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #18: NOV 11, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

T. Baptism

So one day I was reading that scripture in Alma about how there are prepared people out there that are ready and willing to accept the gospel.  I got kind of frustrated because I felt like we weren't seeing that.  It seems that sometimes we have to work so hard just to get people to talk to us, even investigators.  We have to work so hard and diligently to get people to keep their commitments of reading and coming to church.  So I prayed to better recognize and find those prepared people.  And wabam.  JV walked into our life.  Now that's not his real name of course.  But that's what we call him between S. Spendlove and I because that's basically who he is.  ............... But he is okay with that, because he knows this is the true church and he knows that this is where God has led him to be.  Oh and he rides his bike everywhere, even to church.  Also, we have an incredible member family fellow-shipping him that just loves him and invited him over for thanksgiving. 

I sang I am a Child of God by myself in a lesson this past week, brought the spirit so strong!

 S. Spendlove and I have been listening to John Bytheway talks in the car all week.

I've learned that if you're not having trials, then that means you probably aren't living your life right.  If you are having trials then that means Satan is trying to tear you down and God is helping to make you stronger.  It is when we get complacent and life is too mellow that we aren't following Christ as we should be.

Brother Wilhelm, the ward executive secretary, took "family pictures" at the ward thanksgiving activity.  So he made S. Spendlove and I take one.  The next Sunday, he shows up with two 8x10 framed pictures of our faces close up..our family picture.  It's hilarious.  I'll sendit home soon so you can have my face big and bold hanging up in the house.

One of the Elders serving in our ward said that the apostles said (you know one of those passed down he said that she said that he said) that Preach My Gospel was written and made in order to train us to be better mothers and fathers and to prepare us for that phase of life.  Interesting to think about.

Hit my 4 month mark yesterday!

If you think of the church in terms of a company...a multi-billion dollar company...think about how mcuh they trust us missionaries.  They're investing in us young people with no life experience to be on the front lines.  That's a lot of trust in us.  Incredible. 

I started memorizing The Living Christ.  I memorize a sentence every morning as I'm getting ready.

So. I got the car stuck in the mud.  Like really bad.  We had ot have someone with a truck come pull us out.  It's fine.

Somebody asked me this week how I could not be scared to go before God to be judged after this life.  I said it's because I have made and will keep my sacred temple covenants and do what God asks me to do.  And have the Spirit in my life always.  Then I will be able to stand confident before God at the last day! It was a cool moment of testifying. 

Help me with my missionary work!! Please!!  1. Tell me people that I can teach on facebook..friends, family, anyone.  That has questions about our church or waht I do as amissionary.  2. Send me a short write-up of a miracle you've expereinced in your life.  Sister Hutchins is making an incredible blog where she is trying to compile 1000 miracles in the next year.  We need help getting more!!

Had a fun service project on Saturday clearing land.  Learned how to use an ax and a chainsaw.  No joke.  Fed some alpacas.  Ate some deer sausage. Cut open my finger on a vine...true story. Life is good. 

We are continually trying to get the ward more involved in missionary work! I loved this week being able to teach so many lessons, mostly due to Jean Valjean.  But I know more than ever that this is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I love bearing my testimony with confidence every day to people.  There are ups and downs.  Successes and disappointments.  But God is patient so I must be patient too.  People will come around and hearts will be softened. 
Love you all!

Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: NOVEMBER 10, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

We're having a baptism!

On Wednesday, our investigator Xiao Dixiong 蕭 passed his baptismal interview. He is such an intelligent guy, and it's very apparent that he has been prepared to receive the gospel. He has accepted everything that we taught him, even the harder commitments, not because of what we did as missionaries, but because the Lord had prepared him. We are so excited for him to be baptized on Saturday! We know how much it will bless his life and how happy God is with his decision to be baptized!

On another note, we went and visited a former investigator to see if he wanted to start meeting with missionaries again. His apartment was piled waist-high with stuff except for a small alleyway to get to the rest of the apartment. He turned on the light using a shower rod because he couldn't reach the light switch. He also had half of his ceiling gone down to the metal supports for some reason that I didn't understand. Eventually, we figured out that this was his "stuff" apartment, and he owned the one above it too.

Here's some other stuff:

-Taiwanese people think that it's bad to drink cold water. When we get water, it's always either lukewarm or sometimes hot. I don't know why it's bad, but it is!

-The Elder's Quorum President and his wife took us out to eat Italian this week. It was SOO weird to try and eat noodles with a fork, I had no idea what was going on. I kept trying to eat them like I still had chopsticks, but it didn't work. It was really bizarre.

-We've started seeing the advertisements for the next Hunger Games movie. On the movie posters, they always have the English translations, and on the official ones, it is correct. But on the non-official posters, it says "The Starving Games." Somebody obviously used Google Translate.

-In English, the difference between the spoken and written language is not very big. There are some homophones and such, but in general, the way we speak and the way we write is not that different. Chinese is not that way. Because of the way the spoken language works, oftentimes you add sounds on words in order to clarify the meaning. The spoken language is all taken from the written language, but because a lot of the characters sound the same, you add sounds and classifying words in order to clarify your meaning. Therefore, in the written language, you can leave most of those sounds out, because the one character expresses all the meaning that you mean. 

For example, 食is the character for food. By itself, written, it is totally clear that you are talking about food. However, if you are speaking and you pronounce this character (shi2), there are about 30 other characters that sound exactly the same. So, instead you say 食物 (shi2 wu4) which means food, but can be understood when speaking. That second character just means "things" but it makes it clear what you are talking about.

I think that's super interesting about Chinese. 

And with that I bid you 加油！

Elder Richardson

田長老

PICTURES:

This is a spider we saw (that is a wood pallet!  That is a huge spider!)

Train ride pictures from Taidong

 

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #17: NOVEMBER 4, 2013

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

I'll try to catch up from last week and add stuff from this week! Lots of fun adventures!

We had an incredible mission conference this week where Elder Zwick of the seventy came and taught us for a whole day.  It was a much needed time of spiritual replenishment and encouragement.  It was cool to be with someone that was sent directly from the first presidency and twelve apostles to speak to us.  I learned so so much and there are few other times in my life where I've felt the spirit so strong. They had us all come one by one to shake their hands and they told us all thank you for your service and that they loved us.  President & Sister Craig (mission pres.) did the same.  Is one of the craziest experiences of my life but I just had tears running down my face during my turn...it just felt like my parents hugging me as well as my Savior hugging me and telling me well done and that He was pleased with what I was doing with my life right now.  Incredible! God loves us all so much and knows us individually! Some other cool things from that conference:

   -Showed us the ipad minis.  Said we would be getting them in the next couple of months.  every missionary themselves will have one.  they think they will have us buy them ($50....so a subsidized price) and then we can take them with us after our mission...so that we'll take care of them better if they're ours.  He showed us the new program they've made...the area book and our planners and our goals and EVERYTHING is on there.  It is so so so so cool! He's showing us this program, and we're all (especially the Elders) are in such awe...and this one Elder shouts out "The church is true!" haha it was a great moment.

-Pres. Zwick said that when Ezra Taft Benson was prophet, he prophesied that someday there would be more members of the church in the southern part of the united states than anywhere else in the U.S....that means more than Utah. And I see how that is going to happen.  There's a not a more faithful, Christ-devoted people than those down here.  I am inspired every day by their faith and devotion.  The time will come when they will have the fulness, and it's going to be great! I love being a part of it!

-Elder Zwick: "Sisters, because you've touched so many lives, I promise you that as you are exactly obedient on your mission, the chances of you finding a perfect companion are sure."

-"Don't limit yourself to what you think your capacity is, allow the Lord to expand your capacity and He will."

The Lord continues to bless us with new investigators as we do our part in seeking them.  A man came up to us the other day in the library (where we do facebook) and just started asking us questions about our religion and what we do as missionaries.  Then he asked us if we knew anything about family group records! It was great to tell him that we have a family history center right here! 
We must be obedient! As 21-year-old Melissa Richardson, I have no idea what to do and how to be a missionary and a trainer.  But Sister Richardson, a representative and disciple of Jesus Christ who is exactly obedient can work God's miracles through the inspiration of the Spirit.  It's so great!
I continue to love and better understand the people here.  There are so many faithful, God-loving people here.  I can see how that prophecy will come true of there being more members of the Church in this area than in any part of the U.S. But what holds that back is people being close-minded.  Not wanting to even try!  Sometimes I just feel like whipping out Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham and teaching that principle that you never know until you try and that it doesn't hurt to try.  That is something that I am praying about how to better communicate that concept to people.  Because as soon as they read the Book of Mormon with an open heart and a contrite/humble spirit, then they undoubtedly will recognize it as the words of Christ.  But I truly do love the people here and admire them for their faith and devotion to God! That same God that I have devoted my life to as well. 

We experience miracles and blessings every day.  Too many to write them all down in this letter.

We had a fun adventure 2 sundays ago, we went with an investigator to their church, the first African baptist church.  It was an adventure to say the least.  We were the only white people there.  It was kind of like a big party celebrating Jesus which was cool! Just not the kind of worship service that I'm used to.  But oh man, the singing.  Wish I could have recorded it.  The singing was incredible....everyone had incredible voices and harmonized with each other and it was the cliche southern negro spiritual singing.  I LOVED it.  My favorite song was "I done been saved."

Last night was the Genesis Devotional.  It's something the church started back in the 1970s.  It is meant to form more of a community for African-American Latter-Day Saints.  They do one every month in this Jacksonville area.  The singing.  Oh my goodness, I died.  So so good.  These people can harmonize and sing like you can't even imagine. We all sang Sing Low, Sweet Chariot together.

There was a dinner at our church this past week for all of the ministers in Camden County.  It was a great turn out and was an honor to hold it at our church this year. Bishop gave the opening address.  The overall theme for the night seemed to be joining together in unity as Christians to serve the people of the county, especially the youth.  There was some great singing there that night as well. 

This week we narrowed our investigator to 4.  We sifted out the people that weren't committed or progressing.  It has been so nice to just have those 4 now to focus on! We haven't forgotten about the others, but have been able to put so much more power and thought into those 4. 

We started teaching a family from Haiti! We set up an appointment with them, so hopefully I will be able to use my French this week!

I have been trying this week, when I don't know how to handle a situation or feel uncomfortable, I just ask myself what would Jesus Christ do in this moment/situation.  And then I am able to love and hug those that are crying and comfort them. 

It is the best feeling ever when you've invited people to church or a church activity and they come!! Makes everything worth it to know that they are there feeling the spirit!

I am doing my best to try and learn new things every day and to be better than I was the day before.  It's hard work, but so much better to spend the day thinking about others more than yourself.  Love you all! Go share the gospel!
Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: NOV 3, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Well it was quite a week! 

I spent Tuesday morning to Saturday night in Taidong. Taidong is way down south on the east coast of Taiwan. It took about 6 hours on the train each way to get there. I was companions with Elder Teshima, a missionary who used to be companions with my trainer Elder Pratt here in Neihu.

Taidong is WAY different than Taibei. Taidong is a lot more rural, and there were a lot of aboriginal people there. The houses are much more spread out, and there were fewer people. Almost everybody we talked to already knew who the missionaries were, and most had talked with them before which is very different from Neihu. Taidong also has a lot more Christians. Most of the people with aboriginal heritage are Baptist or Presbyterian. It was interesting to hear some the same arguments I heard in America but just in Chinese. 

We witnessed a lot of miracles this past week. We spent 8 hours a day knocking on doors. We were assigned a rather small area of the city, so we ended up knocking most of the doors in our area. We definitely found some amazing people for those missionaries to teach. Many of the people we found had been looking for the gospel and we were blessed to introduce it to them. It's a little sad that we won't get to see them being taught and hopefully getting baptized, but I'm glad that we could help the TaiDong missionaries find them!

Halloween kind of came without me noticing. I didn't realize it was Halloween until we saw some sort of trick-or-treating thing in the downtown of TaiDong. It was funny because a lady asked us if we were going to join them, I guess because we were dressed so "weird!"

Yesterday, we got to attend the baptismal service for one of the other elders' investigators. It was really cool, because this was a guy that Elder Pratt and I contacted on the street on my third day in Taiwan! Elder Pratt and I started teaching him, and then we handed him off to Elder Deal and Elder Morgan when they moved here about two months ago. It was awesome to attend his baptism!

Some other random things:

-I got my hair cut after email last Monday, and I didn't really explain what I wanted well enough, so she cut it pretty "Taiwanese" which just means it's pretty short on the sides and longer on the top. Not to worry, it's still missionary standard, it's just a little different!

-It was cool to see the ocean on the train ride down to Taidong! I've also sent some pictures of the mountains as we were riding down.

-We knocked on one house that had both Buddha and Mary statues sitting on shelves right next to each other.

-I tried Yogofresh for the first time, and it was DELICIOUS. It's basically a vanilla yogurt at the consistency of milk and sweeter. It's amazing.

-Last week for P-Day, we went to a National Geographic exhibit that was in Taibei. It was way cool!

-On Saturday, we taught an old Christian couple who was blind, and they showed us their scriptures that were in Chinese Braille. I didn't understand how it worked, but it was pretty legit.

Well, that's about it for this week.

Add Oil!

Elder Richardson

田長老

ELDER RICHARDSON: OCT 27, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

OCTOBER 27, 2013

It was kinda a rough and slow week. It's been difficult adjusting to a new companion, especially a native who is so different from my trainer! But we are slowly adjusting and getting along well.

Exciting news! This next week, from Tuesday until Saturday, I will not be in Neihu like normal. Instead, Elder Morgan and I (another Elder in my apartment) will be going down with a group to TaiDong! The missionaries down there are trying to achieve their finding goal for this month, and so President Day has decided to send some extra missionaries to help out. So tomorrow morning (Tuesday) we will be taking a 6 hour train ride to be in TaiDong for the week. We'll be mostly street contacting and door knocking for the week, so it will be very interesting. It'll be exciting to be somewhere new, especially somewhere like TaiDong!

More exciting news! President Day called me and my companion the other day, and invited us to be in a special missionary Christmas choir that will travel and perform in the Taibei area during Christmas time. So we have practice every P-Day at the mission home chapel. We are really excited! It should be a lot of fun!

Our investigators are doing really well. We don't have a lot, and half of the ones we have are "eternal" which means they've been investigators for a while. Xiao DX is hopefully going to be baptized next next week. And as much as we have been finding, we haven't really been able to add to our teaching pool. We've just got to keep finding the prepared people!

Some other 東西：

-Every convenience store here carries a brand of candy bar called "Always." It's basically like a kit kat chocolate bar filled with Nutella. It's as amazing as it sounds. The only problem is that it is 16 kuai, which means that if you don't have an extra penny, then you are carrying around 4 until you get home!

-The cash system in Taiwan is super convenient. Compared to the USD, it's super easy. Most things you buy are in denominations of 10, and there's no sales tax, so you can figure out how much you need to spend before you get up to the counter. If the US had a better cash system, we wouldn't need credit cards!

-I went to the bank to try and exchange my birthday money. The bank near our house is pretty nice, kinda high class. And because we were dressed up like businessmen they treated us pretty nicely. I told them that I wanted to exchange money and they asked "How much?" They were blow away when I told them $28 USD. They just couldn't understand why I would want to exchange so little, especially because there was quite a hefty fee for the exchange. But there was nothing else I could do. It was pretty funny. Also, the manager came over to talk to us just because we were foreigners and we looked nicely dressed.

-Tug-o-war is a pretty big deal here. Every school has their own team and there are competitions between schools.

That's about it! I'll tell you all about my fun week in TaiDong next week!

Add Oil!

田長老

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #16: OCT 28, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

OCT 28, 2013

ahh i have so many good stories this week! but we are out of time!!! so maybe i will try to come back to the library later today, or hand write it....but if not, know that I am alive and well! i will write you soon! thanks for your support and prayers!

Sister Richardson

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #15: OCT 21, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER FROM SISTER RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 21, 2013

It's already almost the end of October! Wow! It's been a slower week, but we are still working hard every day!

-We did a fun service project this week and helped out at the St. Marys public library doing yard work. It was fun!

-There were 2 baptisms this weekend of 8 year old girls.  We helped plan and organize one of them and it ended up going really well! I gave the talk on baptism!

-The pattern continues that when I am really nervous about going to a certain person's door, it's usually then that something really great happens and we have an awesome lesson!

-My mission president served his mission in France.  He has started responding to my weekly letters in French and so I wrote him my weekly letter in French today!

I continue to learn things every day about myself and about the gospel and how I can become more Christ-like.  We all have a long way to go in overcoming out weaknesses, but it is the daily progression and effort that matters!

Love you all!
Sister Richardson

ELDER RICHARDSON: OCTOBER 20, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER FROM ELDER RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 20, 2013

It was an interesting week. I feel like because our P-Day was different, this whole week was kind of weird. We had some slow days on Thursday and Friday, but we still got as much done as we could.

The interesting thing about having a native companion is that people sometimes don't talk to me. People (on the street at least) will direct their conversations at him instead of me, even if I ask them a question! They also speak faster and not as clearly, so it gives me a chance to practice listening a lot more. The language is easier now. I definitely notice the difference from having an foreigner and a native companion. I'm really grateful for this opportunity to really improve my language!

This week I was trying to remember how to say "space out." I knew the word in Chinese, but it took me 2 or 3 minutes to come up with the English...

We had a really great lesson with our investigator Brother X this week. He is such a stand-up guy. He really wanted to get baptized next week, but we haven't finished teaching all of the lessons yet! He should be getting baptized the second week of November. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he committed to start obeying the commandment immediately! He has a smoking problem, but he thinks he can do it, and we are going to keep praying for him this week. We are really excited for him! He's the kind of investigator that was prepared long before we ever met him. He's also a testimony to me of the power of member referrals. His friend that is a member in another ward has come with him to church a couple of times and comes to the lessons when he can. Member referrals are definitely the most effective way for missionaries to find people to teach!

I got my birthday in a box two weeks ago with Elder Pratt when we were waiting for a zone meeting to start. So Elder Pratt decided to blow up all of the balloons right then. So there were balloons all over in the chapel and then we had to pop them all! Then I just rolled my eyes at my companion.

My companion really likes to sing, so he decided we should join the ward choir for a practice after general conference last week. And then it turned out that we were singing in stake conference, so we had to find some P-Day time to practice! It was really interesting singing a song in English with people who speak Chinese. It definitely sounded different. It was fun to be singing again, even if it was weird.

Some other interesting things that happened this week:

-We met with a less active who literally reads fingers for a living. He looked at my thumb and told me that I would have better success by emulating those around me. I don't know how he got that, but it was really interesting.

-There is an elementary school marching band that we hear every once in a while if we are riding to the chapel in the mornings. They sound about as good as my junior high band was. Maybe better.

-We have a favorite Vietnamese place that we go to for lunch sometimes. This week, my companion and I both tried the spicy soup, and it was a lot more spicy than I anticipated. It was a funny sight to see both my companion and I just sitting there with tears in our eyes because of how spicy it was.

-Familysearch in Chinese has over 10 million records dating back to 1239.

-I appreciated the Les Mis reference in conference. I think that's the third one so far.

-Remember the "Work of Salvation" video that showed the family all talking to their friends with the Tabernacle Choir singing "I'll go where you want me to go"? Well, Taiwan made their own. They used the same audio track and created a new video with scenes and people in Taiwan. It was pretty good!

I'm looking forward to a good week this next week! Thank you for all of your emails and support. It's a great strength to me to read your emails and encouragement!

加油！

Elder Richardson

田長老