SISTER RICHARDSON'S WEEKLY LETTER #11 & 12 -- SEPTEMBER 23 & 30, 2013

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #11

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Everyone,

It's been a lovely lovely week down in the bayou.

Earlier in the week I had a few hours of feeling SUPER overwhelmed.  There are so many goals that we commit to...companionship goals, district goals, zone goals, mission goals, daily goals, weekly goals, mission president weekly goals.  And then there is so little time in the day! We have 3 hours of study in the day, then do an hour of facebook every day and then we have to eat sometime! And see less-actives, investigators, members, former investigators, potential investigators, and be completely obedient and not drive too much so we don't go over our mile limit.  But I guess you just get used to all the expectations and you go out and do your best. And just love people.  So that's what I tell myself and then I am not overwhelmed as much! 

It's interesting how investigators explain experiencing feeling the Holy Spirit.  One lady this week told us that while we were praying, her eyes were closed and she said that everything turned to a light shade of pink.  And to her, that meant that she was happy and things were good and peaceful. 

We go to the library most every day to use the computers for facebook and then to email on p-day.  The other day, it just popped out of my mouth...I ask the librarian if they had a Book of Mormon in the library.  He looked it up and said no.  So I just handed him a Book of Mormon as a donation.  Rockin! Now there's a Book of Mormon in the Kingsland, GA library. 

We had trade-offs this week with the Sister training leaders.  I got to go to Brunswick, GA for a day! It is just farther north on the Georgia coast.  It was way nice getting out of the area for a bit and learning from more experienced missionaries and being able to ask all my questions!  It's funny how there are rules, and then there are the rules that you think are rules, but they're really not rules.  I think somebody comes up with something they like doing..and then as it gets passed down, it is looked at as a rule.  Also I am still finding out about rules that I didn't know about! Like in order to rearrange your morning plans, you have to ask permission from the zone leaders. I also went out to St. Simon's Island right off the coast to visit some people while in Brunswick.  

The other day, we showed up to the church to help out with a wedding reception.  We planned on only being there an hour...but turns out NOBODY was there to help! So S. Spendlove and I ran the food during the reception.  Pretty funny! And I ate boiled peanuts for the first time.  I've seen them advertised all over, but had never tried them. They boil the peanuts in all these delicious spices..usually hot spices.  It was delicious! 

DO YOUR VISITING TEACHING AND HOME TEACHING!!!! We as missionaries see the effects of people not taking that calling and responsibility seriously! We as missionaries are supposed to focus on non-members...but at least in this area we end up focusing on less-actives and members more than we're supposed to to make up for the lack of VT and HT.  You can't bring investigators to church unless it's a church that is taking care of itself and fellowshipping each other.  Our church is organized the way that it is for a reason! It's a divinely inspired system where everyone can be looked out for and not one sheep is lost.  The missionaries can help with that one lost sheep...but have a hard time taking care of the sheep that are lost...in this ward, about 60%! 

I love doing service for people.  My favorite thing EVER! We go into someone's house, see what their needs are, and then go and help them do it.  Service softens and open people's hearts.  I have already seen miracles come from service!  This week some fun service things were folding baby clothes with a 9-month pregnant less-active.  Tutoring a lady in math..she's struggling in her online math course that she has to take to complete her Bachelor's degree.  Hadn't thought about asymptotes and the difference of square and the quadratic equation in a while! 

In church yesterday, I played a piano duet with the Bishop's wife! It was great and the ward loved it and felt the Spirit.  Also, it makes your LIFE when people come to church.  S. Spendlove and I taught Sunday School about eternal families.  I loved telling about my awesome family that is eternal!!! 

One night, we were driving away from an appt, and I got the feeling that we needed to stay and tract in that neighborhood.  So we parked the car and went and talked to a Dad that was playing with his two little girls in the yard.  We started talking to him and he loved talking about religion.  Their family is Baptist...but I think it's a subset, more radical Baptist following.  He talked  our ear off about differences between our beliefs and his beliefs.  It was good to correct some of his misconceptions about Mormons.  Then his wife came out and  invited us inside for dinner! Random, but awesome! They are a cute little family and we talked about religion the whole time. They believe in predestination.  And that there is a set of people that are chosen before we come to Earth to be saved and to believe in Christ.  All the other people that weren't chosen...too bad.  It was really interesting.  After dinner as we kept talking, the environment kind of turned into an argument and the spirit left.  They invited us to come back, but S. Spendlove and I just felt really icky and weird after we left.  We weren't sure why.  We think it's just because the spirit had left.  We are going to go teach them again and see if we can keep the spirit there and hold our own a bit better.  We are not here to convince people of the truth of the gospel! The spirit does that, so you have to have the spirit! 

S. Spendlove is improving! Every Sunday, she kind of comes to a breaking point, but then has an awesome realization and resovles to improve and be better. It's great! Things that I don't want to confront her about, I pray to know how I can best help her.  And then the spirit teaches her about it and she brings up the concern herself.  It is so much more powerful when somebody realizes/learns something on their own rather than you teaching and telling them. 

So here's the best story of the week.  It happened last night (Sunday). S. Spendlove and I are leaving a member's house after having dinner.  We have a voicemail from the ward mission leader and he is asking us if we know how to milk a goat. No joke.  He said that since I was from Arkansas, he figured I would know how.  We told him and said no...but he wanted us to help find someone who knew how.  Because there was a less-active member that had to go out of town for an emergency...and her goats had been left unmilked...not good! So after we got off the phone, the lady whose house we'd just been at...her name popped into my head.  We called her. Asked her if she by any random chance knew how to milk a goat.  She was like don't you know how? She said of course I do, I'm from New Hampshire.  Ha! So we all went out together to milk these goats.  The goats were in pain but were better as soon as they'd been milked.  Then on the way home, this member confessed to us, laughing, that she had never before milked a goat. She said she had milked a cow once...and figured it was the same.  It was hilarious.  But a great story and an adventure! 

I love you all a lot! And I love the people here.   I am already dreading the day when I will be moved to a different area.  Thank you for your prayers and support!

Sister Richardson 

SISTER RICHARDSON'S 

WEEKLY LETTER #12

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

This week has had lots of ups and downs!  We have had some awesome days/moments...but also lots of trial of our faith moments.

Awesome moments:

-Brother and Sister Hamm made us chicken and waffles.  I was skeptical at first....but oh my lanta it was delicious.  It was homemade fried chicken and waffles with this homemade peach syrup....so just like a sweet chicken with breading (the waffles)....I know it sounds gross.  So good.  Then they are both professional musicians and entertained us for a bit on the guitar and singing.  They live in this cute little camping trailer.

-Driving down the road, had a prompting to go visit this less-active lady whose door we have knocked on about 20 times since I've been here with no response...she was there! And we got to finally meet her and teach her!

-For our ward outreach night..we usually only have 5-10 people come.  S. Spendlove and I pulled up to the parking lot that night and there were so many cars! There were about 20 people there!

-Went and visited this sweet, eclectic less-active woman.  She does puzzles in her spare time. So like every night.  We worked on her puzzle with her as we talked.  I had to force myself to stop working that puzzle and leave. 

-Had an awesome spiritual moment with this Catholic lady that cooks for us every Sunday.  I asked her for help in understanding the parable of the labourers in the vineyard that I'd read that morning.  It led to an awesome gospel discussion and the spirit was so strong!

-We were helping this family move.  We packed up the uhaul...but then it was full and we still had two recliners and four mattresses to fit in there.  So I decided we were going to get things done.  I took of my shoes.  And gracefully (as I was in a skirt) climbed up through the stuff to the back of the truck and repacked the whole middle section.  I think women's brains can just pack things better....because there was a whole lot of wasted room.  But we rearranged things and easily fit it all into the uhaul.  It was just a funny site with me crouched up in the back on top of boxes and dressers and everyone listening to me telling them (nicely) how to help me move and repack things. 

-Felt strongly about bearing my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday.  Talked about repentance and giving our burdens to God. 

-I LOVE It when less-actives that you have been working with come to church!!!!!!!! So happy.  And church in general is just so happy.

Not so awesome moments:

-So this one time, I was trying to turn around.  And it was dark.  And I kind of sorta got our car stuck in a ditch.  So I spun the tires for a bit.  Then Sister Spendlove got out and pushed the car while I backed up to try a different angle of getting out.  And we made it.  Our white car was then super dirty nasty.

-It's sad when people reject you! Because you have this awesome gift for them of HAPPINESS and HOPE and LOVE!!!!!  

-We lost our phone.  3 times this week.  Kept leaving it at people's homes.

-People come to church only wanting welfare money.  Then don't care about learning more about the church.  Makes me sad.  Because they dress their kids up in their nicest clothes and bring all of their kids to show their destitute needs.  Wish I had a million dollars!

-Drama in the ward.  And us as kind people that are neutral to it because we love everyone...we end up being the middle man and it's not fun! But I'm pretty sure we saved someone's life Saturday night.  Everyone else had left her to be homeless for the night.  Long story....but whatever her wrongs may be..Christ would not have left her.  So we helped her because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. She wouldn't have lived through the night if we hadn't helped her I am 90% sure.

We are losing our progressing investigators! So we are working on getting more this week! Everyone seems to not have time, but I know that there are people that are prepared and ready to hear this gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it! So we will find those people this week!

Some interesting things I've learned about the church in this area:

-Back in the 50s, two mormon missionaries were hung here in Kingsland....probably with the KKK stuff going on at that time. But they didn't have missionaries here for a while.  But no worries now.  Just interesting.

-They have this devotional down in Jacksonville called the Genesis Devotional.  It has been going on for decades and was originally created/organized by black people when they didn't have the priesthood.  To help each other better understand their role in the church as members without the priesthood.  They still have the devotoinals to this day.  It is open to all church members now, but mainly attracts the African American church members.  They sing more soulful music and have speakers.  We didn't get to go the one last night as it was out of our area...but they are having the next one here in Kingsland in November.  Yay!

Life is good! We are teaching investigators and less-active members all day every day! As well as serving members of the ward and the people we teach. I am my happiest when I am serving others so every day is great! God knows us and is so patient with us! Love you all! Watch conference this weekend! Write down 3 questions before you watch it and you'lll receive answers to them! I will be doing it too!
Sister Richardson