SISTER
MELISSA RICHARDSON: JULY 17, 2013
WEEKLY
LETTER #1
FROM
MELISSA:
Hey
I finally got a p-day! I'm doing well! I've learned a lot this past
week. I'll write up a summary and send it to you soon. Hope
everyone is doing well! It was fun seeing Hyrum so much last week!
Sister Richardson
Sister Richardson
FROM
DAD:
Yahoo! Exciting to hear
about your time there! Mom leaves in a couple hours to go to help
Stephanie and we’re busily getting ready for Nauvoo.
Here’s what Hyrum wrote about
seeing you –
On Wednesday, when Melissa
was supposed to come in, I spent about an hour waiting for her car to come, but
apparently she just walked in! So I was sitting eating breakfast on Thursday,
minding my own business, and I looked up and there she was! I was so excited! I
got up and gave her a hug, which was received by surprise from all the other
missionaries around us.
Our meal times overlap by
about 15 minutes, so I've been able to see her at almost every meal these past
few days. It's been really fun! Attached are some pictures of us.
We have enjoyed the pictures
and put them up on facebook.
VR
Hello
everyone! I love being a missionary! i have only been a missionary
for a week but I have learned so much and been changed already. The power
of God is real and the guidance of the Spirit is real. God wants everyone
to come closer to Him and so He is with us every step of the way as
missionaries.
Our
days here are loooong because every moment is scheduled with something to
do. But that is how we learn so much. We have class, scripture
study time, study time with our companion, and we teach lessons to
"investigators" where we are practicing becoming better
teachers. Most days it feels like we go to class and study and then we
eat and then we study and then we eat and then study and have class some more
and then eat again and then have more class, up until 9;15 at night. We
start our day at 6:30 in the morning and finish at 10:30 at night without a
break. This is probably the closest I'll ever get to boot camp!
My companion is
Sister Ashcraft. She is a cute petite girl with long curly red
hair. She is 20 as well and goes to BYU idaho. It has been a
blessing for us to be together as we are both pretty chill people but are also
passionate about our work as missionaries. Also, we went through some of
the same experiences in the months prior to coming on our missions which is
cool. It has been an adjustment not being able to go anywhere without
her, but I actually really like it. You're never lonely and you don't
have to go through anything alone, just like God is always with us. We
are good friends and have become really close already as we have worked through
our doubts and weaknesses in order to teach our investigators well and have the
spirit of God with us. She has a rock solid testimony and has been
through some hard times (her Dad died in an accident when she was in high
school) but is so happy and passionate about the gospel. I love
her! She is going to Jacksonville too for her mission as well as our two
other sister roommates.
One
of the coolest things has been meeting missionaries that are also going to
jacksonville, FL! There will be 28 of us flying out this next Tuesday and
entering the mission field this transfer. There are so many sisters too!!
Just as many, if not more, sisters as elders going to Jacksonville. i
hear there is an alligator farm in jacksonville. Also I've heard that the
average weight gain in that mission is 30 pounds! Apparently it rains a
lot there and there are also a lot of military people there I hear because of
the big naval bases that are in Jacksonville.
The
energy and spirit here is incredible. Everyone is here nad doing hard
things because we love God and we love the gospel. No selfish
motives. I love seeing all the missionary tags in different languages and
trying to figure out what language it is. Even though I love languages
and am jealous of everyone learning a language, I know that God called me to
Jacksonville for a reason and that is exactly where he wants me to be.
Also, it's cool just focusing on the gospel for the two weeks here, rather than
a language. AND I get to get right into the field in just two weeks and
get to work right away! Can't wait! But I did meet a sweet
girl from Toulouse, France and talked to her for a bit in French which was
fun. I miss French! I'll have to keep it up by reading my
French Book of Mormon.
The
elders in our district...let's just say you can tell that most of them just
graduated high school, haha. But they are teaching me a lesson in patience and
we are good friends with them. They all have awesome testimonies and are
going to learn and grow so much! I am excited for them and am glad that
we have gone through this training process together. They keep things fun
and lighthearted which is good :)
It
is SOOO fun getting letters! Seriously makes my day like no other. Thank
you for writing me those that have! And Alison gets the award for best
sister ever for sending me cupcakes!!
So
the teaching style here is not telling you the answer to the question or not
telling you exactly how to teach, but guiding you and giving you the resources
and scriptures to find the answer. Which was frustrating for me at first
because I felt like they weren't telling us what to do and were just throwing
us into teaching, but I have realized that the teachers are ambiguous like that
because God and the Holy Ghost are the true teachers. If we put in the
effort to study and learn and pray then He teaches us. It's a cool
process to go through several times a day. It's also been a neat
experience to teach our investigators. They are our teachers or volunteer
actors, but it feels real because we all approach it as real and the spirit of
God and the spirit of missionary work is real. Yesterday, at the
TRC there was a volunteer actor, who I'm pretty sure is not a member
of the church. His name is Eric and everyone had told me and Sister
Ashcraft before about how difficult he was and hwo they had stopped sending
sisters to him because he was so intense and sometimes rude to
missionaries. But Sister Ashcraft and I just sang a bunch of hymns
together before we went in to teach him and went there with the sole
purpose of helping him feel God's love for him and our love for him
as representatives of Jesus Christ. And it was such a cool
experience! The lesson plan that we'd prepared went out the window
and we were totally guided by the Spirit as to what we said and the
scriptures we shared. Eric was pretty skeptical about everything we
were saying and asked a lot of bible-bashing questions. But we always
just responded with love and didn't ever argue with him. I really
think he was touched by the Spirit that was in the room and I can't wait to
meet with him again tomorrow.
Sister
Ashcraft and I are also teaching Selam (our teacher acting as her) who
is a sweet middle-aged woman from Ethiopia. Yesterday
we taught about the plan of salvation and about life after death
and how families can be together forever and how we will see loved
ones again after death. The spirit was so so so strong, it was
incredible! Sister Ashcraft was prompted to share the experience of
her dad dying and how she knows that she will see him again and that she knows
that he is with her and helps her in this life. That really touched Selam
and she shared that her mom had recently passed away and that's why she had
left Ethiopia because it was really hard. She accepted to be
baptized!!!!! There is seriously no greater joy then knowing you
have helped someone come closer to Christ. Seriously, it's not even a
"real" person but it feels real and it is just an incredible feeling
where it is not possible to wipe the smile off your face. It is
making me even more excited to go to FL and start teaching people and sharing
the gospel and the Atonment with people that God knows nad lvoes.
I
love wearing my missionary tag! I wear it from right when I
wake up until I lay down to go to bed at night. It is so cool and
reminds me of who I represent and the work that God has trusted me
with.
It's
been good having set times to exercise here. I've been better at
exercising this week than probably ever and it feels good! Also,
it's nice to have a change of pace from our classroom. I lvoe it here,
but am super glad that I am only here for two weeks...don't know how Hyrum did
it for 9! It is so happy here, but it is also very enclosed and
claustrophobic...probably because we are in the same 3 buildings right next to
each other all day every day. It felt soooo good and liberating to go and
walk around the tmeple on Sunday. Also there are a loooot of people here
which is a goood problem :)
I
sang in the MTC choir for the devotional last night and it was
incredible! The marriott center was filled with all the
missionaries and they took a group panaromic picture which was funny. Not
sure why they did that.
I'm
loving life and loving being a missionary! It's not all fun and games and
there are times of discouragement, but we are striving to become mroe like
Christ and He suffered all so we can do anything!!!!
I
love you all. I'll probably be in Florida the next time I write.
Sister
Richardson
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