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

ELDER RICHARDSON: OCTOBER 15, 2013

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Today we have temple day! That's why this letter is coming on Wednesday and will be a little bit shorter. I'll be sending a lot of pictures though.

We went to the zoo last week after emails. I'm going to send some of the pictures.

Thank you everybody for the birthday wishes! It's great to feel all of your love from so far away! I had a great birthday! It's definitely weird to hit the big 2-0. I still feel like I'm 19.

Elder Andersen and I went to McDonalds for my birthday lunch because I was in Jilong. That is actually a treat, believe it or not, because it's more expensive then other food here. Then I went and bought myself a new bag for a birthday present because my old one was already falling apart.

 At the end of every transfer, we have an  English party, and because it fell on my birthday, the them was my birthday party! Elder Pratt made a pinata, and we had cake and salsa.

We had transfers on Friday, and I'm still here in Neihu! I'm glad I didn't have to pack up all my stuff and move! Elder Pratt is gone though, which is sad. But now I am companions with Elder Lin! He is a native of Taizhong, and has been on his mission for about a year. We are getting along really great so far, and I already feel like my Chinese has come a long way because I have to speak it all the time! I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve with Elder Lin. We're going to have a fun transfer and get a lot of work done! I've attached a picture of him.

Elder Lin (pronounced like "lean") and I have been focusing on finding the past few days, because our teaching pool had gotten kind of small. We've found some great people the past couple of days. We contacted somebody yesterday who was an aborigine. I know he felt the Spirit when we were praying with him! I hope he will set up again!

Conference was amazing! We watched it this weekend, so a week later than everybody else. I took tons of notes and can't wait for the conference Liahona to get here! I especially liked Pres. Utchdorf's talk and Elder McConkie's talk. I'm excited to read them all again! Before now, I remember thinking that conference was super long and it took forever to pass. This time was different! It all went by way too fast and I feel like I missed everything that was said! I'll definitely be grateful to have them printed!

I don't have much time this week, but I'll try to finish up next week!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!

Elder Richardson

田長老

PICTURES FROM THE ZOO:

ELDER PRATT AND OUR UGLY SNAKE PINATA

BiHu:  means Emerald Lake

New Companion: Elder Lin and his inflatable moose

Chinese like cute things so I bought some adorable cards to write notes on

Pictures Elder Deal drew for us.  The characters say "Elder Richardson in Pre-Mortal Life"

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #14: OCTOBER 15, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER FROM SISTER RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Transfer week! Sister Spendlove and I will be here in St. Mary's for another transfer! That's what I was expecting/hoping for.  Not ready to leave these dear people yet.  No missionary day is the same!  We always have lots of adventures and miracles. 

-A less-active lady we have been working with came to our gospel study class on Wednesday! She has been so nervous to come back.  When we pulled up to the church we saw her walking back to her car, but we ran up to her and walked in with her and she was able to make it but she was so so nervous.  But she made it through, miracle :)

-I will be doing a training/lesson on stress management on the mission at our next Zone conference! Thank goodness for that job at the BYU counseling center that had me teaching stress management every day!

-So. I got pulled over by the police.  And earlier that day I'd been bragging to the Elders about how I'd never been pulled over before.  Prideful me.  The police was sitting in one of those sneaky spots where the speed limit just barely decreased and you are going down a hill and can't see them.  I was going 45 in a 30 mph zone.  Luckily we didn't get a ticket.  Woops.

-The gospel has the answer to every question.  But I don't.  People have asked us for help in marriage troubles, mourning the death of a child, spousal abuse...hard things.  Sometimes I think they forget we are only 20 year old girls with no life experience.  But thank goodness Christ has the answers and the Spirit is the real comforter.

-Went to a birthday party for our investigator's son!! It was so fun.  We made the cake!  Our investigator loves us to pray so we prayed 3 different times at that party.  At the beginning, before the cake, and at the end.  Never prayed so much at a birthday party but it was great!

-We taught the Restoration this week using plastic cups!  We "built" the church (a cup pyramid) as Christ built it with the foundation principles and the twelve apostles and Christ as the head.  Then the apostasy (tower falls) and lots of churches made (took some of the principles) and made several little pyramids.  And then the Restoration happened! The big pyramid is made again with all of the principles, all of the current 12 apostles, the prophet, and then Christ still at the head (top of the tower).  Great for teaching kids!

-We have been going to the chriopractor this week to try and get some help with my migraines.  I think it is helping.  At least it's a work in progress.  I went in by myself and S. Spendlove stayed in the waiting room.  But I felt sooooooo weird.  So I went and got her and made her stay with me in the room.  Met this adorable Southern woman in the waiting room.  She told me how to make the "most delicious" dump cake.

-Preach My Gospel says that you truly understand a principle when you can teach it simply.  That is something I have been working on! Better understanding and internalizing the gospel principles so that I can explain them simply! This week I figured out a simple way to explain the Atonement with the concepts of justice, mercy, grace, and agency using a little web diagram.  It made me happy :)

-We were contacting referrals one day.  And I've been trying to internalize the concept in Mosiah 28:3.  So I have been working hard to not give up on people so easily.  This lady at her trailor told us she wasn't interested.  But then I asked if we could pray with her.  She accepted and we did.  She felt the peace of the spirit and asked us to come back and she committed to reading the Book of Mormon.  Miracle! :)

-One of our investigators told us about her friend that is in the KKK.  She saw the robe, the flag, video footage. Hmmm.

-We had an adventure yesterday and harvested sweet potatoes! They were in a member's garden and there were SO MANY!!  And they were huge!! It was fun to kneel and dig in the dirt.  I felt like the boy in the book Angela's Ashes during the potato famine when they dug in the dirt trying to find the potatoes that hadn't yet been harvested.  Still trying to get the dirt out of my fingernails.  We gave a whole bucket of sweet potatoes to our friend who is going to make some sweet potato pie and share it with us.  Got lots of fire ant bites.  My hands are all swollen, couldn't put on my ring this morning.

-I was studying in PMG about the power and authority of being a missionary.  One way we use that power/authority is by praying for people.  We definitely receive revelation in praying for people and knowing what we should say to comfort them.  I was praying for this one lady the other day with her, and I got the prompting to help her not to feel so lonely...my rational brain told my spiritual brain that that was awkward...but the prompting came again and so I said it in the prayer.  Afterwards she thanked me specifically for that.  Said she felt loved that she hadn't even talked to us about being lonely but it was something she needed help with.  Miracle :)

-Had the BEST lesson of the week with an investigator that we haven't been able to teach for about a month because she's been busy.  But she asked so many great questions! It is like a thanksgiving feast when someone asks you how can I stregthen my family or how come there are so many different churches?  She has such righteous desires and is so prepared to hear and accept the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been praying to have more progressing investigators and she was an answer to our prayers.

-God is aware of EVERYONE! We have been trying to find this one girl and we only knew the area where she lived...but not her apartment number.  BUT! We were driving somewhere last night and there she was walking her dog down the road! She said she had never took her dog on a walk out there ever before.  But we were able to talk to her and find out where she lived so that we can teach and serve her.

-Yesterday we almost got in a car crash...I won't tell you the details so you won't be scared.  But let's just say that God is watching out for us.  And miracles happen. 

-Had the experience again of a house jumping out to me last night that we needed to go to.  We ended up getting a new investigator! The lady there was baptized into the RLDS church but did it out of family expectation.  She really wants to bring her family to church and was accepting of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration.  She is a prepared person!  God prepares the hearts of the people and then we are to go and find them and teach them! Love it!

-Missionary work is really the best.  Basically it is going and finding sad/lost/confused people.  Bringing them happiness and hope.  With a message that never fails.  Happy happy happy :)

-They say you are serving your mission where you are for specific reasons and specific people.  I have been overwhelmed by the truthfulness of this!  So many of the people we are working with have a child with autism!  There have also been several people in the ward we have served/talked to who are suicidal.  Two mental illnesses that I am so passionate about working with! 

Guess what, life is grand because we have the fulness of the gospel :)

Sister Richardson

Our district

Birthday party! He turned 5 and this is the cake we made him!

Birthday party!

Melissa and Cami...S. Spendlove and I :)  Cute little 4 yr old boy at a member's home drew this for us when we came for dinner :)

Harvesting sweet potatoes! So so so so many.  This is just a fraction of our finds. It was like a treasure hunt!

This kind of shows you the size of them...compare them to the size of the leaves there on the ground.

ELDER RICHARDSON: OCT 6, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER FROM ELDER RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 6, 2013

We had a pretty good week this week.

-We spent a lot of time looking for less active members. We have a huge ward list, and we've been working on visiting each of the houses on the list and determining if the person on our list still lives there. It takes a lot of time, but it's really necessary in order to help find those members who want to come back to church. It's frustrating when nobody is home, or when they are home but won't answer the door because we are missionaries! We visited one who's wife is very opposed to our church. She literally pushed us out the door!

-We got some tough news this Friday. We called PZ to set up an appointment for Saturday night. This is our investigator that is almost ready to be baptized. When we called, he told us that he is moving to Taibei on Monday, so he also wouldn't be able to meet with us or come to church. It was really sad that he'll be leaving us, but I'm confident that he will be able to get baptized there. I'm just sad I won't get to see it.

My dinner on Thursday: Beef Noodle Soup and a Passion Fruit Slushie

-The past two transfers for me have taught me the value of working as a missionary team, for "Team Jesus" as President Day says. A lot of the work that we have done is finding investigators for other missionaries, and working on this ward list so that missionaries that follow can find less active members to work with. Even though we arguably don't have any visible fruits, I think God is happy that we are working hard to prepare the way for others and working hard to do what this ward needs right now. I certainly feel like He thinks that we are doing valuable things.

One of my "Phase 2" cards

-We had a miracle yesterday! We've been working with a less active member who hasn't been able to come to church for a while because of his job. Yesterday he showed up at church! He said that his work schedule changed to allow him to start coming back to church! I'm so glad that we spent a few months developing a relationship with him to help him get back to church when his work was willing!

-I got the CTR ring in the mail and have started wearing it. Apparently, the character that the Church uses to represent righteousness is the same one that is used as a symbol by the Taiwanese Mafia.

-I got a purple pen this week that I am enjoying a lot.

-I've decided that I will never eat a snow cone again. The bings that we eat here are SOO much better, and in retrospect, those syrupy snow cones are terrible things. I will probably never let my children eat snow cones. Never.

-Our Bishop here is so cool. I think I've described him before. He starts every blessing with "We Elders of Israel" and recently, my companion has started doing the same thing. I think it's awesome! Yesterday, we went to give a blessing to a part-member family. The husband who isn't a member was about to go in for eye surgery, and asked for a blessing. It was a good experience.

-It's not as rude to call people fat here. I don't know why.

-I got a $10 dollar bill from Grandpa and Grandma Beach, which I would normally look forward to. And then I realized that I can't spend it for awhile...

-It's almost winter, which means that we are about to get fresh strawberries here! I'm SUPER excited.

-Recently, our apartment has been quoting the one thing from the Incredibles where Frozone says "Where is my super suit?" and then that whole conversation very loudly and with exaggerated accents. It's pretty fun.

We have transfers this Friday, and I don't know if I'll be moving or not until Wednesday! So I'll email Monday either from this same place or somewhere completely different!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

田長老

PICTURES:  We met with a recent convert in this pagoda thing on the lake in our area. So I took some pictures.

This is a glorious place called Buttercats. They have a lot of cats and they have holes the cages so that you can play with them. We got distracted for a few minutes...

 

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #13: OCT 7, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER FROM SISTER RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 7, 2013

I swear it was just p-day yesterday.

-I'm wondering if you all would recognize me anymore.  My hair is really long and a lot more blonde.  I have been having lovely allergies this past month (burning eyes..especially while driving, not a good combo) so have worn my glasses every day for the past month.  I wear more than I ever hvae in my life!

-I taught a great lesson in my dream the other night.  Asked quality questions, referenced great scriptures.  Addressed the investigators' concerns and asked them to pray.

-I truly learned the principle of teach when you find, find when you teach.  Sometimes we tract and just try to set up appointments with people.  But we should rather just start teaching and bearing our testimony on the spot.  We were looking for a referral at this apartment complex.  And the words cmae out of my mouth to knock on this other door..apartment 6.  So we did and this girl our age opens up and I just start bearing my testimony and telling her the story of Joseph Smith and how the gospel blesses my life.  Got a return appointment.  She is really excited for us to come!

-Learned this week that missionaries shouldn't say cool or awesome.  Ya that's been a struggle.  I have realized that I use those two words A LOT! Someone want to mail me a thesaurus to help me find some replacement words?

-A less-active family we are working with..every time we are there and pray..wooooosh the spirit is SO STRONG!!  I know the whole family, even the kids feel it.  She listened to conference on her phone and is coming to class on Wednesday and wants to meet with the Bishop :)

-Had one of the hardest experiences of my mission where I had to pray constantly...it was in cleaning this lady's house.  It is probably the most disgusting thing I have done.  Prayed the whole time to not throw up or run out of the house.  I have never seen so many dead bugs and dust in my life.  You know it's bad when she goes to get the cleaning spray and there are cob webs on it.  Poor thing, she is so sick and so poor.  Makes me grateful for what I have for sure. 

-We have had lots of miracles in working with less-actives this week.  Several of them invited us over for dinner!!! Which is awesome because that means they want us there to bring the spirit and talk to us.  And they will be blessed for serving us.  It happened 3 times this week!  Miracles! It's so cool to walk out the door every morning KNOWING we will see miracles and be a part in them.

-LOVED Pres. Monson's Ensign message for the month and Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in conference...applies to so many of the less-actives that we work with.  Inspired! Inspired! Inspired! Gives me lots more tools to use in helping these people.

-Being a missionary, especially training, is teaching me a lot about being a good spouse and being a good parent. 

-Favorite scripture of the week that I am working on applying to myself: Mosiah 28: 3-->Now they were desirous that slavation should be declared to every creature for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

-Getting the Ensign=best day ever.  Birthday/christmas combined.  Revelation taht we need for THAT MONTH of our lives!

-God is incredible and all-knowing.  We were trying to find this referral...all we knew is the apartment complex...the spirit told me which building she was in.  God loves his children! And wants them to be taught and found!

-I have better learned this week that our ultimate purpose for everything we do is BAPTISM and the TEMPLE!! Everything we do as missionaries should reflect that purpose and those goals.  They are waht God wants us and has asked us to do.

-A quote I loved this week: Missionaries have the purpose of teaching the prepared, not doing the preparing, that is the work of the Lord.

-Had a difficult experience this week where I felt like someone ripped apart my testimony threw it on the ground and stomped all over it. It hurt a lot.  This is what I've learned from it..this is waht I wrote in my weekly letter to the mission president:
I have been thinking a lot this week about loving those that reject us or mock us. I have been thinking of the example of Jesus Christ and how He did condemn the people and pointed out their faults...but I think it is because He had that divine authority to do so. Of us it is required to forgive all men. And love all men. Just like Nephi who instantly forgave his brothers, I must instantly forgive and love anyone that might offend me or insult my beliefs/religion even though it is something so sacred and special to me. I continually pray for more love.

-Loved conference!! Felt the closest I've been to the temple as I have so far on my mission.  Received lots of incredible personal revelation. Also learned incredible things about how I can better help my investigators.  Loved Elder Holland's talk!!!! Blew my mind!! But that's because I am so passionate about the mental health field.  I'm so in love with the fact that an apostle talked about it!! And testified of things that I am so passionate about.

I love you all lots! This life is such a small part of our existence.  So push through and trust in God, the all-knowing.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways.

Sister Richardson