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...