APRIL 22, 2014 -- ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #48

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #48

APRIL 22, 2014

I never know how to start these emails. Usually I just say that it's been a good week, and it has. I almost always feel good about the week when it's Monday and we have a couple of hours to rest. And right now I feel particularly good. We are emailing a little later today because one of the sisters' investigators who is super rich took us out to a two-hour Japanese high-class all-you-can-eat restaurant. It was SOO good, and all of us feel SO stuffed. This area is ridiculous; I have been fed so much food here.

Elder Farrell really likes ice cream, just like me, so about 4 or 5 times a week, we'll finish eating lunch or dinner and one of us will say, "I feel like ice cream." The other one will inevitable concur. And then we drag Elder Wilson with us to the nearest 7-Eleven and get some ice cream. I think I could continue this pattern for the rest of my mission without complaint.

Thursday, one of the members of the Asia Area Presidency came to do a mission tour. We had a conference at Temple Square with our zone and another zone. They had a lot of great things to share. We all read 1 Nephi 1 together and discussed how we can help our investigators with reading it for the first time. Then as districts we put together a 3 minute "trailer" skit for 1 Nephi 2-5. The most hilarious one performed was by the senior couples. It was a fun conference and it was great to hear from our Asia Area Leader!

Elder Wilson (the Asia Area presidency guy, not my companion Elder Wilson) said that he saw a study which showed that Chinese is 4x harder to learn than any Latin-based language. 

We had stake conference on Sunday, and one of the speakers there told a cool story. I'll rewrite it here, but just be warned I'm trying to translate it and my English has regressed a LOT.

A man asked his wife, "Do I have any weaknesses?"

She said, "You have a lot actually, kinda like there are many stars in the night sky."

Then he asked, "Do I have any strengths?"

She said, "You have very few, kinda like there is only one sun in the sky."

He then asked, "So why do you still love me?"

She said, "Because when the sun rises and shines brightly, I can no longer see the stars."

(Maybe somebody can proofread that before reposting..)

We had a really cool miracle this week. Two weeks ago, we knocked an LA's door and luckily, he was home! We got to know him a little and set up a time to come back and visit with his whole family. So we called him before we went to visit next week, but he had forgotten and rescheduled. This happened two more times, where he would reschedule right before we were about to go. But then on Saturday, he confirmed that he would be there. When we got there, his girlfriend was also there. We started to share with him and then she came over and started listening. By the end, she was asking us questions and gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and said she would read it. So the fourth time was the charm, when we would be able to share with her too!

I learned this week that the Angel Moroni on the Taiwan Taibei Temple is a little bit different. Almost every Angel Moroni faces east, to face the rising sun. But Taibei is different. The Angel Moroni here faces Mainland China, so represent that Taiwan will open the doors to the gospel being preached in China!

Have a good week! Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 Outside of the all you can eat restaurant we went to today. Mama Wu is the one in the pink, and the sister's investigator Brother Wang is the one not dressed like a missionary in the middle.

 A picture from one of the Sunday night dinners that we have every week. The foreigner on the far left is our ward mission leader.

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #40 -- APRIL 14, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER

APRIL 14, 2014

Hello family!
 
Some highlights of the week:
-teaching Vada for the second time..about the Plan of Salvation. This
is the deaf girl. We are helping her to recognize feeling the spirit
using that awesome Galatians verse about the fruits of the spirit. She
is our deaf investigator.
-Jaime and Sierra, our recent converts got their patriarchal blessings
this past Sunday! They continue to thrive in the gospel.
-we counted it up, and there have been 22 people reactivated in our
ward in the past 3.5 months!
-we were just walking around a neighborhood one evening and found a
family with a. If white 15 passenger van and they have 8 kids! They
are baptist and are really nice! I was so excited to meet them and
their family. They weren't interested din our church at the moment,
but we are going to go back and help teach their special needs son
sign language. Will be fun!
- we had a fun dinner with the bishop and the elders. The bishop and
his wife got each of us a box of cereal of our favorite kind. So we
all were eating cereal with those 6 boxes on the table, it was fun!
-I've loved reading the conference talks on my iPad this week!
 
Have a great week and a great Easter!
Sister Richardson
 

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #47 -- APRIL 14, 2014

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #47

APRIL 14, 2014

This week was great. We got to meet with a lot of investigators, we ate delicious food, and of course the best was attending every session of General Conference!

Last Monday, a member took us to an All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Hut. Apparently, there are only two in all of Taibei, and they are both in our area :) It was delicious, but pizza in Taiwan is different than pizza in America, even at Pizza Hut. They like putting lots of seafood and weird sauces on their pizza here, but pizza is still pizza.

One of the amazing members of our ward is Mama Wu. She LOVES the missionaries and does a LOT for us. She is the one who took us to pizza hut, and feeds us every Sunday night. She always gifts us fruit to eat and whenever we are with her she never lets us pay for anything. She also does all of the hair cutting and clothes mending for the missionaries here. She also cooked food for the whole ward for both days of conference. She's awesome.

One thing somebody said in church last week was that Christ's name is mentioned 1 time every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon, as opposed to 1 time every 2.1 times in the Bible. The Book of Mormon really IS a testament of Christ!

On Wednesday night, we contacted somebody at about 4 o'clock that afternoon, and were surprised when she came to English class that night at 7. That's a first for me. She also hung around afterwards and was willing to meet with us this week!

We got a new dryer in our apartment because the old one was a white shirt burner. As such, there is a large box that Elder Farrell enjoys doing his studies in.

Our ward mission leader here is also a foreigner. He is American, but he hates speaking English. He usually pretends that he doesn't speak English, only Chinese with a thick Beijing accent. He's a funny guy.

And of course, General Conference was amazing. I took a lot of notes, and look forward to getting a conference edition magazine so that I can study the messages more in-depth. I especially liked Elder Oaks and Pres Utchdorf from Priesthood, Elder Bednar and Pres Monson from Sun Morning, and Elder Corbridge and Christofferson from Sun Afternoon. I felt like there was a common theme of standing up for what is right even while the world is moving farther away from the moral standard. I also really liked the Tabernacle choir arrangement of Let Us All Press On from Sunday morning.

That's it for this week.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #39 -- APRIL 7, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

APRIL 7, 2014

We've had some fun adventures amidst all the missionary work this week.
 
Some happy news is that the mission gave us our elders car. Which is
good for us and bad for them. It's amazing how much more you can get
done when it doesn't take an hour to walk or bike to one place. Plus
it's a 2013 car...probably the nicest and newest car I'll ever drive
in my life.

We went and visited the sister of one of our investigators who was in the ICU. Her name is Mary and she was pretty incoherent. She tried to talk to us, but we couldn't really understand her. So I just held and rubbed her hand and sister Waldron and I sang her be still my soul. Then I said a prayer with her and told her that she was doing great and was going to make it. Sister Waldron was just crying the whole time...I guess I'm more used to the hospital scene after visiting so many people at their death bed in France when I did my internship. It was a special visit. We did some service for a family in our ward. They have 6 kids so it reminded me of our big family. And they had lots of animals! We got to feed the baby goats, hold the baby ducks. They also had baby quails, rabbits, baby rabbits that had just been born that night, and chickens! It was fun. I told them they need to make a petting zoo. Sometimes investigators just fall right into your lap. That happened this week when the high priest group leader told us to come teach his 9 yr old granddaughter and help her get baptized. Hooray! She is so cute and we are excited to get her excited about baptism. I interpreted again for a deaf members temple recommend interview. It was cool to notice my improvements in the language in just one transfer. Also, I was talking with two deaf members the other day and then I realized for a second that I was totally understanding and communicating with them. It was a good feeling! Conference was wonderful and went by way too fast. I love looking for "themes" throughout the talks and seeing what God is trying to emphasize at this time. I learned a lot and took lots of notes. I am excited for when they will be online and I can read them all again on my iPad. It's hard when you can't control other peoples agency but you want to! It's frustrating when people choose to do other things instead of coming to church..wish they could better realize how great the gospel and the church are! But God continues to teach me patience and trust. I'm so grateful for a living Heavenly Father that is always there for me to guide and comfort me! Sister Richardson Yummy smelling orange blossoms and oranges. These trees are everywhere.

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON'S WEEKLY LETTER #46 -- APRIL 6, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON'S

WEEKLY LETTER #46

APRIL 6, 2014

A lot of stuff happened this week. It was kind of long, and involved at lot of adjusting to a tri-companionship. But we saw a lot of miracles this week, and are feeling good about all of our investigators' progress.

Tuesday we went to go give a blessing to an investigator's friend who got in a car accident. Her injury was pretty serious, and when we went in the room she was feeling really nauseous and didn't look too hot. But after the blessing the investigator called us and said her friend was feeling a lot better already. The power of faith!

Elder Wilson is in this area because he has been having back problems due to riding bikes, so we have been riding buses a lot lately. It's been kind of fun to try and figure out the bus system, which is possible now that I can read.

Last week in Taiwan was 掃墓節 (sao3mu4jie2) which is similar to memorial day in America. On this day, everyone goes with their families to ancestor's gravestones where they leave out food for their ancestors. The name of the holiday literally means "sweep gravestone holiday."

Last week we got gifted some soy milk on the street. We have no idea who the lady was, but she just gave us some soymilk!

This week we got new boxes of Book of Mormons. The new print edition is thinner than the old print. Elder Farrell said he feels like he's carrying around the "sportscar of Book of Mormons."

Met some new interesting English names. One is "Sister Trouble" and another is "Harry Potter."

Occasionally, just for fun, I'll start talking to someone only in English. Because almost everybody in the city speaks at least basic English, so it's funny to see their reaction afterward when I pull out semi-fluent Chinese.

When we do roleplays in the morning in companionship study, we will teach a little figurine of Yoda that somebody left in our apartment. And because there is a chinese last name that is pronounced Yo, we just call him Brother Yo.

We have a recent convert here whose job is to fly Apache helicopters. We're all pretty jealous.

I'm really looking forward to General Conference this week. I know everybody else already saw it, but it'll still be good a week late!

Today we are going to a Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat restaurant! Should be delicious.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #38 -- APRIL 1, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

APRIL 1, 2014

Well I will be staying in St. Augustine for another transfer with Sister Waldron! I am glad I won't be leaving quite yet.  But this will make 6 months here in St. Augustine by the end of this transfer.

Jaime (recent convert) and I attempted canning with a pressure cooker this week.  It was a fun experience, as we both had no idea what we were doing and were just following some paper directions.  Wish I had paid more attention when Mom did it!

So I tried to get us 4 sister missionaries to go running one morning.  It turned into me running back and forth and them walking.  Apparently my enthusiasm for it was not contagious.  We'll try again this next week ;)

Sister Waldron and I went and mowed the Bishop's lawn this past week.  They do so much for our ward so we decided to give back to them.  It was fun! We have had such beautiful sunny weather here this past week that we have been able to help a couple people with yard work.  Also, it means more people are out and about, so that means more people to talk to! 

I had my first experience of "talking" to a deaf person on the phone.  There is an interpreter service that is the middle man that interprets what they sign on their little TV, and then signs what we say to the person.  It was kind of confusing, but was cool. 

The women's broadcast this past week was very special.  It felt like going to the temple.  I don't know how people get through life without these spiritual boosts.  They are a necessary thing, especially on a mission! 

We have set up to watch different sessions of conference with different less active families which will be fun! I can't wait for conference this weekend.  Our mission president asked us all to write questions to have answered at conference.

Frank knows everything and is ready to be baptized except he can never make it to church!! We're working on it and praying to know what we can do to help him.  

We got a great new investigator this week! She is so excited to learn more.  It was a member referral...those are the most powerful things!! Members have no idea how much we savor those, because they are almost always such positive experiences.  

I am hopeful and excited for this next transfer! It'll start out great with conference and then we'll have Mothers Day! and then it'll be my turn to go to the temple at the end of this transfer!!  Life is good.  We are working hard every day and planting lots of seeds, even if we may not notice or be here for when those seeds bloom. Everything counts.  

Love you all!

Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #45 -- MARCH 30, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON

WEEKLY LETTER #45

APRIL 30, 2014

Welll, it was certainly an interesting week.

We had a great English class party last week. We had a lot of small children there, but I told Elder Garnet "The more chaotic, the better!" One of the activities involved wrapping people up in toilet paper to be like Easter Eggs. It went really well.

I was really sad to get the call on Monday that I would definitely be leaving Zhonghe. It was very different than leaving Neihu. I think only being there 3 months made it harder to say goodbye. It was pretty heart-wrenching to say goodbye to Sales and to a few of the other investigators and members. I really hope that I will get to see them again soon.

But now, I'm in Song Shan! I might just spent the rest of my mission in the Taibei area, because now I've been in all three of the Taibei zones. Song Shan is right in the middle of Taibei, actually right across the river from my first area Neihu. There are a LOT of people here, and our proselyting area is actually fairly small because it's so densely populated.

The ward here is AMAZING. We've already met a lot of the members and already been fed three times with another one tonight. There is one member named Wu Mama who really loves missionaries, and she is the one that has fed us three times already. She is an amazing cook and apparently she feeds us missionaries once a week, which I am really looking forward to.

The other interesting thing is that now I have two companions! We're not really sure why we are in a "tri-companionship" but it's certainly kind of new and exciting. We are also all new here, so I am "white-washing" yet again. This area doesn't have a ton of investigators right now, but we will be finding a lot more and we've already seen a lot of miracles! I'm sending a picture.

Some other 東西：

Recently, I've been learning some of the "niceties" that you say in Chinese when you are parting. A lot of them are similar to English, but one that I like is "walk slowly." I say that a lot now.

We ate yellow watermelon at a lunch appointment. I'd never had it before, but it was really good. It tastes exactly the same, just yellow.

We had a lady this week who told us that we couldn't teach her the gospel because she was "already too old and about to die."

I lost my camera card on Wednesday, but I've already sent most of those pictures home, so I didn't lose that many I hope. I'll just buy a new one this week.

It'll be another interesting week on a mission this week. Don't forget to add some oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 

 Non-Jumping picture: Far left is Elder Wilson (Power), Elder Farrell (Courage), and me (Wisdom).

 

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #37 -- MARCH 24, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MARCH 24, 2014

Hello everyone! I am still doing well! This transfer is almost over! I
think Sister Waldron and I will stay here another transfer together,
but I'll know for sure by next Pday.
 
This week was the schools spring break! So a lot of people were home
and available.
 
For fhe, we talked about what deep, true beauty is. We used a talk by
Sister Dalton about it. We did it with Jaime and Sierra, recent
converts. We got Sierra excited about doing the personal progress
program. Then we played ducky wucky...this funny game I learned when I
was a counselor at French camp.
 
We can read our emails all throughout the week now since we have our
ipads! But just like letters, we can only write back on p days. I was
thinking about it the other day, and I don't know what I would do
without using Facebook and iPads for missionary work. We are able to
use it so much and it's so effective. I'd have a hard time serving in
other missions without those tools now.
 
On Tuesday, we spent the morning delivering meals on wheels with Jaime
and Sierra. It was an adventure. It was difficult finding all the
houses. And also sad to see people living in bad conditions...it's
like I was in Kingsland/St. Mary's again.
 
For district meeting this week, we were learning about companionship
unity. So we did role plays of teaching lessons where my companion and
I had to switch off every word. It was hard! You really had to pay
attention to the direction of the lesson that your companion was
trying to do and compromise with what you yourself were wanting to
say.
 
On Friday, our 5 recent converts all made it on the ward temple trip
to do baptisms for the dead! We had been working with Jaime and Sierra
to prepare the names of Jaimes grandparents. And so they baptized them
at the temple. It was a great experience for them that I wish we could
have shared! But I will be at my halfway mark at the end of this
transfer so maybe that next transfer so I should get to go to the
temple for a session then.
 
Our bishop put in a request to make a deaf dependent branch. So it
would just be a sacrament meeting we would do separately for just the
deaf members. Hope it happens! For this next month, we decided with
the bishop to do a Book of Mormon challenge. The ward versus us 4
missionaries. We missionaries will try to pass out 100 book of Mormons
in the month of April. And the ward together will try to pass out 100
as well. Should be fun! Us 4 missionaries are also practicing the sign
language to be still my soul so that we can do it as a musical number
in April.
 
I really love St. Augustine! And think I will cry whenever I have to leave.
 
We have continued to teach a few people on Facebook and taught Frank
again this week. The bishop said that our ward attendance is now
consistently higher thanks to our missionary work with less actives
the past few months.
 
A cool experience I had this last week...the name of this less active
family kept coming to mind on Friday. But I kept pushing it aside
because we've tried before and they are just never home. But we went
to their house at like 8:15 at night and they had just gotten home!
And we had a great visit with them and we are going to watch
conference with them. God doesn't give up on anyone!
 
Love you all, have a great week!
Sister Richardson
 
 
Sent from my iPad

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY EMAIL #44 -- MARCH 23, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON

WEEKLY EMAIL #44

MARCH 23, 2014

This week was pretty good.

We had a cool miracle at English class this week. There was a lady who walked in at the last 20 minutes of class, and sat in the back. She leaned over and started asking me questions about our church, and about how to know which one is the true church. After class I shared with her about Joseph Smith and then passed her off to the sisters in the other ward.

There is a person who lives in our ward who used to be a missionary in this mission. Before now, I had always heard stories about this Elder, but I didn't realize it was him until this week. He is a little bit eccentric. He once gave a priesthood blessing to his bike and once tried to cast devils out of his companion. Interesting guy.

This week we did a temple tour with SALES, my recent convert from last transfer. He was so excited to be there at temple square again, and he is so excited to go and do baptisms in the temple sometime soon! He is such an enthusiastic guy, and I will really miss him if I move.

On Saturday, we got the call that my companion will be training a new missionary next transfer! So it is very likely that next week, I will be in a new area (about 80%). So we'll see what happens! 

Last Monday, we went to give a priesthood blessing to a sister in our ward. She was preparing to serve as a short term (2 week) missionary, and was concerned about health issues and was nervous about missionary work.

I heard on the grapevine that our mission has already submitted all of the iPad paperwork, and that we are just waiting on Salt Lake to approve the stuff and send them to us, which is both hopeful and not so hopeful. There is still a lot of red tape, I'm sure.

We had a new investigator that we set up this week that thought we were a Buddhist church..

Met some people with weird/cool English names this week. One was Adelle and one was Cracy.

That's all for this week. I'm sure my letter next week will be much longer!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #36 -- MARCH 17, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MARCH 17, 2014

True business is an asl phrase that means truly or really or surely :)
 
It has been a really good week this past week! Probably one of the
best since I've been in st. Augustine.
 
Frank is still progressing. We taught him about tithing and latter-day
prophets this week.
 
We had an FHE with our recent converts and another family in the ward.
Afterwards, we played this game called Pee Pidey Poe. You think at
first that it's going to be this big complex game, but the whole point
of the game is to trick the other person to sit down in the chair
where a wet sponge has sneakily been placed. I saw it just in time but
poor Sister Waldron didn't and got a nice wet spot on the back of her
skirt.
 
We did a lot of service this week! Helped two more people move...one
moving out and one moving in.
 
An exciting part of the week was teaching our new investigator
Victoria! She is deaf and is friends with one of the youth that goes
to the deaf school as well. We taught her the first lesson about the
restoration and she loved it! She committed to be baptized if she
received an answer to her prayers. We were so proud of ourselves after
teaching that lesson successfully :)
 
We also had interviews with our mission president this week. They are
always great, he is just an unconditionally loving person. I also
talked to the medical senior couple about my tiredness/sleepiness and
they gave me some suggestions to work with it, including not feeling
guilty about taking power naps sometimes.
 
One of our deaf recent converts is straying from the church right
now...so pray for Kevin! That he will want to come back to church and
feel the spirit!
 
Sunday was a great day! We had 8 reactivations! So less actives that
have Coe back to church 2 times in a row. Also, the Hancock family
(deaf) blessed their little adopted Chinese girl named Nauvoo. It was
adorable. It was her "birthday" this past Sunday. She was found
wandering the streets in china two years ago, and they figured she was
about three years old, so they picked that day she was found as her
birthday. Nauvoo is just such a sweet miracle child. She always loves
trying to get my attention to talk to me. And she is smart!
 
I have had some more interpreting practice this week with interpreting
for the deaf members at church...they are very patient, but hopefully
I'll keep improving! It is MUCH easier to sign what someone is saying
rather than saying what someone is signing. I accidentally started
talking about all the loud thunder in a thunderstorm we had with a
deaf member....then realized my mess up and felt bad...it was a good
laughing moment :) Also, this 12 year old deaf boy at church always
thinks that I am deaf and not hearing....I'll take that as a
compliment even if it is from a 12 year old. He was chastising me for
not watching and paying attention during the prayer...but he forgets I
can hear it. I guess his mom is always getting on him to look and
focus on the prayer.
 
There is a great article in this months ensign about maintains an
eternal perspective! President eyring says that the key to that is
always having the Holy Ghost with you! I hope we can all evaluate our
lives and figure out what we can do to have the Holy Ghost more
constantly with us. It makes life so much better! Love you all!
 
Sister Richardson
 
Sent from my iPad

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #43 -- MARCH 16, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARSDON

WEEKLY LETTER #43

MARCH 16, 2014

I feel like this week was pretty normal. We got a lot done, and our investigators are still progressing..slowly but surely. I think that's the motto for most of our investigators. There's an expression in Chinese that goes "慢慢來" (man4 man4 lai2) which just means "it comes slowly" but it keeps moving. That's where most of our investigators are this week.

Zhou Jiemei, one of the people that I met with Elder Wang, is still doing really well, but even though she believes in the Book of Mormon and believes the church is true, she doesn't feel like she is ready to be baptized. We wanted to schedule a baptismal service for the end of this month or the beginning of next, and she said that she was planning on next year! We are going to keep working on helping her understand the importance of baptism and what it means to her! We'll keep praying for her!

There was a person's name and number that has been sitting in our phone for almost a year, and has never been called before. I called it this week, and he immediately set up! We've already met with him once, and feel like he is really prepared to hear the gospel. We hope that he will keep progressing and keep learning!

We will be going to do a temple tour with SALES our recent convert this week! It should be fun!

I went on exchanges to jingxin this week with Elder Zhou, the Zone Leader. It was weird having a native companion again, but we had fun. It was also cool to be in the same apartment as my MTC companion Elder Bake for a night!

The relief society in the other ward had a activity on Saturday that all of the missionaries went to. It was basically just a big talent show performance, and they brought in a couple of local performing groups along with the performances of the members. All of us missionaries also performed a musical number.

Church was really good yesterday. It was really cool to see our investigator Yu Jiemei start to get to know the ward. She was talking to the Bishop's wife and is good friends with a sister who just moved back here from America. The sister missionaries thought she was already a member!

I think I already told you all about my companion talking in his sleep. Usually it takes me a while to fall asleep, so in that time he will often wake up and start talking about something. This week we had a conversation about the window spitting on him. It was rather entertaining.

I think that's all for this week. 

Keep adding oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #35 -- MARCH 10, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MARCH 10, 2014

Hello! It's 88 degrees and sunny today!
 
Probably the best part of this week has been working with our
investigator Frank. He came to our gospel class on Tuesday night and
then randomly paid $50 to the church as an "offering". It was pretty
great. We had a great lesson with him on Saturday about the word of
wisdom. Then he came to church on Sunday! He has a baptismal date for
the end of the month.
 
Another miracle was a family that came to church with a member
family...they are an older couple and they want to be baptized!
 
Another miracle....the elders went to visit an excommunicated member
and his brother now lives there. His brother is less active and has 3
non member kids and a non member wife. They came to church on Sunday
and loved it! We have just been seeing a lot of miracles in st.
Augustine this last week!
 
We moved another family this week. Elders just don't know how to pack
things in a truck. So I kicked off my shoes again and climbed up into
the truck to pack it tight. And we got it all in, barely!
 
I am going to interpret for this sweet deaf sisters temple recommend
interview this Tuesday...should be fun! Will be saying lots of prayers
for that!
 
We continue to visit less actives and teach them the missionary
lessons. The ward continues to feed us too well.
 
It's my 8 month mark today!
 
This week went by super fast to be honest. But my shoes are worn and
my heart is happy so life is good :) Nothing better than serving
people every day.
 
This week I finished reading the book of Acts....poor Paul had such a
crazy mission! Getting shipwrecked and bit by snakes and being put in
prison numerous times.
 
I found a great talk this week from Pres. Monsoon about patriarchal blessings:
Your patriarchal blessing is yours and yours alone. It may be brief or
lengthy, simple or profound. Length and language do not a patriarchal
blessing make. It is the Spirit that conveys the true meaning. Your
blessing is not to be folded neatly and tucked away. It is not to be
framed or published. Rather, it is to be read. It is to be loved. It
is to be followed. Your patriarchal blessing will see you through the
darkest night. It will guide you through life's dangers. Unlike the
struggling bomber of yesteryear, lost in the desert wastes, the sands
and storms of life will not destroy you on your eternal flight. Your
patriarchal blessing is to you a personal Liahona to chart your course
and guide your way.
 
Love you all! Thanks for your uplifting emails that keep me going! We
are going to go up the st. Augustine lighthouse now!
 
And here's a picture that I took on my iPad this week with the cute
kids in the Porter family. Their little boy is deaf.
 
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON -- MARCH 9, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON

WEEKLY LETTER #42

MARCH 9, 2014

This was a really good week. I feel good about what we got done, and I feel like things are picking up instead of slowing down.

Last Monday, for P-Day we went to the mission home and baked cookies with Sister Day. It was just nice to feel at home and eat the snicker doodle cookies that we made. My companion didn't like it that much, but I thought it was great.

On Wednesday, our new investigator Brother Shi took us to a really fancy breakfast place where we had Pomelo tea (fruit tea isn't against the Word of Wisdom!) and chocolate covered waffles. It was delicious even though we had just eaten lunch. 

On Friday, we had a really cool miracle. The night before we were trying to find a peike for our less active lesson, and I had run out of people to call, so I just starting calling random people in the phone to try and get a brother there. The first guy I called was a member who is actually also less active, but he agreed to come anyway. He also said he would come to church (but he didn't). And then later that same day, we were tracting and randomly knocked on his family's door! We decided that this means that God wants them to get back to church, so we will definitely be working with them again this week.

One of our investigators left his umbrella in the chapel after our lesson. We were already a little ways away before he called us, so we had to ride all the way. But it was cool, right after he left, we ran into one of our less actives who we have been trying to get in contact with for a while. It was good to see him and he came to church yesterday too!

Elder Rasmussen was this week calling one of the potentials we contacting on the street, but he actually called the wrong number. The wrong number was a lady who is not a member and who's daughter is a less active member! We met with her last night and feel like she could get baptized! We had a lot of miracles this week! 

Elder Whitlock and I were on exchanges last Friday. Elder Whitlock was in the same MTC district as me and was my first district leader. As a joke, we dropped a "Congratulations on your engagement" card to the apartment of one of the other elders originally in our MTC district. His apartment is in my area, and we had to go to that area to visit a less active, so we dropped off the card. We'll see what he says when we see him tomorrow.

Our recent convert, Sales, is such a faithful guy. In Gospel Principles, we started talking about following the prophet's counsel in regards to food storage, and he raised his hand and asked if he needed to go out right now and buy it. He's a great guy with a lot of faith!

Our investigator, Brian, is still working on smoking. He's enrolled in a quit smoking class, and we set a baptismal date for the end of his class in June. We decided that we shouldn't push him to get baptized when we want him to, but instead for when he wants to and when the Lord wants him to be baptized. 

I think that's all for this week.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #34 -- MARCH 3, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MARCH 3, 2014

It's been a good week here! We've had beautiful sunny 70 degree days!
 
Last p day we went to the Vilano beach area...don't worry we didn't go
on the beach. But we looked at it and watched people surf. There were
some beautiful piers and pretty birds. That's one of my favorite
things about Florida...all the tropical/coastal birds. We see great
blue herons almost daily along with pelicans and egrets and lots of
other cool ones. And lots of seagulls.
 
Happy news! A woman that sister spendlove and I began teaching in
Kingsland is getting baptized this next week! I remember when we did
that first lesson...she was so different than the person she is today!
Facebook is great for keeping in contact with people like that.
 
Setth, who is a senior in high school and is deaf, taught our ASL
class this week and he did a great job! He also came to our volleyball
activity Saturday night and bore an incredible testimony on Sunday. He
is so excited and ready for a mission! I love seeing him progress and
get ready for his mission.
 
For some service hours this week, we went and helped a young girl in
the ward that is learning piano! Took me back to my piano teacher days
in high school.
 
I feel like one of the biggest roles we've had as sister missionaries
here in this area has been teaching and helping recent converts Jaime
and her young teenage daughter. This past week we taught them about
temples and family history. We are going to start working with them on
their family search account to get some names ready to go to the
temple later this month!
 
We've walked a lot this week. And when we are running late...I make my
companion power walk with me so we get there faster. And it works!
 
We had dinner this week with a sweet Christian lady who does not want
to be converted according to her, but just enjoys our company and
wants to feed us. So many great Christian people in this works!
Especially in this country.
 
Our wrd mission leader suggested that this past week, we teach the
missionary lessons to less actives when we go and visit them. And we
did and it worked great! The spirit was strong and taught the person
what they needed to learn. And also, they feel helpful because they
are doing us a favor in letting us "practice" our missionary
discussions on them. Sneaky sneaky.
 
My favorite cranky old less active lady gave me two puzzle boxes with
8 puzzles in each of the boxes. Best day ever.
 
I have gained a testimony of the church's addiction recovery program.
We had a meeting this past week where the spirit was so strong. I love
being in there with the people from the ward that I know and love and
that are exercising their faith to overcome their addictions, whatever
they may be.
 
Deaf people are so patient and so humble. All of them. It's incredible.
 
We had lunch at our ward mission leaders house and the alligator in
their pod was swimming across...we thought it was out to get the
turtles sitting on this turtle rest board in the middle of the pond.
So we watched him creep along for a good 20 minutes. Then he just
crossed over to the other side of the pond to rest on the other bank.
Lame.
 
I was praying yesterday during sacrament meeting for some answers to
things. And the answer I got was forget yourself and serve others. A
principle that I know and love but had recently forgotten about. I am
grateful that we can relearn things every day!
 
I made a comment in deaf Sunday school class! I was so proud of
myself. That class is so good at getting off topic...it's pretty funny
because it's all adults in there. Sister Waldron and I helped
interpret in primary this week. A humbling experience again! It's a
scary feeling when the deaf person just looks at you waiting for the
sign interpretation...pressure :)
 
We prayed to get referrals at church yesterday, because we hadn't
gotten any yet that week...and we got two! Miracle! Gods hand is in
this work! We just need to get out of the way sometimes and let Him
and the spirit take over. God is good!
 
Nourish your tree every day this week!
Sister Richardson
 
Sent from my iPad

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #41 -- MARCH 2, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON 

WEEKLY  LETTER #41

 MARCH 2, 2014

This week was a lot better than last week. I think this week I started to get my feet under all of the new stuff and it's starting to get more normal. I think the extra boost from Elder Holland last week is still having an effect.

We got a new investigator this week who is really cool. His name is Zhou DiXiong, and he's an earthquake scientist who is also a Tae Kwon Do master. Which is also funny because he's really short and kind of fat. (It's not a negative thing to call someone fat in Taiwan, it's just a characteristic like tall or short, so I'm not being rude!) He is a guy who has endless energy, and he's really open to all religions and all ideas. We have high hopes for him!

We started a new activity in our church building. Every Friday night we have a ping pong tournament that we try to invite less active members and recent converts to. It's been pretty successful so far! Last week, a member from the other ward brought her two daughters to play. They are probably 8 and 10 and their English names are Apple and Candy. These two little girls DESTROYED everybody else in ping pong. I'm not a bad ping pong player, but the older one cleaned the floor with me, and I went down to the wire with Apple, the younger one. It was absolutely amazing to watch. I'll try to take a video if they come next week.

The other Elders in our apartment had a baptism this week! This investigator's story is really amazing. She was contacted last October, met a few times, but didn't really go anywhere. And then in January, she was really depressed and considering suicide, but then Elder Edmunds found out and convinced her to wait until they could meet. Over the last two months, she has had a complete turn around and is a whole new person. I did her baptismal interview last Sunday, and she has an amazing testimony and is such a strong person. We're all amazed at her story, and her baptism on Saturday was really special. Miracles happen!

My companion talks in his sleep. I usually don't fall asleep for a while after 10:30, so often I get to hear his mumblings for a while before I fall asleep. It's really entertaining.

This week in the chapel, I found the Chinese-dubbed version of "On the Way Home." So Elder Rasmussen and I are going to find some time to watch it this week.

I bought a new Rubik's cube this week which is really neat. I'm attaching a picture.

I think that's all for this week. It was a good week! Next week will be even better!

Add oil!

任長老

Elder Richardson

 

Elder Richardson's new Rubix Cube

Mixed up then solved

 

PS:

One other note/miracle that happened this week:

I was at the missionary fireside last night, and Elder Teshima, the missionary I was companions with in TaiDong, flagged me down and told me about the sister investigator in his area. Apparently, while I was in Neihu, I contacted her. I didn't say much to her, but I gave her a tract about English class. She went on her own and attended English class, and then started going to church, and now she is getting baptized next week! I don't remember who it is or when I contacted her, but the Lord works in mysterious ways, and helped her receive the gospel!

 

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #33 -- FEBRUARY 24, 2014

SISTER RICHARDSON

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

New companion! Her name is Sister Waldron. She is 19, just graduated
from high school in 2013. She is from West Jordan Utah. She is
obsessed with Star Wars :) she loves to read and is a very happy
person, wiling to do anything that's asked of her. She knows sign
language which is awesome! I think we will do well together.
 
Sister Sullivan is oh longer to be the interpreter....we were at a
relief society activity and siste Hancock, one of the deaf sisters
points at me then points to the front of the room...letting me know
that I will be interpreting for her. Haha it was humbling. And a good
check point that yes I am pretty fluent now...but still can learn lots
more! Interpreting is a whole different thing.
 
This gives you an idea of of how much we eat in a day...this was the
eating schedule of Wednesday. Ate breakfast at home. A member took us
out to eat at Cici's for lunch. We ate dinner at home since we didn't
have a dinner appointment. Went to teach a lesson to a recent convert
family that evening...they had prepared dinner for us. So we ate a
second dinner. Went to a relief society activity about baking bread
and canning chicken...the bread and chicken salad there. Went to a
recent converts house after the activity...they fed us cookie cake.
And that's a normal day. How am I not ginormous? Miracles!
 
Our m&m program in the ward has been going well! The members are
becoming a lot more involved in missionary work and have been
inviting! Hooray! Our ward is really great...especially our bishop and
ward mission leader. They are great leadership examples to me. Also, I
am now the sacrament meeting organist, primary pianist, and choir
pianist. Hooray!
 
Last p day we visited the old catholic basilica in downtown st.
Augustine. Felt like I was in Europe again for a bit! On Wednesday, we
went to the deaf and blind school, to their open house. There was a
blind music group...they sang incredibly and played guitar and drums
and keyboard...all memorized of course. It was probably one of the
most inspiring things I've seen! As well as the deaf dance
troupe...they were incredible. They sign/dance the songs. You'll have
to youtube Fsdb dance troupe to see them.
 
Stephanie came to church this week! Praying for the softening of her
parents heart so she can get baptized.
 
My faith and patience continues to increase every day! Missions truly
are a refiners fire! He breaks you down so he can build you back
up..just like life :)
 
Love you all! Happy birthday mom and Rebecca!
Sister Richardson
 
Sent from my iPad

 


 This is a blind band performing at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind

ELDER RICHARDSON Weekly Letter #40 -- FEB 23, 2014

ELDER RICHARDSON -- Weekly Letter #40

FEB 23, 2014

I think this week started out kind of slow, and slowly got better and better. 

Last Monday we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall in the middle of Taibei. It's a HUGE memorial building with a giant statue similar to the Lincoln Memorial. Then we went inside to the museum about his life. It was pretty neat. They had two full-size Cadillac cars because apparently he was a huge fan. It reminded me a little bit of the Mao ZeDong thing in Beijing, but less weird.

Investigator update:

ZJ is doing really good. We were a little worried because her friend went back to school in the south of Taiwan, but we think that she is continuing to do really well. She said that she has been praying this week for an answer, so we will keep praying for her! We hope that she can get baptized at the beginning of March.

The Zhang family is doing super good. I went there on exchanges with Elder Tay, and we got to share a little bit more about the plan of salvation. They have been reading and praying pretty well, and we hope to get them to church again next week!

G got to go with us to our stake conference and got to hear Elder Holland speak. I think he was really touched by it, and was really impressed.

Of course the best part of the week was the miraculous opportunity we had to hear Elder Holland speak. On Saturday night, we had a meeting with just the missionaries. Elder Holland spoke to us for over an hour, but it felt like it was so short! It was easy to see that Elder Holland usually restrains himself during General Conference, but with just the missionaries there, he got pretty fired up. But all his fire and pulpit pounding and voice raising, it never made me feel that he was scolding us. One thing that I liked that he said was that "the Spirit always inspires us to repent", and that's what the meeting was for me. It inspired me to change, to be a better person and better missionary, and I think clarified some questions that I've had recently.

Another theme of his counsel was about how a mission really is hard, but that's part of the point. “A little bit of your mission must be spent lugging a cross” because that's what being a disciple of Christ means. That we are willing to experience what he did, and that's how we become like Him. I definitely felt some of my mission already has been spent "lugging a cross." I think Elder Holland reminded me that the difficulty is part of the point, and part of the reason I came on a mission. He also reminded me that pushing through the difficulty is how we grow the most, and that is both a comfort and a 

So I can no longer call myself "not a redhead." Because as we all got to shake Elder Holland's hand before sitting down, he said to me, "How's that red hair working for you?" So now that an Apostle of God has decided that I have red hair, I can no longer deny it.

This week we went to the big library in our area and find a service opportunity that we could do every week. While we were there, we met a lady who was the perfect "librarian" stereotype, right down to the glasses and smile, except she was Asian and was speaking Chinese. I thought that was pretty funny.

My last companion, Elder Wang, liked to eat sour skittles, and would sometime bring them to teaching appointments to share. Now, our recent convert, Wu Dixiong brings us sour skittles every time we meet with him. It's possible that he thinks it's just the polite thing to do. We're not complaining.

So it was a good week, and next week will be even better!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

Hyrum's new companion -- Elder Rasmussen

 

 

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #32 -- FEB 18, 2014

SISTER RICHARDSON

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

Well to describe this week in one word: bipolar.
 
The days right before sister Sullivan went home were really hard. I
likened it to labor sympathy pains...when your companion is broken emotionally
and physically, it gets to you too, because of sympathy and care. We
weren't able to go and work much. It was hard for her to say goodbye
to people and pack up her stuff. It was weird dropping her off at the
mission home and leaving with her. But I have felt a physical and
emotional burden lifted as she has gone home. Because she is now no
longer miserable every day and has her family right there to support
her and help her get better. She wants to come back out when they get
her medical stuff figured out.
 
The week just has gone up from there and has been a great last few days!
 
Some highlights of the week were having a fhe lesson and dinner with
recent convert family at the home of a great member family. We are
trying to help the recent converts make more friends in the ward. And
guess what! This member family, the Sonneys, Sister Sonney was in the
first work and the glory movie! She was a bar maid. And is actually on
the movie poster down in the palmyra scene on it. Pretty cool!
 
Brother and Sister Fewkes from the war gave us cute iPad styluses to
use with our new iPads. Mine is pink with polka dots!
 
On mutual night, we had a missionary training for all the youth that
are now ward mission leaders. Our ward mission leader who is
incredible talked about the power of one. He showed us how one persons
conversion or reactivation can start a chain that in just a few
generations can lead to a stake of church members in numbers. Pretty
cool! A good lesson to remember about the worth of every soul.
 
So I spent a lot of time this week going through records of former
investigators and typing them into our iPads...I've still got a long
way to go. We are supposed to have it all done by next week....we'll
see how it goes.
 
The weather here has been perfect the last few days. Sunny and 70 with
a nice ocean breeze. Makes me more thankful to have been called on a
mission to Florida :) Last night the moon was huge and orange! Maybe
it was an eclipse?
 
So the rest of these week with the other wards sister missionaries has
been really fun! Honestly it has just felt like a fun sleepover for
me. It's so fun to work a little in their area and a little in mine.
It's been a nice "break". But it does feel weird going tracting with
three people.
 
Last night, the family we ate dinner with turned on the Olympics. I
heard the music and saw the ice skaters on the screen and it was sooo
had not to watch it! I love the Olympics!
 
Another highlight of the week was a lesson we had with our
investigator Stephanie. She is friends with one of the young women. I
felt strongly about teachings her the plan of salvation (lesson 2)
first. It was one of the best spirit filled lessons I've ever been in!
The spirit taught and the young woman and her parents testified
strongly.  It was a good reminder that us missionaries are such a
minor role in this conversion process. It really happens by the spirit
and the members.
 
Yesterday we visited a less active sister who said that our little
lesson was a diret answer to her prayer and that our visit gave her
hope to go on. Love those moments :) People teach me so much here!
 
So it is transfers tomorrow! I am getting a new companion. I know
nothing besides her name and that apparently she knows some sign
language. I think I may be in st. Augustine for the rest of my mission
because so few people in the mission know sign language and it's such
a her need!
 
On Saturday we had a fun activity for the deaf members. We had waffles
and played volleyball! They were all such great missionaries and
brought their non member and less active friends. It was such a great
turnout! It was a little stressful putting it together, but it all
miraculously came together at the end.
 
Had a hilarious cooking disaster this week. So I was trying to make
muddie buddies for the volleyball activity. I put the chocolate,
peanut butter, and butter in a bowl and stuck it in the
microwave...apparently 3 minutes is way too long. I took the bowl out
(it was plastic) and the sludge started pouring out the bottom. It had
burned a whole in the bottom of the bowl and smelled of nasty burned
chocolate. It was great.
 
The fewkes family took us to a great beach restaurant called mango
mango this week. I got some delicious fried shrimp. Then they took us
out the beach and the full moon was so bright shining on the water and
the waves were so big and loud. Someday I'll come back and actually go
to the beach and swim :)
 
I am doing well and am excited for a fresh start with this transfer. I
can feel my faith grow with every month and trial on my mission. God
is good!
 
Sister Richardson

SISTER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #31 -- FEBRUARY 10, 2014

SISTER RICHARDSON -- FEBRUARY 10, 2014

So at the culmination of a long hard week, Sister Sullivan has decided to go home for medical reasons.  Because of her headaches that have been really bad the last few transfers.  She's been trying to fight it through, but is just miserable most of the time. There are a lot more details and things that have happened with it...but it doesn't really matter anymore, because that's what will happen.  So hopefully I will stay here in St. Augustine.  I'll probably be a trio with the Sisters in the other St. Augustine ward, then hopefully get a new companion when transfers happen in a week and a half.  It's going to be a draining week again this week with having to take her to the mission home and say goodbye and everything.  God will be giving me emotional strength this week, that's for sure! But I am happy that she will be able to go home and get better.  And that we will be able to serve this area better now.  

So the Big Awesome news.  We got our iPads!!!  They're pretty great! It changes our daily routine so much.  The Area Book program that the church has created is incredible.  It was overwhelming at first, trying to figure out how it works.  But the more I use it, the more I love it.  We don't have data plans, but use Wi-fi. It is also great to have that gospel library app at our fingertips.  We have started using videos in our lessons and it is great! They are incredible tools at bringing the spirit.  We also have an email as a companionship that is for the sister missionaries in this ward, for now and whoever will be serving here in the future.  We also have skype, face time, translation apps, notes, camera, facebook.  I can definitely see how this is going to help hasten the work! It's big responsibility and pressure to be piloting these for the church because it represents a huge investment.  I'm praying that I will be inspired to know how to use it! It is definitely a temptation to have so much information accessible at all times...it takes another level of self-discipline!  

Here is a picture from our P-day adventure last week to Fort Matanza.  It's an old Spanish fort.  And we got to ride a boat to it! Best day ever!

Sister Richardson