ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEK #56 -- JUNE 16, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEK #56

JUNE 16, 2014

This week was pretty good. I'm amazed at Elder Farrell's example of being not trunkie. I hope that when I get down to my last week on island that I will be just as not trunkie. He's only got four days left of missionary work!

Last P-Day, Wu Mama had two American friends who were visiting, so all of us went with some other members to Danshui! Danshui is an old port on the north tip of Taiwan, and has a market street that is right on the coast. We also took a boat ride over to another part of the port that has a cool bridge. Pictures are attached.

On Tuesday, we attended our big zone conference. I was asked to do the translating again, but it was nice because nobody actually needed the translating there. All of the native missionaries had really good English, so we just talked into the microphone when nobody was listening. It was good practice! I personally think that translating from English to Chinese is easier than the other way around. It was hard, but it wasn't terrible like the first time that I translated. Hopefully it'll just keep getting easier with practice.

At Zone conference, they told us that starting next month, our zone will begin using Facebook to do missionary work as the pilot program for the mission. I'm really excited! There are a lot of investigators that we have right now that will be easier to get in contact with through Facebook. It'll also be nice because some people on the street might be hesitant to give us their phone number, but might give us their Facebook information. I'm excited to use this new tool!

Right when we got to this area, there was a really cool investigator named Jackson. He was really interested in the gospel, and we had a great first visit with him. But, unfortunately, because he was doing his military service, it was hard for him to answer his phone, and he was rarely in Taibei. So gradually, we lost contact with him and stopped trying to call. Well, last week, we were looking through the area book and found his record, which a former missionary had the foresight to right down when he finished military service, which was June 7th! So now we are back in contact with him and meeting with him again!

So, about Brother Hou. He was supposed to have his baptismal interview this week on Saturday. He completely quit smoking on Monday, and we met with him on Friday to review baptismal interview questions and confirm the time for Saturday. He was all ready to go! But then on Saturday afternoon we called him again and he said that he was sick and in the hospital, but then the call dropped before we could talk to him more. So we are still not really sure what is going on with him because he hasn't answered his phone again yet. So pray for him! Hopefully he'll be alright!

There is an investigator that the sisters passed off to us. Elder Farrell and I discovered that even though he's really confused about the gospel and is having difficulty keeping commitments, he is really sensitive to the Spirit in other ways. If Elder Farrell or I were not teaching by the Spirit and just saying what we wanted to, he would pick up on it, and it would have no effect on him. He's a really special investigator who has been an investigator for a really long time. I really hope that he can start feeling the Spirit and I hope that he can get baptized some day soon!

That's about it for this week. I'll attach a bunch of pictures.

I'll have a new companion next week!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

Some Dragon Fruit Jello that Sister Trouble made -- one of the Sister Missionaries

Me and the investigator I mentioned at the very end of my email.  He hates getting his picture taken so this is quite an accomplishment.

Teddy, one of our recent converts, with the giant hammer that he won at one of the games in Danshui.

 Pictures of us getting on the boat ride!

Wu Mama tried to pull this boat in. It was too heavy!

Danshui has these really tall ice cream cones, so I just had to buy one.

Elder Ferrel decorated my planner with cat stickers he found.

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #48 -- JUNE 9, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

JUNE 9, 2014

Monday: For our Pday, we went down to St. Augustine to eat at chick
fil a with the st. Augustine sisters. And then we went to goodwill and
I got 3 new skirts and a new shirt for $16 dollars! I think I am just
bored of my current clothes mostly, so cheap new ones are the best! We
went to see the Luna family that night because they didn't make it to
church on Sunday. They are that less active family that we've been
working with. Their teenage daughters are the ones holding them back
from coming to church. But the parents are committed to working with
them so hopefully we will keep progressing with them and help the
teenage girls gain testimonies.
 
Tuesday: Today we had a fun service project where we painted fences at
this horse ranch.
I think that a lot of people here won't take a chance in reading the
Book of Mormon and so they don't read and pray with an open
heart...it's sad. They have no idea what they're missing out on! We
had some people trying to bible bash with us tonight and then we went
to a recent converts house, Kelly. And she could see we were a bit
discouraged and gave us a pep talk of how much the church and gospel
have blessed her life and how we should never give up on people. It
was a very needed boost for both of us :)
 
Wednesday: we had two great lessons with investigators. And then we
did service pulling weeds for a pregnant mom in our ward. Then we
helped a family move into the ward!
 
Thursday: we had zone meeting which is always an awesome energy boost
with the talks and seeing all the other missionaries. We've been
meeting people from lots of different countries this week as we are
out talking to people--India, Egypt, Philippines, Lebanon, Honduras.
 
Friday: we had dinner and a lesson with the Luna family. We were
praying hard for this one as we were really wanting to help the
family, especially the daughters, be excited about coming to church.
We taught the plan of salvation. The 15 year old daughter came up with
this great analogy of how their family is all on a rocket trying to
get to the celestial kingdom. And they are all working to get fuel for
that rocket. And they get fuel by being kind, going to church,
praying, etc. She even drew it all out. It was a miracle! To get her
engaged and understanding the lesson. It was really cool.
 
Saturday: we did lots of service today of weeding peoples lawns. I
enjoyed it! Nice to do something different. We had a good lesson with
the neighbor of our recent convert. Also taught two great less active
lessons.
 
Sunday: day of miracles! The Luna family came to church! And Erin,
another less active, came to church. And another less active showed up
with a non member girlfriend. It was great! There were so many people
to talk to and coordinate with that sister Gillman had to update each
other on all of our separate conversations that we had throughout
church. The Luna family loved church again. In relief society, they
were talking about families being sealed and sister Luna talked to me
after about how that's what she wants for her family! Hooray! Also,
their 8 year old, Jose, told us he wants to get baptized :)
 
It was a really good week. Always ups and downs, but I keep learning
things! And God's missionary work keeps moving forward.
 
Also, I need everyone to help with our mission's Facebook efforts this
week! Join the event Discover the Book and the group Called to Share.
Tomorrow we are all posting a picture of us with the Book of Mormon
along with our testimony of the Book of Mormon. We are trying to get
this to go viral and have contacted all of the Facebook missions in
the world to join with us. You can look at my missionary Facebook page
(Sister-Melissa Richardson) to find the details.
 
Love you all!
Sister Richardson
 
Sent from my iPad

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #55 -- JUNE 8, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #55

JUNE 8, 2014

Luckily, this week we had quite a bit of rain, so it wasn't crazy hot. There will be plenty of that this summer, so every opportunity to avoid it is appreciated!

We are well into Mango season here. Mangoes are the greatest, no matter how you eat them. Mango ice, mango smoothie or just eating the mango, it's all good. Wu Mama gives us a large bag of fruit every week, and the last couple of weeks has had mango in it. That's always the first bag gone!

Last Monday, we went up the 101 for P-Day. Even though it was pretty expensive, it was pretty fun. The coolest part was that I've been in Taibei for so long that I could recognize most of the places that we could see. I could see all three of my areas!

When we started heading back to our area, we ran into a lady who was really depressed, and told us that she was planning on committing suicide. We talked to her for a long time, and tried to help her out, and then at our mission presidents suggestion, we called the police and they got a hold of her family who came to pick her up. We think she had some schizophrenia and depression. We don't really know what happened to her, but we hope and pray that she is okay!

That day we also ran into a couple of members. One guy was from Canada and was here attending a conference. He said he left his hotel to buy some water, and he found water, but then he got lost. Then he ran into us and we were able to help him find his hotel again.

Taiwanese people don't like us setting stuff on the ground. When we go to eat somewhere, I usually just set my bag on the ground under my chair, but they always tell me to pick it up and set it on a chair instead of on the ground. We also went to one restaurant where they brought over a basket and put my bad in the basket which was on the ground. I was really confused...but I guess it's a thing here.

Elder Farrell and I have very similar voices when we speak Chinese. So a lot of our investigators and members can't tell us apart on the phone.

In Taiwan, you can type thank you by typing "3Q" because that's what thank you sounds like with a Chinese accent.

Yesterday at church, one of the speakers was one of the older members in our ward. His talk was about eternal families, but his whole talk seemed to be in really old written Chinese style, so it was almost impossible to understand. It was like his entire talk was in poetry and the investigator who was sitting next to me said that he didn't really understand either!

I'll send some pictures of this P-Day and last!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 

 VIEWS FROM THE TAIPEI 101

 

The fastest passenger elevator

 The picture on the far right (411) is of Songshan. (this picture)
On the left is the Sun Yatsen memorial, and the new stadium that they are building. In the middle is the Death Star mall that I told you about. That whole picture is basically all of our area!
Our boundary is that river that is in the back and the chapel is at the left end of the yellow bridge that you can see on the far right.

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #47 -- JUNE 2, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

JUNE 2, 2014

Happy June! I can't believe it's summer now! Florida doesn't really have seasons...it's been hot for months, but it's officially "summer time" now. 

Sister Gillman and I have had a good week! We have had a lot of investigators drop us...so we have been back to doing lots of finding this week.  Lots of talking to everyone and tracting and visiting potentials.  There are about 5 housing complexes...and that is our area. 

Brittany got confirmed yesterday! I loved hearing her talk about how she felt at baptism and then again when she received the gift of Holy Ghost. 

We had a great lesson with the Luna family this week.  We were at the right place at the right time and were able to teach one of the teenage daughter's friends that was there and that sat in on the lesson.  Sister Luna said the closing prayer and she teared up afterwards and said that that was the first time she had really, from the heart prayed.  It was one of those moments where any trial you've been through seems so worth it for you to be there at that moment and share the spirit with someone.  Teach them how to be closer to Christ so they can be "self-sufficient" and do it on their own. 

We are working on helping the members gain more confidence in doing missionary work.  There is a great article about it in this month's Ensign!

I had a lot of dogs slobber on my skirts this week and try to flip up my skirts with their noses.  It was extremely annoying. 

But I'm still doing good over here! Every week is progress on myself and on the work here in St. Johns! :)

Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #54 -- JUNE 1, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #54

JUNE 1, 2014

Last Monday, Wu Mama took us on an adventure. She rented a car and a driver for the day and took us to a bunch of places! First we went to Jiu fen, which is a really famous market street up on the north coast of Taiwan, some pictures (and hopefully a video) are attached! We'll have to go back there when we come back to visit Taiwan! There were some really beautiful paintings that I want to go back and buy. That's what the video is. Hopefully it works!

We also saw this yellow waterfall from eroding iron or copper deposits.

Then she took us to Ye liu, which is a spot where there are a bunch of rocks with weird shapes because of erosion. We saw some cool rocks and some cooler cockroaches. It was neat to be on the coast. Sometimes I forget that I'm on an island!

Then we drove around the coast to get to Danshui. We walked around on a bridge there. Then we were out of time and had to go home. All of the pictures are attached.

There's a thing in this mission called a "pocket puke." Because all of the elders here carry around tracts or pamphlets in the front shirt pocket, sometimes you lean over too far or something and all of the tracts fall onto the ground.

There was a partially deaf guy who came to English class, but we couldn't really understand him because his speaking was not very clear and he tried communicating to us with sign language, but we had no idea what he was saying. So mostly we communicated with him by writing on the chalkboard, which didn't work super well. I really respect Melissa for learning all of the sign language, because we were completely lost! But he did teach us how to sign "I can't do sign language," so I at least know that much!

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival! We can't really go see any of the events or things, but it did mean that on Sunday we got gifted a bunch of zong4zi which are seaweed wraps of rice and meat and other stuff. We have a lot in our fridge that we need to eat now!

Occasionally, we'll be in the middle of a lesson and while listening to the investigator and I'll think of something that I think I need to say. But the cool part is when my companion says exactly what I was thinking before a get the chance! That's true companionship unity, and it means that we're both listening to the Spirit!

Two weeks ago I mentioned our investigator Brother Hou. He's progressing really well, and he feels the Spirit when he meets with us. The problem is that he's pretty old, so he forgets stuff occasionally. He's not very good at remembering what day of the week it is. We usually have to remind him when we see him. He really wants to come to church, but the last two weeks, he forgot what day it was, and his phone was turned off so the few times we called him he didn't answer. But he really has a great desire to learn the gospel! We just hope his forgetfulness doesn't keep getting in the way!

Last week, he told us that the first time he met us was like "曙光“ (shu3 guang1) which means the first light of the day at sunrise. And everytime we see him, we ask him how he's doing and he always says "Better now that I'm with you two." 

We are really sad about our other investigator Brother Liang. He has a HUGE desire to get baptized, and he's so ready! But the problem is that his dad thinks that getting baptized now would be "too fast." Brother Liang is 18, but in Taiwan, he has to be twenty in order to not need parental permission. We fasted with him yesterday about his situation, and we are all praying for a miracle that will allow him to be baptized. He really is a great guy, and he's committed to living the commandments, and he's got a lot of good friends in the ward, so we hope to keep meeting with him and strengthening him until he can get baptized.

We had a LOT of people come to church the past two weeks. As long as I've been a missionary, it's been really difficult to get people to church. But a lot of people have accepted our invitations to come to church, and they've all received blessings for it! We just hope to keep them coming and help them keep learning and growing their faith!

Last night, just like every fast sunday, there was a fireside for investigators and recent converts in the chapel next to the temple. This time, the assistants asked my companion and I to translate the Chinese fireside into English for the people there who don't speak Chinese. It was my first time doing translation, and it was pretty difficult. It was perfect, but hopefully those investigators got the main idea and at least felt the Spirit there! Now I know how Melissa felt when translating into sign language for church in Florida!

That was all this week. Today, if it is clear, we will be going up the Taibei 101!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 

 

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #46 -- MAY 26, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MAY 26, 2014

This was the temperature...100 degrees...for most of the week! I don't
know how I survived last august if it's already this hot in May.
Drinking lots of water!
 
A great part of the week was Brittany getting baptized on Saturday!
Brittany is 22 and her younger brothers have all gotten baptized in
the last few years, and she decides to take that step now too. She had
an Elder that had taught her in the past, that has now gone home,
skype in the talk on baptism on my iPad! It was pretty cool.
 
Also, the Luna family came to church! It was their first time in about
5 years. It was such a happy moment to see all 6 of them getting out
of the car to come to church. We've been working hard to help
strengthen and encourage them. It's great to see their faith growing.
And the ward was so great at helping them feel welcome at church!
 
I am still meeting lots of new people and trying to figure out who is
related to who in the ward and where everything is located. But I
still really like it here! We were able to talk to a lot of potential
investigators this past week and are excited to go back to
appointments with them this past week.
 
Love you all!
Sister Richardson
 
Sent from my iPad

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #53 -- MAY 25, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #53

MAY 25, 2014

We had a pretty good week here. It's starting to get a lot hotter here, but this week had a lot of rain. Rain is great because it cools things down a lot, but it's also not great because everything gets wet! Overall, it was a solid week.

Last P-Day, it was raining, so we couldn't go out and do anything. But we went to Wu Mama's house and played Settlers of Catan! It was a nice taste of home, but not near as fun as playing with the family. Then Wu Mama took us to another all-you-can-eat hotpot place. It was really good! Today, she is renting a car and wants to take us to somewhere fun, but she hasn't told us where yet.

On Tuesday, I went to XiZhi on exchanges with Elder Pearce who was with me in the MTC. We met a cool guy with a pretty rare last name. It's always fun to run into people with cool last names. Most everybody here is named Chen or Lin or Li, so finding a rare surname is pretty exciting. He was a really cool guy and I hope that the Elders there will get to visit him again!

On Wednesday we had an earthquake! It was the biggest earthquake I've ever felt before, and because we were on the fourth floor, we felt the whole building move back and forth for about 30 seconds. It was really cool! I think somebody said it was 4 or 5 on the Richter scale in Hualian so about 2 or 3 for us.

On Thursday, I tried the Kumquat Lemonade drink at Cocos because of Bethany's recommendation. It was really good! This is how you say it, so that next time you can order it in Chinese! 金橘柠檬 "jin1 ju2 ning2 meng2"

Friday we had a guy who came up to us and wanted to practice a speech in Taiwanese for us. He said he was preparing for a speech contest, and needed people to practice for. So even though we didnt' understand any of it, we got to listen to him do it. Pretty neat! Hopefully, I can keep learning more Taiwanese and come back more fluent!

We also visited a less active who owns and operates a Botox clinic.

Often when we meet people on the street, Elder Farrell will ask them to guess where we are from. Most people guess that we are from England or somewhere else in Europe, not America. It's really strange.

Called a potential this week whose English name is Bobby Griffith.

Wu Mama brings us breakfast on Sunday mornings, and she likes to bring us bread with cheese and jelly. It's not as bad as it sounds.

That's all for this week.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 

 A view from Xizhi looking towards Taibei. You can see the 101 in the back.

 Elder Pearce is a Tongan.

 Eating our invention, the grape tomato nacho sandwich.

 This bird at one of our Less Actives house. We are scared of him because we are told that he bites. Elder Farrell said he looks like the kind of bird that would be on a pirate's shoulder.

 Elder Farrell found four-leaf clovers!

 And then I found a 5-leaf one!

 The teacups that one of our investigators gave us.

 Elder Farrell in front of our chapel.

 Our settlers of Catan game!

 One of the flashcards for the new language study program. 

The example sentence is very true!

 

 Found this on a doorbell that we rang. Unfortunately they weren't home. 

The speech bubble says, "Please push!"

 These GIANT Koi Pond fish that we were looking at while waiting for an investigator. One of the people who works there saw us looking at them and brought us some bread to feed them.

 We found this weird looking car/truck.

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #45 -- MAY 19, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MAY 19, 2014

I got transferred 12 miles, hooray!

Well, this new area is super.  I am really spoiled.  We have our own car, which is so nice.  We live in this really nice, new house with a member that is hardly ever there.  Our area isn't that big.  My companion, Sister Gillman is a dream companion. The people are really great, especially the ward.  A lot of people are from Utah.  Most people have about 4 kids and are in the middle stage of their married life.  So not super young families, but not older families.  A lot of people are responsive to us when we are out tracting too! The members are very willing to help us with missionary work.  So I am very happy here!

Sister Gillman is from Myton, Utah which is a really small town.  She lives on a cattle ranch/farm. So she has awesome stories about farming, chasing cows, riding horses, raising sheep, growing gardens, shooting raccoons.  She graduated last year from high school and has been on her mission for 5 months.  Last year, she won the grand prize for her steer and won $10,000! Which she used to pay for her mission. Pretty cool! She has promised me that I can come visit her and ride horses with her after our missions.  She also was a temple worker in the Vernal temple before she came on her mission.  We are both easy-going but hard-working, so we get along great! 

Another "exciting" thing.  I got transferred from the deaf ward just in time, because I have slight carpal tunnel I've been told. I'm guessing it's from signing and playing piano/organ so much in my last ward.  But I was just told to let it rest for a bit and it'll get better.  I wear a wrist brace most of the time now.  It's in both hands, but the right hand is worse.  Thank goodness there are other people in this ward to play piano and organ!

We have seen some cool miracles this past week!

We had a lesson with our investigator Nora this past week about prayer and the Sabbath day.  Her kids are CRAZY and so it was a distracted lesson, but we still managed to help her feel the spirit I think and teach her. She came to church with her two crazy boys, but guess what. They were so calm during sacrament meeting.  I couldn't believe they were the same kids.  And their names are Finnbar and Oliver.  Pretty cute.  Oliver sang the hymns by singing "Pikachu" over and over again to the melody. 

There is a less-active family here, the Lunas, and the Sisters ran into them while walking down the road last month.  They weren't on the ward records at all! They recently joined the church and then moved.  So we arestill helping them with their conversion process.  And trying to get all of their kids on board with it as well so they can all come to church together.  In Preach My Gospel, it says that the Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit are your most powerful tools for conversion.  I know this is true! We read about Nephi and the broken bow in the book of Mormon with them and helped them apply it to their lives! The book of Mormon and the spirit transformed a family that before wasn't wanting to come back to church, into a family that was asking all sorts of gospel questions and making gospel connections on their own, and finally being willing to pray for us.  They had a nonmember friend there with them, and she became super interested in the gospel too and was asking awesome questions.  It was neat.  And then she fed us delicious South American food. Worth it.

It is always a bit overwhelming coming into a new area with trying to learn how to get everywhere, the names of everyone, what their background stories are.  But haven't even been here a week, so I know it will come in time.  It always does!

Hurricane season starts June 1!

Have a great week!

Sister Richardson

 This is for Grandma. Sister Greeley's dad was baptized by my Grandpa

Richardson! Pretty neat!
 
The sisters from my MTC district when we were at the temple

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #52 -- MAY 18, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #52

MAY 18, 2014

Well, this week is number 52, which means that I am halfway through being a full-time missionary. It's a little weird to be halfway. In some ways, it seems like it's gone fast, but I also feel like I'm been here for a long time! Certainly a lot has happened, and I've changed SO much in just one year. It's been interesting to see myself change and see other people change too. Certainly there's still a lot to learn!

This week was really great. I'm really excited about some of our progressing investigators who really have potential to get baptized in the next couple of weeks.

Brother Liang is an 18 year old who was a member referral from Neihu (my first area). The biggest thing that was hindering him was that he would normally go to Neihu ward instead of ours (he lives in our area), but yesterday he came to our ward and made friends with some of the YM here. We are really hopeful that he will get baptized two weeks from yesterday. The only thing he has left is to stop drinking tea and come to church again next week!

Sister Lin is 15 and is also a member refferal. She originally attended the Jin Hua ward, but hasn't gone to either meeting for a few weeks because she had a giant test yesterday. High school and junior high here is so intense! She took a two day test that determines which high school she can attend. But now that it's over, she will be able to meet with us, and she has already expressed a desire to get baptized in two weeks! We are hoping and praying for her!

Brother Hou is a unique investigator. He is about 60+ years old and we found him sitting in a park. He has a great desire to understand about who God is, and yesterday at church he told everybody in Priesthood that he hoped he could come often! The other day he was an hour late for our lesson, but he brought a tea cup and saucer set which he gave us. We asked him why and he said, "There's no why."

It's also funny because his full name sounds like the Chinese word for Adam's Apple.

It just started getting hot here. And when it gets hot, it gets REALLY HOT. We didn't get the full heat yet this week, but I'm sure it's coming..

This week we went to go contact a guy we had met previously on the street in his ice cream shop. He wasn't really interested in the gospel, but I had some really delicious honey flavored ice cream. Also, the word for a cone in Chinese is literally translated as "sugar bucket."

I met somebody on the street who is from SuZhou! She gave me her card and said to come visit her when I go!

Elder Farrell and I found a two for one deal on ice cream, so we bought a bunch to share with the sisters and our investigator. Only after we bought it did we realize it was coffee flavored ice cream..It was sad to throw away so much ice cream!

It was a good week! Only 1 year left!

加油!

Elder Richardson

任長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #44 -- MAY 13, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MAY 13, 2014

I am being transferred to The St. John's River ward this week! My new
companion will be Sister Gillman. It is a higher class area, from what
I know so far. St. Augustine has been great and I have so many great
memories here and have met so many great people. But I'm excited for a
fresh start. This ward is just barely north of st. Augustine, still in
the same county. So I'm sure we'll still run into some deaf people.

A highlight from this past week was going to the Orlando temple! It
was great to spend the day with my MTC companion and catch up with
her. It was fun going out of the mission! Haha. The Orlando temple was
a lot bigger than I thought it would be and was beautiful. Lots of
blues and purples on the stained glass windows. It was good to get a
battery recharge for my soul. We were driving back into the mission
boundaries after this day in paradise, and it felt like we were
driving back into the war zone to fight for good, and for me, to do so
for 7 more months.
 
Another highlight was Mothers Day! Getting to watch Hyrum's video chat
and then talking with the family in China for a bit! I
loved seeing the view from your window with all the green trees and
then the big lake! It was also fun to see Alison and Robert and
Abigail!
 
We did a lot of service again this week. We also had some good lessons
with Carol and Mary who came to church this past Sunday and are
progressing towards their baptismal date.
 
My wrists have been pretty sore this week from signing and playing
piano/organ. Gonna work on some hand stretches!
 
Here are some pictures from the temple!
 
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY EMAIL #51 -- MAY 11, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY EMAIL #51

MAY 11, 2014

It was a pretty solid week. I was kinda sick for a lot of it, but I'm still alive! And that's what's important.

All of our investigators seemed to stop answering our phone calls this week. We are especially sad about Brother Li who we haven't been able to contact for about two weeks. But we keep praying for him and we fasted for him yesterday. We have faith that he will come back!

Last Wednesday, we had an English party. I'm the English Leader here, so I had to make sure that it would come off smoothly. For a treat at the end we had S'mores. We used these digestive crackers that taste somewhat like graham crackers and had some of the YM roast marshmallows in the chapel oven for us. It was a hit! Of course, they all thought it was a little too sweet, but it was still good.

This week we ran into a American member who is in a different world. We were eating at Subway at the time, so she came in and bought us 15 Subway cookies! We shared some with the sisters, and also with a truck driver on the street who looked tired. They were really good.

We also got gifted tea by a guy we were talking to on the street, and we didn't know what to do with it, so we accepted it and later just left it on a table outside a restaurant.

We visited somebody on "Tiger Forest Street."

Elder Farrell and I fought all this week about whose mom is better. He doesn't know a losing battle when he sees one.

Elder Farrell's bike doesn't have a kickstand, so occasionally he has to lean his on mine. And inevitably, every time he does, I sing "Lean on Me." I just can't resist.

Today for P-Day, we are going to eat with Wu Mama and then are hopefully going to go up the Taibei 101!

This Thursday is "Hump Day." I'll hit one year on the mission!

Have a good week! Add oil!

Elder Richardson

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #43 -- MAY 5, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

MAY 5, 2014

There are now 143 temples in the world! A highlight of this past week
was the dedication of the Fort Lauderdale temple yesterday. They
broadcast it to all the chapels in Florida. You had to get a special
temple recommend slip specifically for this dedication. We were told
that for the dedication, the church would act as an extension of the
temple. And it was! It felt just like going to the temple. It was most
members first temple dedication they'd ever been to. I was glad I'd
already been to a few so I could fill everyone in on what it was and
what they needed to bring and do. It was so happy to have our 4 recent
converts all there.
Here are some cool things from the dedication:
-President Uchtdorf was there and gave the dedicatory prayer. He also
gave a great talk about some of the "pioneers" in Florida. Early
church members that faced persecution from their peers, but held
strong and paved the way for everyone else. He made all the Floridians
(a word which he had a hard time pronouncing) feel special and
blessed.
-everyone talked about how for south Florida, their temple used to be
SLC, then Arizona, then DC, then Atlanta, then Orlando, and now they
have one down there!
-did you know the church has a huge cattle ranch in central Florida?
It's called desert ranch and covers several counties. So basically,
the church owns about 3% of Florida. It's the biggest cattle ranch in
the world apparently.
-a great quote by George Q. Cannon about how every time a temple is
dedicated, the power of heaven on earth gets stronger and the power of
Satan decreases.
 
We have gotten so much rain this week! And thunderstorms too. We got
stranded outside when we were walking and didn't have the car when
this huge storm came. We huddles under the porch of a members home,
who wasn't home, then called for help from our ward mission leader and
got a ride.
 
I became an expert at repainting grout in tile this week! As well as
using a squeegee in washing windows.
 
We watched the movie Legacy with Jaime and Sierra last night. It was
fun to introduce them to some more of church history! Plus I love that
movie. Also, I think I'll take my trials, over the pioneers trials.
 
We had a great lesson with Tim and Carrie, our investigators this
week! Remember when a Sister Waldron and I went and sang to Tim's
sister who was really sick and in the ICU? Well, the elders gave her a
blessing as well. And she survived her stay in the ICU and is
confident that she was healed through the power of God. So now she is
investigating the church along with Tim and Carrie! Pretty neat!
 
I have been thinking a lot these last few days about the story of the
Widow's mite. And about my offering that I am giving to God while
serving this mission for Him. It doesn't matter the amount that
everyone else is able to give, but what matters is that I am doing my
best and trying my hardest. And that is enough.
 
Transfers are next week, it's a good possibility that I'll be
transferred...but we'll see! I get to go to a session at the Orlando
temple this Thursday! We get to go around our halfway point and then
again at the end of my mission. It will be great!
 
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #50 -- MAY 5, 2014

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #50

MAY 5, 2014

Hello! It's been the weird short week where we email almost twice in a row. But it's been a good short week!

We had another great lesson with Brother Dragon this week. He is a very intelligent guy, and we have some really great discussions when we go there. We want to spend some more time with him talking about our relationship with God. He's doing great!

I miss couches a lot. Couches in Taiwan aren't quite the same. But our chapel foyer has a really nice couch, so I always love sitting there while we are waiting for an investigator or something. I'm trying to convince Elder Farrell to go there for studies, but we'd probably just both fall asleep, so it might not be a good idea. We also spent one P-Day wandering around IKEA looking for a massage chair for Elder Wilson, but instead spent like an hour trying all of the soft couches there.

We went to an LA's house and her husband starting pulling out books about time machines and asking what we thought about them. It was weird because we switched topics from the Book of Mormon to time machines and back to the Book of Mormon as we tried to share with them about reading the scriptures!

You know how sometimes when you read a book, you can keep reading the words on the page, but your mind is on something completely different? I did that for the first time this week while reading Chinese. It's both a good sign that my Chinese is getting better, and also a bad thing because now I need to focus more on what I'm reading!

That's all for this week! I'm especially excited for Janae's mission call!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任君陽長老

 

 

I didn't do quite as well with my goal of a picture a day, but I still got some!

Orange Ice Cream Flavored Oreos

Playing a game of Chinese chess in the park 

 I got 1 more life!

 A really good pizza place with not very good English.

Egg-wrapped fried rice with pork. It was delicious.

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #49 -- APRIL 29, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #49

APRIL 29, 2014

I forget to tell you that this is the weird week where we have P-Day on Wednesday instead of Monday. Sorry!

This week, we are sad because Elder Wilson left us! We are back to a normal companionship of just two missionaries, which is now strange again. Elder Wilson left to open up the first "Facebook area" of the mission. He will be piloting and setting up all of the Facebook for the rest of the mission. He was pretty excited!

We had a pretty good week. We met some cool people who can keep progressing.

One guy we met is named Brother Long, but between me and Elder Farrell we call him Brother Dragon, because that's what his name means. 

We met with a lady from Thailand and got her a Book of Mormon in Thai which she said she loves reading! She also wants to give us the address of her uncle who is still in Thailand so that he can get a Book of Mormon there.

A lot of people have really good English is Songshan, but sometimes when they are speaking English we don't understand what they are saying (pronunciation is kinda rough for them). So we clarify by speaking Chinese, and then they keep speaking English. It's just funny when we are conversing and they speak English and we speak Chinese.

In Taiwan, a lot of people are unsure about what age they are. This is because traditional Chinese culture counts age differently. When babies are born, they start at age 1, and then I think that everybody just goes up a year when the new year starts. So because of the conflict between that and the Western system (which is what the church and government and hospitals use), some people (especially kids) are not really sure how to answer.

A guy came into our English class last week who was mute. He could only speak Chinese sign language, but nobody there knew it, so we couldn't really communicate. But he liked sitting and learning English there.

Some places (like hospitals) have no fourth floor, because "four" in Chinese sounds similar to "death."

I set a weekly goal to take a picture every day this week, so I'll be attaching a bunch.

We are both really excited to go to the temple today! I'm especially excited for the soft carpet that is there!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老

 

Our spiritual share in English class about the Tree of Life. Aren't I a great artist?

I didn't take this one. This is why you don't leave your camera just sitting out.

This floor square was just sitting in our apartment with two holes in it, so the natural response is to draw eyebrows.

 

Elder Wilson and Elder Farrell playing Pterodactyl.

The main road that runs through our area. The chapel is at the end of this road.

Elder Wilson doing therapy for his back at the hospital. 

We think he was an inch or two taller after this one.

Eating dinner at Bishop's house! (Sorry if it's blurry)

A picture before Elder Wilson's departure. 

We decided to take it in front of this road work vehicle.

Visiting seminary class! Please note how tall the Bishop's son's hair is. 

(Second from the right)

 

 The "Death Star." This is a mall in our area, and it just looks like the death star, so that's what we call it.

District picture!

 

A strange looking bird that we saw in the park.

Just leaning on a frog, looking at an LA list.