SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #73 -- DEC 2, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

DECEMBER 2, 2014

 Second to last letter....weird isn't it?

It was an interesting week with it being a holiday week. Most of our
progressing investigators went out of town so we didn't get to teach
them, but we still managed to teach lessons and have a decent week!

There is a less active/part member family that I haven't been able to
get in to see during the whole time I've been here, and we were
finally able to have a lesson with them! It was great!

We have been inviting a lot of people to the stake nativity event that
is coming up this weekend. People in the area really like it and are
willing to talk to us about it. Gotta love Christmas.
On thanksgiving day, all we did was eat! I told Sister Hall that we
had been training our whole missions for this eating marathon of a
day. Because what do you do when investigators or e bishops family or
others invite you over for a thanksgiving meal? We felt bad saying no.
So we had three thanksgiving feasts right in a row. I didn't want to
eat ever again by the end of the day and I don't think I'll be in the
mood for any thanksgiving leftovers. But there is this one
investigator family that we ate with and they are the most celestial
family! You can feel the spirit in their home and all they desire is
to raise their kids right as people that love Jesus Christ. They
treated us so well and loved having us over. They just have some
beliefs that aren't quite in line with the restored gospel, so they
will take some work.





On Friday, was the temple day! As soon as we drove onto the temple
grounds, my heart was filled. You don't realize how much you need that
renewing experience of the temple until you're there. It was fun to
reunite with all the people I came out with that are going home soon
too. It was cool to feel that we all had made it and gotten through
this mission adventure. The temple session was fantastic as well as
being able to ask questions to the temple President afterward. Very
special. I didn't want to leave the temple! Afterwards, President
Herrington who is in the mission presidency who had driven us down to
Orlando took the missionaries in his car out to eat. That morning I
was wondering what I was going to do to buy lunch that day since I was
out of money for the month....so President Herringtons graciousness
was an answer to prayers!
We are going to work this next week to set baptismal dates with investigators!

Life is good! God is good!
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #80 -- DEC 1, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #80

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Last Monday, we went and visited one of the less-active ladies in our area. She loves feeding missionaries, and practically force-fed us some cake, which was really good but we were all so full! She is so nice and as soon as she recovers from the illness that she has she should be able to come back to church!

Tuesday we met with Gina. She is awesome! She read 10 chapters in the Book of Mormon, and spent most of the lesson telling us what she had learned from reading. It's amazing to see investigators who want to progress on their own, because that is what will keep them going after missionaries leave or trials come! We are excited for her to come to church next week and meet with her again tomorrow!

On Thursday, we tried to go visit a referral who was in the Psychiatric ward. They wouldn't let us wear ties to go in, so it was really strange to not wear a tie in public! One of the nurses kicked us out pretty quick, but we at least got to say Hi.

That evening, we went up the mountain to the home of one of our members Thanksgiving dinner! I really missed Thanksgiving dinner last year, so I'm really lucky to be in the English ward this year and know a lot of nice members who like to feed missionaries. The mashed potatoes and turkey were delicious!

We invited an investigator and an RC to come to Thanksgiving dinner with us, but they both ended up going to the wrong house! But they at least got dinner and got to hang out with the rest of the YSAs!

Friday it got really hot again! It was above 80 degrees again! I thought I was done sweating for the rest of my mission! 

Friday we also helped set up the giant Christmas tree in the chapel next to the temple. I forgot to take a picture, but I'll try to take one today! 

Saturday we had another Thanksgiving dinner! Most schools don't have vacation for Thanksgiving (or Christmas) here, so we had dinner with some members that had to work on Thanksgiving. We were also with the Williams family! It had been a while since we saw them, so it was good to talk to them again. They are getting really close to baptism! Hopefully it will be in the month of December!

Sunday was awesome. For our 5th week Sunday lesson, the Bishop talked about "His Grace is Sufficient" talk from Brad Wilcox. It was a great lesson for some of our investigators that were there. If you haven't ever read it, you should! 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/09/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng

It is the best explanation about grace and works that I've ever read!

Sunday evening, there was a fireside commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Taiwan Taibei Temple! We had three members of the Seventy who spoke as well as the Temple President and Temple Matron. Our (Mainland) Chinese investigator attended and really liked it! There was another lady who spoke and the Temple President mentioned that it was her life goal to do 5,000 endownments in the temple in her life. She is already at about 3,500! She is a great example of dedicating her time and efforts to doing God's work!

It was a great week! Hope you have a good one too!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #72 -- NOV 25, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

We had a lot of success with recent convert and less active lessons
this week! We were able to set dates with two less active families for
when they will be coming to church. So kind of applying setting a
baptism date with investigators to less active members. I am excited
for those dates to come and for those great people to come to church!

Yesterday, some new members in the Ward had been asked to share their
testimonies. Both Crystal and Montee did. It was amazing to see how
much spiritual growth they have had overall, but especially since
their baptism. The gift of the Holy Ghost helps speed up that learning
and growing process for them.

Our investigator Tami came to the relief society activity with us this
weekend! She had a good time and everyone in the relief society loves
her. She wants to get baptized but we are still helping her understand
how it will bring her closer to Christ. She already is very close to
God so I think it's hard for her to see how it can become even better.

Montee's girls came to church this Sunday! I think they are enjoying
it more and more as they come.

It's going to be a great Thanksgiving week!
Mosiah 2:41 :)

Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #79 -- NOV 24, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #79

NOVEMBER 24, 2014

This week was great! I love it when we feel like our investigators are progressing. I don't think God is really concerned at the speed that His children learn the gospel, but He is concerned (and therefore, we are) if they are moving closer to Him rather than farther. So when the investigators that we teach are doing that, we are happy just as God is!

On Wednesday, we decided to go up to Tianmu to visit the Silva family. We got there and found the Tianmu missionaries already there talking to him! They felt like they needed to go too, so all four of us got to talk to him and help him feel the Spirit there in his Brazilian pizza restaurant.

Thursday was the real miracle. We were tracting in one of the further parts of our area and starting talking to him as he walked by. He had gone to a church a couple of years ago, but stopped going when his family moved. But he recognized his need for God in his life, and met with us again on Saturday. We taught him the first lesson in a coffee shop with loud music and louder old people, but the Spirit was strong! He came to our ward activity on Saturday night, and we are excited to meet with him again on Wednesday!

Last night, we met with a girl named Hamideh. She is a Physics Phd Student who just moved here from Iran. One of the office missionaries ran into her like three times on the street, and we gave an Arabian Book of Mormon to her landlord Monday night. Finally, on Sunday, we got a hold of her and she came to the church to meet with us. We gave her an English Book of Mormon (because apparently Arabian is different than Persian...they look the same to us!), and taught her about the restoration. I think she felt the Spirit in the lesson, and she said she was willing to read the Book of Mormon, which is all we ask people to do!

My English grammar is terrible. I'll often say stuff in English, but use Chinese grammar, which my companion still understands, but I'll be doomed when I have to talk to normal people again.

On Saturday, we met with a less-active at IKEA, so we got some Swedish meatballs for lunch! They were delicious!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #71 -- NOV 18, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

It's been another great week here at the river. Sister Hall and I
taught 19 lessons this week! We aren't really sure how that happened,
but it's great!

We had a lesson with J&J (part member family) at the Patch's (member)
home and taught the restoration! I still learn new things every time i
teach the restoration. Sister Hall on the spot came up with a great
analogy to better explain the apostasy--of leaving a group of kids in
a classroom without a teacher...your imagination can take it from
there.

We had a miracle lesson with this young couple from the Dominican
Republic that we found tracting. They have cute two year old twins.
They are some elect people that have been seeking for the truth. They
said if they came to know this was he truth, they would be baptized.
Well lucky for them, it is the truth! We can't wait to go back and
teach them.

We had this older couple that are investigators of ours come to the
family history center with us! It was great! And was just like those
training videos they show us where the person gets all excited when
they find their family members name in a record. It was grand :)

Like Hyrum, I also helped move a fridge this week. But it didn't end
up so well. We were helping this sweet old lady that is a member clean
behind her fridge and so we pulled it out and it was all fine and we
got it clean. Then we pushed it back into place and something under
the fridge scraped up the linoleum tiling and cut a nice wedge in it.
We didn't know what to do...so we just pushed it back into place and
hoped her eyes wouldn't notice. Haha. It was embarrassing.

We have recently seen some miracles with some less actives. We've been
able to get in and have a lesson with people that are hard to set
appointments with. It's been great! There were several less actives
that came to church this past Sunday! Also, Brother Luna came in a
white shirt and tie for the first time yesterday to church and helped
prepare and bless the sacrament. It was pretty neat :)

Crystal is still being an amazing missionary! Her half sister that we
taught last week...the sister missionaries in her area (Georgia, not
in our mission) went over and gave her a Book of Mormon. She has been
posting verses from 1 Nephi on Facebook this week! Pretty cool!

It was cold for about two days this week...as in it got to the 50s and
I wore my tights and wool sweater...I'm as bad as the rest of the
floridians now. But when you're biking and there's that cold wind,
it's not that pleasant. But it's back to the 80s again today. I
remember that it didn't really get cold last year until
January/February.

I'm excited for the upcoming holiday season! The stake here is having
an awesome nativity event that will be a great missionary opportunity

Love you all!
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #78 -- NOV 17, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #78

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Happy Year and a Half! I didn't remember that I passed a year and a half until I sat down to write this email. It was a normal day like any other, but it means that I'm getting REALLY OLD in missionary terms.

Last Monday we went to eat pasta with our ward mission leader in the missionary choir, and looked in vain for more Chinese Pokemon cards...找不到 :(

Tuesday we got to meet with Jane Lee, our favorite Canadian investigator, and taught her the plan of salvation. She really liked us, but still had some questions about Revelations to which we replied, "We don't really understand that book either." We probably try to give her some Bruce R. McConkie commentary, which she would really like.

Tuesday night we met a new friend named Simon! He is an apartment security guard, so we visited him while he was on duty. He is a really nice old man, and he is really excited to meet with us! He works the night shift, so it will be a sacrifice to come to church on Sunday, but he really wants to come! We are hoping that he can make it this week!

Met some more interesting English names this week, "Wii" and "Blue."

On Wednesday, we went to visit our Brazilian pizza-making family. We had a great lesson with them on scripture reading and committed them to read every day! Afterwards, we went to a members house to help with moving the fridge out of the old apartment. The whole time we were going down the four flights of stairs, I motivated myself by saying "freezer power." After that, the family fed us. The members' grandmother who was visiting from Miaoli didn't speak very much Mandarin. So I said a few sentences to her in Taiwanese, but then she spent the next hour talking to all of us in Taiwanese because she thought we understood. And we definitely didn't!

On Thursday, I got to ride my bike again! Because in the just English area we only walked, my bike was in Songshan for about 4 months. But they finally got it sent here and so I got to ride it again! Thursday and Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Meeks, one of the zone leaders. We visited a family whose kids were really obsessed with Star Wars, so we learned how to say Darth Vader. BTW, it's 黑武士 (hei1 wu3 shi4).

Friday we went to visit the Williams family! We were so happy that we finally got to visit them in their home! We review all of the commandments, and the whole family is super willing to obey them! We are excited for them to get baptized as soon as Brother Willliams can get Saturday off of work!

Saturday afternoon we traveled up to Beitou to visit a part member family. We had a great lesson about prayer, and hope to visit them again soon! Afterwards we had the Stake Conference evening session. It's cool to listen to the one foreigner in the stake presidency giving a talk in Chinese!

That's about it for this week.

Add oil!

任淳楷長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #70 -- NOVEMBER 11, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Hello fam!

This afternoon, Sister Hall and I decided to check out the local
attraction of the world golf village. There is a hall of fame and a
museum and trophies and everything. Needles to say, we didn't care
much about that part. It feels like I'm in the movie Somewhere in
Time...one of those resort, old hotel, green lawn places. But that is
eerily quite deserted right now. Here's a picture of the main
building.

Well I wrote the rest of a letter too, but it looks like it didn't send :(

But that second picture is sister hall and I dressing up as each other
for our Halloween costumes. We switched tags and wore each other's
clothes and I wore glasses and made my hair curly. It was fun!

We taught Montee's girls this week about the restoration! It was great
to be teaching her family with her! The girls came to church on
Sunday!

Crystal gave us a Facebook referral for her sister that ,lives in
Georgia. We taught her the first lesson and she is anxious to read the
Book of Mormon and said she already feels that our message is true :)

Tamiko is doing well. She loves church and loves the Book of Mormon.
She still had so,e concerns about the spirit world, but our lesson was
on that in gospel principles on Sunday, so brother Taylor was able to
explain things well to her.

J&J are still an awesome couple, part member family to teach. We
walked in the door last time and she had brownies and banana bread all
set out for us! It was sweet.

We had zone conference this week that focused on becoming better
teachers. I loved it! We also had to get flu shots. I bore my
testimony with the other soon to be departing missionaries at the end.
I bore a simple testimony of the healing and enabling power of the
atonement. I feel as if it hasn't really been me that has served a
mission, but it is more the Lord. I have just done what I have been
given the strength and the promptings to do, it all comes from Him!

The gospel is true and it is life changing if you allow it to be!
Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #77 -- NOV 10, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #77

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

This week was short, but very good. The temple was awesome. I love going there and spending a lot of time there!

It's election week! Apparently the best way to get elected in Taiwan is to rent a truck, plaster your face on the side, and then have it drive around town with loudspeakers playing music or a speech. I've seen TONS of them this week!

Thursday we had to go across town to get to the dinner with Angel, our recent convert from Indonesia, and then back across town to another appointment with an investigator, and then back across town to get home! It was kinda crazy, but we made it every on time! Sometimes it feels like a lot of missionary work is just calling people and scheduling appointments, but it's nice when you can get past those things and help people learn the gospel!

Friday we went and did service at the Ronald McDonald charity house. 

I read a great quote this week from Jeffrey R. Holland. He said: "Heavenly Father is easy to please, but hard to satisfy." God is happy with all of the little successful things that we do. He rejoices with us for the small victories and every time we do something right. But until we are perfect as He is, we won't be done, because He knows our divine potential, and will not allow us to settle for anything less!

Going to church has been interesting the past few weeks. We attend two wards and they overlap by an hour and a half. So we have to go on splits in order to attend all of our meetings. It makes everything pretty hectic on Sunday, but there's never a dull moment!

One of the Wanda members told me that my profile is very typically American and that it should be on the face of a coin. Haha I'm not quite sure what that means.

Our investigators are doing really well. We are really excited that a lot of the people we have met the past few weeks are preparing to be baptized in December, so we'll hopefully have a white Christmas!

This Saturday marks a year and a half on a mission for me!

Short weeks have short letters.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #76 -- NOV 5, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #76

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

So I guess I got off on my numbering system...this is either 75 or 76. It's not that big of a deal I suppose.

This week was great! We started figuring out our new area, and we now know where our boundaries are! We have an area that includes a large shopping mall area, and the main train station in Taibei, so there are still a lot of foreigners there to contact. We don't have any investigators there yet so we've got to go find them! That's what we'll be working on this week while we keep our investigators in the English ward progressing.

Last Monday, we had choir practice! The Bairds (senior missionaries here) are in charge, and they are doing it a little differently this year. They are having different missionaries lead and play and sing solos each song so that everyone can share their talents. So I will be conducting one of the songs and my companion is singing the solo that I sang last year. It's going to be a great choir! We are all really excited!

On Wednesday, we split our English classes because we have a lot missionaries in the Jin Hua chapel, so we are now teaching Intermediate level, which is more fun than the Beginner class I've been teaching for 3 months. There is a student in our class named "Ohya" (pronounced "oh yeah").

On Wednesday, we also met with Jane. The missionaries in Beitou met her on the street. She is Taiwanese but she grew up in Canada, so she prefers speaking English. She is amazing and very prepared! From the very first lesson, she has been really willing to read scriptures and pray and she has a very strong testimony that God loves her and wants to help her in life! It has been a privilege to teach her so far, and we are excited to keep meeting with her!

One of the members who we visited this week is aboriginal. His last name is Binkinuan. In aboriginal language, that word describes the sound of a pile of skulls all hitting each other, because that's what his family did back in the day.

On Friday, we met someone from Mainland China. She is living in Hong Kong studying, and she was SO excited to meet missionaries. She almost didn't give us her phone number, but she decided that it was worth a shot. We sent it to Hong Kong, so hopefully she'll have another chance to meet with missionaries!

Sunday was awesome. The Williams, James (our Catholic friend), Jane, and Erisa came to church! Erisa lives in Jilong, and is being taught by missionaries there, but she wanted to come and attend English church here! She came a long way and I think she really liked church! We also met with Dickson and Roxie, who are both member referrals. They have come to church a few times and we got a chance to talk to them and set up a time to start teaching them the missionary lessons.

The weather is starting to get a little cold now. It's amazing that it doesn't start getting cold until November. The weather has been beautiful for the past 2 months, and now we are starting to get a little chilly. But chilly here is much better than chilly anywhere else, so it's still pretty comfortable!

Yesterday, we had our zone training meeting which was all about how to use Preach My Gospel more effectively. It really is an amazing book, meant not just for missionaries, but for everybody! I've learned a lot about the gospel from that book. I hope everybody has one just like Elder Ballard suggested! It's a great book to study. Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 are especially applicable to everyone!

I am so excited to go to the temple today! I've been so lucky to always be in an area where I can attend the temple regularly. It also gets me excited for when I go home and can attend even more often!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #69 -- NOV. 4, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

NOV 4, 2014

It has gotten down to the 50s and 60s and Sister Hall and I are
freezing! It is obvious that we've both been in Florida for over a
year.

We had a fun Ward fall festival on Saturday! A former investigator
that is a professional face painter came and donated her time to our
festival and it was great! She had some amazing creations.

We had a great lesson with Tamiko and with Sister Chvala about the
plan of salvation. Sister Hall and I were trying to explain the spirit
world to her, but it just wasn't getting through to her, then Sister
Chvala took a try and it clicked with Tamiko and she understood it and
gained a testimony of the work that goes on there! It was a good
reminder to me of how we need the members, especially in lessons.
Tamiko came to church on Sunday too and really enjoyed it again.

We had a great recent convert lesson with Crystal and her family and
the Matthews family in the ward. We had assigned the Matthews to teach
the Restoration story and they ended up acting it out with their kids,
it was pretty great. It makes me so so happy when I see
investigators/recent converts bonding with Ward members!!

Those were the highlights of the week! Keep being great (member) missionaries!
Sister Richardson

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #68 -- OCT 29, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 29, 2014

The big news of the day is that I am staying in the St. John's River
ward! It will be my 5th transfer here! As well as my last. So weird!
Sister Hall and I will remain as companions. I am glad I can stay...I
would be very anxious leaving some of the people we are working with
here and I'm glad I'll be here to watch out for them and help them.

Crystals baptism went great! There are so many details you have to
figure out, but it always ends up working out. It was neat to have her
new husband Rob baptize her. Crystal shared her testimony after her
baptism and it was amazing to hear her side of the story of her
journey leading up to baptism. She said with conviction that she knows
these things of herself and she got baptized because she knew
individually that it was true. We had a lot of Ward support there as
well. On Sunday, both Montee and Crystal got confirmed! Those were
amazing. The spirit was so strong in the chapel after those blessings.
Sister Hall and I sang a musical number in sacrament meeting-Savior,
Redeemer of My Soul. People always think musical numbers sounds good
even if you the performer think it went miserably, so that's good! The
best part was when our investigator (their first time at church with
us) and some of the Luna kids started clapping after we finished, then
quickly stopped as they saw no one else was clapping. It was super
awkward but really funny and made my day :)
An amazing miracle happened this week! Sister Patch, a member, gave us
a referral for their neighbor. We went and contacted them on Friday
night and they let us right in and knew right who we were. The dads
parents were there and they are active members of the church and were
visiting from Utah. He was even wearing a BYU shirt. But J&J, (that's
what I'll call them since both their names start with J) the young
couple were so nice to us too and we shared a short message from the
Book of Mormon with them. The young husband referenced knowing how
hard it was as missionaries..,so it turns out that he is a return
missionary and is a less active member! We invited them to church as
we were walking out the door. Then on Sunday, we are singing our
musical number and I look out and see the less active here at church
with his parents! SO COOL! We went and taught J&J last night and had a
great lesson with them about God and about prayer. The wife is not a
member. The ward got the information for the husbands member records
so hopefully they will get home teachers soon. We are excited to keep
teaching this sweet family! They are expecting their first baby early
next year. God has such an amazing hand in this work! It's incredible
to be a part of and to see miraculous things like this unfold before
your eyes. There is such an amazing spirit with missionary work, this
work of ministering and rescuing and teaching and loving.

I can't remember much else that happened this week..the excitement of
the weekend clouded it out! With it being the last week of the month,
and the number of allotted miles being almost gone, Sister Hall and I
are biking A LOT! We probably biked almost 10 miles yesterday. It's an
adventure! I figured I should take at least one biking picture on my
mission to remember all the time I've spent with this lovely $150
Walmart bike :) Also, we needed to bike home in the dark last night,
so we got some flashlights from a member and taped them on to our
bikes :) there aren't any stores in our area that would have bike
lights...so we may be sticking with the flashlights for a bit :)

Have a great week! I'm praying for Robert & Alison's baby everyday for
whenever it gets here!

Sister Richardson

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #75 -- OCT 27, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #75

OCTOBER 27, 2014

Transfer weeks always feel especially long. I guess it's because before and after Friday are completely different, so it makes them feel longer.

On Wednesday, we had our English class party! My companion(s) and I came up with a really fun game. We had seven boxes with holes in the side, and then inside we put something in a bowl like eyeballs, worms, brains, blood etc. Then each person had to reach in with their hand, feel it, and then guess what it really was. The people in our first group were REALLY hesitant to go first! I think they thought the stuff was real! Anyway, they thought it was really fun, and the eyeballs (peeled grapes) were the biggest hit!

On Thursday, we met with our new friend Martin. He is a really chill guy who really likes to discuss about the doctrine in the Bible. We shared with him some of our favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon. He brought up something he had been thinking about recently that was really profound. He talked about love being a form of work. Ultimately, the best kind of love isn't really about feelings or words, it's about action and about sacrificing for somebody else. Jesus Christ told us that He loves us, but He showed it by helping other people and by dying for us!

Friday was transfer meeting! Elder Chen went back home to prepare for his mission to California in December, Elder Wilson moved to the Tucheng area which is in the south of Taibei, and I got a new companion, Elder Clyde! When I first got to Taiwan and moved into Neihu in July last year, Elder Clyde had just finished being trained. So in missionary jargon, he is both my mother (because he left when I came in to "be born" (be trained)) and my older brother (because we both have the same trainer).

The other announcement that we got on Friday is that our area is being changed. We are no longer just in the English ward. Our companionship is splitting between the English ward and the Wanda ward! So now we have a normal area in addition to doing all of the English ward stuff. So this transfer will be pretty busy! But at least my Chinese won't keep getting worse! So this morning we moved out of the apartment in Tianmu and moved into an apartment near the chapel for a few weeks until they find us a permanent place in Wanda!

On Friday, we also had the first practice with the Christmas Choir! I am really excited that I get to be in the choir again; it was a lot of fun last year and it will be fun again this year! I've also been asked to coordinate the travel and communication for the choir.

On Saturday, we went and attended Catholic Mass with our investigator James. It was a pretty interesting experience. There are certainly a lot of similarities between the two church services, but there were also quite a few differences. I think the coolest part is that the Holy Ghost testifies of Jesus Christ no matter where you are or what context it is in. As I've learned about other religions and attended other churches, I've noticed that the Holy Ghost will teach us about Jesus Christ and about his sacrifice for us, and it's wonderful to feel that God exists and to have a complete knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It's also amazing that I have the opportunity to bring that light to as many of the people of Taiwan that I can!

Yesterday, we went to the Bishop's house for lunch and a lesson with the Williams family. We did a family home evening lesson with 11 kids around which reminded me of home. We taught all of the commandments simply so that all of the kids would understand. The Williams are doing so great. The ward is so good at making them feel welcome and they are really excited for their baptismal date in November!

Well, that's enough for this week.

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

PICTURES OF OUR HALLOWEEN PARTY

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #67 -- OCT 21, 2014

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON

OCTOBER 21, 2014

The highlight of the week was definitely Montee's baptism! I'm so blessed to have been here for the whole teaching process and then for the baptism as well. It was a beautiful program. Our Ward mission leader, Brother Taylor, baptized her. The whole bishopric was there along with several other families from the Ward there supporting her as well. She had brought her daughters and her sister to church that day and then they were there at the baptism that evening as well. All 3 of them had a great experience and we will hopefully start teaching them soon! I told Montee before she stepped into the font to just take a moment after she came out of the water to savor the feeling and make a memory out of it. Apparently the spirit did its job as she savored. She was crying when she came out and I gave her a huge hug and just held her for a minute as she cried. It was a beautiful moment that makes those hard times worth it. She said she just felt so incredible and light. The night before her baptism she texted and said she felt like she was "roller skates moving on a cloud." :) this Ward has been so great at helping her feel loved and accepted into the Ward. We know we've done our job right as missionaries when they are closer to the Ward members than to us. 

Some other happy news is that Crystals baptism will be this Saturday and her new husband Rob will baptize her! Can't wait! Then we'll have two confirmations on Sunday. 

On Tueaday, we had a record 7 appointments scheduled! And only 3 ended up canceling! That is a miracle in itself. 

We had dinner with the Luna's and their neighbors were over for dinner. It worked out so well that we were teaching the restoration that night. Their neighbors seem interested in learning more! 

We had a great relief society activity on Thursday. It was about conference and what we learned. We had 3 investigators there. One of them was our classy investigator Tamiko. She is so friendly and nice that everyone just fell in love with her like Sister Hall and I have. She is planning on coming to church next week. 

I've enjoyed re watching conference talks from this most recent conference this week! I always learn something new and different. 

I also love, like Hyrum talked about, how we can always progress and get better. I know I'll never be the perfect missionary because I am still continually working on getting better at things, and that's how it should be! 

These subdivisions we are in most of the time are getting way into Halloween. Maybe it's because they have the money to buy decorations. But so many houses have turned their front lawns into graveyards with zombies and skeletons and other frightening things. It's kind of disgusting in my opinion. Hopefully Christmas decorations will be a bit more uplifting. 

I'm sending some pictures of the baptism, a picture of our schedule this week so you can see the busy-ness of a missionary every day. And then I'm sending a story that sister hall wrote of an experience we had a few weeks ago. She is a good storyteller. 

Love you all!

Sister Richardson

Montee's friend that is a member and is also from Liberia, her daughter Jonjeh, Montee, her sister, and her other daughter Monjeh. 

Biking Adventures: Summer Rays and Sprinkler Days 

Once upon a time there were 2 sister missionaries riding their bikes on the sidewalk to avoid being hit by cars. They were approaching an intersection and so began to slow to stop. A car was also approaching the intersection driving perpendicular to the sisters. The car decided not to stop to let them go and so they decided they would stop rather then get ran over. Also on this corner was a house and where the sisters stopped the sprinklers were going. The sisters had planned it just right so they could get across without the sprinkler getting them however when he car didn't stop and when the sister in the front stopped the sister in the back followed suite and by so doing was left directly in the sprinklers line of fire (ironic. Water and fire :)  She looked at the sprinkler coming closer and she looked ahead but the sister in front being oblivious too what was going on behind her was not hasty enough and then splash! the sister got sprayed by the water and she put her hand down as a poor defense to try to stop some of the flow of the water but she was too far away from the source and a little squeak leaked from her mouth. They first sister began moving forward but it was to late. The sister was now drenched on one side and not only that but she had an audience! Across the street and man and his wife exclaimed "oh, it got her" so the sister made the choice to just keep riding and act like nothing happened. Haha yep that's me. Totally got blasted by a sprinkler which soaked the right side of my body but no worries it was 90 degrees that day so it dried up in a hour or 2! Haha. I love being a missionary! 
    -Sister Hall 

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #74 -- OCT 20, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #74

OCTOBER 20, 2014

This week was awesome. I think the "things are picking up" feeling is probably one of the best, because it just means that we're getting better and better. I think that's the perspective we are supposed have about our eternal progression - that even though we are never perfect, we are always improving and should always seek to improve. So I like it :)

Lunch between General Conference Sessions
Elder Chen's English is really funny. He's a pretty energetic guy and loves to speak the English that he knows. He's slowly learning more, and hopefully he'll have enough of a background to get him started in the MTC! Every time he says the word "successful" it sounds just like "saxophone." But we set a goal to learn 20 new vocabulary words every two days, which we are doing well with so far!

Elder Chen and Elder Wilson in front of Taibei 101

I had a realization about my Patriarchal blessing this week. It came from the conference talk that was in Portuguese. He talked about how as he read his patriarchal blessing, he realized that the way he was living his life would not make the promises in his blessing happen. That made me realize that the promises in the blessing are not a statement of what will happen, but more like a explanation of our potential, and it's our duty to do the things that will allow us to achieve that potential. In that way, a Patriarchal blessing guides us to make the correct choices in order to fulfill the promises, rather than just wait for the promises to come true!

Met some members visiting from Mainland.  He is a future missionary.

 On Thursday and Friday, I went on exchanges with Elder Greenhalgh, one of our zone leaders. We really enjoyed finding together, and had a great lesson on the street with a guy who said he wanted to go back to church. It was a great miracle!

I tried to talk to a guy on the street, but he took off running and said "I thought you guys were only in America!" Too bad for him that the Gospel of Jesus Christ goes to "every nation." :)

Notice the wording:  "KEEP OUT OF CHILDREN"

 We had a lesson scheduled with Nanete, who is from the Philippines. But the only directions she gave us was that she was in a small park near a certain intersection behind a tall building. The problem is that Taibei has a lot of small parks behind tall buildings. We ended up walking around for about 40 minutes until we finally found her. Even though we called her multiple times, we couldn't really understand where she was! Luckily, we finally got to teach her and her two cousins a lesson, which they really liked. It will be hard for them to come to church, but hopefully it'll all work out!

We each ordered 1 dish.  Elder Chen ordered 4 -- he was hungry!

 I've started learning to play Ukelele for singing in companionship study in the mornings. The problem is that I only really know one rhythm, so we've been singing to the same rhythm for every song!

We finally got to have another lesson with the Williams family. It's been about four weeks since we met with them, but we got to sit down with just the mom and dad at one of our members' house. It was such a great spiritual lesson, and they said they really want to get baptized; they just need to figure out when! Hopefully it will be on November 22.

There is no 4th floor

Yesterday we had a miracle. We sat down because Elder Chen's feet were hurting after walking for a few hours. While we were waiting for the light to change, a guy from Hong Kong came over to talk to us. He wanted to know if we were the same church as in Hong Kong. He had attended church and met with missionaries a few times there, but had lost contact when he came here a few weeks ago. He is really excited to meet with missionaries in Jingxin!

That's it for this week. Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老