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