Hello everyone!
I'm in the field! I have been assigned to the Prescott Arizona Zone
and the Williamson Valley ward. My trainer is Elder Belenacagi. He's
from Fiji!
Real quick, I wanted to talk to about the last day or so at the MTC.
We had a fairly heartfelt set of goodbyes on Monday, as half of us
shipped out for Phoenix while almost all the rest shipped out the next
day. Poor Sister Hurst is the only one from our district still at the
MTC! She has to stick around another week for Visitors Center
training.
We had some pretty good times at the MTC, and I'm definitely missing
all of them. But, the work must go on. The six of us going to Phoenix
reported to the travel office at 3:35am on Tuesday, and they started
the long process of getting like 300 missionaries out to their
missions. After a bus ride, two trains, then finally our flight, we
got into the PHX airport around 9:30. President and Sister Griffin met
us at the baggage claim and took us to the mission office for a bunch
of paper work. We met all the senior missionaries who run the office,
and learned a bunch of mission policies.
Later, we went to the mission home and had lunch and hung out for
awhile, until it was time to see some more training videos. I bought a
"Hymns made easy" book at the MTC, so I practiced and played some
hymns on their piano. Sister Lewis sang along, and encouraged me to
play more and more. She says she doesn't sing, but she has a really
great voice. After watching some videos on bike and car safety, we had
a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, which was amazing!
Wednesday morning was transfer meeting. There I met Elder Belenacagi
(Bah-lay-an-than-gi) and our district finally had to split up. Elder
B. had a lot of trouble pronouncing where I was sent from, and still
thinks it should be pronounced Arkan"sauce". Something interesting
about our mission is a metaphor about Arizona being a "Thirsty Land"
and we work to bring it the "Living Water." I just thought that was
cool.
I was also surprised to get a big box from Mom with a bunch of food
and stuff. She sent me a two pound bag of Twizzlers! :P Also, Mom, you
are aware that missionaries aren't supposed to chew gum, right? I
don't know what to do with the big packs you sent me! :P
After that, we got a ride up to Prescott with the Jennings, which it
turns out we live with. We live with them a few miles outside of
Prescott. That night, we taught my first real lesson. Turns out that
the guy, Brother Roberts, was about to be baptized! I already have a
baptism! (Not that I did much) We also had dinner with the Stearns,
and older couple who are called to the family history center. We had
spaghetti (again :P) and Sister Stearns expounded on to horrible path
our country is going. She was the first of three different occasions
that people talked about that.
Thursday night, we taught another man with a baptismal date, Clayton
Mills. He's going to be baptized on the 19th into the local YSA ward.
We also visited a less active family, the Prongers, who are hilarious!
They joke around a bunch and seem totally ready to come back to
church. They fed us Papa Murphy's and I told them about Uncle Tony and
his job.
On Saturday, we had Brother Roberts' baptism. It was a great little
meeting, and he got up and bore his testimony at the end. Then he and
his family took us out for pizza at a place called Rosa's Pizzeria.
On Sunday, we went to church, which was great, but what was really
cool was that we went and visited a referral we got, Debbie. Turns
out, she has a super close LDS friend and referred herself! She has
studied the church a fair bit and even watches BYUtv and General
conference occasionally. We taught her about the restoration and plan
to teach her more on Wednesday. :D
One thing that I was not prepared for is the sheer amount of downtime
we have. We spend 3 hours studying each morning, then go around and
sit to teach. I kinda expected it to be busier, but things are going
pretty well.
By the way, the way P-days work out, I'm allowed to send and receive
the whole day until 6. I am also allowed to check my email whenever
and wherever all week. However, I can't reply until P-days. So, feel
free to send me things whenever you like, and I'll get and read them
pretty quick, but I can't reply till Monday's.
Keep Hauling that Water,
Elder Joseph Richardson
P.S. How's my tag line, Mom?
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