MAY 29, 2020 -- WEEK #13

Al's Well that Ends W-Al! ... I am so sorry...

May 29, 2018

We've been trying to contact this one woman, Cheryl, for the past while, and when we get to the house, her brother walks out, not looking very excited to see us. He starts out with, "You know what the problem is with you guys?" 

I was not super excited about that. He then started going off about what he believed and how what we believe is wrong. We call this "Bashing" in the mission field. It's not fun. He kept trying to trap us into saying things that he could try and argue against. The Issue with people Bashing with us is that when things get contentious, the Spirit leaves the conversation, so then even if you're talking about the Bible and the words of God, it doesn't help anyone because you're too busy arguing. 

However, we wanted to keep the Spirit in the conversation, so whenever he would ask us questions, we would just testify of what we did know and believe. It was great! We could feel the Spirit staying in the conversation. The man, instead of attacking our beliefs, began to testify of what he believed as well! By the end, we had been with him for an hour and a half, and we gave each other hugs! Also, he told us that he wanted us to come back, and  that maybe we could come to his Bible study group some day! We can't wait to see Albert again! 

Now, do you remember the crazy guy who had a ton of cars in his back yard? His name is also Al, and we've done lots of service for him over these past several weeks. Well, something happened with him, too! He came to our Book of Mormon Class! He had a lot of questions, but the other members attending were awesome! They answered his Questions, and they can't wait for him to come back! 

One of our Members felt prompted to share a poem she had been carrying in her bag with him, and after she read it, Al asked where he could get the poem. This Sister stood up and said, "Well, Al, you can get it from your  new friend!" 

And she stood up, walked across our circle of chairs to hand him the poem! My heart died! It was so great! I'm so proud of that Sister and how she was prepared to recieve that prompting from the Spirit! 

Also, a whole bunch of Missionaries got together to play sports! I only played for a little bit (apparently I am somewhat competant at Ultimate Frisbee...), but I got see Elder Tripp again! It was so nice to see my MTC Companion again. I enjoyed seeing him and just catching up with him about everything that's been going on with him! He's been having fun with teaching the people in his area, and we kept talking about how awesome it would be to be companions now that we have a (slightly) better idea of what we're doing!

This week, I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Bassett, one of my district leaders! We went to his area, and, let me tell you, IT WAS SO NICE TO DRIVE IN A CAR! Like, seriously! I love biking around and all, but I also appreciate not dying in the HEAT!

I learned a lot from Elder Bassett. He is a great example of how we should keep up with the people we teach. The more with interact with them, the more we can understand them and teach to their needs! Jesus Christ knows each of us perfectly, so we need to make the effort to learn more about these people in order to teach more like Jesus Christ.

Other Fun things: 

- We had a bunch of stuff break this last week! Each one of us in our apartment had something break. My glasses broke suddenly (Disappearing Screw (now fixed)). Elder Bassett threw his keys to Elder Warnick, but missed, and plastic tops of the lock and unlock buttons flew across the parking lot. Elder Bearman's back wheel broke (Pringled, as we call it. The wheel started bending into a Pringle-like shape), and so he had to borrow a bright yellow road bike from the Mission Office lovingly named Pikachu. And then, finally, Elder Warnick's tablet slipped out of his hands, and half of the screen shattered! It was awful.

- On P-Day, we were invited to play board games with a Member named Brother Garcia. We walked in, and we were blown away. Brother Garcia had a Huge Board, and all these Cards Stacked with piles of tokens and individual Character cards laid out. We spent 5 hours of our P-Day playing Fury of Dracula, a game where you go across Europe trying to track down Dracula, played by Brother Garcia. He beat us, but it was so fun! We're trying so hard to get back playing with him again!

That's it for that week! Super Eventful, Cool people!

Elder Richardson

1) The Fury of Dracula! I think it's super cool! I think it was kind of expensive or something like that... But it was fun!

2) Mandatory Flower. It's Pwetty. (Post Mission Note: I definitely sent the same picture the week before XD)

MAY 22, 2020 - WEEK #12

ANOTHER SHORT LETTER BECAUSE

OF EVERYTHING GOING ON!

May 22, 2020

Hello everyone! This last week was awesome! Also, if you were wanting coherency in what time frame is covered in my emails, then... well... Good luck?  The reason I say that is that normally, I cover from Monday to Monday, but today I'm including part of Mother's Day!

Mother's day is great! All of the speakers in church talk about how AMAZING moms are! Happy Late Mother's Day to all of you who make our live so incredibly special and wonderful! Another big thing with Mother's Day is that it is one of two times in the year that we Missionaries get to video call home! So I did that, and it was really great! We just got to talk for a bit, and I really loved feeling all of the love and support from my family! 

One of the questions that I was asked was "Are you as happy as you seem?" Which is a very good question. I guess I just seemed really happy in the call, so I sat and thought about it for a second then, and a lot more later. And there have definitely been a lot of hard, heart-breaking things have happened so far. Earlier this week, for example, we had to drop one of our most promising investigators (By "Dropping," it means that their desire has been put somewhere else, and we have to use our time elsewhere. It's never fun to drop people...). But again, I've been able to meet so many fun people, I have a Companion who cares, and I've seen so many flowers, too! Looking for the small blessings and thanking my Heavenly Father for them carries me through the harder experiences!

So the answer is yes! In the midst of hard things and a world of negativity, I am happy! I couldn't be more excited for the blessings I'm seeing happen! 

We also had Zone Conference this week (which I loved!), and one of the things that we talked about was Prayer! We were taught that we need to examine how we pray to our Heavenly Father, and that we need to learn how to develop our own relationship with Him. And then, from there, we can teach others how to do the same! I'm really excited for the opportunity to improve in developing that more personal relationship with God!

Another blessing (in disguise) was that one of my roommates got sick, so I stayed behind while his companion and Elder Bearman went and did their activities. I was fine with just chilling, and I got to do some good reading! I got to finish reading Our Search for Happiness, which is a really great read (It outlines a lot of our basic beliefs, and tells a lot of really cool stories), and I highly recommend it!

Anyways, my roomate slept, I napped, and then, after he got up, he didn't feel well enough to head out, so we just "shot the breeze" (just talking. There's some California Redlands Mission slang for you) about the different story and book ideas we've had and gotten over the course of our missions. It was so fun!

Another HUGE blessing for the Sisters (We have Sister Missionaries who cover part of our area) was that one of the people they've been working with came to our Book of Mormon Class! He didn't really say much that class, but the Sisters said that he really enjoyed it and would be coming back! On top of that, he's been reading in the Book of Mormon on his own! It's so Exciting!

So yeah. Shorter email, a lot of random Gratitude, but I'm really excited! Also, if you have any questions about Missionary Life, feel free to ask them! I'd love to answer any that I know the answers to! 

Forever Grateful,

Elder Richardson

P.S. I love you all! I thought I would have extra time today, but then things happened... More will be talked about next week!

Benjamin Richardson

California Redlands Mission

Feb 28, 2018 - March 3, 2020

FROM DAD/VERNON:

Always good to get your emails, Ben. 

 

I love the picture of you on the bike.  Thanks for sending it.

 

We are getting into full summer mode at our house.  Everyone is done with school (!) and now summer camps are upon us.  Rachel and Rebecca are taking the ACT course.  Alex is doing his last night of work tonight. Alex takes out his endowments in Kansas City this Saturday (sure have fond memories of when we went for the first time with you! Mom is working on girls’ camp with Beth at her side.  Daniel works a lot for Rhett and is getting good at working outside.  Joseph is still working for bite squad and has a good lead for a job at a pharmacy. 

We’re working hard to keep Mason off too much electronics. I’m into my summer research projects and trying to see what I can get done.

We love you and are proud of you!

 

Vern Richardson

MAY 15, 2020 - WEEK #11

I'M GRATEFUL FOR GRATEFUL-NESS!

May 15, 2018

Well, I totally spaced on the title for the last email. I hope you all enjoyed the lack of creativity there... Or was I actually being creative...?

But yeah! This week was insane! We had interviews with President Dixon again (Those happen once per transfer), and they went really well! Unfortunately, the training/talking with Sister Dixon went for too long, so Elder Bearman and I missed a hesitant appointment we had set up. (But we dropped by the person's home Saturday, and she let us in! She told us that she wasn't even home when we would've gone by, and so it was all ok! (Never going to let that happen again, though...)) Her name is Alma (which is an awesome name) and she has a strong belief in Jesus Christ, so we're really excited to talk with her more again! 

Hm... Let's see... Something that's kind of fun is our apartment has this really unique culture at the moment. Elder Warnick (One of my new roommates) told us about how he and one of his old companions would always say "You won't!" whenever one of them would talk about doing something silly. Then the other one would shout "BET!", and then they would bet on it. Well, after he told us this, we thought it was hilarious, so we've started doing that. But now, half of what we say is "You Won't!" And "BET!" 

It's a little bit dumb, which is what makes it funny! See? Now I'm understanding humor!

This week was a really great week! We learned that we weren't going to be able to meet with Brenda (One of our investigators) when we had originally planned, so we set up to meet with her husband, Moises. Moises joined the Church when he was younger, but has recently felt like he's wanted him and his family to start going back to church. He's seen the importance of going church for his family, but he has been busy with work and the like, so he hadn't come himself for a while. We talked with him about how as a father, he has the role of being a leader and the Priesthood holder for his family. He was really touched, and really is excited about repenting and coming back to church (Spoiler alert, he came to church this Sunday for the first time since I've been here)!

We also had another Lesson with Riley, and we read in the Book of Mormon with him! It turns out that he hasn't read the Bible before, which was something that we had assumed. Whoops. That's something that's important to know, because the Bible teaches all about Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is central to our message to people! Talking about Apostles being Called of God today means nothing if you didn't know that Jesus Christ called Apostles in the times of the New Testament. We definitely dropped the ball there, but we were able to invite the Spirit into the lesson, so I think that every thing will turn out alright! God has almost always worked perfectly with imperfect instruments. We'll keep praying for him!

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot is gratitude! We've recently started doing a gratitude prayer each night, where we just say a prayer thanking our Heavenly Father for the blessings we recieved that day! When I have reflected on the small things I've seen throughout my life, it has really helped me to recognize how much my Heavenly Father loves me! 

That's it from me today (or, last week)!

Elder Richardson

P.S. This is a shorter email, but I'm trying to catch up!

1 and 2) I'm including some of the blessings I've seen this week! There are so many beautiful flowers in california! I think they are all Roses, but still!

Benjamin Richardson

California Redlands Mission

Feb 28, 2018 - March 3, 2020

MAY 8, 2018 - WEEK #10

FORWARD WITH ELDER BEARMAN BOLDNESS!

April 24, 2018

Transfers: Noun. A dreaded but loved event in Missionaries' lives which involves a lot of stress for some, but next to none for others. Also, a Unit of time of about 6 weeks (length varies between Mission Areas). 

Transfers are when the Mission President shifts people around the Mission; mixing up companionships as needed, opening, closing, or merging areas, etc. 

So when Elder Ogden left, he drove to the mission office with Elder Holton, which meant that I was put with Elder Clarkson again for two days! I love this guy! He's so funny, and he's such a great missionary, too!

The sad part is that I had to say goodbye to him again, but one day, hopefully, we can be companions for realsies! But then Elder Bearman came, and it was so awesome! (Fun fact, the first time I tried to type his name on my phone, my phone called him Elder Batman, sooo... Yep...)

Elder Bearman is such a great missionary! I think he forgot to say hello to me because he was so pumped to get to work! He's really on top of everything, so much so that I think he already knows this area better in 5 days than I did with 6 weeks! We've reached out to so many people, and we even taught two lessons with people investigating the church this last week alone! He has such a great vision of what Missionary Work can and should be, and I'm doing my best to learn from his example!

One thing that Elder Bearman does, just to demonstrate how motivated and on top of things he is, is whenever something good happens, he yells, "Let's GOOOO!!!" It's so great and I love him already!

The only weird thing was that during our Device Audit (Where we look through each others phones each week to make sure we're using them correctly), he did the standard things: He checked my photos and battery usage on each app, just like Elder Ogden did. But then, Unlike Elder Ogden, he started going through my Notes app! I was just super shocked, and felt really weird about it. It's like if somebody just took your sketchbook without your permission and started leafing through it; THAT kind of awkward feeling. But I'm guessing that Elder Ogden just never thought to do that, and that you are supposed to check those too. But just felt really weird!!!

Speaking of those two lessons, they went really well! One of them is someone named Brenda, and Elder Ogden and I had been trying to contact them for weeks! We had set up an appointment, but it fell through. Like, we thought that they would actually be in their home, but it turned out that her husband was in LA (or something else ridiculously far), and she was in Ontario. And that was the first that we heard of that!!

However, we actually saw them this week! And we did talk to them! We got caught up on how they were doing, and we got to learn a lot about their desires to come back to Church and God for the sake of themselves and their kids! It was remarkable to be able to serve these people as Jesus Christ would, Teaching and committing them to live and learn more about His Gospel! Their schedules were busy, but we invited them to come to come to church this next Sunday! We can't wait to see them there!

We also got to teach Riley again! We realized during the lesson that we had covered too many things too quickly during our last visit, and so we reviewed a lot of what we taught last time. He's eager to learn, but we just need to slow down and help him process everything. We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we talked especially about Baptism. When we were planning for the lesson with him, we had decided that we wanted to invite him to be Baptized, and Elder Bearman wanted me to be the one to invite him for some reason. 

As Elder Bearman was teaching about the Importance of Baptism and about being Baptized to just like Jesus Christ was, I looked at Riley and said a prayer asking if it was the right moment to ask him. I felt nervous because of my weaknesses, but as soon as I said the prayer in my heart, I felt the peace of the Holy Ghost fill my heart, and I was able to invite him to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being Baptized, and he said yes! We're going to set up a date with him, and he wants his friend who invited him to church to Baptize him! But Ultimately, it was the Spirit that was present that invited him, and that testified to him that it was the right thing to do! In the meantime, we have more to teach him, and more to learn as well!

The moral of the Story is that I don't know what I'm doing, but I know that Jesus Christ loves me and wants to help me live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. They want that for each and everyone of us. So if I testify of that, then the Holy Ghost will testify of that truth. That is how we Missionaries teach: we invite the Spirit, and He teaches.

And with that, I must leave. And in the words of Elder Bearman:

LLEET'SS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Elder Richardson

P.S. Woah... Letter Number 10?!?! Time is flying like crazy!! Oh no! 

1) Elder Bearman and I

2) I got these REALLY good tacos this week! And it was taco night, too! Plus they looked really pretty!

Benjamin Richardson

California Redlands Mission

Feb 28, 2018 - March 3, 2020

NOTE FROM MASON:

Hey Ben, it's Mason, just wanted to send a letter and 2 Pokemon I made up. So how are you? We haven't really talked about so I don't know what's happening. Can't wait to see you on Sunday for our Skype! Wish you good luck on your mission.

 From, Mason. 

P.S. Here are the made up Pokemon.

FROM BEN:

Hey Mason! I'm super excited to talk to you as well! Sorry I haven't been able to email you as much! I've been kind of busy doing missionary things. 

Hey, so I only got Flameby! Is there another Pokemon?

Thanks for the Letter! I love you, Mason!

Elder Richardson