SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON LETTER #2: JULY 22, 2013

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON: JULY 22, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER #2

You're in NAUVOO!!! I've been thinking about you all each day and about what you are doing and where you are! I can't wait to hear about it and see pictures!  It is not my P-day but I probably won't have one this week since we are leaving tomorrow to go to Florida!  But I am going to get a calling card to try and call.  I don't know if you'll have service or what.  But don't leave rehearsal or anything you need to be at for me.  But I will call tomorrow when I am in Atlanta.  I will try and call in SLC at 6ish in the morning here.  I'm assuming you guys will already be up then? But if that doesn't work, then I will call in Atlanta between 1:50 and 2:50 (eastern time). 

I don't have time to write a weekly report, but here's what I just wrote to my branch president about our investigators:

This past week has been great.  Sister Ashcraft and I have made progress on figuring out how to teach by the Spirit and how to have a balance between the two of us.  We taught Selam this week and had an incredible lesson on the plan of salvation and she told us that her mom had recently passed away.  She committed to be baptized and she has a baptismal date.  We are in the process of teaching her the commandments. 

We also taught a less-active member and it was really cool! He had a strong testimony but had just moved to a new state and so felt uncomfortable at church because he didn't know anybody.  So he would often just not go and sit home and watch TV.  We talked about keeping the sabbath day holy and the importance of the sacrament and going to church meetings.  A cool part was when I had the impression to ask if we could share a scripture with him.  I looked down at my scriptures and realized that I had no idea what scripture I needed to share and so I was panicking a bit, thumbing through my scriptures.  But then Sister Ashcraft had been inspired to read D&C 59 about keeping the sabbath day holy and it was so perfect for what he needed!  It was cool how like I received part of the inspiration and she received the other part.  It comforted us that have improved in our unity and sensitivity!

I'll try to call you then too Alison if that's okay!!

SISTER MELISSA RICHRADSON LETTER #1: JULY 17, 2013

SISTER MELISSA RICHARDSON: JULY 17, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER #1

FROM MELISSA:

Hey I finally got a p-day! I'm doing well!  I've learned a lot this past week.  I'll write up a summary and send it to you soon.  Hope everyone is doing well!  It was fun seeing Hyrum so much last week!
Sister Richardson

FROM DAD:

Yahoo!  Exciting to hear about your time there!  Mom leaves in a couple hours to go to help Stephanie and we’re busily getting ready for Nauvoo.

Here’s what Hyrum wrote about seeing you –

On Wednesday, when Melissa was supposed to come in, I spent about an hour waiting for her car to come, but apparently she just walked in! So I was sitting eating breakfast on Thursday, minding my own business, and I looked up and there she was! I was so excited! I got up and gave her a hug, which was received by surprise from all the other missionaries around us.

Our meal times overlap by about 15 minutes, so I've been able to see her at almost every meal these past few days. It's been really fun! Attached are some pictures of us.

We have enjoyed the pictures and put them up on facebook.

  

VR

Hello everyone!  I love being a missionary!  i have only been a missionary for a week but I have learned so much and been changed already.  The power of God is real and the guidance of the Spirit is real.  God wants everyone to come closer to Him and so He is with us every step of the way as missionaries. 

Our days here are loooong because every moment is scheduled with something to do.  But that is how we learn so much.  We have class, scripture study time, study time with our companion, and we teach lessons to "investigators" where we are practicing becoming better teachers.  Most days it feels like we go to class and study and then we eat and then we study and then we eat and then study and have class some more and then eat again and then have more class, up until 9;15 at night.  We start our day at 6:30 in the morning and finish at 10:30 at night without a break.  This is probably the closest I'll ever get to boot camp! 

My companion is Sister Ashcraft.  She is a cute petite girl with long curly red hair.  She is 20 as well and goes to BYU idaho.  It has been a blessing for us to be together as we are both pretty chill people but are also passionate about our work as missionaries.  Also, we went through some of the same experiences in the months prior to coming on our missions which is cool.  It has been an adjustment not being able to go anywhere without her, but I actually really like it.  You're never lonely and you don't have to go through anything alone, just like God is always with us.  We are good friends and have become really close already as we have worked through our doubts and weaknesses in order to teach our investigators well and have the spirit of God with us.  She has a rock solid testimony and has been through some hard times (her Dad died in an accident when she was in high school) but is so happy and passionate about the gospel.  I love her!  She is going to Jacksonville too for her mission as well as our two other sister roommates.

One of the coolest things has been meeting missionaries that are also going to jacksonville, FL!  There will be 28 of us flying out this next Tuesday and entering the mission field this transfer.  There are so many sisters too!! Just as many, if not more, sisters as elders going to Jacksonville.  i hear there is an alligator farm in jacksonville.  Also I've heard that the average weight gain in that mission is 30 pounds! Apparently it rains a lot there and there are also a lot of military people there I hear because of the big naval bases that are in Jacksonville. 

The energy and spirit here is incredible.  Everyone is here nad doing hard things because we love God and we love the gospel.  No selfish motives.  I love seeing all the missionary tags in different languages and trying to figure out what language it is.  Even though I love languages and am jealous of everyone learning a language, I know that God called me to Jacksonville for a reason and that is exactly where he wants me to be.  Also, it's cool just focusing on the gospel for the two weeks here, rather than a language.  AND I get to get right into the field in just two weeks and get to work right away!   Can't wait!  But I did meet a sweet girl from Toulouse, France and talked to her for a bit in French which was fun.  I miss French!  I'll have  to keep it up by reading my French Book of Mormon. 

The elders in our district...let's just say you can tell that most of them just graduated high school, haha. But they are teaching me a lesson in patience and we are good friends with them.  They all have awesome testimonies and are going to learn and grow so much!  I am excited for them and am glad that we have gone through this training process together.  They keep things fun and lighthearted which is good :)

It is SOOO fun getting letters! Seriously makes my day like no other.  Thank you for writing me those that have!  And Alison gets the award for best sister ever for sending me cupcakes!! 

So the teaching style here is not telling you the answer to the question or not telling you exactly how to teach, but guiding you and giving you the resources and scriptures to find the answer.  Which was frustrating for me at first because I felt like they weren't telling us what to do and were just throwing us into teaching, but I have realized that the teachers are ambiguous like that because God and the Holy Ghost are the true teachers.  If we put in the effort to study and learn and pray then He teaches us.  It's a cool process to go through several times a day.  It's also been a neat experience to teach our investigators.  They are our teachers or volunteer actors, but it feels real because we all approach it as real and the spirit of God and the spirit of missionary work is real.  Yesterday, at the TRC there was a volunteer actor, who I'm pretty sure is not a member of the church.  His name is Eric and everyone had told me and Sister Ashcraft before about how difficult he was and hwo they had stopped sending sisters to him because he was so intense and sometimes rude to missionaries.  But Sister Ashcraft and I just sang a bunch of hymns together before we went in to teach him and went there with the sole purpose of helping him feel God's love for him and our love for him as representatives of Jesus Christ.  And it was such a cool experience!  The lesson plan that we'd prepared went out the window and we were totally guided by the Spirit as to what we said and the scriptures we shared.  Eric was pretty skeptical about everything we were saying and asked a lot of bible-bashing questions.  But we always just responded with love and didn't ever argue with him.  I really think he was touched by the Spirit that was in the room and I can't wait to meet with him again tomorrow.

Sister Ashcraft and I are also teaching Selam (our teacher acting as her) who is a sweet middle-aged woman from Ethiopia.  Yesterday we taught about the plan of salvation and about life after death and how families can be together forever and how we will see loved ones again after death.  The spirit was so so so strong, it was incredible!  Sister Ashcraft was prompted to share the experience of her dad dying and how she knows that she will see him again and that she knows that he is with her and helps her in this life.  That really touched Selam and she shared that her mom had recently passed away and that's why she had left Ethiopia because it was really hard.  She accepted to be baptized!!!!!  There is seriously no greater joy then knowing you have helped someone come closer to Christ.  Seriously, it's not even a "real" person but it feels real and it is just an incredible feeling where it is not possible to wipe the smile off your face.  It is making me even more excited to go to FL and start teaching people and sharing the gospel and the Atonment with people that God knows nad lvoes. 

I love wearing my missionary tag!  I wear it from right when I wake up until I lay down to go to bed at night.  It is so cool and reminds me of who I represent and the work that God has trusted me with. 

It's been good having set times to exercise here.  I've been better at exercising this week than probably ever and it feels good!  Also, it's nice to have a change of pace from our classroom.  I lvoe it here, but am super glad that I am only here for two weeks...don't know how Hyrum did it for 9!  It is so happy here, but it is also very enclosed and claustrophobic...probably because we are in the same 3 buildings right next to each other all day every day.  It felt soooo good and liberating to go and walk around the tmeple on Sunday.  Also there are a loooot of people here which is a goood problem :)

I sang in the MTC choir for the devotional last night and it was incredible!  The marriott center was filled with all the missionaries and they took a group panaromic picture which was funny.  Not sure why they did that. 

I'm loving life and loving being a missionary!  It's not all fun and games and there are times of discouragement, but we are striving to become mroe like Christ and He suffered all so we can do anything!!!!

I love you all.  I'll probably be in Florida the next time I write.

Sister Richardson 

ELDER RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #10 -- JULY 21, 2013

WEEKLY LETTER #10 FROM ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON

JULY 21, 2013

Well it's been a whirlwind of a few days since arriving here in Taiwan. For the most part, it's been somewhat surreal. It's hard to believe that I'm actually out here being a missionary! It was a little weird talking to people at first, but now it's becoming more normal.

I have an awesome trainer! His name is Elder Pratt. He's been out about a year, he's got fantastic Chinese, and he just finished training another elder, so he already knows what he's doing. We are already good friends, and we joke around a lot. 

We are in a beautiful part of Taibei called 内湖 NeiHu (nay-who) which means "Inner Lake." Also in our area is DaHu (Big lake), DongHu (East Lake), and XiHu (West Lake). Doesn't Chinese have creative names? There's a big lake in the middle of our area, about 5 minutes bike ride from our apartment, and it's a really beautiful area - I'll have pictures next week! We are on the Northeast tip of Taibei, just close enough to still be considered part of Taibei. It's a fantastic area, and is really good for my first one!

NeiHu is probably considered a "richer" part of Taibai, and because of that quite a few people know English or want to learn English. We've run into like 5 people on the street already who have perfect English, and one of our more successful contacting methods is talking about our free English classes on Wednesday nights. We don't do it a whole lot, because we would rather focus on the gospel, but tonight we are going "English Boarding" where we just handout flyers about our English class.

I really love being on a mission! It was a little strange at first, but I'm getting more used to it and it's both fun and really fulfilling to teach people about the gospel.

We've got a great pool of investigators right now, and over the past few days we've gotten a few more. Investigator #1 is progressing really well, and on Friday we gave him a baptismal challenge, which he accepted! We always go visit him in his shop, which is kinda distracting, so our goal this week is to have a lesson with him in his home. We also gave a baptismal challenge to Investigator #2 who we taught Saturday about the ten commandments and baptism. I haven't met all of the investigators we are teaching yet, just because I haven't been here very long, but hopefuly I'll meet them all soon!

Chinese is going pretty well. It's frustrating because I can speak alright, but I can't understand very much that they say! They all speak super fast and some have a really thick Taiwanese accent. (for those that know chinese, a Taiwanese accent says all of the "shi" sounds as "si" sounds, which is terribly confusing.) Hopefully, as I'm here longer, I'll learn how to pick up what they are saying, even when it's fast!

The food is as good as I expected. We generally eat out for lunch and dinner because it's cheaper than cooking, and every meal that we've had has been amazing. For lunch on Sundays, because we can't buy food, the members cook for us in the church building after our meetings. The jiaozi they cooked yesterday were AMAZING. Seriously, they were so good.

I'm getting better at eating with chopsticks. I didn't really ever forget, but there's still a bit of a learning curve when you start again. I'm going to come home being a master of the chopsticks.

I love being a missionary! It's hard work every day, but it's already so rewarding! We only have an hour this week, but I'll be able to write more next week!

直到下個禮拜，

田長老

Elder Richardson