ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #87 -- JANUARY 21, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #87

JANUARY 21, 2015

This week is our temple day, which means that our P-Day is on Wednesday and that we are allowed to get up early to email! Transfer weeks always feel really long, and temple weeks also feel really long, so a LOT happened this week!

Last P-Day, we just stayed inside our apartment, ate Pizza Hut, and played Settlers of Catan and BANG for our whole P-Day. It was super fun!

Last Wednesday, we had a really fun English party! The adults played BANG, the kids played UNO and water colored, and we found a gas burner so that we could make s'mores for everyone. Everybody thought they were too sweet, but that's pretty normal. Americans just like really sweet food!

Friday was transfer meeting! Elder Mayhew left me and went really far away to TaiDong, and I'm now with Elder Casper! Elder Casper just came from Jilong, which is near my first area, and he's on his third transfer, which means I'm a "breaker." He's a fun guy and he's got a lot of energy, so we're excited to see a lot of great things happen this transfer!

On Saturday, we met with a guy whose English name is Buddha. One of the less actives in our ward called us out of the blue and wanted to meet with us. She really wants her boyfriend to learn about the church and get baptized! We had a great visit with him and we hope that he will come to church and get his girlfriend's whole family back to church too!

We also met with Jonny. He read to 1 Ne 8 in the BoM already, and got to meet a lot of members at church on Sunday. He really enjoyed learning about the plan of salvation, and we are excited for his progress!

One of the coolest things we did this week was to meet with Brother Liao's parents. I mentioned him last week, and this week his parents wanted us back to learn more. Actually they said that they'd prefer if we came more than once a week. They were a little surprised when we invited them to baptism, but I think that they will learn faster than they think. Brother Liao is a really awesome member in our ward, and he is really excited for his parents to learn the gospel!

Today for P-Day we are going to a golf range that's on top of a 20-story building. I've never been golfing before, so it should be fun!

That's all I can think of this week. Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #86 -- JAN 12, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #86

JANUARY 12, 2015

Well, I forgot my planner at home, so I forgot everything that happened this week!

Last Monday was really fun! We went to the chapel and played Uno and Bang with some of the members of our district!

We had a lot of new investigators that are really good! About two months ago, Elder Mayhew and Elder Naasman contacted Brother Luo on the street, just a couple of days after he got back from a trip to Salt Lake City. His older sister is a member there and took him on a tour at temple square. We sat down with him this week and had a really spiritual lesson for him. His wife died not too long ago, and we can definitely tell that she's working on him from the other side! He goes out of the country a lot, so it'll be hard to meet with him consistently, but we have high hopes for him!

We got a referral named Jonny from my old area Songshan. One of the investigators that I knew there brought Jonny to church and then the elders there sent the referral here. He has a really sincere desire to find truth, and he's really excited about reading the Book of Mormon. He came to church yesterday even though we just met him on Saturday!

We've been working harder to get member visits, but the problem is that when we schedule member visits, they turn out to not be member visits because there is a non-member or RCLA there! Last night we went to our friend Brother Liao's house (the one that let us use his skype). We planned on just sharing with him, but were surprised when his parents came down and listened to our message too! We invited them all to have family prayer every night, and we are going to go back next week to see them again.

One of the recent converts in the ward hit his one-year mark yesterday, so at the end of our gospel principles class, he got down on one knee and proposed to his wife, asking her if she would be willing to get sealed with him in the temple. Apparently they didn't have a formal proposal, so he decided to do it again. All of the girls there thought that it was really cute!

After church on Sunday, we met with the Bishop and the ward mission leader to talk about the ward mission plan. We set a goal with them and the ward to have 15 baptisms in the ward this year. It's a pretty ambitious goal, and I'll likely be in this ward until May, so with some faith and some diligence, it'll get done!

Well that's all that I remember this week. Add oil!

Elder Richardson
任淳楷長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #85 -- JAN. 5, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #85

JANUARY 5, 2015

Happy New Year 2015! 

I spent the entire calender year of 2014 here in Taiwan, which is pretty mind-blowing to think about.

On Tuesday we met a lady who used to live in SuZhou! We could definitely tell she was a 大陸人(Mainlander), and we gave her a Book of Mormon, which she was really interested in! Hopefully, we will meet with her again this week!

I found another name for Jesus Christ that I really like. In Moses 7:53, He is "the Rock of Heaven." It's goes along great with the imagery in Helaman 5:12. 

In Taibei on some of the sidewalks they have "blind man paths," which is just a row of bumps on the road for blind people to follow. So while we were walking home from English class, Elder Mayhew and I walked for a few minutes on the path with our eyes closed...everybody probably thought we were really weird.

On Thursday, I went on a really fun exchange with Elder Hawkins in MuZha. And on the exchange I achieved one of my mission goals. I have now been to every single chapel in the 4 Taibei stakes! Between my 5 areas and two years of the Christmas choir, I've been to all of them, and a number of them twice! It means I'm really a "Taibei" missionary!

While on exchanges, we visited a less-active member who shared with us a great analogy that I applied to missionary work. When we study the scriptures or pray or read, it's like we are engraving the words we read or hear on a vinyl record. Then when we share with other people, if we are doing it right and are led by the Spirit, God will take the needle and put it on the things on the record that we need to say.

There is a great couple in our ward, we call them Zhou Ba and Zhou Ma. Zhou Ba reminds me a lot of Grandpa Beach. They had us over to their house to eat twice this week, and their food is always delicious! Zhou Ba cooked some barbecue fish for us yesterday..SO GOOD.

Well, we had a good week, and are looking forward to another good one next week! Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #84 -- DEC 29, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON LETTER #84

DECEMBER 29, 2015

Well, this week was great because we had a baptism!!

I think a week or two ago I mentioned a Sister Chen that we were teaching. She was just waiting on her husband to give her permission, and then she was ready to be baptized! On Friday, during the middle of our Skype calls, she sent us a text that said that her husband finally agreed! So we hurriedly planned a baptismal service and she got baptized and confirmed yesterday (Sunday)!

Last Monday, the choir went caroling at a Christmas Park by one of the train stations in Taibei. But unfortunately, half of the choir went to the MRT (subway) Exit #3 and the other half went to the Train Station Exit #3..so we spent awhile trying to find each other and only had a few minutes to sing in the station there. But we had a fun time singing and a lot of people took pictures and videos of a bunch of foreigners singing in the train station!

Tuesday was our only full day of missionary work this week, so we ran around and visited all of the investigators and members that we needed to. Our area is weird because there is a small "city" area where we live, but most of the people live up on the surrounding mountains, so we take a lot of buses up steep hills to visit all of these people.

Thursday was our all-day Christmas zone conference! We had some training in the morning, and then had a huge Christmas lunch with turkey and most important, REAL mashed potatoes! It was delicious. Then I played an arrangement of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" on the saxophone with Elder Meeks playing the piano for the Christmas Talent Show! The only problem with the talent show was that all of the younger missionaries did songs or skits from "Frozen," so I was lost the whole time..

On Friday was Skype calls! Cool to hear my family all with Mainland China accents :)

On Saturday, we went to visit one of the less-active members who lives near our house. We got there, and then he insisted on taking us out to eat. He stuffed us full of hotpot and some delicious "orange" fish (it was like orange chicken, but fish). I've gotten pretty good at eating fish lately, but I'll never be able to eat the head...or the eyeballs..

Have a good week!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #83 -- DEC 22, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON -- LETTER #83

DECEMBER 22, 2015

This week was super 忙！(busy) We had choir performances all weekend and exchanges during the week.

On Friday, we went to the Xinpu chapel. Instead of singing for the members there, we went out on the street and sang with the whole choir for passersby while the members handed out English Class and Restoration pamphlets. It was fun, but hard because  the cars going by were really loud and we had a hard time singing over them!

On Saturday, we started singing in XinDian (my chapel right now), and then the whole choir got on the MRT for over an hour to Danshui, which is on the other end of Taibei! They just opened up a brand new chapel last month, and it's really big and really nice! We performed for their Christmas program along with the high school wind ensemble and an ocarina choir. The performance went smoothly, but it got over later than expected, so we all had to hurry in order to get home on time!

After our performance in Shilin on Sunday, a member who I knew in Neihu had a GIANT dessert spread for all of the missionaries. A lot of us hadn't eaten dinner, so we tore that stuff apart, and it was DELICIOUS.

We had an investigator (Sister Chen) who went to church for the first time this week! Because of her work schedule, she can only go to church in the mornings, so we went with her to a different ward. It was sad because she didn't know any of the members that she has met before, but when our meeting time changes to 9am next year, she'll be able to come to AnKang! We are really excited for her!

Yesterday, I read President Monson's Priesthood Session talk (the one about the Bismarck) in Chinese, and I learned a lot of new vocabulary like warship, destroyer, torpedo, rudder and rotating double-turret guns. But I probably won't be using those again anytime soon!

While Elder Eisele (ZL) and I were tracting in AnKang, we started talking to this one lady. Elder Eisele stopped in mid-sentence because he saw a GIANT cockroach on the door. It was probably at least 4 inches long and really fat. The lady we were talking to got really scared and we let her close the door before it got in, and then we smashed it after she closed the door. We figured out they had just fumigated somewhere, because we saw like 3 more that size on the road as we were walking away!

So it was a good week filled with singing, chocolate and cockroaches!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老

The Christmas tree in our apartment

The brand new Danshui chapel!

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #82 -- DEC 15, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON -- LETTER #82

DECEMBER 15, 2015

We had a great week! I got to meet a lot of the investigators here and I'm really excited to see them progress and hopefully get baptized! I think that I will likely be in this area until the end of my mission, so it's cool to think that I will probably be here to work with these people for a long time!

Sister Chen is a member referral who is ready to be baptized! She has had all of the lessons, loves coming to church, and has an awesome support network in the Relief Society. The only thing she is waiting on is her husband's permission. She doesn't want to get baptized without his support, which we think is great. Hopefully that will happen in the next two weeks! We are praying for her.

Sister Chen (there are a lot of Chens in Taiwan) works at an Italian restaurant really close to our house. She met Elder Mayhew on the street, so we go to visit her there at the end of the day. She gets really excited about reading the Book of Mormon, but she wasn't able to go to church the last two weeks. She is really great and she has a baptismal goal for the beginning of January!

Brother Wu is a really interesting guy. Another missionary that I am good friends with found him a year and a half ago, and he is still meeting with missionaries. He is apparently a pretty famous author, and talked to us for awhile about some of the struggles he has been having with his new book. He is really nice to us and we enjoy talking and sharing with him!

Brother Wu (it sounds the same, but it's actually a different last name (...Chinese is confusing)) just got baptized about two days before I got here. He has a HUGE desire to do missionary work; I think that's how the Spirit inspired him to get baptized. He is getting the Aaronic Priesthood next week and he will hopefully be able to go on splits with us to do missionary work soon!

There is a member here that owns a little "便當" (the best translation is "lunch box meal") shop close to our house. We go there to eat pretty often because he gives us a discount and his food is delicious!

On Saturday and Sunday, the English Ward held their annual Nativity Pageant. They have a really big set and professional lighting and sound which makes the performance REALLY good. The missionary choir went and sang "With Wondering Awe" while the Wise men traveled to the stable. It was a really neat experience and it was also great to see all of the people from my last area!

That's all for this week. We have 3 choir performances at the end of this week, which I am really excited for!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳凱長老

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON #81 -- DEC 8, 2015

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEKLY LETTER #81

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Well, a lot happened this week, as transfer weeks usually go.

Last Monday, our Indian friend Anand treated us to an Indian restaurant close to where he lives. It was delicious, but I was not used to eating food with my hands like he taught us too! He also told us that he will be going back to India next week, so hopefully he'll be able to keep in touch with missionaries!

On Tuesday, we got a new investigator! Her name is Femi and she is an ABC who is in medical school here. She found us because she googled for Christian churches in Taiwan and found Mormon.org, so she signed up for the missionaries to visit with her, and the referral eventually found its way to us. She was really nice and we had a really fun lesson with her!

Our English party was super fun! Sister Smith did a great job of planning it. We focused on the symbols of Christmas and then watched the "He is the Gift" video with all of the students. If you haven't watched that yet, you should! And then share it with all of your friends! http://www.mormon.org/christmas!

On Thursday, I ran into a Elder Zhang who was serving as a temporary missionary. I met him in Songshan back in June. He came to church with our investigator Brother Wang, and then we sent the referral to Jilong. It was cool to hear him talk about the changes he has seen in his life since he got baptized! I only played a tiny part in his story, but it was neat to see that part made a difference!

On Friday, I moved! I'm am now in AnKang with Elder Mayhew! AnKang is kind of a suburb south of Taibei, about an hour away from the temple. It's the farthest I've ever served from Taibei, and if this is my last area, it's the farthest I'll ever be! It seems like a great area so far, and there are a LOT of great investigators! I'll tell you more about them when I've met more of them!

On Saturday we traveled up to Sanchong to have the first choir performance! It went really smoothly, and we also got a free dinner beforehand. I'll try to send a picture of the choir at some point.

Even though I moved, the English ward gave me a giant basket of American candy for Christmas! I've already eaten way too much chocolate...

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任淳楷長老