hmmm..., October 26, 2014

Dear Family,

                 Well, this week has been pretty normal I guess you could say. We still have been meeting with Joel but for reasons, we had to postpone his baptism. But no worries, he is still strong in his desire to be baptized and he's just awesome. His kids are pretty funny. His son really likes dinosaurs right now. When we show up, he will come to the door, grab me by the strap of my bag and pull me down so I can watch a video about dinosaurs or look at his dinosaur toys, haha. He's 5. Then his little girl, she's 3. Every time she sees us coming, she will run around the house saying the Mormons are coming, the Mormons are coming! and then she will start to clean before we got to the door. Haha, she's funny.

                 My companion still hasn't been feeling too well so we went to get an ultra sound on his abdomen. Don't worry, we gave him plenty of crap about being pregnant,  haha. 

                 I won't lie, I was so happy to get the Skyline. Elder Showers just could not understand it. He sat there and looked at the picture of a 3 way for like 5 min just trying to understand why they would put chili on spaghetti haha. I don't know why that's a hard concept to grasp but apparently it is for him. When I got it, I had to eat some. So I opened the can and made some. Oh, it was so nice to smell some real chili, or close to real chili, canned haha. The whole time I was preparing it, I was singing the Skyline song haha. My companion had no words, he just sat there and watched as I prepared the deliciousness. It was really petty good. It doesn't really matter to me if it already has spaghetti or not but I was happy to get both. There are always more things I can make, like coneys and Skyline dip, so not even mad.

                 Yeah not much really happened but things are good here. It actually rained pretty hard the other day, it was strange haha.   I hope everything is good at home. Love you guys.

Love, Elder Richards

The week, October 19, 2015

Hey Family,

                So,  I don't know if I have told you already but if I did, I'm going to tell you again. So this one guy has been meeting with the missionaries and investigating the Church for like a year now. About a week ago, we showed up to his house and he tells his story. Apparently of late, he has been going through some tough times and he thought of the missionaries for some reason. So he went hunting for us ha. He went to the Church and tried to find us but we were not there. For the entire day he couldn't get his mind off Church and God and as he was chilling at his apartment thinking about God and what he should do, guess who knocked on the door. These guys, haha. We talked for a little and now his baptism is set for Oct 31, haha. Yup, on Halloween. It should be pretty easy to remember what day he got baptized on haha. But it's just awesome to see how God really does prepare people for us to run into and meet. We are super excited for Joel and he is too ha. 

               Lately my compadre hasn't been feeling too well so we have had to stay in a little bit. Funny thing happened. We got a call from a member saying that she was going to drop off some Gatorade for us since we were on our bikes. I thought it was be like a couple things of Gatorade but instead she actually bought a Gatorade pack of 30 bottles haha. Sister Garcia is awesome haha. Then later she came back with medicine and some other stuff for Elder Anderson because he mentioned he wasn't feeling good haha. As I like to say, she went total "Mom" on us, haha. The members here are awesome. 

                The week's been good and things out in Long Beach are still awesome. I actually got to go see the Queen Mary but didn't bring my camera so sorry, I don't have pictures. In my defense, I didn't know we were going ha. But I won't lie, those are some big boats ha.

            I love you guys and may the force be with you.

Love Elder Richards 

alright then Monday, October 12, 2015

Dear Fam
          Now I will tell of my week. The week in a word was ... good. It was kind of a normal week. This one guy that we are teaching right now has been seeing the missionaries for like a year. The other day we saw him and he told us this story, which is to long to repeat but it ended with him telling us that he is finally ready to change and be baptized! yeahuh! haha gotta love it. Hopefully that all works out and he can accomplish that goal.

        That was my short spiritual thing that happened.  Now I will tell you of the funny thing that happened. We met a guy on the street a little bit ago and we started talking. Well a couple of days ago he invited us over for dinner and we figured why not, barely know the guy but that's all good. He's Filipino by the way. Anyway, we went to the dinner. When we walked in, it was like a big kinda party dinner thing going on. Apparently he invited us to his family reunion/ birthday party dinner haha. The place was packed with Filipino people that apparently only spoke Tagalog and so we just kinda sat in the corner hahaha. We got our food and to be honest, I had no clue what I was eating haha. I did know what one thing was that I ate. It was squid tentacles. I could have not eaten the tentacle part but I figured I would go for gold and eat it anyway. In a word they were, chewy, not that much flavor but it was a strange kind of chewy haha. So yeah that was our dinner with people we didn't know at all, eating  who knows what haha. 

          Yeah, also that day was the exchanges with Elder Larsen again. I'm happy to report that this time no one got hurt haha. He didn't get a concussion and I didn't bite it on my bike like last time so that's good. 

         I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home, always awesome to hear fantastic news. Love you guys and may the force be with you... always 

Love 

Elder Richards

PS I did get the stamps, thank you, and can I get some Skyline Chili. I've kinda been craving it haha

The Learning October 5, 2015

Dear Family,

            This week has been pretty good. You gotta love General Conference because it's like that only time that you get to rest and just listen to a bunch of awesome uplifting stuff. I don't really have a favorite talk because I liked a lot of them and I got something pretty nice from each of them. With the ponderizing thing, I was already working on Scripture Mastery so right now I guess my scripture would be 2 Nephi 9 : 28 -29. ( 28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

 29 But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.)

It was a little worry-some watching President Monson slowly sink and then just kinda like rushing through his talk to make sure that he got it all out. But it's all good because he got through it. It was nice and kinda funny, this was the first General Conference that I actually listened and stayed awake for the whole thing, haha. I think now that I'm a missionary, I appreciate all these things a lot more because they are all so awesome now and they used to just be cool in the past haha.

            Now I will tell you of the fun and new thing I did this week. For the first time in my life, I used a bidet (those special toilets). You prob don't care and don't want to hear about it, but I'm going to tell you anyways. So we are at dinner, at a members house having a jolly good time, as we always do. Then when my companion came back from the loo, he tells me of this mystical device that they had in the room of bath. I have always heard of bidets but I have never used one. So I stood up and went to go try out this magical instrument every one speaks of. I sat down made myself comfortable and next to me is a little lever type thingy. I thought that one would have to set it to the pressure they want and then press a button. But I was mistaken. I soon realized this when I cranked the thing on high and it shot me quite immediately. Out of sheer surprise I gave a little yelp. I quickly silenced myself so the others in the house would not hear me but it was too late. I could tell because they all were laughing like crazy on the other side of the door. haha So that my fun story for the week.

            This week has been good. It's not always easy but it is always worth it. I feel like I've learned some good things this week from General Conference and just going out and teaching.

           I love you all and pray for you all. I hope the best for you and may the Spirit be with you always.

                                             Love, 

                                                         Elder Richards