Hey November 30, 2015

Dear Family,

     Well, the big thing this week of course was Thanksgiving, so I'll talk about that.  For Thanksgiving we had a dinner set up with a family at 2. But, like the day before, our Mission President told us that there is a meeting that we had to go to, on Thanksgiving at the same time. So we had to cancel our dinner with the family. We ended up going to the Mission President's home for Thanksgiving. Basically, if you didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner, you went to the mission home for it. We got there and there are a few other missionaries and a whole ton of food. The missionaries from my last ward were actually there too so we talked as if it was like a reunion while some of the other missionaries sat there, haha, but it's all good. We all still had a good time. My last companion and President Tew got into a joke battle, basically, at one point. To me President Tew won, haha. I had heard all of Elder Anderson's jokes so they weren't even funny to me, haha, but President did have some good ones. So that was pretty funny. At the end of the dinner, President Tew looks at the remaining food and just said " Well, we made more food than you could eat, I guess that means we win " with a smug look and a chuckle at the end. So we as missionaries got back up and tried to eat more. But alas, we were beaten and full, haha ,so yes he won.

     Other than that, the week was pretty normal except when we went to this one less actives house. They had some candy on the table so me and my companion asked if we could have a piece. She was like sure, you know you can just have it all. Then she pulled out like 5 huge bags of candy. Now we have a giant bowl of candy sitting in our apartment and it will probably still have candy in it till like, the end of January or beyond, who knows. 

     We are still working hard on the work. We had dinner with a guy in our ward who went to north Carolina on his mission and actually had Elder Holland come to his mission and throw down some hard core Spirit on them. Ha, it was cool. 

     Things are good here, and I'm really grateful for the Thanksgiving packages. Thanks.

May the Bpirit be with you... always.

 Love, Elder Richards

ollo November 24, 2015

Elder Richards and Elder Nuttall at the Los Angeles Temple

Dear Family

    Super pumped to hear about Wimmer, Super pumped. Just thought I'd get that out.

    Sorry the letter is a day late, but I totally forgot to tell you guys that today was Temple p-day so we had email on Tuesday not Monday. The Temple is still really awesome and really big, love that place. 

    Well, I'll start with a more spiritual subject I guess. One regular missionary day my companion and I are driving around trying to figure out where to go and who who to talk to. No one in our plans really worked so as we were going to some ones place, my compadre suggested that we try this one guy that is literally never home and we dropped him a while ago. So not going to ignore prompting,  we went there.  Guess who was home. He was. We had a good talk/lesson and hopefully things turn out well for him. I just tell that because it is always good to know that we are always guided to those who need us. It's cool. 

   This week I went on an exchange with a Spanish speaking Elder. It was fun. It seemed like we were talking to more Spanish people then anyone, haha. I guess parts of my area are more Hispanic than I think ha. But it was a good day.  We both found new investigators and really did awesome because no one could use the "I don't speak English" thing on us haha. We also just got work done, it was good. Sometimes when they would be talking in Spanish, I would have no clue what they were saying but I know it was good because you cold still feel the Spirit. That was neat. 

     Also this week we had a general authority come and talk to us. Elder Zeballos I think is his name but not quite sure about the spelling, oh well. [Editor's note--he did spell it correctly]  He talked about something that I can't really remember right now but I'll go home and check my notes haha. But I know that it was good haha. One point he did talk about was the Spirit and how much we truly rely on it and how we as missionaries are examples. Lots of good stuff. 

     I actually just thought of this but i haven't had thanks giving for 2 years ha. Last year is when I had my wisdom teeth taken out haha. Well, I am truly thankful for my family I have and all the support and examples you guys are to me. I am grateful to be out here serving. I am grateful for Ramen noodles and P+J sandwiches. It's Thanksgiving, thought I'd share. 

    Well, I love you guys and pray for you all.

  

  Love,

dat missionary guy 

Elder Richards

T'was a good week November 16, 2015

Elder Richards and Joel

Dear Family,

      This week was good. I was super pumped because it was finally Joel's baptism! It was good, Joel was happy even if it doesn't look like it in the picture I'm going to send. I know deep down he's smiling :) haha but yeah, it was nice and some of his family showed up so that was nice. 

     This week we also had companionship study with the Mission President and his wife. President and Sister Tew are wonderful and wise people. It was funny though because  president Tew s phone kept going off and he had to answer it so he went into my room as Sister Tew talked with us. He was in there for like 40 mins and it was time for them to leave so she opens the door.  Since President Tew was on hold with Salt Lake, he decided to take the opportunity and lay down on the floor haha. When he left, my companion was like "Elder, we need to find out where he was laying on the floor so we can lay there and receive awesome revelation and get a new section of the Doctrine and Covenants" or some thing like that ha. I don't think we have found the exact spot yet but i'ts all good anyway ha.

      We found this one guy like last week and when we went by his house this week we taught a lesson. When we finished, his mother got home and started asking us questions about some stuff like what happens after this life but then she got too emotional so she just said come back later. We are pretty sure that she is prepared by the Lord and that great things can happen with this family, so hopefully we are right ha.

     But yeah, those are just a few things about the stuff going on here. It's always great to hear the things that are going on at home. 

Love you guys and best wishes on the ginger bread house making stuff ha 

Love Elder Richards

November 9, 2015

I don't want you to forget what I look like

The Struggle November 9, 2015

Elder Richards, President Tew and Elder Nuttall

Dear family and other peeps,

    So of course as you know I am in Cerritos. To be honest, I don't really know where that is compared to everything, I just know that it's like the middle of the Mission ha. It's a pretty big area but half of our area is split between a trio of Sisters (Sister Missionary companionships) so it's smaller but still really big. It's all good though because now we have a car, and I got my driving privileges so swag, money, cash. This place is full of dead ends and the streets can be confusing so that's kinda been the struggle for the week ha.  The area, just like the mission, is super diverse. It does have a lot of Indian and Asian people. We live in a part of our area that is called "Little India". No joke, it smells like curry outside, all day, every day ha. My new companion, Elder Nuttall is a good guy. He's even smaller than me.  His other companion was Tongan so I won't make him look as small haha. But he's a cool cat and so far it's been going well. Oh and the idea of Cincinnati Style chili blows his mind too. 

    This week has been interesting because we have had 9 hour trainings, 3 days in a row. It was actually super helpful and cool. And now it is time to go out and baptize the world, haha, That's kinda how it feels every time we come out of a training. The first one was all about finding and the others were kinda in that area as well so it was awesome. I won't lie though, I think those trainings pwned me because I am tired, ha, just pwned everyday when we get home. But I take that as a good thing ha. 

     After the training, we went out and we actually found 2 new investigators that night and it was pretty awesome. Too bad we already dropped one because he flat out refused to stop smoking and drinking coffee. Like, his life was smoking and he was completely fine with it, but maybe some other day he will be ready.  The other guy we found seems pretty interested. We have a lesson with him tonight so we will see how it goes. It's just awesome to be out doing the good work. It's not always easy but it is always worth it. Keep it groovy, smooth cats. 

Love

Elder Richards

The family tree as it is now.

The Elder to the right of me is my trainer's new trainee

and here we go November 2, 2015

Hello Family,

     Well, on Tuesday I found out that my compadre is training again, so you know what that means... it means I'm getting transferred. Now the reason this was kind of interesting is because I knew that I was getting transferred but I wouldn't be able able to actually know where until that Saturday. So the whole week I had to wonder where was I going.  Saturday finally came and it was a good Halloween. We had a zone meeting so the zone leaders decided to do something different this time for transfers. They made every one do wall sits and the last one "sitting " got to know where they were going first. Since I had been simmering for a week and not knowing where I was going, I had to know first. But I tied with 2 other guys because it went on too long, haha, and now I'm being sent to ...( silence for effect ) Cerritos. Yup and to be honest I don't know much about the place besides that everyone has told me it's a bunch of Indian people and Chinese people, so that should be interesting. My new companion is named Elder Nuttall and I am finishing his training--which doesn't really mean much but it should be interesting, and fun, and nice, and Spiritual, you know missionaries. It will be nice because it is also a car area so my bike gets a break.

      This week was pretty good. We still have been meeting with Joel and it is just awesome to see how much he has changed because he accepted the Gospel. He will just tell us some stories about some of the stuff he has gone through and the difference that this Gospel is now making. It makes you feel good about being a missionary when you can see the change in someone. Being a missionary is not always easy but it is always worth it. 

      No, I did not get a tour of the Queen Mary, it was more like a drive by but it was still cool.

      It's great to hear things are going well, mostly at least haha but I love you guys and I miss you.

May the Spirit be with you, always.

Love,

Elder Richards

PS I do like the costumes and pumpkins haha awesome