Yup......January 25, 2016

Dear Family,

          This week was transfers and .... I'm staying in Cerritos. It should be a good transfer because we should have a baptism and other stuff. My companion is now a Japanese guy that I don't know, haha. I think he speaks good English though. My old companion, Elder Nuttall, has been called to be District Leader and he is leaving me to serve in a Young Single Adult Ward (for single adults aged 18 to 30 years). Sad, but we had a good time, ha.

     We have had a pretty good week I'd say. We found another investigator who actually came to Church. She told me that it was nice but she thinks that we pray ALOT, haha. We also picked up this little girl named Jyssika, and yes that is how her name is spelled. I thought it would be Jessica but I was wrong --I  saw her name in her Book of Mormon, haha. She has been coming to Church for the past couple of weeks with her aunt ( who is a member ).  She told us that she really likes it because she always feels happy when she goes to Church and when she doesn't she feels unhappy. See ! she understands! now if everyone understood that they would be Gucci and come to Church, haha. They asked us to sign her Book of Mormon and also her little brother's, so we felt special. We also have been doing well with our man Marion. Ever since the Visitors Center he has been reading more praying more and coming to Church every week. He is on the right path. 

      Well, I'll be honest. I don't know what to write about but to make up for the lack of more letter, I will send you a picture of me holding a cat who weighs as much as a fat toddler, enjoy.

Don't be fooled by his appearance, he feels like he eats brick or something haha.

Love Always 

Elder Richards

LA Visitors Center......January 18, 2016

Dear Family,
      LAVC stands for Los Angeles Visitors Center.

    My companion was sick for most of the week so we really didn't get to go out that much this week, haha, but that's cool. I just read some of the New Testament. I read from John to Corinthians so it was neat, ha. But it's all good because my companion felt better by the time we were going to the LAVC. 

     We have an investigator named Marion who is pretty solid. But since the new year, he stopped coming to Church, basically because he didn't feel like waking up that early for Church. We moved times from 11:30 to 9:00 Church. So we went to the LAVC and it was awesome. It has these cool little exhibits where they show videos and it  was pretty neat. After we went there, we stood next to the Temple and just talked to Marion. He was telling us about how he felt at peace as he was there and he really liked it. It was really awesome because he totally felt the Spirit and he asked us to wake him up so he could make it to Church. It was just really good. Now he has come back to Church and he stayed longer than usual. He's progressing again. It truly was a blessing to go to the LAVC so that he could be motivated to really do things again. Now all we are waiting on is for him to get his answer and he will be good to go. 

     Well, it was fun taking care of my sick comp, haha, but we still got quite a bit of work done on the couple of days we did go out so it was good. 

   Sorry if my letter is a little shorter, and a little hap hazard. We got less time but it's all good. 

Love you guys 

Stay warm 

May the Spirit be with you... always 

Love, Elder Richards 

Editor's Apology.....January 13, 2016

I must apologize for not posting Elder Richards' letters for such a long time.  Christmas happened.  You will be glad to know that I have finally caught up.  I hope you enjoy reading Elder Richards' adventures as much as I do.

Let's have a talk........January 11, 2016

Dear Family, 

     This week on Wednesday, we were asked by the Bishop if we could "have a talk " in his office. Of course we went and we were trying to figure out what could he want from us. Well, we sat down and he said " I need a favor" "alright" we replied. " The young couple that I had asigned to give talks on Sunday had just called and told me that they won't be able to make it for Church because they are sick. Can you guys give talks on Sunday?" So, of course, we did. We knew they were going to ask us to give a talk, but we thought they would give us more then 3 -4 days haha. So yes, we gave our talks. Both of our talks were on "Overcoming adversity ". Of course my companion went first so he covered most of the subject matter, haha. It was alright. We both did pretty well, I thought. We got a bunch of compliments so I'd like to think they were good, haha. My companion had a 2 page outline that he wrote like twice. Me, I had a note card that only had stuff on one side, haha. Different styles I guess. It's funny that we are all giving talks. 

     We truly had an awesome experience the other day. We have been going by this one guy,Tommy, for a while and to be honest he wasn't very solid because he kept missing appointments and stuff. But we had a lesson with him and it was pretty great. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went very well. He told us that he had been having a super crazy day, an emotional roller coaster, but after meeting with us he feels so much better and we made him smile. At that time we decided to ask him to pray and to ask if the Book of Mormon was true. So he prayed. While he was praying you could tell he kinda forgot to ask if the Book of Mormon was true, so I whispered in the middle of the prayer to ask if the Book of Mormon was true. And he did. Immediately the Spirit filled the room after he asked if it was true. As my companion put it, everyone in that room knew the Book of Mormon was true because the Spirit was so strong at that moment. He knew the Book of Mormon was true. It was so great to be there in the same room when he found out. He said he couldn't stop smiling, and neither could we. It was truly a great experience and we set a Baptismal date for him--such a great thing. 

     My companion and I gave someone a blessing on Saturday and now my companion is a little sick, ha, so we stayed in Sunday night. But things here are good as always. 

Stay safe 

Stay warm

Stay awesome and love,

Elder Richards  

Good Start.......January 4, 2015

Dear Family, 

     Right before the new year we got a training. The training was about: How to have a Perfect Year. It went like this, to have a perfect year you have to have a perfect month, and to have a perfect month you have to have a perfect week.Tto have a perfect week you have to have a perfect day, to have a perfect day you have to have a perfect morning. So there is alot of pressure on the morning of new years ha. Going to bed New Year's eve, I was ready to have my "perfect morning ". I woke up the next morning and... I felt like poop; poop that was put in a meat grinder and then the meat grinder was thrown into a wood chipper and then the crumbs were sprinkled on a small child's ice cream cone. Ok, maybe not that intense but I didn't feel good. So the morning was wrecked and, to be honest, that day wasn't too hot haha. I stayed in bed for most of it. But we did go out and work for the afternoon and we had a lesson so we did get work done that day, nailed iiiitttt. Then we went on exchanges that night.

     Thankfully, I felt perfectly fine the next day for exchanges. It was my turn to be in Spanish land with my district leader since he is a Spanish elder, good times. so my job for that day was to sit there and to look pretty.  i did a pretty good job at it too, haha. But it was still good. They may not be speaking the same language but you can still feel the Spirit when they talk about certain things, so it's still good.

     This week at Church was pretty good. We finaly got a less active family to come to Church. We also got them to bear their testimony on the Book of Mormon because she just finished it for the first time. It was awesome. Then we had our investigator there and she liked it but we also just had 2 random people show up. One was super interested and she wanted a Book of Mormon and everything. She said she was going to come back next week. We set up an appointment with her to talk about the Book of Mormon so that was for-real awesome. Then the other lady just came into Sacrament Meeting and sat in the back and asked to talk to the missionaries. I sent my companion over there to talk to her while I introduced our investigator to the Bishop. But he came back and told me that apparently she wanted to talk to me, and only me. Sketchy, haha but all she wanted was to see if we wanted to rent an appartment or something. But I invited her to come to Sunday School class where we teach and she came. I think she liked it. She said she would come back next week so I guess we will find out. Miracles 

     So yeah, interesting start to the year but so far it has still been good, haha. Love you guys and stay awesome   

Love,

Elder Richards

Back to work.......December 28, 2015

Dear Family, 

     So yeah, sorry if this letter is shorter but I did talk to you guys like 2 days ago.

     Well, Christmas was fun, we basicly just had another p-day. We played basketball, watched The Work and the 

Glory and we went caroling. Caroling was fun because we had people that we wanted to go by but then we would stop by random peoples houses. One house was an old Spanish lady. She came out and gave every one hugs and said alot of stuff in Spanish, but the Spanish elders were with us so that's all good. We stopped by another house they gave us cupcakes and another gave us tamales and the other pasole so it was fun.

     Yesterday we had  a pretty good day. We found 2 new investigators and we also had a pretty good lesson with this dude. We met him a while ago but got back in contact with him. After we had the lesson, he woudn't really commit to Baptism but after I explained it a little he was like "oh yeah, if I find out the Book of Mormon is true, I will dive head first into those waters!" So, that should be fun when he finds out the Book of Mormon is true, ha. 

     Things have been good but once Christmas was over it was straight back to work, haha. It was nice to have a normal day of work. For like the past month we have been using the new Christmas video to talk to everyone. Since Christmas is over it is back to the normal way, haha.

     Thanks for everything guys. You are awesome and you can keep the paper work Mom:)

Love ya.

Love,

 

Elder Richards