Yes July 25, 2016

Dear Family,

      So this week we moved. No more running to the beach but it's OK because in our new place there is a gym. So look out world, I m going to get jacked, so jacked I can't fit through doors. I  don't know about you but I'm excited. My companion did a lot of working out before the misison so he is going to help me get super swoll. If you are wondering what any of those words mean, ask some one near by, maybe your neighbor or a close friend or go to the gym and ask the manager what it means. :) love you guys

     We have been having a good time bikin around talking to everybody. We picked up a new guy on Monday. It was super cool with him because we talked to him like a month ago. We gave him 2 Book of Mormons and we had a return appointment but couldnt find where he lived. So we were really troubled by it and then one day like 2 weeks later we ran into him just randomly on the street. God loves us. So we got his address again and we have been by and  finally caught him. He told us that he usually would never stop [and talk to us] but for some reason that night,  he felt like he should and we were able to give him the book of Mormons, one for him and one for his brother who is going through a hard time. So we are pretty pumped to see that God is really helping us with this guy.

     Well, I love you guys, stay awesome. the new Ghostbusters looks interesting. The US Open is this week, that should be neat. And noisy. But all is good in the hood here.

Love,  Elder Richards

This is blonde squad, Bishop's family. They all blonde except Bishop Baltzer. Cool peeps!

Also met the lead guitar guy for  Imagine Dragons this week. They are a cool family as well.

Narly July 18, 2016

Dear Family,

      The week has been good. We had an interesting lesson the other day.  We were teaching this girl the Restoration (lesson) on her doorstep. It seemed to be an alright lesson. So we teach most of it and we get all the way to the First Vision. My companion, Elder Ashton, asks her " how do you feel?" then she is quiet for a moment, then she looks up and  and she says " I feel .......sick" then out of nowhere she looks like she is about to throw up on us or faint. We, of course, asked if there was anything we could do but within like 2 seconds she was in the door and she was gone. So we walked away. We will be back soon to see if she is feeling better, haha, but it was just funny because that is the first time that has every happened to me.

 

     Apparently I have a powerful influence on the world. So this starts at dinner on Wednesday. We had another set of missionaries go with us because she is a single mother that was feeding us. But this time her daughter and her friend decided to stay. Her daughter is like 19 and her and her friend are pretty funny but they asked us the question "so what did you guys do on the 4th of July?" and of course I told her "we partied, Duh, we raged!" and then for the rest of the dinner I said "rage" quite a bit. And, of course, every time you say it, you make a little hand gesture. If you want to know what the hand gesture is, just watch the first ten minutes of Meet the Mormons and look for the part that some one says Rage. It's like my favorite part. But anyway, the word "Rage" was used a lot for the rest of that dinner but the next day at service, like the most of the zone was at a service project and guess what everyone was saying for that entire time. Rage . It's so great. It will prob be the theme for next transfer. It's like a zone unity thing, haha. 

 

      But yes, it is the end of the transfer.  Elder Ashton and I are staying in Pacific Shores. We were here for the 4th of July,  and now we get to also stay for the US open. Now that will also be interesting haha. Yikes.

 

Life is good.

I love you guys.

 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

Frigid July 11, 2016

Dear Family,

     So the rest of 4th of July was fun. Gave some peeps a haircut, my companion did, I didn't. So we went out to work and didn't expect too much. But we actually found two new investigators that night, which is pretty awesome! And neither one was drunk. One was actually super solid. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk but by the end of the Restoration lesson, she was pretty interested. Wanted to read the Book of Mormon and everything. But guess what. She doesn't live there, she was just there for that day. She lives 3 hours away. Lame but it was still super awesome because she was totally willing to have the missionaries there come by. So that was for real awesome.

 

     Then, of course, the big thing that happened this week was that we got our new Mission President. His name is President Patterson. He's a young dude with 4 kids that came out with him. He was a Seminary teacher in Utah, so he's got some spunk haha but he is a super cool guy. And he is a good teacher. I'm excited to see what happens in the future. 

 

     This week was low-key rough with teaching, haha, but it's all good. We are ready to go hard this week. 

 

New calling sounds fun, haha.

Love you guys.

 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

Go too hard July 5, 2016

Dear Family,

      Well the week has been fun. The whole zone did a fast so that we could find new investigators. And it went pretty well. We found 5 new investigators, which is pretty good for our area. And we had a zone blitz, that's when all the missionaries go into one area to work. So we did that for a couple of hours in each person's area. To be honest, we didn't find when we did that, but we did have a fun time. We went with the zone leaders and had a good time splittin up with them. Before we went back to our normal areas, all 4 of us would get together and we would sing for people. You could totally tell that the people that let us sing on their doorstep felt the Spirit but they still didn't want to talk to us. Oh well, still fun. We sounded mighty fine :) haha I also tried to get the zone to have a dance off but they weren't havin it so I danced by myself in the parking lot :) 0 hoots. I also did a pump up talk. Swag. And I'm pretty sure that our zone this week broke the record in finding new investigators for Huntington Beach this week. ballin

     Well, happy 4th of July! Since it is p-day (preparation day) we went to the the Huntington Beach 4th of July parade. Fun stuff the whole time. We are walking to find a good spot, we kept hearing "the Mormons are here" or "look, Lds group". So that was fun. Then we found some members so we sat with them and watched the parade. Got some cream soda that way so it was the right choice.

 

Love you guys.

Stay chill.

 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

Get that corn out of my face! movie quote June 27, 2016

Dear Family

     We have had a good week. We found some new investigators so that's really awesome! One guy we just contacted on the street. At first he didn't really seemed to be into it but the more we talked, the more he seemed to listen. We taught him like the full Restoration (lesson) on the street and then he just straight left to go into his house before we could even said anything. He was all like "well, dinner is ready" then walked off, haha. That was about a week ago. And then we ran into him again and we were able to finish up the Restoration and he seems pretty solid at this point. He actually knows some members and he also seems like he is looking to increase his faith so that is cooooooool. But one of the best things ever is his friend Walter. Walter is usually outside his house. He is just the coolest guy. He is super friendly and he just strolls up and starts rubbing up your leg and just wants to be petted. Walter is a cat, a very big cat. I mean like super fat.

 

     So apparently when you mix free food and old ladies, people just get savage. For a service project we helped pass out and place food for people in need. There were a ton of people but the old ladies is what I will focus on for a minute. These ladies are for real savage. They started bickering back and forth and for a sec I thought the one old lady was going to punch the other one. Now that would have been super interesting but it's a good thing that we broke them up before that happened, haha. They would like climb over each other to brag stuff sometimes. Once it got to the end, we let them take as much as they wanted and they for real just started going hard. One lady grabbed like 6 bags of apples when we said they could have as much as they wanted, haha. People are fun :) Sevice with a smile. 

 

      Have Itold you skate is life. Cali life man. 

 

I love you guys.

The babies are really cute.

We are going to be getting our new mission president this week so that should be fun. 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

This is Walter

 

 

Yup Yup June 20, 2016

Dear family,

     So this week was pretty interesting. We were teaching pretty many lessons but there is a problem. We haven't been able to pick up any as investigators. Would you like to know why? Well I'll tell you. It is because we teach a whole lesson, say prayer and it's all good until we ask the question "when can we come back?" Then they are all like, "Well, I'm good but thank you for your message" or "well, my schedule is crazy I don't think I know a time" or "I don't like to make commitments". But it is all good because we did pick up this one guy. It went a little like this. We were walking down the street like a couple of thugs, white shirt and tie with a Book of Mormon in hand ready to drop some knowledge on people, then we run into other missionaries talk for a hot second then resume the swag walk. Then as we walk by this guy's car, we see him in there. So we do the awk wave to see if he will talk to us. But when he comes out, he's all like, "are you the guys that try by my house?" "yes" I replied. "Oh OK, well I've got ten minutes, why don't you come in." he said. Oh heck yeah! That's the ultimate win or the ultimate trap. But this time was a win because we were able to talk to him and he was super ready to read the Book of Mormon. He's a rocket scientist so he's pretty smart. But yeah, that was our find this week. Good stuff .

 

     Yes that is the real John the Beloved. He's a homie. 

 

     We are having a pretty good time, my comp and I. He has been trying to teach me how to do a wheely on my bike but I am not that skilled. But I'll get there.

 

  Well, there are times when you know what to write and sometimes when you don't. I just hit that wall.

 

I love you guys.

 Stay awesome

 

Love 

 

Elder Richards

Editor's note

My apologies for getting so far behind in posting Elder Richards' letters.  I will try to do better :)