And here we go May 16, 2016

Dear Family,

     This week has been good. We went on exchanges this week. While I was with my district leader, my companion found a new investigator. This guy is pretty interesting. The first conversation they had with him was about how heaven is a ball, earth is a ball, the moon is a ball so heaven must be a ball, makes sense, right. Yeah, we had our first sit down lesson and he just straight up tells us that he believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet and he wants us to baptize him. Well alright then, ha. But the problem is that he tells us he doesn't really like to follow through with things and he asked us when he gets baptized, could he go back to drinking and just come to Church. So, yeah, maybe not as ready as he first seemed but he's a nice guy. We are going to have to do some work with him. Good stuff.

     You know, being a missionary is fun. You get to do some fun things. Like when people suddenly decide they cant give a talk like an hour before they come to church, the Bishop homies call the missionaries to fill in for the people. Yeah, that's what happened yesterday. My companion and I got up and gave a ten minute spiel on just whatever. It was fun. So yup, that's what happens when you're a missionary, watch out. 

     Yeah, good stuff.

Love you guys.

 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

Look at this cat though.

 

 

 

Hello again May 10, 2016

Dear Family,

     Well, not much has happened in the last couple of days but I will tell you about some of it.

     This morning we went to the Newport Beach Temple! It was pretty sweet. It is a lot smaller than the LA temple but it is still a super nice temple. They have some super awesome paintings, they are super detailed. They had a packed session. It was good. It's always nice to feel the Spirit of the Temple, it is always super strong there. Newport Beach Temple also has some really nice Temple grounds.

     So while we were talking to people on the street, we ran into this one guy. He had a super round and kinda big Golden Retriever. It was a really fun dog, ha. He would hit your legs and then when you looked at him, he would lie down and roll over on his back so that you could rub his belly, ha. It was so funny to watch because he would just sit there spread eagle on the ground until you either walked away or rubbed his belly. This dog knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. 

     It was really good to see all of you and to talk to you.

Miss you guys.

Love you guys.

Love, 

 

Elder Richards

Sorry for the short letter but I talked to you 2 days ago :)

A picture of the dog and my squad--sorry I closed my eyes

HB May 2, 2016

Dear Family,

       It's so awesome that we have another member of the family now. He's cute. To me he does look like Ben but I can see what you are saying, that he looks a little like Ryan as well. 

     Well this week was really good, and interesting. We had one investigator, Don, and Don got baptized on Saturday! The missionaries before me are doing really well. He is a super awesome guy. He bore his testimony at the baptism and you can just tell that he is super solid in the Gospel and he was super prepared. He actually called the missionaries to come over and to take the lessons. So yup, he was super prepared for this. He tells us about how he feels that he has found his way home and is a part of a family. After he was confirmed he told us that he felts like he was floating :) I love it. 

     Earlier this week we also went to an auction set up by the Ward. Don is actually a professional Auctioneer, so he was the Auctioneer. It was pretty fun. He sold things from little baskets to a canoe. It was pretty fun.  

     This ward is pretty fun. They are all very welcoming and there are just some cool people in the Ward. The guy who plays John the Beloved in the bible videos is in our ward. We actually had dinner with him last night, super cool guy and nice family. We also have the lead guitarist from Imagine Dragons in our Ward. Yes, be jealous. I have not met him yet but I will some day. Everyone in the Ward seems super nice and helpful so I'm excited to work in this Ward. 

     My new companion is a good guy. His name is Elder Daw. This is his last transfer so he is low-key trunky. ( Trunky--a missionary who is about to go home that is thinking of going home) If you don't know what that means, ask someone. But, he is a cool guy that cares about the people. So, things should be fun. Huntington Beach is a fun place. The weather is nice. It seems like every one here surfs, I'm jealous, but I will surf someday. 

     I do like running to the beach in the morning.

I love you guys.

Love,

 

Elder Richards

Yup April 25, 2016

Dear Family,

     Well transfers are this week and I will be leaving Cerritos. I am going to Huntington Beach, Pacific Shores Ward. I get to run to the ocean every morning :) not even mad about running now. It should be fun.  I'm back on bikes, so time to pull out the sunscreen again. Yeah, that's like the only thing I don't like about biking,  that I have to put on sunscreen all day long or I will die, but that's nothing new. 

 

      This week was pretty good, we hit a lot of our goals and were able to get some of our investigators to progress. Ema is going to be baptized in a couple of weeks so that's really awesome ! Super pumped. It's really awesome to see how much people change because of the Gospel. I know I say that like every time something happens but it just brings a lot of joy. Gods likes us and has been helping us a lot, ha. 

 

     Ok, time to be jealous. We went to a missionary's home coming thing for our lunch and we ran into Dinah Jane from 5th Harmony. Now that prob doesn't mean anything to you, because you don't know who that is. I didn't either until someone told me. We talked to her but didn't even know who she was. 5th Harmony is a group that has some pretty popular songs out right now. But, since we had no clue who she was, we didn't get a picture with her. We were kinda upset. She was the returned missionary's cousin or something like that. She's Mormon too, it's neat.

 

      I figured I would tell you guys what has been going on. Ever since the MTC I have had this problem. This little problem has been bugging me the entire time I have been out. I tried to fix the problem a couple of times, cover it up and even tried to attack the root of it, but it still has not gone away. This week I finally did something about it. Well to tell you my problem, I have had this little wart on my toe since the MTC. I've tried duct tape and straight up stabbing the thing but it always grew back. This week we were at a members house in Huntington Beach for the Japanese lesson and the Member is a super cool guy who is basically a foot doctor. He had some medicine for it and he put it on my wart. Now my wart has a huge blister on it and it looks pretty interesting haha. It's a little painful to walk but if it gets rid of the wart, it's totally worth it. It's supposed to blister up. 

     But yeah, that's what has been going on with me. Cant wait to see the new members of the family.

I love you guys, stay Awesome.

 

Love,

 Elder Richards

Cows April 18, 2016

Dear Family,

      This week has been pretty good. Heavenly Father has been helping us so that's good. Like I have said, we have been teaching Jyssikas family and they seem pretty solid. We had an awesome restoration lesson and we were able to set baptism dates for the entire family so that's really awesome. Lately I feel like God has really been leading us to where he needs us. Like yesterday, we decided that we were going to go by this referral and when we got there we weren't able to get a hold of the guy we wanted. But we ran into this lady from Honduras. She is a member and she is visiting but she had no clue where the closest building was and she didn't know how she could find out.  That's we when showed up and were able to get her in contact with the Spanish elders because she did not speak any English, ha. Then the night before that, we were wondering what to do for the last ten minutes of work. We decided just to contact on this one street. After almost hitting a cow, we just ran into this one guy who also happened to be a member but had been inactive for a long time. These aren't really big things but I feel like God has been putting us where he needs us. 

 

     So yeah, time to address the cow thing. I don't know what happened on Saturday but all the Hispanic people seemed to be partying that night. While we were driving down this road late at night, we see a small group of people and they seemed to be trying to get something. I didn't know what that something was until we drove past where they were and right as we were going by, this cow just jumps out from behind a car. We also hit a cow. To be honest, I had no clue what it was when I first saw it. To me it looked like a werewolf, no lie. But after looking at it it the mirrors once we passed it, I recognized that it was a cow. Scary stuff. But yeah, then we got out and watched these guys chase a cow all over the place. It was fun. Then we ran into that one less active guy.

 

     I also bought watermelon flavored Poptarts, they weren't that good, ha.

Love you guys.

 

Love,

 

Elder Richards

 

The Cow Incident

watashi April 11, 2016

Dear Family,

     To start off with the super Awesome ! Jyssika is now a baptized and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a very good baptism, plenty of people came and everything went smooth for the most part. A bunch of people strolled in late, one being the Bishop and we can't start without him, so yeah. But that actually was alright because some other important people didn't show up till later, so it all ended up working out. Other than that, there were no problems at all. It was fun. Jyssika's whole family was there and we know that they totally felt the Spirit so we are really excited to start teaching them. They tell us things like,"yeah, when I was watching Jyssika being baptized, I just had this super good feeling come over me, I can't really describe it but it was super good." So of course me and my companion are on the couch, giddy as little school girls, just ready to teach them about the Spirit and why they felt it. So that's what we did. Awesome ! Also most of my former companions were at the baptism so it was fun to see them too.

 

      Now I will tell you of this little service thing we ran into, ha. We were contacting like we usually do and while doing so we ran into a man named Adam. Adam was like "hey man, we are having a little party thing, you want to come and get some food?" We said yes. So we followed him into someone's back yard. It was a Hispanic kid's 1st birthday and it was jamin. They had some super loud Spanish music playin and they had some pork in this huge bucket thing and just kids goin wild. We sat in between two old women who, of course, did not speak a lick of English and we just pounded a ton of this Hispanic food. It was super good but man I was so full. Then Adam brought me another plate just full of this pork and salsa thing. I didn't even finish it and I felt like I was going to burst, haha. I called on my comp to help finish the food. Then came my favorite part when all the kids just started to shout Pinata! That's when the pinata came out.  So I climb a ladder and another kid got on the roof and we held the pinata for for kids to beat into oblivion. That was my service for the week. Good stuff, right?

Well, I love you guys.

 

Love, 

 

Elder Richards

 

 

The week April 4, 2016

Dear Family

     This week had kinda a rough start. My companion sprained his ankle while playing basketball so we were down for the night and most of the next day. But is all good because Elder Miura is a champ and we went out and worked. He could barely walk at first but he did it anyways. His ankle is now better and he can walk normal but he still can't play basketball, he's upset, ha. But while we were in the apartment, I cleaned and he slept and then we watched Meet the Mormons. It was fun. That was my first time seeing that movie.

     General Conference is pretty awesome. I think I used to just take it for granted before but now it is actually cool to listen to the Prophet and the Apostles. Me, I like Priesthood session the best. I agree, I liked it when Sister Oscarson did her throw down.  It is much needed sometimes, ha. Elder Miura and I were just waiting for Elder Holland to get up, so at the very end when Elder Holland was speaking, we were just kinda pumped, ha.  He did a good job, a lot of little jokes.  It was fun. But I think it's funny how General Conference used to be like a super boring thing to me but now I get all giddy when I hear that an Apostle is going to say something.  So, yeah, it was good.

      Funny little side note, I was looking at the Ensign for 2015 November.  As I was grazing through the pictures, guess who I saw, Chris Dean, or Deen or how ever you spell his name.  Anyways, I saw him and I got all excited because I knew him, haha.  So I showed my companion, he doesn't know him so he didn't care at all haha.  But I thought it was neat.

     So, yeah, our week was good.  We started teaching Jyssikas whole family and they actually came to General Conference so we are super pumped to teach them.  Jyssikas baptism is this Saturday so we are super pumped about that! So,yes, even with the rough start we had a good week. 

Love, your favorite blonde Elder,

Elder Richards