1 MONTH - YOSEMITE

     I've been out on my mission for a month!!!! Holy crap!! Its gone by too fast!!! My HMong gets better everyday and my fridge just keeps filling up with more and more rice! Ok so this past week has absolutely been amazing!! On Tuesday I was able to testify to an  investigator about recovering from addiction and it made him cry! His name is Cogi and I got him to commit to stop smoking so he can get baptized on October 17! He's my favorite investigator ever! So my Hmong name that I was given means youngest son and  turns out thats his name too!!! So he calls me Little Cher and I call him Big Cher! He told me that I am now his brother! 

     Thursday was even more exciting cause we picked up 5 new investigators!!! And we are going to be teaching them all this next upcoming week! On Sunday we went to an old folks home and I had a very interesting experience...We went to give sacrament to 2 Hmong members staying there and there were 3 beds in there room, 2 for the couple and one with an old white lady. The Hmong couple only spoke Hmong so I wasn't much help to my companion. I was standing there smiling and looking pretty and the lady in the 3rd bed calls me over to her! her name is Annabelle and i think she has short term memory loss cause every few minutes she would look at me and ask who I was. When she first called me over she asked my name, told me i was cute, and that when I got off my mission she wanted me to marry her grandaughter! Thi happened 5 more times but with a new grandaughter she wanted me to marry each time. After that we played solitaire together cause that was her favorite game! in the end when I had to leave she kissed my hand and said i'm going to make a great grandson for her! 

So ya that was awesome! Thats all for this week! i love you all!!1 Next week i'll update you on my trip to Yosemite i took today!!!

Elder Richardson :)

MEE (that's really her name), Desmond next to me, me(Daniel), and my companion Elder Pace.
They are my favorite recent converts ever!

YOSEMITE

HOT PEPPERS / KUA TXOB (sounds like "quit" and "saw" put into one word)

Hiya Everybody!!! Lots of exciting news for this week!!!! To start....the unthinkable happened! I got a hair cut last Monday!!! I had to cut off my curly locks yet again! At first I didn't like it but now it's really growing on me! And just to let everyone know that are planning to serve missions. If you get called to learn another language and get to go to the MTC to learn your foreign language... I severely envy you...Not!! Learning a language out in the field is 10 times easier than at the MTC! You catch on with In-field experience! But it is still super hard! how it works is that one word can be said in 8 different tones and then turn into 8 different words! So the other night at dinner with a member i was trying to say no thank you I'm full, but i ended up saying "No thank you I farted". The member and his whole family erupted into laughter and I had no idea i said that until my companion told me 2 minutes later!! So ya, kinda embarrassing but still hilarious. .Oh and Hmong people love to send you home with more food then you actually ate. As a result: we took home about 5lbs of rice...Hmong people lovvve rice. Rice Everything! Anything you can think of they put rice in it...It's crazy! 

one last crazy story though. So Hmong people basically praise these peppers called kua txob (sounds like quit and saw put into one word). Anyways they are super hot. We had a member give us a full bag of them. So being the mature missionaries that my companion and I are...we decided to both eat 5 at the same time. What came next was the worst 10 minutes of my life. i immediately started bawling and my entire body was on fire. After 10 mintues of hell fire. I stared feeling better and then about 5 minutes later i threw up...and my comp took pics of the whole thing...Moral of the story: if you and your companion each eat really hot peppers and suffer together, you bond about 10 times faster. 

Last thing, the members here really love me cause they bought my comp and i some dope shades for when were cruising around town!! 

Love you all! Hope your week is amazing!! 

Kuv Hlub Koj!

Elder Richardson

AAAWWWWEEE YEEAAAA!! SUP?

Let's do this!!

I got this.

No Prob!

Notice the tear dripping down his right cheek.

I hope I thew it all up!

ARRIVAL IN FRESNO CALIFORNIA

Here is a video that Daniel's awesome mission president's wife (Sister Clark) put together. This is from his (and the 18 other new missionaries) first two days in Fresno.

First week in Fresno - WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HMONG?

9/14/15 -

Ok!!! SO a lot has happened this past week! On Wednesday I said goodbye to my district that I have come to know and love so very much, which was super hard. I also had to say goodbye to the last piece of home that I was privileged enough to bring with me. That's right. I had to say goodbye to Keith (Elder Thompson). After I said goodbye the real fun began though! My companion and I left for the airport at 6 and our flight left at 10:40. Got there at about noon. Btw theres a drought and forest fires here...so the air freaking sucks!!!! But anyways we got there and were met by Pres. Clark and his wife. Really sweet people, I love them already. They took us to a stake center in Fresno where we were welcomed by a huge group of missionaries! We did this thing called open your mouth and basically they set missionaries up with other missionary and you go out tracting! just a as like a welcome to the mission field experience! it was lots of fun. That night we (there was 18 of us total) stayed at the assistants house and woke up he next morning and I made pancakes for everyone!!! So  Thursday after we got ready we went back to the stake center to get paired up with our trainers!!!!!!!! I got Elder Pace (this super awesome fun elder who loves to sing as much as I do so we jam in the car to David Archeleta and Vocal Point!!). But the really awesome news is that Elder Pace is a Hmong missionary. And President Clark told me right when I got my companion that I have the opportunity to go bilingual!!!!!!! SO I have 12 weeks to learn as much Hmong as I can and if I know it well enough then I will be switched over to a Hmong misssionary!!!! Annnnnnnd! if that wasn't enough already!, I've been here 5 days and already witnessed my first baptism!! The goal for the mission this year is to reach 1000 and we're at 600 something! So if you could Pray for us it would be much appreciated!!! Anyways, I gotta go. Write back in a week!! Kuv Hlub Nej Sawv Daws!!!!!!! (thats Hmong. you can go translate it your self if you want! Bye! ;0

Elder Richardson (Richy)

Elder Pace - My Trainer

This is my group from the MTC and our trainers.

Having fun!! - The POSE!

Pa.  She got baptized on Saturday. :)

Some members made us Sushi at the church.

  

Leaving MTC and Arriving in Fresno California

9/9/15 - 
I have arrived safely at the Fresno mission home. Preparation day is Monday, so you will hear more from me then. I have already been out tracting/finding which was a lot of fun. 

Elder Thompson and Me at the SLC Airport waiting to leave to our final destination of our missions.  Ethan to Oregan and me to California.