We got KISSED

September 27, 2016

Transfer Calls!!! I'm satisfying with Elder Witt in Atwater!!  Heck ya!

Tuesday: We were having dinner with the Wilcox's and their friends Michael (son) and Terri (mom) Bray (some non member friends of theirs that are going through a really rough time right now). After dinner we watched a video about the Plan of salvation and talked about it. At the end of the lesson we testified about how Christ loves us and wants us to succeed. Then we invited them to take the lessons....THEY SAID YES!!! We're going over tonight with them at the Wilcox's again to teach the Restoration!!! 

Wednesday" We went over and taught a lady named Kathy, she's taken the missionary lessons before and she can't seem to quit smoking...yet. We had a wonderful lesson that was really driven by the Spirit. Kathy was almost baptized before but she smoked the week of so she couldn't and that crushed her. She still badly wants the Holy Ghost in her life cause she has seen its affect on her children (daughter and son got baptized a couple years ago). We testified how Heavenly Father loves her and that she is a daughter of God and re-committed her to pray and become committed to being baptized! 

Saturday: SO on Saturday...My companion and I both got kissed

*pauses for dramatic effect*

by a guy!!!

It was pretty awkward. So Elder Witt and I were riding in Winton when all of a sudden a guy pulled up to us and shouted, "THE PEOPLE IN APARTMENT #34 NEED YOU!" and then drove off. We thought about what he said, and rode into the apartment complex that he just rode out of to apartment #34. We got in there (by the way, it was the single most ghetto apartments I've been in yet. We were getting some dirty looks from people too) and found the guy that he wanted us to see. As we were talking to him, the guy that originally pulled up next to us drove in and parked!! He was buddies with the guy that he had sent us to!!! After we all said hello, the original guy that had talked to us from the car started asking us about our church. We ended up talking about the Restoration and after a bit we had to go and asked if we could say a prayer with him. He held out and grabbed our hands and we prayed. After the prayer he said, "bring it in" and gave us a hug. As he did so I was the first victim of a gross, scratchy goatee kiss. And my companion soon followed suit. It was sincere...we think..but still gross. So turns out I'm getting quite some action out here on my mission ;) HA ha I'll never forget that experience. 

I love you all!! have a great week!! 

Elder Richardson

Goofy pictures on the airplane at the park on p-day service project.

Elder Witt doesn't like to be cute.   :) 

 

 

Elder Moderos in white shirt, me, Elder Hopkins in gray shirt, and Elder Witt in red.

  

Habenero sauce game.... "what are the odds" a game I lost!!  I don't think anyone really wins a game like this???

 

Elder Moderos and I.

       

Crazy eyes selfie!!

 

How Far can you go on $5?

September 19, 2016 

hiya mijos y mijas,

On Tuesday, Elder Hopkins and I went on exchanges in my area! We had loads of fun! We went and visited the Taccuba's (they came to church yesterday!!!!!!! Well, all of them except for the dad and the 2-3 yr old). We shared the Mormon message "Good things to Come" about Elder Holland and his early family life. Shared how times are going to be hard, no matter what. But if we push through and keep following the Savior's example, we WILL be blessed. As Elder Holland puts it, "Some blessing come soon, some come late, and some don't come till heaven. But they will come."  And that is so true for all of us. God WILL bless us as we turn to him in our times of need and as we endure to the end. Afterwards we went and saw a referral couple that we got from some Elders in Madera with Brother Vezzani (Ward Mission Leader). They're names are Angel and Ina and they are awesome!! They have such an amazing story. They moved down form Washington because a friend promised them jobs, came down and have never heard from their friend again. Wanted to go to church a couple Sundays ago so they typed in church in their google search bar and our church is the first one that popped up!! They went for all 3 hours! This was in Madera. Then the next week they had moved up to Atwater but still wanted to go to church. They only had $5 for gas but they still tried. They drove all the way to Madera and back for church round trip on the $5!!! Madera is like an hour away from Atwater so that is crazy!!! At this point, the missionaries down in Madera were like, "...uhh. there's a church in Atwater..." And gave them some Elders number in Merced and they relayed it back to us!! Anyways, they are SOOO prepared! They accepted baptism and have a date for October 8th (unfortunately they couldn't make it to church yesterday because of some housing issues). 

On Thursday Elder Witt and I were going around seeing potentials and knocked on a guy named Drew's house. He opened the door and told us that he used to meet with missionaries. We ended up starting to share a scripture about the Atonement of Jesus Christ when his cousin Ivan pulled up. Boy Ivan has a lot of view points. For the next 25 or so minutes he was just bagging on church and religion in general. Every comment Elder Witt and I made he had some sort of retort for it. It got to the point where I caught him slip and contradict his own beliefs and really wanted to point it out but didn't. The Spirit was barely there and I knew if I spoke out like that it would leave the lesson completely. But, Elder Witt came in clutch and bore a powerful testimony on something, can't really remember what but it was powerful enough to bring the Spirit back and shut Ivan up for basically the rest of the lesson. And then at the end, I backed up my companion and invited them to be baptized when they came to know that the Book of Mormon was true. And that if they did come to know it's true and did nothing about it, they will be held accountable for it at the last day, IT was awesome!! Drew flaked on our appointment that we had made for Saturday but we will try by him again!! 

On Sunday we had this cool Temple Activity that our ward put on. It was awesome cause they had a little girl talk about how she got sealed to her little brother Noah in the temple, it made me think of when I had the honor and privilege to get sealed to my little brother Adam. And then one of the members from the Temple Presidency and his wife spoke to us. My companion also sang at it. He did great!! 

Angel and Ina had told us they were gonna come, but 6 rolled around and they didn't show. But...I looked at the phone at 6:29 and basically gave up on them coming, but lo and behold all of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was ANGEL AND INA!!!!!! And they brought they're 3 yr old daughter!!!  It was so good to have them there and can not wait to go over there tonight and talk about how they felt! 

That's all though!!! Love you all!! 

Elder Richardson

Fruits by efforts of exact obedience

September 12, 2016

Hiya!!,

So this week we had zone Conference and it was awesome!! Learned a lot about the book of John and how Christ is an amazing example of humility and his willingness to do the will of the father and how that's how we need to be as missionaries. We need to act in faith and trust that that if we do God's will HE will bless us!!!! 

On Saturday, Elder Witt and I taught one of our Investigators named Steven with Brother Boothe. We read Alma 32 with him and the Spirit was so strong the ENTIRE lesson!! We helped him understand the Spirit when we are here! We were able to discern his need through inspired questions and set a date for October 15th!!!!!! 

Elder Witt and I also received a miracle referral last night about 2 people form Madera that have already been to church twice!! We're hoping to meet with them tonight so that we can help them continue to progress towards baptism!! I really can't wait. I love you all!! Have an awesome week!

Elder Richardson

Elder Mederos (front), me, Elder Schmid, and Elder Witt (back).

The Lord's Vineyard

September 5, 2016

Hi,

Wednesday- On Wednesday we went to Fresno for a trainer/ trainee meeting. It was really fun. Learned a lot about the Savior and the apostles and the experience they had in John 21. I think it's pretty interesting especially in Peter's case cause after his experience in specific he becomes one of the single most greatest prophets to walk the face of the earth after that! It's said that people would crave for the opportunity to be caught in Peter's shadow let alone to n bbe taught and ministered by him. 

Thursday- We went and saw our INV Makayla. Her boyfriend(fiance) joined us and we taught the message of the Restoration. The Spirit was SOOOOOO strong in that lesson and at the end we committed them both to baptism for October 15th!!!! Needless to say, they told us afterwards that their marriage isn't till November...haha so we'll have to move that back a bit. But that's ok!! 

Saturday- We got to go to the Vineyard!! It was awesome!!! Herein our mission we have a vineyard that makes a lot of grapes and raisins that are given to people that don't have a lot of food!! It's a really awesome program!! Anyways, we got up mat 4 in the morning and went and ran on the canal...not gonna lie, one Elder and I thought thAT SOME HOMELESS PEOPLE WERE GONNA HOP OUT AT ANY SECOND SO WE ran a lot faster than usual. We ended up running 2 miles in 19 minutes!! HAha it was exhausting. Anyways, we got picked up at 5 and was at the vineyard by 6. From 6-about 1 we picked, unloaded, etc...grapes. It was exhausting!!But lots of fun! That night we went to a party for two of our INV's kids!! It was a lot of fun!! We had a great time and got to play some volleyball in my proselyting clothes again!! 

Sunday- We went and visited our INV Steven, we followed up on if he read the BOM and prayed about it. He prayed but didn't read...so a little disappointing but at least he was 1 for 2!! Hopefully he does it this week though!! We're gonna go see him again on Saturday.

That's all for this week!!! Love you all!!! 

Elder Richardson

Kids Party

This vineyard belongs to the church.  I goes to feed many that cannot afford or otherwise down on their luck.  Really cool to get this opportunity to help in the vineyard.

Haha... Found some dinner on the road for tonight. :) 

My beautiful Companion.

                     

Baptism Twitter - Inviting ALL to come unto Christ

August 29, 2016

Heyo!, 

Tuesday: On Tuesday we went to District meeting in Merced and it was fun. I gave like a 30 second training on giving good commitments to people and then we role played for almost 10 minutes, It was a really fun experience. I like giving training's, I think I learn more than other people while I'm giving them. It's a great experience. After District Meeting we all gathered together as a zone and had a little zone pow wow thing (kinda like a Game Day Rally). It was super awesome and got us all very hyped to go out and teach, preach, and INVITE people to baptism! We started this thing as a zone that is like a missionary twitter. Every time we invite someone to be baptized, we text it out to the WHOLE zone no matter what the response is! And we set a goal to invite 2 people to be baptized every day! I love it! I feel it truly helps us a s missionaries sift out who is and IS NOT prepared to hear God's word! Elder Witt and I got so hyped up about it that right as the pow wow ended (i got everyone together and and we did a "Baptize Merced" on 3...I can't even begin to tell you how hyped and pumped that got me), Elder Witt and I literally ran out to the door to go find someone so we could be the 1st ones to start off this baptism invitation thing. We ran around the side of the building and I kid you not...there was a woman walking her dog in front of the church! We got super excited and briskly walked over to her. Immediately, we could tell this woman had something bothering her. We asked if we could say a prayer with her an she BURST into tears saying yes. She told us about some trials she's having in her life ans then we prayed for her. The Spirit was very strong. After the prayer we pulled out a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and testified to her of how God has a plan SPECIFICALLY for her and invited her to meet with the missionaries. She said yes. And then we invited her to be baptized is she came to know what we taught was true! SHE SAID YES!!!!! IT was awesome!! God definitely works in mysterious ways!!! He loves us and wants us to succeed!

Wednesday: We say Tom and taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson and we really went over how and why we need the Holy Ghost. We helped him understand that and he thanked us. 

This week my companion and I made a goal to talk with everyone!!! and we have!! We've been struggling to talk with people because of all the appointments we are setting up with the people we talked with last week! but we are still being blessed for talking with all those that we can. This week we found 3 New investigators! We are excited to continue teaching them! 

Not much happened the rest of the week. But i love you all! Thank you for all the support and love!

Hlub Nej

Elder Richardson 

Bobbi street is so ghetto that even Mickey Mouse has killed someone. 

The Legendary Bobbi Street - Most ghetto street in Atwater

So this member in  our ward has this picture of himself in a bathtub!! 

I now aspire to have this picture in my future bathroom.