Holloween - Learning HMONG

So this week my companion and I did some fun things! we decorated our apartment for Halloween!! (thank you mom for the package!) And we absolutely love it! I'm starting to really understand Hmong a lot better and can usually keep up in the conversation! As for my speaking....that's definitely still a work in progress, but i will get there! I want to become a Hmong Elder so badly!! And i will get there slowly but surely!! 

I found out like a week and a half ago me and Cogi have the same Hmong name. So he put me in their family! The mom even calls me her son in Hmong now! And Cogi is my older brother (Big Jer) and I am obviously his younger brother (little Jer). I love Cogi more and more everyday. And on Tuesday, he told me that he finally gets to see his kids that he hasn't seen in over 5 years!!!!!!!!  I guess you could say...I was a little excited. Also, we comitted two investigators to get baptized in November!! One's name is Christina whose like 48 and she is alright. Her date isn't completely solid cause it took us a half hour for her to give us a straight yes or no answer about baptism. But hey she said yes!!! And the other one's name is Sam, he's 24 and stays at home all day raising chickens. He knows the BOM is true and reads it without us telling him too! Christina is getting baptized November 21 and Sam is on November 14.

Last thing...I LOVE MY COMPANION!! He is a straight gift from God! We get along so well and we love each other and make fun of each other all the time!! (it's a guy thing) We pretty much do everything except snuggle...but hey that's ok! We still sing every Mormon gospel song known to man at the top of our lungs! Well, that's all for this week. 

Kuv Hlub Koj, 

Elder Richardson

Big Jer and Little Jer

Halloween Decorations 1

Halloween Decorations

Smoking and Smoothies

This week was interesting. Well we got our new car last Tuesday! It's the same thing but a year newer. 

So our investigator Cogi started smoking again so we have to push back his baptism date for November 7 which is annoying cause so many people want him to stop smoking so badly. But i know he'll pull through eventually!

So Elder pace and I have started dieting and every morning I make us delicious fruit smoothies (I like to thinkk I make the best smoothies ever). So all week we had amazing smoothies and then today came....all we had was apples and apple juice so i made a compromise. I made a smoothie with $ apples, apple juice, 2 eggs (for protein), 4 oreos (Elder Pace decided it was our cheat day), almond milk, and an ice tray full of ice. Needless to say, it was the single most disgusting thing I have ever had in my life, but it was our breakfast for the day so we drank every last drop!

That's about it for this week though! Love you all!

Kuv Hlub Koj!

Elder Richardson

P.S.- I've started saying my prayers in Hmong now!!

Air Bags don't feel so nice

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been awesome!!! Last week I had the opportunity to go to Yosemite and it was soooooooo much fun!!! Some members took us and it was lots of fun!!! i got to hike 12 miles which was amazing!! Not much else happened that was too exciting this week.  We had to 2 investigators drop us this week which was disappointing but we are bouncing back hard by parking our car a block a way from our appointments and talking to EVERYONE we see on the way!! We have about 7 new appointments this next week because of it!!

Ok so here's a story that happened on this wonderful preparation day today, i was driving down the road and my light was green and apparently this lady in the turn lane on the other side thought her light was green too no she turned right in front of me. I put both feet on the brake and slammed them down as hard as I could!  I hit her front of the car and honestly I felt like I was in an explosion. Just to let you all know, airbags don't feel as awesome as they look. And mine didn't excatly work all the way and I ended up hitting my head on the steering wheel causing a massive headache. Funny thing is the girl that pulled in front of us got out and immediately said it was my fault. i just kind of looked at her and with a smile on my face said, "Hi nice to meet you too. I'm not too hurt just a bad headache. I'm Elder Richardson. Are you ok Ma'am?" She was very surprised and finally realized that she was kind of mean in what she did and said sorry. Other than a massive headache and whiplash I am pretty much ok. My companion got out without a scratch though! I know the Lord definitely protected the both of us from getting too injured though and i am so thankful for that! But ya that about wraps it up for the week . i love you all sooo much! Till next week!!!

Kuv Hlub Kaj!

Elder Richardson

Our Car

Bad Headache After Accident

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.