4-3-17 Listen to Promptings

April 3, 2017

Hello Everyone!!!,

This week was absolutely awesome!!!

We went on exchanges Monday night to Tuesday evening. Elder Allen came to my area. We definitely had a miracle happen on that exchange. On the way back from service with one of our investigators, I felt prompted to back track a little bit and go down a street where another one of our investigators lived. We got in front of her house, still not knowing what exactly we were doing there, and went and knocked on her door. When she opened the door I was up front with her and told her we felt prompted to come knock on her door. She looked as if she was about to burst into tears. Come to find out, she was mourning the death of a friend who had just recently passed away. It was a very amazing experience and I am SO glad that I listened to that prompting!

General Conference was amazing!!!

Sorry this is so short! I love you all though and want you to know that I know this gospel is true with ALL my heart!!!

Love ya!,

Elder Richardson

3-27-17 They bring the Spirit with them

March 27, 2017

Hi EVERYONE!!

Elder Lopez and I were able to find 5 new investigators this week!

1. Roland is a guy that has met with missionaries before. He's having a hard time believing in God. We keep trying to get him to have a lesson at the church, but it hasn't worked out yet.

2. Elder Lopez and Elder Kennick (we were on exchanges for the night with the Zone Leaders) and they picked up a guy named Tony. Elder Lopez and I originally street contacted him and did service for him (we helped him wash his car. He has tried to meet missionaries in the past, but they never came by even after they scheduled a return appointment!

3. We street contacted a girl named Karisha that goes to South Valley (Christian church here in Lemoore). She is opened minded and is willing to meet with us! We also found out that she is friends with a less active that we know!!! Maybe we'll be able to bring the less active back into the gospel more fully while teaching her friend! 

4 and 5. Elder Lopez and I were super late to an appointment, but stopped by this Spanish dude and he said we could ask his wife if we could come back...what happened next was crazy. We walk in and the wife is balling her eyes out and then the husband just walks out while we're standing in the house!! They definitely needed missionaries when we came by. The husband came back in after a little bit and a lot of the atmosphere of the house changed. They speak Spanish (thank goodness for my companion knowing Spanish, but the wife knows English). But they want us to teach them instead of the Sisters just because of the experience we had. We're excited to go see them tomorrow!!

I love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Richardson

Baptisms are so awesome!!

I sat in lipstick that some kid smudged on fireplace

      

3-20-17 Transfered to Lamoore

March 20, 2017

So this is going to be really short. I'm in Lemoore. My companion is AMAZING! His name is Elder Lopez and he's from Houston, Texas! Lemoore has a naval base here. It's a great place and I love it! Love you all!!

Elder Richardson

3-13-17 Good People Everywhere

March 13, 2017

BIG NEWS!

I'm getting transferred! I'm going to be transferred to a city called Lemoore, which is still in the southern part of my mission.

I'm sad to leave Elder Blume and the wonderful people of the Exeter Ward, but I am excited for the new opportunity I have to go serve and love the people in Lemoore.

On Monday we dropped a couple of investigators...in summary, they basically tried to hide from us and make us think that they weren't home...but hey completely failed and it was almost more sad… all the effort they put in to trying to hide from us rather than just telling us they weren't interested...oh well though! Just means that there is someone else that is prepared out there for us to go find!!!

On Thursday we went and saw a lady named Norma! She is a really kind Christian lady who definitely loves to help out those who don't always have the best of living circumstances. Unfortunately, because of this charity she has, she is basically getting kicked out of her home because her neighbors don't like the "riff raff" hanging around in their neighborhood. She really is just trying to help others though. But she will be moving probably to Visalia by the end of the month. As we taught her, she eventually told us she had a granddaughter who gave her a Book of Mormon! It's actually a nice triple combination! We committed her to read the introduction to The Book of Mormon and hope to go back soon and teach her how we got the Book of Mormon and that we have a living prophet here upon the earth today!

On Saturday we were on fire. We just were talking to people all throughout the day! We didn't really find too many people, but it just felt good to go talk to people and attempt to share the gospel with them!! 

I love you all!!!! Have a great week! Pray that I will have another Elder’s bike or just a bike in general for at least these next 2 weeks!! 

Elder Richardson

Elder Edwards and Elder Richardson

3-6-17 Testimony / Face2Face

March 6, 2017

Hello EVERYONE!!!!

This week’s email is going to be a little short because I spent a lot of time watching he LDS Face2Face with President Eyering and Elder Holland, as well as trying to find the new first vision video...I found it! It is awesome! If you haven't seen it already go to history.lds.org/firstvision

It is an incredible video that portrays the real event that happened and that I get to testify of almost daily when the opportunity arrives!!! I know it happened with all my heart, might, and mind and I know that Joseph Smith really was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration! How grateful I am that this single experience happened! It has changed my life and the life of many others...FOREVER! I know that because of the Restoration of the Gospel that the Priesthood was restored to the earth and that through it, I am able to be sealed to my family FOREVER. I cannot tell you how happy I am for that. I love my family and I love this gospel SOOOOO MUCH!

As for this week, we found 5 new investigators! We would have found 6...but turns out the person gave us a wrong address and a wrong phone number...bummer right? Sometimes I just wish people would just be honest and tell us that they aren't interested! But hey...it happens! 

Love you! Have a FANTASTIC WEEK! And don't forget to wish my little sister a Happy 7th Birthday his week!

HLUB NEJ, 

Elder Richardson

2-27-17 Tracting Late

February 27, 2017

Hello!

So unfortunately, the baptism we had scheduled for this week DID NOT go through with. Some concerns came up. We hopefully will be able to go back over and settle the concerns our investigator has!

This week was still pretty fun though! On Thursday I got to go on exchanges with Elder James (Spanish missionary serving in Visalia)! We had a pretty good time! Knocked doors and talked with lots of people! We had a fun experience right before we exchanged back though! It was probably like 8:47ish or so at night and we were going to be meeting the other Elders at a destination to exchange back a 9. SO instead of just going to our place pf meeting and waiting there for the last 10 or so minutes, we decided to go knock some doors! Now, usually, I don't think people appreciate their door being knocked on so late at night (especially from missionaries!), but we had fun doing it anyways! We prayed and asked God that with one of the doors we knocked on, the guy would be happy to see us. We went and knocked on his door, and Gus (the man's name) opened the door still in sleep mode! So he was all smiley and just told us to come back another time! It was awesome!! 

We also went on exchanges with the zone leaders (Elder Van Vleet and Elder Arrebalo) on Saturday. Elder Blume and Elder Van Vleet went to town in Farmersville!  Meanwhile, Elder Arrebalo and I had some learning experiences on our own. Overall, a FUN exchange! I also got to do a baptismal interview for the Zone Leaders 9 year old investigator that got baptized on Sunday! I was a really neat experience! 

Love you all!!! Have a great week!!

Elder Richardson 

2-20-17 Picked Weed / Bore Testimony / Baptized

February 20, 2017

A lot happened this last week! 

Monday: We went with Brother Rogers to an investigators house. This investigator had some sort of bong or contraption to smoke weed with on his front table in his living room. He apologized at first for having it there, but then said, "I figure if the government is ok with us smoking weed, then God must be ok with it too." Haha we've got some teaching to do! He's really cool though! A really nice guy as well that works a lot!

Tuesday: We had exchanges with the Visalia 6th Ward Elders (Elder Jensen and Elder Petit). I went with Elder Jensen. While on the exchange, we saw some guy pulling weeds, so we went and helped him! Come to find out, he thinks Mormons are "deceived". And after we helped him, he started egging on a Bible bash!! We didn't join though. We testified of truth and then left. Glad we got to help him at least!!! 

Wednesday: I went with another missionary to a meeting in Fresno and learned about how to be a better leader. Afterwards, I went on splits with my Ward Mission Leader to go see Ray and Sasha to follow up about how they did with the Stop Smoking Program. They didn't make it very long unfortunately. I ended up teaching them faith unto repentance and testified of prayer at the end. After the lesson, I asked my Ward Mission Leader how I did and he told me I "kindly rebuked" them...Which I feel kind of bad about. Bu later that night, Ray sent a ext saying that he and his family appreciate us!

Thursday: On Thursday, we went on exchanges with the Farmersville Elders (Elder Facer and Elder Gibson). Elder Gibson cam with me into my area. We found 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS that day!! It was pretty awesome! We were talking to people like crazy. We also went and saw Laura and went over her baptismal program and a couple of other things for her baptism!

Friday: We went and saw Jessica with Brother and Sister Peterson! At the end of the lesson, Jessica told us she wanted to be baptized in running water....or basically, a river. We have to get permission for that! But we'll see!!! At least they want to get baptized right!?!

Saturday: We had Laura's baptism!! It was AWESOME to see her get baptized!! After the baptism, we went with some members that took Laura and got pizza! 

Great things happening and GREAT things to come here in the Exeter Ward! I love you all!!! 

Elder Richardson