Wednesday, February 25, 2015

February 25, 2015 New Companion, Elder Essler.

Hey!
            This week's been pretty good. I had to say goodbye to Elder Cloward which stunk, he is an awesome guy, he will be missed! Anyways I was in a trio all day Thursday and so we made sure to clean the apartment really well. Friday was transfers, and we had to wake up really early to go help a sister move her stuff, and she had a ton of stuff, it took my trio and her three roommates to take all her stuff. It was ridiculous, hopefully she will down size!
            So we went to transfers and president Morgan talked a lot about a training we are going to have tomorrow, two of the 70 will be coming to talk to us, one is the head of the missionary department and the other is high up in the missionary department also, it sounds like a pretty big deal. They are going to have us take a break from Facebook for a while too which is interesting. So I'm excited to see what is going to go down. So the rest of Friday was basically waiting for my new companion Elder Essler from Perry Utah, to come down from New Paltz, so while I was waiting I got roped into helping some Spanish missionaries do a proselyting activity, I basically stood outside in the cold for two hours and held a sign because I don't speak Spanish. But I was still serving so that's cool! Then Elder Essler got here and I took him to the apartment and he started unpacking, (it took three days) then we headed out to teach for the evening. Saturday we got to go to the missionary leadership council in Scarsdale, usually only zone leaders go but President Morgan wanted to have district leaders go also so I showed up. It was really good, we talked about how to be leaders and how the white handbook is still scripture. I guess alot of missionary's think it's outdated and no longer relevant because we have iPads, but if that's the case, the Book of Mormon is no longer relevant because we don't engrave metal plates. But that's just my view. I really enjoyed the conference though. Sunday was pretty awesome. I had the opportunity to give Sait the priesthood today which is awesome!. He's such a solid guy and he has come back to the church with such a awesome desire. He is solid. Also our investigator Penelope got me a birthday present of some "Burton" shirts which was super nice of her! And she came to sacrament which is even better! It was a really awesome Sunday. Monday was pretty mediocre, we had zone meeting and that was really the highlight, yesterday was alright too, it was busy we got the mail and I got the little post card things you guys sent out! They are awesome! Thank you so much! And today we are going up to Harlem to check out the target up there and tonight is really busy with lessons and stuff! Anyways have a great week!


Elder Richards

Teaching with the Son's of Mosiah!
Saying good bye to Elder Cloward.
Elder Essler

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

February 18, 2015 Service Project!

Hello! 
   This weeks been a really good one! I've really enjoyed it! Thursday we did a huge service project for a place called "Project Renewal", it's a detox program for men, so basically they have these men addicted to alcohol come and live there for a handful of days in this facility while they learn about breaking the addiction cycle and stuff like that, we painted a room that was full of beds. It took a
while but we got it done! It was pretty fun! The next day was pretty cool! We were at Grand Central Station because Steven wanted to take us to lunch and we got free reordering from a huge old spice vending machine! So that's handy! I'm gonna be smelling nice for s while! Valentine's Day was alright, the highlight of the day was handing out free hot chocolate to taxi drivers, I was giving some to a driver and a drunk British woman in the back seat started asking me questions about the church, so I start talking to her about prophets and how we are Christians, then she told me to get in the car with her because she wanted to take me on a trip, so I was like what the bones? Anyways I told her I love what I do and thanked her for the offer but no thank you. Then the light changed and the taxi driver took off. That was the highlight of the day, 
   We found out our returning less active Sait is a DJ he writes his own music and stuff too so I'm going to have to check it out when I get home! Sunday was awesome we got two new potential investigators which is totally awesome! And Sait is going to get the priesthood next Sunday which will be totally rad! Monday was my birthday and it was really fun! We had so many food appointments and we were busy all day! And in the evening I thought we were going to a family's FHE but instead they had a little birthday party for me! It was really kind of them! I loved it too! Monday was a good day! Then yesterday we mostly packed elder Clowards stuff and got him ready to head home! Which is good! He's gonna enjoy it, he is sad to go though! I also got my birthday packages yesterday! Which were totally awesome! I love them! Anyways all in all a great week! We have seen gods hand in the work a ton! And miracles are everywhere! 
Birthday treats!
   
Us Missionaries


Birthday treats!
Have a great week!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

February 11, 2015 Thrills of the subway!

This weeks been pretty good!
   Thursday was pretty good. We taught a lesson way down in the financial district which is unusual! We were there a lot this week! We taught a returning less active about how repentance wipes away sin and guilt and that he doesn't need to feel bad about the past once he repents then Friday another one of our returning less actives took us to dinner, he is such a solid guy. He is so happy to come back to church. He is really solid. Friday we also went down to the financial district again to have a elder who served here from Kazakhstans wedding certificate endorsed, but the office closed literally once we got there. So that was a no go, Saturday we taught lessons we had our bible study but only one of our investigators showed up and she was the only one, but we still taught her! Sunday we stayed busy with church and meetings which is nice to have meetings that stay the same every week. Monday we called a lot of our less active list and set up times to meet with them. So that's good! Steven got his mission call too! He's going to the St. George mission! It will be cool! He is so excited! Then yesterday we delivered some homeless shelter stuff for most of the day. 
   One crazy event that happened this week is I was on the subway and a midget with a huge orange beard came on the subway and started telling me all about his life, he came here from Ireland and went to Georgia to be a actor but he has absolutely no identification with him, so he started telling me it's impossible for him to get a job, and then he told me that I fear the unknown and that I'm afraid of fear which was pretty random, anyways he then asked if I would give him 14 dollars so he could buy a leprechaun suit so he could go get money from tourists in Times Square. So that was a highlight. 
   Another weird thing I saw was this guy with his cat just sitting on his head on the subway and he would badger you for a dollar if you took a picture of him, he was really interesting. We didn't get a pic because he started badgering us. 
   Anyways it's been a pretty good week! 

Love you all!

Elder Richards


Watch out for Leprechauns


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

February 4, 2015 Book of Mormon Yoga Class???


Hello!
   This week has been pretty good! We have been teaching awesome lessons lately! We got Saits records into our ward now which is awesome! We taught him about the priesthood and how it's organized and how it blesses us, it was awesome! We are working to have him get the priesthood soon! He's such a solid guy!
   Saturday we cleaned the baptismal font to make sure it's super clean for whoever uses it next, because in the past there has been hair in it, which is gross but not anymore! Fast Sunday was awesome, the testimonies were rad, then in a lesson we talked a lot about the enabling power of the atonement and the difference between faith and knowledge it was really good! We also have been challenging members of our ward to give out a book or Mormon and so far two have done it which is awesome! I think it's going to turn out well! We had zone training on Monday, it was pretty good. We got some snow also but it wasn't horribly bad! Just cold! I got food poisoning or something on Monday but it was not fun, we also went on splits that night so I had Elder Holtom over, then yesterday we taught a lesson in the morning and tried some street contacting but it was really cold!    We have been shoveling a lot of snow here! We shovel the temple pretty much whenever it snows, it's pretty good! We are starting a bible study class! We work with a lot of Asians who don't know anything about the bible so we are hoping to help them with their understanding.
   Nothing super crazy happened this week! So that's good! We are trying to find some of our recent converts that have been missing for a while so that's keeping us pretty busy!  
   We are doing good here! Penelope is doing good! She's currently in Boston with her friends but she should be back soon! She came to church two Sunday's ago which was a huge step and she seems really willing to come to family home evenings and ward activities which is awesome! She still has struggles understanding the church and she is very strong willed so it's either all or nothing with her! But we are going to slowly work out all her concerns then she should be good!
   Johns doing good! He attends a different ward because one of his friends is there and he is a ward missionary in it too! We are still meeting with him too! We give him the new member lessons! He is really awesome! 
   We have a new potential investigator from England we haven't met her yet but we have talked on the phone and we hope to meet soon! So most of our our investigators that pan out are all member referrals, the others either bible bash or are insane!
   I do focus on the sisters too! We have really awesome sisters in our district, they add so much to the mission here! 
  There is a really interesting ward member in the mid single adult branch that meets in our building who wanted to do a "Book of Mormon yoga class" it got shot down so she brought it to our ward, the concept is that you do a yoga pose then relate it to a Book of Mormon story of person, we passed her to the bishop, who decided that it may be a good idea for a different time, and ward. So that was interesting! 
   Anyways have a great week!

Elder Richards


Me, Elder Cloward and Ray the really awesome mission leader in Poughkeepsie

Our Philippine boy band

Me and some missionaries in our district

Times Square with snow