May 25, 2016 We had some good meetings this week.

Week update, May 25, 2016

This last week was pretty good,

            Wednesday night we had a solid member present lesson with our investigator Alex, we went over to a member in the branches apartment and it went really well. We were able to find some of his concerns and help resolve them.

            Thursday was quieter, we weekly planned, and Elder Burton had a doctor’s appointment. Nothing too crazy!

            Friday was quieter as well. We had pretty much all of our appointments that day cancel which stinks, so we spent a lot of time trying to contact people in Central Park. It went pretty good.                           Saturday was pretty cool, the sisters had an investigator who we would talk to sometimes, and she wanted me to baptize her so that was a great experience. I didn't get a picture though so you guys will have to take my word for it.

            Sunday was pretty good as well. Church went well. Gospel principles class was a roller coaster ride like usual. We always get a lot of opinions and gospel facts without sources. This last Sunday it was a good thing that our investigators weren't able to make it to gospel principles. Anyways Elder Johnson came to visit the mission with his parents so it was fun to see him and meet his parents.

            Monday we had district meeting. It went pretty well. We went to a pizza place on the upper west side for lunch, it was pretty fun. The place we went is infamous for really big slices. So that's always a fun place to go. On Monday night we were able to go to Alex's house and teach him the plan of salvation. It went really well! We were able to get through it which is really cool and he did a really good job of understanding it. And he always has great questions.        Yesterday I got my temple recommend renewed in the morning which was really good. Then in the afternoon we were able to teach one of our investigators, Dwight so that was real nice. We had a member come, and he sort of led the lesson all over the place, but I think Dwight got the jist of it.

            Today we went up to Harlem to look a guy up and he wasn’t home, so we went to come back down to the lower part of the city but the subways were all shut down so we had to take a bus, supposedly a lady fell onto the tracks and was run over. Earlier we wondered around an area called SoHo and we were looking for stores that are going out of business because they have awesome sales, we found a Ben Sherman’s store that was closing and they had suits for like $50 dollars and they are usually $300 but they were all weird colors and stuff! It was a quiet day in a quiet area. The President has asked us to do a lot of service to fill the days so we work in central park sometimes.

            Next week is transfers and I have no clue what is going to happen! But I will do whatever the lord asks of me! Anyways hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Richards

Zone Conference

May 19, 2016 Alma academy with New Canaan youth

This week has been an alright one, here is the lowdown.

            Thursday was zone Conference. It seemed to be a long one this time around. We talked a lot about family history the restoration which is pretty fun. We got free shoe polish as well which is always a treat. One of my take always from Zone Conference was the importance of the position of my body during prayers and how to really focus as I pray. This is something I’ve been focusing on lately. All in all it was a pretty good day.

            Friday was a quiet day we did our weekly planning, and that took a long time.

            Saturday was a pretty good day, The New Canaan youth came down to the city for a youth activity called Alma academy. They got assigned a missionary to be a companion with and they spent the day with us as a missionary which was a real treat to see the people from up there and also Elder Holtom and Judd came down too, and they are my main homie’s so it was awesome to catch up with them. Me and my companion for the day had a pretty successful time which is a good thing!

            Sunday was a pretty quiet day. This is good I guess. Oscar came to church which is a good thing and he stayed for two hours.

            Monday was pretty quiet as well. We had district meeting in the morning and then spent the rest of the day contacting.

            Yesterday was a lot of not acting as well, except for we had a lesson with Oscar. It went pretty well. We invited him to attend an earlier church so he could go to all three hours.

            Today we are taking a tour of Central Park it should be pretty fun. I'm looking forward to it! Tonight we have a lesson with an investigator named Alex, he is openly gay. And he is progressing the best out of all of our investigators, anyways; we are having a lesson with him at a member’s apartment so it should be a pretty good experience I think.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Richards

Elder Holtom and I

May 11, 2016 Happy Mother's Day!

This week was a pretty good one,

            Thursday was alright, we got skunked all day and twice by the same person, so that stunk. But oh well Elder Burton had a doctor appointment, so that was a pretty nice break in the day.

            Friday was pretty quiet as well. Nothing really happened just a lot of trying to find less active people. Friday was really very similar nothing really happened.

            Saturday was a nice shake up, I got to go on a split with my roommate Elder Newbold which was fun, we spent the morning doing some service in Central Park. We did a lot of weeding but it was really fun to be able to work with dirt again. After words we were supposed to meet some people but they didn't show up which sort of stunk. We spent the evening wandering around trying to talk to people,

            Sunday was pretty good, the morning was quiet we did Weekly planning, then we went to church, and then we had dinner at the chapel then we Skyped home, it was really fun to talk to everybody at home.

It was a real treat.

            Monday we had district meeting and then we spent the day contacting. It was a bit of a long day.       Tuesday we spent the morning painting benches at Central Park which was pretty fun. Then we were supposed to have lessons with two people and then they cancelled. One cancelled twice in the same day after we rescheduled for later the day, and they didn't show up again which really stunk. ! I've been working on trying to have Heavenly Father plan our days, sometimes it's a little hard! Oscar is progressing slowly and Anthony keeps flaking on the lessons, he won't show up so we call him and reschedule for a couple of hours later then he doesn't show up then which stinks but oh well.

            Sally was the lady from the UN we haven't gotten a hold of her yet, but we plan to soon!  Not much is going on today. We are hanging out. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Richards

May 4, 2016 What a crazy few days!

Week Update,

            This week was a pretty interesting one, here is what happened.

            Thursday Morning my roommate wanted to go to this diner for breakfast, it's a diner where people who want to be on Broadway go to work when they can't get a job on Broadway, anyways it's pretty unique because they sings Broadway songs and it's pretty good. Anyways we went there for breakfast and it was pretty cool. Then after words we went to the UN to hopefully meet with the lady we met last week, so we went over there then Elder Burton didn't want to go in. So we didn't, we went back home. We went to a thing for a service opportunity we wanted to do. And then we headed home. That evening Elder Burton got really sick and started puking pretty much all night, I slept through most of it but I heard about it in the morning. Anyways the next day Elder Burton was out for the count, then in the afternoon we went to an urgent care, they are all over the city. Anyways he was in the doctor’s office for a while and after he came out they told him what causing the barfing and pain was a allergic reaction to a antibiotic he was taking so they prescribed him a ton of different medications. So we went home and he laid down again. Then in the evening he wanted to go back because his head was still hurting so we went back again. This time the doctors thought he might have appendicitis. So they sent us to the emergency room, we were there all night, Around 11:30 pm Elder Burton was in a lot of pain so they gave him morphine, after that he was pretty much out for the rest of the night. They did blood work on him and gave him a cat scan around 3 am, the rest of the time he was out. I did see some crazy stuff while waiting in the emergency room, they brought in this homeless guy, and he was wigging out. They had to strap him to his hospital bed and he was yelling and barking like a dog. Security was holding him down but from what I understand he was just being a wild guy and they ended up letting him leave I think. Or they knocked him out. It just got all quiet from him after a while, Another crazy thing that happened is an Asian lady brought her boyfriend in around 2 and he was asleep when they wheeled him in. But when he woke up he thought he had superpowers and was trying to fight the doctors, so they gave him a ton of sedatives, and a cat scan on his head. We got Roommates at 1 in the morning, it was an Asian guy and his girlfriend from Russia, The Asian dude got some medication and was out so I chatted with the Russian lady for a good while. Turns out she's from DC and she moved to the USA when she was 13. We ended talking about the church's service and humanitarian work for a good while which was nice, anyways we got discharged and got home at 6:30 right when our roommates were waking up, so I made breakfast then I went to bed. I woke up at 2 pm and Elder Burton was still out. And that's pretty much the rest of Saturday.

            Sunday we went to church and it was really good. We had 4 investigators come which was rad.

            Monday was pretty quiet, we did look ups and the sort, Elder Burton didn't feel like doing too much.

            Then yesterday we went and took a train up to Scarsdale because Elder Burton wanted to meet with president. So we went, I had a nice little relaxing session at the chapel while I waited.  Today we are going to the met, and then we are going to the temple afterwords. I hope everybody has 

a great week!

Elder Richards