July 27, 2016 Set a date for Kenny!

Week Update

           

Highlight #1 

            We had a branch BBQ on Saturday which was pretty neat. We had what I guess is a ton of less actives come, because there were a ton of people there who weren't there on Sunday. Anyways it was all pretty fun, there were horseshoes flying all afternoon. Elder Matson was really into that. After all was said and done I think the best part was we got to take home the leftover hamburgers.

Highlight #2

            Sunday I got to speak in church and it went pretty well. My topic was keeping the faith and I hope I at least said something useful. I used a lot of quotes and talked about the iron rod.

Highlight #3

            The car has a bumpin AC

Highlight #4

            This week we have been getting some really random isolated thunderstorms, but they have been really cool as well. I guess this part of the state is in a drought as well. But it's been nice to have the rain and thunder! 

Sort of highlight #5

            Elder Matson broke a tooth or something so we headed to the Dentist on the other side of the mission twice this week. It all taken care of now, but it sure took a lot of time. He is feeling a lot better now though which is good.

Highlight #6

            We got to help a member’s sister move yesterday. We spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon helping these ladies move. They were really nice. And one of them was a first responder during 9/11 It was really neat to hear her story. She has gone through cancer since then and the Doctors think it was due to all the crap that was in the air from the aftermath. It was neat though to hear how she would do it again if she needed. I'm proud to be an American

Highlight #7

            Our Investigator Kenny called us Monday morning and told us that he has decided on a baptismal date. Which is great he is thinking August 4^th.  He has had a couple of baptismal dates in the past. But we are hoping that this is the one. Kenny leads a really interesting life but he is a good guy. He has got a ton of health problems though which sort of stinks. But he keeps a positive attitude. 

That was pretty much this week! Hope you all have a good one!

Elder Richards

July 20, 2016 First week in New Paltz was great!

Week update.

            This has been my first week in New Paltz, it's been great and I love it. It is definitely the backwater part of the state of New York. It's pretty fun though! Everything is super green and there is a state park in the area which is pretty neat! Everything is super spread out though and that is the only weird part. There will just been corn fields or forest for a couple of miles and then all of a sudden there will just be three random houses and then back to corn fields I’m having a great time though! There are deer that live in our back yard but anyways I will get to the week

Week Highlight #1

            There is a Cracker Barrel in the zone we hit it on the way back from a meeting on Thursday and it was a treat! A ton of food for a small price and its way good. A chicken fried steak is always a treat.

Week Highlight #2

            I met pretty much all of the investigators this week and they all seem to be classic car enthusiasts which Is rad! Kenny our investigator is a retired tennis big shot and used to have a ton of nice cars back in the day, He had a baptismal date for a couple of weeks ago but he lost a ton of money in a sketchy bet and he told us he almost got his legs broken! I didn't know the mafia was in the boonies. So he didn't get baptized that day so we are thinking now about a date in early August.  I met another one of our investigators named Jack Klix, He is a old Volvo gear head. And has a ton of old Volvos. But we were chatting with him. He's a very no nonsense guy He told me he doesn't believe in the word of wisdom or the law of tithing. So we will have fun with that. All in all he is a great guy though!

Week Highlight #3

            The Branch is definitely a branch. I met with the branch mission leader on Friday and he was telling us to focus mostly on less active work, so I figured ok, we will have a list of 30 people and most of them will have probably moved. Fast Forward to Sunday and we cruise into church and there is like 30 people and the records have like 150 so we have some work to do. There is a lot of recently less active and part family less actives as well so it will be fun!

Week Highlight #4

            One of the less actives lives in a Rest Home so we were able to go visit him and he was telling us a ton of stories about when he was a US Marshal and it was pretty neat. There are a lot of really cool people that are out in the sticks here who have cool stories and are now just hanging low. But anyways he was telling us about when he was in Vietnam and about his trip to Gettysburg, then about some of the people he arrested when he was working for the government.

Week Highlight #5

            This area is one where the elders give a lot of service which is pretty fun. We chop a lot of wood and move a lot of stuff for people.

In the upcoming week we are digging up a stream bed. It's fun though to be able to do some physical service.

Week Highlight #6

            I found out that it's not safe to drink the water here! So I've been drinking bottled water! I feel like I'm in Alaska! I want to take some samples and send them home to see if the rumors are fact or fiction!

That is pretty much all the highlights of the week I can think of right now! It's been great! Have a great week everybody.

Elder Richards

July 13, 2016 Transferred to New Paltz

Week Update, 

            This last week has been a good one! Here is what happened. Wednesday in the latter part of P-day we went to the World Trade Center and we got to take an elevator to the top which was pretty fun. It was neat to be that high up, we got some sweet pictures of it. I will attach them below. Later that evening we had dinner with Ray Smith, He lives in Poughkeepsie, but he has an apartment on the Upper East Side, so he comes down but he took us to dinner and it was really fun. 

            On Thursday we got to go visit Sally Kader, She is the UN lady we ran into a while ago. Anyways she called us and wanted us to come visit her at her office. So we went over there. And it was pretty neat! I didn't take any pictures which really stinks but oh well! Anyways she had a ton of interns that work for her and she had one who was a transgender from Singapore and she was in the army there and also she went to prison there for attacking her mother with a knife! I don't know how she got out but she is a student at NYU and interning for a peace organization at the UN. Anyways she was basically raising up an insurrection at Sally's offices and turning the other interns against Sally and encouraged laziness. And she would do weird chants in the office with all the blinds closed and lights turned off. Anyways she was being nuts one day and threatened to kill Sally so she fired her and all of her other interns. She was having a rough day so she felt inspired to call us. And we hadn't talked to her for a long time. So we went over there and talked to her, we blessed the office she has, and gave her a blessing as well. Then we talked about temples. And she offered to hire us as replacement interns. This was pretty neat. We told her we would think about it after we got home from our missions but it would be neat to work so close with the UN. 

            Friday we were at the Fed-ex Store while elder Burton Mailed some stuff home and I was fiddling around with one of the Kiosks designing calendars. When this guy who I ran into on the subway way back when I was with elder DeGraw came walking in. On first Glance this gentleman looks crazy, but talking to him he seems pretty sane, anyways when I was with elder Degraw we told him to come to church and we would set up times we would meet weekly during church. Which I regret doing. Anyways, he didn't come to church that Sunday and I forgot about him. Then we saw him all this time later. So I started talking to him and he was telling me about how badly he wanted to meet with us. And how he wishes we would have called him. I started to feel so guilty. He then told us about how he has been lately. And how he is diagnosed with kidney cancer and isn't expected to make it past March. I felt horrible at this point so I apologize to him for my laziness and set up a time we could meet and told him we would see to it he was baptized soon.  Needless to say I had a long prayer that night. God was giving me someone to teach and I was to prideful to teach him. I felt horrible. Thankfully God gave me a second chance and I didn't let him down this time. 

Saturday we got transfer calls, They are combining my area with the morning side heights Ward elders, and I got sent up to New Paltz NY, So I made sure that the elders knew all of our investigators and Made sure they would meet with Wade (the guy from the fed-ex place) I guess I missed my opportunity to teach him due to my negligence but I'm glad at least he will get taught. Saturday night we killed what we think is the last of the mice infestation. I and Elder Newbold took the night shift, and killed a big mouse! And we also got the crap scared out of us by a cockroach I caught it on film so I will also attach it. (you have to watch the whole video it's hysterical.) 

Sunday was good, it was fun too run into all the people I taught and interacted with. We saw Bryn Bass, she is a recent convert from the morning side heights ward, but she had me baptize her for some reason. Anyways she gave me here final parting wisdom. Afterwards we went to Central Park with Dwight and had a good visit with him there.  Monday was a lot of packing and stuff. And then yesterday were transfers. New Paltz is in the Boonies. I actually really like it though. It's way nice to have some quiet and be in nature. I'm really looking forward to my time here. I don't know how much work is here right now, but I'm sure if there isn't a lot we can find some. The branch here is really small. It's where Elder Essler started his mission. There is a lot of need in this branch, not only spiritual and temporal. But they need strong backs and weak minds. So I've heard from the few members I've already met that they will be having us doing a lot of physical service which I'm excited for. My Companion is elder Matson from Orange County CA. Elder Dutson one of my favorite comps trained him and he seems really cool so far. Today we are running errands getting settled in. The apartment here is super nice! The nicest one I've had on my mission! My desk is legendary! And we have a fake fireplace and a deck! It's great! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Richards 

July 6, 2016 Happy 4th of July!

Hello all, this week has been a pretty quiet one here are the updates.

            We had another solid lesson with Alex, he has had some struggles with his family and some legal issues and his dog has been sick, and this guy loves his dog! We had a really good lesson where we talked about forgiveness and how we work on forgiving others and why trials come to us. He really opened up to us and it was great. It was a wonderful lesson. Hopefully things will get better for him!

            This week we have set a bunch of traps and caught a ton of mice in the apartment which is pretty neat. They are all over the place but we keep catching them which is good. Hopefully they will be cleared out soon. The Fourth of July was pretty uneventful, I've been really sick the last couple of days, since Saturday but we had lunch with a member, (and we saw a fight break out which was neat) but then we went home and I yakked it all. So that stunk. I’m feeling pretty good today, which is good.

            Nothing much is really happening. A lot of people were out of town this week which stinks and it's already got hot today. It's usually nice when it's raining but it stinks after the sun comes out.
It's been wet lately and today is the first sunny day we have had in a while and it's super humid. I've sweating like crazy. 
           Visiting with the Brandner family was a treat, it seems so long ago I forgot it was this week, it was weird to see people from home it seems like home is a whole different world, mostly because we deal with a entirely different crowd here. It was fun though.
 Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Richards

June 29, 2016 Teaching two great lessons and interviews.

This week has been a pretty good one,

          Last Wednesday we went to the museum of modern art, it was pretty modern. We had a good time though.

          Thursday was pretty good also, I can't really remember anything notable about Thursday other than we had a lesson with Alex that went pretty well.

          Friday we had an appointment with Dwight, he really hates his job and doesn't want to go we were talking about that. Luckily he is quoting soon.

          Saturday was also a quieter day. Nothing really notable.

          Sunday was good. I got to speak in church and it went well I think. I was hoping it would be useful to someone! A lot of our members weren't there due to the big gay pride parade and just business trips and vacations. So that sort of stunk. Elder’s quorum was really small there were only four of us.

          Monday was good! We were running around looking up less actives most of the day, we ran into a couple that were very kind, but didn't want to listen to us.        Yesterday we had an interview with president and they got running late and it went super long. It ended up taking most of the day. But afterwards we had a dinner appointment which was nice, we went with the YSA elders to one of their dinner appointments it was a treat!

          Today elder Burton is going to a Broadway play so I'm splitting with another elder, It should be a good day.

Elder Richards

June 22, 2016 Giving lots of service!

Hello all, this week has been a relatively quiet one! But that's alright, here are the highlights. On   Sunday our investigator Alex came to church which was really good. The branch president had a meeting with him during elder quorum and they discussed being gay and being a member of the church and what sacrifices that would require him to make. Our branch president is a really cool guy, and I'm glad he handled that conversation for us. Anyways Alex is still doing pretty well, it will likely be a while before he is ready to be baptized. But his testimony is still growing really well!

            Saturday we went and volunteered at Central Park and had a pretty good time, we were originally scheduled to have people sign waivers but a lot of volunteers didn't show up so we got to help in all other sorts of ways. The one job that we spent the most time at is keeping people in line and not butting for a paddle board ride. Citi bank brought a huge pool into the middle of Central Park and hired people to give short paddle board lessons and we got to keep the lines straight. I was amazed at how some people waited four hours for a three minute paddle board ride. I would have bounced way before then. I did get a free hat and t-shirt though which was pretty cool. Anyways those were really the highlight this week. Hope you all have a good one!

Elder Richards

June 15, 2016 The book of Mormon is the word of God!

Week update. June 15, 2016

This week has been a pretty good one, really one of the best highlights is our investigator Alex. A couple of weeks ago he said his testimony of the Book of Mormon was questionable, he said he hadn't found anything wrong with it but he didn't t know if it was true or not. But that he would continue praying about it and thinking about it. And then in our most recent lesson with him he told us that as crazy as it sounds he believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. And he also said he believes that Joseph Smith was in fact a prophet. Which is great news, his current concern is he knows that these things are true but he also wonders if other churches are true as well, so we are going to be heading that up soon. It's amazing to see his progress from when we first met him and he thought Mormons were a cult to now. It's been awesome. One thing that I've been thinking about this week is how cool captain Moroni is, I am striving to be like him. Because, “the devil had no power over him” which is pretty neat. So I'm working on trying to be like him in addition to Christ like attributes. Also one thing that has been on my mind is how we often profess to have the faith to do big things and we will do what is asked of us often if it's a big thing. But I've been thinking about how it's often we are asked to do the little things and how it requires less faith then say, leaving your home and moving west. But yet we all struggle to do them. So I've been trying to be more concentrated on showing my faith by doing the small things that are asked faithfully. Most of this week was fairly quiet but we are out and about. It's been a fairly cool week which has been nice! Anyways that is this week! Have a great week at Strawberry Days! 

Elder Richards

Throw back picture to the days of Mosiah!

June 8, 2016 Elder Bennett visits the mission!

Week Update

 This week was a pretty quiet one, mostly because I was down with the sickness, I got some sort of food poisoning or something, but we will get into that later. 

            Thursday was pretty good, Elder Burton went to Scarsdale for a meeting that the returning missionaries go to so I was in a trio all day but it was good. We got to do some really solid contacting in Central Park. Which is always a good thing. It’s super nice in the park right now. Everything has greened up and it's beautiful. It was hot though which did stink. But it was good to talk to people.

            Friday was the start of me feeling sick which really stunk. I spent most of the day in bed or in the bathroom

            Saturday I was sick as well.

            Sunday was good though I was feeling better, we went to church and it was good. We had our Investigator named Alex come. He is probably our most solid investigator right now which is good. We had a wild Gospel Principles lesson that he attended. We were talking about final judgment, and our teacher gets really side tracked and was talking about all sorts really deep doctrine and stuff. And we got into the three degrees of glory inside the celestial kingdom and we got lost. Then we started talking about sons of perdition and outer darkness and that was wild. We had to clear up that it is pretty hard to become a son of perdition. One of the members in attendance said some crazy stuff that offended our investigator so that was wild. Anyways in our next class before we started we were able to clear up any questions or concerns with Alex. And he's a really good guy so he didn't really care. 

            Monday was quiet, we had district meeting which went well. Elder Burton had to practice the piano for mission tour, so I ended up splitting with Elder Newbold. He is a really good guy. 

            Tuesday was really good, we had mission tour with Elder Randall K. Bennett. And it went really well he is a really good guy. He taught us all sorts of stuff and I feel like a lot of it can be used really well in the branch. Out of all the general authority's that have visited the mission I think this one was one of the best ones that I learned the most at. He taught us all sorts of cool stuff about the premortal life and how to be good missionaries and a ton of other good stuff. I really enjoyed it! And afterwards we even had a dinner appointment which was awesome! 

            Today is Elder Burtons birthday so I told him he gets to decide what we are doing. And I don't think he has figured it out yet. So I don't know what we are doing today! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Richards

June 1, 2016 Finally getting to teach Anthony!

Week update

This week has been a pretty average one, here is what went down.

            Thursday was a quiet day. Oscar cancelled and wanted to meet on Saturday instead. So most of the day was spent doing finding.

            Friday's highlight was our investigator named Dwight, who has been investigating the church for a little over two years now took us to dinner with the girl from Utah who introduced him to the church. So that was pretty fun, it was a good time. Dwight is an interesting guy, he knows pretty much all he needs to know about the church. He is just missing something that is holding him back from being baptized. Hopefully we can figure it out soon. It was still fun to go to dinner with him though.

            Saturday was pretty good, it got really hot outside, in the morning we did a meals on wheels service opportunity, we delivered a ton of meals to elderly people in this huge senior apartment building. So that was pretty fun. It was Fleet week this week as well which was pretty fun. All that really entailed was a ton of sailors and marines everywhere, and they got sick discounts everywhere! The highlight of fleet week was they had one of those helicopter airplane hybrids (like the ones at the start of the first transformers) flying around. Saturday night brought with it transfer calls, Elder Burton is staying another cycle and he goes home at the end of it.        

             Sunday was a pretty quiet day, our investigators weren't able to come to church due to it being Memorial Day weekend. So that sort of stunk.

            Monday was pretty good, once again it was wicked hot. The highlight of the day was we got to teach Dwight. He opened up to us during this lesson and we were really able to understand some of his concerns and help him to overcome them. I think it went really well.

            Tuesday was a weird transfer day, although neither Elder Burton nor I got transferred we had to go up to Inwood to a weird technology training meeting. It seemed a lot like a transfer meeting though. So that was fun. Elder Moss one of our roommates went home and we got Elder Tatafu from Alaska taking his place. Later in the afternoon Anthony actually showed up and we got to teach him. We told him that he really needs to commit more and show up much more regularly.

            Today we are I think headed to the met which will be nice. I think. Anyways it has been a pretty good week. Hope you guys all have a great week! Also, I just remembered on Tuesday we woke up way too early to go play kickball as a zone, I don't quite know if it was worth the lost sleep to stand around in a field. But a cop showed up and played for bit so that was fun.

Elder Richards

Early morning soccer!

Manhattan Elders

Keeping the spirits high!

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