Tifton Transfer 14 Week 6

March 14, 2022

, , Peru

Please forgive the lateness, just realized I forgot to press send haha 😬
WHAT is UP all you amazing people. How has it been? I got some remarks this week that it seems like I'm getting bored of writing good ole weekly, so here's to set the record straight. I just am SO excited to spend precious minutes of my pday talking to my favorite people about what in the world went on in the wonderful, God-blessed city called Tifton. Shall we get to it??(Better?)
Here we go. What can we pull out of Elder Richardsons brain. There's not much in there so it shouldn't be too hard. This week was a blur. Now usually transfer week crawls by, but not this one. Let's get the exciting details out of the way first. I'm staying in Tifton, but Elder Hansen and I won't be staying together. Too bad, he's a beast. I'll be getting Elder Branham as my comp who's an absolute legend. He was just one of our DL's over in Valdosta and now he's moving up to the promised land. He's super young and Pres just wants me to show him the ropes and hopefully turn him into a beast of a leader. He's already a stud though so we'll see who will be doing the teaching and leading. So I'm pumped. 
Teaching this week was decently solid. Some of our friends have fallen off the face of the earth, or have decided that they don't need the restored gospel right now, which is totally alright. Just not their time. But God, in his infinite goodness, provided us some more people who are hopefully willing to let God prevail in their lives! This week we felt impressed to stop at a few referrals/members/formers, and just testified about almost anything in the book to them, and we were able to find a few people who have some sincere interest in learning more. George, the Giles family, the De Jong family, the Bellamy family to name a few. We'll be meeting with them this week so stay tuned. 
And then with our main friends, they're all doing solid. Louise is so hyped for her baptism this Sunday, so please keep her in y'alls prayers that she can overcome the adversity that will come this week! James is doing good, we didn't get to meet with him because of family issues but we'll meet with him this week. Tommy is another guy we've been working with for a while, and we went over with our ward mission leader and absolutely threw down on the restoration because he has plateaued in his progress a little bit. And now he has the desire to come to church, read the Book of Mormon, and let us meet with his wife so good things coming. Overall super solid week by way of getting missionary work done, good things are coming in Tifton. 
Then lots of driving this week too. I think we calculated it out, and something like 15-16 hours. A lot of it was going to Douglas for a dentist appt, going to district councils all over Georgia, driving across our massive area, baptismal interviews all across Georgia... holy cow I'm about done haha. It gets to be pretty long sometimes, but nothing better than cruising sround the beautiful country side of Georgia, listening to Elder Holland absolutely throw down. Also if y'all have some fire devotionals or anything, send them my way. We crank these out on our drives haha. 
Honestly not a whole ton more to report on this week. Just the normal missionary grind, striving to follow the spirit to know who to visit, follow the spirit to know what to teach, and follow the spirit to know how to help people come closer to Christ. No greater feeling than the joy that comes from missionary work. We were talking with the Young Men last week about this, how being a missionary just brings so much joy. And I have gotten obsessed with realizing, and testifying that this joy, this passion, the "mantle of a missionary" or whatever you want to call it, isn't just something that 18-20 year old, full-time, proselyting missionaries have access to. It's something that we all can take advantage of. By inviting our friends to have opportunities to feel the spirit, by posting on social media about cool spiritual experiences we've had, by talking with your uber driver about how you attended church on Sunday and got to partake of the Sacrament. By not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Taking these little ways to share the gospel will bring the spirit into the lives of our friends and help change their lives, but it will also flood our lives with the spirit as well! So take a moment this week to pray, and see who you can talk to. Missionary work isn't a program, it's a cause. 
Alright I'm done. I'll hop off the soapbox. But there really is so much joy that we have access to. So take advantage of it! That's about all I have for this week, keep being amazing missionaries, y'all are the ones that make this whole process work for us out here! Have a good week, and remember that Jesus loves y'all and so do I! 
Elder Richardson

Scripture of the Week: Romans 1:16/D&C 4:3
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

Photos: 
1. Birria Tacos (literally best tacos you'll ever eat)2. Sunset3. Peanut Butter & Jesus party vans4. Tifton leadership call (idk 😂)5-6. Sis Lewis money tree7. Lunch at Mi Lady Bakery (fire)