Date
October 31, 2016
Area
Boulder Colorado
Companion
Elder Layton
Honestly, every week out here is better than the last! I say that every week, but as I look back every Monday at the preceding week, I realize just how amazing it truly was.
I'll start off with the coolest miracle. Last week I told you about the random guy I called who lives in LA now and we arranged for the missionaries out there to meet him. Well they called us this week to let us know that he was SO prepared and is on date to be baptized next month! #MIGHTYMIGHTYMIRACLE. We were so stocked to hear that! He is still planning on moving back here to Boulder, CO in December, so we will hopefully meet him then. We will be staying in touch with him and praying that everything goes well so he can be baptized as soon as possible!
I don’t know if I have talked about Anna yet or not. She is someone we have begun teaching. However, she’s Mongolian and doesn't speak much English. She is AWESOME though. She came to Emiley's baptism, which cleared up a lot of confusion, because she had never heard of baptism before and was super confused about what it was. At church yesterday, we were talking about missionary work in class, and she had a golden comment explaining what missionary work was, as she stumbled with her words to convey her message. The spirit was so strong though, as she shared and everyone in class just loved it. She originally was meeting with us to help her learn English and make good friends, since Boulder can be a tough place. Her cousin is a member who lives in Utah and got her in contact with us. It seems like she is getting more real desire to learn and actually know. Lessons are still VERY tough, and we have to be as simple as possible, but they are getting better and better. She comes to all the activities we hold, and sometimes I act as a bit of a translator, because other people don't understand her. Elder Layton and I love it!
We also continue to teach Ben (hopefully I have mentioned him). We are really trying to help him understand what the Spirit is and begin to recognize it in his life. That is the biggest barrier right now. He has no idea what it is or what it feels like. We have to teach very simply with him as well. His native language is Chinese, and his English is much better, but his comprehension is not that great. He doesn't understand the scriptures much at all, so we are working on helping him understand those!
Also, this ward we are serving in is simply AMAZING! It is going to be so tough to leave. The last two weeks at sports night I told guys that I liked their shirts, so they took them right off their back and gave them to me! That's brotherly love! Seriously, it is amazing to be here and serve with these kids. So many of them are soooo great at helping with the missionary work. They have a fire to help progress this work however they can!
Kelly continues to do AWESOME! We had to pass him off the the family ward, because we found out he was 32, and the YSA (Young Single Adult) age limit for the Ward is 30. He asked if there was anyway for us to keep teaching him, and we promised that we would stay in touch with him. He is accepting everything very well except for when we got to baptism. He still struggles with his old church and doesn't want to feel like he is being forced into a religion. He reads Christian books but doesn't know the Bible very well. We read the story of Christ’s baptism and talked about the reason we are baptized. We calmed all of his fears and by the end, he seemed a lot more accepting and willing. He struggles with anxiety and a lot of mental illness, so we are careful as we teach, not to trigger any of his struggles. Hopefully, he will continue to come along nicely!
Emiley's Baptism. I don't even know what to say. It was the most beautiful thing. Words just won’t do it justice. She had her mother and father and grandparents there, as well as several friends who were not members and the spirit was STRONG! The room we held it in was PACKED and even President and Sister Mendenhall made it! I don't think I mentioned before, but Emiley is like deathly afraid of water.. so it was kind of interesting / humorous baptizing her. She was CRAZY NERVOUS and totally forgot everything the second she got in the water. It was wonderful though and again the Spirit was strong as the ordinance took place. Her confirmation yesterday was also a beautiful experience, and in class she also bore her testimony of missionary work, at which point she began to cry.. and continued to cry for the next 4 hours. It was, however, a good cry, as she finally began to truly understand the covenant that she made and felt the literal presence of the Holy Ghost in her life. What a marvelous thing this gospel truly is!
I continue to be reminded week after week the reason I am truly here. I had a cool experience this past week where I began to feel sorry for myself. I know a lot of amazing people who haven’t served missions or were prompted by the Spirit not to serve. In a weak moment, I asked why it was that I had to serve. Why couldn't I get off the hook. I was immediately chastised for ever looking at a mission as something I "had to do." The Lord never required me to do this. Instead, I remembered the miracles I have seen with Kelly and Jackson. I thought of Becca from my last area and Anthony. I realized the joy that I have felt as I have seen Emiley grow. The testimony building experience it was to be in the waters of baptism with her as she made that covenant with our Heavenly Father. All of these are things I have been privileged to experience, not something I was forced to do. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to serve, and I vowed to myself to never allow the tough days to make me regret being here or wish I was somewhere else. I am on the Lord errand and as such, I truly have nothing to fear. We never have anything to fear as we go about doing the Lord’s work, whatever that work may be in front of us.
I love you all,
Elder Richards
I'll start off with the coolest miracle. Last week I told you about the random guy I called who lives in LA now and we arranged for the missionaries out there to meet him. Well they called us this week to let us know that he was SO prepared and is on date to be baptized next month! #MIGHTYMIGHTYMIRACLE. We were so stocked to hear that! He is still planning on moving back here to Boulder, CO in December, so we will hopefully meet him then. We will be staying in touch with him and praying that everything goes well so he can be baptized as soon as possible!
I don’t know if I have talked about Anna yet or not. She is someone we have begun teaching. However, she’s Mongolian and doesn't speak much English. She is AWESOME though. She came to Emiley's baptism, which cleared up a lot of confusion, because she had never heard of baptism before and was super confused about what it was. At church yesterday, we were talking about missionary work in class, and she had a golden comment explaining what missionary work was, as she stumbled with her words to convey her message. The spirit was so strong though, as she shared and everyone in class just loved it. She originally was meeting with us to help her learn English and make good friends, since Boulder can be a tough place. Her cousin is a member who lives in Utah and got her in contact with us. It seems like she is getting more real desire to learn and actually know. Lessons are still VERY tough, and we have to be as simple as possible, but they are getting better and better. She comes to all the activities we hold, and sometimes I act as a bit of a translator, because other people don't understand her. Elder Layton and I love it!
We also continue to teach Ben (hopefully I have mentioned him). We are really trying to help him understand what the Spirit is and begin to recognize it in his life. That is the biggest barrier right now. He has no idea what it is or what it feels like. We have to teach very simply with him as well. His native language is Chinese, and his English is much better, but his comprehension is not that great. He doesn't understand the scriptures much at all, so we are working on helping him understand those!
Also, this ward we are serving in is simply AMAZING! It is going to be so tough to leave. The last two weeks at sports night I told guys that I liked their shirts, so they took them right off their back and gave them to me! That's brotherly love! Seriously, it is amazing to be here and serve with these kids. So many of them are soooo great at helping with the missionary work. They have a fire to help progress this work however they can!
Kelly continues to do AWESOME! We had to pass him off the the family ward, because we found out he was 32, and the YSA (Young Single Adult) age limit for the Ward is 30. He asked if there was anyway for us to keep teaching him, and we promised that we would stay in touch with him. He is accepting everything very well except for when we got to baptism. He still struggles with his old church and doesn't want to feel like he is being forced into a religion. He reads Christian books but doesn't know the Bible very well. We read the story of Christ’s baptism and talked about the reason we are baptized. We calmed all of his fears and by the end, he seemed a lot more accepting and willing. He struggles with anxiety and a lot of mental illness, so we are careful as we teach, not to trigger any of his struggles. Hopefully, he will continue to come along nicely!
Emiley's Baptism. I don't even know what to say. It was the most beautiful thing. Words just won’t do it justice. She had her mother and father and grandparents there, as well as several friends who were not members and the spirit was STRONG! The room we held it in was PACKED and even President and Sister Mendenhall made it! I don't think I mentioned before, but Emiley is like deathly afraid of water.. so it was kind of interesting / humorous baptizing her. She was CRAZY NERVOUS and totally forgot everything the second she got in the water. It was wonderful though and again the Spirit was strong as the ordinance took place. Her confirmation yesterday was also a beautiful experience, and in class she also bore her testimony of missionary work, at which point she began to cry.. and continued to cry for the next 4 hours. It was, however, a good cry, as she finally began to truly understand the covenant that she made and felt the literal presence of the Holy Ghost in her life. What a marvelous thing this gospel truly is!
I continue to be reminded week after week the reason I am truly here. I had a cool experience this past week where I began to feel sorry for myself. I know a lot of amazing people who haven’t served missions or were prompted by the Spirit not to serve. In a weak moment, I asked why it was that I had to serve. Why couldn't I get off the hook. I was immediately chastised for ever looking at a mission as something I "had to do." The Lord never required me to do this. Instead, I remembered the miracles I have seen with Kelly and Jackson. I thought of Becca from my last area and Anthony. I realized the joy that I have felt as I have seen Emiley grow. The testimony building experience it was to be in the waters of baptism with her as she made that covenant with our Heavenly Father. All of these are things I have been privileged to experience, not something I was forced to do. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to serve, and I vowed to myself to never allow the tough days to make me regret being here or wish I was somewhere else. I am on the Lord errand and as such, I truly have nothing to fear. We never have anything to fear as we go about doing the Lord’s work, whatever that work may be in front of us.
I love you all,
Elder Richards
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