July 25

Hello people that I love! 

Sorry this weeks email might be a little short, but that is because uploading pictures takes so super long! 

I am serving in the richest area in the mission, but yesterday we were looking at the map and saw a street named Eastwood in the very small corner of our map and thought, let's go see what's down there. So we did. Unlike the rest of our area it is dirt poor. Grubby houses and yards, and people that look haggard and hardened, (which is really the face of broken people who have been through a lot.) We parked, got out of the car and looked around. It was like we had driven to the grubby parts of Mountain Grove MO. My companion's first reaction was she looked around with big eyes and said "I had no idea this was here. And I've been here for 3 months." 

My reaction was "Yes! We found the humble!" I looked at her and started skipping down the street ( not very mature I know. But I couldn't help it. My soul was skipping inside, and my body had to follow.) saying, "It's PERFECT!!!! Come'on Sister! Someone here is waiting for us! Lets go!" She started following and we talked to 6 people in the 30 minutes we had before we had to head to our dinner appointment. 4 of which asked us to come back! I don't know why, but I have a really good feeling about this area. And an excitement that makes me want to dance and sing! A nice change. I feel like myself again. :)

We taught the gospel principles class yesterday, and are teaching the youth about preparing themselves for missions on Wednesday night. And we are both speaking in church on Sunday. We have so many opportunities to teach and I love it!!! We are working really hard to get the ward members more involved in the work. We have so many less active here that just need friends. 

"MOST" of our ward are retired couples. It is so cute to hear the ward choir sing. All these old people up there singing their hearts out together, with a mother in her late 20's and her 2 kids that are 10 and 11. So cute!!! And the men 60 and older (98% of them) are part of a club called the ROMEO"S. They have lunch together every Wednesday. The name of the club stands for....are you ready?Retired Old Men Eating Out. Lol! Cute huh? 

I love you all!           ~Sister Rebekah Richardson~

Joke:   What does the statue of liberty stand for? It can't sit down! LOL! (Uncle Peter please don't hate me for that joke. :) I didn't make it up. )

Scripture:      Exodus 14:14

Just another day in...

I was going to to say Paradise, but Missouri is Paradise, so.... "Just another day in California." :)

I had a wonderful idea the other day! I got a little notebook and wrote on it 2 Nephi 2:25, and then it says "My little book of happiness." I write down things that people say, or memories that come to mind throughout the day that make me happy and write them down. Then at night after my prayers I read a page. 

I can't believe my brother Ben is home, and that my brother David leaves in November for Africa! And Daniel and Lavern are still waiting for their calls! I leave for 4 weeks and everything is in utter disarray! Jk. It's so hard to let everyone grow up. 

We got a new investigator this week. His name is Micheal and he is 23. He said he was raised Christian, but he has some interesting ideas about God I've never heard from any of my Christian friends. He said "none of us have our own spirit. We are all have a little piece of God' spirit in us, and when we die, we will become whole again. We won't exist as ourselves anymore, because we will reunite with God's body. " I just sat there thinking "what?!?!? Did that even make sense to you!?!?" 

I didn't say it though.  I told him what we believe, and he said he wants to learn more. We meet with him again on Wednesday.

We are meeting with a man named Poblo Soto and his family tonight. He has 2 kids living at home that are in their early 20's. I'm so exited!

We also had to drop two people this week which was hard. ( Daniel & Judy )

 Dylan King who got home from his mission last Saturday from Australia, comes out with us, and is amazing!

Our ward is the only one in the zone that has had a baptism this year, and we have had two. It is very common for people to say "Oh no. I'm happy with where I'm at." or "Not interested." As soon as they look at you before you have a chance to say anything. ( Funny, they don't know what they are not interested in. ) 

But one of our baptisms was a 16 year old young man who's name is Christian. He comes out with us too, and all of our investigators love him! And because he wasn't raised in our faith, they trust him. We are teaching his mother Kim, and 11 year old brother Brayden. They both want to get baptized but Brayden has to wait until he is 18 because his dad won't let him, and Kim is having trouble setting a date. But we will get there. 

I love you all! 

                        ~Sister Richardson~

Joke of the week:   You know you are getting old when your candles cost more than the cake.

Scripture: Ether 12:27

July 11

This week was great! We had most of our stuff fall through but that's okay, because it can only get better from here! 

For Joshua David and Ben, I have been out 27 day's and have about 532 left. 

I can't believe I've been in Cali for a week today! And this Friday is my month mark! Aaaahhh! I'm not going to lie, at moments it flies, and others I wonder if I am really strong enough to do this. This Sunday was one of those times.

 I'll tell you what led to my melt down:

#1. Friday I was teaching a lady named Stacey who reminds me of Shawna. She wants to be baptized so bad and the only thing holding her back is her smoking. Her husband is a member, and they have a daughter who is 7 and looks almost just like Julianna. I almost cried when she gave me a hug, but I held it in. 

#2. Saturday as we were driving we passed a Chase bank which made my eyes water again. And that night we were park contacting and there was a girl on the other side of the park with hair a little longer than mine walking and talking to a black girl who had locks and looked a lot like Laura. I cringed a little bit inside. 

#3. At church all the little kids came up and gave me hugs. There were kids of all shapes, sizes, and colors. 

We got back tot he house for lunch and I went into the bathroom with my bear that all the kids hugged right before I left, sat on the floor and cried. It hurt so bad. I haven't cried that hard since the night we got the call about my brother Ammon's death. I kept trying to stop, but I couldn't. My whole body was shaking. After a while (30-45 minutes) I was able to calm myself after praying. I went out and my companion saw my red puffy eyes and came and hugged me. I broke again. So the crying started all over. Lol! 

But now I'm good because...Phil. 4:13! You have no idea how many times I repeated our family motto in my head Sunday night. "We cannot retreat! We cannot withdraw! We must be stubborn to day!" I pictured the part when they charged with their bayonets and remembered what mom always used to say to us kids. "Richardson's can do hard things!" I made the decision right then that I won't stop fighting even when I feel like I've run out of ammo, and have nothing else to fight with. Sunday we sang called to serve on the way to church, and I thought about all of my family in the red, and white buses doing the same thing, singing their hearts out! :)

My companion's family is in the Hill Cumorah pageant and there is a family there from Georgia who told her family that they met an Elder serving there who is from a family of 30 kids too. I said "THAT'S MY BROTHER!!!" Small world huh! 

This mission has been the hardest thing I've ever done! I'm used to working long hard hours, but this is energy draining in a whole different way! I was reading the scriptures this morning in Alma 26, and I found a verse that I really needed to hear. Verse 27. It is talking a bout the son's of Mosiah on their missions and it says, "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back," They wanted to go home too! I must have missed that the other times I read this chapter. Probrobly because I didn't need it then. Heavenly Father is kind isn't he. He know's what his children need, and when we forget to look to our left because he's standing right by us, he put's his arm around our shoulder so we can feel him there. 

I'll let you read the verse to see what the Lord tells them :)

I love you all! And hope you have a great week!

~Love Sister Richardson~

P.s I will send a joke each week an old man in our ward gives to me to make you laugh. 

What did one flag say to the other? Nothing. He just waved.

In the MTC 6.23.2016

Dear Friends and family,

I can't believe I am actually here! There is so little time and so much to tell you that I am just going to throw things at you as I remember them, and hopefully I have time to type it all.

Here in the MTC we are constantly moving from 6:30 ( or 6 if you want to miss the rush hour shower time ) until 9:25pm. It's crazy! My companion  sister Crane even though I love her, is weird! So are the other two sisters we room with. So those three get along great! They are also really messy! And we have room checks. My corner is the only one ever clean.

We also are taught how to teach by teaching. We do a million role plays a day with our companion, and the other people in our district. We teach our teacher the lessons while they ask super hard questions. We also do something called TRC 4 times a week, which is when they put us (my companion and I ) in a room with a nonmember or a member pretending to be a nonmember, and we teach them not knowing if they are really investigating or not. And if that is not scary enough, they video us the whole time! It really hasn't been that hard for me since I have had 2 1/2 years of practice. Oh yeah!!! That reminded me! Tuesday night we had a devotional here and all the mission presidents came, along with all the branch presidents of the MTC. And guess who was here!?!?!? The Shumways! For those of you who don't know who that is...I have gone to almost every missionary zone conference since my 16th birthday, and they were the Mission Presidents in MO! They where a huge part of why I was as prepared as I am for a mission. I love them so much! And it was a little I love you sign from Heavenly Father that they were here.

I have 5 teachers here. And all of them are fantastic! Ben will be glad to here that one of my teachers ( Brother Farrales ) is from the Philippines. Along with us 3 sisters who are all going to the same place, we also have 6 Elders in our district who are all going to Cananda. They are all super cool and funny, and make the days not seem as long.

Cool story: Our second day here sister Crane and I had really bad headaches, so we decided to pray as a companionship. We did and sister Crane said "please help our headaches to go away" As soon as she said that, mine was gone! After the we opened our eyes I asked her how her head was. She looked at me with a weird face and said "it's gone."

To my teenage siblings I just want to say study and know your Preach my Gospel! Gordon B. Hinckley said that it was written in heaven and printed on earth!

I am out of time!!! Aaaaahhhh!  Oh mom and dad, funny fact. I have had 2 random elders hand me a piece of paper while they pass me walking. Can you guess what it was dad? Their emails! Lol! Don't freak out dad. You know you have my heart to keep locked away till i get back 

I love you all so much! Love sister Rebekah Richardson