The One With the Last Christmas and a Transfer

12/26/16

Transfer News!!!

Oh my gosh. I just found out I'm getting transferred and am white washing an area (Blaine) with Sister Ching! CRAZY.

Beautiful Downtown Minneapolis

Christmas with Pat and Sister B

Christmas morning with the Burtons :)

MERRY Christmas everyone!!! Wow this week was crazy busy so im just gonna get right into it. Monday night we went caroling with our bishop and a couple of others that he invited over. It was awesome we had one of our investigators whose really promising come and sing. Although Monday was a tough night for me because I thought I was going to explode from eating too much. I could not fit anymore food in my body it was so gross. I think something I ate made me sick too cause I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday and was SO nauseous in surprised I didn't throw up. I just laid on the floor outside the bathroom for the rest of the night. Tuesday was just not super fun medically. On the same day I got sick I had to get an MRI for some pain I've been having in my hip and I learned that I have a torn ligament in my hip. Fun stuff. And that was just the beginning of the Week. 

On Wednesday we were volunteering at the food shelf we volunteer at every week and first off it was crazy busy. We set a record for the most number of people it has ever helped in one day. Near the end of the time this lady comes limping in and as she's signing in she tells us that she's bleeding a little because she caught her leg in the car door. I think ok maybe she needs a band aid, so I glance around the deck and this ladies' bleeding profusely! Her pant leg is completely soaked in blood and it's going all over the floor. Luckily one of our older volunteers, sue, came to the rescue. She is a retired nurse so she brought her into a different room and helped her as best she could until they could go to the hospital. That was crazy we were running back and forth grabbing all the medical supplies we could get our hands on while dodging the masses of people all over the place trying to get food. It was insane. Also on Wednesday though we met Vera. Vera is our investigator Vicki's adult daughter who is living with her right now. She was super nice to us and opened up about all of the awful things she gone through in her life. I felt a strong prompting to testify of god's love for her and as I did so she started crying and said she hasn't been to church in a long time but really misses it.  That was so cool, she said she wanted to talk to her husband about maybe coming to church with us and we have an appointment for this next week with her.

Zone Blitz

On Friday we had a Zone blitz. So all the missionaries in our zone met at the crystal chapel and then split up into different companionships and we all caravanned to downtown Minneapolis. It was fun being back in my old area :) Our goal was to talk with everyone and share the Christmas video #lighttheworld with as many people as possible. It was awesome. It was snowing like crazy and yet there was still people everywhere! That's one of the best things about downtown. You can still contact even in the middle of winter! I was with Sister Anderson who is serving in medicine lake and we talked to several really cool people. The last couple we talked to was an African couple from Liberia. We showed them the Christmas video and then started talking to them and sharing our testimonies of Christ. We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to church and as we were talking we found out they lived in Sister Andersons area so she quickly reached in her bag and grabbed a Mormon.org card with their information on it. So cool! In total as a zone we taught and shared the video 62 times! In 1 & 1/2 hours! God is so good! After the zone blitz we went and stopped by the salamis and got to see them!! We heard all about Nicole's trip to Kenya and we were able to share the light the world video with them all and ended up reteaching the entire plan of salvation which was cool. Nicole said she's going to talk to her husband about coming to church too which is exciting! Apparently he's practically never home, but we're hoping to meet him soon. 

That brings us to Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve was such a busy day. We started off by having an early Christmas with pat and Sister B in the morning, then we ran over to Muriels.

Movie with Muriel

 That was so fun. We wore comfy clothes and had gotten permission to watch the movie white Christmas. She made us hamburgers and fries and man was it good. It was so fun hanging out with her. Her daughter left her alone for Christmas Eve so she would've just been by herself if we hadn't come and she kept saying I'm so glad you guys came over. I just love her. Then we ran over to mercy hospital and met our investigator Sierra there and went caroling to the residents on the cardiac floor. I was a little nervous cause I've never done something like that before but it was amazing. The people working on the floor led us around to sing to different people and asked to visit certain patients of theirs. One room we walked into was so sweet. There was a young man on the bed with two family members and he had just had open heart surgery. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. When we asked if we could sing to him he softly said please, and then closed his eyes and hugged the pillow he had to his chest until we finished. That was so sweet, the spirit was very strong in that room. Then after that we went and had dinner with the moss's and Andersons. Sister moss and Sister Anderson are best friends and have had Christmas together for years. It was so fun to be around their cute family. My favorite part of the evening though was after dinner they always have...the best word I guess is a music concert. Very low key anyone who wants to sing can. Sister Cope played the piano and a quartet of me, Sister M, her daughter, Sister A's daughter, and I sang about 4 songs and we sounded so good! It was so fun and afterwards a bunch of the other families got up and sang. After the music concert we ran over to the smith family because we promised their kids we come track santa with them. We got to meet and get to know their neighbor who was over so that was a plus missionary wise. It was so fun to be surrounded by kids on Christmas Eve because they are so excited they almost can't stand it. They bring a little more magic into the Christmas season. Then last but not least we went over, had a lesson, and visited with Tina. Yeah it was a crazy day.

On Christmas we went over to the Burtons for early in the morning and was apart of their Christ as morning. They are so cute, they made each of us stockings and got us some presents as well. Then we went to church which was great. BROTHER NORTON WAS THERE! WOOO! Then we came home had our Christmas pizza for lunch and slowly opened presents. I don't think my feet will ever be cold again for the amount of socks I got hahaha. We Skyped which was both really fun and a little sad and then got picked up for dinner by Sister copes cousins. They live in medicine lake and drove us down there to have dinner with their family. So fun. Sister Cope LOVED it, and there family was so kind and sweet. It was a good ending to the day. Well that's it for this week. Love you all! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you send my way I really appreciate them!!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning, in Mosiah chapter two. That chapter is the beggining of king benjamins sermon to his people and I noticed that almost the entire chapter is about keeping the commandments. I loved how in verses 20-21 king B. talks about how much we owe to god and how he could ask us to praise him with our whole souls and that would never be enough. Then he says in verse 22... "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments...". God has given us every thing we have and are and the only thing he asks us for in return is to keep his commandments. That seems like so little of a price for what we've been given and yet so many fail to do just that. How important it is then to keep the commandments, when in return for so much we've been asked to do so little.

️Sister Richardson

The One With Some Frostbite

12-19-2016

When your just too exhausted....

We had some really great lessons this week! So the first one was on Monday night and it was with Nortons. Sister Norton and their daughter is active but Brother Norton isn't. We set up to do an FHE with them and another family in the Ward that they knew and Brother Norton taught the lesson on faith and it was AWESOME! My gosh, the spirit was so strong and it was a great lesson, and a really fun evening. And they are going to try to do it every month!! So great!

Okay the other exciting lesson was on Tuesday evening. We had a less active sister finally text us back after forever and schedule a time to meet with us. We thought it was just going to be her, but we get there and her fiancé is there and we joked and got to know each other and then her fiancé Richard basically sat us down and said he wanted to know how many more lessons he needed to take from the missionaries in order to get baptized. He said he'd already taken 3, and he and aurora were planning on getting married in February and he wants to be baptized. SO COOL! We were so stunned. I just thought, you want to get baptized? We can help you with that! Hahaha. So great, they both came to the Ward Christmas party and church on Sunday, and we have a lesson set up with them for tomorrow! Wooo!

Lesson with our investigator Vicki

Okay, then the last really exciting lesson was with a couple named Ben and Sarah who are in their mid 20's. Ben is a less active member and Sarah is not a member but has been meeting with missionaries for a while. They haven't been seen by any missionaries for a while now and we stopped by last week and they were super cool! We showed them the light the world video and then they asked if they could take us out to Denny's so of course we said yes and we had our Denny’s outing this week. We really got to know them and got to bear our testimonies to Sarah and we set up a time for this next week to do a lesson at the church! She wants to take it kind of slow but she definitely has the potential to progress.

We had Zone service this week. We all went down to the crystal area to help with a holiday toy drive. So fun. AND. I learned that there was an emergency transfer with the STL's here in Anoka and with the ones in Lakeville, which means.... SISTER MYERS IS IN THE ZONE AND I GOT TO SEE HER!!!!!!!!!! Oh it was so good to see her! We hugged like none other when we saw each other. It's so great to have a friend in the zone. I don't think I've ever been transferred and served in a zone with another of my companions, so this is a treat :) it was a Christmas miracle!

So I actually thought I was getting frostbite this week. It's been in the negatives over here quite a few days this week and on Saturday it had snowed a ton so we asked the family we were having dinner with, the Lamberts, if they knew of anyone we could do service for. Brother Lambert said he was going to shovel his neighbor whose out of towns drive way so we offered to help and we all headed outside. So fun fact i learned recently that mittens are warmer than gloves and all I had were fabric gloves. We were shoveling in the negative degrees And my fingers literally hurt so bad I was pretty sure I was getting frostbite. I just laughed to myself and thought all in the name of service!! Thankfully Brother Lambert saved me and gave me his mittens and got another pair. Not kidding though my fingers actually hurt for 20-30 minutes after wards even though they weren't cold anymore. It was crazy. That's Minnesota for ya!

Lastly I wanted to update ya on some of the crazy weather we've been having. We got 5-8 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday which is always fun driving in. I've gotten to the point where I like skidding a little bit (not a ton while surrounded by cars of course) but it kind of makes everything little more exciting. It's like real life Mario cart hahaha that was a joke. Then on Sunday the high was I think -9 and the low was -20. No, church was not cancelled and with windchill it got down into the -30s!! Ahhh. Crazy.

Well that's about it for this week LOVE YOU all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

So I was reading through one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, Jacob 5, which tells the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. What stood out to me as I read. This chapter again was verses 21,22, & 25 which reads...

21.And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: how comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of the Vineyard.

22.And the Lord of the Vineyard said unto him: Council me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; Wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou will beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.

25.And he said unto the servant: Look hither and behold the last. Behold, this have I planted in a good spot of ground; and I have nourished it this long time, and only a part of the tree hath brought forth tame fruit, and the other part of the tree hath brought forth wild fruit: behold, I have nourished this tree like unto the others.

There were three things I learned while reading this passage:

1.  God is aware that some of us are not planted in the best of situations that seem like they'd do more damage than good.

2.  He promises to nourish us and if we let him despite the bad ground/situation we can bring forth much good fruit.

3.  You have the same kind of potential as someone in good ground and you can do just as well or better in bringing forth good fruit.

Overall message is that God is aware of all of our situations no matter how good or bad. He is aware of us and all the blessings that he gives us or temporarily withholds from us is for our good.

Love you all!

❤️Sister Richardson

The One Where We Had To Go Through Way More Than The Pioneers!

12-12-2016

Funny Moment of the Week: (this is how my email title makes sense)

  

OH MY GOSH WINTER HAS HIT HARD HERE IN MINNESOTA!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh. We got stuck out in it on Tuesday. We were getting our car fixed on Tuesday and we were like ah we'll just go walk through the parking lot and find Wi-Fi inside a store to do our companionship study. Only problem was our car appointment was at 9 and everything didn't open until 10 so we walked all around the parking lot with the wind wiping our faces until we finally took refuge in a McDonalds. Oh my gosh I thought my ears were going to fall off! We are so grateful for our car.

We had our first district meeting in person! It went SO WELL. It was a crazy good district meeting. Three in our district (myself included) gave three different trainings and then our district leader told a story that linked all of them together and committed us to be better. It was awesome!!! The spirit was so strong. Also so apparently Zupas is huge in Utah and everyone loves it but I'd never been. So we all headed their after district meeting. We walked in and there were members from the Andover and maple grove wards there that payed for our lunch! They were so kind!

So we have this investigator named Gay and I'd never met her, but we were finally able to see her on Saturday! She has had the most amounts of trials I think I've ever heard of. Her life has been so hard. She had a really bad experience with church and so she's been pretty leary of us but when we came they were cleaning the apartment so we jumped right in and helped and she was really touched by that and she is starting to trust us. We're able to have a good lesson and left her with a plan of salvation pamphlet to read so we can come back and teach her! She's gonna take some time and love, but she's worth it.

Side note we got to go see the lights at the Anoka county fairground this week with the Andover sisters. It was so fun, cold, but fun. I'll attach pictures. Also side note. Along with winter the snow has arrived here in Minnesota. It started snowing Saturday night and snowed most of Sunday. It was crazy and the roads were pretty bad while we were driving to church. It's funny, so Sister Cope is the designated driver but since she's from California she has absolutely no idea how to drive in the snow. Whenever it starts snowing she just hands the keys to me and I drive hahaha. I've gotta say I'm pretty impressed with how well I've learned to drive in the snow. I would dare to say I'm a fairly average driver in the snow. I can handle sliding every now and  again hahaha, we ended up having about 8-10 inches. Luckily it was all dry and powdery snow and joy wet snow.

Well, I'm excited for what this week brings. Love you all!!!

Sister Richardson

The One with the Month in a Week

12-5-2016

  

Sister Richardson and Sister Cope!

Wow, looking back at our schedule to see what happened this week, I can't believe all that happened last week, happened in one week. It feels like several smashed into one. But as always here are the highlights of my oh so exciting life ;)

So Tuesday we were doing our schedule Mormon.org time/ computer time when I thought hmm one of the sisters in my last zone said the BYU application deadline was coming up I should check on that. (Mind you this was Nov 29th). Sure enough the entire application was due on December 1st! I had a mini heart attack and then dove head first into it. I wrote over 6 essays, answered all of their questions, got on and got my transcript from BYUI sent to them and called my mission president to do an ecclesiastical endorsement and got it all submitted on Nov. 3rd. My brain hurt and there was a lot of stress but I got it all done. Huge shout out to Sister Cope in proof reading my essays to make sure I didn't sound dumb, and Pres. Forbes for dropping everything to fill out my endorsement and then to call the admissions office when it didn't work and getting it all straightened out. He's the best mission president ever!!!😇

All the missionaries helping Sister B

During all of that chaos we had a big moving project this week to help sister B move into her new apartment. It's super nice and we had an awesome turn out from ward members being willing to help. Missionary wise it was us, the Andover sisters, and the Blaine Elders so that was fun. Funny story, so while the Andover sisters and us were bringing things down to the storage closet she has in the parking garage we found three dollies and sister B's walker on wheels and so we had a scooter race in a parking garage from one end to the other. It was SO FUN! I have pictures attached below :)

The Andover sister and us helping Sister B move

We had both awesome experiences with people this week and really bad. The two really bad ones were a guy who got hard core offended when we explained the rule of three and asked us to leave, and then a Less active lady who screamed at us to get off her property. So yeah that was fun. That was a first for both of those. Never had anyone less active or nonmember yell at me like that before, or had someone get offended by the rule of three and ask us to leave. Oh well that wasn't fun but hey it's all included in the mission experience right? The three awesome experiences were Linda, Julia, and Glenda. Linda was a new investigator that we got from the elders when they left two transfers ago and she's so legit. She's a physics teacher and she said when she met with us that she's meeting with us because she wants to know the truth. She's so kind and fun and is so sincere in what she does. We have a lesson set with her for tomorrow and are going to bring a member along. Pray for us that it goes well!! She's so wonderful. Then Julia we met right after that guy got offended and asked us to leave. She lives on his street. When we knocked on her door she said oh I'm glad you're hear! Then she told us about her great granddaughter who was really sick and asked us to pray for her. We testified of the importance of faith in God through trials and got a return appointment! Then last but not least was Glenda. We got her name and info as a media referral from Mormon.org saying she'd requested a bible. We went over to deliver her bible and then we're also able to give her a Book of Mormon, testify of it and that as missionaries we help people to find the truth for themselves. We were able to say a prayer with her and then set up a return appointment with her as well!! We saw some awesome teaching miracles this week :) God is Good!

Yup that's our faces!

We also had our Christmas Conference this week. Our zone and the St. Cloud zone combined and we had some trainings, a Christmas dinner for lunch, gave our zones Christmas presents to the Forbes and then watched our movie for the year. This year it was chariots of fire. (No idea what was going on for most of it to be honest). It was a lot of fun though we had popcorn and root beer floats.

And last but not least last night was SO FUN. It was the First Presidencies Christmas Devotional and since it wasn't being broadcast at the church we went over to our bishop’s house and watched it. First it was so fun because we popped popcorn and had soda and snuggled up on the couch with blankets and our notes, cracking jokes. And also because Bishops niece lives next door and she has always wanted nothing to do with the church but slowly she's been warming up to us missionaries and she stayed last night after dinner with them to watch the Devotional with us!!! That was a huge deal. So wonderful.

Tender Mercy of the Week (honestly there were so many God really had my back this week):

1. So while we were helping Sister B move we lost our phone. We looked everywhere we could think of trying to find it and nothing for 24 hours, it was just gone. For all those out there who don't understand, losing your phone in normal life is bad but as a missionary it's detrimental. So the next morning we ran over to Sister B's to try and find it and out of chance she had us take something down to the basement and I just happened to flip the seat of the walker I was wheeling around on the day before. There inside the walker was our phone. Somehow it had gotten from my pocket underneath the seat of the walker and into the basket without falling on the ground. It was completely dead, in the most unlikely place that had zero cell service. There is no way we could've found that phone on our own. God really helped us in that moment. It still baffles me that we found it because that was the absolute last place I would have checked. Huge tender mercy.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

This week spiritual thought comes at ya from a 2016 young adult Devotional in a talk given by Elder Quinten L. Cook entitled "Fear not...In Me Your Joy Is Full". Elder Cook throws down about using excuses to justify our actions. He says...

"Many justify sinful conduct and use as their defense, “Jesus taught us to love everyone.” This, of course, is true, but often those who advocate this position seem inclined to ignore His equally important admonition, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”"

Along with that throw down comes another that I found while studying in 2 Nephi 31:10.

"And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?"

If we truly claim to love Jesus Christ we have to be willing to keep the commandments. The only reason our Heavenly Father has given us commandments is out of love for us. To keep us spiritually and physically safe and happy and help us return to. Because after all his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If we want to stay spiritually and physically safe, if we want to have joy, if we want to make it back to our father in Heaven and be with our families forever, and flat out if we love him... we will keep the commandments.

❤️Sister Richardson

The One With the Reunion

11-28-2016

Hello All, so not a whole lot to tell ya about that's happened in the last three days since I last emailed but for what it's worth here's the update...

Thanksgiving dinner was so fun. After we finished emailing on Thursday sister Cope and I took a three hour nap which was glorious and then headed over to the Dailey's for thanksgiving. It was so fun. And yummy. They are such a laid back family.

Friday we had a fun day! Our bishop and his wife invited us to come with them to cut down their Christmas Tree! It was so fun! We tromped all through the snow and helped with the cutting placing on the roof, carrying in side and getting it up. So fun. It was the first time sister Cope had ever done anything like that, because I guess they don't have Christmas tree farms in Sacramento. weird right? Hahaha she had a blast :) then also on Friday we got invited by the Marresh's, one of the families we teach, to go have thanksgiving dinner with the entire Marresh clan. SO FUN. It was the first time i had met the family and I love them. They are so cute. Especially their daughter Jazzy. She 16, she loves us and wants to come to church and is going to come to mission presidents Fireside this month! :)

It's been so great getting to share the new Christmas video Light the world with people. Everyone is so open to it and it's so non-threatening. If you haven't seen it GO WATCH IT! It's on morning.org or pretty much anywhere. We were able to share with a couple people and testify of the savior(one of my favorite things to do 😉)

On Sunday I spoke in church. As tradition the new missionary that's transferred in always speaks in church. Last year when I spoke the questions were why did I decide to serve a mission, how did prayer play a role in the past decision and why am I on a mission now. My talk this year was on the same questions with a new question. How has my understanding of the atonement changed since I've been on a mission. I LOVED having the opportunity to speak! I was still nervous, but I was able to see the growth that's happened in myself as I answered the same questions and my answers have changed. I wish I had it recorded and could just send it home. Guess you had to be there hahaha.



Lastly so exciting...... I GOT TO SEE MURIEL!!!! Ahhhh, she was one of my absolute FAVORITE people in Anoka when I was here last and after I left the sisters lost touch with her,  but we stopped by yesterday and I got to see her! Also! Exciting! Her daughter has convinced her to take the first lesson so we scheduled that! So excited!!!

Spiritual Though of Week:
Alma 33
11 And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son.

One of the questions I spoke on in my talk was how did prayer play a role in me receiving my answer to serve a mission. Upon reflecting on both before and throughout my mission I realized how important prayer has been throughout the whole process. Praying to find out if I was supposed to serve a mission taught me what it meant to pray sincerely and with real intent. It means you have to pray willing to act on any answer you receive, even if it's not what you want to do. 

One of my experiences in the MTC that left me pleading to my Heavenly Father taught me that god is ALWAYS listening. He loves us so much and will give us the help we need. I've also experienced through the wonderful moments what it means to pray and give thanks and glorify God. When all you can do is say thank you for letting you even be a part of this amazing miracle. It is prayer that has sustained me as I've been on my mission. Truly in God is my joy. God will always hear us if we will cry unto him.

The One With Some Salami

11-24-16

The Goodbyes Before Transfers-

Sister Larsen

Hermana Duvall

Nette

The Kirchers

The Tuckers 

Sister Myers

 Look out Minnesota we've got snow! ️️

Wow so it's been a long time since I've given ya an update. Before transfers was cray but wonderful. There was so much love and the great thing about getting transferred is that you see people like a lot more than you think hahaha. My saddest goodbye was with the Kirchers. I got really close with the whole family and the littlest girl Hannah wouldn't let go of me and asked if she could write to me in my new area! It was so cute, we took a family picture on the stairs haha. 

Look my new Comp! Sister Cope

So transfers happened on Wednesday and I got to see the one and only lovely sister P again. It's so fun whenever we get to see each other which is basically only at transfers since we both get transferred so much. She's doing well and is opening another area for sisters which is exciting. Also I met my new companion sister Cope. She's adorable. She's from Sacramento California and just finished her training. She's gorgeous and so kind and sweet. Like seriously she's achieved the status of Disney princess in normal life which is hard to do. We get along so well and laugh a lot together.

First ever District Meeting over Skype!

It's been so fun seeing all the members here in Anoka again. I've gotten a lot of people staring at my face confused and going wait a minute don't I know you, or didn't you serve here before? I even had one member at church check to see if I was still on my mission or just visiting hahaha.

We've had such a wonderful time teaching. We taught a total of 16 lessons this last week since I've been here! 5 of which were lessons with members! The most exciting news is the Salami family (yes like the meat haha). We stopped by on Saturday to see if they were home, but we didn't have a lot of hope cause their an African family from Nigeria and African parents have a tendency to work crazy hours, but we stopped by and they were home!!! They let us in and we taught anicole (the mom) and her three kids the plan of salvation and it was wonderful! The kids were so engaged and Nicole was testifying to what we were saying the whole time. We challenged Nicole and Isaiah (the only child over 8) to be baptized and the accepted and set a date for January 14th!! So exciting and then we saw them again on Tuesday and sister Kastel came with us and it was another awesome lesson. We taught them the 10 commandments and the importance of praying and coming to church and it was just wonderful. Ah I love them so much and am so excited for them.

We've seen miracle after miracle here in Anoka this past week. And we've been having a blast together. I'm so excited for what this transfer will bring. The beauty of being back in an area that I was in in the beginning of my mission is that I've seen so much growth in myself. Its crazy. I finally feel like I really know what I'm doing and that I can teach and testify, I know how to be bold and show people I love them, I know what the rules are so I can be obedient, and I know how to involve members, and to have fun. Until next week I love you all and happy thanksgiving!!! 

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

I recently read this talk from this last October general Conference called the souls sincere desire by Sister McConkie, and I though it was appropriate with it being thanksgiving today...

"Sincere desires offered in a spirit of gratitude for abundant blessings and gratitude for the lessons of life instill in our hearts steadfast faith in Christ, a “brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men"

I love gratitude. It has the power to lift spirits, strengthen faith, give us hope, and helps us to have charity. Last year near the end of my time in Anoka and begging my time in La Crosse was a bit of a dark time in my mission. I wasn't happy and I didn't know why and I felt my desire to go out and do missionary work was not very strong and I didn't know why. I loved my areas and my companions and the work was fine but I wasn't happy. It was probably the closest to depressed I've ever been and I didn't know how to fix it but knew I needed to so I talked to my mission president about it. After quietly and lovingly listening to me he challenged me to except for praying for my family and investigators to focus all of my prayers on gratitude. I did. I prayed in gratitude for all of my blessings and the darkness lifted. I became happy being a missionary, happy in serving, and happy in doing uncomfortable things hahaha. Gratitude changes attitudes and helps us feel the spirit so I challenge all of you to focus your prayers more on gratitude instead of constantly asking for things :)

️Sister Richardson

The One With A Throw Back to Anoka!

11-14-16

So we went on two exchanges this week in order to get them all done before transfers. We had crystal lake first on Tuesday and Sister Spiers came with me to a lake Marion. We saw some cool miracles. We went tracting and the first house we knocked on we were able to teach a girl about our age and give her a Book of Mormon and get her phone number! 

Technology was our friend for our Stake Meeting on Wednesday. Usually we all go to bloomington and meet with the stake president, the zone leaders, and president Forbes, and the Lakeville south zone leaders Skype in. President Forbes was headed home from Duluth so the stake president, zone leaders, and us all met at the Lakeville chapel and we had president Forbes over the phone and the Lakeville south zone leaders over Skype. Crazy the kind of things we can do now a days. Also we had a really boss moment during the meeting. President Naatjes was asking all of us how it's been meeting with elders quorum and relief society presidencies. When he asked us we were like yeah we meet with the relief society presidency and elders quorum. There was a moment of stunned silence. Then he asked "you go to elders quorum presidency meetings?" Us: "yup!" P. Naatjes: "do the elders go too?" Us: "Nope" P. Naatjes: "you're probably the first sisters in the history of the church to attend elders quorum meetings!". We felt kind of great in that moment and it was funny to see their faces.

On Thursday we relearned the importance of Tracting. Sister Myers and I prayed about which street to be on and then started down. We taught three lessons in an hour. One of them was even from a van. This guy stopped his car and asked us who we were and what we were doing. Sister Myers launched into a five minute restoration (complete with pamphlet visuals), we gave him a Book of Mormon, a restoration pamphlet, our phone number and invited him to church on Sunday, to which he said he'd come!super cool.

Then on Friday we had exchanges with the Prior Lake sisters. Sister Myers and Rosier worked in Lake Marion and I got to go to Prior Lake with Sister Killpack! We got to be companions again! It was so fun. We taught like crazy too. We were able to teach two other lessons, 1 less active family, 1 member present, and get a new investigator. It was so cool to see how we've both grown. The last time we were companions we were practically babies. It was only my second transfer out of training and sister Killpacks first. We've both grown A LOT. I loved being able to see that cause you don't really notice the amount you've grown cause it's so gradual.

After we exchanged back Sister Myers and I had a really big (and good) heart to heart which involved a lot of feels and a lot of tears. Sister Myers had a pretty rough time on exchanges and so after listening to her and doing basically a mini comp study to invite the spirit back into our hearts as we were headed to our next appointment she started crying and just shared something good she realized about our companionship while on exchanges and what she appreciated about me. I know that me sharing this might sound a little prideful but I share it because it helped me to see better about the affect normal actions can have on people. Throughout my mission I sometimes wonder if I'm even making a difference or helping people around me and my companions and haven't really made much of a difference. But Sister Myers sharing what she did, and then also getting to hear about the impact I had on Sister Killpack as well as what Sister Clegg shared with me a couple weeks ago I've come to realize that just being someone's friend and being reliable is SO POWERFUL. That's all we need to do to make a difference. We don't need to do everything over the top and showy. If we can just be someone's rock to lean on that's what matters. That's what the savior is to us. "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation;... a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."- Helaman 5:12

Sunday was great too. We weren't doing so hot on our Goal for teaching recent converts and less Actives so that's what we focused the day on. Those are usually pretty hard for us to get but we were able to teach 3 less Actives! One of which I have been trying to meet for the whole 4 1/2 months I've been here and we finally caught her! It was great :) Such a good week. Stay tuned for next weeks adventures!

Spiritual Thought of the Week: 

I found a scriptures that I just LOVE. It's 2 Nephi 9:45 "O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation." This scripture just hit me with a lot of power when I read it. There are a lot of things in this scripture that requires action. Turn away from your sins. Shake off the chains of him that would bring you fast. Come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation. To me it just seems really empowering. We are in control of all of these things. We choose whether or not to do them. Salvation is always an option but it's also a choice.

️Sister Richardson 

The One with the Accident and Duluth

11-7-16

Okay so we had a lot of meetings this week and things that happened. I feel like every week seems like a crazy busy week that random things happened, but hey I guess that's just my life right now. So on Tuesday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) so we all traveled up to Bloomington and all of the zone leaders, sister training leader, anddistrict leaders gathered with president and sister Forbe's and the assistants to council about our mission. So not gonna lie I have mixed feelings about MLC and it was slightly frustrating this time around. BUT. The good thing was that I got to hear the most beautiful music number I have ever heard in my life! I'll attachable snippet of it, it involved the guitar, piano, and a three part harmony of the hymn O My Father, and audience participation. My goodness, I watch the video all the time!

So also a fun thing that came out of MLC was that the Duluth STL's (Sister Clegg and Sister Fuchs pronounced Fukes) came down, and due to some other factors, they needed to spend the evening and part of the day Wednesday in the cities before they made the trek back up to Duluth. So they came and worked with us for the day! That was wonderful! I loved being able to hang out with sister Clegg again! We all had a super cool lesson with our 17 year old investigator named Alex. All 4 of us were there and we all switched off teaching liked we'd been doing it forever and he was engaged and asked questions. It was a really cool experience. :)

Our crew for the day :)

Wednesday morning the 4 of us did some service for a member of our ward and then went and got Pho for lunch. Sister Clegg was almost crying she was so happy. Apparently everyone is white in Duluth and there is like no variety of food haha. Then here comes the tender mercy of the week! So after lunch we all went and got ice cream and then split up so I was with sister Clegg and sister Myers and Fuchs were together and we did interviews! When we o on regular exchanges with the sisters in our zone we do interviews with them to see how they are doing personally and how the work in their areas are doing, and how their companionship is going. We basically are the person they vent to and listens to what they say and tell them we care about them.  One of the worst things about being an STL is that we don't have that. If there's anything you're struggling with or your companionship isn't
getting along we don't have anyone to talk to. Well w/ the Duluth sisters with us WE FINALLY HAD SOMEONE TO TALK TOO! It was awesome. Sister Clegg and I were able to talk about everything we are dealing with and our struggles ad it was nice to feel like you just had a friend you could tell anything to and they wouldn't judge you. Talk about a breath of fresh air!

On Thursday our amazingly wonderful Relief society President Sister Kircher took us adventuring out to Hampton! amp ton is forever away (farther than it takes for us to get to the mission home) but it is in our area and we had a couple of less active there, so we went less active hunting! So fun.  The town only had around 600 people in it

Also so we learned on Tuesday we found out at MLC that we apparently had a Zone specialty training of Friday of the same week So. That's what we did on Friday. That was fun. The Minneapolis, Lakeville, and Lakeville South zones.  Luckily we were not asked to give a last minute training and we got to hear about the upcoming Christmas initiative! So excited for that!!

Also we finally had our lesson with Jolene going over a commandment we knew might require a lot of change for her and be a little difficult. It went well, I'm definitely thankful for the confidence the spirit provides in teaching and being bold. She had difficulty with the commandment like we thought and is going to be working on it so keeping her in your prayers would be much appreciated.

First of the Week:
This week was the first time I've ever been in a car accident. We were driving the Duluth sisters back up to Bloomington on Wednesday on thefreeway. I changed lanes and looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see the car behind us hit us. It wasn't bad but we pulled off on the edge of the freeway to talk to the other driver about getting off the freeway. The other driver pulled off a ways in front of us. Got out, checked over her car and then got back in her car and drove away. Yup. Talk about all kinds of illegal. Luckily for us and our car, we missionaries have bike racks on the back of our cars so that took most of the impact. Our car looks fine for the most part.Some paint damage and our bike rack is bent but other than that not too bad. So yeah, that was exciting.

Spiritual thought of the Week:
So this Sunday we had a Regional Broadcast. Our Stake President, President Naatjes, spoke before the broadcast and it was SO GOOD. His talk was filled with stories and analogies and he shared some insight into classic parables that I hadn't ever thought of. The one I want to share with you all was his thoughts on the story where Jesus Calms the Sea. Here's the story in Mark Chapter 4...

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

President Naatjes shared that Christ likes a good storm. It does not appear that he had any intention of stopping the storm, and only did so on the request of his disciples. We all have storms that roll through our lives and that's a good thing. We are given those storms to learn and grow. To develop needed faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

-Sister Richardson