The One With A Week of Weird

January 30, 2017

 Exchanges with Sister Winters

 Holding an Albino Chinchilla

Sister Chin with a Coyote Skin

So it's that time of the week again where you devote 10 minutes to reading all about my life and adventures here in the frozen Midwest. Fun. So as not to disappoint all my avid readers here's what happened this week.....

We had exchanges this week and I took over Blaine with Sister Winters. We had an interesting but productive day. We went and stopped by a random less active that was on our list and she lets us in. I was thinking WOW that never happens! Little did we know she was kind of crazy. To give you an example of what meeting with this woman was like, at one point her dog is sitting directly in front of Sister Winters angrily breathing at her, her 9mn old granddaughter starts choking, and the lady is still going off about Satan having a child who is 3 years old. We were so confused walking out of there hahaha 

We were able to see Lauren again and help her with getting her house ready to sell, teach a guy while tracting who answered the door with a gas mask on, and get banana bread and two referrals from an older lady in our ward that we'd heart attacked. All in all a pretty great exchange.

On Wednesday we had a Worldwide broadcast for all missionaries which was really awesome. So many great things were taught and discussed. Also some exciting announcements for those who don't know the schedule missionaries live by has been changed as well as the numbers that we report to our leaders. We only report 5 of the 9 that we used to now. Crazy huh? This week will be our first week with the new schedule so I'll let you know how it goes next time. After the broadcast we ran over to an appointment with a woman named Benta. We met her tracting and had set up an appointment with her. She was actually waiting for us! She's from Kenya and she LOVES God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible. She was such a joy to teach. We only made it through about half the restoration cause we only had about 20 min. She was so funny, while we were teaching she'd go off on rants about god and Christ and then realize that she was talking for a while and cover her mouth and say something like "don't let me talk anymore! I'm speaking too much" and turn the lesson back to us. We have another appointment with her this week so we're hopeful for her :)

Thursday we had dinner with a semi-less active family. It ended up just being the mom and their oldest daughter but before the night was over the daughter committed herself to invite her friend to meet with us and we got to hold their python and albino chinchilla! Fun fact did you know that chinchillas are the softest animals in the world? Yeah, found that out and can testify to that. My gosh it was so soft!

I guess this week was the week of weird. We went over and taught a man that had been meeting with the elders for eternity named Jerry. We were able to have a very spirit directed lesson with him were I flat out promised that if he were willing to act on the answer he received about the Book of Mormon that he'd finally get answer. The weird part of his lesson was that because of his slight mental handicap he kept reverting the conversation back to hunting and eventually brought out a full on coyote skin that he'd killed and gave it to us to hold. Don't worry we got pictures of that.

Visson came to church again yesterday! Afterwards we went over to his home and had traditional Liberian food with him and Massa. She made potato greens over fish and chicken with rice. It wasn't half bad. It was pretty spicy though. Not too much that it's hard to handle but it made my nose run! I've only heard the legend that spicy foods will do that to you, this myth buster has put a confirmed stamp on that one, its true. Also on Sunday night we had a wonderful lesson with a recent convert and her active member Brother. We ended up deviating from our lesson plan and read Alma 32 with them and had a long conversation on faith. I love them. They aren't afraid to speak up with their thoughts on spiritual things and are easy to have a conversation with. The cool thing was at the end Sister Ching asked everyone to pause and think about how we can apply what we read and talked about in our life. It was amazing, I think that question was meant for me because I received a specific prompting on what I could be doing better in order to help me. I'm so thankful for the spirit in leading and guiding us.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

( I feel like a lot of my spiritual thoughts recently have been on trials but oh well... here ya go again ;) )

 Alma 7:5 "...nevertheless I do not desire that my joy over you should come by the cause of so much afflictions and sorrow which I have had for the brethren at Zarahemla, for behold, my joy cometh over them after wading through much affliction and sorrow." 

I thought it was interesting the way that Alma phrased the way his joy came about. The promise that after going through much affliction and sorrow that we can feel joy is a promise to all of us. Everyone has to go through difficulties but it is some much easier to endure when we have faith in our father in Heaven that "all things will be for our good" and not allow it to harden us. We make the choice if we will again feel joy after hardships. 

️Sister Richardson

January 23, 2017

District Lunch

Holding a bearded dragon at a less Actives home.

Sister Cope

HERMANA DUVALL!

We had an awesome week with tracting and some less actives in our ward!

On Tuesday we went and stopped by an older lady named Lauren. A man answered the door and it looked like he was going to turn us away when Lauren came up the stairs. She let us in and said that it had been a very explosive day for her. She started crying and talking about all the stress she’s been under lately with having to get her house ready to sell with no one to help her. Sister Ching and I offered to come help her right away and she just looked at us for a few seconds and then through her tears said "you would do that?". It was amazing. We had a spirit filled lesson with her and I was able to remind her of her divine worth as a daughter of god. We are going over every Tuesday to help her get her house ready. I love that woman so much I'm so excited :)  

We went tracting a lot this week because our area book has been picked over with all the missionaries that have been through the area and let's face it, we need more people to teach! Throughout the weeks finding we saw miracle after miracle with being able to meet people who were willing to have us back to have a lesson and we ended up scheduling 4 lessons with different people for the coming week because of tracting. It's always so hard to get started but once you finish knocking you just feel so satisfied that you are doing what you've been called to do and what god wants you to do.

So during our weekly service at Sheryl Jones (which I'll mention later) she was getting rid of a keyboard piano and so I asked if we could have it instead and i would check with our mission president if I could keep it. So I checked with Pres. Forbes and now while sister Ching does her language study I get to have a music study where I practice the piano so I can play in our ward Relief Society! Wooo! 

SLEEPOVER

Thursday we got to sleep over at the New Brighton sister’s apartment so we could all go to the temple on Friday morning and we had a blast. We pulled all the mattresses out into the living room and just talked and laughed for a long time. I love Sister Woo and Sister Hermansen :) Which brings us to our temple trip on Friday.

All the missionaries at the temple.

Oh it was so wonderful. It was a day full of missionaries. There was our district, two districts from the Anoka zone, and one district from the north St. Paul zone there. All in all we had about 23 missionaries at the temple during our session and that's not all! Sister Kastel and Brother Delong (my old ward mission leader) were working at the temple that day too! It was such a tender mercy. Brother DeLong was one of the workers that helped me while I was doing the session. There was so much love in the temple that day, probably one of the most spirit filled temple trips I've ever had.

Temple Trip aftermath! EXHAUSTION :) !

Also we experienced another moment where we found out one of the reasons we were sent to Blaine. We went to find a less active YSA named Emma. We found out where she lived and she let us right in. She has had one messed up life, like honestly I don't know how she is still the bright and smiling person that she is. As we were talking she said you know I think it was very inspired that you came by tonight because I was really depressed and I needed you. And at another point said I think you were both sent here for me because I am at a really low point in my life right now and I needed someone to talk to. I love her so much. She is also the coolest artist ever! She makes costumes for a living and we are going to go over this week and she's going to teach us to sculpt! SO EXCITED!

Funny Moment of the Week:

Sister Jones has promised to give Sister Ching and the Cat

Sister Ching wanted to get Mediterranean food for lunch after the temple and the guy working gave me some falafel to try for free. So now I can write that one on my bucket list and cross it off!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

I found this quote while studying this week... 

"The Father did not deliver the Son by removing the trial. For our sakes He did not do that, and He allowed the Savior to finish the mission He came to perform." This is the thought that came to me after reading that passage... God IS infinitely kind and loving and just like it was hard for him to watch Christ suffer it's hard for him to watch us suffer. But it is for our sake that he allows that suffering to happen. He needs us to finish the mission we each came to perform. Why would God not remove the suffering of his only begotten son but remove ours? Although trials are not fun and are very hard and challenging, if we let them and trust god, our trials can help us to become more like our savior. 

️Sister Richardson 

The One Where We Finally Have A Progressing Investigator!

January 16, 2017

Time lapse of our district playing spoons!

We had a really fun day last Monday. We drove down to new Brighton and hung out with our district and played games. We played indoor soccer which was really fun and then we played ultimate spoons. It was super fun.

Then we had dinner with Cheryl Jones. I love that woman so much. She had us over and when it came time to share a message we showed her the video shower of heavenly blessings and she got really quite and then shared with us some really personal struggles she's been having. I have to admit I was a little nervous because I knew that how we responded meant a great deal and so I said a quick prayer that we would be guided by the spirit. Sister Ching was amazing and bore a strong testimony about the importance of continuing to do the basics when it feels like you have nothing to hold on too. When all else fails Christ and his gospel won't. I am so grateful she had us over and trusted us enough to share with us. 

When you look out the window and it's snowing, AGAIN!

Tuesday it snowed A LOT. We were told that the roads were VERY slick and to not use our cars if we weren't comfortable driving out in the snow. As I've said before I've graduated from a not very good to average driver in the snow but the wind was blowing super hard picking up all the snow and blowing it around it was still coming down so we decided not to die in the snow and stay in our apartment until it calmed down. We found the board game clue in our apartment so we played a couple rounds of that and went through a bunch of the papers and things I've collected over my mission. I realized I've been carrying a lot of junk around with me for no reason We ended up with 6-8 inches of snow!

Feed my starving children was fun again this week. We had an entire 6th grade class from a middle school volunteering that day. It was so funny they were playing Katy Perry over the speakers and all the kids were yelling and signing along to it. It was funny to watch hahaha. 

On Thursday we finally got to teach. We've had a really difficult time with finding people who will actually take a second and talk to us before rejecting us so it was like a breath of fresh air to actually get to teach. We met a guy named Adebauyo who pose from Nigeria and he let us in and we taught a quick restoration and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Then we went over and saw Vison again. He was a media referral who wanted a bible but when we met him all we had was a Book of Mormon. We went over again to give him a bible and he let us in and he said he had read a little of the restoration pamphlet that we'd given him. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and testified of it. The spirit was so strong and Vison just shines with the light of Christ he's so amazing. He said he wanted to come to church with his wife Massa, and we committed him to read the restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. We set up an appointment with him for this week so cross your fingers that things go as great as they seem!

Friday we had Interviews with our mission president at the institute building by the university of Minnesota campus. That was fun I always love getting to talk with president Forbes and being round other missionaries. We were all together for a couple of hours and during our lunch hour I played Sister Brett at ping pong . It was super fun. At one point as Sister Brett and I were dueling it out I looked over and elder Nelson was playing the piano, elder Chen/ Sister Ching/ Sister Woo were all speaking Chinese together and Sister Forbes was walking around face timing with missionaries that had already gone home. I don't know why but it was just one of those moments that your hearts full, everyone's happy, and you just feel like a family where everyone knows their place. 

Later that day we had another cool miracle. We went and stopped by Hallie Xiong. The teenage girl we were able to teach last week because she hadn't been responding to her texts. Her mom Pang answered and she said Hallie was sleeping but we talked with her for a few minutes and gave her our card and invited her and her family to come to church and she asked a few questions about it and then said "we'll definitely talk about it, we've actually been looking for a church". Internally I was thinking... WHAT!? AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US THIS EARLIER PANG! WE CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT! It was one of those moments when you walk out and think did that really just happen? 

Apparently you guys are getting the miracle highlight reel hahaha. I would say that the definite tender mercy of this area so far is that although it been tough finding people who want to listen or who won't reject us we are able to see God working in giving these people the chance to make the choice to listen or not. Whether it's being able to get inside a lock out apartment or someone coming home right when we are knocking on the door. This Miracle happened while Sister Ching and I were apartment tracting. We hadn't planned to be tracting that night but we weren't doing too hot on miles B/c we had to drive to Minneapolis for our interviews so Sister Ching suggested we tract out the apartment to save miles. We prayed about it and both felt the prompting to go ahead and start knocking on doors so that's what we did. We were knocking the last door on the second floor and a lady answered. We launched into our usual schpeal of who we are and what we were doing and the lady goes "I have heard of your church before, I'm actually a member". We tracted into a less active lady and she said that we could come back another time for hot chocolate and a Book of Mormon study! MIRACLES

Sundays miracle... VISON AND MASSA CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!!! We now have a legit progressing investigator!!!! We are so excited for him!

Love you all!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

"To me the greatest miracles in life are not the parting of the Red Sea, the moving of mountains, or even the healing of the body. The greatest miracle happens when we humbly approach our father in Heaven in prayer, fervently plead to be forgiven, and then are cleansed of those sins through the atoning sacrifice of our savior". (The great plan of redemption, Linda S. Reeves, Oct. 2016, General Conference). I came across his quote this week while studying. I have recently been reading the Old Testament where very large miracles like the ones she mentions happens quite often, but I love that while those miracles are very impressive the more important ones are the ones that happen within us. Which reminds me of a quote President Utchdorf used in his last conference talk..."Anything essential is invisible to the eye". 

Sister Richardson

The One With the Plaid Party

1-9-17

Plaid Party!

Another missionary email coming at ya from the heart of the bitter cold Midwest. Here's a run down of what went down this week.

We had our first district meeting. Usually it's in new Brighton but the zone leaders wanted to be apart of it so we gathered at the institute building right by the University of Minnesota campus which was fun. Our district walked to a cute burger cafe despite it being in the negatives with a fierce windchill. Luckily we made it there and back with all our fingers and toes still intact.

We went and visited a cute sister in our ward named Sister Linehan. She's such a sweet heart. She told us her cool conversion story and how she has continually tried to share the gospel with all of her family members despite their rejection of it. Also a cool miracle. We happened to come by at the one time her 17 year old granddaughter Tanisha was there helping her. Tanisha joined us for our message and has such great insight. She shared how she appreciated her grandma taking her to church when she was little and she wants to come to church more. So great! She was hilarious and we gave her our card, so hopefully we get to see her again.

We went and volunteered at FMSC (Feed my starving children) with the district again. It's so fun! I was on the sealer this time and really found my groove. We ended up packing 52 boxes for hungry children! Woo! Also on Thursday we met one of the women that the elders had been teaching named Jennifer Briski. She's so legit! She opened her door and was like "hmhm come in" and then just walked away haha. We came in and talked with her apparently she had had a baptismal date before but it fell through and she is currently in the process of praying when a good time to try again will be. She's so funny and our personalities totally click. I'm so excited to teach her and get to know her better. Apparently her and her family has been having missionaries over for over 20 years and everyone in her family has gotten baptized except her. That'll change soon!!

We also had one of the funnest dinners I've ever been too. The Ingall's family signed up for us and then texted saying it was going to be at their parents house instead (whom are also in our ward) and to wear plaid if we had it. We show up to their parents, the Weekly's, for dinner and they have over 15 family members there and are
celebrating Brother Weekly's birthday and everyone is wearing plaid on plaid. It was awesome! Their family is hilarious. At one point the grandparents and children were swing dancing and grandchildren were flirting with grandparents ( in a funny way of course). It was so fun. Don't worry, we got a picture!

Our second week of Church was also really great. We are starting to get a handle on who everyone is. A less active sister of a member in our ward came to church so we taught a gospel principles class on the spot which went well. We jumped in and helped primary the second hour and got to know the kids and teachers better. Then our ward had a potluck after church and THEY MADE HAWIAN HAYSTACKS! Oh they were so good! I don't think I've had them since I left on my mission. Delicioso! It was a great day.

Funny Moment of the Week: 
So we were trying to stop by a less active family and as we walked down the hallway we saw that someone had thrown eggs at one of the apartment doors. The less active family didn't answer and as we were walking back the person living in the egged apartment was talking to the manager. He said "Man I don't know why anyone would do that. I mean why would you waste two eggs!? We could've eaten that. We could bake a cake with those!". We died laughing.

#2. At the same apartment building. We found the duck hotspot. Watch the video below ⬇️

Spiritual Thought of the Week:
I came across this beautiful scripture this week and it really touched me. Paul is speaking to Timothy in a letter and he is describing what Christ can do and why he came...
1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
My favorite phrase is the last sentence. "That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief". I love how Paul, being the spiritual powerhouse that he is, is always reminding people of his weaknesses. Paul could've tried to cover up his weaknesses and fault but instead he uses them and shares them with others to allow others hope in the gospel and Jesus Christ. It's through his weaknesses that he is able to relate to other so well. I was just reminded that our weaknesses and faults are a blessing and given to us for a reason. So we can relate to others and help them know what is possible.

❤️Sister Richardson

The One With Oh My Gosh We Have Sisters!

January 2, 2017

Wow we have had one heck of a week with transfers and Pink Washing Blaine!

 Saying goodbye to Jazzy

Saying goodbye to Pat and Sister B 

Goodbye to Sister Cope

Monday and Tuesday consisted of a lot of packing and goodbye lessons. I don't know what it is but I swear my amount of clothes somehow multiplied over this transfer. I learned I have WAY too much stuff. My suitcases were so heavy, I hope Blaine is my last area so I don't have to do that all again. Plus I'm not sure if my suitcases could take it. I broke a zipper with packing for this last transfer hahaha. 

Reunion w/ Sister Card

Transfer day was fun. Got to see a bunch of my old companions! Sister Xiong was there and sister Killpack and SISTER CARD. She's banished to La Crosse right now so I didn't think I'd get to see her before I went home, but her companion was getting transferred and she got to come up! Ah, I've missed her, she's so great. Weird to think she's half way done with her mission cause when I got her she was a baby still in training. So now I am in Blaine with my new comp Sister Ching with both of us trying to figure out what the heck is going on hahaha. I think Sister Ching had a little bit of transfer shock because she just came from her favorite area where she knew everything and her favorite companion, to a new area where neither of us know anything and a completely new person as a companion. I think she's doing a lot better now though, we laugh and joke and I think this is gonna be a great transfer :) Oh! Also, Sister Ching is a Chinese speaking sister, so we get to do language study and I'm learning some Chinese! I can now introduce myself and tell people I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! So fun.

Trying to get to Blaine w/ Sister Ching

So our first day in Blaine we managed to find our apartment from transfers without a GPS, and thankfully with it being an elders apartment previously, it was not nearly as bad as we were expecting. Sister Ching and I unpacked and then had to get creative with how we we would go out and work that evening because we had no area book, no GPS, no ward list, and it was too dark to tract. So we looked around the apartment and there were still some paper area books left here, so we looked through them and grabbed some of the people who looked promising. Of course all the info was outdated and all from around 2004 but hey at least we had a name and address. Then we went over to Taco Bell (the only free wifi we could find) and looked up on google maps how to get to each place and then back home. It was quite the adventure and was actually pretty fun. We felt like old school missionaries from back in the day before iPads.

Thursday, our first full day in Blaine, was crazy. We went and had Lunch w/ the Anoka and Andover sisters which was super fun and I got my bike which I had left in Anoka. Then Sister Ching and I had our weekly service project so we ran over there. Our whole district volunteers at a place called Feed My Starving Children. Basically what you do is assemble packets of food for kids without any. It was so fun because it was a competition to see who could go the fastest and pack the most boxes. I learned you should never tell a group of missionaries something is a competition because we hardly ever get a chance to be competitive so we take any chance we get hahaha. We were flying through all the steps and we totally won. Then Sister Ching and I went Tracting on Magnolia street. Almost everyone was very nice so that was a great welcome to the area, although not a lot of people were interested until we met Alicia. She stepped outside her house, even though it was really cold, and let us share the because of him video with her. We testified of Jesus Christ and his importance in our lives and she said we could come back and teach her and her daughter!! Miracles! 

 Exhaustion!

Also Sister Ching and I are SO EXHAUSTED. I know I probably say that I'm tired in just about every email but this is the real deal. I didn't know it was possible to be more tired than I already was but we found out this week that that is most definitely possible. I fell asleep while praying and Sister Ching fell asleep during studies.  We're both on the struggle bus going through downtown struggle city but we're slowly making our way toward normalville hahaha.

So here's some miracles for ya. We were trying to contact some of the investigators in our area book and we saw a part member family where the wife is a member and the husband wasn't. We stopped by and the wife Trina was home. She opened the door and went "IVE GOT GIRLS! COME IN"! She was so excited to have Sister missionaries. We had a wonderful lesson with her and now here comes the cool part. We had introduced ourselves and found out she was from Tacoma. She was super excited that I am from Seattle. As we were leaving she hugged me and said "I told my mom one day I'd have girls and one of them would be from home, and here you are". That was really cool. I felt like in a small way God has placed me here for Trina to reminder her that she's not forgotten and that he needs her. 

The other miracle happened on Saturday. We were stopping by some referrals that the elders hadn't ever contacted and we go up to the first one and this Hmong family opened the door. We told them why we were there and asked if Hali was there and she let us in! She's a 16 year old and had talked to some missionaries in St. Paul and asked to talk to some in her area. We all talked a bit and we taught the entire restoration and invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She is so cute and sincere we are so excited for her! It's funny the people we've met in Blaine are either not interested or really sincere which is nice.

Last but not least we had church on Sunday. It was the weirdest thing ever that neither of us knew where the chapel was or anyone who was in our ward, or where relief society or Sunday school met. Everyone was super nice. If I were to describe the Blaine ward it is basically comprised of a bunch of funky old grandparents. There are almost no young families and the ward is really small but that's okay. We'll get to know the members better that way and be able to work with them. 

Funny Moment of the Week:

The first counselor in the bishopric asked us to introduce ourselves during church. As soon as we stood up you could hear the word "sisters" whispered throughout the whole chapel. I just smiled it was pretty funny. The Blaine ward hasn't had sisters for 8 years so they're happy to have us haha.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

"One see clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." - Dieter F. Utchdorf, Fourth Floor, Last Door, October 2016 General Conference. This is a quick list what's essential to me: Love, Faith, God, Jesus Christ, The Spirit, Trust, My Testimony, and Friendship. What's essential to you?

️Sister Richardson