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

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