The One With the Mission President and the Amish Hat

June 13, 2016

 Hi Everybody! Coming at you live from Apple Valley Minnesota!



So Monday was my last p-Day in Wisconsin and it was really chill. We
basically hung out with the elders all day. We went to there apartment
and used the wifi and emailed together, had lunch at golden Hmong egg
roll together, then all went to the church and played volley ball and
then cards for the rest of it. When I say we spent all day with them I
mean it hahaha. They are so fun. 

Tuesday was a lot of packing. Surprisingly though everything fit really nicely which I was surprised about considering my closet practically double in La Crosse. So I was supposed to leave Wednesday to come to Apple Valley right? Yeah that's what I thought too and I was all ret to go and then I get a call Wednesday morning from president Forbes telling me that they'll be driving sister Schmidt down, and we'll be a trio for the day then I'll
drive with them to my new area on Thursday. It was so funny, I kept saying goodbye to everyone and not leaving. Brother Ebbert texted us on Wednesday to say thank you for my hard work and everything I did in La Crosse and I texted back "um thanks but I actually am staying another day haha" to which he replied "What! How many times are we going to say goodbye! It's gotten past awkward and is now just getting ridiculous! At this point you should just call your mission president and stay for the transfer". That was pretty funny. So sister Peterson and I stayed up super late on Wednesday night talking and I will miss seeing her so much. Like she said is wasn't like we were serving with another missionary it's like we were serving with our best friends. I really think one of the reasons I needed to serve a mission was so I could meet her. 






On Thursday we loaded up the Forbe's car with all my stuff, and embarked back to civilization. Well kinda. We had some stops to make on the way. We stopped up in Rochester to talk to the sisters there (sister Sperry and sister wu).



That was a tender mercy because sister Sperry goes home next transfer and since I was getting transferred I probably wouldn't have seen her before she went home and I just love her. So that was super nice. Then we headed over to Kasson and while we were driving my bike kept sliding on the bike rack so we stopped to fix it. Of course where we stopped there was a store called Amish Brick ovens and president Forbes was like "we gotta go in and see all the Amish stuff". I was definitely not passing up the opportunity to go Amish window shopping with my mission president, so that's what we did. It was really fun. President can be really funny. I got a picture with him wearing an Amish straw hat.



That like makes my life!!! So long story short I ended up spending the ENTIRE day with president and sister Forbes. No joke, I was with them from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm. Who gets to say they spent nine hours alone with their mission president and wife. Not too many missionaries hahaha. So I finally got to my new area and met my new companion Woooo!



Sister Card is amazing. I honestly can't say enough good things about her. She is an amazing missionary, is hilarious, and we get along super well. I can tell this is gonna be one of those transfers that are awesome missionary and fun wise. Well balanced transfers are the best! It's so weird to be surrounded by so many missionaries. The Lakeville zone is the second smallest zone in the mission. Literally my first day we went over to the church to do sister cards training and we saw three different sets of missionaries. I was like woah is this zone p-day or something!? Nope we just get to see peeps. Oh fun fact. Sister card is allergic to gluten and milk. This is going to be a good transfer for me food wise. I really needed to cut back on what I am eating and already have! The cute people that we see her are all slightly crazy but are all so adorable you can't help but love them :) also the Ward is amazing and probably gave me the warmest welcome into a ward that I've gotten yet! Missionaries call the Apple Valley area perfect and I can see why. The members are awesome, you always see other missionaries, and there are so many people to teach! If you can't tell, I'm a little excited to be here 😃

Funny Moments of the Week:
#1. So Sister Card and I tried to save a stray cat from an abandoned  trailer park this week. We walk over to the trailer and the cat is sitting in the window of the trailer. Turns out the cat is not a stray and the trailer is not abandoned..... Yikes!

#2. Sister card and I stayed up really late our second night together just talking, and about two hours in we saw large black bugs flying around our ceiling. We were not about to go to sleep when for all we know they could be huge flying ticks. So we went bug hunting. So we killed the first one and then there was a second one! Don't worry! We killed them both and haven't seen one since, so here's hoping their all gone. We videoed our adventure, and I'll attach it below.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:
"The harvest we reap in our lives is measured by the attitudes and habits we cultivate"
I will leave this to you to interpret for yourself personally but I testify to this. If we decide to be happy and work and act in that way we will achieve eventually. And the same for the opposite, I've seen it countless times on my mission.

Love, Sister Richardson

The One Where President Doesn't Tell You Your Training

5-30-16

Transfer News:
So OF COURSE I've broken the pattern and don't get to stay in La Crosse for 6 months 😢 I'm getting transferred to apple valley Minnesota, and PRESIDENT DIDNT TELL ME IM TRAINING! I'm finishing sister cards training. So we'll see how that goes 😕 I feel like my heart is breaking when I think about leaving La Crosse. Like don't get
me wrong I'm excited for apple valley and sister card and I'll have a good attitude about it, but this is probably my hardest transfer. I'm sad. There's a video of our transfer reactions below.




Side note:
Sorry this email is so late, we went to an Indian powwow today with sister Olson up in black river falls. That was super fun, that's what those pictures are.

So this week has been crazy and fun. So it started off on Monday with some really exciting news from the Perrys. Brother Perry talked to Bristol last Sunday and is preparing to go to the temple by the end of the summer!! Oh my goodness we are so excited for him! He is such a sweet man, and we are so excited for him to make this step. Woo.

Then on Tuesday I had one of the coolest experiences with the priesthood I think I've ever had. So Elder and Sister Beck (the senior missionary couple serving in Sparta) texted on Monday saying they were going to be down in la crosse on Tuesday and asked if they could take us to lunch. Sister Peterson and I both had wanted a blessing from elder Beck so it was perfect that he was gonna be in La Crosse. Elder Beck really honors his priesthood. He had us read from the scriptures before we started and talked about blessings and had sister beck say an opening prayer. I went first. I thought I had just wanted a blessing because transfers were coming up and I wanted to receive one from elder beck. I needed that blessing more than I knew. It helped me feel relief with a lot of the things I have been stressing about that I hadn't told anyone about. I am so thankful for the power and comfort
that comes from the priesthood, and men who worthily hold it and are in tune with the spirit.

So we had our last lesson with Jessie and Chris. We were there for 6 hours teaching them the last three lessons and going over the baptism interview questions. We taught it using sticky notes and I'll attach a picture. My sticky note game is strong ;)



The mosquitos have arrived here in La Crosse or as sister Peterson calls them, Mosquatos haha. I have 5 mosquito bites right now. One on each foot and three between both arms. It's really annoying hahaha, thought you'd all like to know.

We learned how to roll egg rolls with Mai and Bao on Friday. That was so fun. Man egg rolls are my weakness. I had like 7 of them!

We taught The gospel principles class this Sunday. I was pretty nervous for it, because it's a bunch of adults staring at you and you're hoping you've got enough prepared, but it went so well! There was more class participation than I think I've ever seen in that class before. The lesson was on faith and the spirit was really strong as so many wonderful people shared their experiences. That was a huge blessing from Heavenly Father.

After church Jessie and Chris had their baptism interview with Elder Pierson. It went so well! Chris was only in there talking for thirty minutes and Jessie was in there for an hour and a half. It was all smiles as they walked out of it :) So their baptism is on track for this Friday at sometime after 3 hahaha. Time still needs to be nailed
down.

Well that is about it for this week, it was good and busy :)

Love, Sister Richardson

Spiritual Thought of the Week:
D&C 52:14
-Gods is unchanging and Satan is constantly changing. We can put our trust in God because of his unchangingness. We can feel safe in knowing eternal truths and principles.

The One Where your Companion Slaps You

5-23-16

 

So i swear everyone in our ward knows that we're running low on MSF (A.k.a missionary support fund, a.k.a the money we get every month to live). We had dinner with sister Paul on Monday. She is a really cute lady who LOVES the missionaries. There are so many adoptive grandmothers to the missionaries in this Ward I love it! Sister Paul is one of those grandmas. After dinner she gives us almost all the left overs and then proceeds to practically empty her refrigerator and freezer with food for us. It was crazy! We love her so much. We were

trying to tell sister Paul "we don't want to take all of your food! You don't have to give us all of this!" And in her cute accent she replied "I love doing it! You guys are like my grandchildren, and I'll do anything to help you. This is my small contribution". Talk about an amazing woman. She is always trying to serve those around her in
anyway she can. Another person I hope to become someday. Then another MSF miracle, sister Miller took us to check out the food co-op here in la crosse. Everyone talks about it and uses it to give directions to other places and we've never seen it before. She took us there and gave us a tour around and she bought us some food! That was awesome.

So on Tuesday we had an interesting experience. A drunk black man tried to bible bash us. I say tried because he wasn't very successful. We met him when we tried to stop by a former investigator and he was sitting out on his porch and we started up a conversation with him. It was weird, he like expected us to have the entire bible memorized and so would ask us what random verses talked about. We asked him right back about certain verses (cause you can't ask/ expect us to do that if you can't) and he couldn't do it at all. I was actually really
impressed with myself, usually Im not good at answering questions because I don't want to offend people and don't know if they'll accept my true answer. For example I know something because I've prayed about it or when they ask who established the church saying Jesus Christ etc... So usually when questions like that come I give small answers not really stating my whole belief on the subject but I seriously held my own against this man. I was able to answer the questions he asked and we basically taught the entire restoration. We are gonna drop by
some other time. Now will he remember what we talked about? Guess we'll see haha. It was so funny cause he was trying to bash us using the King James Version of the bible which is what we believe in and use, so the whole time he was trying to catch us and we were like YES! if it's in there we believe it. #werebothright 
#webelieveinthesamebible!




We had another lesson with Jessie and Chris on Wednesday. I love going over there for lessons. It just makes my heart happy. They had been thinking about and praying about their baptism date of June 18th and when Jessie started talking it sounded like they were gonna push it back. But surprise they want to move it forward and be baptized on June 4th! So two weeks from now! Which means we have two teach them two lessons this week on one day. Chris is taking off work on Thursday and we are just gonna go over and teach them both lessons at once.
That'll be interesting. Never done that before, but I'm excited 😃! So golden.



Then on Thursday I think it was we went to the International gardens here in La Crosee with the relief society. That was really fun and the gardens were so beautiful! Don't worry we were constantly missionarying. We taught a troll there the first discussion. I've included pictures for those of you skeptics who don't believe me.

We had a Zone conference in in Rochester on Friday. It was really good, we had a lot of good trainings and sister P and I sang in a musical number. We sang with both sets of Rochester sisters. We sang I am a child of God in three languages. Sister Sperry and Bingham sang the first verse in English, Hermana Koopmans, Atendido, and Sperry sang the second verse in Spanish, and Sister P and I finished it off with the third verse in Hmong. It went really well and we pronounced all the words right! It was cute, our elders (the only Hmong speakers there) were sitting in the front row and were so excited me proud of us when we finished haha.

Also this week we taught seminary and the 16-17 year old Sunday school class. We did great on both. It was funny, as we were preparing our lesson for seminary I was like, yeah I'd like to be a seminary teacher. Then when we gave the lesson and everyone acts (and some looked) like a zombie and are silent and I remembered the struggle seminary was for me I was like um yeah no. Just kidding I don't want to be a seminary teacher. Teaching Sunday school was much better because they were actually awake and would talk. That was fun and I surprised myself with my teaching skills. I still am not used to this ability that I've developed to teach.

Funny Moments of the Week:
So Sister P and I were talking with Mai about her life problems and sister Peterson was talking. I said something (I'm assuming pretty snarky) and she reached over and slapped me so I slapped her right back. It was pretty funny cause it happened really quickly and Mai was like "woah what just happened". You know you're too good of friends
when getting slapped by the other person doesn't even faze your friendship just adds some more color to it hahahaha.



Another funny moment this week. We went up to La Crescent Minnesota to visit a member of our ward, sister Olson, and she took us to go see two less active women that she visit teaches. They were not home but
their guard goose certainly was! Yes you heard me right they had a guard goose! It was so funny, I have a video of it that I'll attach.




Spiritual Thought of the Week:
Shout out to my trainer sister Teuscher with this one. I came across
her favorite scripture this week! Romans 8:35-38, 39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love this for the same reason Sister T does. It lays out plainly
that NOTHING can separate us from the love of our savior. The only one
who separates us from the love of Christ is ourselves and even the
it's never not there. We simply choose not to see it or feel it.
Everything comes back to our Saviors love for us. Every principle of
the gospel can be traced back to Christ and his love for us.

Love, Sister Richardson

The One With The Huge Exciting News!!!

5-16-16


We went hiking this morning with our district and Mai whose s recent convert

Okay so we had a huge awesome amazing thing happen this week so I'm gonna tell you about all the other things this week and save it till the end so you keep reading 😏Don't worry there's only two things so not to long.



So the first thing that was exciting was that our STL's (Sister Training Leaders a.k.a sisters in charge of us) came down and blitzed our area. Blitzing is when the other companionship comes down for the day and we (the areas normal companionship) splits up as well and then we switch half way through the day to get a turn with each STL. Does that make sense? I tried my hardest to explain it well. So I went with Sister Sperry for the first half of the day and then switched and went with Hermana Koopmans. It was funny, Hermana Koopmans forgot her name
tag in Rochester but never fear, she was not tagless. A missionary whose last area was La Crosse left one of her name tags in the apartment, so Hermana Koopmans was Sister Roberts for the day hahaha.

We went and helped a less active member of our ward clean up her garage and part of her yard and we were all flipping out about getting ticks. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE AND THEY ARE OUT TO KILL US!!!! It's terrifying! 😫 as far as we know everyone's safe but they could be anywhere. Ahhhhh! That's just the constant stress us missionaries have to deal with. We tried a New Mexican food place that was okay in my opinion, and then we all headed over to the pearl so that Sisters Sperry and Koopmans could try it. 

On Sunday we were asked to sub last minute and teach the 7-8 yr old primary class. It was really fun, we were teaching about the priesthood. There were 4 kids in our class and they got a kick out of playing hang man (spelling out blessing and authority of course) and reenacting Jesus calming the sea. The cutest/ funniest thing was when we took the kids around the church and went on a priesthood hunt. They were trying to see how many priesthood holders they could find and it was so funny when we got to the stage which is where the elders quorum meets. The door was open and they were all like "LOOK THERE THEY ARE!!! THERES LIKE SEVEN OF THEM!!!" So cute.

********OKAY!!! SO! HERES THE EXCITING THING THAT HAPPENED!!!********

Okay. So. The exciting news isssss........ Drumroll
...............................................................................................................................
Jessie and Chris set a baptism date!!!!!!! They are planning on being baptized on June 18th! Oh my goodness they are so amazing! And remember how I said that Jessie has always been the more gung-ho one and spiritual one compared to Chris? Well when we asked them how they felt about preparing to be baptized on June 18th, Chris was the one who was like Yes! I'm ready to be a member and make this step. It was so amazing and Jessie said the closing prayer at the end and the spirit just filled the room! It was like we were swimming in it, I wanted to cry. You know how whenever you ask converts about their conversion story how they have "their missionaries" the ones they cherish and stay in contact with and never forget their names? We are slowly becoming "their missionaries" and I am so ecstatic. That is one of the things that I have wanted SO BADLY one my mission. I'm literally living my dream. Watching this young family making steps closer to their Heavenly Father and their savior and seeing how sincere they are and the amount of faith they exercise. This is so incredible I can't really explain everything in words. I'll say it again, I am so blessed to be allowed to participate in their journey. They would make these steps if I was here or not. Heavenly Father has simply allowed me to be apart of it :D

Funny Moment of the Week:
So when we went to the pearl with the STL's we couldn't find parking close so we had to park a bit away and walk. Well it was raining a little and then really picked up while we were walking. And all we could think as our little band of missionaries was trekking to the Pearl was "the things women do for ice cream". It was really comical.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:
So Sister Peterson and I were asked to do a training on district meeting this week on hope. It was awesome. I learned a lot of things about it, for instance I happened upon a new favorite ensign article of mine. It's called hope: The misunderstood sister from the June 2009 issue. "Then there’s Hope, who seems to have a problem with the way people perceive her. It may be her name and the way it’s commonly used: “I hope the car passes inspection.” Or, “I hope the weather will be nice for the wedding.” Used this way, the word hope is the verbal equivalent of keeping your fingers crossed. Consequently, many seem to think Hope is unsure, even fickle--she may or may not grace you with her companionship. But surely that’s not the kind of hope our Father in Heaven commands us to have. Nor would it be the kind of hope our Savior offers. Hope is anything but wishful. It is expectation based
on experience. I see Hope more clearly now. She is serene. Her eyes have the deep, knowing look of someone well acquainted with sorrow, the luminosity of recently being wet with tears. Hope has the confidence of one who clearly sees a bright future even when the next hours seem fog shrouded. Hope is steady and strong, a friend I am glad to have beside me during my own trials." Spoken in the words of one of the members here, hope helps you keep going when you don't see an end. And as elder Russell M. Nelson said, everything comes back to the savior. We have faith in him as our savior, hope in his atonement, and charity is the pure love of Christ. My mind was a little blown as I studied this topic and I hope yours was too :)

Love, Sister Richardson

Romans Chapter 5

5-9-16

We had a great time SKYPING with Kaitlyn.  We were down in Oregon at Mike's parents home so they could see and talk to her as well!  Here is her brief email:

I know it was fun talking to you guys too! It was A LOT easier skyping this time than last. Less traumatic which was nice. And less tears. I'm glad you guys were able to get home so quickly, you should've just told me, we could've done it earlier. Oh well it is what it is. I love you and will write a more detailed email next week. I'm tired and sick and just cant bring myself to write a full fledged email. If you want a spiritual thought for this week, you should read Romans chapter 5. It BLEW my mind! The beginning talks about glorying in tribulations, which is hard to do, but easier when you realize that they teach us patience, experience, and hope. Then the rest of the chapter talks about the atonement and how because of one man (Adam, but could also be us) death has been brought upon us, and judgement, and sin, and because of one person (Christ) we are given grace, mercy, and eternal life. Ahh, it was sooo good!

Well i love you and will talk to you in 6 months!

Love, Sister Richardson

The One With an Adventure Back to Civilization

5-2-16

Man so some exciting things happened this week. So one of the biggest things is we had a mission conference on Wednesday up in Bloomington. We made it back to civilization and the land of Missionaries! Sister P and I woke up at 5:30and went over to the church to meet up with the rest our district. Elder and Sister Beck had offered to drive us all in their Suburban to save miles. So we were on time but the elders (Winnona and LAX) were like 30 minutes late! Apparently their alarm didn't go off.

But never fear, after a three hour car ride to Bloomington later, we literally made it just in the nick of time. So the conference was Awesome! Elder Lawrence and his wife were there because they were doing a tour of our mission and they both spoke to us. Elder Lawrence spoke in conference in October and gave the talk what lack i yet. He THREW DOWN! It was awesome! He told us of the Mission Leadership Council they had had on Monday with all the leaders of the mission and where they had felt inspired to set a goal for the mission. That goal is to get a hundred new date sets for baptism every month. Crazy, and he told us how to accomplish that and what it would take. 3 days after the conference we had a mission wide conference call and mission wide there were already 56 new date sets for baptism. It's a great time to be in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission! The conference was fun but it was a little sad for me. I was "raised" or have spent my entire mission in the cities, and almost all of the missionaries that I know and consider friends are in the cities still and they met on Tuesday for mission conference. That was pretty sad. Oh well, hopefully when I eventually get transferred from La Crosse it's back up to the cities.

So also this whole time I've been in La Crosse I have been CRAVING Red Robin. For any of you who don't know, Red Robin is like the Richardson's family restaurant. We've been there more times than i can count, and there isn't one in La Crosse. So while we were up in Bloomington when we all piled back in the Becks car we asked if for dinner if we could go there since there's one in Bloomington and WE DID! Oh! I was SO Happy!!! Red Robin is so great :D Then we embarked on the 3 hour car ride back to La Crosse. We bonded as a district and it was really fun. I love our district. I've realized that just like companions are your favorite for different reasons so are districts. This district is one of my favorites because we feel like one big family. We even have a senior couple to be our tolerant parents! :)

************PAY ATTENTION TO THIS! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!!************ 

[So after i finished emailing last Monday we got a text from Jessie Cruzan. She said that she had talked to her husband Chris and that they both were ready to start taking the missionary lessons!!! We had our first lesson together on Friday night. It was so great. They had a lot of really great questions and we talked about the restoration with them. They are literally so prepared. Both of them, as the learn and grow, want to be baptized! I feel so humbled and blessed to be allowed to participate in their journey. Literally they would eventually be baptized anyways but heavenly father has permitted me to be apart of it. SO GREAT! We had dinner with them after our lesson and it was so fun. They are a really cute couple and have two adorable little girls who, while we were leaving, gave us drawings they had colored while we were talking. As Brother Ebbert (Our ward mission leader) said these are the people we pray for!]

We had a lesson with the Smothers on Friday. They are a fun/ crazy less-active family who have 7 kids +1 cousin whose there all the time. We played a game about the holy ghost where one kid is blind folded and has to get through a maze by listening to someone who is whispering directions while everyone else is yelling at them to make the wrong choice. That was fun and the kids had some really great insight to share. I love their family. Even though it's loud and hectic those kids just fill my heart with light  :)

So we had the Rochester Stake conference this weekend and had a phenomenal adult session on Saturday. I think I've realized that that is always my favorite session. This is purely speculation but i could be because people have less of an obligation to be there because it's on a Saturday that those who are there have a desire to be there and be taught and so the spirit is able to be felt in a greater abundance. I don't know, that my theory :) Also shout out to Elder Beck who was being hilarious and sarcastic. The Becks are my favorite senior couple. Really the only one i know... but still.

So then last night we went to the Hanks for a YSA Event. There was such a good turn out! Mai and Bao (as well as her adorable 2 year old daughter Amais) was there, and Alex (our investigator) and her boyfriend Quinn, Kylie (our fun return missionary from the Philippines), and Tim and John. As well as us and the elders... but we don't count. We all had a really fun time and the speakers taught about the restoration and it's ability to change lives. 

Well that wraps up this week in Wisconsin!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

One of the Women who spoke at the Saturday Session of Stake Conference shared a lot about her struggle with anxiety and about infirmities in general. She shared an experience where she was crying and praying for god to take away her anxiety and she got the impression "I thought you wanted to know me". Through this experience she realized that her infirmities, her anxiety, could be a blessing and allow her to know and rely on god and our savior on such a larger personal and more intimate level. She said I glory in my infirmities because then Christs power can rest upon me. That was such a powerful insight and look into the struggles and trials that we all have in life. We can let them break us and be bitter, or we can let them grow us. I know a lot of times that is easier said than done but I hope that when I struggle and go through trials that I will remember the words "I thought you wanted to know me" and rely on my father in heaven and my savior to walk with me and help me keep going. 

Funny Moment of the Week:

During the Saturday session of Stake Conference the Stake president made a joke about medical and everyone thought is was hilarious. #OnlyInRochester #FreakinMayoClinic #DidIMissSomething 

P.S! Happy 8 Months to sister P and I as of today!!!! Almost to half way!!!

Love, Sister Richardson