The One Where the Leaves are Falling, Winter is Coming, and We Are Biking

10-31-16

The Hermanas left us sticky notes!

So we have been Biking all over Lakeville this week because we are out of miles. Biking in the wind, rain, you name it, we did it. It was really cute cause we were biking in the rain and we were FREEZING on Tuesday and then we went over to Nette's and brother Lightners for our lesson. I was still really cold so they wrapped me up in a blanket and gave me hot chocolate and cookies and that's how I taught their lesson. I wish every lesson was like that, wrapped in a blanket. I felt really loved :)

Really cool lesson with Sister Stetler. It was one of those moments where you are able to listen to the promptings of the holy ghost and discern their needs and teach what they needed to hear. One of my favorite things ever. Seeing yourself be an instrument in the hands of god is such a wonderful thing. I got to experience that with Sister Stetler this week. 

We had a fun time with the Heindels for dinner. They had us and the elders over and threw a Halloween party with them and another family. So fun. We had pizza, built a dry ice bomb, carved pumpkins, and had pie. SO SO SO fun. I'll attach pictures below.

Had a super sweet miracle this week at the trunk-or-treat. We were walking around the church looking for ways to be useful and help right before it started and brother woods walked up to us trained by a teen. He said "sisters this is my new friend Corbin he just walked in the church looking for some more information". I have never had that happen on my mission before. As sister Myers said that's like Mormon folklore. He said he had talked with his friend about the church and was looking for a Mormon book. We taught him about the book of Mormon and gave him one, a mormon.org card, invited him to a church tour, gave him our phone number and got his and then we all went on our way. Wow. Talk about miracles.

The other miracle of the week was the RICHARDS. OH MY GOSH. So. They are a less active family in our ward that we have been visiting ever since I came to the area and for probably two months now Sister Richards has been promising to come to church. Yesterday they finally did!!!! Then we went over to their house afterwards and she said they both loved it! Probably was one of the best testimony meetings they've ever been to and they want to keep coming. She said she even set aside some time to read the book of Mormon that night. Oh my gosh. Miracles!

Well I think that's it for this week :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love, Sister Richardson 

The One Where We Were Almost Ditsy White Girls

October 24, 2016

That's Leo. He's awesome.

Found a large gnome while Tracting whose apparently a greenbay packers fan!

This happened at district meeting. So great!

Exchanges with Hermana Duvall!

So we had the first round of exchanges this transfer and it involved me going to the Spanish area with Hermana Duvall :) This was HermanaDuvall's third transfer out here in Minnesota speaking Spanish and she's killing it. She taught an entire lesson in Spanish by herself! SO PROUD OF HER! It was so fun. I love going to the Spanish area :)

So Sister Myers is still covering from being sick and she has just been going non-stop so I finally told her that she needed to rest. We finally set some time aside to rest and it was so funny. We got home and sister Myers was like "give me the phone we can do some phone work" and I was like NO SISTER. LAY DOWN ON THE BED YOU NEED TO REST! Then I threw a blanket on top of her and locked us both in the room for the time we scheduled. It was funny :)

THIS IS THE MIRACLE OF THE WEEK YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had another Lesson with Jolene, right after we exchanged back on Wednesday. This time at sister wrights home which was awesome. Sister Wright served a mission in Alaska and is a BOSS joint teacher! She has not lost her missionary skills :) We taught Jolene about the word of wisdom thinking that she'd probably have a hard time with coffee and occasional drinking. So we explain it to her and the blessings and she goes "well, there goes my pop". We were flabbergasted. She completely and readily accepted the entire word of wisdom and was only sad because she though she'd have to give up her Dr. Pepper. SHES SO AMAZING YOU GUYS! Oh my gosh, the difference that I've in this woman is just phenomenal! I love her so much and am so excited for her to get baptized!

My wonderful zone of a family :)

So a lot happened on Saturday. We went in the morning and helped a less active lady in our ward with some yard work, pulling out plans and digging in the dirt. Then we ran over and played some ultimate frisbee with the elders, and a group of non-members that someone in our ward invited us to play with. Okay can I just say I LOVE ULTIMATE FRISBEE. It's so fun! Who knew?!  So after frisbee we came back to our apartment and each packed a bag and were temporarily kicked out of our apartment because sister Blanchard (the wife of the couple we live with) was gone for the weekend so it was just us and Jim at home which is a no can do situation. So we ran on over to stay with the Crystal Lake sisters apartment. And man God was taking care of us because neither of us slept bad on the coach and on the floor #tendermercies. That was fun. I love sister Spiers and sister corn ridge. They are killing it in their area as well :) The Saturday adventures doesn't end their. I feel like an old commercial right now, BUT WAIT THERES MORE! So we drove out to Elko to try and see one of our new investigators that we hadn't been able to get in contact with and we were able to see him and teach a lesson.... YAY! The we went to go stop by a potential and as we pull into the cul-de-sac here was a guy in the driveway of the house we were looking for and he came charging down the driveway toward us. He said did you guys know you had a flat tire? And we looked a little to the left and see enough our tire was completely flat. He was so nice! He told us to pull our car into the driveway and he'd rein flare our tire. After he did we realized theleak was way to big so he said he'd change it for us too! I was thinking that I could do it but then hey, he offered. This is where the subject heading of my email comes in. We were getting the jack and wrench and tire iron out of the back of our car and we couldn't figure out how things came undone and  then I almost fell inside the trunk. But luckily he was not there at the moment so we almost looked like ditsy white girls that had no idea what we were doing but don't worry. Pride is still intact ;) 'haha and then we went to a Goodyear to get our tire patched and it was closed until Monday. Yeah Saturday was a  little crazy.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great missionary day! Jolene and Mary came to church, and the elders had an investigator as well so our gospel principles class was chalk full! So much so that we got upgraded to alarger room! Such a great problem to have :) Also we went Tracting twice on Sunday and we were able to teach 3 lessons. So wonderful, you really feel like your fulfilling your purpose and you just feel happy. Even if you don't teach sister Myers and I learned a lesson on diligence this week. It was probably 8:45pm and we needed to driveback to Burnsville which would take about 10 minutes but I just wanted to teach a lesson. I just had a little bit of weight on my heart cause we hadn't had a lot of time to do good Ol missionary work. So sister Myers was like let's go where the people are..... the Target parking lot! We prayed and are up with a game plan to walk around the parking lot and try to teach someone and sorry no this isn't a target miracle story. We didn't find anyone to teach, but when we got back in the car I just felt so much lighter. Being obedient and trying to be diligent brings blessings and happiness :)

Oh my gosh we had to teach seminary this morning and I am SOOOO TIRED! Ugh. The one time I'm glad that Sister Myers is a full on morning person.

Funny Moment: So we were Tracting on Friday and came across a really old man who was just about to have his birthday. He was so sassy, we asked him how old he was going to be and he's was like I'm old "I was born before Moby Dick was a minow". 😂

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

1 Nephi 21: 13 ""...for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. 14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me--but he will show that he hath not. 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;" I read through this chapter this morning and I love how the savior keeps referring to us as HIS people. He could've just said he would comfort the people or have mercy upon the afflicted but he doesn't. The reason being in verse 16. He has graven us upon the palms of his hands. He knows us perfectly. I think of what it's like as a missionary when I find someone who has had similar struggles andtrials to what I've gone through. It seems my love for them triples and I want so badly for them to be happy. Well the savior knows everything each one of us has gone through and so how great is his love for us and his desire to see us happy. We just have to make sure we don't turn our backs on hims because he has permanent reminders of us.

Love, Sister Richardson

The One With Jolene

October 17, 2016

Got to see sister Xiong at Presidents Fireside! She's so cute she makes me feel so happy whenever I'm by her.

Can't get over how beautiful Minnesota is 

Outfits from Goodwill

Despite not being able to teach very much this week turned out awesome :) On Monday after emailing we headed to Apple Valley to help Sister Spiers clean the apartment there because it was SO BAD. Not even kidding, it looked like stuff exploded everywhere. Two and a half hours later we finished cleaning just the bedroom and the closet, and we ended up with about 7 garbage bags of stuff and garbage. Afterwards we were planning on staying and doing work in apple valley but we all forgot proselyting clothes so we went on over to good will and all found outfits to wear. That was SO much fun! I'll attach some pictures below of the final products. 

Tuesday we finally got a call from president telling us the fate of our tripanionship. Sister Spiers went to Crystal Lake because another sister went home for medical reason. She is happy to finally have an area (she kept saying she felt homeless for a while there. hahaha) and I'm happy to finally be sleeping in a bed again :)

Also cool experience, while we were at our weekly zone service, the prince of peace food shelf, I got to host so I got to interact with a lot of people. I was helping a Russian lady and I asked if she would like to say a prayer at the end and she said yes. The spirit was strong and when I finished praying I looked up and she was crying. We couldn't talk very much because of the language barrier but we hugged and she went on her way. I loved that, I felt like even though all I did was pray for her I was helping God tell her he loved her.

On Tuesday night I had one of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. The lesson was w/ Nette and Brother Lightner and we talked about repentance. Last Sunday was fast Sunday and the new elder in our ward, Elder Moore bore his testimony and mentioned that he was a convert and had gone less active for a while because he didn't understand repentance. That has really stuck with me and I realized that I have hardly taught an individual lesson solely on repentance and challenged people to repent. It's always been a side thing that you just teach when you teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ but I kind of realized that it's not. That lesson was so powerful as we all talked about repentance and I thought after 'if that's what preaching repentance feels like I want to do it all the time'. I am so thankful that I get to serve around Elder Moore, his testimony on repentance has helped me to see the importance of it.

So fun fact, there are now Elders in Apple Valley instead of sisters. Weird right? I know. But I guess we'll keep 'em haha. I think they're exactly what Apple Valley needs right now.

********* HOLD THE PHONE! PUT DOWN YOUR POODLE AND READ THIS *********

Let me set the stage for you. So It's 12pm on a beautiful fall Thursday in Burnsville Minnesota and Sister Myers and I have gathered at the home of the wonderful Sister Thayer to have a lesson with our investigator Jolene. We all arrive on time and get situated on thee couches. We have planned to teach the Plan of Salvation and are equipped with visuals and scriptures galore. But we need an opening prayer to start it all off. Jolene offers the prayer and in her prayer says that she will be baptized!!!!!!! Then we teach an awesome lesson that was full of the spirit and we set a date with her for December 3rd!!!! Ahhhhhh! So exciting. She is one of those people that you can almost see the spirit working on and see her Change right in front of your eyes! I love her so much!

*** Okay you can now pick up your yapping poodle and finish reading this email ***

 RS Activity

Our tripanionship

 Crafting (the small lady with the long brown hair and glasses is Jolene)

On Friday we got to go to our ward relief society activity which was a crafting night cause Jolene came! She was really a super star this week. It was so fun I made a necklace out of an arrow head given to me from a less active member in my last area and two rice bags which I love! Our Relief Society is awesome! I have to say, the nice thing about being in an area for more than 3 months is that you actually get to know the members and they know you :)

Saturday the elders and us got invited to play ultimate Frisbee with a member and a group of his nonmember friends and then 4 more elders showed up and it was so much fun! I am still so sore but hey, it turns out I love Ultimate Frisbee even though I'm not the best at it. 

Miracle of the Week: So from what we have learned about Jolene as we've been teaching her, we know that she might have difficulty with the commandment of Paying Tithing.  So Jolene walks into church on Sunday and just goes, girls I know what my purpose is! It's to make money to give to the church to help keep it running! Our jaws just about hit the floor. Basically Jolene wants to pay tithing. Ummm, WHAT!? #MiraclesHappenOnceInAWhile

First of the Week:

We are teaching the Parco's in our ward the missionary lessons and Brother Parco is a food Scientist. He let us try some of the stuff he was using in his next project. So I tried freeze dried Broccoli, corn and dried pineapple for the first time. Not gonna lie the broccoli was kinda weird but I loved the corn and pineapple. I just might need to get some of that :)

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

Like I mentioned in my email I have been thinking about repentance a lot this week. During one of our companionship studies sister Myers shared that she realized that sin was not only disobeying God’s commandments but also failing to live righteously. As she said that I started to realize that all of us are not living up to God's standards. None of us can ever get to the perfect level of Charity or Kindness or diligence. We are all falling short of God's standards and so are all sinning continuously. No matter how good people say we are we can always pick out a million things we can do better. How grateful I am for Jesus Christ and his atonement. I sin all the time whether I like it or not, and without the atonement, without Christ, I would be lost forever and would never be able to make it back to be with my father in heaven again. I would never grow or learn to be better than I was or than I am. I am so thankful for my savior and that he promises to make up the difference. 

Love, Sister Richardson 

The One Where I Don't Even Know How to Describe This Week

October 10, 2016

Sister Card and I's last time together before she got transferred to La Crosse

Found a random fort

The Beauty of Minnesota in the fall!

I don't even know how to describe this week. This week was really hard.  (Explanation:  Kaitlyn was asked to fulfill a 1 week assignment with one of her past companions Sister Christensen.  Kaitlyn was her trainer and she dearly loves her.  Sister Christensen was having some medical difficulties and President Forbes was trying to decide which would be best, having her stay in MN or return Home.  Eventually it was decided that returning home would be best for her overall health.)   I finally asked for a blessing and that helped. First off I just loved that when I asked for a blessing the elders were so concerned and wanted to help right away. That always makes you feel good and feel loved. Elder Calderwood gave me a great blessing with a couple things I needed to hear, I am glad I finally asked for one.

So amidst the struggles of this week it was actually really nice because Wednesday and Thursday were the breaks that I have been craving! It was nice to be able to still go out and do missionary work and fulfill our purpose but also get to take some breaks and just be myself and only have to focus on taking care of one person. Sister Christensen was fun to be with and I am really grateful that I was with her for her last couple of days because even though I didn't feel like I did anything she said it really helped her so I'm very grateful that I could be there for her. 

 Sister Spiers and I :)

Also another positive, I LOVE our tripanionship. Sister Spiers is AWESOME!!! It's so funny she's like a perfect blend of Sister Myers' constant happiness and weirdness, and my sassiness. She's great and we don't want our tripanionship to end. We laugh so much I love it, although it's hard to maneuver three sister’s stuff and the sleeping arrangements in our dinky little apartment. I've been sleeping on a recliner and sister Spiers suitcases are all in the living room, but hey we're making it work :)

Jolene and Mary were at church on Sunday!! That was awesome! We had an AMAZING fast and testimony meeting! It was so spiritual and then gospel principles was just as good :) Jolene really enjoyed both hours and felt the spirit. She's progressing so well :) The preacher we met last week dropped us right before our appointment so he's a no go, which is weird cause he set up his own appointment but oh well, agency, whatcha going to do? Oh we were also able to see Laurie Lawson, the sisters have been going by forever. She is a doll and I love her so much. She's really planning on coming to church on Sunday and we are hoping to start seriously teaching her soon :) So yeah those are the investigators of the week.

Sorry I don't any more awesome spiritual experiences for ya this week, it was really chaotic as you can tell and there wasn't a whole lot of teaching that we got to do with everything that happened. But I'm hopeful for this next week :)

Love, Sister Richardson

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

I started reading the Book of Mormon again and was reading 1 Nephi chapter 11 and something really stuck out to me in the beginning of the Chapter. 

In Verse 1 Nephi states that "I had a desire to know the things that my father had seen". So that's normal right? Wanting to know? Then in verse 4 the spirit of the lord asks Nephi the question "Believest thou that thy father saw...?" And Nephi responds in verse 5 "... Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father." 

I really liked the message in these verses. Nephi already had faith in what his father had told him. He believed his words to be true but also asked for his own witness so he could know for himself the truth. I think that is something we can all work on. Striving and putting in the effort to know for ourselves if what others tell us is the truth. As missionaries we ask investigators to do this all the time, and are we not all still investigating the gospel in some way, shape, or form? We need to maintain our testimony of the gospel and of the church, but also reach out and receive for ourselves that sure knowledge that will keep our testimonies alive during times of trial and doubt.  

The One With the Over Bearing Stereotypical Mother Hen :)

September 19, 2016

 Sister Myer & Sister Richardson

Hello outside world. So we had an awesome week teaching! I finally feel like Sister Myers and I have found our groove in teaching. We were running around Lakeville, Farmington, Rosemount and Elko like crazy trying to accomplish all of our weekly goals. We got so close! You know, I think I need to focus on reaching goals more often because this week was different than most. I was not only excited to do the work but was constantly thinking about thing we could do or needed to do that would help the missionary work in the area. I loved seeing that change in myself. 

So round two of exchanges has come and gone. Sister Corbridge came with me to Lake Marion and we had an awesome time teaching and serving :) She's a really cute sister. Oh and because of exchanges we saw a miracle in finding a new investigator named David! We were stopping by a less active part member family and they weren't home but their neighbor was just leaving so we stopped and talked with him. We taught him the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. So cool!

Also another finding miracle Sister Myers and I  had while were contacting around a park (fun fact we taught a lesson because of pokemon-go, see it's a great proselyting tool! hahaha jk). So we were just about ready to leave and we stopped to talk to these girls in their twenties on a bench. We started talking with them and were able to teach them. They were some SUPER cool girls and we've set up a return appointment with one of them named Amanda!

After that park contacting we had to run up to Bloomington for a meeting with the Stake President, President and Sister Forbes, and the Zone Leaders. It was funny we didn't have time to eat dinner because we wanted to be out in the park contacting so after the meeting we asked Sister Forbes if she had a granola bar or an apple we could have to tie us over for the night. She just laughs and grabs oranges, apples, multiple granola bars, cheese stick, etc. and dumps them in a bag. It was so cute. I love her she's so funny. She's your typical over bearing mother hen haha.    

Then on thursday we had a combined zone conference with the Lakeville south zone. So funny story. The day before the conference around 4 we get a call from the LVS zone leaders and they were like so are you ready for your training? To which we responded what training? They proceeded to tell us that we were supposed to give a 30 min training at the zone conference the next day. WHAT?! Don't worry we created a boss training in about an hour the night before and all went well. First time giving a training as an STL and I had less than a day to prepare. It's all good. See, I never get calls to ask if I'll do things ;)  

So on Friday we got to go on a road trip with the Apple Valley sisters down to Elko and New Market to do a Blitz. So fun!

Sister Card & Sister Richardson

I got to be with sister Card and we went tracting. We were able to teach someone and ended up with a new investigator! Then as we got lost trying to get back to the car we came across a pasture with a horse, two cows, and a goat. We were prompted to stop and take selfies, Pics to prove it down below.

Beautiful Minnesota 

Last but not least we were able to see Jolene this week. As of right now she is our most progressing investigator. We had a great lesson with a member who was just perfect for her. I love it, we are so close to setting a date with her! I'm so excited. One of my favorite things is getting to hear investigators pray. They are so sincere and the spirit is always there it fills me with such joy I love it. She's is changing and you can literally see it. 

Well that's about it for this week. Tune in next time!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

So I finished the Doctrine and Covenants this week and a verse described one of the experiences that I had this week. The verse is from D&C section 136: 33-34 which says...

33 For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly.

 34 Thy brethren have rejected you and your testimony, even the nation that has driven you out;

So yesterday we taught a lady who was really contentious and was almost bashing us but trying to be kind about it. I HATE when people respond that way. It's the worst. Not because of what they're saying but in how they respond and the contention and the hardness of their hearts it drives the spirit away. I always walk out of those situations feeling gross and dark and irritable I hate that. The reason I shared the scripture I did is because that's not how God speaks to us. He enlightens those ready to receive him. Those feelings are the first steps in discovering truth from god. 

Love, Sister Richardson

The Week in Which I Was Slapped in the Face By God

September 12, 2016

Got flowers from my Family for My 1 Year Mark!

Hey Ya'll so first full week of September.... Check! Wow. Halloween is almost here, Crazy. I keep having flashbacks to where I was a year ago and what I was doing. It's really weird. So I got softly chastised by my parents for writing a short email last week so I'll try to do better this week hahaha. Soooo what happened?

We went out to Denny's with our sisters

Okay so we had MLC a.k.a Mission Leadership Conference, this last Tuesday and it was Sister Myers first MLC! Also it was raining buckets outside which was kind of great! I love when it rains hard, it reminds me of home :) I really liked this MLC because instead of just talking about how could we be better at finding or using ward council members we actually talked about something you cant find in preach my gospel but is a huge part of being a leader. Helping struggling missionaries. What I thought was cool was as we were discussing people where sharing what helped them while they were struggling. I loved how it showed that everyone sometime on their mission will struggle. It doesn't matter who you are and you made be very good at hiding it, but we all struggle. I really liked that :) Kind of put everyone in a new perspective.

 On exchanges with Sister Christensen

Also this week we had our first round of exchanges for this transfer. We went on exchanges with the Apple Valley sisters, Sisters Card and Christensen. I went with Sister Christensen to Apple Valley and Sister Card went with Sister Myers to Lake Marion. So fun seeing old friends in the Apple Valley ward as always :) Also I found out that Sister Christensen is a movie nerd like I am!! Finally, someone could talk movies and loves them as much as I do. I haven't had a companion on my movie level yet hahaha. It was also really good that we went on exchanges cause both Sister Card and Christensen have been dealing with some personal issues and it was good to give them a break from normal routine and companion. Also it was nice to just get to talk with them and let them know that we really do care about and love them, and that they can come to us with anything. I love those sisters so much. They make me happy.

The Major Lesson Learned: So I learned a rough but really cool lesson this week. So we decided as a zone to focus on inspired goal setting and reaching and Sister Myers and I, not for lack of trying, have had a difficult time reaching our goals both daily and weekly. So on Saturday we got super excited and decided that we were going to work super hard and reach all of our daily goals for the day. It was the most excited I'd been to go out and do missionary work in a while. Like I was totally fine with cutting dinner short for more proselyting time and trying to do a bunch of finding activities. We even biked at night to save miles and try to see as many people as possible. I was so pumped and then it started getting later and later and we hadn't taught anyone. I prayed for help with reaching our goals, really reaching out to heavenly father for help. We didn't teach reach any of our goals. I was really confused and I pretty much lost the faith to find. The missionaries in the rest of our zone were all seeing awesome miracles and nothing was happening for us and I really didn't understand why. I kind of lost my desire to do things cause I didn't believe that it would work. Going to church helped a little bit with having two investigators there, but I was still pretty down after going home for lunch and comp study. I reflected on Saturday and realized that we had had the opportunity to reach every single one of our goals but we didn't open our mouths and teach. That however didn't help but made me feel like an even worse missionary, who still won't get outside her comfort zone and just flippin teach! That's all I've been called to do for this year and a half and I felt like I still didn't have it figured out! However, we got to work anyways on Sunday after lunch. We ended up having an incredible, miracle filled day. As a result of Sunday, we taught 3 lessons in less than two hours, got a new investigator, reached our weekly goals for investigators to sacrament meeting, other lessons, and referrals! The lesson I learned was this. Saturday was pretty much a smack in the face/ wake up call from god. Our job is not to worry about looking in every nook and cranny, and under every rock trying to find people. God will put him in our path. Our job is to open our mouth and testify. To bring up the gospel and like I said, just flippin teach! It was a two day lesson that I am so grateful I learned that lesson, I just hope I never forget it so I don't have to go through learning it again!

Well, Yup, That was the week :) ONLY TWO MORE SUNDAYS TILL GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! I'm so pumped!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

So we had a lesson with Nette and Brother Lightner and Brother Lightner said something really profound that I wanted to share with you all. So we asked Bro. Lightner to share his testimony about the Book of Mormon and how he knew it was true and he started talking about the purpose of the scriptures. Basically what he said was that God doesn't want to just give us a book (either the Bible or the Book of Mormon). He doesn't want to give us words he wants us to understand feelings and develop a relationship with him and that's the best way that we can. For instance how can you communicate the meaning or feeling of faith? How can you understand God and Jesus Christ's love for us? How can we understand what forgiveness means and what repentance feels like? The scriptures are our best tool to understand these things, but the reason we need to apply them in our lives. Trying to develop faith, charity, habits or repentance, etc. Is so we can understand the feeling and meaning behind the words. That's what the scriptures are there for. To help us act and learn for ourselves. I love the scriptures so much!!! They are so amazing.

Love, Sister Richardson 

The One with Everything Deep Fried, on a Stick, and in a Bucket

September 5, 2016

Hey Fam.

 

Hey soooo I hit my year mark this last week. Woah. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. Crazy, I only have 4 transfers left the end is coming near quickly. ;)

We got to go to the Minnesota State Fair this Week!!! It was so much fun!  Oh my gosh. We tried Elk Burgers, Walleye, Sweet Martha's Cookies (They give you a bucket over flowing with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies), and the famous cheese curds and corn on the cob. 

Literally everything at the fair is deep fried, on a stick, or in a giant bucket. The point of the fair is food. Literally your job is to eat your way through. You feel like death when you’re done. The Best part of it was that sister Peterson was there so we got to spend almost the entire day there! So fun, we stayed with Sister Cupkie so she bought us almost everything, and she took a TON of pictures. Mom please contact her on Facebook to get pictures (her name is Mikela Cupkie) also transfer pictures of Sister Peterson and I. 

They are TOO CUTE. We rode Roller Coasters and generally just had a really fun time :) I loved that day :) 

So Sister Myers and I had kind of a slow week missionary work wise but we're working on it. Hopefully this week we'll see some success and miracles. We get along SUPER well, I love being with her!

Funny Moment of the Week:

So we tried to confirm our dinner this one day and both the husband and wife didn't respond so we just decided to go and knock on the door. As we walk up the mom pulls out of the driveway in her mini van and speeds away. That was funny and awkward but we decided to knock still. We knock on the door and the dad pulls in the driveway and stares at us as the daughter answers the door. So we're awkwardly trapped between the two and I didn't know who to talk to or what to say so I literally just said "I don't know what to do in this situation". So we slowly back away and go and talk to the dad, and they forgot they signed up. Yeah, that was fun.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

So I had a really cool study this week on desire. It came from a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks in the April 2011 General Conference, entitled Desire. I highly recommend you read it, it's so good! But I think the biggest take away I got from the talk is that we all have natural desires. We want food, sleep, shelter, etc... Those are natural tendencies. But we also have the ability to arrange our priorities ahead of those basic needs. For example we can overcome our desire for food with a stronger desire to fast. And we can overcome our natural desire to sin, no matter how small of a sin (like being unkind, or slothful) and change to align our will with the savior. With his help we can change our desires for the better and we can become like him. That's what this gospel is all about. Change.

Love you all,

-Sister Richardson