Liberty week 27

May 7, 2013

This email came on the heels of several weeks of unproductive tracting.  Staci has been looking forward to the Hispanic Festival that she mentions at the beginning, as they hoped to make lots of contacts and hopefully get quite a few return appointments for the rest of the month.  It’s been quite challenging for her the past few months to open this area, train a greenie, and find new teaching prospects.  She’s been a bit discouraged . . .

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We had a wonderful week -- finally!

Well  -- up until Monday it was the same as the last few weeks – tracting, tracting, tracting.

On Saturday there was the much awaited Hispanic Festival here in Liberty so Sister Barlow and I went at 9 am to set everything up. The day was beautiful and the sun was shining. We set up our table and proceeded to wait. A few people came up but no spanish. The music was blasting SO LOUD so we had to yell everytime we tried to talk to someone. No bueno. Finally 2 English elders got there and then a couple hours later 4 more Spanish elders showed up. We all proceeded to start talking to all the Hispanics but again the music was too loud and everyone was too distracted to really give us the time of day -- I was sad. I left the festival thinking it was a failure. We were fortunate enough to be able to get a less active youth named Brittany to come with us on a lesson and she bore a beautiful testimony. So that was good. After Brittany left Sister Barlow and I went to go check to see if a couple was home that we have been trying to get a hold of. Sure enough the husband was in the front yard so I asked if he and his wife had a few minutes that we could talk to them. He said "No, we don't want to change our religion" (pentecostal) I asked if they had read the BOM we left them. H e said "no, we don't believe in anything that's written by the hands of men." I told him the bible testifies of the BOM in Ezekial 37:15-17 and he can't know about the truthfulness of it unless he prays about it. We thanked him for his time and we left.

At that point I was beat. I told Sister Barlow to go pick somewhere where we could tract because I didn't care. I was so discouraged and sort've a little frustrated with Heavenly Father because in my eyes our whole day had been a waste. Sister Barlow drove to this random lane and we began knocking. We talked to this atheist guy who said he's never seen any evidence of God so I asked him what kind of evidence he looks for. He couldnt' give me an answer so we gave him a mormon.org card and left. We started walking down the lane and it was such a beautiful evening and all the trees were blooming and I realized that "everything denotes there is a God". I decided that if we were left to knock I may as well enjoy being outside! The birds were singing and as we looked over we saw a bunny! It was so cute and I realized that this was a tender mercy from God that we were there walking down that lane because to me it ALL testified of Heavenly Father . He made the trees and the sunset and the little animals. I love nature and am so glad Heavenly Father sent me here to Liberty during this time of year because it's so beautiful! He knows where my heart lies and that I love wide open spaces and beautiful scenery. I realized that even though it seemed like our day had been a failure it hadn't because I was able to increase my testimony and we were able to end the day on a good note.

Wait the story gets better.

Sunday we were left to knock doors again and were rejected from every single one. Except one nice catholic lady who said she had a minor in theology and she wasn't interested. But at least she let us in! We had dinner with a less active lady sunday night who is bipolar and lets just say she did not treat us very nicely and thought I was hitting on her boyfriend while I was asking him questions...that's what I get for being friendly :D

Ready for the happy ending?

MONDAY we had zone meeting. I know that Heavenly Father was aware of my trials and the fact that I have been so discouraged. I've been feeling like the biggest failure and haven't been feeling successful at all! The first things the zone leaders talked about were being a successful missionary. Every single thing they talked about was something I needed to hear! It was amazing. It completely changed my outlook on my attitude of my mission! When Sister Barlow and I got back to Liberty we contacted on Main st and stopped to talk to to two ladies sitting on a bench. We told them we had a message about prophets and testified of Thomas S. Monson. They were very interested and gave us their information! We kept walking and since we walk main st so much everyone knows us. People have even begun to ask us where the church is and they want to come. It's amazing! Last week Sister Barlow and I found another building full of hispanics so we decided to tract it on Monday night. We did and EVERY SINGLE DOOR WE KNOCKED ON WE GOT A RETURN APPT :) I'm not even kidding. Every single one. That's seven. Plus four new investigators! I had prayed that the people in liberty would have soft hearts but I didn't expect this many miracles! Sister Barlow and I were smiling ear to ear and were in awe of what the Lord was doing for us. After so many days of getting rejected it made those 7 doors that much sweeter. (I just realized 7 is a heavenly number haha:)) We left the building feeling like we were walking on cloud 9! After that we saw this grungy guy walking on main st and we said hello. Right after we knocked on a door and it was his house, he said to come back when his girlfriend was awake at 8. So we stopped to talk to this nice hispanic lady on her porch and she invited us to sit down and talk to her! That never happens. Her name is Clementine and we got a return appt with her. We also knocked on another door in another complex and got another return appt! That's 9 return appts in total. This was all in a matter of 2 hours by the way! Biggest miracle ever!

There's more!

We went back to that guys house at 8 and his girlfriend answered the door.

We introduced ourselves and she said "are you jehovah's witnesses?" We said no we're mormons and she said "Oh! Come in then!!" Okay. That never happens either. Sister Barlow and I were speechless. we went in and she explained that she had been a JW before but she's always wanted to know more about the mormons. She was really excited to learn more! She said she had always prayed for guidance and then we showed up at her door. Yeeppp. Basically Heavenly Father threw an ocean full of blessings on us in a matter of three hours. It was so sweeeeeeet! I can testify to you that although we have trials Heavenly Father never forgets us! He showed his hand to sister Barlow and I on Monday and we are continuing to see blessings. Yesterday we had an appt with one of the 7 doors we knocked on, her name is Luna Guzman and she has two cute little boys, ages 10 and 7. They are from Mexico. We taught them with one of our members, Roxann, who also speaks spanish. We taught the restoration of the gospel and it went so well! Luna comitted to pray about our message and said she wants to learn more about Joseph Smith because she has never heard about him. Also I am so glad Roxann was there because she is also a convert from catholicism and could relate to Luna. Luna said that she thinks that religion doesn't matter, that the only important thing is just finding a good path and following it. Roxann then asked her that since there is only one God shouldn't there only by one true church too? Luna agreed and said she is looking for the right one. I testified to her that she could find the truth through prayer. We have a meeting next tuesday where we'll teach her about the Book of Mormon.

Basically I love this place and I have a feeling I might be transferred here in the next couple weeks...even though I have only been in Liberty for 2 months my heart will always be here. I love our little branch and I love all the people that we see everyday in Liberty. Because it's such a small town everyone knows us and we're all friends with them. I love it! I hope I get to stay here for a while longer but we'll see.

Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support. I am grateful for adversity because it's only through adversity that we can experience true joy! If it wasn't for the weeks of feeling like a failure I would not have appreciated so much last monday and all the miracles that we saw. I know that trials will always come but the Lord makes a way for us to endure them . He ALWAYS provides relief!

Next week when I email Will will be in the MTC!! Woot! Good luck bro! See you all on Sunday!!

Hermana Richardson

Liberty week 26

May 1, 2013

This week...(you guessed it, tracting!)

Not a lot new, the weather has been gorgeous and this Saturday there is a "Fiesta para La Familia" here in Liberty so we are taking advantage of this opportunity to find people and setting up a table and bringing in missionaries from all over our zone to help us out. It should be sweet! I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Last night we were able to visit with a lady named Maria from Guatemala. She is so wise and although sometimes we have to pull in her 11 year old son to translate for us I love talking to her. She loves talking about God and she has a lot of family that lives here...I have a feeling that if we can get her to know the truthfulness of the this gospel she'll be the key to getting others as well. Last night when we went to go talk to her she started telling us that it must be hard getting doors shut in our face (yes) but we need to keep persevering because we are doing an important work. It's like Heavenly Father told her just what to say. I am so glad for those tender mercies of the Lord. I'm not grateful enough for all the little miracles we see everyday!

On Tuesday we visited Trish, one of our investigators. She had a mini stroke a couple weeks ago and we had the elders go give her a blessing. She's started to pray and when we went to go visit her on Monday I could see a difference in her countenance. It's hard for her now to move the right side of her body (the doctors told her with physical therapy it will get better) and she said she has been really frustrated but prayer is helping. That made me so happy to hear and we asked her if she will get baptized and she said yes :) Tomorrow we are going to set a date with her!

We also have been meeting with this lady named Almida (a Dominican). We met her on main street one day and she gave us her address and told us to come over. We did and it turns out she met with sisters a while ago so she already has experience with our church. She has a son in jail and that is really hard on her (I'm sorry if I already told you about her!) and she has schizophrenia. Last week when Sister Barlow and I went to go visit her she kept talking to herself and I thought oh no she probably has schizophrenia (I was right) but she takes medication for it. We met with her on Tuesday with one of our members Roxann and (thank goodness for members!) Roxann talked a lot to Almida about forgiveness and baptism. Almida was baptized in the Catholic church when a baby and thinks that's all she needs. We talked to her about baptism in our church and asked her if when she knows this is true for herself if she'll be baptized. She said yes so we're going to keep working with her!

I think that's about it. We find a lot of spanish people here but the problem is that they ALL say we can come back later (excuse to get us to go away) and then we never see them again. So we teach a lot of first lessons but then we never meet with them again. It's frustrating but oh well. I'm trying to decide if Heavenly Father sent us here to prepare the hearts of the people or if he actually wants us to baptize some of them...

Gracias por sus cartas, amor, apollo, chistes...etc :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Richardson

 

Liberty week 25

April 24, 2013

It's finally starting to warm up! We've had a cold past couple of days but today is beautiful and everything is beginning to turn green!!

This week we have knocked a lot (my emails are probably starting get really repetitive and boring, sorry!) but Heavenly Father is blessing us to find Spanish people. Our zone leaders called us last week and told us that President wants us to just teach in Spanish. When we first got here we were doing both so now we are finding A TON of english-speaking people for the elders to teach. I figure whether we teach them or the elders teach them, the work is moving along the same. We talked to this spanish guy on the street the other day and he told us to come back so we went back Sunday and the building he lives in is all spanish! We talked to this lady from Guatemala named Maria Gomez and went back and taught her yesterday. She has a lot of good beliefs (I couldn't understand a lot of what she said, her spanish was fast!) but she really values the family. We're going to go back later this week to teach her.

Sunday we had 3 investigators at church! Twas a miracle! Our neighbor Jaime (Hi may) came (he lives across the parking lot from Sister Barlow and I) and he is spanish! We always see him cuz he's always working outside on his car and we gave him a BOM a few weeks ago so we called and invited him on Saturday and he actually came! During the sacrament he pointed out that it's different from the catholic church because in the catholic church they go up to the front to take it. I said yep it's different! He said that he is going to come again this week so hopefully he will! I vote he is going to be the first bishop of the spanish branch we are going to form :D When I told the other missionaries of the sacrament experience Elder Long (senior missionary) pointed out that to him that means ours is the true church because we don't make a public display of the sacrament. Also the Elders Quorum president in our ward brought his girlfriend to church and we are going to start teaching her next week. Yay! We also had a girl named Cara that we have kinda been teaching come to church. The Long's met her in the interfaith council they go to and so we went and met her. She's really nice! She's 23 and from Albany NY. At this point I don't know if we will call her a real investigator because we don't know if she really wants to find out if it's true, but she read the intro to the BOM! So we are going to keep visiting her and see what happens.

On Sunday we went back to teach Esther (I think I told you about her, she's a cute mexican lady we found a couple weeks ago) and I was worried because I felt like we had started off on the wrong foot and I wasn't sure how to help her understand our purpose. We went to teach her on Sunday and started reading verses with her on the bible about the BOM (Ezk 37:15-17). She asked me how I knew that all this was true (bible, bom, etc) and I said through prayer! We then invited her to pray and she was about to and then said she couldn't...so I explained it was simple and then asked her to list the things she is grateful for. She did and then I asked her "If God were here right now what would you ask him?" So she listed off a few things and I said "That's just like a prayer." She has a strong desire to do what is right. We're going back on monday to teach her :) Every time we talk with her the spirit is SO strong. There is something very special about her!

We also went and had dinner with the Handley's on Sunday after Esther. They are AWESOME! Brother and Sister Handley are so nice and I feel right at home when we visit them. They have high standards for their kids and Sister Handley always makes sure they eat dinner every night as a family. Basically they would make good mormons :) We ate with them and found out their daughter Katie used to go to girls camp with a less active girl in our branch named Brittany, so that was cool! After dinner Sister Handley said she read the intro to the BOM so we started talking about it. They asked about the Gold plates and if we still have them (everyone asks that question!) so we told them no we don't. We explained more about the BOM and then I asked them if they found out the same gospel that Jesus Christ established was on the earth was here how would that change their life. Sister Handley said "It would change it alot because that would mean we're living it in the here and now instead of in the catholic church where we just reinact how it was done back then" in my head I was like BINGO! Then we explained that as missionaries we were there to tell here that we are living it in the here and now. She said "well your doing a good job, you got me thinking!" But said she is going to read the BOM in the summer when she has more time. Sooo...basically the lesson was left at nothing and I wish we would have told her more stuff like "All you have to do is pray about the book of mormon and you can know that all this is true!" They have been on my mind all week so I think we are going to try to go back on Sunday and talk to them and explain that if they just pray about the BOM they can know the truth. Pray that she'll have an open heart!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a really hard day, I was hardly motivated to do anything (wow missionaries aren't perfect!) and we didn't have any appts so we just knocked. With no success except for this nice lady named  Teresa Murphy that we are going to go visit tomorrow! Woot! At correlation yesterday night we started talking about the plan of salvation and we had a wonderful conversation. I felt like it was just what I needed to put everything in persepective about why I am here as a missionary. 

 The plan of salvation is legit and our conversation helped me to remember that I am here as a missionary helping people to remember the commitments they made to Heavenly Father in the premortal life. Elder Sevy pointed out that some people in the premortal life were told that they were going to have the chance to recieve the gospel here and when they felt the spirit they would know it's true. That's why it's so important for missionaries to teach by the spirit! Cuz their spirits recognize it! :)

Okay so I think that's everything that happened this week. I hope you are all happy and grateful that our family has been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. If only some people around here understood that their families can be eternal...but seriously, I constantly think of how blessed I am to live in a family that is FOREVER. I hope you all continue to make good choices so that one day we can all live with Heavenly Father and Jesus in the mansion they are preparing for us!!! :D

Mucho amor!

Hermana Richardson

Liberty week 24

April 18, 2013

I have no time to write today, it was transfers and it took the whole day! Transfers was a little hard for me, even though sister barlow and  I are still together and we're staying in the same place. It's just the realization that I have been out nearly 8 months and time is flying by wayyyyy too fast. There's so many people that need to hear the gospel and I feel like sister barlow and I are only making a dent!

This week some of the highlights were:

Sunday our senior couple, the longs, said they have been teaching this family (mom and dad, they hadn't met the kids yet) and they said they were coming to church. Me of little faith thought, yeah right. That's what all investigators said and they never come! So we're sitting 10 minutes into sacrament meeting and 9 NEW PEOPLE WALK IN. I'm not even kidding. They couple the longs taught brought family members to church! investigators bringing investigators!!! And they are from Brasil! The dad, Brother Pupo, is from Belo Horizante, where both my parents served 25 years ago, and so is his sister! I like to think that some of their missonary efforts down there led them to be prepared to now receive the gospel. They came to the US around the same time my parent's were serving, so maybe in some small way they touched them. It's a nice thought! Also we had 2 less active families come! Millie and Ronald from Colombia came (they haven't come for a long time but we found them a ride! Ronald is almost 12 and is the biggest sweetheart. Such a nice young man! We went over at 8:30 am on Sunday morning to make sure they remembered and Ronald answered the door looking sharp in his suit. It was so cute! So they came and Millie bore her testimony in her sweet very broken english. It was so cute. Also the Totten family came again, I think I told you about them. Siste totten is a less active and we miraculously met them one day while visiting with an active. They have come to church a few times and we are so glad they are coming back. The spirit was SOOOO strong in sacrament meeting and I wanted to stay there all day because I had had a hard morning. Some days are hard but Heavenly Father always finds some way of comforting me :)

Also last week we had an appt set up with our investigator Diego who is from Uruguay. We had to have another female with us because he lives with only guys and the rule is we have to have at least 3 girls if there is a single guy. The member we had arranged to meet with us at the last minute cancelled on us so sister barlow and I were desperate to find another lady. We said a prayer and thought of Millie and she totes speak spanish so we went over to her house 10 minutes before the lesson and she was more than willing! Her and Ronald both came and it was great. Millie is such a sweetheart. She had a bow in her hair on Sunday and I told her it was pretty so she gave it to me. That's how nice she is!

Also another miracle was the other night Sister Barlow and I had set a goal to have 4 lessons, and by 8:30 we had 3. We really wanted that last lesson! We said a prayer and then knocked on this guys door. He was Spanish and was so nice! We had a 5 minute lesson with him and he said we could come back! Also people keep telling me I sound like I am fluent. That in and of itself is a miracle and the gift of tongues is DEFINITELY REAL PEOPLE :)

Love,

Hermana Richardson

Liberty week 23

April 10, 2013

Well . . . .

General Conference was AWESOME!!! Saturday morning sister barlow and I could hardly wait to get to the chapel. It was like waiting for Christmas! On our way to the chapel as we passed people on the street we kept talking to them (we were inside the car so they couldn't hear us) saying "Come listen to the Prophet!"

Saturday morning we also called everyone we could think of to come. All our investigators, potentials, etc. We had been handing out flyers advertising the conference and hoped to have at least 5 non members there. We called this one guy named Steve that we knocked into a few weeks ago and he said he would be there on Saturday. Also another girl we had been kind of teaching said she would come sunday. We went and NO ONE came. Not even Steve. We were way sad and I just kept thinking how unfair it was that there I was sitting in the chapel being edified while tons of people in the outside world didn't even know that we were listening to a prophet of the Lord. I wanted everyone to be able to listen!

Saturday came and went and then Sunday we went to the chapel and no non members came. Sister Barlow called Steve and invited him again to come and he said he would be there for the last session. Of course we had little faith and were like okay whatever. We had a really good activity and potluck between sessions with our members which hopefully got them motivated to get more involved with missionary work. Right as we were cleaning up to watch the last session we see this guy walking up to the church. Sister Barlow goes "Is that Steve?!" So he walks in and it was STEVE!!!! The whole branch swarmed him (poor guy) but with a little branch like that it's like being in the desert for 40 years and then when a non member comes it's like WATER!!!!!!!!!!!  Yep.

So, Steve came in and sat down and the first speaker was Elder Holland. I was like, crap. Steve is going to get scared away. :( haha no but really all the talks in that session I felt were perfect for someone who didn't know anything about the church! Especially Elder Oaks talk! We were soooooooo happy we had one non member come, even though we had a goal for 5. It was a miracle and I know Heavenly Father knew our desires and that we had done all possible to get people there. Steve hurried and left right after so we're not sure what he thought but we 're hoping to go visit him soon.

Also Sunday we followed up with this kid named Samuel Andrade who is Mexican. We had knocked into him a few weeks ago and he told us we could come back. Usually when someone says this and we go back they are never home. BUT we went back and they were all home! All 6 (ish) Mexicans! My thirst for spanish people was quenched! :D We have a rule though that sisters (and elders) can't teach unless there is a third member of the opposite gender with us. We walked into Samuel's house and in the bedroom sat 4 guys. I was like darrrrrn we can't teach but then I asked if there was another girl home and their sister came in so it was okay (tender mercy) Their apartment was really tiny so we went into one of the bedrooms where Samuel, his brother, and 2 friends were. Then the sister came in so we started talking to them. I noticed a baptism certificate on the wall so I asked about it. It was one of the friends that was there (I didn't catch all their names) so we specifically started talking to him. He said he was baptized into the pentocostal church after he decided to change his life. He was involved with drugs, etc before but he changed. We started talking to him about the gospel and gave him a BOM. The thing that is hardest for people to understand is why our church is so different from other churches. The only difference is that we have the PRIESTHOOD. That is also hard to explain to people. We said a closing prayer and were about to leave until this other guy came in. This is when our visit actually started. This guy (must have been a friend) had sooooo many questions and it was a miracle I was able to understand and answer them all in understandable spanish. The gift of tongues is real, I'm telling you! We talked to them and I emphasized that as missionaries our job is not to convert, but to invite people to find out for themselves. This guy I was talking to really liked that so I challenged them all to read the BOM and pray about it. We haven't been able to follow up yet but we're going to see if we can go back tomorrow and see them. This family was legit!!!

We've been praying really hard (sounds like you have been too!) that we can find Spanish speaking people. This past week it seems like they have been popping up like daisies! The Lord is blessing us so much and even though most of them are flakes it's okay because someday we will find the honest seekers of truth. The Lord is really blessing us for our efforts and I remember something another missionary had told me before I came here to Monticello. They said that when you open a new area and train a new missionary, you really have to be satisfied with the little successes. It's true! We aren't seeing any huge miracles but we see little ones every day. Samuel Andrade's family was definitely a little miracle! Also Steve coming to the last session of conference! I need to give Heavenly Father more credit sometimes.  We talk to so many people everyday and although I want to teach and baptize them all I realize that we are the angels that are preparing the hearts of the people to recieve the word of God like it talks about the BOM. Most of the people (actually I think all of them) have never even heard of the Mormons. We spent the rest of last week, Thursday and Friday, handing out tons of Mormon.org cards. We walked up and down main street and talked to everyone we could. Now when these people see missionaries again they will recognize them. It makes me happy that Sister Barlow and I could be pioneers and even though some days are so hard I want to quit, Heavenly Father shows us the little miracles or I will say a little prayer and He comforts me and tells me I can do it. I love being a missionary and declaring the gospel to everyone!

Some of the dearest experiences I have are the ones where we are sitting in someone's house and I am able to bear my testimony of the Restoration. After Samuel's house on Sunday we went back to another house and the family let us in. Their name is the Rhode family (I think...) and they are of the religion Bahi (I had never heard of it either) and the wife sat us down and tried to tell us all the false doctrines of the mormon church. I told her that we're not perfect teachers and we may not have a perfect knowledge of the bible but I do know these things:

Joseph Smith restored the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth.
The Book of Mormon was true.
This knowledge can bless our lives immensely!

I looooooove LOVE bearing my testimony to people. I feel like my testimony gets 1000 times bigger each time I do it. It's crazy how much I have grown when I look back 7 months to when I first started my mission. The progress has been slow but Heavenly Father helps me to see the progress I have made! Talking to random people on the street now is a piece of cake where 7 months ago it was like trying to climb Mt. Everest.

Anyway, este iglesia es la unica iglesia verdadera en todo el mundo! Necesitamos hacer nuestro estudio personal del Libro de Mormon diariamente y orar a Nuestro Padre Celestial en todos de los oportunidades que tenemos. Dar su testimonios frecuentemente.Se que Dios quiere bendicenos TANTO pero necesitamos hacer nuestro parte. Ir a la iglesia los domingos y tomar la santa cena. Vamos a recibir muchas bendiciones si hacemos estas cosas!

Mi amor a todo!!

Hermana Richardson