MTC week 7

October 25, 2012

This week was full of incredible things. The language is really coming, today at lunch a couple hermanas who are native speakers came and sat by us and we had a conversation in Spanish! Tender mercy! :) Last week an elder from my zone asked me if I would accompany him on the piano (him on the cello) to "Divine Redeemer".  He wants to use it as a devotional musical number.  We tried out today and they said they would love to have us play!  So next week we might be playing in a devotional! Look up the song on you tube, it's soooo pretty. 12 DAYS TILL I GET TO NEW YORK :) I should be getting my flight plans in the next few days.

Here is a summary of my week:

Friday: We had a lesson with our investigator Ingrid, (remember, these "investigators"  are merely volunteers who come in once a week and help us practice our language and teaching skills) and we are helping her stop smoking so she can be baptized. She said that it's almost impossible for her to stop because she's tried over and over. I felt the Spirit really strong and told her that nothing is impossible through Jesus Christ. We had a sweet spirit the whole lesson :) I testified that she is a very special daughter of God and he wants her to be baptized. I love teaching her!

Saturday: Today we had another great lesson with Ingrid. Today was her first day of not smoking in almost 5 years! (she's been smoking for 20, but it's been 5 years since she's tried to quit) we invited her to come to church and talked to her about the priesthood. She asked if she could have a blessing to help her quit smoking! We said OF COURSE! :) It's great when investigators start to discover for themselves. Tonight Hermana Wetzel (our teacher) came in and said that she had a migraine and needed a blessing. Luckily Elder Meek had some consecrated oil, and Elder Kerr our district leader asked Elder Johnson if he would consecrate it. Elder Johnson was so nervous but he did it! I prayed for him the whole time he was saying the prayer and he did a great job. The blessing that Hna Wetzel was given was really sweet and I am grateful our elders got to have that experience.

Sunday: What a great morning! I jumped in the shower at 6 AM and about 10 minutes later the fire alarms went off. I hurried and washed the conditioner out of my hair as my comps were yelling at me to hurry because we had to go! I hurry and threw on my robe and ran outside with them. All the girls from our building were out there and my friend hna winward gave me her sweats cuz it was cold. About 10 min later the security guy told us they were going to open up another building for us to go into until they figured out the problem. He came in about 20 minutes later and said that a "dust mite" must have set it off because they couldn't find anything else wrong. Anti-climatic but oh well. 

I was called on in sacrament to give a talk all in spanish and I did it! I don't know how correct my grammar was but I talked about faith. It was great :) Elder Johnson also gave a talk and I was so proud of him because he has been struggling with spanish. He took 3 years of german before the MTC and didn't want to learn spanish but he is so much more confident now and is actually correcting us in our spanish. haha. I know my prayers for him are being answered and I am so grateful! The devotional tonight was a cute old couple who talked about obedience. It was such a good devotional! They were mission presidents and showed us a pic taken by some members of 2 missionaries in mcdonalds loading up on DVD's from the redbox. No beuno :( The lady speaker told us not to serve "drive-through mcmissions" haha. 

Monday: We went to gym in the morning and when we got to breakfast my comp, Hna peterson said to Hna lancaster "Who's Hermana Dunford?" Hna Lancaster said "I don't know but that name sounds familiar!" Hna Peterson pointed to Hna Lancasters tag and it said "Hermana Dunford"! HAHA she had accidently switched it at gym. There was only 2 other hermanas at the gym when we were there, so we knew who's it was and right then she walked into the cafeteria! haha. We also went to TRC today and I understood alot of what was said! It's nice to be able to understand even if I can't communicate all I would like to yet! We taught our investigator Patricio today and the spirit was very strong! I was bold with him and said that we were there to invite him to Christ and we want him to find out for himself if our message is true. I think his heart softened because when he offered the closing prayer it was very sincere :) He said his life is difficult because his wife left, he doesn't have a job, he lives with his mom and just wants to be a good dad to his 6 year old son. I shared Alma 7:11-13 with him and I think his eyes were opened to the power of the Atonement.

Tuesday: The hermanas in our zone left for the Guatemala MTC today :( It's crazy how close we got in the 3 weeks they were here!) We miss them dearly! But Hna Montoya says she wants to go to BYU-Idaho when she gets back and we want to be roommates, so that will be fun! We talked about the restoration in the workshop today and my eyes were opened to just how important it is! Without the restoration we have nothing! We sang "This is the Christ" with the choir today in the devotional and it was AMAZING! Go read the lyrics to that song right now because it will change your life. I sang my guts out because "I too can testify, this is the Christ!" Testifying of Christ in song in the MTC is an experience I will never forget. It brought tears to my eyes thinking that Christ really did suffer for me. One line of the song is "How many drops of blood were spilled for me?" Think about that line. Christ really did suffer for each one of us so that we don't have to! What a beautiful gift! After the devotional we met 2 new hemanas who came to our zone from norway and switzerland. One is a convert of only a year! They are great!

Also today we taught Ingrid and she asked about temple work and I tried to explain in my broken Spanish about doing work for the dead. The only thing she got out of it was "La muerte vivir en el templo?" (The dead live in the temple?) she thought that the spirits of the dead just hang around in the temple. She used to be evangelical and said that "The evangelicals warned me that the mormons baptize the dead." 

WARNING: don't try to explain complicated things when you don't speak the language very well. ;)

Wednesday: Today we got to host the new sisters that came in. I can't believe I have been here for 7 weeks already! It seems like my first day was just last week. Time here at the MTC is sooo wierd. We got a whole new district in our zone and 8 new hermanas! Hooray! 8 new friends for us! :) We challenged Patricio to baptism today and he accepted! Woot! :) We practiced teaching Hno Davenport (our teacher) today and he acted like "Jorge" (an investigator on his mission) who had a drinking problem. We talked to him about the word of wisdom and then out of nowhere Hna Lancaster said "Necesito su alcohol" and held out her hand. (I need your alcohol.) he said "Por que?" (why) and Hna Lancaster pointed behind her and said "Por la basura!" (for the trash) haha.  We laughed so hard because she was dead serious. Hopefully we softened his heart though and I felt like it was the best practice we have had.

 It's time for me to go. Make sure to thank Heavenly Father every night for all the blessings you have!!!! :)

Con amor,

Hermana Richardson

MTC week 6

October 18, 2012

This week was AWESOME :) I learned so much. Thank you everyone for your letters.

Here is a summary of how my week was:

Sunday: We went to choir practice where we practiced "Consider the Lilies" for the devotional on Tuesday. What a beautiful song! If you get the chance go read the words because they are wonderful. Heavenly Father loves us so much! The choir director was sooo funny. He told us a story about a family who when the mom was gone went to go float the Provo river. The dad sent 5 of his kids ALONE down the river in a raft. He just said, see you at the bottom! (Typical dad) There were aged 12 and younger. He told them to watch out for one part when they go under the bridge because they could tip over if they didn't go under it right. Well they got to the bridge and tipped and all fell out. They were OK but their raft left without them. When they all climbed out there was their dad standing there, with there raft! He hadn't abandoned them after all, he was actually following them in the car on the side road, which they couldn't see. This is just like Heavenly Father! He sent us down here and said "Okay, I'm going to put you here on earth without much experience and I will see you when you get back." But really, he is here every step of the way with us. He sends tender mercies to us to help make the journey of mortality easier. I made a goal this week to count my tender mercies and I wrote them in my journal. I will share some of them with you :)

After choir practice on Sunday and after the devotional we watched the Joseph Smith movie. (The short version) The spirit was so strong and at the end when he was being led away for the last time and Emma was crying I looked around at all the missionaries and realized THIS IS WHY WE(the missionaries) ARE HERE! Because Joseph Smith restored the church. He did not die in vain! Oh how I love the prophet Joseph. He truly is a prophet of God and did translate the Book of Mormon through the power of God. I love this church! My testimony was once again strengthened of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. This was a tender mercy because my testimony was strengthened again :)

On Monday we went to TRC (where we practice teaching members) and we got an RM named Jordan who served in CA. The spirit was so strong as we all shared our testimonies of the BOM and our favorite scriptures. I love the lessons where the Spirit is really strong. As we were sitting at dinner, a lady came over and asked us if we would help a brand new sister missionary from the Philippines. We sat and talked with her while she ate dinner and then took her to the front desk so she could be taken to the right place. I was glad we could serve her! Also on Monday we got a new investigator, Patricio! (Remember, it's all practice.) We started from scratch this time because we had to do a door approach and actually had to talk ourselves in the door. Sometimes I don't understand Spanish very well so when we were at the door he asked what his purpose was in life and I (thinking he asked what OUR purpose as missionaries is) started quoting "Our Missionary Purpose." My comps looked at me funny and then I realized what he said. Oops. The spirit was very strong in this lesson and we talked to him about the BOM. AWESOME.

On Tuesday we had a workshop about planning, which I really needed because I don't feel like I plan very well! And then the devo that night was also about planning! Tender mercies! In class we talked about learning Spanish and how when it is motivated by love it's constant. The thought popped into my head that sometimes it is hard for me to imagine my future investigators in NYC so it's hard for me to learn Spanish for them. Then I though, "If my family all of a sudden could only speak Spanish, I would want to learn Spanish so I could talk to them!" All of a sudden it clicked in my head because my future investigators are going to be some of my best friends and practically family! So I am more motivated to learn Spanish now! I know this thought was a thought from the spirit :)

Yesterday we had an AWWWWESOME lesson with our practice investigator Ingrid. She has a baptism date for the 20th,  so we thought we needed to talk to her about the Word of Wisdom in case she had any problems. We read through the pamphlet with her and when she read the part about god asking us not to use harmful and addictive substances she sat there for about 30 seconds and then started to cry. In those 30 seconds of silence the spirit came so strong! When she talked again she said she couldn't be baptized because she is addicted to tobacco. I explained that she could still be baptized but she will have to stop smoking. She said she has tried and tried but has never been able to quit. Ether 12:27 quickly popped into my head so I read that to her. All of a sudden all three of us knew what to say because the spirit was telling us! It was amazing! We are going to talk to her more about it tonight. Pray for us!

We also had another lesson with Patricio last night and we talked more about the Book of Mormon. He said he has never seen any evidence of God so quickly I said "I know the book of Mormon is evidence of God and Jesus Christ." And then read him 2 Ne 25:26. The spirit must have put words in my mouth because it was a quick response! Especially since it was in Spanish! I am beginning to learn just what "open your mouth and it will be filled" means. :)

Also, we got three new roommates yesterday. I prayed that at least one of them would be a native Spanish speaker, because that would be so helpful to us! Last night we went back to our room and met them and guess what?! ALL THREE OF THEM ARE NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKERS! :) :) Yep. God loves me.

Today we got to go outside the gates of the MTC to the health clinic because mi companera is sick! It was glorious and we were taking pictures of everything since we have been stuck inside the gates (minus temple and temple walks) for the past 6 weeks! We finally got to go into the outside world and it was GLORIOUS! 

Anyway, my time is up but I hope you all look for the tender mercies in your lives this week! Heavenly Father loves us so so much!!

Les ama mucho!!!!

Hermana Richardson

 

MTC week 5

"Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory to much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." (Alma 26:16)

The above scripture is just how I feel today! I cannot believe with the new change in missionary ages, that MY BROTHER AND SISTER, MISSY AND WILLIE ARE BOTH GOING TO BE IN THE MISSION FIELD SOON :) :) :) :) :) If I could put a whole page of smiley faces I would! Oh boy this week has just been the greatest ever! The church is true! Conference was amazing and many of the missionaries said it was their best one yet. It was neat to sit in the gym and have everyone paying attention to the Prophet and Apostles of the Lord. I wish you could have all been there when President Monson announced the age change on Saturday morning. As missionaries we were all shock and the Spirit was so strong! We are all so excited for this new change. This means that the Spanish speakers will only be here for 6 weeks instead of nine, and the English for 2 instead of 3. Crazy! I still leave on Nov. 6, so soon! I told my comps that next Thursday we will be headed into only 2 weeks left in the MTC! I can't believe how fast my time here has flown. I've learned so much and loved every minute, even the parts where I want to scream and cry. ;)

On Tuesday I fasted for Missy and Willie in their decisions to serve and also for dad in his desire to lose weight and be healthy, and what a day of fast it was! I felt so close to the spirit all day and I was speaking Spanish very well! It was such a wonderful day! And to top it off Elder Bednar was the speaker at the devotional! Woot! He is our favorite as we have watched a few of his past talks from the MTC each Sunday during our film time. He talked about a way to study the words of the prophets from General Conference. Look for the doctrine, invitation, and promised blessings. We watched few clips from Elder Bednar, President Eyring, and Elder Perry. In the devo Elder Bednar pointed out that when an apostle makes a promise he does it using the apostalic keys so the blessings are made sure! Such a wonderful thought. I know these men are called of God and that when they make promises, we better do what they say or we are missing out on a lot of blessings! I am just so happy to be a missionary and wear this name badge as a representative of Jesus Christ. I know who I am and I know God has a plan for each of us! Sorry but I am just so happy that Missy has decided to serve a mission! AHHHHHHH :) :)

Yesterday morning we had a great class with our teacher Hna Wetzel. She had us read 2 Ne 2:14 and then we made lists of qualities of a missionary who does not ACT, and a missionary who DOES ACT. Wow. The spirit was really strong and I was inspired to be a better missionary! I want to be a missionary who ACTS so that I can bring all the souls unto Christ that I can! As a district we also made a special assignment this week to pray for and do 5 acts of service each day. So far it has been great and I learning so much about myself and my capabilities!

On Monday one of my comps (Hna Peterson) was sick and I wasn't very patient with her because I didnt' want to have to sit in our room all day. BUT the Lord used this as a teaching opportunity for me and I humbled myself and sat in our room and studied. Hermana Lancaster and I actually had a really great discussion and then I got to talk to one of my new friends hna bean because it was her p-day. It was a great day of learning for me and I am grateful the Lord knows me better than I know myself!

 On Sunday we had a devotional and guess who the speaker was? Chad Lewis! As in the author of "Surround yourself with greatness" and the BYU football player who also played in the NFL! It was sweeeeet! I shrieked when I saw he was speaking and I'm pretty sure all the Elders in the audience thought it was pretty great too.

I must end now but please pray for me in my Spanish speaking! I fear I am far behind where I should be since I am leaving in almost 3 1/2 weeks and I am scared :P Pray that I will have the will power to practice my language as much as possible and to have the brain capacity to do it as well. Thank you!

I love you guys SO SO SO much and hope you have a wonderful week full of blessings and miracles! The church is true and the prophet is too! :D

Les amo MUCHO!!!!!

Hermana Richardson

MTC week 4

October 4

Hola! This week has been a week of miracles! I attribute it to all your prayers and fasting in my behalf. Thank you!

I don't even know where to begin...let’s start with the fact that there has been a lot of talking about language this week, which is something I have been struggling with. It's hard to be patient in learning Spanish but I know Heavenly Father knows I can do it so I know I can too :) On Tuesday we had a workshop about learning the language and our teacher told us a story about his mission and how he struggled too, but when he turned it over to the Lord and humbled himself he was able to speak and understand like he wanted to. That was a tender mercy for me because I know that as I am humble the language will come. Also some of the elders from the other districts that left earlier this week came over to our classroom and handed us all their flashcards! There were TONS! Now I have lots of words to study and it's really helping!

I am so blessed! I never realized how blessed I am to belong to a family who has always been diligent in our scripture study, prayer, and family home evening. One of my MTC comps said they never did that stuff -- ever. How sad! I am so blessed to have such righteous diligent parents who made sure we did the little things because now as a missionary they are the big things! We watched a talk by Elder Bednar on Sunday night about becoming a missionary and he said when you get home "go home, but never leave the mission field." I wrote down that my parents never left the mission field because they made sure that they taught the gospel to their kids! It is amazing how many blessings I have! Thank you!

Also during that talk I was inspired  to "be" a missionary and not just "be on a mission." Before I went to bed on Sunday night I prayed to Heavenly Father to help me "become" a missionary and I got the sweetest assurance that I am on the right path and he is accepting my efforts. It was wonderful! I just love being a missionary :)

On Tuesday I ran into one of my friends from 9th grade Algebra...we actually only talked a few times but I thought he was really funny.  Then a couple months ago his name popped into my head so I looked him up on FB and was sad to see that he had fallen away from the church. BUT a few weeks ago I saw him in the cafeteria! I was like whaaaat and stared at him and he stared back and it was one or those awkward "I-know-we-know-each-other" glances but we didn't talk to each other. So on Tuesday we were waiting in line for the devotional and I saw him again and he said “don't I know you from somewhere?” So I said “Yes, were in the same math class in 9th grade!” We got to talking and I asked him why he decided to serve a mission. It's a long story but he has had a lot of tender mercies in his life and finally decided to serve a mission. My testimony was increased of the Atonement and that no matter what we have done the Lord loves us and has paid the price for our sins so we can repent.

Tomorrow is my one month mark as a missionary! Woot! I can't believe how fast time has flown. On Saturday it will be a month until we leave for New York! I can't wait!

A few days ago for my personal study I studied chapter 5 in PMG about the Book of Mormon. It was AMAZING! My testimony of Jesus Christ was strengthened so much! I read the scripture that talks about "We teach of Christ, rejoice in Christ...(I don't remember the reference, sorry!) and knew that we needed to teach one of our “investigators” about Jesus Christ. We went into our lesson and I talked to him about how the BOM testifies of Christ and had him read that scripture. I then bore my testimony of Christ and we commited him to be baptized! and he accepted! Woot! Our other investigator Ingrid is also getting baptized! Even though these "investigators" are not real, I love them so much and can't wait to get to New York so I can teach real people! I know that my Spanish will never be up to par with where I want it to be, but I know that as I do my best and bear my simple testimony to those in NY that will hear me, I can touch lives. We got a new district of elders last week in our zone and they are AMAZING! They are so diligent and I can tell they really want to do their best to be good missionaries.  Sunday was fast sunday and almost all of them got up to bear their testimonies in Spanish even though they had only been here for 4 days! Wow! I also bore my testimony. If nothing else when I get to NY, I will at least be able to bear a strong testimony :) We also got a new district yesterday and we have four new sisters! We are so excited because me and my comps have been the only hermanas in our zone since we have been here! Yay for new friends!!!! :)

I hope you all enjoy conference! Make sure to think of questions you would like answered and make sure to listen to what the spirit has to say to you. We are so blessed to be able to hear from a living prophet and his apostles this weekend! I can't wait!

Te amo mucho (mucho mucho),  Hermana Richardson

MTC week 3

September 27

I have been so blessed with so much love and support from everyone.  Della, a YW leader from my home ward writes me every week.  I have gotten packages from Uncle Steven and Debi, Aunt Kimberly (weekly!) and many other people! Thank you so much!!! This week has been pretty tough. Now that I have been at the MTC for 3 weeks I feel like I should be farther along in my Spanish than I actually am. I have been kind of hard on myself but I just put my shoulder to the wheel and keep pushing along!  Plus all this stress has given me a bad cold that has lasted a week. Yuck. The Lord is looking out for me though and I have seen many tender mercies in my life this week :)

On Sunday I was feeling sorry for myself and then we had an awesome devotional! At the end the speaker told us "No matter how hard it gets you CAN do it." I felt like he was speaking to me! The closing song was "Abide With Me" and it put tears in my eyes because I knew the Lord knew I needed to hear the words of that song. I loved it.  A favorite quote I heard from Elder Holland a few weeks ago is this "Come to the edge he said. No, I said, I'll fall! Come to the edge he said. No I said, I'll fall! Come to the edge he said. I went to the edge, he pushed me, and I flew." Isn't it amazing what we can do with the help of the Lord? :)

Every Sunday night we have a devotional and then we watch a film, which is always a talk from an apostle. They are amazing! Last Sunday we watched " Learning to listen to the spirit" by Elder Bednar. It was so amazing! I wish I could post it here to read because it was so good. After the film we were walking back to our building and a couple elders asked us if they could bear their testimonies to us in German. They did it and it lifted my spirits because I realized if they can learn German then I can definitely learn Spanish! We bore our testimonies to them in Spanish as well :) I LOVE bearing my testimony because the spirit is always there to bear witness of the truth.

My district memorized the First Visioni in Spanish this week.  Then in my lesson with my comps yesterday I recited it from memory to our investigator! The spirit was so strong! I love teaching with the spirit because I am always able to get my point across. We were also able to attend the broadcast of the temple open house on Sunday! It was wonderful! I love temples!

I have gotten to the point where I think I know phrases in Spanish but when I say them they are totally wrong and everyone laughs...last week I was teaching and my comp said something to me and I said "Estoy divertido!" (I'm fun) when I meant to say "Estoy animada!" (I'm excited) It made no sense but at least I tried!

Another great experience I was able to have this week was on Monday after we taught at the teaching resource center. At the TRC we go in and practice teaching volunteers. One of my companions is very shy and doesn't express herself in lessons like she would like to. On Monday she hardly said a word so we talked to her after and told her that we wanted her to speak more. She started to cry saying it was really hard because she has always been really introverted and I realized I was just like her in middle school/high school and then Ether 12:27 popped in my head so I read it to her. (I love this scripture because mom read it to me once when I was having a hard time with my introverted personality:)) I was able to bear my testimony to her that I KNOW we can make our weaknesses into strengths with the Lords help, because I used to be really shy and I still am sometimes, but I'm so much better. My other companion said that she admires how confident I am. Confident? Me? That was a huge compliment! I realized then that my weaknesses really have been made into strengths through the Lord. He is so good to us!

Hermana Richardson