Hello mi familia!!
First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! I hope you have a
wonderful day!!!!!
SO...today was transfer day! Each cycle is 6 weeks so this
will be my third cycle. At the end of this cycle (in 5 weeks) I will have 6
months in the mission, which means only one year left! Time is flyyying!
Sister Aguirre was called to be the new traveling sister (a new calling
they made for the sisters here-the traveling sisters go around and do splits
with the other sisters, I think it's a way for President to help more of the
sisters get ready to train because we are going to be recieving so many new
sisters) so that means I have a new companion!! Her name is Sister Floyd and she
is from Boise. She is awesome! She goes home in April. I am excited for all the
new experiences we are going to have and all the things I am going to learn
from her.
This week was great! I think I told you about the family we
found last week when we were knocking doors in the projects, right now we are
teaching Danyoline (Dan jo leen) who is 17. She originally let us in to talk to
her grandma but her grandma is really old so it's a little difficult to teach
her but Danyoline is really interested. We had a lesson with her on Saturday
and talked about the Restoration. Danyoline had soooo many questions, it was
awesome! At the end we invited her to be baptized when she knew the truth for
herself, and she said yes. The only problem though is that we haven't even met
her parents yet and don't know how they will react to our message, so we're
going back on Saturday in hopes of teaching her mom as well since she should be
off work. Please pray that her parents hearts will be open to the truth so that
Danyoline can keep progressing.
We've been going through our area book to see if we can find
any former investigators who may be interested now in hearing the gospel, and
we came across a family that we felt like we needed to visit. We visited them
Sunday night with our member Yassiris (Ya see dees) and at first the mom
thought we were from a different religion so she didn't let us in. I rang the door
bell again and explained we were LDS and she came down and let us in. Her name
is Maria and she is so sweet! She has two kids who are in their 20's. Pierre is
23 and was baptized a few years ago and I'm not sure about the status of the
sister but as far as I know she is not a member. When we visited with Maria on
Sunday we talked a little bit about the book of mormon and invited her to start
coming to our English classes, and she said she would come. We also told her
we'd like to come back on Tuesday morning (2 days ago) and she said okay so we
did. When we got there though only pierre was there with his tutor, Jennifer.
She is helping him get ready to take the US citizenship test. We met her and
talked with Pierre (He was in some sort of accident a few years ago so he is a
little slow) and the spirit we felt was just so sweet. We talked a little bit
about the Book of Mormon and we included his tutor Jennifer. She is catholic
but was super interested in what we had to say. While I was bearing my
testimony about the book of mormon all of a sudden I felt like I needed to talk
about the plan of salvation, so I did and our lesson actually turned out to be
about the plan of salvation instead of what we had earlier planned on. It was
the first time I can say that we have taught a lesson completely guided by the
spirit. It was so great!
A few days ago Sister Aguirre and I were headed home and I
walked past this guy and thought I should probably talk to him but I kept
walking. Again the thought came but I ignored it. I had my metro card out ready
to swipe and again the feeling came, YOU NEED TO GO TALK TO HIM! It wasn't a
voice but the feeling was so strong I turned around right there and told sister
Aguirre that we needed to go back and talk to him. We went and talked to him
and he was super nice, although he lives in the bronx so we can't teach him. We
invited him to come to english class though so maybe he will. I don't know if
anything will ever come of that prompting to go talk to him but it's definitely
something I'll not forget and I am learning little by little how the spirit
speaks to me. I love being a missionary!
On Saturday morning the Manhattan Stake had a relief society
activity. It. was. amazing. Each ward had a display table up of the different
talents of the ladies in that relief society, and all I can say is that I
definitely am here in New York City. Everyone that had a display up (Okay I'm
talking about the white people but I'm not trying to be racist. The white
people here are just super prestigious and wealthy) lives here because they
have a really great job, they are an actress, they are designers, or something
like that. I'm not even kidding. Have you ever heard of the blog the shabby
apple? (Maybe missy has) It's an online store with a bunch of super cute
dresses and skirts, and it's based here in NYC. We also had a program with
various talents, and everyone either sang or played some kind of musical
instrument. I got up and sand Nearer my god to thee with Isa, who is a member
in our ward. We were pretty average and maybe even a little off key but as I
was standing there I was thinking how humble I felt and how sure this song we
were singing was pretty average but I was singing about Jesus Christ and
glorifying Him. All of a sudden I was really proud to be singing this song
about our Savior. As I was looking at all the displays and maybe coveting a
little bit that I haven't run 25 marathons or I don't design clothing or have a
cute blog, I realized that that stuff really doesn't matter to our Heavenly
Father. And that I like our plain little stake in South Jordan Utah. haha. But
really, the only thing that matters to our Heavenly Father is that we love each
other and try our hardest to be a good person. It was a super fun activity to
go to, one of the wards had an older lady get up and (dramatically) tell us all
the great things about their relief society and how they have best women in the
church. She was kidding of course but it was super funny. After that all of a
sudden the members of their relief society got up and sang "This little
light of mine". It was super cute. I'm so grateful I get to serve my mission
here in NEW YORK CITY and get to experience all these awesome things. The very
first lady that got up in the program is actually a researcher at Columbia and
does research on tuberculosis and educates nurses and doctors in Africa about it so
they can stop it from spreading so fast. It was fascinating and even though I
didn't understand half of what she was saying because she was talking chemistry
but it was so cool!
I love New York City soooooooooo much. We meet so many
fascinating people every day! Last week we were heading home at the end of the
day and we ran into two people from Britain, both are researchers at columbia.
Super smart. One of them, Tom, went to Cambridge in England before he came here
to columbia. Also sister aguirre and I walked through the campus of columbia a
couple days ago while on our way to an appt. It was sweeeeeet. I forgot my card
reader this week but I'll send pictures next week so you can see my
adventures.
A couple days ago we got on the train and sat next to this
guy who looks like ryan reynolds from the movie The Proposal. For those of you
who don't know who ryan reynolds is I will just say El esta muy muy guapo.
Entonces, we started talking to the guy on the train and we could tell he
wasn't that interested but I looked at him straight in the face and bore my
testimony of Jesus Christ and told him I know that He is my Savior. For those
of you who have never had this experience of being able to look a random
stranger in the face and tell him you love Jesus Christ and that you know he is
our Savior, I encourage you to do it. It's AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously though.
I love bearing my testimony to people and love testifying of Jesus Christ and
the Restoration. I know my words are true and so is this message! It's so
desperately needed in this world of darkness and so many people are walking in
darkness not knowing where to find the truth. We (the missionaries) have
something they desperately need in their lives but they don't know where to
find it, that's why it's important for us to open our mouths and declare what
we know.
I encourage all of you to continue reading the Book of
Mormon, gain testimonies of this wonderful book for yourselves, and look for
opportunities to be a good neighbor and friend to share this message. I promise
if you pray for opportunities to share the gospel, Heavenly Father will give
them to you, and your life will be greatly blessed because of it. We are giving
people what they can't give themselves.
Family me ENCANTA este obra y espero que ustedes pueden sentir
mi amor por este mision. It's hard, and I feel like at times Heavenly Father is
using sand paper to smooth my rough edges, but it's so worth it at the end. I
look back and see the hurdles I've overcome, see the things I can do now that I
never thought I could do, whether it's looking a complete stranger in the face
and bearing my testimony or being able to have a complete conversation in
spanish over the phone with someone. I know Heavenly Father is giving me
courage and giving me the strength I need. I couldn't do it without Him. This
is HIS work and I am only a game piece in which he is using me to accomplish
this great work.
Me ama mi Salvador Jesucristo y se que El murio para
nosotros. Este conocimiento me da mucho paz y gozo en mi vida. Me encanta este
oportunidad yo tengo a ayudar a los demas y ser un instrumento en los manos de
Dios. Mi testimonio es muy fuerte de estas cosas!
Gracias por su apolla y amor,
Hermana Richardson
PS Will you please pray that we will be able to find more
people to teach? Our teaching pool is getting really small. Thanks!
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