Liberty week 17

March 7, 2013

Hola family!

So much has changed!

1. I'm no longer in Harlem

2.I'm training a new missionary!

3. We're opening up a new area in Monticello, NY (Look it up on google maps, it's in the middle of nowhere USA)

So....yes! I'm now with my new comp sister Barlow in Liberty, NY. 2 mondays ago we had interviews with President and when I went in to talk to him he told me that "The spirit has been prompting me to make some big changes in your mission. Big changes with a capital B." So I was like okay am I going to be traveling sister? (Sister Ap's) Then he told me my assignment. That the Lord was calling me to train a new missionary and open up a new area up in Monticello. I started to cry and said "What if I'm not ready?" And president said "Well the Lord thinks you are!" He told me not to tell anyone till Wednesday night last week that's why I couldn't tell you!!!!! :)

I was so overwhelmed but excited for my new responsibility and I prayed alot about it and knew that's what the Lord wanted for me. So I packed and said goodbye to dear old Harlem (it was so hard to leave all the ward members there and the people we were teaching. Sadness:( ) I met sister Barlow yesterday (yesterday we made transfer history-40 new missionaries in one transfer) and she is so sweet. She's from Kaysville. She's 20 so she's one of the one's that heeded the call of the prophet. It's going to be strange up here because technically monticello is an english area so there is NOT alot of people to teach in spanish. But President told me to speak as much spanish with my comp as possible and find as many spanish people as we can. I have faith the Lord has people in mind for us to teach. Pray for us and our new area! And also that Sister Barlow and I can keep up our spanish. I feel like I hardly know spanish myself so it's wierd I'm helping someone else learn.

We had a good week this week. Besides being stressed for all the new changes that were happening in my mission we were still teaching Amilio (Still has his baptism date for April 13-he is so cool!). Last saturday I got to work with Sister Richie for a day because sister floyd went up to yonkers with sister Aguirre. Sister Richie and I clicked and basically she is one of my favorite sisters. She did the same thing I am doing right now about 3 cycles ago so she had a lot of good advice about training and opening a new area. It was definitely an answer to my prayers! Anyway we were able to teach amilio but I felt like when we were teaching him something was missing. Like we weren't exactly meeting his needs and he just wasn't getting it. So on Tuesday (2 days ago) sister floyd and I decided to teach him the plan of salvation. We had manuel saldivar (the guy sister aguirre and I taught and he got baptized) and a member darren jackson. The lesson was SWEET. The spirit was so strong and the best part was that Amilio GOT IT. We could literally fill relief fill his countence and we knew we had taught to his need. It was an amazing lesson and he said he is so excited to get baptized and that his mom might even fly in from Florida to see him get baptized. I love being able to teach people like Amilio because he just gets it and it's so rewarding to see him understand things and to be able to help him.

So yeah! I'm sorry I feel like I have SO MUCH to tell you but we're in the library and I only have 14 minutes left and I still have to read all your letters. But just know I am loving it here so far in Monticello (we're in the middle of the forest and the public library is the size of our house. It's tiny.) It's so beautiful here with so many trees and it's just what you think of when you think of a cute little town backeast. Like the front of a postcard. Night and day difference from Harlem!!!

Thank you for all your love and support!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Richardson