February 6th, 2021
Dear Mom! This has been a long week. A good one but long. Mostly uneventful. It's difficult teaching someone you can only see once a week because they are working all the time. This is all our investigators. Juan Tum: day off on Tuesdays and he lives with antimormon Chinese people. Carlos and Maria: progressing GREAT but both work and all the time since they are on call we can never set an appointment. Same story with everyone. SO we have been just knocking trailer park doors this week all week.
I do have a couple crazy stories- Finally some crazy mission stories!!!
First: we were knocking doors and Mexican like to party. Every weekend. This fiesta includes standing in a circle and drinking the cheapest beer they can get at gas stations. Well we decided to jump into the circle!! WOOOO! Don’t get scared, Mother, we killed it. We introduced ourselves and they invited us first thing to partake in the festivities. We just started talking and preaching. Answering their excellent questions about the end of the world and families and Jesus. We actually split up, elder Meza and I and we taught two separate public lessons. We handed out Libros de Mormon and made some very good drunk friends. They were so drunk though! I don’t quite know if they will remember their feeling or the commitment they have to read and pray on that book.
It went so well though that we did it again at another party. This party was still young though so we caught them before they were drunk so we taught again, this time sticking together and switching off teaching and this time they actually asked for the books and invited us over again this Thursday! We handed out maybe 20 Libros de Mormon altogether. It was GREAT. iT'S ALL ABOUT PLANTING THOSE SEEDS!!!!
Well another Crazy story: I was driving down a small back road and we drove past a mass on the side of the road. I didn't see what it was because I was driving but Meza frantically exclaimed, "That's a guy lying there!!!!" so I flipped a U to examine him. Sure enough a 25-year-old student at FSU was unconscious on his belly with blood coming from his mouth, a skid mark on his right arm and I wouldn't be surprised if his limbs were broken. He appears to be hit by a car and then abandoned. I thought he was dead but on a closer examination he was breathing slightly. Well I already concluded before seeing him that 9-1-1 is the best choice. The police arrived and the student came to...kind of. The man began moving slightly but without any further stimuli or movement they had a conversation.
The conversation went like this:
Guy: UH!
Police: Sir are you ok?
Guy: Yeah maaan!
P: Did you get by a car?
G: NO!
P: What happened?
G: (no response)
P: (talks code in his radio)
G: Ok
(starts to get up but seeing that he wasn't thinking right and getting up included doing some kind of a push up from the back of his hands- a sign that his arms are broken. also his legs did not move at all making me think that he might've broke his lower back.)
Me: Sir don't get up
G: Come on maaaan (as if I were joking and he still tries to get up)
Me: Sir you are bleeding and hurt. Do not move.
G : Uh (drops to the ground with his arms underneath him)
I would've given him a blessing but I honestly did not think about it in the moment of time so that probably means that the spirit didn't prompt me to do so.
Well that's my week.
Well.... Love you mom!
Love Elder Richards
February 13, 2021
Dear Mother, Thank you for the news! I've been working to get you guys some letters. Unfortunately I couldn't fit it all on P-day so there is a special time from 7 to 8 designated for a shower and getting dressed but I do that quick as you know so I have about 45 minutes every day to finish letters. You’ll see why it's taking a bit longer. I also wrote to Shelly, Tosha and Molly.
I am the recipient of some very fine foods of which I ate most of and am working on eating the Jerky. I of coarse am speaking of Molly’s package. :) I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So Mitch and Chelsea's house is Mitch's grammas’ house? right? I'm having a hard time visualizing something else but I wasn't sure if Mitch got the house or his brother...
That's GREAT that Chris and his fam are moving back to Colorado! That means I can go up there!!! When I get a decent car in two years I might drive up there. SNOW!
Speaking of weather, it's 30 degrees in the middle of the day here. It’s pretty crazy. No snow however but it feels great! ... Now I can't wait for that beautiful summer which awaits me in 4 months... I hope I won't be miserable.
Well Mom, I feel like I fixed the problems with my companion. You wanna know what I did? I screamed at him. We got in a hefty argument that lasted up to 10 minutes and I laid it down. laid down the law. I was a very strenuous Companionship Inventory. He almost started crying and in the end we both feel like we took care of the problem. Turns out he doesn't like it when people make fun of his mexicanness. Let me explain. It all starts with everyone including himself being racist towards Mexicans but we aren't really racist we are just joking and we all have a good laugh. Well the companionship inventory starts out with me saying what he can improve on and visa versa. A said he needs to stop judging me, preaching down at me and taking over during lessons. My Spanish isn't great so he thinks the Investigator needs to be taught only by someone who can speak 100% so he talked over me, cut me off and gives me like a sentence per lesson. I felt like covering his mouth with my hand so I could teach (because he is definitely not the best teacher either). Well I said this to him and he agreed that he has been doing all those things but I judge him too. HOW? I judge him for being a Mexican. He got quiet and the corners of his mouth started quivering.
"You do it too. We’re kidding. You make fun of yourself"
"I feel like a hypocrite"
Silence.
Ok, bro, I will not make fun of you anymore. I can't promise anything out of the other guys that make fun of you but I will definitely do my best.
later I told Mesarch and Swarts and the ZLs so that they can know that he doesn't like that. They still do it but it's died down. I try my best not to make fun of him.
Other than all of those things that he does, he is still a great person. He is just so innocent. He admitted one of the dastardliest things he's ever done... He kissed a girl before! Gasp! Egad! How could he do such a thing! I hope he talked to his bishop about that!
He is just the cutest little 250 lb, 6 ft tall Mexican ever! Because he is so naive.
I've found that service really works when I'm having a hard time. Sometimes I think to myself: Gosh! He didn't clean out the sink after shaving again and now the sink is full of black specks! But instead of making him do it I just clean the whole bathroom. Same with his study area. He is a messy boy! so it's not hard to see things I can do for him while he is taking a shower or eating breakfast.
I guess I just had higher expectations after being companions with the best that when I get someone less than that it's hard not to see flaws and he really bugs me sometimes.
Well I found out today that I'm going to be his companion for another 6 weeks. I look forward to his jokes that don't make since because he can't speak English well enough and his socially awkward habits in the apartment... like sleeping on the floor. Snoring. laughing and his own jokes... that don't make sense....
Fun Event that happened this week: we were going to teach those drunk Mexicans again except this time they were not going to drink. So we biked there to save miles and to be healthy and I realized either my bike is extremely awesome or he is just a little bit out of shape. Probably both. But here in Florida there are no mountains but then again we're not in a valley so every square inch in either up or down graded. So I led us in the bike lane to embark on this journey of 6 miles and there were times when I got ahead a good half mile. One instance was when a made it to the turn in to our appointment after three consecutive hills (to go up these hills you can't stop or you'll lose momentum and if that happens you might as well walk) so I was well ahead of him and waiting at the gas station on the corner for him to get over the hills... 1... 2... 3... 5 minutes roll by and I start thinking "shoot........ He isn't coming!" so I begin to backtrack with many scenarios frantically buzzing through my mind. Did he get hit by a car that wasn't paying attention? Did he get lost? Did he get abducted by a deranged man who collects Mexicans? Best case though is he already made it there without me noticing somehow and I am just wasting my time going the wrong way. So after a mile I decide to turn around and this time I paid attention to the big ditch that ran along the side of the road just in case he biffed it in the giant chasm. I frequently called his name so as to maybe get his attention of he was close but I couldn't see him. Finally, at the top of the hill I see a light (and by this time it's about 7pm and pitch black) shining over the hill and I stopped and waited for my companion to meet me at the bottom. Turns out it was the best case scenario and he, having been so far behind, took a turnoff earlier than the gas station and I didn't see him. That lead to the same place,
All in all, the lesson was great. He let me talk. the spirit guided and we gave out even more books of Mormon.
Oh also we are getting a new sister missionary that is coming from Gilbert AZ! Her name is Alexis Sorenson... I also hear she is really cute :) here.
Well Love you mom! I appreciate your prayers and your support! Thank you for everything you do!
Love E. Richards
That’s the news. :) Other than that it's been pretty slow. It’s hard to plan to be busy every second of the day. and when I’m not busy I feel less than efficient as a missionary.
No comments:
Post a Comment