What in the World Did I Just Agree to?

"Be still and know that I am God"

This scripture is one of my favorites. Recently a huge trial has been put in my missionary life right now---I will explain later in this email. I have had to put my faith in God completley because I cannot do it alone. I have felt His peace and love. We all can feel it if we turn to Him. There have been times like I feel like I cannot go on and I can feel angels pushing me so that I can fulfill this work. Heavenly Father is mindful of us. Turn to Him and He wil ease your burdens.

OK!!! So at transfer meeting President Saylin gets up and talks about how in South America there are NO cars for missionaries to use. None. And if you compare the South America baptisms to the U.S. they have tons more. SO President Saylin wants to do an "experiment" for this transfer. He wants volunteers that will park the car for a transfer and only use bikes. Well.......of course my district wants to do it. Therefore, I am on a bike-NO CAR! I bike everywhere. I have been on a bike full time since Saturday. We biked to wal-mart and bought groceries yesterday and then walked home with them on our bikes. We took the bus to the library today. We have to ride bikes to church on sundays. I can use the car once a month to drive to Zone conferences in Sugar Land and Doctors appts. But that is it!!!! So I have been sweating my butt off on a bike and will be for 5 more weeks. My butt is SO sore! HAHA! And ot to mention it is super hott. I sent a pic home that is what I look like at the end of the day. SO gross! So needless to say I need a few things-----you know those split slips to wear under a skirt so I can ride my bike??? or just shorts(thin-cause its hott), if you could send more pain meds-ibprofin(helps with the sore butt), misquito repelant(I have 10 bites right now), safety pins(you put them on your skirt so it doesn't get stuck in the chain), and sunscreen(I BURNED on sat. haha--now its a tan). If you caould get those things to me soon it would be AWESOME! I am suffering a little bit but I will servive. At least I will be tan and skinny. LOL!!

SO my new comp(Hermana Bird---I will talk about her later) we are doing a weigh in every Sat. to see how much weight we have lost while on bikes. She has gained 30 pounds while on the mission so she is trying to get it off. I already feel like I have lost weight and it has only been 4 days. I will update you next week on what happened with the weigh in. LOL!

My new comp is Hermana Bird. She is awesome!! I sent a few pics home so you can see her. Her and I are a lot a like. She is from Orgeon and graduated from BYU in public health. I am really excited to be working with her.

Mothers day---You guys(mom and dad) giving me a call Sunday during hte day sometime. I am not sure of the details yet. I will DEFINITELY tell you everything in my next email. But it is same like last time--I will give you a number and time and you have to call me. I am excited to talk to you all!!

PLEASE pray for me this week! Biking is SO hard. It is a huge trial of my faith but I know I can do anything with the help of the Lord. Have a good week!!

Love,
Hermana Richards

Transfers

"What you do thunders so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Its so true! People are constantly watching us to see how we act and how we handle things. Our example is huge! It also reminds me of the quote-"I'd rather see a testimony than hear one any day" I hope that as people see me and view me that they can see someone who represents well Jesus Christ. This week lets be a light unto the world!

First off-no I am not leaving Galveston! But my companion Hermana Gibson is getting transferred so I will be getting a new comp. tomorrow. I am a little nervous to be taking over an area but I know that Lord wouldn't give me something I cant handle. Yay!! I get to be in Galveston for longer.

I totally had to give a talk in church on Sunday! SO scary! LOL!!! My topic was el Espiritu Santo(Holy Ghost). I wrote out my entire talk but when I got up there words came to my mind and it was something completely different than I had planned. Before I prayed so hard to Heavenly Fathere that he would give me the gift of tongues. Everyone told me I did a really good job and that they are impressed with my accent. I sat down afterward and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. :)

Thanks for the package mom! More to come in a letter I sent off yesterday. Janet----LOVED the pictures :)

Last week we played dodge ball for a zone activity. Well, the elders played and the sisters sat there. I finally decided watching was lame and played. It was pretty intense but at one point it was down to just me on my team and I had to either catch the ball or we lost. I totally caught it!! The Elders came running and cheering! HAHA!! Oh mission life.

We found a less active this last week. His name is Richard. He is my favorite!!! He even came to church. We talked to him on Sunday night and he said he wants to prepare to serve a mission. YEAH! The Lord is making miracles happen here in Galveston.

We were visiting another less active June. She has 3 cute little kids. Well, I whipped out my Cars stickers and started playing with them next thing I knew they were literally climbing all over me and playing. One HUGE tender mercy Heavenly father continues to give me is the love of little kids.

We had a Noche de Hogar last night(FHE) and I thought of playing the game the human pretzel---the one where everyone takes someone elses hands and you have to untangle yourselves. It was super fun!!! I took pictures and will send some next week. So fun!

This week went really good. Its letting warm here but luckily(thank goodness for the ocean breeze) hasn't been hot yet.

I am happy to be here on a mission! I get to talk to you all in about 3 weeks. I will give you more info once I know the phone number and everything. Not sure what time yet either. We have church from 9 till 1:30 so I will most likely call in the afternoon. I will give you more details. I will be calling MOM and DAD. I talked to President to see if I could call on Fathers day and he said it would get to complicated with the other missionaries and their different home situations. But he said I could have more time if I needed it. So I look forward to talking to both of you in a few weeks.

Have a wonderful week! I love you!

-Hermana Richards

6 Months!

"If you only knew what was ahead you'd feel nothing but overwhleming joy all the time" -President Uchtdorf

Isn't it so true? We all know about the plan God has for us to return to live with Him. To be in a perfected state without pain or sorrow. This life is only a speak in the rhelm of eternity. Let us today and always recognize that this life is a time to prepare to meet God. We have to be doing all we can because the reward will be great. Life is tough and stressful! But with the knowledge of this joy to come we can press on and we can endure. Keep your eye focused on why we are truly here and our purpose. Because it will bring a feeling of happiness and joy.

My week went really well. To be honest I don't feel like I have too much to talk about. It rained like crazy here yesterday. I was soaking wet!!! There comes a point when you feel so ugly as a missionary that you don't even care if you are soaking wet, your hair is a rats nest, and any make-up you had on was gone 5 hours ago! Oh the joy of a mission! HAHA!

Funny story-I really don't enjoy the food here. LOL I avoid it at all costs. I have resorted to bags and throwing things on my companions plates when the person isnt looking. Mostly I do that with tomato and avacado. My companion luckily loves them! Needless to say I miss my form of "mexican food"---meaning Cafe Rio.

We had an awesome week were we were able to exceed our goals. We had 25 sitdowns and over 10 OYMs each. That is crazy good! and I think we had the most in the mission. I am really trying to work my tail off. Some awesome miracles have come because of it.

We have 2 new people with a baptismal date. It is a mom and brother of a less active in the Branch. Well, we went in there not having any clue what to teach(the mom) well I prayed silently in my heart to know and all the sudden Christ's baptism came to my mind. Well....why not tlak baout baptism the first time i meet them? LOL So I taught about Matt 3 and then extended her a baptismal date. Before I could finish my sentence she said Si. It was crazy! The spirit really told me what to teach. It was awesome! We also taught Juan(the brother). Well, Hna. Gibson went into her rote routine of lesson 1 and the spirit was not there. I was getting frustrated cause she wouldn't even let me talk or take a breath, he was clearly LOST! So I said another silent prayer and just cut her off and started talking. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him about the love Heavenly Father has for him and that everything is going to be alright. That the gospel is where we can find true happiness. Well he started to cry and his eyes never left mine. It was one of the most awesome lessons I have had yet. I extended him a baptismal date and he accepted without hesitation. The spirit was really guiding the lesson. I was so happy! But it is sometimes difficult to teach with the spirit when my comp. teaches the way she does. I need more patience.

So I hit my 6 month mark on Wed. Sometimes it feels like I have been here forever and other times it feels like I just got here. Time from this point on will fly. I will find out about transfers next monday. So my next email will have that info. I really don't think I am going anywhere, but we will see.

I love you all! Have a good week!

-Hermana Richards