First Mission Baptism.
'Here we are on this great Monday afternoon. How are you all doing?? I'll tell you how I am doing. So so good!!!! So we had a baptism!!! This man is amazing! My very first week here in the field I asked this man to be baptized. He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday in sacrament meeting. During third hour of church he received the priesthood!!!! I can not tell you how much I have grown to love the people here. Lawrence Mass. Will always have a piece of my heart. But I got some news. Transfer calls were on Saturday! Looks like I'm headed toooooo.... Drum roll!!!! Lawrence Massachusetts!!! Hahahaha I am staying here with my companion for another transfer so I am pretty happy!! I don't have much time but I want to share some things. So we had this former investigator move into our area. We got a prompting to call him and he asked us if we would help him. Our appointments for the day had fallen through so we accepted. We packed everything up into a UHAUL truck and got to his new house.... He showed us his new apartment in this nice old antique New England home... All the way on the 3rd floor:) hahaha it was a fun experience and I definitely got my workout for the day! It was him my companion and me. We had a fun time hauling a bed frame up those stairs... Sadly it didn't fit between the stairs and the ceiling at some points hahaha he actually tried to force it and put a hole in the ceiling!!!! Hahaha it was such a good time. But after we helped him we shared an Easter message. He said that when his family gets back from the Dominican Republic his wife, two daughters and him want to be baptized...... Sooooo yeah there's that miracle! I have made so many lifelong friends and come to love every single person here!!! I am doing better than ever. I got a haircut again, and it's raining again. Haha thank you all so much for your emails and your support and your love. I feel it every single day!!!! I can't write much more because I took more time writing other people back so I'm sorry for that... I am so excited for conference even though It's in Spanish and I don't understand it all yet but I am getting there! I hope you all prepare for conference! Take some questions with you and remember to take notes!!!!!! We are hearing from a PROPHET!!!!!! Oh and one more thing. I know we don't think about missionary work too much in Utah because there is so many Mormons.... But missionary work is for all people and I challenge you all to look for times and ways you can share the gospel with those around you and if you want find the missionaries in your area! Member work is so so so so so so so so important. Our job is literally impossible without members! Share it at work or at school. Wherever you are share it! Because that is something I didn't do when I was home.. I wish I did. You can change lives and you can feel the joy that I feel every single day!!!!!!!! Have and amazing week. I love you all so much thank you for everything. Also if you haven't met my family... You definitely should. They are a gift from God and they are truly so amazing. All of them. Oh and my best friend is in the Mexico MTC right now and is doing an awesome job and is already changing lives but I know he could always use your prayers. Thank you so much. Love, your east coast missionary, Elder Richins'
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Well well well, we meet again. Another week come and gone. The weeks are flying by!!! How are you all?? How many miracles did I have last week? You could say at least 100,000 miracles! This Saturday is the last day of our transfer! And luckily our investigator is growing faster than ever! He bought some new church clothes so we know he is serious about this! We are so excited! We did some deep cleaning in the bathroom today and I got a little crazy with the bleach so I might have lost one or two brain cells but I have plenty to spare. The tub is super duper clean!!! So I don't know what to even write... We met a drunk guy on the street. He accepted the new #Hallelujah card we are passing out and then he told us about how Jesus blessed the wine and shared it with the world.. He was pretty drunk! He carried a basketball hoop about 9 blocks and set it on the side of the street saying he is doing it because someone will pick it up and have the best summer ever. He said he found it in the trash so he put it there for the kids in the summertime. He was friendly for sure. We had zone conference and our mission president gave us the Man talk... It was awesome! I never get tired of feeling the spirit. Our mission president is changing this summer so we are holding twice as many meetings. So yeah well I don't even know what to talk about, The weather is way way crazy. It rained not to long ago and then yesterday it was kinda hot. Then today it snowed. Looks like even though I left Spanish Fork the weather followed me here haha. Thank you to all of you that are supporting me and my family. Also thanks for all your emails you're all the bomb! It's getting harder and harder to write updates because not much changes but I promise I won't get too boring... Maybe. We went on zone exchanges and I got put with an Elder from England and I could barely understand him sometimes but I was teaching in English and I had to say a prayer in English and that was hard because I am not use to it hahaha. But that elder is super ready to go home. He goes home next week and he has been talking about it ever since I got here. We had some interesting experiences on the street. It was pouring rain and this guy walking his dog started preaching to us and saying that religion holds you back from God and all you need is Jesus... Then he picked up his dog and started walking away but he was still yelling at us about what we need. He started yelling something about everyone living in peace without rules when he turned a corner and we couldn't hear him anymore... He had a cute dog though!!! Haha Missionary work is so fun and it is the best decision I have ever made in my life! It is so hard but wow I have grown more in the past month than I have in my entire life! Well looks like my time is about up. I got some pictures for you guys though to make this email worth while. Thanks for all the support and thank you to my wonderful family! I will have a good update next week because It's the end of the transfer and because of the baptism. We dropped a ton of people but we are finding lots of new people to teach I don't know why but our numbers exploded and we are finding so much success! Alma 26:35-36 is my new favorite scripture!!! Because it is sooooo true!!!! Keep up being crazy awesome people! Love y'all! Con amor, Your east coast missionary, Elder Richins Happy Spring!!
Short e-mails = Happy Missionary
'Wow hey! So I guess time went by way fast and I forgot to write an update so hi this is my update. This week we had our investigators baptismal interview and looks like he's getting baptized this month! Well this weeks email is way lame and way short I'm sorry... Oops. Things are just crazy, in an awesome way! Everything here is awesome!! It's warming up but it always rains the weather is different everyday. The mail is being lame so I'm not getting any but I should get them by Wednesday if you have sent any. Thank you all for your emails and your many testimonies I feel the love and support from all of you back home thank you so much. I know that this gospel can change lives!!! Seriously if you are ever having any problems or struggles you can find peace and happiness in the gospel!!! If everyone understood this there would truly be world peace haha well I love you all. Stay happy, Love, your favorite east coast missionary' Made it a month in the field.
'Heyyyy!! I'm sorry this week might be pretty short! I was really sick both Tuesday and Wednesday. It was actually a really great experience for me. Not at the time of course. But I found myself leaning against the bathroom wall at 2 AM Tuesday morning in a way asking God why me? Why would you let this happen to me? Don't you want me to be doing missionary work? I was in the moment not seeing the whole picture all I wanted was to stop throwing up. I received a blessing from Elder Miskin and just a couple hours later he got sick! We were stuck in our beds for 2 days! We went crazy! But through out those two days I learned a lot about humility and the power of the atonement. I really am glad I had that experience... I learned better how to pray and my relationship with my Heavenly Father grew so much! We have an investigator that is getting ready for baptism! That's cool! And we are going to have the opportunity to go to the temple with him to do baptisms for his ancestors! Two really good friends of mine left on their missions and the mission work in the world is getting stronger! I'm so blessed to have this chance to serve a mission I am growing so much and I have heard that people actually read these emails!? Thank you all so much for your support! Our members meals have been going better. Although my stomach was not feeling normal through out the week I think being able to fast set things back to normal! You always have something to fast for as a missionary and you can definitely see the affect of fasting. It is so so so important! Fast with prayer, faith, and purpose and I promise you it can bring miracles! Although the snow came back for a minute it is getting a little warmer. The members are starting to pronounce the S at the end of Richins and remembering who I am haha. The elders want to go play dodgeball and its zone p-day so this should be fun! Keep your heads up and remember what is really important in life. Don't worry about how things are going to turn out. Just do your best in all things. God has a specific plan for each and every one of us. 2 Nephi 8:7 you have no need to fear. Especially don't worry about what other people think of you. You are loved no matter what! You might be saying silly Elder Richins you don't know what I'm going through your life is great! And you're right... I may not know what you are going through but I know that Jesus Christ knows exactly what you are going through. Remember you are loved and I also wanna just say I'm sorry if I ever hurt any one of you in any way... I'm learning. Anyway I love all of you so much! I got to go but read your scriptures they will answer literally any question you have in life and if you can't find the answer then email me a question and I'll try to help you find it. I love getting emails and I love answering gospel questions and any question about life! So I'd love to help. I hope you all have an amazing week and I'm sorry this email wasn't that great! But I have a picture that someone took 2 seconds ago and some pictures of my apartment so you can see how I live. but that's all I have I'll try to take more pictures! Love always, your east coast Elder, Elder Richins' |