Transferred!
NEW MAILING ADDRESS: Elder Tyler Lawrence Richins 3 Edith St Arlington, MA 02474 'So I am getting transferred to Belmont/Arlington... English, but I will find some spanish people. I am gonna be district leader for a 4 elder district kinda sad but I will have fun! I am looking forward to it. Our church building is two stories and it is right across from the Boston Temple. There are a ton of rich mormon famous people there too like the writer, Clayton Christensen... pretty cool! We go to 9 hours of church on sundays because we cover 3 wards.... hahaha pretty different than what I am used to!! My new companion is Elder Clarke. He has been out for like 5 months. I haven't met him yet but I am sure we will get along just fine. I only have 7 months left!!!! So we have a new rule that we cannot use the computers at the church so right now we are at a library and it only gives us like a half hour... so that is real sad. So I will have just enough time to write this email, reply to a few and that is it... So from now on until something changes I won't be writing individually anymore. sorry about that. Part of being a missionary. So this transfer we found 15 new investigators!!! We led our whole zone! We worked so hard I am happy with how the transfer went and am so excited for my new area. But so sad to leave the people here. They are my family! They have taken such good care of me and I will have to come back soon. I took some pictures... We have been playing lava tag at the park every morning then played it at the abandoned mansion... so I have pictures of that haha I will have to cut this email short to have time to add them in. So I love you all! Keep on keeping on! Love, Elder Richins'
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Where am I going?
'This is the last week of the transfer, make your guesses!!!! This week has been a little rough but we have met our goals for finding investigators, we are leading the zone!!! Hard work and faith to find brings miracles. We found 8 potential investigators and when we came back they all didn't want us to talk to them anymore it was super sad but the work goes on. Our district has 3 baptisms set up for this Saturday! I am excited to interview them! There is good work going on here! Not much is new here. I am feeling better now from the allergies and my cold. good thing this is the last allergy season of my mission!!! 7 MONTHS LEFT!!! 6 months in this area already! Feels like I just got here! So now we have no more zone conferences!? pretty crazy... but since the mission transfer none of the changes have been very crazy to me haha It is cool how I am so okay with change now! Anyway, not much to say this week, we went on 2 exchanges and are going on exchanges with the zone leaders tonight so that will be fun! Missionary sleepovers!! It is fun to see so many people come out of there houses to enjoy the sun! sadly this week is going to be cloudy here but summer is coming! Perfect time to share the gospel and spend time with the ones you love. A ton of people have been asking us lately our opinion on what is going on with the world right now with the news and the rumors of wars and all that. They are so surprised at how calm we are with the whole situation. But we know that if we are in the right path we have nothing to fear! Also they don't seem to understand why we don't have iPhones and why we don't watch the news... haha I am glad we don't. Even though we hear EVERYTHING through the grapevine. Moroni 8:16 "Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." I know God has a perfect plan for us, if we trust him we will not be afraid. Love you all, stay strong! Keep on keeping on! Con Amor, Elder Richins sorry for the lack of pictures... I haven't been feeling it lately' Translating For the Mission President
'So this week was good. The branch turned to us to translate in Stake Conference. I was super nervous but I am glad we got the chance to do it. It is funner than I thought! It was funny everytime they said something we didn't know how to translate we would look at one of the members depending on us and we would start laughing. They were kind of confused but very forgiving! Our mission President came and it was a great Stake Conference. Finally my cold is starting to go away. We went on exchanges and did some service where we just swept out this basement but it had a ton of insulation that was being torn out so we swept all that up for a while and after eating and returning to the apartment we both were exhausted and could barely breath haha sooo we took a nap and got better but that was a strange experience but now we are better. We picked up a new family. Their names are pretty unique... I don't remember how to spell them. But they are awesome there are 5 of them. Not sure how much they understand of our message but they are cool people. We are going to go play some spikeball today then have family home evening with some of our members. Sorry this email isn't that creative. The transfer is coming to an end pretty soon and I have a feeling I am leaving somewhere. Not sure where yet. We will find out next week. Keep on keeping on! Don't let the little things get to you. stay strong and Love yourself please... for me. Love, Elder Richins' Spring into allergies!
'Well I got caught up talking to people and doing other things and I forgot to write my main email... my bad... I got sick this week and sneezed my brains out! but I am recovering now. and my companion is now under the weather... but it is alright! Sooo new things new things... hmmm um there really isn't anything that has changed... some of my shirts are starting to rip. The heels are falling off of my shoes, one of my pair of glasses are too small for my head, so maybe I am growing or my brain is getting too big. My pants are getting tired because my thighs are so muscular haha... my whites are greys and yeah so I am getting older for sure! I am loving it here!! I think this is my last transfer here! We had 4 investigators at church and we had an AMAZING easter!! I hope you all had time to reflect of Christs life and yours. If you haven't seen the new Prince of Peace videos I invite you to go watch them. they are great! mormon.org It finally reached over 70 degrees! It was super nice!!!' 'haha... oops.. I didn't finish my email but accidentally sent it. I forgot what I said though... But I hope you all have an amazing week and don't forget who you are!! I'll try better to email next week :/ Love, Elder Richins' Influence to Paris
'So 3 Amazing things happened this week... no 4! 1. Our investigator did some missionary work and her friend invited us over. She has 100% real desires to just follow God and it was the coolest thing to see how amazed she was at our investigators life, how happy she was with the gospel and how at peace she was during trials. She saw the light in her life and wanted what she had. and now we are teaching her! She is so nice!! Her name is Natividad. 2. We helped a member move for 6 hours and they treated us to some amazing peruvian food!! We got some pollo saltado with some inca kola. you can't go wrong there! But She is awesome, even though she doesn't want to come back to church, her family was greatly affected by the help given. With just 2 days of notice over 20 people showed up to help!! they even brought food! It was a great day! 3. I gave myself another haircut!! I didn't do as bad this time. 4. So a members cousin came to visit from Paris, It was an adventure trying to teach her in french/spanish but it went really well. She hadn't seen her for 20 years! And she isn't a member. So we invited them to go to the Paris Temple open house! So cool!! We played some UNO with them and learned how to say all the colors and numbers in French Super awesome day!!! One of the most spiritual proselyting weeks yet! Thank you for all your prayers I feel them everyday. I love you all. Stay happy and keep on keeping on! Love, Elder Richins' Happy Birthday Mom! <3
'First of all... I want to give a couple shout outs because this is the week of birthdays! So today is my beautiful moms birthday. Everyone I know that knows who she is LOVES her so so much and I am so grateful to have the most amazing mom. She is like 32 or something. Also... today is Lorenzo Snows birthday... Tomorrow is my Grandpas birthday so happy birthday to him! He is the greatest! He also shares a birthday with George Albert Smith... Then on the 5th it is Hailee Shulsens birthday! Go tell her happy birthday! The 6th is probably the most important of all... It is the birthday of our Savior Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also Rafael Almonte... He is my favorite recent convert. And finally, the 7th is my cousin Jakes birthday he is gonna be 18... that is super crazy. We are all grown up. The 5th is my Best friend from births birthday Elder Lane Thompson!!! He is an awesome missionary Serving in D.C. So just keep a birthday prayer in your heart this week and remember who you are!! Also. Thank you Elder Thompson for being my friend until the end! Everyone needs at least one friend like Lane that you can rely on for anything. You are the best! So Conference was so great!!! Missionary work always gets crazy effective after a general conference. We love our prophet!!! I am so grateful to live in these days where we can have the restored gospel and live it happily! The rest of the week was pretty normal.. just did a lot of awesome successful missionary work! Just always remember to do your best with what you are given. Then pray for help and work like you were never going to receive that help and all things will work out. God loves you, I love you. Sooo yeah that is all I got this week. Unless you have any questions.. then I am here till 3:30 Utah time. Love, Elder Richins' New Transfer and 8 months remaining
'So it turns out I am staying here!! The only thing that changed is that Elder Harris is going Zone Leader up in Mass. Oh and the baptism worked out. I got to baptize little Adan he is the coolest kid I know. He is just like me but Dominican. He is a like a little monkey. Loves to run and jump on all the furniture. The water wasn't super warm or super cold but he was a trooper and did it for God. He has a strong testimony. Newest member of our branch! It is finally starting to warm up a bit and there is a Ritas in our area so we go there sometimes to treat ourselves. This week will be in the 50's... It was a long week but full of blessings. We are getting prepared for General Conference and really working to get our members back!!! What a lot of good people don't realize is not going to church on sundays may not make you a terrible person but it is breaking a commandment and definitely isn't doing God any favors or yourself... so if you are one of those... please put God first and go to church... He needs you and you need him. I love you all and know with all my heart that this church is true. Keep praying and reading and pressing forward with faith. And remember to forget yourself but don't forget who you are. Con mucho amor, Elder Richins' 'I got really distracted and forgot to write my email.. I feel bad. But one announcement, Huge snowstorm tomorrow... so we are pulling out our shovels!
we had zone conference and ummm we extended two baptismal dates soo 26th of march we will be greeting two new amazing people into the church! Wooh!! yeah so... sorry about that lame email. Love you all! oh and an awesome quote. "Let's just keep on keeping on, but do it more effectively." -Elder Oaks Love, Elder Richins' March Madness and the waters of baptism!
'Well this week has gone by really fast because we went on exchanges twice... So I got to teach for 4 days with someone who doesn't speak spanish... It was a great experience but after teaching for 45 minutes alone your mouth gets super dry and it isn't as great as having someone to help bring that spirit in... but it was still good! We got fed... a lot! if you don't eat with the members they get offended so yesterday was fast sunday and we still had 3 meal appointments! haha we were stuffed! We went to the farm to do service. We started moving big logs and then the sky turned black within seconds. After a few strikes of lightning it started pouring!!! It reminded me so much of Forest Gump! It just came out of nowhere and it poured hard!!! We were soaked. So that day of service was cancelled sadly. Ummm... we had a settlers of Catan party every week we go to a members and eat dinner and play a little catan... and now the member got the expansion pack haha so we played today and it was way fun. it gets crazy! The members name is Bill Weseman Him and his wife are the mother and father of all the missionaries that serve here. So they have taken care of us since I got here. We call them Pops and Sweetie. I owe them a lot for their service and love to the missionaries. Highlight of the week is definitely meeting with our investigators, We are teaching a few families. And we have been teaching an 8 year old boy. the situation is complicated but His name is Adan, we set a date for his baptism for the 25th this month! And he wants me to baptize him! but we will see about that. I want his uncle to do it. Some other families we are teaching is a fam of puerto ricans names are Glorivee, Glorimar, Wilmaliz, and Jose! haha they are so awesome and they are a miracle family that is so willing to learn! The best investigator we have right now is Ana... she is so prepared and is coming to church every week. We are positive she will be baptized really really soon!! We have a bunch others and this area is exploding with success! Obedience brings miracles!!!!!!!!!!! I love serving and I know that Jesus Christ suffered and died for every single one of us! He did it so we could all return to our Father in Heaven. If we realized how big of a deal or sacrifice that was we would have absolutely no desire to sin. If we understood even a fraction of the reality of how special and important we are and who we were before this life Satan would have no power on earth. I know without a doubt through study and prayer that this gospel is true. That this is the only church and organization with the power and authority to preform the sacred ordinances necessary to live as families forever with God and to find peace and happiness in this life and the next. This is the way. and there is no other way. I love you all and appreciate your examples. And I ask you with the sincerity of my heart to search the scriptures and pray!!!! Find out for yourselves. Take the time to feel the love God has for you. there is no other way to feel this amazing power of the gospel and how much happiness it can bring. PLEASE do your duty as a human, as a child of God to find that testimony and not rely on the words others tell you but the words of the spirit you feel directly from God. <3 Elder Richins' We cut a couch in half!! and picked up 7 investigators!! 'We have been really really busy trying to help the branch grow! In the past two weeks we have picked up 11 investigators already! That is more than the last two transfers combined we have been so blessed for our efforts! And all the investigators are SOOO prepared! We are teaching two 10 year olds and I have never in my life seen a 10 year old so excited about the gospel! He has had some crazy life changing experiences already from the gospel and he said one day he wants to be like us:) How cute:) And on sunday we had a record breaking 50 people at church in our branch which was awesome! We ran out of seats in that little primary room!! Also the Waterford elders have been coming over every morning to workout... and when you are in groups you tend to get random bursts of motivation... so you could say I have been pretty sore for a while... It is a good feeling but at the same time it stinks. So today we went and helped some members trash a couch and it wouldn't fit in the truck so we took a saw and chopped it in half! with our little missionary motivated bodies we got it ripped in half in about 10 minutes!! haha it was super fun! Not too much to really talk about this week, it has been so busy... we have just been working and working some more!... It has been a little overwhelming with blessings and good stuff but that isn't bad right? Cool thing about serving in the states is you get to learn multiple languages to help you spread the gospel to all people! So we recently picked up bit of Portuguese and Chinese haha just kidding all I know how to say in Chinese is "I am water" or "I am a turtle"... basic stuff you know? But it is the coolest thing to be able to think fluently in another language to really understand someone on a personal level who is speaking words I never knew existed 14 months ago! Also Elder Miskin my wonderful trainer has faithfully and honorably completed his mission and is boarding his flight on wednesday:) Prayers for him and his new life please. I love you all and am so grateful for all who read these and who pray for the missionaries and help build up the kingdom of heaven! I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, through diligent study in the Book of Mormon and constant prayer and learning of him and his ways have I come to know my greatest friend.:) May the spirit always abide in your hearts. Keep on keeping on. Love, Elder Richins' kinda how my package arrived to the apartment... seems like the United States Postal Service is using submarines or something to deliver their mail... oh well" |