Tell Beth happy birthday for me.

I'm mailing that package pretty soon. Just hold onto it for me.

I had the flu all week. Balderdash. It rained and snowed and our area is full of hills and mountains. But that didn't stop us. We went out and taught a lot of lessons last week. I was still kinda miserable because of the flu. But I got a blessing and some meds and a slurpee and now I'm all better.

This area is actually a very good area to tract. It's very surprising. I've never had a whole lot of success with tracting but here it's all good. We tracted into a lady named Eddy. We taught her the whole first lesson. It was awesome. That had never happened to me. It was cool.

Funny. I'm rooming with Elder Uland. I knew him before the mission. He was in my group at EFY. Small world.
Another funny. I'm now in the same Ward that my super greenie is in.

Sorry I don't have a lot to write this week. But I've got great news. Mary and Micah (in my last area) have a baptismal date for May 29th! yay I'll still be here in the area to see them get baptized. Sweeet. The Church is true.

love ya
Elder Richards

Fish heads, fish heads, rollie, pollie fish heads

Hey, sorry I didn't get to email yesterday and I'm kinda pressed for time now.

Anyway the Church is true again, I am no longer the District Leader. I got transfered to Sparks, NV. I'm only about 10 mins away from my last area. But now I'm on bike in one of the hardest bike areas in the Mission. It's brutal. We have alot of hills and mountains in this area. But at least it's starting to warm up and I'm not in Vegas for the summer on bike. Remember that funny line I told you that Reno is so close to hell you can see Sparks. Well now I'm in Sparks so I'm even closer to hell haha.

Before I left we were able to have the baptism for Jim Farley. That guy is so legit. He had his member friend from Sparks come down to baptize him. They are like super old and the guy performing the baptism messed up a couple of times so we had to dunk Jim 3 times haha. He thinks we planned it. I love that guy. I'm not too far away though so he said he will visit me sometime. Sister McCombs wasnt able to be baptized because she is having a tough time with the pregnancy.

Mary and Micah are doing good. They accepted to be baptized. They don't have a date yet but I hope I stay here long enough to come to the baptism. Mary reminds me of a female Chris Farley she acts and looks like him. she is so cool. I miss them already.

The Wanlasses made a great dinner for me. My favorite actually. I saw them bring it out and I knew exactly what they did. I knew that they called my Mom and asked what my favorite meal was for my going away supper. It was gooood. The funny thing though is that yesterday here in Sparks I had the same thing! It was such a blessing. yum

Those were really great dinners but guess what dinner I had with the Spanish Missionaries a couple days ago. We didn't have a dinner scheduled so the Span Ams let us come to theirs. Well we got there and the member put a steaming soup in front of us. It looked good and we were spooning around and all the sudden a fish head popped up. It was, no lie, the size of my fist. We had fish head soup. Not just fish soup. No that would be too normal. They gave us fish HEAD soup. It was looking at me with its crazy eye. It's jaw was still flapping. This thing looked like a Piranha. It had teeth and everything. When it first came up, I thought it was still alive. That is the craziest dinner I have had on the mission so far. I'm never eating with the Span Ams ever again.
Oh and right after that we went to Ju Jitsu class and practiced Nage Te (throwing Techniques)for 2 hours what a night.

Well, the Church is still true, despite what the members feed us. haha. love ya

Elder Richards
By the way my companion's name is Elder Fish. Coincidence? I think not!

Everyone here hates the chili

Hey,

Thanks for the Easter package. Everyone here hates the chili. They say it's like soup. I dont care, I like it.

The work is starting to pick up. We have four investigators with baptismal dates. Jim Farley and Elisha McCombs should be going down this Saturday. Then we have Mary and Micah who have accepted to be baptized but haven't picked out a date yet. That saturday is also transfer calls. So if you dont hear from me next week it's because I got transfered and I won't be able to email you until late that night. That's if I go to Vegas. I don't know if I'm leaving for sure though. The Ward is bummed because Elder Marsh and I are doing well together. Mount Rose and South Meadows have had a lot of bad missionaries in the past, missionaries that don't want to do anything. I will be very sad if I leave because I really want to see Mary and Micah get baptized. She is so funny. She is like a female Chris Farley. I will miss her a lot.

We had Zone Conference last week. It was a really good one. The AP's gave a training about spiritual wounds that can distract from the work. It helped my comp a lot. He got john'd last week. It was funny because he had a watch that said i love G. B. on the band. Well last sunday we were wrestling and the band broke. Then i was like "Dude! your gonna get john'd tomorrow!" and he did haha.

I had a dream the night before Zone Conference about something President McCracken talked about in his training. So I dreamed about a huge wall and I was trying to look over it to see the sunset but I couldnt because I'm short. So I needed a leg up by the Holy Ghost. So he gave me a leg up and I saw the horizon. Then President gave a training about a similar thing. He did an activity where he had a chalkboard and the Elder couldn't see over it. He needed to get on a chair to see over it. Anyway it was sick with it.
Thank you for your prayers. You can send the temple cards if you want.
Elder Richards

Reno weather is ridiculous

Hey

It snowed this moring, now it's raining and the sun is shining brighter then ever. This place is ridiculous. haha I love it though.
Yes I want the rest of the conversion story.
I might still be able to go to the Temple, i'll let you know.
Sorry about the April Fools call. If it makes you feel any better, Bro Wanlass got me back big time. I almost flipped out. I love that guy though. Don't be mad at him, it was all my idea.

We finally set Jim Farley with a baptismal date for April 17. That guy has progressed so well its amazing. We finished all the lessons with him and he's really anxious to be baptized. He told us that Elder Marsh and I were the perfect missionaries for him. He really didn't like Elder Smith and said that he didn't look forward to lessons with him. But he loves us and he wants to be baptized before I get transferred because he wants us both to be there for it. Sister McCombs should be getting baptized that day too. But we are a little worried about her. We haven't been able to see her in a little while because she is pregnant and tired. I don't know what's going to happen with her. Hopefully she will go down on April 17 also.

So General Conference was amazing. I really loved Priesthood session. The talk on patience by Elder Utchdorf was just what I needed to hear.
Funny story: during General Conference Saturday session a guy started cuddling with my companion. His name is Ramen (yes like the noodles). He's got some mental disabilities. Anyway he sat down next to Elder Marsh, then by the 3rd talk he had his arms wrapped around his arm and fell asleep. He stayed like that the whole rest of the conference. Then after he woke up, Ramen started hugging all the missionaries for like 5 mins each. I love that guy.
funnier story: On Sunday during General cCnference, Ramen came in and sat next to me this time. Then he had his arms wrapped around my arm. haha. I think Ramen wanted to know which of the 2 of us were better cuddlers. I think I won because he kept trying to stroke my hair and he ate all my candy.

Oh and we didn't get to go to Tahoe today becasuse it's snowing like crazy down there.

I hope you all had a happy Easter.
Christ lives and He loves us. He is Risen!

Elder Richards