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

My companion is a genius

Hey

Sorry I wasn't able to email last week. I was just about to then some stuff came up and I had to run.

First
What is Ben's Missionary email? and let me know where Chris is going.

Mom, you didn't miss Temple day. It is only once every 3 months. It's next transfer around mid April. I will give you the heads up. I may be getting transfered before then so I might not be able to go to the Temple anyway. There's a good chance that I will get transfered. Relax, I will let you know. relaaaaaxxxx. :)

Funny story about Luke, Jeff and Brian. Geez those idiots. Everyone knows your supposed to check for an alarm system before you break into a place. Gosh. I thought I told them that before. And why are they going to court? Ridunkulous.

I might be sending some stuff home because I dont feel like carrying it around with me. So if you get a package, just put it with my other stuff in the attic. I have a member in our ward who works for FedEx so he can get me a discount. Don't worry about it.

We went hiking today. It was sick with it. Next p-day we are totally going to Lake Tahoe. I'll send some pics home. Which reminds me, could you send me the third card and I'll send you my other one please?

I got a new bed. It's awesome. No more sleeping on the floor. yay

We weren't able to do the baptism this week. Sister McCombs still wants to be baptized but she had to change the date to mid April. She is doing well though. I dont know if I told you but she is pregnant. Funny story. I wrote President McCraken and told him that one of our investigators is pregnant and asked him if we should still baptize her because of the baby. I wrote about Moroni 8, how baby baptisms are an abomination in sight of the Lord. I told him that I really wanted Sister McCombs to be baptized but that I didn't want to condem myself in the process by baptizing the baby too. I look forward to his response in our President interviews Haha.

The Sparks NV Stake did a little mini-mission in Reno. It was only for a day but i felt like I was training all over again, geez. It was cool though. I had a great experience serving with Elder Seth Ross. We went tracting and this old lady answered the door. She looked terrible. She was on oxygen and everything. We asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she said "cure my cancer" then shut the door on us. Balderdash. But then a couple more doors down I felt prompted to go back. So I followed the prompting, of course, and we knocked again.
When she opened, I boldly told her that we were sent from God and that if she had Faith in Jesus Christ she could be healed of her cancer. She was a taken aback and was a little nicer to us. She said that she prays and does believe in God. We gave her a pass along card and told her to go to the website. It was a cool experience.

Elder Farnsworth and I had a combined District meeting last week. It was sick with it.{editors note: "sick with it" means something good} The subject was on asking. We went to this member's house/castle--we called it the land of Asck. The crown jewels went missing and the missionaries had to ask suspects different questions to find where they are and who did it. It was cool. The house was huge. We weren't allowed to go inside it but we were allowed to go in the Hobbit Hole in the backyard. No joke, these members have a legit Hobbit Hole replica from Lord of the Rings. It was sick {there is that "sick" word again} I will send the pics later.

I have a favor to ask of you. Robin Eleen is going through a really rough time. She hasnt been to Church in 2 weeks and she hasn't been returning calls. We coincidently (yeah right) ran into her on Sunday while making a visit. She didnt give me any details about what was going on, but she did say that she would come to General Conference next week. She needs your prayers please.

Thank you for everything. I love ya. Sorry my email is so long

Elder Richards

PS the reason for the subject title is because Elder Marsh kicked open our front door and broke it. It was kinda cool though. Like Hollywood. We had a member glue it up and pinned it for us so it's all good. I was worried that we would have to get a new door. Bro Carruth saved my companion.

Livin the dream

Hey

I don't have a lot of time. Busy day. Have to go give another blessing soon. P day always seems like the busiest day of the week. I know. Ridiculous, right?

The missionary work is starting to pick up a little bit. The wards are a lot more open to giving us referrals. That's a relief. They are finally starting to trust us. They've had some bad experiences with other missionaries in the past. We've had to work hard to get that trust back.
We were able to set Sister McCombs with a baptismal date for March 27. It's a really exciting time now for us. This will be Elder Marsh's first baptism. He's very excited and he should be. Some people are very fearful of baptism even though they know it is true. They are afraid of change. I understand though. Change is never easy. But I commend Sister McCombs for her decision. She knows it is the right thing to do.

Sorry to hear about the cat. And Jeff getting his temps haha. And thank Kevin and Heather for the package. It was really nice.

Smile, He is Risen!

Elder Richards

Bugs don't have politics

Hey hey hey

Elder Marsh and I are both staying here in Reno. I'm excited about that. It's sad though, some of the Elders that I have met and bonded with are leaving this transfer. I met them when I was a day out and now they are leaving. Weird. It's been real though.

We aren't going to the Temple until next transfer. I will let you know. Don't worry about it. Thanks for the birthday package. And thank Lisa and her roommates for the birthday card. It was very nice of them. A little weird but nice haha.

So things are going good. This transfer flew by. Hopefully this next transfer won't be that quick. This week we gave a lot of blessings to members who are sick in the hospital and people wanting comfort. We even gave a blessing to a non-member which was a great experience. She started crying but she didn't know why. I know why. The Spirit does that to you sometimes. We testified of this and planted that seed. She doesn't live in our area unfortunatly. But we told her to contact the other missionaries in her area.

We have been working with some of those investigators that kinda dropped off the face of the earth. We found them and started teaching them again. One of those lost souls is Susan. She called us a couple weeks ago and said that she didn't want us to come back. We waited a little while and felt that we should stop by. She was very happy to see us. It was like she had forgotten what she had said. Shes not all there but she is the sweetest lady ever and very knowledgeable. She catches on quick and I'm sure that sooner or later we will be able to set her with a baptismal date. She's progressing really well now. All the sudden she has gotten really excited and she has been coming to activities in the Ward and she wants to come to Church now. We have had trouble with her in the past about coming to Church but now she is pumped and ready to go. I think during the time she didn't have us over she realized that something was missing, that she didn't feel the same anymore. She has definitely felt the Spirit and I'm excited about her progress.