December 15, 2008

The other big thing is that we got CELL PHONES. Pretty crazy huh? They have nothing special on them at all but we can now get hold of people wherever we are and any referrals that we get from the mission office come through text messages. It is pretty cool if you know what I mean. Elder Holt is doing really good. He is really getting use to everything. I haven't even had to do much to train him so that is really nice. After zone conference we had a meeting with the assistants to see how everything is going and they said that we are probably the two most personable people in the mission so that is a huge compliment. I hope that I answered all your questions. You will get them soon so dont worry about it. I love you.

Kenny's new companion and a "very" big happy meal

Here is a picture of a very big happy meal and a portion of Kenny's letter from this morning.
Hey,
Everything out here is going good. My companions name is Elder Holt (not the Elder in the picture)he is from Murray, so not that far away from you. He is way cool and funny. We get along way good. like me and lemieux did so it is nice. We have been busy going to visit members so elder holt can meet them. Thanksgiving was good. We had it at our old bishops house. His wife is an amazing cook. So it was way good. After lunch we went outside to play ultimate frisbee well I went out to catch the frisbee and right after I caught it I stepped in a hole and totally fell and got a mad grass stain on my shirt. But dont worry I am a pro at doing laundry now so I got it all out.

November 24, 2007

We received an email from Kenny on Sunday night and he told us all that he had some exciting news and we were all to be on the computer at 9:00 am, our time. I had no idea what the news was and shared in his excitement when I read the following....:)

I thought I would just write a short one to y'all letting you know what is going on here in Canton. We got a phone call Saturday night from President Smith. I answered the phone and he said that he needed to talk to me first and then talk to Elder Donadeo. He told me that he was releasing me from my position as District Leader to prepare me for my new assignment. After he said that he kinda paused and my mind started to race, then says "you are going to be a TRAINER!!!!!!" I am so nervous and excited at the same time. It is going to be way fun. I know nothing about him. Tonight Elder Donadeo gets his comp and I go into Dallas with the other missionaries and will get mine tomorrow. Write back and tell me what you think about that one.

October 20, 2006

Okay first let me explain.............Ken went to Dallas for a Seminar and got permission from little Kenny's mission president to have lunch with him. Steve went as well as a long time family friend Cris Stott, who coincidentally taught little Kenny how to swim. They had a great visit and below is a portion of the email that I got from Kenny on Monday about the visit.

The visit was really good. I am sure they told you but I was way surprised to see them waiting for us. I thought they were just going to call at three, I wouldn't have recognized them but Cris was just staring at us and I eventually recognized that it was him. It was way weird having them in the apartment though that is for sure. I was at a loss of words, I didn't even know what to think. It was SICK though that is for sure. I wish we could have had more time together I am not dwelling on the visit either. Saying Good-bye was easy, I didn't cry at all. It was a lot easier than the MTC that is for sure. The blessing really did help, not every missionary gets to have their Dad give them a blessing while on their mission. It was also the first time that I was able to stand in the circle with Dad so it was an even better experience.

October 13, 2008

This week was really good. We have actually seen the temple site pictures. Elder Donadeo's chapel is like right across the street and his house is like five minutes away. He was way excited. I miss the snow so much. But I don't know about six inches on the truck, that does remind me of last year. All the time that I spent on that stupid four wheeler plowing the drive ways. Working at Pier 1 must be fun. That would be sweet if you have your own store. You would be making a lot of money so that wont be bad. So what is wrong with sis? Is she just having a hard time like being sick and throwing up or what. That is right that she shouldn't be working that hard. Make sure she gets a blessing if she hasn't already. We haven't got to many leads from the movie night just that one lady but we haven't been able to meet with her yet. We are going to have a baptism next week, he is dating a girl that is a member and we started to teach him and he wants to be baptized. We have to get permission from his dad first though. So keep him in your prayers please. So about transfers, we both are staying through another one. I am pretty excited about it, besides that fact that I need to learn Spanish because it is stressing out my companions a little bit because he has to do all the teaching at the Spanish appointments. I know it will be good for me so I am just going to suck it up and do it.

October 6, 2008

I can't believe that you got to go to conference,that is pretty sweet though. How come Sis didn't go? It would have been really good for her to be there. You just need to make sure that she watches it because I am sure that you recorded it or something. I wish I could have been there. It was way good that is for sure. We watched it at the church because we invited our investigators but none of them showed up until the Sunday afternoon session. It was pretty good though.

We had actually been talking about the temple in Rome. I guess that John Paul gave his permission but Benedict said no, so the members over there have been fasting for it. They have had the land for it for awhile. When President Monson said that they were building five new temples. I knew Rome was going to be one of them. You should of seen Donadeo when he heard that he totally jumped out of his chair. It was pretty cool that is for sure. It is going to be like five minutes from his house. I now will have a reason to go over to Italy and visit him. How sweet would that be?

We will have the first Spanish church meetings this Sunday. We will see how it goes. We had five of them show up for conference on Sunday so it should be pretty good. I really don't want to learn Spanish though that is for sure. If I stay here another transfer I will probably have to learn though. Transfers are next week so I will let you know what is going on.

September 22, 2008

Hola,

This week was really good. I had a lot of fun on Thursday with Beau. He just got his call and his going to Mexico. The day he goes into the MTC is one year before I go home. How crazy is that? We have way to much fun together because we are a lot alike. The last thing I have to do for tonight is get the tri-tip and cook it. I am pretty excited about it. We went to the temple on Sat. with the Lenox's. It was way fun. It was my first time to do sealings other than the time that we were sealed.

September 15, 2008

Nothing to new is going on. Just working really hard trying to find new investigators. Just kidding.........Here is something for you. Bro. Lenox has been telling us about his guy that works for him that he wanted us to go teach. Well Brother Lenox would set appointments and the guy would cancel. Well the other day we were tracting and came across a guy that was wearing Brother Lenox's company shirt. We talked to his wife, she is way interested in everything and then we come to find out that it is the family that Bother Lenox has been setting appointments with us. How crazy is that one for you? We both were just shocked. Well that is my story for the week. I love you so much.

September 1, 2008

What up,

This week was good. We found out on Saturday that we are both staying in the area. It was like 10:10 and I got in the shower because I don't like to shower Sunday morning because I would have to wake up at like 6:00. So as soon as I got out of the shower Donadeo said "Elder, you just missed the call". It was president smith and he said that we are both staying but that he wanted to talk to me. So I waited for him to call back. He called back and called me as the District Leader. I am way excited but also nervous at the same time. Almost all the missionaries in the district have been out longer than me. But I know that I will be able to fulfill the calling. I am looking forward to it.

Sophia got baptized yesterday!!!!! It was way good. Donadeo baptized her and I did the confirmation. It was my first one. I was way nervous for some reason but I got through it just fine. I was also asked to give a short talk in sacrament meeting, I was asked on Sat night. Ii was just asked to read a poem that I have in my scriptures and I bore my testimony.

This is a picture of Kenny, Sophia, Elder Donadeo and Shophia's mother in law, Sister Goode, Timothy and Carianna.

August 25, 2008

Hola,

Thank you for the package. It was perfect. The hat it just fine it is the one that I wore when I was at home so thank you. It is weird that you are working so much. I am sure that you aren't use to it that is for sure. Now you know how we fell at the end of everyday. Everything with Sophia is going amazing, she is way solid. Not to many new prospects we are still working on it. We have some people that are very close if we could just get them to stop working on Sunday's and come to church.

Transfers are next week. the time is going by so fast it is crazy. 5 weeks in Canton already. We got a new bishopric this week as well.

I love you and have a fun day at work.

Love Elder Richmond

August 18, 2008

The work is going good. We just set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. Her name is Sophia. Check this out, her husband is in the military and is stationed in Italy. So she was living there and taking the discussions. Then they start having marriage problems so she moves here. Then elder donadeo serves here. The crazy thing is that she was in donadeos ward in italy and he helped teach her. How crazy is that?!?!?!?!?!

The members are pretty good to us. It is hard to get rides anywhere because of gas prices and we are so spread out but they do the best that they can. It is been rainy the last week so the temperature has been really nice. On the way to the church this morning it is 74. It is way nice. I wrote to the hintons this week so dont worry.

August 11, 2008

This week Kenny answered tons of questions from me so this is all from his letter because I didn't think you all would want to hear the answers to my silly questions. He did send some pictures home FINALLY!! Enjoy.........:)

Our week was good. We had interviews with pres smith and then zone conference the next day. I love that man. He is awesome. I also found out that he is like the second richest Mormon in the world. How about that one for you?

This is a picture of Kenny and his first companion Elder Lemiuex at a BBQ they had for him before he went home. Kenny and his new companion Elder Donadeo straight from Italy. He was 4 months from being a Priest when the Elders found him in Rome. It is a great story and Kenny just loves him.

Of course the kids in his ward wanted the Missionaries to lead out in the bike parade on the 4th of July so here is Kenny, of course riding wheelies. He said the kids kept saying "come on Elder Richmond ride a wheelie". His response was he couldn't disappoint the kids, of course not...:)

August 4, 2008

My week has been good. besides the fact that I did something to my back. We painted a members house the other day for seven hours after moving a pile of firewood and I hurt my lower back like crazy. I couldn't even bend over without it hurting. It is doing all right now though.

Elder Donadeo has been out for almost a year now. His English is way good, he will use words in a sentence that doesn't really fit so I sometimes have to tell people what he means. It really happens a lot when we are out tracting but we have been working on his English every morning for an hour. He didn't know a word of english before he went to the mtc. But get this, his sister got married last week and guess who sang at her wedding? You are going to freak...........................ANDREA BOCELLI!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?

My comment - You've got to love that, what would it be like to know Andrea Bocelli and have him sing at your daughters wedding.

New area and new Companion 7-28-08

Here is a part of what I got today from Kenny.

We are actually at a members house right now. they fed us breakfast and we helped cut down a tree so now we are using their computers to email. Canton is a very small town as you already know. There are so many baptist people here. I think in Canton alone there is 6 baptists churches. It is crazy. Our area is huge though, it takes us about 20 minutes just to get to church and we are pretty central in the ward. There are some people that have to drive 45 min. to get to the church. Of course we got a car. It is so much nicer then riding a bike especially now that it is getting way hot. It is so much different then the big city that is for sure. The first night I was here we went to dinner at a members house that lives on 300 acres. The first thought that came into my head was dad would love this place. It is beautiful. I really like it. I think I could move out here when I get older. Almost everyone has cows and horses. Our bishop lives on 45 acres and has almost every animal y ou can think of. I showed them how to hypnotize chickens last night.

My companion is from Italy and he is bald and does look like a monk. I am not sure if pres. Warner told you this but my comp. elder donadeo was actaully studying to be a priest in the catholic church. He was four months away from being ordained a priest when he got baptized.

July 21, 2008

I got the call on Saturday night. I am getting transferred finally. I cant believe I have been here already for 6 months. I kinda am glad that I am leaving, but I am sad at the same time. I have really grown to love the people in the two wards.

I am excited to know where I am going and who my new comp is going to be. Packing is no fun though. I spent all morning doing it and trying to get everything fit in my two suitcases. It was hard but I think with my backpack i will be able to fit everything. I did get the package and I really liked it.

So about the tie. I really wasn't burning it with it around my neck. I just made it look that way. I really wouldn't do that. I am not that crazy.

July 16, 2008

A few days ago my phone was ringing letting me know that I had a text message. I was cooking dinner so I washed my hands and checked it. It was telling me that I had a new picture mail, the area code was one that I didn't recognize so I checked Google to see where it was coming from. I didn't want to open it because you never know these days. It came from a Oklahoma cell phone, Oklahoma is in Kenny's mission so of course I opened it and this is what I saw. In the subject line it said "Your son's 6 month mark burning his tie." I was wondering if this is normal behavior, shouldn't he have taken it o ff................:)

Our fourth was pretty fun. In the morning we went to the ward breakfast and the primary kids had a bike parade so of course they wanted to decorate our bikes. They took about 45 minutes to decorate them and then we led the parade. I will print the pictures today and send them to you. I had a blast and of course they were all asking me to ride wheelies. It was way fun. I like to have fun with the younger kids because of the way missionaries were with us when we were growing up. It always was fun to see them and that is how I want the kids to remember me.

We set another baptismal date with our investigator. Her name is Sandy Hamilton, she just moved in from Oklahoma and has been meeting with the missionaries up there for about a year. She is getting baptized on August 16th, please keep her in your prayers.

Is it any wonder that I am grateful for this young man. He has grown more in 6 months then I thought possible. We look forward to his letters every week and continue to marvel at his happiness while serving the Lord.

June 30, 2008

So we don't have a whole lot of time because we are at a different library today and I think they only let you stay on for an hour. So this is probably going to be short. Everything is still going good out here. We are working our butts off and it is starting to pay off. It is way sweet. Charles has been out of town since we met with him last time. We have called him a couple of times and he says that everything is good and that he isn't drinking which is way good.

I do need some stamps now since they raised the price. I don't think there is anything else that I desperately need just whatever. It doesn't really matter to me. We actually saw Patrick last night. Thanks for the thought and I will definitely apply it this week. I love you

June 23, 2008

We also committed another man to baptism, his name is luis filho. He is from brazil. He has been really hard to teach because he speaks very broken english. When we went over there last week we were teaching the plan of salvation to him and I got the feeling that we needed to committ him to baptism. The next thing I know Elder Roach is talking about baptism and tried to commit him. Luis didnt understand very well so I explained it to him again and he said that he would be baptized on the 12th.

June 16, 2008

So the German investigator went home and wasn't able to get baptized but her parents had a really good impression of the church though. Hopefully they will let her get baptized when they get back to Germany. I made sure the missionaries in Germany are going to go over there.

So I did get the slacks from Adrian's and they are perfect. I also really liked the package. The ties were sick. I almost bought that exact same Geoffrey Beene at Macy's like a month ago. I am so glad that I didn't.

It is getting pretty hot but it isn't to bad I can always stand it. I just sweat a lot but when we are tracting we just ask for a glass of water and most of the time people will give us one which means we can talk to them for a little bit longer.

June 9, 2008

We went to downtown dallas today. It was pretty sweet. We went to the American Arlines Center. It is the basketball arena there and we did a tour. It was cool to be down on the floor and see the arena the same the players do. I took some pretty cool pics that I will send to you next week because my camera died when we were down there. We were going to go to the dallas world aquarium but it cost 20 bucks so we walked to the sixth floor muesum which is the muesum all about president Kennedy and when he got shot. I took a pic of the grassy knoll and there is an x in the street where he was shot and I took a pic with that too.

I am sure that we will go to a members house for the 4th. We are having a bbq for Lemiuex at our ward mission leaders house tonight though. Also the foreign exchange student that we have been teaching is going home to Germany this week and her parents are coming into town so it is going to be pretty cool. I will let you know about it next week. Hopefully they will let her be baptized before she leaves.

June 2, 2008

The work is going pretty good. We just found a few more people to teach which is nice. We have been doing a lot of tracting which gets discouaraging especially when people dont want to talk to you, so it is nice when you find some new people to teach. Elder Lemiuex goes home in a week. I dont know anything about my new comp. If I am going to train I will find out Sat. night but I won't know who my comp. is going to be until transfer meeting on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen. I am kind of nervous but I will put my trust in the Lord and I know that he will help me in whatever happens.

I am not suppose to worry.......riiiight!

So something happened to me on Saturday and I ended up having to go to the E.R. Don't worry it wasn't bad. I was riding my bike down the street and kind of zoned out and wasn't paying attention to where I was going and the next thing I know I was on the ground. There is a bus stop sign in the middle of the sidewalk and I totally ran into it. My handlebars hit them first and then my shoulder ran square into the pole. I really thought that I broke it. I was probably doing about fifteen miles an hour. It hurt pretty bad. I will send you a video re-enacting what happened and a pic of my shoulder after it happened. I went and had it checked out and they said that nothing is wrong with it and that I need to wear it in a sling for a couple of days. It is just bruised and a little sore so don't worry about it. A custom paint job on the bike would be sick. When you get it done you should send me a picture of it.

Don't you just love how he goes from having to go the ER to talking about his Dad's motorcycle? Typical of him that is for sure!!!

A Mother's comments

As I was leaving the post office today from mailing yet another package off to Kenny (one of the ladies that works there knows my age, from checking my license because I have been there so much) I realized that I have not updated his blog lately. He still sends me weekly emails but I thought I would take a minute to share some things that have happened here in the Richmond home regarding Kenny and his mission.

Well first of all while we were gone someone from Texas called the house to talk to us about our awesome missionary and how much he loved Kenny. Phil took the call and told us about it via email, of course it made my day.

Then one day on the ship I was checking my email and there was a message from Kenny's companions Mom. She was so sweet and kind with what she had to say about Kenny. Kenny was sent to be her son's companion at a very important time and without saying to much about it I was reminded of how the Lord works in peoples lives.

Last but not least I was anxiously anticipating Mothers Day and hearing my youngests voice again. It was a great day and we had a wonderful visit with Kenny on the phone. I was able to conf. in the girls at different times and he also had an opportunity to talk to both Justin and Phil along with his Grandma, and his Uncle Steve. During the call my cell phone rang and it was from Texas, I thought is was a bit strange so I hung up the receiver that I was talking on with Kenny and left he and Ken to talk for a while. When I answered my phone the person on the other end told me he was a Bishop of the person Kenny and his companion had baptized the day before. He wanted to tell me Happy Mothers Day and to thank me for sending them Kenny. Of course I am crying by now. He talked to me for a while about Kenny and his companion and said very nice things. I remember people telling me things like this would happen and that it would make it easier for me while he was gone. I had no idea that it would make me feel like this. I know we are not suppose to use the word proud so if anyone can come with an adequate word please let me know so I can use it.

Kenny has always been a very special child, very kind and loving and he has continued to carry those qualities as he has grown into a young man. He loves his mission and he loves his companion. They are having great success and the Lord continues to bless them in their efforts. Thank you to everyone for your prayers in his behalf. Ken and I truly are grateful to you for your friendship and examples to Kenny, we love you all very much.

April 21, 2008

He (Elder Lemiuex) is going home so soon it is weird. I am always giving him hard time about it. It is funny. We do have to sit right next to each other while we are on the computer. You should send us something really cool from Tahiti. I don't know what though, something that will entertain us that is for sure. We may not even be together much longer. Transfers are the 29th but we have asked the assistants and president to keep us together so hopefully we do. We have three baptisms in the coming three weeks. One from every ward. It is way sick. The Jewish girl that we have been teaching is one of them.

April 15, 2008

The weather hasnt been to bad. There was a pretty bad storm the other night and supposedly a tornado touched down in Carrollton which is where our stake center is. We have blankets covering our window so we couldn't see the lightning. The thunder woke me up but I was able to go back to sleep then at four in the morning the other elders called us and told us to get in the closet because the storm had gotten really bad. We slept in the closet for like thirty minutes got tired of it and got back in bed. We found out the next day by four thirty the storm had passed. There was really no damage by our apt. but we went around town and full grown trees were ripped up and shingles were all over the streets in some areas. It was crazy. dont worry about me though becuse I am safe.

We just need some of the investigators to not be afraid of commitment. all you can do is just keep on praying for them. Their names are Charles, Renata, Alex, Kristina, Irene, Zach and mark.

April 7, 2008

Ken wrote little Kenny a letter this morning (we watched the other side of heavven last night so he called him Kolipoki we love that movie). Here is Kenny's response to his Dad's letter. Man I love this kid........:)

Pops,

Doesnt Kolipoki mean white boy with big stomach. Becuase if it does that means you addressed that email to yourself. hahaha! dang im funny. Thanks for everything that you have taught me dad. I am doing my best to remember everything. It is hard to love people when they drive by yelling profanities at us but I am trying my best. dont let mom read this one. I dont want her to worry. The people down here are really nice so it does make it easier to love them. So, I heard that you got pipes on the bike finally. How much faster is the bike now? You better be careful on it. Mom also told me that you got a glock. I'm guessing that it is a .40 not a 9 mm. That is pretty darn sweet. I like how you start to get all this stuff once i leave.

April 1, 2008

Everything is going good. The package was sweet. WE have had alot of fun with the helicopters and landing them on the ceiling fan. We haven't broke them yet.

I actually the gladys knight concert saturday it was amazing by the way. You should go get the cd. the choir is called the saints unified voices. Yesterday we went and helped pass out programs and collected refferal cards and there were probably 800-1000 people there for both performances it was crazy. There was some anti-mormon guy out front of the chapel being stupid trying to convert us. We had missionaries escorting the people by him so he couldnt talk to them. He then came over by the line of people waiting to get in and would start to yell stuff to them and the constable was hitting the panic button on his truck so the alarm would go off. Then Elder Coppins(the assistant that dad talk to) had the idea that we all should start singing whenever he started to yell. It was funny becuase people in the line started to sing with us and the dude eventually left and didnt come back. It was awesome!!!

March 24, 2008

Did forget to tell you that Gladys knight is bringing her choir down here and we get to go? It is called the saints unified voices choir. Its suppose to be really good. Both her and her husband bear testimony and its suppose to be really strong. I bet it will be really good. It is east to get people to go becuase you can just walk up to them and tell them that you can get them free tickets to a gladys knight concert and they are all down for going.

We are still out tracting every day to try to find more people but it seems like no one wants to talk to us. They are more friendly now though. They will at least talk to us on the doorstep for a little bit. Our apartment is pretty nice, and yes we keep it clean. Lemiuex is a clean freak. So you dont have to worry about that at all.

March 24, 2008

The helicopters were fun until we broke one. When some other elders came over Lemiuex shot it at one of them when they opened the door and it broke. But it was funny. You should send us the remote controlled ones like the first one that Dad got. We could really have some fun with those especially if you got the ones that have lasers in them so we can dogfight each other. Just an idea for the next package along with some snacks.

Our apartment is pretty nice. and yes we keep it clean. Lemiuex is a clean freak. So you dont have to worry about that at all.

March 10, 2008

Transfers are already next week. I have been here a month in a half, it's has gone by so fast. The baptism that we had last week was someone that I got to teach. I only taught him a little bit but it was all good. He first got interested in the church on a trip to St. George in June so we had a connection there. He is a way cool guy, I am going to send a picture of him. We should have two baptisms by the end of the month, maybe even three, I sure hope so. Othere than that the work is going really good.

February 18, 2008

On friday we were walking to our apartment and there was a man on the other side of the street at the bus stop so I decided to go talk to him and I am glad that I did because he was really interested in the Book of Mormon and I was able to set up an appointment with him on Saturday. When we went to teach him it went really well. After we talked to him about the restoration he asked us what the spirit felt like so we asked him how he felt as we told him about Joseph Smith's first vision. He said that he felt warm inside and that Satan couldn't come near him.

February 11, 2008

We have dinner with a member nearly every night. Saturday night we didn't have an appointment so a member in one of the wards took us and two other Elders in our district out to a place called SaltGrass. It is a steak house and man is it good. He bought us all a 22 oz. porterhouse steak. It was by far the biggest steak I have ever had.

Tracting is way fun! We don't run into a lot of friendly people but the other day we did and two ladies want us to come back and teach them.

The first ward we went to on Sunday there was like 50 people when Sacrament started....it is funny. The Elders Quorum president actually has a house in St. George and is going down there this weekend to go skiing in Brian Head.

Riding a bike is not fun, especially when it is windy. We actually walk a lot. I am definitely tired when I get home. It is hard for me to stay awake until ten thirty.

February 5, 2008

This is part of the first letter from the Mission field-

We went street contacting and tracting with no luck. It seems weird to me that people aren't members. Everyone we talked to just wasn't interested. It doesn't matter to me though because I know that I am in the Lord's hands and that he will take care of me. Tonight we are going to talk with a man that is getting baptized on the 16th, then we are going to teach another man the first lesson. I am really excited because I get to see two baptisms in my first transfer. I can't wait to see the work unfold in front of my eyes.

January 28 2008

Mom and Dad,

I know you just got a letter from me but in the wake of the event that happened last night I thought I would write everyone and let them know that I love you all.

Mom, I know that you are probably having the hardest time out of everyone. I want to let you know that the prophet Gordon B. Hinckley is in a better place and as you were finding out about his death he was hugging our Savior, Jesus Christ and rejoicing with his wife because they are together again. If you start to feel sad I want you to read Moroni 10:34 and act as if President Hinckley was saying it.

Last Sunday we were challenged to double our baptisms by Gordon B. Hinckley's son, Elder Richard G. Hinckley. I know that it was not a coincidence that this challenge was made at this time because it will help us reach our goal. It will show the people that we teach that our church is truly led by Christ not by Gordon B. Hinckley.

January 24, 2008

This is still while Kenny is in the MTC-The other day all the Elders from Samoa came and visited the Elders that are going to Samoa. They all started singing Lord, don't leave us, Savior don't leave us. It was amazing. I couldn't understand a word they were singing but it was awesome. After that one of the Elder's offered a prayer in Samoan and once again even though I couldn't understand him I knew what he was saying.

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the TRC which is a place where we go to teach volunteers who pose as investigators. I was super nervous as we knocked on the door but as soon as I knocked I knew everything was going to be fine. The spirit took over from there. I didn't have to look at my notes at all. Scriptures are coming to my head that I really didn't plan using. It is crazy how the strong the spirit us here.

January 20, 2008

The day goes by really slow here. We sit in class for what seems like an eternity. We don't really learn discussions there are lessons in Preach my Gospel that we have to follow. It is pretty cool because we get to pick out what we teach. There are principles that we have to follow but we get to make the outline. The food is actually pretty good and hasn't made me sick. I have seen the Bakers a couple times and it is nice to see a familiar face. The Elders in my district are way spiritual and really knowledgeable about the gospel. We are always cracking jokes. If you really want you can send Elder Lock and I some Mountain Dew. We have been craving it like crazy. Let everyone know that I love them and I'm going to be just fine.

Elder Richmond

First Letter, January 16, 2008

"We had an orientation with all of the new missionaries and their were 404 from 16 different countries and after that one we had another with our district. My companion is a convert to the church of 2 1/2 years and he is from Fort Collins, CO. My companion, Elder Johnson was made District Leader so I will be the Senior Companion. I just want to tell you all that I love you and I will be just fine. I am in the Lords hands."

Elder Richmond

The Farewell Pictures