Elder Richards Missionary Blog

A screwdriver and a bunkbed.

This week has two themes. Service and fasting. I did a ton of service

this week. As part of the new pilot, Just Serve, missionaries are

placing an emphasis on service during daytime hours that would

normally be down lesson times. We are now volunteering at the food

bank on a weekly basis. We also put all my tools to good use when we

were setting up bunk bed for a recent convert. It has been incredible

the support that the ward has lent. All of a sudden she has a washer

and dryer and some spiffy new bunk beds.

I was also up in Watsonville this week when Elder Miller had to be up

at a meeting in San Jose. It was cool because I got to be with Elder

Howard, who was in my MTC district, and another Elder for most of the

day. We helped people move, and at another food bank. We got a call

from a sister in the ward and she got in a car wreck and she wanted a

blessing. We gave her a blessing and I didn't think much of it until

Sunday. Turns out it was our investigator's wife's mother. We gave her

a blessing as well after our lesson with them.

Another cool thing this week was fasting. We were short of our goal on

Sunday and were down about 5 lessons. Turns out we taught 6 with two

lessons with investigators that fell into our laps. I think the Lord

wanted us to sweat a little bit this week....

This is the last week of the transfer and probably the last week Elder

Miller and I are together, and we are going out with a bang. We are

going to try to teach 30 lessons! We haven't even come close to that

before, so we have some good plans for the week. I'll probably stay

here next transfer and Elder Miller will go somewhere for his final

two. It will be a little intimidating to take over the area, but it

will be ok since our teaching pool is so large. As long as I get

another companion that wants to work, then we'll be ok.

Thanks for all of the support

-Elder James Richards

We were at the beach on tuesday for our zone activity and since my companion is MisterElderZoneLeader, we stayed much longer and had more prep then everyone else. Not complaining though, since we got to go to the beach! Of course we didn't go swimming, and I wouldn't have gone in anyway. The water was freezing. But President Watkins actually approved it, and so we went. It was a good time: rugby, soccer, grilling, and general fraternizing with the zone. The zone here is really united with really strong missionaries. No trouble makers here.

We continue to do well on our goals. We saw real blessings from a zone fast we did last monday night. On Sunday one of the investigators from a part member family who had been kind of flaking our came to us and said she still wanted to wait on her baptism, but she wants her son to be baptized soon. His date is now February 25th. We are more confident that she will be baptized now. Among other things, the the fast was incredible. It helped a ton with the whole zone. The zone broken a mission record for lessons taught.

I know I talk about numbers a lot, but it isn't all about them. We have been really getting to know and love all of the families and individuals we teach. One of them is a less active by the name of Brother Mclarney. He was baptized about 35 years ago in Bishop, California, and was active for a little while but then stopped going. He has been religious his whole life and kept a decent testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon as his life has gone on. He is now coming back to church consistently and has asked us how he can get a temple reccomend. We are helping him set goals to get a patriarchal blessing, do baptisms in the temple, get the Melchezidek Priesthood, and then go to the temple for himself. Gina, our most recent convert, is moving forward nicely. She is still struggling with some word of wisdom/ addiction problems, but they seemed to be lessened as time goes on. The support from the ward is incredible and her testimony continues to grow. She will actually be sharing her conversion expirience and testimony at the next outgoing fireside, on February 12th, since Elder Curtis, the missionary that preceeded me here, and the missionary that started teaching her, is going home. She has also expressed a desire to get to the temple in 10 months, so we are helping her work towards that. There are always people behind the numbers, and for those of you that haven't been on missions yet, that is important to remember. If you care about the people first, then the numbers will come.

I can't believe I have been out 4 months already. At this pace I'll be home in about 12 days.

Love you all,

-Elder James Richards

We buried a Tongan. I promise I didn't actually step on their heads...

Most of the Elders in the zone.

Yo jugo futbol

Holy Numbers Batman!

This week's zone goal was the perfect week (20 lessons 140 contacts)

for everyone. We started it off with a fast on Monday night. We got

together as a zone in seaside and had a little devotional-esc meeting.

The blessings that come from work and fasting are incredible. The zone

now has 12 investigators being baptized on February 4th. That is

incredible! Unfortunately, our investigators that were scheduled for

the 3rd will have to be pushed back. We aren't too worried about them

though. They both still have the desire to be baptized though, so it

will work out.

Another highlight of this week is that we have been teaching a

part-member family with a less-active husband and a non-member wife.

The wife is on track to be baptized on march 3rd and her husband is on

track to baptize her. They are a really cool family. He played

basketball at the junior college here in Salinas (Hartnell) and now

they both go to CSU Monterey Bay. He is going in to accounting and

actually talked about a masters at BYU. I told him I would have to

bother them if he did.

Our numbers continue to climb and we hit 20 lessons and 140 contacts

in 6 days this week. Instead of jacking our own numbers up, we went to

help the seaside English elders, who struggle to teach sometimes. We

went on splits and the 4 of us taught 7 lessons in about 3 hours. It

was good to help show them how teaching actives is effective. If

nothing else, it makes the ward love you. Yesterday we got accolades

over the pulpit and in ward council. It is safe to say that our ward

likes us.

The work is going well. More and more investigators are coming and

more work is being done. We are trying to hit 30 lessons and 6

baptismal dates before the end of the transfer. We probably won't

baptize this transfer, but there will probably be 3+ next transfer.

I'm doing well, we get fed every night. All quiet on the western front.

-Elder Richards

mmmm pears.

I tagged him I promise.

Kick.

We played with missionaries from around the zone and some members

of the Seaside Tongan Branch. Our district leader looks pro, even on

Pdays.

Staying in Salinas

So this week Elder Miller and I received word that we are both staying in Salinas. Yay! We messed with the Andrewsens by calling them and telling them we were both leaving and they were putting in sisters. Elder Miller and I had a good laugh...

This week was an excellent week. We got 21/20 lessons, 150/140 contacts, and 46/40 referral requests. The zone goal this week was asking for 40 refferals. The only bold word in preach by gospel comes in the phrase "Ask for referrals from everyone!" We really took that to heart this week. It is interesting that when you try to contact people on the street, when you talk about them they are shut down, but when you ask for a referral, they are almost instantly nicer. People don't seem to see themselves as changing, but a message about Christ for someone else is a good thing. Just interesting how that works. We received a few from investigators. They weren't much more then pleasant interactions and dropping off a Book of Mormon, but we are already seeing the blessings unfold from asking more and more people.

This week we picked up another part member family. We set a baptismal date of February 3rd with the mother and the 8 year old son. Rescue test at work. The father was a less active and the family's info was given to us by the ward council. It's great how that works.

Well, my first two transfers are over. I am off the training plan, and now only need to do 1 hour of companion study everyday instead of 2 (not that we get to do much anyway, since driving to greenfield and seaside every week and occasionally San Jose kills lots of time.) This transfer should be a good one. We will probably be able to have a few baptisms in it too.

Today we are going trail running in Mt Toro park. I'm excited. It has been warm here too. Thanks for the chex mix. It got finished today.

Hope all is well,

-Elder James Richards

Goals, Goals, Goals

The Mormon.org profiles are cool. They wanted us to set them up in the MTC, but there was no way to upload a picture on the MTC's super locked down computers. Maybe I'll revisit it later this week.

My correspondence is going well. Yesterday I laughed as I sorted the mail in my desk drawer into two piles; letters from family, and letters from girls. I enjoy all the mail I get.

Rugby was fun last week and this week. I'll send some pictures soon.

During the new year, President Watkins has been focused on setting more goals. More monthly and yearly goals. It is interesting to see the impact that it is having on the zone and the mission. For example, the Monterey zone, 11 companionship, has 11 baptismal dates for February 3rd/4th. Two of them, Tiffany and Skyler, are ours, but they are a little shaky. It is a mother and a son of a part member family, and the mother feels a little rushed. We haven't been able to teach a lesson since she brought this up, so pray that these dates hold. If those hold February will be a very, very good month for the stake and the zone. The emphasis on more baptismal goals has helped everyone here work towards getting more baptisms. One thing these goals bring is a positive attitude. The companionships that say "I can do it" and go out and work for it are the ones that succeed. Our area has picked up in the last 3 weeks since we really had the faith and the drive to go out and get those lessons, contacts, and baptismal dates. Our mission vision statement talks about how we set high goals and work hard to achieve them. We've been doing that.

Another big goal this week is for everyone in the zone to teach 20 lessons and contact 140 people this week. It will be amazing if all 11 companionships can attain that, and it is certainly within reach. It just goes back to having that faith and working really hard. When you expect miracles, miracles will happen.

In other news, both our recent converts continue to progress. They are both consistently coming to church now, and Gina, the one who has had the most problems, is moved in to a new place on the west side of town. It is important to have a good environment, and she found one. A lot of the pressures and temptations that came from the old place will be alleviated.

I really am learning to work hard here, and it is the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Thanks for all the prayers, mail, and support.

-Elder James Richards

The perfect transfer.

Our yearly goals haven't been formulated yet, but

we are shooting for 77 baptisms in the month of January. The most this mission

has ever baptized in a month is 65. We ended the year with 501

baptisms for the mission. Goals that make you stretch are always good.

Its like this week we got 21 lessons and 151 contacts with 6 member

presents. As we keep working, hitting 20 lessons in a week becomes

easier and easier. Elder Miller and I are trying to sustain this pace

for the rest of the transfer. We hope to be in the mid-20s for lessons

by the end.

This week also brought us a new investigator. A guy named John. He

came from a street contact referral, so we are really seeing the

fruits of asking for referrals from everyone. It is so easy to do, yet

so many missionaries complain about it. It is interesting how we do

that. It is like to Israelites who only needed to look at the serpent

to be healed. That story always seemed so odd to me. Why not do

something incredibly easy AND let the Lord bless you. That seems to be

what is happening with asking for referrals.

Another thing we did this week was started to work more with the Young

Men. There is one who was recently ordained a deacon and he is scared

to pass the sacrament. He isn't very social and really liked primary.

Big fish in a small pond type of thing. We taught a lesson about

charity and service in regards to the priesthood. Then yesterday, he

went to take sacrament to the shut-ins after church. This week we will

follow up and see how he is doing. It is funny how we have become Ward

Council bulldogs. If there is a problem that they talk about or need

done, and just don't have time or resources, we jump in and help. That

is the ideal of the rescue test. Strengthening the members is as

important as finding new members in this mission.

I'm going to play rugby with a bunch of Tongans now.

-Elder Richards

They are putting in sisters...

Today we are going trail running in Mt Toro park. I'm excited. It has been warm here too. Thanks for the chex mix. It got finished today.

Hope all is well,

-Elder James Richards