Talofa.

So this week, Pleasanton broke their baptismal record for 1 year. and they did it in about 8 months. Pretty cool.

We had a pretty good week this past week. We talked to Bernie on the phone and she was out and about, so she's recovering from her surgery well, and we should be able to meet with her this week. We've got another lesson set up with a referral from a member. She's already been to church and her daughter went to young womens and absolutely loved it. We've got a lot of work going and the ward is catching up to us. They're really helping us find more people to teach, which is great. We've got an appointment set up with another part member family this week. 

We have this one investigator that has been very diligent about reading the Book of Mormon. We knock on the door and he goes and grabs his Book of Mormon and talks to us about how he liked 2 Nephi 4. He kept saying Nephi was the man. It's pretty cool to see him starting to grasp it. 

This week was good. We did more missionary work, I fixed more bikes for President, and life goes on. I can say that I've worked on at least 30 of the bikes that are floating around the mission, either putting them together or fixing them. President isn't going to know what to do when I leave.

Have a good week.

-Elder Richards

back to that again...

Well, back to ZL grind. I was enjoying getting to sleep on time on Sunday evenings, but that doesn't happen any more. This is a big zone. Lots of numbers.

This last week was good. We had a member invite his friend to church, and she is really great. She and her daughter were there and she is really looking. We're meeting with them this week. One of our investigators has been out after having back surgery, but she has been in really good contact with us, and we'll text scriptures and such every so often. 

Our mission here has been going up and up every week. We're up over 100 baptismal dates now. I don't know if we've ever been over 100 in the time that I've been here. The work really is hastening. 

So, sorry my emails are getting more and more lame. But you all know me. so... yea. Life is good. Life is busy. Busy is good. We're praying hard to get a few people in the water before the end of the transfer. That is all.

-Elder James Richards

What a week.

So this week was transfers and a lot of craziness went down. President Watkins couldn't leave me well enough alone, and so I'm a zone leader again this transfer. For my last transfer... It's also super weird because I'm still with Elder Son, and the other zone leader (who is Elder Baldwin by the way) is in a different ward in the stake. This last week was dedicated to figuring out how this split-ZL thing works. We've got things more normal now, but we were scrambling for a bit there. This zone is one of the biggest with 25 missionaries in it. We aren't super big geographically, but we live in the weird armpit of the zone that they made so they could split up downtown into a few different wards. It will be a different transfer this transfer. Other crazy things are happening, like sisters covering wards from multiple stakes, areas splitting, and some general madness. 

This week we set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. His name is Adrian and he's wanting to turn his life around, and already has for a few months. He did some short time in prison and was on all manner of substances. He's been out for a while and been clean for a few months. He said he needs some more. That's where the Gospel comes in. He seems very sincere and we're meeting with him again this week. He was one of our miracles this week. The date is for September 14th, so we're praying and working hard to help him make that date.

We were also able to go up to Bill's baptism this last Saturday. He was very excited to see Elder Baldwin and me. I was able to be a witness and as soon as Bill came out of the water, he was very emotional. The first thing he said was "Thank you Jesus. It's been a long time." He was able to be baptized and not have it create a rift between him and his son, who is basically the only family he has left. A member family was instrumental in making this happen. When he was getting close while I was there, we asked the ward council to assign Home Teachers. One of the members in there volunteered and fulfilled his role faithfully. Bill became the family's adopted Grandpa. They were in good contact even after he dropped Elder Baldwin and I. They gave him books to read and talked to him about the church. Bill knew it was true about 5 days into us teaching him, he just had so much opposition coming from all sides. He was able to overcome it though, really with the help of those members. It was awesome to see. In the Pleasanton Stake Mission Plan, one of the initiatives was to have investigators home taught before baptism. It was a combination of a lot of things that brought Bill here, but without those members, he wouldn't have been baptized. He only had to be dunked once, which was something I had been praying for for weeks. 

This was a really inspiring week for us. Despite all the things we had to do out of our area, we were still able to reach our weekly goals, and find Adrian and set that date with him. Now we have even more potentials and will be good for finding this week too. This area is starting to move even more then it was. It's exciting.

-Elder James Richards

The missionaries that taught Bill, Bill, his son, The members, and Elder Son (he snuck in).

Pretty cool, all my posterity was at transfer meeting. My sons and grandsons. Elder Son is on my right.

It begins.

So, today we start the 6 week push. We're going as hard as we can for 6 weeks. It's going to be madness. The mission is going crazy right now. We have more baptisms set up for Friday and Saturday then we've had in a long time. One of those is Bill Wentworth in the good old Pleasanton 2nd ward. We got a ride, so Elder Baldwin and I are going back up for it on Saturday. We're both super excited for it. In our area we've got a lot of potentials with youth. Some kids just had some great experiences at Zion's camp and girls camp and so we're hoping to start teaching them. We've got a lot of people that we're teaching and some are very close. They just need to commit to a date.  We're praying for miracles this transfer and expecting them. Our goals are high, but are very reachable. 

I don't really know what else to say. All out for the last six weeks. I can sleep when I get on the plane :)

-Elder Richards

Runnin', Runnin',

So this transfer will be awesome. The goal for our zone is 36 baptisms. That will be big. We're adapting some things from other zones and setting our own goals. I think it's really attainable and it will be exciting for my last transfer. We're going to go at a ridiculous pace.

I got some exciting news from my last area. Bill (the 90 year old investigator that I taught) is getting baptized! I was super excited to hear that. One of my old companions, Elder Bingham, is up there and they're doing crazy things. It's so great to see all of the success all around the mission. The work is hastening. 

This past week we had an unexpected investigator show up in church. We hadn't even taught him that week and we went by to invite him to church. He wasn't home so we left a note. Then, I look back in sacrament meeting and he was there! I was thrilled. His name is Mario and he's the roommate of a fairly recent convert. He's from Mexico.

This week we're working hard to find new people to teach. In conjunction with our baptism goal, we're working for 4 new investigators every week. That's a lot, but it's doable in our area. This week is the last week of the current transfer, so it's setup week so that we can hit the ground running in the start of August.

-Elder James Richard

You did what?

So this week was great. We reached a lot of our goals. We taught a lot of investigator lessons and had some in church. There's a great energy in the mission right now. We have been improving, but we feel like we can do more. There is a stake right now that is shooting for 42 baptisms for the month. In FTL that sounds low, but 42 will be half of what that stake got last year. There are two zones in that stake, and one zone is doing it. They got about a third of the new investigators that the whole mission got in just their zone. My goal is to take some of their practices and adapt them to our district and our area. We're going to post up some big things before I go home. 

This week another person walked in to church. She was being taught up in Menlo Park, and recently moved here. We're meeting with her this week.

Sorry for the really short letter. This week was one of the most productive I've had in a long time and this coming week will be even better. The Lord is blessing us big time in our work. The work really is hastening. 

-Elder James Richards

veinte y uno

So I officially feel like an old fart.  I'm older than 40% of the sisters in my zone and almost all the Elders. Way older then everyone in the apartment. It's weird, I've never felt like the old one in my life. 

This week was great. We continued the finding blitz with 2 more new investigators. One of them walked into church on Sunday after church was over. We were actually on our way home and our WML called us. We went back and were able to talk to her about some different concepts. We're teaching her on Thursday. 

We have a ton of lessons already set up this week, which is a huge answer to prayers. We have lots of investigators, but some have been hard to get a hold of. We have appointments set up with most of them already. This should be a big week for us, assuming everyone doesn't decide to cancel on us. We've got so many people to teach it's incredible. If we could just teach all of them in the same week, we'd be on fire. We're also getting more investigators to church. Our goal this week is 5, which may be more then I've ever gotten in a single week. 

This week we also got a less active young man to church. Since our ward is so young, we have 2 active young men, and both are out of town. We went over and talked about how the priesthood needed this boy, and he came. It was pretty cool. 

We're are making great progress, and it is great to see Elder Son growing. He was like me when he was first out; shell shocked at the fact that he'd be here for 2 years. Now he's growing a lot and becoming more confident in his abilities. It's good to see and he's a great missionary. 

Thank you for all the birthday wishes,

-Elder Richards