Records.

So this week was really good. We taught more lessons then we ever had. We had all of our investigators (who also all have baptismal dates) in Sacrament meeting. The three of them will be baptized in the first two weeks of May. Silaa was originally set for this coming Saturday, but he wanted a little more time. We aren't too worried about that because he's read about half of the Book of Mormon and went out this weekend and bought clothes for church. The previous two times he came in shorts and a Tshirt, and this time he came looking like a Priest. He also stayed for all 3 hours, so we got to introduce him to our Priests' Quorum members. There are a lot of guys that age in the ward, so it's great for fellowshipping. 

This week I was able to witness a baptism of an 18 year old boy who had been coming to church for two years. His mother never consented for him to be baptized. It got kind of hairy for a bit there, back in February, so we had to play a lot of damage control as the ZLs. It was so great to see him finally be able to make the covenants that he has been wanting all along. It was a special service, and they filled a stake center size chapel. It was hard to cram everyone in to the primary room to see it. All of his family was there, mother included. His Grandpa was actually really in to in, and attended the Elder Holland meeting a few weeks ago. We'll see if that goes somewhere. The kid who got baptized was so excited. He is sad that he has to wait a year to go to the temple and serve a mission, because that is his biggest desire right now. He'll be a great missionary. Most kids that run in to this kind of opposition fade out, so he's by far the exception, so it's really cool that he made it. 

This week was good. Elder Davis is doing great. He's learning a lot and wasn't intimidated by all the hills we had to bike up.

E'rybody have a good week.

-Elder James Richards

New Transfer.

So, Elder Baldwin left on Tuesday, down to San Jose. My new companion came in on Thursday with all the new missionaries. His name is Elder Davis, and he's from Queen Creek, AZ. There were only 2 english elders that came in this transfer. The ration of sisters to Elders coming in was 5 to 8. Apparently, it will get more crazy pretty soon. You may have heard, but there will now be sister Leadership positions. This will be great. They'll be kind of akin to Zone Leaders, but for sisters. They be able to exchange with companions and areas that are struggling. That will be great, because as a zone Leader, you worry about the sisters, but there isn't much you can do. I'm at an interesting time. I'll start to see everything settle down and then go home. 

So Silaa, the 17 year old friend of a member, is still tracking for the 20th. He really wants to be baptized, and is keeping his commitments. He still needs to be in Church this week, but we're confident that he'll be there. The only thing we worry about is the parents. He says his Dad is ok with it, but his mom is a little worried that it will affect his grades. It shouldn't be a problem, but the stake has a history of parents not giving consent for kids who are ready. There is a guy who is getting baptized this weekend who has been going to church for 2 years. He turned 18 yesterday. It's sad though, because he is easily the exception. Most kids don't make it. We have 2 in our ward that would come but their mom wouldn't let them be baptized, and they dropped off. It doesn't sound like any of that will happen with Silaa, but we're a little antsy because of all the history. When his mom says yes, it will be smooth sailing. 

This past week we went in to Thursday, when Elder Davis got here, with 3 lessons, since I was out of the area for two days. We just taught 17 before Sunday night. No biggie. It's incredible how the area and zone have changed. 

This will be a great transfer. It could be my last here, or I could go one more here. Either way, it will be successful. 

-Elder James Richards

March Madness

So, the last transfer ended yesterday, and crazy things are happening. First off, Elder Baldwin is getting transferred  Not to groundbreaking, we figured he'd be going. Second, I'm training again. Also, the Chinese Elders were just made zone leaders, so it looks like I'll be taking a break from ZLing, which will be kind of nice. I may be a district leader again, which also would be cool, but we'll see. I could be training an 18 year old.... Across the mission there have been a lot of whitewashings, random out of the norm transfers, and just general craziness. We'll know everything at the transfer meeting on Tuesday. 

Elder Baldwin and I are handing the zone over in a great place. The last two weeks the zone averaged over 20 lessons per companionship. That was our vision. It is a jump of about 40 lessons per week, spread across the 5 companionships. We saw a bunch of people baptized, and a bunch more set up. Pleasanton is a middle of the pack stake this year, instead of dead last. It's doing great, so I'm excited to hand it over and focus more on our area. If all goes according to plan, we could have 4, maybe 5 people baptized by the end of the transfer. That's BIG.

Some sad news this week, Bill dropped us. He came out and said he has too much pressures right now. He's in a large amount of debt due to a reverse mortgage on his lot. He needs to pay his property taxes or the bank could seize his lot, and he doesn't have any money. He doesn't have anyone around him competent enough to help him get out of the situation.  His son and another guy are pulling him away from us, but they aren't really helping either. He was almost in tears while we were talking to him. He still appreciates all the people he's met and friendships he's made, so members will stay plugged in. I really believe if he would have been baptized, and followed all the commandments, he would have been helped with this, but it's sad. I'll go visit him towards the end of April to see how he's doing. He still has a testimony, he just needs to put it to use.

Everyone we've been teaching is doing good. This week was spring break, so we weren't able to see Silaa, but he seems like he's still on it. The new missionary is coming in at a good time. 

I really love the emailing friends too. I was able to connect with Samson, from my last area. He was EJ's main fellowshipper, and he's on a mission in Alaska now. He's been out for about 3 months and is loving it. He just got done being trained. He said EJ still wants to go on a mission. I always joked with EJ that he would train my little brother. I hope he gets out.

Have an good week.

-Elder James Richards

Records, Apostles, and Compliments

Well this week was great. The double dose of Elder Holland was a rare treat. In the Pleasanton Stake, he talked about Acts chapter 3, and gave 3 unique insights. If you read it, this will make more sense. 

1) You can't argue with the evidence. The lame man jumping up and down can't be argued with. The lives of the members, the fulfillment of prophecies, the Book of Mormon, the good things that come from the church, are all evidences of the truth. Heap on top of that the personal witnesses and encounters from the spirit, and you have an immense amount of evidence

2) You get more then you give up. The man expected to get a coin from Peter and John. That would have been nice,  and he would have been happy if he'd got one. But he got so much more. The gospel is about initial sacrifices with intense blessings poured out upon us. 

3) You can't kill this. The Pharisees thought they had killed the work with Jesus Christ. But you can't stop it. The stone cut out of mountain without hands (Daniel 2) will roll forth and fill the whole earth, whether some people like it or not. 

Great meetings all around. 

We also had a great week with the work. We started teaching a 16 year old guy names Silaa. His parents are Thai and he's been to church twice. He's been coming with a girl in the ward. He accepted a baptismal date for April 20th! He's very prepared, and we're really excited for this. Bill continues to move in the Gospel, but struggle financially. He's got more problems than any 90 year old deserves. He still wants to be baptized, but tithing is still a big issue. We don't really know what to do for him. 

This week we got a great compliment from the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency, who we had dinner with last night. He tells it like it is, and doesn't sugar coat things, so it was kind of cool to hear. He said the zone has really improved in the last 4 months. And it has. Last week the zone taught a collective 104 lessons, almost a 21 per comp average. That is the first time that has been done. We're super excited. 

We're looking at at least 3 baptisms in our area next transfer. That will be more then I've had in any one transfer. My how this area has changed.

-Elder James Richards

Elder Holland x2 (also 6 months left)

So I go home 6 months from today. That is really scary. 

This coming week we get the double dose of Elder Holland. He will be speaking to the mission on Saturday, and then to the Pleasanton stake on Sunday. This is the second apostle that has come since I've been here. He will also come with Elder Maynes of the presidency of the seventy. This will actually be the third time I've met him.

This week a young man came to church for the second time. He is the friend of one of the young women in the ward. He has been asking her tons of questions. He came 3 weeks ago, and enjoyed it, but then he told the girl he wouldn't be coming back. He's had some friends pulling him the other way. He surprised her when he showed up to church again this past Sunday. We went over and talked to the family about it, and the YW is going to invite him to have the lessons this week. This guy is a good kid, and from what we've heard of him, repentance and the Atonement should really resonate with him. 

This last week was the baptism in the third ward. It always nice to see baptisms in the zone. Pleasanton continues to be a middle of the pack stake in the mission, which is huge, since we had the least baptisms in 2012. We have 7 this year with a few more already lined up. One of them is an 17 year old who turns 18 early next month. His mom has been quite anti, so he's been coming for the last 2 years and couldn't be baptized. He's also in the 3rd ward. We have two dates in our ward, the 9 year old twins, set for May 4th. With those 3, that will be as many as we had last year. The stake is steadily improving, and companionships are able to do more and more.

It is looking like Elder Baldwin will probably be transferred in 2 weeks. There is a chance that I could go, looking at the way my transfers are lining up before I go home, but that isn't as likely. I'll probably be partially on a bike next transfer, since we will probably be going up at least one companionship in the zone. With all the new increase there are a lot of sisters on bikes, so we are trying to spread the cars around a little more. 

This week we received some interesting news. We learned in a letter from the missionary department that we are allowed to Email friends now. That's a pretty big change. We still only have a set amount of time at the computer, so I might have to hand write responses, but it will be nice to be able to email people. 

Have an good week.

-Elder Richards

Hola.

So this last week went pretty well. Bill came to church again. We are moving towards a March 30th baptismal date, but he hasn't committed yet because he wants to let his son know first. Our Bishop gave him the Lorenzo Snow Priesthood manual, and he read the part about tithing. It was perfect for him. He's doing good.

We should be picking up 2 more 10 year olds in the coming month. One boy is the grandson of a recent convert. He's going to start coming to church with his Grandma, he wants to be baptized, and his mom has given permission for him to be baptized. We're going to start teaching him in the later part of this month. It would be great to have these two baptisms on May 4th, with the 9 year old twins that are getting baptized. It be kind of like a primary baptism day, except for kids over 8. It's funny that we're teaching a bunch of young kids and a 90 year old. Now we just need to find people in between. 

We also did 20/140 last week, and we're the first companionship in P2 to do that twice, so that's pretty cool. 

Yesterday, I was able to do a baptismal interview. It's an interesting process to interview investigators for baptism. Our interviews are pretty low key. The big problems and repentance issues are handled by the mission president, so for the most part the people that the ZLs/DLs interview are ready to go. In all the interviews I've conducted, the spirit confirmed to me over and over, this person is ready. That interview is how we know investigators are ready. If they aren't they wouldn't pass it. The majority of people do. After they are baptized and confirmed is when the real growth occurs. That is why the ward is so important. In my opinion, the ward has more sway on investigators and new members then the missionaries do. This stake is getting pretty good at working with new members. There are big goals to have home teachers before baptism, be ordained to the priesthood within a week of confirmation, hold a calling, get to the temple for baptisms and so on. All of these things help the convert build their testimony. 

We're chugging along in Pleasanton. Have a good week.

-Elder James Richards

Hiking.

stuff. Good stuff.

So, the development this week, Bill came to church! He liked it too. We took Bishop over last Sunday, and he slipped him a white shirt and tie. We took his slacks to the dry cleaner and he looked like a good 'ol High Priest on Sunday. We did get out his biggest concern, which is tithing. He's in a lot of financial stresses lately. We were able to talk about it with him. We left him in a good spot, but he told us in church that he still has some questions. He still want's to be baptized though, so we're shooting for a March 30th date. This was huge, and we were ecstatic. One of the stake's retention initiatives is to have home teachers assigned to the investigator before baptism, so now we can take that to ward council and get them assigned. This stake has been really good at that.

We set a baptismal date with the 9 year old twins we teach for May 4th. They've been coming to church consistently for about 2 months now. The date is kind of far, but that is when the Dad wanted, so that's what we're going for. I'll most likely be here for that, so that will be good.

We've kept the competition with the priests going, and this last week, they brought a friend to seminary. Elder Baldwin and I were super impressed.

There was also a guy in church who is a friend of a young woman in the ward. He went last Saturday, because he though our church was on Saturday. One of the members was there cleaning the building and saw him and talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon. This week he was able to make it out to church and we talked to him for a bit. He's about 17ish.

Well, this week was great. Probably one of the most productive I've had here in Pleasanton. Hopefully the coming week can be as well. 

-Elder James Richards