December 15, 2014

HOLA!  Hey!! How is everything going?? Everything here is going great.  It is starting to get a little colder but it is not too bad. It has rained a few times in the last couple weeks and it has snowed once on Saturday, but only for a few minutes.  On Sunday we woke up to a little bit on our grass but it was gone by the time we left for church. I am pretty sure this is not going to be a white Christmas here at all. Mainly because it doesn't get cold enough and it doesn't rain or snow here much either! On Saturday it was raining really hard and we were walking around in one of the trailer parks. By the time we got back we were soaked. I hope everything is going great! And I hope that your week is great and remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas and make it the most important part of this Christmas season as well as your life!! 
Love ya

-Elder Easton Richards

To answer your questions, yes we are hoping on skyping Christmas morning, but I am not for sure what time we are going to be calling though, sorry. I am going to send my Christmas package for you guys in the next couple of days so just be looking for it around Friday or Saturday. Everything is going great here, The Spanish is coming better and I am being more able to understand and talk. We decided for me to start the lessons so it doesn't get too off subject and I get completely lost. The investigators that we have are doing really good. We have 2 really great investigators and are super excited to see how they are going to do! I am sending a letter with a lot of detail in the package like you asked for!!

December 9, 2014

Hey! To answer you question, my toes are doing better. The infection is going down, and yes i got the packages thank you so much. About that families that you are helping for Christmas, the first family has a girl who is 16 (so i am not for sure what you could do for her) They have an 8 year old boy as well as a 5 and 6 year old girls. The other family has a boy who is 7 and a girl who is 1 1/2- 2 years old.  The other family, she is an only parent and she has 2 boys that are 5 and 6 and 2 girls that are 5 and 14. So really anything is helpful. Tell them thank you so much! 

 Yes I did get grandma's card! I will email her today and tell her thanks.

This week went pretty good.  We doubled our lessons from last week and the HE IS THE GIFT cards we have been handing them out like candy. They are being very helpful and this is like the best time to get in with families because they are always home and it is the perfect time to talk about Christ. We also have 3 new investigators so that was very good! It is also starting to get a little colder now but it is still not too bad.  I am still good without a sweater until the sun goes down then it just gets super cold. 

I was able to watch the videos of Holden and can tell he is looking really good this year! 

Love ya 

- Elder Richards 

December 1, 2014

Not a lot of information to post today, but I did get pictures :).

Hey thank you for the pictures they were really nice!! My toes are doing good right now they are a little sore but healing pretty good. I am pretty sure the worst part was the numbing shot they gave me. The pain from it was so bad!!!! I have a picture so i will send it to you. 

To answer your question about the families that I am teaching, there are three families.  The first one is the Familia Tarango. They have 4 kids, 3 girls and 1 boy, The girls are 15,7, and 5. The boy is 8. The other family has a boy that is 7 and a girl that is 2.   They could all use a little help for Christmas.

I am in the same area and with the same companions as well so everything is the same. I have no idea what to get Barbara for Christmas. Sorry.  

The week was super slow.  There was like no one home. Everyone was either out shopping or asleep from just getting home from work. That is why it is so hard to get in with anyone here because everyone is always busy with work or family so it is difficult.  But everything is going good this week and I will send some more pics too.

Spanish District

A less active family, The Tanrangos, gave them the tree. And we are sleeping in the front room because our bedroom gets way too hot at night.

Other District (?)

Poor Toes :(

November 24, 2014

So to answer the questions, yes I did get Grandma's package sorry, and Becky's as well. Tell them both thank you.  I  haven't checked for yours today yet, but i will. Kinley's bracelet stand for Choose The Right.  About Thanksgiving, we are eating at the Palfreymans and then the Esmiols, so we willl eat twice that day. I haven't really gained any weight yet and I am hoping that i won't!! If it's not a problem, I would like a thinner blanket, that would be really nice! And to answer your question, a  thinner pair of gloves because it doesn't get that cold. I also couldn't see the videos of Holden so if you could do it again that would be great!

About Christmas, the only thing I can think of is an external speaker so I can play USB drives.  If anyone else asks, tell them money because by the end of the month you don't have any for like food so you have to just try and make something haha but that would be great! Also today i spent $45 because a member family need help buying a prescription for her husband that just got out of the hospital. So i was just letting you know about that!

Here's some pics of the house I am living in.  And yes I have cleaned it up a bit.

We've been working with a less active member Brother Turango.  That's been going really good.  Last Saturday we had five meals and went to a sweet 16 birthday part.  It was a lot of fun.  Then on Sunday I gave a talk in Spanish on missionary work.  It went really good.  On Monday we went to see Lupe, she is our new investigator.  She told us about a couple of good things that had happened to her after we stopped by the Sunday before and had tested her faith in God.  But we were glad that she related it to us.  After her kids wanted us to play football with them so we were just playing catch then some more of the neighbor kids came also. It was fun to just let go for 15 minutes.We then saw David, one of our investigators grandson come home so we went to go and teach him but his friend Jesus was there too.  David invited him to come and listed too.  After we were done he asked me to say the prayer.  Then he said that he would say one, then Jesus said one, then our investigator Mary said she didn't want to be left out so we had a five prayer lesson.  It went really good.

Later on we did service for the Myers family.  We put up a patio overhang.  That took about 3-4 hours and the last hour we were fighting the rain. Then we heard this noise coming down the road and it was getting closer.  So we started to run inside and the hail was coming down pretty hard.  

On Saturday morning we went for breakfast at the Palfreyman's and it was pretty good.  After I went with Elder Rubio and Elder Cook.  They were on exchanges for the day and since Elder Cook doesn't know any Spanish, Elder Rubio asked me to come along with them.  I didn't know that he was going to make me teach 4 lessons while I was with them but it went better than I thought.  The last one we taught was a Jehovah's witness and she basically was teaching Elder Rubio so that was a little funny.  But we got fed every night so that is good.  I hope everything is going well in Fielding and with wrestling, dance and work.  Keep me updated.  Love you guys and hope you have the best week.

(Group email)

Hey!! Everything is going great here, it was just a little slower than usual because no one was answering their doors so that kind of sucked!! On the bright side I have given two blessings this week so that was really cool!( both were in English though but still good!) We had a Branch party on Saturday and ate a lot of food and played kickball with the little kids until it got pretty dark! It has started to get a little colder now but it still is not terrible. It kind of snowed yesterday morning but before it hit the ground it was already melted! The transfer is almost over already!!! It is crazy that I have almost been out 3 months now!! I don't know where that time has gone it is crazy to think that! I will keep you updated on anything else that is going to happen this week so we will see!! Any ways love you guys and I hope that all is going well and have the best week!!

-Elder Easton Richards

November 10, 2014

My companions are Elder Castro and Elder Gonzalez.  Elder Castro is from Albuquerque and Elder Gonzalez is from Texas! They both have been out about a year! Yes i can have music and just about anything.  I have bought a few cds but not much and just really any music.  It would be nice to not get as much junk food because everyone here in Farmington (Spanish elders) gain a lot of weight so that would be nice haha!   


Everything this last week went super good!! I had my first baptism and it was the coolest thing!! So this week we taught this lady her name is Lupe and she has never talked to missionaries before so she let us in her house and we were talking about the love of God and Christ. Her testimony of it was indescribable. It was really cool! She basically opened up to us and just let it all out and she said how grateful she was to meet us and we rescheduled for today so it should go really good! We ran into her on Saturday and she told us after we had left something really good happened but she wanted to tell us tonight so we are excited! It is starting to get a little colder here but it is still in the 60's so that is way nice! The color on the trees is basically gone so that kind of sucks now but all in all it is just fantastic here! I gave my first talk in Spanish in our sacrament meeting! It was a little nerve racking but it wasn't too bad because there are not too many people in our branch (around 50 maybe) but there were less yesterday because one of the girls had her sweet 16 party and everyone in the branch was basically at it so the people that were there were a little tired ha but the branch is awesome and I love everyone in it! We had one of our investigators come to church for her second time in a row and she absolutely loves it! We also had a couple of less active families show up too so we had a pretty successful week! I love all you guys so much and hope you have the best week!

November 3, 2014

Just a short email today.  Elder Richards said that he's sending a letter to answer all of the questions that I had :).

Hey don't worry.  I'll be sending you a letter this week.  I was so busy last week it was just really hard to send more than one letter, but I will get one to you this week.  I don't have any pics really yet but next week I will send some. 

I am living in a home with one other companionship so it is pretty fun!

About the weather, it is cold in the mornings but by 11:00 ish it is usually around 70 degrees so that is really nice.  It rained yesterday for a while but that is all that has happened weather wise! For Halloween we played Risk because we had to be in by 6:00 p.m.

Thank you for the money.  I will get my backpack today.

I was tagged in this cute picture from a lady in Farmington saying that the Elders did a service project for them after they were fed breakfast on Saturday.  She said they love Elder Richards and call him the "token white boy" with all the Hispanic Elders.

October 30, 2014

Received this great picture in the mail last night along with a letter from President Batt that says Elder Richards has a great testimony.  He also said that after he had an interview with him, he left the mission home with a big smile on his face and was excited to get to work.  Oh I love this kid.

October 27, 2014

My companions are great! They are so funny and we have a lot of fun! The area is huge.  We mostly are in trailer parks on the east side of the mission. Farmington has the most trailer parks in the nation.  They are everywhere. I can't believe how big they are! I really like the area already.  The people that we are teaching and meeting with are just so nice and friendly! We are liked a lot as the Spanish elders because they are fun and all of the English elders are more focused on the number where the Spanish are focused on the people more because we are in the same spot for about a 1/3 of our mission. So I am really glad that we are more focused on the people and everyone was super nice that we taught.  There are only 3 Spanish areas so that is why and also 7 Spanish elders as well. The only time I really speak Spanish is in the house and lessons so not too much but we are trying to speak more! We get fed the most from people of different wards and the Spanish branch so it is pretty good. This whole week I haven't had to cook dinner once so that is super nice. Do you think that you can send my football cleats and gloves because we play football on p-days? 

So my first day we were walking through this trailer park when this guy asked us if we were from the church so we said yes and asked if he was interested and he said no but don't take this offensive and flips us off.  We just say thanks and walk away but it was pretty funny!

October 21, 2014

Just a short little email I received from Easton this morning.  He's made it to Farmington and all is good.  When I got to talk to him yesterday he said that he had had strept throat over the weekend and was pretty sick but he was feeling a lot better yesterday.  He still sounds so positive and happy.  Love that kid!

Hey I am here and I am in the Farmington West Branch so my mailing address is the mission home one.  My companions are pretty cool so that is going to be great and I start working after I get done with this email so I can't wait it is going to be fun! My p-days are on Mondays and there are only three Spanish speaking missions here. Two in Farmington and one in Bloomdale so that is alright.  Maybe I will be able to go to the reservations. Love ya and everything is going to be great!

October 16, 2014

Thank you for the letter and conference talks. I loved it. Everything is still going great and I can't wait to get out to the mission field. I am ready to be out of here but I know that I am going to miss it. I leave at 3 in the morning on monday so we will see how that goes. I am the only one from here going to Farmington so that is cool. I also almost broke my wrist playing soccer Monday, but don't worry it was only a sprain so that was good and it is only a little sore and the doctor said no sports for two weeks so we will see how that is going to go. 

I hope to get to talk to you on Monday but not sure.

Me and Elder Torgersen have matching yellow and green cabraisamo de mar(that translate to little horse of the sea)  ties! 

October 9, 2014

Everything is going great here! I am finally getting Spanish and I can give a discussion without reading anything so that is really nice! I am almost ready to go and get out of here but I still have a lot to learn! I have about a week and a half left in here so that is really nice and on Wednesday it was our one month mark so only 23 to go!

Thank you for the package.  That was much needed and it was really nice too:) I loved it and I loved how conference talked a lot about helping the poor and needy because in my patriarchal blessing it says to help them out a couple of times so I really enjoyed it! And yes the broadcast was in Spanish! I understood everything.  It was like it was in English. The gift of tongues really helps out here;) The time is flying by and I can't even imagine what it will be like out in the field .

We went to the temple today so I will send pictures and thank you so much for looking for sweaters and ties for me.  We didn't do a session because it's under construction because of the foundation. But it was nice to get out of the CCM.  If you get a chance I would love Elder Holland and Elder Ballard's talks sent to me.

To answer your question, yes things with the discussion are getting so much easier and I have noticed that when it is personal study time to study the scriptures and not the language, and only the language during the language study time it has helped me improve so much.  Being Exactly obedient is very necessary here.  And lots and lots of praying too! Thank you so much again! I love you and tell everyone the same.

-Elder Easton Richards

October 2, 2014

Things just keeps on getting better and better every week! I only have less than 3 weeks left and it is crazy how fast time flies here! The days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days! The language is doing better.  I am slowly getting better but I still have a long ways to go! My stomach has just now this past week been pretty bad. I have had a couple of close calls but it was all good ha! The food is getting better or I am just getting my used to it now so that is good!

Thank you so much for the letter.  It is always really nice to get that kind of stuff here and thank you for the talk it was really good! To answer your question, yes we are watching conference.  We are just having everything be worked around it so I am really excited for that and we have a big auditorium that everyone can fit in!

About the package, thank you that is going to be really nice to have! I don't have any big preferences but some gold fish would be nice if you could ha!

Things with my companion are going good.  He would rather play piano so he goes and plays piano with another elder and I go with Elder Torgersen and we get a long so well it is crazy. We have quite a bit in common. He is from Provo.  He wrestled, played football and was in student government, so we are pretty close!  And to answer Kinley's question my bed was the farthest one away and the top bunk in the picture!  Thank you so much for everything.  Love ya!
Eder Richards

September 25, 2014

Hey, I got the package and that was awesome! It is really nice to get the letters and the packages through out the week. I got the package from Tandy and that was really cool. Everything is going great and my Spanish is improving a lot. I am starting to make sense now but I still have a long way to go. When you asked if there was anything I would like, anything drinks and food ha but it is all good! Yes I would love to get pictures through out the week! Getting letters and packages is better than Christmas for everyone here! By the way the chips and salsa was gone within a night.  Our casa kind of just shares food!

I have not left the MTC yet but maybe in the next couple of weeks so we can go to the visitors center but that is it.  My companion is going to Tennessee when he leaves the MTC.   It is all going good.  We taught our first actual investigator and that went really well so it is going good!

The investigators are just volunteers and either missionaries have started teaching them and we are teaching them too!

 

Tell Holden happy birthday and tell him I have something for him from here but he will have to wait before I can mail it to him! When Kinley gets her dance down send me a video that would be nice and even just some pics of anything too!

 

I have to go! Love ya and let everyone else know I said hi!

September 18, 2014

The MTC is so beautiful I love it! It is like a little paradise in Mexico City. On Monday it was the Mexican Independence day so that was really cool to see.  We sang the national anthem and there were dancers and it was just really cool. And I love it!

I think there are around 700 missionaries and there are about 90 acres that we are spread across! The house isn't as bad as I thought.   There are two bunk beds and it is only me and my companion that are in there so we each get our own and so it makes showering and the bathroom all together really easy. There are 10 missionaries including me and my companion in our house and 8 of them are in our district and the other two are in a different one. In our district we all rode the plane over here together except my companion, and everyone is going to Lima, Peru Central Mission but me and my companion  to so it is kind of funny haha.  My companion is pretty good.  He doesn't do any sports or hunt, he can play the piano very, very well and he knows the gospel too. His name is Elder Patterson and he is from Arizona. The food is different but good.   I know not to eat the beans any more unless you drink like four bottles of water right after ha but I have sworn off beans though because it is not fun!!

Everything is going awesome here.  I have had a couple of rough days on Friday and Ssaturday because I was getting so frustrated I couldnt even stand it and I was just so exhausted and beat from it but now I am doing good and the Spanish is coming along slowly but I am starting to speak a little bit.  I taught my first investigator and my companeró told me that I had a french accent while speaking Spanish  hahaha!! so I am trying to get ride of it but it is hard!  Love ya lots and tell the family that I love them!

​-Elder Richards

 

 

Hey! I am here and the plane was a long ride.  I have met some pretty cool elders so far. I have yet to see my companion, but I am going to meet up with him soon. My p-day is on Thursdays here. I have yet to see Branson, but I should be able to soon. I can already tell I am going to love it and I am super excited. I also got a house instead of an apartment. Tell everyone I love them.

-Elder Richards