November 23, 2015

HEY!! First that would be pretty cool if they did stop by! (The Wise Family while they are doing service on the Rez during Thanksgiving).  Saturday would be best because we are super busy on Thursday with service and also dinners and stuff like that! But again that would be cool to say hi to them! Yes i got an ax and thank you for that and also I was wondering with the money left over if you wanted me to use it on stuff for Christmas for you guys? There is a Flea market ( it is the best in the Rez) and wondering if you wanted anything from that or for Holden and Kinley?? 

Everything here is doing great. We have a couple of investigators that are doing great Their names are Alresha and Myrna. We found them while teaching Tyra and Myra( Tyra's mom). Myrna is Myra's sister and so Myra and Tyra invited Alresha over one night because she was going through a hard time and so we gave her a blessing and it was awesome and now we are teaching them! So we are hoping that if one of the families will accept a Baptismal date then the other one accept as well! The Rez is still good it is a lot of fun. The P-day's here are a lot better because we are able to go on hikes and do a lot of other stuff! Saturday night we had a fire with the other Elders in Kayenta, that was a lot of fun!! We had smores and roasted hot dogs too! The really good thing about the Rez is the Navajo nation really doesn't have a whole lot of laws around here. The only law that is strict around here is the no selling of alcohol on the Rez. The comp and I are doing great and getting a lot of work done here which is great!

What weight is Holden wrestling?? Who is he wrestling this week for Red/white?

The experience you asked for your lesson would be:

Victor Dominguez, He has been baptized for a year now, He was the one that was baptized when I came into the mission field. He had been taught for about 30 or so years on and off. His dad had been a member for along time in Mexico but he didn't want anything to do with it really. When he moved to America he was living with his brother and the missionaries came over and started teaching his brother but he wasn't progressing. Then the missionaries stopped for a while.  Elder Sanchez and Castro started teaching his brother and then Victor started listening in more and more and after a while his brother stopped listening, yet Victor was more and more interested in the gospel. After about 18 weeks he was finally baptized. Now he is a boss in the branch and is a ward missionary and also teaches in priesthood as well! It just shows that it may take time to finally get some one into the gospel so don't give up and keep trying and trying by being bold BUT with love, if you are over bearing then it is just annoying! Also Victor is going to the temple some time soon!

The greatest missionary tool is the members!! The missionaries can not do it alone.

Our trip to Page

The night of the fire.

    

November 16, 2015

HEY! Everything is going good here!! We had an awesome week.  We met almost all of our goals so that was an awesome feeling. We picked up 4 new investigators and that was awesome! Their kids are super into wrestling and we may or may not help out a little with that and also go to their meets as well! They are an awesome family again! 

Last Monday we went on a hike. We were looking for these caves that were "suppose" to be on one of these monuments in Monument Valley. (By the way Monument Valley is awesome. I have a few pics). The way that the four of us took was pretty sketchy. We almost fell a few times and the scariest part was coming down the monument, because we had to go down the same way we came up! Elder Udy got to a certain point and slid down the mountain on his butt. It was a little funny, and just before that Elder Searle fell down as well on his butt.The worst thing about this whole trip was we didn't find one cave at all haha so that was a bummer!! 

Thursday we went to Tuba City for zone training that was good. Our zone is awesome! We don't have any sisters thank goodness, That is not meant in a bad way haha 

Friday we had interviews with President Adams and Sister Adams that was really good. He told me that I would finish my mission in Spanish so I am glad for that! Earlier that day we went to help Chris Keith( a legit member) haul coal for his friend. That was a lot of fun it took 4 hours but it was worth it. Here in the Rez people either have wood burning stoves, pellets, or coal that they burn. It is a pretty simple life style but the thing is they choose to live like that. 

Also this past week we had a Shima( an old Navajo grandma) out with fixing her windows. We had to put all new siding around it with plastic covering it to get it winter ready and after we caulked it all up to keep it water tight.

We live in a duplex with the other 2 Elders here sorry i forgot to take pictures of it but I have others from last Monday and such! It is pretty good, a little dirty, but good! We are working on cleaning it! 

No I don't need a GPS anymore since it won't do any good out here so don't worry about it haha. I don't need any more clothes, but ties are always nice and that is really it, oh also hair gel. I can make it until Christmas for sure though. I just thought of this but those jackets that dad has that he gets from work for free, Something like that would be nice because of how it rains here and snows so something light like that would be ideal. 

About the package it is my temple clothes, I wont be able to go the year following because I go home before it happens.

We have a few members that have offered to feed us on thanksgiving so we are good there and here are a few pictures

The first one is of the Utah border sign in monument valley 

This is the mountain we hiked, that part were it is notched out, on the right side of it at the top is where we were

These next few pics are from the top

Oh ya also,dogs are a real big problem here so if there is any way you could sent some dog repellent stuff that would be awesome because these dogs just don't really care who you are they will still attack 

This is the Crew that went hiking with us, it was our whole district

Also today we are going on another hike to see some old Anazi ruins, they 

say that the Anazis are the Gadianton Robbers because Anazi means old ones

November 9, 2015

HEY!

So the Rez for the first week was good.  It is a lot different than Farmington that is for sure! Ya there isn't much out here so ya we mainly focus on 3 areas here and that is the NHA( Navajo Housing Authority), this trailer court and High school housing. We have 4 investigators that are super promising. Myra,Tyra and Anisha and Eric! Myra Trya and Anisha are awesome and the lesson we taught this week was awesome. We are hoping that they are going to get baptized! We told them to pray and come up with a date and we will see this week what it is! Eric is sweet, he has cut back from 10 dips of chew to 3-4 a day now so that is really cool! He also know that he needs to get baptized as well! 

Elder Udy is from Tennessee.  He is awesome and we are getting along great! Yes he is a hard worker and he has been out for 3 months or so! 

The ward is good.  There is a lot of less active work to do here so that is our main focus and if we get investigators that is just a bonus! haha.  I am not so sure of how big our area is because we just stay in the Township of Kayenta. 

We email from a members home who has like 10-12 computer so a small library haha but they are awesome members! 

We are able to go to Page, AZ once a month and buy what we need there.  Also I have a doctors appointment next week some time and I was wondering if you could put some money on my home card so I can pay the co-pay on the appointment and medication? 

Here a few pictures

2nd day it snowed and the roads get pretty bad here, as you can tell by the truck

here is Kayenta from our place

This is snake rock

And from his group email.

It is pretty barren here. There isn't a whole lot mainly just Navajos and Navajos haha and there are a few white people that are sprinkled in! It is not as bad as I thought it was going to be, I do miss the Spanish people and the Spanish speaking but it will be good! 

We went to a playoff game on Saturday for Kayenta and they lost but it was a lot of fun going to it though! 

So funny story of the week, we were talking to Jeremiah, a potential, and his brother on Thursday night and this place is a pretty safe place but we were talking and then a white yukon pulled up and the brother got a little serious and said he had to take care of some business and that he would be right back. So he left and came out with his girlfriend and they went to their car grabbed some stuff and went into the car all while we were talking to Jeremiah and then his brother got out of the yukon and put quite a bit of something into his pocket and came back like nothing happened and told us not to say anything and then he just started laughing but we were a little freaked out since we were part of a drug deal there haha but those guys were pretty cool! Love you guys and have an awesome week!!

Elder Richards

Here are a few pictures from this week!   

Some of the roads

This is Kayenta, AZ

Thank you and also we do a lot of wood chopping here in the near future and was wondering if i can have some money for an ax??

Easton's new address

Elder Easton Richards

PO BOX 151

Kayenta, AZ

80633

November 3, 2015

Facebook message from Barbara Palfreyman:

Hope you aren't tired of me posting and taking up space on your Facebook page. I thought you should hear another Elder Easton Richards story. We have a special lady in our ward who has some needs. She is 78 years old and is raising two of her "great-granddaughters," ages 6 and 9 because their mother has addiction problems. We (Terry and some Elders) have spent a few weekends painting and fixing up. 
Tomorrow they are planing on fixing a crumbled front step and porch. Elder Craghead the ZL, not in our ward either, has done concrete work before so volunteered his talents. When I asked him if they would need more than just the three men to do the work, he said, "yes." I asked, who he would want to help, and piped right up and said "Elder Richards, he will be the biggest help and the most capable." Love that kid!‪#‎greatjobmomanddad‬ 

asds s

November 3, 2015

Some goodbye pics that Barbara posted from their "Last Supper" last night.

Many tears were shed last night.

November 2, 2015

Hey so this past couple of days has been kind of sad.  This is just as hard as leaving home so ya haha. Here are a few pictures of families that i had to say bye too! 

This is Daniel Tarango he is a member, super nice kid.

This is the Myers Family. They are AWESOME!!

The Eyring family.  He is the Branch President and she is the Primary President.

One of my favorite families for sure.

These are the Adamsons and they are investigators. They are my favorite non-member family for sure haha. I love them a lot it was pretty hard saying bye to them!

But ya it is going to suck not being able to speak Spanish, but there is a reason why I am needed in Kayenta. My companions name is Elder Udy, I think he is from Idaho, if I remember right. All i know is that it is pretty small and the closest Walmart is 2 hours away because Walmarts are not allowed on the Rez but it will be good! There are a few fast food places and that is really about it out there. But it is going to be a ward I am serving in.  (He's only been in branches up to this point).  I'm saying goodbye to a couple of other families tonight.  I'll get you my address when I get there.