September 28, 2015

No email today.  Elder Richards went with his mission to the Monticello Temple.  Here are a couple of pics. Can you find Elder Richards?

September 21, 2015

So to answer your question, in the service pic, that was Elder Craighead he is one of the Zone Leaders here!

Everything is going better with Elder Hozeman, so that is good, I confronted him with a couple of things and so now we are on the same terms, Victoria (one of our investigators) is doing great still and she is still progressing, She didn't come to church because she was really sick so that kind of sucks, but she is awesome!! Not much has happened besides the fact of us doing some service and we went on a couple of exchanges and also I am staying here in Farmington for transfers, so that is good!

I forgot to take  a picture with my glasses, but I will do that and get it to ya next week!

 Elder Hozeman from Columbia.  My current companion.

September 14, 2015

Hola mi familia!!

Things here are going great.  We just had stake conference this past Sunday and that was great! They talked about keeping the sabbath day holy and how we should do better at it. It is always funny to see the people that go up there and just try and boast about how good they are in keeping it holy. There was this one lady who told about how she does so much to keep it holy and then one of the members in the stake council got up after and basically said some things that were the opposite of what she was saying so it was pretty funny haha! Victoria is doing great. We went over the ten commandments and she said she will live them all and the only one that she is really struggling with is using the Lords name in vain. She is already trying to quit smoking and drinking coffee. She is Really GOLDEN!!!

So question for ya.I was just looking at the pictures and saw the one with Kinley and Kadie. How is Kadie doing?? She said that she was pretty sick for the summer and now she is doing better! but ya just wondering!

Thank you for the Hump day package. Time really does fly by really fast out here! it is kind of scary to think that i am going to go home in a year and it really is going by way too fast!! Thank you for the book and I was pretty surprised by that last picture in there hahaha 

That is really cool about you guys reading the Book of Mormon. I am planning on reading it at least 2 more times before I get home! I have started it right now and I am going through a BOM (the ones we hand out) and just underlining everything that has to do with the atonement and how it applies to me! it is crazy how much I am finding in there and I am only in 2 Nephi 7, so that is going really good!

So with teaching the law of Chastity the easiest way that we teach it is to be BOLD with it and mainly focus on the blessing because that is the most important part! Just a tip that you can use if you want!

To answer your question, you guys write me enough so don't worry about it! The packages are great and maybe just send me some printed out pictures instead of email because those are better to have on person than only being able to look at them on the email once a week! So like the ones you sent today would be good printed out and some of Holden playing golf and Kinley as well playing tennis too! Also would it be ok for you to send one of those amazon food packages? Those were really nice to get. Like canned chicken, juices and other things that are good for meals and not a whole lot of snacking items.

So I got a Wok last Monday for $5 at Walmart, so i have been making fried rice and teriyaki chicken. So if you have any other recipes that would be great too thanks!:)

Love ya!

Elder Richards

Here are a few pictures of burning my shirt and tie for my year and 6 month mark.

September 7, 2015

HEY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!

Things are going good here.  The work is really starting to progress and slowly starting to cool down for us finally. But it is still pretty hot! Everything with Elder Hozman is going ok.  There are a few things, but I am just trying to ignore them and be fine! haha  Everything with our investigators are going well and we are staying busy. Our one investigator on date is progressing and we have a lesson with her tonight so that should go great!!

Tell Hayden congrats on his mission call.

I gotta go. Love ya and have a great week.

This was an email I received last night:

Doing well. Thanks for the pacķages
I am sister McGee in the Farmington NM Mission office. I am new to the office and met your Elders today. They  are doing very well and are in good spirits. We love having them visit the office. They certainly bring a special spirit into our day. Thanks for sharing them with us
I hope these photos will open correctly. Enjoy!

August 31, 2015

HEY! I am doing great here! Can't complain too much haha! So this past week we put an investigator on date for October 31st.  We are super excited for that! Besides that we have not had that crazy of a week. 

We are teaching 9 lessons a week which is triple from what Elder Sanchez and me taught. Elder Hozman and I have a few issues, but nothing I can really do but just keeping a good attitude about it! 

Yes i got the packages and i will wait for the other one! And yes I know Elder Stevens. He is actually in Shiprock right now and ya he doesn't speak Spanish at all haha but my Spanish is progressing a lot and I bought a couple more books to help out with it so we will see how that goes! So how is Holden doing?? 

Oh also I forgot to mention that Elder Golden from the 70 was here on Wednesday! It was really great. He spoke to us for about 3-4 hours so that was pretty cool.

Will you please sent me my temple packet?  We are going to the temple at the end of September. 

Love you guys and have a great week! 

Elder Castro and Elder Jensen.

August 24, 2015

Hola! 

We are doing great here! The work is starting to pick up and we are getting the members involved with missionary work! There is a priest who we take out with us quite a bit now. His name is Blaise. He loves coming out with us and it is a lot of fun. He is a great kid. A little weird but we love him haha! 

We are starting to also get more members who are wanting to help and all we needed to do was just ask for help and they jumped on the invitation. This week we found 2 new investigators and one of them wants to be baptized soooo bad but she is having to wait on a divorce to go through so she can marry her boyfriend. The other one wants to learn more about temples and we started talking about how families can be together forever and he loved it and wants us to share it with his family. 

Karina, the less active member we found, is doing great and came to church yesterday again. She is getting to know a lot of people which is great. She is awesome. Right now what we are doing with her is just teaching her the lessons like we would to an investigator because she just wants to be refreshed on all the basics of everything which is fantastic. We have a lot of potentials that are interested as of right now and hopefully will then become investigators later on in the future.

Me and Elder Hozman are doing great and are getting a lot of work done! Time is flying by so fast!!!!!!!! Next year at this time I will be home.  It feels like I have just barely left. I don't like it!! Haha!

Love ya,

Elder Richards

Also tell Kinley that for the past 2 weeks or so we have been playing tennis with the Ap's and I am starting to be alright at it. It's harder than you would think!

August 17, 2015

Hey! So we are doing very well here in Farmington. Elder Hozman and I are doing awesome so far!! He is obedient and we  taught 6 lessons this week, which is an improvement from our 3 with Elder Sanchez.  So the work is starting to spring up. We did find a new investigator and she is in her 70's so we will see how it goes. Yes I got the packages. Thank you very much!! Everything is going good right now as a DL.  It is fun, just besides the fact of doing numbers every week. That is where O get the numbers from everyone in the district then report them to the zone leaders. 

We had an awesome miracle this past week!! Elder Hozman and I were trying potentials in this trailer park in Troy King and we saw one and we decided to try it, so we were looking everywhere and we found it. We see the truck and it has a Chihuahua license plate, so we knew that they were Hispanic. We knock on the door and a girl answers and we say hi and ask her what her name is and then we told her we were the missionaries and she said I know who you are and we have been waiting for you. Elder Hozman and I look at each and we are like seriously?? She said yes and told us how she just moved from Casa Grandes about a month ago and she told the missionaries in Mexico to make sure her number got up here so we could call her and find out where she lives so we could show her where the church is. The funny thing is, we didn't get her number and we just tried a "random" house. So it was really cool. She is a less-active member and her husband is not a member and wants to learn more when he comes back from North Dakota. Then the next day we took President Eyring (our branch president) out with us and she was telling us that when we left yesterday she was wishing she could hug us and that after she was crying and so thankful that we were able to find her house "randomly". She came to church with us on Sunday and her and her daughter loved it so much.  The branch has been praying for more members and then we found her.  So it was awesome!

So it has been a really good week for us!! 

Here is a pic of the gang back together again.