Happy New Year

Hello everyone! 

We had such a wonderful week and such a great Christmas! It was so good to see and talk to my family! My favorite thing that we did was go Christmas caroling with our zone to the people that we are working with. It was so fun and everyone loved it and us even though we're not anything like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

One of our few progressing investigators dropped us this week- doesn't want to meet with us anymore, which was super sad but I have faith that we will find new people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel! 

We knocked over 100 doors this week tracting and found quite a few potentials! But they're all for other wards and other missionaries. We found this man named Chris and his girlfriend/wife Kim. They have a really interesting story as they just moved here from Maryland and have next to nothing but they seem really prepared. We were able to teach them about the Book of Mormon and they committed to read it and pray and come to church! It was so neat! I really hope the Elders can continue to help them progress. 

I'm excited for this new year and all that it will bring! 

love, 

Sister Richards

Merry Christmas!

"Without Christ, there would be no Christmas. Without Christ, there can be no fulness of joy. Without His birth and His Atonement, we would have no Intercessor, no Advocate with the Father, and no Mediator who makes it possible for us to return to the presence of our loving Heavenly Father and live together as eternal families."

-Bishop Gary E Stevenson, The Reality of Christmas

I love the Christmas season and I'm so grateful to be testifying of Jesus Christ and sharing His gospel while the world celebrates His birth. He is our Savior and Redeemer and because of Him the plan of happiness is possible! 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! 

With love, 

Sister Richards

Still 60 degrees here in Mesa..

These past few days have been crazy!

We were without our car for a few days so we had to walk a lot and got rides from people and our area is pretty big. I sure appreciate having my car now after going without it. Sister Lyons has also been sick since she arrived in the field and seems to be getting worse rather than getting better. I hope she can get feeling better soon so we can start working hard! 

Our new ward is wonderful. They welcomed me by having me speak in Sacrament meeting yesterday. They're really great and seem to be very missionary minded. Everyone is so shocked to find out that we're both "greenies" and that we have less than 4 months of experience between the both of us but they're really supportive and I'm excited to serve in a family ward! With babies screaming and all Sister Lyons and I both agreed it feels like home. 

Without our car and with Sister Lyons being sick it was hard to have a productive week but we still had some really good lessons. Nathan, one of our YSA investigators has been keeping his commitments to read and pray and he commited to be baptized. He also said he would come to church- and he did! Regardless of the talks in Sacrament meeting about preparing for Eternal marriage (typical YSA...) he said that he wants to come again next week! :) I am super excited to continue to teach him. At our first lesson I was skeptical if he would progress but he has soo much! He is really starting to see a difference in his life as he has started to pray and read the scriptures. 

We had a few lessons with our investigators in the Riverview ward. Neither one of them came to church though.. which was a bummer.

We're really hoping that as sisters we can get in and work with the sisters in the ward that the elders couldn't. 

We're still having lots of success right now with the He is the Gift initiative. I hope you're all celebrating Christ this Chrismas season. He is the gift!

I love you all! 

Sister Richards

This week I ate Cactus!

and guess what? It's actually pretty good. It's put in pico de gallo and I loved it! 

This past week was great! We found a FAMILY while tracting. They aren't ours to teach but they have a daughter that's YSA and we started teaching her. Our Zone has seen many miracles as we've been tracting and sharing messages about Jesus Christ. So many hearts are softened for the Gospel during the Christmas season.

Tania's baptism was soo good! The spirit was so strong during the baptismal service. She was so excited and so ready to be baptized. Her brother was able to do it and I am so grateful I was able to be there for her! 

Transfer news: Sister Andrus has gone up to the mountains! She'll be serving in Show Low and then going home in February! I am staying here in Mesa and continuing to serve in the YSA ward and will now be covering the Riverview ward as well. My companion is Sister Lyons. She is a brand new missionary from Mississippi! She's really great! I'm excited to see what this next transfer with her brings! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season and are spreading the Christmas message! 

Love,

Sister Richards

Pictures- Sister Lyons, me and Sister Andrus and the family that feeds us the delicious Mexican food, including the cactus! 

It's December!

Family and friends-

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My companion and I sure did!

This week we will have a baptism for one of our new investigator's. Her name is Tania and she has been taught by missionaries for years. Her family has all recently joined the church and now she is ready! She's so great and we're really excited!

We have another new investigator named Nathan who isn't too sure about religion but we've taught him how to pray and he's had some incredible experiences and has felt a huge difference in his life as he's started praying! We have only taught him a few lessons in a few weeks because he wants to take things slow but he has great potential!

We have seen some tender mercies as we've been tracting! We have been able to find many potential investigators and I've been loving the opportunity to testify of Christ and share the He is the Gift passalong card. Many people's hearts are softened and are more open to hear our message this time of year and that is why we have the He is the Gift initiative! If you don't know what it is check out Christmas.mormon.org and look in your December Ensign!

On Black Friday my zone went to the Riverview shopping mall to advertise with posters the He is the Gift initiative while everyone was driving by and shopping! We had lots of success and the Spanish Elders got a new potential investigator because of it! We had signs for people to honk and everyone was honking at us and waving and taking pictures. It was really fun!

I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to share my testimony of Jesus Christ this Christmas season. I know that He is the greatest gift. I'm so thankful for Him and that I can be a disciple of Him in sharing His Gospel!

Have a great week! Next week is transfers! I'll email on Wednesday!

Love you all!

Sister Richards