Hello family, friends, and loved ones! I hope that all is going well for you and that life is a blessing and an adventure!
This has been a very interesting week, and I wish I could spend a half a dozen hours writing you, rather than limit myself to one. I´ll do my very best to get some of the best experiences over to you. But first, responses!
Sam: It was great receiving your email. I really don´t know anyone who doesn´t like being told that their letters have a positive impact, after all! It´s good to hear about your great experiences with long lost friends and soon to be forgotten enemies. I hope life continues to work out quite well for you! And thank you for the prayers! The support is most welcome! Keep being so awesome!
Mom: To answer your questions, I do have a normal sized SD card. I don´t believe there is anything I need in the world. One doesn´t really have time for possessions here, haha. I did in fact buy some hangars, and until I´m told otherwise, I´m going to assume Chile lacks the little clothing levitators and take mine with me. I do have several books, that one day I hope to really get into for deeper reading and pondering, so I´m going to try to hold on to them as long as I can. As of now though, I might be sending a few home or leaving several for Greenie Missionaries to not have time to read as well. From what I´ve heard of Chile, some people are telling me that the entrance fee is essentially all that one needs to get into the country. I haven´t been told differently, so I´m going to assume that´s all that I have to bring. Your quote was fantastic, by the way. We have a Fundamentals class every day, and the topics you brought up are absolutely essential to the learning process. Gordon B. Hinckly was a truly inspired man, and I am so glad to have been able to hear several of his speeches over the years. Thanks for sharing Elder Pugmire´s letter with me! I don´t think I have any way to personally respond, but all of his information about the lovely country I´m getting closer to serving in is very interesting! I´m really happy for him! Only one rainstorm? I remember what that was like! Every day it rains at least once, and not in a simple little sprinkle. Downpours that flood the streets are normal and expected, with heavy lightning and thunder, with the occassional hailing. I love it! Running out in the rain, desperately trying to avoid massive puddles, and just taking the time to get soaking wet when I don´t have something important I need to be on my way to are lovely passtimes. The other benefits of literal tons of very green plant life, watching one of the native Staff members sweeping water from essential places with a broom (Only for it to rain a few hours later. Talk about job security), and cutting my number of showers in half (Kidding. I've actually doubled the times I use the shower, what with my strange time for gym. It´s actually a struggle to get through the week in the necessary under garments. Don't worry about it though. The store on campus actually sells them for fifteen pesos a pair, so I´m actually a pretty happy camper.) are just icing on the cake! Tell Kyla and her family that I love the picture. We´ve had a whole lot of focus time on Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel, including several movies, so the man her kids are standing with seems pretty familiar! I love and miss you too, but I am so glad to be here. I wouldn´t want to be anywhere else! The oft repeated phrase is applicable here: I´ve left my family for two years so I can bring other families together for eternity. What a beautiful work!
So! Life here continues to be amazing. Dad would be proud to hear my Spanish. We all are able to have full conversations in the language, and are now working on refinement. It´s become really difficult to write many of the words in this letter, as I´m now more accustomed to writing their Spanish variants. The gift of tongues talked about in the Book of Acts is very real, and the secret to achieving it is practice. Always attempting to speak the language brings about incredible mastery of the words. Our Hispanic roommates were even able to have great conversations with me without breaking from Spanish. I wish I would have put more effort into the process before hand, but there is no going back now. I fully intend to make up for my lazy language learning before my mission while I´m here. We´ve memorized songs and many, many scripture verses in every book, even a few from the Old Testament.
Speaking of which, I have had a wonderful time reading much of the Old Testament and a heavy portion of the Book of Mormon in the past week. I soak up the stories and histories, and look for application for me and my 'investigators' everywhere. I'd forgotten just how cool much of the Old Testament was, with dozens of different stories coming to mind of incredible feats and larger then life prophets and heroes. The few strange bits here and there are more interesting then when I tried to read them as a kid in Seminary, and having the further knowledge provided by modern revelation really clarifies a lot of them (But not all. Some are still very weird.). The Book of Mormon is a major joy to read. I dive into those chapters and verses and don't want to come out when personal study time is over. The incredible spiritual messages, applicable to each and every one of us, despite being thousands of years old, are an absolute treasure. After how much I've been able to take from these histories, and how they can help my life even while I'm here at the CCM, has moved me to never underappreciate this book of Holy Scripture again. In addition, further reading of the coming about of this book and many of the lives changed by its messages is an inspiring thing.
Daily life here is a fast paced, high intensity workout of the mind, soul, and body, though only if you make it so. It is certainly possible to cruise through and get along with a minimum of effort just as several people I´ve seen have done, but they'll have a very difficult time connecting with the people they teach and the Spirit itself when they're getting out in the field in less then three weeks. That's right, we're halfway done here! The classes, study periods, additional study tools, times of service, meal times, gym times, and (My personal favorite) the Devotionals blend into each other, and much of the lsat few weeks has become a blur.
This MTC is going to be huge. We started off with thirty Hispanic missionaries and about eighty gringos, but now we're over four hundred strong, with more arriving every week. Every two weeks, another wave of Hispanics head out, and in three weeks, we're on our way. But you can hardly throw a language notebook in frustration without hitting some new Elder in the back of the head. Meal times are absoluteltely frantic, and its a desperate rush with a little bit of luck and a prayer thown in for good measure to get any of the really good food before they go back to leftovers. It is absolutely fantastic, even though are excellent team of teachers has been cut down to two. We're still good friends wwith the rest, and continually trying to convince them to bring us tacos and quesadillas from outside the CCM's walls. No success yet, but our spirits are high.
This has also been an incredible learning experience for me. I thought I had a pretty good idea of my faults and successes before I left, but I was incredibly wrong. Living with a companion full time, day in and day out, is a completely different experience to anything I've had before. It's been a struggle at times, a joy at others, and through it all I've experienced growth that I've never expected. All notions of pride and selfishness I had before are quickly blasted away by specific challenges I've had to face. Whenever something goes wrong for me now, I quickly ask myself, how can I learn and grow from this. I feel so much better then I did before, and this has been a lesson that I won´t be quick to forget.
By the way, I´ve been called to be a new Zone leader here, along with my companion. It's an interesting situation, with our Branch Presidente being out of reach for six of the seven days, and a continually growing branch. We'll be having six districts of ten-fourteen Elders and Sisters in them in a few weeks time under our supervision. We´ll be working closely with District leaders in making sure things run smoothly, and sure enough, several problems that require our attention showed up the day after we were called to the position. Additionally, these problems require us to step out of our comfort zones and deal with situations neither of us have a great deal of experience with. Funny how the Lord works sometimes, huh? Now don't get me wrong, I am super excited about this calling. I can't help but feel that there are people I'm supposed to help that only I can reach, and that I'll receiving divine support every step of the way.
We haven't yet had the privelage of a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles showing up for a devotional, but we have seen many videos of their MTC devotionals and even had a Seventy, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos (father to my Branch President haha) show up to speak to us. Each experience is powerful and inspiring, as befitting the receiving of a message from one of these esteemed men. The most exctiting that we have yet received is an incredible message from Feb 2012 by Jeffrey R Holland to the Provo MTC. Oh, was it incredible, one of the craziest rollercoaster rides of a talk I have ever experienced. We heard loving support from this Apostle, followed immediately by the fire he is known for as he denounced Missionaries who waste this special time in our lives and especially those who come home without their mission having effected them much. We heard him preach the truth of the Book of Mormon and the importance, nay, the absolute necessity of having the Spirit with you as you preach this Gospel. All of this was said with the same complexity of speech and passionate devotion to the Savior Jesus Christ that he is renowned for, and there was not an unmotivated soul in the audience that night. It was an incredible experience, and something that I feel has inspired me to use this time to reach new heights and conquer obstacles previously unchallenged. After all, ´´We are a terrific force, out to save the world.´´ What an amazing experience.
So, there you have it. Now for some amusing stories from down here in Mexico City.
My companion, having never seen a palm tree in his native city in the far north, was astounded by these trees and especially their fronds. In a burst of inspiration, he aquired several that had fallen to the ground and decorated our apartment with them. Sadly, cleaning people mistook the decorations as garbage and threw it away, to the delight of everyone except Elder Jensen. One of our apartment mates, Elder Santillan, challenged him to gather more jokingly, and the game was on. We would, during our lunch time, collect over a dozen palm fronds from around the campus, and proceed to carpet the floor around Elder Santillan´s bed with them. After our victory, we would later decorate the entire apartment with these leaves.
I have grown quite the reputation here! I am not only one of the best white goalies around, but I am an incredibly comitted volley ball player and ping pong champion. Dancing has become a talent of mine known by people I don´t even know, and several of my jokes and phrases have spread into popular usage. My knack for singing has gotten me a few fans, and me practicing my Spanish hymns is often used to quiet down the District during study time. Though I am not particularly happy about this one, I have a small reputation as one of the biggest flirts on campus, thanks largely to my companion's nature of repeating his favorite stories and events to anyone and everyone, several times over. I did get him back, by labelling him a professional bird watcher, and now people we've never met before come up to us and ask him what kind of bird they saw earlier was.
I´ve seen several people that I know! Devyn Clanton arrived two weeks agoDale´s younger brother Ty showed up in the last few days. It's been pretty nice to see them!
There have been many, many wonderful experiences here. I wish I could share them all, but the imposed time limit and my naturally poor memory keep my responses pretty limited.
Thank you again, all of you, for your letters, support, packages, and love. I can certainly feel it as I go about my days here, and each and every single one of you are in my prayers. Thank you all for everything that you do, and please continue being such wonderful people. May God bless each and every single one of you, in times of happiness and times of sadness. I look forward to hearing from you next week.
Love,
Elder Richardson
(P.S. Mom, if you want to send any packages, putting pictures of Jesus on the box seems to keep away unwanted hands. I love that!)
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