Off To Yungay! 1/27/14

Change is once more on the wind!

Hello, friends, family, and loved ones! I hope that it has been an amazing week for you all. It certainly has been one for me down here in Chiguayante. We have had many lessons, made many commitments, and have learned a lot as we went about the Lord's work in this small part of the Vineyard.

But now, it is once more the glorious time of cambios! As we waited dilligently this morning in hushed silence around the phone, we prophecied or attempted to foresee what the list of cambios would be for us. It was quite a change for all, and as for me, I am off to a far off sector tomorrow morning. It's name is Yungay, and it is a bit of a joke for the missionaries because it is so small and so far away from every other sector and zone in the mission. Certifiably campo, this small branch has traditionally had the missionaries in leadership roles and has been a great growth experience for those who use it. I also learned that I'll be one of the oldest missionaries in the area, with another Hermana tied for time in the mission. It is certainly a daunting prospect, but I am ridiculously excited and ready for the challenge.

As well as looking forward bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the future, this is also a profound moment of looking at the past. In the fast four and a half months here, I can't believe how much I've learned or even how much I've changed. It feels like such a short time ago that the assitants were calling and telling me that I was getting an emergency cambio away from Chillan, and now I've had three whole cambios in this sector.

For better or for worse, from sources good and bad, I have learned a whole lot. For example, I've learned that two hot dogs with a slice of cheese on a bit of bread is a satisfactory dinner. I've also found that night time pranks is a lot of fun but sets of a chain reaction of return-fire that ends with someone removing all the boards from the beds of other missionaries. Seriously though, the realities of Mission life have really set in, and the constant application and reapplication of Gospel Principles has really taken a forefront in my mind.

I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and His many ways of comforting, guiding, and helping His children. He has a plan, glorious and perfect in exactness, for each and every single one of us. Though this will take us many places we don't initially see ourselves going, it will bless and change us in ways we can't imagine. He sends us into these places with the promise of always being with us. We are never alone, and never need to be without His constant support and love.

It has truly been a wonderful time spent here in Chiguayante. I've met many wonderful people, grown into a more dilligent and obedient servant of the Lord, and been an instrument in His hands to blessing many of His children here. Though I certainly wasn't as powerful or succesful as I had hoped, I know that He is always with me, and that knowledge alone is worth far more than the rewards I could ever have elsewhere. I look forward in faith and hope to the next part of my mission and my life in Yungay, knowing that He needs me to do a specific work in this part of the mission.

I love you all, and know that the Lord loves you more than any one of us can imagine. He is our Saviour and our Redeemer, and through Him we can be cleansed of our transgressions and made perfected in Christ.  Life is a time of trial and challenge, but far more than that it is a time of blessings and learning. If we never step out of our comfort zones, how can we realize this?

I challenge you, missionary and member and everywhere in between, all to make that step away from what is comfortable and safe, and step forward with boldness and faith on the path that our Heavenly Father has for you. Many lives will be blessed and changed by your actions and service, most of all your own. The life that is lost in the service of others is certainly found, and I can testify to that with all my heart.

With hopes that this week will be a stellar one for each and every single one of you, I declare my love and happiness for each of you.

Sincerely,

Elder Richardson

Last pictures from Chiguayante

Jan. 20th letter

On Monday, January 20, 2014 11:59 AM, Jared Richardson <richardson.jared@myldsmail.net> wrote:

To my dear friends, family, and fellow laborers in this great work!

I hope that you all had a fantastic week in your various places and efforts. I know that I certainly did. We were working very, very hard and had many great experiences and made many valuable memories. It has given me a much greater appreciation for the time that I have here, serving and teaching the people of Chiguayante. I thank the Lord that I have this blessing in this time of my life. To quote one of the fellow Elders at work with me here in this Ward "There is no where, no thing, and no activity I would rather be, do, and participate in."

You know its always a very good thing as a missionary when your main sadness is that you had too many lessons and coudn't get to everybody that you wanted to. The people of this place are ready for the covenants and blessings that come with the Gospel, and my companion and I are struggling to make sure that they each get the attention that they need. Whole families are listening to this message, and the Spirit is working overtime with so many individuals that we are seeing hearts change at an incredible level. I have had close to four and half months here in this sector, and I hope to stay on for even longer to see some of the fruits of this beautiful labor.

A family that we've been working with pretty consistently my entire time here is the Familia Zarate. This family of four has some absolutely incredible people, and the mother is practically a member already (The older son, Zeuz, is a great friend of mine now and was baptized close to two years back). It seems like a near perfect experience, but one thing stands in the way of the entire family joining the church. The parents aren't married! Companionship after companionship has taught this family, with no results. But, after an incredible family home evening with a powerful family, we might be seeing the Spirit taking root in the hearts of the parents. I sure hope so! It is another powerful testimony that I have of the strength inherent in the members in the work of the Lord.

The missionary work is something shared by all of us members of the church of Jesus Christ. The missionaries themselves can do a marvelous work and a wonder, but when the members apply their shoulders to the wheel as well, that's when the miracles really start to happen. This family has been receiving lessons for close to two years now. But when the members showed them examples of how they can be living, the peace and happiness and strength in a gospel centered family, that changes everything. The Spirit that was felt when we had a lesson with a great member of the ward and this family was far more powerful than anything we could bring on our lonesomes. The members provide what we cannot, a firm foundation of strength and lasting fellowshipping. 

This week in my studies provided a message that really inspired me. I decided to go full, in depth study on a book in the Bible which has inspired me in the past. Nehemiah is only 13 chapters long, but provided so much insight and valuable teaching that is directly applicable to my life that it blows my mind. My notes of the book are actually longer than the book itself at this point. Some of the main values I wanted to point out here are the insistent focus on making sure we have God with us through our worthiness. When we have Him on our side, there is nothing that we cannot do.
We may have a seemingly impossible labor ahead of us, such as missionary work in a hard sector, new callings in the church, or building the walls of Jerusalem, but we can know that these things are from our Father in Heaven, and that He has the power to support His servants in all things. What we need to provide is our labor, our service, our hearts and our minds, and He will make up for the rest and more. The blessings that will be poured out upon us far outweigh the sacrifices of our various efforts, and with that we can move forward with faith instead of fear. 

Nehemiah was surrounded by enemies, constantly trying to tear down his work and put fear into his heart. Though the odds were against him, this inspired individual put his energy into his work and inspired others to do the same. With direct parrallels to the Armor of God, the Title of Liberty, and even several of the parables of the Savior, he taught the people and led them to incredible feats. One person can change everything, if that one person has God on his side.

My challenge to each of us is to embrace the work that we are called to do. It may not be particularly magnificent in its own right, but it is a great work, and we cannot come down from it. God will strengthen our hands, as He has down to countless individuals in times ancient and modern. We can do miracles!

I love you all so much, and I know that there are great things ahead of us in the personal plans that God has for each and every single one of us. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that Heavenly Father blesses you to the fullest!

With love,

Elder Richardson

Gangsta' or Groundhog?

More pictures at Huascar

Greetings Friends and Family!

Hello my friends and family from around the world! I hope this email finds you all happy and safe and filled with the Spirit of the Lord. This is a wonderful time to be alive and to be committed to our personal quests and experiences!

It has been yet another successful week in Chiguayante, and the work is begining to flourish here. With hard work and dilligence, Elder Florez and I continue to find new people to teach and to build up the faith of the people that are here. We had a visit this week from Presidente Arrington, and his message of love and obedience, combined with a promise of success if we continue to remember the three pillars of our mission here (Reactivate, Retain, and Baptize), has helped to give us a new energy as we go about our days. I am so glad to have the opportunity and blessing of serving here, and to feel the special spirit in this calling.

As we have ''gone about doing good'', we have had many opportunities and events that really built our faith and helped us to move on. Here are some experiences from the week:

We went the first thing Monday afternoon to visit a sweet lady that has been having us over once a week for several weeks now. We hadn't been able to visit her in our normal time Friday, and felt pretty bad about it. As we yelled at her door, her daughter (Who we haven't met before) answered, and quickly invited us in. Hermana Yolanda, who this last week caught a particularly painful bug, was waiting for us. She had expected us all day Friday, even asking her grown children in her home ''Have the Mormons come yet?'' on a regular basis. Hermana Yolanda was confined to her chair, unable to move for the pain that it brought. Her daughter, with some interest in our message, also sat in on our visit to hear what we had to say.

Inspired by the Spirit, we diverted from our planned message to talk on the blessings of the Spirit, especially the blessing of healing. In her moment of need, this devout woman of another religion asked for us to give her a blessing of health, which we readily agreed to. As the prayer was said, she felt such a feeling of tranquility and peace that she forgot to repeatedly say phrases like ''Amen, Señor'' on a regular basis, a normal occurance for our lessons and prayers with her. Her daughter, with tears in her eyes, mentioned that she had felt the Savior standing in this room with us, and that truly He had come in this moment of need. Hermana Yolanda received from that moment on the strength needed to overcome this infirmity, and by the end of the lesson was feeling so much better that she cried.
As I looked down at my name tag to see in big white letters the name of Jesus Christ, I was awed that in that moment, He had asked us to represent Him for this family. We were a bit of a conduit for His incredible love, and that family has experienced blessings through it. Miracles really do happen, in regular abundance, for which I am incredibly grateful.

Sometimes, a message really sticks in our mind and becomes something that we can choose to apply with fervor or let slide off without any good impact. This week, as I was reading an older Liahona, a message really struck at me from a talk for young adults. This article had three points for young adults to apply and take advantage of in this time of their lives. It quotes liberally from a section of Doctrine and Covenants, section 51:

“And I consecrate unto them this land for a little season, until I, the Lord, shall provide for them otherwise, and command them to go hence;

“And the hour and the day is not given unto them, wherefore let them act upon this land as for years, and this shall turn unto them for their good” 

The point being, one of the messages that stuck in my mind was about how the people were only in this part for one small bit of time, but accomplished so, so much. With fervor, obedience, and faith they did work that blessed their lives and many others as well. With this in mind, we can set our shoulders to the wheel every single day, a new mission every morning. With faith in our hearts and with our efforts continually dedicated, Heavenly Father will bless us incredibly. I have seen that so much here, as times where we shouldn't have any success become days of incredible blessings. I am continually in awe of the Lord's hand in our lives. This is the article.http://www.lds.org/liahona/2010/06/your-mission-in-life-is-now?lang=eng

This has been another fantastic week. We have contacted so many people that people we don't even know stop us in the streets and talk to us about when we contacted their family. Whole sections of our zone know us and our names and a few simple parts of our message by heart. Many of our investigators our preparing wonderfully, and are committing to more and more. Several, including the Familia Zarate and Hermano Raul, should be making the grand step of baptism very soon.

I love you all very very much and hope that you all have an excellent week this week. May the Lord bless you in all of your righteous endeavours is my prayer.

With love,

Elder Richardson

Huascar

The pictures were at the Huascar, a famous boat from the war between Chile and Peru. It pretty much wrecked the Chilean fleet because it was an ironclad and the Chileans only had wood, and it fought in several big battles. Eventually the Chileans thought it was better to not fight and stole the ship instead. Its a big part of history, and was very cool.

Pictures!

January 6

Dear Family, Friends, and Fellow Servants of the Lord, wherever you might be,

This has been a wonderful week in the mission field, an especially interesting one as we celebrated the New Year of 2014 and for me personally as I reached six months in the service of the Lord. A fourth of my mission has flown by, becoming steadily faster and faster as time goes on. Elder Florez and I continue to devote our hearts, mights, minds, and strengths to this work and the results are starting to show. Like the rising sun gradually floods a room with light through open windows, the city of Chiguayante is starting to flourish in the work of salvation.

As we went about the week, we were faced with the challenge of almost every single visit and lesson falling through on us. We did not allow this to bother us, and had a great deal of success contacting house after house, seeking for references, and working with several people we haven't seen in quite a while. I would like to share a few experiences from this week that have helped me personally.

An investigator that Elder Montaña and I found during my first few weeks here is named Raul. He is an amazing man, incredibly humble, and noticeable prepared for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. However, during the the last few months, we steadily lost contact because of his busy schedule and our lack of flexibility. This last little while with Elder Florez was an opportunity to spend some time with him while he is on vacation. Every lesson we have is a golden experience, where every testimony that we share is readily accepted by this great man. He has a strong desire to study our doctrine in depth, but his challenge of being blind has kept him from reading the Book of Mormon. With help of a neighbor, he has been able to get a hold of a Book of Mormon Audio, and he is loving it. His humility and incredibly cheerful spirit has led him to readily realize the truth of our message and to feel the Spirit. It was only an emergency that kept him out of the Church on Sunday, but we are very excited to be working with this bright light in an otherwise dark week.

A visit with an active member became surprisingly powerful when she expressed her gratitude with our work for her son. This strong member of the church, the only active member in her family, has struggled for years to encourage her son, a wonderful man named Cesar, to return to activity. The negative influence of her husband and her son's own doubts have not helped the situation much. But we had several visits over the last few weeks with Cesar, bearing testimony and trying to invite the Spirit as best as we could with him, eventually helping him to overcome some of his fears. One lesson in particular has forever been etched in my mind. He revealed to us that he has doubts that God truly takes a part in his life, that God loves him. A large amount of challenges and trials has really shaken his faith, and he told us that he hasn't felt different since he stopped coming to church. Tears flowed as we talked, shared experiences of our loved ones and our own stories, and he vowed to try. Nothing more.
The next visit, he told us very simply that he had changed his mind, and that he would be in church. Sure enough, that Sunday he was sitting in the middle of the row with his hair neatly combed and in a creme colored suit. There was a lot of love and support for him from the members of the ward, which I am eternally grateful for. His mother shared her love for us, and her eternal gratitude. Her fears and disappointments and heartbrake for the members of her family just crushed us, and tears flowed without respite. The love that she said she felt from us for her son made a difference, and possibly will change the life of Cesar one day. 

We certainly didn't feel like we were doing anything particularly special, but this moment has made a big impression on my mind. Heavenly Father really does love each and every single one of us, and often works though us to bless the lives and answer the prayers of His children. My commitment to love the people of Chile, especially when its really really hard, has never been stronger. and I can feel a part of the love of our Father in Heaven filling my heart and soul as I try to do more for these wonderful people.

Saturday night, a crushing weight was on our shoulders. After a discouraging day, we received news that every one of our solid commitments for church attendance the next day had fallen through. We we were crushed, and further weight was added as we tried everything we could to get a hold of different people, with no results. We settled in for the night, not incredibly happy and not incredibly satisfied. I turned to my music player, which has long been a source of aid and inspiration. The first song that caught my attention was 'Be Still My Soul'. The lyrics of this famous hymn are as follows:

1. 1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
   With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
   Leave to thy God to order and provide;
   In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
   Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
   Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
2. 2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
   To guide the future as he has the past.
   Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
   All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
   Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
   His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.
3. 3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on
   When we shall be forever with the Lord,
   When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
   Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
   Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
   All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

This was exactly what I needed to hear. Comfort filled my heart, and I felt with burning clarity the love that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for me, and for every single one of us. In my time of winds, waves, and tempests, He calmed the storm. As it will be for every single situation we might ever face.

I testify with all the conviction that I posess that Jesus is the Christ. The light of His Gospel is shining bright and clear, ready for us to open up the windows and let it all in. No matter what trial, what condition, or what situation we face, He is there to strengthen and help us. I invite all of you to do what it takes to feel this love and power greater in your life, and to then help others to do the same. I love you all so much, and hope that this New Year is one of happiness, peace, and love. The hour is truly hastening on, and I look forward to one day seeing you all in person.

With love,

Elder Richardson