April 28

Hello everybody!

 This letter comes to you with an incredible burst of animo and hope for the future. My new companion, Elder Villegas is definitely to thank for that. This guy, not even knowing the sector and having only three months in the mission, has come to shake things up. He has been absolutely vital in several good lessons, and despite the relatively weak week that we had, he is pumped and excited and ready to go. 

Elder Villegas is from Mexico, actually from Monterrey. He is a huge stud, and we are more alike than any other companion I've had. His list of interests and mannerisms and how he goes about doing things has a whole lot of the same points as mine. That being said, I love working with him. He has boundless enthusiasm, and he is so ready to do miracles that it is infectious. He has, on several different points, been just what Yungay needs. He called out a less active on the excuses he has been building up over years, and he showed incredible love to a woman who has recently lost her son. He is a huge inspiration for me. And, he even has an abiding love for video games, so you know that this companionship is going places.

It has really been all about attitude for me this week. We came into this cambio with anticipation, and received many, many setbacks. But now, we are even more excited for the week to come. Just when we felt like giving up on the day several times during the week, something would happen that would perk us up.

An an example of such is Jorge. He is an old investigator, but as we passed by his house, we were coldly met by guests and and they told us that Jorge is working on his new home. We left, kind of defeated, not really knowing where his new house is. As we walked, trying to contact individuals in the street, we felt impressed to go down a street that we don't really travel that often. As we did for about two minutes, we are passing by and I see a man sitting in his windowsill. We keep walking, but my mind finally catches up and I realize that Jorge was right there! We called to him and had a great lesson, and are planned to do something else this week.

I also learned how incredible the members can be, yet again. When they are committed to the work of souls with the missionaries, there is no limit to the miraculous things that can happen. One great brother, named Gerardo Alegria, came outto help us several times for visits, changing regular lessons into extraordinary ones. He even came to our aid, driving out to Huepil (Another city close by where we have several members) to pick us up when it was apparent that the night time bus wasn't coming. Several people were in church, mainly because of the aid and fellowship given them by wonderful members. We need them, far more than they need us haha.

Thanks to everyone for everything that they're doing. This has been a great week, and I hope that for all of you, it continues to get better and better. Thanks for the letters and the prayers and everyone. You're the best!

With love,

Elder Richardson

April 21

Dearly beloveds, we have gathered this day to witness...

...Or something like that.

Dear friends and family and loved ones!

I hope that this last week has been absolutely amazing for you all. As we here in Yungay are in a town with a large Catholic presence, we were completely swamped with reminders of the Savior and His final week during His mortal ministry, and I am not complaining in the least for it. It has been wonderful to ponder and think about Jesus Christ and His transcendent mission to the world, and the particularly amazing things that He did during this incredible seven days. I am so glad, and it definitely showed that this week was very positive for us.

However, there now is news to share. Bright and early this morning, we received breaking news that there is been a bit of a change. My dear junior companion Elder Moore, or in other words, Captain Canada, is heading off. Hilariously, he is going to Los Volcanes in Chillan (My first sector in the mission) to be companions with Elder Jensen (My first companion in the mission). We greatly enjoyed this news, and I have been involved with packing and calling people all day in preparation. Nothing is known about my new companion, apart from his name being Elder Vinegas. Nobody that I have talked too has even the smallest bit of information, but I'm really excited about having another Latino companion. They always bring fun changes and mix things up a bit.

It has been a wonderful two cambio cycles with this guy. We participated in the baptism of an incredible stud named Luis and his daughter. We strived to keep apostasy from taking root in our small rama. We have participated in some of the best and some of the hardest moments of my mission to this point. It is incredible to me what we have been able to do, and how much we have both changed over this twelve week period. I am forever grateful for the chance to have had this time working together. We read in the Book of Mormon how service together in the service of God forges bonds of brotherhood that transcend time, distance, and death itself. I know that this is certainly the case.

Though we worked really hard, this week had a few disappointments for us. However, these moments of sadness are swallowed up in the glorious successes that we had.

Chief among these was a great big activity that we had Saturday night. We planned and prepared Kareoke for as many people as we could, and purchased enough food (The ever popular Canadian dish Poutine was the main course) to feed a small army. It was a bit of a shock when some thirty people showed, mostly children, hungry and ready to go crazy with the activity. We never even got to the second activity, showing the movie Karate Kid, and we heard every single One Direction and Katy Perry and whatever other popular song many times that night. We also heard quite a bit of Latino music, usually love ballads and such, but that was usually from the adultos. I myself sang the perennial favorite 'Don't stop believing' by Journey, and ven had the chance to rap 'Men in Black' by Will Smith. It was a great activity, even if the children devoured the food within seconds and our missionary table remained untouched by the majority of people. Everyone had a wonderful time, and expressed desires that we do this on a weekly basis, which they definitely can if they're willing to put in the time and effort and money.

Church was also a big shock for us. Despite working a ton with members throughout the week, both active and not, we had one of the lowest attendences of my time here in Yungay. The moment that truly inspired me, however, came during our Priesthood class. It has taken twelve weeks, but finally we got the entire group of Priesthood holders to participate and add their opinions with an interesting discussion. Starting in a different direction by talking about the needs of those who are in the Quorum but not in attendence, every single person broke from their slumbers to actually contribute and participate. It took, at times, the heat of a firey argument, but in the whole everyone was able to make good points and I think that they were a bit more inspired to do a bit more. It was wonderful, and definitely a step in the right direction.

It has been an interesting week, and the next promises much of the same. I have repeatedly stated my ambitious goals for this little rama, and am glad that I'm not doing it alone. This is the Lord's work and His glory, and I am very happy to be a part of it. This is going to be very good!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, full of surprises and blessings. Go and do something amazing!

With love,

Elder Richardson

April 14

Hello everyone! As I shiver under four layers of clothing, I regardless hope that you are all doing well and enjoying your respective climates a bit more than I am!

Autumn has set in fullheartedly, and we are suffering the results of the drop in temperature. Waking up to 9 or 10 degress Celsius is a regular event, and we are very accustomed to seeing our breath everywhere we go. My Canadian companion is enjoying the cool weather, and happily wears a sweater, or maybe long sleeves to celebrate. Being a soft Desert boy myself, I wrap up in a rain coat, a coat, a sweater, a scarf, and my beanie all above my normal clothes and still am not feeling the blessed reunion of heat and my body again. I have made several decisions for my future, securely denying that I will ever live in somewhere even relatively cold again. Heavenly Father obviously predicted this outcome, and made sure that my calling has me serving in Chile for really only one winter. What a blessing that this is.

However, despite the pouring rain and despite the biting cold, I am enjoying myself immensely. This was a week of growth for us as missionaries and especially for me, as we face many various mountains to climb at this time. We lacked in marked success with several of our promising investigators, and a recent drop in support from the members of the branch as hurt a lot, but our spirits are soaring higher than ever!

We in turn focused our efforts in meeting with less actives and recent converts, and we are able to have many lessons with them. We definitely had a great time, and even some strange experiences with them.

A couple of less active youth named David and Estrella were one of our visits during the week. As we passed by, we saw that they were doing some work outisde with their long walkway to the house. We helped out, and they invited us to the back to enjoy some apples from their apple tree. When we walke through the house, we entered a jungle paradise, with bushes and ferns and trees and animals and it was incredible. You couldn't even see civilazation anywhere, and we enjoyed laughing and talking with these two hilarious jovenes and their mother, who is an investigator. Our visits had a lasting effect on them, and they even trudged through a rain storm to attend one of our english lessons. We see great promise for them in the church, and that they could be pillars in our budding youth program.

Our usual investigators simply weren't available this week, so we had to branch out, and we had some interesting results. An old lady that had told us that she didn't want anything with us a few weeks past told us that she had been reading the book of mormon, and that she knew it was the word of God. The testimony of the Book and of a member we brought with us caused her to shed some tears and promise that one day, she would go to the church.

In the middle of a pouring rainstorm, we talked to a lady standing underneath a canopy, and found a heart of gold. Her life is dedicated to helping others like the Savior did, and she is a joy to talk to. She enjoys the Book of Mormon as well, and has also promised to attend church the next week and to continue to read this great book.

I truly can testify that the Book of Mormon changes hearts, minds, and lives. It is the evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ is once again restored to the Earth, and I am ridiculously happy to be a part of this church and to be serving the Savior and my fellow man in Yungay. We are seeing miraculous things every single day of the week, and I am loving it. Even if its cold.

I love you all and hope that you all enjoy your week with all the blessings of heaven available to you.

Con amor,

Elder Richardson

Super Jared in Yungay!

Pictures from Yungay

April 7

Hello friends, family, and dearly loved other people throughout the world! I hope that this last week, and especially this last weekend were as fruitful for you as they were incredible for me. Down here in Yungay, it was a very powerful week as we prepared spiritually and physically (We bought a lot of snacks) for this upcoming Conference, and it was well worth it.

Conference was absolutely amazing. I want to say that I loved every single minute of the carefully prepared talks, the music, and especially the spiritual fruit that we got out of it. Individual speakers all had very different impacts with their words, but the general patterns stuck out far more than usual this time. In our companionship, we have made several goals and plans to begin application of the things we heard and felt and feel a great hope for the horizon. 

If you have never had the chance to witness missionaries watching conference, it truly is a sight to behold. As I mentioned before, I bought a small treasure trove of sweets and snacks in preparation for the Conference, as the three gringos (Elder Moore and I, and the Hermana Meyer) crammed into the small secretary's office in the chapel. As we watched, particularly powerful statements would invite small cheers, nodding heads, and furiously scribbling pens. We might have gained several kilos just from the juice and garbage food, but in my humble opinion, it was quite worth it. 

While conference itself was a tremendous blessing for us and we rejoiced in the messages of our beloved prophet and apostles, the members and investigators didn't enjoy it quite as much as we did. Partly, the reason lies with them not knowing much about Conference. The majority didn't know about the fact that there was more than one session, some just didn't know the schedule, and some just used it as an excuse not to come to regular church. It was a bit of a down for us as missionaries to be present at a session and to outnumber the other individuals that had decided to come. We definitely have a lot to prepare for before the 185th General conference of the church haha, though I'm reasonably confident I won't be here for that.

The week itself was a flurry of activity in preparation for Conference, trying to invite and commit as many people, members or no, to as many sessions as we could squeeze out of them. There was some great success that we had throughout these last few days, particularly in our weekly activity and in working with some individuals. 

When I arrived here, and for the majority of my time in Yungay, we have been holding two weekly activities, the English class/movie night and the Branch Night. In preparation for a great big activity that we plan on haviing in a few weeks, we have cancelled our Branch Night and thrown our focus (And purchasing money) into the Friday night class. This week, for the activity (Which involved Elder Moore and I dressing up as we translated words for clothing and Shrek Forever After) we had one of the biggest numbers we have ever had. Twenty five (Mas o menos) people attended and enjoyed the festivities. We actuallyhad to buy more snacks and drinks to compensate. Several people we didn't even know came up to us afterwards and talked with us about how much they enjoyed the program and how they will be coming back consistently. Several less actives were there, and many non members decided to show up with little more than a street invitation. 

One of the best parts of the evening was when two people unexpectedly showed up to talk with us. A mom had heard about an English class and nothing else due to a street contact we had, and wanted to come a drill us about her son who had attended. We gave her our credentials (We kind of speak the language a little fluently) and our lesson plan (Which involves making up stuff right before the class), and she was greatly impressed, fishing out her wallet to pay us. When we told her the class was free, it absolutely blew her mind and she didn't really know how to respond. ''People just don't do that!'' She said. The other person was our investigator Gabriel, who showed up with a gift for each of us: A magnifying class for each Elder and puzzles for the Hermana Missionaries. He does stuff like that, and we don't really know the reasons why usually. Today, he wanted us to help another investigator that we have because Gabriel noticed him not reading because he doesn't have glasses. This man has a heart of Gold. Shrek was pretty funny too. I almost enjoy the films more in Spanish now than I do in English.

While we attempted a great many visits this week, even visiting the neighboring city Huepil in an attempt to find more people to invite to Conference, we didn't meet with a whole lot of success. We were thrilled when our golden recent convert Luis made time out of his extremely busy schedule to attend a session, and also excited when a less active sister showed up with her son and two sisters, who are also less actives. She is going to drag her family back into activity, whether they want it or not. I love that kind of enthusiasm!

That's about all for this week. I loved Conference so much that I can't even describe. The heightened responsability of arranging the computers and providing the technical expertise to help everything to run really made me feel special and important, and the many incredible lessons are still running through my mind. I am ridiculously excited for the Conference Ensign to show up, and can't wait to start sharing these things with members and investigators. 

I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God, and that him and the Twelve Apostles truly are inspired and guided men for this time and this age. Never before has this fact been so strongly confirmed in my mind. I urge all of you who have the ability to do so to continue to watch and study and read these messages, especially with the intent to apply. That's my favorite part.

I love you all, and hope that this week is just peachy for you all!

Con mucho amor y animo,

Elder Richardson

March 31

Hello everyone!

Wow, what a week! I really can say that this week will be etched in my memory pretty clearly, because it has been a bit different than any other I have had the pleasure of having in my mission, or really my life. It has been, safe to say, one of the hardest mountains I have yet to climb.

This week, individuals that we had gone to do service with attacked us doctrinally. We were called liars and apostates and a host of other attractive titles during the week. Less actives and investigators we have worked with consistently have fallen through for a multitude of reasons. We have been turned about, disappointed, rejected, and a series of other things as well. A heavy, all day storm of freezing cold temperatures and enough rain to soak through layers of rain proof clothing topped off the week. It has truly been profoundly painful, and I have, for the first time in my mission, felt a little of that pain that older missionaries describe from the darker times of their services.

To paraphrase Jeffrey R Holland, I really do agree that the mission work is not meant to be easy, because it really isn't a cheap experience. Salvation has never been overly easy, and if it wasn't easy for the Savior Himself, how on Earth can we expect it to be easy for us?

But it is all for the better.

The refiner's fire was hotter than ever, and I can see a little bit clearer at this time. We have seen much that is in need of improvement, and this week was the revealer of many problems that we have allowed to grow in the past through laziness or unwillingness to face the difficulties. But we have decided that this simply will not do.

We have plans. We have goals. We have been filled with a fire that we didn't really have before. Our steps, which have long been slow and without cause, are now filled with purpose. We are working for a reason, and the vineyard now is open to our eyes. It is truly incredible the change that has taken place, the blessing of energy that now fills our hearts. The Elders of Yungay are ready to work, and are ready to do miracles in the name of the Lord.

I'm very, very excited for the up and coming weeks. With conference on the rise, we have stepped up everything. Planning has taken new fervor. Studies are filled with intensity that they lacked before. When we walk outside, we are ready to serve the Lord and the people of this city. It is a beautiful new feeling.

Words can't really descirbe the tumult of feelings and ideas that are going through our minds, but we are ready to do amazing things. Maybe, for one of the first times, we are really understanding our grand calls to serve. And how great is our calling.

I love you all, and hope for the best for each and every single one of you. You are all in my prayers and my thoughts, and I hope that you enjoy the week and especially the Conference weekend. Cheers!

With love (And newfound energy!),

Elder Richardson

March 24

Hey, I know this letter is super late and all that, but the entire city of Yungay was cut off from the internet by people repairing a cable tower. Such is life in a small farming community. Just wanted to say that things are going all right, and that life continues. I love you all, and hope the best for you.

Ciao!

Elder Richardson