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