Fun in Yungay

Yungay City!

February 24, 2014

Buenos Tardes a todo de mis amigos en todo de las partes en Chile, Los Estados Unidos, y el mundo! Ustedes son los mejores amigos que una persona puede querer, y yo estoy agradecido cada día de mi vida a tener sus oraciones y su apoyo. ¡Muchísimo gracias!

Oh, how the time flies. It is very hard to believe that I am entering my fifth week here in the beautiful sector of Yungay. Every day brings new adventures, new experiences, and especially new challenges. This week was definitely one of the harder ones of my mission, but the purpose behind it and the things that can be improved are appearing clearer and clearer to mine eyes. It has been a grand time to learn and to grow in the work of the Lord, and I am humbled by the experiences that are helpíng to shape me and make me a better missionary and servant.

First of all, I am excited by the prospect of a baptism this next week. Hermano Luis is the husband of a less active, who has been cold and sometimes hostile to the missionaries for some time. Though the wife certainly appreciates us and the kids are all our buddies, the missionaries have just not had the ability to touch the stone cold heart of this man. That is, until a few weeks ago.

His wife called us on a Saturday night, inviting us to a Noche de Hogar. He firmly told us that he is ready to be baptized, and every consecutive visit has confirmed it more strongly. Thsi man is on fire, reading chapters in the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets every single night. He has accepted commitments straight away, difficult and easy, and has opened his home to us with open arms.

Something changed in the life of this stone cold man. He was prepared, just as there are so many others being prepared in every part of His vineyard.

Sometimes, I wonder how on Earth we can go about to do this grand work. But then, I remember, that this isn't our work, but His. He will provide the means, if we but provide the labor. That is His promise, repeated time and time again in the scriptures. This week I saw that, as a small activity exploded into activity with the arrival of a dozen members, all prompted to come by the Spirit. I saw that in bursts of revelation and inspiration for the calling in the last minute that really blessed certain individuals. 

I was also reminded of the necessity to be active for all of our lives. We met a family this week, who between the three inactive members, was a former branch president, a former member in a stake presidency, a former relief society president, a former activities director, and a current relief society presidency member. The good that this one family could do in this little branch is unbelievable, and the blessings that they could be bestowing in the lives of others and receiving in turn blows me away. Several small things are all that keeps this family from changing the face of our little branch, and makes me a little sad. Agency is a tricky thing, changing lives for the better (Like Luis) and for other ways (Like this little family). I have sworn to make sure that I am always making the decisions in my life that will lead to the Savior.

I love you all, and want to bear my testimony that this grand work is in the hands of the Lord. He will provide the way, will make our pathway smooth, and will strengthen our hands. It takes our faith and our works to bring down the blessings of heaven on our lives. Let us go forth and reap while the field is still white.

With love,

Elder Richardson

Yungay - with companion, Elder Moore

Getting Humbled In Yungay!

I would like to apologize in advance for the brevity of this letter, as a ''brief'' survey the mission asked us to fill out took more than 2/3 of our time and its still not done.

Wow, what a week! So much has happened, so much has changed, and so much is now being viewed in a completely different light that I feel that its a different mission now. A lot of things happened in this past week that my companion and I are still reeling just a bit, trying to prepare for the future. To sum it all up, it would definitely be described as a weeklong lesson in responsibility, humilty, and service.

To start with, I received a calling this last Sunday as the Second Counselor in the Rama of Yungay. This, combined with some fresh reminders of my missionary calling as Senior Companion, has given me a fresh view of the responsability that I have here. As servants, represantatives of Jesus Christ, we have this incredible opportunity to bless so many lives with our service. There are people being prepared every single day, all over the sectors that we work and all over the world in general, being personally led to the day when they will talk to us and see the light of the Gospel burning in our message. There is proof of this every moment of the work here, as we find new investigators and other individuals who are ready to listen to the Spirit testify. We have committed, made covenants that we will give our greatest efforts to help the work move along, which will only happen if we have our shoulders to the wheel.

Its a bit overwhelming at times. To say any less would probably be a bit of a fib. The combined responsabilities of working with less actives, the recent converts, the active members, the investigators, and those who don't quite fit on any of those lists quite yet, all just kind of build up. But it certainly is accomplishable. I have seen miraculous things.
The Lord will make His work a success if we are doing all that we can to accomplish it. Plans came through or people showed up in the exact moments that we needed them this week, and we were busier than ever. We are working harder and harder, and the work is progressing magnificently. 

One experience in particular really got to me. An investigator who is confined to his wheelchair has been struggling in the past to remove his last few doubts and make the full comitment to the church. We asked if there could be a service that we could do for him, and he admitted that there was a several times a week activity that we could do for him, but it would take a pretty hefty toll on our time during proselyting hours. We were a little wary, but the Spirit testified to us that if we accepted, we would receive many more blessings for our sacrifice. We did, and have seen that promise fulfilled in more ways than we can imagine. This last week, we found ten new investigators and taught more than 18 lessons.

In the past few months, I have seen more and more clearly that we are always trying to go at this with our own strength, in our own methods. But, when we're called to the Lord's work, we'll only find the greatest growth and success when we trust in Him and His ways. This struck very hard this last week, and really humbled my companion and I, who had been particualarly set in our ways about lessons and how we treat investigators. We had gotten very comfortable with a certain one-size-fits-all methodology, and made plans and goals based on what was easiest for us, even if we didn't realize thats what we were doing at the time. During a family home evening, a less active sister asked us plainly and clearly why we weren't doing for her investigator husband what her missionaries did for her, namely daily visits or calls and lots of personal attention, rather than general lessons and visits. 

It knocked us back a step, because she was clearly in the right. We hadn't been doing all that we could for that man, as an individual. We talk a lot about the many things we need to do, but we forget that the work is not with the multitude, but with the one. We are teaching individuals, who individually need our greatest work and attention. 

We simply can't accomplish this without Heavenly Father and a host of His servants. A great aid especially to me has been my fantastic companion, Elder Moore. This kind Canadian has been an incredible inspirtation for me with his plain and simple and powerful love and testimony. He truly devotes his all to the work, and leaves it all in the hands of Heavenly Father. I sometimes feel that he is teaching me more than I could ever teach him, even though I'm his senior comp. Heavenly Father has been very kind in pairing me up with Elder Moore. (P.S. He is essentially a long lost twin to one of my best friends from home, Craig Hendricks. It is awesome.)

Service, service, service. We talk about it all the time, and especially the need for it for these people. Missions are a service, as are individual callings. We share the scripture of being in the service of God and our fellow man, but do we really understand this term? I didn't, and I still have a lot to learn about it.
Service is charity. It is the pure love of God in action, and shows our willingness to sacrifice of our own self and put the needs of another first. Whether it be in time, money, or labors, our service will bring down the blessings of heaven on others and on our own heads as well. The Savior, who lived a life of devoted service to the people of Judea and through His later actions to the whole world, taught it the best in one of His final and most important teachings to His 12 Apostles. There is no individual that is too great to serve. In fact, one of the things that makes an individual great is his willingness to serve. 

Oh, how we need this in our lives! We focus so much on us, what we need to change, what we need to do, what is in our way, what is to be done by us, and what will be the end result for us. But when we change that us to them, when we focus on the needs and lives of others, our live takes on a whole new vivid vibrancy. There is far more joy in this journey, and far more love to be felt and blessings to be given. It amazes me how much we gain from serving others. The scriptures and lives of heroic individuals and God-like men and women are rife with examples of this simple principle.

I testify of these things for I have seen them all in my life. We have a grand responsability in our lives to bless the lives of others, but we do not have to be overwhelmed. God has prepared, and will always prepare the way for us to tread. Sometimes it is a bit harder than we first thought, but when we turn to Him in humility, we will overcome all that is in our ways. Our grandest responsability is to serve our fellow man, to bless the life of another, and do so through the incredible blessings only available in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we do so, our lives will be so greatly enriched, we will not even begin to think that the sacrifice outweighed the reward. Remember, that the worth of even one soul is greater than all else in the sight of God. I share these things in the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

With love,
Elder Richardson

Miracles Will Happen - Feb. 10th

Hello Everybody!

It has been a very hot week here in sunny Yungay (Or as the locals jokingly call it, Yungay City or Yungay York). I hope that this past week has brought many incredible experiences for all of you, and that your health and happiness are at their best. This week has been very clear that there are many wonderful blessings in every moment of our lives, if we but look for them with eyes of faith.

Elder Moore, shortly after our first introduction, told me that one of his strongest goals right now is to improve in being obedient with exactitude. Now, this has always been a particular challenge for me in the mission, but inspired by his selfless dedication, I decided to commit to the challenge. And a challenge it has been!

We have had some days of near constant reasons to break some rules, and many opportunities to bend some others. But with a determination to be exact and a strong desire to receive blessings, we've humbled ourselves significantly and done what was necessary to follow the rules, even if that meant cancelling plans and turning down seemingly good opportunities. But in the end, we have received far more blessings than what we have sacrificed.

Though some lessons have suffered, we have been able to achieve greater numbers than we have in previous weeks. Far more importantly, we have been able to bless many more people in more significant ways. Sometimes, our blessings have been more subtle, like a small prompting in the back of our minds during a lesson that inspired several necessary questions. Sometimes, they have been far greater, such as what happened Saturday night.

After a really rough day, several of our promising lessons had fallen through. Our planned activity of Futbol didn't have anyone, apart from a few children of menos activos in the rama, and we found our that our best lesson at the last hour had dropped. We weren't particularly happy, but in our moment of need, we received a very random phone call. A menos activo, who we had visited once in the last two weeks, wanted to set up a Noche De Hogar with us, and we gladly accepted. We found out that night that her non member husband had set up the activity after three months of dodging the missionaries, because something had touched his heart.

He essentially told us that he wanted to be baptized, and after a spiritually inspired lesson, with some very well placed questions from the wife, the doubts of this man just melted away. He accepted baptism, he accepted fecha, he even permitted his young daughter, who he refused in the past, to accept the same date of baptism. We were blown away. After we left, we might have even cheered and hugged, but I was too happy to even express myself, Elder Moore moreso.

We have seen, without a doubt, that blessings and even miracles will follow obedience. The more obedient that we are, the more we can expect from our Father in Heaven. D&C 82:10 and 130:20-21 really show this principle clearly.

There is always more that we can do. We are very excited for what the future will hold, because we know that this time time is a time of progression. Life is always getting better, and there is always more blessings to find and experience. What a wonderful time to be alive and enjoy the blessings of this beautiful world that we have!

Some other things I've seen this week:

When we have set in our ways to not be humble, something will definitely come along and humble us. 

It is incredibly therapeutic to find a house filled with flies and just take a flyswatter to them. During the last five minutes of a lesson with a darling 95 year lady, I borrowed her swatter and eradicated 24 of the little buggers. It felt really good.

Patience really is  virtue. As I've worked on developing my ability to listen first, respond later, I've had several funny and good learning moments. I've seen people accidentaly declare that its alright to break the law of chastity as long as you're not married first, say that the pet horse the woman is keeping alive should be put to sleep, and partially agree to the doctrine of reincarnation, all in the same lesson. It was a lot of fun after to tease the poor individual, and in the end all the false doctrine was put to rest.

I love you all so much, and hope that this week continues to be an excellent one for all of you. There are some incredible blessings to be found and I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father is ready to bless us with everything we need and more, if we but show our readiness to receive.

Sincerely,

Elder Richardson

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