Hola!
Phew, this week has been a crazy one! Ups and downs all over the place!
Well, last Thursday
was pretty cool. We did our compliment circle for me, and I almost
cried. Everyone is just so nice here, and it was incredible. Everyone
said such sincere kind things, and it just blew me away to feel the
amount of love these people have for me after just 3 short weeks. (Wow.
That's crazy. 3 weeks. I'm halfway done with the MTC!)
So, on Thursday,
we taught our investigator Walter again... it was kinda rough. But we
initially went out feeling like it was all right! But, later that day,
we had Coach Missionary Study with Hermano Hale. Basically, it's one on
one time (well, one on two...) with our teacher to give us feedback on
our lessons. We were expecting a "You're doing a good job, keep it up,
and keep trying." Instead, it was more of a "You guys seriously need to
fix some things." It was pretty crazy, because I have been pretty
satisfied with our lessons. The biggest issue was ultimately, we weren't
doing a good job of listening to our investigator. Hermano Hale asked
us what new things we had learned about Walter, and we realized, that
within 2 visits, we knew NOTHING new about him. It was just kinda eye
opening. He told us we needed to try harder to listen and let the Spirit
guide our lessons. In the end he said "Les quiero monton" ( I love you
both a heap, basically), but he just wanted us to improve. It was so
good though. Sort of like an Elder Holland talk.
So the next day wasn't too crazy.. uh, just practiced a
lot of Spanish.. but that evening, we got to meet President and Sister
Harbertson, the new mission presidents in Peru, Cusco!
Oh my gosh. Seriously, I love them. Not like, oh, they're really cool.
Like, I legitimately have met them once and they are like a second set
of parents for me. President Harbertson is the nicest guy, and he is so
fun and down to earth. He loves skiing, and does a bunch of adventerous
stuff. He is going to be amazing. Sister Harbertson is the sweetest
lady. While she was talking to us, she was saying how it was sad to
leave her family at home, but she just started crying and she just said,
"But, I'm so excited to have 200 new kids." It was so cute.
I'm so excited to get to know them more. They told us a lot of cool
stories about the mission too. There's actually a surprisingly large
amount of members down there! There are 2 stakes in Cusco alone! Crazy!
Theres also a floating reed chapel in Lake Titicaca that Elder
Christofferson dedicated.
But yeah. I love them. And I got to talk to Hermana Hansen there, so
that was cool to catch up and see how her and all the other Cusco people
are doing. President Harberston wants our mission slogan to be, Vaya
SOLO. S-Servicio (Service), O-Orar (Pray), L-Leer (Read), O-Obediencia
(Obedience). I like it. So, there are 11 zones in Cusco, 200,000 square miles, and 3 million people in my mission. Pretty cool!
The next day was the big devotional. For those of you
who would like to see, I am in the video. Twice! If you go to watch the
broadcast on the church website, at 2:42, I am on the left, 6 from the
top. And at 1:53:39, I am on the left side of the screen. Basically I
was really excited. So I got to sing in the choir, and the apostles kept
turning around and just looking at us with so much pride, and gave us
thumbs up and waved at us... highlight of my life. I saw my parents too!
Twice! So that was pretty incredible! I really enjoyed talking to them
for a few minutes. But yeah, I was a little bummed President Monson
wasn't there, but it was all right. The conference was great. The
internet will be interesting to start to use... During the song/video
with Armis of Heleman and missionaries growing up.. yeah. I got really
emotional, because here I am, doing the work! It's amazing!
I'm skipping Monday, because I want to come back to it in the end.
Tuesday
was all right. Nothing crazy happened... We had a pretty cool
devotional with Sister Peery. She wrote a bunch of songs in the Primary
Hymnbook, and she wrote Sisters in Zion. We sang a lot, and when she was
telling us about the line her husband used on her (Those lips look like
they were made to do something better than play clarinet) he got up and
kissed her in front of everyone haha it was pretty funny. Everyone
stood up and cheered. But at the end, she had made this version of As
Sisters in Zion, with Armies of Helaman. Yeah... it was way cool. Like,
all the sisters were crying, and I had goosebumps like nobodies business
haha.
So, one thing about this week that has been kinda
cool/lame. So, all the mission presidents are here training, which means
all the Quorum is here! So, that's awesome! However, we are kicked out
of the cafeteria. So, we eat in the gym. It's better managed now, but
the first few days were TERRIBLE. Like, seriously. So badly managed. One
day, we were supposed to have burgers. So, by the time we got there,
they were already out of burgers, so we had chicken. Then they ran out
of that, so they heated up ham from breakfast. And then they ran out of
that, so people were seriously getting lettuce sandwiches. I was like,
are you serious?! And then another morning they ran out of white milk,
so I had Cheerios with chocolate milk, which might sound good.... no.
Not at all. Haha.
Also, the new district in our zone is pretty awesome.
We have a new Australian Elder, and he played on the West Coast
Australia volleyball team. Pretty cool. So, playing with him is really
fun haha. And, I had the opportunity to give him his first Dr Pepper. It
was a beautiful moment.
So! Tuesday.
So, Elder Brown and I got to teach Walter again. Our plan was really
really really to focus on him, and just listen, and listen to the
Spirit. So we started talking with him, and he opened up a lot. He lives
here in the US and his family is still in Guatemala, and he hasn't seen
them in 5 years. He loves his daughter to death. Unfortunately, he has a
drinking problem, and really wants to stop, and he pretty much hates
himself because of it. So, we started talking about that, and we asked
him to tell us a bit more about it and whatnot. He basically came back
and said, "Why, I don't even know you?" So, it was kinda awkward for a
sec, and then Elder Brown goes... "Well... I'm from Sandy, Utah.." and
just started giving us a biography. Walter kind of laughed, and listened
to us. Then he turned to me, and I started speaking, and I don't know
why, but I just had this prompting to talk about my family. When I
started talking about my sisters, I'm not sure what really happened, but
the Spirit punched me in the face. I have never in my entire life felt
the Spirit like I did in that moment, but it just filled my heart and
mind, and fortunately, mouth. My eyes were just filling up with tears as
I bore testimony to Walter that I know that it's hard being away from
family, and especially his daughter. I know it's hard, but that the
reason I was here was to help teach him this gospel, because I knew with
all of my heart that it is true, and that through it, he can live with
his family for eternity! I went on for probably a good five minutes,
speaking Spanish fluidly, asking questions to really get him thinking,
and just bearing testimony of how true this gospel is, and how it can
help him through his struggles and hardships in life. We left with
inviting him to read some scriptures, and Elder Brown and I walked into
our classroom without saying a word, put down our books, and then just
hugged each other haha. He just went, "So Elder... what was that?!" He
described it to other people as "Yeah, Elder Richman just bore a fiery
testimony." It was really cool. I know without a doubt that the Spirit
was helping me and guiding me. Elder Brown said there were points during
my lesson that he thought I was going to start pounding the desk, but
he said it was in a good way. I honestly can't do this lesson justice,
but just thinking about it gives me goosebumps all over again.
Basically, I love it here, and life is good. I love
this gospel, and every day, I come to know more and more of it's truths.
Love and miss you all, but the work is hastening, and I'm proud to be a
part of it.
Hope to hear from you!!
Con Amor!
Elder Richman
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