I'm Dreaming of Wet Christmas!

Holiday Greetings from Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru! Hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I'm a little tired today, due to the fact that our neighbors in the next level of our building just got a new puppy, and it was up barking nice and early this morning. I ended up actually going up and threatening it I was gonna punt it off the roof if it didn't callarse. It didn't, but I also didn't punt it off the roof.  

So, remember all the appointments we had lined up for this week? Well, the investigators didn't. Haha. This week was kind of a pain, cuz we would go out and work all day long, and we had like 2 days this week that NOTHING happened haha. But, this week has been very very wet. It was raining all the time this week it seems like haha. So, the nice thing is, it hasn't been hot. But, Saturday, it rained really hard. Houses were flooding, and a lot of the streets too haha. I'm not talking a little bit of water, I'm talking, a raging river, complete with big rapids, was the roads haha. Kids were swimming in the road. It was pretty intense. But, with all the rain, my comp and I have been falling left and right. It's been pretty funny. My comp turfed it HARD yesterdayin a ton of mud, and on Saturday, I fell and almost was completely submerged by water haha. My scriptures were saved fortunately, so other than that I wasn't that upset, just laughed.  

I would like to talk about 2 of our investigators that we are working with, just to load em up with prayers from home. Benedicto, Juana, and Alex, and then Rosa are still doing well. Rosa came to church this week, so that was good. But, we have 2 investigators that I feel good about. The first is Maria Martinez and Pedro. Maria is kinda older, but not like, super old, and Pedro is 13. He's from Brazil, so he speaks only a little Castellano. They are progressing well, and we had an AWESOME lesson on the Book of Mormon this week with them. The other is Jessica, she is a young mother, and we're gonna start teaching with her husband this week, but she is progressing really well. She can start to come to church when she finishes up her college this week. I'm feeling real good about the both of them, but we'll see. 

This week, President Harbertson came with his wife and we had a Christmas party! We had pizza and cake (Yup, I put back on all the weight I've lost I think), and then an AWESOME Christmas devotional. I cried. Like a baby. And I'm totally fine with it. It was seriously awesome. But, also on that note, Elder Garcia and I have finished up our Christmas Box. We took it out for a whirl last night, and taught 2 lessons with it. THey were super impressed, and the Branch President came with us for one of the lessons, and afterwards was like, "Elders, that is super dope. We're gonna schedule some family home evenings with our friends and you have to come over and blow them away with the Spirit of Christmas". Okay, maybe not exactly his words, but I think some parts were lost in translation... I'm really excited to keep using it. 

So, President Harbertson gave us a Book of Mormon for Christmas, and a challenge to read it, but to mark every time it says the name of the Lord, and when he is speaking. It actually is quite surprising how much I'm marking! Truely, this book is another testament of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Anyways, I'm having a good time. My comp and I are always laughing and enjoying ourselves, even when we're soaking wet, but we still can teach with the Spirit, so it's great. Loving life haha. I know this church is true! Hope all is well back home! 

Con Amor,

Elder Richman

The pictures are of lots of stuff, our Christmas decorations, our visit to the bridge, our Christmas box, me getting ready to go trapse in the rain.. haha. Enjoy! 

¡Venid, Adoremos!

Hello everyone! I have heartbreaking news... this computer won't let me upload my photos, and I had good ones! That's okay. Next week!

This week was awesome! Seriously, we worked crazy hard, and we saw the results, and I loved it. I'm not gonna go through every day individually, cuz I want to talk about some of the people we are teaching.

First off, Benedicto, Juana, Alex, y Lizbeth. They are a family we are teaching right now. Alex, is like, 10 and he comes to church every Sunday. He has a baptism date for the end of this month, but we're working hard with his family. His family struggles to understand a little, but they always tell us how happy they feel when we come and teach them. I feel like they just need a little push, so we're gonna keep working with them. I'm excited to see where they go. 

Rosa Gregoria. She is another investigator we're teaching. She has a huge amount of faith, but struggles to understand kinda too. She is progressing well, reading her scriptures, but she doesn't seem to understand how important the things we are teaching are, so we have to help her to realize that. We have a member called Brother Valera who has been helping us out a lot with her, so I've seen a lot of the effectivness of the missionary with member team going on. It's sweet. 

We're working with a ton of less actives right now. We have Manuel, Rosa, Saturnina, Americo, Lizbeth, Jimena, Eva... lots. But, this Sunday, Americo, Saturnina, and Manuel came. Manuel is now reactivated (SWEET), and Saturnina and Americo haven't come to church in YEARS. So, it was way cool. Really, we just have a lot of people who are progressing really well.

This week rocked! We had citas almost the entire week for every hour, so it was way busy. There was times that we were running cita to cita, from one end of our sector to the other, but I seriously saw so many blessings for our sacrifices. This work is real. I love it!

I saw a sloth this week! So that was cool. I wanna have a pet one now. I hope my future spouse is gonna be okay with that. My comp and I also were invited to some strong chicha this week. It's like, a drink made from corn, but when it is hot for like, a day, it ferments. So, Juana our investigator invited us to some of her chicha (which is usually REALLY good) and we both took a drink, and almost threw up. It was WAY strong haha. So, we had to tell her that we couldn't drink it. But it was funny. Speaking of my comp, we're getting along really well. I'm having a lot of fun with him haha. We have a good time, but we work way hard, and teach well together. We put up Christmas decorations in our room this week, so that was cool. I have pictures, but I can't send em. We also have planned a big Christmas lesson that we're gonna start giving to people, with a box! We've wrapped up a big box like a present, and inside have built the Nativity. We're gonna talk about "Venid, Adoremos" or "Come Let Us Adore Him" and how we can do that now, through our church attendance, baptism... basically, it's a super well rounded lesson that we can use in whatever situation. I'm really excited about it, and I'll send some pictures when it's done. 

This week, the weather was nuts. We would leave in the morning, start sweating like a couple of animals, and then at like, 12 every day, the rain would start falling. Like... a lot. Since all the roads are dirt, the roads turn into rivers almost instantly haha. I'm not exhagerating(?) either haha. Like, a foot of water running down the roads. Fortunately, we have big old boots we wear haha. So it's sweet. 

Well. Time is a little short today, and I'm not sure what else to write. I'm excited for this next week, we already have lots of citas lined up again. It's gonna be a good one. Thanks for everything, love and miss you all, but I'm having a good ol' time down here in the jungles of Puerto Maldonado. Keep my investigators and the people I'm teaching in your prayers. As time progresses, I'll keep ya'll posted about it. Anyeways, until next week! 

Con amor,

Elder Richman

Sicksgiving!

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, ate delicious food, and gained just a little weight. Unfortunately, this week, we were all sick! But, I'll let you know what happened haha.

So, Monday, after email, we went to a place called the Obelisko. It's basically this big tall tower that you climb for forever, and then you can look out over all of Puerto Maldonado! It was really cool, and the view was actually really impressive. Afterwards, we went to this place called Copasu. It's a famous ice cream place here in Puerto, and it was actually SUPER good, especially cuz Monday it was very hot haha. 

So, this week, we had tons of citas lined up, and we were ready to work hard. However, Tuesday, my comp started feeling kind of sick, and then got to a point that he was REALLY sick, so we came back to the room. Wednesday he was feeling about the same, so I sat around and read Jesus the Christ (which I finished! It was awesome. I highly recommend it.), and about 2 o'clock, I started to feel super sick. So, we were feeling about the same, but we live with 2 other elders, Elder Bazan (Part Peruvian, part Chinese), and Elder Lamb from Indiana, and in the morning, Elder Bazan got sick too. Basically, all our bodies were hurting, we felt nauesious, and it hurt to move. Friday, we started feeling a little better, so we went out and about to start working again. We happened to find out about a woman here who passed away recently, and they were having a viewing service. So, we went to ask if we could help with anything. The woman who had passed away has a daughter with like... 12 years, and a baby with 2 months. So we asked her widower if we could do anything, and he told us to come back at night to offer a prayer. 

So, a bit of background on my comp before I tell you about this. My comp is Elder Garcia from Mexico. He is seriously awesome. He is my age, so we get along really well, and we laugh and joke a lot, but I feel like we teach effectively together. But, he cracks me up, cuz he loves Christmas so much, and even though he doesn't speak English, he can sing a ton of Christmas songs in English, word for word, almost perfectly. It's pretty great. So, we go to the funeral that night, and we are just kinda waiting around for about half an hour to say the prayer. This was a Catholic funeral too, and we don't know the traditions of a Catholic funeral, so we were really unsure of ourselves. But at one point, Elder Garcia started singing quietly, "I'll have a blue... Christmas... without you...."  I smacked him and told him to be quiet, cuz I almost started laughing.  He is kinda spacy so he forgot where we were, and just started singing. Cracked me up. But I told him that in the prayer he offered, he had to teach parts of the Plan of Salvation. So, he did the prayer, and was basically teaching Lesson 2 during it haha. Afterwards I gave a quick rundown of our message, and that we were here to share it with all in this time of difficulty and need. It was cool, and we actually got a few new investigators from it. All in all this was with like 30 people. It was cool. 

Unfortunately, Saturday, the pain came back to me like, 3 fold, mostly in my chest. I dunno what I had, but I seriously couldn't breathe without feeling like my chest was gonna explode. It was nuts. Wow, it's raining a ton right now. Anyways. 

Yesterday was better. It was testimony meeting, and it feels really good to be in a branch that everything is running quite smoothly already. It was really relaxing and refreshing to just sit back and listen to the peoples testimonies yesterday, cuz that never really happened in Echarati haha. I just am really excited about the branch that we are in.

Well, I think that's it for this week, I was sick, and even though I was sick, it was good. I did a lot of studying my scriptures and other missionary books, and got to bond a bit with my comp and the other missionaries in our room. Today we have plans to go and decorate our room for Christmas, so that's exciting. But, I'm excited for this week. Yesterday we hit up a TON of houses to get citas, so our week is already almost full, so I'm excited to see how it goes. Wish me luck. Anyways. Can't think of anything else. Love and miss you all, and I'm doing well! Hasta la proxima semana! 

Con amor, 

Elder Richman

I'm Melting!

Well, I'm here in Puerto Maldonado AKA Hell. I mean that in a literal sense, we live on a road called Infierno, which means, Hell. So. Hahaha. But no, it's so stinking hot here it's ridonkulous. Why people choose to live here is beyond me, but that people that do choose to live here are super cool. I seriously love it here! But, I'm gonna let ya'll know about my week. 

So, Tuesday morning, we took off! Loaded up in a tiny combi, with all of our gear, for the ride to Cusco. This was the first time taking it in the day, so I learned what it consists of. 1 hour of driving along the riverbanks, 2 hours of switchbacks climbing mountains, 1 hour of riding along mountain valleys, 1 of riding through Sacred Valley, and then another of riding along valleys. So, it was a sweet ride, got some cool pictures. Got to Cusco, dropped off our stuff, then went and did some touristy stuff because we (Elder Haffie and I) had nothing to do. So, we went to the Plaza de Armas again, and had McDonalds and walked around. Basically, all the gringo missionaries that had changes that day convened in McDonalds, so that was kinda cool. But, it was a cool day. Stayed that night at a missionaries apartment.

Wednesday got in our bus at 10 for our 12 hour drive to Puerto. Not alot to report about that one. Long, but actually not that bad. Stepped off the bus in Puerto and heard "Daniel?!" Hahaha. So, met up with Sister Shanlee Hansen. She's actually with me in the same internet right now. Kinda funny. But, we haven't really had a chance to talk. I gave her a hard time for calling me Daniel though. 

Thursday, it was raining all day, so we had to wear boots everywhere. It was wet haha. Puerto is flat! It's weird not having mountains. But, Thursday was good. Got to know a couple of the people around here. The weather wasn't too bad at least. 

Friday and Saturday, more of the same.. the weather started getting progressively more hot... but, BLAM! Sunday. It was so stinking hot. And to top it all off, we didn't have water. I bathed myself out of a bucket, yesterday and today. We are hoping we have water tonight in the night. But yeah. Yesterday was way hot. I was like, pouring sweat all day. Today is stinking hot too, but it looks like it's gonna rain, so that'd be sweet.

Basically I can't tell you much about my investigators or members, because there is a billion, and I don't remember their names and stuff in these moments, so next week I'll elaborate a bit more on them. But, we're teaching a couple families right now that are progressing well, and we have a ton of investigators and less actives we are working with. I'm very excited for the work here, and I think in December we're gonna see a couple of baptisms.  

So, my sector is called La Joya. It is real big. It consists of a part called La Joya, La Joyita, y Upis. Upis is like, clear the heck in the middle of no where, it's like 30 minutes of walking in blistering heat to go there, but we have lots of investigators there. La Joya is pretty normal, but La Joyita is basically a community of houses made out of tarps. It's pretty poor. All the streets here are dirt. But seriously, the people here are so cool. I'm so stoked, you guys don't understand.  

Um.. oh! We have a branch here, and it ROCKS. Our Branch President is from Spain, so the first time I saw him I thought he was American haha. But he is so cool. He has only been a member for 2 years, but he is so fired up for the work. He helps us out so much, and he's getting the members so involved with the work, so that's why it's progressing pretty well here. I'm really excited to work with the ward. Yesterday I gave a talk about testimonies (20 minute talk, that I prepped at 9 at night the night before I gave it... I'm just that good). The memmbers really liked it. But, yesterday night we had a area conference/training for the members of the ward council and missionaries, so we all went to that, and it was about the members and the missionaries working hand in hand, so that was cool. 

Aguaje. Something interesting from here. It's a fruit that grows here, but it was a ton of female hormones. So. The 13 year old girls here look like.. 17 or 18. It is super creepy. There's also a handful of guys that really enjoy eating it, that literally have started to take on female qualities, like, physically. Super weird.

Anyways, I think that's all. My new sector rocks. It's smack dab in the jungle, and I'm excited to explore it a bit. I'm excited for the people we're teaching, and I think we are gonna see some cool things happen here. I'm stoked about my comp, he actually reminds me a lot of my buddies, so I think we're gonna have a good time. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week, and I love and miss you all! Until next week!!

(Pictures! Got some of saying bye in Quillabamba, eating in McDonalds.. yum... some of the drive, and then some of my new zone. One of the less active members we have been teaching has a parrot, so that's what that is. And the big building is our room. Our room is like, legitly one of the best in the mission, it is so sweet haha.)

-Elder Richman

Me Voy!

Bueno, recibí un llamado ayer a medianoche... Elder Quispe, el lider de distrito me dijo... "Elder Richman, tienes cambio a Puerto Maldonado!" Como??? De todos las zonas en la misión, voy a estar en las dos donde hacen demasiado calor... jaja. Esta bien, estoy muy animado para ir! Quiero saber si Hermana Hansen esta allá todavía, seria chevere a hablar con ella. Bueno, voy a escribir in ingles ahora. Lo siento.  

Okay, for you who don't speak Spanish, I have a change! I head out tomorrow for Cusco, then on Wednesday for Puerto Maldonado, in Madre de Dios! Like, NOW, I'm legitly going to the jungle. I'm pretty stoked about it, but I'm not looking forward to sweating even more... the one nice thing, is I'll lose more weight? I hope. Haha. 

Monday, we went to Mondor, a big old waterfall! I have a few pictures of that for ya'll. It was really cool. Got a great picture there of Elder Nolan my zone leader/brother... haha seriously, I'm gonna miss him when I go to Puerto! 

Tuesday we did a mutual, but since there wasn't power, we were forced to play games and stuff, rather than watch the church movie we were planning on... but it was really good! Made me happy cuz a couple of the youth that weren't coming, are coming now. I feel like I have helped the youth here at least a little bit. One of them, Sunday, when we were saying there might be changes, she looked kinda startled and said to me, "Well I hope not, cuz you're someone real cool!" She is like 13, so it's not anything weird, but it seriously made me feel so good. It's nice to know I made a good influence on someone. 

Did splits with Elder Haefelmann again on Thursday, so that was fun. At the end of the day, we said bye to Elder Mendez, cuz he went home yesterday. I sent a picture of him to  ya'll too.  

Ummm... Oh! One of the families that I have helped activate, the familia Medina, is now officially activated! So, that makes me happy. We did a family home evening with them yesterday, and I'm super glad we did, now that I'm leaving especially. 

Got my package! That was nice, thanks for that haha. This week I had the opportunity to work in a restaurant. One of the less actives we are working with has her restaurat, and we went to teach, and she was super busy, so we helped for like an hour serving people haha. It was fun! Also, got my bed this week, so I was no longer sleeping on the floor! 

Well, today we emailed late cuz I packed everything and said bye. I almost lost it saying bye to the pensh cuz she started crying, and I was like, "AWWWW!!" But, I kept it together. I also was able to say bye to the family Quispe, which made me super happy. I hope they can keep progressing, and finally get married!  

Sweet. I think that's it for this week. OH! Yesterday was our penshs birthday, so, I ate Cuy! It's a little guenia pig! It was interesting. Not gross, but not my favorite food. But, I like the picture I took. the other picture is with Hno Pascual, the guy who walks 2 hours every Sunday. He's the best.  

Well. Now that's it. I think. It was a good week overall, and I'm excited to go to the jungle, even if it feels like sitting in an oven. I know I'm here for a reason, and I know that someone in Puerto needs me, and that makes me excited! Thanks for the love and support, hope all is well at home. I'll let ya'll know about Puerto Maldonado! Until next week!

Les quiero mucho! 

Elder Richman

Hello Everybody!

All right. How's everyone doing? I hope quite well. This week was perdy good, although our numbers were wayyyyy low. Kinda frustrating. Basically, we hardly taught investigators this week. Which is frustrating, but there's only to hope for better next week, and keep... uh... esforzándome? I honestly don't know how to say that in English. Like, keep getting beter and strengthening myself? I dunno, it makes sense in Spanish haha. Anyways, let's dive right in.  

So, first off. My package, FINALLY GOT HERE. I'm going to pick it up today from the Zone Leaders place. So that's pretty exciting. It was a lot of drama, but I think from now on my packages will get here faster cuz I have my carta de poder now. 

Oh, also, if I didn't tell ya'll, my bed broke like 3 weeks ago, so I have been sleeping on the floor for like 3 weeks haha. My new bed came today, so I'm excited to sleep on that again.  

Soooo... Monday was spent in Quillabamba for Pday. We made pizza and macaroni and cheese. Tuesday we met with some members, and with a few investigators. Wednesday, we came to Quilla, and the gringos did divisions and the latinos did divisions. So, it was a fun filled day of teaching, speaking in English, and eating American food for all our meals. Sadly, the numbers from that day didn't get to count towards our numbers... haha. Thursday, my comp was suffering from some different problems, so he refused to go out and work, so that was a fun day....Friday...um. We worked with a bunch of members that day, and got stuff ready for an activity on Saturday. 

Saturday we had an activity, that basically lasted all day for us. We started out with a service project in the morning with a member, then came to the chapel and cleaned there, then we ate lunch with the members. It was pretty good, we had a decent turn out, and we took lunch to some of the members who couldn't come. But, doing all of it ended up taking up most of the day, so there went a lot of potential for numbers that day... Fluuuussshhhh....

Sunday was good! We're climbing with our numbers that are coming to church, so that makes me super happy. We have some less actives that are now considered active, cuz they have come a lot and are participating again, so that makes me happy. Although we maybe didn't have a lot of lessons with investigators, we are definitely strengthening the group here. I really don't care that much if we have lots of baptisms or not, but it makes me happy that these people are starting to find or refind their testimonies. We taught a few people in the evening, so that was good.

All in all, it was a good week, but our numbers looked perdy bad, which is a bummer. But, we're seeing progress here, and that is what is important to me. Fun story for the week... I was going to put gel in my hair this week, and I picked up my gel bottle real fast (it was laying on it's side on the counter, in our outdoor bathroom). When I picked it up, I saw something brown fall behind me, so I looked behind me and didn't see anything, so I turned back to the mirror to put the gel in my hair... and I saw a HUGEMONGOUS cockroach running up my shirt trying to climb on my face. My comp ran out of the room cuz he thought someone was trying to kill me.

Anyways. Keep on keeping on everybody! Love and miss you! Gona see if I have a change this week.. part of me wants one, and part of me wants to stay... guess we'll see haha. Until next week!

Elder Richman 

Día de los Muertos

Hi guys! 

So, just to start off. The fact that it is now November, and that I am going to hit my 5 month mark tomorrow is crazy. Seriously. It goes fast. Haha. 

Also. This week was superdy duper slow as far as the work goes. 2 of the days, we were super sick, 2 of the days everyone was drunk, and another day we were doing service. Forunately, the lessons we did have, were pretty powerful, and it was cool. But, I'll let ya'll know all about it.

So. Tuesday, one of the inactives here invited us to eat. Yeah, cool, so we go eat lunch. All I can say is I feel really bad for her husband. I dunno what happened, but that food like, poisoned both of us on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, we basically would leave the casa capilla for a bit, see if we could contact anyone, and then sprint back home when we needed to make a... ahem... trip.  

Thursday was good, we were feeling good so we worked all day, pretty hard, but still a lot of people weren't home. Friday was... uh. I don't know what the holiday is. Basically, it's like, "Get together, drink a lot, eat some pig, and don't let missionaries into your house" Day. We didn't have a single lesson that day haha. So, that was kind of a bummer, BUT, we did eat good (even though we couldn't eat the pig. ) That day we also saw a giant bug with these massive pincers. It looked like a super mean Pokemon.

Saturday was Dia de los Muertos. So, everyone and their dog went to the cemetary to drink to their friends and family who have passed on. So, that was another slow day haha. We had a few lessons that day at least. 

Sunday, was pretty good. We had a decent number in sacrament meeting, but not any investigators, or the less actives we've been focusing on, but there were a lot. I bore my testimony, and later taught the youth and single adults about the vision of the tree of life, which was a lot of fun. Later that day, we went to a party! Okay, let me explain. We went to visit Rony and Yhoseli (la familia Quispe) and they were prepping for the birthday party of their little boy. So, we went and started helping them prep for it and everything. Like, 10 minutes before they started, Yhoseli was in tears, cuz they had invited and prepped food for like, 40 people, and only 7 were there, and her poor little baby was absolutely terrified of the clown. So, we stayed a little longer cuz we felt super bad. It was actually really good, cuz we ended up gaining a lot of the trust of both sides of their families, and we're gonna start trying to teach them. But, we really have the trust of the familia Quispe. Seriously. I can honestly say that I am going to remember them the rest of my life. I seriously love them haha. 

We decided to eat breakfast in our room this month, and not in the penshes house. So, that was scary to tell her, but she didn't care, and now we get to eat real good food in the comfort of our house, while we study! I'm down with that.

Okay. So, sad news. This week, Rosa Nina Mamani, my convert, left to Cusco. It was sad. Now I just gotta trust that she'll keep staying active and progressing. I think she will. She's a good one! Haha. 

There are 3 people I'd like to talk about today. 2 of them are less actives, and 1 is active, but he is the biggest stud in the world. First, Yellin. She was baptized about a year ago, and drifted from the church a little while after. She has come a long ways, but still isn't convinced to come back, but we are SO close with her. We had an AWESOME lesson this week about the talk from the April conference by Elder Holland called "Lord, I Believe." It was super good. She didn't come on Sunday, but I think we're gonna see her in church soon. Medalid, also was baptized about a year ago, but recently stopped coming. She's been sad cuz her grandmothers health is failing, so basically, she is locking herself inside her suffering, so that's been a struggle. We've been trying to help her turn to the love of Christ, and we're making progress, but her also, didn't come. Both of them fill us full of a billion excuses. 

Now I'm gonna tell ya'll 'bout Pascual. So, the irony in this situation is that Medalid and Yellin live like, around the corner from church, and they don't come. Pascual lives over 2 hours away, walking. He comes EVERY Sunday, in his white shirt, and dress pants (which no one does here). He always comes early, and he always comes into the chapel and starts cleaning up. He can't read, and he is super old, but he has like, a simple faith, and he always acts on it. He's seriously the best. That guy keeps me going through the week, I'll tell you what haha. 

Anyways. I like being real descriptive in my emails, or at least a little, because I feel like all of you have helped me get to where I am now, and I want you to have the priviledge to know these awesome people I know, to know my joys and sorrows, and to feel like you're a part of my adventure here, because to me, all of you are! Thank you for everyhing you've all done, and I love and miss you all! Until next week!

Elder Richman