September 3, 2013

Hey things are great the reason I'm writing this on Tuesday is today is my pday because our president thought that we should work on the holiday because more people would be home. He actually was right. Yesterday  I was on exchanges with elder Beaty our district leader, and I started talking to this Hispanic lady who was listening to Spanish music on her porch and she didn't have work but usually always works on Mondays.

So if we had pday we would not have met her. She was pretty nice and we got a return appointment for Sunday, so that means she is a new investigator. The exchange was good we got to ride in a car and teach a lot of lessons to inactive families and I like elder Beaty. This week has been pretty good.

I had a kind of different experience this last week. So we were going to teach a lesson to this guy who hadn't been taught for a while but we were going to re teach him the restoration and challenge him to baptism. This guy had also heard all the lessons before. Well anyway after the prayer he said he wanted to show this church video his friend showed him. It was in Spanish so at first I believed him then it ended up having the title in English and I learned it was an anti Mormon video called the God Makers or something like that. We watched it a little then elder Calister told him it was anti Mormon and turned it off. Then the guy, who speaks English and Spanish, was telling us about what it was about. And how to find out the truth we have to learn from different things and some of them might be right.

Well I think I handled the situation well and I was proud of myself and I bore my testimony and I talked to him about finding the truth of things through the holy ghost. I also shared a scripture from Moroni (I think maybe Chapter7) But it talks about how things that are sent from God testify of Christ and encourages man to do good and come unto Christ, and then I said that if this scripture is true it must mean that the Book of Mormon is from God. Well I talked more and was patient. My Companion, was not patient. He got mad a little and raised his voice in the discussion. The investigator said he liked me and that I’m going to do great things because I am calm and loving. Then he explained to my companion that he should be careful because not everyone in this life and around here is like him. And usually if you get mad at someone in their house they won't put up with it and will tell you something else.

But since this guy loved us he was nice and patient and just straight up called my companion out. It needed to be said and I think my companion learned a bit that day. We have another cool investigator I talked to a couple of weeks ago. We had an appointment with him and he loves us and wants to hear more. We gave him a book of Mormon and he talked a lot! In fast domincan spaninsh.

He is actually here to find work or something and is returning to the DR on the 14th. So we are going to have to turn him over some how. Also he asked us if we could go with him and teach him there. He was serious and I thought that was funny so we had to explain to him how the mission works.

My birthday day was good. I spent a lot of it in this town called Nazereth at a Zone conference where there were I think 3 zones there. So we drove for like an hour to get there and passed a lot of Corn fields and pretty country that reminded me of Washington and riding my bike with Cory near farms in Adna.

The conference was good and I learned some new things. They also talked about the Philly temple being built. And people sang happy birthday to me at lunch along with other missionaries who had a birthday in the last bit or so. And a bunch of people I meet would tell me happy birthday after lunch it was a little weird. So it was a pretty good birthday.

Then the next day at this investigators house (named Sol), her daughter made some cake and I got some. Also her youngest daughter let me ride her pink bike on my birthday. And I guess it must be a thing around here, but another one of her daughters (she has like5) punched me like 19 times in my arm so did the littlest one. So it was a different birthday. The house is kind crazy and most of the time our lessons are taught on the porch.

That's what people do around here, they stoop. So they just sit on their porch all day and shoot the breeze and smoke and talk to their neighbors of their row houses and you can usually hear some kind of Latino music being bumped down the road.

Oh I got to play the Violin a couple of weeks ago at Sol’s house. Her one daughter taighita or something like that kind of plays so I played her violin and I put on this sombrero and played the la coca rocha song on the porch for the hole neighborhood who was out stooping. Sol’s husband is like in a mariatche band or whatever and plays the trumpet. And she is a bouncer for a bar or club or something. So sometimes I hear stories about her beating up people and stuff like that.

Life here is good and I am getting used to it and liking it. Things probably aren't as ghetto as you think but they are different and a little ghetto. I will try to send you something today so hopefully you get it soon. It was funny I told the people in my district who live in the same apartment complex that I got a card from my woman Ellie. That was funny. Then they were questioning about these girls I was talking about who are waiting for me at home, like who is Ellie and Maranda and what cards they sent you and stuff. And then I told them how I kissed this Ellie girl before, I think maybe on the beach but you cant remember. So it was funny and even more so when they found out I was related to Ellie and Maranda and that Eleanor isn't even a year old. Well I love you a lot happy late birthday again. 

Love Elder Tyler Richardson.

(P.s. I am sorry about my spelling, like half of this is showing up red.)

(This is Maranda, and yes I do edit Tyler's emails so you won't have to deal with all of the horrendous spelling errors! Haha)