Old letter, Sorry!

November 4 2013,

Maranda and Family How are you.

          This week has been great. I have a new companion. His name is elder Bloomfield. He is great. We are already tearing it up in this area. He also is pretty chill and different than Elder Callister, which I don't mind they’re both cool but I like elder Bloomfield I think more. He is from Arizona and has been out for 8 months.

So his Spanish is pretty good. The transfer meeting when I got him was cool also. I also saw elder Smith my old companion and I got to talk to him and do some catching up. Especially because we were waiting for some sisters to give us a ride home because we don't have a car. And elder smith had to wait there because they stuck him with an Australian elder who also can't drive, so I don't know what happened to them because the meeting was already over and people were leaving, and when I left they were still there.

     I have been working hard with Elder Bloomfield and we have been meeting all kinds of new people. Last week we met someone whose name Bryan he is Dominican and he has had a tough life. He is only 20 and has been to jail or prison twice. Also he has a drug problem. But he has a strong desire to change. I’m excited he went to church yesterday and he liked it a lot he felt the spirit and the love of  the people in the ward so that is great. We also have had some cool lessons with other people and the work is going good.

Even days when all the lessons fall through are good because we end up meeting people on the streets. Yesterday we were late to one of our plans for this one meeting and I didn't even know what room number this guy lived in and just knew the building but in order to get in you need a key. Well we went there and followed this old lady in then we got in the elevator and were going to the 4th floor because I thought that was the place we were supposed to go to. However we started talking to a guy on the elevator and he knew the guy who we were looking for and told us what room he was in was on the 7th floor, so I was way off. And we got there and his granddaughter was there who is around 23 or something, and wanted to or is willing to meet with us again which is cool. And her grandpa wasn't there but we got a new investigator who is interested and she even knows someone who is a member of our congregation. So it is cool seeing how the Lord helps us and causes thing to happen.

 I have also had some other cool adventures with elder Bloomfield these last couple of days. Like yesterday at a Mexican family's house I had cow stomach soup. It was called manoodle or something like that. It was like this rubbery meat in kind of big chunks with like membrane intestine fat tissue junk in a soup. Like I was telling Cory, I'm not too picky but this stuff wasn't even like food. It was gross. I much rather eat the worms and aunts I used to eat in my prime in boy scouts than eat another bowl of that. It was like a greasy broth with chunks of cow stomach. And it was so rubbery it took like literally 2 minutes or more per chunk to get the meat chewed enough before I could gag it down.

My companion didn't like it so much so he didn't finish his or try and the members asked him if he liked it and he said the truth nicely by saying not really. But I like to finish my food on my plate so I just tried not to make funny faces and I finished it. Elder Bloomfield was impressed he said he couldn't do it and that it reminded him of the smell of killing cows. My comp is kind of a country boy and his grandpa owns a big farm and he used to have a class in school were you would kill a cow every day he said. So I thought that was interesting that the soup brought back those memories for him. Well everything is good and I am enjoying this mission life.

I actually did a tiny bit of trick or treating it was just before 6 and we were supposed to be home by 6 and in the apartment and I was waiting for the other elders to pick us up outside on a corner of a street. There were the kids getting ready and out in their costumes and some kid asked us what we were supposed to be, we said missionaries and he said cool do you want some candy so we got a piece. That was right after we had a lesson with this Domincan guy who gave us some juice that was rotten and maybe fermenting and I drank it all. Gross.

 Love always Elder Tyler Richardson