Sister Rebekah Richards : Happy Halloween (haven't killed my comp yet...) (Nov 2, 2015)

Week 7

Monday- Monday was hectic. We were running around trying to get
everything ready for sister Okerlund and Peterson. We had an awesome
lesson with Huda and her kids. We talked about God and that we can
talk to him through prayer and that he can help us. The kids and I all
said a prayer together ha it was so cute. They repeated everything I
said. Then we played some Halloween activities with them. They were
having so much fun!! Then we stopped by kassi's place and gave her a
big Book of Mormon so she could start reading it. It was hard for
sister Okerlund to say bye to Kassi. Then we went and had a lesson
with Tina and Davey. It was an awesome spirit filled lesson. We talked
all about baptism and setting a date as a goal to work toward. Davey
wants to go the right path and he is willing to work at it which is so
cool! I am so excited for him!

Tuesday- was another crazy day! The girls were packing a lot. The
apartment is getting more empty and it is making me really sad. We
went and saw Carl and gave a little spiritual thought and he told us
he wants to get his temple recommend again! Sister Okerlund played the
,"all I want from you card is to let sister Richards come teach you
and help you." It's a beautiful card to play. Ha then we went and saw
jim one of our new investigators. We took brother Collins with and he
and Jim really clicked. Jim read the Book of Mormon passages like we
asked and he took notes! I was pumped. We had a great discussion on
faith and trials and making changes in our life. We are going to teach
him the restoration next week! Then we went and saw Kelly for sister
Okerlund. She talked to us about Jan going through the temple she made
a really cute comment saying,"do you think I could make it to the
temple?" I said HECK YA! So sister Okerlund played the beautiful card
of let sister Richards come over and help you. I am excited to get her
to the temple. She will be the first in her entire family to go! We
had dinner with Jan and Joni and Kim for our last meal. It was a
bitter sweet evening.

Wednesday- came and flew right past me. The morning was just crazy and
then we got to transfer meeting late and they were all waiting for us.
Super embarrassing. They started off with the new missionaries and
their trainers. I was second to last and when my name was called I
like froze and couldn't stand up. My heart was racing and I'll I could
do was slowly get up and make it to my new companion to give her a
hug. Then a bunch of emotions just came flooding. It was real life
again. Sister Okerlund was no longer my companion. I had a new one.
Which by he way is so cute!! I figured out why they do transfers every
six weeks (well at least in my book). It's to let president pump us up
for the next six weeks. Haha I totally love it. We got back to our
stake center and there was our car. I had no gps and no skill yet with
the area and directions. I prayed really hard and guess what! The lord
answers prayers. I didn't get lost and we made it to every
appointment. It was raining and dark but because of him and the Holy
Ghost the dark became light and I was not stressed at all. I was very
calm. It was a very humbling experience. We helped sister staker get
food and settle in before we we went out to lessons. We went to Yuki's
first and we cooked stir-fry (THANKS MOM AND HANNAH FOR ALL THE
TRAINING). Yuki wants to start cooking healthier so I offered to come
over and do some service for her and try to get a stronger foundation
with her. Our time with her went really well! We talked about church
and we are doing a church tour with her this next week and she is
changing her work shift to be able to come to church. Then we went to
dinner and then picked up Joni to go to a lesson with a less active
named Jim Davis. We talked about the importance of CPR (church, pray,
read) such an awesome analogy! He wants to come to church next week
with his whole family and he wants us to keep coming back over and
talking to him. We have really made a break through with him. The. We
went to Duran's home with Joni and Jan. He was really out of it and I
had plans to teach him the plan of salvation but I didn't want it to
go over his head if he was still out of it from the surgery. We read
from the Book of Mormon and he was amazed by how much we could relate
to this book. It was fun to teach him this concept.

Meet my companion! Everyone already knows her I guess but she is so
awesome! She always wanted to serve a mission and she is the full
package. Super funny, intelligent, spazy, kind, patient and
supportive. We are going to be a great team! She is from Mesa Arizona.
She went to byu and her cousin is Jaren jones! Such a small world that
our families went to the same high school! We like hard marshmallow,
we like to sing in the shower and we love to tease each other!
Everyone says we kinda look like sisters haha

Thursday- GUESS WHO OS IN MY ZONE! Brian sanders-smith! Up needless so
say I am so pumped! (For those of you who don't know him. He is Danes
cousin. We are good family friends) we went tracking and I was nervous
because I knew I was going to do all the talking. We talked to a lot
of awesome people! I met a Russian person mom and we are going back to
give her a Russian Book of Mormon. We got a new investigator and had
so much fun tracking we mission one of our appointments...yep Go
sister Richards. We quickly called her (Amy) and she said she had
forgotten too. We went to her apartment and talked for a bit and set
up another time we could go back and talk to her and her husband and
give him a blessing as well because he has been really sick. It is so
cool we have the authority to help and heal those around us! We had a
really cool mini miracle. I don't know if anyone remembers Marie but
we met her at Sonide's home. We haven't been able to contact her for
awhile. We tired and she wasn't home. I felt like we should go see
Sonide so we drove to her apartment and lo and behold there was Marie
sitting in her car outside the apartment waiting for Sonide's mother.
She said she had lost our number and got a new phone. I was so excited
to get her new number and so humbled that God put her is our path.
This really is his work! We had an awesome lesson with Sonide
afterwards and we talked about her coming to church. I was so excited!
She also said she got one of our YWs numbers and they have been
talking. I wanted to cry. Our YW are so awesome and his fellowshipping
is really working out!

Friday- we went to a food kitchen and did service for a couple hours!
It was so much fun and it taught me a lot. I love being in those
environments and I love just being able to stand in Christ's place and
serve my brothers and sister as he would have done if he was here.
Then we went over and talked to Kelly about patriarchal blessings. We
never get far with her because our lessons always start with small
talk so this time I told her we were doing our visits a little
differently and it worked out. I told her we wanted to hear all about
her week but first we were going to share a spiritual thought. It was
the most productive lesson we have had with her thus far. She is so
excited to her her patriarchal blessing. I know it will just help her
so much in her life. Her next step is the temple and it's so awesome
to see her excitement. Then we went over and saw Chris. I did the
restoration lesson all by myself and nailed the first vision word for
word. I was so proud ha. We introduced the Book of Mormon and he said
he would read it and come to church with us. The feeling there was
indescribable. He really is ready to hear the gospel. God is softening
his heart and I am so excited to see what he has in-store for Chris!
We had dinner with the torrabla's. They are the people that had their
daughter just come home and the ones that are texting Sonide. They are
an awesome family! They said they would pick up Sonide for church and
that they would make sure she knew where to go and everything. It was
just perfect. After dinner we had some time and I just felt like we
needed to go see Tamra. She was home and let us in. We had a great
conversation with her. I feel like we set up a good foundation with
her in the way that hopefully she will open up to us and let us keep
coming over to support her.

Saturday- HAPPY HALLOWEEN! So much for being able to go tricker-
treating ha our president wanted us in our apartments by 5 and then we
had to weekly plan until bed time. We had so much to do before then so
I got my Halloween socks and went to work. We saw a lot of people and
gave them spiritual goodies. We stopped by some less active homes and
some investigators. We have been trying to have contact with the
people we are teaching at least twice a week which has really been
helping. It has been raining so much which has been fun and crazy. I'm
just going to take my floaty's and jump into the big puddles. Chris
texted us and said he was reading the Book of Mormon and he wanted a
highlighter that didn't bleed through the pages. Sister staked and I
thought that was the coolest thing.

We had testimony meeting this Sunday and we had two investigators Coke
and like 8 less active/ new converts. It was awesome ha sorry this is
short. I am driving now so I don't have much time to type during the
week.

Have a great week everyone!!!!

We are wearing ties because one of our less actives dosen't like wearing them so he won't come to church. We told him we would wear ties if he came. His fav color is purple.