Sleep Walking and the Spirit

Que pasa! 

Whats up! The CCM is going very well, even with how repetitive everything is! This was a very interesting week, and I have some awesome stories! 

Every night either Elder Thorne or I will sleep walk. I ended up moving to the top bunk so that he would not fall off, and that night while I was asleep I tried to get into the ceiling! Elder thorne woke me up and I had roof stuff all in my bed! We always talk, and it freaks Elder Brown and Elder Rodriguez out!

Last thursday I had two guys in my district that were sick with the flu. During the day, I started feeling the same sickness and I could tell that within and hour I would be just as bad as them. I really did not want to be sick, and so I prayed telling Heavenly Father that I did not want to be sick so that I could serve him with all of my heart, might, mind and strenght. I kid you not, the second that I finished my prayer I felt so much better, I did not end up getting sick and I have been able to put my full strength into learning! Another cool experience was I was able to give Elder Thorne a blessing of comfort, my second blessing ever! It was so amazing, we were both balling like school girls. The spirit spoke through me so strongly! I am so glad for the many wonderful spiritual experiences here!

My first email I bore my testimony in spanish, so here is a short one again! Yo se que Jesucrist es el redentor y la expiacion es el mejor bencide en nuestros vidas. Yo se que dios nos amo por que es posible a vivir con nuestros familias por eternidad. Yo creo en Jesucristo y le amo mucho. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. 

I love you all so much. This mission has been the greatest experience of my life, and anyone who is considering I know it will bless you and your family!

I love you all so much!

Elder Richardson

JEHOVAH is my STRENGTH

Hola!

How are you all? I am doing awesome! I was sick a couple of day last week, but I am feeling much better now :} I was sick with some stomach nasty. I think it was the breakfast nachos we had for breakfast one day... I was able to function, but it was painful. Now, whenever I eat I pray that Heavenly Father will keep me safe so that I can serve him with my whole heart and strength.

Here are some answers to your questions,

Yes! I went to the distribution center and bought a pair of Spanish scriptures and some more garments. They are only 9 quets here, so like a dollar each. We can go to the distribution center whenever we go to the temple on p day because it is right across the street.

I have not yet received your letters... I also sent you guys some and I will send some more today!

We took our first field trip today and went to a mall that had school supplies and a store with some food and cleaning supplies. I have not had hangers and so I bought some.

A 70 came to the ccm the day before we got here... but tonight there is a broadcast from Provo where an apostle is speaking!!

It rains quite a bit here, but we are mostly inside. When we are outside it is playing sports and it is awesome to play sports in the rain! I love sports because we dont keep score and it is just for fun! I wrote about sports in the letter I sent you.

That is so awesome to hear about levi! This is easily one of the greatest things to happen in life so far, so he will sure enjoy it!

Independence day here was crazy! To celebrate they run through the streets with sparklers and torches, and we could see it out of our window. Also, we had tamales and chile reanos for dinner! It was sooo good!

Tell weston that I love him and I will pray for him every time I pray, which is about 20 times a day!

You know, we watched a devotional that talked about the same things elder scott did, and it is so true! I have witnessed it as I have been improving my relationship with Heavenly Father and feeling the power of mine and yours prayers. Learning spanish is difficult, but with God on my side I can do anything because I am serving him and he is helping me.

That is so amazing to hear what he says about Angels! I know fully that is true because I have had some Angels in the CCM.

Every night I dream I have a dream about you guys. It is Gods blessing to me because I am able to spend time with my family at night and know he is keeping you safe by day. It is crazy how detailed my dreams are. I wake up and it always feels like it was real.

The scriptures are such a blessing! I cant always read them in english because I am trying to finish it in spanish, and it is always a treat to understand what is going on. Even in spanish, I can feel the spirit and the power that are in them. We are promised that if we read the scriptures in spanish outloud, we will finish being fluent! I am very excited!

It feels great to work hard! I am glad to be in the groove now. A new group of missionaries come today. Weird, huh? Last night we stuffed 92 guys into a room about the size of our back room and sang called to serve and god be with you till we meet again because of the leaving missionaries. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong amongst our group of gods servants.

Everyone in my district is an angel as we help each other learn spanish and provide comfort.

The Gift of tongues is totally real! The spirit is always helping me to learn and speaking to me when I need to remember a word. I can always speak spanish the best when I go to teach a lesson and I bring the spirit with me!

when we first got off the plane it smelled so different. Someone described it about third world haha! I am used to it now though ,kindof smoky. I think it was more the humidity than anything. It does not smell bad at all.

We are in the nicest part of town, and it is not really dirty, but I could not tell you about the rest of the city. In two weeks we will go on a city tour and I willl tell you .

(Picture of the front of the Guatemala MTC where Gabe is living for 6 weeks.)

I love you with all my heart and will email same time next wednesday! 8 days sad…. Keep praying, keep reading the scriptures and God will keep blessing you! I do want you to find a scripture that Elder Hickerson shared in his testimony during district meeting and it is Isaiah 12:2. This is one of the most amazing scriptures ever. Jehovah is my strenght and I am proud to be one of his servants. I love you all! I love you all so so so much and dont be sad for me because I am not sad!  Got to go! Exact obedience!  Love you all!

Love, Elder Richardson

Also, tell people to send me some hand written letters because I can read them any time. Then I will send them a letter!

(Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord ^aJEHOVAH is my ^bstrength and my song; he also is become my ^csalvation.)

Elder Richardson Week 1 letter! One of the best weeks of my life!

Mom, I love you so much! It is great to hear how things are going back home! We only have an hour to email, so I am going to send my letter right here and you can chose what other people can read. Before I forget, next week we will have P day on tuesday .

Things here at the CCM are going very well! The first day that we arrived here was an adventure! On the flight from LAX to Guatemala the back of the plane was empty, and so Elder Konold and I went to an empty row, so I got to have a window seat! We did not really talk because we both slept haha! We arrived at the airport and were picked up by one of the teachers here at the CCM. Then, we got on a kindof ghetto school bus and rode about 15 minutes to the CCM. The drivers here are insane! Literally, multiple times I thought that we were going to hit a motorcycle because the bus would come within half a foot of him. There are not really stop lights, so they just merge into the road slowly.

 Before arriving at the CCM the bus randomly stopped at a gas station, the greeter hopped out and just left. That was kindof scary! But then this morning at the temple he was our ordinance worker! Haha!

 Also, Dad, right as you enter the Guatemala City temple you see the same picture that we have above our fire place! What a wonderful sight! It is also very small.

 But, back to getting here. When we arrived at the CCM all of the elders came out and helped us carry our stuff in. They gave us room assigments and companions. I am on the second floor and in the only room that has a shower and bathroom in it! All of the others have to use the showers in the bathroom. 

My companion Elder Thorne is from Spokane, Washington and was on the track team at University of Arizona. He is also going with Quetzaltenango. Dad, you were right, there are quite a few guys going to Quetzaltenango, I think 7, all but 1 in my district.

We share a room with two other guys, Elder Brown from Salt Lake going to Honduras and Elder Rodriguez from Provo going to Honduras. They are cool guys, but Elder Brown talks about his girlfriend A TON. Oh well. After this we went to a bunch of orientations and met our district. In my district is Elder Hickerson from Fresno, Ca going to Honduras, Elder Olsen from Logan going to Honduras, Elder Manning from Nevada, Elder Harward from West Jordan, Elder Maynes from Riverton, Elder McVey, Our district leader from Boise, Sister Carnahan from Hawaii, Sister Craner from somewhere in Utah, and my companion Elder Thorne. I love them all so much. We spend all day together and I love it. The other guys who flew down here with us are in other districts, and I see them quite often at lunch and deportes. Elder Konold is not in my district but we talk quite a bit and are good friends.

As for daily life in the CCM, pronounced Say Say Em Eh, it is pretty plush. We wake up at 630  pronto. We have until 730 to take a shower, iron our clothes, and get read for the day in general. At 730 we go to breakfast. There food here is pretty amazing. It is a mixture of authentic Guatemalan food and american food. They put sauce on EVERYTHING, but I love it! For the first couple of day my stomach was kindof weird, but now I am all good. So, at 800 until 1000 we have personal study and language study for an hour each. Then, at 1000 my morning teacher Hermana Cuque comes. She is from and lives in Guatemala City and just finished her mission 5 weeks ago! All of the teaching and most talking in general is in spanish, solo espanol en la classe. Still getting used to it, but even after a week I can comprehend so much. I am also able to speak ok. I am pro at praying and bearing my testimony in spanish haha! My brain is pretty confused though because it trys to convert everything in spanish. The gift of tongues is so so so amazing! Words come very easily, especially when teaching lessons or praying or bearing testimony. So, at 1245 until 1330 we eat lunch. They want us to sit with the latinos and speak with them in spanish. I dont have much interaction with the latino hermanas, but the latino elders are some of the coolest and nicest guys that I have every met. They are very patient with my gringo spanish haha.

 After lunch is more learning grammer and gospel until we have deportes at 1530. I am writing military time because I cant find a semicolon. I have never loved sports as much as in the mission field. I wrote more in my written letter that will be there in like a week. We show again after deportes and study from 1700 until 1745, which is dinner. After dinner my night teacher, Hermano Morales arrives. He is amazing but I have only heard him speak like 3 english words. He says he only knows Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, but it is a running joke because we all know he speaks english haha. Hermano Morales also acts as our investigator. After dinner until we plan at 2100 we are preparing lessons for our Jaime Orellano, aka Hermano Morales, which we can only speak spanish. I am lucky because Elder Thorne can speak and understand spanish really well, but it is sometimes difficult like being the junior companion haha. Everyone else in our class is just starting spanish, but I can see my own spanish improving so much because I have to catch up with Elder Thorne. When most people on speak spanish to you, it comes pretty quickly. At 2130 we arive back at our rooms and prepare for bed at 2230. This includes writing in our journals, brushing our teeth, and hanging out with the other elders. 

Well, I dont have much time, but I do want to share how much my testimony has grown.  Feeling the spirit 24 7 is the most amazing thing ever. On sunday I had the opportunity to share my testimony in Sacrament meeting in spanish and it was one of the most amazing I have ever borne. Even though it may have been jumbled, I felt the spirit so strongly. 

Yo se que el libro de mormon es verdadero. Yo se que jesucristo es el redentor. Yo se que el evangelio de jesucristo es verdadero. Me amo tu, mi familia mucho. Yo estoy agredecido por el oportunidad para servir un mision. I dont have much time, but I love you all so much. There is no other place I would rather be right now then here in Guatemala. I love Jesus Christ and his gospel and I know you all can learn too if you dont. Time is limited when you are on his time, so I must go!

I love you all so much!

Elder Richardson

(Gabe sent another little note and said the keyboards are really weird! His friend Elder Konold also mentioned it in his email)  :)

Yesterday turned out to be a wonderful day!  Gabe sent his first email.  ❤️It was short and sweet, but now I can breath again.... Here it is!

Hello family! 
I have made it to the CCM and what a wonderful place it is!
Guatemala is pretty crazy and hot, but the food here is really good. My
companions name is Elder Thorne and he is from Spokane, Washington! We were
friends at the airport. People here drive crazy, and the bus ride here was
pretty crazy. I will email next wednesday, but this is just short, so now
to learn spanish!

Love you all!

Elder Richardson

September 2, 2014, Gabe is off! Watch out Guatemala!