First Baptism, Marixta November 10, 2014

Tortillas: 26

Steps: 72290

¿Que Pasa?

Gabe in Huehue on the roof of Elder Daltons and Elder Baadsgaards house.

Tell dad that I cut my own hair and he can see in the pictures! I used Elder Baadsgaards clippers and will buy my own when we go to hue hue for p day. 

Another beautiful amazing week in the garden of the mission. Much of the week was spent on a bus because we had a zone meeting in Huehue and then I stayed there for divisions with our zone leader, Elder Dalton. He is a super great missionary and I learned a ton from him. We have been working really hard, and this week we had our first baptism. Her name is Marixta and she has been taking lessons for 5 months! She works for a super awesome member couple and they have helped so much with her conversion. We started the service in the church building, but the difference is that we had to walk 15 minuites to the river for the actual ordinance. It was so amazingly beautiful, and the spirit was so strong. There where tons of people there, like 30 and it was so amazing to see them sitting on the rocks watching. It was a wonderful experience and a testimony builder. 

Mejor Milagro:

In english this means best miracle. Every day I witness miracles, and I had the idea to share the best with you all! This week I have a couple. First, the father and son of Famillia SopChavez came to church! It has been a long process, but their hearts are being softened. Also, we are working on helping them stop drinking coffee, but it is difficult. But, the mother Maria when we told her that they needed to stop drinking coffee grabbed all of the coffee in the house and threw it away! She has so much faith and I know that she will lead their family into the waters of baptism. Luckily, here they have MorCafe, which tastes just like coffee but Maiz based and not bad. Lots of members give it to us and drink it. At first I did not like it, but I am actually starting to like it with how much I have to drink it HAHA! But, it is really helping Familia Sopchavez to stop drinking coffee. Other miracle, we had an appointment with an investigator, but when we arrived she was not there. So, we decided to knock some doors. The first, was a church... But no one was there. The second, a little boy answered. We asked if his parents where home, and he said his mom was at work and his dad in the US, but Chandy was home. We waited, and you know who showed up? A less active member that we had been looking for! So, we went inside and talked and got to know his family who is HUGE and he is the only member. He felt like he had sinned and could never come back to church and that is why he was not coming. So, we taught him that he could repent and our now helping him come back to the fold. We also are going to start teaching his family and we are really excited! Heavenly Father puts people in our path every day, and this was just one of the more amazing times!

Testimony Time:

Heavenly Father prepares so many of his children to hear the gospel. He wants for us to be happy and I have gained such a great testimony that every soul is important. At times it is stressful to have the responsibility, but the joy that comes from talking ot people about the way to true happiness is greater than any other joy that I have ever felt. I know that Heavenly Father loves us all and because he loves us he sent his son Jesus Christ. Being his servent I have grown my relationship so much and it is one of the greatest blessings of my entire life. I love this gospel and I know that all who test on the words of the scriptures can love it just as much as me. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen

Elder Richardson

I asked Gabe some questions and here are his responses.

Hi Momma!

I will write about the baptism in my weekly email. I am so excited for your
 packages! I am working on your guys present and will send it next week! 
They give us the ensigns in english, so you dont have to send it! 
Thanks for thinking of me though! For breakfast I usually will eat either
 cereal or sweet bread that a member will give us. I will also have some
 juice with it. For lunch we are almost always with a member, 
and that is pretty authentic. This week I ate a lot of Tamales 
(You know how much I love tamales!),
 Pepian which is a mayan dish, Jocom which is like a thick 
spicy sauce with chicken, but lots of chicken and beans and rice and
 tortillas. We usually dont eat dinner because we are working,
 but if we do it varys from leftovers, to rice we make, to eggs, or cup
 noodles. The cup noodles here actually have salsa that you put into it,
 and it is really good! Really, I miss asian food...
 Pho, Pulcogi, the asian sauces with rice. I really miss soy sauce.
 Other than that I have been enjoying the new food enought that I dont 
really know. Ask me in a couple of months and I can tell you! HAHA!
 My bed is great. Just a normal bed. No bugs. I am really glad that
 I brought two pairs of sheets because I can change them every two
 weeks. In the kitchen we have a stove and a microwave, but that is it. 
We have church at 9, but leave teh house at 8 to either prep or get 
investigator. We are there until about 2 because the branch 
presidents wife makes us lunch after church. Other than that, 
it is just a normal missionary day! They have a bunch of small 
tiendas everywhere that you can buy drinks, chips, basic 
supplies but for a store that is a little bit smaller than the 
creamery we have to go to san antonio, about 30 mins away. 
Tell sam he is a super rock star! Remind him how much I love math 
and am excited that he also does! Awesome!
 THe BoM readathon is a great idea! I am doing great. 
Of course there are hard days, but I am doing great. 
I am so grateful that you are right along side with me! 


This is a soccer field! Called a Canche.
 They have them in every city, it is basically an indoor field.  Super fun! 
 WE usually go every p day and play with members. 
Tell ash that I am getting better at futbol!

These pictures are from the frontera the city before entering into Mexico,
 it was about a 1.5 hour drive but really beautiful and mountainous. 
Suprisingly, that is still our area! WE have a ton of work to do...