For We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight November 24, 2014

Steps: 34456 (Wow, low week)



Everybody deserves a chance to be taught!

Tortillas: 50 (I bought some this week haha!)

¡Buenos tardes mi familia y mi amigos amados! 

What a wonderful week full of miracles! First, and most exciting, we set a firm date with Familia Sopchavez for their baptism, the 13th of December! The Mother actually wanted to do it the 6th, but the father still wants more time. The most important is that it will be all of them! We are so excited and are working hard! We fellowshipped them with an older member couple, Hermano Jorge and Hermana Mirta who are very bold about teaching. Members are such an important part of the work it is amazing. It is so much easier to help people when we have the help of the members. 


The Church building

Also, on monday when we went for our lesson with Avilia and Magdelena we ran into her son, Waldemar. He was a little bit drunk, and when we started talking he just broke down crying. So, we had a heart to heart talk with him and his mom Avilia (They were both crying, it was very emotional.) We told him that through Christ he can overcome this problem, and especially through the Book of Mormon. So, we invited him to start praying and reading the Book of Mormon, and he said that he already had one! He pulled it out and said that he had found a group of people who had a box of copies of the Book of Mormon, and they were burining it! So, he saved what he could. He did not know why. But, he still had this one. Obviously, God had been preparing him and his family for us. So, we encouraged him to start praying and reading. Now we are going by about everyday, but have only had one more lesson with Avillia. He has not had alcohol in a week! We have a appoinment with him tomorrow to talk about his reading, but we had an appointment with Avilia on Saturday. We did not know, but she is the mother of 9! We are still working on meeting them all! She truly wants to know the truth, but she did not know how to pray! So we taught her how to pray and gave her a chapter specifically to read. We will see tomorrow how they are doing! God is always preparing people to hear our message, and it is so amazing to be apart of this work! 

Mejor Milagro:

We had many amazing miracles, and our experience with the family of Avilia is defenetely a miracle, but that was my Mejor last week, so I will share another. We are working on inviting members to write their testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon and give it to their friends to further the member work. So, one day we were visiting with Hermana Patty. It was an amazing spiritual lesson and we invited her to do the Book of Mormon challenge. After we finished, we went back to the house and were eating lunch. In the middle of lunch we get a call and she said she wanted us to go back because she found someone, literally 15 minutes later. So, we quickly finish and go back. It turns out that her sister in law was in the other room and had listened to the lesson. She said that she felt something and wanted to learn more! Her name is Dominga, she is 14 years old and currently is attending an evangelical church, but does not like it. We had met her breifly when she came to our movie night on thursday (She was the only investigator). So, we taught her about the restoration and invited her to come to churhc the next day, and she came! She is super interested and we are so excited to teach her more! If we can get people to feel the spirit, they will know the truth of our message, because it is the spirit that converts. 


Santa Ana Huista

Testimony Time:

The title to this email is from 2 Corinthians 5:7 and I found it the other day when reading in Preach My Gospel. I absolutely love it! We can apply it in every aspect of our lives, but I was glad to apply it this week. This week a studied a lot on how I can improve myself as a teacher. One of the things that I learned is really, I am not the teacher, the teacher is the Holy Ghost. We are the instruments to helping people feel the spirit. If we have faith that we can give people commitements and promises and that God will follow through, then we allow the spirit to teach. I have worked to walk by faith instead of sight as I have been trying to better myself all around as a missionary. I know that as we put our faith in God, he will always help us. Without faith, nothing will happen. I know that God wants to bless us, and as we work with him he will make miracles. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.

Love you all!

Elder Richardson


One of Gabes favorite meals of the week, it only cost $1.20

Gabe is trying to make me feel good here.  I like it!  :) "Also, just so you know, 3 things people always say when I show them a picture of our family. 1. Beautiful Family 2. Your mom is so young 3. Mike is my twin. I have also been asked which is my child and some other crazy stuff ahah!"


I asked Gabe if Elder Castillo speaks any English, here is his answer. " I did start english classes and 3 people showed up! He does not speak english, so I teach him also. The other three are all investigators, so now to see how to relate to the gospel! He knows no english, but wants me to speak more in the house so he can learn. Today I said "It is hot" and he had not idea, if that gives you any idea."

I also asked Gabe if Elder Castillo taught him how to make tortillas, and he said he did but it takes a lot of time and is really messy!  And its pretty cheap to buy pre-made tortillas and they are really good!



Local bugs........