Elder Richardson in Guatemala: April 6, 2015 email "By his grace ye may be perfect in Christ"

Tortillas: 25

Here in Guatemala they really dont celebrate Easter day, rather they celebrate the entire week called "Semana Santa"! One manner of celebrations is everyone eats a TON of Pan de Yema, which is bread with an egg yolk base. IT IS DELICIOUS, and 80 percent of what I ate this week was this bread.
The people go to the bread shop and buy huge basket fulls, and many people love to gift it to us.

Also, Pretty much everyone goes on trips to the coast, members and non members included, so that means that we had the opportunity to do a lot of street contacting because of the lack of appointments. I am pretty sure that I am one of the few who LOVES to knock doors and talk to everyone haha! Because of the work that we did, even thought at times it was hard just finding people, the Lord blessed us with many people who are very receptive to the gospel. I think that this week we found more new investigators who are actually interested than any other week! Also, we had the amazing oppotunity to watch GENERAL CONFERENCE! What a wonderful oppotunity to listen to what God wants for us to hear through the voice of his deciples. The Lord God truly does reveal his secrets through his servents, the Prophets. I received much needed council for myself and for my area. I would advise everyone to go back and read or listen again to what their advice to us was, because I know that I will. Also, I am so grateful to be a part of his work and to be, as one of the members called us, one of his "Guerreros"(Warriors)

When I tell the members here in Guatemala that we watch it at home in our PJ's they are so shocked! Everyone here goes to the chapel to watch General Conference. I have to admit, I like it!

Mejor Milagro:

This week we have two! After one of the sessions of conference, we were walking to pick up some less actives when I received the impression that we needed to pass by and invite Ruben. I told my companion, and he said it was better if we did not because Ruben was going to say no, but I told him that we really needed to invite him. So, we went and invited him, and he said he would be able to come to the Sunday Afternoon session! We were pretty happy after that haha! On Sunday we went and picked him up, he was a little bit reluctant to come, but we convinced him. We arrived a little bit late, but as we sat down and listened, EVER SINGLE TALK was an answer to one of Rubens questions or was something that he needed to see. It was truly amazing. The second, we were contacting when we found a house with 4 doorbells. We rang all of them, and eventually 2 young women and their little sister came out. We shared with them the Gracias a que El vive video, and set an appointment to come back. As we were leaving, a women walks out from one of the doors (It was like a little apartment complex, and because of that there were 4 doorbells) when she said, "Hello Elders, can you come visit me tomorrow?" We were a little suprised, but we soon came to find out that they were recent convert who had moved here about a week ago but did not know where the church was! It is so amazing the way that the Lord leads us to his special children. Also, the 3 girls are quite interested in the gospel, and it helps that they have recent convert friends!

Testimony time:

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to finally finish el Libro de Mormon, or the Book of Mormon in Spanish! God has blessed me so much with the ability to understand and grow in the time that I have been reading. I remember when I started I simply was reading to practice my accent, and now I can understand everything that I read! The title is from Moroni 10:32 and is one of the final verses in the entire Book of Mormon. I find it interesting that he choses, as his final words to the world, to speak on the manner of perfection. This truly is our ultimate goal. We must become perfect through Christ. I also loved the talk by President Deiter F. Uchtdorf in this last conference that speaks on the grace of God. No person is worthy to be in his precense, but thanks to the gift of the atonement of Jesus Christ we have the ability to return to him, and not alone but also with our families! What an amazing blessing. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to take time and turn my thoughts to the gift that Christ offers me, and every day I work to accept it and repent of my error. I truly stand all amazing at the Love Jesus offers me. I have grown in my testimony of him and his divinity monumentally through the study of the Book of Mormon, and this is a quest of a lifetime. I know that without a doubt that it is the most correct book on the face of the earth, and I have grown closer in my relationship with God by abiding by its precepts. I love my savior Jesus Christ. He is my example and I am his servent. In His sacred and holy name, Amen.

Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!