(10) LESSONS IN ONE DAY!

Hey!

This week has been a lot better, or at least it seemed like it. We weren't able to stay 100% busy like I hoped but we did teach a lot more lessons than the past week and we were definitely more busy. We are unfortunately not working in the office anymore. They called a new office couple so they do not need our help anymore. We were really only there so Elder Short could fix those computers and that is done so we won't be in the office anymore. I really did like working in there though. It was a nice change I guess.

Preparation days here in Billings are awesome. There are a lot of good basketball players which makes basketball a ton better. There are also a lot of missionaries I get a long with which makes it fun. Tuesday was pretty good. We taught an excommunicated member named T. We really just got to know her situation and what she wants to do and helped her set some goals! I am excited to get to work with her and hopefully help her progress to being re-baptized! She is a super nice lady. We also taught a 89 year old woman named J. She is very religious. She says she believes the Book of Mormon is true and believes Joseph Smith was a prophet but says she will never change. I really tried to listen to the spirit to know what to say to her since she said she will never change. I asked her if she believed that God loves her and knows what is best for her. She said she did, so I asked her if her Heavenly Father told her that he wanted her to change would she, and she said she would because she trusts him. So I challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and then pray and ask Heavenly Father if he wants her to change! I am super excited to follow up next week and see what happened.

Wednesday was an awesome day. We taught 10 lessons total on Wednesday. That is the most I have taught in one day on my mish so far! We taught 3 before dinner, one at dinner, and the rest after dinner while we went on splits with a couple of High Priests!! I went out with Brother Swenson and Elder Short went out with Brother Hanna. They are super solid members! Our dinner on Wednesday night was with a family named the Kazmierskis. They are a really nice younger family. They have 5 kids from 5-17. After dinner and our lesson we had like 20 minutes before Brother Swenson picked us up to go on splits so we played ping pong and basketball with their kids. It was really fun to play ping pong again! Haha.

Thursday was good even though 2 of our appointments cancelled. Friday was kind of slow but we did get to go play bingo with some old folks at an assisted living place called The Tender Nest. Brother Swenson in our ward owns The Tender Nest and has invited the missionaries to help the residents play bingo on Friday mornings. It is a real good time and it can be really funny when the old ladies get a little flirtatious haha! Church on Sunday was good. We didn't have any investigators show up though. :/ Well that pretty much sums up my week.

To answer some of your questions my companion and I are doing fine but nothing has really changed and he was pretty depressed this week which makes it hard. It is really hard for me to understand that he literally can't just choose to be happy. I feel pretty bad for him and hope I can help. We never got back to teach the former NFL player. He will not return our phone calls or anything unfortunately. I have also not run into to Tanners cousin. If she is serving in the Billings area she must be serving in the Heights otherwise I think I would have met her by now. Also I have seen Tanners blog and have read his posts. Sounds like he is doing well and adjusting to missionary life! He did tell me about that weird water fight tradition. Sounds kind of annoying to me. I don't think I would be to happy if someone threw water all over me while I was in a suit!

It sounds like your week has been pretty hectic. It seems like you guys have gotten a ton busier after I left which makes no sense to me. I thought you were supposed to get to relax once your kids left home haha. I hope this week will be a little less stressful and maybe you will find some down time. I wish I could stay as busy teaching people as you are back home. I hope you have a great week and help someone come closer to Christ!

Love you tons!!

-Elder Richardson

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Hey Dad!

This week was a good one! We weren't working in the office and we were able to get out and teach some lessons. Still not as busy as I would like to be but we are getting there!

The ward we are in is a really great ward! We have gotten to know most of the families in the ward. There a lot of younger families which I think makes ward more fun. Our ward is pretty wealthy as well. Lots of dentists, doctors, business owners and CEOs! One of the dentist's saw my chipped to and told me to schedule an appointment at his office so he could take a look at it and possibly fix it!! I am pretty pumped about that!

We get fed pretty regularly. Weekends are pretty tuff to get meals, but other than that we get fed pretty much every night!

I can't believe how busy you are!!! I feel like when I get home I'm not even going to see you haha! I am glad that with how busy you were you still got out a few times and had a little fun! I too can't wait until I am home and get to help you kill something! Haha. I am really excited to mess with some trail cams and find some honey holes!!
Sounds like Ethan Snells project was a pretty big and long undertaking! That is good that you got out to help him and that so many showed up to help! I really wish to this day that for my project would could have killed bull frogs! Haha.

I cant believe it is almost 90 there!!! This week we hit 50!!!! So warm for us haha! But really I wanted to throw some shorts on. I am pretty tired of the cold. I cannot wait to come home for next winter! Apparently this has been a super bad winter for around here. At least everyone tells us it never snows this much or gets as cold as it has.

Well do something fun this week. Keep shooting your bow and getting in shape. I think I am going to start running in the mornings once it starts to warm up a bit! I have got to come home ready to hit the hills and pack out a deer. Maybe even try to play some soccer haha!

Love you and miss you!!!

-Jake