Staying in Laurel, Montana...

Hey Dad!

This will just be a short email to let you know what is up! 

So first things first. We are both staying here in Laurel!! Yipee! I am super pumped to be staying in Laurel. One of the AP's who was my zone leader for awhile talked to me for a bit yesterday and was asking me where I wanted to finish out. If I wanted to finish in Laurel or whatever. It was really weird to actually be thinking about finishing my mission and actually possibly have a choice to finish where I want. I am going to give it some thought this week but it doesn't really matter!

Shed hunting was awesome. We didn't find a whole lot but a few elk sheds including a 310ish shed I found. That was the only one I found. We didn't go for as long this time though and I found an awesome spot and I know if we had more time I could have found more along this fence line but oh well. I also got to see 2 baby fawns less than a week old. They both tried to stand up and run off when they saw me but could barely walk so they laid down and stayed put. I took a picture of me touching it on our phone since I don't have a camera anymore and I will try to see if I can send it to you! It made me think of you glassing for fawns in Utah and catching them or whatever you did with them. 

Also I sold that shed this last week for $100. We went to Sheels and they had $70 trail cams half of for $35. That's that higher math for ya - Haha! Anyway so I bought 2 and will be sending them to you here shortly! 

Also now that we know I am staying here for another 6 weeks do you want to send that brass to me and we can reload some shells? Let me know! I love you and will email more tomorrow!!

-Jake

SUCCESSFUL DAY OF SHED HUNTING...

It was great to skype with you!! So I couldn't resist sending some pictures of our little shed hunting adventure yesterday (Preparation Day Activity). It was a blast and I cannot wait until Dad and I can go look for some antlers together! 

First of all Bro. Sheperd who took us out is one of the coolest and nicest guys I have met which made the trip that much better. He has 950 acres of land but that is not where we went. We went on Brother Hagg's land and he has 2500 acres of prime elk country!!! It was beautiful. 

So here is how the trip went. About 40 minutes in I found an old mule deer dead head!!!! I bet he was a small 4x3 because the one side got all chewed up so I don't actually know. Then we went probably 2 hours before finding our first shed. We were driving up a reallyyyyy steep hill when I thought I saw a shed about 300 yards away across the canyon. We got to the top of the hill, parked the truck and went over to see. Sure enough it was a small 5 point raghorn. We all got excited and started looking around. I went back to the truck to put the shed away. Then I decided I would go look up on the flat by a fence away from everyone else. About 5 minutes into my little adventure I can see what looked to be a big ole shed by the fence line!!! I run over and there was the biggest shed I have ever found!!! A nice 6 point with a small 7th. This bull will be a toad next year!! I went back to show everyone that one and then everyone was determined to find something. Long story short Brother Sheperd ended up finding 2 small 6 point sheds and a nice 6 points shed probably 315ish bull. Then Elder McGrath found a really nice 6 point shed that is a tad bit bigger than the one I found but a couple years old. We ended up finding the 3 biggest shed (Bro. Sheperds, Elder McGrath's and mine) all along the same fence line within 30 yards of eachother. Pretty Crazy. 

That ended up being all we found other than a really old chewed on forky deer antler. 

Needless to say it was a blast. We saw around 20 elk with a few small bulls, lots of deer, found a good number of sheds and we were surrounded by great company!! Here are the pictures!

                                                  Elder Natay and I glassing off of Bro. Sheperd's front porch! 

                                                    A need to get myself a cowboy hat and jacket like that!!!

                                                                                 An elk we saw driving in.

                                                                            Some good looking elk country!

                                                                   The sheds I found and Elder McGrath's!!!

                                                                                       Can you say Mass!!!!! 

                                                              This is my big shed next to a powerade bottle!!

                                                                                  The dead head I found!

                                                    Elder McGraths and my big sheds! His in in my right hand. 

                                                   They are almost identical except mine has 2 inches of more

                                                   main beam and his has like 6 more inches on the royal! These 

                                   are some big elk. His has a 50" main beam and mine has a 52" main beam!!!

                                              The last picture I have until Elder McGrath send me the ones he

                           took while we were actually out! This is our trunk full of bone!! It almost didn't fit!

MOTHER'S DAY...

I just LOVE this kid!!! What a GREAT way to end Mother's Day this year by Skyping with Elder Richardson...our last until he comes home in six months.

We enjoyed talking, catching up, and Scott & Elder Richardson planning their hunts for this winter (Scott has to put in for Jake's and his own tags soon) when he gets home.

WE LOVE YOU ELDER RICHARDSON

SHORT & SWEET...

Hey!

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of time to email as we have to be in billings in 45 minutes so I might make this weeks emails a little short. Besides we get to Skype this Sunday!!!!!!!! I am seriously so excited! I have no idea where we are going to do it yet though! I will figure it out and email you at some point this week and let you know! I can not wait though! Hopefully we can stay really busy so the week will fly by!

This week was honestly pretty slow. I think we taught a total of like 8 lessons which is pretty low. We did have a couple of good lessons with T. who was supposed to be baptize this last Saturday but that didn't happen. She still wants to be baptized though and it will/should happen by the end of the month. It was pretty sad to see them miss church this week though. Apparently something came up but I am not sure I am buying that. We will see though. The other two people we have on date for baptism ditched out on us this week and the one has stopped responding to our texts and calls so I am not sure what is going on there!

We had a great testimony meeting yesterday. The testimony meetings in this ward are amazing. The last one went over 20 minutes but was great. It was so good that a member of the Stake Presidency who happened to be there told all the Bishops in the stake that if they get a chance to go to the Laurel Ward during a testimony meeting they wouldn't regret it! It was awesome! The lesson yesterday in Elders Quorum was also really good. It was about our birthright. I really enjoyed it!

As for me I am doing well! I am no longer sick but I am sick and tired of people canceling on us haha! I will make sure to send you a copy of the story I used in my devotional. By the way the Walmart here in Laurel has like 5 of those $50.00 dollar trail cams if you are really wanting to get another one for dad.

I love you tons and can not wait to see you on Mothers Day!!!!

-Elder Richardson

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Hey Dad!

Well that is a bummer that someone stole the trail camera. I think unless you find some sort of secret water hole your best to put the trail cam way out in the middle of no where on some trail or in an area that looks like a bedding area for deer. Maybe look at these .................. & .................... & ...............  just make sure that Mom doesn't put these secret cords on the blog! Haha but really! We don't need anyone stealing anymore cameras!  (Okay...I left the cordinates off :)

This email may be pretty short but not much happened this week! We still have a few people to teach but like you said we are starting to focus on finding new investigators as ours are running low! Hopefully we will be able to find a couple new people to teach this week! My new companion and I get along pretty well!  He is a good missionary who has a strong testimony! I don't know if I told you this but he has only been a member for a year and a half. He even baptized his Mom two days before he left on his mission!!! So cool!

Well I love you tons and am so pumped to see you when we skype on Sunday!!!

I hope you have a good week and do something fun!!

-Jake

TEACHING ALPACAS!

Hey I was emailing pictures of our cars in for district report and I took this picture last night. 

We don't have enough people to teach so we have resorted to teaching the alpacas!!!!! Lol

Hey!

We had an alright week. Almost all but one of our set up appointments canceled on us which sucks but as Dad always says "Life is tuff and then you die!" Haha. Anyway we were able to teach a few lessons here and there. I think the highlight of the week other than shooting a 41 on the Back 9 was going on an exchange with Elder Hemenway, one of our Zone Leaders. He and I are really good friends and we are both obsessed with hunting. He is from Orem and has been out for almost 21 months now. The exchange was a blast and it was so nice to be with someone for a little bit that I get along with so well! We already have plans for me to go up next August and chase deer with our bows in Utah! Though it was nice to be with someone with common interests, it was also really nice to be with someone that looks at missionary work the same way as I do. I am honestly pretty tired of seeing how many missionaries come out here and turn into robots. It bugs me to see missionaries who just aren't themselves whether it be because they are in leadership, they are trying to be a cookie cutter missionary, or what ever. Heavenly Father has given us different personalities for a reason and we should use them to do missionary wok in our own way! Elder Hemenway and I both love having fun but also getting work done!!

We should hopefully have a baptism this Saturday for T. L. She is the one who just got married a couple Saturdays ago. We are meeting with her on Tuesday to hopefully get her baptism all set up. Our other investigator who is on date, T., is still interested but has kind of slowed down a little. He is really having a hard time with chewing tobacco. Hopefully we can help him quit and continue to progress towards baptism!

I think today we are going golfing again! The weather isn't as nice but it should still be a blast! We also got permission from a member in the ward to use his tab at the restraint at the Golf Club!!! So I am pretty excited to eat there for free! Overall it should be a pretty good preparation day. I will try and take some pictures although you red camera finally broke. It wont even turn on anymore. I put brand new batteries in and what not and I think it is just to old haha!

I am bummed I couldn't be there to celebrate Dad's birthday with you guys! That is alright though. Did you get the package I sent him? I didn't have much money so I spent a little bit and got him a little something for his B-Day!

I love you tons and hope you have a terrific week!!!!

-Elder Richardson

P.S. Feel better Mom!!!!

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Hey Dad!

I don't have to much time because we have to run to go ply some golf! The reason we go so much is because clergy gets to play for free! We just have to pay $10 for a cart. It is so sweet! We just borrow clubs from a member in our ward.!  I really want to get into it but like you said it is pretty pricey! I would rather spend my time and money hunting and what not anyway!

Speaking of hunting. We went to a baptism in Absarokee this Saturday and the Branch Mission Leader there has 2200 acres that he said we could come shed hunt! He said there are quiet a few elk there and we should have no problem finding sheds!!! I am so excited!

Our week was alright. I am pretty tired of everyone canceling! That is just part of missionary work though. I really hope things will pick up here in the next couple of weeks! It has slowed down unfortunately.

I hope you had an awesome Birthday!!!! I am so glad I will be home for the next one! I think Mom and Jessica got you the perfect gift! I am jealous haha! Make sure to put it to good use! I really think it would be interesting to see if this tank had water in it and if so how many deer use it. 32.738553, -110.910048   You should check it out!

I hope you have a great week! It is definitely weird to think that you will be putting in for hunts that I will actually be home for. Weird but sooooo exciting!!!! I think we might be able to get lucky and draw a December tag! Who cares as long as we get to hunt together!

Love you tons!

-Jake