December 18, 2017

This weekend was full of Miracles, it was amazing. It started Friday night. We had a former investigator (we dropped him 6 weeks ago because we could never meet) named Joseph and he texted us asking if he could come to church. And he did come to church, and was smiling the whole time. He said he loved it.

Then every 6 weeks every zone has a "Finding Day". Where the whole zone gets together and tracts from 10-5. In our zone we go out with members from 10-12 come back to the stake center have lunch, then we go on splits and tract from 1-3 and then we all come back and get a diff. companion and go on splits again from 3-5. Anyways long story short, my first "Finding Day" the whole Federal Way zone found 1 new investigator for the whole day. This last "Finding Day" we found 5 new investigators for our area alone. In ONE day!! And our whole Zone found between 10-15 new investigators. It was amazing!

Then on Sunday Joseph came to church. And Jayden also came to church. There was also 4 really less-active members that we are working with that cam to church. So many miracles, and it was so awesome to see! 

This truly is the Lords work and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else!

 Seahawks everywhere

 Elder Richards & Elder Hodgson (friend from Box Elder)

Members taking care of the missionaries

December 11, 2017

It did not rain one day this past week, simply a MIRACLE.

The members up here are Amazing! We are definitely getting treated well. Today is the end of my first transfer, and I will be staying in the Hylebos ward. We are still working with pretty much the same people this week as we were last week. With exception of a kid named Jayden. He is 10 years old and is in a part member family. He is super awesome, and nice and polite kid. He has a desire to follow Jesus Christ. I feel Blessed to be able to teach a kid like him. 

Other than that, not much has changed. I am really doing great, I love the work and I love the people! 

Thanks for all the support, love you all!

 Holden's District

 Enjoying the rare sunshine

Helping a member with his over-sized tree

Holden's sad little Christmas tree

Hey Mom,

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

Sister Angelo is great, and the Angelo Family is amazing! They are so excited to be with us for Christmas its great! I got all of my packages, our car was full on the way home from district meeting (that's when we get our packages) The sisters in our district saw the pile of my packages and came into the District meeting, and were giving me crap for it. But i did not even care i loved it!! so tell all the family thanks for me. I can only mail on P-days so will mail the pants home today along with the other stuff you asked for.  I loved the pants, there was only one problem. You sent me 6 great looking pairs and i could only choose two. It was a tough choice, but thank you! Oh and can i wear them before Christmas?

I am staying in Hylebos, and my companion is still Elder Cox. I will be in "training" for 6 more weeks/ one more transfer. The members are great. We usually have 4-5 dinners a week at a members house. And we never have a dinner on p day, because it just doesn't work out with our schedule, so we are taken care of.

December 4, 2017

Time is flying! I can not believe that I am almost done with my first transfer. Federal Way is treating me good! The members are amazing. And they all look so familiar like I have seen them before. It honestly feels like home.

It is so wet up here. Moss and mold growing everywhere because it is never dry. And it smells like weed everywhere haha. Especially in the indoor apartments. Maybe thats why its so muggy up here all the time... It is so diverse up here. We cant even talk to a lot of people because we cant speak their language. There is Spanish, Korean, Marshallese, Samoan, speaking missionaries just in my zone and the one next to us.  I am sure there are more. Its crazy!

The work is coming along. Right now Elder Cox and I are working with 6 progressing investigators. And they are all awesome! Its so fun to watch them grow and learn more about the Restored Gospel. Its amazing what the spirit can do during those lessons. My testimony strengthens after everyone. I have witnessed so many miracles. And the power of prayer is real! And Heavenly Father does answer prayers. We knocked on a door last week, and we started talking and this lady just started crying, uncontrollably. And she told us that she prayed not even an hour before that and asked God to send someone to help her. She had been going through a rough time, and needed some spiritual help. We didn't know at the time, but we were lead there by the spirit. The Gospel is TRUE!!

Love you all!

Love, Elder Richards

We were knocking doors in an apartment complex, and some lady FREAKED out on us because it was "too late" to be pounding on somebody's door like that. And by the way it was 6:30... But where we were isnt the safest neighborhood, and it gets dark at 5, so she was just paranoid, and probably on drugs. she said she was going to call the cops. we didnt think anything of it, so we kept knocking. 15 minutes later a cop pulled up and just talked to us. He was either a member or just knew a lot about us. because he was super friendly and just talked to us. And he said, that this neighborhood isnt the safest so dont stay past 8. Haha then as he left he said, "Saving souls is a rough business" 

So many houses everywhere.

 Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier