Dear family,I love mondays! Every monday is like christmas, my favorite part is coming to the library and checking my email and seeing who was nice enough to send me a letter. So, im glad to hear that your trip was a success and that you didn't die. I really liked the postcard you sent, i think im going to tack it up on my bedroom wall so i can always see the beautiful picture of the temple. I laughed so hard when i read about aunt liz, i can't believe she didn't know i was on a mission, some family i have huh? Did you make sure to tell her i was serving the lord in South Carolina? If you did you must email me back and tell me her response. So, whats the weather like there? Is it finally starting to warm up a little bit? It rained all last week, it poured! Today its really nice, but i hear its supposed to rain again this week, darn! I got to go out on splits this past week, i went out all by myself with a 18 year old girl from our ward named andie bushman, we went out and knocked doors for two hours in the rain and got soaking wet, it was tons of fun! I got to start driving this week, it was really scary at first because going two month without being behind the wheel of a car and then finally doing it again in another state.... nerver wracking! But, one of the many great blessings at a missionary is the gift of direction, i always know where im going which is really crazy becuase before i came out i always had to mapquest, here i just know where everything is. I have met people who have lived her for seven years who don't know how to get around the city. I've been here two months and i know my way around, i am very blessed. Its good to hear that things at home are going well, tell mom that i got her letter and i will try to get one out in the mail tomorrow along with my recorder. By the way the recorder has some really really random stuff on there ,so just warning you. I love you all very much and i pray for you every night. I hope ya'll are recieving just as many blessings as i am.Love Sister Richards

Hello to home,Sorry i've been really bad about writing home to ya'll, its just very exahusting? to write letters, plus last week we took naps, so that was nice. I'm gald you liked my package, what do you think of the flag? The name tag was really random, but i cant use it because its broken and anyways i orderd a new one with a magnet on it...so nice. I went clothing shopping today and spent way more than i was planning and i still need more clothing, i guess it'll have to wait till next month when i get more money on my MSF (missionary support fund). I didn't end up buying the bike from the girl off craigslist, it was a pice of crap and she wanted 60.00 for it...it was covered in rust and needed new tires and some other repairs. Her Dad was not happy about that, not to mention he was a minister and the idea of driving all the way to meet us and find out that we were mormon missionaries... not good. Brother Kreiger our ward mission leader is still looking for us. So, its been a fast week, on tuesday we had Gladys Knight come to our stake center and she did a fireside, its been all of the talk since i got here, but it was great. We had two sessions and there were about 500 people at each, its going to keep us busy with refurals for a long long time and hopefully finish with a few baptisims. I got to sit in the VIP section with one of our investigators, it was really cool, i think i cried a few times. Other than that the week has just flown by. We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday but he didn't show up for his interview on friday night and we haven't been able to get ahold of him since, that brings me down a little bit. We had transfers this week, im still in west columbia with sister temple, we got a new elder in our zone, he's been out for quite awhile, but his name is elder john's and he's from Nampa, our nicknames are Sister Spud and Spud Stud. I love the elders in our Zone (Nephi zone) they're all really nice and we're our own little family. Elder merkely, legua, davis, and stocks are in our district with elder legua being our district leader and our zone leaders are elder john's and elder adkins. They look to sister temple and i as sisters and mothers, last night i made all the elders no-bake cookies, they keep calling to see when im going to drop them off:) President McConkie came to sister temple and i's weekly planning session this morning, sister temple invited him...SURPRISE. I always love having my mission president walk into our luckily clean apartment to find me in my gym shorts and a piggly wiggly t-shirt with extremily hairy legs! After that Sister Linder took us out shoping to Target and Lane Bryant then to TJMax. I got some really cute cloths but i bought a voice recorder so it drained my cash:( But now i can send home voice messages and you can send me some back. It is the coolest thing ever! It holds up to 74 hours of sound, tonigt i think im going to record myself while i sleep, i have this really bad habit of talking in my sleep, and according to sister temple i say some really random things. Example from saturday night:me: i think your laundry is donetemple: yeah, its been done for a couple of hours nowme: you don't have to be so rude!me: its sounds like theres been a guy in hereI also pray, give lessons, and extend commitments, and i walk too! Sister Temple keeps a nerf dart gun on the night stand table just incase i get too loud!Well, i love you all very much and miss you every day. Tell Rebecca i said thank you for the package, it made my week! I made sure to share my cookies, they were amazing by the way! Oh, and its funny, but i really needed some shower gel, i was going to buy some today. Tell Erin i said thank you for the letter and money, i will write hopefully today. Like i said, i love all ya'll so much.