letter from June 8

Dad,Thank you for your e-mail, it was very to check today and see that you do still care about me:) This has been a big week, we had zone conference on friday... i always love sitting in on 11 hour meetings, but oh well, the trainings were good and i think i have some good ideas on how i can improve as a missionary. Saturday we had a zone wide "edurathon", a lot of people ran the half marathon, i walked the 5k due to my muscle spasm. I will try to send you the link that sister mc conkie sent to me with all the other missionaries in the Nephi zone. Saturday night was transfer calls...im getting transfered in two weeks! I am somewhat happy somewhat sad. I have been in west columbia for almost 6 months and have gotten very attached to my ward and the investigators so i am sad to go, however it will be nice to see some new places. My new companion is sister black, she's in her 50's, so thats a little weird. Other than that not much is going on here. I hope things are going good at home, tell shannon i said happy birthday. I meant to get a package sent out last week for y'all but i didn't find the time, i am however sending it out today, so it should be at least a week till you get it. I love you all very much and miss you tons! Tell all the aunts and uncles i said hi and that i love them too!Love,Sister Richards
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letter from June 1

Dear Dad,I haven't gotten your letter yet, the mail here is slow, no surprise. This week has been kind of a bummer, we had a baptism on saturday, but sadly she didn't show up for church on sunday to be confirmed. No one in her family is answering their phones, and on one has yet to respond to our messages. This got sister smith and I a little down yesterday, plus i wasn't feeling well due to my very painful back spasm. After church we went out to work till 3:00 then needed to go back to the apartment due to the way we were feeling. Sister Smith called Sister McConkie and they talked for awhile, i did the dishes and straightened the kitchen. When we were both done doing what we were doing we both took a nap. I woke up to the door knocker on our apartment door, i poked my head out of the bedroom door to see President and Sister Mc Conkie! They were at the church for seminary graduation and felt like they needed to stop by and see us... i was mortified! President stayed in the living room and talked with sister smith and sister mc conkie came and sat with me in the bedroom and we talked about how i was feeling (emotionally and physically). It turns out the Elder Miller has the same symptoms as i do, and the doctor told him that he had a muscle spasm as well, crazy right? The muscle relaxants the doctor gave me havn't been helping so sister mc conkie said to wait another week and if it felt worse then they would send me to another doctor for more tests, it could still be a kidney stone is what the mission doctor said.As this is a new month im going to start it off right with a positive attitude, this week is going to be good! First off, its p-day, its the first of the month which means money in the msf account, and another 1,000 miles on the car! Its almost going to be a vacation this week (still going to work hard, don't worry) p-day today, going to see a counselor? tomorrow, zone conference on friday, and a zone wide half marathon run on saturday (im walking/jogging the 5K instead because of my condition). Hopefully all will go well, i plan on seeing many miracles in june! We've got some awesome investigators who will hopefully be getting baptized (as soon as we can get them to stop smoking, and as soon as we can get the other one to get her babys daddy to marry her), im soooo excited to have such golden investigators!Im going to be printing off some pictures at wal-mart today and im planning on sending them off with a package tomorrow to you! I love y'all and i hope things stay great at home!Have a blessed week,Sister Richards

letter from may 26

Dear Family,Thank you for all your prayers, i am feeling much better emotionally this week...however... physically im not doing to well. I have a doctors appointment at 2:00 this afternoon to make sure that i have kidney stones...fun right? Not! Basically the pain is pretty dull most of the time, but every once and awhile i feel like im being stabbed with a knife in my left side. I'm hoping for some really good pain meds! Im glad that shannon has managed to find a high quality friend, if i hadn't had such amazing friends i wouldn't be where i am today! I feel really bad that i didn't e-mail yesterday, since it was memorial day and tons of families were supposed to be home we had the privilage of working and switching our p-day to today! I probably will have my p-day switched next week as well, our zone is doing a half marathon run/ride so i know it wont be on monday. Im very excited for this weekend, one of our investigators is getting baptized! Earlene's mother and two sisters were baptized in february and now she's getting baptized on saturday by elder posey our area 70, its going to be a really big deal! I don't have time to e-mail megan, but could you please tell her i said thank you for sending the pictures, its crazy to see how big delaney is! I love you all, and im glad that things are going ok at home, tell everyone i said hi!Much love,Sister Richards