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

Letter from Monday, May 4, 2009

Hey Y'all! Just so you all know i have not gotten the package you sent yet, im hoping for today though. Who's excited to talk to me on sunday? Im not sure how it all works, but you should be getting a phone call from my companion some time this week saying what time i will be calling on sunday...Im sooooo excited!!! This has been a great week, the best ever it seems! We had transfers on wednesday, i drove out to irmo with sister temple with the bushmans and came home with sister smith. I was really nervous at first because i have a hard time with change, and i was also scared out of my mind that i would be a senior companion, im not but i still have had a ton of responsibility this week since sister smith is from another area and its been my job to orient her. Sister Smith is from portland, shes tall skinny and blonde... and i love her to death! I loved sister temple don't get me wrong, but we werent close, never had we ever hugged or said i love you, but when sister smith and i turn off the lights and get in bed we always say i love you, its great! I love being able to have a companion that i can be honest with, someone i can talk with about a problem i might be having, mostly i love having a companion that i can serve. Sister Smith just happens to love getting foot massages, and i just happen to love to give them! I know that Heavenly Father wanted us to be together, there is so much i can learn from her, not just how to be an amazing missionary, but how to be a great human being, sister smith is 25 years old, so she has quite a bit more knowledge of how life is that she can also share with me. She also has a strong passion for sharing the gospel that i dream of having. I love sharing the gospel, its still a little hard for me to come out of my shell some days but i still have a ton to learn! We have some golden investigators... im so excited!!! Two of them came to the gladys knight fireside and have been waiting to see us, we only got the referral jsut this week, and they have been so excited to come to church. We are seeing them on tuesday and we are planning on setting up a baptismal date for the 16 of this month. We also have 3 others that we are planning on baptizing the same day, we're praying hard for miracles in may! Our zone has a goal of baptizing 30 in may, i know that we can do it, sister smith and i were setting goals for today and we plan on baptizing 7 in may... thats a lot by the way:) Sorry i didn't write last week things were so crazy with zone conference and transfers but now that things have cooled off a bit i can tell you a bit about the experience i had. For zone conference we were surprised by being driven to the woods and having a "first vision" experience. We walked for about a half mile and then stopped in the middle of a grove of trees and sang Joseph Smiths First Prayer, it was amazing by the way, the sun was just coming up and when we were done singing most everyone had tears in their eyes. We read from joseph smith history about the first visison and then President Mc Conkie shared and experience he had in the grove of trees. We were then told to wander off by ourselves and pray. I was able to find the perfect place, somewhat secluded next to a fallen tree that i could kneel at. I guess i ended up praying for close to 15 minutes, i had never had such and experience, by the time i was done i had forgotten that i was even in the woods, i would describe it as nephi did as being "caught away in the spirit." The quote for the whole thing is "The fastest way to conversion is throught the Sacred Grove." I was glad to hear that mom went to church on sunday, i must have made a sound because when i read it the guy sitting next to me on the computer gave me a weird look. Did you say vita-mixer? Did you buy one? Hmmmm, i've heard those are the best blenders you can buy. I can't wait to get home and see all the improvements. What else have you done? Is Shannon and I's bathroom on your list, if not its okay because im not coming home for a while: ) Hows everything else at home? Hows Molly? Hows the weather? Here its finally up to about 90, so im about ready to die when ever im not in the car, which is the only place that has a/c. You might be wondering, "What about the apartment?" Our fan does not blow cold air! The ceiling fan in our bedroom has no effect on the temperature whatsoever, so pretty much i haven't had a good nights sleep in almost a week! Today we are going to walmart to do our shopping, so im hoping to find a really inexpensive fan. Im also excited to buy some more clothes. Its to the point where i need to change my shirt half way through the day, and thats if i can manage to keep my BO hidden with body spray until that point! I might also stop by the mission office and order some new and lighter garment bottoms. I don't know how people can live here, the humidity is insane!!!Well, know that i love you all very much and pray for you every night. Im so excited to talk to you in just six more days...everyone better be there!Thank you for all that you do, thanks for your thoughts and prayers!Love, Sister Richards

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.

sent 3/10/09

(this is how they come from Amanda - no time to check punctuation or spelling)
I don't want to say i'd rather be in your shoes in terms of weather, but im havning a hard time adjusting to the heat so far. This past week its been in the 70's and 80's with a nice cool breeze. When i get home every night my face is more burnt than before and im wet with my own bodily secretions, which happen to make me stink very much. When people ask me how i like the weather they laugh at my reply and say just wait till July! Well next month i will be able to wear sandles and ditch these nylons! Im glad erin and william have both bought bikes, my companion and i have both been trying to buy some, it hasn't been easy. There is a bike store in town called harrles and they supposedly have used bikes in the basement, although every time we go in they caim to be all out, or have nothing that would fit us, oh well. My companion did manage to find a bike on friday, we were teaching this group of old black guys who were sitting out front of their "shanty?" smoking and when we were done my companion asked who owned this old schwin taht looks like it could be from the 80's, she offered the guy 25 dollars and is going to pick it up on thursday at our next appointment, she's very excited. As for me no luck yet, im kind of a bike snob, i don't think i could ride a not nice bike, but then again im not really willing to pay more than 30 bucks for a bike. I am planning on purchasing a camelsback this week, with the heat i need to drink lots of water and that is really the only feasable way i can think of to do it. It was nice to hear of Ben's experience at the two branches in Moscow.
jTell everyone that I love them,
Love, Sister Richards