October 7, 2013 E-mail!!!

Hey, Hey, Heeeeyyyyy!!!  

Here is today's letter!!!!   Is she awesome or what!!!

Enjoy, and Happy Reading!!!

Love to all!!!

Hey Everyone!!

HOLY HARRAH... what a week!!!! 

This week was filled with trainings, church tours, conferences...yes plural, ill explain later, and of course miracles!! 

We had a church tour on Monday night with a student that has been hanging around with some of he members for the last month or so. When we got there the member that was coming with us brought another one of her friends. Preface: THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS! It turns out that the church tour needed to be for the friend that was brought not the friend that we invited in the first place!! He totally felt the spirit and it was fabulous!!.... to bad he's in the Elders area...we would have loved to teach him! 

SO MANY TRAININGS! Last week was full of them and this week will be full of them as well! The work is hastening and many of the trainings we are having are all based on how we can work better with our members!!! Those of you back home....just do it! Find someone that needs this messege and say, "Hey this is something that has blessed my life and I know it will bless yours will you meet with the missionaries to see how?" Simple. To the Point! That's what people like. Don't beat around the bush! Yes, you've just been rebuked... If you have been spreading the gospel... Keep it up! I'm positive the missionaries LOVE you! 

We had one of the most AMAZING women's conferences I've ever experienced on Wednesday! All the sisters in the mission were able to go to Spokane and have a real moral booster! It was probably one of my favorite days this week! All the sisters gathered and we had talks on how to keep ourselves healthy both physically and spiritually. A lot of the time we are extremely hard on ourselves when we are trying to be better missionaries, learning how to be moms in this crazy world, and sharing the gospel with people who constantly reject a piece of who you are. To all of the sisters there the theme was: Happiness is the design of our existence. How amazing is that!! We are here on earth to be Happy!!!! there was a quote from a brother who spoke he said, "If you're given a choice (which we are), choose happy!" *sigh* how perfect! Speaking of perfection...that was an underlying theme! When it says in Matthew "Be ye therefore perfect even as I am perfect" If you look in the footnote it says, "complete" or "finished". It is impossible for us (all of us...not just sisters) to be PERFECT. But we can be complete... and the only way to be complete is through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ! He's already paid the price! Whether it's guilt, shame, depression, unhappiness, or even physical pain... Christ can help... I promise that as you ASK for strength it will be given to you in abundance... the hardest part of this process is asking... and believing you'll get what you ask for!! 

So that was women's conference....then there was GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! I LOVE OUR PROPHET!!!! He's so great!! Every single word that was said in conference this weekend was inspired!!! I have a task for everyone who reads this. Use a talk from general conference to spread the gospel and invite someone to meet with the missionaries! Pray for guidance as to what talk to use. Go online. Read through the titles. If that's not enough, read a little bit of the talk. Choose a talk. Pray for someone to share it with. AND LOOK FOR THE OPPORTUNITY!!! If we ask for it, he will give us the opportunity, but we have to seize it when it presents itself!!! 

Ok...I'm off my soap-box now....but seriously...conference was AMAZING!!

Yesterday my companions and I were on a spiritual high!!! It was fabulous!! We are on the University of Idaho campus and we went and asked 20 people to be baptized in 3 hours!!!!! It was INSANE!!! The spirit was soooo strong and we even found a less active that had been baptized at 8 and then his parents fell away...so he did too... Brothers and Sisters he STILL had the look in his eyes of someone who was SEARCHING FOR THE GOSPEL!! He felt the spirit and wanted to meet with us later! As Elder Holland says, "Look into their eyes. They will tell you everything you need to know" 

I love this gospel! I know it's true! I've read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it to find out. You can too. Nourishing our testimonies is an ongoing process... you can't just read the Book of Mormon once and be set for the rest of your life. You have to continually work at it! I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me a home where I could be raised with the values of the gospel continually surrounding me! If there is something in your life stopping this progression, I beg you to change it! God loves you. He wants you to live with him again!! 

I'm so grateful for all the letters and packages that have been sent my way!! I know there are people at home who love and care about me and THAT has meant SO much... especially through hard days! 

Keep the faith and stay strong.... and remember to smile! :) 

Love ya!

Sister Richardson