One day I will get it right,

However, today is not that day.


Hello everyone!
        I'm sure you are wondering why I'm emailing so late. Well, this morning, we got to go to Nagoya in order to give a training to all the youth in the mission about family history.  Pretty cool right, also with Elder Tokuzawa of the Seventy we got to teach.

        So this week was pretty good! We taught a few lessons that were awesome! We got to teach Mizusawa on Tuesday and for the first time in my mission, I had a Shimai as the tachiaied. We had Wakatsuki Shimai come and help us teach, it was awesome! We talked about tithing and so
in order to get the point across, we used the time old classic of dumping candy on the investigator. Or in other words, we give them ten yen and ask for one back and will will give them lots of "blessings"
if they do. So they give you one yen and then your companion dumps a whole big bag of candy righty in front of them. It's a really good way to visualize what really happens with tithing. And he was so funny with it, I said ok, now give me one back and he was like, "for you I will give two."  So that was fun, and then after we gave the candy, he said this is all for one yen right? And he was like, what if I give you another one? He is the funniest guy ever! I love him! He is literally so awesome. And he has been so prepared by the Lord. He was talking about when he was young and it reminded us and Wakatsuki Shimai of Joseph Smith. It is super cool to see the different things that the Lord puts in our path so that we can do the things that He would have us do.

        The other awesome lesson that we had a member present was with Tezuka! It was super great! We taught the Word of Wisdom and then at the end of the lesson, we ended up committing her to read and pray every day this week rather than to follow the word of wisdom. And this time she said that she really wants to know, and that she will do those things more seriously so that she can receive an answer if it is true or not. We were so excited that she would finally accept our challenge to pray.

        If the other things that happened this week were that we had a koukan and it was way fun! Elder Ootsu and I had a good ol' time in Fuji and went to a lot of people's houses to see if they still live there. It was good. And we also had sports night on Tuesday and it was way fun! One of the member's son-in-law came and it was way fun! He is from Indiana and served a mission in Sapporo. And he's really good at basketball. We had a good time. And then we had been focusing really
hard on family history in order to prepare for the training that we were giving and saw some cool miracles through that.

        Well I hope you all are having fun and remember, it's not about who is there at church each week, it's all about who should have come and who wasn't there. Let's fill all the chairs, and if we have to buy some more, that's probably a good thing.

        Have a good time and really on the One that can get you though it. (I'll give you a hint, it's not you).

 

          Elder Richardson

 

Rice Field

 

In Japan, we have earthquake proof trucks.

When Life Gives You Lemons. . .

     Actually, I have never understood that phrase. I like lemons, and lemony things. Of course if we are talking about life lemons, they are pretty lame.

        Well, this week was really a tough one. We worked really hard and luckily for us, it is getting a lot cooler. However, this week, we didn't get to really teach anyone. We only got to have one lesson. At the beginning, we had a lot of lessons scheduled, then a lot of people were called into work, their family had a baby, you name it. It happened and made it so we couldn't meet. So we got to have a lot of time to try and find some people.  Unfortunately, this week, we didn't do much finding, we did a lot of looking. We talked to so many people, and had some great conversations about the gospel, the Book of Mormon, and they just wouldn't meet with us again.

        All that being said, this week was great and we saw many small miracles! We found that the key to these miracles is, you guessed it, obedience. Usually when we think of obedience, we think of rules and the commandments and such. However, this should not be the case!!! We have a great promise in D&C 130:21 (many people think this must be my favorite scripture, I use it a lot) that says, "And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." So if we think of obedience, we should think of blessings! You want to gain the blessing of feeling the spirit more, you should testify and share the gospel. You want to be more healthy, you should obey the Word of Wisdom, not just the part that everyone follows, all of it! If you want to have a better relationship with your family, try family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study!

        So we tried obedience at the beginning of the week. And we have been studying the missionary handbook more and there are so many blessings we can gain from that little guide. Then we looked at what our missionary leaders have asked us to do and thought, have we been doing everything we can for that? NO! If we had then everything would already be done. So we worked a little harder on all the commandments, rules, procedures, and all the things we are asked to do. Although, we didn't see any huge miracles, we have felt the greater outpouring of the spirit that is promised throughout the scriptures.

        I'm sorry that this email is a lot shorter and a lot more preachy than my previous emails, but you can all deal with it. So we have worked on that this week and I invite all of you, no matter where you
are, what you are doing, and what you are supposed to be doing, to come unto Christ and be perfected in him! Work a little harder to be that person that you have the eternal potential to become! In the words of President Hinckley, "Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike.

        Let us do these things that the prophets have been asking us to do for as long as they have been prophets! In order to do this, we need faith, not a "perfect knowledge of things;...[but a] hope for things which are not seen, which are true." And now I say with Alma of old, "Now, as I said concerning faith--that it was not a perfect knowledge--even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge. But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Try it, if you don't believe it, try it out, if nothing happens, go on your merry way, however, if something does happen, then
keep going, because then you can know that it is true. If we don't try it, then our "faith [having] not works, is dead being alone." So I challenge you to try it.

        Try not only the commandments that seem hard at first to people who don't know them, like giving up coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and tea; but try the little ones too. Those little commandments are what lay that foundations of faith in Christ so that "when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you."

     And so I now leave you with the final counsel of Alma to Helaman, "O my [family and friends], do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my [beloved family and friends], see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. [And now], farewell.

Whoah, we're halfway there...

Whoah, livin' on a prayer

        Well I go home in one year from today. Weird. How time truly flies.  I'm sure that time has gone a little differently for others, example: mom. At the same time, though the time has taken a really long time. I almost feel like I haven't been home in years. After all, it feels like I have been in Fuji for about a century. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but it has just been a long time.

        This week we got to see a lot of miracles. It was great. On Monday, we had an awesome lesson with Mizusawa, who's real name is Masoud Hejazi (he's from Iran), and Matsumoto Kyodai came and helped out. It was a great lesson and we got to talk about God's plan for us. So cool that we know exactly why we are here and what we are supposed to do. At the end of the lesson Mizusawa San had a ton of questions about funerals and things as a member of the church in Japan. So we were glad that there was a member there that could answer those types of questions.

        Then on Tuesday, we had a good ol' time and got to teach the Uematsu family. They were happy to see us, as always, and even though they weren't coming to church on Sunday, they agreed to fast with us for fast Sunday! That day we were on fire! We would teach and in the middle of the lesson they would say something and we would switch and talk about that and then at the end of the ressun we even had a reading assignment for them that we had agreed on without saying anything. It was really cool to see the spirit guide us when we taught that day. While we were on the way to teach that great family, we stopped a high school student that was walking home from his club. He was great! We talked about the Book of Mormon, and he even took a copy and made a next appointment with us to meet the next day and he gave us his phone number! We were pretty excited! Unfortunately, he called later that day and said that his mom wanted us to erase his number from our phone and didn't want him to meet with us. #momblocked

        The next day, we went down to Mersy Shimai's house! It was awesome! Her husband was there and everything! We got to talk to them and we shared a message about fasting and how it can help us. We committed Mersy Shimai to fast and to share her testimony at church. She was a little worried to do that because she thinks that her Japanese isn't good enough. So we told her that she could just do it in Spanish if she wanted and if she did, we would go up and do it in English. We told her that even though people won't understand the words, the cool thing is that they will understand the spirit that they feel. So that was a great experience on Wednesday.

        Then on Thursday, we had to go to Numazu again to help with their eikaiwa class. We went to Indo curry and found out that you should never go for dinner time. It is expensive and they don't have the set we like for dinner, it's a lunch only one. So we got the lady's set and all felt bad that we couldn't finish it. Then we got to teach eikaiwa! I love teaching people English, and it really nice because it free, so people don't have much of expectation for it. Just that we speak English and so they will get better than they were before.

        Then on Friday, we got to go to a great training in Shizuoka and they talked about our commitment and consecration to the work. It was a really good meeting and the spirit was really strong. It was cool to see how our goals for the zone this transfer came from us individually
(as companionships of course) and how huge of a goal it can become if we all do the things that we are trying to do for our own areas. That day was also one year from when I entered the MTC so it was super weird to think of that. So we went and got pizza. I know, super Japanese.

        Then on Saturday, we did a less active member blitz! We just made a route and visited a bunch of people! It was way fun, a lot of biking, but super fun! And we got to meet with a less active member that we haven't been able to get a hold of forever! And on the way, naturally, we were talking to people and met a guy that was interested! He lives really far, but maybe we can get someone to drive us! Hahaha!

        On Sunday, it was fast Sunday and it was great! We had Mizusawa come to church and also Mirai! And a lot of people shared their testimony in sacrament meeting and Mersy Shimai got up and bore her testimony! In Japanese, I was excited to hear the Spanish, but Japanese is good too. It was really great and our investigators said that it was really good and they could definitely feel the spirit. That night we got to go housing for a long time and we found a person to teach! She was way excited to see us and at first thought we were Jehovah's Witness, but then we said we were a little different and so she wanted to listen to us. We told her about eternal families and we have an appointment for
today and we are hoping we can teaching her family! That would be so great!

        So in other words, this week was fantastic! There was one point that some guys from the nichiren sect of Buddhism told us that Jesus had no power because he died and that only from their religion we can be happy. It was pretty similar to what we say, except we don't yell at people when we are telling them about our church. It was interesting to see the scriptures about still small voice and loud voice being fulfilled. It was really interesting to see as well the perception that they really had of Christ.  For one thing they were misinformed and thought that he had his head cut off. So we got to explain that that was a different prophet named John the Baptist. So in other words, Matthew 16:14 is still true. We had a great week and got to testify about Christ's power many times and feel it in our lives. After all, we are here and speaking Japanese. If that's not Christ's power, I don't know what is.

      I hope you all have a great time this week and remember that the most important part of Language Study, and any other study for that matter, is prayer.

Elder Richardson


Pics or it didn't happen:

 Oceans are neat

 Shizuoka zone: Codename C.C.Lemon

 

This is one of the most Japanese commercials ever

They said Jesus doesn't have power... Lol as if

The wild fish ran loose in the city...

皆さんへ：

        I hope you all had splendid week and did many spectacular things. For me, this week was hard. We, once again, had to go to Nagoya for a training. This time however, we got to give the training. So this week again was looking like last week at the start. Then it started to pick up after we got home and did some finding. If you ever have a rough day, I would suggest knocking on doors for a couple hours. And then riding around looking for people for an hour. Then repeat.

        Well we had some great lessons this week and we taught one of our investigators the word of wisdom. He was a little worried that he would not be able to follow this commandment in time for his baptism. We had a great member there to help us out and he shared his personal experience when he was taught from the missionaries and they asked him to follow the word of wisdom. At the end of the lesson, he agreed to stop alcohol and do it one step at a time.

        We met with him a few days later, and he said that he had researched the church online to see if there were any other rules that we had. Unfortunately, the website he found didn't give much information, and not all of it was true. After helping with his questions about which were real and which weren't, we talked about the commandments. He decided that he didn't want to follow all of them and that he would not like to receive baptism at this time. He promised that if he got an answer from the Book of Mormon, he would talked to the missionaries again. So we were really sad to see him go.

        Anyway, this week we got to do a lot of finding and meet a lot of people. We gave a lot of people copies of the Book of Mormon and hopefully some good will come from that. We also met a guy while we were knocking on doors that isn't really interested in religion, but wants to learn English and said that we could share what our church thinks about things with him.

        Well, I'm sorry this one was short, but you can all deal with it. Hahaha! I love you guys and hope you get to do some cool things this week!

 

リチャードソン長老より


Pictures!!!

We played with the camera features on Elder Mendel's camera for a little while.

 

 

 

 

I decide that I don't like trains. . .

Well, I used to. But after this week, I'm not sure I really do like them or not. Anyway, all in all we spent about 13 hours on a train, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it was annoying. And
we are going to spend about 10 hours this week.

Anyway, that's enough of my ranting. This week was way fun! We got to go to trainer's training on Wednesday and that absorbed a lot of time, but it was fun for Elder Mendel to be able to see all of his bean friends and I got to see all of the other trainers who are some of my favorites! Then the next day we got to have a special training with the zone and President Ishii! It was way super fun! On Saturday, we got to have a lesson with Mizusawa! He is thinking about joining the church for the long run, not just a thing to do! Aawesome! He asked us about funerals and how it works if his wife is a different religion and stuff! He also straight told us he wants to be a Mormon! Then that night there was the cultural celebration for the Sapporo temple! It was way cool and we got ot hear Elder Stevenson speak in Japanese, Elder Whiting (he's the area president) also spoke in Jjapanese and President Nelson said "konbanwa" which means good evening. pretty great!

Then we had the dedication yesterday and it was amazing! I'm glad for the chance to be able to watch and participate in such great event!

Anyway, this week we had some fun and we spent most of our time on trains, so recently I've been reading the teachings of President Hhinckley book and want to share a quote with you....

 

"With gratitude in our hearts, let us not dwell upon the few problems we have. Let us rather count our blessings and in a great spirit of gratitude, motivated by a great faith, go forth to build the kingdom of God in the earth."

 

I think that it is so good to be here in Japan, even when we have some struggles, we can stop focusing on those few things and just work really hard and the lord will do the rest! such a great thing.
I
love you all and hope you have a great week!

Remember Proverbs 16:32

32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Focus on yourself, and do all you can to help others, but overall your salvation only relies on you. so learn to work on it.

Elder Richardson

We went to the emperor's garden house in Numazu last Monday for district activity

Staying in Shizuoka apartment for one night after the cultural celebration

 

The Sapporo temple

Mission Olympics, we got a gold in Mountains...

Dear Family, Friends, and the rest of you,

        This week was great. And by great I mean that it was sooooo hot! And by hot I mean I think I'm going to die. And by die I mean overcome my challenges and work despite of the struggle that the Lord puts in my path. And by that I mean that working in Fuji was really, truly great this week.

        First off, we had a great time with our investigators and with members. We had a couple of great lessons with members present to investigators on Tuesday and the feeling afterward was great. We got to teach Tezuka at the Mochizuki's house and she told us that she really liked church last week! Sha had the image that it would be really strict and stuff, and I don't know if you have ever been to
church, but it's just not that. we have the primary in the back, and it was fast Sunday, so the testimonies weren't prepared or anything and in our ward everyone in just hilarious.

        Then that night we went with Kikuchi Kyodai up to the Nakajima's house and had a lesson with Keitarou. We talked about the plan of salvation and he agreed to be baptized on the 20th! That's next
Saturday!

        We also had some fun with Members this week, we got to go to the Satou FHE on Monday and they were a blast. We also got to do a little fun picture with a sparkler type thing. It will be included.

        Our bean chans had a great miracle on Thursday (we had exchanges) and they invited one of our investigators to baptism! And he said yes! We are excited his name is Mizusawa (or at least that's his Japanese name) and he is from Iran. He is super cool and probably one of the funniest people ever. So now we have three people getting baptized in Fuji! So we are pretty excited.

        We have been going HAM with the Book of Mormon this week. We got a bunch of members (really only about 20) to write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon and then we are giving them out like nuts. From that we are seeing so many miracles, really small ones, but miracles nonetheless!

        Anyway, this week was great and we had a great time. I hope that you all are doing great things wherever you are and that you always remember to knock at the door, don't just ring the bell, sometimes it doesn't work. So knock. And it shall be opened unto you.

        Elder Richardson

 

Tike stole my nametag at Eikawa

Found Godzilla on the way to somewhere

We made awesome smoothies

Fun with fire

One of my idols...if I can be his age and be that ripped, life is good.

 

Best English mistake of the week.

 

Love to you all (even if you aren't one of the family or friends lol)

 

Again from Elder Richardson

 

 

"We're gonna have a good lunch tomorrow... (August 8, 2016)

And then we'll hate ourselves afterward"
-Elder Richardson August 3, 2016 9:35 PM

        Well, this week went by fast, like all the other weeks recently. But this was different because my companion noticed it too. We are more than halfway done with the transfer and it feels like we have only been together for a few days or so. But it feels like we have done quite a bit, so that's good.

        Last Monday, our biggest celebration was that we got to take a little nap. Elder Mendel is way 疲れたed and so he needed, I just wanted it. Hahaha! But then we were all ready to go and even had a member FHE planned for that night! But then we went and...the members forgot and the husband wasn't there. So we shared a quick message with the wife and then left. Mochizuki Kyodai, the member that we had the appointment with, called later and said, "I'm sorry desu kedo, senior dakara." Hahaha! For those of you who don't speak this crazy mix of Japanglish, pretty much it means: I'm sorry, but it's because I'm a senior. so again, hahahaha! But we got to talk to a few cool people that night so it was ok.

        Then on Tuesday, we got to have a member lesson in the morning so our studies got a little skewompus. (Spelling? Also is that even a real word?) we got to cut out early from our companionship study and go to the train station. We had an awesome lesson with the Fukatsu Family!
Then that night we got to fine tune our badminton skills. I love having sports night! It was super fun and this week a bunch of people came. It was way good!

        Then on Wedensday, we did our weekly planning because we had an exchange on Thursday, which is when we usually do it. So we got to plan and then go visit Watanabe Kyodai! It was really fun and he seemed to enjoy us coming to visit him.

        Then on Thursday was our companion exchange with the Numazu Elders. I got to stay in Fuji with Elder 大津. We had a great time and the best part, of course, was eikaiwa! I got to teach in Fuji again! It's been so long. But it was great!

        On Friday we had an amazing training by Edler Bauer about flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon. So after that, Elder Mendel and I switched all we talk about to only the Book of Mormon. So this week we gave out seven! And four of them were on Friday after the DTM.

        Then on Satruuday, we had a lesson with the Itou family planned, but then the Paulsens from the mission home came and wanted to check our apartment, etc. so we pushed back our appointment with them from three to four and decided we would take a train instead of biking up there. And the Paulsens were hungry and wanted to go out to lunch with us and we got to be the ones to introduce them to Udon! Which, yes is just a soup, but a really good soup! And they also got tempura. Then we had a great lesson with the Itous and talked about the Book of Mormon...shocker! And we came up with the idea to have everyone in the ward write their testimony in the cover so we can give it out and the person can have someone other than us telling them that it is true. Well us and the people in the Book of Mormon that say that it is true over and over again. Hahaha!

        Then on Sunday Tezuka came to church! It was fast Sunday so she didn't seem to know what to think about the testimony meeting, but then everyone started to greet her afterward and at first she thought that was cool, but it started to go sour so we went to class right then. In the investigator class, the normal teacher want there so we had Nishiie Shimai teach and it was great! Since it was the first
time, not much of a lesson was done from the book, but we just talked about missionary work and fasting and all the questions that Tezuka had. Then when she came down from Relief Society at the end of church she had a big smile on her face, so we think that she might come back. Or maybe she was just happy that it is over.

        Well this week we worked our tails off, literally, we no longer have tails. Hahaha! But we got to meet some great people and we have started flooding Fuji with the Book of Mormon. So life is good, it's still really, really hot outside, but it's good. I hope that you all have a great week. And for those of you in America, enjoy the fact you have garbage cans everywhere, your recycling system isn't really hard to use, you have air conditioning in entire buildings for the most part, you can read traffic signs, and you can buy chicken broth at the store.

        Anyway, I hope you all do some great and fun things this week!

Elder Richardson

 

That's all mayo.

It literally took forever and three hints to get this word. Even for our "native speakers."

The Plan in "cute" form.

 

Japanese missionaries in action, we were trying to play with two balls at once.