Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a great week!

This week was a pretty good one. Lots of walking and contacting and just plain trying to find people to teach! We weren't able to see any of our investigators this week, really, so it was definitely different. 

We went to the enrichment activity on Tuesday night (probably the first one in my life, maybe the second, haha) and it was a lot of fun. They talked about gardening and different aspects and applications to it, and it was really cool! definitely got me pumped to start a garden, but we a)have no land to make one and b) have no time, money, or other resources to really maintain it... haha. Anyway. Gardens are cool- plant one!

Wednesday morning was an interesting one- we get a phone call in the middle of our studies from one of the people we've been working with to get back to church, and she is just distraught. She was at her cousin's house nearby and so we went and visited with her. She just had no idea what to do with the situation that had come up and just called us up. We just listen and got the Relief Society President over there and we were able to come up with a sort of game plan for her. The next day, we ran into her again and she was doing SOOOO much better- we had been talking with the Relief Society President and we all agreed this was going to be a big blessing for her and her family. She was determined to come to church on Sunday, and to start coming back. She realized that there were so many blessings in her life that she was missing out on because she wasn't attending church. We saw her at church yesterday with her husband and daughter and it was sooo great to see them there! I love them so much. 

Wednesday during the day we did some visits, and heart-attacked the bishop's office for his birthday. It turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. That night we were out trying to get our last few contacts in- our mission president has set the standard of 10 contacts every day and Sister Taylor and I have really made that a focus for our work in Sparta- making sure we get those 10 contacts and be obedient to those expectations that we have. Well, we still had 4 or 5 to get for the day... and it was 8:40 at night. We were walking around our block just hoping and praying for people to talk to. We see one or two and contact them, but it's generally pretty empty... agh! We turn the corner and start walking up the hill, and we see this guy riding a skateboard down the street. We offer a card as he passes by and he stops and takes it and is like wait- Mormons! I want to learn about your religion! Turns out, he had taken a Book of Mormon from a hotel (Thank you Marriott!) and was really interested in learning more about it, but didn't really know where to go. He was super excited to have run into us and we were excited to run into him. We haven't met him again just yet, but I know we will! 

We finished walking around the block, and we were almost home and it was probably 8:55 and we just needed 2 more contacts. We are getting closer to our block and we turn again and we see two guys walking down the street. Heavenly Father definitely provided for us, in allowing our paths to be guided and guiding the paths of others so that we may be able to contact those that we need to! We contact them, and pretty much start running home. We speed-walked down the block and then ran around to the back of our apt and we were able to make it in in time. MIRACLES! WHOO!

Thursday was a good day, we visited with the person that we are doing the 90 day challenge with, and talked about the Tree of Life- it was a fun lesson. we drew it out on the whiteboard and just talked about it and helped her (and us) to understand it better. She was ahead of the game, and we are miserably behind- we have some catching up to do. We have been reading it as a companionship and it's been really fun. We also got a chance to meet the new neighbor that will be moving in across from us in our building, so that was cool too! 

Thursday during the day was more contacting and we had a rather interesting porch lesson with a new investigator- one that we had met last week and made an appt to see this week. He accepted a Book of Mormon and we talked about it and about some of the things he was concerned about. he told us to come back in like 3 months, when he'd had a chance to read. That's a new one. but okay. We'll stop by in 3 months then! haha

That night we were walking around and trying to contact some referrals, and we ran into the person that gave us the referrals outside of the house. Our landlords had given us the names of some of their other tenants that perhaps might be interested, so we were trying to contact them. Bro. Boyle was outside the apartment, and we were able to talk to him, get introduced to the people we were trying to contact, and in general get to know him better. We also helped him and his brother carry doors into the apartments- they're fixing them up and remodeling them so they can rent them out. That was pretty fun too. We did a lot of random service this week, and every time people were like noo! you're in skirts! You're all dressed up! Sister Taylor and I were like- we can do pretty much anything in a skirt- we wear these all day every day! (I practically would rather wear a skirt at this point to do anything besides working out. Random tangent) 

Friday we were trying to find some less-actives, people on the ward list that we had no idea who they are, what their story was, or whether, honestly, they even lived in the area anymore. We were headed back towards Newton after driving out a little ways, and we were going to try someone but took a wrong turn or turned into random street to turn around- and I'm like WAIT! I recognized the name of the street, and one of the people we are looking for lives on this street! Hadn't ever been there before, but we randomly found it. (well, not random, as we can see from the story that will follow, but you know what I mean) We find the home of the person we were looking for and we knock and a woman opens the door and just says oh! I haven't met these sisters yet! She had been in touch with the sisters recently but since we are both so new she hadn't had a chance to meet us yet. She is the sweetest lady- she has 6 kids, 3 of them under the age of 3- twin boys and another boy. (a yours/mine/ours kinda thing) and we were visiting with her and talking and one of the twins bangs his head super hard on a table- he bursts into tears and we think he's generally okay, but everyone still kind of leans over to check on him and his mom heads over to pick him up- and his head is gushing. he had a pretty nasty gash on his head that definitely needed stitches. She picks him up and runs to the closet to grab something to put on his head. I kinda follow her, and I end up holding the blanket to his head while the mom holds him and tries to figure out what to do- she didn't have a car, so she had her friend call an ambulance. Meanwhile, the boy is just screaming bloody murder and thrashing all over the place- I'm wrestling with his head, trying to keep the blanket on it as much as I can (first aid skills, whoo!) and his mom is trying to hang onto him. we're all trying to calm him down, and his big brother had found a balloon and blew it up and that calmed him down a lot, as well as just being able to see his big brother.  A cop shows up to get some info and let us know that an ambulance is coming. (and he gives me some gloves, haha) The ambulance finally shows up and we walk the kid out to the ambulance, I'm still holding onto his head and she's carrying him. It had stopped bleeding excessively I think by that time, what with all the pressure I was trying to keep on it. It was a really crazy little bit of time and when the ambulance was gone it was just kind of like... well. ok. what do we do now? I go inside to get cleaned up, and the friends that were going to stay with the kids offered us some water so we talk with them a little bit, and talked to the oldest boy a little bit, then headed out. Another one of those being in the right place in the right time. wow. 

Saturday morning we have correlation meeting/breakfast with the ward mission leader at 7 am (whoo!) and then we stuck around to play sports with the elders and the other guys that come to play basketball or whatever on saturday mornings. It was a TON of fun- Sister Taylor and I were on opposite teams since, well, we're the only ones that can guard each other, and it was a ton of fun to be able to play and to just run around and be really active (and competitive... hehe) We played basketball first (I got one good block in and a couple of those rebounds where I was just taller than everyone and grabbed it and put it back up. it was great. Elder Thresher is over 6 ft, and I think one of the other guys, Billy, is maybe my height but the other three people were all short), then went out in the parking lot to play soccer for a little bit. Sister Taylor's life passion is soccer, so she was super excited. That was a blast, and we got to talk to Billy and his buddy about missions and just life in general- Billy wants to go once he graduates next year and his friend is getting ready to return to his mission. It's awesome!

Saturday afternoon we visited a former investigator that lives in Blairstown- we made a trip of it and stayed out in blairstown most of the day. (it's 30 minutes away from our apt) and that was a really interesting experience. She told us all about her conversion to christ- from being raised jewish, to being atheist, then discovering a love of country and would quote the declaration of independence, but then realized that if she was going to quote about inalienable rights endowed by a creator, she had better well believe in a creator or stop quoting it (logical. i loved it) and so she made that choice to believe in God, and eventually to believe in Christ as well, but that is something that was hard for her to accept, having been raised jewish. She is now a messianic jew, who believes in Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew) and she is incredible. She wasn't ready for the Book of Mormon and what we had to share, but we were able to let her know that our purpose is to bring others closer to Jesus Christ. She was able to find her own path closer to Christ, and (as far as her situation/preparedness/interest level went) we were satisfied with that- that she had that belief in Christ. It was an incredible lesson.

Sunday was really good (holy cow this email is long. yay you!) and one of the most memorable testimonies was a young boy (10 or so) that just bore really profound testimony. I wish I could remember what he said- something about how Sundays are for us to worship and thank God, and it was just really simple, really profound words from a boy.

This week is already a little crazy! We have a shortened P-day today because of our temple trip tomorrow, and so our zone meeting is on Thursday and walking day is Wednesday. Everything is switched around, haha. It will be a fun week, I'm looking forward to it. I mean- I GET TO GO TO NEW YORK TOMORROW! whaaaat! haha. I'm super excited. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Rabbit, Happy June, and 

Love always,

Sister Richmond