Pessoas!!!!
Ok This week in Brasil comes the following:
We baptized one girl, actually the sister of the guy I baptized last week. Her name is Tamires. Here’s the picture!

Everything is going great here, the city is like this, there are different bairros.... neighborhoods. There is the Centro which is like the shopping distrito [district], and then houses and there can be stores and Igrejas [churches] in these parts..... the buildings are small...... more or less like West Valley City! It has been getting kinda cold and I actually wore my sweater.

We eat lunch with a member everyday..... sometimes its good and sometimes its not..... but we eat it anyway..... one of the worst meals was this...... Fish spaghetti..... It looks like spaghetti but tastes like trout...... YUCK MAN! Have you ever wanted NORMAL spaghetti so bad, then it tastes like FISH? NO! But we do eat these little pizzas for dinner sometimes called Esfihas..... oh they are so good! [Here's a link to Esfihas http://www.cookbrazil.com/esfihas.htm. They sound like empanadas!]

Man, everything is going great here. I love it here..... oh the funniest thing that happened this week was we were teaching an Inglês class and one of Elder Ellis’ friends on the mission called and so we asked him to say something simple in Inglês to the kids and he said “What’s your name E?” That’s how Brasilians pronounce it... and they didn’t answer so he said “What’s your freakin’ name E!” It was so funny!

Oh man I learned something that pretty much all missionaries learn, how to do the Rubik’s cube.... That’s right I did learn how to do it! That’s what’s going on here and yaya like I lost 13 kilos lost since I left home 3 months ago today!

Oh yeah Sundays are estranha [strange] here.... we get up and get ready and go to church by like 8:30—it starts at 9—and then we wait forever for people to come so we can have a ride to go pick up our people. Then we go to church . . .then we go to lunch at someone’s house . . . then we go out proselyting for the rest of the day . . . finish up our contacts for the week and everything else . . .and then we visit the greatest family here . . . then we go home . . . and then it’s P-DAY!!!! It’s great. Everything is.

Well ok guys I can’t think of anything else so, Rock on! May the Force be with you! I love you all and hope to hear from you! My Name is Elder Richardson, Trainee of Elder Ellis, Second in command of Missionary Work in Americo Brasiliense, Keymaster, and I end my epistle, Amen.

Doesn't this look like a great city? I love it!

More animals to teach?

Hey guys!
Yeah everything is great here in Americo Brasilense! You know what I’ll tell you about my city. It’s pretty small, but it’s great. There are houses and then shops sometimes they are mixed together.... There are lots of people here, and everyone has a dog, whether they like it or not. There are lots of bars and that’s where we get Guaraná! You know ice cream really saves your life here.....

Hey if anyone wants to send me mail or a package, that is accepted as well as needed and loved! Just send them to the mission office, I will get them every couple of weeks! Ask my mom what kinds of things to send and how it all works.

Guys I love being a missionary, it’s so great, those of you who are getting ready to fill out your papers, be excited don’t give up! It’s so worth it! If you can go but aren’t trying to, what’s up? Get to work! Faz Trabalho Filho! Rapido, Rapido! [Work son, fast, fast!] (Taylor wants me to tell you if you need help filling out the paperwork, that I am willing to help. Sure—I can do that! I’d love to see you all off on missions.)

You know I did something great this week, we got 2 baptisms! It was pretty much clean up from the last Elders.... but I got to baptize Kelvin, and the other boy is Maicon. It was really cool.
(It looks like a member baptized Maicon, but Taylor was lucky and got to baptize Kelvin. And isn't it cool to see the name of the Church in Portuguese? You can certainly tell what it is.)

The smells here are good, bad and different. We have to usually eat everything all together, and they always make me eat more..... so I tell them I don’t want to be gordão! So they usually let me off on that.... (Taylor hates stroganoff and we used to tease him that he’d go to Stroganoff Capitol of the World. On Mother’s Day when we talked, he said we were right—Brazil is Stroganoff Capitol of the World—everyone makes their own version of stroganoff, but he is trying everything and says he mostly likes Brazilian stroganoff.)

I’m understanding a whole lot more than I did about a week ago......

I hope you will send me some mail! Missionaries love letters and packages!!!!!! Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

See you in 2 years
Elder Richardson

Oi pessoas!

Nossa! This week has gone by fast! I´m learning so much so fast! It´s great! I love being here, wow so what happened? Let´s see.....

Sometimes people aren´t out so we don´t get a ton done, but we did get some work done! We have a few potential people to get baptized but we´ll see.... There is a family we go to a lot and their kids love us, they we trying to make me laugh yesterday, porque they think I´m super serious.....

Everything is great! I really don´t know what to say.....
We have like 15 flavors of TANG here! I love Guaraná, it´s so good!

Wow, the people don´t stop for pedestrians, I mean when they are driving their cars and stuff!

I love my area, and everything about it, my companheiro is super cool! We have been teaching some people one moça is really hard to teach, she won´t be home when she says or she won´t read and all kinds of crap.....

A couple of other people are really ready for baptism, and so is another family. I love being a missionary! I love what I get to do! Well Até proximo semana!

Eu te amo muito!
- Elder Richardson


We had a wonderful phone conversation with Taylor on Mother's Day. He sounds so happy! He didn't have a single negative thing to say about anything, which makes for a happy mother. He is in a small town of about 30,000 people and it is fairly rural. He loves his companion, who is a good missionary and is showing Taylor all the ins and outs of being a missionary. They are both new to the city; his companion is just coming out of the mission home after being the Financial Secretary for 6 months. He only has 3 months left and is excited to be a proselyting missionary again. It sounds like they are both trying to work hard as they learn how this city works. I took notes on the phone conversation, so when I get those notes in front of me--I'll see what else I can tell you! --Mission Mom

This is Taylor's best contact so far.

I'm guessing this is the new city, but am not sure.

Taylor and Elder Cunha--Taylor thinks he looks like Antonio Banderas (although he says not in this picture--maybe if Antonio would put on the white shirt and tie, they'd be twins).

Picture from the CTM. Very nice. He'll be a great tour guide one day.

The Elders in the CTM district; well, at least their tags.

Oh, here are the faces to match the tags.



Beautiful skyline--of what city? Not sure.


Elder Snyder and Elder Richardson--CTM comps.

Not sure who, you match the face with the tag this time.

Taylor in his "Man Search for Happiness" pose. If you don't know what that is, ask your parents--they'll know.

Look like happy missionaries leaving the CTM, going to their mission. Good picture. Was this the 3 a.m. pose? Kind of a crazed look in some of those eyes. . .

Oi pessoas!

Ok, I’m in the perfect place, a little city called Americo Brasilense! My Trainer is Elder Ellis, a surfer from California/Hawaii! Super cool dude! It’s just us two here... we live in a little house thingy. Our city is just south of Ribeirão Preto. I’ve seen so many thing, I can’t remember them all. There is a bar on at least every block.

Everyone send my letters to the mission home, I’ll get them every few weeks!
Ok in order to go to Ribeirão Preto, we had to get up at 3 IN THE MORNING!!!! Then we got there and ended up having 3 breakfasts! One at the CTM, on the plane and then when we got there and met the Assistants and the Secretaries. Then we went to Presidente Veira’s house and had lunch and a get-to-know-you interview.... He doesn’t know much Inglês so it was interesting!

Then we got our trainers and the área that we are in! Then we waited forever to go, we all got a bus to our new áreas. It’s super cool here! We have lunch with a member everyday! Everything is great—I absolutely love it! Sleep comes so easy.... I’m so tired when we get home.....

Man I got 81 contatos this week, and 19 addresses! I’m learning so much, so fast! Church here is super small; we had 70 people come, and that’s a lot! We have one lady who is way ready to be baptized, so we just need to get her an interview and her husband too! They are totally cool!
I got offered alcohol this week, almost been ran over like at least 6 times a day, sometimes people think we are the police it’s crazy! Everything is great, you know on Sunday I was actually looking forward to having beans and rice, it’s so good! I love the food, and people go way out of their way for us!

Oh we drink this drink called Tereré and you have it with pear juice, it’s kind of like mate, but cold and it’s super good, you drink it out of a horn, yep a horn, you know from a cow! It’s so good! Tereré is like mate, but it’s cold. (Mate is a drink Taylor’s dad had on his mission in Argentina.) The straw we use is called a bomba.

I love it here! I love being a missionary! Write to me!

Love you guys!

-Elder Richardson!