Merry Late Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Feliz Ano Novo!

Well My Friends.....

I hope your Christmas was Merry. Mine sure was, on Tuesday we had a Mission Conference....yes that means everyone...EVERYONE.... it was really cool. So we got to see all of our friends at the same time and even had time to make new ones. Our Mission Presidente, Presidente Prieto, talked about Christmas and then Sister Prieto cried because they are away from their families too for the first time in years.... I think they are even Grandma and Grandpa! and they aren´t even that old!

So they have a tradition in their family that they have a Christmas tree with candy on it and everyone gets candy from the tree, so they gave us candy from a tree they had for us, because we are their children. It was pretty cool.

Then we had Churrasco for lunch and then we had a cool Christmas program with singing and little stories and stuff like that. Then we watched a movie..... How the Grinch stole Christmas!!!!!!!!!! not the cartoon one, but the Jim Carrey one..... it was pretty neat!

Then we ended and everyone got letters and all that and then we took a mission picture (which you will see, good luck finding me!) It was really cool. Then we went home. (We didn't get the picture--maybe he'll send it next week.)

Then on Christmas Eve me and Elder Passos decided it would be really hard to visit people today so we ended up walking around all day finding people that didn´t seem rushed to talk to and saying Merry Christmas to everyone, but no one said it back, and we were thinking 'man, what kind of city is this? No one says 'Merry Christmas' to anyone...' Then finally at 8:11 at night when we were walking to the Bishop´s house to get a key to call our parents the next day, a lady yelled out of her car, 'Merry Christmas brothers!' It was really cool!

Then we had some Lanches which is like a hamburger for dinner. They were really good, they have hamburger, eggs, bacon and all kinds of stuff on them, it all depends on what you want.... and that was our dinner.

We both got packages so we are overloaded with candy....and junk food. But it´s all good, then on Christmas, we slept in and then went to lunch and we ate pretty much the normal stuff, you know, rice, beans, salad, potato salad, and the different thing was a gigantic ham. It was very good!

Then we went to the Church and talked to our families. That was pretty cool, seeing as it has been 7 months since the last time we talked to them, if you had already started your mission before Mother´s day.
It was a neat experience. it was satisfying, and it didn´t cause you to get homesick, it was just cool.

So yeah that was my Christmas, how was yours?

Oh yeah next week is transfers so if something happens then you may not hear from me, just so you know....so don´t freak out, or stop reading my blog, it will still be there the next week.

I hope it was good. I love this time of year, that we get to focus on the Savior, even though we should everyday.... but still it is a time where mostly everyone is remembering Him. Please Remember Him.

Have a good New Year!

In fact make that a goal, Remember your Savior, everyday.

I am Elder Richardson, and I wish you all a Happy New Year and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAVIS CLOWARD! and I end mine epistle, amen.

Well my English speaking friends,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN EPPERSON!!

How is life?

The Christmas season is coming to a close, yet again, I hope you are all prepared. As a missionary, well I don't really have to worry about much. I only worry about this,

LUKE 2:8 -148 - And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 - And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 - And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 - For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 - And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 - And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 - Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Remember this on Saturday. Merry Christmas.

Oh this last week on Friday, we were visting with a member to get them to go to the Ward Party, and for some reason, I was talking about something to get them to go and I let it slip that it was my birthday on Saturday, and so then at the Party they told everyone and sang Happy Birthday.

Ok I have 3 scriptures for you, Mosiah 5:8-9

(Okay, I looked 'em up and will print them here--And under this head ye are made afree, and there is bno other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other cname given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should dtake upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.

And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ.)

Jacob 1:7 Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to acome unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his brest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not center in, as in the dprovocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the ewilderness.

2 Nephi 25:26 (And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our cchildren may know to what source they may look for a dremission of their sins.)

They are pretty good, I suggest that you look them up.

Man this last week, Sunday to Friday, it rained. we thought it would stop on Friday, but at about 4 it started again. It is really hard to work in the rain, even with an umbrella. No one is on the street, and it´s almost impossible to get into someone´s house when you are soaking wet. So that´s what happened this week.

Oh on Saturday and family invited us over for Dinner and Cake. It was pretty cool.
I hope you are all having a great Christmas season. Remember your Savior and everything He has done for you, without His Birth, we wouldn’t have this holiday, so be grateful to Him.

Pray to your Heavenly Father and thank Him for everything. I Love you all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I am Elder Richardson, man of 20 years, and I end mine epistle, amen

Elder Passos and me

Sister Lobato, Elder Carneiro, Sister Martins, Jeppson, Passos (on the chair in the back) and ME

Me, Passos, Jeppson, and Carneiro

Feliz Natal!

Everyone I hope you are well, and cold, because it´s super hot here, and it´s only going to get hotter!

Well as for Christmas style things here, we have no one home and gigantic pole with wreaths that light up at night, and in the Centro we have a Nativity set, and we have Trees, lots of things done by the Catholic Church (Probably most Prominent Christian Church here) some people have Christmas lights, but it´s just not the same without snow....

We even saw Santa Claus on the street, or Papai Noel as they call him here. I feel kinda bad for saying this but I just don´t think Santa works when he´s Black......

Oh yeah in the Centro there are these angel looking dudes and they all have the same face and there hands look like they go melted slightly or something they look almost retarded. It´s really funny looking!

This last week wasn't bad, we taught a bunch of people but no one wanted to go to church and our mission presidente wants everyone to go to church at least once before we can baptize them or really do much more with them.

We did have a baptism yesterday, but it hardly counts. It was a daughter of a active/inactive family and it was only her that needed to be baptized, but since she was 9 it went to the missionaries, which is... well me. Her dad was inactive for like ever, and they wanted to wait for him to get back to church to baptize her and they thought that her waiting might work, but it didn't seem to do much and when you are 9 and up you go to the missionaries.

So we did the interview because her dad went back to church a couple weeks back and then they wanted her to get baptized so they asked us to interview her, so we did and her older brother baptized her and her dad confirmed her.

It reminded me of a time a little over 2 years ago when I baptized my little brother and my dad confirmed him. It was a cool experience. Both times.

My sister will like this part, there is a guy in the ward here that played his clarinet for the baptism yesterday, it was pretty cool.

I've been remembering lines from Christmas movies.... wow good times, Christmas is a wonderful time of year, and I think we all need to remember the real meaning of Christmas, read it in Luke ( the Bible) it´s about our Savior. It´s about what you can do for other people, not what you´ll get in return, the Savior didn't ask for anything in return, just obey and do what is right, a small price to pay for Eternal Life, and your Salvation. The Savior died for us. What can you do for another person?

I will write more next week about the real meaning of Christmas seeing as next week is the week of Christmas.

But now, it´s Turbo time!
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner(or Donder, depending on the story) Blitzen, hahaha I can do this all day!

And the Classic,
You´ll shoot your eye out kid!

Flick, Flick who?

Oh one funny thing happened this morning, the Assistants called us to confirm who we baptized yesterday and then they said to my comp, have a good p-day and my comp said you too, but p-day for them.... is on Saturday! It was pretty funny..... you too! (From Brian Regan)

I am Elder Richardson, and I end mine epistle to the Americans, amen

Joy to the World, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king!

That is something I want to tell everyone, but then I’d be like Alma and he told us that is a sin, and we must give God the Glory and let Him use us and tell us what we need to do.

I wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!! FELIZ NATAL!!!!!!!!!!!

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY OBORN!!! (yesterday)

I hope you are well in your first weekend of Christmasy, snowy goodness that almost doesn’t exist here.... well the snow.... but people have fake snow and it’s kinda funny. Oh this last week we got a new WASHING MACHINE!!! It’s actually like a real one, or a super Tanquinho (the old one) but it works like the MAGIC CLEANING BOX! and my clothes are almost dry when I take them out! It is really cool, so now our lives are better!

This last week was hard but good, things are looking up. We taught a lady and she was really good, she accepted our help to be prepared to be baptized, but then we went back two days later and she tried to give us back the Book of Mormon. I’m not going to let that happen, so we told her to read it and pray about it. So we’ll go back this next week.

There are some Christmas decorations around the city here but I haven’t seen a lot of real Christmas stuff, but yet again I’m in a whole other place.

Oh man, yet again it rained like no other, and Elder Jeppson (another Elder in the city) and I saw lightning hit RIGHT ON FRONT OF US!!! It was really cool but kinda freaky. We got so wet... then on Sunday, we wanted to work but you can’t work right in the rain, it rained like 5 times on Sunday. We visited with a member and the rain stopped and then started every time we wanted to leave so finally we decided it wasn’t that bad and left. And we were going to leave our bags at home and go on the main street to go do some contacts and then the rain got even harder so we wouldn’t have been able to talk to anyone anyway.....

Other than that this week was good, but we had 3 days we couldn’t do anything. One was because the guys in Ribeirão Preto had an idea of getting all the missionaries in one area, in the same city, and having them work only in that area, but when the area is almost an hour away and you don’t know the area and your map isn’t right, how does it work? You end up spending most of your time trying not to get lost and sweating because the sun is so freakin’ powerful, because São João da Boa Vista is supposedly the second clearest city in the world, next to one in Indonesia or Japan I think. SO we get really sweaty here.... it’s so hot..... then the other 2 were because of an interview that was crazy long and rain.

Nothing dampens your spirits does it Sam? Those Rain clouds might.... For sure the rain dampens your spirit, it soaks it to the CORE! But hey what can you do? NOTHING! But this next week will be better, you’ll see, you’ll all see! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

So anyway I guess I’ll close. I hope I didn’t forget anything.....

I am Elder Richardson, one of 2 Americans in SJBV and I end mine epistle, amen.