Baptism of Elder Negreiros' Mom

Stuffed Peppers (of course Taylor would have never eaten this at home)

I am Elder Richardson and I am writing this epistle to the Americans of the Northern Continent and I say unto you:

Elder Richardson, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be a Missionary, separated unto the gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have received grace and missionary service, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in the USA, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift and some worldly gift for this I am sending this epistle, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
I am debtor both to the Americans, and to the Brasilians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in the USA also.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Americans first, and also to the Brasilians.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.

So yeah that´s how I feel, I found that in Romans, Chapter 1 verses 1 -19. It was changed a little bit, for me.

So anyway, this next week is transfers and I don´t know what will happen.

Ok this last week was nuts, my comp had an ingrown toenail and had to get that removed so on tuesday we didn´t work at all. He couldn´t walk. Then he got sick and I gave him a blessing and had a cool experience with that.

Then we had a normal week but not a lot of people wanted to let us in.

Then on Friday we were in Monte Alto, going home from lunch when Presidente Prieto called and he said that he wanted us to go to Ribeirão Preto on Saturday at like 3 in the afternoon, so we said ok and that was all he said. We wondered why.

Then Saturday came ( seemed like forever) and then we went to Ribeirão Preto and Presidente came and picked us up and then he took us to a church and he told me to do an interview, so I went and did, and you´ll never guess who I interviewed....

I did the Baptismal Interview for...... are you ready for this?????

Elder Negreiros´ Mom!!!!!!!! That´s right his MOM.

His mom wasn´t a member and she took the missionary lessons and then she wanted him to baptize her so she talked with Presidente Prieto about it and Presidente said it was ok for her to come here for him to baptize her.

Elder Negreiros almost fainted when he saw his Mom. It was pretty funny.

Cool cool cool experience.

So now his mom is baptized and confirmed.

By him.

Awesome huh?

So anyway that was the highlight of our week.
and the highlight of my comp´s mission.

I hope you all have a good week and we´ll see what happens next week.

I am Elder Richardson, LD, and I end mine epistle, amen

Well we had another nutty week in the podunk town of Jaboticabal.

This is like the second smallest city I have served in, the smallest was my first, Américo Brasiliênse.

It was a pretty good week, we worked so hard and we got so tired.

This week I will make a year and six months on my mission, oficialmente on Wednesday. Man that means I got a sister mission done! So anyway, this last week was great, we went to a lot of places and found some really cool people.

Me and my comp are getting along just great and we are working very hard. It can be hard, but you can´t give up. The harder it is the better and more worth it it is.

The mission is great, and I love it here in Brasil.

This last week was a battle to get people to church, this old dude who's wife is a member went to church and he said he loved it, he has lightened up with the missionaries since I got here. Then their Grandchildren went too, and a lady whose daughter has been going for like a month straight went for the second time and so we are going to work with them to see if we can baptize them this week.

The girl who speaks English (Amanda) she didn't go to church sadly, this is getting really hard to get her to go to church. The Enemy doesn´t want her to go. So we are doing absolutely everything we can to get her to go on Sunday.

We are working with Josiane as well, the mother of Maiara and Tainara, she is still smoking but we are helping her with that.

This week was an awesome week. We are going to work even harder this week.
I had a goal to read to Alma 32 by the end of the Transfer in Português seeing as I was a fubeca and had never tried to read the Book of Mórmon in Português, because I always heard that if you study in your own language then things are more profound for you. So I studied in English. Now I repented and am in Alma 58, so I am way ahead of schedule. I have 2 more weeks and I think I'll be able to finish. Every chance I have I just read the Book of Mórmon. I am also studying Preach My Gospel in English and Português and Jesus the Christ for the second time. Oh and I made a goal that I wanted to read the Bible cover to cover once on my mission, I'm in ROMANS!
I'm getting there!

So anyway, that´s about it. I love you all and I'll see you in 6 months!

I am Elder Richardson, LD, único Americano em Jaboticabal, and I end mine epistle, amen

Only in Brazil do they have a Beatles Wall!

So Hey....
My week was good.

Long, crazy, Hot, and hard.

But as always so worth it.

We went to Ribeirão Preto to have a meeting with other missionaries. It was fun, and I realized I was one of the oldest missionaries there. I am the oldest in my zone. I realized that when I didn't really know anyone there.

And I got a package. Man getting a package was cool. I got some cool candy that I haven't seen before and some I forgot about and some that was normal but still awesome to get! I even got an official Rubik's cube, I've waited like a year and 3 months for that! For those of you who don't know, I can actually do a Rubik's cube, I think it's a rule for missionaries to try to learn it, and if you don't then you are a fubeca. It's actually very easy to do.

Man yesterday I remembered the Bumpuses from a Christmas Story, we were at like a farm visting a member and they have like 10 or more dogs there..... and they had a bunch of food from a Father's Day party (it was yesterday here) and they gave us a ton of food and homemade fresh cheese. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......cheese.

I ate some sort of chicken thing for lunch on Saturday, it was very good, and it reminded me of my Mom's Chicken Pot Pie. It was fairly close but it wasn´t the same, so it was like the filling without the crust, still very good but not the same.

I would like to take my time to say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!!!

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE I KNOW THAT HAS A BIRTHDAY IN AUGUST!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah, that's about all I have for this week, keep praying for us and everything will go well!

I am Elder Richardson, LD, only American in Jaboticabal and I end mine epistle, amen

I walk down the street and we look all over to find the address we were given, we look to our left and see a giant apartment building and we think, that’s it. We talk to the Doorman and he lets us in. We take the back elevator to the 13th floor and we look for the number 1302. We find it and knock. We are let in very quickly and we meet a girl named Amanda, she speaks English and was excited to hear that an American was in the city. We taught her aunt on Sunday (not yesterday) and her aunt told us to go over there on Tuesday, so we did.

So I talked with her in English for a little bit then we asked if we could share a message with her and so we did, and she loved it, I know she felt the Spirit very strongly when we told her about Joseph Smith. Then we told her to read the Book of Mórmon and she said she would. Then we went back a couple of days later and she had read and she said she loved it and she said that she lit a candle after she prayed to see and she waved it so see if it would go out, and it didn’t and so she waved it even faster and it didn’t go out and she told me she asked God for a sign to tell her it was true and she said that that was her sign, no matter what she did the candle wouldn’t go out. She now knows the Book of Mórmon is true..... Now we gotta get her to Church. Man Cool experiences!

SO anyway, that was like the highlight of the week and her mom said we are welcome at their house whenever we want.

This week was pretty good it was a little crazy and seems like we didn’t do anything, but we did and it went well.

It is really hot here, it actually got cold and rained this last week.

But it was good,

We baptized the daughter of a member this week, she lives in São Paulo and came here to visit for the weekend and she told her dad she wanted to be baptized. So we baptized her. She is 20 years old and now their family can be sealed together... her dad is super excited.

Other than that not much happened, we went out to another city called Monte Alto (high mount) and that’s where our bishop lives and we had lunch at his house so we took some cool pictures which I sent to you.

I am Elder Richardson, LD, only American in Jaboticabal, and Missionary and Servant of The Lord Almighty, and I end mine epistle, amen

Me at our house
Me and the Pie
My Comp and the Pie
The Ice Cream Pie!
Maria (Grandma), me, maiara, Ygor, Elder Negreiros, Josiane (Mom), Tainara
Me, Maiara, Tainara, and Elder Negreiros
Me and the Jaboticabal sign
A funny sign that says Pig People Throw Your Garbage Here
Elder Gomes, Me, Santos, Sharratt, Hudson and Smith in the front
The District in Aracatuba

The future is in your hands--as a missionary, it truly is. . .
The Brazilian Soccer Stars

Hey so what's up?

Oh are you ready for this?

Everyone, I, Elder Richardson after about 6 months, BAPTIZED 2 PEOPLE!

Wow, crazy stuff huh?

The names are Maiara Eustáquio Da Silva Vega and Tainara Eustáquio Da Silva Vega. They are sisters, and Maiara is 14 and Tainara is 12. They live like on a farm, and they were found by my comp and his last comp and then we finished up the preparations for baptism and baptized them on Sunday.

They are really cool and now we are working with their Grandma and Mom to be baptized maybe (probably) this week.

Like I said my comp is Elder Negreiros, he is pretty cool, I like him a lot. He is a good hard worker and we are getting along great.

Jaboticabal is a great city and a great ward, we are working hard and it looks like we are baptizing like no other man!

This last week we bought an Ice Cream Pie or Torta de Sorvete. It was very good.

This last week went by really fast and we visited a lot of people found some cool people and are helping a bunch of people get ready to be baptized, like families and everything.

The work here is really nuts, the members want to help and everything, a member will leave with each one of us every night to go visit our investigators... it helps out a lot and then they give them rides and everything.

In our Ward we have 2 other cities, one called Guariba and the other Monte Alto, so we have a total of 3 cities in our area.

It's great here, I love it a lot. It was kinda nuts going from a place that you work so hard and you don´t baptize to a place that you just work normal and you baptize like crazy. It was a little hard for me to realize that but it's ok now. I'm happy to be here, I love it here, and I do miss Araçatuba but Jaboticabal is great too! I'd stay here for a while too!

Well I think that's it.

I am Elder Richardson, LD, only American in Jaboticabal, step father of Elder Negreiros, and I end mine epistle, amen.