Me and Elder Ribeiro waiting for the phone call. (The last missionary lost the phone.)

Capyvara--world's largest rodent. This one is about the size of one of the pigs you see at the fair. ("Tick" fans--this is "Speak.")

Elder Ribeiro and Açaí

As I walk down the deserted streets of Ribeirão Preto on a Sunday afternoon, the cold wind hits my face as if I were on a mast of a boat lost at sea. The darkness in the skies looms over us in the form of darkening clouds, churning with rage and threatening us with hours of cold, harsh rain. I slowly look up at thm and shake my head in disbelief and quietly think to myself "Not Today" I quickly look down again at the dirty sidewalk to not get the flying dust particles in my eyes. As we near our destination and turn down another deserted street, I see a piece of loose paper fly in the powerful wind, as we turn the corner I heard a sound of tumult and we arrive close to a bar and hear the people drinking and laughing and listening to the live accordion music, I steal a look to the side and smile and as we turn for the last time we arrive at our destination.........some time later.......A rich dark amber liquid falls into my cup like the descent of a cascading waterfall, the liquid is as cold as ice and small droplets of water slide down the glass making it slippery and cold, stinging when you touch. Despite the intensity of the heat of the air and the extremity of the cold, I lift the glass to my dry chapped sun-burnt lips. The cool liquid flows into my mouth and soothes my dry, dirt- ridden throat. As I finish my cup, it leaves a refreshing taste and a tingle in my throat......The cool liquid was indeed......Guaraná.... The liquid of Brasil.

So anyway that was my week, how was yours?

TODAY I MAKE ONE YEAR AND EIGHT MONTHS ON THE MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So anyway, I got emergency transferred....again.... this is the 3rd time in my mission! I went to Ribeirão Preto and stayed there in a place called Vila Virgínia, my comp is now Elder Ribeiro from Curitiba.

We started with ZERO and we had to work from there, we were both new to the area, seeing as he got trasferred here on Monday I got there on Wednesday, on Tuesday the Assistents called and asked if I could help them and told me I was getting transferred the next day. Oh well. Things happen and when the Lord and your Presidente have trust in you, you gotta answer the call.

So not much happened this week but this week should be good!

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

So anyway I´m sure you guys want to hear the results of Transfers, huh?

I'm still here in Jaboticabal with Elder Castro!

Nothing happened, this is the first time this year (2011) that I stayed with a comp for more than one transfer!

I was switching my comps a lot there for a while. So it's possible I could have at the most 2 more comps. I hope just one more, and possibly 2 more areas... just one more.

This last week was good but.....WET.

I'm not kidding we got rained on 7 times in one day! We got pretty wet.

It's hard to work in the rain seeing as lots of people (most Brasilians) have a fear of the rain, they don't want to get wet or something, and also they think you will get sick if you go out in the rain.

People don't stay at home, I don't know where they go, it's possible that they just stay at the store they are at. Then if they are at home they don't answer the door. or they make up the excuse, but it's raining.... Look I know it's raining, but what does that have to do with you hearing a message about God? Nothing. So can we come in and talk to you? It's raining..... I know it's raining....

That's how it is.

We had a good week despite the rain. We met some really cool people and we are going to baptize them.... for sure.

We had like 10 non members at church yesterday, and now we need to contact them. Most of them came from inactive families. So we are going to reactivate and baptized and complete familes!

This transfer will be great, I know it.

We met a lady yesterday who talks A LOT but is really cool. She was passing by the church and talked to some members there and forgot to give her address to them and sent her son with a paper that had her address and put it in the mailbox. Well we found it a couple days later and got there on Sunday (yesterday) and she was really cool and really wants to be a part of the Church.

It was a really cool experience.

Everything we did last transfer was obviously to prepare us for this one. It will be great!

Love you all!
I am Elder Richardson, LD, pai do Elder Castro and I end mine epistle, amen

So anyway E aí?

eu tô bem.. e vocês?

So this week was pretty good, it was one of those weeks that was just like totally normal.
We actually have a new rule in the mission, that on P-day, we can watch Disney movies or Dreamworks movies.

So last week we watched Tron, that was a really cool movie! and later today we will watch Kung Fu Panda 2. So anyway, that´s what we can do on P-day, now, pretty cool huh?

Next week I need to see if we can get ahold of Pirates of the Carribean 4, I want to see that one.

This last week, we found some really cool people, now we just need to get them to go to Church. Then they can get baptized, they even accepted to be Baptized, so we need to get them to go to Church on Sunday.

We had a good, good, long week.

On Saturday I had to go to Ribeirão Preto to do a Division with Elder Brower, so I could do some interviews for him. Baptismal interviews. We had a good day, but man we got back to our house at like 10. it was so late and we were so freakin' tired. Then on Sunday, it rained like no other. It was the first real rain that my comp got on the mission.

WIFE POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WIFE POINTS, is a point system similar (but not the same) to the well known, BROWNIE POINTS. It is only for missionaries, so the way you gain points is thusly, walking in the rain, sun and similar things like that, that are hard and sometimes challenging, and that would make you not want to continue or do something for protection.

like using an umbrella..... wimpy thing to do.

Walking in the shade, another wimpy thing to do.

And your future wife will be prettier and all other good things about her.

To "Uglify" your wife, you need to drop your scriptures, PMG, and other dumb stuff and also fubecagems.... It's fairly easy to get a TOTAL HOTTIE FOR A WIFE!!!!!!!!!

Next week is tranfers, but I think that we will stay here for this next one. But be prepared....

Next week we will have Daylight Savings, so when you think of me, think of me one more hour ahead of you!

Pray for us!

Love you all!

I am Elder Richardson, LD, Father of Elder Castro, Only American in Jaboticabal, and I end mine epistle, amen

Look, Look, Over there, THERE´S A BIRD!

HA HA MADE YOU LOOK!!!

There´s no bird!

ahahhahah

So anyway, this last week was pretty good. We watched Conference which was like the highlight of our week. We went to Bebedouro for the most of it. I watched half of it in English and the other half in Português.

It was pretty cool seeing my Uncle speak. For those of you who don´t know Matthew O. Richardson, is my Uncle, and yes the pictures that were shown, were of my cousins.

I loved Conference, for those of you who didn´t go, or watch it, man you missed out. I´m sure that most of you who didn´t, are probably being fubecas.

They talked a lot about missionary work and obedience and repentance. All essencial things.
I think you all should serve a mission, and well, so does the Lord.

That´s why we need to do it.

I love hearing our Profeta.

I had a good week, other than Conference it was fairly normal, work and that´s about it. We couldn´t find a lot of people at home a lot. That kinda sucked, but that´s ok, that´s why we have this week.

I love my comp and my area.

I love the mission, it is one of the best places you can be, and we all need to experience it.

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