Hey guys!

Well today is yet again another transfer day, and well, yet again, I got a new comp!

Every Transfer this year, I got a new comp.

My new comp is Elder Bird. From Washington, or Idaho, seeing as his family moved just after he left. He has 5 months out here. I´m his "Step-Dad" or his second comp. This is the 4th time I´ve done this.

So Elder Ribeiro, he went off to Araraquara....

I´m going to be here in Vila Virgínia for my Birthday, Christmas, and New Year´s.... This is going to be cool.

This last week, in my study, I finished Jesus the Christ again. I love that book. It is a wonderful book to read....

I also made another hole in my belt.... It´s the 4th hole in this belt... Man I´m getting smaller..... it´s nuts.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.... I guess I did..... it was a really hard day, no one wanted anything. SO we needed to find out what we were grateful for....

Well, Evan and Ben Epperson, this is my farewell to you, Good luck. Have a great mission, get out there and have a blast.... You´ll understand this much, much, later..... and you´ll thank me for it. Every minute on a mission is worth it, even the bad parts.... It´s hard but wonderful. You´ll never regret it....EVER. I don´t.... and I never will. Get out there and baptize the world!

Everyone that is wanting to go or is having doubts about going, just do it. Just go, don´t think twice and get out there. You´ll love it.

This last week was good, we took a girl named Lorraine to church yesterday and she said she wants to get baptized! Woo-Hoo! And we are working on a bunch of other people to get baptized here soon. I´m glad to stay here for this transfer, it´s going to be a good one. This is my second to last one.

I only have 3 months left and about 84 days.....

I am Elder Richardson, LD, Step dad of Elder Bird and I end mine epistle, amen

This week, was well, um, it, well, um it was, like, um, a, sorta, like, hum, one of those weeks.....

So anyway this week was normal, it rained like no other on Tuesday and we had to walk for about 50 minutes in the rain to District Meeting.

This transfer is coming to an end and we have no idea what will happen seeing as we both got here this transfer.

I could leave and my comp could go with me, we could stay or just one will leave.... we´ll find out later this week you will find out next week!

Yesterday, was the day of crazyness..... we talked to a cow for about 20 minutes, we talked to a crazy girl for about a 1/2 hour and it took us like 5 minutes to remember her, she always says hi to us on the street and she told us about all her boyfriend problems and we will go teach her this week..... We walked on the freeway for about 20 minutes, met an inactive lady and at her house we were instantly loved and they always give us free fruit. We ate Melão (don´t have translation) Melancia, (Watermelon) and Abacaxi! (Pineapple) We ate sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much of it..... it was great!

We are going to try and baptize her daughter as well.... we met a girl on the street who greeted us as if we were old friends and then we went over to her house and she was inactive, she went to church with us on Sunday and pretty much just needed to have us go over there to show her that someone cares.... sometimes the members remember but don´t do anything to help them.
We had a good week, not much with lots of details happened but lots happened, it was a good tiring week, love you all!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!

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

Well, my friends, this week was nuts, but nevertheless a good week.

It went by freaking fast, and then it rained too, but we are in the rainy season here in Brasil. It will probably rain at least once a week.

I sadly found out that I have 98 days left on the mission...... here in 2 weeks I will start my penultimo transfer.....

We had a week very similar to last week, we talked to lots of people and not a lot of people wanted anything.

We taught a guy named Danilo, he is the boyfriend of a member, and he is a good kid, but just needs to pray to be baptized.

A member has brought his son and his girlfriend for the last 2 weeks and they are liking it and we are going to teach them this week.

It sucks when it rains here, people don't like the rain. I'm not quite sure what to say.... this week was fairly uneventful.... But I know that this next week will be great.

I know this work is the work of the Lord. Yesterday I had to give a talk in church about missionary work, and pretty much I burned the crap out of all the members, but everyone said that it was a good talk, that they needed to hear that.

I finally sent a picture to you guys, I hope you like it, it says I want a bicycle! I thought it was funny.

Well, I hope this next week is a little more eventful for you guys to hear about next week, so I will talk to you then!

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

Hey guys what's up?

So this last week was probably the best week we had here, because we got a lot of work done! We found a bunch of new people to teach and they all accepted baptism! Now we just gotta work hard to keep them happy for it!

We also confirmed Maria yesterday, we still need to take a picture with her so that's why you haven't seen her!

This week was hard but good, like I said, we found some good people.

We had a visitor from the CTM in Provo and he talked to us, it was a really cool experience, and it was justamente on a holiday so we got out of walking in the hot sun and doing nothing for a day!

It was hard, we almost were to the point where we thought, man it doesn't matter what I do here, stay at home or walk around, no one will accept it anyway, then we decided to keep going and in one day we found about 4 people! We walked all day in the hot sun to do so but be succeeded!

I just want to tell you all that I know that this is truly the work of our Lord and Savior, I am proud to say that I take a part in it. I love this work and I encourage you all to take a part in it as well, you will be blessed and so will your families but also many, many others and their families, those people that only will respond to the Restored Gospel through you. You are God's instrument, let him use you. You will love it here, it is so wonderful to do this work.

I know this Church is the ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THIS EARTH, THERE IS NO OTHER CHURCH THAT IS TRUE, WE HAVE A LIVING PROPHET AND 12 APOSTLES, AND JESUS CHRIST LIVES. HE IS THE KEYSTONE OF OUR CHURCH.

I want you all to know that I KNOW this, if you don't know, pray about it, read the Book of Mormon and go to the Church. Then pray with all earnestness and you will know, TONIGHT, that this Church is truly the Church of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and He, through Joseph Smith, restored His Church here again on the earth EXACTLY as it was before when He was here in His earthly ministry.

Happy Birthday Brandon Androes!

and Clayton Preston!

I hope you all have a good week,

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

I look to my left and see the house that we must knock on, so we knock and a
woman in her late 20´s answers the door and lets us in, accepts the message and
as we close with a prayer, the Thunder hits.....BOOM...... Then the rain
starts..... the rain in Brasil, is RAIN..... it was very powerful...... so we
take off running and within 2 minutes we are soaked to the bone, we work for
another hour or so and then end up going home........ this happened twice this
week!

Then this week we baptized Maria!!!!!! Hooray! Next week I´ll send a picture, she is an older
lady of about 60 years and she accepted everything that we had to say..... so
she was baptized, she was pretty happy!

This week was nuts, it rained twice and we didn´t get a lot done done because of that....

We are having a hard time here in the area, seeing as we didn´t have anything to start with...... We are doing our best and we are working very hard...... it´s hard but it´s better
this way....

We got a bunch of references this last week and we will get even more and we are going to visit
and baptize a bunch of people!

It´s been a long time since we have baptized someone in this ward, so the people are getting excited again, that we are here to make the difference! woohoo!

So anyway, I´m liking it here in Ribeirão yet again..... and we are being really positive about
everything.....

It´s better this way.

I love you guys and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL IN OCTOBER AND FOR NEXT WEEK!
LET´S SEE WHO I REMEMBER.....

LAURA DAMEWOOD, ELDER

PASSOS, MY COMP ELDER RIBEIRO, SISTER BENNETT (TODAY) AND TOMORROW XELA HOUSE!

Sorry if you were forgotten......

I STILL LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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