Well Guys,

Here we are again at an end of another year. Merry Christmas to all. And a Happy New Year!

I sincerely hope that everyone's Christmas was wonderful. Mine was.... let me tell you about it.
Well, we went to Church at 10 and like no one went, only about 60 people to our normal of about 90.

Then we went to lunch and we ate and ate and ate. We had a filled potato, or a batata recheada, rice with carrots, rasins, and such. We also had turkey and much more. We had ice cream for dessert and pineapple.

Then we went up to the Church to prepare to talk to our families. Elder Bird used SKYPE and then I did the old school phone call. It was pretty cool... like always. Then we went to a member's house and spent the rest of the night there and we ate sushi, homemade sushi, one of the guys there is Japanese. It was really good. I had a good Christmas.

I hope you all are happy... I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

and Happy Birthday Travis Cloward!

I hope you are well, I'll see you in 2 months.

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

This one is called: Trainings, Cakes, and Baptisms

SO anyway guys, yeah, I´m going to write in English this week, I just figured that I should write one in Português at least once!

So yeah yesterday was a good day!
We BAPTIZED 2, I REPEAT, 2 PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEIR NAMES ARE THUSLY
LORRAINE, AND DANILO!!!!!!!!

AND ok I can take off caps lock now, ahem, and it was on my birthday! I got to baptize Lorraine! You´ll see the pictures.

So anyway, we had to wake up way freaking early 2 days in a row this last week, one at 6 and the other at 4h45! at 6 we had an LD training with Presidente Prieto and the Assistants.... sounds like a 60´s Surf rock band name....

Anyway it was a good training, I really enjoyed it, and I realized I had the most time there..... a year and 10 months. I´m so old.

Tomorrow we will have our Christmas Conference, this is going to be good! I´m stoked.... a lot!
Oh yeah,, and we got up at 4h45 so we could take Elder Lund to the Rodoviariá by 6, then we walked all the way back and then walked for like 50 minutes to go to the Sisteres area so we could have District Meeting. That was fun .

Then we heard some old guys telling a dog to shut up when it started barking, they said, "Shut up, I hate it when you bark, you stupid dog, you always do this, why do you do this you stupid animal!" It was pretty funny.

Then we went to a house that we visit, quite frequently actually, and they have a little girl who lives there, who loves us, and they have chickens and chicks and eggs and fruit and stuff like that. So the little girl painted the chicks nails pink and her grandma was complaining to us, (by the way she doesn´t breathe when ranting) and when she was ranting she said "and Manuella goes and paints the chicks nails all red!" and Manuella says "They aren´t red, they´re pink!" The old lady was trying to get Manuella in trouble but she (Manu) was oblivious to that and had to correct her and say they were pink! it was pretty funny.... we laughed our heads off....

That´s about it, it was a good week... and ended with Cakes and Baptisms.

Danilo is a girl in the ward´s boyfriend and is a pretty cool dude, and Lorraine is 15 and we found her using the area book and now she´s wanting to serve a mission!

It was great!

Happy Birthday to Andi (my cousin) Evan, ahem, Elder Epperson, and Mat Snarr!

and Merry Christmas to all!

Messy Kweznuz!!!!!!!

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

Então tá, eu acho que eu preciso escrever uma carta totalmente em Português para vocês.
Porque eu posso, eu eu tô aqui terminando minha missão, então eu acho que é justo.

Então esta semana passada foi bom, mas bem cansativo. Nós tinhamos muitas adventuras.
A Gente tive muitas dias quentes e outros bem molhado com chuva. Que coisa chato. Muito chato chuva, especialmente quando seu companheiro é meio doente ainda. Caramba..... mas tudo deu certo, mas como eu já falei, muitos brasileiros não gostam da chuva.... então é quase impossível para trabalhar na chuva.

Um certo dia, nós estavamos ensinando uma menos-ativa e tentando ensinar a mãe dela também e eu acho a tia dela, e no final da lição, a mãe, começou perguntar algumas coisas, e não deixava eu falar! Então eu tentei tomar o controle da situação e piorou, a mulher começou me acusar que eu não sou paciente, e não sei o que é meu propósito ou como ensinar.... Ela terminou gritando comigo, e saindo com raiva.

Ela também falou que ela não acredita em José Smith e a Restauração da Igreja. Mas ela me deixou falar até este ponto.... que raiva!

Mas isso não foi bom......

Nós estamos ensinando uma mulher de 24 anos e ela é muita legal. Ela é bem inteligente e ela tem muitas perguntas, ela foi na Igreja esta semana e a gente vai tentar batizar ela esta semana!

As perguntas dela são ótimas, e são difíceis.... mas até agora nós consiguimos explicar tudo para ela, e as lições estão indo bem com ela.

Também nós estamos ensinando uma moça de 15 anos e ela vai batizar esta semana, ela está bem animada para ser batizado! E ela me pediu para batizar ela! No meu aniversário! Que legal!

Oh, a gente foi para Bebedouro este semana também para fazer alguma entrevistas para Elder Lund, e de repente Elder Sharratt apareceu com um novinho..... isso foi uma surpresa!

Foi doido......

Então tá, eu acho isso é tudo, foi uma semana ótima!

Eu sou Elder Richardson, LD, e eu termino minha epístola, amém

E aí galeira!
Tudo bom?

Wait, this guy sounds like a tourist...

That´s from the movie "RIO" which we just watched. That was a pretty good one. Seeing as we can watch movies on P-Day, we watched that one and "Tangled" the Rapunzel story, that was pretty good too. We are probably going to watch "Pirates 4" here in the afternoon time.
So we took a break and came down to the Lan House to send our e-mails. So here we are.
So anyway we had a good week, it was the first week of the transfer so it was kinda crazy, but it was good.

My comp is kinda sick, and has been for the last 3 months..... so yeah, we need to work kinda slower.... like walking and taking breaks because he is weak.... so that´s about it, but we are doing well and the Lord will bless us in this time of need and bless us with the people we need to talk to.

We found a few cool people this last week, some of which that I had already contacted last transfer and we finally got the time to talk to them and they are ready and willing to do what we ask and what the Lord asks.

One lady is named Maria, ok I know a very normal name, but she´s real! She has accepted everything and she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. She just needs to go to Church.

Another Lady named Aline, she is very cool and we taught her yesterday night, and she accepted everything, she actually wants to go to Church. She even had a bunch of questions, one of which, just us visiting, answered.... and that is were we racist? She is really, really black. So we fixed that problem, and she loved the message.

We have a girl that will be baptized on the 18th, which is my Birthday, her name is Lorraine.

She is very excited to be baptized!

So we are finding lots of people and working with many others. The work is hard and very satisfying.

This week should be a good week. I´m excited, my comp should be getting better so it will be even better!

Man we are kinda feeling Christmas, but it´s hard when you´re not at home, but we need to make do..... I think the hardest part is the fact that we have no SNOW...... AND IT´S REALLY HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s my biggest problem.

But I love it here in Brasil. I love Christmas and I love using all the facts about it while I teach....From the Birth of our Savior to Santa Claus, or Papai Noel as we say it here.
I hope we can all remember the real meaning of Christmas, especially hence the name... CHRIST-mas. It has everything to do with our Savior. It is to remember His birth... His coming into the world....The beginning of perhaps the best 33 years our world has EVER known.
We need to remember this. I love Christmas, yes the presents are great. But I love the REAL meaning of Christmas. I love the fact that we can remember our Savior, at least for one day. Where mostly EVERYONE, from the devout Christian to the devout Sinner, can have peace and reconcile for one day, because of our Lord and Savior, who is called, Wonderful, Councellor, The Almighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

I hope you all remember this, I love you all. I love this Holiday, I love this time of year and most importantly I love our Savior.

On another note, I´d like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY OBORN!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANDELLE JENSEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

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

PS I have had 10 comps this YEAR, in 2011...

check it out:
Elder Duncan - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Espínola - 4 Weeks
Elder Brower - 1 Week
Elder Denyszczuk - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder João - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Gomes - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Negreiros - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Castro (my son!!!) - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Ribeiro - One Transfer (6 weeks)
Elder Bird - so far one week.....

That´s all my comps THIS YEAR!

I, Elder Richardson, LD, now end mine epistle, amen

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