Tuesday, July 29, 2014

07/24/2014 - A Homicidal Week

This week has been homicidal week. Both literally and figuratively. Remember when I told you there were random booms. We have neighbors on the mountain that has fiestas all the time and they always fire cannons all the time. Day and night. They are not gunshots however on Saturday when we had just gotten to bed we heard a drive-by shooting. It was thundering and lighting and there were children who were singing some creepy song. It was the perfect setting for a horror film. We were laughing the whole night because of that. On Sunday night that changed. We had just gotten to bed when we heard a scream followed by POP POP POP POP!!! We just looked at each other with horror. A couple of times we have heard drive-by shootings but I feel extremely safe at the CCM. The fence is extremely tall and the made out of concrete with electrical wiring at the top. Figuritvly it has been a homicidal week with the work. We are extremely busy and have no time to rest exept for P day. We still find time to goof off though. My companion and I get along very well. He is so funny and we have so much fun. Our district had to sing in sacrement meeting on sunday so we sang Más Cerca Dios de te. (Nearer my God to Thee). However when we practiced there became so contention in the district that is still going on. The Hermanas were mad and the Elders for being off key and some of the Elders got really mad. It died down but I still have a lot of frineds in the district that come and vent to me. I think my companion and I are the only ones that get along in our district. Even though the work is extremely busy, you feel the spirit so strong. It has been frustrating a little though because it is hard to learn spanish. Usually things came so easy in school but this feels like I will never learn it. I have been trying to have faith in the lord that I will know it someday. The spirit is so strong here. I love talking to the Hispanics that work here. They have such a strong testimony of the restoration of the gospel. They have so little here but they are so happy. The janitors said they would not work anywhere else even though they could make more money but they love feeling the spirit when they come to work. I love this work. I love being here but I am ready to get out into the field. If you ask any missionary here what is the first thing you are going to do when you get to America they will say eat Mcdonalds at the Airport. The food is ok but it is a lot of beans and rice. we had pizza from cosco one night and we just chowed it down and went for seconds. At the Tienda we got chips and let me tell you, Peservatives have never tasted so good. Sorry if I have been making mistakes in my typing but our district leader doesnt give us much time to do email so we have to type really fast. We are alloted an hour but he says 30 to 45 mins is good enough. Any way we had two devotionals since the last time I emailed. Sunday the Director of the CCM gave a talk on Remeber Lots Wife and that we should not look back to the past at our comforts at home but look forward to what we have to come on our missions. On Tuesday Elder Venezuala of the first quorm of the sevently talked about how great the work is we are doing and that we are not just converting individuals but we are converting families. I know this gospel is true with all my heart. I love being out here eventhough it is stressful a lot. I can always feel the spirit here.  

I love you so much mom, I am jealous that you will get to help our at the temple. Question how long did it take you to learn the language because i feel like I am not getting it. I know it it is just hard because things in school came really easy, I have been studying like no other. I emailed megan but I will re email them.
I love you so much
Elder Richardson

07/17/2014 - First Email

Hey Mom I got your email. Yes the drive from the airport was very sketchy! The drivers were all over the place including the bus driver. They were driving in the middle of the lanes. At all of the stop lights children ran out to all of the cars to wash the vehicles to earn money.

The CCM is amazing!!! Everyone is so nice. It is truly Zion here! I took a bunch of pictures but I will have to send them next week because the computers wont take sd cards so I will have to hook it up with the cord which is back at my house. We get our own little house here at the CCM instead of dorms. My companion, Elder Siepert is a great guy. He is from Alpine Utah and is going to Dallas. We hang out with another companionship Elder Florez and Elder Raney. Elder Florez and I do splits during gym time because we both like to run. He is from Palm Springs California and is going to Provo Utah. He is a remarkable guy. He is the only member in his family so it was hard for him to go on a mission. Elder Raney is from Chicago and is going to Provo as well. He was in the same ward as Gebrari Parker.

That sucks that the counter tops were not done. One of my roommates Elder Cottle lives next door to Pam and Dave Buckley. Thats good Gauge is ok. I will remember to keep those people in the ward in my prayers as well as dad.
I am glad you guys went to the Pioneer devotional. You guys will have fun at the concert. Sundays are amazing, they are like P Days. We had a devotional that we just watched on the screen that Elder Bednar did a couple years ago. It was on being a preach my gospel missionary. That night we watched a movie in the auditorium about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. They had a Utah temple quiz and a world temple quiz. My companion and I were the first at the CCM to have gotten 100% on both of them!!! No one had ever done that.

The food is really good. It is all Mexican. One time for breakfast we had tomales. Even though the food is really good it is starting to get old because it all taste the same. The meat is in the same marinade everytime. We have rice, beans, and a variety of foods everyday. We had Flan, that was good but the texture was awful!!!

The classes are so tireding!!! We are at class from 7 in the morning to 9:30 at night. The first day of class we had to teach a lesson in spanish to a latino. It went ok but we got better each day as we progressed in our lessons. The hispanics are wonderful people. They are so funny and are always laughing. The teacher, Hermano Vargas only speaks in spanish so it is kinda hard to learn. He is a wonder ful guy thoughI have learned a lot of spanish but I have a long ways to go!!!

Tuesday we had a devotional from an area 70 named Jorge Salvidor. It was a really good devotional on trying to make our mission a positive experience.

The CCM is very beautiful. There are so many different exotic plants that I took a picture of!!!!. The city though is very loud, you always here siren, cars honking, yelling, and random booms go off. I would not trade the experiences I have gotten here for anything else.

I am so happy and filled with the spirit. You fill the spirit so strong here. When you sing the hymns in spanish the spirit is so strong it is hard to describe. On sunday we sang God be with you till we meet again to the missionaries that just left. I am going to cry like a baby when they sing it when we leave because this is a wonderful place to be. I have met great people who are going to different missions.

Yo sé que José Smith es un verdado profeta. Yo sé que el iglesia es veradado. Yo sé que Jesuscristo es el Salvador. Yo sé que El libro de Mormón es verdado.

I love you so much mom and miss you but I am happy here and love it.
Love Robert