11/04/14

So we got the call yesterday and Elder Walker and I will still be in Algiers in the westbank. Only one elder is getting transferred from our district. December 17 is the next transfer. That one will most likely be a small one because it is around Christmas. With the car we have seen so many miracles. Now that we don't have to spend half of our day biking a trip that takes only a couple of minutes with the car, we have been able to meet with more people and have new investigators. We were able to have a Restoration lesson with Herb Simpson, the 94 year old who played in the Negro Leagues and AAA. He really loved it. He hugged the Book of Mormon and said he felt the spirit. The only problem will be to get him to church because he is a deacon at his church. We were also going through the Area book and we found a Hispanic lady potential that was contacted about 4 years ago. We stopped by and she though we Jehovahs Witness. We taught her a restoration lesson and she loved it and said that is all made sense because there are so many churches but this one we can know for ourselves through the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon and we have prophets and believe in revelation. Her husband came home and she was so excited to tell him about the gospel. Another miracle we saw also was while we were walking to an investigators house a lady was struggling to take soil bags out of her trunk. We offered to help her and took them by her garden areas. We asked if there was anything else we could help with and she said yes to come back and help her with her garden. Yesterday we helped her plant some plants. She was so impressed with us and wants us to come back and teach her about the gospel. Yesterday we had a lesson with Sister Fresh and it went extremely well. We are continuing to help her with her addiction so she can be baptized. She lost her job but she looked to it being from god so she could go to the addiction recovery at our church on St Charles Ave.

Halloween was..... interesting. We had to be in the apartment by 6:00 unless a member took us.  After visiting a couple of people we were at Walgreen's getting our Flu shot when we got a call from Manny a member in the Jefferson Ward on the East Bank. He called us about a halloween party. He has all of the missionaries at his house a lot and cooks for him... He owns his own restaurant so he does fairly good and is well known in New Orleans. He actually got Meet the Mormons here in Louisiana. Any way he ended up taking just me and Walker to this fancy party on a private street just off of St Charles. Lets just say the owner of the Saints lived across the street from this house and this house had a 2 million dollar painting. It was crazy. There were some Louisiana big shots there. His friend that was doing the party was a big time clothing designer. She was really nice and she was telling us her grandpa was LDS and lived in Ogden. There was Alaskan shrimp, russian pork, and so many fancy foods that i did not know of..... The people there thought we were dressing up as missionaries for Halloween. They would come up and say "I love that broadway show" We had to end up giving them a pamphlet to prove it to them. After the party Manny picked up the Zone leaders and we went and got pizza. It was fun.

Saturday we were able to go to the temple. It was really beautiful. It was really small, but it was able to provide the same functions as all other temples in the church do. The changing room was probably the size of Megan's room. The Ordinance rooms were fairly plain but the celestial room was fantastic. It was a small room but the chandelier was still wombo gumbo.   They also had a new movie!!! There are three movies now!!! It was really good but the other two had better acting. This one had good special effects and the creation part was amazing. I love the feeling of attending the temple and taking part in that sacred worship!!! It felt so peaceful. Most of the branch did Baptisms instead of endowments and I provided half the names. Word got out really quick whose names they were and now a lot of the members want me and Elder Walker to come over and teach them family history. Yesterday we were at a members house and they made us dinner. It was pork and mashed potatoes with the cream of mushroom gravy. It brought memories of moms same dish..... We were able to teach him and find over 20 names for him. When we got the car we started to get a ton of dinner appointments...... I don't want to go fat!!!! The Branch in January will start to focus more and family history so I hope I will still be around to help with that.

Last week we were also busy visit President and Sister Fossati. She ended up having Breast Cancer so we were there to give her a blessing before her surgery were able to visit her a couple of times after. I think they caught it early enough that they won't have to do Chemo. They are very good people to us so please keep them in your prayers.

I hope everything is going well. I miss you and love you. I can't believe how fast the time has gone out here!!! STAY SAFE!!! Watch over Dad Ashley Megan and Gauge!!!
Love Elder Richardson