week 24: australia style

Gday mum!!
This week was really good!  It was the last week of the transfer and Elder Richey and I are staying together for another 6 weeks!!  I am super excited to continue to work down here in Rosny!  This is a great area, and heaps of good things are going to happen this upcoming transfer!  I am really excited to stay because Elder Richey and I organized a fireside in our ward for the 16th of February and I think it will be a really good chance to get the members excited about missionary work!  Also Robert is getting baptized in two weeks!

We had a lesson with Robert this week, and we taught the commandments again!  We went through all of them and reviewed them to make sure he understood them.  He said he would be willing to keep all of the commandments and he doesnt have any problems with them!  The only concern for him at this point and time would be getting work off on Sundays.  He is a casual worker so he kinda takes whatever hours he can get.  We gave him a commitment to talk to his boss about not working on Sundays and he accepted!  So we will see how that went when we see him tomorrow!  

We had a really cool experience with the Mormon.org referral from last week.  We werent actually able to meet with them this week because they were busy, but we gave them a call.  Beatriz answered and we asked her how the Book of Mormon was going, and she said that her and her husband struggled to read it then they prayed that the Holy Spirit would help them understand and they understood!  She said
that they really enjoy the Book of Mormon!  That made us super excited we are meeting with them again this week!!  

Yesterday we had an Australia Day feast (equivalent of our 4th of July) at the Prebbles, and I have never eaten so much food in my life!  I prolly wont eat at all today haha!  After dinner with them we shared a message on faith and showed a fire trick relating to faith, and it was pretty awesome!  

I am very thankful for the Gospel in my life today, and I am so very thankful that I have the opportunity to share it with others.  I cannot wait to see the great things happen in this area this transfer!  The miracles are in store!  I know without a doubt that this Gospel is true, and it has changed my life for the better!

Hi Mum!!  How is it going??  The 49er loss made me quite angry!  I have never seen so many bad calls by referees before!  Talk about homers!  But other than that it was a really good week!  It wasnt that hot this week so that was pretty good!  Good news we might get a car this transfer!  We have a car today and it feels really good to drive again!  Haha I missed it heaps!  Sounds like you have had a good week, workin hard!!  I cant believe January is almost up it flew by hey?!  This transfer I will have my birthday so that's pretty exciting!  Sister Fox is still takin excellent care of Elder Richey and I!  Today for P day we might go drive to some sights because we have a car!  Wahooooo!!!  But who knows haah!  I love you so much mum!!  I hope you have an awesome week!  Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: Cmoneylove

week 23: australia style

sweet graffiti

got some yoga pants! boo ya

me on a metal thing

Gday mum!!

This week was really good!!  This week was hot as!  It was 35 degrees C all week!  We had some pretty awesome miracles this week!!  So about halfway through the week we got a call from the district leader, and he had a mormon.org referral for us!  Elder Richey and I were kind of hesitant to go contact the referral becausemormon.org referrals dont work half the time!  But we contacted the referral anyways, her name is Beatriz!  Beatriz's husband answerred the door he was from Sudan, and he said "please come back on Sunday so I can learn from you and preach the gospel."  We were like, "we can help you with that!"  So we went back to the referral again yesterday, and we had a really powerful lesson on the Restoration!  He wants to read the Book of Mormon in a week, and so does his wife Beatriz!  We are going back to them next Sunday!  I cant wait!!  

We had interviews with President on Friday!  I seriously love Pres Maxwell he is such an inspired man!  Me and him talked about the NFL for the first part of the interview, and he talked about how he was going to tape the 49er v. Seahawk game.  Haha he is so funny!  We had a really powerful interview afterwards, we talked about becoming the best missionary we could!  He also admired the work Elder Richey and I were doing!  He is a great man!

Because of the heat we werent able to tract as much as we wanted to but we still managed to find 14 new contacts, and 4 new investigators.  We are really trying to get a good ratio from New contacts to Investigators!  The Lord is really blessing this area at the moment!  This upcoming week is the last week of the transfer so next week I will know if I am staying or going!  I hope I stay!  I love it here!  

I am so very thankful for the Prophet Joseph Smith and his example!  After teaching on the Restoration yesterday, I have really been pondering the many things that, that man went through.  It is truly amazing how the Lord delivered the Saints from so many trials!  I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.  I also know that President Monson is the true prophet today.

Gday Mum!!  Sounds like you have had a good week!  The house looks really good!  I heard that all yous are watching the 9er game tonight!  President Maxwell gave us permission to watch the game as well along with the Superbowl!  He said as long as it doesnt distract from the work, and because it's our P day today!  So I will be cheering from the Southern hemisphere alongside yous!  I am super duper excited for this upcoming week mostly because it is supposed to cool down a bit.  Haahha the Lord is blessing Elder Richey and I heaps!  I cant believe Cam is getting ready to turn in his papers!  Could you get his email for me??  That would be awesome!  I also cant believe that G and G Richins come back home on the 31st!  THis month is flying by I reckon!  I love you so much mum!!  I hope you have an awesome week!  CHeers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka:Coopdawgggg

week 22: australia style

Gday mum!!!

 

This week was really good!!  We had heaps of appointments with part member families this week!  We met one family called the Andrewarthurs, and they are awesome!  The mother and all the children are members and they are actice, but the father is not a member.  The non member father is named Dave, and he is very kind and he liked having Elder Richey and I over.  He is someone that we want to work with because he seems pretty keen for us to come over regularly and teach!

We met with Robert this week, and taught him the first half of the commandments, and he took it in very well.  He was arranged to come to church with us but he ended up having work on Sunday.  Good thing Sabbath Day observance is our next thing we teach him!!!  Haha!  We are seeing him again on Wednesday!  We are really happy with his fellowship, his name is Nathan Read and Nathan has really taken Rob under his wing and they have become good friends!  We are really excited for Robert!  His baptism date will have to be pushed back a bit though, because we need to make sure he is ready to make this big commitment.

Our finding went really well again, and we were blessed to find some solid new contacts!  We will contact them this upcoming week!  But Elder Richey and I are working really hard to try and help this area as much as we can.  This week has been really exhausting but so worth it, I cant wait to see what blessings the Lord has in store for us this upcoming week! 

One thing that also brightened my week was Elder Richey and I bought a football last P day!!!!  Words cannot explain the excitement I felt when we walked into a sports store and there were footballs!!!!!  It was the first time I had seen a football since I have been on my mission so we had to buy it!  Not a better time to do it!  The 9ers are still in it to win it!  So Elder Richey and I have been playing catch every morning for excercise! 

I am thankful for the gospel in my life.  One thing that I have focused on this week, is trying to get as much out of my personal study as possible, and try and study for the investigators more.  I really saw an improvement in my teaching this week and I am excited to keep building my knowledge.  The message we share wont be learned all at once learning will come over time, through study and prayer.  (PMG ch. 10).  I love this work so much!! 

Hi mum!  The house looks great matey!!  It will be a different house by the time I get back haha!  Granite countertops will be way nice!  The black and white stripe walls look really good!  It sounds like you and pops have been non stop this week, are you going to be having the same sort of week this week?  You need to rest sometimes right??  Haha it is getting heaps hot over here.  The bikes definatley dont help the situation haha!  I am loving the bikes for the simple fact, that no hill will be able to phase me once I get back to Utah!  Put the team on my back!!!!  I will be able to bike up mimsley and pops hill without breaking a sweat hahaha!  Prolly not...  But I will try!  But everything is going super awesome in Rosny, I am having the time of my life out here!!  Today for P day we are going to play catch all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just kidding maybe not all day, we might take a break in between for lunch!!  I love you so much mum!!  I hope you have a great week!  Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: Coopdawgyhand$ome

week 21: australia style

we started to teach this he$h rabbit

locked elder richey in the closet. haha

getting our swang on

Gday mum!

 

This week was pretty awesome!!  We were able to get some bus passes, so I got to see some places in my area that I havent seen before!!  This week we tried to go see all of our members who we have never gotten to see before.  We have set up heaps of appointments with members for this upcoming week.  We did heaps of finding this week in a place called Rokeby we were blessed to find 14 new contacts there!  I am hoping that this upcoming week we will be able to turn them into new investigators, there were quite a few solid contacts out of those 14.

Our miracle for the week was that Robert came to church!!  It was so awesome!!  We went to go pick him up, and he was in a suit and a white shirt he looked like James Bond.  He had a really good experience at church he said.  This upcoming week we are going to teach him the commandments so hopefully everything will work out!

We also got the chance to meet with a long time less active member named Jared.  He has heaps of concerns, and Elder Richey and I went to go meet with him and his parents.  We had a really powerful discussion on the atonement.  Both of his parents were crying and I could really tell that he could feel the spirit as well!  He said to us that he will come to church on Sunday and give it a go.  He came to church, and it was so good to see him there with his son.  The Lord truly worked on Jared's heart, and it was so amazing to see that happen, definatley another one of our miracles.

The weather in Tasmania the past few days has been pretty chilly and rainy.  But before that it was really hot, I definatley need to drink heaps of water out in this heat, so I have been trying to drink heaps of water.  This week was so awesome though, and I cant wait to see how our appointments with the members go this upcoming week!  We have one tonight!

I am so thankful for the message of the atonement.  Everytime I have shared the message of the atonement on my mission a special spirit comes to the lesson.  I have never not felt the spirit when sharing that message.  I am so thankful for the oppurtunity to teach and meet so many great people.  It is truly a blessing in my life to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to help others come closer to Christ!  I love this work!!

Mum!!!  How are you going??  So we dont see President this week anymore.  Our interviews with him got pushed back to the 17th!  The transfer is coming to a close in 3 weeks, this is a 7 week transfer so it's a bit longer than most.  Haha I am not sure what I want for my birthday yet haha!  hahah I will think about it though!  But it sounds like you are a woman on a mission to remodel the house!  Tell mac daddy swizzle to do something to help haha!  Do they go back to school tomorrow??  That will be fun eh?  Hahah but Elder Richey and I are getting along really well!  It's fun to have someone to joke around with while we tract.  But I am doing fantastic down here in Rosny mum!!  It is so rewarding and fun!  I hope you had an awesome birthday mum!!  I love you so much!!  I hope you have an awesome week!!  Send me some pics of the new home when you are finished!  Love you!

Love: Elder Richins

aka:Coopdawg

week 20: australia style

the flat

Gday mum!!

This week was pretty awesome!  So this week consisted of us going to members homes and sharing a spiritual message about Christmas!  This past week really set the tone for the rest of the transfer, hopefully as we continue to build the relationship of trust with the members they will trust us to teach their friends.  This area has such great potential and Elder Richey and I are both thankful to be a part of this area at such an exciting time! 

We visited Benod this week, and he told us that his parents are not going to let him get baptized because, his parents would disown him.  So we are going to take a break from him until things cool off, and then maybe visit him again. We dropped off a Christmas care package for our new investigator Pamala and her family, they loved it!  We are seeing them this Thursday and I am super excited.

This upcoming week is going to be focused on finding and member work. Hopefully we can get some solid referrals this upcoming week!  I am thankful to be a missionary during such an exciting time!  The work is hastening heaps and I am so excited to be a part of it.  I have grown heaps as a person since coming out.  The Lord is really shaping me into the person i want to be and I am so very thankful for that!  I love this work so much!!

Happy Birthday mum!!!!  I am glad you liked your birthday card matey!!  It sounds like the house is getting an extreme makeover!  It will be cool to see what yous have done with it once I get back!  I really enjoyed talking to yous on Christmas as well!  It was heaps of fun to see the fams faces!  I love sister fox too!!  She takes such good care of us missionaries!!  Today we are going to play basketball with her sons!  We also have been working out with her son Ethan.  We have been working out with him in the mornings because we love him.  I am so thankful to be in Rosny ward!  The work is so great here!!  I hope you have the happiest birthday ever mum!!!  I love you so much!!  Enjoy the curry and decorations!!  Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: CoopDAWG

week 19: merry christmas from australia

american cereal for christmas

week 19: australia style and a tribute to our buddy at christmas

this christmas we are thankful for a buddy whom has always kept christmas classy.
we will miss you heaps this year. xoxoxo

Gday mum!!! 

So this week was pretty bitter sweet.  We dropped our most progressing investigators Toni and Ryan who were supposed to be baptized on Saturday.  Toni doesnt have the will to give up coffee so we had no choice.  We could have baptized Ryan easy because he really wants to be baptized.  But we dont want him to go less active the next week, we wanted both of them on board.   All goods though!! 

Two huge miracles happened in our area this week though.  Elder Richey and I were tracting and not having much luck, and it was hot as!  We kept going though, and all of a sudden this lady pokes her head out her door and asked us if we wanted a drink.  We couldnt refuse because it was like we were walking through the outback.  We went inside and she told us how she had met elders in the past.  She also told us that her partner left her and her 5 kids a week ago.  She started to cry and she asked us to help her.  We taught her about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and she was crying again.  I felt the spirit so strong!  We met her kids as well, one is 18, 14, 12, 10, and 5.  We are seeing her and her family again tomorrow!  I am so stoked!!!!

Another miracle was that Benod came to church!!!  It was a really good experience and he loves how much we sing in sacrament meeting!  In our gospel principles class with him we reviewed everything that we taught him.  We then invited him to pray and ask if the message we share is true.  He ended up praying in front of us and asking that question.  He paused for a second and started to cry, and he said that he knew that the church was trrue!  We set a date with him for the 11th of January!  We also set a date for the 18th of January for one of our investigators named Robert!  Very cool!!!!

This week was so awesome!!!  The members have been giving us heaps of lollies and chocolates for Christmas.  Lets just say that I never want to see chocolate again... 

I am so thankful for the mercy of our Heavenly Father.  Looking back at my 18 years of life haha.  I really wish I would have attended church more, and I also wish I could have seen the Lords hand in my life more.  I hated going to church and I remember begging my parents not to go.  I remember one person that changed my view and that is one of my best friends, Harlan Hammond.  His testimony really touched my heart and wanted me to keep going to church and learning about the gospel that I had very little knowledge about.  It was cool reading a letter he sent me and that I read today.  He said he was called to be a Priest quorum advisor because of me.  I just started to cry when I read that letter, and I am so thankful for my Loving Heavenly Father for placing him in my path so he could help me.  The love of our Father in Heaven is real and is unfailing no matter what we do in our lives his arm is still stretched out for us, waiting for us to grab onto him.  I am also so very thankful for the support of my family, and their unconditional love even when I was being a dingleberry.  I am truly lucky to have such a great family!  I love them so much!  Have a Happy Christmas!!!

Hi mum!!!  How are you??  Guess I will find out on thursday!!  haha It sounds like everyone is doing very well!!  Love y0ou so much and cant wait to talk to you on thurs!!!  (wed for you)  cheers!!!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: Coopdawgydawg