week 85: australia style

strawberry cake farewell to werribee

Gday mum!!

I have been transferred to the Cranbourne area in the Gippsland zone!!!!  Man it is really good!!  It is another Samoan ward, so I will continue to get really fat hahahaahahah!  I am with Elder Orrego he is from Canada.  He is the manskis!!  This week has been really good we went on exchanges with one of the district leaders and interviewed one of their baptismal candidates.  We took a 30 minute drive to a place called Pakenam and then took a 2 and a half hour train ride to their area it is called Sale.  Guess what that isn't even the furthest area it is ridonculous!!  This is the biggest zone in the mission, so I guess we are gonna get used to heaps of driving and training lol!!  The exchange went really good though, we tracted the entire day and we found a guy named Jacob and we set a baptismal date with him for April 25th he is keen as a bean.  It just goes to show that when we put in the effort and do what the Lord asks he will always bless us.  I know the blessing is not always someone to baptise but the Lord with help us grow in our conversion to the Gospel how cool is that!?!?!?!  I am loving it in Gippsland it is the bomb.com!  

Today I was able to study outside in a park because our car needed to be serviced pretty early so we went to a nearby park and studied the scriptures.  I was overwhelmed with the spirit as I pondered God's creation, how lucky are we to live here on this planet.  I cannot deny the existence of God whatsoever his hand is in everything it was a really cool experience this morning!

Hi mum!!  The computers here are lame sauce and I don't have a library card yet so I only get to email for 30 minutes instead of an hour pretty lame!!  Just want you to know that I love you and that I am really happy in my new area I am going to finish my mission here I think pretty crazy to think about!  I hope you have a great week!! love you! Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: CMONEY

week 84: australia style

Gday mum!!

Well I am leaving Werribee after 7 months!!!  It is crazy to be leaving I thought I was going to end my mission here.  So my guesses for my new area, are the Melbourne city zone and the Tasmania zone!!  It will probably be somewhere else because the Lord likes to keep us on our toes hahaha!!  This week has been great though, we found this Iranian family this week Marzehe, Amir, and Hadis.  They have been in Australia for 7 months, and they are formerly from the Islam faith but they converted to the Presbyterian church.  They love Jesus Christ, it was so inspiring to see the love and devotion they have towards the Savior of the world.  I gave this family the Book of Mormon and the next day we went over they had already read half of it and they wanted to get baptised as Mormons!!  What a miracle!  They will be baptised on April 18th, I am so excited for them to take this step!!  

It is amazing how the Lord puts us in the right place at the right time to serve his children it is truly inspiring to know that the Lord trusts 18-26 year olds to share his Gospel with the whole world.  We are just instruments, the spirit is the true teacher, I love being an instrument in the Lord's hands this work is the greatest!!!

Hi mum!!  I forgot to take a pic in my new suit, I will take one tomorrow at transfer meeting hahahhaha!!  It looks super snazzy!  This week has been really hard having to say good bye to people that I came to love over the past 7 months of my mission, I am probably going to my last area on my mission and it feels really weird hahahaha!  I love you so much mum, you are an inspiration to me thank you for all that you do!  I hope you have a great week!  Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: CMONEY

week 83: australia style

blueberry cake with blueberry frosting and
blueberry cream and blueberry sauce
 with extra blueberries our RC made us this creation!!!

Gday mum!!!!

This week has been really good!!  I went on 2 exchanges this week with Elder Thompson from Duschene county utah and Elder Kaanapu from Provo Utah!!!  They are both great Elders, me and my companion have a new obsession and it is kebabs!!!!!  So every exchange we went on this week we took them to a kebab shop to get them hooked!!  After emails we are getting some kebabs, we have a shop we go to and the owner loves us, he gives us extra meat and extra chips what a great guy!! 

We saw a miracle yesterday with our investigator Sam, he told us a few weeks ago that he didn't want to get baptised until May and we were like "that's a long time" So we kept seeing him and inviting him to read the BOM, the bad thing was he couldn't fully understand the english version of the Book of Mormon, and it was causing him to stop reading.  So yesterday we brought with us a Samoan Book of Mormon and he started reading in front of us and he told us "ok, I am ready to get baptised."  It is so amazing that when we understand the Doctrine of Christ it enables us to change our behaviors!  He is getting baptised in 2 weeks, I am really excited for him!!  My testimony of the convincing power of the Book of Mormon was strengthened this week, I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we can get nearer to God by reading it and obeying the teachings in it!  I love it!!

Hi mum!!!!!  For my birthday I finally made a decision, I got myself some new leather bound scriptures because my old ones are falling apart, the pages and that keep coming out lol!!  I also found a really cheap light gray suit!!  It looks pretty snazzy, I will take a picture and send it to you.  I haven't sent a picture to Eila yet, because I keep forgetting to write down their address when I email.  But I will do it today for sure.  Sorry for not taking too much time in emails the past couple of weeks, just a bunch of crazy stuff we have had to do.  Today the only plans we have for p day is cleaning the flat and we are going to play volleyball with a bunch of Samoan people at the chapel!!!!   They are so good at volleyball, I get scared when they spike the ball hahaha!  But I am doing all good, we have transfers in two weeks so by next email I should know if I am going or staying.  I love you so much mum!!!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  I am bummed to hear mac broke his arm that is a bummer!!  Hopefully he likes his cast :) love you!!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: Cmoneylove

week 82: australia style

Gday mum!!

Not much happened this week, my birthday was really good, the zone threw a birthday party for my companion and I.  It was really special and it was good to be with all the missionaries in the zone.  We had MLC this week for my birthday so we were at the mission home all day, but the good thing is that they made homemade café rio!!!!!  It was grouse!!  This week we set a few baptismal dates with a girl named Michelle, another guy named Allan and also Bailey.  Michelle was a miracle I met her at the train station and she is a really strong 7th day Adventist.  She came to church yesterday and we had a chance to teach her after.  We taught her the Restoration and bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  She accepted a date and she was really willing to read the Book of Mormon. 

Hey mum!!  I don't have too much time today we are in a place called Geelong and it is a public holiday over here so we only have limitied time.  My birthday was awesome!!  I haven't bought anything yet, it has been super flat out this week, but maybe I will get something today :).  I love you so much mum!!  Thank you for the birthday wishes, have a great week!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: CMUNZ

week 81: australia style

muscle gods

found my first koala

happy birthday this week to the most kind, selfless, giving,
sensitive, hilarious, charismatic, perfect
baby boy in the world.
i never thought i could love another human being so much.
you are an example to everyone around you.
thank you for your sacrifices...everyday!
you make our lives better.
happy 20th birthday baby...
your mom and dad love you so so much.
i will see you at the escalator in 138 days!!!

Gday mum!!!

This week has been so busy!!  We only spend like 2 days in our area this week due to a bunch of things that came up!!  We went on exchange in Warrnambool and I went with Elder Higham he is from Maryland!  He is cool as, we did a bunch of finding we found all day actually it was so fun!!  We just went up and down the city center and talked to everyone we could, we got some pizza afterwards and it was awesome.  We found a lady named Kirileen that had us back that same day and I wasnt able to attend but they were and she was solid as, what a miracle!!!  

We had Elder Bednar come to our mission, and I got to shake his hand, me and my companion and 2 other Elders were the only ones that got to shake his hand it was so cool!!!  He is so inspired.  He talked about how we are agents to act and not to be acted upon, and that we need to use our agency to make and keep sacred covenants and perform ordinances by the power of the Priesthood.  I was really inspired to baptise all of MELBOURNE after, I still am... Lets go to work!!!

Gday mum!  Thank you for the birthday wishes and for all of your patience with me throughouot the years.  I am really grateful the way that you and dad raised me, you are the best parents out there and I am so blessed to be your son!!  I love you so much mum!!  Have an awesome week!  I dont have much time we have zone p day today!  Cheers!

Love, Elder Richins

aka: CMONEY