Elder Richardson with President and Sister Lords
Sorry about the delay in posting ... it's been hectic. So, two weeks worth all at once. Here we go!
President Lords is not unknown to many of us, he lived in Idaho Falls and graduated with Josh's Aunt Pam and knows and remembers Grandma and Grandpa Richardson and the family. Unfortunately for Josh, President Lords will only be there until July when he completes his mission and Josh will get a new president.
Josh's new companion is Elder Steven Neil Larsen from Arizona and Josh says "he is a stud."
At the transfer meeting Josh also met Elder Topou "and he is Tongan so it was way sweet to see him and talk with him and yes 80% was in Tongan ... he was shocked ahaha. it was funny."
Josh and Elder Larsen are serving in Lebanon, TN (home of Cumberland University) ... Josh says it is "not, but close to, the one in the middle east. haha." He describes Tennessee as: "beautiful, and I was told now is the most hideous and ugly time of the year." He describes Lebanon as "the hardest district in the mission for spanish ... but I'll go into that later." Again speaking of Tennessee he says: "It's beautiful and the weather never makes up its mind and I love it here ... there are no mountains to its kinda weird lookin arround cus its so different but is pretty here. Perro, Tennessee is also crazy, about 10-15 min outside the very city I am in about 2 days before I got here a tornado hit and destroyed alot. Its tornado season. Also Sister Lords didn't for get to tell us abou the spiders arround here and the HUGE banana spiders that are poisonous and the brown recluses that are very frequent here. I guess this last week a sister was bit by one and had to go the hospital ... so that I think is definitely my most not favorite thing about here ... haha. But I do love it here already."
Lebanon is difficult because there is a high percentage of Latinos there who do not speak Spanish or English ... they speak Mexteco "(said like mes tec co)" ... now Josh gets to learn it. "The only tools we have to learn it though is a small group of papers held by a big paperclip that is a dictionary that is from mexteco to espanol ... so my Spanish study is also my Mexteco study. And the languages are nothing the same. Mexteco is an ancient Xochapa language spoken in the south south corner of Mexico and it sounds a lot like Chinese ... there are a lot of down and up inflections in the words ... so Dad I really do think there was a reason that you helped and taught me some Manadrin because I wold have no ability to speak this at all without it." (an internet search leads us to believe that the Xochapa region of Mexico lies between Acapulco, Oaxaca and Puebla in the Guerrero region of Mexico. If you would like to see a partial dictionary, go to: http://www.sil.org/mexico/mixteca/xochapa/P004-DiccXochapa-xta.htm which provides a basic Mistec - Espanol dictionary, or another interesting one is: http://www.sil.org/mexico/mixteca/alacatlatzala/P001-Vocab-mim.pdf which is a dictionary re: movement and transportation)
FIRST DAY: As soon as Elder Larsen got Josh to the apartment to drop off his stuff, they headed out to work. Josh got lucky, the first door he got to do the approach to, they got in, and taught Valente, who speaks espanol, but his family only speaks Mixteca. It sounds like one reason Josh likes Valente is because they got fed there ... "REAL tortillas" "and then we rip off meat from the big jerky slab of it and threw on some SUPER hot hot sauce". Later that day they got fed again by a Mexican family "who were cookin some grub and just told us to come in and eat ... they had never seen us before and we didn't know them but they fed us some pork ribs kinda sauted or whatever with a ton of peppers and some REAL tortillas. It was pretty warm (as in spicy) but flippin delicious!"
SO HOW IS IT TO WORK IN "THE BUCKLE OF THE BIBLE BELT"?
"There is a fight that you get thrown into here in the mission field that is indescribable. ... I can't express in words what is going on here. There is an actual battle that isn't so much physical but it wears you the heck out! I have been called a liar, wrong, influenced by Satan, hardened, a cult, I have had my very title as elder challenged, my beliefs, my dedication and my God all challenged. The Book of Mormon, testimony, and even the feeling I call the still small voice have all been said that they're wrong. The people here have been great ... but some of them were that until they found out I was a "Mormon" or "dang saint of whatever" ... this all is kinda incredible to me in a lot of senses. So I take car of it with a plain and flat out challenge to them. Sometimes it is a "why" or sometimes its a hard and sharp testimony of what I know. Never demeening or angry but I stand with my feet as a part of God's earth in that moment and I do not move or budge. ...This is the challenge, and I know and have a testimony that if I give my spirit and corpse to the God who created them that others will feel him and it is an undeniable fact. ... only after a trial of our faith will we reap the rewards."
ANOTHER BIKE WRECK?
Josh was able to purchase a bike from an Elder who was going home ... the folks in the mission office were kind enough to keep it for him until he got there ... so how is it?
"Yes, I have my bike ... we had to do some surgery upon it but it works great ... and yes I have found that helmets are worn for a reason. The bike is great though ... I like it tons." That's all the information he gave us ... we trust he's still generally healthy, but his Guardian Angel must be working over-time!
