Thanksgiving ...

Pues como estan familia mia?
Feliz navidad! Or at least that is commin up soon! Yeaaaaaaa!
I love Christmas time more than any other time…its sooo happy and even the church of Christ ppl don’t hate us as much in this wonderful time of the world!
I kinda already talked to you for a bit but this is the stuff I didn’t cover at all.
Anyways for thanksgiving we had a turkey bowl estilo latino! Which means we went and played soccer. It was colder than I ever expected and the wind was blowin a ton…now I think it was about 38 degrees out but I am not going to lie the cold that comes here in the south is a whole different beast to that of Idaho or Washington…the humidity is killer and everyone played in sweaters and thermals but the hispanos around here make true sacrifices for futbol…if only it was the same way for church…jaja. Anyways we played in the freezing cold and even with that the tempers got a lil heated at times, but all in all it was sweet. Brother Maranon drove us down there to Brentwood and we played at a park over there and the whole time it was 98% overcast….soooo cold. After that we just went home and cleaned up a bit (the house, we didn’t even sweat at all because of the frio) and later that night we went and had a classic thanksgiving dinner at the Ruiz family house and it was sweet it reminded me soooo much of our thanksgivings with Grandma and Grandpa Richardson because the whole family came together there were more than 20 ppl there and there was a ton of food and they also had about a gazillion kids there (all cousins) runnin around doing there different things and it was awesome…the only bad part was that the MP wanted that we would be in the house at 7 o clock and we had to cut the night short…but oh well…
As for the Maraon family there doing good, still truckin along the Sister Maranon had a tough time with tithing but only because money is tight for them right now. But we talked about it and when they learned that nobody is paid in the church for there callings and that tithing is basically just a giant leap of faith and relying on the lord it cleared up a bunch of doubt…but they just still need to make that leap of faith. But other than that they are doing super awesome. She doesn’t drink coffee jamas and he hasn’t smoked for over 2 weeks. And they tell us about there spiritual experiences that they have and there sweet…idk what it is with a lot of Hispanic ppl but they are very open to dreams and receiving their answers in dreams… Brother Maranon is like that and its pretty sweet. The spirit is workin hard on them.
An for the rest of the stuff going on around here the last week went by super fast, I don’t like that tooo much, I am not gonna lie that is kinda sucky but I deal…
As for this week its going to be super busy as well, the sisters in Madison called me and told me that one of the ppl that I know up there and that plays soccer with us is going to get baptized and he wants me to do it. That was a awesome call to get, his name is Ciro and he is about 17 and he told me that he is super nervous so if you could keep him in your prayers too along with the Maranon family and that they can not be nervous and not doubt. We had a great lesson with them last night and Brother Alduenda and Brother Alduenda shared his story and his conversion and it was really powerful and then we talked about actions of faith.
God makes us do challenging things so that we know more clearly and without a doubt that he was the reason we received a blessing, that is why there written in the scriptures. We see the promises and the challenge and after completing it we see the blessing and the testimony comes. Keep making those great leaps of faith, not the easy ones but the hard ones…
I love you all and hope you all had a super fantasticle thanksgiving day.
Elder Richardson(nide haizi)

The best man ... and a family needs your help

there is always way to much stuff to write and not enought time to do it...crud but what iam going to do is try...haha
ill start off withthe fact that last week i was the best man in the nortons wedding. in case you forgot there a family from cookville and john norton called and got special permission frm the president to be able to take me over there and when i got there he told me that i was going to be the best man... that was sweet. i didnt know what best men do so i just kinda stood arround and smiled and looked eagerly at the food and then told john that i was decided that if he decided to run that i would go to and beacuse of my spanish speaking abilty we could get arround pretty good...haha. it was a good wedding...there going to be going to the temple in april and getting sealed then and so you might be able to meet them then...but a few other questions i had asked to ask you all are if you might be able to send a post card from the differnt states (idaho washinngton, oregon if you go) beacuse a member is doing a project and needs internacional help. and jsut send them to my address of to
alduenda familia
1809 barnwell ct
hermatage tn
37076
also we had a super sweet lession with the maranon family last week...we had a plan to teach a lesson that we planned out in the morning but as we came up to there door the only thing that i could think about was watchin the movie "together forever"...well we started the lesson and for some reason elder velazquez asked me what we were going to be doing and i jsut said that movie beacuse it was super strong in my mind and i hadent remebered the other lesson that we planned it and in the middle of the movie i remebered that we had todally planned a completely differnt lession and so we started it and after starting it i remebered the other lesson and thought...crap...what happened there...
well after the movie i was thinking about what to say when jose just started talkin, he started saying how that movie was really good and how there was one of thoes stories that was alot like him and then expressed many things and told us that he and marisol were on the point of gettig a divorce when we started commin arround and how thing after thing that happnded that they did and learned that they felt themselvs growing closer to there hevenly father and to eachother and havent argued and faught scince that time and in tears(and you dont see mexican men cry ever) he told us how it saved his marrage and the tear in the family and somany things have changed for them. it was sooo super awsome...the spirit was so strong and it wsa a super good lesson. we are going to be preparing them for the 28th of november to get baptized, there so happy and such good ppl and right now need your prayers so that they can take this first step...they understand it really good and want to do it. its sweet.
well...family the week was good...so much happened and i really cant tell it all but we had a sweet lesson with a venesualian who owns a store arround here and that guy is a baller, super straight foreward and open and funny too. and well...today we dont have p day but were writing beacuse thursday the libaray will be closed. and also beacuse thursday in the morning were going to be having a turky bowl latino style...Soccer! and i wouldent have time to write even if the libaray was open...hahaha jk.
i love you guys tons
-elder richardson

Baptism got delayed

Man, I swear that the very first letter I sent had my new address in it... I know I had sent it but oh well...the address here is
1404 crystal springs ln
hermatage TN
37076
ya ya la teneis
well, you dad totally hit that one on the head when you said that p days were for rest or something like that...crud...about sunday night at 4 or 5 pm I am sooo done and we still have a few more hours left so I do a quick flashback of some Gladiator or Braveheart or Rocky scene and look at my planer that has GOTTAWANNA on the front and kick the last few hours butt. haha. but honestly when we get numbers in and planning done, I give a loud shout to Elder Valazquez and say "P DAY EVE!!!!" ...(he still asks why its called "eve" but I can't really translate that...but he gets what it refers to good enough) haha.
bad news but good news the Ortega family didn't get baptized on sunday, they just weren't ready, and there was a few other things holding them back, good news now there way ready and we are planning for there baptism on saturday and this time even
Sister Ortega is rite ready...i cant really explain everything but please keep them in your prayers, especially the Hermana Ortega.
yesterday we had another family go to church the Maranon family from Jalisco MX and la hermana ortega couldn't cus she got a huge bad bad migraine and they went to the hospital(she is back to 100%) and we also had another kid come named Aslan(if your thinkin lion witch and the wardrobe you got the right aslan) he is a stud but super shy and so while elder valazquez was with the maranon family i went to his class (he has 13-14 years) and byron vasquez was the teacher and it was a hecka fun class. byron is the ward clerk (one of many callings) and a stud he is from south Guatamala, everyone has nicknames around here and elder velazquez is trofeo(which means trophy but byron usually emfasized the "feo" part haha) and so we call byron la pulga(the flea) or patachucu(stinky feet) or frodo(the hobbit) haha...anyways it was a sweet day yesterday because the patriarch brother rose from madison came down to talk and it was sweet to see him again...
the maranon family really liked church...well the girl ingrid and the mom marisol more than the dad...he didn't really say much but we have a appt to go back and teach them on tuesday.
we also went by to see a guy named carlos last night, he is a joven from Gurrerro MX (actually not to far from where veronica and fransisco are from, the ones who are in clarksville) and it was kinda funny yesterday he started talking in a bunch of slang to elder valazquez trying to make it so i didn't understand but i started talking to him back and he got super surpised that i knew what he was saying and then got kinda embarassed (because it wasn't very good stuff) and elder valazquez was lost the whole time haha...we laughed but it was kinda sweet because it lead up to a good lesson, it totally was kinda sweet because when he was talking about the stuff he was there was no spirit there but then when we started to teach and talk with him the spirit came super strong and it was a hardcore contrast that everyone felt...and then kinda at the end of the lesson carlos got distracted with something and was about to start talkin about some stuff again and then realized what happened and said" wait...i better not talk about that now because were in the word of god and all and dang...you see how satan is trying to mess this up haha..." and it was super sweet because the spirit was straight up talkin to him because right after that he started putting a ton of things together and the gears started clicking and it was ballin.

anyways life is still good here, I am basically just loving the heck out of all of this...elder valazquez is like a brother, the kid is such a stud. but bad news is that transfers are commin up and no one want us to change...
well...not alot of time left and i have to write my MP
oh and tell brock that i haven't met even one uruguyian in my whole mission but for some reason everyone says that i talk like an uruguysian...which is weird because I don't try to and I don't even know how one talks but....oh well...
anyways i love you all bubba keep kickin butt at football and brie, you do the same with soccer everyone thinks its cool that you play and that your sooo good....bubba, sorry hispanics just don't understand football...so they think that's cool too but ...then again they really don't..haha. but i think its ballin!!!!
love you all
mom be good and just remember come what may and love it! if the house looks like a pumpkin ...it will be really easy to give someone directions to! haha
-elder richardson