Update!

[NOTE: The last couple of communications from Josh have come in snippets and so they have not been posted. Suffice it to say: He got transferred to Burgess Falls, Tennessee. He has a new companion - Elder Santos from Barcelona, Spain - who he loves and is excited to be with (they have been telling people for a few months that they would be companions at some point). Burgess Falls is a new area for Spanish speaking missionaries, so they are opening a new area, with a new apartment (so new there was no furniture in it when they moved it ... including no beds). And they have been challenged to have a Spanish branch there in 3 months! This week's email follows:]

hey guys...your really going to hate me...i really dont have alot of time.
and honestly its due to the tornados that are dropping all over and the crappy weather were getting...i actually sent a pic of a tornado that i saw drop with my ver own eyes...it was about a mile from me and sooo flippin crazy.
but today were here, this last week was super chafa, santos had to go to sing in the choir so i was on exchanges with the english elders for the last 4 days...when we got here it was sooo flippin crazy...but that is a story that ill have to tell later all i can say is that satan really really dosent want us here...it was ver very clear upon trying to come over here and throughout our days together. but all is well santos and i are now reunited and with ganas we are going to tear it up here.
i sent pics!
and sunday i had to translate for the spanish agin...and i havent translated for sooo long...i was so nervous that it would be super crapy but it wasent i truly felt 3 min befor the sacrament a peace come over me and my mind started translating with such an ease that i have never had ever befor in my life...iam not going to lie it was really good, and it truly was beacuse of the help the lord gave me beacuse i have never never had that peace and ability befor in my best moment of speaking. it was odd how i fell back into the normal way of speaking afterwards. haha, so awsome is my god!
and iam really really sorry that i dont have a ton of time to write...i hope you dont hate me but we really have to get going. they told us that htere is another storm commin and we have to go and find somewhere to be. i love you all tons.
bubba,i hope you realize the importance of you practices now, there hecka important but i know that it wasnt all your fault and that your a stud and you get a move on, but sometimes were givin trials beacuse we are ready to learn lessons...learn and grow young padawan!
brie, your such a flippin studette! keep playing, the very best players are the ones that worked thourgh years of trials but for the love of the game and eventually kick some but and were so amazing that nobody could keep up...work yourself hard!
mom and dad, keep on keepin on! thank you so much for the videaos and my new address is:
1589 walter ln. #1
cooksville TN
38501
LOVE YA!
-ya boi yealda richarddd!
(your boy elder richardson)

ESTOY!
with all the tornado warnings its hard for us to get our email done...sorry

114-0118 elder knaras y su nino
114-0127 el bautizmo de jose
118-0019 knaras y yo y divina y hugo en su bautizmo
118-0078 a tornado that i literally saw drop in frount of my face(friday the 10 2009) it was about 1 mile from us and we took off in the car hecka fast and there was 1 inch hail falling too! frickin hecka crazy!

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Conference Weekend ... letter from President Hutchings

dang gina! my cousin brock is so such a stinkin stud! i love that guy...i hope he gets married to the most beautiful awsomest lady there is...that speaks spanish too! in fact if he has problems i know a bunch of puerto rician ladys! haha
welll guys juan carlos and estela got back together and are doing hecka good, there relationship[ is soo strong now and estela is supporting insted of tearing down and assuming. juan pedro is going to be getting baptized...we just have to figure out the day.
and douglas, he is a baller! i dont think i have meet many ppl who are cooler than he is, he is such a good man and so very very focused and is reading tons and tons in the book of mormon. its so incredable. and as for life arround here...well its at an end.
tomarrow are transfers and iam leaving, iam going to the farthest east our mission goes and iam going to be opening an area with a stud of a missionary elder santos. it sucks rocks that i have to go right when i feel like i got a huge grip on this area...everything has done well and is doing well and will be doing awsome and now i have to go...one of the members actually got mad at me cus iam leaving and told me to go and tell the mission president that he cant do that...i told him its god doing it so he can go have a talk with him if he wants...haha. jose got mad too and told me he is probally going to move now...i doubt it...but that guy is such a stud,please keep him in your prayers. and the chilano family ...dang iam going to miss them, and hna. embodi's cookin...there so awsome. my new area is called burgess falls and santos and i will be the first spansih missionarys in this area ever! iam hecka nervous,iam defintly going to work my pants off, president wants a branch in 3 months...pleas pray! haha
elder santos is from barcelona spain and is a stud...we have been tellin everyone that we were going to serve together forever now and now its finally happening! were pretty stoked but we have a bunch of work to do...
also its final elder spencer is going to be training...the mans super stoked about it, nervous, but i told him hell be fine...he is such a stud!
anyways i love you all tons...iam super super super stoked to hear about jordan! that man is in ever one of my prayers...and you can tell him that yo falo poco portugues y no estoy brincando. haha
love you all
elder richardson

ps elder jacob is speakin spanish? sWeeT!!

i just kinda wanted to send this to you beacuse it is a very powerful letter that our president wrote and it explaines a bit of what were doing here in the mission(or did in the mo of march)

---

Elders and Sisters,

I felt impressed to write to each of you and give you an update on where we are as a mission on the March Madness Missionary Miracle Month. We had a conference call tonight with the zone leaders and they reported a total of 52 individuals that have been baptized with 44 future dates for the rest of the month. That equals 96 if all goes well. You and I both know that some will fall off at the end of the week, so we really need to set 10 to 15 more for the rest of the month. Tonight we received 9 new future dates with 5 of them being for this month. That was way exciting and many miracles accompanied those new dates. We also have 32 future dates so far going into April.

Here are some highlights so far. If everything goes through the Franklin and Spanish zones will exceed their goals. The Hopkinsville, Nashville and Paducah zones are within 3 of their goals. That is so exciting. Also, if everything goes the Spanish and the McMinnville zones will have 24 baptized each. The Spanish zone has 18 as of tonight and the McMinnville zone has 11 baptized.

Listed below are some districts where each companionship either has baptized or has a future date for March:

· Paris district (Elder Mayes, Hine, Beech and Comstock) will have 8 when all goes through.

· Franklin Spanish district (Sisters Sulz, Ethington, Elders Richardson, Spencer) will have 5 when all goes through.

· Stones River district (Sisters Zeller, Sprinkle and Elders Beck, Garrison) will have 2 when all goes through.

· Fairview district (Elders Calkins, Nelson, Horner, Orr) will have 7 when all goes through.

· Columbia district (Elders Boswell, Lawrence, Massey, Stacey) will have 3 when all goes through.

Congrats to each of these districts where everyone in the district baptized this month.

6 of the 7 zone leaders companionship will baptize this month. Thank you zone leaders for your example and hard work.

Listed below are some of the companionships who have or have solid dates for baptisms in March:

Tanner-Allen = 3, Pearson-Kim = 7, Richardson-Spencer = 4, Geohagan-Tupou = 4, Sisters Smith-Cordon = 3, Santos-Haire = 4, Sisters Munoz-Gasca = 6, Beech-Comstock = 4, Yadernuk-Rasmussen = 3, Wagstaff-Bousfield = 3, Measom-Alvarez = 3, Treu-Reeder = 7, Calkins-Nelsen = 6, Mayes-Hine = 4, Campbell-Hanson 3. Congrats to each of these companionship.

My sincere thanks to each of you for your great work and dedication to the Lord. You have done well.

Can you see what is happening? There is a new spark in missionary work in this mission. I give you the credit and thanks. You are wonderful and a joy to be with as we are engaged in the work of the Lord.

Reminder to pray at 12 noon today(Thursday) as this is the time the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve pray in the temple. We need to join with them in asking God for miracles, the mission to reach its goal of 100, retain the dates we have set, and set 10 to 15 new dates for this month.

I would also ask that each of us begin a fast after dinner on Thursday and end it on Friday at dinner time. The purpose of the fast is to do the following:

· Fast for the mission goal of 100

· Fast for those who have set dates to be baptized that all will go through

· Fast for miracles that have and are taking place. We need to ask God specifically for more miracles as we are obedient to His rules and work.

· Fast specifically for those in your districts and zones by NAME (either progressing investigators, investigators or those with a date)

I must confess that I haven’t seen as much opposition or things put before us that gets us distracted in the work as I have in the past 30 days. We need to keep praying for strength. Remember that God’s work won’t get frustrated. We don’t want Satan to win any battles so let’s be on our “A” game. Stay focused and remember that when difficulties come – blessings are right behind them.

Obedience is the key to our success. If you were to talk to many missionaries, you would hear of their testimonies that when you are obedient – God will bless you quickly. We need to have a quest – a yearning for being obedient. This is important and will be the cause of our missing the goal of 100. Pray with everything you have. Talk to our loving Heavenly Father. What He wants from us is our heart. With that, anything can happen.

In the first part of April, I am going to send a letter to President Monson where I will tell him that the great Tennessee Nashville Mission baptized 100 individuals and brought them to Christ. I will further explain that we did this for 2 reasons. One is to help these individuals qualify for salvation and the other is as a testimony to President Monson that we sustain him as a prophet of God. That our works told of our inner desires.

I am also going to write to Elder Ballard and invite him to tour our mission. It will be an added boost if I can tell him that we just baptized 100 and this mission is on fire.

For the past three days, I have had the privilege of interviewing ½ of the mission. There is a greater faith present in our interviews. By the power of the spirit I have discerned the blessings of God have been extended to more of you in the past month. Some I have perceived a blessing that has been bestowed upon you in that God will sustain you in your work. A few of you He has instructed me to teach of this level of what I call spiritual maturity. For those whom God instructed me to teach, we shed a few tears together as I taught them of this great blessing. God in his kindness allowed those individuals to be told by me of their service and that it has pleased God and He will sustain them in their work. Why God instructed me to teach only a few and not all those who have reached this level, I don’t know. I can only testify that the spirit instructed me with a handful to teach of this level, but others he held my tongue and I was not permitted to inform them. More of you are reaching this level and God in his kindness is granting unto you the righteous desires of your heart. Thank you one and all.

I wish I had the ability to give each of you a “Title of Liberty” that we could hold, display and discuss that would adequately portray our feelings as we go into this last week of our March Madness Missionary Miracle Month. Some of the statements I would write on the “Title of Liberty” would be the following:

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we believe in God the Eternal Father.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we believe in Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord and His Atonement, which is available to all.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we believe in the Holy Ghost. We recognize Him, and we follow those impressions that He gives us.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we believe the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God who was the instrument God used in restoring the church today.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we believe in the restoration of the gospel. That the priesthood has been restored and President Monson is a living prophet today.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we know the sealing powers have been restored and those blessings are available to all who come unto Christ.

· Let it be said of us that our testimonies stand against the fiery darts of the adversary. And that by our faith and works do the powers of God prevail over this enemy.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that we not only represent our God, but our families, friends, home wards and stakes, and our inner most desire to serve God with our heart, might, mind and strength.

· Let it be said of us, that our testimonies will stand as a witness for or against this people.

· Let it be said of us, that we contributed in a mighty way in more fully establishing the Church in this part of the Lord’s vineyard.

· Let it be said of us, by our works that peace, joy and happiness can all be contained through living the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that this “Title of Liberty” would be displayed in each of our apartments and discussed every morning before we go out and work. That together we unit in this great cause. In part, I see us doing that. I thank you and encourage you to keep working hard. Hold fast to the iron rod. It does lead to the tree of live and it is delicious to the taste. Trust me, I know.

I express my sincere love and respect for who you are and what you are doing. This is the greatest work there is. We are witnessing history. We are a part of something that words cannot describe. We are about our Father’s business. Please, join with me as we consecrate all our time and effort in this last week to reaching our goal and showing the eastern United States missions that we can and we did break the 4 minute mile with convert baptisms. Pray, hard work, obedience, pure love of God and mankind and the key ingredients to this success. I express my love to each of you. Come, partake of this experience and witness first hand of His outstretched arms towards you. The end is in sight. The victory is ours. Endure to the end and watch the blessings flow.

President Hutchings

A short up-date ... Themis gets baptized!!!!

well, the good news is that Themis, Jysell and Melissa were baptized and confirmed this last week and that was flippin sweet. we (the Spanish group) now have 3 rows of seats that were taking up in the sacrament! I wanna get 4 or 5 before I leave. all we need is 3more men to get baptized to make it a branch and that would be sweet!
also we have transfers coming up! I am pretty stoked about the whole business, its always exciting-ish...I think Elder Spencer will be training 'cus he is such a stud haha...I'll send pics of us. and life is going good, the work is progressing and i hope only that i will be able to keep it all organized so that we don't lose any progress that we have. it sooo sweet!
I love you guys, I am sorry for not writing alot but I felt like I should tell you all to whom we pray, and through what name because it is how we conquer, be disciples of Christ.
i love you guys
elder richardson

and always remember you guys are ballers!

Baptism this week! News from Clarksville! and District Leader!

well, transfers are all here and unfortunately elder burrnett is takin off he is going to west nashville and i am going to be staying here in franklin. and president made me the district leader for this area. the only problem with that...there are 2 sister missionaries in the district...
hahaha just kiddin mom... there cool
anyways, other super exciting news!!!
elder knaras called me up and just unloaded a ton of news, 1)knaras is training!! he is getting a native too which is just what he was hoping for too 2) he is leaving clarksville and 3) divina and hugo are getting married! they finally got all the paperwork and whatnots done that they needed to and now there finally gettin married and baptized...they only problem is that now...neither knaras nor i will be there for it but they told him that they would send alot of pictures! divinas dad disowned her for it but she already has a kid with hugo and they are really in love so i think he will get over it when he stops being stubborn.
also, jose melendez here in franklin is doing super good and is super excited to get baptized on this saturday. he is stopping smoking so please keep him in your prayers as much as possible.
themis and her 2 girls are doing super good and there is a familia here named the allen family and bro allen is a stud...to be honest the whole family are studs but brother allen has been going out on exchanges with us alot and he went on his mission to el salvador and he finished his mission the very month the war started down there. but! he still speaks spanish super super good. its been a loooooong time since his mission but he still speaks and he speaks well. dad, keep your chinese, your never going to know when your going to need it.
anyways the allens invited themis and her 2 girls over for familia home evening and so tonight were going to go do that and were all pretty stoked!
also we found a really cool family(we found more than just 1 family this last week but these guys are super cool) and there names are mosies and maria and thy have some kids but there super cool and were pretty excited to teach them. also another mexican that is really cool named alvarao who is (oddly) into chinese stuff and has a huge dragon tatoo on his shoulder.
we also went to the temple this last week and that was super cool, for a lil while i had headphones sot hat i could listen in spanish. that was super cool... i really do love spanish.
well basically those are the highlights to the week, we tore it up on our lessons we taught and a bunch of other stuff because we just kept truckin and elder burrnett is such a stud so that helps alot too!
hey can you guys send me tylan and jacobs address. and dad when you get a hold of nate tell him that he is the man and i am determined to send him a sweet tie! idk if that even matters to him...probably not...but that is about all i've got...so yea.
anyways i g2g and i love you all and ill talk to you lata
love
-elder richardson

With the Lord's Help ... What a Week!

hey family
this last week was super super good and pretty dang crappy...but all in all i think it levels out to be a pretty sweet one.
it actually started off with ...PDAY...but that's not the point...
on tuesday went to Themis's house(pervuiana) with brother Allen(stud) and it was super sweet...we went over there with the ganas to teach the book of mormon to her and when we got over there and we started talkin, she told us about a dream that she had and she started it off with the fact that it was a beautiful dream and she feel really really good when she had it and it is the only dream she has ever had like it before in her life...and then she said how it didn't make alot of sense to her what the things in it mean but she liked it...then she went on about her dream, she had fallen asleep on the couch and in her dream 2 ppl walked in her door and it was a marriage group...like a mom and dad or like husband and wife....(crap i cant think of that word) it was 2 married people...anyways, they walk in the door and there was alot of light shining in and the were dressed all in white. they then sat on her couch and the husband pointed to the wife and told Themis that she(Themis) needs to pray for her(the wife) and in that moment she opened her eyes and found herself with the book of mormon in her hands.
she told us that she doesn't know what it means but she said that she thinks it means that this is the right church.
when she was talkin about the dream i had a strong feeling come over me that it was a special dream for her and after she finished i felt like i knew what it was about. the spirit was sooo strong and we had yet to start teaching. as we started we taught her exactly what was the book of mormon and we read the introduction and it was truly awesome the spirit that all of us felt when we read the promise that god gives us when we pray that we will receive an answer from him of the truth of the book. Themis was sooo soo excited and so happy of everything and we asked her to read and pray about the book of mormon.
Themis and her 2 daughters now have a bap date for the 7 of march.
there were soo many other experiences that happened last week but i wanted to tell you guys about that one and one other about Jose and what has been going on in his life.
his wife has left him and because of that and work we haven't been able to see him like we need to but he is such a stud that he is still going foreward. we are going to be moving his date to the 28 because he needs some time and needs to quit smoking(the stress of the recent events haven't helped that prob) but he is such a awesome guy that with all the heck that satan is throwing at him he is still whoopin some trash, and its cus he is doing more and more the things that he knows are right and he is getting help to conquer them. but we had a sweet time last sunday because Brother Deere(producer of a bunch of bands) and the band Due West(mom check them out) and Brother Trueman(from Diamond Rio) all put on a fireside and the Nashville Tribute band did some songs from the Joseph album and the Trek album and we took Jose and Jose loved it. it was super awesome because (I don't know if you have heard the discs but they're good) but everyone loved it and Jose got the chance to relax and listen to country music that he likes alot and feel the spirit of peace for a night after a week of heck.
please keep Jose and Themis in your prayers and their families. Always when someone is doing good they get hit by a ton of bad to try to distract or take them off the path. I know the Lord wants them to have peace and joy and all the blessings he can give them, keep them in your prayers.
i love you guys tons!
thank you for all the help you give us out here! and I am keepin you all in my prayers.
love
elder richardson

PS for p day were going to be going to find ryan scheklers house because he lives over here and a member is a good friend of his family.
oh and mom i heard Dan Trueman play one more day by Diamond Rio ...i though you might like to know that.

Another Baptism!

hey family
franklin is doing pretty sweet...the week went by super quick. thank you all of you guys that sent stuff...i really cant tell you how much it ment to me. all you guys are soo dang awsome and iam really thankful for it, you are all a blessing to me and my life.
like i said franklin is doing good... jose melendez has a baptizimal date for the 21st of feburary! it was a pretty funny lesson beacuse we were on exchanges with our mission leder(bro lawless) and he was super super tired so he kept falling asleepish during the lesson...it made jose smile though and all was good, it was a super good time and there was alot of spirit there.
but with all good the bad attacks just as hard as it can, i really cant say much but please keep jose in your prayers, he is a good good man and he really needs them.
the others are doing good too, the peruvian family is doing good, but her husband got a super bad stomach virus on friday and there were in the hospital all friday until saturday night...but themis and her girls came to church on sunday so that was super good...
also kevin and orlando(the hondurianans) are doing super good, we had a sweet lesson with them and another guy too from another church (he lives with them) and he was really aginst joining the lesson for a lil bit but then we just testified of christ and he sat down and started listening...we read outloud the proclmacion to the world and jesus the christ and everyone really really liked them and there was a good good spirit there. but when sunday came so they couldent go to church beacuse the mexicans that they live with (upstairs) went out for the day and gave the hondurianians(basement) there kids to watch...
we had a good week though, we went to see a lot of inactivos and recent conversos and see how they are all doin and we had some really good lessons with them...
the lord is soo sooo merciful, i really cant explain to you how much so, he really blesses us sooo sooo much and we really arnt even close to what we should be for all of thoes blessings. the area is doing really good and life is good... as with all things always the adversary wants to "echar la zancadilla" and cause problems but the lord always wins...beacuse christ already defeted him in all ways.
i really have come to know...sooo very much more about my savior, jesus of nazarath is the christ, the imortal son of god. his power is so surly felt for thoes who turn to him. i love him. he is our savior. i work, and i pray that i might learn ever so much more of him and grow or become that much more closer to him.
i love you family, be safe, change alot, and please strive to be closer to the savior always.
love,
elder richardson

A Super Good Week ... lots of investigators!

well...new news...
we had a super good week this week, we worked our butts off and we found a bunch of super awesome ppl and we had more investigators at church this week than Franklin has ever had before. we have one family from peru of 3 and a group of brothers from Hondurous and a 2 mexicans and it was super sweet! when we came to church with all the investigators it pulled everyone's eyes towards us, because the sacrament is translated and we go with the english ppl and we walked in and the spanish members were super excited(especially Jesus Cazares a new convert of 6 mo. who is probably one day going to be branch prez.) and then all the english ppl were lookin at us too because we 1. arrived on time and 2. there was a bunch of us walkin in! haha
i am not going to lie though...elder Burrnett was translating and i was down with the investigators and I was on pins and needles because we had 2x the investigators as members and i couldn't sit by them and help them feel comfy and whatnot and i was soo nervous but then it was sooo awesome beacuse the family from peru (Gallardo, mom and 2 daughters) had had bad experiences at church before and so i really was hoping they would have a good one here and a girl stood up to bear her testimony and it was soooooo awesome because it was perfectly the things that the Gallardo family needed to know...and in that moment i felt the spirit super strong and almost felt the words said to me " don't you worry, they are in my hands now"
it was sooo sweet. and in this moment the members kinda paired up with the investigators and i was talkin with the honduranian and the spirit too care of everyone! it was soo sweet all the stress i had left quick and the spirit was so strong that all the investigators left telling us they would come back! haha!
other than that we brock [I think that is just a Freudian slip of Josh's ... he probably meant broke ... but Brock works mighty hard, so therein lies the slip] in our shoes real well tracting tons and tons and we found alot of ppl that were going to teach or have (by this time) ya taught.
please keep in your prayers Ramiro, Kevin, Themis and her family and Sergio. they are all very very awesome investigators that really need your prayers. they all are fighting the world right now and really need the extra help that they can get.
i love you guys and i hope you all had a sweet week! i stinkin loved the package ! it was super sweet except for the fact that Jesus Cazeres ate 3 of my cordial cherries and i about scissor kicked him in the ole' melon for that one~! i love the shirts and pants and i am going to not wear the shirts but to conferences and church only so that they stay white! haha.
also the tape was awesome! there is so much i want to write back to you guys about the tape but i cant...cus there isn't enough time!
mainly this though....
bubba...don't stop,or let up, or not have fun....wrestling is made so that you can learn and have fun and get better...so that means if you think your good enough, ya aren't, but only because you can get better...and if you aren't havin fun, start, cus its not about being bored or not liking it...go and smile and learn and smile and learn and kick sum butt dude! cauwabunga!
and also, try the dollar store because i can still hear the country music on the re-taped over tape haha.
and dad...your starting to sound EXACTLY like grandpa on the tape...your voice is sooo much like his i am shocked.
and i think one of the coolest parts of the tape was hearing mom wash the dishes and talk...it really doesn't matter what is said on a tape but more just saying something..even if it is when your doing dishes hahaha
and also it made me laugh hearing the part that was recorded almost a year ago and hearing michell and ashlyn tryin to talk over bro and sis krohn. and hearing lil kindra use the talents that i taught her! hahahaha

i love you guys tons,
"stay classy"
elder j richardson