True to the Faith ... Mexteco and Spanish? Two weeks worth of updates

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!

By the hair of his chinny-chin-chin!

March 24, 2008 started with some excitement for Josh, it was the day he was to leave the MTC to fly to Nashville. Josh and his companion (Elder Knaras, who will also be serving in the Nashville Mission) were to report to the MTC Travel Office by 6:00 a.m. Josh reports that they may have stayed up a little late on Sunday night getting ready to go and saying good-bye to good friends in the MTC. They set their alarm to give them plenty of time to get ready and to the travel office on time, they set out their clothes for the next day (Josh even pre-tied his tie!), and went to bed. According to Josh, "I don't know how it happened, but everybody in the room slept through the alarm." They were awakened by an announcement over the intercom (which Josh claims has "HUGE" speakers in the residence buildings): "Excuse me elders, but are Elders Richardson and Knaras still there? They were supposed to be in the travel office 10 minutes ago." We would have paid a lot for a video of this, Josh claims he moved fast that early in the morning! They jumped out of bed, pulled on their clothes, grabbed their bags (who knows what, or how much, was left behind) and "ran as fast as [they] could physically run" to the travel office, only to be told that the staff there believed the bus had already left for the airport. Someone in the Travel Office got on the radio and spoke with the bus driver, who said he was just pulling out of the parking lot ... he was willing to wait for the two sleepy-heads.

By the time Josh got to the phone to call us, he had already given away a pass-along card. He IS READY TO WORK! One other comment from him that brought a smile to our faces: "Wow! Even just being in the airport here in Salt Lake is waaaaay different than the MTC!" Yes, it is ... and now his mission really begins!!

Josh will dearly miss his Tongan friends in the MTC, a group of people to whom he got very close! He reports that he is now a Tongan. One Tongan elder would always bring a bowl of ice cream over for Josh. On the one occasion that Josh got one for himself, his Tongan guardian angel made him eat the one he got for himself and the one the Tongan brought. Josh really loves those friends. Josh picked up a little Tongan, and there is a phrase that seems to be his favorite, in English it is: Roll the Rock! Referring to the rock that King Nebuchanezer saw in his dream, the one cut out of the mountain without hands and which rolled to fill the earth. It is a beautiful saying.

Josh has been closing his letters with a Tongan phrase:

miea a'aku vhe
miea a'aku loto
miea a'aku uma
ki he otua

He gave us a rough translation ... my arms, my legs, my heart, are for God. It captures Josh's attitude. Look out Tennessee ... here comes Josh!

this week was the slowest blur of a week i have ever experinced in my life.

What a description! (unfortunately, it seems to apply equally well to his short letter) Well, Josh just received his flight plans and the people in Tennessee are now preparing for our Spanish-speaking son! He'll be in Tennessee on March 24. So how does Josh feel about it? "anyways today is a HUGE day beacuse we got our flightplans. ... iam sooo stoked! kinda crazy thinking about leaving here and never comming back but i am sooo excited to get to tn. ... we all were excited for our flight plans so it made the entire week seem like christmas eve...aaaaahhh! haha" (yes, that is his spelling ... not my typing.)

Josh reports that spanish is coming faster now ... in class they are mostly just reviewing and teaching the lessons three times a day (he says: "[I don't know] how we find the time"). He says: "there are tons more goals we set and now we speak spanish and have an ingles fast
every day until lunch and tuesday and thursday are full day fasts. its way hard but i have learned tons and tons of spanish and iam so grateful for it. hevenly father has been very kind in helping me out with my spanish and other things."

The most information we get as to how things are going is: "the trc was fun this week and really powerful but i cant seem to remeber much more than that beacuse of the previously mentioned blur^ haha"

He states he is not gaining any weight, but is still trying.

We'll close with this thought from Josh:
"i have a quote for you guys from my teacher hmo taggert and it is "no pressure no
diamonds" so just know that all the hard trials(it took me a min to think of that
word cus i could only remeber it in spanish)...trials you go through in your life
just make you stronger and prettier. so no pressure no diamonds "

Spanish, a drummer, and a love of the Gospel!

(NOTE: this incorporates letters and a tape from two weeks ... given my schedule, I was not able to keep the weekly update going. Apologies. Blogmaster)

Three weeks left in the MTC ... give or take. As Josh has been quoted as saying: "the days here are long, but the weeks go fast!"

Spanish:
Josh claims to be struggling with Spanish, though we hear the other side of the coin as well. For example, Josh and his "companero" get to teach in the "TRC" (teaching resource center) ... where they teach members posing as investigators, which then helps them with language and teaching skills. Recently the two of them taught a "fifty-some minute" discussion to a man named Napolean, and Josh describes the experience with great zeal ... partly for a reason explained below. In the past few days he and his "companero" went to the TRC but, due to a lack of staff, they had to split up with other elders so they had 2 - threesomes rather than 3 companionships. Josh's threesome taught Napolean ... here's what Josh said about it:

"The whole lesson was a bunch of testifying and everyone could feel it so strong. Napolean started to tear up and I got a rush of the Spirit and all of a sudden I didn't know what I was doing but I was speaking and faster than I had before, the part I didn't know was what I was speaking. It was like I was describing this mental picture of Jesus Christ's atonement and what it has meant in my life and while the picture was the same the words came out in a language that was not my native one ... I was speaking spanish and saying words I had only slightly ever heard and using them in the right conjucations. Thank you for your prayers. They are working. HARRAH FOR ISREAL!"

Because he feels his Spanish is not as strong as he wants it, he and his companion (his district too?) went on a two part fast ... one: the regular fast; two: an English fast. It is hard to keep the timelines exactly straight since we get periodic letters, and intermixed will be emails and then we got a tape that seems to have covered two weeks ... or at least two p-days plus more, but as near as we can tell, the English fast preceeded the experience with Napolean. We all keep, and encourage you to keep Josh in our prayers that he may be granted the gift of tongues that he may preach with power and clarity.

A DRUMMER
You were just introduced to Napolean. Josh describes him as "the BOMB!" and Josh has had at least two opportunities to teach him in the TRC. Josh has taken a real love for this brother. But one of the things Josh is really excited about with him is he "was the drummer for Santana" (Carlos Santana that is ... the guitarist extraordinair!) (Of course, the fact that Dad loves Santana and tried to pass that on to Josh (who also loves great guitar) only made it better ... says Dad.)

A LOVE OF THE GOSPEL
To hear Josh on the tape is to hear great excitement for his mission and an incredible love of the Gospel. It is amazing to hear Josh rave about "Jesus the Christ" by Talmadge. Grandpa Richardson has often been quoted as saying "When you read Talmadge, you need two things: a lot of time and a good dictionary." Josh has repeated that, with a third thing you need: "a good highlighter." Given Josh's decided lack of interest in most gospel scholarship (very different from the gospel, wherein he has ALWAYS had an abiding testimony), it is greatly rewarding to hear him preach his love of this weighty tome! Josh's testimony continues to grow, and we love to hear it with each letter and email ... and tape. He is getting truly excited to get into the field and preach to those the Lord has prepared!

"There are a few things they didn't tell me about this place when I settled in ...."

The title for this post comes from Josh and his quote of John Wayne, applying it to the MTC. "This place is awesome! There aren't words to describe it."

Here is Josh and District 44-D! He says that they have the largest district with 12 missionaries (only 10 are pictured here). On the front row are: Elders Roberts and Campbell, Sisters Burke, Wiseman, Larson and Langston. Back Row: Elder Cavaness, Knaras (Josh's companion), Olson, and Josh (yes, that looks like a faux-hawk he's wearing).

Josh reports that he now prays in Spanish all the time, and it appears that he is improving all the time, but we wonder if those around him are learning enough as one said the one word to describe Josh is "Guapo" .... Josh says learning Spanish is "tough" but it is coming along. His companion (Elder Knaras) took three years of Spanish in High School, so he his helping Josh. He does bear his testimony in Spanish to us as well.

Josh does ask for all of us to keep his companion (Elder Knaras ... the District Leader) in our prayers. Apparently Josh is hoping to see a conversion during his time at the MTC ... Elder Knaras is (gasp!) a Utah fan! Josh is trying to persuade him to leave the dark side for the light.

To help you get a feel of how Josh has changed, let me share this one part of Josh's letter (this part directed to Kiah): Study hard in school and if you ever are at a loss for another incredible book to read you should 'try' and take on Jesus the Christ. It's awsome!"

He has had some great spiritual experiences and is growing so much. He is truly a man of God.

Josh reports that he has lost 6 pounds while at the MTC. While he loves the food, he is running everyday ... now running about 3 miles a day during gym time. He has earned the nickname "Quicksilver!"

He also complains that he doesn't get a nap most days and only is sleeping 8 hours a day (most of the rest of us are jealous!).

Elder Campbell (see the picture above) has a girlfriend who works at the MTC cafeteria ... so he sees her everyday! I wouldn't believe it either if Josh hadn't told me about it.

I could add more (this was a letter worth waiting for!), but will end in the interests of space. All in all, he's doing great, and we're walking on clouds with excitement for him!

Still no update --- sorry!

There hasn't been an update for a few days. Sorry about that, the reason behind that is that Josh just hasn't been in touch for a while ... no letters, no e-mail. Well, here's hoping that the letter-drought breaks soon!

The Testimony Grows!

This picture was taken when we took Josh to the MTC. Logan is pointing to Josh's nametag and "dork dot" (the dot indicating a new arrival).

The second letter received from Josh is shorter than the first! BUT, it has good news. He is doing very well in Spanish (THANK YOU ALLEN TUCKER!), and he reports that he is now thinking in Spanish. (He also is chatting up the Mandarin speaking missionaries every chance he gets.) He feels short on TIES and requests more ties be sent to him (they are almost as good as money). He reports that he was recently trading ties with an Elder from Hungary who spoke no English (Josh, ever the trader, probably got the better end of that deal too!).

Josh reports that it is strange "cus I have no cell, no phones, no way of staying so connected with mi familia and friends."

Josh is working hard, learning (and evidently loving) the language, and seems to love those in his district (though we know little about any of them ... no names or anything ... just that they are all "a big group of studs and studetts").

His letter is best summed up by this quote:

Jesu Cristo es el salvador!
Jesus is the Christ!