Maddie on a Mission: January 2016

Monday, January 18, 2016

Week 9

hello family!!
every time i sit down to email i feel like its been a thousand years and so much has happened!

Tuesday was transfers, and we had our last transfer meeting ever! that was weird and sad all at the same time! a sister in our district, sister broederlow, her companion was coming from out west, so she was with us all day while she waited for her companion. it was SO fun. i love sis bro (thats what i call her, she hates it). we had our last lesson with an inactive sister who is moving and we were so sad to say goodbye!! she is so sweet and so ready to come back to the gospel, but we gave the missionaries in their new area their info so they wont stop learning! We taught about eternal families, and basically every time i talk about families i cry homesick tears, so thats always embarrassing, but im SO grateful i know we can be together forever! it really helps my homesickness to think that we will be together forever and ever cause i love you guys SO MUCH AND MISS YOU SO MUCH

also, on tuesday i tried a fried oreo, so YES i will come back a different person cause wow theyre good

anyways

Wednesday, sister fetuli was feeling sick, so we stayed in pretty much the whole day. the member that was supposed to feed us was so kind and brought us the dinner she made and her and i talked in the doorway for a minute, cause sometimes you just need to talk to a mom to make your heart feel better

Thursday we had our district meeting with our new district! our district is SO fun i love them so much. So we received a referral from church headquarters, and we went to his house and he wasn't there, so we knocked on some of his neighbors doors and we found someone that set a return appointment!!!!! I WAS SO EXCITED. we're teaching her on saturday (we're doing exchanges so i wont be there) and i hope it goes well!!

Friday was weekly planning, and we tried some less actives and they werent home. So we do "heart attacks" if we get out of out 8pm lesson too soon, and when we were heart attacking (taping hearts with nice words on someones door) the husband opened the door hahahaha it was SO awkward we were dying

This week was so awesome because we found FIVE people to teach!!! three were former investigators, one is the women we tracted, and one members are having us go to their home and teach! we are so grateful to finally see our work paying off! Teaching still makes me nervous, but im so excited to get more experience and continue to help our area!

hopefully next week i'll have some AWESOME teaching stories for you guys :)

i love you so much and pray for you everyday! have an awesome week!!

Monday, January 11, 2016

Week 8

hi family!!

I hope everyone had an amazing week!!

Tuesday I was sick so we stayed in all day, it made me SUPER homesick, but I'm better now! health wise and homesick wise
I got this

On Thursday we had our district meeting, and our zone leader announced the new changes in the missionary program? idk if yall have heard, but no more transfer meetings, no more working our in gyms, and now exchanges will be done differently. crazy crazy! the rules im okay with, just the no gym thing is a little difficult. how am I supposed to combat all this pasta?!?! but all is well

Friday it snowed! not a crazy amount but enough that I was driving like 10 mph. we had weekly planning, and our car had to get the oil changed, so we were stranded in sears for an hour or so, but it was all good! we did some window-shopping to kill the time. sister fetuli couldn't remember the word for "window shopping" and called it shoplifting instead hahaha oh sister fetuli

Saturday was interesting! we were driving to an less actives house we were going to try and catch home (no one is every home so Saturday is the best) and our car overheated! apparently our water pump is broken and it was leaking coolant so we have a replacement car till ours gets its act together. thank the HEAVENS there was an extra car or else we'd be walking everywhere

We had a few appointments scheduled this week with less actives, but only one ended up working out, and its the family that is moving next week. the work is slow here in Highlands Ranch but we're trying our hardest!

One cool thing that happened, yesterday we were trying to meet a less active from one of the wards, and when we got there, their neighbor (who we had knocked on his door a few days before) was outside smoking and yelled to us "hey I have a question! do you girls do service?" HECK YEAH WE DO!! he needed help moving stuff from a house he got from his sister, and its not in our missions but we're sending missionaries to help him! it was awesome!

we got our transfer calls yesterday and I about died I was so nervous, but sister Fetuli and I are both staying!! thank goodness! so i'll be here at least 6 more weeks!

I hope everyone has an amazing week!
Sister Richards

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Week 7

January 4, 2016

Hi family!!!!

this week was awesome! happy new year!

Tuesday we had exchanges, and I went with a sister in a Spanish area! which was very interesting and very eye opening. she is in Lakewood, which has a reputation for being a little ghetto (people call it lakehood, so theres that). I loved it!!! the entire day was appointments with only Spanish speakers so I didn't know what was going on, but it was so cool to see these people that live so differently than I did at home, and even on the mission! The people were so sweet and I tried my best to focus on the people talking and not let my mind wonder. and for dinner, I ate the spiciest meat of all time, so that was awesome

Wednesday we had our "mission tour" which was just a 9-4 day of training from president and the two sets of AP's for the metro side of the mission. it was so good! it was all about planning- weekly and daily- and I learned so much! I love conferences like that, I always feel so motivated to work!

Thursday was New Year's Eve! and the day was just a normal day, tried to contact some less actives and did some tracting! then in the evening we stopped by a ward members home who was having a NYE party, we stayed like 30 minutes and were home by 9! we had our own little party with supplies given to us by the member that was hosting the party (cause our members are the bomb). it was fun! definitely not a normal NYE, but I was fine with being in bed by 10 hahah

Friday we had weekly planning, and visited some less actives from our ward list

Saturday we did service in the morning!! a less active family is trying to get rid of stuff in their house so we went and carried things up from the basement and tried to help organize. and we got to wear PANTS. I LOVE PANTS.

Sunday was church day! because the wards changed times, now we're only there from 7:30-2! so holla at that. I love going to church though, its so nice to sit back and feel the spirit and get recharged for the coming week! We taught a lesson to a part member family on prayer and it went really good! the family is so nice and so ready to hear the gospel! we're super excited to keep building our relationship with them.

that's about it for this week! im still adjusting and still feeling pretty homesick, but I try to take it one day at a time! Its so crazy that this entire year I will be a missionary!

I hope all is well and everyone has fun going back to school and work today!!!
love you!!!!