Vrijednost

Draga familia, 

This week started off with a pday wandering a mall we found and eating ice cream. We are meaning to go hiking or do something more interesting, but on a day when you don't have to be outside and it is blazing hot, we spend it wandering around in  air conditioned glory. 

So that Monday night we go tracting and literally no one was answering. No one. Then finally a we get to a door, after I'd already rang it I look at the top corner of it and there is a sticker of Mary the mother of Christ and it said below it  "STOP SECTS. WE ARE CATHOLICS WE DON'T WANT YOUR CONVERSATION." So of course, that door opens and I was like sorry sir, I didn't see your sticker, but we are Christians as well, have a good night.  The next door that opens he like slams a door inside his house as he was talking to us and it was pitch black and I thought he had shot a gun for sure. 

So

No one is still answering so we wait at the elevator with this guy who is also taking the elevator down 17 flights of stairs as well. We get in the elevator and I am like hey.. where is everyone tonight? he said I dont know *sorry I am trying to use quotation marks but they are hidden on this keyboard and hard to refind bear with me*.. so we are like on the sea? and he is like theyre all just kod kuce! and i was like oh well then no one wants to talk to us.. but no one usually does. no courtesy laugh from him. Us and him in this tiny elevator. so awkward. I was like have you ever talked with mormons before? no. Oh well now you have! He just stared at us. Sister allred is like here is the book of mormon, its a record about Christ just like the Bible but from a people on another continent. We like give him this lesson in 20 seconds in an elevator and he just stares at us and we offer him it, he just it like ne and walks out the elevator.  

Then a boy about 9 years old told us Jesus speaks Croatian. Then we talked to an Italian man who tried to punk us and say he only speaks Italian-- we got that twice this week with a French speaker too! I wore my fake glasses, I don't even know why. He likes talks to us for a minute then asks if he can try my glasses on, I say yes. He puts them on, realizes they are just plastic, and is like ahhhh, mormoni! shakes his finger and laughs and we laugh so hard and he runs away. the people here. Never a dull moment. 

Next topic: we get this call Friday night to go to the mission home and to look nice cause a reporter is coming and we might get interviewed.  allllllright. Show up, there is the cameraman and reporter and there were there for a good two hours talking to us, the office elders, President and sister Grant, taking pictures of us that are like us sitting on a bed and one teaching someone on the floor. They are so uncomfortable and I cannot wait to see which ones they pick. hopefully none of them. I will mail you the article when it comes out. They asked us a lot about temple garments, how people react to us, what we do all day, why we especially as women decided to come out, and our families. AND then they came to church yesterday! obviously they didnt film during church but after all three hours they staged us sitting there. Lots of interviews, lots of questions. I played the piano and did an awful job on one of the songs-- of course they picked the hardest one! Good times. I try. That is all God wants of us, that we try our best!  She asked a lot about kako ljudi se regiraju na vas?

We walked past this huge trash round thing that said STAKLO. I threw my waterbottle in there and was like what does staklo even mean anyway? Glass, said sestra allred. Fail. Day in the life. We laughed really hard at that too. 

A family from England stopped us this week, asked for help to get to the tram. We took them and they said they knew about the Book of Mormon! The broadway musical.. ha. But she said she does respect what we're doing. 

It's blazing, which means drinking a lot of water, which means searching out public bathrooms everywhere. We have it down to an almost perfect science. never a dull moment. BYOTP. bring your own toilet paper....

Ok ok this email. 

Mom thank you for the taffy and biscuit mix and pig and Amy for the bag!!!! Good timing, we ate it all so fast and my face broke out. #reallife

Okay, now to the good stuff.  I was thinking a lot this week about worth this week. This week we averaged 11 miles per day. 11 miles. My shoes have holes in the bottom. Constantly sweaty. Lots of appointments bailed. Why? Why does God ask us to spend eighteen months or two years of our lives, especially as immature and childish as we can be, and go teach the most important message anyone could ever hear? Is it worth it? Some argue we could be spending our time in much better ways. Why do we do this?

It's because of worth. Each person we talk to, each person we meet, they have worth.  It is worth it to be here. If we share just one short message with someone that day that God loves them, it is worth it.  If what you are doing helps others, it is worth it. We aren't on missions to post cool stuff on a blog, we aren't on the earth to have 58998 likes on instagram and a cool car. We are on earth to learn and to grow and to help our brothas and our sisters learn of their worth. I wish everyone understood who we are and whose we are-- our worth.  It IS worth it to help people understand their worth. We are sons and daughters of a Father who loves us. Because we are His, we are worth it. 

I love you. I know you have great worth.

Sestra Richardson

Praise to the man!

Hola i postovani, 

This week I was on exchange with two sestre in Osijek.  I were in a companionship of three there. We stopped a guy the first 20 minutes of being there, he accepted a Book of Mormon and a return appointment. The next day at the church we had a lesson with all of us and a member.  He said he had already read the first Nefi. He spent the first 25 minutes talking about the war and then I reminded him we only had a 45 minutes appointment and we prayed, had a lesson about the restoration. He was a really cool guy and has been through a lot. That whole city has. he said he was a family man and he believes there is good in all people but they get confused and corrupted. The spirit was strong. That was one of the coolest lessons of my mission. When the member in on the lesson with us told the story of Joseph Smith he also read to him the account in Joseph Smith history -  18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

 19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

 20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?

The member teaching with us was super bold. The man we were teaching's eyes filled with tears. He just looked at me. I asked him if he felt something. He said, "I feel like I just had a spiritual Red Bull" and that he had never felt like this in his life. POWERFUL. I was in tears at this point too and so were the other two sisters. We finished the lesson, prayed, and they left. The three of us were left sitting in the chapel. One of the sisters started crying even more. She had not had a sit-lesson the whole transfer until that moment. She hugged me and we all felt real good. Sometimes the mission is rough! And sometimes life is rough! But we just have to take those really cool moments God gives us to uplift us and bless us and help us bless others and let us all feel the spirit. 

My testimony of Joseph Smith is that is RESTORED Jesus Christ's church. He brought it back! Someone said to me this week.. well.. my church is older than yours! I was like wait.. and we chatted about that.

More-- Paul Cardall is coming to our mission! I am doing lots of the PA and PR for it! He is a great pianist. Look up his stuff. 

We went thrift shopping last Pday. If you think that's good stuff in the states come to Croatia. I bought 4 dresses for 15 bucks all together.  

We were driving the car and the lights wouldn't turn and we were on a huge highway so I just held my brights down all the way home. 

It is so humid here. I can deal with the hot but the humid part kills me. We fasted as a zone yesterday, it was in July 19 (yesterday), 1837 Heber C. Kimball and six others arrived in Liverpool, England, on the first overseas mission. For us to see these 60 baptisms. Faith and the help of the Lord! 

Some lady stopped me on the street and interviewed me about if I had traveled in the last 6 months! I laughed but answered all her questions she asked me! Look for me on the news ha

I am still working on public affairs and public relations. We got an awesome awesome couple tracting, went back the next day and he wouldn't let us in with the buzzer on the building, we get to his door and knock twice and he finally opens and is like I heard (all kinds of false doctrine and polygamy and etc) about you guys and I don't want to be a part of it! and hands us back the Book of Mormon. That is always tough. We are trying to get it together over here as far as our presence on the internet. Any cool people we meet get on the internet and are immediately bombarded by the adversary! From a conference talk: "To heed is to give careful attention. Heeding those who do not believe in Christ will not help you find Him.Searching #spaciousbuilding for knowledge will not lead you to truth. It’s not posted there. Only the Savior has “the words of eternal life.”8 Everything else is just words. The large and spacious building symbolizes the “vain imaginations and the pride”9 of the world—in other words, distraction and deception. It’s filled with well-dressed people who seem to have everything. But they mock the Savior and those who follow Him. They are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Look at this video of us working out one morning https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6e4WzDHC-U7a21Kb3hlNmM0Y1k/view?usp=sharing they have little workout areas like this all over in Rijeka and Zagreb! They are the best! 

Alright, another scattered email from Sestra Richardson! 

I love and pray for you all.

*I can talk that with a laugh*

*I can say that with a smile* is what they meant to say, but someone said that to us in English this week. Funny how things really translate so awfully. 

Dear OBITELJ i tako, 

This week at MLC we talked a lot about our 60 baptisms goal for the mission by the end of this year. We had one in Zagreb this weekend, so we are at 15!  We pretty much had a mission-wide heart-to-heart about how we can and are going to do this!!!!!!!! We need a lot of help from the Lord and a lot of prayer and faith and planning, but it will happen. Already we have seen miracles. I ask for your prayers in this as we continue on!

A big miracle from this week. (also please excuse my awful punctuation this week different computer again) I dont remember if I said this in an earlier email or not, but Sis Allred and I have been praying for a family of five to share the gospel with. We pray for that in every prayer. Well, we were on exchanges and I was with Sister Y. We were contacting and no one alllllll day had not even stopped to talk to us for not even 10 seconds!  We walked past this kafić, which is like an outdoor cafe thing and this guy and I make eye contact. He was about in his 40s. He and I just stare at each other as we walk past, it was weird. He yells out, which church do you proselyte for? I said, "Jesus Christ's church." He is like is that a Catholic church? no. methodist? no. "who are you? mormons?" yes. He said sit down if you will, I feel impressed I need to talk to you. So he smoked a cig and is drinking and we are just sitting there and the sister I am with is just like ummm..but I was all for this.  so he said to us, "I am not a Catholic, but a Christian. I think people have changed religion and the ways of Jesus from how they really should be. I feel that I need to talk to you. I only have fifteen minutes."  We taught him the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He asked us questions, we had the answers. My mind was perfectly clear and I knew what I needed to tell this man. He said he'd never felt anything like he was feeling in that moment and that he and his WIFE AND THREE KIDS (FAMILY OF FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) need more spirit in their lives. It was like one of those feel-good church shows you watch that you just see a moment of it and you cry a little! I needed that this week. He was so sincere. He said he and his family would come to church and Sunday and he wanted to know how what I was saying "the light coming from you" and the "light you are speaking" could be a bigger part of his life. He even said that he knew he shouldn't smoke and asked us what our church believed about that.  As we got up and walked away I was in shock and prayed and thanked God for that. He really knows us. He wants us to grow and he's not going to give us a perfect answer to all of our questions, but he will give us what is best for us. Sad story that Tomislav and his family never came, but I have faith that we will talk with him again. 

On other notes though! We talked to this college students who invited us to their cafeteria and we taught them the restoration there while they ate and he told us how he knew the story of John smith and how he went inside a mountain and God told him where all the planets were. Hm. The wholllleee cafeteria just were staring at us like who are these nuns in here?? Also we had just eaten so I got like a salad and they were like oh sorry we didnt know mormons dont eat meat.... We got like 4 referrals this week cause our referral system started working so all them from the last couple months were stacked up. We went to one lady's house and she yelled out the window "you guys came over last summer for me!!" 

ALSO this awesome biker chick with the sickest leather jacket I talked to and she was like......espanol? I sat there for like 20 seconds trying to say dobar dan but couldnt find the phrase.. then remembered and spatted out BUENOS DIAS! and she gave me a warm muy bien or something back!! And then I took two steps away and realized I had a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith pamphlet in spanish that I found in our apartment and whipped it out and said bueno bueno!! and walked away. I need to learn more languages. I had been praying I could find someone to give that to too though. So cool. Next language: German. 

My feet get to swollen and gross by the end of the day but Sis Allred is a dancer and told me to soak them in hot water and salt so I do that cesto now, it is beautiful. I have a designated foot bowl ha.

Saturday Rijeka came and had a baptism for a woman I helped teach while I was there!!!!!! It has taken her a while but she made it. It was cool for me to see that. They have a ghetto pool font so they used Zagreb's. She was beaming after her baptism and said she felt that her grandpa was proud of her. She has had a really rough life. I am so happy for her.

This email just keeps taking twists and turns. Sometimes when you contact on the streetz yo yo yo you have this strong feeling you should or should not talk to someone. So we are walking and I see down a weird path this guy in all white cloth robe things and his lady and he has long hair, beard and beatles sunglasses.  We stop him and he's like sorry we are satanists.. i was like oh! ok uh? and he was like just kidding I am Jesus Christ.... we were like ummmmm but had this chat with him where he told us a lot of his life problems and secrets and other, interesting, interesting things. then invited us to his bar and told me I was not happy. I told him I am the happiest I have ever been in my life, but I am a little hungry hahaha. What even is a mission. #signsofthetimes

Alright, I will wrap it up. but I do want you to enjoy this picture with me:

I love you all. Laughs aside I do know that this is Jesus Christ's church. The real one, who died for our sins and suffered in the garden of Gethsemane. He saved us from eternal death and invites us to come to Him and Heavenly Father that we may have eternal life. 

Sve najbolje. 

Sister Richardson

Dobar kao kruh

Dragi ljudi, 

I just added a lot of people to this email. Since my is private again some people asked me to send my letters, so let me know if you want off the list!

RIP President Packer. It's interesting as a missionary to hear this news/ it's not like you just read about it in your feed, someone mentioned it at church and we were like WHAT? I read his last conference talk this morning. Emphasis on the family, eternal families are all around us. The prophet and his apostles get direction from Heavenly Father. They are the ultimate tour guides on this adventure we call life.

Monday&Tuesday we had zone conference. It was at the mission home (In Zagreb, where I am) so we just took a tram ride there. We played a lot of volleyball because it was pday and ate so much of Sister Grant's good cooking. Every time we have someone feed us (which happens maybe every 3 weeks) the phrase I ate myself sick is real and we always joke that we never know where our next meal will come from *joking* of course but neither of us really like to spend our time cooking so we end up eating bread and strawberries and such. At zone conference we talked about how bad we want to hit our mission goal of 60 baptisms! We are working hard diligently as a mission to hit that. 

We also talked about prayer and personal revelation. I know this is super long but I took two parts of talks dealing with to the common "I feel like God is not answering my prayers. I love these talks by Richard G. Scott> "He (God) will always hear your prayers and will invariably answer them. However, His answers will seldom come while you are on your knees praying, even when you may plead for an immediate response. Rather, He will prompt you in quiet moments when the Spirit can most effectively touch your mind and heart. Hence, you should find periods of quiet time to recognize when you are being instructed and strengthened. His pattern causes you to grow."  He also said, "If you feel that God has not answered your prayers, ponder these scriptures—then carefully look for evidence in your own life of His having already answered you. .....It is vitally important to recognize that the Lord also responds a third way to prayer by withholding an answer when the prayer is offered. Why would He do that?

He is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience:

When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence.

When He answers no, it is to prevent error.

When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. ..... We are to act.

Most often what we have chosen to do is right. He will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through packets of help found along the way. We discover them by being spiritually sensitive. They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His approval. If, in trust, we begin something which is not right, He will let us know before we have gone too far. We sense that help by recognizing troubled or uneasy feelings."

We walked past this group of three half dressed guys walking back from the lake and one whispered 'mormoni' and I was like hey! We aren't allowed to contact in the spot he stopped us at, but he stopped us, soooo. We taught them about the Book of Mormon because one said 'you believe Jesus was an American, right?' it was a good conversation. They said they'd come to church! 

Now a call-to-repentance-Elder-Richardson-El Salvador mission-style. We had a lot of visitors in our branch yesterday from the states, young adults. I am going to quote Elder Uctdorf right now and say to anyone reading this email *including myself when I'm home* if you are on your phones during church, stop it! Unless reading scripture. If you are chatting with your neighbor in the middle of a lesson, stop it! We are all in church not because we are perfect, but because we are trying to be better. But to quote another conference talk "oh how we need each other" brothers and sistas and we need to be able to feel the spirit! Make sure you are not hindering yourself or your neighbor from feeling the spirit, especially in sacrament meeting. 

We had a lesson with J , an investigator from Macedonia. He loves the Bible. He is very knowledgeable in it and loves to help and serve others. At the beginning of the lesson we discussed his prayers and his thoughts about the Godhead.  We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and he said, "well, everything in here I agree with!" We committed him to read and pray. He is a paid religious worker for another church though, so it would be hard for him to be baptized because it would mean losing his job. But he is looking for the truth. He wants his answer from God.

We set a table on the sidewalk in front of the church on a hot day with free watermelon we cut up and lots of pamphlets and books with a sign *ASK US ABOUT MORMONS!*  One guy walked past and his dog jumped up by us and he yelled 'Salt Lake City!' Another lady asked us if we worship the pope. Talked to a lot of people, taught a lot of things. 

The BYU Folk Dancers Ensemble came on the 4th! They danced for us and danced with our investigators and members, everyone was all smiles. I met a girl from Hermana Callister's ward in California! That was fun to have them. 

We talked to a woman on the street about the plan of salvation. She teared up as she told us that her father had passed away a year ago from cancer and that this life would be a waste if we could not see our loved ones again. We can!!! This week I studied how God and Christ will dwell in the Celestial kingdom, Christ will only visit the Terrestrial kingdom, and only the Holy Ghost in the Telestial. We also got contacted by a JW

Well, long email. I love you all. I pray for you. Glad you hear you were safe and had fun in DC fam. Gospod s vama, 

Sestra Rechaerdsein