Monday, November 7, 2011

More Great News from Portsmouth

Hey Family & Friends.....who read this!

Things have been great this past week! We're teaching a Jehovah's Witness and we just set him for baptism on DEC. 10th. We're excited! We now have a new Bishop in our ward. He's really stoked to help us missionaries so we're gearing up to receive new members into the ward and to re-activate current members. The great thing is that the assignments that we get from the Bishop are going to benefit the ward in more ways than we thought at first. It will help the Elder's Quorum and the Relief Society.

Lately, we've had some senior missionaries come over to our apartment while we are studying. They help us plan, communicate, teach & learn in so many new ways-it's not even funny! It's been EPIC! The senior couple were suppose to report home but they were able to start a new church pilot program that was approved by our Prophet and we, as full-time missionaries were able to participate in this new program. So their calling has been extended and we are helping in the program which will eventually help missionaries world wide. It is AWESOME!

So we have this new investigator. For the past few lessons I've felt a prompting to 'show him the baptismal font' - but kept putting it off and forgetting to do it. Last night, at the end of our lesson, I had the same impression to 'show him the font'. As it was at the end of the meeting I remembered the prompting. I did show him the font and once we did, we found a concern he had and were able to calm his worries and now he is more excited to continue with the lessons! Today, this investigator is going to be joining us in basketball on our P-day along with some other missionaries!

As far as my week went; my injuries are healing and my bike is doing fine! We were riding on a road that had no sidewalks and were anxious to get on one that was coming up ahead. When I saw the sidewalk I started to ride faster. At the same time a car came zooming past my companion and I and I think it brushed against our sleeves. The car gave us no leeway (sp?) and I rushed to the sidewalk. As I did, I swerved to avoid the powerbox in front of us and went to the left and then tried to swerve right back onto the sidewalk. Well, when I did that my bike hit some grass that was there by the road and wouldn't you know....my front tire sliped out from under me and it went one way and I went flying over my bike the other way! My wrist impacted the sidewalk first and I slid across the sidewalk on my forearm clear up to my elbow. As I was 'sliding' about 10 feet, I took up a good chunk of grass between the cracks and then I just LAID THERE! I was thinking "wow, did I just do that?" I FLEW...kinda cool"! At which point in time, I then looked down my arm and found a wonderful surprise of red fluid! OUCH! Sorry to gross y'all out but I'm fine and so is my dignity!!!

We had some members pick us up and take us home (and patch me up!) as we were in a rush to get to an appointment after that! Here's some more pics of my battle wounds!




Enjoy!

Elder Richards

Virginia Richmond Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints