Hey Everyone! 14 March 2011
Thanks for all the letters, cards/mail y'all have sent over the past weeks and months! It's DEFINITELY nice to get mail when your down in the mission, so thanks for all the good stuff!
Life since I've been transferred has been good. A little quiet, but good. Here in Wakefield we're surrounded by lots of farmland and animals. The loudest things which come through town are the semi's and the trains - of which we live just 3-4 buildings away from the tracks. It's nice though; the sound puts me to sleep at night. The people here are really nice. Some like to sit out on the porch and talk; others will talk to us in the fast food restaurants and others while we're walking and they all have questions about the bible. We tell them we have the answers and an "expansion pack" to the bible. Here we really have to simplify the gospel and really define each principal in every lesson. So it's all good! :D
My companion is really cool! He's from Oregon and loves the Oregon ducks! He is very humble and teachable. I take criticism when he gives it and work out how to fix things and try to refine my characteristics of missionary work; and I do the same for him. We work great together, talk about doctrine, life, sports, things like that while we're walking all around the town of Waverly.
The good places here in town are the Virginia Diner and La Hacienda; the train and the weather (because Virginia gets it's weather readings from Wakefield/Waverly, so it's really quiet here--ha! ha!)
Our branch is really small and nice and our branch president is really awesome; very sarcastic and gives us GOOD work to do. The members span from all walks of life, so we really get to use our teaching skills - to test and improve their faith.
Just recently I was on exchanges in Petersburg with an Elder White and he asked me how I was doing in my area and I asked him the same. He mentioned how large a majority of the balance of white and African American in Virginia is. In my area it's 64% african american to 36% white and much more in Petersburg. When I was up there we were in the ghetto and always having people looking at us and calling us the "Jesus People"; so it's always fun and exciting where I'm headed in Virginia.
The phrases people say are great: "Jesus people "y'all have a blessed day".
Some words are very different too, such as: sink=zink, struggling=skrugglin, ask=ax, Mormon's=normon's. So I'm skrugglin to keep up the understanding of the language here. Ha! ha! but it's all good!
We haven't run into any violence yet or anything. The closest to that are all the deer (40+) in all the fields here at night when we're driving back home. It's a sight to see a herd like that.
Well, hope to hear from y'all soon!
Elder Richards
