I would like to share this poem that another mom whose son is serving in the Virginia Richmond Mission shared with all of us. It's beautiful! Enjoy!

I am a Virginia Richmond Missionary

I am a righteous warrior and a member of a team

I serve the children of My Heavenly Father and live the Gospel 

values

I will always place my mission first

I will never accept defeat

I will never quit

I will investigate all referrals

I am disciplined, physically, and mentally tough, trained and

proficient in my righteous warrior tasks

I will always maintain my gospel study and prayer skills

I am humble and I am faithful

I stand ready to defend the Gospel against the buffetings of satan

And plead the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

I am a guardian of freedom and the Gospel way of life

I am a righteous warrior

I am a Virginia Richmond Missionary!

Hello!

New Photos of Nick in downtown Norfolk, VA

Look at those cobblestone streets! Cool!

Always close to the Ocean!

Hey Everyone!                                                   10 April 2012

Today after my interview with our Mission President in Virginia Beach - I left that room feeling very grateful! President Perry reminded me of my time left on the mission (me just getting worried) and asked how I was doing.

Things are going well. They continue to get better. We're here at our senior missionaries' apartment e-mailing and today we are going to be doing alot of our shopping after being in downtown Norfolk all day yesterday. The EXTERMINATORS came to fumigate our place and rid us of all possible BED BUGS, so now I'm happy!! (We hope this takes care of this aggravating problem!)

Me personally - I'm doing good! I'm learning how to have more structure with my learning and my teaching with the members in dinner appointments. I'm also really taking a great interest in the scriptures when it comes to relating (my own) personal experiences to investigators. It's great learning new things and seeing myself progress in different areas.

I'm also working at this time with one of the counselor's in the Mission Presidency regarding the Addiction Recovery Program - since I've had some experiences in that field. As we work with this program with other Elders we have noticed some changes and we are reporting that information, from my observations here in the field, to Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City. It's really great to hear that my studies and feelings about the program are being taken into consideration at Church Headquarters and we're hoping to see some good results from our study in the near future. I hope that from what I'm doing here in Virginia will help those on a national and world-wide scale some day.

We have some new people that we're working with. Sam and Jacob and Lois. They are all really GREAT people and are very open to hearing our message. They're reading and committing to our message.

I will be sending some clothing and some papers home in the next couple of weeks (hopefully days) which will really help with clutter and with the bedbug problem. (I do hope he doesn't send ME any bedbugs home in his box!!) I also plan on reducing my notes and re-copy them into smaller journals.

Some great scriptures I've had recently are:

2 Tim. 2:1-4
John 20:31 AWESOME ONE!

I hope these are really good for you; they really were for me. I hope you all get this and also enjoy your week.

Thank you for all you do. I LOVE you all! :-)

Your Son,

Elder Richards

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