Elder Brandon Richmond's Mission Blog: Brandon's Twenty Ninth Email! February 23rd, 2016

Woahh, week 30, weird.

So this week was super, super crazy. Gives me anxiety haha.

First of all, transfers are this week, but Elder Gehring and I are both staying. I'm stoked, I love this area and we're both excited to work hard this change and see how the Lord blesses the area. But the whole week the uncertainty bout transfers was kind of looming over us. Elder Gehring really thought he was going because this is the first time he'll be with a comp more than one transfer!

So, after we emailed Monday, we swung by the bus terminal to see departures for the temple conference and saw we had to go to Durazno that night because we were leaving from there at 6:20 am. So we went home, got ready, and hopped on a bus. Slept there that night, jankiest air mattress for a 4 foot person. So practically slept on the ground haha. We had the temple conference on Tuesday, we had the conference first, I gave the spiritual thought, and we had interviews with President. He is so cool. So spiritually strong you can just feel it. I love talking with him, a really good example to all of us. Then we had lunch and a few more things, then we went to the temple all together and that was great obviously! I felt really sick, but it was still great! I am going to miss the Montevideo temple when I leave. Then we got to Durazno at 9:30 pm so it was too late to go to PdlT (Paso de los toros), so we slept there again, woke up at 5 to catch an early bus. Not super fun, but we arrived in PdlT and had to walk home in the CRAZY downpour. Needless to say, from our suits to our socks we were soaked.

So Wednesday now, we had a funeral in the church, so we set up everything after we got home, then attended the funeral and went to the cemetery and everything. After lunch, we went to Francisco's to confirm the wedding on Thursday and he told us Alba walked out on him. That on Sunday she took all her stuff to go live with her daughter, because her kids didn't want the she got married. He was pretty sad, they've been together 23 years, but was still totally committed to get baptized. and said even if she comes back they won't live together without being married and will keep all of the commandments, and he is very sincere and honest, but I don't think she is coming back.

So Thursday afternoon he had his baptism interview and everything went well. He was very excited.

Friday, we spent literally ALLL day traveling to/in Trinidad so Elder Gehring could do a baptism interview for the sisters in our district. It's like 1:45 minutes each way, with a bus change, and then we spent lots of time in Trinidad waiting, so we went and made visits with the sisters to some people on the way, I had the opportunity to give a blessing to someone they are working with, and that's hard for me because you use Tu, which we like never use except for prayers...

Saturday, we spent ALLL day doing stuff for the baptism. Making programs, draining and filling the font (it was full when we opened it and smelled horrible), and cleaning and other stuff. We went by Francisco's house and he was super excited and already ready like 3 hrs before. So then we were there and everyone was showing up but he wasn't there yet, and we were getting SOOO nervous like what the! He never flakes! So he got there at 6:55, because he had been arriving so early to all the meetings he decided to leave a little later, but gave us a heart attack haha.

His baptism went great! He was so excited and the bishop and stake president were there and it was nice. Miguel, a somewhat recent convert baptized him, and he was really happy to do that also.

So Sunday I gave a 10 min talk on Missionary work, I think it went well, idk. It was fun because my spanish didn't hinder me really much as I was speaking. Then we had a normal day after that.

Yesterday, we had weekly planning because we couldn't do it on Thursday, then in the afternoon made visits and even visited a few families because Elder Gehring really thought he was leaving haha. It was a calm day.

Now we have the Conference with Elder Bednar on Friday, we have to go to Trinidad again on Thursday :/ but... it means someone is going to get baptized so really it's :))))

We don't have any progressing investigators right now, so we are going to focus on that a ton. We are going to have a more normal week starting next Monday. This week will be cool, it goes so quickly when you have breaks in the week with conferences and whatnot.

Top Ten

10. We bought and ate chicken nuggets for dinner 3 nights ago! Sooo tasty! Only dinner I had this week :/ haha. Weren't chicken dinos, but they were good!

9. The week flew by. When we have a lot of work to do, it's wonderful!

8. I had the best biscochoes ever. Tons of mormons work at this bakery and we got fresh and hot ones on Friday before we got on the bus! And they gave them to us so cheap! Like a hot croissant with ham and melted cheese ahhhh.

7. We got raid cockroach poison traps and they have been working! Literally been sweeping piles of 50 dead cockroaches out the back door like every couple hours. A lot less now like constantly crawling around!

6. Sheridan Hoffman's birthday on the 24th of Febraury! Erebody should email her and wish her a happy B-day! She is in the MTC in Brazil and turns 20!!! Sheridan.Hoffman@myldsmail.net

5. Preparing the talk gave me tons of opportunities to learn about what missionary work really is. Sharing happiness with our brothers and sisters!

4. I'm staying in Paso de los Toros for AT LEAST another transfer!

3. I'm excited for the conference on Friday!

2. The temple trip was great, I love to go to the temple.

1. The baptism of Francisco! Even though he had such a tough week, he choose to follow the Lord and he is so happy. Everything went great, and I am so happy for him!

Love you all!

Elder Richmond!