Elder Brandon Richmond's Mission Blog: Brandon's Seventy Fourth Email! January 7th, 2017

So this p-day was probably my least restful of the mission haha. Elder Wankier, the senior missionary in charge of housing wants every zone to paint one house each transfer, so he talked the ZL and us into it first haha. This morning from like 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM we were painting our house. It looks better, but still has like kind of holes in the wall and cracks and stuff haha... but I'm glad we did it!

This week was cool. So first of all, New years was crazy! I felt really really sick. Fell asleep and they woke me up at like 10 till so we got on the roof and the fireworks were crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! Like 360 degrees for like 20 minutes. Right next door shooting like huge ones haha it woke me up!!!

The next morning I had a talk, and I literally used the exact scripture as Sheridan quoted in her email this week, 1 Nephi 17:50-51

50 And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.
51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?

I think that is so legit. I talked about how he had earned his faith by acting in faith earlier in the chapter when he was commanded to ascend a mountain and received the commandment to build a ship. He never doubted!! It's such an example! I was shocked when I logged on and saw her email haha. Very far away but still very alike huh?

So last week in district meeting, this guy walked in the church and my comp and I went out to talk to him. He was less active and wanted to return and his wife wants to get baptized. They're legit getting married and she'll get baptized. They live on the other side of the division of the ZL's, but it was a nice experience to talk to this man so repentant of what he'd done and his true desire to fix it!

So a short terp missionary had knee problems, and Elder Connor was going home two weeks early for school, so we didn't want to leave an area dead for 2 weeks, and had already talked to more short term missionaries (young men in Uruguay that live as missionaries for a little bit of time, I'll call them corto plazos from now on). So we had to go pick up the one that was serving, drive him 2 hours home to Maldonado, then we picked up actually his best friend to take the place of the elder going home. We got back to Malvin (there was the CRAZIEST storm!!!!! Trees falling and falling! Going 2 miles per hour on the freeway because no one could see!!!!) Then once in Montevideo, we picked up another corto plazo. Then we took the two to my house, picked up the missionary who was in a trio with the ZL's, took him and dropped off one corto plazo in Maroñas. Then, we took the other one to Las Piedras, and picked up Elder Connor. We traded them and took Elder Connor to the airport with the secretaries and he should be home now!! Haha it was such a crazy day! Like 7 hours of driving or more I think!! But it all worked and that's a miracle! Shoutout to these young men who are on summer break and were so down when we called and asked them to serve with a one days notice!! I admire how willing and ready they were to serve the Lord and help their fellow Uruguayans find Christ in their lives and be happier!!!!!

We had the conference for the missionaries who arrived 4 weeks ago and their trainers! It was great. My comp and I gave a presentation on understanding the spirit in missionary work. Everything went great during the conference and the new missionaries are AMAZING! It's crazy! So impressed!

So I finally remembered to do a top ten!

10. We painted our house... yeeee, more happy it's over haha

9. I have been blessed with great food this week between the conference and a perfect normal spaghetti dinner with the Eddy's with green beans and garlic bread. Literally felt like a normal dinner!

8. The weather has been great! (I wrote this before I remembered that terrible storm on Tuesday. There are trees everywhere!)

7. I go to Ciudad Vieja en Montevideo on Tuesday to do my papers to get my Uruguayan cedula!

6. I love having great examples from my friends in missions! Sheridan, Holden, Connor, Ladd, and many others!!! Legit

5. All the corto plazos worked out! It was crazy but now it's all good!

4. Elder Connor finished his mission and everything went smoothly in his salida!

3. The conference with new missionaries was great!!!

2. New years was unforgettable (even though I forgot that it was this week yikes)

1. I did a demonstration with my comp for sharing the Book of Mormon and I love telling people about it. I feel so strongly that it will always help us grow closer to Christ because we will learn more about him! Read it and you'll love it!

Thanks for support always!! I love you all!!

Totally forgetting something, but i just sat here for 5 minutes trying to remember, and it's not coming haha.

Elder Richmond