Week 7: Landing in Albuquerque
Monday, Oct. 30, 2023
Que tal!
Well, I am officially in the Mission field! After a long travel day with good food at each airport, I landed in Albuquerque around 5:30 pm. The Mission president and his wife and the AP's and the STLT's were there to greet us. They had us get everything we would need for the night and we put everything else in a trailer. Then we drove to a church where we had food, played some games, met with the mission president, and filled out a bunch of stuff. And we met our trainers over a zoom with the whole Mission. Then the AP's took us elders to these things that they call "flop houses" its basically an airbnb that they own just for missionaries in an apartment complex when they get here or when they come up north for transfers. So me, Elder Mitton, and Elder Tillman stayed in one and the rest of the reassigned Elders stayed in extra room with the AP's(the missionaries who were originally called here stayed at the Mission home). So that was fun. We were so tired so we went right to sleep haha.
In the morning we had breakfast and said goodbye to some of the elders because I would be getting on a van to drive to El Paso! Yep I am serving in Texas! Which Is so awesome! When we got to El paso I met My trainers in person. Elder Mecham and Carbine are so awesome. They are both very experienced and very kind. They are doing an amazing job of training me. Got to the apartment and oh it is so nice. Very blessed. Got our own kitchen, washer and dryer, comfy bed that fits Me, and a desk. Super blessed.
The area we are in, Soccoro west technically isn't an English area but there is lots of Spanish spoken here because the border is close by. So I've been able to use my Spanish a lot which is awesome.
The people here are so awesome. They are so kind and humble. And the members feed us well! We get to have a meal every night with them and it's so nice to get a home cooked meal.
I love it here so much. Like seriously. I know God is watching out for me by putting me here. I absolutely love it. It's so awesome to serve in Texas.
Today we played basketball like all day with the Zone which was a ton of fun. Yall already know I balled out.
Tender mercy is that we haven't been getting a lot of member referrals so I prayed last night asking for one and we got an email today saying we got one! I know the lord is in the details of everything and is looking out for us.
Sorry that this email was all over, I didn't have a ton of time to write but I'll get better at that.
Love you all!
Élder Richards
