Elder Max Richards 2023-2025

Monday, Sept. 30, 2024 Que tal yall! It's been a great week here in Sacaba! Let's dive right in.  Tuesday Had district council and elder collins and I gave our training for our part. It went pretty well but the coolest part is that we got to give out an awesome gift to the zone.  At the consillio last Sunday, President and Hermana Lopera presented the thing we are going to be doing as a mission leading to to Christmas. We all got a fresh marked copy of the Libro de Mormon with markers of red green and yellow. These next three months we are going to be reading the Book of Mormon and marking in red everything relating to something personal, in yellow everything relating to our missionary purpose, and green everything relating to our mission culture of fe, bautismos y milagros. We are going to finish on December 24 as a gift and offering to the Savior. It's going to be so great! On Tuesday morning, we ran around to like 10 different tiendas trying to find enough markers and ba...

Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 Que tal yall!  It was a great, jam-packed week here in Cochabamba. Let's dive in. Last p day Elder Bott and Elder Reed brought this cool dradle thing to p day. It's called a trumpet which is not like the instrument but a little spinny thing that you tie a string around and let it rip like a Beyblade. Then you lasso It up and try to balance It on your hand. It probably sounds kind dumb the way i explained It but It's so fire. His ward member gifted them to him and Elder Skinner and i also copped some.  On Wednesday we get transfer news and I got told I'm gonna be getting transferfed. I really grew close to the familia Montero, our pension. They took care of me so incredibly and It has been such a blessing to get to know them.  I packed up my bags which took forever and on Thursday the familia Montero made us some of their amazing pizza for my last lunch. We took some fire flics and some fire polaroids and they gave me a medal that said trumpet cham...

Monday, Sept. 16, 2024 Que tal yall! First off, we had some changes in the mission with technology and we are no longer allowed to use messenger for anyone but immediate family! So yall can keep sending me messages on messenger but i wont be able to respond to them on messenger, only through email. Also I'm not sure if we are able to react to the messages. Gotta figure that out. But keep sending them I will still be able to see them and I'm grateful for every one!   As the title says, I hit a year in my mission this week! Absolutely crazy how fast the time is flying! I only have a year left, and I am going to make every day count!  I am so grateful for this year in the service of the Lord. The opportunities I've had to serve my Savior and my brothers and sisters in El Paso and Cochabamba have completely changed my life. I'm so grateful for the best friends and dawgs I've made during this time (you know who you are). Yall are such a blessing to me and I love you so m...

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 Que tal yall!  Sorry I procrastinated writing this email! I don't have a ton of time but basically the big high of the week was that we got to go the temple with our friends Cristain and his fam to show them the temple grounds and have a lesson! It was awesome and they loved it! They are gonna be getting married in 2 weeks and then get baptized the day after! And they are planning on getting sealed 1 year from now! So happy for them!  Also happy birthday to President Nelson! I am so grateful that we have a living prophet that guides us and helps us come closer to Christ!  Here's one of my favorite quotes from him: "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." This is so true! No matter what trials or difficulties we have in our lives, if we turn to and focus on Christ we can have joy! Christ has felt everything negative thing we would every feel and every trial we would ex...

Monday, Sept. 2, 2024 Que tal yall!  How are yall doing? It was a great week here in Esmeralda. Lets get into it.  Elder Skinner and I worked really hard this week and saw a lot of miracles. We really saw the hand of the Lord in touching the hearts of our friends. The family we are teaching, Cristian, Mariela and their two hijos, are doing so well. We have been working so hard to get them married. It's been hard because Cristian's mom doesn't want them to get married. And it's been tough for Cristian to talk to her about it. We have been praying for them and for his moms heart to be softened. When we first started teaching them, they said that they wanted to get married in October. We testified to them about the blessings of eternal marriage and we really encouraged them to get married a lot sooner so they could have the blessings of the gospel in their lives.  The last lesson that we had, they said that they had decided to get married and wanted to get married in Septe...