Elder Max Richards 2023-2025

Monday, July 29, 2024 Que tal yall! This week was so crazy and there was tons of stuff that happened! We had some amazing miracles! Let's get into it  Also shout out to my mom and my sister who had their birthdays this week! Love you guys!  Monday We played some soccer with the zone and ate at a fire chicken place. Yummy Wednesday  Had zone conference! It was very powerful. Got to see Elder Mitton and we had 8 hours of powerful trainings. Learned so much of how we could be better missionaries. Especially teachers of the gospel. The spirit was very strong! We also had some amazing burgers and fríes.  After zc I went on an exchange with Elder Wood in La Vina! He's from Spanish Fork and we had some amazing miracles and it's always nice to talk in English for long periods of time!  Thursday Got to go to the temple! We went as a zone and the spirit is always so strong! In the temple! It's so cool too that I can pretty much understand everything in Spanish now! The gi...

Monday, July 22, 2024 Que tal yall!  A lot happened this week. Lets get into it.  Last p day was fire. We went to the Christ statue here in Cochabamba! I've always been able to see it from my area but seeing it up close is an unreal experience. I'm so grateful for our Savior and redeemer Jesus Christ!  The view of the City is breathtaking. Pictures just don't do it justice. It's incredible. I didn't realize how big the city of Cochabamba is. It's absolutely mondo! So cool.  After packing up my stuff a member came I clutch and gave us a ride to the mission office. Chilled there for a bit and then took a taxi to my new area in Esmeralda! Esmeralda is really awesome. Lots of people here have really been prepared to hear our message. One example is a college student from Peru named Auntunet. She saw an ad on Facebook for the Book of Mormon and clicked on it, which Led her to the missionaries coming over! She has been reading every day and has come to church the last...

Monday, July 15, 2024 Que tal yall!  Wow this week was crazy! We had so many miracles and it was a very busy week!  Some of the big highlights: Had an intercambio with my zone leader Elder Heaton! Love that guy. We had some amazing miracles including finding a family who are very interested! We also caught our friend Carol walking out of her house and had a pop up lesson with her. She ended up coming to church on Sunday! So awesome.  On Friday we had planned to have a noche de hogar (family home evening) with a family who are all members except the parents. They have come to church 50 times but they don't want to get married. So we had planned such a powerful lesson on marriage and eternal families and on the temple. And the best part is that Presidente y Hermana Lopera were going to be joining us for the lesson!  We were so pumped. We confirmed the lesson 3 times and it was gonna be so powerful.  We pull up and the Loperas pull up too.  And we call the fam...

Monday, July 8, 2024 Que tall yall!  This week flew by! Here's what happened this week -had two more rounds of traimates. Got to see my friends Elder Mitton, Tillman, and Collins as well as some of the other dawgs.  -Had a really good salteña that Elder Manzano said was safe to eat... it was really buss but recked my stomach later -Felt the spirit so much more this week and very strongly. I took my dad's advice to heart and really just tried to focus outward this week on others and on the Savior.  -Felt the spirit especially strongly in a lesson we had with the 3 kids we are going to be baptizing on August 3rd. And they did too! It was so powerful. I really just felt Heavenly Father's love for them and it was incredible. -I got my results back from the doctor and as the title says I have amebas and salmonella. Haha wasn't expecting both! I have to kill the salmonella first so I have about a week left of pills for that and then I can take pills for the amebas. So I'v...

Monday, July 1, 2024 Que tal yall! It's been an eventful week here in Frutillar!  Elder Manzano's stomach started hurting really bad. So after a few days we went to the doctors to get tested. The results came back and he has salmonella. Very tough. But he's been taking medicine and doing a lot better.  Last Thursday morning. Elder Manzano and I got a call from the APs and they asked us if we had 3 beds. We were like uhhh ya why.... and they said they'd call us back in an hour. We got a call back and they said head to the temple to pick up a new missionary! Elder Manzano was expecting it to be an Elder who had a reassignment and we would be presenting him. So we pull up and there was a big group of kids from America who were they for the HXP trip (I think it's what's it's called) they were there building a school and about to head home but got to go to the temple so I got to talk with them. It was weird talking in english to Americans again  who aren't mi...

Monday, June 24, 2024 Que tal yall!  This week has been crazy! We had the big mission conference on Friday with the whole mission. Some great wisdom from President and Hermana Quezada. Had a good lunch with Brazilian food.  We had the split and president had us sing "I'll go where you want me to go" in Spanish all together and when we felt from the spirit that which mission we were going to is where we are needed to be we stood up. One by one everyone stood up throughout the song and it was very powerful.  We had the split and I am going to be staying up north in the Bolivia Cochabamba North Mission! The new mission president gets here this week.  We also had the departing goodbyes for President and Hermana Quezada. Very emotional. I'm going to miss them!  Had to say goodbye to the dawgs going to the south mission which was tough. Gonna miss those guys! Especially Elder Young and Christofferson. They are dawgs.  Elders Mitton, Tillman, Heaton and Collins ar...

Monday, June 17, 2024 Que tal yall!  How was yalls week?  A little bit of a harder week here in Bolivia but we got Jesus Christ with us so it's all good!  Happy fathers day to all of you awesome dads. Thank you to all of the men in my life (especially my dad) who are my role models and amazing examples of the Savior. I love you guys! Elder Staheli and I worked hard and really tried to find people to share the gospel with but Faced a lot of rejection this week. We got discouraged and at times our faith was dwindling In our area.  But then I went on an amazing exchange with Elder Heaton. We were at the MTC at the same time and got to go on an exchange! It was so awesome. I learned so much from him. He is an amazing missionary. He really helped me to have more faith In my area and trust that this is where the lord needs me now and I have a work to do here. He's such a spiritual giant.  Hopefully we can be comps at some point!  I also got to go on an exchange w...