Bula! - 14 Apr 2017

​Hello everyone,

Yet another great week here at the MTC.  What else could you expect?  It is really flying by.  Just over 2 more weeks left and I am off to the Islands of Fiji.  Going to really miss the other Fijian missionaries that I have became really close to.  We will get to drive 3 hours from the airport in Nadi, to our Mission Headquarters in Suva.  Really looking forward to the sights on that drive.  But the next day each missionary is assigned a new companion and at that point we don't know when the next time we get to see each other will be.  Elder Gaba keeps telling us how upset he is that we will all have to be splitting up once in Fiji.  Going to be hard for me, knowing I can't look out for him anymore.  The other Elders and I agreed we're going to give his new companion a little pep talk on taking care of our man Gaba.  I'm going to miss the days where Elder Gaba is all dressed up ready for the day and waiting at the door.  Right before leaving we remind him to put his shoes and socks on. (hes too used to never wearing shoes)  He got his first letter in his life the other day and it was an Easter card.  He says he can't wait to show his family when he's back in Popua New Guinea.  

Elder Kioa and I were called to be Zone Leaders this past week.  We get a cellphone that we can only call one number on.  However we receive more calls than we make.  There are a lot of little responsibilities that come with being zone leader. Some of which include weekly interviews and follow up reports to the Presidency.  Its all a good experience though.  A lot of Sisters and Elder (mostly sisters) come to us with their problems and its nice being able to give advice, mediate, and try to resolve them.  Some missionaries really enjoying bringing the drama into the MTC.  We try the best we can to put an end to it, but seems almost inevitable with the Unique zone we have.  Also fun to be able to welcome the new addition of 8 missionaries to our zone.  3 ASL ,  2 Haitian Creole, and 2 Marshallese.

I have been fasting often, which I think may make my mom laugh due to my lack of fasting before the mission.  I have noticed a difference when doing so.  Seems I am able to remember more Fijian and am getting better with my sentence construction.  We are now teaching lessons with no script so we have to remember what we are going to say and be prepared to divert from our lesson to accommodate the questions of our investigator.  Elder Valeri Cordon from the 70's quorum who spoke in the past conference was our surprise devotional speaker.  He was all over the place, in the audience, pacing the stage.  Really kept you alert.  The message I walked away with was that as Missionaries we must all see people as the Lord does.  See not what they are, but what they can become.  Look for the full potential in them.  Learning so much here and I can't wait to apply it in the field.  Often times missionaries plateau at this point of the MTC, but we must try to continually progress in anyway we can.  Where the Lord doesn't see perfection, he expects progression.  

Hope everyone is doing well!

Have a great week

Love,

Elder Richardson 

Sunday temple walk

​Zone Leaders and Elder Gaba in the middle.

​The whole zone.  Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, and FIJI.

​Americanized Elder Gaba