Hey y'all! Well, things didn't go exactly as planned... but anyway, I'm home! I was having some medical problems, so I had to come home early. I don't really know what's going to happen now in my life, but everything will work out :) I have faith that God has a plan for me and that even though I don't exactly know what that is, it will all work out. I have a deep love and a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm glad for the opportunity I had to be in Virginia for the past 4 months. I love y'all!!

Love,

Sister Moni

P.S. This is really Simona, not my mother :)

WHOOT!!!! Now I'm 20!!!!

 

Well, all I want to say today is this:

 

"Faith is like a little seed. If planted it will grow."

 

Also read St. John 16:23-24. The part where it says your joy will be full, it can happen. One way is to pray for missionary experiences and acting on the promptings when you receive them. Even if it's just planting a seed in someone's heart. That's great. You're still doing something even if you don't see the fruits of your labors. I love y'all and wish you the best!!

 

Have a great week!!

 

Love,

 

Sister Simona Richardson

 

John 16:23-24

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

I was going to send pictures, but I guess not today!

 

Well, this week was interesting. We got fed pretty much every single day this week. That was really nice :)

 

We had a really great experience this week while opening our new area! We met with an investigator named Kat who the Elders were teaching but not getting anywhere with and we set her with a baptism date!! She's set for September 28 and she's so excited. She's made a lot of mistakes (like everyone) and when we explained how baptism can wash those away with the Atonement and repentance, she started to cry. She told us that's exactly what she wants and needs in her life. She has so much potential and she is just great. She's excited to come to Relief Society because she told us she needs good friends. It's great to be able to help someone come closer to Jesus Christ. It's the best to be able to fulfill my purpose even just partially :)

 

I love y'all!! Have a good day and week and try to be more Christlike this week. See how much you can do rather than focus on what you can't do!!

 

Love y'all!!

 

Sister Simona Richardson

I love it here!!

 

My comp's name is Sister Allan and she's from St. George. She's 23 as of 2 days ago (woohoo September birthdays) and she's great. We are opening the Quantico area for sisters; they've never had any here before. At least, not for a VERY long time.

 

We have a pretty nice apartment, however, we only have beds. We're supposed to be getting our furniture today, but so far we have nothing!! Our bishop (yes we have a very nice and big ward) let us borrow pots and pans until we get some. Luckily, when we were at Goodwill once last transfer, I found some random hippo plates that were like 4 for a dollar and so I got them. They're for kids, but they saved our lives this time. So we're living with toddler plates, plastic silverware, and plastic cups. Pretty fun, no?

 

Well, half of our ward is military. Just about everyone who lives here either works for the government, the military, or a company funded by one of those.  A lot of people call this Washington. DC is not very far, but who knows, maybe I'll get to see it some day. This area used to be part of the Washington DC South mission, and this is the very farthest north that the Richmond mission goes. We're really close to the big river and if we cross it, not only do we leave our stake, we leave our mission. They won't let us go to the temple because it crosses two mission boundaries, but they may let us go see the city with some members sometime. I don't know though.

 

Well, we got a brand new car with only 630 miles on it (now; it had 400 when we got it) and it is great. We fit in well around here. We see them all the time!!

Psych!  Our new car is a Ford Fusion.

 

I love this area. Here's a secret, it is a very well-to-do area, and their goal in this ward is to feed us every single night. They don't want us to have to pay for dinner EVER!! Pretty cool huh?? It's pretty dang cool to be here. QUITE different than Farmville, but that's ok. It's good to get different experiences. :)

 

So on Sunday (Sister Allan's birthday) we went and spent the night with the Lakeridge sisters, Sisters Stowell and Nelson. Sis. Allan trained Sis. Stowell, so she wanted to spend her birthday with her. So the ZLs gave her permission. Kinda crazy.

 

Happy Birthday Sister Allan!

 

So our Relief Society Pres. is an ASL interpreter. :) I'm soooo excited!!! We'll have to "talk" sometime. Oh and the Lakeridge sisters said that they are teaching some deaf people, but they don't know ASL. Coincidentally, I am the first person on the list to teach deaf people, so we may be getting extra miles so that I can go teach them. HOW COOL IS THAT?????? :):):):):) Super excited :)

 

Well, I love ya!!

 

Love,

Moni 

Check out the long wavy hair from the humidity.

These birds look just like Moni's birds--Peri and Sweetie (who wasn't very sweet).

Sister George.  (Moni said to notice the clean stove in the background.  She cleaned it!)

Sister Olsen with a chocolate beater.

 

New haircut!!

 

This was an interesting week!!! So I'm going to start with the raccoon. We were driving the other day and this raccoon jumped out in the middle of the road and we almost hit it! Luckily, we missed it by a hair. When we were about a holler away from it, we just started laughing. The shock had worn off. Then I told Sister George, "Good thing the raccoon didn't jump onto the windshield." Then I hissed and put my arms up like I was the raccoon. It scared Sis. G so bad haha :) She was driving so lucky we were on a back road with no other traffic :) We'll be a little more careful next time. It was funny though.

So I went to downtown Richmond this week. I had a doctor's appointment so the Chappells (the senior missionary couple) took me so we wouldn't have to use our miles. That was lucky. So after my appointment, it started pouring. LITERALLY! So Elder Chappell ran out to the car to grab his umbrella and he was soaked by the time he got there. It was funny. So anyway, they had an appointment at the prison, but apparently it was locked down all day. So they couldn't go to that. And since we were already in Richmond, they needed to run a few errands. So I got to go with them. It was pretty fun.

 

I saw the state capitol, which Thomas Jefferson designed and which was built before the Civil War. That was cool. I also got to see narrow houses that had just a teeny alley in between them. I thought those were just in movies but I guess they're real. :) I saw lots of other cool things too :) Also, we drove through a really ghetto part of town and it was a little sketchy. It was complete with graffiti on the walls, murals on the walls, bars on the windows, and a random girl leaning against the wall. Richmond is interesting.

 

Oh! And it was the Chappell's 45th Anniversary and since they were already out, they wanted to go to lunch. So Elder Chappell asked me to be their surrogate child. So I agreed and he took Sister Chappell and me to lunch. We ate at this cute little place called the Strawberry Street Cafe. I had a rockfish sandwich :) YUMMY!! It was awesome.

 

Then we went back to little old Farmville and I rejoined my companions and we contacted a referral and got 4 new investigators and 3 of them have a baptismal date for September 21!! Awesome, no?

One last story: I don't know if you know, but I am sooooooo afraid of spiders. We hates them. But anyway, we were tracting last Saturday and I saw this HUGE spider run across the road. It stopped about half way because it knew we were there. It was a wolf spider and it was about the size of a ping-pong ball with an egg sac on it's bum. Well, I froze. I told Sister George to squish it and she said she can't squish big bugs. So I told Sister Olsen to step on it. She said, "Step on it? It's gonna step on me." So here we stood at an impasse. Anyone looking upon the scene may have laughed out loud. There were three Sister missionaries standing in the middle of the street frozen in fear. Then a movie quote came to me from "We Bought a Zoo."  "Twenty seconds of courage." Then the next thought was something that my brothers and I would always say. "I'M GONNA EAT YOUR SOUL!" (Said in a low, creepy voice.) Then, as my companions would tell it, I took a deep breath, stomped over to the spider with my hands clenched in fists, and TRIED to step on the spider. I got the egg sac, but that just made the nasty creature mad. So I lifted my other foot and squished it into the ground, moving my foot from side to side for good measure. Then I started hyperventilating. I had just conquered my greatest fear. I probably will still scream and run out of the room if there's a teeny one on the wall, but for a moment, I was not an arachnophobe. I was a spider bounty hunter.

It was a pretty eventful week. Not many conversion stories, but we planted a lot of "seeds" this week. It was good though because we were committed :)

Ok just kidding. One more story: So last week, Sister George was making brownies to give to some of the Elders in our zone, and she stopped after the batter was done and she left the room. So Sister Olsen and I grabbed spoons and put batter all over our mouth. Then we sat outside of the door and waited for Sister George. When she came out she laughed so hard!!! We were like children haha :) We have lots of fun :)

I love y'all!! Have a blessed week and share the gospel with someone you know!!

Love,

Sister Simona/Moni Richardson

It rains in Virginia!

 

So last Saturday we set someone for baptism!! This guy names Charles grew up Methodist I think and we told him about the Book of Mormon and he was so excited!! He is 86 and he grew up in Virginia and he was in the army. He's really funny and lonely. He talks a lot and he talks LOUD. However, we were able to teach him the full Restoration of the church last week. It was hard and it took forever because he kept interrupting, but it worked. :) So anyway, about half way through the lesson, the Spirit told me that we needed to ask him to be baptized. It was Sister Olsen's turn (and she always forgets) so I nudged her and told her. So she asked him and it was great. He said that when he knows it's true, he will get baptized. And he might come to church this week. Hopefully! That is the hardest thing besides getting ahold of people, is getting them to want to come to church. I'm not even sure why. It's just strange. Anyway, Charles is funny. He kept using these terms (mostly medical terms and some other ones) and I knew what most of them meant. So anyway, because I knew everything he was talking about, he was tickled. (At least, that's what he told us. He said he was tickled like 4 times.) But anyway, he told me that I would get married first out of my companions. He also said that I look like the youngest. We told him that Sister George was the youngest and she doesn't turn 20 until December and I do in less than a month and he was soooo surprised!! He thought I was like 16. He's not the first. Charles is pretty cool :)

This week we also visited a less-active blind member of the church. The only reason she's less-active is because she's blind and can't drive. Plus she lives in Keysville which is like half an hour away so it's hard for her to get a ride. She is a spitfire though!! She read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon with us though... in her Braille B.O.M. That was sweet. It was sooo super cool!! She is great :)

So we went to the Richmond Zoo last Monday. It was awesome!! We went as pretty much our whole zone. It was a lot of fun :) You get to feed Giraffes and it is just an awesome zoo. They have bats and we were all (well like half of us) in the little bat house thing and one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Harris, said, "Bats are like the spiders of birds." I immediately walked out of the bat house and said I'm out!! Then Elder Dayton, the other Zone Leader, apologized for his companion. It was super funny. I have great District and Zone Leaders that are awesome and willing to give blessings when needed!! They are super cool :)

I love Virginia!! It has been strange summer and has been raining constantly (which apparently has NEVER happened in Virginia.) We've only had a few hot and humid days (knock on wood) and it has been SO nice!! I love it!! There is a chill in the air and hopefully fall will come just in time for my birthday :) Usually it doesn't come until October, but I think it can make the deadline :) haha

I love y'all and hope all is well with you!! Have a blessed week!!

Love,

Sister Simona M. Richardson

An awesome amazing family--the Moore family!

 

So probably the best part about this week was last Thursday. Sister George said something so I got fake mad and chased her down the hall. She ran into our extra room and locked herself in. Sister Olsen was all sorts of confused, but it was funny. I went in and sat on Sister George's bed to wait for her. After like 10 minutes, she comes out and I have the bedroom door shut, but I heard her. So I yank open the door and scare her. In her hands, she held an iron and my waterproofing spray. We both laughed sooooo hard!! It was way funny. It was great fun.

So this week, we helped a less-active member paint some rooms in her rental house. It was fun :) It was also good to visit with her more. We also visited another less-active member who is dying of cancer. It's a strange cancer. It was supposed to be attached to something, but instead it attached itself to her muscles and bones. It went from Stage 1 to Stage 4 very fast. We're trying to help her to strengthen her relationship with the Lord so she can have comfort. I hope it works.

 

We also have another investigator that fed us dinner!!! It was awesome haha. She's feeding us again this week. I'm excited!! She's gonna feed us fish!! YUMMY!! Haha.

Life in Virginia is good!! Hopefully our work will pick up at least a little bit once school gets started again, but for now, I'm happy!!

 

I love this gospel and how much joy it brings to my life and the life of others. The best part about that joy is that it is eternal if we work for it :) I love my Savior Jesus Christ and know that He loves me. I hope y'all have a blessed week!

Much love,

Sister Simona Richardson