January 9th

Family,

WOW! Thank you so much for the Christmas Package I love it all. You are the best. It came Tuesday morning and so we were able to have Christmas rerun and it was perfect. I am excited.

All right so this has been another busy week. Elder Boswell and I have been on lots of exchanges and witnessed lots of miracles. Great things are taking place here in the EMM.

One of the exchanges I went on was with a missionary from Sacramento named elder eggers. He has learned Chinese on his mission and is doing wonderful. He goes to BYU so we will be friends when he gets back….

So I have a bit of a confession. The Gregsons are an amazing office couple and are finishing up their mission this week and just took us out for lunch so my time is a bit short. We went to this little cafe in Knutsford and it had all these old fashioned bicycles with massive wheels. I had never seen anything like it but it was definitely English and the food was great. 

The longer I spend in this mission the more I appreciate how wonderful it is. I have come to see that there are many missions within the mission of finding teaching and baptizing. What I mean by that is we have the mission of building our companions, our families back home, the wards and ward members, those we have stewardship over, and lastly ourselves.  Each day my perspective grows and I learn more about the test of mortality. Everyone is at different levels of understanding and application but we have the fortunate opportunity to help people understand what it’s all about. How lucky are we? 

You’re all great.

Love, Richard

Dad- that is a crazy statistic where did you get that from? 20% LA Rms? Also, that sounds like great plans for when you come. I have a good idea for what we can do and whom we are going to see for the most part. I printed the talk and will read it later. Also I am familiar with that scripture in Moses and love it. Thanks    

Paige- no email? How is porters face?

Chareese-love the pictures thank you so much Darien’s baby is really cute.

Rowland-alright brother I will be honest I have been in a car for the past year+++. I am not so sure about 17 miles in the Grand Canyon. I was thinking more of a beach with a pina colada. However, if you both are really passionate about it I will.