Happy Anniversary baby...got you on my mind....
(Great '80s song by the Little River Band.) Richard has been out a year now. Actually, time has gone by pretty quickly, which means the next year will fly by. He is doing great. He is a District Leader and is training a brand-new Elder. His letters show a maturity rarely found in someone his age, and yet he has definately kept his fun side. We miss him a lot. He is having what I would consider a great deal of success. He is having adventures all over the place as well. Here is an excerpt from his latest letter of one of those adventures told as only Richard can.
It was a warm day, nothing unusual in the weather pattern to differentiate it from any other end-of-June day in the great city of Miami. Except for the Massive Storm that flooded the famous main street of Biscayne Blvd! From Thursday night to Sunday morning we had the Priests from the branch over on a "mini-mission," which translated from Hebrew means, "no sleep and disappearance of food." Still, it was great. Ha, I have another great/short story afterward...continuing. I was with this punk-kid named Tony (turned out a good kid after all) and we were headed out to meet my comp. Carrillo with his mini missionary at Burger King on Biscayne-a Blvd. that follows the coast on the bay. We started out a few miles away and could see over the coast a thick darkness only broken by the sparse flashes that illuminated the sky. Good description? Well it was only about 6:30pm and we decided it was worth it to take our chances. We headed to the darkness of the storm and huge random drops started on every side. Eventually it became a wall of water, filling the streets. I hit an unmarked construction area, my front wheel sank into a water-filled hole (it was huge!) and I was sent over the handle bars into a 4 inch pool over water and concrete. We kept moving, and upon hitting Biscayne, the water and winds were intense. Lightning struck all around and one closer than I've experienced. The flash and deafening sound came at the exact same moment, we pulled in for shelter. After a few minutes we had a prayer and headed back out, hoping not to get struck! We finally made it to burger king where the others were waiting, and we apologized to the management for being completely soaked. There were all kinds in that burger king hiding from the storm, a homeless man even approached me (we'd apparently met before, but I can't keep track! Many homeless people...) and we spoke, he was a kind man, and has a trade of making crafts out of reeds and selling them on the streets-he's really pretty good. He made me a grasshopper (for free, kind gesture!) and was on his way to a "prior commitment." Business meeting I'm sure.
We decided that the rain wasn't going to stop, and after make a few more friends, we headed out. By this time the intersections were filled and as we rode into the street from the sidewalk, the water hit up the the knee, on bike! We could see many stuck under the canopy at the Hyatt and asked if we could help. Everyone was fine so we headed on. Upon hitting a huge intersection we noticed that several cars were stuck in the rising water. Me, my awesome greenie, and the two newbies set our bikes and backpacks in a safe spot and headed into the now close to waist deep water. First was a nice mercedes, atleast on the outside! We pushed it up to higher land as the man steered, and we believe his engine is now flooded and shot. We followed the same pattern for another group of cars, and did our best with a huge econo-van but couldn't budge it. People were taking pics etc, and we had a great opportunity to do service and make the church of Jesus Christ look good. The mini missonaries had a great time and we all had a great experience. For some reason I have experience getting cars and, especially trucks I'll say, unstuck. (more stuck than unstuck!) That's the story! We came back soaked and beat, but happy.
How's that for Missionary work in action? The reference to the truck being stuck is that on several occcasions he got himself stuck in the mud using 4 wheel drive. On a couple of occasions I tried to tow him out only to become stuck as well. Nothing like a little father-son bonding time.
It was a warm day, nothing unusual in the weather pattern to differentiate it from any other end-of-June day in the great city of Miami. Except for the Massive Storm that flooded the famous main street of Biscayne Blvd! From Thursday night to Sunday morning we had the Priests from the branch over on a "mini-mission," which translated from Hebrew means, "no sleep and disappearance of food." Still, it was great. Ha, I have another great/short story afterward...continuing. I was with this punk-kid named Tony (turned out a good kid after all) and we were headed out to meet my comp. Carrillo with his mini missionary at Burger King on Biscayne-a Blvd. that follows the coast on the bay. We started out a few miles away and could see over the coast a thick darkness only broken by the sparse flashes that illuminated the sky. Good description? Well it was only about 6:30pm and we decided it was worth it to take our chances. We headed to the darkness of the storm and huge random drops started on every side. Eventually it became a wall of water, filling the streets. I hit an unmarked construction area, my front wheel sank into a water-filled hole (it was huge!) and I was sent over the handle bars into a 4 inch pool over water and concrete. We kept moving, and upon hitting Biscayne, the water and winds were intense. Lightning struck all around and one closer than I've experienced. The flash and deafening sound came at the exact same moment, we pulled in for shelter. After a few minutes we had a prayer and headed back out, hoping not to get struck! We finally made it to burger king where the others were waiting, and we apologized to the management for being completely soaked. There were all kinds in that burger king hiding from the storm, a homeless man even approached me (we'd apparently met before, but I can't keep track! Many homeless people...) and we spoke, he was a kind man, and has a trade of making crafts out of reeds and selling them on the streets-he's really pretty good. He made me a grasshopper (for free, kind gesture!) and was on his way to a "prior commitment." Business meeting I'm sure.
We decided that the rain wasn't going to stop, and after make a few more friends, we headed out. By this time the intersections were filled and as we rode into the street from the sidewalk, the water hit up the the knee, on bike! We could see many stuck under the canopy at the Hyatt and asked if we could help. Everyone was fine so we headed on. Upon hitting a huge intersection we noticed that several cars were stuck in the rising water. Me, my awesome greenie, and the two newbies set our bikes and backpacks in a safe spot and headed into the now close to waist deep water. First was a nice mercedes, atleast on the outside! We pushed it up to higher land as the man steered, and we believe his engine is now flooded and shot. We followed the same pattern for another group of cars, and did our best with a huge econo-van but couldn't budge it. People were taking pics etc, and we had a great opportunity to do service and make the church of Jesus Christ look good. The mini missonaries had a great time and we all had a great experience. For some reason I have experience getting cars and, especially trucks I'll say, unstuck. (more stuck than unstuck!) That's the story! We came back soaked and beat, but happy.
How's that for Missionary work in action? The reference to the truck being stuck is that on several occcasions he got himself stuck in the mud using 4 wheel drive. On a couple of occasions I tried to tow him out only to become stuck as well. Nothing like a little father-son bonding time.
posted by Richards dad at 10:16 PM
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