Summer Sales Bros

Sister Richardson's Super Split Seconds

Happy (late) 4th of July from Virginia! I'm grateful to all those who bravely sacrifice their lives so we can live freely.

Our buddy Leo is a Marine and Vietnam War Veteran. He is a blunt, no-nonsense type of guy, who loves God and loves to grill. What does that combination of character traits lead one to do? It leads one to grill for the sister missionaries in 100-degree heat. DUHHHH!!! He grilled delicious burgers for us, supplied us with a nice, cold Diet Coke, and let us crash his neighborhood gathering. So random, yet so fun.

We ran into a summer sales bro while knocking and it quite literally made my day. The mutual bonding that occurred after we watched him get rejected was out of this world. Shoutout to my boy Nate for persevering through the struggles of door-to-door sales.

Miracle of Gwen

Last week we were walking on a trail and we invited a man to church. He politely declined our request but told us to reach out to his 16-year-old daughter, Gwen, because he thought she'd be interested. We, of course, reached out immediately but unfortunately didn't receive any responses back. We figured Gwen was probably weirded out by us, so we stopped reaching out and figured that was the end of her story.

A few nights after we stopped reaching out to Gwen, I was praying and I asked Heavenly Father what specific task He needed us to complete for the next day. Almost immediately, a woman's name from our congregation and a prompting to go visit her came clearly to my mind. It seemed like a weird thought, especially because we recently visited her and it wasn't super positive, but I've learned that when God tells you to do something, you do it. So we did.

We visited the lady, her husband answered, told us they weren't interested, and closed the door in our faces. It was the exact same result as our previous visit. So why did we need to be there?

Well, as we looked around the neighborhood, we spotted a man fixing his car. We made our way towards him and guess who it was? Gwen's dad!

He asked if we had reached out to Gwen yet. We explained that we did but didn't get a response back. He was shocked and called Gwen down to meet us. Gwen was so excited to see us and told us she'd been waiting for our text all week. It was at this point that we realized we had written down the wrong phone number! We apologized, fixed the mistake, and explained church/youth groups to her.

The next day, sweet Gwen biked in the heat and a dress to church, stayed for the whole service, and had an absolute blast! She currently reads the Bible on her own accord every day and she has the biggest desire to know the truth. In short, Gwen is awesome!

I don't know what lies ahead for Gwen, but of this, I am sure:

God loves all of His children!

So much so, that He was willing to give two sister missionaries a second chance at helping one of His other daughters experience the joy of Jesus Christ! God is so good!

Much love, Sister Richardson









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