Week 20: Wind and Fire [December 11, 2017]

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure that a lot of you have heard about the fires here in my mission. Fortunately all of the missionaries that were in the fires path were safely evacuated and are okay. I would like to ask you all to keep those who are in the fire's path and who have lost there homes in your prayers. Here in Simi we were supposed to be ready to go at any time. We had to have a bag packed and for a few days we had some other elders from our district stay in our apartment since they were closer to the fire. It was fun but a little cramped since our apartment is pretty small. Fortunately we did not get any fire our way but we did get some very heavy wind. Normally wind has never bothered me but since we're on bikes it is harder. It always feels like it's blowing against us so even when biking on flat ground it feels like we're peddling uphill. I just try and remember that when we have hard times we have to push through them and we'll be stronger for it. Hopefully that's what will happen here.

On Tuesday we had exchanges. Because of the heavy winds we decided to walk which was good, but very tiring.  We exchanged back early and did service for one of the members in the ward by pulling Christmas decorations out of her shed so the beehives could help her decorate. We then visited a less active, but we had to cut it short. Because of the fires they wanted us to go in early so we got 5 calls from the district leader and 1 from the zone leaders. Then I didn't want the next call to say President Nakken so I awkwardly told him we had to go.

Wednesday we had our designated walking day. We had a meeting with a guy named Jackson who had met with missionaries in the past. He's now a new investigator and we have an appointment with him next week. We also helped one of our less actives dust his house. Before we started though I gave him a haircut which was a new experience for me. I was glad he just wanted a buzz cut because I don't think I could have done much more than that.

Not much happened Thursday. I started reading the Bible starting at the Old Testament. One of the apps on our phone has a easy to read version on one side and the original on the other which was helpful. I ended up reading 10 chapters that day. We also visited with Our investigator Olivia. We taught her the plan of salvation. She has a lot of promise, but she's moving to another area in Simi soon so we won't have her for much longer.

Nothing really on Friday. Just trying to find people.

Saturday we had the ward party which was fun. I had a mess up with our investor Cathy though that was a little embarissing. We were teaching the plan of salvation and I was talking about how because of the atonement and how Jesus has felt the problems and pain that I have felt, I feel much closer to him when I pray to him. I have no idea why I said "pray to him" so I was really hoping that she wouldn't notice, but of course the next thing she said was "So you pray to Jesus?"

Nothing much happened Sunday.

That's pretty much it for this week! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Elder Jason Riches

P.S. We have a weird place in our area called the Knowles. Usually there's some weird stuff up there. Here's a picture of a peacock (which I had seen a few times before) and a pig.

Our District went ice skating for our P-Day activity: