Week 21: Farewell, Simi Valley [December 18, 2017]

Hello Everyone,

As you can probably tell from my title, I will be leaving Simi Valley after being here for four months. In all honesty I'm a little sad to go. Simi Valley has been my mission so far and I've really enjoyed it here. There have been a lot of people I've grown close to and the work here had been progressing. In the mission everyone who serves in Simi always goes back so I'll be back at some point. I just hope it's the same ward. This next transfer I will be going to Santa Barbara. It's funny because all my companions with the exception of Elder Olacsi have served in the ward I'm going to. I also sort of know my companion because he was in my zone my first two transfers here. His name is Elder Richards so that won't be confusing at all. People out here call me Elder Richards quite a bit so it will be interesting to see how that works. 

Tuesday we found a new potential named Gerrald who actually knows Elder Olacsi's grandpa! We met a less active who said we could come back and had dinner with a active/less active family.

Wednesday we talked with a potential but he said he wasn't ready yet. He later drove by us and asked us if there was anything he could do for us because we were "The real deal." We told him to keep us in his prayers and he said he would do that. We also met with a new potential family. It was kind of interesting because he got into some deep doctrine, all before he learned about the restoration, so that was fun. 

Thursday we had a lesson with Our investigator Olivia. We went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked her to pray if January 20 is the right day for her to be baptized!

Friday we talked to a guy who wanted to know if it is okay to kill someone if they are threatening someone close to you. We told him if it is in defense of others then it's not sinning but he was sure that we were wrong. We also had a restoration lesson with a former investigator, Frank, who invited us to lunch the next day. 

Saturday we had lunch with Frank at a sushi place (I found sushi isn't that bad). We also went caroling as a district to the investigators and less actives everyone has been working with. We also got our transfer calls.

Sunday after church I went around to different families I wanted to say goodbye to. 

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas! 

Until then, 

Elder Jason Riches.