Week Fifty-one:  Time to Say Good-bye to Atascadero [July 16, 2018]

Hi Everyone! 

I don't have a lot of time today so I'll have to make this week short. 

 Last P-Day we had a BBQ with our zone. We had to move to three different parks, because the first one had a homeless guy who wouldn't leave us alone and was being a little creepy with the sisters and the next park didn't have a grill. It was fun though being able to see the whole zone and have a good time with them. 

We had a really good talk with a less-active named Holly. She, and some of the people close to her have been having a really hard time as of late and when we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet she was excited to read through it. 

Thursday was one of the craziest days of the mission so far. We did service in the morning helping a member pour some cement. During lunch we got word that there was a missionary that was going home early and they wanted to know if we could help with that. We then had to run to a lesson with Fred where we talked about the small and simple things. After Fred we went and helped out at the youth conference marking their luggage with their names and what group number they were in. We had dinner after that, went to a Bible study and then met with our ward mission leader. Dinner was really our only time that day to take things easy. 

We talked with Jackson's mom, Erica, Saturday morning. She says that the Mormon church isn't for her, but she does want to understand us better. We also briefly saw Mikaela and Jeff. 

That night we got our transfer calls. I will sadly be leaving Atascadero and going to Lompoc with Elder Fenn. Elder Mills will be staying and they will only be having one set of missionaries here now so he'll be pretty busy. Yesterday and today have been crazy with helping Elder Horman get ready to go home and trying to get everything done before I go. I don't expect to have any rest time until tomorrow night. I'm excited to see a new area, but I'll also miss the many people I've grown close to while I've been here. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Pictures

1. The Bergmanns

2. The Richardsons 

3. The Kessengers 

4. Fred Cole