Elder Jason Riches

Week Sixty-Nine: The Return to Simi Valley

Hi Everyone!

This week has been pretty awesome! I just have to make sure I get all I want to have put in, thanks to transfers happening and us being super busy today.

Monday we had a really cool miracle! We went by someone named Giovanni and as we were at his door he walked up behind us and invited us in. He's really busy with school and work, and if we would have come any later he probably would have been too busy to talk. As we talked with him we shared the plan of salvation which he really enjoyed.

Tuesday was a walk day and as walk days usually go for me, stuff happened and we had to drive. After our lunch we got a message from a member who's car wouldn't start. We went to help, but since neither of us know much about cars, we weren't able to do much except comfort her until our ward mission leader came to help. After that we had our final apointment with Albert. He's come a long way since we first met him and he talked about how he feels like he's part of a family now that he's a member! I'm going to miss him.

A lot happened Wednesday, but there's not much of it it I can say except we got stuck in the middle of some people who want to annul their marriage. It was a lot of drama. One thing I can mention though is that as we were walking around Sister Lisonbee and her son Austin pulled up so it was fun seeing them.

Thursday we talked with a preacher who, surprisingly, didn't want to Bible bash with us and was very respectful to our beliefs and had lots of good questons about our church. I also had my last doctors appointment and was cleared!

On Friday we got some news as to some crazy changes to our schedule.For starters dinners with members will no longer be happening Monday-Friday. We may have dinners Saturday or Sunday as long as it is finished by 5:00 PM. These dinners will not be determined by a dinner calender, but by the ward council or ward mission leader (making sure that there's not one family feeding us too frequently). This doesn't eliminate meeting with members. The hours of 8-9PM will be utilized for teaching members in their homes and helping them find ways that they can share the gospel and bring souls to Christ. These appointments are also to be arranged by the ward council, ward mission leader, or us. This new schedule will better allow us to be out finding and teaching. We also were able to teach the restoration to someone named Shon.

Saturday was pretty much our last normal day. We talked with someone named Jane who we've been working with for a while. We taught the restoration to her and she seemed pretty interested in Joseph Smith. We also taught a member family, the Clarks, about families and the temples since they are preparing to go. Right before we got our transfer calls we met a guy contacting who seemed pretty interested. We found out that both Elder Kennedy and I will be leaving Paso Robles. I will be returning to where I began...Simi Valley. It'll be interesting because I'm not exactly sure where in Simi I'll be,
since I heard they changed the ward boundaries since I've been there. I'll also be follow-up training and back on bikes. Elder Kennedy will be going to Lompoc (the same ward I was in) and with my last companion Elder Fenn! I'll miss being with Elder Kennedy, but I know he's going to do great.

Sunday we said goodbye to a lot of people. In addition to saying goodbye to Albert and the Seays we said goodbye to some missionaries in our district who are going to Taiwan and one who is switching to a service mission. Because one of them was serving in Atascadero we are now with his companion Elder Governale. It was fun because I was able to work in Atascadero again! We even taught a lesson to Jeff Fritch who I taught while I was there.

Thanks for all the support! It'll be interesting to be back in Simi and I'll tell you all about it next week!

Have a good one!

Elder Jason Riches