Week Seventy-Seven:  Quiet Week, But Not for Long [January 14, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

This week has been pretty good! We had all the missionaries in our district help us find, and there were quite a few people found! We're excited to see how that goes! We also received two new referrals and both of them sound like they're pretty interested!

We were able to teach a lesson to someone named Jason (in a part-member family) and he has a desire to be baptized! The only thing is right now he just thinks of it as a clean slate and we both feel that we need to teach him more of what it all entails before setting him with a date. We also had a sort of lesson with Dizi. 

I got an email this week from some members in Paso that Albert got the priesthood and passed the sacrament! I'm so happy for him and that he's progressing so well!

We had a really cool thing happen where we were out walking to try by someone and it took a little longer than we thought and we had a correlation meeting at the church which was far away from where we were and it didn't look like we would make it. We started to run and a member pulled up and asked us if we needed a ride! It was a cool tender mercy! 

It's been raining a lot this week and it's supposed to rain a lot more this week which will be nice. It feels like it's been a long time since I've seen this much rain which is nice! 

So far this ward has been a bit of a challenge, but I feel that it will soon change! It usually feels like it goes slow right before the floodgates open! 

I hope all of you have a fantastic week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-Six:  A New Area and an Old Friend [January 7, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

Thus far Camarillo has been pretty good! Not a huge amount has happened, but we've been able to have some good times and even see some cool miracles along the way! I've also enjoyed getting to know my new companion Elder NeSmith. 

I got word right before I transferred that my old companion Elder Baker is in the mission. We arranged to meet up Thursday at Denny's for lunch. It was fun being able to catch up on each other's lives since we last saw each other and reminisce on old times. He's probably one of the companions I've stayed in contact with the most since our time in Templeton. 

There's one person we're teaching named Dizi who's from Albania. She's really sweet and has plans to get baptized when her daughter is able to come. We taught the last portion of the Plan of Salvation and she liked it! She was also at church on Sunday. 

We saw a pretty cool miracle as we were working in another missionaries area! We knocked on a door and told the lady who answered that we had a message about the restoration through a modern day prophet and she was pretty interested in the fact that we had a modern day prophet! We briefly taught her some things and told her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy! It was definitely one of the coolest tracting experiences that I've had on a mission!

That's mostly what happened this week. I had a cold for a while, but I'm feeling better now. I hope all of you have a fantastic week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-Five:  See Ya Simi [December 31, 2018]

Hi Everyone, 

I don't have a ton of time to write today. I found out yesterday (they moved what day we find out what's happening for transfers) that I'm going to be leaving Simi Valley and go to Camarillo (which is near Oxnard). 

This week has been good, but nothing super noteworthy happened. One cool thing that happened was when everyone in the zone went to some other elders area to help them find people to teach. We went to the street they wanted us to go to and we found three people pretty much one right after another! It was really cool! At the end of the evening we went to Wendy's to get some frosties. They were closed, but they let us inside which was nice! 

On Sunday we both gave talks in sacrament meeting. I pretty much re-used a talk I gave in Atascadero with some changes here and there. Elder Sorensen did a good job and a lot of people complemented him on his talk. 

It's been fun being back here in Simi even though it was only a brief stay. I've never served at or near Camarillo so I don't really know what to expect. I'll have to tell you next week! 

Have a great week! I'll give you the scoop on my new area next week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-Four: Christmas Miracles!! [December 25, 2018]

Hi Everyone! 

First off I just want to say Merry Christmas! I hope all of you are having a great day and that you have been able to feel the Spirit of Christ this Christmas season! Now, that being said, onto my week. 

We had an amazing miracle happen this week! We tried by someone we had found tracting a while back named Gus. We've been having a hard time trying to meet with him and it was looking like it was going to be the case this time since they were getting some plumbing work done. However when we started talking to him and his wife (Jennifer) they invited us in at that very moment! We were able to teach them the Restoration and they really enjoyed it. Both of them said that they had not heard about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. We were able to set up a time next week to share more with them. It's also really cool for me because I haven't had many opportunities to teach families as a missionary and that's always a great thing!

After some service we did for someone named Anna we showed her the Light the World videos. She loved them and while we were talking to her she told us about one of her neighbors who had previously met with missionaries. We went by a few days later and she sounds interested in still meeting with us! Her name is Linda and for whatever reason she was not in our area book. 

Most of the missionaries in Simi Valley came to our area to help us find people to teach. It was a really powerful feeling as we felt united in bringing souls to Christ. One of the houses looked dark so we were going to walk right by it, but I got the prompting to knock. Someone ended up being there and they said we could come back! I also got to work in my last area in Simi for a bit when we went to that area!

We've also had several things that have really helped us feel the Christmas Spirit. Friday we had our Christmas Zone Conference and there were lots of talks and messages given about the Savior. The Sacrament meeting on the 23rd was good too. One of the coolest things though was when we went caroling on Christmas Eve. Even though we were just singing songs, it was cool to see how much of an impact it made on them! 

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas! I know being able to see my family and being with the members and missionaries this day have helped make it special!

Until next time, 

Elder Jason Riches

Here are some pics from the baptism last week. 

Hello again! 

It was fun being able to see all of you today!!! Thank you Trevor for getting it figured out! I'll be looking forward to May for the next (and final for me) Skype call home! I think you left before Jenna and I did. We got to say a quick good-bye to each other before it was time to leave. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas! My day today is pretty chill. We'll be having dinner with some members later, but that's the only plan. 

Thanks for all your help and thank you for the care package! I was especially excited about the stuff for Grandpa's brew since I haven't had that in a year! 

I attached the picture of me at the Nightmare Before Christmas house. Sorry Audra, it looks like Zero got cut off, but you get the idea. 

I love all of you so much! I hope all of you have an amazing Christmas! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-Three:  Olivia's Baptism [December 17, 2018]

Hi Everyone! 

This week has been pretty great! Here's what happened.

I went on exchanges with our district leader Elder 'Anitony and as we were going by one of the Spanish people they had found a while back, we ended up going to the wrong door, which ended up being inspired since they were interested. When we went to the right house we ended up meeting their husband. Elder 'Anitony talked to him for a while (since he only spoke Spanish) and he ended up letting us inside. Apparently he had found a Light the World card on the ground and looked into it,but didn't know where to find out more, and didn't know where to look. It was pretty cool even though I couldn't understand much.

When we were walking around one day we ended up talking to someone named Neil. He told us that he has actually had some questions for us and we got into a little gospel discussion. He doesn't live around here, but he said he would be fine with missionaries seeing him where he lives.

We seem to be making slow progress with Juliana. She seems to be trusting us more and we're hoping to have a lesson on the Holy Ghost this week so she could learn to recognize when she feels the Spirit.

The highlight of this week was when I got to go to the baptism of  Olivia Neil. She was someone I had taught when I was first in Simi Valley. It was probably one of the most Spiritual baptisms I've attended! She has come a long way since I first taught her at the beginning of her journey. The cool thing too is that after all this time she said she remembered in one of my last times teaching her that I had bore my testimony to her and it impacted her. Honestly I don't remember that at all, but It was cool and reminded me that even though we get transferred to different areas we still play a part in the conversion process of the people we teach.

That is it for this week. I hope all of you good one!

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-Two:  Aye Chihuahua! [December 10, 2018]

Hi Everyone!

There have been some small successes here and there. We tried by Juliana right as she was leaving somewhere, but we found out that she was planning on attending a baptism in the other ward! We went too and she really liked it! Hopefully it will help her desire to be baptized. 

We also were able to finally meet someone named Sean. Turns out we had an incomplete phone number for him so we were able to get that sorted out. He has a pretty strong faith in Jesus Christ and he really enjoyed the scripture Helaman 5:12 when we read it to him.

(Helaman 5:12:  And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.) 

There were also some people who said we could come back (3 of them on one court!)

One evening as we were getting ready to tract out a neighborhood (in the rain no less) there was this little Chihuahua in a Christmas sweater that started following us around barking at us. We figured that if we walked far enough away that it would stop, but it was too persistent. When we tried to read it's collar it would run away from us. Eventually it left us alone. Both of us thought it was funny that it was trying to look so tough in it's little sweater.

That's all for this week!

Until next time,

Elder Jason Riches

Week Seventy-One:  Neil L. Anderson [December 3, 2018]

Hi Everyone!

This week's email will have to be short since I don't have a ton of time to type this up.

It's been a pretty crazy week! Both Elder Sorensen and I got flat tires on our bikes (on different days), I fell off my bike, we got stuck in the first rain storm I've been in since March and the Santa Anna winds have picked up.

Despite all the craziness we had a really cool opportunity to hear from Elder Neal L. Anderson, Elder L. Whitney Clayton and his wife and Elder Kevin W. Pearson. All of them gave really powerful talk on various subjects. Some things I remember right off that were said is that we need to build a strong testimony of Jesus Christ so that when the time comes for us to return home we can be firm and steadfast. They also wanted to have us and the members pray that the church will be able to grow in California. The whole mission was present at the zone conference which has never happened before! During the lunch all of my group that came out at the same time took a group picture.

The only person we really talked with was Juliana. We talked about baptism a little, but she's still not sure what to think about it.

That's pretty much my week. Sorry it's so short!

Until next time,

Elder Jason Riches

1.The Original Picture

2. One of the new ones (I'll have to try and find the rest later)