Week 9: The best week yet!!! [September 25, 2017]

This week has been pretty eventful. We had a great lesson with our investigator Cathy. We had it at her neighbor's (the Newberrys) house. We were planning on re-teaching the restoration but we had a scripture read instead. I think it really helped her get started on reading. We talked with her breifly later this week and she said that she read 20 pages! 

We also had a great discussion with our less active Kim. The Elder's Quorm President went with us and I think what he said really resonated with her. We talked how she needs to take small steps in coming back to church instead of jumping right back to the state that she was in before.

I also got to go to the temple this week with our ward mission leader Brother Harper. It was such a spiritual experience (as the temple always is).

I finished The Book of Mormon for the first time since coming out. It really strengthened my testimony and things have gotten a little easier since then.

 We had a really cool experience this week. We were walking to a potential investigator's house and we saw a young woman crying. We asked if she was okay, but she just waved us off. We walked away but felt prompted to go back and talk to her. When we got there she was gone. Elder Hansen said a prayer and we ended up finding her at the train station. We talked with her for a bit and when the train came she hesitated going on until the last second and she missed it. She started to walk away crying again and we left too because we felt like she would be upset with us now (because it was mostly because she was talking to us that she missed the train). We ended up feeling that we should go back again. We found her and by the time we were done, she was smiling and laughing. We invited her to say a prayer and she offered one of the most sincere prayers I've ever heard. We gave her a Book of Mormon and our phone number so we'll have to see if we come in contact again. If not, then I still feel good that we were able to make her feel better.

We also had the primary program this week and I had fond memories of when I was a primary teacher doing that.

By the way I will be staying in Simi Valley this next transfer, but I will not be with Elder Hansen. It's going to be weird not being able to talk about Murray anymore. It's funny though because my new companion will be Elder Hansen's MTC companion, and he trained Elder Ujhely (my MTC companion) this last transfer.

That's pretty much it. Thank you for all the love and support.

Elder Jason Riches