Week One-Hundred and Three:  The Only Light in the Darkness [July 15, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

We've had some good things happen this week! Early on we were walking to go by someone and ran into a lady who used to be the landlord for someone we were working with. While we were talking with her she really opened up about her problems and trials she's had recently. We ended up walking with her back to her house and helped her carry in some groceries. It's pretty cool how God puts people in our path! We were planning on going by someone else, but met her instead! 

We taught both Dizi and Jason this week! For Dizi our lesson was focused on the ten commandments and Jason's Lesson was more about serving in the church. One cool thing that happened with Jason was Thursday night he texted us asking if we could get him a Book of Mormon to give someone he met. When we met with him on Friday he told us that it had been a success! 

Last night we were finishing up the evening and had about 30 minutes until the end of the night. There wasn't really anyone close by to stop by so we decided to go somewhere we hadn't gone yet that day. As we were approaching Denny's we saw our friend Bryan sitting out front with his mom! We talked with him for a bit and then set an appointment for Tuesday. Usually he's been a harder one to catch, but lately we've been able to see him more!

The title of my email has two meanings. The first is to describe the district picture we took Friday which I will include below. The other one is I have seen the gospel be a light in the lives of our recent converts, other people we're working with and myself! It's incredible how much joy it can bring in an unhappy world!

That's about it for me. Have a fantastic week

Elder Jason Riches

Week One-Hundred and Two:  Aftershocks [July 8, 2019]

Hi Everyone!

This week has been pretty good what with the fourth of July and everything. Here's what happened...

We got to meet with our friend Bryan three times this week! That's huge since he's one of the people we're working with who is hard to catch. One of the times we read the Book of Mormon with him and on Sunday he came before church and we did a church tour with him. He had to leave before sacrament meeting since he had to get to work. 

My 4th of July was good! In the morning we went by someone we're working with and while there we felt a small earthquake (which I later heard was a big earthquake elsewhere). That was the first time I remember ever feeling an earthquake! We also did a bit of service for a member and later on went to a members BBQ. It was a huge event and had all you can eat food! At the end of the night we watched a firework show from a freeway overpass. It was nice since I haven't seen one of those since being home. 

The next day we met with David and had a really good discussion on prayer and read out of the Book of Mormon with him. Then we went to see our friend Sebastian. While we read from the Book of Mormon with him Sebastian pointed out that the car was shaking. We were having a second earthquake! It was a little longer and a little more intense, but still not bad. 

Yesterday (Sunday) Elder Pack and I had the chance to bear our testimony in fast and testimony meeting for the last time as missionaries. It was a really good experience and there was even a member that came up afterword and bore her testimony on missionary work. She even invited the ward to have missionary moments! Later we also had dinner with the Woolsey family and invited them to have a missionary moment. Jason has come so far since I first met him!

That's my week!

Elder Jason Riches

Week: One-Hundred and One:  All the Comforts of Home [July 1, 2019]

Hi Everyone

This week has been pretty good! I had a little more time this week so it's a bit longer than the last few. 

Tuesday evening we had a really cool broadcast from the Area Presidency! In it they talked a lot about the new plan for members and missionaries to work together to help bring lasting conversion to those we teach. It was also cool because we sat by the Nakkens during it and he gave some thoughts afterwords. 

Wednesday we set some baptismal goals with the Zone Leaders. We're going to try and set David with a date before we leave so please keep him in your prayers! We also met with Dizi in the evening and she's doing much better! We talked a bit about baptism and how we renew our baptismal covenants when we partake of the sacrament. We pulled the sacrament prayers up on her Kindle and she got to read them in Albanian which she really liked!

Thursday morning we met with Eddie. For the most part our meeting with him got off topic (as it usually does), but it did have one good part. He started talking about how everything has it's opposite and we read 2 Nephi 2 with him. It seemed to interest him and he has more of a desire now to read from the Book of Mormon! 

We also ended up having interviews that afternoon. It's crazy to think that I'll only have one more interview with President Nakken! Since we would be meeting again in a few weeks our interview was short. He did give me some advice though. He said that the end of the mission is one of the best times to feel God's love and that I should work to feel that. It was also President Nakken's birthday! 

That evening we met with David. We talked a bit about baptism again and he said that that's something that he's still praying about. He also said that he's been able to feel more of a relationship with God! 

Friday we had our District Council and later in the afternoon we helped a member move some stuff in his storage unit and afterword gave us a nice little nightstand. It makes our apartment feel a little more like home. He was going to give us some other stuff, but we don't have enough room in our apartment. Later on in the evening we went by some members and as we were leaving I noticed that the TV was on and the show that was playing just so happened to be my favorite TV show! I didn't see much, but it was a little distracting. 

Saturday it seemed like the only people we were able to catch were some of the members. We ended up committing one of them to give away a Book of Mormon in the next few weeks. Also we caught a potential I haven't seen since he was first found. He's a Russian professional boxer and showed decent interest when I first met him. The conversation was brief though as he was about to go off and meet some friends. 

Sunday was good, but nothing too crazy happened. After we got home in the evening we heard a crashing noise outside of our apartment. Someone ended up crashing into one of the parking stalls and another car. It looks pretty bad. 

That's all for me this time, hope you all have a marvelous week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Picture of the crash

Week One-Hundred!:  Beginning of the End [June 24, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

It's been a pretty good week! The final transfer began Tuesday and so far it's off to a decent start. 

Tuesday we were finally able to meet with David again! He's had some difficult challenges in his family recently, but he still wants to make a change in his life! We taught him about prayer and discussed what it is, as well as what it's not. 

Wednesday was Elder Pack's birthday! He's now 22 (same as me!). We did get a good scare from Dizi though, She called us saying that she couldn't meet because her arm hurt really bad all the night before and into the day. She didn't want to go to the hospital since she didn't want to stay overnight so we prayed a lot for her. 

The next day we tried by some people and arranged to go and give Dizi a blessing when her husband got back. We didn't hear from her for a while and no one answered our calls. We found out eventually that she went to the hospital. Later on in the evening we went by and saw her. Apparently she had a blood clot in her arm. She's doing better now, but she gave us quite the scare. 

On Friday we had our first district council of the transfer. It's a much smaller district than the last one, but not bad. A lot of the people we tried by weren't home, but we did get to have a lesson with Jason. At the end my companion was saying that he wanted to try something called baloote (don't know if that's how it's spelled or not) which is a premature duck egg. Sister Woolsey got excited and they might feed us that the next time we go over for dinner. We'll see! 

Saturday we had a pass off lesson with the sisters where we taught a guy named Jake. He had some pretty interesting beliefs that I can't say was something I'd ever heard before, but he was a very nice guy and was open to meeting with us again. 

Last night we were out and about as usual and we had decided in the morning to go by someone we were teaching. Sure enough she was there, and in talking with her, we found out that she had to turn herself in to go to jail the next day. This was something we knew would happen, but we didn't know exactly when. We shared a scripture and got her info so missionaries can visit her in prison. We both thought it was pretty remarkable that we caught her on the last day we possibly could! 

That's it for me! Hope you have a wonderful week! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Ninety-Nine:  All Roads Lead...[June 17, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

I ran out of time to write this week so I'll update you on everything important next week. I'll give a quick transfer update though. I'll be finishing my mission here in Camarillo with Elder Pack. It's pretty crazy since 5 transfer areas are pretty uncommon as are 3 transfer companions (at least in this mission).

I guess all roads have been leading up to this moment. It's my goal to finish strong. It's crazy to think that this next transfer will be my last. 

Wish me luck! 

Elder Jason Riches 

Week Ninety-Eight:  Running Out of Time [June 10, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

I sorta ran out of time to write this week so I'll have to make this a quick one. 

Earlier on this week we had a lesson with David on the sabbath day. He enjoyed it and we're trying to schedule a time we can give him a tour of the church (last week didn't work) so hopefully we can do that this week. 

Wednesday the only noteworthy thing that happened was teaching Dizi. Thursday we had our Zone Conference (those are always good). One of the big things I took out of it was we need to do better working with those we teach and involving the members in what we do. 

Saturday we had a lesson with someone we're working with named Eddie. Usually it's hard to keep the lessons focused, but this time he seemed to be more interested in what we had to say and it was a pretty good meeting. 

That's pretty much it for tonight. We tried going by the people we met last week, but they weren't home :(

Have a great week! 

Elder Jason Riches 

Week Ninety-Seven:  The Blessing of Missionary Work [June 3, 2019]

Hi Everyone!

This week there were quite a few of our lessons that fell through, so in some ways it was a slow week. However, it was not without blessings! The biggest one came on Friday. We were trying by someone I had found in the beginning of my time here just like any other time. Last week we had gone by and the husband had told us to try by sometime this week in the evenings if we wanted to catch both him and his wife. Sure enough, they were home and they invited us in! We talked with them for a bit and got to know them. Apparently they've talked about looking into our church and they like the whole family aspect of our church. She also has a lot of members in her family. We shared the message of the restoration with them and they were open to us coming back and sharing more with them. They have a Book of Mormon and they said that they would read it and pray about it! By the way their names are Chis and Jessica.

The day before this we had an exchange with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Goodman which was fun since we served around each other a lot at the beginning of our missions (we came out the same time). I also found a street called Jason Place which is the second street I've found that shares my name on my mission. We actually ended up finding someone who was interested on that street!

The only other notable thing that happened this week was we did a lot of service. We helped someone move into their new place, tried to remove part of a palm tree stump and today we moved a chair. 

That's all I can think to mention this week. Hope you all have a good one!

Elder Jason Riches 

Pictures

1. Elder Goodman and I

2. Me by Jason Place