Week Ninety-Six:  "Go Ye Therefore..." [May 27, 2019]

Hi Everyone!

It's been a pretty good week so far! Tuesday night we were able to have a good meeting with David and had our Assistant Ward Mission Leader with us. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed him to be baptized. It's something he wants to work for so we'll be helping him progress towards that! 

Our meeting with Dizi was a little shorter Wednesday since we had an appointment later in the evening with the members I talked about last week who invited us to come teach someone they invited over to dinner. Come to find out the person they invited didn't really speak English that well. Fortunately one of the members spoke Spanish and he translated what we said. Afterwords the member wanted to see if we could handle some hot peppers they had. All I'll say is that we were pretty miserable for about 20 or so minutes.

Not too much happened Thursday. We taught Bob and went by a few people, but that was pretty much it.

Friday after District Council we took a pretty good District picture! All of the members of our District dressed up and posed as the apostle statues that are in the Rome Italy Visitor's Center and it turned out pretty good! Since there are 11 members of our District we got our mission president to pose as Peter (since he holds the keys). After that we had a lesson with Sebastian where we read 2 Nephi 9 and showed him the "Because of Him" video which he enjoyed!

Saturday morning we went to a baptism for someone Elder Pack taught when he was in Camarillo the first time. We also had a flood in another area and our dinner was with the Woolsey family. One of the things that was talked about was what his thoughts were while he was progressing towards baptism. It was pretty cool to hear and I'm still impressed by how much he's progressed since I've been here!

And yesterday we got a blessing from our bishop to help with the work here in Camarillo! Also we were able to catch Iris in the evening for the first time in a while. Things have been rough with her since we last saw her. We'll see her again tomorrow. 

That's about it for this week! I hope you all have a good one! 

Elder Jason Riches

President Nakken as Peter

James

John

Paul

Matthew

Me as Phillip

James

Thomas

Bartholomew

Elder Pack as Andrew

Judas Thaddeeus

Simon Zelotes

District

Week Ninety-Five:  More People to Teach [May 20, 2019]

Hi Everyone!

This has been a pretty good week! On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges. The first of the week I was in my area and we were able to meet with someone named Eddie, and we taught him a little bit. He's now a new person that we're teaching so we hope that all will go well! Wednesday, I was in the other Elder's area for the first part of the day, and then we had to exchange back early so I was able to meet with Dizi later that night! 

Thursday not much happened, aside from our appointment with Bob, and there's not a whole lot to report there. Friday we saw an old face from the past. As we were walking we saw Michaela at a park and talked with her for a bit. It was nice to see her again, but we won't be starting to teach her again. We also had someone who used to be taught by missionaries come up to us and he told us that he was open to meeting again! His name is Joe. 

Saturday we had a flood in our area and all the missionaries were able to help us find some new people to start working with! We're excited to see what will come from that. Sunday was pretty good too! Remember when I said there was a member who was going to give us a referral by May 20? Yesterday he told us that him and his wife invited a less active and her fiance to dinner and they wanted us to come and share a message afterwords. Also, when we were trying by someone we had someone call us over and he asked us what our views on God were. We told him and he was interested in learning more! His name is Diego. 

That's pretty much it for me. I hope all of you have a marvelous week! 

Elder Jason RIches

Week Ninety-Four:  The Penultimate Transfer Begins [May 13, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

This was the beginning of my fourth transfer here in Camarillo as well as my second to last transfer. It was a pretty good week! At the first part of this week we taught Sebastian the restoration! He understood it all pretty well and we set another appointment for this next week.

Dizi's lesson this week was good! We continued to teach the plan of salvation, but didn't quite finish so we'll continue that next week. She also might be thinking about getting her patriarchal blessing at some point! Later that night we had a member visit that went really well. One of the members told us to give him a date and he would find us someone by then! 

We had a really good lesson with David! We read through 2 Nephi 31 with him and talked a bit about baptism! It's something he's thinking about now and praying about! 

We got to gather in the new district for the transfer. Only four people are different, but it does have a pretty different feel. It's also a little weird now that I'm the only person that's still here from my first district in Camarillo so it's pretty weird! In the evening we had another recent convert lesson with Jason and it went really well! 

Saturday we did a LOT of walking! We did the math and found out we walked about 11.3 miles that day! Nothing too noteworthy happened though. Sunday we sat with a non-member during sacrament meeting. She's not in our boundaries though so we won't end up teaching her. I also got to call home for Mother's Day and that was really fun! 

That's it for this week! Have a good one! 

Elder Jason Riches

Week Ninety-Three:  Another Transfer Closes, A New One Begins [May 6, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

It's been a good last week of the transfer! On Tuesday night we had our ward mission leader come with us to go by a few people. We taught someone named Iris and talked about the Book of Mormon with her and shared how it can help her in her life. We also met with David and read some chapters from the Book of Mormon with him. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with Dizi. For the first part her husband, Ramiz, was there and Dizi told him that she needed him at church with her! He seemed to think about that for a bit and then he left. The rest of the lesson was good (and a little silly). Elder Pack picked me up so I could reach some apple juice on the top shelf and Dizi just about died laughing! 

The rest of the week was pretty much going by people who I don't think I've mentioned before. We had short lessons with people named Edith, Raina, and Susan. We also taught Bob this week so if you've read previous emails from me you know who he is. 

We had stake conference this week! I think it was my first time going to a stake conference since I was in Santa Barbara well over a year ago! It was all pretty inspiring. President and Sister Nakken spoke at the adult session about getting the members and missionaries more involved in the work of salvation. Sunday there were lot's of people who spoke about how the Holy Ghost has helped them in their lives. There was also a visiting Area Seventy who talked about how we need to have our inner church in our lives (meaning we need to be converted in our hearts and not just in our church life). 

We got our transfer news this week! I'll be staying here for my fourth transfer with Elder Pack! I'm pretty excited since there's a lot that's happening here! 

Until next week, 
Elder Jason Riches

P.S. I also explained the entire plot of the Harry Potter series to Elder Pack. I was pretty surprised I remembered as much as I did! 

Week Ninety-Two:  The Temple Again! [April 29, 2019]

Hi Everyone

This week has been pretty amazing! Our ward mission leader came with us Tuesday to go and visit some of the people we're teaching. It went pretty well and we were actually able to have a lesson with David in that time. The cool thing is our ward mission leader and David probably went to school together! How cool is that!?! 

We had a nice little lesson with Dizi Wednesday. We talked about temples and showed her the video of Elder Bednar and Elder Rasband giving a tour of the Rome temple. We were also able to get back in touch with our friend, Jason Singer. He needed help moving out of his old place, so on Thursday we pretty much spent the first half of the day helping him out. He also got us lunch which was nice! 

Friday we had an unexpected lesson with Brian. Since it's been a while since we last saw him we reviewed the plan of salvation. It's been good being able to meet with him again since he has quite a bit of interest in learning. We also had a lesson with Bob later on in the evening. 

The highlight of the week was Saturday since we got to go to the temple with the Woolseys and Dizi! Both Jason and Dizi loved their first time being able to do baptisms for the dead and Jason even baptized his wife for some people! Afterwords we spent some time with them at the visitor's center and then we went out with our temple group to lunch. It was such an incredible time and it was amazing seeing both Jason and Dizi being able to go! 

That's pretty much it for this week! And since I can't say it in an email Saturday... 

May the 4th be with you! 

Elder Jason Riches

Elder and Sister Jensen, Elder Forsgren, Elder Macdonald, Elder Thornock, Elder Berry, Elder South, Elder Forester, Elder Riches, Elder Drury, Elder Linnell, Elder Rawlings, Elder Pack, Elder Spackman, Elder Turley, Elder Brewer, Elder Bryson, Elder Carter, Elder Goodman, Elder Eggen, Elder and Sister Yates

Sister Fowers, Sister Burks, Sister Pace, Elder Klebingat, President and Sister Nakken, Sister Fitting, Sister Carson, Hermana Kunes, Hermana Hawkins

Week Ninety-One:  A Quick Update [April 22, 2019]

Hi Everyone!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so this one's going to be a short one. We had our interviews this week and they were pretty good! He gave me some tips on how to finish up this transfer so I've been trying to do that. We didn't have a formal lesson with Dizi this week since she still had family visiting, but we were able to talk with her Saturday. She also now has a temple recommend and will be going this Saturday to do baptisms for the dead. Jason will also be going the same day and we got permission to go with them! We're really excited for that! 

We had a few lessons this week. We taught Eddie, David, Sebastian and Jason Woolsey. I don't think that I've mentioned Eddie or Sebastian before, but they are people that we found a while back and are now starting to work with more! 

Wish I had more time, but that will have to be all for this week. 

Until next week, 

Elder Jason Riches 

Week Ninety:  Përgëzime Dizi!  [April 15, 2019]

Hi Everyone! 

This week has been a pretty fun week! We've had quite a few things happen that we're pretty excited about. We had two exchanges this week back to back, so I wasn't even in my area for two days. They were both good though, and I was able to meet a few people they're trying to work with, and we were able to find some people! 

There's been somewhat of a new development with Bob! He said that he wants to learn more in the Book of Mormon what it is that we believe as a church! Before he's mostly been wanting to know the history and stuff. We'll probably be teaching the restoration again, but this time maybe he'll want to get more out of it! That night we were also able to meet with someone named David. He's had a pretty rough life, but he has a strong desire to change and become a better person. We taught him the plan of salvation and taught how it's though Christ we can change. He accepted a Book of Mormon and we'll be meeting with him again tomorrow. 

Another bit of exciting news this week came on Friday when we were able to catch Brian at home! For those who don't remember, Brian is a teenager we met a while back. He's pretty open to learning more, he's just never been home for the last month or so. Also later in the day we had another mini exchange for a couple hours. 

We had a mission tour this Saturday that was really good! Elder Klebingat from the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was such a powerful meeting! I think I took more notes at this zone conference than any other zone conference I've attended! One of the things I've felt impressed to do is use the Book of Mormon more as a tool that will convert people. Since I just restarted the Book of Mormon, I've started marking a clean copy that focuses on Christ and His doctrine as well as reading chapters that focus on the questions of the soul found in Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon.

Meanwhile, while we were at the mission tour, our good friend Dizi was baptized in the California, Irvine Mission! We heard that it was a great service and that lots of her family was there as well as some members of our ward. We talked to her later in the evening and she was so happy! We were able stand in the circle as she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It's been a long time coming for her, but she's made it to this point! We're so happy for her and all the blessings that are in store for her! Përgëzime Dizi! (Congratulations Dizi)! 

That's it for now! Until next time, 

Elder Jason Riches 

Picture: Me, Elder Pack, Elder Spackman, and Dizi.