Hi From Sunny California!

Hello family and friends!

So this week has had its ups and downs. It was a decent week. We
taught 9 lessons.

I still haven't been feeling well. I am slowly getting better. I still
have the sniffles and an occasional headache.

On Monday we worked on updating our area book in our iPads cause I was
feeling weak.

On Tuesday we had a few lessons. We had a really good lesson about the
plan of salvation with one of the ladies we are teaching. She quoted
Jeremiah 1:5 to us when we talked about how we lived with God before
this life. She was able to understand what was going on and we didn't
bring up baptism too much and right off the bat she started talking
about how she needed to make some changes in her life before she could
be baptized. It was pretty cool. I always love to watch how the spirit
teaches people and when they recognize and connect things together!

On Wednesday, we did some service for a family in our ward. We weeded
their side yard and it looked pretty good when we stopped. We were
only able to get about half way but it was nice cause of the rain the
roots came out easily! I loved weeding because we all got to talk and
get to know each other better and weeding is actually pretty
therapeutic! It as a bright sunny day nice and warm out with the sun
it was good to be outside! It made us remember fun things about our
families and childhood. Dad thanks for getting me to help you with our
gardening and yard work at home. Not only is it a good skill but it's
a great time to bond together! That night we went to teach a lady and
when we got there we found out she as having a terrible day so we just
talked with her and tried to uplift her and help her out. She ended up
showing us some of her artwork. It's amazing! She learned how to ink
from a friend. She inks comic book scenes and stuff like that. 

Thursday was a hard day. Lots of ups and downs. We had zone meeting
and I was so out of it. I was not feeling well and I was feeling
really down on myself. One of my zone leaders talked to me and I told
him what was going on. For the past while I've felt really down on
myself and like I'm not doing enough as a missionary and there's so
much more that I should be doing as a missionary and so much more that
I am not doing. This is a hard area and it's hard to find people to
teach. There is hardly anyone on the street to talk to and if we go
knocking we are to knock with a name of someone in that area and it is
not very effective...pre-hastening stuff. So I've been not as
motivated to leave the house in the morning because we don't know who
to teach where to find people to teach or who we can find. It's hard.
So my zone leaders were able to give me a blessing and help me out a
lot. I also later broke down to Sister M about how I was
feeling. I feel like there is so much more that I should be learning
and I feel like I haven't been progressing. But I'm feeling a little
better now. After the meeting and blessing we came home and I took a
nap to try and get my energy back so I could work the rest of the
week. Later we had a lesson and I am so thankful for the spirit. We
were both really nervous but the spirit was able to help us out. I am
so thankful this is The Lords work and not ours and that we are never
alone!

I love Sister M! She is so great! I am so thankful we are
companions more than one transfer. This is the first time either of us
get a companion for more than one transfer. So it's been nice. We have
members ask us all the time is all the sisters get along...they don't.
But it's nice to know that the members can see that we are close. We
can learn a lot from eachother and its so nice! People we meet on the
street and stuff think we are twins and when we say we aren't they
think we are sisters....we are but not that type of sister! It's fun!

On Friday we did service and helped clean the house of the lady in our
ward who just passed away from cancer. Her husband passed a few years
earlier from cancer and her kids are now living with a few families in
the ward. We then planned and had our meeting with the ward mission
leader. None of our lessons went through sadly.

On Saturday we helped clean up after the memorial service and we got
food and flowers from it so that's fun! Our room smells so good now!
:) we then tried to find new investigators and we stopped at a part
members house for water and ended up doing more service and having
dinner and then a quick lesson. We sang I am a child of God with the
ukulele Sister M bought on Monday. She's learning and it's
fun. I'm learning too. So I may buy one....

On Sunday church went well. We had an investigator there so that made
things more worth while. The ward is so good at fellow shipping. In
relief society there wasn't any room to sit by her! Then we went out
in the average of 80° weather to find new investigators.  We were able
to make a few appointments later in the week to go back at a better
time. That night we taught a family about Jesus Christ. The father has
been raised mainly Jewish so accepting that Jesus Christ is the
messiah is hard for him. The spirit was there and he is coming closer
to recognizing Jesus Christ as the messiah. We told them that through
church, prayer, and reading the scriptures-spiritual CPR- they can
better know Jesus Christ is the messiah.

Overall the week went well. I hope you all are doing fantastic!

Love, Sister Celeste Riches