8 Months Serving in The Lord's Army!

Hello family and friends!

This week has been a pretty good week. We taught 14 lessons again,
still trying to reach our goal of 15. Nothing too exciting happened,
just a pretty normal week. We had exchanges on Saturday and I went to
covina with one of the other sisters. It was pretty fun and I learned
a lot about myself while on exchanges.

So on Monday we went on a bike ride in the mountains again with the
elders in our district. It was fun. One set went today and told us
they saw the ocean, that's why we wanted to go to begin with but it
was always too smoggy to see the ocean. Oh well. What taught a few
lessons that night too. We are helping out recent convert prepare to
go do baptisms for the dead next month at the LA Temple with our ward. 
It is pretty exciting! She is excited to start her family history work
and find names to take to the temple.

On Tuesday we were going to have our first skype lesson but something
wasn't working. Our investigator told us she'd rather wait till she
was back in town. Skype stressed her out too much.  But we had a good
lesson with another one of our investigators  and it was perfect for 
what she needed at that time.

On Wednesday we went to the church and did Zumba with some of the
sisters and a few nonmembers. Talking to the nonmembers afterwards,
the one we thought was ready to accept the gospel said if she wants to
convert she knows where to go and who to talk to. The other one may be
interested. She doesn't know much about our religion. We then had a
lesson with a lady we received as a referral a few months ago but just
never heard back. Turns out she isn't in our area. The Spanish sisters
thought we had a certain street here but we have the east side but not
the west side and they have given us a lot of referrals for the west
side of the street, sadly. But tonight we are having a pass off lesson
with the elders in that area. She's so sweet and loves Christ! We then
went to do service at the Pomona Hospital and we did little jobs here
and there for different people. No one really needed help that day!
But after that we had another lesson with the man who asked about Gods
body. At the end we told him we were going to give his information to
the Spanish elders where he lives and he wasn't too fond of the idea
but hopefully he'll accept them. He is just doing work in Claremont
but lives in chino which is outside of the English mission. The
Spanish from our mission still got here though. Crazy boundaries.

Thursday we had district meeting. We were both super tired and a bit
grumpy so I didn't get the most out of it, which is my own fault but I
got my new shoes and some letters! We taught a couple from the ward
that we are helping prepare for the temple. Then later taught our
recent convert and that went well.

Friday we had weekly planning, long day! This whole week was really
long! Sadly the family we taught last Sunday said they aren't
interested because the wife isn't fond of Mormons. We're going to go
get our haircut by her sometime just to help move her along. Soften
her up! That family is so ready for the gospel and the blessings!

Saturday was exchanges! We biked all over the place! We found a new
investigator. It was crazy we were taking with her on her doorstep
about how faithful she is at going to her church and how she studies
the bible everyday and recognizes the difference in her day when she
doesn't read and how she understands she needs to go to church too,
just reading isn't enough! We asked if we could share a 2 minute video
with her expecting to just show her on her doorstep but she opened the
door and let us in and we showed her Because of Him. It was really
nice. She accepted us to come back and teach her more. Of course I
won't be there but I might be transferred there one day, who knows. It
was a pretty good exchange. I learned a lot in my Book of Mormon ready
that day.

Sunday was nice. The talks were nice and we had an investigator family 
and one of our investigators there. It was great to have them all there. 
Our one investigator spoke up a lot during Sunday school like always 
and then she did in relief society too! That was awesome! Later we went 
and had dinner at her house. She was so sweet and put together. Big meal 
for us! We had BBQ carne asada and ribs and baked potato and Spanish 
rice and a tortilla and chicken wings and fried tilapia and a big piece 
of neapolitan cake-- which we took home. She's so sweet and always 
wanting to do service! Then we taught our investigator family. We talked 
about church and why we go to church and why they go to church, trying 
to see their motivation to go or if it's just to please us. Turns out 
they go to feel the spirit although the dad has a really hard time 
recognizing the spirit. We then went by a former to see how she is doing. 
She's doing fine, lost a lot more hair due to her chemo.

Thanks for all the prayers and support from everyone! I love being a
missionary, some times it's tough but I know that means Heavenly
Father is just making us stronger. That's what trials and mountains
to overcome are. They are to build us and shape us into the person he
wants us to be! It's like the refiners fire. To shape iron into what
the iron man wants he puts it in the fire to heat it up and then he
hits it to shape it and purify it into a beautiful and useful thing. I
know this gospel is true and I am so thankful for it!

Love, Sister Riches

The Peace the Gospel Brings!

Hello family and friends!

This has been a pretty productive week! We taught 8 member present
lessons and 6 recent convert/ less active lessons. Sadly we didn't
teach any other lessons- lessons without members present. But that's
14 lessons, and sadly one away from the challenge our District Leader
gave us. But this week we will for sure get it!

Monday we had a good p-day and then taught a recent convert. We
should have planned to go with  an investigator family who went to a 

members home for family home evening. We didn't realize
that till the next day... Our bad.

Tuesday we weren't feeling too great. On our way to dinner we got
stopped by a guy. He pulled up next to us and got out and walked over
to us as we were walking on the sidewalk. He asked if we were Mormons.
We said yes. He told us he had a couple of questions for us. We said
alright so he proceeded to ask why we believe that God has a body. We
told him we believe that we are made in His image and that we lived
with a God before this life and there have been people who have seen
God and testified of His body. We also talked about the scripture in
Jeremiah how God knew us before we were formed in the belly. It was an
interesting contact. But we had dinner and a lesson with some less
actives. Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators at a members house . We watched the conference talk by President Monson from the 

October 2013 "I Will Not Fail Thee Nor Forsake Thee". It went really well. 

She loved it! We got home and had gotten a text from the man we met on 

the street saying he went to the website Mormon.org we gave him to help answer his questions, because it seemed like he wanted to bash on the 

street so we gave him the card and our number and he texted us! Crazy...

that rarely happens. He said there was only one scripture it mentioned in genesis to back up our belief of God having a body. But then the zone 

leaders got our phone to replace it with a new phone we would get the next day.

On Wednesday we were going to go to Zumba again but Sister M.still wasn't feeling too great. We also didn't have a phone because the zone leaders took our phone the night before because we were going to get a new phone on Wednesday. So I studied for about three hours and tried to find better scriptures to share with the man who stopped us the day before. I found a ton of good scriptures and everything correlated so well with the restoration! At least that's what I thought. But we used the members phone to make calls to get members out with us for the day. We taught a former investigator  who

we began teaching when we got here almost 5 months ago but she was
always so busy and never home and she was always in and out of the
hospital getting things ready to have surgery on her eye...she's
blind...so we dropped her. But we called to see how her surgery went
and she said she could now see out of one eye and was so happy! She
scheduled a time we could come by and said she is always praying for
us. Very sweet! She is also getting her teeth fixed and her wrist
broke before her eye surgery and that's almost healed. It is cool to
see the similarities between her being able to see and her beginning
again to learn about the gospel! We saw a recent convert and
enter over the restoration with her again because it had been a while.
Then we were supposed to take our investigator to do family
history again but she was sick. We got our new phone and were so
thankful! I can't imagine how missionaries did it before without cell
phones!

Thursday was zone meeting. There are certain meetings where I get
super pumped about the work and others where I feel like a failure
missionary...this was one of those I feel like a failure meetings. I
saw a lot of my weaknesses and what I need to work on with myself and
my thingies skills. I'm thankful my weaknesses have been shown but it
hurts my pride of course. We never like to hear we are wrong. But it
was a pretty good day. We went to see a new investigator but
she wasn't home. Turns out she was at the doctors. But we were able to
go by and see an investigator we haven't seen in over a month! She's
going through a rough time but we were able to go help her out. It was
good to see her again and she got a new number so that's why we hadn't
been able to get a hold of her. We had dinner with the bishops family
at the baseball park cause their son was in a championship game so we
got subway and went to eat there. It was fun. Then we taught a less
active couple to help them get back into the swing of things. They
hadn't been to church in over a month because of work. We are going to
help them go to the temple to get sealed. Then we helped our
investigator again with family history. It was a pretty good day.

Friday we taught a less active and then had sushi for lunch and did
our weekly planning. We taught the man who stopped us on the street at
the park with a couple from the ward who joined us. It was a little
contentious and he had the agenda already planned. It was letter
difficult. He was trying to teach us when he had asked us to teach him
why we believed god has a body. We were pretty bold and said if we
understand you correctly, you wanted to meet today so we could tell
you why we believe god has a body but you haven't let us share with
you yet why we believe that. He called us later that night to
apologize for taking over and talking to much causing us to be late to
our next appointment. We had a ward potluck and that was fun. Sadly
not many nonmembers, about 2. We were supposed to go on exchanges but
the other sisters forgot. We got home to meet them and called and
texted but didn't hear from them. We got really worried. We still
didn't hear from them after 9:30 and told the zone leaders. We didn't
hear from them till a little after 10. They had forgotten and their
phone was on silent. We had been praying individually that we wouldn't
have to go on exchanges and we got scared that we caused them to get
in an accident or kidnapped because of our selfish prayers. But they
were okay and we both had a good Saturday and it was important we were
not on exchanges.

So Saturday we helped a members nonmember daughter clean up her sons
birthday party. She has two boys both with special needs and we have
been doing service for her every once in a while so we've gotten
pretty close. We then had a lesson with a recent convert  and her
visiting teacher  and then went to see a new investigator from a few weeks

ago who had invited a friend over to contradict everything we said. We went back to see if he really did have intent in learning the truth. We were going to teach about the Book of Mormon but it turned into him asking us questions about our beliefs. The member we brought with  was perfect for this! As we were planning for him the day before Sister M. had the thought to bring a really strong convert with us and the sister we brought was available! All the questions he was asking were questions she had asked the missionaries. It was pretty cool. It started kind of contentious and him wanting to prove us wrong and then it turned into a good lesson and the spirit was there as the sister bore her testimony and helped answer his questions. We then had dinner at our ward mission leaders house and then had a quick meeting. We also had a lesson with our investigator. She wasn't home at the time so we went over to a members  and did some service for them there and then our investigator came over. Before she came over we had a really nice talk with the sister about some cool spiritual experiences she or family members had had. We then taught a really awesome lesson on the plan of salvation. Her father had died a few years ago and it was cool to help her know where he is and that he too
is learning the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked to her about how the family history work will help her ancestors will be able to accept the gospel and she can live with them forever. It is so cool to see the hope this gospel brings! It just brings everything together from the temple visit and our lessons and family history! It's so cool!

Sunday was decent. We didn't have anyone at church sadly and all our
appointments cancelled on us, luckily we were able to reschedule one
with a potential family for later in the day. We had dinner and made homemade pizzas at a members! It was really fun! The dough rose really well because the sister put the dough in her car to rise with the windows up...really good idea! Then we went by one of our investigators homes  to see how she was doing. She had to go to the hospital that morning to get stitches on her leg. The
medicine they gave her made her really sleepy so she was in bed all day! But we went to teach the potential family and it went really well! The mom isn't too interested but she is ready, she just doesn't know. She's stubborn but if it's gods will she'll come around. The father is searching and the two sons are super polite. I think they have a lot of potential! Sadly they didn't accept a return appointment they said they would call. Therefore making them not new investigators in area book! But it was a good week!

I love this work and I am so happy for the hope and peace the gospel
brings! Thank you all for your love and support and prayers! I love
you all!

Love, Sister Riches

Click to reply all

Send

Miracles and Work

Hello family and friends!

So this has been a pretty good week.

Monday was fun. Sister M. and I went to the mall and had a
blast there. Then we went to the ward mission leaders house for a BBQ.
We then helped a member and her friend, our investigator, do a
surprise act of service for the members neighbors. We planted plants
for them that won't die...although Sister M. and I are plant
killers. We can't keep aloe Vera alive. We've been given four
different plants...

Tuesday was kinda uneventful. But turned out alright. We saw an
investigator  who was sick, and a less active and our recent
convert . It was cool at dinner with a couple from the ward we
showed them the Because of Him video and they said it a perfect so
they could use it at the addiction recovery class they taught that
night. We gave our investigator the pictures of when event to
the temple. She loved it!

Wednesday was a good day. We went to the Zumba class one of the
sisters teaches at our church building and there's a lot of nonmembers
that go. We did that and it was way fun! We talked to a few of the
ladies there and one told us she pretty much knows everything about
Mormons but just hasn't converted. Then we did service at the Pomona
hospital. Then we helped our investigator  with her family
history. It was awesome! She really has the spirit of Elijah!

On Thursday we had an awesome district meeting and worked on
developing more faith. After we went and tried to be faithful. We are
really bad at talking to everyone we see and getting at least 10
contacts a day because there is hardly anyone on the street. You have
to search for them! But we talked to everyone we saw and we got an
appointment to visit with a man his wife and their three kids for
Sunday! Sadly that got cancelled but rescheduled for next Sunday. We
also got another man's contact information to go see him. Then we got a
referral from the elders. We later got another referral from other
missionaries. And the next few days we got some more! We ended the
week off with 6 to contact and we were only able to contact one. The
others haven't called back so we have to keep trying before we count
them as contacted. We also had a good lesson with one of our newer
investigators . She seems pretty sincere in learning.

Friday I wasn't feeling too great. But we taught a less active and did
our weekly planning. We then went out to find new investigators and
check up on other investigators we hadn't seen in forever! No luck
with that but we stopped by a beehive activity and played some card
games with them. It was fun and good to get to know the beehives
better and be a good example for them.

Saturday I was pretty sick but we went out and worked. I ended up
getting a 99.5° temp but that was skewed because I was overheated and
just got out of a hot car. But still I was not feeling week. Much like
what Sister M. had last week. We had a meeting with our
assistant ward mission leader and then taught a few good lessons. We
taught three of our investigators. We were able to drop by the Jewish
man and his family  and help them understand how to receive answers to 
prayers. Then we had a good lesson with a member's friend who is agnostic. 
Every time we testify to her that God knows her and loves her she tears up 
and so do I...no surprise there. But we try to help her recognize she is feeling
the spirit. It's pretty cool. Then we taught our other investigator about the
spirit of Elijah because she didn't know what that was. It was a nice
lesson. She has come so far since we first met her! It's amazing the
change in people as they learn about Jesus Christ and God. I love it!

On Sunday we had awesome plans set up for the day and all of them
cancelled! But we were able to teach the Jewish man and his son - his
wife was sick- about the plan of salvation. This went a lot better
than we anticipated! It was a pretty good week. We look forward to the
blessings that will come this week!

I love you all and I love this work. I am so happy that I am here in
Claremont! I love the people and the experience and all I'm learning.
We were challenged a few months ago to read through the Book of Mormon
once before the new mission president comes. I have about 100 pages to
go! I love the Book of Mormon! I wish I could sit and read it all day!
It is so motivating and inspiring! I love the spirit from the Book of
Mormon and how much it applies to us today even though it was written
so long ago! I love it! It is the keystone of our religion and it is
another testament of Jesus Christ. I love reading it and coming closer
with my savior. I love reading the testimonies of those prophets and
learning more about the atonement and how it works in our lives. I
want everyone to feel the love and spirit I have felt as I read.
Please read the Book of Mormon. We have all been invited to read it
and ask God if it is true, I know it is And I know a God will hear and
answer your prayer as you ask!

Love, Sister Riches

My Week and Transfers!

Hello family and friends!

This week was a pretty normal week. On Monday we went on a bike ride up in the mountains with the other elders in our district and that was really fun. On Tuesday we saw a less active lady and then tried to find new investigators we found one guy who may be interested. We haven't had a chance to stop by again but that's in our plans for this week. We then went and served a Sister in our ward and did some chores for her because her husband is in and out of town until September.
Tuesday night we had a good lesson with our investigator. 
Wednesday Sister M. wasn't feeling well and so we stayed home for the first half of the day while she rested. I read different talks and had about three hours of personal study and then wrote in my journal...trying to catch up. We had a lesson with one of our newer investigators . We don't know her too well yet to know her
desire and intent on learning but she's been reading from the Book of Mormon so that's way good! We then had a lesson with our recent convert . We went to try and strengthen her faith to help her remember to turn towards God in times of trial not things of the world. 
Thursday we had a good district meeting, our last one with our amazing district! Then we went and saw a lady in our ward who lives in a care center super sweet lady! We normally see her on Tuesday but sister M wasn't feeling well Tuesday either so we couldn't. She was glad we came on Thursday cause she wasn't waking up to anything on Tuesday because of her medicine. Later we saw our recent convert again with her visiting teachers. 
On Friday we had weekly planning and it was hard cause sister M was still feeling sick and I got a little upset that she was sick...silly yes. But then we were able to plan and the members we went to for dinner are from Africa and we had African food! It was so good! 
Saturday was good. We taught three lessons and the two investigator lessons were in members homes! Best place for lessons! 
Then on Sunday there was a fireside that one of our investigators came to. It was really good and perfect for her! Nothing too exciting happened. We did find a new investigator on Thursday. Oh Saturday night was transfer calls. We are staying together!!!!!! This will be our fourth transfer together and we will be in this ward together for at least 6 months! Half a year and a third of our mission in the same area with the same companion!! That's crazy! But I love Sister M and she said this morning that we were best friends in the premortal life! It's great! Oh and Yesterday the bishop of the Claremont 1st ward (we are serving in the 2nd ward) came up to us and told us about how at his house for dinner they had his grandson who is 5 and granddaughter who is 3 there (both in our ward). Every time they go over they put some change and quarters in a jar. He asked his grandson why they did that. He said he couldn't remember. So he said it's to help you pay for your mission. His granddaughter, who is the cutest spunkiest and hyperactive little girl I know, said I can be a missionary too! I can be a girl missionary! He then had tears in his eyes when he said "we did not teach her that. She has learned that because she has seen you two and you both have been an example to her of what she can do!" I thought this as so special and amazing that being out here is not only for the investigators and non members but for the members and my
family to strengthen and build their testimonies. I love this work! It is HARD but salvation isn't easy. The price for salvation is the atonement. The suffering Christ made was no easy and so it makes sense that serving a mission, living every day life, and making changes and repenting isn't easy either. I am so happy for all that I am learning and becoming!

I love you all and I love this gospel!

Love, Sister Riches

The week of ups and downs!

Hello family and friends! 

So this has been a super slow week and super up and down week. Tuesday was super hot and slow! Our less active canceled on us and gave us a ton of excuses and everyone else cancelled so we saw a member and sang to her in the retirement home and she's the best. I love her! We then sat on a curb and tried to figure things out. Where we were going to go who we would see...But we taught one of our investigators Tuesday night about women and the priesthood and it was everything she needed to hear to understand the different roles. She's very big into women's rights and such. We set her with a baptism date too!! November 29! She has to take care of a divorce, that why the date is later.

Wednesday we went to the hospital and did service and saw a less active and dropped an investigator. We have now dropped 5 in the past two weeks. We have one progressing and one family of three kinda progressing and everyone else isn't too elect or doesn't have real desire. They have such potential they just won't DO anything! But Wednesday night we taught a part of the young women's activity all about missionaries. We taught how cool PMG (Preach My Gospel) is! They had some good questions too. We heard cool stories from other sisters in our ward who served missions. 

On Thursday we went to seminary to talk about how we decided to serve a mission and we weekly planned. We have decided to use family history as a good street contact topic. We also have other creative finding ideas. We then got more appointments cancelled and had dinner with a less active at Marie Calendars. It was yummy but he could talk forever!! He's funny though! Then we went and tried to find. It was a long night. But we had to go to the grocery store and the gelato was on sale so we bought some. I got sea salt caramel aka liquid caramel! Soooo good!

Friday was great! We had zone conference! We learned a lot about companion unity and working with members and to accept the new mission president and respect and love him and be loyal to him. It's so sad president is leaving! We are going to have a mission conference next month. That'll be good. We learned a cool way to work with members! We went to see our recent convert,  because she has been in the hospital for a few days last week having tests done for her Multiple Sclerosis. She's doing alright. 

On Saturday we taught a less active. She's really wanting to change her life around and quit smoking and go to the temple and she's understanding the Book of Mormon too! She comes to church pretty frequent. Then we went to the temple visitors center with the investigator we just set the baptism date with! It was so nice! On the way there we rode with a member and his son who is going on a mission soon. The five of us talked about some cool  things and M. was telling us about the importance of praying always and fasting. She's bomb! We listened to good church music like I LOVE THE LORD by BYU men's chorus. (Mine and Brother A.'s favorite song! The A's are like our mom and dad and the H's are our grandparents! I love this ward!) It was awesome she really loved it! She felt the spirit and is so excited to learn more.

Sunday was crazy up and downs. To start off we had ward council which went pretty well. Then we got a call from our investigator we went to the temple with, saying good news and bad news. Good news her husband came to visit so she can get the divorce started. Bad news she wouldn't be able to come to church because of it. Then our recent convert wasn't feeling well so she stayed home. But good news the Jewish dad and his Catholic wife and their son came! Then after church we studied then went to a pass off lesson for a friend of one of the members  who does not believe in God and is kinda contradicting. It's interesting. But it was cool cause we got a new investigator and she has potential she just has to stop being stubborn and let God work on her! Then we went to a baptism for a man that I contacted in Azusa. We were going to the library and we locked up our bikes and the spirit told me to go talk to him. I was in an irritable mood that morning. In our companionship we weren't too unified. It was a hard day. So we go in and I disregard the prompting. We go back out to get our bikes and he was still there and so the spirit prompted me again so my companion kept walking almost getting on her bike and I with my helmet on, started to walk towards him and we started to talk to him and had a lesson right there. He got baptized on Sunday! He had asked too if I would come! It is so cool that he remembered me. The baptism was really special too. He is in a wheelchair and there were four elders who helped baptize him! The Jewish and and his family came to the baptism too. Then after the baptism we went to see our investigator we took to the temple and she wasn't there but our recent convert was and we talked to her for a bit. Then our investigator  came home so we read a scripture with her and talked to her about the divorce and church. Then we went to a lesson where the investigator set us up and had a friend there to contradict everything we said. It was terrible we kept trying to finish the conversation smoothly to leave and finally we did. The spirit was not there at all! So we went home and ate our gelato. It was so up and down and it's been crazy!

 

This week more than any other I have learned that when times get hard remember to turn first to The Lord not to gelato or to vent to your companion but first to The Lord. It's easier that way. I love this gospel and I know it is true! I'm so thankful for the atonement and that Jesus Christ made the sacrifice for us that we can return back into His arms and feel His love. He is always there for us but we move. We decide how close to God we want to be.

  

Thanks for all your prayers and support! I really appreciate it!

Love, Sister Riches

Happy Mother's Day and 7 Months Serving in the Lord's Army!

Hello Family and friends!

This week has been an interesting week. It feels like we've been in a
time warp time has passed so quickly this week and it feels like we
didn't teach many lessons. We've dropped 3 of our investigators and
will be dropping another tonight. But we have zone conference this
Friday and that will teach us how to work with members to get
referrals to find the elect who are ready for the gospel. It was nice
to talk to mom, dad, and Sara yesterday! It was really fun but crazy
it still doesn't feel like I talked to them! The time went so fast!
It's been 7 months that I have been here and it's crazy how fast time
is going! Some exciting things that happened this week was we had
exchanges and that was alright. Then we had interviews with President
Becerra on Friday. It was really nice. Interviews are normally 10
minutes and I was talking with President for 25 minutes. I went in and
he asked me if I had any questions for him. I said 1) how do I stay
more motivated in the work and 2)how do we find the elect? So he
taught me for the whole time and it was really nice. I'm excited for
zone conference because he taught me a lot about what we are learning
on Friday. I also more of why I am out here on a mission and the
purpose I am out here. I love the mission, even though it is hard
work. Today we went to Chinatown in Los Angeles and that was fun I got
a few California shirts, finally! I am so thankful for all the help
and support and prayers you give me!

I love you all!
Sister Celeste Riches

The District!

Hello Family!

So this has been a crazy week! I don't know where to begin and what
all to share...

On Monday we had a good time at our zone activity and had a good
lesson with one of our investigators.

On Tuesday we had exchanges from noon Tuesday to noon Wednesday.
Before we exchanged we did a presentation at one of the retirement
homes on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It went
well. We showed a video about an introduction to the church. Then we
went back to our pad and went on exchanges. I went to Arcadia with
Sister S! Turns out they told us wrong that they are in
Arcadia not Azusa. Sad but it was fun to be with my mom again! (my
trainer) We helped out in the office and that was really fun! We
helped with the new missionary lunch. While eating with some of the
elders I also got hit on by an elder and that was interesting. He
found out I went to BYUI and he was shocked I didn't get married. It
was awkward. Then we went out and proselyted. We tried by a former
investigators house but they hid from us. So we went to dinner and
then went on splits with his daughters. It was really weird to be on
exchanges in a different area and then go on splits. We went by a few
members and that was good. We also stopped by a potential and that was
an interesting experience. We met this girl and she was really excited
and ready to learn it was awesome! Her mom however did not like us
there and she told us to get off her property and was really upset.
She said we can not contact her at home or at college. Which is really
sad because she is so ready for the gospel. But it was a good night.
One of the members we visited had two Tesla cars. They're nice! We
went back to their apartment, it is pretty nasty and Jimmy the squirrel
lives in the ceiling, not really.

On Wednesday we had an awesome lesson on the plan of salvation. It was
amazing to see the peace knowing this life is not the only life. We
then did some office work then we exchanged back. We had lunch at one
of the members house and then went and taught a less active lesson
then got a new investigator! He is awesome! He had been taught by
elders a few years ago and had a baptism date. Something happened
where he couldn't be baptized then but we committed him to baptism and
he said yes! He is so excited too. Sadly we have to pass him off to
the YSA elders. He would do better in a YSA ward. Then we had a lesson
with the investigator who got baptized (Kim) and then the other
amazing sister we are working with (Missy). She is doing awesome
missionary work and sharing with everyone she is friends with!

On Thursday we had an awesome district meeting. The week before we
were challenged to have a baptism invite in every lesson. And Sister
M and I did that! It was amazing to see the blessings that
came out of focusing more on our purpose as missionaries: to invite
others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel
through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, BAPTISM,
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We
taught more lessons this week then we ever have. Granted we saw our
investigator who got baptized every day. After district meeting
we went out to find some more. We set up a return appointment with one
man we came across. Later that night we taught two more lessons.

On Friday we planned and then got things all ready for the baptism on
Sunday. We brought her clothes to try on to make sure something
worked. We were able to serve a couple in the ward that helps us out a
ton! It was really nice!

On Saturday we did Helping Hands and helped paint a fence around a
pool it was a lot of fun! Then we went out and taught lessons. We had
a really good lesson with one of our investigators.

Sunday! Baptism! Our investigator was baptized. It was amazing
how many ward members came to support her. It was a good baptism. Her
friends from Corona came to see. They'll be coming next Sunday to her
confirmation too. Our other investigator came and loved it.
She is excited when she will be baptized.

After all it was a good week. I learned a lot of cool insights. Now
today we are at a members house with the elders where we had breakfast
and then played games and frisbee and I went on the tramp! It was so
fun! That's why it's taken so long to write. But I love this work and
I love the unity in our district and with Sister M! It is so
fun how close we've gotten and how much we help each other out. (Hence
the title of the email...) 

Love, Sister Celeste Riches