Sushi, Israel and AMAZING People

Family,

This week we were able to meet with one of our investigators. She is doing really great and has loved everything we have taught her but she has been really hard to get a hold of. One of her daughters is LDS and has been a great influence on her. She has been very curious about why her daughter is so happy and why she believes the the things that she does. This week we stopped by many times to see her and she was never home. Fortunately, one night we pulled up to her house and spotted her walking her dog in her neighborhood. She let us in and let us teach her. We taught her about how we have a prophet on the earth today and mentioned that General Conference was coming up. She committed herself to watch General Conference because she is really excited to see what it is all about. She also said that she will be coming to church this Sunday so we are very excited about that! She is one of the nicest ladies and she has such great potential! She really wants to know if what we tell her is true and she has done her homework as well. After only being able to meet with her a few times she is almost all the way through The Book of Mormon. What an inspiration! I will keep you posted on how she is doing.

We were also able to meet with a member's girlfriend again this week. She is just wonderful! We taught her about the law of tithing, fasting, and obeying and honoring the law. We also were able to go over the baptismal interview questions so she is prepared for her baptism in two weeks! We love meeting with her and every morning we plan to meet with her I just get so excited to see her! She is the ideal investigator because she is willing to do anything we ask her to do and she takes the time to find answers for herself. She is wonderful and every week we (Sister Casper and I) always get so excited to see her!

One miracle this week is that we were able to meet with a lady that the Westlake elders (Elder Watts and Elder Atkin) met a while ago. They gave us her information and told us to stop by. We had come by many many times but either no one answered or she simply wasn't home. This week we drove up to her house and she pulled up coming home from the grocery store.  Sister Casper and I seem to keep having this impeccable timing! Anyways, she let us in and we started to teach her the restoration lesson. We will meet with her again this week and we were just so happy that we were finally able to come in contact with her!

Also, basically the best news of the week is that one of the members had talked to one of our investigators and said that she is still wanting to come to church. She hasn't come because she didn't want to cause any trouble at home. I almost cried when I heard that! I am not sure if I told you already but she has been having a big family crisis and our bishop asked us not to talk to or visit her or her husband for the time being. We have been wanting to see them so bad over the past month or so to see how they are doing so I was so happy to hear that she was still interested in the gospel even after she has gone through such hard times! Hopefully everything will settle down soon and we will be able to visit her and continue teaching her! She is such a wonderful, strong woman who has been though so much, so I am hopeful that she can do it! She has had a really hard time quitting smoking but I think she has the determination that she can finally do it. We will see!
 

The District! Sister Unga, Sister Appel, me, Sister Casper,
Elder Atkin, Elder Watts,  Elder Reese and Elder Jarnagin

We also had a special training meeting about apartments, vehicles, and health. I was secretly hoping that they would sneak in how our mission is going to implement the new social media in the work. Sadly that didn't happen but I am looking forward to that day! In our meeting they told us all about how we need to have our temporal things in order before we can be effective instruments in the Lord's hands. President Castro, Sister Castro, and the office staff gave us suggestions on how to be healthy and reminded us of things we need to do to take care of ourselves, our cars, and our apartments. There were only a few zones from the mission in that meeting but it was full of missionaries from my MTC zone! I was able to see Elder Harper, Elder Spencer, Sister Snow, Sister Dixon, and Sister Appel and it seemed like one big MTC reunion. 

Sister Dixon, Sister Snow, me & Sister Casper at our training meeting

This week some members took us out to get sushi for dinner. I have only had sushi a few times and let me tell you this sushi was so tasty! I knew that by being in California I would have sushi one of these days but it was seriously so good. I am going to start craving sushi! 

One of my favorite families in the ward The Aguero's!
We have FHE with them almost every Monday night.
Hopefully I will have a cute little family like them one day!
They are some of the strongest people I know.

We also met some of the coolest people this week! Since Agoura has a very high population of Jewish people, we run into people that moved here from Israel all the time. We met a man this week that is from Israel and was born in Bethlehem! How amazing is that? He grew up in the same place where Christ was born. We also ran into other Jewish people that we asked about Judaism, and it was very fascinating. I really wish I would have gone with you to the Hasidic Jewish community when we were in New York! I know, this is a total "I told you so moment". I have to learn little things here and there about Judaism, but you guys were able to see it and experience it yourselves!

Sometimes when we are tracting I feel like we are trick or treating. Haha, because people often give us water bottles or snacks. This week when we were tracting we talked to this young mom and she gave us cupcakes! That completely made my day! She was the nicest lady! She told us that she and her little daughter were making them for her husband but they wanted to give some to us. SCORE!

The lovely Agoura sisters!!

Seriously, everything in Agoura has been going great! Sister Casper and I have been having a great time and have been working as hard as we can to keep teaching our investigators to help them progress and come towards Christ, while also searching for new people to teach. 

It has been another wonderful week! We have had experiences of a lifetime and there is no place I would rather be! I would not have imagined in a million years that I would be here right now telling everyone that will listen about Christ and His gospel. I love it and feel so blessed every day because of it!
 

Much love,

Sister Mason