Another Great Week in Santa Maria!

Fammm,

This has been another great week! We had a few frustrating days where it seemed like the world fell apart and everyone canceled on us, but those days happen. One day was really bad though. It was about 8pm and everyone cancelled on us and we had run through every single person we could think of with no success.
 

We had the great idea to go to the Family History Library at our stake center to go on Mormon.org (we are able to go on mormon.org two times a month for an hour each time). The library is open till 9pm on weeknights so we thought it was the perfect plan. It turned out that we drove all the way there and it was closed! It was supposed to be open but somehow that even cancelled on us! We just laughed it off and ended up going to the ward building to help the YW clean us after their Evening in Excellence.

 

One of my favorite ghetto parts of our area!
I can't resist ice cream from the sketchy ice cream vans and
the ice cream people that push carts around the neighborhood

Yesterday M and another investigator S came to church! Steve has a daughter who is LDS and she introduced him to the church. The daughter is in the Santa Maria 3rd ward but she and her husband brought her dad to his ward this week. He stayed for all 3 hours of church and we are meeting with him this week! He is such a humble man and I have heard that he has already started reading the Book of Mormon. We are more than excited to teach him for the first time this week!
 

M stayed for all of the meetings as well and even said that she wants to come to mutual this week! Her sister R and her other siblings weren't able to come this week but hopefully next Sunday more of the family will be there too! It was just another wonderful Sunday!

This week we were able to meet with one of our investigators K. She is just the best. Last time we met with her we invited her to start reading The Book of Mormon and to read one of the pamphlets we left with her. When we came back the next time, she had been reading The Book of Mormon and had fallen in love with it! She also was really excited to tell us that she read both of the pamphlets instead of just one. She is just incredible. It is so hard for many investigators to read The Book of Mormon so it is a great sign that she is reading it and that she loves it already.
 

She told us that when she started reading it she felt so embarrassed because she was so narrow-minded growing up and didn't know anything like this. She has so many things going on in her life right now but I know that the gospel can help her with all of those problems! She also told us, "No offense or anything, but I didn't think that it would be the Mormons that would touch me like this." Haha no offense taken, at least she is feeling something! She told us that she is able to feel the spirit so strongly when we come over and she just loves meeting with us.
 

We found a dog in the back of a truck with sun glasses on.
Who in the world does that?

We also were able to meet with one of our investigators a couple times this week. He is 18 years old, he is in high school, and he has been through a lot. Sometimes we are not sure if he is really listening or interested in what we say because he is so reserved. Most of the time he only gives a one word response to the questions we ask but he keeps letting us come over.
 

We gave him a chapter to read in The Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it and pray about it so I am so excited to see how that went for him! Although he is pretty shy, we brought a ward member his age to our last meeting. He wasn't warming up to him very much but we will still try! He has great potential so I can't wait to see what the future has in store for him.

We also have been kept really busy with visiting less-active members and Focus 15 families. We have been working with the ward council really well to set up those appointments and have members come with us to those meetings. It has been really great to see some of the people opening up to other members of the ward. The ward members have also been really helpful lately with going to appointments with us and fellowshipping our investigators, so it has been really great to see! It is a relief that this ward is very missionary work minded!

 A ginormous tree we found here

On Halloween a sweet old sister in the ward gave Sister Higgins and me a two-pack pair of tights and a little bag of candy. That made my day. It's really the littlest things here that make all the difference! I am still freezing my buns off here. It is usually in the 50's or 60's and being an AZ girl I have been freezing! Haha woe is me!

Sister Higgins and I are both doing well here! We have been looking for many service opportunities so I am excited to start doing more service next week! We are still getting along really well and working hard together. Life is wonderful here in Santa Maria :)

Santa Maria!

I was able to finish reading The Book of Mormon for the first time since I've been out on my mission! It has taken me so long to read because I only read a few pages every morning during personal study, but I have seriously gotten so much out of it this time! I honestly feel like my eyes have been opened to the scriptures and to the gospel in general since I have been on my mission!
 

This gospel is incredible and I love it more and more every day! I feel like I am just soaking everything up and I can't get enough of it! I started reading The New Testament and I am already so excited. I literally cannot put it down! Okay, so I've become somewhat of a gospel nerd lately... So what?
 

I cannot even express how thankful I am to be here right now and for the experiences Heavenly Father has blessed me with so far! I hope that I am teaching our investigators at least a tiny bit of how much they have taught me already.
 

LOVE YOUU,

Sister Mason