It's Getting Christmasy Here

Mom and Dad,

It has been another eventful week here in Santa Maria! First of all, we had a great exchange with Sister Hegstrom and Sister Randall, 2 of the Sister Training Leaders. Remember, Sister Randall was one of my first companions. It was great to spend a little extra time with her again! And I was with Sister Hegstrom in the MTC. She was in my MTC district and we shared a room together, so I got to know her very well. I absolutely love her with all my heart. Honestly, she is an incredible person and a wonderful missionary! So I worked with Sister Hegstrom and Sister Blanchard worked with Sister Randall.
 

Sister Hegstrom and Me. She is just the greatest!

I wanted to work on inviting people to be baptized and it has helped me so much. I wanted to work on inviting people people on the streets, or on their doorstep, to be baptized. It is something that I am still pretty hesitant of, but Sister Hegstrom showed me how to do it effectively and help me feel more comfortable. It was also great to see the way Sister Hegstrom teaches and I learned so much from her example. She is very hardworking and it was a breeze teaching together! I was able to talk to her throughout the day about things I can do to help Sister Blanchard, and help me be a better trainer. She was very helpful on that and gave me great suggestions!
 

Lately I have really been working on relaxing and not being a stresser. The problem with that is I am trying really hard to find how to be relaxed without being lazy. I really want to work as hard as I can without being uptight. I'll keep you updated on that one :) Haha I know, I bet you aren't shocked for me to admit that I can be uptight.
 

A view from a little town in my area called Sisquoc.
I love it here and I love California!

On their exchange, Sister Blanchard and Sister Randall were able to meet with one of our investigators M. It was a great lesson and they set her with a date! She is planning on getting baptized on January 11th! We are more than excited to meet with her and her family later this week! 

Sister Hegstrom and I were able to meet with S. His daughter who is a member met with us also, and it was a great lesson on The Plan of Salvation. We discussed his baptism and he had a few questions. He said that he really wanted to read the Book of Mormon as much as possible so he can know for sure that this is what he wants. He is doing really well though and wants to learn more about baptism. We were really sad when he wasn't at church yesterday though :(

Also, one of our former investigators J came to sacrament meeting yesterday to see a returned missionary from our ward speak. She says that she is not interested right now but we will always reach out to her and her daughter and grandchildren who are members.
 

A banner that was just too great not to share :) Merry Christmas!!

This Friday was our ward Adult Progressive Dinner. It was so great. Our ward went all out and it was great night! We had dinner with a couple that a member brought with them. The hilarious thing was that Sister Higgins and I had talked to these people recently and were rejected by the husband! It wasn't a bad rejection and I honestly think the husband forgot, but it was just too funny. We got to talk to them and get to know them more, so that was great. We also had so much food and treats that I think we almost exploded!

A little view of some of the Nativities

We also had a stake nativity this weekend (Saturday and Sunday nights) with a music program. They had tons of wonderful vocal performances, and a display of many different kinds of nativities. It was a great experience, plus many people came up to us to introduce us to someone or give us referrals! One member was a featured singer with our stake choir. We hadn't ever met him but went up to him afterwards to congratulate him and he ended up telling about a family we should visit in our area. That was not expected, but that was a blessing! Another member brought his mother (who is a former investigator) and introduced us. He told us a little bit about what is going on in her life and he tried to set up a time that we could come and have dinner with them.

This week Sister Blanchard and I have been trying to really understand our investigators' expectations and help them understand our role. We have also been working on adapting our lessons more and more to our investigators' needs. This week I feel like I have learned so much and Sister Blanchard and I have been working together to be better teachers and guides for our investigators!

 

I am still figuring out this whole training thing but I feel so blessed to be with Sister Blanchard! We had many great lessons and service opportunities this week! She reminds me a lot of myself but she helps me and blesses our investigators in so many ways!

Much much love,

Sister Mason