Restoration Restoration Restoration

Mom and Dad,

This has been great week! We met so many wonderful people, as usual :). Things are getting back to normal. The hermana that had anxiety problems went home and Hermana Shepherd got a new companion! There has been so much more peace in this house now that the problem is resolved!

So for some reason many people have naked mermaid statues in
their front yard here. It still blows my mind.
(Just helping a sista' out)

One of the greatest things that happened this week was that we met these two wonderful women C and N. We were in their neighborhood trying to find a house. We must have had the wrong house number because it seemed to not exist. So instead, we decided to knock on all the doors that were close to that house number. We talked to this really nice man and he said we should stop by the house where C and N live. 

At first C, the mother, didn't want to talk to us. Then she started telling us about how her daughter's boyfriend just left the day before to go to Utah, and he will report to the MTC in just a few days. The daughter N had also met with missionaries when she was away to college. 

They ended up being really friendly and we talked to them for a while. They both thought it was very interesting that we "just happened" to randomly show up at their house right after the boyfriend left for his mission. They also told us that C had been asking her daughter if she could borrow her Book of Mormon.

We were able to answer many questions they had about the church, and ended up teaching them a short Restoration and Plan of Salvation lesson! We also were able to give C the Book of Mormon she had been looking for. It was such a great experience, and it is one of those where it is obvious that Heavenly Father's hand is guiding us in this work!

The Beautiful Simi Valley!

We also had another lesson with S this week. We talked to her about eternal families and family history work. She already is really interested in family history work, and has started doing that with her son, so she was really interested to hear more about it. We asked her if an eternal family is something that she wants, and she said that of course she does, but she still doesn't understand why your family has to be "all Mormon" to be able to live together forever.

We tried to explain to her that it was more about the sealing done by priesthood authority, and being true to promises you made, that will allow her family to be together, instead of all her family being labeled "Mormon." She is doing great, but she still has many questions and things that at holding her back from being fully involved in the church.

Sister De Vries and me at a beautiful scenic view of Simi!

This week we also met with D again. She is really soaking up everything we are teaching her now. Something has happened and she is now ready to hear about the gospel and learn things for herself. She told us that she read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and the testimonies of the 3 witnesses, 8 witnesses, and Joseph Smith. She told us that by reading that, everything made so much more sense. She was so cute and she he asked us, "How do you get everyone to read this part of the Book of Mormon? I feel like if anyone wants to understand this church, they need to read it!" 

We tried to explain that we try to invite everyone we meet to read the Book of Mormon, and especially the beginning pages, because it really makes all the difference. She is finally making major progress and is having a great experience studying what we teach her and reading the Book of Mormon!

Someone sent us an anti-Mormon DVD this week, and it made me laugh a little.
Too bad we aren't allowed to watch anything besides proselyting videos!

We also had such a great week teaching the Restoration to everyone that would listen! We were able to have a great Restoration lesson with a less-active woman who hasn't been to church in many years. She had honestly forgotten much about the Restoration and she was really happy to learn about it again. We talked to her more about the Book of Mormon and she asked us if she could have two copies (one to keep in her house and one to keep out in her barn for when she has free time out there). That was a great experience! 

We also started teaching a daughter of a less-active member and had a great Restoration lesson with her as well. Her mother also hasn't been to church in a long time. She loved it when we talked to them about the Book of Mormon because she hadn't thought about it in many years. They invited us back to keep teaching them, so we are really excited to see what happens with this family! 

Just hanging out!

I've found that I can really teach the restoration all day every day!  I think it's because I realized that so many things I love from this gospel come because of this event in history! For example: temples, priesthood blessings, eternal families, and to know where we were before, why we are here, and where we are going after we die! I lately can't get enough of it! 

We went out to dinner at a Hawaiian grill this week and we got shaved ice for
dessert. Sister De Vries decided to order a blue raspberry one and it turned
her whole mouth blue! It was so blue it was almost black! We had to go
back to the apartment to fix that before we could go back out to work.

Life is still great here in Simi Valley! Sister De Vries has really made such an improvement in the past week. She is doing great and learning more and more every day! I love it here and I love these people we are meeting and teaching.

Much Love,

Sister Mason