Drama, Interviews, and MIRACLES

Famm,

This week has been a little crazy. One of the hermanas in our apartment has severe anxiety, and has lost it. It has become a huge problem and they have barely spent any time outside the apartment this week. It has gotten bad enough where we no longer wanted to leave them alone together in the apartment. Because of that, it has turned out to be a very interesting week, and a bit of a roller coaster ride. I still am so grateful that I have been exposed to a situation like this, and that I have been able to help out the hermanas in some way. 

I have turned into the mother of this big crazy family! There was tons of talking and crying going on this week. I ended up spending much of my time talking through things with one or the other of them. It has been exhausting to say the least. 

I definitely feel blessed this week because I know the Lord is mindful of all the things we have been going through, and he has sent extra blessings our way in return! We have had some really incredible experiences and lessons this week, and I know that it was just Him showing that He is with us and He loves us despite our circumstances. 

Me and Hermana Shepherd. We are just two peas in a pod.
We even share churros at Costco.

Yesterday we had such a great lesson with M and L. Our lesson was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and L really opened up to us this week! He was very talkative, which is unusual, and he kept sharing different experiences he has had. He told us that he absolutely loves coming to church. He feels like when he comes here he jut feels like he is home. He told us, " I really am just happy to be here." 

They both are doing really well and making so much progress. They came to church this week and they have still been loving it. They even brought their friend K with them! We talked to her after sacrament meeting and she told us that she really liked the service and she said "I feel the Holy Spirit here." M and L are soaking everything up, and the best part is that they keep bringing their friends to church or to lessons with us so they can also experience what they are learning. 

 In sacrament meeting there were such great talks this week, and most of them were by youth speakers. One was about the Word of Wisdom and another was a powerful talk about the Holy Ghost and receiving personal revelation. It seemed like the entire meeting was tailored to exactly what they needed to hear! 

Also, they have THE MOST ADORABLE daughter Z who is 18 months old. She is just a little joy in our lessons and just runs around and happily climbs on things to entertain herself. We sat in the pew behind them on Sunday and little Z just wanted to make funny faces and play with me the whole sacrament meeting. I was dying! She is the cutest thing in the world and I love that little girl so much!

Our Relief Society activity! I had too much fun teaching cupcake decorating!
They also had me talk a little about how I started cake decorating and
what my little business was like. It was even much more special
that it was on the exact day of my one year mark!

Click here to see Melia's on-line cake gallery, which she shared with the sisters in the class.


We also started teaching a new investigator J. She is an older woman with a few medical problems. She was a referral from a relative we talked to a few weeks ago. We've tried to visit her, but we were never able to catch her home. This week we stopped by again and she immediately let us in (which is VERY rare)! She wanted to know the main differences between the Catholic church and our church, so we gave her an overview of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. 

She thought it was very interesting and then she said, "Well, do you want to read something with me?" We were really excited to hear that and so we read with her the introduction of the Book of Mormon. She really liked that and she welcomed us back for another lesson! We were able to go back and teach her the full Restoration lesson. She was raised Catholic so she had a few questions, but she loved everything we taught her. We are really excited to see how things go with her!

Fun fact: The stake center in Thousand Oaks has its own street light
and its own little street named "Mormon Way"

We had another lesson with D this week, and it was absolutely incredible! She seems to really be opening up to us now, and she is searching for the truth. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it basically turned into one big study of that topic. She had many questions. We were able to answer her questions and also found many scriptures that helped her understand. She is not one of those people who asks deep or off-topic questions the whole lesson, but she really kept asking questions that showed that she was completely understanding what we were teaching, She was trying to apply it to what she already knows and has experienced in her life. 

I really could not help from smiling the whole time because of how quickly she understood everything, and how strong the Spirit was in that room. That was a lesson that completely lifted our spirits and made us remember the whole reason why we are here! Sister De Vries and I went out of that lesson feeling like we were floating on a cloud! D is really excited to start reading the Book of Mormon. I really can't even believe the progress she has made in just the last few weeks! 

As a present to myself I finally retired a pair of shoes that I've had for a
year, and I'm starting to wear a brand new pair of the same shoes!

We also had a "new member lesson" with Gianna this week, and we took another great beehive with us. The lesson was on eternal marriage, temples, family history work, and service. When talking about service, we ended up talking a little about missionary work and the two girls were so excited because they both want to serve missions. Gianna is so sweet! She told us "You know, I've been thinking I want to serve a mission in a few years." She still has 7 years to go, but she would be such a great missionary! 

Family Home Evening in the park with Gianna and her parents!

I really love how so many girls are now looking forward to serving missions! I can't help it, but I find myself telling everyone that even mentions a mission that it is the best thing they could ever do for themselves, their families, and all the people that are dying to hear the gospel!

Lately I've been having a mango obsession. The essential
part is the Tajin, which is lime chili powder. Mmm

This week we also had a training meeting with a few Sister Training Leaders and our interviews with President Castro. I have to say that the interview and training meeting this week was just exactly what I needed! I am excited to use many things I learned in the training about resources for resolving investigators' concerns, finding people to teach, and setting goals. 

We had our interviews in companionships, but I was also able to spend a little time talking to President Castro by myself. I was so thankful for even the little time I had to talk to him. He is the sweetest man. I can't even tell you how much I love President and Sister Castro! Their mission ends in just a few weeks and they will be missed! 

Mom and Dad, President and Sister Castro talked to me all about your visit with them! They told me that they loved the time they spent with you, and that they were so honored that you took the time out of your schedule to visit them.  They love you both and want us to all go back to visit them in Idaho.

I am excited to meet President and Sister Felix. They'll be
here in July. I know that they will be great for our mission!

I am looking forward to going back to a "normal" week and giving this area our full time and attention. Sister De Vries is still doing really well. It has been good for her to get more practice teaching, to help boost her confidence and ease any nerves she has about the work. This ward is still doing great with helping us with the work. I can't help but realize how blessed I feel here! 

I Love You SO Much!!!

-Sister Mason

Exchanges

My Sweet Family,

This week we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I had the wonderful opportunity of working with Sister Dixon for the day. We were in the MTC together, but I really haven't been able to spend much time with her since then. I am so glad that we were able to spend a day working hard together. Sister Dixon is such a great missionary! We talked for most of the day about things we have learned on our missions so far. I was so lucky to learn from her example. She is such a strong person. I was able to learn so much from her and see how calm, sweet and strong she is!

We visited many people and had many short lessons throughout the day. We focused on using the Book of Mormon in every teaching and finding situation. It was really surprising how many people listened right away and were interested in learning more. The Book of Mormon is truly one of the strongest tools in missionary work. It was all around a peaceful and miraculous day with Sister Dixon!

Sister Dixon and me on our exchange!

This week we were able to start having Family Home Evening with a family who was recently reactivated, but is struggling with different issues. We taught them a simple Restoration lesson and we talked about their concerns and doubts about the gospel. It was really great to be able to be there to strengthen their family and answer any questions they had the best we could. We will hopefully be continuing to have Family Home Evening with them every few weeks. We are really excited for this opportunity to help them in any way. 

We also had many great lessons with a few great less-active members this week. We went out again with a high priest to visit a few less-active women, and we had some great success. One woman only talked to us for a few minutes, but the other woman was very warm and friendly. This woman is someone who we would have never come across, or even thought of to visit. She was very open to us coming over because we had her home teacher with us. She even invited us to come back to visit her and help her out in the little farm in her back yard. It looks like we might be helping clean horse stables next week. Haha, I bet you are all excited to hear that! Now that is going to be a treat! We are really excited to develop a great relationship with her and try to help her come back to church. 

A couple of cute Simi houses!

We had a great lesson with L this week. Our lesson was on tithing and it basically turned into a discussion about being willing to sacrifice for the Lord. She told us that she had heard of tithing before from LDS coworkers, but she was still unsure about what it included. She isn't too excited to sacrifice tithing money, especially because her husband is retired and they are on a fixed income.

She also told us that she is totally fine following the commandments 98% of the time, but the other 2% of the time she wants to have "fun" and has a hard time with the commandments. She is doing really well and is really progressing. We are just hoping that in the next few weeks she will get her answer that she is supposed to be baptized. She is still unsure of everything, but we hope that she will soon get some answers that she is looking for. 

I am not too worried about her because if her answers don't come yet it must not be her time. That is really something I have learned since being on my mission. I have learned to fully trust in Heavenly Father's timing and to realize that He knows way better what is good for me and the people we teach. I have learned not to get too frustrated when things don't go exactly as I had planned because God truly has a bigger plan in motion that I just can't see yet. I have seen and experienced many things already. I think that almost nothing in missionary work will surprise me anymore.

Hermana Shepherd, me and Hermana Presgard.
These great hermanas share an apartment with us, which is so much fun!
Sometimes it just feels like a dignified sleepover every night. Hahaha

We also were able to have another great lesson with our Filipino investigators M and L. They invited M's cousin to join us for the lessons, so we also have another new investigator from the Philippines! We taught them the Plan of Salvation. M was a little confused about the whole spirit world part, and the three degrees of glory. We gave them the Plan of Salvation pamphlet to study. There are extra scriptures in the back that they can read to help them understand better. They have been coming to church every week since Mother's Day, and they are doing so well!

We also had the opportunity to teach S about baptism and a little about temples. She is still struggling a little bit, but she loves reading the Book of Mormon. I really think that the thing that will touch her the most is learning more about temples and eternal families. She wasn't very religious to begin with, but she loves her children and her husband more than anything. Two of her children are already endowed and on the right path, but now she just has to work on joining them! 

Sheryl and me at the Strathearn park. It is such a cute place where they
basically transplanted many of Simi's historical buildings into one place.
It has old houses, farm equipment, and even the first library. It was so much fun!

We also had a great lesson with a recent convert Justin. He had just gotten his wisdom teeth removed. It was really sad to see him in a lot of pain, but he is really so strong and is doing so well! We taught him more about the priesthood, missionary work, and enduring to the end. He really loved it when we talked about honoring the priesthood and leading his family by example. We taught him mostly about how the priesthood can only be used with love, gentleness, and patience. He was really interested to hear that, and he is already such a great priesthood holder and example to his wife. 

We also helped him with a few ideas of how to share what he now knows with his friends and family. He was really excited to learn how to be a great missionary and give back to Heavenly Father just a little for all the blessings he has had in the past months. Unfortunately for us, he moved this weekend. We are sad to see him leave, but he will really do well in Utah!

A recent convert Justin. Sadly, he just moved to Utah so we won't be
able to see him anymore. He is such an incredible person and is
going to be such a blessing to his ward in Utah

Definitely one of the biggest highlights of this week was yesterday in fast and testimony meeting. The recent convert Gianna's mother went up to bear her testimony. It was so sweet and touching. I was really shocked that she wanted to go up there. Afterwards, so many ward members went up to talk to her and congratulate her and welcome her to the ward. That was really sweet to see. 

Even better than that was later in the meeting when Gianna went up and bore her testimony too!! It was so sweet and so sincere. She even got a little emotional when she was up there. Now that is something that I will never forget. I had the hugest smile on my face when I saw little Gianna go up there and tell everyone how happy she is to be baptized, and that she absolutely knows this church is true!

Sister De Vreis and me!

A few of our investigators have dropped off of the face of the earth or have gone crazy. Right now we aren't able to visit M because he has some crazy ideas. Our elders quorum president is going to keep in contact with him until the coast is clear for us. Another one of our investigators is going through a really rough time with dealing with his ex-wife passing away.

It seems like we are almost starting from scratch this week trying to find new investigators, but we still have many wonderful people that we are working with. We are really blessed in this ward to have many people to teach and great member support! 

Hiiiiiii... do you want to hear more about the gospelll?
Haha, here are our creeper missionary faces.

Sister De Vries is honestly doing really well and learning quickly! I can already tell that she is going to be a great missionary!

I am really excited to see what the next 6 months have in store for me! I honestly can't believe that I have been out a year. I think in the next transfer or so I will start to panic. Haha, don't worry, I will try to keep my cool and work my buns off for the next 6 months!

Much Much Love,

Sister Mason

Another Transfer in Simi

Famm, 

So my new companion is Sister De Vries (pronounced Davreez). She is 19 and is from Far West, Utah (which is north of Ogden). She is obsessed with anything Disney and she was in the marching band in high school. We get along really well and so far she is doing really well!

Gianna's baptism!

One of the very best part of the week was that Gianna was baptized, and it was such a great baptism! There are always little things that go wrong right before baptisms, but everything ended up working out well and the baptism was beautiful! It was great because Gianna's dad, who is not a member, was there and he was watching and listening really intently during the whole baptism. The family really hopes that one day he will want to learn more about the gospel, so maybe one day he will. Gianna's grandmother was also there for the baptism on Friday and the confirmation on Sunday, and it seemed like she really enjoyed it. She is also not a member, so it looks like Gianna is being such a great example to many of her family members who do not have the gospel in their lives!

Mom I hope you had such a great birthday! Do you know what is so special? My birthday present to you is that sweet little Gianna was confirmed a member of the church for your birthday! Look at that, you got a new convert for your birthday

Sister De Vries and me with adorable Gianna!

 We also had a lesson with one of our investigators, D. She met with missionaries many years ago and went to church for about a year. We just started teaching her again and she is such a wonderful woman. She is having a really hard time as she is recovering from surgery, but she is such a sweet woman. We started off teaching her the Restoration and then it turned into a whole lesson on the priesthood. 

She has so many questions from all that she has been taught over the years, and we love it because she is really interesting and usually makes us think. We talked to her for a while about what the priesthood is and how it functions, and she was so fascinated. We are really excited to be able to start teaching her and help put together all the things that she has learned about the church.

I was so excited to see Sister Higgins at transfer meeting!
I'm glad Sister Proctor sneaked in to make a really attractive face! Haha

We had a couple of great service opportunities this week! We were able to spend some time with S in her garden. It is always great to spend time doing service with her because she is such a sweet woman and it gives us the excuse to talk to her a little more about her family and the gospel!

We also have been helping this woman in our ward lately as she is doing some major work on her house. This week we were able to help her clean out her craft room. It was a lot of fun, and the best part is that her husband is not a member. He is not the friendliest man, but it has been great to spend a little more time around him. She also had us over for dinner that night and we shared a quick Restoration lesson as our dinner message. The best part was that he was pretending not to pay attention while he was at his computer, but we could tell that he listened to every but of it, and he did not get up to leave until we were completely finished. 

This week we were also able to meet with another part-member family. We have decided to take the opportunity at these dinners to teach them  a basic version of the missionary lessons as a part of our dinner message. There are so many wonderful part-member families in this ward and we are just hoping that we will be able to do just a little to soften their hearts while we are here! 

We prepared some materials for an investigator. We marked some passages
in the Book of Mormon and left some pamphlets to read and videos to watch.

We also have really sad news about one of our investigators, M. He was a little standoffish when we went over for our appointment with him, and we thought that was a little strange. The next day, our ward mission leader went over to his house to pick him up for Gianna's baptism and M ended up yelling at him and telling him to go away. We went over there and M claims that someone stole his wallet last week at church. He told us that we were to blame for it, and that we basically conned him into coming to church so members could steal things from him. 

He was really mad at us! He swore at us and told us to leave. It was so sad that he somehow blamed losing his wallet on us, and also he has a unreasonable grudge against the church for it. It was really frustrating and now he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. It is really sad because he was such a great investigator and his baptism is coming up in two weeks. We will see if we can figure out what is going on, but as for now we are a little sad about the situation.

Dad, we used the Cold Stone gift card you sent us. Mmmm :)

This was a bit of a rough week, but it was still a great! Almost every single planned lesson we had ended up cancelling on us, so we spending a lot of time trying to find new investigators. We had some great meetings with some less-active members we dropped by to see. 

One woman was really sweet. She hasn't been to church in a while, but she was so grateful that we came over. She said that she had been having a hard week and that it was exactly what she needed. I absolutely love moments like that because it shows that our Heavenly Father is truly aware of everything we need and that He is guiding us in this work! 

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

We also were able to go out with a 19-year-old sister from the ward who just submitted her mission papers! She basically just went tracting with us all Saturday morning, but it was so much fun! She was able to practice talking to some people in their homes and on the streets, so she is going to be so ready for her mission! There is also another girl in our ward who just got her mission call to Frankfurt, Germany, so we are really excited to be able to spend a little more time working with both of them! 

One of the funniest parts of this week was that we taught the high priest's lesson on Sunday. You should have seen the look on all the men's faces when they saw us just siting there in opening exercises for priesthood meeting. It was awesome! We, of course, taught about missionary work, and it was based off the talk "Following Up" by M. Russell Ballard from last General Conference. You would not believe how shy those high priests were during the lesson, but it ended up going really well! 

The community had a "Salute to Arms" program and lunch at our stake
center for Memorial Day. We got to help set up all the drinks
and put together little goodie bags for the veterans.

I love that the members in this ward have been trying really hard to involve us! We go home teaching with the elders and high priests in the ward almost every week. We love it because it gives us the opportunity to meet some ward members that we would have never come in contact with, and it allows them to get to know us and trust us more! If you don't have a program yet to take the missionaries from the ward out with the elders or the high priests regularly, you should get moving on that. It really makes such a difference!  

Everything is still going really well here in Simi Valley! Sister De Vries is really doing well! She has made it through her first week! She is still a little shy, but she loves this work! She is willing to step out of her comfort zone because she knows that she has planned her whole life to come on a mission. She is already doing great. I am really excited to see how much she grows over the next few weeks! She has been a part of a few hard days this week, but I think it has been really great for her to see the reality of being out in the field. Not everyday is about baptisms and people wanting to talk to us.

Much Much Love,

Sister Mason