February 10, 2014 Going on 8 months! Crazy!!

Hey everyone!

Can you believe that my 8 month mark is this week?! I sure can't! Time is definitely flying by! Also, we're going to finally get our iPads tomorrow at zone conference! I can't wait! :)

So this past week was... interesting ha. We did see some miracles, but it was definitely different than what I'm used to. Things are going pretty good right now. It was different not having a car for half the week and having to walk everywhere. Walking everywhere is definitely not something I'm used to. It wasn't too bad, though. The only problem though about this area is that this branch is so spread out geographically that we can only walk so far. In Hamburg there are only 4 active members and roughly 5 less active members. Luckily we have the majority of our investigators and potential investigators in Hamburg or else we would be in trouble. The only frustrating part is that we don't have a lot of members jumping up and down to come teaching with us. With only 4 active members in Hamburg and 3 of them working during the day, that causes a little bit of a problem. But other than that we're doing pretty good. 

Tuesday I met one of our investigators named Beverly. She's an older woman and knows the church is true. She has read almost the entire Book of Mormon and has been coming to church for a while now. The only thing that has been holding her back is that she smokes... We found out, though, yesterday that she has not smoked in 6 days! Beverly is doing awesome and progressing really well. Beverly has had a baptismal date in the past but didn't make it. I invited her to be baptized on April 5 and she said yes! (At the time I forgot that was General Conference so we're going to try to move it up a week.)

Wednesday I met another investigator whose name is Sharon. Sharon is a very active Methodist but is taking the lessons. I'm not sure her interest level, but we explained the Plan of Salvation to her and she seemed to take it pretty good. She only had questions on the pre-earth life and the three kingdoms of glory (which is usually expected). Afterwards she fed us lunch and we were privileged to try the famous Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie, cho-cho, and peppered cabbage. It was all pretty good :).

Thursday I met another investigator named Lisa. Lisa is a young mom who recently lost a baby in October, I believe. She has a friend who is LDS which is awesome! The sisters here before me taught her the Plan of Salvation due to her loss in October and she loved it. We taught her the restoration on Thursday and she seemed to understand/accept it.

Carlee (another investigator), we were able to see twice this week. The first time we read from the Book of Mormon with her and the second time we went over the baptismal interview questions. Carlee is progressing really well and is ready to change and make the covenant of baptism with Heavenly Father. She told us when we went over the baptismal interview questions that she wasn't scared of change and that she was ready. Right now she has a baptism date for March 2nd. All she needs to do is move out with the guy she's living with and stop smoking. Carlee also has a 13 year-old daughter who lives with her dad right now because she wanted her daughter to have better influences around her. Carlee is awesome and I really hope that she will be able to make and keep her covenants so she can have the Holy Ghost with her so she can have that guidance as a mother!

Those were about my highlights for the week. We did a lot of tracting this week (when we were walking) and trying to contact potentials. We did however find a new investigator this week named Liz. We're going to see her this coming Friday. 

So, on Monday I was offered my first cheesecake.......... Believe it or not, I ate it but mostly had to choke it down haha. I still do not like cheesecake and I'm pretty sure I never will. And to top this off, one of the elder's investigators is feeding us this week and her finance makes about 57 flavors of cheesecake and is going to make one of his specialties when we come over.... Oh boy!

Other than that, that's about it for my week. Sister Maybury and I are doing pretty good. One thing about us is that we have very similar personalities which is nice, but also hard at the same time. Because she's shy I have definitely needed to step it up this week and just talk to people. That has definitely been pushing me out of my comfort zone, but I'm seeing how it's helping me grow. I have also been more bold too. A lot of the bold statements I have said to investigators this week I would have never said just a month ago! I do believe this transfer was inspired even though it was hard.

Pennsylvania Winter

Mom to answer your question: There was the snow storm on Monday that kept us in until later that evening, but other than that we were out working. We did have some freezing rain on Wednesday which made things messy for the rest of the week because it just coated the snow with ice... But we were out working the entire week! We don't stay in unless we're asked to by president ;).

Well, I hope you are all doing well! Have a great week! Love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Davis :)

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!