Tuesday, June 24, 2014

June 23, 2014 Summer is here!

Hey everyone!

So I'm going to head to Philly today in about an hour so my e-mail is
going to be a little short today... Sorry :/. I'll update you next
week on all of our adventures, though.

Anyway, I am doing good. The summer is definitely in full force here,
too. It hit mid to high 90's earlier this week! I thought I was going
to die! Our car even registered that it was 103 on Wednesday, but that
may also be because we have a black car with black interior. My
allergies are definitely flaring up, but the greenery is absolutely
gorgeous though. It crazy to think that next week is July! Where is
the time going?!

Yesterday Manuela surprised us by coming to church! She has been going
through a lot lately and we haven't been able to meet with her. It was
such a sweet surprise to see her yesterday though :). Our
investigators are doing good. We don't have any that are progressing
very quickly though. But we're still working with them! I think I
mentioned last week that Jay is moving to St. Louis... He was so
awesome... We'll just have to turn him over to the missionaries there.

I hope you have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Davis :)

Monday, June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014

Hey everyone!

Wow, what a week! Well, first of all, we had a couple of sick days so we didn't really get out much, but what we did get to do was great!

Probably the highlight of my week was going to our investigator's Bible study group on Thursday. I think I told you about Jay last week. (He's the one starting his own church.) Anyway, Jay and some of his friends started this Bible study group a few years ago and it has grown to a group of 20-30 young single adults who love Christ. It was so awesome! I was so amazed that a group of non LDS single adults my age would spend an evening talking about missionary work and building up their communities and they actually loved it, too! Another thing I was amazed with was how modestly dressed they were, especially since it is summer time! (Maybe the rain helped a little, but still!)

So it first started off with dinner and socializing and then we separated into guys and girls groups (like Relief Society and Priesthood) for the Bible study part. It was really neat and they were all very nice. We took a returned missionary with us and she had the idea after leaving to ask if they would like to hold it at our church building so the Spirit that is there could be felt! I think that would be so awesome. It would be so awesome if all of these young adults joined! The Young Single Adults here would be so strong!


Randy and Lisa baptism 5/26/2014

The rest of the week wasn't all that exciting. We just stopped by a lot of less actives and a few investigators but not too much happened. Especially with a couple of sick days we were inside for most of the day. Fortunately though, I was able to catch up on some things that I have fallen behind on like my journal writing ;).

Sorry for the lame email. Hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting news. I hope you had a great Father's Day yesterday, Dad!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! This week here is supposed to be really hot and humid... Yay! ;) Love you all!

Love,

Sister Davis :)

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

June 9, 2014 One year this week!

Hey everyone!

I can't believe that this week is my year mark! It is crazy! It sounds like you all have had a great busy start to the summer, though! So fun and exciting.

Sister Davis and Sister Bernards celebrating
their 1 year mark with popsicles

This week has been a rather long stressful week, but also full of miracles as well! The first miracle we had this week was when we went on exchanges. I stayed here and Sister Bernards went to Philly. On Friday we were walking down the street by our apartment when we saw a couple of guys sitting on their front porch. We were on our way to the Borough Building and decided to stop and ask them for directions. We talked to them for a little while and found out that one of them was leading his own church starting this Sunday and that they were both very Christian. We set up a return appointment for the following morning. Sister Bernards and I were able to go back Saturday morning to teach them and we had the most amazing lesson with them! We taught the restoration and showed the first vision portion of the Restoration movie. They both thought the movie was very powerful and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon before we even told them what it was about! They seemed very interested and said we could come back to teach them more about the Book of Mormon. We were going to go to the new leader's church yesterday, and he was going to come to ours too, but his sister got into a car accident so he gave his speech earlier and we both missed out... Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him again this week!

We also had a member give us a referral to one of her friends who was thinking about switching churches. We stopped by her on Saturday as well and set up a return appointment for tomorrow! She was a very sweet lady, however, we may think she isn't all there mentally... We're going to talk to the member, though.

Last night we stopped by a less active member and talked to her a little about baptismal covenants and the importance of church attendance. She says that she doesn't feel comfortable coming to church because she smokes. I told her what you said a while ago mom about the church being a place for sinners and not saints and she really liked that. She even set a goal date to stop smoking and said she is considering coming back to church!

Well, that's about it for my week! I hope you have an awesome week! And Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Love you all!

Sister Davis :)

Monday, June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014 Where has the year gone? It's almost half over!

Hey family!

What a crazy week! I can't believe that June is already here and that next week I will hit my year mark! Crazy! Anyway, I know you are all dying to know who my new companion is and what all the details are, so I guess I'll tell you. As you saw on FB Sister Bernards is my new comp. We actually came out together and she was in my MTC district! It was a dream of ours to become companions in the field and look what happened! She will hit her year mark with me next week and she is from Layton, UT. She did a year at BYU-I before coming out and wants to go into elementary education. She has two older brothers and a younger sister who is Megan's age. Her dad is the stake president. Um well, that's all I can think of right now. Any other questions let me know.


As for my new mailing address, I'm not going to give it to you because the elders said that sometimes they wouldn't get their mail. (We live above the garage of the house in front of us, so I think the mail carriers get a little confused sometimes because they are the same house number.) So, if you'll just send it to the mission office that would be great! I'll be going down to Broomall every other week for district meetings now, so it won't take too long to get my mail.

721 Paxon Hollow Rd.
Suite B
Broomall, PA 19008

So, like I said before, this week has been crazy! Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we spent doing a lot of cleaning. Monday was for my old apartment in Phoenixville and Tuesday and Wednesday was for my "new" apartment. Since Elders have lived in the apartment we moved into, we needed to do some deeper cleaning. (They liked to clean around things rather than move them and clean.) This apartment is not as nice as my one in Phoenixville, but it is starting to grow on my since we've rearranged things and made it home. We also were very grateful for our apartment when we went into Norristown the other day to try to find some people. (Norristown reminds me of Reading--a poorer area) We've spent most of the other days trying to get familiar with this side of the ward--getting to know the ward members over here in the Bridgeport/Norristown area as well as finding the investigators and other people the elders were working with. Not anything overly amazing here this week. I think it will be great to have Sister Bernards here, though, to bump up our lessons. I've never had more than 12 in one week and she has had a record of 40! So, she will definitely help me to build my faith and know that we can get that many lessons, too! 


Mom, I'm glad that you read that CES devotional talk by Elder Ballard! (See https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/be-still-and-know-that-i-am-god?lang=eng ) It is so good, and we actually talked about it on Tuesday night at Institute and I gained some new insights from it. We talked a lot about the meditating/pondering section that Elder Ballard talks about. Brother Muldowney is the teacher and it is amazing. He is soooo knowledgeable in the scriptures it is crazy! I learned so much about pondering. Something I learned is that it is not good to ponder about anxieties or worries of the world, but we should be pondering on things that are of good report, lovely, virtuous, honest, praiseworthy, pure, true, etc. because if we are distracted by these worldly anxieties, it makes it harder to hear the voice of the Lord. I also learned how vital pondering is. Some of the greatest revelations/knowledges we have received are from those who have pondered.

Sounds like you are going to have a busy summer! I hope Megan has a fun time at EFY. I can't believe that she is a high schooler now! Ahhh!

So, I am emailing on my iPad today so I'm not going to be able to send pictures. I'll send some next week though!

Well, that's about it for my week! I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Davis :)

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

May 26, 2014 Happy Memorial Day!

Hey everyone!

So, this e-mail is going to be short today because I have a lot of cleaning to do! Sorry :/.

As for transfers, no I am not being transferred, but I sure feel like I am. Sister Hanson is being transferred and they are "closing" the apartment that I live in now, so I will be moving to Bridgeport tomorrow when I pick up my new companion. So, that means a lot of deep cleaning today! They are also taking the English Elders out of this ward, so that means that my new comp and I will take over the whole ward. I'm a little stressed about this, because where I will be living is not at all central to the ward boundaries where my proselyting area is. I'm on the eastern side of the ward and about ten miles from Phoenixville, which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you have to track your miles and stay within the limitations, that is a lot! I'm thinking I'll only be able to come to Phoenixville like once a week to see the people that we are teaching now... Plus I'll take on all of the elder's people that they are teaching... I'll be extra busy now! I am excited for a newer adventure, though, but I still am stressed about it. I'll be fine though. Give me a week and I'll be fine, ha. 

Sister Hanson and Sister Davis at Magic Gardens

This morning the ward had a Memorial Day "fun run"/breakfast/ward activity at Valley Forge National Park. It was fun to go to and see the ward members outside of church. It was also good for the missionaries who are leaving to say goodbye to ward members. It was a beautiful morning and also a very warm one. By 8:30 it was already 70 degrees. Just forty minutes ago it was 88 degrees! I don't think I'm ready for this heat! Ha


   
Nothing else too exciting happened this week. The baptism for Lisa and Randy is still on tonight! :) I am so excited for them. It will be a very special night! After the baptism we're just going to stay overnight at the Broomall sisters' apartment so we can save on miles since we'll have to be there tomorrow morning. Oh and did I mention I have to sleep on the floor?.... Wish me luck! Well, that's about it. It sounds like you've had a busy week. So happy to hear that Josh and Kelsie are moved in and that you got the package :). I hope you have a great rest of your Memorial Day and rest of your week!


Love you!  Love,
Sister Davis  

Monday, May 19, 2014

May 19, 2014 What an Interesting Week!

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone has had a great week! Mine has been very interesting. A lot of highs and lows for this week.  

Lows:  

First of all, we had some awesome lessons set up for this week, but a lot of them fell through—one of them being my fault because I told him the time, but didn't tell him the location, so he just assumed that the appointment wasn't going to happen... Frustrating.

Secondly, Femi is having a very hard time. He doesn't want to meet with us right now to be retaught or be involved with any other church activities or responsibilities. He said he will come to church, but that he doesn't want to be involved with anything else right now. He is going through a state of depression and severe stress with his family's visas not going through for the second time. We were informed yesterday that his wife doesn't want to try anymore and that the next possible date for them to come or him to go back to Africa would be December 2015 or April 2016! He is having a really hard time being away from his family and that is one reason, I think, that church is hard for him right now. He has also been advised to rest and stay clear of anything that would cause him to be psychologically disabled. Please pray for him! It makes me sad to see him go through this right now. :(  

Thirdly, I found out that David (convert from Doylestown) isn't as involved with church anymore because his wife is making suicidal threats towards his Christianity....  

Oh Satan, why?!  

Sister Hanson and Sister Davis find the end of the rainbow

Oh and transfer calls come this weekend.... We're kind of thinking that Sister Hanson might leave because she has been here for six months now. But I guess we will see. I'll let you know next week!  

Besides all of these lows for the week, my week has been rather good, too!  

Highs:  

Firstly, Lisa and Randy (two of our investigators) are going to be baptized next Monday evening! A couple Sundays ago, they had set up an appointment to meet with our bishop and we had no idea about it. When we met with them later that week, they told us about the appointment and had an appointment with the stake president all set up. Yesterday at church, our stake president pulled us aside asked us if we felt Lisa was ready and then informed us that the baptism will be next week. (They're going to Lake Tahoe for the summer on the 29th, so that is why it is rushed!) We are so excited, and now we just have to finish teaching them this week. I guess I'm just meant to have last minute baptisms!

Randy and Lisa

Secondly, we found a new investigator this week! Her name is Janice and she is just the sweetest lady. Right now she is in a rehabilitation center, which is great because that means she can't go anywhere ;). Just kidding. But she really is a very sweet lady and I hope she gets baptized!  

Thirdly, we met the cutest elderly couple that lives in the same rehabilitation center as Janice. They are members but are less active because of the situation they are in right now. They had a lot of great stories to tell, and we found out that Sister Funk is from Spain but grew up in Northern Africa in Algeria, I believe, because her parents were asked to help colonize the French colony there, so she speaks French. I was fascinated by her.  

All week long there was a fair going on that was called the Dogwood Festival. Saturday there was a parade for this festival and Sister Hanson and I walked around and passed out pass-along cards to those watching the parade. It was a fun parade and, for the most part, people took our cards!  

And that's about it, or all I can remember that happened this week. Days are all blending together how and I am forgetting a lot of things!  

Well, I hope you have a marvelous week! Love you all!  

Love,

Sister Davis :)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

May 12, 2014 What a Beautiful Day!

Hey everyone!

It was so great to talk with you yesterday! Next time we talk I'll be home! Crazy!

Mother's Day Skype with Sister Davis

So not too much happened this week. It was rather slow like I told you yesterday. Just some highlights/funny moments this week:

·        Sister Hanson and I finally got a hamburger! We have been craving hamburgers for weeks and we finally got one. The funny part about this is that we found it at a pizza place right by our apartment ha. We would have never known this place had hamburgers. We just thought it had pizza.

·        We met with a potential investigator this week and she thought we were Jehovah's Witness so she wasn't going to open her door. Then, she thought we looked like polygamists... And then twenty minutes later some kid asked us if we were Amish haha. Not sure how I feel about that :P.

·        Awesome zone conference on Thursday with six zones! So many missionaries, but it was really neat. I learned a lot!

Today we just spent a few hours in Philly. We went to the Philadelphia Magic Gardens which is just this place covered in mosaics. It was pretty cool. I'll send pictures next week. Then we went to the t-shirt shop after there and then went to the King of Prussia mall which is the largest mall on the east coast.

Overall, it has been a pretty good p-day. Another 80 degree day! Hopefully the weather has already or will warm up your way! I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Davis