January 20, 2014 Staying in Reading!

Hey fam!

So guess what?! I am going to stay another transfer in Reading which means I will be serving in Reading for six months by the time this transfer ends! Yay! I love Reading. Sister Carrigan is also staying with me! Next transfer will be interesting to see who gets transferred because it will be Sister Carrigan's second to last transfer but missionaries in this mission usually don't serve in an area longer than 6 months either... So I guess we'll find out what happens in another 6 weeks!

Reading 1st District saying goodbye to Elder Pedersen

This week we saw Hilary and had an awesome Book of Mormon lesson with her. Sister Moore came and they seemed to connect really well. After we went through the intro with her and explained that we weren't taking away from the Bible she completely accepted the Book of Mormon and said that she would like to come to church! Unfortunately though, her husband wouldn't let her come to church yesterday. Hilary is golden, though, and has been crazy prepared for the gospel. We'll just have to pray really hard for her husband's heart to soften!

We also saw Lilly this week and she's doing pretty good. She's noticed a change in herself that she doesn't swear as much anymore or lose her temper with co-workers which is great! She also wasn't able to come to church this week because she had her grandson's birthday party, but she said she's coming next week!

We saw Isatu twice this week and she's moving right along. Her baptism date is for February 8th which is really exciting! She's doing a lot better with her Book of Mormon reading. She still doesn't understand everything, but she's trying to. When we saw her on Saturday night we found a note card in her copy of the Book of Mormon with different words on it. Sister Carrigan asked her what that was for and she told us that she writes down words that she doesn't understand while reading the B.O.M. and asks her sister to define them for her! That is a miracle! When we first starting teaching her I would have never thought Isatu would read the Book of Mormon! She expresses to us all the time her thanks and how she enjoys having us over!

On Saturday we stopped by a less active, Nikki, who we have been trying to contact forever but still hadn't been able to. Apparently she's always home, but she never hears the door, so we banged on her door this time. She still didn't answer so we went back to our car. We were sitting in our car when I looked over and saw a women standing on her porch talking to her neighbor. I jumped out of the car and asked if she was Nikki. She said yes and invited us in. We talked to her for a while and invited her to come to church. She said that she really wanted to come, but had no way to get there because she doesn't have a car. We arranged a ride for her and she came to church yesterday! (She hasn't been to church in 8 years.) We're also going over to teach F.H.E with her and her family on Wednesday this week.

This week we went to Institute and we had the lesson on Jacob 5. The teacher had us think of the olive tree as ourselves rather than the traditional gathering of Israel stuff. I really liked how she did this and applied the Atonement in it too. This lesson completely changed my perspective on Jacob 5 and I love it!

On exchange with Sister Jensen in Reading 2nd Ward

So, crazy story this week. The Spanish elders gave us a referral to contact down in Reading. We went to the house and found out that the lady didn't even live there. We stood at the bottom of the porch for a little bit to check our voice mail just to make sure that we had the right house number. All of a sudden a lady opened the door next to the one we just knocked on and invited us in after Sister Carrigan asked her if she was Janet (the referral's name). She nodded and gave us a hug. We sat down on her couch and started to talk to her. She didn't say anything and then she started to sign to us (she's deaf). We were a little confused how the elders talked to her, so we tried to write a note so she could read it. She couldn't so she went upstairs and got the man that lived there who only spoke Spanish. By this time we had no idea how we were going to communicate with anyone. So we called the Spanish elders and had them talk to the man. Turns out that wasn't the lady that the elders talked to. We think she may have thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We left them with a Restoration pamphlet and DVD after the deaf lady pulled out her Jehovah Witness movies and tried to explain to the man that the Spanish elders would come by later to pick up the pamphlet. Oh boy that was quite the experience!

Hagen Dazs and Crazy PJ's with Sister Davis and Sister Carrigan

Well, it sounds like you have had a fun busy week. I hope you are all doing well! Thanks for everything! Love you all! :)

Love, 

Sister Davis

January 13, 2014 The Priesthood is Awesome!

Hey family!

Tuesday this week was by far the coldest day I've had out here! It was 13 degrees and below all day long with a wind chill of 20 below! Oh it was so cold! Humidity is the worst! I'm glad we don't have too much humidity in Utah.

Friday it decided to snow a little bit and then Saturday it decided to rain a ton and cause some flooding! Today is 55 degrees and sunny. The weather here is like Utah weather, but maybe even more weird...

Sister Davis and Sister Carrigan

We picked up two new investigators and will hopefully get another couple this week. (We only count them as new investigators after we have taught them a principle from one of the lessons we taught and they accept a return appointment.) One of the two is Lilly whom I believe I told you a little about her last week. She made it to church this week and we are going to see her again on Wednesday! The other is Hilary who I also told you about last week. She is a young, brand new mom (she has a 1 month old) who believes very strongly in the Apocrypha and Old Testament. She has a strong belief and testimony in Christ and the gathering of Israel. She didn't really seem to have any problems or concerns but she didn't make it to church this week because she wants us to teach her again and to do some research before she comes to church. She was really nice, though. We're going to see her again on Tuesday.  

We have an appointment this week with a lady named Katherine. We tracted into her a few weeks ago when trying to see a less active in our ward. She told us that she would like to re-strengthen her relationship with God, but she has agoraphobia. We have been over a couple of times to check up on her, and we actually have an appointment with her this coming Wednesday! She is also a young mom and such a sweet girl. 

Hungry, Sister Davis??

Another little miracle happened this week. We were invited over to a member's home for dinner who has never invited us or the elders over (as far as I know). We taught their 7-year-old son who is going to be baptized the beginning of February about baptism. I think he has a little crush on us because they invited us over for dinner again next week because their son really wanted us to come again. 

Last night we had the temple site missionaries up at our building for a temple fireside. It was neat to be able to see some pictures of what the Philly temple is supposed to look like inside. I also got a piece of the granite that they had to break out in order to build the parking garage below the temple. (They like to say that the temple is built on a rock.) This fireside really made me miss the temple. I can't wait until I can go again. Oh and they said the temple should be finished in summer of 2016. Maybe we should come back and visit then. 

With darling Dee

Alright, so beside of all of these miracles, I have had a pretty rough week. Sister Carrigan has this amazing gift to teach people and to speak. That is definitely not one of my strengths, but I really wish it was. So, long story short, I've been struggling with that just about all transfer long, but this week was pretty bad. Satan really got to me and pulled me down. I got a blessing yesterday and it was a powerful blessing. It was definitely what I needed. I am so grateful for the priesthood! It is awesome! 

So Josh, another crazy story for ya: 

An elderly couple in the ward I'm serving in invited us over for dinner one night. (They're on this special Hollywood diet where they eat spaghetti every Wednesday night and they always invite us over on Wednesdays.) A few minutes after we got there, our sweet hostess told us that she found a dead mouse on her floor when she went to grab the spaghetti. She also found a hole that was chewed out in the spaghetti box... Her husband (who is a little autistic) told her that it would be fine to still eat... So, she still made us the spaghetti that the mouse got into! She also attempted to make to make mashed potatoes one time, but she added too much milk so it was more like soupy potatoes. I love them! Every dinner appointment with them is an adventure ;)  

The Hazard family

Well, that's about it for my week. I hope you are all doing well! Love you!

Love,

Sister Davis

P.S. Transfers are next week. I'll get the call on Friday night! This time I have no idea what is going to happen! 

January 6, 2014 It's soooo COLD!

Hey family!

So, yes, I am FREEZING. This past week was really cold. The humidity is starting to kick in now and I'm definitely feeling it. Thursday we had a big snow storm that delivered about 6-10 inches of snow! (That night we were asked to go in by 6 p.m. to avoid traveling in the storm.) Probably the only bad thing about living in that house is that we have to shovel our sidewalks... Needless to say, my arms, back, and legs were and still are sore. That was a lot of snow. 

Friday was really cold. It was 20 degrees and below all day long plus it was humid and it was windy. Of course, no one decided to let us inside or they were not home that day. We ended up tracting a street around 5:00 when the sun was starting to go down because we ran out of people to see. 

Yesterday was kind of weird weather-wise. It was raining, but not just a normal rain, it was freezing rain. It was so cold that when it would hit the ground it would freeze. We actually ended up going in early yesterday, too, because the roads were pretty slick and walking was even worse. 

To answer your question mom about my memory card--no, I didn't send it home. I still have some pictures on there that I need to give to some missionaries, so I'm waiting for the internet to come back at that church and then I'll send it home.  

Josh, to answer your question that you asked me on Christmas about a crazy story about one of our missionaries, one of the elders in my district is allergic to the world! He has a ton of food allergies and can hardly eat anything. (I don't know why I didn't think of it then.) He is allergic to chicken, really chicken blood, but he just says chicken because the chicken needs to be prepared properly and most the time it's not, I guess. He's also allergic to beef and he thought he had a wheat allergy but he discovered out here that he really doesn't. He also is lactose-intolerant and allergic to eggs unless they're baked in something like cookies. He also gets heartburn really bad. The poor kid has a body of a 90 year-old man! This week he has a bleeding stomach ulcer and so he and his companion have been inside all week. We also found out that Elder Eldredge's grandparents live right across the street from Troy and Merilee. How crazy is that?

This week we got a new investigator. Her name is Mirama (I don't really know how to spell it) and she's friends with Isatu. She came here from Africa almost a year ago this month and she can actually read in English!  We went over to read the Book of Mormon with Isatu on Saturday night and Mirama was there, too. She participated with us and even read from the Book of Mormon. We told her that we have been teaching Isatu about the gospel and asked her if she would like to learn. She said yes, and we're going to teach her tonight!

We also met with two other people, Lilly and Hilary. Lilly is a former investigator and came in contact with the missionaries again this past week and is ready to learn again. We went over and saw her on Tuesday and we're going to teach her this coming Wednesday! Hilary is lady that the elders had tracted a couple of months ago. She is super interested in learning more. We were going to teach her yesterday but she just barely had a baby and the baby kept her up all night so she was sleeping. We left her a note though and she called back a couple of hours later. We're going to see her tomorrow morning.

Jacquie with Sister Davis

We saw Jacquie (less-active) on Saturday and had a very powerful lesson with her. When we got there, Jacquie was really angry and upset. Her New Year's was really bad due to an argument with her son. He threatened to take her car and he forced her into their basement. (Needless to say, Jacquie was very upset.) Her son actually called a couple minutes after we got there and she yelled at him for about 20 minutes! We had planned to share Elder Holland's talk "Like a Broken Vessel" with her, but the Spirit told me otherwise. I shared with her the talk about meekness from this last conference and bore testimony that as she strove to emulate the Savior, her perspective on her life and those around her would change. Sister Carrigan chimed in after and talked about the Atonement. That was powerful for me because I haven't really noticed the Spirit teaching through me for a while, so that was neat.

My New Year's was pretty good. We spent New Year's morning having pumpkin soup with Sister Joseph. Pumpkin soup is a Haitian tradition.

Well, I hope you have a great week!

Love you all!

Sister Davis

December 30, 2013 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year... Almost!

I can't believe it's almost 2014! Where has this year gone? It was so good to be able to Skype with all of you on Christmas! I loved it!

Like I told you on Skype, we spent Christmas at the member's homes. After Sister Pogue's we went to Sister Roland and then to the Smith's/Meyer's. There we had lunch and we opened up presents from the ward. (Sister Smith had the ward sign up to give us gifts. This ward loves us! We also played a couple of games. Following this we went to the Bruchez's for dinner and then we ended at Elisia's. So, overall, Christmas was great. And I got a lot of stuff! That's why I sent a package home today with some things that I don't want to carry around with me. So, keep an eye out for it. 

Skyping with the family on Christmas morning

Yes, I did receive your other package on Thursday! Thank you soooo much!  I also received the ward's Christmas cards and a package from David and Maurie Jones. What a great Christmas it has been! I feel so loved. 

Yesterday we had dinner at the Burts and I found out that Brother Burt is an optometrist. He noticed my red eyes (yes, my eyes are still really red and I hear about it from everyone) and asked me about them. 

Also yesterday we contacted an unknown lady in the ward. We found out that she is Haitian and left the church back in Haiti when she thought the branch president was too proud. She told us that she hasn't been to the church here because she had no idea where it was at. (She's lived here for 7 or 8 years.) We asked her if we could come back and reteach her and she said yes! What a miracle. Especially after a couple of weeks of finding no one new to teach!

We also received a church headquarters referral yesterday of a man named Joel. So, we went to contact him yesterday. When we got there an elderly man answered the door. We told him who we were and why we were there. He had no idea how we got his name, but he let us in anyway. We soon found out that he has a son named Joel who also lives there. (His son is probably mid 40's.) Joel Sr. is a Christian who does his own missionary work. He has also been to our church to do family history. Joel Jr. practices his own form of Messianic Judaism. So last night was kind of interesting. Joel Jr. said he would like us to come back sometime, though. Joel Sr. said he would also like to talk with us again but he said he was very busy and didn't know when we could come back. However, we did clear up a misconcept that he had about Mormons. He thought that we didn't believe that Christ is the son of God. He also told us that he felt the Spirit that we carry and that's why he let us in! So, if there's nothing that really comes out of this, we at least cleared up a misconception for Joel Sr. and planted a seed for both of them.

That was our exciting news for the week. We've mostly spent our week working with less actives and trying to get to know more members. 

Well, I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for everything! I hope you have a happy new year! Love you!

Love,

Sister Davis

December 23, 2013 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Can you believe that it's Christmas already? I sure can't! Time is definitely flying by! I can't wait to be able to talk to you in 2 days!!  

This weekend was unusually warm. It got up to 60 degrees yesterday and it rained. When we woke up yesterday morning all of the snow was gone! How weird is that?! That may mean I may not have a white Christmas this year... 

Thursday we had our Christmas zone conference and guess what movie we got to watch!......Ephraim's Rescue! That was a really good movie :). After we watched the movie we had a little devotional with President and Sister Anderson and then we had a talent show afterwards. I sang with Sister Carrigan and some of the other missionaries in my zone. (We sang in the Reading 2nd Ward yesterday with these missionaries, so we decided that singing at zone conference would be good practice.) We sang "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and we had a violinst and pianist accompany us. 

Looking up and giving troubles to the Lord.

On Wednesday we passed off Fernando to the elders and had an interesting lesson. We taught the word of wisdom and found out that he doesn't think that weed is bad... He knew, though, that he needed to pray about it and that he would receive an answer. Hopefully, he'll accept the answer he gets!

Other than that, my week was filled with seeing less actives and members in the ward. Bishop has asked us to help build trust with the members for right now until they decide to get it in gear and start helping us out with the work. So, that's what we're doing. I don't know if I told you this or not, but there have been some missionaries here in the past that have been kinda lazy, so I think that some of the members have lost trust in the missionaries... And that's why we're trying to build the trust again. 

Sister Carrigan and I are doing well and getting along great! I feel very blessed to have her as a companion right now.

I hope you are all doing well and will have a very merry Christmas! Can't wait to talk to you! Love you all! :)

Love, 

Sister Davis

December 16, 2013 Let It Snow!

Hey Family!

 

So, sorry about last week. I had the 24-hour flu stuff and I did not feel very good at all. Luckily I had wonderful sisters who took care of me and I'm glad you got Sister Handy's email. 

Even Santa reads the Book of Mormon!

As for transfers everyone was transferred but me. I'm now here with my new comp. Sister Carrigan who has been out a year and she also trained Sister Whitaker! How crazy is that? I am also taking over Sister Hyatt and Handy's area because they "doubled" them out. So, now there are only 4 missionaries in this ward. I was a little overwhelmed with this load of new people to take care of, but I have an awesome companion, and it also helps that we gave some of those people to the elders. So, since there are only 4 missionaries now, we changed the boundary lines. Sister Carrigan and I are not working in the city of Reading anymore; we're north of the city now. I was a little bummed about that because I love the city, but we'll still work with less actives in Reading.

 

So, because we changed the boundary line, that means that Fernando is going to be taught by the elders now, but we are going to keep teaching Isatu. We also picked up another investigator from the other sisters. Her name is Julia and she is the mother of a recent convert. We haven't met with her yet, but she has a baptismal date for January 5th!

 

As for the snow, we had the first storm last Sunday (the 8th). We got quite a bit of snow, but not as much as we did on Saturday night. Saturday we got probably 6 inches of snow! The two other wards that meet in our building cancelled church on Sunday because of the snow. Now that was weird to me. I don't think I've ever had church cancelled before.The ward I'm in didn't cancel because it starts at 1:00, so Bishop felt like enough snow would have melted by then. The snow here is a little more wet and heavy than it is in Utah. There's no snow like Utah snow! Luckily, we have some wonderful members who came and shoveled our sidewalk and shoveled our car out!

 

Serving through the snow

As for Facebook, the internet has been down at the church for two weeks now, so I'm emailing at the Muhlenburg Library where the internet is soooo slow... It's so slow that it takes about 20 minutes for it to load one page on Facebook. So basically, I am just not going to get on until the internet at the church is fixed. Oh and I'll send pictures then, too.

 

For updates this week, I don't really have too many. For Monday and Tuesday, I was inside sick. Wednesday was transfer meeting in Broomall, so we spent the day traveling and unpacking. Thursday was district meeting and our weekly planning so that usually takes up most of our day. Friday and Saturday were our only real working days and we basically spent them getting to know ward members or less actives. Yesterday before church we had a lesson with Isatu. We found out that she doesn't really read the Book of Mormon because she doesn't understand it. Because she's from Africa, it's hard for her to read English. She understands most English, but she mostly speaks the broken English or Mende (I'm not sure how you spell it)... Sister Carrigan talked to her before church started though and she found out that Isatu has two sons in Africa and that she loves feeling the Spirit. She told us if she owned her own place she would have us over all the time! I guess she really is feeling something! Sister Whitaker and I were worried about how much she understood because she's so quite and never has any questions. We'll keep working with her, though!

 

That was basically my week though. Not too much going on this week. Oh, we also found out that we won't be getting our iPads until January now because of some technical difficulties...  

 

So a little about Sister Carrigan. Sister Carrigan grew up in San Diego and went to BYU Provo for three years before going on a mission, so she kind of knows what snow is like. This is her second winter here, and she still doesn't like it very much. Sister Carrigan studied art history at BYU. She is now the only child. She had two younger brothers who passed away a while ago. Her parents now live in the mission. They moved after she came on her mission! Sister Carrigan is an awesome missionary and can think of lessons right on the spot which is sooo helpful because I can't quite do that yet. She has a great love for prayer and knowledge of the Book of Mormon which I admire and is also helpful.

New companions - Sister Davis and Sister Carrigan

 

It sounds like you've had a fun, busy week. I can't wait to talk to you next week! Hopefully, next Monday I'll have some info about that like when and how long I can call/Skype for! I hope you are all doing well! I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Davis

December 2, 2013 December is Here!

Family!

Can you believe that December is already here? Where has the year gone? So crazy how fast time flies!

This past week was sooo awesome! Lots of miracles! First of all for Thanksgiving, I did have three meals and, yes, I did eat at all of them... So much food.... The last appointment I could hardly eat anything. Thank you so much for the package! The sisters and I loved it sooo much! 

Thanksgiving dinner #1

Thanksgiving #2

To start the week off, on Tuesday it decided to rain all day long and it was a cold rain. That night we had an appointment with Fernando. As we were pulling up to the appointment, we hit the curb and cut a chunk out of our tire. Needless to say, we had a flat tire... The entire lesson I was more focused on that and how we were going to get home than the Plan of Salvation. Luckily though, Brother Leitz came to the lesson with us and was super willing to help up out! He changed our tire in the freezing rain! What an awesome guy!

Wednesday, we met with a less active sister who has been away from the church for a long time. She's been so inactive that no one in the ward even knows who she is. She expressed to us a desire to come back to church and make some of those changes needed in her life to help her achieve this goal. She said that she was more than willing to meet with the bishop to help her with that! She said that when we knocked on her door, she saw that as a sign that she needed to change her life around. What a miracle!

Preparing Thanksgiving meal at Women in Crisis Center

Thursday morning we helped out at the Women in Crisis Center. We helped them make their Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards we went to the Gampe's for our meal appointment. Following we went to Elisia Soto's and then to the Bruchez's after. We even had a little taste of black Friday shopping Thursday night. We had to run to Walmart because we were out of toilet paper. We only stood in line for about 20 minutes. Overall though, Thanksgiving was awesome and such a great day to just talk with the members and not worry about keeping our appointments to an hour. 

Helping at Women in Crisis Center

Saturday we had a wonderful miracle with Fernando! We had an appointment with him on Friday, but he rescheduled for Saturday. When we got there on Saturday, he told us that he had some great news! He was so excited to tell us, he couldn't wait for Brother Leitz. Right as we sat down he had his wife say the opening prayer. He then told us of his experience that morning how he found God. He said that he was on FB and saw a post from his brother that upset him a little. A thought popped into his head to read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we had given him to read after our last appointment (2 Nephi 2) and so he did. He said that he cried for two hours after reading that chapter because he felt so much peace and love. He said it felt like God was giving him a hug. Fernando didn't really grow up with religion in his life, so this was huge for him to recognize God and His love for him! He talked about his experience and how good he felt for the first 20 minutes of our lesson! He is now super excited to get baptized! Sister Whitaker and I are thinking that we might move his date up from Jan. 4th to sometime in December! 

This was so neat for me because I've never had that experience with someone yet. To see that conversion process and recognize that feeling of the Holy Ghost! What a great day! :)

Overall, it was a really good week. Friday night is our ward Christmas party. I'm pretty excited for that! This weekend we get the transfer call. Rumor is that one of the set of sisters is being transferred out... We're not entirely sure, but it's highly likely right now... I really don't want to leave this area. I love it so much, but if I'm supposed to leave, then I guess I will. 

Sister Missionaries in Reading with their personalized Christmas stockings

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you so much for the love, support, and prayers! I really appreciate it! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Davis