July 5th 2010

Hey family! This week was wonderful!! Thursday Friday and Saturday rained soo much I was really getting sick of it because it really puts a damper on the work! Especially when all you do usually is tract! But it was still a great week. Wednesday night we had a laurel named Shannon go with us to this appointment that we set up with this lady we met. Well she stood us up so we went to the car to call her and there was a kid walking by and they went up to him and asked him if he wanted to learn more and he said sure and so we went to a table right there and taught him the restoration and he loved it! He said he knew he needs to start going to church and praying and he committed to find out if it's true and be baptised if he finds out it is. It was such a neat experience and it was such a cool experience for Shannon to have as a 16 year old. We have this lessactive that's just starting to come back to church and she has a neighbor that's a jehovah witness and and she and her JW friend come over every week and teach Bonnie and so she wanted us to come so we could be there to back Bonnie up. So we did and it was a good discussion and they actually have a lot of similar beliefs, but obviously some huge differences and so we interjected in different parts to clarify the doctrine and our beliefs. They didn't really have anything to so back to what we would say, it kind of shut them up. They were very nice women and totally non confrontational so it was nice. It was Sis. Schlauder's first experience with different church groups on her mission so she's been thinking about it every day since then. She's like, "Really, why would Jesus borrow a body to come to earth and then shed it when he left. That's just ridiculous!" She's funny I love my companion we have a lot of fun together and there's a lot of work to do here so we stay busy! Well I love you all and I will write next week!
Sister Davis

June 21, 2010

This week was eventful with transfers and all. So I'm in my new area now and I am already loving at it a ton! My new companion is Sister Schlauder and she's so awesome I really like her and she's going to be a great companion and missionary. She's from Las Vegas and she knows the only person I even know in Las vegas! He and her were next door neighbors so how about that for coincidence. We have only been together since Thursday and so we have been trying to get a feel for this new area and we are covering two wards so we are all sorts of confused as to who is in what ward ha but it's fun and we have a lot of work planned for this week so it's going to be really good I know it. We have a couple solid investigators. One is Richard and he is 78 and he knows it's true but he was a sniper in the vietnam war and he killed 106 people and he feels terrible about it and he said he needs to know that God forgives him before he can get baptized. So we are working on helping him gain a testimony of the Atonement. He's really great though. And the other really great one is James and he actually had a baptismal date but just a couple days before it was to happen, his wife freaked out on him and he had to cancel it. He said to us a few nights ago though that he knows this is the true church and he needs to put God first so one way or another he said he's getting baptized in the next 2 weeks. I really hope we can help his wife's heart be softened because I would hate for the Gospel to cause their marriage to be broken up since one of our central doctrines is eternal families.
Everything else is so good! Rachel, the investigator in Katy that the pest control guy found, met my companion and me and the Temple on Saturday and we had a lesson there with her and showed her around the grounds. It's so nice being so close to the Temple I really love that. I just really love my area and my companion and that I am still in a half bike area. Saturday was Sister Schlauder's first day on the bike! It was 100 out with a lot of humidity. Needless to say she wasn't really having it. She's a trooper though and I really love her a lot. She's got a very strong testimony and for coming right out of the MTC she's a master teacher. Well that's all really for now I'm sure I'll have more to write next week! Love yall bye
Sister Davis

June 14,2010

Hey Familia! This week went by really fast! We had transfer calls on Saturday. I'm getting transferred to Kleinwood/Windrose. It's the area right by the Temple. It will be really great to be so close to the Temple and I've heard that we do service on the Temple Grounds like with the flowers and such. I am going to be training and opening a new sister's area so it will be a great last challenge. I'm really looking forward to it actually. It was funny an elder heard that I was going there so he called and left a message telling me a couple people he wanted me to go see and then he said, "Oh by the way, bring lysol to the apartment because where you are going to be living has a ton of roaches...other than that you'll love the area!" I was like ugh, oh great. Ha but it will be awesome I'm really looking forward to it. I had a really great time with Sister Smith and Sister Judkins and they were diligent and obedient so it makes the work enjoyable and we accomplished a lot. Sister Judkins is actually getting transferred, even though this was only her first transfer, she's going to Tomball with Sister Mullins and Sister Sorensen is coming down here to Katy to be with Sister Smith. Sister Ireland is going home!! It's so sad I can't believe she is leaving... We got to see eachother at the Temple last week because we went to a sealing of a family here in Katy that she taught. My trainer Sister Lieber is going home too. Time goes by really super fast it's so weird. I love my life here on the mission it's so awesome. So Ron is doing so good! We watched a temple video this week and talked about how his family can be sealed together for eternity. Background on Ron for those who don't remember: His wife and kids are members and his wife just started coming back to church last year and went through the temple in January. He has been like way against the church for years and her home teacher/visiting teacher, the Ravenburg's, have been awesome for years and they've developed a great friendship and he asked Ron if he'd take the lessons and Ron said he would. This was back in February when he was still drinking all day long and chewing and he really didn't care about the lessons and now he loves it, hasn't drank for 2 months and is about to quit chewing! And this Sunday, the Ravenburg's told me he set a date to be baptized right at the beginning of August!! They said it's a secret, he's gonna surprise his wife!! It's so neat! The change in him is the most amazing thing I have seen. It's incredible I'm so excited for Ron's family.
Last night, we went to the Roundy's, the family we used to live with, and they had a couple friends over that wanted to talk about the church. Okay, so they believe in pre-destination and I have talked to people that believe that, but only like on the street or at their doors. I've never had a long conversation about it. Okay...so it makes no sense and it made me soo sad!! He was just telling me that God has a chosen people that he's already chosen and those chosen ones cannot get away from their salvation. Then, he told me about this time when he and his ex wife had just had a baby girl and she was born with birth defects and he was soo upset. He said he went home and he was just done with this whole God thing. He opened his mouth to curse God...and no words came out. God wouldn't let him do it. But he wanted to soo bad so he tried just to think it in his mind...and he couldn't do it. He said it's because he's one of God's chosen. I said I think it's because you knew deep down you didn't want to. That your physical mind and body wanted to, but your spirit, which lived with God, knows better. And then he told me how he was playing pool and he had no idea how he was going to get his ball around his opponent's ball and into the hole and then somehow the opponent's ball moved out of the way and he made it and won! I was seriously just like what are you saying! I said, 'so you are telling me that God cares if you win a silly little pool game, but he doesn't love all his children?' And I said are you familiar in Peter where it tells us that Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison who were disobedient in the times of Noah? Why is he preaching the Gospel to them if they weren't following him before? He said I thought it was talking about those who didn't have a chance to repent in this life or didn't choose to. He thinks that the chosen ones have numberless chances to repent because they cannot have their salvation taken away, but those that aren't chosen just don't get that opportunity. He wasn't mean, it was a really great conversation/discussion/lesson whatever you want to call it. It was just super sad to think he's better than others. Sorry, I'm still a little taken aback at his views so I'm sharing my thoughts with yall. If it gets boring just scroll down... anyways so I asked him if he believed that Jesus Christ suffered for all of our sins, everyone's, and he said he did! I said why would Jesus Christ suffer for the sins of those he hadn't chose. The only reason we need the atonement is so that we can be cleansed so that we can live with God again and if they aren't chosen, they aren't going to live with God so there was no need to for him to suffer for their sins. It plainly says in John 3:16 that God loved 'the world' that he gave his only begotten son. He gave the world his son, He gave all of us the chance to return to him again. After that he really didn't have a lot to say so he changed the subject. He tended to do that a few times with me, but I was able to share with him the First Vision and he got teary-eyed. I have never felt the spirit so strong before and I know he felt it. And then I just bore my testimony that I know Joseph smith is a prophet and I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really did appear to him and they did restore the priesthood and the fulness of the Gospel, and he did it so we wouldn't have to live by the Bible only. We have modern day witnesses and another Testament that Jesus is the Christ. I know this Church is the true church with all of the keys of the kingdom held within. I know we are led by a living prophet and I know he tells the truth. I'm so grateful for my testimony and for my opportunity to share the gospel. I echo the words of Nephi, "I don't know the meaning of all things, nevertheless I know that God loveth all of his children." I really love my calling as a missionary. I'm excited to go to Klein and to find those that the Lord has prepared there. If there is only 1 thing I have learned in my life over the last year, it is that this is the Lord's work, and that has changed my life completely. It's his work and nothing will stop his work. As I strive to humble myself continually, I will be more receptive to the Spirit and I will be led to those that are ready. I am only a servant in his vineyard, but I can see miracles happen, and I do every week, as I put it all in God's hands. I love this Gospel and even though some may stray, it doesn't change the truth and power of the Church. Inside us is a spiritual giant struggling from celestial homesickness. When we surround ourselves with the things of the spirit, we are happier and more loving because our spirits are because they feel close to home. Living the Gospel is the only way to be truly happy in this life. I'm grateful for all of you and for your examples. Love you.
Sister Davis

May 24,2010

Hi everyone! How was everyone's week?! This week was a very very good week for missionary work! We had a zone conference that was very inspiring! It was on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. We set a baptism with one of our investigators, Jose, two days later! I met Jose the first week I was here in Katy. We tracted his street and he said we were an answer to prayers and he really wanted to change his life. So we taught him and his wife the restoration and teh spirit was so strong but then he got a job in louisiana so he was always gone and we couldn't ever get in with him again until 3 weeks ago and he quit that job so he's home now. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he accepted a date for June 12th! The coolest part is the Songster's, the family that was inactive when I got here but we started working with and they haven't missed a week since? Well the father in the Songster family is baptizing Jose!! It's so amazing! I am so happy when I think about how incredible Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are and how in tune they are with the needs and desires of every one of our heart's. It's been a great week all around. we found 3 new investigators and they are all very interested! a lot of great stories how it happened but I'll save that for another day! Anyways I love ya'll a lot and miss you!
Sister Davis

May 24,2010

Hi everyone! How was everyone's week?! This week was a very very good week for missionary work! We had a zone conference that was very inspiring! It was on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. We set a baptism with one of our investigators, Jose, two days later! I met Jose the first week I was here in Katy. We tracted his street and he said we were an answer to prayers and he really wanted to change his life. So we taught him and his wife the restoration and teh spirit was so strong but then he got a job in louisiana so he was always gone and we couldn't ever get in with him again until 3 weeks ago and he quit that job so he's home now. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he accepted a date for June 12th! The coolest part is the Songster's, the family that was inactive when I got here but we started working with and they haven't missed a week since? Well the father in the Songster family is baptizing Jose!! It's so amazing! I am so happy when I think about how incredible Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are and how in tune they are with the needs and desires of every one of our heart's. It's been a great week all around. we found 3 new investigators and they are all very interested! a lot of great stories how it happened but I'll save that for another day! Anyways I love ya'll a lot and miss you!
Sister Davis

May 17, 2010

This past week was amazing! Seriously it was such an awesome week! We were super busy and we were able to see so many people and meet so many new people and we had to new investigators at church! We taught 34 lessons! I haven't taught that many since College Station. It's amazing how much more you can get done having three of you instead of 2. We just did a lot of splits and so we were able to see like twice as many people! The youth in the Katy stake did this Cumorah's Hill performance and it was fantastic! It was so good and there were a ton of non members there. They had 3 shows and we went to all of them and we were able to meet a lot of new people and we gave away 10 copies of the Book of Mormon. The spirit was just so strong it was incredible. It was youth 12-18 and they sounded wonderful. Andy, an investigator came last night and we were talking when it was over and he was like, " I am so impressed. I'm overwhelmed. They sounded professional. That was just outstanding I'm speechless." And we have been teaching him since last July and he knows it's true I think he's holding back cause he just wants to know everything. I asked him to go home and pray about the Book of Mormon. He said he has so many times. I told him that maybe tonight he got his answer. He was quiet for a few seconds and he said You know what, maybe I did. It was awesome!
So this lessactive family we tracted into when I first got here, the songster's, they are doing sooo awesome! Don't ever miss a week of church, starting temple prep classes, always bear their testimonies and they both just got callings! It's so cool. Anyways we were over there last tuesday and I had just read a scripture and Christina was looking at my scriptures and thumbing through them and she's like, "I love your scriptures. I really want these. I want ones like this that have it all in there." Okay well rewind to Christmas. All the sisters had a zone conference and Sister Lieber went up to President Cue's wife and told her how beautiful her necklace was. Sister Cue immediately took it off and said Thank you, here, it's yours! Sis Lieber was soo surprised and I couldn't believe how selfless she was. So I've thought about that since then and wanted to be like her and right when Christina was telling me how much she wanted ones like these(and knowing they couldn't afford any) I said, Here you go. Take them, they're yours! Inside I was like What am I doing! I have learned soo much on my mission and I have marked up thsoe scriptures every where with all the insights that came to me. But I know I needed to do that for her AND for me. There's a quote that says, "Sacrifice is the only acceptable form of Gratitude." I feel that Heavenly Father knows how grateful I am for the scriptures and my testimony has already been deepened by the sacrifice. Okay well then the next day I realized it's pretty hard to get by just reading out of the Book of Mormons we give away. I called up a member in our ward and asked her if when she went to the Temple that next day, if she could get me a new set and I'd just pay her when I got them. I have like not very much for the rest of the month so I didn't really know how it was going to work, but I felt that it would. Well when she brought them to me she said when I was buying these, there was a man in there that heard the situation and what you had done, and he bought them for you! I couldn't believe it! He didn't even know me and yet he bought them for me, The tender mercies of the Lord are all around us it's so incredible. Well I'm gonna end this but I love yall and miss ya!
Sister Davis

May 3,2010

Sooo...how's life?! Katy is rockin I'm lovin' it. This week has been wonderful as far as the weather goes! It's starting to get more humid and hot but right now it's still perfect! We found 2 new investigators this past week which was super. One is an 87 year old woman and she was at a neighbor's house who is a member but less active and her visiting teacher came over and the 87 year old, Joy, really felt the spirit and a warmth from the visiting teacher and wanted to know more! It's awesome she's an incredible lady. After we taught her for the first time we gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so excited and grateful and she kissed the Book haha. The other is a 27 year old guy but has the mind of a 13 year old and he lives right below us and last week we were sitting out by the pool writing letters and reading and such and he was swimming and asked us what we were doing and we told him writing letters and reading and he said he wished he could do that and we asked him why he couldn't and he said he never learned to read! So I said we'll teach you to read and we set up an appt for the following day and we ended up teaching him the Restoration and he liked it so much and when we met with him the next day he told us how he felt soo different yesterday like when we were talking to him he just felt this really good feeling inside...that Holy Ghost is somethingelse I tell you! It's so amazing when people feel the Spirit and try to describe it to you. It's the best feeling for sure! And he is gonna quit smoking now so we've been working with him on that. One day after he decided to quit we came home from district meeting and he was outside and he was smoking and I was like, "Matt! You're smoking! Don't do it! Throw it! Stomp on it! Put it out!" and he takes it and throws it down and stomps all over it and he's like, "Yeah!" it was so funny. So yeah it's a work in progress but we meet with him 3 times a week so I think that will help him be able to quit. Oh and Ron is doing so good!! I couldn't believe it...so this week when we taught him we taught about prayer and at teh end of the lesson I asked him how his prayers were going and he said, "Oh my prayers are good I have always prayed. I've prayed since my second day in basic training. But what I do need is a reading assignment. Because I have a half hour for lunch and I sleep for 15 and then read for 15 but it takes me like my whole 15 minutes to find a place to read!" That was like the coolest thing to hear!! We stopped giving him reading assignments because he never did the ones we gave him and now to hear him asking for them! It was soo awesome! and he still hasn't drank! His daughter told the YW president that he's completely different. She's like, "I keep questioning myself if that is really my dad! It's so good for teh family it's so much happier to be home." Little miracles make the big ones! So yes this week was really good. We got transfer calls Saturday. I'm staying here and training. It's not really what I was hoping for but I guess the Lord knows best. I kind of feel like I have been training my whole mission. It can be stressful, but I'm used to it now so it shouldn't be anything new. We'll go to the mission home on Thursday for breakfast and to pick her up and then we get to go to the Temple! That is oen plus of training...you get to do an extra session at the Temple that transfer! Well love you guys and I hope everything is good will everyone and their happy lives!
Sister Davis

April 26,2010

Hey Everyone! Hope all is well with all of you! Everything is going super awesome here! And the weather has been perfect so that's been a plus. We had a lot of things happen this week and it went by so fast! I feel like each week goes by even faster than the previous one. So Ron still hasn't drank so that's almost 2 weeks! He stopped cold turkey how awesome is that?! We went on exchanges this week and Hermana Gurney came to our area. It was fun and we saw a lot of people. We taught Linda like 3 or 4 times this week and she has read a lot of the Book of Mormon. She won't tell us how much she has read but she is telling us all about different parts of the book so we know she's read a lot. She likes it a lot but then one day we went and she said there's too much condemnation and not enough talk of salvation. haha so we said just keep reading. After we teach her something she always says," God told me to tell you this..." or "God told me to ask you this..." It's pretty funny but she's awesome. She smokes during our entire lessons usually but this last time I couldn't handle it any longer I said Linda sacrifice your cigarettes for this lesson please! she said she doesn't have to listen to me she just has to listen to God. So I asked if we could say a prayer and then we'll see what God tells her and so we did and after the prayer I asked her what God said and she said, "Ohhh...he said Sacrifice Sacrifice Sacrifice..." haha so she didn't smoke the whole lesson. It was neat I really do feel like she has a special gift in hearing the promptings of the spirit. We started a new thing called ITL's which is Invitation To Learn and we have to each invite 10 people a day to learn more and we tally them up at the end of the week. So we have been looking for every opportunity to talk to everyone and lucky for us we have bikes so we can talk to more people and we were biking down this road and we came to this intersection and this guy was crossing and we said hi and started talking to him and telling him about our message...right in the middle of the road haha but he's totally interested and we are meeting with him this week! It totally works. And Elder Ballard gave a promise that if we would invite 10 people a day we would start teaching more people whose hearts have been prepared. It's so much fun talking to people I just love it! I've even grown to like the mean honks and yells from people in their cars....I don't love it yet, but It does make me laugh. Oh yes...we went to temple this week and it was marvelous! I love love love it! and while we were waiting for the rest of our zone to come outside, we talked to this guy that was working on the landscaping and asked him if he was a member and he was but the guy he was working with isn't. He works for the Bishop and he likes our beliefs but he's never been to church! So when we were walking to our car, we said goodbye to him and I said Venga la iglesia! and he said Okay and said he would! I sure hope he really does...Sister Smith hurt her foot a few days ago. We biked to the Stake Center which takes about an hour to bike to and after the baptism we had an hour before curfew so we were biking like crazy to get back on time and she went down a curb and her foot got caught between her pedal and the curb and bent her toes pretty hard. So we spent a good part of the morning on Saturday in the Doctors. But she's good now and she healed quickly. Well I don't have a lot lot more to say but I love you all so much and I am so happy to be a missionary and share the truths we have. It's so cool and it's such a wonderful privilege. Randy how is that one dental student doing? The one who is taking the lessons? Oh I just want to mention a cool story really quick. So the Green's in the ward took Elder Ballard's challenge to set a date to have someone in your home to be taught by the missionaries. They did this last september or thereabouts. Well then Sis Green got assigned to teach Brittney and Brittney's parents are not too fond of the church so the green's invited brittney over to their home for the message and at the end brittney mentioned how much she enjoyed it and asked if the next month she could bring her fiance, JAson. So she brought Jason and they had a good conversation and just got to know eachother. Then the next month he came again and at the end of the lesson Bro Green invited him to hear the lessons and he said he'd really like that! And he started takign the lessons in the green's home on February 4th. Their goal was January 31st. And Jason just got baptized last night!! How neat is that! It's so amazing...missionary work really doesn't have to be hard if we do our part. The Lord always keeps his promises. Anyways so I encourage yall to do the same and set a date! Love you mucho!
Sister Davis

April 19 , 2010

Familia! Life is good! How is everyone doing?! Is it starting to look like spring over there yet? Well it definitely has been here until this past week. It's been ugly the past like 5 days. No thunderstorms really, just lots of rain and gloomy skies. This elderly african american lady we teach, Linda, told us to come back on a sunny day cause she's too cold to listen when it's cold out. Mind you, even though it's been gloomy, it's still in the upper 60's lower 70's so it's really not as cold as she claims it to be.
So this week went very well! We were able to tract for a couple hours which was awesome! I really love talking to others about the Gspel so tracting is totally up there close to the top of things I reaqlly love to do! We had a lesson with Ron and he is a part member family we teach. His wife just recently started coming back to church and went through the temple in January and now Ron has agreed to take teh lessons. He has come sooo far even just since I got here. He actually has a desire to keep commitments now and he comes to church every week because he wants to not because Dana makes him. He has an addiction to alcohol and this past week the fellowshipping family that we teach with every week invited the highcouncilman over missionary work to share is reactivation story because he used to be addicted to alcohol as well. and it helped ron soo much!! That was wednesday and when we talked to his fellowshipping family on sunday, they said he hasn't had one drink since! They have been spending a lot fo time with Ron and helped him not to be able to go buy a drink or anything. Thursday he was on his way home from work and called john so he told ron to come over and play pool with him. so they did and they played til 8 that night and by the time ron got home, his wife had gotten home and pitched all the alcohol in the house so he couldn't drink any! and he stayed for all 3 hours this week which he usually only stays for sacrament meeting! So neat huh?! Anyways this week we have temple day I'm so happy! Love you all very much!
Sister Davis

April 12, 2010

This week went super fast and it was such a great week! We were really busy and had a lot of amazing experiences. I'll share one with you. So we had about 45 minutes before our appointment and so we decided to go tracting and my last greenie sister mullins was soo good at praying about streets and listening to where we should go and it rarely worked with sister ireland and I when we would try! So anyways we prayed and nothing came so we decided to go try this one potential and as we were driving I really felt like we should tract in the area around Andy's house, who is another investigator. So I looked at our map that we use to highlight the streets after we tract them and there wasn't too many that hadn't been tracted but there was one called Village Ct. So we decided to tract it and we started on one side of the street with no luck and then we started the other side and the third house a guy answered and said he was babysitting his sisters but his mom would be back around 7 or so and she'd probably like to talk to us. Well we were going on splits that night with a couple girls that just got off their missions so one girl and I went back to the house and the mom and the kids were about to leave but she asked us what we were teaching and I told her about our message and her eyes lit up as I told her that we had a prophet and twelve apostles today that help lead the church and she said they were super interested and we set up an appointment to teach her and her 7 kids and one of her kids girlfriends!! It was soo neat to see how the Lord prepares people and how he leads you to them if you only ask and are willing to work for the answer. I loved it it was awesome. We also had zone conference which was really good. President Hansen is such an inspired man it's wonderful to hear what him and his wife have every zone conference to share with us. It was on repentance and we practice taught eachother. Today we are going to the Bluebell Factory which is really really delicious ice cream, but the factory is actually pretty lame. All you can see is metal pipes with ice cream coming out really fast. But it should be pretty fun anyways. I think mom is already gone for china is that right? Well I hope she gets this and I hope everyone else is doing super good! I'm gonna try and send pictures with this! Anyways love you all very much!
Sister Davis

April 5, 2010

So how about conference huh?! Wow that was so incredible!! Gosh I always hate when it is over. I remember the days when I used to be excited for conference because that meant that I got to stay in my pajamas all day sunday and sleep. Now I seriously am soo stinking excited to hear what the prophet and apostles and other church leaders had to say to us to prick our hearts to repentance. What marvelous advice they gave us! In the Book of Jarom it talks about how the prophets and teachers labored with all long suffering to teach us diligently and that as we listen to their words we are promised we won't be destroyed off the face of the earth because they prick our hearts continually to repentance. (Jarom 1:11-12 I think) How true that is and it goes along with what Elder McMullin said that the Lord always promises to preserve his people and that we must take comfort in that. Now more than ever we need to listen to the words from conference. To teach our children in the home and make them firm in their faith and in their way of righteousness and also to strengthen our personal revelation. How often the Lord freely gives us our answers or a prompting but we aren't tuned in to his way of thinking, but the world's, and then we miss it. I know that all these talks were given for our individual benefit and like Uchtdorf said, every principle in the gospel is given to help us reach perfection. It's so awesome that we have direct revelation to our Father in Heaven and we can get answers to all of our difficult daily problems any time we want! It's like the quote, "Why worry when you can pray" or "There is no problem on Earth that Heaven cannot fix." It's true I know it is and it's not because Mom and Dad taught me it growing up. Trust me if I knew it back then I wouldn't have made all the mistakes I have, but I know it because I have questioned it and besought my Heavenly Father to know the answers to my questions and he always answers us. I always find strength in the teaching that Christ gives when he said which of you if your child asks for a fish would give them a stone? and then he says if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more is your Father in Heaven willing to give good gifts to those that asketh? I don't know I just love it so much because I think of Dad and how much he loves all of us and he's ready to give us anything and do anything for us. Well think about our Father in Heaven being perfect, he's even more ready to give us what we need when we ask him for it and discuss it with him. Anyways as you can tell I really loved conference:) Wow I really went off on this email they haven't been this long since the MTC I don't think haha. But that's alright I wanted to share that with yall. So our investigators are all doing so good! And one of our less actives, he came to church a few weeks back but we can seem to get him since. anyways his grandson is recently divorced and wants to take the lessons!! So we are teaching him tonight and Curtis'. It's gonna be awesome hopefully it will get Curtis back to church as well. Being a missionary is so cool. I love it a lot. Oh and Saturday night the spanish hermanas and us bought Chili's(thanks to Lyndsay) and ice cream and sat in the mother's lounge and listened to the priesthood session. it was by far the most rebellious thing I have done on my mission! It was really good though I am glad we listened to it. I loved loved loved the talk on patience. I need help with patience...pretty much in every aspect of my life. Well hope this week goes well for everyone I miss you and love you much!
Sister Davis

March 22, 2010

This week was awesome! I hate when I email because I never can remember what even happened this week! The whole last year seems like a blur. We did have a good week I know that. We went to the Temple on Thursday so that was the best I just loved it! And the ward up in College Station is pretty much Zion and like half the ward works in the Temple so I was able to see some of them! I feel like I have been gone for so long but it's actually only been 6 weeks! So a couple weeks back we went and contacted this less active girl named becca and she's like 25 or so. Anyways surprisingly she let us in and we had a great talk and she's super fun and artsy. A little too artsy she likes to draw pictures of naked women. It was a little odd but that's her style I guess I donno. Anyways so just a few days ago like on Friday she called us and left a message and asked us if we would come over and visit with her and just talk! Okay...that never happens to us haha usually it's us calling people over and over again until we just have to show up! So that was awesome and we went over yesterday after church with the primary president who use to be her Visiting Teacher. And it was a great great talk! She said I'm not ready to think abotu going to church but I am ready to have God back in my life...And then she asked us to stay for dinner and we didn't have a dinner appointment so we did and we cooked with her it was really fun. So I know with a little bit of time she will come to church again. Oh and guess what?! So our members really don't like that we are on bikes..haha I love being on a bike and I told president that he might get some calls from our members complaining about us being on bikes but not to worry cause I like it. Well 2 days later Brother campbell from the ward called president and told him his thoughts and said I've been saving to buy a car but I will send it to you and you can buy them a car! haha President was like no no we will take car of it. Needless to say we are getting a car tomorrow at transfers. I still want to bike a lot though but it will help for at nighttime. Speaking of transfers my companion is going to Tomball and Sister Smith is going to be my new companion. This is only her 2nd transfer so it was be fun I'm really excited. We have a lot of work going on here and I just love being a missionary more and more every day. Seriously I don't know what it's gonna be like when I get home but I know it won't be as good as life right now so I just want to soak it up the most I can. So dad...try and refrain from talking about when I get home :) Anyways I hope yall are doing good it sounds like everyone is! Oh Randy one of the spanish hermanas out here her brother served in Czech Republic pretty much the exact time you did so I have been meaning to ask you if you knew an Elder HAstings? Anyways have a wonderful week I love you!
Sister Davis

March 8,2010

This week went really well. The weather has been gorgeous and I am starting to realize why people live in Texas and bear the summer...because the spring is really perfect. This week we were able to see a lot of people and teach a lot of lessons and I can't believe it's already p day again it goes by so fast it's really crazy. I'll be home 6 months from today and that just is so soon to me. I am loving life it's so amazing. So this week we were biking to an appointment and we were about 20 minutes early so we biked over to a less active to try and see them and they weren't home and so we biked back to our appointment but we went a different way than usual and we passed this lady who was sitting on the curb with her son and she said hi and waved and we waved back and kept biking. and then I was like what are you doing? Go talk to her! but I was already past her and it would look weird if I just turned around, but the prompting came again so I decided if I wanted the Lord to give me any more promptings I better act on the ones I do receive. So we turned around and went and talked to her and asked her if she'd be interested in learning more and she said she would and so we taught her the next day! and she committed to baptism when she finds out it's true. She's really nice and she has changed her life around a ton. She was on the streets up until a year and a half ago and she was a crack addict and now she's been clean for that long. she had 6 kids but she only has 2 now, but they are so sweet and they are 10 and 12. And they were excited to come to church and we just had to find them a ride cause they didn't have a car so we called our ward mission leader and he said he'd find one and then in the meeting sunday morning he hadn't found anyone but said he would. well after sacrament meeting i asked him where they were and he was like "I just couldn't find a ride for them." I was like what! I was so upset about it I couldn't believe he didn't even call us or tell us at all and they were waiting to come and he jsut didn't find anyone. I was really frustrated, but next week they will be there for sure. Anyways all is great and wonderful hope everyone is loving life!
Sister Davis

Feb 22,2010

Hey Everyone...things are going well here in Katy. We were busy all week. There are a lot of less actives in this ward so we split up the area into colors and we're going to contact them all by colors and last week we did the blue area. We still have a lot more left in the blue area, but that's because we were able to get in with most of them we tried so that's good. The only downer is that the blue area takes about 45 minutes to bike to so it takes a good hour and a half out of our day, but we were still able to get a lot done. There is this one family we teach and the mom and son are members but the Dad isn't so we are teaching him and the son really loves Boise State and I told him my brother went there for football and then transferred to Colorado and I guess he goes to church off and on and he asked me If I would ask Jamers to put a good word in for him to Boise State because he really wants to play there so I made a deal with him that if he goes to church every week I'd tell my brother to put a good word in for him. So yesterday was stake conference and tehre was a ton of people but he came through the crown of people to find me and tell me he was there and that he was just on his way to help put up chairs! haha so Jameson I promised I would ask you to put in a good word for Garry Clevanger...maybe you could send me something BSU with some signatures or something I donno. But yeah so we have some good people we are working with. No progressing right now just kind of filling the teaching pool, but we tracted into a family that is interested and we have an appointment with them this week so I'm looking forward to that! They actually just moved down from Nampa believe it or not. So yeah we'll see what happens with that. I really miss College Station and Sister Ireland and I'm not really adjusting all that well to this new situation and I don't like it all that much, but I like being on a bike and I like that there are a lot of less actives to work with and also a lot of potential investigators so I just work even harder and it makes it enjoyable. Sister Ireland and I are already planning how we are going to get tranferred back together in a couple transfers...hey it could happen. Well thanks for all your emails hope everyone is having a good week! Love yall
Sister Davis

Feb 15, 2010

Hey Fam,
How was everyone's week? I wouldn't know cause mom is the only one to write me! It's okay I'm not mad...I am really used to the lack of love by now. anyways I am no longer in College Station. I miss it a lot I won't try and sugar coat it. It's so hard to leave an area after 10 months and we had so much going on there and now I am on a bike, which is nice, but there isn't much going on and I don't know the area at all so It's as little bit frustrating but what can ya do. There is a ton of Less actives in this ward and so our goal this transfer is to visit every single one. It's hard to cover all this area on a bike because it is a pretty big area, but the ward members are great about helping out. Hopefully Sister Ireland can come down here in 2 transfers and finish her mission here. Oh I forgot to mention my companion now. Her name is Sister Christensen and she is from Greeley Colorado and she finishes her mission next transfer. Well hope everyone's had a great week and I love you.
Sister Davis

Feb 8,2010

Hey everyone!! So we got transfers and I am staying!! Okay I know after 10 months in an area I can't really pull that one off. I am getting transferred to Katy which is the other outsider part of the mission. I love being far away from the rest of the mission though you are able to just concentrate on your area and nothing else. So this week was wonderful and horrible all at the same time! I had to say goodbye to so many people that have become like family! It was hardest to say Goodbye to Charles and Paishan and Yuki and Cynthia. But such is the life of the missionary I suppose. It was so cute last Sunday Yuki and her daughter Cynthia came up to mee and gave me this pearl necklace as a goodbye present and Yuki said you are my special friend! How cute is that?! O really love them it's gonna be so hard leaving! But I'm excited to go experience a new area of the mission and also be back on a bike! Trust me I need it! It was so cool last week we were teaching one of our chinese investigators Si Chao and he's a member of the communist party and we found out he's like the secretary of part of it and anyways he has no intentions of believing in God but he thinks his tudents back in china should be able to choose so he learns from us and teaches his students and he told us he's gonna take the Book of Mormon back to China. He said, "They said we aren't aloud to but they won't check my bag it would take too much time and even if they do they will just say don't hand this book out only keep it for yourself and I will say okay but then I will just copy the pages and hand them out to people and if they want them okay and if they don't that's fine too they can throw it away but at least I will give them the chance!" haha seriously he's the kidnest sweetest man I have EVER met!! he's gonna be the way we get the church in to China! Anyways I love yall and I'm grateful for your letters I like reading about how everyone is doing. Have a wonderful week!
Sister Davis

Feb 1, 2010

Hey Everyone! This week was amazing we had a record amount of lessons taught which really was strange because we still had a lot of time to tract! So a little reminder to do your member missionary work story... so last weeek in PEC we were talking about youth who had friends who might be ready to learn more and they started talking about this kid who comes with a member every wednesday to mutual and they talked about him for awhile but then they decided hmm...maybe he's not ready quite yet. well okay fast forward 3 days to wednesday. We were going to go tracting so we prayed for a street and Sister Mullins said okay Normand Circle and after her last amazing experience we knoe better than to question her judgement so we go to the street and start tracting and about the 5th house a kid answered and we did our door approach ad asked him if he'd like to learn more and he's like yeah I would...so we were like okay cool and we taught him the first lesson on the doorstep and then asked him if he knew about the BOM and he said oh yeah I have one1 My friend gave me one a few weeks ago...we were like what? who is your friend and when he said his name and it was the member they were talking about at PEC who brings a friend every week to mutual and it was so amazing because they decided not to give him as a referral but obviously the Lord had different plans for him and so through different means we were able to find him and star teaching him! So don't be scared to refer your friends...they might be waiting for you to ask them! So transfers calls are this Saturday and I've known since last week I was leaving so it's been killer knowing I'm leaving and having no clue where I am going!! All I know is I'm not training this next transfer and that I am either going to Tomball, Katy or Montgomery or opening a new area. So I'll let you know next week. I'm so sad to be leaving College Station and Sister Ireland though it really is going to be tough. I am excited to see a new area and meet the challenges that lie in wait for me. Mom the kitchen looks awesome I love it! and Lynds, Tailee looks adorable! So cute...expecially her cute curly hair. Well I hope yall are doing so good and if you guys are sending any packages or letters right now, (I won't hold my breath though don't worry) just send them to the mission office not my CS address! Love yall
Sister Davis

Jan 25, 2010

Hey Everyone! this week was really great and really busy so I can't complain! We have 2 new investigators, both chinese, and both have no background of God. All the chinese investigators of ours have a long way to go before baptism and most of them probably won't be baptized, but I know that all this work that is going on right now is to prepare their hearts and to take the gospel back to China and little by little it will be spread all through China and that when China is opened to the Gospel, amazing things will happen. It's so cool. We have interviews tomorrow with President and I might find out what's happening next transfer. I know I'm leaving but that's about it. I really don't have a ton to write. I hope everyone is doing so well and I love you all!
Sister Davis

Jan 11, 2010

This week was soo awesome! I feel like I say that every week, and every week really is great, but this week so many amazing things happened! We were able to see 14 less actives and teach a total of 31 lessons. one of the less actives is a husband of a super active lady and they have to little kids. He's agnostic now and he's only been inactive about a year but it has been heartbreaking to his wife. we were able to talk with him a lot about his mission and by the end of it he had tears in his eyes and told us he needs to rethink his decision of not going to church and he realized how many amazing experiences he had on his mission. The PEC is working with us to give the priests a lesson on missions and sharing experiences of peoples' lives changing and we are asking him to come and share some experiences from his mission so hopefully he will come. Step by step everything turns out okay. And we had the most amazing tracting experience! We have been too busy to tract for the last 2 months or so and this past friday we had visited everyone on our list or at least tried to so we had an hour before our next appointment and even though it was freezing(the record low day!) we knew we needed to go tracting so we asked Sister Mullins to pray about a street and we gave her a map. She told us Woodlands was coming to her mind and I haven't ever heard of that street so I asked her where on the map it was and she said she didn't see it it just came to her mind. Well I looked up the street names and there was a Woodlands Dr. Woodlands Ridge or Woodland Hills Ct and the First one was in Bryan so it wasn't even in our area so I said are you sure it's not Woodland hills or ridge? So she prayed about it again and she said nope Woodlands Dr. Since we teach the Chinese, it's our area if the investigator is Chinese so we just went over there and figured this person we were suppose to find was Chinese. Well to make a long story somewhat short we got there and knocked the first door, no one was home. Second door, he wasn't interested. Third door Sister Mullins decided to knock it. (It was her first door to knock on) She said we're here to share with you the Book of Mormon and the lady said Oh Come in! It's so cold out there! So we taught her the restoration and answered questions and the spirit was soo strong throughout it. At the end she told us her husband wasn't a believer and that they had just moved from Washington State where he was a professor and now he's a professor at A&M in Geology. And then like a ton of bricks it hit me and I knew who they were! I said oh my! Do you know Lacey and Tracey Wulf? and she said "yes Tracy is one of my husband's grad students!" The wulf's are in our ward and a few months ago we had dinner with them and we asked them if they had anyone we could visit and they told us about his professor and their family and then at the end decided it wasn't time yet. So I knew all about her family and I know the Lord wanted them to be taught so when they didn't give them as a referral he figured out another way for us to find them. And it taught me an absolutely huge lesson that the Lord is so mindful of us. We are doing HIS work and he is always going to be there to tell us where to go and what to do, but so often we don't listen for that answer. Fortunately Sister Mullins did and the result was wonderful. So that's a couple awesome stories! And one door we knocked on the lady only knew Spanish and Sister Ireland and I did a door approach and conversation is Spanish! We both know a little spanish and we've been practicing lately, but the words just flew out of our mouth faster than I knew them. Of course with the help of the Lord all things are possible. This week was truly amazing and I'm so grateful for my calling. It's freezing here in Texas... Friday we actually had a record low day...ever! Like it had never been that cold in Houston before. Hopefully it will warm up soon! Love you guys!
Sister Davis

Jan 4,2010

Hey ya'll! How is the new year treating everyone? We had a really good Mission Conference on New Year's Day and it was soo good! It just motivated me to do my very very best for the rest of my time here! Sister Ireland and I have a new companion and she got here 2 days before the mission conference and since College Station is so far from Houston, we just stayed there for Wednesday to Friday. It was fun, but it was killing Sister Ireland and me to be out of our area and not proselyting for 3 days. the holidays are so great but I am very glad they are over and we can get back to work. I have another 6 weeks in College Station! I am blessed this is true...but I'm out of here after this transfer. 10 1/2 months here though I think I can count myself lucky. Not sure where I will be going. There's an odd amount of English and an odd amount of Spanish so I think they are going to bring a spanish sister and an English sister together and open a new area. I asked Elder Hiatt an AP about it and he asked me if I would go spanish!! I was like no! I don't even know it! I've only take 2 years in HS and a semester in college! I really hope he was kidding cause that would just throw me in a whole different direction, but he didn't seem like he was kidding. But I have some really really cool news!! and It won't sound as cool over email, but that's okay. So Wednesday night we were at President's house and Sister Ireland, Mullins and I were the only ones home and we were just talkin with President about teh work and I said President, what do you think about bringing a companionship of Mandarin speaking missionaries? and he said to college station? and I said yes!! We have so many chinese investigators and we only have so much we can do without knowing their language. They are all soo eager to learn about God and I really think there could be a branch started by the end of 2010 if there was a companionship of mandarin speaking missionaries up there to fully focus on the Chinese. and He told me they thought about bringing mandarin missionaries up a year ago but there just wasn't enough to keep them busy and he asked us how many chinese people we were teaching and so we listed them off and counted them and we didn't even realize it but we have 10(make it 11 now we just found a new one) chinese investigators!! Definitely enough to keep them busy! And he said wow 10?! and he said he thinks it would be a very good Idea to get some up there so he's going to talk to the Houston South mission and see about making college station one of their areas and pulling a couple up here in the next couple months! The other thing he might do is just request 4 mandarin speaking missionaries, but they thing about that is they'd only have like 2 companions their entire mission! Sister Ireland and I were like they'd have to REALLLY like eachother..too bad we don't speak chinese cause we love eachother!! Anyways so I will hear more in the next couple weeks hopefull and I'll keep you updated!! Pray for this to happen!! And also for China to open!! Anyways I love you guys so much!! Always seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added upon.
Sister Davis

Dec 14, 2009

Hey everyone! How is everyone's life going? I never know how to start emails so I pretty much just say the same thing every week. Well this week went wonderfully of course! We had a sister's P-day down at the mission home on monday and we didn't get home til 9 so we didn't get any work done that day unfortunately. That's the one downer to being in college station is we are about an hour and a half from the rest of the mission so it takes us a whole lot longer to get to Mission things than everyone else. But we were able to see a lot of people this week so that's great! Friday our Zone went to the Temple and it was soo good! It always is but this time was just super super good! Yesterday Sarafina was baptized and it was such a great baptism. The spirit was so strong and she was just so happy! Her mom came and enjoyed it and is so happy for her daughter it is so wonderful. I gave a talk and then Elaine, a recent convert who has helped teach Sarafina with us, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. After the baptism Sarafina said, "Okay what day this week can I come out with you and help you teach?" haha I was like well what day are you free and she said, "well let me see... Monday Tuesday wednesday thursday and friday!" she's so cute and she can't wait to teach with us. She said she's been waiting for a purpose in her life. I am so thankful for the Ottinger's in our ward who took the time to invite her to church and then to hear the missionary lessons. All it takes sometimes is an invitation. "Never suppress a generous thought!" This week we have interviews on Wednesday and then next week we have a mission p-day on the 22nd and then Mission temple day on the 23rd for Joseph Smith's birthday...so cool huh! Well I hope everyone is doing so great and all yall that are going on the cruise have a great Christmas! This will be the last email til you get back so I love you and Happy Holidays!
Sister Davis

Nov 30, 2009

Hey Everyone...no letters again today. Apparently I wasn't too missed at Thanksgiving! Anyways this week went really well!! We are super busy and it's a little bit exhausting but we really like it at the same time. We found 3 new investigators this week and they are all pretty solid! 2 of the investigators were referrals from this investigator we visit every week who loves our church but doesn't plan on joining because she likes the social aspect of the other one but she really wanted us to visit this couple that swing dances with her. They are such a great couple and they are from Beijing. He is a physics professor here and we taught the restoration and the plan of salvation last night and he understood all of it and he had really great questions and it was such an amazing lesson and the spirit was so strong. His wife doesn't understand English very well, but she still teared up twice in the lesson because she felt the spirit. When we told about Joseph's First Vision and about families being sealed for eternity. He said we answered questions that he has had for years. He's really excited to read the Book of Mormon and we're going back in a few days. Another investigator is Adonia and her sister joined the church recently and Adonia really wants to learn more because she has seen such a change in her sister and her sister's family since they joined. Her sister has sent her a bunch of the pamphlets and right when we got there she's like, "I need a book of mormon!" and so we gave her one and then at the end of the lesson we read Moroni's promise to her and she said, "Yeah...I've read this before I think it's in one of the pamphlets I have and every time I read it it's like a light just turned on in my mind but I could never do anything about it because I didn't have a Book of Mormon!" She accepts everything so well and I know she will be baptized. Two of our other investigators are June and Kevin and they are from Chengdu province in China and they are mother and son. We started going over there to help Kevin who is 10 with his homework and then we would teach them a lesson. This time we taught the restoration and when we told them about prophets they were sooo thrilled! They were like "You mean, today! We have a prophet?! Where is he? what's he look like!? Oh I want to meet him!!" and then Kevin a few seconds later was like..."Oh!! I'm so excited! No one ever told us there was a prophet today." It was such an amazing lesson. We just had so many great lessons this week! And out Thanksgiving was soo cool...We went to a member's home and She's from Idaho Falls but he is from Sri Lanka and he joined the church last year after having a dream he was suppose to go to Idaho state...and he was hindu. Anyways we had dinner with them, their indian friends from india, a girl from Turkey and Paishan from China! We had a hindu a muslim a presbyterian and mormons. It was just really special. Sarafina committed to be baptized!! I think that was this week so I don't think I've written about it yet. Not sure though everything blends together. But She is going to be baptized on December 12th! She's so excited and she can really recognize the spirit. At the end of a lesson she said, "I don't want the spirit to leave me again." She can see it leave as we leave and she's so looking forward to having the companionship of the spirit in a couple weeks. Well I had better end this but I love all you guys!! Even if you don't ever write me:)
Sister Davis

Nov 23, 2009

Hey everyone! This week was insane!!! Seriously insane...Sister Ireland and I are covering to areas now and we aren't sure how we're gonna make it! We weren't at home once this week for lunch so we stocked up on granola bars and water bottles and it felt like we were living out of our car. It's really good to be so busy though. We had lots of service oppurtunities this week as well so that made us even busier. We like working with a student ward and a family ward it's a lot of fun. We have an investigator close to baptism named Sarafina. She is great and we've become close friends with her too. We just have to make sure she's developing as much of a testimony as we're developing a friendship with her. We watched the Testaments with her last week and I think she really enjoyed it. She also came to institute with us and it was all about becoming cleansed through baptism and afterwards she told us she thinks she wants to be baptized. So we'll see! also we taught Charles, our rc, his wife a lesson again. She lives about 30 miles away so we got permission from Pres Hansen to teach her cause she's in a nursing home. She wants to be baptized...we just have to figure out how it'll work because she can't walk and it's hard for her to move. But everything is awesome the work is going so well here I just love it! Today we're gonna play soccer at 2 with the Elders and Paishan is gonna play. She's never played before and it was interesting to say the least when we tried to teach her tennis so I'm sure it will be just as itneresting. She's so solid though it's amazing. we just had stake conference and she came to sat night and sunday morning session and she comes and teaches with us on campus all the time. She's going home for Christmas for a month and we've challenged her to share the gospel with her family. I'm sure she will. Well that's all for now...Love yall
sis davis

Nov 9,2009

Hey everyone! This week was awesome and it just flew right by! We had interviews on Tuesday and Sister Ireland and I are staying together next transfer so we are both really excited about that! But after Interviews we only had 1 appointment scheduled and then we had a bunch of people we wanted to try and get in with and we just said a prayer to help us get in with all the people we have planned. So we went to the first one and got in...and the second and the third... and so forth. And at the end of the day we got in with EVERY person we tried and we taught 9 lessons! We had 10 scheduled and the only reason we didn't get the 10th person is because we ran out of time! So it was a wonderfully exhausting day...the next day we were soo tired! But it was definitely worth it. We have a baptism this Saturday for Jay and he's so happy I love teaching him. He's mentally challenged so we wanted to make sure he was accountable first and when we first started teaching him we weren't totally sure. He knows a lot and knows right from wrong, but it's like teaching a child so it was different. Then he told us about this dream he had that Jesus told him to follow him so he did and then Jesus went through a gate and shut the gate behind him and Jay didn't know how to get through the gate and that was the only way to get to Jesus he said. so.... if anyone is familar with 2 Nephi 31 we know Baptism is the gate. It was a neat experience and it confirmed our decision for him to be baptized. This week was really busy and we were able to teach 30 lessons. I love being busy but it makes the weeks go by so fast! I am almost half way done! It's insane I don't like it....We have transfers next wednesday but since we're staying together that doesn't matter much. For Christmas, a family in the Bryan English ward invited the whole zone over for breakfast! That was sure nice of them I thought...so that should be fun! And for thanksgiving this lady that we and the bryan elders and university sisters give service to invited us over for dinner so we're all going there so that should be reall

Oct fun

Halloween fun!

Halloween fun!

Nov 2 ,2009

Hey Everyone! This week was a wonderful week. We didn't teach as many lessons as we usually like to, but we had a Zone Meeting and we went to the Temple and we had a baptism so we were busy. The Temple was so great! It's awesome every time but this time we pretty much were able to do everything! We did initiatories, we were able to go into the celestial room for 20 minutes or so before initiatories because we had a lot of time before our session. And we were able to do sealings! It's was an amazing day! And Charles is baptized now! It was such a great baptism! His brother came who is a member and he bore his testimony on how happy he is that Charles accepted the Gospel and everything. It was soo great!! The weather has been gorgeous all week! mid 70's everyday. It definitely makes the miserable summers worth it. We have interviews tomorrow and then Transfers are in 2 weeks. Pretty sure I'm staying here...cross my fingers at least. I love it ehre and Sister Ireland is the best. We have a couple great potentials that look promising and we have a baptism on the 14th so that's something we're looking forward to. He's the sweetest guy. His name is Jay. Well I am sending a bunch of pictures from this weekend. Love you all!
Sister Davis

Oct 19 2009

Hey everyone! Well this week was such an awesome week! We taught lots and lots of investigators and so many of them are doing so well!! Charles is getting baptized October 30, a week from friday, and we've been teaching him all the commandments and he already lives all of them. He was a deacon at the baptist church so he's payed tithing there for years, he lives the Word of Wisdom completely. When we committed him to living the word of wisdom he said, "well i have to!...if i want to get in to heaven." he's so awesome i'm so grateful for his willingness to learn more about the gospel because his testimony has just blossomed. Sister Ireland and I are just having a blast together. One of our goals this transfer was to do something random every day. Something random seems to happen to us every day and we never even need to plan in out! We took Paishan to institute Wednesday night and we had been so busy that day so we didn't fill up with gas and we were going to right after institute. so we got in our car to leave institute and we totally ran out of gas!! So these kids that were in institute had to push our car like a mile to the gas station. so our car is going down the middle of the lane and then this truck pulls over and offers to tow it the rest of the way. so they begin to hook it up to our car and then this other car must have been watching us instead of the road and he ran right in to the car in front of him! So we caused an accident too....it was a pretty funny sight to see. At least we had a good excuse of being really busy right!? Anyways everything is going wonderful in College Station I never ever want to leave i love it here! Hope everyone is doing great!
Sister Davis

Oct pictures caitlin and Sister Ireland

Oct 5, 2009

Hey everyone!
Did everyone like General conference? I loved it!! Wow there were some seriously amazing talks... I learned so much. We're so lucky to have the fulness of the gospel and to have a prophet of God to guide us so we aren't wandering in "strange paths." Elder Holland's talk was simply amazing. He has so much conviction and power in his voice and you just can't listen to him and deny the church is true...it's just impossible. I guess he came here a couple years ago to set apart President Prier and President Prier's niece isn't a member and she came to the setting apart and Elder Holland was like, "Do you want to be baptized? Cause I'll baptize you right now. I got all the white clothes I need outside in my car. I'll baptize you right now." haha I guess even an apostle cant convince anyone to be baptized. So transfers.....well I am staying here!!!!!!!! I was set that I was leaving, I even packed a few things up. But I am soo stoked to be staying. The work is progressing so well here and I just love the ward. And my new companion is Sister Ireland. We were able to get to know eachother a little bit because we trained together so we spent the night at the president's hosue together and spent the next day in houston in a training meeting. She is so cool and such a hard worker. President seemed really excited about it. He said he took this decision specifically to the Temple and he felt very sure about it. he just thinks this one is perfect and he said he thinks her and I will be friends for life. I am really looking forward to it. Sister Sorensen is going to Tomball and Sister Lieber is going down to Katy now. Today we are actually doing something for P-day! I never feel like going anywhere, but Sister Sorensen and Sister Lieber want to go to the George Bush library before they leave so we are gonna check it out. It's suppose to be pretty amazing. So we had an appointment but when we got there, th

Sept pictures 2009

Sept 28, 2009

This week was a really really great one! We had some wonderful lessons and our investigators are progressing and it's been great to watch. I've strengthened my testimony of the Holy Ghost this week and also that we have been called and set apart as servants of God. One of our investigators, Chang, told us she feels so different when we come and it makes her feel happy. She said it's just this wonderful feeling that she only feels when we come over. She said she was telling her friends all about how she felt when we would come over and how she wanted to feel it all the time. We told her if she is baptized, she receives the gift of the holy ghost and as long as she is living the way Heavenly Father wants her to be, she can have it all the time. She got this shocked look on her face and she said, "You mean you have this feeling with you ALL the time?!" It was amazing and it strengthened my testimony very much so. We were also able to go with Paishan to do baptisms at the Temple and she had a smile from the time we arrived and it never diminished. It's been amazing to see her progress and her testimony is blossoming. We had an investigator who came to church for his first time and she's the one coming up and saying hi and introducing herself now. She's a great member missionary. I'm so greatful to have the gospel in my life and to have been given the opportunity to be on a mission and preach the gospel to all those who are prepared. My health issues haven't been fun in the least, but I have truly learned from them and continue to do so each day. Challenges are always what help you grow the most. I didn't know if I was ready to train and I was nervous, but I learned so much about myself and my testimony increased immensely and I was able to do it because the Lord was always with me. So transfer calls are Saturday and I'm pretty sure I'm outta here:( I really wouldn't be upset if they called and told me I'm staying here the rest of my mission. It's become my home and the ward is like my family(just for the time being) and we have so many investigators that are doing awesome right now so I don't want to leave but I know I will go where the Lord needs me right now. The other areas I'd go to are Katy which is like 3 hours from here, Tomball which is close to Houston, and Montgomery which is like an hour from here or so. I'm excited to see a new area and meet new investigators and have new places to tract, but starting in a new ward will be a different experience. Interviews are this thursday I always love interviews. President Hansen is so amazing he's just so caring and loving and has such a great testimony of this gospel and of the work. Plus he's had to put up with me and my health issues so he's awesome... I am going to send pictures so mom you can just forward them to the rest of yall. General Conference this weekend! I'm so excited it's going to be amazing! Tell Shanface good luck on her mission and I love her so very much and she's gonna be a wonderful missionary! Love you kids!
Sister Davis

Sept 14, 2009

Hey everyone,
So I have to write on this email because our other one isn't working, but make sure you write me back on my other email. Anyways this week was slower than usual, but the lessons we had went really well! We have a lot of investigators, but getting them to progress is definitely been hard lately. Our chinese investigators are just starting to learn about God so they just don't see the importance of church attendance yet, and one family we are teaching is still in the curiosity stage. It's all good though. So on Friday I was waiting to get my MRI and there was this man in the waiting room and he asked me about my nametag and so I told him I was a missionary and we started talking and he told me about his ENTIRE life and he's like 80 so there was much to tell. And then he said how he grew up catholic and still goes to mass every week and he said his kids are all different religions now but they all started from roman catholic pretty much and then he said"I don't know about that smith guy...seems like he's pretty holy though" so I shared with him the background of Joseph Smith and then the first vision and he really enjoyed it but then I got called in to the admissions room, like one of the cubicles, so I couldn't continue talking to him. Well luckily he got called in to the cubicle next to me and when the lady asked him what his address was, I could hear him and I wrote it fown! So we are going to "tract" into him this week and it's going to be great. Anyways I better get going we have to get some other stuff done today but I love you all and thanks for your emails! I'll write more this next week.
Love you,
Sister Davis