health problems getting in the way of the work

Hey Mom and Dad,
It was great to talk to you yesterday. I don't have a ton to write today so i'm just writing individual emails. I can't believe how deep jacson's voice is. I couldn't open the pictures, but i'll check on a different computer next week. I am going to talk in my tape thing and then send it home to you guys so you can just use mine. And I printed off pictures so i'll send those too. Thanks for all that you two do. I should be getting my MRI this week so that is good! I just want answers...I know Heavenly Father will take care of me no matter what it is...even MS. The Priesthood blessing I received yesterday and from President Hansen's emails, I think I am going to find out answers soon. I love you guys and I am trying to work as hard as I can to serve the Lord because I have never been happier than on my mission and I just love it! Hope you are all doing great tell the ward hi!
Love you,
Sis Davis

Love those Baptisms!

Hey Family! So Paishan is now a member!! She got baptized on Monday and confirmed yesterday! Yes, mom, Paishan is Chinese. She is from Taiwan and she's getting her PHD here in Economics. She's been learning for a few months and she got kind of frustrating. like she loved learning and she said she knew the church was true, but she thought there were lots of true churches. She came without a background of god so we had to learn to be patient and try to somewhat understand where she was coming from. but anyways we asked ehr to pray about baptism and so each week I'd ask her how it's going and every time she'd say mmm not very good. I was going to give her the drop talk because she wasn't progressing, and then that next week she couldn't meet with us because she had a huge test and then the next week we had two lessons at the same time so I had to go teach this other investigator and I wasn't able to meet with Paishan. Then the next week we went over the restoration and Joseph Smith and then asked her if she received her answer and she said yes and I said is it a good answer and she said I think so! I was like well that's great! what are your thoughts on baptism. I figured she'd say I will pray about it some more or maybe in a couple months or something, but she said well I can choose who baptizes me and when i get baptized right? and I said yes and she said okay I want to be baptized...so she got baptized 13 days later!! It's been the best moment in my mission. Meeting her and seeing her come from not believing in God to having a firm belief in Not only God and Jesus Christ, but their plan for us and the Atonement and The Holy Ghost and the Restoration. She's so solid and it's just unbelievable. She got confirmed and received the Holy Ghost in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and she skipped back to her seat with the BIGGEST smile on her face Oh my goodness it was the cutest thing I have seen!! And she's not young, she's 26, so it was even cuter to see how excited she was...enough to skip! So yeah it was amazing. She's not just an investigator anymore, she's a lifelong friend I'm sure of it. Carl, the investigator we had to give to the elders because he developed to much of an emotional attachment, came to Church yesterday looking slick in his suit and everything!! The elders haven't gotten in with him yet so he's still our investigator and our ward mission leader has befriend him so that's good because he's still in our boundaries to he'll still go to our ward. He's awesome though he loves the Book of Mormon and he loved church!! I was nervous because it was a super good sacrament meeting but it was all on eternal marriage and he is going through a divorce, but he told us God really spoke to him and it's exactly what he needed to hear! So it's exciting... another amazing thing that happened is with Carol, a less active we have visited every week since I have been here and they have been visiting her even way before that, but she has some hang ups about the church, but you can tell she still longs to come and it's her sister who keeps her from coming mostly. She's like 60 but she didn't want her sister to stop talking to her or anything so she said it was easier to just not go than to have family arguments. Well anyways we visited her a couple weeks ago and had a real nice chat. she opened up about a lot of her complaints on different things in the church and we were able to try and explain our views on those points and kind of smooth things out and then she came to church that sunday!! She hasn't been in months and she came!! It was so awesome and she just stayed for Sacrament meeting, but then this past week I got sick and I was in bed for 2 days so we were on exchanges with the unviversity sisters and Sister Lieber, my trainer, stayed with me and Sister Boren went out with sister Sorensen. Anyways they visited her and right when they got there, Bro Sharp and Bro Hickson, both from the bishopric, were just leaving and Carol told the sisters that they extended a calling to her and she's thinking about accepting it. this is all like amazing I was so thrilled when I heard it! Then yesterday she was at church again and she accepted the calling and had a wonderful setting apart and she's really excited about it!! Her husband hasn't come back to church but as she sets the example, only good things will come from it! So that was the most exciting news of this past week. A lot of great things happening in College Station it's really wonderful. Hope everyone is doing so great and good luck with school little ones I miss ya! Love you!
Sis Davis

Plugging along!

Hi Hi!! How's everyone's Summer been? This week has been a good week, though we've been bouncing around at different houses cause our airconditioning is broken and they keep saying they'll fix it but don't and then I got the most horrific flu i have had...seriously the throw up was so intense I would cry after each time...it only lasted a day though. sorry to give you a mental picture, but it's really the only way to get a slight view of how i felt. and then an investigator, carl, said he couldn't meet with us anymore because he's getting too deeply emotionally attached and has to strong of feelings for me...he said "I have weaknesses and I know you do to"...basically saying "I think if we meet too many times more we'll love eachother too much"....I was soo freaked out! I was like thank goodness he told us this and i'm glad he told us this over the phone!! He's this 40 year old and he was so into everything we were teaching but I could kind of tell he was maybe having some feelings cause he'd make weird comments...and he was in jail for 6 years and I don't know why...but I most certainly don't want to find out. So that was a very interesting creepy moment of this week. But PAishan is getting baptized today and that's just the best! She is so excited! She started out by telling us not to tell anyone about the baptism cause she didn't want a lot of people there, but she was telling everyone about it yesterday and asking everyone to come! IT's so amazing to see her transformation. She reads the book of mormon all through church! she doesn't understand what people say in sunday school and relief society soemtimes, like when they are talking so fast, so she'll just read her book of mormon. She's solid. Everything else is awesome...we've got some great investogators that are progressing well! I don't have much time as usual but I love all of you and I always love your letters!
Sis Davis

No, We Really are On Fire!

So this week was soo awesome! Especially considering the way it started. But we got moved in to another apartment and got new furniture and stuff so we are pretty much back to normal. Paishan is an investigator we have been teaching since end of May and she's from Taiwan. She's here getting her PHD in Economics and has 4 more years left. She started out with no belief in God whatsoever and she has such a testimony of the gospel now it's amazing. At our lesson last Tuesday she decided to be baptized! She's getting baptized a week from tomorrow, August 25th! She's definitely converted and will remain steadfast in the church I have no doubts. I'm so happy for her it's just incredible to see the transformation in her. The only problem with getting baptized that she expressed last tuesday is that she wanted it to be at 4 because she wanted to have dinnr with her roommate because she just moved here from Taiwan and doesn't know anyone. haha we were like well how about 7. She's like Okay...so we're all set to go for Tuesday! And another investigator Carl, he's the one we were walking home from an appointment and he called us over and asked us what we did and sensed something about us. We taught him for 3 hours and he said he'd been praying all week to just know the truth. He grew up baptist and has tried other religions but never felt complete. We taught him 3 times last week and he just loves it. HE said he knows this is the truth and he always feels so good when we come over. We watched the testaments with him yesterday and he just loved it. He found out one of his co workers is mormon and he said he was sooo excited! He went and found him and they talked all day and they found out a way to be able to work side by side all day so he can talk to him mroe about the gospel. This work is unbelievable. Heavenly Father wants to guide us in all we do and I know as we let him, we will be blessed and we will be able to bless others. I'm so greatful for the knowledge I have of the Plan of salvation and for my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know Joseph Smith saw HEavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I know they restored the Priesthood Authority to the Earth through him. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for a Prophet on the Earth today who directs this Church by revelation. It is so necessary to have further revelation for our days. We are going through things so different than other times and the answers for them aren't specifically found in other teachings. I love all of you and you are all such examples to me.
Sis davis

We're On Fire! (or at least our apartment was) :-)

Hey Familia!! How is everyone doing?? Sound like everyone's summer is going pretty great! Well this week was sooo awesome! We have 3 new investigators...one is a chinese family they are here because he is getting his post doc in nuclear physics and we met with the wife, her name is chang, twice last week and then the whole family came to church on sunday! gosh it was awesome they are so excited to learn...they have no background of anything to do with god at all. And then we had an appointment with paula and she wasn't home so we were walking back the other way and this guy called us over and he started asking us questions cause he's seen us walk a lot and he could feel something different. so we told him our message and he asked for a pamphlet and we wanted to give him a book of mormon but we had just given our last one away so we told him we'd walk home and get one and bring it back. well when we brought it back, he invited us in and we taught him for 3 hours!! It was the most incredible lesson...he said he'd been praying all week long for him to find the truth, and then we showed up and he knows we must have it. he grew up baptist but he never felt complete. he's studied with JW's and he didn't like what they taught, and a bunch of religions but he never felt full. he wanted to know more about joseph smith cause he said if I join this faith, i need to know all about it so i can share it with everyone so I need to know about him. so we read from joseph smith history and when we were done he said okay I am probably going to join. he said he's learned from missionaries before and he goes" they never explained it to me the way you have. man it could have been different a long time ago!" he knows his bible very well and every truth we taught just made complete sense to him...the spirit was so strong and at one point he jsut broke down sobbing about how lonely he has felt and he just has needed to let out his thoughts for so long and he's soo greatful for us talking to him and listening to him. At first I was scared! this huge black guy is bawling! but goodness he's just the coolest guy ever! Listening is so key to helping people accept the gospel. everyone investigating will have a problem with something. whether it be marriage, word of wisdom, tithing, chastity, so many things, and they are all things we can help them with, but only if we know what the problem is. we can only do that by listening. okay so that was saturday...well Sunday is where are amazing week turned completely upside down!! we were at church yesterday and we have a meeting at 630 and 730 and then church is at 9 so we were gone all morning and then one lady came up to me and was like hey not to worry you or anything but i just got here and I past your apt on the way here and your building is on fire! I didn't think too much of it though cause i just thought she meant one of the buildings in our complex cause there's like15 or 20 different buildings. and then when we got home there's firetrucks all over and ambulances and firefighter's still trying to fight the fire. I guess a little boy was playing with a lighter and that's how it started. it was the most insane experience in my life by far! no flames got in to our apartment; everything is just smoked out and completely water damaged. we lost all our furniture and a lot of our clothes , but none of our books of mormon or journals or area book or anything got damaged and that's really what matters. so anyways the bishopric and some others from the ward helped us get everything out as fast as we could and we are staying at our relief society president's house til we find a new apartment. The apartment complex we live at has other apartments but 16 apartments were lost in the fire so they don't have that many other units and a lot of the people had no where to go so we told them to not worry about finding us one cause we have a place to stay and we can just find another complex. so yeah... i'm still not even sure what happened it all seems like a dream! I can't believe we don't have our apartment anymore... the people next to us just moved in the day before. We're so lucky to have a ward family though. it was great to see everyone from the ward so willing to help us out and take us in and everything. here's some pictures of this fire.
http://www.theeagle.com/local/32-displaced-in-CS-blaze
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/52833007.html

So yeah that was pretty much my week! pretty insane but nothing that can't be handled. Sister Carter lives in a beautiful hosue on the lake and she's just the sweetest lady ever! This morning she told us to invite the elders over and we all went fishing and she made us breakfast and then we played pool. All of her kids are grown so she just loves having us there... I miss my apartment though. I don't even have my toothbrush!! Don't worry she gave me one. Well I should end this. Elder childs, one of the senior missionaries, is coming up here to come look for another apartment with us so we have to meet him shortly. I love you all and I am so greatful to be serving a mission and I know I am right where I am suppose to be!
Sis Davis

listening to the Holy Ghost

Everything is going amazing here in College Station. We are in finding mode right now, but we have been blessed every time we have gone tracting or contacting formers and potentials to find new investigators each time. We contacted a lady named Paula who was taught a little over a year ago. We invited her to learn more and she said she wanted to so we set up an appointment and when we went over she wasn't home, but it was only 830 and I felt it was too early to go in for the night so we talked about it and there was a potential we have tried about 7 times and she's never been home but we decided to try her one more time because her apartment was on the way home and I felt like we should. So we knocked on her door twice and she wasn't home so we started walking away and then a lady answered. She wasn't the potential we were trying to contact, but we told her who we were and about our message and she invited us in and we taught her the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and she was really excited. Her name is Mable and she has two girls that are 5 and 3 and so adorable... So we set up a return appointment. Then a couple days later we contacted Paula, the former investigator, and set another appointment up with her and now we are teaching both of them. So even though it was discouraging when Paula wasn't home the first time, Heavenly Father was in control and he knew that Mable needed to hear the Gospel that night and we were able to start teaching both of them. Listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost really is the only way we can succeed as missionaries in the way the Lord wants us to. I'm still learning a lot, but every time I take that leap of faith, not knowing beforehand what I am going to do or Why, but acting on the promptings I receive, I am blessed. So that was one awesome story for this week. And it can't get better than being evacuated to the Stake Center for hours because of chemical explosions. We were so confused at first. I was on exchanges and so I had Sister Boren in my area and Sister Sorensen went with my previous companion Sister Lieber on campus and Elder Salazar called us and told us the situation. We really thought he was just joking around because they leave dumb messages all the time saying the first presidency text them and told them they were worried about us...hah just things like that so we didn't know what to think. So yeah we just had 13 of us missionaries and a bunch of other members from Bryan in the Stake Center in College Station for awhile and then we got permission for all the sisters to stay in our apartment since we are out of bryan far enough and then all the elders to stay in the Zone leaders and university elders' apartment cause they live together. It was great for us cause there is only 4 of us! The elders had 9 in their apartment haha so I don't think they had the funnest night. We just ordered pizza and took pictures! It was a relaxed night...It was actually a little bit of torture being confined to your apartment because everyday we're told we have to be out all day except meal time and so it felt like we were breaking the rules or something! But yeah all is well we are all alive. We are having zone meeting on Wednesday and I was asked to give a talk on the Relationship between Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ which is really broad to me so I had a hard time picking a point to talk about to relate it to us. At length I came to the conclusion that really it was pretty obvious that I needed to talk about obedience and the example Christ set of that. His relationship with the father is on the foundation of complete obedience. His own statement of that is "Thy Will be done." So I am sort of getting all my thoughts on paper finally. It will be great though I have already learned so much about it in preparation. We are going to the Temple this Thursday as well so it's just going to be a wonderful week. I am so excited to hear where Shannon is going!! She's going to be such an amazing missionary! Let me know where she gets called to. Well I have to write some individual emails and then we are going bowling today so I am gonna end this but I just love you all so much and I am so happy that we are a family for time and all eternity. It's such a great blessing we have been given! Any blessing we receive though is only predicated upon obedience...interesting how everything goes back to obedience. That's why we are put in to family units though so that we can help eachother bind ourselves to holiness before the lord and act in exact obedience. Truly, if we take away all our arguing and bad feelings once in awhile, family is who we think of first with anything and we are always wanting to help them walk in the ways of the Lord, which is walking in exact obedience. K love you!
Sister D

Singing in the Rain!

So we got rain this week...twice!!! That above everything else, made it the best week ever! It's crazy though because when it rains here it pours and the little streams rise up so high and it floods really easy. Anyways I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Sorensen and she is from Idaho falls! I guess they like to keep the Idahoans together! She is an English Major at BYU and she's a wonderful missionary and I'm lucky to have her as my companion. We were able to do some tracting this week which has been awhile but it's always good to let a new missionary experience the awkwardness of door approaches. These ones weren't too bad...had a couple of them without shirts on but no fully naked people like Elder Hiatt's Greenie had to deal with on his first door so that's always a plus! She set up two appointments while we were tracting so she's on her way to training next transfer already! People really are pretty open to listening here...and even if they don't want to learn mroe they are nice for the most part. We have a great week ahead of us with some appointments and lots of potentials to contact so it is going to be busy busy but that's the only way to be and then you forget how tired you are! We have a new ward mission leader and he's soo awesome!! He's so excited about it and he's very hands on which we needed! He's got great ideas about incorporating preach my gospel with member lessons to involve the members mroe and bring in more referrals. I don't have that much to say this week because we were in houston for a couple days with the rest of the trainers and their companions but that was a wonderful time. I'm so lucky to be on a mission I don't know how I got here, but it's the best place to be and I just don't ever want to be released. If it wasn't for my family I probably wouldn't be! Thank you so much for everything you all do and teh support you give me, it means a ton. I know that the Lord is at the head of this church and as we are exactly obedient in the commandments we have been given, both as a whole and individually within our callings, we will surely be blessed and have no need to fear about anything to come. Love you!
Sis Davis