February 17 2014

Hello Family & Friends!!!

Another week has just flown by! Another transfer is over! Another mission month has arrived! I have been out 10 Months today! That just amazes me! If the next 8 months go as fast as the last I won't even have time to blink! Hold on to your seat belts! This is going to be a fast roller coaster ride!

We were able to see Dustin and Maddie everyday this week! They are really growing in the gospel! 

Last Monday we were able to see Chermayne! She is doing so great! We were able to teach about the importance of going to church, praying, and reading the scriptures, aka CPR! She really wants to be more dedicated to reading her scriptures! She has found a lot of peace today!

Tuesday we had a great day! We Jacob came out with us to find people! It was great! We walked so much, by the time we were home for the night my legs were like jelly! We had dinner with Tim and Ashley! They just moved into our ward and Ashley is not a member, we taught about prayer and are going back next week to teach the first lesson! They are super sweet!

Wednesday! We taught Chermayne the 10 commandments and the Law of Chastity! She LOVED it! She really is hold tight to the truths she is learning! She feels so much peace! And is so confident in her desire to be baptized! We also started to heart-attack people that needed some extra love! There were a lot of people who needed our love!

Thursday! We had the sweetest  experience as we went to visit to less actives, the Burns. Sister Burns told us this very exaggerated story about two angels that came and left hearts allllllllll over their door with scriptures on them. She called the relief society president and the high council representative and no one knew who did it, but they all told her she was very special to have that happen to her! She asked if we did it we told her no, but that maybe the young women did it!

Friday was Valentine's Day!  This was one of my favorite days of my mission ever! We heart attacked tons of people! Some people guessed that it was us, others are still wondering!!! It was fun to go around like little cupids and leave love on peoples doors!!!! Then we had an amazing dinner with Sister Jones! She is so wonderful! She made it such a special occasion! After dinner we went to Chermayne's and had a lesson! We read Lehi's Dream with her and it was a lesson filled with the spirit. We were all crying. She expressed her gratitude for the hearts we left on her door and for how much she cared about us!

Saturday we started off the day with Service. We played with some dirt and then we raked some leaves!!!! It was great to get a little dirty. Nobody here lets us do service so it is nice to actually have somebody say "hey sisters will you help us do this?" Often times we make up our own service! Then after service we got our Transfer Doctrine! Jacob said he would go less active if I left..

Sunday was WOW!!!! Quail Ridge Ward is the best :) When they found out that I was leaving and they were so sad!!! Everyone crowded me and gave me hugs and encouragement. We sang in Sacrament Meeting with the Laurels. We sang "As Sisters in Zion" but to the words that Janice Capp Perry created for Sister Missionaries! It was powerful! I looked out into the congregation and saw so many faces that I love. Dustin and Chermayne were there. There were also many families that have not been out to church in a while that were there. I just wanted to cry tears of joy as I looked at each of their faces....so I had to just concentrate on the music. Then we had a wonderful Gospel Principles lesson on the Final Judgement. David started off by reviewing the Plan of Happiness! That was so inspired! I think it helped our investigators a lot and it gave them a review.

Well you probably figured out that I am leaving Quail Ridge tomorrow! Such a hard move! I am also leaving Las Vegas! I am going to Boulder City! Everyone says that I will love it! It is supposedly one of the safest cities in the country! There is no gambling or building allowed, super small town! I will give you more details next week! It is so hard to leave a place that I have grown to love so much! But I am glad that it is hard because to me that means I really put my all into the work here! I gave everything I had and now it is time to serve in another part of the Lord's vineyard.

Love you! Choose the Right! 

Sister Davis  

February 10 2014

What a week! What a week! Mine was so great!! How was yours?!

It has been a blur of lessons with Matt (we saw him everyday :)..... twice a day), exchanges, revelation, preparing for the baptism, and stake conference! We also have a new mission challenge from our mission president to read all of preach my gospel before the new president comes in July. Sister Tucker and I are starting in the middle and reading a chapter a week! WE ARE SO EXCITED!

Monday we saw Matt and had a short, but powerful lesson about prayer! This was an important week for him, so we wanted to make sure that he went to his knees for help! I love what Gorden B. Hinckley says, "When life gets to hard to stand, kneel!" I know that is true! We were able to also meet with Dustin & Maddie, and read a little in the Book of Mormon. They are such a cute family and I know that this gospel will bless their lives so much! We had dinner with a couple in our ward, the Honeycutt's! Sister Honeycutt is so great! She is the one who gave us the Christmas tree! She has been sending Sister Tucker and I cards every couple weeks! She is so great! We also dropped by Chermayne's apartment! She went to church on the way other side of town with some friends she works with, and really enjoyed it! She is excited to come on Sunday with us!! We had to rush to meet with some other sisters to go on an exchange, and switch companions for the night/next day!

Tuesday Sister Hill and I were here in Quail Ridge! It was a pretty great day! We met with Matt in the morning to read with him and then that night we were able to see him and talk about faith! He is so excited for Saturday and is truly living the gospel! It's amazing to see his change! We also were able to have a prayer with an 82 year old lady named June, who lives in the apartment under some less actives in our ward.  It's always interesting to talk to the older people. They have lots of interesting stories!

Wednesday we read with Matt and later had a great lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reviewing Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End! We used those eggs with the faces! It was really fun! Matt loved it! We read with Jacob, he is really trying to find out if God is really there. Hopefully the more we work with him the greater his faith will be. WE had a great lesson with Dustin & Maddie about three things.. the importance of reading  scriptures, praying, and then Dustin guessed the third was church! Brilliant! These days just seem to go by so fast! But they sure are packed full of many miracles!

Thursday we met with Matt at a member's apartment that literally is diagonal from him! He is really getting to know so many people in the ward, and they all love him. He tells us he feels like a celebrity and he doesn't know why everyone is so nice to him. We got Matt started on his Family History so he can take names to the temple! So exciting!! Afterwards we taught Dustin while Maddie was a work.. We were able to introduce him to a few members and talk about prayer and reading once more. The biggest struggle is having him consistently do these things. He recognizes they are good, but as soon as he starts to do something good he has trails that discourage him. He just needs to hold on! We also met with Jacob again, and watched Finding Faith in Christ! It was amazing!! He really liked it and loved how forgiving Christ was towards others!

Friday we had a wonderful Zone Training Meeting! The topic that were trained on was exactly what I needed to hear! We were able to get some good ideas about our area and how to continue being successful! We were able to have a great one on one lesson with Chermayne and help her overcome some concerns!

Saturday......MATT WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY AND IT WAS THE BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything went super smoothly and awesome! There were so many people that came out to support. It was amazing! Like 50 ward members!!!!! Incredible. There was an open house afterwards at the Ballard's! Everyone came to congratulate Matt! Sister Tucker and I talked about Baptism and The Gift of the Holy Ghost together! We used a hula-hoop to represent Matt's journey here on earth and the steps he taking to return back to Heavenly Father! Everyone LOVED it! We sang a musical number with some members! It was a tear jerker.. Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the music of Come Thou Fount... It was amazing!

Sunday we had a wonderful stake conference. It began with the new member meeting at 8:30am. President and Sister Neider were there and they were awesome! Matt was there! He is the newest member of the Green Valley Stake! Lots of new members bore there testimonies and it was really inspiring for us missionaries. Then we had a wonderful Stake meeting! The spirit was so strong!!!!! Chermayne came and she loved it! The best part was when we sang "The Spirit of God" as a stake! So powerful :) We were all crying! Then we had a wonderful lunch with Bro.& Sis. Jones!!!! It was so so so tasty!!!! For dinner we had steaks at the Klabacka's!!!! They invited their nonmember friends over too and we got to teach the first lesson to them :)

Missionary work is the best work! I love seeing the gospel impact members, nonmembers, missionaries, just everyone! The church is true! The gospel is real! It can bless our lives if we let it! I just finished reading Helman today in the Book of Mormon! It was so great, I've been learning a lot about Repentance... I feel like every chapter I've read lately in the BoM talks about Repentance. I read these scriptures today in Helaman 15:7-8  "...believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a ^achange of heart unto them—Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are ^afirm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free."  The scriptures truly help us to have greater faith, a desire to repent, and then truly have a change of heart, and truly, truly become more like our Father in Heaven!

Love you! Have a great week!!
XOXO!

Love,

Sister Davis

February 3 2014

Hello! Hello! Hello!

My oh my! This has been an amazing week! Miracle were seen everywhere! I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in this work! This week we had 18 member present lessons! I've never ever had that many before! So many miracles! In the past two weeks we have had 46 members come out with us! They are so support of this great work!!

Monday was a great day! We read the Book of Mormon with our investigator Dustin, and he just loves it! He really identifies with Nephi, because Dustin is also the youngest in his family and has tried to be an example for others. We had dinner with the Genobaga Family! They are from Hawaii and haven't been active. But Brother Genobaga shared with us his testimony and his desire to be sealed to his family in the Temple by Thanksgiving! What a great goal! We also were able to teach Matt! He still is having some set backs with the Word of Wisdom, but he knows what he needs to change and he is lowering the amount of coffee and cigarettes he uses.

Tuesday we met with Matt and reviewed the things we have taught him.. it was amazing to see how much he knows and to hear his testimony! He truly is such an amazing person. He has decided to stop all of his habits and live the Word of Wisdom! After the lesson we asked him if he needed us to throw anything away for him.. He said no.. I asked for his cigarettes.. He said he would give them to me.. I didn't know if he was serious but as I held out my hand to shake his Matt handed me his box of cigarettes!! We threw them out! He is so dedicated! We had dinner with our Ward Missionary BrotherAllsop and his family! They are awesome! He told us that he makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever! But said he didn't make any tonight  because we had to rush off to a lesson.. We gave him a hard time about not making us these famous cookies.. So later that night when we saw him at Ward Coordination meeting he brought us his yummy cookies fresh out of the oven! They were seriously the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten! EVER! We also introduced more about the Book of Mormon to Dustin! It was great! They are really loving reading together!

Wednesday we met with Matt and taught him about Tithing and Fasting! When we asked him if he would live this principle he told us, "Of course!" His dad raised him to pay his tithing, but he hasn't been paying it because he hasn't gone to a church. We also read the Book of Mormon with Jacob, he has a lot of questions and is afraid to ask us them. Hopefully he will be able to open up to us soon! We had a great lesson later today with Sister Tate and a guy named John. We had prayed with him last week and left him with a pamphlet, he read the pamphlet and we taught about The Restoration! It was great! He told us he would love to have us come back anytime, any day... We set up a time to meet with him tomorrow! Then we had a lesson with Sister Dolly and her son Daniel! We talked about faith and invited them to come to church... The problem is Sister Tucker didn't know that Sister Dolly really doesn't like Fast Sunday and so when she mentioned it Sister Dolly flipped and said she would not be there because she does not like that meeting! Hopefully she will still come.. She usually comes a couple times a month. We also had Ross, a young man in our ward, come with us to a lesson with Norma! We invited her family to join us and they loved the lesson we had! Norma told us she went to church with the lady she cares for on Sunday and really enjoyed all three hours! Such a blessing! She is excited for her children to learn as well!

Thursday we had interviews and that is always one of my favorite days! It only happens once every twelve weeks and it only lasts three hours, but it is the best! President and Sister Neider are so sweet! I just love them! I learn so much from their example! It is truly amazing! I know that we are sent to a specific mission not just for the people we will teach, but also so that we will have a certain Mission President! We saw John again! He is doing great! We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he is so excited to read and learn more! He really wants to come to church, but he has health problems and is not sure if he will be able to make it this week. Later we met with Matt, he had just gone to the dentist and had all of his top teeth removed! He was in so much pain! I felt so sad for him and he had no one to take care of him! It reminded me of when I got my wisdom teeth out! Terrible! We met with Chermayne later and finished teaching her about the plan of Salvation! She kept saying, "This feels right! This just feels right!" We talked to her about meeting with us on a more regular bases to build her spiritual strength! So now we are going to see her every other day!!! Blessings!

Friday we had a lesson with Matt is the morning and afternoon! In the morning we went over all the questions he would be asked in his Baptism Interview. He bore his testimony on the principles we had taught him! He truly loves the Savior and this Gospel! It is amazing! The change in him is so apparent! We also watched the Restoration DVD with him later that night! He loved it.. I looked over at him during the part of the movie when Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father appear to Joseph Smith.. He was smiling so big! The Spirit was so strong! Later that night we met with Dustin again and taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They loved it and just love having us over! It is so great to see their excitement!

Saturday we were able to do some really fun service! We helped tie blankets with "Project Linus." Lots of women from the ward were there and we were able to meet a nonmember that lives in our ward boundaries named Mercedes! We hope that she will come to church next Sunday! Saturday was really awesome because we  met with Matt twice again! He is doing really well with the Word of Wisdom and is so set and ready for his Baptism. We also found two new investigators!! Devan and Chelsea! They were a street contact and let us come in and teach the Restoration because they had friends that were Mormon. Members examples really go a long long way!!! We ate a great dinner with Sister Taylor afterwards! She is such a role model to me of someone who wants to bless others in everything she does! As a spiritual thought we did the faith rocket with her and it didn't go too well. She dropped it in her rocky road ice cream!!!! Yikes! But on Sunday over the pulpit she told the congregation that through that spiritual thought that we had shared she learned much much more. I just love personal revelation!

 

Sunday was one of my best Sunday's on my Mission. Hands down! It was Fast Sunday, but I didn't feel famished. I felt great. We were fasting with a purpose. We had ward council in the morning. Lemme just say: THE QUAIL RIDGE WARD IS THE MOST LOVING WARD EVER!!!! In the last two weeks we have had 46 members come out and help us with missionary work. At ward council the high priest group leader said that Sister Tucker and I should be news anchors because we work so well together and playoff one another. They say our conversations are like choreography :)  We had amazing miracles Sunday!! First of all, Matt was planning coming to church but his ride didn't pick him up. You want to know what he did? He asked his roommate to take him!! He showed up a few minutes late and as he walked in the Bishop said "This is Matt. He is getting baptized this Saturday at 1!" Oh it was so great! Matt was just smiling! Then we had an amazing testimony meeting! There were a couple less actives that shared their testimonies and it was a tear jerker! After that was an incredible lesson about the Millennium in Gospel Principles taught by Brother Allsop (aka best cookie maker ever). We asked him afterward if he would come to visit a less active that we found the week before. We were just slightly worried about this lesson we had set up because the guy named Dustin (not our investigator Dustin) told us that he was pagan, had been smoking in our faces, had a bunch of tattoos, and told us he just got out of prison... So we felt it best to have a Priesthood holder with us. The lesson went really great!! We spent some time getting to know them! They want to come back to church and it just so happened that they had other issues that Brother Allsop could relate to from his own experience and because of what he is studying in college. It was incredible! All of my fear was replaced with faith! Heavenly Father does know exactly what each of his children need! I love when He inspires us to bring certain member with us! It truly builds all of our testimonies!

I truly love this Gospel and feel so blessed to be able to share it with other! I am so excited for Matt's Baptism! You are all invite to come :) It is going to be amazing! 410 Valle Verde at 1pm :) Hope to see you there!!!!

Miss and Love you all!

Love,

Sister Davis