January 27 2014

Helloooooooooo!
Can you believe January is ending sooo soon! Where is 2014 going??

Monday - The Spirit is an amazing tool that we have as Children of our Heavenly Father. We were able to teach Jacob about the Spirit. I love the analogy we used.. We gave him an empty water bottle and asked him to crush it.. He did! Then we gave him a full water bottle and asked him to crush it.. He couldn't! We explained that when we are filled with the Spirit we can withstand the pressures of the world and the advisory! I am so great for the Spirit! I also know that the Book of Mormon answers every question we have! We had an amazing experience with our investigator, Matt. We asked him to write a question that he had down on a note card, then we read in the Book of Mormon where he was reading! We read 1 Nephi 9-10 and everyone in the room had their questions answered! It was powerful!

Tuesday - We taught Matt the 1-5 Commandments of the 10 Commandments, we focused on the Sabbath day. Matt truly wants to live as Christ would have him live! He is such an example! Later, we were able to have a prayer with John! He is in his 60's, retired, paints, and loves golf. He told us that when he was young he thought that he was God's gift to women, but now he realizes that he has made lots of mistakes. He hasn't been able to feel forgiven of those choices. He told us that he doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. He lives alone and is very lonely! He really felt the Lord's love while we were there though! Before heading home for the night we taught the Genobaga family about faith! The parents loved our lesson! They were so excited! We are hoping to be able to help then get back to church!  

Wednesday - We taught the Plan of Salvation to Dustin and Maddie! Dustin had lots of great, thoughtful questions! He wished he had heard these things sooner! The Spirit really touched him and he committed to prepare to be baptized in February! Maddie was so excited!! We then taught Matt Commandments 6-10, focusing on the Law of Chastity! We were really nervous, because Matt live in a 3 bedroom apartment with 5 random people. He really understood and valued the commandment and wants to live a chaste life!

Thursday - We had a really great district meeting!!!! We learned about teaching lessons simply without fluff! It inspired us! This truly will help us with our lesson tomorrow with Matt. We met the nicest lady named Maryan! She is the wife of a less active in our ward. She is letting us give her service this week! We are so stoked! Later we met with Matt and Chermayne! It was great to see them both in one day! We found out more about Matt's background.. His dad passed aways when he was 12, then 3 years ago his only brother died, and 2 years ago his mom passed away. He is all alone! He has no family. No one to wish him happy birthday, no one buys him a Christmas present, no one takes care of him when he is sick.. It just brakes my heart! I am so grateful that we have been able to share with him about Eternal Families!! Chermayne has lots of great questions but most of them are about Revelations.....yikes! We are a little nervous about that!

Friday - Sister Tucker and I were on Exchanges! So I was here with Sister Veazey! We went to try and contact a less active, but he had moved, and we met a lady named, Suzi, she was a convert and has been less active for a long time. She asked us how we found her, we told her Heavenly Father knew where you were. We are going to go over a teach her next week! We then went to an apartment complex that we had never been in, because we don't know anyone that lives there.. We choose a few apartments that we were just going to knock and contact the people, but no one answered... We talked to a few people on our way around the apartments, with no real luck or interest. Then we saw a man smoking on his 2nd floor balcony! so we introduced ourselves awkwardly from the ground. He let us come up to give him a Mormon.org card. He is working on creating a TV serious.  We told him the Killers, lead singer is Brandon Flowers, has a video on there and he was super excited to check it out! it was great! After dinner, Sister Veazey and I taught Matt the Word of Wisdom. He was accepting of it, because he believes in modern revelation, but has some challenges to over come! We had Tyler and Justin there, and they shared powerful personal experiences about overcoming there challenges! I know that Matt will be able to overcome these things with the Lord's help! Tyler and Justin gave Matt a priesthood blessing. It was so powerful! I haven't felt the Spirit so strong since I was at the Temple. I know that Matt's mother, father, and brother were there with him!

Saturday - We took Matt to an awesome baptism! There were some Elders in our zone that were baptizing a 10 year old! The spirit was super super strong. It made Matt really excited for his own baptism! We had a lesson with Jacob! We talked about the Godhead and we focused on the role of our Heavenly Father. He committed to read his scriptures and pray everyday! I know that that will truly help him to build a relationship with his Heavenly Father! It is cool to see how much he has changed since we first meet him and invited him back to church! I am so impressed with his desire to know!

Sunday - We had a wonderful lesson with MATT!!!! HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!! He is progressing so well! We saw him every single day last week! We met at Tyler's house and watched the Mormon Message "Mountains to Climb." It was so awesome! It really brought the spirit! If you haven't seen it watch it! We also had a delicious dinner with the Klabacka family! It was ribs and potatoes and asparagus! It was super good! Brother Klabacka was telling us all about his quail hunting! Sadly he hasn't caught anything yet! We suggested that he order a quail costume and just attract the quails to himself! We also met with Maddie and Dustin!!!! They rock!!!! We've been using an analogy to help our investigators want to meet with us every day! We explain that... "Going to the gym brings physical strength and will help you endure the physical challenges you meet in life... But if you only go to the gym every other week your progression will be very slow. This is the same with spiritual strength. We gain spiritual strength to help us endure life's trials. If you only CPR once in a while, you won't progress.. If you only meet with Sister Tucker and I once a week you will not gain as much spiritual strength.. We would like to come by every day for 15mins to help you gain more spiritual strength... Will you allow us to come by everyday?" They have all said YES!

We have also had so many members come out with us! This week we had 21 members come with us to find and teach! It was amazing! It has been hard getting members out with us, but FINALLY in the last month we have had so much success with member work! I've tried to apply the tools I learned in Robindale YSA to the Quail Ridge Ward! I am finally starting to see the ball begin to move!

I am so grateful for the gospel and the tender mercies we see each day! I love seeing and feeling Heavenly Father's love for his children. He is aware of each one of us! I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives! He loves you! The most important thing we can do is Remember! Remember that He is always there for us! Remember that He suffered for us! Remember He is willing to guide our paths, if we are willing to follow His footsteps! Remember, Remember.

I love you and miss you! Choose The Right!

Love,

Sister Davis