"I'm a sister missionary for the Mormon chocolate" -Me trying to talk in sign language‏

Oh My!! Brad is on a mission! That is seriously unreal! So cool though. I am so happy and so excited for him! He is seriously going to be the most amazing missionary ever! His first little email made me so happy! Love him <3

This week was SO crazy though! We were in Utica for most of it! On Monday we drove to Utica for an ALL SISTER CONFERENCE (So much fun!!) and we came home late Tuesday night, proselyted a little bit on Wednesday, and the Wednesday afternoon drove back to Utica for Return and Report (a day long meeting with president and the assistants for the new missionaries and their trainers a month into their mission) then we got back from that on Thursday night! So great.

Sisters conference was SO much fun! ALL of my past companions were there! My first companion to go home goes home this transfer, then one goes home every transfer until I do! So crazy! I love all of my companions though. It was so much fun to see them! :) The conference was awesome. It was basically just a big motivational pep rally for the sisters ;). The elders were a little hurt they weren't invited, and we told them all that we just watched Disney movies all day and that frozen is really good and they should be excited to see it when they go home.... haha. :)

On Wednesday I lost my voice from yelling at cows and it was so quiet and raspy on Thursday at return and report that people could barely hear me. I didn't want to bear my testimony because of that, but the spirit was telling me to so i did anyway, and everyone said it was entertaining. great. haha. I still don't have my voice back completely. It was such a great meeting though. The spirit was way strong and I learned a lot of things I can be doing better as a trainer and as a missionary.

Yuyu is doing so good. She is seriously amazing. I don't know what I would do without her. I love teaching her and I learn so much from her every time I talk to her. We taught her a couple times this week, and every time, she blew my mind with how well she understood everything. She really just gets it. The gospel just clicks for her. The spirit is so strong in her lessons. She came to church yesterday, she got there late again, this time it was in the middle of the sacrament. She was sitting on the end, and when the boy passing the sacrament came to our row, she didn't know what she was supposed to do, and sister Hopkinson told her to take a little cup of water and pass it down, and so she did... she took one cup and passed it down, and then another and then another. And after we drank it, we passed our empty cups back and she put them in the tray the little deacon was still holding. Poor boy, he was so confused. haha. It was funny :)

This week we met a lot of people that don't speak English. I really wished i could speak Persian, Mandarin, sign language, and Spanish this week... There was one guy that was mowing his lawn when we passed him, and we waved to him and he came over and talked to us, and when he came over he just started talking in Chinese and i was like, sorry dude, don't speak Chinese, and he kept talking and so i pulled out a Chinese restoration pamphlet, and he got so excited. He opened it up and started pointing to the Chinese characters and i was like, sorry, don't read Chinese either. So we just kind of waved by to him, and the Chinese elders are going to go over there. Stuff like that keeps happening though. I wish I knew more languages!

On Saturday, we went to a branch activity on the lake.... straight up torture! Really fun though. The people who hosted it live on Seneca lake, and so they have a beach and a boat and a big dock and all. So fun. We got to sit and talk with the other missionaries while we watched our members and investigators wake board and tube! crazy! but fun. I got some sun ;) (below my knees and past my sleeves ;) haha. too good. The whole time i just kept telling myself, next summer. next summer. next summer. haha.

Yesterday we got to teach the young women! So much fun! I love teaching the young women. i click with them so much better than people my age and older. We taught them about temple ordinances, which was such a fun lesson to teach them. I drew a timeline on the board of the next ten years of their lives, and we talked about all of the things they could be doing in that time, and we talked about what temple ordinances they will be able to do for themselves in these years. Then we talked about how to the world, these are the party years, and these are the fun and free years. And we talked about how receiving these temple ordinances will make these years even better, and so much more enjoyable. And they really do. I love pondering my temple covenants. They give me so much strength. There is an awesome talk by Elder Holland from an ensign called "keeping covenants; a message for all those who will serve a mission" and it talks about how much we need the strength that comes from our own covenants as a missionary. Its great. Anyone preparing to serve a mission, or who is serving already should read it! :)

This week I'm going to plug my ears because everyone is popping! but really, like 4 women in the ward are having babies this week! Its so exciting and fun! All four of them said that if we see them at church next week, they will not be happy! haha.

Well I love you all! Happy almost August. I can not believe it is almost august! CRAZY!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Davis ;)

"We would either jump in the river or throw rocks in it" -Elder Jolly (Sr. Missionary)

Hey Fam! :)

 

How are you all doing?! Sounds like you had a fun fourth of July!

 

We had such a fun fourth here too! We went to a BBQ with a bunch of the members, and we played everything! We played soccer, football, volleyball, badminton, tag, and an epic game of ultimate frisbee. So much fun! We have a bunch of young couples in our ward with young families that go to Cornell and are from Utah or Cali or Idaho, and thats who it was with. SO GREAT! I love our ward. It is so fun!

 

On monday, we went to FHE with the YSA branch (we work a lot with the branch because we have investigators in it), and we played soccer! I had never played soccer before but it was so much fun! I used to think soccer was so dumb (no offense Tay ;) But now I see the fun in it! Its a great game. But I was definitely the worst one there haha! Everyone there was super good at it, most of the were Asian so they just had mad athletic skills anyway! But I did score a goal! Totally luck-no skill involved. but I was pretty proud of it and there werent very many goals scored so it was cool :)

 

We found some super great people to teach this week! We found a couple of families and a couple of YSA's. I am so excited to teach them more. They all seem so prepared and ready to hear the gospel!

 

On Friday at the BBQ The Elders were sitting at a table, and a guy was walking past and one of the elders leaned over to his trainee and said, "I dare you to be a missionary" and so the elder walked over and started talking to him, and they got a return appointment with him, but since he is in our area, the return appointment for us :) So good! We weren't there when he was talking to the guy so we didn't know what he looked like or anything, but the Elders said he was mexican and didn't speak much english, so we brought spanish pamphlets over when we went, and we got there to find that he's not spanish... he speaks arabic. He is from Iraq! He has been in the U.S. for a year so he has picked up on a lot of english, but still doesnt know a lot. Enough to communicate though. But his family (he has a wife and 4 kids) just got here from Iraq last week, and apparently it was a crazy process and Rayez thought he would never see his family again. Such a neat experience though. They are just so humble. But- they are muslim, so we aren't allowed to teach them. Which is sad because they are SUPER interested! But we told the relief society president about them and their needs and the ward is going to reach out to them so thats good. And we are going to talk to president about them! But they are so great. So cute.

 

Well, I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week this week! You are always in my prayers!

Much Love,

Sister Davis :)

Sister Davis

"Ya. Yellow looks good on a man." -Sister Hall‏

Family!!!!


Oh my! It looks like you are having so much fun on your trip!
Andrea, tell me alllll about EFY! I am excited to hear!
That party in Idaho looks like it was a blast!! :)
You all are so tan....
mmm fun.

So, GUESS who's getting transfered!! This sista is!! I was not expecting it at all. And because i was not expecting it, I am a little sad to leave. But it's better to be sad to leave than to be saying get me out of here! So I'm ok with it! I am opening Ithica North and I am training!! How fun?? I am so excited! Nervous, yes. but mostly excited :) I hear that there is a WARD there.... and a mall... and normal people. Say Whaaaa?? They send missionaries places like that?? What am I going to do in a ward?! haha. Just kidding. It will be a lot different though being around a lot of members. It will be really fun! And I am so excited to find out who my trainee is on Wednesday! You all should write her letters :) That would be fun!

The district I'm saying goodbye to.

 

This week was so fun though! On Wednesday-Friday, I went on an exchange with Sister Keller in Lake placid! It was so much fun! And during our lunch, I got to see the Olympic stadium and all of that cool stuff! So great. I took lots of pictures. But i was careful to "not look like a tourist" (White Handbook P.26) :).

If sharing the gospel were an Olympic sport, I'd be right there with them.

We had some bomb teaching opportunities on the exchange too! We talked to a lot of cool people, and shared some short things with them, but since it's such a touristy town, not a lot of people we just talked to on the street had much time or were very interested. But we were able to do a church tour with one of their new investigators, and he was so solid! We commited him to baptism and he was so excited and happy about it. It was really cool. We also had some fun tracting experiences. The best lesson took place while tracting that day. Her name was Mary-Jo or something like that, and she was probably in her 40's, and she was pretty heavy set, and was wearing shorts and a bra while we taught her! Other than the outfit (or lack of i should say) and the fact that she pounded a beer while we were teaching her, it was awesome! We taught her about the restoration, and she had a powerful experience during her prayer at the end. So great! And she asked us to come back two days later so we could teach her boyfriend all of what we just said because she knew it was true. It was sweet!

On Friday, we had Zone Training Meeting, and Sister Rasmussen and I gave a killer training on Following up. It was sweet. and so much fun!

OH! and in my new area, Sister Langford will be my sister training leader!!!! How fun?! :) So stoked!



Sister sleepovers are the best!

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! You all are the greatest!
Love you bunches :)
Sister Davis :)

 

"If all else fails... read the instructions" -President Wirthlin‏

WOW! You all have been BUSY! Sounds like you are having so much fun though!

Brad, how was the temple? I want to hear about it! I bet you had a great time! Write me! :)

Happy one year Taylor! I can not believe it has been over a year since you left. Mind=blown.

Oh my, Have fun on your trip guys! I am almost jealous that you are going to Vegas, but I am not because I am on a mission and that's better than being in Vegas. But go see my families and tell them I said hi! And enjoy the sun :)

 

 

OK, so lately we haven't been reaching very many of our weekly goals, but this week, we reached 3 of them on TUESDAY!!!! how sweet is that?! It was awesome!

We had a member (Heather) come teaching with us. She is leaving for her mission on July 30th i think, and she is going to Texas too!!! how cool?! She is going to Lubbock! She will be great. But while she was with us, we taught so many lessons, and we picked up two new investigators! It was so cool.

The new investigators are Tom and Mike. Mike has 5 kids and he used to live in Utah so he knows a lot about the church, and we had a cool lesson with him.

Tom's lesson was so awesome though. At the beginning of the lesson, he was pretty hesitant and unsure of everything, but the spirit was so strong and by the end of the lesson he wanted to come to church and he wanted us to come back and he was so excited to pray about everything we had shared with him! It was sweet! :) And we invited him to be baptized and he said he would! But we didn't set a date yet!!!! SO GOOD!

Want to hear something fun?? We kind of got to go swimming on Saturday! Yup! Our cellar flooded SO bad! 6 inches baby!! It was fun haha. But terrible. Our landlord came and changed the pump so its better now. It smells so bad though!

 

 

 

Ok, so yesterday in Gospel principles, we had a lesson on baptism, and at the end of it the teacher asked us to think back to our own baptisms, and when I was thinking about the things i remember, I remembered running around in my dress in the cultural hall, and I remembered singing with my cousins. But then I remembered something cool. Before my baptism i learned that all of my sins would be washed away when I was baptized, and mom said something like, "ya, so every time you were mean to your brothers and sisters won't even matter any more". And i thought that was SO COOL, and so after I was baptized, I made a resolve in my head to never be mean to my siblings again! And that night, what happened? Me and Brad got in a fight. And I remembered being so mad because I ruined it, I messed up. I couldn't get baptized again. and so then I was like, well if its only one time, and i'm perfect from now on, its ok. So i tried to be perfect again. Then i got in another fight. And this bothered me for a few weeks or so (idk how long it was) but then a little while later (could have even been years later) In Sunday School we had a lesson about the sacrament. I had heard it before, but when they said that when we partake the sacrament it is renewing those covenants again, and that we can be clean every week just like we were when we were baptized, it really hit me that we can! And I know that we can, we can feel that same peace that we felt when we were baptized every week, and then resolve to do our best in the upcoming week. And when we fall short, it's just another opportunity to come closer to Christ. SO cool! :)

Well, i love you all and hope you have a fabulous week!

You are the greatest!

Love, Sister Davis

P.S. Last week I said to pray for a missionary experience! Anything cool happen? :) If you didn't do it, do it tomorrow! :)

"Ya... she calls me God." -Elder Speakman‏

FAMILY!!!!! Sounds like you had a fun and eventful week! Summer is so here!

 

 

Andrea. <3 I wrote you a letter :)

Today we crashed Cantons district activity and it was at a senior couples house who lives on a lake that is in between NY and Canada! How fun?! I ran down to the little dock at the bottom and I ran out on it and wanted to jump in the pretty lake sooooo bad, but didnt. I did put my feet in though and then i ran and jumped off into about 5 inches of it :) it was so fun.

 

 

This week was SO SO amazing. Ok, mainly yesterday though. Story time.

So about 2 weeks ago, sister Rasmussen and I were tracting and we tracted into a family that was really nice, and they said that they were Christians and that they were eating dinner so it was a bad time. Ok, cool. We keep tracting. That whole day, it had been extremely warm and sunny, but about 5 minutes after we knocked on that door it started POURING. Straight up downpour. It was crazy. And right when it started pouring that same family we had just tracted opened their door and said hey do you want to come in for a minute so you dont get so wet? and not even thinking we were just like no its ok, we tract in the rain all the time. then they said well if you change your mind, you can come in. Then right after they closed the door we were like-wow we are soooo stupid! then we were beating ourselves up about it, and we knocked on one more door then we were like, we need to go back to that family. So we decide that, and right when we do it stops raining and we were like seriously?! It literally rained for 3 minutes... if that.. and then it was sunny again. Heavenly Father put us in that perfect position to talk to them and we didn't even recognize it.. so that was dumb.

Fast forward a week (Last Sunday) we go to try them again. The whole walk there I am freaking out, I have never in my life been so nervous to knock on a door. I was just so sure that they were ready and prepared and I did not want to mess it up-which was weird because I have never been scared of that. But I was terrified. So we go to their house knock on the door, and no one was home.

Fast forward to yesterday. We repeat that process, get up the guts again, go to their house, Knock on the door, and end up teaching them. BOOM. So sweet. We taugh them the Restoration and they had such a neat experience with the First Vision. They had been trying a bunch of different churches lately and she said that they just couldn't feel the Holy Spirit at any of them. HOW COOL? She recognizes the spirit and knows that it wasn't there. So neat. I am sooooo STOKED for her to come to church! All of them. They are a young couple with a 7 year old girl-the Ashley family :) It was so cool. We set up two return appointments with them :) We set up a church tour, but that is two weeks away, so we got an appointment for Thursday too :D can't wait!

This week we had MLC too, which was fun! Sister Langford was there so it was way fun to see her :)

 

 

 

So a thing that we do now is we go to the senior citizen lunch at the church next door to our house every tuesday! Its one of the funnest things ever. There are like 10 people that go, and the youngest one there is 89. They are SOOOO hilarious too. Its the greatest thing of my life!

GUESS WHAT?? Ok, so you know John from Bennington??? well his wife got baptized on Saturday! How sick is that?!?! I just saw that in presidents weekly letter :D :D :D SO COOL! I bet John baptized her!!!!! :) <3 <3

Well I love you all! Enjoy summer!

Love, Sister Davis :)

P.S. Pray for a missionary experience tomorrow and see what happens. I will too. It will be fun :)

"hi pumpkins" -Zoya‏

Hello hello hello family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Leah! I love you so much and can NOT believe you are 10 years old!!!!!! No more birthdays ok? I hope you have a super awesome day though. You are the best! Go swimming for me! :)

Congratulations Brad on the graduation! I love the picture, you look so proud and happy, you definitely graduated with style. :) I can't wait to hear about your speech either. So cool!

This week was so great! I love Norwood so much. It's such a nice place to live :) Especially in the summer! Everyone is front porch sittin and walking their dogs, and just having a good ol time! Its so cute. :) We have been finding like crazy this week. It has been so great!

Highlight of the week: We have been teaching this girl, Brandi, who is 9 years old, her grandma Crystal, is a less active member of the church and so Brandi never gets to come to church. But this weekend, Crystals parents got BAPTIZED, and Brandi and Crystal both came to the service!! It was so cool. Brandi said the opening prayer, and helped me play the prelude music ;). Right after the actual baptism, I asked Crystal how long it had been since she had been in this church building, and she said the last time she was here was for her baptism 20 years ago. It was really neat, and i think she had a great experience. Then after the baptism, we were able to give them a church tour and help them to have a spiritual experience in the chapel. It was really cool! And on Sunday, BRANDI came to church! Crystal didn't, but now that there is other family coming, Crystal trusts them to bring Brandi, so it was great. She has a hard time sitting still, but she did really good and loved church. She wants to start coming every week :D So exciting.

Yesterday, and for this next month, Sister Rasmussen and I are substituting for singing time in primary, because Sister Akin is having her baby any day now!! It was so much fun! The kids have the sweetest spirits. I just love being around them. And seriously, the Potsdam Branch has the cutest kids in the world! I can't wait to visit after my mission so I can actually play with them! :)

On Monday, we had a memorial day BBQ with a bunch of members of the branch, and it was so much fun! President Curtis forced the 6 of us missionaries into a football game, and it was so funny. It was president Curtis up against his brother, then the three sets of missionaries guarding their companions. I scored 2 touchdowns and had a sick interception... in a dress & flats ;) haha. don't worry mom, i was being lady like :) But Dad, really, you would've been proud. :)

This last week, we had 22 appointments planned, and only 4 of them happened. But, that happens, and we don't let it get us down. We just keep trying. It's amazing how good Satan is at working his way in there. Because in those situations, usually the reason the appointment doesn't happen is for a valid reason, like health problems, something going on with their kids, or sometimes they just didn't plan well. Satan will do anything he can to prevent those people from keeping their appointments with us, he does not want us teaching them. But when they cancel, I've found that if we get down and give up, he is succeeding. It's when we diligently and faithfully continue to try them that Satan loses his power over the Situation and we are able to help them have experiences that bring them closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Well I love you all, I hope you have a great week. Enjoy the sun. I know I am... speaking of, I have the cutest below the knee and flats tan line... I am embracing it :) Oh, and the watch tan line is pretty cute too ;)

Have a good week. Stay sweet :)

Love you!!

SD (Scooby Doo, or Sister Davis.. your pick.)