"We in America... So we eat on couch!" -Sister Malavasi‏

Hello Family and Friends!

 

So first off, I am so glad that Katie and baby Lyla are doing better! They are in my prayers!

 

 

Brad I am so stoked for your call, you are going to Fiji. there's no doubt about it. :)

 

 

This week was good! The highlight was our exchange! We went on exchanges with the Plattsburgh sisters, and I got to go with Sister Malavasi, who is a temple square sister, so she is only here for a couple months. She is from Italy and is seriously the funniest! We had so much fun and I learned so much from her! :) She has the best laugh too! Like I have never heard a laugh so loud and so funny. It's contagious! We made a video so I will send it home soon so you can hear it. You will fall in love :)

Whenever you tell sister Malavasi that you are stressed or upset about something, she says, "have you talked to Father about it?" and if you say yes she says, "and what did he say?" How great? :)

 

 

We got transfer calls this week, and we are both staying in Norwood! But we are moving from our apartment to a house though, so my address will be changing (so just send mail to the mission home please) :) .

 

 

We had a weird lesson with Erin this week. She is not doing so good. :( She is very confused about a lot of things and really is not sure what she believes. Keep her in your prayers!

 

Who watched the women's broadcast? I DID! It was great! President Eyring nailed it! It was bomb. And when the girls all stood up and sang, it was powerful. So neat. Our branch did a "slumber party" theme for the broadcast, so we had pizza and waxed our hands and did manis and pedis before it and everyone wore there pajamas. President said that we couldn't wear our pajamas, so we wore our skirts and slippers and brought blankies :) It was fun.

 

Church was canceled yesterday because of the snowstorm! Another foot and a half :/. such a bummer.. i'm sick of this weatherr! I want spring!!

 

So this week is going to be so great! Thursday and Friday we have MLC, then on Saturday and Sunday it's GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! I'm ready to be edified! Who else is stoked for conference? I am so glad that I have always loved conference, and every 6 months when I watch it, I feel like I love it more and more. I hope that you all are planning your weekend so that you will be in a place where you can receive personal revelation as you are listening to the prophet of the Lord speak!

 

 

"Oh how we need General Conference! Through conferences our faith is fortified and our testimonies deepened. And when we are converted, we strengthen each other to stand strong amid the fiery darts of these last days" -Robert D. Hales

 

 

This week was so much slower than usual! Therefore the short letter!

I love you all and hope you have a happy conference weekend (my favorite Holiday) :)

 

 

Love, Sister Davis :)

"You need to resist the fiery darts of cold" -President Wirthlin‏

How was your week? Mine was swell.

 

"Oh the irony!"

 

On Saturday, I got letters from all of the Hadley's and it made me soooooo happy! Oh my, I love them! :) I got the cutest letter from my little Lard too that said, "you are the best missionary in my book, and it's not the trick book" made. my. day. :)

 

On Tuesday we went over to a recent convert (the mom) and an investigator's (the daughter) for lunch, and Loretta (the investigator) was SUPER sick. :( She is in her 40's i think, and about 10 years ago she had a weight loss surgery and ever since she has been severely suffering from complications. So many health problems. and it was TEN years ago. How sad? And she was so sick and had been for like a week, but didn't know at all what was wrong. And because of her past experiences, she refused to go to the hospital. But anyway, she was just sleeping the whole time, and after we ate lunch, we saw her on the couch, and her little boy (Kaden, he is 20 months and SO adorable) woke her up. and she was crying and she looked so sick and she was so upset because she physically could not take care of her baby at all right then. Luckily her mom helps her out. But she did not look good at all. And Sister Langford and I decided she needed a blessing, so we asked her if she wanted one, and she said yes, and so we called the Elder's and they came and gave her one.  When we left her house, Sister Langford and I started a fast for her.  We were so sad for her. And the next day, we stopped by, literally like 36 hours later, and she was completely back to normal. She had a miracle. How amazing? And she recognized her miracle. She has so much faith. It was really neat.

 

We had to drop some investigators this week. Which is never fun. But we were able to pick up one on Saturday who is SO solid! Oh my, seriously so cool! So his name is Brandon, and he is 23, and is living with Floyd (Floyd is a recent convert who just takes in random people - we have 3 investigators at his house right now). On Saturday we went to go meet with him and his mom, and we started talking and he said he was super excited to learn more about the gospel and all, and he was SUPER prepared! We taught him the whole restoration and he just soaked it up. it was so good. Then when we were talking about the Book of Mormon, he said that he already had a copy of it, or he used to anyway. Then he went on to tell us about how one of his best high school buddies was a member of the church, and he was such a good example and he looked up to him a lot. He told us that this friend really made a difference in his life just by his example. How cool? but it gets cooler. So he's telling us all about this friend, and this is the friend that gave him the Book of Mormon, and then he's like, "ya, but then he went off to BYU and got way into basketball, and now he plays pro." and I was like, "wait.... is your friend Jimmer?" and he was like YA!! hahaha. Of course it was. lol. It was so cool though! Jimmer totally planted a huge seed for Brandon! (our plan is to have Jimmer come baptize him ;).

 

Nels and Jo came to church again!!! And we went over for dinner and had a lesson this week :) They are my favorite! Because they feed us ice cream ;) They are so great. We taught them the Gospel and they loved it and the spirit was so strong and they both wanted to be baptized so bad, but then Nels said, "but we won't ever be baptized, because we are never getting married." And all we could do was bear testimony. And so we did. And it was really powerful. They still said they aren't getting married, but when we were leaving we set a return appointment, they were talking about how they are going to get rid of coffee, and they still came to church and all.. so i think the importance of Chastity will hit them at some point. It will be tough though, because it will create financial difficulties for them for sure. Keep them in your prayers!

 

Oh! And keep Erin in your prayers! She had a rough week :( Lots of personal things going on have been causing a lot of stress. We saw her last night though and at church yesterday and she is going to pull through! We love her! :) She needs lots of prayers! :)

 

Well, you all are the best!

I hope you have a great week!

Stay solid.

I love you!!! :)

-Sister Davis!

"Sometimes I don't know how people ever make it to baptism" -Sis Lang‏

Hello Family!

 

Right now, Sister Davis has a big ol happy ear to ear grin on her face! Wanna know why? Because Brad's mission papers are almost in!! :) How exciting is that?! So rad! Way to be Bard! :)

 

This week has been so busy and I have not been sleeping, and now I'm sick. One night, i slept on the floor because my bed was too hot (we don't have control of the temp in our apartment so sometimes it's blazing hot and sometimes it's miserably cold). Then the last few nights I haven't been sleeping good because I can't breathe, but then last night I took night time meds and slept way better, but I'm still pretty sick! Problem is, I don't have time to be sick. Seriously our days have been so crazy that dinner is usually a backup. But it's been good. So much is happening! We picked up a couple new investigators this week, and we had 4 at church yesterday, which was so sweet. :)

 

On Saturday we had the adult session of our district conference, and when I got there, weirdest thing happened, I was just like standing there with my companion, and this old man came up to me and started KISSING MY FACE! Turns out, it was my grandpa :) haha. It was so funny though! It was so good to see him and talk to him for a little bit! After the meeting, he came up and he kissed me again, right in front of President Wirthlin, and president kind of looked at him for a second, and then remembered he was my grandpa and president gave him permission to hug and kiss me :). It was pretty funny. Then grandpa was introducing me to a billion people, and it was so funny and cute. And before he left he gave me like 10 "last kiss"es. He's the best!

 

 

 

So this week, I was thinking a lot about finding the one. President always says that, that we need to find "the one" and I wasn't really sure what that meant. And he said that a lot of times "the one" could be you. I always thought that my "one" was me because of how much i have learned as a missionary so far, and how much this last 7 months has changed my life. But last night, i realized who my one is. It's Erin. We taught her a couple of lessons this week that really hit home with her. She has been struggling a lot with a few things lately though, and last night when she was telling us what she was feeling, I realized that I had gone through EXACTLY what she was, and I was able to help her. It was so amazing. I have never felt like I was here (specifically) for a reason that strong. And on the way home last night, my companion told me that I came to Norwood for Erin. It was so powerful and so motivating. I feel like I really have a purpose in being here, and God sent me to the New York Utica Mission, to Norwood, Right now for a reason. How amazing?

 

 

 

During weekly planning this week, we were doing our individual goals, and Sister Langford said "my goal for the week is to study the Christ-like attributes"

me: "all of them?"

sisL: "yes!"

me: "what are your other goals for the week? read the entire standard works? baptize all of norwood? turn our branch to a ward? get translated?"

see, i can be funny...

Well i hope you all are having a great week, enjoy the sun twice for me :) I love you and am so excited to read in my email next week that Brads papers are in! :) Whatta stud! ahh!

 

Love You

 

Sister Davis :)

P.S. Nach, write me :)

"You're right about the mice..." -Zoya‏

Hola mi familia! :)

That is so sick Nach that you got to spend one on one time with the general auxiliaries! Sounds like it was an amazing experience!

Bard! Way to be... getting accepted to BYU and all! We Davises are smart like that ;). Oh, and sounds like your beasting in volleyball. Lead for kills? How cute :)

I taught him everything he knows^^ :)

What an amazing experience helping that lady out! Dad is such a bomb ward mission leader, and you all are amazing examples! If there's one thing my family is good at, it is putting smiles on peoples faces :) (Especially mine)

I got a cute letter from Leah this week :) Darlin, you need to stop growing! How tall are you? How tall is Jarf? am i the smallest Davis yet?

Well, this week was so cool! Investigators are seriously falling out of the sky in Norwood, we're having a hard time catching them all... my arms hurt. But seriously, this week has been rad!

So, last Sunday, this girl, Erin showed up at church with a family in the Branch. We talked to her a little, and she has had a crazy last few years, she is 25 and basically what I got out of it is she is ready for the gospel. So we went and talked with the family she was staying with and were like.. so, can we teach her, and they said to take it slow and maybe wait a little because she is recovering from a lot right now. So we were like, we can respect that.. cool. Then Friday, they had us over for lunch, and we weren't planning on teaching her or anything, just talking, getting to know her, and answering questions that she might have. But then, after lunch, she just started talking about how much she loved church on Sunday and everything and then was like, i want you guys just to teach me everything. So we tried to cover up our excitement (didn't work) and we whipped out the restoration... We taught it in 5 minutes. It was insane, she already knew, understood, and believed EVERYTHING. Right when we MENTIONED the Book of Mormon, she was just like, " oh, i've been reading that! And i prayed and asked God if it was true and i know it is." Say Whaaaa?? :) We were so stoked and so shocked and excited that we didnt know what to do except invite her to be baptized, and so we asked and guess what she said?? She said, YES, smacked her hands on the table in excitement, and started crying! We were all crying by the end.. Seriously, that lesson should be on the district. So great! :)

Then Yesterday, she came to church again :) and then last night we went over there for dinner! When we got there she was super down because the family she was living with was overwhelming her. They are an older couple and are just excited about her interest in the church and are getting a bit carried away. We explained that to her and it made a lot more sense. But after dinner Erin, Sister Lang, and I were just sitting on Erin's bed like friends, talking about the gospel. Answering questions and cheering her up. We were laughing, and learning, and by the end we were all growing. I have never been in a lesson where the spirit was that strong. Erin is seriously so amazing and already has such a strong relationship with her Savior. Its amazing.

This week, we tried to make whipped cream, but we didn't have a beater, so we were trying to do it by hand... epic fail.... lol. I'll send you a picture of the ugly pie we made with it! hahaha. so funny.

 

 

One of our investigators is from South Sac! Crazy! He's been to candy Heaven, but he never tried the chocolate covered grasshoppers. I told him he was missing out ;)

Oh! This week we went to dinner at a families house with 6 kids, the oldest being 14 and they were so crazy! I loved it, it reminded me EXACTLY how we used to be when the home teachers or missionaries would come over! haha. They were climbing all over us, taking food off our plates, telling embarrassing family stories, and so on! Love it :) And the mom felt so bad, and i had to just laugh, and I tried to tell her about how we used to be and she was like, "no,there's no way you were ever this bad..." It was too grand :)

Well, I hope you all have an amazing wonderful funfilled warm week (were back to the single digits again... I have a plan though, I think that if i just start wearing summer clothes and protest against this miserable whether, the sun will feel bad for me and just start shinin all over Norwood!)

LOVE YOU!

-Sister Davis

pic of their pie after trying to whip the cream by hand!

#10:31pm #disobedient #woodshed -Yours Truly :)

Hi people who are already wearing flip flops!

Sounds like you all had a less crazy week! I got all of the pictures of the funeral! Had a little cry, but I am glad I was here. It looks like the program was so good. And so fun for all of Grandmas kids to be together! How many years has it been since that??

Thanks mom for the picture of baby Weber! So precious! That was a bit of a tear dropper too! I miss my kiddos! They are way too big! So exciting though!

This week was so good, I honestly can not believe it is Monday already!

 

Thursday we drove to Utica and Friday we had MLC (mission leadership council, with the 5 sets of zone leaders and 6 sets of sister training leaders). The drive down was painful- mainly because i was the smallest so i had to sit front middle in the truck the WHOLE 4 HOURS! My back hurt soooo bad that night! It wouldn't have taken so long to go down there but it was COMPLETE WHITE OUT conditions. SO SCARY!! It was horrible. But MLC was awesome! President and the assistants introduced a new method of teaching that our mission is going to be testing. It is really different and is going to take a lot of figuring out how to fit it in, but its really cool and i think it will be so effective! Basically it is just a way to not just allow the opportunity for the investigators to feel the spirit, but for them to have experiences (4 specific ones) that they will for sure feel the spirit during. Its pretty rad! Right now, just the people that were at MLC are trying to implement it, and then in April President is going to introduce it to the rest of the mission! So we have been studying up on this and role playing and trying to figure it out because it is way different, and kind of hard! It involves being very bold, and there are certain things that you have to hit on in the lessons. It still follows PMG and uses the pamplets, just differently. But ya, it's cool!

We have some rad investigators right now! Theres a couple, named Nells and Jo, that are so solid. They are totally going to get baptized. and married. (<-reverse that). We had the most amazing lesson with them on Saturday though. Like probably in the top 5 most spirit led lessons so far on my mission. We taught the plan of Salvation and it was amazing. I can't even describe it. All four of us were in tears at one point because the spirit was so strong. It was cool.

And funny thing, when we got there, Nells asked us if we were angels. He honestly thought we were, because he never saw our car, and like 2 minutes after we left last time we just "disapeared" and so he thought we just went back to heaven.... how funny? We showed him our car afterward.

Oh guess what? I drove! only for a couple hours though. first time in 6 months! It was fun ;) Sister Langford forgot her Tiwi card and we had to take another car up to Messina, so Elder Barlow gave me a tiwi card and told me I was driving! cool :)

Oh! Funniest thing ever! So when we went down to Utica, one of the sisters needed something at the mall, so we GOT TO GO TO REAL STORES (p.s. you might want to check my account mommy). It was so funny though, there were four sisters and the two elders, and the elders said, "you have a half hour" and we were in H&M just going crazy for 30 minutes! it was so great :) The elders were making fun of us so bad though, they said we were all in a daze and that they were like trying to talk to us but we were so focussed on shopping! so funny. Thats what happens when you haven't been shopping in 6 months... longer for some of the other sisters! :)

Ok, so for this month, I am studying Faith and Hope, for my Christlike attributes. So i would like a 2 page write up from everyone on these two Christlike attributes- much appreciated! jk, but I love hearing all of your insights and thoughts on the things you are studying! Keep sending them!

Have a fantastic week everyone :)
Dont slip on the ice, or fall down any stairs (it hurts!)

I love you!!

-Sister Davis :)

PIC: Sister Langford and Sister Davis