"It brought tears to my eyes and I usually only cry in dog movies" -Sister Wirthlin‏

Familia!!!

That is SO exciting about Laurens mission call!! Whats her address right now? I want to write her. Better yet, tell her to write me and i will write back :)
 

Sounds like mom had a great birthday! 50's not that old. Its ok. :)
 

This week was SO good! Everyone we have been teaching lately is dropping us! We had 8 people drop us within the last two weeks and so we were having a hard time finding people to teach!! So we have been praying to find people and have been tracting a LOT!

 

 

 

This week while we were tracting we met a really cool older couple who were the sweetest ever and they said to me, "This is something that is really important to you, I can see it in your eyes", It was so cool. They were so sweet too, we are hopefully going to start teaching them this week.

Erin dropped us this week :( It was a really sad night. It's so sad because Heavenly Father has put her in the perfect position to hear the gospel multiple times and she is not seeing that. I am so sad that she feels the way she does right now. But I have faith that Heavenly Father won't give up on her. One day she will accept the gospel.

Thursday we had a zone conference which was great :) Sister Lang and I were lucky and got to do a role play with President and Sister Wirthlin in front of the whole zone. President Wirthlin is the hardest investigator... but so funny! He always throws at us the most ridiculous things. it was good though. The whole zone conference was about the new teaching method I was talking about a couple months ago. We had learned it at MLC and were applying it, but last week it got introduced to the rest of the mission. It was a great meeting!

Then that night I went to Plattsburgh with sister Curtis! I love sister Curtis, she was my Sister Training Leader my first transfer and now I am hers. :) We had a great exchange and while we were there we got to have lunch with Granny and Grandpop Bakow!!! It was so fun seeing their house and spending time with them :) I loved it so much!!

 

 

Ok, todays story: So there is a food pantry in Madrid that we volunteer at once a month, and there is a girl about our age with a baby that is always there when we go, and about a month ago we were at the food pantry, and after we left, we had a strong feeling that we needed to talk to her and meet with her! Then 4 days later we ran into her at Walmart (coincidence? i think not!) but we didnt realize that God had placed her in our path, and it was preparation day, so we didn't even think to get her number! Then after two weeks of beating ourselves up for that, we saw her again at the food pantry and we werent about to let her leave without talking to her. She said she would love for us to come visit, and so we did! We went over Saturday and talked to her and her boyfriend, Josh! They are so great and they are such a cute couple. They are about my age and have been together since high school. They are an interesting religion, I can't remember what it is called, something Israelite. It sounds like it is similar to Jehovah witness- they don't celebrate holidays, don't believe in blood transfusion, don't eat pork, etc. So knowing a little about their religion, it sounded like they wouldn't want to learn really, but then we felt inspired and whipped out the restoration and it was solid. They loved it and they are excited to learn more! How amazing? We were so happy :)

We had the faith to find, and God brought us to people who are ready to hear the gospel :)

 

 

I love you all!

Happy April 28th (there's no significance, other than today being a good day) :)

Love, Sister Davis :)

Difference is..Utah songs are in the Hymn book, Cali songs are on the Radio"‏

Hey everyone! :)

Hows SPRING BREAK?! Spring sounds like it would be nice...

Actually! It is nice here today! But its supposed to be cold again tomorrow and Wednesday :( It cant last.. :)

"North country surfing!"

 

 

Thats fun that Brad, JT, Andrea, and Drew are in Santa Cruz!!! That sounds like so much fun!!

OK, so I have to tell you about our day a few days ago! It was so good......

 

So it all started when a member got mad at us and canceled our dinner appointment with her.. why she was mad at us, I couldn't tell you. But our backup was to go tract North street. So we walk over there, knock on the first door, a teenage girl answers, she is super hilarious and has crazy ADD, like seri- Squirell -ously...We ended up talking to her for about a half hour though and she is super awesome and totally interested! She is going to get baptized! :) but so we talked to her for a while, and then as we were walking down her front walkway a car crashes about 12 feet in front of us (getting in a car crash right in front on the missionaries... coincidence? i think not!) So we go and talk to the lady that just crashed. She was a little frazzled and we were able to calm her down and we talked to her for a while as she waited for the tow to come, and she was super nice and sweet, but doesn't live in our area so she wont be ours to teach. But its ok.

 

Good news! Erin is FINALLY doing good again!!! So I'll recap a little on her story because I haven't really told you all much. But she randomly ended up here in Potsdam and had no place to live, the only person she knew was a recent convert and so he told our branch president and she ended up moving in with an older couple in the branch. It was good for the first few weeks and we had some solid lessons with her, but then the people she was living with were getting really pushy about her joining the church and were shoving deep doctrine down her throat- it was bad. Then she moved in with another member who was complete opposite, smokes, drinks, and ended up being really bad towards Erin. This lady was not even letting us meet with Erin and called our mission president and told him that Sis Lang and I were horrible people (so ridiculous). And so it was just drama and we were staying out of it. But then, Yesterday, the sister Erin was living with freaked out on her again while she was on the phone with a different member of the branch, and the member heard and said pack your stuff i'm coming to get you. So Erin ended up moving in with the Akins last night who are so solid, so awesome, and so normal. Three things that Erin needs right now. And so yesterday we had a lesson with her and it was SO SOLID! :) So exciting! She is doing so much better! :)

 

"A Nice North country park."

This week we were trying to find a potential and almost went to Canada on accident.That was cool. #northcountry

Joke of the week: (I came up with while tracting)

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Interupting Potential..

Interupting -"No thanks, all set, bye now"

^^ literally every door. All set? what does that even mean? we aren't selling insurance if that's what they're thinking.

Ok so Friday night, I had a dream that I was supposed to give a talk in sacrament meeting and I totally forgot then when I got to church my name was in the program. When I woke up I thought it was Sunday but it was Saturday and i was so weirded out. Then Saturday night, I had a dream that I went to church and a bunch of people didn't show up so the branch president came up to me and asked me to give a talk. Then they asked me to play the piano because i was the best one at piano there and they were songs i had never heard. Then... Sunday I woke up and was like what? And since it was two nights in a row I decided it might be smart to prepare a talk. So i did during study just in case. Then we got to church and the branch president asked one of the Elders to give a talk on the spot and i was like phew! Then one of the sisters came up to me and was panicking because they didn't have a pianist and I looked at the songs and was like "I'll try" even though i had never played them before. Then right as the meeting was starting the pianist showed up and so i was off the hook for both. But I was prepared. So funny. :)

 

Ok, so this letter is pretty long so I will end it now. Just so many stories this week :)

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Sister Davis :)

"Only Missionaries Would Know About Stacking Big Macs" -President Wirthlin‏

Hola mi familia!

OOOOOOHHHHH MY!!!!! Texas???? Want to know my first reaction?? "All three of my brothers are going to speak spanish... Aaron, Taylor, and now Bradley... how ridiculous is that going to be?" It will be fun though! Brad you will be a Texan Stud! So so so STOKED for you!! :)

Austin Rawlins got his mission call too! To Guatemala! Thats so sick!

And Jarfollomew-fish-face was at priesthood session for the first time this Conference right?! How great! I want a letter from him about that! And i also want to hear about going to the temple for the first time! Tell him to write me :)

This week was so good- can i just throw that out there? :) It was.

 
This week we had MLC and we had General conference which with travel time eliminated basically all proselyting for 4 days straight, which was so weird. But the meetings were all awesome!

General Conference changed my life (for like the 40th time). It was so good. Seriously was so amazing. Favorite session was Sunday Morning. Uchtdorf, Bednar, and President Monson all crushed it. It was so good. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude and Elder Bednar's on carrying our loads. When I was writing in my journal last night about my thoughts on conference I was thinking a lot about both of those. I love how Elder Bednar said that we NEED a load. Without it we can't move. A lot of times we are so concerned with getting rid of the load and trying to have a picture perfect life that we forget that we need those burdens to move and progress. Then going back to President Uchtdorf's, I was realizing how grateful I am for my trials and for the burdens I carry, because without them, I would not be where I am today!  I also liked how he said that being grateful when we are in those circumstances, when we are in those trials is an act of faith. I swear, everything ties back to faith. I have come to realize lately that having faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement is the center of everything, it is the foundation of our testimonies and every other attribute is centered around that. So important!

A few of my favorite quotes:
 
"Talk about man creating God in his own image" -Elder Holland (see this a thousand times every day)

"At each moment of suffering, he (Christ) showed complete control and love" - Carlos Amado

"Trees that grow in windier whether have more strength" "you are infinitely more important to God than a tree" -Elder Anderson

"The way you feel in the temple is a pattern for how you want to live your life" -Elder Anderson

"If blessings were immediate, choosing the right would not take faith" -President Eyring

"It's easier to develop faith in God's love when someone else loves you the same way" -Elder Scott

"There are no endings, only everlasting beginings" -President Uchtdorf

"Despite EVERYTHING else going on in the world, God is aware of me" -Elder Ballard

"The unique burdens in my life will help me to come closer to Christ and return to him" -Elder Bednar

"Each person has the ability to increase the worlds happiness by showing love and kindness to others" -President Monson

"No sacrifice is too great to have the blessings of the temple" -William Walker

And we had 4 investigators at that session! :) and they all loved it!  Nels and Jo came and it was so amazing!  They are so solid.   And I am really hoping their questions were answered. I mean, i'm sure they were, I just hope they will accept the answer and act on it! :)  
Our branch had a big potluck in between sessions on Sunday, and Nels and Jo brought a cake that was the talk of the party, It was delicious (even i liked it) It was chocolate zucchini cake! And it looked like a sunflower :)

Oh my, you all are the greatest! I just love you so much!

Have a great week :)
-Sister Davis :)