"He was riding down a hill and he hit a truck... he totaled the truck!" -Bro Burnett (talking about a big poly dude from his mission)‏

FAMILY!

Oh my, Thank you so much for my packages! You spoil me way too much :) I also got a fun yellow package from Aunt Cherie! It made me so happy! :) Loved it :)

 

 

It sounds like you all are just partying it up in Santa Cruz. How fun!!

 

Random child that came up and started talking to her at a park. Never too young for the gospel.

 

I hit my half way mark this week! I definitely have mixed feelings about it, but I am excited for the next nine months. I have learned so much during the first half of my mission, and I know I have become a better missionary, and although I have made a lot of mistakes and everything has not been perfect, i don't regret any of it because I have grown so much from the mistakes i have made. I am so excited to use what i have learned to make the second half of my mission the best it possibly can be! :)

 

This week was so so great! So much fun stuff happened. We had a very successful finding week. We have a few new investigators, and a lot of people who we will hopefully be teaching soon :) I am excited!

 

Bike tracting around a lake. (She didnt say the name of the lake, but she said it reminded her a lot of Lake of the Pines in its beauty)

 

 

I went on exchanges this week with Sister Woolley! She is so cute and fun and it was one of the best exchanges I have been on in a while! We worked so hard, and found so many people. It was so great.

 

The highlight of this week though was Saturday morning. Saturday morning we had a ground breaking at our church building for an addition to the building- they are adding on district offices and a few other rooms. It is going to be so great. but the amazing thing about it is how much the church has grown up here over the past 40 years! There was a sister there, Sister Hann, who joined the church 40 years ago, and when she joined, she was the 4th member in St. Lawrence county (the north country). Now, only 40 years later, there is a district with 6 branches in it, and a little over 1100 members! And last year there were 10 missionaries serving in this zone, and now there are 30. The Lord is hastening his work here in the North Country! At the ground breaking, President Wirthlin said that this district is preparing to become a stake, and his estimate is that in 8-10 years, the Potsdam district will be the Potsdam stake. How amazing is that? It was a powerful ceremony and I am so glad I was able to be a part of it!

 

 Ground breaking with President and Sister Wirthlin

 

 

I got a bumload of mosquito bites this week! (60 that I counted!) On Saturday Sister Wirthlin saw my legs and told us to stop our plans, go to walmart and get some repellant. It was crazy bad.

 

Something else fun that happened this week, we had a pipe explode in our cellar, and I went down there to try and see what was going on when we heard it, and water was spewing everywhere and i got all wet... (second time that has happened to me on my mission lol). So fun.

 

We got an awesome new investigator this week, his name is Marshall, and he is the sweetest guy ever. He is 86 years old and is just the happiest old guy out there. We found him tracting, and when we tracted into him, we taught him the restoration, then we set a return appointment for the next day to answer his questions, and we ended up talking about Gay marriage, the women’s role, abortion, and then also a little bit about the Book of Mormon. He was reading us random things he got in his mail and it made me happy, because it reminded me of when Grandpa Goodman would always read us random stuff he got in the mail <3. So great. And after we taught Marshall yesterday, he invited us to come to his Senior Citizen luncheon on Thursday.. so stoked :).

 

Well, I love you all! Happy Memorial day :)

 

Love Love Love,

Sister Davis :)

P.S. I love you.

 

 

"I can make 4 types of fried chicken" -Kristi‏

Hello all :)

This week was rough! On Tuesday, almost all of our investigators dropped us.... how does that even happen in one day?? So crazy! But It was so sad! So we have been looking for people to teach! Not a ton of luck yet, but this week is going to be so good, i can just feel it!! :)

I got a new companion this week also, her name is Sister Rasmussen! She is from Queen Creek Arizona, and she is a doll! I love her a lot :)

This week I got about 40 bug bites.. the bugs here are TERRIBLE!!! I need to get some repellent! my legs and feet are covered! Most of them are mosquitoes, but there are a few spider bites too i think because they look different, and i also have a bunch of black fly bites on my neck! Those itch so bad! They are terrible! BUT, they go away pretty quickly so its not too bad!

Guess what? The sun has been coming out! I am going to have the best missionary tan lines EVER this summer. They are going to be so cute!!

 

So yesterday we had Branch conference, it was super good! Our District President spoke, and he gave us 10 latter day commandments for the family, and i though I would share them with you all!

 

1. Family Scripture Study

2. Family Home Evening

3. Family Prayer

4. Temple Work

5. Missionary Work

6. Weekly date with spouse

7. Family Council

8. Fasting

9. Paying Tithing

10. Sharing Testimony

 

I though that was such a great list, and it just made me realize how grateful I am that I grew up in a home and family that was centered on Jesus Christs gospel. What an amazing blessing. Its also so amazing because even if people didn't grow up in a family that had this, they can still have it in their future families to bind them together and keep them strong! So great!

This week is my half way mark! I seriously can NOT believe that! I feel like I just got here. Bennington feels like it was a dream. It is so crazy how fast the time flies. The first half of my mission was so great, but the second half is going to be even better. :)

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

Sister Davis :)

Photos, her district - before transfers,

Nils and Jo,

Spent a day in Gouvenour on transfers

"Hannah Montana songs do everything a Sister Training leader should do" -Sis Lang‏

Family!!!!! Oh my! It was so so fun to talk to you last night! So fun to meet JT finally! He is so great! I can't wait to really meet him in 3 years :) It was so great to see you all, I have the best family ever. I am still in shock at how tall Jared is, and how deep his voice is... what the heck! STOP! And it was fun hearing about Andrea's first date :) So fun!

I am getting a new companion this week! Her name is Sister Rassmussen :) I am excited! It will be so fun! Our unit is changing so much this transfer! All three of the companionships in our unit are changing! It will be fun though.

This week was so good though :) We had nice whether, so naturally we had a picnic every day for lunch :) It was so good! I even got a little sun :) :) :)

 

 

 

We had some really neat lessons this week :) We went to contact a referral, and started teaching her and then found out half way through that she is a member of our church already!! I am officially convinced that every person in our area has already been baptized at one point or another because it is happening ALL THE TIME!!

When we were tracting this week, we tracted into a guy and were asking him if he's very religious and he said, "I used to be catholic, but then I gave it up for lent".   I was laughing so hard!   It was funny :)

 

 

This week we did a lot of service! On Friday, we raked the cutest/funniest old lady on the planets yard!  She is so great!  We raked our hearts out though.  Thats like a thing here, people rake in the spring... I guess its just because the snow covers the leaves in the fall before they have the chance to rake them!  It was fun though, except for BLACK FLIES!  Oh my, those things are the worst! I would take mosquitos over them... they swarm around your head and they bite you and make you itch.. they dont leave bumps like mosquitos, but you itch just as bad or worse from them! And they literally swarm, its so gross and annoying!

Then this morning, we did the funnest service ever! We went to our ward mission leaders house and helped him sheer his alpacas!! It was so fun and funny! They had a team of guys that did the actual shearing, but the Elders had to catch the alpacas and bring them in and I had to clean up the fur while they were shearing and sort it into the right bags! How great is that? So fun and soooo funny! I will send pictures :)

I love you all and am so happy i got to talk to you last night! So fun :)

Have a fantastic week!

Love sister davis :)

"There ain't no free lunch" -President Wirthlin‏

Its Cinco de Mayo :) :) Im so eating a taco today.

Sounds like ya'll's had a fun week! Brad, valedictorian? So great! Way to keep up the family tradition ;) I am so proud!! :)

Also, you're an elder now! That is so amazing! When do you go through the temple? That will be so neat!

Andrea! You turn into a person who dates and drives in TWO DAYS! How does that feel? ;) I so wish i could be around for your first date, but you're probably glad i am not :) Have fun though k? :)

Ok, so this week was so good here in the wood of Nor! Lots of good stuff happened!

We had an investigator named Paulette who we had been visiting, and when we went over there this week, I invited her to be baptized, and when I did, she replied with, "I already was, I am a member of your church". It was hilarious. We were like, and you didn't think that was something important to mention to us before? So random, then we found out she has a daughter who lives in our area who is also a member of our church and we don't have either of their records! And also we found a guy who is a member when we were tracting! So we have just been finding less active members out the wazoo up here! haha.

Yesterday we had a great testimony meeting at church! Two different people that spoke were talking about questions that they had been pondering. They both were questions that were simple, and I have been reflecting on them a lot, and I am going to pose them to you so that you too can reflect a little. :) The first question is: "How do I know God loves me?". When I was thinking about this, I was trying to think of specific things or experiences that prove to me that God loves me. I thought of so many things, and it was just a perfect reassurance that my Heavenly Father knows me and loves me! The second question was: "What are my greatest achievements in life?". When I thought about this question, I decided that my biggest accomplishment has been becoming a disciple of Christ, and helping others to also come unto Christ.

Another thing I have been thinking about lately is how blessed I am. There are so many people here who aren't nearly as fortunate as I. About everyone here comes from a broken family, they've all had or been affected by serious addictions, they aren't raised in religious settings, and most people have very little money, many can't even afford little necessities. I was thinking a lot about this yesterday, how blessed I have been in my life, and how hard some people have it. I wish that I could just have some of their trials, I wish that I could go through what their going through instead of them. But as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about how much these people need the gospel! It would seriously make them so much happier, it might not erase the circumstance, but it would make them happy nonetheless. And I realized that I have been so blessed so that I can help these people. I was born of goodly parents, I have had a good life, I have been blessed with and taught the gospel, so that I can help these people who haven't been as fortunate to have those blessings in their life! The gospel is a free gift that anyone can have. What an amazing blessing :)

guess what else, last night, i taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to my companion in my sleep. AND, i committed her to baptism.. she said yes;) Apparently it was funny, but i dont remember any of it haha

Not a ton of stories from this week. But I hope you all have a good one! I love you all and hope you have a happy happy happy week ;)

Love, Sister Davis