January 23, 2012

Hellllllllo Mom and Dad and everyone else who reads this letter

That is amazing that you had 49 + people at church!! That's awesome!! That's so crazy that James is home!  We had a recently returned missionary speak in our ward yesterday that served in the Salt Lake City South mission where James served.  So I asked the guy if he knew an Elder Usevitch and he said he did and that James was his zone leader.  So it was kinda cool to have a connection back to El Paso in a way.  

Yes I do remember the name of the Elder that I knew at BYU-I.  He is Elder Olsen.  He has brown hair and is from WA?  But tell whoever the Elders are that come over that they are great!  And I hope things are going swell in their areas! 

Also hooray for finding my EFY cds. and yes I got my package. Thank you.  It is safe to send packages to my apartment.  

Dad, the story about the prisoner attacking the guard is crazy!! But you are a very happy person.  I don't think there is a moment in your life where you don't think of jokes.  Ha! There are times you're serious but you're always ready with a joke when it's not time to be serious. I love ya! 

This week we got 3 new investigators!!! We've kinda been struggling with finding new investigators but it was great! 
-The first one is from Nigeria and he just walked into the institute and told the institute director he wanted to learn more about Christianity.  So we started teaching him immediately the next day.  And it was good. He came to church on Sunday!  He even participated in Gospel Principles. 
-The other two are from China.  One is a girl and her name is Fancy.  She is adorable!! I love her so much!  We watched finding faith in Christ and she just so sweet!  She watched the movie really intently and picked up on some really good aspects of the movie.  Then the other chinese one is Justin.  He is reallllllly smart!  He asks us a lot of hard questions.  When we were teaching him about the Book of Mormon he asked us if Christ came to Asia.  And we all said it would make sense if he did but we don't know for sure.  Both of them are so cute cause they ask if they can bring their friends and of course we tell them they can! 

We still work with Less actives here a little and sometimes they can make you so happy but sad at other moments cause we want what is best for them!  My companions and I were talking the other day about the emotions tied into missionary work.  I decided that we're constantly on an emotional roller coaster with investigators and the members we work with.  And I said it was worse than being a teenager!  Ha!  Not really but pretty close! 

So my one companion sister carter is allergic to the cold. Weird huh?  I wouldn't believe it normally if I hadn't seen her fingers and legs after being out on a particularly cold night or actually most cold nights.  Her body itches and she gets really red and starts to swell.  She told her parents and her mom emailed Sister Topham and then Sister Topham called us and had Sister Carter call the doctor and it turns out that there is a condition of being allergic to the cold and gave her a prescription.  

Talking about time going fast... it's crazy!!!  We are in week 5 of this transfer!  Week 5! It's nuts!!  And sad.  My little companion Sister Quijano from the Philippines is going home in 2 weeks!!! :( She can't leave me!  I won't let her. She is too good of a missionary.  But it is time to let her go home. (also did I not tell you she is a foreign missionary?  She's amazing. I love her so much!) 

Also have you read Daughters in my Kingdom????  That book is AMAZING!! I have about 60 pages left but I cry every time I read from it.  I've also been reading Our Heritage and I have learned a lot of really interesting facts about the church.  

That's funny that you get made fun of for having an ipad.  Missionaries are going to have Ipads pretty soon.  Seriously. I can't remember if I told you that we tested them out in the MTC a little.  It was a pretty cool deal.  

anyway I love your guts!!! You're fantastic! Thanks for all the support I appreciate it.

January 17, 2012

  a GLASS chair! How cool is that!

  is of a cool quilt

 scary bone structure I don't remember what it is

  is of me in front of a big dinosaur!  

 Me just being crazy.  I was trying to get a dinosaur in the background... it didn't work so well.

 BUTTERFLIES!

 obviously I don't measure up...

 That's one big book! Wish I could read it!

 That's me holding a moose skin!  That was thick and heavy!  There were a whole bunch of animal skins. and I touched all of them.  there was another display of animal droppings which I refused to touch though.

Animal bone biting my arm! Yikes!!

That's awesome that you got to go to the temple!! I miss the temple a lot.  I am excited when I'll be able to go again in 14 months.  Or whenever I go home.  I passed my 4 month mark this Saturday. And I still have moments where I think woah I'm on a mission. Weird!  

Last week we saw a miracle here.  My companion Sister Carter had been teaching this guy Stan and he had a baptismal date and everything.  But then he dropped off the face of the earth and he couldn't be contacted.  Well last Monday when we were on the bus.  Stan got on the same bus!  Sister Carter immediately started talking to him.  It turns out his phone was broken and the only way to contact him was through email, facebook, or skype.  So we got his email address so that we could contact him.  Then invited him to Institute and he came!  Then we had a lesson with him later on in the week.  Then he came to church and it was amazing!!

Also I spoke in Sacrament meeting this Sunday. My talk was on the Book of Mormon.  It was the first time I haven't ever really felt terribly nervous before a talk. It was probably because I was so busy this week.  But back to the investigator Stan, as I was speaking I felt more than once tell me that the thing I had just said was for Stan.  and it was so cool!  I knew my words and talk had been inspired by Heavenly Father for the needs of His children.  I'm just grateful I was able to write the talk.  

Also with that we had a recent convert of 2 weeks speak in Sacrament Meeting as well.  I feel honored to say I spoke with him when he gave his first talk in church.  The recent converts name is Dan.  He is such a cool kid!! He goes to school at Pitt and was taught by Sister Carter and her trainer.  Then he went home to Philadelphia and got baptized there over the Christmas break with the missionaries who had started teaching him. So now we are teaching him the new member lessons and he just is such an awesome kid.  I'm grateful to have gotten to know him. 

We're not really teaching anyone new which is sad.  We are trying. We will set up appointments and things repeatedly fall through.  It's frustrating.  Oh well such is the cycle of missionary work.  

But overall missionary work is awesome like always.  And I am grateful for the missionaries I serve around.  District meetings are so good and really help continue on the work because I always feel better knowing we have others to rely on.  

This past monday we went to the Natural history museum here in Pittsburgh. It was awesome! (don't gripe Dad, we got in for free because we volunteer at the library) So here are some pictures. :)

Anyway that's what ya get for this week folks. I love ya.  I hope things are going great for ya!! 

Love Sister Davidson

December 27, 2011

 me and sister Denton at a random thing at a playground we found in York when we were going for our zone turkey bowl. 

 me in this awesome playground thing we found.

  Sister Franklin, Sister Samuelson Sister Denton and I in our Pittsburgh shirts that you only get when you're in Lancaster. ha! it's a Lancaster tradition. 

 GPS said Sunny Burn road... Yes I live in PA.  They have really really random names. 

 Hershey, PA! They have hershey kisses as street lights!! How awesome is that??

 My friend Kimberly Hansen and I at Zone conference. 

  PA is beautiful ALL the time. 

 Jontae! One of my investigators!  He's 9 and wants to get baptized. He wants to have the priesthood someday.  *Sniff* I'm really going to miss that kid! 

 Sister Denton and I with Nylin Jontae's little sister.  They were having fun with the lamp shade. 

 Sister Lethbridge and me.  We made cookies on a P-day with her.  She's a member but her husband is not.  He's taking the lessons right now.

  Redneck Christmas decorations... 

 Missionaries with Santa's Elves!! (Aka the Lititz ward bishopric) The bishop is in the middle.

 Athena a less active we were working with.  She's so sweet and so determined to do the right thing! She's working as hard as she can to change her life to live the way she's supposed to.  She has so much potential.

 again I repeat... PA is beautiful even in December. Don't you wish you lived here?? (this is also in the Elder's area... we had to pick up their van to drive to State College to drive the other sisters to pittsburgh. Ha!  But it was sad cause their car was so dirty!  Then someone (they blamed the zone leader) spilled animal crackers all over the car.  Then didn't clean it up. Really elders really?

Sister Denton and I driving to State College! Woo! That drive was beautiful! :D

My last week is Lititz was awesome as always.  Sister Denton and I found some amazing people that I'm super sad I don't get to teach. Then we went caroling with some families in the ward and it was so much fun!  We went caroling with the Whiting family.  and they might just be some of the funniest people I have ever met.  Their kids are hilarious.  We had the kids passing out cards and I think the only reason some people took cards was the fact that the kids were so cute!  

Well now I'm in Pittsburgh.  I love it.  I love my companions.  They are sister carter and sister Quijano.  We teach really well together already.  Well we've only taught one lesson so far but we did well together.  I love it here.  Being in Pittsburgh is going to bring so many new adventures.  

I can't remember if I told you to go to christmas.mormon.org. or not... but you should.  Cause it's awesome.  

This is it for this week.  I would write more but I'm almost out of time and I sent you lots of pictures to look at. Enjoy! :)

December 19, 2011

I did get the package the ward sent!  Tell them thanks so much!!! And whoever decided to put the Nutella to go thing in there was a GENIUS! :) It may or may not have been eaten that day... hehe. But yes I loved the package and the card.  I felt very loved.  I got the other package that you sent a while ago.  Sorry I don't mean to forget to let you know I got it...

 

We went to our ward's Christmas party on Saturday and it was awesome!! I don't think I've ever had so much fun at a Christmas party before.  It was cute Santa's elves came running into the gym and we had a little investigator girl there and she knows the Bishop and when he ran past she said hey! Thant's Bishop! It was funny and cute.

 

So I ate something I have never eaten before.  Someone in our ward gave us giftcards to this Mennonite buffet.  At this buffet they had pig stomach.  So Sister Denton and I decided to try it.  It was interesting.  It didn't taste good but it didn't taste bad.  needless to say I didn't eat much of it.  The rest of the food was good though. 

 

Have I ever mentioned in a letter how grateful I am for invisible fences here in PA?  Cause no one has real fences here.  So it was kinda nerve racking to walk past yards with dogs barking at you without anything tangible between you and the dog.  But it's nice to know that most dogs don't run through the invisible fence.  We have only been chased by a couple of dogs.

 

We're still struggling a little with our investigator pool but I guess that just comes with being a missionary.  We did get in contact with more investigators again.  But everyone is so busy worrying about Christmas that there is a lull with teaching. 

We were tracting last night and a couple of members live on that particular street.  And we didn't know what house the one lived in so we tracted into a member.  It was fun.  Sister Denton has been wanting to tract that street for forever and we ran into some fairly nice people but not really any potentials :(  But that's okay.

 

I've been frustrated a little this week because I kept getting migraines (they weren't super painful but they just wouldn't go away)!!  But I was super grateful that you had sent me that medicine. Thanks!!!

 

Last P-day we made cookies with a member it was fun!  I like making cookies.  We've also discovered a love for chocolate popcorn... we may make it a lot to give to investigators then get hungry in the car and eat a bag of it. (They're small!)

 

Oh our investigators make me laugh.  We had one text us and ask if she could fast to lose weight.  We told her that she could fast to help get the motivation to lose weight and to eat right, or stick to an exercise program.  She texted us back saying she would eat breakfast then fast lunch and dinner.  Somehow I don't think she got  it when we were telling her fasting is not a weight loss technique. 

 

Anyway that's what you get for this week. I love you!! I am SO excited to see your faces in 6 days!! I can't believe it's almost Christmas.  It's also the last week of the transfer.  So I could get transfered next week or Sister Denton could.  Or we could stay.  We'll see.  Our district leader was asking us for recommendations to give to the zone leaders that they could give to the APs (assistants to the president).  So yikes!  I won't tell you our predictations cause they're probably wrong.  We'll find out on Saturday so I'll give you the details on Sunday when I talk to you!!

 

Love Sister Davidson