April 23, 2012

So this was a good week.  We saw good things happen and we were happy. We have some quality people that we are teaching.  We saw some really good things happen last week. We have been trying to see 2 of the less actives in the ward for a while and they live in the same building.  We had something fall through and so we had some free time.  So we went to the building to see if maybe we could meet with one or both of them.  We were able to see both of them! It was great!  The one actually has a son who is not baptized but wants to be and we are going to be teaching him!  It's exciting.

We had interviews with President Topham this past week which was exciting! I always love seeing President and Sister Topham! They are really wonderful people. President Topham asked me if I knew the area well enough to be senior companion basically. That's scary!! I've only been out 7 months weird.  But I need a senior companion. :D  I think I'll be okay.  But lots of changes will be coming in the next few weeks.  

It's week 6 of this transfer I can't believe at how fast this has flown!! It's crazy!!! But it's been really awesome!!!

Also Mom... do you remember when we discovered I was allegric to cats?... well I discovered exactly why you were freaking out so badly that day... cause I may or may not have given into the temptation to pet a cat this past week and rediscover exactly how allegric I am to them.  We took pictures... :D

We also started our service at the clock and watch museum. it was fun!

Anyway I want to send pictures.  I don't have a lot else to say for this week. Sorry!! I love you.

April 16, 2012

Lots of questions for me to answer.

What is your apt like?  My apartment is realllllly nice. I should take pictures for you. We have a really beautiful view because we are on the third floor. The apartment is probably the newest in the mission because about a year and a half ago some elders got evicted from their apartment in this area. Don't ask. I'll tell you details another day. 

How many missionaries are in your mission? There are probably like 140 missionaries in the mission. There are a lot and I know quite a few because of transfers and I know of more because of stories but yeah it's pretty great. 

How many Sisters? There are 8 sisters at the moment.  We had 11 at one point.  And we usually have 10. it's just off right now.
We are losing Sister Juliano at the end of this transfer but we will be gaining another sister! Her name is Sister Black. 

And about whitewashing it can be good when something happens in a district or when a lot of changes happen. Like this past transfer a lot of whitewashing happened because a lot of things happened and some areas needed to start new. Like my area for instance. there was a sister who had been sick for almost a whole transfer and the ward needed a new set of sisters. 

Can I just say how cute Isabella is??? I love her!!! I can't wait to meet her in uhhhh next april.... when I get home. I'm so excited that Spencer is so happy to be a big brother. He is probably one of the best!!!

Oh Ben and Amy our meal calendar got filled up this past sunday for the rest of the transfer so it's a good thing you fed the missionaries. :) 

So about missionary work for the week. It has been a great week!!! we have been working so hard. We found service!!! Yeah!!! At the national clock and watch museum.  We will be helping out in their research library with moving books. It was really funny to ask our mission president about whether we could do it. Cause we told him where it was and that it was in the library. and he asked what type of books we would be moving and I said books about watches and clocks? and then he said oh ok I don't see a problem with that. It was funny.  But we walked through the museum and it is sooooooo cool!! Who knew watches and clocks and time were so amazing?? There were parts of the museum that really strengthened my testimony of the Gospel. It was so cool. 

We have this amazing investigator named Anne or we call her Sis Grosh. She is the funniest little old lady ever. She wants to get baptized so badly.  and when we meet with her this week she just immediately started asking us what she needed to do to get baptized. and we told her about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity which are two commandments people tend to struggle with the most.  And she drinks coffee and she said she'll live the rest of the word of wisdom. But I think we have her convinced to try to give up the coffee and replace it with something else. Then with the law of chastity she said at my age! that's not a problem (she's 74).  She is just amazing! She is so excited about the gospel and is just willing to try to live it to the best she can.

We also met a less active that no one knew about tracting a couple of weeks ago.  She is pretty great!   I love her. She has some awesome dogs that love us. it's funny.

So this is pretty funny to me. So you know how elders are in Lititz now? but anyway background info from when I was there, there was this little kid named Jonah(?) who was always crying downstairs from our apartment.  so the elders were talking to jonah's mom in the parking lot and apparently she knocked on their door the other night and asked one of them if they would want to go to the park with her and her son in such a way that indicates that she likes that elder. it was SO funny. Sister Juliano and I probably laughed at him for a good while. Then I told him about my experience tracting her door when she took the B.o.M. but gave it back when we started talking about Prophets being on the earth. 
And I said she wasn't ready to accept the Gospel from Sisters... hahahaha. 

Missionary work continues to have ups and downs but that's part of it all. 

I continue to love this area and I love the ward. So grateful to be a missionary.  

anyway I'm going to send this and then I'll send pictures. :D  LOVE YOU ALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

April 9, 2012

Transfers are May 1st and I'll get a new companion then cause sister juliano is going home. :( she can't leeave me!!! We have so much fun together.

 

So this week consisted of tracting... tracting... tracting... tracting... and moreeeee tracting. It was fun though. Except it is kinda difficult when we don't know where previous (the last set) sisters have tracted before. and it is a litttttle bit frustrating when we get half way down a street and someone mentions missionaries came by like 3 months ago. we don't want to be labeled as Jehovah witnesses because yeah. anyway

 

our recent convert Vai is AMAZING!!!!! We taught her last week and she bore her testimony to us and it was beautiful!!! She is going to be so strong in the church and her husband is just as determined to be strong in the church as well.  Vai also got confirmed yesterday and the things she was told during the confirmation were absolutely amazing.  I know she and her husband Kalili are going to be so strong in the church. :) (kalili is already a member)

 

we also spent a lot of time looking for a service opportunity cause we don't have one yet and we are supposed to do 2 hours of service a week. It's kinda frustrating.
 

we taught sunday school yesterday... that was an adventure and a half.  I don't think I ever want to teach sunday school again! Well for a while. Or I need more than an hour and a half preparations.  but everyone in our ward said we did a good job.  The Spirit did a good job. He is the one who influenced us the most.

 

anyway that was basically my week sorry no pictures I forgot my thing to load pictures.

Loveeee Sister Davidson

 

April 2, 2012

 Me in front of pittsburgh. 

 The beautiful city of pittsburgh!!

 me and a cool statue in pittsburgh

 Kahli my old investigator

 Jill and Meghan

 KIm!

 Sister Carter and I at transfers 

 Sister Denton and I the day before she went home.

  oh Pennsylvania road signs. they make me laugh

 sister juliano and I don't mind that it's upside down.

 Vai!!! At her baptism!!!

My beautiful companion glaring at me after me teasing her.

I LOVE my new companion.  It doesn't seem like we've only been companions for 2 weeks. We get along so well. 

So this week was FANTASTIC! It went by faster than any week of my mission yet! I am seriously contemplating whether a prank has been played on me and last Monday was actually yesterday. Heavenly Father must be playing an April Fool's prank on me. There is no way that week could have gone so fast.  

We had a lot of good things happen. And we don't feel as though we don't know what is going on as much anymore. I definitely don't feel as frustrated as I did when I first got here. But the reasons for that will have to wait until another day.  Because all that is important now is that I am happy and love this area and I love my investigators and my district and the other missionaries we're serving around. I am getting to know the members of my ward I am getting to know my area. And honestly I am so glad that Sister Juliano and I doubled in here because some of the things that were becoming traditions were not okay in this area. Not saying that missionaries were being disobedient but just the traditions needed to change desperately.  And Sister Juliano and I were able to stop some stuff without having to put up a fight with a companion. 

So we had a baptism this week!!! Yay!!! The woman's name was Vai and she is the sweetest girl ever.  So she and her husband Kalili are both from American Samoa and their families are still there.  Kalili's family are members and they wanted to participate in the baptism.  His dad was able to speak via Skype!! It was sooooooo cool.  Then his aunt did a musical number from Alaska! It was perfect for her.  The service as a whole had some glitches namely the font wasn't completely full in time for the baptism. Definitely something I learned for future reference. Missionaries will just need to fill the font. Cause it doesn't get full in 3 hours.... That font.Don't get me started. But she was baptized and that is what matters.  She was able to use the Atonement in such a big way.  Then she was so excited for conference as a baptized member.  And she is so excited for her confirmation this Sunday. It's great. I love her!!! 

I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for allowing me to be here and allowing me to learn so that I could become better. It's amazing how much I feel like I have changed since last September. I know I'm not the same person. 

Anyway I'll send pics in a minute. love ya !!!
SIster Davidson

March 26, 2012

Before I get to my new area let me tell you what happened in Pittsburgh right before I left. So we meet with Kahli our investigator and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure to the end). and when we were talking to her about repentance Sis carter asked Kahli what she thought about it?  And Kahli said well I heard about it at church and how you needed to do it everyday.  So I've started asking God for forgiveness everyday since that Sunday. And it was amazing. AMAZING!!! We didn't have to do the awkward will you repent commitment? cause she's already doing it!!

then transfers were probably the most awkward day of my life. My companion was in Harrisburg all day. So I got to spend alllllll day with Elders... being the only sister.  Okay I'm complaining and it really wasn't as bad as I said. It was actually pretty funny. I went out to lunch with them and my zone leader asked who I wanted to ride with and I said whoever will feel the least awkward with a sister in the car. Pretty funny. 

but now....
I am in the greatest county in Pennsylvania!! I'm in Lancaster again. I love this place.  I am serving in the Elizabethtown ward which is the neighboring ward to the Lititz ward where I was serving before. And it's weird cause there are now Elders in the Lititz ward.  So it's weird to be telling my companion this is the Elder's area when we drive through part of their area.  cause it used to be MY area. but whatever it's cool. 

So my companion is Sis Juliano. She is from southern california and she is fabulous. we have so much fun together. She is going home at the end of this transfer though. it's rather sad. But this is going to be an awesome transfer. Details coming in a few minutes. 

So it's weird my whole district doubled in. which for mission lingo means that both companions are new to the area.  I doubled in with Sister Denton when I was getting trained and had a great experience but this time around things are not so great.  There have been a few challenges but it's okay.  We had a handful of miracles fall out of the sky. 

both sets of elders in my district are training. It's kinda funny. They definitely had a deer in the headlights look about to them last week at district meeting. It was great. Ha. I shouldn't make fun of them but I remember my first week out and I was the same way. So it's funny. 

Then we called our bishop on Wednesday to tell him who the new sisters are and he told us about the ward a little bit.  He told us that there was a woman in the ward who was just waiting on some stuff so that she could get married so she could get baptized!!! So the stuff was finalized and this couple got married on Friday and she is getting baptized this friday!!! I'm so excited!! It's my first baptism. So it'll be awesome!! 

Then yesterday at church one of the members of our ward came up to us before relief society and pointed out a woman and said she is an investigator. So to make sure we met her.  So we went up to her and introduced ourselves.  and she was really nice. then after rs she asked how do I join the mormon church?  and I was kinda blown away.  But I said well we have to teach you some lessons, and then you get baptized. Is that something you want.  And she said yeah it is.  So we will be having another baptism coming in a couple of weeks. it depends on how quickly we teach the lessons.  But it'll probably be a couple of weeks. 

Then General Conference is this weekend!!! I'm so excited!!!

Love Sister Davidson

March 19, 2012

Well... it looks I am getting evicted from my apartment again. I'm getting transferred but I don't know where I am getting sent. I will find out tomorrow.  I've been going crazy the past 3 days waiting. I'm sick of packing.
It's hard to pack up my whole life again and be ready to move. I guess all my moving in college helped me prepare to packing here. I will laugh if I end up moving every 3 months of my mission. It could happen. Hope not but it could.

This transfer right now is kinda emotional.  Sister Denton is going home and I'm really sad.  I know a couple of the elders that are going home as well.

That is so crazy that the Condies moved to Pittsburgh! I guess I can't look for them as I probably won't be in the Pittsburgh area anymore  considering my area is the only sisters area here unless they open a new sister's area.  Who knows? It could happen. Probably not but it could. But there are 2 stakes in the Pittsburgh area.  There is the Pittsburgh stake, and the pittsburgh North stake.

My shoes are holding up. I think I might buy some galoshes for when it rains. The boots we bought in El Paso were NOT good for the rain and snow. my feet would get wet. So I bought some snow boots... grrrrr. and they got holes in the bottom!! So frustrating. So yeah galoshes all the way. I have socks so that when it snows next winter I'll just layer up to keep my feet warm.  I just need them to stay dry!!! 

We taught Hans again this week.  We invited Dann a recent convert to his lesson and it was awesome! Dann and Hans have the same type of background so they were able to connect and it was just great!
It made me laugh cause Hans came to church yesterday and I found out I was getting transferred on Saturday and had told some girls Meghan and Jill about it.  So Meghan and Jill were talking about where I might go and Hans was like what? And I said I was leaving and he asked when? where and when did you find out? and I said yesterday (Saturday) and he said so much happens in 48 hours!!  It made me laugh.   But happy at the same time to know that the people I've taught love me and don't want me to leave. cause I don't want to leave. But I know that I am supposed to.

Jill gave me a ring. and it turned my finger green yesterday. I hate when rings do that. It's a turquoise fish and it's kinda big(I'll send a picture). I was wearing it at the ward's linger longer yesterday and one of the Elders from my district came in and said what is that? and I said that it was a fish. and he asked if I wore that ring often making it seem as though he didn't like it. Ha! Elders are silly. I enjoy making fun of them.

I really don't know what else to write this week. My mind is kinda gone for now because of transfers. Like I said my mind has been focused on transfers. and the fact sis denton is going home and just everything. It's crazy.

Love you alllllll!
Sister Cherilyn Davidson

 Trader Joes! I think of Spencer Davidson whenever I see this store. So I had to take a picture. :)

 The district. Now I'm leaving! The blonde elder on the far left is leaving too. But everyone else is staying the same.

 first time I ever filled out a march madness bracket in my life. Don't get it at all. The institute director printed it off for us. So I had to fill it out. ha. He's funny.

 BEAR! Look how close I was to it! I'm glad it was stuffed or else I could've died!

 We're fishers of men(people to teach).

 This reminds me of Spencer in Yellowstone when he said no no buh bye to everything he didn't like. and that it was sooo cute! So I want Michelle to show Spencer this picture to see what his reaction is :)

 This bird reminds me of the movie ice age and I was kinda excited about it. as you can tell.

 This picture is for Dad. Who always says 2 legged deer. I became a 2 legged deer! quite literally! hahaha! I just needed the antlers. :D

 Emily Riley one of the girls we've been teaching. She is a recent convert

BEAUTIFUL treee! The spring is so pretty here. I hope the rest of PA is just as pretty.

Sister Carter and I doing what we do quite frequently waiting for the bus. We're experts at waiting for the bus and running after the bus and yeah. We ran down at least 2 buses on Saturday. Wish I could say that wasn't a regular occurrence but... it is. Running is good... for my health...

March 12, 2012

  there may have been a cantaloupe shoved in that backpack. (sorry if I've already sent this picture...) We didn't get grocery bags!!! 

 What? Classic Pittsburgh or Pennsylvania in general move. No cars beyond this point and then there is a car there. Of course.

 cool train tunnel that we wanted to take a picture by. It reminds us of the song Long Black Train. Which is what we've entitled this picture ha. we're weird but we love it!!!

 picture I stole from sister carters camera from when we went to the cheesecake factory for her birthday! Delicious! I want cheesecake! (I lost 4 pounds last week so I can want cheesecake okay?) 

Thanks for sharing your testimony with me Dad. I really enjoyed it.  I really enjoyed looking at the pictures from Hawaii as well!!  And I LOVED the postcards. also i love that they were sent from El Paso. ha. 

So I wasn't originally going to tell you about the shooting that happened in my area..  Yes Mom it happened in the area I walk almost every day. But sister Marshall told you we were safe and we were extremely blessed. so I want to share with you this experience.

Let me give you some background details before I tell you how we were so blessed. I don't know if you remember me telling you about Kelda. Well Kelda actually is a patient in the hospital where the shooting occurred.  And we visit her on Tuesday at 2.  It is usually always that time. We were really glad we had visited her on Tuesday rather than being busy and going to see her another day. But that wasn't anything unusual. Also we were blessed was that we had zone conference on Friday. and you're probably thinking Friday? what does that have to do with what happened on Thursday?? But it has a lot. We usually have weekly planning on Friday mornings unless there are other meetings scheduled for Friday. So we had to pick a different day this week because of Zone Conference. and we just decided to do it early and do it on Thursday.  Cause then we had service at 3 and an appointment at 4:30 in downtown Pittsburgh. Then we were just busy the rest of the day.  We were kinda unusually busy... for this area. Also Emily a girl we're working with canceled on us the night before and rescheduled for Thursday. 

Now to Thursday more detailed. We had weekly planning and that usually lasts from 10 am to about 1 pm. and then we have lunch and we take an hour for lunch. So we didn't even leave our apartment until after 2.  Which is about when the shooting happened.  (don't worry our apartment is like 3 miles from that hospital.) So we walked straight to service cause we needed to catch a bus early to get to downtown by 4:30. (service is an hour 3-4). So we got to service and it's at a nursing home and the tv is always going. And everyone was like did you hear about what just happened. and they told us details of what they knew. and so we called Kelda and made sure she was okay.  And then we got a flurry of texts and phone calls making sure we were okay and that we weren't in the Oakland area. a couple of members told us to stay in the rest of the day but we couldn't do that we still had to be out but fortunately we had appointments and bus rides that took of the rest of our time that day.  So long story short Heavenly Father put us in situations that didn't require us to be in Oakland near that area at all that day.  Except for riding on the bus to downtown.  The streets were so jammed packed with emergency vehicles. it was nuts!!! Cause usually we are out in oakland before service on Thursdays. We walk past that hospital a lot. Not always exactly right next to it but a street down from it. 

Then I am soooooooooooo happy!!! Yesterday David was officially reactivated in the church.  Cause he has come enough times. Then he received the Aaronic Priesthood.  We went to see him get ordained and it was weird to be in Elders Quorum... A lot of the guys noticed we were there during the opening song and they would look around and give us funny looks. It was awesome. Then I cried during the ordination. Cause I love that kid so much!! And I just love the things the Bishop said in the blessing part. It really made me feel as though I did my job as a missionary. and I just feel like David is never going to leave the church now because he just started a series of events that are going to really solidify his testimony. He got his patriarchal blessing last night.  He will get to bless or pass the sacrament next week probably. He is going to the temple for baptisms the week after that. It's just amazing. I am so proud of him!!

Then I am so happy.  We are teaching this girl named Kahli and she has come to church twice now. :D We always ask her if she had any questions about the service and she doesn't. She just easily understands how it is all done. and I love her!!! She is reading from the Book of Mormon and praying on her own.  

Then Hans. I think I told you about him last week. He is awesome!! We weren't able to meet with him because he was home for spring break but he left us a voicemail saying see ya next week and that he would be coming to church next week!!! Wahooooooooooooo! We are so excited. I have a stronger testimony of my prayers and the prayers of those around me cause we were praying like crazy that he would get an answer to his prayers about attending church. and he is going to come and so this week I am going to pray that he loves it and has a fabulous first experience and wants to keep coming back. Like Kahli. :D 

But yeah life is great. I love life as a missionary. 

I'm going to send you pictures now... :) 
love sister davidson