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

March 5, 2011

Hi to you from ME! :)  it's time to read a letter from your favorite missionary again. he. he. 

this last week literally flew by. I do not know where the time went. Seriously. It's crazy how fast time flies when you are on a mission just because you are so busy all the time!!

So many good things happened this week. We had a lot of crazy adventures.  We have 2 main less actives that we are working with and both of them were at church yesterday and both of them bore their testimony!! It was great to see the progress both of them have made since I have been here in this area. I love them both so much. The one less active Kelda is going deaf so we were working on getting an interpreter for her. We were able to find one in another ward. The woman's name is Sister Burton. Kelda was able to meet Sister Burton this last week. And they were able to communicate. It was really good. Kelda was able to understand everything Sister Burton was saying to her. It was great!!!  Getting to sister burtons was the adventure but that is a story for another day. We got lost but all was good. 

Then with the other less active, his name is David.  We have been wanting for him to be able to attend the temple trip with the ward and be able to be ordained in the priesthood. And last week he had a meeting with the bishop and he came to our lesson with both a temple recommend and a patriarchal blessing recommend. It was so exciting!!! He is going to love both so much. David's lessons have been really good. 

Then all of our investigators are awesome!! We have talked to all of them about baptism just recently and they're all on the same page of not wanting to get baptized until they know everything is true.   So I keep praying that as they are praying about the message we are sharing and as they are reading the Book of Mormon that their prayers will be answered and they will know that they need to get baptized. We will keep inviting them to be baptized though. 

So one of our investigators named Hans is really awesome. He told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true pretty much.  He said that he is still praying about getting baptized though but he is pretty sure that he will. We invited him to church and he was honest with us and said he would feel awkward going to church.  We explained the importance of church attendance and he said he would pray about coming.  So I am praying a lot that he will get an answer that he is supposed to come to church and that he will come. He has such potential to be such a strong member in the church. 

Then we had another lesson with Archer, another investigator.  We have been reading with him the last couple of lessons because he is Chinese and doesn't quite understand old English so we explain a lot to him but he is starting to get it! It is so great when he can explain a verse to us.  I know that he can probably understand a lot more from the scriptures than he realizes but it helps him to have us explain.  

Then we had an investigator at church yesterday!! Her name is Kahli and she is great.  She really liked testimony meeting.  She also really like Gospel Principles.  She had to leave before Relief Society though because she had a school group meeting. It was great in Gospel Principles because we talked about prophets and in our first lesson with Kahli we talked about President Monson and the Quorum of the Twelve. So she was able to understand a lot that was going on in class because of that. It was great!! 

I just love this area so much!! I love all the people that we are working with. I love the ward and yeah they're just great! I don't want to leave. It is amazing how much I have been able to love the people here in only 3 months. 
I have been reading in Alma the last week or so and I just got past reading about the sons of Mosiah missionary experiences and it seems like whenever I pick up my Book of Mormon the last few days everything in it is about missionary work and it is just amazing to apply it to my life now.  I just love the scriptures!!

Life here in Pittsburgh is great great great! the work is wonderful and I love being a missionary!!! 

Love you all. Sister Davidson

February 27, 2012

I am excited to share with you everything I'm learning cause I am learning a LOT! I love being here. I love my area and I love the people in it. I think it's funny that you got on my mormon.org profile.  Most of the missionaries here have one too.  

In the ward I am serving in they had a mormon.org initiative to get the members to share the gospel.  They had a race between the elders quorum and the relief society. and it was a great success! Of course the relief society won.  Then the "prize' was the elder's quorum had to throw a party for the relief society.  I don't think it ended that way cause the ward mission leader just ended up inviting the whole ward to his apartment and they had a 90s party.  I heard it was a lot of fun cause missionaries don't go to stuff like that. 

So I finished my second journal since being out last night. Crazy!! I write so much cause I don't want to forget anything that happens while I am out!! I have to remember it ALL! haha. 

So we had one of the best lessons ever this past saturday. We have been teaching this kid Archer for a while. Sister Carter was teaching him before I got here.  And he is Chinese and he didn't have a concept or belief in Jesus Christ until just recently. And we were trying to figure out how to teach him about sin and repentance and we were struggling with the ideas how to do it.  And while we were planning something about reading the book of mormon  in preach my gospel stuck out to sister carter and we talked about the idea and we decided to do it. So we used the first chapter this activity gave us. it gave us 1 Nephi 10.  And that lesson was amazing!!!!!!!!!! I can't even describe how good it was.  He understood so much cause we struggle having him read because he doesn't understand some of the words so he can't understand the doctrines.  I will forever remember Archer whenever I read the word dwindling and dwelling now. 

So we challenged one of our returning actives that we are meeting with to read the Book of Mormon by April 1st which is his birthday.  And coincidently is conference as well. That's great! I am so excited about it! We challenged him before Sister Quijano left and I have been reading 10 pages a day.  And it has been so amazing. I love what I can learn from the scriptures every single day.  I am also way ahead of everyone else but I know that they can catch up.  

But that's it for today... no pictures this week sorry. I left my camera at the apartment. Plus I only had one picture from our adventure with sister marshall last week to a grocery store that you had to pay for bags. Love ya!!! :)

Sister Davidson

February 20, 2012

 My heart flipps for you!!! :) Sister Marshall gave us those for Valentine's day. She is so sweet! I love her!

 Frozen pond.... I thought it looked pretty. ha!

 Does it look steep?

I think it looks steeper with me standing in the picture.  Yep these are the hills we walk every day... No not really.... whatever. We just walk that hill the other day. It is in our area though. 

This week was a really good week for us.  We got 3 media referrals in one day! It was crazy but really good.  We had success in contacting all 3 of them.  It kinda surprised us because we usually don't have success in contacting referrals. usually they got online and requested something when they or their friend was drunk...

But this week we have gotten 2 new investigators from media referrals!

One of the referrals was named Hans.  We had called him and left a message.  He called us back and said that he would be available for us to come bring the Book of Mormon to him.  When we met with him we were able to set up an appointment to meet with him later that week.  He told us that he was searching for something but he didn't know what that something was.  He also said that he had a friend a couple of years ago who was Mormon and had explained where we go after this life and that a couple of weeks ago he saw a mormon.org commercial and it reminded him of the discussion he had with his friend so he got online and requested the Book of Mormon. Then when we met with him he told us that he was trying to fill a void inside of him.  And Sister Carter told him that the gospel could fill that void.  It was really powerful. The lesson was really powerful. He said that everything we had taught made sense. We had asked him to read from the Book of Mormon and he had! It was so amazing! He had read all the way to 2nd Nephi in 4 days! (do you know how hard it is to get people to read from the Book of Mormon half the time?) He really has so much potential to go so far!  We invited him to baptism and he said he would! But he said he wants to know that the gospel is true first before he commits to a baptismal date though.  I have faith that he will receive an answer to his prayers. 

Our other new investigator's name is Kahli.  She is amazing too. She grew up Catholic.  She had LDS friends growing up and had always admired their dedication to their church because she never really felt that connection to the Catholic church.  Her life is really crazy right now and she felt like she needed church in her life.  So she requested to meet with missionaries and it was amazing.  She was invited to baptism as well but she wants to wait until she knows as well. I was so much myself in that lesson it was crazy.  There were no walls that prevented her from getting to know me or me getting to know her.  We explained so much to her and bore our testimonies a lot.  It was seriously one of the best lessons of my mission.  

It seems kinda funny to think. All the really spiritual and really powerful lessons I remember having thus far on my mission have been 1st lessons. There is just something about really powerful about sharing the Restoration of the Gospel with someone! I am SO thankful for the restored gospel and that I am here in the Latter Days.  I am so excited to be part of the preparation for the return of the Savior.  How blessed are we?! 

One of the less actives we are working with attended stake conference with us.  It was so good.  We asked him if he liked it and he said that he loved it and that it was amazing.  I love seeing the progress that he is making in the gospel. 

I will send pictures in a moment. LOVE YA'LL!!!!!!!!!! :) 

February 13, 2012

Hello!!

First off I miss you all so much! I am so blessed  to have such great support from home.

This week has been such a crazy week!!! Sister Carter and I said goodbye to Sister Quijano! I cried a little bit when she left and a little the next day when we went street contacting just cause I missed her so much.  Cause she was AMAZING! But I know she is going to have awesome adventures and I will find all about them in a year from now.  It's weird to think that I am about 1/3 of the way through my mission.  I don't like thinking about it because I don't know I just don't. 

Then this week we saw something amazing happen.  We had gotten a referral from Headquarters about this girl and we had called her a couple of times and left a message.  Then we tried stopping by her apartment building but the address we got didn't have an apartment number and we couldn't figure out which one it was from the apartment directory. So we kinda just assumed that it was contacted cause we had tried to contact her but there is only so many times you can call a person before it just gets annoying.  But she called us back!! And she wants to meet with us and I am so excited!!! I knew it was a blessing from Heavenly Father because we were out doing what we were supposed to be doing and just trying our hardest to be obedient.

I love personal study!! I was reading from Helaman 12 today and verses 7- 19 struck me so much! I had never really understood the whole dust of the earth concept and how we are less than the dust of the earth.  I knew we were but I didn't understand why.  But now I do! Because we as human beings do not obey God's voice in the very moment He says it sometimes.  He gave us agency to act for ourselves and to choose to listen to His voice. But then the next thought came to mind that never did God give us a command to not listen to Him.  We are always expected to obey Him and because sometimes we don't we are less than the dust of the earth. My mind was blown this morning!! 

Then our investigator named Abdul has a friend is calling us.... cause Abdul is missing?  I don't know how I feel about it.  At first I had a really bad feeling and I didn't think we should try contacting Abdul for a few days.  Then we talked to a guy in the ward who had come to one of Abdul's lessons who has been called by Abdul's friend as well.  And the guy said he didn't think it was more for concern rather than worrisome. But it still kinda worries me because I don't know how they got our number.  

We had a funny experience with Kelda the other day. She was praying when we ended our lesson and there was going to be a party on her floor right after we left and she said Please bless me to keep my standards high especially as I am partying with the opposite sex.  It was hilarious and I love her!! I seriously almost started crying in her room the other day just because I love her so much!!!

We got a new district leader and it's his first time as a district leader and it's fun.  He's awesome! I have been so blessed to have such great leaders on my mission.  I just found out that my one of my old district leaders is a zone leader and that was so exciting! :) Anyway I gotta go. I might send pictures in a minute!

Love, SIster Davidson

 We went to Five Guys and the potatoes were from Rexburg!!! and I was excited!!!

 The trio in front of the river last monday night 

the fridge with my new toy i mean nametag on it. Dad would have fun with my magnetic nametag!

Pictures!!

 there are DINOSAURS all over Pittsburgh.  So I took a picture in front of one.  This one is awesome cause he has a different scarf every month.  :D

  The triumphant trio!!! :) In the MTC Sis Carter and my teacher told us that trios were either trying or triumphant.  Our trio in the MTC was trying but our trio here in the field was TRIUMPHANT! :) We were a great team.  I can't believe this transfer is already over. 

 Us with the lovely beautiful Kelda! I love her!!

 The District!  The Elders (from left to right)- Johnson, Remund, Iwertz, Espinosa, McDowell, and Reese.  Then Sisters Obviously me, Sister Carter, Sister Quijano. 

 The district funny faces or Sister Davidson ugly faces... Whatever. 

  us with the Marshalls!! The CES missionaries.  

 Me and Lucy! She lives at the nursing home we do service at.  She's funny.  She told me last week that I would get married and that guys would be lining up to marry me. We'll see...

  Us with David, one of the guys we've been teaching.  He's funny.  He doesn't know how to tie a tie so we had Matt our ward mission leader help him and Matt tried tying the tie while David was wearing it.  and he had to give up and just tie it around his own neck then give it to David.  It was so funny watching that happen after sacrament meeting yesterday. 

 Jill and me.  Jill is just an awesome girl in our ward. 

  this is what our table looks like after weekly planning where we plan for the whole entire week ahead of us. Stressful and ends with a crying session every time. 

 me being silly

 My little Filipino companion!! Who is LEAVING me next week. Psh who wants to get transferred home?? 

 is of the pretty view