Dear Family,

Shayla's baptism was wonderful! We had a bit of a rough time scheduling it because we scheduled a time and then found out there was a stake primary activity happening at the same time and Shayla couldn't do the time they wanted to and the bishopric wanted to push it back another week. I was not going to let that happen and the Lord was on our side so everything worked out ok. Poor Shayla had to be baptised three times. The young man baptising her was doing his first baptism and I think he was more nervous than she was. She was a great sport about it though and it was lovely. I was keeping it together really well and then the Ward Mission Leader asked me to come up and bear my testimony. I am my mother's daughter and didn't get a word out before I was crying. The spirit was so strong there and it was amazing to see how happy Shayla was. Her sister and cousin were able to come and although they may not be interested at the moment, it was a very positive experience for them. Our ward has been brilliant to reach out and make Shayla a part of the ward. I think she really is feeling a part of the family. It was funny though because she left church with  a whole stack of books. I asked her what her plans were for the rest of Sunday and she just said that she had some reading to do. haha. Hopefully she wasn't too overwhelmed.

Funny story: We had a step-in with a man this week named Tony. SIster Som was saving a prayer before we left and couldn't quite remember his name; she called him Tuna. I wanted to correct her but I was laughing so hard and was trying not to laugh out loud and I knew if I said anything I would lose it. And she said his name, or rather what she thought his name was, more than once in the prayer. Thankfully she could laugh about it.

Interviews were so wonderful! President Jordan is such an inspired man. I know he is called of God. And Sister Jordan is absolutely wonderful! They both did brilliant trainings and the spirit was just so strong! BEing a missionary is the best! How priviledged I am to have the opportunity to learn and grow and to bear the Savior's precious name.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Davis

P.S. Don't forget next week is transfers so I'll be emailing on Tuesday again. :) I can't believe another transfer has gone by... and then it's GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!! I'm just a bit excited for that. 

Quick Miracle

So as I'm sitting here emailing you (at the library), a man comes up to me and asks how he can get information about the Latter-day Saints... well, he asked the right person!! He says he's always wanted to learn more about the mormons and that he just moved here. Amazing! The Lord truly does micromanage our lives (Linda, I remember you use to say that in almost every email you sent home. haha... I guess because it's the truth! :) ) So great!

Love you lots!

Sister Davis

Tracting in a rainy Gillingham (Walking in a winter Wonderland)

Dear Familia,

Well, like I said earlier, I think winter has come. Yesterday when we were getting ready to go to church, we looked out our window and saw it was all sunshiney. So I decided to leave my raincoat (because I hate having extra things to carry around, especially at church). Walking to church was lovely. Then after church it was not so sunny, it was pretty cold and we were walking to a lunch appointment at a members house and were a bit early so we started tracting and tried our best to deal with the cold... then it starts raining! Luckily, I was atleast smart enough to bring my umbrella. And I had a cardigan and tights (which I almost had left at home in the morning as well, thankfully I didn't) so I wasn't too cold, but poor Sister Som hadn't brought a jacket or anything, but one of the Elders had given her some gloves so she persevered. After that, we had appointments for the rest of the day in Chatham (another town next to where we live). Well the appointments all fell through.  So we were stuck in the rain and wind. We prayed to get a step-in and hoped that someone would let us in. Well, first door we knocked, the man wanted to hear more(Thanks to heavenly Father for answering our prayer), but of course it was just him at home and so we taught him about Joseph Smith on the door step whilst we were freezing, but it was an excellent lesson nonetheless. The Lord provides a way to accomplish his work. And now we know to ALWAYs have our jackets. haha. 

Shayla is back from holiday and is being interviewed today for her baptism on Saturday!!! I'm so excited for her!! And Meili (the Chinese investigator) wants to find a job where she doesn't have to work on Sunday. I hope that we can help her to find one through the church employment program. 

We have interviews in Canterbury next Monday. Hopefully we will still have time to email on that day, but in case you don't hear from me, that is why. 

The Lord is blessing us and we are seeing his miracles. This work is hard, but wonderful and so worth it. I'm so grateful for the gospel of JEsus Christ!! 

I love you all!!!! 

Love, 

Sister Davis 

Dearest Family,

Well, this week really hasn't been too exciting. We are desperately trying to find new investigators, especially ones who will progress. Other than Shayla no one is really progressing, however Shayla is AMAZING! She is on holiday this week, but when she gets back she's already to be baptized. Please pray that while she is away on holiday she will continue to stay strong.  We are teaching a Chinese woman (who has two adorable little boys) and we have been trying to get her to church a couple weeks. We gave her a chapel tour and it went so well and she said she would come if someone could bring her and we had a lift arranged and everything and then she called on Friday to tell us that she just got a new job and she's working weekends.. WHY?!! Sometimes Satan really drives me mad with the opposition that he puts in people's paths. But she is continuing to read and pray and hopefully as her faith grows and hopefully our employment specialists can get her a new job not working weekends (and hopefully she'll want that) and hopefully she will get there. Please pray that we will find those that are prepared!

Sister Som doesn't really cook so I've been doing it all, but it's great. Thank you mom for teaching me how to cook! We (well, really I) also made a delicious cinnamon cake for a baptism that the Elders had this weekend (someone that we passed to them). Sister Som had never had spaghetti before so I made her some this week because she wanted to try it... IT was delicious. Then we went to a dinner appointment at a member's house the next day. What was for dinner? Spaghetti. haha. And LOTS of it. It was the first time I felt uncomfortably full after a dinner appointment.

Our WArd mission Leader is really striving to magnify his calling. This week he called and asked us what appointments we had and then he spent all afternoon yesterday calling people to try and find people to teach with us. So great!

I had a really wonderful personal study yesterday about obedience. How many times can you find "If ye keep the commandments, ye shall prosper.." in the Book of Mormon? I'm making a list of all the times and so far I have atleast 10 where that exact phrase is used. It's so true. As we are obedient, then success is guaranteed to come. Maybe not in the timing we would like, but in the Lord's timing it will. Also, did you know there are new scripture masteries?! Some of them are the same, but some of them are different. I really like some of the new ones they've chosen. I haven't been able to look at all of them yet, though, but I'm sure they're all great!

Keep being the amazing people that you are! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Davis 

 

My dear family,

I didn't think you'd change THAT much while I was gone, but to hear you got iPhones proves me wrong. Our family is slowly entering the digital world. Dad, are you enjoying being able to sinc your Iphone and iPad? Thanks for the fun pictures Linda.

This week has been good. Zone Conference was amazing!! It was all about faith and it really was just so uplifting. Sister Som and I are working hard and having plenty of fun. We have learned much better how to work together. I am learning to be silent more and let her do more of the talking. I still do the majority, but as we continue to work on it, I know she will become more comfortable with it. I am learning some cambodian. How are you? is by far my favorite phrase! "tan yan so so by?" say that five times fast. Shayla continues to be amazing!! She is getting so excited for her baptism (21 september). She is going on holiday next week, so we are praying that Satan doesn't throw too much opposition at her; I also hope that when her sister comes to her baptism (she has already invited her!) that her sister feels the spirit and has a desire to learn more. I know it would be a great thing for Shayla to have that support, and of course her sister would benefit from the gospel as well. 

We have been working a lot with less actives. There is progress there, slow progress but progress nonetheless. We have also been asked by the Stake to visit all of the less active YSA and invite them to institute. We have quite a list and they are somewhat spread out, but hopefully as we split it up with the Elders we can visit them all before the next institute class starts- Book of Mormon!! Hopefully we will see lots of miracles with that.  We have been doing a lot of finding without too much success, but someone said that whenever someone rejects our message it just means that we are one person closer to finding those that are prepared. I try and remember that. And I remember that an invitation to learn about the gospel with love for the person and love for the Savior can never be offensive. Even if they aren't interested, as long as they felt our love for them then we have been successful. We have the most precious thing we can offer to people- salvation. How grateful I am for this opportunity!

We met this really nice Nigerian lady on the bus the other day. She teaches math and her name is Julie! Crazy. I guess all Julie's must love math. She was really nice and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. Everyone in England is going back to school this week, so she was too busy to set up a time with us, but she gave us her information and said that she's free in October. Hopefully we can see her again! This work is amazing. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and truly testifies of Jesus Christ!

 

I love you all!!

Love, Sister Davis 

 

Sisters, Sisters, never were we such devoted Sisters. 1/3 of our mission is now Sisters. This is less than half of the sisters in the mission!! Crazy!

It's Raining, it's POURING!

Dear Family,

It's grand to hear you all are doing well and I wish you the best of luck starting school!

my address: Flat 13 Trafalgar Court, Trafalgar Street, Gillingham, Kent ME7 4RQ England

So... this week has been a bit hard. I am so grateful for the wonderful companionship I was able to have with Sister Greenfield and I sure miss it! Sister Som is wonderful and so sweet, but it just isn't the same. I will be honest and say it is very difficult to have a companion that comes from a very different cultural background. And then on top of that someone who doesn't really understand everything you say. We are plugging along though and the work is going forward. I struggle to know how much I should lead and take over and how much I should give Sister Som chances to get out of her comfort zone. It's hard because she is very soft-spoken and slower with speaking and everything in England is fast paced and people aren't very patient. Often times I have to jump in and help her out, but I also know she needs opportunities to learn and grow. I know Heavenly Father will help me to know how to help her. However, it is amazing to be able to see how much I've grown as a missionary since I've been out and how much more confidence I have in teaching and finding situations.

the lesson in Relief Society yesterday was just for me. It was on marriage. Before you think anything crazy it was in regards to relationships in general as well. As I've been struggling with Sister Som a bit I have been saying many prayers to know how to help our companionship work better, and then the lesson in Relief Society on marriage talked about how to resolve differences and how you can make companionships work better. Although it is a little different as missionaries, there were some wonderful principles I was able to learn and be reminded of to help Sister Som and help our companionship work better. Hopefully as I apply those principles I will be able to feel a difference.
Sister Som really is great though and has a strong testimony. She comes from a buddhist family, but her family joined the church when she was 8. I know I have much that I can learn from her.
Shayla is still doing amazing! She is going on holiday to Greece in a couple weeks and I pray that she continues to stay strong while she is away. Please keep her in your prayers. She was able to see a baptism yesterday (one of our investigators, Daniel, that we had passed to the elders got baptized). She loved it and said she was feeling better about her baptism. And thankfully, the elders cleaned out the font!
A wonderful miracle yesterday. WE have been working with a wonderful less-active, Irene. She has been pretty hesitant to come back to church and last week had said she would come for just sacrament meeting, but then didn't. This week she said she would come for sacrament meeting, but then right before church (sacrament meeting is the last hour) she called and said she was going to come for all of church!!! So she did! It was great! Our ward mission leader was gone and had asked me to teach gospel principles. I was glad because that meant the class would for sure happen. It was on prophets and I think it went well. Irene also stayed for the baptism and enjoyed it and the ward was wonderful at welcoming her back.
Other than Shayla we don't have any progressing investigators so we've been doing quite a bit of finding so hopefully we will find wonderfully prepared people, especially families! I'm excited for the miracles this transfer will bring!
This week we have zone conference! I can't wait. I love going to Hyde Park and I always learn so many great things. Also Sister Karyan is in my Zone now so I'll get to see her. I was able to talk to her on the phone last night for a bit (we can only call missionaries in our Zone) and that was really good. She's doing great and I'm excited to get to see her and all the other missionaries.
We've had lots of sunshine for the past few weeks. Well this week all the rain that didn't come during that time decided to come! It was POURING!! And worst of all, because it has been so sunny and not raining at all, I didn't have my umbrella with me so I got soaked! It was slightly awesome though I will admit. Sometimes you just need to have some good fun getting wet in the rain. And it wasn't too long out in the rain before we could go back to our flat and I could get dry. Also it was a warm rain which I was very grateful for. I am not ready for winter to come!
Dad, I especially loved the reminder that we all come on missions to convert different people, and sometimes even if we just convert ourselves in the process then we have accomplished a great work. In a talk I read recently Brent H. Nielson said somethings similar,"Had I labored all my days and converted only myself, the experience would still have been worth it to me." I know that is so true. Thankfully I have already been able to see the spirit touch the lives of others, but I know that the real miracles the Lord is working are in me and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to strengthen my testimony while getting to share it with many others. I know that I truly am the greatest beneficiary of my mission and the Lord is shaping me into the person that he needs me to become. "Missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy... How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?"-Elder Holland. I know that it's my salvation that I'm working towards and the Lord in his great mercy allows me to assist others in their journey in the process.
I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is my Savior. I am so grateful to him for the sacrifice that he made for me. I know through him that salvation is possible and that we can all return to live with our Heavenly Father and with each other again. Thank you for being the wonderful people you are so that I can look forward to living with you all forever!
I love you!!! You are all in my prayers and I know that the Lord is watching over you.
All my love,
Sister Davis