Dear Family!!

This week has been great. I just love being a missionary. And I especially love my companions. It really is so wonderful! The work has been going a bit slower; We've been doing lots more finding, but it is giving all of us a good opportunity to learn and grow together and help eachother. And we make it fun and that's good too. Sister Latham flies to America a week from today. Wow. This month has flown by. We really don't want her to go, but she will be so wonderful! I'm just grateful I've had a chance to serve with her. Our last week is already full of great things, including interviews with President (which I LOVE) and we get to go to Hyde Park for a Visitors Centre training for Sister P.
At the park we go running at in the morning, there is this little gym section and we started using it. There is this place you can do sit-ups. Man, it works so good. But then it's awful because every time we laugh it just hurts so much. And then it makes us laugh more because it hurts so much.

Neli is on date to be baptised on Saturday! I'm so excited for her! It will be interesting though because she just moved on Saturday... so a different ward and a different stake! It's stratford ward, which meets in the same building as us, but is still a different stake. At first, the District Leader said she would have to be baptized with Stratford, but that didn't seem very fair since she doesn't know anyone in that ward. It will be a tough transition and we aren't quite sure how it's going to work out, but I know that the Lord will help it be a wonderful experience.

Amerjeet hasn't been deported. He is still in the detention centre, but when we talked with him yesterday he said he was getting another interview on Tuesday that would determine if he is getting out soon. He had his friend go to his house and get his Book of Mormon, the pamphlets, and manuals he had gotten and he's been reading them lots. He said his friend was asking him why he was so happy about getting the book and he gave him some of the pamphlets to read. I love the power conversion has in the desire to share this joy with others.

We still haven't been able to get in touch with Hassan. Frankin is still dragging his feet, but each time we meet with him he is being more and more open.

We saw Garyann yesterday and she is so much happier. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and she says she can really feel her faith growing. And we can see it! We are excited to meet her again this week.

For Valentine's Day we ran to some members and heart-attacked them for our excercise in the morning. It was fun to see how much it meant to them. We are really working on strengthening our relationship with ward members. They are great. And it really is true. The members do the finding and the missionaries do the teaching; it really is the ideal situation.
This morning in personal study, I read the infamous scripture about the soldier who stood by who. Thank you, Mom and Dad for making a routine of family scripture study in the morning. I know that we weren't always really engaged or enthusiastic about it or even awake some mornings, but  I am so grateful and I know that it has strengthened my testimony and provides a protection against temptations. And I have some great memories of reading scriptures!! Does Jimmy ever get sent outside still and scream through the back door? haha.

I've experienced some of our heritage culture (I don't know if that is really how you would call it). I had Welsh cakes. A member of our ward is married to a Welsh man. It's an interesting story. She was married and her husband died and her new husband was married to her best friend but she passed away. And now they are married. He's not a member, but I really admire how much he respects her and how much they make their marriage strong despite their differences in belief. And we are really developing a strong relationship with him so I know seeds are being planted.

I love the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I know it's true. I know this gospel is true. It is the only way to true happiness, through Jesus Christ.

I love you all!!!!!

Love,
Sister Davis xoxoxox

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Family, 

I didn't even know it was the Olympics!!! I guess Brits must not be too into it :( But maybe it can give me something to start some conversations. Enjoy the Olympics for me.... although, I do love the summer olympics much more than the winter. 

Mom, to answer some of your questions, the visitors centre is the Hyde Park chapel. The vc sisters always go out of the centre once and it is anywhere from 1 to 4 transfers, so we'll see how long Sister Pagofie (pronounced Pong-oh-fee-eh: her Dad is Samoan) stays here. Sister Latham's Visa is here. It came about one day after she came to Ilford, but her mission president wants her to wait to come until the new transfer so we get her until the 24th of February. Sister Pagofie and I are sad she will have to leave. We are already trying to plan ways we can get her to stay. But we are enjoying it while we can. And I would vote that you do two birthday dinners (although, I guess one party would make less work for you to do- you just make too good of birthday parties that it's the more the merrier). 

Happy Birthday, Megan!!!!! 

I love being a missionary. It can be hard. And it is even harder when it's mostly up to you to make the decisions and to set the good example. I am definitely not perfect, but I know the Lord qualifies whom he calls and I pray I can be the trainer these sisters need. Although they really are already trained. They are amazing! We have been striving more to really work with the members. IT's exciting for SIster Pagofie because she doesn't get to work with members much or with families because she was in a singles ward. We have a stellar member lesson we've been doing. It helps us improve our teaching, help the members grow in their faith and feel the spirit, and helps them see how easy it is to reach out to their friends. And it's fun because we do a roleplay and they get to play one of their non-member friends. It's fun to see the hard questions and things members will present to us. It has really been helping me see how much I know and how much I've learned to rely on the spirit. It's great! I hope it continues to be a success. 

Sister Pagofie is a crack-up. We are laughing all the time. And she is soooo American!! It's pretty funny but I love how much pride she has for our country. But the downside is her strong American accent is contagious. before she came a member said that some of the things I said sounded British but since Sister Pagofie came both Sister Latham and myself have strong American accents. We're working to help Sister Pagofie embrace England. haha. poor sister Latham will lose her English accent before she even gets to America. 

Our investigators are doing pretty well. We had a good lesson with Frankin yesterday and he came to church!! There is still something holding him back but we found the perfect member to help him and the other investigator from Cameroon, Neli (who will be getting baptised soon!), came to the lesson with Frankin and starting joining in on the teaching. IT was great! I love Africans. 

Oh man, we ate some Sri Lankan food this week. SO SPICY! I loved it, but boy was it spicy!!!!!! 

It has been raining lots this week!!! I just can't get over how strange English weather is. IT was nice sunshine when we walked into the grocery store today and it was raining buckets when we walked out. So strange. But atleast the weather is always something we can talk with people about! 

I think my favourite miracle of the week is when we went to teach Frankin one of the times. The member we had hope to take with us couldn't come. We tried to call some others, but they were all busy. There was one sister that I kind of knew who she is, but she had been on holiday for awhile and I had never brought her teaching with us; we needed a member and so we called to invite her since we didn't have any other options really. There was a reason we had no other options. She was perfect and her testimony is amazing! I think it was just what Frankin needed. It is amazing to see how the Lord guides this work!! 

I know the church is true. The Book of Mormon is the work of God. We have a prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. Jesus Christ is our brother and Saviour. I know he is always there to comfort us and help us stay on the path to return to live with our Heavenly Father. This week I have really learned how vital family is for God's plan. I'm sure that we would all have had a desire to return to live with God even without our families, but because of the veil we wouldn't really understand what that would mean for us and it would probably be harder to stay motivated. But by having families here, we can experience the joy and happiness that comes with being with those that we love. It gives us tangible motives to work toward the Celestial Kingdom and makes it easier when we face challenges and temptations. I know Families can be together forever! 

I love you!! 

Love, 

Sister Davis  xoxo

 

 I forgot to mention how crazy transfers were. There was a tube strike and the tubes and trains weren't running as frequently and some weren't running at all. We had to wait in a queue just to get to the platform. I have never experienced that before! It was so busy and packed and then on top of that we had all the luggage we had to lug around. But we survived and it was an interesting experience to say the least. oh, London!

Love you all!!

Trio, Training, Transfers.

Dear Family,

We are being blessed in the work. As far as the members, we have some members that are so great to support us by coming teaching with us and referring friends, but our Ward Mission Leader has been to church in about 2 months because he's been really ill, and the Assistant ward mission leader hasn't been coming recently either (not sure why) so let's just say that the support could be much better. But I guess this life is all about learning and growing and I guess that includes with wards, not just individuals.

The big news... which has probably already been spoiled by the title, but I'm sure that what is coming next is not what any of you are expecting. I sure wasn't expecting it...

This has been such an eventful and surprising week. Last Monday night we got a call from President Jordan telling us that there was a sister waiting for her visa for her mission to America that needs to be trained and he wanted us to do it.  So Sister Stoja and I went and picked up Sister Latham from Hyde Park on Tuesday. She will be here for a month.She is amazing! She is from Norwich, which is in our mission. She is going to the Salt Lake City Utah mission (Kaysville and Centerville are in her mission-maybe she'll serve near family, as well as part of Nevada). It was something Sister Stoja and I definitely were not expecting, but we have been having so much fun. I have learned so much from training and from doing the 12-week program. And to see how much I've grown since I've been on my mission, and how immersed I am in the work. I love it! The Lord is so loving. Being in a trio has been funner than I expected. I figured it would be a bit harder to teach and to find and to work with members since there is more of us. Some of those aspects are a bit challenging, but I love it! It really is fun. And I am learning so much from Sister Latham. She is brilliant. Since Sister Latham had just been here for a week and President had told me that he really wanted Sister Stoja to be involved with training her, I was convinced that all three of us would be staying in Ilford for the next transfer. Well, last night I got the first call of transfers from President Jordan. I'm follow-up training a visitors centre sister, Sister Pagofie (I think that's how you spell it) and I'm staying in Ilford. The funny thing is that Sister Latham stayed in London for a week before coming to Ilford and was in a trio with Sister Pagofie so she'll get to be with her again. It will definitely be a bit interesting to be follow-up training and training at the same time, but I'm excited for it and I know these Sisters are amazing and that we will see so many miracles. I am really sad to see Sister Stoja leaving, but she is going to the blessed zone of Canterbury (not to Gillingham unfortunately.) and I am so excited for her. She will love it. Transfers are an exciting time. I am really excited for this next transfer and all that I will learn, the miracles I'll see, and the people we can help bring closer to their Saviour. 

This week hasn't been the best with our investigators to say the least. On Monday Amerjeet got sent to the immigration detention centre because he had issues with his visa and might get deported. Frankin is doing well, but didn't come to church on Sunday like he said he would, only for us to find out that he went to... the Catholic church. I was pretty crushed. But I had a really sweet confirmation from the spirit that this is the Lord's work and he knows his children and what they need. Maybe Frankin needed to go to the Catholic Church for him to be able to recognize that this church is true. Either way, I'm not worried about it anymore because I know as I do my very best that I can and must leave the rest up to the Lord. I know one day Frankin and Amerjeet will be baptised, but it will be in the Lord's time, not in mine. We did have an amazing experience the other day though that just really is one of those moments that really reminds me of how much I love being a missionary and wonderful this work and the spirit is. We stopped by to see a potential investigator, Garyann, who kept needing to reschedule appointments and for whatever reasons we could never get ahold of. She was in and came to the door, but said that she had met with some other people (I'm pretty sure it was JWs) and she realized that she just wasn't ready to commit to following Jesus Christ completely and making the changes that she knows she needs to. It just made me feel real sorrow for her. At first I said things about how coming to Christ is a process and we don't expect her to be perfect immediately, but she jsut basically said she wasn't interested. So then I just told her how much we loved her and how we respected her decision and if she ever changed her mind that we are here for her. I asked her if we could leave her with a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing to literally see her heart soften and she just changed. She started asking questions about the Book of Mormon and before we knew it she was completely opening up to us about challenges she was having in her life and how she was praying, but just didn't feel like she was getting answers. The spirit was there so strong as we talked with her about our Heavenly Father, about prayer, and about faith. We committed her to read Alma 32 and she was so excited to. She texted us that night to let us know that she had read it, loved it, and now is really considering her relationship with her Heavenly Father. So amazing!!! I am so blessed to get to be a part of God's work. The spirit is such an amazing thing. I am really learning to understand and appreciate how everything depends on the spirit! I know that each one of us has the opportunity to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost constantly. I pray we will each strive to do all that we can to be guided by it. The spirit is real. The church is true. 

I love you all!!! 

Love, Sister Davis xoxox

 

 

Dear Family,

Thank you for always being diligent in emailing me every week. I really can't express how much I look forward to it and how much it helps me to press on every week is this great work! I am grateful to be blessed with the best family ever!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

This week has been good. We've had lots of opportunities to give service. We've had a bit of a hard time seeing our investigators often. We kept having great plans for the day and then it would just all fall through. But I know this is the Lord's work and so we just have to press forward and do our best. Our investigators are doing great, but we are struggling to get them to make that final push to reach baptism. We are really hoping and praying that Amerjeet will be able to get work off so he can be baptised this weekend! On one of our days that most appointments fell through, we had some really nice members who last minute invited us out to eat with them. We were so grateful and it was definitely a tender mercy. We went to Nando's. It was my first time (which is pretty sad because I've been hearing about it my whole mission but just haven't made the time to go). IT was delicious!! They have really yummy chicken that you can choose the spiciness you want! So spicy and delicious, jsut the way I like it :)Frankin loved going to the temple, but still hasn't said he's ready to be baptised. One day, hopefully soon!  We have kind of lost contact with Hassan :( hopefully he'll call us soon. We've also been really blessed this week with weather. Whenever it's raining hard we are in appointments, and whenever we are tracting it doesn't rain. Last night we did finding most of the day and it didn't rain at all. But it had rained all during church and as we were walking home it started raining. The Lord is blessing us!  

The week I've really learned taht the Lord answers our prayers. Definitely not always in the way that we want him to, but he does answer. There  have been some instances that things have happened and I've just thought "Why?!" And then the Lord reminds me about how I prayed to develop more Christlike attributes and wanted to increase in patience and charity, and how these opportunities he places before me are how I can. I am grateful that he does hear and answer prayers. I've just learned I've got to be careful what I pray for! But I'm grateful that he is giving me opportunities to change and become more like him. After all, that's what it's all about. 

Sorry that this letter is short. I don't know what else to write about. But next week I'm sure there will be plenty of exciting things to share with you!!! And we're going to London today for our pday. Hurray!! 

Missing you and praying for you!! Love you so very much!

Love, 

Sister Davis xoxox