Blessings will come.

Dear family,

I quote Julie "*Sigh* I love our family". That is literally what I thought after I read your letters. How did I get lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful family? ...even if we have our dysfunctional (is that really how it is spelt-with a Y- or is this another Englishism spelling?) moments ;) I LOVE YOU!

I really am not looking forward to my tag coming off. I realised yesterday that because of General Conference I only have one more sacrament meeting as a missionary. YIKES!

"Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.” -Elder Holland

We truly saw this promised fulfilled this week. Sometimes we just have to be patient, but the blessings do come. We found so many great people this week. I know I don't have time to write about all of them but I'll share some highlights.

We have 3 people on date for baptism now. Two are YSA age young men. We found one of them, Tom, because a friend that he was with had played bball with elders in Portugal a few years ago and had stopped us and Tom was really open. And then Tome invited his other friend, Matthew, to the lesson and they both are really interested and accepted dates. It was brilliant!

Another favourite miracle started a few weeks ago. Sister Ishizawa and I were ponder new ways we could try finding people. There is a huge hospital in our area and all hospitals in England have a church in them. We decided to go and see if we could leave some pamphlets and pass-along cards in the church. They let us and this weekend we got a text from someone saying he had read one of our pamphlets and wanted to know how he could be more involved with the church! He also wanted a copy of "the Mormon bible". We met with him yesterday with a member and were able to give him a copy of The Book of Mormon and set another appointment for this week once he gets out of hospital. Amazing! We are meeting so many wonderful people.

We also have tried some new ways of finding, one being... origami finding. I think it's so fun. Sister Ishizawa was really unsure about it at first, but I think she enjoys getting to share her culture with the people here.

Funny moment: During District meeting we had a training about companionship unity. We went to the car park and had to do a three-legged race as companions carrying a raw egg on a spoon. Afterwards an Elder was telling us there was a certain way you can hold an egg and squeeze it as hard as possible and it won't ever break. Another Elder  was trying and said you could do it another way as well and proceeded to demonstrate. That is when the egg burst open and went all over poor Sister Ishizawa. She was a really good sport about it and it was hilarious.  

Last week we went to Hunstanton Beach (I'll send pics) and today we are going to a place called Holkum Hall with some members and  a less active (or as Sister Ishizawa and I like to call them, Potential-active members). So excited!!

Also, if there is anything specific you want me to bring home with me please let  me know by next week!

Zone Conference is tomorrow too. It's going to be a great week!

I love this gospel. IT is true!!! We get to hear the prophet speak in 2 weeks!!!!

I love you!!!!

Love, Sister Davis 

 

 

I might be addicted to origami.

Hiya Family,

This week we got to attend a BRILLIANT live broadcast from Germany for all the sisters in the Europe area. Some of the seventy and their wives spoke, but the main speakers were Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard. SO GOOD! I loved it! Something that Elder Ballard shared was that we could go out in the world and ask 100 people who God is (which I pretty much do everyday so I can testify to what he says) and they will all have different views: some saying there is no god, some saying he's in the nature, some saying he's within each of us, etc. But if we go into Primary and take 100 Primary children and line them up and ask who God is they will all start singing "I am a child of God". What wonderful truths we are able to KNOW from such a young age. Such a blessing!

I almost went my entire mission without locking the keys in a flat. Well, I decided to break that streak this week and so I decided that when we had our STL Exchange I would leave the keys in the flat right before we needed to catch our train. ok.. so actually I didn't decide any of this, but I did ignore the spirit telling me to grab the extra set of keys we had. I was positive I had put the keys in my bag and we were running a bit late for the train and so I didn't double check my bag like I usually do. whoops. And then it took pretty much our whole day to get into our flat because we had to walk to another building on the other side of town and then when we got to the flat found out they had given us the wrong key. :( But the people there were very nice and one of them had come a few weeks ago to do a flat inspection and was asking how our work was going. I'm confident the Lord will use my mistakes to plant seeds with this woman. She is lovely. And it gave us something to laugh about. The poor sister training leader coming and then not really getting to do any work because we had to get into the flat and that night we had the broadcast and ward council, so it didn't leave much time for actual teaching, but it was good anyway.

And the broadcast really was so good. It made me so excited for General Conference. I forgot my notebook now so I'll have to send you thoughts from the broadcast another time.

We had a cool experience with a referral this week. We had gotten it from this person's neighbour whilst we were tracting. Usually neighbour referrals are not the most solid and we had already tried by a few times with no luck. As we were trying for what we had planned to be the last time, a car pulled into the drive. It was the man that lived there. Turns out he used to live near London and had been taught with his sister. He hadn't been too interested at the time, but his sister had gotten baptised. He is really strong in his CofE church, but he wants to meet with us and learn what is so unique about our message. Can't wait! And he's Nigerian. awesome. I haven't taught an African in so long.

We have an investigator named Andrew. We met him a few weeks ago and he had missed the appointment but then we happened to run into him again. We've had some great appointments with him and he is really reading the Book of Mormon and taking notes. Unfortunately, he's not praying about it in the same way that he's reading it, but hopefully he will. He is facing many challenges and the gospel is exactly what he needs. It's hard to help him realise it when he won't just take our word for it. I am convinced that God is preparing him. AFter our last lesson with him he said we should leave it for a couple weeks, but then the next day we ran into him at the bus station. And he said we could meet with him this week. His heart is being softened.

Yesterday we had a great step-in with a Lithuanian YSA girl. She says she's agnostic and was hesitant for a return appointment, but she happily accepted the Book of Mormon. And she was fine with us praying. AFter we said the prayer she said it was really nice. And she gave us her number so we can follow-up with her reading. I love the spirit and simple moments like that that confirm God's love for all of his children.

Sister Ishizawa's English is getting better and I think she's learning to not be so hard on herself, which is good. It's crazy how similar her and I are. But we are having lots of fun. She is so hilarious.

I love the gospel and love that I am blessed with a testimony of it! It is so true!! I know it!!

I love you!!!!

Love, Sister Davis 

ONE MONTH

Dear Family,

This is it. In one month I will get to see all of you! It is unreal. Time to keep running to the finish line. THank you for your support and prayers and for your fabulous emails. You don't know how very much they mean to me.

We've seen many wonderful small, tender mercies of the Lord this week (so Linda, your subject was very appropriate). It has been a very, very hard week. I'm grateful for the small miracles that keep me going even when everything else seems to fall through. The golden family from the bus stop decided to stop meeting with us. We had a great final lesson with just the father. the member that came with us was perfect and the father is really interested and open, but I think because his wife is not he does not want to continue meeting with us on his own. But he has the Book of Mormon and said he would read it. And he has sent us a few texts in the week so not all ties are cut. The member that met them with us at the bus stop baked them a cake since she couldn't come to the lesson (so nice!) Hopefully that helped to soften their hearts as well. I have faith that in time they will know the truth of what we share and it will bless them so much.

We've seen many small miracles of being at the right place at the right time. We had an appointment to see a LA, but when we went she wasn't there. The next day we were in the same area and our plans had fallen through (the morning actually was absolutely crazy with taking a wrong bus and missing the bus we needed and then not being able to communicate this to the investigator to explain because she doesn't speak much English so she just hung up), so we decided to try the LA again. She was in a really low point. Her son passed away not too long ago and she's really been struggling, but this day was particularly bad. I know God sent us to her in just the time she needed it. We've also just happen to keep running into people at the right time. I know it's not coincidences, but God's work.

Even though we haven't seen the success we have wanted, I know that in God's eyes we are successful because I can feel the spirit working through us. It is disappointing when we've been praying to get people on date for baptism and find those prepared and we can't seem to find people that are willing to even be taught, but I know that God is seeing our efforts and they will be rewarded. in His way. And in His time. #bysmallandsimplethingsaregreatthingsbroughttopass

Sister Ishizawa is really struggling with the language. Please keep her in your prayers. She's been a bit down about it this week. And I'm not very good at knowing how to help. Ican't even imagine how she is feeling. But I learn so much from her courage and faith.  

I'm grateful for answered prayers and for the peace that comes from my Heavenly Father in the times I need it most. So many things said in testimony meeting yesterday were just for me. And then President Jordan's letter to us this week was another reminder that God works through others to answer my prayers and speak to me. I know He is mindful of each one of us.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister Davis

Kon ni chi wa

Hello family!

I think it's so funny that I was scared to get called to Japan and now I am loving getting to live and always be with a lovely Japanese sister. It is so fun to learn the language and the culture.. and ORAGAMI! oh yeah. And she is going to teach me how to make sushi. I'm not a huge sushi fan, but I think that's a super cool thing to know how to make. she is wonderful. She is 27 and grew up in the church but went less active for a few years. She comes from Elder Okuda's mission. So fun to make that connection. she is full of so much faith and courage. I am learning so much from her. We are still working on finding the balance in teaching; she speaks better than I had anticipated, but it is really difficult for her to understand what people are saying and that stresses her out. IT doesn't help that there are lots of people here with funny accents. She is doing well though and we are having fun. I was sick this whole week. I got a bad cold, but I am doing much better now! I think I jinxed it because just a couple weeks before I was telling sister couper that I had been blessed to not really get sick on my mission. But now that I'm better we are working super hard.

We had a wonderful tender mercy. On Friday we had a zone conference call. Our ZLs challenged us to find two new investigators that day. I thought this would be pretty tricky because we had weekly planning (which always takes longer when there is a new companion in the area and when that new companion doesn't understand everything in English) and we had a full day planned. And I was feeling so sick. But we wanted to achieve this goal and so we talked with everyone we could. While we were waiting at the train stations to come home from an appointment we met a lovely Bulgarian woman, Mariana, who wants to meet with us. And she referred her husband (key word: HUSBAND. They are married. This is always a joyful word when getting investigators. and they have a car and drive. Another bonus.)! yay. When we do all we can, the Lord provides! And our mission met our baptism goal for the month of 50 baptisms (we got 56!) hurray!

Other than that our finding efforts have not been as fruitful as we would like, but I know we will see many more miracles this week. We have a great week lined up!

I was reading Helaman 5 this morning. Such a could chapter. I really love these verses:

9 O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.  10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.
 11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
 12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

I know with Christ we cannot fall. He is our rock! He is the only sure foundation. I am so grateful to know Him!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Love, Sister Davis