Dear Family,
Transfers always make me so anxious. We had to wait extra long last night
to hear the news and since we hadn't heard anything by 10pm Sister
Greenfield was hopeful that we would get another transfer together (I
wasn't convinced we'd be that lucky). And I was right. Sister Greenfield
is leaving Gillingham after being here for 6 months to go and white
wash train. She's going to be amazing but I will miss her tons. No
training or follow-up training for me. I will be getting a new sister,
Sister Som (sp?), who has been out for 2 transfers (just one less than
me) and just finished her training and who is from Cambodia. President
Jordan says she has pretty good English but I will have to help her
learn more. I didn't really expect I'd have so many opportunities to
help my companions with the language. I am a bit nervous to take over
the area and being in charge of everything. I just pray that I can stay
organized enough to make sure we do everything we need to, but I know
the Lord will help me. It was interesting because yesterday
morning we had flat checks. Elder and Sister Sill (the senior couple
serving in Canterbury) came to check our flat and Sister Greenfield
asked Elder Sill for a blessing because she was feeling nervous. He
offerred to give me one too. I am so grateful for the Priesthood being
restored. Blessings are so wonderful. It was interesting because he
mentioned in mine that I would be a great strength to the members...
well, this week at ward council it was devestating; so many of the
strong members are suddenly falling away.. I mean, A LOT of them. After
the blessing, Sister Greenfield said she figured I would stay here
because the members here really need strengthening. I guess she was
right and I really hope that I can help to strengthen the ward. So
Robert, I will still have the same apartment address for the next 6
weeks atleast :)
Shayla is amazing! She is progressing so well, especially for
coming from an agnostic background. We taught her Word of Wisdom our
third lesson with her. We had gone to a cafe to meet and she had ordered
coffee. We had just had a training that day in district meeting about
how we needed to do better to help our investigators prepare for baptism
by teaching them commandments early on, especially when we know they
will have to make changes. We had planned to teach her Law of Chastity
to start working on teaching commandments within the first three lessons
and I just really felt that we need to teach her Word of Wisdom as
well. So we went for it. And she said that she had a feeling that we
were going to tell her that she had to give up coffee and then a few
weeks ago she was actually thinking that she needed to cut down anyway.
She said she would live it and then she didn't drink any more of the cup
of coffee she had in front of her. She is so prepared! She came to
church for the first time on Sunday.
I think it went well. I thought Sister Greenfield might murder our Ward
Mission Leader though because instead of teaching gospel principles, he
said he thought Shayla should just go into the YSA sunday
school class (I think because that's just where he wanted to go and
didn't want to teach a lesson-- but I shouldn't judge). So we went with
her there and the lesson was on celestial marriage. Celestial Marriage
is great and wonderful and such a wonderful thing that we are able to
have because of the restored gospel, but it was way too much for someone
who was there for their first time to any church ever. Shayla felt
really overwhelmed after that and I think she felt out of place because
it was all from the Doctrine and Covenants, and then Sacrament Meeting
was all about Temple work and baptisms for the dead. She said she had
read a bit on mormon.org
about that already so she wasn't too confused, thankfully. And maybe it
was something that she needed to hear. Then we went to show her the
baptismal font... there were tons of dead bugs in it and a huge spider!!
Wow, talk about opposition and definitely not the kind I would have
expected, but I think she handled it ok and after church she said that
it helped her feel even better about her decision to be baptized. I know
that the Lord is in charge and that if Shayla is truly prepared then
the Lord will help her to get there regardless of confusing sunday school lessons and bug-infested fonts. She really is so amazing!
Some funny things from this week: part of our area is strood and we
were catching a train there to help a member (the crazy, can of beans
lady- Sister Hankin) clean her house (she's a hoarder and let me tell
you I went into my organizing mode and just wanted to throw everything
out, but Sister Hankin wouldn't let me), well we caught the wrong train
and it didn't stop in Strood so we ended up going out of our area and
having to back track and switch trains a few times but eventually we got
to Sister Hankins (just a little late). It went well and then Sister
Hankin gave us 4 referrals!! One was her neighbor so we stop by after
the Hankins. At first the lady's son answered the door and was asking us
all of these questions to try and trip us up and the Lady, Tracy, was
just laughing and not interested. Well, we somehow were able to get in
and show them the Restoration DVD and then we had an amazing
conversation and the spirit was really there. Tracy even commented about
how there was a different feel in her house and asked us to come back.
Then we found out that the Hankins and her are in a fued because the
Hankins called the police on Tracy because she parked in their disabled
parking spot. To think Sister Hankin referred us to her neighbor that
she was fighting with... and to think her neighbor let us in and asked
us to come back! The Lord works in mysterious ways.
This week we saw a snake! (No, I didn't try and catch it)
We started teaching a Chinese lady. She seems really good, but it
sure is difficult to teach people who don't speak very much English.
The work is going great and hopefully will continue to go well!!
I'm going to miss Sister Greenfield so very much but I am looking
forward to the wonderful experiences I will be able to have with the new
sister.
I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and all that is
possible because of it. And I am grateful that the church was restored
through a prophet so that we can have access to the blessings of eternal
life.
I love you!!
Love,
Sister Davis
"Men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ... they set
fire in others because they are on fire. Their will is swallowed up in
His will. They do always those things that please the Lord. Not only
would they die for the Lord, but more important they want to live for
Him. Enter their homes, and the pictures on their walls, the books on
their shelves, the music in the air, their words and acts reveal them as
Christians. They stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all
things, and in all places." -Ezra Taft Benson
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