Hiya Fam,

This week has been really fun. I got to go on an exchange to Ipswich. It is in the country. I forgot how much I love the country. I really LOVED it! It was so much fun. They people were lovely (although all English and atheist mostly- I forget what it's like to not be surrounded by African pentecostals and Asian Muslims everywhere). I LOVED the fresh air. Ilford always smells disgusting. really gross, but it makes for fun jokes with Sister P. I still really really love London. So much, but I also love the country. I just love all of England. I will be happy where ever I get moved to next. Which BTW, it's only a 5 week transfer so moves are next week. So Pday will be on Tuesday. I'm probably going to be saying good-bye to Ilford :( But I know wherever the Lord needs me will be the right thing. Ipswich was really great. Lots of walking and some wonderful people and great members. IT was fun to see another area and the Lord helped me to get some answers I was really searching for. I think my favourite part was getting to be junior companion again. It was so stress free. I'm trying to make work in Ilford less stressful. I've been very successful at that this week. And I learned so much from the Sister I was with. She's from Italy. 

We went  and helped at a primary Activity this week. It was so much fun! It was a chocolate easter activity. Very cute ideas and the kids loved it. We were able to get two of our investigators there. They both are from part-member families. They are doing great. It is so fun to teach them. One is Amaya. She is from Sri Lanka. She is 9. She really wants to be baptised but she has swimming Sunday mornings and so she can't come to church. Her mum isn't a member so it's hard to get her to church, but she is trying to switch to a different swimming class. Her dad is a recent convert of about 1 year. Hopefully we can get the mum on board. Another is George. His mum  has been a member for about 2 years. She was born in Cape Verde but then moved to Portugal. His dad didn't give permission when the mum got baptised for George to be baptised. We are hoping for a miracle. He is a great kid. His mum has been pretty less active but we just started teaching them both and they both came to church on Sunday and she bore her testimony!! It was great! 

The Less-active Sri Lankan family with 3 kids had a birthday party for their 5 yr old daughter on Saturday and they invited us. It was really fun. they are such a great family. The Dad is pretty consistent in coming to church but we are really trying to get the mum to come. It is really interesting to see how different cultures and traditions sometimes make it really hard for some people to adapt to the gospel. 

Today we are baking lots of delicious things. Last p-day was really fun too. We went and toured Westminster Abbey. That's where the queen has her coronation and where the royal wedding took place. It was pretty, gorgeous in fact, but the spirit wasn't there like it is in our chapels. 

haha. funny story. The other day someone tried to tell me I was saying Las Vegas wrong. It's not like I would know how to say it since I was born and raised there. haha This person was telling me that it's "Lass Vegas", rather than "Los Vegas?"- (I don't know how to write how we say it other than Las Vegas so I don't know if that makes sense). I didn't realise it was such a huge deal.. People do always think I say I'm from Australia for some reason. haha.  Oh well. 

I have been studying christlike attributes this week. I was reading Knowledge this morning. I love that in the Bible Dictionary the first thing it says is that it is an attribute of God. And that our progression is determined by our knowledge. It's pretty important. And I have always loved how much the christlike attributes are all linked. I haven't read a single scripture where it mentions one of them without mentioning atleast one other; and usually it's multiple together. That's comforting to think that when we focus on improving one, overall we will naturally become more Christlike. 

The gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ. I know that he died for me and that He lives again!! HAPPY EASTER!!!

Love, Sister Davis xx

 

 

Covenants, Commandments, Charity, and Covenants

Dear Family, 

I cannot wait to start hearing about all of your PMG insights ;) Thanks to those who have already started to share.

I LOVED conference. I always do. We got to watch the Saturday morning (which was Saturday night here- it still is so weird to think about that) at a members home with one of our investigators. It was so fun to be in someone's home. Sister P and I made sure it was a proper conference and brought all the snacks, complete with peanut m&ms. We also finally got to see the Womans general meeting on Saturday night. I loved it. It made me cry and miss you all, but they did a brilliant job. Being a woman in the church is the best! We got to see every session of conference except the last one. I really just noticed how every single person mentioned covenants. And obedience to the commandments and charity seemed a huge focus as well. I just like to think of it as the Conference of C's. I also loved how all the personal testimonies in the first session mentioned priesthood keys. That really is so important. We have all the truth in this church. And we have the power and authority from God. That is a huge deal.This is a miraculous gospel! WE must live it with joy and with courage! And we must share it with others in the same way!

The one year celebration was great. We ended up not going to Nando's because the Elders didn't want to, but they wanted to go to a carvery because they could eat more for less. I was really happy with that though because it was very English for our one year celebration in England. A carvery is where you can go and get a limited amount of meat but unlimited sides of roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, yorkshire puddings, peas, etc. A proper roast dinner but unlimited. It was delicious and so filling and a really good price! IT was fun. 

The work is still going really well, but we are really struggling to get our investigators to progress. We get lots of new investigators, but overtime they become very non-committal. Even Salma, who was progressing so well, has really started to digress. She had almost completely given up smoking and now is back up to smoking lots and really struggling to give it up. It is so sad because we can REALLY tell the difference when she has been smoking. it changes her so much. It is a bit frustrating to know what will help her the most, but then to see her not choose to do those things. But I'm sure Heavenly Father sometimes feels the same way with me. He knows what is best and if we just trust him and follow him we will get to see and feel all the glorious blessings that come. But sometimes the natural man just gets in the way. But I'm so grateful to know that Jesus Christ is there to help me and strengthen me. 

Read the Book of Mormon everyday. It will get a man nearer to God than any other book. I just finished reading it with the mission. I love it. I know it is the word of God. I love you all and pray for you. Thank you for being who you are and for desiring to follow our Saviour. It is the only true path to happiness. I'm glad we're on this path together. 

Love, Sister Davis 

P.S. london pday today!! So excited! :) I can't believe I'm a missionary and I'm in London!!! It's brilliant! :)

 

 

It's Facebook Official: I'm almost been out a year!!

Family, 

Mom, Happy Mums Day! I thought about you all day yesterday. I hope you felt especially loved and appreciated. way to go on challenging Jimmy and Kristi to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It's the best. I had a great opportunity yesterday in combined RS/Priesthood to talk about the book of Mormon for a few minutes. In preparing I read a talk by President Benson about the importance of the book called a new witness for Christ. I highly recommend it. So many good points. Especially about how we need daily spiritual nourishment from the Book of Mormon.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated, “Men can get nearer to the Lord, can have more of the spirit of  

conversion and conformity in their hearts, can have stronger testimonies, and can gain a better  

understanding of the doctrines of salvation through the Book of Mormon than they can through  

the Bible.… There will be more people saved in the kingdom of God—ten thousand times over—

because of the Book of Mormon than there will be because of the Bible.” (Address at Book of  

Mormon Symposium, Brigham Young University, 18 Aug 1978).  

I am drooling thinking of your strawberry freezer jam. Save some for me?Still no word from Hassan. :( I will get to watch most of general conference. I think all except for the last session on Sunday. I cannot wait!!!!!!!!! I LOVE conference!! 

where is the time going? I can't believe it will be a year on Friday!!! It should be a fun day though. Two of the Elders in our ward are from my MTC group, so all of us Ilford Missionaries are going to celebrate together. We're going out to eat at a yummy chicken restaurant, Nando's. I'm looking forward to it. And I'm sure Sister Pagofie and I will come up with other great ways to celebrate!

BIG NEWS..... Our mission is the first mission outside of the 38 pilot missions in the US to start facebook proselyting. Weird but exciting! So Linda I don't know if you have been logging into mine at all but please no one log into my account anymore because I will be deactivating my home account and making a mission account. Also I'm not allowed to be friends with anyone back home so no one try and friend me here. It will provide great opportunities for missionary work though and is a great trust from our leaders and the Lord. Hopefully it will really help to hasten the work, especially in helping members in their missionary work. It will be exciting to see the changes that come in the work. However it will be very different to try and schedule in time to use it. We found out we could use in on Thursday and we still haven't had time to set up our accounts (well, just me because Sister Pagofie already had one since they use facebook in the Visitors Centre) or use it at all. Tomorrow we will though. 

The work has been good, but we are continually trying to work to help the members get more excited and involved in missionary work. Any ideas? 

We have seen some great success however in contacting AUF- which is Address Unknown File or Lost Sheep. It is people who were baptised but moved and the church found an address that they think that person lives at. It's our responsibility to go to that addresss and confirm whether or not that person does live there and see if they are interested. Then if we have time we are to knock 20 houses around the person and note how many people are interested around the AUF. We have found quite a few new investigators from it this week. One was this sweet woman from Ghana whose husband is actually a pastor. We knocked on her door and after a brief introduction she let us into her home. She said she was happy to hear anything that dealt with the word of God. We were able to teach her the restoration. She was so intrigued about the Book of Mormon and couldn't wait to read it. As we taught she asked, "So what you are saying is that all the other churches are not the truth?" we explained about the fulness of the gospel and about the great apostasy more and she was just so sincere and wondered why she had never heard about this message or the book of Mormon before. she said "Why have I not heard this before when all my life I've been searching for the truth?" It was so sad to see her sincerity of wanting the truth and not being able to understand why she hadn't heard our message sooner. I really pray that the spirit touches her and she reads and prays and that she can know that this is the truth she has always been searching for. I am unsure as to why she hasn't heard this message before, especially because the church is so well known in Ghana, but "I know that [God] loveth his children" (1 Nephi 11:17). I know he knows us perfectly. He gives us the experiences that we need to shape us into who he needs us to become. And I know that he loves all of us enough to give us the chance to choose. I'm so grateful to know this gospel and to be able to choose to follow Jesus Christ. 

I love you!

Love, Sister Davis 

Hello Dear Family, 

You are wonderfully brilliant! 

We had the first baptism in Ilford this year!! Amarjeet got baptised. The member that baptised him is an amazing member that always comes teaching with us and just loves the gospel. He came up to us after the baptism and just thanked us for our obedience and for all that we are doing. He said that our efforts to do what is right was evident in how everything went. It was very thoughtful of him to say that. The baptism did go really well. We had a baptism right before of someone who had been excommunicated. That was just a small baptism with the missionaries and a few of the members friends. It was really lovely and the spirit was so strong. But Sister P and I were talking about how that baptism caused more stress than the baptism for our investigator; Amarjeet's baptism just went so smoothly. Even with speakers cancelling last minute and the pianist not showing up, it all just went so well and we weren't stressed at all. It was clear that the Lord wanted it to happen; we didn't need to worry about anything. And thankfully my piano skills are improving a lot. I've had to play for different events quite often recently, including sacrament meeting. Thanks for being a great teacher mum!

The work is going well. We just keep trying to focus on working with the members. We have noticed that when we really focus on helping the members be involved with missionary work, all aspects of the work we do goes much smoother. When we do the work in the Lord's way, we will get His help. 

Sister P and I have gotten a new liking: frozen fruit. It all started with frozen grapes. I guess it was a big trend in Sister P's high school. They are so good. Like a little grape slushy in your mouth. So we've started freezing other random fruit to see how it goes. The orange was pretty good. 

I don't know if I ever told you about our investigator Salma. Sister Stoja and I found her street contacting and then she called us the end of last transfer. She is from Bangladesh. She has two children, but they were taken away and she was in an abusive relationship, but she is working to get them back and is doing so amazing! She has stopped smoking!! She was smoking about 20 a day when we first met her and we've been working with her to cut down and now she isn't smoking at all. She's on date for the 12 of April. Sometimes it is hard to understand her, but we can see the physical difference the gospel is making in her life.

The gospel is great. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and all that he has done for me. I know that because of His grace and mercy I can become better each and everyday. He loves us all so much!

I love you!

Sister Davis xoxo 

It's beginning to look a lot like Springtime!

Hiya Family! 

Happy St. Patty's day! Sister P and I made sure to wear our green.... and then we noticed all day that no one else was wearing green. There was no st patty's decorations in the stores. It came up in a lesson with our Albanian investigators (the ones we teach English too, and the gospel); the English member with us reminded us that St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday. Sister P and I had just assumed the whole world celebrated green day. haha. Oh well. England has St. George's Day, but no one celebrates it. I think she said it's in April. 

Well, I won't hold back the anticipated news any longer. Sister P and I are staying together!!!!!! Yay! We were so excited to hear that. Especially after the week that we had; so many miracles. And it was just so natural that we didn't even feel like it was moves happening this week and we just kept working like normal and had already schedule appointments for the day of transfers. The Lord is blessing us so much! We are finding families to teach, members are getting more involved in the work, and we are just growing to love the people more and more everyday. I have loved all my companions so much, but it's amazing the miracles that happen when a companionship is completely unified. Sister P and I are just so much on the same page with where we want the work to go. And I think we're both really in tune with how the Lord wants the work to go as well. It's amazing! We both had a hard time falling asleep last night (don't worry it was just a one night thing because of moves calls- I really have been sleeping great) because we were both thinking of how great this next transfer is going to be and all the goals we have for the area. I'm so excited! 

Amarjeet had his baptismal interview last night. He passed! He's getting baptised on Saturday! Finally. I'm so happy for him. He's been wanting it so bad for so long. 

We met with a new investigator yesterday. It was our first proper lesson with her. She had met Sister P on the bus back when Sister Latham was still here. We have been calling her and trying to set up an appointment with her, but we could never get a hold of her. Sister P was feeling so bad about it. Then, the other day we get on the bus... and what do you know. This woman was sitting on the bus. We were able to get her address and set up an appointment with her. When we taught her she confessed that she had been purposefully ignoring our calls. And she said that she normally would not give away her address to someone she just met, but she said the spirit told her she needed to give it to us and that we are working for God. She says she knows it was God's hand in us meeting on the bus (and it really was because we hadn't planned to be on that bus at that time, and neither had she--- she was actually meant to be going to meet her pastor of her church but he cancelled). We are looking forward to continuing to teach her. 

I've decided Sundays must just be our day for many miracles. This Sunday we had quite a few appointments set up and we kept those appointments, but we also got 6 new investigators!! It was brilliant! We also taught the man we met last Sunday. His family is great! We also were able to teach his father. They are all really interested. We want to give them a baptismal date the next time we teach them. 

I love this gospel. This week I was reading 3 Nephi 18 about the sacrament. It talks about how they were filled. We always teach investigators that church is so important because it recharges their batteries. And the scriptures say exactly that. It's the sacrament that fills our spiritual batteries with power and bless us with the spirit throughout the week, not just church in general. I'm so grateful for this ordinance that I can participate in each week. I hope I can strive to make it more meaningful and sacred. I know Jesus Christ is my Saviour. And the Saviour for everyone. Including those who don't remember who he is. 

Thank you for your prayers!

I love you!!!

Cheers, 

Sister Davis xoxox

It's a beautiful day!

Dear Family,

This week has really been wonderful! It is amazing the miracles we have seen, especially considering everything that has happened. We had this crazy incident with a member that was just too much drama and will take too much time to explain, but it is all resolved now so no worries. All that drama just added to the sleepless nights I was having and it all really caught up with me. I took some sleeping medication Sister Jordan told me to take and the next day I don't think I quite slept it off. I couldn't keep my eyes open all the way. It was ridiculous. But the Lord really blessed us anyway. There was a lot that the Lord needed to teach me. Hopefully I learned it all and can continue to enjoy getting restful sleeps at night. 

Miracle #1 Guess who is back?? Amerjeet!!!! He got out of the detention centre FINALLY and is working towards getting everything back on track for baptism. 

Miracle #2 We've been doing some less-active finding for back-up plans. If the LA isn't in we tract 5 doors on both sides and 5 doors across. Well, like plans tend to do as a missionary, our plans fell through and we followed our back-up plans. The LA wasn't in, so we started tracting. At the next door, we found a man who had been baptised when he was a kid and his dad is active, but he just slowly fell away. We had a great lesson with him on the doorstep and he said we could come back to teach him, his partner, and his 12-year old son. The Lord knows where his lost sheep are that are ready to be found. 

Miracle #3 We got a call from a member this week about a woman he had met in a shop. He told us where this shop was and asked us to go and see her. It was an interesting shop. She is from Bulgaria and is a strong Christian. We had a great lesson with her and she was really interested. She said she had talked to this member for 3-4 hours when  he came into the shop. It's great to see the members really being a part of missionary work. We NEVER would have found this woman on our own; we really NEED the members. 

Miracle #4 Yesterday our last lesson of the day fell through and we  had met all our goals for the week, except for needing 2 more new investigators. We really wanted to reach our goal and wanted to be productive during our last hour of the day. We made plans to go see a LA and followup with a PI. We prayed to confirm our plans with God and to ask his help to bless us with 2 new investigators (we were hoping the LA might have some family or some friends around that we could start teaching). Then we walked not even a block away and stopped this man with two of his children. He was happy to stop and talk with us. We had a BRILLIANT conversation about the gospel, about the  Book of Mormon, and even about the word of wisdom (which he said he was having to reconsider his plans to go home and have a cup of tea). He eagerly agreed to let us come and see him and his family (his wife and 2 more children; one of which is a newborn). One of his children that was with him is 11. That's right: 2 new investigators and we found a family!!!!!!!!! We have been praying to find a family all week and we found two (this family and the less active's family in Miracle #2). 

Something cool that we did this week: go to a Sikh temple!! We just had to experience the full culture of Ilford. A RM from Pakistan (she served in this mission and then moved back to London) came with us. They feed people there so we went there for dinner. It was such a neat culture experience and the food was really good. We had to wear a scarf and take our shoes off and we ate on the floor. I wish I could take a picture so you could see the culture-ness of it. It was so fun!  The Sikh's just make food there all day and welcome anyone and everyone to come in and enjoy it as long as they follow the rules of the temple. It's really nice of them. 

We're going to London today!!!! Hurray! 

I love you all so much! I know that Heavenly Father is real. He loves us and knows us perfectly. More importantly, he knows what we can become and will do all that he can to help us to become that person. The Book of Mormon is true. I love this gospel!

I love you!!!

Love, 

Sister Davis xoxo

 

Adventures in Ilford

Dear Family, 

I cannot believe at all that it's already 11 months. I really don't know where this time is going. And this transfer is flying by too. two weeks is moves. 

We had an interesting experience with fasting. We planned out that we would start our fast after a lunch appointment with a member on Saturday and then it would work out perfect to end our fast at a lunch appointment with a member after church. Well, then we had a lesson with another member. We were just planning on going by and sharing a short message (it's part of what we're doing to help our members feel the spirit of missionary work and build relationships with the members). When we got there, she had prepared dinner for us too. oops. And we had already started our fast. So we had to end it and start it again. Atleast the Lord knows we had righteous intentions of having a full fast. I'm also happy our family is powering it up in testimony meetings. I wanted to get up and bear my testimony in our meeting, but it was so busy! I was so grateful that so many members had been impressed by the spirit. And it was really touching that three members talked specifically about missionary work, with a shout out to the sister missionaries! It was so great to see some of the fruits of our efforts to work with the members. 

Last p-day we had a great miracle. We went to a little alterations shop because the strap on my bag was breaking and I needed to get it fixed. When we walked in, we realized the man that we had seen the man who owned the shop at the post office earlier. He was really interested in what we were doing here and the message that we share. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he was very eager to get a copy. We set a return appointment. Then when I went to pay for the fixing job he said that he didn't want me to pay, he just wanted us to say a prayer for him. Wow! Then we had a great lesson with him and he agreed to be baptised! Sadly, he was poorly on Sunday and couldn't come to church, but he seems very sincere. 

We had a really great lesson with Anais (an 11 year old English girl who loves Christ-she was a referral from a LA) and her mum stayed for the lesson the whole time!! Miracle! The spirit was there so strong. Then she finally came to church on Sunday. We've been trying to get her there forever, but she came and she loved it!

Frankin, I don't even know what to say about him. Lately he's been digressing more than progressing. And then the other day he said he wasn't going to come to church because he is giving it up for Lent?!!!! Strange. We will probably drop him, but atleast we have helped him learn, and now he knows the tools that he has in his hands to find the truth once he is ready to accept it. I've atleast learned a lot in teaching him.  

Funny and crazy story. The other day, Sister P had the phone and we were on the bus (on the top deck). We got off at our stop and then Sister P said she didn't have the phone; she had left in on the bus. I had been feeling pretty tired that day, but somewhere I got some energy and we just started sprinting to the next bus stop. Well, of course we got there just as the bus pulled away. the same thing happened at the next stop. We were not going to let that happen again and we finally caught up to it at the next stop. When we got on we were panting so much; I wonder what the driver was thinking. And then we had to go up the stairs to the top deck. We asked the man that was now sitting where Sister P had been if he saw a phone (through our gasping for breath). He didn't. Then Sister P realized that it was in her bag. oh my. haha. Atleast we got some good exercise! For another bus story: we were having an exchange with a STL (sister training leader). She came to work with us both. The STL and I got off the bus but Sister P was walking toward the exit when the doors closed and the bus started to pull away. Thankfully, the bus driver was really nice and stopped so Sister P could get off. I still have yet to get separated from a companion and I hope that I never do!  

This week has been much more fruitful than last; we think it's because we are really focusing more efforts on the members. And the Lord is blessing us for it!

I'm grateful for the restored gospel. I'm especially grateful that we have the power and authority of God on the Earth. I know its power is real! 

I love you!!!

Love, 

Sister Davis xoxo