Week 8

First off I want to let y’all know that I am wearing pants and it is AWESOME! It feels really good… I haven’t worn pants for 8 weeks so this is just EXCITING! Ha ha that sounded way nerdy/dumb/foolish... anyway! This week has been slow and tough… but I know it will get better =) Ha ha last Monday Sister Mickelson and I got lost up in Flamingo Valley it was dark and the GPS was leading us to dirt roads and really rough terrain. We were bouncing around everywhere. It was scary. Finally we were like uh… we should probably turn around because there was a drop off and we didn’t want to die. There wasn’t enough room to turn around so we tried to drive in reverse and… it was dark so I didn’t get out and that was a bad idea... Because we drove into a bunch of bushes and yeah it was bad so I finally got out at we finally found an asphalt road so we followed that and found our way back to Yucca, then all the Singles made fun of us and laughed at us.

Me, Sister Gonzalez, Sister Davidson, and Sister Mickelson. We all live together. =)

I met a gal at FHE that night; she isn’t a member but her and her brother always hang out with members in the branch . She was really sweet and I talked to her and asked her about herself and we were laughing and things were going good and I asked her if she knew anything about what Mormons believed and stuff and she said no and I was like SWEET  guess what I do twenty 24/7!?!?! Teach people about what we believe!!! And I asked her if she would like us to come over to her house sometime and teach her and she said YES! And inside I was like “YEA!AAAAAWEEAAAH!! she’s going to pray! And she’s going to love it! And she’s going to get baptized!! YEAH!” but on the outside I was like sweet.. don’t worry.. we won’t be all pushy or anything… we can just answer your questions and get to know you a little better…  I tried to set up a time that we could come over but she didn’t know her schedule, so we couldn’t. I got her number and we texted her a couple days after and… she didn’t text back. Ha ha I was sooo bummed. She got me all excited… I guess we will have to take it slower with her… Ugh… bush beating…You all know how I feel about beating around the bush...

Cheesin' it

BEFORE I FORGET! The Gospels Principles book is AWESOME and sooo easy to understand. Kenzy and Jose you should get one. Just ask your bishop or your… someone. Just ask someone in your church and they will give you one. Jose should have one because he is a recent convert… but yeah. READ IT! It’s sooo good! I taught the gospel principles class this week. It was interesting… I didn’t have very much time to prepare so it was kind of scary… but it was about Charity. We had 4 people in the class 3 of them were members. Ha ha only one of them was an investigator so hopefully she learned something from us 4 members! I’ve been praying to have the pure love of Christ and for the ability to love and serve others for quite some time now so learning about charity was really good for me. The Savior was the perfect example of Charity. Everything he did was for the welfare of someone else. Before he healed the dead he would mourn with those who are mourning… isn’t that amazing?! He cried… he actually cried! I want to have that much charity and concern for my brothers and sisters here on earth… GO OUT AND LOVE! Everyone is a son or daughter of God, look at others through the eyes of Christ. Not one person out there doesn’t have eternal potential. You can help them =)

EVERYONE has a pet snake out here!

ANYWAY! Sooo you know my old grandma shirt? The one I am wearing in the snake photos? Well last Monday I was wearing it and when we were in Walmart, 2 old ladies told me they liked my shirt! HA HA! It was so funny. I guess it really is an grandma shirt…. I like old grandma style!

 

It kept trying to slither into my shirt...

 It got stuck in my necklace. This family is awesome! The Vikdal Family. Sister Wikdal went on a mission to Spain and Brother Vikdal is a convert. He always saw her missionary plaque in church and when she got back from her mission they went on dates and he thought her name was Hermana for a while. Ha ha ha!

So there is this lady that talks about 2 kinds of conversions…. Her name is Dianna Hullsher… look her up! I think you can listen to her on YouTube. Satan tried to temp me not to listen to her because of her voice… for some reason it bugged me ha ha. The first time I put her CD in I was like NOPE! Not listening to this! I turned it off. Then a few days later we decided to listen to it while we did our hair and it was AMAZING! SO LISTEN TO IT! She has some amazing ways about how to share the gospel as a family and as an individual. I’m sorry if I’m not making sense I’m trying to type really fast so I can talk about everything! Look her up! Dianna Hullsher “2 kinds of conversion” or maybe its called something else… but listen to it! And don’t let Satan tell you her voice is annoying!

This is our Jeep Compass. Yes it is raining in the dessert! Hallelujah! It's probably going to flood actually... Yay! We are hoping to see a flash flood. P.S. the after rain smell here is NOT good... It is WEIRD!

There was this guy at Big-O tires that started talking to us while we were waiting for our tires to get fixed and he was just trying to bash and he was being quite rude. Ha ha and all sister Mickelson and I did was smiled and smiled some more and answered his questions and then listen to him tell us what Mormons believe and smiled some more. I could tell he was getting so frustrated that we weren’t fighting with him. It was fun.

This is our awkward face. We both make a lot of awkward faces while talking on the phone. Ha ha it's fun.

We met a Spanish lady who knew little English so I told her I knew 2 sentences in Spanish and I asked her what her favorite sport was in Spanish… then she went off in Spanish saying something…. I think she said she doesn't play sports anymore she is too old. Ha ha I should have probably went with the other sentence I know in Spanish which is “ I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior” that one probably would have been a little more missionary appropriate… we will see her again though!

I cleaned out my purse last night... I'm still addicted... I teach people not to have addictions all the time. I should probably try to practice what I preach...

A few nights ago we went to dinner at Applebee’s with a member and her grandson. Music was playing and it was Hunter Hays: Wanted. I was just SOOOOOOOO happy hearing that song =) Oh man... it was the best! I miss my country music… ha ha anyway Kaden (that’s the little boys name) is soooo cute! He has one blue eye and a brown eye its so cool. He is really funny and energetic and loves to dance he is going to a Christian school here in Yucca and he is the only Mormon in his school. They had to have like a school counsel meeting to decided whether they wanted to let a Mormon into their school. Ha ha weird... but his grandma is awesome and told the principal what we believe and he was like oh.. ok I guess y’all don’t believe that much different than we do... we are planning on teaching Kaden the lessons before he gets baptized in march =)

A rancid moth that almost killed me! Ewwww look how hairy it is! Ahhh I'm grossing myself out!

Working with people who have so little and who are going through so much breaks my heart….. one of our investigators went to San Diego to be with family because he is having a really hard time here in Yucca. He sent us like 10 text messages explaining why and that he is sorry  and stuff and it breaks my heart to know that he is struggling so much……. Ah……. I WANT TO HELP HIM! I’ve said this 1,000 times but it makes me realize that I am SO BLESSED! And have been sooo blessed throughout my life… I love this gospel!  My comp is also struggling. I don’t know what to do. It’s hard. We are a companionship… hint hint… we are both struggling. Words of encouragement would be nice =) we received a priesthood blessing on Saturday night I’m so grateful for the elders and their willingness to use their priesthood. Sunday went really great =D we met a potential investigator and followed up with some families that we invited to do the “family mission plan” they are finding people who they can invite to activities and stuff =)  ah sorry I am scatter brained right now. I wish I could talk to my family right now. I miss you all! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Kersey Davis

Let the Savior lead you to……..

………Happily ever after   

 

Selfie! If you forgot what I look like. Yes I took a shower a few hours ago. I just look greasy all the time.

PS: We ate banana ketchup spaghetti the other night… One of our ward mission leaders is Filipino so he cooks weird stuff all the time. It was SOO GOOD! Go get some banana ketchup!

PSS: I taught about sexual purity in the YSA branch relief society it was fun! Slash… that’s always a difficult subject to talk to young people about. But it went well and talking to the ladies in the ward relief society about how we “made it” through our young years (I'm still young aren’t I..…??)  being sexually pure was interesting and kinda fun!

PSSS: watch this video!  (about member missionary work)

Week 8

HELLO!!! This week has gone much better than last week =) there were still difficult days but it wasn't everyday so... yeah. =) On Monday we had our first family home evening with the young single adults ward and it was really fun! slash really weird being with people my age. And especially weird because we had an activity where we went to like… a road house?? Ok no.. I don’t know what you call it.. it’s where people play music and you listen and eat.. it was really fun! We had someone in the ward performing so we all went and supported him! Oh but before we left sister Mickelson and I had the opening thought/lesson thing. Anyway we played the cup game and other fun games like that and talked and it got too late for us missionaries before it was the guy in the singles ward to sing so he just did a little performance for us and it was AWESOME!! He’s going to be famous someday and I’m going to buy his CDs! I haven’t heard love songs for like 2 months so it was really strange listening to his lyrics! Ha ha!

Me and Sister Mickelson

 

Ha ha Sister Mickelson and I had a scary/startling experience… We were going around meeting the members and the ward council gave us a list of less-actives and recent converts to visit so we decided to go visit this family with a less active mom and a recent convert son (13) and a non-member father (marine). Sooo we go over there and park in their big dirt parking lot area and we go knock on the door.. No one answered but we heard someone talking on the phone. We knocked again and no answered so we went back to our car and tried to figure out who we are going to go see next and we made some phone calls and we hear this pounding on the hood of our Jeep (yes we have a jeep) and we look up I’m sure with deer in the head lights eyes and it’s an ex-marine and he comes over to my window and I roll it down and say HI!! =) and he is says “ you know you are trespassing don’t you!!” and we are like……. Oh..no… sorry… =/ and he talks about how his 13 year old son is freaked out inside and almost called 911 because we are so scary……….. and he was being all hard and like trying to freak us out or something but by the end he settled down a little big and shook my hand. Ha ha it was a strange experience so now we are all paranoid to park anywhere (there were no trespass signs ANYWHERE at his house). 

This is Yucca Valley, my new area. DESSERT

The members here are AWESOME. I told you about sister Hobbs in my last email the one from Uruguay. She came with us to visit a recent convert this week and she was sooo great. She is such an amazing example of charity. She is ALWAYS looking for a way to serve others. That is seriously ALL she does is serves people all day. She cooks food and takes it around to people all day, she gives rides… she comes out with us to appointments and she is such a wonderful comforter. She always bares strong testimony and always relates to people. I want to be like her someday! 

This is a Joshua tree

We had a restoration lesson this week and we had a member couple come with us it was pretty funny trying to get to the appointment because it is located in the middle of NO WHERE so we were extremely late but he didn’t care so that was good… the restoration lesson is my FAVORITE!!! It just makes sooo much sense to me =) I felt my heart POUNDING though my shirt when I was reciting the first vision it was CRAZY!!! I know that Joseph Smith restored the Gospel that Jesus Christ established during his earthly ministry. And I am SOO grateful for his strength and everything he did and went through for us to have the gospel in this dispensation. Jacob understood everything, we asked him to pray about it and ask God if it is true. He’s been reading the Book of Mormon and has been coming to church and feels like God is directing him in a good path. We will definitely get a baptism date for him tomorrow =) having Brother and Sister Mecham there  was soo perfect! There are two types of conversion… social conversion and spiritual conversion! It’s your responsibility as members to take care of the social conversion and it’s us as missionaries to take care of the spiritual conversion. So get out there are go out with the missionaries, don’t wait for them to ask you =) I promise you can experience the happiness and joy that comes from being a missionary too =) 

This rancid picture is the result of me cleaning the drain in my bathtub. GROSS!

Ha ha so yesterday we spoke in church with two amazing recent converts. Nora was baptized in April and she is on FIRE! She actually got engaged a few days ago and is planning on getting married in the temple next April! We have met with her several times and have had dinner with her and her testimony is so strong! She gives us hope. Her talk was sooo professional! She sounds like she is already relief society president or something! I was sooooo nervous to speak for some reason!! It was sooo weird. Probably because I only had like and hour to prepare for the talk so I didn’t feel prepared at all.. I was shaking and I don’t even remember what I said! I also forgot to write down a scripture I meant to share so that was an awkward few minutes trying to find it, then trying to recite it ha ha. I talked about the atonement and how it’s central to our Heavenly Father's Plan for us. If there wasn’t atonement and if Jesus Christ didn’t endure through the temptations, the beatings, the humiliation, the abuse, and the bleeding through every pore we wouldn’t be able to return to our Heavenly Father. We wouldn’t be able to repent! We wouldn’t be able to ask for strength from our Heavenly Father. This life would be hopeless. Because of Jesus Christ we can be families forever. 

 This is what they call a "wash"

 

This week we met a monk from Thailand. He was really kind! He reminded me of my Weber state coach Tommy =) I am so bad at understanding people with accents… I have to say what like 40 times or I just misunderstand completely.. he was wearing an orange robe and everything! He lived very simply, with a one room house and very little inside. He has a few monk friends that live close to him and they are planning on building a temple! Crazy! There are so many people out here that have sooo little.  It makes me think about how blessed I truly am! I have already decided that I don’t even care anymore about having a nice house or nice things I just want a happy family and the gospel and I will be totally fine! 

BEAUTIFUL! But... I don't know how people live here!

Yesterday we were teaching a member family. Half are from Africa and the other half are from the south or something but the teenage boys were soooo annoyed with us being there and talking to them! Ha ha it was sooo mmm… I don't know... one of the boys kept making faces like… rude faces when we were talking and I said y’all once and he totally chastised me! Ha ha he was soo rude and everything we were saying he was being a smart aleck, every comment! We have realized that asking families for referrals does NOT work so we created a family mission plan and that is what we are planning on inviting ever family we see this week to do. It is a plan to strengthen relationships in the family and friends so that you will eventually be able to share the gospel with them. The first step and first thing we invite them to do is pray and fast to know who they should focus on, then the second step is to write down the names, then the 3^rd step is to write down goals on how you will do whatever. We have ideas on the back for them to look at how they can introduce the gospel or befriend people and get them interested or whatever and every family that we have invited to do this has been way excited! Except those two teenage boys…… but oh well.. everyone has their agency to choose =) 

 One of our investigator's closest neighbor is 3 miles away... We get lost a lot and go off roading a lot. Ha ha!

 

Well… I don’t know what else to tell you about. I love you and hope everyone is doing well =) endure to the end! Key word… everything ends! Rest will come. If you endure to the end you will be exalted on high!

AH CHELSEA GETS MARRIED TOMORROW!!! Take pictures so I can look at them and cry my eyes out!

Video about courage:

Be courageous! Have faith.

Our Heavenly Father has a plan for you.

Ester 4:14

Love,

Sister Davis

Let the Savior Lead you to….

………happily ever after 

p.s. one of my favorite Mormon messages:

 

AH! I love love =) We watched this with Nora this week... I know that one can only experience eternal happiness through a celestial marriage. I see so many part member families and it breaks my heart that they aren't sealed together... they don't even know that families can be together forever... but! That's why I am out here. To help families achieve eternal happiness.

Week 7

Hi everyone =) 

Uh.... things are A LOT different.. like WAY... but I am here serving the Lord so I've been trying to get over myself and trying to stop being such a baby. I know the Savior knows exactly how I feel so I turn to my Heavenly Father for strength and through the Savior my Heavenly Father gives me comfort. I love this Gospel SO much!!! And I feel so blessed to have grown up in the Gospel knowing that I am a daughter of God and that I can communicate with him through prayer!

President Van Cott allowed me to attend Brenda's baptism. Two members from the Bloomington ward were kind enough to pick sister Busenbark up in Palm Desert and me up in Yucca Valley. It was so amazing seeing Bryant use the priesthood authority for the first time on the love of his life. Baptizing her by the power and authority of God! It was AMAZING! The spirit was so strong! I am so excited to see where these two love birds go in the Gospel! Future bishop and relief society president! 

Sister Mickelson and I met an amazing member a few days ago. She pretty much just bore testimony the WHOLE time we were at her house! She is a single lady from Uruguay, a convert. Amazing story.

Oscar! He's the CUTEST 9-year-old boy I have ever seen!

So we are over the Yucca Valley ward and the Sunrise singles ward which is really awesome, but difficult to balance so far... We went to church from 9:30 to 5:15 yesterday........ WHOOAAW. But the wards are both really excited to have sisters and go out with us and stuff so I am excited about that.

The Cativo sisters! They're amazing members.

The one in the light blue is Oscar's mom.

She has an amazing testimony and her husband is taking the lessons now.

He will get babtized no doubt.

Ok it's really had to concentrate... my district is in the same room and they are being really loud ha ha... uh..... I'm speaking in church on Sunday and I'm teaching about sexual morality in relief society in 2 weeks! ha ha I'm excited. 

Sorry i don't have much time and much to write about! 

My new mailing address is:

7165 Sage Ave

Yucca Valley

CA

92284

The mission office address is:

7000 Central Ave.

Highland 

CA

92346

Ok well i love you all! 

Love,

Sister Davis 

Let the Savior lead you to

happily ever after!

Week 6: July 30th - August 4th

Dear Family and who ever else reads my e-mails home,

Hello! I survived my first transfer! (A transfer is 6 weeks if you're like me and my fam and don’t know mission lingo) I can’t believe it! It went by sooo fast! This week we received 32 new missionaries and only 5 are going home……. Soooooo President Van Cott has been busy opening up new areas! 18 new areas!!!! 

Bishop McCutchens and his wife and 2 grandkids. He has an awesome story! He went through 8 sets of missionaries! Finally a missionary asked him why he hasn't been baptized yet and he said "because no one has asked me!!!" He has served as bishop for 8 years! (he is not the current bishop) he is so kind and funny and he loves missionary work =) wonderful family! We ate corn beef at their house (whatever that is) I was a little scared to eat it.. because it looks... not civil BUT i did and it was YUMMY!

AH! It’s crazy…. I have been called to the Yucca Valley….. area??? City??? I don’t know much. BUT I am serving in a YSA (young single adults) ward! So that is way exciting! I am leaving Sister Busenbark though. =( I am really sad… we have become really good friends.. I know this is where the Lord needs me though. My new companion will be just like me! She has only been out for 6 week like me. Hahaha so we are just… yeah...  Next transfer we will have 27 new missionaries coming out and 7 going home. So this will probably be the only time I will ever not have to train an MTC baby. I will probably be training for my WHOLE mission. Anyway, I am really excited to meet my new comp on Wednesday and to get out there and meet my new ward family!

Brother and Sister Romos. Brother Romos is the ward mission leader. He is awesome and so soft hearted! isn't their baby the CUTEST thing ever!! he looks like a cabage patch kid! He has been a member for like...3 years!

This week has been pretty great! I have been extremely happy all week long! The only time I was having a hard time was Friday night and Sunday, mostly all day. Friday night I was just missing my family and wondering what they were doing and Sunday was just... Really frustrating. I will leave it at that.

 Brenda and Bryant the Amazing!!!!!

Bryan received the priesthood yesterday and will baptize Brenda this weekend!!!

Bryant got baptized on Saturday! It was one of the most amazing baptisms! Brenda and Bryant are living proof that our Heavenly Father is preparing his children to receive the gospel. They are so cool and I can’t wait to see where they will be in 17ish months. Bryant received the priesthood yesterday =) and he will baptize Brenda on Saturday =D I hope I will be able to go to her baptism, if not….. I will be VERY SAD. They are both so smart and have so much to offer I can’t wait for them to get involved with the ward! They will be such a great addition to the ward.

We were at the temple walking around and Brenda and Bryant disappeared...

We found them doing this =)

It felt good =)

So I LOVE the Book of Mormon! Why haven’t I ever really read this thing!?!? It is so great. I love the stories and what they teach. On Wednesday we met with a less active family and we brought along with us two awesome members to help us out. They are both recent converts actually! One of a 1 year and the other 2 weeks! The spirit that they brought was perfect. They were able to relate in a way that sister Busenbark and I could never do! Any way, we were talking about something and it went silent… and a Book of Mormon story popped into my head! One that related to what we were talking about! I told the story of when Alma tried to teach the Zoromites the gospel and they did NOT listen, no one wanted to listen. Alma was sooo concerned about the salvation of these people that he was heart broken when they wouldn’t except the Gospel. Alma prayed for the STRENGTH to endure not for Heavenly Father to fix his situation.  I told that story! I felt so cool, I have never been able to do that before. The Book of Mormon is AWESOME.

Brother Proctor served his mission in Utah and a little bit of Wyoming! He's awesome! He was inactive for a while and nobody ever contacted him.... THEN the missionaries found him and invited him to come to church and he came back! Sometimes all we need is an invite. Now he is an amazing Sunday school teacher and a huge asset to the ward!

So I told you about the Hill’s and their store, how it burned down. Well sister Hill bore her testimony in sacrament meeting this Sunday and testified that she knows that her Heavenly Father Loves her and that he has a plan for her and that she knows she will be able to get through this trial because of her savior Jesus Christ. I was so amazed at her FAITH. It inspired me to have more faith in the trials to come. Our Heavenly Father has given us this chance on earth to grow through the trials we face. If we don’t have trials in this life we won’t grow nor will we appreciate the happiness we receive. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can find comfort and strength to endure anything in this life and if you think you have the hardest trials you should also believe you are one of Gods strongest Soldiers. “We can not sink lower than the arms of the Atonement can reach”. Watch this video:

http://www.lds.org/pages/lifting-burdens

             As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we are responsible for sharing his glad messages. People have their agency to accept the message or not =) I am so blessed to have the Gospel in my life! AH! Love it! It’s so awesome! Ok, when you watch the video above, check out Elder Holland. He usually wracks my soul with his booming voice and authority but in this video he is calm and soft it is really cute it makes me want to cry! Great video. We have amazing leaders of the church.

            Alright… well I have nothing else to say. I hope everyone is doing ok. Email me please!!! Even if it’s just a little…. Ok bye!

Love,

Sister Davis

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Let the Savior lead you to happily ever after!

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