Week 5: July 23 - 29

Hi!!!!!!!!!!! I love Henefer!!! I love Rialto! Ok sooo here is a story that I have been way obsessed with this week! I have been sharing it with EVERYONE. Sister Busenbark is probably like: "Ok Sister Davis that's enough..." But whatev! it's AWESOME! ok so it's out of the "Our Search for Happiness" book. One of the approved books for missionaries. It's written by M Russel Ballard and on page 115 is says:

  

Active Latter-day Saints tend to be very committed to their church and very devoted to their doctrine, not because they think they're any better than anyone else, but because they sincerely believe they have an important message about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they believe it is a message of great gladness and joy that the Lord expects them to share with the entire world.
  

When I was mission president in Toronto I was invited to participate in a popular radio talk show. No, my missionaries didn't set me up for this one--I accepted this invitation on my own. After some initial discussion of the similarities between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Christian denominations, the host asked this significant question: 

"What makes your church different from other churches?"
  

"Let me answer your question with another question," I replied. "If Moses were on the earth today, would you be interested in what he had to say?"
  

"Of course," the talk show host responded. "Everyone would be interested."
  

"Well, that's our message to the world," I said. "There is a prophet of God on the earth today who has the same power and authority that Moses had. God directs His Church through His prophet today, just as He did in Moses' day."
  

My host was silent for a moment--which, as you know, can seem like forever on the radio.
  

"You're right," he said at last. "That is different."
  

So yes, we're different. But it is an important difference--especially because it is true. And that's one thing you can definitely say about everything we have talked about: either it is true or it is not. Either Joseph Smith had that remarkable vision we call the First Vision, or he did not. Either he translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, or he did not. Either the priesthood of God was restored to earth through the ministry of John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, or it was not. Either Heavenly Father created a wonderful eternal plan for His children, or He did not. Either the principles embodied in the Articles of Faith represent revealed truth,or they do not. Either the fruits of Mormonism are the natural consequences of obedience to God's commandments, or they are not.
  

There really aren't a lot of options, are there? Either these things happened as I've indicated, or they did not. If they didn't happen, then a lot of us have really been fooled. But if they did happen, I'm sure you can see how important it would be for that information to be shared with all men and women, everywhere. In fact, can you think of anything more important to know than this?

 

I love that story so much! I feel so blessed to have the knowledge and a testimony of the Gospel! I am so happy that I have 18 months to dedicate my life to serving the Lord and helping my brothers and sisters find true happiness that will last for eternity! You have this knowledge too! Go share it with as many people as you can! I promise you if you pray to your Heavenly Father and ask for opportunities to share the gospel he will lead you to his sons and daughters who are prepared!

 

This week went by SOO fast! We were planning for Adriana's Baptism, it was hectic, and she was having car problems so we couldn't meet with her at the beginning of the week and sldifsdofksjdflskdfjs;ldkfjs dfl aaaahhhhggggg... BUT! she did get baptized and it was amazing and Sister Busenbark and I were sooo happy and our smiles were flying off of our faces when she came up out of the water! She is amazing. She has already introduced her brother to the gospel, so now he is going to start taking lessons! Hopefully!!! it hasn't happened yet.. but it's only been a few days.. she is 29!! everyone in the ward can't believe it ha ha she looks like she is 18.

This is before Adriana's baptism! She is sooooo sweet! The one with the feather is her friend who she lives with; Karina. She is a great member missionary! She just went through the temple a few months ago and she is moving to Utah soon!

 

Heavenly Father has really been testing my patience this week... I just really... don't like to waste time... and.. ah. so yeah i've been praying for patience. It will come, I know it will. I know that i need to be more like Jesus Christ in unfavorable situations. I need to make myself a "What would Jesus Do" sign and hire a person who needs a job to hold it up whenever I get frustrated.

 

Bren and Bry are progressing to the MAX!! I LOOOVE them they are soo cool! the first time we met with them this week Bry told us that he had a dream but i'm not even going to waste my time talking about it because the 2nd time we met them he said something even more amazing!!! He said that he wants to be baptized and he emphisized that he now knows he is doing this for himself and not for his girlfriend Brenda. He said he was just driving home from work and he was thinking about the gospel and he felt just an overwhelming feeling like "you know it is true, you know that you believe it, do it" and he is so excited about the priesthood! He wants to baptize Bren! During Adriana's baptism we watched a few videos on the priesthood and Bry said that he got emotional and so excited about receiving the priesthood! AH! so excited. We taught them the law of chastity..... they said they would try and it will be hard but i know they can do it!!! how do you follow up with that.......??? i guess i should figure that out before our next appointment! pray for them!

 

Sister Evan White is a less active member and she is awesome! She is the one who told me to take a chill pill the first time we visited her in my first week. Ha ha. Now I think she likes me a little more. We are hoping to have her as ward missionary to keep her mind on the straight and narrow! We know that missionary work will help her testimony!

This week a recent convert's (sister Browne the one who got baptized last weeks parents)  store burnt down. So that was devastating. It was heart breaking because they have worked so hard on that store, but they have so much faith and trust in the lord. Pray for them. We showed up to the store when some Elders from the ward were giving them blessings. It was really cool, and I'm glad we were able to be there for them and comfort them.

 

Random stuff that happens to me:

 

I met a pastor/guy who created his own church. Talked to him for a while. He spoke a lot of truth. He told us to go put our hands on heads and bless and heal people... we said ok =) that's the only thing he's missing, the priesthood. I asked if we could leave him with a prayer.. he placed his hands on our head and i prayed and i was very distracted during the prayer because he kept yelling out stuff like " AMEN, YES! MMMMHHHMMM! AMEN" ha ha i was SOO distracted and he was like shaking our heads ha ha ha oh man he was awesome. Then he prayed for us and to help us increase our ministry! Thank you sir!

I prayed the closing prayer at a less actives house and the grandmother is really hard of hearing so they told me to yell ha ha so I said a yelling prayer. I felt really strange..

Sister White's dog, Dozer, who I LOVE! Obviously...

I think I've sent home 3 pictures of him already.

 

At another less actives house I was opening a big thing of soda for a 4 year old and he was standing really close and the soda exploded EVERYWHERE!  so I had it all over my skirt and shirt, and it was all over the ground and table and it was embarrassing....

 

I had a bad dream about watching Harry Potter with a bunch of other missionaries and then Harry potter turned into the movie Saw, and it was really bloody and scary and i was grossed out.

This is the wrapping job I did for Adriana's baptism. I thought Mom would be proud of me =)

 

I am so grateful for were I grew up and the amazing people i was always surrounded by. I see and hear so many people who are struggling through life and it just makes me feel so grateful. I never realized how AMAZINGLY BLESSED my family is. We have had something to cover our heads, we have always had food in the house, we have transportation, and, most importantly, we have the gospel!! Every person I see I want to help! Be grateful for what you have. We are so blessed. Especially here in America. Remember to think of things in terms of Eternity! If your car gets a little ding in it, not a big deal! You can't take that car with you to the next life! If you are gaining a little weight (me) don't worry! this is only a temporary body! Just live your life according to the gospel and strive to be like our savior and put God first before all other things and you will be happy =)

 

"We must put God in the forefront of everything else in our lives. When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives."

Crazy Plants! I think it is a giant pineapple =)

 

I love you and think about you each day (my family) I also worry about you.. but I'm trying not to. Sister Busenbark always tells me that "if we worry about God's family he will worry about our's."

 

Ok bye! I love you! Write me please =) (wow! I'm so needy.. )

 

Love,

 

Your Daughter,

 

Sister Davis

Week 4: July 16 - 22

This week has been such an amazing week! We had our first baptism on Saturday, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I had my best and worse day out here this week. On Wednesday It felt like everything was just not going right and little things where bugging me and I was being negative. I have had a few moments where I think to myself "What am I doing here?? I can't do this for 18 months, I'm not good enough."  But, when I truly serve others and focus my thought and actions on my investigators and less actives and members and Sister Busenbark and etc, I recognize that I am SO happy and filled with joy and i'm not thinking of myself at all! I forget that I miss my family. I forget that I haven't listened to country music in 6 weeks. I forget that I can't flirt with a man for the next 17 months of my life. I forget that we are late to an appointment, again. I forget that I'm not as good of a teacher as sister Busenbark. The joy that I feel when I am helping others come unto Christ is so inspiring. The other day at church while i was running around doing things for people and telling people to go talk to investigators and introducing myself to others I thought "Wow, I want to do this for the rest of my life" ha ha what...? That is incorrect... I actually want to come home and get married at some point in my life, I was just feeling so happy and inspired at the moment ha ha.

 Me and Anora the cutest hyper dog of all time!

Ok Random moments:

1. I'm not kidding, I look forward to hearing the beat of the copy machine on Sundays. It's a sweet beat.

The Church I go to- Bloomington ward

2. We were eating at a member’s house and it was storming. We began to pray and in the middle of the prayer lightening struck and the house shook and it was SOO loud! We all jumped and stopped the prayer ha ha ha then we were all confused.. like.. uh.. should we just continue with the prayer or do we start over.....? it was scary!!! i was shaking! the lightning hit the house or the power line right above it.. 

3. Sister Busenbark made me laugh really hard for the first time! It was AWESOME!!! She told me about this dream that she had the night before and it totally wouldn't have been funny to anyone else, i know it... I have the strangest sense of humor...

4. I called an investigator named Mario and this is what happened  "Hi, is Mario available!?" Silence....... "Can i ask who is calling?" "This is Sister Davis." ....... Silence ........ "Oh... yeah... Mario isn't here right now." It was clearly Mario's voice.... "Oh..... ok....... thanks........ bye.." ....... Silence......................... and he hung up. Ha ha what the heck! People.......... jeez! 

Eating cotton candy with Bishop Samford and his wife and Sister Busenbark

We don't have any baking stuff so we used a pan and we guessed the amount of ingredients... we made muffins for Sister Browne's Baptism

So this week one of our investigators who is getting baptized this weekend finally received her answer!!! She actually had a dream about the Book of Mormon! How cool! She has also decided that she feels good about Joseph Smith. She is so cool, she already lives like all of the standards that we do! We taught her Chastity last week and yea..... I'm not a fan of teaching Chastity... I thought i would be but... no. But maybe i just need to get better at it and learn some good questions to ask. She's 29 and i don't know ha ha it's just a different experience to talk to her about... that.

OUR FIRST BAPTISM!!!

Sending off Sister Browne's paper work to church headquarters in Salt Lake!

The last lesson we had with Sister Browne before her baptism (the lady in my pictures) was amazing! We went into the lesson planning on just reading out of the Book of Mormon, but our Heavenly Father had other plans...  We started reading and talking about our favorite verses and how to liken those verses/stories to our lives we came to a verse that talked about forgiveness and Sister Browne opened up to us and talked about how she hasn't talked to her sister in 2 years because of stuff that happened between them. Sister Busenbark and I talked about the savior and how forgiving he is and was and we ended up watching the video "My burden was made light" and the spirit was so present I cried, she cried everyone cried! She loved it. We talked about the video and the last thing she said was "Wow, something i've been trying to figure out for 2 years you just answered in like 8 minutes" I just smiled because i didn't know what to say... then wonderful sister Busenbark said "It wasn't us, it was the spirit" The spirit totally took over it was RAAAAD. 

Sister Browne, Sister Busenbark, and I! 

ok i think i have to go......... i might get to email more... we will see... bye!

Sweet I get more time. ummmmmmmmmmmm...... where was I...? I don't remember. Random thought.. who ever is controlling my facebook will you go to the account setting and put in on very private....? so no one can see anything if they just search me. thanks.. 

Sister Browne (Tut), Sister Busenbark, and I

Sister Brownes Baptism went amazing! It was so beautiful and it was so early in the morning.. we had it at 8 am ha ha BUT our ward members are awesome and there was a good amount of people there. Sister Browne was soooo excited. We told her what would be happening and showed her how she would be baptized and I told her to make sure here knees were bent haha and i guess i didn't explain very well cause she was bending her knee's even before the bishop started the baptismal prayer. It was cute. The speakers were awesome. and She said she felt like a new person! we were able to go to the Pioneer stake party right after her baptism so that was fun. She really enjoyed it. So now she is a member, her daughter, her Mom and Dad and now we've got to get her husband! we are workin on it =) 

 Pioneer Celebration after Sister Browne's baptism. 

 HORRIBLE idea! My skirt was not staying down so i tried to stop myself with my heal and i got a rubber burn! 

We have a Tongan or Samoan ward in our stake so they were singing at the Pioneer celebration. It was breakfast, games, and music. It reminded me of the Henefer 4th of July celebration.

Sooo before I came out on my mission I was sooo terrified that I didn't know as much as I should know about the gospel and I felt really un-prepared and just not good enough. I remember right before i came out i was with 3 of my friends and we were watching conference and I just wasn't feeling it. I wasn't receiving any answers or inspiration and of course after my valiant friends wanted to talk about conference and read the scriptures together. My friends are amazing and they are spouting off all this knowledge and experiences and great insight and i'm just over in the corner trying to keep my tears in because i was just soooooo mad that i wasn't like them and that i couldn't testify and speak the way they they all could. I have always had troubles understanding the scriptures and I just felt HORRIBLE that night and I was so angry.. I was dumb and went to my room and missed out on my last sleep over with them but i prayed to my Heavenly Father kinda of angrily...  I said " I'm doing this for YOU!!, why do i have to feel like this!!! blah blah why me... kind of stuff......." then i felt really bad.. and I prayed again and asked for comfort and the strength to overcome the adversary. After the prayer I didn't feel any less inadequate but I did feel comforted and I was able to fall asleep and I woke up in the morning feel sooo foolish I was the night before...I’ve been praying to have more understanding and to remember the things i am learning and to have the ability to recall things i'm learning during lessons. In the MTC a similar situation happened.. we were doing "role playing" (not a fan) my companions were doing awesome and I was........ NOT. I felt horrible and like i would never be ready... but i continued to pray. and i still continue to pray for those things and guess what! I do know enough! I teach people all the time! yes. I still forget things but i know that my Heavenly Father is hearing and answering my prayers and i'm remembering things!!! and my testimony is growing! I know that through hard times we need to have faith, and look at the situation with an eternal perspective.  

We got this approved in the last Ward Counsel meeting. YES. It has space for members to write down days and times they are available to come out with the missionaries. The members in our ward are awesome!!!!! 

The man next to me is watching a Taylor Swift Video............. I am being tempted right now.................................................

I have been reading out of the Book of Mormon everyday (duh..) but i'v been trying to read them as stories. And I love it! It's so much easier when you actually read them as stories. My favorite so far  (and... he's listening to my favorite Taylor Swift song now... gosh...)  is Alma the younger. WHOAAHHHWW he is Awesome!!! I love Mosiah 27. He is extremely wicked then he repents and becomes a spiritual giant!! and chapter 28 is when him and the sons of mosiah become amazing missionaries. and then in Alma 1: he teaches about charity and service towards the needy. And in Alma 2 is the war against the Amlicites and Nephites and Alma is sooo brave and awesome and has soo much faith yea. I just love reading the book of mormon, and i love the book of mormon reader. speaking of that.. i need to go order stuff from LDS.org... ok i should leave the library now and go shopping or something. goodbye!! I love........... California!!!! 

Love,

Sister Davis

Week 3: July 9th-15th

HOLA!!! Quantos anos tienes!? I've been around the Spanish elders the past few hours, so i've been trying to speak Spanish. Ha ha I'm not very good. I still only know the few sentences that I've always known. But today for zone activity we played capture the flag and smash ball. Smash ball is kinda like soccer and football combined. So i said "aqui aqui" a lot. Ha ha I don't even know if that's how you spell it... But I'm horrible at Spanish. Anyway, smashball is really fun! We were all dying though... Wow! I haven't ran like that in forever! I was and still am sweaty as a horse!!! And I haven't taken a shower... and probably won't till tonight sooo... yeah i feel bad for the family that gets to feed us tonight.... anyway!!! 

Last Wednesday we had our first zone conference/meet and great. My mission president and his family are amazing and sooo inspiring!!! They all spoke and prepared a little talk for us. First the president spoke, then his wife, then they told us about their 19 year old daughter who just entered the Chilli MTC. Then their 16 year old son, then 13 year old daughter, then 9 year old son, and 7 year old son! They are soooo cool and spiritual!!! Ha ha I want a family like that someday! They are so cute!

Meeting with President Van Cott one on one was really fun! He was really kind and fatherly. We both started tearing up in our interview thing when we were talking about our family =) He's awesome and he got me all pumped about missionary work! He talked about a time when he was talking to Dallin H Oaks and something he loved that he said was "the most important events in church history were Joseph Smiths first vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the priesthood being given to all worthy men, and NOW: The hastening of the work! I LOVED hearing that! We are all a part of this! Every member a missionary! How many times has that been said??!??! Like 1,000 times!!! Gosh, why haven't we listened?! It's been said since the beginning of the restoration! "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to PREACH THE GOSPEL" -Joseph Smith.

"We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom ONLY on the condition that we share with our Father's other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter" -President George Albert Smith (1945 -1951) Ha ha Ok I need to take a breather... I just can't wait to be a missionary for the rest of my life ha... when I get home i'm not going to stop =) i'm gonna have the local missionaries on speed dial! Ok one last quote.... from President Howard W. Hunter "What does the atonement have to do with missionary work? Any time we experience the blessings of the atonement in our lives, we cannot help but have concern for the welfare of others. A great indicator of one's personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others." LOVE. I know you can all make a difference in someones life. Ok ok. I'm done. I've just seen the difference it makes if members are a part of a converts conversion story or a less actives re-activation process. Tell people about the book of Mormon. Tell them to visit mormon.org.

One thing that i LOVED that my mission president said was "I was first called to be a father, then a missionary, then a mission president" cool.

So this week was great! It went by really fast! Everyday actually goes by really fast... I'm not going to lie. I did have a moment this week were i thought "I can't do this for 17 more months... i want to go home... " BUT then i went and taught a lesson and remembered why i am here. I love telling people about the gospel! I wish i had a giant mega phone to reach the whole world and tell them "LISTEN UP Y'ALL THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST HAS BEEN RESTORED, SO ALL YOU ALL NEED TO SETTLE DOWN AND JUST LISTEN!"

Speaking of people not wanting to listen... this week we went to see this kid who said he was interested in hearing more and there were like 6 kids in the street that recognized us, they ran up to us and were so excited to see us and we told them that we are missionaries and we teach about Christ and they got so excited and wanted to learn more! They asked questions and asked about where our church was and they loved the pictures of Jesus we gave to them! They totally brightened my day. Children are so sweet. Why aren't adults like that? When is it that a person decides they want to become numb to Jesus Christ????? I DON'T KNOW! man.. I just wish everyone was as open as children were...

So something funny/weird/crazy happened to me this week. Sister Busenbark and I were parked on the side of the road and she was on the phone, and i was just sitting there. Then i saw an OBESE cat outside and i got way excited cause i love cats so i jumped out and started petting the obese cat and he was really nice and purring and rubbing up on my leg then i said goodbye and started walking away and he jumped at me and bit my calf!!!! then just walked away like nothing happened! I was like WHAT!!!!!!!!?????? I got a little mad and i did have the urge to kick him... but i didn't... so yeah that was weird... i've never had a cat bight me before... I sent a picture of my bight mark.

This week the other sisters; sister Mucke and sister Young received a 2 week missionary. A two week missionary is someone who wants to try out a mission for 2 weeks so yeah. She is out here.. she's pretty cool. They only do this in California by the way. Maybe even only in the Rancho and Redlands mission.

So we have 2 new investigators.. I will call them.. Bre and Ryan. They are AWESOME! and they are so prepared to hear the gospel! They are engaged and soo in love! it is sooo cute to see that. they are always holding hands and touching each other - not grossly or over-doing it... but I love to see that! Anyway they have no religious background and they didn't have anything growing up and Bre just loves Mormons and wants her future children to have something because she feels like things would have been easier for her if she would have had religion in her life growing up. Her father is very much against religion and Mormons. But we set a baptismal date for August 3rd! They are sooo ready! We asked Bre to pray and to ask if what we are teaching her was true right then and there! and it was awesome! she loved it and said she felt so good! Oh man! i love them! We taught them the restoration and i think next we will teach them about Jesus Christ because they don't really know much about what he did for us.

Tu is getting baptized this week! So excited for her! she is amazing! We have dinner with her and her husband aug 8th so that will be good, hopefully her husband will feel less awkward around us and maybe his heart will be softened a little bit after he realizes that we are normal people! Funny story: This last week we taught Tu about Chastity and her and I were joking around saying like I bet he will walk into the house at the most awkward moment when we are talking about chastity and whatever and guess what!?!? He totally did... OH MY WORD..... ha ha ha ha aca-awkward...

This is Armoni. MY dad is rad! I love my dad and I have played out the reunion I will have with him in 17 months and I always have to stop because I always start to cry!

Adrianna is still on track to get baptized on the 27th! pray for her! she believes that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet! WHAT?? we found that out this week when we were going over the baptismal questions with her this past week. She is so sweet! I want her to move to Utah with her friend who is moving to Utah in a few months! I hope she does... We met her brother this week and he is interested so we might start teaching him.

COOLEST VIDEO ALERT!!!  

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/origin?cid=HPL2P09W03012&lang=eng

I love this video it's like a modern Joseph Smith story...kind of.. My testimony of Joseph Smith has grown so much! We have used this video like 3 times this week. Ha ha we love it. 

If you haven't read your patriarchal blessing lately you should take it out and read it =) 

ok well... I love you all! email me kersey.davis@myldsmail.net and write me! or not... you have your agency 

Jospeh Smith is AWESOME! 

Week 2: July 2nd - 8th

HELLO!!!!!!! Oh my word reading e-mails makes me so happy! Sam e-mailed me back finally! Ha ha it was a pretty lame letter but at least he wrote me back!! I'll email him back and tell him to send me a non-lame email next time ha... So glad to hear the 4th of July went well!! I loved hearing about all your fun activities! It made me miss Henefer and the 4th! Rialto is wonderful! On the 4th there was a lot of drunk people and crazy parties and stuff so we had to be home early... So we did our weekly planning which takes about 2 hours... Then we went to sleep to the beautiful sound of fireworks or gun shots... I don't know which! ha just kidding...

My new favorite snack: Cigar Pretzels!

Ummmmmmmm.... soooooo we went to Subway the other day with the other 2 sisters, Sister Young and Sister Mucke and I have never prayed in a public place like that before... and I think it's kind of............ hmmm... Inappropriate!!! But! we all sat down and then were like ok who wants to say the prayer and I was like... Uh.... wait... people really do this??? No. I can't do this... That's what i was thinking. But we did it and I felt way uncomfortable. ahahahaha jeez... I probably shouldn't huh?... whatever... that's something I guess I will have to get used to!

ALSO! another awkward moment! we do these things called role playing ALLL THE TIME, where you act like an investigator and your companion teaches you or whatever. We had our first zone meeting this week and we all met. Then we had our district meeting where there are like 7 of us and our district leader made me and sister Busenbark role play in front of everyone!! And I was the missionary!!! Oh my word... i was nervous!!! it was pretty embarrassing i'm sure i was red.

 Hiking

Elder Seiright is in my district! So I get to see him all the time. Our whole zone went on a hike today. It was REALLY hot! we were all sweating like beasts!! We hiked to a waterfall. Then Me, Sister Mucke, and a few of the Elders were dumb and decided to hike up even farther. It was really steep and scary and a weed stabbed my leg. It was really high annnnnnd rocks almost hit me and some of the elders got hit by rocks! Yea...we were really blessed that none of us got hurt! I took some pictures and a boring video of the hike.

Crazy Hikers

Sister Mucke from Germany

But I love getting to know all the people in my zone! We have elders and sisters from Germany, Ohio, Arizona, Utah, and Mexico! I keep finding myself wanting to go hang out and talk to the Elders all the time...... I guess i am just drawn to MEN! I'm sick of being around women all the time!! ha ha just kidding I'm not. BUT oh my word!! I've never hugged so many women in my life!!!! EVERYONE hugs you! At church this Sunday I'm pretty sure i hugged like 40 different women! Sometimes random women just hug me!! So yeah. I'm pretty awkward. Today I touched an elders hand. That was exciting. He helped me jump off of a rock. Cool.

Uummm... Sister Busenbark and I met a kid named Omar. He hated hearing us talk about Jesus and stuff. He said he felt way awkward, and said we could talk to his family sometime. So that sometime came around and we met his dad! who is AWESOME! He is a truck driver so he is gone a lot but he loves Jesus Christ and God! We talked to him about the restoration and he was SOOO feeling the spirit! We gave him a book of Mormon and he said he'd read it. But he was so nice he just let us into his house as soon as he opened the door! but the main reason he let us in was because he wanted us to teach Omar... but Omar wasn't having it... it got kind of awkward cause Omar got all defensive and started yelling at his dad and we were just sitting there... His dad feels really bad that he never taught his kids about Jesus Christ and he wishes they had them in their life. But... we didn't set up another appointment with him because the only day he was going to be home was Sunday and that was his family day and his family would probably be pretty mad if he blew them off for the missionaries........... =/ so he said just stop by again and see if he is home... i don't know what will happen but........ He wants the gospel! i can see it in his eyes!

OH! there is this sweet family they have 2 kids Alex and Allen. They are inactive members and we visit them every Wednesday to teach them and Alex (11 year old girl) teaches us about what she has learned (we give her something to study each week) this week she was teaching us about missionaries. She made a board game and I landed on the "bare your testimony at church" and of course it was fast and testimony meeting this week! perfect!!! So we committed them to come to church on Sunday... and..... THEY CAME!!!! and Alex and I bore our testimonies and she is soooo sweet. She loves learning about the gospel! In my testimony i forgot the prophets name... so that was pretty funny. Ha ha how did i forget that!?!? President Hinkley kept coming to my mind!

Wolf-Dog sitting funny!

On the 4th of July Sister Busenbark ran over a curb and we got a slashed flat tire.......... and there was this really nice young man who saw it happen so he helped us and totally changed the tire and totally sweated EVERYWHERE. I felt bad... because he looked all nice and then he was drenched with sweat after the tire change... we gave him a mormon.org card.. Mormon.org is awesome. Then we sat in the tire repair shop for like an hour.. and 3 days earlier Sister Busenbark turned too sharp flipping a U-turn and the back side of the car by the tire got all scratched and dented haha! So I might be the new driver after we meet our mission president on Wednesday! I hope not... i hate driving.

We arm Wrestled at a members house after dinner and they were all doing it and it was fun to watch. I don't really like doing competitive sweaty hand stuff so i was just watching then they were like sister Davis you have to!! so i did.. and i beat 3 other girls and the last one was really HARD! i was dying and our hands were DISGUSTING! I almost quit just because i was so revolted by the sweat we were sharing. Ick... me and Sister Busenbark have yet to arm wrestle..... it will happen. I am nervous.. I want to win. I don't know why I want to win because i never really care about winning... but i guess when it come to arm wrestling! haha... gross. I'm a man...

Sooo there are TONS of different churches here! the strangest one i have seen is probably the one called "first church of Christ". ok that's not even a strange name but seriously on every corner there is a different church with the most random names! there is a church here that teaches a bunch of anti-mormon stuff. Sister Busenbark ran into them like 4 weeks ago. She said they were bashing the church hard core.... so yeah... I'm excited for when that's going to happen to me. My Area covers Rialto, Colton, Bloomington and a little part of San Bernardino. I really like it here there are a lot of really kind people!

HA HA funny rejection story: So there is this older lady named Jan. Who apparently was in love with elder Seright... but now we are in the Bloomington area/zone whatever... so he isn't there anymore. So we went to visit Jan because she was a investigator and yeah that's what we do. We went over there, it was pretty late like 8:15ish we knock on the door and she comes to the door and says "Who is it?!" and we are like "It's the missionaries!" and we wait............ and nothing.... 3 minutes later... I yell, "Are you coming??" and nothing...... ha ha ha so that was funny. . i guess she really was only interested in Elder Seright...

Ummm... the hardest things out here are the mornings. They are DEATH! I have NEVER had such a hard time waking up in the morning!!! Forget about working out!! I can barely make it to the bathroom without layin' down on the ground! That's actually what I do now. I wake up, get on my knees to pray, and almost fall asleep. I have found that my morning prayers are really weird and random and I'm half out of it so they are pretty short. Then i walk to the bathroom, grab my towl, lay on the ground for like 5 minutes, do like one sit up, then think "yeah... I'm too tired to work out.. i will just make sure i don't over-eat tonight (never happens)", then i get in the shower! It's difficult ha ha but i always have just the right amount of strength to get me through the day!

I have also noticed my memory problems out here! I knew I had slight memory problems after all that testing at USU but haha wow! I've really noticed it out here! I, for the life of me, cannot memorize scriptures or numbers or lesson plans!!! it's pretty annoying, but Sister Busenbark understands =) She has reading and learning disabilities too so we just work through stuff together.. not that it a huge problem or trial...GO PEOPLE WHO LEARN DIFFERENTLY!!! I really like Sister Busenbark though, she's cool and we are getting more and more comfortable with each other everyday!

I am a mess! Clutter Central!

So our investigators are amazing! I'm just going to go by their last names because... yeah. Sister Brown is SOO excited to get baptized! she is way solid. we are teaching her about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom on Tuesday. I'm excited =D!! I love talkin' about awkward stuff like that! I know she will accept it! Her husband has been searching for a job and at the end of our last lesson we prayed that he would have good luck at his job interview and be able to put his best foot forward and whatever and after the lesson she texted us and said "He got the JOB!!! Thanks for the prayer!!!" She is so awesome and she has so much faith!! She is from Africa and her mom is a recent convert so we teach her on a weekly basis and she has dreams and visions all the time that are like warnings or answers to her prayers. It's cool.

Sister Martinez is so cute! she is 29 and she LOVED the plan of salvation lesson. She has a sister who passed away and she was really relieved when we talked about the spirit world and when we told her she will see her sister again. I love bearing my testimony about eternal families, the spirit world, and the Celestial Kingdom =)

Pat is also an investigator except she isn't keeping commitments... Not coming to church. but this week we went over there intending to tell her that she NEEDS to keep commitments. And we did! We talked about grace.. and blah blah blah.. off topic.. then we talked about if she really wanted to get baptized and she said yes and we said well you have to come to church. We are not baptizing you into inactivity... BOOM then we asked her if she wanted a blessing from the elders because her health is really bad. she said yes. we left and felt kind of bad for being so blunt... but so two days later we called her and asked what she was doing at 4:30 we want to come over and have the elders give her a blessing. She said that she had to go to the store... then she said well... "I've been thinking about what you said on Wednesday and putting the store before God would be kind or rude wouldn't it? I need to try harder" YAY! so we went over there the elders Blessed her and it was AWESOME! As soon as they spoke one word of the blessing the spirit was SO strong! After she said "that was a real blessing" and she said she felt good. but.... she didn't come to church the next day =( she said she couldn't hardly walk... =( she is a crazy funny lady. she LOVES to talk. I love priesthood holders!! The priesthood is the power and authority God gives to man to act in Christ name for the salvation of mankind!!! AWESOME!!!! amazing. cool. LOVE. IT.

Umm.. I eat alot. I wear my leather bracelets like everyday. I pray a lot. I cry a lot. Just kidding, I haven't cried since I've been out here. I smile a lot. I'm getting tan arms. I shower a lot. I read a lot. Ok well I love you all! GO be member missionaries!!! BYE!!!!!!!!!

New mission home address..

7000 Central

Highland CA

92346

Love, Sister Davis