Dear Family and Friends, Here are Maureen's last four letters. I'm sorry it has taken so long to get them out. Overall she is doing very well. Hearing that she is being transferred 5 days before Christmas came as a shock. I'm sure she will do well in her new area though. She has been in Poway for a long time, so I'm sure a change is overdue. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers on her behalf. I know she feels them, and needs them. Merry Christmas to all of you. What a wonderful time of year to have the added blessing of a missionary and the spirit that it brings to our home. Our hearts are soft as we think of our Savior and His sacrifice for us. We hope your holidays are filled with peace, and love.
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Merry Christmas to all of you. What a wonderful time of year to have the added blessing of a missionary and the spirit that it brings to our home. Our hearts are soft as we think of our Savior and His sacrifice for us. We hope your holidays are filled with peace, and love.
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Love Nile and Candi
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All that read this, Family and All!
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So my mind is so out of sorts, I apologize for that lack of sanity and I will try my best to write a reasonable letter this week.
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This week has been an interesting one. I must admit it's had it's challenges, such as wealthier people would rather be doing other things during the Christmas season then meet with us. So we've had about 4 of our investigators Half drop us yesterday, yep all in the same day. AND it was one of the best planned days Ever, so it was a bit disheartening. But nevertheless we kept going and we met a potential named Dave who is 91 and has worked with the Major baseball leages forEver. I can't remember who he coached for but I'll tell you when I find out. He was a tender mercy yesterday as we were all in a saddened mood. We dropped by his house and he told us all about his wife and how amazing she was, how she was the most beautiful girl and how he could never love anyone the same. We started to tell him about how he can see her again and be with her forever but he said he already believed that. He is open to us coming back though so that was good. We went over to the Todd's yesterday to watch the Testaments with him and his family to more or less stress the importance of the Book of Mormon and we invited them to read the Book of Mormon every day as a family. They said they would. While we were watching the Testaments however, it seemed to click in my mind that Christ was left alone, despised and rejected by everyone, even for a few minutes by Peter. If He went through all of that rejection, then is it not necessary for me to suffer some rejection to bring me into a better awareness of what my Savior did for me? When we go through hardships we have the opportunity to feel what our Savior felt and be more aware of what He has done for us. It was a really wonderful realization and I realized I am never alone. I have Heavenly Parents, a Savior, a family and friends who all love me and support me. What more could I possibly need?
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Well we had another cool experience last night. We were at wit's end on what to do last night so as we were sitting in the car we decided to pray and ask God what we should do. As we were praying I heard a trash can being rolled out onto the street. Now I know it may Seem like I am good at talking to people now, I am still as intimidated as ever. So when the prayer was finished and I thought maybe we should go talk with this guy out front (in the dark) I immediately thought "no." The thought kept coming to mind and I decided that maybe we should try it. So without sharing my thoughts to the others I asked if we could go outside and take a walk. We jumped out of the car and I'm sure Sis. Hudson and Sis. Nichols were wondering what on earth I was doing as I circled around the caul de sac to talk to this man who I scared in his garage. We talked with him for a while and he explained that we needed more than the bible and we said that we had more, we have Prophets who speak to us today since our times are different and the bible can't answer our every question. He had to go inside but said we could talk with him again sometime. Yay! I followed a prompting! Well after that we all felt better about the day.
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I know Heavenly Father is very aware of not only his missionaries but also everyone else in this world. He knows who is ready and who is not and He puts those people in our path so that we can bless their lives. Isn't He wonderful?
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I'm sorry I can't write more but know that I love you all! If you could send me the Jensens and Denlers address I'll write them as soon as I can. I went to the Temple today so I haven't had much time to do anything.
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Love you all!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
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Thank you for the warm wishes and the prayers. They have been felt and noticed here. :) I have a lot to share this week so we'll see how fast I can type.
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For starters mom- are you doing secret santa this year? And if so who am I getting a present for? And I'm sorry I didn't respond last week about what I wanted for Christmas. It's really hard to say, but whatever you give me will be great I am sure. Can't be books. :) So I've been thinking what a missionary needs and I had two thoughts. 1. an i-pod plug in for the car so I can listen to my music while we drive and 2. teeth whitener. I don't think I've ever needed it more than now! I smile too often and no wonder some people don't want to talk to me when my teeth are so yellow! Yuk! But you should let dad know that everyone who finds out my dad is an orthodontist says "of course! no wonder you have such beautifully straight teeth." haha I am proud of him.
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Okay so Sis. Bickley called you. She is obviously Sis. Bickley's mother who I got to know on the mission. She was a Spanish speaking sister so I didn't work with her but she and I got to know each other a bit as she went english and served in Green Valley right before me. And the man she's talking about is an elderly gentleman who is very very sick. He thinks he's dying and it's so hard to visit him because he can be very dramatic in his thoughts of dying. But we love him, he is one of our investigators and he Loves music. So we invited him to listen to me sing in church this week! I'm singing a beautiful arrangement of silent night and my companions are using that as an excuse to get more people to come to church. So it should be good. :) We've had the members get more involved in our missionary work and it's worked wonders! It was so nice to see them get excited about the work and start caring for these people that we care for.
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I loved the Christmas devotional and I loved everything that was brought up there. Especially that movie. It was so neat to see, and yet a different perspective than I had always imagined.
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Okay - So I should tell you of the Miracle on Pinebrook st. So monday we talked to that man on the street, Edwin, and left him with a card with our number on it hoping we'd be able to meet with him again. Well Wednesday was a day of miracles. It started with our district meeting. The week before had been hard as it was Thanksgiving weekend and people were busy, so we were all a bit out of sorts. So I shared the thought about working with unyeildingness (Helaman 10:3-5) and after that we talked about how we must work without ceasing. One way we can do that is talk to everyone we see. Now I will be very honest with you, though I can know go up to people and talk to them it doesn't make it any less frightening to do so. So we haven't been as good at that. Well our district leader made a challenge. Whoever talked to the most people through the week would win. (he's still working on the prize) Well while that's not so much motivation to me, it motivated the elders a LOT and as sisters we decided to make it more exciting by talking to the most people so the elders had to continue to work harder, no guy wants to be beat by a girl. haha So we've been talking to so many people this work and it's paying off! Heavenly Father needed to see we were serious and then He blessed us with miracles. So we got to work and did the best we could that day. Well while we were in an appointment we missed 2 phone calls. One from a man we talked to the other night, Edwin! He said he wanted to meet up to learn more of what we believe! Then the other was from one of our members who got a letter from one of our investigators who is currently in the "slammer" (as said by Sis. Hudson). He wanted to apologize for shoving us off and he really wanted to get back on the right track so he asked for a book of mormon! It was so neat! And then this less active we've been working with and trying so hard to get to church will be coming in January because a member in our ward is going to pick her up each sunday! We are so excited for all the miracles that have been happening and we know they are from our Heavenly Father. And while they may mean little to you all, I want you to know that these miracles have only strenthened my testimony in my Heavenly Father! He lives and He loves us and He is ever mindfull of us, always. :) I love this gospel so much. I know there is nothing else on earth that can provide me with as much happiness as this gospel can and it's amazing the love I have felt on my mission as I've served the Lord, no matter how hard and difficult the days have been. :)
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Well I can't write much more. My time is up. But mom let me know what you all want for Christmas, I can't gaurentee I'll get you what you want but I'll get you all something that you will love, I'm sure. ;)The Christmas lights are going up around here. It's making me a teaspoonfull homesick as I remember going around with family and friends to look at those lovely Christmas lights. But I'm excited to hear you on Christmas day and I'm excited to celebrate the Lord's birth and give Him gifts for all he's done for me. I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk. It is so true. :)
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Well I love you all! I hope you are staying in good health and in happy spirits. Don't forget the real meaning of celebrating Christmas. I love your ideas of serving more this Christmas. I will also try to serve as much as I can this Christmas. I know that this will be the best Christmas ever as we all unite in bringing others closer to Christ in whatever way we can. :)
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Love you!
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Love Sister Maureen Davis
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Oh the Weather outside is Frightful!So, we don't have a lot of snow obviously (none), but man the weather has been cold out lately. It's been raining for the past few days and let me tell you, walking in the rain with a skirt on, no matter how short the time outside may be, is just no fun. I recently went to Ross with my companions and bought a coat! Yesm, a coat. All the sandiegans may laugh at me, but I am an arizona girl and cannot stand the cold. :)
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Other than that, life out here has been great! I'vve been staying healthy while all the people around me have been getting sick. I'm sure my turn is coming soon, but I try to stay as healthy as possible. The work is just dandy and we've been meeting lots of fun people lately. Edwin, our miracle story, has been spread to the ward now and the Nielsen girls are calling it the Missionary Christmas Miracle. It's so cute. They pray for edwin every night and occasionally at dinner (without ever being asked to - reminded me of Olivia and Emmy) and Chloe, their 8 yr old, decided to talk to all her friends about the gospel and then prayed to help them be baptized, in front of them... oh the faith of a child haha.
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Other than that nothing much has happened this week. We had MTE (mission training experience) that was based on planning and being better planners. It was interesting that President Clayton compared it to Heavenly Father and how His great work and plan for us was to become immortal and life with Him forever. So He had to create a world, and then He had to make it day and night, provide us a Savior, etc. He had a lot of planning that went into it I'm sure. And because of all that planning it is succesful in bringing others back home. So we're now working on that planning skill. You'd think I have it down now after all the birthday party plans I made when I was 7, but alas this planning is a little different and involves more then my good friends. So it's a work in progress. :)
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Well lately we've decided that we need a Christmas message to share with others this holiday season, and I wanted to share that message with you. We've been showing a Christmas mormon message lately called Kids and Christmas. In there it asks kids what they would give Jesus Christ for Christmas, so we in turn asked the families what they would give the Savior. A lot of kids said they'd give Him hugs or love or the the most important thing they owned, etc. So as misisonaries we thought about what we could give the Savior and we thought the best gift to Him would be helping Him with the great plan of bringing others back home. Well we thought about how in order to do that we must first be converted to His gospel and that we must follow Him. And Then we had the thought, We can't follow Him completely without becomming Like Him. So we invite everyone to spend this Christmas season trying to become more like Him by working on a Christlike attribute found in the 6th chapter of Preach My Gospel. As we work on those attributes, we will Become more like Him and when He comes "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as He is pure." (Moroni 7:48)
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I know that as we spend this Christmas season focusing on the Savior, we will become more like Him, we will feel of His joy and will want to help others more than ever before. We will have a charity for others that we never imagined possible. And oh what "peace on earth" would be found if we really had "good will to men." I love you all! I hope you enjoy this Christmas time and spend it focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. Love you!
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Love Sister Maureen Davis
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Merry Christmas Everyone!
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For starters, I had Breyers Chocolate Ice cream this week I think for the first time in almost a year! It tasted sooooo good. Thank you dad for bringing us up well. :) I also had the perfect cookies - they were perfectly moist and dry and filled with deliciousness, I'll have to get the recipe soon. :)
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So here's the rather sad ordeal. For the past week, Sis. Hudson and I have been sick. We've been coughing like crazy and our throats have been aching and we've still tried to work hard. I just felt bad when we went to the Brown's last night. I had felt good all day and then at night it got really bad so I couldn't stop coughing there. Sis. Brown tried so hard to help, she gave me lots of cough drops which unfortunately didn't cure me. But I'm feeling better today. However, I must admit I'm not as chipper as always. Today we got a call about transfers. I felt very sure I was staying so it was surprising when they called and told me to pack my bags. 5 days before Christmas and I have no clue where I'll be. I'm leaving behind the people I've come to know and love and respect the past 6 months but in the words of Sis. Nichols I'm getting "5 more cookies," I may not like them at first but Heavenly Father knows how good they are for me. So I'm off to my new adventure tomorrow. Sis. Hudson is also leaving and Sis. Nichols will remain here. I know I will miss them dearly but I'll still see them around!
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So enough about me. :) This time of year is a time to focus on the Savior. Scratch that, the Whole year is the time to think of the Savior. I hope and pray that we can all think more of Him and the joy that comes from the Gospel and the Atonement. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1st Cor. 15:22) How glorious is that!? We all will live again! And if we work really hard all our lives we will be able to live with our Heavenly Father and Savior again. :) I'm so happy for the blessing to know these things are true. I feel my relationship with my Heavenly Father getting better as I pray and study the scriptures and I couldn't be happier. :) I love you all. I'll talk to you on Sunday and inform you as to where I reside and my new companion, etc.
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Love you LOTS! Thank you for the package! I won't open it till Christmas.
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Love Sister Maureen Davis
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ps. I don't know when I can call due to I have no idea where I'll be or the schedule! I know that doesn't help you any.... keep the phone near? :) But I think between 1-4pm is a safe bet, my time. And I will only have about 30-40 mins to talk, just so you know. I love you all so much! I'm excited to talk to you on Christmas. :)
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