Dear Mom and Family and Everyone Else!
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1. Jessica is married!? since when? She hasn't written in forever. 2. I'm very sorry to hear about Aaron. I pray that his family will be comforted at this time. I know how hard that can be as I knew someone here on my mission who went through the same experience. 3. I KNOW you will do well in your new calling. As a swan, turtle and puffin once said, "no fear" haha. Heavenly Father blesses each of us as we give our best and have Faith in Him. :) 4. I hope Maddy is able to stay on top of things, I'm sure she is doing well. 5. I know Erin would love any camp, I remember camp fiesta. I can't remember if I did it with anyone else but I remember loving the opportunity to help others, especially some cute kids. :) 6. I'm glad that everyone is doing alright and I hope you enjoy your vacationing. Where are you all going for the family reunion by the way? 7. Minerva will be back in 2 1/2 weeks. I don't know where exactly in Mexico she is though. We asked her to find a ward down there to attend so maybe she'll meet up with Elder Glover!
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Other than that everything is going well! Denise, our new investigator, came to church and she left us a message on our phone this morning and sang us a song about how God is good. It was quite entertaining. :) We love her. Donna and Ron are doing well, they didn't make it to church but they are excited to fast for the first time next Sunday for Peter. He is just down on himself so as Donna and Ron are a part of his family now, they want to fast for him. It's so sweet. We've seen other people too but it's summer and people are starting to leave town. It'll be hard for the next few months.
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We've been busy with MTE's this past week however. I went on 3 exchanges in one week! That's a lot. So I'm very tired but still pressing on. While I was on exchanges with Sister Ah Chookoon and Sister Hudson I think I figured out what the huge lesson is i've been trying to learn on my mission! As we were wrapping up for the night we talked about how we have to keep pressing forward, even when it is hard. And I realized that Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me this lesson the whole time! He had me and sister McCloy finish each others training, 6 weeks into the work. He had us then whitewash an area after 5 months in the field. He then had us train 6 weeks after that and then I was soon asked to be a trainer sister where I have to step up every week! He's put me in these situations so I would feel the need to step up continuously, and now that I've been in the same spot for 4 transfers, with the same companion, I've had to learn how to compel myself to keep moving forward. I know that it will be necessary when I come home. Because I know life back home isn't as fast paced, I will have to pushing myself to do hard things all the time! It was just a really neat realization, that Heavenly Father has planned this from the beginning. He knows what we need and puts us in situations to learn and grow and come closer to Him. I am so grateful for that.
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After that realization I decided to make goals for when I get back (no, I'm not constantly thinking about it, Promise!). But some of the goals I made had to do with what time i'm waking up and going to bed, how much time I'll dedicate to study and exercise every day, etc. It gets more detailed but I basically just don't want to fall into old habits. I know I have changed and I am so grateful for that change! I want to keep up my mission style as long as I can and I want to do things that are worthwhile. I know some things will change but i'm going to work on staying as close to Heavenly Father as possible. :) So follow up with me and make sure I'm staying focused after my mission as well. In district meeting this past week we discussed Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16. It talks about how great will be our joy if we will bring one person to God, and how great will be our joy if we bring many more.
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Well, Elder Simpson made a great point. If we want to help others to be converted, we must convert ourselves first. So who is the first person we bring to God? Ourself. So my invitation to you is to think of one thing you can do this week to become more converted to Christ's Gospel and His church, and then do it! :) I'll be following up next week. :)
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And family, I hope you will have all read or watched Elder Holland's talk before next week. ;) It's really good!
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Well I love you all and I'm praying for you! Stay safe while on your many journeys and enjoy the summer!
Love Sister Davis
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Week 62 - Thursday, June 14th, 2012
I'm not sure why it's in a different format, but it's shorter than it looks. I love the Pepboys story!
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Well, It's been a great week! I'd like to preface this letter by stating that it is All over the place so I hope you understand what I'm saying. :)
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Thanks for the letters and package mom and dad and everyone. I love the outfit you got me! I don't know where you found it but "good eye" (I wish sister Turner knew some Brian Reagan jokes) haha OH and we both Loved the protein bars. They were delicious. So before I forget.... Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you and I thank you so very much for the letter. I really enjoyed all you shared and the advice too. I needed it.
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But back to this past week... I've had meetings galore, and I've loved every minute of them. It's so neat to work with our President and Sister Clayton and our assistants. They really are great examples and very humble. At our last meeting one of the assistants shared a story about the power that comes from obedience. He said that he and his companion were visiting a member during the time we had the blackout. She told them to see her neighbor to give her baby a blessing who had a high fever. They said they'd do it in the morning as it was 8:40pm but the spirit prompted them to go to the house right then. So they did, and they knocked for 5 minutes before anyone showed up at the door. Well finally the neighbor answered with her baby in her hands, it was sweating. The elders explained the priesthood power and told her they could give the baby a blessing. She invited them in, but there was no other man there. (rule: missionaries must have at least one other adult person of the opposite sex with them.) So they said they'd run to the church bldg to find another man. They luckily found someone. It's about 8:50pm now. They came back and while giving the blessing they commanded the baby to be healed! After the blessing the baby had stopped sweating and when they checked in the next day the baby was fine and had slept the whole night through. Elder Hill told us "Obedience brings Power." And I definitely believe that. While rereading Elder Oaks talk I realized that he says, without sacrifice we cannot truly love or follow the Lord. Sometimes we sacrifice to be obedient and it is "sacrifice (that) brings forth blessings of Heaven." (Hymn 27)
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Well on a different note, Sister Littlefield at the office called me to ask which airport I'm supposed to go to. :( I told her the Phoenix one. I don't know what it's called but it's in Phoenix I know. It made
me sad in realizing the shortness of time left. But hey, all the more work to do right?! Well other random facts are: Elder Hainey, our area 70, came to church this Sunday and talked to Minerva for a bit after Gospel Principals class. We have no idea what was said but are quite curious! He's really neat and very excited about missionary work. We like him a lot. We started the 7 day Quit-smoking program with Ron a few days ago so he should be done smoking this week! Yay! Finally. Donna (his fiance) can't get baptized anytime soon because... well lots of reasons. So now we're kinda just working with them to prepare them for whenever they can get baptized.
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Yesterday we took our car in to Pepboys to get the brakes checked and ended up having a lovely chat with the other customers. It was really funny, Sister Turner and I had been sitting for a while and I told her that I wasn't really good at talking to people in stores about the church. Well Heavenly Father
definitely heard that and decided to throw me a bone. Soon after a man walked in and started talking to us about religion. He said he was christian and that he loved our ideals just not our theology, his name is Bill and he's an ex-cop. As we were talking about the need for repentance and change a lady who was sitting down the row from us piped up. Her name is Robyn and she's from the Church of Christ. She talked about the Need for repentance and baptism, and then Bill talked about how it isn't fair if other people who don't know about God don't get baptized and don't return to God. Then some other lady sat down in the middle of us and listened in. We asked to share a thought with them and ended up talking about baptisms for the dead. How God loves each of His children and He always prepares a way for all of them either on this earth or in the spirit world. At first they were all very opposed and then we turned to 1st Corinthians 15 explained it and read verse 29. The lady's were still not too interested but Bill (who earlier had been playing Devil's advocate) said "wow, I've never
noticed that verse before." His answer was priceless! We then summed everything up and basically answered all his questions. Then we invited everyone to check out mormon.org. It was basically the coolest meeting I've ever had in a pepboys while waiting for our cars to be fixed. :)
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And ever since Elder Perry came we've been getting 20 lessons a week for the most part, once we had 18 or 19 but pretty much we've been talking with everyone and it's been such a neat difference and we are so much more prepared to teach people in any setting... like pepboys. I wish I would've figured this out at the beginning of my mission. :) Well my last thought was, I love the Gospel. As we were teaching that lesson to a less active we've been working with, Shawna, I really felt like I understood it even better. So when we have faith in the Savior we trust that no matter what is going on in life, He knows best. Well even when it's hard if we start changing our lives in the way He would have us live we are repenting. So you hear that faith leads us to action? That action is a form of repentance, changing our lives to better ourselves. When we repent we're continuously becomming more and more like our Savior and we show that we are willing to Always follow Him through Baptism. Well we don't get baptized each week so how do we re-commit? Through the sacrament. Also, without baptism or the sacrament we could never have the things we've been repenting of
erased, they will always be in our past. With baptism and with the confirmation we Receive the Spirit which Sanctifies us and cleans us of Everything we've done in the past, everything we've repented of. As we keep doing that the rest of our lives we will become more and more and more like the Savior till Moroni 7:48 becomes true. I know the Gospel is true. I know that we Have to live the Gospel to come back into God's presence. It is the raw outline of how we must live our lives and the most simple way of stating all our Savior taught us. I love it and I'm so grateful to share it with others. :)
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Thank you for the prayers and all you do for me. I love you!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
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Well, It's been a great week! I'd like to preface this letter by stating that it is All over the place so I hope you understand what I'm saying. :)
.
Thanks for the letters and package mom and dad and everyone. I love the outfit you got me! I don't know where you found it but "good eye" (I wish sister Turner knew some Brian Reagan jokes) haha OH and we both Loved the protein bars. They were delicious. So before I forget.... Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you and I thank you so very much for the letter. I really enjoyed all you shared and the advice too. I needed it.
.
But back to this past week... I've had meetings galore, and I've loved every minute of them. It's so neat to work with our President and Sister Clayton and our assistants. They really are great examples and very humble. At our last meeting one of the assistants shared a story about the power that comes from obedience. He said that he and his companion were visiting a member during the time we had the blackout. She told them to see her neighbor to give her baby a blessing who had a high fever. They said they'd do it in the morning as it was 8:40pm but the spirit prompted them to go to the house right then. So they did, and they knocked for 5 minutes before anyone showed up at the door. Well finally the neighbor answered with her baby in her hands, it was sweating. The elders explained the priesthood power and told her they could give the baby a blessing. She invited them in, but there was no other man there. (rule: missionaries must have at least one other adult person of the opposite sex with them.) So they said they'd run to the church bldg to find another man. They luckily found someone. It's about 8:50pm now. They came back and while giving the blessing they commanded the baby to be healed! After the blessing the baby had stopped sweating and when they checked in the next day the baby was fine and had slept the whole night through. Elder Hill told us "Obedience brings Power." And I definitely believe that. While rereading Elder Oaks talk I realized that he says, without sacrifice we cannot truly love or follow the Lord. Sometimes we sacrifice to be obedient and it is "sacrifice (that) brings forth blessings of Heaven." (Hymn 27)
.
Well on a different note, Sister Littlefield at the office called me to ask which airport I'm supposed to go to. :( I told her the Phoenix one. I don't know what it's called but it's in Phoenix I know. It made
me sad in realizing the shortness of time left. But hey, all the more work to do right?! Well other random facts are: Elder Hainey, our area 70, came to church this Sunday and talked to Minerva for a bit after Gospel Principals class. We have no idea what was said but are quite curious! He's really neat and very excited about missionary work. We like him a lot. We started the 7 day Quit-smoking program with Ron a few days ago so he should be done smoking this week! Yay! Finally. Donna (his fiance) can't get baptized anytime soon because... well lots of reasons. So now we're kinda just working with them to prepare them for whenever they can get baptized.
.
Yesterday we took our car in to Pepboys to get the brakes checked and ended up having a lovely chat with the other customers. It was really funny, Sister Turner and I had been sitting for a while and I told her that I wasn't really good at talking to people in stores about the church. Well Heavenly Father
definitely heard that and decided to throw me a bone. Soon after a man walked in and started talking to us about religion. He said he was christian and that he loved our ideals just not our theology, his name is Bill and he's an ex-cop. As we were talking about the need for repentance and change a lady who was sitting down the row from us piped up. Her name is Robyn and she's from the Church of Christ. She talked about the Need for repentance and baptism, and then Bill talked about how it isn't fair if other people who don't know about God don't get baptized and don't return to God. Then some other lady sat down in the middle of us and listened in. We asked to share a thought with them and ended up talking about baptisms for the dead. How God loves each of His children and He always prepares a way for all of them either on this earth or in the spirit world. At first they were all very opposed and then we turned to 1st Corinthians 15 explained it and read verse 29. The lady's were still not too interested but Bill (who earlier had been playing Devil's advocate) said "wow, I've never
noticed that verse before." His answer was priceless! We then summed everything up and basically answered all his questions. Then we invited everyone to check out mormon.org. It was basically the coolest meeting I've ever had in a pepboys while waiting for our cars to be fixed. :)
.
And ever since Elder Perry came we've been getting 20 lessons a week for the most part, once we had 18 or 19 but pretty much we've been talking with everyone and it's been such a neat difference and we are so much more prepared to teach people in any setting... like pepboys. I wish I would've figured this out at the beginning of my mission. :) Well my last thought was, I love the Gospel. As we were teaching that lesson to a less active we've been working with, Shawna, I really felt like I understood it even better. So when we have faith in the Savior we trust that no matter what is going on in life, He knows best. Well even when it's hard if we start changing our lives in the way He would have us live we are repenting. So you hear that faith leads us to action? That action is a form of repentance, changing our lives to better ourselves. When we repent we're continuously becomming more and more like our Savior and we show that we are willing to Always follow Him through Baptism. Well we don't get baptized each week so how do we re-commit? Through the sacrament. Also, without baptism or the sacrament we could never have the things we've been repenting of
erased, they will always be in our past. With baptism and with the confirmation we Receive the Spirit which Sanctifies us and cleans us of Everything we've done in the past, everything we've repented of. As we keep doing that the rest of our lives we will become more and more and more like the Savior till Moroni 7:48 becomes true. I know the Gospel is true. I know that we Have to live the Gospel to come back into God's presence. It is the raw outline of how we must live our lives and the most simple way of stating all our Savior taught us. I love it and I'm so grateful to share it with others. :)
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Thank you for the prayers and all you do for me. I love you!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Week 61 - Thursday, June 7th, 2012
Here is Sister Davis' latest. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers on her behalf!
Well it sounds like things are just plain fun back home. :) I hope the summer activities are going well. I remember absolutely hating my swimming lessons. I still can't remember why I was so scared of going... but it's funny how I would now just love to jump in a pool... haha how things change with circumstances. Well this morning another one of my former companions has left on a plane. It reminds me of the clock that is continuously growing louder in my head, telling me my turn is coming. I hope Laura is okay! I'm sure she has been a great missionary and she's doing a lot of good in Cambodia. I am excited to learn some cambodian from her when I get home. :) Mom, when do you talk with Sister Bayless?
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Well speaking of changes... Transfers has once again rolled around and by golly I'm going to die in El Cajon! (figuratively speaking) After 6 months of this area, I am now surpassing the length of my longest area by staying here, and sister Turner is staying with me! It was funny when we found out this morning. We were both So shocked that we weren't changing! We almost wanted to call President up and ask what was going on haha. We were so set on changing that we are sad that nothing is changing. Yes, we still love each other but change is fun. So in order to get the change we want we're switching up our room... somehow. :) And then we've determined that this will be our absolute BEST transfer ever. We want to work harder than ever before, now that we've finally figured out how to work with each other teaching wise. So I'm excited for this transfer.
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This past week has been an uneventful one for investigators. Most of our investigators are ignoring us. :( BUT, we found a sister and brother the other day who's mom in mormon and they are interested in learning about God's plan for them. So we have some new investigators which we're very excited about. Heavenly Father loves us. :) Even though our investigators are ignoring us, in order to get those 20 lessons a week as Elder Perry asked we've been meeting with members a Lot, and we've had some amazing lessons with them. There is one family that we're so excited to work with. We taught them the Restoration then invited them to make mormon.org profiles and invite others to check it out and they were so exctied about it! There's also another family that is eager to help us find more people so they're having a 4th of July party at their house with neighbors and ward members. :) So in that way the work is going well. Afterall Elder Perry did tell all the members of our stake that they cannot waste our time as missionaries! We have been called out here to teach so they should make a concerted effort to find us people to teach and if they can't find anyone, invite us over to practice teaching. It has helped out so much. And President Hinckley did say that the best way to find is through the members. So we're excited to work more closely with our ward members. And remember that you back home are called to the same work. So have the missionaries over, let them practice to become better teachers. :)
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That was our week in a nutshell. I also had a meeting with President and all the zone leaders yesterday, we watched a clip of Elder Holland's talk to the MTC in January of 2011 - if you can look it up on youtube, please watch it. I haven't felt the spirit radiate from one person that strongly in a while and it is just amazing to feel his testimony of this work. The talk was entitled Feed My Sheep and it brought me so much peace. I know this work is true! I love it with all my heart and I am So blessed to be out here sharing it with anyone who will listen. I know my Savior lives! I love Him and I know without Him nothing would be possible. We wouldn't be able to change or grow or ever make it back home without His atonement. And for that I will be grateful all the rest of the days of my life. I know God has a plan and how grateful I am to know that plan. I love you all! Continue in the Faith, Repenting, renewing your Covenants (or being Baptized for the first time), receiving the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. I know that is The Way.
Love Sister Maureen Davis
Well it sounds like things are just plain fun back home. :) I hope the summer activities are going well. I remember absolutely hating my swimming lessons. I still can't remember why I was so scared of going... but it's funny how I would now just love to jump in a pool... haha how things change with circumstances. Well this morning another one of my former companions has left on a plane. It reminds me of the clock that is continuously growing louder in my head, telling me my turn is coming. I hope Laura is okay! I'm sure she has been a great missionary and she's doing a lot of good in Cambodia. I am excited to learn some cambodian from her when I get home. :) Mom, when do you talk with Sister Bayless?
.
Well speaking of changes... Transfers has once again rolled around and by golly I'm going to die in El Cajon! (figuratively speaking) After 6 months of this area, I am now surpassing the length of my longest area by staying here, and sister Turner is staying with me! It was funny when we found out this morning. We were both So shocked that we weren't changing! We almost wanted to call President up and ask what was going on haha. We were so set on changing that we are sad that nothing is changing. Yes, we still love each other but change is fun. So in order to get the change we want we're switching up our room... somehow. :) And then we've determined that this will be our absolute BEST transfer ever. We want to work harder than ever before, now that we've finally figured out how to work with each other teaching wise. So I'm excited for this transfer.
.
This past week has been an uneventful one for investigators. Most of our investigators are ignoring us. :( BUT, we found a sister and brother the other day who's mom in mormon and they are interested in learning about God's plan for them. So we have some new investigators which we're very excited about. Heavenly Father loves us. :) Even though our investigators are ignoring us, in order to get those 20 lessons a week as Elder Perry asked we've been meeting with members a Lot, and we've had some amazing lessons with them. There is one family that we're so excited to work with. We taught them the Restoration then invited them to make mormon.org profiles and invite others to check it out and they were so exctied about it! There's also another family that is eager to help us find more people so they're having a 4th of July party at their house with neighbors and ward members. :) So in that way the work is going well. Afterall Elder Perry did tell all the members of our stake that they cannot waste our time as missionaries! We have been called out here to teach so they should make a concerted effort to find us people to teach and if they can't find anyone, invite us over to practice teaching. It has helped out so much. And President Hinckley did say that the best way to find is through the members. So we're excited to work more closely with our ward members. And remember that you back home are called to the same work. So have the missionaries over, let them practice to become better teachers. :)
.
That was our week in a nutshell. I also had a meeting with President and all the zone leaders yesterday, we watched a clip of Elder Holland's talk to the MTC in January of 2011 - if you can look it up on youtube, please watch it. I haven't felt the spirit radiate from one person that strongly in a while and it is just amazing to feel his testimony of this work. The talk was entitled Feed My Sheep and it brought me so much peace. I know this work is true! I love it with all my heart and I am So blessed to be out here sharing it with anyone who will listen. I know my Savior lives! I love Him and I know without Him nothing would be possible. We wouldn't be able to change or grow or ever make it back home without His atonement. And for that I will be grateful all the rest of the days of my life. I know God has a plan and how grateful I am to know that plan. I love you all! Continue in the Faith, Repenting, renewing your Covenants (or being Baptized for the first time), receiving the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. I know that is The Way.
Love Sister Maureen Davis
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