Here is Maureen's latest. 19 days and counting! Not that we are counting.
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Dear Mom, family and all others who may come across this letter,
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I'm so proud of my whole family. You all have grown So much while I've been gone. I'm excited to see who each of you are and know what's going on in your lives. I'm sad I won't be able to live with you for months on end when I get home but know how much I love each of you. I'm excited to read Erin's letter. Did she get mine? And did she get the birthday gift I sent? I hope it got to you. As for Emmy starting 7th grade, I'm sure it will be a lot better than my experience bc there will be people she actually knows there. I only knew 1 person since we moved that year. So I sat by myself for a few days at lunch. I don't think Em will have that issue at all. ;) Besides I learned who my good friends were, because there were girls who invited me to sit with them and would talk to me all the time. I will never forget Colbi for sitting by me and being my friend, even though we haven't talked in years, I will always be grateful for what she did for me. Emmy this will be a great experience for you! :) Good job on getting cool classes. And Olivia, I know she's doing well and staying out of trouble. What grade is she in now? Well I'll have a million or more questions when I get home that I expect to be answered. :)
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As for my week.... Sister Turner and I have had an Excellent week! Seriously filled with miracles every day. It's been so neat. We taught more than 20 lessons this week, we added two new investigators, we've been talking to everyone.... it's just been great. Also, Elder Ballard was here this weekend. He held a fireside for people of all different faiths which was neat. He talked about the Restoration and Plan of Salvation in such a neat way and invited everyone to read the Book of Mormon and pray! There were a LOT of people and I was asked to conduct the music... you could probably imagine me standing On a platform, waving my arm with a huge smile on my face as there are about 650 people or more in front of me. Yeah, it was fun. And then we had a meeting with Elder Ballard just for the missionaries yesterday morning which was really good too. He answered a lot of our questions about how to be a better missionary. Anyway there were lots of other comments but I'll have to share those later. The really neat thing this week was that on Sunday Sister Turner felt like we could get at least one member present lesson, I didn't think it'd be possible as we already visited everyone lately. But we put our faith forward and tried anyway. When we got to church 3 random people walked in. We found out that 2 were less active and finally coming back to church and that one of them brought their fiance who wanted to learn more! To top it off, she invited us over THAT day to teach him. And Then when we got there, two members of another faith were there as well willing to listen. It was so neat! Miracles still happen.
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Well i've got to get going. We're going to play sports at the park with our zone today. And I still have to write President. But know that I love you all sooooo much! I'm so grateful for your examples and for the prayers, they really have been needed and have brought lots of miracles. Thank you. :)
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Love Sister Davis
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Week 64 - Thursday, July 19th, 2012
We are excited that Maureen will be home in a month! We got her flight plans today and can't believe it's already here! She will be flying home the 18th of August, and will be speaking in church on the 19th at the Cooley Park Ward Building. Our sacrament meeting starts at 1:30pm. I know she would love to see you all there. Thank you, thank you, for all your thoughts and prayers on her behalf. We love you all and we are so glad you've been along for the journey. We can't believe how quickly it's gone, and we also can't believe how we have been blessed in these past 18 months! I am a believer in missionary blessings!
Love you all,
Candi
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Dear Family,
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I don't know where to begin this week. A lot has happened. We've extended the baptism date for Denise for July 28th. We had an interesting exchange with her the other day. She is a sweet lady and has lots of medical conditions. On Saturday we went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She passed with flying colors though we still have a few things we want to go over with her. Well on Sunday she couldn't come to church for health reasons so when we left church we looked at our phone and noticed a text message from Denise. It said "PLEASE CALL." Sister Turner looked at me and said, "Sister Davis, Denise Texted." "yeah, okay we should call her." "No, she Texted, she can't text she only has a landline and it's from Her phone." After a stunned pause we called her and she was crying. We told her we'd be there in a minute. We arrived at her house and talked to her for a little while. She felt bad because she didn't know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Apparently she had read some anti-literature earlier in her life. But she still wanted to be baptized! We talked to her about it and really relied on the spirit to know what to say to her. It was hard. Then we told her about the text message. She was so surprised. She hadn't sent a text... Well Sunday night was my last English Mission President's fireside. :( Sister Mitchell and I sang Lead Kindly Light. It was really pretty. The choir was good and I saw a few of my former investigators. We saw Denise and talked to her and as we hugged her she said "God must know how to Text." :) So After a long hard day on Monday (with many canceled appointments) we met with Denise at the Garcia's house and we watched the Restoration with her. At first I was really nervous for her response - but I shouldn't be. I should just trust God, have faith in His converting power. Well after the movie she said "That was powerful, I want to watch that again." And then at the end of our meeting she leaned over and said "I guess if God can text, then why can't He show up at Joseph's place?" It was so priceless! She's going to pray about it still. But she more or less got her answer, and it's because of the mysterious text we got. I'm sure that God works in Mysterious ways and it's so powerful to see the effects of His hands. :)
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Well we also saw Donna and Ron last night which was another good experience. They have been going through SOOO many hardships lately and it was good to finally sit down with them. They haven't been coming to church lately so we were going to talk to them about Diligence but then they told us how Ron has been working non-stop every day this week, how he hasn't smoked for the past month now, how Donna and Ron have been praying together to get help on certain situations, etc. They've been diligent, now they just need to be diligent in the Gospel. They talked about the peace they have felt this past week even though it's been hard and Donna said "I bet that's because we've finally been praying together again" we told them that if they wanted to feel more peace they should read and come to church as well. They agreed and we all felt really good. At the end Donna said, "I always feel so much better after you come visit us!" I just love being a missionary and being a part of these people's lives. It's so heartwarming. I've been setting goals to continue after the mission too, don't you worry! You will have to put up with my schedule, as I'm going to keep it as long as possible. That includes at Least an hour of study! ;) It will just make everything better. I know that when I do my best to sacrifice something for the Lord I receive so much in return. So I'm going to continue sacrificing for Him, all i've got, until I can look in a mirror and see His countenance in mine. :)
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I love you All! Keep being missionary minded. Thank you for the continuous tips and advice. :) I need it. And invitation this week: ponder and pray about 1 thing you can sacrifice to come closer to the Savior. It works wonders.
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Love Sister Davis
Love you all,
Candi
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Dear Family,
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I don't know where to begin this week. A lot has happened. We've extended the baptism date for Denise for July 28th. We had an interesting exchange with her the other day. She is a sweet lady and has lots of medical conditions. On Saturday we went over the baptismal interview questions with her. She passed with flying colors though we still have a few things we want to go over with her. Well on Sunday she couldn't come to church for health reasons so when we left church we looked at our phone and noticed a text message from Denise. It said "PLEASE CALL." Sister Turner looked at me and said, "Sister Davis, Denise Texted." "yeah, okay we should call her." "No, she Texted, she can't text she only has a landline and it's from Her phone." After a stunned pause we called her and she was crying. We told her we'd be there in a minute. We arrived at her house and talked to her for a little while. She felt bad because she didn't know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Apparently she had read some anti-literature earlier in her life. But she still wanted to be baptized! We talked to her about it and really relied on the spirit to know what to say to her. It was hard. Then we told her about the text message. She was so surprised. She hadn't sent a text... Well Sunday night was my last English Mission President's fireside. :( Sister Mitchell and I sang Lead Kindly Light. It was really pretty. The choir was good and I saw a few of my former investigators. We saw Denise and talked to her and as we hugged her she said "God must know how to Text." :) So After a long hard day on Monday (with many canceled appointments) we met with Denise at the Garcia's house and we watched the Restoration with her. At first I was really nervous for her response - but I shouldn't be. I should just trust God, have faith in His converting power. Well after the movie she said "That was powerful, I want to watch that again." And then at the end of our meeting she leaned over and said "I guess if God can text, then why can't He show up at Joseph's place?" It was so priceless! She's going to pray about it still. But she more or less got her answer, and it's because of the mysterious text we got. I'm sure that God works in Mysterious ways and it's so powerful to see the effects of His hands. :)
.
Well we also saw Donna and Ron last night which was another good experience. They have been going through SOOO many hardships lately and it was good to finally sit down with them. They haven't been coming to church lately so we were going to talk to them about Diligence but then they told us how Ron has been working non-stop every day this week, how he hasn't smoked for the past month now, how Donna and Ron have been praying together to get help on certain situations, etc. They've been diligent, now they just need to be diligent in the Gospel. They talked about the peace they have felt this past week even though it's been hard and Donna said "I bet that's because we've finally been praying together again" we told them that if they wanted to feel more peace they should read and come to church as well. They agreed and we all felt really good. At the end Donna said, "I always feel so much better after you come visit us!" I just love being a missionary and being a part of these people's lives. It's so heartwarming. I've been setting goals to continue after the mission too, don't you worry! You will have to put up with my schedule, as I'm going to keep it as long as possible. That includes at Least an hour of study! ;) It will just make everything better. I know that when I do my best to sacrifice something for the Lord I receive so much in return. So I'm going to continue sacrificing for Him, all i've got, until I can look in a mirror and see His countenance in mine. :)
.
I love you All! Keep being missionary minded. Thank you for the continuous tips and advice. :) I need it. And invitation this week: ponder and pray about 1 thing you can sacrifice to come closer to the Savior. It works wonders.
.
Love Sister Davis
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