Dear Mom and Family and Everyone Else!
.
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!
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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. :)
.
And family, I hope you will have all read or watched Elder Holland's talk before next week. ;) It's really good!
.
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!
.
.
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. :)
.
Thank you for the prayers and all you do for me. I love you!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
.
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. :)
.
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?
.
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
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
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Week 60 - Thursday, May 31st, 2012
Dear Family, Friends and all other acquaintances,
This week has been one of utter chaos. In the best way possible? Okay so no, there hasn't been utter chaos but it seems very busy. It started out with some of our investigators moving off the street! Yay! but now it's harder to see them because they are working for one of our recent converts who's son isn't too happy with us coming over... But no worries, we're still plugging away. Another one of our investigator's husband decided he didn't want us coming by.... and a family we're working with, the mother's a member and the ex husband is not, well we saw them yesterday and the dad showed up really unhappy with us because we were teaching his children to pray and ask God for answers... Okay so he was probably mad for other reasons. But it made me so sad that the dad was so angry in front of his kids. He was trying to argue with us and put down our faith in every way possible. Fortunately, Heavenly Father blessed us with clear minds and we were able to answer his questions in the nicest way possible. I feel so bad for children who's parents are of different faiths and who basically fight about it constantly in front of their kids. It made me so sad to see this little 8 year old who is trying to please both parents be so confused because there is so much contention. We invited the dad to just listen to the missionaries to see what we really believe but he refused to and stormed out. It was a very sad meeting indeed. So we decided to play a cup game with the kids to lighten the mood. It helped a lot and we're actually going over today to just make flowers and bows with them for pday.
.
As for our other investigators they are doing well, but none are progressing. :( We're currently praying for miracles and trying to find more people to teach. We meet with a lot of less active members who are coming back to church, including the one who was in the car accident, her name is Lacey. She is so neat. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and so desperately wants to come to church to take the Sacrament. She reads everything we give her! And she loves when we come over. In fact she told us that all her life she has been stand-offish to the "mormon church" but now that she's received this answer to prayers she feels as though she's just barely learning her culture and wants to know everything there is to know about it! It kinda reminded me of how we don't remember what our life was like with Heavenly Father before this but every now and then the spirit touches our spirit and helps us remember things that have sounded "familiar." We desire greatly to have that appetite filled and my job is to help people satisfy that quenching thirst with the "Living Water" or Gospel of Jesus Christ. :) It's the coolest job ever. And I'm not even getting paid! I'm paying to be out here. BUT getting so many blessings from it.
.
Which reminds me, so this whole week has been a bit of a downer with people taking steps backword, both investigators and less actives. So it's been hard. But Heavenly Father had me learn a lesson from it this week. Starting on Sunday when we had stake conference with Elder Perry. It was a great conference and he and the Temple president and our stake president all spoke about ways we can become more converted and strengthan our testimonies. It was really good! Of course Elder Perry called the missionaries out for not teaching as many lessons as we should and he reminded us to teach the doctrines. Will do. Well that night I was discouraged thinking I was doing a terrible job and that I frankly wasn't perfect. The next morning sister Turner told me about satan's tools. He uses doubt, discouragement, and pride to keep us from coming nearer to the Savior. We started thinking about what ways we can combat those tools and found something really cool. Doubt is really the opposite of having faith, so to overcome it we must have Faith. Discouragement comes when we forget where our Hope comes from, the Savior, so we must have Hope. And pride comes when we lose love for our fellowman, so to overcome it we must have Charity. Faith, Hope and Charity.... Sound familiar anyone? I think Mormon already figured it out so I'm going to study Moroni chapter 7 more. And then on top of that Sister Turner said that we should always look to see how far we've come in our journey. One time her family was crossing the plains. no not by handcart, by car. There are no landmarks there, no windy roads, just a flat plain. Which means after a while you don't feel like you've gone far at all. Well her dad drove for 2 hours towards this one cloud that was in the sky and he thought he was going crazy because he just Never got closer to that cloud. Sister Turner compared it to our lives. We have to look at the odometer once in a while to realize that we have actually made some progress. So we made a list of all the things we've learned and accomplished on our missions. It was really good and we have a greater excitement to go out and do the work!
.
Well I love you all and I'll try to keep you as updated as possible! :)
Love Sister Maureen Davis
PS mom- give all the girls a hug and a kiss from me! I love them All so much!
This week has been one of utter chaos. In the best way possible? Okay so no, there hasn't been utter chaos but it seems very busy. It started out with some of our investigators moving off the street! Yay! but now it's harder to see them because they are working for one of our recent converts who's son isn't too happy with us coming over... But no worries, we're still plugging away. Another one of our investigator's husband decided he didn't want us coming by.... and a family we're working with, the mother's a member and the ex husband is not, well we saw them yesterday and the dad showed up really unhappy with us because we were teaching his children to pray and ask God for answers... Okay so he was probably mad for other reasons. But it made me so sad that the dad was so angry in front of his kids. He was trying to argue with us and put down our faith in every way possible. Fortunately, Heavenly Father blessed us with clear minds and we were able to answer his questions in the nicest way possible. I feel so bad for children who's parents are of different faiths and who basically fight about it constantly in front of their kids. It made me so sad to see this little 8 year old who is trying to please both parents be so confused because there is so much contention. We invited the dad to just listen to the missionaries to see what we really believe but he refused to and stormed out. It was a very sad meeting indeed. So we decided to play a cup game with the kids to lighten the mood. It helped a lot and we're actually going over today to just make flowers and bows with them for pday.
.
As for our other investigators they are doing well, but none are progressing. :( We're currently praying for miracles and trying to find more people to teach. We meet with a lot of less active members who are coming back to church, including the one who was in the car accident, her name is Lacey. She is so neat. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and so desperately wants to come to church to take the Sacrament. She reads everything we give her! And she loves when we come over. In fact she told us that all her life she has been stand-offish to the "mormon church" but now that she's received this answer to prayers she feels as though she's just barely learning her culture and wants to know everything there is to know about it! It kinda reminded me of how we don't remember what our life was like with Heavenly Father before this but every now and then the spirit touches our spirit and helps us remember things that have sounded "familiar." We desire greatly to have that appetite filled and my job is to help people satisfy that quenching thirst with the "Living Water" or Gospel of Jesus Christ. :) It's the coolest job ever. And I'm not even getting paid! I'm paying to be out here. BUT getting so many blessings from it.
.
Which reminds me, so this whole week has been a bit of a downer with people taking steps backword, both investigators and less actives. So it's been hard. But Heavenly Father had me learn a lesson from it this week. Starting on Sunday when we had stake conference with Elder Perry. It was a great conference and he and the Temple president and our stake president all spoke about ways we can become more converted and strengthan our testimonies. It was really good! Of course Elder Perry called the missionaries out for not teaching as many lessons as we should and he reminded us to teach the doctrines. Will do. Well that night I was discouraged thinking I was doing a terrible job and that I frankly wasn't perfect. The next morning sister Turner told me about satan's tools. He uses doubt, discouragement, and pride to keep us from coming nearer to the Savior. We started thinking about what ways we can combat those tools and found something really cool. Doubt is really the opposite of having faith, so to overcome it we must have Faith. Discouragement comes when we forget where our Hope comes from, the Savior, so we must have Hope. And pride comes when we lose love for our fellowman, so to overcome it we must have Charity. Faith, Hope and Charity.... Sound familiar anyone? I think Mormon already figured it out so I'm going to study Moroni chapter 7 more. And then on top of that Sister Turner said that we should always look to see how far we've come in our journey. One time her family was crossing the plains. no not by handcart, by car. There are no landmarks there, no windy roads, just a flat plain. Which means after a while you don't feel like you've gone far at all. Well her dad drove for 2 hours towards this one cloud that was in the sky and he thought he was going crazy because he just Never got closer to that cloud. Sister Turner compared it to our lives. We have to look at the odometer once in a while to realize that we have actually made some progress. So we made a list of all the things we've learned and accomplished on our missions. It was really good and we have a greater excitement to go out and do the work!
.
Well I love you all and I'll try to keep you as updated as possible! :)
Love Sister Maureen Davis
PS mom- give all the girls a hug and a kiss from me! I love them All so much!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Week 58 & 59 - Thursday, May 24th, 2012
So, I'm not sure what happened last week, but I didn't get Maureen's email off. So you get two in one week! Sis. Russell is the mission health staff. Maureen's been having headaches for the past two weeks. Hopefully they'll figure out how to get her all better. We appreciate so much the prayers that you offer in her behalf. We can't believe how close she is to being home, and how slow time is going!
.
Dear Family,
For starters, the best time for me to call will probably be 6pm, I know the girls go to bed soon after but I think that will be the best time that works for me. We're going to try talking to people during the day and then we'll just come back to make calls in the evening so we don't have to worry about driving elsewhere at night. Anywho... I'll talk to you on Sunday around 6. And Happy Birthday EMMY!
.
As for Everything else going on.... Sometimes we go through hard weeks so we can appreciate the good ones. The past week was a hard week. This last week was really good! I had a lot of meetings this week. Between a zone meeting, zone leader council, zone conference, and the mission president's fireside, it's been a SUPER AWESOME week. The highlights were honestly the spirit felt in all those meetings. From our zone meeting when we talked about having the Lord walk hand in hand with us as we did his work to hearing our President's testimonyat the fireside, it was just a fabulous week. It's hard to really put emotion in through these emails but you can trust me, it was a Fantastic week. And after our zone conference, where all the missionaries in a zone meet together with President, I was just so excited to go out and work and talk to every single person that crossed my path that I literally Did talk to everyone, regardless of what situation we were in. It was really cool. And there are a lot more people that are open than I thought there were. :) "The field is white, already to harvest."
.
At our mission president's fireside, President Clayton stood up and spoke to the members present. He encouraged them to share the gospel with their friends and not to be nervous when people ask about it. There are people who are sincerely curious about what we believe and they have questions. In our zone conference President talked about Mormon.org and how useful it is. There is an entire page devoted to answering questions that most people have about the church, so you don't have to scramble around for an answer when people ask you what the restoration means, or what is our stance on dancing (yes, people have asked me that). You can look up the answers yourself or direct them to the website. It's the coolest thing ever and we're actually asked, as missionaries, to go on the website for one hour outside of preparation day to learn more about it so we can help others know more about it. It's that cooL! :)
.
Well other than those fabulous meetings we are having the exciting experience of having Elder Perry come to our stake for stake conference. :) And I happen to have stayed these 6 months in El Cajon JUST so I could see him. Haha okay not really, but it's so exciting to be here for that.
.
So... I don't exactly know what else to say... this has been a Fabulous week, we've had our laughs and some tears, some really tough investigators and some really neat experiences... the same as usual. I'll let you know when anything out of the ordinary happens. :) As for your invitation this week: check out mormon.org and tell someone else (non-member) about it!
I love you all and thank you for your prayers. Stay humble. It's what I'm constantly working on anyway. AND be Excellent to each other. :D
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
.
.Thanks Mom,
I'm so glad we were able to talk on Sunday. I feel like I talked about everything I would have shared today already... But as for the new investigators, Melissa and Gina, they are both wives to less active members. One of the members has been trying to come back to church lately and so he's bringing his family around and Melissa's sister-in-law actually recently got back into the church and was sealed a few months ago! So the work is going well. :) They both have little kids that are super cute. So we enjoy meeting with them.
.
Well as for the rest of this week... We've been super busy! In fact yesterday we met with a less active woman who recently was in a severe car accident. She should have died but she came out with only a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises. She said that God must have saved her life for a reason so she wanted to get back into church and have the missionary lessons again. So we met with her yesterday and she really wants to change her life around. She wants to read the book of mormon and learn everything over again. It was so neat speaking with her and seeing how Heavenly Father gives us so many opportunities to follow Him. She knew that too. And if it hadn't been for her visiting teacher who visited her every month even though she wasn't interested in changing then, she may not have known where to turn after the accident.
.
Visiting and Home teaching Is SO important. I hope you are all doing it and following up even with those that don't seem interested bc you never know when their lives will change. There is another man who started coming back to church after 40 years of not coming, after his wife passed away. And it was because of his daughter and the home teacher who wrote faithfully each month that he came back. It is so neat to see those experiences and realize that there are people that are ready to come back, who hear His voice calling them and Follow Him. It's so cool to be a part of that.
.
Thank you for the call and all that you said on the phone, it really was what I needed. And I love that each of you are trying so hard to choose the right, to give your best effort and to follow the Savior's example. I'm so grateful for the example you have been and for your diligent efforts back home. :) I love you so much and am so grateful to have a fabulous family like you! I have been blessed immensely in my life and I thank my Heavenly Father for always leading me in the right way. I've gone through struggles like every one else but I have been blessed by the examples of those around me so much. I know Heavenly Father watches over His children where ever they are, whatever they may be doing, whoever they are, He loves them immensely. I know that.
.
Mom- I called Sister Russell but she hasn't returned my call yet, so I'll try again soon. I think what I really want to focus on right now is having more charity for others. I feel like I've been getting more easily frustrated lately. I don't know why but I know it needs to change so I'm going to work on it. Afterall the Savior loved everyone even when they are frustrating so I need to work on doing the same. :)
.
Well I love you all. You are in my prayers! Thank you for your examples I really appreciate them and I know they have led me to who I am today.
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
Dear Family,
For starters, the best time for me to call will probably be 6pm, I know the girls go to bed soon after but I think that will be the best time that works for me. We're going to try talking to people during the day and then we'll just come back to make calls in the evening so we don't have to worry about driving elsewhere at night. Anywho... I'll talk to you on Sunday around 6. And Happy Birthday EMMY!
.
As for Everything else going on.... Sometimes we go through hard weeks so we can appreciate the good ones. The past week was a hard week. This last week was really good! I had a lot of meetings this week. Between a zone meeting, zone leader council, zone conference, and the mission president's fireside, it's been a SUPER AWESOME week. The highlights were honestly the spirit felt in all those meetings. From our zone meeting when we talked about having the Lord walk hand in hand with us as we did his work to hearing our President's testimonyat the fireside, it was just a fabulous week. It's hard to really put emotion in through these emails but you can trust me, it was a Fantastic week. And after our zone conference, where all the missionaries in a zone meet together with President, I was just so excited to go out and work and talk to every single person that crossed my path that I literally Did talk to everyone, regardless of what situation we were in. It was really cool. And there are a lot more people that are open than I thought there were. :) "The field is white, already to harvest."
.
At our mission president's fireside, President Clayton stood up and spoke to the members present. He encouraged them to share the gospel with their friends and not to be nervous when people ask about it. There are people who are sincerely curious about what we believe and they have questions. In our zone conference President talked about Mormon.org and how useful it is. There is an entire page devoted to answering questions that most people have about the church, so you don't have to scramble around for an answer when people ask you what the restoration means, or what is our stance on dancing (yes, people have asked me that). You can look up the answers yourself or direct them to the website. It's the coolest thing ever and we're actually asked, as missionaries, to go on the website for one hour outside of preparation day to learn more about it so we can help others know more about it. It's that cooL! :)
.
Well other than those fabulous meetings we are having the exciting experience of having Elder Perry come to our stake for stake conference. :) And I happen to have stayed these 6 months in El Cajon JUST so I could see him. Haha okay not really, but it's so exciting to be here for that.
.
So... I don't exactly know what else to say... this has been a Fabulous week, we've had our laughs and some tears, some really tough investigators and some really neat experiences... the same as usual. I'll let you know when anything out of the ordinary happens. :) As for your invitation this week: check out mormon.org and tell someone else (non-member) about it!
I love you all and thank you for your prayers. Stay humble. It's what I'm constantly working on anyway. AND be Excellent to each other. :D
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
.
.Thanks Mom,
I'm so glad we were able to talk on Sunday. I feel like I talked about everything I would have shared today already... But as for the new investigators, Melissa and Gina, they are both wives to less active members. One of the members has been trying to come back to church lately and so he's bringing his family around and Melissa's sister-in-law actually recently got back into the church and was sealed a few months ago! So the work is going well. :) They both have little kids that are super cute. So we enjoy meeting with them.
.
Well as for the rest of this week... We've been super busy! In fact yesterday we met with a less active woman who recently was in a severe car accident. She should have died but she came out with only a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises. She said that God must have saved her life for a reason so she wanted to get back into church and have the missionary lessons again. So we met with her yesterday and she really wants to change her life around. She wants to read the book of mormon and learn everything over again. It was so neat speaking with her and seeing how Heavenly Father gives us so many opportunities to follow Him. She knew that too. And if it hadn't been for her visiting teacher who visited her every month even though she wasn't interested in changing then, she may not have known where to turn after the accident.
.
Visiting and Home teaching Is SO important. I hope you are all doing it and following up even with those that don't seem interested bc you never know when their lives will change. There is another man who started coming back to church after 40 years of not coming, after his wife passed away. And it was because of his daughter and the home teacher who wrote faithfully each month that he came back. It is so neat to see those experiences and realize that there are people that are ready to come back, who hear His voice calling them and Follow Him. It's so cool to be a part of that.
.
Thank you for the call and all that you said on the phone, it really was what I needed. And I love that each of you are trying so hard to choose the right, to give your best effort and to follow the Savior's example. I'm so grateful for the example you have been and for your diligent efforts back home. :) I love you so much and am so grateful to have a fabulous family like you! I have been blessed immensely in my life and I thank my Heavenly Father for always leading me in the right way. I've gone through struggles like every one else but I have been blessed by the examples of those around me so much. I know Heavenly Father watches over His children where ever they are, whatever they may be doing, whoever they are, He loves them immensely. I know that.
.
Mom- I called Sister Russell but she hasn't returned my call yet, so I'll try again soon. I think what I really want to focus on right now is having more charity for others. I feel like I've been getting more easily frustrated lately. I don't know why but I know it needs to change so I'm going to work on it. Afterall the Savior loved everyone even when they are frustrating so I need to work on doing the same. :)
.
Well I love you all. You are in my prayers! Thank you for your examples I really appreciate them and I know they have led me to who I am today.
Love Sister Maureen Davis
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Week 57 - Thursday, May 10th, 2012
I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the emails you wrote this week. I'm just filled with this joy that won't go away. Recently I've been reading about the Savior's visit to the America's in 3rd Nephi and how because of the faith of the people His joy was Full. That is exactly how I feel. So content because others are experiencing the joy, not only of the gospel but of having a Loving Heavenly Father. It just makes me smile. So thank you for the wonderful emails and Mom thanks for the wonderful report you give each week. I'm so glad to hear that everyone is doing well back home. :)
.
And HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! I love you! And Happy early birthday Emmy - you've got till the 11th. :) Which reminds me, mom - when it's mother's day i'll be calling... what time works best for you? We have church at 10am and so we could do it 2pm or later if that works for you guys. I think we're on the same time again.... maybe. :) Will Maddy be home for that or in Peru?
.
As for the work in El Cajon, California... it's going really well. We've had a few interesting things happen this week. 1. Our tire was getting flat and mom, although you taught me how to fill a tire I figured I'd probably mess it up, so we asked a lady to help us who gave us a few pointers... I officially can fill up a tire. Ha! took me long enough. 2. We helped at Mormon Helping hands. ( I don't remember that when I lived in AZ do they do it there?) Sister Turner and I were so excited to work, we were making gardens for a half-way house so that they could support themselves food wise. So we leveled the ground make planter boxes. Moved the planter boxes which were heavy. It took four men to carry one and sister turner and I and two beehives manned up and carried one all by ourselves. Then we shoveled in dirt and compost and finally planted lots of plants. It was so much fun. I'm excited for my own garden someday. Maddy says we can put one in the backyard of our housing in Provo. I'm excited. :) 3. These past few weeks have been a bit discouraging. I know it's satan who tries to get us to be discouraged and we should remember the Lord is on our side. Well we had a zone meeting just yesterday and I cannot explain to you all that happened but it was Exactly what I needed. We were talking about the goal we had for the upcoming month as far as baptisms go and when we said the prayer I was feeling discouraged and thought the 6 of our wards could do 6, one each. But I realized after we all talked about our thoughts that I had the lowest goal of the group. And on top of that we had missionaries who thought we could reach 12! The highest we've ever done in a month is 6. I was astounded at the faith of these missionaries. And yet it was so inspiring. One of the new elders asked if he could share a few words. He said he'd served in France for a little while and had to come home for health reasons but he was in CA for the remainder of his mission. He said that the first week of his mission in France, all 7 of his investigators dropped them. If anyone could be discouraged it would be him, but he said that he and his trainer just prayed and worked harder and because of it God placed 7 others in their path who were ready for the gospel. Each of them have now been baptized and 6 brought their whole families to the church and they are each working on a temple sealing. He said that God has a plan and He has His hand in everything and that if we would just let ourselves follow Him and accept His help and work like there is no tomorrow we would see miracles.
.
The spirit was there so strong and we all Knew that we could reach that goal of 12 for the month of May. So I'm telling you all this so you can hold us accountable. We are praying for miracles daily and we're going to give it our all. I know that God's hand Is in this work and that He is with us all every step. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and a very loving and supportive familiy. :)
I love you All!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
And HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! I love you! And Happy early birthday Emmy - you've got till the 11th. :) Which reminds me, mom - when it's mother's day i'll be calling... what time works best for you? We have church at 10am and so we could do it 2pm or later if that works for you guys. I think we're on the same time again.... maybe. :) Will Maddy be home for that or in Peru?
.
As for the work in El Cajon, California... it's going really well. We've had a few interesting things happen this week. 1. Our tire was getting flat and mom, although you taught me how to fill a tire I figured I'd probably mess it up, so we asked a lady to help us who gave us a few pointers... I officially can fill up a tire. Ha! took me long enough. 2. We helped at Mormon Helping hands. ( I don't remember that when I lived in AZ do they do it there?) Sister Turner and I were so excited to work, we were making gardens for a half-way house so that they could support themselves food wise. So we leveled the ground make planter boxes. Moved the planter boxes which were heavy. It took four men to carry one and sister turner and I and two beehives manned up and carried one all by ourselves. Then we shoveled in dirt and compost and finally planted lots of plants. It was so much fun. I'm excited for my own garden someday. Maddy says we can put one in the backyard of our housing in Provo. I'm excited. :) 3. These past few weeks have been a bit discouraging. I know it's satan who tries to get us to be discouraged and we should remember the Lord is on our side. Well we had a zone meeting just yesterday and I cannot explain to you all that happened but it was Exactly what I needed. We were talking about the goal we had for the upcoming month as far as baptisms go and when we said the prayer I was feeling discouraged and thought the 6 of our wards could do 6, one each. But I realized after we all talked about our thoughts that I had the lowest goal of the group. And on top of that we had missionaries who thought we could reach 12! The highest we've ever done in a month is 6. I was astounded at the faith of these missionaries. And yet it was so inspiring. One of the new elders asked if he could share a few words. He said he'd served in France for a little while and had to come home for health reasons but he was in CA for the remainder of his mission. He said that the first week of his mission in France, all 7 of his investigators dropped them. If anyone could be discouraged it would be him, but he said that he and his trainer just prayed and worked harder and because of it God placed 7 others in their path who were ready for the gospel. Each of them have now been baptized and 6 brought their whole families to the church and they are each working on a temple sealing. He said that God has a plan and He has His hand in everything and that if we would just let ourselves follow Him and accept His help and work like there is no tomorrow we would see miracles.
.
The spirit was there so strong and we all Knew that we could reach that goal of 12 for the month of May. So I'm telling you all this so you can hold us accountable. We are praying for miracles daily and we're going to give it our all. I know that God's hand Is in this work and that He is with us all every step. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and a very loving and supportive familiy. :)
I love you All!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Week 56 - Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Here's the latest. I had to laugh about the truck washing incident. It just goes to show that service goes a long, long way. Also, we now know Maureen knows how to wash a truck; I'm sure her Dad will put this information to good use when she gets home! Thank you to each one of you for your thoughts and prayers for Maureen. We are so grateful for them and so happy that she is doing well. -Nile and Candi
.
Dear Everyone -
This week has been a week of laughs. I don't know why but it just feels like it. It really has been a good week though. We met with Beth twice this past week which was really good. She's having a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon so we read with her and helped her to better understand and apply it. We met with Don and Ron and they have been out of sorts lately, we're trying to help them get over frustrating life situations by applying the gospel. It was really neat what we ended up talking to them about - we told them how God wants to give us blessings. He's Waiting to give us blessings but He has to let us ask for them and do things that show we are willing and ready for them. So He gives us commandments and promises that He will bless us if we just keep those commandments. He can't break that promise. So if we were just obedient we would be blessed. I also realized while studying this morning that the Savior wants to bless us as well, so much. I was reading in 3 Nephi 17 this morning and He asks the people to bring their sick and ill and injured family to come to Him and be healed. I noticed that He didn't say "I'll come and heal all of you, no worries" but instead He asks them to Bring those who need healing to Him. Just as they had to come to Him and show forth their faith in His healing power, so must we turn to Him if we want to be healed, physically or spiritually. He doesn't just heal everyone that believes in Him, He invites us to Come to Him, Follow Him and He will heal us. It's something that we all have to work on, truly coming to Him.
.
Well the other day I found out that someone I had worked with a lot in Green Valley (Lisa) is getting baptized on May 12th! If her husband lets her. We're praying for her. She is such a sweet lady, I'm so happy for her. As for everyone else we're working with - We've worked a lot with less active members here in El Cajon. So many of them are so ready and willing to come back when they feel the spirit. One family in particular we're working with is about to have a baby. So we asked them what we could do for them. The husband, who is less active, said "you can wash my truck." He was joking but we took him up on it and came over yesterday to wash his truck. It was so entertaining because the whole time he was making comments like "I can't believe you're washing my truck," "I can't believe you're washing the wheels," "I can't believe you're drying my truck," "I can't believe you're thanking me for letting you wash my truck!" It was quite entertaining. Following the awe-struck comments he invited us in and told us that he had been praying to know if President Monson was a prophet and if this church was true. (his wife was surprised) He said he had been feeling a "yes" but he wasn't 100% positive. He ended up asking a lot of good questions and we were able to answer them. AND he's been coming to church every week! It's so neat to see people's lives change. They are not people getting baptized, no, but they are changing their life around and using the Atonement again. How neat is that!? It doesn't matter who the person is, we should invite All to partake of the Atonement and come closer to the Savior. :)
.
As for Uncle John... He moved. We were supposed to visit him on wednesday and we went to find him gone and his sister telling us he'd moved back up to Nevada. We were pretty sad but hey, there are missionaries in Nevada! And we talked to him, he told us he's going to church and he's going to hunt out the missionaries. So we'll follow up with him.
.
We had another Mission President's fireside in Spanish. It was really good - the spirit was so strong and Sister Turner and I were able to sing Called to Serve in Spanish, Memorized! :D We also had interviews yesterday which was really good. President and Sister Clayton are great examples and we are so grateful to have them here with us. They really have the spirit with them and they were called to this mission at this time for a reason. They have taught me a lot.
.
Things are going well out here - we had two random people come into our church building on Sunday, checking it out because they lived nearby - so we're going to go visit them. We had a lizard run into our garage... and now it must live under the boxes because we haven't seen it since... And we have a serious ant problem - no worries, we have windex, paper towels and gorilla glue - solves everything.
.
Well I hope you are all doing well! I love you and pray for you daily. Stay out of trouble, study the scriptures and preach my gospel, pray daily and go to church. Those things help us to live the gospel every day of our lives!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
.
Dear Everyone -
This week has been a week of laughs. I don't know why but it just feels like it. It really has been a good week though. We met with Beth twice this past week which was really good. She's having a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon so we read with her and helped her to better understand and apply it. We met with Don and Ron and they have been out of sorts lately, we're trying to help them get over frustrating life situations by applying the gospel. It was really neat what we ended up talking to them about - we told them how God wants to give us blessings. He's Waiting to give us blessings but He has to let us ask for them and do things that show we are willing and ready for them. So He gives us commandments and promises that He will bless us if we just keep those commandments. He can't break that promise. So if we were just obedient we would be blessed. I also realized while studying this morning that the Savior wants to bless us as well, so much. I was reading in 3 Nephi 17 this morning and He asks the people to bring their sick and ill and injured family to come to Him and be healed. I noticed that He didn't say "I'll come and heal all of you, no worries" but instead He asks them to Bring those who need healing to Him. Just as they had to come to Him and show forth their faith in His healing power, so must we turn to Him if we want to be healed, physically or spiritually. He doesn't just heal everyone that believes in Him, He invites us to Come to Him, Follow Him and He will heal us. It's something that we all have to work on, truly coming to Him.
.
Well the other day I found out that someone I had worked with a lot in Green Valley (Lisa) is getting baptized on May 12th! If her husband lets her. We're praying for her. She is such a sweet lady, I'm so happy for her. As for everyone else we're working with - We've worked a lot with less active members here in El Cajon. So many of them are so ready and willing to come back when they feel the spirit. One family in particular we're working with is about to have a baby. So we asked them what we could do for them. The husband, who is less active, said "you can wash my truck." He was joking but we took him up on it and came over yesterday to wash his truck. It was so entertaining because the whole time he was making comments like "I can't believe you're washing my truck," "I can't believe you're washing the wheels," "I can't believe you're drying my truck," "I can't believe you're thanking me for letting you wash my truck!" It was quite entertaining. Following the awe-struck comments he invited us in and told us that he had been praying to know if President Monson was a prophet and if this church was true. (his wife was surprised) He said he had been feeling a "yes" but he wasn't 100% positive. He ended up asking a lot of good questions and we were able to answer them. AND he's been coming to church every week! It's so neat to see people's lives change. They are not people getting baptized, no, but they are changing their life around and using the Atonement again. How neat is that!? It doesn't matter who the person is, we should invite All to partake of the Atonement and come closer to the Savior. :)
.
As for Uncle John... He moved. We were supposed to visit him on wednesday and we went to find him gone and his sister telling us he'd moved back up to Nevada. We were pretty sad but hey, there are missionaries in Nevada! And we talked to him, he told us he's going to church and he's going to hunt out the missionaries. So we'll follow up with him.
.
We had another Mission President's fireside in Spanish. It was really good - the spirit was so strong and Sister Turner and I were able to sing Called to Serve in Spanish, Memorized! :D We also had interviews yesterday which was really good. President and Sister Clayton are great examples and we are so grateful to have them here with us. They really have the spirit with them and they were called to this mission at this time for a reason. They have taught me a lot.
.
Things are going well out here - we had two random people come into our church building on Sunday, checking it out because they lived nearby - so we're going to go visit them. We had a lizard run into our garage... and now it must live under the boxes because we haven't seen it since... And we have a serious ant problem - no worries, we have windex, paper towels and gorilla glue - solves everything.
.
Well I hope you are all doing well! I love you and pray for you daily. Stay out of trouble, study the scriptures and preach my gospel, pray daily and go to church. Those things help us to live the gospel every day of our lives!
Love Sister Maureen Davis
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)