Week 10

hola hola hola

hi guys! let's see, a lot of funny stuff happened this week! it's just too much to tell all in one email! but I will answer dad's question first about my birthday!!!!!!!! yeah i'm not going to be a teenager anymore. i'm a little upset about that. And I would really like to live it up for my last few weeks as a teenager, but there really aren't too many ways to live it up on my mission. I mean, I can't even stay up past 10:30... if you have any good ideas, let me know! 

transfers are on january 27 I think. sis tolman and I will definitely stay together because she is training me, and it's a 12 week program, so we'll definitely have this next transfer together. we are pretty sure we will stay in butler but there is a chance we could get doubled out (maybe to a new spanish area!), but most likely we will still be here! we get the call the saturday night before.

language study...is hard. we read a chapter together every day in the book of mormon and then normally we just do our own thing for the rest of the time. I practicing pronunciation sometimes or will write new vocab words. I read out of preach my gospel a lot in spanish and write down words I don't know. but our district leader is mexican, so he told us he would call us during language study if we want for half an hour and we can practice speaking with him. but we still want to go to the nursing home and practice with julio. it's really hard but we probably need to speak it more with each other, but yes we do our hour of language study every day. but I was thinking this week about getting set apart, and I specifically remember that pres langford blessed me with the gift of tongues, and I thought about needing to be willing to work for this gift to be blessed with it. so I am going to start using my spanish more with sister tolman and put in the effort, and I know that if i do this, Heavenly Father will bless me with the gift of tongues.

oh sherilyn...yeah, we got dropped. so we had such an awesome day set up! okay the relief society president in our ward is AWESOME. she comes out with us every tuesday and she is just like the most generous person maybe ever. but we had such a great day planned with her tuesday! we were going to bring her to see sherilyn (we had an appointment set up, and sherilyn said she would love to meet the RS president), and then we had a media referral to go see, tracy. she had requested a bible, and we had some formers to go try. BUT sherilyn just didn't answer the door. so we had originally scheduled to meet with her on mondaynight, but she texted us and told us that she was feeling sick on monday, and she wanted to reschedule for tuesday. so we said great! then she texted us on tuesday about an hour before our appointment and told us she was running late and was still with a client but to still come because she still wanted to have the lesson. So we go, and she wasn't there. we tried calling, no answer. we texted, no answer. then we went back later that night after dinner to try her again, and someone was definitely in the house. the TV was on, lights were on, but no answer. we tried texting her again a few days later, but nothing. so yeah. we are going to keep trying her, but it sounds like she is doing the same thing to us she did to the previous missionaries. 

THE GIMAS. we love them!!!! so so much. okay, so we went to visit them on saturday night, and they live like 10 miles out, so it takes a while to get there. But we stopped by (we don't have their phone number to make an appointment and they said just to stop by), and knocked at around 4:40, and bro gima answered the door and looked as us like he was confused, and I was so nervous that they didn't want us to come back! but he just told us they were in the middle of eating, and so we asked him if we could come back in a few hours, and he said yes. so we had talked about setting expectations with them and making sure that they knew our purpose in being there was to help them come closer to christ and help them be able to come back to church. we wanted to be direct with them so we knew where they were with their desire to come back. anyways, we went back to their house after a few hours (we just spent time trying other less actives in the area and some tracting), and they let us right in! I love their daughters! and we talked for a little bit, and when it was time to start the lesson, I literally had butterflies in my stomach. because I was so afraid that they were going to tell us they weren't interested in coming back to church, and I thought they might not want us to come back because they haven't liked people to visit in the past. but it went soooo well. we asked them about their testimonies of the restoration, and sis gima told us she has no doubt that it is all true. she said that she knows that her issue right now is not a spiritual issue but that it is a worldly issue and that she needs to get over it and come back. she actually told us that she has been praying a lot recently to know how to start coming back after so long and that our visits have been an answer to her prayers. it was so amazing. they are so prepared. and I was just so grateful that we came when we did. If we had knocked on their door a few weeks earlier, they might have told us they weren't interested, we would have written it in the area book, and missionaries wouldn't have gone back. We went and visited them at the perfect time. and we are so excited to help them come back to church. 

we met with cicy and nora yesterday, and she got to talk to the sister from temple square that is serving in pennsylvania right now. that sister is going to email her number to chinese sisters actually in temple square. so now we are just helping cicy and nora with their english, and the temple square sisters will take over on the gospel part of it! we love them!

geocaching!!!! hahah I love that mom and chris geocache. that is sooooo awesome. I am going to tell bro beers about that! he will probably be so excited! we didn't have the opportunity to geocache last monday because we had a district p day, and we actually didn't get to see the beers family, because he was sick last week, and sis beers got sick this week! but bro beers called us last night and gave us four more geocaching clues so we could go today!!!! he is so awesome! and he told us that we can come some time this week. he just didn't want us to get sick if we had come last week. but we can't wait to geocache and then go see him! geocaching leads to reactivation. 

oh my gosh!!!! I have the best way to read the book of mormon. if you are ever needing a laugh during your scripture study, read alma 54. and when it says ammoron, you pronounce it like "a moron." it is literally the funniest thing ever. especially verse 16. ps. I actually do focus during personal study, don't get the wrong idea.

okay this was funny. so we were reading the chapter on commitments in preach my gospel a few days ago, and it says that you should rarely visit with someone or talk to someone without leaving them a commitment. and commitments are supposed to be specific, clear, and direct. so we decided that during tracting, we were going to work on leaving commitments and making them promises that if they would listen to our message, they would feel greater peace and joy in their lives and it would help them get through whatever challenges they are facing. So it was sister tolman's turn at a door. And she went through the beginning thing: "we are missionaries...we are sharing a message about the restored gospel of christ...we promise you that if you listen to our message you will feel greater joy...will you learn more about the gospel of jesus christ?" hahha he goes: "will I?" sis tolman: "yeah, will you?" it was SOOO FUNNY. his face when she asked him so directly: will you learn more? priceless. literally priceless. but we have been leaving commitments at the doors! we are trying to hard to find people, but it's hard!

hahha and one night, we went to area 3, and there weren't a lot of less actives or formers or anyone to see in the area, so after we visited with one family, we just planned to tract. but this was the night it was really cold, and there was lots of snow on the ground so we were walking through the snow. and my feet literally felt like they were sitting in an ice box the whole time. hahha and sister tolman says: "yeah, I knew my mission would be hard. I thought it might be physically demanding having to walk a lot, but I never realized it would physically hurt this much (talking about her toes.)" hahhaa I was laughing so hard. 

someone tell me how the kings are doing! I know tom is probably really busy with the busy season so someone will have to take over! and chris and ryan: i need lots of details about those playoffs. oh my gosh guys. I have been just so tempted to watch football these past two weeks! Saturday night, sis tolman and I were in a really far out area, so we grabbed dinner at this diner in this area. and we are facing the tv and guess what is playing. patriots vs ravens. ugh it was SO HARD to not watch! and then the other week we were somewhere where the panthers vs cardinals was playing. thank goodness a 49ers game wasn't playing because I don't know if I would have been able to look away!

this week has been a lot harder than the last. we had lots of lessons fall through, but that is okay! we know that we just need to keep working hard, and we will see success! 

okay, I think that is it! love you guys!

hermana jamie michelle davis