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

Week 9

hey guys!

your san francisco trip sounds like it was so much fun! I am so jealous! but guess what! so the elders that are in our ward had to go to pittsburgh on sunday for a doctors appointment. it's a member doctor, so he will see missionaries in the evenings and on weekends for free. so since they don't have a car, we had to drive them to pittsburgh (which was fine with us)! except we were excited because we were going to go to chipotle and chick fil a because they didn't know what day they had to go on, so we were hoping they would have to go like tomorrow or wednesday. but they found out saturday they had to go sunday. so we were sad because we couldn't go to any of our favorite food places :(. but it was really fun! they actually had to go a little past pittsburgh, so we got to drive right through the city! it is so pretty!!!! i wish I could serve right in downtown, but it's all just elders areas! But it was so fun even just to drive through it! but anyways, we dropped the elders off at the doctors' house and we got to go eat with the pres johnson and sister johnson. because the elders were going to eat with the doctor, and we didn't have anywhere to go and it was fast sunday. so the johnsons told us we could come eat with them. it was so fun! and it was really good food! we had rice with this sauce and chicken over it, and it reminded me of italian chicken ha!

I had my first baptism on saturday!!!! Tiara hoy got baptized. 

so she had a date since I got here, but we just finished teaching her. her sister, shana, was baptized a few weeks before we got here. and at our appointment with her on saturday, theresa (their mom) told us she is really excited to start coming to church! she just needs to finish getting her car fixed. I think I have told you about them before. she knows it's true. she sits in on all the lessons, but she won't take rides from anyone. and shana and tiara's dad, marvin, wants their whole family to get baptized. but he won't sit in on the lessons yet. it will be a big lifestyle change for them. theresa and marvin both smoke, and they aren't married but they have been together for 20 years and have 5 kids together. so theresa asked us on saturday if she could go to church even though she smokes and they aren't married and we told her of course! we told her that to get baptized, they would need to get married, and she would have to stop smoking but she can definitely come to church! so we are so excited because her desire to come to church is getting stronger and stronger. the baptism was amazing! tiara said she felt really good during it. so now we have to teach her all of the recent convert lessons, so just go through all five lessons with her again, and hopefully marvin will start to sit in!

I think I have told you guys about nick and jan. we went to their house to skype, and he is a nonmember who likes reading the book of mormon with us every sunday and she was recently reactivated. so we didn't get to read with him last sunday because they had people staying at their house, but we went to breakfast with jan on tuesday, and she told us that nick asked her if we could come over sometime during the week to read with him because we didn't get to on sunday. so we said of course! and we were so happy that he wanted to read still! so we went over there tuesday night and read with him. so sister tolman had a great idea! He loves reading the book of mormon which is obviously awesome, but we decided to kind of sneak the lessons in there. in first nephi, it talks about lehi having visions so that is perfect to talk about prophets and how the gospel has blessed all of lehi's family. and how heavenly father loves us so much, which is why he guided lehi and his family to the promised land. so on tuesday, the lesson was so good! I think we really got him to think! we asked him if he thought joseph smith was a prophet, and he told us that he didn't know because anybody can say they saw something. but he did say something awesome! he told us that everyone always says they want proof to believe something, and he said: "but you can't have proof." so we thought it was awesome that he acknowledged that he will never have proof! we told him to keep praying and that we know that praying is the one way to really know if something is true. so this was on tuesday, and we were excited because the lesson went well. and we asked him if he would read 1 nephi 6, and normally he never actually reads during the week by himself. but we told him it was only 6 verses! and it would only take him a few minutes to read it, so he said he would!

okay, so then sunday comes. and we are looking for jan after sacrament meeting. and I see someone from the back who looks like jan, and I see a man standing next to her, and I am like NO WAY. IT IS NICK! he came to church! So a new gospel doctrine teacher was called, and nick really likes him, so he just came for gospel doctrine but we were still so happy! he actually did sit in the foyer for part of sacrament meeting though! I was sooooo happy to see him there! so we normally go over sunday nights, but we had to go to pittsburgh yesterday, but we still ended up being able to be at nick and jan's for a little bit afterwards, and we talked about chapter 6 (we didn't have time to read the next chapter) but nick read it!!!! and he said: "okay so this week I read chapter 7?" he is getting a greater desire! I am so happy! and he wants to read on his own now!

we didn't get to see cicy and nora this week (chinese investigators) because we had to go to pittsburgh, and we see them on sundays at around 4. but we asked president johnson about it during dinner, and there is a sister serving here from temple square who is chinese! so we are going to call her and see if she can call and talk to nora and cicy! 

we have been seeing lots of less actives! we are excited! on new years eve, our dinner appointment got cancelled, so we made a goal of seeing as many people as possible haha! but we had miles left over, so we decided to go far out into one of our areas, and the first family we tried to see (the gima family) let us right in! we talked to them, and shared a thought with them. so they are awesome. they have two girls, 11 and 12. and we were confused why they weren't coming out to church because they seemed to know a lot, and when we shared a scripture from the book of mormon, they had a lot of spiritual thoughts to add! so we were confused. we talked to brother popa (ward mission leader) about it on saturday, and he told us that they used to come but apparently there was some drama in the ward, and so they stopped coming a few years back. but I guess they didn't use to let missionaries in, so he is excited that they are willing to talk to us. and they invited us back and everything! so we will try to work with them. we tried a few other families on new years eve, but nobody else let us in, but it was awesome to see the gima family!!!

geocaching was awesome! we found 2 of the 3 that stephen beers told us to look for! 

so we called them friday because we wanted to see if we could stop by saturday night, and his wife, lisa, told us that he was sick. I guess he had plans friday night but decided that he wasn't going to go out because he didn't want to get other people sick, and so she asked us to call next week to see if he felt better. But we told her that we went geocaching and we are excited to tell him about it next week, and when he heard that, he wanted to talk to us on the phone! so we told him, and he was so excited! so we will see them this week for sure. we are so excited because we feel like we have a pretty good relationship with him, so we are hoping that we are able to help him come back out!

we have a new investigator! her name is sherilyn. so she was actually taught already  by some sisters in cranberry (a city maybe 40 minutes from here). so the missionaries first tracted into her about a year and a half ago, and they taught her all the lessons, and she had a baptismal date. they helped her stop smoking. and she was going to get baptized, but then she said she had a really creepy dream about evil spirits or something and so she just cut off ties with the church. then about a year later, she started going to some other churches, and she thought about the sisters a lot and just knew that those churches weren't right. so she called them and asked if they could teach her again. so she had another baptismal date, and I guess her boyfriend (now ex boyfriend) was really anti, and so she just stopped contacting the missionaries. but they broke up, she moved into our area, and she said she wants to finally get baptized. we are nervous that once we set a baptismal date, something else will happen, and she will get freaked out again. but she said she wants to actually go all the way this time. she is 23, and has a 4 year old daughter, haley. But she said she knows the book of mormon is true, and she has a good knowledge of everything. and she told us she knows that as she gets closer to baptism, satan works harder on her to get her to take a step back, so she wants to get through it! we are hoping that she can finally get baptized! we teach her again tonight, so we are excited!

this week has been awesome! We have worked really hard and have been seeing success! we are doing a lot of tract 5, so I am getting a lot more experience tracting. we even tracted 5 at this one house, and we probably walked at least half a mile. the houses were so far apart!!! but ever since we have started working our whole area (it's huge, so it's hard to work it all with the miles) and have been trying to work starting from less actives and then tracting 5 if they aren't home, we have been seeing a lot more success. we are excited with the way things are going!

It's awesome here! I am learning a lot! I miss you guys! I love you guys! you are all awesome.

hermana davis

Week 8

hello! I pretty much just talked to you guys, but a lot of funny stuff has happened since then! Also dad, I loved your hecka long letter. It made me laugh that you said that ha. It's great that you sold the van! and you guys are FINALLY getting the yard landscaped! yay! hopefully it will be done by the time I come home!

okay so one day we had planned out like 13 less active people to go try. and they were all in the same general area. so we get to the first one, and we couldn't exactly see the house numbers, so we just decide to park and get out and find the house. So we park, get out of the car, start walking toward the houses, and this guy calls out to us: "are you girls lost or somethin g?" sister tolman: "we are just looking for david in house 313." him: "well david lives a few houses down that way. you are parked in a private driveway." sis tolman: "oh we are so sorry. we'll move the car." him: "you mean you are telling me that you had no idea that that is a driveway?" (he was basically calling her a liar). sis tolman: "umm yes we didn't know it was a driveway..." okay it does not look anything like a driveway! it looked like it was just a road! like I thought we had just turned down a road and parked! (keep in mind that this was in the dark too!) anyways, we get in the car, and we see that this guy whose driveway we had parked on is standing on the side of his house holding a baseball bat! like he was going to beat the person who accidentally parked on his driveway. and the guy who had been talking to us (his neighbor I guess) called out to him (the guy holding the baseball bat): "you're good. I told them to leave." WHAT, these pennsylvania people really like their driveways. hahaha we just left and decided to skip visiting david that night. so anyways we almost got beat with a baseball bat! I was actually a little creeped out when I saw him holding the bat!

okay after that, we go try this other girl and nobody answered. so we do the "tract 5." so if the person who you were planning on seeing wasn't home, you tract the 5 houses surrounding them. but we were actually just going to do a tract one because it was a really creepy area, and the apartment/house thing next door had a light on. so we knock on the door. and the lady in there yells through the door in the most nasally voice I think I have ever heard: "who is it?" we say: "missionaries from..." she cuts us off: "who is it? who is it?" we answer again. she says: "NO GO AWAY. we are eating dinner." she seriously had the most horrible voice in the world. ryan I am starting to get all these funny tracting stories now!

then we go to visit this other less active. and we pull up to his house. no just kidding. it is not a house. it is a freaking MANSION. in the middle of the woods. literally the door was so big sis tolman was like: "i don't even know where to knock." they have like 5 mercedes sitting in their driveway. anyways we knock and his son (i think) lets us in and goes to get his dad. okay their christmas tree is like 20 feet high. and their house is just ridiculous. anyways he talks to us, and everything he was telling me just made me so sad. he told us that he didn't want us to waste his time with him because he knows we are busy and he has zero interest. he said that if something doesn't make any philosophical sense to him, there is no reason to pray about it. I was like NOOOO. you have it the opposite way! if you pray about something and it is true, does it matter if it doesn't make sense? and also, everything in the gospel makes so much sense! that is what I love about it! every time I read the book of mormon especially in conjunction with the bible, it all makes so much sense! they fit together perfectly. the plan of salvation makes so much sense. but anyway, it just made me really sad that he won't pray about something because it doens't make sense to him. their family could be such a strong family in the church. and he even said they live all the same standards, but he doesn't understand that they could be so much happier with the gospel.

okay but then we had a total highlight! we went to go see another less active, stephen beers! he and his wife are SO NICE. they invited us in and had us sit down. so he converted when he was in the air force and then went on a mission to las vegas. we don't know exactly why yet he stopped coming to church. we know that he butted heads with his mission president, but we don't know if that is all to the story. his wife, lisa, is a nonmember. but they are so nice! he told us that it has been a while since the missionaries came by. anyways, we talked to them for awhile and found out about what they like. he is a big geocacher!!!! have you guys heard of geo caching? oh my gosh it sounds so fun! I don't feel like explaining it so just look it up online! he even told us he would want to take us geocaching sometime! but he told us where the geocaches are here in butler and told us the hints so we can go find them! so today after we are done shopping we are going to geocache! and we didn't think there were fun things to do in butler on p day. we were so wrong! and we figure that once we geocache, he is really going to love us! but it was so awesome talking to them. we didn't have a lot of time because it was late and we had to go home, so we didn't get to actually give them a lesson, but we ended with a prayer before we left. and I think it was so good that we spent time getting to know them, and i think it showed him that we are actually there because we want to help him, not just to have another less active lesson to add to our numbers for the day. obviously we wish we could have gotten in a lesson with him, but I think we created a good relationship with them. they told us to come back any time and they would be there! we really hope we can get him to start coming back to church and teach his wife the lessons. anyway look up geocaching. it's what I will be doing this afternoon! next week I'll send you awesome pictures hahha.

okay well I am having tons of fun out here! sister tolman and I laugh all the time! she is awesome! getting to skype with you guys on christmas was so much fun! christmas was incredible. we got to go to a nursing home in the afternoon and visit with people who normally don't get visitors. it was so cool spending the day serving! we found a man in the nursing home, julio, who is from puerto rico and speaks spanish!!! so we told him we were going to come back, and we will spend our language study with him one day! two birds with one stone! service and language study. we can just speak to him in spanish, and that will probably help me more than anything! I am so excited that I get to be here for two christmases though. christmas was incredible! I really really love it here though! you guys are awesome. thank you for all the christmas presents. I love the ipod.

love you guys! miss you guys!

hermana davis

Week 7

Hi guys! I am actually saying hi from Pittsburgh now!!! crazy!!!

okay so for christmas: we're allowed to skype for an hour. I don't know exactly what time. Sometime between probably 10 to 12 I will call you.

Okay on to Pittsburgh! So the night that we went out with the mission president and his wife, they actually just took us to an outlook point so we could see pittsburgh from far away! It was really really pretty! But we didn't actually go into the city. 

And then we spent the night at their house that night and went and did some training the next day. And then we had the transfer meeting, and I met my companion! So there were two spanish sisters coming in, but only one spanish sister available to be a trainer here! So one of us would be paired with her and one would be paired with an english trainer but go to an area that had some spanish speakers. But I got lucky and got paired with the spanish sister! So right now, there are only 7 spanish sisters in our whole mission and 20 spanish elders! So it definitely is not a very big spanish speaking area. We only have 2 spanish groups that meet for church in our whole mission, and these are not branches. Groups. So yeah, there are not a lot of spanish speakers. And I am actually in an english area. But we figure that there is a reason that there were 2 spanish sisters sent to this area, so there has got to be some spanish speaking people we can help here! But it's nice because we still do our companion prayers in spanish and everything, and my companion actually has really good spanish! she used to be in an area where like 40 or 50 percent of the people were puerto rican, so she said her spanish really improved there. 

So I am in butler! It is about an hour northeast of pittsburgh. And it is a car area. ugh I REALLY wanted a walk area but it's okay. There actually is a walk area in downtown butler, but it is an elders area. And so we have the area surrounding downtown butler basically. It's actually a really big area. So there are four missionaries in our ward. the 2 elders and then me and my companion. the elders are really funny, and we actually see them a lot because we have most of the same dinner appointments, and we have to drive them to all the dinners and take them shopping on pday and stuff. the ward is awesome! all of the dinners we have had have been so good! But I didn't know I could actually get sick of cookies. We get so many sweets it's crazy! The people are so nice here though! They always give us food to take home, and one family gave us a ton of fruit to take home! My favorite! And it was good stuff. Like pineapples, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, oranges. yum. Oh guess what!!! I ate my first bite of red meat in probably like 2 years!!!! Yesterday for lunch, this family invited us over and they were having prime rib. And I felt really bad not taking any of it because they obviously thought it was an awesome lunch. So I took the smallest piece I could find and ate most of it. It was so weird!!!! It wasn't too bad though. 

ugh you want to hear something awful? I have had like the worst car sickness EVER here! Like on the first night with the mission president and his wife, we were driving in there car with them and I was in the back. And I felt so so sick. I thought for sure I was going to throw up. And we had to stop because sister johnson (mission president's wife) had to get out and get something from like the dry cleaners or something, and I felt so sick so I asked if I could step out for a second. I have literally not felt that carsick in so long. And then she made me sit in the front seat, so I felt pretty dumb haha. But it helped a lot to sit up front. And then when my companion and I were driving from pittsburgh where we had the transfer meeting to butler, we had to stop so I could get out of the car for a little bit because I was feeling really carsick again. The first few days it was horrible. Pretty much every time we got in the car I dreaded it because I felt so so so so so sick. I think it is because there are basically so many curvy roads everywhere. And also, I think it was because I hadn't really been in a car for 6 weeks while I was in the ccm, and so I think that made it worse. But it has gotten better now. I only feel carsick when we get lost or right after we eat normally. but it is getting better! so thank you mom for that awesome motion sickness gene!!!!

okay my companion! is hermana tolman. she is from south carolina and went to byu for summer and fall 2013. she actually lived in the same building in summer as I did for fall! And we know a few of the same people. she has been out for 11 months and is awesome! she is so funny! And president johnson told me that I probably got the best trainer in the mission! She is great. I think we are going to have a lot of fun together!

Butler is a pretty nice area. It is definitely not the big city I wanted to serve in, but I hope I get to serve in pittsburgh one day! And I'm really sad I didn't get a walk area, but it is okay. It is so much harder here than in the ccm already! I get wayyyy more tired during the day. and we have four hours of study every single day! So we don't even leave our apartment until 1. so we wake up and exercise and get ready and have personal study at 8, companion study at 9, an hour of training at 10, then normally lunch at 11, and then language study at 12. so then we leave at 1. It's really hard having to do that much study every day especially when most other missionaries only have to do 2 hours of study but it is still great! It's hard because I feel like we don't get a ton of time to do actual missionary work every day, but I think I will start to get used to it.

so for investigators we are teaching. we have a few. the hoy family. so right before I got here, shana, the daughter who is 15 was baptized. her 14 year old sister, tiera, has a baptismal date set for january 3 but she is still waiting for an answer on if the bom and church is true, so we are not sure if she will be ready for that date yet or not. There is also a 13 year old sister, shekera, who has been to church a few times I think but is not really interested in listening to the lessons. They also have a 16 year old brother, lamont, who also does not listen to the lessons. The mother, teresa, does listen to the lessons, and I think she knows that what we are teaching is true. She has not been to church though because their car is getting fixed and she doesn't want to accept a ride from anybody. But shana and tiera come to church every week, and they get a ride from a family in the ward. And the dad, marvin, also won't listen to the lessons, but we are hoping he will start listening soon! 

then we have john ventana. He was a media referral and requested a book of mormon online. He wants to still be taught, but we have to teach him after the holidays. But hermana tolman said he seems like he is really interested.

And then we have nick demartini. His wife, jan, was recently reactivated, and we go over to their house every sunday night to read out of the book of mormon with him. He is not interested in the lessons yet, but he does love to read the book of mormon and he does pray on his own, so that is a good start. I just met them last night and they are awesome! we are actually going over to their house on christmas morning to skype.

We have been trying to pick up some new investigators but aren't having any success. There are a few spanish prospects though! One is elizabeth. We have had a few appointments with her to teach her, but she is never there! But we are going to keep trying! Another one is Vimarie. She was taught about the book of mormon, and we also had a return appointment with her, but we went back,and she had to leave to pick up her daughter from school. But we are going to keep trying her too. Nick demartini actually knows both of them because he works with their husbands. And we found out from him last night that elizabeth actually has cancer. We think. So that makes sense because she told us that she wasn't feeling well. I don't know what stage of cancer she is in or what, but hopefully we can teach her about the gospel because it would probably really help her.

We went tracting!!! We are actually sharing "He is the Gift." Have you guys all seen the video on mormon.org? If not you should definitely watch it! It is really good to share because it is pretty non-denominational and is just a great message about christ being the reason for christmas, so people are pretty receptive to it. Tons of people are strong catholics though here, so that makes it difficult. But we found one lady, Carol! She told us that she would be willing to learn more but after the holidays because she just has a ton going on right now. So she invited us inside though and gave us her phone number and told us to call her in january. I hope she actually wants to listen though! I am excited to call her back! That is the only time we have tracted though. sister tolman said we try to do everything we can before tract because it is so ineffective. ryan did you tract a lot in your mission?

we are also trying to help a few less actives. one family, the charles family, is really close to reactivation. we are going over there christmas night at around 7 I think actually. So the people that live at home now is the mom, and then her two daughters, brandy and hope. She has more kids but they are all grown and married. And then we have kristen green, who just needs to realize why church is important and make the decision to come. But we go see her every week and share a thought with her. She is probably late 20s and lives with her parents, who are also inactive.

The work is pretty slow here, but we are trying to find new investigators. This mission is supposedly pretty hard and has a low number of baptisms, but we are going to make this a great transfer and get a lot of people to teach or a lot of less actives closer to coming back to church! 

we are also teaching a lady english! they actually tracted her out right before I got here. They found her daughter, nora. but they speak chinese!!! so we don't really know how we are going to teach her, but we will figure it out. we found out last week that nora's mom would be there on sunday, so we went last night. we knocked on the door, and then nora and her mom (whose name is cicy) walked up the front porch steps! cicy invited us in and pulled out her google translate and that is how we communicated with her! we watched a mormon.org video with her that had chinese subtitles. she told us that she wants to learn english and the bible, so we are hopefully going to find her a spanish book of mormon. It is going to be pretty hard to figure out how to teach her english or even anything about the church but we are going to try! nora  speaks a little bit of english. But we told them to go to mormon.org and read more about it before we go back next sunday. so hopefully they will do that.

and dad, I am going to buy a warmer jacket today. right after this actually. we have some service set up for christmas eve and christmas day. we are going to go to a few nursing homes and carol to the people there or do some visits, so that should be really fun. we have also gone caroling once with the elders in our ward to some houses here in butler. it was a really good experience. we sang silent night and the first noel. One lady offered us cookies, another lady gave us candy, and someone else offered us money. I was really bummed that we couldn't take the money ha just kidding. But we are going caroling tonight and tomorrow night as well. president johnson really encouraged us to make this christmas all about serving and make sure we go to some nursing homes and do lots of caroling, so we are trying to do all of that! and after we carol to the houses, we share a he is the gift pass along with them.

well this is a really really long email, and there is even so many more funny stories to write, but it is really hard to keep going. it honestly is really hard though especially because I feel like we're not having a ton of success, and I feel like there is so much more I can do, but I know that I am in butler for a reason and that I just need to keep working hard. It's hard though because I feel like I'm barely working because we can't even leave our apartment until 1! But i am just going to try to keep working harder and harder every day.

I can't wait to skype you guys on christmas! is everyone going to skype? okay well love you all! sorry this email is really long and kind of all over the place, but I haven't really emailed in two weeks so I just had so much to say and everything is so new now! But it really is awesome here! Oh one night our heat stopped working and it was literally 50 degrees in our apartment all night and during study time. it was horrible! but then the landlord came and fixed it the next day. so I'm glad our heater works now! okay well I will see you guys in like 3 days!!!! love you!

hermana davis

5.5

YOU GUYS I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW AHHHH. I have to be at reception at 3:30 so it´s not too early compared to some people in my district. they have to be there at 2. I´m traveling with quite a few people to chicago, and then just with one other girl from chicago to pittsburgh.  i don´t have a lot of time, so this email won´t be very long but I am so excited to go! I am going to miss it here so much because this place is amazing and it has changed my life. And I will miss all the people here so much because they are all awesome! But I can´t wait to get to pittsburgh and be a real missionary! They gave us two pass along card things that we are supposed to give out at the airport. But they are both in spanish so I will have to give it out at the airport in Mexico haha. I am a little nervous because I don´t really like talking to random people especially in a language I barely know, but I know that I can do it. I weighed both my suitcases and they are each 48 pounds! And that is including my big towel, which last time I put in my carry on! But I just read an email from my mission that asked me to put everything I will need for one night in only one suitcase, so now I have to make sure I do that!

My companion went home yesterday morning. her anxiety was getting really bad again, so she called her parents and decided to go home. so she left yesterday morning at 9:30. it was really hard because we get along so well, but I just want her to go home and get better. She is so awesome, and it´s hard not having her here, but I´m so grateful she was my companion. she has such a strong testimony and she helped me grow in so many ways. and she is also hilarious. so now I am in a trio with the other two hermanas in our district and it´s really not that weird because the four of us were together all the time anyways. I´m so glad that I was already close to them, because if I hadn´t been, it would have been really really awkward to join their companionship, but it has actually been really fun.

I had to switch houses too for one night but it wasn´t that big of a deal because I had to pack anyways. Wish I had more time but I don´t! dont know when I´ll be able to email again. hopefully soon! love you guys! GO 49ERS TODAY

Hermana davis

Week 5

Hi guys!

I only have like 4 full days left here! It is going to go by so so so fast! I honestly can´t wait to get to pittsburgh! I love it here, but I am ready to go and start teaching real people! And just feel like a real missionary!!!

I´m glad the savior of the world musical was good and that grandma is going with you guys to the ward party! That will be really fun! The first presidency christmas devotional was really good! I was a little bummed that president monson didn´t speak though! It was all about service, so it got me really excited to go out to the field and be able to start serving people! I´m so glad I get to leave before christmas! I can´t imagine having to be here for christmas because you can´t get any packages and I don´t even know if you get to call home! We started packing some of our stuff today, and it got me so excited to go!

And I am keeping a journal dad! I´ve written in it every night so far, and I´ve been pretty detailed. I´m actually a third of the way through that journal you got me at deseret book before I left, so I will probably want a new journal soon! Maybe for my birthday?

Man i don´t even know what to say. Every day is basically exactly the same, so it´s really hard to distinguish day to day. We have our in-field orientation on friday! I seriously can´t wait to get to pittsburgh! Honestly I just want to be back in the united states! When we land in chicago, I am going to be so so happy! 

WOW... I don´t even know what to say about the 49ers. What happened? It´s probably because I´m not watching. I hope kaep steps it up because I think he can be really good. I also hope we get a new offensive coordinator, and I also hope that jim harbaugh does not leave the team, because he´s so awesome. but wow. losing to the raiders? I can´t believe it. Luckily I don´t care half as much as I used to because that is just embarrassing. just look forward to next year I guess. 

Oh this is so funny! I can´t remember if I told you guys about this or not. so if I did, just read it again and laugh again. so when we first got here, we got these water bottles and they just told us to fill them up because they have like water jug things everywhere, and so I had that bottle for awhile. and I would always throw it up in the air while I was walking and try to catch it. hermana andelin (a girl in my district) would throw her bottle up and catch it too. so one night we had a break from class, and we went outside and starting throwing the water bottles. so she accidentally throws hers backwards and it lands on the roof. I was laughing so hard, and I was like: "rookie mistake." So then I try to throw my water bottle super high, and because I'm trying to throw it so high, I throw it backwards and mine lands on the roof too! I was so sad! But anyways, it is still on the roof and you can just see it sitting on the edge of the roof hahha. so for breakfast, they have these like yogurt drink things, and so I just get one and wash it out and fill it up with water and use that as my new water bottle. I've had to get a few different ones because when you throw it really high in the air and then don't catch it, they start to break. so anyways I had one that I threw suuuuper high in the air, and then it hit the cement, and the bottom just breaks open, and all the water flew everywhere. so I had to wait until breakfast the next day until I could get a new one. then at breakfast, they didn't have the yogurt bottles, and I wanted to cry!!! but then at dinner that night, they had the refrigerators open with the yogurt. (I think they just hadn't locked them yet because normally they never have them open, and right after I got one, I saw a guy walking towards the refrigerators with keys!) so I was sooooo happy and I got a new bottle. then that night, hermana everett and I walked outside after we taught or something, and I tried to throw the bottle suuuuper high, and I throw it backwards, and it lands on the roof. I WAS SO MAD. I had finally gotten a new bottle and then I lost it like an hour later. So now I have two water bottles on the same roof! hahah but it was pretty funny.

okay another funny story. so a few nights ago it was like 9:15, so everyone in my district was all kneeling at the front of the room ready to say a closing prayer. and elder ferguson was still sitting at his desk. so he looks up and says "oh shoot!" he didn't know we were ready to say prayer. so he stands up super fast, turns around and starts running to the front of the room, and then totally trips over his own feet and falls flat on his face!!! like literally not just a trip, a fall! it was maybe the funniest thing i've ever seen. It must have hurt, because it made a really loud bang. but he was laughing so it was okay. but just imagine someone standing up really fast, turning, starting to run, and then suddenly they are just sprawled out on the floor. hahhaa

oh okay this is pretty funny too. so one night during class, my teacher said "abuelita" (which is grandma in spanish). and she asked us if she knew what it was. well i thought she said "arbolito." arbol is a tree, so I was thinking, well it's probably a small tree. so I say "small tree" and everyone else says grandma. I was dying laughing! the funny thing is that no one heard me, which was pretty awesome since it would have been pretty embarrassing, but I told them what I said anyways because it was so funny. small tree instead of grandma haha. I was so confused why we were suddenly talking about trees. I was like what does this have to do with what we are learning right now? ha

so last night during our district review after the devotional, one of the elders was talking about how the guy who spoke talked about preparation for a lot of things. and he said: "i've never heard of preparating my testimony before, and I think that's pretty cool." then another elder says "yeah, i've never heard of that one either." get it?  because he said preparating. hahaha it was so funny

man i still love the book of mormon so much! I can't believe i didn't read it all the time before I left. like geez, what was i wasting my time on before I left for my mission? I should have been reading the bom all the time! personal study time is my absolute favorite! every time I read the book of mormon, i feel so happy after, and everything can apply to me right now! it is just such a cool book!!!! 

so we are teaching three investigators right now. both of our teachers play as an investigator, and then we teach one of the missionaries in our district. our lessons are going pretty well! it's so cool that we are able to feel the spirit in a pretend situation. but i am so ready to be able to teach real people! and I know it is going to be so hard once I get out to the field, and it's going to be a lot more work, but I am really really really excited for it! it's crazy that i've already been out for 5 weeks! it sounds like nothing but it has FLOWN by. like I only have 17 months left! it's going to go by so fast! the weeks go by so fast. it's so weird.

oh so for fast sunday, we ate breakfast and lunch on saturday but no dinner. and then no breakfast on sunday, but we ate lunch and dinner. So it was like a full 24 hour fast. I actually didn´t get half as hungry as I was expecting. so one of the districts in our zone left really early on monday morning (so now we are the only district left of the first zone we had! one district left last week, and then this district just left this week. so it also makes me want to leave even more because I´m so jealous that they are all out in the field now!), but anyways on sunday night, they had like a last meeting thing, and they were going around just saying some last spiritual thoughts they had. and we were in there to say goodbye so they told us we could just stay.  but anyways, I felt the spirit so strong in there. one of them shared alma 17:2-3, and it´s when alma sees the sons of mosiah and he says his joy was full because they were still his brethren in the lord. and so the elder was just saying that he hopes that when he sees us again, we are still strong in the gospel too. The spirit was sooooo strong in the room, and it was just a huge confirmation of my testimony. I just knew that there would be no way I would have felt that feeling if the gospel wasn´t true. It´s so cool to be around missionaries all the time here, and the spirit is so strong. Like I seriously can´t believe how much my whole outlook on things has changed in 5 weeks! 

one thing I will really miss here is the weather! normally hna everett and I do language study outside, and we just sit on benches in the sun, and it feels so nice! my legs are getting a tan hahha! but I can´t wait to finally have a white christmas! it will be so cool! 

ps. you guys are so lucky that I write you so much. Every time someone looks at my email, they say: "wow that´s a really long email. I bet my family wishes I would send them an email like that" hahhaha. 

how is everything going with you guys? everything about the same?

oh dad! I keep forgetting to tell you! I love your questions! I especially loved the one from last week about why scripture study was important. I read a lot in d and c about how first I need to obtain the word and then preach the word. And without the spirit, I can't teach. And one way I can get the spirit and keep it with me is by reading the scriptures. I wish I had time to tell you more about what I found, but I found tons of scriptures about why scripture study is so important and that I need the spirit when I teach. It's so awesome how all the scriptures fit together so well! I love the scriptures so much! the book of mormon has seriously changed my life these past 5 weeks. 

okay I think that is all! I love you guys! i hope the christmas season is going well! do lots of shopping, and then send me all the stuff you buy! hahah okay love you guys

hermana davis

Week 4

Hi Family! I´m glad you like my funny stories! I have a few more from this week! I´m just going to try to answer everybody´s questions here because I feel like it´s easier. Kell, I´m really good friends with everyone in my district. We do everything together. We play sports at gym time, eat together (well we just eat with the other two hermanas because you´re not supposed to sit at the same table as the elders, but the elders just sit at the table right in front of us, so we talk to them), and then obviously we are together pretty much all day in class.

I don´t take more pictures because we´re only supposed to take pictures on pday. And most of our pday we play sports with our district or zone, so we don´t get a ton of pictures. But I think once I´m out in the field you can take pictures every day. It´s not that hard to wake up early because we go to bed so early. 10:30 and the lights are off, and I actually wake up at around 6:10 each day now on my own which is SUPER ANNOYING. I get so mad when I´m laying in my bed that I didn´t just sleep until 6:30! But I´m never really that tired when I wake up. Sometimes throughout the day I get tired but not really a lot.   I´m always ready for it to be 9:30 though so I can go home and get ready for bed. And there is not really time to get bored. Our schedule is packed all day every day. I should take a picture of it and send it to you guys next week because we always have somewhere to go. Our only breaks are during meals- 30 minutes for breakfast, 1 hour for lunch, and 45 minutes for dinner. Honestly it is so fun here. We have so much fun, even in class. During our breaks during class time, we always play games. The floors are tile, and most of our shoes are slidey, so we run and slide a lot. Sometimes we do competitions to see who can slide the farthest. And our whole zone has class in the same building, so sometimes we talk to them at break if we have it at the same time. There´s a district in our zone of just 12 elders, and they´re really fun. They just got here a week before us so they´re leaving at the end of this week.

So Thanksgiving was really fun! We had a devotional in the morning, and elder bednar was speaking in provo, so they broadcast it here. It was like a question and answer type session, so all the missionaries in provo got phones, and they texted their questions to his ipad. and then here, we could just write our questions on an index card, and they emailed the questions to him. I was pretty mad that I didn´t get to text my question to him. How cool is that to text an apostle? but I wasn´t lucky enough to get that experience haha. He answered the questions so well. Even if the question wasn´t that interesting, his answer was so cool. One of the really cool things he talked about was agency, and he said that once you have been baptized, you can´t just say that you are using your agency to not follow Christ anymore. he said that at this point, it´s not the same type of agency. We already used our agency to be baptized and make covenants, so when we choose to not follow Christ, we are breaking our covenants not just ¨using our agency that God gave us to do whatever we want.¨ I had just never thought of that before. He´s so cool, and it was cool to see him in that type of a setting because he and his wife were hilarious. You could see a lot more of his personality because he wasn´t just giving a talk. And then they did a thanksgiving lunch for us! I´m pretty sure there are a lot more americans here than natives, but it was so nice because they obviously don´t even celebrate it here. They had pie with ice cream, turkey, really good mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and tons of other food. And they put tablecloths on the tables for us and had us use real plates and silverware instead of plastic and paper. And they had christmas music playing too in the background. It was so good! 

My spanish is coming! My teacher tells me that it´s really good. He says I pick up on things really fast, but I know the 4 years from high school really help! It´s cool though because things that I never understood in high school make so much sense here! Like I used to be really confused about the subjunctive tense in spanish, but I´m understanding it more now, so I´ll try to make up sentences where I think I would use subjunctive, and he says they are right. He told me that once we get to that lesson in class, he wants me to teach it because I speak better english so I can probably teach it better haha. But I told him that I was a student, and he is the teacher, so I think he should teach it. And I said that he taught it to me, so obviously he knows how to teach it, but he said I just understood it because I´m smart. Hahah he told me and my companion that he loves having us in class because we understand what he is saying in spanish. But I obviously still have a long way to go with the spanish, but I understand a ton now, and I can read the scriptures pretty well without looking at the english translation. It´s crazy how much better my spanish is when we are giving lessons though. During the lessons, our teachers told us that our spanish grammar is almost perfect, and it´s so cool because I can just think of things to say in the lessons (obviously with the help of the spirit.) and if they are asking a question and they use a word I don´t know that isn´t even similar to the word in english, we understand the question and can figure out ways to answer it. It´s really cool to see the gift of tongues working.

The wreath is on the door to the enfermeria. infirmary in english right? man my spelling is seriously taking a hard hit here. okay so this is HILARIOUS and so embarrassing!!! So our whole district decided to sing in choir, (and we're also going to the temple on December 14 at night to do a music program for the visitors´center, so that will be pretty fun! Only 36 missionaries are going, so it should be really cool to see everything all lit up and be able to sing there.) But anyway, the choir just normally sings at the Tuesday devotional. So my companion and i had colds this week, and she lost her voice with hers. So she couldn´t really sing, but she was just going to go up there to sing anyways and stand next to me and just mouth the words and try to sing it. So at the devotional when we stand up and start walking to the front, I say to her "okay i can't look at you while we are up there because I will probably start laughing." I guess I just think it's really funny that she is mouthing the words but not singing. And we are standing on the end and at the top, so we are pretty visible. So of course because I said that, I start laughing while we are singing. And I can't stop. Like once you start laughing it's just so hard to stop especially when you know that you need to stop! I was like silent laughing, but I can't sing because I'm laughing, and I am standing up there shaking because I am laughing. And the whole time I am just trying to stop because I could see everyone in the auditorium pretty well, so I was pretty sure that they could all see me too. So we sit down after the song that I was only able to sing a few lines to because I couldn't control my laughter, and I am so red! So after we ask the some of the elders in another district in our zone if they could see us laughing. And one said that he wasn't paying attention to us laughing, but before the song started he said he could see me really well. And another elder said that he did see us laughing during it! hahhaa so embarrassing but also pretty funny.

Oh okay this is hilarious too. so one of the districts in our zone had their last day sunday. and so we were all taking pictures sunday night as a zone, and their teacher was taking the picture for us. So he was kneeling on the cabinet in the back of the room taking the pictures, and after he is done, he goes to step off the cabinet and kind of falls off of it at the end, and he ripped his pants right up the back!!!! I didn't actually see it but my companion did and hermana sperry (another hermana in our district). so they are laughing so hard and they tell us why, and then we start to laugh. so the teacher is just like skirting around the room with his back to the wall. and elder prince (one of the elders who is leaving, so it's his teacher) goes up to give him a hug, and he says "man i love you, i'll never forget you" and then the teacher says "i just ripped my pants, i need you to get my sweater off of my desk" hahahhaa so he wraps the sweater around his waist and just walks out. we were dying!!!! 

PS i can't believe its december already! how did that happen!!! also this is so weird. so when my companion and I are walking, I get this really sharp pain up my right thigh, and it hurts really bad for like 30 seconds, so I have to like stop walking for a second! It´s really weird! I think I noticed that it happened before my mission, but we walk everywhere here so I notice it a lot more. 

We went to the temple today for our pday! Since it was closed we just saw the outside and we got a tour of the visitors´center. it is so pretty inside there!

and then we got to go to a store right on the temple grounds, and I bought a key chain.  But it was really fun! I´ll send pictures! Too bad we didn´t get to go inside because that would have been awesome! we were only there from like 9-11:20. It takes like 35 minutes to get there, so we were gone from like 815 to 12. I am so glad I live in the united states! Just looking out the window of the bus and seeing how rundown everything is here is crazy!

Also I just love it here! It´s so cool that there are not that many missionaries because you see the same people around all the time! Obviously I´m with my district all day and I see my zone a lot.  But they do like staggered meals, so we eat with the same people at mealtimes every day, so everyone is pretty familiar. And also we have the first meal time which is awesome because we get the first pick of everything haha. Hahaha so on monday, hna everett and I were at home after gym time changing and getting ready again, and we kept hearing this beeping sound in our house that was really loud and really annoying. it sounded like when the fire alarm needs a battery change. so we decide to look around and see what the source of the noise is. and hna everett finds out that it is the carbon monoxide alarm! but just doing the beeping like once every minute or 2 minutes or whatever. so we decide to call reception and tell them, but our phone doesnt work. but it was so funny because we knew that the alarm wasn´t actually going off and it only needed a battery change, but we were about to go to tall time (like the computer program to learn spanish), and so we get there and tell our teacher ¨we have a major problem in casa 20. we have to go to reception right now. our carbon monoxide alarm is going off, and we don´t know if we have carbon monoxide poisioning or what.¨ we were laughing so hard. and getting out of a little bit of tall time was pretty awesome too. 

oh on sunday we watched another old devotional that elder holland gave. obviously it was incredible. really similar to the last one we watched, but it was so good that I didn't even care. I would watch it every week. 

it´s honestly the best thing ever to be surrounded by missionaries. I´ve never felt the spirit so strong on a regular basis in my whole life. I will miss it here so much when I go. and being able to watch devotionals all the time and have district reviews and just talk about the gospel are awesome! my comp and I were talking about how weird it will be to just be with your comp all the time in the field. we´re together all the time here obviously but most of the time we are also with other people. the only times we are really alone are when we are walking back home at night or walking to breakfast or doing comp study. but even then, we study in class so we´re still around our district. it will definitely be a change in the field, but i´m excited to go!

I think that is all I have to say! I wish you could just all be here with me because it is seriously so much fun. the hermanas in my district are seriously hilarious. we laugh all the time. and it´s so fun that there are only 4 hermanas and 4 elders because we are all really close! I hope you come to the ccm chris! I was so bummed that I didn´t get to go to the provo mtc but now I am so glad I am here! i am going to miss it soooo much when I leave! okay well i love you all! This week I was just thinking how happy I am that I came on a mission. I know that it was definitely the right decision, and I´ve already learned more about the gospel and grown my testimony more in this past month than I honestly think I would have my whole life if I had never come on a mission. It was just what I needed! You guys are pretty great! Miss you! Love you!

Hermana davis

 ^mexico city temple is one of only five temples where the angel moroni is holding the gold plates in his hands^

^hermana davis & hermana everett^

 ^hermanas in jamie's district^

^hallway in temple visitor center^

^jamie's district at the mexico city temple visitor center^

^hermanas davis & everett in the jerusalem room in the mexico city temple visitor's center^

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