STAYIN IN INDIANA!! :)

Sister Davis, Jean, Sister Herndon

Wahoo!! Made it through two transfers and luckily Sister Herndon and I get to stay here in the wonderful Lawrenceburg Indiana. Our work here is not yet finished. Thank goodness.

This week i am going to start out with an awkward funny story. So we went to a members home for dinner and they had two teenage boys there that are friends with their daughter. The boys are not members of the church so we gave them the first lesson and got to know them and all. Then when we finished and getting ready to leave the one of the boys came over to us and opened up his arms to give us a hug... well just as i was about to hug him back i remembered that we are not supposed to do that so i quickly stuck my hand out and was like "can i shake your hand instead?" Maybe it was a　"kinda had to be　there moment" but it was so funny and super awkward! But hey life as a missionary ;)

The womens conference was amazing. I cried through the whole thing. It is amazing to hear how important we are as daughters of God. We are all in this together. We all have the same goal in ming and that is to make it back home with our Heavenly Father. I loved how they talked a lot about keeping your covenants. Sister Herndon shared with me this morning in our studies that the way to recieve strength from the Lord is to 1. have faith 2. do not doubt 3. keep your covenants and 4. follow the spirit. I thought that was an awesome insight so i just wanted to share it with all of you.

I just want to echo what i said last week about the Book of Mormon. It truly changes hearts. I have not only seen it change the hearts of our investigators but also my own heart. When i first got out to the field i really struggled with loving my mission but as i have diligently studied the Book of Mormon and prayed a lot, i have come to truly love my mission. The other day as Sister Herndon and i finished up our last day of training we both started crying just thinking of how fast time has gone. I have been out on my mission for three months now. The time is flying by and i just got to continue working as hard as i can cause i am only here for a short period of time. But the power of the Book of Mormon is amazing. I never knew one little book could affect someone so much.

I just want to share my testimony with all of you. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. I know He watches over us and our families. I know that i will be with my family for eternity and how grateful i am for　that. I know The Book of Mormon is so true. I know it has a power within it that changes lives. I know we have prophet on earth today that leads and guides us to salvation. I know i am where i am at for a reason. He has great things in store for all of us. As His sons and daughters we can accomplish miracles. He sent us to this earth to succeed and He provides us a way to do that. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I will serve them diligently and continue to serve them when i return. Thank you for all the love and prayers that is send from each of you. Enjoy conference this week! I love you all so dearly!

Love your Sister Davis :)

Wow this week!!

Oh man what a week. I just got done eating at the best mexican restaurant every!! It is called Chuy's. Mmmm delicious. We went to the temple today and the members that took us to the temple took us there to eat after. Then we got this cake. It is called Tres Leche or something like that. Oh man i am just sayin they better get a Chuy's in Utah before i get home.

As for the temple. It is truly Heaven on Earth. After not going to it for so long and then finally getting to go was absolutely better than Christmas. Last night Sister Herndon and i could not even go to sleep because we were so excited. Then when we got to the temple finally today it was just like a "awwww" moment. The Louisville temple is just tiny but it is the temple so it doesnt even matter. It was just a great feeling to be there. The spirit was so strong and i realized things there today that i never realized before.

　This week I recongnized how powerful the Book of Mormon is. We have this investigator who when we first started teaching her she had no testimony of Jesus Christ. She knew he was a good prophet but didnt believe he was the literal son of God and the Savior of the world. But as we talked about the Book of Mormon and committed her to read it she has gained a testimony of him and has such a strong desire to be baptized. She just has to overcome her smoking addiction. Which is another cool story. She has smoked for 50 years. So when she first expressed this concern to us we offered a priesthood blessing for her but that was before she had a strong testimony of the Savior so she felt like that wouldnt work at the time. So we kept praying and she kept reading and then the last meeting we had with her she asked for that priesthood blessing. It was so amazing! So we got the senior missionary couple to come give her a blessing and can i just say the spirit was so strong there. She then started thinking that it is not so much the addiction but the habit of it so she decided to start using straws to try and cut the habit of it. She is a genius. All from reading the Book of Mormon.

But you prieshood holders, you make sure you always stay worthy to hold your priesthood. That is a powerful thing that you hold and it is so important for you to be able to use it. I love this gospel. I love my mission. I am so blessed to be where i am at the point of life that i am in. I wouldnt trade this for anything in the world. It is hard at times but it is so worth it and it is truly helping me prepare for whats ahead of me in life. We joke about how the MTC is preparation for your mission and your mission is preparation for life. I have such a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It changes lifes. If you arent reading it i would strongly encourage you to start. Read the intro and look at all the promises in it. It will bring families close together and get your testimony of the gospel started on a strong and firm foundation. I know it to be true i know my Savior lives. I know he is watching out for all of us. I know He had blessed me with all of you wonderful family and friends becaue He knew i couldnt do this without you. I love you all so much!! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I LOVE YOU!!!

Love your Sister Davis :)

Additional notes from letters we have received:

Tell ky that i am thinking of her and loved the package she sent me it made me smile so big. Tell her to hang in there once she gets out because it is a totally new kind of hard but it is beyond worth it.

I love you all so much. Dont forget to read the Book of Mormon. I promise it will change your life!!

I am doing so good. I started crying the other day because i realized how short my time here is.

I have been driving for about two weeks. It is super disgusting. There are dead squirrels in the road everywhere i swear if they didnt get hit and killed they would take over the population.

Just two layers some days which is a miracle in itself!

Well the work keeps moving forward here in Lawrenceburg Indiana. This last week the weather started to get nice and then cooled off again. I almost went a whole day without my coat on. I have cut back to just two layers some days which is a miracle in itself. I never thought it would start to warm up. But spring is sure on its way. It is super windy here and a big tree blew over just outside our apartment. roots and everything are out of the ground. It is kinda cool.

The beautiful country side i live in :)

Sister Herndon and I fast every week for our area and investigators and this week when we fasted it was quite the challenge. We were both super hungry and super tired. So we knew it was giong to be a day of miracles. It was great we found some great new investigators and we had such a fun day and completely forgot about our hunger and tiredness.

 Our most progressing investigator is absolutely amazing. She is so strong and has such a great desire to learn about the gospel. The adversary is working super hard on her though. We knew he would and we are prepared to fight back. We pray all the time for the strength to overcome his temptations. I never realized how hard he works on people until being out on my mission. This church is so true. Sorry the letter is short this week. But know that i love you all and you all are in my prayers. I love hearing from you all!! LOVE YOU!!!

Look at the car the mission gave us to drive... ;) just kiddin i wish

Love your Sister Davis :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Wow what a week!! I do have to say this week was not as adventurous as last week with hitting the deer. But each week does have its adventures. Lets see where to begin...

So we went to this members home and we walked in and it smelled like the country boy dairy ice cream place... it was so fantastic and made me want some ice cream... good thing we had some back at the apartment. (That was just a little fun fact of the week, no point to it really)

We have learned a lot of patience this week. One of our investigators left us a note on the door saying they didnt want to meet with us anymore. That was so sad. But we keep moving forward. That just means there is someone else out there that is prepared to hear the gospel. Our branch mission leader told us "Everytime a door gets slammed in your face or someone kicks you down the stairs it is just as important as finding the golden one." That was super encouraging. We keep working and

pressing forward everyday.

My companion got super sick this week so saturday we had to stay in. She took a nap and i watched conference videos... it was a long day. I can say that outside doing the Lords work is SOOOO much better!! After the fact we learned that we could have called one of the sisters in the branch to go out with me while someone else stayed in with her. Good to know for the future.



This is what happens on a sick day.

Oh let me just tell you one of the more awkward doors we knocked on. So we knock on this door and this guy answers the door. He has no shirt on and he is ovbiously in his girlfriends pjs. i would give a hundred buck to see the looks on mine and Sister Herndons face. We didnt know what to do. It was.... interesting.

I do have to say i sure love it here in Lawrenceburg Indiana. The members here are so fantastic and loving. The people are awesome. We are always finding a surprise. The whether is warming up so that make everything automatically better. Well my wonderful friends and family i hope you all know you are in my thoughts and prayers. Stay strong!!  I LOVE YOU!!!

Love your Sister Davis :)

MIRACLE AFTER MIRACLE



Okay so this is my family here. My comp is next to me she is my "Mom" then next to her is her trainer which would be my "grandma" then next to her is another girl she trained which would be my "aunt" just something funny ;)

 

Oh man this week has been an unforgettable week in the mission for me! Let me start off with a kinda funny miracle. So we were driving to the church and it was dark. As we came around this bend a deer jumped out in front of us and Sister Herndon braked and we missed it. But we did not see that his little buddy was shortly following after him. We ran right into. The deer flipped up onto the car and rolled over the side of it. No damage was done to the car and when we went back to check on the deer it was gone. So it walked away from the scene too. But the miracle part of it was that Sister Herndon didnt swerve or anything cause there was cars in the oncoming traffic that we would have ran right into. Whew! Heavenly Father is watchin out for us.



Okay on a more spiritual miracle. We have this investigator that told us right from the beginning that she believed in God and she was super close with Him. But the thing she struggled with was believing in Christ. So as we taught her she was just struggling. We would give her passages to read that testified of Him and everything. At that point it just seemed like it was impossible to get her to gain a testimony of Him. But we stayed persistent and kept working with her. Then we felt super prompted to talk hit some specific points in the Plan of Salvation lesson and gave her the pamphlet to read. Then the next lesson we had with her she came in and sat down then she said to us "I now believe in Jesus Christ." Oh man!! The Spirit just took over that room and it took all i had in me to stay sitting and not jump for joy!! She is so humble and so receptive to what we have to bring to her. I love her so much.



My lesson learned for the week...READ THE TEACHING RECORDS. We went and visited this old investigator from a long time ago. As we talked with her we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read and pray about it and she asked us if she could ask her preacher about it. So we were like yeah as him... well when we got back in the car we were reading the teaching record and it had said that she dropped the previous missionaries because she talked to her preacher about the Book of Mormon. Yeah well she hasnt cancelled our nest appointment so there is still hope.

Okay for all of you that know how much i love taxi's... i found out that one of our investigators used to be a taxi driver. WHAT??? yeah for real no joke. It was just awesome. I wish he still was but thats okay.

Yesterday it was so cold so i wore my comps
footy pjs under my skirt... it was hilarious. 
I have so many layers of clothes on
"i cant put my arms down"

We also had a special training for the sisters this week. It was so awesome we talked a lot about how to relieve stress and stay calm and everything. We also talked a lot about how our missions will help us prepare to be moms and it was so awesome. I loved it!! Some great quotes from the training: "You are not a daughter of God in a formal way, you are his little girl." I loved that just thinking about being my dads little girl made my relationship with my Heavenly Father even stronger. So always remember that as we all know we are children of God but we are also known as his little boys and little girls. He loves us and is so proud of us. Another quote "One of satans greatest tools is to convince us we dont make a difference." I know that each of you make a difference in this world. I know that because each of you have made a difference in my life. You each hold a special place in my heart. Whatever you are doing know that you are making a difference to someone. Oh man i love you!!! I hope you all have a great week. Ta ta for now!! :)

Love your Sister Davis :)