Five huge miracles!! With many more little ones!

My dearest wonderful family and friends!!! 

What a miraculous week we just experienced. Holy cow i cant even explain what just happened!!! It was just amazing! I will try to describe in words what we just experienced but that just will not do it justice!!! 

Okay so first we went to our investigators house for dinner. The ones that had the hardest time coming to church and praying out loud. So we were over there and we were getting ready to eat. So sister Hatch and i are sitting there with our arms folded waiting for the prayer and the dad was like okay who wants to say the prayer and we all sit in silence for a minute. Then totally unexpected the mom pipes up and is like "I will say it tonight" We were all just shocked!! Sister Hatch and i couldnt believe what we were just witnessing. But the prayer she said was amazing!!! The spirit was so strong as she prayed! So that was miracle number one for the week. Then we had been praying super hard for how we were going to teach them the word of wisdom lesson because they have some addictions that they would have to overcome. So we were in there and we were praying super hard for the spirit to be there because that is truly the only way they would accept what we were going to say to them. So we shared with them the word of wisdom and they took it so good!!! Their only concern that they dont quite understand is the coffee thing. But they are willing to pray about it and they love everything else we have shared with them so they are like that is no deal breaker for us. They asked us if there was any other commandments that they should know about that are usually hard for people and we had already taught them the law of chastity so they were good. That was miracle number two for the week and Jasmine prayed that night too!! The spirit was so strong there it was amazing!! The room was just full of love and happiness. The gospel is so true!!!

Next the little boy we were teaching got baptized on Saturday!!! YEAH!!!!!!!! It was the most amazing baptism i have ever been to. That little boy is so wonderful. So leading up to his baptism this last week we were finishing up some of the lessons. He usually says the closing prayer after the lesson. One night he was praying after the lesson and he said "Please bless the sisters and their families" That made my heart just melt. He is ten let me remind you and for him to pray for our families was just the greatest feeling every. So just know that you all have a ten year old little boy praying for you out here in Ohio as well. So then Saturday he got baptized. He was so excited! The smile on that kids face when he walked into the church was so big!! He was smiling from ear to ear! We asked him how he was feeling and he said he was so happy and that was before the cute kid even got baptized. Then we got him all ready and he looked so handsome!!! His dad and his little brother was there. His dad who is trying to come back to church bore his testimony after his little boy got baptized. He said that this brought back many memories of when he first got baptized. He said that he has seen such a change in his son since he has met with us and he knows the church is true. We just need to get him to act on that belief now. But it will come. Then his son bore his testimony.  He has got the purest testimony! He did so good. I am so proud of him! Then we went by after church on Sunday and he just seemed so happy. That is truly what the gospel of Jesus Christ does for ya! He has got such a special spirit and that little boy is going to set such a great example to his whole family especially his dad. We talked to the dad after the baptism and asked him what he thought of it all and he said "This was seriously the highlight of my day" That little boy has helped my testimony of the gospel grow. Miracle number three!!! But it just keeps going... So friday we were on exchanges with some of the other sisters in our zone and sister Hatch and one of the other sisters found this guy who was a member of the church but his records were not here. So they talked to him for a minute and he said that he would be at church on Sunday. So Sunday came and we were sitting next to the little boy who just got baptized and his dad and in walks this less active. Well he looks at the dad and sticks out his hand to shake it. So we were thinking oh cool they know eachother. Well this less active sits down behind us and is like "I see you found my brother" We were like WHAT???! Miracle number four. The cool thing was that the dad didnt even know his brother was a member. And he got to be there to see his little nephew get confirmed. 

So we have been teaching this mom whose kids have already been baptized but she has struggled with a word of wisdom problem for a long time so she hasnt been able to be baptized. Well about a month ago she was clean for about three weeks. She was so ready to be baptized she was so excited. Then we found out that she had a felony. But it was all good we told her not to give up. We just had to have her meet with our mission president and he had to write to the first presidency to get permission for her to be baptized. We told her it would be about a month before we heard back from them. She was a little discouraged and felt like every time she got close to baptism something came up and she couldnt get baptized. She had been working at it for several months now. Well she kinda slipped back into a rut and started smoking again and was just super down. Well this last week we finally started to see her start to perk back up again. Then on Friday we were sitting there studying and we got a text from our mission president saying "She is good for baptism i just got the letter back" Sister Hatch and I stood up and just started screaming and laughing and rolling around on the ground. We were so happy. The other sisters that were there were laughing at us so hard. It was the best thing ever. And when the mom found out that she could be baptized she was so excited. We were all just beyond what words can describe excited!!! Miracle number five!!!!

Connor's family

Man i cannot even tell you how wonderful this last week was. It makes up for the hard weeks out here. Something that i have learned from all of this is that God never leaves you hangin. He will always pull through for you. We must always remember that. Especially when times are hard. Remember everything happens for a reason and God will never leave you hangin. I know this church is beyond true. It is the biggest blessing that we can give to people. I know our Heavenly Father loves us all. We are all his children. Keep smiling and being super strong. I love you all so so much!!!! 

Love your sister Davis :) 

P.S. i hope my emails make sense. Sometimes i just get so excited and throw it all out there ;) 

Love you!!!

WAHOO!!!!

Man what a week it has been :) I love you all so much! I have some of the cutest things to share with you all this week. This little boy we are teaching has got the testimony of a giant. He has got the biggest heart. This is truly what the elect look and act like. I just love him!!!

So we have been committing him to read from the Book of Mormon everyday. He has been reading which is so AWESOME!! But we went back and asked him if he understood what he was reading and he said that he is having a hard time understanding it but he wants to keep reading it because it makes him feel good about himself. YEAH!!! That is exactly what it is supposed to do!! Then the one part he did understand was when Nephi cut Labans head off.... of all the things he could have understood it was that part haha. But we explained to him why Nephi had to do and this as this was all being discussed his dad was hanging up curtains right next to us. Obviously he wasnt listening to our whole conversation because his little boy said something like "I just thought it was weird that he cut his head off" and his dad came back and was like "hey we dont talk like that it is not appropriate." Then he turned to his dad and was like "It is in the book" and sister Hatch and i just burst out laughing. It was so funny. Poor kid was just trying to understand ;) Then on another day that we were teaching him we were all sitting in his house and his friends came to the door and all the windows were open and he poked his head out the door and told his friends that he couldnt come and play. Then he went on to shut all the doors and the windows and we were thinking that maybe he was embarassed by us being there haha so we asked him if he was and he said "no, my friends just have really bad language and i dont want to hear it and i dont want you to have to listen to it." We thought that was the cutest thing ever! He is such a stud!! HE IS ONLY 10!! Okay the last thing we were teaching him about the Word of Wisdom and we asked him why it wouldn't be good to have wine and strong drink... well he didnt quite know what strong drink was so his answer to us was "Well wine makes you not in your right mind so that would not be good for you and as for strong drink it probably isnt good for you because as you are drinking it it could hurt your nostrils because of the smell. It was so funny! Then we went on to explain that strong drink was alcohol. That made a lot more sense to him. He is such a great little boy thought. He is gonna truly change his family. We are still working with his dad to get him to come back to church. He just is having a hard time with it all. But he is so grateful for the change that he has seen in his little boy. He will come. It may take some time but he will come. And his little boy is setting such a great example to him. I just love that family so much!!! It is so fun to see the way the gospel changes people. 

Then we had another awesome miracle. We have been working with this family forever and they have had a lot of nerves about coming to church. But by the grace of God they have come the last two weeks. They really struggle with praying out loud. So the whole time we have been teaching them they wont pray with us. Well Saturday night we had a powerful lesson with them on the blessings that come to our families as members of the church and how we can have that promise from our Heavenly Father of us being together forever. The spirit was just thick in the room and they loved it. They told us that is what they want!! When we were getting ready to leave we asked the dad if he would say the prayer and he said not yet. And we sat there for a minute then we started talking to them all about prayer and the influence it has on a family. He was so close to saying it but just wouldnt do it. Then when they came to church on sunday the lesson in sunday school was on prayer. haha it was so aweosme. Sister Hatch and i just looked at each other and smiled! Then we went by later that day and asked them how they like church and what they learned and such. They told us that they decided that they are gonna start having a family prayer everyday!! We were in shock. That is totally something they learned from the spirit at church. It was amazing!!! They are changing their hearts are softening and it is all because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so amazing!!! I just love it!!! 

Okay so now for my funny story... this may have been a "had to be there" moment but we thought it was so funny. So we were driving in the car and all the sudden our car just smelled awful! It smelled like stinky feet. I was like sister Hatch do you smell that and she had a cold so she couldnt smell anything and i was like it smells like stinky feet and so i lifted my feet up to see if it was my feet but it wasnt my feet. Then we stopped at a stop light and sister Hatch threw the car into park and lifted her feet up above the steering wheel and was like is it my feet. But it wasnt her feet either but before she could get her feet back on the ground the light turned green and her feet were stuck above the steering wheel. She was like Uh oh! So we were sitting there with her feet above the steering wheel trying to get them down so we could go. Luckily we got them down and there were not that many cars behind us and they were all patient haha. It was pretty funny though. We never figured out what the smell was.  There is never a dull moment with Sister Hatch haha We have  a good time :) 

I sure love you all so much!!! Keep stayin strong and smiling all the time!!! Love you!!!!

Love your sister Davis :)

Miracle March!!!

Man can i just say MIRACLES!!!! So we are teaching the cutest little boy. I have talked about him in my email for like the past three weeks but i just love him to death!! He is the biggest spiritual giant ever!! We are getting him ready to be baptized on the 28th of March. He is so excited but i dont think he realizes how excited he really is. Every time we go over there it is like pullin teeth to get him to come sit down but once he does he just eats it all up and loves everything that we share with him. So the other day we asked him if he had prayed to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said that he didnt quite know how to explain what happened except that he heard a voice in his head that was telling him that he was truly a prophet. It was amazing!! Then we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. We taught it as simple as possible cause he is ten. It was an awesome lesson. Then when we got to the part where we talk about death he seemed really concerned. But then we got to the part about resurrection and he was having the hardest time understanding what that meant. So we explained it that it is when your body and your spirit are stuck together forever. He finally figured it out and we finished up the lesson. Then he was saying the closing prayer and he said "Heavenly Father, thank you for letting the sister come over and teach me how my body and my spirit can be stuck together forever." IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER!!!! We got the biggest smiles on our faces and my testimony was truly strengthened that we all really will be resurrected and have that opportunity to live with our families forever! What a great blessing that is!! But it doesnt stop there! This little boy just keeps bein so amazing!! We had taught him about the Book of Mormon and committed him to read it. But when we went back he hadnt read it yet. So his dad was like read it right now. We told him to just read a page a day and it wouldnt take very long at all. So we all go in and sit down and read the first page in like five minutes. And we were like see it doesnt take long at all. So the little boy was saying the prayer again and was like "Thank you for letting the sister come and read the Book of Mormon with me and thank you for not letting it take so long." Once again we got the biggest smiles on our faces. Haha what a kid this little boy is. 

Prayers are so powerful! The church was restored from one simple prayer! I know God answers our prayers. I have had way to many experiences throughout my life to not believe that God talks to us. I know he does. I had a really neat experience this last week. The elders in our ward had a baptism and they asked us to share the Joseph Smith video with the people while the person was getting ready after being baptized. So we got the video and started it just from the part where he goes to pray.  I wasnt even watching the video cause i was sitting behind the TV but i could hear what was happening. As soon as he knelt down to pray i felt the spirit so strong. Then he started to talk about what he saw and my heart seriously felt that it was going to jump out of my chest. The spirit in that room was THICK!! I know that Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God. I know the gospel has been restored and that we have the power of God on the earth today. With that power our families are sealed together for time and all eternity. I know that God answers our prayers. He knows exactly what we need in life. He is right by our side. I know it and i will never deny it! Thank you for all your love and prayers. Keep stayin strong!!!  I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!! 

 

Love your sister Davis :)

I just want to share a little of Kirsten's testimony from her email to me this week:

I totally believe that good things will come from me serving a mission wether i baptize or not. That is my purpose, but if nothing else i will be able to stand up to anyone in my pathway and proclaim that i know Joseph Smith is a prophet and that we have the power of God on the earth today and that our families will be together forever. If nothing else besides that knowledge that i have gained happens i will have had a successful mission. It is something that will save my family in the end and that is the most important thing to me. I just know it that is the best part of my mission i think. I love the things i have learned and the people i have met but my knowledge of the simple things in the gospel have become solidified and can never be taken away from me.
 

This week flew by!!

The elders also had cadbury cream eggs and
we told them we couldnt eat them cause they
had sugar in them so this is what they did.

This is how people out here keep the

snow off of their cars

Holy cow i cant believe it is monday already again!! The weather is finally warming up! YEAH!!!!! The snow is melting! They say we arent supposed to get anymore snow this year. Yes! What a great week this was!! :) Everyday is just so full of miracles! It is miraculous!!

We had an awesome lesson with a little boy that we are teaching. I think i talked about him in last weeks email. But he is the son of a less active. So when we got there we were talking to his dad at first. Then we asked him to come in and join us for the lesson and he shook his head no. Then we were like why not? And  he said "cause you always make me say the prayer." Which is true he says the prayer a lot so we told him we wouldnt make him say the prayer this time. So he joined us  and we taught the lesson and everything. It was an awesome feeling in that home while we were talking. Then we were all done and we looked at his dad and asked who he wanted to say the prayer. Then the little boy jumped up and was like "I want to say it!"  We all looked at him and just smiled. That little boy says the most humble and sincere prayers i have ever heard. No wonder Christ tells us to become as little children. Then it was the cutest thing ever. We were talking to him about baptism. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized on March 28th and he thought for a minute and asked "How far away is that?" and we were like about three weeks. Then he smiled and was like "Okay so i have three more weeks to have fun" We all just burst out laughing. We then went on to explain how he can have fun after he is baptized too. It was so funny though we were laughing so hard. 

So i had a realization this week. We have all, as a mission been trying to focus our thoughts more on positive things. We have been trying to think good happy uplifting and encouraging thoughts. Because that is truly where it all starts, our thoughts. I have noticed on my mission how powerful our thoughts are. Satan tries to put these thoughts in our head making us think we are not good enough. It is crazy the thoughts that come from Satan that are in our heads. Something i have had to learn to do out here is ask myself "Is that thought from God?" Satan is so good at bringing people down but it is all up to us if we let him do it. It is our choice. It can be hard and sometimes we dont even realize it is happening. But my realization is that Satan goes after the gifts we have all been blessed with. We each have been blessed with gifts from our Heavenly Father. The gifts he has given to us are powerful ones. Ones that will strengthen our homes and families. So those are the ones that Satan focuses on. He makes us start to question them. Thinking to ourselves "am i really able to do that?" or things like that.  It is so important to remember that those gifts have been given to you from our Heavenly Father. He needs you to use them not question them. This is something that i am working hard on. They are your strengths. They are what your Heavenly Father sees you as. I know we are all sons and daughters of a loving God. We all can become like him as we magnify those gifts He has given us and as we develop more gifts while we are here on earth. This life is so short compared to what we have ahead of us. Know you all have a divine purpose here. God needs you to do something! He will help you with whatever it is too. But just remember that! You all keep stayin strong! You are in my prayers always. I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!

Love your sister Davis :) 

Opposition!!!

Bowling as a zone!

Holy cow my friends and family! What a week we have had! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers :) 

haha the elders cleaning the baptismal font
we walked in and saw them like this
they didnt know we were there.

This week we had a lot of opposition. It was insane. It was just like one thing after another. It was a great lesson though to keep exercising our faith and keep going no matter what. March is going to be a miraculous month. Our mission has a goal to get 100 baptisms in this month. We are calling it March madness. Haha our mission president said that we will never look at March madness the same in our life. Which is true! But he told us that since we have such a high expectation to expect opposition. Haha he said to rejoice in it then expect miracles to happen... which is a lot easier said than done! But we put a smile on our face and keep going. It is all in Gods hands. He will take care of us and each of you! I know this and we just gotta keep having faith in that. 

We did see miracles happen though. We are teaching this less actives little boy. He is so awesome and wants to be baptized. We went and met with him and invited him to be baptized and he said he didnt know if he should or not. So we told him to pray and ask God if that is something that he should do. Then we went back to teach him again and we asked if he prayed. He said he did and that he asked God if he should be baptized. Then he said "God told me it is something i should do it" It was awesome and totally strengthened my testimony that God truly hears and answers EVERYONES prayers. This little boy is only 10 years old.  He is amazing!!! I have truly learned that the spirit is the teacher. As we were teaching him on Saturday we were talking about Jesus Christ and asked him what he knew about Jesus Christ and he was telling us a bunch of things about Jesus Christ. Some of the things we hadnt even talked about with him yet. So we asked him "Has your dad told you about Jesus Christ?" and he said "no" we were like "has your dads girlfriend?" and he said "No you two taught me about Jesus Christ" I thought for a minute and to myself i was like we have not taught him about all that yet. He is so smart and so in tune with the spirit it kills me. God is truly the one that is at the head of this work and like i said before we have to trust in him. Which is also sometimes easier said than done! But we just gotta do it anyway :) 

This guy in our ward makes book of mormon action figures and this is his new toy he made before it even made it to deseret book we are the first ones to see it haha

Even though we faced a lot of rejection and hard times this week there was still plenty to smile about. That is the wonderful thing the gospel give us is hope and something greater to look forward to. I know that even though we each face trials each week that God has great things in store for each of us and those trials are to shape us a prepare us for the future. I read an awesome talk this week. I cant remember what it was called but in it the apostle said "are you gonna falter or finish?" i thought that was just an awesome little power statement. So everytime i am going through a struggle i think to myself "am i gonna falter or finish?" It is awesome and just gives you the courage and the spirit to keep going. I know this gospel is true. i know God takes care of his children. I love this work and i love my mission! I LOVE ALL OF YOU SO SO MUCH!!!!

Love your sister Davis :)