Full House

OH JOY.

It is just great.

Last Monday night we had the privilege of having family home evening with the Jakins at Bishop Evan's house and it was lovely. Went all out too with songs and lessons and activities and treats! It was fun and then dun dun dun Bishop told them that Joe wouldn't be able to baptize his family. Yikes. Christine was devastated, had to leave the room crying. It was no bueno. I was sad for them but it's more important for them to all be baptized as a family together than to separate it blah blah blah it was a big tangled mess for a bit but now it's all situated and they are simply grateful that they are able to be baptized! Man oh man am I looking forward to that glorious day coming up in the next couple weeks!

Also something else wonderful that happened: we went to the temple! Woohoo Bishop and Sister Evans were nice enough to bring us to the temple on Friday and it was amazing. Simply amazing. It had been way too long, like three months for me! I wish I could go every week. Anyway, the Lord has been blessing me with little big spiritual moments that build my testimony every day this past week. We've been tracting a lot which means we see a lot, a lot of people who have different beliefs than I do and I knew that I needed to have an even stronger, more unshakeable testimony of each principle of the gospel to help me from feeling discouraged when people reject the invitation to learn more. So I asked Heavenly Father to help me do that. And every day, no joke, He blessed me with an undeniable Spirit blast to the heart on a specific principle within the Plan of Salvation. Brings such comfort to know that God knows me personally and that he knows how He needs to reveal truths for me in a specific way for it to make a ever lasting impact on my heart.

Also on Friday we helped Sister Palmer paint her basement. Sister Palmer did the top line and around door frames, Sister Waller did the bottom line above the baseboards and windows, and this girl got to use the fancy roller and painted my heart out doing all the middle. My hand was cramping and got stuck like a claw for a while but we finished the whole basement over the course of two days so holla. Plus, when we were over there ZLs brought us our mail! My fave. Downed those cookies and trail mix in like thirty seconds while listening to my childhood gospel CD. Love it. THHANKS a million.

So Saturday. Oh boy. Lisa Kelly miraculously texted us and said she'd be able to meet with her a 4:30 so we were super psyched and made sure that we were at the stake centre on time and then we get a text saying she'd be 15-20 minutes late, which was fine we could wait, take some more time to prepare. Then it turns into 45 minutes and ladies start showing up to start preparing for the Relief Society Broadcast that starts at 6 so we help out with that, cutting pies and putting out table cloths and still no Lisa. The broadcast starts and then at 6:30 we get a text, "we're here!". Geez. I was probably more frustrated than I should have been but I was thankful that we were able to see her at all! Lisa's baptism date is in two weeks and she's still living with Devin. We're trying our hardest to help her realize that's not okay but Devin (with the help of Satan) is very convincing otherwise. I just love Lisa so much and I know how much it will be a blessing in her life to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. What a difference it made in my own life. I'm praying she will make the right decision sooner rather than later.

Then on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting which was wonderful as always. Probably more so because sitting right next to me was the Jakins family and they always bring a smile to my face to see how much the gospel has already changed and improved their lives. Sister Waller and I also were asked to give a presentation to the ward during the combined third how on the goals that our ward is working on. It went really well and I can't even tell you how thankful I am that I have a companion that I love so much! The whole ward can see the difference and they are getting more and more pumped every week. Enthusiasm is contagious! All I can say is that it's so important to remember that our ultimate goal is to live with our Heavenly Father again and that He trusts us with trials here on earth so that we can learn, grow, and succeed. Setting goals like daily scripture reading and prayer help us to progress and prepare ourselves for when these trials come that we will be able to stand tall and strong.

I hope you always remember this.

Have a fantabulous week!

Love,

Sister Davis xoxo

p.s. CAN'T WAIT FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE NEXT WEEK! Get ready! Have a question ready that you want answered

Pink skirt club with Sister Howie and Sister Hinckley!

Where's My Sweater?

Yeah, it's gettin' a bit chilly over here! And windy too- I have to hold down my skirt, channelling a less scandelous Marilyn Monroe. But nothing too bad yet, knock on wood. The mornings/afternoons are really nice but as the evenings start to roll in it gets time for sweater weather. 

On Saturday night we had our ward Cornbust, which was just a bit party in the church parking lot with pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, lots of different kinds of salads, and plus some fun games! During dinner it was super windy! My hair was flying all over the place and I could barely shove the food into my mouth quick enough. But dinner was way good. And the Jakins family came, yay! Oh, and leading up to the Cornbust we had a bunch of flyers and were determined to invited everyone we knew so we went to (almost) every single person on our ward list and dropped them an invite and guess what! People came! We were so happy! People showed up that haven't been to church in years it was awesome. Plus we had invited this woman named Anna who we found in our area book that hasn't been contacted since last year and she came too! And we invited her to church and she came to that too! Woo! Anyway, back to Cornbust. So after we ate it was game time. At first it was just all the kids playing but I was totally pumped so of course I had to get all up in there too and show 'em how it's done. So first we had a six-legged race, yes, SIX. So Melinda Palmer, Sister Waller, and I were one time all tied at mid-calf, and we went up against the men- Joe Jakins, Michael and Jeffrey Palmer. 3-2-1 we're off! We run run run (speed walk) and wait for it....WE WON! Girls vs. boys and we whipped butt man. It was phenominal. Christine Jakins got it on video on her iPhone ya'll have to see it sometime. So good. And then we had tug of war, which practically ripped the skin off my hands ow but totally worth it. It started to get super freezing outside and windy so we decided to move the party to the Jakins house for hot chocolate and lemon squares (divine). We ended up having a really great lesson about some of the commandments. They are really looking forward for their baptism, and so am I!!!!!! Friday night we actually all went to a baptism together and the Spirit was so overwhelmingly strong throughout the whole thing. Christine was just bawling and she said that she was having the same feelings that she had when she went through the temple open house the first time last year. Couldn't help but cry myself, tears of joy!

Saturday morning we also had the annual city-wide food drive that the church does for the Calgary Food Bank. Out stake alone filled three and a half semi-trucks of donated food! It was a really cool thing to see. We were at the drop off point for a few hours and it was so..magical to see all the cars coming by with trunks of filled bags. So cool.

So yes, it was a lovely week. We had re-trainers training on Friday and learned lots! Mostly about how to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into all of our lessons, which won't be difficult because faith, repentance, making and keeping covenants, and enduring to the end is the foundation for everything that we do in this life.

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you!

I LOVE YOU!

xoxox,

Sister Davis

 Me and Elder Staley (ZL) reppin' our Jesus shirts

 The beautiful visual I made for our Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson for the Jakins

 A puppy I found that looks like Stella!! This one's name is Wifi though haha

 All my strong Arbour Lake girlzz

 Sister Waller, me, Christine

Holding the Jakins' rainbow boa constrictor snake ahh

Jakins

The Jakins Family. That's all I have to say. They are absolutely wonderful! The second time we went to their house to meet with them they had just been reading, reading, reading everything! Joe and Christine both got the Gospel Library App on their phone and Christine was telling us she practically had to pry it out of Joe's hands before bed time. I love it. We were teaching them about the restoration and we weren't even half way through it before we set a date for baptism!! GAH SO AMAZING. Sister Waller asked little Tristin why he wanted to be baptized and he replied, "Because I want my family to be together forever." Oh my gosh, my heart just melted right then and there. I love that their ultimate goal is for their family to be sealed in the temple because having that as their vision just helps everything else fall into place. I know that the Lord prepares people to hear the gospel and boy, oh boy, are they prepared or what! I love them so much. It's easy to love them. Heavenly Father is so present in our lives I just love that they were able to find that out for themselves so they could feel of the love and joy that He brings into this world.

During my personal study yesterday I was reading in Helaman 8 and when I read verse 25 it really got me thinking. So it talks about giving up the "treasures in heaven" for worldly treasures, or at least it does the way I interpreted it ha and it sparked a thought in my mind about the topic of success. What is success? Is society's definition of success different from Heavenly Father's definition of success? Our whole point to being here on Earth is to prepare to meet God and the way we do that is through the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith, repentance, keeping and making covenants with our Heavenly Father, and enduring to the end by continually following his commandments and making righteous choices. That, to me, is what success is. Not all these fancy cars or monster houses or riches upon riches, but instead to be blessed with the "treasures in heaven." That's what I want anyway.

Yes, it's been a lovely week in the Arbour Lake Ward. Fabulous weather. Loving people. Amazing companion. I couldn't ask for anything more!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

SISTER DAVIS

  Me and Sista Waller with our pretty blue pamphlet making member visits

Me and my girl Dakota

I Stand All Amazed

Oh joyous day!

Those pictures you sent me of Lynx: ADORABLE. It should be illegal to be as cute as he is.

And oh I am so happy to hear about Kenzie and Sarah's adventures in China and Italy! Like wow. The pictures look so amazing and of course reading your stories are hilarious. I miss my friends so much but I'm so proud of them all for going out and being all over the world whether it be serving the Lord or for work or whatever it may be! Gaah. Such great examples I have to learn from.

So many lovely examples everywhere! The ward here is beyond amazing. All the people we've seen this week Sister Waller and I just walk away gawking at how fantastic they are. We just started a goal making thingy for the ward to get people focused on making progress in "Perfecting the Saints, Redeeming the Dead, and Proclaiming the Gospel." My personal fave is proclaiming the gospel so we're helping ward members to do just that yayyyy.

And the other missionaries I serve with here are great examples to me too. Our district is like brand new to this area and we had our first district meeting last Wednesday and oh my gosh it was amazing and so inspiring. Elder Krogue is DL and we love him. He's so focused on the work and brings quite the bond within our district it was amazing. He helped us to really study on serving the Lord with all of our "heart, might, mind, and strength" and we broke it down to the bone and really got me super psyched about my purpose and a good re-charge mid week.

Sister Waller and I were planning to go door knocking that night and it would be her first time doing so...she was nervous, as was I the first time I did that BUT IT WAS PHENOMINAL. We knocked doors for less than an hour and a half and taught two whole lessons and got three return appointments! The Lord is always watching over us, we just needed to put in our all to see the blessings thereof. We met Miranda, Cassidy, and Terry that night and we are meeting with each of them either tomorrow or Wednesday this week so please keep them in your prayers! I really hope that they will recognize the peace and happiness that comes with living the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. OH AND another miracle happened. So we had a man from a different ward call us and tell us about their friends who wanted to join them at church so he said he'd be bringing them to our ward yahoo! The family is the Jakin's; Christine, Joe, and Tristan (10) and they are so amazing! We met with them on Saturday just to get to know them and give them a friendly face to see at church yesterday and they are so prepared to hear our message.

The Lord has definitely blessed me this week and I know that He is blessing you too even if you might not think so He has given us everything in this life. And I mean everything. He loves each of His children unconditionally and wants us to return to live with Him so He's provided us with a way to do just that. Ah, what a marvelous plan. What a marvelous Father.

I hope each of you have a wonderful week. I think of you and pray for you often. I LOVE YOU!

xoxo,

Sister Davis

She's a Keeper

Oh joy! I love my life! So. Here's what has happened lately.

Last week on Wednesday night we all drove to the Willow Park Chapel in Calgary to meet all the new missionaries coming in hot and fresh from the Provo MTC. For lack of better words, I was totally freaking out. So all the newbies (yup, that's not me anymore!) were sharing their testimonies I was trying to figure out which one of them would be with me. So nervous. Then they took turns getting up to read their new assignments and the first sister gets up and she reads "Arbour Lake Ward"!!! That's mine!! I go up to greet Sister Waller with a fatty hug and then we sit down on the left side of the chapel together and I ask her where she's from and wait for it she's from Gilbert!! Such a tender mercy from the Lord. For a bit she was actually living right by Kino Jr High so we know all the same places and gaahh so good. Then we parted for the night and then Thursday morning we went back to transfers to see all the missionaries going to new places and say goodbye to those going home or going South. Sad times, more of my fave friends have left but made room for the new friends right?!

So Sister Waller is fabulous. She's 24, graduated from ASU and taught first grade for two years before deciding to serve a mission. She's so smart and enthusiastic and we're totally best friends. We get along great. I think she's a bit overwhelmed with all the work and all the new faces but I mean who wouldn't be, that was me three months ago! Ha

But it's marvelous. We've been out walking and talking and already picked up a few potential investigators that we're seeing this week which we're super excited about. Lisa Kelly picked a new date for a baptism that we're working toward and we're trying to help her boyfriend Devin have some real intent lately. Please pray for them!

We're also working a lot with goals. Man oh man so many goals. We have personal, companionship, ward, zone, and mission goals! SO MANY it's hard to keep up but I just try my bestest to become the missionary my Heavenly Father wants me to become.

It's hard though. Training's hard. Lots of responsibility and trust that is on me..I still feel like I barely got here, oh wait? Ha It's good though. Daily learning and growth means we're progressing! I hope you all are having a great week! I love you!

xoxo,

Sister Davis

 

1) our four generation picture!

Sister Waller, me, Sister Fenn, and Sister Douglas (Fenn's trainer)

2) me and my baby girl! we were waiting for da bussss