Happy New Year!

OH MY OH MY so much has happened I don't even know where to start. Let's see, first, I love my family more than ever and I am so grateful that I was able to see their darling faces on Christmas day! What joy! It was nice refill of family love. The rest of Christmas was great too. We started in the morning with Sister Cooley and Sister Gonzalez, making breakfast and opening gifts together (Christine, Joe, and Tristin Jakins are amazing and brought me some presents down from Calgary on Christmas Eve last week aren't they amazing or what?!), then we gathered as a zone and played White Elephant together! That was fun stuff, I ended up getting half of a heart "best friends" necklace, Elder Gibbs brought the gift and has the other half lolz. Then we went to the Rooyakers for a brunch. Then SKYPE :) And then dinner at the Thompson's house! We ate turkey and cranberries and lots of yummy desserts and sang fun carols.

Anyhow the rest of the week went just lovely. This transfer our zone set a lot of high goals for this area and all the other zone leaders from different places laughed at us and it was pretty sad so we've all been working really hard and as the transfer ends today we've reached and exceeded 2/3 and almost made the third one, missed by two. BUT for this area, we've about tripled the amount of work that's been happening! YAY! Who's laughing now!?

And today, since it's New Year's Eve and we can't proselyte after six we have a full day p-day. So this morning we all went curling! No, we didn't do each others hair.. haha It was so much fun too! I love it! Who knew that curling would be so fun. I've seen it on the Olympics before and promptly turned the channel before I fell asleep but surprisingly enough it was exciting and wonderful. I have to do it again someday.

And guess what else?! SISTER HUNTLEY IS GETTING TRANSFERRED! She's going to Calgary! I'm excited for her. I think it will help her grow and become the missionary she wants to be by starting fresh and all. It will be good for her. And I'm excited to be staying put with a new companion (pray for me that she'll be amazing please) and for all the great things we'll do together in the Legacy Ward!! Whoop whoop! I'M PSYCHED OUT OF MY MIND.

Well, don't get too crazy tonight at midnight! CTR haha

xoxox,

Sister Davis

Ho, Ho, Ho!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year isn't it?! All the lights and the love, and my favorite: the Spirit of Christ. What an amazing feeling! I am full of gratitude for my Savior and the sacrifice that he made for me so that I can have peace and happiness in my life. I will be forever grateful to have this opportunity to serve and to bring others to the same marvelous truth that has changed my life for the better.

I am so so excited to skype my favorite people in the world tomorrow and to spend the day with families here in Lethbridge. I am just loving life. I had a week or two that were really hard but with the help of my Lord, Jesus Christ, I have been able to overcome anything that has happened. Also, all the love from home helped out a lot too! Thank you for the Christmas tree! It's all taped up on my wall with all the darling ornaments. It made me cry happy tears! I love it. I am so blessed!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xooxoxo,
Sister Davis

Oh, My!

OH MARVELOUS. This week was busy, busy, busy! We did lots to prepare ourselves for the church tour/open house we put together for Saturday afternoon.

So on Wednesday afternoon for a couple hours the whole zone gathered in Downtown Lethbridge to do a "downtown blitz" so we all split up in different directions and talked to every single person that was in our path. It was awesome! We invited loads of people to come to open house and just talked a lot. Our little mini miracle that day: We were walking down the street when the bus pulled over to let people out and there was a girl that exited the bus but was about ten steps or so behind us and I got the thought, "Hey, you should talk to that girl" and without thinking more of it I stopped, turned around, walked right up to her and introduced myself. She was super interested and even suggested we sit inside a little restaurant to talk more (it was ridiculously windy and cold this day) so we did and we taught her the whole first lesson! And she wants to learn more!!! Unfortunately though she doesn't live in our area but elders in another ward will be happy to teach her I'm sure! So that was glorious. 

Then on Friday we, and Hermanas Cooley and Gonzalez, all got together and made a big ol' jug of hot chocolate and some neon bright signs to stand outside the church building giving out free hot chocolate to people walking and driving by. That was loads of fun! (This is the day I had to buy new snow boots that go up to my knees because it was so bloody cold). Many stopped and we had the opportunity to talk to lots and give out invitations to all! Someone even accepted a Book of Mormon so that was pretty wonderful.

And then Saturday was the big day. We got pretty pumped before the tour started because guess who came to Alberta! Elder Bednar! Like whaat? He went to Calgary and talked with the missionaries there but since we're far out in the boonies we couldn't drive there so we just gathered at one of the stake centres here and watched it broadcasted live. It was amazing. This man, is the most wonderful man in the world! He definitely kicked our bums into shape for sure, truly inspiring. There are going to be some major changes around here for sure! I'm psyched. So, getting to the church tour. We had 5 fourty-five minute tours going from room to room tlaking about the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We were in charge of his birth and baptism and asked our ward mission leader Brother Larson and another couple, the Smith's, to do the presentation and it went really well! The Spirit was really strong throughout the whole thing and it was really touching. Not as many people showed up as we had hoped but it was still wonderful! We're hoping the next one we do will have a better turn out and run a tad smoother. (Crossing our fingers)

Anyway, it was a lovely week. Can't believe how close it's getting to Christmas...where did the time go? Weird. Thank you for all your love, prayers, and support!

xoxoxox,
Sister Davis

 Christmas with President and Sister Nicholas!! (I mean Santa and Mrs. Claus)

the cute little Christmas tree Bishop Pavan bought for us

Snowed In

So this last week was snow weird. At the end of p-day last week we got a text from our zone leaders telling us that because of the weather conditions not only were we not able to drive our cars but we weren't allowed to leave our apartment. The Sister Cooley and Sister Gonzalez were with us and they couldn't leave either so we had a big ol' sleepover at our place and then all day Tuesday we weren't allowed to leave either until about 8:30 at night! Can you believe that?! We were thinking "it can't be that bad outside..." and then we opened our front door to a hundred feet of snow with the impression of the door into it. (I'll send a picture of that goodness) So all day we read scriptures and watched Mormon messages. It was weird not being able to go out and do real missionary work though. I felt trapped a little and frustrated that I couldn't invite anyone to come to Christ. We were this close to ordering pizza just so we could talk to someone from the outside world! But figured we didn't want to put anyone else in danger either.

The rest of the week went surprisingly slow, probably the longest week yet and it was cut short? Strange. But I was finally able to meet one of the recent converts in the ward, his name is Jesse, about 30 and has some nice gauges and loads of tattoos, EVERYBODY can be ready for the gospel, no matter what they look like. He's a funny dude with a pure testimony of Christ. Very touching.

Also, Sister Huntley and I decided we wound make birthday cards for all of the less-actives in the ward that might be forgotten and unknown and we are stopping by to drop them off throughout the month. We've had three thus far, two of which had moved, and one that miraculously let us in and chatted with us for a while, offered to take us out to eat sometime, and said this was exactly what he needed. I pray he'll come back to church.

So yes, this week was great! Ended on a good note with the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. That was the first one I've ever seen and man, it was amazing! I loved Elder Nelson's talk. The parts of it where the voice of Jesus was narrating was so touching, and the pictures of Christ made me cry. 

I am so grateful for this Season of Christ and feel so lucky to be a missionary at this time. I know that Christ lives and that he loves each and every one of us. I know that because of him we will be able to live with Heavenly Father again someday. We should celebrate Christ like we do in December throughout every day of the year, wouldn't that be wonderful?!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Be thankful it's not as cold where you are. On Thursday Lethbridge was the coldest city in North America, even colder than the North Pole!!! It's the best.

LOVE and PRAYERS coming your way!!!!

 my fave sisters ever (gonzalez, cooley, and huntley)

xoxoxoxox,
Sister Davis

The Windy City

IT'S SNOWING LIKE CRAZY TODAY! They grounded our cars again today. It's awesome. We had to find a ride this morning to the library and then we're going to walk to the mall after we're done emailing for lunch and to hang out there like a bunch of seventh graders because the church is too far away to walk there. We're so cool I know haha

Anyway, this week has been hard, but good. The other day we parked our car to look at the map and this black cat ran from across the street to my side of the car so I opened the door and it just hopped right onto my lap! We named him Midnight and he went on a ride with us to the stake centre across town to pick up invitations for the church tour we are putting together in a couple weeks from now. He loved that! It was fun, like having Kitty Purry with me all over again.

Man, I wish I could write so much more but the countdown is on and I didn't leave much time to email everyone yikes my bad.
But just know that I love it here.

My testimony is strengthened every day and I love my savior Jesus Christ with all my heart!

xoxoxox

HAPPY DECEMBER YALL

love,
Sister Davis