Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALLLL THE MOMS IN THE WORLD!!!

Ahhh happy Mother's Day Mom, Darla, Savanna (WHAT??? You get to basically celebrate that already? Ry I hope you celebrated Mother's Day for her)!!! Happy Mother's Day!!! I definitely missed Mom but I can't imagine having to call her at home rather than have her presence with me here. I'm sups selfish and want her with me all the time. Also not having Mom on Mother's Day makes me grateful for the time we did have with her, also for all the wonderful example of mothers in our lives.I learn from so many other mom's that I probably wouldn't have ever payed attention if Mom were here. Anyway, I hope you all had a great Mother's Day!  It was fun saying happy mother's day to all the mom's yesterday and it was a great way to talk to people and to share our love with them. I was sad not to call you, BUT more happy to call you on Father's Day. Only a month away! Crazy right? Yes we get to skype and it will probably be at night. Due to the time differences, I think I will call Monday and it will be Sunday night for you. But I'm not totally sure. 45 min and missionaries have suggested to tell you to think of questions, stuff like that before hand and then we won't waste time on the call. But I don't know anything, Sav and Ry would probably know better than me b/c of Mark. But I don't understand how time can be wasted during a skype session b/c we will get to talk to each other so it will be a great time! 

This week was fantastic as always. We had happy and sad moments on both ends of the scale this week. We had two of our investigators who had baptismal goal dates tell us they no longer wanted to hear from us. How sad we were! It broke our hearts! We know how much the gospel blesses us individually, our families, and our lives and we want them to experience that! We know they have their free agency, ha ha and even though we just want them to be baptized they can choose what they want. I don't know how to express to that baptism is the first step to returning to our Heavenly Father. It is in our Heavenly Father's presence we will be the happiest. I know it and I wish they could know that for themselves. Oh well. We will continue to pray for them and have the hope and faith that one day they will feel the desire to be baptized and join the church. We know the Lord works in mysterious ways and He knows His children better than us. 

On the other side, we had 2 investigators, Sister Grace and Sister Noemi, actually come to church by themselves! One of them (Sister Grace) walked over an hour to get to church WITH her 1 year old little boy. Wow we were soooo happy! If we were able to pick them up every week for church we would, but they need to make the effort themselves and so when they both did oh man we were so happy! Also our Bishop is soooo great! He called them individually into his office and talked to them about questions they had, concerns, etc. He gave them encouragement, and hope. Most importantly he gave them his precious time. He made them feel important. Friends at church are so important to feel welcome! How would you feel going to an unfamiliar place and not having anyone to sit by or like that? You know? Ah man, we were so happy at the special effort Bishop gave them. SO happy! 

We had one less active family also come to church! When we were talking to the mom (Sister Jonalyn) she told us how they are having many trials in their lives and she finally came to the conclusion with herself that she needs to go to church. We were thrilled! Then she came with her family! Her husband didn't attend which was sad, but her and the kids we were so excited. We hope she sees the blessings of going to church and is able to tell a difference between going to church and not. We also pray she will continue to come to church!

The rainy season is starting! Ha ha it is crazy here. We will walk out of our apt and it is hot and not a cloud in the sky. One hour later it will be raining so hard. Sister Frjeas says it is only the beginning. It rains so much so hard! I don't remember the last time it rained that hard at home. Dad I'm soo grateful you bought me an umbrella. But ah man, the $8 umbrella from Wal-Mart has met it's match. My umbrella is thrashed just from 2-3 storms. I need to buy a new one. It is so fun! Also ha ha kind of inconvenient as we still need to walk everywhere and it is harder to walk in the rain and wind. Ha ha but so fun! 

Okay time for pictures as I know you LOVE them. Actually I don't know if you love them or not but I like sending them so as a result you get them. 

The rain! Notice the thrashed umbrella, and even though we had an umbrella, the rain comes at you from all sides depending on the wind thus meaning we were very wet.

Sister Frjeas and I -both very wet.

Many of the less active youth we are teaching. They are so fun! We just need them to bring their fun and funnyness to church! Also notice the little baby looking at me. That's how everyone looks at me b/c I'm so white haha.

 a family we are teaching. They make mats (like bathroom and kitchen mats) and sell. He was kind enough to fix my bag for me! They are so kind and willing to listen to us... but we have faith that they will start to follow through on their committments. 

Some brand new puppies! I took this picture for all the puppy and dog lovers in my life as there are many. The puppies were so cute and sooo small! Toats adorbs. 

Also another puppy picture for the animal lovers. Remember that puppy picture a few weeks ago. Same puppy! Fun fact. they feed their puppies rice here. Suprised? I'm not. Rice, rice, and more rice. If no rice, i don't know how they would live. Ha ha I find it funny how much rice they consume. Ha ha there is actually an ad for Pedigree puppy food that shows how to get a dog slowly off of a rice diet and onto a Pedigree diet.

We had a CSP here with this less active family. This is Sister Viado and we basically cleaned their house. it was great! 

This is for you Savanna. I immediately thought of you when I saw this and laughed. Oh by the way we wear the bandannas over our faces b/c there is so much dust when we are cleaning it is NASTY to breath in. Thus the face masks.

the whole family! Everyone LOVES the camera Savanna gave me. They love love love the screen in front and laugh so much at it. 

Okay that's it for pictures. Love you lots! The church is true! The blessings that come from living the gospel principles daily are real. When we look for the tender mercies from the Lord we are happy. It is important for us to endure to the end, and enjoy the journey while we are on it! 

Mahal na mahal kita!

-Sister Davidson :)

I'm in the freakin Phillippines! WHAT?????

Okay family I just LOVE YOU!! Ha ha ha thank you for your emails! Man I love you so much and I laugh out loud and then people around me laugh at me laughing. Ah I love you and thank you for your emails!!!

Okay lots to say and little time to say it. First off. I LOVE the Philippines! Can you believe I am here in the Philippines?? Serving a mission for our Heavenly Father, inviting all the Filipino people we meet to come to church, to come to Christ?? Man I am so blessed-this is the best type of work EVER! LOVE IT!

I have a lot of pictures that speak louder than words so I hope you love the pictures. :) But first, okay our Heavenly Father is sooo kind to me, sooo kind to all of us! He truly blesses me everyday and I am so in debt for all He does for me. Also our Savior Jesus Christ. Without Him.... man I don't even know what to say or think! Our Savior is so kind. He is so loving. He loves us so much. Through His Infinite Atonement we can be forgiven of our sins. We can have power to do good things. We can have the chance to return to live with our Heavenly Father. Wow I seriously cannot think of what my life would be like without our Savior's help in everything that I do. He is there for each of us, we just have to make the choice to turn to Him for help. Ha ha sometimes I know I'm super stubborn and think "ah I'll be fine. I can do it myself" or like that, but how wrong I am. I cannot do anything without Christ's help! Through Him, through His Atonement, I can do all things; which I am so grateful for.

 FHE last Monday. We had a great lesson on prayer and when we have problems we don't know how to solve it is simple-ask our Heavenly Father! Then we played some fun games, when you mess up-you get baby powder thrown on your face. thus the baby powder on our faces. Ha ha the games are so fun, so simple, and hilarious!

 the way you get a mango from the tree and then eat it! this is one of our ward missionaries and he is pro at getting mangos from the tree and then catching them with his hand!

 Naturally I had to try. They laughed and laughed at me trying.

And then they laughed some more when my tongue was sticking out. What can I say? I'm a Davidson.

we had zone training this week which was great. They treated us to ice cream afterwards! My first ice cream in the Philippines. However... no cows really here in the Philippines... meaning not really any milk. I haven't drinken any milk actually. Saying that. Imagine ice cream... with no milk. There is milk in it... I was told. Doesn't taste like it. It tasted like frozen flavored water with texture. still masarup!

 This little family is adorable. They are less active and we want them to come to church so badly not only because church is where we need to be, but there can be so much support from the members! And on the other hand... it is hard to go to church when nobody extends a hand of invitation. Take note-if you see someone you don't know at church, or siting alone, or looking like they feel out of place-go say hello!!! Anyway, they are adorable and we want them to come to church!

 Check it out. That is a fish. That was once alive. Now dead. now in my stomach. yes I ATE that fish! ALL of it! Okay that's a lie, I was too chicken to eat the head and my kabahay (roommate) wanted to eat it so I let her. 

Okay remember my other fish picture? When the Johanson's took me fishing and I actually caught one and had to hold it for a picture? Ya does this picture remind you of thatat all? Ha ha I was nervous.

 Check it out! I'm enjoying the fish! It was actually delicious! So many bones! And so masarup! Wow I was amazed how delicious it was. My American kabahay said she never liked fish before her mission and she says it is because the fish here is actually fresh. Makes sense as Utah is not next to an ocean. but ya. I enjoyed the fish. also fun fact. I like to eat tomatoes now. i started eating them at the beginning b/c they wer familiar to me and i didn't like what else was on my plate so i ate them as a distraction to the other nasty looking food. 

The evidence! okay I'm probably sending way to many pictures. sorry! it is easier to remember the stories when I see pictures.

A part member family we are teaching. They are so kind and we pray they will all come to church!

 My kabahay sister Stone! We keep the BYU spirit in our apt. She was on the swim team!

The Philippines is beautiful! Okay this morning we went on a P-Day activity as it was the last P-Day before Transfers this week. SOOOO beautiful! 

NBD. just a carriboue in the middle of the street in the back of a van. On this day I went on my first exchanges as part of the training program. I learned so much from the other kasama. Sister Bernarte is her name, also Filipino from Bacalod. She is so kind and I learned a lot. We went to my area, and i didn't get us lost! I was so happy! Also... sooo grateful for the guidance of the Spirit. :)

 NBD

 I love the Philippines! Also i feel realy awkward in pictures by myself but my kasama insists. Also I remember Mom always saying how she hated pictures with nobody in it. So that's for you Mom! Also for my kasama.

 So the place we went to was called Echo Park, a kind of Monastary. There are a lot of churches there and this statue of Christ is like the Christus. Missino rules:don't take pictures of sacred objects. We asked, and we had permission don't worry. It is so big! And sooo beautiful!

sooo beautful!

Again me feeling weird being alone in the picture. But soo pretty right?? This was a place where they were swimming and paddleboarding-kind of :) 

My kasama is fantastic!

Okay this kid is adorable. he is the son of one of our investigators! Her name is Grace. We hope and pray she will be baptized!!! She has a Baptismal goal date of June 15th and we hope she will continue to increase her testimony and continue to ACT on what she learns. Okay but funny story with this adorable kid. He is sooo cute. And he is into EVERUYTHING!! Ha ha think of Kela energy, and then beyond. he is so cute when he speaks and laughs and smiles in Tagalog. Ah man he is adorable. It was such a tender mercy from the Lord for me this week when at church he would just walk over to me, say something funny, play with my bag, get into everything, laugh some more, then walk away, then come back 2 minutes later and do the same thing. He is into everything but you can't help but smile and laugh with him becasue he is so darn cute!

Okay literally I have zero time left meaing i'm sorry i can't email any of you back! know that i love you! and next week moer time for email b/c we won't have the zone activity.

mahal kita!!

-Sister Davidson