June 23, 2013

The Lord doesn't always call those who are qualified, but He always qualifies those He calls. 

Family!!

Okay this week was awesome!! Wow it went by sooo fast, I loved it! Okay so big news.....

I AM TRAINING!!!!! WHAT??????? 

Yep that happened. And yep 100% I know the Lord will qualify me to fulfill this calling. Wow. I personally think I'm ready, but I trust the Lord knows me more than I know myself, if He thinks I'm ready... then I'm ready. Let's do this!

Okay so training. I love it! On Wednesday we had the transfer announcements and my trainer and my amazing companion who I miss so much Sister Frejas got transfered to Camiling. And my new companion, straight from the Manila MTC. I'm her first companion! I finished the 12 week training program this past week, then started it up again this week but on the trainers side rather than the trainee. Wow I'm learning a lot! Okay so my anak! My child as we call it, Sister Bongolto! Wow she came pre-trained fresh from the MTC! She is from Mindanao and she is amazing! I just love her to pieces. She trains me more than I train her. She is so so so great and I am looking forward to the next 12 weeks we have together! My goal is to train her so that after these 12 weeks she will be ready to train a fresh missionary from the Provo MTC! I already know she'll be ready ha ha she is so great. 

This week we also had in our ward an RM come home from Bocolod mission... Brother Jared Garcia. He thinks he knows Jared Heywood!? He said he thinks he has a picture of them together, so he'll look and show me if he finds it. Anyway, it's great having him help our ward get enthusiastic about missionary work. Our ward is fantastic. The ward goal is to split in Dec 2014 which means... we need baptisms! Which means our work needs to increase! I'm stoked! We're focusing on finding families and potential Priesthood leaders who will be able to lead the new ward, it's great. And the ward is super excited. We just need them to be excited everyday and not just Sunday ha ha. 

But good news! We are going to have 2 baptisms this Saturday!!! We're so excited! They both had their baptismal interviews yesterday and they are so excited! So now we pray that everything will work out so we don't have a repeat of the week before the baptism things fall through here and there so the baptism is unable to happen. Ah man please pray for them! Sister Dianne and Sister Jacquiline! They have the desire so much! So we pray everything will work out unlike it did with Sister Grace and her boyfriend not wanting to get married last minute... We're still working with them. Sister Grace will be baptized, one day, soon. :) So yes, we have 2 baptisms this week and they will be awesome! We're excited!

It sounds like life at home is great! I was reading your email Dad about St. George and the condo and at first I couldn't figure out why in the world you were able to spend so much time at the condo. I was thinking to myself, what holiday is it right now where he has that time, then I remembered, 'oh ya it's summer-no school.' Dad your talk was great! I laughed out loud reading it, I'm sure the ward also laughed a lot. Ha ha I'm glad you were able to tell them about all the delicious food here! Ha ha jokes. So really the fruits and vegetables here are amazing, I just tell you all about the nasty foods b/c you already know that fruit's and veggies taste amazing. how's your diet going Pa? ha ha sorry I told you you gained weight. I still love you! 

So the work here is good. I love working with Sister Bongolto, I love training her and it is also hard ha ha. Sister Frejas, my nanay, isn't there to save me when I need it-I have to rely on the Lord. Funny how that works eh? It's good though! Sister Frejas taught and trained me well! I'm learning how to rely on our Heavenly Father so that I can save my anak even though the language barrier is still there. With the Lord's help everything is possible! I love being here, I love the people, I love the work, I love our Savior. I love that He loves us and is willing to help us always if we humble ourselves and ask and do those things that will qualify us for His guidance. It is so important for us to be doers of what the Lord has asked us and not just say, oh yeah I should probably do that... but actually be doers. It makes a difference.

I love you family! I love our Savior!

-Sister Davidson :) 

Pictures!

1. Our (old) district the day of the transfer announcements! We made district t-shirts so that we can all match. Good thing I love wearing the color light pink which means I'm probably going to wear this t-shirt every single day! (I'm being sarcastic when I say that I hope you know...) 

2. Here is another FHE! I want to testify to what dad has said that at fhe when we make a mistake we get lip-stick smeared on our face and sometimes I do it just to  get them to laugh, because actually I love to win. But winning means no lipstick and they love lipstick, so therefore lipstick sa akin. :)

3. The Quiballio Family! We're working on getting them to come back to church! They have so much potential as a family!

4. Oh you know, just the Jeepny getting filled up with gas. Makes me laugh. 

5. Where they put the gas in. 

6. Me, my anak, my nanay-3 generations! I will miss Sister Frejas and I am so excited for my anak Sister Bongolto! Seriously she is soooo great! Does she look scared and new and basically like I did my first day here in the field? Ha ha I am glad that I am able to relate somewhat to how she was feeling that first day because that was me just 12 weeks ago!

7. Suprise! Sister Marcucci (our roomate) scared the living daylights out of us last night! We got home to the lights off and we thought they weren't home. To our suprise, Sister Marcucci was hiding under the bed where we kneel to pray and Sister Bernarte was in the bathroom ready to scare us! Wow mini-heart attack. Soo funny though! And maybe this was wrong of us, but we know the Lord has a sense of humor, so we prayed for inspiration to know how we might get them back. Probably not very appropriate, but laughing is good for the heart, and mind, so if we want to serve with all our heart, might, mind, and strength... I think it is good.

That's it folks! Mahal na mahal ko kayo! I love you so much!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day June 16, 2013

Okay wow did we just Skype!? Yes!!! Was it unbelievelbly amazing!? Absolutely it was!!!! Wow that was sooo cool and I loved it! Man I feel pumped up for anything now! Thank you!! Ah man ha ha so sorry I made you wait over an hour! I was so pumped I think I called you at exactly 6pm your time b/c I thought it was 5pm your time. Sorry! Ahhhh man that was awesome! You all look great! Even Sunny looks great. Ha ha they still sound great too. Savanna I keep telling Sister Frejas how big you are! Sister Carla is not as big as you and Sister Frejas said b/c Filipinos are all smaller than Americans... which is generally true. Ha ha but really, I'm sups excited for you to be pregnant and when Jr is born and I'm shocked at myself that I didn't think that I would see Jr. before I came home. ha ha duh Sister Davidson. oh well, ah man that was an amazing Skype call. thank you thank you thank you! Ha ha ah man I just love you all so much and happy father's day Dad!!!!!!! and Ryan!!!! 

So... this week was fantastic! 

I somewhat told you the story of Sister Grace. She was suppossed to be married and baptized on Saturday but her "husband" decided last minute he didn't want to be married. We think it is because he is so so so shy. Also, they don't have a lot of money, and even though a wedding is free through the church, they still need to purchase the marriage license from the government which is expensive. Money isn't really the issue though. We can get money for them to pay for their wedding license. But we think it is hard for Brother to accept money for his wedding. You know what I mean? So, we will continue to pray for them. We re-set her BGD for July 27th and we pray for Brother that he will be willing to be married, they can save money for the license, and they can both be baptized! Ah man what a great day that would be! We know they are important to the Lord, and He will provide a way for them, we must continue in faith.

Also we had exchanges this week. Sister Frejas left for the day with the Sister's Training Leaders to their area, and Sister Delos Santos came to my area with me. It was awesome. I loved loved loved learning from her. She taught me so much! It was great. I also missed Sister Frejas. But anyway, one thing Sister Delos Santos taught me was the importance of BGDs and the importance of the Restoration. With the BGD, extending BGD's helps people understand our purpose as missionaries. Our purpose is to get them to the waters of baptism so they can continue on the path that leads to our Heavenly Father. A lot of people think we are simply there for Bible Study. But when we extend BGD it helps the work move forward and helps them prepare themselves to make sacred covenants with the Lord. Also I learned the importance of sharing the message of the Restoration with investigators. The Restoration is critical! It is what sets our church apart from all the other churches! There are so many churches, all claiming they are true. And the Restoration is what sets our Church apart. Because of the Restoration, we have the Priesthood, because of the Restoration we have a living prophet, we have current revelation from God, we have prophet who holds all the keys of the Priesthood! it is so great! Through the Priesthood comes all the blessings of the gospel, where we can make covenants with our Heavenly Father and make our way to live with Him again. Ah man I love the Priesthood. I love everything about this gospel. Thank you for raising me in the gospel where we had the Priesthood in our home. Thank you Dad. Thank you! 

Okay for pictures now!

Sister Grace and her 2 kids. She is 22 years old and she is the one who we wanted to have baptized and have her wedding last week. We took her out on a date on Monday with us to get ice cream because she was so sad her wedding and baptism wasn't happening. It was fun. Also these two kids... ha ha ah man being a mom is hard work! Good luck Savanna! :) If you remember the older kid, Carlsid, he is a handful! Like Kela when she was so young and full of energy times 5! This kid is hilarious, adorable and also full full full of energy!

This sign was inside of a Jeepny that I thought was hilarious... therefore I took a picture.

This was our FHE last week. When you make a mistake in the games.. punishment is lipstick to the face. Good thing I'm white and lipstick comes off sooo easily. not. Ha ha the lipstick always shows so much on my face b/c I'm white. Also this is Sister Carla! The one who is due in July also! The one in the blue tank top next to Sister Frejas. This is how big I imagined you were Savanna. Ha ha ah man I love you Savanna and I love your big belly. 

I made a mistake in the game....

  We had a rough day so we treated ourselves to ice cream. 

Sister Delos Santos!

We had fun on exchanges.

 We had a celebration for one of our AP's who was leaving.

 Balut! The cooked chicken that is like a chicken inside. I had the opportunity and didn't take it. Maybe someday. So yes this is a chicken inside that is not fully developed, they love it. It seriously is their favorite food. 

Okay this was nasty. We have fans at the foot of our beds for night. One night we looked, and this dead mouse was just chillin, dead, in our fan! EWWWWW!! How in the world he got in there, and then died in there, the way his body was and all, I have no idea. anyway it was nasty. Eww eww eww so gross. Ha ha then the next day we took it out, I attempted, but gave up and made Sister Frejas do it. It was nasty. His body was all hard and crusty, but so stuck in the fan that we had to yank him out because the fan wouldn't come apart to just take him out, but no we had to pull him out by his tail, with effort, and ew it was nasty! 

Just another picture for you. ha ha sorry I go into such detail sometimes about nasty things!

A cute family we teach who are less active. Actually the two kids are less active and the mom is not a member. They are just sweet. 

 A Filipino tent! This picture was for you Ryan.

 Our investigators who came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Sister Noemi and her daughter Jade. I just love Sister Noemi so much! She has a strong testimony and we pray she will work out the things she needs to work out so she can be baptized!

Band pose

  Sister Frejas and Sister Joy (a ward missionary we love!)

Avacodos! So delicious and so big here in the Philippines!

 One of the Less Active families we visit. They are SO kind and so great to us! we just need to get them to come to church :) 

Another LA family we visit. They are adorable and we also need them to get to church! 

That's about it. I loved talking to you! so so much! I hope you are doing well and look forward to hearing from you in the future about all that is going on in your lives! enjoy your air conditioned home, cars, AC in the cars, clean bug free bodies, your new motorcycle, and all that you are up to! Ha ha I'm glad you were able to see me in the Philippines! Ha ha life is great. We are blessed more than we know. I also know that we are blessed the way that we are and we are given means so that we can help others who are not as fortunate as us. We have been given opportunities that will help others who are blessed in different ways than we are. 

I love you so so much! thanks again for skyping me! I had a blast and I love you lots and lots!

The Church is True! Go to church, read your scriptures daily and pray frequently throughout the day!

-Sister Davidson :) 

June 9, 2013

Hello Family!!

Oh how how much I love you and reading your letters to me. Thank you thank you thank you! I love you so much and can't describe my happiness in getting to skype you next week! I pray we will figure it all out and how sad, truly how so so so sad I am it won't be on Father's Day. Oh well, I'm learning patience eh? I love you regardless and I'll be thinking about you Dad all day on Father's day! 

Okay so... Come What May and Love It. Sound familiar? Ha ha I love you Mom. And what a great quote to live by everyday and especially when times are hard. What a great example Mom was for us. She taught us so many things, her life is a celebration. She lived for a short time dang it, but you know what she lived her life to the fullest. How many good things have come to us because of her life, and because of her death as well. Mom was the prime example for us and how grateful I am for her, her life, her example, and everything about her I love it. Her attitude during her times of trial was amazing. She was strong, which made it easier to be strong for me. She was brave, which made it easier for me to be brave. She kept her head up, she was positive everyday, which made it possible for me to be the same. Because she found joy in her journey, she knew the meaning of "come what may and love it." Because of her teachings and her example, I can do the same. I can follow in her footsteps and find joy everyday in the journey. I can live with the attitude "come what may and love it." Even before she got sick she was so happy and found joy in everything. I think I miss her laugh the most. She always laughed ha ha. Especially when she was when her brothers and Jill. Ha ha one of the reasons I love Jackson Hole is because it is always a happy time up there because we are together as a family. Mom was amazing at fulfilling her callings. She loved serving and was great at it. I learned from her that it doesn't matter what your calling is as long as you serve with all heart and you love what you do. Mom touched the lives of many through her service in the education field. She always loved those she worked with and I can't remember a time when she ever complained about those she served with. She was a shining example of spreading sunshine where ever she went. She was an example of how to follow Christ. I loved seeing her every night read her scriptures and pray. I loved her dedication to what she put her heart to. She had her heart pointed towards Christ and I know that she loved Him because of her example in everything she did. Yes I miss Mom a lot. I look forward to the blessings that come from living the gospel so that we can be reunited again. I know I have to fulfill my part here on earth, this life is the test, in order to enjoy her presence again. She's up there, waiting happily for us, watching and taking care of us. She knows how we're feeling and she helps us get through our hard times. She helps us live by the quote "come what may and love it." Life is good. :) I love you Mom!

So now... this week :)

We have had ups and downs this week! One of our ups was also one of our downs which was sad. So this week Sister Grace had her baptismal interview. She is so ready to be baptized. She has a strong strong testimony. It is easy to see her relationship with our Lord when she prayes. She is so ready to be baptized! So her  baptismal date is this next Saturday-June 15th. She is not yet married to her basically husband, so we are planning the wedding right before the baptism. Yesterday on Sunday we were all in the Bishop's office with the RS President, figuring out what we need to do to have everything in place for the wedding and then the baptism. We are stoked! Then after church we got word her husband doesn't want to be married anymore. Her husband is very kind, and VERY shy. And he doesn't want to get married anymore. Meaning... she can't be baptized. We are so so sad! In the last 12 hours we have been praying to know what to do to help make this wedding and baptism happen. We've come to the conclusion we are going to pray so hard and have the faith that the Lord has His timing for everything. We are all learning something the Lord wants us to learn right now, and we trust whatever happens this week happens for a reason. We pray for her husband's heart to be softened so he is willing to get married so she can be baptized. Then we pray he will see her happiness in the gospel and also have the desire to be baptized! In the Lord's time... everything happens in the Lord's time and we will simply and fervently pray. 

We also had a great lesson with Tatay Amadore. We watched the Restoration DVD and testified about the Restoration and the Spirit was strong. We invited him to church and he said he would try, no harm in trying eh? And guess what. He came to church! We were thrilled to see him! He enjoyed his experience and wants to know himself if the church is true or not. He really wants to know if it is true or not. He will get an answer. We're excited. 

Then at church yesterday we had the attendance of 194! The most our ward has had in a LONG time! We were thrilled! We had 2 of our super less active members come to church! We were stoked! Then we had 9 investigators come! We took a picture it was freaking awesome! The Lord is sooo great to us! It is true that the Lord is bound when we do what He says. When we work, and strive to be exactly obedient the Lord blesses us in ways that we don't expect. I love it. I love how much my testimony and my conversion to the gospel is growing. I am learning to rely on the Lord, I'm learning that's really actually the only way to get through everything. The Lord and our Savior are SO great. Wow they are too kind. I am so in debt to them. I love them so much. I pray they will be happy with what I'm doing here, I strive to live as they would have me live. How grateful I am for repentance and forgiveness. I have so many shortcomings, ha ha ah man. But I know through repentance I am forgiven of my sins. I can be relieved of guilt. My weakness can become strong through the Atonement. I know my Savior lives. I know He loves me. I know He loves and cares about you and your well being. He wants us to be happy. He rejoices with us when we rejoice. He mourns with us when we mourn. He carries us when we can't go on by ourselves anymore. He will get us through everything if we let Him, if we turn to Him. I've also learned how important it is to remember the Lord always and not just during our times of troubles. The Lord gives us hardships and trials so we can grow, learn, and come closer to Him. Through our Savior, we truly can say, "come what may and love it."

I love you family! 

-Sister Davidson

Picture time!

1. Look I'm eating fish! I'm getting better at eating fish and Dad you would be so proud of me. I still don't like all the bones that are with fish! 

2. Also, I haven't brought myself to eat the eyeball yet. It is Sister Frejas' favorite part of the fish-the whole head actually. I'm happy to give her the head all the time. 

3. Sister Leonila, and Sister Jaquiline! They have a BGD for the end of this month! We are excited for their progress and pray they sill continue to progress, continue to come to church, continue to read, etc! We pray they are building their testimony so that they will be converted to the gospel not just have a testimony. There's a difference. :)

4. Just some cute neighbors who wanted a picture with us. :)

1. Ha ha okay can you guess what this is? I don't think I would have been able to guess... Check it out. It's frog. A ward missionary in the other ward told me how delicious it was and so he said he would make it for me and then I would eat it. So I agreed but didn't actually believe it would happen. Well he was true to his word so I had to be true to my word. What made it worse, was that when they dropped off the meal he showed me how his mom had cooked it. He had recorded on his phone the video of the process. Nasty. Just to give you an idea I'll go into detail ha ha. Except Savanna maybe don't read this detail it's nasty and may make you vomit. I saw the dead frog, then she cut it open, and the blood and guts started pouring out. Then they pulled off the skin of the frog. That was nasty. I'm talking about the body of the frog still, like think of the way a frog looks. Then think about that the reptile is being cooked, cleaned, and bloody, and nasty. Ew I wanted to throw up. Ha ha sorry for making you suffer as I did. 

2. Getting ready to eat frog. This whole time I'm telling myself, okay worst case scenerio. I die. Not so bad. Next worse case scenerio, I get really sick, really sick. Oh well, worst case I grow more compassionate and have more sympathy for those who are sick. Okay worst case scenerio, not that bad I can do this.

3. yep we are actually doing this. 

4. I ate it! Okay not actually that bad. It tasted like chicken... just more tough. But really it wasn't that bad! I can now say I've eaten frog. I'll be honest I probably don't want to eat it again because of the mental block I have done it! And it wasn't bad! Good work Sister Davidson. You can accomplish hard things ha ha, you can overcome your mental blocks of nasty foods.

1. Zone Conference! It was awesome! Sister Frejas and myself :)

2. Tarlac Zone! 

3. Sister Ocampo and myself! She is adorable and so happy all the time!

4. Our roommates! Sister Bernarte and Sister Marcucci! I love them so much! They are the best ever and I just love them!

1. Ward missionaries!

That's all folks! I love you so much! 

Again I can't express my sadness about not being able to skype you on Father's Day. But when we look at the bright side, we get to skype. We are thousands of miles away from each other and we can still see each other and talk. I love you! I love being here. I love our family. I love missionary work. I love our Savior.

Keep the faith. Keep going. Come What May and Love it!

-Sister Davidson :)

Pictures June 3, 2013

the paintings on the outside of the schools are so cute!

This is a grade 4 classroom! I told the kids that my dad was fourth grade teacher and they thought that was funny

 Same classroom, just the back view

 a grade 5 classroom

like a place to eat or something, I don't know really I just thought it was pretty and it showed what the buildings look like 

another view of the buildings. They have a tooth brushing station in the background which I thought was funny

Just some jamming after cleaning

the cleaning group

okay this was funny. the whole time we were cleaning i would pick up pieces of trash and give them as birthday presents to the ward missionaries. Then act all offended when they threw their birthday presents (pieces of trash) back into the trash.  Ha ha anyway it was fun and a good way to build relationships with the ward missionaries. Anyway, one ward missionary finally told me he had a birthday present for me so to close my eyes and hold out my hand. He put a frog in my hand! Ewwww!!!! Fun fact. Frogs are everywhere here. Anyway, I immedieatly dropped it, freaked out, and was disgusted. Then I thought to myself, "no it's just a frog, suck it up and just hold it." So this is me attempting to hold the frog for the sake of a picture and for the sake of having the experience. Also I was hoping to overcome my fear of touching creepy crawly or jumpy things. Ha ha maybe one day I will not freak out at touching nasty things.

Going in for the actual grabbing the frog. And okay this whole time everyone was just laughing and laughing at me while i was freaking out. Ha ha oh well, I'm glad I could provide for a good laugh

 Okay I'm holding it, hurry and take the picture

  look I'm faking like i'm enjoying this... ha ha after the picture i immediately dropped the frog and wiped my hands on the grass attempting to get all the germs off-probably not the most effective way but oh well. 

 Okay we had PIZZA for P-Day!!! SOOO Delicious! Wow I was amazed at how amazing it tasted in my mouth and wow I didn't realize how much I missed pizza! wow it was so so so delicious! 

Okay this was a tender mercy from the Lord moment. Sometimes people are scared to pray so we will just tell them to repeat after us and then fill in what they are greatful for, what they want to ask their Heavenly Father for, etc. This time it was a child who was repeating the prayer so we just said everything and he repeated. But what ended up happening was one child started to repeat. Then it ended up all the kids AND the Nanay started repeating the prayer! It was so cute and adorable to hear all those little voices saying a prayer to their Heavenly Father. We pray they will remember how to pray and pray on their own!

This little kid is adorable! I sent you a picture of him already. His name is Carston, he reminds me of a little Kela and then more energy, his mom is Grace and she is progressing so much! We taught her about the WOW, Law of Chastity, and Repentance and she is so willing to accept! WE are so happy! And we pray so much for her that she continues to progress. She continues to keep commitments, etc. We also pray for her not legally wedded husband to listen in on our lessons. He is simply so shy. Anyway, this little kid is adorable.

It is beginning to be rainy more and more! I love it! the rain comes down SO hard. I'm telling you. If Utah had one storm like here, we would be in so much trouble from all the water. Sure we can handle snow and ice, but this much rain-no way. So much damage. I love it. And it just makes me laugh and laugh when we're walking in all the rain and trying without success to stay dry.

Okay that's about it! But real quick, I've been thinking about Grandma June, Tony, Sierra, and Jessica Jill this week-how are they doing? That's cool that you gave your Jackson condo to Tony and Jana to them! Are they all 3 going up? Sad you're not going up this year I LOVE Jackson Hole! So much!

But I love being a missionary even more! I love spending all my time serving the Lord and helping to move His work forward. It is so great. It is great and a blessing to see how much the gospel is blessing these people's lives. It is a testimony to me that this gospel isn't just for some, but for all the people throughout the world! This church is true. The Lord is kind and so incredibly loving.

Mahal ko kayo!

-Sister Davidson

p.s. FATHERS DAY!

Thank you Ryan and Dad for the info. And okay I was going to schedule to skype you Fathers Day 5pm... but I found out today that because most everybody is not calling on Fathers Day we may have a schedule Zone Activity that day that I would call. So my question to you is this... is it okay with you if I call you on Monday night? The day after Father's Day? ah man it makes me so sad b/c I want to call you on Father's Day. And at the same time, it is important to Sister Frejas and our Zone if we attend this Zone activity. So is it okay wth you if I call you on Monday after Father's Day about 5pm your time? ah man I'm so sorry! And at the same time I'm just still stoked to skype you! I love you! And let me know if that works for you! If not, I can probably skype you Father's Day Father's Day. Mahal ko kayo!