August 26, 2013

Family!!!

Thank you so much for your emails! Good to hear that everybody is doing well. I'm glad Ryan got to Indiana safely!! That's crazy that that part of your life is already here! When does school start for you Ry? Has it already started? What is Notre Dame like? Different from BYU eh? Ha ha. 

This week was fantastic as always. I love love love being here and I love love love being a missionary. I get the great opportunity to testify of our Savior Jesus Christ EVERY day! What an amazing blessing! My testimony of our Savior, and His Atonement has increased so much as I have the chance to see the power of the Atonement help people so much. I really do know that our message is centered in Jesus Christ and that no matter where we are at in life, the gospel will bless us as individuals and as families.

So this week we are SUPER excited! We should have 3 baptisms on Friday which we are stoked about! Si Sister Ryeli De Jesus and si Sister Kristina De Jesus and si Sister Pingky. Sister Ryeli and Sister Kristina were referrals from their less active husbands to us. The De Jesus family is just an amazing family actually. their story is great. And I wish I had time to go into detail of thier great story. Anyway Sister Ryeli and Sister Kristina are super excited. And their husbands si Brother Christian and si Brother Aaron are SUPER excited because they are going to baptize their wives! Yesterday they passed the Sacrament for the first time and they loved it. they are so excited for their next assignment from Bishop and they are just loving being back and active in this gospel. I've learned from so many different experiences that it is easy for some to fall away from the gospel. It takes little things like not having time one day to read the Book of Mormon, or skip church one or 2 times because of some planned event or something like that. Little things like that add up and before you know it you've forgotten the blessings of the gospel being an active part of your life. What I've learned more though is that once you come back, once you get a taste of remembering how awesome this gospel is-you want it all! I love helping less active members return to church. What an amazing blessing and privilege I have!

Sister Pingky we're worried about. She reads the BOM, goes to church, and prays everyday, but she's feeling like this isn't the right time for her to get baptized. We want her to be baptized this Friday not for us, but for her. We know how happy this can make her! Yes she is happy in her life right now, she's reading, praying, and even going to church but she's only getting a taste of the true happiness. We know if she doesn't take this step to baptism she won't ever know what we mean by feeling truly happy. She needs help taking that next step. We pray for her and please remember her in your prayers also! That she will feel confident that this is the full truth and she will feel the desire to be baptized and experience true and full happiness. Also please keep the members of the De Jesus family in your prayers too! 

I love you all soo much! I pray for you everyday and pray you're continually reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday. I know the little things like prayer and scripture study make ALL the difference in having a testimony and in experiencing conversion. You're all the GREATEST ever!!

mahal na mahal ko kayo!

-Sister Davidson :)

 The De Jesus Family!!!!!!!!! all of them together! What an amazing amazing blessing we have had to help them return back to church!

Sister Ryeli and Brother Christian and their 2 kids

Sister Kristina and Brother Aaron and their kids! Their 3 kids will be baptized on 7 September!

Si Brother and Sister De Jesus 

 Okay so last week on P-Day it was Sister Marcucci's birthday!!! So naturally she treated us to pedicures.... oh my gosh. okay I have never felt more relaxed. It was SO nice! What a treat! And it was disgusting to see our feet get deep cleansed. Walking all day everyday in dirty roads and in nasty water wears on your feet. I am absolutely getting another one of these in the future. It was SO nice!

For FHE the ward missionaries threw Sister Marcucci a suprise birthday party!! It was awesome and we LOVE Sister Marcucci!! Seriously we were friends before this life and we will be friends forever.

This is a member in our ward who was selling corn during the storm. Ha ha I was impressed with his creation of how he stays dry. Every single Filipino is incredibly resourceful-I'm always amazed. 

There were a couple of big storms this week - no worries we were fine. There was just a TON of water. Ha ha I'm in need of buying another umbrella... that will be number 3 for me here. 

SO much water! And the water is flowing incredibly fast. It's hard to tell-but the current is so strong that there big waves that I thought to myself, "ah man that'd be fun in a canoe or raft!" but than the water is more than dirty so than I took that thought back.

  Sister Joy-our ward missionary-just getting ready to jump out of our trike to go swimming! SO much water!

Sister Jacqueline's (a recent convert) referred us to her nieces and they loved what we had to teach them! But then they didn't come to church yesterday.. :( We'll continue to teach them and we hope they will learn for themselves this is true!

We brought a family in our ward to one of our investigator's homes for a lesson. It was AWESOME!! We pray that Brother Gerry Clariz (the investigator) was really able to connect with Brother Jimmy (the member) and their families are SO similar that we pray this lesson will have a lasting effect on both families!

The Single Adults in our ward had a breakfast activity and volleyball activity they invited us to! Free food-of course we're there! 

 Before we rushed off to our meeting we pretended to play volleyball

 And of course before we actualy headed out I had to get at least one serve in. It was awesome. And hard in a skirt. And my volleyball skills have suffered.

That's all folks! mahal ko kayo! 

-Sister Davidson :)

August 11, 2013

Family!!!!!!!

Thank you for your emails! I love hearing how you are doing and what is going on in your lives! Crazy school is about to start and Lake Powell is going down?! What the!? I'm excited for you! 

This week was AMAZING! So many great things happened it's crazy that it all happened in one week long! 

To start out the week it was great ha ha also stressful. I tried this crazy thing that turned out to be amazing and I suggest it to everyone. I prayed that Heavenly Father would give me trials. Funny how when you pray for something He gives it to you eh? Anyway, I prayed for trials and they came. Ha ha it was a humbling experience and I really grew and came closer to my Heavenly Father. Anytime there was a struggle of any type it would be like "dang it! oh wait, I asked for this.... okay what can I learn from this,etc." It ha ha was really funny. And really hard and really great. The awesomeness of it was worth all the hardness though and I continue to pray for trials. Also it's a humbling and growing experience to pray and ask for chastizement. Ha ha we'll see what happens when that one comes which I believe it's coming soon. Ooh it's hard to accept chastizement but it is so necessary for us to become better. 

So this week has been so great because I have witnessed the hand of the Lord in our work so much! When He wants His work to progress, it progresses. We are merely instruments in His hands for His work to move forward. Anyway, this week we have been working a lot and taking a lot of time in order to help our ward become one. We have a new slogan here in the mission "We Are One." Meaning we are one with God, with members, leaders, and missionaries. We're taking what we have been learning from the Bretheren and applying it and we are seeing immediate success! We Are One. It is so great. Missionary work is not just something that missionaries do. It is so true that the members, leaders, and missionaries work together to move the work of the Lord forward. I'm ashamed at how I've always thought missionary work is just for missionaries. NOT TRUE. We Are One. We've been working a lot on organizing, planning, and putting into action an amazing fireside together to help our ward become one. We've combined with the Ward 1 and the Ward 1 missionaries (Sister Marcucci and Sister Tibungcog who live with us) to make this a reality. We're working with our mission leaders who are amazing, and our bishops who are also amazing. We've put a lot of time into this and we're seeing the successes already! We've invited President Martino to come and speak at our fireside and he is excited. Our stake president is so excited and he insists that he is there along with his counselors. He hopes our wards will be the example for our stake. It is so great! We have the support of our leaders and with that support we're getting everybody excited about missionary work! It is amazing to see how the hand of the Lord is moving everything forward in the way He wants it to. I can't stress enough how important it is to first, be one with Heavenly Father. Than we can move to being one with everybody around us. Ah man I'm so excited! It is amazing to see the work of the Lord move forward! And it's going to keep moving forward! We Are One-all of us! We all must work together to move this work forward! I'm stoked! 

I've come closer to our Heavenly Father this week. Every day I learn to rely more and more on Him. I know when I strive not to go the extra mile, but to go the extra 10 miles He will help our work be successful. Ah man I love being a missionary. I love this amazing opportunity I have been given. There is not enough time in the day to help this work move forward! This is amazing. This work is real. Our Savior loves us. He makes this all possible. I love wearing the name of Jesus Christ everyday and trying to represent Him as if He were here. It is hard ha ha and it is so worth it. 

I love you all SO much. I love our Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father more than anything. I love being here and serving with all that I have. This church is true. This gospel blesses families. This gospel saves lives. Jesus is our Savior and our Redeemer. It is through Him all things are possible. 

I LOVE YOU!!!

-your favorite sister missionary Sister Davidson :)

Pictures!!

 FHE sa one of our LA families! The Briones family is awesome!

Okay can I just say I was MORE than excited when I saw these! What the!? Animal Crackers in the Philippines!?! Where??? I have no clue where and how they got them but I want them. Also when I ate them (although they were not the same as they were a little soggy ha ha b/c it is a tad bit humid here) about a million memories came flooding into my mind about how much I love Animal Crackers. Also it made me think of Lake Powell and so I told Sister Bongolto all about Lake Powell and when she comes to visit we're taking her to Lake Powell some how. 

We had a zone CSP in one of the areas in our zone planting plants for this garden type thing. It was great and a BEAUTIFUL view! 

so great!

 I love the Philippines!

 

One of the areas we work in. This is a rice field in case you didn't know, and there is a lot of rice in the Philippines

 And Sister Joy (ward missionary) and I love rice!

Ah man the Philippines is BEAUTIFUL!

Let's go swimming?

 Okay Sister Tui'one is from South Jordan!! She got here last week and she is awesome! Her first name is Tia, she's a year younger than me, we knew each other in high school and we'd say hi to each other on campus at BYU. We don't know each other too well but we have a lot of the same friends! It was so fun when she got here and we're in the same zone! I asked her about everybody and it was fun catching up! I'm stoked she's her and we're in the same mission and in the same zone!!!

Just working ya know

 Sister Bongolto and Sister Tibungcog

 Sister Bongolto hard at work

 I love my anak!! Sister Bongolto is the BEST!

 I love the Philippines!

 

 Ya I'm a baby and it took me a while to hold this frog because it was SO nasty! Man what you do sometimes for the sake of a picture ha ha. Just kidding it was a great and hilarious picture.

You know, they're just getting ready to eat those later on. Mmm.... that's one dinner appointment I'm disapointed we're missing. 

 FHE sa house of our bishop! Who by the way is freaking awesome!

I LOVE being a missionary! I LOVE Sister Bongolto! I LOVE our Savior Jesus Christ!

And yes there were actually a lot more pictures but I decided to spare you as I realize you all have so much free time with a new baby, getting ready to move, and start school. ha ha I LOVE you!

August 18, 2013

Family!

Thanks for your letters! I'm glad you had a GREAT time at Powell and at home! Wow I can't believe the time for Indiana is here. That seems like forever ago when you were planning it! Hey remember how you annouced you were going to NotreDame when we talked on the phone at like 1am in the morning and only for like 5min? Ha ha how much time flies. I'm excited for you!

Okay the mission keeps getting better and better and better! I LOVE it! Start off... our ward is amazing! This past week Sister Bongolto and I have been working on getting a missionary workshop ready for our ward missionaries. Our goal in this workshop was getting them excited about missionary work. Okay this workshop was an absolute success! And the best thing is that it wasn't because of Sister Bongolto and I that it was great-it was great becasue of our ward and the Spirit! ah man it was so great! We seriously have been planning this for the last few weeks and then this past week was all about making the final plans, etc. We worked a lot with our ward mission leader and our Bishop to make this as great as we possibly can. It turned out great. We had about 40 in attendance. What the!? It was FANTASTIC! Our ward missionaries learned a lot from the Spirit and all of us who taught felt so happy with the results the workshop produced! We're excited to continue becoming with our ward to become one together in the work of salvation! We are one! It is so great. 

The work in salvation really is moving forward and we're so blessed to be part of it! I am just overwhelmed always about how this work really is moving forward. It really is moving faster than ever before and we have the great opportunity to be part of it! Okay so at the Worldwide Leadership Training meeting about a month ago (which by the way if you haven't watched it yet-WATCH IT!!!!) they announced that missionaries are now authorized to use Facebook to spread the gospel and do missionary work! In our mission we are not yet authorized to use it and I don't think we will for the next little while. Anyway. As the Bretheren now have said that missionaries will use FB for missionary work that is a BIG step towards the future. Do you realize that the internet is worldwide? The internet is in EVERY country. Facebook is in EVERY country. Meaning... missionary work is now in EVERY country. Just let that sink in a little bit. Because missionaries are now using FB to share the gospel-and because FB is in every country.... ummm what does that mean to you? :) "No unhallowed hand can stop this work from progressing. The Truth of God will go forth until it has penetrated in every continent, visited in every climb, swept in every country, and sounded in every ear." I know that to be 100% true. 

I love being a missionary. I love this gospel. I love sharing this gospel to all these wonderful people that I love. We are so blessed to be part of this right now. I know the Savior loves us, and our Heavenly Father loves us also. We are His children. We do matter to Him. He knows our struggles, our weaknesses, and our trials. He knows how to help us. It is up to us to rely on Him. When we come closer to Him, we are happier. When we read the Book of Mormon we are so happy. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true. I pray you're taking the time to read and study from it everyday. I know it blesses our lives.

You are all SO great and I am SO blessed to be part of our family! 

Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!!

-Sister Davidson :)

Pictures!

 

Tatay Amadore!! Tatay is amazing is like our grandpa! He was baptized a few weeks ago and he has been so blessed by it! He was a little hesitant always to be baptized but he has seen the blessings in his life. He is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and he is a changed person. He is so kind to everyone and he is so happy everyday! Ha ha I just love Tatay!!

Sister Tauililli!! My MTC companion!! It is always such a HAPPY reunion whenever we see each other again! She is doing great and I just love her SO much!

Sister Foster!!! We are seriously like twins. We are always switched up! We were together at the MTC and this was the second time I got to see her since getting here! But seriously we are always switched up! For example. Sister Martino did a workshop over in her zone during Lincoln's surgery. Sister Martino went up to Sister Foster and told her "the baby is doing great!" Sister Foster said, 'oh great! do you mean Sister davidson's sister?" ha ha it was hilarious! It is an honor to be mixed up with her always!

Sister Bongolto and I had exchanges so this is me with Sister Balota! And this is 2 sister-in-law Sister Reylie De Jesus and Sister Kristine De Jesus we are teaching! they are excited for their baptism the end of the month!

 

 The Briones family! they are less active and really want to be sealed in the temple! We are working with them to set a temple goal date! They came to church yesterday for the first time in a few months and we were stoked!!!

 Okay I got this picture because Nanay's glasses are hilarious! This was the first time we taught Nay and she was great and came to church! Ah man she is hilarious also ha ha. she loves churches where you are really active and vocal in your praising.

Carl Sid and Joyce-2 adorable kids of an investigator we are teaching! This kid gets into everything but then he is so adorable you can't help but laugh.

It was raining in the morning so I decided to shower outside! 

 I mean how many times does it rain so hard you get to shower outside? okay acutally it rains that hard all the time but usually not in the morning.

 The Ponce family! Also less active. Everytime we teach there the Spirit is so strong and they want a change in their lives! But they still aren't coming to church... they'll come back. :)

  

 

Some of the people who attended the missionary workshop yesterday! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! I LOVE MY WARD!!!!!

I LOVE these people SO much!

 

 

 Sister Bongolto is the greatest companion EVER!! Seriously we had excanges for like 20 hours and it seemed like forever since I had seen her. 

We had zone games this morning and it was aweome!

Sister Bongolto is the BEST!

  

 

There was a birthday cake for sister Marcucci and a few others in our zone... the cake actually wasn't very delicious so it turned into a cake fight.

 There have been a few big storms here as well as it being the rainy season... it is raining a LOT! This water level is huge! Then this morning I wasn't able to take a picture but the water level was even higher! It looked like an ocean in a storm it was so high and the wind was blowing pretty hard. 

That's all folks! I love being a missionary! the Church is True! 

mahal ko kayo!

-Sister Davidson :)