October 28, 2013

Family!!!!

Kmsta ba kayo!?!? Wow thanks for your emails! LOVE THEM!! Also GREAT NEWS!! Dad and Darla I got your letter!! I have yet to read it ha ha but it is in my bag and I'm looking forward to reading it soon-THANKS!!! Also you all say you have such boring weeks and what not, ha ha even if you think your emails are boring to me-I love it. I love hearing the little things you're doing daily. Keep it up! Thank you!!! 

Okay so ha ha tons of big changes happened in the last week! So ya! I got transferred again!!! WHAT?! Ya that was a big surprise. Sister Merwal was 100% sure she was being transferred as in she did all her laundry the day before, had been making BR's (like rememberances for members and missionaries-almost like you sign in the back of a year book) she made those for the last week to give to everybody in the branch and to all the missionaries, she had basically started packing and she had planned her farewell party... turns out she'll be there for another 12 weeks ha ha! Oh it was hilarious. Anyway. I was super surprised to leave Camiling. I was only there one transfer and I LOVED it. Oh well. I'll miss those people the most. Ha ha wow I'm amazed at how quickly I fall in love with these people. Oh well. Hopefully I'll see them again... or at least keep in communication with them! 

So check it out.. I'm back immediately in Tarlac! Ha ha funny. Except instead of going back to Ward 3, I'm in Lapaz Branch! Sister Naldoza (my new companion and my old roommate in Camiling!!!!) and I are opening this area!!! Ha ha it is awesome! Lapaz has never had Sisters here before it is awesome! So far so great! They love us and we love them!! Opening an area for sure has its challenges ha ha but the challenges are not even bad and sometimes the challenges are so ridiculous it is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious ha ha. 

It is just the 2 of us in our home which is different but its fun. It's a good thing we get along so well otherwise it would be super boring and quiet. But we laugh all the time and have fun. Our house is new. And by that I should just say new to missionaries. Ha ha ah man something funny for sure our house. It's kind of a bummer because they finished painting our house in Camiling this past week and it is sooo beautiful! And now Sister Naldoza and I just left it... darn. Oh well! Our house now... lets just say that the whole living in a tent for an entire summer definitely prepared me for this house. Ha ha it's hilarious. They weren't expecting Sisters to coming into the area until January so lots of things they wanted to change have yet to been changed. Hopefully soon they'll get the house looking better. But really it's great! 

Our branch-Lapaz is awesome! We actually got a new Branch President just last week and he is awesome! Ah man we have work to do here to help the branch. Our Branch President, President Campos, deserves so many blessings! He doesn't yet have any counselors, none of the auxillaries are yet filled with functioning leaders, and many of the functioning leaders have multiple callings. Ha ha I can't imagine running a branch with no counselors... what a man I'm impressed. Something I've learned so much here is that EVERY SINGLE CALLING in the Church is incredibly crucial.Seriously. Home and Visiting teaching-SO important. Functioning auxilaries-it's a blessing! Having functioning teachers for each class is important. Having Priesthood to bless and pass the Sacrament, having fellowshippers in YW, functioning Primary leaders, EVERY SINGLE CALLING is critical. I pray  we will all fulfill our callings, go to our meetings, and support our leaders. They need our support. The leaders have a hard time leading if there is no support."It takes courage to lead, and sometimes it takes faith to follow." Support our leaders, fulfill our callings! 

This past Sunday it sounds like it was the Primary program everywhere! Yesterday we also had our Primary Presentation! It was ADORABLE!!! Ha ha it reminded me that kids are kids no matter where you are, what culture you are, etc. Kids are always kids and I love it! In the small small group of kids singing their different adorable songs and saying adorable little testimonies I found a Kela look and act alike ha ha it was great. There was also the kid not paying attention but rather playing with his paper throwing it up in the air just to let it fall and repeat. Then there was the kid belting out the song. The kid who yelled into the microphone. the older kid who was ready to be out of primary. ha ha all of them. It was great! I loved it! I really admire our Primary leaders. If Yvonne Johanson is still the primary president-tell her I say good job and to keep going! The talents of primary leaders... wow-awesome. 

So sorry this is a super long email! Just a lot happened in the last week and it has been great! I love my new companion, I love my new area. These people are so much fun. I love being able to talk to everyone because I know they've never met us before so we can invite all of them to church! We are getting a ton of attention becasue we're new Sisters here and so the more the attention, the more opportunities to find and teach! This area has amazing potential and I am so blessed to be part of it. Wow the Church is true.

Pictures! And there are a lot. 

May FHE for Brother Jonathan's birthday and his family! 

2. Sister Kyla's uncle was just making these cool baskets out of bamboo right next to their house so I took a picture with them! The Filipinos are SO good with their hands. 

3. Camiling Zone after Transfer announcements!! I'm going to miss this Zone!!! 

4. This is how they dry all the rice after it comes out of the machine where it gets all separtated. Ha ha the explanation is a lot better than mine right here but I just find it funny and was shocked the first time I saw it. But ya, the roads are just full of rice like this drying in the sun! 

5. Sister Herlene!!!! She seriously is like my little sister and would work with us all the time! Super bummed to leave her.. oh well. She's great and is going to make one fantastic missionary in the future! 

last pictures with Sister Merwal... sad. But beautiful!

2. Okay so for Sister Merwal's farewell party she planned that turned out to be for me, I taught them how to make SMORES!!! SUCCESS!!! They loved it!! Sister Herlene's family and some other members and friends all gathered. We had a short spiritual thought then we made smores. They LOVED it. So much fun! ha ha it's fun teaching people how to make smores. And they're delicious. Everybody loves smores! and they're super easy. boom!

3. awesome!!!

4. smore smores!

5. I'm going to miss these adorable kids!!!

. Our BEAUTIFUL house in Camiling!! Living like queens there seriously!

2. A part member family that we're teaching! Okay so check it out, the sister on the far right in the strip blue-she's deaf! AND she knows ASL!!! I've met some deaf people here before but their sign is so different from what I learned that I can't really communicate with the. But this Sister is different! She actually knows ASL or at least somewhat. Ha ha and I'm amazed at how much ASL I've forgotten! Then it's hard b/c I'm changing the Tagalog in my head to English than back to ASL or I'll try to go from Tagalog to ASL which isn't working either. But anyway, we have had somewhat communications which has been great so far! Hopefully we can understand each other enough to communicate what we want to say! Sooo fun!

3 Ya they have a pet monkey I fed a piece of candy to! The monkey is so nice!

4. Can you see the round candy in his mouth?  

Back in Tarlac! With my anak and apo! LOVE THEM!

2. and SM is getting ready for Halloween!

3. Halloween is coming up!

4. Fun times!

That's all folks! Thanks again for your continuous love and support to me! I sincerely appreciate it. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that through Him we can recieve forgiveness for our sins. We can get rid of those feelings of guilt through the Atonement. Through prayer nothing is impossible. Our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. He knows what we need. He knows how to help us. He knows what is best for us. And most importantly He loves us. We are His children. He is our Father. I know this and I am so blessed to be able to share my testimony of this knowledge I've gained with those around me. If you want to be happy-read the Book of Mormon. 

I love you! Mahal ko kayo!

-Sister Davidson :) 

October 21, 2013

Family!!!

Thank you so much for your emails! I LOVE them!! Thanks for letting me know how you're all doing! No problems here with the earthquake and we pray for those who have been affected. 

Boom this week was awesome! Every week is awesome. I love this area and these people, and just I love everything! 

So being a missionary automatically tags you as someone you can go to last minute and it will happen. Which is great haha and it teaches me to qualify myself so I can rely on the Spirit for those MANY times that this happens. This past week I was asked to teach the lesson in our District Meeting about receiving revelation through prayer. It was a great lesson for me to teach as I learned probably more than the other missionaries. I realized that my prayers are always so fast. I'm great at asking for blessings, giving thanks, etc but I forget  to listen to what the Lord wants to tell me. We've all heard this example before but this week it set in for me. When we're ordering food or what not, we call and order our food and we don't just hang up. We communicate with the person on the phone. It's just as important for the person on the other side of the line to communicate with us as it is us with them. Or for example, if you were to call your best friend, and just tell him/her everything that's going on in your life-the great things, sad, frustrating, struggles, etc-he/she would listen to you. And then how would he/she feel if after all her listening to you you just hang up on her? If you did that to me, I'd be sad! I'd want to try to give you advice, or just let you know that I'm here for you! I learned that that is similar to our prayers. I am always just praying, saying amen, and then moving on to the next thing we're rushing off to do. I forget to take the time to listen. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity the Lord gave me to learn from this lesson I taught. My prayers are more like a 2 way communication now than a 1-way. I'm incredibly grateful also for the patience of the Lord with me. Ah man I have so many weaknesses yet He continues to bless me. What a loving Heavenly Father we have! Needless to say if that's all I taught on my mission was to tell people that Heavenly Father is aware of them, and they are important to Him- I would be satisfied. We are so blessed! Ha ha it's more than amazing.

Hey by the way... how's your missionary experiences going? Remember what I want for Christmas? Elder Ballard's challenge? Ya I'll be checking up on that. :)

So Pictures! Ha ha i have a lot this week! Good thing pictures remind me of what actually happened!

1. We had an FHE at the Luzano family! They are less active but they came to general conference which was awesome! In this picture our punishment was singing Rodulf the Red Nosed Raindeer. As you can see, they were great back-up singers to my fantastic solo they had me sing. (hope you can hear my sarcasm in that last sentence.) ha ha they're awesome.

2. Ah this was awesome! The Elders in our district had a wedding and a baptism they invited us to! IT was sooo great! So exciting to see this cute cute couple get married, and then immediately baptized after! So happy!!!!!

3. They got baptized!! SOOO adorable!!!! I love the pictures like these!!!!!

4. This is a couple we talked to and then taught. They aren't actually very interested, but hopefully they'll let us continue to teach them! They were just an adorable old couple that they're happiness together made me so happy I just wanted to take a picture. 

5. Camiling Zone!!!!!!!!! Love these missionaries. 

1. so they're entirely repainting our house and it is awesome. Wow it looks SO good! The Filipinos are SO skilled with their hands. These guys use absolutely no tape, and the lines are perfectly straight, it looks awesome. Like no joke. Sister Thomas and I were worried when we weren't seeing any tape but like are you kidding me? These guys truly are sooo skillful! And they're incredibly fast! They'll have our entire house painted in less than one week. And it looks professional.

2. they're great. This brother didn't want to look at the camera because he wanted to be "in action" ha ha it was funny. 

3. While waiting for our lesson to start I gave Sister Merwal a short ride on their bike ha ha it was great. 

4. This is Sister Hanah Mae and Brother Diaz. I asked you to pray for Sister Hanah Mae last week. She's investigating Iglesia and LDS. She was sick so didn't come to church yesterday... :( Please continue to pray for her!!! She needs all the help she can get. 

5. This is Brother Genaro and his friend out playing on their bike in the rain. Ha ha it's fun to watch kids play in the rain

We had a mini fhe for a this child's birthday. And the food in the bag is SOooo delicious! I'll make it for us one day... SO good.

2. We had a great time! It was a great birthday party!

3. We had a CSP at the home of the Cupa family! We just cleaned outside as their landlords are coming soon so it needs to be clean. The Cupa family is awesome! They're our investigators and are progressing! But not coming to church.... which means they're only progressing a little. It's okay though-small steps. Everything in life happens sometimes slower than we want. Anyway, the Cupa family is great.

4. And then I tried juggling with these Suhaw but they are ginormous (and amazingly delicious) so it didn't work out. Also I don't know how to juggle so ya.

5. I taught Sister Merwal how to make a Smore! She loved it! It was aweomse! 

6. "gannito ba?" "Like this?" Ha ha success!! everyone loves smores. 

 1. So Brother John King (15 years old) uses this technique when he works as all Filipinos use so that the sun and dust doesn't get in their faces. Ha ha you can never tell who's under a mask.

2. But look! It's Brother John King!

3. Sister Banaga and Aiza! The little girl is not a member and the mom is a less active member. They're super cute and fun!

4. The Del Rosario family! I feel like I've told you about them before. They're recent converts and amazing! They walk to church every Sunday morning about 3K maybe from the church. They are a dedicated family. They can't afford to take a trike ride there and back so they just walk in the morning and then in the afternoon they pay the trike. They are an inspiring family. 

 1. Okay the ward missionaries from Tarlac came to church here in Camiling! They completely suprised me!!! They came to tell me that Brother Joey got his mission call to the Daavao mission and Sister Monica got her mission call to the Ilongo mission! ahh man I was sooo suprised! It was so fun seeing them again even for a short time and I felt so loved they came all the way just to tell me the good news! Ahhh man I LOVE these people!!!!

2. LOVE THEM!!!

3. These kids are adorable. Brother Clark, Sister Sara, Brother Eugene, Sister Merwal, and Sister Missy. We teach them little lessons once a week and they love the gospel. We're also working REALLY hard to try to teach their parents with them... with time. 

Okay that's it folks! LIke I said... lots of pictures ha ha. Hope you're all doing well! Know that i LOVE you all and miss you! Make sure you're reading the BOM EVERY day, saying your prayers daily, and going to all 3 hours of church each Sunday as well as fulfilling your calling to the fullest! Mahal ko kayo!!! love you!

-Sister Davidson :) 

October 14, 2013

Family!!!

Thank you for your continued love and support to me every week! LOVE it! Thank you so much! 

This week was fantastic! So many great things happened! 

First. General Conference! Okay ya it was amazing! I LOVE general conference! Did you all watch it? If not-get on it immediately. SO great. I love General Conference. Also we had Sister Hanah May come to GenCon! We were so excited! Sister Hanah May is a referral from a member who is great. She came to the Family History Open House a few weeks ago and we have been teaching her as often as we can. We were so happy she came to general conference! She needs your prayers though! She doesn't yet know if this Church is true or not yet. She is investigating thoroughly different churches. Yes we have the advantage that this is the true church... Here is the concern though. She lives literally 50 steps away from the Iglesia church. Iglesia is a very strong church here in the Philippines. VERY strong. If you've served a mission in the Philippines you know what I mean. Anyway. She has a bunch of friends in Iglesia. The church is literally 50 steps away from her house and she is not sure what she wants to do yet. We pray that she will pray to find out her answer. Obviously we don't want to force her to do anything she doesn't want to, but we really want her to pray for herself so she can know for herself if this is the true Church or not. Ahh she just needs that confidence to pray to find out for herself. We'll continue to pray for her.

We also had exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leaders! It was awesome! I'm impressed with our STL's examples. Ah man they are always SO tired and I am impressed with all the exchanges they do. They're definantly blessed. Anyway. I went over to a different area with Sister Jensen! IT was awesome! We are both Americans and that's the first time I was with an American! In our mission there are hardly any, if any at all, foreigner-foreigner companions. There is always one Filipino and one foreigner. Which I'm grateful for. I love the Filipinos! Anyway it was fun being two white missionaries working! Sister Jensen is from Logan and she is awesome! I learned a ton from her and from the people in her area! We taught this  huge group of kids that was at first overwhelming because there were so many, but then it was super fun! We did some fancy teacher techniques to get all their attention and on the same page as us and it was great! It was so funny ha ha I loved it. I definantly admire elementary teachers and their ability to have the attention of their students.

This week was also kind of crazy to the weather. So we had a typhoon hit us. Ya that was fun.. not really. Ha ha it was great though. We were more than safe and it was an experience. We were warned that a storm was coming so we were just careful. Than as night came on the wind picked up more so we had to get home. We got home just fine, pulled all our laundry in, stuff like that and just went to bed with the wind blowing outside. Later in the middle of the night the wind picked up with the rain. Ha ha ya nobody slept. The wind and the rain were SO hard! Seriously! We had to shut our windows and our drapes were soaping wet as the wind was pushing the rain sideways. Looking outside (we were perfectly, perfectly safe in our home no worries) the wind was super strong as well as the rain! It was crazy how strong the wind was. The next morning looking outside there were just leaves, branches, etc blown all around. It wasn't terrible like you see on TV but it was a lot of clean up. And there was no flooding which I was super impressed about! There is always flooding here. Anyway walking throughout the day we saw the damage of the storm and ah man it was hard in some areas. We had no power or cell phone service for about 17 hours but we were fine and we were able to see the other missionaries later on in the day so we were all fine. But ya. It was crazy. Nobody that I heard of got hurt. We were super blessed here! Over in some other areas they got hit harder. We only got internet earlier today so we're blessed we get to email today! Some other areas their internet is still out which is a bummer. But ya. It was definantly a eye opener to me that "Master the tempest is raging...... the winds and the waves shall obey His will..." Yes the Lord is incredibly powerful that I don't ever think I will ever understand. The Lord is SO in charge of everything! From BIG storms to lives of our adorable nephews to finding a lost key. It is great and we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives.

This week also we attended a funeral which was sad. The papa of the branch mission leader in our neighboring branch got in an accident while drunk and passed away. He wasn't a member but his family are members. It was interesting to me watching a funeral with the culture here. It was very similar and had many differences also. Some differences are that everybody walks with the casket in the car from the funeral services home to the church. And then from the church to the cemetary. It's interesting becasue nobody will pass this procession. Which stinks if you're not part of the funeral because it slows you down incredibly, but it's kind of cool how respectful they are to those who have passed away. I am incredibly grateful for the Plan of Salvation at times like these. I'll be honest I haven't been to very many funerals so each one touches home and makes me miss Mom. But here is the thing. I am so happy becasue of the knowledge we have about the Plan of Salvation. I have no concerns that we are with her for eternity depending if we do our part here on earth. It breaks my heart seeing people SO sad because they think this is the end. There IS hope. There is life after death. We can literally be sealed with our loved ones for eternity so that the family relationships we have will last after this life. I pray for this family as I know the trials they are facing in the next few weeks, months, and years living without one of their parents. We are so blessed to have a temple sealing where we are BOUND together. Ah man I love this Gospel. 

Also. You've been asking what I want for Christmas... I finally know! (Thank you General Conference) I just want each of you to involve yourself in missionary work!! I love the invitation of Elder Ballard and THAT is what I want from you for Christmas. Also I want you to report back to me on your experience. :) Packages are expensive and I don't need anything. I will be honest I'm not sure if I can afford to send stuff home this Christmas... Sorry! Although I have to say I have a sweet Filipino pride shirt I already bought Junior and when he is older he'll love it. But really. Packages are super expensive-don't worry about it. Your weekly emails, your prayers, and mostly your love and support to me are enough. Really what I want for Christmas is for you to involve yourself in missionary work and report back to me. Also I know other people read this email-I extend Elder Ballard's invitation to them as well! Involve ourselves in missionary work in someway! There are hundreds of ways-it just takes thought, prayer, and then action. And then you will see the blessings. Report back to me. That's what I want. :)

"The Lord knows us. He knows we have our challenges. I realize that some of you may feel heavy laden, but I pray that none of you would ever feel that reaching out in normal, pleasant ways to share the gospel would ever be a burden. Rather, it is a privilege! There is no greater joy in life than being anxiously engaged in the service of the Lord.

The key is that you be inspired of God, that you ask Him for direction and then go and do as the Spirit prompts you. When members view the work of salvation as their responsibility alone, it can be intimidating. When they view it as an invitation to follow the Lord in bringing souls unto Him to be taught by the full-time elders and sisters, it is inspiring, invigorating, and uplifting.

We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior."

Okay well that's about it folks! I LOVE being a missionary! I LOVE this gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives for good. You can see a change in their lives that is so touching and so inspiring. Jesus Christ is our older brother and our Savior. With Him ALL things are possible. I love Him. I love His work. 

Pictures!

 I LOVE this beautiful country!

These are all the kids we taught on exchanges! They are so hilarious and it was super intimidating at first teaching all them but then it was awesome. If you can see me I'm in the corner trying to get my head in the picture. 

Sister Jensen! 2 American Sisters sharing the gospel to the great Filipinos! It was awesome!

This is them putting the casket in the grave. Interesting the similarities and differences of funeral services of different cultures. 

 Yep I LOVE the Philippines!!!

 Great big branches hanging down and being blown over

Big trees blown over

 BIG tree blown over!

 Yeah... big

 like I said... big 

Don't freak out though-we were perfectly safe, we were smart, this isn't even near our home. near our home there was far less damage. we were perfectly fine I promise! Thanks for your prayers for keeping us missionaries safe!

Kanding Falls-we went here for a zone activity earlier as we still didn't have internet! IT was sooo pretty!!!! 

LOVE it!!!!!

 SO pretty!!

 Ya.....

I  love the Philippines!

That's all folks! I LOVE being here. I LOVE sharing my testimony everyday. I LOVE inviting others to come unto Christ. It is such a priviledge and I never want to stop! I love when people progress towards Christ. I LOVE falling in love with the changes I see in their lives. I LOVE these people and feel like they really are my brothers and sisters I am helping come back to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 

I LOVE you!! Thank you for your continual love and support! Keep saying your prayers, reading your scriptures, going to ALL your Sunday meetings! Church is 3 hours, not one-go to church. Fulfill your callings and see the hands of the Lord in His work. Pray for the missionaries and those they are teaching in your area and please continue to pray for us and those we are teaching. Mahal ko kayo!!!

-Sister Davidson :)