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 :)