December 23, 2013

Family!!!

Thank you so much for your emails!!! LOVED THEM!!! ALSO... I got your Christmas package!!! So I was about to open it, then decided I wanted to have something to open for Christmas morning. So I have yet to open it. But I'll be opening it Christmas morning and I'm stoked. Salamat! Also super stoked to Hang out with you!!! Ahh I'm so excited!!!!!!!! Okay but heads up. I just asked the guy again and their web cam is not yet fixed! So... there is another computer shop down the street that I will try. But here is the thing. They don't open up until 9am. So... the guy here that they open at 8am said he will try their camera later today, so tomorrow I will come and check to see if it's fixed yet. If not, I'll talk to the other lady at the other computer shop and see if I can sweet talk my way into getting them to open at 8am. I think it will work, but if not, I'll be skyping you about 9am. Sorry! But either way-we get to Skype! Sorry if you're waiting around another hour or so.. I'll try to shoot you a quick email if it ends up being at 9am. Just be online with your email so if something changes I can chat with you online to figure it out. But I'm sups excited to see all of you!! and let's continue to specifically pray that the web cam works, the microphone works, and the internet connection is not slow. Like I'm serious when I'm asking you to pray for those specific things. And let's pray Linc is in a good mood too!!! ya!!! I'm excited! And nothing is impossible to God. BOOM I'm stoked! 

Okay so this week was awesome. I'm so excited for Christmas. The world is just a better place around Christmas time. People are kinder to one another, people are happier. And it is all because we're remembering Christ! When we put Christ and remember Him in our lives-we're happier! Go figure right? It's true though. When we remember to put Christ first, we are happier. I love this time of year. 

So crazy thing. I guess there was an earthquake that hit Quezon City this past week? That's what people told us. Anyway, we felt it here in La Paz. Woah it was my first real earthquake that I felt. It was crazy. It was really short but it was, ah man it was weird. Ha ha it was at night and I was saying my prayers before I went to bed when I felt my bed shake and the whole house seemed to shake. But it was only for a few seconds. I thought I was just crazy and super tired and my eyes were playing tricks on me or maybe I had fallen asleep mid-prayer and was waking up just feeling funny. Anyway, I continued praying when it hit again. It was for a few seconds again and my bed shook again as well as the house. Then Sister Tupua said, "did you feel that??" immediately I knew it wasn't just me and I was grateful she said something. Ha ha we hurry and talked about we thought it was an earthquake that had hit somewhere else and we were feeling the effect of it. We were glad we were fine, and we became worried for wherever it had hit thinking oh no not these poor people again. Anyway, I went back to praying, then went to bed no worries. Then just talking to people the next day they told us it had hit in Quezon City but it wasn't very bad which we were grateful for.

 Anyway.  The reason I mention the earthquake was not just because it was something that happened to me but because it taught me a good lesson in the few seconds I felt it. During the typhoon I wasn't scared of the storm. We were inside and safe, looking outside it was bad and you'd be crazy to walk out there. But I felt safe and fine inside. For the earthquake, it hit outside, as well as inside. The earthquake was inside our house, the inside as well as the outside were affected. It was scarier b/c thinking of safe places inside the house-under the bed? Ya you'd be safe from the ceiling falling in, but you'd still be feeling the shaking under the bed. Anyway, it hit me. How often do we look at things that are harmful and think that we are safe from them? We would be crazy to go out and try different things like that. Alcohol, drugs, cigarattes, we know it's crazy to get involved in things like that and we stay far away so we are safe. We know those things will cause damage to us. But what about the things we bring inside our homes that damage us as well? Doing little things that will hurt us in the inside. Inside our homes, choosing to not read the Book of Mormon one day even for 5 minutes b/c we're tired or something, choosing to pray as a family tomorrow, renting a Red Box that is PG-13 but still has some inappropriate things that we would never watch if President Monson was watching with us, listening to a song in the car that we would be embarassed if we were caught listening to it... little things like that that we bring into our homes, bring into our lives. It's the little things that make all the difference. We bring the earthquake inside our homes sometimes. We will stay away and safe and far from the typhoon outside, but inside is the earthquake. I don't know, it was just a tender learning moment for me to feel that earthquake and not feel safe for a few seconds inside our home. It was scary. It is scary seeing that we often ourselves bring the damage from the storm inside our homes as well. If there are things that we're doing, if we're bringing the damage inside our homes, I hope we will have the courage and faith to get rid of it. Storms and natural disasters are scary. Storms that harm our spiritual progression...scarier as they have an eternal effect on our lives. 

This week we had our temple request form accepted which means.... I get to go to the Manila Temple on Friday!!!! I'm sooooo excited!!!! I haven't been to the temple in months and I miss is it so badly!! We're going with Ward 3, my first area! With Tatay and Nanay Solanga. Sister Bongolto and I with our Bishop were able to give them a temple goal date back in August of going to the temple to be sealed as an family for eternity in December. And this family has come back to church and is making their goal!!! We gave the December to 2 different families as well, but they'll be extending their date to maybe April. But we are so excited!!! The Solanga family gets to go get sealed for eternity this Friday! What a better way to celebrate Christmas and get ready for 2014!? I'm not sure what else could be better. I'm so so excited we get to go witness this sealing! Ah man it's so exciting. 

Anyway. This week has been fantastic. I'm learning so much and the Lord is so incredibly kind to me. I have many, many mistakes and weaknesses yet He loves me and lets me try over again and again to be better today than I was yesterday. How Great He truly is. I love you all sooo much and am PUMPED for our hang out!!!!!! BOOM!!! 

Have a very merry Christmas and know I'll be thinking of you and missing you! But it's okay because check it out, because we miss each other-it means we love each other! Our family is eternal-and it's perfect. :)

love you alll sooooo much!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! MALIGAYANG PASKO!!!!

-Sister Davidson :)

Pictures!!! Lots of them... a lot happened! :)

1. We had Christmas Conference this past week!! SOOO Amazing. LOVED IT!!! There were so many of us, it was great! This is Sister Tupua and me with SNOW!!! Okay I actually don't know what it was, but it was great. We threw it up and it got all over and was fantastic. It was fun for a White Christmas :) Okay but seriously, the pictures of home.... ah man that looks freezing cold. ha ha I'm enjoying the weather here. 

2. Ya! Throwing the Snow for a white Christmas!

3. My twin! Sister Foster and I are always confused for each other! We have snow all over and it was great!

4. My batch from the MTC! We've all grown so much! 

5. lots of snow on my head

1 all the foreigners had to have their finger prints and had to fill out some paperwork so that our visas will be good to go when the time comes to leave. so this is us, chilling in line waiting to have our finger prints and pictures taken... ya!

2. Ya! go sister Tupua!

3 South Jordan Group!!!! There are like 4 of us from SoJo here in the mission, it's great! this Elder, forgot his name, is actually the next door neighbor of Colton Weeks! Remember him? Ya they're next door neighbors! Small world ha ha. We're all from SoJO and we're all here in the Philippines serving the Lord, it's great! 

4. Sister Merwal! My old compaion in Camiling!!!

5. Sister Tupua-love her!

I got your package!!!!!!!!

2. Elder Westover got his package also! We're so excited! "our families love us!" Thanks for the package! I'm stoked to open it!

3.  just a random Carabou walking down the street we were at, Sister Tupua hadn't had a picture with one yet so we stopped. If it wasn't so stinky i'd get closer to him ha ha. 

4. Sister Quezie got baptized!!! I don't know if I mentioned, last week she was suppossed to get baptized, but the water pipe had something wrong with it so there was no watter at the church. But this week... we had a successful baptism!!!! Soooo exciting! Sister Quezie was excited and had been waiting for her baptism for a long time. And now she was finally able to be baptized and confirmed this past weekend! 

5. LOVE this little girl!

1. You know all those pretty trees around our house? Ya they actually are more than just pretty-they are full of coconuts! 

2. Sister Tupua and I were hopeless at opening the coconut though so our neighbor lovingly opened it for us! I thought he was going to cut his fingers off so many times, but man, these Filipinos are so good and careful with the hands starting from the time they're young.

3. And I just enjoyed the coconut he opened for us. 

4. Fresh coconut and fresh coconut juice-it's the best. 

5. Okay so this was just funny. Sister Quizie was suppossed to get baptized this past week. She was all excited, she was ready and it was great. We showed up to the church to find the font hadn't been filled.... ha ha dang. Oh well. We went to turn it on and fill the font only to find out.. there was no water working in the entire church building. we thought it was just a breaker that we needed to turn on. So we went on a hunt to find out how to turn it on. nobody knew what we were doing as the people that do know those things, weren't available. So we keep searching, trying different things, only to find out that the pump or whatever was broken. So... there was no water on  Saturday, or Sunday. Ha ha going to church with no water working, no bathrooms flushing... ha ha funny things happen everyday on the mission. LOVE it!! We pray it gets fixed before this next Saturday when we've rescheduled her baptism. 

6. Thumbs up to the mission life!

That's all folks! Love you all and am super super excited to hang out with you on Christmas! I hope you're still getting ready my Christmas present by following the counsel of Elder Ballard about missionary work! Love you!! 

1. Aunt Deanna was awesome and sent me a package last month with cookie mix inside! It was like smelling heaven. Ha ha opening that cookie mix, smells bring back memories that's for sure. Sister Tupua and I decided to celebrate our new companionship with cookies.

2. But sad to say my baking skills has done anything but progress. These poor cookies... ha ha they still tasted great!

3. Also we have no oven, but toaster ovens work great! (somewhat :)

4. And despite my lack of baking skills, Sister Tupua was still happy to eat them.

5. Sister Tupua and I with Sister Aelyanna-the daughter of a less active member we frequently visit. 

6. Sister Tupua! Our first companionship picture. We get sooo many stares from people as we're both foreigners. Everyone thinks she's a Black American and so we get called Black and White Beauty all the time. Ha ha it's hilarious. 

That's all folks! Love you all! Be willing to do what the Lord asks of you. If you're not yet at the point where you want to do what He wants you to do, pray that He'll help you accept what He has in mind for you and trust that He knows better than you. Love you all!

-Sister Davidson 

1. one of the kids' games that was fun just puting two straws in an empty coke bottle and then running back to give the two straws to the next kid in line, the first team who finished won! 

2 Our district did a great presentation singing "I hope they call me on a mission" mixed with "called to serve" and it was great. And then we sang a differnent version we made up to "You better watch out Santa Clause is coming to town" but we changed the lyrics to missionary style..." you better watch out, you better not hide, you better not run I'm telling you why... missionaries are coming to your house." ha ha it was really funny and we had fun putting it together. 

3. sups fun! the Nanay's did a Hawaiian dance they had coordinated a few weeks earlier for a stake activity-it was awesome. All these Nanay's dancing, it was great ha ha! I LOVE these people!

4. Our youth are amazing! They did a great presentation about Mulan and they had been practicing for a long, long time. they did such a great job!!

5. and the last song they danced to was "we're all in this together" from HSM. Ya toats thought of Savanna.

6. mmm... coconut milk straight from the coconut... so good!

1. we went to the closest thing to the beach ha ha and played a bunch of games for our zone activity!!! Awesome right!? It's Dec 23 and we're playing games in the sand as missionaries, it's great. 

2. This is Ultimate Frisbee-ya it was great. 

3. Go Tarlac Zone!!

4. us sisters are awesome!

5. Taking cool jump shots with Sister Tui'one and the frisbee!

6. ya!

1. District 4 is the best!!! 

2.And Sister Quezie's mom came to the baptism!!! Sooo exciting. Sister Quezie was excited about that as we were as well.

3. Our Branch had their branch Christmas party after the baptism, it was so fun! They had games for the kids, the youth, and the nanays and tatays', it was so fun. the youth did a great presentation, as in great presentation. and it was just loads of fun. 

4. Fun stuff! Sister Tupua and I have fun together!

5. AND... Sister AZ Came to the Christmas party!!! She is one of our investiagtors who is sooo amazing. She reads the Book of Mormon everyday, she's just shy to come to things. so we went and picked her up and she loved it. She's from a different area in the Philippines though and will be returning back there soon... which is sad. We think she will return to her home place before she can get baptized here... but it's okay. she's learning a lot and the missionaries in her area will have an investigator ready for baptism! Sister AZ seriously is the best and she loves learning about the gospel. she has simple, but curious questions about the church and we love answering her questions and helping her understand more the gospel. it's great. I love Sister AZ! 

1. and then we took some cool pics with a dragon

2. go dragons?

3. and then there was a cool natvity in front of SM we took pictures

4. and a cool donkey

5 and he's really kind. but i'm not into kissing animals.

that's all folks! yep that was a ton of pictures! ha ha I'm enjoying my mission. I love it everyday and I'm learning so so so much!! I'm stoked for Christmas! Remember that Christmas is all about Christ. When we remember Him, we are happy.  mahal ko kayo!!!

-Sister Davidson :)