2/19/2018 - 6 months and Going Strong! time flies!!!

Hola Queridos Amigos Mios,

So I didn't realize but in one year I will be home. Everyday is the last one of this day I will be in Paraguay. Por ejemplo, this is my last 18 Febrero de 2018. Where has the time gone!! I feel like I just got here. I already have a third of my mission gone. That's not fair. I learned here that everyday is precious. The quote from Kung fu Panda is so true. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift and that is why it is called the present. Everyday is a precious gift from God and I want to do everything in my power to make sure I don't waste this precious gift. 

So this week we worked hard and we found 24 nuevos! We were in a lesson with a less active family when the boyfriend of the daughter joined us. He kind of sat in the back and was super quiet and didn't really look like he was super interested. So we were getting ready to leave when he asked us if he could ask us a question. He told us how he has gone to our church now about 4 times and he feels something different when he is in the capilla and wants to know what he has to do to be baptized. We were kind of shocked but we started telling him the steps he needed to take and he was excited. We put him with fecha and we have a lesson with him tonight too. His name is Nelson and he is 18. He has a lot of potential. 

We also found another lady named Cynthia. She is 19 and her sister is a reference we received from the Elders in our area. We passed for her sister 4 times and she is never there and this time when we passed Cynthia told us she is hardly ever home and it would be extremely hard to find her. We were a bit disappointed but we asked Cynthia if we could share our message with her. She said she was very busy but if it was quick then why not.

So she went to grab some chairs and Hermana Carhauncho and I felt the spirit so strong. So we started to ask her questions to get to know her a little better. It turns out that 2 of her nephews has passed away and some of her bothers too. We sang families can be together forever and testified. She really liked the song. So then we taught lesson 1 and the spirit was so strong. We have plans to pass again she is really great. But we also passed for a girl named Gladys again. She is super great. We have taught her a few times and she is super awesome. She said she prayed and didn't receive her answer but said she felt super peaceful and calm. We taught her this was her answer. We asked her how she felt when we teach her and she said she feels warm and good and peaceful and she wants us to continue teaching her because she found a great job and she knows that it is only because we taught her how to pray correctly to her Heavenly Father. She is so awesome and lessons with her are so great because she asks really good questions and she makes really good comments that bring the spirit. She is only 21 too. But Sunday was a lot of fun. After lunch we left with Rocio y Soledad. Rocio is 18 and Soledad is 15 but they are like sisters and they wanted to see what it was like to be a missionary so we left and it was so much fun. They have great testimonies and they helped us find new people and with our lessons. It also rained a ton and it was a lot of fun with them running around in the rain and having so much fun just being missionaries.

 

Oh but backtrack because Friday we had lunch with a less active family. They never come to church because they have a special needs son but the dad is our ward mission leader. So we always eat at their house. They are super nice. So we were waiting to eat but we were waiting for a really long time. We only have an hour we had already been there 10 minutes. I told Hermana Carhuancho we should leave and come back in 10 minutes or so when the food will be ready so we don't waste any of the time we had for lunch. We told Hermana Espinola that we are going to return. She seemed a little offended and so I explained that we only had 1 hour to have lunch and we wanted to spend the whole time with them and not have to worry about cutting lunch short because we don't have time or stay longer and be disobedient. She told us the food was ready and to sit, so we did. We waited another little while but not too much longer. A little bit later Hermana Espinola came out and was telling us that for a long time they haven't been able to come to church but they still read their scriptures and feed the missionaries. The way he was talking made it sound like he was gonna say but, like but we cant feed you anymore... However, he started to cry and tell us how grateful he was to be able to serve missionaries that are focused on the work of the Lord. Missionaries that were obedient because we bring a special Spirit into their home. He bore his testimony on the gospel and it was super spiritual. We told them how grateful we were for their service. Really it is such a blessing to eat with the members here because there aren't a lot of members that want to give us lunch. But it made me want to cry when, Sunday morning during sacrament, I saw them all walk in, in their Sunday best, and sit down next to Hermana Carhuancho. It was so great, they came to church. Even though it is hard to walk to church with their son, they came. It was so amazing.  

This morning after our studies we went on a little adventure. We were soaking wet by the end of it. We have a lot of huge hills in Paraguari and we decided to go hiking. So we went to Cerro Hu and we  kinda got lost. There is a view point where you can see all of Paraguari from it but we kinda went of track and found this other view point, but it was super slippery and wet because it was raining. So we had to be SUPER careful.

We were litterally in the jungle and we found this rock to stand on and take photos but there was no way to be able to get onto it. We had to be careful because if we fell sí o sí we would have died, no joke jaja. So I climbed this questionable tree and jumped onto this rock. Not the smartest idea I have ever had but I got into this rock and Hermana Carhuancho decided to be smart and she just stayed where she was. So we took photos. With all the rain and humedad it was really hard to see but total the land that is in this photo is our área Paraguarí.

This is our kingdom. It is giant. But it was a lot of fun. I love you all. I hope everyone is doing super good. I know there is so much more I want to tell you all but I don't want my email to be 500 pages long. Plus there are a lot of pictures and those are so much better. I hope everyone is doing good and I encourage all of you to look for Gods hands in your lives everyday. Everyday there are miracles and tender mercies in our lives. If we don't look for them we will miss them. It is a tender mercy and a privilege to be on my mission and serve the Lord everyday. I love you all. This church is true!!

also this was the first time I wore normal clothes and jeans in 6 months and it felt so unnatural and weird jaja

-- 

To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis

 

 

  

2/12/2018 family email

The photos look awesome of Skyler and Yaya.   Way to go everyone!!! You guys are so awesome. Sad I wont be there but stoked to get another sister. 

hey everyone we had a baptism!!!

So it was super awesome to have the baptism of Carlos. He is super great. This week flew by even faster than the last one. We got to go to Asuncion and I got to see Hermana Robinson again. I am so happy we are so close. But it has been super crazy. So it was pouring super hard and we prayed to find a miracle and we found one. She had all the right questions and was looking for the truth. We also got to give talks in church. Definitely didn't write anything and I felt good about my Spanish. I talked for like 15 minutes about how the members can help the investigators feel good in the capilla. It was great.

Also I teach English so that is fun. Classes start Wednesday and I also lead and play any sort of music here. By play I don't really do anything just make sure the piano works and things. It plays music by itself but you have to follow along to make it work. It has been fun to lead the music. It feels weird to sit up on the stand though while my companion is in the congregation. What else. I don't really know. But it has been a long week. I don't feel like we sleep at all. But it has been really good. We have been finding some really good people. We just need to work a little harder to be able to get them to act on their promptings. How are all of you. How is life. How is everything. I want to hear it all!! Diganme!!! 

Dad to answer some of your questions. My companion is great.

She is super different than my other companions. She is super chill with all the rules so sometimes it is hard to be obediante with her. But she is super nice and loves the people so much here. She kinda takes over all the lessons but we are doing good jaja. I am in the compaña so yes it is much more rural. I literally feel like I am at girls camp. We have a lot of huge hills in our area so we go hiking while we walk pretty much. We have to get water out of wells. It is super fun and different than the city. I love it. It is crazy!. There are animals everywhere. It is so hard not to try and ride a horse here. But it is good. I love it. We still get food with the members but only the same members every week. Sometimes we eat in the house but I like that too. I love milanesa de pollo y asada. Soupa paraguaya is okay but only if Hermana Gonzales makes it. Arroz con lecha is good and so is tortilla but super fattening. I love the food here honestly. I am probably getting fat but that's okay jaja. Hermana Robinson gave me some hard core exercises to do so I think I should be okay. I love the questions. Sometimes I forget what's normal to me now is new to you so if yall got questions bring them on. 

Zach and Kelsey do you know if you are having a little girl or boy yet?

SO... yeah its gonna be valentines day. What is everyone's plans. Everyone has a special someone to share it with so that is super cool. I am pretty sure valentines day is super big here. It is huge in Peru so we will see what goes on. 

The more and more I study the more I realize that we can always improve. I read a talk about a missionary that asked his mission president how he can be a better missionary. But I also wanted to ask some of the people who know me best. Yeah Davis family, what advice can you all give me so that I can be a better missionary, so that I can be the missionary that God needs me to be. 

I love you all.

--

To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis

2/12/2018- Carlos was Baptized!!!

CARLOS WAS BAPTIZED!!!

It was so great. He really is so great. He just came out of the water glowing. Hermana Carhuancho was so happy. She cried and Carlos cried and it was so spiritual. He was so happy afterwards. He just glowed so strong. It was super great, even though there was a ton of rain.

So it is extremely hot here in Paraguari. It is hotter than Fernando de la Mora. By like 20 degrees or so. And the sun is stronger. It is super crazy to feel the difference in just a 3 hour drive, but then I remember that in St George we can go scuba diving and tanning in 80 degree weather and drive an hour to Brian Head and go snowboarding all in the same day so I guess it makes sense.

This week we didn't have a lot of time to work. We had the baptism and meetings on Saturday. And on Thursday we can conferencia de zona and we had to go to Asuncion. We woke up at 3 am to catch a collectivo because we had to be there at 8. Our whole zone was going to take the same collectivo so our District Leader was going to call us when they were 30 minutes away so we could take the same collectivo. But he forgot so we got a call that they were 10 minutes away and we hadn't left the house yet because the collectivo was also early. So we left in a hurry and started walking super fast. Then we got another call that said the collectivo was waiting for us but we had to hurry or else it was going to leave. We were 5 cuadras away. It doesn't sound like a lot but that is a good 15 o 20 minute walk here in Paraguari. So we started running in our dresses with all of our books and stuff. We ran to catch the collectivo and we saw it starting to drive away. So we tried to call after it and luckily our elders heard us and they stopped the collectivo. We made it but man were we tired and gross jaja. The collectivo driver was very impressed by how fast we were running. After a 3 and a half collectivo ride we made it to Asuncion. It was good.

I got to see a lot of elders from my group that I didn't know were going to be there.
I also got to see Hermana Robinson again. It was super fun. We learned about how to make goals and how to have success because of our goals and plans. It was super good. I learned a ton on how to be better so that my investigators can progress. We took some pictures and then we were off back to Paraguari. After another long collectivo ride we finally made it back around 6 en la tarde. Then we had to do weekly planning, where we sit down for 3 hours and plan for what our investigators need to progress, what lessons, activities, and how we can help them. It is super great to think one by one what our investigators need and how we can become better personally and in our companionship to be able to help our investigators. But we didn't leave to work at all jaja so we worked extra hard to make up for it. Friday we walked a ton. We had made appointments earlier in the week and they all lived in different areas. So we walked muchisimo jaja but its healthy for me. We had a lesson with an investigator named Ana. She found the Hermana's because she wanted to get baptized. She knows the church is true because she let all her kids, 8 kids, get baptized a long time ago, but she wasn't ready to get baptized. She wasn't living the Law of Chastity. So the Hermana's started teaching her and she has a testimony that the church is true, but she didn't want the elders to baptize her, she wanted us to do it. Like literally to do it. The Hermana's tried to explain to here that the only people who can perform the baptism is worthy priesthood holders. But she didn't want to hear that. She wanted the Hermanas. So then my first lesson with her we were going to invite her to be baptized again. When we did she gladly accepted but said the only way is if we could do it. Hermana Carhuancho was a little bit frustrated because she had explained before that the Hermanas cant do it. But I asked her if she knew the church was true. She said yes, which is why she wanted her kids to be baptized. She knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that we have the power of God on earth today. I gave my testimony on how I know that God restored this power through Joseph Smith and that only worthy men can hold this authority but that women are blessed everyday by this power of God. We gave her a pamphlet that talks about priesthood and when we passed the next time she told us she read the whole thing. We set a date for her baptism and in her prayer she asked that she would have the strength to do all that she needed to to be able to be baptized. It was so amazing. She realized the importance of baptism and now she is preparing herself for this sacred covenant. 

So Saturday there was a ton of rain.

We got soaked and we had one hour before we had to go home and change for the baptism. So we were walking the streets and there was no one out because it was seriously pouring. We looked like we went swimming with all our clothes on... So we were looking and looking. But no one. I told hermana Carhauncho we should say a prayer. In my prayer I asked if Heavenly Father would guide us to who needed our help. We sat in the road for a second as I saw a house light turn on in the distance. We walked to this house and it turns out that the hermana just got home from work. She let us in and we started talking. Her dad is sick and she was just wondering why God was letting this happen. We asked her the importance of religion in her life and she said it was very important. That she is catholic but has always wondered why there was so many churches. We started teaching the Restauracion and the spirit was so strong. She accepted fecha and I know that God really does answer our prayers, but only in His timing.

We had another lesson with a lady named Virginia and su familia. We started to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how families can be eternal. As I started to talk about the Atonement she started to cry. She tried to play it off as the sun, but it was very clearly the Spirit. She wants to go to church to see how it is and to feel this feeling she had more. Oh also Sunday was a full day. So Saturday night we were told we had to give talks in church. So okay that's okay. 8 minutes no big deal. Then I was also given the assignment to teach Gospel Principles. Okay we don't have a book so I had to wing it jaja. Then we were given the practices in our reunion de distrito. So I am sure the Elders are sick of hearing me talk jaja. But it was actually a lot easier than I thought as I relied on the spirit. I talked for like 15 minutes in sacrament with ease. My Spanish was fine and I talked about how the members can be missionaries too and help the investigators feel comfortable in the church because it can be scary to go to church alone, whether you are new or not. But it was super great time to learn for myself as I prepared to teach others. I also get to put my music talent to use because no can read music or anything so that have me lead the music and do anything music related in the church. It has been fun to further my talents. 

This week has been another great one. Honestly my letters I feel like I make it sound like only good things happen. But its not true. Let me tell you the mission is not easy. There are lots of difficulties and hard times. Struggles and setbacks. But the thing is, there are always struggles and set backs. In the mission, in school, in life. But what we can remember is that just like an arrow when we are pulled back, it only means we are about to be launched forward. We can look at our setbacks and how struggles as moments in preparations to be launched into something great. This is something I have learned on my mission. That everything we go through is just giving us the chance to learn and improve and be someone better. I am so grateful for my hardships because that only means God trusts us enough to handle them. I hope you all had a super fantastic week, and that you all have a super mega fantastic week this week. Love you all and Happy Valentines Day!!!

--

To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis