Heading into the....middle of nowhere? September 26, 2016

Hola Hola!

This week has been really great. News! I'm getting transfered to an even more middle of no where town! Basin City english and spansih work. They are putting me half white! Hopefully my English doesn't scare people away...lol

We taught Sunny this week and he shared with us some of his doubts about Joseph Smith. We asked if he had read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and he said no. We invited him to do so and told him that was how he could receive and answer for himself.

I went on two exhcnages this week. Once in the Candy Mountain ward with Sister Hanks and then in the Richland Sunset ward with Sister Christensen and Sister Nielsen.  Sister Hanks and I taught four lessons in four hours. It was a pretty busy day! Their area is on fire and they are doing amazing things for sure. With the Richland sister we did almost 4 hours of service. We painted a play ground and weeded at an investigator's house. Very fun.

CONFERENCE. I loooove conference! Sister Oscarson and President Uchdorf's talks were the best! I'm so excited for conference! I can hardly wait!

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes! Have a fantastic Missionary week!

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

"You guys are freakin' Thuggish! Walking through the valley of Death. Straight up Thugs!" September 19, 2016

Hola!

This week has for sure been an adventure. Between exchanges and zone conference, we have had barely anytime to work together in our own area!

Monday we started a weekly activity in the Spanish Group of having Family Home Evenings. The first one was a hit! We had good food and a bunch of bearing of testimonies. The Elder's had a family of investigators there and they are progressing really well now! They are planning a wedding, in fact, so that they can get married! It's tons of excited in Prosser.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, which is always a blast. I love seeing President and Sister White! They are the best. Their testimonies are so strong. We had some trainings on how we can have more focused studies on our investigators. They had a tons of apples available at lunch and Hermana Vazquez and I may or may not have taken seven home.... #weloooveapples After lunch we had a training on teaching from the Book of Mormon by Sister White. Right now, the mission seems to be focusing a lot on the basics of missionary work. It reminds me a lot of Marching Band. As Mark always said, "Be Brilliant at the Basics!" The fundamentals of missionary work really are what makes up a good missionary. 

Wednesday I had an exchange with Sister Daniels from Lehi, UT. She doesn't speak Spanish, so we had a pretty fun time. We taught Sunny about the Word of Wisdom with Hermana Alcazar. We don't think he accepted the whole no coffee thing too well, so we'll have to figure out more about that. he called us on Saturday and said it doesn't say that in the bible...We have a lesson with him on Tuesday. Hopefully all goes well.

Thursday I was in Benton City with Hermana Jordan. We had a really fun time at service at Meals on Wheels. I've never heard of it before, but it's this program that delivers food to old people that cook for themselves! I thought it was pretty genius. 

Friday we taught a first lesson to a women named Joslynn. She goes to a baptist church in Prosser, but has a cousin that is mormon and has always wanted to read the Book of Mormon. We taught her the restoration and she accepted that pretty well. She even asked us if she would need to be baptized again! She is currently working on reading the introduction to the BOM and praying about it. We also taught another First lesson to a twenty year old girl named Maribel with a  three year old son, Alex. She really wants to change and help her son become better. We are teaching her again next week and we are way excited!

Saturday I was in Grandview with Hermana Fristrup and we ran into a Super LA and he had tattoos all over his body. He's the one who told us the Thug quote. It was pretty funny!

I love you all so much! I hope you all have the best missionary week! Adios!

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

Spanish Areas + English Companera = I had to translate, September 12, 2016

Hola!

This week has been fairly normal for once! Well, as normal as a missionary's week can be I guess!

Tuesday we were able to teach Juanquin and Maria for a little bit. They gave us each HUGE pieces of watermelon to eat...and Hermana Vazquez hates watermelon! But she was a trooper and finished it not to be rude. (On my side, that night we had a dinner with a Spanish member and I had to eat crazy spicey enchiladas. So it evens out.) Anyways, Juanquine and Maria are really fun to teach, but we can really only even cover one principle per lesson, which makes it hard. They are leaving to Mexico this week for a while, but they said when they get back that they'll be baptized. So yippie!

We taught Sunny on Tuesday about Alma 7. He said he read it but didn't really retain much. We've figured out he has a really big coffee addiction, so we are planning on teaching him about the Word of Wisdom this week. He didn't come to church because he was working, and that was really Lame. The Tejadas are coming out with us again on Wednesday to teach him, so hopefully some former Stake President love will help us out!

I can't remember if I told you about Socorro last week or not, but she is a refferal we received from the Sunnyside branch. Her nephew just got baptized in Texas and he told her that she needs to go to the Mormon church. She sat in on the lessons with him so she knows about what we teach. She looked up by herself where a church was and went two Sundays there. We contacted her and she seems like she has a lot of potential. She's going out of town today for a wedding, but she should be back next week. We are excited to work with her to being baptized!

We had stake day of service this week and I swear I pulled out a million goat head plants. They were all over my shoes. And I got like three splinters and I was wearing gloves! Hermana Vazquez had fun pulling those out for me haha. Good Ol' comp unity!

We went on Exchanges this week and I took a Sister with me to five different Spanish only lessons! That was like really hared. And I get to do it again this week! Hahaa. Gift of Tongues. It's real people.

Anyways. Love you all a ton. have a good week!

Walking on the Street with Jesus, September 6, 2016

Hello Hello!

This week has been pretty great. We had a lot of meetings and seen a lot of miracles.

We were litterally out of miles this last week so we walked EVERYWHERE. We probably walked a good 10-15 miles everyday between appointments and contacting. It was pretty great. We got to talk to a ton of people, many who set up return appointments with us. We for-see more walking in our near future. 

On Thursday, Hermana Vazquez had MLC. I went to Richland and spent the day with Hermana Lovin, my not-so-ment-to-be MTC Companion! Haha. We had a pretty good time. Their area is really small, so we mainly contacted potentials and Less-Active Families all day. We came back to Grandview and contacted a referral from a Brother Davis for a Hermana Vazquez. We thought that was pretty funny...just us? Oh okay. She's really nice and we have a return appointment with her later this week.

On Fridays, we normally do weekly planning, but we had Zone Leadership Council and then six lessons scheduled. Needless to say, we did weekly planning on Saturday. Haha! The Mission as a whole is working on Goals and Accountability right now. We were talking a lot about how we can help the other missionaries set achievable goals and not get into the rut of discouragement. It was a pretty good meeting.  Saturday, we had the Zone meeting on it and we even got to watch a clip of Elder Anderson's training on it in the MTC when President White was there. It was really neat. I just love the General Authorities and hearing their wisdom. I am sooo excited for conference! It's just around the corner. Which is so crazy. 

Sunday Juanquin came to church as well as another one of our investigators, Lupe! We were pretty happy about that. Juanquin is progressing pretty well, he is just really old so it takes a while for things to stick. Also, he's got some sort of memory loss problem because he agrees with us on something then ten minutes later he'll say he doesn't believe that. Basically, He's the cutest old man. Lupe is the Mother of one of the members in the ward and she's also pretty old. We've been going over and watching some videos with her on the lessons. She understands a ton better that way. 

Yesterday we took the Tejadas out with us to go see Sunny. That was the best lesson ever! The Tejadas just moved from Peru about a month ago and Brother Tejada was the Stake President down there. So.. they are awesome Member Missionaries. On the drive there we told them what we were going to be teaching and the commitment we wanted to leave, and they basically taught the whole lesson, inspired questions and everything. AND DIDN'T GO ON A TANGENT. Miricles! Sunny prayed and he committed to come to church. Whoopie! Bascially, I love the Tejadas. 

Well, that sums up my week. Oh and yesterday we were in a parade in Prosser and that was pretty sweet. *See pics below* Love you all tons! Have a great week!

1. I saw this hairstyle in the Liahona, so I tried it haha. Turned out pretty good.

2-4. The Elder's car for the parade....We decorated it!

My Companera stabbed me with a fork! Aug 30, 2016

Hola! Happy Martes! Today was our zone's wonderful Temple Preparation Day! Hence why I am emailing today. Next week will also be a Tuesday Preparation Day because of Labor Day.

Anyways! This week went by super fast! We've had a couple lessons with Juanquin and Maria. This week. They are doing pretty well, Juanquin has a problem about believing in prophets, especially in this day and time. We have been helping him believe that, but it's a bit hard because he can't read the Book of Mormon because he's loosing his eye sight...or he just can't read. I'm not quite sure. But Juanquin came to church on Sunday and really liked it. 

Sunny is doing pretty well, the Elders came over and gave him a blessing because he has really bad knees and they have been acting up really bad while he is out working in the fields. (He also gave us like a billion apples, so we are very happy) We taught him with Hermana Slaugh about the restoration because we haven't seen him in awhile. He still is very believing, but he didn't want to commit to to pray about baptism because he knows what the answer is going to be. He's really scared to ask God question because I'm not quite sure how much he wants to change his life. 

We taught Hortencia about how she can be healed though Jesus Christ. She has a lot of mental illnesses and we left her with the talk by Elder Holland about that. 

We've taught Gia a couple of times this week about faith. We've been trying really hard to commit her to coming to church on Sundays. She gets called into work a lot on Sundays and we are trying to help her see the importance of actually going to church. 

We had this really awesome lesson with Serviano this week. He knelt down and prayed about being baptized and we just sat there in silence for a good while. We think he received his answer, but is really just being scared and not wanting to commit. We left him with a part of the Book of Mormon to read about relying on Christ and believing that all will work out in the end. 

We had two exchanges this week with the Benton City Sisters. So I spent Saturday in Benton with Hna Bergmann and Monday with Hna Jordan! I love Benton City. It's a cute little town and we found a street with my name on it! *See pics* Basically it was a pretty happy couple of days. Also, this week has been fun because we are litterally out of miles. We have been asking all the members for rides and walking EVERYWHERE. Being in the middle of no where in the country is really hard when you have no miles! 

We got to go to the temple today and that was the best! We woke up at 5:30 just to go and we got to see President White and basically it was amazing. Nothing like the peace the temple brings. 

Anyways, love you all. Have a fantastic week! Talk to you Tuesday!

The Hms in the GV, Aug 22, 2016

Hello Everyone!

So transfers were this past week and Hermana Lopez headed down to Hermiston and I recieved Hermana Vazquez! She's awesome and from Lake Dallas, Texas. She's a convert of a little over two years and I love her to pieces.

This week started off pretty slow because we were saying good-bye to all the members with Hermana Lopez. On Wednesday I went and picked up Hermana Vazquez and we got to work! We taught two lessons and found two new investigators. Juanquine and Maria are a 80 year old couple and they are super hilarious. We taught them in their backyard and there was a dead calf just laying there. At first we thought it was a dog, but nope. It was a baby cow. Lol. Anyways, the are planning a trip to mexico soon so they said if they are in town on the 17th of September they would be baptized! Yippie!

We've taught Gia twice this week. She hasn't been keeping her commitments, so we are struggling of knowing what to do to help her. We taught her about faith this week and read Enos with her. We are thinking of starting to teach her in spanish to help her understand more, but it's hard because her husband, Walt who is a member, doesn't speak Spanish. 

We taught Hortencia with Sister Slaugh this week. Hortencia is super confused because she has studied with so many different churches and really doesn't like organized religion. We are going to be going super slow and simple with her to help her undersatnd. We aren't sure how willing she is to change her life, but she says she feels the spirit really strong when she's with us. We aren't giving up just yet!

We taught Serviano this week about faith and how he can act on the faith he has to grow closer to God.  He's doing alright. We think he's drinking problem is a bit harder than he lets on. We're coming up with a plan to help him overcome that and start coming to church.

We taught this family from Chiapas! The mom's name is Lorena and she has 3 kids. A fourteen year old boy and a two girls who are nine and six. The fourteen year old, Rafael, was baptized when he was eight in Seatle. The family moved and couldn't find the church again. But we knocked into them! The nine year old, Haiti, is on date for the 17th. We are pretty excited to teach them all.

Today we woke up early and drove to Richland to wax our cars! It was actually a lot of fun. All of us misisonaries, waxing our cars in our nice clothes at the church. Then we ate donuts. (Yay!) That has pretty much been my week. Lvoe you all so much! Hasta Luego!

Les quiero!

The Spirit of God like a fire is burning...the Mountainside, Aug 1, 2016

Hola!

These past couple of days has been crazy for us! Long story short, There is a huge fire in my area last night, almost burned down the entire mountain and the Elder's Apts. We got evacuated and spent the night with the Sisters a couple towns over. (Also why I am emailing early) It was pretty intense. You could see the flames from miles away and the entire mountain is burnt to a crisp. It burned down a lot of houses, including the Bishop in the Prosser Ward's house. Then in the city on the other side of us, SunnySide, there was another fire on that mountain! The entire valley we were in was filled with smoke and we couldn't see very well! So like the Spirit of God like a fire is burning.....the entire state of Washington.

But other than the fire, This week was pretty good! We started teaching this 16 year old JWs. His name is Jario and he has the sweetest spirit ever. He really just wants to understand and it's hard for him because everything we are teaching him goes ageist what he has learned his whole life.

We have also started teaching Hortencia. We found her last Sunday and she's super wonderful! She's been looking for a long time for the right church. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it. We stopped by yesterday and she is super sick so we'll be catching up with her in a bit.

We also taught Rosalinda's family the Plan of Salvation. Rosalinda is on date for the 3rd of September. Will and Nancy are a bit harder to catch. Danny and Jonathon are super cute too. We read out of the picture book with them. Hopefully we can get the entire family on date pretty soon.

I've been studying Chapter Six of Preach My Gospel a lot this week. Isn't Christ like the best? I think it's so cool how you can't have Hope with out Faith. And you can't have Charity without Hope and Faith, and Vice Versa. Basically, Faith is pretty wonderful and everyone needs more of it. I feel that as I study that chapter, I am learning more and more about our Savior. He really is our best friend! I'm so grateful for him and all that he did.

Love you all so much. Have a fantastic week!

--

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

1 and 2. Really old bag of Cheetos

3. Kittens while tracting

4. Selfie

5 & 6. Smoke pictures from the fire