Knockin' in a Winter Wonderland - December 12, 2016

​IT SNOWED!

But it did look like a wonderland.

Big News! I'm being transferred to the College Place Spanish Branch in Walla Walla, Washington!

On Monday the Zone went on a hike to Paluse Falls and we may or may not have climbed on some cliffs. (we as in mostly Elders) The Rock Castle there is super cool!

Tuesday we had to drive to Connell in the snow for a district council. It took almost an hour to get there because roads don't get plowed in middle of no where towns in Washington. There was super awesome Relief Society dinner where we house hopped and had really good food in really pretty houses.

Wednesday was full of miracles. We went to go try by a former and her brother was super interested! Jaime was going off about how he doesn't feel like any church is right because no one practices what they preach. He accepted the restoration SUPER well. He said he would be going to English Classes tomorrow too! He's working towards a date in January. WE taught Joshua a lesson on Repentance and how and why we do it. He's such a sharp kid.

Saturday we lost our phone in the snow while tracking. So we are living the old school life. At least no one can cancel their appointments on us. We also found a mouse in our closet during studies. We set up a trap but the one in the hall got it first. 

Christmas is cool and hopefully your toes are warmer than mine. 

The weather outside is frightful, but we're still knocking December 5, 2016

This week has been FANTASTIC! Full of miracles. 

I'm doing pretty well. It's interesting how the Lord can show you what you need to work on. I've been focusing a lot on trying to rely on the Lord. I sometimes get caught up in going quickly and getting things done that I forget to make sure what we are doing is what the Lord wants us to be. But as we've been focusing on that we've seen cool experiences. This week we found our selves at 8:30 with nothing to do because we finished tracking a road early. We prayed to see where we should go and I thought about this one road that has a couple houses on it. We had contacted most of the street before and so I was confused. But we went anyways. We drove by a house that the lights were off and I drove by and Hna was like, "Should we knock that one?" and I said, "The lights are dark though!" Then she said, "There's a little light." Then I kept driving. Then the Spirit told me, "Go knock it." Then I said, "Silly Spirit! People aren't awake in dark houses." Then he said, "You said what I told you to do." Then I was like dang. sorry. We turn around and pull up their long drive way and this dog is chasing our car. I then thought, the dog is going to eat me and the house looks really dark. Then the spirit was like "Go knock it!" So we did. Some one answered and not super kindly let us know she wasn't interested. Experiences like that keep happening, but the more important thing is that we are really trying to seek the spirit. If nothing happens, he's just seeing if he can trust us. I know the blessings are on their way.

The area is moving forward. We've had a bit of an interesting situation sharing investigators with the Connell Elders. Amanda lives in our area but is staying with her brother in Connell right now. But she's showing a lot of faith in this trial she's going through right now. We know Satan is really working on her, but She's such a strong prepared spirit. I honestly have come to love her in the past week and a couple days. 

We've been striving to hit the Standard of Excellence goals this week for our Quality Gospel Convos. We failed a couple of days but Friday we were able to hit the big 6! We were so excited. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

Christmas and Baptisms are on the Horizon, November 28, 2016

THIS WEEK WAS FANTASTIC.

Besides the fact that I ate pie and turkey everyday, we saw sooo many miricles!

Monday I got a Nat King Cole CD. basically we've been listening to Christmas Music since that very moment. We got in the car and started driving to go see a LA in the Elder's area and it was sooo foggy that we had to pull over and wait it out for a bit. We ended up finding her house and them not being home. So we went and contacted people else where.

Tuesday we taught Joshua a lesson and he is fantastic! While his mom was figuring out how we could watch a movie on the TV, Joshua pulled us aside to tell us something. He said that the night before he had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He crawled into bed and he said he just felt really really happy. We asked him if he believed it was true, AND HE SAID YES. God truly is looking out for his children and answers their prayers. ALSO. He is learning how to play the trumpet. I LOVE THIS KID.

Wednesday was a day full of miracles! We were on exchanges with the Connell Sisters and Sister Hamblin came to Basin to work with me. She is my long lost sister because we are so similar. Except she doesn't speak Spanish. But! We found three new investigators that day! All Spanish! We got into two different houses and I taught the lesson by myself (well, with the spirit of course) And it was crazy scary! I'm pretty sure I forgot Spanish, but somehow they still understood me. Lupe is a sister of a member and she's praying to know if she should get baptized. Maria and Samuel are formers who said they would accept visits fro missionaries again. SO COOl.

Thanksgiving we ate a lot of food.

Friday we found two more Investigators! We contacted a referral from the system and they let us in! She has a brother in Connell that is a member and she too accepted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She said she would work toward the 24th of Deciembre as a baptism day as well! MIRICLES FOLLOW THE TRIALS.

Saturday we did some service at a older lady's home and raked all her leaves. Attached is the yard and ONE of the giant piles we raked up.

So this week was pretty cool. Hope y'all check out mormon.org to see the new Christmas video because it is the best thing in the world! #LIGHTtheWORLD

LOVE YOU

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

Happy Turkey Day! November 21, 2016

Hello everyone!

This week has gone by so quickly! Time flies when your out serving the Lord! We've had so many great opportunities to serve the people of Basin City this week. On Saturday we were able to help out at the food bank in town. We handed out Thanksgiving dinners. It was so good to see people's faces full of gratitude! The holiday season is for sure magical. 

We also had the chance to help one of the LAs in the branch paint her trailer. It was soooo cold, but so much fun. She wanted it maroon. By the end Hermana Bergmann's and my hands looked like we had just killed ourselves our very own turkey!

We were able to visit some of the Less actives in the ward this week. The people here are so kind! Most all of them gave us cookies or tamales to take home. 

We were able to teach Joshua and Samantha this week about Joseph Smith and why he was so important. They understood it pretty well, but we are going back tomorrow and watching the movie with them. Nothing like a good movie night! 

Last night all the power went out in Basin City and Connell for about 5 hours. We had to come in early, but luckily the members we live with had a generator so we watched some church movies with them.

I've been learning some cool things about the Book of Mormon in my studies lately. Isn't that book the most amazing book ever?! You can seriously answer any questions with it. A couple that I really liked and am excited to use are;

Why so many Wars? Hel 14:30-31

How can I solve family struggles? Alma 7:15-16

How can I live safely when politics are so corrupted? Ether 2:12 (Everyone here talks about politics...) 

Why should we get married? 4 Nephi 1:11

Those are just a few, but honestly the Book of Mormon is so powerful. I was just reading in Ether this morning, (I'm so close to finishing for my fourth time on the mission!!) and the Lord really will keep his promises with his people. He love us all so very much. This mission is such a happy time. We are here to just love and serve our brothers and sisters. What better way to spend our time?

Love you! I'm thankful for you!

Hermana Lizzy Davis

Washington Kennewick Mission

1. Hermana Burgmann drew a picture of us sickies with la gripa

2 and 3. Painting

4 and 5. Service at the Food Bank. We were helping sign people in at this point.

The one time I'm grateful for my Hiccups, November 14, 2016

Hola!

This week was seriously one of the most crazy weeks of my life! 

We had transfers and the day after I got my new Companera, Hermana Bergmann, and then she got the flu! So that was a big sad day.

 The next day we had a zone conference with a Seventy! Elder Zeballas from Chile came to our mission. He and his wife are sooo cute! I got to shake his hand and got a hug from his wife. They spoke to me in Spanish and I got flustered and forgot how to say where I'm from..but then I remembered so it was okay.  

THEN GUESS WHAT. During my mission President's talk i had the hiccups really bad. But then they went away and life was good again. THEN Elder Zeballas gets up and starts speaking. A little bit into his talk I hiccuped again. He then paused and commented on my hiccups during his talk!! He said with some much love in his eyes, "You know, sometimes I hiccup too." Then he smiled at me.  I turned red and everyone laughed. Bc tbh the entire mission knows I have horrible hiccups. #EVERYMEETINGEVERINMYLIFE

AND THEN SATURDAY I got to go back to my old area for a baptism! I LOVE GRANDVIEW SO STINKIN' MUCH. A 13 year old, Danny, got baptized. He's the more spiritually one point kid that I know. He was told us he wanted to be baptized because he wanted to be closer to Christ. Like seriously super cute. 

So basically life it pretty good. I miss you all so much! Have a wonderful week!!

"Pues, es un mandamiento, no una sugenencia" November 7, 2016

Hola Hola!

This week was great!

Miricle Moment! We have been working working a TON with Less-Active members and we are having good success in helping one family in particular get reactivated. Jenny and Samuel got baptized about a year and half ago to two years ago and stopped coming because of work. We started visiting them and helped Jenny out when she was having a really hard day. We read some scriptures with her and brought the peace of the gospel back into her life. She realized what was missing and has been working non-stop to get it back! Her and her husband Samuel just we called to be the Sunday School teachers in the Branch. They gave their first lesson on Sunday and it was amazing! We are so excited for them. They have a son named Joshua who is ten and isn't baptized. Jenny and Samuel expressed to us that they want him to get baptized! We are going to start teaching him tonight. WE ARE SO PUMPED. Less Actives are the way to go!!!

We also taught a lesson to another LA named Ofelia. We helped her with her Family History and she got way excited! It was so cool! She got out her husband's birth certificate looking for dates and names and it was awesome! Hopefully with more help, she can start coming back to church.

We had a really awesome Zone Council where we started preparing for Elder Zeballos to come visit our mission this week. I AM SO EXCITED. It's going to be fantastic! We watched a talk by Elder Oaks from the Missionary Broadcast in January 2016. It was all about Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. So good. 

So that's pretty much the week! Transfers are also this week and Hermana Macias is heading out to Kennewick and I'm receiving Hermana Bergmann. Pretty pumped. Talk to y'all next week!!

I Got Stung By A Wasp! November 1, 2016

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas! I hope you are all stuffed with as much Halloween candy as I am.

This week we've been able to teach some our our Part Member Families in the area. 

Maria Teresa and Jaime and doing well. We had dinner with them this week and they gave us Tacos (My favorite!) We shared with them about how families can be together forever in temples. Jaime's big thing is families. He loves his family and would do anything for them. We are hoping that he'll be able to get some time off of work so that he can meet with us more and come to church! 

We also met with Jenny and Samuel. They are both fairly recent converts (At least a year, maybe a bit more.) We taught Jenny and Samuel about baptism and they expressed to us that they have a ten year old son who hasn't been baptized and they want him to be baptized! Unfortunately, He was in the other room watching Futbol! Next time we go over, we are going to teach him! His name is Joshua. 

English classes have been picking up. This week we had about 4 people there each class. Which is awesome! Hopefully we can keep it growing.

On Sunday, one of the members in the branch told us a story about how when he was on his mission in Chile that it was pouring rain and him and his comp were soaked to the core. Then Sunday night, it was pouring rain on us! Our Spanish Mission Leader texted us and was like, ' I remembered Juan's story in church today and I just wanted to check up and make sure you are okay!' So sweet! He's also the member that has this sign on the back of his car: 'Do you follow Jesus this close?' lolol

Yesterday, we were out and about and talking to some kids on a porch just doing our missionary thing and WASP STUNG MY LEG. Like through my skirt and tights and everything! What a meany. We tried by formers as well that day. We had to be in by six because it was Halloween, so we watched the Tommy Monson Bio and The Joseph Smith Movie on Mormon Channel. #perksoflivingwithmemebrs #weloveroku

Love you all tons! Have a great week!