3rd Week in Chile (Lontue w/ Hna. Joglar)

Hola, Hola!

This weeks been an interesting one! I got to travel to the mission home this week with the rest of the new missionaries for the Conferencia de Nuevos Misioneros (new missionary conference). The conference was SOOOOOO good! Super inspiring, super informative, super helpful, super fun!! Especially because I got to see all the sisters from my district in the MTC as well as the 3 sisters from the advanced MTC district, Hermanas Call, Oldroyd, and Holland. Hermana Call started training the week I got to Chile, Hermana Oldroyd started training the week of conference!  How crazy is that!!  I can´t remeber which one of them said it, but somebody was telling me,¨You´re next!¨ ... scary thought!  Another reason it was super awesome is because they divided the conference into two, one for native Spanish speakers and the other for us gringos, so it was a whole TWO days of speaking English!  It was like better than Christmas! ;)  Seriously though, the conference was SOOOOO good!  I absolutely loved hearing from and being taught by the President and his wife, and the AP's (Assistants to the President) .  They´re so awesome and helpful!  OH! and Hermana Humphrey told a group of us sisters to write home and tell our parents ¨Thank you, thank you, thank you for raising such wonderfully prepared children!¨  She is the cutest!  I just love her! 

The funny/ironic thing about going to the conference was that the 1st day of the conference, I woke up and realized that my companion had ¨blessed¨ me with her sore throat and cold... the ONE time I was away from my  medicine (which I hadn´t packed) and packets of tissues.  Hermana Humphrey pretty much saved my life those two days (she´s like mom and always carries various medicines in her purse.  lol). The first morning, since I didn't have ANYTHING else and I had to do something about my throat, I ended up taking some Midol I had stashed in one of my backpack pockets in case of emergency.  It was later that I found Hermana Humphrey and she supplied with with some Dayquil and like half a pack of napkins.  It was super hilarious!  The Hermanas sitting around me and I just laughed every five seconds when I had to blow my nose or sneeze and thus had to pull out a napkin from my over-stuffed jacket pocket (full of napkins)!  We definitely made an adventure out of it. 

 

This week has been a little tougher because our numbers (key indicators) haven´t been as great (mostly because we only had like half the week to work in our sector - me being in Concepcion and all - and that's always a little discouraging.  Also, my comps been a little blue this week, but we've been working together through everything and just keeping our heads up, enjoying the little moments and laughing at the little ironies always involved in everyday mission life.  She just let me know this week that she's actually bipolar (it was good to know, and she wanted me to know because if ever things got a little weird, I would always think it was because of something I did and she wanted me to know that it wasn't).  We're figuring things out. :)  I really don't want to portrait my companion in a bad light.  The good thing is that we are still (and always) best friends and I really do love my companion so much.  Besides, Heavenly Father is always watching over us, and He continually shows me His hand and perfect knowledge of EXACTLY what I need.  For example, today my comp had to go to a leadership meeting like 3 hours away.  So last night I had to come out here to Rauquen and join another sisters companionship. Before I came I was kind of dreading it, BUT it was EXACTLY what i needed!  The sisters I am with live in a house with 2 other sisters.  None of them speak English, but they are all so great and so fun!  Last night instead of making me sleep on the floor we got the idea to push the two bunk beds together and fit 3 girls on the bottom bunks.  Adventure time!  It was super fun to be with them!  We were telling jokes and stories from our experiences that day and that week, teasing each other, and stuff like that.  It's been super fun!  Just what I needed. :)

 

Tomorrow I have my very first zone conference (my companion's LAST)!  I´m super excited, I looooove conferences!  I´ll have to take some fun pictures and send them to you next week (if i can actually remember my converter cable) lol.  LOVE YOU TONS AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS!!!!  Miss you SO much!  Can´t wait to talk to you on Mothers day WOOT WOOT!  Have an awesome week! You´re the best family in the WHOLE WORLD!

 

OH, and I meant to put this in my blog but, to answer your question about completos (Chilean style hotdogs)...Yes, I've eaten completos...like 5 days out of the week,  I SWEAR!  Chileans have like 2 favorite foods, Casuela, and Completos...but I've only bought a completo once (and you HAVE to ask for it without mayo or they will CAKE it on here *gag* lol).   Casuela is like stew, except that they don´t cut up the ingredients. They put in whole potatoes, whole chicken legs (or livers or hearts) or mystery meat/ribs, whole potatoes, whole slices of corn on the cob and whatever else they like in it, and they serve it up whole too. It pretty much ends up being a whole potatoe, a slice of corn on the cob, a chicken leg, etc in some soup broth.  It´s a challenge to eat gracefully (and with out getting some on you or your comp), but always an adventure and I'm lovin' it!

 

2nd week in Chile (Lontue)

Hola!!!

This week was kind of nuts, but MUY DIVERTIDO! (VERY FUN)!  On Wednesday Hermana Joglar and I had a minicambio (a mini-companionship change) because there´s an area with some sister missionaries that has not had a baptism in like 5 transfers.  Hermana Joglar, being the Lider Entrenadora de Hermanas (Training Leader for the Sisters) went with the junior companion in their area to kind of give a diagnostic and set some goals with the sister to better the area and help. So, the Senior companion came here to Lontué with me for a day, and she REALLY doesn't speak English. Also, since I was the one from this area, I had to lead her around to all our appointments and contacting and everything. It was QUITE an adventure, especially since I´d only been here for a week.  I felt like we were lost like allll day! lol But we actually had a lot of success, and we found a new investigator! I learned a lot from her and I also learned that I need to pay more attention to where we are all the time and how to get there. We went to this area in our sector that Hermana Joglar and I had never been to before, out back behind the rest of our sector, at like 9 at night. It was a super long walk and kind of seemed sketchy, but we were excited to find this new sector and contact everyone in it because we were lacking in contacts that day. We finally get to this area, Viña Lontué, and it turns out there´s a reason Hermana Joglar and I have never gone (and why the Elders in our area told us that they don´t go there very often) the place is a freaking ghost town! LOL and it is SOOOO campo (rural) it is crazy! When Hermana Ruis and I finally turned the corner into the town and saw it, in all its glory, we both just started CRACKING UP! So, we walk up to the first house we find with someone living in it and we talk to the mom and daughter inside, meanwhile some CRAZY-drunk guy comes up behind us and starts talking to us all.  It was hilarious; all of it, but the whole thing was a little sketchy. So after this house we decide it’s probably better to come back some time during the daylight hours.  When we met up with the Elders later in the week, I talked to them and told them about our experience out there and Elder Turner says, ¨Yeah.... We were going to tell you that you probably shouldn´t go out there at night. ...but we forgot.¨ Hahahaha divertido! (funny)  

This week we had a meeting with the Pulsiphers (the Senior missionary couple) to help us with our calling.  Hermana Joglar and I are actually missionaries plus, because we also have the calling of Edificadores de Rama (church branch builders), so we are supposed to be visiting like 7 menos activios cada día (7 less-active church members each day) and working with verifying their addresses and mapping it all out! (OH, and turns out Hermana Joglar and I are also the first Sister Missionaries in this area for like 30 years or more. Genial! [Brilliant]).  We are still in training though so I´ll have to update you in the coming weeks.

Right now we have 2 investigators with baptismal dates, but we´re not sure what´s going to happen with them. One is a mother, Sarita the other is her son, Roman (or Jano (Ha-no)). They both are awesome and want to be baptized, especially Sarita, but can´t right now because Sarita y su pareja no estan casados (Sarita and her partner are not married), and her pareja (partner) (also named Ramon) doesn't want to get married right now, for whatever reason, but they have been together forever and have two kids (their daughter, 13, is already baptized). Ramon is friendly with us but wants nothing to do with the church and always leaves the room when we start our lessons. He won´t give Jano permission to get baptized either, so we are praying and fasting a lot for that family and trying our hardest to get Ramon to participate in some way so that his heart will be softened/changed so he will let Jano get baptized and want to marry Sarita. We´d love for the three of them to get baptized together, so we´re doing the best we can and praying for miracles. 

I love the people here! And the kids are super fun, I love it! Hermana Joglar taught me this cute little hand shake to use with all the kids, so we all have our little hand shake now, it´s awesome (we´re all homies lol)!  Everything is sooo different here, every day is an adventure, and every day there is something new or different to experience and just soak in and often laugh about. The food for example, it isn´t bad, just different. There is at least one time a week when Hrmna Joglar and I will be eating with a member, and struggle to finish our plate of food (because it´s rude not to) and sit back and let out a little sigh of relief, like ¨YES! We managed to finish it!¨ Then the sister we are eating with takes our plates to the kitchen... and brings out the second course, a BIGGER plate of food! At that point Hermana Joglar and I usually give each other a look like ¨Holy WOW! How in the world are we going to do this?¨ So we do the best we can to force as much of the next plate down as possible, but very, very, slowly. At some point the sister usually notices and asks/accuses us of not liking her food. It´s times like these I´m grateful I have the excuse of not speaking the language, because luckily, my companion is wonderful at replying and convincing the Hermana that we actually love it but that we aren´t accustomed to eating so much, and explains that we actually don´t eat as much as the Elders, and all I have to do is vigorously nod my head and say ¨Si!!¨ at the right time. lol  Then we help clean up with the dishes and what not and the sisters know to feed us less from then on.  Hermana Joglar and I then leave the house, round the corner and bust up laughing!!! Talking about how we feel like we might barf and how we´re so freaking full we can hardly walk!  It´s bien divertido! (really fun!) Luckily for us we only eat once a day, for lunch, and we only have a little snack for breakfast and dinner. On days like those we usually skip the dinner snack lol. Ohhhh, la vida missional!   (the missionary life)  :) 

All in all, everything is great! Of course there are always little ups and downs, but the ups outnumber the downs (because we are in Chile, not Nottingham -that´s for you mom lol). We did manage to get a little heater which has been amazing, and I´m holding off on an electric blanket because there just aren´t enough sockets, so we could either have light OR an electric blanket. Things are awesome. I´m taking another 6 hour trip tomorrow, back down to Conce for the new missionary conference (two days), I´ll update you all next week. 

Fam bam, I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!! MISS YOU! Your picture is hanging on my wall where I can see it every morning when wake up and every night before I go to sleep.  You´re the best family in the world.  Thanks for all the love support and updates…how your week is wonderful!  Talk to you soon! XOXOXOXOXOXO

1st week in Chile

OMGOSH! FAMILY! HI!!!!!!! lol

 

Where in the world do I start?!?!?! This has been the coolest week in MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!! As you found out, I am in fact in a little hick-town (for Chile) area, called Lontué, about 6 hours from Concepcion. Needless to say, I did some hard core traveling. First in planes, then in busses. My companion IS from Argentina and is a native Spanish speaker, which has been SUPER good for my Spanish, BUT she also only has 3 months left in the mission and all of her companions (minus two) have been gringas.  So she speaks a little bit of English.  I LOVE HER!!!! …we get along SUPER well and we can communicate pretty dang well too!  Spanish is awesome, I LOVE it! The only problem is... I can´t understand the people here for MY LIFE!!!  Not only do they talk SUPER fast, but they don´t annunciate por NADA! (for nothing).  lol  Our area is actually Lontué B because it´s brand new. They split Lontué in two and the Elders that were here are now Lontué A, and they are probably the nicest Elders ever (Elder Turner from Utah and Elder Cadena from Mexico- both are going to die [or end their missions] pretty soon)!  We’ve spent a lot of time this week with them because they’ve been showing us around and introducing us to all the less actives, members, and their investigators, many of which they are giving to us (seriously, SO nice)!! The funny thing is that Lontué A and B aren’t actually divided, both our companionships work in the same area and with the same TINY branch, we just work separately and find for ourselves. This past week Hermana Joglar and I contacted over 140 people and had we already have like 16 new investigators (according to the qualifications for new investigators in PMG). OH, by the way, you were telling me more about the leadership position for sisters... my comp IS the leader for this area of the mission, which covers like 2 zones. She seriously is so awesome! 

She and I live in this TINY Chilean home with a super sweet widow, she is awesome! I just wish I could understand her... lol!  To be honest, I´m definitely wishing I had a sleeping bag right now though. As you know, Chilean homes don’t have heating, but some have mini electric heaters ...our’s doesn’t.  I asked the Mission President about whether or not I should buy one the day I got here, and he was like no, no, no, no, you won´t need one! We give you 3 thick wool blankets and you can go to a store here (their equivalent to Wal-Mart) and buy a caliente cama (electric blanket) and you won’t be cold!  BUT I think normally the houses missionaries stay in also have little electric heaters.  I haven’t had time to buy a caliente cama (electric blanket) yet, but Hermana Joglar and I are having fun figuring things out.  In short, I´ve learned to wear at least 3 layers to bed plus a hat and mittens. Meanwhile Hermana Joglar wears her robe over here pjs and then tucks the cats in her blankets with her (oh, yeah EVERY ONE here has cats, including Hermana Novoa, the widow sister we live with) she claims they are like mini heaters. Seriously though, we have SO much fun! Everything is just like an adventure for us, even for Hmna. Joglar because she served the majority of her mission right in or around Concepcion. I love Hermana Novoa, ella es BUENISIMA (she is SO GREAT), BUT there just isn´t enough room in her house for us.  Hmna J and I sleep in one room and we keep all our suitcases in another because it´s so small!  Hermana Joglar and I have become pretty creative though. This week we started using our hair dryers as heaters by shutting the doors and plugging in our hair dryers and just propping them up until our room is warm enough that we´re not shivering. The only problem is that I think the electricity here is weird(er) than it should be because Hmna Joglar has had two adapters for her whole mission that she started using here and one already broke... likewise, my adapter broke :(((  The socket got too hot and my hair dryer just shut off.  I looked at my adapter and it was like melted around where the prongs are... hopefully, I can find another one here somewhere in the boonies of the Concepcion mission.

My area is one of the areas that is going to be in Rancagua mission soon (3 months).  So if I’m here for longer than 3 months, I´m going to be in the same mission as David Archuleta! LOL that is, assuming he doesn´t get moved to the mission above Rancagua. Hah.

I wish I could explain everything better, but I really wouldn’t know where to start! Everything is GREAT! I mean, sure sometimes ... scratch that... ALL the time I’m exhausted,  and sometimes it gets old not being able to understand too much of what is going on in lessons and what not, but really, really this has been the coolest week in my entire life! Me encanta la vida misional!!!  (I am enchanted with the mission life).  And, I am actually learning pretty rapidly according to a lot of people.  In fact, this morning one of the traveling assistants, Elder Hernandez, told me I had a good accent like a Latina! LOL …it was definitely an exaggeration but it made me feel awesome none the less!

This past week, two scary things happened, 1). the traveling assistants came and spent part of a day with us, just kind of observing, and 2). I had to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, but in my opinion, all went pretty well …well, I survived to tell about it :)

Today for P-day we played basketball with a less active member and the elders at the church here in Lontué, then went to Molina to play soccer with the rest of the Elders in our zone, THEN we went with a recent convert to help her friend take down her stand in the flea market, emphasis on the word FLEA, the name for it makes all too much sense here.  Getting fleas or something of the sort is probably my biggest fear! Lol

I´m loving life here in Chile, everything is SO different and SO cool, and hopefully by the end of this transfer I will be able to communicate sufficiently with the people here.  I love them.  They are awesome! Even when they call me Gringa, I know they mean it in the most endearing way possible, they are SOOO loving here!

Coolest adventure of my life!!!!

I LOVE MY LIFE!  I LOVE CHILE!  I LOVE MY MISSION! ... OH and I miss you :) 

I hope all is well at home! tell the kids I love them and kiss them for me!

I gotta go pretty soon so I have time before the end of P-day to play guitar! Hmna Joglar and Elder Turner have one!

I guess I have a little more time…so, some other things I remembered that you might appreciate... I met Hermana Lovell when we got our trainers assigned to us. I told her we followed her blog. I liked her, she is super nice.  She is training Hermana Berbert (another blog we follow)...I’m sure they’ll be an amazing team together.

Un poco mas (A little more)... we get whistled and hollered at all the time! I’m almost used to it, but that’s easy because I can’t even understand the majority of what they are saying.  It might be a little different when I start understanding though.  Oh, and as of yet my allergies for cats (and everything) have been fine, and I even pet multiple cats every day.  I probably pet more cats than dogs because dogs here are like rodents, many flea infested yattah, yattah,  so I try to only pet the nice looking dogs.  If they look mangy or nasty and they try to come up to me to be pet I usually call them diablo because I don’t want fleas!  I had a mini scare the other day that I  had fleas but it turns out it was all in my head, before then I’d pet any dog I saw, but since then I’ve been more careful. lol   I LOVE YOU!  Until next week xoxoxoxoxoxoxo  

P.S.  the mother’s day thing will be done over Skype and if I can’t remember my password I will be making a new one. but yeah, hope the internet cooperates or I’ll cry.  lol 

Hermana Davis

Unexpected update (Thanks, Pulsiphers!)

A missionary couple (the Pulsiphers) working in in Chile posted this picture and the following update on their mission blog:

"We just had "cambios" (companionship changes) this week.  Hermana Davis is on the left, and this is her second day in Chile.  She told me her parents follow our blog.  I can report that she is full of enthusiasm and her Spanish is really good!  She was asked to read in our training session and she did great!  I was super impressed with her.  Her trainer is from Argentina and she is really fun and full of pep.   Right now they are living with a single sister in Lontué because the house we were planning for them, had a few problems; (no electricity and the toilet didn't work;  You are in Chile now, Hermana Davis!)  They are living in a nice, typical, Chilean home in a quiet neighborhood.  We'll take good care of her."

Link to the post on the Pulsipher's blog:
http://pulsiphersinchile.blogspot.com/?m=0 

I ARRIVED in CHILE!

10 April 2013

President and Sister Humphrey

Dear Brother and Sister Davis,

Sister Humphrey and I had the great pleasure of welcoming your daughter, Hermana Davis, to the Chile Concepción Mission. After we met her at the airport when she arrived on Tuesday, we enjoyed lunch together with the other missionaries. We held an orientation and testimony meeting and Hermana Davis met her first companion, Hermana Joglar, who will train her to be a missionary. They will be laboring in the sector of Lontué B and located in the zone of Curicó Sur.

First companion & trainer, Hermana Joglar

A mission is a wonderful experience filled with challenge and success that strengthens the testimony and spirituality of each missionary. The greatest support you as a family can give your daughter during her time as a missionary is that of uplifting letters. Missionaries look forward with great anticipation to each letter from home. In addition to using email, you can send packages and letters to our address. The U.S. Postal Service and the Correos de Chile do a good job of delivering packages.

Hermana Ynez Davis

Misión Chile Concepción

O’Higgins 940 Oficina 502

Concepción, Chile.

 You may also send letters (and only letters taped shut; no envelopes) via the "pouch.

                                  

                             Hermana Ynez Davis

                             Misión Chile Concepción

                             POB 30150

                             Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

We encourage each of our missionaries to write to their parents each week. Please let me know if a reminder to her is needed. You may contact us using e-mail

We invite you to look at our blog.  www.chileconcepcionmission.blogspot.com

It will be our privilege to work closely with Hermana Davis as she serves here in Chile.  We are blessed to have her join us in this mission and know that she will have many life changing experiences as she proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your support and for sharing your daughter with us.

Sincerely,

Neall Weston Humphrey                                                                                         

Mission President

***A little added information:  Curico Sur zone is in the northern center of her mission...in fact, just about as far north and away from Concepcion (which is in the south western coast of her mission) as she can get.  From what we've read on other missionary blogs, her companion does not speak English so, she'll be picking up Spanish quick.
 

Last MTC letter - (wk. 6)

Hey Family!

Hope you aren't too disappointed about my last letter! love you to pieces!

Parentals, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE EASTER PACKAGE!!!! 
- whoever thought it would be a good idea to buy me scarves; how is it possible that even when I'm so far away and have so little communication that you can still read my mind?? you are wonderful! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful, Christ centered Easter!  Here at the MTC we were all SURE that we were going to have someone SUPER special at our Easter Morning Devotional because most of the time, members of the quorum of the 12 will come speak to us missionaries at the MTC.  SO, my district and I sat outside the auditorium on the floor in the hallway for almost 2 hours waiting for them to open the doors just so we could get into the same building the speaker would be in and hopefully get good seats. Turns out it was some member of the Presiding Bishopric. It ended up being REALLY good though! EXACTLY what I needed to hear... it's like he was inspired or something weird like that ;). By the time Sunday evening devotional rolled around Hermanas Housely & Phelps, my companion and I had had quite enough waiting around for getting into devotionals. So without a second thought, we just went straight into the over flow building to watch the broadcast. We sit down and the broadcast starts and we realize that for the evening devotional it was Sheri Dew! It was definitely one of those "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" moments! But we just sat there and laughed about it. Both the Easter talks were great and both were inspired and much needed.

We started teaching a new practice "investigator", his name is Zach... aka Elder Masters. I also have had the opportunity to be an investigator for sisters in our district. It is actually a super cool experience! It's amazing how much the Spirit can testify of truth, even in role playing!  Elder Scott said at one of the seminars for training Mission Presidents "We know sometimes it can be embarrassing and uncomfortable to do role playing, but that is how the Lord teaches his missionaries."  Every one who knows me knows that role playing was one thing I was NOT excited about  and actually dreading about coming to the MTC.  I have since, really learned the truth in Elder Scott's words.  The Lord really does teach us through role play and he blesses us with His spirit for being obedient and trying to learn through these things. By doing role plays and being sincere about it, the Lord really  can teach us through the Spirit.  It's way crazy (and just a TAD scary) to think that I'll be experiencing all this for REAL in like 4 days... yikes! I didn't know it was possible to be so EXCITED and SOOO nervous at the same time! lol

This week FLEW by! I can't believe I'm leaving already! This week on Wednesday we got to Host. Hosts are the Elders who help get the luggage and carry into the MTC for you, then the host Sisters help take the incoming sister missionaries to their rooms to drop off their luggage, then go with them to get their books and show them to their classrooms and pass them off to their teachers. Let me just say hosts are heaven sent and very much needed!  If I hadn't had a sister with me from the moment you drove away, until they passed me off to my teachers I would have lost it!  So a lot of what we do as Sister hosts is escort them and talk with them, try to give them encouraging words and keep their minds busy so they don't break down. It's awesome! You learn to love the sisters you host instantly and they love and adore you instantly as well!  I remember until the day my host left the MTC I looked up to her and just thought she was the most loving, charitable thing anywhere!  She helped me SO much, and I hope I was able to help my sisters just as much!  They were all wonderful! IN FACT, the first sister I hosted was from Australia! HOW COOL IS THAT?! She was a crack up and she said she didn't like America.  She said people here are mean! lol The poor girl's first experience with Americans was in LAX, no wonder!!!

Yesterday was "In-Field Training" for like 500 hours!!!! ... OK, maybe it was only like 10, but still it felt like we were in there for 3 days!! lol  It was really helpful and enlightening and even spiritual, but like I said, it was LONG and honestly over whelming because you realize all the things you will be doing as a missionary and the pressure of contacting and talking to EVERYONE is pretty scary when it suddenly dawned on me that I will be doing this in 5 days ... in a foreign language!!!  What an adventure, eh??  I really appreciated something one of the teachers said though! He said, "you are going to be nervous for like the first 100 people you talk to, SO you can talk to one person everyday and be nervous for the next 100 days, OR you can talk to 50 people a day and only be nervous for 2 days... your choice!" It just makes me think of that quote from the movie Emperor's New Groove, "Let me guess, we're about to go over a big huge waterfall?"
"Yep!"
"Sharp rocks at the bootom?"
"Most likely!"
"...Bring it on!"
I am about to embark on the craziest adventure of my entire life and I couldn't be more exscareited!!!!  Really though, I know there are going to be some TOUGH things!  Especially in the next couple weeks where I realize that Chileans speak so fast and say things so differently that I won't be able to understand a thing! But I also know that I am going to experience the most joy and contentment in these next 17 months than I will ever again in my life, and that is because I know that the Lord will be with me, watching over me because I am doing His work, and His will, and I am standing as His represtentative!  SO, "... Bring it on!" :)

Love,
Hermana Davis

p.s. Mom, I probably won't get another chance to email you before it's too late, and you never know if letters and such will arive in time soo... HAPPY BIRTHDAY (next week)! I love you SO much!!!

Plans to meet at LAX "nixed"

Querida Familia,

I love you so much! I'll be honest though, this letter is a  hard one to write. As conflicted as it's made me, I'm glad you let your plans "slip out" about coming to LAX to hang out with me during my layover there.  As much as I would love, love, love to see you, and as much as I love you, I love the Lord and I love you too much to inadvertently "sign off" on your plan by giving you my itinerary, flight numbers, etc.  On my travel plans it specifically says, "family and friends should not plan to see you off at the airport or at the MTC".  Unfortunately, there is no grey area or loophole there. Another thing, when we arrived at the MTC, our President gave us a little talk about temple walks.  He told us that if our family or friends come to find us and want to be with us or walk with us etc. we are supposed to shake their hand, tell them we care about them, and that it's good to see them, but that we are missionaries now and can't stay and talk etc.... Then send them on their way or walk away. We need to stay focused. I guess over time, rules have changed and gotten stricter and there's no grey area now - the lines are clear. It would absolutely kill me to see you in LAX, realize what you must have done to find me there, and then still have to shake your hand (or give you a hug) and then walk away.  I AM a missionary now.  I belong to the Lord, and my loyalty is to HIM before anyone else.  So, as much as I truly hate to do & say this, I will not be sending you my detailed itinerary.  The lines have now been clearly drawn and it would not be true to everything you've taught me to knowingly and purposely cross them.  I'm going to be the "foolishly stubborn" one who - even when I have a golden opportunity to rest and enjoy the wonderful relieving feeling of "taking my pack off" and momentarily relieving the burden - will not take off my pack early or before reaching my destination/goal.  Instead, I want to be able to say that I was obedient, and went the whole 18 months with out seeing my family (not just 16 1/2), and I want to feel the full effect of having dutifully carried my pack the whole way, every last step, and FINALLY reaching the end to feel the overwhelming joy and relief of taking my pack off FOR GOOD!  because I did it!  Because I made it ALL THE WAY! ...in true Davis style! 

I do love and appreciate you more than I could ever express. You mean the world to me but if there's one thing I have learned from you, its that when it counts, Davis' always do what's right and Davis' always do their best to be the ones that the Lord can always trust and rely upon to do what is right! ...even (& especially) when it's difficult.  I am doing my best to do that now and to live up to my  name and potential.  Another thing that I have learned in the MTC is  that, "obedience brings blessings, but EXACT obedience brings miracles".

Again, I love you so much, and I miss you so much it kills me! I am really having to learn and practice really relying on my Savior. I am learning and practicing laying my burdens at His feet (biggest of which is being away from the best family in the universe), then forgetting myself and losing myself in the work.  I know the Lord will bless us for our obedience...100 fold!

All my love, respect, & appreciation,

Hermana Davis