Week 66 (Rancagua, Zona Tupahue 1 [Villa el Sol] - w/ Hna. Arellano from Tabasco, Mexico

Hyellow! (that´s how you say "hello" with a spanish accent, and also what all the teenagers yell at us from across the street hahaha)

It´s been a good but crazy week this week! 

Highlight of the week, one of our investigators, Tania, came to church yesterday, she is 17 and is one of those smart kids who is in high school and "pre-university" at the same time (like Lauren was).  This week we took our ward missionary, Liset (who is 18) to our lesson with her and we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ with a focus on repentance and it was a really awesome lesson, even though it got cut short because her parents came home and talking with us and wanting to eat dinner, etc. But Liset was really awesome with her about befriending her and inviting her to church, o she finally arrived! And the cool thing was that when she arrived Liset introduced her to Barbara, one of the YW who is also 17 and they really hit it off (the three of them) and Barbara and Liset were awesome about getting to know her and be friends with her super quick and also getting her phone number to invite her to mutual and everything!  It was really awesome.  I know it probably sounds weird, but it´s an awesome feeling when, as a missionary, you introduce your investigator to some members who then start talking and laughing and you end up standing there for no reason, just feeling like an ornament, and not needed! haha  It was just awesome to see the gospel in action and see the members doing their part fellowship, Tania unfortunately couldn't stay after sacrament meeting because she had to go visit her g-ma with her family, but after talking to the YW, I think she really wanted to! hahaha

Also, I think what helped with all that was that the day before, Saturday we´d had a mini MTC with the youth which also was really interesting and crazy (because it´s wasn´t planned all TOO well, but in the end it ended up turning out really well when they had all the returned missionaries get up and bare their testimonies to the youth, awesome, awesome, awesome! 

Saturday night the bishop called me and asked me to give a 15 min talk on la obra misional [missionary work] the next day, so I frantically prepared a talk Sunday morning, despite the short notice it turned out pretty well! 

Saturday night, like half an hour after the bishop had called and asked me to speak, I got a call from the Assistants to the President asking me to speak in the mission conference we are going to have on Friday with a member of the 70, Elder Salas, on Faith.  Luckily, it wont be in front of the WHOLE mission, just 6 zones...  hahaha

I'm super nervous and a little stressed about WHEN I'm going to write - let alone practice-  my talk. But everything is going to be fine, and I'm SUPER excited to be able to GO to the conference with Elder Salas, the last conference we had with a 70, Elder Viñas, was SUPER AWESOME!!!!!! 

Other than that,not too much going on! Working hard, keeping busy, being HAPPY! Love you SOOOOOO much fam bam! CONGRATS JOHN FOR GETTING THE PRIESTHOOD!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (TIMES INFINITY) MUCH!... NO ME! NO ME! NO ME! 

Your favorite SISTER missionary,

Hna Davis

Week 65 (Rancagua, Zona Tupahue 1 [Villa el Sol] - w/ Hna. Arellano from Tabasco, Mexico

HOLA A TODOS!

It´s been a great week here in Villa el Sol. This week we have been working harder on involving/working with the members. This week my companion invited our new investigator, Joselyn, to be baptized and she accepted! SO we will be working more with her and her family to help her know how to receive answers to her prayers and gain a testimony that the church is true; that it really is the church of Jesus Christ, restored on the earth.  Haha I love that we get to teach that and share that and FEEL the truth of that everyday! 

I did divisions with the sisters that live in our house this week, my comp went over to Recreo´s area and Hna Nappa (la Paraguaya) came over to Villa el Sol to work with me for a day. She is super awesome and fun. We both have the same amount of time in the mission, but she is going home Sept 9th.  

We´ve been having more success, LITTLE by LITTLE, and personally I FEEL like we are having a lot more success just in the fact that we are working more with the members and that the Lord blesses us more for our efforts in that! We still have a long way to go and a lot more to do to combine our efforts with the members, but it has been exciting to see the little day by day successes and count our blessings. I have a funny/embarrassing stury to tell... 

So... its gradually been getting colder and colder.  Normally I get all dressed in a skirt and tights and everything before I start my study, but I don't normally put my shoes on because I like to put on a pair old socks so that my feet aren't popsicles.  One morning, I put on a pair of BRIGHT, electric blue socks with little bumble bees on them, then this day in particular I also put my shoes on over them because the bathroom floor was wet and I was finishing to get ready there. I remember putting my shoes on and thinking "maybe I shouldn´t do this, because knowing myself, I will forget I have these bright blue ugly socks on" but then I thought, "...Nah! I won´t forget!  Or even if I do, I'll totally notice as we´re getting ready to leave, besides, i don't want foot popsicles while I'm studying." 

... Well, long story short, I forgot!... and I DIDN'T notice while we were getting ready to leave, nor while we were saying our prayer to go out to work, nor when we went out the gate of the house and started walking down the street,... nor while we were crossing the main highway and people were randomly beeping their car horns at me and I couldn´t guess why.  I didn´t notice until we were about a block from the house and I went to tie my coat onto my bag and I looked down and something ELECTRIC BLUE caught my eyes on top of my dark grey tights. Yeah, I almost died, half because of embarrassment and half for laughing so hard! I remeber looking at my companion and saying " WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" and she was just like "I thought you meant to do it! I just thought to myself ¨Wow! she must be REALLY cold!"    Thanks for having my back compi!  hahahahaha  Needless to say, I took my SUPER STYLIN´socks off on the spot and shoved them into the deepest part of my bag. 

I´ve got a slight cold and sniffles this week, but don´t worry mommy, I finally started taking my vitamins that i´d been lugging around in my suitcase for 14 months, so I should get better soon! ;)

Fam bam! Love you to pieces! when did you all get so big and SO STINKING CUTE??!!!! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! ;) be good! make good choices! ZOE! you are so totally behind on your commitment to write me everymonth! ... TRENT! you dont have a commitment, but still! lol 

Take care!  I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

Hna Davis

Week 64 (Rancagua, Zona Tupahue 1 [Villa el Sol] - w/ Hna. Arellano from Tabasco, Mexico

[We received this email the day after having an hour-long Skype session (on Mother's Day)...during which Ynez made a passing comment about being tired.  We read nothing into it except that "she was tired".  Although she started her email, "...between us Davis'", we thought it was too cute not to share] 

...between us Davis'

Haha, ok, funny story. Last night after talking with you guys, me quedé pensando [I was left thinking], wondering if I had come off wrong or made you guys worry when I'd whined a little bit about being tired, so I planned out in my mind to write today explaining that you shouldn't worry, that just in the last leg of my cross country races, EVEN THOUGH I was tired and spent, that I´d pour it on and sprint the last part in, like you´d always taught me to do, BUT then I print out my emails and realized that you´d totally stolen my analogy hahaha

but not to worry, I thought of another one...

Just wanted to make sure that I come of right; that I'm not slowing down or holding back right here at the end.  Am I tired? of course! haha but am I going to let that stop me??  PARA NADA! [Not for anything!] haha

I´ll do what you have always taught me to do, "pour it on", just like the time when we did the mountaineers route [on Mount Whitney] in a day and we were going back down the last set of switch backs with tired, jellowy knees and exhausted legs that felt like they could collapse on us in any moment, anybody that is "NOT a Davis" would think that we´d take it easy, a nice gradual descent to the car. But that´s not what my mountaineering, rocklimbing, hard-core, crazy, bonsai-ing parents have taught me! :) WE run to the car, "record" timing ;)

Now some of this might be a LITTLE bit exaggerated, but the point I'm trying to make is that you´ve taught me well, and I will do my very best and push my very hardest till the very end. 

Thank you for teaching me to do hard things and letting me have so many amazing experiences that I never guessed would help me in this kind of a way, I love and appreciate you more than words can tell, miss you tons and tons, doing my best to make you and my Heavenly Father proud. 

LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!

Hna Davis 

Week 63 (Rancagua, Zona Tupahue 1 [Villa el Sol] - getting a new "greenie"

¡HOOOOLA!

Thank for all the updates, fam! you guys are the greatest!

And way to GO John and Lucien in your track meet, WHOOPED´EM ALL! ;)

This week has been crazy but not at the same time, crazy because we have been dvividing our time between two sectors, and trying to figure that out and the least complicated way to do it and also the way to do it that would require spending the LEAST amount of money on colectivos [busses] was a little stressful, but as far as the work goes things actually turned out pretty dang good!  Despite all the craziness we were actually really happy with the outcome of the week, and it was also good because Hna Sutherlin and I get along really well, and it was kind of fun speaking English again!  But I´m not gonna lie, I DO sound pretty stupid sometimes when I´m speaking English, but´s like the Spanish to English translation version, for example when we are walking in the street and I´m leading the way and I say "for here" which is a direct translation of "por acá" which pretty much means "this way", but I got so accustomed to saying "por acá" that when I wanted to say the same thing in English I used the direct translation.  It´s one of those moments when you don´t realize how dumb something sounds or how much sense it DOESN´T make until it´s already come out of your mouth. The same kind of thing happened when I was explaining that something was bothering me and I tried direct translating the spanish verb "molestar" (to bother) into english (by using the root of the word and adding "-ing" = molesting)...yeah, that one made us laugh pretty hard!  I remember Hna Sutherlin turned to me and said, "I really hope you don´t pull that one again after the mission when you´re with someone who WON´T understand what you´re trying to say."

It´s moments like these that make you realize when you´ve actually started thinking in Spanish and not English. Haha

Something else fun that happened this week, this week we had Stake Conference! The coolest thing was that Saturday evening we found two new investigators (in Hna Sutherlin´s sector) and invited them for conference the next day AND THEY CAME!!!! That was a big huge miracle and super awesome!

Also, there was a member of the 70 at the conference so our leaders called us Saturday morning letting us know that we had to be at the Sat night session, so Sat night we went and the member of the 70 was talking about La Obra Misional y La obra de Salvación, [missionary work and the work of salvation] and in the middle of his talk he announces that he is going to call four people up to share their testimonies of missionary work; two missionaries, a parent of a returned missionary, and a future missionary. Then he also explains that these four people don´t know who they are or that they were going to have to speak, but that each one would come up on the spot and bear their testimony about the blessing of missionary work, and if they are a missionary, why they are here also.  Then the Elder starts reading off the names, "Entonces, vamos a pedir que las siguientes personas se pongan de pie y vienen al pulpito, en este orden: Primero, La Hermana DAVIS, despues, el Hermano tanto, despues, Elder Ralda,..."etc. [So, we're going to ask that the following people to stand up and come to the pulpit in this order: Sister DAVIS, then Brother so & so, then Elder Ralda...]  Can I just tell you that my heart almost jumped OUT of my rib cage! I was SOOOOOO nervous! But it was a really, really cool experience! 

I ran into President Warne afterward and he asked me how I´d felt, then he laughed and explained to me that 1 min before the Conference started the Elder (70) had gone up to him and asked him to pick a sister and an elder to bear their testimonies, and he´d picked me and one of the Pres.' Assistants. At the time I just laughed with him, but inside I was thinking, "YOUUUU did this too me!!! -_-" lol JK, it was an honor, and like I said, it was a really special experience being able to share my testimony of missionary work with all the members. 

SOOOO cambios [changes], Yes, it has been officially confirmed, I´m training! tomorrow.  I have to go to the mission home to pick up my new trainee. :)  Also, Hna Bokovoy is getting tranferred :(  I'm not very happy about that, I love that girl to pieces! But, as always, the Lord knows what He´s doing. 

This week we have another leadership council on Wednesday, so I will have to leave my brand newbee compi in a trio with some other sisters one her SECOND day, hahaha. Ohhh la misión. :) 

Anyways all is well here.  Mom, I already bought a new down coat at Líder, so don´t worry about sending my big coat...but a package woulds still be nice :) PREEEEEEETTY PLEEEEEASE. LOVE YOU! YOURE THE BEST MOTHER IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!! BE GOOD! MAKE GOOD CHOICES! READ YOUR BOOK OF MORMON!

Hna Davis