Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Early Thanksgiving :)

Hej igen! :) Hur ar ni? Hope you're all having a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! Wish I could be there for it. ;) This week is pretty exciting though. Tomorrow we have an entire day of service, and devotionals for thanksgiving! Also a general authority is going to come speak to us. :) I hoping for Uchtdorf or Bednar. ;) Can't wait to find out who it is. I'll have to wait for next P-day to tell you who it is. We also have a huge service project too, where we get to make small meals for needy families. :) Thanksgiving is just the best! Jag ar sa taggard!! Another reason this week is exciting is.. we get our travel plans!! :) We are all freaking out a little. We are crossing our fingers we get out visas on time. The Icelandic elders got their travel plans last week and we all went crazy at dinner haha. We're going to miss them so much! They've been here for 9 weeks and leave this Monday! I'll have to send a picture of them next P-day. Oh also! At the MTC they have all these flashback pictures in the halls of people on missions and I found one of Sister Falck on her mission in Brazil! It was so cute to see. I took a screen shot of it so I'll send it. :) Sister Falck was one of my young women leaders growing up and I miss her so much! This week we also got to talk to a RM from Sweden during TRC. It was so fun! Her name was Erin Mod. She got us so pumped for our mission. Can't believe we only have a week and a half left!! :) The time is flying by so fast. This week was Aldste Jamsa's birthday too so we all wrote him a card and sang to him in the Swedish birthday song. It is way better than the American birthday song lol. ;) Also we had chocolate-covered grapes from Aldste Nelson's mom! They sounded weird at first but they are SOOOO GOOD. :) Sunday was fun too, we got to have another movie night. We watched the Joseph Smith Restoration movie. We were excited because Aldste Nelson is actually in it so it was fun looking for him in it. That movie reminds me so much of when I used to watch it in the LA Temple visitors center with my family. Miss them so much! I say this every week but thanks for all the letters and packages :) I am grateful for all the love I get from you guys! The presents and gifts mean so much to me. To all my friends getting ready to head out on your mission, get ready for the best experience ever!! :) I've barely even started my mission but I can't feel myself growing so much already. I'm so excited and anxious to get out there in the actual field. :) There are hard times but that comes with anything in life, eller hur? (right?) ;) Just make the best of it and, "have a blast," as our choir director says. :) Anyways I wish I had some cool experiences to share but its pretty much the same old same old everyday here at the MTC lol. We practice teaching and learn Swedish everyday. Hopefully it will be more interesting once I leave haha! To close, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!! :) make sure to eat lots of stuffing and turkey for me and remember to be thankful for everyday! I'm so thankful for my mission and my family and my friends and this entire gospel and most importantly my Savior. :) I love you all so much and wish you all a splendid holiday! Love, Syster Davis P.S. Our teacher Sister Bass said she went to an ABBA museum in Stockholm on P-day so I'm definitely looking out for that. :) Bye for now!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Half way through the MTC!!

Hej hej everyone. :) Okay the time here goes so incredibly fast. I can not believe I'm already half way done at the MTC. This week was so greatt! It was our first time we got to do TRC. Aka teach real Swedish LDS members a short spiritual lesson. :) It was so cute! We taught these two elderly ladies first and then this guy named Jon. Their Swedish was sooo good! It was hard to understand but we managed. ;) Another highlight this week (shout out to the cafeteria) was that I had the best the best cheesecake I ever had! Gram Canyon cheesecake!! Me and Syster May died, it was so good. We also are big fans of the cranberry, goat cheese, spinach salad lol. I have been careful not to gain my missionary 50 pounds while here. ;) but it can be hard when they throw all this amazing cheesecake at you! haha. This Sunday was busy too! I taught relief society, district meeting with Syster May, and gave a talk in sacrament meeting! It was definitely one for the books. There is no way I did it all by myself though. 90% of the things I said I had no idea where it came from. It's amazing how much the spirit helps you when your a missionary. ;) Me and Syster May also decided to do choir this week. It was so fun! The choir director is so funny. Most of the people there just come to hear his great stories. ;) He's so inspirational too. A quote he said that I wrote down was, "All the good in the world comes from when someone loves another. All the bad in the world comes from when someone chose to be selfish." I don't know if i perfectly quoted that but it was along the lines of that. :) I loved it. We sang a cool remix of "Have I done any good in the world today." So many feels when singing it! We got some new dutch elders in our zone too this week too. They are so cool!! They always play volleyball with us too. One of them is also from Pirua Peru!! Right where my best friend Kyleigh Pay is serving! He was so happy when I told him I have a friend serving there. He told me to tell her to wear lots of bug spray. :) Another thing that was cool this week was that I started reading the New Testament from the beginning and getting super deep into it. Jesus' sermon on the mount was so incredible it gave my chills. He talked about how we should let our light so shine before men and how we should love our enemies and those who persecute us. No one really persecutes us here in our MTC bubble lol, but as we get to the field, I'm sure that will be different. Sometimes I get worried I won't know what to say. Then I read Matthew 10:16-20 when Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out and teach the people. I got a little teary eyed because I felt the scripture was talking to me personally. I would write it out but I don't have a lot of time so you'll just have to look it up. ;) The scriptures are so true and I love them so much! They are my best friend here.:) (Next to my amazing companion Syster May!) It's weird how much I cry here too. Not because I'm sad or homesick, but because of how much my heart hurts with all the love I feel from the spirit on the daily. I don't deserve any of it either,God is so great. I can't wait to pour that love on the people I meet in Sweden as well. :) I love you all and miss you everyday! Thank you for your prayers and your letters. We still have no word on our visas but I'll keep you posted! Vi ses snart. :) Karlek Syster Davis P.s. Aldste Scott in our district from australia joined our Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liar club lol apparently he watched them before his mission too. We laughed so hard when he told us he loved all those show! I love my zone!!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Happy November!!

Wow I can't believe its already P-Day again! Hope you all had a great Halloween I forgot to add that last time. I'm starting to get in the groove of things here. :) My district is seriously my family now and I love them so much. Here at the MTC, the littlest things are so much fun. Like a few days ago we needed to take a "Paus" (swedish for break) and we started throwing pens and tape rolls in the air, and we tried to throw the pens in the Elder's shirt pocket too. ;) It sounds dumb but it was fun haha. I also saw Mark Stapley, Max Flora, and Rio Shepard here too!! It's so great seeing familiar faces. :) My district was playing volleyball with Elder Stapley and they thought he was so good. Gym time is so fun, we meet all these people from around the world and talking about where they are serving. Sunday was such an emotional day too. Our favorite Dutch Elders. Eldste Dearden and Eldste Geeraert were leaving for Belgium the next day! They both gave short farewells testimonies in Dutch. Even though I couldn't understand everything, I could totally feel to spirit so strong. And to top off our Sunday... They let us watch Meet the Mormons for a Sunday movie night!! I was so excited because I've never seen it and I am a huge movie lover so it was fun to sit back and relax and enjoy a movie again after all our hard work! ;) I teared up at the part when the sweet German grandpa dropped candy off out of his plane for the kids in communist Berlin at the time. It reminded me of my mom and my ancestors for some reason. ;) Thank you so much for the DearElders too! My district always makes fun of me because I freak out whenever I get mail. :) It's one of the highlights of my day! Swedish is going well too. Our teachers Brother Cheney and Sister Bass are so awesome. They both served in Sweden so its fun hearing about their stories while we learn. We are all praying our visas go through because the group before us didn't get theirs in time. They told us there are so many middle eastern refugees coming over to Sweden that is it backing up the visa system. Even though it makes it harder for us to get over, I am so excited more refugees are coming over!! :) I would love to met some and hear about their lives. Also share a spiritual message with them and Mormons Bok as well. ;) Our teacher said he learned a little Farsi and Arabic on his mission there so I'm hoping I will too! Then I can understand my Middle Eastern friends when I get home. ;) On Tuesday we had a really great devotional by Hugo Montoya! It was seriously so sweet. He is from Mexico and a part of the quorum of the 70! He talked about his mission in Mexico and how our mission isn't a competition. He said we should never try to compare ourselves to other missionaries. The only person we should compare to imitate is our Lord Jesus Christ. I loved that so much. He also said people always say his name sounds like the guy from Princess Bride. ;) We all had a good laugh out of that. Anyways I wish I had more interesting stories to share with you guys but everyday is pretty much the same. Being here for 2 weeks I can already feel myself growing and learning so many things. It's like a never-ending EFY here. ;) It's so incedible here, but it will be nice to escape the MTC walls and get tillbaka out in the real world (as a missionary of course). Even though my Swedish has a long way to go, I'm ready for whatever the Lord needs me for. :) Hope you are all having a great November! They are starting to put Christmas lights up here and it makes me so happy. Till nästa vecka!! Mycket kärlek, Syster Davis P.S Alma 32:21-22 is great ;) Helped me a lot this week! Vi ses snart :)

My favorite Swedish sisters :)

Good Bye dutch elders!

I apologize for so many emails. The MTC computers are not that great so I'm trying still figure out a away to make it so I don't have to send each photo seperate! thanks for you patience and I promise all tone it down soon! If my emails are annoying you too you can block them, I won't get my feelings hurt. ;) thanks again!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

First Week at the MTC!!

Hejsan alla! :) Where do I begin. First of all this week has been one of the most overwhelming, exciting, stressful, spiritual, fun, scary, and best weeks ever. :) My mom dropping me off was probably the hardest thing thing I had to do out of everything so good thing I got that over with. That was even harder than teaching someone the gospel all in Swedish, which we had to do our third day here! When I got dropped off I was escorted by this sweet girl named Sister Lowrey who was going to Japan on her mission. She showed me where to get my name tag and showed me to my room. :) After that we had out first class with out district and we all introduced ourselves in Swedish. We laughed the entire time since we had no idea what out teacher was saying. I have only been here 7 days with my district and we are already all best friends! :) Our schedule is so crazy and its go-go-go every second but it helps to not think about home so thats nice. At first I seriously thought about giving up because it was so much and I missed my friends and family so much, but I kept telling myself to get through each day the best I can. The Lord has defienetly helped me with that. After Sunday and our district temple walk I felt so refreshed and knew I was right where I was supposed to be. My companion Syster May and I get along so well too :) I couldn't ask for a more amazing first companion! We also met on Instagram before so its like we already knew each other! The other Swedish Systers ( Syster Hall and Syster Campbell ) are great too. We all bond on the show Gossip Girl and make of funny missionary songs to Fergie. ;) Our zone is so cool too! We have people going to Iceland Norway, Denmark, Holland, and The Netherlands! Its cool because all our languages are kinda similar so we can sorta all understand eachother so thats fun too! We had to teach an investigator in Swedish and its crazy how much the gift of tongues works. I did do something so embarrassing though haha. We were teaching her how to pray so I said "First we fold our arms.." so in swedish I said "Forsta vi vikar våra vapen." After I said that out investigator was like "Vad?!" and I was like huh? oh no what did I do wrong...and she was like, "You said 'First we fold our guns.'" Everyone started laughing so hard haha. I guess it was more funny than embarrassing ;) Anyways I wish I could say a million more things but I don't have a lot of time to write so I just want to end with saying, Jag älskar ni!! Thanks for all the packages and letters and DearElders you send me. They help me so much and they make my day everyday! If I could give any advice to my soon-to-be missionary friends I would say Just get through this first week and never loose faith in the Lord :) You can get through it! Its hard the first few days but I promise it gets better. Also hug your families a lot!! I miss my family every single day and dream every night of when I will get to see them again. But I have to keep telling myself everyday I wake up is one less day I'm in the mission field so I need to enjoy every second of it because it will be over in a blink of an eye. All and all I miss you all so much I wish you the best! Thanks for the prayers and support I love it so much and I can't wait to see what the next 77 weeks of my mission have in store! Hope you all I had a fun Halloween too :) Thanks again! Till next week! Hej då för nu! Kärlek Syster Davis p.s. It sucks being a slow typer!! haha Vi ses snart :)