Merry Christmas, Family!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!!!!!  You are 23!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!  I'm so excited to talk to y'all on Thursday!  Well, all y'all who will be there on Christmas Day.  It will be fun.

 Anyway, being a missionary at Christmas time is the best!  It's kind of a lot more difficult with people going out of town and whatnot, but it is still the best!  Being as we study the scriptures basically all day everyday, I've started to realize that everything is Christmas, in a way.  Because this is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christmas is about Him.  He is the Gift!  (If you haven't seen this video yet, I HIGHLY recommend it!  christmas.mormon.org )  All that we do as missionaries should be in His name.  In one of the district meetings last transfer, Sister Muir had to give a talk on her study of the gospels.  I always like to say that "there are two names on my name tag" and one of them is the name of the Son of God.  In her talk, she pointed out that the name of Christ is under ours, and it looks like a support.  Christ is always there to support and uplift us, as long as we stay true to His teachings and live as He would have us live, and act like we have His name on our name tags always.  One thing I got from my study this morning was from Luke 6:46-49.  Jesus talks about those who hear his words and do as he teaches and compares them to the man who builds his house on a sure foundation.  He continues with those who hear, but do not what he teaches and compares them to the man who builds his house without a sure foundation.  When the floods come, the first house withstands while the second house is "immediately" washed away.  This strengthened my understanding of the importance of not only reading and studying what god wants us to do, but also DOING it.  All the knowledge in the world of Christ's life will do nothing for you if you don't follow his example and do as he teaches us to do.  If we don't we will immediately falter when in the flood of the adversary.

Sorry this is a short one, I'll talk to y'all on Christmas!  Love you!

Love, Sister Rebekah Joy

Christmas is Coming!

Things are goin'!  Mission life just does not slow down.  One thing that was really encouraging this week though was that the member we had dinner with on Wednesday said that a certain area (which is about half of the mission now) was all one stake a few years ago.  I thought, maybe we can eventually get all of Sumner to have it's own stake.  Right now it's part of the Puyallup Stake.  I just thought that was a cool insight for my week.

One sad thing though that happened just last night/this morning was that our investigator, Sister Lemke, who was supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday probably won't be able to because she had to get surgery.   We were going to meet with her last night, but she cancelled because she was going to the ER.  She's had problems with her gallbladder in the past and was in a lot of pain last night.  We told her to keep us updated and she texted us at 2:30 this morning saying that they were keeping her there and she was going to have surgery in the morning.  So they did the surgery and she's home now, but she can't do anything for six weeks.  She's the one who was going to get baptized on Nov. 29th, but had troubles with quitting smoking, so we moved the date to Dec. 20th.  But now it seems that we will be moving the date again.  It's a good thing our ward is awesome, though.  We were going to have a family night with the Lemkes at Brother Feller's home, but they decided that, given the circumstances, the Fellers will make dinner for the Lemkes and take it to them tonight instead.  Brother Feller is the Sumner ward mission leader.  He and his wife are FANTASTIC!

It's pretty interesting though that this would happen now.  Sister Simmons told me today that she was praying that if Sister Lemke wasn't ready for baptism that God would let us know.  And then this happened.  So perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, so that we can really make sure that Michelle is ready to be baptized.

Christmas is coming! 

I love you all so much!

Love, Sister Rebekah Joy

 

This is one of the huge cupcakes that we helped Sister Lemke make for the ward Christmas party on Saturday.
 I was happy to use my cupcake skills :)

This is our first snowfall a couple of weeks ago.  We haven't had any since...

 

 

Goodbye, Sis Muir--Hello, Sis Simmons

Hola familia!

Yesterday I went with the Hermanas because we live together and both of us had a comp. go home.  They were in a trio so there's two of them with me.  So I got to sit in on two lessons in Spanish!  Hermana Killingsworth even had me bear my testimony about the Book of Mormon and she translated it.  It was cool.

Yeah, so Sister Muir went home yesterday, and so did Hermana Clark.  Hmna Killingsworth y Singer were the ones with me yesterday.  Their area is closing this transfer (just the Spanish-speaking sisters area), and I get to stay here in Sumner/Puyallup, so I'll be the only one staying in the apartment.  It's so weird to go from 5 to 2.

 

My new companion is Sister Simmons.  She's from Overton, Nevada and she's been out about a year.  She is a lot like me.  Quiet.  Haha, but she's still been out longer, so I think she talks more for that reason.  We get along really well.  I have actually been learning how to insert my thoughts more into lessons, but it's something I feel like I will always be working on.

It is just Sister Simmons and me in our apartment.  It was really weird at first.  Super quiet.  But I've gotten more used to it.  On the bright side, we haven't had to buy any food so far this transfer.  The Hermanas left a lot for us to eat.

 I got to go on two exchanges this week!  The first one I stayed in Sumner with Sis. Ballard (Sister Training Leader) and the other one I went to Auburn with Sis. Jin (another STL).  Sis. Jin is AMAZING!  She is from China and actually is called to Temple Square, but she got to be up here for a couple of transfers.  She goes back to Temple Square on Wednesday, so y'all should go up and try to find her!  (Just ask about the Chinese sister who served in Federal Way Mission for a while, all the other sisters probably know her.  You can probably even ask for her by name.)  She taught me so much about planning and about consecration and study and was just such a big help to me!  I don't have a lot of time to write everything I want to, but it was a way cool experience!  You should ask her about her meeting with Elder Hamula, she can tell you a ton! 

We are meeting with a sister in the Puyallup ward who's a fairly recent convert.  Her name is Kamitra.  She loves church so much and every time we mention the temple, her eyes just light up!  She wants to go so badly to be baptized for her mom and other family members!  She was in an accident about 15 years ago that put her in a coma while she was 6 months pregnant.  She has a little bit of brain damage and a lot of other injuries, but she is pretty high functioning.  It is a true miracle to be able to see her right in front of me.  Her baby was even born normal and healthy.  She knows that she is still alive for a reason, and I believe that a lot of that reason has to do with her desire to go to the temple.  I love her so much--she is the sweetest lady!  The only problem she has with going to church is that she notices that she's the only black lady there.  She also has a hard time with quitting smoking, especially since she lives in a home with a bunch of other ladies and they smoke.  She's trying to find another place to live right now.  Please pray for her.  I know it would help her so much!

Also, BROTHER JOHNSON SAID YES TO BAPTISM!!!!!  His actual words were, "I believe the answer to that is, yes I will eventually."  We hope to set a date with him soon!

Well, I love you all!  Have a GREAT week!

 

Love, Sister Rebekah Joy!

Pictures!

My first Zone in the mission field.

Sis. Muir made German Pancakes. Yumm!

"He Is the Gift"

 

What?!  It's December already!  Sweet!  December is awesome!  I just wanna tell y'all about the "He Is The Gift" Christmas Initiative that is going on.  It's pretty intense.  We're using it as a finding tool that's really great about Jesus Christ and how He is the gift of Christmas.  Next Sunday, Dec. 7th, is the "YouTube takeover" where the Church will be the only advertiser on the YouTube homepage.  It's pretty sweet.  With the December Ensign, there will be nine pass-along cards that you can give away to people and share the Gospel!  Put one or two of them in your pocket or your wallet or your purse and pray about who you should give them to.  This can be friends at school, people in line at the grocery store--anyone!  They're all our brothers and sisters!

Anyway, on a more personal note, I am doing extremely well!  This week was really hard with talking to people in the street, but it's all good.  We talked to an Atheist guy who was really nice at first but as the conversation went on he started to get really mad and called us wackos and stuff.  He also ripped our Christmas pass-along card in half and dropped it on the ground in our faces.  I only wanted to cry because I felt bad for him.  As we were talking to him, I could feel a little of God's love for him.  I'm alright, but I wish he could see that his house was on fire (metaphorically speaking). 

 

Also, this one lady yesterday was not happy to talk to us at all.  She was sitting in her car and we came up and said hello.  After she said hello back we asked if we could share something with her and she said, "Nope.  I'm just drinking my beer and my cigarette and I'm not interested."  So we walked away, but then I said to Sister Muir that her house is on fire (this is a metaphor that Pres. Eaton used at the new missionary follow-up training meeting, that's why I keep using it).  So we went back and said we had a message about Jesus Christ, but she swore at us telling us to leave her alone.  She said, "I don't believe in God.  I wanna burn your eyes out."  So... we left.   I just wish people would all understand.  But I feel fine.  We just laughed it off later.  I just feel bad that people who don't believe in God are not nearly as happy in their lives.

On the bright side, we talked to a lady we saw at an apartment complex and were totally led by the Spirit to talk to her.  She said she doesn't believe in God either, but we had a much better conversation with her than with the other two people.  And then we ran into her mom right after we talked to her, and then we talked to a boy who happened to be her son.  So we basically met the whole family.  Good stuff.

Thanksgiving was awesome!  And delicious!

Well, I hope y'all are having a good life!  I love you!

 

Love,

Sister Rebekah Joy

DAY 41 ALREADY?!

Today is day 41 of my mission since I entered the MTC!  Holy cow!  First week in the field felt like a year, but now it's like, has it really been over a month already?!  Mission time-warp.

Anyway, things have been happening this week.  I'm still alive, so that's good I guess.  These last few days have been interesting for me, though.  Randy Johnson is progressing, he still hasn't committed to baptism yet, but he's doing all he can to make sure he's ready, and that's what really counts.  Speaking of being ready for baptism, Sister Lemke was going to get baptized this coming Saturday, but she needs more time.  For a couple days I just felt off, not quite sure about her getting baptized this week.  It was causing some stress and distracted feeling for me and I wasn't really sure why I was feeling this way.  Our bishop felt Sister Lemke needed more time, our ward mission leader felt it.  Sister Lemke has been quitting smoking, and she always tells us she hasn't had one, but on Saturday we were teaching Neysa (Brother Lemke's mom who is also one of our investigators) and she was distracted the whole time we were there.  She finally told us something was bothering her, but she was hesitant to tell us what it was.  Eventually she told us that she knew that Sister Lemke was still smoking.  That's not good news, but oddly enough, I felt relief when she said that, because now I know why I didn't feel right about the baptism.  We met with the Lemkes last night with our ward mission leader and set a new baptismal goal with her.

Yesterday was hard, too because my companion found out that her grandma was saying her last goodbyes.  She was diagnosed with ALS 6 months ago.  It's especially hard for Sister Muir because she was excited to see her grandma in just two weeks.  President Eaton gave her permission to call her family and she got to talk to her grandma.  I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation!  She knows her grandma's just getting ready to serve a mission on the other side of the veil.  It's still hard.  It's a good thing yesterday was Sunday and today is P-Day, so Sister Muir doesn't have to worry about seeing too many people.  We had a member signed up to feed us dinner, but our ward mission leader's wife called her up and asked if she could just bring the food to our apartment.  It's so great to see the amount of love and support the members show for the missionaries here.  I love this area.

In other news, I got my flute this week!  I got to play it in one lesson already.  We were teaching a lesson on family history, so I told about William Clayson and played one of his hymns on the flute at the lesson.  It was fun and the Johnsons loved it. And the Puyallup bishop wants me to prepare to play a musical number in Sacrament Meeting around Christmas.  That should be fun.  I'm also planning on playing at Sister Lemke's baptism.  She said she would love that.  I'm so, so, so happy I get to use my flute on my mission!  I was playing in our apartment during lunch yesterday and our next-door neighbor came over and said it sounded good.  Haha, I hadn't thought much about other people being able to hear me, but at least they liked it!  Two of the Hermanas living with us also play the flute.  It's so much fun!

Sister Muir and I are speaking in Sacrament Meeting next week in the Sumner ward.  Hopefully that will give some of our investigators extra motivation to come to church.  Or to not come, I don't know.   I am speaking on my mission experience so far for 10 minutes.  Sister Muir gets to speak on her mission as well, but she gets to speak for 20 minutes.  She said, "I wonder if Bishop is taking into account that you're quieter than me."  Haha!

 Hope y'all enjoy Thanksgiving and eat lot's of food!  One of the less-actives that we're teaching told me not to eat too much on Thursday.  She said, "Will you?"  I said I'd try not to and she said, "You will, we all will."  It was funny.

Well, until next week I guess. 

~Sister Davis

Aloha Familia!

Life is great as a missionary.  There is so much going on and I wish I could tell you all everything!

This week has been really great!  The conference with Elder Hamula could not have come at a better time.  With the emphasis we've had on faith lately, we felt impressed to talk about it to Brother Johnson (his first name is Randy, by the way).  The lesson we prepared for him ended up being entirely the Spirit's lesson.  We planned before hand that we were going to invite him to be baptized no matter what we thought his answer might be.  Every time in the past he has said no and that's what happened when we asked him at first.  Then we continued on reading in the Book of Mormon and talking about faith.  We asked him again and he didn't say no this time!  He's still not committed, but he is SO CLOSE!  We know he felt the Spirit, even if he won't say that he knows he has.  This experience has shown me how a lesson should really be taught by the Spirit.  We plan, pray, and prepare as much as we can, and then when we get into the lesson, He takes over based off of what we have prepared.  I have been thinking a lot this week about the D&C verse "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same" and how, as missionaries, we are His servants.  I thought, but how do I know if I'm right and what I'm saying is really what God would say?  Then during that lesson, at one part I was speaking, but I really wasn't thinking.  At all.  It was entirely God speaking directly through me to His son whom we were teaching.  And that has changed my view of missionary work entirely.  I felt a small portion of what Heavenly Father feels for our investigator--and for all of His children.  I'll even say it's changed my life.

One thing that Brother Johnson discovered during the lesson was that maybe he just needs hope.  He doesn't know what he hopes for.  Later that night I remembered the song in the "From Cummorah's Hill" program called "The Power of God".  It's written about the part of the Book of Mormon that we were reading from.  It says, "The power of God is plain to see, there are wonders on every hand, to those who will see through eyes of faith beyond the mind of man.  For how could we hope to see His face, who never could see His hand?"  Maybe that's why Randy doesn't know what he hopes for--because he doesn't acknowledge miracles in his life.  We hope we can help him with that in the next few lessons.

One funny part about that lesson:  we were talking about Korihor the Anti-Christ and how he doesn't believe in God, because some of Randy's questions were very similar to what Korihor was preaching.  For example, Korihor said that "it is the effect of a frenzied mind" and Bro. Johnson has said that he doesn't want to brainwash himself into thinking there is a God.  As we were reading with him in Alma 30, he said, "I'm pretty sure if you look up Korihor in the back of the book, in the definition it'll say Randy."  It was pretty funny.

Oh!  You can tell Brother Pullman that I used "Jenga" for a lesson with the Lemkes.  I think it was a really good hands-on visual for them and it helped them stay focused a little bit more.  We talked before that about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  It ended up being really good. :)

Well, I hope y'all are doing fantastic!  I love you!

-- ~Love, Sister Davis