Happy New Year!

"Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." -D&C 11:21

Yesterday, I had this experience! As many of you know, I set a goal back on November 30th, to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year! Well on December 27th, I achieved that goal! I love the Book of Mormon! I have made a new goal now to read the entire New Testament by the end of my 3rd Transfer! But anyways, back to my cool experience last night: So there is a website that is telling people to go onto Mormon.org chat to troll it (which means just go on as a prank). So! For the past few days we've been FLOODED with chats, some ridiculous, some argumentative, some creepy, some inappropriate, BUT I am so thankful to this website! We have had so many opportunities to preach the gospel! Whether they are accepting it or not, we enjoy sharing the gospel with people. And there have been many miracles that have come of it! Several people we talked to, came onto chat for the purpose of trolling, and we end up teaching them The Restoration and inviting them to read the Book of Mormon! Last night, a young man came on and was asking me question after question after question about the Book of Mormon. Normally, I get easily nervous when people keep asking me question after question, but for some reason I knew exactly what to say to every question he would ask! The spirit was guiding me COMPLETELY and by the end of the chat this young man said, "Wow, I just need to keep reading the Book of Mormon then!" We asked him if we could keep in touch with him and teach him more, and he even said yes! So THANK YOU to that website for telling people to come to mormon.org and troll our chat! Blessings blessings!:)

This past week we had a miracle occur! I think you'll remember that a couple weeks ago one of our greatest progressing investigators told us that he didn't want contact with us anymore, and that he was giving up. Despite that we sent him a Christmas card anyways (we sent several to some investigators). Well the day after Christmas we got to the teaching center and I noticed I had a voice-mail. It was our dear investigator who had dropped us! He said he got our Christmas Card in the mail and that it put a huge smile on his face and he wanted us to give him a call!!! AHH!!! So we called him and his heart has changed! He is still reading from the Book of Mormon and even sharing it with his friends! And he said that he is ok with us still calling him and talking with him! It was such a miracle! Who says Christmas isn't a season of miracles!? Cuz whoever he is, he's a liar. Hahaha:)

Some other exciting investigator stories this past week: One of our young college students in California has accepted the invitation to be baptized! We are preparing him to be baptized on the 20th of January! We are SO excited for him because we can see the spirit working with him and the gospel bringing him more happiness in his life! We also got a new investigator this week! It was someone transferred to me by another sister. I received his information in my first transfer but every time I called he never picked up. So yesterday I was calling for the last time, if he didn't answer I would have had to drop him. But he picked up! And he's a truck driver so he said that it was crazy that I happened to call at a time when he was on a break just walking around! So anyways, I talked to him about the church and told him about how we have a modern prophet today on the earth! He was really surprised and something that was said really struck him. He accepted the invitation to start reading the Book of Mormon and to start letting us call and teach him! Blessings blessings!

With the New Year beginning it's been such a positive and exciting time on the square! On New Year's Eve my companion and I had the assignment to cover the Tabernacle from 8-9pm. Naturally, there were several concerts going on there that night, so we got to sit in and listen to some AMAZING singers from around the U.S., one of those being an 11-year old prodigy opera singer! It was a great night, to say the least! At 9pm the sisters of this mission went down to the mission home where we had some good food, including sparkling cider, and gave a toast to the New Year. We were back in our apartments by 10:30 but at midnight the sound of fireworks woke us up. Well, at least they woke me up. I heard them and mumbled, "Happy New Year Sister Esquivel." About three minutes later she sat up in her bed and said, "There's something outside...(long pause)...Happy New Year Sister Davis." Hahaha:) My companion and I sleep talk about every night though so it wasn't unusual.

Yesterday, to celebrate the beginning of the New Year, we went with some of the sisters in our district to The Cheesecake Factory! I know. The best. I know you're all wondering what I got, so I will tell you! One word: Calamari. Ah! It was so good, especially because I hadn't had some in so long! Heavenly! And what cheesecake? Well, Red Velvet with white chocolate of course! When the waitress came out with our bags with the cheesecake in them, she handed them out and everyone had the little small bags, naturally. But then she handed me my bag, which was twice the size of everyone else's so at first I was worried that she thought I wanted the entire cheesecake hahahaha! But upon further inspection I realized that the slice of the cheesecake was massive and it required a container twice the size of everyone else! Hahaha! Let's just say, it made my day. I also kept thinking to myself, "If this meal, which is my first meal of the year 2014, is a reflection on the type of year I'm going to have...then this is gonna be a good year!" :) We were also so blessed because an anonymous person in the restaurant asked our waitress if they could pay our bill. Sooo sweet... people are just so kind to missionaries here. So that was our wonderful New Year meal celebration miracle. :)

Today has been quite an interesting day thus far. We woke up, did our studies, and left to take our laundry upstairs. Well it was the one time I didn't double check that Sister Esquivel had the key before closing the door....so we got locked out. Luckily our neighbors upstairs were able to get us into the laundry room! But because our roommates are in Provo and all of the sisters with master keys to the apartments are in Provo as well...my companion and I are homeless right now. And we were wearing p.j.'s because we were about to take showers after starting laundry...so we didn't have any clothes to wear, plus our wallet is in our apartment and our cell phone and our camera. So needless to say, I don't think I'll be able to email pictures today...but expect them next week! Right now I'm wearing Sister Snow's dress and Sister Liu's name tag. Sister Liu is from China so yes, I have a Chinese flag on. It's ok though, I can carry a small conversation in Chinese so I'm set if anyone tried to talk to me! Our roommates should be back from Provo in like 15 minutes so then we'll be able to go home, shower, wear our own clothes/name-tag, and go shopping at the store all before we have to be on the square at 6. So no worries! It's been an adventure!

I will now answer the question you're all thinking: Why are your roommates in Provo? Well! Everyone in our mission gets to go to BYU this week to an art show! They happened to go today, and my companion and I get to go tomorrow! So we have to be at the trax at 7am which will take us to the Front-Runner (a train) and that will get us to Provo where MTC busses will pick us up and take us to the BYU campus! AH! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! So yes, that is what we will be doing tomorrow:) So expect pictures of that next week as well!

Alright this letter is getting really long, so I am sorry I'm going to have to share more stories later sorry about that! But I hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope you're all enjoying the New Year! Thank you for all the support and advice from every one of you! I love you all!

Sister Davis