So last Friday our mission took an adventure down to BYU! We were invited to attend an art exhibit called Sacred Gifts. The exhibit was paintings of the life of Jesus Christ, the paintings came from different places across the world! We left our apartments at 6:30am and headed to the Trax. We then took the Trax to the Front Runner where we boarded for Provo! After arriving in Provo, buses picked us up and took us over to the BYU campus! Every time I go to BYU I am always flooded with memories...it was so weird to be there with a name tag on. We attended the art exhibit first and then we were given an hour or so to explore the campus ourselves. Sister Esquivel had never been to BYU (she actually wasn't too fond of BYU but I made it a goal to convert her by the end of the trip hehe). I took her around campus, we went to the top of the SWKT, walked through the Library, I gave her a tour of the HFAC (she's a singer so I figured she like it), and ended by walking through the WILK; showing her the Ballroom, Cougareat, and Bookstore of course! Naturally, I can't go to the BYU bookstore without buying another shirt to add to my collection...so we both got BYU shirts. :) By the end of the tour she said she felt very strongly that she needed to apply and attend BYU. Success! I'll be helping her near the end of her mission fill out the application. After we left the campus we were taken to a Stake Center where one of the Provo Stakes had prepared a wonderful meal for us. We were also given copies of all the paintings of the Savior that we saw in the art exhibit! We are so blessed! We took the Front Runner back to SLC and arrived on the square at about 4 in the afternoon. It was such a wonderful day.
On Saturday night I got to do MTC contacting!!! Remember when I was in the MTC and we got to come to the Square and be assigned a sister here to experience what it's like here? Well I got to do that, except this time I was the Temple Square sister! Haha! My companion for the night was Sister Wu from China! She is sooo sweet! She had never seen the Salt Lake Temple but always wanted to! During our contacting I took her up to the temple doors so she could touch them. :) It was so cute to watch how touched she was to be here at the Salt Lake Temple. It made me think how lucky I was to grow up here, and that coming to Temple Square was such a common thing for me. I definitely took it for granted before, but since receiving my call, I realize how blessed I am to be here on this sacred ground.
On Monday night it was very emotional; it was President and Sister Gillette's last transfer conference. They'll be leaving the mission on the 17th and our new mission president will be arriving. For the special occasion, we had singer/performer, Peter Breinholt, come visit the mission and perform for us! He is an incredible musician! Afterwards, some of the Samoan/Moauri/Hawaiian sisters did a farewell Hakka. The Hakka is something very sacred in the Mauri culture and it's pretty much a mourning/farewell, saying goodbye to loved ones. It was really powerful and everyone was in tears. Once the Hakka was done, the entire mission sang Aloha 'Oe, a traditional Hawaiian farewell song. While singing we all presented our lai's to President and Sister Gillette. Talk about 200 girls being an emotional mess! I don't think there are other missions that become as close to their mission president as we do in this mission. We see them every day, have meetings with them at least once a week, they do so much for us...it is so sad to see them go. :( But they will always have a special place in all of our hearts.
With transfer conference coming up Monday morning I was getting so nervous. I could just feel that I would be getting a new companion. Sure enough Sister Esquivel received the call to go outbound! She is now serving in the Bakersfield, California Mission until early April! So what happened to me, you ask? I have an amazing new companion, her name is Sister Steenhoek and she is from Texas! As soon as I heard her name I was so excited because I knew that it meant that I would now be Fleet!
Fleet is an assignment for a companionship of sisters that are assigned to be in charge of all the cars in the mission. We have our own cubicle in the mission home so we do TONS of office work. We work with the mission president, the mission secretaries and A.P.'s on a daily basis. We also work with people in the Church Office Building in church headquarters. We always have tons of work to do and meetings to go to and training to give to sisters but it is SO FUN! I love it! I feel so blessed to have this assignment, it keeps us insanely busy but it's so great. Today for pday we get an all day p-day because on the day of transfers from 3a.m. to 2p.m. we were coordinating all the sisters whose flights left or came in to/from outbound, as well as the sisters from the MTC coming to the mission. It was crazy and we were in p.j.'s all day but we got it done! Being fleet also has perks because we can take a car wherever we want, and we get our own car! All the other sisters in the mission have to share mini-vans but we get to drive a Toyota corolla. So nice:) In a nutshell, I feel very spoiled, blessed, and excited! At transfer conference Sister Hitritch, one of the A.P.'s came up to me and said, "When we were doing transfers I looked at your picture and instantly new that you should be fleet. I said that to President and He immediately agreed." I KNOW this call is from the Lord.
The work is continuing onward! To help one of our investigators quit drinking, Sister Steenhoek and I are going to give up sugar for 21 days to support him as he gives up drinking. It sounds crazy, but I want him to be able to progress towards baptism so my sugar can just wait for a little while. We also still have our wonderful young man in California on Baptism date, working towards that! This work is always progressing and there is no one who can stop it. :) Being a missionary is the greatest blessing of my life! I don't ever want it to end!!!
Thank you for the continued support and prayers. On the days that seem a little harder I always think of the amazing family and friends I have back home who are cheering me on and praying that I am accomplishing my purpose. So, thank you. I love you all! Continue to move forward and progress!
Love,
Sister Davis
Celebrating the New Year with Sister Esquivel! Woo!:)
Cheesecake Factory on New Years Day! Me and my obsession with Calamari:) :)
Another BYU shirt to add to the pile...check!:)
Sister Esquivel, our roommate Sister Souza, and I being really excited about our new shirts..no judgements...:)
Our Zone Activity last transfer (We did a service project). This was the day we were locked out of our apartment fyi haha. So that's why we look a little interesting:) If you look really closely you can see that I'm wearing a Chinese flag because I had to borrow a name tag haha.
President Seppi and President and Sister Gillette's last transfer conference. The farewell Hakka:(
We are really going to miss them!!
Sister Steenhoek and I on transfer day! We were even matching...so meant to be.
Us emailing right now...haha we're kinda matching again!
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