I'm telling you this is crazy stuff... (August 11th)

Hello everyone!

Wow it's been quite the interesting week that is for sure! We've been running to and fro all over the valley on the Lord's errands and it's been fantastic! All of it was really last minute, but that's usually how things run on Temple Square. (:

On Thursday night when on our way to gather our things to leave, I was stopped by the sacrament meeting coordinators and they asked if I would be willing to go speak in a ward in the valley that Sunday, again! And once again I would not be speaking with my companion, they wanted me to go with Sister Sherratt, again! Sooo funny haha! So we didn't have time to put together a fancy musical number but we felt that we should just sing a hymn and stick with that. The exciting part about it, though, was that we would not be speaking in a family ward. We were speaking in a ward of women who are currently in the Orange County Women's Correctional Facility here in Salt Lake. When we showed up to the services it was a really small room with almost 20 chairs. It was an extremely spiritual environment and I really felt like I was on sacred ground. The women there were so welcoming and it was really fun to be able to just sit and talk with a lot of them before the meeting started. The topic I was given to speak on was the Savior's earthly ministry and I'll be honest I wasn't sure what I was going to say until right before going over to their services. I was sitting in our own sacrament meeting when, randomly, the story of Jesus healing the woman who had an issue of blood came into my head. I decided to base my talk off of that and I could feel that it was what the Lord wanted. I think a lot of those women I met are closer to the Savoir than most people I meet on Temple Square. I know that He is close to them because I could feel it when I was with them. For the musical number, the bishop had asked one of the women there if she wanted to sing with us, and she did! We sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." I hope that we will be invited back again sometime because I really enjoyed that experience.

Sunday night was very eventful as well! On Saturday night I got a call from guest services informing us that some elders from the Salt Lake City South Mission wanted me and Sister Fuentes (my former companion) to attend a baptism of one of their investigators! We were super confused at first and didn't even recognize the names of the Elders hahaha but when we heard who the investigator was we remembered her instantly! The Elders had brought her here on a tour 3 transfers ago and Sister Fuentes and I were the ones who had taken them around! So we got permission from the A.P.'s and went on exchanges to attend the baptism. After the baptism one of the Elders (from Spain) was telling us about how things had been going teaching them the last 2 months and their story was such a miracle! In short, she finally had received an answer to her prayer and realized that she wanted so bad to be baptized and she did everything she needed to be prepared in less than a week! When we were talking to her afterwards she was just so happy and she just glowed with the spirit of the Lord! We didn't have our camera but one of the Elders (from Chicago) took lots of pictures of us with her (that's another awkward story for another awkward day) but they promised they'd send them to us so hopefully we will get copies of those soon so I can send them home to show y'all. (: (Oh and the baptism wasn't even in Salt Lake so on our way there we kinda got lost in the vast waste land that is Kearns, Utah but we eventually found it haha!)

Scary story right here

Last night was probably the most interesting experience of the week. In the back of our apartment building there is a cute little park-like area with grass and trees and such, so we were going to have our companion study (our studies are in the evenings #onlyontemplesquare) on a huge blanket out on the grass to have an uplifting companion study in the fresh air! But it didn't last very long.. We began to open our scriptures when we noticed an interesting man over in the corner of the park kinda in the bushes who looked like he had a twitch or something...? So he was acting really weird and at first I just thought "Oh great someone is high and he's having weird hallucinations that's nice." But then it went from looking like he had a twitch or scratch or something to some really interesting arm movements and yeah-i-don't-really-wanna-get-into-it... But it suddenly occurred to me what was going on on the other side of the park and once it finally clicked in my head the spirit made it very clear that if we did not leave now that man would notice us and he would not like a righteous spirit in his range of sight SO! We grabbed our things and ran like dainty, righteous, terrified missionaries into the apartment and called security! Security, in turn, connected us with the police and we reported him buuuut police here must not like missionaries because they said they would see if there was anyone able to go check it out. Ha. So we called security on the square and told them that the sisters who would be walking home that night would either need to go a different way or have an escort. So our dear security officer, Michael from Melbourne Australia, walked the sisters home and we know he was going to take care of that guy but we don't know what happened but...all is well in Zion! Oh and I forgot to mention that the man doing creepy rituals was about... 15 feet from our bedroom window! AH! Sketchy!

So after all that was said and done Sister Merrill and I were not feeling very well, just because of what we had seen and the not good feeling that came along with it. We called a senior couple in our mission but they were not in Salt Lake but they told us where we could go to find more senior couples to obtain a priesthood blessing. So we went to the floor above us and knocked on a random door and to our happiness there was a senior couple there who would be willing to come give us a blessing(: They were a senior couple serving in the Family History mission and they were from Ireland actually! So the blessing helped us feel SO much better and we were able to sleep well AND I now know how cool my full name sounds in a Irish accent! :D I'm so grateful for worthy priesthood holders that are always there and so willing to give us help when we need it. It seems that every blessing I've received on my mission have been some of the most powerful I've received in my life. I feel so blessed.

Well anyways, those are my exciting stories from this week! They're starting to put Christmas lights on the trees so you know what that means...only 3 more months until Christmas season on Temple Square! AH! SO EXCITED! SO MANY LIGHTS!

I love you all and pray for you all! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the last bits of summer!(:

Sister Davis