"...I KNOW THAT THESE THINGS ARE TRUE BECAUSE THE LORD GOD HAS MADE THEM KNOWN UNTO ME..."

FAMILY! 

My heart is so full of joy! WOW I can't even believe it. There are so many things that I am sure I made mistakes in this week and so many things I am sure I could have done better...HOWEVER….. I am still so happy. It is because of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Him and I love my Heavenly Father with ALL my heart!

This past week we were asked, "Does the Lord love you? What is evidence of that? Do you love the Lord? What is evidence of that?" This eternal happiness is because my Heavenly Father loves me.

Heiner Family! You won’t believe it...this family is incredible! We walk up to the door, Sister Iverson takes a look at the suburban with 8 people stickers....We shout...IT’S A FAMILY! They were recently attending another ward with another member family, the kids were involved in young women's and young men's and the mother LOVED it. However they had to stop attending for some time and the kids were upset. They are so loving toward one another, and they are so happy and they want to find a church that is centered on Christ and on our Heavenly Father. There are so many little miracles inside this story. Heavenly Father prompted us to bring a couple that perfectly fit with the father and the mother. I will keep you posted. 

Patrick! He is such a wonderful man. He has tons of questions and tons of love for a church where individuals actually live their faith. He called us this morning nervous but excited for church! 

Nick and Jamie! Young couple, getting baptized in July! Perfect for this young ward that we are in!

Brandon and Destynee! Both came to church this past Sunday! Doing very well and we are so excited for them. 

Debbie and Randy! With all their struggles, trials and everything on their plate already, they have committed to live more commandments! 

On this special Memorial Day we recognize all those who have served for our country! Living in the heart of a military city there is great respect for those who were, and are, willing to serve and to give. Not only for those who fight for our country, but also those who fight for the Kingdom of God! We continue to fight and to defend His Kingdom as our apostles and prophets have counseled us this past general conference.

I love each one of you! I love all that you have given and done for me.

Sincerely, Sister Davis

"IN HIS STRENGTH I CAN DO ALL THINGS"

Dearest Family! 

It has been an exciting week here in the Texas San Antonio Mission! The fields are being harvested, the days are getting brighter, the skies clearer, and the sun gets hotter and hotter!!! 

Debbie and Randy are doing well. Debbie's cancer treatments are overwhelming to her but I have never seen a woman more dedicated to the gospel than her. She is reading every day, she is coming to church every week, bringing her husband along, even though she feels sick and would love to just sleep all hours of the day! She is an outstanding example! 

Destynee and Brandon are a couple of youth we are now teaching! (brother and sister) I’ll send a picture. Their parents are converts to the church, however, the kids were not too interested when the parents joined and chose not to be baptized. But now they are planning to be baptized on June 14th! Destynee has been coming to church the past couple of weeks and Brandon wants to receive the priesthood!

Just last night, as we stepped out of the car, we saw an older couple just walking out of their home named Carol and Dave. We asked if they knew the Menchaca family across the street who are members of the church. They responded with a huge smile and shared story after story about how wonderful the Menchaca’s are! AND, turns out Carol and Dave are the best missionaries in town. Carol was telling us story after story about how friends have mentioned negative things about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and she corrects them immediately. She was just in awe telling one story after the other about how fully the Menchaca's have lived their faith. She mentioned they will do anything and everything for anyone at any time. No Joke. How great of an influence this family has been to every neighbor we have talked with in the neighborhood. (They know EVERYONE on the whole block lol) What an impact they have had by their example. 

MY NEW COMPANION: Sister Iverson! She is absolutely outstanding……dedicated to the work, always, always trying to improve, always wanting to do more and more every day. And a bonus mother, she cleans exactly like you. I think this is only the second person I have met in my life like that. What a compliment to you mother! Sister Iverson is from Preston, ID and is greatly needed in this ward. There is much, much, much work to do because of your prayers every day! Seriously, there is not time to see everyone and talk with everyone we want to. 

Well if you have made it this far in the email you have made it to the BEST PART EVER!!!! THE TEXAS SAN ANTONIO TEMPLE!!!

Saturday morning we woke up early to attend the temple with the San Antonio 9th Ward youth! Many people were also in attendance…… Sister Schrader (recent convert, mother of Destynee), Bill (recent convert, friends of Sister Uminski in our ward), Edgar (recent convert as of March), Parsons and Kean (recents converts of Sister Iverson in her previous ward) AND Bridget Wilson (recent convert as of May 10th!) WOW absolutely spectacular. I will send a picture. 

It was the most incredible day of my life! Tears filled my eyes as I sat above the font watching Bridget do proxy baptisms for ancestors of one of the witnesses sitting above her by the font. I imagined the space around the font filled with those people who were part of the preparation for this…..those who indexed the names of the ancestors, those who searched online, those who requested the names, the temple workers, Sister Boster (who introduced the church to S. Wilson), Bishop Updike (who interviewed Bridget for her recommend), and most of all Bridget, for making the decision to first act and be baptized. WOW! Can you imagine? Bridget leaned over to me in the temple and said, “now I understand what Sister Boster was talking about when she mentioned the feeling in the temple, and how incredible and amazing it is. I am so grateful she introduced this to me and invited me to come and listen, and come to church. I want everyone to know about this. I feel so blessed to be right here and being witnessing this!”  WOW!  The whole ride home she talked about her ancestors and all those individuals who she wants to share the gospel with now. As we were driving out of the temple parking lot super slow, she says, "I just don’t want to leave, I want to stay here all day." We pointed to the temple store and asked if she wanted to go look, she quickly said, “yes!”  then she turned the car around to go park. Lol….. I could share more but my time is limited. Just know that this is REAL. The temple allows us to be impacted this way. I know it does. I have felt it, and Destynee felt it. We walked around the grounds outside the temple while her mother was inside doing baptisms. She felt the great power of the temple! 

All can say in my heart is "Because I Have Been Given Much....I too MUST GIVE." 

I love each one of you sincerely and so deeply with all my heart! 

Best Wishes to each of you this week. Thank you again for all your prayers and thoughts. Love, Sister Davis

I HEARD YOUR VOICE!

Mother, Father, Jordan, Cristy, Adri, Tyler, and Tucker! 

Hearing is a powerful sense. It allows us to learn, to obey, to be warned, to feel, to receive. It’s the time when we stop thinking about ourselves, and focus on another person. President Slaughter often speaks of listening with our whole soul and not just with our ears. How are you receiving what you are hearing? Is it just stuff that’s "nice to hear" or is it really piercing your soul? I have often pondered on this subject, but am still far from mastering it. 

The sweetest thing to hear is the voice of your mother! My goodness! Since the very first day we met our parents we will ALWAYS be able to identify our mothers voice. No matter what…. when you hear your mother’s voice, you always feel their love for you. 

Yesterday mother handed the phone over to someone to say hi, but didn’t tell me who it was. I heard, "Hello, Kenz" ..... suddenly the tears came rolling down my face and my throat got all choked up. That’s all it took….the voice of a loved one. It was M'Kay! And with each person's voice that I heard, a rush of love from each person came over me. It’s the coolest thing. Thank you all for your love across the miles. I can feel it. 

What you hear has power to stay with you for a lifetime. So make sure what you say is worth hearing for eternity. 

Oh yes, I will be staying here for transfers. However they are splitting up the Davis Duo. Sister Davis will be heading off to the land of oz.

We had a lesson with Bridget this morning about family history work. She is so excited to do baptisms on Saturday at the temple! Someday you will get to meet her! 

I love each one of you and thank you for all you shared with me yesterday! It was glorious. I love each one of you. Sincerely, Sister Davis

Sisters conference at the temple!

Thomas Family, Chrissy and us!

Bridget and her little ones, London and Gavin

Sister Boster and Bridget

Me, Bridget, Sister Davis and Bridget's two children, London and Gavin

Elder Isaac and Elder Foster who helped us a TON!

Sunday Morning!

Chrissy brought us flowers! I can't imagine being any happier than I am right now!

"LINE UPON LINE, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT" 2 Nephi 28: 30

FAMILY! MY GOODNESS MY GOODNESS! 

MARTHA! She is a new investigator this week! She said, "Most of the time I dodge the Mormons, but this time I felt I needed to listen." She came to church and LOVED it. She loved that the youth were so strong and had such powerful testimonies. For me, the youth just have a more and more tender spot in my heart every time I hear and see them. If they could only know the impact they have on the rest of the world.

We had wonderful visit from the Missionary Department this past week! There is still so much we must improve on. 

This morning we just had a lesson with Sister Bridget Wilson. It has been the craziest roller coaster of my life. There is lots of negativity out there as we’re aware of, and it has been brought to her attention. It allowed Bridget to "...wax stronger and stronger in her humility and firmer and firmer in the faith..." It was so neat to see. At first when she was confronted with it, she doubted, and took a step or two back.  We clarified some principles and she returned to tell her friend about what we clarified and her friend was grateful for the clarification and understood better these principles. Since she was 12 years old she has had many misconceptions. However, because one dear friend took the time to explain and share her testimony, her heart has been softened. WOW This morning she shared with us an amazing experience.

Chrissy and Bridget will be making their first covenant with their father in Heaven this Saturday!!!

We visited a member who has not been to church in quite some time this past week. We applied principles taught in our missionary meeting the previous week. We taught her about being sealed with her family for not only this life but most importantly for the eternities. She was intrigued and touched by the spirit whispering truth to her heart. She has a strong desire to be with her family forever! 

"The Mormonitas, mama, the mormonitas." (Michelle's 3yr old daughter) 

Robert is doing wonderful! We walk into the lesson this past week and he has the Restoration DVD pulled up on his TV screen and the remote sitting on the coffee table ready to press play. The rest of the coffee table and couch were covered in pamphlets, the Book of Mormon, the Bible and notebooks, all open and studied and marked up. As soon as we started the lesson he says, "wait, wait, I got to get my notebook so I can take notes...what did you say again?" Multiple times throughout the lesson he says, "So I guess my next question is....so my next question is...what about this...?" I am sure this doesn't even seem real, but I promise you it is. This is the future. This is what it means when our Heavenly Father tells us he is hastening His work. We MUST be ready. People will ask us questions and we must know what to do. Can you imagine if every person in every sacrament meeting, every Relief Society meeting was this inquisitive? Heavenly Father would not be able to keep up with us. 

There were five wonderful families who were able to feel the love of the Savior yesterday at church! 

We finally got in touch with the Davila family! (the ones where we invited the whole family to be baptized and they looked at each other and said "Ya know, this has been in our plans for a while, and we need to follow by example for our kids." "We will be holding a service on May 10th, will you prepare yourself for this day?" "Yes we can do that." We knock on the Davila's door this past week and Patty says, "I still would love to meet, and the 10th is coming up right, pretty soon, isn’t it this Saturday?" First off, they still want to learn! Second off, they remembered the baptismal date, and still want to be baptized! YAY! 

We have our first ever SISTERS CONFERENCE tomorrow! 

STORY! (no not another the story, that is actually her name) Another wonderful mother! She has 6 boys, is a single mother and just began a new job. Can you say new beginnings? We showed her a picture of the Savior and asked what she saw in the photo. She said "Compassion, love, joy, Atonement." You have got to be a member. Are you sure you weren't baptized? She told us all about food storage and temples and wards and all sorts. Where did we meet her? Just by a simple knock on the door. THE LORD IS PREPARING PEOPLE TO RECEIVE THE GOSPEL. They might not know where to find it, so we must help them and show them. They might be blinded, just as we are blinded from truths that we don’t know, but we follow in faith. 

Sister Slaughter (our mission president wife) shared with us an example of this. She is color-blind and all growing up her mother would draw the half circle lines, one under the other. There were some greens and some blues. But she had to trust in her mother that there were seven colors. As she went into the test, she wrote ROYGBIV on her paper and trusted that what her mother had told her was truth. We may be blinded of those who are ready and prepared to hear the gospel BUT we can do what we are asked to do and follow in faith in EVERY exact way. A lesson I am still slowly but surely learning. 

IT MOTHERS DAY AND DAD's BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!!! ~ Great news.....our mission has now been approved to use SKYPE! 

I love every moment of this work. I pray that each of you are getting a taste and a glimpse of this work. It is like nothing else in the world right now. How do I have such a love for this work? I believe it has all begun with a father and mother who showed me love. And in return I can show that same love to my Heavenly Father. Gratitude for all he has given me. I love my Heavenly Father and therefore I love all that will build His kingdom.    Sincerely, Sister Davis

Exchanges with Sister Hill

Upcoming Baptisms!