Hola! | August 25, 2017

August 26, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

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P-day Friday | August 23, 2017

August 26, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

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Teaching REAL People | August 17, 2017

August 17, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

Hola! Yes, you read that subject right...we taught real people this week! They sent us to the university to do some contacting. I was so nervous at the beginning and we weren't really sure how to start talking about the Gospel with someone but we finally worked up enough courage to talk to a guy sitting in a parking lot. After a little bit of just getting to know him, we started talking about who we are and what we do. We told him about the Book of Mormon and after we bore testimony of it, we asked if he wanted one. And then he gave us his answer at about a million miles an hour and we had no idea what he actually said. But we got the vibe that he didn't want one because he was shaking his head and kept mentioning the word Bible, so Hermana Rich just looked at him with a blank face and slowly slid her Book of Mormon back in her bag and said "Oh okay...adios!" It was hilarious and super awkward. So after that we learned how to end a conversation with someone and that a lot of times we need to tell them to speak a little slower...but other than that it was really successful! We brought 4 copies of the Book of Mormon with us and gave them all away! We also gave away about 4 pamphlets and contacted 6 people. We are going again tomorrow for 3 hours so we have a goal to contact at least 20 people and give away at least 5 copies of the Book of Mormon (although we'll probably be able to give away more...people are super interested in and willing to talk about religion and God here, so they often say they'd like to learn more about the Church). It felt awesome to be able to do some real missionary work, I loved it! I can't wait to go back. 
Tuesday was really sad here because all the older missionaries and the native speakers that we arrived with left for the mission field! Hermana Ceballos who lived in the room attached to ours was one of the people who left, and I was so close with her, so that was really hard. I was so sad! But we're going to stay in touch and I told her I would visit her in Panama after our missions! After they left, the CCM felt really empty because there were only 3 districts here until the new missionaries showed up yesterday. There's a lot of them! We only got 5 more hermanas, but the CCM is just about overrun with elders. One of the new sisters is from Trinidad! She is going to serve in Jamaica but she was telling me all about Trinidad and how much I'm going to love it. I'm still the only hermana going to Trinidad...kind of sad! But there's some elders that are going too, so that's good. Getting new missionaries means that my group is now the "old" group of missionaries! It's really scary to think I only have 3 more weeks here. I'm going to be sad to leave, I love the CCM and the Dominican Republic!
The temple opened back up this week! This is great for 2 reasons: (1) We get to go every week on P-day now! We went this morning and it was amazing. And (2) people from all over the Caribbean are coming to visit again so they can go to the temple, which means it's always busy here and there's always new people to meet and talk to (my favorite!). There's also a ton of super cute little kids running around that love to talk to and play games with the missionaries...it's the best! 
We watched a devotional from President Uchtdorf this week and he talked about how we need to have faith as missionaries. One story he told us that I really liked was about a missionary who worked super hard and pushed the missionaries he was training to their limits. He was always going up to random people and sharing the Gospel with them on the streets, even if they didn't seem interested at first. One of his companions was often embarrassed by how forward he would be when they were out contacting, but one morning the companion saw as this missionary was getting ready that he looked at himself in the mirror, pointed to himself and said "I fear no man!" This missionary did this every day before they left the apartment. President Uchtdorf talked about how if we put our full trust in God and fear no man, we will have great success as missionaries. My companions and I have started doing that every morning and it really works! When we go to the university tomorrow, I will talk to anyone and everyone because the Spirit of the Lord is with me, so I have no reason to fear! DyC 68:6!
My favorite part of the week: I was talking with some of the native speaking hermanas and Elder Rodas from El Salvador was sitting close enough to hear and afterwards, he came up to me and asked (in Spanish) "Do you speak Spanish?" I told him that I was learning here at the CCM and he said "Wow, it's really good, I thought you were fluent!" WOOHOO! That's probably the best compliment I've ever received in my entire life. I was so happy! I practice as much as possible with the people who live and work here, so I guess it's paying off!
That's about it for this week, sorry if it's not too exciting. Most of my life is spent sitting in classrooms memorizing scriptures and teaching "investigators" so these are the highlights! But I love class and my district and my teachers! Although we found out yesterday that Hermano Raymond, our night teacher, is moving back to Haiti tomorrow...so sad! It's good though because his family lives there and he has a job through the Church to reforest Haiti (he's an agricultural engineer). So we will be getting a new night teacher either tonight or tomorrow!
I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you so  much! Have faith in the Lord and read the Book of Mormon!

Love,
Hermana Davidson

P.S. I had my first big bug experience this week! We were playing volleyball and the ball went into the grass next to the court and when one of the elders went over to get it, he called us all over and there was a huge centipede there! I almost died. It was about 8 inches long (no joke) and moved like a snake. I took one look at it and ran to the other side of the volleyball court...no me gusta.

Pictures:
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My companions and I with our Latina hermanas❤ (Hermana Ceballos, my favorite Panamanian, is in the pink shirt)

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My companions and I and Sister Xavier from Trinidad on the roof of the CCM



Inline image 3
My district, Distrito Jacob, with Hermano Raymond

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After the temple today :)

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Hola! | August 10, 2017

August 10, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

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Hola mis amores! | August 3, 2017

August 03, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

Hello! I am so excited to finally get to email you all but they don't give us very much time, so I'm going to write my normal email and then I'll read the other emails I got and try to respond to as many as I can. I can print them out if I don't have enough time so I'll definitely read them! The CCM (Centro de Capatacion Misional) is so much fun! I'm in a trio companionship with Hermanas Rich and Davis. They are both from Utah and both going to the San Juan Puerto Rico mission. They're super nice and fun, I'm glad I'm with them. I am the only Hermana in the CCM going to Trinidad right now! And I think there are only about 4 or 5 elders going there also. It's really fun here because there are missionaries from Central/South America who speak Spanish, Americans that speak English, and a few Haitians who speak French and Creole. It's always really interesting trying to communicate with everyone! 
When we first got here and drove to the CCM, it was crazy! They drive all over the place and don't really pay attention to street signs or stop lights very much. I'm surprised we made it without crashing. The CCM president is Presidente Gulbrandsen and he and his wife are so nice! It's awesome being in such a small CCM because we get to know the president and his wife super well. There are about 75 missionaries here right now which is the most they've ever had, so it's pretty busy. 
When I get ready in the morning, my favorite thing to do is put on my tag! Since I am going to Trinidad, I get 3 English ones for the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and 3 Spanish ones for the ABC Islands, so I have 6 tags! I actually have 7 because when they made the Spanish ones, they spelled my name as "Dividson," so they had to make new ones, but I kept one of the misspelled ones. The food here is so good! Lunch is the best meal, it's usually rice and two kinds of meat (chicken and beef usually) and then they have salad and mixed fruit which is usually pineapple, watermelon, and papaya...it's amazing! 
Last Thursday we got to go to the temple. It was so pretty! And compared to the LA temple it was super small! The session was in English so we could all understand everything. Unfortunately, the temple is now closed for 2 weeks for maintenance so we won't be going back for a little bit. But yesterday we did service for part of the maintenance. They had cut all the grass around it and piled it up, so all the missionaries went out and put the grass in bags and helped to clean up the lawn. The new green grass will grow in about 2 weeks they said. 
I am in class everyday except for meals and 1 hour of exercise time. I don't mind it though because my district is awesome and I love all of my teachers! In the morning, we have Hermano Rodriguez who is from the DR but served in Spain. He is a huge linebacker and looks super scary but he is so nice and hilarious. Then in the afternoon we have Hermano Gomez who is also from the DR and served in Mexico. He's really nice and his English is amazing, he's pretty much fluent. At night we have Hermano Raymond who is my absolute favorite! He is about half my size and from Haiti, but he served in the DR so he speaks Spanish, French, Creole, and English (and he's also learning Portuguese!). He is so hilarious and every time we see him, my compañeras and I yell "HOLA HERMANO RAYMOND!" and give him a big wave. Every night during class, he asks us if we are hungry and if we are, he sneaks us down into the kitchen and we eat bananas and rolls with Nutella. In class, we mostly learn how to say Gospel things in Spanish (for example, I can pray and bear my testimony in Spanish now!) and we teach an "investigator" (it's just Hermano Raymond) every night, so I can do some of the lessons in Spanish as well, as long as I have notes with me. Another great thing about Hermano Raymond is that he teaches us little phrases in Creole, so when I see the Haitian missionaries, I can say "Sak pase?" (What's up?) and they say "Nap boule!" (Just chillin!). The first time I said it to them they got so excited that I was speaking Creole, it was awesome!
Yesterday we had the Area President of the Caribbean come and speak to us, Elder Gonzalez (who is also a member of the Seventy)! It was so cool, especially because this CCM is so small and we were sitting in the front row so I was super close to him and he looked at me and talked at me multiple times! He spoke about how we can become better missionaries by teaching repentance and baptizing converts. He also emphasized using the Book of Mormon in every aspect of missionary work, including finding. I was hoping to meet him after but he had a meeting so he had to leave as soon as he finished. On Sunday, we also watched a different devotional that was broadcast to different MTC's throughout the world. It was from Elder Bednar and it blew my mind. It was probably one of the best talks I have ever heard. He spoke about the Word of God and the Power of the Word, and he connected all these scriptures that reference those things, like Lehi's Dream and the scripture (I think it's in John) where is says "The word was with God and the word was God." I wish you guys could see it but I asked Hermana Gulbrandsen and she said MTC devotionals are never published. 
Today we got to leave the temple/CCM grounds! A couple of the teachers here took us to a store that's about a 10 minute walk away. It was super cool to see the city. It is so green here and right across the street from us is an awesome park with tons of trees and plants that we got to walk through. I also practiced a lot of Spanish with one of the workers who took us and he said I speak well! I still need to practice a ton though, there's a lot that I want to say but I can't quite get across yet. I'm feeling pretty confident as far as the language goes, though. The teachers here are super nice and helpful and love to help the missionaries practice. 
During personal study time every day, I have been reading the Book of Mormon. I have made it a goal to read the whole thing while I'm in the CCM (it's only 13 pages a day, so it's not very difficult when they give us an hour to study in the morning). It's awesome to read so much at a time though! I just got to Jacob this morning and I am marking scriptures using a color coded chart that I made. One of my favorite things that I read was a while ago in 1 Nephi 11, when the angel asks Nephi if he knows what the condescension of God means. Nephi replies in verse 17 with, "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." I have been thinking about this scripture a lot because I often feel overwhelmed in the CCM with the language or by thinking that I do not know the Gospel well enough to teach others about it. But this scripture assures me that it's okay that there are things that I don't know. As long as I have faith in the Lord and His love for me (which I do), then everything will work out because He is helping me. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first step in the Gospel of Christ, and if we have it, we can do anything! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Hermana Davidson

P.S. sorry if this email is super scattered, I am very stressed out and just trying to tell you everything that's going on!


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