This week was really great! We had some amazing lessons and found some great people while contacting too. As always, a lot of our appointments fell through, so we were able to do a lot of contacting, but our contact area right now is really great and full of people who are interested in our message, so I love it! Contacting is one of my favorite things to do, even when it's super hot and we're drenched in sweat the whole time :)

David, our investigator, is doing so great! We met with him 3 times, and we were able to meet his wife as well. When we met her, she said she was so excited to finally meet us because David had told her all about us and had shown her the pamphlet we gave him! This was so great to hear! In our lesson with him last night (his wife wasn't there), we taught about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration/First Vision. This lesson is always so powerful and spiritual, and I love teaching it. It was especially amazing with David because he really understood how important it is to have a prophet so when we taught about the Apostasy, he said "That's the worst! That sounds like a terrible time." Then when we introduced Joseph Smith and recited the First Vision, the Spirit was so strong. And he was so happy to learn that we have a prophet today and that Christ's church is on the earth! At the end of the lesson, he just said, "I believe all of this." It was so amazing! We committed him to praying about it and to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet that night and we are meeting with him again tonight. We are planning on extending the baptismal invitation to him, woo hoo! He is so prepared and the Spirit is always so strong in our lessons.

We had some delicious food appointments this week, and one was with Sister Aalsey, the RS President in the branch. She made chili con carne with rice and plantains. It was so good but she filled our plates full with food, and I was really full after that. But then she brought out giant pieces of cake for us for dessert (she's a baker), so we ate those too. They were super delicious but really sweet, and by the end of the that, I had no room left in my stomach. BUT THEN, her nephew came over to help her with something and saw us eating the cake and said, "She's a really good baker...You should try her cookies!" And Sister Aalsey ran inside to get her cookies for us to try...Oh my gosh, Sister Hardy and I didn't know what to do. The cookies were probably about the size of my face, and I could barely finish mine. Riding our bikes to our next appointment after that was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I felt sick for the rest of the day! Don't get me wrong, I'm super thankful that the members love feeding us, it's just hard to fit all that food in my stomach! They love to feed you a ton and it's rude to not eat what they give you, so you have to finish it...It's a good thing that Sister Hardy work out every morning! We found a Julian Michaels workout video in our apartment so we have started doing that each morning. It's such a good workout and we definitely need it after those food appointments!

A quick spiritual thought I want to share: We were meeting with a contact we made for the first time this week. His name is Nicolas and he is 15 years old. In our first appointments, we just like to get to know them and their religious background and understand who God is to them. So we were asking Nicolas about his relationship with God and he said, "Sometimes I feel like He's far from me," and then he paused, then said, "Well actually, I'm far from Him, I should say." I really loved that he said that, because it's so true! Heavenly Father is never far from us, but it's us who stray from Him. He is always waiting with outstretched arms for us to come back to Him. We just have to humble ourselves and realize that we are going to be happiest when we follow His path and keep His commandments. He is truly a loving Father in Heaven who only wants the best for us and hopes for us to make it back to Him one day.

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Davidson

It depends on the time of day. If it is morning, "Bon dia!" Afternoon, "Bon tardi!" Evening/Night "Bon Nochi!"

Fun things about this week

• Sister Hardy and I were having a difficult day this last week so we went to the store and bought ice cream and went home and ate it with mangoes...so good!
• We had a crazy thunder storm yesterday! There was tons of lightning and thunder and the rain was coming down so hard. Sister Hardy stood in it for 5 seconds and when she came back inside, it looked like she had taken a shower.
• We found a cockroach in our apartment! (This isn't so fun I guess) We tried to kill it but it crawled behind our cupboards in a tiny space between the wall and cupboard. We sprayed a ton of bug spray in there so we're hoping its dead, but who knows. So now we are going to sleep with our door closed and we put a towel in the space between the door and the floor so it can't get in. Yay!

​Sister Hardy and I 

To answer Mom's questions:

There are 135 missionaries in our mission, but I'm not sure how they're split up. I know there are 21 on the ABC Islands though! There's a lot more elders than sisters because Guyana has a lot of missionaries and they are all elders. I think there are 9 sisters on the ABC Islands, so we are a smaller group, but it's fun!

We had a cool experience while contacting this week, and I told President Egbert about it in my email to him:

One spiritual experience I had this week happened when we were contacting at night. Our appointment had fallen through so we decided to contact the last few houses in our designated contact area. We called into one house and saw a man sitting inside who looked at us kind of skeptically, but finally came out to talk to us. We introduced ourselves and that we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and right when we said that he started waving his hands and shaking his head as if he wasn't interested. He said he doesn't like religion because no one can know that God exists and if God did exist, He would have come down to Earth already to fix everything that is wrong with humanity. We tried testifying of God's love but any time we would start, he would interrupt and tell us there's no way we could know that. I felt some contention beginning to rise and I didn't want to fight with this man, so I decided to change the subject and asked him where he was from. This led to us talking about his family, his work, and then the places he has traveled in the world. By the end of our conversation, he had totally opened up to us and were talking to us as if we were his close friends. We gave him our number and told him that if he ever needed help he could call us. He said he was retired so he never needs help because he has all the time in the world, but then he added, "But I really enjoy talking to you all, so if I ever need someone to talk to, I'll give you a call." This was such an amazing experience. He was so stubborn and unwilling to hear anything we said at the beginning, but I know the Lord softened his heart so that we could get to know him more. He also told us that when he sees people like missionaries, he usually just tells them to leave before they can speak, but he felt like he should come and give us a chance. I know the Spirit prompted this man to come out and talk to us. I also know that if we strive to have Christlike love for everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, they will feel that love and respond to it. Even though we weren't able to testify of God or His love with our words, we were able to show that love for this man by continuing to be kind to him and getting to know him. I know that being a disciple of Christ does not just mean sharing the Gospel with words, but also loving and serving others through our actions. And I know the Spirit works through these actions to testify of truth to others.

I love being a missionary and having these awesome spiritual experiences! The Lord blesses each one of us every day, we just have to recognize His hand in our lives. It is so important to realize how much He does for us and show our gratitude to Him. Don't forget to pray and read the Book of Mormon! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. My thing that I use to attach pictures isn't working. I'm trying to figure it out but I might run out of time, so sorry if I can't send any pictures! I'll send extra next week hopefully.

Hi family! How are you all? I'm jealous you're all going to be seeing each other this week, that's amazing! Happy birthday Lauren!

This week was so great! We had a ton of spiritual experiences, and I wrote President Egbert about them so I will just put that in here:

I am loving Bonaire as much as ever. We were able to contact a lot and meet some really awesome people this week! I have come to love contacting, even though it can be really difficult sometimes, because we are able to find new people and meet the elect. Even if they are not interested in hearing our message, I know that we are planting seeds and helping them come closer to the truth by bearing testimony. Sister Nuris was not able to be baptized this past Saturday, which was sad, but we are still meeting with her and preparing her for a baptismal date in the future. She came to church on Sunday and bore her testimony on the power of change and how she knows she can change because of Jesus Christ. It was so powerful! We have had some great lessons with new investigators. One is Brother Steven, who we just met with yesterday. His faith in God is so strong and he really has a desire to come closer to Him and learn more about Him. We are excited to keep teaching him!

There were so many great spiritual experiences this week, it is so hard to pick just one! But one that really stands out to me is an opportunity that we had to serve. We were contacting in the morning and met a Venezuelan man named Elias, who was sitting in his front yard when we came by. We spoke to him and learned that he believes in God, so we gave him a pamphlet and testified of our message. Then later that afternoon, we happened to be in the same area because we had an appointment with one of our investigators. Well, our investigator wasn't home for our appointment, so we were turning around to head out of the neighborhood, when I saw Elias with a couple of other people digging around a house. I waved and felt like I should ask if they needed help (people don't usually let us help when we offer). So I walked my bike over and before I could even ask if he needed help with the digging, he said "Can you help me?" We went over and were able to help them finish the work they were doing. It was so fun to be able to help them and get to know Elias and his friends better. Even though we didn't have a lesson, I know the Spirit was there because I could feel God's love for his children there and a desire to help them in any way I could. It was also great because sometimes we meet someone contacting, but then don't see them again for whatever reason. But this was wonderful because we were able to get to know Brother Elias better and establish stronger trust with him. I know the Lord puts people in our path who are ready to hear the Gospel and who need our help!

Papiamento is coming along pretty well. I can say a lot as far as bearing my testimony. I can't teach too much in the lessons, so I usually testify of whatever topic we are talking about instead of introducing a new idea or topic. But I can say enough to get by!

Dallin sent me some questions too:

I haven't smelled it too much or come across very many high people. I think that's more in Trinidad. There's tons of bars here though, so people are usually drunk, not high.

It was really sad and a shock to hear about Elder Hales, but I was really glad to hear that his wife and President Nelson were there when he passed away. I thought it was great that Elder Anderson was able to include a little of what Elder Hales had written for his conference talk (When we choose to have faith, we are prepared to stand in the presence of God), that was neat to hear what he wanted to say to us.

I'm going to copy/paste a little bit from my letter to President Egbert again. This is just how our teaching is going and how our area is doing in general, and then a spiritual experience we had this week:

Our area here is doing well! We had a quite a few appointments fall through this week, which is always difficult, but it gave us time to do some contacting, and we were able to meet and talk to a lot of great people! We were even able to exceed our weekly goal for contacts. We have been meeting consistently with Sister Nuris and are still hoping for her baptism on the 7th. She was able to get a Priesthood blessing, which was great, and after much prayer and fasting, she told us on Friday that the man who is living at her house said he is going to leave! That was so exciting to hear. I know the Lord has blessed her because of her faithfulness. Now we just have to keep our faith firm and keep praying that the man will move in the next couple of days. Other than Sister Nuris, we have been having difficulty meeting with our other investigators on a regular basis. But we are going to try to keep meeting with them and bringing members with us to the lessons so they can meet people from the branch and start fellowshipping.

A wonderful spiritual experience that we all shared this week happened during one of the breaks in between sessions of General Conference. We were contacting in our contact area, but weren't having much success. We really wanted to find someone to teach, so we prayed to Heavenly Father that we would be able to find someone that we could contact and then turn that contact into a lesson. After the prayer, we continued with our contacting and were met with rejection at two houses before contacting the third house and meeting a man that was really open and friendly to us. After we introduced ourselves, he invited us onto his porch and we were able to have the first key lesson with him! It was amazing. This was a true testament to me that God hears our prayers and answers them. It's not always immediately (we had to experience some rejection before we found someone who was willing to listen and invite us in), but He will always answer our prayers. I can feel that God is with us when we are contacting or teaching, because we have met so many wonderful people who are interested in the message that we come to share. I know they have been prepared by the Lord to receive us and hear the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. I saw a TV screen in the grocery store today that said there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas, the largest in US history. That was super sad to see, I hope everything is okay! Those people will be in my prayers.

P.P.S. I don't have time to send pictures today, I'm so sorry! I'll send more next week