Thank you for your awesome emails, I love reading them and it's one of my favorite parts of the week, when I get to hear everything you are all doing! Love you all!

This week was great! First off, David and Melissa came to church! WOOHOO! It was their first time, and a member that has been coming to our appts with them consistently, gave them a ride. They loved it! They said they want to keep coming back (always good to hear) and they want to bring their children next week. One of their friends, Gerardo, also came! He happened to be at their house one time when we stopped by to read the Book of Mormon with David and he really liked it. So we got his information and haven't been able to visit him yet, but we invited him to church and he came with David and Melissa! It was so great to see three of our investigators there! It was the first time for me where an investigator that we found and has been consistently progressing has come to church. It was the best feeling! And the talks were about the Plan of Salvation and our individual worth to our Heavenly Father, which is what we've been teaching them and focusing on, so it was perfect.

Also, this week was zone conference! So we flew to Curacao and were there for less than 24 hours. It was all about the Book of Mormon. It was such an uplifting and spiritual zone conference. And it was perfect because Sister Hardy and I have a lot of Book of Mormon lessons coming up, so we were able to learn how we can improve that lesson and really show our investigators the importance of the Book of Mormon. We actually had one of those lessons the other day with an investigator (from my letter to President):

 We have another investigator who is progressing really well, Jesus Antonio. He has read the pamphlet so many times and when we first started talking about the First Vision, he already knew all about it and was able to pretty much recite the whole thing to us. It was amazing! We had a Book of Mormon lesson with him this past week, which was perfect after Zone Conference. When we gave him the Book of Mormon, he was so excited and held it so carefully as he turned through the pages. He is really interested in the Book of Mormon and has a desire to read it.

It was the best thing to see his face when we pulled out the Book of Mormon and handed it him. He gasped and his eyes got really wide and he took it really carefully and was holding it so delicately. He had asked us about it before but we waited until this lesson to give him one and really explain it (we teach the Book of Mormon as a whole separate lesson in our mission), and I think this helped him to understand its importance and cherish it even more.

Some exciting news from ZC: The mission home is moving to Curacao! They are hoping in January or February. President said he's not sure if this means that the name of the mission will change to the Curacao Willemstad mission, but people are speculating that yes. And also, that change has to go through the Quorum of the Twelve, and President Egbert said Elder Renlund approved it! So that was cool!

One thing we did in Zone Conference was read 3 Nephi 11:5-15. It was one of the most spiritual experiences in all of zone conference. You could feel the Spirit so strong testifying of Christ and how He truly suffered for each one of us individually, and how He lives today. So I want to invite all of you to do that for FHE tonight! You can read just those verses, or all of 3 Nephi 11, but I know that whatever you read, the Spirit will be there and will testify to you of the truth of the Savior's life and ministry and love for each of us. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon. We can learn so much from it! I am finishing up the war chapters right now, which can sometimes be hard to find teachings in, but everything that's included in the Book of Mormon is in there for a reason. I have learned so much from the war chapters when I look at it this way! No matter what we read in the Book of Mormon, there is always something to learn and apply in our lives because the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and can change our lives if we let it. I'm glad to hear you are all reading the Book of Mormon and encourage you to keep doing so! President Egbert promised us that if we study the Book of Mormon every day, we will never go inactive or lose our testimony. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and I am so thankful that we have it!

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

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. This morning, Sister Hardy and I went to David and Melissa's house because David's mom has a nail salon in their house and Melissa occasionally works there and does nails...so we got our nails done! It was so fun! And our nails were so ugly, so it was great to see them all cleaned up and nice again. I got a nude color and Sister Hardy got light pink.

Pictures:

​Thanks for the package Mom! I loved them!

​Sister Mireya, one of the members, took us out to a Colombian restaurant this week! So good! I had bandeja paisa, which is a mix of a bunch of different foods. My favorite was the chicharron, fried pork!

​The plane we fly on to Curacao, photobombed by Elder Tanner🙄

​All the ABC Island Sisters!

This week was amazing! We had some really amazing spiritual experiences and lessons. One thing in particular is that Sister Hardy and I had been praying to be able to get some investigators on baptismal date. We had 3 before but sadly had to drop them all or at least take them off date because they weren't progressing. So we were back to 0 dates and decided to pray every day that we could find the elect, those who are ready to accept the gospel and be baptized. I shared this experience with President Egbert too:

We had some really amazing lessons this past week with our investigators. The most exciting thing to report is that we now have 4 investigators on baptismal date! It's 2 families too! The first couple is David and Melissa. We were able to meet with both of them a lot this week (usually we can only see David because Melissa is really busy with work), so Melissa is now at the same point as David in the lessons. When we taught her about the Book of Mormon, she was really interested in it and I think David's excitement about it has really impacted her to feel the same way. Before, Sister Hardy and I weren't sure if Melissa had the same amount of interest as David, but after that lesson, we both agreed that she did. Yesterday, we had the Atonement of Jesus Christ lesson with here and it was amazing. She told us that she has never really been interested in praying or going to church. She would go to a Catholic church just for her kids, but she said she didn't really like it because she didn't understand it. But she said for the past couple weeks (since we have been coming), she has felt a greater desire to come closer to Heavenly Father. She said that when she's alone, she finds herself talking to Him and telling Him all that is happening in her life! She and David also said that it was hard for them to understand the Book of Mormon at first, but they kept reading because they had faith, and now they are understanding it more and really remembering the things they read! We extended the baptismal invitation to Melissa and she readily accepted. We are planning for both David and Melissa to be baptized on December 2! The other couple we have on date is Roshen and Nelson, an Aruban couple. Sister Hardy and I weren't sure if they were truly interested and progressing, so in our lesson with them last Monday, we decided it was going to be a finding lesson, and if they hadn't kept their commitments we had given them, we would drop them. We found out in the lesson that they had read from the Book of Mormon and prayed as we had asked them. We asked if they received an answer and they said no, but they felt in their hearts that it was true. This was great to hear, we just had to help them understand that this feeling was their answer. After reading scriptures and discussing how the Spirit works, they understood that they had received their answer that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lord's church on the earth. Roshen said that she wants to be a part of Christ's true church so she can be prepared for His Second Coming. They accepted baptismal dates for December 16! 

This truly was an answer to our prayers. I know that the Lord blessed us and guided us by the Spirit to be able to know what to say to these investigators so that they could feel the Spirit and the truth of this message and accept the invitation to be baptized! We are so excited for these families and the progress they are making. 

This week went by so fast! Last night, Sister Hardy and I were talking about we couldn't believe that it was already Sunday! The week goes really fast when really great things happen like that :) 

We always email in the morning, so we haven't done our P-day things yet, but today we are thinking about going down to the cruise ship port and getting pastechis (the food that's similar to empanadas)! I'll take lots of pictures for next week!

Yes, training is a 12 week program. Nothing much really changes after that period except that we don't have to spend 30 minutes each day doing training. During this time, we do different activities (it's all in a little booklet, what we need to do for training) such as watching the District, reading Preach My Gospel, doing role-plays, and discussing different things that missionaries have to adjust to (teaching lessons, extending commitments, etc).

Thank you all for your amazing emails, I love hearing from you! I think about you every day and pray for you each!

Love you TONS!

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. I gave Lauren our address for letters. I hope she can give it all to you and anyone else who wants to send letters. I'd love to get some!