I hope your New Year's Eve was fun and you have been able to start off 2018 well!

Aruba started off the New Year on about December 28, with tons of fireworks! They have been going off night and day since that day. The most was on the 31st, of course. Sister Woodbury and I woke up the next day and the streets were COVERED in red firecracker paper! I'll attach a picture, but it doesn't do it justice. I couldn't believe how much there was! Aruba was really excited to welcome in 2018, I guess. We heard from lots of people that it's always this crazy, though. They love the new year!

In addition to fireworks every day, we have also been receiving rain every day! There are about 5-10 minute intervals where it absolutely pours and then it either stops completely and gets sunny, or lightens up to little mist for the rest of the day. It's been nice because the rain really cools down the temperature. I've even wished I had a sweater with me when we've been caught in the rain! That's a nice feeling, I haven't experienced that since being home.

An update on our investigators: Juandavid has a baptismal date for January 20th! He is so excited and loves reading the Book of Mormon every day! We also have another investigator, Leasbeth, on baptismal date for Feb. 17. I'm not sure if I've talked about her before but she loves this Gospel and is already sharing it with her friends! We checked up on her Book of Mormon reading after not having seen her for about 2 weeks and she's in Mosiah 20! She reads so much of it every day when she has free time. Even at work, where she works at a front desk, she said she reads it when there's no clients. We are so excited for her! We also have some fairly new investigators named Daniel and Nerwins. They are Venezuelan and are here working (their families still live in Venezuela). We taught them the Book of Mormon last night, and they are so excited to read it! When we talked about how we can receive an answer to our prayers through the Holy Ghost, Nerwins said, "But how do I know if it's the Holy Ghost? What will it feel like?" They want to know the truth so badly. We are really excited to keep teaching them and to see their progress!

We had transfer calls today, by the way! Nothing too exciting, Sister Woodbury and I are both staying in Aruba. I was so happy when I heard that, I love Aruba!

I hope you all made/are making goals for this new year! I have a couple and am still working on one more. President Egbert is encouraging us to make them individually, as a companionship, and as a district. Goals are so important, so don't forget to make them! Especially spiritual goals. They can really help us to increase our faith, testimonies, and Christlike attributes. If you're having difficulty reading the Book of Mormon, maybe you can make a goal to read however many pages every day so you can finish it by the end of the year! That's a goal that the Oranjestad branch is doing together this year.

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

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. I just found out that President Monson passed away last night. So sad. But the amazing thing about the Gospel is that we know he is with his family and with God, and the Gospel here on earth will not stop, because Heavenly Father loves us and will call a new prophet to lead us!

Pictures (sorry I don't have too many this week!):

​A giant cactus we saw in the yard of a house in our contact area! These are pretty common here but not usually in people's yards.

​After being caught in a rain storm...it probably lasted about 7 minutes. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm SOAKED! The light parts of my skirt are dry because I was bent over riding my bike.

​The red firecracker paper. This is just the side of the street, but some of them are covered in it!

​A cool, modern-looking house in our contact area