Hi family!

I'm so sorry, I don't have much time today, so it will just mostly be pictures. 

But thank you for all the birthday wishes! It has been a great day and was made even better from all your emails. I love you all lots!

Pictures from this week:

1. Birthday set up at the table!

2. First selfie of 20 years old! I took it as soon as I woke up, haha (please don't include that one in the email that goes to the world)

3. An investigator, Ibi, and his pitbull puppy

4. Our contact area

5. Celebrating early​​ with ice cream!

6, 7, 8, 9. Sorry there are so many of these, he's just too cute! This is Moronai, Kim's new baby. He's 2 months old. Kim is a recent convert here.

10. The Venezuelan fruit stands!

Also, a great scripture I came across this week in personal study- 2 Nephi 10: 23-24:

Thank you all so so so much for the birthday package! I absolutely loved it! Cami, the bridesmaid dress is so pretty and I started bawling when I read your note, haha! I love it and am saving it for July 5 :) Thanks for all the thought you all put into it, it's one of the best birthdays ever! I love all the family pictures, they make me so happy! Love you all tons!

Love,

Sara

P.S. Sister Melendez LOVED her gifts! She was so thankful! When she saw the clothes, she said, "Yay! Now I'll have something new to wear for zone conference!" She kept telling me how nice you all are to send her those things and the smile on her face was so big, I know she loved it!​

Hi everyone!

This week was crazy...we had some emergency transfers take place! Sister Cole (in Aruba) has been having some problems with her hip and is no longer able to ride a bike. So Sister Melendez and I got a call from President Egbert on Thursday night that he would be moving Sister Cole to Curacao where there is a car and Sister Melendez would be going back to Aruba to finish up the last two weeks of the transfer...and all this was happening on Saturday! So Sister Melendez flew out Saturday morning and Sister Cole got here in the afternoon, and she is now my new companion! I was super sad to see Sister Melendez go, but it's fun to be back with Sister Cole! Plus, she spent 6 months in Curacao so she knows the place like the back of her hand and also knows all the members...that has been a huge help!

Other than that craziness, this week was great! We saw lots of miracles from the Lord:

• On Tuesday, Sister Melendez and I were looking for our new contact area and trying to take a shortcut that our map said should be there. Well, it wasn't there, so we ended up a little lost. It was really hot and we had to climb up some hills, and Sister Melendez didn't drink any water that day...so when we got to the top of one of the hills, she said, "Sister Davidson, I don't feel very good..." and got super pale and then kind of fainted! (She was still conscious, but very weak) We were both straddling our bikes, so I couldn't hold her very easily but I was trying my best. She eventually gained enough strength back to get off the bike and sit down and drink gatorade while I checked the map. Pretty soon, a man came walking down the street and asked if we needed help with directions. As he was giving me directions, I was watching Sister Melendez out of the corner of my eye and noticed that she was really pale again (by this time she was standing) and looked a little wobbly. So I basically threw my bike into the stranger's hands to catch Sister Melendez and explained what had happened to this poor, confused man who was trying to help us with directions. He said he lived right there and we could come on his back porch and he would ask his wife for help. We went, and his wife was the nicest person ever and gave Sister Melendez a sleeping bag to lay down on, ice water, and an ice pack and cooling liquid for her head. They were so kind and helped us with everything until the Parr's were able to come and pick us up. If that man hadn't come walking down the street, I don't know what we would've done! It was such a miracle!
• We had a lesson with a new-ish investigator named Nani about the restoration. It was a pretty normal lesson, but then at the end, after we closed, her eyes just filled up with tears. We asked her what was on her mind and she said she hadn't been to church in a long time and she really wants to return because she knows it's what God wants her to do. We invited her to come to church (she couldn't this week) and she said she really wanted to. She also said she loves having us over because we bring God into her life.
• We were in a lesson with Selo this week, and were talking about the Priesthood, and he was telling us that it scares him that so many people have died in the wrong faith without the Priesthood, and he was wondering if God was mad at him for being "led astray" his whole life by faiths that don't have the Priesthood. He said this was just something he couldn't get over, he's spent so much time thinking about it, and wants to know what happens to those who lived in apostasy and didn't receive the Gospel with the Priesthood. We explained to him that everyone has the opportunity to listen to the message of the gospel and accept it, and that God is not mad if we are not raised in the gospel, but he recognizes our acts of faith, whoever we are, and blesses us for them. After we said this, he looked at us and said, "You've done a great thing today. You've broken the ice. I feel so much relief." He was so happy to have his questions and concerns answered after all the time he's spent pondering about it. I know that the Spirit guided that conversation and allowed us to say what we needed to to help him understand and feel at peace. 
• This one's kind of a funny tender mercy: Sister Melendez and I had heard that Curacao had Dr. Pepper, so last P-day, we checked everywhere for it and couldn't find it. We were so sad! Then on Friday night, we were in a lesson with the Perez family, some members here, and at the end of the lesson, they brought in a grocery bag...filled with cans of Dr. Pepper! They said they remembered us mentioning that we liked it once and they saw it at the store and thought they would buy it for us! It was super nice...I know the Lord is mindful of EVERYTHING in our lives, even the small things that don't seem to matter! So then I had Dr. Pepper after 10 months of not having it and it was even better than I remembered :)

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. Thanks for the birthday package! I LOVED it! Can't wait to celebrate with cupcakes next week :)

2. Had dinner at a member's house, Javier. He used to be a chef, his food is amazing!

3. Sister Cole, being a champ and cleaning some fresh bird poop that landed on our windshield

4. Dr. Pepper!

Hello family!

I hope you are doing great today! There are a lot of great things that I want to share with you today, so I'll just bullet them:

• Peter, a less-active member, came to church yesterday! We met with him on Saturday and talked about the importance of the Sacrament. He told us that his only day to work is Sunday, so it's hard for him to come to church, but we made him some really amazing promises, and on Sunday, he was there! We were so happy to see that he made that sacrifice for the Lord!
• A man in church bore his testimony yesterday and told a really amazing story. He needed some groceries for a dinner party he was having, so he went to the store and bought some basic things like bread, cheese, vegetables, etc. Then, when he got off the bus at his stop, he left the groceries. He was super sad, but ended up making it work. Then, the next day, he saw that he had a missed call and a voicemail from a number he didn't recognize. He listened to the voicemail and all it said was, "Thank you for the food." I know that the Lord has His perfect plan and that everything happens for a reason!
• Kim, a recent convert, has a giant mango tree in front of her house and filled up a bag with mangoes and gave it to us, so now we have a never-ending supply of mangoes (except it's going to run out soon because we eat about 3 per day). They are the sweetest, most delicious things ever! Nothing compares to Caribbean mangoes!
• We buy most of our produce here from some boats that go back and forth between here and Venezuela, and they bring fresh fruits and veggies from there! It was closed because of the problems in Venezuela for a while, but now it's open again. The produce is really cheap and tastes amazing!
• We were talking to Etson, our investigator, about baseball (the biggest sport in Curacao). He LOVES baseball and was telling us about all the YDK players (yiu di Korsou...people from Curacao) in the States, like Kelly Jansen, the pitcher for the Dodgers, and Elton Simmons, shortstop for the Angels! That was cool, I'm now a huge baseball fan!
• This week, I had a really great, spiritual experience. We left our apartment in the morning and were on our way to our first appointment. I was thinking about school and when I would start and said a silent prayer that Heavenly Father would help me know what to do. The first thought that came to my head was, "Talk to the first person you see on this street." I decided I was going to follow the prompting without hesitation, and we soon came upon a man walking on the side of the road. I stopped and we started talking to him. He was a sweet, old man named Sterling who was very receptive to our message! We gave him a pamphlet and set up an appointment with him. He said he loves God and going to church, and I could tell he enjoyed talking to us. At first, I was preoccupied with myself, but the Lord showed me that I need to turn outwards and be aware of those around me and serve them. It was a great experience and I know Heavenly Father placed us in Sterling's path. 

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. Walking in our new contact area

2. Palm tree plantation! (maybe for coconuts?)

3. Selfie :)

4. Kriyoyo food (traditional food from Curacao)

5 and 6. The most famous part of Curacao...the colorful buildings!

Bon tardi mi famia!

I hope all of you are doing well and having spiritual experiences!

This week in Curacao was great! Sister Melendez got here on Wednesday night and Sister Garcia left of Thursday...that was scary because that meant it was just me and Sister Melendez to find our way around! But we've been doing pretty well and have only made a few calls to Sister Garcia in Aruba for her help :)

There are 2 investigators with a  baptismal date here! One is Etson, an older man from Curacao, that the sisters have been teaching for about 2 months. He loves the gospel so much and just wants to follow God. He loves the Book of Mormon, but is almost blind, so once a week, we go to his house and read to him. The other person we are preparing for baptism is Selo, a man from Ghana. He has been taught on and off for about 5 years, and in our first lesson with him, we heard all about his history with the Church and the missionaries. He has always had an interest in the Church. It took him a while to accept the Book of Mormon, but one day he finally prayed about it (he would only accept the Bible for a long time and didn't want to pray about the Book of Mormon), received an answer that it's true, and has been studying it since! We are not quite sure why he's not baptized yet, other than he is very busy with work. But we extended a date to him and accepted!

We did lots of contacting this week and have met some really great people! Some of them are closed off, but there are lots who open up after we explain our message or bear testimony. The Spirit really does all the work, it's amazing to see!

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all and am always praying for you!

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. In front of the church sign

2. A cute little farm we passed by on our bikes

3. We REFUSE to make more than 1 trip to take groceries inside

4. California missionaries❤

Hi family!

I'm now in Curacao! I got here Tuesday afternoon, so it's been almost a week, and I love it so much! Curacao is super green (especially compared to Aruba and Bonaire, desert islands) and much cooler too! We have a car here for nights, Sundays, and P-days, so I've been driving since Wednesday...and it's not as bad as I thought! You were all right, learning to drive in LA was a big help. People here drive similarly to the way they do there. There's no huge freeways, but people go pretty fast on the bigger streets. They're also really bad tailgaters...still not used to that one and I don't think I ever will be. But we've been safe so far and pray for safety every day! I actually like driving, it's fun! Except earlier this week, our car battery died...that was a bummer. We were sitting there waiting for an investigator to show up to the appt, and had the AC going (but it was only for about 10 minutes, so we're confused on why this happened), then turned the car off and when we went to turn it on again, the battery was dead :( So we called a member, Yvonne, and she came with her brother and they gave us a jump. Thank goodness! The Parr's (senior couple) were in Trinidad, so they weren't there to help us. So we've already had a fun adventure with the car, woohoo!

Church yesterday was super fun, I got to meet all the members and bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. Elder Weiss (a new elder in the field) and I are the only ones who are brand new to Curacao, every one else is either staying here or returning for a second time. There are 8 missionaries total, plus a senior couple and there is only one branch, so we all go to the same on! (In Aruba, there are 2.)

There are some really great investigators here that we are teaching, and I have yet to meet more this coming week. I am hoping to get to visit everyone at least once with Sister Garcia before she leaves and Sister Melendez comes in from Aruba (because when that happens, we'll be lost...neither of us have been here before!).

Sister Garcia is awesome! She is so fun to work with and I'm really sad that she's leaving and we only get a week together...I hope we'll be companions in the future! She is from Riverside, CA, so really close by! It's fun because Sister Melendez is from Fresno, so we will have all 3 of the Californian sisters together for 24 hours!

We had a really cool and cute experience while contacting this week:

We were walking down the street when three little children came up to us and started asking us if we had "things from church." We told them we had cards and pamphlets and started giving them some, and they told us to come and meet their mom! So we followed them across the street to their house, where there was about 7 other children (some were siblings, others were cousins) and they all started asking us for pamphlets and cards. They loved the pictures of Jesus! We talked to the mom and she told us that she was actually baptized into the church when she was 10! It didn't seem like she went for a very long time, because she didn't know much about the Church or our message. But all of her kids want to come to church and said they want to learn more about Jesus! It was so cute seeing all of them stare at and love the pictures of Christ, and it reminded me of when Christ blessed the children. They are so innocent and have such a desire to learn about Him, and will be a great example to their mom! We are hoping to go back and visit the house later this week. 

The little kids were ADORABLE and there were so many of them! They all called us Tanchi (Auntie, it's a formal way for them to address us) and kept shouting "Misa!" (church). It was hilarious and they totally cleaned us out of all our pamphlets and pass-along cards that we had with us. And now whenever they see us walking in the contact area, they yell "Tanchi!" and wave....they're the cutest!

I love you all so much and hope you have the best week! Remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you more than you can imagine :)

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. My room set-up...the beds here are huge and so comfy!

2 and 3. There is a small park really close to our house with all kinds of paths and trees and it's so pretty, so we walk there in the morning sometimes.

4. Sister Garcia and a stray puppy❤