Hermana Davidson || Trinidad Port of Spain Mission

Hello family! How are you all doing?

This week was really great! Unfortunately, it got interrupted in the middle when I got sick :( I'm not sure what I had because my temperature was normal, but I threw up like crazy (sorry, TMI). We heard of a couple other people who had the same thing, so it must've been something going around. But after lots of rest and liquids, I'm feeling much better now! By the way, thank you for my Christmas and Easter gifts of the Breakfast at Tiffany's nails kit and the candle! I used them when I was sick and they helped me to feel better :)

Our investigators are doing great! One of them, Brandon, has been progressing slowly but we are starting to see some real change in him. We taught him about the Book of Mormon last time, and when we went back for our next lesson on Saturday, he had read 3 Nephi 11 and said that it was amazing and refreshing to read a different account of Jesus Christ. Then when we assigned another chapter to read, he asked if we could give him two, in case he finished the one before our next visit! He's really cool.

We also had such a fun and spiritual experience this week!:

This week, as we were riding our bikes towards a potential contact area, a car drove up next to us and started going really slowly as the passengers inside stared at us with the windows down. Sister Cole and I thought it was a little strange, but then the woman in the car said, "Do you remember Cindy?" Cindy is a less active that the other sisters were teaching, but they handed her over to us because she lives in our area. We had been trying to get in contact with her but had been unsuccessful. We said yes, and she pointed to herself and said, "That's me!" Then they pulled the car over, got out, and she gave us big hugs as if she had known us forever. She has the cutest little family and they invited us over. Since we didn't have any appointments, we followed them to their house and were able to have our first meeting with them. They love having the missionaries over and as we were leaving that day, she said, "You should come by on a Monday night and we'll do a family home evening!" This was such an amazing experience that was 100% directed by the Lord. It was such a blessing to be in the right place at the right time to be able to see and meet Cindy and her family.

This was so cool! The Veles family (Cindy and her family) are so nice and welcoming and always tell us, "The door is always open, whenever you need anything, just come to us!" Cindy grew up in the Church and has memories of the missionaries coming over a lot, so she likes having us over to teach her family. :)

Also, the other week we had a Family Home Evening with another less-active woman, Patricia, and her 2 kids, Dallin and Joshua. We were in charge of the game, so we played Gospel Pictionary. Dallin, who's 13, was in a bad mood and didn't want to participate, but he came out for the game. At a different appointment that we had with Patricia, she said that Dallin told her that he actually really liked the FHE and the game, but told her not to tell us! He also asked her when we could do another one...so we have one planned for this Tuesday! Sister Cole and I thought that was so cute and were glad he really enjoyed it.

I love you all so much! I pray for you every single day! Thank you for the amazing examples that you all are for me! I hope you have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. For the longest time, we only had a hand/emergency pump for our tires, so they were never fully pump up because it took forever! But we finally got a real pump this week...the difference in our tires is AMAZING! Who knew?!

2. Selfie in our new contact area...it's so cute! All the houses are new and modern

3. Sunset (Action shot, taken while riding my bike, sorry it's blurry)

4 and 5. Cindy made us Colombian arepas! They were delicious! The second picture is me and Sister Cole, Cindy, and her son Simon in the back.

Hi family! I was so happy to hear that you were able to watch or listen to or go to General Conference this past weekend! It was really amazing and the messages were all inspired and wonderful. I also hope you all had a great Easter celebrating Christ's Resurrection!

This week was really interesting. Sister Cole was sick with a really bad ear infection for most of the week, so she spent a lot of time resting. Which meant that I had a lot of time to read the scriptures! I started the Old Testament and it is so good! I am learning a lot and loving it so far! That is most of what went on this week.

We received transfer calls and both Sister Cole and I will be staying in Aruba! This will be my fifth transfer in the same area in a row! I love it!

I had a lot of favorite talks from General Conference, but to name a few: Elder Uchtdorf's, Elder Wilson's, and Elder Bednar's talks were all so good and stood out to me a lot! Also, the announcements were crazy! First of all, participating in the solemn assembly was amazing and I felt the Spirit so strong. I like the new idea of ministering instead of home and visiting teaching. And I am so excited for the new temples that they announced, especially Russia! That is such a miracle! I am praying that it will be built in a city close to Armenia for Dallin's sake :)

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! I hope we can all always remember Christ's atoning sacrifice for us and especially that He lives today!

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

1. On Easter with our Easter candy :)

2. Our investigator just came home from vacation in Colombia, where she's from. She brought back a ton of these fruits called shontaduro...they taste like a mix of carrots, corn, and potatoes. So I'm not sure how it's a fruit, but it was good!

3. A member brought us lunch for the first session of General Conference, so we had a pretty sweet set up!

4. The Sickie, Sister Cole

5. My desk set up for the week

6. A selfie of me at my desk because I was bored

Sorry for sending so many emails today...

I totally forgot to mention...don't forget to watch conference! Or go to it, if you're Mom and Lauren (and Dad?)! I'm so excited to hear from our prophet and apostles, be able to sustain them, and hear from other inspired leaders of the Lord. How cool is it that conference falls on Easter Sunday? I love it when that happens! Happy Easter! I am so thankful for the resurrection of Christ and the hope and happiness it brings to all of us. Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Davidson

P.S. Happy early birthday to Cami, too!😉❤

Hello family!

This week was good! Again, nothing too exciting happened as far as our teaching and finding goes. Some of our investigators have been difficult to see, which means that the time we spend teaching has gone down a little. Which also means that our contacting time goes up. We are almost done with the contact area where we are working now, which has been one of the more difficult areas I've worked in, so we are looking for a new area! I'm excited to start somewhere new and find the people the Lord has been preparing.

We've had some crazy things happen in Aruba this weekend as far as health goes. First, we got a call from Sister Lindley on Sunday afternoon that Sister Melendez was in the ER because she was having pains around her heart. They were worried because she's had a heart murmur since birth. After being in the ER for hours, she got some pain medication and they told her that the muscles around her heart were inflamed and that's why it was hurting. She is doing much better now. Second, Sister Cole started complaining about ear pain on Saturday and finally couldn't stand it Sunday night because she couldn't sleep. So this morning we went to urgent care and she has an ear infection! So she has been catching up on sleep and taking the prescribed drops. We are also praying for her! Third, we found out today that a member in the branch had a heart attack yesterday and is in the hospital. He is doing okay, but he is in our prayers as well! We're not sure what's going on, but people here are falling apart! We have definitely been blessed through it all though, because everyone has been recovering well.

I think I forgot to share a really cool experience from last week:

This week, we decided to go to Chaloburger for dinner, a food truck in our area. We were there and waiting for our food when a worker from the back came and stood next to us and started asking us if we live close. We told her we live in Seroe Blanco and she said, "Oh, do you live in the church?" She had never spoken to missionaries before but had seen our church a few times. Then out of nowhere she said, "You are both really happy." At first I thought she was asking us if we were happy, but then she repeated it and I realized she was saying it as a statement. We told her we are happy because we have a knowledge of God and His love for us, and began introducing our message. She seemed so interested and we were able to contact her and we are planning on visiting her this week! This was such a miracle from God because we have had a really hard time meeting new people, but God placed her directly in our path when we weren't expecting it. I know God has His perfect plan and if we are doing what we are supposed to, we will be in the right place at the right time to receive His blessings and bless the lives of others.

We are going to visit this woman this week, and I can't wait! God's timing and plan is perfect and I am so thankful for it!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! Don't forget to pray and read the scriptures!

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

There was a really cool rainbow all around the sun! It was like that all day

Caribbean Coke :)

Dario, a recent convert, made us rice and bean soup for dinner on Thursday!

We went to visit a member family and the daughter, Monchi (in the picture), told us the neighbors had puppies and ran and got them so we could hold them! They were tiny and so cute!

Hello family! I hope you are all doing well!

Don't freak out too much from the subject, this week was really good and full of surprises! Because I'm lazy and don't have too much time, I'm just going to bullet point everything:

We had exchanges on Tuesday, so I went to the other sister's area to work with Sister Melendez. It was awesome and their contact area was really far out in the boonies, so we rode our bikes forever on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere with a house every now and then. It was so fun! There were lots of hills and rocks, so I felt like I was mountain biking! (Dallin and Dad, get ready to mountain bike with me when I get back, because I think I found a new hobby). I'll attach pictures. There was tons of cacti, it was really pretty!
In the middle of the night on a day this week, our carbon monoxide detector started going off. I checked the clock and it was 2 am and Sister Cole were so confused at what was happening, but it was so loud! We went to check it and couldn't get it to turn off. We could only think that it would go off because the battery was low, since we don't have anything in our apartment that gives off CO. We finally got it to turn off, opened the windows of the apartment, said a prayer for safety, and went back to sleep. The next day the senior couple came to check it out and couldn't figure out why it went off...weird!
Our apartment doesn't usually have bugs, but this week, there were 2 instances of cockroaches! Giant ones, and one of them flew! It was so gross. Luckily, Sister Cole has spent some time living in the South (her dad is in the Air Force), so she is not as scared as I am of those things, and she killed them both. It was disgusting though!
Sunday, March 18, was Aruba's flag day, and it is a really big holiday for them, kind of like our Independence Day. So there were Aruban flags everywhere. Church even met early to raise the flag and sing the national anthem. It was super fun! Everything was closed yesterday because of that, so that's why we had to email today.
I also spoke in church that day, this was the second time! I spoke about repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The microphone wasn't working though, so I basically had to yell my whole talk at the congregation...it went well, I think!
On Sunday night, our 8pm appointment fell through, and while we were talking to the person that we were supposed to teach (they were telling us they couldn't) there was a dog behind a gate across the street that kept barking and kids that were yelling at laughing. After we finished talking, we walked over to see why the dog was barking (the kids had left by then) and saw a tiny kitten hiding under the car, terrified. The dog wanted to get it so bad, and the kids had been throwing rocks and water at it :( The poor thing was tiny and shaking and so scared. So Sister Cole got it from under the car and we started walking around the neighborhood talking to people we knew and asking if they wanted a cat. After about 3 rejections, we stopped at a member family's house whose 12 year old daughter has a big soft spot for animals. Unfortunately, she is allergic to cats, but they took it and said they knew of friends that have been wanting a cat and would give it to them. It was a crazy but a cool experience!
We had our district activity yesterday at Casibari. It's a bunch of huge rock formations that got there when Aruba was created from an underground volcano. There are tons of boulders and you can climb to the top and see a lot of Aruba and the ocean. It was super fun and really pretty! I'll attach pictures of that too.
This week I was reading in Ether and came across Ether 2:24: "For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth." I loved this scripture so much! No matter what life throws at us (the mountain waves), the Lord will always be there to help us come out of "the depths of the sea" as an even stronger person. There is nothing that He can't do, so we have no need to fear the trials and hard things we go through in life! If we are doing all that we can to build our testimony in Him, we will be able to stay firm when those difficult times come. He is there to help us because He loves us!

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

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures:

Middle of nowhere

Sister Melendez and I :)

Surinamese food from a member in the branch...it was so good!

View from the top of the rocks

The Aruba district

Companions! :)

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week. Sorry to hear that so many people are sick, I hope you are feeling better!

This week was really good! Nothing too exciting happened, but sometimes that can be a good thing!

We had a lesson with Ephraim, a referral from Salt Lake. He is very interested in our religion because of the lifestyle we lead (not drinking, smoking, honest people, etc) and got online and started talking with someone about that. He is from India, grew up in Dubai, and is now living here while he goes to med school for 2 years. We taught him the Restoration this week and it was a great lesson! As we talked about prophets, the Priesthood, and dispensations, he just kept nodding and saying "That makes sense." When we talked about the First Vision and Joseph Smith, he asked, "But how do I know that that actually happened? How can a regular person like me know if he was a prophet?" It was so cool! We committed him to pray about Joseph Smith.

Other than that, there's not too much to report on. We have been doing a lot of contacting, which can be hard, but it's fun when you get to meet new and nice people.

The wind here has been crazy recently! We've talked to quite a few people and they say that this isn't normal and they're not sure why it's happening. But it's made riding bikes either really easy or really difficult, depending on which direction you ride...going against the wind is crazy! If we stop pedaling, we pretty much immediately come to a stop because the wind is so strong. It's crazy, but it's been a great workout!

I hope you all have a great week! Remember that the Lord is perfectly mindful of you and your situation and He is only a prayer away! He is our Father in Heaven and wants to hear from us, help us, and bless us! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sara

Pictures:

Thanks for the cute new clothes (and shoes!) in the package! This is from yesterday, after church

I love the package!

There was actually an overcast day (or at least morning) in Aruba! We were loving it! The sky was covered in clouds :)

I seriously loved it so much! I have a ton of pictures, but here's a few:

Such cute clothes! I love my new closet :)

Love the London goodies! This pen is adorable, thanks Mom!

Scripture chasing the Easter egg papers!

This sea lion is ADORABLE, I died! Love it, Katherine!

Thanks again! I won't feel so far from home for Easter :) You are all the best! I love you more than you can imagine!

Hello family!

First of all, big congratulations to Dallin and Cami! They look so happy and cute together :) I can't believe the one thing I didn't want to happen while I was gone, happened, but that's okay, I am super happy for them!

This week was really great! We were in a trio for 3 days with Sister Melendez because Sister Hardy had to fly for Trinidad for MLC. It was so fun to be with Sister Melendez, we all had a great time! For the most part, we just worked in our area, but there was one day when we rode our bikes all the way to Noord which is way north and in the other Sisters' area. It was about a 45-minute ride each way, so that was super tiring but fun! It also happened to be the hottest day this week (or at least it felt like it), so I got more tan!

One morning, I was heating water on the stove to make rice and the stove was on high, and then I reached over to plug in the blender, and then I started smelling something like roasted marshmallows. For a second I thought, "Wow, that smells really, where's it coming from?" And then I realized, "Oh my gosh, I'm leaning over the stove..." Sure enough, I looked down and the sweatshirt I was wearing was on fire! I freaked out a little and patted it until it went out... Thankfully I was fine, just my sweatshirt got the damage (picture attached)!

On Saturday night, the branch had an activity for the Book of Mormon (they have a goal to read it in the year of 2018). We are all supposed to be in Mosiah, so the activity was a kind of quiz game with questions from the Book of Mormon up until Mosiah. We were in teams and there were different points depending on how hard the questions were. My team ended up in third place (out of four...), but it was super fun and everyone had a great time!

The best part of our week happened while contacting:

We were walking to the next house on the street we were contacting and saw a young girl out front cutting up some aloe. We started talking to her and pretty soon her grandmother came out of the house to talk to us as well. We asked the grandmother, Glenda, if there was anything we could do to help her, and she said, "You can pray for my son." She went on to tell us how her son is in a very complicated legal situation and needs help from God, so that he can have money to support his wife and three daughters. She then started asking us about our church what we believe. At the beginning of the contact, she had told us that she believes in God and Jesus Christ, but not in religion. But as we talked to her and testified of the blessings that come from our message, she said, "My husband and I have actually been looking for a church to join. I was praying the other day for peace and guidance from God. I think you are sent from God." It was amazing to hear her say that! She has so much faith in Heavenly Father and His ability to answer her prayers.

Glenda is so cool! This just happened on Saturday, so we will be seeing her later this week. Our contact area has been a little difficult in the past, so it has been amazing to see the people, like Glenda, that the Lord has waiting and ready for us at just the right time!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! Thank you for all of your wonderful examples to me!

Love,

Sister Davidson

Pictures: