Happy Birthday Sister Davis

Turkey Bowl

Friends and Family,

This transfer has been a little surprising so far. Very much the same and different all at the same time. Sister Jones and I are staying together in Marina Del Rey. I wish you could have seen Richard's reaction when we told him. We actually moved from Temple Hill to an apartment in our area that was previously occupied by elders. Needless to say transfer day was a long one. The other change was that President Baker asked me to be an area trainer! Basically what this means is that I'll be conducting exchanges with the Visitors' Center sisters serving in English areas. I'm excited to see how everyone teaches and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from these amazing sisters. I'm anticipating that it will be very difficult to find things they need to improve on. Still, it will be fun to pick everyone's brains and share ideas about how we can better find and teach.

Richard is doing awesome. He invited his wife to church this week and she politely declined, but thanked him for the invitation. A step in the right direction. He attended a champagne tasting on Friday because he had previously committed to take a few of his clients. He texted us and said "The tasting is half over and I'm drunk as a skunk!" He was only joking of course and told us later that he deflected any questioning of his sparkling water with his conversion story. Classic! He is still inviting everyone to his baptism and wants to do everything he can to be ready. He met with the Bishop this week for over two hours and insisted on paying his tithing and fast offerings. We haven't taught him how to do that yet so I guess he just handed an envelope to the bishop that said "For the poor in the ward." He's simply delightful. He attended a ward activity this weekend that we weren't able to make because of the VC, but when we followed up with our fellow-shippers they said that he was calling everyone at his table to repentance. "Do you read your Book of Mormon every morning?" Ha ha it's amazing to see how much enthusiasm he has about everything he's learning. I'm learning so much from him and his example of diligence, desire, and sacrifice. 

Susan has a baptismal date again and we're scrambling to find a way to help her get to church and quit smoking so she can make this one. John has had a lot going on with his band and we only saw him once this week. He doesn't believe that Joseph Smith could really have seen what he saw so we are encouraging him to ask himself because in the end he either did or he did not, and we know that he did... I feel like it's pretty smooth sailing if people will sincerely keep the commitments we leave, but fortunately everyone has agency. Ah the gift of agency. It's completely necessary and yet can be so frustrating. What can we do to convince them to act? I see it in my own life as well though. Sometimes I would just really appreciate a printed list of commands specific to Sister Jenna Davis, but alas that isn't the Lord's way! I'm learning more all the time to trust in the fact that He is in fact smarter than me :)

I had my one and only mission birthday this week and thanks to all of you I received quite a few letters(I don't think most realized it was my birthday but hey, inspired timing)! My companion was kind enough to make me breakfast and a pan of brownies. I guess when you spend every waking moment with a person they learn that you don't like cake. It was right after transfers so I was a little bummed that several of my dear friends had just been sent full-field, but it was a good day. 22 is old though, don't you think? 20 is like, "Yes I'm not a teenager anymore!" 21 was, "Nice... I'm an adult, I can serve a mission, the future is bright," yada yada yada. 22 is like... old. Anyway, it doesn't really matter since I still feel 17. Getting 19-yr-olds out here will be great for me :)

Well I love you all as always. I'll miss you this Thanksgiving! Our zone had a turkey bowl today so at least I won't miss out on that tradition. 

Speaking of which, Hey Isaac! go tackle Topher for me ;)

Love you everybody! 

Write me!

Sister Davis