Thermometers, Birthday Party, & Packages - August 15, 2020

Hey Everyone!

It has been a long week. We can't call our families on Thursdays anymore, so that made it seem longer. We managed to keep busy even though we were inside most of the time. There is a family here, the Balboa's. They remind me of my family. They always have the missionaries over and are very good to all of us. It was their mom's birthday, so the elders made a cake and we found some decorations. We showed up at their door and threw her a surprise birthday party. Our elders love to bake. lol  We had party hats and everything. It was a lot of fun. Brother Balboa even bought us tacos. It was so nice of him. I love that family. They are so humble and kind. I can learn a lot from them. 

We wore our party hats to our district morning exercise. All of the Spanish missionaries did. We are seriously the most fun. 

It is hard being quarantined inside all day. So, we made the elders all cookies and dropped them off at their apartments. I still don't have my MSF card. So, no money for me. Thanks mom and dad for keeping me going. lol  I got a lot of mail this week. Three packages from my parents. yay for mail

We met a girl about my age named Joesphine. She is super nice. We are going to start studying the scriptures with her once a week. So, that will be nice. 

Sister Haslam and I went on two exchanges this week so that was fun. We also walked to Blenders. I always get the banana smoothie with 5 pumps of chocolate. You know I love chocolate.  We also walked to the beach. The beach is beautiful here. Surfing is totally a way of life here. It is not a casual thing..lol Everyone surfs.

My companions and I haven't been feeling great this week. It may be just because we are inside all day, but the mission nurse gave us a thermometer to keep checking for covid symptoms. That has been a little nerve wracking. I still have a cough. She also made us muffins. The senior couple who runs the medical/ nurse office are so nice. Sister Haslam hurt her ankle really bad so we have seen them and talked to them a lot. 

We have been teaching English classes over Zoom online. That has been fun. I get to use my stellar English.  My Spanish is coming a long. Still hard to have had that two month Spanish break.  Our transfers are next Tuesday. There are 40 new missionaries coming in but only 2 Hermanas. There aren't very many of us. :) I am also getting a new mission president next week. So, that will be interesting. 

Ventura is a beautiful place. We have been driving to Santa Barbara a lot. The beach on that drive is amazing. It is different than the other parts of California that i have been to. 

I have been learning a lot in my daily studies. The scriptures can bring such peace in our lives. In this crazy time remember who is always there for us. We know how this all ends. We just have to trust in our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. The world needs the peace, joy, and hope that we have.

Hermana Davis

Package #1 Thanks for the quarters dad!

cheese and crackers, goldfish, and choc chips

my desk

Ventura California is Beautiful

Nimrod

San Buena Ventura Spanish Ward Missionaries

Tacos from Brother Balboa

Package #3 from mom and dad

Covid, Guatemala, & Stupid Face - June 8, 2020

It has been a great week. Lots of craziness though. One of the families in our ward has Covid 19. The whole family does. We took them cookies last week before we knew. Please keep them in your prayers.  We do a lot of teaching on facebook messages. I had some very weird experiences with that this week. One of them messaged me that he won't talk to us anymore because I have a boyfriend with a stupid face. lol. The other one asked me if I would move with him to Guatemala. Yikes! Needless to say we blocked them both. So crazy. We are still teaching Carlos. He is awesome. We are glad to have someone nice to teach. 

Another crazy story  is there was a no contact member in our area, but we did not know that. So, he made us dinner.  It wasn't very good and he gave us garlic tortillas after. After some crazy experiences, we learned later that he is a do not contact. Being a sister missionary is very different than an elder. We have to be really careful who we talk to. 

We also did service this week. We scraped the paint off the porch for an older Mexican lady in our ward. She had ice cream for us. She was so nice. We are going to back later and paint it. 

I went on exchanges this week to Santa Barbara. It is beautiful. We drove by Oprah's house and got ice cream. The sister that we were with looks exactly like Gwyneth Palthrow. They are teaching a lo of people there. We had a campout in the living room. It was a good night. 

We had a call the other night from a woman in our ward. She needed us to come over and help her. So, we headed over there. When we got there we found out that her son has a brain tumor. She wanted us to pray with her. People have tough trials that they go through. All of the unrest in the world is hard on people with other things going on.  Please keep her in your prayers. 

I got mail this week. I got the embroidery string from Stephanie and Grandpa Ted, lots of letters from Grandma, and the stamps and boxes from mom and dad so that was good. I love mail. 

The other night the elders always ask us if we need anything. So, we decided to say cheesecake. lol The next morning they brought us a homemade cheesecake. That was so nice of them. I love my district. They are all super nice missionaries. We have all been through the craziness of serving a mission during covid. So that is nice. 

We also saw this great house near our apartments. There was a homeless lady there. She was so sunburnt and sad. We talked to her for a while. Such a sweet lady. We need to remember that everyone is a child of God and needs our love. 

Ive been making bracelets during the day when I have time. If you want one, email me two colors and what word you want in it. I would love to make you one. 

We also saw protests this week. It was scary because they were blocking the free way entrances. wow!

Miss you all,

Hermana Davis

Lemon Grove

Protests blocking the freeway

My district

The beach is beautiful here

garlic tortillas

wow!!!

A member gave us pizza!! Three of them :)

I lost a bet and had to buy this shirt. I think I look my mom in high school. :)

Santa Barbara with Gwyneth and Ice Cream

Bracelets

Lemon Grove

Weird facetime call

Elder's Cheesecake

Cool house by our apartments

E

facemasks

:)

Yay for Thread!!

Busy Week in Ventura & Tony's Pizzzaria - June 1, 2020

This week has been great. I am learning a lot and meeting a lot of interesting people. We decided to make cookies for some of our members the other night. So, we made them and set out to deliver them. We were walking around one of the apartment complexes in our mission when an Uber driver drove by. We didn't think much about it, but he came back around and started talking to us. We found out that his son had married someone from our church and lived in Salt Lake. We talked for a little while about his family and then he said ok give me your spill. What are you going to tell me? My companion just said "If there is anything we can do to help you, please call us" and we gave him cookies. He teared up and was so grateful that we offered to help him and not try to change him. Missionaries main purpose is to help people and help them find joy in this world. People sometimes forget that. 

We had also been teaching Juan for the past few weeks, but we could never get a hold of him. We also saw him walking around the apartment complex and we were able to talk to him and set up a meeting. That was a blessing.  

I had my first member dinner at a member's house. It was fun. We had hot dogs. They were amazing. They had tomatoes and stuff on it. They didn't believe me that I can't handle hot sauce, so they put their mildest hot sauce on my hot dog. I almost died. It was so hot. They love that I am still learning the language. They always ask me to say the prayers. One of the members asked me if we weren't working hard and needed help. I said "si" and answered wrong in Spanish. They thought it was hilarious. 

We go on walks everyday near the beach. It is beautiful here. The beaches are amazing. We do district workouts each morning too. It is nice to be around other missionaries and people. We do a lot of Facebook teaching. 

On Sundays we can go get the sacrament at the church. The zone leaders bless and administer the sacrament for each missionary companionship. It is nice to have the sacrament every week. We can meet in small groups. 

It seems like we are going backwards with the Covid restrictions now. We all have to wear masks now. We can only go outside for sanity walks. There is a law or ordinance against door to door or street contacting. So, we can't talk to anyone outside. 

Today is another transfer. We are getting tons of missionaries. We now have a rental car and some missionaries will be put in hotels. We were expecting like 40 missionaries and we are getting like 100. There will probably be four missionaries in every apartment. Such a strange time.  We can't carry Book of Mormons or pamplets around with us. We were kicked out of a park for too many missionaries playing soccer together. It is super weird. 

Our Spanish ward is the best. They put the missionary calendar online and it was filled for the month of June in 15 minutes. They feed us almost every night. They are so nice. 

My Spanish is coming along, but it is tough. 

Thanks for all of the support. 

Love you all

Hermana Davis

Hermana Haslam and Hermana Stoker

For My Dad

A great member dinner!

Ice Cream Place in Ventura

Tony's Pizzaria - Dad Recommended it

The pizza was amazing!

Love the Beach! 

On Our Morning Walk

Making Bread!

Killing It!

Hey! I found the Psych pineapple

Our New Car - 2020 Elantra

Calling Home on Thursday Night