Hello hello everyone!
Sooooo good to be on email and have a pday since I spent my last week's one flying on an airplane... haha But guess what?! I'm here in Georgia! :D before I get too ahead of myself though, I'll go back a little and tell about my last week in the MTC cuz it was a good one and some great and spiritual things happened. :) Basically after emailing for my first time on Tuesday, we did laundry and then every Tuesday night at the MTC is devotional night. So Elder Godoy from the 70 came and spoke and he was the one who spoke Portuguese during general conference but he spoke English to us obviously haha but he was so funny and inspiring! Our last lessons with our P.I. meaning "teacher who pretends to be an investigator" went well and it definitely prepared me for actually having lessons with real people. Being a Sister Training Leader me and sis Johns were in charge of getting the other sisters from the district coming in that week and giving them a tour and helping them kinda on Wednesday when they arrived so we did that... umm..... lets see... So also that week I was really having a hard time sleeping :/ I was starting to get those mini anxiety attacks at night again haha I'm such a wimp but it really prevented me from getting my sleep so I was exhausted. On Wednesday night I think I was trying to get to sleep but I kept having the impression to ask someone for a priesthood blessing. Well I ignored that impression cuz it was 12:00 in the morning haha so the next morning when I woke up I couldn't keep my eyes open. I was so tired from the past week not getting sleep but that morning I had another impression.
Basically I felt very strongly for one of the Elders in my district, Elder Hamrick, to give me a priesthood blessing. Now I had no idea why, nor do I think I'll ever know why, but I think for some reason it probably really helped him as much as it helped me in some way. I really believed that. So finally I confessed to the sisters in my district about what was going on, cuz I had kept it in for so long trying to suck it up haha but when I told them they all kind of had the same thoughts. We wanted each of the elders to give us each a priesthood blessing for specific reasons and things we were each going through and we thought it would really benefit the elders as well. So in our classroom it's just our district and we talked and seriously bonded so much and then they each gave us a blessing. Elder Hamrick's blessing for me was so wonderful and powerful. My testimony of priesthood blessings is still growing even though it's already been so strong for me, because he blessed me to get sleep and that it wouldn't get in the way of my mission and other wonderful things were brought up that I hadn't even mentioned that HE DID in the blessing. It was awesome. And seriously, ever since getting that blessing I have been sleeping with no problems. :) I've been getting right to sleep, I'm still tired all the time but that's normal ;) but I mean I truly believe that priesthood power is real. It has blessed me in so many ways and I was so grateful for Elder Hamrick to do that for me. And I think it blessed him as well :) we were all crying at the end of the night! It was a great night!
But anyway our last sunday was great with our branch and me and sister Johns got to sing a duet to "Be Still my Soul" for the sacrament musical number which was good! :) Then sunday nights are movie nights at the MTC so we ended up watching The Restoration. Monday was our last day and I think I made the best out of it. I miss the MTC but at the same time I felt ready to get out here. Packing and then having to wake up at 2:00 am was stressful though haha but everything at the airport went well and like I said before our whole district came to Georgia Atlanta North so that was cool having all my friends with me! Freakin..... right off the airplane though, we go and meet our Mission President, his wife, and his assistants, get our luggage, and then they explain to us that they were going to take us on this train thing and go in two groups and go talk to people on the train. Yeah. They handed us a Book of Mormon gave us some instructions/examples on what to say and off we went. In mission terms we call this "contacting" haha it was the scariest thing of my life. Everyone around me... was black. No racism intended but seriously, being the minority is weird. "Toto... I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Yep. I've been having those moments about every ten minutes here in Georgia. Hahaha I talked to about two people on the train, and one I could barely understand what she was saying. It happens, even in the US!!!!!! AND IM ENGLISH SPEAKING!!
Anyway..... We rode the train to Lilburn to our mission home and spent the first night there. Sis. Bennion made a wonderful dinner and breakfast and we got to know where our first area and our companion would be! Which brings me to here :) Alright, so I am serving in the Suwanee area, and in the Suwanne Ward. It's pronounced Swanee... but people don't know how to spell I guess so they put the U in there. ;) My companion is Sister Perrins and she is from Vancouver Washington :) She's been out a year already and this is her first time training but she is wonderful! She's so nice and bubbly, like me :D and has been so patient and great with me and training me. We are a tracting mission so the first thing we did was tract haha literally for about a couple hours. It's weird knocking on doors, I never thought I would be at a position where I would be doing that everyday full time... it's weird haha so I have tracted about two hours every day since getting here. Crazy right?! We also get fed dinner every night by members here, which is why I think I've already gained weight haha I'm not sure and I'm still being careful and feel like I'm eating normally but... we'll see how it goes I guess ;) But the families here are sooooo nice and wonderful and welcoming and I love this area already!!
Seriously, it is beautiful here. Sooo green but the leaves are changing colors and I literally feel like I'm in a forest in a storybook. We are also car-sharing with some elders so I've already used my bike and it's great. I never thought I would picture myself biking down a road in Georgia with trees on both sides and leaves everywhere.... and the houses. HOLY MOLEY they are huge!!! And sis. Perrins said I haven't even seen the biggest ones yet!! :O But it is very hilly... like very hilly... and my body hurts from biking just for a day!!! :( Anyhoot, there is an older lady named Phyllis who is a recent convert that we have visited and she's hilarious she just doesn't know it. She says everything with a serious look on her face but she's funny so when you want to laugh it's hard cuz you feel like it might hurt her feelings cuz she doesn't laugh along.... hahaha Also every week we need to get in 2 hours of service so we have volunteered at a local food bank and will do that every week. Also there is a couple we are teaching named Maddie and Joel who are Christian/Baptists and ask a LOT of questions that are hard :/ we are working with them and want to invite them to be baptized, which I will be the one to do that btw, but they are definitely progressing! Um... our Halloween was good, we had to be in by 6 but we decorated cookies and spent the majority of our night doing weekly planning which takes about 3 hours... literally. it's a long process haha but it's okay.
This week has been so crazy, busy, fun, and unreal but it's been a blast all together. I love the people and the area, I know I will feel right at home here and that me and my companion will get along well :) Oh I have also been sick this whole first week in the field :P but im finally feeling better!! there's a lot of other little details and this email might not make a lot of sense, so I apologize, but it's almost time to go. :( And this is my second time emailing so I will get better I promise! haha I'm so glad I'm here, I couldn't picture myself anywhere else but serving the Lord at this time and being in Suwanee Georgia :)
Looking forward to hearing from you all again! I love you all and keep you in my prayers :) Keep looking for missionary opportunities everywhere, we are trying to work with the members a lot here!! the Lord is hastening his work!! Love you all! Until next week!
Love, Sister Davenport
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