Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission: December 2019

Tubes of Canadian Bacon and Melchizedek

December 9, 2019

Hello good people! Wow I have missed you all. How are you? Please let me know.

This week we started with watching 'The Cokeville Miracle' as a district last pday. If you haven't seen it, watch it! It's an amazing true story, with miracles - I love angels

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One of the other volunteers at the food pantry made us little goody bags with hot cocoa, marshmallows, and a small chocolate for St Nick's day which was on Friday! So I made iced hot chocolate via one of the options on the bag of the hot cocoa packet haha. The food pantry has been getting giant crates FULL of 3+ foot long Canadian bacon tubes. So naturally Sister Nelson and I went into the giant fridge to scope it out. It was a lot of bacon haha! We went Christmas caroling with the youth to different homes around the church building, and we gave the families little gift bigs too. All the families would gather their children at the door to watch us sing, it was so cute! One large family was so happy, the grandfather recorded us singing to them. We had a lesson fall through and the member that came with us immediately decided to buy us dinner because he'd "been on a mission before" haha, tender mercy. We explored at the towns Christmas lights event where all the shop windows have people posing in different scenes; there was a star wars Nativity, Elf, the Grinch, and a man in a robe with beer of course, to name a few. It was so cute and fun to see the community and traditions here! Our ward had a wonderful Christmas party with a cute Grinch themed presentation about the real meaning of Christmas with different musical numbers periodically

I also learned lots about area 51 this week for some reason hahaha.

At our district council the Spanish elders did a musical number with dollar store flutes, and it was quite enjoyable. I had a great interview with President Murphy as well!! The Lord is proud of our efforts and knows where we are needed! During district council one of our trainings had a few missionaries throwing/kicking different objects into the basketball hoop. One had a volleyball, one a basketball, one a soccer ball, and one a marker. They each had different positions and instructions on how they had to throw or kick it in. It represented how we all have the same goal and can get discouraged when others find success quicker, but we have to use the tools we have and keep trying! We had dinner with more cute families per usual, one little girl -Jaina- looks just like one of my nieces and she's so cute. We had lunch with a member from up in Oneida, we went to a yummy Chicago style place where I got a Philly steak and cheese sub

One of the elders friends got baptized and her spirit is so so sweet! Her baptism was so special! We taught one of our dear friends while using her massage chair, and she kept spoiling us with treats haha! She came to church yesterday and loved it! We taught another dear friend the stop smoking program and it went so well! She immediately crushed all of her cigarettes and it was a miracle!! The Lord and angels are all around us to strengthen us and support us

️ We watched the Christmas devotional last night with our Bishops cute family!! It was so spiritually uplifting

I hope you all see the Lord's hand continuously this week, it is forever outstretched. No matter the tools you are given, your path is unique and completely possible! This week I looked into Alma 13:14, where we are told to be as humble as the people in Melchizedeks day (in Genesis 14). His people 'wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven'. Wrought means to be formed or molded. Melchizedeks people made righteousness with what they already had. They used their tools, sought the same goal, and obtained. We create our happiness, and where our path will lead us

Tis The Season

Sister Davis

Canadian Bacon tubes per usual

This was a disaster

Look at that nifty mid-air flip

These are hard to get out of

Baptism Day

Kwik Trip pic

Kathi from New York who loves Dunkin Donuts

Feliz Navidad

One of the shop windows was children painted like statues!

Thankful Giving

December 2, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had an amazing day and were able to be surrounded by family and friends you love

We started off Thanksgiving with our wards Turkey Bowl in very bitter cold weather. We had a couple dinners on Thanksgiving after and they were amazing! We played Christmas songs with bells with our bishop's family and it was so fun

At the other dinner we got to know an amazing members story and it was so touching!

I was able to make a couple of my grandma's raspberry cream cheese pies to bring and they are goooood!

Before our combined district Council this week we were challenged to invite someone to be baptized, and now two of the kids we are teaching are now on date to be baptized in January!! Many miracles and tender mercies are happening here

The leaders in our zone drank a very gross random smoothie if we invited people to be baptized. Needless to say, sardines, leftovers, pickle juice, sausage, spices, vinegar, pesto, fruit loops, an egg, and a cough drop didn't smell good. Or taste good apparently. But we have some amazing and tough leaders.

We had exchanges and I was with Sister Karns for a day! We saw amazing miracles when teaching a lesson! We visited a recent member in an assisted living home - and she has a new kitten which was fun - and we got to know her story! Saturday night was a huge snowstorm so church was cancelled sadly, but our Branch President's newborn baby was supposed to be blessed that morning, so they invited us to their home later for the blessing instead! It was so cute!! I love families

Appleton apparently has the biggest night time parade in the Midwest, so we attended in the freezing cold rain and it was a lot of school bands, lit up floats, and my favorite was a float with hot air balloon baskets shooting up flames to keep the crowds warm. It was super cool! I ate a frozen Thai pepper, I really should stop eating those haha - they are much spicier frozen by the way.

This week in my studies I looked at what it means, if God is 'no respecter of persons'. That sounds harsh huh? BUT respecter also means to not be influenced by someone's status or wealth. Everyone is given the same blessings, consequences, love, and opportunities. We are all equal and amazing in God's eyes

I LOVE that idea, that he is not only perfectly loving, but he doesn't love anyone more than another. Sometimes in life we are jealous of others blessings or circumstances, we wish we could be there experiencing their life. But God knows when those blessings will come for us, and He knows that what is happening right now is preparing us for our BEST happily ever after!! How amazing that God won't let us settle if we will trust in Him. So don't settle, for God has better things in store than you have room to receive

Sister Davis

Exchanges🔄

Hello Sister Griffitts

Parades are cold

Parade lights

Hot air balloon float

Pieeee🥧

Hello these are not mine

Happy Turkey Day!!

My favorite ward in the whole world pray that I stay

Hello didn't see you there

Our Christmas Card

Preach My Gospel dominators who get to eat the dino fruit snacks🦖🦕

I love her

Wow what a bathroom selfie

Thanksgiving feasting

Happy Times

November 25, 2019

Hello!

This week we started with District Council, hence the jumping-off-the-stage gif (of which I obtain no talent for). Our district is all doing really well! Seeking advice and ideas is honestly so helpful with the work. We went and got ice cream at Lamer's dairy after. We had dinner with hilarious members this week whom I love. A couple more Spanish dinners as well! The first one was homemade KFC chicken with some sauce from a pancake batter dispenser - it was like milking a cow. At the other Spanish dinner we had tamales and I accidentally quoted Macklemore, of whom I know nothing about. We were fed lots of enchiladas this week, not at the Spanish dinners, and I love enchiladas. I have also used a certain object lesson at our dinners a lot this week about focusing on Christ, shown with orbeez, and families love it!

At the food pantry this week I handed out frozen turkeys and hams to the families. They lit up! One lady squealed with excitement jumping up and down when she got to me. Make sure you show gratitude for all the simple and big things in your life. It was so exciting handing our frozen birds. We delivered food drive bags for a young man in the ward who's doing a food drive for his eagle scout project. We walked around lots of neighborhoods for hours just putting these bags on their doors. But it was an awesome experience to help him and talk to some people about the food drive! The youth helped at a community Christmas activity where we made Christmas cards and blankets for refugees. It was super fun to be around so many youth of several religions and serve together! I'm still getting coached at volleyball, and progressing. The YSA had a friendsgiving activity and it was awesome to see so many people come and laugh together. I was shown how to open sparkling cider with a door, I taught the piano, and we went to several back to back meals right after.

We had amazing lessons this week! One of our friends prayed during our lesson and it was awesome! The idea of a clean slate really resonates with people! The kiddos we are teaching are excited about baptism and coming to church! Our dear Hmong friend notes God's hand in his life all the time. Things are starting to make sense about what we teach which is great! We taught the commandments to another couple kids we are sharing messages with, and each of them picked a commandment to work on this week. We showed the new Christ Child video to a lot of families as well and it is so powerful how it displays so much emotion with hardly any words. We got a call from a young guy who watched General Conference with a friend and wants to come to church and learn more! Then the next day a newly moved in member came up to us and has an older lady he wants us to teach! Tender mercies are everywhere!

My favorite thing this week: We were at a local burger place meeting with a recent convert, and we went back out to our car to get our wallets and we held the door open for an older couple behind us on our way back in. They joked about giving us quarters for holding the doors. Then in line they told the cashier to put our food on their tabs and insisted they pay. The older lady told us she had a coworker who quit to go on a mission and she was amazed at what we do. It was so sweet! Then as we are getting ready to leave, the older couple comes up to our table and hands me and Sister Nelson each $20 and wishes us luck on our missions on their way out. I am astounded by service. The money doesn't matter, or the offer to pay for our food. But the genuine love and interest shown by absolute strangers is heartwarming. It all made me love my Savior so much. The love and gratitude I felt is what others feel when we serve them in simple ways! I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in my life, for His tender mercies, for His answers to my prayers, and to His knowledge of what I need. I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving this week! Know that I love you, but if anything, know that Heavenly Father loves you. And if you don't know this, I invite you to think about what it would mean to you and to pray about it. I know God is great. I know this work is so important and that miracles are happening all around us.

Alma 9:30 "And now, my beloved brethren, for ye are my brethren, and ye ought to be beloved".

Beloved: 'dearly loved'. You deserve to be dearly loved. And the Savior of the world loves you dearly. You are His beloved.

Love Sister Davis