How-D

The Bridgeland ward is pretty new, its probably just less than 10 years old. There are a ton of members here, I think Cypress is split up into 3 wards. I'm actually not really sure what is Cypress and what isn't. In Bryan we could pretty much go anywhere and we were in Bryan. Are boundaries are not as free in Cypress. I feel kind of confined. It is a great place though and its pretty. There's a lot of small little lakes with pretty fountains in them. Its nice. It is definitely the suburbs of Houston but we're kind of on the edge so there is some farmland. 

It has been such a crazy week. I'm not a big fan of the phrase "running around like chickens with our heads cut off" but that is  kind of how it feels. When we went to ward council yesterday the ward was shocked at all the stuff we had gotten done. That was kind of nice because sometimes I feel like we're not making a whole lot of progress. We've been trying to visit the part-member families and one of them, the Howes, we have had a little contact with but we're planning to have a real visit with them on wednesday. Anyway, when we told the ward council that we had been in contact with them and that they were willing to have us come back, the ward council was shocked. I guess its been ages since they have been able to have any luck with this family. So we're really praying that things go well. The parents and the oldest daughter are member but they have 14 yr old twins who are not members.

So the latest record we have is a potential investigator sheet from 2012 and then a few more from before that and let me tell you, we have had all sorts of crazy miracles come from going back to visit the people on that sheet. We tried one of the names and the man that opened the door, Walter, was super friendly. Turns out, he is a member but has been less-active for years. He just got into a car accident so he was just staying at the house temporarily. He was really glad that we found him so we could tell where the church is and what not; he really wants to come back to church. Later we brought our ward mission leader to visit him so he could have a friend. 

Also, we got a new investigator! Yay! He was also from the 2 year old potential investigator sheet. We tried by him, his name is Shedrick, briefly and he said he'd be interested but to try back on friday. So we did and we brought the ward missionaries with us, it was such a great lesson. His wife died about four months ago but apparently she had a book of mormon that she would read. Shedrick said that she never said anything about it but he thinks it may have brought her some peace before she pasted away (we looking forward to teaching the plan of salvation). He also accepted the invitation to be baptized and said he would prepare himself for March 27th. He is an awesome guy. 

There have been a few other people from the potential investigator sheet that have said we can come back. So that's exciting. There is definitely a lot of work to be done here! The ward is super great. People argue over our dinner calendar, its a little weird.

You're going to think this is great. Sister Heaps and I have been trying to think of creative ways to find people to teach. Well it just so happens that someone in the ward has a ukulele and they said we could have it! So we're going to be practicing hymns with the uke to share with people. We're pretty excited. I'll let you know how it goes. If you find in hymns online with ukulele tabs you should send them to me :)

I love you and I hope things are going well in Reno.

-Sister Davis 

Feb 17

Howdee,

Happy Presidents Day. I guess school wasn't canceled today because I live next to a school bus parking lot and they all left this morning. Its been a crazy week. I feel like I ran a marathon! So I am now in Cypress, TX serving in the Bridgeland ward. My new companion is Sister Heaps, she's from Maryland and is really nice. She's a way good missionary but she's a waiting for a visa to go to Brazil so I'm not sure how long she'll be here. 

Anyway its been so crazy because Sister Heaps and I are whitewashing (we replaced elders) but it feels more like we opened up the area. The first few days it was really hard not to be frustrated with the elders who served here because there are hardly any records in our area book (and the apartment was a little scary (dirty)). The last time a progress record (a list of less-active and investigators seen in the week) was filled out was in 2011. Basically, we have no idea what the elders have been doing here for the past years. In the white handbook it says to not say anything negative about your area or other missionaries so I'll just say...this is a going to be a great opprotunity to figure out the people in this ward and area with a white slate :) ! 

It really isn't too bad because the Bridgeland ward is every missionary's dream ward. The bishop is a convert to the church and is super missionary-minded, the ward mission leader is great, and the ward missionaries actually help us. Yesterday was ward conference and it was all about missionary work. My favorite topic! The elders only passed on one investigator to us because they baptized all their other investigators. So the ratio of investigators that get baptized is pretty good. The bishop was saying that they try to match up people from the ward with investigators so that they can have lds friends with similar interests. Our one investigator is Jonny and everyone thinks that he'll be baptized. His wife is a member who just recently became re-active. Jonny is pretty quite but he says that so far he has liked everything he has learned about the church.

The ward is really friendly and willing to do anything to help the missionaries. They haven't had sister missionaries for 6+ years so everyone was pretty excited to see us, maybe a little too excited. The area is kind of weird. The ward is kind of split up into two sections, one part is super crazy wealthy and the other part is normal. We actually live out of the ward boundaries on the southern end so it takes about 20 minutes to get to the northern end. The church building is even further, its about a 25 minute drive. Thank goodness we have a car! The elders actually just got the car the transfer before us, I can't believe they used to bike this area.

Sister Heaps and I are mostly trying to build our investigator pool right via part-member families, contacting, referrals. Its been a bit of a struggle, probably just because we don't really know that many people. Give it another week and I think we'll be doing mucho better.

My new address is:

7202 Barker Cypress Rd. #8304

Cypress,TX 77433

I love you

-Sister Davis

Feb 3

Howdee,

I've definitely gained more of a testimony of fasting. It really does work! I'm glad that Reno got some snow. Did you build any snowmen? Here in Texas, building snowmen or making snow angels is basically a foreign concept.

The past two fast Sundays President Pingree has asked us to fast for the Lord to pour out his spirit in our areas. We've definitely seen the blessings! Miracles are just happening all over the place! I've been in Bryan for four months but in this last month alone there has been more progression than I have seen in the first three months combined. Sister Funk and I have been finding 2-3 new investigators each week.

I have to tell this crazy story! So we have this very sweet less active family that we visit, the Suttons, they would come to church but the father is super anti-Mormon. Anyway the mom was talking to us a couple weeks ago and she just kind of mentioned that she was trying to get her mom, who was moving to Bryan, to look into the Mormon church. We didn't think much of it at the time. Well, on Saturday morning Sister Funk and I went tracting. So we were walking down this street and nobody was answering the door and usually at that point I start to think that maybe were suppose to be somewhere else. Nope! We get the end of the street and we knock on this kind of empty looking house, as we're about to turn around an older lady answers the door and says "Oh, Mormons! My daughter has been telling me about your church, come in!" It was Sister Sutton's mom! Isn't that crazy? Of all the streets in Bryan we went to the one that Sister Sutton's mom lived on. It  gets better because she is only at that house on the weekends, since she still in the moving process. Well, we went in and spent a good three hours with her, answering questions and teaching the Restoration. One of the first things she asked us is where the church stands on divorce because the Baptist church that she had been going to told her to leave when she divorced her husband. So she's been trying to find a new church. I can just see her one day becoming a relief society president. She already has a lot a faith and she is open to learning more. Can you think of a more perfect investigator? That was the big thing that happened this last week.

 During ward council yesterday we talked about how to help and get the Bulaks, the part member family, to church. It sounds like the ward is willing to help out which is super nice plus, April (the nonmember), is really friendly and sweet, I just think the ward will really love them. The ward is definitely trying to be more missionary minded and we've definitely seen the blessings. Several people at church told us about their nonmember friends that they have been talking to and want us to hopefully start teaching. I just really think that the more the ward member and missionaries work together the more people we'll see come into the gospel. Its so exciting!

Brenda is still our top investigator, she is really progressing but she is a little timid when it comes to attending church. I think its because by attending church she'll come to know that this is the true gospel and Satan doesn't want her to know that. We're going to watch the Testaments with her tonight. If that doesn't make you feel the spirit, I don't know what will!

How is the new business coming? Have they started to do actual work yet or are they mostly just getting things set up? I hope everything is running smoothly. Maybe with all the snow people's pipes will freeze and they'll have tons a work. Freezing pipes seems like an unfortunate thing to wish for.

I enjoy your primary lessons. I was telling a family we were eating with recently - they're primary teachers - about how you used to be the gospel doctrines teacher and had lots of good gospel knowledge for Harrison but now that your in primary that's the level of enlightenment I get each week. They thought that was hilarious.

Transfers are next week. I'm not sure what will happen but I'll be sad if I have to leave Bryan especially when the work is picking up so much.

I love you, I hope Reno gets more snow.

Sister Davis