Sister Berry and I

So you'll just have to disregard the fact that I have no photo editing programs.. so what you see is what you get.. no touch ups.. I think Sister missionaries need some touch ups.. since we can't get makeovers haha. Anyhow. I just thought I'd upload some pictures of the people I have taught in this area.. just a few of them. I'll miss Kalispell.. but I am excited to move on to Helena! It's crazy that I only have three tranfers left. It's scaring me a little honestly. Well love you all! I don't have my new address yet.. I'll post it later:)

Dalton Family

Ward Family

A cake a young woman made me:)

Jared and Cameo Wright

Miracles in Kalispell Town

Hi people! So the Lord is awesome.. just so ya know. Truly.. some weeks I am just like smiling all day.. literally per-ma-smile because the gospel makes me so happy. This week Sister Berry and I decided we were just going to talk to every single person we see.. who cares if they are trying to walk briskly away from us.. our message is the best thing ever so we're sharing it! Anyhow. I think the Lord was happy with our efforts because we met some really cool people.. a few mean ones but nonetheless it was great! This one old guy was walking down the street.. He's this really tall Jimmy Stuart looking man.. with cane, hat and all. (snazzy) I'm not gonna lie for some reason I was terrified to talk to him.. because he was reading a book and walking right by me.. and I didn't want to interrupt him. Luckily He looks up at me and says.. "Hey"! then he stares at my name tag and then touching it says "Sister huh, are you catholic?.. oh no no your one of those missionaries, I met some of you in Greece once, talented young people.. they even sang beautifully.. so where you from"? Perfect! Anyway we explained to him who we were,... a little about the Book of Mormon.. I reminded him of Jesus sermon on the mount and how He said He had other sheep he must visit.. so He did.. "So would you like to read the Book of Mormon"? we asked him.. "well now I've got a lot of reading to do.. soo yeah I donno maybe I'll grab one someday".. "how about we give you one right now.. for free"? we offered.. "You wouldn't! You'd give me a copy right now that I could have? With no obligation to be a Mormon first"? haha "nope we just want you to read it for yourself because it's the best book ever". I said. "oh it's the best book ever, well I'm sure glad you gave it to me then"!.. haha it was so funny.. because he seemed genuinely excited to read it. The best part is that about 20 minutes later a lady from our ward called us.. She says "Hey did you guys give an old man a book of mormon today"? "Yeah" ..we said (worried that he threw it away or something)  " well I just thought I would tell you I saw him walking down 3rd street reading it". YAY!!!

     Two miracles happened this weekend.
 1. There's this 19 year old Japanese kid that I have seen a few times at the Food Bank.. well we went to this AA meeting (I know what your thinking, but it was actually pretty sweet, and a lot of people there are searching) Anyway.. he came up to us and just started talking to us.. after a few minutes we had already given him a book of mormon and committed him to come the church the next day.. And guess what.. HE DID! HE CAME TO CHURCH WITH US!! It was so cute! He wore these kaki pants and a nice blue sweater with church shoes.. and he held his little blue Book of Mormon the whole time. It was amazing!!! Oh and the best part is that when we dropped him off back home (we had already set an appointment to meet with him this week) He says.. so can I come next Sunday too? Man I love the church.

2.  So I dont know If I have ever told you about the Ward family? Sister Ward and her daughter Kyla are less active.. and have been forever. Kyla got baptized by some Elders when she was 12.. but is now 20.. and turned Less active almost immediately after she got baptized.. and her Mom didn't even go to church when Kyla was getting baptized.. So for Sister Ward it's been like 20 years since she's come.. and Kyla it's like 8. I've been working with them the last six months.. teaching them the LESSONS.. COMMITTING them to read the Book of Mormon. I didn't want to be some passing missionary that comes to share a thought and not make anyone feel uncomfortable.. I feel like my purpose as a missionary is to first love the people.. then tell them the Lord wants them back in church. So essentially that's been my angle with the wards.. and I never sugar coated anything with them.. just told them like it is.  Anyway the lesson we taught was on faith and I ended up telling them a story that my grandaddy had written about a less active family that he had tried to reactivate for a looong time. He had this dream that all these ward members were hiking up this mountain and once they reached the top they had these big animals that they got to eat.. My grandpa looked around and it seemed all these diligent ward members were devouring their meat.. all to the bone.. then he sees this less active family.. and all they eat is the outsides of the animal.. almost as if they don't realize that all the meat is delicious and valuable.. So I told them this (which I was not planning) and then I was just boldly told them "Heavenly Father wants you back at church, I know it's been a long time, but it's time to come back". Anyhow.. it actually went really well.. I was almost brought to tears when Sister Ward said "Sister Davidson, I think Heavenly Father sent you to Kalispell, just for us, because you can understand us". Wow. I felt so complemented.. and guess what..
THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!Miracle.

Well I love the gospel. I love that I can always repent every single week when I take the Sacrament, what a miracle.
Loves
Sister Rachelle

Guess What.....?

 Oh hey you guys. family y friends.. Guess what I just found out slash decided... The date I'm coming home! Yeah it's freaky! So school in Hawaii starts September 10.. and My original date home was Sept 13.. so that would just not cut it. So I talked to my mission President.. fasted and prayed.. and ultimately the decision has been made that I will go home one transfer early.. which means I will be back In La Palma August 2! It's been a really stressful decision to make.. but I really feel good about it now that I prayed.. My program at BYUH is the BFA art program. . and my minor is creative writing.. anyhow if I don't go to school in the fall it could potentially take a whole lot longer to graduate.. so there ya go.
    I just want to take a second and tell everyone how much I love my mission. Wow it's been rough. It's almost been a year. . but that year feels like an entire lifetime. There's no way you can return home from your mission and be the same person you were when you left. I love the people of Montana. I love cowboy towns. I love being a missionary. I am super nervous about the fact that I only have 3 more transfers left. yeah that's right.. three! but you know those three transfers are going to be rad because I'm going to work my butt off! The Lord expects much of us. . that's what I've learned out here. he doesn't expect perfection.. but He definitely wants us to reach our potential.. which is usually much higher than we ourselves imagine it to be. When I first came out on my mission, I thought it was all about finding people to teach and baptize.. and while that is our purpose as missionaries.. there is so much more than that. Your developing who you've always wanted to be so much quicker.. your loving people so much deeper.. your pushing yourself so much harder to have the Spirit.. to be like Christ.. to fix the area's in which you lack. Your trying your best to build up your companions.. your learning that maybe this mission has a lot more to do with them.. then you thought.. it's just awesome.
      So we helped with the sheep shearing process last week. it was 15 degrees and I was soooo cold.. but it was really interesting work. I appreciate the people that do it all the time.. it's kind of disgusting.. haha
    Oh so last night we had this really sweet fireside with Justin and Troy Osmund! yeah like the osmunds. it was really cool. Justin is 90 percent deaf, but he can still play the violin and all sorts of other stuff. He gave a really great talk on motivation.. and how to motivate yourself to become what God wants you to become. I loved it. It was seriously so touching.. he did this rendition of the First Vision in Sign Language to music.. ahh loved it. (For any of you that don't know I took sign language for 2 years and I can semi understand it. ha) Anyhow he was so awesome and talked a lot about Missionary work.. and how we all need to do it.  My companion and i met him after and he was a really sweet guy.
     Well this week has been good. Who knows what next will bring. I love my companion Sister Berry! I will miss her so much.. I bet i'll get tranfered in two weeks.. there are 4 new sisters coming into the misison and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stay in Kalispell... Usually sisters don't stay longer than 6 months in a place. I'll miss Kalispell and Sister Berry if that's the case.
   Love you all. Remember how important the gospel is. Remember to pray. Remember to do the little things.. because they matter SOOO MUCH. Don't you ever give up. Your potential is more than you can imagine.
Loves
Sister Rachelle

Note to self :Some people are Creeepy!

It was a good/entertaining week with some slightly odd and creepy  moments.. 
. Met with Caleb and Singles Ward Elders Quorm President and his counselor. I realized just how awkward I will be when I get home.. I felt SOO uncomfortable with men that weren't missionaries.. I felt like I couldn't even teach! haha embarrasing. I guess I did fine according to my companion.. but I was like.. what the heck is wrong with me.. it' not like they were highly attractive or anything.. it was weird. I thought I was normalish. apparently not. maybe I will just never come home to avoid awkward encounters. ha We asked caleb what he wants out of life and he said "a sweet pair of nunchucks".. cool.

. Ok so by far the scariesttt expereince. We tracted into this guy  Corey Cain (40ish) a few weeks ago and started teaching him. He said he was a less active member and hadn't been to church since he was 12.. but from the get-go I sensed something fishy about him.  He said they stopped going to church because his mom was excommunicated.. but He just seemed to know exactly what came next in each lesson.. almost as if he had gone on a mission. I started thinking maybe HE was the excommunicated one. Just a creepy feeling. So then he wants to meet us at a coffee shop.. so were like.. ok public place.. not too sketchy. Well we get there and he tries to get some "private room downstairs"? uh creepy. Luckily the lady is like "Um that room has been reserved for tonight". So we just sat down in a room that was semi in the open.. so we start asking him about his reading in the BOM.. and some kid comes and sits in the same room.. we told him it was fine he could sit there we'd just be teaching.. he obliged.. anyway Corey starts asking these WeIRD questions.. stuff that you'd probably only know if you've been through the temple.. So I said "Wow seems like you know a lot about the church for not being back since you were twelve". I don't think he liked my attitude.. cause he was giving me a scary look as if he got caught. I continued "So you said you have family that are still members, do you ever talk to them"? (he had previously said that lots of his family were still members but he didn;t know much cause he was only at church sporadically until age 12, he also said his mom still occasionally went to church but never got re-baptized)  he got all awkward and rambling about how all his family lives in England. (which he previously said they lived in Utah) I'm not dumb.. this guys a freaky liar. . Then the kid thats in the room starts talking to us.. He 's like.. "are you the mormon missionaries? I was baptized a year and a half ago.. I stopped going.. but I'm thinking about going back".. So I start talking to him and bearing my testimony.. bla bla.. going over his concerns.. it was pretty awesome.. Little did I know while I was talking to this kid Ben.. Corey is talking to Sister berry.. He's quietly trying to get our address from her! he;s like "Hey I might need to send you something in the mail can I have your address"? Sister Berry's like.. "Uh we've been advised that we aren't supposed to give our address out, but we can give you our mission home address".. Then he's like "Oh no I don't want that".. All the while I'm still talking to Ben so I have no idea.. Then Corey's like well I'll probably not ever meet with you guys again.. cause I never got a sign that it's true.. So I tell him that he can search wherever he wants but he'll never find anything that brings him real happiness except for the gospel of Jesus Christ.. it was pretty intense.. haha but awesome.. at least for me.. Then he's like well maybe I;ll come to church on Sunday.. Then after we pray he tries to get us to come out to his car with him to show us something.. we're like.. uh creepy.. so we go out but stand like ten feet behind his truck and he shows us some pottery.. it was weird..
   After we get in our truck Sister Berry's like.. "Sister Davidson! He's a creep! He was trying to get our address from me when he knew you weren't paying attention to me! I think he thought I was dumb enough to give it to him!"  I was like oh sick... what a creep! Good thing Sister Berry is not dumb.. whats worse is that we live alone in a house that is constantly unlockled by realtors. Well get home and our house will be unlocked because we dont have a real key.. just a code! For all we know we could have a squatter in our basement.. the house is like 4,000 square feet. So when we get home and the doors were unlocked I called the realtor to ask him to lock the doors.. He is spit face drunk when I called him. Here's how it went
    Me: Hi is this Chance?
   Realtor: Who's this?
   Me: Rachelle
   Realtor: in a creepy voice Oh HEEEEyy Rachheelle....
 Me: Uh.. is this the Realtor?
   Realtor: Who's asking hahahahahahah (drunk laughs)
  Me: This is Rachelle.
  Realtor : oh Heeyyy Rracccheelle.. Yeah I'm a Realtor.. ahhahaah
  Me: Is this a drunk realtor?
  Realtor: YEah!!!! hahahaah
 Me: ok well can you please tell the realtors who come to lock the door..
 Realtor: What! why!? You don't even have any furniture in there!..
Me: Maybe I'll call you tommorrow when your sober
 Realtor: Well I don't understand how it's unlocked.. blab balba
   Oh my heck he contiunues on and on with his drunken nonsense until I finally hang up on him.
haha
   Well Missions are weird.. I love it though. Hopefully were safe.. I called the mission President.. he said we'll be ok. Were looking for a new place to live. Until then I have a knife by my  bed. I aint scared! ahah
Well love you guys
Sister Davidson

HI family and friends!
This one's gonna be short cause a girl from my ward is gonna highlight my hair for free! Woop!
This week has been really good. Jenna came with us to a fireside last night with Sister Bell (who is the one doing my hair).. we also had a great lesson with Jenna this week and S. Bell is the perfect fellowshipper! S bell is the new mia-maid teacher and she is also a recent convert of 2 years so she can really relate to Jenna. I don't think it's just a coincidence.
  We have a lesson tonight with our new investigator Caleb (25). He is sweet! haha he has a Jehovah Witness Background so that's been fun. Tonight were bringing the Elders quorm President from Singles ward to help us teach the Plan of Salvation,.. should be interesting!
  I love missionary work. Somedays I wake up so excited for the work. I meet people I know I needed to meet. I make friends I know I will have forever. I learn about my weaknesses and how to improve myself through Christ daily. It's humbling and rewarding.
Love you guys so much!
Oh ya I have a blog for missionary work.. check it out sisterrachellejanae.blogspot.com
Loves
Sister Davidson

Well I have been like super sick all week. I don't really know whats wrong with me. One night I woke up and felt like my chest was about to jump out of my body.. I was in a cold sweat and I could barely breathe! It was so weird.. then I have had fuzzy eyesight and dizziness for like 4 days now.. blaaaa
   Nonetheless this week had some good moments. Sometimes I look at myself and I'm like.. "Who the heck are you"? I forget that people used to call me Rachelle.. I used to wear normal attire and feel relatively like a normal individual. Lots of things have changed.
1. I now wear like 50 layers of clothing.. and ALWAYS skirts
2. I don't do my nails, hair, or makeup like i used to.. oh and NEVER wear heels
3. I go by Sister
4. I talk to everyone I see about Jesus Christ and the Church He set up while He was on the Earth
5. I have to eat huge meals.. full on meals every day.. lots of food
6. I understand sooo much more about the gospel and scriptures and just how organized the church is
7. I realize just how real the Atonement of Christ is.. and just how much I need it. EVERY DAY
  
    It's a great thing.. but sometimes people are like.. oh you only have 6 1/2 more months to go! What are you going to do when you get home? And I am thinking... huh? I'm a real human? One day i will go Home?? What is home? WhO AM I? haha stressful! I'm going to be sooo weird when I get home.. literally preaching the first lesson to everyone I see.. I'll be identity-less! I think I'll stay here forever.. unless i die of whatever sickness i have.

     So remember how I told you about Brother Keathley who really made me angry because he just randomly decides to be anti and leave the church??  Well this has bothered me alot because although.. he has done some pretty dumb things.. i know inside he is a good guy and obviously I didn't want him leaving the church.. You can leave the church but it never leaves you. There's always reminders in the world that the church is true and will bring you the most happiness.. no matter how hard you try and shove it... it comes back. Once you find the truth.. you'll fight your whole life trying to deny it.

    Anyways  I have felt like I should visit him ever since he left.. But the bishop and another man in our ward had already went to his house to try and knock some sense into him.. but they ended up leaving because  he had such a spirit of contention they couldn't get through to him. He was pretty much saying Jospeh Smith is a liar.. Book of Mormons not true.. bla bla bla
   Brother Keathley and i had an interesting relationship. He is a convert and has had ALOT of family issues in his life.. not to mention just about every other problem that could be possible to have. I just felt like I understood what he was underlying saying all the time. I think he felt like no one in the ward understands him because his background was SOO different. . i can relate to that in being a missionary. All my companions have pretty much lived in Utah their whole lives with cookie cutter families that always read their scriptures and did fhe.. they never questioned much because they were "safe" in the way they were raised. (im not saying thats a bad thing, I am merely pointing out that there are many people out there that just can't see what it's like to not have a nearly perfect upbringing)
    Anyhow Saturday night I was pretty sick.. it was 8pm and we were not getting in with anyone.. then the Spirit again is telling me "GO SEE BROTHER KEATHLEY".  So I tell my companion.. who knows nothing about him.. how I feel but that im too scared to go cause he'll probably just freak out at me and kick us out of his house.. then she says "What, you afraid? Your sister Davidson.. you can do anything"! haha I felt like I was Rocky being pumped to go into the ring.. so I agreed.
      We knock on the the door and Brother Keathley answers.. "Look who it is".., he smiles at me and says it's good to meet you new Sister.. Berry? to my comp.. ha he lets us in and sits down.. His wife is on the couch preparing for her sunday school lesson. He looks different.. his face now has a scragly looking beard and such. So he starts joking around, picking on me.. the usual.. after being there for about 20 minutes just chatting.. I was like ok so can I share something spiritual with you guys? He's like with who my wife? haha 
   So I pick out some scriptures and start reading them.. He was VERY UNCOMFORTABLE but he was listening.. but the whole time in my head im thinking  "Sister Davidson.. you tell him what you came here to say".. and I'm fighting within myself.. what I want to say is WALTER YOUR AN IDIOT! GET YOUR BUTT BACK TO CHURCH! haha
   After the spiritual thought it was a bit quiet when something took over me and then I said..
   "Brother Keathley I came here to tell you something".  He looks at me intently and I say
    "The church needs you"!  
     silence
   I continue ( and I'm bawling)
  "I know you have felt the Spirit.. I know that you have had the Priesthood and  given beautiful blessings, by the power of God. I know that you know the Chruch is true. I know your in a different place right now.. but I pray that you come back. The church needs you."

   Dead Silence.. his wife is crying.. me and my companion are crying and I'm pretty sure he was. It was crazy! Then he says
   "Thank You".

I hug his wife and she says "Did you feel the spirit? Thank you SO much".
 I did feel the spirit.
We leave and Sister Berry is like.. Whoa that was like a Spiritual Smackdown!
haaha I was so grateful. I am so grateful. I know the Lord was the one speaking to Brother Keathley.. I feel so blessed so have been a vessel for him. Sometimes in moments like these i just feel so unworthy to feel such love. But I felt the way that God feels about Brother Keathley. I felt the Love that He has.. and it was amazing.

love ya'll
Sis Davidson

well hey there... things are good here in Kalispell Montana. A little cold, but good. Sister Berry and I are doing well together and meeting lots of new people! Tracting is very entertaining.. we talked to like 100 people this week and every other door has someone crazy. haha Some people are super nice and just say "I'm not interested". Others yell and say "I believe in Christ and your wrong"! SLAM .. ha that was an exact one this week. I was thinking hey there lady.. read the tag.. ( or TAEEG if your in Montana) I believe in Christ too! Oh my people are hilarious. Have i ever told you about SKULL CHURCH? Yep it's real. it's basically this young hip pastor that gets a bunch of bands to come and play and then for 5 minutes at the end.. he saves your soul because you can accept Jesus. People are soooooo funny.. did I mention that? So many doors say.. oh ya I'm a new Christian..  I was just saved at Fresh Life/Skull Church last week. I wonder why people think all you have to do is accept Jesus and your saved forever.. I don't get it?
    Anyhow.. missions are awesome.. hard.. long.. fun.. and everything in between. I hope ya'll have a great Valentines. I'll be sharing the Savior's love.. ha

Loves,
Sister Rachelle