July 22, 2013

Well Howdy!,

 I’m doing great out here and I know the time is just flying by!  Can you believe that I have been gone as long as I have?  I know it doesn’t seem as long for you, but I feel like I have been gone for only a day. I can still hear your voices like your standing right next to me. I love hearing your stories from home!

 Well this week was an exciting week!  We had the opportunity to teach Omar and Chris again.  They are doing great! They loved the lesson about The Plan of Salvation!  It is completely amazing to see the change in them.  Chris’s baptism is this Saturday and I am sooooo excited for it!  I just love being around all of the members and my investigators.  They make my life a little bit happier every day.  I really admire my investigators!  It would be a shock to my system if someone told me that my religion is false but they fully understand when they read the Book of Mormon and pray to God for the truth

This week we had a lot of interesting food including tripe, ox tail, pig skin, and something I didn’t even know what it was. I had a dish called Occa.  It contains raw fish with fresh tomato, cucumber, and it’s in a milk and mayo sauce.  It is my favorite now.  I love all of the different food around here!

 Transfers were two weeks ago and I’m still here.  We will be moving to a new place because our current apartment has a broken water pipe and mold is growing everywhere. They won’t fix the problem and this has been going on for over two months, so we are moving to a nice duplex… standby for the address.

  You should have some serious fun camping.  Where in cedar are you going? You can take my XDM mom to shoot in memory of me. That would be great!  Tell Cheybug that she needs to do a great job for the Bishop and have her read the Book of Mormon instead of those crazy girly books.  It will greatly affect her life for the better!  It has changed my life as I am reading it out here! Tell Cheyenne to take great walking shoes on her trek and be glad that she is not here because on the trek here everyone got 5 ticks a piece,  nasty right?

 I love you

 Elder Davies

July 15, 2013

Howdy Howdy!

 What to say about this week?... THAT IT WAS AMAZING, hello!

 To start out, we have amazing people that are investigating the church and the two I want to talk about are very close to me and my companion.  We had two separate appointments with them. Each time they were crying and telling us that this gospel is what they have been looking for their whole lives.  They just hugged me and said “I am so glad that you two found me.  You are my heaven sent angels.”  You know, I just broke down into a slup.  I started crying saying that God sent me here so I can share eternity with my family and so they can spend it with their family. I can’t explain what this meant to them. I could never picture myself as something of that magnitude. I am just a missionary sharing the gospel. I never thought that someone would compare me to a heaven sent angel. But these two extraordinary investigators do not know each other. They are in different households, but there stories are the same.  One man is named Omar. He is 30 and is Mexican. He has a 2 year old son and can’t wait to our next appointment tomorrow when we share with him the plan of salvation. I am super excited!  He also can’t wait to be baptized and become a member of our ward family! The other investigator’s name is Chris. I have talked about him before.  He is a member’s boyfriend.  He loves talking to me.  He connects to me like fly paper, you know he is like I know everything you’re telling me is true and I want YOU to baptize me. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he is going to be a strong member of our church. I also know that he will serve a full time mission.  I just have a feeling that he can bless others with his testimony.

  Well I am proud of Shannon! Tell her great job graduating. I am so glad i will be getting free haircuts after I get home, haha, You better not be getting rid of my dogs MOTHER, haha. Sounds like the garden is growing some amazing stuff, I’m jealous. I wish I could have some fresh veggies.

 I love this gospel and I love being able to share this message, even though I’m not the best teacher and I’m not perfect,  I was set apart as a full time missionary and servant of the Lord and I love it!

  LOVE YOU ALL

 Elder Davies

July 8, 2013

Well howdy Family,

Can I just tell you how great it is to get emails from you! Well, it has been another super fantastic day in paradise! Who else can say that their mission is in Zion? So, if the second coming did happen I wouldn’t have to go anywhere! :0)

Well it has also been a very overwhelming week-just stressful and hot, and we were walking all week which was great other than the stupid humidity! haha But it does rain here at least 3 times per week.

We have been working with this lady named Shelly for a while now and her problem is she believes that our church is true and she loves everything about it. She just doesn’t believe that Brigham Young was supposed to be prophet. She believes that he did a bunch of stuff that isn’t true like he rebaptized all of the saints that went to Utah with him and that he lied to the people to get what he wanted out of them. It makes me laugh because she is RLDS and she likes to believe that Joseph Smith III was to be prophet because it says it in our church history apparently.  I love her to death but she won’t give us any head room to talk about what the spirit directs us to tell her and teach her.

This week has been fun we did a couple of big service projects. Thank you for sending my boots! That helped a million times better than my shoes, but we leveled out a person’s backyard, tore out their deck but we had to save the wood because they are going to reuse it.  We built a fence, and landscaped the whole back yard! All of this was done at the same house at different times and and different days.  I’m still having back problems from all of the hard labor. But I know we helped them out so much and I felt great serving them because I love them so much.

It sounds like you had a great Fourth of July because I know I did. We had a HUGE fireworks show at one of the member’s houses. Their neighbors buy like 10 thousand bucks worth of fireworks every year. They shut down the street and it was amazing to say the least! Maybe the parade next year will be better.

The temple trip to Kansas City was great! I loved being able to go with my whole mission to the temple and preform those sacred things with them. The temple here is ALOT smaller than Provo.  You have to walk up the stairs to finish an endowment session but it is a very beautiful temple. I love the windows and I love the landscaping outside of the temple.  It’s amazing.

I have been getting better. I am over my sickness but now my left knee is giving me troubles. It pops in and out of place when I over use it in the day.  I haven’t told anyone yet because I don’t want to get sent home. I will just endure it.

I love this work!!  The people I have met mean the world to me and they love hearing more about the gospel and I am so glad to be one of the Lord’s missionaries at this time and age

I Love You All,

Elder Davies

June 24, 2013

Good Morning family or as I like to say, “Talofa!”

Thanks Mom! Haha, I remember you would always come into my room and start singing that song, “Good morning to you, Good morning to you…” haha it always woke me up and most of the time made me a little bit happier that day.

This week has been great for missionary work! We have been working with a lot of our recent converts and keeping them involved in the church as much as possible. It is so exciting to see them have family home evening together. We have has the chance to conduct a lot of them and teaching them that it is very important to hold those every week at a set time as well, they can see the blessings coming through their faithfulness. We have also been working with a recent convert family that has issues with paying tithing and we explained how we couldn’t afford not to pay our tithing because of how it blesses our lives and our families’ lives. We have also been teaching them about keeping the Sabbath day holy by not going fishing and not going to basketball games. We have the opportunity to teach their teenage girls and the mother about modesty and how we should not wear revealing clothing because our body is a temple and we should treat it that way! Other than that we have been working with all of the new investigators we found last week and they are learning a lot and starting to believe in what we are teaching them. It is the best time of your mission when your investigator gets his or her own answer and knows that it is true. I love this work!! It is moving forward so get on the freight train and join our army!

HOLY CRAP that is so great to hear about all the new mission calls! They will have so much fun on their missions. I can’t believe they are all going out of the country. I’m a little jealous, but I know that they have people over there that have been prepared for them to teach them the gospel with their own teaching style, just like the people in Independence had been preparing for me and they will all be blessed according to their faithfulness. Zane is going to Poland? That is crazy! I had a pretty good idea that he would be going out of the country. They each have to wait a while before they get to go to the MTC! Well, Hunter will be so great down there in Africa, haha just like Dillon Hales teaching the Lamanites. Emily will be great in New Zealand. She is going to work out a lot, because the members there are going to treat her well and feed her even better! Trust me, I know!

The missionary training was great! I loved every second of it. It was so true that it is up to the members to find us people to teach because only about 10% of tracting brings a baptism, so I am so happy they announced that change. That it will greatly affect missionary work as we know it. Did you hear at the beginning how he said that electronic media will be used to further the work? Facebook will be a vital resource as well as mormon.org and lds.org. They will greatly help us missionaries in this cause.

I love you and pray for your safety every day! Love you – more to come next week!

Love

Elder Davies

June 3, 2013

WELL HOWDY!

Well it’s ok that your email was short today, I don’t have much either from last time we talked.  I love it out here, even with the stupid tornados and the stupid humidity.  It has been a busy week finding a bunch of new people to teach and now we have 4 people on date to get baptized this month.  I really dread the day when I have to leave here because I love these people!  I love my investigators and my ward!  I love my new companion! He is a great elder.

 Tell dad we need a GPS!  If he doesn’t think so I will just go and buy one myself out here, we ain’t in the stone-age anymore and I hate maps!  That’s what I have already and it doesn’t tell me street numbers. The streets down here suck, just so you know!  There are like five Ponca streets, Lexington, and Arrowhead, haha, that’s why it would be nice so I can find the specific houses.

 Mom, it sounds like you had fun teaching about being an instrument in the Lords hands. I love how he explains it in Alma.  I have a firm testimony on what it explains. I am really in love with Alma chapter 26 right now. It talks a lot about missionary work!

 Well, tell Cheyenne to pack the jumbo marshmallows for girl’s camp for me and eat a bunch, haha, or dad will eat all the burnt ones.  It is a great opportunity to serve up there at girl’s camp as a priesthood holder.  Dad has the chance to bless all of the girls that need it. And good I can never get replaced, haha, jk. Nathan is a great kid I hope he knows that he is loved and we love having him around.

 This week has been fun like I said.  We have a couple people on date to get baptized this month.  It is very exciting to see their progress on how their testimony is growing as we teach them by the spirit.  My testimony grows every time I bear witness that what I’m teaching them is true.  I can only teach them so much, and then I have to say to them “It’s time for you to find out for yourself!”  So they pray and ask God with real intent, with a real desire to find the truth, and they get their answer by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 The high of the week is that I have a truck that I drive out here 3 weeks out of the month then I walk one week of the month, haha!  I actually get to drive the truck because my new companion doesn't have a license.  That’s how we do it out here!

 Dad, the baby deer from last week hopefully was old enough to survive on its own.  After I stepped on it, we found the momma dead like 100 yards away.  It looked like a car had hit it and then  it had walked a little bit and laid down and died.  Also, you asked what taro is.  Taro is a root vegetable like a potato and it is VERY good.

 Have a great week and I love you,

 Elder Davies

May 27, 2013

Well howdy y'all, it sounds like you’re having SO much fun with getting to visit with grandpa and cheybug getting to hang out with Nate.sounds like he is replacing me, at least that's what I heard from dad, haha, but that's OK.  He can replace me for 20 months then I get my spot back.  So is my room the grandbaby nursery yet? jk. It sounds like it was a very trying time for your friend Mary. I hope she is blessed and her family is blessed according to their faith, I know it would have been emotionally hard for me if it happened to us! I hope and know that Heavenly Father knows what they are going through and puts trials in our path to strengthen us and our faithfulness to him. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ suffered that same pain that her parents did and he knows what we go through. I am so grateful to know that even through trials there is always our Heavenly father looking out for us. I have experienced that this week.

This week has been a fun and eventful week. We have been teaching a bunch of new investigators that want to know more about what we believe. We helped move a family into the ward, an investigator family. We are getting to know them very well.  We have taught them a couple of times now.   Their name is the Mulinazzi family.  They are golden and I love them with all my heart.  They have strong desire to know the truth. They have lots of questions for us that I usually call President Keyes for because I don't know all the answers, but I learn so much from them every time we teach them. They have a family of 7.  Four out of the seven are old enough to take the lessons and they are very interested. I know that as long as I teach by the spirit they will have a testimony of what I am teaching them is true and will be baptized by someone holding that priesthood authority.

Cool things that happened this week…Let’s see,  we have 10 new investigators, I have a new companion. At the ward camp out, that had missionary theme, you bring an investigator with you and every quorum had a skit or testimony's to share.  It was a big Luci with a big roasted pig and taro which is very good food- my favorite so far. We were walking through the tall grass and I stepped on a baby deer. It got up and started licking my leg. We took it back to camp and got it milk and petted it! Fun times!

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BATHROOM! Ha ha, well it got chickified! Wow, well it’s the girls bathroom now but it looks great! I love what you did with it and tall shower head so me and dad won’t hit our heads anymore! I need you to send out the car GPS with the charger or invest in one for me.  I need one!  It’s so hard finding addresses out here! I do not need garments yet probably in August- send me out some.  I'm good other than that just working hard. Missionary work is a full time thing- no resting time. I  love it! Money is just fine.  I haven't used my card ever yet so it’s all good.  Transfers were today.   We went and said goodbye to those going home.   We didn't get transferred and I'm glad.  I love my new companion. He is a Samoan elder from western Samoa, but he moved to Utah when he was 17.  His uncle and aunt live in Spanish fork by our stake center which is cool we are from the same place. He loves the culture out here and the ward loves him!   We get fed soooooooooooooooooo much it’s horrible- good thing we workout and play hard out here.

LOVE

Elder Davies

May 20, 2013

Well hello family!  This week has been full of ups and the downs.  To start out with I have four investigators with baptism dates and that’s pretty exciting!  Then we had a way loud, windy, and rainy storm yesterday.  It included some very large hail stones.  They thought there was going to be a tornado where we are at, but luckily the storm did not turn into a tornado in Independence. The clouds looked like it was going to happen, but thanks to the prayers of many, it didn’t happen. The humidity out here still is awful. I walk outside and am already instantly wet, but it is a good way to lose weight. I finally got my bike fixed enough to ride a little bit, but I prefer to walk because it is easier to breathe and there are some way bad hills out here.

There is some more news.  Elder Moody got a call this last Thursday morning by President Keyes and got called as a zone leader in the Platte City zone in St. Joseph, MO. It’s a little crazy because it is right before transfers. They aren’t for another two weeks, but I love him and I will miss seeing my best bud and “father”. I’m going to be done with training this month and I have passed off all of my lessons as of last Friday, so I can officially drive and train other new missionaries. I am SOOOO excited!

 In other news my new companion is coming from Olatha, Kansas.  His name is Elder Manalausua. He is Samoan.  I get to exchange and get to meet him tonight, so hopefully he is great and we can further the work here in the Blue Mills ward. I think we will have better success because he is Samoan, so he can relate better and he knows the culture a lot better than I do, so I’m excited!  I think I'm going to be safe at transfers.  I will probably stay here in Blue Mills at least till July maybe August, who knows, but I love it here. It looks like I will stay in the Independence Mission and not be moved to the Kansas City Mission when we split in July. I guess that could always change, but I don’t think so.

 Remember Sister Te’o?  My first investigator that got baptized?  Well, she recently got called as a activity leader for the young women.  It is a great calling for her.  She really has a very strong and powerful testimony!

 I loved talking to each of you on Mother’s Day.  It was good to hear all of your voices and not just have to read about what is going on.  I am glad everyone is well. Mom. thank you!  You and dad have been two of the most influential people in my life. You really made me who I am today. Thank you!   I know you have always said you were proud of me, but I took it for granted and did not really listen.  But, I know that what I’m doing out here is blessing our family and all those that I come in contact with. The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses all those who will listen to the message and take it into their lives!

 I love you all and I want more than anything to set an example.  I want those around me to hear and feel the gospel message and the blessing it can be in their lives.

  From the sounds of your letter it seems that you’re being productive, mother! Getting the weeds out of the garden is great.  But, tell BJ he needs to make you some garden boxes.  I don’t want you bending over and hurting yours or dads back.  You know you are both getting older an’ all , hahah, jk!  Sounds like Shannon is being herself getting the garden in.  It sounds like she is growing a salsa garden.  You will have to eat some fresh tomatoes for me after they grow. 

 The bathroom sounds like it’s really coming along with everything falling into place. The color it sounds like it will be a very nice bathroom! Keep me posted on how its progressing and need some pictures!

 Sounds like Alanna is going to have a bunch of fun in her mission in Philadelphia.  I know she will do great as long as she stays obedient to the rules of the mission and loves what she is able to teach to all those who don’t understand the gospel or have never heard about it.

 Cheybug, good job for sticking out another school year.  I always hated school other than my FFA buddies and seminary! I am glad you made it through another year and good luck on the 5k you will do great!  Put in your all and you will be rewarded!