August 19, 2013

Omar's Baptism

This past week has been a week of miracles. To start off, for one of our dinner appointments no one was going to be feeding us so I decided that Papa Murphy’s Pizza sounded great for dinner, a vegetarian with chicken and bacon added to it and a cowboy pizza, my favorite!   After we got the pizza and were walking back to our car this lady stopped her car right next to us, rolled down her window and said “how are you two great looking guys doing today?”   We said were doing great!  She said, “So, what are you two doing around Independence?”  We told her that we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. She started talking to us saying that her parents were baptized to our church years before and they gave her a Book of Mormon and she was debating whether she should read it or not and she wanted to talk to us and find out what our message was all about and she just found us by herself. She wants to get taught the gospel and she is excited to learn all she can.  I hope we can teach her and help answer all the questions she has been having about things that have been bothering her for a long time.  I love her already and know she will be baptized!

Some crazy girls in our Blue Mills Ward

 Well, sounds like school is starting back up and sounds like the drama will too! I always hated that about high school - that was the worst part. That training was great was it i hope you can tell me more about it and it talked about how every member needs to do their part in the missionary work it is so true that everyone needs put there foot forward and help us with this amazing work that blesses so many lives. Omar's baptism was so amazing. It was a very spiritual service. He and all of us were crying throughout the service.  It was so great to see him go into the water and come back up a new man, so clean and pure. It makes me so happy. After the service he personally thanked me for helping him along his way and teaching him.  I told him that transfers were this week and I am probably going to move and he started crying and I said that I will always remember him and I will keep in contact with him. Transfers are this week and I know that most likely I am going to get transferred and I will be ok with it even though I love this ward as my family and I know it will be hard to leave, but it will be doing the Lord’s work.

 I only have one request whenever you send a package. Wait till I email you next week and I need a new CTR ring.  I picked out which one I wanted- Titanium with White Carbon Inlay CTR. I gave my last one to one of the priests in the ward to remember me by and that I will always remember him. Anything else you want to send would be great!

 I love you,

 Elder Davies

August 5, 2013

 

Well Howdy Ya'll

 How are all of you doing to start out anything I can help you with if so just shoot me an email!

 Well my week was a great amazing week! Just another week in paradise of bipolar Missouri and I love it! To start off, my investigators are doing great!  Omar is progressing very well and he loves learning all he can from us.  

 Sometimes he just wants to talk all about what stories we know about the Book of Mormon because he is so excited to read it he can’t wait to read about it himself. But I love teaching him as well as all of my investigators.  

 He is one of my favorites even though they are all my favorite people.  It is going to be soo hard leaving here.  I don’t want to leave, but I know it will happen eventually.

  

Cheyenne -  sounds like you had an amazing experience at trek.  I wish I had that chance to go to on trek and have those long lasting experiences with all the people I love. Cheyenne, remember that I love you and that your Heavenly Father loves you.  Read the Book of Mormon and treasure the message it contains.  It will help you throughout your life, including in high school.

 Now mom, am I going to have to write a letter to your job telling them to not kill my mother while I’m on my mission?  I hope that you start feeling better.  Mom, is there anything you need? I will pray for you not to work so much this week, hopefully it helps.

 Logan sounds like fun. Tell me how it goes. Well you will at least have fun up there even if you can’t go to the temple. But the sisters you stay back with will appreciate your kindness.  Tell dad that his next calling I’m predicting is bishop, haha.  I have a strong feeling that he will be bishop when I return off my mission.

 BJ needs to drink some more power juice and let me have some too, hope he starts feeling better and that he will be healthy and strong.

 Sonnett, thank you for your letter! I love hearing from you and Miles!  It puts a smile on my face when I get any letter from you I love you and will see you soon.

  

CRAZY I HAVE BEEN OUT FOR THIS LONG!  I WANT TO START OVER!  WHERE IS THE RESTART BUTTON!

 I love this work I love all of you that are supporting me!

 PS..I was bit by a brown recluse spider last week. After a quick visit to the instacare and some heavy medicine, all is well!

 Love

 Elder Davies

July 29, 2013

Well to start out Howdy,

Just to say to ya'll that this week was a completely amazing week because of some certain things that have been happening. One of the main things that happened this week was the fantastic baptism of my man Chris. He was so excited and he was ready to be baptized. The service was small but the spirit was sooo strong and the amazing part was that one of the recent converts, Bro. Swoffer, baptized Chris. The other thing that happened was that President Keyes came to the baptism and gave a short talk of how proud of he was of Chris and his decision to be baptized. I can’t believe that he took the time out of his day to come to Chris’s baptism.  He felt so special that he came to his most important day.  President told him if he ever needs anything to ask the wonderful missionaries for whatever you need no matter what.

 Another really amazing thing that happened this week was with one of my investigators that has a really severe problem with the word of wisdom. So, do you remember how I had to have my mountain dew?  That I would always have at least two 32 drinks a day if not more?  So out here, the members always say, “do you want anything?”  They buy us a ton of stuff. I feel bad but they used to buy me mountain dew to drink until I made a deal with my investigator that I will never drink any pop again on the condition that he stop drinking beer and smoking and that kind of stuff .  Well,  I have been off the pop now for two weeks and will never drink it again! So GREAT NEWS he stopped drinking for starters no more drinking and because he was such a heavy smoker he would smoke about three packs a day and now he doesn’t buy box cigarettes anymore and he only smokes a mini cigar one a day so he is doing amazing! I love that he is making so much progress!

  

Well to answer your question for Sunday, I think that being all committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing you can do on this earth not only in your actions but in your heart. The most important thing to me is not just going out in the day looking for numbers to fill my planner cause I have to but going out and looking for people to change their lives and mine as well.  It doesn’t just effect their life, it ultimately effects my life as well. I love being able to go out and find those in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ and see when they start to cry when they feel that spirit of truth telling them that we are here to share with them the key to living with their families forever.  What better job do I have than this?  I would say nothing!

 Sounds like that the parade was long but fun.  I wish I could be there.  Well hopefully you had fun camping.  

 Glad that my ATV worked out for you.  Well, that Miles, my little dare devil,  sleeps in the sight of danger, haha, funny kid! 

 Anything I can help you with family while I am out here serving the lord, just mail me! Thank you Sonnett for the letter! I loved the picture on the back from Miles.  It brightens my day when you send me mail. It gets pretty routine out here!

 I love being out here teaching and fellowshipping everyone I come in contact with.  I hope this feeling never ends!

 I LOVE YA'LL

 Elder Davies

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