Elder Mitchell Davis: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Busy Week - Monday, March 29, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Well this week was a busy week, not really teaching wise though. It seems like everyone in Townsend is doing some sort of spring cleaning so we did quite a bit of service this week. We also helped Sis.P. get ready for this big benefit they had to raise money for a family in our ward who's facing a lot of hospital bills after Bro.C. had a triple bipass. She was incharge of the games so we helped her load over 100 prize bags and get all of the little prizes and candy ready. She worked really hard to get a lot of different fun things for the kids so it was good to be able to help her out a little considering how much she helps us everyday. The benefit was on Friday night and they had an auction, dutch oven dinner, and then Sis. P's games. She asked us to be at one of the booths and we had to give kids 6 marshmellows for a ticket and they tried to throw them into our mouths for a prize. Luckily a lot of the kids missed so we didnt really have to eat that many marshmellows. Total they raised over 7,000 dollars.

I think its a lot of fun to be on a mission in the states because a lot of your work is just getting out in the community and getting a good rep with people. It was a lot of fun to just walk around on friday night and talk to a lot of different people. In a small town gosip travels. While this can be bad it can also be good. If you gain a good rep with one Methodist, the others seem to start to like you more and before you know it they start to become a little more interested. We also went to the town talent show on sat. for our dinner time. It was good to be out at another community event and be able to talk to people. Townsend doesnt have the best talent in their talent show but overall it wasnt too bad. They do have a 15 year old girl though that is really good. She sings really good and plays the guitar. She could be the next famous country singer. haha

We met with L. this week. She is going to reset a date this week so we'll see after this tues. what she chooses. She knows its true but still thinks she isnt ready but we know she is and now we just have to help her see that.

We recieved a referal from a brother in our ward and on sat. we contacted it. We walked up to this guy who was out by his show and when he saw us he said are you Jehovas witness? and we said No. He then said ok good then I'll let you talk to me. haha He said anyone that doesn't believe in Christmas or the 4th of July he just doesn't want to associate with. We talked with him and his wife for a good 1 1/2 hrs outside in their shop. She goes to a local non dinominational church in town and he had never gone to church but says that he wants to know more about what we believe. He said some people tell him Mormons are bad but that the few Mormons he knows are nice people. So he wants to learn the truth for himself. He said before we teach him though we have to become his friend. So on Friday we are going over for deer meet and to play horse shoes. Should be a fun night and I think they both have a lot of interest and potential.

We had an awesome testimony meeting yesterday. I think the testimony meetings in townsend have been some of the best I've ever attended. Maybe its because the ward is smaller and people are more tight knit I think. This weeks was amazing though. We were waiting for the H. to come but they never showed so we just sat down and the meeing started. Well when it was testimony time all of a sudden who comes walking up...Sis. H. She gave a powerful testimony. And then who follows her?...Bro.H. and he bears his testimony. And then who follows the two of them....? L! All three got up and bore their testimonies and thanked the ward for all of the help. It was awesome! I wish E. could have been there but she had to work. We'll get her to church soon though hopefully.

The weathers been pretty nice this week. A little on the windy side but hey it beats the cold and snow.

So I recieved letters from mom, andrews email, and Uncle Jeff. First off Uncle Jeff. Thanks for the update. And dont worry about my comp. He just doesnt really like sports he really wasnt that mad. I just dont talk about sports at all until I get into Helena on Pdays with the other elders and they we talk a little bit. And you said its harder to write a letter but you can write an email if you want. I dont know if you knew that. So when you sit down to write Andrew just send me a little email maybe. You could even include some of the same stuff you're sending him like you did this week. Thanks again for the letter and I hope you bracket is going good. Mine tanked.

Questions:

Lauren, Did L. B. ever commit to playing football in college any where? I would hope so. Last I heard USU was looking at him.

Have you guys gone to the Easter Pagent yet? I saw an article in the Mormon Times about it and just wondered.

Also saw they are having a temple open house for the new temple in AZ. Are you guys planning on going?

How was the YW broadcast. Elder L. was practicing the piano at the church so I went in a listend to the beginning of it. Only hear the songs and the first 5 min of the talk. We invited Hefflefingers to watch it but I dont know if they did yet. If there are any talks you think would be good for me to read to help L. please do send them.

We heard a song being played by the country band at the benifit. Can you look it up for me and see if its a real song or one they just made up? Just do a search for life in Montana and see if there are any songs that talk about snow thats 3 feet deep. It was a pretty good song to go along with MT.

Ok now to answer a question:
Yes mom, Elder L. did get your package. Sorry I forgot to tell you last week. I picked up the mail, saw our address on the return part but then saw his name. I thought what the heck! haha He said thank you very much. He enjoyed the chocolate too.

So we were walking by the tennis courts at Broadwater High School and saw the girls tennis team practicing. There team is really big but they do have some girls that look pretty good. Who know Townsend would have a powerhouse girls tennis team.

Well I better go. I'm going to try to send some pics again to Mom's gmail account. Hopefully it will work better this time. I hope everyone has a good week. Enjoy conference and Easter. It should be a great weekend. Love you all and keep up the good work with school, work, tennis and EVMCO. Talk to you later

-Elder Mitch Davis

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Pictures and Greetings from Montana

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:19:24 -0600

Hey Everyone,

How are you? Hope everyone had a good week. It sounds like everyone had a good first week of spring break and that everyone is doing good. Thanks for the emails and letters I got this week! Uncle Jeff and Ricky really blessed me this week. Uncle Jeff and the Gwynns sent me a bracket on Thursday. Oh man was that a splendid suprise!

Elder L. saw it and because he doesn't care for sports said: "Hey thats going to distract you." So I just went to the bathroom and filled out my bracket. hahaha What he doesnt know is that sometimes I think less about stuff like that when I do hear about it. After getting the bracket I no longer really thought about it that day until we were about to go on splits with Bro. D. and then I wondered because he is a BYU fan if he watched the game. So after thinking about BYU and if they won but not wanting to ask him, he ended up telling me. And I was able to be happy and then refocus and I didnt think about it the rest of the night.

Then on Friday I got a package from R. He sent me a package with a BYU basketball shirt in it and a whole bunch of sports newspaper clippings he said he's been saving. So now to keep me focused I only read them at night after we have planned or on Pday and I read them when I'm in the bathroom or Elder L. is in the bathroom so he doesnt get mad. hahaha That all probably sounds really bad but I dont feel like its destracting me. There's so much other stuff going on that keeps me busy. But thank you to those who sent things.

Ok I have a quick question that Lauren may be able to answer. Any word on if J. F. has got a mission call? His bday is in March so I thought it might be comming. And that awesome to hear about T. That sounds like a fun mission. Not as fun as the MBM though!

We had a pretty good week. A lot of service which was good. We helped a guy who works at the mill go through their scrap pile and find giant logs to load up in his truck and take to this guy. And we helped Bro. P. who is like our mission Dad in Townsend prune about 10 small apple trees at this single sister's house. It took up pretty much the whole day on Sat. But we talked about a lot of good stuff and Sis. H. made us bread and he took us out for ice cream after so it was all worth it.

Zone confrence was on Wed. in Helena. It was good to see Pres. and Elder S. again. It was a lot easier being at this one because I knew the routine and what to expect. They talked about how we are supposed to use specific wording from PMG when commiting people to be baptized and that the mission has never really stressed it until now. So we practiced that and role played it a lot on wed. It involves praying about a date for them before hand and then in the commitment asking them if they'll be baptized on that date instead of just letting them pick a date. This makes it more of a goal and helps them go for it when they are ready and not set a date too far out.

Well Sat. night we found out since introducing this to two zones that we had over 20 commitments in 3 days. And since then even the numbers are going up. They said today they have 50 set for the first 2 weeks of april and our goal of 50 a month is looking like a real posibility. So this reminder of how we are to commit is really working and changing things. Wed. we also had a really good testimony meeting on the topic of Christ and Easter. It was really spiritual.

So after zone confrence since we were already up that way we decided since we were there with Bro. O. that we should go do our lesson with E. that afternoon at about 4:30. Well after meeting with her for about a half hour we had to leave to make it to our dinner. Elder L. said, "Oh man if only we had more time. And then Bro. O. said, "Well we could come back and have a lesson tonight if its alright with them." So we asked and they said yes. So after driving back to Townsend and eating, we drove back up with Bro. O. and had another really good lesson with E. She is progressing so much. Its like L. has slowed down and E. is on fire. She has even passed up L. in reading. We commited her to baptism and asked her if she keeps learning more and come to know its true if she'd be baptized and she said yes. So its only a matter of time and maybe we could have a sister sister baptism if L. comes around now.

We went with W. to the Methodist Church after sacrement meeting this week. We didn't know why but we asked him if we could go. It ended up being really good because he would have sat all alone because B. is gone now. The pastor had a really bland message. He was rambling on about seagulls and then somehow tried to tie it into scriptures. W. told us after that he thinks he felt nervous because we were there and that with B. being gone, he felt awkward being in there. He still has his concerns but he is slowly getting there.

Well one reason my mission is pretty much the best is because we have awesome Pday activities. We went and hiked Mt. Helena today. It was a lot of fun. About an hour up and an hour down. Not too steep of a hike either. I'll send some pics. to your gmail account mom so that your hotmail inbox doesnt fill up.

Lauren, Good to hear tennis is going good and started up again. Did Ms.F read the letter? Good to hear she did get it. She sent me an email but I had to print it. So I'll read it later. And I thought you were talking about K. H. but I had to make sure. Good to see she is playing tennis. I wish she wouldve last year.

Gise lle, Thanks for the email. I can't believe you found that episode of Lazy Town! Oh man. hahaha And HM is still around?! Noo! haha enjoy it while it lasts.

Well I better go so I can get some pics attached. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Enjoy your last week of break girls.

-Elder Mitch Davis

P.S Yes I am exercising every day mom. Elder L. says once you leave townsend you'll loose the weight you gain. :) And I left those running shoes and took my tennis shoes because they work better for when we play bball then the running ones would. Maybe the more we run though the more I might want them.

Pictures from the hike:

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Monday, March 15, 2010

Taking The Good With The Bad

Area: Townsend, Montana
Companion: Elder Lanham

Well this week was pretty good for the most part. We had some down times this week so I'll talk about those first to get them out of the way. First off L told us on Tuesday that she wants to hold off on her date and maybe push it back. This bummed us out and after talking about it she still wants to get baptized, she is just afraid the church will change a lot of things and she will lose some things in her life. Well then her parents really got involved with questioning which was good because we could just sit back and let them talk. Once the night was over she was just scared because her boyfriend who lives all the way in Baltimore wasn't very excited for her when she told him, and I think she is feeling some guilt like she should break up with him and that scares her. End of story girls, don't have boyfriends before you're old enough and problems won't occur. So we talked to her and told her that she is more ready for baptism than she thinks and that if she prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him about moving her date that she would get her answer. So we'll see what she says tomorrow. She also got a lung infection this week because she choked on a carrot. We went and gave her a blessing yesterday. We are really praying for her to feel better physically and about her date.

Sat. was also our crummy day. It was cloudy and cold and after trying every name on our list and no one being home we weren't feeling too great about things. That and Elder L was feeling sick. So overall Sat. stunk and we only taught 2 lessons. Oh and then Monday! Oh man. Well there is this old guy we had been working with ~ he was a really great guy and really funny too. He's W M best friend. His name is B. Well he came to church with W every week and then would go to the Methodist Church with W after. Elder Lanham. said he was really progressing before he had a stroke a month or so before I came. Anyway he had been doing way better and Sunday night we ate dinner with him and the M's and he was just cracking jokes like always. Well Monday night we got a call that the M's went to get him for FHE and he was dead. Just like that out of the blue. This really hit W hard. Sis M and us agree that he will for sure accept the gospel in the spirit world. W somewhat agrees too. The funeral is Tues. More on W later.

OK now on to the good stuff. We played ping pong at the H's Monday and had a really good lesson with their 17 year old daughter E. We think she might be ready for a baptism commitment in the next couple weeks. Tuesday I talked about already. The Zone Leaders were in town this week for team ups so they were at District Meeting. I had to give a discussion on Knowledge. It went pretty good. Wed. we had a really good lesson with the H parents. She was involved with Church Universal and Triumphant or something like that, pretty much a cult, and is lacking a testimony in prophets. So we talked a lot about having faith in a prophet and how we come to know someone is a true prophet. We also challenged her to go online and watch a few of Pres. Monson's talks so hopefully that will help her feel of the great spirit he has and the truthfulness of him. Thursday night the Zone Leaders came out to Townsend and went on team ups with us on Friday. Both of them are great Elders. My favorite is Elder Brooks from St. George. He is just a go-getter and really fun to be on teamups with. They brought us bad news though. There will no longer be teamups with zone leaders. Now we will travel to the District Leader's area and go with them. We had been doing it with both Zone and District Leaders but not anymore. This allows us to visit a Leader's zone and see how it's suppose to be done and so he can lead by his example rather than us just lead out in our areas and sit back. I think it will be good because I think it will let us learn a lot more from them. I will miss when the different elders come to Sis. P's and flip out because they get to sleep on big beds and she makes them breakfast. Oh well, I guess I'll just keep enjoying it for myself. haha

Zone Conference is this Wed. in Helena. It should be good to see Elder Stewart again. I noticed in the Talon today that he got a baptism last month so I'm excited to talk to him about that. Yesterday we went up to White Sulphur just for part of the day with Bro. S who is from Townsend but is called to be in the branch up there. It was a really pretty day yesterday especially up there in the mountains. We also had a great Sacrament Meeting up there. It's amazing what only 15 people can accomplish. We also talked to W M yesterday. For the first time ever he is thinking about potentially setting a baptism date. I think this has a lot to do with B's death. We told him to think about it and that he could just tell his wife and us and that way it will stay quiet while he works towards it. He is slowly getting there. Could be anyday now!

Good to hear BYU is a 7 and not an 8 again. Not surprised they lost to UNLV. I can't stand them! The tournament needs to be moved. So is anyone going to send me a bracket? I'd like to fill one out so I can see if I can do better than others without knowing anything. Right now I'm going to say Kansas. I only watched them once before I left and they looked good. I hope BYU can beat Florida. Should be interesting. Have fun watching March Madness. I had drawn on my planner a big bball and wrote March Missionary Madness on it. Well this President's letter in the Talon talked about that same thing. I thought it was funny. Oh, speaking of the Talon did you get your copy of it? They said they were going to send them to parents by email starting this month.

Thanks for the letter Andrew and Grandma and Grandpa G and D. Andrew I'm going to send a letter answering your questions maybe next week I'll just put them in my email. The library is kicking us out. Well I have to go now. I love you all. I feel once again like this email was sporatic. I hope everyone had a good week. I'm going to try to write you a letter so I can talk to you about tennis and stuff but enjoy your week off. Love you.
-Elder Davis

Monday, March 8, 2010

Big News

Area: Townsend, Montana
Companion: Elder Lanham

Hey everyone! How's it going? I hope everyone had a good week. We sure did here in Townsend. To get the big news out first we committed L. to set a baptism date on Tuesday and she said Yes she would. She hesitated a little and told us that for sure she would be baptized by June because she doesn't think she is ready but after we talked a little and told her how much we think she is ready and after she asked and found we could be transferred by April 11 she said she would set a date of April 3. We were so excited. Her nervousness soon turned to pure excitement and joy. Her parents were so happy too. Her Dad yelled out Yes! ha ha it was awesome. April 3 is conference weekend but they thought the day before Easter would be a perfect day. So that Sat. is going to be one special day. First session of conference, L's baptism, conference, and then priesthood. Wow what a spiritual day that will be. We are really excited to finally get over the hump with one of our many investigators that are so close. We also know now we have to work extra hard to keep her with that date because Satan likes to play his tricks on people who are about to do something good in their life but I know L will make it. I can't believe we are going to be at the H's 3 times a week now. Monday, Tues, and Wed. nights. It really makes the week go by fast. Before I can even realize it we are already to Thursday. Time flies. I still can't believe it's March already. When is spring break? This next week? Or this week?

We had a really good week teaching wise. 20 lessons is what's expected, 30 was our goal, and we had 26. We ate at the M's last night. They made this really good lemon cake with really good frosting oh man was that good after a long day of fasting. We were able to show Sis. M a movie called Between Heaven and Earth. It's about temples and was perfect for them because she is going through the temple soon and he still has a lot of questions about it but after that movie I think a lot of them were answered. He told us about how he feels a different spirit at our church. He is so close but is still just stubborn about it all. He has changed from saying if I get baptized to when I get baptized though so that's good. It really is just a matter of time.

Some quick thoughts I wrote down throughout the week.
You drive around and see a lot of fields here with cows. Here in Montana its calving season so every field has newly born calves in it. They are so cute. All the other cows just sit and eat but the little calves are always running around having fun. It's pretty fun to watch. I'll have to get a picture of one so you can see.

Were you able to find my swim time yet? If you go to their website you should be able to click on a pull down bar and find the times from past years and our region.

This is for dad now. Everyone here seems to be a Seattle Seahawks fan so that's pretty cool to walk around and see people wearing Seahawks gear.

As far as the new email you can send it to the new one or the old one and it will still get to me.
Ok here's a really cool story I heard this week. This came from a high councilman in our stake. His son is in Chile and he said they got a letter from the Mission Pres. that said the Mission Pres's wife woke up a month ago and told her husband there was going to be an earth quake and they needed to prepare the missionaries. So they created an emergency plan for the mission and then the Pres. went to every apartment the elders lived in and blessed it. Well 2 days after they finished the last one the earth quake happened. And sure enough no missionaries or apartments were hurt or damaged. Pretty crazy stuff. That's called really being in tune with the spirit.

Mom, Sister P reminds me of you. She is always baking bread and having us deliver it to someone in the ward who is sick or who is having a birthday. I told her that you do that all of the time too and we had a good laugh because Bro. P always complains like we used to that you were giving the good food you made away.

I had a buffalo elk burger at this place in Townsend this week. It was pretty good.
My comp will have been in Townsend 6 months after this transfer. So it's likely he'll be leaving after this transfer and I'll be staying. He's been in Lewistown and Miles City so far on his mission. His year mark is this Thursday.

Well I better go. The Zone Leaders are in town and we are going to play basketball and then we are going to the H's to play ping pong like we did a month or so ago. It should be a lot of fun.
This email feels like it's been kind of all over the place so I hope everything makes sense. I hope everyone keeps doing good in school and tennis. Say Hi to Grandma and Grandpa D for me and tell them it's good to hear they finally agreed to fly. Also good to hear the concert went good. How many people were there? More than last time? Sis. P hasn't heard back from her daughter yet so we don't know if she went. Well I really have to go now. Love you all and hope to hear from you soon.
-Elder Mitch Davis

Mitch's companion, Elder Lanham

Mitch's new car: 2010 Chevy Malibu

Monday, March 1, 2010

Awesome Week In Townsend

Area: Townsend, Montana
Companion: Elder Lanham

Well I have so much to tell all of you that I don't know where to start or if I'm going to be able to get it in. First off yes I got my contacts. They arrived just fine and I currently have them in my eyes. I'll be sure to send my ballot in tomorrow and I did tell Sis. P about the concert but I'll remind her to tell her daughter. Transfers were this weekend. Only Elder Goff is leaving from our district. He is going to be with Elder Kuck in Lander, WY. Elder Kuck was a comp in the MTC if you remember. Monday was kind of a boring pday. We went to Helena but not a lot went on. Just kind of sat around with the other elders and went to Walmart. I tried to send you some pictures but I'm not sure if they worked. Maybe if I have time I'll try again.

Tuesday was a lot of fun. We had District Meeting in Helena and then went out to eat together because we didn't know who would be getting transferred out this weekend. We also stopped at the Montana State Capital and visited S H. She works there in the Legislation Dept. as someone who writes up the bills for the law makers and makes sure they sound good and all of the grammar is correct on them. It was a lot of fun to go to the capital building and see it up close a little bit. We had a really good talk with her. She thanked us for all of the work we have been doing to strengthen her family and she hopes that someday she can repay others with service like others in the ward have done for her. We taught L that night and she is such an amazing girl. Things just click with her and it's so easy to teach her. We had a member of the bishopric and his wife with us and they helped us big time. They are going to be her main adult fellowshipper in all of this. I'm really happy because for the first time on my mission I feel like I was guided by the spirit to tell Elder Lanham to call and ask them and it all worked out really good. We also taught their family on Wed. and for the first time ever their older daughter E who is 17 sat in. She normally just goes in her room when we come but this week she stayed around and then participated and asked questions. Towards the end we asked if she'd like to take the lessons. She said yes but said that her schedule is really busy and she doesn't know when she'd have time. So we tried to set it up for Sunday even though she said she might not have the time. Skipping ahead now on Saturday afternoon we get a call that she's too busy and can't meet with us. Then on Sunday afternoon we get a call that she decided to cancel all of her plans so she could meet with us that night. So after our Stake Priesthood Meeting in Helena we rushed over to their house and had an amazing lesson. She said when she's talked religion before with friends or gone to other churches it all felt fake but that on Wed. she felt something different and she said it all felt legit. Then she asked some questions that totally led into a perfect first lesson. It was amazing to see it all flow like that and Elder Lanham and I taught our best lesson together that we have ever taught. She got very emotional towards the end and she wants to keep learning more. If nothing else happens here the H's are what makes Townsend awesome. Just the fact that the parents were never active until 2 months ago and that now they have one daughter so close to baptism and the other hopefully on her way is amazing. It's so good to see all of this happening during the time of their life when they need it the most. Another cool thing was that on Sat. L., S., and A. all came to a member baptism. So did W M.

Another cool thing was Saturday. The Gospel Sing which is once a month was at our church this month. We had all 8 Elders in our district come to Townsend and sing Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. It was really good and you could tell the people from other churches could feel of our spirit. After the Gospel Sing all 8 of us went to the P's and spent the night. It was so much fun. The P's are amazing for letting us do that. Not only that but Bro. O was taking them all back to Helena Sun. morning at 7 and Sis. P got up and made us all breakfast. She is so nice. I know she'll be greatly blessed for her service to the elders.

Back to Stake Priesthood. So Bro. O. who is an awesome member in our ward when it comes to missionary work got W M to come with him to priesthood. Pres. A the Stake Pres came up to W after and said he had a talk prepared but that when he saw W there he changed it all for him and talked about personal revelation and getting answers in our lives. This made W feel overwhelmed but really happy that he would do that. Let's hope that with that and now his church starting to use prayer beads which he hates that he is getting closer and closer to baptism each week.

A few random things( I feel like these are always so sporadic because your kind of under the gun with time)
We are judging cars at the cub scout pine wood derby this week. I'm so excited!
Our car hit 59,000 miles this week and normally they sell them off at 50,000. Well Friday we got the call that we were getting a brand new car! So yesterday Elder West, who used to be our Zone Leader and Elder Lanham's trainer and is now an Assistant, dropped it off. It is such a nice car. 2010 Chevy Malibu. I was wondering if you could look it up and tell me how much it sells for. It only has 250 miles on it and it smells so good!

Question: What mission is John Reed in? Mexico City what?

Didn't get dads email so maybe you could just send it again. That worked good last week. Other then all this things are going good. The weather is warming up for now and it's beautiful! It can be a little cold in the morning still but usually 40-50s. We'll see how long that lasts before we get a spring snow storm. ha ha. Well I better go. Nice to hear from those I heard from. Hope everyone has a good week. keep up the good work in school, work, running and tennis. I love you all. Talk to you next week.
-Elder Mitch Davis

PS How many more bball games does BYU have and when does the MWC tourney start?