A busy week for sure- Monday, September 6, 2010

Wow What a Week!

I'm not sure quite where to begin. I guess I'll start at the beginning of the week. Monday was kind of a boring Pday because we weren't with Lewistown. Pretty much after emailing and shopping I just took a big nap. It felt good. Tuesday we normally have splits but we only had one person sign up. The young single adults and some young couples were getting together for a game night so we went with the guy who came for splits and picked up our investigator C and took her to the game night. It was really good for her because she never feels like she meets very many people at church so this helped her get to meet some people.

Wednesday we had our weekly study with the two less active old ladies and C. They both married outside of the church and you can see how it has affected their knowledge of the gospel. We are going to start teaching them the lessons. We are hoping to get them back to church and hopefully help them build a testimony. Wednesday we ate lunch at a member's house in Havre. Their son got back from his mission to Mexico a few months ago. He wanted to cook us some authentic Mexican food and we of course were excited. So we go over there and he is making his own tortillas, meat, and beans. It all looked good. Well the tortillas he made were really really really salty. I only ate two of them because it was all I could handle. He said they tasted salty but that the recipe called for 1/2 cup of salt. I knew this couldn't be right. The member was just puzzled as to what was wrong and he just kept eating. After we went to our Book of Mormon study we were feeling sick and drinking a ton of water. The member then called us and said that he was sorry and that he looked closer at the recipe and it was 1/2 teaspoon not 1/2 cup. So pretty much we were salt Poisoned! We drank so much water the rest of the day and used the bathroom a lot. After a while we were sick of water and went to the gas station for something else. I got a lemonade and downed it before we even left the gas station because I was so thirsty. Wednesday night we left for Great Falls. We got there around 9:00 and stayed at the Zone Leader's house along with Elder Stewart (MTC comp who is now in my zone) and Elder Wood. Thursday morning we got up around 5:15 and got ready for our day. We met the whole zone at 6:00 a.m. and drove 3 vehicles to Helena including ours. So I had to drive to Helena with a full truck, 6 missionaries. The drive was beautiful. We left just as the sun was coming up and we drove through a bunch of mountains and up a canyon. We crossed the Missouri River quite a few times because it winds back and forth through that area quite a bit. Because of the temp of the air and the water the river had a thick fog coming off of it. When you'd cross over a bridge you crossed through this big wall of fog. It was pretty cool. We got to Great Falls and ate some breakfast at Buger King. It was a lot of fun to be back in Helena again. It felt like going home because I was going to where it all began. We drove out of Helena 20 miles towards Missoula to a ranch that sits in this valley that's just surrounded by mountains. It was so pretty. It felt good to be back in the mountains. There were 3 zones there. The Helena/Butte, Great Falls and Bozeman Zones. There were over 50 missionaries there. It was a lot of fun to see a lot of missionaries I haven't seen in a while. I saw Elder Cabral (MTC) for the first time since January. I also talked to Elder Kuck who is still in Townsend and guess what....W M is getting baptized in two weeks! Isn't that So Exciting! He had a meeting with the Stake President who he really looks up to and he pretty much told W it was time and committed him to baptism and W agreed. Pres. Fischer is coming up to baptize him. I wish I could be there but there is no chance with how far away Havre is. Oh well that's pretty cool.

So we set up chairs on a hill side of a meadow that had a bunch of big pine trees near it and that's where we did our conference. Part of the conference was going out on our own into the woods to reflect on all that God has created for us. It was a very spiritual experience. Definitely a high light of my mission so far to sit there under a big pine tree and just look out into this great valley with a perfect blue sky and a perfect day. It was so nice to just sit there and look at God's creations. It was a lot of fun to spend a day in jeans and a tshirt with a great group of Elders, Pres, and beautiful surroundings.

We spent the night in Great Falls on Thursday and then woke up early on Friday. Friday Elder Larson woke us up at 5:30. I just thought he wanted to get us up and out of there early so we could get back to Chinook early. Well after we were showered and everything and about to leave he looks at the clock for the first time and realizes it's 6:15. He asks if that's the correct time and we said um yeah. He then freaks out and says NO WAY! I forgot to change my alarm from yesterday! We missed an hour of sleep! It was pretty funny. He asked why we never said anything and we said we just trusted him and thought he just wanted to get us out of there early. haha So from Wednesday night-Friday morning we drove 500 miles.

The other night we got home and the sky was really really clear and the stars were Amazing. You could even see the Milky Way big time! Best stars I have ever seen. It was cool.

We taught an investigator in Chinook named B this weekend. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon. She went from saying at the beginning of our lesson that Joseph Smith was just a crazy man to at the end saying why would Joseph Smith ever lie about that. I just really hope she'll read it now and not tell us the same thing S did that it's a good winter project!

Well All the BYU news brings great Joy to my soul. On Saturday I think I did pretty good not thinking about it very much. Just when I got up, then when I realized it was 5:15 and the game had just started, and then again at 9:20 when I wondered to myself if they had won. As long as we stay busy I'm good. I'm glad to hear they won. Glad to hear the 2 QB thing worked out. Also really liking the new independence and ESPN stuff. It will be interesting to see who they get scheduled. Also loving the games vs Notre Dame. I can't wait to raz Coach F about that. Also glad BYU bball didn't get shafted and that they'll have some good schools to play. Who else is in the WCC? So did BYU write a Declaration of Independence? haha Well I better get going. Thanks to everyone who sent me something this week. It was awesome to get some good mail! Congrats Ricky on the mission call. You'll do awesome! Leaving almost exactly to the day I left just one year later. Have a great week. Love you all. GO BYU!!! Beat Air Force!

Love,

Elder Davis

PS. So we've heard a little about this Glenn Beck Rally thing? Just wondered what it was all about. Elder Whitlock's parents flew to DC and went to it so that's pretty cool.