Snow....Yes you heard me right, snow. Believe it or not we were sitting there on Friday at our desks weekly planning and watching it rain when all of a sudden it was like you could see the rain better. Then it hit me what was going on. It was starting to snow! It was a really wet snow but snow none the less. I looked at the calendar...Sep 17th! One day before that crazy dude we talked to in Havre told us it'd snow because his tree had turned colors. No Way! As we sat there it wet snowed for a good 20 min. too warm to build up or turn into any kind of snow storm but still. It's September! As we planned we talked to Bishop Q who lives in Big Sandy which is closer to the Bear Paw Mountains and he said it was snowing enough the roof of his house was fully covered! We also talked to the Zone Leaders and they said it snowed enough in Great Falls that they had to bust out the broom scraper thing to dust off their windshield. Everyone keeps telling us it's normally not this wet. The farmers are ticked. I woke up early this morning and it was raining pretty hard. Pretty much the whole way driving to Lewistown this morning it rained. I told Elder Whitlock I didn't know I was coming to Washington for my mission but I'm ok with it. Ok enough weather talk.
So we had a really good week this week. Lewistown was in town for team ups and we had 7 lessons on Tuesday. And that was only really working 2/3's of the day because of district meeting. The best part was when Elder Butler and I were TRACTING, Yes we still Do Tract, Crazy AZ Mission. I'll get back to that later. Ok so while we were tracting we knocked on a door and a 16 year old boy answered. I gave him a tracting approach and asked him if he knew any Mormons at school. He said no. None of them wear name tags like you do. haha I thought that was funny. So he asked his Dad who was sitting right there if we could come in and his Dad said yeah sure if you want to talk to them. So he let us in. We ended teaching him and his other teenage brother the first lesson. The one kid A seems really interested. The other one, M, seems interested but not as much as A. So at the end we committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they said they would. I also asked them if they'd be interested in Young Men's and their Dad laughed and said A had just been asking about a youth group of some kind a few min. before we knocked. He said he had plans this week on Wed. but that he'd love to come next week. So we have an appointment set up to teach them tomorrow afternoon. Their Dad right as we were leaving said Hey next time tell them about the Angel Moroni. This really caught us off guard. We asked him if he has ever read the Book of Mormon and he said just the book of Moroni. He said their last name is Moronie and that he heard about the Angel Moroni once and it interested him so he got a hold of a Book of Mormon and just read the last book. So now we think we have some good potential with the Dad too. It was awesome to be tracting in the right place at the right time like that. We are excited to teach them more. We were also able to teach a referral out on Ft. Belknap on Thurs and she said she'd read the Book of Mormon. So we got 3 new investigators this week. That is most definitely a record in this area since I've been here. Our mission and zone is really pushing to find more so it was good to help out our zone meet some of the goals we have set. We are also going to start teaching K's son and J (I think I talked about her last week).
Speaking of K, Elder Whitlock and Elder Ika had an amazing lesson with her. They got there and in their talking she opened up and said she took our challenge last week and prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and that she felt the spirit for the first time so strong she said she couldn't stop crying and that it scared her. She said she felt that way for three straight days and then she bore her testimony to Elder Whitlock and Ika. This was really good because we still weren't sure if she knew Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon to truly be true. Now that we know this though we know she is ready for baptism on our side. Now Bishop Q is going to talk to her probation officer and after he does that we hope that we have a good case to take to Pres. Gardner so that he can take it to the First Presidency and petition for her to be allowed to be baptized. I really think she is ready and hope everything can work out.
The four of us Elders ate at L P's on Mon. night and then his brother C P's on Tues. We made it a little competition between Bro. L P and Sis. A P for who could make better Italian. Let's just say L P's was really good and he bakes really good cookies. But...Sis. P blew him out of the water! Oh man she made a really good Italian dish. It was probably the best Italian I've ever had and then to top it off she made Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Every one's first word out of their mouths after taking a bite of Warm Chocolate Melting Cake was Wow! They thanked me for sharing the recipe with them. Sis. P wrote on her recipe card Elder Davis's Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Bro. P said that may have sealed my fate for being remembered in Havre. hahaha
So here's a good rez story for yall. After leaving a lesson with that lady who said she'd read the Book of Mormon we were walking back to the car with Pres. J when an older native came walking right up to us. She said Hey you're Mormons right? We said yes. She said Well I'm a Jack Mormon! Pres. J being naive said oh really what's that? She said I'm a Mormon who drinks, smokes, and cusses! She went on to tell us all of these crazy things. She was really confused about the gathering of Israel. She said why do you feel like you have to gather my people? We aren't lost. We're right here. We've always been here. You don't need to gather us. haha She also said why do you think we are cursed? We look like the earth. You're the ones that look like Ghosts! hahaha She ended up asking us to say a prayer and when we asked her who she'd like to say it she said the creator and pointed to Pres. J. This caught him off guard. He asked what her name was so he could pray for her and she rambled off the longest name I've ever heard. I almost lost it at this point when Pres. J had the funniest look on his face like oh great what do I do now? hahahah So he finally just prayed for her and used the first name she had said. Oh man. Never a dull moment on the rez.
One quick thing. Dad did you know Richard G Scott served in Uruguay on his mission. Pretty cool huh?
So we went with the R family to Stake Conference in Great Falls this weekend. It was a regional conference so it was broadcast in from Salt Lake to Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Elder Hallstrom, Sis.Cook, Elder Perry, and Pres. Uchtdorf spoke. Pres. Uchtdorf spoke about preparing to go on a mission and being better member missionaries. It is always nice when members can hear it from a general authority and have it back up what you've been telling them. The funniest line of the conference was when Pres.Uchtdorf said that young men need to save for their missions and not be worried about spending money on big trucks with big tires. That was the Perfect line for about 95% of young men in Montana and Wyoming. And maybe Colorado too. hahaha I wonder what Elder Child thought of that. hahaha
So after the conference before we came back to Havre we went and ate with the Rs at the park in Great Falls and then we got to feed the ducks and geese. Sis. R had bought everyone a cheap loaf of bread. It was so much fun. I hadn't done that in so long. haha
We have a musical fireside this weekend in Great Falls . It should be pretty good. Elder Whitlock and I have a small speaking part. Transfers are also this weekend. I honestly have no idea what could happen. I've been here 6 months so you'd think I'm outta here but the trend in this area is 7 1/2. I could really care less if I go or not. I would really like to stay in this area and finish some things I've started but we'll just have to see what the Lord thinks. Pres. is coming to Lewistown tomorrow after District Meeting for interviews. We'll see what he says.
Ok now really quick Mom told me about the "Lazy AZ" mission as I'm now calling it. That is weak sauce that they aren't tracting! Yeah in a perfect world the members would give us a ton of referrals but we don't live in a perfect world. We are trying to get members to help us more but you have to do your part too. You can't just solely depend on the members. If this is coming from the mission president I'm really surprised. This in my mind totally contradicts Preach My Gospel teachings that has a whole section on finding! Yes the members of the church in my mind need to step up their missionary efforts and that is like Mom said a big responsibility of ward missionaries (which we don't have here, too small, just enough members to fill callings). End of story Yes We Do Tract. It's our way of showing the Lord that we are willing to work hard to find and that we have faith that our efforts will pay off and that we will find someone to listen to us. I also believe that when we work hard and tract that even if you don't find someone that the Lord will bless you in other ways because of your hard work. And I would never feel comfortable going to work out at a gym when I should be out teaching and tracting. So tell your missionaries that you'll find them someone to teach when they up their finding effort and that combined you can all move the work forward. So yeah. End of that rant.
Well I better get going. I love you all and I hope you all have a good week. Hope to hear from you all when you get a chance. Talk to you later.
Love,
Elder Davis
PS Yes I got my BYU Shirt! Thank you so much! And my contacts are in good shape. I also got a Uruguay Jersey from Andrew! Thanks so much Andrew! They both look good on me! haha
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