Monday, October 25, 2010

Ups and Downs - Monday, October 25, 2010

Hello Everyone,

This week was surely a week of ups and downs. Monday we had a good Pday. Bro. P played tennis with us at about 8 in the morning because that's the time he had free. So we altered our study schedule and went to play what could be the last good tennis I play on my mission. When we first got out there it was 23 degrees! That is definitely the coldest I've ever played tennis in. Thanks to the long sleeve BYU shirt gma G sent and my BYU sweatshirt I stayed warm enough though. The only thing that was cold was my hands holding the racquet. Elder Wahl didn' t want to play so he just wrote letters while Bro.P and I battled it out. We played two full sets. I won the first and he was up in the second when he had to go so I guess it was a tie.

Tues. we had a slow day and probably one of the craziest days of my mission. Let's just say it all started when I got up from studies in the morning and realized I had a HUGE hole in my grey suit pants! They had been wearing thin and a Sis. in Chinook had tried to fix them but it only lasted 3 months. So those pants were no good anymore. Well I go to look at my navy suit pants and there is a little hole starting to do the same thing! So now I'm thinking Great! I'm going to be in a General Authorities presence tomorrow and I have Holes in my Pants! So we ran around looking for a patch and looking at suits at Herbergers and then we ran into Sis. P and she said she thought she could fix them. So we took the patch over there and she fixed up my navy suit pants. In all the running around I kept leaving stuff at the house and the church and it was just a crazy day. It didn't end much better though. We drove to GF and didn't hit any deer so that was good but when I got there I realized I had left my bathroom bag and my towel! Luckily Lewistown was still on their way so they picked me up a tooth brush and some contact solution. Elder Butler also let me use his electric shaver the next morning to shave.

So we are finally to the big day. Wed. Lewistown and us drove to Helena. I love Helena. It just feels like home to me when I go there. Just being there for Pdays and district meeting days created a great love for Helena when I was in Townsend. Anyway we arrived there and I was able to see Elders Child, Holbrook, Whitlock, Kuck, Stewart, Cabral, Coker, and a bunch of other Elders! The whole west half of the mission was there! It was a lot of fun to see so many missionaries there. Elder Packer focused pretty much all of his thoughts on the spirit and how we need to BE a missionary not just Do missionary things. It was really good. He also promised us that if we'd follow All the rules in the white hand book that our mission would double our baptisms. So Pres.Gardner has issued the challenge to read the white hand book before the end of the transfer and that we need to get the little things out of our lives. He compared it to the beetles that are killing Montana's forests and how the little things like not fully following a rule or things similar to that are what can cause great damage to us, our areas, and our mission. It was a really good conference and Elder Wahl and I have talked a lot about what we can do better in our work to get the little things out.

We helped Bro. J pick a ton of potatoes on Sat. They have a root cellar and they have about 3 big buckets full of potatoes. I think it finally hit me how long I've been here when I was picking the same potatoes I planted back in June. It really will be interesting to see what happens at the end of this transfer.

So Pres. Gardner drives so much! He was going to Glasgow for an interview, and then to Havre to interview K, and then to GF to interview another man on Sat. Well then we get a call and K tells us how she has to go to GF to pick up her sister who just had a baby. So we rearrange things to have her interviewed in GF. Well on Sat. night we get a call that she never showed up. So now we are worried and can't get a hold of her. Pres. tells us if we can get a hold of her he was spending the night in GF and would come up to interview her before heading off to Lovell. So we run over there and wake her up Sunday morning. She said she had been kind of thrown into some crazy stuff and her sister found out her man as she called him was cheating on her and it was a crazy night and that she was so sorry that she had missed getting interviewed. We told her it was ok and that we were sorry she got caught up in the middle of all that but that there was still hope. She said ok I'll be at church and pres said ok I'm on my way. So we're sitting in sacrament meeting during the sacrament and waiting and waiting and praying and praying and No Kristi. Finally just after the sacrament she walks in. Feeew! Huge relief. So Pres. Gardner shows up and does an interview with her and afterwards he telsl us he can't guarantee anything but he feels hopeful. So K is potentially one step closer to being Baptized!

Well we were suppose to be headed to GF today for Zone Olympics but I've been feeling not good at all. It started with a cold and big time runny nose yesterday and then last night I threw up. So we are taking it easy today and not going to GF. Lewistown is going to come up here after Zone Olympics and have district meeting here tomorrow. It's a bummer we weren't able to make it and I feel bad for Elder Wahl that I'm causing him to lose out on some fun and getting to know other elders but he understands and I think can tell I'm not feeling so hot.

One last story before I take off. So in the pocket on our white shirts as missionaries we carry our white hand book and pass along cards. Well sometimes if you bend down too far they'll spill out onto the floor. It's jokingly called a "Greeny Barf". Well the other night I had gone to the bathroom and as I went to pull the toilet I bent down and bam! I greeny barfed into the toilet! Oh man it was so bad. I grabbed my white hand book out as fast as I could and took out my ministerial certificate and the missionary commission thing Mom had sent me. Luckily they are both laminated and I was able to sanitize them and salvage them but my white hand good was toast! Luckily I had one from Gma G that was in my binder that I was able to replace the soaked one with. There were also pass along cards with Christ on them so I dug those out of there and threw them away. I felt it would be really sac religious to flush those down. It was horrible but it made for a really good laugh and Elder Wahl, the zone leaders and Lewistown all got a good laugh out of me.

Glad to see BYU finally won a game! We talked to C, the recent convert, about fasting in other ways like not watching tv since she can't fast the normal way and she looked at us and said But It's the Playoffs!! haha that was funny. I think I found it a lot funnier then ElderWahl did. hahaha

Well I hope you all have a great week. I love you lots. Thanks for the package Aunt Cindy. Thanks for the Ensign Mom. And thanks for the blog updates Gma G. I really enjoy his blog. Well hopefully we can have a good week 5 of the transfer. I can't believe it's week 5 already. Crazy stuff!

-Elder Davis

Monday, October 18, 2010

Baptism and more - Monday, October 18, 2010

Well I was finally able to witness a convert baptism on my mission! It was really nice to be a part of. Sunday we had church in Chinook so we left there after opening exercises of priesthood and headed off to Havre. Once we got to the Havre Ward they were just finishing church. There seemed to be a special buzz in the air and everyone was excited for the baptism. A few minutes later P and his son C came out dressed in all white. It was so cool to see. P just looked so calm and happy with everything that was going on. The service was held in the gym/baptism font area and I'd say that a little over 50 people were there. It was cool to see all the support from the ward. His youngest daughter gave the talk on baptism and then it was time for the baptism. E.Wahl and I were the witnesses and his son C baptized him. The baptism went smooth and just like that he was baptized! His son did a really good job of speaking out and being loud enough for people to hear despite being a pretty quiet and shy kid. E.Wahl was then able to play the piano while they got dressed. Then Bishop Q who P had picked to confirm him was able to give him the Holy Ghost. E.Wahl and I were able to stand in for that too. It was just amazing to see how prepared he has been through all of this and how you can tell he's just ready to be a member of the church and to get to the temple with his family some day. We had a bbq after at the H's house and it was a lot of fun to just sit and get to know P a little more. We have been going through the lessons and teaching so much it was good to sit and get to know him better. He said he really likes E. Wahl and I and that before he didn't really like the missionaries but that we must have been the right guys for the job because he really likes us. That was another confirmation to me that I am were I'm supposed to be. In good ol' Havre Montana!

Well now I guess I'll fill you in on the rest of my week. Definitely not as cool as P's baptism but a good week. We had team ups with the zone leaders. E. Colf and I spent the day together. We talked to some interesting people. I've never talked to so many interesting people in one day as I did with E. Colf. I told him he must bring out all the weirdos but I guess weirdos need the gospel too. haha. One house we walk up to this guy is walking out and he said we can go talk to the guy inside. Well the other guy comes walking out and right away we have some suspicions about these two. After talking with the one man he asks us what our stance is on Homosexuality?! I've never been asked this before. I just kind of turned to E. Colf probably with a shocked look on my face and luckily E. Colf being the stud missionary he is was able to answer it really well. Well then later this group of girls in their 20's are on their front porch and we stop and talk to them and they tell us they're bi and want to know our stance on Homosexuality. It was crazy. Let's just say I know what to say to that question now so that's good.

On Thurs. we looked at the baptism font and it looked Nasty! There were giant spiders and it just looked brown and gross. So we got in there and did a deep clean on it. I don't think it's ever been cleaned before. Well afterwards we both walk outside and realize we left our keys in the church. So now we are locked out of the church and our truck. Luckily a member lives close by and was able to help us out. It was pretty funny.

Sat. we were out at the J's and helping pick up some large branches that had been blown down from this big wind storm we had had and next thing you know we are over by the corral with the sheep and goats and this dumb donkey. Well E. Wahl yells FLEE!!! and all of a sudden the donkey goes Crazy! and busts through a gate and starts to run away as all the sheep start to run away with him. So we go taking off after them and try to bring them back but E. Wahl not being an experienced farmer like me hahaha, yeah right, runs right at them and they just keep running away. Well like 250 yards later they stop and we are able to chase the sheep back but the dumb donkey just keeps going. Finally we just leave him alone but keep watching him and he comes back. All of this while the Js were off at some farm auction. Good thing none of them ran away for good.

We found out this week that our mission is going to be a pilot mission for the new phase 2 of mormon.org. We are going to do online proselyting through Facebook somehow. Right now it's only open to DL's and ZL's but Pres wants it open to all eventually. The thought is for an hour in the morning when things are slow we could get on and blog spiritual thoughts and chat with non members and teach them online. More details to come and of course it's not for me right now anyway because I'm not a District Leader or Zone Leader.

Well we have mission tour in Helena this Wed. The whole west half of the mission will be there. It will be fun seeing a lot of Elders I haven't seen in a while. Elder Allan Packer will be there. It should be really good. I'm really excited. Well I better get going. I hope everyone has a good week. I love you all and hope you enjoy your first week back to school and work. Talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Davis

PS I received a package from Gma and Gpa Davis but not from you. It could have arrived today maybe but we are in Havre so we'll see Thurs.

Monday, October 11, 2010

What a Week! - Monday, October 11, 2010

Hey Everyone,

We are at a member's home today getting to email since it's Columbus Day and I'm very thankful for that because if they wouldn't have been so nice we would have had to wait till tomorrow.

So it sounds like everyone has had a good week. I have had a Great week. Let's start with the best part. We taught P H on Tues and had a really good lesson with him. We committed him to baptism on the 23 of Oct. and him and his wife looked at each other and said oh no we'll be out of town that week. So his wife was trying to figure out a date in late Oct or Nov and he said well why are we waiting around? Why can't we just do it on the 17th? We told him we could do that we'd just need to meet with him probably twice more to make sure he's good with everything. He responded by saying well can you just stay and keep teaching? haha we said Of Course! So we had a 2 1/2 hr lesson with him! It was awesome! He is so ready for baptism and he just had his interview at 1:00 and he's good to go! So I'm Finally going to be at a Baptism! It's pretty much my first baptism. Of course you can't forget the Hs and W M but I didn't get to be there for those. So I'm so happy to finally be a part of a baptism. His oldest son who is 17 is going to baptize him. The ward is really excited. In priesthood yesterday we were sitting there with P and they announced the baptism and this old man in the ward turned to the guy next to him just in front of us and said No Way they finally converted that guy! haha it was so funny! Luckily I don't think P heard him. haha So yeah a baptism in 7 Days! It's been so Amazing to see it all work out so perfect and so fast. He told us he's just had to humble himself and come to the Lord to work through some recent struggles and that that lead him to wanting to take the lessons again. He took them when they first got married but he said he wasn't doing it for himself it was just for his wife and that's why he couldn't commit last time. But now he said he's ready this time and it's for him.

So besides that we taught 26 lessons! That's the most I've ever taught in a week on my mission! It was a lot of fun to just be working really hard to keep looking for new investigators and keep looking for more people to teach. We also found 4 new investigators this week and more this last month than I've found in my whole mission. It's been a lot of fun. Elder Wahl has really helped me catch some of his greeny fire again and it's really helped us. That and the members are starting to help us a little more which will really help this area to pick up big time. We've been working hard with them and they are just starting to get it I think. Sis. B said in her testimony this week that my challenge to her to pass out more mormon.org cards has really helped her learn that it can be easy if you just put forth an effort. She also bore a good testimony about how if the members will band together and be more missionary minded that the ward will expand enough to get the chapel expansion. I'm glad our efforts was able to inspire her to say that and hopefully that will help get the mission effort going even more.

We taught J again and she you can tell she is frustrated and just wanting to get baptized. We talked to her about fasting and how that can help us receive blessings from the Lord. So hopefully that motivated her to keep working towards her goal and helping her mom's heart to be softened.

So I've been listening to that Lamb of God cd. It's really good. I really like track numb. 9 where the Lord is coming into the city. What was it like to perform that program. Pretty cool I bet.

I'm glad you've enjoyed the pics. Yes the old guy with the beard is W. Also the speedometer was when a member was driving us to White Sulfer Spring. He was Crazy! I know the Lord was watching out for us that day. The other old people were the Ws. They were an old Methodist couple that liked to feed us and play Yahtzee. I think he would join the church but she was just stuck in her old Methodist ways.

Yes I got your package Mom and Gma G. Thank you so much. Those were both fun packages to get! Well I better get going. I love you all. Thanks for the pics. I'm going to put them on my card so I can look at them all later. I hope you all have a great last week of break. Glad BYU won! Elder Ika said that Mom should go to every game if they always win when she goes. Well talk to you later. Love you all.

Elder Davis

Monday, October 4, 2010

Hey - Monday, October 4, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Well this week was a pretty busy week. I spent Mon-Wed with the Zone Leaders in Great Falls. It was good to get to know them better and to watch how they work. I even got to go to little old Belt which is a pretty small town about 20 min outside of GF. One funny thing that happened was when we street contacted this guy who was washing his car he got really scared and told us that Christians truly scare him. He ran inside his garage away from us. He was really scared. It was funny. I don't know why he is so scared of Christians. So it's definitely heated up here and on Tues it was 90 and we were walking all over because the ZLs have very few miles and when we got home at night despite drinking a lot I had some kind of rash all over my torso. I assume it was just a heat rash but after the ZLs giving me a blessing and getting a good nights rest it was gone. Kind of weird. It itched a little but wasn't that bad. Just was all over me. I'll have to send a pic so you can see.

So Wed. at 9:30 pm we picked up my new comp from off of the bus. His name is Elder Wahl and he is from Ohio. He is from a town near Columbus so not near Ms. F. He went to a year at BYU and he is a really good elder. I'm excited to work with him. I can't believe he's only been out on a mission for less than a week because he really knows his stuff and is a good teacher. So this area and I have truly been blessed with a good elder. He's not much into sports but does like Ohio St. and BYU Football. I think the Lord will never give me a comp who likes sports like I do. He must be trying to keep me in check. hahaha

We got back to Havre on Thurs and taught a part member family. The whole family besides the Dad are active members. Well we had a really good lesson with him and he said he's gone through some tough times lately and has had to rely on the Lord for help and that has increased his faith. We taught him the first lesson and he invited us back for lunch and a lesson in between sessions of conference yesterday. We had another good lesson with him and he said he knows the Book of Mormon is true. We had soft committed him to baptism the first lesson and now our plan is to commit him with a date when we meet with them Tues. You can just tell he's ready and that because of what has happened over the last couple of months has really humbled him. It's been amazing to see.

K was gone all week and we just briefly got in with her yesterday. We need to talk to her about her schedule and then talk to pres about coming up this week or next. So more info to come.

Despite only working in our area from mid day Thurs to Sun we had 18 lessons so we were really happy. We worked hard to work in between conference sessions to teach lessons and invite others to watch conference. Conference was amazing. I love it even more as a missionary because you are the one that gets to sit back and be taught.

Well I have to get going. It's taken me a while to write this because the keyboard I am using is HORRIBLE! oh well. I'll have to send a letter to fill you in on the other stuff. Have fun in Utah this week and take a lot of pics at the BYU game for me :). Hopefully they'll win. They won the last time Mom went which was probably 7 years ago so maybe they'll pull it out. Oh and Dad I second what you said about Utah State's students.

Love you all and have a great week.

Love,

Elder Davis