Monday, September 19, 2011

The Sting of Loss

Well first off to address the game this weekend a thought came to me while sitting in priesthood meeting. I've attached a picture to share this thought with you. The sting of a loss truly is swallowed up in the service of Christ. It's amazing how things from the world don't effect you as much when you are busy serving God. Probably because one I didn't see it and two there were other things occupying my mind this weekend. I'm of course disappointed in the loss but it's not so bad as it once was when I was at home.haha Any way hopefully next week is a better week for the Cougs. Maybe Ether 12:27 could apply well to this team.

What a week here in the great MBM. It sure started out rough but improved over time. We had 8 lessons cancel the first two days of the week. So things really dragged but it started to come around. The big things of the week have to be D. He called us on Tues. and told us how much he can feel the Holy Ghost guide him. He was also asked to speak in church on the Holy Ghost this next Sunday so this will really help him to be able to talk about how it's already effecting him. We talked to him Sunday afternoon and he said he was going to the bon fire. We weren't quite sure what he meant by that. We just figured someone must have invited him over to their house or something. Later he called about the lesson we had set up with him and Brother Z, one of his fellowshippers, and he said that Brother Z had laughed at him because he asked if it was going to be safe to have the fireside with the dry weather we've had and the high winds. Brother Z had to explain what a fireside was to him and then after he told us that we realized he had been talking about the stake fireside. hahaha. Dale had told Brother Z he was also worried because we had told him he could wear his suit to the fireside and he didn't want to get it smokey. haha New members, you sure do have to be careful with the terms you throw out to them without explaining it all. He's doing great though. He loved the fireside and we're excited for his talk this Sunday.

The D's, who I'm not sure if I mentioned last week. They are a young part member couple we have started teaching. We taught them Wed. night and had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon and then we ate at their place Sunday and taught Sister D again. They are such a fun young couple. I really want to see her get baptized and see them get to the temple. That would be so Awesome! It's just great to get to teach them. I look forward to this Sunday when we teach her again.

Sat. was a long and adventurous day. We didn't have the car and we had an appointment at 10 a ways away. It was raining so we started to walk and try to talk to people along the way. We had our umbrellas and jackets on. It was kind of fun. By the end of the day we were beat though. We definitely walked more Sat. than any other day on my mission. When we told the Garfields how much we had walked they were amazed.

Wed. we had a lesson at the Ps' house with A. She's the one on date for the 8th of Oct. Things are still going good with her. She's fun to teach because she's pretty smart and picks up on things really quick and easy. She wasn't at church though so hopefully she'll make it the next two weeks so that she can stay on date.

We also had a good lesson with Brother W. He had some set backs this week and smoked a little. He got frustrated when he did that which was good because in the past it didn't effect him that much. You can really tell the Holy Ghost is working on him.

Well I better get running. Hope everyone has a good week. Only a couple of weeks before fall break so just keep pushing though it girls. And good luck with the the new job mom.

I love you all. Talk to you later.

-Elder Davis

Monday, September 12, 2011

A Baptism and a Handshake for the Journal

Good Day to everybody!

What a week! Where do I even start? Let's start with our leadership meetings Tues. in Billings and then Wed. in Helena. We had a football coach based presentation talking about getting the members more involved and coaching them up in how to get more involved with online missionary work. Similar things to what dad presented in our ward. It went pretty good. I think everyone really liked it. The drive to Helena with President Gardner was yet again a highlight. It's just really neat to be able to hear him tell stories. He's friends with Elder Holland because they are both from the St.George area and they worked on different church things together. He told of a story where Elder Holland had stopped in to president's seminary class one day shortly after an apostle had passed. President said to him you know who I'd make a member of the 12 if I could? Jeff Holland. Well it didn't happen that time but the next time a spot was open Elder Holland was called. President must be really in tune with the spirit.

After arriving home late Wed. it was back to work and get ready for our baptism. D was baptized Sat. night by his boss who had introduced him to the church. It was a small but great service. Brother W who is an investigator was there. It was so good to see D get baptized. He's been very excited and wants to start participating in callings and family history as soon as possible. His boss Brother Z is a great example of what member missionary work can do.

I had mentioned Brother W. We had a really good lesson with him and we are getting ready to set a date with him. He has almost read the whole gospel principles book which has taught him quite a bit. He really learns a lot from it.

We contacted a part member young couple who blessed their baby a few weeks ago. They are really funny. She asked a lot of questions about missionaries and kind of church culture. It was funny to hear their story of going to Utah and some things that happened. He's from Lovell and is a big Wyoming football fan. They quickly learned from Elder Garcia that I was a big BYU fan and we poked fun at each other a little. We are excited to start teaching them this week. She really has very little gospel knowledge so I have great faith that if we can get in there and bring the spirit great things will happen.

Good to hear a lot of you liked my Sept. 11th blog. Afterward I found an article from President Monson about Sept. 11th and the 10 year anniversary and he said pretty much the same thing I did. Here's a link to what he said http://lds.org/church/news/president-monson-reflects-on-nations-spirituality?lang=eng . Also go check out Elder Garcia's blog http://greetthedawn.blogspot.com/2011/09/cancer-and-priesthood-blessings.html . He had a really neat story about his dad. Oh and what do you all think of the new blog background?

Sad to hear BYU gave a game away. I guess you take one you give one unfortunately. The blessing of a mission if I didn't see it they didn't really lose right? haha I hope they can beat the Utes this week! We are eating with the bishop and his Ute lovin family tonight. Things could get interesting.

Elder Christofferson was in Bozeman this weekend for a stake conference. The elders over there were really excited to be able to go. President and Sister Gardner went over there and some how the assistants snuck their way over there for teamups too. Well we later learned that he was doing a fireside for temple workers here in Billings Sunday night. We talked to everyone we knew who was a temple worker including the G who we live with. We dropped hint after hint about how much we'd like to go. All of them shot us down and told us how it was for temple workers only. Well Sunday night we were walking by the church around 8:40 and we couldn't resist walking in. It looked like they had finished maybe 10 min prior and most were to the refreshments in the back by then. We looked up front and there he was. There was a short line by then to shake his hand so we booked it up there and got in line. He was trying to make his way out so he was coming down the stairs and we were pretty much the last people in line. He looked down at us and said elders! Where are you from? We told him and then he talked about how much he enjoyed spending time with President and Sister Gardner this weekend and our compadres in Bozeman. What a great experience to be able to shake his hand! I'll definitely never forget that!

Well I better get going. I hope you all have a great day and week! I love you and and enjoyed the emails today. Be safe and I'll talk to you next week.

-Elder Davis

PS. Oh I almost forgot! We went to that baseball game last week and had a great time! I'll have to send some pics!

Mom what do I need to fill out for school stuff. I want to get started but am still a little lost. I'm going to definitely get started this next week. And Dad if Bishop would like me to speak/testimonify on that Sunday I'd love to if we are still going to be there that Sunday.

Monday, September 5, 2011

E-Mail Before a Basball Game

Hello Everyone,

Hope you've all had a great week. I hear it's been pretty hot in AZ so I'm definelty glad to be here. The only thing that worries me though is the fact that it was 45 this morning when Elder Garcia and I went to play bball at the church. I could slightly see my breath. I think fall is coming which mean winter is coming which means ugg! Not good!

Any way this week was crazy, fun, exciting, tiring and quick. It's weird how I sit down to email and look back on my week and things from a week ago feel so far away but yet the week went so quick. Weird huh?

Tuesday we helped out with the new missionaries coming in. There were 17 of them so we got to go help pick them up from the airport and help out with their orientation. It was a lot of fun to be around them and feel their excitement. They had a lot of questions about the mission and Montana so it was fun to be able to tell them all about it. I remember the Elders who helped us out when we first came in and answered our questions so I was glad I could do that for them. We also were able to partake of some great cooking by SisterGardner. In the afternoon we took two groups at different times over to see the temple. It is always really neat to be over by the temple. You can definitely feel a special spirit there. It was neat to see the new missionarie's eyes light up when we pulled up there too.

Wed. we had the greeny breakfast where everyone around Billings and those here for transfers along with the new missionaries get together for a big breakfast. Then we headed over to an old folks home where we played bingo with them. haha Later we had a lesson with A. She is the one who's friend is on a mission and her friends family is fellowshipping her. We had a great lesson and ended up setting a baptism date with her for Oct. 8th. She really picks up on things quickly especially from 3 Nephi 11. And as if that wasn't a great way to end our night we went over to the departing missionaries testimony meeting. It was neat to see Elders Child, Wells, and Butler give their testimonies. I sure am going to miss them. It's then when it hit me that I need to stay all the way till the end no matter what others in my group are doing. It appears a lot of Elders in my group are going to try to go early but I'm staying. And I figure if I could get to speak in Grandma and Grandpa Gwynn's ward then there would be a lot more family there and elders I've served around in the mission so that wouldn't be too bad.

Alright now I keep forgetting to tell you about D. D is a guy who's a referral from a member in another ward. We've been teaching him a lot and he really wants to get baptized. He's been to so many different churches he has so many false ideas about things and it's been a bit of a struggle in one way to teach him but then again he's picked up on things really quick. We have a baptism date set for this coming Sat. but then he had his interview with President and it appears there might be a pending probation issue but the details have to be figured out so right now we are just waiting on President to find out more and get back to us. Hopefully it all works out for the best.

We've been in the office a lot this week getting ready for leadership this Tues in Billings and Wed. in Helena. I'm excited to take another road trip with President. It's always so neat to listen to him talk about different things mission and gospel related. Our presentation is kind of football based and talk about coaching the members on how to help with our online work. It sounds like Dad has a similar thing going down this week so hopefully all goes well for the both of us.

Glad to hear BYU won! It sure helps to have them on ESPN because Brother Garfield the brother we live with told me they had won. I doubt that would have happened last year with the old TV stuff. Glad to hear some more details about he game from Dad though. Hopefully they can get a win this week in Texas. I hope Brett's using this game as a good selling point. haha knock! knock! Hello we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the same church that owns BYU the school Texas is playing this week. Would you like to learn more about our beliefs before you play us this weekend? It could work.

Well I better get going. We are going to a Billings Mustangs minor league baseball game!!! I have always wanted to go to one but knew it'd never happen unless it was on a Monday during the day. I then checked the schedule and hey what do you know they have one today! So we got our tickets last week and our whole zone is going! It should be a lot of fun! I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for the emails. I love you all! Talk to you later.

-Elder Davis

Go Cougars! Beat Texas!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Reports from Montana


Good Day to Everyone,

Well this last week went pretty good. We were definitely busy but for the first time most of it wasn't computer/online stuff. We were able to teach a transfer high 17 lessons and talked to a lot of people through tracting and street contacting.

Transfers were this week. We are no longer covering Blue Creek and Central wards. They have split Blue Creek into its own area and E.Wahl is being doubled in and training and be our district leader. I'm really excited to have him around. We are helping out a lot with the new missionaries coming in this week. It will definitely be a busy week. I'm going to be starting my football/gospel blog this week so check back frequently. Well I'm sorry this email is so lame but I've got a lot on my mind and the sisters are offering me a crepe. I'll try to write a letter this week when brain can think. There are just so many Elders here for the transfers that I can't think with all this commotion around me. I love you all. Go BYU!!!



-Elder Davis

Monday, August 22, 2011

820 miles and 13 hours and 7 minutes later I'm back in Billings.


Oh what a busy week! As you can see from above that's the amount of miles and travel time we covered this week. We took off Wed. with the Iveses (the senior couple over cars/housing) and headed off in the big mission van to Missoula. We stopped in Bozeman and they took us to Applebees which was nice of them and then we rolled (hold on I just got a letter from Grandpa Gwynn..reading) ok I'm back now. Thank you grandpa for the letter. Ok back to the travels, so we got into Drummond (just outside Missoula) about 9:00 and spent the night with the Elders there. Drummond is a small town that's up in the mountains. It's pretty up there. Pine trees all over.

The next morning we headed into Missoula (for the first time on my mission) and had zone conference. We then ran into some complications when we realized we had somehow forgotten the flash drive back in Billings and President couldn't find his computer cord. Luckily after some prayers we were able to get into the family history center and download it and then President found his cord. feew! After that things went great! The zone conference went really well and it was great to be able to see a lot of Elders and Sisters that I served around in Kalispell and then others in Missoula like Elders Mower, Wells, Holbrook, Ika, and Sister Mace to name a few. News from Kalispell the 9 year old M got baptized on the 6th! Also 80+ year old T has stopped drinking coffee and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon now! Everyone kept telling me Kalispell wasn't the same as when I was there which was good to hear I'm missed. haha

After zone conferences ended we booked it over to Townsend. Pres. gave us permission to go out to the M's and stay out there. We got out there about 8 and ate some food that they had prepared for the less active/investigator dinner they do at their house every Thurs. It was great to talk to Brother M (who is the new ward mission leader) and Sister M about life in Townsend and how excited they are to keep helping with the missionary efforts. Especially W. He's really excited to get things rollin' and I'm excited to see what he can do. They had an update for me on Sister D. They said she's doing better and is eating on her own now so that was good to hear.

So after staying at the M's we went into Helena Fri. morning and were able to see some more missionaries that I look up to and love. Namely Elder Butler who has been my district leader and zone leader in the past. He's leaving after this transfer and it's going to be tough to not have him around. The zone conference there went great too and it is always good to be back in Helena. Our presentation went really well at both zone conferences and we are really excited to see if we can get online proselyting to a new level with all of it.

We then left Helena and headed down to Butte where Elder Garcia had served. We ate dinner with a family there and then went and visited his old ward mission leader who owns an ice cream place. I was able to try a fried ice cream which I don't think I've ever had before. It was pretty good. After that we made the long trek back to Billings and got back at about 11. Needless to say my mission has trained me to be able to travel long distances. It's not that bad especially when you get to see so much of the pretty country of Montana.

So I don't know if I had mentioned last week but K, J, and another girl from Kalispell were coming down to do baptisms for the dead this weekend. It worked out to be the day for the rest of Billings to go to the temple too so Elder Garcia and Elder Handcock went to a session while Elder Miner, who baptized K, and I went to do baptisms with K and J. The Billings Temple is so pretty especially in the summer time. It was really neat to see J get to come into the temple. You could tell she was nervous but after a while that was gone and she seemed really calm like a veteran. Those temple workers do such a great job of being very nice and showing you everything though so that I'm sure helped. She even got asked to do some more names after we were already done because a lady had just brought more in so she got to do 20 names. I wasn't able to baptize her because she is a female and I'm a missionary which is weird because Elder Lanham said he was able to go with the Heffelfingers and baptize all of them. Oh well. It was just good to be there. I did get to do confirmations though and was able to confirm her. There is a part of the temple where you can sit right as you walk in and there is a big sky light that looks right up to the spire and the angel Moroni. Pretty cool stuff! I'm sure most of you saw the pictures we took on Facebook. If not go check them out.

Ok now to the missionary work work. We found a new investigator named D. He really wants to be baptized and he likes the fact that we really prepare people for it instead of just throwing them in the water. He's recently made some changes to his life thanks to some encouragement of a member friend. We set a baptism date with him for Sep. 10th. He was at church this week and we'll see tomorrow night how he liked it.

Sister M was also at church for the third time. I think we're getting really close to setting a date with her and hopefully we can help her son to see that he can make some changes and things will work out for the best.

We also had a good lesson with Brother W. He knows he needs to come to church but is really nervous. We're going to do a church tour with him this week to help calm his nerves.

Overall a slow week though but not too bad considering the amount of time we were out of our area. We're really looking forward to this week and getting some really good work done because this is a week we don't have any other extra stuff taking us away from the area. We want to get a good start into this next transfer too. I can't believe transfer calls come this Friday. Things will probably be hectic around here but I don't anticipate anything happening to us.

Good to hear everyone is doing good. Good to hear you're making it to a BYU football game! How come when I was at home Mom and the girls would never go and now that I'm gone everyone goes? haha I told the senior office couple, the Karlinseys who are big BYU fans that you were going and they said oh man without you? I said yep. They said oh sad well we'll watch it for you! haha I want to be a senior couple someday so that I can be on a mission and serve the Lord but still get to watch BYU football. hahahah.

As far as the future of online work Salt Lake seems to be committed to this but just want all of the bugs and kinks worked out for the most part before they let it really go. It really has a lot of good advantages and I just hope we can continue to work and find out how best to use it.

Well I better get going now. I hope all of you have a great week! Also Thanks to those that emailed me. God Bless! And cheer for the Billings, Montana team in the little league world series!

-Elder Davis

PS I'm attaching a picture Elder Mower just sent me of the chicken in that house we taught at in Kalispell. It doesn't look quite as dirty as when I was there. Hopefully the smells not as bad either.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Busy as a Honey Bee!

Hello Children of the Lord!

What a week! This week had to be one of the fastest weeks of my mission! I can't believe it's Monday! I hope to deliver a better email than last week. Last week was cut short because we had to go to the hospital to give a blessing. We've been giving a lot of blessings lately. We've been to the hospital five times in a week. On one hand it's a downer to see the struggles these people are going through but on the other hand it's a blessing to be able to serve them and give them a blessing. I truly feel some of the most spiritual experiences have come from blessings on my mission. One blessing in particular this week that was pretty neat was Sister D. I was able to give her a blessing early last week before she went into surgery. She is in the ICU right now with an infection they found so definitely keep her in your prayers everyone. We went again this morning to give a blessing to another person and we turned the corner and saw Brother D. I was able to talk with him and see Sister D for a few minutes. She is still pretty out of it but is slowly coming around. With all of the blessings we've given it's tough to know whether we'd like to hear after what happened with these people or if it's better to just not find out. With all of the people in the ICU we've visited who have been in pretty bad shape sometimes I think the last option is best and then again it'd be neat to hear the potential stories of the healing power of the priesthood.

On to a lighter note, zone conferences. We had one here in Billings on Wed. and one in Lovell, WY on Friday. Pres. talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and invited us as a mission to reread the Book of Mormon with him by Dec. zone conferences. I'm really excited for this and have already started to do so. I grabbed a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon so that I can go through and do all new markings. I'd invite and encourage all of you, especially my family, to read the Book of Mormon with me and finish by the time I get home. Who's with me?!!

Our presentation/training went really well. Everyone said ours are the best because they entertain and teach. I'll have to see if there is a way to send them to you in an email so you can see them. We went to Lovell on Friday. Wyoming is flat and brown is my first impression. hahaha That was the same impression of southern Wyoming too. Lovell has 6 wards there despite being a small town. The stake center there is huge though. It has two chapels in it. The best part had to be seeing Elder Wahl who I haven't seen in a while and Elder Lunt whose mom by the way is doing better. Cancer is gone.

We had a great finding week in our area when we had time to be there. We were able to find three new investigators and we did a lot of tracting and street contacting on Sat. Our mission is really pushing more finding and talking with people about the Book of Mormon. On Sat. alone we were able to give three Books of Mormon away while tracting. I think that's the most we've ever given out. We are now walking around with Books of Mormon in our hands so that the people we talk to have more of a visual and it might spark their interest more. So far it's working great!

One of our new investigators we think might be an alcoholic. We've taught her on her door step twice now and she always smells of alcohol but retains what we've taught her well so far. It was funny though because she looked at Elder Garcia's hair the second time we taught her and gave him a funny look. She asked why his hair was old (combed over). We just laughed! She then touched it and said wow and it's really thick! hahaha

Well I appreciate the little updates about BYU football. I hope they have a great season and hopefully they'll make the Fiesta Bowl or the National Championship game so that I can watch them! :) HaHa. Well I better get going! I love you all! Next week should be full of more exciting news as we are off to Missoula Wed. for conf. Thurs. and then off to Helena for conf. on Friday. Have a great week! Bye now!

-Elder Davis

Monday, August 8, 2011

Week 3 In Billings


Well Hello there Everyone,

Week 3 in Billings has come and gone. Man how time flies! We had a good week this week both in preparing for zone conferences and in finding and teaching. We started teaching two new families this week. One of them was the ones that just showed up to church last week and the other showed up after church and talked to the Bishop. I really hope they progress because you see how the Lord is leading them.

The crazy story of the week has to be on Wed. we came into the office early to study and then jump right on the computers at 10. Well we come in and Sis.Karlinsey who is one of the senior missionaries says oh I was just about to call you. Listen to this message. We listen and it's a member who called into the mission home late last night and said that there was one of our mission blogs with porn on it. He assured us on the message that it wasn't the elders who had posted it but that because of something called a hotlink it had been changed. So at this point in time we are really lost and confused. So Pres. has us jump on his computer and we call the elders whose blog it was and get their info so we can get on and get rid of it ASAP. Pres then called the man who had left the message and we found out more of the story. So if you take a picture from online and don't save it to your computer but just put it on your blog there is a hotlink attached to it that shows where it originally came from. Well if the person who originally posted it doesn't like that you put it on there they can change the picture while keeping the same address and all of a sudden your picture can be changed because they are hosting the picture and its link. So there was a man who these elders took a picture from and he didn't like it so he went on and changed it to a bad picture and then posted it on this website called reddit where people just post funny things or things they find interesting. This is where the member saw it. The sad thing is it received 60,000 views. The good thing was the man who posted it didn't mention anything about the church so most people probably didn't even connect the blog with missionaries or the church. What a headache though. So we learned all about hotlinks and how we need to not do them anymore and yeah. End of story this is a pilot program and this is what we have to do is learn from mistakes some times and correct them and move on with the work!

We had a good lesson with the Ms this week. We watched the Restoration with them. they said that they really enjoyed church so that is a plus but then they weren't there yesterday. :( . We did have Bro.W there though and he's a less active member who is just starting to come back to church and he's been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and just finished yesterday! We met with him last night and he's doing great. Hopefully we can get his wife on the same page as him.

Sadly enough I've got to get going. There is a man in the hospital who is dying who wants a blessing before he passes. Maybe if I get some time I could get back on here since I didn't get much time. I hope all of you have a great week. I love you all. God bless!

-Elder Davis

Monday, August 1, 2011

Busy, Busy, Busy


Hello Everyone!

Greetings once again from Billings, MT! What a busy busy busy week it was. I can't believe it's already week 3. Ok so first things first the bad news of the week. We are now in a car share :(  Elder Whitlock crashed his car in his area and their area is pretty spread out so whose car gets jacked to become their new car? Yeah that's right our car! It's a bummer because it limits us to being in the office or being out in our area and not bouncing back and forth like we were able to do the first week. We'll survive though. We now get the truck M-W and ever other Sunday.

Ok moving on to better things. We had leadership in Helena on Tues. We had to leave at 5:15 a.m. It was a nice ride because President brought his Galaxy, which is like an ipad, that he just got and we messed around on it and watched Mormon Messages and showed him how to use it. Once in Helena we had a great meeting. We gave our online training presentation and it went really well. We focused on fine tuning our online efforts and just getting rid of some of the riff raff that some missionaries have been caught up in. Some are just getting to lax with all of this so it's a good time to refresh them on what is expected and who they are as missionaries and what they are representing and how we always have to remember that. President said it was exactly what our mission needed at this time which was a great complement to hear. On our way back from Helena Pres. drove and talked about a lot of church history stuff and artifacts and ideas of ancient Book of Mormon thoughts that others have come up with. Man he sure is one smart guy. I've always known this but it's nice to see him open up with other stuff like this. I learned some pretty neat new stuff. I really look forward to traveling with him more.

The next day we had leadership in Billings. It's essentially the same meeting but luckily tweaked just enough to make it not too bad to have it again back to back days. Our presentation went even better the second day I felt.

Teaching wise the week started slow. We had a lot going on but over time we were able to get things going. We did a lot more walking and talking with people on the streets. We found a lot of good potential. I think this next week is going to be a great teaching and finding of new investigators. One case where we were walking around we came across a man who was having a yard sale. We talked with him and another guy that came to buy some stuff. We got a return appointment with one of them. The man had this cool mountain oil painting that he was selling for a buck so I bought it. I figured it would be a good mission memory and keepsake of the time we talked to people about the gospel at a yard sale in Montana! haha

Walking wasn't the funnest this weekend though. It was Hot! The hottest it's ever been for me in MT. It's really not to bad but when you're walking and in missionary clothes it's no bueno! You just sweat like no other and then you smell. Luckily it should be cooling down.

Had a good week at church. We had 3 investigators and 3 less actives we are working with there. Also a non member and his family just came to church and we are going to meet with them this next week. The ones that were the neatest to see was the Ms. They are a mother and son we've been teaching. We had a really good lesson with them this week. We soft committed them to baptism and they've been reading the Book of Mormon quite a bit. Really good potential there!

Didn't get to see the Ds this week because they were headed back to Townsend and will be coming back for the surgery this week so I'll see them then. Oh I did get to see Sister P and R though. Elder Kuck had them meet us after our meeting in Helena. It was so nice to see them again! They are so awesome! You asked about sending the Ms a thank you card. They had their son T living there too. Elder Mower who had served in Townsend too and I always joked that Sister Moss was the younger version of Sister P. haha

Well I better get going. We had to get blog of the week stuff posted and numbers reports sent out so my pday is slipping away. No meetings this week but next week we'll be here in Billings for zone conf. and then down to Wyoming next Friday. Hope everyone has a great week! I love all of you and good luck with school and work! Talk to you soon!

-Elder Davis

PS I got the package with the CD. You're right Mom, it has some good songs and others that aren't that great. But thank you for it.

Monday, July 25, 2011

A Busy Week in Billings

Hello Everyone,

Greeting from sunny Billings, Montana! What a week it's been. First off the 10 hour transfer van ride from Kalispell, to Helena, to Butte, to Bozeman, and finally arriving in Billings Tuesday around 6. It's a pretty neat thing to be around so many missionaries. There are two zones in Billings which mean a lot of missionaries around. It was a surreal feeling pulling up to the mission home on Tuesday. I have only been here for about 24 hours before and havn't been back since a year and a half ago. It sure does feel good to be back though. Wed. I was able to go to the greeny breakfast that they have for all the missionaries in the Billings area and the new missionaries. It was a lot of fun to see Elder Hineman and Elder Whitlock again! I also had the privilege of being able to go to the testimony meeting Wednesday night for the missionaries that were leaving. It was a very spiritual and sad experience. Elders Catron,Weight, and Sargent are all Elders I've been around quite a bit and have been my leaders and example in a lot of ways. This group was just a great group and really tough to say goodbye to. So those were two big highlights of being in Billings and in the mission home. Another big advantage has to be being around President more. It's just great to work with him and also it's great to be working around lunch time and have him stick his head in and ask if we've eaten yet. The answer almost always has been nope so he invites us over for some left overs and we get to eat lunch and talk with him! It's also great to be in the office with the Karlinseys and Ives who are the two office couples.

So my new companion is Elder Garcia from St. George. He's been out a transfer longer than me. We live with a really nice older couple in their basement. It's a great place to live. We've been in the office a lot this week preparing for leadership meeting this week but we were still able to get out and teach a good amount. Elder Garcia wants to find more of a balance this transfer than they did last transfer. We make sure we are always out of the office by 4ish so that we can get some good work done in the evening. Like I said this week we were in the office a lot more than usual getting ready for our leadership meetings this week. Tues we travel up to Helena for the west half of the mission and Wed. we are here in Billings for the east half. We will drive up to Helena and back all in the same day. We have a really great presentation we have been working on. It's focusing on fine tuning our online work to make it better.

We cover the Blue Creek and Central Wards. They both go to different buildings so it's a little different to go to half of Central and then drive over to Blue Creek for their meetings. So far I'm enjoying being in these wards. Already seem like there are a lot of neat people here.

Some of my other responsibilities as an online assistant include monitoring the online activity, collecting online numbers, making presentations at leadership and zone conferences which means I'll be traveling a bit to four different combined zone conferences. We also help out with any other training for new online missionaries and the leadership of the mission. I'm learning a lot but I feel like I'm picking up on everything pretty quick.

I got the BYU shirt from Gma G. Thank you for sending that to me! As far as mail and what address to send it to send it to the mission home addresss 1848 Rimrock Rd. Billings,MT 59102 . It's just the easiest one to send stuff to me at. I get it quicker too because I'm here at the mission home in the mornings.

Well I better get going. I hope that helps everyone see some of the things going on with my new responsibilities. If there are any more questions please ask. My brain is kind of fried right now so we are going to go shop and play some basketball. I hope everyone has a good week. Talk to you all later.

-Elder Davis

P.S. Also one last cool story we street contacted a sweet black guy playing bball at a park the other day. We asked him if we could play PIG with him and he said sure. We played and talked to him. He had played high school ball in Minnesota and college ball at a small college in MT. I had the lead on him PI to nothing. I was hitting some deep shots and doing pretty good. But then he came back and beat me. The only chance I had to beat a black guy at bball and I blew it! hahaha!

Monday, July 18, 2011

So Long Kalispell!

Well it's goodbye for now to Kalispell. For those who haven't already heard transfer calls came this Friday a little earlier than usual. Usually we don't hear anything till 1ish but at 10:20 the phone rang and it was President Gardner. He said that he would like to call me to be the new online assistant and that he was getting ready to send a voice mail message out to the mission to let them know about me and the new assistant to the Pres. so he wanted to let me know first before I got a surprise. haha I'm sad to be leaving Kalispell after only two transfers but am really excited at this new opportunity to help out the mission with this great tool our Heavenly Father has given us. I'm also excited to have the opportunity to be around President Gardner more. He is such a great man and am looking forward to working side by side with him. I read a talk this week called The Unwritten Order of Things. It was given by, used to be, Elder Packer. He talked about how we need to watch carefully and learn from the leaders around us to learn the unwritten things of the church and how we can better run it and keep it organized. What a great chance I will have to watch and learn from President Gardner and learn the unwritten things.

Many may be asking well what is an online assistant? I can't completely answer that yet. Maybe next week. I do know that me and Elder Garcia are going to be over all the online proselyting for the mission and communicating and working with President and the mission department to find out how best to use it. I know we will be on the computer a lot probably from 10-4 allowing time to answer other elders questions while they are on about how to do things. I also know that we travel to leadership and zone meetings to present new tools and ideas so that will be a really neat thing to be able to not only meet all of the missionaries in the mission but to be able to see all different parts of the mission. I'll even make it down to Wyoming for the first time. More info for sure to come next week though.

I head out tomorrow morning for a long and not so direct trip to Billings. My guess is I'll be on the van from 8 am- 8 pm. The van is fun though because you get to see and talk with a lot of different missionaries you haven't seen in a while. The trip does go faster than usual.

As far as Elder Mower he is staying here and is becoming the district leader which he is kind of nervous about but I think he'll do fine. His new comp is coming from Wyoming and has only been out 3 months. I feel confident they will keep the work moving forward in this area just fine.

This week was pretty good teaching wise. We were able to see most of our usuals and even found a new investigator. The sister who cuts our hair gave me a hair cut this morning and asked if there was anyone I was worried about leaving who we've been teaching. I told her I was not really worried but hoping that a few keep it up and can make it there. I have a feeling this area is going to be like Havre where after I left a bunch of people got baptized. So hopefully that is the case. I'm not worried about leaving J because she's solid but you could tell when I called to tell her that she was pretty sad to hear the news. She said she knew the day would come but that she was hoping it would be further down the road. Facebook is good though because I told her we can still keep in contact and I can keep sending her church links. I also told her we are planning to come up here next summer and she thought that was pretty cool and said she looks forward to meeting my family.

Can't remember much else that happened this week. Everything before Friday kind of seems like a blur now. I think I'm going to wrap this up. We have some cleaning to do and some quick shopping before I enjoy one last pday in Kalispell. I hope everyone has a great week. Stay cool, watch out for haboobs, and have fun. And for anyone that wants to send me a letter you can send it straight to the mission home for now until I get my other address. Also anyone with ideas for online proselyting I'm your man to talk to. I'd appreciate any ideas you've got whether through a facebook message or an email. That will pretty much be my home away from home now. 1848 Rimrock Rd. Billings, MT 59102 . I love you all and look forward to the adventures ahead. Can't wait to tell you all about it next week.

-Elder Davis

Monday, July 11, 2011

Went to Glacier Park today! Had a great time! No time to email, sorry. I'll be sending a letter though with some pics. Love you all.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe day celebrating our freedom not only in our country but the free agency we have from God! Where do I begin? This was a very busy and productive week. The time just keeps going faster and faster the more that gets accomplished it seems. Work wise we had another great week of teaching and finding new investigators. We have found eight new investigators this transfer and we still have two weeks left. It's always a good thing to increase your teaching pool. One of the new investigator couples is a young family, husband and wife, with two kids. We had tracted into the wife a few weeks back and she said they had just started going to the Fresh Life Church but would be interested in what we had to say. The Fresh Life Church is a church that is a happy go lucky, feel good, and rock out for God church. They have a radio station that plays more modern christian music so a lot of people in Kalispell go there. We're excited that they had just started to attend because that probably means they are kind of just getting into church again or for the first time. I went with a brother from the ward on splits to see them and we had a good lesson. The brother from the ward, who is a convert, and the husband were able to find some good connections between them as far as LDS people they both know and hang out with and they enjoyed hearing the first lesson so they've invited us back this week to teach them more. The wife is pregnant which is suppose to be one of the best times to teach someone because they are bringing a new life into the world and like to hear about the pre-earth life part of the plan of salvation. I hope we can get somewhere with them. I'd love to see their young family benefit from the gospel.

Another good thing teaching wise that happened was committing 82 year old T to baptism in Aug. She really enjoys meeting with us and reading the Book of Mormon. We know it's going to be tough for her to overcome smoking and get to church because of health but we promised her that the Lord would help her overcome those trials. We also had a great lesson with M. He's one of the ones who's 9. He and his mom have really stepped up their efforts to prepare him for getting baptized. He was even at church despite her having to work which before probably wouldn't have happened.

We met up with the chicken lady again. She's such a nice lady I just wish her house didn't get cat hair all over my pants. I thinks it's kind of fun to have the chicken around. haha it does stink though. We had committed her to pray ever night which she did and you can already see a difference in her. Another one we are teaching is A. He's the one who's friend is LA. He's in his 20's and is a big time bible studier. We had two more good lessons with him. He is still trying to figure things out but you can see he is making baby steps. His friend who is less active talked about how she's always known this is all true and that she once had strong feelings in her life about it all but with the lack of church attendance that has slipped a little. She bore her testimony though that as she's been meeting with her friend and us that that spirit is coming back into her life. Pretty neat for her to share that with us and her friend.

Ok now to the other affairs of the week. We'll start with last Monday. Last Monday we went on a fun little hike up to the top of a mountain in Kalispell called Lone Pine. It gives you a really nice view of the whole valley. For pictures of that you can check them out on my facebook. We are hoping to make it up to Glacier with the help of some members next Monday but we'll see.

We saw a huge peacock while driving down the street. I know random but thought I'd share that. haha
I noticed a little video on facebook that someone posted about BYU's Football shirts are out! I PLEASE WANT ONE!!! THANK YOU!!!! Elder Mower and I decided to have a little fun with BYU Footballs independence day and that's why if you saw the profile picture on Friday that it was BYU/American/Missionary.

Now onto this weekend. So the 1st of July is Canadian Day in Canada (Lame) and what do they all do to celebrate Canadian day....Come To America!!! (Super Lame!!) There were a ton of canuks at church. You can tell pretty much who all of them are because for some dumb reason they wear flip flops with church socks to church ! Hey Canadian!! This is church not the beach ya hoser!!! HaHaHa! It was worth it though because we got to sing patriotic AMERICAN songs in church. I laughed when we sang the Star Spangled Banner at the end and all stood up and this one Canadian just stood there and wouldn't sing! hahaha It was crazier in Bigfork though. I guess on this weekend every year church is crazy because of all the tourists that come from both other states and Canada. The ZL's said they had 1,200 people at church!!!! They only have an extended testimony meeting and then cancel the other meetings. They have people in the halls, RS and Primary rooms with TVs in there. It took 45 min to pass the sacrament! Pretty crazy huh?!

So now onto the 4th of July events! What a great way to spend the 4th of July and a Pday! The Flat Head Valley is an awesome 4th of July destination! This year was way better than last years 4th. We went down to Bigfork to be with Elder Wells and Elder Weight for the big breakfast they had invited the whole community to. They had a full on flag ceremony with gun shots and a cannon! It was pretty cool! I'm going to write more about this in my blog so check that out later. They set a table up for us with Books of Mormon and pass along cards and they had us offer church tours. We didn't have a whole lot of people jump at it but we were able to give 5 with 3-5 people in each so that was good. After the breakfast we headed down to the parade route. We walked the whole route looking for a good spot in some shade hopefully and let me tell you missionaries are truly famous! We walked the whole parade route and we had people saying Hi Elders! and Hey look it's the missionaries! We talked to members and people from Arizona, Washington, Utah, and California. It was pretty neat! Along with that also came the people that gave us weird looks haha. That doesn't faze us though. There were a lot of people there for that parade. It was a neat feel to it too because it's going down Main Street which is like the old main streets that have all the old shops still. It was just a neat feeling to be there and the weather was perfect! They also give out the best stuff! Not just little candy like most parades. They has some people throwing out otter pops and then the last float was throwing out full size candy bars!!! It was awesome!

We went back after to Kalispell, had a bbq at the Ms, who we live with, went and saw a less active member, and then came back and hung out at the Ms for the rest of the night. Pres said we could be out of our house till 11. The Ms backyard overlooks a big valley so it was a great place to have a fire, watch their son and his friends shoot off fireworks, and then watch the ones through out the valley. We had a great night and a great 4th of July! Definitely need to come back with the family next year!

Well I better get going now. I hope all is well and you keep enjoying summer. Stay cool! Haven't seen Parker yet but I did talk to him on the phone. We'll hook up some time this week. I'm on team ups with Elder Wells today. The two AZ boys out and about! Love you all and talk to you later!

Love,

Elder Davis

PS I loved the SD slide show!

Monday, June 27, 2011

There is Sunshine in My Soul Today, and in Kalispell!

This truly was the first week of summer not only on the calendar but here in Kalispell. We had sun, sun, and more sun. Besides a 15 minute thunder and lightning down pour we didn't have any other rain this week. It was a nice change to see the sun every day! Along with the sun came more activity not only in service but in lessons. We had a great zone training on Tuesday and that just set the tone for the rest of the week. We kept really busy and had a lot of set appointments too which is always nice. We also found a lot of new people to teach off of referrals and tracting, four new in total and two new less actives to work with also. We also set two baptism dates with two younger kids we are working with. One is a 9 year old who's mom has just been getting back to church and the other is an 11 year old same scenario. We are also getting close to setting a baptism date with 82 year old T. So I guess here in Kalispell we like baptizing the young and the old...literally. I'm so pleased with the work that is going on here. I also feel like right now I'm on the top of my game! I feel like everything is really clicking! At different parts of my mission I've felt close to this but have still lacked in some categories of missionary work. Obviously there are always more things to work on but right now I just feel like I'm hitting all of the points necessary to be a good missionary. This definitely comes from being more mature in the mission and having more experience but it has also helped to have a companion who is more on the same page as you and who can carry some of the load with you. President said that he was proud of me and the great work I've done but said to not look back now and to make these last six months my best months. Then he paused and said wow....I can't believe we are really getting that close...what a sad time and a happy time we are at.

Along with teaching and finding a lot came a lot of missionary journal moments. We had dinner with a family and asked if they had someone they thought we should go see. They gave us a name of a less active lady and we went after dinner and found her house. As we knocked on the door this lady in her 40's comes walking to the door, opens it with a bright smile, and welcomes us in. As I walk in the first thing I notice is the smell and then I look straight in front of me into the room and right there in the living room is a Chicken! A live Chicken! She had just taken some chicken wire and wrapped it around to make a little cage and set it on the floor and then spread the chickens feed on the floor and put his water dish just right there on the carpet! Oh Man! Only in Montana! We later found out that this lady also has 10 cats! She is a really nice lady though and is looking forward to us coming back and teaching her more. We are too because we are going to ask her if we can get a picture with her chicken! haha

You had asked about homecomings and if there are any that I wanted you to go to. Well not this transfer but next you could go to Elder Wells'. He's from Lehi and in Hineman's ward. So you could meet him and Elder Hineman's family. Also don't know if Gma G has any reason to go to Manilla but Elder Catron will be home at the end of this transfer. Tell her to incorporate some family history business into it and that'd help make it worth it. haha

We were online proselyting this week and there was a brother from Columbia Falls here. He said he's lived in Columbia Falls since 1960 so I asked him if he knew Bishop Walker. He said oh yeah I used to coach his church basketball team and we drove around to different tri stake tournaments. I told him about what had happened and it really took him by surprise. He went on to tell me about what a great kid he was and how his parents where deaf but that never slowed them or their family down. It sounds like Bishop Walker was not only a great man but a great young man too.

We helped out with more sheep this week. We had to take their coats off that they wear so the wool doesn't get dyed by the sun and put flea powder on them and then re-coat them. Never a dull day at J's.

What did everyone think of the blogs this week? Got a nice comment from Sister Evans this week. She said "Elder Davis--you have some of the best blog titles/applications ever. Way to work your angle!!!! You must be tearing it up out there." It's good to see that my blog work doesn't go to waste and that people are really reading it not just looking at it.

So I had the thought last night as I thought about the 4th of July. Dad you need to head up EVMCO singing at a Suns game this next season and then next year try out for the Dbacks too. That would be Awesome!

Well I better get going. We're actually off to play some tennis with a teacher from the ward and then we are off to hike Lone Pine. It should be a great pday. We are definitely going to get out and enjoy Montana and what it has to offer. Hope everyone has a great week. Enjoy summer! Send me a letter and talk to you later!

-Elder Davis

PS Bummer the Jazz didn't get Jimmer!

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Kali Report
 
First off Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there! I hope you and everyone else had a great week this week.

Life in Kalispell roles on and continues to fly by. Tuesday we went out to J R's to help with her sheep. I don't know if I've really talked about J's much but she has about 30 sheep and 4 big rams with giant horns. She is an older lady who was baptized about a year ago and we help her once a week. This week we had to clean out ram pens and get all their poop out of there. It sure isn't the most pleasantly smelling job ever. We also had to help move rams into different pens. They are the rams that have the giant horns that rap around. You just have to grab onto the horns and a rope and pull away and lead them to their new pen. Reminds me of some of the stuff we did in Chinook.

Wed. I had leadership in Helena. Mom you talked about Lauren's driving and how the two of us would probably be ready for a road trip at the end of my 2 years. You betcha! I've done so much traveling and driving on this mission of mine. Helena was 4 hours away and it feels like nothing now to travel that far. I didn't have to drive this time though so that does help. Leadership, as always, was a great meeting. President just opens up a lot more and always seems to show us news clips and then relates it back to the gospel. One thing that I really liked is that he talked about the old phrase "All hat, no cattle" It means you dress like a cowboy and try to act like one when you don't even have any cattle. He applied it to us as missionaries and how we need to be all hat and cattle and not only wear the tag and suit but Be a missionary! We also talked about how Mormons are in the mainstream media right now and we need to go out and talk to more people on the street and tract more because people are watching, writing, and talking about us and we can either sit back and let them do that or we can go join the conversation. Needless to say this has fired me up on tracting again and we tracted a lot this week and found some good potentials.

The week in general went really good. We hit 20 lessons for the first time since I've been here. Our area has a lot of potential we are just trying to "rope it up" so that we can be all rope and cattle. haha get it? We had a really good lesson with a lady named D. She is in her 40's and was baptized into a baptist church a year ago and then started meeting with the Elders 6 months ago. They started off small with her but lately we have really been commiting her to read different things as far as pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. We have been going through the message of the restoration bit by bit and this week we focused on the apostasy and the priesthood. She talked about how she could see a church with the priesthood being stronger than one with out it. We bore strong testimony to her that we have more to offer her and that her church has set up a good foundation but there are more blessings out there through the priesthood for her. She said she'd have to pray about it which we agreed with. I really would like to see her come around because she's made some great progress in the last month.

So the blog rolls on. Spiritual Center Top 10! What is the consensus? I thought it was a pretty clever idea. Elder Holbrook jumped on it and wanted to be apart of it when I told him about it and he's going to do one this week because there really are a lot of sports blogs posts out there. I'm pretty sure I have the most though. As I made that sports page tab which is a new feature to the blog. I know I have the most sports posts out of any other missionary out there. The Sports Center post is already almost into my top 5 of all time viewer wise. I also crossed over into the 3000 view mark this week.

It continues to rain and rain here. I hear it's going to slow down though.

Another exciting part of the week was eating dinner with the Robinsons and the Davises. I called up Pres. on Monday night and he said well Elder Mower can but I don't know about you...yeah ok I guess I'll let you. So on Friday night I was able to see Uncle Stew, Aunt Carol, Whitney and Brad and all of their kids! I didn't even know they had three kids so that was fun to meet them and to talk with them. Afterward they took us to Walmart and bought us a bunch of food. They asked what we needed and we said well all we really need is milk. Well they kept saying no you want Oreos and hey look at this pizza! You know you want it! hahah it was very nice of them to buy us foods we can't afford as missionaries. They said they are going to be around and may have to come to church one of these weeks in Kalispell. I'd like that because I didn't think about it but I should have got a picture with them. Oh well maybe later.

It sounds like the funeral went really good. I'm definitely going to have to tell Pres. about Sister Walker tomorrow. I'm also going to ask about school. Glad you are all having so much fun with each other this summer. Don't worry about me. I'm not jealous. I'm getting to have the experience of a lifetime. I can always go to SD some other time.

I better get running. I love you all! Have a great time in SD. Send me a post card or something. Talk to you next week.

-Elder Davis

PS When is the NBA draft?  I'm glad you liked the card Dad. We'll definitely have to tie some flies or buy some. I bet we could ask Brother Ford. He'd know what to tie.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Rain, Rain, Rain, and a New Companion


Hello Everybody,

First off what a shock it was to hear that Bishop Walker has passed away. He did so much for our family in our time of need we will all be eternally grateful for his love and service. I'll second what mom said in saying that he is my favorite Bishop. May God bless his family through this tough time I'm sure they are going through and may there be a Bishop as great as he was to be there by their side. I did not know Bishop Walker was from Montana let alone Bigfork. Let me know on FB asap if anything goes down in Bigfork or not. Not sure how long he lived there and if they'd even have anything going on but if they did I'd love to attend.

On a not so bright note it's been cloudy and Raining, and Raining, and Raining all week long here in Kali. I'm ready for some sun! Will summer ever come? Hopefully soon. But hey I can't complain. I'd take the rain and 50/60 over the winter weather.

Elder Mower is my new companion from Orem,UT. He's the first companion I've had who is actually into watching sports not just playing them and more importantly BYU sports! I've always looked at it as the Lord keeping me in check. Maybe I've gained enough experience and trust to be blessed with a comp with some of the same interests. That and I've been away from ESPN and Cougarboard for almost a year and a half so that makes it kind of tough to always talk sports like I used to. Elder Mower (pronounced Mauer) has been out almost a year. He came out with Elder Whitlock's group. He's been senior comp for the last 6 months in his last area so it's nice to have someone more on your same level and willing to take some more responsibility on. It's been really good. I've definitely enjoyed the first week with him. We've been working hard and I know good things are going to come. Quick note on Elder Whitlock before I forget. He's training this transfer! So in mission terms that makes me a grandpa (ask Andrew for more info if you don't get it).

Teaching wise we had a good week and at the same time a not so good week. We didn't get in with a lot of the normal people we usually do but yet we were able to teach the same amount of lessons by teaching some new less actives and and finding a new investigator. If we can put everything together we'd be in good shape with quite a few progressing investigators. The new investigator we found was a referral from Columbia Falls. We pull up and he's outside standing in the rain in front of his house. We asked him why he was standing in the rain and he said he was praying to God. He invited us into his empty house and explained that all of this bad stuff went down with his girlfriend and he came home the other day and everything, including her, was gone. We sat on the chairs and had a really good lesson together. He is going to be out of town for the next week and a half working but has already been reading the Book od Mormon and he even committed to a soft baptism commitment.

Another good lesson we had was with a girl who is a member. Her mom and dad are divorced and her dad in Florida is not a member. She is looking for more freedom and to get away from her mom and step-dads rules so she decided she's moving to Florida. This broke her mom's heart. she's been questioning a lot of things about the church so we answered a lot of questions. Things started to get a little heated though and that's when we stepped back and said we can't get into contention like this the spirit wont be here. We then told her that all of her little questions aren't the real problem but that her real problem is in her lack of a testimony in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We committed her to watch
The Prophet of the Restoration, read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it. She left for Florida on Sat. but hopefully we can keep in contact with her and get the missionaries over there to help her out. Good to know that we at least gave it our best effort.

Blog has been going great this week. I had hit a little bit of a lul there for a couple of weeks but now I'm fired up about it again. I've added some new features too including the one at the bottom of the posts, the random post generator, and the life feed on the side that shows where the people are that are looking at your blog. Pretty cool stuff. The goal is to get more people to read the older posts I have written. I've got some more exciting ideas for the next couple of weeks so my fire has definitely been lit. Let me know what you think of the new features. Also sent a friend request to Greg Wrubell this weekend and told him about the pilot program and about my blog. Hope he checks it out. Also was good to see R K add me on FB. I know he'll enjoy some of the blog posts. Elder Mower was only able to get on once a week in his last area so I've been helping him get things rolling. He's been pretty excited about the chance to get on every day.

Well I better get going. I'm going to try to get a blog posted today. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Have fun with the family and I'll talk to you later.

Love you all,

Elder Davis

Monday, June 6, 2011

Good Baptism!

Good Day to Everyone,

Hope it's as nice and sunny for everyone else today as it is here. We had a week full of rain but it luckily has cleared up the last three days. Definitely hasn't helped the flooding situation. I think the worst is still to come because the mountains have even more snow on them now. That mixed with a very steady rain for three days this last week will make for a potential wet june or july. The Elders in Roundup are having their fair share of flood trials right now. Don't know if you've read the Talon yet but Elder Sharp shares what is going on there. Definitely worth a read and a potential post to my email blog. Roundup was hit hard this last week with flooding. The Elders in Billings were transported up there and back four days straight to help out. I was able to talk with Elder Hineman and Elder Catron and they said everythings a mess but that it's been really neat to be a part of the service that is going on. Elder Hineman and other Elders were driving farm trucks out of a flooded area and down the banks of a ditch on a muddy road. Elder Hineman said that his truck was the only one that wasn't four wheel drive and it was stuck and that the back end of it slid out and he went into the ditch. Luckily no damage done they just had to pull it out and he won't lose driving privileges because it wasn't a mission vehicle. haha Elder Catron also said that he stepped on a nail and that this news reporter who followed them around all day but never helped and was always complaining about getting dirty interviewed him and asked him about the dangers of helping with the flood. He responded with well...I just stepped on a nail. hahaha I told Elder Catron that if I'm a reporter someday that I'm going to dive right into the action. If the fans rush the court or the field I'm not going to be worried about getting dirty or trampled I'll take the camera and go with them. hahaha He said he could see me doing that. They really are doing a great service to the people in Roundup.

This week we had teamups with the zone leaders. Elder Weight and I went. He's the one that's from Kaysville and went to Fairfield at the same time I did. We talked about a lot of the kids we knew and some of the funny things that happened. It was fun to reminisce. We were able to teach some good lessons too so that was a good way to start off the week.

J's baptism sure came up quick. We met with her two more times this week and had great lessons. The young man, K, who Elder Lanham baptized a year ago, has been helping us a lot by going over to her house with us so we can teach her. He had us over for dinner with J and his non-member parents. We talked a lot and found out that there was some things J had needed to overcome in this whole process but never told us that she had just taken care of them. Like smoking. I never knew she smoked but she said after meeting with us the second time and knowing a little about what Mormons follow as a health code, even though we hadn't taught it to her yet, she quit smoking, coffee, and tea at the drop of a hat. It wasn't till probably 3 more visits that we covered the word of wisdom. By that time when we asked her if she had any problems with these she said nope. Little did we know she had but had already taken care of them. Pretty amazing. Then she told us about all the things her mom has been doing to try to not get her to join but she's held strong and kept telling her mom that someday she would see why she was doing this. I really look up to J for standing strong in the face of adversity with family and friends looking down on her for this. What a great example she has set.

So Saturday came and it was a great baptism! We got there early because we heard if you wanted a warm font in this building you had to turn it on for 5 min and let it sit for 5 min. and so on and so forth. By 10 it was ready though. We had a great program with Elder Wells and Elder Schermerhorn giving talks, K and Schermerhorn singing, and then the baptism. As I walk into where the font is and start to go down the stairs I realize that somehow the plug must be leaking because the water has dropped a foot. Not Good! So we both go down into the font, I say the prayer and I go to dunk her under and realize I'm going to have to make sure she really goes under all the way so after kind of dunking her under I then kind of pushed her under. Not good I know but that foot difference made things hard. She came up and then had kind of lost her footing so she kind of started to twirl around and I had to make sure she didn't fall down. She kind of gave me a look of thanks for drowning me at first but then smiled. I later apologized for drowning her and now it's kind of a joke. haha

Sunday was the confirmation. Elder Schermerhorn was asked by her to do it. He was super nervous but he nailed it and did a great job! We are really excited for her. The Bishop had a little interview with her and said that the primary really wants her but that he wants her to keep going to class and interacting with members and not get shut away in primary. I'm glad he feels that way because I've seen some converts who that's happened to. He gave her a calling already though and wants her to help out at girls camp in July. I'm so excited for her to go. I know Lauren has always enjoyed it and it will be a great opportunity for J to be a part of something that she missed not being a member as a youth but will now still be able to be a part of.

Now for the Gun story! Anyone who was on FB on Sat. may have seen my question of what do you do when an old man comes out with a gun in his pants and tells you to get off his property? So we were going to meet some members at their house but they weren't home yet. We had pulled up along the street in between their house and their neighbors. They didn't have curbs in this area and the streets are kind of skinny in this part of town so I tried to get right up close to the grass and out of the street. Well we see this old man on his porch. As we are waiting we realize he went into his house. No biggy right? Well then he comes out of his house and walks towards us. We then realize he's got a hand gun in the front waist of his pants. I thought to myself oh geez old man did you really need to bring that out here to intimidate us? He comes up to the window and yells Didn't you know it's illegal to park on someone's property?!!! I said oh are we on your property? I'm sorry I didn't know that. He then yells some more and says that we are on his grass. Now I'll admit we may have been on his grass a little but when I say a little we're talking maybe an inch. So I apologized and we drove off. What a grouchy old man! Couldn't he have just asked us to please move. He didn't really need a gun to do it did he? oh well!

I'm excited to read about the whole EVMCO experience. I printed off one of those articles and have shown it to a few people that I know are into music and choirs. They thought that was pretty neat and asked when you're coming to Montana for a concert?

Transfer news as most probably know by now I'm staying! Elder Schemerhorn who's been here for 6 months is going to Laural, MT. Elder Mower from Orem is going to be my new comp. He'll arrive here tonight and Schermerhorn will leave tomorrow morning. Elder Schermerhorn and I have had a lot of fun together and have had some great work going. I'm going to miss him but not his financial status. He is doing better though. He pulled out all of his money and so now he can visually see it disappear which helps him to save it.

We went to a sporting goods store during lunch the other day. We had heard from Brother M that they had big fish ponds with huge rainbow trout in the back. We wanted to check it out and boy was he right. They have this really nice big pond in the back and at first we were just watching these fish swim around but then a worker comes and hands us a cup of these pellets and he said we could feed them. It was so much fun! The fish are really aggressive so when you throw the pellets in they fight over them. It's very entertaining! We're definitely going to have to go to Snappy's when we come back here. haha We are going to take the zone leaders and the sisters there today to check it out.

Well I better get going. I hope everyone is enjoying their time in UT. Thanks for all you do for me and I love you all.

-Elder Davis

PS we adopted the Pirate as our district mascot at the beginning of the transfer and we had some pretty cool t-shirts made up that got finished this week. They say Kalispell Pirates and have a skull with crossed swords and then below it says Life Eternal. haha

Monday, May 30, 2011

My Own Breakfast

Well Helloooo Everybody!

While you were off eating Little America breakfast buffet I had my own breakfast to attend here in Kalispell. Every year they do a big tri ward Memorial Day breakfast here. So this morning we got up and came to the church to help set up and then enjoyed a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs, breakfast burritos, sausage, bacon, fruit, and orange juice. There is a family here who is big into cooking. They have these two massive grills that they cooked everything on. The big one they call "The Holy Grill". They even have aprons that say The Holy Grill and then have the church logo. I guess they cook for a lot of ward and church activities. We had called or visited everyone on our teaching list and invited them. We only had J there but that's ok. We tried.

Speaking of J we had some mini teamups this last week with the zone leaders and Elder Wells (from Mesa and in Hineman's ward) taught J. We had a really good lesson and at the end I asked her why she wanted to be baptized and she told us how she had grown up in a christian home and they kind of had a church of their own but she was looking for more and something that was her faith and that she has found it. It was really neat to see her open up like that and talk about why she wanted to get baptized. Her only concern was her family and their lack of support. Elder Wells was thankfully there because he was able to talk about how his mom joined the church at J's age and that her family didn't support her too but that eventually they got over it and that if it wasn't for his mom doing what she did despite the pressure he wouldn't be where he is now. We then talked about how this is a big step not only for her and potentially her family but a big step for her future family. That really helped her feel better about it all and she said ok I am ready for June 4th. So later in the week we visited her again and went over what a baptism is like. We also talked to her about choosing someone to baptize her and give some talks. The next day I got online and there was a message from her asking me if I'd baptize her! I of course said I'd be honored to do that. So this upcoming Saturday is J's baptism and I'm going to be baptizing her! Pretty cool huh? The ward is really excited and I think we are going to have a great turn out. That and the singles branch that hopefully she'll be able to transition down to is also planning on getting a lot of people to come. It's going to be a great experience for all of us.

We had zone conference here in Kalispell on Wednesday. Elder Ika and Wixom stayed at our place Tuesday night which was fun. They're over the online stuff so they also go to zone conferences and give a presentation and answer questions. It was weird to not have to drive at least an hour and a half to the meeting. That was a first. It was really good though. We were combined with Missoula which was good. Nice to see other Elders from other zones. We focused a lot on how the Lord always goes after the one in the ninety and nine. Pres. has been collecting pictures from baptisms in the last 6 months and he did a presentation where when he clicked the button on the computer it would zoom into different pictures of people and randomly go to different pictures of people dressed in their white. And then at the end it zoomed out and we could see all of them. He talked about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed all of these people's lives one at a time. It was really neat to be able to see C, J B, and J's pictures on there. We were also able to hear a talk from Elder Holland that he gave back in January at the MTC. He talked about how the missionary program was lacking something and how PMG was created to not teach the missionaries what to teach but how to teach and that it's our responsibility to know what to teach through our studies. As always it was a great talk because it was Elder Holland speaking. haha

After zone conference J had her interview and Pres. was finishing some other things up so were were talking with Elders Catron, Adams, and Sister Gardner. We got on the topic of BYU bball and Jimmer. She said she felt bad for me because I missed this season. That brought the idea to my mind do you think Chad Bunn could burn me copies of some of Jimmer's awesome games like the Utah one, SDSU, New Mexico? Dad you should give him a call and ask him. I'd love to get to watch those some day.

Speaking of bball last pday after most everyone had left the ZL's, Sisters, and us were just hangin around in the gym. I started to try to throw the ball full court and got really close the first time. So I tried again and almost made it. So I tried again. Sister Tuckett pulled out her camera and got it on video and I made it. It was pretty cool. Also I learned last Monday that Brett wrote a sister missionary in my mission. haha So I had printed out Brett's email and was going to read it later. Well then I left it in the Family History Center so the sister took it out and put in on the couch. Well we came in from lunch and it was sitting there. Sister Mace picked it up and looked at it. She said hey this isn't mine but I know an Elder Duke. I asked one serving in Ft .Worth? She said yes. I guess an Elder in Sister Mace's MTC group went to Ft. Worth and then told Brett he should write Sister Mace. So they've written back and forth twice. hahahaha I laughed so hard. We are going to write him a joint letter today.

Well besides the rain I can't think of anything else that's gone down in Kalispell this week. Another great week full of beautiful scenery. Definitely one of the best looking places anyone could serve in the world in my opinion. Not that I'm trunky or anything but I sure am excited to show this state off to you all someday.

Well I better get gone. Good to know school ended well. Have fun in Utah. Take lots of pics of choir stuff and get some pics with family up there too. I'd like to have some pics of everyone. I love you all. Enjoy your fun time in Utah. God Bless!

Bye Now,

Elder Davis

Monday, May 23, 2011

Kalispell Week 4

Hello Everyone,

Sounds like the EV concert went well and everyone is excited for school to be out. You all definitely have some fun things coming up including once in a life time opportunities. That's really cool that they are doing two concerts and that BYUTV is recording it. That would be really cool if they put it on TV at some point. I'd definitely try to see if I could watch it. haha Also glad you were able to catch up with P and that's pretty cool that you ran into R's AP. Definitely is a small world.

This week was the best week number wise that we've had since I've been here. J is moving right along and when ever questions (which usually come over facebook) do come up they are pretty minor and she accepts our answers pretty quick. If she's all ready to go we'll finish teaching her this week, she'll be interviewed, and then we'll review up till the baptism. I hope everything keeps going good and she doesn't get nervous at the last minute. I don't think she will though. She came to church again and has been doing a lot of her own studies in the Book of Mormon and on mormon.org. I got some really good feedback from her this week pertaining to my blog. I asked her if she'd check it out and she said oh I already have. She said she's been reading it frequently and it really helps her understand things. So that was really cool to hear.

While talking about the blog I've had a lot of views this week mostly from just reposting the gospel of baseball which is cool because I really enjoyed writing that series. I'm also going to be teaming up with Elder Holbrook and we are going to do a guest post on each other's blogs. It should help to expose his crowd to my stuff and my crowd to his. Hopefully it gets more people reading what we are writing which is always cool but again was nice to hear from J that it really is helping investigators even if I don't know it. I'm hoping to start a preparation for the restoration series and am also going to be writing about an observation from this week.

That observation is that forecasts and predictions of man are never accurate like God's are. This week we were told all week long that it was going to rain all week long...it never did! It was the warmest and sunniest week we've had all month. Then there is the prediction that the world was going to end on May 21st. Don't know if anyone else heard that but it was a big topic up here. And what do you know we're still alive. So that should be a fun post to write here soon. Today maybe but for sure tomorrow. We were walking quite a bit on Sat. and after the time the world was suppose to be over by these crazy people were running around this apartment complex screaming We're Saved! and having a party. Some people are pretty crazy but entertaining that's for sure.

We've got our bikes all ready to go but we've had so many set appointments we've needed the car which I'm definitely not complaining about. It's always nice to have set appointments but it's also nice to have bikes if we need them. The sisters also obtained some bikes from a sister in their ward. They are like old school pink and blue Lance Armstrong bikes. I keep calling them Sis. Lance and Sis. Armstrong. haha

If you are seeing some of my money disappear it's for a good cause. Let's just say my companion isn't the brightest or best with money. He's been riding on low money since almost week two of the transfer. He's surviving but he also forgets his wallet all of the time so I've had to bail him out a few times. He keeps telling me not to do it but what am I suppose to do let him starve? I just hope in someway it will be payed forward someday hopefully and he'll help someone else out when he does have money and a wallet.

Zone Conference is this Wed! I always love Zone Conference! I'm excited to see Elder Ika again too because he gets to go to the Zone Conferences because he's an online AP. Also excited to see Elder Catron.

Well I better get going. I love you all. I hope you have a great last week of school. Have fun in Utah. Talk to you later!

-Elder Davis

PS- I got the shoes and they are great!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Kali Week 3

Greetings to Everyone,

Well this week had some exciting things happen. But as always the good comes with some bad too. But hey as I think my family has learned this week that's part of life. First off the really good. We met with our new investigator J again on Tuesday. This was only our second time meeting with her and the first since she had attended church. We taught her the restoration and committed her to read the Book of Mormon, which she had already started, and pray about it. You can tell she really felt the spirit and she said she really enjoyed church. She said it was peacful. Well K, who Elder Lanham baptized while here, has been coming to the lessons and has been a really good fellowshipper. He is 19 and waiting to turn in his papers because he has to be a member for a year to do that, and he has been a really great friend for her. Well they talked about our lesson afterwards and we got a call later from K saying how she was feeling and we determined that she was ready for a baptism commitment. We prayed about her date and felt that she could be ready by June 4th if she continued at the same pace she was going at. So when we met again with her on Thursday. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to that date. At first she was a little taken back but then said that she would like to be baptized and felt like if she got an answer by then she would be ready. It was Awesome! Later we heard from K that she was pretty nervous after but is now feeling a lot better about it. We met again on Saturday and watched the restoration with her and then she was at church again Sunday where two younger sisters invited her over for dinner. So one of our dinners this week is going to be with her and the family that invited her. It's been neat to see all the fellowshiping that's helped her out thus far.

Another good lesson we had was with a 14 year old girl who is part of a less active part member family. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ too and focused a lot on baptism. We also commited her to baptism but as a goal for the future. No date yet. She's really big into softball so I told her about my gospel of baseball blog and she was really excited to check it out.

So one week into living with the M's is going great. I really like being there. They are a great family. It definitely has more of that home/family vibe. I was missing that after leaving the Ws to the Gs. I heard from Elder Lunt that the J's house was sold (they were renting). Someone needs to get me some more info from that. I feel really bad for them and all that Brother J's going through.

We had a really good lesson with a new investigator last week named J. He even called us earlier in the week to tell us he watched the restoration and loved it. Well then later in the week on Friday he called back and said his girlfriend said our lessons were going to take too much time away from them and that he'd call us in a month. LAME!!! Darn girlfriend! We were pretty shocked! It was really weird. Trying not to reflect on it too much though.

Another interesting thing that happend this week was on Friday, which is a day the family history center is closed, we were trying to get someone to open it for us so we could facebook/blog from there. The RS was setting up for a stake activity that was going to be on Saturday and we were told that one of those sisters had a key and could let us in. When we went to ask she ranted to us about how they've had problems with youth on those computers in the past and how we needed an adult with us in there or we couldn't be in there alone. It really made me mad. I was nice to her, looking back I should have said something maybe but then again maybe not, but it just bugged me that she felt like she couldn't trust four missionaries to use the computers by ourselves and how she said we needed an adult in there with us, which we are. Yeah I wasn't happy. We all kind of ranted about it to each other. We thought about our mission theme Entrusted by Heaven and how we are entrusted by God more than man. Some members will trust us when they realize God trusts us.

Overall we taught 10 member present lessons which is a record for me on the mission. It was awesome! I hope we can continue to build on this success. We also met with our new ward mission leaders in each ward and they are really excited so that's going to be good.

Well I've got to get goin. I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all. Talk to you later.

-Elder Davis

mitchell.davis@myldsmail.net

Monday, May 9, 2011

Happy Mother's Day to the Rest of You--


Happy Mother's Day to the rest of you I wasn't able to talk to yesterday. What a joy it is to see and talk to your family through the inventions of modern technology. The last two skype phone calls have gone a lot better than that first one. I think my family would agree it's a blessing to have. I thought i'd write a quick email so that the rest of you know what is going on here in Kalispell.

The big news of last week was probably that we were moving this week. It was a pain to move houses in the fact that you have to worry about getting all of the past missionaries junk that has been left there out. We made a trip to good will and have another to make today. We have moved into the Ms' home in Kali 2nd. They are a really nice couple who have kids in their 20's who are all moved out except for one son who is here for the summer. We moved all of our stuff Friday with the help of the G's trailer and Bro. Ms' truck. We are now moved into their basement where we have two bedrooms, one to sleep in and one to study in, a bathroom, and a little open area with a chair in there, a fridge, and our food. We use their kitchen to cook and store any other food in. I really think this is going to be a good move for us. We are a little closer to our area and we see the Ms' a lot more which gives it more of a home and family feel than living on our own at the G's. So now that that's settled I really think things are going to pick up. Which they already have.

We found two new investigators this week. One was a referral named J. She is probably 19-20 and working while going to school here. We taught her the first lesson with a recent convert who is her age and it went really well. She is definitely searching for something and we know what it is. She even came to church with the help of facebook. haha She had told us she would come to church when we had met with her but when Elder S talked to her on FB she told him her concerns about being really nervious. So they talked it over on FB and arranged K to pick her up and that we'd all sit together. It worked perfectly and she stayed for the 2/3 hrs of church. We are meeting with her on tues and im excited to see how she liked it.

Another one we taught was J. His brother is a Bishop in Washington and he referred us to him. He said he's gone through a lot of crazy things including being a alcoholic and that AA helped but now he is looking for more. We shared the first lesson with him and he really enjoyed it. He even said he'd attend church next week and that despite his girlfriend trying to get him to go to a church he said I think my brother's going to win out. So that's positive.

Real church in Kalispell was good. We go from 9-2 covering the two wards. These are definitely the biggest wards I've ever covered but the people here seem really great so I'm excited to keep moving the work forward here. That and we've got two new ward mission leaders which will be tough at first but hopefully we can mold them into what we want them to be. haha

Well I better get going now. I love all of you and hope that was a great update. Not quite what my family got but that's ok. I love you all. Have a great week. And pray for this area. The water levels in all of the rivers and lakes is rising and there could be a lot of flooding. Luckily the Lord has blessed us to live on a big hill and safely away from any flooding. We could be helping a lot of people soon though.

Talk to everyone later. Bye Now.

-Elder Davis

PS I loved the Osama got Jimmered Pic.!

Latest Pictures From Dillon, MT: May 3, 2011

Spring Snow!  April 8,2011 

April 9, 2011 Dillon 1st Chili Cookoff

Moose in Whitehall, MT 

One Happy Family--Elder Davis with his 3 "sons": E. Hineman, E. Wahl, E. Whitlock, Elder Davis 

First Baptism in Dillon

Second Baptism in Dillon