Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Greetings from Kalispell!

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from Kalispell! It's been a busy last few days but I am really excited to be here! It's so pretty here already I can't even imagine what it'll be like when we get into summer. Everything is so green! Dillon was definitely pretty but this is the cream of the crop of Montana up here. I guess before I get ahead of myself I should back track.

Ok so back to Dillon. This last week went pretty good. Best two lessons were definitely with H F and T. With H (the F's daughter) we were able to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked a lot about baptism and committed her to baptism and she agreed. This made Brother F tear up which was pretty neat to see this big ol' Montana cowboy tearing up. haha. Her biggest issue could be getting Sundays off but I know the Lord has helped him with that so he will help her too. She has a tentative date for June 18th.

The other great lesson of the week came with T. We have worked with T the whole time I've been in Dillon and he's been up and down the whole time. We had him read the story of Enos. As we asked him questions about it. He opened up and said that he wanted that same forgiveness of sins. We talked about how baptism would do that for him and we commited him to be baptized and he said yes! We talked about how he's going to have to make some changes but that it will be worth it. I really hope he can keep this new found fire he has and get baptized.

Interesting news out of Havre. K, who was the one who had to receive permission from the First Presidency to get baptized, had her kids taking the lessons. They were going to get baptized a month ago and the day before the baptism her 12 year old gets arrested and the two other older kids move back to Browning. The missionaries were just thrown for a loop! Then last week K....had a baby. She doesn't have a boyfriend and had never said anything or shown signs of it. I guess every thing is still ok because she is living the law of chastity but it's just kind of weird to hear that and think back 9 months ago. Sad to say but all of that just sounds like a typical native story.

Also J B, who we were working with a lot before I left Havre, her daughter in Reno, NV who last I heard was a druggie, homeless, and a lesbian got baptized last week in Reno. The gospel is truly a gospel of change that's all I have to say.

Ok so Friday we were waiting for transfer calls. Elder Lunt is freaking out. I was pretty calm about it all. I was pretty sure I was leaving and to tell the truth kind of looking for a change. Well the call comes and I'm off to Kalispell. I'd secretly been hoping to be sent up there because of how pretty it was when I passed through there a year ago but was trying not to think about it for fear that I wouldn't get sent there. Luckily that didn't happen and now I'm companions with Elder Shermerhorn from Huntington Beach, CA. Haven't been around each other too long but so far he seems like he'll be a good companion. I'm not covering three ward like I thought. There was a little change here for a few weeks where the Elders did have to take over the area but now the Sisters are back covering 1st ward. So I just cover 2nd and 3rd wards. I'm the District Leader over 8 missionaries. Four of them being Sisters.....this should be interesting. I haven't served around Sisters my whole mission so this is going to be interesting. haha I thought having two sisters was enough but now I'm serving around six of them and over four of them in a district. I'll survive though. Zone Leaders are also in my district but Elder Weight from Kaysville and Elder Wells from Mesa (same area as Hineman) are really great.

I made the long journey of 6 hours up here yesterday. It wasn't that bad. I like the transfer van. You get to see a lot of other Elders you haven't seen in a while and you just tell stories the whole time. We arrived last night and went out to our place which is a loft apartment over the G's garage which is a white garage just down from house (see google for more info) It has a beautiful view and I'm excited to live there.

Kalispell is definitely the largest city I've ever served in. It will take some getting used to but I'm really excited. Well I know there is probably more but I better get going. I hope everyone had a great Easter. I'll update you with more info next week. Talk to you later.

-Elder Davis