Transfer news and more- Monday, May 24, 2010

Hi Everyone,

Well its sounds like everyone had a good week. It sounds like the EVMCO Concert was a success. 2,000 in attendance? How does that compare to the previous ones? It also sounds like everyone had fun with the grandparents in town. Mom said there was a lot of ice cream in the house. Sounds like I missed out. Darn. There is a really good place here in Havre that sells really good shakes for pretty cheap so me and Elder Child frequent that often. Sounds like L. had a good birthday. Did she get my present? I hope so. I hope she likes it. I wasn't quite sure what to get so I picked that. Typical of her brother to get her something that would somehow relate back to sports haha. Ii hope it fits. Wasn't quite sure what size to get. Sounds like the party was fun. I read something about a projector screen with a movie and boys! Uh oh. And I'm not even around to scare them off. haha jk. L. you'll have to send me all the details of your fun night. Dad said Grandma and Grandpa D got to see the Blind Side. I'm glad they got a chance to see it. It’s such a good movie.

So this week I got the Ensign from Grandma G. I've already read quite a bit of it. This conference was so good I'm glad I have my own copy to carry around with me. I also received the package from mom, post cards from mom, G. and L. I have them hanging up on the wall by my desk.

So transfer news.....Elder Child is staying! We are both excited to keep working with each other. After this transfer he will have been here for 7 1/2 months so more than likely he'll be out of here next transfer but we are excited to keep the work moving forward. We taught 19 lessons this week. We yet again came so close to 20. We are going to make it this next week! We have three progressing investigators. The one who had a date is starting to slow down though. She still hasn't kicked the cigs. We have another named K. who is doing really good. She is friends with a less active family so we have been teaching her in their home and now they have been reactivated. We are thinking we can set a date with her this week for mid June. The only one in our district who was affected was Elder Rice. He is going to open up a new area in Sydney. I'm glad Elder Heywood is around still. He'll be training a new missionary. I've never been in a district with a brand new greeny before so it will be fun to see how that is. I feel since we are in such a small district we have a lot more unity. A sister in the ward makes t-shirts and told us she could do one for us so we are making a district t-shirt. We had team ups here in Havre this week. They went really well. We went to the driving range together and Elder Child did a lot better. I must be a good teacher. We also had a really good district meeting and some really good set lessons so overall the team ups were a lot of fun and a success.

So D. is Pres.Johnson’s son who came back to Chinook to live here for a few months with his wife and baby. He just graduated from BYU and is really excited to start helping us out with the work in Chinook. He invited his old friend L., who now lives in Billings, to come over on Sat. We went over there too and helped them put concrete and these big rocks in a spill way by the canal. We were able to talk a little with him and get to know him. It ended up starting to pour rain and they almost drove their suburban into the canal because it was so slick. Our truck made it out pretty easily so that was good. After that we went and ate with them and then went back home to change and pack for Havre. A little while later D. called and said he had asked L. if he wanted to hear a little lesson from us and he agreed. So we went and taught the first lesson and it went really well. He is Lutheran and is really active but you can tell he is searching for more. He just came out and said he'd love to read the Book of Mormon. Since he lives in Billings though we had to turn him over to missionaries in Billings. But we soon found out that where he lives is the Assistant’s area so now we are super happy because he'll have the best teachers in the mission teaching him. D. is really excited too. I wouldn't be surprised to see his name in the Talon in the next 6 months. It will be cool to know we were the ones who started him out in his learning but in the end it’s really all because of his good friend D. Missionary works so much better when the members help out like that. If we would have tracted into him who knows if he would've had the same response.

Another cool thing that happened this week was that after District Meeting we went and ate at this Chinese Buffet. Our waitress came up to us after a while and said ok this is probably a dumb question but do you only come out in the summer? We said no. She said then how come you don’t come visit me anymore. Well come to find out the missionaries were teaching a less active member who was her friend and she'd be over there all the time and she said she liked having the lessons and talking religion. So we asked her if she'd like to have us come teach her specifically now. She said Yes! and to please give her a call. She is a Freshman at Northern and we think she'll know a few of the younger people from the ward so we are going to take this guy who has been back from his mission for about 2 years now to go teach her with us. We think she has a lot of promise and we are excited to call her up and go try her this week.

Well I better get going. I'm going to send some pics to mom’s gmail. Thanks to all those who have been writing letters and emails. It really brightens my day when I can hear how all of you are doing. I'll try to keep up on replying too. Well it’s off to Canada now. We have a lot of extra miles so we are using some of them to drive to the Canadian Border today. Should be fun. Too bad we can't actually cross. I love you all and have a good week. Talk to you later.
-Elder Mitch Davis

Canadian Border

Wildhorse port of entry

PS Grandma G, I saw a picture and I thought of you. Go look it up and tell me what you think of it. It’s called "On Freedoms Wings" by Rick Kelly. L. let me know if you got your shirt and I want to know where some of the seniors from school are going to college.

What a week - Monday, May 17, 2010

Hey Everyone,

First off I want to tell L. HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you have a fun party and I hope you enjoy having the EVMCO Concert on your birthday. Maybe dad can convince them to have the whole choir sing Happy Bday to you during rehearsals. That'd be fun and embarrassing I bet. haha

This week went really fast. It's amazing how quick things are going when we are really busy and none of our set appointments fall through. So this week our goal was 20 lessons which has never been hit in this area for about 2 years. We started off the week in Havre and despite being gone all of Tuesday to Lewistown for District Meetings we had 10 lessons by the end of Wed. night, 6 of which came on Wed. alone. Chinook slowed things down a little. Sat. consisted of a day long Eagle Project building a fence and fixing up a grave site out in this really pretty valley out in the middle of no where so that meant we got no lessons on Sat. but after yesterday we ended with 18. So we didn't hit that goal but we taught more than Elder Child has taught all his time here. We taught more lessons on Wed. than he taught in full weeks his first month here. So we are really excited about what's going on. We have team up with Elder Heywood. this week so that should help us hit 20 this week. We have 1 on date for baptism but she still hasn't quit smoking. We made a deal with her that we'd run every morning if she'd go smoke free. So far she hasn't done it yet but she is getting closer. We also have 2 investigators who should be on date within the next week or two.

On Monday I took Elder Child to the golf course and taught him how to golf. We went to the driving range and had a lot of fun. He said he appreciates golf a lot more after learning and trying it out for himself. Monday night we were laying there in bed at 10:30 and all of a sudden BOOM! BOOM! It shook the whole house and we didn't know what it was. Come to find out later an F16 from the Great Falls Base was flying a little low to Havre and broke the sound barrier right over the city. The whole town was buzzin about it the next day. Gotta love small towns. So the other day we were in a home and saw a commercial out of the corner of my eye for Shrek 4! Didn't know they were making another one. So I'll have to add that and Toy Story to my list of movies to see.

Sat. night after the Eagle Project we went out to a part member couples house. They have a pretty big ranch and they're big into rodeo. She's a barrel racer on a lower circuit and they have a big arena at their house. After they fed us these massive steaks that are from their own cows they took us out back and they had a bunch of friends out there roping. It was fun to sit on the back of their pickup and talk to them and watch their friends team rope. Their names are the G's and she is a member but he isn't. He's gone through a lot of health things lately though and at the age of 60 is really thinking about things more and told us he is interested in being taught and being baptized. So that was really exciting news. I know G. would have loved to watch all of these horses they had out there.

Speaking of G. sounds like your trip to San Diego was fun. Sounds like you learned a lot and had a good time. Too bad you had to get a little sick. That's no fun.

Mom, You probably didn't get a chance to call Elder Heywood's mom but you should. He told her you'd be calling sometime soon.

Well I better go. Sounds like the EVMCO Concert is going to be really good from what dad said in his email. I wish I could be there. That and both sets of grandparents there, wow this week sounds fun. You'll all have to let me know how it goes. We are going to the driving range with the Lewistown elders and then off to the Canadian Border. Should be a fun pday. I love you all and enjoy your week.

Love,

Elder Davis


P.S. Andrew I got your letter and your postcard. You should have a letter that gets to you soon. If you have any room in your suitcase, buy me a Uruguay soccer jersey and I'll get you something U of M. Keep up the good work and enjoy your last two transfers.

Oh man transfers are this week. I think we'll both stay one more transfer together.

If You Like The Weather in MT ~ Wait 5 Minutes- Monday, May 10, 2010

Hey Everyone,

First off Happy Mothers Day to everyone especially Mom, Grandma D. and Grandma G. It was a lot of fun and nice to talk to the family, Brett, and Ricky. I can't believe how fast an hour goes by. So much to talk about. So for those who missed out on the call home I havn't forgot about you. This week was a pretty good week. It rained off and on all week. That's where the subject line of this email comes from. I swear it would be nice outside then these dark clouds would come rolling in and dump a bunch of rain for 10 min. and then it'd clear up and then 10 min. later it'd start to hail and then it'd clear up again. So truly if you wait 5 min., the weather will change here.

We went to Great Falls for Zone Conference this week. We left early Monday so we could participate in zone olympics on pday. That was a lot of fun. We played a bunch of games and they had a points system. It was sr.comps vs. jr. comps. The sr. comps won.

Tuesday was Zone Conference. It's amazing how every Zone Conference they seem to talk about the exact thing you need to hear. President also talked about how he went to Chicago for a mission pres. meeting and he went to Wrigley field and bought Sis. Gardner a cubs hat because that's her favorite team so it was fun to be able to talk a little bit about Chicago and how I lived there with them. Zone Conference in Great Falls was a little smaller than the previous ones I've been to because it wasn't a combined zones Zone Conference like the ones in Helena or Bozeman but I think I liked it more because it was a little bit smaller setting. This allowed you to get to know the other Elders in the zone more I thought so that was good.

I need to share a joke I heard at Zone Conference that I really liked. What does Satan look for under his bed when he goes to sleep at night? Jeffery R. Holland. HaHaHa I thought that was a good one. I also heard a story from Pres. that was told in his conference that was told by another mission pres. He said that he and two sister missionaries went to a catholic school and gave a presentation about our church. They bore testimony at the end and said if the kids would read the Book of Mormon they too would come to the knowledge that the sisters had that it was true and that the church was true. When they were done, the priest got up and said thank you it's good to see you like your religion as much as you do. And then he asked the class how many of the students felt the same way and knew without a doubt that the Catholic Church was the true church? And none of the students raised their hand. So he asked them again and again none of them raised their hands. So one sister got up and bore testimony again and said that they had copies of the Book of Mormon for whoever wanted one and everyone of the students came and got one. So they handed out 50 Books of Mormon to a Catholic school class. What an awesome feeling that must have been for those sis. missionaries to see that the students had a desire to feel the same way they did and to place 50 Bookds of Mormon! Wow! That would be cool. I bet that priest was ticked!

This week on Wed. It was Cinco De Mayo so we thought, oh let's go get some mexican for lunch. Let's just say that mexican food here is no bueno compared to AZ. That's one thing I've noticed. You eat a lot of the same kind of things on a mission that you ate back home but the recipies are altered just enough that it's not as good as mom's cooking.

Ok we went this Sat. and helped our home owner Bro. J. brand his calves. He had about 30 of them and oh man was that an experience. You have to get the calves separated from the heffers and then you just take them and attempt to tackle them while someone else grabs their back legs and you take them down. I was normally on the back end holding the back legs. One leg you hold with your hand and the other you hold down with your feet. So you sit there on the ground holding this calf and then Bro. J. comes over with the brand and puts the brand on their side. Right when the hot iron hits their skin they go crazy and scream and you have to hold them tight and then next thing you know they've taken a poop. So literally you have scared the crap out of them (sorry Gma G). It's quite the experience. Then another guy comes over and gives them a shot and then castrates them a foot away from you. hahaha. It takes you back a little the first few but after a while you expect to see poop and blood and to be holding a screaming calf. I'll have to send a few of the pics I took while we were herding them. I better go though. If you want any more detail on the branding talk to my mom or dad. I love you all and I hope you have a good week.
-Elder Davis

PS Have fun in California G and Mom. Send me a post card or something.

Branding Calves

Bear Paw Mountains

Pictures and Greetings from Great Falls - Monday, May 3, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Greetings from Great Falls. We're here for Zone Conference tomorrow.   

How are you all doing? Sounds like everyone I've heard from has been pretty busy and is getting excited for summer. Only a month of school left that's exciting. First off I want to thank those who wrote me this past week. On Thurs. I got 5 letters! One from Mom (thanks for the pic and the coupons), 2 from Gma G, one from gpa D, and one from Aunt Carol. It was exciting to get that one! She even put Go Sugar Beeters on the back of it (Chinook High). haha

We started out in Havre and we had a pretty good week. We saw a lot of less actives and we even helped a recent convert mow her lawn. Then on Wed. it rained from lunch on. We headed back to Chinook Wed. night and we mud bogged our way into the Johnsons. Bro. Johnsons Dad passed away on Sunday night so we helped out a lot on Thursday on the farm. We loaded up some wood, rouned up some loose cows, and fixed a fence. Elder Child knows so much about all of this farming stuff because of his grandpa's ranch that when I'm with him and Bro. J. I feel like dead weight but I'm slowly learning and they are good teachers. I have the feeling Bro.J. feels like he has to train these city boys up and sometimes you can tell it bugs him but other times he's more patient. It all works though because he really appreciates the help.

It rained most of Wed, all day Thursday, and a little on Friday. So our truck was a mess. We mud bogged all over Zurich (where the J's live) I'll have to send a picture of it. We had to wash it this morning for zone confrence. We also hit some big mud probably a good foot deep out at this families house. My shoes got so muddy. I had to clean them last night. So on Friday we went and helped out at the rest home. The RS does a birthday party out there once a year and they had us come serve cake and ice cream. There was this old guy who played the electric guitar while we were there. They said he has alshimers and that he cant remember the songs till the lady on the piano starts to play them and then it all comes back and he can join in and play with her. haha he did a pretty good job.

 Friday was also the day we went to visit G. the 350 lb indian. We showed up there and he had a friend there with him who was drinking. It turned out that his "friend" was his wife's ex husband that they pick up from the reservation once a month and take into town to pay his bills and buy him clothes. He was sitting there rambling on and G. kept telling him"You Be nice to these Boys. They're Holy Men! They're the closest to Heaven you'll ever get!" It was so funny. The old drunk guy kept telling us he was the captain and we needed to listen to him. He then ended up spilling his beer and Elder Child had to grab it before it spilled everywhere.

 I forgot to tell you this last week. We were trying this guy we had talked to while tracting and he wasn't home and as we turn we see this old lady starting to mow her lawn in a dress and high heels. So we go over there and ask her if we can help her and she said oh you guys are dressed up I'll just do it. Well we looked at her and then said umm you're all dressed up too. So Elder Child finally just grabbed the mower and we got started. It was a mower with a cord and at some point the cord got stuck on a tree. Well I went to untangle it and it swings back and takes me out. I fell flat on my behind! I just jumped up and laughed. It was pretty funny. 

So we were studying the other day and Elder Child looks out and sees this stray dog. So he goes and tells the J's. Sis. J. starts yelling at Bro. J saying Shoot it! Shoot it! and then she stops and said No wait don't shoot it just tie it up. It was so funny. The dog ended up escaping when Bro. J went out with his gun. hahaha 

Saturday was Bro. J's dad's funeral. We went to it. It was in Chinook at the church. There was a lot of people there. It was packed. That was my first Mormon funeral. Definitely better than B's weird funeral his daughter put on. 

Ok Sunday I'll be calling between 4:30 and 5 our time and I'll call the house phone. We will be with a member in Havre who's going to add us to their family plan. I was wondering if Ricky and Brett could come? If so could you call them or have L tell them? Maybe I'll send them a letter about it. I'm excited for this week. Zone Conference should be really good, we have some good appointments set, and then Mother's Day! I hope that time works for you. If not send me a quick letter this week. 

  
Well I'm going to send some pics now. I hope you all have a good week and I can't wait to talk to you this weekend. I love you all. Talk to you sooner then later.

-Elder Davis

PS. Good to hear the Jazz made it to the next round. Hopefully they can steal game 2 from L.A.    

Shearing Sheep

Our Truck

Seahawks Truck

A busy but good week... - Monday, April 26, 2010

Hey Everyone,

First off thanks to all who wrote me letters or emails this week. It was so nice to hear all the fun things that are going on in UT and AZ. I've slacked a little in my writing letters since the transfer but I've been able to catch up a bit today so hopefully I'll get them out soon.

Ok Monday we were in Lewistown. No I didn't get to see the N family yet. They live 30 miles out of town so because of limited miles I'm not sure if I ever will get to meet them but you never know. Maybe next time we are in Lewistown. That's funny that L's cousin asked her if I went to the prom with her.
Elder Heywood went out there with the Zone Leaders on Wed. and talked about me. Elder Eggbert who is a Zone Leader told them I look like Keanu Reeves. hahaha By the way Elder Heywood wants to know if you'd send a prom pic of me so I can get it to him so he can show them. haha I also wondered if you could send me some other pics. Dad or L could probably do this the easiest but get into my pics and send me the car pics from B. J. and the pics from Havasupai. Elder Child wants to see my car pics and Elder Heywood wants to see pretty much any pic from AZ because he is from AZ and we talk a lot about it together. Oh and L if you have your tennis individual and team pics send those too. Try putting them in a zip folder maybe if you know how to do that. If not just send them as attachments maybe and I can pull them off to my card.

Anyway Monday we sheered sheep. Well we didn't really sheer them. We just helped herd them into a pen and then get them in line and into a shoot. Then you just push them in the butts till them walk and go up the shoot to a trailer where the sheerers sheer them. I'ts really crazy how fast they sheer those sheep. I have some pics but I forgot my camera at home so I'll have to send them next week. And Yes Dad I am working outside. Crazy huh? I've found its a lot easier when you have a good pair of gloves and it's not so stinkin hot outside! haha Tuesday we were still in Lewistown. We had teamups with the DL. I went with Elder Heywood's companion, Elder Rice from Florida, and visited some people. He's been out 1 transfer so both of us kind of had to step things up but we did good teaching together.

The elders in Lewistown stay in this old fashon apartment building. Its kind of fun stay there. The thing that stinks though is they only have a tub with a little hose so you have to sit there and shower in the tub. You do it quick because you get kind of cold. I can't imagine having to do that in the winter. Wed. we drove back to Havre and then Chinook that night. We drove on this dirt road to save miles. It wasn't too bad. The drive was really pretty. Good thing we have a truck though. I'm not sure we could have traveled that fast in a car. On the way back Wed. we stopped at the Havre ward's bishop's house. He lives way out there by Big Sandy on a huge farm. Pretty much he farms organically this stuff called Kamoot? It's an ancient wheat that can be used to make breads and pastas. Anyone allergic to wheat can eat it. He had us get in this big tractor with him and we had a Correlation Meeting with him while he seeded one of his fields. I think that is the first and last time I'll ever have a correlation meeting in a tractor. hahaha. We also helped him plant some trees and he fed us Kamoot pasta. It was pretty good.Quick question: Did you get a chance to watch the Joseph Smith Movie I sent you?

I got some good news on Thurs. L got baptized Sat.! Not a lot of detail Elder Lanham just wrote a quick note on Grandma and Grandpa Davis's letter he forwarded.  I'll have to write him and get some more details but that was good to hear and I'm glad he finally got a baptism in Townsend.

We were tracting this week and we tracked into an old guy in his 80's who is building a one man plane in his living room. He invited us in and showed us all about it. It's pretty cool but really random to see in someones living room. haha

We taught 15 lessons this week which is good considering we were in Lewistown a good part of M-W. We are teaching this old indian named G. He's a really big guy and every time we go there he's only in his boxers so we have to wait for him to get dressed. What a crazy old indian. You run into a lot of indians around here. Some, like G, are really nice. Others not so much. We asked G. if he would be baptized and he said I already have. This really confused us but I guess the indians had a placement program through the church to go live with a family but you had to be a member. He claims his friend who was a missionary here baptized him. We asked him if there were any witnesses and he said no his companion was shopping. So we have to do some digging to find out if he really was baptized and his records are out there somewhere or if the missionary did that back in the day just to get him into the placement program. If that's the case there's a chance we could have a baptism in the next month or so.

We are working with a lady in Havre who had a date of May 1 but she has to quit smoking first. We went to teach her last night and start the Stop Smoking Program with her. She has reset a date for May 22. This will probably be my first baptism.

I can't believe its almost May already. By the way. Mother's Day we are planning to call late afternoon. Like 3ish maybe. Let me know what works for you and I'll give you more details next week.
Well I better go. I hope everything is going good. It sounds like you are all busy but having fun with the things you are doing. I love you all and I'll talk to you later.
    
Love,
           
Elder Davis

PS. Questions
How's Nani?
When does Giselle go to Cali? This week or next?
And any word on Nick's mission call?
Oh and we got 52 baptisms this month in the mish.!

On the drive to Lewistown - April 19, 2010

Judith Landing

Another view of Judith Landing

The Missouri River next to Judith Landing

A member's farm in Lewistown

Elder Davis dressed up and role playing an investigator in District Meeting - Havre, MT

New Area Comes With New Experiences - Monday, April 19, 2010

Well I've now been in the Havre/Chinook area for 5 days and so far I'm liking things. Elder Child and I get along really well so far. We are having a lot of fun and despite working only a half week and going to Great Falls we taught 15 lessons. I'm still working on figuring out the area. The first few days we were in Chinook which is where our house is. We live out on a big farm with this couple who is in their early 60s. We live in the upstairs of their home. Definitely not as much space but as I said before I'm kind of excited to experince more of a mission like atmosphere. haha. We have two desks in a small room with two twin size beds and a small closet. They allow us to use their kitchen and a bathroom ~  the only hard part about that is we have our own fridge but it's just a mini fridge so not a lot of room for food. We skip back and forth between Havre and Chinook. M-W we are in Havre and then T-S we are in Chinook. And then we rotate our Sundays between the two. Havre has a pretty good size ward that is starting to outgrow its building. In the next year the church wants to expand the building. Chinook has a branch of about 30-40 active. Definitely a lot larger then the branch in White Sulfer. Things out here are mostly flat with rolling hills and a few mountains in the far background. We cover a really large area so we do drive quite a bit except when we are in town then we walk. The weather has been really nice so we have been walking quite a bit. It got up to 70 yesterday.

Chinook is a town of about 1,500 people in the main part of town and Havre I'm not sure how many people but it's a lot bigger then Townsend. Montana State University Northern is up here and there is a lot more shopping and fast food than Townsend had. So our zone consists of our area and then the companionship in Lewistown where the N famliy lives. Elder Heywood is here in Lewistown now so when the A's who are the N's relatives heard he was from AZ they asked him if he was from QC. He said no but Elder Davis in Havre is. So we are down in Lewistown today because we rotate where we do District Meeting because you have to drive 2 1/2 hrs to get here from Havre so we come on Mondays and then spend Pday here and then spend part of tomorrow for District Meeting here. Next week they'll come up to Havre and do the same. Except for this time we are staying until Wed. morning because we are going to do District Leader team ups while we are here. So since I'm in Lewistown maybe I'll get to meet the N's cousins.

Ok now for a few random things I wrote down this week.

- First off last week before I left Townsend I finally got my name and height onto the D's wall. I'm just right behind a wall with R and all of his family's names on there so that's cool.

- At the J's where we live we go help him most mornings load some hay in his truck and feed his cows. It's kind of fun. You stand in the back of the truck and as he drives and the cow follow you looking for new food you just cut the twin and let a little bit of the bail off at a time. I just have to wear long sleeves because the time I did it with short sleeves on and the hay touched my skin I had hay fever like crazy!

- Well this weekend we went to Stake Conference in Great Falls. We drove over with a member and then stayed the night at the Zone Leaders house. The Stake Conference was good but it was really hard to hear. We were in the very very back because we got there right at 10:00 so it was hard to hear over all the crying kids. That Stake Center was bigger than ours and it was packed so that was good. Pres. Gardner and Sis. Gardner were there. He got to speak a little towards the end. He said he loves this area because his father served a mission in Montana and he said that Havre was where his dad said he gained his testimony so now I feel really special to be serving in Havre. It was really good to be able to talk to the Gardners and see them again.

- When I first got here it was raining for two days and everything was muddy. We had to go out to a dinner down this big dirt road and good thing we have a truck because we pretty much went mud bogging. We hit this huge puddle and dropped like 2 feet and all of this muddy water came flying up it was crazy. I'm surprised we didn't get stuck.

- On Sat. we get into Havre and we are trying a few places before the member takes us to Great Falls and we get a call from Bro. D. He and Sis. D are in Havre watching their granddaughter play volleyball. She plays for the college up here. So we went and talked with them for a while and met her. She had to go after a while to start another volleyball game and Bro. D said we should come visit her. I'm not sure if she is not a member or if she is just less active but I guess we'll try and meet with her and see.

- I learned this week that the government stores a bunch of nukes up here around the Havre Lewistown area. You'll be driving along and see this little fenced off area with a white pole and cameras. I guess that's where they are buried. Our Zone Leader said if Montana became it's own country that it would be the 3rd largest nuclear power behind the Russia and the US. Pretty crazy. I'll have to take a pic. of one.

Ok now questions that have been asked:  

Did you also get the square box with the Easter candy? Yes and I've eaten a good portion of it now that I'm not at Sister P's.

Speaking of food do you want to send me some coupons that I could use? Not sure what kind of food I need yet but anything you think would help for stuff like bread or eggs or stuff like that. We have dinners and some lunches taken care of so we feed ourselves mostly for breakfast and lunch.

The H's  live just outside of East Helena. They were barely in our area but I am so glad they were. And most of their family is in Utah and Colorado. Her Dad was very active and was a Stake Pres at one time. Her mom was active and then when they got divorced she went to that cult church I might have talked about but now her mom is an active member. A's family aren't members though. When A and S got married they didn't even know each other was an inactive member until later.

Yes, we went to B's funeral. It was weird though. The daughter didn't want any prayers or anythings religious because she doesn't like church things even though he did which is dumb because it was his funeral not hers. It was really short and not what he deserved so the M's dedicated the Gospel Sing to him.

You asked about Bro.P. aka R. Well he's not a member but he goes every week and is more involved than most of the members. He's been doing this for 30+years. We talk a little gospel with him. He reads out of a scripture quote book every morning to us and reads scriptues with her every night. He is a mystery as to why he hasn't been baptized and when you bring it up he tries to avoid it. One day though he said. He just lacks the faith and thinks that one day he'll get his answer.

Yes mom that is a real gun. It's a 22 Short and it's not loaded and it was B's. He had over 100 guns and when he died W. got a few of them and he was showing us them when that pic was taken.

Well I hope everyones week went good. I hope you're enjoying your clinicals mom. I pray every night that you'll drive safe. I think it'd be cool to have a family prayer every night. If your still up where ever you are say a little prayer with me because I pray pretty much every night at 10:30. Let me know what you think of that. I didn't get your family emails because we emailed early today. We are off to shear sheep. I love you all. Talk to you later.

        -Elder Mitch Davis

Big Sandy, MT

What a week Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Well first off I transfer news. After Elder Lanham was telling everyone how he was about 95% sure he'd be transfered the 5% happend. I am currently sitting in the Chinook library on Wed. with my new companion Elder Child. I am in the Havre (pronounced Haver) Chinook area which is in the Great Falls zone and is in the middle of the state about 30 miles south of the Canadian border. Its been a long last few days.

We got the call Friday that I was the one being transfered so I started packing and saying my goodbyes. I'm really going to miss Townsend but I am excited to get to see new things, meet new people and experience a real mission now. Being at Sis. P's was awesome but I think I am now in the real mission. hahaha

We had a member missionary fireside workshop on sunday which was nice because I was able to say goodbye to a lot of the members there. The best part was that the H's came and shared their testamonies at the end. It was really hard to say goodbye to them but it was also a perfect way to leave after hearing their testimonies. They are really sad to see me go especially Sis. H and E but I promised them I'll be back to visit. Sis. P also took it really hard. Her mom who is Sis.R and is like 90 years old was talking to me Sunday and she said Sis. P hates when transfers happen. I got a picture with Sis. P before I left and both of us were crying a little. Elder Lanham said that he feels so bad for her because he knows how much she hates to see us go and that she probably went inside and cried after saying goodbye. I definitely want to go back and visit her and Townsend when I'm done. The good thing is Elder Kuck., my MTC comp is with Elder Lanham now so I feel good to have him following me.

Ok so Monday I go on the big van the mission has and Elder T drives all the missionaries around for transfers. We drove from Helena to Missula to Kalispel dropping off and picking up elders all along the way. Oh man what a pretty drive. I got to see Missoula where the Grizzlies play and Flat Head Lake and some pretty cool mountain ranges. So we stayed the night in Kalispel and me and Elder Heywood who is from AZ and was in my district and who is going to be my District Leader here, spent the night with this old couple. It was fun to be able to just sit there for a couple of hours and talk with them. They are a really nice couple. They said to come back and visit them.

Then on Tues. We drove from 8-1 in some snow and finaly arrived in Great Falls where I met my new comp. Elder Child has been out for 7 1/2 months and is from Payson, UT. He seems like a lot of fun so far and he used to serve in Helena 5 and Townsend which used to be combined when he first got to the mission so we have a lot of things we can talk about together with that. We live in Chinook which is a town of about 1,500. They have a branch there with about 50 members. We live with the couple out on a farm in the upstairs of their old house. It definitely is not the P's but it does feel like what you could expect on a mission.

Havre is a little bigger town. Definitely bigger than Townsend. They have a small university there and a lot more shopping and fast food than Townsend did. They have about 200 members in the ward there. The area around here is pretty flat. No mountains. You'll have to take a look at Google Earth to see what I'm talking about. I'm really excited to get started here and I hope I can pick things up quickly. It's been really rainy/ snowy here so everything is muddy and wet. Luckily the elder who was here left a suit that didn't fit him anymore and it does fit me. So I have a suit I could wear and not really care about getting it dirty because it was free. Well I better go.

I have so much more to say but I also had a lot of emails to read which was nice. I'll be emailing again Monday so that won't be too far away. Thanks to all those that wrote me emails and letters. It was good to hear from all of you. I'll definitely try to send a letter home this week but we'll see. At this point it might be better just to wait since it wouldn't get there til Mon. I did send a package home though so I hope you get that soon. Good luck with your clinicals this week Mom. I hope you can stay awake on your drive home.

Good to hear a good tennis update also. I have so much more to say but I'm strapped for time. So just know that I love and miss you all and I hope you have a good week.

-Elder Davis

My comp says if you look on google you won't find it. haha We're that far out.