Well Hidy Ho Everyone,
We are emailing later in the day today because we are in Chinook. We scheduled to be here for at least half of our pday so we could play bball with a priest in the Chinook Branch, B R. It was pretty fun. We played bball for a half hour or so and then played some frisbee. Now we are in the Chinook library emailing. We also helped Pres. Johnson but more on that later.
So it sounds like everyone had a good week camping and fishing. I'm glad you were able to get the trailer out. G and L went float tubing huh? That sounds like a lot of fun. We'll have to come float tube here in MT someday. I think we'd catch a lot bigger fish than the girls did. At least you guys caught something though. So what are the plans for the trailer?
You asked about Pioneer Day and if we celebrated it in MT? The answer is yes. The Havre Ward had a ward party last week for it because the Havre Fair was this weekend and Chinook had a dinner Friday night and a breakfast Sat. morning. The dinner was a lot of fun. We went out to a park a little ways out of town and there is an old log building that is used for dinners and dances. So we ate and then they taught some different dances. It was funny watching the old people try to relive their glory days of square dancing and the younger generation struggling to learn them. Breakfast was good too. We had sourdough pancakes, sausage, and juice.
So Tuesday the Zone Leaders were in town for team ups. This is the first time I've had team ups with the Zone Leaders since they changed the rules back 3 months ago. I guess they came for team ups because E.Whitlock is new because they went to the other new elders area too. We had a really good day that day. We tracted some and found some new potential investigators. We also taught 8 lessons between the four of us. Our dinner on Tues also fed us Brats which I haven't had since leaving home. They were really good.
One really funny thing that happened to E. Whitlock was on Tues when he was with E. Colf. They street contacted a young couple who was walking their little kid. They got to talk to them for quite a while. At one point the guy started telling his fiance about how we, the missionaries, pay $10,000 to not watch TV or movies or do anything with a girl. His fiance was really surprised with this. She said what, you can't even touch a girl?! and E.Whitlock says nope. She then says what if I did this! And she gives him a big Hug! HaHaHa E. Whitlock said it was sooo awkward but luckily the guy gets mad at her and said Hey! You can't do that! Respect his beliefs! hahahaha Anyway they said we could come back this week. They seem interested but would definitely have to work through some things. Nothing the Gospel couldn't fix though.
Wed. we contacted one of our potentials that E.Whitlock and Cox had tracted into. His name is K. He told us we could come in and we were able to teach him the first lesson. He is a young college student who goes to Northern. He seemed interested and told us he'd read what we assigned him to read. We are having a return appointment with him this Thurs. We hope that he can progress. For now he is at least willing to have us come over and teach so that's good.
We got word this week that a young man who is a recent convert just moved up to Havre to live with his aunt for the summer. He is from Ahwatukee AZ. The Havre Young Men are really excited to get him coming to this ward and coming to YM. We went over and met him. He seems like a really good kid and he seems a lot of fun. He though it was cool that we both are from AZ. Hopefully all of this will maybe open the door to us teaching his aunt.
On Thurs we get this call from a sister in the ward. She is one of those sisters that when you see her name on the caller ID you think oh boy this should be interesting. Anyway it was raining and she needed us to lift some windows she was getting from a guy into a truck. She was panicking because the windows were first come first served so we needed to get over their asap. We ended up helping her as it was pouring rain. She was worried the windows would fall out of the truck and tried to tell us we needed to sit back there with them. We both thought to ourselves are you kidding it's pouring rain and we are both in dress pants, tie, and shirt. We didnt' think it'd be too good for us to ride back there because the Mission would probably say it wasn't safe. Luckily we convinced her to let us drive and that if she went slow she'd be fine. I'm fine with helping people out but sometimes they aren't the smartest with some of their ideas. haha
So we got into Chinook at around 4:00 Thurs. We decided to go see a sister from the branch who has this disability. We usually go read the Book of Mormon with her. So we get there and her old lady neighbor is about to start mowing Sister M's lawn. So we asked if we could mow it and she hum hawed around so finally we just took it from her and started to cut it. About half way through these huge dark clouds roll in and it starts to rain and the wind is blowing like crazy. Man E. Whitlock booked it and that lawn was mowed so fast. I've never seen a lawn mowed so fast.
Well yesterday we talked in church in Chinook. It went really good I thought. I wasn't even nervous. It just flowed really well. I talked on Repentance and E. Whitlock talked on Missionary Work. There was a member of the Stake Pres. there so he was the closing speaker. All in all I think it was a pretty good Sacrament Meeting if I do say so myself. hahaha I'll have to send you a copy of my talk.
Early tomorrow morning we are headed for GF for a 2 day Preach My Gospel training. This is taking place of Zone Conference this transfer. We will be there from 8am-9pm on Tues and 8am to 4:30 pm Wed. It should be really good. I haven't sat in more of a class setting like that though since I left the MTC. It will be good to see Pres. and everyone else. I talked to Pres. the other night when I was giving him an update on E. Whitlock's progress. I asked him about Brother D and he said he had called Pres. last week and told him Pres. Gardner, I just want you to know I'm praying for you. Pres. said oh thank you Brother D, I need it. hahaha W M has also supposedly committed to baptism but still no date. He is still slowly getting there.
Well I better get going. I hope you all have a good week. Enjoy the last few days of summer girls and I hope your schedule works out for you L. Stay cool and I love you all.
-Elder Davis
PS I want a recipe for that easy pizza dough, a copy of BYU's football schedule, and any info on the Jazz signing Bell and getting Al Jefferson. Oh and let me know if Brett finds out anything about his call. Thanks.
Dad- Barry Lamb has been there a while huh? What position did he coach? You said you didn't know who the new DCord. was going to be? Hills the DCord. So I didn't get what you meant about that. And what's the name of the new coach that's been there for 3 years as a Grad Assist.? And just wait 2 years and you can really come fishing up here :)!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Another busy week-- Monday, July 19, 2010
Hello Friends,
So this area is officially probably the craziest area in the whole church! haha I feel sometimes like we are never in our area. This upcoming week will be the first normal week in our area in a month. No team ups, no waiting in GF, no Zone Conference, nada. So I am happy to finally get to Work! I guess when I was the Jr. Comp it didn't really bother me I just went with the flow. Maybe I'm noticing it more now though because I have a new elder to train up and I feel like we have had no chance to really dive into the work. So we are both excited for the week to come. OK enough about the week to come. Let's go back in time.
Mon-Wed. morn we were in Lewistown for team ups and District Meeting. Monday night was pretty cool. So we ate with a member in Lewistown named Brother Kyle Shobe. He is THE WORLD CHAMPION Livestock Auctioneer! It was so much fun to talk to him about auctioneering and how exactly one becomes a world champ auctioneer and how someone even gets into auctioneering in the first place. He has always wanted to be an auctioneer and him and his dad started an auctioneer business. He was doing a lot of local livestock auctions around MT. Then he went to the divisional competition in Billings a couple of months ago and won. Then he went to the Regionals (don't remember where they were) and he won. Then he went to the World Championships in Oklahoma City I believe. He said you are judged on how well people can understand you, how much you know about livestock, how well you can up-sell, and how well you can pick out the little signs people make to bid. So in Oklahoma City he competed against 10 others and won! So now he goes all over the county doing auctions and talking at conventions and all sorts of stuff to promote livestock auctions. He also won a brand new full size Chevy truck that has a big picture of this Huge belt buckle he won and on the sides it says 2010 World Champion Livestock Auctioneer. He got a golden gavel and a massive ring for winning. The ring is like a super bowl ring. And the coolest part is he's a convert to the church. So you never know when you baptize someone if someday they could be a champion at something. I'm thinking the Ensign or the Mormon Times needs to do a story on him. We got a picture with him and his truck after we ate with them and helped them move. Maybe if I have time I can send it.
So on Wed. Morning we headed back to Havre. We stopped in Big Sandy and Box Elder though to try some people. We got in with a few but the one that went really good was with L J. She is the one, I don't know if I've talked about, who's son died in Iraq about 2 months ago. She and her husband are less active and we have been trying to get them back to church. Her mom lives in Havre and told us Sunday that her daughter said our visit was the perfect thing she needed this week. We had watched a video by Pres. Hinckley called Lessons Learned From My Childhood with her about how the Lord knows what we are going through and need in our lives and how he will bless us through the help of other people. It was cool to see how we taught that and then later find out that the Lord was using us for that same reason to help her feel comfort this week. It truly is great to be his servant on the earth for him right now.
So the Chinook fair was this weekend. We stayed in Havre an extra day to avoid it on Thurs. We also didn't go to the rodeo. We had more work to do in Havre and felt it was best to stay and work. We ended up tracting and finding a potential investigator so I was glad we didn't go. We had a whole list of people to try Friday and no one was home. Everyone was off at the fair. Luckily we had set up a lesson with G to watch The Testaments so Chinook wasn't a complete failure. We did head off for Havre on Sat. earlier than normal. Havre fair is this week but we should be out of Havre by the time it starts up.
We had a really good lesson with K this week. It went really well because it was the first good complete lesson me and E.Whitlock taught together. We also had good lessons about the temple with the recent converts the W's and C. They are really excited to go to the temple and they were even more excited when we told them they can go do baptisms now and they don't have to wait a year like they had thought.
E. Whitlock lives in Chandler right on the boarder of Gilbert so he tells everyone Gilbert. We are having a lot of fun together and he is picking things up pretty fast which makes my job easier. Like I said it will be good for the two of us to finally be in our area a full week.
Sounds like the UT trip was fun. The yearly trip to UT was definitely missed this year but I'm in a whirl right now and can't even believe it's July! L, I commend you for trying to wake board. Keep lifting weights and maybe next year you'll get it. Oh and Dad thanks for that article on the Sunday play. I really liked it. Well I better go. I'm getting kicked off by a librarian. haha I'll try to send a letter this week. Especially to L. I think I still owe her one. Well I love you all. Have a good week. Talk to you later and Stay Cool.
Love,
Elder Davis
Current temp. 70 degrees and cloudy
So this area is officially probably the craziest area in the whole church! haha I feel sometimes like we are never in our area. This upcoming week will be the first normal week in our area in a month. No team ups, no waiting in GF, no Zone Conference, nada. So I am happy to finally get to Work! I guess when I was the Jr. Comp it didn't really bother me I just went with the flow. Maybe I'm noticing it more now though because I have a new elder to train up and I feel like we have had no chance to really dive into the work. So we are both excited for the week to come. OK enough about the week to come. Let's go back in time.
 |
| Hi-Line District with Kyle Shobe, World Champion Livestock Auctioneer 2010 |
So on Wed. Morning we headed back to Havre. We stopped in Big Sandy and Box Elder though to try some people. We got in with a few but the one that went really good was with L J. She is the one, I don't know if I've talked about, who's son died in Iraq about 2 months ago. She and her husband are less active and we have been trying to get them back to church. Her mom lives in Havre and told us Sunday that her daughter said our visit was the perfect thing she needed this week. We had watched a video by Pres. Hinckley called Lessons Learned From My Childhood with her about how the Lord knows what we are going through and need in our lives and how he will bless us through the help of other people. It was cool to see how we taught that and then later find out that the Lord was using us for that same reason to help her feel comfort this week. It truly is great to be his servant on the earth for him right now.
So the Chinook fair was this weekend. We stayed in Havre an extra day to avoid it on Thurs. We also didn't go to the rodeo. We had more work to do in Havre and felt it was best to stay and work. We ended up tracting and finding a potential investigator so I was glad we didn't go. We had a whole list of people to try Friday and no one was home. Everyone was off at the fair. Luckily we had set up a lesson with G to watch The Testaments so Chinook wasn't a complete failure. We did head off for Havre on Sat. earlier than normal. Havre fair is this week but we should be out of Havre by the time it starts up.
We had a really good lesson with K this week. It went really well because it was the first good complete lesson me and E.Whitlock taught together. We also had good lessons about the temple with the recent converts the W's and C. They are really excited to go to the temple and they were even more excited when we told them they can go do baptisms now and they don't have to wait a year like they had thought.
E. Whitlock lives in Chandler right on the boarder of Gilbert so he tells everyone Gilbert. We are having a lot of fun together and he is picking things up pretty fast which makes my job easier. Like I said it will be good for the two of us to finally be in our area a full week.
Sounds like the UT trip was fun. The yearly trip to UT was definitely missed this year but I'm in a whirl right now and can't even believe it's July! L, I commend you for trying to wake board. Keep lifting weights and maybe next year you'll get it. Oh and Dad thanks for that article on the Sunday play. I really liked it. Well I better go. I'm getting kicked off by a librarian. haha I'll try to send a letter this week. Especially to L. I think I still owe her one. Well I love you all. Have a good week. Talk to you later and Stay Cool.
Love,
Elder Davis
Current temp. 70 degrees and cloudy
Monday, July 12, 2010
What a Week! Monday, July 12, 2010
Hello Everyone,
Hope everyone's summer is going good. Well it was kind of a crazy week for me. First off Mon. we went to Great Falls and sent off E. Child to White Fish. This meant I was now companionless until late Wed. when my new companion was suppose to come in. So I spent the next 2 1/2 days with E. Weight and E. Smith in Great Falls. It was a little hard and awkward to be with three out working but we started to get used to it. I had a lot of fun with them. E. Weight is from Kaysville so we had a lot to talk about and it turned out that we went to Fairfield Jr at the same time. He was just one grade older. So it was fun to talk to him about different people. Anyway Wed. I get a call telling me my new companion is Elder Whitlock and that his bus will come in at 9:30 that night. So 9:00 all the elders in the Great Falls area arrive at the bus station and just before 10:00 the bus pulls in. I kind of stood back and waited for E.Whitlock to go through all the elders as he meets them and looks at their name tag looking for me. haha Finally he gets to me last and we finally meet each other. He is from Gilbert, AZ so now two AZ boys are taking over in Havre/Chinook. haha The typical stereotype that all missionaries are from UT is slowly changing to AZ. hahaha He graduated in 09 and turned 19 in April. It's been a lot of fun to have different things from AZ in common and it certainly helps you feel more comfortable right away with someone so that's cool.
Well last week I said I think the Lord is showing his trust in me and also helping me get more on top of things. I was just getting maybe too complacent with being the Jr. Comp and now I'm definitely having to step out more, lead out, and juggle all of the different things a Sr.Comp has to do while training a new elder. But so far I think I'm not doing too bad of a job. Maybe you'd have to ask E.Whitlock though. hahaha Things are a lot busier around here though. Well mostly because Thurs. morn we drove from Great Falls to Big Sandy to have E.Whitlock meet Bishop Quinn and then went to see some people at the hospital and then out to Chinook. So going from no driving in 6th months to a lot of driving is different but not too bad. My leg was sore the next day though and now we are in Lewistown (drove down last night) and my leg hurts a little today too. Weird how driving tires out muscles like that. Especially when you haven't been using them. haha
I've been trying to introduce E.Whitlock to a lot of people to get him familiar with investigators/members and so far I think he's picking it up well (at least in Chinook). He said that he could never tell anyone any directions to anything yet though. haha but that's ok. That comes with time. I think he'll be a good missionary though. He has the drive now we just have to help him open up in lessons and dinner thoughts and stuff like that. He is more open then I was when I first came out though so I think he'll do just fine. He was way more excited to tract the other day than I ever was so that's good. He also didn't have to say anything yet though. haha He's learning and I'm starting to give him little tests. Like last night we ate at Pres.Johnson's and I said as we were walking in, "You got the thought ok." He said, "What! Umm I don't know about this" but I assured him he'd do good and he did so see he's already learning. He has a brother serving in Ammon, ID right now. You should see if the K's can track him down.
So we got to our home home on Thurs night. Sis. J is in Cali visiting family this week and you can tell Bro. J is kind of enjoying it. He has a big stack of movies by the tv and I asked him about it. He said this is the only time he ever gets to watch tv so he has to live it up while he can. hahaha He also did no work on Sunday and just watched tv which normally never happens. Normally she has a few little farm chores she wants him to go do. He cooked lunch for us on Fri. E.Whitlock said, "Thanks Bro. J that was good." He laughed and said, "Just a little bachelor cookin!" hahaha
Ok really quick while I'm remembering. My oil vial broke so if you could please send me a new one that would be really good. I have oil to put into a new one I just need a vial. Not good to be oil less as a missionary. Thanks.
Grandma and Grandpa D- I got your email this week. It must have been the .net that you had wrong. I'm glad to finally have heard from you. Good to hear you're still razzin the U fans and to answer your question about who said, "Have you inquired of the Lord" that was Nephi to his bros.
So this week is another crazy week. Team ups in Lewistown today and tomorrow then back to Havre on Wed. and then back to Chinook on Thurs. The only thing is that in Chinook they are having the Blaine County fair this weekend, Thurs-Sun, so I have a feeling the Whole Town is going to just shut down and we are going to have no work to do. We have been invited out to the rodeo Thurs night by a part member family who rodeos so if we get permission we might go to that. We passed the dinner calendar around on Sunday in Chinook and no one signed up so we might just head back to Havre early. The Rs want us to come watch their kids pig wrestle too but if we do go to the fair it would probably be better to go Thurs with the part member family but we'll see what we are allowed to do. You have no idea though. This town will literally SHUT DOWN! Empty streets and all. Anytime there is a town event the town is a ghost town. hahaha Hi Davis's mom!!! (that was E. Holbrook)
Well I want to send some pics so I'm going to end this. Hope everyone is doing good. I'm off to read Mom and Dad's letters I had to print so I had time to write. I love you all and enjoy your week.
-Elder Davis
PS L- Ask Lyndee for her Provo address please. I'd like to write her and tell her about meeting her family. And thanks for all the pics! :) And If you still have a chance to go boating you should try wake boarding this year.
Hope everyone's summer is going good. Well it was kind of a crazy week for me. First off Mon. we went to Great Falls and sent off E. Child to White Fish. This meant I was now companionless until late Wed. when my new companion was suppose to come in. So I spent the next 2 1/2 days with E. Weight and E. Smith in Great Falls. It was a little hard and awkward to be with three out working but we started to get used to it. I had a lot of fun with them. E. Weight is from Kaysville so we had a lot to talk about and it turned out that we went to Fairfield Jr at the same time. He was just one grade older. So it was fun to talk to him about different people. Anyway Wed. I get a call telling me my new companion is Elder Whitlock and that his bus will come in at 9:30 that night. So 9:00 all the elders in the Great Falls area arrive at the bus station and just before 10:00 the bus pulls in. I kind of stood back and waited for E.Whitlock to go through all the elders as he meets them and looks at their name tag looking for me. haha Finally he gets to me last and we finally meet each other. He is from Gilbert, AZ so now two AZ boys are taking over in Havre/Chinook. haha The typical stereotype that all missionaries are from UT is slowly changing to AZ. hahaha He graduated in 09 and turned 19 in April. It's been a lot of fun to have different things from AZ in common and it certainly helps you feel more comfortable right away with someone so that's cool.
Well last week I said I think the Lord is showing his trust in me and also helping me get more on top of things. I was just getting maybe too complacent with being the Jr. Comp and now I'm definitely having to step out more, lead out, and juggle all of the different things a Sr.Comp has to do while training a new elder. But so far I think I'm not doing too bad of a job. Maybe you'd have to ask E.Whitlock though. hahaha Things are a lot busier around here though. Well mostly because Thurs. morn we drove from Great Falls to Big Sandy to have E.Whitlock meet Bishop Quinn and then went to see some people at the hospital and then out to Chinook. So going from no driving in 6th months to a lot of driving is different but not too bad. My leg was sore the next day though and now we are in Lewistown (drove down last night) and my leg hurts a little today too. Weird how driving tires out muscles like that. Especially when you haven't been using them. haha
I've been trying to introduce E.Whitlock to a lot of people to get him familiar with investigators/members and so far I think he's picking it up well (at least in Chinook). He said that he could never tell anyone any directions to anything yet though. haha but that's ok. That comes with time. I think he'll be a good missionary though. He has the drive now we just have to help him open up in lessons and dinner thoughts and stuff like that. He is more open then I was when I first came out though so I think he'll do just fine. He was way more excited to tract the other day than I ever was so that's good. He also didn't have to say anything yet though. haha He's learning and I'm starting to give him little tests. Like last night we ate at Pres.Johnson's and I said as we were walking in, "You got the thought ok." He said, "What! Umm I don't know about this" but I assured him he'd do good and he did so see he's already learning. He has a brother serving in Ammon, ID right now. You should see if the K's can track him down.
So we got to our home home on Thurs night. Sis. J is in Cali visiting family this week and you can tell Bro. J is kind of enjoying it. He has a big stack of movies by the tv and I asked him about it. He said this is the only time he ever gets to watch tv so he has to live it up while he can. hahaha He also did no work on Sunday and just watched tv which normally never happens. Normally she has a few little farm chores she wants him to go do. He cooked lunch for us on Fri. E.Whitlock said, "Thanks Bro. J that was good." He laughed and said, "Just a little bachelor cookin!" hahaha
Ok really quick while I'm remembering. My oil vial broke so if you could please send me a new one that would be really good. I have oil to put into a new one I just need a vial. Not good to be oil less as a missionary. Thanks.
Grandma and Grandpa D- I got your email this week. It must have been the .net that you had wrong. I'm glad to finally have heard from you. Good to hear you're still razzin the U fans and to answer your question about who said, "Have you inquired of the Lord" that was Nephi to his bros.
So this week is another crazy week. Team ups in Lewistown today and tomorrow then back to Havre on Wed. and then back to Chinook on Thurs. The only thing is that in Chinook they are having the Blaine County fair this weekend, Thurs-Sun, so I have a feeling the Whole Town is going to just shut down and we are going to have no work to do. We have been invited out to the rodeo Thurs night by a part member family who rodeos so if we get permission we might go to that. We passed the dinner calendar around on Sunday in Chinook and no one signed up so we might just head back to Havre early. The Rs want us to come watch their kids pig wrestle too but if we do go to the fair it would probably be better to go Thurs with the part member family but we'll see what we are allowed to do. You have no idea though. This town will literally SHUT DOWN! Empty streets and all. Anytime there is a town event the town is a ghost town. hahaha Hi Davis's mom!!! (that was E. Holbrook)
Well I want to send some pics so I'm going to end this. Hope everyone is doing good. I'm off to read Mom and Dad's letters I had to print so I had time to write. I love you all and enjoy your week.
-Elder Davis
PS L- Ask Lyndee for her Provo address please. I'd like to write her and tell her about meeting her family. And thanks for all the pics! :) And If you still have a chance to go boating you should try wake boarding this year.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Transfer news and more - Monday, July 5, 2010
Hey Everyone,
First off I guess we'll get the transfer news out there. So Friday around 11:30 we got the call that told us Elder Child was being transferred. This was sad news but pretty much expected because of him being here 7 1/2 months. So Friday we went around and said goodbye to some people in Chinook. While at the R's which is the family that lives in Chinook that treats us the best and is always feeding us (they are a really fun and crazy family) anyway we were at their house and we were commenting on how we never got a call from President so neither of us must be in a leadership position (Sr. Comp, District Leader, etc). Well we spoke too soon. About 2 min. later the phone rang and it was Pres.! Elder Child talked to him first and then handed the phone off to me. Pres. asked how I was doing and if I felt ready to show a new missionary the area. I said Yes. To this point I was just thinking I was going to stay Jr. Comp. and show a new Sr. Comp the area. Well then he surprised me by saying well I normally don't have a missionary jump from Jr. Comp to Sr. and Trainer all at once but would you train a new Elder? I said yes. I'll do my best. After hanging up I thought to myself, Wait...Did Pres. Just Call me to Be a Trainer?!?! Holy Cow! I went inside and Elder Child said so what's the news? I said yours first. He said I'm going to White Fish to be a District Leader. That was really cool to hear! Then I broke the news to him. He said No Way! Awesome! The Rs were really excited too. So end of story I am training. I hit 6 months on Wed. and now I'm going to be training. Crazy stuff! I still don't think it's hit me yet that I am going to be training a brand spankin new Elder straight out of the MTC. I am really excited to train and yet scared to death. I have to set a really good example so that I can set the tone for this new Elder. I think it's pretty cool that Andrew and I are training during the same transfer. So I am currently in Great Falls and Elder Child is leaving today at 3 to head off to White Fish on the transfer van and I have to hang around here with I have no clue who, well I know it will be one of the elders around here in Great Falls til my companion arrives here late Wed. night on the Greyhound. We will then head back to Havre/Chinook on Thurs. morning. So I'll be here in Great Falls for a while. I still can't believe I'm training. Crazy stuff. Other sad transfer news. Elder Heywood's being transferred to Glendive to be a Zone Leader. He is sad to leave Lewistown because they were just starting to get things going there. I'm really going to miss Elder Child and Heywood. I hope our district is still as good as it was. We'll see. So next week you'll get all the news on my new greeny. Even though I've decided to call him what they called new elders in Dad's mission. Wasn't it Golden Dad?
So Fri. Pres. sent out a message to everyone telling us we could stay out til 10:30 on the 4th. This made us really excited because we were going out to the B's (our top missionary friendly family in Havre) for the 4th. Well Fri. night we got another message. Pres. forgot the 4th was on a Sunday so he changed what he had said and we had to be in by 9:30. So the 4th of July was ok compared to 4th of July's in the past. But I guess not to bad for being on a mission. We went out to the B's for dinner and a lot of other people from the ward were there so that was fun. We had a big bbq, played a few games, and then at 9:00 they did some fireworks for us. It had been a really nice day for the most part. 75 degrees and clear but at about 7 it got cloudy and rained. It luckily cleared up a little so that we could see them shoot some stuff off. They certainly have bigger fireworks here then in UT or AZ. The funny thing is the wind was blowing so they would blow downwind and then blow up. haha. They also did a parachute one and the parachute carried for a long distance before finally falling in a big field. I guess the only thing that made the 4th not as much fun was not being with the family, no parade, and no big city fireworks. We were in bed by the time they shot off. We could hear them but not see them from our place.
That's pretty exciting that Uruguay is in the final 4. It's also crazy that Brazil lost but I hope that increases Uruguay's chances of making it to the finals. Any free agent news in the NBA?
Sounds like the family had a fun 4th of July and trip to SD. Yes I did get the post cards. They are all sitting on a window ledge right by my desk. One thing that mom said though was Gma and Gpa D said they've been sending stuff. I haven't received anything, email or letter, from them in a while. So if they've tried to send emails I don't know what's not worked. Hopefully you guys can help them while you're in Utah to see what they might be doing wrong because I'd love to hear from them. Dad I feel for you being alone. I hope you can find some stuff to keep you busy and not so lonely. Maybe you can write me a letter. That would be nice. That and watch soccer. Ok well I best be going. I hope you all have a good week wherever you are. Love you all. Talk to you later.
-Elder Davis
PS we emailed from a church building in G.F. Everything else was closed.
First off I guess we'll get the transfer news out there. So Friday around 11:30 we got the call that told us Elder Child was being transferred. This was sad news but pretty much expected because of him being here 7 1/2 months. So Friday we went around and said goodbye to some people in Chinook. While at the R's which is the family that lives in Chinook that treats us the best and is always feeding us (they are a really fun and crazy family) anyway we were at their house and we were commenting on how we never got a call from President so neither of us must be in a leadership position (Sr. Comp, District Leader, etc). Well we spoke too soon. About 2 min. later the phone rang and it was Pres.! Elder Child talked to him first and then handed the phone off to me. Pres. asked how I was doing and if I felt ready to show a new missionary the area. I said Yes. To this point I was just thinking I was going to stay Jr. Comp. and show a new Sr. Comp the area. Well then he surprised me by saying well I normally don't have a missionary jump from Jr. Comp to Sr. and Trainer all at once but would you train a new Elder? I said yes. I'll do my best. After hanging up I thought to myself, Wait...Did Pres. Just Call me to Be a Trainer?!?! Holy Cow! I went inside and Elder Child said so what's the news? I said yours first. He said I'm going to White Fish to be a District Leader. That was really cool to hear! Then I broke the news to him. He said No Way! Awesome! The Rs were really excited too. So end of story I am training. I hit 6 months on Wed. and now I'm going to be training. Crazy stuff! I still don't think it's hit me yet that I am going to be training a brand spankin new Elder straight out of the MTC. I am really excited to train and yet scared to death. I have to set a really good example so that I can set the tone for this new Elder. I think it's pretty cool that Andrew and I are training during the same transfer. So I am currently in Great Falls and Elder Child is leaving today at 3 to head off to White Fish on the transfer van and I have to hang around here with I have no clue who, well I know it will be one of the elders around here in Great Falls til my companion arrives here late Wed. night on the Greyhound. We will then head back to Havre/Chinook on Thurs. morning. So I'll be here in Great Falls for a while. I still can't believe I'm training. Crazy stuff. Other sad transfer news. Elder Heywood's being transferred to Glendive to be a Zone Leader. He is sad to leave Lewistown because they were just starting to get things going there. I'm really going to miss Elder Child and Heywood. I hope our district is still as good as it was. We'll see. So next week you'll get all the news on my new greeny. Even though I've decided to call him what they called new elders in Dad's mission. Wasn't it Golden Dad?
Elder Child going to Whitefish to be District Leader and Elder Davis to be Sr. Comp and Trainer
Elder Heywood, District Leader, going to Glendive to be Zone Leader and Elder Davis
Elders Heywood, Child and Davis
Hi-Line District prior to transfers July 5, 2010
Elders Holbrook, Heywood, Child and Davis
So Fri. Pres. sent out a message to everyone telling us we could stay out til 10:30 on the 4th. This made us really excited because we were going out to the B's (our top missionary friendly family in Havre) for the 4th. Well Fri. night we got another message. Pres. forgot the 4th was on a Sunday so he changed what he had said and we had to be in by 9:30. So the 4th of July was ok compared to 4th of July's in the past. But I guess not to bad for being on a mission. We went out to the B's for dinner and a lot of other people from the ward were there so that was fun. We had a big bbq, played a few games, and then at 9:00 they did some fireworks for us. It had been a really nice day for the most part. 75 degrees and clear but at about 7 it got cloudy and rained. It luckily cleared up a little so that we could see them shoot some stuff off. They certainly have bigger fireworks here then in UT or AZ. The funny thing is the wind was blowing so they would blow downwind and then blow up. haha. They also did a parachute one and the parachute carried for a long distance before finally falling in a big field. I guess the only thing that made the 4th not as much fun was not being with the family, no parade, and no big city fireworks. We were in bed by the time they shot off. We could hear them but not see them from our place.
That's pretty exciting that Uruguay is in the final 4. It's also crazy that Brazil lost but I hope that increases Uruguay's chances of making it to the finals. Any free agent news in the NBA?
Sounds like the family had a fun 4th of July and trip to SD. Yes I did get the post cards. They are all sitting on a window ledge right by my desk. One thing that mom said though was Gma and Gpa D said they've been sending stuff. I haven't received anything, email or letter, from them in a while. So if they've tried to send emails I don't know what's not worked. Hopefully you guys can help them while you're in Utah to see what they might be doing wrong because I'd love to hear from them. Dad I feel for you being alone. I hope you can find some stuff to keep you busy and not so lonely. Maybe you can write me a letter. That would be nice. That and watch soccer. Ok well I best be going. I hope you all have a good week wherever you are. Love you all. Talk to you later.
-Elder Davis
PS we emailed from a church building in G.F. Everything else was closed.
Monday, June 28, 2010
The last week of the transfer - Monday, June 28, 2010
I'm going to send in shifts in case this computer dies.
Hey everyone,
Don't have too much time to write but I'll try to type quick. First off thanks to all who sent letters or packages this week. I received stuff from Mom, Gma G, Aunt Cindy, Ms. F, Brendan, and even Elder Hamblin. Definitely a good week for mail now I just need to start writing some letters back to you all. Sounds like the trip to SD is going good. Not quite as much fun for Dad but hopefully he'll get to do something fun with the rest of you. How long are you going to be there? Sounds like the weather is nice and it sounds like Nani is having some fun new experiences.
So this week was a pretty good week. We're finally back to Havre/Chinook for good this week. We had teamups in Lewistown on Monday, and Tues. It was pretty fun. It's always fun to spend some time down there with E. Heywood and Holbrook. While we were there we took a district field trip to the Lewistown Livestock Auction. Jaxon Allen, Lyndee's cousin, was doing the auctioneering. He's pretty good at it. Hey if anyone wants to buy 5 sheep you can come get some here for the low price of $18. And that's for all of them. They also seemed to be selling horses for less than I thought you'd sell a horse for. So if anyone wants a horse come up here. One sold for 145 bucks. I bet that will get the wheels in G's head turning as to how she could get a horse someday. It was a lot of fun to watch them auction off the different animals. Mostly cattle, sheep, and horses. It's all inside and you sit in these stands and then they have some dirt down at the bottom with gates where they bring the animals in. E. Heywood has been inspired to become an auctioneer now. haha
So me and E. Child were sitting on this porch swing that's outside of Lewistown's apartment building and the building and the swing are kind of old. Anyway we were just sitting there not even swinging and Boom! We both just fell to the floor. The swing just busted! My arm got cut up by some screws but other than that no damage done to us. The swing on the other hand...the Lewistown Elders said they'd take care of it. I'll have to send a pic of it. Pretty funny though.
We had our missionary fireside in Havre yesterday. It went really good. It went a little longer than anticipated but I think the 40 or so members that came really enjoyed it and I think it will help the members know a little better how to start doing missionary work. The Lewistown elders came up last night for it and for pday today and District Meeting tomorrow. They said we did a good job of planning it all out so that was nice to hear.
So I was talking to E. Heywood about EVMCO the other day. He's interested in maybe joining. He did choir in high school. Got any kind of info about it you could send me to give to him?
A member showed us a video of the Billings tornado the other night. That funnel was so long! The video we saw just showed the Metro roof being ripped off. Go to youtube if you want to see some videos. The weather has finally calmed down. Chinook has had a lot of fields flood and they are on flood watch till today. The Milk River is majorly over flowing. One guy who lives close to the river, his whole house is now surrounded by water. I feel so bad for him. I have no clue what I would even do in that situation.
You said you read about E. Heywood and Child's tickets huh? Wasn't going to tell you but now that you know E. Child got a ticket coming home from Zone Conference. We were in the middle of no where. I thought that it was funny how he and E. Heywood got pulled over by the same guy and both got only $20 tickets. $20, that's the cheapest ticket I've ever heard of. E. Child said it's his first ticket ever. Transfers are this weekend. We both think E. Child's outta here. He's been here 7 1/2 months but there are 14 new missionaries coming in so you never know. He could train.
The work has been pretty good. It's slowed down since we've been gone quite a bit. It will help to finally be in our area a full week this week though. We are going to really focus on finding some new investigators this week. Well I g2g. It's going to kick me off. Talk to you later. I'll send a letter. Love you!
-Elder Davis
Hey everyone,
Don't have too much time to write but I'll try to type quick. First off thanks to all who sent letters or packages this week. I received stuff from Mom, Gma G, Aunt Cindy, Ms. F, Brendan, and even Elder Hamblin. Definitely a good week for mail now I just need to start writing some letters back to you all. Sounds like the trip to SD is going good. Not quite as much fun for Dad but hopefully he'll get to do something fun with the rest of you. How long are you going to be there? Sounds like the weather is nice and it sounds like Nani is having some fun new experiences.
So this week was a pretty good week. We're finally back to Havre/Chinook for good this week. We had teamups in Lewistown on Monday, and Tues. It was pretty fun. It's always fun to spend some time down there with E. Heywood and Holbrook. While we were there we took a district field trip to the Lewistown Livestock Auction. Jaxon Allen, Lyndee's cousin, was doing the auctioneering. He's pretty good at it. Hey if anyone wants to buy 5 sheep you can come get some here for the low price of $18. And that's for all of them. They also seemed to be selling horses for less than I thought you'd sell a horse for. So if anyone wants a horse come up here. One sold for 145 bucks. I bet that will get the wheels in G's head turning as to how she could get a horse someday. It was a lot of fun to watch them auction off the different animals. Mostly cattle, sheep, and horses. It's all inside and you sit in these stands and then they have some dirt down at the bottom with gates where they bring the animals in. E. Heywood has been inspired to become an auctioneer now. haha
So me and E. Child were sitting on this porch swing that's outside of Lewistown's apartment building and the building and the swing are kind of old. Anyway we were just sitting there not even swinging and Boom! We both just fell to the floor. The swing just busted! My arm got cut up by some screws but other than that no damage done to us. The swing on the other hand...the Lewistown Elders said they'd take care of it. I'll have to send a pic of it. Pretty funny though.
We had our missionary fireside in Havre yesterday. It went really good. It went a little longer than anticipated but I think the 40 or so members that came really enjoyed it and I think it will help the members know a little better how to start doing missionary work. The Lewistown elders came up last night for it and for pday today and District Meeting tomorrow. They said we did a good job of planning it all out so that was nice to hear.
So I was talking to E. Heywood about EVMCO the other day. He's interested in maybe joining. He did choir in high school. Got any kind of info about it you could send me to give to him?
A member showed us a video of the Billings tornado the other night. That funnel was so long! The video we saw just showed the Metro roof being ripped off. Go to youtube if you want to see some videos. The weather has finally calmed down. Chinook has had a lot of fields flood and they are on flood watch till today. The Milk River is majorly over flowing. One guy who lives close to the river, his whole house is now surrounded by water. I feel so bad for him. I have no clue what I would even do in that situation.
You said you read about E. Heywood and Child's tickets huh? Wasn't going to tell you but now that you know E. Child got a ticket coming home from Zone Conference. We were in the middle of no where. I thought that it was funny how he and E. Heywood got pulled over by the same guy and both got only $20 tickets. $20, that's the cheapest ticket I've ever heard of. E. Child said it's his first ticket ever. Transfers are this weekend. We both think E. Child's outta here. He's been here 7 1/2 months but there are 14 new missionaries coming in so you never know. He could train.
The work has been pretty good. It's slowed down since we've been gone quite a bit. It will help to finally be in our area a full week this week though. We are going to really focus on finding some new investigators this week. Well I g2g. It's going to kick me off. Talk to you later. I'll send a letter. Love you!
-Elder Davis
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Rains came down and the Floods came up - Monday, June 21, 2010
Hello Everyone,
I'm finally getting an email off today. Let's just say I had to clean the puke off of my keyboard when I read Utah is going to the Pac10! Just kidding. We were helping a member in Lewistown with his flooded basement. More on that later though. So this week was pretty good. It's been raining like crazy here. I've enjoyed it because well I love the rain but it's getting to the point where it could stop because now it's starting to really effect people around here. A family in Havre, their basement flooded and another family who lives close to a big creek that is flowing really hard had to sand bag so their house didn't flood. All of this while we were in Zone Conference in Great Falls so we didn't get to help anyone. The Lord made sure we did help someone though and after debating whether to drive down here to Lewistown last night or this morning we decided to drive last night. Which was really good because at around 9 we got a call from a member who's basement was flooding. So we went over there and helped. They have a half basement where their master bedroom is and he said when he woke up this morning and turned on the tv he then could see a reflection of the tv in the water and looked down to a little over 2 feet of water. By the time we got there they had pumped most of it out so we just helped carry everything out of there and tear out the carpet. It was a mess and we all smell like nasty wet water but I'm glad we were able to help because it would have just been him and his older dad trying to move everything and that would have taken forever. So Lewistown has a bunch of houses flooding so I bet we'll be on flood watch for a while here while we're on team ups and potentially could get called upon to help some others out because another storm is on its way. The other day in Havre we had 3/4 of an inch of rain in 20 min. The roads quickly turned into a river. It was crazy. I had E. Child take a pic of me in the rain. haha I'll send it to you. This one lady said she hasn't seen it rain this much since the early 1980's. This wet weather is definitely not normal they say. I guess we have to take the good with the bad though because it is helping with the drought this area has been in for a while and it's helping the farmers fields(those that have planted at least) and everything is really really green! Which I've enjoyed.
So besides the rain and driving all over in it we had a pretty good week. Lots of travels which I think I mentioned last week. From last Thurs. night to this upcoming Tthurs. night we will have traveled about 600 miles. And that's just point A to point B driving not whatever else we drove or will drive in Great Falls, Havre, Chinook, Lewistown, Havre and Chinook. So I'm pretty much going to be a pro passenger by the time I get home and 2 1/2 hr trips will feel like nothing.
Well the work wasn't too bad this week. We had the lowest amount of lessons we've had in a while but that's ok because we've been traveling a lot too. We met with K this week and watched the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration movie with her. She really liked it. She commented about how she never knew the Mormons were treated so bad. Her people normally just talk about all the persecution they've been through but don't look at what others have gone through too so that was interesting to see what she had to say about it.
Our district t-shirts are finished. They turned out pretty good. I'll have to send a pic of it sometime. It's royal blue with lime green and white print. It says Hi Line District and then has a pretty big state of MT outline and it says Montana and then has 4 missionaries with white shirts and ties sitting in a bathtub because Lewistown only has a bath no shower and we're the same way when we're in Havre so that's like the district joke. They look pretty good but most people won't understand them.
We made a big map this week showing all of the part member families and the bishops focus families on it. We took a big map we got from the Chamber of Commerce and then we got some foam core and put the map on it and wrote names on small slips of paper and pinned them to the map. So now when we go to work in an area we can look at our map and see who else lives in that area. I think it's going to help out the work a lot. We are also having our member missionary training fireside this upcoming Sunday in Havre. We think the members are ready to do the work they just don't quite know how yet so we are hoping to teach them a little and get the missionary spirit flame to get even bigger. Our main portion of it is talking and showing off mormon.org. It should be a pretty good fireside. We're excited.
Zone Conf. was on Friday. It was really good as always. Pres. talked about not distracting the spirit because it's so vital to our work. He had a really good object lesson with a tuning fork. When you strike it it's quiet from a distance but if you place it against the table the table vibrates and amplifies it. So we need to work with it so it can amplify through us. The assistants also had us do some good role play practices talking about the commitments and explaining the spirit to investigators. E. West who's an assistant and is what they say my Grandpa is going home this transfer. I'm a little sad to see him go home. He's a great elder and a great assistant.
So sitting here in Lewistown guess who just came in and asked if either me or E. Child was from AZ? Bro. N's sister/Lyndee's Aunt and their nephew/cousin! So I finally met the N Montana relatives! We talked for a little while and she was asking me if I knew all these different families from AZ and I did. It was funny. Lyndee's cousin texted her and told her and she said to tell me she was at BYU right now. So is she at BYU right now for school or just up there with her sister? Well I better get going. Hope everyone had a good Father's Day yesterday. I love all of you. Thanks for the emails and sports updates. Still can't believe Utah is going to the Pac10. That's one of my worst nightmares. Hopefully BYU can go to the Big 12 or something. I don't even know. I'm just glad I'm on my mission so I don't have to listen to all of the Utah fans and all of their Crap! And thanks for the World Cup updates. GO USA and Uruguay! Well enjoy your trip to San Diego. Talk to you later.
-Elder Davis
PS The tornado in Billings did some pretty good damage but no one was hurt. One set of sis missionaries got pelted with hail and their truck had a bunch of dents and the windshield broke. But other than that not too bad.
PS to Mom, I'm proud of you and all you said you're doing with the blog. It sounds like your learning things on the computer like I always have. Trial and Error. That's cool you got to talk to Dana and that you are going to see them. That'll be fun. Where did they live in MT again?
I'm finally getting an email off today. Let's just say I had to clean the puke off of my keyboard when I read Utah is going to the Pac10! Just kidding. We were helping a member in Lewistown with his flooded basement. More on that later though. So this week was pretty good. It's been raining like crazy here. I've enjoyed it because well I love the rain but it's getting to the point where it could stop because now it's starting to really effect people around here. A family in Havre, their basement flooded and another family who lives close to a big creek that is flowing really hard had to sand bag so their house didn't flood. All of this while we were in Zone Conference in Great Falls so we didn't get to help anyone. The Lord made sure we did help someone though and after debating whether to drive down here to Lewistown last night or this morning we decided to drive last night. Which was really good because at around 9 we got a call from a member who's basement was flooding. So we went over there and helped. They have a half basement where their master bedroom is and he said when he woke up this morning and turned on the tv he then could see a reflection of the tv in the water and looked down to a little over 2 feet of water. By the time we got there they had pumped most of it out so we just helped carry everything out of there and tear out the carpet. It was a mess and we all smell like nasty wet water but I'm glad we were able to help because it would have just been him and his older dad trying to move everything and that would have taken forever. So Lewistown has a bunch of houses flooding so I bet we'll be on flood watch for a while here while we're on team ups and potentially could get called upon to help some others out because another storm is on its way. The other day in Havre we had 3/4 of an inch of rain in 20 min. The roads quickly turned into a river. It was crazy. I had E. Child take a pic of me in the rain. haha I'll send it to you. This one lady said she hasn't seen it rain this much since the early 1980's. This wet weather is definitely not normal they say. I guess we have to take the good with the bad though because it is helping with the drought this area has been in for a while and it's helping the farmers fields(those that have planted at least) and everything is really really green! Which I've enjoyed.
So besides the rain and driving all over in it we had a pretty good week. Lots of travels which I think I mentioned last week. From last Thurs. night to this upcoming Tthurs. night we will have traveled about 600 miles. And that's just point A to point B driving not whatever else we drove or will drive in Great Falls, Havre, Chinook, Lewistown, Havre and Chinook. So I'm pretty much going to be a pro passenger by the time I get home and 2 1/2 hr trips will feel like nothing.
Well the work wasn't too bad this week. We had the lowest amount of lessons we've had in a while but that's ok because we've been traveling a lot too. We met with K this week and watched the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration movie with her. She really liked it. She commented about how she never knew the Mormons were treated so bad. Her people normally just talk about all the persecution they've been through but don't look at what others have gone through too so that was interesting to see what she had to say about it.
Our district t-shirts are finished. They turned out pretty good. I'll have to send a pic of it sometime. It's royal blue with lime green and white print. It says Hi Line District and then has a pretty big state of MT outline and it says Montana and then has 4 missionaries with white shirts and ties sitting in a bathtub because Lewistown only has a bath no shower and we're the same way when we're in Havre so that's like the district joke. They look pretty good but most people won't understand them.
We made a big map this week showing all of the part member families and the bishops focus families on it. We took a big map we got from the Chamber of Commerce and then we got some foam core and put the map on it and wrote names on small slips of paper and pinned them to the map. So now when we go to work in an area we can look at our map and see who else lives in that area. I think it's going to help out the work a lot. We are also having our member missionary training fireside this upcoming Sunday in Havre. We think the members are ready to do the work they just don't quite know how yet so we are hoping to teach them a little and get the missionary spirit flame to get even bigger. Our main portion of it is talking and showing off mormon.org. It should be a pretty good fireside. We're excited.
Zone Conf. was on Friday. It was really good as always. Pres. talked about not distracting the spirit because it's so vital to our work. He had a really good object lesson with a tuning fork. When you strike it it's quiet from a distance but if you place it against the table the table vibrates and amplifies it. So we need to work with it so it can amplify through us. The assistants also had us do some good role play practices talking about the commitments and explaining the spirit to investigators. E. West who's an assistant and is what they say my Grandpa is going home this transfer. I'm a little sad to see him go home. He's a great elder and a great assistant.
So sitting here in Lewistown guess who just came in and asked if either me or E. Child was from AZ? Bro. N's sister/Lyndee's Aunt and their nephew/cousin! So I finally met the N Montana relatives! We talked for a little while and she was asking me if I knew all these different families from AZ and I did. It was funny. Lyndee's cousin texted her and told her and she said to tell me she was at BYU right now. So is she at BYU right now for school or just up there with her sister? Well I better get going. Hope everyone had a good Father's Day yesterday. I love all of you. Thanks for the emails and sports updates. Still can't believe Utah is going to the Pac10. That's one of my worst nightmares. Hopefully BYU can go to the Big 12 or something. I don't even know. I'm just glad I'm on my mission so I don't have to listen to all of the Utah fans and all of their Crap! And thanks for the World Cup updates. GO USA and Uruguay! Well enjoy your trip to San Diego. Talk to you later.
-Elder Davis
PS The tornado in Billings did some pretty good damage but no one was hurt. One set of sis missionaries got pelted with hail and their truck had a bunch of dents and the windshield broke. But other than that not too bad.
PS to Mom, I'm proud of you and all you said you're doing with the blog. It sounds like your learning things on the computer like I always have. Trial and Error. That's cool you got to talk to Dana and that you are going to see them. That'll be fun. Where did they live in MT again?
Monday, June 14, 2010
Half way through the transfer already?! - Monday, June 14, 2010
Hey Everyone,
Hope you all had a good week. From the sounds of it summer is in full swing! Glad to hear L had a good time at EFY. Maybe if she gets a chance she can write me and tell me about it. I enjoyed reading all of your emails you sent today. It was nice to hear about all that's going on back home. It sounds like your summers are even busier than when I was around.
Ok so this week was a pretty good week. First off I told Dad this in an letter but I want others to know about the funny connections you always seem to make out here on a mission. So I was talking to Elder Heywood this Monday because the Lewistown Elders were here for District Meetings. He was talking about a close family friend in Utah and how the husband named Pat worked for some sports radio station. I said to him, "You know Patrick Kinahan?!!" He said, "Umm yeah how do you know him?" I said, "Oh Man! I've been listening to DJ and PK's sports radio show with my Dad since I was like 10." He started to laugh because to him he's just Pat but to me he's a guy I've listened to on the radio forever. We talked about it and I told him what PK was like on the radio and he kept saying, "Yep that's Pat". It was really funny. I'm sure only Uncle Jeff and Dad will appreciate that but oh well.
So we were teaching this less active family in Big Sandy on Wed. and they had this huge dog. It was a Bull Mastiff named Elmo. That dog was SO big! and yet it was the calmest and nicest dog ever. It sits in this Lazy Boy and it takes up the whole chair. It's so funny to see. Maybe next time I'm there I'll ask if I can take a picture of him.
So we met with K on Wed. this was the lesson we were finally going to inquire about her being on probation. So we went over the baptism questions at the end and one says are you on parole or probation? She looks over at Sis. B and then back at us and says, "Ummm yeah is that bad?" So we explained to her how you have to be in good standing with the law before you can be baptized. She understood but then was worried that we were mad at her and wouldn't want to come visit and teach her anymore. We quickly assured her that if she still had the desire to learn that missionaries would always be here to teach her all the way until 2012 when she gets off probation. That made her not so sad which was good and she was at church yesterday so hopefully she can continue to keep the desire to learn and come to church. It's really too bad she has to wait but we told her if she kept the commandments that she could still be blessed from Heavenly Father while she continues to repent and wait out her probation. Hopefully it all works out.
We also went to see C this week. She's been struggling so it really was no surprise when she tried to in a round about way drop us. She said she feels like she has pushed herself to much and that she still wants us to come over but wants to progress at a slower pace. That was really too bad especially because she really wasn't progressing as fast as she thinks. We're still going to keep working with her and hope this new playgroup thing at the park will help her gain some friends in the church.
One cool thing they do here that I think all wards should adopt is High Council Sunday pot lucks. Because the stake leaders have to travel so far all the wards up here have a pot luck afterward so that the leaders can eat before they go home. It's a lot of fun to have a scheduled pot luck with the ward every month and I think it helps the wards become closer and investigators that come make more friends. I wish they'd do that back home.
So another crazy connection. You know Gary Coleman? The actor dude that died. He's been living in Santaquin where E. Child's from.
So now for another indian story but my first Rez story! Elder Child and I went to Ft. Belknap for the first time by ourselves on Fri. We visited a recent convert who just moved from Polson so that was good. It's really funny the directions they give you. No street addresses. When he told us how to get to his house the directions were go past the casino take a right then wind down past the police station turn left after you pass 5 garbage cans and then a quick right at the stop sign. Then you'll see a blue truck and we live next to that trailer. I have no clue how we even found the right place. So after talking to him we asked where this other guy lives who requested a Book of Mormon. He gave us a bunch of crazy directions again and luckily we found where we were suppose to be. So we walk up to this apartment and there's a sign on the guys door that says ''No drunks or alcohol allowed in here or you'll be sent away and the cops will be called." So now we're thinking alright we finally found someone on the rez who doesn't want to drink! Well we go inside and this old guy invites us in. Right away we suspect he's tipsy. We talk a little to him and then another younger guy who turns out to be his nephew comes down the hall bobbin and weavin all over the place. He's really drunk. So the young guy sits and is talking to us and all sorts of stuff about the Bible. He's quoting scripture but he's changing it. There's a scripture that says it's easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to get to heaven. Well he quotes that but changes rich man to drunk man and then says well I guess I'm not going to Heaven. So while we're talking to him the old indian gets up and goes to the kitchen. The next thing we have a bowl of giant pickles in front of us and he says here have a pickle. Well not wanting to get a drunk man mad we take a pickle. It was so nasty! Then he brings us some fry bread. Well as we keep talking to the young guy the old guy keeps bringing us random food and telling us to take it with us. He brings us two oranges, two puddings, two ramen noodle packets, and then hands us a 2 liter of soda. Finally Elder Child motions we've got to get out of there. So we give the guy his Book of Mormon and tell them we have to get going. The young guy says, "wait!" So we stop....he then says "You remember the day you boys met Chad Cox!" as he pounds his chest. He then hands us a quarter and tells us to keep it to remember him. Oh man we booked it out of there, got in the truck and drove out of Ft. Belknap. I said to Elder Child, "Where the heck are we Elder!?" he said "I have no clue!" HaHaHa It was crazy but it makes for a good laugh now. We're not too sure how much more we'll go to the rez. The retention is just so bad out there.
Well I better go. Talk to you all later. Thanks for the news and updates. And thanks for the sports updates. Love you all. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Mitch Davis
PS just got L's email. Zone Conf. is Friday in Great Falls. Should be good.
Hope you all had a good week. From the sounds of it summer is in full swing! Glad to hear L had a good time at EFY. Maybe if she gets a chance she can write me and tell me about it. I enjoyed reading all of your emails you sent today. It was nice to hear about all that's going on back home. It sounds like your summers are even busier than when I was around.
Ok so this week was a pretty good week. First off I told Dad this in an letter but I want others to know about the funny connections you always seem to make out here on a mission. So I was talking to Elder Heywood this Monday because the Lewistown Elders were here for District Meetings. He was talking about a close family friend in Utah and how the husband named Pat worked for some sports radio station. I said to him, "You know Patrick Kinahan?!!" He said, "Umm yeah how do you know him?" I said, "Oh Man! I've been listening to DJ and PK's sports radio show with my Dad since I was like 10." He started to laugh because to him he's just Pat but to me he's a guy I've listened to on the radio forever. We talked about it and I told him what PK was like on the radio and he kept saying, "Yep that's Pat". It was really funny. I'm sure only Uncle Jeff and Dad will appreciate that but oh well.
So we were teaching this less active family in Big Sandy on Wed. and they had this huge dog. It was a Bull Mastiff named Elmo. That dog was SO big! and yet it was the calmest and nicest dog ever. It sits in this Lazy Boy and it takes up the whole chair. It's so funny to see. Maybe next time I'm there I'll ask if I can take a picture of him.
So we met with K on Wed. this was the lesson we were finally going to inquire about her being on probation. So we went over the baptism questions at the end and one says are you on parole or probation? She looks over at Sis. B and then back at us and says, "Ummm yeah is that bad?" So we explained to her how you have to be in good standing with the law before you can be baptized. She understood but then was worried that we were mad at her and wouldn't want to come visit and teach her anymore. We quickly assured her that if she still had the desire to learn that missionaries would always be here to teach her all the way until 2012 when she gets off probation. That made her not so sad which was good and she was at church yesterday so hopefully she can continue to keep the desire to learn and come to church. It's really too bad she has to wait but we told her if she kept the commandments that she could still be blessed from Heavenly Father while she continues to repent and wait out her probation. Hopefully it all works out.
We also went to see C this week. She's been struggling so it really was no surprise when she tried to in a round about way drop us. She said she feels like she has pushed herself to much and that she still wants us to come over but wants to progress at a slower pace. That was really too bad especially because she really wasn't progressing as fast as she thinks. We're still going to keep working with her and hope this new playgroup thing at the park will help her gain some friends in the church.
One cool thing they do here that I think all wards should adopt is High Council Sunday pot lucks. Because the stake leaders have to travel so far all the wards up here have a pot luck afterward so that the leaders can eat before they go home. It's a lot of fun to have a scheduled pot luck with the ward every month and I think it helps the wards become closer and investigators that come make more friends. I wish they'd do that back home.
So another crazy connection. You know Gary Coleman? The actor dude that died. He's been living in Santaquin where E. Child's from.
So now for another indian story but my first Rez story! Elder Child and I went to Ft. Belknap for the first time by ourselves on Fri. We visited a recent convert who just moved from Polson so that was good. It's really funny the directions they give you. No street addresses. When he told us how to get to his house the directions were go past the casino take a right then wind down past the police station turn left after you pass 5 garbage cans and then a quick right at the stop sign. Then you'll see a blue truck and we live next to that trailer. I have no clue how we even found the right place. So after talking to him we asked where this other guy lives who requested a Book of Mormon. He gave us a bunch of crazy directions again and luckily we found where we were suppose to be. So we walk up to this apartment and there's a sign on the guys door that says ''No drunks or alcohol allowed in here or you'll be sent away and the cops will be called." So now we're thinking alright we finally found someone on the rez who doesn't want to drink! Well we go inside and this old guy invites us in. Right away we suspect he's tipsy. We talk a little to him and then another younger guy who turns out to be his nephew comes down the hall bobbin and weavin all over the place. He's really drunk. So the young guy sits and is talking to us and all sorts of stuff about the Bible. He's quoting scripture but he's changing it. There's a scripture that says it's easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to get to heaven. Well he quotes that but changes rich man to drunk man and then says well I guess I'm not going to Heaven. So while we're talking to him the old indian gets up and goes to the kitchen. The next thing we have a bowl of giant pickles in front of us and he says here have a pickle. Well not wanting to get a drunk man mad we take a pickle. It was so nasty! Then he brings us some fry bread. Well as we keep talking to the young guy the old guy keeps bringing us random food and telling us to take it with us. He brings us two oranges, two puddings, two ramen noodle packets, and then hands us a 2 liter of soda. Finally Elder Child motions we've got to get out of there. So we give the guy his Book of Mormon and tell them we have to get going. The young guy says, "wait!" So we stop....he then says "You remember the day you boys met Chad Cox!" as he pounds his chest. He then hands us a quarter and tells us to keep it to remember him. Oh man we booked it out of there, got in the truck and drove out of Ft. Belknap. I said to Elder Child, "Where the heck are we Elder!?" he said "I have no clue!" HaHaHa It was crazy but it makes for a good laugh now. We're not too sure how much more we'll go to the rez. The retention is just so bad out there.
Well I better go. Talk to you all later. Thanks for the news and updates. And thanks for the sports updates. Love you all. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Mitch Davis
PS just got L's email. Zone Conf. is Friday in Great Falls. Should be good.
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