Thursday, August 22, 2013

Week 13

This week has been an interesting week! Elder Alejandre, and most of my district were so sure that I would become a trainer (The first companion of a brand new missionary); but actually, I have no changes. they told me that I am still with Elder Alejandre, and that we both are staying the same area. So I am still in the ward Atempan in Chiautempan, Tlaxcala, México. I was expecting change, I actually wanted some change, but Elder Alejandre is awesome, I am excited to be another 6 weeks with him!

Well, dont worry, I am not sick anymore, it was just for a few days, but I was only too sick to work for one day, that was a P-day, so it really didn´t matter anyways. I expect to get sick many more times in the future... because thats what happens in México, everybody gets sick from the food.

Today, we played a lot of soccer for p-day with some other missionaries. We went to this park that has a turf field (it was a pretty crappy turf field, but it was cool because we usually play soccer on pavement). It was pretty fun, though I play like a gringo.

In my area of mexico, there isn´t any tourism at all, so there are just about no white people... except for the missionaries here so we get a lot of atention, especially the blondes. Some people on the streets will say stuff like "hello!" in sort of a mocking tone, sometime "¡Hola güero!" (Güero= white boy, or blondy). There is this one homeless old guy that walks around our area and every time that we see him he yells "¡Güero! ¡Güero!" and then he asks for money. This one crazy guy looked at me and started saying a bunch of wierd things, "la tecnología de Alemania" (the german technology) and then walked away before he said anything else. It is kind of funny.

All is well here in México! I love the mission, though it is always difficult. Thank you all for the letters this week! Why are they doing seminary on the computer? that´s kind of wierd. I am glad that all is well at home! Kannon: the time passes quickly, dont waste it!
I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Davis

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Baptism


Pictures from week 12


Week 12

This is the last week of my training (Which is the first 3 months in the mission field)! This is the last week of the transfer, which means that this Sunday, I will know whether I am leaving the area or staying, training a new missionary, but I will not know where I will be going (if I leave) or who my new companion will be (if there are changes). I will know all of that on tuesday next week.

We baptized 2 more on Saturday! Maricruz and Dayan (Mother and daughter) are now members the Church! I baptized Maricruz and Elder Alejandre baptized Dayan. Baptisms are awesome! It´s a great feeling knowing that the Lord brought them to Christ through our efforts.

I got a bit sick this week. We ate some delicious burgers in this little shack... bad  idea, they were really good, but now every time I think of that burger, I feel sick again. I feel for the most part better now. 

I ate crickets this week. Apparently they catch crickets this time of year, cook them, and eat them. They really have no flavor. They also eat cactus here. They call it nopal. It is sour, slimy, makes a squeak every time you chew it, and I dont know why they eat it.

We had a zone conference last week on thursday (where the mission president comes and talks to 2 different zones, about 50 or 60 missionaries). Our mission president, President Christensen is pretty awesome. Right now, he has been trying teach us how to teach with power. One of the first steps to do this is study. If we know the doctrine really well, then the Spirit can bring to our remembrance that which we should say. The earlier that you start, the better.

I am glad all went well with your campout this week! Sounds like it was a fun trip! The mission life is full of ups and downs, I am not going to tell you many of the downs because they really dont matter. Congrats mom on the new job! I hope all goes well. I love you all very much! Thanks for the letters this week!

Love,
Elder Davis

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Week 10



Another pretty great week! we are going to baptize 2 more this Saturday! Marycruz and her daughter Dayan. Marycruz is in her mid 40´s and her husband (whom I will talk about in a minute) is in his70´s (yes, i typed it right). And Daian is 25. They both love learning about the gospel and are excited about their baptism. This family has been investigating the church and taking lessons from the missionaries for about 6 months; I dont know what took so long, but for the past few weeks Maricruz wanted to be batpized but was scared to ask permision from her husband, which is a requirement of the church to be baptized. He is almost never home because he works in the state of Mexico, but we finally found him earlier this week and we talked with him. We asked him for permision for Marycruz, then he talked for an entire hour and a half until he finally said "sure". People do that more often than you´d hope in Mexico. 

Next week is my last week of my training. Probably my last week with Elder Alejandre. Our mission president very often has people train right after their training. Training is the first three months in the mission field. So it is likely that I will be a trainer after next week, But we wont know for a little while. That would be an interesting experience if it happens, recieving an elder brand new in the mission.

I recently got word that our mission might start contacting in the streets again. For a while this mission has been primarily teaching references from members, not people contacted in streets.

Kannon: I am glad that you had another awesome experience at efy! Just about all the youth in my ward went to efy last week too (it is only like $30 in Mexico). The nonmember-nephew of a brother in the ward here went to efy, came back and told us that he wanted to be baptized! (He lives in Mexico City though, so it is not our baptism). The spiritual experiences that happen at efy are the result of living the gospel everyday, such as reading the scriptures everyday, and other things like that. Keep that spiritual gas tank full!

Enrique, the 15 year old that we just baptized a week ago also went to efy. efy is a great recent-convert-training-camp.


Thank you for letters everyone this week! Thank you for being an awesome family! I love you all and apoligize that I dont have pictures this week!

Love,
Elder Davis

Sunday, August 4, 2013



Week 9

We finally baptized on Saturday! Enrique (15 years old), Fernando (9 years old), and Angel (8 years old) all were baptized. I got to baptize Enrique and Angel, and Elder Alejandre baptized Fernando. It was pretty awesome! Enrique is pretty good and mature kid that needed a little more direction in his life, the gospel will give him a lot more than he ever thought that he needed. Their mom (Guadelupe) cant get baptized yet because she can very rarely attend church on Sundays because she works. But she want to get baptized but decided to let her kids go first until she can switch her schedule. Oh, and Enrique is going to EFY this week too, I think that will help him stay strong in the church.

I believe that earlier, I told you all about out investigator Olga. She is a little bit loca but she has a great interest in the church and she is probaly in her late 30s or early 40s. We took her on a tour of the church building a couple days ago. We showed her a picture with all the presidents of the Church on it, and as we all know, they all were really old except Joseph Smith. When she saw the picture of Joseph Smith, She started saying "Wow! he is really good looking! the best looking prophet there was with the blue eyes... wow!" and that went on for a minute or two, then she looked at me and held up the picture of Joseph Smith next to my face and said: "You look alot like him! its no wonder why they chose you to be Joseph Smith in the play. if Joseph was that good looking, I betcha Jesus was even more good looking than him! He must have been tall and muscular..." then I shared the scripture Isaiah 53: 1-3 ... read it.

By the way, I got the Dear Elder that Mom sent 2 and a half months ago... just thought I´d let you know.

Well, I really dont have much more to share about this week, Kannon: I hope you had fun at EFy (he wont get this until after he gets back) and remember that you will be going on a mission in probably about a year, see D&C 84:85. I love you all so much! until next week!!

Love,
Élder Davis