Sunday, November 24, 2013



Week of November 18th

Well, I guess I gotta tell you all a little bit about my new area. Right now I am in the Ward of Teotlaltzingo (have fun saying that one) in the stake of Tlaxcala. This area is quite a bit different from my last. My last area was in small city, now i am in a place that reminds me a little bit of Idaho. There is a lot of space, a lot of farms. there are small cities in my area scattered around in the land filled with nothing (like Idaho). There is a lot more poverty here; a lot of people that struggle to feed their families, but there are also a lot of rich people too that live in large houses.

I also have a 17,000 foot mountain in my area, called Iztaccihuatl (see picture). It is a little too big to climb on a Pday but it is pretty cool to look at. The people seem to be a little bit more receptive here than my last area, less rejection.

But the interesting thing about these small towns here is that every weekend they party. With loud mariachi band music and a lot of alcohol. Yesterday we say around 20 to 30 drunk people walking in the streets, some of them were completely passed out on the floor. The drunks seem to like talking to the missionaries, especially the white güero (blonde) missionary with an american accent. They always yell at us and offer us a drink. An old lady (she wasn`t drunk, she was just crazy) offered to let me marry her granddaughter when I come back to Mexico... She was this dirty and impoverished 12 year old girl. This place is really interesting.

My new companion`s name is Elder Torres, from the Dominican Republic. I sent a picture of us helping some members in the corn field; Elder Torres is the one wearing a green jacket on the left. He is pretty good companion, he works hard and we get along pretty well.

I think that this new area is going to be an adventure! By the way, I got the package that you sent me on Tuesday, thanks for everything that you guys sent me! I love you so much!

Until next week,
Love,
Elder Davis

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Week of November 11th, 2013

Well, first off: Tomorrow, I will finally be leaving my first area! I have been here about six months which is a bit longer than normal. Normally people are in one area for about 2 or three months. But I won´t have any idea where I am going until tomorrow... so that means you guys won´t have any idea until next Monday.

On Saturday we had an interesting lesson. We contacted some people and they were willing to listen to us. When we entered the house there was no light (they forgot to pay the bill), and there were about 5 or 6 people in the room and they all had wierd questions about our church. One guy asked us about our position on gay rights and so we told him. then he argued that anything is ok as long as both are in agreement. Then they started arguing some other awkward things that all have to do with the law of chastity, it was interesting, all taught in dark room.

On Wednesday I did splits with another missionary in our district (meaning we switched companions for a day). And we taught a guy that was born in Mexico, then lived in the US for 20 years, and he is back here in Mexico. I think that I speak better Spanish than he does, he forgot everything. So we taught him in English. I was weird teaching someone in English but it was fun! After speaking nothing but Spanish, it is fun to speak English with people, such as the other american missionaries.

After about 5 weeks of hard work with little success, this week we had quite a bit of success! We had 5 investigators and 7 Less active members attend church this Sunday! And one of the investigators called us and told us that "I have decided that I want to be baptized". The sad thing is that I am leaving the area tomorrow. But what I learned is that if we work hard, we will have success after time, not right away, but in the Lord´s time.

Well that ends my hour. I talked to Ynez and apparently people make fun of her accent too (hahaha). Kannon: Next week I want to hear what you are doing to prepare for your mission, because the better you prepare yourself, the more effective you will be as a servant of the Lord. Thank you all for your love words of encouragement!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

week of November 4th


Hello family!

Well, this is that last week of the transfer (6 weeks), so next monday in my letter I will be able to tell you if I am leaving this area or staying. I am pretty sure that I am leaving because I have almost been here in the Atempan ward for 6 months, but we´ll know for sure next week.

My companion, Elder _______ during these past 5 weeks has tried my patience a bit. He is a great missionary, but he tries patience a bit (details don´t matter). So I have learned to be a bit more charitable and patient in the past few weeks. After I let go of some of the things that bothered me, I could feel the Spirit´s guidance increase. There is always something that wee need to give up or to sacrifice, something that is between us and God. Maybe it is 30 minutes to read the scriptures, maybe it is a funny joke that is a little less than appropriate, or gossip.

Today for Pday, our district of 8 missionaries decided to go to the Centro de Mercado (market center where people in tents sell low-quality items for cheap). It is always fun going there. All that I bought was a jacket for 90 pesos (about 8 dolllars). Mexico is an interesting place, quite a bit different than the US, Talking about Mexico, you should tell Alex Scullin congrats, both of my companions that I have had are from Monterrey.

In our mission, the Mexico Puebla North mission, About half of the male-missionaries are white (from The united states, mostly from Utah), the other half are from Mexico and other Latin countries. And there are also about 30 sister-missionaries, all of which are Latin. But apparently, next week, the first white-sister missionaries are going to arrive in the mission, which is wierd because I have´nt spoken to a women in english for almost 6 months.

Well, my hour just ran out. I hope all is well at home! You all are always in my prayers! I still didn´t get what I asked for last week: I want to know what each of you are doing individually to participate in missionary work! Well, I love you all so much!

Until next week,
Elder Davis

Sunday, November 3, 2013


Week of October 28

This week was a little bit interesting. As of right now, all of our investigators are super difficult to find in their house. Just about everytime that we have an appointment with one of them, they either cancel or they aren´t in their house... so every time that happens, we go and visit a less-active member (someone who doesn´t go to church). So for that reason, we are having success among the less actives, but not so much among the nonmembers. 7 of the less actives went to church this Sunday, but none of our investigators... Nevertheless, that is still success in one area, but we still need to improve in the other.

Lately, the leaders of the church have been telling the members and the missionaries to work together in unity in missionary work. In the Liahona Magazine, they said that our job as missionaries is to help the members to do the work, not vice versa. That is something difficult because all of the members are used to having the missionaries doing all of the missionary work, and in my ward right now, there are very few members that do anything in terms of missionary work. I encourage you all to not be those members!! The members should be the ones doing to missionary work and telling us how we can help. This gospel is the only thing that can help people resolve their problems completely! If we open our mouths and share it a little and show our light, people will come.

The adjustment of missionary work is going a bit slow right now. In The Book of Mormon, in the scripture Alma 31:30, the prophet Alma is praying and he asked the Lord "how long wilt thou suffer that such wickedness and infidelity shall be among this people?" I am sure that President Monson is also praying for us in a similar manner: "how many times do I need to tell them to work in unity before they actually do it. How many souls  could have been saved if the members and the missionaries worked together for the salvation of souls?"

Well anyways, today for Pday, we played some soccer in the morning, then we went to Little Ceasars. We play soccer almost every Pday, its pretty fun. After two years of this, I might not be bad at soccer when I get back.

well thank you to all you guys for the emails this week (except kannon)! In the next email that you all send me, I want to hear what each one of you are doing to participate missionary work and how you are helping the Lord "hasten His work".

I love you all muchísimo (alot)

Elder Davis