Sunday, December 29, 2013

Week of December 23rd and Christmas!

We got to speak with Shane through "skpe" on Christmas day. The connection was terrible, there were sirens and ice cream trucks with music in the background and the video image was very blurry. But, we did get to hear his voice and kind of see him.

He is doing great! He looks good, his hair is very blonde from being outside all the time. He is enjoying his mission and his companion. He loves the work he is doing. He sends his love to all family and friends. He is grateful for all letters and gifts that people have sent. He loves receiving letters and emails!





This was Shane's Letter on Monday, December 23:

I hope that you are all having an awesome Christmas time! because I know i am... even though christmas here is pretty different.  I feel like the people here celebrate the Virgen Mary more than they do our Saviour. But there is no better way to feel the christmas spirit that talking to people about Christ!

On Tuesday I recieved my new companion, Elder Garrido, from Panama. He is a short guy, like 5`4 or 5`5 but he plays great soccer, and we get along pretty good.

Its a little bit interesting splitting an area (meaning that there are 4 missionaries where there once was 2) because we now only have half of the investigators that we had before. Now we gotta work hard to find new people to teach.

On thursday I got pretty sick for a little bit. I must have eaten something bad, after vomiting for about 2 hours, then I fell alseep for 12 or 13 hours and woke up feeling fine the next day.

I am excited to chat with you guys this wednesday! I am going to call you guys around 12:00 my time, which, from what dad told me is 9:00 in California. so be ready with the skype page open!!

I guess that we`ll chat more on  wednesday! I love you all!

Elder Davis

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Week of December 16yh

Well, last week was the end of the transfer and tomorrow I will recieve a new companion but I will still be working in the same area, in the ward Teotlaltzingo. Also tomorrow, another pair of missionaries are going to arrive and work in the same ward as us. But right now we are having some success!

Right now, we are teaching a blind woman, Araceli, and her son, Marco, and they want to be baptized. Cristina, the investigator that we found that had already been listening to the missionaries also wants to get baptized. And this week we found 3 other promising investigators.

As I believe I told you last week, Elder Johnson of the quorum of the 70 spoke to us a little bit ago, and since we have been trying a lot more to talk to people about the gospel. It has been interesting. In our area, we always take public transportation, so we have been announcing the gospel to 13 or 14 people at a time. Usually about 10 percent of the people say that we can go by their house one day and chat, but 9 out of 10 people that say yes either give us a fake address, or say that they are almost never home. So, if you did the math, that means that about 1 out of every 100 people that we talk with becomes an investigator. But it is pretty fun talking to random people on the street and in the bus about the gospel.

Another interesting this week. There was a holiday on thursday called "El Día de la Virgen" (meaning: The day of the Virgin)... "the virgin" is the virgin Mary. The catholics here worship the virgin mary, and on thursday, people had parties, they drove around in trucks decorated in portraits of the virgin, and they did fireworks,
The traditions of the people are very different. Also, they believe in the "Saints", which are just famous Catholic guys. Every once in a while, they celebrate one of the Saints by getting a group of people together, including a mariachi band, and they walk around the streets playing mariachi music while holding a portrait of the saint that they are celebrating.

I got the package that Grandma sent to me today... I haven´t opened it yet but Thanks Grandma!! I also got the letters that the young men sent to me. Thanks a lot! The Running Springs Branch Young Men are awesome!!

I love you all alot. Thanks for sending the photos this week! I can always do skype in a public internet cafe as a last resort, but right now we are looking for a member with skype... but the economic situation is a little bit difficult for the people here. Thank you for being and awesome family!!

Until next week!
Elder Davis

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Pictures for week of December 9th





Week of December 9th

Well, this week was a pretty exciting week. At least Friday, Sunday and Today. On friday, one of the members of the Quorum of the 70, President Johnson decided to visit our mission. He talked to us about a lot of things, but one thing that he said is that we are working among a promised people (the Lord makes many promises about the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon) and that if we were working hard enough and efficiently enough, we could be baptizing people every week. To do this, we started to open our mouth a bit more and talk to a lot of people on the streets, in public transportation (which we have to take a lot of), etc. It´s interesting talking to random people on the street because some people are just crazy. In Doctrine and Covenants 33, it talks about opening our mouths to share the gospel, so I hope that you guys are opening your mouths and sharing the gospel because the Lord promises that as we do so, our mouths will be filled!

On Sunday, we had an unexpected baptism. We had one investigator, Rafael, who has been investigating the church for 2 years and has wanted to get baptized, but he needed to get married to his girlfriend (who is a member) but works everyday except sunday and couldn´t find the time to do it. But this week, he found the opportunity of a quick marriage and he was baptized on Sunday (and I had the opportunity of doing the confirmation). Rafael is a great guy and i am sure that will always be an active member of the Church.

Today, for Pday our zone (of about 30 missionaries) went to a fish hatchery on the giant mountain in my area. It was pretty fun. One of the guys that worked there took us to a cave on the mountain, then we played some soccer, then they cooked us some fish (I really don´t know what type of fish it was, but it was good).

But yeah... Happy birthday again Kannon! What are Kannon´s plans for his mission, it is almost time! Glad that you all had fun climbing mountians... right now I have a mountain in my area that is a lot bigger than anything in California but I can´t climb it (well, at least not all of it)! But all is going well right now and getting a bit better a little bit every day! Thank you guys for the pictures you sent this week, you should do that more often. Les amo muchísimo! Espero que tengan una semana muy buena! (I believe that Dad can translate)

Hasta la próxima semana!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

December 2nd

Wow, i didn`t even know that it was thanksgiving last week until after it happened! But happy belated Thanksgiving! And happy birthday Kannon (a little early)!!!

We had some changes this week. We are now a companionship of 3 missionaries. Elder Rivera is a missionary from the Honduras that is now with me and Elder Torres. He has been waiting for his visa for about a year to come to Mexico. during that year he was serving as a missionary in his own country while he was waiting for his visa to arrive and he is happy to finally be here in Mexico! It is kind of funny because he speaks spanish differently. He uses some different words that aren`t used here in Mexico... and I only know mexican spanish. Elder Torres from the Domincan republic also speaks spanish with a different accent and the both of them are hard to understand.

Something cool happened the other day. We were walking down streets and we decided to talk to a lady that was standing in front of her house. We invited her to the Christmas Devotional next sunday. As she started walking back to her house, she told us that it is really sweet and that she would try to go, then she yelled "Christina!! the Elders are here". Then her daughter Christina (about 35 years old) walked out. She told us that she had already listened to the missionaries before and that she was a about to get baptized but then she had some problems and had to move. She said that she would like to start going to church again. The only problem is that she needs get married or separate from her husband (and right now she can`t decide which). But the Lord will lead us to people that are prepared to recieve the gospel if we open our mouths.

In Preach my Gospel, I read something interesting. In Chapter 6 Christlike Attributes, under the section of Charity, it says that if we are truly charitable, we will have a desire for the salvation of others and that we will have a desire to share the gospel with them.

I hope that you all have the desire to share the gospel and are acting on that desire. I also hope that you all are always prepared to share and to help others. The leaders of the church right now are trying to get the members to do more of the missionary work... I hope you guys are hastening this change, not hindering it. Right now, it is a bit difficult working in a ward where the members really don`t do anything. Imagine how many more souls could be saved if everyone worked in unity!

But I hope you know that I love you all so much and I am looking forward to hear your voices on Christmas! Until next week!

Love,
Elder Davis

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Week of November 25th

Well this week was a pretty good week. Today we had interviews with the mission president in the morning, so we are a got back a little bit late so sorry about that. But things are pretty different in this area, especially with the ward. My last ward was pretty functional and the members were for the most part pretty good members. But in this ward the members really don´t do anything other than go to church on Sundays. It´s a little bit frustrating. Working alone, the missionaries can have success and baptize a few people, but if the members of the ward also did their part in their own callings and missionary work, there would be miracles. Thats why the leaders of the church have been stressing this lately.

Regardless, this new area is going to be an adventure. Also, last week, we were told that we are splitting the area, meaning that another set of missionaries is going to be working in the same ward as us (they also told us that they will be sister missionaries). We will be working in one half of the ward and the other missionaries in the other half. So that will be interesting to see how that all plays out.

Right now I don´t have much time to say much more. The other day we ate crickets (they actually aren´t bad) But i attatched some photos.

Oh and by the way, (dad wanted to know) my companion is from Santiago.

Well I love you all! I hope that all is well! don´t worry, Ill communicate more next week!

Love,
 Elder davis