4/21/2014 Tlaxcallan 2, with Elder Ramirez

Hey everyone, happy late easter! I hope that all is well at home.

I had a couple people tell me that they were concerned about an earthquake... the truth is that I didn´t even feel it. Some people asked us " did you feel the earthquake!?" and we answered them honestly and innocently with a different question: "what earthquake? we didn´t feel anything." So don´t worry, i´m alright.

This week we Corina was baptized, and it is an interesting story. At first she was going to be baptized on Saturday, after FSY (a youth program just like efy). Verenice, Corina´s mom, was also going to be baptized but she has to change some things in her life before her baptism, but Corina didn´t want to wait. Thursday night, we were told that the members changed Corina´s baptismal date to Friday at 1:00 (which is out of their authority to do), and they didn´t even think to tell us. Corina wanted to be baptized on Friday so that her FSY group could be there, It really isn´t a bad idea, but the members of the ward took it in to their own hands to plan, organize, and carry out her baptism, and we, the missionaries in charge of her baptism, almost didn´t find out until after. (if you have questions about why that´s not okay, ask Dad). But in the end, everything came out okay, Corina was baptised and we were there for it. My companion, Elder Ramirez is the one that baptized her. On Sunday we talked with the people that tried to take matters into their own hands... they aren´t going to do it again.

The funny thing about the baptism is that we did in front of 300 people, everyone in the FSY. 300 people couldn´t have all fit into one room so they recorded the baptism and transmitted it to the Sacrament room so that everyone could see. It was interesting, and I wouldn´t like to have another baptism like that again, but it was fun and a good memory. Corina´s mom, Verenice is going to be baptized on the 3rd of May.

Today for PDay, our mission president gave our zone permission to see a movie in the theater: The Son of God. I don´t know what to expect but at 2:30 we are going to see it, that is why I am writing you all so early.

And also in a little bit, before the movie I am going to see some converts because my area is so close to them. Elder Alejandre, my first companion also is going to come and see them because he is about to end his mission. So next week i´ll let you know how it goes.

You guys also asked me about the Easter traditions here all they did really was party. Everyone played loud music and got drunk. But that is about it for the Mexican Easter traditions

But now I gotta go! Kannon... well done with prom. I hope that you are excited for your mission, use time wisely and prepare, because time flies really fast. I love you all! Next week I am planning on sending a package home, but I don´t know how long it is going to take to get there. But Keep working hard and sharing the Gospel!

I love you all!
Until next week
Elder Davis

Week of 4/14/2014

Hello everyone! Another good week in the mission field!

I have some good news and some bad news. I guess that I´ll start with the bad. Verenice, an investigator that has been investigating for more than 6 or 7 months, was going to be baptized this week but has to wait another week or two to fix some things in her life, but she has a strong desire to do everything and join the church. The good news is that her daughter, Corina (14 years old), doesn´t want to wait so she is going to be baptized this Satuday after attending EFY this week!

We also have two other investigators that want to be baptized, Diana and her daughter Natalia (13 years old). Right now they have their baptismal date for the 26th of this month. They both seem like great people. They are also going to be strong members of the church. Diana has already read up to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. Natalia also went to EFY this week, so she´ll definitely feel the spirit there.

This week we found a sort of crazy new investigator, Rolando, who is about 70 or 80 years old (we didn´t ask him his age). We contacted him in the street one day and he was willing to listen to us. When he was younger he was in profesional wrestling, but mexican wrestling, exactly like Nacho Libre, where they wear underwear, a cape and a mask.. Right now he is retired and has a lot of money and nothing to do, so he makes arts and crafts in his house. We taught him a lesson and then we took pictures in his house. He made the weird looking gorilla that you´ll see in the picture that I took of me trying to immitate the face of the gorilla.

The sad thing is, is that Rolando, even though he is friendly, he is also super stubborn with his beliefs and a bit prideful. So we aren´t going to spend too much time with him, but at least the pictures are cool

I heard that Kannon went to prom, but I have seen no picture! I hope that you had fun at your last prom!

Something that we have started doing, is going on splits with the members. I don´t know if splits is the right word in English, but we (me and my companion) each take a brother in the ward that is a priest, or has the Melchezidech priesthood, and we split work separate so that we can teach more people at once. Right now, the members really aren´t used to working with the missionaries, and sometimes it is a bit hard to find people willing to work with us.

Well I hope you enjoy the pictures. I hope that you guys can send some pictures more often. Just a question: A couple weeks ago, I sent a letter by mail, Did you guys ever get it? I am going to start putting together a package to send to you guys, with some printed pictures, and some other mexican things. Luckily there is a post office close to the area here. But i´ll talk to you all more next week! I love you all! Keep working hard!!!!

Until next week!
Elder Davis

Week of 4/7/14

Hello all! This week in many ways was a great week, and in others not so good. My companion got sick for a little while, but now he feels better! Over the weekend the General Conference was awesome usual! Our church leaders are great examples for us all. I feel like I recieved so much inspiration about things that I need to do better. I wrote down every thing that I felt or was invited to do by the general authorities, and there are a lot of things!

Dad asked about a tradition that the missionaries do when they hit the year mark. Well, in this mission we burn a white shirt, and at 2 years they burn a suit (which I don´t think I am going to do unless it is completely destroyed). I am still indecisive about burning a shirt... I feel like it´s kind of a waste.

It is wierd to think that next week, I will have hit the year mark in the mission! The first year went by super fast, and from what I have heard, the second year goes by even faster! I have been told that time hasn´t been going by all that fast for you guys, but for me, time has been flying! Two years really isn´t all that much time.

Dad also asked me about my Spanish. Right now, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the spanish grammar (I have studied almost every single page of the grammar book that they gave us in the MTC). But my accent I think still needs a bit of work. I feel like I am pretty understandable if I don´t try to talk fast, but I think that I still have a somewhat strong accent. But there is a huge diffeence between now and a couple months ago. I am trying to improve my accent a little bit everyday.

In General Conference, there were some funny accents. I couldn´t even understand Carlos Amado´s english, but the one guy with the last name of Aidukaitis (or something like that) had a super crazy and funny accent, but super understandable.

But, I love you all! I´ll talk to you all a bit more next more next week! I am going to keep working hard in bringing souls to Christ! I know that Christ lives and that he loves us, and that he is very patient and merciful with each one of us!

I love you all kind of a lot!
Elder Davis

Week of 3/31/14

Hey everybody! This week we had a pretty good week. We found a couple of new people to teach (almost all of them women, which is the wierd thing about this area). Last week I guess I didn`t have time to talk about the people that we are teaching. I told you all that two were going to be baptized, but the baptism didn`t go through. Their names are Verenice and Corina, and she had to visit her sick mother that lives a little bit far away, then we had another lesson with them and we don`t feel like there ready yet anyways.

We have one other investigator, Iraìs, who wants to get baptized... but she needs to get married or separated from her "roommate" first, and she can`t decide which one she wants to do. Her roommate doesn`t want to talk to us. Elena and David (who are both over the age of 25 years old) are Iraìs`s children who we are also teaching, and they seem like pretty good investigators, but we haven`t been able to teach them much yet because they are relatively new ivestigators.

Antonio, a 35 year old student studying to be a hair cutter. Right he is not that sure about baptism because he is waiting to recieve an answer to his prayers of whether or not this is the true church. Last week we talked to him a lot about personal revelation and how he can know for himself. So we`ll see if how it goes with him this week. And this week we found a number of new people to teach: Patricia and Jimena, a single mother living with her 11 year old daughter, and they seem pretty interested, they even want to invite their friends to listen this week; Ester, Ester, and Vianey, Mother, Daughter and niese, they understand pretty the lessons pretty well, but the mother is a unfocused talker, ever lesson that we have had with her was a little bit difficult to keep her focused. Lourdes and Jorge, mother (she actuallyhas a husband) and 14 year oldsson, and they seem awesome, but they only had a short time to talk when we found them, so we`ll see how they progress. And Teresa, who seems pretty interested. She was a referral from an active investigator (one the goes to church every single sunday but doesn`t want to get baptized).

The rainy season is about to start again. It has been raining this week every other day, and I think that in May it will start raining more, and then in June, it will rain super hard just about everyday. So that will be fun. Talking about water, today for Pday, our district and another district close by had a water baloon fight on the church yard. The water baloons ran out fast so we started filling up buckets of water and dumping them on the other missionaries. It was pretty fun, especially because it has been pretty hot lately.

Well, my time is up, I love you all so much and i hope that you enjoy the General Conference this weekend, because I know that I will. I love hearing the voice of the prophet. Luckily, I will be able to hear it in english (it isn`t as good in Spanish).

I love you all so much!

Until next week,
Elder Davis