Bueno Bueno (Nov 4)

Hello loved ones,

Life is good. Its hard but good.

Thanks alie for the snacks and the sweater.

So transfers are in a week. My companion is like presidents favorite
spanish missionary so they talk on the phone about whats going to
happen. Sounds like most likely we'll be staying together barring any
last minute inspiration. Fine by me. This is definitely a favorable
area.

Not too many interesting things to say about the last week. We had
rotisserie chicken at the shirmp house so things are a little more
tame on that front.

I cant think of too many specific things to say so I guess I'll tell
you a little about some of my investigators.

Margarita is our number 1. We found her tracting a month ish  ago. She
doesnt look that spanish shes got a pretty fair complexion. She spoke
english to us at first and we werent going to do anything other than
ask here where hispanics lived but I felt impressed to ask where she
was from. After she said Panama the dynamic changed a little and we
started speaking spanish to her.  Shes about 45 maybe give or take a
little. Shes from Panama (uncommon) and she is widowed and has no
children. We've found out stuff about her in a strange sequence but I
dont have time to explain all the details. First we taught her plan of
salv because of her husband and she cried. (I was on exchanges and
wasnt there) The she got Antied by a friend who told her you cant get
remarried in our church so she tried to drop us (again I was on
exchanges) They went striaght to her house and cleared things up with
the scriptures and watched "Together forever" movie about eternal
marriage. ANd she cried. We have taught here many times since. (I have
been there those times)

She really feels like the things we share are true. Shes reading the
book of mormon and she likes it. SHes well ish read in the bible and
she likes the similarities shes finding. SHe listnens to some crazy
pastor though anmd always tells us random stuff he says. Like jesus
lived in the mines in england while he was a kid and the queen of
england is a descendant of his line. (who knows?) She is awesome
though.

We've mowed her grass and picked up here perscriptions. She says we're
angles that God sent to her. SHe gave us some mary kay acne spot
treatment yesterday because she "noticed we have some pimples" haha
she came to churhc once. She liked it. SHe liked sacrament meeting.
SHe is suuuuper self concious and a little awkward though and she felt
reallllly uncomfortable in relief society. It toook us a while to get
to the bottom of that doubt.

Turns out her husband was actually quite wealthy. He owned an aparment
complex and now she's quite poor. SHe doesnt want to come back to
churhc because she only has one churhc outfit and she things that the
relief society ladies will jedge her and that she's from a defferent
class than them. She also thinks they're kind of uneducated and not
well read in the scriptures and that she cant learn anything in that
class. She has on friend in the RS that she used to work with and that
used to clean her house.(when she was married) She is coming to an FHE
with them tonght

We've taught her about the role of the spirit and how even the prophet
is still leaning and that we all learn at our own level from the
spirit.

Whenever we read scripture with her and teach her things she always
says. "Eso es verdad" (that is true) she is also sincerely praying for
a confirmation that this is true.

Man I feel a little weird writing all this about her but this is my
life right now. She didnt come to church the last 2 weeks and after
the first time she didnt come the next week she apologized personally
to me because she could tell how sad I was and she hates making people
sad. But then yesterday she "wasnt feeling well"

Please pray for her. She's getting baptizxed the 17th and I think she
really already knows its all true. She just needs to not worry about
the relief society ladies.

Sometimes as missionaries we have to say strange stuff. I think I bore
my testimony that though the church is perfect the members (referring
to the RS ladies) are not and that we are all trying to learn and get
better.

I guess that brings me to my closing exhortation. As soon as these get
self righteouss or preachy someone tell m,e and I honestly will stop.
But something I did not understand until I came out here is how much
members make a difference. And I am not going to tell you to go out
with the missioanries a bunch and feed them everyday. But saying hi to
someone new at church makes an insane difference. Investigators feel
so uncomfortable and nervous its craaaazy. One nice person can make
such a difference. Another investigator came to churhc yesterday and
after chuch this sweeet member lady put her arm around her and invited
her to stay and eat with the ward at break the fast. SHe sat with her
at talked to her and I wanted to cry. (That lady also asked for mom's
phone number becayuse she likes to call missonaries moms or something
so if some lady that only sort of speaks english calls you mom that
would be why) But she made such a difference in that ladies life.

TO contrast I heard a story about a priest age young man investigator
that came to churhc and one of the priests sat next to him and called
him gay and a fag the whole time and that boy has never come back to
church (personally I dont blame him) (it was a long time ago the story
happened) I know none of you would obviously do anything like that and
nor is it our place to judge those who do. But be a blessing to the
lord and his work

Love you all!

Elder Davdison

That uncomfortable feeling you get from ripping the head off your soup (Oct 29)

Hello loved ones,

 

Man it's been a good week. I hope you're all doing well and feeling blessed.

 

I got a picture of Clara's haloween costume. Very cute. And congratulations warren and leanne on finding out about the twins!

 

I'll jump right into things and try to waste no breath this week.

 

I shaved my head. Well my companion shaved it at least. Only with a 4 it's not actually THAT short. But it looks way different than it ever has. Feels pretty tough.

 

Halloween is this week. I want to go tracting but I dont think we are allowed to.

 

There is a new mission prayer finding (tracting) tactic. It's called politic finding. I suspect I dont even haev to explain it but basically you knock all doors with a Romney sign in the front yard. Its an english missionary thing. And I think people spend a lot more time joking about it than actually doing it.

 

As for the spanish missioanries. Well we will stick to puting everyone with the last name hernandez into our GPS. (We do that) (Well my companion did at least) (before I got here) (I'll stop with the brackets now) (we have found some cool hernandez's though)

 

Viseted the soap opera house in our complex I talked about last week. Knocked and the old white guy answered. He told us we didnt need to bother "them" (the honduran women) anymore and then slammed the door in our face. I'll be honest. I was sooooooo mad. I wanted to say a lot of things that wouldnt have been good things to say to that guy. But thankfully he slammed the door before I could.

 

On to the subject line story. We went to a recent converts for dinner on Sat and she is a very good cook. So she has some huge pot on the stove and I am like oh goodness I know what hispanic people put in soup. EVERYTHING (as far as parts of the animal go) It was a seafood soup. Basically she brought us a bowel with a little broth in it and a half a tilapia, like the whole fish, bones and all, just sitting in there. And a huge mound of shrimp. Shell on. Faces and heads still present. You have to rip the heads off to eat them. So your hands are in your bowel like the entire time. My fingers were legitimately very pruney. It was a little weird. But in all complete honesty it was really tasty.

 

We have been working really hard. We have 4 baptismal dates that are solid at the moment. 3 that arent as solid. and a number of solid other investigators. If I stay in this area another transfer (fingers crossed) November we should baptize for my first time and many other times as well.

 

I can't express in an email how my faith is growing. Ive begun to hit my breaking point finally and thankfully. I am beggining to just love what I do all day every day. The things I understood from the scriptures the doctrine I knew in my head is begginging by the power of the spirit to sink into my heart. I feel like I am just barely starting to "get it" doenst mean I get it. Doesnt mean I stil dont have a billion problems to work on just like everybody. But I am really starting to understand. Missionary work is close to the only thing that matters in the entire world. What we do in our families is missionary work in the home. That's the most important missionary work we will ever do. (I think spencer W kimble or David O Mckay said that) The church callilng you have is missionary work within that stewardship. Missionary work is just any form of bringing someone our ourselves closer unto christ.  All the other Junk doesnt matter that much. I was studying faith this morning and it occured to me that all of the things that we should do if we have faith and all of the things that build faith are the same there is close to a 100% overlap. So as soon as we exercise a particle of faith the teeniest bit (alma 32:27 I think maybe) is should begin a cycle of acting on the faith we have receiving more and acting on the new greater faith we have. I was thinking about this and I was thinking "so why doesnt it work like that"

 

Its because we ourselves get in the way. Our natural man. There are so many things out there that undermine our faith. #1 is probably disobedience to the commandments. The simple ones like read, pray, go to church, touch no unclean thing, etc etc on and on. Fear also gets in the way. (Fear of man over god) (D&C 3 cant remember the verse maybe 7 I think)

 

I dont know if this makes sense to anybody other than me but I think that looking at it this way helps me see what I need to do. Not get in the way. ( I understand how lofty and complex of a statemtn that is)

 

Anyways that's my new goal persoanlly to work on not getting in the way. I testify of the power of the spirit. It's rediculous. I literally see it tear down peoples walls and fears every single day. This is the work of the lord. He is on my left hand and my right.

 

I love you all so much.

 

Elder Davidson

The day my life became a Spanish soap opera (Oct 22)

Bueno!

Hope everyone is doing well. Couple solid things happened to me this
week I will get right into it.

OH anybody that wants my address for my apt you can get that from
Heed. I think katie asked. And anja yes you can email this adress it's
any family. And for the record I am pro seattle :)

First I went on zone leader exchange this week because my Companion is
the district leader. I was with the zone leader formerly assistant to
the president. IT was interesting to see how he approached the work
because he spent the last 8 months serving with president. We were
prosing some really wealthy areas which is different.  Also we were
pros-ing in english which was weird. THere was no language barier to
hide behind. tee hee. In some ways spanish is easier in some ways its
not.  Anyways... I dunno if anyone caught the weather this week but
there was some hardcore weather in the south on the day I was in
walnut grove on exchange. So every apartment has these NOAA weather
radio things trhat freak out in wxtreme weather and tell you
everything. Basically we were in tornado warning. (nothing happened)
but we went down to the church for the last couple hours of the day to
follow safety procedure. Anyways basically wednesday night I was in
the back of the gym watching young women in excellence. IT was by and
far one of the stranger things I have done as a missoinary becayuse I
felt so out of place. Man and when you are teh only 2 missionaries in
an english ward people LOVE you sooo much everybody wants to tralk to
you. THe primary kids follow you aroudn. IT was strange I didnt like
it. Its better with 6 missionaries and 100 members.

Anyways if you want a description of all the positive qualities of the
young women in the wallnut grove ward in memphis tenessee, talk to me
.....

Anyways we can get to the wopper of all stories for this week. We were
picking streets to knock one day last week and I felt impressed to
knock our own street. Which basically made no sense because we live
with all black people and there are only two apartment complexes on
our little street. But I was like uhh maybe we can look around one day
there must be someone here. ANywats while I was on exchange elder
Canales poked aroudn our apt complex with 10 extra minutes we had and
he saw some hispanics pull up and go into there apt in our complex. So
when I was back we knocked the door. THis old lady who can barely see
or move or talk answered the door and let us in and we sat down on the
couch and we saw one girl who kinda left and another lady came out and
there was a little girl running around. So we end up talking to one
lady who sat down on the other couch. She was a really nice lady maybe
late 20s and we told her we felt impressed to come by and we explained
what we do. SHe was nice. We got to know her a little bit. TUrns out
her husband she tells us, had a really bad heart attack and is pretty
much in bed all the time. And I guess he's not all there mentally. We
are like oh man goodness thats aweful. SHe doenst seem too distraught
about it. We explain the priesthood and talk about blessings. SHe
didnt really seem interested. It was late so we prayed togethere and
set and tried to set a return appointment but she said she was working
a ton and didnt know when she was free.

Fast forward a day or two we had 30 extra mins ish because we were
waiting to get picked up by a member so we went by our neighbors the
hondyurans to knock and see how they were. The other girl answers the
door and lets us in (there was always another man in the house just
not talkting to us) So we sit down with her and start chatting shes 21
she tells us the other lady is her aunt. SO we teach most of lesson
one. Towards the end of lesson one this reallllly old white guy walks
into the room with a walker and I mean this guy was oooold. And he
looks at us and goes with aweful spanish accent "que es esto" or in
english what is this. We are like uhhhh and we look at each other. THe
21 year old girl is like ohhh we are just talking about Jesus Christ.
THe old guy is like oh ok and wanders off and we kind of look at her
weird I guess and she goes. ummm that's the esposo (husband) of my
aunt. My companion and I just looked and each other and our mouths
were silent but our eyes were saying OHHHHHHHHH ok there we go. Now we
get it. We see whats going on here. It was a hilarious yet sad yet
strange experience all wrapped together. We have a return appointment
this week to talk to the younger girl. We felt impressed to go by so
somebody in that house needs the Gospel.  haha anyway that's the day
my life became a spanish soap opera. (similar to the ones that I have
started recognizing characters in because they're on in all spanish
houses when we visit)

Anyways I started studying topically during my personal studies and I
really have been liking it. THis may sound weird but hopefully
somebody will get what I am saying. I have started writing in my study
journal what are similar to mathimatical proofs, but with scripture.
It's obviously not as concrete as math but it really works. THey are
more logical proofs created from different scriptural combinaations on
the same topic. I am learning a lot from them though because thats how
my brain works.

Anyway. Love yuo all! Thats my world for now.

ED

Attempt 2 (Oct 15)

I dont know what happened to my first one   but it disapeared all of the sudden.

I am hurrying! officially hurrying.

WE FOUND ALL THE GUATAMALANS

I wrote this out in detail once I am giving it to you in less this
time the gutamaln consolate was here issuing passports and we randomly
found 1000 hispanics at a white church. Called president and got
permission to hand out pass along cards on another chuch property. We
handed out a bajillion and made some people a little mad most likely
but we left really quick before they could yell at us. It was crazy.

My companion is a native speaker. Didnt mention that officialy last
week but some people asked.

Caleb is going to Alpine Germany. Thats sweet. Fabrice I got your
letter and will write you later today.

We are gettign fed 6 times this upcoming week! Man that's crazy the
branch is big here. Like over 100 people and we dont have to teach
elders quorum like we did in NLR.

Bike week this week but our branch is seriously so tight. We have
people taking us out 5 evenings this week. The members are unreal. So
we have to do some daytime biking and I'll end up with one evening
bike day because I will be on exchange for the other one.

Man when you wear the missionary nametag and represent Jesus Christ
people are suuuuper open with you. I asked a man what he knew about
repentence during a first time lesson this week and that produced a 40
MINUTE talk by him and his wife about all of their medical and
financial problems and the time she was healed by the power of the
spirit after she delivered her baby and they didnt get all of the
placenta out and she was infected. And how he randomly felt he needed
to by a ton of food one day so he got all this rice and beans and then
he lost his job but they had food saved up. Its really crazy. how open
people are with you when youre a missionary.

Grandma leavitt is easily winning the hand written mail award.
Sersiouslt so awesome. I wrote you a letter today and will try and
send it.

This may be the most disjointed letter ever.

Somebody left a putter in our apartment left handed if you can even
believe that so on Pdays I put a golf ball into a can. It's pretty
sweet not gunna lie.

I really want to go tracting on haloween but I think we dont do that.
haha I dont even know how people would react to that. If theyd believe
us or not.

I have 17 mins left. MAN!

I cant express to you how awesome my mission president is. Words are
not enough. He carries the spirit like nobody else I have EVER met.
You feel it when you talk to him. You can't not feel it. There have
been some investigators he's visited with missionaries who have
commented on it. They're like I felt something when that man was in my
home. I don't know how you become like that.

Mom if you could see the groceries I buy you'd be so proud. The white
handbook says the mission money funds for groceries are sacred so I
can't buy junkfood with it. I can't do it. I would feel aweful. I buy
like eggs bread milk yogurt fruit whole grain cereal etc etc. It is
the strangest thing.

Umm questions people asked in emails.
Alsion yes you ran slower because I wasnt there cheering.
Leanne I am not sure where you should go for vacation I am going to
have to think. For the moment I will say Not mexico because the
hispanics tell me if you go there you get murdered. Maybe deleware,
its probably safe tehre haha
Heed water crazy! The blessings Im not so sure but you're welcome.

Thanks for everyting and I love you all.

The church is true, read the scriptures, I don't know how I stayed
alive when I wasnt reading everyday. They are soo important. Read
conference again and be willing to change. That's my 3 lines of
preachyness.

Have a good week. -Elder Davidson

Memphis Spanish South ... the promised land (Oct 8)

o in case you didnt all realize I am no in memphis spanish south. I am currently in the public library which is unusually busy for a monday morning. I am going to try to write wuickly because I am little bit limited on time.

 

New companion is Elder Canales. From orange county mexican decent. Converted at age 18 only member in his family and he is moer well read in chuch doctrine than most missionaries I've met. He's quite impressive. He's really nice a little quiet. He is a good good missionary. I think he's running this area the way an area shoul be run or pretty close thereto. THis is the promised land it's rediculous. THe spanish branch here has like 100 ish people that attend. THat's huge. We have the elders quorum prsident who will come out with us whenever and who makes lists of people he knows that we can visit. We started teaching his sister this week. We get fed a bunch we have the mo0st members in ou8r area. And we have a good number of solid invesxtigators. Several families that are waiting on some sort of marriage paper work so they can get married. He has been in memphis all 17 moonths of his mission in the same branch. Everybody in the branch know his and loves him and enjoys givig him a hard time.

 

I CANT BELIVE THEY CHANGED THE MISSION AGES. I was freaking out. There was nobody freaking out more than me. I couldnt belive it. THat is huuuuge I guess we are anticipating a whole lot more missionaries particularly sisers. We'll seee what happenes. I was thinking too that there will be like a 2 year drought hypothetically of male BYU freshman because in the US boys typtically graduate a 18 so you can logic though that the same way I did in my head I wont explain everything i am hinking for times sake. 

 

If you want to know what my life is like google racial demographics of memphis. THat will give you a good clue.

 

Couple funny stoires. First we were at a members home back in noth little rock and they fed us a little bit and they were making fun of my cmoapnion becus he was esting a ton (he scraped their pan cl;ean) *head shaking* The dad was like man I can find you more food "voy a hacer maruchan con dos oevos" Im gunna make ramen with two egs in it. He said it really fast and I though he said Vamos a luchar con oevos which means we aer going to fight with eggs. So I was like "uhhh we aer going to fight with eggs"? and his two teenage children who spaek english were laughing hysterically and we all had a good laugh about it (they explained it to their parents)

 

Also alllll hispanic people know each other. ITs crazy! a spanish missionary told me that at the beginning of last week and I hadnt seen much evidence of it so I was like nah your exaggerating. All week back in NLR we would go to sombeodys house and another one of our ivestigaros would be there it was rediculous. I cant explain to you how out of control it got. Soem of our nivestigaorts play soccer together and some cut metal together and others and everybodys everybodys brother in law.

 

Conference was sooo good. I loved it. Watched saturday in eng sunday in esp. Got a little more uot of sat sessoins. Let me play you back a moment from conference this weekend. "Next we will hear from Walter F Gonzales of the 70" AND THE HISPAPNICS GO WILD. they love him in the spanish branch here. HE came alst month and spoke to them in spanish. THey seriosuly love him everyone in the chapel started looking at each other with huge grins it was pretty cute.

 

I was looking hard for Ben's Dad in the mens choir from Ogden. Couldn'tt find him though.

 

Ok here is a lesson in memphis culture from the perspective of me. If you buy an old ford focus hatch back then you jack it up and give it sweet rims and paint it purple and put a bunch of chrome on it. IT does not change the fact that its an old ford focus hatch back. Perhaps I hyperbolize but seriousle there are some prettttty sweeeeet customs around this area.

 

I cant think of too much else to say. ELder mayberry the engilsh missionary that lived in the same apartment as me in NLR who I got along ith really well got moved to memphis east english. He lives like a mile away. Pretty cool.

 

OH another thing! I basically went from a companionship talkign split of 95 to 5 percent in NLR to my first day here

 in memphis opperating at about 60 40 after which we had a kind loving little talk about how we needed it to be 50 50 if we wanted a full measure of the spirit. and now things opperate at about 55 45 or closer to 50 50 MY LIFE HAS CHANGED A LOT.

 

Not to mention the fact that we taech a tonnnn more ni this area. Basically the day I got transgerrreed here I became a real missioary pretty quickly.

 

OHHH AND IT GOT REALLY COLD HERE. IT just happened there was no inbetween. THere were no fall temperatures. I might have to ask you guys to send some sweaters soon. All solid color dark. It didnt tell me to bring any in my packet but everybody has soem down here and it aparrently get legitimately cold.

 

Love you alll tons and love hearing from you.

 

Elder Davidson

Here Goes Nothin (Oct. 1)

Hello all,

Another week down here in Arkansas. It really is pretty how fast my first transfer went here in the field. Currently sitting at a transfer count of 2:15 completed remaining. That's nuts! 

Congratulations Leanne that is awesome. I really hope every one knows already and I didn't just ruin anything.....

Collin's Halloween 

Sister Culwell. I can't even believe it's taken me this long to tell you al about sister Culwell. She is a nearly 90 year old woman who lives in litle rock. Ok get your blown away faces ready. She has fed the missionaries every wednesday for almost 60 years. BooM! She never misses a wednesday. It used to be 2 missionaries then it was 4 missionaries and now she feeds 6 missionaries every wednesday. And two of her nieghbors come every wednesday to dinner as well they are baptists, really nice couple. Sister Culwell started a book in the 70s. It is an adress book and ever missionary that has eaten in her house since the 70s has signed the book. There have been missionaries who have come and found their dad's in the book serving in the same area years later. She is sooo awesome. She's got some serious blessings wating for her in the next life. She doesn't live in our area we are north but I was lucky enough to be on exchanges twice on a wednesday and got to eat at her house and sign the book. 

So here is my big news for the week. I am getting transferred! Wow! Usually you stay with your trainer for 12 weeks not just 6 but our area is new and things are a little slow and president really wants me to have more teaching time. (Last week we had 0 progressing investigators) He called us on the phone this week and told my trainer he'd received a spiritual prompting that I wasnt getting enough time to teach. I know right! He was spot on... So also here is the way transfers work for anyone that doesnt know. Monday they call everyone that is getting transferred but they dont tell you where you are going. Then on Wednesday every one who is getting transferred and lives on the arkansas side of the mission (side of the mississippi river) comes to transfer meeting in the mission office (RIGHT by where I live... where I am right now actually) then they announce transfers there. Every one who's name isn't called gets in the transfer van and you all drive to memphis. Then they have a transfer meeting in memphis for everyone of the other side of the mississippi. And then after that meeting anybody from the other side who is coming to the AR side comes on back with president and the assisstants and that crew of organizers. Here is the interesting dynamic though. On monday when everyone finds out whether they are moving or not people text aroung and find out who is moving and who isn't and then the speculation and chart drawing begins. So I am moving ... but nobody from central or south little rock is moving (there are a pretty limited number of spanish areas like 9 or 10) Pretty much 1 from every pari in memphis is moving 3 pairs. The fourth memphis area is shutting down. Then there is a missionary going home from jonesboro spanish and a zebra unit in batesville where the english missionary is getting transferred. So those two can take the two extra missionaries hypothetically that are created by an area shutting down. So I can go to one of those 2 Batesville or Jonesboro or one of the three memphis. President is moving me so I will have lots of teaching time so my money is on one of the three memphis areas. South east or west. We will see what happens. I have heard tenessee is the armpit of the south and memphis is the armpit of tenessee. I'm not sure if that makes it 2armpit or armpit squarred but either way sounds good to me. I'm sure it's a great place I am excited to see what happens. Here goes nothing ...

I'll be at a new apt no matter what. You can still send stuff to the same address they forward everything at the mission office. 

Our area really picked up in the last few days. We have taught 3 or 4 first lessons in the last couple days compared to the 2 times the rest of the transfer before. Teaching is the craziest feeling. Its sooo exhilerating. I can't really express what it feels like. It's not like anything else.

We were at our investigators house visiting last night and he got us some food. (Spanish people are hilarious half the time they dont really ask you they just throw stuff down in front of you) its sooo funny. He gave us some really weird can of mango beverage which was ok I drank it all it wasnt good but it wasnt bad tasting. Then he grabs us some tamales and I am like ok I can handle this no biggy. I just start eating it slowly from the edges and it tastes fine. He warned us it would be really spicy but it wasnt bad. My companion just digs on right into his. And I look over, I promise this is 0% exagerated, There is a foot sticking straight up in the middle of his tamale. I was like ohhhh noooo. It was chicken feet. It seriously looked like a baby's hand. It was soo gross. So I start forking though mine and taking a look. Nothing! hahaha it was all normal nice chicken meat. I was tryin sooo hard not to bust up laughing. Thankfully we'd already told him we had an appointment soon so we ate a little of the batter doughy part and boxed it up and left. Narrow miss for my comapnion. It was hilarious. I told him after he should be grateful that I didn't go " ohh no we have 15 minutes still our next appointment just lives around the corner" I think he threatened to shove the chicken feet down my throat affter that hahaha. 

New max weigh in of all time 141.6 BAM  I'll let you all know next week after I put up 2 hundy no bigs. 

Spiritual thought ... ? hmm Well the thing I have been thinking about is resistance to change. In general people are very resistent to change. I dont know if I wrote about this already. Resistance to change in some ways can be a force of the adversary. You can replace the word repentence in the scriptures with the word change in most instcances. In 1 Nehpi 3:7 when Nephi says he will go and do what the Lord commands that principle in some situiations that means being willing to change.Elder Holland says he gets worried about how frequently 1Nephi 3:7 is thrown around loosely in the church. Nephi really understood that he would do WHATEVER he was commanded. Not many people truly understand that principle spiritually. I know I dont.The natural man is so resistant to change.  We get stuck in ruts, we sin the same way over and over and somehow we always justify it. I dont know what it is for you but I'm sure if you think about it for more than 60 seconds you can come up with something. Dont be afraid to change. Thats one thing I am thinking about and trying to work on. I am grateful that as latter day saint members we understand the doctrine of faith as action. Faith is doing. Some people say faith is nothing but a belief. Or in other words "Knowing" something. Well the adversary knows that Jesus is the Christ. How much faith does he have. (I'm aware of the flaws of that argument but I heard it at a priesthood meating and thought it was interesting) So GO OUT THERE AND BE BETTER THAN YOU WERE YESTERDAY. That seems to be the answer of everything I ever do these days. haha 

Love you all tons. 

I'll send an interesting email next week most likely. 

Elder Davidson

Your weekly dose of the south (Sept 24th)

Salutations memebers of my people that like me enough to read my emails group.

 

Another crazy week down here.

 

Ohh and I got letters from paras and stef this week.

 

To provide you all with a weekly dose of local culture I have started writing down "Arkansas things" when I see them so you can all partake in the experience. This week wasn't too impressive but I've got a couple good ones. Shotgun Dan's Pizza ... haha Whole hog cafe. And a pickup truck with a flagpole welded into the bed hoisting a  razorbacks flag. That's all for this week maybe i'll find some more.

 

Let's talk about Bernardo. Bernardo is a recent convert baptized in march maybe? And he is solid as a rock. Always at church. Always in a white shirt and tie. He's probably about 5' 5" late 30s. Bernardo got called to be a ward missionary this last week. first one we've got. So we asked him to come to teach our family of six who is lazy and wont keep commitments etc we've talked about them. He comes in and we start teaching slash reading a little then my companion asked Bernardo a question and Bernardo starts talking a little about the topic. Then he lays into his whole conversion story then bears testimony and goes . Well ... that's all I have got to say to the lopez family. It was soooooo awesome. We may not have a ton of support from the branch but we have got some clutch players on our side. After we left there house (we had set a return appointment) bernardo goes. Well I can probably make that other appointment too. Such a boss. He is unreal.

 

Also we meet mexicans and hondurans (people from honduras?) that's pretty much it so far. So if somebody wants to researh a little on honduras and let me know some stuff could say to people from honduras to establish common ground. That would be awesome. Please somebody do it.

 

I dont know what else to say. I am trying to not get tired of only sort of knowing what's going on and not understanding hispanic people. It wears on you. I hardly say anything.

 

I don't know what else I can say really life is kinda same old same old.

 

We found a new trailer park with tons of hispanics this week. It was pretty awesome. We found 13 new investigators. (teach them any little thing say a prayer and set a return date) But we currently pretty much have 0 progressing. Kinda depressing. We haven't taught a lesson 2 in this whole transfer.

 

We found a hilairous lady this week that was kind of crazy but still super awesome. We were walking by and said hi. She wasnt spanish so we didnt really stop to talk but she started chatting with us and says of you guys are mormons. I love the mormons I ahve talked to some of you before. I even got one of them mormon bibles. We were going to explain that the book of mormon is not our bible but she started explaining more about how its big and got all the books. She went and got it. It was a quad. hahaha she had a quad. A nice one. Some former missionaries got it for her because she asked for it. She told us about the evil spirits that came into her house when she cursed the lord a bunch of years ago and how long shes been of crack. SHes got 8 kids I think. She is awesome. She hasnt been to church because she didnt use to have a car. We gave her as a referal to the english elders.

 

Hope you are all doing well I love you tons.

 

Today's letter is small because we did some fun stuff this Pday

 

Elder Davidson

You want it done right? Then do it yourself ...

Hello again from the the state who's abreviation, contrary to popular belief, is not AK

I feel really jumbled right now and I am not really sure what I am going to write about. We'll see where this goes.

Still haven't felt any affects of the little car bumpcident.We'll get that out of the way first. The last week has been kinda strange in that nothing too much out of the ordinary happened. Is that a paradox? Maybe and oxymoron? Who knows.

Mom asked what the Haka was somebody want to link her a youtube video of it or something

Havent heard from Jeff in a while. Hope you guys are doing well.

Got all the stuff you sent dad. Love the pictures thanks a bunch they're on the wall by my study area.

Won a six person game of catan last week haha I think we are likely going to play again for Pday today

Current Conspiracy that has replaced the MTC dress conspiracy. The missionary six pack theory. Every missionary "used to have a six pack" it honestly is so rediculous. I can't believe that every single missionary you ever talk to used to have a six pack. They were running cross country in middle school. Or doing farm work for a summer. Either way the theory is near flawless.

On that note benched 170 this morning (on a machine not free weight) I'll let you all know when I hit 200 its going to happen. Ate 4 eggs for breakfast.

Ok so some really recent converts from our area. Baptized just before I got here confirmed while I was here have trouble getting up for church. They always "sleep in" so in a brilliant stroke of genius I decided that we could just visit them on saturday night (like we normally do) and hide my alarm clock somewhere set for 7 am so that it wakes them up and they come to church. I also decided we could write a sticky note and write good morning see you at church, the missionaries. good idea right?! So where it went wrong was when I let my companion be the one to hide it. We show up to their house and the plan is for him to be like OH MAN I REALLY NEED TO USE YOUR BATHROOM. hide it say hi leave. So he goes to the bathroom I am left to chat and fend for myself which I can't really do in spanish (or english jus kidding) (sort of) and I am thinking this is a 2 mins tops kind of thing. NOPE. it was like 15 mins and a whole bunch of banging and clattering later that my companion walks out with a stupid grin on his face sits down on the couch. and then about 60 seconds later goes. Uhh hermana sorry I need to use your bathroom one more time. He goes back for another 5 or 7 mins and towards the end there is a huge glass shaterring noise that comes from the bathroom. I am so disguested (hurmorously albeit) and she looks at me and is like is he alright. I was more or less speachless. He comes out and goes ohh sorry I was unscrewing oyur lightbulb because it was burnt out and I dropped it. I am like cumon really!?!?!? We then left and I immediately demanded and explanation of what in the world he was doing in there. My trusty companion I should of known. He cant tie his shoes without using a screwdriver. He decides there are no good hiding spots so he takes a penny climbs onto the bathroom counter and unscrews their ceiling vent and hides it in there. I am like YOU DID WHAT. YOU CANT JUST GO AROUND UNSCREWING PEOPLES AIRVENTS. when he went back the 2nd time it was because he couldnt remember if he had tunred it on or not. It was on .... I had turned it on before I gave it to him. So they didnt come to church ....... and we went to their house last night and they defiitely didnt even know it was up there or hear it. So he went to the bathroom and got it while I chatted up like 4 people. Sort of... We'll try again next week. Maybe Ill hide is this time.

Have I told you all how my mission president is a really big boss. He's unreal. He's a welder I think by training (keep in mind everything I am going to say is based on stuff I hear) But I share only the things I am confident are true. He started working in a shed or garage in his back yard and turned it into some huge metal business that makes stuff for nasa and all sorts of other crazy stuff. He is UNREAL at basketball. His team won some enormour 55 and older tournament. I dont have specific information but it was a big tournament. He raised 7 children I think and he had a sister that passed away when she was like 30 ish and so he and sister petersen helped raise their 4 children. Literally everything and I cant explain how literal the statement of EVERYTHING he says is a spiritual 50 calibre bullet. I am not even kidding. And you keep thinking he is going to say somthing normal or make a doctrinal point where you are like oh yah that makes sense I knew that. BUT HE DOESNT .... EVER. Its rediculous I cant really explain it. He made a goal to do 100 push ups at once. So he did tons of pushups until he did 100 one day. That's rediculous he is over 55 at least. His favorite book of mormon scripture is the last verse of ether 12 and he talks about the statement "seek this jesus" all the time. That's one of his many "things". He and sister Petersen have a bunch of "things" like O to E. It comes from when they were super busy and raising 11 children and they started to feel like everything was we've got to do this and we've got to do this and this and this. So one day they devided that life is a gift from God and they didn't got to do anything but they get to do it all. So we try to turn all our O's to E's .

We have grattitude notebooks. THey are pocket size notebooks that we right 3 things we are gateful for every morning when we wake up. There is a bunch of stuff like that. 5.0 obedience. etc etc.

Our family of six we've been visiting a bunch basically don't want to do anything which is a bit of a bummer. They wont come to church or activities and if they are all inside with the front door closed when we swing by they wont answer the door. If we catch them outside (which is most of the time) they invite us in and we pray an read with them and I think they really like it. But all they really want to do is "hear the word". Kinda lame.

We've got a new investigator that is quite solid. His name is Isai (pronounced ee suh ee) we were talking to someone that lives in the same place as him and he walked by to go get in his car to go to work. We finished talking to his neighbor Jose and walked back towards our car that was parked close to his and he was totally lollygaggin around waiting to talk to us (that never happens, nobody ever tries to talk to us first) We chatted with him and he was interested in learning. We taught him one time ( I was on exchanges though and wasnt there) and he basically talked about his past the whole time and they didnt even teach any points from the lesson. But he asked if we'd bring him to church with us pretty much. He came to church yesterday Its like a 20 min drive from our area so its a big deal for people to keep that commitment. He even got dressed up he had these skinny black pants and a blue blazer with gold buttons all buttoned up. His hair is shaved on the sides and slicked back into a ponytail on the top. And he had on a nice pair of well shined dress shoes. We easily won the most fly investigator award. Hes probably 30 give or take 3 years on either side. Hes so awesome. We took him on a building tour before church started and we walked past the baptismal font and showed it to him. Keep in mind we have never even talked about baptism we have barely introduced the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy that's it. He says: "man I'm not ready to get baptized. that is a really serious commitment. I would have to really prepare before I would be ready for that" HE is SOOO awesome. He came to all three hours and really enjoyed it. He made comments during my elders quorum which my companion and I taught on literally 30 seconds notice and a book that was handed to us from I still dont even know where. He's got daughters back in mexico and his esposa (which means wife but doesnt always imply marriage among hispanics) is deceased. He is just a great and faithful man.

Spiritually speaking I want to share a spiritual principle that I've learned here that I didn't know before. Its another thing that President Petersen talks about frequently. I think he said that Henry B Eyering taught it but Im not sure if that is correct. When faced with spiritual challenges 90 percent of the results come in the last 10 perccent of the effort. It happens to us alllll the time. It the last 5 minutes of the day when we can go home or knock a couple more doors. When we choose to knock one more door or talk to one more person we often end up meeting a cool person or setting a time to come back with somebody. It's crzy how true it is. I guess it's kind of taught in ether 12:27 .

Thanks for everything you send love hearing from you all and getting packages :) you guys are the best.

Elder Davidson

There is a God in heaven and he is a God of miracles

Hola family!

Before I forget, you can keep sending things to the mission office I live like a block away and my roommates are the office elders and we come here all the time anyway. ( I could use a laundry bag) you guys are the best.

I honestly feel a little bit bad about how many packages I have gotten. You guys are too nice. I dont know if there is a point where you send so many that I am unable to be grateful enough but I think we are there.

Caleb if you're reading this I am going to try and write today I am sorry I have been slow but my last two Pdays here I have had 0 time to write letters because my companion and I were doing other random stuff like going to all the hardware shops and looking for the smallest screw driver we could find. Dont ask I dont really know. Also you send easily the funniest letters I get. PPC YKWII We have time allocated in our missionary planners (so cool I know) to write letters today)

Thanks for all the emails!. I love every single word. Dear elders are awesome too because they come and random times during the week and make my day. It sounds like you all had the best weekend in Buffalo. Wish I could have been there. HEED YOU GAVE UP TV?! That's heroic. Kudos to mailia for scoring a goal. Also I have a vivid mental image of Warren and Colin floating around on an air matress while everything if flooding and they are both asleep. Im pretty sure that isnt how it happened but it is pretty funny to imagine. Food supply is rather remarkable. I think we have around 200 brown sugar cinnamon poptarts between what Heed and Alie both sent. The fruit leather is delicious and didnt clean me out like I hoped it was going to. You assumed I didnt want the outcome you described on your note Alie that's where you went wrong. Wheaties! ahhhh! Dad we did get a lot of rain with hurrican Isaac but it wasnt too bad other than that where I am. It was certainly talked about a bunch. anyways....

I'll start with the craziest thing first. I got in a car accident this week. Before anyone freaks out I am 100% fine. Unscathed you could say. I went on another double exchange one with the zone leaders and then with another elder (from raymond Alberta) the next day who is in my district. Raymond and I were driving to an appointment. We drove past where we were supposed to go so we pulled into the center lane to turn into a parking lot to turn around. He looked up the road waited a good few seconds. and I cant think of anything other than a mental slip he didnt see the car coming and pulled out in front of it. The other guy slammed on his brakes but still socked us pretty hard on the passenger door. (right where I was sitting) the whole side of the veichle was crumpled it tore a little bit of metal and all the passenger airbags came out. We pulled parking lot and there was about five minutes of me being surprised and checking myself. I think I was more surprised that I could find no injuries than about the accident. After about five minutes I was like ok we are all good. They took the other driver to the hospital in a stretcher. Turns out he is completely fine. Raymond has some muscle pain kneck pain etc. He went to the emergency the next day and got some muscle relaxants and I have one bruise about the size of a nickle on me right arm where it was resting on the console when we got hit. There is a God in Heaven and he is a God of miracles. I should probably be a little beat up. But there is not a single thing wrong with me. The airbag cushioned my head perfectyl I think I cant rememer exactly how it went down. God takes care of his missionaries. I know sometimes bad things do happen to missionaries but if they are fllwoing the rules then I know they have done everything they needed to do. When there is work to be done people to be served and children of our father in heaven who I personally need to invite to come unto our savior Jesus Christ and partake of the infinite love of the atonement, I will be protected. When I obey the rules I have that promise. Oh and some injury attorneys sent me a letter in case I want to sue the driver of the vehicle hahahah

Anyways. I dont know if I was supposed to email home about that but nobody told me not too so I will plead ignorant. Please nobody freak out. I am not even shocked about it at all. I hardly ever think about it. It really isn't that big of a deal. But it is a cool story :)

On to the lighter stuff.

Im pretty much jacked... I have gained almost twenty pounds since day one freshman year at BYU I stand at a wopping 136 pounds (all muscle) and increasing quickly. Turns out the most interesting thing you can do in your apartment every morning is pull ups and push ups and sit ups and fill ups (of the water bottle post work out) I have also started eating a lot of eggs because they're the easiest way to get protein. Funny what different circumstances will do to a person. I usually put chese on them and throw em into a tortilla. Actally pretty tasty. Moral of the story I'm huge.

Roadkill story of the week. Biked past a dead armadillo. This column might get repetitive.

Arkansas moment of the week. Saw a HUGE guy mowing his lawn in only long jean shorts and overalls. It was pretty awesome. Seriousy though people are soo lovely in the south. It is a very friendly place.

New column I would like to add is called "welcome to the spanish branch" I think you'll figure out how it works quickly enough.

There is one person who can sort of play the piano in our branch. The Ward mission leader (about 6'10'' white guy who is a cornea surgeon mid 30s) He is seriously the BEST ward mission leader. His family is sooo awesome. He can play and one of his daughters can play a little too. But theyre family was away at church 8 days ago. So we sang acapella. It was aweful. Hispanic people arent the best singers to begin with ( can I say that ) but we were soooo out of tune and the guy sitting next to me was basically reading the words at twice the spead without any tune. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I couldt help it though. And my comapnion who was conducting the music cant keep it together because he is seeing me laughing. It was out of control. Welcome to the Spanish Branch

Umm what else happened.

It was bike week this week in my area so we rode a ton. I knew how to ride a bike but not like a boss missionariy all over the streets and globe blah blah. Our area is SUPER hilly and so I'm going to have huge legs pretty soon. Nothing else to say about that.

In sunday school the teacher started by writing a number pattern on the board and then he says Cual es la pattron which means what slash which is the pattern

and then someone in the class yelled I am. Pattron also means boss. Every one started laughing. I got the joke

I should go now. We are practicing the Haka. for a luao the missionaries are doing it. I dont know. Thankfully I am huge and so I fit right in.

Send letters I love hearing about how you are doing. Emails are good dear elders are too.

Love you all I might check this again in a couple hours if you want to say something short I might see it.

Elder Davidson

Dead Animals and Crazy Drunk People

Greetings,

So I just got in here and was expecting a bunch of emails but all that was there was a letter from mum. Any family can email me. I'd love to hear how you are all doing.

THANKS FOR ALL THE PACKAGES! Holy cow! I got 6 packages in 2 days haha. You guys are awesome. Someone amazoned me most of the stuff from the list I assume it was Heed via parents but who knows. And the alison sent a ton of food and 6 frisbees haha I dont know what to do with them. I put them in a basket that was in my room and now they function as a sort of centerpiece. We did throw around a little bit for exercise time this morning. I dont know how soon we'll be doing that again. It was my companions idea but he didnt really know what was going on. Plus I need to keep getting huge in the gym haha just kiding I do like 7 pushups and then spend the rest of my gym time getting un winded. I got one letter this week it was a dear elder from Alison and it came on friday I think. I dont know when you sent it or how much it cost but that should give you a feel for time that it takes. So feel free to let me know how you're all doing in one way or another.

Companion summary for everyone interested: Elder C. Half hispanic but you wouldnt know it from looking at him. From southern california (asperia). He has been out for 14 months. He is obsessed with machinery. Like trucks bulldozers lawnmowers planes helicpoters. etc etc etc He is always talking about machinery or whatever we see on the road and I sort of listen. We thankfully got removed from being office elders this week. That way I can focus on learning how to do actual missionary work. We were doing a lot of other jobs. They are taking the truck away too! I am pretty happy about it to be honest. It made my companion the one who loves machinery sad but I am happy we get to be normal missonaries. We work sort of hard but I dont feel like we are as going as hard as we can or as I want to. I try to kind of push us and keep us going. That leads to a lot of ... "well this is how missionary work actually is" moments. Sometimes I want to have this is how my knuckles taste moments but then I say a quiet prayer and father in heaven softens my heart. My companion has a tough week. I need to be support for him and not be another pressure adding stress. BUT I am not goint to stop trying to get us to work harder.

So I'll jump right in to what I did in the last week I guess.

I went on 2 exchanges this week back to back. That means I swap companions for 24 hours. I have to do it at least 5 times a transfer because my companion is the district leader. once with each of the other 4 missionaries in the district and then again with one of the Zone Leaders. So I was gone from my apartment for a full 48 or some odd hours. It was fun. I spoke more to people in spanish during those two weeks than I had before that. We also knocked a lot more doors than I had with my companion. I am currently contemplating what direction to take this letter so I will just go with whatever comes into my mind. So we dont actually tract in this mission. Ok now you can all pick your jaws up off the floor and dust yourselves off. They have implemented a new contacting technique and we are the second trial mission. What we do is called prayer finding. We basically walk around the neighborhood or apartment complex and know on whichever doors we feel like we should and then we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and we tell them that we would like to leave a blessing on their home. We go in chat with them and ask them if they could ask the savior for a blessing what would it be then we offer an actual priesthood blessing pray for the blessing pray for the members of the family and ask for the spirit and peace to be poured out on their home. It's pretty cool. We get invited in lots. If it feels right we teach maybe one principle and set a return time to teach a lesson. The blessing really softens people hearts its amazing. And if the person that answers the door is english we typically just ask them if they know where any hispanics live. Surprisingly many people aren't weirded out by that question at all. The first time I was shown what to do we didnt offer a priesthood blessing we just prayed then I read the sheet about it and realized that we were supposed to offer it through priesthood authority. I offered one with the priesthood for the first time yeaterday. We were in a trailer park with an amazing family. Lots of trailers we see are run down and dirty unkept. But the family we were meeting with were currently remodling the outside all the walls. The inside was small but it was very tidy and nice. It was a husband and wife and two young sons. The oldest of which has downs syndrome and they are the sweetest people. The father talked a little bit while we were just chatting and he was teaching some pretty powerful principles of strong character. He asked us to pray that his oldest son would be able to communicate. When I opened the blessing and asked for the saviors peace and spirit to be in the home tehre was an overwhealming wave of the spirit that just poured into the home. It was amazing. It was noticeably different than the times we had just said a prayer. I really hope they felt the same way I did. I cant express the feeling with words.

We are still teaching the family of six and the mom is still holding them back a little. Our ward mission leader WHO IS AWESOME is giong to come with us to teach them this week and give them (the mom) a talk about marriage. Hopefully that gives her the desire to get married and baptized because they are all doing awesome and want to be baptized. The dad is so sweet. He always asks us questions about the scriptures and then receives answers to his questions. It happens all the time. He is so ready and excited.

Ok I will get to the strange slash funny stuff. It happens every day. I figured I could start a series of weekly columns. I dont know how it will go If they will continue or how they will morph and progress but we will give it a shot.

Roadkill story of the week: there was a dead cat in the parking lot of kroger. It was basically flat. Parallel to the concrete.

Classic arkansas moment of the week. I biked past a dead armadillo. Almost hit it. Thought it was a possum till my companion enlightened me.

Crazy person that I talked to of the week: walking through an apartment complex and this guy approaches us and says he wants us to talk to him. He was VERY CLEARLY super drunk and on multiple kinds drugs most likely. I think his name was McMarcus We told him we taught spanish people and asked if he knew any. He told us that wasnt nice and that he needed help just as much as spanish people. Then he told us he has the oldest bible in the world back at his apartment and he offered to have us come over and learn the truth. He also told us if anybody tries to shoot us when we knock on their door to tell them we know McMarcus and they wont "[mess] with us" That was quite comforting. If I ever end up in a tussle its nice to know hes got my back. Hopefully I get a chance to check out that bible sometime. I bet its pretty cool.

Socially retarded moment of the week: I knocked on door nobody answered for a while so we were about to leave. My companion took a phone call while I went to put a pass along card in his door. As I am bending the pass along card to put it between the doorknob and the door frame the door opens up and I am like ... uhh ... Hola como esta? and he goes ummm good. hahaha it was a 20 year old white guy ..... his name was keith .... there is no whiter name then keith. There just isnt.

Boss moment of the week: this dog totally barked and me and I didnt even wince.

Thanks for the food. Dont hesitate to let the food keep coming. we share all the weekly groceries we buy and as a group we arent very smart with our money. I will try to guide that to iprovement.

AND WRITE ME cumon...

There are a lot more things I could write about but There are tons of people around in the mission office waiting for computers.

Love elder Davidson

First letter from the Field!

Hola y'all haha or whatever spanish people from the south typically say.

I'm sure you are all anxious to hear how things are in this part of the world so I will waste no time and jump right into it. McAllen Elders in my district left monday morning early. Spent the day me my companion and elder simpson who is going to calgary. It was more or less business as usual. Last class with our teachers which was sad because they were pretty awesome. I got them cards at the bookstore but the card selection was kind of retarted and all the thankyou cards had flowers and were pink so I found some pretty sweet cards that said Happy retirement on the top of the front and then I wrote in sharpie FROM TEACHING OUR DISTRICT on about 3/4 of the front. I think I am funnier than I actually am ... haha Seriously though I dont think MTC teachers can really understand how much their example means. Especially after yohu get to the field. Then we had our last night boring whatever. I packed my bags so well I could have won if packing was an event in the olympics. Ok here is where it gets a little more exciting. Got up at 3, left the MTC at 4, there were 8 of us traveling 6 elders 2 sisters. I was the only spanish speaker and they all knew each other from district slash branch stuff. We drove to the airport and that's when I started losing it. After being in the spirituality bubble for 9 weeks which felt more like 9 years getting to the airport and hearing normal music and people being the way people are man it was like getting punched in the stomach. Got our tickets and went through security and then while still feeling like I've been punched in the stomach by societey I have to call home. And gosh it was so humiliating I cried like a baby. It was aweful!. I talked to parents for a while. And then tried to call allie because I have only heard from here once in the last nine weeks because shes been sales traveling the airplane globe of business whatever running vancouver something. And I left the lamest half whimpering message on her phone. I felt so pathetic. Then I gave up my phone because there were 4 of us and three phones and one elder had been standing there the whole time and we were getting close to boarding and nobody else looked like they were going to give it up soon. Sorry I didnt have time to call anyone else. We also happened to fly with a senior couple going back to Ark they had left to go to their sons wedding so we got to meet and talk to them. Turns out they are in the office. She is referal and he is veichle fleet coordinator. Ill talk about that later maybe. We connected quickly in ATL and then got to Arkansas. It was warm but not too hot. Sounds like we missed two weeks of 100+ degree weather and now its just warm and nice all day every day. Que suerte! Met the president and his wife and the Assistants to the President grabbed our bags and went to the mission home. Now I just have to start by saying Stephen M Petersen (My mission president) has a presence. I cant really explain it other than that. I don't know if you are all familar with the same feeling I get when someone has a presence. But you can just feel the strenght of their character emminating out of them. And Sister Petersen is sooo nice shes awesome. At the mission home they fed us a snack which was nice because it was the first thing I'd eaten that day. Then it was basically christmas morning we got soooo mcuh mission swag. We got a binder with all this stuff notepads and pens and a multipurpose hankercheif hahah. Its for wiping tears cleaning messes muzzling dogs and horses waving goodbye haha I dont know one of those crafty cute mission mom type of things. We've got lots of those. We also got a Little Rock. haha its a little polished black stone that we are supposed to hold while we think of things we are grateful for. Every morning we write down three things we are grateful for in the notebook with the pen while holding the rock. It is quite the mission swag experience. We also got the living chirst (eng and esp) some conference talks (ex lock your heart) etc etc etc We had to fill out some forms after that and we wrote a letter home that they are going to mail with a picture. That going to parents house. I dont have any idea when it will get there or how or whatever. We had some training meetings slash vehicle safety. AND we all got interviewed by president.

My interview with the president was short but super awesome. He showed me my trainer and talked about him a little. Showed me my area. Let me ask questions. And of course no good business undergrad student EVER shuould go into an interview unprepared to ask questions. So I had questions ready. Here are the results. He told me my Companion's name is Elder Carrell. He said he is one of the most giving people that he has ever met and one of the best missionaries in the mission. He told me if Sister Peteresen's son was coming to the mission she would pick elder Carrell to train him! That's pretty serious business. My companion is also the district leader for our spanish district. There are 140 missionaries in the mission and only 18 are spanish. We are also the two mission office elders. There are lots of senior couples in the mission so they cover all the permanent in office positions ( we are very blessed here) being the office elders basically in short means we get a truck with unlimited miles (pretty nice not gunna lie) and we are responsible for moving furniture or whatever else needs to get moved around. Peoples stuff. Office tasks. We are also in and out of the mission office every day just about helping out and whatnot. And I think we get a little extra food money because we have to eat on the road while we are moving people. SO in sum I am pretty lucky. President told me he wants me to really get trained and learn well. We live close to the mission office and the mission home. Our area is called Sherwood Spanish and we are in north little rock. Its a small branch with 6 missionaries its all spanish. President says I was put there to be successful and that we will likely be the highest baptizing district the mission. Thats one of the mission things we were put here to be successful. We also have a pretty big proselyting area. (I think its biggest in the mission) maybe other than some super rural stuff. Ours is pretty well populated. Thats that I guess. The rest of the day we ate and had a couple meetings traing stuff. Then went to bed. The next morning we got up at 6 to exercise. I volunteered to stay back with the new elder who was sick with throat someting or other. I just stretched like a dork and did like 10 pushups and talked to sickie while the Assistants took every on else on a run through the neighborhood. Then we all got ready and went to transfers. The new people had to introduce themselves. Then president said we were the best new group he'd ever received ( I assume he says that every time but I dont know ) hopefully it didnt put as much of a target on our back as I felt like it did as we sat on the front row of the chapel. haha just kidding ... sort of. Met my companion and we had to give the one elder going to the memphis side of the mission a ride 2.5 hours away BUT it turns out we had to take a car up there too so that then became my job. SOOO basically the first thing I had to do as a real missionary was drive two and a half hours on the freeway! (two lane haha) But seriously I was a littel freaked having only driven on the freeway twice before. Once wiht my teacher once from St george to provo. It was fine... I was praying like the whole time haha I am honestly such a baby thats one of the things that I learned in the last week. Ill work on it. Then my comp and I drove back and grabbed some groceries blah blah stuff. We live with two english missionaries which is nice because its a little less isolated. WHile my companion was at transfers they moved his desk and mine into our bedroom which made him a little irritated but instead of move it back we took more desks and put them in our room and now we have this super cramped sleep slash study slash shower master bedroom isolation thing going. If you could see our rooom you would understand how rediculous it is. We have a bookshelf on a dresser. haha its so stuffed its pretty funny.

Goodness this email is getting reallly long.

Then we went to work... from here on out we will just do highlights.

We dont really go door to door ever ... We just go around looking for spanish people. I also have to preface and say I only know what we are doing about half the time. I just kind of follow and dont say anyhting. Our only current really good investigator is a family of 6 that had a date but they cant get baptized because the parents arent married. THe dad is all for it but the mom says she doesnt want to becaues divorcve costs too much. Its an excuse... We are going to teach and commit again. The oldest daughter is ready to get baptized but the rest of the kids will do what their mom says and the dad cant until hes married.

My companion really is a super giving person. He planned a street cleaning effort in conway by calling aroud that missionaryes do once a week. We go and weed and pick up trash its throuhg the chamber of comomece. He was in conway for 7 months. Its in our area but far away. We go there once a week. It used to be wehere the spanish branch was but it moved a ways away. He knows ALl the members there and they alll love him. He brags a little about how he has neeevvver had to go hungry in conway. He can get dinner in 10 mins a bunch of different places. blah blah. We also tell every one we ever talk to that if they ever need anything to call us . People only take us up on it once in a while. We translated for a couple that were trying to get their child into junior kindergarten. we went to the school and talked to the officve people it was weird being in a school.

Okay cool experience of the week. We went to the childrens hospital thursday night I think it was to visit a convert of his whose 4 year old had just had her third heart surgery. It was heart breaking to see the little girl in a big hospital chair with all sorts of tubes going all over the place. It was the night after her surgery. Her mom who was a sweet little pregnant spanish lady who spoke no english and was missing a tooth was sitting by the bed holding her hand. The little girl was visibly super tired and uncomfortable. She kept asking for coke and a hambuger hahaha. Every time they gave her some water on a mouth swab she would gag and something on one of here moniters kept beeping. The nurse sat her up a little more in bed and she was eventually able to star taking some ice chips. It was really pretty heart wrenching. Then the Dad came back with the two yaer old girl who was sooo cute and had the biggest eyes. The little girl ran over to the mom and the mom held her up to see her sister. And then the most incredible thing happened. I dont really know if I can desciribe how sweet it truly was. WIth the mom holding the two year old just over the arm of the hospital bed the two year old looks at her sister and with sadness in her eyes says "you're hurting" and the four year old looked back at her and could exert just enough energy to nod her head. It was one of the sweetest most sincere expressions of love I have ever seen. I want you all to go read the baptismal covenant in mosiah chapter 18 (i think it is) and think about this situation. This is why chirst exhorts us to become as little children.

Ok ... now that you are all feeling warm on the inside you are also vulnerable and I will list my demands. Im just kidding. Well sort of. I always feel bad when I ask for things in my emails home so I am just going to do it and not beat around the bush. I could use some hoodies. My companion is obessessed with turing EVERY (not just the ones in our apartment thermostat he ever touches to its coldest setting and putting fans everwhere. So I brought one hoddie and I wear it while we study in the apartment over my church clothes every day. Mom you can d send some of the ones from my closet at home. zipper is nice because I dont have to pull it over my head and my churhc clothes (missionary clothes i guess you could say) crayola twistables PENCIL crayons to mark my spanish scriptures I left my alarm clock at the MTC so I would like a new battery powered alarm clock. It cant have a radio. A college ruled like study notebook for language study. And this is weird but if someone could cut some printer paper into quarters and send a bunch to me that would be great. And if anyone can send old spice champion. haha its the deoderant I like and I ran out at the MTC and they didnt have that kind. THanks soooo much. Beyond that send food. Any food is appreciated. Thanks a ton! You can mail everything for my whole mission to

905 Kierre Drive

Arkansas Little Rock Mission

North LIttle Rock

72116

espeically now we are in and out of the office a ton and so I will get it all really quickly. Heed I dont know if you have already but you can make the blog private and help people get on. I know its such a huge pain but every one is welcome I just dont want everything out there floating on the internet. THanks so much. I might have you start

Also can my emails please get forwareded to

joshwads@q.com ( I think its com I dont know what Q is might be net)

jhwarburton@gmail.com

vonjolley@comcast ( agian i dont know if its net or com)

THanks there is one more but I dont have it on me I will get it next week. I know its a huge pain but I appreciate it soooo much. Also I can receive mail from any family.

Thanks for everything I love you all so much things are hard here but I am super happy. Pray for me to become unsocially retarded. I know that weird but seriously. I just stand around and dont know what to say all the time. It is a real request. Maybe thatll help I dont know. Im learning. Seek Jesus Christ thats what my mission president says all the time.

Love you all, please send me stuff family :)

Let's GO!!!

Im leaving in 5 days ish or something!! I am so pumped its a little rediculous. And anyone who knows me well knows I dont typically get that excited for stuff but I am so pumped. I can't wait til that first day walking down the street and feeling terrified. I am so excited to be scared. It sounds weird but that is the best description I can give for what I am feeling.

I stepped on a mouse this week.

Thats the end of that story.

So I was reading a letter from Paras. And one of my roomates slash disctrict members asked who my letter was from. I told him it was from my best friend from back home Paras. ( and I pronounced it correctly) and they are all like what ?!?! and I told them he was indian. I had to explain that meant like india the country ahah. BUT THEN they all decided they wanted to learn to pronounce it correctly in full pbaras form. So they all proceed to start saying paras over and over. And I proceed to try and explain to them how they arent doing it right. They exact same way that I would say it wrong and you would try and show me how back in the day paras. So anyways it has become like a thing where during class somebody will go PBaras. and the someone else will say it . And then the 6 of them all break into this huge jumbled corus of yelling paras. I dont know if youll think it is as hilarious as I do or just be creeped our paras but I think its pretty funny.

So remember the old guy that walked in on us singing phantom of the opera las week .... This week we were in our room again and we were talking about how one elder has an ingrown big toe nail. And he was like whats there worst that could happen. Some one else said they could have to amputate. Then someone else started talking about how their big toes get sore. And Someone else offered to rub them. Then somebody said can you even get a big toe rub is that even a thing. TO TOP IT ALL OFF. I am walking to my bed not facing the door and as the SAME old guy walks into our room to conduct a cleaning check I go: Oh yah for sure let me get you the contact information for my big toe maseus. Needless to day he does think we are weirder than he did last week. We got 100% on our cleaning check though!

I hosted again this week like showed new elders around. And I hotsed one from small town utah who is going to Canada Halifax. I told him my connections to the mission and talked we chatted about it for a while. It is safe to say he doesn't really have any idea what he is in for. He will have a great time.

I had to speak in church this week. They make us prepare a talk everyweek and then they anounce who is speaking after sacrament and you get up right there and do it. I spoke second and my companion spoke first I talked about some random stuff because he covered all the basics of the topic. (Baptism) It was fine.

Ok Ill tell the actual mouse story. haha I was walking down the sidewalk and a mouse scurried out litteraly right into the footprint of where I was about to step. He was injured pretty bad and he managed to limp away. It would have been less of a big deal if there hadnt been a bunch of senior missionary sisters standing around right where it happend. They thought it was aleaf at first then when they realized what had actually happened they got a little stressed and the small town utah (goes around looking for carp and hitting them with a golf club when the river floods over into the farmers feilds small town)(Hes the man, super good missionary) couldnt step on it or kick it away.

Umm anyway. I listened to some mormon tabernacle choir on lds.org during computer time this week and when I listend to praise to the man I got sooooo pumped it was a little out of control. I was ready to punch a whole in the wall and walk to Arkansas. The fourth verse of Praise to the Man gets me going. You should ALL go listen to it. The version on LDS.org that is good is a missionary choir too which makes it more inense. (its under general conference then all music) I think the prophet Joseph Smith is the strongest part or one of the strongest parts of my testimony. If learn about his life and the things that he did you cannot deny that he was a prophet of God. I hope you all watched to talk I asked Heed to link to the letter last week. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon many times faster than professionaly trained educated translaters can translaste it from english in to foreign languages today. He could not have done that without the help of the Lord. This is the true church. I know that. I want others to know that as well. Spiritual conversion is the only true way to know.

Love you all so much.

write me when you watch the video or listen to PttM. (I am a missionary I have to follow up)

Elder Davidson

one and a half to AK and it couldnt possibly come any sooner

So there is this old guy that wanders around the residences all day. Im not sure what his actual job description is. We have reason to belive he may live in the storage closet area but those reports are unconfirmed. Anyways this guy wanders around and I hear he sometimes confiscates things from people. Who really knows. Anyway Elder Folsom and I were singing the phantom of the opera while getting ready for class after gym one day and we may have been singing pretty loud. Either way, this old MTC guy wanders into our room and looks at us. We both go silent and hes like. I think im just gonna go ahead and close this here door. hahaha then my companion comes from the room next door and is like HEY who shut the do- uhh hi (directed to the old guy) Hes like umm why did you shut our door? and the Old guy goes. It sounded like they were dyin in there. hahaha

In one of the firesides slash devotionals the lady told a story about how here grandaughter came home from primary and she asked her how it went. The little girl said it was great we sang the awkward song today. And the grandma is thinking and she cant really figure out what this little girl is referring to and so she asks her. How does the awkward song go exactly. And the little girl says. cumon grandma you know "Awkward ever Awkward as we glory in his name" (called to serve toon) hahaha couldnt be more true the MTC has turned us all prettu weird. It's actually nice for people like me who were weird when we got here. It helps the other people come to our level.

My spanish is coming along decently. I really can say I am pleased with where I am at. I know that when I get to the campo (spanish) that I am going to get lingualy slapped in the cabeza (spanish) but I am ok with that. I can already tell I am going to become better at Spanish than I was at French I think. I understand the division of tenses better and I actually try and think about them while talking. I can feel help coming from the Lord. My memory isnte very good but I have done decently with remembering spanish stuff.

We are the oldest district in the zone now! woop woop doesnt mean anything. We also got to host new missionaries this week. It broke my heart to see all the crying mothers. It was honestly worse than leaving. It is harder to see other people crying and all I can say is I am super glad we said our goodbye at the airport. SOOO much better.

SOMEONE JUST HANDED ME MY TRAVEL PLANS. I wont tell you the specifics right now because that is a werid thing to have posted on the internet. I think I get to talk to you on the phone for a few minutes at the airport. I hope this doesnt offend anybody but Im not really looking forward to that. I like being immersed in the work and you cant do all that much in 15 minutes of phone time. I love you guys tons though and it will be nice to hear some of your voices.

Im scared a little but I am so ready to go to the field. I am so ready to teach real people to have people to love and earnestly pray for. To have needs to teach to. To actually give something that people are looking for but don't know what it is. I am so ready to just get thrown face first into it all. I really hope I get a good trainer. After that I will be a good boy and take some tough companions but If I could have a solid trainer for a couple months learn what I am doing and improve my language I would be so happy.

I love this work. I am not really that good at it (yet) but I know that I can work until I get there. I am working on getting to the no fear point. I am working on getting to a place where I tell my comfort zone to be non existent because the missionary who lives in his comfort zone gets more or less nothing done I would guess. I read a president Monson quote this week that said. May we ever remember that the mantle of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not a cloak of comfort but rather a robe of responsibility. That is not something I understood very well before the mission. I was pretty content chillen in the comfort cloak. But I know that when I get out into the field, there may be some haters. Rule number one in our classroom (its on the whiteboard so it's official) is dont let the haters stop you from doing yo thang. Its silly but its profound. It applies to many situations. People love to correct each others spanish here. But speak anyway. Thats kind of where the rule originated. I am going to do my best to be a Bold missionary. I am going to talk to everyone. Preach my Gospel talks about being bold. There is no time to be shy. One of our zone resouce teachers gave a super dope pep talk and said at one point "we are engaged in a battle for the souls of men" man that gets me going. It is a little hard core but it is true. This is the true church. I cant express how much I know that is true. We had a fireside that talked about how there is no counteragument to the Book of Mormon. Those who read with real intent will eceive the truth. I want everyone reading this to go watch the "testimony of the book of mormon" mormon message on youtube. It is elder Holland and it is super boss. Go watch the actual talk. Heed if you can find it linnk it inbetween these brackets ()

Love you all I am 2 mins over and I have to go.

Send lots of mail ya turkeys!

Elder Davidson

3 til AK

Ok here come the random stories.

Elder simpson is in my district. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. He is almost albino. Hes a genius (35 ACT, electrical engeneering major at BYU with a 4.0) He is going to calgary spanish speaking. He is from eagle Idaho etc etc you get the idea. He is sooo funny. Anyway we are doing online spanish grammer and we are supposed to say stuff out loud while we do. Anyway he reads out loud and goes. "Grammatica" "hmmmm" "Battlestar Grammatica" some people will get that joke some wont. I hope Paras and Stef think that was as funny as I did.

So I solved the dress conspiracy. I worked up the courage to talk to one of the Hermana's in our zone about it and I dexcribed the dress to her and told her what was happening. She couldnt think of anything. Then I was like ... well people usually wear it with like a teal cardigan. She was like ohhhh I know exactly what you're talking about it's from downeast (?) apparently some mormon girl store or something I dont really know. Anyway peace has been restored to the kingdom or whatever. also I am weird

Cousin Matt played the Violin or Viola at the fireside last sunday. He was super awesome it was him one vocalist and one pianist and they were super awesome. I havnt had a chance to see him since but Im sure I will soon enough.

Sung bass in the choir again but we sang a song where the basses had to sing a little higher and they were all voice cracking and I was like finally some notes I can hit. hahaha Also the kid that gave the opening prayer in choir practice was asked where he was going before he prayed and he said Lyon France pronouncing it (Lay-On) I hope somebody reading this cringes as much as I did when that happend. It was pretty funny.

Rex D Pinegar spoke on tuesday at the fireside and I am pretty sure the opening prayer giver asked for a blessing on brother Vinegar. THe devotional was super good though he spoke about the divine nature of our mission calls. How they are true revelation from the quorum of the 12 and such. It was pretty touching to think about. Also we have been watching some conderence talks and that night we watched a Ronald Rasband really recent talk about the divinity of mission calls. I would encourage anyone that wants to to go watch it it is only 11 mins and it was super interesting. It meant alot more when I was thinking about my call in particular. Im not sure what they are yet but I know that there are reasons I was specifically called to Arkansas.

Another funny story. One of the members of our MTC branch presidency is pretty intense about obedience. He is an awesome guy but he is the one out of the three in the presidency who always talks about rules and being obedient. Hes a pretty old guy just to give you all the background for the story. He comes in to see us as we are getting ready for bed one night and we all kinda look at each other and are anticipating a short loving but firm talk about rules and something like make sure you get to bed on time or Make your bed or whatnot. But instead the second he wakls throuhg the door and he looks at us anf goes. "Got any cookies" we laughed sooo hard. We found him a couple oreos and a chocolate bar and sent him on his way. Maybe his wife is strict about what she lets him eat or something.

Got a letter from Ben Draut. There are only aproximately two people who might read this and know what I am talking about and one of them is Ben Draut. Either way that was an awesome day. Zac youre the man.

Paras I will send you a letter today hopefully. Stef I wrote you one and I just half to send it. And I have a bunch more to write today so if youre waiting on one it might be comeing soon.

I'll try and be a little more honest about the spanish this week. It really is going pretty well. I am at about where everyone else is in my district and we have quite a smart district. (like seriously smart people) I understand all of the grammer principles. I am not that great at applying them when speaking but it is coming along. I know that it'll pick up as I hear lots of it in the field. I am worried but not tooo much

Anyway spiritual thought for the week. This week I have been trying to ponder what it means to give your ALL it is actually quite complicated for a coupl reasons. First it is humanly impossible to be productive every second of every minute. I dont care who you are it cant be done. I have a supsicion that Katie and or alilson might be close. BUT I still think it is impossible. Reason two it is impossible to know which things would be most valuable at which time. But none the less, my time during the next two years is going to be incredibly valubable and I want to make the most of it that I can. So I have really been praying and reading to try and understand how I can more effective and more efficient and give more of myself. I dont want to have a single regret when I get home (kinda like lots of the teachers here tell us not to. But I am caught at trying to understand what I can do to be my best. This is really weird and probably makes no sense to anyone so far but here is the conclusion that I came to. Do really well. Then do a little better evey single day. WE cant be perfect we cant be flawless and give exactly 100 percent every second. But we can do something every single day to make ourselves better that we were the day before. So pick something. It doesnt matter if it is a big thing or a small thing and do that thing better than you did the day before. To quote like every general authority who was ever asked a question about deep doctrine " progression is an eternal concept" hahaha I dont really knwo if that is even relevant ... I think it is.

Love you all senf lots of mail

Elder Davidson