One Month!

Ok so I try not to be a name dropper one upper type of person who always has to have the best stories but this week I win. Jenny Oaks Baker came and gave the sunday night fireseide. She would speak about a spiritual experience in her life and then play something on the violin. I was like 20 yards away from her and it was unreal. I feel like I know a little bit about the violin I played for like 12 years and I have gotta say. She is soooo good. Like I cant think of anybody I've seen play that well. And though I don't consider myself particularly well versed in classical violinists that should still mean something. She also had her four kids play a song together. One violin one cello one piano and her five year old son who is a major stud played classical guitar. We suspect he may have been randomly plucking but he was definietely the best part.

Also! for tuesday devotional Vaughn J Featherstone came and spoke. I didn't really know the name but apparently he's kind of a pretty big deal. President Brown (MTC pres) got pretty emotional when he was introducing him and our branch president echoed the sentiment. He was a really big deal for people of that generation. He gave 60 min of talk in 30 min all from memory (the teleprompters werent out) and he was reciting quotes and poems the whole time. He talked about being bold, personal revelation, working hard ... just a ton of different things. It was super tight.

Also somehow my whole district decided to sing in the choir this week for devotional. Also turns out they all think they're bases ... So I was in the bass section singing this is the christ. I basically just mouthed the words the whole time in case the cameras decided to show me on the screen. (thankdully they didnt) Just so you all know what I am alluding to, I am definietely not a bass.

Jarod Maynes came in yesterday. It was super good to see him. They made Elder Folsom our new district leader. And lets take a second and think about how it has already been a month. What in the roy at the holliday inn is that! Where did the time go. I was just home. I don't understand how time can go this fast. I am going to be home probably by the time i finish writing this email. Anyways, now that I got that off my chest.

My language is improving. I can go into a lesson now without anything written down and say some spanish words that mean stuff and pray really hard the investigator feels the spirit and it like almost works out. Haha It's better than than being an akward silent missionary who can't say anything that's for sure.

You can all stop sending food packages I have enought to skip every meal and not ever be hungry in the next five weeks. I am not even kidding. I have a whole bag of oreos a ton of cookies an untouched entire pan of brownies. Like a half dozen large bags of candy. It takes up a whole droor in my desk (and that is without to pan of brownies) apparently you all got really excited and loving when I suggested I gain some weight. I now understand how you all feel about that issue.

Somebody tell alsion to write me something. She has sent one dear elder in the past four weeks and she didnt even react to the APU jab from last week.

I was doing some online spanish trainng this week and the question it asked was what is something Christ would say in the scriptures and I had to pick from a bunch of words and make sentences. I couldnt figure it out and it turns out the answer was "No dudes" I sat there blankly not being sure weather to laugh or not for a couple minutes. It turns out that means dont have doubts in spanish ... who knew?!

There is lots of funny spanish stuff like that. We tried to translate the prase "lets bounce" into spanish so we could say that when we went places. It came out to be botemenoce or someting in that general vevinity. We said for a couple days then one of our teachers told us that more likely would be interpreted as lets throw ourselves in the trash ... we are kinda dumb

Anyways, Im trying to think of a good spiritual experience to share. There was one point this week where I was just sitting in class listening to the teacher talk about something random and the spirit hit me hard and the phrase that came to my head was "I would not be here right now, If I didn't KNOW that this is true" There are lots of other things that i could be doing with my life right now. Im no dummy. But because I know with all my heart that this is gods truth on the earth there is not a single thing more important I could be doing. I don't think I could ever understand how bad I need this mission and all the things it is giong to do for me. Its miraculous how little our beloved father in heaven asks of us for so much in return. I also have developed a speacial spiritual connection with the words " I testify " I think those are some of the most powerful words in all of spoken language. For whatever reason when those words are used I feel the spirit really strongly. I cant wait to testify to real people with real problems that I know the answer to any and every problem lies with in living the truths of the gospel of jesus chirst. The adversary is real and he he is smart and he has been around the block a few times. I testify that the atonement of Jesus Christ is the answer. I learn that more and more every day here. Im glad they dont send us straight to the field because I am learning so many importnat things here.

I love you all dearly,

Elder Davidson

Week Tres

Ok so things here aren't very different week to week. It turns out the schedule is actually exactly the same. This last week however was still awesome. First of all I continued my move fireworks streak this week by getting to babysit one of the sick elders in our district for an afternoon and taking a 2 hour nap. It would appear I cannot be tamed. The devotional this week was super tight. It was another emieritus 70 and he talked about tons of different stuff. I think he said his topic was words he did some lingual things and such but at one point he quoted somebody and what he said was this. "Any excuse NO MATTER HOW VAILD, will weaken the character of a person" so quit making excuses ya turkeys! haha I am just kidding but it really hit me. I set a new goal for all of eternity to never make an excuse for anything ever. Odds are I may fall short of this goal but I am anticipating positive results none the less. I met an elder from manitoba this week. That's the end of that story. haha I also managed to get ahold of a full size unopend jar of canadian (kraft) peanuty butter. Somebody left it hiding in a room fior some elders and they didnt use it and now it's mine. Its only exprired by a couple weeks and I dont really know what I will do with it but it reminds me of home. I was super excited to hear collin hit a triple. I was thinking about you. Clara's letter was sooo cute. (the one in the package) dear jorgen hear are some treats for him, i went swimming, I had a party, I do love jesus, love clara. It was a hit all over my floor. I sent you an SD card and a dear elder coupon HEED so hopefully it gets there with everything in order and you can all see some pictures soon. I see tons of people I know still. Nick (from spokane) came in on wednesday and it was soooo nice to see him. Jarod comes in in a week. I see clarky J all over the place life is rather delightful that way. The eat as much as you can plan is not really working very well....,. I just think I am too smart deep down inside myself to do such a horrible thing.

It happened ... they took our hermanas from us. Here is a list of things that happend as a result. Nobody wears their shoes anymore and flactulance. It is mas o menos unfortunate. Theres three of the seven spanish words I have learned in a single sentence. (impressive I know). The lanuguage actually isnt too bad. I can sort of communicate things without reading off a paper. I try to write sentences down less and less as I teach so that I rely more on learning to actually speak the language. our treacher also recommended learning spanish and not trying to learn to translate from english so I am also working on that. Alsion didn't write me this week. I heard there were some work issues but cumon is the fate of commercial air travel really more important than me. Dont answer that question I think I have a pretty good guess at what the answer is. How important are APU's anyways I have a feeling they wouldnt be necessary if everybody owend a pair of night vision goggles and a clip on fan. (all they do is power lights and air right?)

Anyways I guess I can share some things I have learned this week. some of them, granted, are things I knew or sort of knew and had reaffirmed. My heavenly father hears my prayers. He is closer than I think we really can understand. I had some pretty specific and sincere prayers answered this week. Even when they were about trivial and unimportant things. I think heavenly father has a pretty hard job. He loves us so fully and completely and desires sooo much to pour out blessings beyond our understanding upon us and we are down here running around shooting ourselves in the foot all day. And despite that he is still incredibly mercifull patient and loving. My finite mind is unable to comprehend character that flawless. Lesson two I learned. Don't pray for things unless you are 100% commited to acting on whatever answer you get. That is such a hard concept. Its called faith. If you want an answer to your problems but you dont want His answer you'll probably end up with no anwer. Last thought: The gospel is so true it's kind of rediculous. That's the easy part here is the hard part - the implications of that. There will come a time (this is a quote but from whom I know not) when everyone will know the truth. And they will also know that you knew the truth. So open your mouth and have no regrets. But here is the catch I am as much agains shoving religion down peoples throats as the next guy but you dont have to be obnoxious about it just be brave enough so that others know where you stand and who you are. Never shy away from an opportunity to let others know who you are and what you know. I made wear the savior's name on my nametag for the next two years but I hope to ALWAYS carry his name in my heart. I hope you all feel the same way.

I love you all more than I could ever hope to express in an email

Elder D

July 5th

This week was a little more tame. It hardly feels like any time has passed since the last time I wrote you guys but somehow its been a whole week. A bunch of elders in my zone went into the field this week it was sad to lose them. It really doesnt take long to grow close to people here. I have like a billion teachers. One of my teachers (I have 2 permenant ones) came back from his honeymoon and has started teaching us. His name is warrburton and hes pretty awesome. While he was gone we had like 2 or three subs. They are all awesome but many of them are quite different from each other. Wadsworth is the one I have had since the first day and he is one of my permanent teachers. He is basically my favorite person in the whole world. I think if he knew how much I liked him he'd be kind of weirded out. We decided [me and elder Folsom (the other one who went to BYU) that we are going to write letters to girls we know at BYU and set him up because he isn't dating anyone and hes pretty much the man] We will see how that pans out. I am learning lots of spanish. The french gets pretty jumbled and I catch myself saying things in french frequently. Its mosty during lessons and its mostly only smaller linking words but I dont know if our investigators think Im a weirdo or I am just making things up. Who knows. Aunt gail sent me a cake in the mail hahaha She's the best!!! It was in a package with some other things. I cut it up and served it before everyone went to be on Canada day. I made everyone everyone who had some say Happy Canada Day. That inspired a good number of semi-obnoxious comments. But you know. Rep the red and white - its what I do. Quote of the week that popped into my head was the best way I can explain trying to teach an investigator in a language you dont really speak. "It's like taking a fish out of the ocean, laying it on the beach, and then being like, dude, act natural" It just feels weird. Tuesday devo was an asian emeritus 70 Kikuchi I think his name was. He was a good speaker. He spoke about obedience ( shocking topic I know!) hahaha. I think I am learning to find my own definition of exact obedience. I really try do everything and keep every rule but I think the key for me is having "an eye single to the glory of god" if you are focused on the right things then you will act in a way that is pleasing to the lord and you dont have to walk around one eye on where you're going and the other in your white handbook all the time. Don't get me wrong I keep every rule but the attitude you do it with is what is more important I think. I dont know if that really makes sense. My roommates and I (it may have been my idea) contemplated the possibilty of having a competition to see who could get punched in the face the fastest by walking around and quoting the rule book at people. That probably wont actually happen.

The fourth of july was a pretty unusual day. or evening at least. We got to have a patriotic little fireside late an night like started at 8:30 or something like that. They celebrated religious freedom and also the USA. They worked hard to make people from all countries feel comfortable. They even let us be pretty rowdy if you can believe that. Then we all went outside got magnum ice cream bars and got to watch a ton of fireworks. till like 11 somehitng. First week a movie second week fireworks GET AT ME. haha just kidding.

Our hermanas are leaving in a week they are all going to guatamala. I may have talked aobut this last week. It is going to be kind of depressing when they leave and I say that because of how the social dynamic will change when it goes from a room of girls and boys to a room of all boys. I legitimately think we'll lose a some of the spirit of our classroom. THe hermanas always make really good comments, they're spiritual rocks.

I have decided I am going to try and gain as much weight as I can while I am here. I am going to start eating more and whatever happens as a result will happen. Maybe Ill grow an inch. Maybe I will gain 10 pounds. Maybe I will just get gassy and nothing else will happen. So if amybody wants to send me some food so I can eat right before I go to sleep It will help definietely help the cause. other than that keep the dear elders flowing I can not even hope to express how much they mean to me I love you all soooo much and miss you tons. They are directly proportinal to my happiness. I do feel bad some times because there are some people who dont get much mail.

Ok im running low on time closing thought. This week the thing that I have really learned is that the Book of Mormon can answer any question you have. I have started praying and asking my father in heaven to give me answers to pretty specific questions as I study. Without fail I recieve an answer every time. It is pretty unbelieveable how specific they are too. I feel so blessed that in what I like to call the (if , then gospel) the lord always keeps his (then) part of the deal. I dont know if you followed that thought process. I love the work here. Its hard as ding dang anything I have ever done but I know it will be worth it. It is worth it every day I can see that in the little things. I love you all and miss you tons.

102 weeks til I can come home and get married WOOOOOOOO

haha jk Love Elder Davidson

First MTC Letter

Hola eveybody!

Let me first say I miss you all like crazy. My pdays are on thursday so I went 8 days without one. But now theyll be every thursday from now on. The first day was crazy! Flying went fine but i am kind of a dummy and didnt eat anything (first meal of the day dinner on utah time). Got to the airport and there were missionaries all over the place coming in. Drove down in the shuttle with two elders and an hermana. She's actually in my district randomly enough. As soon as i steped out of the shuttle they grabbed me and my bags and asked a bunch of questions. I had to fight em off just to pay the shuttle driver. Then i got a host who ended up being Elder Quinn a guy from my ward at BYU who showed me around a little and got me my books took me to my teacher etc. He had lots of good advice and gave me a good idea of what I was in for and it was super awesome to see a familiar face. My teacher's name is Brother Wadsworth or maestro wadsworth. He is absolutely the man! I love him soooo much. He spoke all spanish for the first two whole days. I could sort of understand what he was saying but I still felt pretty lost most of the time. I was the first one there so I got to be with him by myself for a little. Then everyone eslse trickledd in and We did some simple spanish exercises. I got my Comp, his name is elder Christiansen, hes from sandy. we are a similar height he's a little thicker than me but not by a ton. Hes a golfer he went to brighton high school. We were both a little quiet at first but we've gotten pretty close in only a week. He's a good guy. hes going to Atlanta Ga there are 5 guys in my district going to mcallen and one guy going to calgary hahaha. Our four hermanas are going to guatemala in 3 weeks to that MTC one is serving in guatamala and the other three in panama. Our disctric is super awesome. Everybody gets along. In my residence it's me elder C my comp and elders Folsom and Bawden. *(Both going to texico). We have tons of fun but work hard as well. Folsom went to BYU and we get along really well. We have similar senses of humor. Bawden was in a ton of articles in like church news and KSL and other stuff because his best friend is handicapped and he ran track in high schiool pushing his friend with palsy's wheelchair. Man I am reunning out of time fast. You may have seen those articles or yiou could prolly find em. they also did St george marathon together. (when alie ran it) BTW alie is the only person who didnt dear elder me yet and this public acknowledgement is her punishment. Paras and Stef both dear eldered me too which was nice.

The first week has been nuts. We have taught four lessons in spanish to "nicolas" our investigator. The first one was bad it was friday and I just wrote stuff down and read it to him haha. But they get better every day. The fourth was our last and He gave us some english feedback afterwards. He said he was amazed at our progress and he couldnt even believe our fourth lesson was as good as it was. That felt nice. I study spanish all day. interspersed with personal study. fireseides devotionals. etc etc. We have heard from L tom parry ( i was in the overflow grrrr) there was 10 apostles there when he spoke because it was mission president weekend. Speaking of which I got paged down to see uncle Brian it was super nice of them. Got a good picture with both of them. They also played a movie for us ?????!!?!?!?!?!???!???!!!??!? the other side of heaven. because the mission presidents were taking over and they needed to do somehitng with us.

I see tons of people I know I see clarky J a bunch and Makade and lots of others. I got to spend like an hour and a half with clark waitining to get into a fireside,. Which was nice because our schedules are super different.

Ok five minutes left. I love you all sooooo much. Like I dont even think you can undertand but I know you all feel the same way. The church is true ladies and gentlemen. I feel the spirit stronger than I ever have. I am really trying to focus on growing closer to my saviour. He means absolutely everything to me. I love reading my scriptures I get bored or distracted surprisingly infrequently. I am soooo happy here. Dont get me wrong its really hard but I know that I am in the right place doing the rihgt thing. The book of mormon is the word of God it has a uncanny and unmatched ability to teach people the trutha about the savior and many other eternal truthes. 2 min!!! ummm ..,. ahh send me more letters haha I love them. Im going to start planning my letters better this is pretty scattered. I pray a lot here because I need it pretty bad. man I want to say soo much more. Im really not that good at the language but I am trynig hard. I know it will come. I can feel the spirit helping me. This will be one of the most experiences of my life and I can feel that in the first week already.

Love you all and my time is up!