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 :)