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