Week 27 What I Know

Hey guys thanks for all the emails this week. 

Talking on Christmas day was just awesome. Emailing is good and all, but seeing some familiar non- El Salvadorian faces was really nice. haha

So mom asked me to say my testimony while we were calling... Not wanting to talk in Spanish and not sure if I knew how in English I said no... but then I felt bad and so I thought I would share with you a little of my testimony today.

Before my mission I took for granted the testimonies missionaries had... Without ever giving it much thought, I observed that people generally left on their missions good, spiritual kids and came back spiritual giants. What I never really considered is just how much work it takes to grow that much spiritually. 

When I started my mission it was hard for me to bear testimony... (Ironically it was one of the few things I could do in Spanish) I've always believed the church was true, had faith that everything I was taught was true, but the idea of telling every single person I met that I KNOW this is true was hard for me. 

It took many nights on my knees, and one or two tears, but today I can honestly say that I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that God helps us, his children, when we are in need... Not necessarily when or how we want, but he always helps us. I know that Christ established the church, but the authority to govern that church and preform the ordinances therein were lost. I know that God restored that church with its accompanying authority through a 14 year old boy. A boy that like all of us made mistakes, but was humble enough to keep repenting and keep trying to bring forth this great truth regardless of persecution. I know that that boy, Joseph Smith, was a prophet of God. I know today Thomas S Monson is a prophet, seer and revelator. Most of all I know that Christ lives. He is my savior, my redeemer, and my brother. I know that through him I can return to live with my father in heaven again. He understands me completely, he knows my trials and afflictions because He suffered through them. I know that He is always here to help me if I but ask with faith and am willing to act based on the answers I recieve. 

I'm not done learning, my testimony is not complete, but it is something I love and am proud of. It wasn't easy for me to obtain, but I am working to strengthen it every day. 

I love how Elder Uchtdorf put it the last General conference, "Let us acknowledge that gaining a testimony is not a task of a minute, and hour, or a day. It is not once and done. The process of gaining spiritual light is the quest of a lifetime. Your testimony of the living God and his restored church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, may not come as quickly as you desire, but I promise you this: If you do your part it will come. And it will be glorious."

Thanks  for all of your love and support. I hope you all have a great new years!! Love Elder Davis

BTW that pic of me by a fire was me burning a tie at my 6 month mark... crazy how fast time flies!

Week 26 CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE

Holy cow, everyone was writing me about Christmas today... so crazy it doesn't even feel like Christmas time minus a few activities. haha Thanks so much for all the emails... sorry for my depression last week... it was hard but I'm over my pitty party. 

First off we had a Christmas party with the president and 5 other zones. It was huge and tons of fun!! I met up with my old comp and a few good friends here and we just played games, ate food and every zone gave a skit... Ours was the best.. we had everyone laughing and finished it up hardcore spiritual that made the President and all his family start to cry!! Super fun and awesome!!

I had a whole list of things to write about, but once again forgot my list... 

But things are better with my comp... it was really hard to start out, coming into a companionship like we did was just terrible. But Wednesday night my ward mission leader took my comp into his room and had a talk with him for about an hour... I don't know what they talked about but after that his entire demeaner changed. That night he asked me to give him a blessing... it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

President Ruben Clark said something along the lines of:  I know I'm talking with the spirit when I learn from what I have said.... I learned the truthfulness of that statement as I gave my companion a blessing. I have never felt words just pour into my mouth from the spirit like I did during the blessing. I learned so much about my comp during that blessing, so much about what we needed to do to get our companionship to work, and so much about the power of the spirit. It was such an amazing experience.

After that we have been doing so much better together... I'm not going to lie and say we are good friends or anything, but we have a love and respect for each other that  just wasn't there before. 

Today we had our Zone Christmas p-day. That was awesome! We played games and had a huge chicken and mashed potatoes feast! Super fun day... but the best part, we got permission to watch FROZEN!!! So much fun (fact: frozen songs are not near as good in Spanish) 

But yeah I'm doing good! Can't wait to call for Christmas! 

I love you all, 

Elder Davis

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

My old comp bought me a Beatles shirt for Christmas!! Super awesome... We loved to sing while walking in the street and he knew I loved them. haha

Merry Christmas from El Salvador San Salvador East Mission

Zones 7 & 8

Week 25 Life is Just Perfect

The subject isn't the truth.

We had changes.

I am upset. 

I am trying to stay positive.

I am failing at trying to stay positive.

To start out on a good note, thanks for all the emails. I have been pretty dang upset the past few days and you all just made me really happy, so thanks a ton!!! 

But yeah, I don't really know what else to write. Tuesday night we got the call that my companion was changing areas. Wednesday morning we were in the changes meaning sad... because we really are best friends and I love that guy a ton and we had such cool Christmas plans and we just understood each other and kinda kicked butt together but yeah... We were just praying for good new companions to have Christmas with.... I guess God had other plans. 

I'm in the same area with my new comp Elder Hernandez. He is just a great guy (sarcasm). Someone please pray for me, these next 6 weeks are going to be very difficult together.

But on a positive note this super family that we were teaching, but moved away, moved back!!! They are 2 parents with 4 kids!!  They are awesome and dirt poor and were in church this week and loved it and it was such a huge blessing to find them again.

But yeah, hopefully by next week I'll have more to write and things will be a little better.

Love you all.  Thanks so much for everything!!

Elder Davis

Pics... our frequent doctor trips last week put us in San Salvador a lot and we got permission to go to this huge mall there last p day! super cool and we got Cinnabon and it was awesome!

And my star wars socks are probably the coolest thing in the world!

Week 24 Happy Christmas Season!!

I just love Christmas season!!!! I find myself subconsiously planning appointments in this rich gated community (all the rich people live there, but the houses are about the size of our living room) just to see Christmas lights!! Our Christmas tree is full of ornaments and lights we bought, and the little tree mom sent me just cheers me up whenever we walk in the door!!!! How can you not love Christmas?? 

Also people are just nicer! We changed our street contacting to include Christmas things about the birth of the Savior, true meaning of Christmas, etc. and people still just lie to our face and give us fake directions and such, but they do it in a nicer way... Christmas just has an effect on people.  hahaha

This week was soooooo boring!! Monday night we were exhausted... we planned and then layed down to close our eyes for 5 minutes while our pila (sink thingy) was filling up with water so we could wash our clothes and dishes.... well  we both  fell asleep and 20 minutes later my comp woke up with a ton of water on the tile floor where our pila is. He ran in to turn off the water, slipped on the wet floor and fell face first onto the hard tile floor!! 

His face instantly started swelling and had this awful blue color.... We called the mission nurse (who is a moron) and she told him just to rest for a day and keep ice on it. The next day it was a ton worse (like the ugliest thing you have ever seen) and had a ton of blood in his eye... the nurse once again told him just to rest and put ice on it. Friday with nearly his entire eye full of blood we decided that the nurse was a moron and called the mission presidents wife. She sent him to the doctor the next day. After 2 hours walking around the capitol looking for the doctors office and having to run out of a hospital after being admitted (another hillarious but super long story) we found out that he had some serious thing and needed to be put on all this medication immediately and we are going back to the doctor again tomorrow. The mission president's wife found out and chewed out the mission nurse hard core and now all the elders love us because everyone knows the nurse is a moron and she finally got chewed out for it!!

So yeah, we didnt get to leave much and I was a little sad about that, days sitting around in the house are horrible! But we got to go out for a few hours Sunday, and we were just praying to find someone good so we could have a little success this week... and we both felt that we needed to go to the house of this lady who wasn't very positive when we visited her the first time and lives super far away, but we went for it...  After walking about 10 years we got there and met her kid and her husband and her grand kids and they are all awesome and we had a super spiritual lesson and laughed with them a ton and they want us to come back again ASAP to learn more about this Smith because it makes sense that people would receive revelation now like they did in the bible and gosh it was just such an awesome blessing to find them. 

There was a temple trip for investigators and recent converts Saturday. We didn't get to go because we were at the doctors, but a few investigators went and had great experiences. 

One of the pics is of brother Juan... Our recent convert who blessed the sacrament Sunday! He is super awesome and progressing so much... so greatful for that guy!! 

Ok, that's about it... 

Love you guys have a great day and thanks for all the emails!!

Elder Davis

week 23

So I did't get any turkey on Thanksgiving... Tuesday the member called and said she couldn't anymore... Then thursday came around and I forgot it was Thanksgiving until the next day everyone went into San Salvador for black Friday deals and I remembered that I had forgot Thanksgiving! 

But its ok, because Tuesday I had my own Christmas! I received letters and packages from September, October, and November!! It was so awesome.. .you guys are the best!! 

Um, don't really know what else... We bought ornaments for the Christmas tree we bought for our ward mission leaders house, so that was super cool... Now everyday I feel so full of Christmas spirit when I enter the house. haha

Changes are in a week and 2 days.. that should be exciting. 

Oh yeah we are going to do a Christmas gift exchange with the elders here and my ward mission leaders family.

Church was hillarious this week!! The 2nd counselor gave a talk for 15 minutes on the "international spirit" and how different countries can feel the different forms the spirit takes, and how blessed the word is because they can feel the "international spirit" with us elders all from 4 different countries.  hahaha The bishop finally whispered in his ear it was time to stop talking. hahaha

But yeah normal week... sorry don't really have anything for you. 

Love you guys

Elder Davis

Week 22

Hey guys thanks for all the emails... I think I figured out why I haven't got any of your letters or packages in 8 weeks... There is another Elder Davis in the mission and two elder Davids. I asked my Zone leader why it is taking so long and he said it was most likely for that... With a little luck I'll get some at the changes meeting on the 10th. 

No we don't celebrate Thanksgiving... it exists, but nobody does anything. But a sister who is going to live in the states next year is excited about it and wants to celebrate with an American so she invited us to a turkey dinner!!! Pretty pumped for that. 

We had a p day with the president... Played soccer for about 4 hours and I grew to like this guy quite a bit. He is super competitive and was yelling at his team when they didn't do something good and threatening to send people to San Miguel (the hottest place in El Salvador) if they didn't get their act together. hahaha His wife had to keep reminding him he was a mission president and shouldn't use certain words and it's just for fun and it was hillarious!!!

I had the flu this week... That sucked. Spent one day in the house, but I hate laying around all day so I just went for it the other days. I felt horrible but I'm feeling a lot better now. 

Contacting is so boring so we started making games out of it... My favorite is when my companion picks one random word and I have to use it with the next person we see in the street... Trying to work words like "soccer field" "chicken" and "tortilla" into contacts made it pretty fun hahaha.  Then we picked clearly super difficult people and made 50 cent bets on who could get them to agree to a lesson. haha Super fun! 

I got everyone in my ward Mission leaders house to go in on a Christmas tree with us! Us 4 elders and everyone there all pitched in 5 bucks and we bought a little tree!!! So that was awesome!

Life is pretty good, hard this week, but good.

Thanks for everything-- Elder Davis

P.S.   If you can send me some super sick quotes... Church quotes or just normal quotes... I feel very quote deprived these days. "Thanks yous very muches man" (as the latinos say) Elder Davis

Week 21 Hi

So this week was a ton better than last. Thanks for all your emails and support. The family of my friend are doing better... Still hard of course but thanks for all your prayers. 

This week was really good actually... Nothing at all went to plans, and the entire week was just thing after thing happening, I don't know why, but I was happy the entire week. 

The highlight was the baptisms to finish it off. We baptized Jeffrey from an inactive family we found (I'm pretty sure he is the doppleganger of Tyler Doman... they are exactly alike) and Mauricio.

Mauricio was a drunk crying on the street corner when a member went up to see if she could help him. She invited him to church and he came the next week. He has had the hardest life in the world... When we first met with him he was working for 3 dollars a day (12 hrs of work) living alone in this empty house with literally nothing... Not even a bed- he just slept on the tile floor. The minute he began to keep the commandments he began to receive a ton of blessings. I have never seen anything like it in my life.

The day after he decided to keep the WOW he found much better work... Then people began giving him things... a cool phone, dinners, one day we were sitting on his floor giving him a lesson and his neighbor knocked on the door asking if he wanted these 3 couches and cabinet that he didn't need anymore... It was crazy awesome seeing the Lord bless him so much!! Then 4 days before his baptism he relapsed after a bad day and God robbed him of all his blessings. He lost the work he had, his phone broke, none of his friends would talk to him... then he started keeping the commandments again about a week later and started getting a ton of blessings again. It was just crazy to see God give and take his blessings so clearly based on whether or not he is keeping the commandments. Now he has over a month without drinking and is happy and 100% different than the man we first met thanks to this gospel. He has strengthened my testimony so much!! 

But yeah life here is good.  Super hot-- thanks for everyone telling me about snow and stuff haha But good.

Love you, have a good week

Elder Davis 

Week 20 Hola

Hey guys thanks for all the emails again this week! Super awesome!

This week had its up and downs, but mostly downs.

Played risk for 4 hours Monday.. that was fun.

Our recent convert Juan is already in Alma in the BOM and is loving it! So that was awesome. Also gave him the priesthood last Sunday so that was super awesome!!

My Spanish is fine these days... what I'm worried about now is my English. We have an investigator who speaks English and I keep accidently changing into Spanish mid conversation.  Holy cow I hope I get a gringo companion the transfers before I come home, or I wont be able to talk to any of you. hahaha

But yeah a youth in our ward named Roberto died this week. His family is super poor and his dad asked him to look for work as well as school. The problem was the only work available was on the other side of town... so he went to school in one gangs territory, but worked in the other. They didn't like that and he went missing Thursday and found his body Friday. Super horrible. He was the most chill kid in our ward. Most of the youth here end up getting caught up in drugs or gangs or partying and things like that, except him. He was at church every Sunday early, the only one to prepare the sacrament, always was trying to help the other youth stay on the right track, and super eager to go on his mission. He was such a good friend to me! Especially the first few weeks when I couldn't understand anyone and life was really hard, he would always joke with me and cheer me up...Super terrible and hard week. Just glad we know about the plan of salvation and where he is right now.

So yeah, tough week but next week should be better. Just focusing on the work and trying not to get down.

Love you all,

Elder Davis

Week 19 Another week

So this week was like the hangover after the super crazy, fun, and fast moving last week. We had to drop about half of our investigators for not keeping commitments and not progressing so that sucked. We tried every day this week to find new people but didn't get very far. Pretty dang tough... but not all bad. 

We didn't have changes so we were really happy about that!

My comp has a chess set and we started playing a game every night before bed... super fun because we are always insulting each other all day calling each other dumb and stuff (just jokingly- he really is awesome and it's just fun to make fun of each other) and now we finally have a way to determine who is smarter. hahaha 

Last p day we found out that this volcano is within our cities limits and got permission to go with this super awesome inactive guy who has a cousin with a car! Half way up the road the car started to jerk pretty bad... he just slowed down and kept going and then the jerking got really bad and smoke started to come out of the hood. He pulled the emergency break and we all bailed as fast as we could! He grabbed the fire extinguisher he had on the dashboard (now that i think about it- entering a car that carries a fire extinguisher on the dashboard was probably stupid haha) and tried to put out the fire in the engine... but the extinguisher didn't work so we sprinted to the side of the road, grabbed handfuls of dirt and were able to put it out pretty quickly with that. hahaha

In the end we never got to see the volcano and ended up hitchhiking our way back into town... but  it was an awesome adventure.

Halloween we did nothing different.  The church of Toby (ex Mormon who served a mission in Guatemala, was bishop then stake president, but then got excommunicated for stealing tons of tithing money and went and became a leader of this other church  and now is one of the richest most powerful men in El Salvador who half the country practically worships) had a party in the park. But other than that, it was normal... Day of the dead was a little bigger. Everyone went to the graveyards to put flowers on the graves of their family members, but we just kinda walked around all day having nobody to visit because they were all at the cemetery. 

Overall I'm doing good! Thanks for all the emails and support

Love, Elder Davis

Week 18 Great Week

Ok so this week started out hard core pro.  We went to probably the worlds biggest thrift store (2 stories about Walmart size) and I found Settlers of Catan brand new for 1 dollar!!! So we played that a few times this week for family nights with people! Super fun and awesome.... This week was incredibly crazy.  We had plans for 3 baptisms but every one of them had their own trials in preparation! In the end they all were baptized and it was awesome.  A little about each one...

Juan- he is 50 something and we found him in the house of this inactive family. He told us he wasn’t going to accept our invitation to return and share more with him, but he felt something that made him agree. When he watched general conference he felt the spirit super strong and knew he wanted to be baptized! Since we started visiting him, he changed from a really hard ex-military man to a spiritual giant... Super Awesome

Michelle- Michelle is 11 years old and is part of an  inactive family. We are the 4th set of missionaries to visit her and her family. Instead of starting out by teaching her, we chose to buy these candies with jokes and just eat candy and share stupid laffy taffy type jokes for an hour with the family. Then we spent 2 or 3 lessons just getting to know her and trying to get her to open up.  In the end she opened up 100%, told us all her doubts and we were able to baptize her and re-activate all of her family!

Glenda- Glenda is the GF of a member and was pretty much the ideal investigator... She read the BOM every night for about 1 week and a half and knew it was true and agreed to get baptized. Her problem was that her family are hard core evangelicos and hate those Joseph Smith worshipers.  Hahaha Holy cow it was impossible to get that signature to get her baptized. (She is only 17) but finally worked it out and came in clutch 3 hours before the baptismal service. hahaha

Gabriel- Not actually our baptism (the other elders in our ward) but a really good friend of mine. He showed up with a friend to general conference and felt the spirit. He turned his life 100% around from drugs and parties to going to mission prep classes every Sunday and eagerly awaiting to finish school and submit his papers!

On top of baptisms we saw a cat fall off a 2 story building and die- that was kinda amusing (the cats here are uglier than the dogs) and the owner of our house and 3 of his drunk friends tried to break in last night for about 2 hours to get the sex movies they knew we were hiding under our beds.  hahaha Super funny as we moved desks and chairs to barricade the doors. hahahaha Overall amazing week!!

(check out Harrison's shoes..... hahaha)

The pinata one is from the ward activity we put on this week... the bishop hates activities because "People need to come to church because they have faith not because we have fun activities",  but we finally convinced him to let us plan one. (he even gave us  $20 dollars from the ward to do it.  hahaha)... Super fun- it was a movie night with popcorn and soda and a pinata for the kids... everyone had a blast!

Week 17 Life is Good

To start off yeah I am alive... That earthquake was awesome. I was singing "Don’t Take the Girl" at the top of my lungs as it started and afterwards my companion told me the earth is begging me to stop singing. hahaha

I can’t believe Emily is pregnant again! How exciting.

I can’t believe the Giants are in the world series... I’m a little upset.  If they win don’t tell me.

Everything is great here.  We are working hard and finding success! I crossed my first river up to my belt to get to an appointment! It has been raining a ton and this street turned into a river... we had 3 appointments on the other side though so we went for it... haha

I’m trying to learn soccer. That’s what they should teach in the MTC if you are going to a country like this because soccer is life! All the kids only play soccer, only watch soccer, only talk about soccer... and I am horrible, but getting better.

I really am having good time here. I do not want changes next Wednesday! Me and my comp just think the same and are able to work really well together and are doing better every day. On top of that there are investigators here who I want to see baptized who are super awesome and I want to keep working with!

So just so you guys know, I am no different. I still procrastinate and come in clutch... last night we were counting our numbers and realized we had practically no new references for next week. So with numbers due at 9:30 starting at 9:10, we called all the ward leaders, our best investigators, and half explained half guilted them into giving us references and ended up with more this week then we have ever had.  hahaha

What else, I am the go to guy if you need help with homework here for math or English... that’s always fun! Yeah that’s pretty much it.. Thanks for all the emails this week!

Love, Elder Davis

Pics:  I got a little sunburned playing soccer on p-day... and we use top of the line computers here!

 I have a collection of pics I call "All the things mom never thought I would do on my own"  - pay bills, wash clothes, iron, wash dishes, clean the house, sew, make my bed, write in a journal, write letters home, etc. hahaha

Week 16 Life's Good

Yeah life is really good here... I'm feeling 100% again and all is good.
This week was pretty dang busy, started out with us going to immigration's to get my comps visa updated... We met a lawyer in the mission office and holy cow, I always thought I would be bored out of my mind being an office missionary, but they have the life! A fridge full of food and drinks, air conditioning, cold drinkable water.... I wont be to disappointed if I get called to work there at some point in my mission. And in the office I got a package from Nicole! and various letters! (does anyone have Morgans email address?? she sent me a letter and I want to say thanks but don’t know her info--thanks)

But yeah... then we rode with the Lawyer in his TOYOTA YARIS!!! I felt so at home.  Hahaha Is Addison still driving it around?? hahaha

But yeah while in San Salvador we stopped at Salvador del Mundo... A big statue thing (see pics) and that was cool because I guess it’s a pretty famous site here.

A few days ago, a drunk, completely naked man raced us to our house trying to get in! Super hilarious.  We barley got the door open in time to jump in the house and slam the door before he got in.  hahaha

Hey random side note-- Can someone send me the lyrics to the song pippin sings in LOTR3 when Denethor sends farimire back to try and re-claim the river??? That song has been on the tip of my tongue all week but I cant remember the lyrics and it is driving me insane! Thanks

Another day we had interviews with President Vasquez... He is super awesome and that was way cool.  He actually is going to have p-day with our zone today... I’m pretty excited.

Oh yeah the most exciting part of the week was yesterday. So we were in a lesson with this super awesome family we found. Just chilling in this ghetto gated community with the door open when 5 trucks with military and police (the military was brought into our town like 3 weeks ago to help the police with the gang problems) pull up with a ton of men all jumping out of the trucks with these intense masks on and their weapons all drawn! A few of them climbed pillars at the front of the community and started scoping out the area with there snipers, others broke off in groups of 4 or 5 into every small street... Then a few more trucks came up and the military created a barrier so nobody could leave the community without going through this super small passage passing by like 20 of them! We closed the door and hid out for about 45 minutes, but finally when we still didn’t hear gunfire we decided it was ok to leave because we had another appointment that was important, and God would protect us hahaha.  The military let us leave after we convinced them we really were just missionaries... super exciting!  Hahaha

But yeah life is really good!  My comp and I are doing good together! Teaching a ton and being successful!

Love you guys,
Elder Davis

Week 15

(kind of a short one this week.... but short is better than nothing!!)

So I got a ton of emails this week and letters! Thanks so much for all of that.  I love hearing about what is happening back home!

I loved conference obviously! I went into it in a pretty bad mood (just a little mad at an investigator who was supposed to meet us before the conference at 9 but didn’t show up until 10:15 so we missed the first part Sunday) but then conference totally turned me around and it was awesome clearly!

I was able to watch in English until the priesthood session when a lightning storm got in the way of the satellite broadcast so we streamed it via internet but only had one computer so it had to be in Spanish. The talks in other languages were so cool (well the Spanish ones). I personally hate the voices of translators, but the Spanish ones were really cool for the people here who felt a lot more connected to the apostles in their native language!

Yeah not much new... hiked to the waterfall again last p'day. That was fun.

Me and my comp are getting pretty good at teaching together and lessons and investigators are improving.

Love,
Elder Davis

Trip to the falls 

and Nicole who is the only family member I have a picture hanging up of because I found it while reading an old Ensign. hahaha

Week 14 Temple & Death

So yeah this week we had the chance to go to the temple!! (See pics below) The temple here is super awesome! I just love the temple.  You can just go there and for an hour or so just forget about everything and feel peaceful with the spirit.
What else... my Spanish is getting a lot better, I think. I mean we only had time for language study once this week, but having a Latino companion has increased my confidence level a ton!
The last 3 days I have been super sick! Like huge fever and the biggest non stop migraine for 3 days. When our ward mission leader saw me, apparently I looked pretty bad because he sent us home and told me I’m not allowed to leave for at least 2 days (SAT, SUN) We had investigators coming to church though so I went anyways and wanted to chop off my head. I have downed so many Advils it is not even funny, but they did nothing... so I moved up to the 750mg Tilux things... They did nothing as well... Basically all Sunday I laid in bed in the worst pain of my life. So that was fun! But I feel better now- just a normal headache.
But yeah that’s what is going down with me...

With all my missionary wisdom, my advice this week is to: 1) read your patriarchal blessings before conference... Mine has helped me a ton
2) think of questions you need answers to, pray, and go into conference looking for the answers!
Love you all and thanks for the support.
Elder Davis

Week 13 Cambios!!

Hey guys as always thanks for all the emails and support! Really helps a ton!

So this week has been freaking insane! We got the call Tuesday night just after 10pm that my companion- Trainer was changing areas and we needed to be at the changes meeting 2 hours away at 9 in the morning. So we were both kinda scrambling all over the house until 4 am packing his stuff, updating the area book, making sure I knew all the investigators, where they lived and what lessons they needed next. It was crazy but kinda fun and nerve racking.

I didn’t think I was ready to take over the area! I barley speak Spanish! But yeah I got my new comp.. .Elder Gomez... He is a Latino from Costa Rica (does not speak english). He is super awesome and sees things a lot how I see them. I thought the language barrier would be harder with a Latino comp, but we are still getting stuff done and having tons of fun. We find ourselves busting up laughing all the time and it is just awesome! I am able to make all the plans and think I’m doing a pretty good job with my area, but only time will tell if I can actually manage understanding these ridiculous directions people tell us, plan every night, remember all the investigators, their needs and when we can visit them and where they live, all the less actives all the members and Spanish!

Overall super exciting!

A super cool quote I heard this week is "you always have to pass through the wilderness to get to the promised land" so true. I can honestly say that some days are just hard, but they normally turn out to be the ones I learn most from.

Other random stories-- We were walking home the other night when all the power went off. We couldn’t see 3 feet in front of us, and were just kinda inching our way trying to find our way home. All of a sudden there is a flash of lightening and we can see a whole group of people up the street about 10 yards ahead of us. Then we hear a freaking machete being drawn and sparks start fling from near where the group of people was. Another flash of lightning and we see everyone running and some people are screaming along with some wacked out looking guy swinging a machete wildly in our direction!! Super crazy and I have never run so fast in my life! When we finally were safe behind our locked door, we just started busting up at the fact that only in El Salvador would some guy with a machete be chasing down 2 missionaries during a power outage... super freaky during, but hilarious after.  hahaha

But yeah all is well here, learning and teaching pretty much describes my life. Hope you all are doing great!

Love
Elder Davis