Week 38 Rain, rain let it pour

The glorious season of rain has started again... walking from lesson to lesson completely soaked is so much better (at least for right now... I'm sure i'll get over it) then walking from lesson to lesson in the miserable heat and humidity!!

Today we had a great day... I talked to almost every single person I saw in the street. The majority didn't listen, but we found some really good people and have got our area flying again. 

Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about gaining a personal testimony of the gospel. I talked about how we need to know the gospel is true, not important what the bishop or the leaders do wrong,  if we really have personal testimonies. 

Part of the missionary purpose is inviting people to repent... I took that pretty seriously this week and invited pretty much all of Quezaltepeque to repent. At first it felt really direct and rude, but it ended up helping us a ton because these people have very little education and just telling them directly works out a lot better. 

But yeah, we are working really hard and finding success. Happy and exhausted as usual. 

Love, 

Elder Davis

Week 37 Go Big or Go Home

So we didn't have changes... Everyone in my ward thinks I'm going to start and end my mission in Quezaltepeque .... I'm not going to lie- I was pretty disappointed, this area is one of the smaller ones in the mission and I feel like I know everyone. I stopped a guy in the street to try and contact him and he told me I had talked to him 4 times already. hahaha

So yeah I was pretty down, then I flipped open my scriptures Wednesday morning and saw a quote that dad had sent me a few weeks ago, that I had written in a margin, "Good is not good when better is expected"- The great Vin Scully

Holy cow it got me thinking... I think I've been a pretty good missionary... I work hard and am obedient and have had a little success, but is that good enough?? I don't want to be a good missionary, I want to be the best missionary (still haven't lost my competitiveness  I guess) 

Then Wednesday I got a package with books in it from mom... I flipped open the first one that night and it was the Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball.... In the first few chapters I read, "Many people die with their music still in them. Why is that so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out." Oliver Vendell Holmes

and then a little later in the book, "Waste is unjustifiable, and especially the waste of time--Limited as that commodity is in our days of probation, one must LIVE, not only EXIST, he must DO, not merely BE, he must grow, not just vegetate" Spencer W. Kimball

and then I received the ultimate machete (not sure if we say that in English or not) "The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands up to his full stature" Arnold Bennet

Holy cow I was into some pretty deep self reflection this week... I had been telling myself I had done all I could here, I just needed to wait to get to a new area and then I would start going at it with everything I had again. I was so wrong. The Lord left me in this area because My work here is not yet finished. When (if ever) I have changes I want to leave this area knowing I did everything within my power to bring these people to the truth.

So yeah, basically I am  more motivated than ever, have the goal of being the best missionary in the world (still got a long ways to go) and in love with anything and everything written by Spencer W Kimball. 

Hope you all have a great week. I love you! Thanks for all the support you send me every week. 

Love Elder Davis

Week 36 Another Great Week

This week was tough... Running in every direction, trying to re-build our investigator pool that has been sinking fast... but in the end it was AWESOME. 

Our zone led the mission in baptisms again and so president gave us permission to go to the temple!!  So our Zl,s called the temple to set an appointment, but we learned tomorrow it is going to close. So at 10:45 Thursday night we called all over the place trying to rent a bus to get us there and then had to wake up super early to make the trip but it was so worth it!! Holy cow I learned so much, and felt the spirit strong... If you ever need a testimony boost just go to the temple... I'm  convinced that nobody could sit there and not realize the church is true!

Then Saturday was crazy, running all over the place but awesome, and Sunday was elections day!!! There has been a ton of political stuff the last 3 weeks. The entire city is decked out with flags from the political parties and it all went crazy on election day!! Getting people to church was tough... they have always only had sacrament meeting on election day, but this year the president of area said he wanted us to have all 3 meetings... but in the end we had a pretty good attendance:)

Changes are Wednesday... the word on the street is I'm going to have a new area, but my friend in the office went home last change and I don't have many reliable sources to get an early glimpse this change:( Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. 

Everything is going good, except our gringo soccer team finally lost.. .the Latinos put together the best all star team they could and won:( but we had a good run at least. 

I'm doing good, happy and working hard (its funny how the two things are dependent on each other)

Love Elder Davis

Week 35

I have no idea what pictures I've sent home and what I haven't so I'm just sending a few random ones...

I really have no idea what to write... the work is going really well, we are being blessed with quite a bit of success. 

Yesterday I had a long talk with the bishop to try and settle our differences... it didn't really work and in the end he pretty much just told me he is going to wait until me and my companion have changes to help with the missionary work. But you know it happens, I guess I've never really been the easiest to agree with... but I don't think I'll be here much longer and maybe its for the best. 

I had an interview with President Vasquez last Monday that was just awesome... Holy cow I learned so much and we just talked for well over an hour and he showed me all the statistics for the mission, what areas and companionships were doing the best, my success training compared to the other trainers... goals he has for me... Planned an activity for my ward that he is going to come out one day and help with... A bunch of stuff I don't know, but it was just really awesome. I love President and Hermana Vasquez, and know that they are inspired people. 

I got 2 super awesome goals when we played soccer today... The latinos are really mad that our gingo team keeps winning and keep trying to form "all star teams" to try and beat us and it is really funny because they have played their entire lives and we have no idea what we are doing. haha

I'm happy working hard. I've been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon the last few days... Just want to say that the strippling warriors are so awesome. haha

Love you guys, 

Elder Davis

(I am assuming these are the "sack lunches" they made last week....)

Week 34

This week was full of trips to San Salvador, meetings, and other crazy stuff. 

Things that have passed this week:

--I took tons of pictures this week to send, but then forgot to bring my camera because we were running out of the house this morning!! 

--us Gringos bought USA soccer Jerseys that are super cool and killed the Latinos in soccer. 

--Had a p-day lunch where everyone cooked a classic meal from their country for everyone to try (Me and Elder Edwards made the classic pb and j sack lunch, but they didn't sell brown lunch sacks so we put them in trash bags) 

--After a meeting we had with the president, he invited 12 of us to Taco Bell!!!! I have been craving TACO BELL for so long!!! I ate so much and it was amazing!!

--In our noche de Barrio this week, we brought 8 investigators and 5 inactives! It was awesome and super good!! 

--In sacrament meeting the attendance was 126!! Best attendance the ward has ever had!!

** One of our recent converts (Hno Juan) was interviewed for an article about the different religions in El Salvador. He should be quoted a bunch in the article that will come out next month (Hope I can get my hands on one) and already finished the BOM

-- We got got 45% of our area closed, but the whole area wasn't closed so that's good haha

I'm doing good, but need to run to get an interview with the president. 

Love you guys have a great week.. 

Elder Davis

week 33 Happy Days

The life is good.  Thanks so much for all the emails this week!

So this week was pretty uneventful, then Friday I got Addison's wedding invitation delivered... as I start reading it I realized the sealing session was at 10:00 am... it was 10:00 California time and I realized I was reading the letter when all of you were in the session!!! Ok, maybe its not that cool, but I felt like it was an awesome coincidence.   hahaha

But yeah... I have a recent convert who lived in mexico for 20 years... He made us tacos last night!! I love Mexican food and they were amazing!! 

We are building a house! A member was living in the house of his cousin, but the cousin decided to sell it so he had to move... So him and us 2 missionaries are building a new house for him! So yeah I can totally build you guys a house when I get back if you want!! Its not in the safest area so I can't bring my camera to take a picture of it.. But here is a pic of how dirty my legs were after 1 day of construction. haha

A bee stung my thumb and it got really fat and I couldn't hold my pen to write anything for 3 days. 

The El Salvadorian government is trash and I'm pretty upset at it right now because we found the most golden family and they are so pumped to get baptized, but the parents can't get married to get baptized because her records don't show up in the records the government keeps and they have been trying to get married for 3 years, but the government is moronic and does everything about as fast as a snail..... But at least they have tons of faith and hopefully it will all get figured out so one day they can get baptized....

Other than that life is good.... a very wise person emailed me today saying, "attitude is everything" that is probably the most accurate statement I have ever heard.

But yeah Love you guys. Go have a great week, and give the missionaries a reference because they probably really need it. haha

Love Elder Davis

Week 32

I don't even know what to write. Life is good, not always easy but good. 

Oh I saw 17 Miracles for the first time this week and that new church movie about the life of 4 or 5 Mormon families, but I don't know the name.  (Meet the Mormon's)

We watched that movie as a stake mission activity... the goal was every member would bring a friend or neighbor to be admitted in to watch the movie... nobody in our ward came:( but we brought a family of investigators and the movie was perfect for them!!! The 17 year old in the family wants to be a pilot and loved the part about the old pilot who dropped the candy out of the plane for the Germans in Berlin.... and he loved the part about the missionary leaving and the same 17 year old afterwards told us he wants to serve a mission!!! It was awesome!

My companion paid that kid in the picture (Jeffery, one of my favorite people in El Salvador) $10 to kiss that dog. hahaha That was fun!

and we celebrated an elders birthday.... 

Other than that just the normal life.

Hope all is well and good luck for the wedding this week! 

Love Elder Davis