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

Week 31

So to start out I don't have rabies!!! That's a relief!

Wednesday we had changes... I got my new greenie Elder Azpilcueta of Mexico. At first I was thinking, "are you kidding me" but oh my gosh I was wrong.. He is so awesome. He was baptized in July... like 6 moths ago!! His mom has been a member her entire life, but he never liked the church and kinda fell pretty deep over the years. About a year ago he decided he wanted to turn his life around... got his stuff together and was eventually able to get baptized and here he is! 

I don't know what it is, but the spirit in our lessons together has been so strong! I don't think I have cried over something spiritual more than one time in my life before this week, but this week us 2 and investigators have cried at least once a day... its been crazy! 

He is teaching me soccer (he was semi pro working to be professional when he fell into drugs that ended his chance of going on) and is super super good at soccer and teaching it. I am teaching him English and helping him get some of the doctrine down. 

We are happy and doing really good. 

My new district leader hates me (I think) because I don't want to baptize a girl until her testimony is stronger so she doesn't just go inactive, but he wants one more baptism for the district in January... we got in a little argument about it and so now I'm pretty much enemy number 1 in his eyes... Hope I wont suffer to much for it this change. 

So Saturday we had the most spiritual lesson of my life. The family told us they had never felt like they did wih us in that moment and it was just amazing... They told us they were going to church the next day, (we had reminded them about the importance of it and they weren't going to miss a Sunday again...) So then Sunday in the morning we called them to see if we could walk with them to church... The husband told me that they were already there. After a little confusion I realized that we had got them super devoted to never missing a Sunday in the church they had been attending before- not our church. hahaahaha Oh gosh we felt so dumb to know we were helping activate families in other churches. hahahaa

But yeah that's the life. Everything is good here. Happy and 100% healthy. 

Love Elder Davis

Harrison's new comp:  Elder Azpilcueta

Week 30

Weird week this week, but overall really good. 

Thanks for all the emails.  I was cracking up at a few funny stories and its awesome to hear about what's going on back home.

So I started popping some pills (God bless modern medicine) and feel 100% better. So I was pretty dang happy Wednesday morning when I was able to start working super hard again... just as I was explaining how good I was feeling to my companion a huge dog sprinted up and bit me! Oh my gosh it hurt so bad! 

I looked over to the owner who was sitting on his porch and he just looked back at me, asked what he was supposed to do about it and went inside his house. haha

So long story short we are on rabies watch this whole week and have to pass by the house everyday to make sure the stupid mutt doesn't die because if he dies, I have to go get all the shots:( 

Then later that day I got called to be a trainer this next change, so that should be fun. Went to a super awesome training meeting with 8 other missionaries who are going to train this next change too with President  Vasquez and his wife and it was just awesome! So I'm pretty excited for that, but looks like I'll be in my area for at least another 6 weeks. 

Overall life is good. Thanks for all the support and hope all is good for you guys! 

Elder Davis

Week 29 What a life....

I don't even know what to write these days.

I'll start with soccer. So the Latinos all think they are Reynaldo when it comes to soccer. They brag and brag and brag. We play almost every p day and they always divide us Americans up to "give every team an equal disadvantage". 

We were getting pretty sick of that, so my ZL organized a straight up "battle of the nations" soccer match... Holy cow I don't know if I have ever tried harder in a soccer game in my life... but we ended up crushing the Latinos 5-1. They were all so upset and angry the rest of the day and it was probably the best day of my life! 

Wednesday we had a multi zone conference... it was super great. Up until this point we have always taught using pamphlets... its a way of teaching that the last mission president set up, but our president completely changed the way he wants us to teach... it is super awesome and so much better. A little tough to get used to, but we already are seeing great results from it! 

Not really sure what else has gone down... I've been super sick, but I'm trying to just push through it... going to get a couple tests done tomorrow so we will see how that goes.

I bought a harmonica today... I'm trying to be more musical and so we will see how that goes. 

Life is good.  Thanks for all your emails! Have a great week.

Elder Davis