Week 62 Shaking hands with the big man

So this week was the best! We got to do a ton of service: cleaning up planters in a local school, cutting down a huge mango tree with machetes, sweeping up 10 million leaves into plastic bags, etc. It always feels so good to go out and work a little bit and help people out. 

But the best day of the week was by far Friday. We woke up at 3 am to be in the temple chapel at 7 for the multi mission meeting with President (Russel M.) Nelson. It was crazy. Our bus driver ended up getting lost and we didn't get there until 9:15 and missed the first 15 minutes of the meeting but it wasn't that big of a deal because we still heard Pres. Nelson speak. He taught us a ton of things, but it was just awesome seeing him. He was so happy and lively and just looked like he was happy to be part of this great work. He took the time to shake the hands of over 500 of us missionaries and it was just super awesome. I learned a ton. 

Saturday we went to a couple of quick appointments and then had to go to the stake center all afternoon which would have been boring, but Elder Ochoa of the 70 was leading the meeting which made it cool. Afterwards he totally walked up and told me and my comp hi and talked to us for a minute. We tried to play it cool, like no big deal, but I'm pretty sure we were more excited than little kids Christmas morning. haha

Sunday we had stake conference and it was huge!! The chapel and gym were full and they had to put up canopies outside and project a video of it because so many people were crammed into the stake center. They re-organized our stake and changed the "district" Usulutan into a stake. It was super exciting to see just how big the church is growing here. Our new stake president is actually the mission doctor, which is awesome because we are already good friends from my time in the hospital. haha So we are super excited to start working more with him. 

To finish off the conference Elder Ochoa gave a blessing to everyone. At the end of the blessing he blesseed San Miguel with rain. We have been without rain for a long time. Everyone lost there crops because there hasn't been any rain, and the forecast showed no signs of rain... but last night out of nowhere a huge storm rolled in and it began to rain. Super awesome to see the power of the priesthood at work. 

Everything is going well, hope for you guys too!

Love Elder Davis

Week 61 I've got connections....

So this week a bunch of stuff happened, but the funniest day was friday. So we have been doing our own laundry this change (washing by hand every night in the pila) but there is this super poor but powerful recent convert family who we decided to pay to wash for us... then they can use the money to catch the bus to church and not have to walk for 45 minutes. 

So friday morning at about 6 we were waiting on the side of the road for the bus to come by so we could take the clothes for them to wash. A car going the other dirtection kinda slows down as it passes by us and the guy starts staring us down. He then pulls a u-turn and stops right in front of us and asks if we want a ride. We told him we were fine, but he insisted and my comp had forgot his bus money and we didn't want to go back to the house so we said whatever and got in. As we get driving he begins turns on some music and then says, " Oh wait you are Christians you can't listen to this stuff" and turns it off. He started asking us about our mission and such and then says ok, I'm going to be honest... I'm gay, and I just have to tell you (looking at me) have a perfect face and you (looking at my companion) have eyelashes of the gods!!! He then kept complimenting us and it got super awkward hahahaha

So then he begins telling us all about his business. It is this huge event business that I've actually heard of before and he is the owner of the whole thing. He told us about all the connections he has with mayors, political figures and all the "powerful and important people of El Salvador". Then he tells us he is having a birthday party in a few weeks and it will be covered by 3 TV stations and tons of important people will be there and he wants us as his honored guests to be there!! He gave us his number and said anything we want whenever we want it he will drop his work and take us anywhere, invite us to eat anywhere or to know anyone etc. hahaha.  It was so bizarre and awkward because the entire time he was saying how handsome we were. 

So we were weirded out when he let us out of the car, and that night we told some members about it. They were amazed. Turns out the guy wasn't bragging -he really is one of the most connected people in the country.  haha The birthday party he wants us to go to is a super exclusive party he throws every year where only famous/important people from the country go.  hahaha They even showed us a picture of the mayor in the newspaper with that guy standing right by him. 

So pretty much this week we got the weirdest/ biggest connection in

El Salvador. We haven't decided if we will ever call the guy up or not. But who knows. hahahaha

Other than that is was a fun but busy week. We are super pumped because 

Russel M. Nelson is coming out on Friday!!! We are going to meet him in the chapel in San Salvador!!! and word on the street is he might even show up at our stake conference this weekend! Super excited. Should be a great week!!

Love you guys

Elder Davis

one of the lizards we got

 pics of the slip-n-slide water balloon marsh mellow p-day we had today!

week 60

This week was once again insane. We spent almost no time in our area and were just running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  haha

It started out Tuesday when another elder had to come stay and work with us for a day. It was weird being in a trio. Kinda fun, but I'm glad I've never been in one. Wednesday morning we got him to his new area and then within an hour had him back in our house along with 2 other elders because of the volcano. 

So the Volcano is called volcano Chaparrastique and I am in the area Chaparrastique (just to give you an idea of how close we are to it) and Wednesday morning it started pumping out a bunch of smoke /ash stuff) Everyone started freaking out, and then we had to follow the emergency plan and make sure everyone got to there evacuation points with their 72 hour kits. We then called up bus drivers to take all the missionaries to San Salvador if it became necessary, but in the end nothing else happened:( I wanted to see lava in the streets and stuff, but I guess its better that way. 

We learned from the experience that nobody in the mission has a real 72 hour kit and we would all pretty much die if we couldn't go to the store every day. My companion and I put together our kit with one cup of noodles, a half eaten loaf of bread and one bag of water.  haha It could have lasted us all of one meal if we had actually needed it... so hopefully we get a little better prepared for if something really does happen. 

What else... We had a cool meeting with the mission president and stake president.  The stake plan is really showing a lot of fruits so we are really happy about that.

Oh yeah, Monday we went lizard hunting with this crazy awesome guy in my ward. We got 1 iguana and 1 garabo. They were extremely delicious and I am getting pretty decent with my sling shot. 

That's pretty much all I can think of. My comp and I won't have changes so we are cool. I'll be here for at least 6 more weeks. 

Love you guys.  Have a great week

Elder Davis

Week 59 Time Flies

I feel like yesterday it was Monday... the weeks go by way to fast!

This week was great but super busy. Monday was relaxed and we went to Papa Johns for all you can eat pizza. It was delicious and we ate so much, super fun. 

Tuesday we had to take a couple elders in for emergency changes and then ran around getting buses organized for the trip to the temple Thursday. We found and contracted 4 buses to take all the investigators and missionaries in San Miguel  to San Salvador (a 3.5 hour bus ride) and bargained with latinos for about an hour to get the price within the budget they gave us. 

Then got home that night and began planning the zone conference for the next day.  It was a late but super awesome and spiritual night. 

Wednesday we started out with the zone conference. It went pretty good. Everyone participated and we have some great new plans and goals as a zone! Then we ran around inviting and verifying all of our investigators and inactives for the temple trip the next day. 

Thursday we woke up early and headed out for San Salvador. In our area we got 35 people to go. We all met up, mingled around the temple grounds and then went to the temple chapel for a tour. Missionaries were dressed up as Book of Mormon and bible characters and teaching principles of the gospel. Then in the cultural center there was a virtual tour of the inside of the temple and our mission president explained the purpose of the different rooms and ceremonies. It was awesome and afterwards an investigator couple told us they were going to begin trying a lot harder to keep the word of wisdom because in 1 year they want to be sealed to there kids!! Everyone had a super spiritual and fun day! 

There at the temple I saw some converts and people who I had taught in other areas who ended up getting baptized. It was so cool seeing them!

Thursday we caught up on all the work we had missed out on earlier in the week. 

Friday we did divisions and were able to have 2 baptismal interviews. And then ran around town looking for a lawyer to marry those getting baptized because the one that was going to marry them died Thursday night:(  We finally got a lawyer who could do it last minute and everything turned out good. 

Saturday we ran to Santa Rosa (a city like an hour from here) to take care of a little issue and then ran around having some super awesome lessons. The Lord has blessed us with some great people who want to get baptized and are progressing really strongly. 

So that was pretty much my week. My comp and I are doing good. Having lots of great experiences. 

Thanks for all your letters and prayers. Hope everyone is doing well.

Elder Davis 

Week 58

This was a week of running around getting stuff done. 

Monday we spent 3 hours cleaning the house... it was disgusting but we finally got it done, it was a great accomplishment. 

Then we were left with $5 dollars in total between us both for the week. We lived off of plain spaghetti noodles and sweet bread all week, haha but we made it though and it definitely helped out that it was fast Sunday and didn't have to eat the majority of Saturday and Sunday. haha Today we finally got our money sent to us:)

Tuesday we were sitting at lunch at our cooks house and we saw a selfie stick (for camera) sitting on the couch. She saw we liked it and pulled another out of her bedroom and gave us both selfie sticks!! All week we ran around taking ridiculously stupid selfies with our super awesome sticks. hahaha

Wednesday a member hooked us up with slingshots. They are actually illegal to use here, but legal to buy... I guess in the war here when they didn't have money, they used to use slingshots and they got named as weapons for that... but nobody follows that law. We have become expert marksmen and are going lizard hunting with the member who gave it to us next week! 

We were walking around shooting things on this super long and empty road on the way to a members house when I saw a chicken super far out. ]I didn't think I would hit it from so far away, but I launched a rock anyways and I nailed it and broke its leg. haha The poor chicken's leg was totally bent backwards and we just ran away fast:)

Thursday we had to settle an argument for 3 hours over area boundaries between 2 wards and the missionaries in the wards...but now its finally settled at least. 

Friday we went into San Salvador for leadership counsel. It was really cool. The zone leaders and assistants met up with president at his house and we pretty much just sat down, talked about concerns and new ideas and I learned a lot from other people and president inspired us as usual. 

We've been pretty much working with the thought if people are happy they have success so we just pretty much try and do fun stuff as a zone and its been working pretty well. Everyone has improved a lot and we are super happy for the blessings. 

That was pretty much our week. Hope you guys had a good one as well.

Love Elder Davis

Week 57

We had a great week this week! 

Monday we organized a zone activity to head out to La Unión and had tons of fun going around this beach town. We grew a lot closer as a zone and now everyone is comfortable around each other and we are all good friends. 

Tuesday I went over to the area Oriental 2 on divisions with Elder Coc. (a missionary who has about 3 weeks left in his mission.) It was really cool- I was able to have 2 awesome baptismal interviews and then go out and work with him all day. Although he is ready to go home, he is still an awesome elder (highest baptizer in the mission right now) and I learned a lot about being direct with the people from him. Then we finished off the day sleeping in his air conditioned house! It felt like I was in heaven with that cool air blowing in!!

Wednesday and Thursday we had 2 normal days of work and found some good new people. We have some good investigators right now, but they all have little problems like not being able to give up drinking, having to work Sundays, etc. so we are trying to find some new people to baptize in September. 

Friday the asistants to the president wanted to do divisions with us and one of them insisted that they wanted to see how I work in my own area. I was a little nervous because I thought I barley knew the area, but in the end we only ended up getting lost once:) Overall it was a really good day!

Saturday was insane! We ended the divisions with the assistants at 6:30 am and then a million things had to get done. Then the stake president calls us and tells us he will be at our house in 15 minutes and he wants us to meet his grandson. He shows up and we go outside to meet him, but then he just invited himself and his grandson into our house. He looks at me and my companion and says that he wants us to teach his grandson the gospel and then help him with english homework. So we taught him a lesson and it all went well, but then all the missionaries in the zone started showing up for all the things they needed from us and the stake president just kept inviting everyone into our house. Pretty soon we had 14 people in our tiny house and we were running around trying to get them all what they need while doing English homework and answering all the stake presidents questions about the plan we had presented to him last week. It was a madhouse. haha 

We finally got everyone out and then we had to run to the bus stop and take an hour and a half bus ride to get baptismal clothes that some elders would need the next day. We got back just in time to got to our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, eat a quick dinner from the young single adults fundraiser and go home for the night. 

Sunday morning the bishop called asking if Icould give a talk. I think it went well despite the 15 minute heads up haha. After church and lunch we went out to work and decided to head to a decently far away part of our area. We got into our first investigators house and before we sat down the stake president was calling us yet again. He told us he wanted us in a meeting with all the bishoprics in 20 minutes in the stake center. Once again we ran to the bus stop and got to the meeting a little late... we felt dumb because everyone was already sitting down waiting for us, but he could have given us a bigger heads up. That meeting took up pretty much the entire afternoon and we ended up only getting in 1 lesson Sunday, but it was still a good day. 

Overall it was a crazy week, but we had fun the entire time. I'm getting along great with my comp. We are constantly laughing and learning and quoting movies, etc. 

Everything is going awesome! Hope you guys are doing great. Thanks for everything. 

Elder Davis

Week 56 Slow and Steady

We had a great week this week! 

Monday and Tuesday I wasn't permitted to leave the house, but Wednesday I got half a day of work in. Then Thursday we had a super sick Multi-zone meeting! 

It was so awesome and spiritual! We learned a ton and already have seen the fruits of putting what we learned in practice. My mission president is the best! He brings such a strong spirit and is turning everything around in this mission. Everyone is increasing their faith and so far as a mission we have had almost double the baptisms that we had by this point last year. It is awesome to see how the Lord is pushing his work forward. 

Then we went to a meeting with the stake president and our mission president. We presented new plans to focus the stake on preforming priesthood ordinances. We based everything on D&C 84: 19-22 and talked about how important it is to use the priesthood that has been restored. What good does it do to hold this authority from God if we never use it? We are now collecting reports weekly from every ward to see what ordinances they did in their ward that week and if they are truly magnifying the priesthood God has given to us... It's super awesome and everyone is excited for it. The goal is that more fathers will give blessings to their children and wives, more members will work in missionary work with the goal of baptizing their own friends and families, and increasing the number of people taking the sacrament every week. We are super excited, and think this will help our stake grow!

Friday we headed out super early to San Salvador to get my visa updated. Then we got Taco Bell!!! Oh it was so delicious! It was kinda funny because someone was having a baby shower in Taco Bell. haha  Then we headed home and got to work. It was my first complete day working and it felt awesome! We got a lot done and Friday and Saturday and I feel so much better getting out and actually doing something. Since Thursday my health hasn't given me any problems and I feel awesome! 

Sunday was awesome! Probably the most special part of my week was Sunday night. We finally were able to go and visit the Bishop. I got to know him and his family and at the end of the visit we asked him to give us blessings. It was a really neat experience. Even though he barley knows me, he gave me a super spiritual, very personal blessing. It was just what I needed and we felt the spirit so strong as he gave it. 

Overall it was an awesome week! I'm having tons of fun with my comp- just making jokes, singing songs, and quoting movies! 

Hope you are all doing great.

Love Elder Davis