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

Week 12- I Hate INDEPENDENCE

not really, but kinda.

This month there have been 10 million festivals and such all culminating to one big independence day yesterday (that’s why p day was changed this week... I guess they didn’t want us partying or something), but yeah it has been impossible to get investigators to church because anyone with a kid is involved in parades and such every Sunday this month.  On top of that, everyone who doesn’t have a kid has this "chicken-gura" sickness that comes from mosquitos so pretty much finding people to teach and such this week was pretty dang hard.
Oh yeah- I saw a little piece of the parade while passing by on the bus the other day... super hilarious the Beauty Pageant girls were doing the traditional waving thing in fancy dresses with flowers and such (just like homecoming half time show) but they were all on the oldest most beat up Toyota camrys I have ever seen... wish I had my camera because it was just hilarious seeing such fancy dresses on cars with peeling of paint and super ghetto! hahaha
We started giving free English classes... We need to find new investigators and are using this as a way to look for new people because tons of people want to learn English to get better jobs. First class went well, had a pretty good number of students and just made it fun... It was nice to take an hour break and teach people a language rather than the other way around.
Gave my first talk this last Sunday. Everyone was pretty surprised when I told them I only have 5 weeks in El Salvador, I guess my Spanish isn’t that bad!
Also super quick cool experience. We have a coralation meeting with the bishop and our ward mission leader every Friday. We asked him at the end of this last one if there is any members he wants us to visit this week... He thought about it and then gave us a name of this member named Billy.  He just felt like he could use a visit, but didn’t know why. We were planning on scheduling him in later in the week but an appointment and back up plan both fell through that night, so we decided to just head over to his house. When we got there he was just walking in the door, he had left for work, but for some reason felt like he should go back home and rest for 30 minutes... it didn’t make sense, but he did it anyways. He was so happy to see us, was going through a tough time with work and family and just asked us for a blessing.
It was just awesome to see how God worked through us to get this member what he needed. He got the bishop to tell us the name, both our appointments to fall through, and Billy to feel like he needs to come back from work for a little bit... Super awesome experience.
Everything is going good here, as always thanks for all your emails and support.
Love, Elder Davis

our trip to the "red Mountain" 

 me and my district.

Week 11- Yet another week passes

The days feel like years here, but the weeks go by pretty dang fast especially when we have meetings spread throughout.

We got a text at like 9:45 one night this week saying we needed to be in Ilopango (city like 3 hours away by bus) at 7 the next day for a meeting with the general young mens president from Salt Lake. It was a super long day, but super awesome... That just gives you a little idea of how last minute everything is here... nobody seems to have a sense of time.  hahaha

Question- What age is appropriate to still be walking around the house naked in??? In 2 separate lessons this week a 9 and 10 year old were just chilling naked, normally I would assume it was because the family is super poor, but these families were actually doing ok... Super funny though because one was like dancing around and trying to teach a spiritual lesson with a naked 10 year old singing some Spanish song and twirling in front of you and the investigator is kinda hard. hahaha

I tried my first bag of jell-O this week... that was exciting. We never by bottled water or bottled anything because it is a lot cheaper in bags.. so, so far I have tried bags of water, juice, soda, jello, and ice cream. Kinda fun but also difficult because you can’t set them down until you are completely done.

We had 3 investigators this week have awesome experiences with the Book of Mormon. They all prayed asking God to answer their questions and then read and kept reading until they got their answers and then prayed again thanking God and for confirmations that this is true. They all felt the spirit when they truly poured their hearts out to God and it was an awesome testimony strengthener for me. This gospel really can change lives if people fully devote themselves to it.

All is well here in El Salvador.

Thanks for all your emails they are all awesome!
Love, Elder Davis

my beautiful church... You can almost make out the visitors welcome sign behind the barbed wire!! hahaha

 Me and my district leader with matching ties (Elder Callegos)

Week 10

You know you are serving in El Salvador when...
- the last 2 bishops are inactive
- Women randomly remove half their shirt to breast feed in like every other lesson
- at any moment when walking in the street you can see a minimum of 3 pairs of dogs making babies
- Every store has armed guards out front
- You are pumped for p day so you can go to Burger King for a super nice meal and a super nice bathroom
- Gunshots during lessons
- While eating lunch at a members house 2 days in a row, girls try to have a full on conversation with you in nothing but a towel after getting out of the shower
- The busses you take a couple times each week are more packed then family dinners when grandma and grandpa lived in the mobile-home
- Power goes out twice during the course of sacrament meeting and nobody seems to notice except the speaker who just talks a little louder
- Likewise you come home almost every day and reset the clocks because power always is going out.
- The church has one of those water dispensers and just one community Styrofoam cup for everyone in the ward to share when they want water
- you get robbed within your first Month of being in the country... Yeah we got robbed this week. Well some guy tried to rob us, he tried to take our phone but then realized it was a piece of junk. Patted me down to see what else I had, then didn’t want to steal any of our pamphlets or BOMs so he just quickly rode off on his bike. My comp was a little spooked, but I just was excited and thought it was kinda funny to see him get mad when all we had was church materials.
All in all a good week, just trying to spread this good word to people. Its pretty hard to find people who are actually interested rather than just say yes and then either give you a fake address or about halfway through the second lesson finally tell you that they don’t care.
We are working on it through and my Spanish is getting a little better every day.

pic of me and my comp and 2 other elders on our adventure to some waterfalls and one of the beautiful hotels that is missing a roof you can stay at if you come and pick me up hahaha

Week 9- I hate Birds, dogs, and drugs!

Hey friends and fam...

Thanks for all the emails! Mom I got your 2 letters and greenie package this week!! Made my day hardcore... super awesome and thoughtful!

But yeah first off birds... so chickens are always just wandering through the houses making a racket whenever we are trying to teach... which is annoying, but kinda funny. But the real reason I hate birds is because this inactive lady we were visiting found an injured bird (the ugliest thing you have ever seen) on the side of the road and took it in as her pet. It just flaps around her house trying to fly and poops on things and it is ugly and terrible and disgusting and I now understand why Brenna hates birds. Hahaha

Dogs- this country is over-run by dogs. I’m pretty sure there are more dogs here than humans. They are all mutts that are super ugly and mean and just run wild making thousands of more dogs every day. I still love dodger and most dogs, just not these flee bags!

Drugs- Holy cow the word of Wisdom is divinely inspired. So many investigators just can’t overcome the WOW problems. These drugs just take over their lives. We have one who is trying to give up smoking and it is insane seeing his body fight back. So yeah don’t do drugs... obviously I hate them more than anything. haha

Gangs- so we have 2 big gangs here in El Salvador, 13 and 18 (they have names but I don’t know how to spell them so Im just putting there numbers) the gang line in my city is about 3 blocks from my house. We rarely ever teach teenage boys because even if they aren’t involved they risk getting shot if they cross the line to come to church... Super sick experience last week- Some guy runs down the street yelling close the doors!! Just as the member we were teaching goes to close the door we just here gunfire start up just a stone throw down the road!! We lock the door and take shelter in the back of the house... super scary but awesome at the same time! Don’t worry though, the gangs have rules against hurting missionaries because they think the US Government will come after them if they hurt this "American church" so yeah we have never had any problems.

Umm what else.... everyone is amazed when they see two white people walking down the streets... everybody just stares. A kid ran into a car and fell off his bike and ate crap the other day because he was staring at us.  hahahahha Super funny and a little sad... we helped him up hahahaha

We don’t give out a ton of BOM until after we have had a couple lessons with someone... apparently they were getting used as fire starter and joints when elders used to just give them out.

I got my immigration stuff taken care of, so I guess I am legal here for another year... can’t deport me!

We helped a lady who is fleeing the country because the gangs are trying to kill her for not paying rent, fill out her Visa paper (it was in English) the third hour of church this week! Super exciting! hahaha

Oh I know why we can never understand anyone when you call in to companies like verizon or dish or anything. They all live here!! The dream job is to work for an American company call center... They try so hard to learn English... I have come to love those people because we help each other learn more English/Spanish so next time you are mad if you can’t understand someone, just know that they are probably my BFF down here. hahaha

But yeah life goes on here. Keep me updated I love hearing from you guys!
Love,
Elder Davis

PS Mosiah 2:41 is definitely my new favorite scripture

Week 8- Two weeks in

This week was a ton better than last week. I am starting to adjust to missionary life. I had a bunch of pictures to send, and a whole paper about things to write you guys, but I left it at home because I am dumb.

My Spanish speaking I think is getting worse, but I am understanding a little more.  I guess that is what happens to a lot of missionaries... Don’t really understand why, but yeah.

Oh yeah, some of you said you wanted to send me stuff!! Super awesome-- you guys are the best and I haven’t got your package yet mom, but hopefully soon!

(random side note about sending a package if you desire to hahaha. Put a picture of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the outside... people apparently don't steal the stuff in them generally if they have those pics on them because they feel bad. hahaha Thanks!)

Elder Robert Harrison Davis
Mision El Salvador San Salvador Este
Apartado Postal #3362
San Salvador, El Salvador
Centro America

The best day of the week was Saturday. We woke up and cut down this fat tree for one of our investigators and it just felt good to do some actual work for a while. Then we had all 6 of our appointments fall through. Nobody that had agreed to meet with us could, we just walked from appointment to appointment and getting nowhere. But I was happy... It was weird. I don’t really know why, literally everything was going wrong. I guess God was just blessing me with the happiness we promise investigators if they work to have the spirit with them. It was a really awesome day for me.

Family- Your trip sounds Awesome!! I wish I could have been there! Dad holy crap you re-proposed in a cute way!! I think that was almost as good as "Do you want a piece of gum" hahahahahahahahhaha

That’s crazy that Addison is home!! I wonder if I’ll feel the same way she did when I have to take off my badge, probably if I continue to give this all I’ve got for 2 years. CRAZY!!

A few people said they wanted to hear about what we do every day... basically we wake up, study until about 12, then go to a hermanas house who makes us lunch and does our laundry  (awesome because without her I would be living off Oreos). Then we walk all over Quezaltepeque teaching lessons to our investigators, and looking for the houses of people we have contacted. Oh yeah- Latinos are annoying (not racist, just a fact) they feel bad if they tell you no to your face, but they have no problem just telling you fake addresses! It is already ridiculous to find an address here (there are only 3 street names here, and people just tell us like the 4th street past this street, and the 3rd house down on the left...It is crazy), but with people just making them up it makes it even harder hahaha

We had a great Sunday experience. One of our investigators didn’t want to come to church, but we were being pretty persistent with her, just then another investigator is walking by (everyone walks to church) and convinces her to go... After the meeting she just walks up to us and gives us the biggest hug and thanks us for getting her to go to church. She felt the spirit hard core... Super cool!

But yeah overall things are going good, keep me updated on things at home!
Love,
Elder Davis

Week 6 & 7

First week in El Salvador and tons of things to say but no time to say them!

First thank you guys tons for your email. I love reading them, and thanks dad and Mattie for your Dear Elder letters, those were awesome, and tell Mattie I couldn’t stop cracking up!! Also those dear elders were cool because we have very little emailing time and those and real letters I can read whenever!

Number one I am done with my old comp!!! Yipee!!! I got paired with a North American here!!! His name is Elder Schmidt and he is from Sandy Utah. He said this is the first time he has ever had a norte companion and this is his first time training and this is the first time that he has ever heard of two Nortes here in Quetzatepeque... Evidently the Lord has something for us to do that only us English speakers can do or something... who knows.

Quick story.... Our van popped a tire on the way to El Salvador.  We were stuck on the side of the road for two hours trying to change it because the tire was like welded on the axel (Super Ghetto) but eventually I got smart and we all prayed and within 10 minutes we were able to get the tire off and eventually be on our way.

My mission president is Vasquez. He is trying to learn English, but he doesn’t know much. He seems really cool though!

I tried my first papusa, it’s like the food here that everyone has...It is EVERYWHERE. Luckily it is super good, kinda like those burrito quesadilla things Brandon makes, but different... I don’t really know, all I know is they are good!

Hot water is non existant, but whatever

Clearly my P days are Mondays.

I’ve been called a devil worshiper twice and have learned great new Spanish words like how to say drunk.  So that is fun!

Also learned to be obedient! We were like 10 minutes late coming home once because we were planning this thing with some members and right at 9, (when we are supposed to be home) it started pouring rain and tons of wind and was a pain in the butt to get home, so yeah... I am being reminded by God to be exactly obedient I guess!

Its really hard just going through lessons and stuff all day and having practically know idea what is going on, but I’m trying to stay positive... been praying for the gift of tongues and I know I’ll be able to learn this language eventually. Love you guys!

Elder Davis

BTW this one is my CCM district and they are the coolest people alive

My CCM companion

 I wonder how long his shoes will last???