Week 92 Holy Week

This week was awesome. We had an amazing temple trip to take investigators and they loved it. The spirit was strong and everything was well organized and executed. My branch president forgot to contract a bus to take everyone, so at 6:15 in the morning the day of the trip he called to tell us he had forgotten haha. We threw on some clothes and ran down to the terminal and started searching for anyone who would do the trip for us. As an answer to our prayers, God placed a bus owner in our path who had just gone down to the terminal to sign a paper that day, and wasn't going to work. He agreed to do the trip for us and it turned out great. Between the 2 areas we took 40 investigators and less actives to the temple!

We opened up a new city (San Isidro) it's a little town down the road from Sensunte, but the new sisters stole so much of our area we had to find somewhere to work, and we are already seeing fruits. 

Friday was interesting (the buses shut down Friday through Sunday for Holy Week) because we had to see an investigator in San Fransisco. A little place about 7 miles from Sensunte. We could have paid someone to take us, but we aren't allowed to get in the back of trucks here, so we ended up having to walk there and back haha. It was a far walk, but the investigator is well worth it and everything turned out good. On the way we had all sorts of adventures- the funniest one was when Elder Bigham saw some bags of what he thought were juice on the side of the road and convinced me to see who could throw one higher and have them splat on the road. As we picked them up the liquid started falling out of little holes all over our hands. The smell was inmistakable, it wasn't juice, it was pee. hahaha

This week was Semana Santa- meaning everyone decided they were Catholic again. It was kinda interesting to do a self reflection on how much my teaching has changed since last Semana Santa. I wish I understood then what I understand now, about this gospel and about how to teach it to these people, who have a love for their Savior, but don't know anything about who He is or what He truly did for them. 

In the Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith explained that to have true faith we need to understand the character of God, who He really is. 

That is one of the most amazing things about the restored gospel for me. We know who our God is. To us He isn't some impossible to understand spirit that is everywhere and nowhere at once. He isn't some undefinable 3 persons in one, or one in three. He is an all powerful, all knowing, exalted man. The literal father of our spirits. He has an only begotten Son in the flesh who is our Lord, our brother, our Savior and our king. He lived a perfect life, and gave a perfect sacrifice that only He could have given. He suffered more than we can comprehend, more than any man could have suffered save it be unto death. He bled from every pour, and He did all of it for the simple and selfless reason that He loves each of us with a perfect love. 

This Easter I give my witness that Jesus of Nazareth is my Savior. I love Him with all my heart and despite all of my efforts I will always be in His debt. 

The distractions of the world and temporal needs and responsibilities may not allow me to dedicate all the time I should after the mission to spreading His true gospel, but I hope to always be a missionary. 

I'm happier and working harder than ever:) 

Love

Elder Davis

Week 91 Movie Night!

This week I did something I never thought I would do in the mission. We went to the movies! 

Tuesday night we got a call that we would be going and I thought it was a joke, it took Elder Durbin a good 5 minutes to convince me that it was the truth haha.

So Wednesday we woke up early and caught the bus to San Salvador where we met up at the movie theater with 120 other missionaries. I guess President Vasquez saw this movie about the resurrection of Christ through the eyes of this Roman captain and loved it so much he wanted us all to see it haha. I felt so wicked walking into the theater, and watching the trailers for the other movies that will be coming out (not going to lie Batman vs Superman looks pretty good) but it was fun. I was happy because I am finally convinced that I have Spanish down because I understood the entire movie without issues (ended up translating most of it for my comp haha). 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week... This week is Semana Santa so all of the Catholics are already going crazy. I am in one of the most Catholic towns that I have ever seen and even Catholics who never go to mass turn super fanatic this week, so hopefully we have people to teach. 

All is good in the hood!

Love Elder Davis

Week 90 Adventures and Pie

Happy pi day!!! I did nothing to celebrate (I don't know if they have pies here) but back home I hope everyone is celebrating like crazy... If mom wants to take out my trusty old ti84 and do some math to celebrate you are welcome to do so:) 

I didn't have changes. Woohoo!! Another 6 weeks in Sensunte!! (I'm very happy) 

On Monday this week my companion and I tried to put up a pull up bar. We got it all well placed up (holy cow I can't even do 3 pull ups- I've got to get myself into shape) but accidently snapped the pipe on the water tank we had hung it from... the tank started dumping out all of its water and we got soaked trying to tape the thing... in the end we lost all of our water and went without showering until Thursday haha. It was a pain but we went down to the hardware store to buy some stuff and get it tapped off. Such a pain, but kinda fun experience... not sure how bad I smelled- but with how much we sweat, you can imagine. hahaha

We finally killed the rat!!!! Sunday morning I was reading the BOM in my hammock while Elder Bingham got ready... and suddenly he started screaming. He was going to put on his shoe when the rat jumped out of it onto his shoulder.  hahaha We locked it in the room and started chasing it with a broom stick and my machete. After 5 minutes Elder Bingham banged it in the head and it dazed him enough for me to bash him with the machete... it was a big victory:) Now nothing will eat my food anymore (hopefully).

We spent a couple days searching for a house for the sisters that got sent here on Wednesday and then spent a lot of time Friday moving them in. Its awesome to have another set of missionaries here. I'm sure they will help our Relief Society a lot... but they took about 70% of our area so we are going to have to start branching out a lot this week going to little towns in buses and see if we can get some new people... Should be exciting. haha 

It was an eventful/ good week. Doing great and happy as ever! 

Love,

Elder Davis

Week 89 New Roomie

This week was awesome! We found out that 3 separate households we were teaching are all related... We street contacted them all separately and at different times, none of them knew we were visiting each other, and they all showed up to church on Sunday and were shocked to see each other.   haha It was an awesome moment!! 

This week they broadcasted district/stake conference for all Central America with elder Anderson from Salt Lake. It was a cool conference... It was a little hard for investigators to show up for the first time and have to sit down for 2.5 hours straight without any breaks or anything, but the spirit was felt and multiple people had spiritual experiences. 

This week we also had a new room mate move in with us... every night while we were asleep he would eat our food:( First our bread, then all of our pancake mix and then our margarine... He left his little teeth marks all over our margarine and that's when things got personal. We need to get rid of this stupid rodent!! Finally today we bought a rat trap that supposedly will kill him in un solo so hopefully it works, because we are running out of food to share. 

We got this inactive family to go to church. They were baptized like 20 years ago, but only show up 3 or 4 Sundays a year. We talked to them about getting sealed (along with their 2 kids and their wives who live with them), but even though they have a strong desire to do it, they still have a lot of commandment problems... We were trying to see how to keep their goal in their minds always and then decided just to put it near all the places they might sin in the house.  hahaha One word of wisdom sign next to the stove, law of chastity signs by the TV, etc. and one giant sign with the date of there sealing on the door:) They now have 4 days without coffee and are progressing. haha

Everything is going great. I felt the trial of faith last month, but the blessings are pouring in this month and should continue strong throughout next month:)

Grateful, working hard and happy!

Love Elder Davis

Week 88 Border Hopping

So on Friday we had a pretty intense lesson. I haven't been nervous for a lesson in a long time. When you give so many it just becomes second nature, but I was scared for the results of this one. We met up with Johnathan at the church and had to teach him the commandment of obeying earthly laws. I don't know if I told you guys but he is our best investigator. Super positive, super excited to be baptized and all around golden...there was just one problem, he is a coyote who takes people to the United States illegally. He dropped out of school after the 7th grade because he realized he had a talent for it after his uncle took him on a trip, and he makes a ton of money doing it. He is a super genuine and chill guy. I consider him a good friend apart from our relationship as missionary to investigator. 

I talked to President Vasquez about it, and after reading in the manual and talking it over for a while, he said that Johnathan would have to drop the job to be baptized. 

In the end the lesson turned out great, the spirit testified of the importance of our words and after talking it over, Johnathan told us that if that is what God wanted him to do, he would stop doing trips. Sunday we talked to him again and he had already begun doing the arrangments to drop out of the family business. 

People like Johnathan are huge examples to me. Growing up he never considered it wrong to take people over...it was just the family business. He saw it as a great way to make a lot of money, and help people find a better life. But the moment when the spirit testified to him that a prophet of God has asked that we obey the lay of the land he agreed to drop everything (work, family) and obey.

 When God speaks not much else matters. Even if it doesn't make sense to us, it does to him and that should be enough for us. It worries me to see members of the church who choose to question the words and decisions of modern prophets. To question their decisions is personal apostasy and blasphemy in the bluntest form and anyone guilty of it has the need to repent. It's nothing new. Wasn't it Paul in his epistle to the Romans who asked something along the lines of, who are we to question God? (just looked it up- Romans 9:20). 

If an investigator who came to know the church about a month ago is capable of showing enough faith to drop his entire life and obey, shouldn't we as seasoned church members be ever so more willing to, as Christ commanded, leave behind our nets and follow him and his chosen servants? 

Kinda a different letter this week, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. Something that has been on my mind for the last couple of days. Take them for what they are worth. haha 

I'm doing great! Happy as ever to be here and working hard to preach the true and pure gospel of Christ. Hope everyone is happy at home! 

Love you all and thanks for the support!

Elder Davis

Week 87 Apostasy and Choco bananos

This week was awesome.  We really took control of our area and are using time better. I had been praying to see how to better organize our huge area and as usual (God never really leaves us hanging) the answer came Wednesday night at about 2 am. I was mid a very interesting dream when all of a sudden the ideas just started flowing in. Lucky for me for about a year now I have always kept a notepad and pen next to my bed to record any midnight thoughts (extremely useful). I got it all down and Thursday morning in our weekly planning we mapped out how to put it all in to practice. So far it is working great! Without a doubt God listens to and answers our prayers. 

My companion's doing good. We are only speaking Spanish in the street, but in the night we speak English so he can relax a little and not get to stressed. It seems to be working well because we are happy and he has improved quite a bit (side note: my English is coming back as well). This week I introduced him to the glorious 10 cent chocolate frozen bananas... needless to say we buy 3 or 4 a day. haha

Saturday we went to San Vicente for an awesome mission activity. We were in charge of the family history section... shout out to whoever has done all of our family tree because I pulled it up and mine is nearly full. Lots of people were impressed and asked a ton of questions about how to get started. Family History is an amazing tool!

We also tried to take our ex branch president to an appointment this week. Mid lesson he started saying a ton of apostasy about the Sabbath day and got the family all confused... maybe my goal of getting him involved in the missionary work was a little pre-mature but he showed up to church on Sunday so I'll count that as a victory:) 

Good week- finding good people and working hard!

Hope all is well, 

Elder Davis

Week 86 Satan Strikes Back

Can we just take a second to appreciate that subject line haha. It took me about 2 whole minutes to come up with it:) 

But it is very true. Whenever you feel like things are moving up without obstacles,  Satan hits you where you didn't know you were venerable. And that is exactly what happened this week in our branch.

This week President Dunkin from the 70 visited us and taught us some really cool things, and gave us some sweet statistics. President Vasquez talked a little bit about how we are at war against the devil. This country is his, but we are slowly making ground (actually gave a super detailed and sweet analogy). I learned a lot but more than what they said I learned from what the spirit testified to my heart about how to apply it in our area. The spirit is so powerful it is amazing!!

We made a trip to migrations to get my comp legalized. Fell asleep on a bus and woke up 45 minutes away from where we had to get off.  haha 

Our fridge stopped working Tuesday night (we had just bought 2 weeks worth of food!) We tried to save what we could and made this disgusting smoothie with everything from our fridge in it. Needless to say, we barfed our guts out and my comp has had a messed up stomach since, but it was fun! 

Then we pretty much lived off of pupusas until we could get food today. 

I discovered the Hawaiian pupusa... truly one of the most amazing things that has ever touched my tongue.  haha Super delicious mix of pineapple and cheese!

That's about it, laughing through the trials and adjusting plans to get better. Sensuntepeque is an awesome area. 

Love Elder Davis