Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Week 19 - Bond... James Bond and last week with first companion!

lunch with some young men they were teaching

Hey everyone!

This week has been really good, not a whole lot of exciting news but a couple little fun things that have happened this week :) And first of all, next week we have changes so I won't be writing till Wednesday, just so you all know :)

So apparently they are filming or were filming the new James Bond movie here in the mission and closed the Centro...that's at least what all the members and everyone were telling us, I have no idea if that's just a straight up myth or if James Bond came to Mexico City, but if he did, that's just fantastic. Let me know someone, eh? Haha I miss Google.


James Bond Movie "Spectre" being filmed in Mexico City
(From Youtube.com) See news story here

Mexican Moment for the week, I was walking down the street and this car came flying past us and there was like an 8-yea-old kid hanging on the hood, so that was pretty crazy...He was just layin on the "hoot" hanging onto the hood by the windshield wipers that was crazy. 

Erika got confirmed yesterday and we put a baptismal date with her mom! Better said...ERIKA put a baptismal date for her mom. We have been working with Ines for a while and she is reading the Book of Mormon (she's already in 2nd Nephi!!) and we just hadn't been able to see for a couple weeks but in talking to her she wanted to get baptized but wanted to wait for a few months and her mom basically said, "Okay Mom are you gonna get baptized or not? If you're gonna do it, there's no reason to wait! How about in two days on Sunday? No? Okay, one week from Sunday?" and, well, she has a baptismal date for this Sunday! Hahaha! I hope everything goes well and she can make this covenant with our Father in Heaven this week :)
Cute kids of people they are teaching
Erika also gave a great prayer in Gospel Principles Class that made me want to cry. I love the way she prays because it is a REAL talk with our father in Heaven. Sometimes as members of the church we repeat things that we here, certain phrases, which isn't necessarily bad but I just love hearing her TALK with our Heavenly Father. She is so real, so sincere, and it just makes me so happy. They started special family History classes where they have 3 or 4 converts in the class to teach them how to do family history and get names ready for the temple which is so cool! And she is in that class! So excited for her.

Everything's pretty great here. This is my last week with Elder Rodriguez so we are just gonna work our tails off and have a great time like we've been having! We have been together 3 cycles (4 and a half months) which is a long time in the mission, so we are almost positive we will have changes. HOLY COW I'M GETTING A NEW COMPANION! That's just crazy because for the last almost 5 months I've just been with him like all the time..weird right?

Love you all take care and make good choices!

Elder Davies

Kelson with other missionaries in his district at a Baptism

Monday, March 16, 2015

Week 18 - Just a quick note from Mexico City East mission

Random vendor wearing a BYU shirt - he has no idea what BYU means. HAHA!

Hey everyone!

So we have been super busy this P-day running around shopping, cleaning, washing laundry and all that fun stuff so this is going to a be short weekly!

Well this week we had a District Meeting and we set some awesome goals to get new investigators and help them progress and we have had tons of success! We met a family a couple weeks ago that is a single mom, Dulce, and her 4 kids all under the age of 9. She is so sweet (Dad: ironic Dulce = sweet, haha!) and willing to learn but she also has a lot on her hands with 4 children, at least one of which I was know for sure was born prematurely but they all LOVE coming to church so how great is that! We have baptismal dates for Dulce and her oldest daughter, Damaris, in the next few weeks so we hope everything goes well and they keep coming to church!

We were worried about Dulce´s parents because they all live together and her parents are very Catholic, but one day we stopped by and started talking to her dad and it started to rain so they invited us to come in and we ended up having a great chat with her parents! Turns out her dad is a construction accountant and their company is working on 3 Mormon Chapels right now! They don't want to to come to church, but they are excited for the opportunity for their daughter and grandchildren. 

Everything else is really great here! I ate some amazing Chicken just barely with some members that love us so I am super happy! Love you all so much and take care!

Elder Davies

Monday, March 9, 2015

Week 17 - Erica's Baptism Pics & Luche Libre!

Kelson with Elder Rodriguez: His first and only companion so far!
Hello! I said Hello! (Dad's ps, that is the first line of the Nauvoo Pageant Kelson was involved with for 9 years!)

I quoted like the first ten minutes of the Nauvoo Pageant this morning so I thought I'd start out my weekly like that :D How are you all? First of all, thank you all for the sweet emails and letters you are sending me! I never knew how much those meant to a missionary until I was here!

Erika got baptized this week! She is Queztalyn's, David's, and Dulce's Mom! We were so excited for her! On Wednesday we talked to her about being baptized this week and she said she wanted to get baptized, but she still felt like she was missing something. We told her to pray about being baptized and that we'd come back Friday! I was on divisions in our Area with our Zone Leader, Elder Padilla, and so we went to visit her and Queztalyn and she said she still felt she was missing something! We shared a lot of scriptures about getting answers to prayers and what her answer would be like. She didn't really know what she was expecting, so it was hard for her to recognize when she got it. She said she felt peace, one of the fruits of the Spirit! So we testified to her that this was her answer and invited to her to be baptized Sunday! And she said no. She said for sure NEXT Sunday. I told her that there are always two forces working on us, or two voices in our head: one is for good (The Spirit) and one is for bad (the adversary). I asked her to think which voice tells her to get baptized this week and which voice is saying to wait. She then responded confidently, "I'm getting baptized this Sunday!" And yes she did! :)
Erica's Baptism. Her kids were baptized a few weeks ago!
Queztalyn, David and their mother, Dulce at her baptism
Someone REALLY didn't want her to be baptized because EVERYTHING got in the way! First of all, the door outside was locked to fill the baptismal font so we had to somehow open a valve and turn on one of the two boiler flames from a tiny window above and I'm not gonna tell you how we did that...And then the drain was broken so we had to put a plastic bag and a chunk of cement over it so that water would stay in! THEN the water overflowed and started running into the hallway so we had to turn it off really fast and empty out a lot of the water with buckets. Then, my favorite part, Erika made a covenant with our Father in Heaven and I have never been happier in my life! I got to go with her and her children to the Temple Visitor's Center and talk more about the Plan our Father has for us. To see this family coming together and taking the first step to being an eternal family has brought me more joy than ANYTHING else in my life! I truly love this work. 

On Friday night we had a Ward Family Home Evening (like we do every first Friday of the Month), but this time was more awesome than ever. I don't know if you remember but a member here, Pepe, whose wife is an investigator makes these huge costume/suits of Minions, Iron Man, etc, so he let us use a Batman Minion costume for the FHE games! My comp was inside and he was there leading all the games and everyone had a great time!
Kelson and his new companion (OK, old companion in comic suit for a Ward Activity)
I also met a semi-famous Luchador (that's what they tell me...) named Octagoncito. I guess all the really famous Luchadors have like a midget version and he is the smaller version of Octagon. We walked in to visit Pepe and his wife and we shook Octagoncito's hand as he was leaving and I had no idea! Haha, pretty great :)

Octagoncito: A famous Mexican Luchador. Seen Nacho Libre? Nuff Said :)
This week has been absolutely fantastic. Today I got to eat a Krispy Kreme donut and CARLS JUNIOR! I about died. SOOO good! The weeks really do go so fast out here on the mission. I love you all so much and hope you are all doing well and staying happy and healthy!

Elder Davies

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Week 16 - Metro Rides and David Archuleta

A "pre-mission" picture of Kelson taken by our neighbor Kenadee Covington

Hey Everyone!

IT'S MARCH ALREADY! It is absolutely insane how fast the time goes on the mission when you are working hard! Things are super great here! Mexico!

On Wednesday we had my first Zone Conference, that was very incredible. I learned so much about how I can teach more effectively and help more people come to know and accept this, the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the way to the Zone Conference, we met this super cool guy named Cesar from South Africa. He knew Spanish but he made me and the other Elders with us speak English to him, and side note, I love South African Accents. Okay, quick detour...THE METRO!

Mexico City Metro (Picture from backpackingwithdave.com)
So the Metro is a 45 year old train that runs all over the Federal District and a little part of the State of Mexico where we are. It is pretty old, but really not as nasty as you'd think. It's a little worse. Just kidding, not that bad. But in the morning around 8 when EVERYONE is going to work in the Federal District it is a madhouse getting on the Metro. At every stop, people literally just help shove another couple people in because if not, we'd never get on. It's AWESOME! It's also super hard to get OFF the metro, fun story.

Mexico City Metro - Rush hour: "PUSH!"
Crowded Mexico City Metro Ride (from Youtube)
Also people will sell all day in the Metros because its 5 pesos to get on and you can move in between whatever trains you want once you're in! 5 Pesos is like 40 cents roughly, so good deal. People sing, people dance, people do theatrical skits, everything you can imagine on the Metros, it's a cool place.


Metro Performers in Mexico (from Youtube)


Anyway, so this morning we were waiting to get shoved on the Metro and we started to talk to this African guy and he asked what our church was all about! So I talked to him about the Restoration and he was a little shocked. I think he was expecting that we couldn't answer him when he asked, "What makes you Mormons different from all the other churches?" I gave him a pamphlet and he said he'd read it. We kept talking as we pushed our way onto the metro and then that's when it got awesome. So he started singing randomly, and it was like some movie! One second we were talking about the Gospel then he broke into song about the Lord! It was like Alex Boye status, super beautiful and super great! He was a good man and I hope he will take the time to learn about what God has once again restored to the earth.


Oh, by the way David Archuleta was here like a week ago Friday and spoke/sang to all the youth in a big stake activity, I didn't get to go but everyone said it was really good. He came with one of the actors in Meet the Mormons to promote the youth to bring their family and friends to see the Movie. I have no idea how the movie is doing, but I hope it is having some success!

David Archuleta greets fans in Mexico City Feb 19, 2015
at the premier of "Meet the Mormons" movie in Mexico City

"Blast from the past" Here is Kelson with David Archuleta in Nauvoo in 2009
David was at the height of his popularity and Kelson got to meet David and got this picture
This week I've been studying the difference between a testimony and true conversion to the Lord. A testimony is something you know, such as that God Lives or that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Conversion, however, is very different. Although conversion often springs from the base of our testimonies given us by the Holy Spirit, very often we are content with our testimonies and forget, or due to laziness procrastinate our path to true conversion. In Alma chapter 19:33 we see a people who had strong testimonies, but more importantly had deep, powerful conversions unto the Lord, a conversion so deep that their very desire to do evil was completely eradicated. We see the same thing in Mosiah 2:5 with the people of King Benjamin whose hearts also underwent such an enveloping, true conversion that it would be all but impossible to take them away from their Lord. My hope and prayer is that we may all continue, and if not continue start, our paths of Conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ so that when hard times come, when Satan works his very hardest to take us off the path that leads to our Father, we will not fall nor waiver because of the depth of our conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love you and I hope you know I'm working very hard out here to be the best missionary that I can be. You are all in my thoughts and in my prayers!

Elder Davies