Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Week 28: Missionary Work, Heat, Rain and... Math?


Kelson's District (minus the Zone Leaders who were in another meeting)

Hey guys! How's America?

Things are going good here, been a little slow lately! We only had two investigators in church yesterday, and one of them was someones boyfriend we had never met and doesn't want anything, so really we only had one, Francisca. That's okay we are working with her! She and her son, Sergio, have been taking the lessons, but her family has said some stuff to her about us that scared her like we were going to separate her and her son or something so she got a little scared and believed what she heard but now she came back so we are back working with them! Hope things pull through there.

David (the 10 year old whose mom and grandma are members) is coming along too. We have very little left to teach him we are just waiting for him to get his answer that the church is true and then we will throw him in the freezing-cold waters of baptism. He is really great, he is a very smart and loving kid. He'd make a good Bishop. He actually said he wanted to be Bishop, so we told him he has to get baptized first haha! And he wants to go to France on his mission! He LOVES soccer so we are gonna try and get him to go play with the other youth at the church!

Leticia is coming along too. Her mom (who is sick in bed from a heart attack) and brother (with Epilepsy) is too, but he just got put into the hospital because he was having some really bad struggles and they were worried about his safety and the safety of the family so he has been gone since mid last week. It's gonna be hard to get Leticia to the church because she can't leave her mom and her mom can't leave the bed...so we will see what happens there.

We have been a little bummed about Erick he is never home and STILL hasn't come to church. He always says he will, but then we can't get a hold of him Sunday and he doesn't come. He is a great guy we just gotta TEACH him! We have only taught him once and he wanted to get baptized and everything. He also is my dream investigator because I have always dreamed to find a Mexican that likes American Country music...and HE DOES! He lived int he states a lot of years and he said he LOVED country music. So that is a cool thing!

Rain in Mexico City
So it rains here. Every. Day. Like every day it starts normal and gets hot and then at like 5 all the sudden with NO warning these clouds run in and pour rain. It is SO cool! I actually really love the rain! It reminds me of Nauvoo rain because it is so strong when it rains. I LOVE Nauvoo rain storms! But in Nauvoo it never rained during the missionary work, but here it does. So we just keep on going! We don't like to use umbrellas because we look like other religious ministers, but sometimes we don't wanna get wet so we do it anyway. Hey mom that $5 umbrella we threw in at the last second was a great idea! Thanks!

Dad Notes on weather and rainfall in Mexico City: 
  • On average, the warmest month(s) are April and May.
  • Most rainfall (rainy season) is seen in June, July, August and September.
  • Mexico City has dry periods in January, February, March, April, November and December.
  • On average, the warmest month is May.
  • On average, the coolest month is January.
  • July is the wettest month.
  • February is the driest month.
So I got to do MATH this week! MATH! I forgot about that! Our Bishop is studying engineering and he had an Algebra problem that he was working on for like 4 hours and I helped him with it and DANG it was hard! I'm gonna give you all this problem and if any of you figure it out I will give you a big hug in a year and a half, okay ready? I'm gonna translate the math question...

There is a magazine stand with a certain number of magazines. There are three types of magazines: Cars, Sports, and Gossip Magazines. 50% of the Car Magazines plus 60% of the Sports magazines make up 30% of the total number of magazines. 20% of the car magazines plus 60% of the sports magazines plus 60% of the Gossip magazines make up 50% of the total number of magazines. There are 50 more Sports magazines than Car Magazines. How many total magazines are there and how man are there of each kind?

It seems simple at first then your mind just gets destroyed because some math teacher is just laughing at us all but jokes on him, I figured it out! HA!

Well yeah things are going good here. I love this work and I love the Lord. I'm grateful for the chance I have to serve and I know I am so imperfect and like King Benjamin said, even if I worked 100% of all I could I would still be unprofitable to the Lord because he gives me immediate blessings and many greater blessings to come when I serve him; I don't serve him to pay him back (I can't ever pay him back...), I serve him because I LOVE him. And I love you all too!!

Elder Davies

P.S. Here are some photos with the mission in the mission conference with Elder Christensen-

Where's Waldo... er... Elder Davies?
Hint:  He is always in the middle of everything, right? (click to enlarge)

Picture of Elder Christensen addressing the Mexico City East Mission


Monday, May 25, 2015

Week 27 (late): Conference with Elder Christensen


(Note from Dad: this post from last week. I was on a cattle drive and didn't get it posted HAHA!)

Hey everyone!

How are you all? Thank you all for your wonderful emails and support, it sure does mean the world to me!

Image result for Craig C. Christensen
Elder Craig C Christensen
This weekend (Saturday) we had the opportunity to be taught by Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy and President De Hoyos (Area Seventy President) in a Spiritually edifying Mission Conference. Elder Christensen was Mission President in this very mission 20 years ago and speaks VERY good Spanish, so that was so interesting to get to hear him talk about his experiences here and in his life in Spanish! He is a very tall guy. Spiritually and physically.

Elder Christensen taught us about how his dad was Stake President and how before he left on his mission, his dad took him to see the missionaries coming home from the stake. His dad very lovingly said the first 2 visits "That is a missionary that dedicated his mission to the Lord!" but, unfortunately, for another Elder that come home said in very carefully to his son "He didn't quite make it. He didn't strive to do what the Lord expected of him." He said throughout his mission he had that fear as a motivation because he knew when he got back his dad would be able to see immediately what kind of experience he had as a missionary.

He went on to explain how every time we feel the Spirit, it cleans and sanctifies us, changing who we are. He said how this was the way his father was able to see how the missionaries were, based on how changed they were by their missions and the influence the Spirit had had on them as they strived to keep the mission rules and be successful. He told us that he was able to do a similar thing with all of us as we shook his hand (We all got to greet him after taking a picture with him as a mission), immediately recognizing which were the missionaries that were dedicated to this work. That made a lot of people feel uncomfortable...hahaha!

This type of experience made me think what it might be like to return to our Heavenly Home with our Heavenly Father and present ourselves before him. Surely more than any other man, servant of God or not, He would know perfectly and completely how we lived our lives. How would we feel to enter His presence now, He knowing everything we ever did, thought or desired in this life? Would we shrink with shame, or with joy draw ever closer to Him? I have made that a goal now to always strive to be ready for the day when the judge of all men will see me and there will be no excuses or ways to hide the life we lived. I want to be ready for that day and be able to enter his presence with a confidence knowing that I was NOT perfect, but I did TRY perfectly to be the best that I could be.

He taught us so many things about how we can work to be more effective and spiritual missionaries and the importance of our obedience. We did a reverse Questions and Answers where President Anaya, Presidente De Hoyos, and Elder Christensen asked US questions, and one of them was by Elder Christensen in which he asked us why it was so hard for us to be obedient. That was pretty strong, but it helped us all to think about that and the real importance it is in this, the Lord's work.

Image result for doubt your doubts before you doubt your faithWell this week we found a few really cool people! One of them is Leticia, her brother is a member who has serious epilepsy and can't really function any more, but we went to visit him and his mom who had a heart attack a few years ago and has since remained in bed and we found the sister. Leticia wasn't really interested in listening to us, but wanted us to come and visit her mom and brother because she has a lot of responsibility and they get really depressed being all alone so we just taught them all the Restoration in 2 different visits. After the second visit I asked Leticia how she could know what church was true and she said, "I was fine before but know I am doubting that my church is true! I don't know how to know...please tell me!" So we told her she needs to pray! And then she asked if her baptism as a baby was valid and we told her. "That depends on which church truly has the authority of God, doesn't it?" And she was like "oh no I wanna make sure I get baptized the right way so I can live with God!" So we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! The hardest thing with her is going to be helping her get to church because she really can't leave her mom and brother alone, and her mom can't leave her bed. We will get it worked out, if she has a desire there is always a way. That was a fun little experience!

Well things are great here, I'm just loving life and learning lots! I hope you are all well and happy and I can't wait to hear from you all soon!

Elder Davies

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Week 26: "I have 6 months!" Museum, Videos & BOM Challenge

Kelson with Elder Pezantes at the Mexico City Museum of Natural History

Kelson being eaten by a Dinosaur :)


A short clip from Kelson's Mother's Day call home

Hey everyone!

So we had transfers on Tuesday and GUESS WHAT? Nothing happened with me and my comp WAHOO! I was really hoping neither of us got transferred so I'm so glad we are still all here!

So I "Face Timed" with my Mommy and family on Sunday which was insane! (Dad Note: Their ward mission leader let them use his I-Pad - He works for the LDS church) I can't believe you people actually exist! WOW! That was awesome.  Thanks for the fun chat like I told them I only have 2 of 4 phone calls home left and I have 6 months so I got ripped off, but that's okay!

(Dad note: "I have 6 months now" is a literal Spanish translation of  how you say in Spanish "Tengo 6 meses ya" or "I have 6 months now" which really means "I have been on my mission for 6 months now." This is similar to age "Tengo 20 anos" or "I have 20 years" which means "I am 20 years old." Just clarifying his broken English, haha!)

Oh and I have SIX MONTHS NOW! Wow. There is a baby that was born in November when I started the mission in this ward and every time I see that baby I think "We came to Mexico together, and when you can walk and talk and everything I'll be heading home. Grow baby, grow! To celebrate I bought 6 tacos with my companion and ate them all.  I can't wait to have 12 months because Mmmmmm 12 tacos! (Dad note: So at 18 months... 18 tacos? He said he is up to 185 lbs. I wonder why? haha)

Elder Davies at a Museum of Natural History in Mexico City
Today we went to a museum called the Museum of Anthropology and that was pretty cool! I was laughing a lot because their English translations of almost all the exhibits was so bad haha. Gentry and Jonah it was like Engrish.com. For example, one explained how the scientists found "big guns" on Jupiter but it was supposed to say "canyons."  But "canyons" and "canons" are the same word in Spanish so whoever translated that made a boo boo. Also felt pretty beat up because they were a little upset about the US sending chimpanzees into space, they were a little disappointed in the "North Americans".  I don't know why they always call us that, Mexico is part of North America, you can say it's Central America but I have seen a map. It's North America too! Haha. But it was pretty great!


Chimps in space
We are starting to use lots of Family History with the members and investigators, especially to prepare members to enter the temple when it opens in September with family names. We had a lot of cool experiences this week. We went visited a member who got baptized a few years ago but his wife and daughter are not members and are active in another church.  They weren't really excited to see or talk to us, but we started talking about culture and history with the Sister and she really liked that. So we are like hey, FAMILY HISTORY! So we told her about it and explained the church's programs and FamilySearch.org and she is like show me! So we showed her my family tree (by the way thank you Mom and Grandma Olsen and everyone else who has worked on that! I did nothing and I have a wicked cool family tree) and she was like wow! I showed her pictures of my ancestors and old documents and we felt impressed so search one of her ancestors which is like shooting from the hip because Mexico's registries and such are kinda like the water in my first house here (very rarely existed...). But GUESS WHAT! Someone has done a lot of work with her family members and she has a ton of ancestors registered and she was like WOW! There were pictures, dates, documents, and more ancestors! We are gonna take her, her husband and their daughter to the chapel and have the ward mission leader or another member help them make accounts and get going.  Hopefully she will let us teach her later on. The spirit of Elijah is so strong and it is a powerful tool for teaching! I don't know why I haven't used this more often! Who doesn't wanna find their family?!

Hey also I talked to my family about this when I "Face Timed" them but I also want to invite all of you to read the Book of Mormon with me in 40 days! I am going to attach a schedule but I am going to start today and read it! The translation of the Book of Mormon took about 80 days which is incredible, so we can definitely read it in 40! I can promise you all that if you take this challenge and read the Book of Mormon and pray about it with real intent to act on an answer you receive, you will receive a special witness by the Holy Spirit that the book is True. If you have already received such a witness, I promise you will get it again. Read the book! It's true and it teaches us so much more about Christ and his Gospel. I'd love to hear your experiences throughout this challenge for those of you who want to accept it! Make sure to start with the Introduction, preface, testimonies, etc!

(Dad Note: Here is the PDF Reading Schedule, and  40 day challenge facebook page)
Love you all so much!

Elder Davies

Cute puppies at a member's home

Elder Pezantes in front of the Museum they visited

Elder Pezantes
A view from Kelson's Apartment
Some Elders from Kelson's District
Elder Hix (L) played football at Bingham High in South Jordan, UT.
Headed to BYU after?

Monday, May 4, 2015

Week 25 - Email Basketball, Wicked Watch Tan & Kelson in a Mormon Message Video :)

Kelson "Hang Loose" pic in his apartment on P-Day. Proudly wearing the Y shirt :)



So this is a Mormon Message that used some stock footage
taken of Kelson looking at the Nauvoo Temple back a few summers ago.
Sister Elaine Dalton did some interviews and her film crew took some video
of a few of the youth in the Nauvoo Pageant. Kelson's back was apparently his
best feature. HAHA!


Hey guys!!  I have such a crazy watch tan I realized! I took off my watch and there was this bright light shining from my wrist and it WAS my wrist! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it does okay...
Kelson's awesome watch tan :)
Baptism of Axel who is 8. They have enjoyed visiting with this family!
So we had a baptism this week but it kinda doesn't count but that's okay! His name is Axel! We found his family (they are a less active family) and they have been coming to church and he just got baptized on Wednesday! It was pretty great especially because the water was ICE cold. The boiler doesn't work! Haha great time, but a brother in the ward baptized him so we didn't even have to get in the water, too bad! Something REALLY cool happened at the baptism, but I'll get to that in a second!

So this last Sunday (Apr 26th) we had a fast as a Zone to be able to find families to teach and baptize in May. We have seen SO many miracles from this fast! We found a lady named Francisca and her son Sergio who is 16 and they are fantastic. They are neighbors and friend with some really great members and they came to church this week! That was great. Mario is also progressing and we have a baptismal date with him for the 24 of May, but he wants to wait till his wife gets back and he can explain why he is getting baptized so we will see how that all pans out! Also David is progressing he is 10 years old and his mom is a member and so is his grandma which also gives us food and she cooks SOOOO great. The other Elder here told me she cooked an Apple Pie and it tasted like an American Apple Pie. I hope I get lucky and get me some apple pie. But yeah, super excited for Francisca and Sergio, pray for them they have a lot of opposition in their family!

So after this fast, I have been worried about some companionships that aren't having a lot of success and are getting pretty discouraged, but man the coolest thing happened! This lady came to the church during Axel´s baptism on Wednesday and had her little son with her and said they wanted to learn more about our church! AWESOME! So we go to their house the next day and it was across the street that divides our area with the other Elders area so we talked for a second and explained the other Elders would actually be the ones to teach them and we called the other Elders and told them we found their Family they had been fasting and praying for! I said they are 4 and want to get baptized! Well, that was right! The four of us Elders went back about an hour later and taught them and put a baptismal date with them for the 24th of May, and they are SUPER excited. Turns out the mom had already listened to the missionaries a lot and her mom was a member as of 3 years ago and goes every week! All the kids have been to church. The parents were seperated for a while but are now back together and are determined to make their family united and, now that they know it can be, ETERNAL! Miracles exist, I have seen them so much this week!!

MEXICAN MOMENT! There is a meat shop here and its name is, and I'm not joking: "The Surprise" Meat Distribution. I don't know what it is about that name that makes me want to never, ever ever ever ever eat anything that comes from that store. It literally had parenthesis around The Suprise, that is horrifying. HAHAHA!

Things are super great here, just living the dream things are so amazing. So we have changes a week from tomorrow so P-day will be Wednesday next week but Mommy I'll see you on Sunday on FACETIME!!! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!

Love you all!

-Elder Davies

Another picture of Axel's baptism with his family

Shooting Baskets with emails? He does much better with hockey :) HAHA