Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Week 46 - Eden's Baptism

Eden's Baptism

Hey everyone!

Eden got baptized! He is a 9-year-old we found like my second day here! All his family are members except him and his 8-year-old brother Jared who was also baptized this week! Even though Jared was for the Ward, we got to teach him and get them ready together that was a really cool thing! The Sisters also baptized a brother who is just great! His family are all members too, we are excited for them!

Sorry for no details at all but it was a GREAT week! Very busy! Love you all! Choose the Right!

Love,

Elder Davies

Monday, September 21, 2015

Week 45 - A Washing Machine, Molletes, and a Huge Moth.

"Temple of Mexico City" picture taken at Open House for visitors.
They have a similar system in other church sites (San Diego, Mesa Temple, etc)

Hey everyone!

This week has been fantastic! Been very busy, but a great week! I feel like I saw that every week...maybe we should just assume every week is a great week and very busy, okay? Haha!

So a few details about my new area! We share our ward with two Sisters, one just started her mission! They are in the Centro Para Visitantes half the time, so they don't get to leave to their area a ton, but they have some great families they are teaching! I live in an apartment building on the 5th floor (#exercise) and the house is really cool, not huge but it has a lot of good things in there! It has a big couch so that´s great! I love couches! Also it has this thing. I don't remember what it's called but it's that really cool machine that you put your laundry in it and put the soap in and you just push a button and it washes everything! Have you heard of that? It's so cool!! Haha!

This week was great in church, we have a really great ward and I knew a lot of the members from being here every day from the Open House so that was exciting to be able to get here with some of them! I also knew a lot of the investigators here so that was also a cool thing!

Mollete - An Italian inspired Mexico entre
Today we had a Zone Activity and we did lots of fun little games, the funniest was probably one where a companionship left and they had to finger paint a principal or a mission lesson in little time and then they had to guess what it was, it turned out REALLY funny! We made these things called Molletes that are SO delicious!One of our investigators bought us all the stuff this morning and made it ALL and sent her nephews to help us cook them in the stake center! Wahoo! It's basically just like bread with cheese, butter, and refried beans then you cook that and put pico de gallo on top which is made with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, chile, and lots of love. They were DELICIOUS!!

Huge moth from Mexico
So funny story. On Friday night I think I walked into our room and Elder Mejia was laying down on the bed brushing his teeth and he just calmy pointed to the ceiling at a GIANT moth just sitting there hahaha it was SO funny then we had to scare it out...with an umbrella. Horrifying moments. When I was a kid in South Jordan I remember we found one in our shed in a tarp and we were all pretty scared because it sounded like a bird! And this one was as big as that one I think! I got like 8 inches! Just like a flying monster. #Mexico.


Been fixing up the house a little but, it is a good one I feel really lucky to be here! Elder Mejia only has one cycle left after this one so I might get to finish him off! We´ll see what happens!

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

-Elder Davies

Kelson's Ticket for the Rededication session
Zone Picture
The Elder in the middle is set to play for BYU Football next fall :)
Kelson with an investigator
Fresh Mexican Food!
Attendees at the Mexico City Temple Rededication
Mexico City Temple with companion & other missionaries

Pretty colors on the Mexico City hillside in his new area

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Week 44 - Transferred, Zone Leader Calling & "GO TO THE TEMPLE! Right now!"


Hey everyone!
Wow this has been an eventful week! So last week on Tuesday the Assistants called and told me Elder Arenas was going to TRAIN! Wahoo! I was with Elder Hicks because we were working on the referrals, so we got to surprise him later about that and he was SO excited! He actually didn’t believe us (at first)…but he was super excited! He will be a great trainer! The reason why he didn’t really believe us is because they told us Monday night who was going to train, and then Tuesday morning there was a training meeting, but they didn’t tell us anyone in our District was training until AFTER at like 3 PM, so he was confused but excited. So do you know what that means?! That means I will be a grandpa in the mission! I am so old! Haha! On Wednesday he had 3 months in the mission so we bought him a cake! It was probably the best cake I’ve had in Mexico…not gonna lie!

We had Area Seventy from here in Mexico came and speak to our mission.  It was a really good conference about desire and faith, sorry I wish I could tell you all about it but I just have NO time! Just trust me, it was great!

On Saturday I went to do referrals at the Temple and the whole Temple Square was on lock down because there were like 2 Apostles and 10 general authorities there but I got in hehe! I didn't get to see them though but it was SO empty! Still have lots of referrals to get done so they can get them sent out to the other Missions here in Mexico. That night we saw the Cultural Celebration for the Temple via satellite in the Stake Center and that was so great! I've come to love and appreciate the Mexican culture a lot. I was expecting something very similar to the Nauvoo Pageant and it WAS just had a big Mexican twist (which was great)!

I got to go to the three sessions of re-dedication in the Temple and they were all FANTASTIC! For the first two I was in the Stake buildings next to the temple but for the third one there was space in one of the rooms IN the temple so I got to go in! It was so great! We were sitting there about 10 minutes before it started and in walk Elder Eyering and Elder Holland to say hi to all of us! They waved and it was just the sweetest! Everyone was just crying and I realized that for most of these members it was the ONLY time they would ever see an Apostle..in Utah you just run into them on the street like my Dad always would, but this was a big deal! Wish I could tell you more...but there is just no time!

On Monday I got transferred! But not too far. My Zone Leader Elder Mejia called me and told me "You are my new companion!" And I thought he was joking, but it was true! We will serve as Zone Leaders in the Allende ward in the same Stake and Zone where I was (Aragon)! The Temple is literally inside my ward boundaries! How cool is that?! And my "Son" Elder Arenas and my "Grandson" Elder Hernandez stayed here in Azteca so I'll get to be there for the baptisms and to visit people every once in a while!

Today we got to go in the Temple and it was such a sweet experience! I have missed the Temple and I am so glad it's open again! All you people in Utah GO TO THE TEMPLE! Right now! You are so lucky to have a billion temples, if one is closed you drive 5 minutes and there is another! I miss that!

Well I love you all and I hope to hear from you all soon! Loooooove you!

-Elder Davies






Monday, September 7, 2015

Week 43 - Busiest week of my WHOLE mission!

Kelson with friends from the Nauvoo Pageant who are in Mexico helping with
the Temple Celebration Pageant for the Mexico City Temple Pageant
This yellow canopy is there they practice for Saturday Night't performance
Hey everyone!

This week has been the busiest week of my WHOLE mission! I have a lot of stories to tell you so I hope I can keep this all coherent...

So there is this little girl that lives like two blocks away from us and every time she sees us she says, "I LOVE YOU! My name is...." She is trying to ask what MY name is...but it's so adorable! I usually don't talk to her though because I don't know who her parents are I just saw hi to her haha but the other day she was with her cute little friend and I was like Awww my cute little friends that speak English! And then they turned around and they were playing with firecrackers! Like the HUGE ones! I was laughing so hard...Not gonna lie got hit with a firework yesterday that was crazy. Didn't hurt that bad though, it was crazy. Some kid just threw it in the street like a couple feet from my companion and I and we just ran but the shell still got me hahaha! #Mexican Moment
Fixing his shoe
The hole in my shoe is even bigger now but it won't get any bigger (don't worry mom) so I filled it in with hot glue in the offices! I can't believe how well it worked! But it only worked for like 4 hours...sad day.
Video of the hole they found in the street

Yes, Mexico City is sinking

Now that is a deep hole!


So we were walking down the street and there was a little hole like a foot long and almost a foot wide and then I looked in and it just went down like 10 feet hahaha I took some pictures it is pretty wild! This place is dangerous. #Mexico




We got to go to the temple twice this week to take a tour with some investigators. On Thursday we took 3 families (14 people in total) and got on one of the LAST tours! It was SO wild making that all happen. I'm not gonna tell you how many people we fit in a little Nissan Tsuru taxi because y'all would flip (but it was totally 12 people...). It was so worth it though! They loved the tour! The temple is SO gorgeous, I can't wait to be able to go in a week from Wednesday! That is surely the house of the Lord. It represents the best that we can give to the Lord. A lot of people ask us why the Lord´s house has to be so gorgeous and it´s simply because it is HIS house. He requires the best that we can give him! Yesterday (Sunday) we also got to take another part-member family through and they loved it! The Open House was supposed to end on Saturday but because so many people came they extended it to Sunday as well! What a blessing!

Also our Landlord has a Utah Valley Marathon Sticker on his car...so that was super weird to see outside of my house. I freaked out a little bit haha!

Landlord's car has a Utah Valley Marathon sticker. How random?
The other Elders in our ward had a baptism and this is a great story! So Elder Jensen and I were in Bosques together (my first area) and they had a convert named Lupita who is just the BEST member! A few weeks ago Jensen ran into her in the street outside their apartment and it turns out she grew up in our ward! She gave them a referral for her Sister and her family and one of their daughters got baptized and the others are preparing for baptism! We got to talk to Lupita a little and it is just the craziest thing, I taught her a lot after Jensen left and we are really close with their family, they all were there at the baptism and after! Haha so just so you know how awesome Lupita is let me tell you a story. She was VERY active in the Catholic church (I mean hours a day she spent in Mass, doing exorcisms, etc.), and she was confronted by an old Father she was very close to who just wanted to destroy her. He asked her to pull out her Bible to obviously try and confound her and she just said, "Father, I have the truth HERE (and held her hand on her heart), there´s nothing in that book you can twist to try and trick me." He tried ripping on her but she just bore her testimony and she said when the missionaries come you open the door and LISTEN and ask God and he WILL tell you the truth! She said a lot of other AWESOME things but the moral of the story is her friend was left without words and very humbled! GO LUPITA!

I got to attend a baptism for our Zone Leaders and it was by far the coolest baptism I have ever been to. I went with Elder Hicks on divisions on Tuesday and as we went to see this lady (Rosario, her daughter is a member of 26 years) she didn't even open the door she just said that we should leave and not waste our time with her! We were super confused (I even more, I had never taught her and he didn't tell me who she even was haha) but Elder Hicks convinced her to let us come back tomorrow. She had her interview with President on Friday and got baptized Saturday. In her baptism, her daughter shared that in her patriarchal blessing she received a promise that if she faithfully listened to the Holy Ghost and stayed firm in the faith, her mom would be a member of the Church. She testified that the Lord will ALWAYS keep his promises and the Spirit was SO strong. That was so great!

Also the other Elders in my District baptized a lady that has been listening to the missionaries FOREVER and after going to the temple she decided to get baptized! She came in a wheelchair and was just SO happy to be there.

Lots of miracles from the Temple Open House. Wow.
Sister Erin Jones is Kelson's 2nd Cousin on his mother's side. Her mother is Sarah Borden Jones
whose mother is Neva Borden - Noni's Father;'s sister - Got that? HAHA. They saw each other
at the Temple Open House. Sister Jones is in the Mexico City South East Mission.
I also got to see my Second Cousin who is the Mexico City South East Mission and that was so cool! We still have some work to do with the referrals, but we are making progress!

Saw some friends from Salt Lake again doing the Pageant and I got a pictures this time so I'm very happy about that! I am SO excited for the transmission this Saturday! It's gonna be GREAT!

Well I love you all so much! Keep your heads up and don't forget to Pray!

With (lots of) love,

Elder Davies

P.S. Apparently Elder D. Todd Christofferson came to the temple, NO idea when but I was probably there doing referrals haha but just got a bunch of pictures from President Anaya with all the Sisters from the Centro para Visitantes and that were helping out here! How cool is that?

Short Video of a rainy day in Mexico City


Shoe repair with a glue gun...worked for a whole 4 hours!
Yellow Tarp over the practice area for the Mexico City 


Repairing his shoe... didn't work!

Elder Hicks dropping backpack into a window?

Elder Hicks

Family visiting the Mexico City Temple Open House


Mexico City Temple at Night

Apparently all 11 people in this picture fit into one taxi. HAHA!

Random cars parked on the street in their area

This is how you park on small roads in Mexico City.




Sam Bostwick and Cynthia Collier - Friends from the Nauvoo Pageant
who are in Mexico City helping with the Temple Celebration

Elders outside the Chapel after Church on Sunday


another picutre of a family visiting the Temple Open House




Cool spider found outside their apartment



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Week 42 - Krispy Kreme Donuts Mexican Style

At Temple Visitor Center during a Break from processing
Hey Everyone!

This week was just really really busy! We have been going to the temple every day to work on the referrals and we have received SO many! I think Saturday more than 12,000 people went through and we received more than 600 referrals...It doesn't sound that bad but every single one takes about 10 minutes to capture and localize...So....Haha but I love it it´s fun for me I'm really good at stalking addresses now, it will never be hard to find a referral again! Haha!

Mexican Variation of the Krispy Kreme Logo :)
Translation: "Have a Special Day"
Enjoying Krispy Kreme Donuts "Mexican Style" as they have a few
different varieties only found in Mexico
So I got to eat Krispy Kreme donuts again! We were at WalMart last week and one of the Elders saw his brother who lives in our mission and he totally bought us 2 dozen donuts! I was so happy! They had some Mexican style ones though, that was so different...still good though!
We got a good referral this week for someone who we had actually already looked for but the thing was his name was Miguel and so is his dad´s so when we went his dad answered and didn't want to talk to us...but then the son went to the temple open house and sent us a new referral that said Luis Miguel so we knew it was a different one! So we called him and went him saw him that day (Saturday) and but a date for his Baptism for the 20th of September. He was really excited, he knows a LOT! And we came to church and stayed all three hours, that was awesome!

We are planning on taking the family of 12 to the temple on Tuesday, we are crossing our fingers that that all goes through, that would be fantastic. They still haven't made it to church because of family/work problems, but if they go I know things will change! Let's just hope that all works out!

Well this week has been really calm but very busy, don't have a lot of cool stuff to write here but it has been a really good week! So the 16th of September is coming up so that means the craziest part of the year...and they have crazy parties for no reason so just imagine how hard they part when they do have a reason. Buckle up. Haha!

I love you all and hope you're all happy and healthy!

-Elder Davies