Elder Kelson Davies Mission Blog: Mexico City East: 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