Week 59 - Silent Night on Ukulele video, Carls Jr & Danna's Baptism!

Zone Conference and Temple Visit!

Hola Family and Friends!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This week has been fantastic!
On Tuesday, half of the mission had our Christmas Activity. We had the opportunity to enter the Temple in the morning which was AMAZING!! We took lots of pictures, so enjoy those! After the Temple we went to the Aragón stake center and had a program where all the missionaries did songs and talents by zone and a few individuals and it was a lot of fun!

Silent Night - Kelson on Ukulele and singing :)

I actually played Silent Night on the Ukulele with Elder Williams from another zone and it was lots of fun but we couldn´t really practice till during the program so I kinda didn´t know the second verse so I just kinda mixed it with the third verse...I always do that, don´t I? It´s alright...everyone speaks Spanish, my companion said no one noticed...haha!

Hot Chocolate and Referrals - Zone Activity was a success!

On Wednesday night we had our Zone Activity! We got permission to not do it on Monday during P-day a few weeks ago to do a proselyting activity! We made a giant cauldron of Hot Chocolate and gave it out in front of the Hospital next to the temple and gave out cards of "A Savior is Born" and got some great referrals! It was so fantastic, we had a LOT of success and gave out a TON of chocolate!

Christmas Eve was fantastic! Here in Mexico, the big celebration isn't Christmas Day, it's the 24th in the night where they have a HUGE dinner and get drunk and all that fun stuff! But the members don´t get drunk, so don't you worry about that! We are teaching a man named Gabriel who is homeless, so we went and say him on Christmas Eve because everyone was busy...and we had a great lesson! We are trying to help him not smoke and drink so he can be baptized in January! He has actually already been to church a lot but hasn't been able to give up smoking and drinking, so pray for him! After we finished with him we went to the Stake Center to see if the baptismal font needed to be cleaned and on the way there as we passed the Visitors´ Center a lady got out of a taxi and she asked if she could go in the Temple Square to see the lights. The one day of the year when Temple Square is closed is from 3PM the 24th of December till 3PM on the 25th, and that is when she came! We talked to the security guards and they opened it up and gave us 15 minutes to go in and show her all the Christmas lights! Her name was Dana. We began immediately teaching her the Restoration, and she explained that she had been looking for these answers for so long. She has Pneumonia and every time she has tried to come to the Temple she has gotten REALLY sick but she was SO glad she came and we were so glad we found her there! She lives far away, but we are going to get her hooked up with the missionaries there!!

 

On Christmas Eve, we pulled out our beds and slept by our $7 Christmas tree, and that was awesome!! 

On Christmas day I got to talk to my beautiful family!! We skyped from the mission offices and when I started my call there were like 6 missionaries watching to see my family and what was our surprise when my 3 older brothers were in Luchador masks and my dad in a BYU poncho HAHAHAHA!!! I just died of laughter and so did everyone else! I love my family. We put the "fun" in "dysfunctional"! HAHA!

Also I found out in that skype call home that I will be the Uncle of a BABY GIRL!!! WAHOO!!! Mom and Dad, I hope you feel old because you´re gonna be GRANDPARENTS and I´m never going to stop calling you Grandma and Grandpa! HAHA!

On Saturday Danna Paola got Baptised! Wahoo!! It was a beautiful baptism and our convert of 1 month, Axel, got to baptize her! I was able to confirm her on Sunday and Axel blessed the sacrament for the first time! There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing someone get baptized...and the only thing that really compares is seeing someone who was just baptized baptize someone else!

Danna's Baptism

Well I love you all so much, I hope you have a GREAT week and......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!! Make some good New Year´s Resolutions and let´s see how many days we can keep them all!

With Love,

Elder Davies
P.S. Today I ate CARLS JUNIOR!!! MMMMmmmm!!!

Tastes like home!

Missions make you HAPPY!

Yep, sure need the roof rack for this huge tree. HAHA!

Week 58 - Merry Christmas! Little Ceasar's, Ronald McDonald & Selfies Candies?

A Little Ceasar's Pizza opened up near Kelson's Apartment. YUM!

Hey everyone!

IT´S ALREADY CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!! What?! I feel like it was just barely LAST Christmas! Can you believe that? Time flies when you are in Mexico. Isn´t that a saying? It should be...

Well this week was very exciting! I did splits with the Assistants I went with Elder Matos from the Dominican Republic (Shout out to Elder Valenzuela!) and that was AWESOME! I learned a lot and we had the chance to teach a lot of really amazing lessons! As we were walking to the food we ran into a random Ronald McDonald (bench and all) in front of someone´s house hahaha I can only imagine how they got a hold of that...I decided if I ever get really rich I´m gonna have one of those benches outside me house too! Haha!

So last week we found this REALLY awesome family! I think I wrote about them...but they are so great! Their names are Ruperto and Adriana and they have two ADORABLE little girls! We went back with them yesterday and taught them and they accepted a baptismal challenge for the 17th of January!! YES! We just have to get them married...Ruperto had to work so he couldn´t come to church but Adriana showed up at church like a half hour early with her little girls and she LOVED it all! So pray for them that we can get them all married up and such real soon! All the civil registries are closed...soo it´ll probably be in the new year but we still have like 4 weeks to get it all worked out!

Dana is getting ready for her baptism this weekend so pray that that all works out! We are also working with Estela her mom and her cousin Patricia so pray for them too! Also we have a family that is great (they´re actually family members of Estela) who have three little girls that all want to be baptized but their dad won´t let them...so you could pray that Carlos has a soft heart!

We had our Zone Class this week and it went really well! The Sister Training Leaders and the Assistants helped us doing examples of how to teach effectively and how to challenge people to baptism. Our Zone has a lot of new missionaries (with less than 6 months) so we are hoping this will help them! I love new missionaries because they are just so willing to learn and try everything!

Now that there is a Little Caesar´s here I have eaten there a LOT recently…sometimes the families we eat with want to give us food so we can eat out and guess where we go…I think I am eating more Little Caesar´s pizza here than I did at home haha! I love it so much.

Selfies Candies - Disgusting. HAHA!

Okay let´s see the eventful moments of this week…well I found candy called Selfies and just in case you´re wondering, they are absolutely disgusting. Gross. I also am trying to stop saying dumb missionary slang like fetch, heck, all those fun words so my companion and I have made a deal that every time we saw one of those words we have to give each other a peso (that´s like 7 cents, a fortune as a missionary). Needless to say, my language has improved but I am a little poorer. Totally worth it!

I love you all and I hope you have a FANTASTIC Christmas! Send me lots of pictures!

Love,
Elder Davies

Zone Picture

Random Ronald McDonald by a house?

Week 57 - Tijuana Temple Dedication & a great big BUG :)

Kelson didn't send a picture this week of himself - so here is one from a year ago!

Hey Family and Friends!

How are you all? This week has been SO cool! Well on Wednesday night as we left our apartment building we found his crazy bug so I took a picture....that´s next to a 2 peso coin for all you American folk which is like a little bigger than a penny. It was crazy.

We found some good new people this week! Elder Gallardo and I have been working like crazy and loving it! We found a family their names are Ruperto and Adriana and they two little girls one is 3 years old the other is 3 months old and they are SO cute! They were walking outside the Visitors´ Center and their little girl said, "I want to go in and see Jesus!!" so they went in! They loved the order and organization of everything! We taught them some of the plan of Salvation on Sunday morning and they are excited to keep learning! We will go back with them next Sunday because they work all week but they also committed to come to church next week! YES!

Video of the fun bug Kelson found. Awesome!

 Also pray for Estela and Dana they are progressing and I hope we can help them be baptized before the New Year! They are so great!

So the 12th of December is the day the celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe which the Virgin Mary which returned to Mexico to a guy and now they all worship her...so that got pretty crazy! They do pilgrimages to the Basilica, which is like the big Catholic church of the Virgin, and they get pretty into it! We saw thousands of people walking, on motorcycles, in trucks and cars, etc. There are even people that come from other states but they come CRAWLING ON THEIR KNEES! Wow! The best part of the Virgin day was all the fireworks. There were just a TON of those! I can´t complain. I never understood why we had the second commandment until I got here. How much clearer can it be? But I love the Mexican people!

Virgin of Guadalupe Pilgrimage

More pictures of the "Día De La Virgen De Guadalupe 2015"

As a lot of you know, the Temple of Tijuana was dedicated yesterday by President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks! There were three dedicatory session and I loved every single one! I wish I could share all the wonderful things I learned but I just can´t! Axel our convert was there with us in the second session and that was so awesome! One of the stories I loved was a story President Uchtdorf told. I invite you all to read this story because it is very beautiful and very Christmassy! You can read the story here:

http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2892/

 

Tijuana Temple Dedication - Kelson got to see it at their Stake Center

Elder Oaks taught in the 3rd session about how we should seek revelation to understand the deep symbolism of the temple ceremonies. He said something like the temple ceremonies which were given by revelation must also be understood by revelation! Read Jacob 4:6-8, those scriptures also explain the importance of revelation!

 

President Uchtdorf Dedicates the Tijuana Mexico Temple

Mormon News‎ - 1 day ago
149th Temple in the World Is Dedicated in Tijuana, Mexico. 13th Mormon temple in Mexico.

President Uchtdorf in his last talk spoke of three experiences Jesus had in the temple that teach us what WE should do in the temple. The first was when he was a little boy and his family found him in the temple speaking with the religious leaders. He mentioned how more than anything, Jesus was asking questions and LISTENING. He learned line upon line as well in his youth the gospel, and we should seek to listen just as much as he did when we enter the temple. The second experience was when he found the money-changers in the temple and he cleansed and purified that holy house, the House of the Lord. Our bodies are also temples in which the Holy Ghost can dwell, but we must be also purified and cleansed. He said we will never be perfect, but a good indicator of our worthiness and cleanliness is how worthy we feel to have a current temple recommend. The third story took place little time before Jesus atoned for our sins. They asked Jesus what the great commandment of the Law was and he said we should love the Lord or God above all else and love our neighbors as ourselves. He asked to frequently ask ourselves questions such as "Do I love God? How do I manifest that love? Do I love my neighbors? How do I demonstrate that love?"

I love you all and I hope you enjoy your week! Make an effort to go to the Temple this week, there is no place more holy upon this earth then the very dwelling place of our Heavenly Father and His Son.

Love,

Elder Davies

Week 56 - Fun at the Zoo & New Companion

Fun at the Zoo

Hey Family!

This week has been a full ride, no time to sit or sleep or do anything which is GREAT! I love it that way and wouldn't want it ANY other way!

Elder Mejía finished his mission on Friday so I stayed with Elder Duran and Elder Flores for a few days. We had a devotional on Friday night and it was great! We say the two new videos for the "A Savior is Born" initiative of the church and we were edified by the testimonies of 4 recent converts from our stake and that was just absolutely beautiful!

Trip to the Zoo as Elder Mejia's last "hurrah" before going home

I got to work a little in my ward when I had some members to accompany me and that was also a great experience! On Sunday I could only go to sacrament meeting in my ward then I had to go with the other Elders and then we enjoyed the First Presidency´s Christmas Devotional in the Stake Center!

Monday I stayed with Elder Snoozy whose companion was going to train so when the new Elder arrived I was able to stay with him in my area Monday afternoon.

Tuesday morning I received my new companion!! He is ELDER GALLARDO!! Elder Gallardo is from Monterrey and has two transfers left in his mission so this will most likely be his last area! He is hard worker and very obedient so I have already enjoyed our time together a lot. He speaks PERFECT English so that is the best. He is also an incredible artist, I´ll be sending pictures of some of his drawings later on!

Today we went to the Zoo with the Assistants and the Secretaries and that was SO cool! I mean not that cool...but I haven´t seen animals except dogs and chickens and cats and birds for many moons. I was very excited. I saw the deer and I was just SO excited! I have never been so excited to see a deer! 

Mexico City Temple at Sunset

We are working hard with a lot of great people so pray for Estela and Dana that they can make the decision to be baptized really soon! Also Amalya, she needs to feel the desire to be baptized because she is already ready! We are excited to get things going here in the Zone we got some really good new missionaries here! The Assistants got moved from the Zone they have been in for some years now to the Aragon ward of our stake that is just across the street from us so this zone is gonna be contacting a lot of people these next few months! Excited for the changes, that always keeps us going as missionaries! 

Love you all, stay faithful and stay strong! Make good choices and don´t forget the goal that we all have which is to return to our Father in Heaven. If that is our first priority, everything else will either fit in perfectly to our lives or fall out completely! I testify of that because I have seen that!

Love,

Elder Davies

PS Enjoy the pictures of us at the Zoo and this awesome picture I got of the sunset behind the temple!

More fun at the zoo

Zoo Fun

Selfie at the Zoo

Transfer pictures

Mexico City Zoo