Week 96 - Patriarch Lifferth Surprize! "I love this culture. And I LOOOVE tacos"

Hello friends and family!!

South Jordan Patriarch : The Lifferth's!

This week has been quite the week! On Wednesday - while in a coordination meeting in the Visitors' Center with the Sister missionaries of our ward - in walked my Patriarch from South Jordan and his wife! It was so wonderful to run into them at the Mexico City Temple! We got to talk for a few minutes and he told me that he had served in Mexico City over 45 years ago and the people that were with him were his converts from one of the Stakes in our mission! Wow! He told me that his first area was in San Pedro el Chico, on of the colonies that I am working in right now that is in our ward! What a small world!!

On Friday night we had our Stake party for the 15th of September (Independence Day) and it was AWESOME! They went all out! It looked like a concert outside the Stake Center! It was great to have some investigators and converts there to enjoy a lot of time together eating and watching some cultural dance here from Mexico! I am pretty much Mexican now, just so y'all know! I absolutely love this culture! And I love tacos! I LOOOVE tacos...

Sunday was great. A few of our investigators made it to church and loved it! My companion and I were invited by the Stake President to the Stake Council and all of the brothers and sisters with Stake assignments got to together and made a missionary campaign for the Stake! It is wonderful. It's called #ViveLaExperiencia (#LiveTheExperience) and it focuses on encouraging all of the members to live the experience of sharing he Gospel to friends, family, and neighbors. It is going to be fantastic!

Yesterday we planned to paint a recent convert's house with the Sister Missionaries but at the last minute they had to cancel on us. Coming out of lunch with the Sisters we decided to pray to know who else we could serve for the time we had planned to do so. Immediately one of our investigators name's came to my mind and after a moment my companion said her name too so we went right away!

When we got there (and the Sisters went to a quick appointment) we talked for about 45 minutes and she opened up her heart to us. She explained why she hadn't been baptized and how she really felt about everything we taught. She has read the entire Book of Mormon and knows it's true but some very specific things were holding her back (things that we are absolutely going to be able to fix!).

After talking we explained to her the real reason why we had come...SERVICE! Reluctantly she accepted and turns out she needed help with getting some sheet metal and other materials organized into a water-proof shed and we were able to get EVERYTHING together in under an hour and a half with the help of the Sister Missionaries!

The moral of the story is even when we don't know exactly who needs our help... God does! Whenever you want to know, just go ahead and ask him! If you ask with a real desire to help and a little faith, He'll answer! I promise

I love this Gospel and I know it's true! Keep moving forward, I love you all

Love,

Elder Davies

Week 95 - Zone Exchanges, Many Miracles & Pray for Elder Cux!

September 6, 2016

Hello!

This week was a wonderful week!

We had the opportunity to start our exchanges with the Zone Leaders and they were great! We did three this week. One of our Zone Leaders had to return to Guatemala for his Visa (he´s my ex-companion) and he´s been having trouble getting back in the country...pray for him so that he can get back!

On Friday we had our Mission Leadership Conference and it was incredible! We talked about a lot of wonderful things including the importance of Joseph Smith to us in this dispensation, revelation, and meaningful planning. What I love about President Naumann is that everything he teaches us is just as applicable in life after the mission as it is now! He is preparing us so well! Elder Cux (that is in Guatemala for his Visa) joined us over Skype to take part in the conference so that was fun!

We saw many, MANY miracles this week. We have noticed that as we make our best effort to find people to teach they will just fall from heaven! They really do! This week we found a lot of new investigators and some of them have already been to church before! Our Bishop has very little time as Bishop (4 months) but he is so willing to work and does his part so wonderfully! We had a ward council on Sunday that was amazing. We talked about the Church´s self-reliance program and the doctrine of it. He´s just so wonderful!

Today we went to a Brazilian restaurant/buffet for Elder Dillon´s birthday and it was AWESOME! It was really similar to what is Rodizio Grill or Tucanos in Utah...GOOOOOOD food! I will definitely be going back there! We saw some other missionaries there eating as well and we took a picture!

Oh, also this week we saw an Elder that was here about a year ago! Fun to see him!

Well, all is well! Keep pressing forward and I hope you all are happy and healthy!

Love,

Elder Davies

 

Week 94 - Francisco's Baptism in Pradera & Training with Elder Reyes

August 29, 2016

Howdy Y´all!!

My companions from Texas so I´m learning his lingo!

This week was just a BLUR! I can´t believe how fast it passed by. It has been a busy but wonderful week.

We were getting the new house all ready and set up here in our ward when the secretaries called and said that a general authority or two were coming to the Aragon Stake Center. We are hardly ever in the offices but the Secretaries had just pulled EVERYTHING out and we had to make it all disappear within a couple of hours HAHA! Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson came with one of the Counselors in the Young Mens General Presidency and a couple other seventies were there so it was fun to see everything that was happening! Lots of people. Being in this stake always means running into fun people!

On Sunday I went and got to see Francisco´s baptism in Pradera!! He and his family all looked SO happy! I started teaching Francisco when I had just barely got to Pradera in about February and we saw him maybe once or twice a month but right before I left is when he decided to be baptized. His wife and daughter were baptized over two years ago and she is serving as Relief Society President. They looked SO happy for the decision he had made. She and her daughter were in a car accident on Saturday and they almost had to postpone the baptism but Francisco´s wife wasn´t going to wait one more week until he was baptized! They are so wonderful.

On Saturday afternoon we had a Ward Council training with Elder Reyes (the area seventy assigned to our mission) and it was awesome. Later that evening we had a meeting with all the missionaries in our Stake and the Stake President and we made an awesome plan of how we are going to do missionary work here in the stake. We are very excited!

Things are going really well here! It has been fun to be back here in my old ward and be able to see old friends and find new people to teach and love. I know that for some reason there is still some work for me to do in this area and that´s why I´m here!

I know this church is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I know that Joseph Smith was his prophet called to restore the Gospel.

Love,

Elder Davies

Week 93 - Transferred to Allende... Again!

August 23, 2016Hey Friends and Family!

Sorry for the short note yesterday, I´ll explain a little bit later in this email why I wasn't able to write...It´s been a crazy week! This week was transfer week and my companion and I were transferred! President Naumann has been looking for one of the best wards to put the us in and he felt we should be in Allende! Allende is in the same stake as I´m in right now (Aragon Stake) and, yes, it´s my old area! My companion and I stayed together! It´s his last transfer though, so I´m going to be the missionary that finishes him off!

On Wednesday and Thursday we had our last two Zone Conferences and they were AWESOME! President Naumann is a master teacher and we all left very edified. We have seen SO many miracles in the mission in the last couple of week with the missionaries in all parts of the mission.

After we finished the transfers we had to look for a few new houses for the missionaries and it was amazing how quickly we could find the houses we needed for the new areas. Everything worked out JUST perfectly, we got all the contracts signed JUST in time! Everything worked out perfectly! And one of the houses we found was owned by two less-active members so we are going to have the chance to maybe help them out a bit!

Yesterday was the day the new missionaries got here from the MTC so we left out house at around 6AM to go to the MTC to pick them up and take them to the mission home to get to know the mission President. After that we took them to the Aragon Stake Center and they all received their new companions. Everyone was really happy! After that we took the missionaries that were going home (today) to the mission home and stayed the night, that was amazing! We learned a lot and had the chance to hear about some wonderful experiences those missionaries had had.

That´s why I couldn't write yesterday...

Well, all is well! We are busy getting the house into shape and getting the area ready to go, but I am EXCITED! I have been in this ward before but a lot has changed since I showed up there 11 months ago...there is a new bishop, new counselors, new everything...and before we shared the ward with Visitors´ Center sisters but one of the new apartments we opened up was for field Sisters, so we are 4 new missionaries in this ward! This should be very exciting!

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

Love,

Elder Davies

Week 92 - Three Zone Conferences & New Missionaries Arrive.

August 15, 2016Hello Friends and Family!

This week was a terrible week. Just kidding, it was wonderful as always...I´m just trying to shake things up a bit! :)

This week we had our first of three zone conferences and it was wonderful! Almost the whole conference was on three attributes of Jesus Christ (from Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel) which were Faith, Hope, Charity/Love (okay, that´s kinda four...). It was WONDERFUL! We learned so much and we were all spiritually fed. I learned a lot about the importance of these attributes! Our Mission President and his wife are so amazing!

Today we went early in the morning to the Mexico MTC to pick up an Elder that will be in our mission waiting for his Visa to go to Denver, Colorado. It was my first time in the Mexico MTC and it is AWESOME!! I think there is more security there than in any government building here...it took us about 20 minutes to get approval to go in haha! What a beautiful place it is! It has such a wonderful spirit to it and lots of nature (trees, bushes, air, etc.) Fun to get to go there once!

We brought Elder Coronado here to the offices where he met our President and his new companion. He is going to be a wonderful missionary, I can tell!

My companion and I will be heading to President´s house today in a couple hours with two missionaries that are going home a week before the transfer because their visas are going to expire! That should be a fun experience!

Well, I love you all so much! I know this is the work of the Lord and I pray for you often! Thank you all again for the emails, letters, love, and support!

Love,

Elder Davies