Elder Davis in Ohio

Hey, everyone! This week has been crazy, but it's been good. (None of my weeks aren't crazy anymore--I think it's probably just the way things are going to be for me, at least for the next little while.) The quote is from Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest . I'll talk about its relevance later in the email. We'll start with a funny experience from this week. So one of the staples of missionary service, it seems like, is getting "flamed," or having people not follow through on their appointments, and we had a funny experience with that on Monday. So there was a young woman who Elder Sears and Elder Madsen contacted near the end of last transfer, and Elder Sears suspected she had only responded to the two of them because she was attracted to Elder Madsen. It was getting difficult to get in touch with her, but we called her, and she responded, and we were able to set up a return appointment, and then when we went to the appointment, w...

Hey, everyone! Elder Sears and I are trying to work on our punctuality, and we've been getting a little better, so that's sort of the reason for the quote, which is from My Fair Lady , and is sung by Eliza's (that's her name, right?) father. Also, Elder Sears has been joking about being trunky for a romantic relationship, and he uses his safeguard plan whenever that happens. The Safeguards for Using Technology are a set of standards and principles we're asked to follow as far as using technology, and since it's easy for individuals to get distracted using their phones, tablets and computers (and no more so than today, at this present time), we're taught to have a plan to execute when we realize we're getting distracted. Mine is simply to put my phone down, take a few deep breaths and talk to my companion and then get back to it, but I've heard some interesting ones. For instance, there's a missionary out there whose safeguard plan includes dr...

Hey, everyone! This week's quote is from Charles Xavier to Charles Xavier (a younger version of himself) in  X-men: Days of Future Past . This week has been really great. My new companion, Elder Sears, is awesome. He's a solid missionary. He was trained by Elder Brinkerhoff (one of the assistants when I got here). He's very motivated to be obedient, and I feel we are already seeing miracles as a result of that. I'll lead off the email with a few. So when I first got here, on my first day, we went to visit a woman who's going through a really, really rough time. Her situation health-wise is very poor. She has some very, very sticky family situations she's dealing with in her immediate, nuclear family, and her mother and siblings aren't helping her because they disagree with some decisions she made in her past. She was also 3 days away from eviction when we met with her, and she's functionally a single mother with two kids, one a toddler. We...

Hey, everyone, So I'm sort of cheating this week: The quote may not be exactly precise, but it's from a short film on YouTube called "Validation" that you should watch. It's a movie, it's just not a feature film. But I'll draw the line there--I won't start quoting obscure YouTube videos in my subject lines. The reason for the quote will appear later on in the email. [I added this for Gabe. It's a must see! So worth 16 minutes]    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao Well, Thanksgiving will make it a year. One year since I've been away from home either preparing in the MTC to serve a mission or serving in the field. It's weird. I've felt a sense of relief today, and I'm not sure if that's the source, but I feel more relaxed than before, and I think the timing may have something to do with it. If you've done something once, you know you can, so doing it one more time doesn't seem like as big ...

Hey, everyone! So this week, like all weeks, has been a whirlwind. It seems like the weeks are just going faster and faster, and by the time we reach another preparation day, I wonder where the time has gone. Maybe it has to do with the regularity and consistency of our routine. Or maybe I'm tired--things stop standing out in my memory. But good things are definitely happening. That's the reason for the quote, by the way, which is from Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove . I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but one of the senior missionaries from the mission came down to our ward and gave a presentation on planning events. It was really awesome. He basically asked the auxiliaries to plan a year's worth of activities at the beginning of the year and recruit the help of other members and nonmembers and so forth. The byproduct of that took place this last week, when I, Elder Neddo, Sister Petersen and Sister Wesenberg participated in a carnival activ...

Hi, everyone! The quote this week is from Tony Stark in  Spider-man: Homecoming . It's been an interesting week, as the weeks usually are. Every Tuesday night we hold coordination as the elders, the sisters and our ward mission leader. Our ward mission leader was called just before we got here, and so the first few meetings were more like mini-devotionals: We really got a sense for Brother Cain's testimony and his passion for the work of the gospel, but planning-wise and coordination-wise they were a little lacking. But I think we're starting to get our feet under us now. So the reason for the quote is that as a missionary you find yourself in a tough situation a lot of them time regarding work with your ward. Because of your position in the org chart, as it were, you're not in a place to receive any kind of inspiration or revelation for those in ward leadership, and yet we are taught in Preach My Gospel by President Gordon B. Hinckley that "Th...