Elder Davis in Ohio

Hey, everyone! The quote this week is from Wesley, as played by Cary Elwes in  The Princess Bride , to Inigo Montoya atop the Cliffs of Insanity. Disappointment has sort of been a theme of this week. A lot of people haven't followed through on their commitments, and one of the people who came to church didn't have a good experience with services and didn't come back the next week. I'm hoping there were extenuating circumstances, because this person seemed sincere about planning on coming back, but so did everyone else we invited to church who didn't come. She said that it felt like a daycare, considering the amount of noise the children were making. She also noticed that a lot of people didn't seem to be paying attention to the speaker, which was sad to me. I've noticed that most of us don't seem to take Sacrament meeting very seriously--we're just there to... I don't know, partake of the Sacrament and then just sit there? ("Do...

Hey, everyone! This week's quote is from Gandalf the Grey (played by Sir Ian McKellen) in  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring . He says it in response to something Frodo says in a moment of self-pity: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish that none of this had happened." Gandalf responds, "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." In some ways it's been a bit of a tough week. I've struggled in a few moments, but as I've tried to apply some of the lessons I've been learning and counseled with others, things have gotten better. Many times in my life I've found myself giving someone else advice and realize in the process, "That's really good advice. I should take that advice." Have you ever experienced something like that? The principle of casting the beam out of your own eye before seeking to ...

Hello, everyone! Crazy week. What else is new? It's been full of ups and downs. The quote is from Anthony Hopkins' Odin in  Thor . It has to do with something that happened later this week when we were meeting with a guy we're teaching. So we've been teaching a guy named Kenny who's a friend of a recent convert, and we've had three meetings with him this week that have been really good. I'll talk more about that later, because the best one was yesterday. So after Monday this week started off with interviews and district council at the mission home, which was really good. It was the day before one of the sisters in our district, Sister Jung, would go home, so Elder Sears asked her to bear testimony, which was really cool. My interview with president was really good, too. I didn't have any urgent, pressing issues, so we were able to mostly just talk about missionary work and how to do it and so forth. It was refreshing. At the end of the in...

Hey, everyone. This week has been (guess what?) interesting. I suppose I should call it "unique" or "uncommon" or "abnormal," though that  I'll get the movie quote out of the way: It's from Bill Murray's character in  Ghostbusters , Dr. Venkman. The long and short of it is this: A bird bombed me a few days ago as I was with Elder Kamerath (one of the zone leaders) on a training visit in Delaware. It got me on the shoulder. I wasn't sure what it was, and then I stopped and looked up to see where whatever it was had fallen from to see if I could figure out what it was, but I wasn't underneath anything. Then I realized what it was. To be honest, far from making me frustrated or angry, I thought it was funny more than anything, but then I haven't tried to wash the stain out yet, so we'll see if I'm laughing by the end of the day. A lot has happened this week. We were able to attend the baptism of a gentleman na...

Hey, everyone. This week's quote is from Bruce Banner in  The Avengers , shortly before he transforms into the Hulk. I've felt somewhat frustrated this week for a number of reasons, but hopefully things will be looking up in a few weeks. The first interesting thing that's happened is that a friend of mine, who in the past 12 months has gone from being a less-active member of the church to a full-fledged anti-er, emailed me about what she says is a $100 Billion secret bank account the church has and how the church is under investigation for tax fraud or something. I keep telling missionaries I meet in the field, "Do you have any friends who have left the church yet? Don't worry--you will."  It's fascinating how quickly it can happen. The other thing that frustrated me this week was tracting. I have to be honest: I hate it. I think I've figured out why--it's the same reason I began to hate working at Ray's in Rexburg: People...