Week 57 - "He slimed me."

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 named Nick who the sisters in Dublin have been teaching for a couple years. That was exciting. It seems like the Spirit is always present at saving ordinances like that. It's a great feeling. Also, President Stratford was there to perform the ordinance of confirmation, giving Nick the gift of the Holy Ghost. Nick seemed different immediately after the ordinance. That's a pattern I've been noticing as I've participated in those kinds of things. It's uplifting and reassuring.

The next day I was with Elder Bond and Elder Meyers, from Worthington, in a trio in Delaware. I'm still getting over my apprehensions about different things, plus the new handbook talks about being considerate of people's feelings--to be specific, it says the following:

"Be kind, positive, and uplifting. Be thoughtful of each person’s situation, asking yourself questions such as these:

• Is it too late or early to contact this person? Would this inappropriately interrupt family or personal time?

• Is there a way I can be helpful in this situation?

• Could this action or comment embarrass, intimidate, or offend someone?

• What is appropriate for this culture?

You are a guest in the area where you serve and should treat people and places with respect and appreciation. Respect the customs, religious beliefs and practices, and sacred sites in your area at all times. Be careful that your actions will not offend anyone. Remember, what you say and what you do may be heard, observed, and recorded."

Seeing as it was Christmas Eve, we didn't necessarily feel great about knocking on people's doors, so we tried something the zone leaders did earlier this transfer, which was to make cookies and take two plates to a member, one of which they were supposed to keep and the second of which they were supposed to take to a neighbor. So we made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and brought them to a few members. We also had a sort of weird experience where the area book told us a family we were looking for was, and we missed it because I took a turn prematurely, but then we turned around, and I saw a BYU sticker on the back of a car parked on the street. There was no member there in the area book, So I was like, "We're going to go knock on that door and give them cookies." It turned out that the car actually belonged to the member we were looking for, who lived across the street from the people whose door we knocked on (so we had happened to go the right direction when I thought we had taken a wrong turn). Anyway, we knocked on the door, they pointed us the right direction, and we gave them cookies. Hopefully that was a good thing. Then we met the members we were looking for, who were getting a Newfoundland-Poodle puppy that evening. I should have taken a picture--it was a cute dog.

The next day was Christmas, and we were allowed to spend up to 2 hours with as many members as we could schedule appointments for, so we had a pretty full day. Our first appointment was with Michael, who's a convert to the church. He was one of the members I met my first week here. But he travels a lot, so we don't spend time with him on a consistent basis. Plus he's solid testimony-wise (he's not there for the social aspect of church--he doesn't see other members very often). He's awesome. He's a hobby photographer, so he took us to this barn within our district boundaries and took pictures of us with it. I'll attach some of those. The rest of the day was spent visiting members and eating with them. It was an enjoyable time. It's nice to have an additional day just to take the load off a little bit and spend time with people you know are going to be friendly and hospitable, people who have a positive opinion of you.

On that topic, I think I've discovered another lynchpin for the tough time I have with missionary work. The thought came to mind today that I didn't spend a lot of time in any kind of spotlight before my mission. Even when I was playing in a band and on stage, I wasn't the center of attention--I was just off on the side playing bass. I can deal with that. I have a preference to stick to shadows and stuff. I'm not one who likes being watched by a large group of other people, especially people I don't know. My working theory is that I have stage fright or some variation of it, But it's interesting--I can give talks in church, and that doesn't bother me so much, although I definitely tend to blank out in those moments, stick largely to the text of my talk and not really remember details of what was going on when I was in front of everyone. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not one who thrives when he's standing in front of people. And it doesn't help that the majority of attention I feel I get as a missionary is negative--people stare at you, people reject you, people treat you like you're not a human being, etc. I think I have something about dealing with a lot of attention. I thrive more in the background than in the spotlight. It's something of a relief to identify another piece of my personality that struggles with the work, because that means I can do something about it. I've found bits and pieces like that all throughout my time as a missionary. I wish I could have dealt with or identified them earlier, but I guess before being a missionary I didn't have much of a need to. So I guess that's what I'll be working on this week: Becoming a person who can deal with attention in a positive way.

Anyhow, I'm jumping off on a tangent. I had the privilege of spending the next day with Elder Kamerath. That guy is a stud, one of the better missionaries this mission has--he's great at being a missionary, at approaching people and starting conversations in normal ways. There's something about him that's just approachable, I guess. Or maybe Delaware is just a really blessed area. Anyway, we found a new person to teach and had some good conversations about a couple things. He was able to help me a good deal, and I think I was able to help him at least a little--to be a listening ear for an hour or two. I think almost all missionaries have some internal struggles that they eventually just have to un-bottle and share about, and training visits are a great time to do that, if you're with someone you know you can trust. Hopefully I was that for Elder Kamerath. He was definitely that for me. And then a bird pooped on me.

We've been running out of mileage pretty quick, and we had some admin stuff to deal with, so Friday was relatively uneventful, but Saturday was a good day. Elder Sears has been pretty aggressively cleaning out the Area Book, and there are a lot of people who we didn't think were likely to want to hear the message who have been removed. It's great, because now we have no excuses as far as finding--the only people who are still in the Area Book are people we think have potential to be taught, and anyone else we're just going to have to find on our own. So that was part of what we did Saturday morning. We just knocked on the doors in this complex, and no one was interested. We decided to jump back into the car and report a little, and then we said a prayer. We asked for help from Heavenly Father, and we asked to be led by the Spirit. Then we got out of the car, and I don't remember if it was right then or a little bit later, but Elder Sears saw a woman cleaning out her back porch area inside her fence, and he just sent it and went up and talked to her, and it turns out she's from Boise! So Elder Sears was like, "No way! I'm from Boise!" She said she had just moved in and has been looking for a church family to be a part of. We let her know some of the ways we could help her and left her with a card with the address and phone number and time of services and so forth. She said she would definitely call us. So that was a good experience. 

And then later I saw a woman outside, and we went up and helped her bring groceries into her house, and then we set a time to come back and share a message with her! So I had one of very few real, actual street-contacting successes I've had on my mission, which is awesome! It made me feel great. We're hoping and praying that everything pans out with those people. We hope that now that we've cleaned the Area Book of people who didn't need to be there we'll start seeing more good things. 

There was another cool miracle that happened, too: The zone leaders told us one of our headlights was out, and so we went to an Auto Zone to get it replaced, and the random guy approached us and said, "Hey, Elders," who we'd never met before. Apparently he's read The Book of Mormon before, but he sort of does his own thing. He said he doesn't believe that just one denomination will go to Heaven. Elder Sears was like, "Hey, I don't believe that either." Which is true--it's hard to explain missionary work in the Spirit World and Baptisms for the Dead to people, but we don't believe that if you die not having been a member of the church you're unequivocally barred from being with God. And it was funny, he was like, "We have our disagreements... but I don't believe you guys are a cult." We were like, "Yes, thank you. Because people do." Anyhow, he gave us his number and told us to reach out if anyone was giving us a hard time, because people know him and respect him. It was odd, but cool. Then later he saw us in the parking lot when we were fixing our headlights, and I waved at him, and then he came over and talked to us a little bit about how it's difficult being in a day and age where you're attacked if you're a Christian. We then gave him our number, and he said he was going through some rough things, and he would definitely reach out. So maybe there will be something we can do to help him. Those experiences, where people just reach out to us, are super nice when they pan out. Though you get flak whatever form of finding you take, even if people approach you. I don't know if you remember that time in Riverside where the guy just played the song that was the F word over and over again to different tunes when Elder McVey and I were in the park, but that was one of the lessons I learned from that experience: Being found doesn't necessarily go better than finding does.

A few other notes: We were able to help some random people move in on Sunday, and we're hoping they join us at church sometime: We invited them and gave them a card: Maybe we'll see them in the New Year. They actually got moved out by Elders in Polaris/Lewis Center, and then we helped move them in. It was cool. :)

One of our creative finding approaches recently was given us by a member: He suggested that we might offer family history classes to local fraternity organizations, so on Sunday we reached out to some of those groups, and we're going to see if that pans out. I'll let you know if anything happens.

I don't have time for much else: Today was a crazy preparation day: Our car died and we had to go to two different places to get it fixed. But thanks for reading, and enjoy the few photos attached. You won't hear from me until Wednesday, Jan 8, which is the day before transfers. 

Have a Happy New Year!

Elder Davis

Pancakes I ate with one element of my Christmas package, homemade raspberry jam from raspberries from our backyard in Idaho. Thanks, mom! (Also, don't worry--I didn't eat the whole stack)

Bruce in Warren got baptized! Here he is with Elder Anderson, my first companion in Warren, who's a zone leader in that zone.

Mom, could you share some of your favorite photos of us at the barn?