Hi Mom,
Yep, that's the case, the Littlefields will be home in March and they will be having us move probably very very soon, but that's okay. We already knew that, but thanks for filling me in. I could definitely be in the area. Transfers were today and I didn't get moved but I'm getting a new companion tomorrow named Elder Kyle Smith. He came out in June which makes me senior companion! That means I get to drive, YES! Also...I'm now district leader! CRAZY! We'll see how well I do!
We were able to teach 14 lessons this week which isn't fabulous but it is better than last week and this week felt like we were a lot more busy and productive which is what is really important. We picked up two new investigators this week. James and his girlfriend Alex seem very interested and very open. He is excited to read the Book of Mormon and before we could commit him to do so he said he was going to. So I have a lot of confidence that he will come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the Church and be baptized. There's another guy, Ron, who's wife is relief society president. He's not a member, but he doesn't see any faults with the Church, I think the main problem is that he just doesn't feel like he "KNOWS" when really he doesn't need to have a 100% knowledge that it's true. We committed him to baptism but he turned us down for that reason, but he seems like he's really really close.
I can't really think of any fun stories to tell...I'm really trying to think about it, but I can't come up with anything...sorry, I am really distracted by this annoying guy in the library :P anyway lol
I'm soooooo jealous that you got to have the Chamber Singers perform for you at the Relief Society party. I'm really jealous of Kody right now too, this was the best time of the year!
Wow, I am jealous that you got some snow. It was supposed to snow here where I live, but it didn't. It snowed above us a little ways though so we have been seeing lots of cars with snow on them.
I was not able to watch the Devotional.
WOOHOOO! Lots of snow for Utah! That's sweet!
I'm doing my best to stay upbeat and positive about the situation I was thrown into, it hasn't been too bad. Now I get yet another new experience and it's going to be just as crazy...district leader?! CRAZY!
Love you tons,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I love this time of year too, a little boring here, but it's still better than the rest of the year ;) I'm excited that you have snow! That cracks me up that you just drove over it :)
You have to get re-used to driving in the snow huh? I guess you are driving a much heavier car than before.
I am staying here in Loma Rica, Elder Houx is going to Mt. Shasta! He gets snow...totally jealous, but glad to be staying. I will be getting Elder Kyle Smith as my new companion, he's been out since June (6 months) so I am senior companion. Crazy huh?! What's even crazier is that I'm now the district leader...AHHH!! Well I'll have to work really hard, but I know I can do a good job. (I get to drive cuz I'm senior,WOOT!)
It is definitely nice having lessons to teach, plus this week was much better than last so that's good.
Mom and Kody both told me lots about the new TV, I'm soooo jealous but excited! I was wondering how long it would take you to finally get one! ;) I can't believe I have to wait over a year to get to use it ;) By then it'll probably be out of date lol ;) I'm glad it's so awesome!
Man, we have GOT to get ourselves past this stinkin' Las Vegas Bowl. I'm glad we are going to a bowl though. Oregon State, man, that'll be a really tough game!
Well I can't think of much new to tell you either. Thanks for all of the updates.
Love you,
Elder Jay Davis
Monday, December 7, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
November 30, 2009
Hey,
I am adjusting to my new location well. I really like the area, it reminds me of Foresthill a little bit but maybe even a bit more rural and spaced out. The ward is great and has a really good attendance even though things seem to be a bit more spread out. Things are going fine with Elder Houx.
That's awesome that the email that Bro. Littlefield sent to his parents got all the way to you and now back to me :) I'm excited to read it! Tod lives in the house next door to his parents (like a few feet away on the same property). He said he was about 14 or 15 about the time you moved from Colusa, but I'm not sure that he's really that old so who knows. He's a cool guy. I wish I could meet Pete and Mary too. There is a very slight chance I could. If I stay in this area for around 6 months (which isn't uncommon for some areas) then they'd be back from their mission.
It is DEFINITELY interesting how small the world is. I am meeting more and more people that I have connections with (not necessarily family).
My Thanksgiving was...decent. We went to the Turkey bowl in the morning and I watched as everybody played flag football. Then we went home and relaxed a bit. Then we went to the Harrington's for dinner at 2 and that was really yummy. Then they were leaving so we went to the church and I played the piano and Elder Houx wrote letters. There was nothing better to do. I had fun playing the piano that's for sure. It was quite a let down compared to Thanksgiving at Aunt Colleen's or Disneyland!
That's awesome that you stayed in the ESPN Zone in NY/NY to watch the BYU game :D I'm jealous! I hate watching BYU play when they are playing to "not lose." That's an awesome finish for the game :) This game is always one of the most exciting every year regardless of how each team is doing.
We didn't teach many lessons this week. Between Loma Rica ward and Camptonville branch (the two entities we report numbers for even though there are tons of little towns in each that are included ya know) we only taught 12 lessons :(. Things aren't going GREAT but they aren't terrible either. We should have a better week this week. Last week we had a holiday AND a full P-Day, this week we have no holiday and a half P-day so we should have a far more productive week.
The weather has been sort of inconsistent. We've had a little bit of rain here and there with wind on and off. It's been sunny a lot of the time too. All together it's cooled off a lot and is more on the cold side of things, especially since I've sort of become accustomed to the California temperatures. Sounds like nice weather in Utah. I miss it.
My new bike is great as of 2 1/2 weeks ago. I don't ride it here in my new area because it's too rural and hilly so we have a car and we get a really big allotment of miles (1800!).
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Love ya!
Elder Jay Davis
I am adjusting to my new location well. I really like the area, it reminds me of Foresthill a little bit but maybe even a bit more rural and spaced out. The ward is great and has a really good attendance even though things seem to be a bit more spread out. Things are going fine with Elder Houx.
That's awesome that the email that Bro. Littlefield sent to his parents got all the way to you and now back to me :) I'm excited to read it! Tod lives in the house next door to his parents (like a few feet away on the same property). He said he was about 14 or 15 about the time you moved from Colusa, but I'm not sure that he's really that old so who knows. He's a cool guy. I wish I could meet Pete and Mary too. There is a very slight chance I could. If I stay in this area for around 6 months (which isn't uncommon for some areas) then they'd be back from their mission.
It is DEFINITELY interesting how small the world is. I am meeting more and more people that I have connections with (not necessarily family).
My Thanksgiving was...decent. We went to the Turkey bowl in the morning and I watched as everybody played flag football. Then we went home and relaxed a bit. Then we went to the Harrington's for dinner at 2 and that was really yummy. Then they were leaving so we went to the church and I played the piano and Elder Houx wrote letters. There was nothing better to do. I had fun playing the piano that's for sure. It was quite a let down compared to Thanksgiving at Aunt Colleen's or Disneyland!
That's awesome that you stayed in the ESPN Zone in NY/NY to watch the BYU game :D I'm jealous! I hate watching BYU play when they are playing to "not lose." That's an awesome finish for the game :) This game is always one of the most exciting every year regardless of how each team is doing.
We didn't teach many lessons this week. Between Loma Rica ward and Camptonville branch (the two entities we report numbers for even though there are tons of little towns in each that are included ya know) we only taught 12 lessons :(. Things aren't going GREAT but they aren't terrible either. We should have a better week this week. Last week we had a holiday AND a full P-Day, this week we have no holiday and a half P-day so we should have a far more productive week.
The weather has been sort of inconsistent. We've had a little bit of rain here and there with wind on and off. It's been sunny a lot of the time too. All together it's cooled off a lot and is more on the cold side of things, especially since I've sort of become accustomed to the California temperatures. Sounds like nice weather in Utah. I miss it.
My new bike is great as of 2 1/2 weeks ago. I don't ride it here in my new area because it's too rural and hilly so we have a car and we get a really big allotment of miles (1800!).
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Love ya!
Elder Jay Davis
Monday, November 30, 2009
November 23, 2009
Hey,
Transfer was definitely interesting. I like the area, I don't really like my companion but I'll serve with him as best I can. Houx is just like it looks How-ks I guess lol He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
I really don't mind birthdays, I think they are fun, but it just turned out that this one was extra bland ;)
Marcella is 22 ish. The baptism will go through soon enough, probably Christmas break when her boyfriend will be back again. It would definitely be difficult to do something your parents don't want you to do.
Christmas shopping, crazy to think it's already that time again. You'll have to start warning people now that I probably won't send Christmas gifts because it's such a hassle! We'll see though.
lol, how did speaking about me go? I look forward to reading the talk that you gave.
I think that's probably a good idea to just pick out highlights from my letters to share in sacrament meeting because I sure as heck couldn't come up with anything in particular that I wanted you to share. I hope you shared about my Emergency Transfer (E.T.) and made sure that everybody knew it wasn't my fault ;)
I sang in Sacrament meeting with the ward choir here. We got asked to sing that morning so we ran through the song a few times and had it down by the time we sang it no problem :)
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
(Jay wrote the following in response to what I wrote in an email to him...Uncle Pete and Aunt Mary Littlefield, (my mom's step sister), live in Brown's Valley.)
P.S. - WHAT?! THAT'S WHERE WE LIVE!!! Pete and Mary Littlefield are actually on a mission but we live above their house in an apartment made just for the missionaries! THAT'S NUTS! WOW! Plus people know the Johnsons all over out here! Crazy stuff!
Love ya,
Elder Davis
Hi Dad,
No No No!
You can't be sick for yet another family vacation, and to Disneyland again :( You'll recover, I know it! You are such a trooper though :) Just make sure you have lots of fun, take lots of pictures, and enjoy being in the same state as me ;)
I'm doing my best to adjust to my new companion. To be honest I really really don't like him, but I'll do my best to serve with him and my guess is we won't be together for very long. It is probably my least favorite experience of my mission being E.T.ed (Emergency transferred) (It wasn't officially a mid-transfer) I am doing just fine, I love the area, not the companion...okay, I love him, but I don't like him ;)
Well I told Mom this in her email but apparantely she has a step aunt that lives in Browns Valley where we live. Guess what...she owns the house that we live in! You'll have to read Mom's email for more.
The area is great and HUGE! It spans over 60 miles, covering over three counties, we cover a ward and a branch but pretty much do nothing in the branch because of mileage issues and the branch president is insane. Anyway, the area is sort of dead at the moment, but we are working hard and I have confidence things will pick up. I'm not really sure what else to tell you for now.
Yep, I am definitely able to report that things are more than okay and that I'm doing great. Learning to deal with a companion that I don't like is very hard, but I'll manage. I am most certainly learning how to deal with change better, you're right lol I am glad that you are thankful for me being able to grow in the area of accepting change. It doesn't mean I didn't have to grit my teeth. I was willing to accept it and didn't even consider saying no, but that didn't mean I liked it ;)
I'm sure this week will be great. I hope you have a great week as well. I am thankful for our family as well. Thanks for all you do :D I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Transfer was definitely interesting. I like the area, I don't really like my companion but I'll serve with him as best I can. Houx is just like it looks How-ks I guess lol He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
I really don't mind birthdays, I think they are fun, but it just turned out that this one was extra bland ;)
Marcella is 22 ish. The baptism will go through soon enough, probably Christmas break when her boyfriend will be back again. It would definitely be difficult to do something your parents don't want you to do.
Christmas shopping, crazy to think it's already that time again. You'll have to start warning people now that I probably won't send Christmas gifts because it's such a hassle! We'll see though.
lol, how did speaking about me go? I look forward to reading the talk that you gave.
I think that's probably a good idea to just pick out highlights from my letters to share in sacrament meeting because I sure as heck couldn't come up with anything in particular that I wanted you to share. I hope you shared about my Emergency Transfer (E.T.) and made sure that everybody knew it wasn't my fault ;)
I sang in Sacrament meeting with the ward choir here. We got asked to sing that morning so we ran through the song a few times and had it down by the time we sang it no problem :)
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
(Jay wrote the following in response to what I wrote in an email to him...Uncle Pete and Aunt Mary Littlefield, (my mom's step sister), live in Brown's Valley.)
P.S. - WHAT?! THAT'S WHERE WE LIVE!!! Pete and Mary Littlefield are actually on a mission but we live above their house in an apartment made just for the missionaries! THAT'S NUTS! WOW! Plus people know the Johnsons all over out here! Crazy stuff!
Love ya,
Elder Davis
Hi Dad,
No No No!
You can't be sick for yet another family vacation, and to Disneyland again :( You'll recover, I know it! You are such a trooper though :) Just make sure you have lots of fun, take lots of pictures, and enjoy being in the same state as me ;)
I'm doing my best to adjust to my new companion. To be honest I really really don't like him, but I'll do my best to serve with him and my guess is we won't be together for very long. It is probably my least favorite experience of my mission being E.T.ed (Emergency transferred) (It wasn't officially a mid-transfer) I am doing just fine, I love the area, not the companion...okay, I love him, but I don't like him ;)
Well I told Mom this in her email but apparantely she has a step aunt that lives in Browns Valley where we live. Guess what...she owns the house that we live in! You'll have to read Mom's email for more.
The area is great and HUGE! It spans over 60 miles, covering over three counties, we cover a ward and a branch but pretty much do nothing in the branch because of mileage issues and the branch president is insane. Anyway, the area is sort of dead at the moment, but we are working hard and I have confidence things will pick up. I'm not really sure what else to tell you for now.
Yep, I am definitely able to report that things are more than okay and that I'm doing great. Learning to deal with a companion that I don't like is very hard, but I'll manage. I am most certainly learning how to deal with change better, you're right lol I am glad that you are thankful for me being able to grow in the area of accepting change. It doesn't mean I didn't have to grit my teeth. I was willing to accept it and didn't even consider saying no, but that didn't mean I liked it ;)
I'm sure this week will be great. I hope you have a great week as well. I am thankful for our family as well. Thanks for all you do :D I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Friday, November 20, 2009
November 16, 2009
Hey Mom,
Well first things first, I got mid-transferred to accomodate some other elders that needed to be rearranged. I am now serving in Loma Rica Ward which is in the same stake. My mailing address will not be the same so you'll have to send mail to my new address or the mission office. My new mailing address is P.O. Box #207 Browns Valley, CA 95918.
My new companion's name is Elder Houx. He's a pretty nice guy. He's quite a letter of the law companion.
It's crazy being 20 but also not all that different ya know? I had a good birthday though it was virtually a normal day. P.S. I got informed of the transfer Friday night and left Saturday morning! I did go out to eat with some members on my birthday so that was fun. Nothing else really all that great that I can think of but it was a good day.
That's awesome that you have so much snow! I'm missing it a lot right now. You'll have to take lots of pictures even though you don't have either of my memory cards yet, but they could be transferred :)
I'm jealous that you are going to Disneyland for Thanksgiving again :D That'll be so much fun! Strange to think you'll be in the same state but still about 9 hours away from me! (That's about the same distance as from Utah)
Thanksgiving I have no idea now. I was going to be going to the Coxe's house and eat and play football and what not (it's a full P-day), but now I have zero clue.
Marcella's baptism didn't go through...long upsetting story. So she told her mom that she was getting baptized, her mom threw a temper tantrum and talked to her dad. Then her dad told her that if she got baptized she wouldn't be living under his roof. So we thought she might still go through with it because she knows the church is true and the Westmorelands offered to let her move in with them. Well Saturday she didn't so we were hoping for Sunday night cuz she had mentioned it. Well that didn't go through either. I know she'll get baptized but now it's a matter of when. Poor Brad (her boyfriend) spent all the money to fly out and take off work for nothing :P Ah well, hopefully things improve and she'll make the decision she knows is right to be baptized.
I'm glad you thought about me all day and celebrated with Tepanyaki.
I bet watching the BYU game was way fun :D (Dunno the result yet since I haven't read Dad's email)
Love you tons,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm glad you had fun celebrating my b-day at Tepanyaki. The birthday was great. You'll have to read Mom's email about mid-transfers and then know that I'm sorry that I can't repeat a lot of stories for time reasons.
Mom definitely put a lot of thought into that B-day package I could tell.
Well it's a bummer that it wasn't a better score against New Mexico but it's still a great thing that we beat them. That could have been really bad if we hadn't.
Oh, have fun planning for 2010...:P
That's awesome that you have so much snow already...JEALOUS!
Blech, I'm upset about the baptism, didn't go through, I explained in Mom's email, sorry for such a rushed email, that's explained in Mom's too.
This new area (will make sense after you read Mom's) is pretty dead so it's going to be a lot of work with not a lot of interesting stuff to tell you.
I love you tons,
Elder Jay Davis
Well first things first, I got mid-transferred to accomodate some other elders that needed to be rearranged. I am now serving in Loma Rica Ward which is in the same stake. My mailing address will not be the same so you'll have to send mail to my new address or the mission office. My new mailing address is P.O. Box #207 Browns Valley, CA 95918.
My new companion's name is Elder Houx. He's a pretty nice guy. He's quite a letter of the law companion.
It's crazy being 20 but also not all that different ya know? I had a good birthday though it was virtually a normal day. P.S. I got informed of the transfer Friday night and left Saturday morning! I did go out to eat with some members on my birthday so that was fun. Nothing else really all that great that I can think of but it was a good day.
That's awesome that you have so much snow! I'm missing it a lot right now. You'll have to take lots of pictures even though you don't have either of my memory cards yet, but they could be transferred :)
I'm jealous that you are going to Disneyland for Thanksgiving again :D That'll be so much fun! Strange to think you'll be in the same state but still about 9 hours away from me! (That's about the same distance as from Utah)
Thanksgiving I have no idea now. I was going to be going to the Coxe's house and eat and play football and what not (it's a full P-day), but now I have zero clue.
Marcella's baptism didn't go through...long upsetting story. So she told her mom that she was getting baptized, her mom threw a temper tantrum and talked to her dad. Then her dad told her that if she got baptized she wouldn't be living under his roof. So we thought she might still go through with it because she knows the church is true and the Westmorelands offered to let her move in with them. Well Saturday she didn't so we were hoping for Sunday night cuz she had mentioned it. Well that didn't go through either. I know she'll get baptized but now it's a matter of when. Poor Brad (her boyfriend) spent all the money to fly out and take off work for nothing :P Ah well, hopefully things improve and she'll make the decision she knows is right to be baptized.
I'm glad you thought about me all day and celebrated with Tepanyaki.
I bet watching the BYU game was way fun :D (Dunno the result yet since I haven't read Dad's email)
Love you tons,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm glad you had fun celebrating my b-day at Tepanyaki. The birthday was great. You'll have to read Mom's email about mid-transfers and then know that I'm sorry that I can't repeat a lot of stories for time reasons.
Mom definitely put a lot of thought into that B-day package I could tell.
Well it's a bummer that it wasn't a better score against New Mexico but it's still a great thing that we beat them. That could have been really bad if we hadn't.
Oh, have fun planning for 2010...:P
That's awesome that you have so much snow already...JEALOUS!
Blech, I'm upset about the baptism, didn't go through, I explained in Mom's email, sorry for such a rushed email, that's explained in Mom's too.
This new area (will make sense after you read Mom's) is pretty dead so it's going to be a lot of work with not a lot of interesting stuff to tell you.
I love you tons,
Elder Jay Davis
November 9, 2009
Hey Mom!
Marcella is doing great. She had her baptismal interview yesterday and passed. She is getting baptized this Saturday by her boyfriend who's family lives in our ward but he's flying in from BYU just for the baptism and confirmation. He is also confirming her the next day (Sunday). Cool eh?! She's probably the best investigator I will ever have on my mission. I could SEE the change as she gained a true testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Gladys on the other hand is VERY emotional, wishy-washy, and dramatic. She called us this Sunday in the morning and said, "I won't be to church today because I just don't feel like it so we'll have to postpone the baptism." Now she's going in for surgery and will be out at LEAST a week :P She just doesn't get how important this is even though she really wants to be baptized. Ah well. Patience is a virtue.
I'm glad I was able to find a good bike as well. Yes, I pulled $160 out of my UCCU account.
I'm sure I'll get a greenie too, I am trying not to get antsy but it seems like the only "non-normal" missionary thing that I'd actually enjoy doing. I don't want any leadership position that's for sure.
Yes, day-to-day life is SO different. lol
I LOVED the Christmas season in Chamber Singers! I really miss that, probably more than anything else! I'm jealous that they get to sing in our ward this year :) You'll have to record some of it :D
Thanks for being proud of me. I'm honored to know that people are asking about me. That's awesome! I'll be jealous all night that you got to go to Tepanyaki but that is the coolest idea I've heard :D I'm excited for you all to go. I hope something fun will happen here. Not sure what the plans are yet. Thank you SOOOO much for the birthday gifts! I got it today and couldn't resist opening it up right away! I LOVE all of the gifts! That piano music is AMAZING! Did you get those all specially spiral bound like I did with your classical book that you sent me or did they come like that? I love them all! You picked perfectly! Thank you so much for the CD as well. I forgot to tell Kody thanks for the CD he sent so I'll have to send him another email and tell him. I actually already have the CD he sent me so I'll have to come up with some way of exchanging it but I am so happy for the thought he put into it :D He is such a thoughtful kid...young man! He's definitely not a kid anymore. I just about died of laughter when I opened up the caramels! I'm going to have to hide those well ;) I am pretty much just thrilled for the package! The card was really awesome too :D Thank you so much!
Thanks for the email. Safe travels!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Marcella is doing great. She had her baptismal interview yesterday and passed. She is getting baptized this Saturday by her boyfriend who's family lives in our ward but he's flying in from BYU just for the baptism and confirmation. He is also confirming her the next day (Sunday). Cool eh?! She's probably the best investigator I will ever have on my mission. I could SEE the change as she gained a true testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Gladys on the other hand is VERY emotional, wishy-washy, and dramatic. She called us this Sunday in the morning and said, "I won't be to church today because I just don't feel like it so we'll have to postpone the baptism." Now she's going in for surgery and will be out at LEAST a week :P She just doesn't get how important this is even though she really wants to be baptized. Ah well. Patience is a virtue.
I'm glad I was able to find a good bike as well. Yes, I pulled $160 out of my UCCU account.
I'm sure I'll get a greenie too, I am trying not to get antsy but it seems like the only "non-normal" missionary thing that I'd actually enjoy doing. I don't want any leadership position that's for sure.
Yes, day-to-day life is SO different. lol
I LOVED the Christmas season in Chamber Singers! I really miss that, probably more than anything else! I'm jealous that they get to sing in our ward this year :) You'll have to record some of it :D
Thanks for being proud of me. I'm honored to know that people are asking about me. That's awesome! I'll be jealous all night that you got to go to Tepanyaki but that is the coolest idea I've heard :D I'm excited for you all to go. I hope something fun will happen here. Not sure what the plans are yet. Thank you SOOOO much for the birthday gifts! I got it today and couldn't resist opening it up right away! I LOVE all of the gifts! That piano music is AMAZING! Did you get those all specially spiral bound like I did with your classical book that you sent me or did they come like that? I love them all! You picked perfectly! Thank you so much for the CD as well. I forgot to tell Kody thanks for the CD he sent so I'll have to send him another email and tell him. I actually already have the CD he sent me so I'll have to come up with some way of exchanging it but I am so happy for the thought he put into it :D He is such a thoughtful kid...young man! He's definitely not a kid anymore. I just about died of laughter when I opened up the caramels! I'm going to have to hide those well ;) I am pretty much just thrilled for the package! The card was really awesome too :D Thank you so much!
Thanks for the email. Safe travels!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
November 2, 2009
Hey Dad,
I was bummed about the baptism as well, but Gladys reset her own date
for November 8th, however that probably won't work either because she
may be going in for surgery very soon. Luckily she says it is supposed
to be a quick recovery and she'll probably be able to be baptized
soon. My hope and guess is Nov. 15th, which is when hopefully Marcella
will be baptized. Word has it that Marcella is still feeling good
about that date! *fingers crossed* Challenges are definitely expected
no doubt.
Halloween turned out lame as was expected but not as bad as the 4th of
July. We had a fog machine that we found for cheap so we fogged up a
room in the house...don't tell the Sanners who own the house, they're
freaks when it comes to doing anything fun...but we didn't harm or
damage anything so all is well and it was a blast. So while the room
was fogged we played with some laser pens and listened to some music.
We tried to tell a scary story where we each said a sentence but that
didn't work very well, we all just ended up laughing. Then we went and
playing Beyond Balderdash, basically just Balderdash but instead of
just words, there are categories like movies (where you describe the
movie), and dates (where you say what happened on that date), etc. If
you don't know what that game is ask Mom, she knows ;) So we played
that while munching on food and candy. We had bought a few bags of
candy from the Dollar Store (about a medium sized bowl) but we only
had one member family (with two kids) stop by. VERY diappointing. Ah
well, we busted our guts playing Balderdash, it was hilarious, so
Halloween wasn't too bad.
This week will be GREAT! We probably won't get anything better to cook
with but we make do just fine. It's kind of fun, though it really is
pretty odd.
I will tell my stories in Mom's email this week so she can get a
treat. Make sure you ask her to forward it to you just in case she
doesn't.
Love you,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Mom!
Things are great, I'm really enjoying the work, things are happening, and life is fun!
Oh my gosh! It was SOOOO CRAZY! SISTER SHIPLEY (not sure her maiden name) KNOWS AUNT MARCINDA AND THE SIX OLDEST KIDS IN YOUR FAMILY!!!! AHHHHH! Yeah, Sister Shipley came up and talked to me at church and told me the story and stuff. She wasn't a member of the church while you lived in Colusa but she remembers riding in the green bus and she remembers going down to Rexine's wedding shower or something on the green bus too! It is just really fun for me. What are the chances of that?! And she's a member now too, a very faithful one at that. Anyway, that made my whole week!
As of right now Marcella is still excited for the date on November 15th so we are very excited about that! She's not unsure about the church, in fact she seems pretty sure, she just is scared about her family I think more than anything. Luckily she is still excited which makes me think she's ready.
Gladys is all over the place, but she's doing better and she has already had plenty of blessings of comfort lol. She's doing better though.
Yes, we finally have the car back. It's quite nice to have it back. The plans for that whole weekend were destroyed so it wasn't very effective but we were still able to get stuff done. I bought a bike off of a missionary who is going home at the end of this or the next transfer. He is a Spanish missionary and they never need bikes anymore so he didn't need it. I bought it for $160. He bought it for around $300 but wanted to give it to me for $100 which I didn't think was fair. So it's a really nice Trek (FAR better than any Walmart bike and I didn't pay much more). I will definitely keep this bike for when I'm at home unless somebody needs to buy it from me for their mission.
I wrote to Dad about Halloween, which I seem to always write all my stories in his so don't worry, I saved my most interesting story for your email :D If you don't mind it'd be easiest for me and time if you'd read about Halloween in Dad's.
That is SO insane that Allison is engaged. She told me she had a boyfriend and that he was getting baptized but that's all she's told me. That's really crazy.
Snow!!! Woot! I miss that.
So Yuba City is packed with East Indian people who speak Punjaab. They are mostly of a religion called Sikh (seek). They had a BIG parade yesterday! It goes down from one of their "temples" and follows a three or so mile course all the way down to the corner our church is on, then turns on that corner and continues, then back and loops around to the temple again! So basically it blocks the church members into the parking lot (great planning :P). It's insane. I have taken 18 minutes of video of it on my memory card that I will soon send home. There was music and all sorts of stuff there. They were all wearing really bright colors. Anybody is invited of course, it's a public event. They have crazy floats and they give lots and lots and lots of free food! They don't expect or accept any money for anything. There were pickup trucks with the beds full of ice and sodas and drinks! It was insane! I can't even describe it and do it justice! Incredibly nuts! I'm looking forward to sending you the video even though it's a lot of the same stuff.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
I was bummed about the baptism as well, but Gladys reset her own date
for November 8th, however that probably won't work either because she
may be going in for surgery very soon. Luckily she says it is supposed
to be a quick recovery and she'll probably be able to be baptized
soon. My hope and guess is Nov. 15th, which is when hopefully Marcella
will be baptized. Word has it that Marcella is still feeling good
about that date! *fingers crossed* Challenges are definitely expected
no doubt.
Halloween turned out lame as was expected but not as bad as the 4th of
July. We had a fog machine that we found for cheap so we fogged up a
room in the house...don't tell the Sanners who own the house, they're
freaks when it comes to doing anything fun...but we didn't harm or
damage anything so all is well and it was a blast. So while the room
was fogged we played with some laser pens and listened to some music.
We tried to tell a scary story where we each said a sentence but that
didn't work very well, we all just ended up laughing. Then we went and
playing Beyond Balderdash, basically just Balderdash but instead of
just words, there are categories like movies (where you describe the
movie), and dates (where you say what happened on that date), etc. If
you don't know what that game is ask Mom, she knows ;) So we played
that while munching on food and candy. We had bought a few bags of
candy from the Dollar Store (about a medium sized bowl) but we only
had one member family (with two kids) stop by. VERY diappointing. Ah
well, we busted our guts playing Balderdash, it was hilarious, so
Halloween wasn't too bad.
This week will be GREAT! We probably won't get anything better to cook
with but we make do just fine. It's kind of fun, though it really is
pretty odd.
I will tell my stories in Mom's email this week so she can get a
treat. Make sure you ask her to forward it to you just in case she
doesn't.
Love you,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Mom!
Things are great, I'm really enjoying the work, things are happening, and life is fun!
Oh my gosh! It was SOOOO CRAZY! SISTER SHIPLEY (not sure her maiden name) KNOWS AUNT MARCINDA AND THE SIX OLDEST KIDS IN YOUR FAMILY!!!! AHHHHH! Yeah, Sister Shipley came up and talked to me at church and told me the story and stuff. She wasn't a member of the church while you lived in Colusa but she remembers riding in the green bus and she remembers going down to Rexine's wedding shower or something on the green bus too! It is just really fun for me. What are the chances of that?! And she's a member now too, a very faithful one at that. Anyway, that made my whole week!
As of right now Marcella is still excited for the date on November 15th so we are very excited about that! She's not unsure about the church, in fact she seems pretty sure, she just is scared about her family I think more than anything. Luckily she is still excited which makes me think she's ready.
Gladys is all over the place, but she's doing better and she has already had plenty of blessings of comfort lol. She's doing better though.
Yes, we finally have the car back. It's quite nice to have it back. The plans for that whole weekend were destroyed so it wasn't very effective but we were still able to get stuff done. I bought a bike off of a missionary who is going home at the end of this or the next transfer. He is a Spanish missionary and they never need bikes anymore so he didn't need it. I bought it for $160. He bought it for around $300 but wanted to give it to me for $100 which I didn't think was fair. So it's a really nice Trek (FAR better than any Walmart bike and I didn't pay much more). I will definitely keep this bike for when I'm at home unless somebody needs to buy it from me for their mission.
I wrote to Dad about Halloween, which I seem to always write all my stories in his so don't worry, I saved my most interesting story for your email :D If you don't mind it'd be easiest for me and time if you'd read about Halloween in Dad's.
That is SO insane that Allison is engaged. She told me she had a boyfriend and that he was getting baptized but that's all she's told me. That's really crazy.
Snow!!! Woot! I miss that.
So Yuba City is packed with East Indian people who speak Punjaab. They are mostly of a religion called Sikh (seek). They had a BIG parade yesterday! It goes down from one of their "temples" and follows a three or so mile course all the way down to the corner our church is on, then turns on that corner and continues, then back and loops around to the temple again! So basically it blocks the church members into the parking lot (great planning :P). It's insane. I have taken 18 minutes of video of it on my memory card that I will soon send home. There was music and all sorts of stuff there. They were all wearing really bright colors. Anybody is invited of course, it's a public event. They have crazy floats and they give lots and lots and lots of free food! They don't expect or accept any money for anything. There were pickup trucks with the beds full of ice and sodas and drinks! It was insane! I can't even describe it and do it justice! Incredibly nuts! I'm looking forward to sending you the video even though it's a lot of the same stuff.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
October 26, 2009
Dad,
It was pretty hilarious that she was afraid of water but it still made me nervous.
Yes, I definitely remember the stories about your mission president's wife and I have been reminded of them often on my mission and it has made me very thankful that that's not how ours is. A mission definitely does a great job of kicking most of us men into shape.
Transfers were boring but just what I wanted. Nobody in our apartment got transferred which should be really nice.
Can you really notice a difference in my growth just from reading the emails I write? I don't feel like I'm growing THAT much, though I can tell a difference at least to some extent. I'm glad you love to hear about our investigators.
Unfortunately yesterday we were supposed to have a baptism but it fell through for a very long story of a reason. Basically she is an elderly lady, Gladys. She had her interview Saturday, pretty much passed, then called us a while later that afternoon and tried to claim that our district leader had told her that she'd have to pay 30% tithing when she joined the church, which he obviously didn't and we live with him so it was easy for us to make certain of that. So we talked to her about that for a while. We didn't think that was really her concern. Well then Sunday during Sunday School she called and she told us (in major major tears) that she couldn't forgive her kids for not taking care of her (they pretty much neglect her) and so she couldn't repent of it so she couldn't be baptized. So we tried to talk her down and calm her down but she just really is having a hard time emotionally. Hopefully we'll be able to get that baptism to go through sometime in this transfer.
I'm glad that I'm missed, I definitely miss home, especially this week for some reason but all is well.
So, we had the funnest ward activity this Saturday! It was a road rally, you and Mom have probably heard of such a thing. Basically the activities commitee teamed up with the commitee of another ward and planned out this AMAZING treasure hunt type thing. So it was held two separate nights so that one ward would help the other do it and then vice versa. Well they had us all get in cars (we rode with a member) then they gave us clues that told stories but within the stories were the directions to the next checkpoint where we'd get our next clue. They had us driving ALL over the stake! It was crazy cool! They had been setting it up for months so they had gotten permission from all sorts of members and non-members to use their property. It was FABULOUS!
Love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Mom,
It is definitely great that Delores got baptized. I explained the Gladys situation in Dad's email, suffice it to say that she didn't get baptized. The wheelchair investigator is doing well I guess. We taught her half of lesson 1, then got interrupted by what appeared to be another minister...great...but hopefully her desire to join our church hasn't changed. She said she's been friends with the guy for quite a while, and obviously she hasn't joined his church, and then things really haven't worked out well the end of this week so we haven't been able to get back to visit her again.
That brings up the next point. We had our car stolen! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!BBBBBLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UPSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However, it wasn't literally stolen lol. Some other missionaries who live in a car only area had their airbag light go on in their car so it was in the shop and they needed a car so President authorized them to take our car until theirs was fixed. Well this was Wednesday, it is now Monday and we still don't have the car back because the shop ordered the wrong part for the car :@ (that's an angry emoticon in MSN Messenger) ;) We are pretty upset because it has really messed up our plans, because we can usually plan things so that the far stuff is on the car day. Biking to those places is such a waste of time. Anyway, that's my story for the week.
Marcella whom I've mentioned somewhat before has a soft date for November 15th. She still wants to think it through and make sure that it's what she wants to do because it's a big decision. I know she's converted, but she's scared of what will happen to her family if they don't join the church ya know? So she'll be baptized, it's just a matter of time in my mind. Hopefully she'll be ready by the 15th.
Playing the organ was a blast! They must really have that chapel insulated for sound though, one day I was seeing how loud it could play and even people right outside the closed doors could barely hear it, but it was definitely pretty loud! I'm glad that my mediocre piano playing is missed at home ;)
I went to choir for the first time this Sunday. We are singing a very easy but nice piece for Thanksgiving so that we can really focus on Christmas. We started practicing for Away in a Manger this week. It's a pretty cool piece that utilizes the three different tunes of the song. It's also really simple although the tenor part goes REALLY high! Like a G! There were like 6 basses there, no tenors, and about 10 women half and half. It was pretty good and sounded great.
Unfortunately, transfer breakfasts have been disallowed because they interfere with morning study :P LAME! Nobody wants to study on P-day! GAH! Anyway, to enforce it this transfer they didn't even tell the zone leaders about transfers until today, they emailed it to them so they couldn't even check until after study and then we all had to wait for a call from them to find out what was happening. It was the worst setup ever and it caused a lot of problems, especially since we didn't have a car!
Halloween we are supposed to be back to our apartment by 6 so the four of us will probably have purchased some boardgames and we'll play those and maybe have some ice cream or something to keep ourselves sane until bed time. It only changes our routine by giving us "P-day" from 6 on. Unfortunately this holiday isn't a member one. We are having a BBQ for lunch with the members who'd signed up for dinner. I think it would be really fun to give out candy to trick-or-treaters but I don't know if we will or not, maybe if I can find some really cheap candy we will.
Well thank you for the really long email :D I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love you back.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
It was pretty hilarious that she was afraid of water but it still made me nervous.
Yes, I definitely remember the stories about your mission president's wife and I have been reminded of them often on my mission and it has made me very thankful that that's not how ours is. A mission definitely does a great job of kicking most of us men into shape.
Transfers were boring but just what I wanted. Nobody in our apartment got transferred which should be really nice.
Can you really notice a difference in my growth just from reading the emails I write? I don't feel like I'm growing THAT much, though I can tell a difference at least to some extent. I'm glad you love to hear about our investigators.
Unfortunately yesterday we were supposed to have a baptism but it fell through for a very long story of a reason. Basically she is an elderly lady, Gladys. She had her interview Saturday, pretty much passed, then called us a while later that afternoon and tried to claim that our district leader had told her that she'd have to pay 30% tithing when she joined the church, which he obviously didn't and we live with him so it was easy for us to make certain of that. So we talked to her about that for a while. We didn't think that was really her concern. Well then Sunday during Sunday School she called and she told us (in major major tears) that she couldn't forgive her kids for not taking care of her (they pretty much neglect her) and so she couldn't repent of it so she couldn't be baptized. So we tried to talk her down and calm her down but she just really is having a hard time emotionally. Hopefully we'll be able to get that baptism to go through sometime in this transfer.
I'm glad that I'm missed, I definitely miss home, especially this week for some reason but all is well.
So, we had the funnest ward activity this Saturday! It was a road rally, you and Mom have probably heard of such a thing. Basically the activities commitee teamed up with the commitee of another ward and planned out this AMAZING treasure hunt type thing. So it was held two separate nights so that one ward would help the other do it and then vice versa. Well they had us all get in cars (we rode with a member) then they gave us clues that told stories but within the stories were the directions to the next checkpoint where we'd get our next clue. They had us driving ALL over the stake! It was crazy cool! They had been setting it up for months so they had gotten permission from all sorts of members and non-members to use their property. It was FABULOUS!
Love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Mom,
It is definitely great that Delores got baptized. I explained the Gladys situation in Dad's email, suffice it to say that she didn't get baptized. The wheelchair investigator is doing well I guess. We taught her half of lesson 1, then got interrupted by what appeared to be another minister...great...but hopefully her desire to join our church hasn't changed. She said she's been friends with the guy for quite a while, and obviously she hasn't joined his church, and then things really haven't worked out well the end of this week so we haven't been able to get back to visit her again.
That brings up the next point. We had our car stolen! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!BBBBBLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UPSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However, it wasn't literally stolen lol. Some other missionaries who live in a car only area had their airbag light go on in their car so it was in the shop and they needed a car so President authorized them to take our car until theirs was fixed. Well this was Wednesday, it is now Monday and we still don't have the car back because the shop ordered the wrong part for the car :@ (that's an angry emoticon in MSN Messenger) ;) We are pretty upset because it has really messed up our plans, because we can usually plan things so that the far stuff is on the car day. Biking to those places is such a waste of time. Anyway, that's my story for the week.
Marcella whom I've mentioned somewhat before has a soft date for November 15th. She still wants to think it through and make sure that it's what she wants to do because it's a big decision. I know she's converted, but she's scared of what will happen to her family if they don't join the church ya know? So she'll be baptized, it's just a matter of time in my mind. Hopefully she'll be ready by the 15th.
Playing the organ was a blast! They must really have that chapel insulated for sound though, one day I was seeing how loud it could play and even people right outside the closed doors could barely hear it, but it was definitely pretty loud! I'm glad that my mediocre piano playing is missed at home ;)
I went to choir for the first time this Sunday. We are singing a very easy but nice piece for Thanksgiving so that we can really focus on Christmas. We started practicing for Away in a Manger this week. It's a pretty cool piece that utilizes the three different tunes of the song. It's also really simple although the tenor part goes REALLY high! Like a G! There were like 6 basses there, no tenors, and about 10 women half and half. It was pretty good and sounded great.
Unfortunately, transfer breakfasts have been disallowed because they interfere with morning study :P LAME! Nobody wants to study on P-day! GAH! Anyway, to enforce it this transfer they didn't even tell the zone leaders about transfers until today, they emailed it to them so they couldn't even check until after study and then we all had to wait for a call from them to find out what was happening. It was the worst setup ever and it caused a lot of problems, especially since we didn't have a car!
Halloween we are supposed to be back to our apartment by 6 so the four of us will probably have purchased some boardgames and we'll play those and maybe have some ice cream or something to keep ourselves sane until bed time. It only changes our routine by giving us "P-day" from 6 on. Unfortunately this holiday isn't a member one. We are having a BBQ for lunch with the members who'd signed up for dinner. I think it would be really fun to give out candy to trick-or-treaters but I don't know if we will or not, maybe if I can find some really cheap candy we will.
Well thank you for the really long email :D I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love you back.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
October 19, 2009
Hi Mom,
lol, well eating out because of lack of time is the worst because you can't enjoy it. It is awesome that you've spent so much time with Grandma, don't feel guilty that you haven't had the time to fix meals. I am sure the family understands.
Man, I wish so badly that I could have been there to watch the football game with all of you. I really miss clam dip lol. I guess I could make it but I don't have enough confidence in myself to try. Ah well, lol. I miss seeing Grandma and Dad get so upset with the players. Nobody out here does that when they hear about football. I'm the only one that gets so into it :P Boring.
I was able to try the music on the organ, it was really hard, really long, really slow, but really fun! I will have to practice and practice and practice and I still won't get it down, but it'll be fun :) I'm glad that you are proud of my musical skills even though I'm not THAT talented. I wish I had more talent and more patience with myself and with practicing.
I found out again where Clay is going. He is going to Indianapolis, Indiana on like October 28th, so I need to respond to the letter that I FINALLY got from him. He and Caitlin tag teamed a letter. It was nice to hear from both of them. Especially since I haven't written to ANYBODY recently including Caitlin and she still wrote me. Well I have done better writing on my mission in the first couple transfers than I would have at home, but I've slacked off lately. I'll get back into the groove.
WOW! It is a crazy thought to think that I am almost not a teenager anymore. I had thought about being 20 but not about the fact that I won't be a teenager anymore! The holidays drawing near is very strange as well. I've heard Christmas is SO fun on a mission! I'm really excited, but it'll definitely be strange not having the traditions of home.
I hope you don't mind but I wrote a pretty detailed description of the baptism in Dad's email so I'm going to refer you to that. We should definitely have some more baptisms coming up soon.
I love you farther than that ;)
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm sorry you hate Miami so much and had to be there for meetings none-the-less. 95 degrees and 85% humidity?! Holy SMOKES! That sounds like what it was in Venice when I was there with UAM.
Well that is good that BYU won. Too bad it was by such a short margin yet again. They always seem to start out strong and just get very warn out throughout the season.
I am very glad to hear that Grandma is doing a ton better. I've been thinking about her a lot. Not to worry but just to sort of ponder what life has in store for us. We are definitely blessed to have Mom in our family. I've been noticing that more and more since I've been here. We have been asked by the people who own the place we live in to keep the house cleaner than we had been. My companion and I have been working really hard to improve ourselves, but the other companionship really hasn't been doing much at all, and when they do stuff they try to pass it as having done a lot so now it's up to us. I really understand how Mom must have felt with Kody and I arguing all the time and also with us not wanting to help her clean. If we didn't do it, eventually she would just have to do it herself (which isn't good). Well that's how it is here, if we don't want to get in trouble we end up having to do all of the clean-up. Oh well, what can you do? So basically all of that was to say that I'm growing to appreciate Mom more than ever even though I already did.
I have had one chance to play through the organ piece one time. It took me about half an hour to make it through the whole thing and it sounded miserable but it was way fun :D
I am SO happy that the heat of summer is mostly behind us. It still hasn't quite left us here in California, it's sort of on and off but it's better than it was for sure. Winter is going to be pretty lame this year I think since I won't be getting any snow :P Lame. Other than that I'm glad to have the rain.
The baptism was yesterday. Delores got baptized. I've told you a lot about her but I'll review. She is African-American, has two older sons that live with her, and is not very well off financially. She is kinda crazy and is terrified of water (other than like a shower). I was pretty nervous to see how the baptism would go, but she did great (though she was VERY visibly nervous). It was quite a cool experience. Funny story though. We were planning on sharing a baptismal program with the other missionaries and their investigator, but their investigator got sick and had to postpone the baptism. Well the other missionaries were pretty much in charge of the whole program. So we had to revamp the program and get them all printed out and folded, luckily we had plenty of time. (This all happened Sunday)
Next week, Gladdys will be getting baptized. She is an elderly lady who likes to complain to us but learns well and wants to be a member of the church and believes all of the doctrine she knows so that is awesome.
(This email is going to have to be the generic email from where I talk about the baptism on cuz I don't want to retype all of these stories lol)
So at church yesterday we had 5 investigators. Also, there was this one lady in a wheelchair who came with one of our members who is in a wheelchair. They both live in a care home together. Well the one that isn't a member introduced herself to us and told us that she wants to be a member of our church. So we asked when we could come teach her and (because she's in the care home) she said she is always available so that will be really nice to be able to get lessons with her. So hopefully we'll have a total of two baptisms this month and hopefully two or three next month.
Don't worry, I'm smiling for the most part and for surely having fun while working hard. Time definitely flies by a lot more when I stay busy and positive. For the most part (other than the cleaning situation) I am staying very positive. I can't wait to find out how transfers go next week. We have like 21 new missionaries coming in so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to train, but if not I'll still be happy. Who knows what will happen though.
I love you,
Elder Jay Davis
lol, well eating out because of lack of time is the worst because you can't enjoy it. It is awesome that you've spent so much time with Grandma, don't feel guilty that you haven't had the time to fix meals. I am sure the family understands.
Man, I wish so badly that I could have been there to watch the football game with all of you. I really miss clam dip lol. I guess I could make it but I don't have enough confidence in myself to try. Ah well, lol. I miss seeing Grandma and Dad get so upset with the players. Nobody out here does that when they hear about football. I'm the only one that gets so into it :P Boring.
I was able to try the music on the organ, it was really hard, really long, really slow, but really fun! I will have to practice and practice and practice and I still won't get it down, but it'll be fun :) I'm glad that you are proud of my musical skills even though I'm not THAT talented. I wish I had more talent and more patience with myself and with practicing.
I found out again where Clay is going. He is going to Indianapolis, Indiana on like October 28th, so I need to respond to the letter that I FINALLY got from him. He and Caitlin tag teamed a letter. It was nice to hear from both of them. Especially since I haven't written to ANYBODY recently including Caitlin and she still wrote me. Well I have done better writing on my mission in the first couple transfers than I would have at home, but I've slacked off lately. I'll get back into the groove.
WOW! It is a crazy thought to think that I am almost not a teenager anymore. I had thought about being 20 but not about the fact that I won't be a teenager anymore! The holidays drawing near is very strange as well. I've heard Christmas is SO fun on a mission! I'm really excited, but it'll definitely be strange not having the traditions of home.
I hope you don't mind but I wrote a pretty detailed description of the baptism in Dad's email so I'm going to refer you to that. We should definitely have some more baptisms coming up soon.
I love you farther than that ;)
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm sorry you hate Miami so much and had to be there for meetings none-the-less. 95 degrees and 85% humidity?! Holy SMOKES! That sounds like what it was in Venice when I was there with UAM.
Well that is good that BYU won. Too bad it was by such a short margin yet again. They always seem to start out strong and just get very warn out throughout the season.
I am very glad to hear that Grandma is doing a ton better. I've been thinking about her a lot. Not to worry but just to sort of ponder what life has in store for us. We are definitely blessed to have Mom in our family. I've been noticing that more and more since I've been here. We have been asked by the people who own the place we live in to keep the house cleaner than we had been. My companion and I have been working really hard to improve ourselves, but the other companionship really hasn't been doing much at all, and when they do stuff they try to pass it as having done a lot so now it's up to us. I really understand how Mom must have felt with Kody and I arguing all the time and also with us not wanting to help her clean. If we didn't do it, eventually she would just have to do it herself (which isn't good). Well that's how it is here, if we don't want to get in trouble we end up having to do all of the clean-up. Oh well, what can you do? So basically all of that was to say that I'm growing to appreciate Mom more than ever even though I already did.
I have had one chance to play through the organ piece one time. It took me about half an hour to make it through the whole thing and it sounded miserable but it was way fun :D
I am SO happy that the heat of summer is mostly behind us. It still hasn't quite left us here in California, it's sort of on and off but it's better than it was for sure. Winter is going to be pretty lame this year I think since I won't be getting any snow :P Lame. Other than that I'm glad to have the rain.
The baptism was yesterday. Delores got baptized. I've told you a lot about her but I'll review. She is African-American, has two older sons that live with her, and is not very well off financially. She is kinda crazy and is terrified of water (other than like a shower). I was pretty nervous to see how the baptism would go, but she did great (though she was VERY visibly nervous). It was quite a cool experience. Funny story though. We were planning on sharing a baptismal program with the other missionaries and their investigator, but their investigator got sick and had to postpone the baptism. Well the other missionaries were pretty much in charge of the whole program. So we had to revamp the program and get them all printed out and folded, luckily we had plenty of time. (This all happened Sunday)
Next week, Gladdys will be getting baptized. She is an elderly lady who likes to complain to us but learns well and wants to be a member of the church and believes all of the doctrine she knows so that is awesome.
(This email is going to have to be the generic email from where I talk about the baptism on cuz I don't want to retype all of these stories lol)
So at church yesterday we had 5 investigators. Also, there was this one lady in a wheelchair who came with one of our members who is in a wheelchair. They both live in a care home together. Well the one that isn't a member introduced herself to us and told us that she wants to be a member of our church. So we asked when we could come teach her and (because she's in the care home) she said she is always available so that will be really nice to be able to get lessons with her. So hopefully we'll have a total of two baptisms this month and hopefully two or three next month.
Don't worry, I'm smiling for the most part and for surely having fun while working hard. Time definitely flies by a lot more when I stay busy and positive. For the most part (other than the cleaning situation) I am staying very positive. I can't wait to find out how transfers go next week. We have like 21 new missionaries coming in so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to train, but if not I'll still be happy. Who knows what will happen though.
I love you,
Elder Jay Davis
October 12, 2009
Mom,
That's okay, things don't need to be new to be interesting. Sounds like a relatively busy week if you've spent your time half and half between school and the hospital.
Oh, well this should be an interesting email if Dad is typing for you Mom :D But I'm sure it will be great and my response should be the same as it would be either way ;)
lol, this is pretty fun reading all of the little things that Dad is typing in order to explain what's going on on the phone as you are talking.
No big deal, short is just fine. I'm just glad to hear from you.
The upcoming baptism should be great :) I'm excited for it and I will let you know how it went when next Monday rolls around.
I got the package, it was wonderful and I really loved it. Thanks Mom (and Dad)! I am looking forward to trying out the organ piece at the church today :)
Man, Clay's farewell is already here?! His mailing information would be much appreciated some time so that I can send him a letter.
Sure sounds like you've got your hands really full Mom. Thanks for the time you still take out of your schedule to make sure I get an email from you. I really love hearing from you. I can't tell you how much the package made my day :) I hope to be writing a real, hand-written letter back to you soon. I really have been behind on my letter writing and it's not fair to those who are writing me so I must be better.
I watched the video of you and I playing the piano duet. Wow that was fun. We did a really good job too! I miss playing duets a LOT! Nobody out here is really good enough to just sit down and play with me like you could.
Are you looking forward to Christmas yet? ;) It's really not all that far out! Only like two months. It's pretty hard to believe. I'm also having a hard time fathoming that I'll be 20 in a month!
Hmm...I'm not really sure what else to write about...I wish I was more interesting :P I really need to do better about writing experiences down. Things just aren't quite as interesting out here. Anyway, I'll do better.
Thanks again for the email Mom.
I love you tons!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
That's okay, things don't need to be new to be interesting. Sounds like a relatively busy week if you've spent your time half and half between school and the hospital.
Oh, well this should be an interesting email if Dad is typing for you Mom :D But I'm sure it will be great and my response should be the same as it would be either way ;)
lol, this is pretty fun reading all of the little things that Dad is typing in order to explain what's going on on the phone as you are talking.
No big deal, short is just fine. I'm just glad to hear from you.
The upcoming baptism should be great :) I'm excited for it and I will let you know how it went when next Monday rolls around.
I got the package, it was wonderful and I really loved it. Thanks Mom (and Dad)! I am looking forward to trying out the organ piece at the church today :)
Man, Clay's farewell is already here?! His mailing information would be much appreciated some time so that I can send him a letter.
Sure sounds like you've got your hands really full Mom. Thanks for the time you still take out of your schedule to make sure I get an email from you. I really love hearing from you. I can't tell you how much the package made my day :) I hope to be writing a real, hand-written letter back to you soon. I really have been behind on my letter writing and it's not fair to those who are writing me so I must be better.
I watched the video of you and I playing the piano duet. Wow that was fun. We did a really good job too! I miss playing duets a LOT! Nobody out here is really good enough to just sit down and play with me like you could.
Are you looking forward to Christmas yet? ;) It's really not all that far out! Only like two months. It's pretty hard to believe. I'm also having a hard time fathoming that I'll be 20 in a month!
Hmm...I'm not really sure what else to write about...I wish I was more interesting :P I really need to do better about writing experiences down. Things just aren't quite as interesting out here. Anyway, I'll do better.
Thanks again for the email Mom.
I love you tons!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
October 5, 2009
Hey Mom,
We've had almost sweater weather here too :D The evenings have been pretty chilly actually, it's been AWESOME! I love it! I wish the leaves were more of the type that would change color but oh well. I will definitely not miss the days of hot weather on a bike ;)
lol, well I'm glad that song in Conference made you think of me but I've never sung that song with a choir as far as I can remember lol :) I definitely liked the music. I really liked the "Oh Divine Redeemer" song!
I'm glad you liked the Jolly Rancher prank. I am so glad you reminded me of the prank I pulled on you at April Fools. I definitely think I'll have to pull that on the Spanish Elders!
Deloris, an African-American lady who's really crazy and really funny is getting baptized on Oct. 18th (assuming she comes to church one more time). The one with the pending date, Gladdys, needs to come to church three times and then she can be baptized. She hasn't been able to make it for health reasons mostly. She's been once now. So she actually asked us last lesson what she has to do to be baptized and we told her exactly what she needed to do. She really really wants to be baptized. It's awesome! Gladdys is a senior lady who has a member sister in Las Vegas. She is definitely a very prepared lady.
Yes, the ward choir definitely deserved the compliment. Hopefully it wasn't just because my standards have been lowered so much for good singing ;) It has become very relative for me ;) Nah, they are really good.
Love you tons!
Elder Jay Davis
We've had almost sweater weather here too :D The evenings have been pretty chilly actually, it's been AWESOME! I love it! I wish the leaves were more of the type that would change color but oh well. I will definitely not miss the days of hot weather on a bike ;)
lol, well I'm glad that song in Conference made you think of me but I've never sung that song with a choir as far as I can remember lol :) I definitely liked the music. I really liked the "Oh Divine Redeemer" song!
I'm glad you liked the Jolly Rancher prank. I am so glad you reminded me of the prank I pulled on you at April Fools. I definitely think I'll have to pull that on the Spanish Elders!
Deloris, an African-American lady who's really crazy and really funny is getting baptized on Oct. 18th (assuming she comes to church one more time). The one with the pending date, Gladdys, needs to come to church three times and then she can be baptized. She hasn't been able to make it for health reasons mostly. She's been once now. So she actually asked us last lesson what she has to do to be baptized and we told her exactly what she needed to do. She really really wants to be baptized. It's awesome! Gladdys is a senior lady who has a member sister in Las Vegas. She is definitely a very prepared lady.
Yes, the ward choir definitely deserved the compliment. Hopefully it wasn't just because my standards have been lowered so much for good singing ;) It has become very relative for me ;) Nah, they are really good.
Love you tons!
Elder Jay Davis
September 28, 2009
Mom,
Yes! The Taj Mahal! It's really really nice. The no stove thing is quite a bummer but we find ways to manage and it's still really great. We are already having good chances to exercise our creative cooking skills for sure.
Elder Allen is from Louiston (sp?). We get along pretty well. Well enough that we work well together and we aren't always grumpy like in my last companionship. Elder Archibald is District Leader and companions with Elder Boyter and they are our roommates. Archy is from Pennsylvania, then went to BYU, and Elder Boyter is from Alaska. They are very fun guys.
I am glad that you are excited for me to be able to play the organ :D I know you know that I am ;) Yes, any pipe organ would be fun for you. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play a duet or something on one ;) That would be awesome! (I'm using a lot of smileys today)
The biking I have found has proved that I'm not as out of shape as I thought :D It is definitely helping me improve my physical health but not as much as I thought it would. I will probably buy a new bike sometime but I'm not sure when I'll really get around to it lol Elder Boyter's bike is doing really well for now ;)
I am definitely very happy and I'm glad that you are enjoying my letters. I guess I really haven't written you a hand-written letter for quite a while so I'd better get to that!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Dear Family (and any others who may read this),
This week we had some okay experiences to write about, though nothing is all THAT interesting.
Actually, I think it was technically last week but that's okay. Last Sunday we went to a lesson, then had dinner afterwards, but dinner was in a different place. We ended up getting a bit lost and probably biked like 6 extra miles! It was CRAZY! Plus about a mile. So like 7 miles. It was really insane but not as bad as I was expecting. The worst part was the wind was blowing at us.
Hmmm...I tried to pull a prank on the other missionaries but I guess it didn't work. I had heard that it would work but I don't think it did. I put a Jolly Rancher in the showerhead and was hoping that it would make them get sticky when they showered but it doesn't seem like they were sticky unless they didn't give any reaction.
We are going to try and pull a prank on the Spanish missionaries (who are always joking around) as an apartment, but we haven't decided what yet. Anything that you can think of that would be appropriate and still funny? ;)
Sorry to hear about your ankle Kody. I hope you were able to have an okay night at Homecoming still.
I'm trying to think of anything else I could write about but I'm drawing a major blank.
Well I think that will just have to be all for now.
Love you all,
Elder Jay Davis
Yes! The Taj Mahal! It's really really nice. The no stove thing is quite a bummer but we find ways to manage and it's still really great. We are already having good chances to exercise our creative cooking skills for sure.
Elder Allen is from Louiston (sp?). We get along pretty well. Well enough that we work well together and we aren't always grumpy like in my last companionship. Elder Archibald is District Leader and companions with Elder Boyter and they are our roommates. Archy is from Pennsylvania, then went to BYU, and Elder Boyter is from Alaska. They are very fun guys.
I am glad that you are excited for me to be able to play the organ :D I know you know that I am ;) Yes, any pipe organ would be fun for you. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play a duet or something on one ;) That would be awesome! (I'm using a lot of smileys today)
The biking I have found has proved that I'm not as out of shape as I thought :D It is definitely helping me improve my physical health but not as much as I thought it would. I will probably buy a new bike sometime but I'm not sure when I'll really get around to it lol Elder Boyter's bike is doing really well for now ;)
I am definitely very happy and I'm glad that you are enjoying my letters. I guess I really haven't written you a hand-written letter for quite a while so I'd better get to that!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Dear Family (and any others who may read this),
This week we had some okay experiences to write about, though nothing is all THAT interesting.
Actually, I think it was technically last week but that's okay. Last Sunday we went to a lesson, then had dinner afterwards, but dinner was in a different place. We ended up getting a bit lost and probably biked like 6 extra miles! It was CRAZY! Plus about a mile. So like 7 miles. It was really insane but not as bad as I was expecting. The worst part was the wind was blowing at us.
Hmmm...I tried to pull a prank on the other missionaries but I guess it didn't work. I had heard that it would work but I don't think it did. I put a Jolly Rancher in the showerhead and was hoping that it would make them get sticky when they showered but it doesn't seem like they were sticky unless they didn't give any reaction.
We are going to try and pull a prank on the Spanish missionaries (who are always joking around) as an apartment, but we haven't decided what yet. Anything that you can think of that would be appropriate and still funny? ;)
Sorry to hear about your ankle Kody. I hope you were able to have an okay night at Homecoming still.
I'm trying to think of anything else I could write about but I'm drawing a major blank.
Well I think that will just have to be all for now.
Love you all,
Elder Jay Davis
Monday, September 21, 2009
September 21, 2009
Hey!
Well transfers went really well. I am now in Yuba City. I live right across (well kitty corner) from the Yuba City Stake Center that has an awesome pipe organ in it!
My companion, Elder Allen, is a really nice guy who is into sports. Out of three companions I have had zero that are musically inclined, but that's okay.
It was pretty hard for me to say goodbye to the members who dropped me off. They were the same members who picked me up from Yuba Stake center when I first got into the mission. I really grew to love all of the members in Foresthill so it was hard to grasp that it was really time to move on. Other than that it was fun to see the new place which, like I said, is really nice.
Unpacking was a pain in the butt. I got everything all unpacked though and it didn't take me too long. Hmmm...I don't remember many of my other thoughts. Actually, I was really hoping that I would get to live in an apartment, but the mission has been pushing to have us all live with members to cut costs so I thought that I wasn't going to get a chance to live in an apartment. Well even though the place we live isn't quite an "apartment" it is still without members. We live by ourselves. The members own it and don't charge rent so the mission is okay with it. Also I wanted to live in a four elder apartment and thought that wouldn't happen because of living with members. Well I am now in a four elder apartment. I am definitely having prayers answered however silly they are :D I'll have to take a video tour of our house and what not.
This area is a half and half bike and car area. So every-other-day we bike. Biking isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I am actually almost enjoying it. If the heat was gone then I would fully enjoy biking. Yuba City is really flat so other than the heat it's actually pretty enjoyable biking. Hopefully I'll lose a little weight. ;)Riding home last night was a long ride but felt really really nice and I'm not all that sore today. I'm definitely noticing how much I'm being blessed.
My bike definitely won't cut it with the way it is. We were going to take it into the shop (I already tried having a member in foresthill fix it but it didn't turn out). The members who own the REALLY expensive nice house thing that we live in have a tab at the shop that they've told us we are more than welcome to use, in fact encouraged. We'll see how much it'll cost to fix. Otherwise I'll go buy one at Walmart. Thanks for your help.
Mom mentioned last week that you have all been working on the unicycle. I am jealous :) I'm excited to see a video or something of you guys cycling :D
*SIGH* Yeah, I got to see the second half of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th quarter. Very depressing and very poor football on our part. That's our first home loss in like 5 years! (The members we had dinner with had it on)
Today we went to the mall, yes, there is a mall here! Woot! Anyway, there was a Ross in the mall and we were just perusing (sp?) and I found a radio-controlled car that is hydrogen powered! I was so excited to find out it only cost $20 so I bought it! It'll be something fun to do in the apartment after curfew before bed. It has it's own fueling station that you put water in and it fills up the car with hydrogen. It should be pretty interesting to see how it works. I figured I had to try it. It was cheap enough I won't feel too bad if I don't have the means to take it with me at my next transfer.
I am also hoping that I will be able to find a good music store here so that I can buy some piano music for myself. I think I am going to get a Coldplay book that has Viva la Vida in it or something like that. I don't know. I'm just getting sort of bored of the music I have since I've played every song quite a bit. (I think I have Attention Deficit Disorder since I came on my mission) ;) j/k
We email from the library now so I will probably be emailing at a fairly consistent time. Probably around 11, but my companion says we generally sign up between 11 and 1 but usually 11. We have a Walmart here, which I didn't in my last area, so that's good. Unfortunately we don't have an oven or a stove (long story that I'll explain later) so we cook with an electric skillet, a toaster oven (a nice one), and a microwave. We have learned to cook Macaroni and Cheese in the skillet and we are going to make pigs in a blanket in the toaster oven today. We are going to try making brownies in the toaster oven sometime also :D Should be fun.
hmmm...I'm not quite sure what else to write about. Please ask me questions so I can have prompts to respond to. Also, my list of email topics I left at home today so I will have to finish telling my Foresthill stories another time. Sorry.
I think that is about all.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Mom,
The change hasn't been all that bad really. I moved into the nicest apartment a missionary could hope to live in. It's been called the Taj Mahal of missionary apartments :D I live with four elders and it's WAY fun! My new companion, Elder Allen, is a really nice guy. He is from VERY northern Utah. He likes the Chargers and Utah State (at least his football team is no competition ;)) Unfortunately I am yet to have a musically inclined companion but that's okay. I like my companion yes. He's much more fun than my last one who was too serious for my taste. Yuba City is actually really nice :) I like it a lot. We are biking and driving, on an every-other-day basis. YES! I am in the pipe organ area! I am SOOOO excited. On that note...I'm not sure where it is, but I have a copy of the organ music for the Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor by Bach and I would LOVE if you would send it to me :D Man the organ is loud even on the quietest setting! I am in heaven ;)
My new mailing address is:
Elder Jay Davis
1397 Butte House Rd.
Yuba City, CA 95993
Mail is VERY convenient here. We will get it by 10 or 10:30 every day and it's right outside our front door. I'm looking forward to Caitlin's letter. I am really not doing well at responding to letters. I have a big pile that are unresponded to, but I'm picking them off slowly. I'm also looking forward to whatever you are sending.
Yeah, you told me about Yuba City and mutual :) I liked that story. Colusa was closed for a while because both missionaries serving there finished there missions. It was just reopened with some sisters in it :)
I know how "same old same-o" goes lol
BLAH! I was so upset about the BYU game!
Thanks for thinking about me. Transfers went really well. I'm pretty well settled into the new routine. I'm thinking this was probably an easier move than to Foresthill but I don't know. Neither one was really all that hard. You're right though, I only have to adjust to the people part, not the missionary part.
I love you too!
Elder Jay Davis
Well transfers went really well. I am now in Yuba City. I live right across (well kitty corner) from the Yuba City Stake Center that has an awesome pipe organ in it!
My companion, Elder Allen, is a really nice guy who is into sports. Out of three companions I have had zero that are musically inclined, but that's okay.
It was pretty hard for me to say goodbye to the members who dropped me off. They were the same members who picked me up from Yuba Stake center when I first got into the mission. I really grew to love all of the members in Foresthill so it was hard to grasp that it was really time to move on. Other than that it was fun to see the new place which, like I said, is really nice.
Unpacking was a pain in the butt. I got everything all unpacked though and it didn't take me too long. Hmmm...I don't remember many of my other thoughts. Actually, I was really hoping that I would get to live in an apartment, but the mission has been pushing to have us all live with members to cut costs so I thought that I wasn't going to get a chance to live in an apartment. Well even though the place we live isn't quite an "apartment" it is still without members. We live by ourselves. The members own it and don't charge rent so the mission is okay with it. Also I wanted to live in a four elder apartment and thought that wouldn't happen because of living with members. Well I am now in a four elder apartment. I am definitely having prayers answered however silly they are :D I'll have to take a video tour of our house and what not.
This area is a half and half bike and car area. So every-other-day we bike. Biking isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I am actually almost enjoying it. If the heat was gone then I would fully enjoy biking. Yuba City is really flat so other than the heat it's actually pretty enjoyable biking. Hopefully I'll lose a little weight. ;)Riding home last night was a long ride but felt really really nice and I'm not all that sore today. I'm definitely noticing how much I'm being blessed.
My bike definitely won't cut it with the way it is. We were going to take it into the shop (I already tried having a member in foresthill fix it but it didn't turn out). The members who own the REALLY expensive nice house thing that we live in have a tab at the shop that they've told us we are more than welcome to use, in fact encouraged. We'll see how much it'll cost to fix. Otherwise I'll go buy one at Walmart. Thanks for your help.
Mom mentioned last week that you have all been working on the unicycle. I am jealous :) I'm excited to see a video or something of you guys cycling :D
*SIGH* Yeah, I got to see the second half of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th quarter. Very depressing and very poor football on our part. That's our first home loss in like 5 years! (The members we had dinner with had it on)
Today we went to the mall, yes, there is a mall here! Woot! Anyway, there was a Ross in the mall and we were just perusing (sp?) and I found a radio-controlled car that is hydrogen powered! I was so excited to find out it only cost $20 so I bought it! It'll be something fun to do in the apartment after curfew before bed. It has it's own fueling station that you put water in and it fills up the car with hydrogen. It should be pretty interesting to see how it works. I figured I had to try it. It was cheap enough I won't feel too bad if I don't have the means to take it with me at my next transfer.
I am also hoping that I will be able to find a good music store here so that I can buy some piano music for myself. I think I am going to get a Coldplay book that has Viva la Vida in it or something like that. I don't know. I'm just getting sort of bored of the music I have since I've played every song quite a bit. (I think I have Attention Deficit Disorder since I came on my mission) ;) j/k
We email from the library now so I will probably be emailing at a fairly consistent time. Probably around 11, but my companion says we generally sign up between 11 and 1 but usually 11. We have a Walmart here, which I didn't in my last area, so that's good. Unfortunately we don't have an oven or a stove (long story that I'll explain later) so we cook with an electric skillet, a toaster oven (a nice one), and a microwave. We have learned to cook Macaroni and Cheese in the skillet and we are going to make pigs in a blanket in the toaster oven today. We are going to try making brownies in the toaster oven sometime also :D Should be fun.
hmmm...I'm not quite sure what else to write about. Please ask me questions so I can have prompts to respond to. Also, my list of email topics I left at home today so I will have to finish telling my Foresthill stories another time. Sorry.
I think that is about all.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Mom,
The change hasn't been all that bad really. I moved into the nicest apartment a missionary could hope to live in. It's been called the Taj Mahal of missionary apartments :D I live with four elders and it's WAY fun! My new companion, Elder Allen, is a really nice guy. He is from VERY northern Utah. He likes the Chargers and Utah State (at least his football team is no competition ;)) Unfortunately I am yet to have a musically inclined companion but that's okay. I like my companion yes. He's much more fun than my last one who was too serious for my taste. Yuba City is actually really nice :) I like it a lot. We are biking and driving, on an every-other-day basis. YES! I am in the pipe organ area! I am SOOOO excited. On that note...I'm not sure where it is, but I have a copy of the organ music for the Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor by Bach and I would LOVE if you would send it to me :D Man the organ is loud even on the quietest setting! I am in heaven ;)
My new mailing address is:
Elder Jay Davis
1397 Butte House Rd.
Yuba City, CA 95993
Mail is VERY convenient here. We will get it by 10 or 10:30 every day and it's right outside our front door. I'm looking forward to Caitlin's letter. I am really not doing well at responding to letters. I have a big pile that are unresponded to, but I'm picking them off slowly. I'm also looking forward to whatever you are sending.
Yeah, you told me about Yuba City and mutual :) I liked that story. Colusa was closed for a while because both missionaries serving there finished there missions. It was just reopened with some sisters in it :)
I know how "same old same-o" goes lol
BLAH! I was so upset about the BYU game!
Thanks for thinking about me. Transfers went really well. I'm pretty well settled into the new routine. I'm thinking this was probably an easier move than to Foresthill but I don't know. Neither one was really all that hard. You're right though, I only have to adjust to the people part, not the missionary part.
I love you too!
Elder Jay Davis
September 14, 2009
Dad,
I appreciate the council on transfers. I'm not going to tell you whether or not I got transferred in this email. I'll send one to all of you at once like always. I'm looking forward to the day I get to bring you back too! :D
The White Handbook (Missionary Bible) says that we are not allowed to correspond directly with members of the opposite sex who live within the mission boundaries unless they are one of our converts and we have special permission. Everybody else I can write.
lol, doorbells are awesome too but I'm a little bit chicken about if they're home and just not answering so I haven't rung one twice yet, but I'll consider it :D
I heard from some members out here that we jumped up to 9th WOOOHOOOO! 7?! AHHHHH!!!! I'm doing flips inside! 54-3...wow! (Jay made this comment in reference to BYU football.)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?! ASDLFJADFJLKASDF! (I'm out of excited words to say! lol) Well hopefully we play well against those two teams!
I'm smiling and smiling and smiling about mission and all else. People seem to be pretty thankful for my musical talent, thanks for the compliment.
I'm glad you are anxious to hear about my week. I like telling about it:) We got 23 lessons this week :D We acheived all of our goals except for sacrament meeting attendance which we were one short on.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
GO COUGARS!!!
Mom,
Transfers are indeed today, but in order to be fair I will forbear.
I'm glad you enjoy reading my letter last week. To be 100% honest with you I can't even remember exactly what I wrote lol. I am glad, however, that my personality shows in my writing even if it is a little nerdy sometimes ;)
I was able to make Sour Cream Cookie...dough...lol, but haven't had enough time or the right weather (too hot) to bake any. So we'll see :)
We have been unable to meet with Kris and Conner but things seem to be going pretty well. Hopefully we'll be able to get in touch with them tonight and set things up for a time to meet.
Melissa has commented a lot on talking with you on Facebook. I think she really enjoys it. I'm glad that the pictures are well appreciated even if they are pretty dorky ;) The two thumbs up pose is definitely typical of me, but I can't ever think of anything else to do :) I'm happy to know it made your day. She laughed a lot at it (in a good way).
We haven't had a lot of wind but we got a pretty good amount of rain last night and this morning which was SOOOOO awesome! I just wish it had continued. Oh well, it'll rain more later. I wish it would have really poured during the non-sleeping hours more. Other than today it's been pretty warm though.
That's awesome that you are back in our church building again.
I'm super excited to see pictures of Becca, Brad, and the baby :D WOOT!
Thanks for having Dad send some cake pictures :D They'll love them I'm sure.
Thanks for the advice about looking for the good in every situation. I always try my best. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
I love you back!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Fam!
Well I am getting transferred. I am going to Yuba City, voted the ugliest city in the United States! hahaha Anyway, it should be way awesome. If I'm in the area that goes to the stake center building there is a real pipe organ which I am hoping I will get to play :D
I will be serving with Elder...Allen. I keep forgetting his name. Elder Cellan's watching out for me though. I'm sure things will be great.
If it's a bike area I'm doomed though. I don't know if I've told you but the bike got messed up during shipping and the derailer (the thing that clicks when you pedal backwards) touches the spokes in quite a few gears. So if I have a lot of biking to do I may need to buy a new bike. That's very very scary for me because I don't know what to look for and I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll rarely use at home. We'll see I guess. I can last at least a week with the bike I have.
I don't have much time to write since I need to pack and tonight is going to be busy. I will write about experiences that have piled up. I have them listed so I shouldn't forget.
Mom, the cake pictures may need to be posted on Facebook in case I can't show people before then. If you could do that it would be awesome. If not, that's fine too :)
Hmmm...I wonder if I've forgotten to tell you anything. Well I hope not because I'm gonna wrap up and go pack.
Love you all!
Elder Jay Davis
I appreciate the council on transfers. I'm not going to tell you whether or not I got transferred in this email. I'll send one to all of you at once like always. I'm looking forward to the day I get to bring you back too! :D
The White Handbook (Missionary Bible) says that we are not allowed to correspond directly with members of the opposite sex who live within the mission boundaries unless they are one of our converts and we have special permission. Everybody else I can write.
lol, doorbells are awesome too but I'm a little bit chicken about if they're home and just not answering so I haven't rung one twice yet, but I'll consider it :D
I heard from some members out here that we jumped up to 9th WOOOHOOOO! 7?! AHHHHH!!!! I'm doing flips inside! 54-3...wow! (Jay made this comment in reference to BYU football.)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?! ASDLFJADFJLKASDF! (I'm out of excited words to say! lol) Well hopefully we play well against those two teams!
I'm smiling and smiling and smiling about mission and all else. People seem to be pretty thankful for my musical talent, thanks for the compliment.
I'm glad you are anxious to hear about my week. I like telling about it:) We got 23 lessons this week :D We acheived all of our goals except for sacrament meeting attendance which we were one short on.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
GO COUGARS!!!
Mom,
Transfers are indeed today, but in order to be fair I will forbear.
I'm glad you enjoy reading my letter last week. To be 100% honest with you I can't even remember exactly what I wrote lol. I am glad, however, that my personality shows in my writing even if it is a little nerdy sometimes ;)
I was able to make Sour Cream Cookie...dough...lol, but haven't had enough time or the right weather (too hot) to bake any. So we'll see :)
We have been unable to meet with Kris and Conner but things seem to be going pretty well. Hopefully we'll be able to get in touch with them tonight and set things up for a time to meet.
Melissa has commented a lot on talking with you on Facebook. I think she really enjoys it. I'm glad that the pictures are well appreciated even if they are pretty dorky ;) The two thumbs up pose is definitely typical of me, but I can't ever think of anything else to do :) I'm happy to know it made your day. She laughed a lot at it (in a good way).
We haven't had a lot of wind but we got a pretty good amount of rain last night and this morning which was SOOOOO awesome! I just wish it had continued. Oh well, it'll rain more later. I wish it would have really poured during the non-sleeping hours more. Other than today it's been pretty warm though.
That's awesome that you are back in our church building again.
I'm super excited to see pictures of Becca, Brad, and the baby :D WOOT!
Thanks for having Dad send some cake pictures :D They'll love them I'm sure.
Thanks for the advice about looking for the good in every situation. I always try my best. Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
I love you back!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Fam!
Well I am getting transferred. I am going to Yuba City, voted the ugliest city in the United States! hahaha Anyway, it should be way awesome. If I'm in the area that goes to the stake center building there is a real pipe organ which I am hoping I will get to play :D
I will be serving with Elder...Allen. I keep forgetting his name. Elder Cellan's watching out for me though. I'm sure things will be great.
If it's a bike area I'm doomed though. I don't know if I've told you but the bike got messed up during shipping and the derailer (the thing that clicks when you pedal backwards) touches the spokes in quite a few gears. So if I have a lot of biking to do I may need to buy a new bike. That's very very scary for me because I don't know what to look for and I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll rarely use at home. We'll see I guess. I can last at least a week with the bike I have.
I don't have much time to write since I need to pack and tonight is going to be busy. I will write about experiences that have piled up. I have them listed so I shouldn't forget.
Mom, the cake pictures may need to be posted on Facebook in case I can't show people before then. If you could do that it would be awesome. If not, that's fine too :)
Hmmm...I wonder if I've forgotten to tell you anything. Well I hope not because I'm gonna wrap up and go pack.
Love you all!
Elder Jay Davis
September 5, 2009
Hey Dad!
YAY YAY YAY!!! Imagine my insides jumping up and down! I AM SO EXCITED FOR FOOTBALL SEASON! AHHHHHHHH! WOOHOO!
Based on the score it would definitely appear that we started off shaky. That's awesome that our defense is still doing a great job. Man! 4 turnovers, if we were able to win in spite of that we must have played an awesome 2nd half!
lol, yes, someday everything will go perfectly at the 94th ward...well probably not, things never ever go all the way right. I think you are just too hard on yourself anyway.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures on facebook of the strange dinner. The rattlesnake tasted really really good. It tasted basically like...I dunno chicken I guess. Just another meat really.
The branch is doing really really well. We had an awesome 5th Sunday lesson about missionary work where our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Bond, and our new reactivation specialists who are coming to our Branch from Auburn (the Weists) talked about the efforts the branch is making in missionary work. It has been really cool to see the renewed excitement in member missionary work!
Yep, Foresthill at this point has the looks of being like Bazil was for you. I could go back there all the time to see the members already. I am definitely working hard at preparing myself for when I have to leave. I'm reminding myself how to talk to people who I haven't met before ;) Not that I don't do it every day anyway. This is definitely the first or the last place I'll bring you when we come to California after my mission. I'll want to come first because it's my favorite but I'll also want to end here because it's the best ;)
Definitely still enjoying the ride, more than ever actually. Thanks for the advice and reminders :D
Thanks for being so proud of me. I'm proud of you too Dad.
I love you,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Mom,
I'm glad you don't think I'm long-winded with my stories. I have some stories from this week, plus lots of stories that have piled up on the list of email topics. I think this week I'm going to write about the most recent ones and then I'll work my way through the list slowly.
I'm glad you are happy to help Kendra. I LOVE HIS HANDS! I'm glad that you are back to where you are able to do music well again :D You are quite a trooper! I'm glad that your voice pleases you at this point :) I guess this proves that there are blessings in our hardships...right? ;) lol
I'm glad you like hearing about me "breaking out of my shell." I am enjoying it a lot as well. I'm actually the one that does a lot of the talking in this companionship. I have to work really hard not to drown out my companion, but I am doing a pretty good job of avoiding that.
I got the package :D It wasn't boring. I really do like looking at all of the missionaries and the weddings and then seeing some fun stories in the Payson Chronicle. I really loved reading about Wizard of Oz! The Winter-Green mints are amazing. I really enjoyed reading your letter too. It was a wonderful package
That's so cool that you were able to just run errands with Grandma and Grandpa. It's incredible to me that you are able to do that again! Running errands actually sounds pretty fun to me :D
Well next time just cry when you're watching the movie ;) hahaha You were next to Dad, I'm sure you wouldn't have been crying the hardest ;)
I heard from Dad that the BYU game was AWESOME! I rejoiced exceedingly (wow that was a missionary comment!)
Hey, in your letter in the package you mentioned about piano music. The council I've heard from my zone leaders is that there are no rules in the white bible in the way of piano music, that's what they said the mission president said. But Jon Schmidt or some movie tunes like Pirates or something like that might be fun. Who knows. Just send whatever you think I'll enjoy really. I'm not picky ;)
I love you right back!
Elder Jay Davis
Dear All,
First funny story...we had some milk in the fridge that had gone sour because we just really didn't use much. So I thought, since I had the recipe from Mom, I'd make sour cream cookies with it. Well I had to wait until P-day to buy the other ingredients. So I bought all of the ingredients, then I was going to make them Tuesday during lunch but when I went to get the milk...it had decided to curdle. So that was definitely not good for making cookies. Needless to say I am going to buy either sour cream or use some milk with vinegar in the recipe. (The milk was pretty gross)
So we were tracting yesterday and we knocked on this door. Nobody answered we waited quite a while, then went to knock again and before we finished the knock we heard a lady inside say, "I don't want to talk to you...please go away." It was hilarious! I love how blunt people can be and at the same time how there are other people who totally beat around the bush lol
Oh, so Mom, I have things written down to email you about but I forgot so that is why I'm doing them in here (be patient others) ;) Anyway, I have told a few people about the awesome cakes you always make us for our birthdays. A lot have wanted to see them. Would you send me (in email) attachments of a bunch of pictures of cakes you've made? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks :D
Let's see...we have an investigator who is TOTALLY being prepared! Her name is Kris. She is the mom of another of our investigators, Conner. We have had some pretty cool experiences with them! Anyway, we have been over for dinner before. Actually, the first time we got into their house, the first thing Kris asked us was, "So could you teach me more about the three kingdoms of glory, that's sort of confusing to me." We just about passed out! This was the first time we've ever talked to her remember! Anyway, we explained that and she totally understood. Then we went over and had dinner as I mentioned and sort of taught about fasting and tithing and what not and they totally sucked that up. Over the course of all this Kris told us that about 4 or 5 years ago she had met with missionaries and was just about to be baptized but the day before she was going to get baptized, one of the missionaries who had been teaching her got transferred due to some accusations made against him and because it wasn't just a normal transfer he wasn't allowed to return for the baptism. She was very upset by that and decided not to get baptized. (She's quite a fiery lady) Anyway, she's VERY receptive.
I think that'll do for this week's email, what do you think? ;)
Love y'all,
Elder Jay Davis
YAY YAY YAY!!! Imagine my insides jumping up and down! I AM SO EXCITED FOR FOOTBALL SEASON! AHHHHHHHH! WOOHOO!
Based on the score it would definitely appear that we started off shaky. That's awesome that our defense is still doing a great job. Man! 4 turnovers, if we were able to win in spite of that we must have played an awesome 2nd half!
lol, yes, someday everything will go perfectly at the 94th ward...well probably not, things never ever go all the way right. I think you are just too hard on yourself anyway.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures on facebook of the strange dinner. The rattlesnake tasted really really good. It tasted basically like...I dunno chicken I guess. Just another meat really.
The branch is doing really really well. We had an awesome 5th Sunday lesson about missionary work where our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Bond, and our new reactivation specialists who are coming to our Branch from Auburn (the Weists) talked about the efforts the branch is making in missionary work. It has been really cool to see the renewed excitement in member missionary work!
Yep, Foresthill at this point has the looks of being like Bazil was for you. I could go back there all the time to see the members already. I am definitely working hard at preparing myself for when I have to leave. I'm reminding myself how to talk to people who I haven't met before ;) Not that I don't do it every day anyway. This is definitely the first or the last place I'll bring you when we come to California after my mission. I'll want to come first because it's my favorite but I'll also want to end here because it's the best ;)
Definitely still enjoying the ride, more than ever actually. Thanks for the advice and reminders :D
Thanks for being so proud of me. I'm proud of you too Dad.
I love you,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Mom,
I'm glad you don't think I'm long-winded with my stories. I have some stories from this week, plus lots of stories that have piled up on the list of email topics. I think this week I'm going to write about the most recent ones and then I'll work my way through the list slowly.
I'm glad you are happy to help Kendra. I LOVE HIS HANDS! I'm glad that you are back to where you are able to do music well again :D You are quite a trooper! I'm glad that your voice pleases you at this point :) I guess this proves that there are blessings in our hardships...right? ;) lol
I'm glad you like hearing about me "breaking out of my shell." I am enjoying it a lot as well. I'm actually the one that does a lot of the talking in this companionship. I have to work really hard not to drown out my companion, but I am doing a pretty good job of avoiding that.
I got the package :D It wasn't boring. I really do like looking at all of the missionaries and the weddings and then seeing some fun stories in the Payson Chronicle. I really loved reading about Wizard of Oz! The Winter-Green mints are amazing. I really enjoyed reading your letter too. It was a wonderful package
That's so cool that you were able to just run errands with Grandma and Grandpa. It's incredible to me that you are able to do that again! Running errands actually sounds pretty fun to me :D
Well next time just cry when you're watching the movie ;) hahaha You were next to Dad, I'm sure you wouldn't have been crying the hardest ;)
I heard from Dad that the BYU game was AWESOME! I rejoiced exceedingly (wow that was a missionary comment!)
Hey, in your letter in the package you mentioned about piano music. The council I've heard from my zone leaders is that there are no rules in the white bible in the way of piano music, that's what they said the mission president said. But Jon Schmidt or some movie tunes like Pirates or something like that might be fun. Who knows. Just send whatever you think I'll enjoy really. I'm not picky ;)
I love you right back!
Elder Jay Davis
Dear All,
First funny story...we had some milk in the fridge that had gone sour because we just really didn't use much. So I thought, since I had the recipe from Mom, I'd make sour cream cookies with it. Well I had to wait until P-day to buy the other ingredients. So I bought all of the ingredients, then I was going to make them Tuesday during lunch but when I went to get the milk...it had decided to curdle. So that was definitely not good for making cookies. Needless to say I am going to buy either sour cream or use some milk with vinegar in the recipe. (The milk was pretty gross)
So we were tracting yesterday and we knocked on this door. Nobody answered we waited quite a while, then went to knock again and before we finished the knock we heard a lady inside say, "I don't want to talk to you...please go away." It was hilarious! I love how blunt people can be and at the same time how there are other people who totally beat around the bush lol
Oh, so Mom, I have things written down to email you about but I forgot so that is why I'm doing them in here (be patient others) ;) Anyway, I have told a few people about the awesome cakes you always make us for our birthdays. A lot have wanted to see them. Would you send me (in email) attachments of a bunch of pictures of cakes you've made? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks :D
Let's see...we have an investigator who is TOTALLY being prepared! Her name is Kris. She is the mom of another of our investigators, Conner. We have had some pretty cool experiences with them! Anyway, we have been over for dinner before. Actually, the first time we got into their house, the first thing Kris asked us was, "So could you teach me more about the three kingdoms of glory, that's sort of confusing to me." We just about passed out! This was the first time we've ever talked to her remember! Anyway, we explained that and she totally understood. Then we went over and had dinner as I mentioned and sort of taught about fasting and tithing and what not and they totally sucked that up. Over the course of all this Kris told us that about 4 or 5 years ago she had met with missionaries and was just about to be baptized but the day before she was going to get baptized, one of the missionaries who had been teaching her got transferred due to some accusations made against him and because it wasn't just a normal transfer he wasn't allowed to return for the baptism. She was very upset by that and decided not to get baptized. (She's quite a fiery lady) Anyway, she's VERY receptive.
I think that'll do for this week's email, what do you think? ;)
Love y'all,
Elder Jay Davis
August 31, 2009
Hi Dad,
I am doing really well. Life has it's ups and downs but mostly ups.
That's really cool that you got to go meet the new members of the ward that are moving into Wyview. My district leader will be excited to know that that is what your ward covers. That's crazy how large the ward is and that it's the 94th!
I'm SOOOOO EXCITED for BYU sports to start again! Thanks for the update and I'm looking forward to more when you have the chance :D I am super happy that BYU started out ranked 20th, that's acceptable.
I'm doing great and hope you are as well. You sound happy. I hope you keep on loving life.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Mom,
I am pretty confident I'll be transferred this time. I mean it will be 6 months that I've been here. Elder Neeley, my trainer, stayed in his first area for 9 months so it isn't impossible to stay longer, but from what the usual is I would guess I'll be transferred. I can't decide which I'd rather, staying or going lol
Gotta go change the laundry, brb.
Alright, I know you have no clue how long that took, but I had to hang up all of my white shirts to keep them from needing to be ironed ;) I had 12 shirts to hang up so it took a decent amount of time lol, but I'm back now obviously.
I bet the opening social for BYU 94th was AWESOME! We get some pretty good chuckles when we talk about the "94th" ward. 94! I mean come on! I am not surprised it was well attended, it's a college social ;)
There was a fire in Auburn where the zone leaders, Spanish missionaries, and another set of missionaries serve. That's where we're going for P-day today lol. Look it up on the internet for more details. We are all fine.
Thanks for the email. I love you.
Elder Jay Davis
I am doing really well. Life has it's ups and downs but mostly ups.
That's really cool that you got to go meet the new members of the ward that are moving into Wyview. My district leader will be excited to know that that is what your ward covers. That's crazy how large the ward is and that it's the 94th!
I'm SOOOOO EXCITED for BYU sports to start again! Thanks for the update and I'm looking forward to more when you have the chance :D I am super happy that BYU started out ranked 20th, that's acceptable.
I'm doing great and hope you are as well. You sound happy. I hope you keep on loving life.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Mom,
I am pretty confident I'll be transferred this time. I mean it will be 6 months that I've been here. Elder Neeley, my trainer, stayed in his first area for 9 months so it isn't impossible to stay longer, but from what the usual is I would guess I'll be transferred. I can't decide which I'd rather, staying or going lol
Gotta go change the laundry, brb.
Alright, I know you have no clue how long that took, but I had to hang up all of my white shirts to keep them from needing to be ironed ;) I had 12 shirts to hang up so it took a decent amount of time lol, but I'm back now obviously.
I bet the opening social for BYU 94th was AWESOME! We get some pretty good chuckles when we talk about the "94th" ward. 94! I mean come on! I am not surprised it was well attended, it's a college social ;)
There was a fire in Auburn where the zone leaders, Spanish missionaries, and another set of missionaries serve. That's where we're going for P-day today lol. Look it up on the internet for more details. We are all fine.
Thanks for the email. I love you.
Elder Jay Davis
Monday, August 24, 2009
August 24, 2009
Hey Dad,
I'm doing really well. Things are quite busy. We have a LOT of investigators. They don't all have tons of potential but hey, we'll do our best.
I'm sorry that you are having issues with the MLS stuff at the BYU 94th Ward lol (I really am sorry, I was laughing that it's the 94th ward). My District Leader, Elder Hagmann, goes home at the end of this transfer and he went to BYU for two years before his mission (he graduated way early from high school) so he knows a lot of the stuff about BYU. He wonders what stake you are a part of. Hopefully you got the correct file :)
Which temple dedication was this week? Remember I don't get much news, even church related. That's interesting that they didn't have church because of it.
That's awesome that you took a mini vacation to SLC. Sounds like you had a really nice time. Yummy meals, fun movies (You didn't say which movies), awesome activities at the Boondocks (which I've seen but never been to), great NASCAR stuff, the whole sh'bang ;) I was confused as to who the boy"s" were but then you mentioned Josh so I got it.
WOW, sounds like a really really crazy upcoming set of events with the BYU Stake and Ward! It also sounds like tons and tons of fun. I know you'll be really great at your calling. You have always loved working with younger generations, this'll just be yet another opportunity for you :D I'm so excited to continue hearing about it.
I am definitely keeping busy out here. Lots of lessons, lots of people, not a lot of baptisms, but that's okay. Ultimately that is our goal, but it doesn't mean we're unsuccessful if we don't get all that many.
I'm glad you got the memory card :) I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback and hearing the feedback of others who see them lol Should be interesting.
Good luck with the busy schedule you've got :)
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Mom,
The teaching is going great. We got 19 lessons this week. We were short 1 lesson from the mission goal but that's okay. We are still doing a lot of stuff up here and are very busy which is wonderful.
That's so crazy that school has already started once again! I'm glad Kody is happy and enjoying himself. From Dad's email it surely sounded like he's working his tail off harder than usual ;)
That's really cool that you went to the school Friday and got you introduced to all of the students so that they can get used to what's going to be the norm. I miss getting to pop in on occasion :)
Sounds like a good idea stealing one last weekend for vacation :) Slick track, bumper boats, mini golf, lazer tag, arcade games...AHHH! Trunky thoughts lol ;) Sounds like you had such a blast! We might go bowling sometime for P-day.
That's so cool that you got a message from Melissa :D I can't help but smile really big. Little Jason definitely seems to like his missionaries a lot and also seems to pick favorites lol. However, he knows all of our names really well. I am constantly amazed at how well all of the kids remember the missionaries' names and that they are so excited to be around us.
lol, well thanks for keeping your email short, I'm extra short on time this week anyway because we got a late start emailing. So it's a good thing you kept it short so I can at least get to some of my email topics :D
I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Howdy,
Well I have to make this quick but I want to write about at least a few of the "Email Topics" that I have compiled to write about. Maybe I'll spread it out and share a few this week, a few next week, and so on so that I have stories for longer and I can just keep adding and taking away from the list. (That got pretty long-winded for having to keep it quick)
First, Elder Cellan and I were tracting a street (Birchwood...Dr.?) (Stupid California streets, lol). As we were walking we passed a guy walking his dog with his teenage son. Well the guy said something along the lines of, "You see that house right there...it doesn't accept soliciting. That house right there does not accept any soliciting." He basically repeated himself like four times, but never said, "Just don't go to that house." It was pretty hilarious.
Okay, so the next thing I'm going to tell you about will be somewhat of a regular occurance (sp?). So in town there is a church called Canyon View Assembly. They are one of those that has the sign out front with little sayings that change periodically. Well they are unique because their sayings are fun but still thought provoking. So my companions and I have gotten some pretty good laughs out of some of the sayings. So I have a few of the ones that have been on there so far. The first I have written down is, "Can't stand the heat? Prepare to avoid it." The next is, "Too hot? This church is prayer conditioned." Another really good one that I just remembered (with Elder Cellan's help) is, "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." Anyway, I'll keep you posted on those. Actually, the most current one on the sign is, "Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out." I lied...they just changed it I remembered, the current one is, "Feeling worn down, come in for a service." Anyway, fun stuff.
I think that'll suffice for this week. That's only two out of the eleven that I had written down so those should last for a while ;) (It's also time for me to get going lol)
Love you all tons,
Elder Jay Davis
I'm doing really well. Things are quite busy. We have a LOT of investigators. They don't all have tons of potential but hey, we'll do our best.
I'm sorry that you are having issues with the MLS stuff at the BYU 94th Ward lol (I really am sorry, I was laughing that it's the 94th ward). My District Leader, Elder Hagmann, goes home at the end of this transfer and he went to BYU for two years before his mission (he graduated way early from high school) so he knows a lot of the stuff about BYU. He wonders what stake you are a part of. Hopefully you got the correct file :)
Which temple dedication was this week? Remember I don't get much news, even church related. That's interesting that they didn't have church because of it.
That's awesome that you took a mini vacation to SLC. Sounds like you had a really nice time. Yummy meals, fun movies (You didn't say which movies), awesome activities at the Boondocks (which I've seen but never been to), great NASCAR stuff, the whole sh'bang ;) I was confused as to who the boy"s" were but then you mentioned Josh so I got it.
WOW, sounds like a really really crazy upcoming set of events with the BYU Stake and Ward! It also sounds like tons and tons of fun. I know you'll be really great at your calling. You have always loved working with younger generations, this'll just be yet another opportunity for you :D I'm so excited to continue hearing about it.
I am definitely keeping busy out here. Lots of lessons, lots of people, not a lot of baptisms, but that's okay. Ultimately that is our goal, but it doesn't mean we're unsuccessful if we don't get all that many.
I'm glad you got the memory card :) I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback and hearing the feedback of others who see them lol Should be interesting.
Good luck with the busy schedule you've got :)
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Mom,
The teaching is going great. We got 19 lessons this week. We were short 1 lesson from the mission goal but that's okay. We are still doing a lot of stuff up here and are very busy which is wonderful.
That's so crazy that school has already started once again! I'm glad Kody is happy and enjoying himself. From Dad's email it surely sounded like he's working his tail off harder than usual ;)
That's really cool that you went to the school Friday and got you introduced to all of the students so that they can get used to what's going to be the norm. I miss getting to pop in on occasion :)
Sounds like a good idea stealing one last weekend for vacation :) Slick track, bumper boats, mini golf, lazer tag, arcade games...AHHH! Trunky thoughts lol ;) Sounds like you had such a blast! We might go bowling sometime for P-day.
That's so cool that you got a message from Melissa :D I can't help but smile really big. Little Jason definitely seems to like his missionaries a lot and also seems to pick favorites lol. However, he knows all of our names really well. I am constantly amazed at how well all of the kids remember the missionaries' names and that they are so excited to be around us.
lol, well thanks for keeping your email short, I'm extra short on time this week anyway because we got a late start emailing. So it's a good thing you kept it short so I can at least get to some of my email topics :D
I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Howdy,
Well I have to make this quick but I want to write about at least a few of the "Email Topics" that I have compiled to write about. Maybe I'll spread it out and share a few this week, a few next week, and so on so that I have stories for longer and I can just keep adding and taking away from the list. (That got pretty long-winded for having to keep it quick)
First, Elder Cellan and I were tracting a street (Birchwood...Dr.?) (Stupid California streets, lol). As we were walking we passed a guy walking his dog with his teenage son. Well the guy said something along the lines of, "You see that house right there...it doesn't accept soliciting. That house right there does not accept any soliciting." He basically repeated himself like four times, but never said, "Just don't go to that house." It was pretty hilarious.
Okay, so the next thing I'm going to tell you about will be somewhat of a regular occurance (sp?). So in town there is a church called Canyon View Assembly. They are one of those that has the sign out front with little sayings that change periodically. Well they are unique because their sayings are fun but still thought provoking. So my companions and I have gotten some pretty good laughs out of some of the sayings. So I have a few of the ones that have been on there so far. The first I have written down is, "Can't stand the heat? Prepare to avoid it." The next is, "Too hot? This church is prayer conditioned." Another really good one that I just remembered (with Elder Cellan's help) is, "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." Anyway, I'll keep you posted on those. Actually, the most current one on the sign is, "Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out." I lied...they just changed it I remembered, the current one is, "Feeling worn down, come in for a service." Anyway, fun stuff.
I think that'll suffice for this week. That's only two out of the eleven that I had written down so those should last for a while ;) (It's also time for me to get going lol)
Love you all tons,
Elder Jay Davis
August 17, 2009
Hi Mom,
We were glad to have taught so many lessons. Guess what, this week we accomplished the mission standard of 20 again :D We are very excited. I know, lots of new investigators, not all of them are super promising but we have hopes that they will feel the spirit and be converted, just like you said.
Splits were great, it didn't really remind me much of when I did them at home because both times I went with adults. In fact, one of the times I went with Bro. McCollam. That was a pretty funny experience. I have a whole list of "Email Topics" that I haven't written about up to this point so I will send a single email with all of those to you and Kody and Dad that you can each forward and post on the blog or whatever.
Man, it's going to be weird having school started, I haven't really had to get used to anybody being in school but now I'm going to have to get used to it. It'll probably be a different experience even for me ;)
Yeah, sushi isn't all it's cut out to be by those who like it but it's also not as nasty as some say it is. That's SO cool that you and Lynne are V.T. companions! Sounds like some awesome stuff with the sisters you visit. I wish the branch here was a little bit more faithful about some of that stuff (it's kind of on the extremes, either they're really good or not good at all).
Thanks for the wonderful email Mom.
I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm glad you got the letters and enjoyed them.
I'm glad you liked the little card from Elder Cellan. I didn't actually read it. Grandma also mentioned that it was good but I have no idea what it said lol. I'm glad he complimented me though and he is definitely a thoughtful missionary.
I'm so excited for you to have your first week in the BYU ward with school officially going :D
That's HILARIOUS and totally typical of college students that you only have 53/150 information forms back! That would definitely be an awesome experience to get to read about each student! That's so cool how many are interested in music, that is probably pretty common at BYU though ;)
I was SO bummed that I wasn't able to see the cherry harvest this year. Especially since I heard it was incredible! We missed out together ;) I heard they tried doing some organic cherries over at the North Farm this year but Kody said they tasted like sour-y water lol I wonder what made them decide to try them.
Haha, you lucky duck getting to have football season start. I will be looking forward to very detailed updates about BYU football :)
Cycles in missionary work are definitely interesting. Things with investigators are going pretty well :) I have a list of "Email Topics" that have sort of piled up in my planner that I've forgotten to write about. I'll send out an email to the three of you that you can forward and post on the blog or whatever.
I love you Dad!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
We were glad to have taught so many lessons. Guess what, this week we accomplished the mission standard of 20 again :D We are very excited. I know, lots of new investigators, not all of them are super promising but we have hopes that they will feel the spirit and be converted, just like you said.
Splits were great, it didn't really remind me much of when I did them at home because both times I went with adults. In fact, one of the times I went with Bro. McCollam. That was a pretty funny experience. I have a whole list of "Email Topics" that I haven't written about up to this point so I will send a single email with all of those to you and Kody and Dad that you can each forward and post on the blog or whatever.
Man, it's going to be weird having school started, I haven't really had to get used to anybody being in school but now I'm going to have to get used to it. It'll probably be a different experience even for me ;)
Yeah, sushi isn't all it's cut out to be by those who like it but it's also not as nasty as some say it is. That's SO cool that you and Lynne are V.T. companions! Sounds like some awesome stuff with the sisters you visit. I wish the branch here was a little bit more faithful about some of that stuff (it's kind of on the extremes, either they're really good or not good at all).
Thanks for the wonderful email Mom.
I love you!
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
I'm glad you got the letters and enjoyed them.
I'm glad you liked the little card from Elder Cellan. I didn't actually read it. Grandma also mentioned that it was good but I have no idea what it said lol. I'm glad he complimented me though and he is definitely a thoughtful missionary.
I'm so excited for you to have your first week in the BYU ward with school officially going :D
That's HILARIOUS and totally typical of college students that you only have 53/150 information forms back! That would definitely be an awesome experience to get to read about each student! That's so cool how many are interested in music, that is probably pretty common at BYU though ;)
I was SO bummed that I wasn't able to see the cherry harvest this year. Especially since I heard it was incredible! We missed out together ;) I heard they tried doing some organic cherries over at the North Farm this year but Kody said they tasted like sour-y water lol I wonder what made them decide to try them.
Haha, you lucky duck getting to have football season start. I will be looking forward to very detailed updates about BYU football :)
Cycles in missionary work are definitely interesting. Things with investigators are going pretty well :) I have a list of "Email Topics" that have sort of piled up in my planner that I've forgotten to write about. I'll send out an email to the three of you that you can forward and post on the blog or whatever.
I love you Dad!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Monday, August 10, 2009
August 10, 2009
I was very glad to stay in Foresthill :)
Thank you for keeping all of my letters and "stuff" haha :D I won't let it keep me from writing in my journal. Sleep is what is keeping me from writing in my journal ;) I am definitely trying hard to take more pictures. I am still taking some videos here and there. So far there aren't a TON of things to take pictures of. I will definitely get pictures with people this transfer because my guess is that I'll get transferred this coming transfer.
Lessons are going pretty well. We had 21 lessons the week of July 20 - July 26! It was awesome, the mission standard is 20 so we FINALLY reached it and even surpassed it. The next week we got 15 and then this week we got 14 which is pretty average across the mission I'd say. In our defense, we picked up EIGHT new investigators this week! Aimee we weren't able to meet with this week because we couldn't get anything scheduled but we are going to meet with her this week at least Tuesday since we have dinner with them that night. I am going to do "splits" for the first time on Tuesday as well so that should be fun :D
That's good that your weather has suddenly cooled down. Ours did too this week and it's been SUPER DUPER nice. I've had a blanket on every night this week :D Then I even got to where my hoodie one morning! I was so excited! It's starting to warm up again unfortunately and supposedly it's supposed to get back into the 90's :P Oh well, I've pretty well aclimatized (sp?) to California's heat so I was actually pretty cold this past week but I loved it :D
That is AWESOME about the cherry harvest! I have been talking a lot about it lately. In fact, last night I explained it to a family (of adults) that we are teaching and they thought it was fascinating and incredible how many cherries we pick. That's INSANE that they have been getting a bin every 5 trees or LESS! That just blows my mind. We were excited for 5-7 trees let alone less than 5! WOW am I jealous. I'd love to be working right now because I love when it's just non-stop driving with no waiting.
I am definitely happy, healthy, and enjoying life.
I love you back :D
Love,
Elder Davis
Thank you for keeping all of my letters and "stuff" haha :D I won't let it keep me from writing in my journal. Sleep is what is keeping me from writing in my journal ;) I am definitely trying hard to take more pictures. I am still taking some videos here and there. So far there aren't a TON of things to take pictures of. I will definitely get pictures with people this transfer because my guess is that I'll get transferred this coming transfer.
Lessons are going pretty well. We had 21 lessons the week of July 20 - July 26! It was awesome, the mission standard is 20 so we FINALLY reached it and even surpassed it. The next week we got 15 and then this week we got 14 which is pretty average across the mission I'd say. In our defense, we picked up EIGHT new investigators this week! Aimee we weren't able to meet with this week because we couldn't get anything scheduled but we are going to meet with her this week at least Tuesday since we have dinner with them that night. I am going to do "splits" for the first time on Tuesday as well so that should be fun :D
That's good that your weather has suddenly cooled down. Ours did too this week and it's been SUPER DUPER nice. I've had a blanket on every night this week :D Then I even got to where my hoodie one morning! I was so excited! It's starting to warm up again unfortunately and supposedly it's supposed to get back into the 90's :P Oh well, I've pretty well aclimatized (sp?) to California's heat so I was actually pretty cold this past week but I loved it :D
That is AWESOME about the cherry harvest! I have been talking a lot about it lately. In fact, last night I explained it to a family (of adults) that we are teaching and they thought it was fascinating and incredible how many cherries we pick. That's INSANE that they have been getting a bin every 5 trees or LESS! That just blows my mind. We were excited for 5-7 trees let alone less than 5! WOW am I jealous. I'd love to be working right now because I love when it's just non-stop driving with no waiting.
I am definitely happy, healthy, and enjoying life.
I love you back :D
Love,
Elder Davis
August 4,2009
Hi Mom,
I knew you'd be antsy. I was imagining you pacing and what not and it was pretty funny to picture :D I wasn't sure if you'd be worried or not but I figured there wasn't anything I could do about that anyway ;) I was glad to have made arrangements for Tuesday as well. Sorry it's Tuesday again this week. Luckily our members are home now so we are emailing from their house and things will be back to normal.
Speaking of which, both Elder Cellan and I are staying at least another transfer (6 weeks) here in Foresthill.
I know I will be kicking myself later for not writing in my journal. I hope you are saving all of my emails and all of the blog entries and all of my written letters. Those are about as good as any journal. So that will at least make up for what I haven't written up to this point. The problem is that we get home and then plan for our next day which takes us like 45 min. at least. Plus, we're so warn out by then that I just usually fall asleep. I've been trying to motivate myself to do better but I have been relatively unsuccessful thus far ;)
There have been a lot of people coming to church for sure. This week not so much but next week should theoretically be better again.
It's okay that we didn't get to go to the mines with Ben last week because we got to yesterday :D It was really hot, but really fun. We went in one mine that was pretty wet and muddy but we were able to avoid getting very dirty (they were tall enough you could pretty much stand all the way up in most places). Just like in the movies there were bats in them. That creeped me out a little bit but it was enjoyable. We were in the first one and started down it and a good ways in there was just a HORDE of bats on the ceiling and flying around ahead of us! It was SICK! So we decided we weren't going to try to walk through/past them. Needless to say we turned around and went back. That was a bummer because that was the one Ben knew the best to show us. Oh well, we went in a couple others. One of which had a pretty narrow entrance that you had to slide in on your back sort of like Nutty Putty Caves. It was fun to get into and it took us down to a place where we had tried to hike down to earlier but there was no way for us to get down there so we went in the other end and came out there. Then we turned around and came out where we got in. It was pretty fun stuff. The pond was basically all dried up at this point but it still existed ;) We had fun. We also played Phase 10 and part of Monopoly with Ben afterwards. About the week before I wasn't really heartbroken and only Elder Cellan and I played Trivial Pursuit and he actually won by one question. I was ahead most of the game though. That's okay :D
I'm sorry that your week was strange. At least it was anticipated. I'm sorry it was so lonely. If there's one thing I really can't stand it's when you just have to sit around being quiet because you don't want to disturb somebody.
That's pretty funny that the Adams yard got so elaborately TPed. The ironic thing is that we were just having a conversation about TPing last night. Here in the branch it's actually an activity that even the parents participate in and take their kids out to TP other branch members who they know will be okay with it. Then if there are difficulties cleaning it up they go help. They also said it's kind of fun trying to figure out who did it. It was pretty funny for me to listen to since you and Dad had such a different opinion as I was growing up :)
Honestly, I haven't taken a heck of a lot of pictures. It's really hard to find time to take pictures, especially at times when I won't "look like a tourist." I have taken a decent amount of videos though. I have found that it's pretty nice to be able to just explain what I am showing you instead of taking a picture where you have no idea what it is supposed to be. I will try to do better about taking pictures. I will get a few more pictures and videos and send the memory card next P-day hopefully. I'm really behind on letter-writing too so please forgive me and mention to anybody you talk to and post on the blog, that I am behind and apologize. I haven't forgotten people. Thanks.
I dunno, the McCollams said that it was 100 degrees in SLC every day they were there and it's only been in the high 80's and mid 90's this week here :D You're smart to walk during the cool hours of the morning. Convincing yourself is the hardest part, I know for myself :D
Elder Cellan and I both got the packages and really enjoyed them. Just to inform you so you don't send me any more, those Pringles Pizza Stix were NASTY but so far everything else has been good :D Thanks so much for the package. We have had lots of fun with them.
I love you back and I'll do my best to keep up the good work.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Dad,
Wow! You really are working a ton!
Things here are good. The members we live with are finally home from vacation so hopefully that'll free us of at least a little extra responsibility. We are both staying in Foresthill so I will have been here 6 months by the end of this transfer! Crazy huh! I am glad to be able to stay at least another 6 weeks. I will definitely miss the first branch but I'm sure you're right that it'll be a good experience to change.
Things have actually been much less hot up here this past week. It's been hot but not as bad. I'm glad to have the new shirts that Mom sent me. I don't have to wear any long sleeve shirts throughout the week :) No new details since I'm in the same area with the same companion.
I think that Foresthill has experienced a lot of progress and just as you said I have in return received a lot of growth. Even the members of the branch that I work the closest with notice that. Brother Ensey is always telling me how I came in this shy little thing and now I'm just doing really well and have grown a ton. Brother Bond tells me similar stuff. I really love those two guys.
I love you back and miss you tons. I hope, other than being tired, you are happy and well also.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
I knew you'd be antsy. I was imagining you pacing and what not and it was pretty funny to picture :D I wasn't sure if you'd be worried or not but I figured there wasn't anything I could do about that anyway ;) I was glad to have made arrangements for Tuesday as well. Sorry it's Tuesday again this week. Luckily our members are home now so we are emailing from their house and things will be back to normal.
Speaking of which, both Elder Cellan and I are staying at least another transfer (6 weeks) here in Foresthill.
I know I will be kicking myself later for not writing in my journal. I hope you are saving all of my emails and all of the blog entries and all of my written letters. Those are about as good as any journal. So that will at least make up for what I haven't written up to this point. The problem is that we get home and then plan for our next day which takes us like 45 min. at least. Plus, we're so warn out by then that I just usually fall asleep. I've been trying to motivate myself to do better but I have been relatively unsuccessful thus far ;)
There have been a lot of people coming to church for sure. This week not so much but next week should theoretically be better again.
It's okay that we didn't get to go to the mines with Ben last week because we got to yesterday :D It was really hot, but really fun. We went in one mine that was pretty wet and muddy but we were able to avoid getting very dirty (they were tall enough you could pretty much stand all the way up in most places). Just like in the movies there were bats in them. That creeped me out a little bit but it was enjoyable. We were in the first one and started down it and a good ways in there was just a HORDE of bats on the ceiling and flying around ahead of us! It was SICK! So we decided we weren't going to try to walk through/past them. Needless to say we turned around and went back. That was a bummer because that was the one Ben knew the best to show us. Oh well, we went in a couple others. One of which had a pretty narrow entrance that you had to slide in on your back sort of like Nutty Putty Caves. It was fun to get into and it took us down to a place where we had tried to hike down to earlier but there was no way for us to get down there so we went in the other end and came out there. Then we turned around and came out where we got in. It was pretty fun stuff. The pond was basically all dried up at this point but it still existed ;) We had fun. We also played Phase 10 and part of Monopoly with Ben afterwards. About the week before I wasn't really heartbroken and only Elder Cellan and I played Trivial Pursuit and he actually won by one question. I was ahead most of the game though. That's okay :D
I'm sorry that your week was strange. At least it was anticipated. I'm sorry it was so lonely. If there's one thing I really can't stand it's when you just have to sit around being quiet because you don't want to disturb somebody.
That's pretty funny that the Adams yard got so elaborately TPed. The ironic thing is that we were just having a conversation about TPing last night. Here in the branch it's actually an activity that even the parents participate in and take their kids out to TP other branch members who they know will be okay with it. Then if there are difficulties cleaning it up they go help. They also said it's kind of fun trying to figure out who did it. It was pretty funny for me to listen to since you and Dad had such a different opinion as I was growing up :)
Honestly, I haven't taken a heck of a lot of pictures. It's really hard to find time to take pictures, especially at times when I won't "look like a tourist." I have taken a decent amount of videos though. I have found that it's pretty nice to be able to just explain what I am showing you instead of taking a picture where you have no idea what it is supposed to be. I will try to do better about taking pictures. I will get a few more pictures and videos and send the memory card next P-day hopefully. I'm really behind on letter-writing too so please forgive me and mention to anybody you talk to and post on the blog, that I am behind and apologize. I haven't forgotten people. Thanks.
I dunno, the McCollams said that it was 100 degrees in SLC every day they were there and it's only been in the high 80's and mid 90's this week here :D You're smart to walk during the cool hours of the morning. Convincing yourself is the hardest part, I know for myself :D
Elder Cellan and I both got the packages and really enjoyed them. Just to inform you so you don't send me any more, those Pringles Pizza Stix were NASTY but so far everything else has been good :D Thanks so much for the package. We have had lots of fun with them.
I love you back and I'll do my best to keep up the good work.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Hi Dad,
Wow! You really are working a ton!
Things here are good. The members we live with are finally home from vacation so hopefully that'll free us of at least a little extra responsibility. We are both staying in Foresthill so I will have been here 6 months by the end of this transfer! Crazy huh! I am glad to be able to stay at least another 6 weeks. I will definitely miss the first branch but I'm sure you're right that it'll be a good experience to change.
Things have actually been much less hot up here this past week. It's been hot but not as bad. I'm glad to have the new shirts that Mom sent me. I don't have to wear any long sleeve shirts throughout the week :) No new details since I'm in the same area with the same companion.
I think that Foresthill has experienced a lot of progress and just as you said I have in return received a lot of growth. Even the members of the branch that I work the closest with notice that. Brother Ensey is always telling me how I came in this shy little thing and now I'm just doing really well and have grown a ton. Brother Bond tells me similar stuff. I really love those two guys.
I love you back and miss you tons. I hope, other than being tired, you are happy and well also.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Friday, July 31, 2009
July 28, 2009
Hey Mom,
First off sorry for writing so late! The McCollam's are on vacation and they have been instructed to lock up their computer room when they are gone. So we didn't have a way to email on Monday so we had to come to another member's home today to do it (we had to get special permission to do so).
Sounds like a fun time having Dad leaving to Brazil and Kody starting cherries. I tell you what I felt a large pang of jealousy when I thought about working cherries. I will definitely plan on doing that the summer before I go back to college after I get home.
I'm glad Kody took so many pictures on his tour. I told him to make sure he took a ton! I don't know how I'm going to view a lot of them since they are in HD which my camera won't read. You could probably send a CD and I could view them when I email or something. Who knows.
Wow, the next couple of weeks for you really do sound weird. That's a bummer that you won't be able to play the piano. Don't worry about complaining, your circumstances and my circumstances are different so it's more disappointing when you don't get to play than it is when I don't get to play. I actually get to play more than I really expected though still not as much as I would really like. I am trying to do better about singing whenever I feel like it regardless of who's around as long as it's appropriate ;)
Speaking of singing, this Sunday was Branch Conference and somehow my companion and I got conned into singing in the choir :P I never wanted to sing in a church choir because they are always so absolutely terrible and I didn't want to be associated with it. Well the practices were terrible so I was a bit worried. Luckily, the performance on Sunday actually went really well. One of the verses we did as a quartet with Sister Ensey singing alto, Tanee (16) singing soprano, me singing tenor (yes...tenor), and Branch President Prescott singing bass. It sounded really really good and I was very happy to have been part of it. We sang hymn # 273 Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses.
I'm looking forward to reading your journal photo copy :D I know the feeling of really enjoying something but having nothing to write about. Thus you don't get a whole lot of stories from me.
Yevonne was at church, so were Melissa, Jason, Aimee, and little Jason. Also, Sister Smith (a less-active member), has been there the past two weeks as has Sister Fitzgerald (another less-active member), and also Sister Vance (yet another less-active sister). We were very excited.
Aimee is 15 nearly 16 and she is hard to teach because she is really shy and has a hard time feeling comfortable participating. I think she feels like she's going to answer something wrong so we are really working on presenting things in a way that are not scary. We are trying to ask questions that make her think but that she can still answer. It's actually a very fun challenge. She is definitely being able to see how happy her parents are.
Things with Ben fell through. He never came and we called but nobody answered. I guess he forgot. Oh well, we played a game of Trivial Pursuit in the McCollam's nice cool basement.
It's getting stinkin' hot! Wanna hear a funny story? Well Sister Green took us to dinner last night and as we walked out we were commenting on how it was hot but cooling down and she said that it's supposed to cool down everyday this week and by the end of the week it's supposed to be down to 90! We all cheered! I commented on how it's pretty sad that we get excited that it's going to be 90 degrees! I am definitely learning to cope with sweat.
I love using the typewriter. It is such a blast. You know I always loved typing at home. I would get a keyboard out even if it wasn't attached to a computer and just start typing for the fun of it. A typewriter helps me satisfy that craving when I don't have access to a computer. ;) I had to do extra enters and what not to get the spacing right. What I should have done was just used the little manual knob to space it but whatever ;) It is definitely a sign of the times that I hadn't ever used a typewriter. I am going to take it with me when I get transferred of course! It has a handle that I can carry it with so it won't be bad. You'd be surprised how little stuff I've collected compared to other missionaries :)
My guess is that I will get transferred but no guarantees either way.
I got emails from both Kody AND Dad but Kody's came while he was in Detroit, or at least one of them did. I would definitely have been surprised if I hadn't gotten an email from Dad. I did :D I think he sent it from Brazil actually. It has a subject that makes me think that. I love Dad, he is definitely a great guy.
I miss you too :D Thanks for being proud of me Mom.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
First off sorry for writing so late! The McCollam's are on vacation and they have been instructed to lock up their computer room when they are gone. So we didn't have a way to email on Monday so we had to come to another member's home today to do it (we had to get special permission to do so).
Sounds like a fun time having Dad leaving to Brazil and Kody starting cherries. I tell you what I felt a large pang of jealousy when I thought about working cherries. I will definitely plan on doing that the summer before I go back to college after I get home.
I'm glad Kody took so many pictures on his tour. I told him to make sure he took a ton! I don't know how I'm going to view a lot of them since they are in HD which my camera won't read. You could probably send a CD and I could view them when I email or something. Who knows.
Wow, the next couple of weeks for you really do sound weird. That's a bummer that you won't be able to play the piano. Don't worry about complaining, your circumstances and my circumstances are different so it's more disappointing when you don't get to play than it is when I don't get to play. I actually get to play more than I really expected though still not as much as I would really like. I am trying to do better about singing whenever I feel like it regardless of who's around as long as it's appropriate ;)
Speaking of singing, this Sunday was Branch Conference and somehow my companion and I got conned into singing in the choir :P I never wanted to sing in a church choir because they are always so absolutely terrible and I didn't want to be associated with it. Well the practices were terrible so I was a bit worried. Luckily, the performance on Sunday actually went really well. One of the verses we did as a quartet with Sister Ensey singing alto, Tanee (16) singing soprano, me singing tenor (yes...tenor), and Branch President Prescott singing bass. It sounded really really good and I was very happy to have been part of it. We sang hymn # 273 Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses.
I'm looking forward to reading your journal photo copy :D I know the feeling of really enjoying something but having nothing to write about. Thus you don't get a whole lot of stories from me.
Yevonne was at church, so were Melissa, Jason, Aimee, and little Jason. Also, Sister Smith (a less-active member), has been there the past two weeks as has Sister Fitzgerald (another less-active member), and also Sister Vance (yet another less-active sister). We were very excited.
Aimee is 15 nearly 16 and she is hard to teach because she is really shy and has a hard time feeling comfortable participating. I think she feels like she's going to answer something wrong so we are really working on presenting things in a way that are not scary. We are trying to ask questions that make her think but that she can still answer. It's actually a very fun challenge. She is definitely being able to see how happy her parents are.
Things with Ben fell through. He never came and we called but nobody answered. I guess he forgot. Oh well, we played a game of Trivial Pursuit in the McCollam's nice cool basement.
It's getting stinkin' hot! Wanna hear a funny story? Well Sister Green took us to dinner last night and as we walked out we were commenting on how it was hot but cooling down and she said that it's supposed to cool down everyday this week and by the end of the week it's supposed to be down to 90! We all cheered! I commented on how it's pretty sad that we get excited that it's going to be 90 degrees! I am definitely learning to cope with sweat.
I love using the typewriter. It is such a blast. You know I always loved typing at home. I would get a keyboard out even if it wasn't attached to a computer and just start typing for the fun of it. A typewriter helps me satisfy that craving when I don't have access to a computer. ;) I had to do extra enters and what not to get the spacing right. What I should have done was just used the little manual knob to space it but whatever ;) It is definitely a sign of the times that I hadn't ever used a typewriter. I am going to take it with me when I get transferred of course! It has a handle that I can carry it with so it won't be bad. You'd be surprised how little stuff I've collected compared to other missionaries :)
My guess is that I will get transferred but no guarantees either way.
I got emails from both Kody AND Dad but Kody's came while he was in Detroit, or at least one of them did. I would definitely have been surprised if I hadn't gotten an email from Dad. I did :D I think he sent it from Brazil actually. It has a subject that makes me think that. I love Dad, he is definitely a great guy.
I miss you too :D Thanks for being proud of me Mom.
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Thursday, July 23, 2009
July 20, 2009
Hey Mom and Dad,
I am SOOO sorry that you only got one email. I wrote a big long email in response to yours Dad and then when I clicked send it brought up the "This Website Cannot Be Displayed" thing and the website was down so I couldn't go back and rewrite it or anything. I was SO upset!
Yevonne will hopefully keep progressing but so far she is still not willing to commit to baptism.
Yup, you can imagine (knowing me) how decisioned out I will end up being ;)
Well I am looking forward to all of the music that you recorded :D It should be such a fun experience to watch/listen to it all.
You didn't tell me that part about Kody's concert. That is AWESOME! I wish I could have seen that :D I wish you could have recorded his reaction too ;)
I'm pretty sure the way we lined up in Austria was the same way you described that they lined up. It was so cool to have the chorale up above :D Isn't it amazing to hear them perform in cathedrals?! AHHH! :D
There were always some people crying in every concert we did which was really rewarding I must say. I'm glad they did such a good job.
That is SO lucky that you know the Goerigks and they still do the B&B for people they know. Man I wish I could have gone. I would have been SO rusty on my German though. I would have made a fool out of myself but boy would it have been fun to listen to her talk and try to pick up parts of it.
That's awesome that she compared me to you when you told her I am serving a mission :D I loved talking about all sorts of stuff and nothign at all :D Those are the best conversations.
That's awesome that you stayed for 2 nights! Man I can still picture the inside of that house and the rooms and the bathroom and everything! It's crazy! I miss all of that. :) I'm loving life out here though. Have fun with the flight home and don't play too many of the video games or watch too many movies. Make sure you get your beauty sleep ;)
All is well out here. I am really trying to do better at giving detail about my adventures but I am just terribly bad at remembering things and I try to write them down but I'm bad at that too ;)
We were tracting yesterday and had some funny rejections. I need to run and grab them though so one sec...Okay, I'm back. So this one guy we knocked on his door and a dog started barking really loud. When he answered the door he just cracked it open and said, "The dog's pissed off," and that was pretty much it and closed the door. I laughed pretty hard at that one. Then on that same street a couple houses down we were walking up a driveway and the guy was sitting outside and said, "Hey guys, I'm not ready to join the flock yet," I thought that was pretty funny too. Finally, this one was probably my favorite, a lady answered the door and said, "If you're Jehovah's Witnesses, goodbye." We said that we weren't and she said, "If you are religious, goodbye." So we said, "Have a nice day," and walked off. It was pretty funny :D You'd be surprised how often people think we are J.W.'s. You'd think they'd see our name tags and get it but anyway :D
Another funny story I forgot to tell earlier that Elder Cellan reminded me of happened on the 4th of July. So we were walking back to our car after having done service in the park. (I don't know if I told you or not but we helped the fire department run their cotton candy and snow cone booth. It was really fun and we did it in our white shirts and everything. We got aprons from a member, but of course I still had snow cone juice splattered on my shirt. I just took the "Tide 2 Go" pen to it and you can't even tell which shirt I used.) When we got to our car we kept hearing a small thud and then a beeping sound. We were looking around and noticed a lady throwing apples at a car that was parked in front of her yard. There was a lot of parking traffic so this person had parked where they weren't welcome apparantly. It was hilarious! She was just picking up the apples that had falled off her crab apple tree and throwing them at the car and every two or three apples would make the car beep at her. We laughed pretty hard at that :D
Let's see, today we are going out with a priest in our branch named Ben (the grandson of the members we live with). He is going to take us to see a pond that is on the family property (don't worry, we won't be getting in or anything), and then to see some of the mines that are still open and safe to go in. It should be pretty awesome but pretty hot!
Speaking of hot, it's been over a hundred most of this week! It's TERRIBLE! I am getting used to it though and I'm drinking lots of liquids (more than I used to, but not as much as I should probably). I drank a whole 2 quarts of water both of the past two days. I'm learning to accept the fact that I AM going to sweat so I might as well just deal with it ;) It's gross though :P
It was pretty funny when Elder Neeley got transferred I was sort of going through withdrawals from Mindy Gledhill music. We would listen to the two CD's he had of hers all the time but then he got transferred so I didn't have it to listen to. It was pretty funny. I sort of missed the "Trek" CD he had too. I am happy to get to listen to my A Cappella stuff now though (remember that he didn't really like it all that much).
I finally had to buy a refill for the typewriter and I was also able to find a refill for the correcting tape too so now I can fix my typos a little bit better.
Good news, Melissa's daughter, Aimee, is going to take the lessons from us. She was sitting in while we were teaching her mom, so she is already technically an investigator (we picked her up as one when we started teaching the family), but we are going to reteach the lessons to her. Hopefully she will feel the spirit and follow in her mom's footsteps by being baptized. Also, she has been coming to church and seems to have quite a crush on one of the young men in our branch who is an AWESOME guy and is just her age. He should be a great influence on her. Hopefully he doesn't get annoyed with all the flirting she does. She has a non-member boyfriend who is putting pressure on her to join his church so she's a bit confused right now. We are hoping that this new crush will help with that ;) Anyway, so we are excited for that.
We have a member family who is really good at member missionary work and giving us referrals and working with their friends. They have two families they are really working with and another couple that they could start working with and they are excited and really not scared to talk to them about it. We are very proud of them.
Hmmm...I'm trying to think of any other things that I could mention but as of right now I'm drawing a blank. I can tell you that it is hot in our room at night but I'm learning to deal with that too ;) hahaha
Things here are great, I love the work and the gospel. It is really really fun to see people (including myself) progress and come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, I mentioned this in a letter that I just wrote but haven't sent so you'll get this first. I need more acne pills. Also mentioned was the fact that my companion, Elder Cellan, gets VERY little mail. He gets like a letter from an old lady in his ward and maybe one other letter a month maybe. SO, if you could spread the word to my friends and the family to send him an occasional letter just for fun I think that would be AWESOME! Thanks :D
I love you both,
Elder Jay Davis
I am SOOO sorry that you only got one email. I wrote a big long email in response to yours Dad and then when I clicked send it brought up the "This Website Cannot Be Displayed" thing and the website was down so I couldn't go back and rewrite it or anything. I was SO upset!
Yevonne will hopefully keep progressing but so far she is still not willing to commit to baptism.
Yup, you can imagine (knowing me) how decisioned out I will end up being ;)
Well I am looking forward to all of the music that you recorded :D It should be such a fun experience to watch/listen to it all.
You didn't tell me that part about Kody's concert. That is AWESOME! I wish I could have seen that :D I wish you could have recorded his reaction too ;)
I'm pretty sure the way we lined up in Austria was the same way you described that they lined up. It was so cool to have the chorale up above :D Isn't it amazing to hear them perform in cathedrals?! AHHH! :D
There were always some people crying in every concert we did which was really rewarding I must say. I'm glad they did such a good job.
That is SO lucky that you know the Goerigks and they still do the B&B for people they know. Man I wish I could have gone. I would have been SO rusty on my German though. I would have made a fool out of myself but boy would it have been fun to listen to her talk and try to pick up parts of it.
That's awesome that she compared me to you when you told her I am serving a mission :D I loved talking about all sorts of stuff and nothign at all :D Those are the best conversations.
That's awesome that you stayed for 2 nights! Man I can still picture the inside of that house and the rooms and the bathroom and everything! It's crazy! I miss all of that. :) I'm loving life out here though. Have fun with the flight home and don't play too many of the video games or watch too many movies. Make sure you get your beauty sleep ;)
All is well out here. I am really trying to do better at giving detail about my adventures but I am just terribly bad at remembering things and I try to write them down but I'm bad at that too ;)
We were tracting yesterday and had some funny rejections. I need to run and grab them though so one sec...Okay, I'm back. So this one guy we knocked on his door and a dog started barking really loud. When he answered the door he just cracked it open and said, "The dog's pissed off," and that was pretty much it and closed the door. I laughed pretty hard at that one. Then on that same street a couple houses down we were walking up a driveway and the guy was sitting outside and said, "Hey guys, I'm not ready to join the flock yet," I thought that was pretty funny too. Finally, this one was probably my favorite, a lady answered the door and said, "If you're Jehovah's Witnesses, goodbye." We said that we weren't and she said, "If you are religious, goodbye." So we said, "Have a nice day," and walked off. It was pretty funny :D You'd be surprised how often people think we are J.W.'s. You'd think they'd see our name tags and get it but anyway :D
Another funny story I forgot to tell earlier that Elder Cellan reminded me of happened on the 4th of July. So we were walking back to our car after having done service in the park. (I don't know if I told you or not but we helped the fire department run their cotton candy and snow cone booth. It was really fun and we did it in our white shirts and everything. We got aprons from a member, but of course I still had snow cone juice splattered on my shirt. I just took the "Tide 2 Go" pen to it and you can't even tell which shirt I used.) When we got to our car we kept hearing a small thud and then a beeping sound. We were looking around and noticed a lady throwing apples at a car that was parked in front of her yard. There was a lot of parking traffic so this person had parked where they weren't welcome apparantly. It was hilarious! She was just picking up the apples that had falled off her crab apple tree and throwing them at the car and every two or three apples would make the car beep at her. We laughed pretty hard at that :D
Let's see, today we are going out with a priest in our branch named Ben (the grandson of the members we live with). He is going to take us to see a pond that is on the family property (don't worry, we won't be getting in or anything), and then to see some of the mines that are still open and safe to go in. It should be pretty awesome but pretty hot!
Speaking of hot, it's been over a hundred most of this week! It's TERRIBLE! I am getting used to it though and I'm drinking lots of liquids (more than I used to, but not as much as I should probably). I drank a whole 2 quarts of water both of the past two days. I'm learning to accept the fact that I AM going to sweat so I might as well just deal with it ;) It's gross though :P
It was pretty funny when Elder Neeley got transferred I was sort of going through withdrawals from Mindy Gledhill music. We would listen to the two CD's he had of hers all the time but then he got transferred so I didn't have it to listen to. It was pretty funny. I sort of missed the "Trek" CD he had too. I am happy to get to listen to my A Cappella stuff now though (remember that he didn't really like it all that much).
I finally had to buy a refill for the typewriter and I was also able to find a refill for the correcting tape too so now I can fix my typos a little bit better.
Good news, Melissa's daughter, Aimee, is going to take the lessons from us. She was sitting in while we were teaching her mom, so she is already technically an investigator (we picked her up as one when we started teaching the family), but we are going to reteach the lessons to her. Hopefully she will feel the spirit and follow in her mom's footsteps by being baptized. Also, she has been coming to church and seems to have quite a crush on one of the young men in our branch who is an AWESOME guy and is just her age. He should be a great influence on her. Hopefully he doesn't get annoyed with all the flirting she does. She has a non-member boyfriend who is putting pressure on her to join his church so she's a bit confused right now. We are hoping that this new crush will help with that ;) Anyway, so we are excited for that.
We have a member family who is really good at member missionary work and giving us referrals and working with their friends. They have two families they are really working with and another couple that they could start working with and they are excited and really not scared to talk to them about it. We are very proud of them.
Hmmm...I'm trying to think of any other things that I could mention but as of right now I'm drawing a blank. I can tell you that it is hot in our room at night but I'm learning to deal with that too ;) hahaha
Things here are great, I love the work and the gospel. It is really really fun to see people (including myself) progress and come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, I mentioned this in a letter that I just wrote but haven't sent so you'll get this first. I need more acne pills. Also mentioned was the fact that my companion, Elder Cellan, gets VERY little mail. He gets like a letter from an old lady in his ward and maybe one other letter a month maybe. SO, if you could spread the word to my friends and the family to send him an occasional letter just for fun I think that would be AWESOME! Thanks :D
I love you both,
Elder Jay Davis
July 13, 2009
Hey Mom,
Things on Saturday went really well. Melissa got baptized by her husband Jason. They were both just BEAMING! There were SO many people there to support her and we were VERY excited. We pretty much filled the entire chapel with people and then had people just packed and standing in the primary room (which is where the font is in our building). Elder Cellan and I got to be the witnesses which was totally cool. Jason got the prayer on the first try and Melissa went all the way under fully the first time so they only had to do it once :D I was probably more nervous than they were hahaha :) I really have grown to love them and be so very excited for them. No returned missionary in talking about their baptisms has EVER done ANY justice to the joy that comes from bringing souls unto our Savior and His gospel! WOW! I think that about sums it up :D Another cool thing about the baptism is that one of our other investigators (Yevonne) who is having a hard time commiting to being baptized and what not came to the baptism and then to church the next day (when the confirmation was done). So hopefully she really felt the spirit of that and will want to make the step for herself now.
Yeah, it makes sense that I'm doing all of the planning since I am senior to the area (though like I said, still junior companion). I hadn't even thought about how indecisive I was at home until you mentioned it :D That made me chuckle a bit. It's definitely interesting to see what I can do when I am put in a situation where I have to do something ;) This is definitely a good experience for me though I guarantee you that when I get home I'll be so decisioned out that I'll want everybody else to decide.
I'm glad that my knees are doing well too :D Thank you for your prayers, I know they are being answered.
Yep, Europeans are WAY better at clapping! I really want more video of the UAM concerts :D I know Kody's in the choir but to be honest I'm more interested in hearing the band stuff (except Kody's solo is of soul interest). I really love ALL of the band songs. I wish you could record them all...*sigh* anyway. :D Thanks for your effort in recording them. I bet you were excited to leave for Europe. I was so jealous yet excited for you!
That's good that Daniel's wedding was good :D I bet they were excited! Hopefully you had an enjoyable day with your sisters. (Oh you answer in the next paragraph) That's a bummer you didn't get to stay the whole time but it's a worthwhile sacrifice for Europe ;)
I love you back and miss you tons. Thanks for being proud of me. Helping Melissa get baptized will have changed more than just one generation of lives which is awesome to think about.
I love you back :D
Elder Jay Davis
Things on Saturday went really well. Melissa got baptized by her husband Jason. They were both just BEAMING! There were SO many people there to support her and we were VERY excited. We pretty much filled the entire chapel with people and then had people just packed and standing in the primary room (which is where the font is in our building). Elder Cellan and I got to be the witnesses which was totally cool. Jason got the prayer on the first try and Melissa went all the way under fully the first time so they only had to do it once :D I was probably more nervous than they were hahaha :) I really have grown to love them and be so very excited for them. No returned missionary in talking about their baptisms has EVER done ANY justice to the joy that comes from bringing souls unto our Savior and His gospel! WOW! I think that about sums it up :D Another cool thing about the baptism is that one of our other investigators (Yevonne) who is having a hard time commiting to being baptized and what not came to the baptism and then to church the next day (when the confirmation was done). So hopefully she really felt the spirit of that and will want to make the step for herself now.
Yeah, it makes sense that I'm doing all of the planning since I am senior to the area (though like I said, still junior companion). I hadn't even thought about how indecisive I was at home until you mentioned it :D That made me chuckle a bit. It's definitely interesting to see what I can do when I am put in a situation where I have to do something ;) This is definitely a good experience for me though I guarantee you that when I get home I'll be so decisioned out that I'll want everybody else to decide.
I'm glad that my knees are doing well too :D Thank you for your prayers, I know they are being answered.
Yep, Europeans are WAY better at clapping! I really want more video of the UAM concerts :D I know Kody's in the choir but to be honest I'm more interested in hearing the band stuff (except Kody's solo is of soul interest). I really love ALL of the band songs. I wish you could record them all...*sigh* anyway. :D Thanks for your effort in recording them. I bet you were excited to leave for Europe. I was so jealous yet excited for you!
That's good that Daniel's wedding was good :D I bet they were excited! Hopefully you had an enjoyable day with your sisters. (Oh you answer in the next paragraph) That's a bummer you didn't get to stay the whole time but it's a worthwhile sacrifice for Europe ;)
I love you back and miss you tons. Thanks for being proud of me. Helping Melissa get baptized will have changed more than just one generation of lives which is awesome to think about.
I love you back :D
Elder Jay Davis
July 6, 2009
Hey Mom,
Things with Melissa are going fabulously. Jason and Melissa are definitely ready. Jason gets to perform the baptism and we are SOOOOOO excited! Oh my goodness I can't even tell you how exciting it is!
That's awesome that Ethan got baptized. I always loved going to the Canfield things :D That is insane to think about Natalie dating and driving...I feel really old...what does that mean about you guys? ;) j/k
Things with Elder Cellan are great. He and I get along well although we are both fairly reserved people so talking to people can be difficult at times. We are doing good work though. lol, surprisingly enough you're right that this is my opportunity to open up and be the fun. I am way more talkative and stuff hahaha I am starting to bring it out in him and it's really fun. I have a lot of new responsibility even though I'm still the junior companion. I do most of the planning and deciding what we're going to do throughout the day because I know the area. He's picking up on things really quickly though. I'm glad we have a car for sure.
Thanks for the update on Adam. We were both WAY curious if he'd gotten his call yet so that's exciting to know and we're both glad to have his address so we can write him. Thanks for finding that for us.
Wow, that is a long time for the church to be out of commission but oh well. There's a new building in Santaquin? That's good that you'll be able to do the full block of meetings.
I definitely remember how many people were in the airport when we showed up for our Europe trip. Holy cow! Man, I am so jealous right now :D But I am so very excited for him.
I'm glad the Bon Voyage concert was so good! I am SOOOOO excited to see it! I better send a memory card home fast! I'm terrible at thinking up good videos to put on it and I am so busy I rarely take pictures. I am SUPER excited to hear Bugler's Holiday, that was my favorite piece...AHHH! I am totally excited! I'm glad the soloists were so good. That's a bummer that Dad forgot the extra battery but that's okay. I am sure that I'll get to hear some of Lyndsay's solos eventually so it's no big deal. She really is amazing and made it into BYU's music program if I remember right. That's awesome that the band kept playing with the lights off. I'm glad Grandpa enjoyed himself so much! I would have been right there with him! I actually probably would have gotten some of my old UAM friends together and we would have been clapping to it just like they did in Europe (it's way better than how people clap in the U.S. lol)
I haven't read Dad's email yet so I don't know if he wrote about Europe or not. That is SOOOO cool that you are going to go and surprise Kody! I am completely and utterly jealous that I'm not at home. I know you would have brought me along if I had been. Oh well, I am doing a good work instead ;) Crans-Montana is BEAUTIFUL! I loved that place so much. You'll get to be there for the fondue party in the big white tent! AHHHHHHH! Best place ever. And Rhotenburg ob der Tauber! Man, good times! I hope you get to stay with the Goerigks! Oh my gosh, "trunky" thoughts lol.
It's okay if you aren't able to get me email. I can live one week without emailing lol :D Thanks for your diligence in getting me emails though :D
I can only imagine how busy this coming week will be for you! A wedding, a sisters party and Europe! I'm sure this week will be busy for me too, but probably just knocking on peoples' doors. hahaha
It cools off enough in the evening that it actually isn't all that bad without AC. During the day it can be pretty warm but we're not really home that often during the day. Luckily for us the coming week is supposed to go down to the 80's so I am excited for that. Looks like we passed the heat on to you ;)
Thanks for all of things that you wrote :D I got lots of excitement out of it :D Hope you have a blast :D I'll be thinking tons about you and being totally jealous.
I love you Mom!
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
That's okay that your email will be shorter than normal. I am looking forward to your letter :D
Mom mentioned that you guys are going to go see Kody in Europe. That is SOOOO cool! That will be a fun experience and I don't think he'll be upset at all by you being there. In fact he'll probably introduce you to everybody and then you'll leave and they'll all talk about how cool you are (all of my friends do that). Crans-Montana is SOOO beautiful and it is such a fun place. You will really enjoy the concert and the atmosphere and of course the scenery! Take lots of pictures and videos for me please :D
You have to at least let him know you are there at the concert! But anyway, sounds like a blast! Seefeld is really pretty as well. Man...I told Mom I was jealous because I probably would have gotten to come if I wasn't out here ;) But I know I'm doing a good work. Kody will be so excited. I guarantee it! I bet he won't care at all and won't even think that you'd ruin things, so don't worry.
I would love to go back to that museum in Germany too! I missed out on that playing piano with the violins! Hopefully I'll get to see some pictures and maybe videos if they're allowed.
You lucky ducks you get to go try to see Frau Goerigk! I'm totally excited for you guys!
Busy and fast trips are just as fine on occasion :D Especially if you've already been there before.
I'm so excited that you will be in Switzerland next week. If you can't email don't feel bad. I'll be patient until the next week.
lol, just dropping Kody off shouldn't be THAT hard...it's only 3 weeks ;) not 2 years lol j/k I understand that would be hard.
Wow, you are going to be stinking busy for the next 5 weeks! Good luck getting all the ducks lined up at work :D I know you'll do great.
Things with Melissa are great. July 11th at 4 p.m. Jason will be baptizing Melissa :D She will then be confirmed on July 12th by her father-in-law. YAY! I'm not really allowed to ask you to pray for anything but I guess since you asked me I can just ask you to pray that the last week they can stay strong and that as persecution and trial comes after her baptism that she'll be able to stand tall and strong.
It's okay that I can't drive yet :D I'll be patient. I just have a hard time dealing with peoples' driving if it isn't the way I like it ya know? So I am definitely learning patience and at least I get to relax a tiny bit ;) I hope I'm in a car area a lot too. My knees are actually doing really well. I think a bike area would be fine (not pleasant). I think the problem now would be how out of shape I am not so much my knees.
I didn't know there was a church out past the Red Barn now. That's really cool :D Things are definitely changing fast. I'm going to move into a new town in twenty months! That's awesome that they are building a Maverick, nobody had told me that :D I wish we had had those things when I was young too, however Kolby and I used to ride our bikes down to town on occasion :D That was lots of fun.
I miss you tons too! I love hearing about what's going on at home but I tell you what I'm really missing you all and what I'm missing out on ;) We'll have a lot of "missed time" to make up for when I get home :D Well I know you and Mom will be able to handle Kody and I gone. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it.
Have lots of fun in Europe for me!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Things with Melissa are going fabulously. Jason and Melissa are definitely ready. Jason gets to perform the baptism and we are SOOOOOO excited! Oh my goodness I can't even tell you how exciting it is!
That's awesome that Ethan got baptized. I always loved going to the Canfield things :D That is insane to think about Natalie dating and driving...I feel really old...what does that mean about you guys? ;) j/k
Things with Elder Cellan are great. He and I get along well although we are both fairly reserved people so talking to people can be difficult at times. We are doing good work though. lol, surprisingly enough you're right that this is my opportunity to open up and be the fun. I am way more talkative and stuff hahaha I am starting to bring it out in him and it's really fun. I have a lot of new responsibility even though I'm still the junior companion. I do most of the planning and deciding what we're going to do throughout the day because I know the area. He's picking up on things really quickly though. I'm glad we have a car for sure.
Thanks for the update on Adam. We were both WAY curious if he'd gotten his call yet so that's exciting to know and we're both glad to have his address so we can write him. Thanks for finding that for us.
Wow, that is a long time for the church to be out of commission but oh well. There's a new building in Santaquin? That's good that you'll be able to do the full block of meetings.
I definitely remember how many people were in the airport when we showed up for our Europe trip. Holy cow! Man, I am so jealous right now :D But I am so very excited for him.
I'm glad the Bon Voyage concert was so good! I am SOOOOO excited to see it! I better send a memory card home fast! I'm terrible at thinking up good videos to put on it and I am so busy I rarely take pictures. I am SUPER excited to hear Bugler's Holiday, that was my favorite piece...AHHH! I am totally excited! I'm glad the soloists were so good. That's a bummer that Dad forgot the extra battery but that's okay. I am sure that I'll get to hear some of Lyndsay's solos eventually so it's no big deal. She really is amazing and made it into BYU's music program if I remember right. That's awesome that the band kept playing with the lights off. I'm glad Grandpa enjoyed himself so much! I would have been right there with him! I actually probably would have gotten some of my old UAM friends together and we would have been clapping to it just like they did in Europe (it's way better than how people clap in the U.S. lol)
I haven't read Dad's email yet so I don't know if he wrote about Europe or not. That is SOOOO cool that you are going to go and surprise Kody! I am completely and utterly jealous that I'm not at home. I know you would have brought me along if I had been. Oh well, I am doing a good work instead ;) Crans-Montana is BEAUTIFUL! I loved that place so much. You'll get to be there for the fondue party in the big white tent! AHHHHHHH! Best place ever. And Rhotenburg ob der Tauber! Man, good times! I hope you get to stay with the Goerigks! Oh my gosh, "trunky" thoughts lol.
It's okay if you aren't able to get me email. I can live one week without emailing lol :D Thanks for your diligence in getting me emails though :D
I can only imagine how busy this coming week will be for you! A wedding, a sisters party and Europe! I'm sure this week will be busy for me too, but probably just knocking on peoples' doors. hahaha
It cools off enough in the evening that it actually isn't all that bad without AC. During the day it can be pretty warm but we're not really home that often during the day. Luckily for us the coming week is supposed to go down to the 80's so I am excited for that. Looks like we passed the heat on to you ;)
Thanks for all of things that you wrote :D I got lots of excitement out of it :D Hope you have a blast :D I'll be thinking tons about you and being totally jealous.
I love you Mom!
Elder Jay Davis
Hey Dad,
That's okay that your email will be shorter than normal. I am looking forward to your letter :D
Mom mentioned that you guys are going to go see Kody in Europe. That is SOOOO cool! That will be a fun experience and I don't think he'll be upset at all by you being there. In fact he'll probably introduce you to everybody and then you'll leave and they'll all talk about how cool you are (all of my friends do that). Crans-Montana is SOOO beautiful and it is such a fun place. You will really enjoy the concert and the atmosphere and of course the scenery! Take lots of pictures and videos for me please :D
You have to at least let him know you are there at the concert! But anyway, sounds like a blast! Seefeld is really pretty as well. Man...I told Mom I was jealous because I probably would have gotten to come if I wasn't out here ;) But I know I'm doing a good work. Kody will be so excited. I guarantee it! I bet he won't care at all and won't even think that you'd ruin things, so don't worry.
I would love to go back to that museum in Germany too! I missed out on that playing piano with the violins! Hopefully I'll get to see some pictures and maybe videos if they're allowed.
You lucky ducks you get to go try to see Frau Goerigk! I'm totally excited for you guys!
Busy and fast trips are just as fine on occasion :D Especially if you've already been there before.
I'm so excited that you will be in Switzerland next week. If you can't email don't feel bad. I'll be patient until the next week.
lol, just dropping Kody off shouldn't be THAT hard...it's only 3 weeks ;) not 2 years lol j/k I understand that would be hard.
Wow, you are going to be stinking busy for the next 5 weeks! Good luck getting all the ducks lined up at work :D I know you'll do great.
Things with Melissa are great. July 11th at 4 p.m. Jason will be baptizing Melissa :D She will then be confirmed on July 12th by her father-in-law. YAY! I'm not really allowed to ask you to pray for anything but I guess since you asked me I can just ask you to pray that the last week they can stay strong and that as persecution and trial comes after her baptism that she'll be able to stand tall and strong.
It's okay that I can't drive yet :D I'll be patient. I just have a hard time dealing with peoples' driving if it isn't the way I like it ya know? So I am definitely learning patience and at least I get to relax a tiny bit ;) I hope I'm in a car area a lot too. My knees are actually doing really well. I think a bike area would be fine (not pleasant). I think the problem now would be how out of shape I am not so much my knees.
I didn't know there was a church out past the Red Barn now. That's really cool :D Things are definitely changing fast. I'm going to move into a new town in twenty months! That's awesome that they are building a Maverick, nobody had told me that :D I wish we had had those things when I was young too, however Kolby and I used to ride our bikes down to town on occasion :D That was lots of fun.
I miss you tons too! I love hearing about what's going on at home but I tell you what I'm really missing you all and what I'm missing out on ;) We'll have a lot of "missed time" to make up for when I get home :D Well I know you and Mom will be able to handle Kody and I gone. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it.
Have lots of fun in Europe for me!
Love,
Elder Jay Davis
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
