June 15, 2009

Dear Mom,

Don't worry about me not hearing from my friends. I'm sure I'll hear from them intermittently (sp?) throughout my mission and they definitely have their own lives to live :) I know exactly how that can be. I actually heard from Sam on Saturday and that was AWESOME! She made my day. I'm really looking forward to hearing from Seth, Bekah, and Clay again.

Melissa and her husband are doing great! As far as we are aware she still hasn't smoked and she is still aiming for July 11th so I'm assuming all is well :D We are praying hard for her that's for sure! The good news is that her husband may be able to baptize her. They met with the Branch President and he said that if he goes 30 days living the word of wisdom then he can baptize her! HOW COOL! Though it'll be a huge struggle and that meant he had to start the very next day to make it in time! So we are hoping that he will be able to baptize her! If not that's ok, she'll be happy with her father-in-law baptizing her but it'd be cool if her husband could.

The cupcakes were AWESOME! I was so bummed when I ran out ;) hahaha Of course I shared with Elder Neeley :) I'm not THAT mean ;) He liked them, though he's not a huge sweet fan so I got to eat most of them :D Definitely a good choice of music book. I had fun playing through nearly the entire book last P-day. I actually have many times when I'm like, "I wish I had this music." But if I had you send all of the music I wanted I could very well have an entire suitcase full of music ;) (Just FYI if you send just books in the mail you can get a discounted price. So if you ever send a couple piano books just send them (and a letter or whatever that's insignificant) and you get a cheaper shipping price) So I will let you know when I get bored of this book or when I think of something that I would really like to have. Thanks for your willingness to send stuff :D (I also feel bad taking music from you lol)

That's awesome that you went to lunch with Angela :D I was thinking about them the other day. Man, sounds like you had some really really good food and dessert :D I know the feeling of how the food can be good but hanging out is better. We always tell the members who are worried about what they are feeding us that the reason we like having dinner with members is for the company, and different people to talk to, not because of the food.

YAY! NO TUMORS!!!!!!! That is SOOOO exciting! BLAH! I'm near tears :P How lame, anyway. That's great that you went to Chili's with Dad to celebrate :) I miss you guys.

Yeah, planting in the rain would have been pretty hard and not much fun :P I LOVE rain! That's something I'll miss for the next four or five months. Dad keeps commenting on how good the yard looks too so it must be AWESOME! I am looking forward to pictures! We had a HUGE thunder and lightning storm. Did I not tell you about it?! The thunder was continuous, it never stopped, and there was nearly non-stop lightning too and a downpour of rain. It was the weirdest thing ever but SO cool!

Holy cow Mom! That's a lot of plants lol I'm glad you had a good time planting them. I bet you were sore the next day! Man, you are crazy ;) I'm glad you weren't exhausted. You are definitely recovering well from your surgeries and I'm sure it's even more exciting for you than it is for me :D

That's awesome that you stopped at the Moyano's! I got pretty choked up reading that paragraph! I am happy that you thought to give Sister Moyano a hug from me! I really do miss giving people hugs. Anyway, thanks for watching out for them for me :D

That's good that you were able to enjoy a relaxing morning, those are always nice though I don't get them much anymore (1 day a week). lol, that's pretty funny that you accompanied Ye Elders of Israel. You'll have to make Dad learn it so a priesthood holder can be playing ;)

I have noticed in his emails and stuff that he definitely seems to be breaking out of his shell more and being social! It's awesome! I really am proud of him :D He and I are working at it together. You're going to be shocked when I get home ;)

For our P-day activity today the zone is going to hike down to the bottom of the Foresthill Bridge (you should do some research on it, it's pretty sweet). I don't know if you've seen the movie XXX (Triple X) (it's not a bad movie like the name sounds like, it's an action/drama I'd say). Anyway, it has Vin Diesel in it. He is a stunt junkie and he is sort of a fugitive but anyway, he drives a Corvette off of the Foresthill Bridge in the movie (they really did it!). It's the 2nd tallest in the U.S. I believe and the tallest in California. Or something like that, anyway it's over 700 ft. tall I believe. You'll have to look up details. But anyway, hopefully I'll get some good pictures :D (I said "anyway" a ton in that paragraph)

Transfers are next week already! Holy smokes! Yep, the 23rd. We'll know the 22nd. I think both of us will stay because at interviews Elder Neeley talked about it to President Pendleton. I'm sure whatever happens it'll be for the best like you said. I'm learning to accept change though I don't enjoy it most of the time still lol.

hahaha I am buying lots of ties at Thrift Stores though :D I've doubled my tie entourage and have two ties from my grandpa (the trainer of my trainer (my dad)). Thanks for being impressed with how I'm doing. I'm just trying to go with the flow and do my best.

lol, I love you too Mom :D I love reading your emails. Thanks for being such a fabulous mom!

Love,

Elder Jay Davis

Hi Dad,

Holy smokes, it's rained every day? That's pretty crazy! It rained a tiny bit here Saturday night and that's it. I'm glad the lawn is doing well :D

Thank you for your prayers for Melissa. They are definitely being answered. Yesterday we taught one of the scariest lessons to teach as a missionary preparing an investigator for baptism and that is tithing and fast offerings People can get pretty weird and uptight about money. Luckily we taught it and said, "After you are baptized will you live the law of tithing?" Melissa said, "Yes." It was pretty simple and relieving for sure! We definitely know that the harder she tries the more opposition she will find but we have faith that she will be able to make it and we are doing what we can to help her get there. Thank you very much for the advice :D

Holy smokes! That is crazy to think that Spencer is going to be headed off to AFRICA!!! Man! The Lord definitely knows his children well and where they will serve well. I didn't realize he'd never flown before! Boy would that be an adventure! I am sure he'll have a blast though.

Yummy, Red Lobster sounds really good :) Tell Grandpa happy birthday for me even though it's way late. I'm glad you guys had fun. That's good that Kody made it back safe and sound and the scouts didn't eat him up or something I'm sure he'll tell me about it too :D

Transfers are the 23rd of June so we'll find out on the 22nd (or 21st if one of us is training) whether or not we are staying. Elder Neeley told President at interviews about the baptism and said that if President was willing he'd like to stay in Foresthill at least one more transfer for that. I also wrote in my letter to the President the same thing basically. President made a deal with Elder Neeley and said that if by the end of next transfer he would prepare another person for baptism he would let him stay (obviously no real way to inforce that, but ya know). So my guess is that both of us will still be here at least one more transfer but who knows. If not President usually lets us go to the baptisms if we aren't too far (so fingers crossed right?).

I think I remember hearing about how you got transferred but still got to perform the baptism. How exciting! We have definitely asked and will definitely continue to ask depending on the circumstances. Thanks for making sure I know these things :)

You weren't babbling but okay, you crack me up. Thanks for your constant prayers. I'm thinking about home a lot but only when I'm not busy which isn't all that often. So I think about home a lot of my little down time ;)

I'm trying to think of any funny experiences we've had recently but I'm drawing a blank so far. I have certainly learned to love the people that I am serving. California is absolutely where I was meant to serve.

Love,

Elder Jay Davis