June 29, 2009

Hey Dad,

This week has been busy. Haven't had the best numbers in some areas but good numbers in other areas. All in all it's been good.

Man, I wish I could have gone to Seth's farewell too. I'm sure he did a fabulous job. I really miss hearing my friends sing and singing with them. Speaking of which while I'm thinking about it. If you or Mom or Kody can find my Chamber Singers CD in my mess of CD's and send it to me I would LOVE that. It is approved music so I'm excited to be able to listen to it.

Holy smokes! The Church building caught fire?! Man, why is all the exciting stuff happening while I'm gone? (Probably because I would have been involved if I hadn't been gone j/k)

That's good that most of the substantial damage was contained to the kitchen and the YW room. Hopefully they will be able to do a good job of getting it cleaned up.

That sounds really confusing how they held the church meetings and stuff :P Hopefully they'll get the church cleaned up very quickly.

Things with my new companion are good. He's much more quiet than Elder Neeley and much more shy. To be honest he's a lot more boring, but he's really fun to serve with. We get along great so that's good. Elder Cellan (Kellin) is from Pocatello, ID. The cool thing is that he went to BYU Idaho and guess who his roommate was?! Adam Merrill who was in my concert choir and whose little sister is friends with Kody :D Small world! We are both trying to get ahold of his mailing address so if Kody or you guys have some way of finding out I'd appreciate it.

We've had lots of food this weekend. Saturday was a baptism for an 8-year-old girl in our ward named Athena (family from India). They served food after that (a full on meal). Then we had a dinner appointment that wanted to feed us still so we drove to that and ate there some more.

Then yesterday was the "Linger Longer" after church where they have food and socializing for the branch. They are really a lot of fun. Anyway, so this Linger Longer was a special one because we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Branch Building. There have been some cool historical records and stuff kept about it so we got to hear a little bit about that and eat lots and lots of food.

Shortly thereafter we headed up to the McCollams' house where we live. Yesterday was Brother McCollam's 85th birthday. Wow! You'd never be able to guess it! Anyway, so they served BBQ ribs (YUM!), watermelon, water (very important for reasons I'll explain shortly), corn on the cob, etc. It was SO yummy and by the time we were finished we were stuffed. Then they brought out Martinelli's and we toasted to Brother McCollam. As if we weren't full enough they also served us cake (carrot cake Mmmm) and ice cream! Luckily we didn't have any other dinner appointments that evening so we didn't have to stuff more food down ;)

I only had much difficulty with changing companions the day before we changed and the day we changed. After that it's been fine. Although even though I'm still the junior companion I end up doing all of the planning since I know the area and my companion doesn't yet lol. I'm pretty bummed that I don't get to drive still though ;) (the senior companion drives)

Our opportunities to share the gospel are sort of up and down but things are going well. We had 15 lessons (9 to investigators and 6 to members) this past week so we were only 5 below the mission standard for weekly lessons. Better than we've been doing! The summer doesn't seem to really be keeping people from listening to us in fact people seem pretty willing to just let us talk to them while they're relaxing in their yard.

OH! I was going to tell you why the water was so important at Brother McCollam's b-day. It was 100 Degrees! The McCollam's don't have AC! So I was sweating and sweating and sweating some more! It was TERRIBLE! Today is supposed to be 104 here in Foresthill which is saying something since it's usually cooler up here! Sis. McCollam said there were reports of the freeway actually buckling from the heat down in Sacramento area! HOLY COW! Ahh well, I've learned to deal with it better than I would ever have imagined I could.

Things with Melissa are going great. As far as I'm aware we will be holding the baptismal interview this Thursday at 6:30, then she'll meet with the Branch President right after (she and her husband have been meeting with him weekly). Then if all goes well her baptism will be July 11th with her husband baptising her! *fingers crossed*

I'm glad all is well at home. I can't believe Kody leaves so soon either! I'm so jealous and so excited for him! Tell him I expect lots of good pictures with him in them as well as all of his new friends. (I'll tell him as well)

Thanks for your example too Dad and I love getting emails each week as well :D

Love you :D

Elder Jay Davis

Hey Mom,

Wow, this is a long email! I LOVE it! Just be warned I'm going to have to give condensed responses. I also responded to Dad's first so a lot of stuff I'm not going to repeat and you'll have to share with him. Sorry.

This week has gone well. Definitely a lot of change that was hard for me to accept when I first found out it was going to happen and the first day was hard but the rest of the week's been just great. Elder Cellan (pronounced Kellen) is really nice and we enjoy serving together. He's only been out 6 months so twice as long as me. He's from Pocatello, Idaho. I was bummed Elder Pu got transferred because I really grew to love him and he always had me laughing but oh well. He's a Spanish Elder so it's unlikely I'd serve as his companion but they do put English missionaries over to Spanish on occasion. That'd be SWEET!

I'm glad that Seth's farewell went so well and that you gave him a big hug for me and told him I wish I could have been there. I get pretty choked up each time I hear about a farewell and all of my friends. It's good though, I like hearing it.

HOLY COW! I can't believe that Josh is already an Elder! I'm jealous of the rainbow chip cookies! I can TOTALLY picture Bryson eating the strawberries and I'm laughing pretty good just thinking about it :D

I'm so excited for Kody! 3 weeks will be so fun! AHHH! Man! I'm jealous :D But so excited I could burst.

I've actually not thought too much about home to be honest ;) But I'm glad you think about me a lot and that's awesome that you have those pictures posted on the fridge. Don't stare too long ;) Thanks for all of the compliments, I learned from the best.

I love you back!

Love,

Elder Jay Davis

Kody,

lol, that blank email was funny. You did write me an email so no worries :D I understand having long weeks although most of mine out here fly right by. Don't stress about leaving to Europe. It'll go great. Mom and Dad will take care of you financially, so just go and have fun. I'm looking forward to the letter and the journal entries/stories that you'll tell :D

That's awesome that you went the Manti Pageant with Belen :D I have never been before so I'm sure I'd enjoy it. Sounds like a really fun date.

What the heck is the N1H1 virus? I don't get much news out here remember so fill me in :D

lol, well I'm glad you're missing me, but things are going great out here so no worries. I think about you a lot and reminisce about the past :D I'm focussing pretty well even though the heat is frying my brain ;) Love you back.

Elder Davis