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