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