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