LETTER DATED APRIL 15, 2014

 

Sis. Lopez, Sis. Larson & Elder Davis not far from the Mexico border.

 Dear Family,

Happy Easter!!!  I want you all to know how much I love you!  Thank you for supporting me and making it possible for me to be out here. 

So lately I have been working a lot on diligence and my prayers to Heavenly Father and it has changed my life.  I know this work is true and I have learned and grown so much.  I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am grateful for the relationbship I have develpoed with the Lord.  I am grateful for this Easter season and I love you all!   I hope you all feel my love and more importatnly, the love of the Savior.

Love you!
Elder Taylor C. Davis

P.S.  Thank you for the Easter box!!! It was awesome and it made my day.

WEEK 38

   I am doing fantastic today! It has been a long week but it is really nice to take a little break and what not.  I am glad you sound so happy in your email and that you enjoyed my letter.  I have realized that I have really grown a lot and I am grateful that I have learned so much in such a short time.  I am also glad that you think my handwriting looks better. I have been working on it and it has come a long way.  I am glad as well that you understand what the picture that I sent meant.

   I am actually kind of impressed myself about how much happiness my bike has brought me. Even though I wrecked it a few days after I got it.

   So I will now give you further explanation on the crash. The truth is that I have really been stressing telling you and I was even more stressed last week. So I am just going to get to the point and I pray that it won't alarm you or anything because I am totally fine. :) 

   So we were riding to an appointment and I blacked out or something for a second. I don't really know what happened. I was probably dehydrated or something. Anyway, when I regained my sight and everything, there was a street sign right in front of me and I had no time to avoid the collision.  I got up and thought that I was fine and was getting back on my bike when I looked at my arm and there was a fairly deep, quarter sized hole in my arm.

   So we called Sister Riggs and she and Bro. Riggs took us to the instacare. Miraculously, there was a member there that is a nurse that saw the whole thing and was able to patch me up quickly so we could get to the doctor.  I ended up getting six stitches and I am going to have a pretty gnarly scar on my arm.

   But I am completely okay and I am great and the arm is healing well.  :)  I apologize sincerely for not telling more but I hope that you will understand.  I love you and I am grateful for your concern.

   I am going to the doc on Friday to get the stitches out.  :) Here is a pic, but don't be too grossed out. Okay?

   As for my scans, they are going to be on the 12th of May. The day after we speak on the phone. and the day before transfer p-day.  :)

   So for investigators.... This week wasn't so great in that regard. But guess what!? We saw R*****!!!!!!! And we have an appointment with her again tomorrow!!!! AWWW YEAH! Plus, the progress with L*** has been unreal.  He still has a baptismal date and he has already been to church 3 times! He came again on Sunday and he has been reading and keeping his commitments. He just needs to work on quitting coffee and that is going to be really hard on him.  So if you want to pray to help him with that you can. I have seen such an amazing change with him already. He is going to get baptized so soon! We  might even move his date up a week!

   So yeah, I pretty much will hardly have to buy anything for the next while because of all the food Auntie left for me at the mission office. You should see it in it's glory. Just a hint.... Biscuits and Gravy for days!!!!  Man I love that woman. She has really been very supportive of me on my mission and it means the world to me. I hope she knows how much I love her. 

   So today we went as close to the boarder as we could and we took  pictures. It was pretty cool. Too bad it was foggy though.

   For Easter, as of now, we don't have any big plans. Well, except that we were invited over to one the members of the mission presidency's house for dinner the 19th so that should be fun. I hope you have a lot of fun as well!

   Elder Nickel was just feeling well like an upset stomach and other things of that nature. We are both healthy and ready to go now though! :)

 
   So I do keep in touch with about half of the members of my MTC district.  I still write Hermana Watkins and Hermana Taufoou and Elder Edson (Super sad that he went home because he was having problems with his chemical depression, but he is doing well now and still writes me.  I don't hear very much from anyone else.

 

   If you could let the ward know how much I love them, that would be great.

 

   Well I want you to know that I love you to death and I hope this email finds you warm and happy. :)

 

   Love Ya!!

   Love,

   Elder Davis

LETTER DATED APRIL 8, 2014

   I am doing well!  It feels good to finally feel better.  I have been super excited because I got to go down with the zone leaders to see how transfers were going to go.  (Transfers were today.)  I am staying and so is my companion!

   Rash wise, I am doing great so far.  I am off the medicine and so far the rash hasn't come back.  *Fingers crossed.*  Elder Nickel says he is not feeling well so I am writing while he rests.  I am glad that you reminded me of the vaccine that I need.  I will get on that this week.

   Question & Answer time:

1.  During the week we try to set up appointments for the week. If we don't have appointments, we fill all the time slots with people we'd like to visit the next day, during our nightly planning session, the night before.

2.  Of course I wear a bike helmet!  :)  Gotta keep my noggin safe.  :)  Yes, it does look a little dorky and I have been called names, but it is a rule as a missionary and I must obey.

3.  We try to talk to as many people as possible.  It is awkward at times to stop people on bike, but we do it anyway.

4.  We have not run into any very rude people so far.  Of course we get ignored all the time, but that's okay.  All that matters is that we tried.

5.  Being so close to the border is actually really nice because everybody speaks Spanish!  :)  Elder Nickel and I have agreed that one day for morning exercise, we are going to ride to the border and take pictures.

6.  So far, I have not really been in any scary situations.

7.  Our apartment is a little dumpy.  But it is in a good place for all the work we do.  But I am sure there is a better place somewhere.

8.  We actually get invited to eat a lot more here than in my last area.  They have served us authentic Mexican food.  I cannot really describe the food.  Let's just say that other Mexican food isn't anything compared to this down here.  :)  (Nothing against other Mexican food...mmm!)

9.  It was very hard for me to choose a story from the Book Mormon that means the most to me.  After much thought, I came to the conclusion that the story that means the most to me is the story of Ammon converting the king of the Lamanites.  This is so, because it is a testimony of what I have seen on my mission.  I have seen the gospel influence a 180 degree change in many lives.  I also love this story because of the great example of teaching that Ammon really is.  I always try to teach simply but powerfully like Ammon does.

  I wish I knew more about my ward, but all I know is that we are part of the Chula Vista stake.

  In other news...I got my own bike!  The Elder that was borrowing a bike from wanted his back so I had to give it up.  But I have my own now and it is super nice.  By using the money Granny put in my account, I was able to fix it up real nice!  All I needed was a pump and some lights.  I will send you a picture of it and all it's glory on Tuesday!  :)  It has been given the name of "The Ute" because of it's colors and you will see what I mean later.

   I have been studying the New Testament and it has been cool to learn so much about the Savior. I love it!

   I wasn't able to tell you about C**** and D**** in my email so I am going to do so now.  They are nieces of a member that we found.  We have not seen them again since our first visit.  But we have an appointment with them on Thursday so hopefully we see them.  D**** doesn't seem to be as serious as C**** though.  C**** has already recognized the spirit and how it feels.  She was also really smiley and I know she felt the truth of what we said.  Hopefully she kept the commitment to read and pray so we can move on.  :)

   I am so grateful for all you have done and continue to do for me.  I hope you enjoy your week.  I love you!
 
   Love,
   Elder Davis

EASTER PACKAGE FOR OUR FAVORITE ELDER

Not only am I lucky enough to be friends with one of the most incredible women in the world, I am blessed to share the missionary experience with her as well.  Her son left the day after Taylor.  (They were originally set to leave the same day and then Taylor got moved up a day.)  She has always been an example in my life.  Even more so now, as an exemplary missionary mother.  She sets the bar for the rest of us.  She always has the best ideas for packages.  Not only does she send them to her own son, but she sends holiday and special occasion packages to several other missionaries as well. I admit, I "hitchhike" off of her ideas!  I give full credit to my amazing friend for the awesome ideas for Elder Davis' Easter package.

We have these special Easter Eggs that tell the Easter Story.  We read them every Easter morning.  I made a set to send to Taylor.  Each egg has a scripture and small token that represents the scripture in it.

The picture is a little blurry.
Easter Dinner...Canned Ham, Cheesy Potatoes, Rolls/Biscuits, Jello Salad

You never know if they will have an invite or not!

 New Easter tie.

Egg Dying kit. (Requires nothing but water.)

 Elder Davis loves boiled eggs...all year round.

Easter Basket candy- the box will have to settle for a basket this year.

 One important thing I have learned from my friend...cute up the package.  

No matter how long it takes!

The outside has to be cute too!

And now it is on it's way to our favorite Elder!

A STOP AT THE MISSION HOME (by Auntie Kristin)

We decided it was finally time to head out to San Diego again for a little mini-vacation for a few days.

Lately, Taylor has shared with me that he hasn't had much food and was out of money or low on funds, so before we left for San Diego, we went and did a "little" grocery shopping.  We ended up with two pretty big boxes of groceries for him which hopefully will last him a little while.  They had all kinds of things in them from cans of chunk chicken to Hamburger/Chicken/Tuna Helper, spaghetti, farfalle, mac & cheese, huge boxes of Captain Crunch and Froot Loops cereals, fruit snacks, fresh tortillas from Arizona, tuna fish, instant potatoes, noodles & sauce, rice, refried beans, spaghetti sauce, ramen, pudding, garlic salt, biscuit mix, gravy mix, ranch dressing mix and mayonnaise, stuffing mix, and some other canned items.  It was so much fun boxing everything up and knowing that he knew absolutely nothing about these boxes headed his way!

On Wednesday, April 2nd, we were off to San Diego.  The boxes were all packed and in the car.  I was so excited to drop these off!  See...excited!!

As we were driving through Gila Bend, I saw this sign.  I quickly grabbed a picture - for two reasons...1) It says "Some day is today" in Spanish, and 2) It's hosted by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I thought it was ironic that here we were, heading out to take these boxes to our nephew who had to deal with Lymphoma and may not have been able to go on a mission, and then we see this sign.  But, I also thought about the ginormous phrase on the sign...Some day is today.  Sure, this sign was promoting donating to help find a cure for leukemia and lymphoma, but more so, I thought about how we need to stop putting off preparing for Christ's return and make that "some day" today.  I thought about how we need to stop putting off making our lives better "some day" and do it today.  I thought about how we need to start reading our scriptures today, not "some day".  I thought about how we need to start thinking about serving a seniors/couple mission today, not "some day".  I thought about how we need to start opening our mouths about the gospel today, not "some day".  It really was a thought provoking sign!

We soon crossed over into California and I was about to burst out of my seat.  We still had about 2.5 hours to go, but I was so excited to just drop off the boxes that I jokingly kept asking Clint, "Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?"  And, he just kept replying in a calm voice, "Almost" or "Just about."

The mission home is only about 3 miles from the highway we come in on so it was a quick and easy trip to drop off the boxes.  This is a picture of the entrance off the parking lot.  Over to the left, on the side, is the main entrance.

We found the mission home quickly, grabbed the boxes, and headed inside.  There were a few missionaries sitting in the kitchen eating and we asked where we could take the boxes.  We headed down the hallway and there were all these cute missionaries - sisters and elders - in the office.  One elder saw us with the boxes and asked if he could help.  We told him we were there to just drop off these boxes and he offered to take them.  I jokingly said sure...but you're going to actually give them to the right missionary and not just take them for yourself, right?!?!?  We just laughed.  He put them in a stack with a few other packages and we were on our way.  Uncle Clint peeked his head back in, jokingly hoping to see Taylor, but I told him that he wouldn't be there because it was a Wednesday and he'd be out working.  So, we headed back out to our car to head on our way.  We never mentioned Taylor's name or who we were - just that we wanted to drop off a couple boxes.

Look at all those cute little missionary cars...with the "tho' your sins be as scarlet" little red hot rod car from Arizona among them all!  Kind of ironic when you think about it, isn't it?

As we were walking back to the car, there were two missionaries that came out about 30 feet behind us.  I could hear one of them talking to the other one saying, "We'll head back to Chula and ..... blah, blah, blah...."  All it took was for me to hear "Chula" and I swung around and asked them if they were heading to Chula Vista.  One of them, Elder Fowler, said yes, and I asked if he knew Elder Davis.  He did!  I was so excited!  (Although, I'd really wanted to keep it very quiet that we were there until after we'd made it home...but, oh well.)  I shared that we'd just dropped off some boxes for him and that we were his aunt and uncle and were there on vacation.  We visited for a few minutes and Elder Fowler shared with us that he was from Orem, Utah and knew our cousin, Carl Kunz.  Small world, isn't it!?!?  Then, Elder Fowler wanted to take a picture with us so he could show Taylor.  I wish we'd had a picture taken with our camera too, so we could record the memory, but we didn't and Elder Fowler erased it after showing Taylor, so I guess this entry will just have to do.  Elder Fowler asked our names and I just told him to tell Taylor "Auntie" and he would know who it was.  Right after that, we said our goodbyes, and we were off to the land of sun and surf.

It is always a little hard knowing that Taylor is not far from us when we are there, but we never seek him out.  He is there on God's errand and that's all that matters.  We let him just keep on doing it...and that's the way he would want it too.

WEEK 37

 Elder Davis and his very own bike!

  Elder Davis & Elder Balletyne

   Today I am doing great. I am fully recovered my illness and I the rash should be gone forever. :)

   I got a new bike because the Elder that owned the bike that I was using needed it back.  So I have my OWN bike!! 

    This week wasn't the best in seeing people because of conference and a lot of meetings and.... I kind of got in a little bike accident... on my new bike....but I can assure you not too worry.  I am perfectly fine. :) Just a cut and a couple of scrapes.  And the bike is doing great.  :)   As for the bike crash, I was riding and I blacked out for a second and hit a sign that cut me up.  I am fine.  I was dehydrated that day, but that will never happen again!!!  I actually have a picture of my bike to send to you today. :) 

   This week were able to see L*** and he is progressing very well. He even watched conference! And we have an appointment with him tomorrow and it's going to be great!  Plus, he is still looking good for his baptismal date on May 3rd.  He is keeping all of his commitments and he actually even watched conference! YES!!!!! Plus, we got more missionaries in our district! Now there are 5 companionships in our ward! WHAT!? The work is booming here in Chula and I am so excited that we are healthy this week and going to light the world on fire! 

    Plus, we got two additional sisters in our district so we divided areas and they were given the north part of our area.  This is sad because we lost half of our work. But it is more so positive, because now we can work in the part that we worked the most in. Plus our area was too much for us before now. 

   The downside is that the sisters are now teaching V********* and L***. But I think this will be good for all of us because we will be able to focus more and not have to ride from one side of the area to the other. I am so pumped!!!

   As for your questions about D***** and C*****, D***** dropped us and said that she didn't want to be any part of any religion. We tried and tried to reason with her but I guess she is just not ready. As for C****, she has not been home in forever. And yes they are sisters. 

   Now about my conference experience.... well, conference is amazing just in itself. But as a missionary, there is just a whole different mentality.  It is totally different and a completely different experience.  I don't know how to explain it, but it just makes it that much better.  I love being a servant of the Lord. I loved every second of the 10 hours of conference that we were able to watch.  How blessed we are to listen to the Prophet of God and ALL of his apostles speak to us. If I had to pick talks that stood out to me the most it would probably have to be President Erying and President Uchtdorf's talks in the Saturday session. This is so because it felt like they were directed towards me and I have trying to be better at diligence and being a better missionary.  I enjoyed it so much! Not to mention the food. Oh my goodness it was delicious!  

    I am glad to hear that you have had such spiritual experiences this week. You and your spirituality has always amazed me. I am grateful that I have always had such a shining example in my life. (You) I am ever grateful for all that you do.  

   As for the bill, I have not been able to go down to the mission office yet but I am going to call later today and talk about it. I also checked which vaccine I need and I found out that it is Hep A so I will hopefully get that taken care of as well.

   

   To answer a few of your questions...

I do know Elder Nielsen. That is pretty cool that his brother works with Logan!

I have always just gotten a haircut from an Elder that knows what he's doing. So it is easy and free.  :)

Between conference we studied and weekly planned.  :)

   Momma, I tried to get you all a letter sent last week but a sister missionary got hurt and things were pretty busy because of that. But it should be on it's way today. :)  Inside will be a description of my new bike! :)  I want you to know that I love you to death! I hope this email finds you calm and happy. :)

  Pops, I love you deeply and I want you to know that you were and still are the perfect Dad for me to become who I am. If it was any different, I would be different. I thank you kindly for doing all that you do. You are my hero! I love you and hope you enjoy this email.

  Love,

  Elder Davis

P.S.- Can you  send me a pair of collar stays?

WEEK 36

 Rodrigo, Angel & Elder Davis

Hey!  That looks like Elder Davis' old battle wagon!

  I am doing pretty good. My rash is gone because I was seen by a missionary doctor and he gave me a bunch of meds to help it out and so far it's good.  The downside to this week is we didn't hardly see anybody because were sick and I am still recovering.  It turns out that on top of the rash, I got bronchitus and an ear infection. 

 

  But I am doing much better now and we are seeing people again. Yesterday we were able to see a lot of people, but none of the people you had asked about.  :( Personally I am doing good.  I am tired of being sick but I know that it is for a reason.  I am just happy to be out here and be in a area that is growing so much.

   It makes me happy to hear that the Holley's were able to stop by and answer your prayers.  I know that Heavenly Father will bless you immensely, as he already has. And he better because you  deserve it!!!  But I really am glad that the Holley's stopped by.  

     Glad to hear that Abby's farewell and afterparty went well. It is cool that I know missionaries that are serving in her mission right now. In Spanish. I am also excited to hear where Gavin and Trent are going as well.  The mission really is a great experience. 

     

    As for me and our investigators, we are doing well. We were not able to see ANY of them this week but that is okay because this week I am going full health and Elder Nickel and I are going to set this area on fire this week! We already have seen five families and it's only been one day. I am sad to say that we haven't seen R****, V*******, or T****, or C****, or D****.  But this week we are going to see everyone and see miracles.

    As for conference, we are going to watch it in the stake center as the Chula stake and all the missionaries.  Apparently after the sessions, the missionaries get fed a feast so I am so down with that! No plans for Easter... yet.  

   Today for p-day we are emailing right now, then we'll shop and change clothes, then we'll go to the church to play volleyball and write letters.  After that we will go out and light up the town with the spirit!

   Story time!!!!!!!  So about 3 weeks ago we saw this dude named L*** and he asked us a bunch of questions about the church and the Book of Mormon.  Just for curiosity. He also told us like 5 times that he would NEVER change his religion. So we just bore testimonies and left and told him to have a nice day. Well..... Sunday an interesting message was left on our voice mail.  It said that Luis, (the same dude as mentioned before) had a bunch of questions and that he even wanted to get baptized!!! WHAT!?!?!? 

    Well yesterday we went to see him and set some expectations with him and what not........... He opened up like I didn't know was possible..... AND......! He accepted a baptismal date!!! BOOOOH YAH!!! He is like a super golden investigator.  I am just in awe at how the Lord prepared him so quickly.  We have an appointment with him on Thursday and it is going to be great.

   Oh and one more thing... Remember the scans I had done for my back and what not? Well I got a piece of mail from the insurance company today that says they denied them and that I have to pay $*****. Needless to say that I am not very happy and I am kind of freaking out because I don't have that kind of money and I thought that the reason why I stayed here to do the tests was because the insurance approved them? It says on the letter that it was not authorized by the insurance. So I think the best that I can do is just send the mail to you so you can see for yourself. I don't know what to do but I know that everything will be okay? Do you agree that that is what I should do? 

   Well I love ya!

    Love,

    Elder Davis

P.S.  Does one of these pictures look familiar? :)  The other one is with Rodrigo and Angel. Rodrigo is the guy that I gave the tiple to. ( the big huge guy)