WEEK 49

 

   Man I love you!! Your email really touched me and I am so grateful that I have an example like you in my life.  You are such an amazing missionary and I am very grateful for the messages you have shared with me.  You are a blessing in so many people's lives!  I love you to death! 

   I am also super happy that Colton and Shannon were able to sell their house! That just adds to my testimony of prayer!  These past couple weeks have been super spiritual and I love it.

  
   So I actually did have a chance to say goodbye to President Clayton at our past zone conference. He gave me a big hug and said that I was amazing and that I was doing a good job.  Sister Clayton also did the exact same thing.  So I know that it was what I needed to hear.  

   Our meet the president activity was actually super cool. He brought his whole family and all of them spoke. They seem like a super cool family! We also got to shake all of their hands and meet them.  It was actually pretty cool! I really like the Schmitt's already. Of course it will be hard to adjust but I think it will be super cool.

 Taylor's new mission president and his family.

   So yesterday we actually had a pretty cool experience! We had an appointment set with Yolanda and Maria and we went there but they didn't answer.  :(   But our backup plan if we weren't able to see them was that we were going to walk a little down the street to a park and update our area book. Well, as we were doing so, a dude was walking by and he said, "Hi."  We of course responded and asked how he was doing. He said he was fine and then asked us WHAT we were doing.  This was a perfect time to tell him that we were missionaries and we were updating our teaching records.  He then said that that was cool and we asked him if he had ever talked to missionaries before. He said yes and that it was cool but he doesn't remember anything about it.  We asked if we could come by sometime and he said that he would be super busy all of the time. THEN, he asked us if we had a message for that day. We of course responded with a, "of course we do!" 

    He then sat down and we talked a little about Christ and how he helps us live better lives. Then he asked us to read him a scripture. So of course we pull out our Book Of Mormon! :)  Then he says to just open up to a scripture. So Elder Sherman and I both start flipping through the Book of Mormon to see what we can find. Except this time we just going to open up to a random page. Well,  we stopped at the EXACT same time and opened to the EXACT same scripture!!!  Alma 37:36-37. 

   36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
   37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

   It was super cool! and then we read it with him and he said that it was what he needed, we said a prayer with him and he said he had to go and disappeared.  Super cool huh!?

   I am doing super good and am super pumped for this coming week. Elder Sherman and I are doing swell. We still get along and we are doing great. 

   Not any rain to report actually. There has been a cloudy day here and there but no rain. 

   Super cool that Mr. Christofferson came by! It was mind blowing to see him there and snap a pic with him!!

   Things with Josh are going well. He still has a date for the 26th of this month and he committed to pray about the Book of Mormon. Super sick! We have another appointment  with him tonight.  I can update you more on Michael. He is a 14 year old kid who we met on the street. He is out of school right now and he believes that there is a God. He said he thought it was cool that anyone has a chance at Heaven and that we aren't lost after this life. We taught him to pray last week and he said he'd read about Adam and Eve. So we'll see what happens with him. He doesn't seem too interested but he is doing good.

   Guess what I heard yesterday!? Victoriano got baptized and has been going to church and everything!!!! Heck Yeah!!!! I haven not heard anything about anyone else though. SUPER COOL for Victoriano!!

   We unfortunately haven't seen Hermana Rodriguez yet. We have called but we are going to stop by this week.

   Sister Diaz was actually only in my first area. But, she just got transferred into our zone this past week!  Super weird.  (Sis Diaz seems to be in a lot of the same pictures Taylor is, so we asked if she had always been in the same areas as he was.)

   I am doing very well health wise actually. I was pleased with how it all went down. I did know about the scans but only like 2 days before they happened.  

 
   I got the package! :) I actually picked it up myself about 2 hours ago :)  I haven't opened it yet.  I like to wait until after emails.

  Well, I love you to death and I will be sure to send a letter home today!

  Love you!

  Love, 

  Elder Taylor C. Davis

TENDER MERCIES

  

  This morning I was missing my son a little more than usual.  (Some days are just harder than others.)  Mid morning the doorbell rang.  It was Mr. Christifferson - Taylor's 6th grade teacher.  True to his word, he brought me a picture of he, Taylor and his brother (Elder D. Todd Christofferson.)  He also had a picture of Taylor, Elder Sherman, Sister Diaz and another Sister in Taylor's district.  He had framed them both for me.  What a very sweet thing to do!  

  I am grateful for his visit, his kindness and his sweet words about his visit with my son! 

  We also received a call from Taylor's oncologist in California today.  His semi-annual scans were done last Thursday and they looked great!!!  Nothing has changed for the past 7 1/2 months.

JUNE PACKAGE

Taylor's "June" package was more of a "July" package, since next month's package will be his "HUMP DAY" package.  Plus we wanted him to have a few fourth of July items.  We tried to find all things red, white and blue and include a few of our family, fourth of July traditions as well.

WEEK 48

  Good Morning!!! So it turns out that Elder Sherman and I are staying. Not what we expected, but we are happy that we are still together and look forward to the next 6 weeks. We both thought for sure that one of us was gone.  But I guess we are both needed together here still. It will interesting because now Elder Sherman will be my longest companion in my mission. It is actually kind of funny how easily we get along. I love how much we are able to laugh about old times but at the same time, creat new memories.

 

  Usually we are not allowed to pack until we know that we are being transferred. So I am glad that I did not try to pack early just in case. 

 

   As for the President, we are still under the direction of President Clayton. He leaves and is replaced with President Schmitt on Saturday.  We are actually going to have a "Meet the President" activity on Monday.  Super cool huh?

 

   There are various things that we do for service as missionaries here. We have helped paint, move, yardwork, cleaning up and stuff like that. The most common for me so far, is helping people.

 

   It sounds like everything is going well there back home. It's super cool that Jonah is going on Trek! I know that his attitude about it will change and that he will learn and see things that he never thought possible.  It is interesting that they will be using the bus each day. I don't think that we did that.  Man I have some good memories about trek!

 

   I got the nacho stuff you sent with the Jorgys, on Saturday!! Thanks so much Momma! Delicious!!!

 

   I am not surprised with Kennedy and her smiling at Nana's picture. I believe that babies are still connected to the veil a little bit when they are first born.  I have definitely seen things like that in my mission.  Every time we are around babies, they are always so smiley and never stop.  I am pretty sure that they know who us missionaries are. :) 

 

   This past week wasn't the best but it still went well.  We were not able to see any of the people you asked about so that's a bummer, but we were able to see a lot of members. Actually, Elder Sherman and I have now seen every single member in our area. Even all of the less actives. So we feel pretty good about that. Our main investigator right now is doing pretty well.  Last week we watched the Joseph Smith video with him and he thought that was super cool. He has a baptismal date for the 26th of July and is progressing very well. He is a 15 year old kid and his Dad is a recent convert. He wants to find out if the church is true and if it is the right road for him. So we are working with him to get him there. Hopefully we will make more progress this week.  We actually are going to see him tonight so hopefully that goes well.

 

   Well, so something pretty cool happened this week.  Elder Sherman and I were going through our day and we went through all of our plans and were trying to figure out what we should do next. Well, there was this list of members in our area that we have and I looked at it and a name stuck out to me. So, I asked Elder Sherman, "What about the Rodriguez family?"  He said, "Yeah lets go try them." 

 

   So we went over and knocked their door.  A sweet old lady answered the door and invited us in.  She then invited us to sit down and we got right to business.  We proceeded to tell her that we were in the area and that we wanted to stop by and see how she was doing.  Apparently she is very old and very weak and it was a miracle in itself that she could get up to answer the door.  But as we proceeded to talk she told us her story and how she was really suffering physically and that she wanted to die.  At first it was super sad because of how much pain she was in. But we proceeded to remind her about the plan of salvation mixed with the gospel and how we need to endure to the end.  

 

   We expressed how the first 4 steps of the gospel (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost) all come quickly and it is the 5th step that takes the time.  She then told us a story of how she did temple work for her mom and she knows that she can live with her mom again.  It reminded me of my sweet Nana and how she is teaching people up there in Heaven, like I am here in California.  

 

  She then noticed my scar and asked me about it. As I told her, she started to tear up and she said, "That is why you are here, alive, on a mission. You needed to speak to me today so that I could feel your spirit."  SWEET OLD LADY!!! Her husband then came down and we laughed a little. He then asked us if we would give her a blessing and we did. I had the pleasure to give that sweet lady counsel and help from our Father in Heaven. In that blessing, she was promised that she would pass to the other side of the veil pain free and that Christ would remove all of her pains. How cool is that!!?? I know the priesthood is real!

 

   Momma, I love you so much and hope that this email finds you happy and healthy! Are you feeling any better???

 

   Pops, I love you like no other and I thank you immensely for the example you are to me. Good luck with your week and know that I love you.

 

   I love you!

 

   Love, 

   Elder Taylor C. Davis 

WEEK 47

 
   I am doing pretty fantastic right now. My week has been super amazing!! Especially because of what happened on Sunday!!!! I got to shake another Apostle's hand!! That makes it 3 baby!! And yes, I did get a pic taken with my six grade teacher. So yeah it's kind of a big deal.  I would like a copy of that pic when you get it!!!

   As you can tell I am emailing pretty late, so yes I did go to the temple. It was super sick. I felt the spirit so strong like always and it was just really nice.

   I am glad that you appreciated all the info that I have been giving. I have to tell you it is very hard to tell you everything in the little time that I have. But I am glad that you are happy with it.  But in good news, the Sherm Dawg and I are doing pretty great actually. We both agree that we get along too well now and that we are both pretty sure that something is going to happen in our companionship next week. We both have no idea what, but we both suspect a change. I have mixed tuition's about it. I fell like I could stay but at the same time I feel like I will be needed somewhere else.

   So yeah it is pretty crazy that I ran into some Jorgy's AND that I ran into my 6th grade teacher AND got to shake yet another Apostle's hand!! SO SICK!!

   No new info about Y******* or N**** but we did see M**** yesterday. :) She is super nice and she said we could come back on Monday. She is an older lady, about 50 some odd years old. She is also super nice and says that she knows we are sent from God. She is super Christian though and just talks about how others need our message and she thinks that she is fine.  But we are wearing her down. She said that we were very nice and that she admired what we do so that was pretty cool.  We saw M****** and showed him a cool magic trick about missionaries and we have an appointment with him tomorrow to teach him more.

   So since our ward is pretty big, we don't get much English help, but it does come around sometimes. It is better than it was before though so that's good.  Unfortunately I have not heard much about Luis or Cendy. Just that they both had to move their baptismal dates down because they weren't ready. Hopefully they'll get there soon. No  newbies to report this week unfortunately, but I feel like this week is we are going to add the world as new investigators! 

   Okay question time!!

1.  My favorite thing about this past week was of course shaking another Apostle's hand!!!! AND seeing my sixth grade teacher!! AND!!!! Taking a pic with the both of them!!!  

    ( I got a call from Taylor's 6th grade teacher early yesterday morning.  He was very excited to tell me that he was in Chula Vista visiting his brother and that he had run into Taylor on Sunday while at Stake Conference where his brother was speaking.  He said Taylor looked great and SUPER happy!  He said he had taken some pictures and would like to bring them over to me when he returned to Utah.  It didn't hit me until after the phone call, that the brother he was visiting was probably Elder D. Todd Christofferson.  Sure enough!)

2.  We were able to teach a lot of people. We saw M**** and a bunch of less actives and recent converts. It was actually a pretty good week.

3.  Our investigators are doing well. J*** our investigator with a baptismal date is doing very well. We actually have an appointment with him tonight and we're going to watch the Joseph Smith movie.    

4.  Transfer Calls are a week from today!

5.  I am not sure what is going to happen to me this one. I do feel like something is going to happen between either me or Elder Sherman though. We probably won't stay together.

6.  I do not really have a preference where I go, if I go. I'll go wherever the Lord needs me.

7.  They actually didn't hold anything special for the missionaries after the stake conference. But that's okay because I still got to Elder Christofferson's hand!!!

8.  I have no idea when the Clayton's homecoming is actually. I will look into it though.

9.  The sisters currently in my district are: Sisters Kolman, Capareda, Aquino, and Fairbourn.

10. Things are actually going pretty good as a district leader. We actually have district meeting tomorrow so that should be fun.

11.  As much as I did love being on a bike, I love the car as well. It's nice not to have to eat so much!!! 

  So that's what's going on this week.  I have to tell you that this week has still been pretty stressful. Remember how you said that I better be careful with medical bills and make sure they get to where they need to be. Well some of them haven't and it has been stressing me.  I can't even call the place to see what's up. Do you want me to just send you it this week? Oh and I have other medical bills that I need to pay so if you could let me know if I have enough money for that it would be great. 

   Other than that, I want you to know that I love you deeply and you mean the world to me.  I love you so much and am grateful for all you do for me.

   Love,

   Elder Taylor C. Davis

WEEK 46

  I am doing great! This week has been pretty cool. We added 4 new investigators this week and saw a lot of miracles.  So you already heard about Y****** and M****, but we also added a dude named M****** and a 14 year old girl named N****.  N**** is a sister of a recent convert we have and she is super nice.  I don't know much about M****** though because we were on exchanges when Elder Sherman added him.

  Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about Luis or anyone but I will continue to ask.  And our temple trip was actually changed, so yep.

 

  We are just going to play sports and have a BBQ for Pday today. 

  Being district leader is fun. It's not as challenging as I thought it would be. But that is probably because of all the prayers. I do appreciate that by the way.  I guess I was a lot more ready than I originally thought.  So what I do as a district leader is: I am in charge of 7 other missionaries (plus myself).  They are all super cool and we actually get along very well.  It is my job to hold district meetings (where we receive instruction and talk about the needs of everybody) every week.  I am in charge of reporting the district's numbers and just leading by example and making sure their needs are being met. I actually enjoy it quite a bit because all it is, is more service. :)  That is all leadership in is in the mission and I love it! :)

  It has been a little annoying because everyone and their dog has been saying that I am getting transferred since I am doing so well. As much as it is nice to receive compliments, I don't like the attention. You know me.  But it is cool that everyone thinks I'm stepping up to the plate, so I must be doing something right. I just hope I can live up to what Heavenly Father wants me to do with this calling. It has already made me a lot better at street contacting and it is super cool.

  Being with Elder Sherman again is great! I love that little kid.  We actually are more unified now than before and we get along really well.  It has been super cool to see the area and try to see everyone.

  That is super cool that Reagan's baptism went so well and her party too! :) They are such a good family!!!

 

  I am glad to hear about Andrew's farewell and that Cody and Gavin sat with you. That's cool.  I always wonder how everyone is back there. Interesting to hear that Cody is putting his papers in.  That is super cool.  I had no idea that Andrew thought that way about me. That is good that he is so happy now and that he chose to serve the Lord. His family is going to be blessed so much!

 

  Oh yeah so guess what!?!? This week I ran into a member in our area and they are Cody Jorgensen's family!!  Super cool!  I walked into their house and they had a pic of Cody on their wall. Super fun!

  So I didn't get my package again last Tuesday!!! But.... I did have it brought to me on Wednesday. Apparently someone put it on the wrong shelf...Again.  But I did get it and I have to say that I am SO grateful for it! It made my week! I love the pants and the shorts and everything! They are the perfect length and all! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that for me. You really are the best mom there is. 

 

  So transfers are coming up again, about 2 weeks from today. Crazy huh?  It will interesting to see what happens because Elder Sherman and I both feel like we won't be together for very long. I am grateful we are together though.

 

  What are the plans for Father's day?  I want to say Happy Father's Day because I won't get to on Sunday. Happy Father's day Dad. You have no idea the influence you have in my life. I am the person I am because you and Mom raised me.  There are a lot of my personal traits that come from you and I am very proud and grateful to be your son. If there was a "Greatest Dad Ever Award", I would not hesitate to award it to you. You are my hero with all of your knowledge and insight. You should be getting something in the mail this week so watch out for it!

   

  Momma, I sure do love the heck out of you!!!! You are such an inspiration to me and I am grateful for the relationship we have. I hope this week is great for you!

 

  Love,

  Elder Taylor C. Davis

WEEK 45

 Elder Davis' tan line from his watch.

 Elder Davis & Elder Fowler

 Elder Davis' new apartment.

 Elder Marin & Cendy (an investigator)

   So this week has been very interesting to say the least.  Remember how my bike got jacked and how I had 2 companions? Remember how I thought for sure that I would be transferred? Remember how you said that you thought I would step up to some type of leadership?

   Well.... Last Thursday, I was ET'd (emergency transferred) to the Chula 4th ward.  Crazy huh!!!!?

    I guess a missionary went home, so President asked me if I could be part of the emergency transfer and take his place.  Of course, I said yes.  

    Just to set the story, we had MTE's (missionary training) on Wednesday and Thursday.  About 20 minutes before MTE's were over on Thursday, President pulled me aside and asked me to stay after so he could talk to me. As you can imagine, alarms are going off in my head and I could not focus for the rest of the meeting.  Well after the meeting he pulled me aside and said that there was an emergency transfer and that someone needed a companion and he felt like I should be the one to be transferred.  Well guess who the person that needs a companion is? Elder Sherman!! Yep the Davis, Shermanator companionship is back baby!!

    About two days after that, President Clayton called us and said that ever since he had put us back together, he felt like I should be the new district leader. So if you could pray for me in that regard, that would be great.  So yep, that's my week.  And now I am in a car and probably will be for a while, so we don't have to worry about the bike for now.  

    I have been super nervous all week.  So I am doing super good this week.  We have gotten a lot of work done and it has been fun to work with Elder Sherman again.

    It's good to hear that you are going to be so blessed with little Kennedy, even if it is going to be super busy.  It's good that work is picking up and getting busy too.  That just means more success for the business and more lives enriched. :)

    Jenny really IS a special person and I am lucky to have gotten to work for her and be around her.  Every time I hear "Temple Spires" it reminds me of my farewell.

    I am not sure about the Mormon Battalion thing. (A celebration we asked about which is being held there this month.)  This is actually the first that I have heard about it.   

   What do I and my companion study in Preach My Gospel?  That is a good question.  So personally, I have actually been reading in chapter 1 as well.  Every morning I read a little bit in Spanish. I have also been studying chapter 2 and 3 a lot as well. It just depends on the day and who we will be teaching. :) 

    About the tri-companionship, it is actually not very different from just a normal pair.  We have to stay together at all times, teaching included.  It's actually kinda fun. But yes sometimes it does feel like we're ganging up on people. Especially with member present lesson.  But it is cool because when all 3 of testify and are unified it makes the spirit that much cooler.  But it is very similar if we were only 2 missionaries. It's just harder to judge when to speak.

 

    So as you can guess, I do not have much to report on investigators in my last area this week.  But we did have a pretty cool experience yesterday.  So we received a referral from another set of missionaries and we went to go contact it. Well, this dude was not interested AT ALL!!!  But we were able to sit down and talk to his mom and her friend.  It was funny because the mom, Y******, said that I had a very pretty face and that she could see God in my face or something to that effect.  But it was cool that we were able to set a return appointment with them and they seem pretty open to the Gospel.

    I love you dearly, as always!!!

    Love, 

    Elder Taylor C. Davis