April 14th

4/14/09
Happy Easter!
I just wanted to say that because Easter is not celebrated here, I didn’t even remember it was Easter until I got a package from mom! It really made my day, so thanks mom! The Catholics do a little thing on Friday for the death of Christ, but that is about it. Oh and thank you Zavorals for the letters too, I really enjoyed hearing from you. My Easter was a crazy day though, we had two baptismal services. SO we had a TON going on! Because we have to do everything for the service and plan it all and figure everything out, so two in one day was a lot. But we had 6 baptisms this transfer, so that is awesome. We actually lead the entire Zone in baptisms, so that was cool. Oh and our Zone reached its 30 baptisms for the transfer goal. Oh and I did not change areas and my companion didn’t either, so that is really exciting because we have a lot going for us right now with all our investigators and such. It would be awesome to get another 6 baptisms! Everything here has been going great and I really love my companion a lot. We can really talk a lot now because Spanish is really coming along. I can almost always try to say what I’m trying to say and I really understand a ton now! Obviously there are a lot of things I do not know the vocab. for, but I really can talk a ton now and everyone says my pronunciation is really good, so that is exciting. I have been a little sick the past 3 days, so that is sad, but I fell much better right now and last night was the only time I was really sick, but I have been much better today!
So in conference many of the speakers talked a lot about the joy that can and will come into our lives when we live the principles of the gospel. And it has been absolutely amazing to see how much people’s lives can change! Families together are a rare thing to see here and so it is really obvious when someone really has the gospel in their lives. I mentioned Priscilla last week and how drastically her life has been changed. But there are a lot of problems with the husband leaving and so when a family comes together and is happy again because of the gospel, it is amazing to see. I don’t feel like I am explaining this very well, so here is an example. The other day we were talking to one of our investigators and she was really upset because her sister was being abused by her husband and so we were trying to help her and teach her about the life changing power the gospel has. Then my companion, for the first time in 6 weeks, shared a really person story about his conversion. Before his family joined the church, his parents had a ton of problems and the fought a ton and the dad became an alcoholic and so his mom kicked him out of the house and he went to live on the street. Oh and half his family was catholic and the other half was Jehovah Witnesses. My companion was 14 at the time. Then they learned about the Gospel through the missionaries and they all joined the church. His dad changed completely and his parents moved back together and his family is very very active in the church and they are now extremely happy. There is obviously a lot more to the story, but I don’t want to say too much about it. It was just amazing to see the life changing and family saving power of the gospel. My companion is a very powerful missionary and hearing about this really helped me to learn why. The gospel saved his family and completely changed his life and he is such a strong personal witness of power of the gospel. I love having the opportunity to help people and literally help them completely change their lives! We are at the crappy internet place again so it’s hard to type much, so sorry.
Oh so a few random things about Mexico, I don’t remember if I said this already, but Hollister clothes and Puma shoes are the COOLEST thing here. Haha it’s so funny, because everyone who wants to be cool wears it, and it’s just funny because most times it like California in bold letters across the front and I’m like hey, I live there. But there are a lot of knock off brands here so I could get you like 4 Hollister shirts for 20 bucks! Oh and I’m still the only blonde is Juarez, I have still yet to see another. And I have been asking the other Mexican missionaries if they have seen blonde haired people before, and for some, I’m the first they have ever seen in their life! I think that is so funny.. Oh and our zone had an activity that all of us missionaries participated together (there is about 24 missionaries in out zone) and so we had this whole little skit and I was the angel in the skit because I’m tall, white, and blonde! haha It was fun!! . With the exception of a little food poisoning yesterday, it has been a really good week. I love being a missionary and I love that I get to serve here in Mexico! It has been an amazing experience so far and I’m so excited for the next 20 months! I love you all and miss you so very much!
Love,Elder Andrew Davidson