9/1/09

Hey everyone!
Thank you for all of the birthday emails, they made my day! Yes today is my birthday and I’m glad I can email everyone on my actual birthday, makes it a little more special. To be honest I was dreading my birthday a little and thought it was just going to be a sad day and be no different than the rest. So I was trying hard not to expect much seeing how I don’t know many people yet or know them very well yet, but surprisingly it has been a great day! I washed a lot of my clothes last night so I don’t have to wash so much today, oh and we wash our clothes by hand. Like with soapy water and a scrub board. The old fashioned way ;) We also shower by filling a bucket with cold water and dump in on ourselves in the shower... :) I love life here though. I actually really like washing clothes by hand, it MUCH more effective and CHEAPER :) It just takes a LOT more time, is the only real down side.
Any ways so in the morning my mission president and his wife call me and wish me happy birthday and they were driving to a zone conference of another zone and all the missionaries in the car sang me happy birthday and also sang the Mexico birthday song too! :) PLUS the coolest part was that my best friend here in the mission, Elder Killpack, who I have not heard from or seen in 2 months now, was in the car too going to his zone conference and I got to talk to him for a few minutes! :) It made my morning! Plus there are 180 missionaries in the mission and he called me personally to tell me happy birthday! cool huh?
Then we went to district meeting and it is my birthday and it’s the birthday of one of the sisters in our district, so after the meeting we had cake and it was fun. They made us take the biggest bite out of the cake that me could and then shoved our faces in it! I have pictures and a video of it all. I am going to try and send a picture of it home. So also someone in the sister’s ward made a piñata! The best part was that it was Michael Jackson with the silver glove and ALL! I laughed so hard! I’ll send a picture home of that too! :) We then played a little basketball and it was a lot of fun, we have 8 people in our district by the way. Then my comp and I came back to little Meoqui and cooked hamburgers and drank IBC root beer! It doesn’t exist here in Mexico but someone brought it back from the states and sells it in their little shop. Today has been a good day, especially since I did not expect much. I’m glad it’s a p-day though, so it was at least a little different, you know?
So this week as a whole has been pretty good. We still have loads of work to do and have been diligent, but of course we can step it up. Oh and we spoke in church on Sunday again. We speak twice a month here so that is good. I have really come to enjoy speaking to be honest. I always learn a lot and I love being able to share a message with everyone. Plus I’m not really nervous anymore before or during. It’s becoming a more normal thing. And of course I learn lots of Spanish in the midst of it all too :) Oh I spoke about family prayer this week and how amazing it is!
So sorry, but I’m not going to tell the Paula story today... it’s been a little bumpy this past week and so I’m going to wait till it has a good ending to tell it. Sorry!
Oh and when we were teaching two of our investigators at the entrance to Meoqui. It’s a road that comes in and everyone sells things on the side of the road. And so we are teaching two of them and there is an ex-bishop of a ward over in Delicaias that works there too. So his daughter and the ex-bishop, stops by and she has a non member friend and we contact her and what not, and then it turns out the daughter lives in CA and is visiting and went home yesterday. So she asked me if I have any letters I want to give her to send and she can send them from the states, which is WAY faster and for my home telephone number and she is going to call you mom and ask if you want to send anything to me and that you can send it to her and she will bring it to me in October when she is coming to visit again. You can send something to her if you would like to, she seems reliable. But just expect a call from someone who does not speak too much English - ha-ha :) So I was able to send a letter off to home and to Larissa through her and I feel like they should get there real quick, but who knows. It was great luck and she is a very nice lady! She drove all the way from Delicas to Meoqui to get the letters from me to send! :)
So we have had a few more meetings with the bishop to be discuss working together and really helping the ward grow and such and then at the end of our 2 hour meeting, he tells us that next week he is leaving to Monterrey!.... so we think the old bishop is going to be bishop again because there is no one else, but who knows, I guess we are going to have to wait and see this week. But we have organized the priesthood quorums and got quorum leaders called and all and have a list of all the calling holes we need to fill. So we will go little by little reactivating people and baptizing people to fill the holes and get the ward going real strong.
Oh so I also am officially an English teacher... ha-ha! I teach English classes every week and we made flyers and all and have them posted all over town. We only have like 14 people in the class but a lot of people are interested and it gets people out to the church and allows them to get to know the members and such. It’s been really successful so far and since I just learned Spanish I just use all the games and activities we did, but in English. It’s a lot of fun and the kids call me professor which is funny to me :) We have started a weekly English class, mutual activity, and a monthly ward family home evening and cooking class! It’s been fun to be honest! I love working with the ward to such a great extent, it’s been really rewarding to say the least. :)
My companion and I have been getting along really well! We work together really well and have been really unified in teaching! It’s just great to have a companion who wants to be obedient as well. The last two were so difficult so it’s nice to have a good chill companion!
So Edwin Huerta was baptized this week. Aida and Javier Hinjos didn’t because Javier had to leave for work this past weekend and so we are going to have their baptisms this coming week so we are stoked for that!
We also have been working a lot with Edwin’s mom who WAS a less active and we have really become friends with her. We are even starting to put goals for her to enter the temple and get sealed to her husband, who died a year ago, and to her 3 kids. Well only 2 are members but we are working with her other 22 year old son to get baptized right now. She is a lot of fun and WAY happy and I love feeling like such a part of the family. We are actually going to their house at like 7 to have an appt with her son and she said she was going to make something for my birthday! :) She was the only one to offer something, but I’m excited!
WOW! So my zone leader just called me and I have to teach in zone conference this Thursday! Only 6 people teach and they are the zone leader, the 3 district leaders, the assistant to the president, and ME.... cool huh? It’s the conference with the mission president and his wife and the assistants and ALL. I’m really excited and nervous! I know I will learn a lot from the experience so I’m excited! I’ll be sure to tell you how it goes.... :)
So that is about all of this week! All goes well and I LOVE being here and love the work! Oh and thank you Danielle for the package! I love it! I have not gotten anything else from others yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I do! :)
Love you so much, the gospel is true and if we LIVE it, it will change our life!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Andrew Davidson