12/29/09

Hey everyone!

So this week was a crazy one that was a lot different than any other week in the mission! With Christmas, the phone call home, and the mission Christmas conference it made for a great week!

So I have so much to tell you all and do not know where to start....

So the week went by quick and we now have a new investigator named Rosy and her parents Manuel and Damariz. Rosy is great and is reading the Book of Mormon and is definitely one of the chosen ones that God has been preparing! I contacted her in the flea market when we put up the table and all and she is progressing a lot. The down side is that she is a girl and is 22 years old.... which makes it hard to be really concerned and really be a part of her life because it looks bad and you always have to be careful in those kinds of situations. Whereas with Chewy he is a guy and we have become great friends and all and we don’t have to always be reserved with him to not send the wrong message. You know? But she is great and way excited and I really feel like she will be baptized soon :) Her family listens to us sometimes but they are not that interested. They do not reject us by any means, but they are not supportive of Rosy’s desire to keep learning and going to church and all. It’s the first week so we will see how it goes this week.

Veronica is great and we are continuing teaching her and her two daughters, but she struggles to understand the importance of being at church on Sunday. She does not like to be in front of a lot of people so she struggles to come church. We continue helping her though so we will see how it goes. Her daughters are why crazy too by the way! Ha-ha

Also some recent converts, the Salas family, have struggle a bit recently. Their grandma has become anti Mormon, not sure why, and she has been manipulating their kids and such. We worry a lot about them and are doing all we can to help them out. I imagined having close family members attack me about the church and I realized it would be SO hard. I am so grateful that all of my close family members are members of the church and for all the support they give!

So Christmas Eve, which is the big day here, was okay. My comp made his call home and then we just made Christmas treats in the house and relaxed. We had to be home at 8pm so there was not time to go eat with anyone and such. I was okay with it though, I’m not here to be at parties and such, I only have two years to work so I know I have to make the most of it. Well.... I guess I now only have 1 year! Crazy how fast time flies!

The on Christmas day we opened gifts and I called home. It was great to have gifts and all, but I missed the family a bit. It’s not the gifts that make Christmas “Christmas”, it’s the family and time spent together that counts. The phone call home was great and very uplifting! The rest of the day we finished making 84 caramel popcorn balls and then delivered them to the members and investigators on plates of about 4-5 each. We shared a little message with them and invited them to church and all. It was fun and I’m glad I was able to spend Christmas in the service of others. Life is never too great or happy if you just think about yourself, so it was a good Christmas.

Then yesterday we had the mission Christmas conference! It was great and it was the first time I saw the mission president playing around and such in the whole mission! He is a very efficient person so it was cool to relax a bit. I was not too into all of the festivities and all but I really enjoyed talking to everyone because there were 90 missionaries there from 3 zones. Also the best part was that my buddy Elder Killpack was there and we talked a lot. He is a great missionary and I look up to him a lot. I also received packages from mom, grandma, and the Zavoral family! Thanks so much! I love all of the love and support you give me!

Now we are back to the work and going at it again! I’m excited for all I know I will learn in the coming year and all that I was able to learn this past year! I know the gospel is true and it brings us happiness!

Love you all so much!

Elder Andrew Davidson

12/22/09

Hey everyone!

Merry Christmas! :)

I hope everyone is able to have an amazing Christmas and all goes well! This week I got the package you sent me mom and also an AMAZING package from the Mason family!!! Thank you so much Jill and Shawn for all you sent and I have yet to open the wrapped gifts but I shared all the treats you sent! Thanks! :) Also, we listen to the CD a lot!

So it’s crazy to think that its Christmas already and that I get to call home! I’m way excited, but things around here have not been too different to be honest. Christmas is not as big of deal here as it is the U.S. Everyone has a little party on the 24th, but there is not as much excitement about Christmas. It is weird to me. Everyone says that the New Year is what people celebrate more so we will see. Meoqui put up a big Christmas tree and there are several holiday decorations around the city and on the houses. I feel like it does not feel like Christmas because nothing much has changed in my daily life. You know? I just keep on working each day and serving people. :)

But I am looking forward to the phone call home and on the 28th we have a mission conference for Christmas. So I’m way excited more than anything to see my buddy Elder Killpack who has been my best friend here in the field. He was in the MTC with me and we write and were in the same district my first 3 months in Mexico. Oh and I have lots of gifts to open on Christmas morning and that should be fun too!

These past 2 weeks have been great because I feel like I am progressing so much personally here in the mission. I have talked to my leaders a lot and today my zone leader gave me this big "future leader" talk. It was nice of him and I am glad he sees potential in me. I have been trying so hard to put my talents in the hands of the Lord and have him make the most of them. Obviously humility is a big part of it and I have been trying really hard to be much more humble in all I do. In listening to people and really taking advice well and staying patient in all things. It’s been a good growing experience and I have a LONG way to go. I have learned a ton, but I feel like the Lord has much more in store for me :) As humans we are a very prideful people and we struggle to really rely on the Lord in all we do. This is a lesson the Book of Mormon teaches us and it also teaches us how much the Lord wants to bless us if only we stay humble.. Obviously it’s a life goal and one that is hard to achieve, but that does not mean I shouldn’t try as hard as I can to be all He needs me to be while I learn. After all, we are commanded to be perfect. Which to means we better try our best and as we fall short, as we always will, The Lord will make up for the rest :) I hope to stay on this learning curve and allow the Lord to teach me all He needs to. Sorry if I don’t make sense, I’m still a junior in all of this and am learning how to put it all in play, but it’s been a good learning experience. :) I would not trade this mission experience for anything! I know as we allow the Lord to take hold of our lives we can and WILL soar to new heights we could have never imagined we could achieve!

So this week has been another successful week and we have met a number of new investigators thanks to the activities we have done at the flea market these past two weeks. We have improved the way we teach a great deal and we hope to keep improving a lot.

Chewy is great and we are talking to the bishop about having him called as the young men’s president for the ward! :) Obviously I’m very proud of him and he has progressed a lot. Sometime he can be a prideful person and so he does not progress as much as he could sometimes, but I too was a prideful person so I’m not one to talk. We just do our best to help him all we can! :)

Sorry I am not able to include more details this week, I was watching the videos my mom sent me for Christmas and I have had little time to write. It was weird to see pictures of the house and realize how blessed we have been and how blessed I have been. How lucky I am to have the mom I have had to teach me so much, how lucky I am to have a dad who really cares about and loves his kids, for my brothers who should be more grateful sometimes, and my amazing example for a sister I have! I need to thank the Lord much more than I feel like I do for all the blessing I have received and our receiving! It’s crazy to me how much the lord loves us! :)

I love you all so much and thank you for all the love and support you give me! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and all goes perfectly!

CON MUCHO AMOR

Elder Andrew Davidson

12/15/09

Hey everyone!

SO today I have to organize pictures to send home so I do not have much time, but I have had a very eventful week to say the least!

So this week we taught more lessons that I have in my WHOLE mission! We stayed really diligent all 7 days of the week and we did not have to go to Chihuahua so we accomplished a lot! We taught 94 lessons! :) And that does not include all of the super short conversations we have with people daily when we are teaching. Part of the reason we were able to teach so much is because we had a little activity on Saturday that my comp and I put together. Well actually we had 2 activities on Saturday. First in the morning we went to "las segundas" which is like a flea market where people sell second hand goods. Meoqui does not have a very big one obviously because its not a very big town, but we put up a table with lots of pictures and pamphlets and such and contacted people. Chewy came with us and it was so great to have him there! He is a convert of 2 months and already is sharing the gospel with all of his friends. Obviously he was nervous in front of lots of people, but he got used to it and was contacting and teaching on his own after a little while! :) I admire him a lot because I was always too nervous to share the gospel much with my friends and he is changing his whole life with the gospel! Seeing him progress is the happiest thing I have experienced in my life! :) We met and talked to a lot of people and found a few new people to teach. I love the mission! The activity was a lot of fun! Then that same night we had a FHE for the ward and had Chewy lead the activity and the members filled all of the roles and we were there to just participate and help the people progress. A good number of people ended up coming and we made a giant bucket of Carmel popcorn to eat at the end too. :)

On Sunday we had to both give talks and because of all the activities and such I had not prepared anything to speak on. But I was reading the book of Helaman the other day and I loved how the lord told Samuel the Lamanite to just go and speak and that he would put the words into his heart that he needed to say and not to worry much. So I studied a bit in the morning and prayed a lot to have the words come to my heart that I needed to share with the ward. I also tried to share a lot of stories too because the best talks always have a lot of stories and I am a good story teller. The talk went great and I spoke about love and missionary work and sharing the gospel. I gave the best talk I have ever given in my life and I was very relieved about it. I realized that God really will help us, IF we ask for it and stay humble. I realize it was not my own talents that allowed me to speak with clarity, but the Lord’s and he allowed me to be an instrument in his hands. :)

Today I also had to teach in district meeting and did the same thing! :) I prayed so much to help me be humble and to have the words come into my heart. To have the ability to stay relaxed and share what I had planned. My leader told me on Sunday night that I was to teach so there was not much time to study, but I did all I could and left the rest up to the Lord. If you remember the last time I taught I was very unpleased with the job I did so I really was hoping to improve this time around. THEN today I felt I gave a good lesson! It was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be and once again I had to just kneel down and thank the lord for making me more than I am and giving me the ability to teach and help the missionaries’ progress. Especially seeing how I was to speak on the law of chastity! ha-ha! It went great and there was a great discussion going. The best lessons are when it’s more of a group conversation than one person just speaking to everyone. I was excited after and pleased I was finally able to do a really good job. The trick is to stay SUPER humble and allow the lord to magnify your talents :) The mission is the greatest learning experience I have ever had! I am SO grateful to be here!

Oh and this week we had ward council and our bishop is stepping up a lot. We had our meeting with him this week and we figured out a lot of the things we need to get done. We do a lot if not ALL of the work the bishop should be doing during the week and we need to help him step up and fill his role and leader. We are going to visit several families this week with him so that is exciting and I hope we are able to help a lot.

It’s crazy to think Christmas is so close! There is not too much going on here, but the city did put up a big Christmas tree so that was cool and we took a few pictures in front of it. We are going to have conference with the lower half of the mission sometime soon, but I’m not sure when, so we will see how that goes. All is well here and we continue to work hard! I love the work and the time I have to be here in the mission, I would not trade it for the world!

Love you all so much and I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!

Elder Andrew Davidson

12/08/09

Hey!

So wow its Christmas time already! It’s crazy to me how fast time is going by! This week I do not have much time like normal so I’m sorry if this is a little short...

This week was a little tougher to be honest and we have faced a lot more persecution this week. The people here have been struggling a lot and have not accepted us too well these past two weeks. During the week we were really able to help a lot of people out and I felt like we are making a difference... but then not many people come to church and it’s really sad. We just have to continue onward and do our best to help Meoqui progress. Meoqui has taught me a lot of patience and that we must always have the attitude of service!

So I wrote a number of letters and made some packages, but the mission president is not going to send them for another while... so I’m sorry if they do not get there before Christmas. We have to go to Chihuahua again next week so they can put on my final crown (the last one broke) and so I will try to send a few more things out as well. Sorry to everyone if I am not able to write as much as I would like too; I am going to try and get on that.

I have been re-doing all of my lesson outlines and really trying to include lots of questions and such. It’s been great to see such a difference in the way we have been able to teach. I have really been focusing on my ability to teach as of recently and it has been of great help. Teaching is a wonderful talent I really hope to develop more completely here in the mission.

SO it has been WAY cold here! It even snowed a little bit here this past week and snowed an inch in Juarez! I thought I was supposed to be in Mexico! Why is it cold!? Ha ha

So this past week we went to Chihuahua again and we got to ride with the mission president and his wife and it was a lot of fun to talk to them for an hour. They are great and I really enjoy talking to hna Flores and hearing all the stories she would share. She told me how she would interview her son’s girlfriends and scare some of them off if she did not like them! Ha Ha I thought it was great! ;)

I KNOW the gospel is true and all of the trials we have had here really help me to realize how strong of testimony I really do have. There are not many members here and we have to help them a lot to stay strong. There have also been a lot more people mocking us recently and it’s been great to realize how much I have grown and how patient I have been and how unbothered I am. I am here to testify of the truth; if people do not want to accept the message God has then that is their choice. All I know is that I need to do my part and do all I can to help them progress. They are ALL children of God. I KNOW the gospel is true and that we are blessed for all of the sacrifices we give, I know it!

I love the work and continue to learn a ton!

I love Spanish and now have an American leader. We speak English more and I now can speak English better,:) I’m learning to be able to speak both languages together so I’m happy about that.

One of the great blessing we have among all the trials we are experiencing is the spiritual growth in Chewy. He is GREAT and continues to prepare himself for the mission.

Sorry to not write more details... I just do not want to say negative things, it does not help anything. We are here to struggle, learn, and continue onward!

I love you all and thank you so much for all of the love and support!

Love Elder Andrew Davidson

12/2/09

Hey everyone!

So this week went by real fast like normal and like always there were lots of exciting experiences! Crazy to think its December already and that I have been out for 11 months! CRAZY how fast time has gone by! It’s also great to think about how much I have learned and grown in the past 11 months as well! It’s weird to think Christmas is already coming... I forget most of the time that Christmas is soon because people are not doing anything different and most people haven’t put up decorations yet. It’s also a little sad because I am not going to be able to really send anything to people for Christmas. There is not much to buy here to send to you and plus I don’t have money... SORRY! I’m going to try and get some letters written this week, but the mission president asked us to write lesson outlines, different than the ones we have written, and have them done for interviews next week.... so it’s a lot to do. Plus I have my own personal and study journals I need to write in so I have a lot to write each day. But with some diligence I can get it all done in the little time we have. But not having a p-day these past 2 months because of the dentist thing has made it a little harder as well. But I love you all and pray for you! That’s what counts, right? ;)

So we have this investigator, Veronica, who I mentioned last week. So she has read the whole BOM already and is reading the index and all! Its great! We taught her about the word of wisdom the other day and she was all upset because she has an addiction to coffee but she is already making the changes. BUT the BEST part is that she goes around town telling people that technically she is catholic, but that she is reading the Book of Mormon and it's changing her life! She goes and tells everyone and shares the book with them! How cool is that! We are teaching a less active who has a bike shop and she passed by and just started telling him about all of the B.O.M and such and how great it is and it helped him a lot to hear about the power of the book of Mormon and how it can change your life. It is great!:)

So the stake president of our stake gave a presentation during ward conference and it was so well done! He is a convert of 5 years and his second calling was bishop and his third was stake president! He is way humble and ready to serve! He spoke about how bad Chihuahua has gotten with violence and all and how we need to act and be leaders and stop blaming the government for everything. He helped everyone to see the need to ACT and really make a difference. But he showed a few numbers comparing violence and Chihuahua has some of the highest rates in the world! By a lot! The state of Chihuahua kills so many people and we are only below South Africa, El Salvador, and Venezuela, but we are HIGHER than Colombia! CRAZY! The numbers are all in comparison to the number of people in the state, but it was very eye opening. Chihuahua is the worst in Mexico by far and one of the worst in the world and is in the top three for most of the numbers!

Wow!! Don’t worry though; I’m a servant of the Lord! :) We are safe as we are obedient! :)

Oh and they finally called a bishop in our ward! SO that is exciting and we hope to work with him in trying to generate more activity in Meoqui.

Anyways, the work goes well! Sorry I do not have more time to write today!

Love you! Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder Andrew Davidson

11/25/09
Hey everyone!
So another weeks gone by and it’s already Thanksgiving. Well in the states it is... here people do not even know the holiday exists! I had actually forgotten about the day until today when everyone wrote me about it!
So I do not have too much time to write because I was looking at the pictures mom sent me, but this week was a little less eventful.
So we have this new investigator, Veronica, who is hilarious! She is a little hyper active and so she has a hard time listening to someone speaking, but she loves to read. So we gave hear a Book of Mormon the other day, like 10 days ago, and turns out she read the WHOLE thing! She had the book covered and bought a leather case to put it in! She loves the book! Veronica has read the bible a little before, but she stayed up till 11pm reading the book and then gets up at 3AM to read more! She is so funny about it and her testimony is so pure. She raves and raves about how much peace the book brings to her and how it is SO clear and makes her feel so much love. She loves the short story of Joseph Smith that is at the front of the book and has read it like 15 times she says. It’s funny as she tries to explain how she feels about it to us and talks about how different this book is and how the words go to her heart and she struggles to explain it and then asks us a lot, "do you know what I mean??" ha-ha and we are like YES we know what you mean! She is great and I’ll let you know how things continue to go with her. She is 39 and has a family of 4 so we hope to see the whole family at church :)
OH side note... so Veronica tells us that when the Jehovah witnesses came to talk to her, her daughter took the water for the dogs and dumped it on them! They come and try to make you feel dumb and teach you that you are wrong, so the daughter wanted to defend her mom and poured water on them! This happened a while ago and Veronica says she daughter likes us so we don’t need to worry! The way she told the whole story was great! :)
So for another quick story, we contacted a 7th day Adventist, Alberto Olgin, a little while back and his family lives far away. So this last Friday we ride like 30 min to go visit him in the little town next to Meoqui and it turns out he knows a ton about the bible. He has not been going to his church for like a month because they say that God, Christ and the Holy Ghost are all the same and if you read the bible that’s OBVIOUSLY not true, they are three separate beings. So he is way smart and educated and when we talked the first time he was just talking about how wrong the Catholic Church is for like 20 min… It was funny! But we talked a little about the restoration and he did not have too much time and we had to come back this past Monday. SO we get there and he is nice and all and I had studied the bible during the past 3 days so I would be ready for his questions :) So we start talking and all and he gets all stuck on a few points and I teach him from the bible and he changes the interpretation of the scripture a lot. He understands very well that God has called prophets in past times and that there is a NEED for a restoration and that there was a great apostasy, it is all taught in the bible. But he was stuck on Joseph Smith seeing God, so I showed him Exodus 33:11, and he says that Moses made an error and who knows what. Then I showed him the other 4 scriptures that say the same and he gets frustrated, which is bad because we are not there to argue with him. The spirit of contention helps nothing. When he realized we were firm in what we know to be true, he asked to end with a prayer. Then he said a great prayer that was EXACTLY how we pray! We ended on great terms and talked a lot and he had quite a few random questions about the church and us so I was glad we were able to plant the seed and allow him to see the differences. That we are NOT just another church NOR an American church, but the church that has existed since Adam. It is God’s church. It was a good experience and we made another friend. :) The coolest part is that he is the house keeper for a mansion! So we were able to wonder around for a while at the mansion.
Thank you mom for the package and Larissa for the bible and wonderful letters and also to Grandma Davidson for the letter and thanks Brie for the letter too! :) Your support is amazing!
The work is amazing and I love the chance I have here to grow and learn so much! I love the Lord and know the gospel is true!

Love

Elder Andrew Davidson

11/18/09

Hey everyone!

SO another week has gone by already! It has been a tougher week to be honest, but that means I learned more so that is always the upside :)

So right now I am actually in Chihuahua... again... for the whole root canal thing. The people who had to make my post for my tooth messed up twice so that is part of the reason why I have kept coming back for so long.

The weird part is how much money there is in the state of Chihuahua. There is a bigger town close to us in Meoqui called Delicais and it has a lot of money. There are a lot of rich people and a lot of nice building with lots of technology, and I was confused about where all this money comes from because the city of Chihuahua has a lot of money too. But every time I ask anyone where all the money comes from and what Chihuahua does to bring in so much money and everyone says it’s from drug trafficking.... I think it’s kind of funny because Chihuahua is actually a really nice city.

So this Sunday I had to give a talk and I prayed to find out what I needed to speak about and the spirit indicated I was to speak about repentance, so I studied the topic a bit and learned a lot and then as I walked to the front of the pulpit on Sunday I felt prompted by the spirit to change my topic to keeping the Sabbath day holy... It turned out real well and I learned a lot from the whole experience. The talk went well and I felt really good speaking, I have gotten rid of my nerves when I speak at church. Well not all... I still get a little of the "pre game gitters" but that’s it.

BUT... that was not the same case with zone conference.... We had zone conference on Monday and the mission president asked me to teach at zone conference on Sunday morning before. We had to be ready to leave at 4:45am on Monday so I only had Sunday night to prepare. I felt really good about it and had it all planned out and all, but I felt nervous during the whole presentation to be honest. People said I didn't show it too much, but I felt weird. I have never been nervous like that before. I had to teach for 10 minutes and then have the zone practice for 20 minutes. Its only 30 minutes and I had it all ready, but my nerves got me more than I had planned.... In the end it turned out okay and I was grateful for the chance to learn. All though it was really tough, the experience made me stretch a LOT plus remember I had to do it all in another language... ha-ha :)

The cool part of the conference was that it was in Parral, which is the very bottom of the state. We had to drive 3 hours with 17 people in a van made for 12... It was fun and I got to meet a lot of other missionaries. Plus on the way home I was able to sit in front for a while and I had a really good one on one talk with President Flores. I’m REALLY grateful to have such a great mission president. He is really focused and we work so hard. A lot of elders are sad because we don’t do lots of side activities and recreational things, like going to sporting events or site-seeing, but I love that we have very little time wasted. We ONLY have 2 years, we can do want WE want our whole lives. But for now, the least we can do is what the Lord wants. President Flores is a very efficient mission president. That is why we can baptize 200 people in a month, we don’t waste time. And I love it this way and it’s really pushed me and to focus on what I am doing.

OH and another positive note! We baptized Jazmin AND Chumel this week! And we had the best baptismal service I have had in the mission! :) We had Jazmin all ready to go and I told you about her last week. But Chumel was an un-expected baptism. We have been preparing him for the last 3 months and he has been ready, but he allows other people to influence his decisions and so he was delaying his baptism. We wanted to help him set a baptismal date this week, but when we were teaching I felt really inspired by the lord to teach about the plan of salvation, something he already knows really well, and then after I tied in the part of how we cannot make it back the Gods presence without baptism and flat out told him that Gods loves him and wants him, Chumel, to be as happy as he can. That is why the missionaries were there and that God wants him to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong and my comp was surprised, but I KNOW he felt the spirit and accepted the invitation. He was baptized 2 days later :) I also baptized him so obviously that made it a lot more special. He was way ready and will be an amazing missionary someday as he is still a young man. Also his mom is now active and excited to be at church after YEARS of not wanting anything with the church. I think I mentioned something about her last week. She was WAY excited to see her son baptized after being so against it for so long. It really helped me to realize the power of our calling and that we are here to speak for Jesus Christ and tell people what Christ himself desires to tell them. Obviously guided by the spirit, we can teach with authority as God says we can. A MTC teacher taught me this principle in the MTC but since being here I forgot a little about it and the whole experience was a big testimony builder for me. It is important to truly know that the spirit can and will work through the missionaries. We are not just another church, nor are we competing against anyone. We are part of the church of God, he is on our side. If we call on his power he will respond, I know it. I have seen it. I LOVE the work!

So as I mentioned last week we had a lot of member support during the baptismal service. It was great! People brought food and we had people to give talks and direct and all. It was amazing to be there and I was SO very happy! One of the happiest times of my life once again. There is no joy like the joy of sharing the gospel, and the happiness it brings, with people we love! :) I love the work and would not trade the experiences I am having for anything! There is no way to learn what a missionary can learn in the mission field without living the experience, it’s a life changing experience. Learning how to forget myself and put myself in the service of others is the best thing I have ever done and will never regret the 2 short years I got to give for all I have learned.

So although we have been blessed immensely over these past few weeks, we have struggled with the current ward leader. He is not the bishop as we don’t have a bishop yet, but the stake president has put him in charge and he was the bishop for 7 years more than three years ago and the reason a LOT of the members had become less active. He can be prideful sometimes and struggles to let other participate in things and just does things how he wants. It’s been tough because we HAVE to work with him, there is no other way. We have done all we can to be really respectful and have a friendship with him, which we do. But he wants everything his way and when it comes to the work he does not confide in us. It’s hard because we do all the work and are the ones helping everyone so I don’t understand how he cannot trust us. Who knows.... I feel like he had a bad experience with missionaries in the past. I guess that means we need to serve him more and pray more. The Lord can soften his heart, I’m sure of it. Sorry to babble about it, it’s one of our current challenges.

So we don’t have much time left and I feel like I have written a lot. But today when we were in the mission offices some American missionaries who have only been in Mexico for 2 months were there because they had to go get their finger prints done and such to get the whole visa thing figured out, like I did a few months ago. It was funny to see them and hear their conversations and see how nervous and unsure they were. It brought back funny memories because I was in the same spot 6 months ago! It made me so happy to be able to speak Spanish without doubting myself anymore. It was fun to remember how far I have some. I was talking to Elder Anderson, who is from my district in the MTC, he works in the offices, and we talked a lot about how far we have come in the mission and about a few other missionaries from our group. I was glad to help them out a bit and translate for the Spanish elders a little bit.

Oh and about the whole Christmas thing... ha-ha, if you want to send me something just make sure it gets to the El Paso address by the 15th of Dec. If it gets there a little late I feel like it will be okay, but just to be sure the 15th is great. Sorry I am not able to send more stuff to everyone... I don’t really have money or the ability to go buy cool stuff to send. I’ll try to look for stuff though. Oh and half of the mission is going to sing at some big event here in Chihuahua on the 19th of December so I’m excited for that! We are going to sing “Called to Serve” and the "We have been born as Nephites of Old". Obviously in Spanish!

I love the work and thanks for all the help and support! Oh side note, the mission president has not gone to Texas in 3 weeks so none of my letters have been sent yet, so sorry everyone who has not received letters from me.

LOVE you all!!!

Elder Andrew Davidson

November 10th 2009

11/10/09

Hey everyone!

So this week there was transfer changes in the mission, I didn’t change areas but a lot of the missionaries in my district and zone did. A lot of cool Elders came into our district so I’m excited to see how things go. We have a lot going for us right now in Meoqui so I’m glad I did not change. We are headed to Chihuahua today so I will get to see the sheet that has all the changes on it :)

This week was a great one! Because of the activity we did at the cemetery last week we taught a TON of lessons this week... like 75 between the lessons with members and the less actives taught. One of my best weeks, we worked hard! :)

So we are going to baptize this week! :) We are going to baptize Jazmin, who is the fiend of a family of members, the Saenz family. The father of the family is not a member so it’s been good to work with them a lot and help him understand a little more. But Jazmin already has friends in the church and although her parents are not members they are going to come to church and to the baptism. Also the all of the Saenz family are going to be there so the dad will get to be there too. Richy, a member of the Saenz family is getting ready to go on a mission and he will baptize her. Also the members are really stepping up and are helping us out this time. There are 3 sisters bringing refreshments and others giving talks and people to lead music and all. The best baptisms are when we help to organize and assign bits to everyone, but when we don’t have to do much at the actual baptism. That way it’s more of a baptism for the ward and not for the missionaries. She is great and continues to progress and read the scriptures and pray! :) She will stay strong in the church.

So Sunday was great! I love watching Chewy bless the sacrament and Edwin pass it! :) Seeing them at church in white shirts and ties using their priesthood was wonderful. I feel like they are my sons. Their mom, Margarita is still less active.... but we have become GREAT friends with her and she is going to drop her job that makes her work on Sunday this week and says she is going to invite us over to eat a lot. I just want her to support her family. Oh and I found out that Margarita has cancer and has little time to live. Just a few years! Plus their dad just died last year from cancer! Edwin is only 12 years old! He will be 13 and without parents... that would be hard. But their sister lives in the States, in AZ. SO they might go live with her, which would be awesome because then they are closer to my home in Livermore. We will be lifelong friends and I will for sure be at their mission farewells and weddings and when they enter the temple! :) I literally love them like brothers!

So side note... people in Mexico eat cow utter.... yeah! People eat a lot of the parts of the cow I did not know about and I have tried it all. To be honest it usually tastes good. Like cow heart, tongue, and brain are not that bad to be honest. Just weird to know you are eating it. But I joke with the family I saw eating it the other day and they say they are going to get me some... ha-ha! I’m excited to try it! :)

So, one of our investigators, Natividad, told us the greatest story the other day. She does not know how to read or write as she has never gone to school. But it’s not all bad because she pays a lot of attention to her feelings and thoughts and has felt the spirit and has a strong testimony. We just have to go over to read to her and such. So she tells us the story of some JW (Jehovah Witnesses) that knocked on her door. The JW here like to knock on your door, ask you to take out your bible, and then teach you how bad and crappy your religion is and how right they are. So Nati defends herself and says “well I’m part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” while they are trying to tell her stuff. SO then they say that her church does not work and is wrong, Nati tells them that their church is wrong and that she KNOWS that the LDS church is true and to go away! I loved it! She is SO humble and does not know much but she has felt the spirit so strongly and when God tells us something we can NEVER deny it. She told us the whole story all excited and frustrated. It was a big deal for her. I’m happy for her. :) She has taught me about humility and reliance on the lord every time we visit her. The only down side is that she is not married and is old, like 60, and does not have any legal information to get married...

So I lost our cell phone... which sucks because it’s a big hassle to call people and its cost a lot when I have to call my leaders at night. So the guy who found my phone lives in Julimes which is like an hour away, but part of our area. He wants money for the phone and says we have to come out there to get it. I think we will go on Thursday so I’ll let you know how it goes...

Oh and the other day we ate sugar cane, Pure sugar cane! It’s a tradition here during Nov 1 and 2 for the Day of the Dead and they sell the cane whole and you have to peel it. You then chew the cane for a while and suck out all the juice and then spit out the rest. It’s REALLY sweet, obviously, but I don’t like the after taste or that I have to spit the shell part out after. It’s cheap though so that is cool. I made friends at the activity we did last week and they gave me some for free. I was too cheap to buy some!

Yesterday we had the greatest FHE ever! :) Every Monday we have FHE with the Salas family, I think I have mentioned it before. So yesterday was Sister Salas’s birthday and so we wanted to do something special for her. Especially since her son is sick, he has eye problems, and she had to use all the money they have to buy him medicine so she had nothing planned for her birthday. They are recent converts by the way. So we bought them a cake and the people at the Store gave us half off because we have made friends with all the workers and it only cost 50 pesos! :) So we first put the cake in their backyard and then knocked on the door and so they saw that we did not bring anything. SO then after when we were eating the refreshment we brought the cake it and she was so surprised and happy. Plus it is tradition here to have the person who is having their birthday to take a big bite out the cake before it is cut and for someone try to shove their face in the cake. I love the tradition and so we sung "las mañanitas" the happy b-day song and had she bite the cake and got her face shoved in and all. It was great and she was so happy. It made me happy for her so see her feel special on her birthday because her family didn’t do very much. It was fun.

So turns out Meoqui has a great night life! On Sunday we were passing by down town and there were lots of people and food and music and ALL! I have been here for 3 months and never knew! We even live close! We just have never passed by on Saturday or Sunday at night so we never knew. The cool part about the little town is that we have made friends with everyone and have people to talk to wherever we go. If not we just make more friends. :) It was cool and would be a great place to contact people!

Oh and Sunday the primary kids put on a primary program and it was GREAT! The even had little kids dressed in robes when they sung the prophet song and all! They did great and everyone loved it! The stake presidency was there again and they love us now! We had 51 people at church and most of them were less actives! We only had 4 investigators at church and a number of people said they would be there and weren’t, so that’s it not too great. We there were SO many less actives. We had to pull out extra chairs! :) I love Meoqui! We do worry a little because one of the less actives, who has been at church 3 weeks in a row now after not coming for over 8 years, told us that Meoqui is going to fall apart when we leave. We need to make sure get everyone real excited and get the local leaders to step up and keep it all going. Because she is right, we will leave some day and so we can’t personally do too much. We have to keep the responsibility of the members in the local leaders hands. So I’m glad to have another transfer here to work on it. It would be great to have 60-75 members attending church on Sunday :)

So the work is going great! I hope I was able to write something interesting this week and do a better job of writing to you all. I have come to know with a perfect surety that I am doing the work of the Lord. This is His church and I know that as we are obedient He will make up for the rest! I know it! I know that obedience is the key to life and everything we do depends on that obedience and confidence in the Lord. Our Heavenly Father loves us and always makes it possible to do whatever he needs of us. Meoqui has been tough, feeling so alone in the work sometimes with little member and companion help, but more than anything it has taught me to rely on the lord. He is there to talk to you. Ask and you WILL receive. :)

I Love you so much and thrive off of your support! Thank you!

Con mucho amor

Elder Andrew Davidson!