6/29/10

Hey everyone!

SO this past week was one of the toughest weeks that I have had here in the mission (I know that I say that like every other weeks... ha-ha) but we worked SO hard this week. I have never worked so much in the mission and I felt that I really applied myself and all that I have learned in the mission and we worked very efficiently... but we saw NO results on Friday or Saturday... and they were both SUPER tough days and we didn't let anything get to us and we just kept going on. On Saturday in the night time I was worried because I felt like we were doing something wrong because we did not see the results that we expected. But I realized and learned once again this week that the Lord ALWAYS blesses us, even if it is not in the way we expect. On Sunday a number of investigator came to church that we didn't even expect and a member brought his Friend to church that is super receptive. We now have a baptism for next week and 2 for the next week and we expect to have another 2 families, 7 people, read to get baptized in the next 2 weeks along with the friend of the member who came to church :) Obviously things are going MUCH better and we have learned a strong lesson in trusting in the Lord. It was not until after the trail of our faith that we were able to see the success. :)

To be honest I feel like I am at the peak of my mission and all seems to be going very well. We have now made like a 180 here in the zone and things are going GREAT :)

I have never been so happy in my life really LIVING the gospel of Jesus Christ and NOW it is real. I had splits with the assistants to the president this past week and it went well. And also went to the flea market on Saturday and it went really well for the most part. We got to talk to a lot of people and inform them about the church.

My comp and I get along well and things go well even though he is going to end the mission in just 3 weeks. He is a lot more focused and I try to be a big support seeing how it is not the easiest thing in the world to end the mission.

Thank you all so much for your support and love and I can’t wait to hear more from all of you!

Love

Elder Andrew Davidson

6/22/10

Hey family and friends!

So I think this past week was the busiest week I have ever had in my life! It actually made me remember finals week at BYU because it was so crazy! I have never had so much to do in my life!

This past Friday we had our zone conference and it went really well. It was weird because I have been to zone conferences my whole mission and it was now my turn to direct the conference. After the break I forgot I had to go up in front and lead and sat with my comp and the mission president was like hey.... aren't you leading... ha-ha! I also taught the missionaries about baptism in every principle of every lesson. Something I was really happy and excited to teach about. I was really happy because it was my best lesson I have even given in a zone conference with all of the missionaries there. I feel like I will be able to use the skill of teaching to groups a lot in my life :) The missionaries from the Sierra came and stayed here in Cuauhtémoc the day before and I had 4 other missionaries in the house with us and I had my buddy elder Killpack there with me too! It was weird to realize how far we have come and how fast time has flown by! It is fun to think about the beginning and where we are now as missionaries. He is an EXCELLENT missionary and I am really happy that we are going to be able to work together a lot this change :) The tough part about the week was that I had to put together a "work plan" for the zone before conference so I could present it to the district leaders and the mission president, which I had to do between Sunday and Thursday, and the mission president gave us two long talks to study before the conference and I had to prepare my lesson that I was going to give. That is why it was a lot do along with work in my own area AND I had to go to Chihuahua on Monday and Wednesday to have divisions with the 2 new leaders in the zone. But it went really well and like I told you last week I really liked training them and I learned a whole lot both days. Then on Sunday I had to give a talk..... I spoke about being an example and a felt like I was not too prepared but it went really well. I had a lot of stories to share with the ward. I have gotten much better at public speaking and I gave my talk without notes or even looking down to read stuff noted down - just me and my scriptures :)

So we are struggling a little bit in our own area, but we are starting to find a number of new people to teach. I had a way cool spiritual experience today looking for new people to teach but since I don’t have much time I will tell you all about it later.

I really like my comp and we get along really well. He is ending the mission but he is MUCH stronger than my other comps that ended their mission. Plus he has a lot of new responsibilities since it is his first time being a zone leader so he is strong. :) We are good friends.

The mission goes well and like always there are lots of opportunities to learn and grow. We get a new mission president next week so that is really exciting! I can’t wait for all he is going to teach us.

I love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon.

Love

Elder Andrew Davidson

6/15/10

Hey everyone!

So this week was an interesting week and it went by super fast! Like 10 minutes after I finished writing you last week the assistants called me and gave me the changes for the zone and all the was going to happen in order to move the missionaries around to their new areas. Two missionaries left the district here in Cuauhtémoc, which was sad because they were my two closest friends here. But my new companion is Elder Cruz Parra! He is from Merida Yucatán, which is at the tip of Mexico. He is Way cool and he has taught me so much already! I feel like we are going to get along real well and I know I am going to learn so much this week. Elder Cruz is now the district leader here and the junior zone leader and they put me as senior zone leader here in the zone Chuviscar. I was sad to not be able to call the missionaries each night and today it was sad in the district meeting to not be able to lead or comment about much.... I know it’s a good new responsibility and all, but I loved being a district leader and the missionaries in my district! But there are 2 new district leaders in the zone and and it has been a lot of fun teaching them what and how to do everything. I had divisions with one of the new leaders yesterday in Chihuahua and it went way well. I felt like the Lord made me better than I am able to be able to give him an example and help him learn all I need to teach him to be able to help his district. ALSO the coolest part is that my buddy Elder Killpack is now a district leader in the zone!!!!!! I get to talk to my friend every day and we are going to have divisions and all! :) How cool is that! We obviously get along great and I am thrilled to have him here in the zone :) This past week has been one of my better weeks and Elder Cruz is a lot more focused and spiritual than my other companions have so I have felt a lot better to be honest. Oh the sad part...... Elder Cruz is going to end his mission is 5 weeks..... ha-ha! I am going to send ANOTHER missionary home! Can you believe that?? But I feel like this time is going to be a lot different than before and he is a lot more focused so we are going to have a great change.

We have our zone conference this Friday so that will be cool, plus it’s the last zone conference with Pte Flores as we will get a newMission President in a couple of weeks. I hope we do something special :) I am making a zone work plan for this change which I have to present on Friday so that is cool.

So the only sad part of the week is that I was robbed... I lost my USB drive that has 16GB of memory with ALL of my pictures from the mission!!! Sad.... but in the end it helped me to realize what is really important here in the mission and understand that all trials are here to help us grow and be stronger.

I love you all so much and thank you for your love and support! Oh and no one writes me anymore.... I used to get like 6 letters a month and packages and all....and now no one remembers I am here. I guess that means I have been out for a while now.... ha-ha!

Love you!

Elder Andrew Davidson

6/8/10

Hey Family and Friends,

So another week has gone by quick and my companion left for home!

It is always weird when a companion goes home and it was even weirder this time because my companion was probably my best companion and friend that I have had in the mission. We had are struggles and all, but we were really good friends and I have never had such a strong friend in the mission like I had with Elder Rojas. It was sad to say goodbye on Sunday, but it is all part of the mission and all part of learning and growing. We had a fun last week together and we even canceled some of the time we were going to eat with members to be able to go and eat out together :) He taught me a ton about leadership and the mission and about loving the people I serve with here.

Since Sunday I have been with 2 other missionaries from the other ward here in Cuauhtémoc and we have been working the two areas together. I have learned a lot here with Elder Valadez and Elder Gallegos and I know things happen for a reason. The Lord never messes up in the way he makes things. Today they are going to tell me about the changes we are going to have in the zone and next week I will let you know who is my companion and such.

It has been a bit heck tick here having my district of 10 missionaries and the zone as well for these 3 days, but it has taught me a lot. Every night I am on the phone for like an hour and a half talking to everyone.... ! Today in our district meeting we talked about gossip and how to avoid it here in the mission as well as how to find new investigators and invite them to be baptized. We had a few practices as well and it went great. We also talked about how we can improve for this next month and what we are going to change. I love working with the missionaries and I love my district and zone :)

All goes well here and I am doing great. Thank you for all of your love and support and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Love,

Elder Andrew Davidson

6/1/2010

Hey everyone!

Another good week has gone by here in Cuauhtémoc. This week went by slower because my comp goes home this week and so he is counting time! I am glad I can help him out and all, but he has turned into an emotional wreck... I can imagine it must be hard and all, but he is like bipolar now. It has taught me a lot of patience and I really see Elder Rojas as a friend and so I am glad to am able to help him out and all. But I sure hope I don't have to do this again with my next companion.

So this week one of the sisters gave us cow tongue!!!!! She served us rice and beans and then the meat.... I stared at it for a while because it had lots of weird tentacles all over it. Then someone asked what kind of meat it was and she said tongue from a cow. GROSS! ha-ha! It actually didn't taste too bad to be honest. But I ate it all, and she put a ton on my plate. We were eating with the sisters as well and they were laughing a lot! I don't plan on eating it much more....

Marisol Parra and her daughter Lorelly Parra are progressing a lot. I told you about her last week I think. Marisol is a single mother and is 25 years old. She was a reference from a member from the other ward here in Cuauhtémoc and is SUPER smart. She is also a bit wealthy. We explained some of the commandments and she was worried that she was not 100% sure. SO yesterday we had a lesson with Betty Bustamante, the member from the other ward that gave her name as a reference, and a recent convert who is super strong in the church. Her name is Bripcel and she has been a member for 6 months now. She is also a single mom and is very converted and is super smart too. We also brought another teenager from the ward and so it was the 7 of us there. It was one of the best lessons I have had in the mission and Marisol was SO much more receptive and the testimony of Bripcel was great! We all testified and shared our personal experiencesand there was a very strong spirit there. I feel like she will get baptized this Saturday :) I will let you know how it all goes.

I had my last interview with the mission president and it was not too great to be honest.... not to sound selfish, but he talked about my comp the whole time and helping him. He told me that he had problems with depression and that he is doing okay now and that I need to help him a lot in this last week. But he didn't have too much time so it went by quick. He always teaches me something though so I realize there is a reason for everything. You know?

I thought we were going to get to go to the temple this week, but the mission president said no and that we did not achieve enough baptisms... even though we baptized 5 more than this district ever has in the past year. But this month there is a lot of potential so I feel like we can achieve even more this month.

Today district meeting went well and I taught the district about the importance of the constant companionship of the spirit. We then did a practice that I learned in the MTC. My comp shared his testimony at the end and all and then we ate together as a district and we went to the Mennonite museum together. I have come to really love my district and the district members :)

Oh and this week I had one of my most spiritual experiences of the mission. My comp has been struggling a lot and one night asked me for a blessing. I gave him the blessing and I have almost never felt the spirit so string in my life. I KNEW the words were from the lord and after I could not even remember most of them. My comp said it was what he needed and that I said a lot of the things that his patriarchal blessing says as well. I love being a missionary and all of the experiences that it presents to me. For all the opportunities that I have to use the priesthood and see how real it is.

All goes well and thank you Cheryl for the letters from Tyler and I am glad to hear he is doing well. Also thank you Linda for the letter as well. Love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Andrew Davidson