10/3/2010

10/3/10

HEY everyone!

So another fast week has gone by and I feel like time continues to speed up with each weeks that goes by. This week like all of you already know we had general conference. In the stake center where we had conference they always put a room in English for the American missionaries and a few others who speak English as well. I had to listen to parts of conference in Spanish during a couple of times during my mission and to be honest it is not the same by any means. I guess it is because I have come to know the prophets by their voices and its weird when it is in the voice of someone else.

Felix our great investigator had a tough week. He went to Camargo, where his family lives to tell them about the baptism and they attacked him more than he ever expected. His mom and sisters cried and were all upset as if he had committed some kind of deadly sin and his dad told him to wait like 6 months to be able to do it. They also took him to a catholic church and had him talk with a priest and all.... Yeah, he had a rough time. But he has a strong testimony and stayed strong to what GOD has revealed to him and says he wants to be baptized in the true church, but needs to wait for his family to cool down a bit. He is 24 all lives alone and all, but he loves and respects his family and all so it is tough. But the whole situation is tough because the point of the church is to bring family together and not pull them apart. The down side is that his family remains in ignorance because they do not want to listen to him and what he says about the church. We have a lesson with him right now so we will see how things are going. I know his family will open their heart soon and listen to Felix and be able to support him.

All goes well with my comp from BOLIVIA! He tells me all about it all the time and I really want to go to South America some day. I also want to study outside the US for a semester or so after I get back. Who knows yet, but I have a lot a new plans and ideas now that I have learned a lot more about the world outside of the US. I feel like BYU has a number of international programs so I will try and be apart of that for a year or two after I get back. What do you think? :)

Today we had another zone leader conference and it went well and the zone goes well. The mission was a bit down during the month of September but we are going well so far in October.

The ward is doing well as well and we have really gained the confidence of the bishop and he seems to be really happy with us right now. I love this ward already and I really look forward to staying here for a couple of changes.

I love you all so very much and thanks for all the love and support

Elder Andrew Davidson

9/27/2010

9/27/10

Hey everyone!

So ALL goes well here and I am doing well and very happy to be honest. I think I have never been so happy in my life and have never felt so good here in the mission. I have come to really love the mission life and I will be very sad when it is over. But in this area things are going so well and we had a baptism this past week. Adilene was baptised and it was a bit tough because her family was not too happy and did not support her too much, but she was very strong and has a strong testimony. Her husband seems to be coming around and I know he will get baptised soon. :)

Felix Flores, the investigator I told you about last week is still doing great!! He is now reading in the middle of second Nephi and is so smart and comments all the time about stuff he has learned and understands everything so well. He even comes with us to teach another investigator who is a friend of his girlfriend. He is going to visit his family who lives like 2 hours away to tell them about his decision to get baptised and it is the only big trial he has right now. He can't get baptised this week because of conference, but he will get baptised the 9th of October. I am pumped and he is going to be one of my best converts in the mission!! He is going to be a future leader of the church some day :) Plus it is a lot of fun to be with him and the family of his girlfriend. They are all students and it reminds me a lot of school and I feel like we have a lot in common. AND we always have really good and powerful lessons because Jared, the ex missionary is powerful as well and so when his girlfriend, Lizzy participates as well it makes for powerful lessons with Felix. I feel like I will be Friends with them for a long time, well most of my life.

All goes well with my new Bolivian companion. He continues to learn and we get along well. He also teaches me a lot about his country and we have become good friends. He is also a good teacher and so our teaching has gone really well. Life is great and there is a LOT to do.

We are also finally gaining the confidence of the members here and especially of the Bishop. the ward has a bad story with a lot of missionaries in their ward and so they are slow to trust the missionaries. But they have seen that we are different and we have started to work with them a lot so they can have spiritual experiences with us as well. The bishop is thrilled and I really like him.

We spoke in church on Sunday and it went really well as well, I think it is one of the things that helped us to gain so much of the confidence of the members. I talked a lot about 1 Nephi 8 and missionary work and the spirit was strong there.

We are planning a ward activity to do with the members for the 8th of October and we have planned a stake activity for the 17th of October. I will let you know how they go :)

I Love you all and thank you so much for all of your support and love

Elder Andrew Davidson

9/20/2010

Hey everyone!

I got a kid in the mission!!! How cool huh? and the BEST part is.... that my comp is from Bolivia!!! ha-ha! I am stoked and very happy. He is such a funny guy and I Love that we are both foreigners here in Mexico and we get along great. He served in Boliviafor a month or so because his Visa did not come through so he is not completely new to the mission stuff, but Mexico is a lot different for him. It is fun because he makes me remember a lot of the things I thought and said when I got to the mission. He is from the city La Paz and has been a member all his life and is cool. I wanted to send a picture, but I forgot my camera sorry.

On Wednesday night they called me to tell me that I was going to get a new comp and I was really sad to be honest because in my three weeks with Elder Avendaño I came to really love him like a brother. But after a day or so with my son in the mission I felt great and I understand a lot of the things that Lord wants me to learn in the mission right now. I was worried I was not going to have a kid in the mission so that is exciting for me. Plus I don't feel to old in the mission and it keeps me working super hard so its all good.

The area is also starting to improve so that also makes life a lot better. When I got here there was nothing at all! Serious they did not even have one investigator for more than a month. This week a number of our investigators didn't show much, but 5 of them came to church.

Adilene is going to be baptised this week on Friday and is progressing a lot. But our coolest investigator is names Felix. He is studying his masters degree here and his girlfriend is a member. I am not sure how much I told all of you about him last week so sorry if I am repeating myself.... His girlfriend, Lizzly, live with her brother who just got back from the mission and her younger sister as well. It reminds me a lot of BYU and college because they are a group of teenagers living together. They are great and I love teaching Felix because he is So smart. He is already ending the first book of Nephi and LOVES it. This week was his second week at church and he has started to progress a lot. The ward also had an activity this week on Sunday night where they gave tours of the church and each organization explained what they teach to the family. He loved it and loves the church and his testimony is growing a ton. I feel like by the next time I write you all, he will have a baptismal date :) I am exited because he has so much potential in the church and feel be a future leader! :)

Also another friend of the family of teenagers started to learn about the church and we had a great lesson with her and ALL the members participated and the spirit was so strong there! She also came to church and she is a lawyer and just graduated from school, she is 24. Oh and Lizzle is 25, her brother who just got back from the mission, Jared, is 22 and their little sister, Jazmin, is 18. It is a fun group and they are from Casas Grandes, The Mormon colonies, so they are really strong members, speak perfect English, and help us out a lot! The drive us to where we need to go and always make us brownies and cookies and such. Felix is the coolest out of all of them and I know he will be a lifelong friend!

As you can tell life goes well. I love the mission and LOVE what I am doing. I Love the Lord and that is what motivates me each day to get up and work strong. The mission is the best experience I have ever had and it has FOREVER changed my life. I have had too many spiritual experiences to ever be the same person again.

Thank you for all your love and support and I will keep you all posted on how things go and all we accomplish this week!

Love you!

Elder Andrew Davidson

9/14/2010

Hey family and friends!

Well life continues to go well here in Chihuahua with my companion Elder Avendaño. We get along very very well and so it makes everything so much more easy. He is relatively new in the mission and so I have been trying to teach him all of the good things I have learned in the mission. He is very willing to learn all he can and is a great missionary. It is funny because he thinks I am the best missionary in the world and is always really grateful. But, the truth is that he teaches me SO SO very much. He is a great example of some humble and diligent and a hard worker. He is also very patient at times as I am sure he needs it to be my companion...! I was meaning to send a picture this week, but once again we forgot... sorry. I will send one next week.

The area is okay, there are a lot of new homes, the little same cement houses the government builds, and so there always seems to be young new families to teach. ´We have a few people ready to be baptized in the next two weeks so we are excited to see how that goes. The ward is very excited about missionary work right now and I seem to get along with them very well. We are trying to gain their confidence because the ward has a not so good reputation on missionaries here to be honest. President Flores used to put all of the problematic missionaries here to try and keep an eye on them so a lot of the ward members did not have too much confidence in us at first, but now that we have been working hard and getting to know them things are changing. We also asked of a sacrament meeting to speak in and not this Sunday but the next we are going to speak and we also have October 1st set aside for an activity we are going to do with the ward. I also really seem to get along well with the bishop, which is the key to success! We have been gaining his confidence and he has gotten excited about all that we are going to be able to accomplish.

I never tell anyone how much time I have in the mission or when I come home because all they do is mention it all the time... After being with 5 of my companions as they ended the mission, I have learned that it is best to tell them that I have a little over a year in the mission...! That way they know we are ready to go all out. :)

The Zone is doing well and we have a number of baptisms for the next coming weeks as a zone so we will see how it goes for this month. I really like the district leaders that we have in the zone so that makes things a lot easier. Oh and this past week we had divisions with the district leader Elder Weiss, he has like 13 months in the mission and so I went to train him how to be a district leader and such. It went well and his area I where the big university is in Chihuahua and it was cool to see it. Plus I have always taught mainly young adults in the mission so it was cool to teach them again because a lot of their investigators are young adult guys.

We also had a meeting with the stake president this week and it went really well. He is named President Gabaldon and is really willing to work with us and plan activities and such. We planned an activity for October that we had in mind and he is willing to give us the support of the stake. We are going to have a Sunday night devotional and invite the mission president to speak along with the stake president and we are going to sing as a choir, well all of the missionaries in the zone. It should be really good and I will write you more about it as well learn more plans and start to practice for the devotional.

Oh and on Sunday a group of young adults came to church and one of the girls brought her boyfriend who is not a member. He 24 and studying a master’s degree, so that is cool and he are excited to learn more and really like the classes at church. The family that brought him is a family of 3 kids who are studying here but they are from Casas Grandes, the Mormon colonies, so they are speaking perfect English! Ha-ha! One of the brothers just got back from the mission in may and he lives with his two sisters here while he is studying. Í am excited because like I said I like teaching young adult guys, between the age of 19 and 26. I am not sure why, but I seem to get along with them best and the gospel changes the whole future of their lives at that age.

All goes well and I love the mission and have never been so dedicated. I am giving my all and thanks for all of the love and support!

Love,

Elder Andrew Davidson

9/6/2010

Hey everyone!

So there are SO many things to tell all of you, but like always there is little time.... but here it goes

On Tuesday I changed areas..... I am now in the city of Chihuahua! I realize now how much I missed the city to be honest now that I am here again! I am here in an area called Revolution in the Technology Stake, that is the name... ha-ha! It doesn’t sound so weird in Spanish....!

My companions name is Elder Avendaño, he is so cool! I Love him already! He is so excited to be with me as he had a really bad last comp. He only has 6 months in the mission and so he is really excited to learn and work hard! He has taught me so much and is a great worker! He calls me his "dad" He tells me in English that "you are my dad" We have worked very hard together have had so many great spiritual experiences together. It feels cool to be with a comp that is really glad to be with me and he makes me want to be so much better and try so much harder here in the mission. It makes me want to be everything he thinks I am. :) We are going to make a great team and he is going to be an amazing elder here in the mission! To say it all in few words, we help each other to maintain the constant companion of the Holy Ghost, which is the source of ALL good and happiness in the mission life! :)

The ward is bigger and MUCH more active. I am a very active missionary and so the members all seem to be real happy to have me here, plus the zone leader of Chihuahua has never been in this ward before either so the house is not so great. Well it s a nice house and all but we don’t have plates of cups or bowls or pillows..... ha-ha! In the zone leader’s houses there always seems to be more stuff because that is where a lot of missionaries seem to end their mission.

t was sad to leave Cuauhtémoc and my ex comp, but I know the Lord has great things in store for me here and I have a lot to learn. I also love how close everything is together here in the zone, since I am in the city I can do more stuff together and I can meet more with all of the missionaries in the zone. Today actually we had the district meeting together with the whole zone and we are going to do the same the first p-day of every month. It went well and it allowed me to gain the confidence of all of the missionaries together so we can work together better.

I am sad to leave my old zone because things were going so well there. I had my good buddies as district leaders and so it was So easy to work together. I was in the Chuviscar Zone before and in the Zone leader conference we had in Thursday this past week President told us we got 2nd place in the whole mission :) The East Zone in Juarez beat us, but I had the Sierras where it is a lot harder to baptize and so we were happy with what we achieved. But I feel like there is a TON of potential in the zone I left this month! So I feel good leaving the area and knowing I was able to help do my part. :) It was also a lot of fun to see all of the new zone leaders in the mission and they are all good Friends! Cool no? I knew a lot of them from the old zone and they have all progressed so much and the mission is in great hands. Oh and my buddy Elder Killpack also changed areas to here in Chihuahua but now he is a zone leader :) 4 new zone leaders left the zone with me so that is also good news and good to hear. They are all excellent missionaries and going to achieve a lot in the mission :)

We have had a lot of spiritual experiences this past week and I feel like this is the time in which I need to apply ALL I have learned and we hope to have a lot of success here in the zone. Today I had to tell you all about the new changes and such but in the following weeks I will tell you about all of the great spiritual experiences we have each day! We already have new people to baptize and I will try to send pix in the upcoming weeks. Oh and we have a meeting with the stake president this week and so we hope to plan a great activity as a stake with the mission president and all and we are also going to plan a big Christmas activity as well with all the stakes of chihuahua and invite a general authority and all :) I will let you know as it all unfolds!

I love you all so much and can’t wait to hear from you all!

Love

Elder Andrew Davidson

8/30/10

Hey everyone!

So another fast week has gone by! We had a very successful week and I feel like we were able to put into play everything we have learned from the mission president has taught us.

Oh so last week I got a letter from my convert from Juarez, Priscilla, and she is doing SO well and is a counselor in the relief society in her ward! She helps the missionaries out a TON and feeds them and goes to all of the baptisms! Cool huh! She also talked about entering the temple and said she is going to tell me when she is going through the temple so that I can go with her!

So my best convert from Cuauhtémoc left to go to Torreon again… sad! But her husband finally opened up his heart and is accepting the gospel and accepted the invitation to be baptized. It will be cool to hear from them after the mission!

This week we had stake conference and it went well here. The mission president came and he is super powerful when he talks so that was nice to see the members a bit more excited

My companion and I are getting along great and he is growing a lot. He is newer in the mission and I love have a newer companion and teaching him everything helps me to remember all I have learned and to put it into play.

We are going to have changes tonight and the mission president told me that I am going to change so I will tell you next Monday where I am at. I am sad to leave Cuauhtémoc as I have come to love the people and the members. Plus we have so many cool investigators right now!

Oh and the El Paso address is open again! You can send me stuff through El Paso. The address is this one:

Elder Andrew Davidson

2220 BASSETT AVE

PMB 106

EL PASO, TEXAS 79901-2020

So you can send me stuff there until the end of my mission in case you want to send letters or packages. Oh and I turn 21 on Wed, the first of September!

Love you all and thanks for the love and support!

Elder Andrew Davidson

8/23/10

Hey!

WOW! So much has happened since the last time that I was able to write you all! Last week we did not have too much time to write.... well actually we did not get to write because the mission president had a 4 day all mission conference! Cool huh!? All of the Zone leaders and the district leaders and the trainers from the whole mission were invited along with the entire sister missionaries! There we about 50 missionaries there all in all. We all went to Chihuahua and stayed in the mission offices with all the missionaries. We left Sunday night to go there and we didn’t come home until Friday morning! On Sunday night it was SO cool to see all the missionaries! I got to see so many friends and companions! It was so great to catch up with everyone! Plus Priscilla, my convert from Juarez, wrote me along with a few others. Then over the next 4 days, the mission president trained us about the new stuff we need to teach and how to teach. Well it was not too new to be honest; it was the same stuff, just more focused in. We had 4 days of conferences from 8am to 6pm everyday! I learned SO much and they were some of the 4 most spiritual days I have had here in the mission to be honest. There is SO SO SO much to tell and so little time to write.... sorry! But I will tell you all about it later, sorry!

These last 3 days here have been great and I am loving life! That seems to be the story of the mission, ups and downs...The zone is going great and we are ending August really well, and I really like ALL of my 4 district leaders! I am such great friends with all of them and it makes working together SO dang easy. We have a lot of work here in Cuauhtémoc and we have had great spiritual experiences to be honest!

We met a guy named Lehi the other day! Ha-ha! We showed him where his name comes from and he is ways excited to read the Book of Mormon :)

I have never felt so much spiritual power in my life and I am excited to keep on learning and growing!

Thanks for all the love and support and sorry that I can’t write more!

Love you

Elder Andrew Davidson