Where the Lord Wants Me

So Monday was our first P-Day and it was crazy. We washed clothes in the morning and we have a washer and dryer in the basement, which is really nice so we don’t have to spend tons of money and time doing laundry at a laundromat. We only do two loads: whites and colors. We just pack in all of our clothes and they miraculously get clean (thankfully)!

(MOM NOTE:   Matthew knows better than to pack clothes in a washer.  I will let him know he might break it if he keeps doing that! LOL!)

We went to email and since it was my first week, it took me a bit, so we emailed for a long time……We were going to go to Walmart to get bagged cereal, but ended up going to Shop and Stop instead. We pulled in and were walking to the front door when we said hi to a lady and she started talking to us! If you ever serve in New England, or pretty much anywhere, people don’t just come up and talk to you. They usually avoid us like the plague…BUT, she asked us if we were missionaries, which we told here we were. She said that she had been wanting to talk to someone about religion and had tried calling a religious center earlier, but they wouldn’t talk to her. She also said she had been praying earlier for help. She had met missionaries before and is really drawn to the Mormons. She had also had a lot of difficult experiences in her life and wanted to find a way to ground herself. We gladly agreed to meet with her and did on Wednesday. It was a little long, but we talked about the scriptures and Jesus Christ and how they can both give us strength. She was really appreciative and was going to come to church on Sunday, but didn’t make it. We’re really excited to meet with her again on Wednesday and hope that we can help her come closer to Christ!

On Monday night, we had dinner with the Okazakis and there are two sets of pictures I sent. One with Elder Woodward cutting watermelon and the other of ice cream cartons. Brother Okazaki and his wife had been watching videos on youtube and found one that is so cool (we didn’t watch it, but he showed us the technique). So you cut a watermelon in half, take one half, cut in from each of the sides horizontally trying to match up the cuts on each side, then do cuts on the top that basically dice the watermelon, so cuts from the x, y, and z axis, and then you can dump it into the bowl and it is already cut, sliced, and diced! Also, New England Ice cream is SO GOOD! Hood is just store brand, but it is some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted!

On Tuesday, we had our first Web-ex and it was on being a consecrated missionary. Then President and Sister Miller talked about submitting your will to Heavenly Father and doing what he wants you to do. This is His work and He knows best. We need to trust in the Lord and His commandments even when we don’t understand why. Also, we need to let Him change our nature. As we draw closer to Him, our actions and desires become more closely aligned with His. Lastly, they emphasized that being consecrated isn’t perfection. We can’t be perfect in this life (or completely complete), and it is a process.

We also went over to Barbara’s house and as we were teaching the Plan of Salvation with a hands-on diagram (Thanks Mom!), she invited her husband over and she taught him the Plan of Salvation right there! It was so cool and I think he is warming up to us ever so slightly. The spirit is working on him and maybe eventually we’ll get to teach him!

That night, we went to dinner with Sister McLean! She is amazing! She is an IV In-Home Nurse. She has so many stories and is basically is one of our moms on the Cape.

We also found a phone booth that everyone has to take a picture with, so here you go.

On Wednesday, we helped Brother Crosland move. He is moving to Western Mass. because he works for Vivint Solar and they are closing the Cape Area. I almost died (not really) going down the stairs with a small portable dryer. I just miscalculated the steps and slid down a few to the landing…..

Then we taught Abby with Brother Mortensen, whose wife should be having here baby anytime now! He also works for Vivint Solar and is probably moving to Idaho.

After that, we went to the Church and a recent convert got her temple recommend! Sadly, she just moved to Utah to go to the University of Utah….but we’re so happy for her!

That night, we had dinner with the Bassetts and Sister Lai. Sister Lai lives with the Bassetts and the Bassetts are our other parents on the Cape. They couldn’t have dinner in their home, so we went to a Chinese Restaurant. They are hilarious and hardly a moment of the meal was spent not laughing or poking  jokes. They are really great and we love whenever we get to spend time with them!

Thursday, we weekly planned using a giant whiteboard, which was a lot of fun and I recommend it to anyone! We also served at the Library. A few of the pictures are from the Library as well. I organized one of Mia and Sophia’s favorite book series, which took a while since there are so many sub series….and I found a graphic novel of the life of Barack Obama….We started talking to this guy and he told us that he appreciated our family values, but that he didn’t like everything else about what we taught. He talked a lot about after this life, Heaven and Hell, and how our interpretation was wrong. He also talked about how the Book of Mormon doesn’t agree with the Bible, but he hadn’t read it. It was a little frustrating, but we took hope because we were preaching the word of God and trying to love others where they were at. Not everyone is going to listen to us or like us, but we just keep pressing forward.

On Friday, the Sisters were about an hour late to District meeting because of traffic, but we still got out at about on time.

It was also ELDER WOODWARD’S YEAR MARK # HUMPDAY! It was super fun and we got packages from my mom and his mom (Thanks Mom and Sister Woodward!). It was a lot of fun and a good day to reflect. My month mark was on Wednesday and so I joined in with Elder Woodward in reflecting.

Saturday and Sunday were a lot of biking. A lot of biking. We ran out of miles (*MOM NOTE:  car miles are limited each month….) and have been biking so much. Like the title says, I’m almost positive my white shirts are dirtier than most people’s. I had dirt and sweat on the collar, the sleeves, by my waist, on my back. It was nasty….but biking is nice. Our home backs up to a bike trail and we have biked the 45 minutes to and from Church twice, biked down Main Street too many times and have gone to so many investigators houses via biking it is ridiculous. I have sweated more in my life biking here than in so many other places in my life. The humidity doesn’t help either. We planned to see tons of Less Actives and Potential Investigators on Saturday, but we didn’t really get to.

We got a phone call from a member whose Alpaca had died that afternoon, so we went to her house and buried an Alpaca………it wasn’t even hot or sunny, but like I said, we were sweating like nobody’s business. The grave wasn’t too big or deep, it just took a while. Elder Woodward said a few words.  It was an interesting experience, definitely one for the books!

My favorite experience on Sunday, besides going to church and biking all the way from home to the church, was going to a member’s home. Most of the homes on the Cape are old, since the Cape is old and it takes time and money to build here. So we came up to the Yanez’s home, and it looked a lot newer, which I’m sure was a tender mercy from the Lord. Brother Yanez is a Coast Guard Search and Rescue Helicopter Pilot. He’s really awesome and has lived lots of places kind of like our family. Sister Yanez is basically the Cape Cod equivalent of my mom. She is super grounded in the gospel, was a missionary, is a home maker, gets embarrassed when her kids do something funny or off topic, and there was so much more! It was also a tender mercy to meet her and her family.

Suffice it to say, this week has been crazy and sweaty, but the Lord is working in Cape Cod. I know that God answers prayers and loves each one of us. I love all of you and wish the best for you and your families. Keep the faith, study strong, and endure to the end!

With Love and Much Tiredness,

Elder Davis