October 31, 2016
Hello everyone!
This week has been so great! It’s been very, very busy, but there have been a lot of really cool experiences that we have had!
Tuesday was interesting to say the least. In the morning, we had a solid teaching appointment with a member who we meet with maybe once a week to give her strength and help spiritually. We talked about the Purpose of the Atonement and how it is utilized properly, and it was super cold outside! There wasn’t a priesthood holder home, so we had to sit out on the deck while teaching her, but thankfully we were all bundled up! Then we went to have a lunch with Sister Kirkley-Bey, who served in the city of Hartford and as a Representative in the State of Connecticut for 20 years! She is a really awesome lady and has been taking the missionaries out for 30 years! After lunch with Sister Kirkley-Bey, we drove up to get our brakes checked. We thought we would be there for about an hour, but after about that amount of time, they came up to us said that our pads and rotors had to be replaced because it was still screeching and grinding…so we had to sit there for a while, but got hold of the Bloomfield Sisters and went tracting for a while! It was definitely a better use of time than just sitting around for another two and a half hours with Deal or No Deal Spring Break Edition playing in the corner of the room, which also reminded me that I am so grateful to be away from the things of the world and on a mission! Tuesday evening, we visited Johnoy, our Jamaican investigator, and he was visiting a friend, so we sat in his car and had a lesson with him, and then his friend came and joined us. We talked about the Bible and then Johnoy played something on his phone someone had sent him and it was talking about how he (a random other Jamaican guy) was super hot one night, and he called his pastor and asked him to pray that he would feel better, but then he got carried away in spirit, and his pastor couldn’t pray for him and then Christ gave him a walking tour of hell with a seven headed dragon at the entrance so that he could go back and tell the people that it existed. So long story short, we had to explain the Three Kingdoms of Glory and what hell really is. So we were in an unregistered car with two Jamaicans, in North Hartford after 6 PM, listening to a recording of a crazy Jamaican man talking about a walk through H-E-Double Hockey Sticks with Christ, and there was a picture of an unprepped Chinese dish (skinned dog) in a pan on his phone too. It was an interesting night….
Wednesday morning we checked a ton of referrals and tried to contact a bunch of them, and it brought our load down a ton. We drove over to a lady who is a Congregationalist and wanted print materials so that she could teach her church goers at the Congregationalist church about us Mormons and what we believe (with the temple going up and all). She was very kind, and we gave her as much as we could find, and it was interesting, and we hope that she teaches it how it says in the pamphlets, but you never know what could come of it! We tried to stop by Lisandra’s, but she wasn’t home. Then we spent a ton of time with Brother Clifford AKA Grandpa. He is getting pretty weak since he went to the hospital a while ago, so he can’t do as much, so his house is getting quite cluttered, so the missionaries go over usually once a week to help him out. It is really a work of love. I have really come to love him and care for him because of all of the time I have spent at his house. The first day, we got all of the stuff off of the floor around his table in the living room and cleared some space for him to walk. We probably spent two and a half hours there, but it was a much needed visit. After helping him, we brought him to a dinner appointment. Sister Roman has a rock hard testimony and was getting ready to make a commitment with someone else, but they wanted her to leave the church behind, but she stayed firm and ended up not finishing the deal. She shares the gospel all the time and is a solid member of the English and Spanish branch! After dinner, we ran over to the chapel to have the Book of Mormon Reading night, and then we brought Brother Clifford home. It was a great evening, and we were able to spend a lot of time with him!
Thursday we volunteered at a Blood Drive downtown, and in the middle of it, IT STARTED TO SNOW!! IT WAS SNOWING IN OCTOBER!! It wasn’t even Halloween! And then the next couple of days, it got warmer and warmer, and was really warm yesterday after getting out from church, but then it started raining, and then stopped, and then started again. Suffice it to say, the weather is as crazy as Utah out here… But after the Dinner, Brother O’Bryant, who is a ward missionary is really awesome, and Brother Buck came with us on splits, and I went with Brother O’Bryant. He is a Foot and Ankle Doctor, so I got to talk about medical stuff and schooling moves (residency, etc.) with him, which is always a lot of fun! We visited Johnoy and read in 3 Nephi about when Christ came to the Americas and compared it to the Sermon on the Mount, that we had read a few nights previous. We talked about Baptism and the Holy Ghost and helped him understand what Baptism is. We talked about what he wanted to do to prepare to be Baptized and helped him set some goals, and then the biggest goal of all came. We helped him set a baptismal date!! His date is for December 3rd, the week after transfers, so hopefully we both stay! We are so excited for him!!
On Friday, we had Super District Meeting, which we have had for one or two times (Us, Hartford Spanish 1 & 2, Avon, Bloomfield, and Goshen), but it was a lot of fun! And then we had to run off to a lesson with a Recent Convert with Br. Sorenson, a student at Trinity College (the local college), and a ward missionary, but we couldn’t get in contact with the recent convert, so we went over to help Brother Clifford again! Br. Sorenson sweeped his floors clean (which really, really helped) and we got his rug and brought it outside and Elder McIntyre beat it like crazy! It was a lot of fun! It was definitely an interesting experience for Grant, since he is thinking about going on a mission, so to see that this is what missionaries do must have been really interesting…Then we dropped Grant off, then went back to Brother Clifford’s house for a bit and cleaned up the wiring behind his entertainment center so it looked better. Then we ran to a dinner and had a lesson with a guy who is writing his thesis on the synthesis of medicine and religion, which is interesting.
Saturday morning was intense. We raked leaves for a lady, and then were going to go to the ward Trunk of Treat, but then got a call from Momma Knighton that we were supposed to be at her house for lunch! We had tripled scheduled accidentally!! It was crazy! We picked up Brother Clifford, went to lunch, visited Johnoy with Brother Clifford, dropped him off, and then had our next appointment cancel. We either have everything or nothing happening. That evening though, we went down the list of LA members and came to the home of a lady who was transferred from the Cromwell Ward, after the ward realignings, and had a really cool conversation about visiting teaching, home teaching and indexing!
On Sunday, Johnoy, his son, and his friend from the car, and his friend’s girlfriend came to church! We also taught Gospel Principles about Work, and the best example of hard work I know is my dad. He is an example to me of someone who is diligent and works till the work is done. He doesn’t quit or slack, but does it and is faithful in his temporal and spiritual work. He taught me when I was young that hard work is important, and it is the key to success in this life. As I told President this week in my email in relation to obedience, “Just Do It”. That night, we visited a woman and her husband and their family and even though they aren’t members, we gave them a blessing of comfort and healing in their time of need. It was a testament to me that Mormons aren’t the only good people following God in this world, and that even though others may not believe as we do and what we do, we still need to love them and serve them in every capacity we would someone of our own faith. To end the night, we had another lesson with Carter, this time on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the first actual time I had taught that lesson. It was really good and she is very prepared for baptism!
All I can say is that we have to rely on the Lord and His peace to be happy in this life. Read the Sermon on the Mount and especially the portion about how narrow the way to happiness is and how broad the way to destruction is. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In everything you do, acknowledge His Hand in your life, and He will direct your paths (Paraphrasing Proverbs 3:5-6).
I know the Savior lives and loves each one of us and has a plan for you. Trust in His timing and His plan, and you will see Him in your life.
Way Too Busy,
Elder Davis
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