65 is a Big Number!

Hello all! I really apologize if this email isn’t as awesome as my other ones, but I’ll give it my best!

This week we had a huge goal to meet. At Zone Conference, we set the goal to have 65 new investigators as a Zone. That is a huge goal to have. Other zones set goals of 27 or 25, but with ambitious hearts, we had the audacity, or rather faith to the extreme, to have 65 New Investigators.

To add on to it, our car battery was dead, and with limited time to find 11 investigators as a Companionship, we got to work on the New Investigators

The week started off slow. Monday was a great P-Day, but after our dinner, it was pretty snowy, so we couldn’t really find anybody on the streets.

Tuesday we decided to Street Contact, so we walked up Park Street and contacted a couple of people and gave them cards, but really nothing came of it. We had lunch, but with more walking, ended up in West Hartford. A former investigator lived across the hall from a portugese member family, so after he didn’t answer, we decided to see the portugese family. They welcomed us in, and we had some food with them and had a good conversation, but nothing too much came of it. We walked back home and talked to some people, but not a ton came of those either. We got a ride from a member to the Duartes’ house and had a great dinner! Jacob and his family came and we home taught with Brother Buck. It was a great night, but no new investigators.

At this point, the Zone had gone ham, and had around 30 new investigators, and it was only Tuesday. This was definitely a test of faith. We had been working hard, maybe not in the right way, but the Lord had to test us. All we knew to do was to pray and plan.

On Wednesday, we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. It was an invitation for us to come into the Missionary Executive Council. They talked about the missionary purpose and discussed a lot of questions missionaries can have. It was an uplifting experience and was amazing to receive counsel from the council who looks over missionary work for the church.

The big reveal was at the end. There were many changes to the missionary schedule. In the morning, we do everything the same except now planning is in the morning for 30 minutes, Comp study is during the day for 30 minutes, we have an extra 30 minutes in the morning, and we get to choose what goes where. It is a big compliment from the Lord to trust missionaries to set their own schedule. This is a big change for us and is really good for us and has definitely helped. In the evening, we prepare for bed, write in our journal and pray. On P-day, it starts at 8 am and ends at 6 pm, and all we have is personal prep, planning for 30 minutes, and personal study for 30 minutes.

They also brought our Key Indicators down to only Investigators Baptized and Confirmed, Investigators who attended Sacrament Meeting, Investigators with a Baptismal date, and New Investigators. This will help us focus on what is most important.

After the amazing broadcast, we were able to have dinner with the_____ family, and I understood the situation of having a nonmember in a member home. It is hard, and sometimes contention filled on both sides. We can’t always just assume they will hear us right at the beginning and push them to get baptized; we have to love them and understand where they come from. Then can we go back to the beginning and help. It was a great evening!

Thursday was where the miracles started happening. We devoted ourselves to our morning studies and worked as hard as we could. We left the apartment right after 10 and street contacted like the dickens. It was crazy! We found three investigators that day!

I’ll send a letter, especially since we have more time in the evening, but we picked up 85 investigators over the course of the week as a Zone and we met our companionship goal of 11 investigators over the course of the week!!!!!!!!

Friday came about and we had District Meeting, and then Elder Hall and Elder Felt said that they would go on splits with us! I gave the training on Chapter 11 in Preach My Gospel about Keeping Commitments. We talked about how important it is to help people keep their commitments and how we do it. The steps were laid out before us in Preach My Gospel, and so we just had to do them! It was cool to be able to teach by the Spirit and to learn things about what I was teaching while I was teaching. That is how we know we are speaking by the spirit! After District Meeting, we grabbed some lunch and then Elder Hall and I street contacted and knocked for about 2 hours. We stayed around our apartment, and didn’t really pick up anyone, except for a Spanish guy outside of a store, but we were diligent! Elder Hall taught me some good tracting tips and we keep moving, even if a street was really dead. At that point, we had picked up 4 investigators, and then the other Elders picked up a lady named Nana! We had 5 investigators! That evening, we accidentally took a longer nap than expected and woke up and it was dark outside. We were really bummed, so we decided to do calls. The Lord worked miracles with what we had. We were able to set 5 appointments that night, on top of a few others we had already set up!!

Saturday came about and we went on splits with the Zone Leaders! We stopped by a media referral in the morning, and she wasn’t home, so we crossed the street and Elder Asay made a perfect street contact!! We picked up Howard! We went to lunch with the other elders, and after we made stops down in New Britain. We stopped by Dorthea’s first, and we went in, started to talk to her, and then a random older lady came up to us and asked if we were her sons! We most definitely weren’t but she thought we were. Dorthea had to go up and turn off some rice that was cooking, so we were left with Maemae. She kissed us like five times….but we were finally able to pick her up as an investigator! The other Elders came back and said that they had picked up 3 Spanish investigators, and then the other Spanish Elders had picked up a few! We we went to another stop by, and the Spanish Elders easily picked up a lady, and then when we were walking back, I pointed to a Hispanic guy, and so we went over and even though he had talked to some missionaries just a few minutes ago, Elder Asay picked him up as a Spanish investigator!! We all got back together and headed back home. We stopped by one of the Spanish Elders’ formers and picked her up and then made a failed stop by in North Hartford. The Spanish Elders brought us up to the Church, and we were able to go to the wedding of Shenella Tyndal and Royan Leech! They are both from Guyana, and Shenella is a Recent Convert. Royan is a member as well. It was really cool to be able to sit in on their wedding and they are working towards the temple!! That night, a member who used to go to our ward brought her granddaughter who is 8 and we picked her up too!! That night, the Spanish Elders dropped us off near home, and then as we were walking towards a lady whom we had met on Thursday, we walked with a guy for half a mile, and finally got him to stop for about 30 seconds for the First Vision. We picked him up as well! We were at 10 investigators, 1 short of meeting our goal!!!! We walked over to the address a lady at the bus stop on Thursday had told us, and she happened to be home, so we finished the Restoration and then picked her up!!!!! Through the Lord, we can do anything!!! Our Zone picked up 84 new investigators in the week and completely demolished our goal of 65 new investigators. It was definitely a trial of faith, but through the Lord, we did it. Faith is tough, especially when we don’t measure up when we want to, but the Lord makes us equal to our calling.

Anything is possible, you just have to have faith and rely on the Lord. In his timing, you can accomplish your goals!!

Love you all! Set meaningful goals and the Lord will make them possible.

Love you!!!!!! Keep having faith!!!!

Love,

Elder Davis