April 17, 2017
Hello Everyone! This week has truly been amazing! We have seen some really amazing miracles leading up to Sunday and I can’t wait to share them with you!
Edet and Minteria are doing great! They came to church with Patrick, Minteria’s son, and he loved it! He said,”I’m definitely coming back next week!” The Young Men’s leaders said he was participating and made some good friends! Minteria is also really enjoying church and Relief Society. She is starting to recognize the blessing of the gospel more and more in her life and she is progressing a lot. She isn’t just learning to learn, but is desiring to know more and to be involved. It is a miracle to see every time! About halfway through Edet’s teaching, a light turned on for Minteria, and she’s been going strong ever since! We are really excited to help her get ready for baptism, and she is already in 1 Nephi 18 too! She also stood up against a co-worker who said she was joining a cult. We were so proud of her! She is the best, and a great support for Edet!
Edet is doing well too! He is getting married this weekend (April 22, 2017) and then will be baptized 45 minutes later, so we are going to have a pretty crazy Saturday. We have his interview set up this week, and we have finished all of the lessons with him. He is doing well and will be a strong support to this ward!
So a few weeks ago, we were going through Media Referrals from a while back in Fair Haven. We stopped at one house and the people weren’t home, but there was a girl by the door. Elder Greding started a conversation and she said she would be interested in a message about Jesus Christ. She said her name was Bianca, and we got her phone number. About two weeks passed, and we got a Media Referral for Fair Haven. We had some open time, so in our daily planning, I suggested that we should do some stop bys. We’ve been learning that as we go back to the same places, we see the same people and we start to build their trust. We made a list at District Meeting, and after the Media Referral stop by, we went through the list. We came to this same house again, and as we knocked on the first, second and third floors, we asked if a Bianca lived there. The third floor said that she was a relative and lived on Peck St. Now here’s where it gets crazy. We had been working on Peck St pretty regularly for about a week, and so to hear that made us laugh. A little background on Peck St, we have some potentials that live near it, we have some service that we are going to do there this week, there is a member who brought one of their friends, Nicoletta, an 11 year old, into the church a few years ago, but she has not been able to come for a while, and so suffice it so say, we are pretty famillar with that street. That night, we had planned to do weekly planning for about two hours, but after we left our dinner, Elder Greding asked me if there was anything that I thought we should do, and as we thought, he opened his planner, and looked at Bianca’s name. After a second it hit, Bianca’s last name is the same as Nicoletta’s!! There was no way they weren’t related! We headed straight there, and on the way, we picked up a member to come with us last minute (Thanks Luke Sanford!). When we knocked on the door, the brother answered the door, and we asked if Nicoletta was home, and he said yes, and then we asked if Bianca was his sister, to which he replied that she was! We met a member’s sister halfway across the city, and it just happened to be the one that we were working on helping come back to church. There is no way that this could be anything other than a miracle in the making! That night, we taught three of Nicoletta’s siblings and all four of them came to church on Sunday! Also, since Edet, Minteria, AND Patrick came to church on Sunday, we had 6 investigators at church on Sunday! I’m pretty sure that is a record for my mission and definitely for our companionship! We also picked up the three siblings and then two other investigators, so we were able to find 5 new investigators this week! It has been amazing to see all of the miracles that Heavenly Father is working here, and we are privileged to be able to experience them first hand.
One of the other investigators we picked up was also a miracle. We were out with Juan, who is getting ready to go on his mission, and even though he is in the Woodbridge Ward, he brings us out fishing and doing missionary stuff. We went to go try to teach a lesson on Peck St of all places, but the lady had the flu. It was starting to rain, and we looked for an old investigator he remembered, but we couldn’t find the house. My tie was getting wet, and I didn’t want to ruin it, so I was in favor of getting back in the car, but Juan said,”Let’s do two more houses.” Whenever that phrase comes up, you always know something is about to happen. The first door, Juan was pretty bold and in Spanish, asked the lady if we could come back, and she said yes, and then said,”Ok, we’ll see you Tuesday at 3.” She kind of looked us over for a second, but said ok, and went back inside. The next one, a 14 year old guy opened the door. We asked if there was a time we could come back a share a message, and he said yes, but we just kind of trasitioned into the lesson, which was awesome! We taught him the first lesson, Juan connected pretty well with him and talked about how the gospel really helped him when he was a teenager, and Oscar, the guy, said we could come back this week and teach him again! We have found that kids are really open to our message. Often, a kid will come to the door, we will ask if we can share a message, and they will seem interested, but then, their parents say no. It is hard, but ALSO on Peck St, about a week ago, we were knocking doors, and the spirit was really strong. Promptings were coming left and right, and it was pretty intense. They were all leading us in a good direction, and we picked up a potential from some cool circumstances. As we were knocking, I felt we should climb some steps. We knocked on the second floor, and no one came, and I felt the third floor was where we should go. We knocked, and no one answered, we knocked again, and no one answered. We started down the stairs, but I had the feeling to go back up. We went back up, and an 11 yr old girl answered. We asked if we could share a message, and she said her parents would be home around 5, and she said we could come back around then. When we came back that night, the outside door was locked, which we supposed might of happened!
It stunk, but while in the area again, we tried again, and ran into the brother, and he said we could come that night. We tried right at 5 and it was locked again! We had even asked him to come and unlock it! We went and did other stuff for a bit and talked to an investigator’s mom, and built a relationship with her. As we were heading back, we decided to try it one more time. As I grabbed hold of the door knob, it was locked, but I pushed it in, and it was open!!!! Yes!! We raced upstairs, and after a few knocks and some persuasion, we got in! We caught the dad in the room with conversation, and he didn’t speak too much English, but we shared a little bit, and promised to bring a Spanish speaker the next time. They have three kids, and the dad may or may not be interested, but it was such an amazing miracle, we are dedicated to teaching them and to helping them learn more! Where much is required, much is expected!
I love Peck St. We have had so many amazing miracles there and I love New Haven! I am so thankful for Easter and the Ressurection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Make him a part of you life. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Davis
Where the Lord Wants Me 