20 Lessons?

****MOM NOTE: Elder Davis’ new companion in New Haven, CT will be Elder Nagtalon from Utah. Sister Downey, one of the Woodbridge. CT Sisters, knows him. Elder Nagtalon has been a missionary for 4.5 months. Transfers are on Wednesday of this week.****

Hello everyone! So for starters, Elder Greding will be getting transferred this next Wednesday to Plymouth, MA. I served on Cape Cod, so Plymouth is right next to it, and he will be following in the footsteps of Elder Shull, my MTC Companion and Elder Evans, from my MTC District. It is a good change for all of us. He is excited to see the other side of the mission and to have a new area, after serving in New Haven for 5 transfers, and I am excited to get a new companion. We are doing great work out here. I have never been busier, have taught more, or have grown more spiritually and intellectually. New Haven has been a purifying place. I am definitely grateful for Elder Greding and his desire to try new things. Because of that, we have been able to change the way we teach, teach each other new things, and to grow together. We have seen so many miracles and have had great adventures in these last 3 months. He is a great missionary and we have really grown to make a great companionship.

This week as I was reading a letter from Elder Kikuchi, my dad’s mission president, he suggested that we could teach 20 lessons a week. Looking at previous numbers, and the fact that we don’t count lessons any more, it looked a little daunting, but we decided to take it on! This week was the 20 LESSON CHALLENGE WEEK!

Tuesday we were planning on going to a Blood Drive, but they actually asked for no volunteers, and it was a high security high school, and we didn’t know about security checks, so imagine two missionaries sitting at the back table of a blood drive where no religious people usually are. Yep, it was kind of weird, but they were able to get some students to fill the slots 🙂 Instead of the blood drive, we went and picked up an investigator and taught Bill! We had dinner with the Rogers, who are now going to inspect our apartments, so I guess they have to be even more spick and span now! We also saw Elvira and had a great lesson with her!

Wednesday was a little tough. We had lots of appointments scheduled, but many of them canceled. We also drove around a lot, which was tiring, but we helped Br. Hailu trim his bushes, which was SO fun (it’s cool to get it all looking complete) and he fed us some awesome food, like he always does, because he is a cool ethiopian and that’s what he does! We did see Sergio and Douglas though, which was really refreshing. Sergio has been doing better. Ok, I am just going to give the highlights for the week now….We saw Sergio three times this week and he also came to church. He is DONE with school so he will be able to have more time to read now. He does want to, so we are just working on helping him apply everything he knows. Members have been crucial and we have been more bold, which is also helping direct him. Elvira has been doing well. We picked up her son Freddy as an investigator, and Freddy is so talented. Sadly, he has lots of temptations in his life, but he can cook, play the guitar, sing, do a ton of pullups, and all the lot. He was really sincere in our lesson on Thursday and it was amazing to see him so interested. We want to help him strengthen his relationship with God and how he lives, and one day he will get baptized, I know it. We volunteered at a soup kitchen on Thursday and Elder Greding cut his finger 5 minutes in, but he survived! We ended up picking up two potentials, one who lives on English Street (right next to Peck St, what are the odds!?!?) and a Yale Student who is leaving this thursday….it’s ok. Our whole teaching atmosphere will be changing soon with less students at Yale. Also, we cut up about 500 strawberries for dessert, and we got really good at chopping. Look out after our missions! We had a lesson with Minteria earlier in the week, and the only thing she needs to be baptized is a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was hard for her to understand at the beginning, but we left her with the 20 minute Restoration and three days later, she shared with us that she had understood why we had to be bold and was thankful for it. That is what makes this all worth it! Those who are able to overcome barriers and endure are the ones who will succeed! We ended up having 20 lessons this week and picked up 5 new investigators. It was a great week and I can’t wait to see what will come in the future. Love you all!!

-Elder Davis