July 17, 2017
Hello! This week was slow near the beginning, but we have seen so many miracles in the past few days, it was amazing! I guess, to put our week shortly, as said by Julie B. Beck, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. ” Let’s get moving!
P-day we played frisbee, which was SUPER tiring, but we had water in the back. Monday night we met with the Titus family. They have gone to the temple in the past year, but haven’t been able to make it to church, so we met with them and had a lesson on preparing to go to the temple! We are going to keep meeting with them, and hopefully they will be able to take out their endowments and be sealed as husband and wife in the next few months! They also have a lot of family history lined up that they can bring to the temple, which is amazing!
Tuesday morning, Elder Peterson did My Plan and then I updated the Progress Record and sent it out for correlation, and then we went out and worked. I’ve learned a hard but important lesson from this week. You can plan for your entire life, but once you have planned, you need to just go out and do! That is where your success comes and that is when you can feel the Spirit. Yes, plan, but then go and do,….. like Nephi! We also had correlation and the 19 Hotshots from Prescott came up, since they found out that I am from Prescott. It brought back memories of when the community came together to really support the families of the Hotshots. I can’t think of a better way to describe Zion than that.
Wednesday morning we had a lesson with Andy, our investigator in Salem. We read 1 Nephi 1 with him and we all learned something new. Hopefully he finds more truth through journaling, which is what we learned from Nephi. We also knocked a lot, and we found a few potentials, but not as many as we hoped. We also knocked in the rain around Marblehead with families, but it was definitely a push for us to work with members more.
Thursday morning we weekly planned and got done with most of it very quickly. We also went through all of the steps in the investigators coming to sacrament meeting, and it went so much more smoothly. When we are obedient and do everything, it all works out better. John Bytheway says that fatigue doesn’t come from working hard, it comes from being just on the brink of finishing a job for a long time. As Shia La Beouf says, “JUST DO IT!” We also volunteered at the Salem Farmers Market! We did set up and got to meet a lot of cool people. The vendors and farmers are all local and the produce looks delicious! It is also a great way to meet people!
Friday was District Meeting! We talked a lot about how we can improve our skills and our spirituality, like Elder Foster talked about, and since we have Zone Conference this week, and interviews as well, it is a great week to grow! We listed about 10 ways to increase in both and will be applying those to see how much we can grow in a week! I had the opportunity to read Elder Gay’s talk in this month’s Ensign (Thanks Mom!) and he talked about Following the Direction of the Spirit, even when it isn’t the most popular or normal thing to do, and then also to Embrace the Marginalized. Jesus Christ focused on the Least, the Last, and the Lost and so should we. The section about following the spirit helped to give me a boost for the last few days of the week. We were able to see a lady who has a member friend who recently moved to Las Vegas from this area. The member asked us to go see her, since this woman had experienced a lot of loss in her family. For me it was a little hard and I had no idea what to say, but Elder Peterson jumped in and was able to share a personal experience to help her. That is why we are in companionships, to help and support one another! We also met with Justin and taught him the beginning of the Commandments. After that, we had mini exchanges with the Lynn Elders and did an English/Spanish split in Salem for about 3 hours. That evening, we got home with about an hour left, and Elder Peterson felt we should go see Cassandra, who we helped move a few weeks ago and she might come to church soon. We went over, and after much knocking and ingenuity (Knocking on the window 😉 ), we were finally able to get in contact with her. We talked for a solid half an hour, and then offered to help her move some boxes the next morning in her basement. That led to setting up a Chapel Tour for next Saturday!! The Lord works again! (Just like always).
Saturday morning we helped out Cassandra, and then Did more of My Plan and we could have stayed longer, but Elder Peterson said we should go. We did and then stopped by a potential in Danvers, and as we were going to try to see her, a guy got out of his car and we started talking. He was actually looking for our potential since he had mowed the lawn, but he was more than willing to talk to us. There was so much about the exchange we had that was reaffirming it was supposed to happen. We picked him up, and later that day, we talked to a lady for 45 minutes on her porch about raising kids in this world, and set a day when we could return and talk about FHE. It was an amazing week! The Lord will bless you as you listen to the Spirit. JUST DO IT!!!
Love,
Elder Davis
Where the Lord Wants Me 