Where the Lord Wants Me

Hey everyone! This week has brought some exciting new things and I’m excited to share them with you!

On Tuesday, we had dinner with the Longos and had both sets of missionaries, plus a coordination about the ward, and the man doing the coordination was also the home teacher! It was a four in one! We had a good time!

Wednesday we had exchanges in Bridgeport with the Zone Leaders, Elder Warner and Elder Fife! We worked our tails off and had an amazing time! Elder Warner is an amazing missionary and he taught me a lot. We visited with a man named Issa who is from Chad. He is a genuinely happy person. For the entire lesson, he was smiling 🙂 As we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and how we need to walk by faith, he made a comment that basically taught us that God will always make a way when we keep his commandments. We were pretty sure that he learned 1 Nephi 3:7 without even reading it. It was breathtaking. Issa is very prepared and is a wonderful person. As we were talking to everyone and walking in Bridgeport, Elder Warner took out his phone a couple times during the day and we shared short videos with contacts that we met. Oh by, the way, our mission is receiving smartphones this week! We showed them short clips about the Book of Mormon and other gospel topics! It was so cool to see how technology can be used for sharing the gospel! We had a really good day, because we decided to talk to everyone. It was a lot of fun! We also got to stop by and see Edet! I haven’t seen Edet since I left New Haven, so it was good to catch up with their family! We also had dinner at a really good place called La Mexicana, or La Mex, as they call it. They had some very good horchata and some of the better mexican food that they have out here on the east coast. Elder Warner also shared some great tips for using technology wisely through example. He would pull it out and use it when it could help us fulfill our purpose, and once the task was done, he would put it back in his pocket. Wow. It was really cool to see. I know that through living in a way where our smartphones are our servants and not our masters will help us to use it wisely and avoid wasting time and anything else that can take us away from what is most important in life. On our way out, Elder Warner basically committed me to talk to everyone. Elder Smith and I both had our hands full with bedding and our day bags and it seemed like no one was going to walk near us while we were going to our car. All of a sudden, a man walks out of a parking lot and starts traveling toward us. Oh no!! I couldn’t let this pass by, otherwise it would be a terrible start to this new commitment. “Excuse me sir, could we give you a card?!” and down went the bags onto the grass! We gave him a card, but he said,”I already have a card, you guys gave me a Book of Mormon too, and I’ve been reading it a little bit.”………………….What? That was a testimony that God puts people in our path that are there for a reason!

Thursday was good, because we took that same challenge. Over the course of the day, I was just happier! As we turn outside of ourselves and serve others, it naturally makes us happier and full of light! We had a quick weekly planning on Thursday, and it should be pretty quick with the new planning steps given to us. We pray, evaluate how they are doing, set goals and make plans on how to help them progress, and then pray again. Simple and effective! That night, we had dinner with Sis. Baumann, a couple other members in the ward, and a newer family in the ward who moved from Bridgeport. As we visited, they said that they moved here a few months ago and haven’t really had anyone to talk to and that this was the first real time that they have had friends in Waterbury. It was definitely worth it to spend time at that dinner. The gospel is amazing and ties us together! Wards are a ward family where we can grow closer together and support each other. I’m so grateful for the church and for the love and support that it provides us.

Friday was District Meeting and afterwards, we received our phones! As missionaries, we will be using technology for proselyting purposes now! Facebook Messenger and other apps will be part of our communication with people learning about the church and with others. It is an amazing tool that we are so blessed to be able to use in this day and age. We also helped get Youth to the awesome Youth Retreat that the Waterbury Ward had! The afternoon was spent scouting out all of the people that may have or may not come, so we had a fun time with Elder Smith’s persuading skills and the help of the rest of the ward! A couple less active members and even non members came and had a great time. Sister Vogel’s daughter and the Haltermans’ son came back for the weekend as well to help, so they all had a blast!

Saturday, Elder Smith helped the youth to organize their video, we stopped by some potentials, and had dinner. Most of the day was gone, and we hadn’t had a lot of time to proselyte like we wanted to. It was 7 PM, and we headed out to knock a street. As we walked up for a mile or two, it seemed like families were coming out of the woodwork. One family was about to go see more of their family and they were standing right outside of their door at the moment we walked by. Another was moving and had two couches left, which we were able to help with, and they ended up having about 5 or 6 kids! At one of our last doors, we knocked, nobody came, but right before we left, a woman answered the door. She was confused why we were there, probably because she hadn’t heard us knocking. We talked about our church and right as we were about to leave, we told her that we could answer some more of her questions, long story short, her husband let us in and we got to teach her about the Book of Mormon! It was a great night!

Sunday was a good refresher. We need sacrament meeting to survive the week! Lots of the Spanish Elders’ investigators were able to come to church and a lot of the less actives came too. They found the Vicente family about a week ago. They were baptized about four years ago and then just got out of the habit of coming. Sister Vicente is amazing, she wants to be her best self, and knows that that is only available through God. Her two daughters came to the Youth Retreat this weekend, had a great time, and then they came for church on Sunday! A lot of the strength that can come to our wards in the Less Active members. The Spanish Elders met a family that hasn’t come in 6 years because they didn’t know that there was a spanish group. There are people out there ready to be rescued. Sunday night, we also worked with a couple that has a lot of family in the area and we mapped out their entire family tree, and we’ll be reaching out to their family to invite them to come back to church.

Life is good in Waterbury and we are figuring out how to use this technology, but it is definitely a blessing. I love you all!! Don’t forget, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path to happiness. Love you all!!

Love, Elder Davis