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Monday, December 9, 2013

Belgium - Week 42 (Liege)

12/9/2013
 
Hey everyone!
Today is the first day of my 8th transfer! A brand new transfer means transfer news! So it turns out that I will be STAYING in Liège for another 6 weeks, but my good friend and dear companion Elder Aleccia will be transferred back to France. He has one transfer (6 weeks) left in his mission, so he'll go back to France for 6 weeks and then he'll be back in the good ol' U S of A. 
 
I'll miss him. We had a good 12 weeks together and we saw a lot of good success and miracles and baptisms together. I learned a lot from him and I'm grateful for him because I think he made me a better missionary. 
So my new companion will be Blake Pilling. I don't know him, but I've heard lots of good things about him! 
This past week was really good. I went on an exchange in Namur with Elder Derick Beckstrand from California. He's a super good missionary and we found and taught some cool people from knocking on doors and talking to them on the street. 
Crazy to think that Christmas is just around the corner! Here in Belgium, and specifically in Liège, there are Christmas decorations and music everywhere. Christmas music is awesome!!!
Being a missionary this time of year is great. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, I'm grateful for my calling as a missionary to help others come unto Him.
Christmas as a missionary is hard in the sense that we are away from our families, but they are also some of the best you can ever have because we are constantly thinking about the true meaning of the season.
Have a great week everyone!
 
Elder Davis
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Belgium - Week 41 (Liege)

12/3/2013
 
Hello everyone!
Sorry I wasn't able to write yesterday.... Monday was crazy! We had to take a train to Brussels to take care of some legality paperwork and what not. It seems like we are always working on some type of legality paperwork, but I guess that's what we get since our mission covers 3 different countries. 
Unfortunately the Belgium government people messed up my paper a while back (along with some other missionaries) and they weren't even able to fix it yesterday.... so I'll probably end up back in Brussels this weekend. 
It was a lot of fun though, Brussels is awesome and its all decorated for Christmas. 
Of course this week was Thanksgiving. It was definitely an interesting one this year. My first Thanksgiving away from home, but it went really well. We ended up getting together as a zone (18 missionaries) and we played some games and ate a big dinner with as much American food as we could get our hands on. I'll send some photos!
We also had stake conference this weekend and Elder Texiera, one of the area 70 for Europe, was there. Super legit! The best  part though was that I was able to see the old members from my last area which was so cool! I know I say this all the time, but seeing old people that I served or served with is always so exciting. I love the members of Strombeek!
Lets see, this week Elder Aleccia and I had our exchange with the AP's. We got to work in Liège this time instead of Versailles and it was pretty legit. Super fast paced and we met a lot of cool people. 
Elder Aleccia and I got to teach Pascale again. It's been a little while since we've seen her, but we had an awesome, spirit filled lesson. She has been going through some tough times, particularly with her 18 year old son. Pascale is a typical concerned mother and her son has been making some interesting choices despite her pleas and warnings. Elder Aleccia and I were able to talk to her about how we too were once dumb 18 year old boys who made interesting decisions, but in the long run it was our mothers' prayers and testimonies that helped us become who we are today. She also had a really cool spiritual experience while reading the Book of Mormon this week which is great. Pascal is so golden, keep her in your prayers. 
Overall, super crazy, busy week. This week is the last week of the transfer so I will find out if I stay in Liège with Elder Aleccia on Monday. I hope I stay, and I hope I get to stay with Elder Aleccia! I've learned a lot with him and we've had a lot of cool experiences and seen a lot of miracles and baptisms together. This next one will be his last transfer before going home too so I'd love to be there with him to the end! He's the man.
Well everyone... have a great week. 
Elder Davis
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Belgium - Week 40 (Liege)

11/25/2013
 
Why hello there everyone, 
Well here I am once again in the small internet café we always go to wondering what I'm going to tell you guys about. Well for starters I guess I'll tell you guys that I had a great week like always.  
We had interviews with President and Sister Poznanski this past week so that was pretty great. Any one on one time you get with your mission president is always a great experience. I'm so grateful for president Poznanski and everything he has done for me and taught me so far on my mission. He's helped me learn how to be a better man, missionary and follower of Christ. he's inspired and legit!
Oh, i should also probably warn you that next Monday I have to go to Brussels and do some legality paperwork so I don't get kicked out of the country so I probably wont have time to do emails like normal. If not I'll just write next Tuesday instead. 
This past week I was in Namur on an exchange with Elder Brandon Haskell. recently the elders in Namur have been struggling to see any success or miracles so I did a lot of praying before getting to their city. once I got there Elder Haskell and I said a prayer together and set some goals for our exchange. That was the begining of a miracle packed day! at first it was really slow... nobody was interested and we were talking to everyone in our path in the heart of the city. It wasn't until the last guy we talked to before dinner that we got to teach him and set up a follow up appointment. he is a father of three and has lots of potential.
Later that night we knocked on some doors by their church building and ran into a cool guy named Jean-Benoit (yeah, super French name haha). He opened the door and told us that he goes running pretty much every morning in front of our church and has been wondering for years what the Mormons were all about. he let us in and we taught him about the restoration of the Gospel. 
The spirit was super strong during that exchange and I learned and grew as a missionary. 
yesterday we taught the Coulon family again. They are so legit! I love that family so much. Honestly, before we saw them yesterday I had been kind of frustrated with them because we would always schedule appointments and they would always cancel at the last minute. However.... once I sat down at their table in their kitchen and started to teach them about the Restoration I could almost literally feel the Lord pouring charity into my heart for this family. I want nothing more for them than the best!
During that entire lesson I felt again how the Lord kind of took control. I never wondered what I needed to say or how I needed to say it or what question to ask or when to not say anything at all. The words just kind of came and I could feel the love the Lord has for that family.
We are seeing them again this Friday so keep them in your prayers. 
Overall.... awesome week. I know I say that every week, but that's only because it's true. I love Belgium. I love the people here. I love being a missionary. The church is true!
Have a great week,
Elder Davis
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Belgium - Week 39 (Liege)

11/18/13
 
Hello everyone!
I had an interesting week! The miracles started right after I finished emailing last Monday. After emails, while we were on our way to the grocery store, I heard someone yell "Attendez, les garçons" which means "Wait, boys!"
I turned around and saw an African lady running after us and pushing a stroller. Her name was Lou, a young mother from the Cote d'Ivoire. We talked to her for a little bit and found out she was baptized a member of the church in Africa, but then lost contact with the church when she moved up to Belgium. Its kind of a long story of how and why she came to Belgium, but because of her tough living situation she wasn't able to find the church here in Liege. 
Which explains her reaction when she saw us. We were able to get her contact information, visit her later in the week with a member, and then she came to church yesterday!
She was so, so, so happy to finally be able to go to church again. She had been hoping and praying for something to help her with all the trials she is going through right now and the Lord provided!
Another miracle!
This ones small, but really cool. To make another long story short. Elder Aleccia and I got on a wrong train this week and then missed the train we needed to take back to liege. We were stranded outside of Liege and had no way of getting back... There was a train that was going to come by really late that we had to take. 
On the train that took us back to liege we ran into an old investigator (a really cool, married father of 3) who we've been trying to get a hold of for a long time. He actually saw us, came up to us and we were able to set up an appointment with him. I didn't know why we were on that train at the time but now I know why! We needed to be there to see him.
I love you guys, have an awesome week!
Elder Davis

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Monday, November 18, 2013

Belgium - Week 38 (Liege)

11/11/2013
 
Hello family and friends,

Like always, it was a pretty awesome week! the best part was probably yesterday in sacrament meeting when we confirmed Roméo a member of the church! Moments like that are priceless. 

Church was just awesome in general yesterday. It was the primary program so all the kids in the branch (all 4 of them) shared their testimonies and sang hymns for the congregation. It was for sure the smallest primary program I've ever seen, but the spirit was super strong. We had an investigator there, named Pascale Darville, who was there sitting next to me crying her eyes out because she was so touched by the hymns and the testimonies of the young kids. 


On Friday Elder Aleccia and I went to Mons to do a baptismal interview for the elders there. I got to do the interview and it was an AWESOME experiences. That was the first time I've ever been the interviewer instead of the interviewed. The man I interviewed was a young father with a huge testimony and desire to follow Christ. 

The spirit was super strong and I knew without a doubt that he was ready to be baptized. It wasn't just me telling him that I personally thought he was ready to be baptized, when I opened my mouth and said those words it was like God Himself was working through me to tell this man that he had done what he needed to do to qualify to make this covenant with God. Its hard to explain, but being a tool in the Hand of Heavenly Father like that is incredible. 

One of our mini goals as a mission (to accomplish our big goal to baptize a family for Christmas) is to find a new family to teach every week. Well... towards the end of Sunday night, Elder Aleccia and I still hadn't fund a family.

We prayed and asked the Lord what we needed to do and where we needed to go to find someone who was ready for the gospel in their lives. 

Around 8 pm, we found a young married man (who was home alone at the time) from Columbia. he is very Christian and let us into his home to talk about our message of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

We are seeing him again tonight.

As you may have noticed.... I only talked about Sunday in this email haha. There are literally so many awesome experiences and miracles that happen every day that it is impossible for me to write about an entire week in one sitting. My suggestion is for everyone to go serve a mission so they can live and have these priceless experiences for themselves. 

yesterday after church Roméo turned to me and said "Elder Davis, I can tell that the Lord has changed you on your mission". He doesn't know how true that statement is. Missions change people. My mission has changed me. 

Have an awesome week!
Elder Davis
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Belgium - Week 37 (Liege)

11/04/2013
 
Hello everyone!

Life is too good here in Liège! We had an awesome first week of the transfer. Elder Hill (One of the missionaries in my 4 man apartment) got moved to Verseilles and now we have elder Jordan Brown with us! He's a super cool young missionary from Utah. 

On Friday I got to go to Paris for a mission council with some of the other missionaries. Paris never gets old! It just has a feel about it different than anywhere else I've ever been. 

We had an interesting lesson last week haha. Elder Aleccia and I were teaching someone about the Plan of Salvation (the plan that our Heavenly Father has created for us His children so we can someday live with Him again as eternal families). Anyways... The lesson was going really well, it was just the three of us in his apartment... The spirit was really strong, then out of nowhere he stands up off of the couch, raises his arms towards heaven, yells "My God halleluiah" and maybe something in some type of African dialect, then throws himself at our feet and tries to kiss our shoes haha. It was quite an interesting experience... That definitely wasn't the reaction we were going for! Haha looks like we still need to work with him a little bit...

Lets see what else happened this week.... Oh yeah we had another baptism yesterday! Our good friend Roméo was baptized last night after church. We had a small baptismal service for him and it was really special. He was like a 5 year old little boy on Christmas eve leading up to yesterday. He was so excited to make this covenant with God! He really has come a long way... When we first started working with him we were kind of skeptical about how sincere he was to progress and be baptized. But he made some major changes in his life and he is so happy! 

Obedience to the commandments brings happiness and blessings. The difference is night and day. Watching him come up out of the water was really special. Even cooler than that though was when he took 5 minutes to share his testimony at the end of the baptismal service. It's moments like that which make all the knocking on doors and endless amounts of street contacting worth it.

The weather is starting to get pretty bad here. Lots of rain, reminds me of home haha. I hope you are all doing well. I pray for many of you by name. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK,

Elder Davis
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Belgium - Week 36 (Liege)

10/28/2013
 
Hello everyone!

Well, I found out today...... that I will be staying in Liège for at least another 6 weeks and that I will be staying with the same companion Elder Aleccia! We are really excited to continue working together and see some more miracles and success here. 

Transfer days are always really crazy though so I don't have a ton of time to write emails. We have to do a lot of different things to help all the other missionaries get to their new cities with their new companions.  

This week was really great! We found some cool people to teach, got some people to church and had some great spiritual experiences. Yesterday Elder Aleccia and I were on the bus and I had the feeling to get off at a certain stop. We found a lady who was interested to talk to us and then found a huge family within like 20 minutes right after that. It's a pretty small thing, but it really shows how important it is to follow the spirit in this work. 

Thank you all for the emails, prayers and support.

Have a great week!
Elder Davis

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 

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