,: MTC 2

Here's our letter from this week! :)

Hello Family and Friends!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope you all had an exciting, fun and safe New Year’s Eve. Here at the MTC we celebrated New Year’s at 10:00 pm since our bed time is at 10:30. I have some cool pictures that I'll post of that.

This past week has been quite a roller coaster. It has just been packed with studying and teaching. We have already begun teaching an investigator named Marion who lived in a little city close to Paris her whole life. She speaks English, but refused to speak a word of it to me and my companion Elder Williams so we were forced to teach her in French. Teaching in French is great. It’s hard to believe I've only been here for 13 days and I can already pray, and teach entire lessons in French. My companion and I have even tried going entire days without speaking a word of English which really helps. Teaching in French is also very humbling and frustrating though, especially when there is something I really want to say but I don't know how to say it in French. Sometimes I feel like a child who wants to communicate but doesn't know the words yet.

Church on Sundays is awesome. I may have already said this in my last email, but we have church pretty much entirely in French. Singing Hymns in French is my favorite part of church.

Oh, there has been a ton of snow here in Utah too! Way more than there was on Christmas.

Oh and just so everyone knows, the food here at the MTC sucks!!! Everything is so gross. Everyone who ever told me that the food at the MTC was good was lying to my face.

Last night was quite an adventure. At about 12:00 am Utah time, one of my roommates elder Anderson woke all of us up by violently vomiting all over the place. It was pretty gross. He was in really bad shape, throwing up blood and everything. Me and my other roommates Elder Williams and Elder Salmon did our best to clean up after him but he was just throwing up a ton. After about 45 minutes of straight vomiting, he was so exhausted and frustrated that he asked me and my roommates for a priesthood blessing. I was so grateful for the opportunity to do that. Even after the blessing, he was still throwing up a ton so we had to take him to the front desk. From there he eventually went to the ER. At the front desk they told us that Elder Anderson was the 32nd missionary THAT NIGHT who had the exact same symptoms. Several missionaries were sent to the ER and some are even forced to stay in the MT for 2 additional weeks before they will let them report to their assigned mission. It’s crazy. In the words of Elder Anderson, the MTC has been hit by the plague overnight. I was feeling a little queasy myself last night but I'm better now.

Elder Anderson is 100% fine now which is amazing! All of the other missionaries are still in bad shape, but he must have had extra faith when we gave him that blessing. It may seem like a small thing, but to me and my companions, that was a small miracle.

Thank you all again for all the letters and cards and packages you've sent me. I have more candy and snacks than I could ever hope to eat by myself.

Congrats to my cousin Kenny for getting engaged!!!

Congrats to Digger and family for the job! That is exciting news!

It’s crazy that I've only been gone for 13 days and so many things have changed already! When I get back everything is going to be so different.

Well, I'm just about out of my 30 minute time limit. Everyone stay healthy and safe during this nasty flu season. Pray for the missionaries here who are sick. I love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder Davis

P.S. In my last email I was wrong, there are 2031 missionaries here, not 1031

Pictures!

#1 Me and elder Williams at 10:00 pm celebrating new years!!

#2 This is a picture of a picture that hangs on the wall in one of the hallways of the MTC. Its amazing to me the devotion some people have to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Look how thick the ice is! It probably took a chainsaw to cut through all that ice. Also, notice that the person that was in the water first is the young woman being baptized. The elder (who will be performing the baptism) is having a hard time, but she is so excited and so faithful that she was in there first just begging him to hurry up. Such faith is inspiring. I hope to find some people like that in France.

#3 Elder Williams likes to wear suspenders. Once I saw they were only 6 bucks at the bookstore on the MTC campus I couldn't resist buying them haha. we are now the classiest looking elders in the MTC.