,: MTC 6

Sorry that this post is late, we were experiencing some technical difficulties!

Here's our weekly letter from Elder Davis :)

Hello Family and Friends!

So ends another week here in the MTC. This is officially week 7. 20 more days and I'll be on a plane to Paris. I'm really excited to leave the MTC and start working in Paris, but at the same time I want to work as hard as possible and get the most out of these next 20 days here at the MTC. I have a lot to learn still.

So let's see... I'll talk about my week like I did in my email last week... day by day.

Last Tuesday 1-22: I went to the Provo temple this day and met someone there named Brother Timmons. Apparently he knows the Davis' (Mom and Dad: I think he was talking about Noreen and Gordon Davis that live in the Maltby ward by us). The Timmons’s family was Catholic, but the Davis family taught them the Gospel in Florida and now they are members of the Church. I just thought it was cool to run into him and find out that he knows the Davis's in the Maltby ward. Small world! We also had a fireside by David Evans who is the executive director of the Missionary Department. He gave an awesome message and even said that there are so many missionaries coming in that we might have to start having MTC firesides in the Marriot Center (BYU's big basketball stadium). There are about 3000 missionaries here in the MTC right now.

On Wed. 1-23: We got 5 new French missionaries. We also did a PVL day as a district which means (Parle votre langue) which means speak your language. Basically we just go a whole day just speaking French. I was also told by my teacher that my French is really good, but my accent sucks! So that was kind of humbling. But it gives me something to work on. We had a bunch of lessons today. We teach about 8-10 lessons a week.

On Thurs 1-24: I saw Elder Ragsdale from WA! It was cool to see him. He's going to Nevada on his mission and he's doing well. It also rained today which was cool because it reminded me of home. I hadn't seen rain for a while.

On Fri 1-25: I got an awesome surprise in the mail! A case of bottled water! haha I really hate the water here in Utah, so my family and Marco Mummy did me a huge favor and got me some water. Thank you!! I know it doesn't seem like a big deal but I was pretty excited.

On Sat 1-26: Elder Williams celebrated his 20th Birthday. He got lots of packages from his family so the whole district got lots of donuts and what not.

On Sun 1-27: It started snowing again. People are saying that this is more snow that Utah normally gets. There is a ton of snow! We had a lot of good district meetings and stuff today.

Monday 1-29: was a cool day because we got another companion! Me and Elder Williams are now in a trio with Elder Jambon. He is 22 from Montana. He’s a convert to the church and is a rancher on a big farm. He also got shot in the arm. These are all the cool random things I know about him so far. He is going to Tahiti on his mission and is learning French and Tahitian here in the MTC. His district left for Tahiti on Monday, but he needed/decided to stay here at the MTC for 3 more weeks because he's been having a hard time picking up the languages. Elder Williams and I are going to do our best to help him pick up French. I'll send some pictures. We also taught a lesson about the Word of Wisdom (Which is a commandment given by God, through a prophet which helps us take better care of our bodies and blesses our lives immensely). It was tough teaching this lesson because the person we were teaching is French and loves to drink wine.

Overall...I'm doing really well. Time is flying by. I'm learning a lot of French and a lot about the gospel. I'm staying healthy and working hard. There are lots of hard things about a mission, but I know I'm doing the right thing by serving a mission. I have already grown so much. I love this work.

Some other random things/answers to questions about the MTC

- Missionaries have to prepare talks for every Sunday. Nobody is assigned to give talks, we are just randomly called up from the congregation to give our talks in French so you have to prepare one every week in case you get called up.

- Mom, in my district: Elder Davis, Elder Williams, Elder Jambon, Elder Ruby, Elder Cowling, elder Platt, Elder Stoker, Sister Hall, Sister Busiere, Sister Verdin-Delgado, and Sister Pacheco. 11 total.

Love,

Elder Davis

Pictures! :)