,: MTC 7 - 13 Days Until Paris!

Here's our letter for this week!

Bonjour tout le monde! (Hello everyone!)

I hope you are all doing well. I pray for you all often. I am another week closed to Paris. 13 more days and I'll be one a 10 hour flight to France. I'm so excited. I say this all the time, but I'll say it again, "I love the MTC, but I can't wait to leave and start working in France".

I got to host this past week. For those of you who don't know what hosting is, basically I get to help the new missionaries find their way around the MTC when they first get here. We had 600 missionaries come in last Wednesday and I was able to help 3 of them: 2 elders, 1 sister, all going to Spanish speaking missions. It was a lot of fun. It seems like only yesterday I was being dropped off at the MTC.

I get to host again next week which is awesome because my good friend Damon Roberts is entering the MTC this Wednesday! There are 800 missionaries coming in this week so I probably won’t get to be his host. But I'll probably run into him here in the MTC. There are roughly 3000 missionaries here at the MTC, it’s packed in here! Since we got 600 new missionaries, Elder Williams, Elder Jambor and I got 2 new roommates. Elder Kelly is from Salt Lake, and Elder Angell from somewhere in Utah. They are both barely 18! They seem so young, but they are pretty cool guys. It was interesting the first night they were here because we had 5 missionaries in the room and only 4 beds (Yeah, did I mention there are a lot of missionaries here already?) Luckily the elders in our neighboring room had an empty bed so Elder Jambor moved in their room and is now a part of their companionship. So now it’s just me and Elder Williams again, no more trio.

We got to teach a lot of awesome lessons this week. One lesson we taught was to a guy who served his mission in Congo (Africa). He spoke great French and we gave a great lesson on the power of the Book of Mormon. Since his mission he hadn't been reading his scriptures as much as he'd like to so we bore testimony to him the importance of the Book of Mormon and how reading scriptures everyday can bless our lives. I know that's true.

I've been memorizing lots of good scriptures this week. So far I have the first vision, the baptismal invitation, Moroni 10:3-5, 2 Nephi 25:26, 3 Nephi 5:13 and most of Helaman 5:12 memorized all in French. Memorizing things in French is tough, but it’s helpful for learning the language.

Oh crazy stuff happened in gym this past week. So the other day, we were playing basketball and some elder (for some stupid reason) decided to kick a basketball as hard as he could in a crowded gym. The ball barely missed my face and hit Elder Steve Ragsdale right in the gut! It knocked the wind out of him so bad that he stood there for a second, and then passed out and fell right on his face!! I witnessed the whole thing, but it all happened so fast that I couldn't catch him. It was actually really scary because once he hit the ground he started convulsing like he was having a seizure!! Me and a bunch of other missionaries were freaking out and tried to pick him up. We got him on his feet and he immediately snapped out of it. He was really confused, he had no idea what had just happened. We ended up taking him to the health clinic and they ended up taking him to the hospital. He is fine now. The doctors at the hospital said he had a concussion so they gave him some medicine for that. Overall, he just has a bad cut lip from when his face hit the ground. Moral of the story, don't kick basketballs in crowded gyms

Another crazy thing that happened, some missionary was playing volleyball in gym and as he was spiking the ball something happened and he landed on his head (Don't ask me how that happened, I didn't whiteness this one, I only heard about it.) I did however see him lying on the gym floor face first completely paralyzed. It was nuts, they had to call an ambulance and everything. Luckily, right before they took him away on the stretcher I saw him move his hands and feet a little bit so I know he's not paralyzed. It’s scary stuff though. I actually saw him today. He looks like he is doing OK now, but he has a thick neck brace on. Moral of the story: volleyball is a dangerous sport haha.

Oh, on Sunday I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting. I've never played the piano in a sacrament meeting before so that was kind of crazy. I did well though and I definitely want to practice some more so I can play in France if I'm ever needed. Oh, this Sunday was also testimony meeting which was cool because I was able to give my testimony in French in front of everyone.

Elder Williams was sick yesterday so I was obligated to stay in the room with him yesterday. I was able to get a lot of studying in though!

Oh last crazy fact of the week! Our teacher, Frere (brother) Blosil is Donny Osmond’s Nephew! Crazy, huh?

I love you all, talk to you next week.

Elder Davis

Only a few pictures this week :(

Hopefully he'll start sending a lot more once he's in France! :)