Here's the second email Elder Davis sent us from St. Brieuc during his second week there!
3/04/13
Hey Everyone!
Thank you for
all of your emails and letters. I love and miss you all.
Elder Adams
and I had a really good week. We taught a bunch of lessons, found another
investigator (someone interested in learning more about the church) and have
worked our hardest each and every day. Last Thursday I had to go to Paris to do
some things for my residency in France. Now I'm all legal! Unfortunately I
still haven't seen the Eiffel Tower... But I’m sure I'll have a chance soon! We
had a lot of meetings and other things to do this week for legality and what
not so we didn't have as much time as normal to do missionary work, but we
still were able to teach lots of lessons.
Oh, some
really exciting news! One of our investigators (Jean-Pierre) accepted our
invitation to be baptized! We still need to teach him some more things, but we
are so grateful for him and his faith and his desire to follow Jesus Christ. We
now have 4 investigators that have accepted the invitation to be baptized. We
are excited for them but still have some work to do to get them ready for this
important ordinance. Please pray for them! They have righteous intentions to
follow Jesus Christ and join His church, but there is also a lot of opposition
that needs to be faced before it can happen. I know Heavenly Father loves them
and that the gospel has already/will continue to bless their lives.
Overall we had
a good week. When we went to Paris I got to see all of my old missionary
friends from the MTC. They are all serving in various cities and countries
(some are in Belgium and Luxembourg) so we don’t get to see them very often.
But seeing them again was incredible. To some extent, I felt like Ammon in the
book of Alma (Book in the Book of Mormon) when he is overjoyed to be reunited
with his fellow missionaries. Their testimonies and spirit definitely
strengthened me.
My French is
getting better and better. Yesterday in church I got to share my testimony and
I understood almost everything that was said in church. Oh, I also got to lead
the music in Sacrament meeting so that was a fun new experience. For some
reason they erroneously think I have musical talent since I can play the piano
a little bit. Looks like they are going to keep me busy with various musical
assignments!
To answer some
of your questions:
We don’t get
fed a lot in our mission. Since there are only about 30 active members in my
branch, and they all live so far away, we usually only get fed 1 meal a week at
a member’s house. That’s ok though because Elder Adams and I have had lots of
chances to cook for ourselves. We often cook Ratatouille (Just like the little
Disney movie) which is really good and easy to make. We buy baguettes often and
put various things on them. We try one new French cheese each week. Last week
was camembert (spelling?) which smells disgusting but tastes surprisingly good.
I'll send some pictures of some other things we eat. Elder Adams is actually a
really good cook so often he cooks and I end up doing the dishes haha. But
sometimes we switch off.
Our apartment
is really nice. Its small but we have a washer and dryer which are awesome. The
only bad thing is the hot water in the shower doesn't normally last for 2
showers so whoever takes the second shower in the morning usually freezes to
death ha-ha. Oh well, it wakes you up!
I can’t
remember if I told you guys this already but we do have a little European car.
It’s called an Opal I think. But we only have it until Wednesday then we have
to give it to some other missionaries. When that happens we'll have to take the
bus and walk everywhere. No bikes for us!
Overall I love
Saint Brieuc and I love the people I am serving here!
Everyone that
I talk to in France can't believe that I chose to leave my family, my friends,
my home, my country, my language, school, sports and everything else regular 19
year old guys do so I could come to a new country and teach people things in a
language I don’t know very well. Nobody can understand why I would "give
up two years of my life". For most people, that does seem very strange.
But the reason I chose to do it is because of the miracle and the blessing the
Gospel of Jesus Christ has been in my life. I have seen the difference the
Gospel makes in people’s lives. I have seen the difference before my mission,
and now I get to see it every day on my mission. The Gospel has blessed my life
in more ways than I could ever begin to describe. I chose to leave all those
things behind for two years of my own free will because I know with all my
heart that the message I have been called to share can change the lives of the
people here in France. I literally see miracles, big and small, each day. I
testify that the Heavenly Father knows and loves each one of us. I know
families can be together forever. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of
God. And I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today. (Someone who
speaks to God as the prophets did in Biblical times such as Noah, Moses, Abraham,
etc.)
I love you
all! I pray for many of you individually each night. Please write :)
J'taime,
Elder Davis
Pictures!
#1 Me in front of our little car
#2 Me and Elder Adams. Like my skinny tie and his scarf? We're turning into Europeans haha
#3 Hey mom! Look who did the dishes! We don't have a dishwasher so we wash them all by hand
#4 Speed limit on a French freeway. You never see numbers that big in the USA!
#5 Our apartment
#6 Flying over Paris, right before we landed. Tons of people live here!
#7 It's great to be a missionary :)
#8 Dad, there is this little optical shop close to our appartment. They sell glasses and what not, along with telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses, etc. Sorry the picture is blurry. I think they have eye doctors in there too but I'm not sure. Maybe you should start selling telescopes ;)
#9 I don't know how to spell this but Elder Adams made quiche for lunch. basically straight vegetables
#10 What we had for lunch one day. Couscous and Ratatouille and a baguette! Cheap, easy, and delish
#11 Hanging out in a freezing cold train station. We take lots of trains.
#12 There is graffiti everywherrrrrre in France. Lots of walls look like this one. This is by our church building.
#13 Me in front of our church building
#14 Me and elder Adams again. We took this picture as he was writing his email home so that is his "focused" face haha
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