Belgium - Week 30 (Brussels)

9/16/13

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Hello family and friends,

Well I received some very bitter sweet news last night. I got a call from President Poznanski around 9 pm and he told me I would be leaving Strombeek to work in a new area with a new companion next transfer. Turns out I will be serving in................ Liège Belgium! Haha pretty crazy right? I'm not moving too far away from Strombeek; but now I'll be in the southern part of the country instead of the center. At the end of my stay in Liège I will most likely have spent more time in Belgium than in France. I'm super pumped! 

My new companion is going to be Elder Anthony Aleccia. I don't know anything about him yet, but I'm super excited to get to know him and get to work in Liège. Turns out I am also going to be a Zone Leader there which is pretty crazy. I definitely wasn't expecting that call considering I'm only in my 6th transfer, but I'm sure Elder Aleccia is a great guy and will show me the ropes. Pretty exciting!

Like I said though, the news was pretty bitter sweet. I'm going to miss Strombeek. Elder Player and I worked really hard here for the past 12 weeks and we've seen a lot of success and created a lot of great relationships with our investigators and the members here. Since we white-washed in Elder Player and I can look back at everything that has happened and everyone we have met and we can recognize the hand of the Lord in our work. 

Like I was able to say when I left Saint Brieuc... I feel like I can look back on my stay in Strombeek with no regrets. I did my best! Strombeek and the people who live here will have a place in my heart for the rest of my life. 

Even though I have to leave, I know Strombeek will be in good hands. Elder Player will at least be staying another 6 weeks so I know he'll take good care of the people here. Elder Wood will be staying in Strombeek as well and he'll be training a new missionary. And Elder Wilson is going to Versailles so he is really excited about that! Everyone is really excited. They are all such awesome missionaries! 

Sorry I wasn't really able to explain what happened during this week. You'll just have to take my word for it when I say it was another week full of miracles. We taught lots of lessons, found 3 new investigators, had a bunch of people at church for stake conference, saw Bishop Davies the General authority who was there to speak to us (everyone asked if I was related to him!). 

I love this work! Have a great week everyone!
 

Elder Davis

1. Crepe fete!! Yeah mom, I made all those, you'd be proud! I think there were about 80 and not even the entire district of 8 missionaries could eat them all. This is in a church building in Louise which is in our stake. We had district meeting there every Tuesday. 

 

2. At the end of each transfer we take district pictures and hold up the amount of transfers we've completed. 5/16 already in the books.... unbelievable

 

3. We are teaching a Canadian guy named mike who works on the computers for the world trade center here in Brussels. you can see the WTC sign at the top. Mike is scheduled to get baptized next month!

Belgium - Week 29 (Brussels)

9/9/13

 

Hello Everyone!

Well this is the last week of the transfer which means next week at this time I'll be finding out if I stay in Belgium or not. Chances are pretty high that either Me or Elder Player will get transferred, but both Elder Player and I really want to stay, there are so many awesome things going on right now in our area!

This past week we set another baptismal date with this guy named Mike. He is Canadian and speaks both English and French. He works on the computers at the world trade center here in Brussels so that's pretty impressive. Hopefully I'll be here for his baptism. 

We met a lot of cool new people this week. Elder Player and I decided to do some door knocking in an expensive-looking neighborhood about an hour away from our apartment by metro (we have a big area). It took some time to get out there, but it was worth it. Less than 10 doors in, we met a cool young Belg kid named Sebastian. He is 19 and starting college here in Brussels soon. He let us right in and we taught him about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Life is good!  

So yesterday after church, Elder Player and I were invited to go to a Russian church with Sylvestre and Elena (Our Ukranian investigators). Oh my gosh that was quite a different experience. It was some type of Christian church, but completely in Russian. We had someone translate from Russian into French so we could understand but wow, it was crazy. The priest was straight up freaking out the whole time. I've never seen people pray so loudly and intensely haha kind of scary. They put the all African conference that we went to a couple weeks ago to shame with their 'amens' and yelling... and that's saying something!

We found out today that from September to December we will be getting 60 more missionaries! The work is accelerating. Have a great week everyone!

Elder Davis



1. So when most people think of me knocking on doors they think of me literally going up to houses and knocking on front doors. But, since we live in Brussels which is a big city, there aren't a ton of nice neighborhoods unless we travel to them. So we do a lot of finding in apartment buildings which means instead of knocking on doors we have to use these things. It isn't super easy to contact this way, but we make it work! You push the button and it basically makes their phone ring in their apartment. There is also a camera so they can see us but we can't see them. 




2. Me with Anthony Fernandez who is one of the priests in our ward. He has never been out with missionaries before so we got to give him his first taste of the good life! My goal is to work with the young men as much as possible to get them ready for their missions. That is something that really helped me when I went out with Elder Young and Saxton and Gillen, etc.



3.  This is me with Kurt at an underground metro stop. He came with us one night this week to teach a lesson. He comes from a tough family life but he is preparing to serve a mission!



4. Elder Player and I with Brother Holloway. He is American who was working at NATO. He is moving to Whidby Island tomorrow!



5. I love these people! This is Sylvestre Vecherkovych holding his almost 2 year old son Georgic, his girlfriend/hopefully soon-to-be-wife Elena is holding their 7 month old girl Ada. We found them while doing some street contacting a couple weeks ago and they have already been to church 2 times and are sooooo awesome. They want to be baptized so hopefully they can get married soon. They are both from Ukraine and speak Russian, Romanian and French. Super awesome. People like this make the mission experience so worth it. I was sent here to find them.  

Belgium - Week 28 (Brussels)

9/2/13

 

Hello Everyone!

Wow, what a week! So much to write about, so little time. Writing emails home as a missionary is really hard because there are so many awesome things to write about. Unfortunately because of time I have to pick and chose what you guys get to hear about.

Let me see...

 

Well for starters, I just want it to be known that I have the greatest mission president in the entire world. President Poznanski is the coolest French guy that has ever walked on the face of the earth. When he tries to speak English it cracks me right up haha. His English is actually pretty good, but his accent is super strong. He and his wife have changed my life. 

This week we taught a lot more lessons with members present (meaning members come to help us teach our investigators). There are some awesome pre-mission guys in our ward that love to help. Kevin Wendo, his brother Raphael Wendo, Jeremy Fernandez, Kurt, etc. They have all become such close friends of mine. I never would have thought that I'd some day live in Belgium and have friends that only speak French... but my mission has given me that opportunity and I am so thankful for that. 

 

Last night I realized that Elder Player and I are teaching some pretty legit people. Last week we started teaching this guy who works at the world trade center here in Belgium. We are also teaching a guy who just published a book on religion. Another is a doctor, we have priests from other churches, a man who is the prince of over100,000 people in Imostead, Nigeria (his father is the current king and he has prince written on his passport and everything) and more! We have quite a diverse group of people that we teach and I love each of them! 

 

I need to tell you about Sylvestre and his family. Sylvestre is from the Ukraine and he is living with his soon-to-be wife Elena and their two children Georgic (2) and Ada (7 months). We found them while we were street contacting a couple weeks ago. They are so amazing. I love all of my investigators, but these people really have a special place in my heart. They are so sincere, so humble and they love us so much. I can't put into words the spirit I've felt with them and the spiritual conversations we've had. We saw them last night (even though it was Sylvestre's birthday he still wanted us to come over). It was probably one of the best lessons I've ever had. He told me last night that he wants to stay in contact with me for the rest of his life. Missionary life is awesome!

Ok one more cool miracle that happened this week. So Elder Player and I had a lesson at 8 pm with a less active family in the ward. Unfortunately, when we got to their house, they weren't there. We later found out that they had some emergency that they had to take care of. But anyways, we were supper disappointed because they are usually pretty reliable. We went back to the bus stop to see when our next bus would come.... Since we just got off the last bus we would have to wait another 20 minutes. We decided to go knock on some doors in the area in stead of waste that 20 minutes. 

Now keep in mind that we spent several hours without success earlier that same day knocking on probably 100+ doors.

But get this.... Within less than 10 doors in that short 20 minutes... We found an awesome family (married couple with 1 new baby) from Brazil. They let us right in and we had an awesome lesson with them. We ended up missing our bus again, but it was totally worth it. 

Ok, so maybe you're sitting in your chair right now thinking big deal, that's not even that great. But let me tell you that was a miracle. That was no accident. I've literally knocked on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and maybe almost thousands of doors during my mission... And the only times I have ever been let in is during situations like that.

It was no accident that the Johnson family we were supposed to teach weren't there, it was no accident that we had enough time to knock on doors while waiting for a bus, it was no accident that we were led to knock on the doors we did, it was no accident that we were in the right place at the right time. it was no accident because the Lord is in control. He is the author and leader of His work. 

Missionary work is really interesting. I've always wondered why I have to knock on so many doors and get rejected so often. I though "why can't God just lead me to the prepared, receptive people every time?"

I think I'm slowly starting to understand. Maybe it just takes the blood sweat and tears of a missionary knocking on hundreds of doors all day long to show the Lord that he has his heart in the right place and that he is worthy and ready to teach and care for a family who is looking for the gospel. God wont put an awesome family who is ready to hear the gospel in the path of a lazy missionary. 

There is a cool phrase I heard from a good missionary. "Christ bled from every pore for me, so I'll sweat from every pore for him." It feels like that is what we do on some days in the hot summer sun. But it is so worth it. Every second of it.
 

Alright this has turned out to be a long email. That gives you an idea of about 5 percent of my week. I'll try to send some pictures

I love you all, keep praying for us over here in France/Belgium!

 

Elder Davis 


1. If you want to Google maps our church building. which is really close to this

110 Strombeeklinde

1830 Grimbergem

 

2. African clothing

 

3. Me and elder Player with our Boo Boos (I don't know how they spell it). It is a type of African clothing. We bought it last Pday. Africans wear stuff like this all the time. Super comfortable. super stylish haha. Super bright. 

 

4. me and Kevin Wendo. He is only 18 but looks like he is in his 20's. He is studying to be a doctor!