France - Week 55 (Paris)

3/10/14

 

Hey everyone!

So we had a very, very busy week! and it was awesome! We had a baptism yesterday for our good friend Justice Owie! I was able to baptize him so it was a really special experience. He was SO happy! He had been meeting with missionaries for over 2 years and yesterday was finally the big day were he was able to be baptized. It was a long time coming and he worked really hard to get there. He finally made it though! Yesterday was another one of "those days" where all the blood, sweat and tears of missionary work becomes worth it.

Those missioanries who originally found him may never know that he got baptized... just goes to show: "you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed".

Keep "planting seends"... you never know what will happen!

I would also like to invite you guys to watch this awesome video!

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/an-incredible-meeting-an-answered-prayer?cid=HPFR030714548&im=true&lang=eng

Its a video of an awesome French man named Francois WHO I HAPPEN TO TEACH EVERY THURSDAY! He is a recent convert and my trainer "Elder Adams" (who is in the video) baptized him. This video is filmed in my area! Basically all the things you see are people who are members of my ward!

Super legit huh??

Also, an update on the Langer family...

12 years ago Murielle Langer (the mother of this awesome family we prayed to find a couple weeks ago) was diagnosed with blood cancer... She found out this past week that the cancer is coming back. She isn't in good health and for that reason we haven't been able to see her.

I figured we "found" her together... So maybe we can pray for their family again. If you guys could keep the Langer family in your prayers I know their family would really apretiate it.

She is so amazing and wants to be baptized, pray that we'll be able to see them this week!

Well I think that's all for this week!

I love you guys!
Elder Davis

France - Week 54 (Paris)

3/3/14

 

Hello my wonderful family and friends,

What an AMAZING week!

So last Monday I explained to you guys about how my goal for this past transfer was to find a full family that I could teach and baptize next transfer. Up until this past week, we had been finding lots of awesome people, but they have all been individuals. For that reason, I asked you guys (everyone who read my email from last week) to pray specifically for Elder Hatch and I to find a full family ready for the gospel.

Well, are you ready to hear about the miracle that happened?

So... Tuesday, we received a phone call from a woman named Murielle Longer. She is a French woman (born and raised in Paris) who is married with 5 children. Her youngest is a 12 year old boy and the oldest is a 30 year old man who is already married and even has children of his own.

She explained to us on the phone that she had seen something about Mormons on TV and was very interested to learn more about us. We set a rendez-vous for the next day.

This first rendez-vous was AWESOME! She expressed her desire to be baptized and also explained that everyone in her family had been "searching for this".  Even her 30 year old son and his family are interested!

We saw her again 2 days later. By this time, she had read the Book of Mormon from the introduction all the way to the end of 1st Nephi. She even brought her husband with her.

They are both super humble and accepting to the gospel.

She wants to be baptized the 23rd of May which is..... next transfer!

We are seeing her again (hopefully with the entire family all together) tomorrow.

Can you believe that?

Let me start by telling you this was no accident. People calling us saying they are interested in learning more about the gospel??? That doesn't happed. In my 14+ months of missionary work I have never seen that happen.

What was the difference? I feel like for once I was able to let go of my pride a little bit, and accept the fact that I couldn't find these people on my own or by my own efforts. Thank you so much for your prayers. I thought about them all week. They made all the difference.

That's the power of prayer and faith.

Once again I have seen the Lord work in this work. This is His work and when we rely on him, it happens!

Also, Justice Owie is still holding strong for his baptism this weekend. The service will be this Sunday after church so pray for him that everything will turn out well.

In other news... Elder Hatch is getting transferred :( He is going to be training a new missionary in a brand new city (Lille up in the north of France). He's got a hard job ahead of him, but if anyone can do it, he can!

My new companion will be Elder Gutelius who was in the MTC with me! He's a stud and speak Spanish so I hope I can learn some Spanish this transfer.

I love you guys so much! Keep praying for the Longer (you need to say it with a French accent.... pronounced lon-jay)

Have an awesome week,
Elder Davis

France - Week 53 (Paris)

2-24-2014

 

Hey family and friends!

So this is going to have to be a short and sweet email... Elder Hatch and I are going to go see Notre Dame in like a half hour!

 

Ok, so tell me what you think of this.

 

As a missionary I’ve been able to have a TON of awesome spiritual experiences. Everyday I see miracles and people change their lives.

 

Well, I want to be able to share some of my experiences with you guys back home. But not share in the sense that I just tell you guys what happened.... I want you guys to be able to participate :)

 

So, let's try an experiment!

 

I've been working really hard all transfer (5 weeks so far) with a specific goal in mind. I've REALLY wanted to be able to find an entire family that I can teach and eventually baptize. Unfortunately.... I haven't been able to yet. Despite my efforts, I’ve found lots of cool people to teach, but I have not yet found that entire family since I got to Paris.

 

This is the last week of the transfer.

 

So here's where you guys come in.

I have the faith that I CAN find a family this week. I know there is a family out there prepared by the Lord who is waiting to hear about the gospel from me. Can ask each one of you guys at home to pray for me and Elder Hatch. Could you all please specifically pray that we find that family this week? I know that if I work and pray as hard as I can, and with your prayers that we WILL find an entire family who we can baptize next transfer.. I know it will happen. How big is your faith??? Let's try it.

 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

I will give you guys a report next week on how it went. 

Elder Davis

France - Week 52 (Paris)

2-17-2014

 

Bonjour à tous,

Ça fait une autre belle semaine ici a Paris. Joyeuse St. Valentin en plus! Alors on a fait pas mal des chose cette semaine. Sur tout hier, on a eu 5 baptême! Elder Strauss et Elder Argent, ils ont baptisé leur jeune famille de 5!
 

Oh gee... I totally didn't realize I was writing that in fFench haha. Dang it. So basically that all means we had an awesome week! Elder Argent and Elder Strauss, the two elders we live with baptized their family of 5 yesterday! Super cool! There was another baptismal service in our church building right after their family got baptized so overall 6 baptisms yesterday.

This past week I went on an exchange with elder Blais who is from Quebec! He doesn't speak English so it was super cool to speak french with him all day and hear his Quebec accent! Its SUPER unique and super different from French accents. Can't wait to talk to my grandma after my mission and hear her Québecoise accent!

on my exchange with Elder Blais we found some really cool people and taught some lessons just right there on the streets of Paris! One of the people we met and taught is named Claire and she came to church yesterday! We're seeing her again tonight so we're excited for that!

on valentines day I got to interview a man who eventually got baptized this weekend. his name is Daniel, a really cool older French guy. I LOVE doing baptismal interviews... every time i conduct an interview I can feel the spirit confirm to me if the people are truly worthy and ready to make the baptismal covenant with Heavenly Father. Great experience.

Speaking of interviews, I got to have an interview with President Poznanski my mission president. Since there are so many missionaries in our mission we don't have a lot of 1 on 1 time with him... but I was his last interview of the day so I was able to spend a little extra time with him. He is such an amazing man. I'm very grateful that I was called to the France Paris Mission for many reasons, but one of the reasons is because I get to work with President Poznanski. He's so inspired and I know he is called of God. I could totally see him being a general authority some day! He'll be the next Uctdorf and everybody will love him for his EXTREMELY strong French accent when he speaks English.

He gave me a lot of good council in my interview that I'm excited to apply to my missionary work!

Overall, great week! I love life, I love being a missionary, and I love being a missionary in Paris! The work is accelerating, our mission is baptizing like crazy!

Have an awesome week,

Elder Davis

France - Week 51 (Paris)

2-10-2014

 

Hello everyone!

MY SISTER IS GOING TO RUSSIA ON HER MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

J'arrive pas à trouver les mots (ni en français ni en anglais) d'expliquer combien j'ai hâte pour ma sœur!

WHOOOOOOOOO proud missionary brother right here! She's going to be so great, words cannot explain how proud I am of her! She's going to love it! Good thing she got the brains in the family because she is going to need it learning that language! ;)

Finding that out today was definitely the highlight of my week, but I'll give you guys a summary of what happened anyway :)

I got to do lots of exchanges this past week. I vent to Versailles to do an exchange with the AP's and then the next day got to serve with Elder Jacobson in Paris. Lots of exchanges which is always a ton of fun! Its always great to work with other people to learn new things and to work in new cities for a day.

Elder Hatch is so awesome! He is such a great guy and we've been working really hard. I was feeling a little sick this past week, but he was patient with me and we still got out and worked hard!

We found a lot of cool new people and one of our Muslim friends named Abdule came to church haha! One of my mission goals is to baptize a Muslim and Abdule is super cool! he has a great heart and really feels the spirit when we speak with him. Lots of potential

Elder Argent and Elder Strauss (The other two elders we live with) have a family of 5 getting baptized this Sunday so that is AWESOME!!! I am sooo happy for them, the family is so great. Pray for them so that everything will go well this week; The week before the baptism is always the most stressful for missionaries haha.

Well I guess I better sign out, we're going to go see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre today. Pretty cool huh :)

I love you guys, keep praying for the good people of France (and Russia)

Elder Davis

France - Week 50 (Paris)

2-3-2014

 

Hey everyone!

First of all....

SEAHAWKS totally DESTROYED the Broncos!!! Gee, that must have been super crazy to watch. There are a handful of super proud Seahawks fans here in Paris today!

So this past week was super awesome. Full of exchanges, miracles, conferences, trainings, miracles, finding new investigators, seeing Ferraris on random streets in Paris, visits to mental hospitals, miracles, etc.

Busy week like usual.

So lets see, last p-day was legit. Like I said last time, we went to see Napoleons tomb which was super cool and super big! Apparently they buried him in 7 coffins (Russian doll style) all made out of some type of different expensive material. His tomb was cool... but right across the street was an exposition of concept cars so we got to see some tricked out Ferraris and Lamborghinis and all that fun stuff. I was on cloud nine!!! And all this was super close to the Eiffel tower so we were definitely living the Paris dream on Monday.

This P-day we are going to the champs Elysees. Elder Hatch's cousin works at one of the SUPER expensive hotels there so were going to go check that out and maybe buy some stuff if our wallets are feeling up to it ;)

Alright, so on to spiritual stuff now :)

The conference with Elder Kearon was SUPER GOOD. Made me do a lot of self reflecting on the things I've accomplished up until now on my mission and the things I still want to accomplish; The overall theme that hit me from his message was about getting to "your next level". I've been thinking a lot about how I can get to my next level as a missionary. How I can be more obedient, more humble, more charitable, more bold, etc.

This type of self reflecting is super important. It definitely helps us develop a vision of what we want to become and then we can set goals for how we are going to achieve it.

Yesterday was super cool!

So for Sunday we originally planned to have 3 of our investigators at church. When sacrament meeting started none of the people we had invited where there so we were really disappointed :( However, right as we were singing the sacrament hymn 2 of our investigators walked in! One of them was a total surprise because we originally thought he wouldn't be able to make it. At the end of the meeting we thought 2/3 wasn't too bad.

However,

at the end of the meeting one of the members of our ward came up to us with another lady and presented her to us saying that she walked past our church building this morning, saw the sign "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" and decided to come in and see. I grabbed a member and we taught her about the restoration right after Sacrament meeting.

For me that was a cool miracle because we set the goal to have 3 people come to church and the Lord provided. Even when it didn't seem likely, we were shown that all things are possible!

God is a God of miracles. and that will never change! Here is a cool scripture I read today in my personal study.

2 Nephi 27: 23
23. For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

All you need to do is have a little faith and big things can happen.

I love this work, I love being a missionary. Some of the highest highs and the lowest lows happen out here in the mission field, but in the end it makes you a better person it pretty much every aspect of life. I'm so grateful to have been called to Paris France.

Have a great week everyone,

Elder Davis

France - Week 49 (Paris)

1-27-14

 

Greetings from Paris France!

So, I have some good new and some bad news. The good news is... I'm in Paris! The bad news is, I can't spend a lot of time writing emails because there's a whole city to explore out there haha! I don't know how its going to work exactly, but normally we clean the apartment, buy groceries and write emails really fast so we can have as much Paris time as possible. P-day only comes once a week after all.

Today we are going to go see l'hôtel invalides and Napoleon's tomb. Its kind of raining today so we aren't going to go up the Eiffel Tower or do anything like that outside... maybe next time. I'll still probably be able to see it from where I'm at though. Then, Elder Hatch my new companion wants to do some shopping on the Champs Elysee. Not a bad day huh?

P-days in Paris are so crazy cool. I can't even explain how AWESOME Paris is. If you're reading this, start saving your pennies now so you can someday visit.

So to answer a couple questions I received... The city of Paris is divided up into a few different proselyting areas. I'm serving in Paris Lilas which is the north east part of Paris. It is a big area so I do lots of missionary work around some cool things. The Eiffel tower isn't in my area, but I can still see it from my area because it's pretty big... especially at night because there is a big rotating light at the top like a light house.

the Pompidu Museum and Notre Dame is in my area though if you've heard of those things ;). President Poznanski gives Paris missionaries permission to leave their area on P-day to see other things in Paris which is really cool.

There are so many museums here!

Oh, the France Paris Visitors center is in my area too so a couple hours a week we are in charge of the visitors center. Super crazy, I never would have thought that I'd serve in a visitors center.

elder hatch is my new companion and he is a BOSS. Super cool guy. super humble, super experienced as a missionary and super fun to work with. We get along great and I'm looking forward to the rest of this transfer;

I also live with elder Strauss and Elder Argent in our 4 man apartment. Elder Strauss is Canadian and Elder Argent is from England so we have a nice British accent in the apartment haha. So much fun!

This coming week is going to be nuts. We have a General Authority coming to visit us. Patrick Kearon (of the 70?) is going to be here this week to do a couple conferences. The entire mission is coming (but since our mission is HUGE with 270 missionaries) we are having the conference in two different days. However, since I'm one of the Paris Zone Leaders I get to go to both conferences! Elder Hatch and I were invited for the first one so we can translate for the General Authority (from English into French) for the missionaries that don't speak English. Super Crazy!!!

Also, Friday we are having another mini conference for all the zone leaders in the mission and Elder Kearon is going to be there to talk to us. I'm super excited.

The ward here in Paris is super strong and super cool. I have already become good friends with some of the members, especially the Young single Adults. My thing as a missionary is working with the YSA.

So... overall. Life is good. elder Davis is a happy man. I still have a hard time remembering which metros I need to take to get where, but other than that I'm settling in nicely.

Thank you for your support and prayers and letters and emails.

Keep 'em coming s'il vous plait ;)

Merci beaucoup encore un fois. je vous aime. Je n'arrive pas de trouver les mots ni en anglais ni en francais d'expliquer la joie que je resense chaque jour en tant qu'un missionnaire. La vie missionarie est legit quoi! Je vous souhait un bonne semaine!

Elder Davis

Belgium - Week 48 (Liege)

1-20-14

 

Hello there everyone!

 

Well I guess I wont beat around the bush.... I'll start out with the big news. I found out this morning that after 18 weeks full of fun experiences and miracles that I will be leaving Liège :(. It's been such an awesome ride. I truly enjoyed every second I was able to spend in this wonderful city and the wonderful country of Beligum. I've served in Belgium (Strombeek/Brussels and Liège) since June so I definitely spent a good chunk of my mission here and I'll leave behind a good chunk of my heart here too. 

Turns out I will be leaving Liège to serve in Paris France! I'll be serving in the northern portion of Paris with Elder Haden Hatch who is a really cool guy who I've already been able to talk to a couple of times. I'm so excited, Paris is going to be awesome!!!! Serving in Paris means I'll have "Paris Pdays" which means that every Monday I'll be able to take some time to see the Eiffel Tower and the Loeuvre and cool stuff like that! 

 

It's been a while since I've served in France so I'm excited and kind of nervous because I'm going to have to re-learn how to speak Parisian french and forget Belge french ;) haha. It's actually not that different but it's a different accent and they use words in Belgium that they don't use in France. It'll be interesting 

Oh this week I got to go to Luxembourg!!!! Elder Pilling had to go to Nancy to pick up some of his legality stuff so we went from Liege, to Lux to Nancy and then back again in the same day. We traveled through 3 different countries in one day...not bad!

 

Ismael got baptized yesterday here in liege which was awesome! He was one of the investigators of the other elders that serve here but it was super cool to see him get baptized! He's an awesome guy. 

 

This week was just super awewsome, except at the end of the week we hadn't found any new investigators. It was sunday night and we had 12 minutes left to do "finding". We decided to say a prayer and ask the Lord to lead us to someone who is prepared for the Gospel. Literally the very next person we talked to (Who is also named Ismael funny enough) was super interested and receptive. he is a young italian guy and we taught him the restoration right there on the street. We even prayed with him on the street and fixed a follow up rendez-vous. 

God answers prayers. Clear and simple. Ask and ye shall recieve. I've seen that happen so many times on my mission. Its a miracle because I've spent hours and hours and hours finding without finding anyone interested. The fact that the right person can be put in our path in the right place at the right time is too much of a coincidence. I know God is in control of this work. 

Life is good. 

Again, I'm sad to be leaving Liège. I've made so many awesome friends here and have had so many cool experiences, but I am also excited for the future. Life is good as a missionary. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything else in the world. 

Have an awesome week,

Elder Davis

GOOOOOOOO SEAHWAKS!!!! 

P.S.

 

Here is my new address for all those letters and packages you were planning on sending me ;) 

152, rue Pelleport 75020 Paris

Belgium - Week 47 (Liege)

1-13-2014

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What a week!

 

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time to write you guys a big email so this is what I wrote my mission president...

Bonjour Président Poznanski,
 

J'ai eu le privilège de pouvoir travailler avec Elder Bailey (Charleroi 1) cette semaine passé ici en Liège. On a commencé l’exchange après notre conférence de zone en Bruxelles. Après on est arrivé en Liège, on a eu (plus ou moins) deux heures de travailler. Originalement on a eu 2 leçons prévu pour la soirée, mais dernier minute dans le train à Liège ils sont tous tombé. J'ai pu fixé un autre rendez-vous avec l'un de nos amis et on est allé travailler la reste de la soirée. Dans ces dernier deux heurs la soirée, on a pu enseigner 3 leçons, trouvé un nouveau ami de l'église et on a fixé un date du baptême avec l'ami qui était disponible dernier minute pour un rendez vous. 

 

Même si on a pas beaucoup de temps et même si des fois les choses ne marchent pas comme prévu ou bien comment on veut... Je sais que le Seigneur a un plan et qu'il est à la tête de cette oeuvre!

 

Ça fait 3 dates du baptême maintenant dans notre équipe, 7 en total entre tous les équipes du Liège. La vie est belle ici en Belgique! Malheureusement, nos amis avec les dates ne sont pas venu a l’église hier et parce qu'ils progressent pas on les a pas compté dans nos indicateur clés cette semaine. MAIS, ils sont toujours super avec beaucoup de potentiel et je sais qu'ils seront baptisé bientôt. 

Merci pour tous que vous faites,
 

Elder Davis

Liège

We have another really solid investigator who we want to set a date with this week too. Pray that he'll be ready and accepting. 

This will probably by my last week in Liège and Belgium so I'm trying to work as hard as possible and get as much going as possible before I get moved somewhere else. 

even if I don't get to stay and see these baptisms, I'm grateful I was able to play a role in their spiritual journey. 

Also, we found out today who our new mission president is going to be!!!!

Frédéric and Françoise Babin from Paris France!!!

Haha those are some pretty French names huh? 

They are an awesome French couple from Paris and they will take over the mission in July when President Poznanski finishes. I'll miss President Pozansnki, but I'm really glad my new mission president will be a french man too!!!

I think that's all the big news. I'll find out if I get transferred a week from today.

Have a great week,

Elder Davis

Belgium - Week 46 (Liege)

1-06-2014

 

Happy New Year everyone!!

 

I hope everyone had a happy, safe new years eve and that nothing too crazy went down haha. 

 

The work is on FIRE here in Liège. The Lord is really blessing us. Right now we have 3 baptismal dates for January (and hopefully 4 after tonight). Evarist, Jeanette, Mathieu and (hopefully tonight) Christophe. They are all so LEGIT and I am so grateful for the chance I've had to meet them and teach them the gospel. Keep them in your prayers please!

 

Yesterday I had a really cool experience. Mathieu, one of our baptismal dates was at church and he LOVED it! The spirit was so strong. At the end of church he looked me in the eyes and said in French:

 

 "Don't worry Elder Davis, I'm going to be baptized. I know this is true, you've accomplished your mission"

 

HOLY COW that was so legit! Its moments like that on your mission that just give you a taste of true, joy and happiness. 

 

Something I find interesting is that phrase "you've accomplished your mission". I've only heard that 2 times on my mission, but each time an investigator has said that to me I felt the spirit so strongly as if it was confirming to me that I had met and taught another person that I was sent to Belgium/France to find. Mathieu is a STUDDDDD

 

Missionary life = the good life

 

Lets see what else happened this week. 

Oh yeah... way more miracles than I can even write like normal!

 

I can't remember if I ever told you guys about this... but a couple weeks ago before Christmas I called an lady (who was baptized a LONG time ago but has since completely fallen away from the church). She answered the phone and told me that she was in the hospital not doing well at all with stomach problems. She was in pretty bad shape with tubes and wires all over her. During the phone call she told me she remembers missionaries from when she was a little girl and she asked us to come over to the hospital and give her a blesing (a special prayer for people with certain needs). We did, and the spirit was super strong. We blessed her to be able to regain her health so that she could leave the hospital and be able to spend Christmas with her family at home. 

Thanks to her faith and the power of a loving Heavenly father... We later found out that she made it home late Christmas Eve, just in time to spend Christmas with her family the next day. 

 

Pretty legit huh? 

And people say miracles don't happen.... 

 

Moroni 7:33 And Christ hath said: ^aIf ye will have ^bfaith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is ^cexpedient in me.

 

Faith is the answer, my friends!

 

Anyways... since this awesome experience we've started teaching her and her family. She is married and a mother of 3 children... all who aren't members of the church (yet)

 

They've already see the hand of God in their lives and now they are receptive to our message. They are an awesome family

 

Just goes to show that no one (even someone who had fallen away from the church for many, many years) has done too much bad for too much time that God isn't mindful of them and their needs. I promise that our Heavenly Father loves and watches over each one of us no matter our imperfections. 

 

Well, I should probably leave it there for this week. I still need to write my mission president. I hope you all have an awesome week!!

 

Elder Davis

Belgium - Week 45 (Liege)

12-30-2013

 

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Mine was so awesome and the highlight was definitely being able to talk with my family over Skype. I'm so grateful for them and their love and support. Couldn't do what I do without them!

So this week was full of miracles like always, but the best day was definitely last night! I already wrote my Mission President a nice letter in French telling him all about it. I'll give you the short version of what happened in English, but I attached the email in French. 

Voici la lettre en français quoi: 

Bonjour Président Poznanski,

Je n'arrive pas de trouver les mots en français ou même en anglais pour expliquait la vrai joie que j'ai ressenti cette semaine passé. Tout d’abord, on a passé un très bon Noel et c'était super de pouvoir parler avec ma famille encore. Ils ont un grand source de force et soutien pour moi.

Alors, on a vu beaucoup des miracles cette semaine mais je veut vous expliquer l’expérience que j'ai eu hier soir en particulier.

Ça fait quelque semaine, j’étais avec Elder Mahieu ici en Liège pour un exchange et on était en train de faire la "contacting" dans la rue. Il faisait mauvaise et il pleuvait beaucoup, mais quand même on a fait du travaille. En faisant le "christmas contacting" on a trouvé un homme qui s’appelle Mathieu. On l'a enseigné quelque fois après et il a gardé tous ses engagements. Hier il a accepté de se faire baptisé le 25 Janvier. Il m'a dit que chaque fois (même la premier fois dans la pluie) qu'il était avec nous il a ressenti l'esprit très forte. Il a dit que c’était pour cette raison qu'il a pris du temps pour nous parler dans la rue et qu'il a gardé ses engagements.

Apres le rendez vous avec Mathieu, on a eu un autre rendez vous avec un jeune couple et leur petite fille. On a priée beaucoup de pouvoir amener cette même esprit que on a eu pendant le rendez vous précédant. Et, nos prières étaient répondu. Evarist, le père de la famille a lu la livre de mormon (introduction jusqu’à 1 Néphi 6) et il nous a dit que c’était tellement touchant et inspirant. Lui et sa femme ont aussi accepté un date de baptême pour le même jour que Mathieu, le 25 Janvier.

Encore un fois, j'ai vu les mains du Seigneur dans cette oeuvre. J'ai vu comment j’étais utilisé comme un utile dans ses mains. Je sais que la différence hier soir était l'esprit qui était là. Pendant le deux rendez vous c’était les amis, pas les missionnaires, qui ont remarqué et ont dit (das presque les même mots) "il y a un esprit formidable parmi nous"

Tout ses gens étaient trouvé originalement en faisant la "Christmas finding"Merci pour tous que vous faites et désolé que mon email cette semaine est un petit longe.

Elder Davis
Liège

 

 

Basically what that all says is we fixed 3 baptismal dates last night! One with an awesome man named Mathieu who we met on the street in the rain a few weeks ago. The other two is a young couple with a 3 year old daughter. We had two spirit filled back to back rendez vous (lessons) and the three of them accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 25th of January! That's after transfers so there is a good chance I wont be here to see that... but I'm grateful for the role I got to play in helping them get to this point.

I also found out last week that someone I found in Strombeek got baptized in America about a month ago and now his family are talking to the missionaries! Then just earlier today I found out that another person I found in Strombeek named Gentil got baptized yesterday! Its so awesome!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Pilling and I were talking and reflecting yesterday about how awesome it is to be a missionary. As a missionary you have tiny (yet frequent) moments or glimpses of true, lasting, celestial joy and happiness. I was all smiles last night because I saw the hand of God working through me as I invited people to come closer to Him. I still can't find the right words in English or French to explain the joy that comes from serving the Lord. 

Without exaggeration, this past year has been nothing but one miracles after another. Of course there are a lot of difficult and disappointing things that happen. But its days like yesterday that make it all worth it. 

Keep Evearist, Jannet and Mathieu in your prayers. 

I love you guys, have a great New Years!

Elder Davis

Belgium - Week 44 (Liege)

12-23-2013

 

Hey Everyone!

Can't believe it's almost Christmas! 

 

We had a super crazy week! We went to Versailles for a Christmas conference which was a ton of fun. I also went on an exchange with Elder Mahieu who is a missionary from the south of France. I love working with French people..... their accents are so great! I could listen to Elder Mahieu or President Poznanski speak all day long haha. 

This past week also hit my year mark. I'm officially "over the hill" now haha. Crazy to think that its already been over a year since I first started wearing this name tag. 

The only thing crazier than the fact that I've already been on my mission for a year is the fact that its now been over 365 days in row that I've woke up at 6:30 and shaved... every single day without fail haha. I never would have thought I'd be able to do that, but hey, miracles happen :)

So with it being Christmas time, we as a mission have been doing everything we can to make the most of his special time of year to find people to teach. President Poznanski presented a "Christmas finding method" that we've put into practice. 

What we do is we knock on doors (like always) and we ask people if we can enter their homes and sing/pray with them and their families to invite the spirit of Christmas into their home. It's been really successful and we've seen a lot of miracles. What a cool opportunity. Never in my life would I have ever guessed that I would spend Christmas 2013 walking around Belgium neighborhoods and asking people if I could sing them Christmas hymns in French.... but hey, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. 

One of the sister missionaries in our mission had to have surgery this past week. Apparently she had (I don't know how to say it in English) some type of brain tumor/cyst thing. She had to have surgery and everything. It was a really cool experience because President Poznanski asked for all 260 missionaries to pray for her in our companionships. I was so great! We have such awesome unity in our mission! I love being a missionary and being a part of the France Paris Mission. If anything bad happens to any of us, you pretty much automatically have 260 other people praying for you. 

The sister missionary's surgery went perfectly and her brain scans and everything turned out perfect. Donc, voila... another Christmas miracle!

This truly is a special time of the year. I'm thankful that I get to help others focus more on the Savior as we celebrate His birth this Christmas. My invitation to you all is that you take the time to do something for someone else this Christmas and share your testimony of the birth of Christ. That's really what it's all about after all :)

I love you guys, 

Elder Davis

Belgium - Week 43 (Liege)

12-16-2013

 

Hello family and friends, 

Wow, I can't believe today is really the 16th of December 2013. It just so happens that one year ago today, December 16, 2012 I was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I remember that day so vividly... like it happened just yesterday. This past year has just flown by and (unfortunately) the second year is supposed to fly by even faster. So much has happened, so much has changed. I am so grateful for this past year, for the things I've learned, the experiences I've had, the people I've met and the role I've been able to play in helping others change their lives and come closer to Christ. 

This past week was incredible! Super busy (like always) with transfers and planning and what not, but the time we did have to go out and do work was just packed with miracles. 

I wrote my mission president today and told him about some of the miracles this week. For times sake I'm just going to copy and paste some of that email into this one. For those of you who don't speak French, hopefully Google translate can give you an idea of what happened without losing too many of the good details. :)

Bonjour Président Poznanski,

Quelle semaine! Vraiment je peut même pas expliquer combien je suis enthousiaste pour cette mutation. Elder Pilling est un SUPER missionnaire! Il a un fort désire de travailler diligemment et je sais que on va travaille très bien ensemble. Déjà on a vu beaucoup de miracles. En fait, hier soir on est allé de faire la porte a porte (Noel style bien sûr). On a décidé d'aller vers l'église pour le soirée et, en attendant le bus, on a vu une jeune famille. Il y avait un père (Everest), un mère (Jannet) et une fille (Jaqueline 3 ans). J'ai eu un sentiment très, très fort que je dois aller et parler avec la famille. On a commencer de parler et "par hasard" on était là en attendant le même bus. On a continue de parler dans la bus et on les a demandé si on peut continuer jusqu’à chez eux et chanter-les des cantiques du Noel. Ils étaient d’accord. Elder Pilling a eu le bonne idée aussi d'imprimer plusieurs copies de le musique pour que les autres puissent chanter avec nous. On a chanté tous ensemble et l'esprit était tellement forte. Quelle miracle! En plus, ils ont accepté l'invitation de venir a un fête de Noël a notre église cette semaine et aussi un autre rendez vous avec nous ce jeudi. Encore, l'esprit était tellement forte. Quelle benediction. 

Aussi, un autre miracle vite fait. Je crois que c’était le jeudi on était en train encore d'attend un bus. Sur l'autre cote de la rue. Un homme est descendu de le bus et il a traversé la rue de nous parler. Il expliquait qu'il était perdu. On l'a donné les directions, et puis, on a commencé d'enseigner-le! Là, dans la rue, on a enseigné presque tout la rétablissement et puis il a accepté l'invitation de assister un soirée familial (pour ce soir, lundi). Je sais absolument que c’était pas un accident ou bien "un hasard" qu'il a décidé de descendre la bus a cette moment-la ou on était. Je suis si reconnaissant d’être un missionnaire parce que j'ai vu les mains du Seigneur dans cette oeuvre. 

 

Cette saison de Noel est l'un des miracles,

Elder Davis

Liège

Elder Pilling is my new companion and dear friend here in Liège. he is a STUD! He's from Canada so he is also my first non-American comp. He's a great guy with a great work ethic and I can already tell we are going to work really, really well together. I'm super excited for this transfer. 

Oh, and how can I forget... I got to go to Paris again this past week. Paris is sooooo legit. Every time I go there I just get pumped up haha. We were there for a big mission council with president Poznanski and some other missionaries. We didn't have time to see anything cool while we were there, but Paris never gets old. 

I love this work, I love my mission, I love the Lord and I LOVE CHRISTMAS. What an awesome time to be a missionary to help others remember the true meaning and put Christ back into the center of their thoughts and celebrations. 

I love you guys! Please keep praying for the good people of Liège,

 

Elder Davis