France - Week 64 (Paris)

5/20/14

 

Bonjour à tous!

We had an amazing week. The Lord is blessing us so much its ridiculous. We had Henri's baptism yesterday and that was a super, super cool and spiritual experience. It was a long road of preperation, but Henri was a champ and he made it! It's amazing to be a missionary and witness so many people make changes to their lives and be blessed for it. I've seen the gospel bless my life and the lives of many others during my mission so far.

I even had the chance to go into the water with Henri and be the one to baptize him. What an incredible experience. The spirit was super strong. Henri was super happy and grateful. Days like Sunday are the best days of the mission!

Too make it even better, we had a handful of friends and investigators there to watch the baptism and support Henri. They were also touched by what they saw. Sometimes I like to say "Baptisms are contagious" so we're hoping that our investigators will remember the spirit they felt and be excited to one day be baptized themselves.

Elder Gutelius turner 21 this week so we decided to get a little crazy and take a dinner right by the Eiffel Tower. It was super fun and suprisingly not too expensive. We went to a cool restaurant with Elder Clawson and Elder Heath who are the other zone leaders in Paris. Elder Gutelious, Heath and I have never had escargots so we decided to give it a try haha. It was actually pretty darn good. They were a little expensive, but I'd definitely eat them again and recommend them to anyone who is brave enough to try. They're a little chewy, but they taste like garlic haha.

Hmm, what else happened this week. So many things, but I can never remember them when I'm sitting in front of the computer.

Edler Gutelious, Brockbank, Powelson and I are going to Versaille today to check out the Versaille chateau. You should google it! Aparently its super, super big and impressive. I'll send some pictures and let you know what I think next week.

Have a great week,

Elder Davis

France - Week 63 (Paris)

5/12/14

 

Bonjour à tous!

So many things to say today! I had a wonderful week. The best part (which goes without saying) was yesterday because I was able to Skype my family!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome to see their faces and hear their voices. They are such an incredible source of inspiration and support for me. I'm so grateful for them.

This past week was ridiculously awesome. Like everything went our way. Everything went the way it was supposed too; we were so blessed. One of our amies Gaelle accepted a baptismal date for the 8th of June. Seraphan is still rockin and pushing on for his date on the 25th and Henri is SOOO excited for his baptism this coming sunday the 18th.

Missionary work is on FIRE right now.

Yesterday in church a non-member asked the bishop if she could share her testimony of the book of  mormon. She shared with the entire ward how she came to know that it is true. Super touching experience and it was super cool for all of our investigators to hear that.

I met a cool lady the other day named Nichole. It was a super rainy day and we were contacting on the street and she took the time to talk to us for about 30 minutes. She told us about her son who was about our age when he passed away. We were able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation right there on the street and it was amazing the spirit that was there even though we were getting rained on really hard. She was super touched and were excited to see her again soon.  Just goes to show you can pretty much have a spiritual experience wherever you are.

There are so many things I want to tell you. Life is sooo good. I'm so blessed. I'm so lucky. Missions are amazing. Elder Gutelius really wants to go see the Louvre so I should probably get going.

A plus,
Elder Davis

France - Week 62 (Paris)

5/5/14

 

Bonjour à tous!

Voilà, ça fait une autre belle semaine ici a Paris. Oh là là la vie est trop bonne! Mais, franchement, on est très béni. Je n'ai jamais enseigné autant que leçons que j'ai enseigné cette semaine passé avec Elder Gutelius. Le Seigneur nous a béni beaucoup et j'ai hâte pour les belle choses qui nous attend cette semaine.

We had zone conference this week and exchanges with the Elders in Arras. I got to work with Elder Hogan Jacobson who is a super missionary. We worked our hearts out in Arras and we saw a lot of good success. We taught 3 lessons on the street haha and the last one was kind of funny. It was with an Evangelical woman who insisted that we hold hands and pray in a circle right there on the side walk before we went our seperate ways. Pretty legit if I do say so myself. She was getting pretty animated in her prayer too haha throwing her amens and Hallelujahs around and what not. Believe it or not, that happens fairly often. That's why I love the mission, you just never know who you're going to meet one day on the street.

We had a lesson with a lady named Claire this week. Justice, our recent, convert came to help us teach and it was so awesome. He was straight up testifying his little heart out to her. I was so proud of him. Seeing people get baptized is great, but seeing them move on and share their testimonies to help other people is even cooler!

We were just super blessed this week. People were stopping to talk to us all over the place. On Wednesday I was on a metro and I started up a conversation with a super cool lady named Magdella. Turns out, she lives on the same street as our church building but never knew it was there. She told me she's been looking for a church where she could start attending with her son. Pretty cool huh? I was just sitting on that metro and I felt like she wanted to talk to me. Turned out she did. She met us at the church a couple days later for a tour and everything She loved it! Just goes to show, there are people all around us who want what we have. All you need to do is open your mouth and share what you believe!

Bien sûr, il y a des autres choses que je dois vous dire... mais comme d'habitude, le temps passe vite et je dois aller! Aujourd'hui on va monter la tour Montparnasse et peut-être visiter la cimetière si on a le temps. Oh aussi, avant que j'oublie, normalement Henri va se faire baptiser le 18 mai et Serephan le 25 mai alors si vous pouvez les garder dans vous prières je serais très reconnaissant. Merci, et à la prochaine!

Elder Davis

France - Week 61 (Paris)

4/28/14

 

Hey everybody,

So this week was an interesting one. I've definitely had better weeks, but I've definitely had worse weeks too so "merci à Dieu!"

Let's see... I guess we can start with the sad news... We weren't able to have the baptism of Murielle Langer yesterday. It's kind of a long story of why it wasn't able to happen, but basically her car broke down when she was 5 hours away from Paris so we weren't able to do her baptism interview in time.

Stuff like this happens everytime! I swear, everytime I've ever had a baptismal date fixed, something crazy happens the week before. Its like Satan tries his last minute attempt to mess things up.

No worries though, Murielle is amazing. I have no doubts that she'll be baptized. Opposition will always come before something of spitual importance.

I went on an exchange with Elder Brien Brockbank this week and we had kind of a cool experience.

We went to the church for a lesson and we were walking pretty fast because we were running a little late. As soon as we got there, I saw the member who we were supposed to teach with in front of the door so I quickly greeted him, apologized that we were running late, and then proceeded to open the locked church doors;

As I was unlocking the doors, I realized that me companion wasn't at my side: I looked around the corned and saw him talking to a woman just a little further up the street.

The woman's name is Raphaella and she was standing next to her friend Maria who was feeling really sick and throwing up on the side of the road. Nasty huh?

Thankfully Elder Brockbank saw what Elder Davis didn't and asked if they would like to come into the church and use the bathroom.

They were thankful, and a few mintures later Maria felt like herself again.

They explained that they don't live far away, but had never seen our church building before.

We said "comme vous êtes là pour la premiere fois, aimeriez-vous un tour?" (since you're here for the first time, would you like a church tour?)

They accepted and were SOOOO touched! We even played a hymn for them on the piano and they said that they really felt the spirit.

They came to church yesterday and everything.

Funny thing is, the guy we were originally suposed to teach never showed up, but the Lord put us in Raphaella and Maria's path anyways.

Miraclez baby!

Well, I'll probably leave it there for this week. Have a wonderful day! And keep praying for the good people of Paris.

Elder Davis

France - Week 60 (Paris)

4/21/14

 

Hey Everyone,

Well for starters I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had a pretty good week and a super good Easter here in good ol' Paris France.

I'll give you some highlights.

So last week I told you guys I did something weird to my knee and was having some knee pain. Well, instead of getting better, it got worse and worse. It started off as only giving me trouble when I went up stairs, but over the course of a couple days it eventually got to the point where I was having trouble just walking around.

I have never been sick on my mission *knock on wood* so I was determined to not let this slow me down.
Side note: I met a man in his 90's this week who was the president of the Paris France mission 40 years ago.... and he was walking better than I was at the time!

I was pretty frustrated, so I asked my companion Elder Gutelius and Elder Powelson and Elder Brockbank my roommates to give me a priesthood blessing.

Really quick, for those of you reading this who don't know what a blessing is... Basically it is a special prayer that can be performed by a priesthood holder. Just as Christ and his apostles healed the sick in the new testament, that same healing priesthood power was restored and is on the earth today.

Anyways, (I hope you're still following me here), I had been wanting to ask them for a blessing for a while, but my pride kept telling me that there was no point in asking because it was no big deal or that my knee would just get better on its own.

Eventually, after a particularly hard day, I was humble enough to ask.

They gave me a blessing that night before bed, and let me tell you..... The next day, I felt like I could run a marathon. My knee felt 100 percent perfect. No issues whatsoever and I was able to keep working.

Coincidence? No way man. The change was so noticeable, and so night and day that I know without a doubt it was no coincidence.

That was one really cool experience this week that taught me the importance of humility and strengthened my testimony of the priesthood.

In other news....

Murielle Langer is supposed to get baptized this Sunday! Keep her in your prayers, she is SOOOO awesome. I am so excited for her.

Alors, je pense que c’est tout. La vie est belle, je suis heureux. C’est dommage que je ne peux pas vous dire tous les choses que je vois en mission, mais sachez que le fait de servir une mission était la meilleur décision que j’ai jamais fait dans ma vie.

Voilà, je m’en vais, il faut profiter quand vous êtes à Paris! On va visiter les Jardins de Luxembourg aujourd’hui. Gardez mes amis dans vos prières. Je vous aime et je suis reconnaissant pour votre soutien. L’église est vraie !

 

Bonne semaine,

Elder Davis

P.S. SHOUT OUT to my cousin Alayna who got her mission call to PARIS FRANCE!!!!!! I'm so excited for her, she's in for the best experience of her life!

France - Week 59 (Paris)

4/14/14

 

Hello Everyone,

Alright, well the big news of the day is.... there is no news! Meaning I will be staying in Paris for another 6 weeks with my favorite Peruvian in the world Elder Gutelius! We will still be serving as zone leaders so nothing is changing. Even the other 2 elders (Elder Brockbank and Elder Powelson) we live with are staying the same so we are super pumped for another miracle filled transfer.

Elder Gutelius is SOOOOO cool and fun to work with. The only problem is that we're having trouble accepting that we're in our 11th transfers... seems too weird to be true.

Anyways, lots of mission left so no worries :) We just want to roll up the sleeves and get to work.

Lets see, what happened to me this week....

Well I got to go to lunch with a Peruvian family. That was pretty fun and they fed us one of the best meals that I've had so far on my mission. They fed us heart and it was super good. I don't know what animals heart it was... but I decided to not ask questions and just enjoy.

The only weird thing about the lunch was EVEYONE (including Elder Gutelius) only spoke spanish haha. I felt like I left Paris and ate lunch in Peru. It was kind of awkward because everyone was talking and laughing and I just sat there eating my chicken like a loner haha.

From knowing French and English I could pick out a bunch of what they were saying, but I couldn't really contribute to the conversation. Super funny experience, but it just makes me want to learn Spanish after the mission.

Henri is still on track for his baptism this sunday so keep him in your prayers! We're all super pumped for him.

Oh guess what?

Murielle Langer came to church yesterday with her husband and daughter and they loved it! It was toooo legit. She is on fire again and wants to be baptized on the 27th of April. She is super solid and there is no doubt in my mind that she'll get baptized, but keep her in your prayers anyway  :)

Hmmmm, what else is new....

I've been running lately since the weather has been getting better and I'm pretty sure I messed up my knee pretty bad haha. Hopefully it'll get better soon because missionary work is pretty hard to do if you're a cripple.

Lets see any last minute things I want to tell you before I go...

No I think that's it.

Life is so good. I couldn't be happier. I really feel like i'm in the "prime" of my mission. Elder Gutelius and I are working super, super hard and the Lord is just throwing miracles at us left and right. Keep the Frenchies in your prayers

Have a wonderful week. I love you guys!

Elder Davis

France - Week 58 (Paris)

4/7/14

 

Hey family and friends,

Sorry this email is a little long!

What an awesome weekend! I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries. I just feel uplifted, strengthened and motivated to become more and be better. I hope you also had the opporunity to listen in and to get inspired yourself.

We taught a lot this week. We saw lots of our investigators and saw lots of good progress. I was also able to see the baptism of Miguel yesterday. He is one of the investigators of the other Paris Lilas elders, but I knew him really well since I've been here in Paris. It's always so amazing to see someone you know enter into those waters of baptism. He truley did seem like a new person after his baptism. Full of light, confidence and optimism about the future!

Henri is doing super well. We officially passed him to the elders in St. Ouen this week which was bittersweet. I love that guy! He is such a genius. He has a PhD and everyting in linguistics so he's helped me out with my French a ton since I've been teaching him.

Henri came to the baptism yesterday which helped him get super pumped for his on the 20th. How cool is that? He's getting baptized on Easter!

President Poznanski even gave me and Elder Gutelius permission to go to the baptism, even though it'll be out of our area.

Want to know something cool though?

Henri brought his sister to his lesson with us on Monday and she is also SUPER cool and open to the gospel. She too accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 20th! As if one baptism on Easter wasn't good enough, having a brother and a sister get baptized on Easter together is going to be SOOOOO cool!! Que Dieu est grand!

Again, we were kind of sad that we had to give Henri and his sister Patricia to other missionaries. But the Lord continued to bless us and we were able to fix another baptismal date this week with a young man named Eddie who is the only none member in a big, active, Mormon family of 6.

His date is for the 27th so keep him in your prayers.

The work is EXPLODING here in Paris. I've been blessed to set more baptismal dates this transfer than I ever have before in my mission. Whoever says missionaries in Paris don't baptize are CRAZY!

I can't believe today is the first day of week 6. Next week at this time I'll find out if I'll be staying in Paris or if I get moved to another city. I hope I stay! there are so many awesome things going on here in Paris. The Lord is blessing me and elder Gutelius soooooo much.

I love you guys, keep the Frenchies in your prayers,
Elder Davis

France - Week 57 (Paris)

3/24/14

 

Hey everyone!

Wow, what a week! Every week in Paris just seems so out of control!

Lets see, I'll start by telling you guys about yesterday because Sundays always seem to be the most crazy.

So I've explained this before, but here in Paris, there is only one baptismal font... and it's in our building! So every time the other missionaries of other wards in Paris want to have a baptism, they call us.

Well, yesterday we had 3 people get baptized! They were baptisms for the St. Merri ward and the Anthony ward. Anyways, the funny thing is, we accidentally double booked the church! So I was stressing out all day trying to make it possible to have 2 baptismal services at the same time haha. In the end it all worked out well, but it took a lot of energy. We were at the church from 9 am to 9 pm yesterday.

Hey want an update on Murielle Langer?? So after a lot of opposition, she is doing SUPER well. The past couple weeks we weren't able to see her because of her health, the birth of her first grand child, etc. One of her sons (who is a 20 something year old white french kid who converted to be a muslim) even cussed me out pretty hard core the last time we went past her apartment so things weren't looking too good for a while. BUT we were finally able to see her again this past friday and she accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 13th of April.

You know what's cool about the 13th of April? It's the last day of this transfer!

 You know whats cool about that? That's what we were praying for! For her to bet baptized this transfer.

Miracles baby!

Keep her and her family in your prayers.

We also have a man named Henri and a woman named Patricia who also have baptismal dates for this transfer so keep them in your prayers too.

I always feel like I have so much to tell you during the week, then when I'm finally in front of the computer my brain dies...

Well let's get real.... I'm just excited to go see the Eiffel Tower so I'm having trouble focusing on my email haha. It's not like super, super sunny or hot today so we're thinking the lines won't be too bad. Eiffel tower never gets old!

Anyways, I love you guys. Seriously, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and everything. I hope you're all having crazy awesome experiences and that life is treating you well.

Save up some money and take a trip to paris!

Have a great week,

Elder Davis

France - Week 56 (Paris)

3/17/14

 

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this email/blog post. You are awesome!

This week was SUPER, SUPER good. Elder Gutelius and I straight up did work all week long and the Lord blessed us with some cool miracles and success.

During the week we were able to fix 3 more baptismal dates for the last week of this transfer. One with a man named David, one with a man named Henri and one with a lady named Patricia.

We've been working with David for a while, but Patricia and Henri were miracles.

Let me explain why...

So we met Henri and Patricai both individually for the first time this week and during each of their first lessons they accepted our invitation to be baptized.

The spirit was super strong and I knew before I even asked them that they were going to say yes. Teaching with the spirit makes all the difference!

And yes, it was the first lesson! After knowing them for about 25 minutes they accepted a date and everything.

Just goes to show it is never to early to invite someone to baptism.

Also, an update on the Langer family. Murielle's oldest son had a baby so their family has been really busy and excited about that. This is Murielle's first grandchild. So we haven't been able to see them a whole lot this past week but we're hoping this week things will settle down a little bit. Keep them in your prayers.

Also, yesterday I was able to see a man from Iran be baptized! Super legit. Just goes to show that the gospel is making its way to every people.. even those who live in counties where missionaries can't go.

Justice was also confirmed a member of the church yesterday. Super, super awesome.

Life is good. Have a great week.

Elder Davis