Week 85 - Evry

October 13, 2014

 

Ok, seriously so many amazing things happened this week that I have no idea where to start.

 

Let me start by telling you the coolest thing that happened. 

 

Yesterday, I got the best phone call of my entire life. Elder Johnson called me to tell me that two of my old investigators in Versailles (Jean Yves and Martine) are getting baptized this saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Words cannot express how happy I was to receive that phone call. I got to teach their family for a few months when I was serving in Versailles and now they are finally getting baptized. I love that family so much. Elder Empey and I are going to the baptism this saturday. So amazing!

 

What else happened this week?

 

Well, Elder Empey and I worked our hearts out all week and the Lord blessed us! We met a man named Marc Albert who was baptized about 8 years ago, but then went completely inactive only 3 months after his baptism. After about 8 years with no contact from the church, two mormon missionaries (Elder Davis and Elder Empey) knocked on his door this past week. He let us right in and we hit it off great! He opened up to us and told us his whole story of why he joined the church and why he fell away. Most of the time we just sat and listened... until the end when we were able to share a simple message and testify to him the importance of coming back to church. He accepted the invitation to come back... and he came to church yesterday! For the first time in 8 years he came back! It was so amazing to watch the members of the ward welcome him back. It was literally like watching the 1 lost sheep come back and join the 99. Just goes to show you that it is never too late to come back!

 

We also met another lady this week in a super amazing way. The way we met her was a long story... just trust me when I say that meeting her was either a HUGE accident or a huge miracle (and let's get real... we know it wasn't an accident). Anyways, she told us that she hadn't been to church in several months and that she has recently fallen into some past sins that made her feel unworthy to come to church. We testified to her that church was were she needed to be on sunday and she commited to come...

 

Not only did she come yesterday... but she got up in sacrament meeting and bore her testimony of how she knew the church was true and how it has blessed her life more than anything else she has ever come into contact with. She even gave us a referral to visit one of her friends. Watching her share her testimony in sacrament meeting was a super special experience for me and everyone who got to listen.

 

Ok, if that wasn't enough miralces for the week...

 

Guess what else happened at chruch.

 

So yesterday was my first sunday in the Evry ward since I've been transered (General Conference last week doesn't count). And so I didn't really know any of the members... Anyways, when I walked into priesthood I had the feeling to sit by a certain man. I talked to him before the lesson started and came to find out that he wasn't a member and that this was his first time at church. This man (Bernard) stayed for all 3 hours of church and loved it! He loved it so much that after church he asked Elder Empey and I what he needed to do to "be a part of this church".

 

We told him (right there in the church parking lot) that he needed to be baptized and that we were having a baptismal service on the 9th of November. He said that he would be honored to continue to meet with us to prepare to be baptized on that day.

 

Are you kidding me? Seriously, how does that "just happen"? It doesn't happen by accident that's for sure. God knows His children. The ones that have "left the fold" and the ones that are searching to be a part of it. God either guides His missionaries to find those lost children or He guides the lost children to the missionaries. Either way... He is in control of His work.

 

I'm so grateful to be a part of it.

 

So... basically to sum all of that up. Life is good. I LOVE Evry. I LOVE my companion Elder Empey. I love being a missionary. And missionary work in France is accelerating fast!!

 

Less actives are coming back, and people are flocking to the font to get baptized.

 

I'm a happy man! Have a good week everyone!

Elder Davis

Week 84 - Evry

Oct. 6, 2014

 

Bonjour à tous!

Hope you all had a wonderful week. This week was transfer week for us in the mission so it was pretty intense! Transfer weeks are always full of sad goodbyes and exciting hellos!

Lets start with the "goodbye" half of the week.... We did a FHE with the Belins and the Babins before I left so that was fun. The Belins are such great people and I'm realy grateful for the chance I had to meet them and work with them. I miss them a lot already!

Saying goodbye to Célia and Alain was sad too, but I told them they need to get baptized before I go home in December so I can go back to Versailles and see them haha!

It's so weird not being in the office and seeing President and Soeur Babin everyday. They're so great. They taught me so much and have done so much for me. I love them!

I also had to say goodbye to Elder Everett who just finished his misison and went home a couple days ago. It's so weird... all my old companions are going home!

As far as "hellos" go... I got to pick up my cousin at the airport! She was one of the new missionaries that came into our mission so it was a super great opportunity to be able to go with President Babin and pick her up along with all the other new missionaries.

That was the first time I've seen her after about 2 years! We got to talk, catch up a little bit and of course take some pictures so that was great. I'm really excited for her to be in the same misison as me.

Of course, General Conference was this past weekend. Geez, I hope you all had a time to watch/listen. I was super, super touched and inspired. I left conference feeling more motivated to be a better person. Such a great feeling.

So I am now serving in Evry (city south of Paris) with Elder Empey. Evry is great and Elder Empey is a STUD! I'm super grateful to be here right now. I feel like there is a lot of potential in this city and in this ward. These past couple days we've been finding all day long and we've met a lot of cool people. We're probably going to be doing a lot more finding this coming week to really build up our teaching pool.

I'm super grateful to be with Elder Empey too. He's a super strong, young misisonary. Full of energy and super willing to work hard and be obedient. We're working really well together so far and I know there are lots of cool experiences ahead of us.

Well, I think that's it for this week.

I love you guys, talk to you soon,
Elder Davis

Pictures 9/29/14

Me with the Grinotier family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

         This was the most unexpected picture I've received, but I guess even Elders need to relax and have a facial on occasion. ;)

Week 83 - Versailles

9/29/14

Hey everybody,

So, I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet because the past couple weeks I've said a lot! 

Well, today is the first day of my 15th transfer. which means that I have some transfer news for you. Turns out...... I am getting transferred! 

On Wednesday, I'll be leaving my dear friend Elder Johnson, my responsibilities as AP and the wonderful people of Versailles for another wonderful city called Evry. 

Evry is a city just south of Paris, and it it is the home ward of President Babin. 

 

This will probably be my last "area" and I'm going to be serving there with a young missionary named Elder Empy and finish training him.

I'm super excited to get to know him, serve with him and see some miracles in Evry. 

I've known I was leaving Versailles for a while, so this week has been full of goodbyes which is never easy. It's always exciting to go to a new place and serve new people, but it's hard to leave the people you've come to know and love. 

 

I've really made some amazing friends here in Versailles and I've had some really cool experiences during my time here. I pray that God will lead me to some more people to love in Evry. 

Have a great week,

Elder Davis

Week 82 - Versailles

9/22/14

Hey everybody!

So brace yourself, this is going to be a long one haha. Sorry in advance.

I just need to start by saying.... yesterday was probably one of the best days of my life! Oh my gosh, I can't even explain how legit it was!

So, this past week I did a bunch of exchanges... the 3rd one of the week was with Elder Lam. He is a super, super cool guy who is currently serving in Torcy (eastern Paris, right next to Disneyland). Anyways... at the start of every exchange, we set goals to creat a "vision" of what we want to accompish during our time together. 

One of our goals was to "find a family and help them progress towards baptism." So we got on our knees, said a little prayer, then we got on our feet and got to work. 

We were full of energy and purpose and talking to everyone we could see. After a while we decided to knock on a few doors and pass by some people in a neighboorhood. We were working hard and that was great, but we both felt like we weren't in the right spot. So we decided to pray again to know where God needed us. 

We prayed and asked God to help us know where to go. After the prayer, Elder Lam said he didn't know the area very well, but he wanted to go somehwere with a bridge and a roundabout. I said I knew exactly what he was talking about so we walked over there as fast as possible while talking to everyone else in our path. 

Once we got there, we saw a young guy (François) around our age sitting on a bench. We started talking to him and he seemed to be a nice guy. We started talking about the plan of salvation and how families could be together forever. 

During our discussion, he got a phone call... which turned out to be a phone call from his mother saying she was on her way to pick him up and take him home. At that moment Elder Lam and I looked at each other and were like... shoot, how old is this kid? Turns out, he was only 17, but I thought he was like 22 when we contacted him. 

Anyways, we keep talking to him and then his mother shows up. At this point we're thinking again to ourselves... ugh... this could be interesting. 

Well turns out, the mom (Anne) was super legit and also interested in hearing about what we were teaching her son. 

We talked to them both about the plan of salvation and it was great. Anne even opened up and got a little personal with us saying that right now is a tricky time for her and her family. She is the mother of 5 kids and her and her husband are considering getting a divorce. 

 

We testified to her that even though family relations can be tricky sometimes... that we had both seen in our own families how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help families stay strong and overcome trials. 

We prayed with them on the street, got their phone numbers, and that was about it. 

Ok, so the next day I call Anne and set up an appointent for Sunday (which was yesterday). Elder Johnson and I went to their house yesterday and we were shocked. Their house was HUGE! probably one of the biggest french houses I've ever seen. It was a white, stone house and kind of looked like a temple. 

Anyways, we saw the house and were like... no way, there's no way they live there. But hey, sure enough, it was their house!

We said a prayer before entering and asked Heavenly Father to help us know what to do and say to bless this family. 

We got to the big gate in front of their house and Anne let us right in. She was super happy to see us! then something funny happened. She was like... hey, I hope this isn't a problem, but my other son Pièrre (18 years old) just got out of a movie so I need to go pick him up from the theater... can I leave you here with the kids for like 15 minutes?

Normally as missionaries we aren't allowed to babysit... but thankfully her 17 year old son François was there so it wasn't really babysitting. We just thought it was cool how she was able to trust us with her family from square one. 

Anyways, she picked up her son, came back and then we had an AMAZING first lesson. We introduced ourselves, talked about our families, explained why we came to france and told them our purpose as missionaries.

 

We shared with them the scriputre Heleman 5:12 (my go-to scripture) and told them that our purpose as missionaries is to help families build themselves upon the foundation of Christ so that they cannot fall. 

It was amazing to see the spirit enter that home! Anne was so grateful for our visit and the spirit that we brought into her home. She told us that it couldn't have been an accident that we found their family. I love it when people recognize that by themselves! They didn't want us to leave, they invited us to stay and eat with them and everything. Unfortunately we couldn't stay, but they invited us over again on tuesday (to eat dinner with them and share more of our message).

Wow, it was so amazing. I didn't even feel like a "missionary" during that lesson...  Elder Johnson and I felt like the older brothers of all those little kids and that we were there to love them and support them and teach them about Christ. 

Such an amazing experience. By the end of the evening, the kids walked us to the gate and waved to us as we walked away saying "à mardi, a mardi les missionnaries!" Which pretty much means see you on tuesday missionaries!

Man, Elder Johnson and I left that house with tears in our eyes. That was it. That was another on of those missionary moments of pure joy and happiness. 

I say this all the time... but it's moments like that which make everything worth it. the hours of contacting and knocking on doors and all the rejection and blisters on feet and all the super hard days and people that tell you that you're wasting the best 2 years of your life. No, it's not a waste! It's all worth it when you finally find somebody to love!

I wouldn't trade that for the world. 

Keep the family Granotier in your prayers. Frédérique (Dad), Anne (Mom), Pièrre (18), François (17), Mary (13), Paul (7) and Emil (3) in your prayers!

So yeah, that was just one of my experiences this week, but definitely the coolest. I also got to go to Caen and visit Normandie and all that fun extra stuff. 

Hey just a little by the way... how many of you have heard the song "How Great Thou Art" by Carrie Underwood? Oh my gosh I just discovered that song this past week and it's AMAZING! Listen to it, and think about "how great" God is in your life.

Have a great week, I love you guys!

Elder Davis

9/15/14 picture

This week, we had a suprise visit. Frère and Soeur Poznanski were in the area and wanted to stop and see us! They're so great, I miss them!

Week 81 - Versailles

9/15/14

Hey family and friends,

So, just like that another week is in the books. I feel like I don't have that much to fill you in on. This week we were busy with zone conferences and exchanges... the usual. We got to go up to Belgium for one of the zone conferences so that was prety legit.  

Now we are done with our zone conferences for the transfer so Elder Johnson and I will have time to focus on our exchanges and working in our own area. 

Sorry, I don't have time to say much more. We're going to try to go into Paris and see the Eiffel Tower again!

Célia and Alain and all of our other investigators are still doing well. Keep them in your prayers though. 

Thanks for all you guys do, have a great week,

Elder Davis