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

Pictures 9/08/14

Check it out, President and Soeur Babin in mid contact!!!!!!!! They're awesome!

Add caption

Elder Johnson, Elder Platt and I right before eating our traditional curry Sunday dinner. I'm holding the french soda!

Week 80 (Versailles)

9/08/14

Hey family, friends and beloved fans,

Well, this week was one to always remember. On Friday, September 5th, we joined forces with the Lyon, France mission and participated in a "day of finding". Basically what that means is from 9 am to 9 pm all of the missionaries in these two missions (around 500 missionaries) did as much finding as possible. We were talking to people on the street, in metros, at their doors, in buses and just about anywhere possible. Of course, that's pretty much what we do every day... but, what made this day special, is that we prayed for each other every 30 minutes! Every 30 minutes, no matter where we were or what we were doing, we would say a prayer with our companion for all the other missionaries in the Paris and Lyon mission. 

It was quite a spiritual day and an awesome experience! 

I taught more lessons that day than I ever have in any other single day on my mission. Everywhere we turned, we found people that were willing to stop, listen and talk to us about our unique message to the world.

We saw soooo many miracles. Want to know what's even cooler though? Ok, so Elder Johnson and I were thinking about it, and we thought that it would be fun to get President Babin and his wife to come contacting with us so they too could participate in this special day of finding. 

We called them up, told them our idea, and they were really excited to come contacting with us. We met them in the heart of Paris and then got to work. Elder Johnson and I were working on one side of the bridge, President and Soeur Babin were working on the other side. People were stopping left and right to find out more about what we were teaching. Heck, people were even coming up to us by themselves to ask questions. To make the story even cooler, the place we were contacting was on one of the bridges crossing the Seine river to Notre Dame. Livin' the dream!

We found a bunch of cool people, one guy that sticks out in my mind is a man named Aries. He is from the Philipean and has been living in France for 20 years. He was really open to our message of the Restoration and we had a great discussion. Turns out, he doesn't live in our area, but we passed him to another companionship not too far away. No worries though, we're all playing for the same team!

Anyways, the day of finding was a huge success. In fact, we found more new investigators this week than ever before in the history of the France Paris Mission. Just goes to show that with a lot of prayer, and a little effort, big things can happen. Romans 8:31 "...If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Lets see, what else did I do this week....

I went on a bunch of exchanges... including an exchange with my "missionary son" Elder Player! Man I love that guy. I trained him over a year ago and haven't been able to work with him again since. It was soooo good to finally be able to work with him and see how much he's grown since he first started his mission. He's great. 

Let's see, what else should I tell you...

Oh yeah, this coming week is going to be a HUGE week. Yesterday, we fasted with Célia and Alain. They decided to fast to know if the Book of Mormon is true and so we fasted that they would get their answer. We are going to see them on Wednesday so pray that they got their answer and that we can help them move forward towards their goal of baptism!

Also, we have kind of a "make or break it" day on wednesday for someone else that we are teaching. We are teaching Jean Yves, Martine, and Crystel (the Belin family) and they are amazing. I can't give you a lot of details about their situation, because it's pretty personal for them. But, keep them in your prayers, this is a big week for them!

Ok, last little miracle for the week. So last night Elder Johson and I were contacting. We were actually in a trio with Elder Tibbetts. Anyways, we were contacting, and we saw lots of success! Taught some lessons, and even found a family. We were feeling pretty good about life. Then, it was time to go home, so we went to the little RER train station and waited for our train. Turns out, it said that our metro/train wouldn't be coming for another 15 minutes... so we decided to leave the station and talk to a couple more people. In the 15 minute period, we only had time to talk to one person. Her name is Eve and she was probably the coolest person we met that night. Before we could finish teaching her about the restoration she was asking for our phone number and when we could meet her again. I don't know how that happens.... but it does! Miracles.

Ok, that was a pretty long email for this week. I hope you guys have a great day!

Elder Davis

Pictures 9/01/14

I've never really been able to see the Eiffel Tower at night... but this is as close as I've been. At 9h00 the lights go on and it's super cool.

Coolest missionary morning workout ever!