10/28/14 Monterrey Mexico – Mission Home

[Davis arrived in Monterrey Mexico 10/27/14 and spent the night at the mission home ("headquarters/office") He sent this message 10/28/14 before he was assigned a trainer/companion and sent out to his first area assignment.]

They gave us a little time to let you know that I´m well in Mexico. It´s really nice here and there’s a super cool mountain. The sierra madres are great. I haven´t gotten my trainer yet but I will in about an hour. I´ll let you know how my first week goes next Monday. 

So the mail address is 

Calle Chiapas #2202

col. roma sur

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, 64700

It´s the same as was given before. This is the mission office and you just send it there and they disperse it from there to where you are. Meeting the mission president was great.

Also, I´ve seen Gila Woodpeckers and White winged doves, a scissor tailed flycatcher, some species of gnatcatcher, a lot of great tailed grackles, and a spindalis species (kind of like a sparrow).

I already love it here! I love you guys! Awesome picture too!

Davis

[Note to reader: the picture to which Davis is referring is the one below.]

 

Nathaniel is running really really well ;)

October 23, 2014 Provo MTC

Davis and Elder L are ready to go to Mexico.

I'm ready to go to Mexico!

We are leaving the MTC at 3:35am Rocky Mountain time, We will probably get there around 5am and be comfortably at the terminal at 6am. So I can call at 6am when It's 5am there, when you guys are just getting up. Our plane leaves for Dallas TX.. I am going to buy a call card so I'll have a considerate amount of time to talk. We arrive in Dallas late morning in that time zone I believe (what time zone is that called?) and we have a 2 hour layover. Our plane for Monterrey will only be a half hour flight! Short flight! So I can have more time to talk in that time if you want.. Send me a Dear Elder on what time you want me to call you. I think that SLC would be the best but Dallas will probably work too. I have a goal to give someone a Book of Mormon while in the airports or at a terminal. There are additional fees for bags over 50lbs. and a carry on can at most be 40lbs. so if I need to I will be sending some extraneous things that I don't need home tomorrow in a package. 

I got the music. At first I thought that some of the classical music wouldn't be allowed (Like Gershwin) but my companion just told me classical music, even with some brass and loudness, is allowed as long as it is wholesome :). I have some requests for the next SD or whatever. "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel, "Clair de lune" By Claude Debussy, and "Gimnopedie" by Erik Satie, maybe  the compositions of the planets by Holst (just the good ones that are wholesome, like Jupiter(especially))  also, Tchaikovsky's 2nd and those other classics. Also, the MoTab album Consider the Lilies, the hymns "Lord, I would follow thee", all of the war songs like We "We are all enlisted" "Put your shoulder to the wheel" "Onward christian soldiers" etc. and "Press Forward Saints" as well as that one song that has the lyric "rest my Ebeneezer" or something like that that everyone likes to sing for special musical numbers. Also there is a good album on my phone called "Sunset in Vienna" or something like that that has a bunch of short piano solos and they're really nice. You should be able to find it there wasn't a lot of music on my phone.

As for last minute things that I need grandma to send me: Jump rope, a nice one not a plastic one, and if she can't find one then at least make sure she doesn't get a large jump rope because smaller ones are better. [Reader FYI: a jump rope has already been bundled into Davis’ Christmas package to be shipped shortly]  And a nice blue tie that I would wear because I only have one blue tie!

Here's a picture of just me and my companion Elder L at the Provo Temple one last time. The shoes are great!

Talk to you soon! I Love you!

October 16, 2014 Provo MTC

Sounds like Nathaniel is doing great at Cross Country! He already crushed my freshman time! It sounds like everything is going well ever since I left...hmmm. Must be because me being on a mission is giving all of you so many blessings

I'll tell you about a typical day in the MTC:

At 6:30 we wake up. My companion takes a long time to get ready so I make him take a shower first. We go to breakfast at 7:15, and then on most days we will have study time in the morning. We'll do personal study for an hour, companion study for an hour, and then language study for an hour. But, our language study usually gets cut short because we will go teach an "Investigator" for about 30 minutes. It is really fun to prepare for the lessons and feel the spirit in them, even if our spanish isn't great. We have lunch at 11:30 and at 1:20 we are scheduled for gym time. The past week I haven't been able to go to the field to play soccer, but our district likes to play foursquare a lot. hahaha. after that we have class again at 1:50. This is usually Hermano Clark. He'll do language teaching with us, preach my gospel stuff, "progressive investigator" which is where he will pretend to be an investigator and We'll teach him. He's a great teacher. at 4:55 we will go to dinner, and then we'll have class again at 5:40 with Hermano Lund. He started being our teacher a week and a half into being in the MTC, because before, he was one of our investigators hahaha. But now he's our teacher, and a great one too. He'll do the same types of things that Hermano Clark will do. at 9:00 we will plan for tomorrow and then at 9:30 we go to our residence and write in our journals, get ready for bed, and I sometimes have enough time to write a letter. That's a day in the MTC! Also, We have devotionals on tuesday and sunday nights and they're always really good!

Can you send me some more Songbirds of North America Stamps? You can get them at the UPS store. Hmm also some more black socks probably. I can't think of anything else...maybe some banana bread if you want to make some more (without nuts this time?)

Thanks mom! I love hearing from you guys and I love you all so much!

Also, I can buy a call card to use at the airport here at the MTC, and darn I wish you could send me the field guide now ;) Also, did you put "My Shepard will supply my need" on the cube?

I love you,

Davis

Oh a couple things I forgot.

1. I come home august 29th 2016...just in time for school! [That is the first day of theFall 2016 semester]

2. Don't send a package to Mexico without putting a picture of the Virgin Mary on it, because then there's a better chance it won't get stolen or anything.

3. Today we went to DP Cheesestake in Brighams landing for dinner, and a Jack Johnson song was on. hahaha I miss home.

4. I did initiatory today at the temple instead of an endowment session. It was fun.

5. I think we get our flight plans tomorrow.

6. I'm pretty sure I have my visa, we went to the Mexican Consulate a couple weeks ago and they just had us take a picture and scan our fingerprints. They said that getting a Visa to Mexico is easy so I'm sure that I'm good to go I think.

7.Almost got a Black Capped Chickadee to sit on my finger

8.That's about it for now. I sent a letter to you guys today. 

Love you,

Davis

October 9, 2014 Provo MTC

Davis and GK
YES I DID BUMP INTO G.K. ON SATURDAY AND THEN SUNDAY AND THEN TUESDAY. So far I've seen him every time I've been over to Main Campus. 

Davis and GK as babies.

Tell Nathaniel I say AWESOME JOB! Let him know that at my first cross country race I ran a 22:00 and my first time running at lake casitas I ran a 20:42. My fastest time freshman year was an 18:36. Let him know that if he can beat my PR of 15:30 by the end of senior year I will get him something really nice (I'll have a job by then so I can do that) Cross country has taught me a lot about mental strength and it is helping me on my mission and I know it will continue to help. 

I'm almost done with Alma, I'll probably finish it today. I really love reading the book of Mormon and all that it has to offer. My companion and I usually teach three lessons a day now to "investigators" We speculate that their just new converts that work here, but it's good practice! 

The view of Mt. Timpanogos from Davis' window

On Preparation day, we will get up and first do our laundry, then we will write letters or email, and then we will go play a sport for about an hour. Today we played foursquare hahahaha, our district is all about it. I really enjoy playing soccer whenever I can get Elder G. to go on a temporary exchange to go play, since he likes soccer too. We play with this other district that is going to Cuarnavaca(?) Mexico. I don't know if that's right but I know that its just south of Mexico City. and guess what, one of the elders in that district is a Birder!!! His name is Elder Q. and he went to BYU for a year and he took the Ornithology class and said it was super fun. I'm gonna keep in touch with him, and also I'm going to email the mission president to see if I can have a field guide so be on standby for sending me the field guide to birds of mexico hahahaha.

 I don't know the brand name of the shoes, because the name was on the sole and it has been scratched off, maybe just go off of the pair I wore at home (it's the pair with the little metal thingy across that doesn't have the "D" shaped rings...or maybe it does, you'll know.) Do you think you could send me a photo album of pictures of our family and then of me with my friends. You can probably find pictures on my phone.

 I'm more than half way done with the MTC, just 18 days left! I'm super excited to go to Mexico! Also, I'm going to send a letter to our family, but then I'll also send letters to each of you individually, the first one will be for Nathaniel since I just did it. Sorry I couldn't send any this last week.

Davis and Sister S. at SLC airport on their way to the MTC

Also, The Mission President's Wife said that I can have a field guide so can you order a field guide to the birds of mexico and send it to me please please please!? Make sure you get a good one teehee :P

Also, Thanks for the banana bread, It's delicious, and the joe joes

Love you mom,

Davis

October 2, 2014

That sounds awesome that nathaniel will get to run soon! Also, I didn't know that Grant got in [the MTC] this week, I thought was next week. I'll email him today then and I might bump into him today! When we go over to the Temple, we go over to Main Campus first and eat lunch there. Apparently Bethany E. works there on Fridays, so I don't know If I'll see her, But this Sunday at the devotional, do you know who I found?! Carson S.! I was so excited to see him! He's doing really well too and enjoying the MTC, but he's having a harder time with language than I am because it's that weird Philippine language called "hell-i-gay-non" that's how it's pronounced at least. I also saw Kim again!

Davis and Carson S. at the Sunday devotional.

Going to the Temple for my second time was great, although it was not as exciting as the Los Angeles Temple because it was more crowded and such. In the picture, there's my companion right next to me, and then Elder W. and then rightmost Elder G. They room with us and are really great guys. The three Hermanas we had in our district got their Visas and left to their respective foreign MTCs this monday. It was good to have hermanas in our district for 2 weeks because they set the bar pretty high, and now we are keeping that bar high. For the two weeks that I've been here, I'm already more than half way through the Book of Mormon, and almost done with Alma. I have found a great desire in reading the scriptures here.

Davis, Elder L, Elder W and Elder G.

The weather has been very nice here. It's pretty cool, but not freezing or anything. We had a bit of rain which was awesome, and now Mt. Timpanogous is snow capped; really pretty. I hope it snows before we leave. My companion and I have started talking to one of the real investigators on the campus (Our teachers are our fake investigators) and it's really exciting. She works here, and it's not very hard to understand her, but it is a little bit harder to come up with a response! I'm still not sure if she's a real investigator, because there's a rumor that the investigators here already believe the church is true and just haven't gotten baptized yet or they're new members or whatever. I don't know, it's good practice though.

Where in the world is Davis going?

Have you been getting my letters? (Yes my code is 864) I like writing you guys letters because I have more time to do so and I can make it more personal and such. That's cool that you're making a blog, just don't include really personal things ya know? Also, I guess the shoes I would like would be some slim bark brown or whatever that nice color is (Cordovan?) size 11 1/2. Dad picks good shoes, and the black pair I have right now "The holy shoes" with holes in them are really good! Oh also make a post about dear elder is you haven't already on my facebook, and If you can, change my profile picutre to the pic of my by myself in front of the temple!

Davis at the Provo Temple

There's probably stuff I missed to tell you but I'm short on time. but here are some pictures!

Oh Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke to us last tuesday! did I tell you that in a letter? I think so. Also Yes I'm excited for conference.. Tell dad to look for my companion and Elder G. in the priesthood session

Davis