December 15, 2014 San Nicolas

2014-12-15 San Nicolas

Hey Mom, Thanks for the hot chocolate instructions.

It sounds like everything is going well over there, I´m glad Nathaniel is doing well in school. If he goes to BYU though I don´t think we would ever be there together unless he went a year before a mission. That wouldn´t be the worst thing to do if I were still there.

Davis and 4 other missionaries pose for a picture with a nun.

We´re going to have a baptism this Sunday! We met this guy named E my on my first P-day in the mission field, and he told us to come visit him the day after. That lesson we had was so powerful; he had been jobless and such and our lesson just brought him so much comfort and peace. Right in that first day he wanted to be baptized. We promised him that he would have a lot of trials as he continued to follow the example of Jesus Christ and live the commandments that the Lord has given us, but that he would also be blessed very much and that he would be able to find work.

Well after about a week of teaching him, he did find a job, but then we could never see him because he was never home. We got really anxious and frustrated and two weeks went by where we didn´t see him. We finally saw him in the local market and made an appointment to see him. Phew, we found him. When we had the lesson, we were surprised of his faith, because we thought that he had lost his desire to be baptized and such. He told us that he had been praying everyday in the way that we taught him! Wow! That´s something that got us really excited! We had to talk to him about not working on Sundays because it is the Lord´s day and that we need to go to church. Not a problem, E changed so now he tries not to go to work on Sundays and he has been at church for the past two weeks. It was still a bit hard to find him on weekdays, and for a couple days he was working in a mechanic shop right by the church. We headed over there and talked to one of the guys who worked there. His name was A, and is he interested! We talked to him about the restoration and gave him a pamplet and at our next lesson with him. that pamplet was just marked up with questions and all, it was amazing. There was a concert at the temple yesterday for christmas (It was awesome ill tell you a bit about it during skype) and he came with us! He drinks, which is something we have to talk to him about, but he is almost always spot on with the commitments we give him!

Monterrey Mexico Temple

Anyway back to E, he´s doing really well now, still not having the easiest time with work, but he´s really happy. He does want to go work in the states (he has a visa and all so he wont be illegal or anything) but he asks us if he goes to the states if there will be an LDS church there, and of course we tell him of course! oh yea, E speaks pretty good english too because he worked in Vancouver with his brother for 2 years i think. I have seen how this gospel has blessed him so much, from the time we met him to now, he is so much happier. He´s laughing and smiling all the time and it´s great. I know that when we try our best to be obedient to the things our heavenly father has commanded us, and when we repent of our sins and constantly try to follow Christ´s example, we can find great happiness, even in the heart of trial and difficult times. I´ll send you pictures of the baptism next week.

For the Skype, I´ll probably skype on Christmas on the 25th from the stake president´s house because he´s in our ward. I´ll write down the skype addresses you sent me.

also...There´s AP BIOCHEM!?!?!?!?! WOAH. hey mom, after about a year in my mission when I´m super comfortable with all of my spanish, you´ll have to send my diagrams of biology stuff labelled in spanish so I can learn that in spanish (and multitask and review all of that stuff hahaha) My MTC teacher told me not to stop learning vocab after you have become comfortable speaking and such. Learn all you can while you have the gift of tongues!

I think that´s about it for today, here are some pictures and tell Nathaniel to email me next week, and dad, they send funny emails. [Mom's emails aren't funny?] I´ll send a letter soon.

I love you all (and have you been doing FHE and scriptures and prayer and all?)

I love you

Davis

P.S. a sneak peak? of a Christmas surprise? huh? what´s this? (I hope it gets there on time, it should’ve been sent last week...it might get there late) DONT WORRY YOU’LL STILL LOVE IT!

Is that the Christmas surprise?

P.P.S. Hahahahahah no way! I bet he likes three rooms though! [Davis responded to the news that we put a window in Nathaniel's room so he can sleep in there when it is hot instead of moving into the guest room, and Davis' room...]

December 8, 2014 Still San Nicolas (I think...)

How is everything!? quick checkup:

are you doing family home evening? Are you all reading your scriptures everyday and having family prayer? Is dad and nathaniel doing home teaching? (I feel bad about that question because i never did it)

If you were doing all that for this whole month, THAT would be an awesome christmas gift.

Still haven't gotten the package, but that doesn´t mean it´s not here. They hold onto it until a zone conference or interviews or the next time you go to the offices. So i´ll get it the 23rd because that´s when we have our mission christmas event. Don´t worry if it´s not a lot mom! Do you really think that it would matter to me? the best gift is going to be skyping you guys! oh, i´ll probably do that in the Stake President´s house, he lives in our Barrio (ward). a good thing to send me next christmas would be home made jams...yum! that would be awesome. But i think I´ll go buy some nice khaki pants.

HOW COULD I FORGET TO WRITE NATHANIEL LAST WEEK? I feel so bad. I´ll write him right after this.

This week has been well. O went to the temple this saturday to do baptisms for the dead already and he has already passed the sacrament! He´s really engaged in the church and it´s awesome because i remember being concerned about that a month ago where he didn’t want to go if his cousin wasn’t going. we have a couple of other investigators right now, but I still don´t want to write about them yet. 1 of them is progressing much though so I´ll probably tell you about him next week!

Gosh there´s so much to say in so little time! I´ll write a letter today about my first change that you can get in about a month hahahaha.

My companion got called as the district leader! hahaha isn´t that cool; to have your trainer be the district leader? I was reading grandpa johansen´s mission memories and his trainer was.

I made some banana pancakes, they were super good. We bought a lot of stuff last week so we could just make our own breakfast and dinner. We´ve been eating a lot healthier now, pretty healthy actually. :) I still wear my retainer every night and brush and floss everyday.

Oh, how do you make good hot chocolate with the abuelita tablets? We make it and its kind of particle-ish.

Hey! I finished the Book of Mormon again! 2 times already in the book of mormon, and now I´m already in 2nd nephi in spanish! The Book of Mormon is  the best!

I don´t know if the way I´m writing you is good or not, I haven´t looked at how C(ousin) or GK do theirs, but let me know.

I´m going to write Nathaniel now.

I LOVE YOU

Elder garner

December 1, 2014 San Nicolas

Sounds like Thanksgiving was fun. for our thanksgiving we ate some cookies!

I got Canadian brass last week. I don´t think Fantasia 2000 is on it, or if it is I can´t find it. I´ve scrolled through all of the songs on that SD card but maybe there are more songs on it? Can you send me the Charlie Brown Christmas music?

This week was an exciting week for O: He got baptized, he became a member and got the Holy Ghost, he became a deacon, he´s going to the temple this saturday! and he moved houses!(still in the ward, pheww)

  Davis looks like a giant in this group.

The baptism was a scramble at the beginning. I let the Brother baptizing him borrow my baptism clothes because he said he was a 32 waist as I am. Well it turns out that 32 waist in mexico is a bit bigger than 32 US! hahaha he had to squeeze into those things, it took a little while but he figured it out. Next, we had Pants for O and told him to bring a white shirt. Well he brought a white shirt...with pokemon on it or something hahahaha. We had to run to a nearby member’s house to borrow a shirt. It was super cool because I felt like James Bond running in a full suit. after we finally got all of the mischief settled, the baptism went smoothly and it was an awesome experience for O.

I´m getting more and more confident with my spanish each day. I have found that when I have confidence, I can say a lot more than I think I can. I have always been outgoing, but for some reason I get nervous to talk to people on buses and trains. Nevertheless, I went on divisions this past wednesday with one of the zone leaders, and I was in his very large area so we had to take a bus to the other side of it. Well, we split up and started contacting the whole bus! Oh goodness at first I was a bit anxious, but the Zone leader told me "It´s not important what anyone thinks, and it´s not important if you mess up. If you fail just try again, that´s how you´re gonna grow and get over this little fear you have." So I just went and talked to people, by myself, with only my knowledge of the language and the faith that I would be able to get enough to help them out in some way. Well it turned out great. I was kind of sweating from the experience but it was a great experience. I´m going to continue to work on talking to people on trains and buses so I can have the 100% outgoing personality that I should have.

Thanks for the recipes mom. We learned how to make some good food at a member´s house last P-day.

Davis is making gorditas.

Tell Thanny to check his email everyweek, especially this week for next week. cuz his Bday and I have some favors for him.

hmmm, I think that´s what I got for you this week. I´ll try to write another letter soon.

It´ll be fun to skype you guys!

I love you!

Davuuuuuuus Garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnur

just downloaded the 6 canadian brass songs Grandma sent me. tell her  to send more of them. and all of the charlie brown christmas that´s the best.

November 24, 2014 San Nicolas

Davis and his companion at the Monterrey Mexico Temple

Hey, let me answer your questions super fast.

Dont have a simplified version [of the spanish hymnbook], its ok im doing well with the regular. I bought my own at the temple.

No thanksgiving here, thats an american holiday only. [Chris, Davis' dad, celebrated Thanksgiving in the Dominican Republic when he was on his mission.]

Luke [cousin] is a junior right now i think, but grandma told me that he will be able to go [on his mission] around the time Carson [another cousin] and I get back.

I think i can do pouch mail, that's probably a 7$ peso stamp (about half a dollar) I´ll ask my trainer about pouch mail, but what I did was just gave 5 pesos to my zone leader for the letter. [A letter arrived from Davis with what looked like a $7 stamp, but was postmarked from Salt Lake City.  It took two weeks to get to us.]

Haven´t gotten any packages yet.

OK! now I´ll tell ya some stuff! :)

I did take out some money from the personal card I have, 1000 pesos, about 80 dollars worth. I did buy one souveniur with some of the money...I found a super nice blanket for you. you can have it in two years. Other than that, I´m just gonna use the money for a couple of necessities, such as buying a tan pair of pants. 

Also, watch out for a cool Christmas surprise in the mail...in about 3-4 weeks hahaha.

Davis with his companion, J, and J's family at the church.

We had a baptism yesterday! J., a 9 yr old in a recently reactivated family, and guess who got to baptize him? The bishop wasn´t there this weekend so I got to do it! Most of the time you try to get a member to do it, but this case it was I who did it! Good experience, J. was really happy after that, and also really wet and kind of cold! once we got in the font and grabbed my arms, he clenched his nose and tried to sink into the water! hahaha it was pretty funny that he was super ready to be submerged. I had to tell him [to wait until] after I said amen.

Also, I will not ever be telling you about our transfer goals or such, or only with hindsight. Here is why: Two of our investigators did not come to church this week so they can´t get baptized in this change. Investigators have to come to sacrament meeting at least 4 times before getting baptized, that's a rule of our mission. But we still have faith for them. Anyway, I´m still trying to figure out what to tell you in these emails. O. is getting baptized tomorrow, and that´s super exciting!

I´m almost finished with the book of mormon again. I have two weeks left to finish it, seeing if I can finish it within this change. Something I read today was in Alma, talking about the Stripling Warriors. I forget the chapter and the verse, but it says that they were concerned of the liberty of their families more than their lives, and that their mothers taught them to doubt not, and God will deliver them. 2 things: 1. We should never doubt our faith. as Pres. Uctdorf has said "Before you doubt your faith, doubt your doubts." When we have faith the Lord can do marvelous things. 2. Thanks for teaching me mom, in Alma 37:35 it says to learn wisdom of keeping the commandments in your youth, and I wouldn´t have been able to do that without you and dad.

Also, can you send me a recipe of how to make good banana pancakes. I´ve been eating healthier also, I eat a banana every day and I try to eat whatever other kind of fruit I can find. are there other healthy meals I can make, or something?

Sorry about the weird format of this email. I´m going to write Nathaniel some things right now. Oh, also, can you send me Vince Guaraldi Christmas trio? That's  appropriate.

In front of the church before J.'s baptism.

I love you all,

Davis

November 19, 2014 San Nicolas

[Note to reader: Davis did not send an email on Monday which is the usual "preparation" day (p-day).  We did feel pretty sad and had not expected to hear from him for another week.  It was a fun surprise to get his email on a Wednesday.  He responded to these questions in his email:
1. What do you do to work out?
2. Do you eat at members' homes? 3. What are you eating? 4. How is the Spanish coming along?]

Bet you were sad that I didnt´send an email this monday...because our P-day was today because fuimos al TEMPLO! I have pictures, but I´m at a different Ciber so I won´t send them this week.

ok:

1. There used to be a jump rope, I broke it. Need to buy one next monday, it was useful. I usually do core, push ups, tricep dips, jumping squats with some giant cinder block, more leg stuff with two giant cinder block sticks, and I use the stretchy band. I really just try to get up and start working out asap until 7. It´s hard to actually break a sweat, i´m trying to find a way to do it.

2-3. mexico, the biggest meal is lunch. We eat at 2pm with a member. I´ve always had tortillas, and I've had stuff like spicy soups, uhhh I don´t know the names of things, various meats, beans, rice, other stuff, and mole (yuck,hahah) I haven´t had any fruits yet, but I´m going to buy bananas. There isn´t a lot of fruit here and it´s hard to eat healthy on your own time. I´ve probably had a little bit too much meat in the past few weeks though (it´s reallllly good though).

also, the weather right now is CRAZY! one day it´s super cold, the next day it´s hot. this time of the year the weather in monterrey just changes whenever. one day it was raining so much, and since the roads aren't well constructed, the roads were rivers and I was using my umbrella to protect us from the buses flying through these ´¨rivers¨ then it got hot and then it got cold and then it got hot and...

4. All of the latin missionaries say that I speak really well for only being out for this long. The two gueros (whities/gringos) say that I speak super well two for a 3 wk mexico missionary, so does the Stake president and a lot of others. The motivation helps, but remember I was an impatient person before my mission so this is pretty challenging. I think it´s doing well though and I´m trying to speak spanish as much as possible with my comp.

ok here´s some investigator stuff:

right now our goal for the change(transfer) is to have 5 baptisms and 4 confirmations(since they have to wait a week for confirmation) and right now we have...5 baptismal dates planned! I want to talk about O a little bit again, he´s getting baptized next tuesday. Also, he has a good buddy in the church who is just a year younger than him and he is isn't a recent convert family(baptized this past january.) It´s exciting because we´re going to have his friend´s dad baptize him! It´s super good because it´ll give O some support in the church, and since the recent convert family hasn{t been super active, it´ll give them some responsiblity. They´ve actually been pretty active though in the past couple weeks which is awesome! and we´re going to help them start having family home evenings this monday and...O will be there! O is super smart because he is quick to understand the gospel and such...and he makes sure to ask questions when he´s confused! super bien! also, we taught him how to say ¨the book of mormon is true¨and ¨joseph smith was a prophet of god

anyway, I only have time to tell you about one other investigator. He is a father in an all member family, except for him. He´s been investigating¨the church for 14 years. He hasn´t had a problem with alcohol, but he would go drink with friends. So far, he hasn´t touched alcohol for almost 4 weeks, and he´s going to get baptized in two weeks! It´s super awesome and his family is super excited! We´ve talked to him about how we can recieve the priesthood and bless his family with it, and we´re planning on talking to the whole family about being sealed in the temple after he´s baptized and has been a member for a year.

Also,

I don´t drink a lot of soda, that was just a picture, we drank that soda in about a week and a half. the nice thing is though that a lot of stores just have a lot of bottle caps I can have. Also, Hermano P (The 14 year investigator) has been getting teeth pulled recently, so what motivation is that to brush every day!!! Don´t worry mom, I´ve brushed my teeth thouroghly every day since I got to the MTC, flossing is improving, somethimes I forget.

Also, if you can send me music via email, I´m aloud to download it. If you can figure it out then Awesome! If not then it´s ok. but if you do, i´d request that you send the Christmas album of Canadian Brass, and Fantasia 2000 (I have the original 1944 fantasia)

If I forgot anything, you´ll hear it on monday!

I love you guys!

Davis

oh yea! one last thing! Guess who is the pianist for the ward!?

[Davis was the pianist in the spanish-speaking unit's sacrament meeting at church for a while in high school even though he hadn't played piano for a couple of years...)

November 10, 2014 San Nicolas

[Note to reader: We took a weekend trip where we attended church in a ward in Encinitas, CA.  While we were there we saw a picture of a missionary (Elder D.) from that ward in the same mission as Davis.  We talked to some ward members about Elder D and learned that he had just been assigned to the mission offices.  I sent Davis a photo of the photo of Elder D by email.]

Hahahahah I know Elder D! He's secretary of materials.

Wow, Nathaniel is fast, I´m kind of jealous hahaha. That´s almost as good as my best sophomore time. I'm trying to work out as much as I can here though, with the 30 minutes we have in the morning. I have found that it gives me much more energy for the day. I do miss running though.

Oh, you need to tell the bank that I'm in Mexico so they don't cancel the card if I use it. I have another missionary debit card, but that's for food and stuff. I could use mine for souveniours and such. I want to get some soccer jerseys for Nathaniel and stuff but I need to find ones without Carta Blanca logo on the back, a beer company.

Let me tell you a little bit about my area. San Nicolas is a pretty well off city (My zone is san nicolas, area is nicolas bravo) It´s not super wealthy or anything, but they have things. There are a couple really poor parts in my area though. Most of the houses are smaller than our living room plus kitchen plus front room are with the chandelier. There are a lot of stray dogs. something funny to do is if there’s a small stray dog barking at you, you pretend to pick up a rock and it runs away.

Here's a joke: ¿Porque las camisas de los Lamanites tienen arrugas?... porque no tienen planchas!

Ok I´ll explain: Why do the shirts of the lamanites have wrinkles?...because they don´t have Plates/Irons (planchas means both)

Davis and 12 year old O

We've been teaching an 18 yr old named A, as well as his cousin O. A was staying with his aunt working here in Monterrey, but his job was so terrible that he quit, and now he is going back home to puebla MX. He has a desire to get baptized though, and it turns out that his mom is a member! Yay! hopefully he answers the prayers of some other missionaries. We´re still teaching O, who is 12. He's super cool and has a really good knowledge of the bible. He´s reading his book of mormon (hopefully every day like we asked him to do hahah) but now that his older cousin is gone, he doesn´t have as much support to go to church. We´re finding a way to get him to come. It´s kind of hard when the rest of his family isn´t in line with the gospel, since his mom is in a "union libre" (not married) but shes also married to someone that she isn´t living with, so she basically is in a big pickly and can´t get baptized. It must be pretty hard for O, but he´s a great kid and he always has a good attitude. Here´s a picture of him, and then there´s a picture of me and my comp. with A, O, and a member (taller guy).

Davis, Elder S, A, Taller Guy, O, mysterious little girl.

I´ll tell you about more investigators next week.

Also, Bottlecaps! Since the water isn´t great here, a lot of people drink a lot of soda. I have 150 bottle caps just from two weeks being here; I´ll probably send them some time so keep my bottle cap collection safe because im still going to make that mural! I don´t like caffienated ones, so I don´t drink them, but I have a lot of coca cola bottle caps because It´s super popular here. Also, I don´t think I´ve actually had more than one taste of coke or pepsi before now, but when we go over to a members house and they just have a giant bottle of pepsi and that´s all there is to drink, well, ya gotta. hahaha it always just has a weird taste :P

Davis is going to mail bottlecaps home from Mexico?

Also, I´m sending pictures to you because the computers at this Ciber are really safe and stuff, but I probably won't in following areas because my trainer said he has gotten viruses on his SD cards and couldn´t take anymore pictures with them.

Also, no interesting birds! psh

Alright, I´ll be back next week to tell you about all of the amazing things about being on a mission!

Love you all!

Davis

11/3/2014 San Nicolas

Elder S (trainer) and Davis (trainee) at the Mission Home in Monterrey Mexico.

Mexico is great! I was assigned to the second smallest area of the mission, only about 1-2 sq miles. The area is called Nicolas Bravo in the town San Nicolas (also the zone), It´s only a short ways from Monterrey.

 My companion´s name is Elder S and he´s all the way from...Provo!  hahaha Yea he´s not a native but he speaks very good spanish. My spanish is, well, going. I´m working really hard to just say as much as I can say and understand as much as I can. I know that I´m going to have to be patient with myself, and that it will take a couple of months, but I´m just too happy to be here and to be working that I don´t let that get me discouraged. In Ether 12:27 it talks about how if men bring their weaknesses unto the Lord, we will make them strengths. That is something that is really promising to me. I try to talk to everyone we pass by, I think that it´s important that everyone has the chance to use their god given gift of agency to choose whether or not they want to accept and listen to more of the glad tidings we have to offer or not. After all, men are free according to the flesh...(2 Nephi 2:27) 

That´s awesome that Nathaniel did that well! WAY TO GO NATHANIEL YOU´RE DOING AWESOME! Tell everyone that    I´m doing awesome, and that I love being a missionary.

As for the birds, my area is really urban so I´m not gonna see any cool birds for about 3 months. I saw those other birds at the mission offices. The birds I have seen here that are different are: Inca dove, Couch´s Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, and some parrakeet sp.

Here are pictures of our home. It´s smaller than the apt. that I stayed in at the MTC. It really just reminds me to be very thankful for all of the things we have, like those new cabinets hahaha. There´s also a picture of me and my companion and me eating a campachana (really good)

 I´ll send you a letter by mail too!

I love you!

Davis