Baptisms, Spanish Work, News From Home

Buenos dias a todos!                    23 April 2012

Chad's Father would NOT like this!
He is afraid of Heights!

Well this week has been a really rewarding week here in Emery County. We have seen a bunch of good things come to pass and we are working hard and looking forward to seeing the many miracles that the Lord has in store for us. Well last Monday we actually took a trip out to the desert. It was a pretty cool trip with a lot of neat sights. We went out to a place called "The Wedge". It is a point that looks out into this huge canyon that ironically has the name "The Little Grand Canyon". I am attaching some pictures from there and letting you experience the beauty of Utah. But it was quite a fun time and we were able to have some other Elders come out and experience with us. Utah is a very diverse and beautiful state.

          Well,  I will now get into the week that included all the missionary service. We found this super amazing guy named Bruno this week. He is from Chihuahua. It was pretty cool to teach him and he was really open. We had a great lesson with him at the beginning of the week and we taught him about the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he only handled it with his right hand (that is a key fact for this next part). We then invited him to read and pray about it. The next day we went back and had another really good lesson. At the end of the lesson, I followed up with his reading and praying. He then looked at me and said, "Well last night I had a dream. Can I share it with you?" So of course I let him share it, but I never thought that it would be as amazing as what he told me. I hope I can relate a little bit about the dream that he had. He said that in his dream he had a cast on his right arm that went from the middle of his forearm to his shoulder. The crazy thing is that this cast was made of pure gold and was brighter then any gold he had ever seen before. Just then his brother shows up and says, "Hey let's go down to the mine and work." So they get in the truck and head down to the mine and are about ready to go in when his brother stops him. He then says, "You can't go into a mine with gold on your arm." So Bruno quickly responded, "Don't worry, I will just take it off." So he started to take it off and he got it all the way down and it was almost all the way off his arm and it broke into a bunch of pieces. So Bruno bent down and picked up all the pieces and filled up a huge zip-loc bag(that is the best translation I could get). He then picks up the bag and starts heading to the mine, when his brother stops him again. His brother then says, "Bruno, why are you going into a mine, when you already have what you are looking for in your hand?" This was the thing that hit him the most. He said at that moment he knew that the Book of Mormon was true and that is what he had been looking for all his life. The Lord truly has prepared this man! We had some many great and wonderful lessons with Bruno last week, but there is one problem. He was only up here for a little while, and he ended up going back to Chihuahua last Saturday. I am super bummed. But I did get his address and we are going to send the missionaries to him there and I know he will get baptized. He took down my info and said, "We are now friends forever, don't ever forget that!" He is such a great man!

          This week has been filled with a lot of Spanish work. I am pretty excited about that. My Spanish was doing really well this week, but my English was not. We did a lot of Spanish work in the afternoon, so when it came time to do all the English lessons in the evening, my mind was still working in Spanish.

          We also had zone conference this week. It was a good one. It was filled with great information - the only bad part was the long distance that we had to travel to get there. We had to travel about 2 hours to a city called Richfield. But it was a good experience and I was able to see a lot of missionaries that I know.
          The highlight of the week was the TWO baptisms that we had here. The weird thing is that I haven't had a baptism that has run smoothly in a long time. There is always something that comes up. This time we had everything set up and ready to go for the font in Castledale, but we got a call saying that there was something wrong with the font in Castledale, so we had to move the baptism to Ferron. It was such a fiasco to work out. Well the first baptism was for a 12 year old girl named Aubrie. She has been taught for a while, but this is the date that finally worked for all of her family. Her baptism was quite cold. There was a women's conference going on in the Ferron Stake Center, so we weren't allowed to get in there until about 12:30pm and the baptism was scheduled for 1. We filled the font as fast as we could, so the water turned out freezing. (it wasn't super cold, only about 75 degrees or so). Well the baptism went really well, but I just have one regret for it. It wasn't until about 10 minutes before the baptism that we discovered that the women's conference had a special speaker, Elaine S. Dalton, the General Young Women's President of the Church. (That is pretty amazing!)  Since we were baptizing a young woman we thought how awesome would that be to have her come to the baptism. It was just our luck that when we asked someone, we were told Sister Dalton left about 10 minutes before that. I guess you just can't have everything, right?
          The second baptism was for a lady named Priscilla. She is who I have talked about before and how she has been super prepared. Her baptism was a lot warmer then the first since we had more time to fill the font. Her baptism was amazingly Spiritual as well. As she was baptized and came up out of the water she was just overcome with the Spirit and just started to shed tears of joy. It was super special. She is going to be such a great member of the Church. She knows that her tasks aren't done yet, and that she is still focused on making it to the Temple in a year from now. It has been really amazing to teach both of these daughters of God and to help them enter into His fold. I am excited because the work of the Lord is never done and we are still preparing more people for baptism in the coming weeks.
NEWS FROM HOME:  We found out this week that Chad's father who thought he was cancer free, has had his cancer return.  We agonized how to tell Chad and not disrupt the remaining 4 months of his mission, but it couldn't be helped.  Chad had asked us previously that if anything happened to his father we would tell him and not keep it from him.  We were able to talk with his Mission President and received permission to talk with him and update him on his father's situation. Darin will hopefully have radical treatment through the University of Washington in the near future.)

          Well now it is onto the tough stuff. It was pretty tough to hear about Pops and his cancer again. I am glad that you told me and that you were able to let me know as soon as possible. Thank you for that! I have been thinking a lot about this, and have found a lot of peace throughout it all. It isn't an easy thing to hear, but it is a little easier to hear when I heard it once last year. That isn't to say that I am not concerned for him or his well being, just that I am a little more at peace this time.  I have come to understand about the Lord and His plan. He is the one that knows everything and obviously He knows better than we do. I have complete trust and faith in Him that He can do miracles and that His will is what will be done. I know that the Gospel is true and that through the Restored Priesthood authority and sealing power families can be together forever. I know my family is an eternal family and that no matter what happens, we will always be just that.

The WORLD AWAITS!!

        This morning I was studying about "adversity" and I came across a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants that really helped me out a lot. It is in D&C 58:2-4, it says, "For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory while shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory...." I know that these things are true.  Even though we are going through trials right now, there are greater blessings awaiting for us. And whether the blessings will come in this life or the life to come, they will definitely come, but we just cannot see these things with our natural eyes. The Lord is always there and He continues to be a God of miracles! I love you all so much!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!    de tu hijo amado y con muchismo amor!

ELDER D

Welcome to Castledale and new area!

 

Hola Padres! y los demas!   16 April 2012

     Espero que todos tuvieron una buena semana. (I hope you all had a good week.) Well our week was a little tougher, but it is just one of those weeks that you learn from and move on. We had a lot of trouble finding new people to teach and to have people actually keep their appointments. Throughout the week we had about 10 people cancel their appointments, so we just battled through all of that and just went to work. We definitely worked pretty hard, but the results weren’t really evident. But that is part of everything we do; we work hard and hope that we find "those that will receive us".

As you already know, I did have dinner with the Snow Family (Steve Wilstead's sister and brother-in-law). Yes, Mom it is the same one that picked me up when I was walking in the middle of no where about 8 months ago. I didn’t know it was the same people, because Snow is a pretty common name around here, but it was a strange coincidence. It was a pretty good dinner and the world really is a small place.

This week I also was able to go up to Price on exchanges. It was pretty weird to be passing by all these places that I used to go and visit people. It was also pretty weird to be teaching in all Spanish again, and to have a companion that knew how to speak Spanish. The missionary I went with, Elder Bennion, is actually from Vancouver, Washington. There is a surprisingly high amount of missionaries here from the Northwest. (I guess, it is kind of like all the missionaries in the Kennewick Mission are from the great state of Utah.) We had some pretty good lessons and were able to visit a lot of potentials with him.

The pictures are of Elder Leguizamón (my son) (in mission terms, when you train a brand new missionary, he is your "son" -- Chad trained Elder Leguizamon) and I drinking an Argentine drink called "mate". It is kind of like an herbal tea thing. It looks a lot like crushed up green hay, but it tastes really good and is really healthy. The benefits of being companions with two Argentines and I know more about that culture.

The weather was back and forth the whole time. I saw temperatures in the 60s and then in the 30s. I saw everything from wind, rain, hail, and even SNOW! I still continue to be amazed by the diversity of the weather here. I really do think it is worse up here. Everyone here always says, "if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes and it will change." I am really starting to believe that is true.

This week we had a baptism, but we really didn’t do anything for it. Last Sunday at our missionary coordination meeting, we were told about this kid that was getting baptized on Saturday and that he was going to be a convert baptism. It was a fiasco and things were not easy for us and there was so much miscommunication between the ward and us. I won’t get into too much detail, because I am still a little frustrated with it, but the important thing is that he was able to enter into the sacred covenant of baptism.   This week has been a test of diligence and I can see the blessings that the Lord has prepared for us on the horizon, we just have to follow through with the work here and we will see those blessings.

NEWS FROM HOME:  (We explained that the weather has finally allowed us to work in the yard and clean things up from winter.) It is good that there is some yard work getting done. I assume that I will be doing a lot of that when I get home, won’t I Mom? (YES!) Well it is pretty funny to think that Bryson won’t even go outside because of the wasps, when before you couldn’t even keep that kid inside! (He is a very active 5 year old!) I did get a good laugh out of hearing about Wendy Scrimsher's talk. (Gave examples of Wendy’s talk and how she pointed out that her husband is annoying!)   I always loved that lady for her boldness and she does just tell it how it is. (I also apologized that we don’t have a lot of money and we all have had to work so hard for anything we have or get.) Mom, the lap of luxury really isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I know that every parent wants more for their children, but growing up I didn’t always understand the financial things. But now, I appreciate the learning experiences that I was able to have growing up. I know that I will be better off for the times that we have had to scrimp and save. I know some kids here in the mission and before that, that were given everything they needed and now they don’t know the meaning of the word sacrifice, or they just run out of money by the second week of the month. So it was a blessing in disguise! Well thank you for the support and the emails! Have a great week! I love you all!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!  de la viña del Señor!  

ELDER D

p.s. I love you!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Parental Note:  Elder Chad says that he doesn't get much mail these days -- most have "written" him off - literally.  So, If you are reading this blog, why not take a moment and WRITE him a letter letting him know you are still thinking about him!  His address is: Elder Chad Davis, Utah St. George Mission, 107 S 1470 E Suite 304, St. George, UT  84790.  He still has FIVE WONDERFUL MONTHS in the mission field, so take a moment and write him a note -- or email him at: chad.davis@myldsmail.com.  (emails are allowed by friends AND FAMILY in the St. George Mission!)  THANKS!  The Mom :)

Saludos a todos mis amados padres y amigos!    April 9 2012

      It was really good to hear about all the Easter stories and events that happened to you this week. It is crazy how time goes by every week. I say this every week, but it truly is crazy to think that another week went by since I was last here in the Castledale Library emailing home.
        This week was a really solid week with lots of good solid things happening here in Emery County. The blessings of hard work and obedience continue to come and we are more then happy to receive this blessing. We have been really going forth and putting in the effort and we have found the "elect" this week. We found a 14 year old boy named Bret. He has met with missionaries in the past and said that he was going to get baptized, but it just never happened due to transfers. He said that he is ready and willing to do what is necessary again to be baptized this time.
        We also were able to find this lady named Lori. She is in her 20s and recently married a less active member of the Church. She doesn't know too much about the Church or our beliefs, but she does know that she wants to be sealed with her husband and kids in the temple. So we told her that we would be more then happy to help her to learn and to know how she can reach that goal of a temple sealing. She will probably be baptized in the first part of May.
       The best one of all is this lady named Priscilla. So Priscilla, is honestly probably the most "golden" investigator I have ever taught on my mission. The story is pretty interesting on how we are at this point, but it all started back in California. (She just moved here to Utah a few months ago.) She was walking on the street there and a missionary contacted her and asked if she wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. She didn’t have much time, so she never met with them; she just remembers the glow and smile on his face. That was the lasting impression she had of missionaries. Now, fast forward to about 3 weeks ago here Castledale. The missionary that was here before me actually got pulled over for speeding, but instead of giving him a ticket, the cop actually gave him a referral to go and see Priscilla. Priscilla was more then happy to receive the missionaries and to learn more, but it wasn't until just recently that she has met with the missionaries consistently. She is actually battling breast cancer, and she had a surgery earlier in the week. We met with her, taught her about the Restoration, and left her with the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to read. When we came back two days later, we asked how her reading went and she started talking about Nephi and Lehi and the struggles that they went through when they left Jerusalem. Obviously she read more then just the Introduction. We asked her how far she had read in the Book of Mormon - she then responded, “when Jesus Christ came to the Americas” (3 Nephi 11). So in two days she had read over two thirds of the Book of Mormon! We asked her if she prayed about it and she said that she did and she knows that it is true! We immediately invited her to be baptized on the 21st of April, and she accepted! It is so crazy how things have happened with her. She believes that she was brought to Utah for a reason. (See 2 Nephi 12:2) She is even taking notes in our lessons as we continue to teach her! I am still just so surprised on how much this lady was prepared for the gospel. This truly is a tender mercy of the Lord!
        We have been able to get out to Huntington and do some Spanish work this week. It was really nice to be back in a place where I feel comfortable speaking Spanish! There is a lot of work to be done with the Hispanics as well, hopefully we can have enough time to go and do that work as well. I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Leguizamón. It is pretty crazy to think that 10 months have gone by since I trained him as a brand new missionary. It is kind of weird that my "son" is now my zone leader, but he has definitely become a really good missionary. I definitely didn't have any part in him becoming the missionary he is because he is so much better than me. (In the mission field, when you train someone in the ways of missionary work, that person is your "son" and you are a "dad" -- Elder Chad trained Elder Leguizomon, so he is his "son" in mission terms!)
       Another random thing that happened this week, is that we ate dinner in a mortuary. Well, technically, it was a house attached to the mortuary, but nonetheless it was still kind of weird. I don’t know how they can live right next to a bunch of dead people. But to each his own, right?
        Well my Easter was good, and it sounds like it was really good for you as well. I did get the package Mom, it was really nice. I really enjoyed everything in there. I will have to share some of the candy with my companion so I don't get too fat. My companion is pretty relaxed, but that is because he is kind of quiet, but he seems to be opening up quite a bit. I think that the two companions he has had, Elder Cacia and I, are pretty similar, so we have helped him open up. Well I was also able to meet a family who has a son serving in the Kennewick mission. His name is Elder Tuttle, he is a Spanish missionary, so I don’t know if you have meet him before. But if you ever see an Elder Tuttle, know that his family is taking good care of me here in Castledale and that if you could return the favor up there in Washington. Well I am grateful for your love and for everything that you have done to support me. I will continue to "endure to the end" Mom, don’t worry about that. I love my mission and I know that the Lord has things in store for me in my last 5 months! Have a great week!
     Live it, Love it, Preach it!      con amor,    ELDER D

 P.S. Sorry that there are no pictures. I am still working on that. I have pictures to send, but the computers here won’t let me access the other drives on the computer, so I will see what I can do here in the coming weeks! Sorry!

TRANSFERS, CASTLEDALE, HERE ELDER D COMES!

Buenas tardes!                                                                      26 Mar 2012

Scouting Out CASTLEDALE, new area!

            Well I am here again! This week was pretty crazy. There was quite a few random things that happened and they are actually pretty funny. So hopefully you will all get a good kick out of them as well.    I know the biggest question on your mind is about transfers, but I wont tell you about that yet, I am going to leave it for the end. So you will have to wait just a little while longer.

Mission Tradition - Burning PANTS at 18 months!

18 month mark, thumbs up!

           One funny thing that happened this week was with our lesson with the Calvario kids. We are still teaching them and preparing them to get baptized on the 7th of April. So they are super excited about that and the thought of baptism, so we asked them if they had talked with their parents about it yet. They just kind of looked at each other and said no, so we told them that they need to talk to their parents and to let them know it is something that they want to do. So just  at that moment, Angelo turns to his mom and says, "Mom we're getting baptized." At that moment I just busted up laughing. It was just the most random thing ever. He just turned around and told his mom that he was getting baptized as if it was him telling her that he was going over to his friends house or something. It was so funny that his mom just couldn't hold in her laughter either. Kids really do say some of the darnedest things.

            The weather this week was pretty good as well, so we were walking quite a bit again. I really forgot how much more you talk to your companion when you walk instead of when you drive a car. Honestly, I forgot how much fun walking really can be. Elder Pedersen and I walked for a whole day, and I don't think I have laughed that hard in a really long time. Every little thing when you walk relates back to something or you can find some random joke to tell.
            Zone leaders are to be involved the other missionaries, we are kind of involved in everything in the zone. So we try to help and support missionaries in anyway that we can, and there are two things that happened this week that really show this. We went to a baptism for the missionaries that are serving on the campus of SUU to give them support. So we were waiting for the baptism to start, and we get a message from the Elders that said, "Big problem...." So we rush out of the chapel and they say that the font was leaking and the water didn't stay in the font. This all happened about 5 minutes before the baptism was supposed to start, and they had about 3 inches of water still in the font. So then starts the operation to fill the font. I think that we had almost every type of container that could hold some water being filled up. We had almost every faucet going in the chapel. It was so crazy to see 4 missionaries and some members running water in pitchers and trash cans back and forth to the font. (Don't worry the trash cans were clean.) Well everything ended up working out and it was full enough that the baptism could happen.
            The next day we went a meeting for all the Spanish speaking missionaries in the southern part for the mission in St. George. It was a really good meeting, but that wasn't the crazy part. When we got back to Cedar, we got a random call from some missionaries. They said that they needed a favor from us and need us to call them back. So we called them and they tell us that they were in a gnarly bike crash and now were at the clinic getting checked and they also had a baptism in less then 2 hours and needed us to fill the font. So of course we wanted them to have their baptism, so we went and started filling it up and then I had to go sit in the doctor's office while one of the missionaries got some x-rays and finished up everything there. So it was just a bunch of craziness. It was pretty cool though, I got to help the nurse take all the x-rays.
            This past Sunday, I was able to meet another general authority. Elder Jose L. Alonso was in the Spanish Branch. He was in Cedar City to give a fireside for the single adults, so he just came and stopped in the Spanish Branch. He gave a great talk to the Branch and it really applies to almost everything pertaining to the gospel. He was one of the funniest speakers I have heard in quite a while. He has a great personality and was really personable.
            I guess now I will let you know what you are really wondering; transfers. Well I am getting transferred. I am pretty bummed to have to leave Cedar City after being here for 6 months. I am getting released as a zone leader and becoming a district leader again. My new area will be Castledale Bilingual. It is really close to Price, so I will be able to see a lot of the people that I met when I was there 6 months ago. I really am bummed about going to a bilingual area again. My heart is really with the Spanish work, and that is what I know how to do. English work is completely different from Spanish work and that is my biggest fear. I guess the Lord qualifies who he calls, so I know that he needs me there for a reason, I just don't know what that reason is yet. I don't know too much about my companion either. I know he is fairly new and he is kind of quiet, so I guess I will have to get him to open up. It should be a pretty interesting transfer. That is basically all I really know for now, more to come next week from Castledale.
            NEWS FROM HOME: (Darin traded in Chad's first car, the green Taurus, or grocery Getter, as Chad called it Darin is the new owner of a 2001 White Taurus.) .Well that is weird to know that my first car officially isn't in the family anymore. But I am glad that you were able to find a good car for Pops to drive to work. Mom, I got quite a kick out of what you said about pulling weeds and that is all Bry will remember in 20 years. (When ever I am out in the yard with the kids, I pull weeds.  Then Bry and Chay help.) I just thought of us at a family dinner in 20 years or so, and Bryson will just ask you, "Momo, why did you always have me pull weeds when I was younger?" Well I guess we will see what really happens in 20 years right. Wow I am going to be old then! Well I am about out of time once again. Thank you for everything that you do for me and for your support! I love you so much!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!     de la viña del Señor!   ELDER D