Baptisms!  Yay!

This week was great We baptized Victoria, Titi, and Ola! They were Confirmed on Sunday and are so happy to be members of this church. Titi Is pumped to get home to Nigeria and start teaching her family and friends about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how it came through a Modern day prophet! How cool is that!  Other than that we havent had much going on. After the Baptism Victoria bore her testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel. It was powerful and moving. 

I love you guys! Take care this week. 

Here is a picture of Victoria, Titi, and Ola 

And my Companion and I eating Valveta that was given to us at the beginning of Elder Allred's mission. We swore that we wouldn't eat it unless we had baptized someone. It was mainly a joke that we took seriously

10/17/16:
Hey Fam. Its been a good week. We met with the Nigerian family multiple times this week bringing them to a baptism and catching the rest of their family up with all the things we teach them. The Grandmother Titi is the one who came to church this week with her grandchildren Ola And I have no Idea how to spell her brothers name. But the Grandmother just came to visit Victoria from Nigeria and Victoria gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read it. So we have been teaching her and she had told us how much she has changed. She told us her son is a pastor in Africa and she is going to give him a Book of Mormon and she is going to have him change too. She is working towards being baptized. So as we teach them Victoria, Ola, Titi will be Baptized then their Son and the Husband Bayo will hopefully sit in on a lesson as well. 

Wondm will be continuing to meet with us and we are going to bring an Ethiopian friend that comes to church to help teach him. We have been working on being very obedient  and we have seen The Lords hand in our life! Its been awesome I believe your prayers are heard and will be answered!!!! Of course be it his will! 

Beat to Teach and Pitbull:

here are some things I forgot to mention. Played Getto B ball or as we call it Beat to teach. They were all cool! My team won. 

Then we went to go check out some potential Investigators and this Pit bull ran up to us and slapped into my comps window without me knowing. I opened my door and the Fart hopped into our car like he wanted a ride! Luckily he was a sweet dog. Later his owner came was looking for him and I helped chase him down. and the Dog wouldnt come to his owner so I stopped and the Dog stopped and I slapped my knees and told him to come here. and He GALLOPED to me hahaha and jumped right into my arms. so I held the dog till His owner came and Got him.

A wonderful week!

 This week was great! We worked hard and had much success with talking with our Ethiopian friend Wondm. We invited Wondm to church AND HE CAME!!!!!!!! IT WAS SO GREAT! He couldnt stay for the entire time so before he left we took him around the church and ran into a member in our ward who just so happened to be from the same country as Wondm! They spoke in their native language for a while and then parted ways and we continued to go around the church. As we worked our way around we came to the painting of John the Baptist and spoke about baptism. He told us he will get baptized but he wants to read more. He seems to be in Alma 45 right now! He does so much research when we arent there, then when we meet him he has great questions! He says "So many people say the Mormons are weird, but I enjoy what they do and how you work." He enjoyed sacrament meeting and is going to bring his wife and kid next week! 

   My companion and I have been praying for a miracle and working hard, then on Sunday we had a surprise visit at church from a Lady named Victoria! We had been trying to get in contact with her since she moved to Indiana. Victoria and her Family have been wanting to be baptized but lost contact with missionaries! She came up to the other Elders in our ward and poked em on the chest and said "WE NEED MISSIONARIES" so we received the correct contact information and we will be starting to meet with her on Tuesday. I am so grateful for miracles in this modern day. I am so grateful for the opportunity to give up a small time of my life to serve in Indiana. I can not describe the many wonderful things that have happened in my life since May 6th 2015. It hasnt always been easy but I am grateful for that. 

I love all of you   

Hey whats up! I am now in White River training Elder Allred who is pretty cool! He's from Gilbert Arizona he is 18 he is as old as my brother! The new area is slightly familiar because Tafuna brought me here when he was training me so I knew a few members already! Its not really a place where its at all safe to bike so we walk!

Our First day we were walking around and checking out our area and walked up to an abandoned swimming pool with a pub building attached to it. It is all fenced off so we walked up to the fence to get a closer look. well there were two black dudes sitting on the steps and had a Rifle with a scope leaning on the wall haha. They looked at us and were like "what you guys doing?" and I told him we came to check out the abandoned pool! How are you guys doing? they said "We good" and I said alright well have a nice day! and we walked off and my comp as we were walking looked at me and asked "Do we mention the sniper rifle?" I just told him to keep walking and ignore it.

But other than that we have had a lot of success! We work hard and wake up on time! We study when we can and its been great! We had a couple experiences to share so ill start with the first Neighborhood we went to. We knocked on a door and waited for a minute or two and heard the garage door open. I told him this happens alot where they leave right when we knock. So we walked around the corner and saw she wasnt in her car. So we asked if we could give her a card, and she for sure wasnt interested in talking to us. She was upset that we were there but she said sure to taking the card. So we gave here the card and she said ok thanks, and just kinda sat there for a second because I was seeing if my comp would say anything. He didnt so I started the conversation off nice and friendly and immediately she opened up. I forgot to mention when we gave her the card she said she had 2 sick kids. so before she turned around I offered some help if she needed any, and thats when she opened up. We spoke with her for a long while and she was very friendly and waited patiently and a little awkwardly as I waited for my companion to speak haha. But we gave here a Bom and a Restoration pamphlet. Well after her we spoke with another friendly fellow and continued on.

Well we headed to a different street and a mail man drove up to a mail box. I asked him if I could give him personally some mail and he said sure! (this is often what we do if we see mailmen) well when he saw Jesus on the front he took it the wrong way. He said "THATS NOT MAIL" and repeated it several times, so I asked You dont want it? and he looked at me nope thats not mail. he (Looked closely at the name tag) and mumbled "Mormons. LYIN MORMONS! YOUR A LYING MORMON!!! Im a pasture of a church you both need to go and repent you lying Mormons! SHAME ON YOU!" I told him im not lying sorry for offering you a pamphlet. and he replied "You said it was mail! YOUR A LYING MORMON!!" and got all heated, which put me in a bad mood so I replied to him "AND YOUR A MEAN PASTOR HUH!!!!" and walked off. and that made everything even more heated but he said "Both you need to repent Ill pray for you God bless you" I said in return GOD BLESS YOU TOO and he said "YOUR LYING CAUSE YOUR LYING MORMONS" So I just said yup and walked off and ignored him. Well after that we came to a ladies door and my comp knocked and we sat there for a while so I knocked, hitting the loos screen door which then banged against her door right when she opened it. She just sat there staring all angry like with wide eyes. and sat in silence so I said " sorry if that was loud" and she just went off! "IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMEONE WAS GETTING MURDERED OUT HERE! YOU SHOULD BE SORRY HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT JESUS KNOCKING LIKE THAT AND BEING SO DISRESPECTFUL" and after just getting done with the mailman I wasnt happy. all i could say was sorry and she continued to poop herself. So i just interrupted her and said have a good day as she continued to spit venom at us. As we were on our way to more doors I saw the mailman and I waved him over to us. He pulled up and I reached out my hand and apologized for being so harsh to him. He reached out and shook my hand and said "Ok" I told him to have a great day and again apologized and he said God bless both of you a lot more gentle this time. After that we headed home and had the thought to bake some cookies and write an apology to her and give her a book of mormon and a card offering any help if she needed it. As we arrived at her house I had the cookies in our plate in my hand and began walking, little did I know the paper towel the cookies were in slid so easily on the plate, and I spilled 3 of them) OOPS! So we put those to the side and rang her doorbell this time. She didnt answer so we left the note and cookies on her doorstep and went on our way.

Later this week we were knocking in some apartment complexes close to our place and didnt have any luck. So we moved on and I asked my companion which complex he felt we should go! I felt that we should go to the left but I didnt communicate that with him. He said lets go left, so we were there for a while and began knocking with no success and I saw a cool looking pond and wanted to check it out. We arrived at the pond and a voice from behind us asked "What are you guys selling?" We turned around and answered back "We arent selling anything but we are here to talk about Jesus" and we broke out in conversation. Well we began with talking about our missions and what we do and why we do it and she offered some food and said she is a life insurance salesmen. She told us where we should knock doors and where not to knock doors. We offered here some pamphlets and I gave her a choice and she asked if she could have all of them! She wanted to know about many religions and wanted to learn more about ours and to see what the Book of Mormon is all about! Then she told us to go try her neighbors she said "they are old and love Jesus so go talk to em" Then looked at my companion and said "You are being trained arent you? I know cause I train many people in my work" WEll When we went to talk to the Older couple my companion felt like knocking on the other door instead of the one that was recommended, and a man named Wondm answered and was excited to see us. We began speaking about Jesus Christ and his original church and had a great conversation. He then Invited us in and we watched part of Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration up to when Joseph had his experience. We left hiim with a challenge and offered to help him move all of his things inside. Well a few days later he called and was wondering if he could come to our house on his bike or if we could meet somewhere to teach him more and help him with his moving! It was very great to have an experience like the one we had that day! Thats about all I can think of to tell you about!
LOVE YOU GUYS

Here is a picture of Davis and his greenie...

Here's a video of Davis and his old comp being funny:

Elder Burnett is getting transferred to a ghetto area to train a new missionary and he's in an area with a couple of his old companions and he's really excited!  Also, a tornado struck a few miles away from him, so they've been helping people clean their basements.

Yo Just got transfer calls! MY COMP IS STAYING AND IM HEADED TO THE GHETTO OF WHITE RIVER TO TRAIN A NEW MISSIONARY!!!! WOOP WOOP!!! Im super stoked! I hate packing though and had to say goodbye to some good friends. But thats every area! white river is really really ghetto. Its the place where "the most murders happen" there are lots of shootings that happen there on a daily basis. Dont be worried to much. nothing has happened to missionaries there other than getting robbed several times.

So I may be sending a lot of my stuff home. but I was going to say get him dockers for shoes. Mine have lasted my entire mission they will probably last to the end but we will see!

The Tomatoes (tornadoes) have not affected us in any way. They did however hit Kokomo (However you spell it) hard it destroyed many houses! and flooding is huge there. The flooding has been bad here too, taking out basements! TOTALLY COLLAPSING basements! i feel super bad for all of the people whos cars and houses and things were destroyed! Even stores were flooded.

We cleaned out many basements and one for sure was mixed with sewage. YUCK but we are alright. In my first area Greenwood a tornado landed 2 miles away But we couldnt see it. the storms were to thick. Any ways thats all I can think of and remember of what i said. BUT HECK YEAH TRAINING Elder Benson my old comp is my district leader> I follow up trained him.. SO our entire DIstrict is training and we are all good friends all in the same ward! ITS GOING TO BE SO COOL!!!! 

Here's a couch they helped rig to a car:

A wild rabbit that he caught.

A beautiful rainbow

A soft shell turtle. The meat sells for $18 pound, but he let it go.

Sunset

Apparently, Davis has been working out a bit on the mission:

He also was finally able to shave this week, so he's back to looking normal.

Their apartment complex was hit by lightening (not their apartment specifically)

Email from Davis Monday, Aug 1st.

My mission has flown by it saddens me that I cant get my hands on more time out here. I am so grateful for the time ive had and I have seen the growth in my life and my family's. Ive had struggles and I've waisted time, Ive worked hard, Ive seen miracles, Ive felt Gods love, I know he is there for us. If I make a mistake All I can do is repent and move forward. I know God still loves me. He is waiting for me to cast my nets aside as Jesus's apostles did when I believe it was Peter went to meet Jesus. Peter was standing right in front of Jesus and he started to sink. But Immediately Jesus reached out to help him. We all fall short. But He has his hand out for us to grab and he will pull us out of the ruts depths of any deep waters we are standing in. I love our Heavenly Father and our Brother Jesus Christ. I love the Holy Ghost. Its such a tender and fragile moment to have him with us and is so easily pushed away with bad decisions. Its a learning experience for sure. I know that I will step up and things will be different. Just have to find a balance. Its almost like a repeat of my first transfer in the mission. Ill get out of it and know what to do! Ive been reading about the Strippling warriors and their efforts to fight off the laminates. And their faith that they learned from their Mothers. Knowing that God would protect them. Their captain has never seen anyone with such faith. It was super cool to read all of the details about the war they are fighting. I love you guys! 

We met the Mission President on Tuesday. He was very friendly! A really great guy! we were the first interviews for him we spoke about training and about the work and trust. He asked about my oppinion as a musician for music in the mission. I told him what I think. Spoke with him about listening to acoustic songs and listening with Jesus haha :) 

We also went to the fair with Joe! It was a great Time Ill send you some photos. We also did service at Joe's cousins house and had a great time and really clicked with them! They asked for material to read so we are going to get some pamphlets to them! After that we went and helped some people move into their house and clean the place up. The guy invites us for service but I guess he gets heated if we talk or teach about our church. So we he calls us over everytime he needs us. Who knows, maybe something will come from the work we do. 

For now thats all I can think of.  

I forgot to mention my Apartment complex got struck by lighting and a ton of firefighters showed up!!! TWAS CRAZY

Love you guys!

There isnt to much I can update you on. But we had a successful week and spoke with many people! I got to go fishing with a friend I made his name Is Joe! We went with the other Elders to go fishing in our Stake in michigan! and Shared a message with him it was really cool! I dont remember if I mentioned it but I got a bad skin condition from a service we did a few weeks ago and I havent been able to shave so I get a small beard. It will probably be gone with in this next week or the week after but its been awesome! 

There are so many friendly people out here you can just talk to! LOVE YOU GUYS have a great week!

Fourth o' July (Davis has ringworm on his face, so he can't shave for a few weeks):

Hey My new Address is 312 pin oak apt a1 46545, Mishawaka Indiana! 

Anyways I hope all of you have had a great Independence day! This week we went and Did service for a different people and cleared out many weeds for one sister in the Mishawaka ward. We also went out knocking doors and street contacting and ended up running into a couple who are related to Joe- (the one who took us to catholic mass) and had a wonderful conversation. We also went fishing by a dam that is located near our house and we caught a few bass! 

      So with it being Independence day I wanted to throw in a little bit about the Freedom of America and the Importance it played and continues to play for our church. When America became free It opened up the opportunity for the Church start and grow! I love the Church and the Gospel that Jesus Christ started and taught and the example he has set for Me. He set for all of us to follow is what can bring true Joy and Happiness. God loves us all and wants us all to be happy. Thats why he provided a plan for each of us and sent his Son. I know the importance of Following our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that this land was chosen for the Restoration of His original Church. I love you all and I love being a Missionary! Sharing the Gospel and helping others has helped me see the importance of turning outward focusing more on serving others and seeing the joy that comes from it. I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Update:  Davis is in South Bend, Indiana (where Notre Dame University is) and has ring worm on his face, so he can't shave for a few weeks.

Hey!!!! South bend Is Good. Just for some reason all the days have been meshing together. I know we are being obedient, well try to be, and I know we go out and work and we work hard. lots of service. We just aren’t seeing many fruits from it. Recently we’ve been talking with a lot of Catholics and this Less active dude (Bob) got in contact with us. He is active in the Catholic church and is very strange. He invited us to go to a catholic work house thing and knows that I love music so he invited us to this catholic helper home (basically a poor house) and told us we are going to sing hymns to them after their prayer stuff. So when we got their the all the people were like. "uhhh? Mormon missionaries? They were all stand off-ish in a way. So Bob went inside the home and we just stood outside and I called over some Catholic dudes our age and we began to talk about why we were there and explained. "We have no Idea what his plans are so we will stick with you guys and watch over us. And we all became friends and had fun and laughed a lot.

The only people that you could tell were fake and mean to us under the table well it was mainly one guy. He was the only one studying to be a pastor. For some reason they are the ones who give us the most grief. anyways after they had their prayers Bob was like " NO ONE LEAVE" The Elders and I are going to sing you a song. And nothing he planned was in their plans. So he whips out some random hymnal with hymns I've never heard of. haha SO we are trying to sing some him I’ve never heard before. and it sucked hahaha They all laughed with us cause I was laughing. So after that one song we just listened to him. and I said you all know come thou fount right? and they all said YEAH! I asked because I saw that hymn in the back of their prayer books. So I grabbed the guitar and we all sang. I saw one guy. he seemed foreign. He had a slight Irish Accent. He was tearing up and crying after the song. WE saw them the next day and spoke but it was cool. THEY all had questions for us! LOTS of questions. They all would apologize for asking questions and we would say. We would rather you ask us than anyone else. IT was good. but slightly awkward. But I left uplifted. 

Update on my face Its not Poison Ivy. It is freaking ring worm from a service project. From the Habitat for humanity Glasses and Hat. So I can’t shave for 4 weeks. SO I have permission to grow a beard. It’s only been like 4 or 5 days since I last shaved and it’s pretty long. It feels weird getting stairs from members

I love you guys I hope that is an ok update for you guys! LOVE YOU!

Terre Haute Zone

Saying bye to an old district:

This week a wee update! I forgot to tell you about some animal experiences haha. We were at some investigators house talking with them and their cat came up and and I was petting it and it just latched on to my arm and started attacking. It wasnt like what cats do when they are playing. It cut me up a bit and bit a hole in my hand!!!! I should just not touch anything haha. Then while we were knocking a neighbor hood. There was this big dog barking at us like a few blocks down. and I had the thought. Wouldnt want to go near that thing. Well we knocked all the doors and we were one house away from it and it had been behind a fence the entire time and when we arrived at the one house before, it tried Lobbing its self over the fence and I thought. OH DANG IM GLAD ITS BEHIND A FENCE well we start walking away and come around the house this dog comes flying WITH FLAMES BEHIND IT! Im pretty sure it broke the speed of sound hahaha. Just barreling around this house at us and at this point im like. Ok im going to have to kill this dog or fight it at least till it backs down and I wasnt the only one planning on what to do if it attacks us. And this lady saw here dog freaking out and opened up the gate to let it at us!!! She just sat there like "sorry guys"  So walking away from the dog it kept getting more and more agressive and following us closer and closer. I mean like right up in our face. I cant punch it cause it will grab whatever I throw at it. But I just was pumped full of adrenaline. We went to knock on the next house and i Just got a heavy impression to walk to the car so we did and the dog would not let off... I just thought WHAT DO I NEED TO DO!!!! Little prayers in my heart for protection were going on.  We walked. and tried getting away and we made it to this one ladies house and the dog stopped and we talked to her for a little bit and we were able to get to the car and escape haha. 

    ON Saturday we were at the Goat farm and they had just killed a massive massive snake. I wont go near snakes here. As much as I love them. I know it would just be a dumb Idea. Well this snake was a bit longer than 5 foot 9!!! IT WAS HUGE> None venomous but the Fosters dont want anything that long around all the baby goats and their own kids. I had to be careful. There was a play on words with the BABY GOATS called kids and The children of the Fosters called kids haha. Anyways ill send some pictures! 

Yesterday during a dinner I was given a challenge to share a scripture out of the old testament so I shared the scripture Exodus 20: 12 Which says 12" Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." And looked at the kids and said. See what it says here! THAT THY DAYS MAY BE LONG!!! then looked at the parents and read the next verse which is THOU SHALT NOT KILL! And I said Be patient haha. It was kind of just a funny little lesson that we all had a good laugh at and talked about keeping peace in the home! Any ways I love you guys and hope all is well. One last thought. We were trying to help Cody to church this week yet he didnt answer the door... SO we just have to keep trying. love you guys! and here are some pictures of the snake and a butterfly that chilled with me for a very long time!

5/23/16

Hey sorry I havent been updating you all that much. I will get some pictures of the following things that I have done this week! The missionary work has been good for me c; We went on exchanges and really felt like we just didnt do much because of specific things that had come up and everyone they had lined up canceled on us. But when I got back after 3 days on an exchange from lack of miles. I was able to work and it felt super refreshing to go out. Teach, uplift, and share testimony.  on Saturday we went to the goat farm and helped a ton. I GOT TO WELD!!!!! AHH IT WAS AWESOME! I helped Rig up something to carry the Fosters bumper on the back of their car and did what I could to keep it there! 

Remember when I told you guys I would come out here and find someone with a farm and help them weld something! TOTALLY HAPPENED haha C: 

Then On Sunday we stopped by Cody and he didnt seem that happy when we got to his house but he invited us in and was playing Siege on the PS4 so while he played we went out the district leaders car (who was with us) to get a Book of Mormon so I could share Alma chapter 43-46 With the Battle with Captain Moroni and the Title of liberty. However the District leader and his comp were gone and the car was locked so we werent able to get in! So we called them several times and no answer then I remembered Cody had a Book of Mormon! So as we were headed back into the house we invited the Other two missionaries in and we all sat down as he continued to play. So I just offered to start reading. But instead we didnt feel like we had that much time to read so I summarized the story and shared it with him. Then asked him to think to himself. HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR BAPTISM TO YOU. And asked him not to answer me but to remember that and think about it. This was around when he began to show some interest or his game was over haha. He exited out of his lobby and we began to just talk. All the missionaries and him. I wrote down my testimony in his Book of Mormon and wrote down the commitments we asked him to keep. I could really feel the spirit. The lesson was smooth the questions were thought provoking. Everything went well. SO hopefully it re kindled his desire. Thats about the coolest stuff I can remember to tell you. Some funny stuff I remember was with Elder Bair and Elder Norris and The District Leader and his other companion and I were driving down these back roads deep in the "Forest" I guess you can call it. And passed by an area of open land with a few donkeys on it. So as we passed by I honked and saw a donkey LEAP like 12 feet in the air!!!! It was SO FUNNY I havent ever scared a large animal like that before from honking! After it regained its focus it looked back and stared at us haha. Ive never been able to do that cause you honk at a cow and nothing happens. Well I love you guys! Take care and be safe!

Mother's Day Update

We were able to talk to Davis for about an hour on Mother's Day.  He's doing great!  He loves being a missionary.  Some highlights:

• He has a better understanding/appreciation for the Book of Mormon.
• He has made some great friends with former companions/other missionaries.
• He is reading Jesus the Christ - a great book!
• They do service at a goat farm and he has some funny stories about it.

Since he broke his wrist, he can't exercise and is getting a bit soft.

May 2, 2016

Update is I have a new companion named Elder Weitzel He is pretty cool ill probably kill him off (he'll go home) next transfer! Things have been super busy! We have walked a ton this week! WE WERE out of miles. We also had the opportunity to go to an orthodox church where they celebrated until around 12-2 am or so on Saturday!  Then Sunday rolled around and we were all super tired and got to teach Gospel principles! Other than that not to much. We put Cody on date for JUNE 4th so everyone please pray for Cody! Other than that not much. Ill email more later! LOVE YOU GUYS!

District Meeting

From 4/18/2016:

We Got an old Investigator on date this week! His name is Cody! He is a stud! Cody is a gun nut and we love it, He was separated from us for a while because of the last mission transfer and he got a new job but we were able to get meet with him again and the time apart I think helped prepare him even greater than he had been! Apparently he had been getting bagged on for talking with us and wanting to get baptized by his Girlfriend and her Mom and he defended the church and told them "Why would you try knocking something you know nothing about!"  When we asked if he would be baptized he said. Please don't be offended but... Heck yeah! We love him. Oh when we knocked on his door and got in contact with him again he was like "Where the heck have you been?" And then invited us in. He missed church this week but hopefully we can get in contact with him again! 

We lost contact with Q. We think its cause a ton of trials came up. I'm sure he will realize how the gospel made him felt. He just needs time for the seed to grow! I love you guys we have one week left and I may train soon and or stay with Norris because of Cody. Other than that I get my cast off in two days on the 20th!  Ill send some pictures from this week. We had tons of service and found little baby turtles during service! love you guys.

From 4/11/2016:

Sounds good! I just emailed Jeremy! poor dude! but he sounds like he is doing well! Sounds like a busy week! I havent had food money for basically the whole month cause I had to pay back Elder Bair for helping me buy the water proof cast! SO Its been super tight.. and I have been using personal funds for food.

Im so excited for Parker! Its going to be so fun for him! Its such a huge growing experience as you both already know! I wish I could have helped you guys with the yard work! I MISS LABORING WITH MY HANDS! haha I am super useless now when it comes to service out here. I can do little to nothing. But hopefully it will heal quick, I go to the Doc the 20th and I have had two blessings saying it will heal up and Ill get my cast off so If It is Gods will, I will bear with patience and wait for it to heal!

     Elder Bair had me be senior comp this week so I could practice for when I train, though Ive already been Senior Comp! We got In contact with one of our Gators who was super solid! His name is Q. However he said things are going really bad and bla bla excuses and told us he would get in contact with us. Which he hasnt. However we have gotten in contact with one of Elder Norris's former super solid Investigators again and his name is Cody! HE IS SWEET! He got a new job and has been super super busy so when we finally got in contact with him he was like " DUDE WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" then invited us in to sit and talk! Elder Bair hasn't ever met Cody but they both looked at eachother and said. " you look super familiar, But I dont know where Ive seen you" it was funny! Well I love you guys and ill update you on my arm!  

 BTW there are things I keep forgetting to tell you. First of all my top permanent retainer on the back of my teeth there are two spots that have split however there is one spot holding the two middle teeth together. Now it hasn't been a problem whats so ever because I wear my actual retainer once a week and that keeps my teeth in line! So there is no movement! Second of all they slacks we bought from the CTR store Split down the seem for ever ago like in the first 6 months so I bought a pair of Van Huesen and they have been wonderful! And one of my long sleeve shirts has blood on it and the other a large hole so I might go Get another. With Blood do you think Hydrogen Peroxide would help break it up? I heard that works!  

Love you guys!  Stay safe

From April 4

Thats great! and Conference was awesome! I loved the talks on father hood and Elder Hollands talk last session! I have had pretty bad migranes out here and Ive had to take meds right when i feel something and then drink lots of water and do a neck exercise to stretch out my neck. I dont know if they really work cause it continues to hurt even after but yeah.

Thats crazy Parker is 18!!! HOLY COW! I hope he is stoked for his mission! And I still love my companions so much! Things are just changing.  Im glad you are all doing well I love you guys! Ill email  you more If i remember... 

*Warning, possibly graphic descriptions about birthing goats below*

     Oh so saturday from early in the morning till late at night we were working on the goat farm and helping them birth a ton of goats! It was fun and we watched conference on breaks! We had to then clean the towels that were used to clean the placenta off of the baby goats so they didnt freeze or choke from it being all over the face. Its kind of funny to watch. Their was one goat that was pretty small and was having trouble getting the babies out so what would happen is someone had to come and reach in the goat and grab the baby and pull it out while another person held the goat down or against a wall. and when the babies come out sometimes you give them a good swing so all the liquid comes out! While we were cleaning the rags I had a huge piece of placenta on the rag and it was cold and windy out side so it was like a cold sticky, slimy booger and I dry heaved twice from thinking about it to much and then got over it and was able to clean off many rags! it was a fun day!!!  

Any ways thats about the coolest thing. My comps and I also recently had a belt fight so we would wip eachother or get one another cornered and take them out! In the mornings if one of us isnt up on time (which is always Norris) ;D we "gorilla stomp him and jump in his bed and "beat him up" haha We are like brothers! 

From March 28, 2016

Terre haute is great! We run into a lot of people that do meth! But its a cool place to be. All of my areas that ive been in our apartments are right next to the train tracks so we get stuck behind a train every once and a while and we can be stuck for an hour or more if we dont go around! SO for updates I think I forgot to tell you guys that we go to a goat farm and have tons of fun there! We did what we call goat shots where you drink goat milk strait from the goat! Its funny and tastes good its just the warm milk throws you off! I did it like 4 or 5 times. Elder Bair has already done it before cause he has served in this area 3 times! He served more than half his mission here! Which is really cool.

Elder Bair Gave me a haircut and Elder Barboza our district leader a hair cut and after that went into the bathroom to give himself a hair cut. (My bed is right next to the bathroom) The next thing I hear is BZZZZZZZZZZ "CRAP!!!" and he opens the door and looks at me and has a reverse mohawk right down the middle of his hair. He didnt check the size of the guard on his clippers and buzzed right down the middle with a three so he shaved his head! Oh a random thing about our bathroom is it has an original door nob on it so no lock and its from the early 1900s so you can just kick it open so my companions will bust open the door and bother me or when im in the shower and they will shoot the curtain and spray me with cold water or shoot above my head and get me with ricochets. We mess with each other alot. Its so much fun. 

     We went to the farm saturday and we worked. Since I cant do much I just filled up water buckets for all the animals and got eggs from the chickens and one chicken was guarding her eggs so if I reached in she would bite me. So I grabbed her by the neck and tossed her out haha. Thats what the Sister Foster told me to do. She is the one who owns the place. April 12 we will be birthing goats! WOO HOO haha! Ill get to put to use what I learned in school at meridian! April 20th will be when I go to the Doc to see whats up with my right wrist! I love you guys! Hope your all doing well! 

Hi Everyone, Davis wrecked his bike last week and broke a bone in his wrist.

Hey yeah im doing great! Sorry about all the worries so It was just a bike wreck, Me being dumb... If I would have just taken a sec to think about it. I could have prevented the whole thing.

 So basically when i went down i hit both my wrists pretty hard and popped my arm out of socket and it went back in immediately. and bruised up my knees. and I think I sprained my left wrist.  Ill be in a cast for 8 weeks then a wrist brace depending on how much its healed. I broke the. Any ways Im doing Good. 

My Companions have been helping me alot cause I cant Carry anything over 2 pounds. So I basically dont carry anything..he said i can still type and write and pluck guitar. My Comps and I work like mad. This is the best transfer I have had. We all serve Each other. They are super humble and we all Click. We have so much fun! I love it. And we have been teaching alot of people. 

We have this guy named Quion, we call him Q. He is super solid and notices the difference he feels when he meets with us! Im glad you guys are doing good! Elder Bair Told me to call you guys but i didnt feel like I should so I prayed that you guys would be comforted. So Elder Bair is headed home but we work hard every day to help each other stay focused! LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Let me know if thats enough info. I Bought a water proof cast so I can shower and stuff! LOVE YA!

New faces, new places

Hey! Its been great in the new area! My new comps are super humble and we have been working our buts off and being pretty obedient and diligent! There are still things we need to buff out but its been great! im in Terre Haute pronounced "TERRA HOTE" My new address is 2601 hulman st. apt 6 terre haute 47803! But I would just send stuff to the mission home just in case I get moved around! We have been cleaning and going out and sharing the gospel a lot! We went to a little goat farm and helped out there quite a bit! Going around meeting the members of our ward!  

SO thats about all I have to update on! We got here Tuesday. It was about a two hour drive away from Eagle creek! Well I love you guys!

We Recieved transfer calls on Saturday. At first they said we were staying, and they sent it two more times and even left a voicemail. Then we got another call from one of the AP'S that said you will both be getting transferred out. So I asked did we not do well? Is it a bad thing and he said no. President likes to do DT's. So Benson is headed way north and im headed south to Honey creek. Ill be in a trio killing off another Elder and follow up training the other is what people have been saying. SO we have been packing. VERY SLOWLY>>> I still have all my stuff to pack cause ive been washing what I have. Then we are making notes to the new guys coming in for all the investigators to be contacted. And we have to clean the apartment. I will be doing that all night. We also went and said good bye to many people haha.

      Im trying to think what else i can update you on... My camera fully broke from getting hit from a couch when we were doing "Ghetto service".. which was. Throwing couches out a second story balcony. I guess off a second story balcony. then throwing them away. then going to another apartment in the same complex and taking their couches to bring back to the other house. Both of which had to go off the balcony because we couldn't get them through the remodeled kitchen. So what they did so they didnt get the couches dirty was drove their van up onto the grass and had me stand on the top of their van and grab the couch and place it on the van. Then we drove with it on the roof and repeated the process all over. The first Couch wouldnt fit into the other house no matter what we did and we had places to be so we brought the coutch into the hallway and brought the little one in and then brought the big coutch back in for an adult to see if he could fit it in. which he was to small and didnt speak any English but he shook his head and it was clear it wasnt going to fit. so we left the couch in the doorway and left haha. On good terms. but thats about all I can think of right now. I dont know if I told you but during zone conf. I got up and played my guitar and sang in front of the entire zone with one of our zone leaders. President was sitting right in front of us and got choked up and people said his eyes were getting watery. he just sat there and said. "wow.   Wow. That was amazing. That was great" And thanked us multiple times :D That made me happy haha. We sang Come thou fount.

Eating dinner with BYU receiver Mitch Matthews and friends.

SO I got to go camping with our ward. Well the young men! IT WAS EPIC! We went and had a none member there! It was a service project. Cutting down trees. The chainsaw we brought didnt work to well so we all used hatchets and axes! I cut down like. 10 or so trees ive cut down lots of trees on my mission at other places. It was cool. We had zone conf. We got in contact with Jamal again! And we came to the library on a very cold and rainy day to warm up since we were pretty far away from home and we were walking. And this guy saw us and asked why we were all fancied up and asked about our church and we are now meeting with him! he was saying. If i join your church and become Mormon do i have to wear suits all the time like you? And we laughed and said no. Then another guy we met when we did the soap box thing has been texting us. We saw him again and I gave him a book of Mormon and gave him some scriptures to read. And we got a text while we were camping and he asked all about the scriptures and said " what does moroni mean when he says "THESE THINGS" and why is there a C next to Sincere heart?" So we explained it to him! Then he said. Will you guys pray for me that God will help give me the strength to change my life. IT was awesome! And when we spoke with Jamal again he said hed like to have us pray for him and we said ok. Would you like to pray right now? and he said yeah. And started praying! It was a wonderful very humble prayer. And we told him GREAT PRAYER and he smiled and said thanks ive been practicing!

     I just got news that a guy we were teaching in my last area just got baptized and Suellen and her kids are getting baptized soon! She was another from our last ward that Elder Wood and I had talked to and taught!!! So its been good! LOVE YOU ALL

So this week has been mad Crazy! We were working with a guy named Jamal and He is super solid. We set a date for him to get baptized and we were working towards it. However he doesn't have a phone and used his girlfriends for his. So when we call to make sure he is still good to meet up his girlfriend wont answer any more. SO we got him a ride to church with a member and when the member called she answered and wouldn't answer for us and she told the member he is not coming.... So we are having trouble getting a hold of him. We knocked on their door a few different times and saw someone look in the peep hole but no one answered. SO we are continuing to try and get a hold of him. We have picked up a few new investigators! 

       The other day we almost got in the middle of a "Hood fight" We were talking with this guy we were going to go play bball with and these guys walked around the corner with some lady yelling and screaming at a small guy. And the small guy was screaming and yelling at her and there was another guy following them holding a fat wad of cash and another girl following as well. SO the little dude was continuing to yell at her about how he is going to slap her again. the moment they came around the corner you knew nothing good was coming from it. Well The Bball dude's little brother started to film it with his phone. And one of the "Ruffians" Saw so they came up and were screaming at the young kid I was towering above the guy and his friend and about a foot away from the Screaming guy. He was claiming I DONT CARE HOW BIG YOU ARE I MAY BE SMALL BUT I WILL TAKE ANYONE DOWN! I WILL MESS YOU UP BOY! and it was like Elder Benson and I didnt Exist. We were invisible till the Money holding follower looked up and saw me and without breaking Eye contact with me tapped his friend and said hey HEY Calm down Watch it. Calm down dude. and then looked at the kid and said delete what ever you filmed and they both started to back off and other people started to join us. The little guy kept gripping his pants and one guy was claiming he was carrying a piece) a gun on him. Benson And I stayed calm and cool. The guys started to back off and the BBall guy got off the phone and immediately 6 more guys showed up in a car and came to us. XD They were on the Bball dudes side. So nothing happened but it escalated faster and faster and died off. We came up to the bball guy and said we gotta go and his crew saw us and started to get up and get protective. But Bball said "they with us" and they all said "aight So what are you guys selling and we said nothing we are missionaries. and they asked again what are you selling and we just said we are Jesus people. Missionaries and they were like "Oh alright thats whats up" and we left. (Try and follow that story. I didnt do that well on explaining it.) But thats what happened this week haha :D 

One I wrote down in my journal was we were PC'ing and we saw a large group of people at a bus stop, around 15-20 people and I looked at Benson and told him, " Lets go soap box it!" A little hesitant we finally wheeled up on our bikes and stood in the middle of the crowd. And Me not knowing any better of what I could say just called for everyone's attention. And I had it. I said. "Hello everyone! I'd Like to talk with you! (or share a message with you) They all were listening! 

Then I asked how many of you have spoken with missionaries before? (Thats where I messed up XD That singled to many people out) and Three guys on the bench looked at me and asked what kind? And I told them. MORMONS :D and He said "Oh... Not interested. But the guy next to him said I have! And as he told me this I looked up and noticed people were turning around and I only had the attention of the middle guy on the bench who was talking to me and the man between us. And I asked him how his experience was and he said. "It was alright. I saw them walking and we talked. and thats about it" and then mumbled. "Not interested." So in the time of silence after all attention was gone I looked up and saw a man standing away from the crowd and thought "Lets go talk to him!! and Thats what we did! After the whole experience we had a great conversation with the man standing away from the group. And I thought to myself. Next time I will just share my testimony with all of them C: It was cool!!! 

      In other news Benson and I reached almost all of our goals but reached our main goal for talking to everyone! 

Having fun at a car show:

From Feb 8:

In the morning we when street contacting. It was a lot of fun walking up to people and staring them down not letting them get away without talking to you. Then we passed Cierra'€™s apartment so we stopped by and she was finally home. We had an amazing talk and put her on a baptism date and then went back to the streets. We tried to talk to another guy but he blew us off and tried to walk away so I smiled at my comp and walked after him and started to talk about the Plan of Salvation really loud so he could hear us. Then my comp clued in and we sang some hymns out loud. We taught a young 14-year-old recent convert and ended the night by visiting members again.

Elder Benson and I are staying! And taking over the Entire area! Which means we just picked up two people on date for baptism! And a HUGE amount of work is coming up for us. Which means we have to be extra diligent and obedient! Yesterday we listened to the conversion story of Glen Beck and the conversion story of a Catholic, and that pumped us up a ton. Our numbers havent shown any work and we havent had much success. However we have been picking up new investigators. So the trick is keeping in contact with them constantly, and with our friend Emily, she went on vacation for 2 weeks and havent had contact with her so hopefully we will get back in contact with us. We also took Mitch Matthews with us to meet up with a Lady named Sierra but she fell through. So we went to a less actives house who has really been struggling and we didnt talk about what the game plan was and the lesson was all over the place. It was a really embarrassing time cause Elder Benson and I were on completely different pages. So we gave Sam the less active a blessing of comfort and left. It was one of those awkward (Go with the missionary) moments. Oh well. Mitch Matthews is a receiver for BYU who just graduated and is here to train for the NFL! SO thats pretty cool we Got to take him! It hasnt been getting hammered but we got some snow. Im sure the snow is headed here. The East coast got hammered! Love you !

*This is Davis with Mitch Matthews, former BYU Wide Reciever*