My Homecoming Talk

My dad was kind enough to record and upload my homecoming talk. In case you missed it and would like to hear it, check it out:

http://bcitestsite.com/

Thanks again to everyone who supported me throughout the best 2 years of my life. I love you all!

I Leave You With My Testimony....

Well this is it. This will be my final email as a full time missionary. It's been a busy week. As you know President has been out of town all week. On Tuesday my companion and I were talking and decided we wanted to do a mission fast for everyone who was on date for baptism. That night we arranged a conference call with all the zone leaders. It was so powerful! Its like a huge brotherhood out here, I love it. Everyone is excited to do missionary work and to help these people get baptized. The spirit was strong as we all pondered ideas to help each other out. It was fun. This morning for P-day we headed up to the Temple. We went with our roommates ( The office elders) and Elder Doyle who is the car czar took us up there. It was such a blast. I love being in the temple. I am blessed that I have had an opportunity to go a few times in the last month. I saw one of my former bishops from the Annandale ward so that was fun.

The next few days are going to be hectic as ever. President gets home tomorrow so we will come by the office and probably work on the transfer board some more. Then on Monday we will work on the transfer board all day and finalize everything. Make sure everyone has a place to live, a bed, a bike to ride or a car to drive and all that fun stuff. On Monday we will call the new assistant and go pick him up. Then on Tuesday we will continue to finalize everything. That night we will call out to the zone leaders who is staying and who is getting transferred. Then on Wednesday we will go pick up the new missionaries at noon from the airport and have dinner and training the rest of the night. Thursday morning we will wake up bright and early and go make them breakfast at the mission home. Then we will do some more training and take them over to George Mason University to do some street contacting. Then we will head over to transfer meeting for a couple hours. After that the departing missionary group will head back to the mission home for a dinner and testimony meeting. Then President will take us into DC to see it at night when its all lit up. Then friday morning I will wake up at 5 and get ready to come home. There will be no time to take a break! Is this really happening? Did I really leave 2 years ago? Am I really coming home? Why does it feel surreal? Am I ready to come home? Ahh so many feelings and emotions.

I leave you guys with my testimony. This has been the greatest 2 years of my life. I think all the time about the road I took to get out here. Ya I might of had a few detours here and there, but the lord was only preparing me. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know this for it has changed my life forever. I have felt its healing powers in my life. The Book of Mormon is true. Ive read it, I've studied it, ive prayed about it and I've taught about it. I always think about a quote from Elder Holland in conference a while back ....concerning The Book of Mormon he said " A wicked man couldn't write such a book as this and a good man wouldn't, except it were true!" Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and ushered in the restoration in these days. I have had countless spiritual experiences and impressions while teaching about this that it can't be denied. My mission has brought so much happiness into my life. Now I must come back and continue immersing myself in these things. I know its easier said than done, but I know if I want to live a good life it can only be through living the gospel. I love you guys! Thanks for never giving up on me and giving me this opportunity to find who I am. I will never forget these moments I've had. I love you!!

Elder Davie

2 More Weeks!

How are you all doing? How was the week? How is the weather in Utah/Texas/Oregon? How are all the kids doing? When are you guys flying into Utah? Can you believe 13 days? What??!! Crazy. I will be so happy to see you all again.
 
It was a good week for us. This past week we met a guy named Lawrence. He is from Nigeria. He writes books. He is awesome. We tracted into him and taught him for about 45 minutes then he said "Is there anyway to schedule a time to have you come teach more?" Ofcourse were like yes! We went back this past thursday and had a pretty good lesson with him. We showed him the restoration movie. He agrees with most things but were trying to help him with a couple concerns. Keep him in your prayers! We also met a Ghanain guy yesterday named Kwabina. He was so funny. He was dying laughing when I started speaking Twi to him. He agreed to let us come back and teach him a little and he will teach me some Twi. It will be fun. Wednesday was an awesome day. We had our departing Temple Trip. Basically all the missionaries going home meet at the mission office in the morning and we all drive up to the temple to do a session. Before the session we are able to meet with the Temple President and he talks to us for a little bit then opens it up to any questions. Something he said struck me. Regarding our mission calls he said " Its not as important where you get called as to who you get called to serve under. " I have felt like that. Yes I know I was called to Dc South for a reason and ive met people that have changed my life. But I know even more that I was supposed to serve under President Albright. He is amazing and has helped me so much. The temple trip was awesome. I was able to do a session in one of the most beautifull temples in the world with some of my closest friends who ive spent the last 2 years with. Afterwards we all went to fuddruckers and enjoyed some lunch :) Last night I had the chance to go on exchange with Elder Peterson. He is the kid I trained a little over a year ago. He is awesome! We have become good friends. We were tracting last night and we ended on this one apartment complex. It was about 8:15. The second door we knocked on we met these amazing people. They are from the assemblies of god church. They are actually planning on serving a mission to India in the next little bit. It was amazing to meet such good people. They let us in and we spent about an hour in their home talking about life in general. It humbled me to meet a family who is so close to Heavenly Father and who strive every day to make life better for people around them. Wether memebrs of the church or not there are some good people out there! They aren't interested in our church but we were still able to have a great conversation and share feelings of what has brought us happiness in life. It was fun!
 
Well I am going to try and send a couple pictures. I hope to hear back from you soon! Love you guys!
 
Elder Davie

Cowboy BBQ

Hey Everyone,

How have you guys been? Hopefully its been a good week. I have had a really good week. Its been busy as usual. On Thursday we had our Return and Report meeting. This is where all the new missionaries come back together and we have a testimony meeting with them and do a little bit of training. I had the opportunity to talk about obedience for a few minutes. It was an awesome spirit filled meeting. Its fun to see how much the missionaries grow in such a short time. Then today we had so much fun! Me and 4 other missionaries went up to Elder Marriott's ranch in Hume, VA. Every year he has this bbq event. Ambassadors and diplomats from all around the world come and have a good time. Its a western theme. We had a station set up where we were teaching people how to rope. My companion is pretty good at it so for the past week during the day we get out and practice roping some fire hydrants haha. I'm no good at it but it was fun. This was such a fun experience for me to meet all these people from every where around the world and talk to them. We got there at about 10 and left at 3. They had a catered lunch which was awesome. I saw a few people from some of my previous wards so that was fun. And it was great to see the mccoys! They are the sweetest family. I wasn't expecting them to be there and then all the sudden I turned around and was like hey! I know them! My companion let me borrow his boots and then I had to go buy a pair of pants and a shirt. Then president had an extra cowboy hat I borrowed. It was interesting to get all dressed up like that haha! I think that was definitely a first for me. I had an awesome time though!! Definitely something I will always remember. I got to meet Elder Nash of the 70. Elder Carlson was also there. Well I love you guys so much!! I hope you're all doing well!!!

Busy Week!

Hey Everyone,

It's been a busy day! Conference was great as usual. I really loved the Priesthood session. It has been a good week for us. We had zone conferences all week so its nice to have it over with. They all went pretty well. Next week will be a little slower so it will be nice to get out in our area and knock on some doors! We have a return and report meeting on Thursday.....that's where all the new missionaries that came in come to the mission home and we do some training and then have a testimony meeting. Its fun. Then on Saturday me and my comp and a couple missionaries and President and Sister Albright are going to the Marriott ranch. Bill Marriott is the guy who owns all the Marriott hotels. He was an area seventy but recently got released. Every year he has this huge thing at his ranch where all these ambassadors and their family's from all around the world come for a bbq and stuff. We have to dress up in cowboy gear haha. I gotta go buy some wranglers and a plaid shirt! i found some boots in our apartment so i can wear those haha. It will be interesting! Well its late so I better go...I will try to write more tomorrow if we have time. Love you all!

Traffic Court

Hey!

How has your week been?! Things have been going well here! So on Thursday I had my traffic court thing. Man it was pretty intense. Not what I was expecting. We walked into the courtroom and there were like 100 people in there sitting in the pues and the judge walks in and does his little thing. I was like what the heck am I doing here?! Luckily I had this guy with me who helped me out. I was the second person the Judge called out so me and the attorney walked up to the little pulpit thing haha and the attorney said a few things and then I was good to go! It was such a relief to have it all over with. I only had to end up paying like $80 so it was perfect! Besides that we have spent the week getting ready for Zone Conferences next week. This past Tuesday we had Zone Leader Council. It was my last one! I have been to 11 of them over the past year and a half. It was so weird to be there for the last time. There is 3 others from my group who were there. At the end all the departing misionaries get the opportunity to bare their testimony. The first kid got up and everyone just lost it. I was crying like a little kid! By the time I got up I was done for haha. It was the hardest thing I have done. The feelings and emotions of going home hit harder than ever and it was difficult! It made me realize how much I love my mission and love being out here. Its going to be so difficult to leave this place. Virginia is amazing. I couldn't imagine serving a mission at any other time in any other place. Things all worked out exactly how they were supposed to.

Elder Bell is out here visiting! I was his companion back in December. He is awesome! He came out with last night and visited a couple people and taught some lessons. Today were both going down to Garrisonville to hit up lunch with the Randalls. Then after that we will come back and head over to the Baptism for Russel! Elder Bell & I were the first ones to start teaching him. Im so excited! Its going to be awesome. I will make sure to take some pics and email them next week.

Well I love you guys! I can't believe the time keeps getting shorter and shorter.

Crazy Busy!

Hey!

How are you guys doing? I am sorry to hear about Addison. That is no fun at all! Hopefully everyone else is doing ok!

We had a pretty good week. It was busy with transfers! We spent monday and tuesday finalizing the transfer board and making sure everyone had cars, apartments, and phones. Its quite the process. Then on Tuesday night we called it all out to the zone leaders.Wednesday we went and picked up the new missionaries and took them back to the mission home for dinner and a testimony meeting! Thursday we went back bright and early and made breakfast for them then had some training. Then Thursday afternoon we have the transfer meeting. It went well. We made this movie that turned out pretty good, everyone seemed to really like it! I will have to get you guys a copy and see what you think. Then Friday was busy trying to take things to people like beds and what not. Luckily today things are settled down a little bit. Now the transfer begins. Its time to get ready for all the meetings ahead. We have a mission home fireside on Sunday then zone leader council on Tuesday. We will take the next day or so and prepare for that.

Well there isn't anything to crazy going on out here. We are just going to be working hard to find some more people to teach and baptize! I cant believe my last transfer has begun. Its not just two of us in the office here. Elder Doman went out ino the field for his last transfer. Now im here with Elder Jacobson. Hes one of my favorite comps. We get a long great and have a blast! Well I love you guys!!

Elder Davie

Miracle at the Gas Station

Each week the missionaries write a letter to their mission president, and the mission president's wife posted Brendan's letter from last week on the mission blog, so I thought I would post it on his blog as well.

"Hey President! Last week I had the opportunity to go on exchange with the Centerville Zone leaders, Elders Peterson & Johnson. These missionaries are amazing. They teach well, they work hard, they are obedient, and they have such a strong desire to share the gospel! We had a miracle happen. We were driving down the road to go to an appointment. I looked out the window and saw a man walking towards the gas station and my first thought was, "Stop the car! Turn in there! We need to talk to him!" Elder Johnson was driving so he turned the car around and turned into the gas station. I quickly walked into the station and went up to the man and started to speak Twi. His name is Alfred. He’s from Ghana, just as I had suspected. His eyes opened up wide and he had a huge grin on his face. He was very familiar with LDS missionaries. He had been taught the lessons from the sister missionaries back in Ghana. He hasn't been here in Virginia very long but he loves the Mormon church! He came to church the next week and he loved it! He is scheduled to be baptized in two weeks. It’s amazing to see how the Lord works and how he puts people in our path. It would have been so easy to have kept driving down the road and never have talked to him. I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. Miracles happen all the time as long as we desire them and are willing to act on impressions! Love, Elder Davie"

Crazy Weather and Another Baptism

Hey Family!

How are you guys?! I hope you had a great week. How was Texas mom? I bet you had a blast. Was Austyn following you around again? Haha. I can't wait to see the kids. I am not going to recognize them. I can't believe they are almost 4! Well except Addy and Taylor. So how has everything been going for everyone? I heard there are tons of fires in Texas em? Hopefully they're not by you anywhere. The weather has been CRAZY here lately! I don't know whats going on but northern Virginia has seen one thing after another! We had a tropical storm roll through here. It rained for 6 days straight...all day! On Thursday it started raining worse then I've ever seen....the roads started flooding and everything...it was nuts!! Luckily none of the missionaries were hurt. It has been a busy week for us. We have been working on transfers all week. Its quite the process. I can't believe its already time to start doing it again. I swear we were just moving things around on the transfer board! Its a neat experience to be in there with President and be apart of the transfer process. There are always a lot of factors that play into it but it all comes down to is this what Heavenly Father wants? Its neat. On Monday we went to the Nationals game which was a blast!!! There were like 6 home runs. The Nats killed the dodgers! It was great. Today were going to help a couple missionaries move then we have a couple lessons scheduled the rest of the day. We might try and squeeze some racquetball in somewhere too.

Another miracle happened. Back in January Elder Bell and I were working in Mt Vernon. We were trying to stop by this guy for weeks and we finally met him...Russel. He is the one that I got pictures with by the huge motorcycle. He is the sweetest guy ever! Hes from Ghana but hes been the states for a long time. Hes like an older brother. Well we taught him for months and then I ended up leaving. Well Russel's dad passed away in July. He was a stake president in Ghana. Russel went to Ghana to be with his family and be at the services for his dad. He ended up going to church a few times and loved it! He came back last month and told the missionaries he wants to be baptized!!!! He went to church this past week and he loved it! Russel is going to be baptized on September 25th. This is a mission maker for me. I love this guy with all my heart and I absolutely can't wait to be at his baptism. It is going to be the best feeling ever.

My last transfer starts next week....I'm going nuts. I'm scared, hesitant, nervous, anxious, and just kind of unsure. This has become my life out here. All I know is missionary work. It feels like I've been doing this a lot longer than 2 years. Ya tracting isn't always the funnest thing to do, meetings get boring sometimes and the stress is enough to make someone go crazy......but in the end I love it! I will honestly miss not being here doing these things...and I never thought I would say that. You always hear the missionaries going home say " I wish I had a little more time and I would do anything to keep being a missionary!" I always sat in my chair thinking ya sure ya do. Now that I am coming to that point I'm starting to feel like that! I would do anything to just have a few more transfers....a little more time to reflect and to try and refine myself. I hope every day that I have become a better person out here. I always think " Did I do enough? Did I work hard enough? Is Heavenly Father pleased with my mission?" In the end I have had some amazing experiences that have changed my life. I never knew northern Virginia existed before my mission and to think of all the amazing people Ive met out here blows me away. Ive been waiting my whole mission for a confirmation to know that this is where I need to be. Why didn't I go to Ohio? Surely I was meant to meet someone here from Ohio and baptize them right? I was wrong. I have had the strongest feelings the past couple months that this is exactly where I needed to be. Not because there was someone from Ohio that came here that needed me....but just because there were people in northern Virginia that I needed. Its a humbling feeling. Sorry I'm just kind of rambling on. I have been to the airport 5 or 6 times in the last 6 weeks and every time I go I get this pit in my stomach. I'm scared for when its my turn! I just have to face it head on though.

Well I gotta get going but I am going to try and email a couple pics real quick. I love you guys!!!

Elder Davie

Another Baptism! And Another Fine?

Hello Everyone!

How are you guys all doing? I think that's awesome that Nate bought mom a ticket to fly out to Texas! Your a good kid Nate! That's why I love our family so much. Were all so close. There's been so many times where I will be talking to someone out here and they will be like " I can tell you and your family are pretty close!" I'm always just like Yep!

So its been a good week for us. Last Sunday I had the chance to go back to Mt Vernon for another baptism. This girls name is Matennah. Elder Morrill and I tracted into her back in June I think. We taught her for a couple months and then when we left the elders picked up and kept teaching her. She decided to be baptized which is awesome! She is from Liberia. I will send you a couple pics. Then on Thursday we had Return and Report. This is where all the new missionaries who just came in a few weeks ago meet back up at the mission home. We do a little bit of training with them and then we have a testimony meeting. Its fun to see how much they have all grown in the short few weeks. They come out scared to death and the come back a few weeks later with smiles on their face and just loving missionary work! We start transfers next week....can it already be?!?! I swear we just barely planned out the last transfer meeting. I can't believe how fast this is going. Often times I pray to have its slow down so I can digest all the experiences and really live the moment! I love it out here...I know I've said that a lot but I really do. This past week for some reason I've been pondering a lot about my mission...just kind of thinking back about all the people I've met and the missionaries I've met. I have some good friends out here. I just feel grateful to have come to DC. I know without a doubt this is where Heavenly Father wanted me. For some reason Ohio just didn't work out....but I'm forever grateful for the experiences I've had here.

Ive been sick the past couple days...just a bad cold so nothing to bad. Oh ya...so remember I got the ticket last month for running a red light? Well I went to pay it online...when I logged in and everything they had 2 different fines on there for me! One for failure to obey a traffic signal and another one for "Evading a traffic control device". I googled the second one and its where you like pull through a gas station to avoid waiting at a red light or something. I don't know why I got tagged with that one and it doesn't say anything about it on the ticket I got. I talked to President and the easiest thing will be to just go to court n the 22. They said a lot of times they will drop your fines or lower them if you show up so I will see what I can do. I went from thinking it was a $150 to $240 with the extra fine! I'm sure it will all work out though. Today we went and played some racket ball. It was a blast. We have played a few times that past couple weeks. The only problem is that it costs like $10 for the court rental and everything at the rec center...so its pricey. Then a sweet recent convert from the ward just took us to this Japanese Hibachi grill. It was just like tepanyaki....mmmm it was good! Well I love you guys ! I hope your all safe and doing well!

Elder Davie

Earthquakes and Hurricanes!

Hey Everyone!

Wow it has indeed been an eventfull week haha. I will start out by telling you about the earthquake on Tuesday :

So we were at district meetings over in Mt Vernon. Afterwards we went to lunch with one of the guys in the office. Then we headed to our apartment to change out of our suits. I was in the bedroom and had just finished putting on my tie. I went into the bathroom to start brushing my teeth. Everything started shaking! I thought it was someone upstairs running around so I just kept brushing my teeth. Then it kept shaking and started getting worse! I walked out of the bathroom and both my companions were standing there like what is going on....then we realized it was an earthquake and we all ran outside hahaha. It was crazy though! Everyone in all the apartments ran outside....everyone was crying and scared out of their mind. It was the biggest earthquake I think ive felt. It was scary! There wasn't any damage done really though. I guess the temple had a couple things break. One of the apartments had their water heater pipes all burst and it flooded their apartment. It was nuts! Now I guess were waiting for a hurricane to come our way! I don't think its going to be to bad honestly. I think its supposed to just barely skim DC. President is getting everyone prepped just in case and having everyone get 72 hour kits and all that good stuff. The biggest concern is power outages. Since their are trees EVERYWHERE they like to fall on the power lines. Im sitting here in the mission office looking out the window and its pooring like crazy! And the wind is picking up. We will see what happens! And someone tried to rob the bank right next door haha. Their are FBI cars and cops everywhere. We dropped off a missionary at the airport this morning and were going to pick one up later this evening. Besides that we are just getting a few things done here. Not to much going on today.

On sunday there is a girl named Matenah getting baptized in Mt Vernon. Me and one of my last couple comps Elder Morrill found her while knocking doors and taught her for a while. Im excited to go back hopefully and see it! I love Mt vernon as you know so it will be good to go back if I can. We had a leadership meeting this past Thursday. All the zone leaders and district leaders meet together and have like a mini zone conference type thing. It went really well. We gave an assignment on how to become shepherds of our areas and our missionaries. It went well. Then we had a couple other missionaries talk on motivation and different things to help each other out. Then later on my and my comp led a council with everyone on different ways we can better the mission. Its always kind of stressfull planning the meetings but once they come and go and they are a success it makes it all worth it.

Well I love you guys! I hope you all had a great week. Be safe!!

Elder Davie

Staying Busy!

How are ya'll?

Its been a busy busy week! We had zone conferences on Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday and Friday. Very busy days. We wake up, get ready and drive to wherever the conference is at. The meeting starts at 9 and we go until about 3. We had a couple assignments each day. In the morning we talked about companionship study and how to make it effective. We showed a movie that the trainers see when they get their new assignments. Then in the afternoon we talked about the power of the spirit in conversion. It was fun! All 4 meetings went well and I learned a lot each time. This morning we went golfing! One of the senior couples in the office took us out. It was a blast! I didn't do so well but I still had a fun time. Right after that we took some investigators up to the temple visitors center. It went really well! Things have just been crazy busy here. Were always working on something. I haven't written in my journal for a week!! Ahhh...I hadn't missed a day until now haha. I did pretty good!

So whats new with you guys? How are you liking oregon ashley? It probably looks similar to Virginia with all the trees everywhere? hows the weather there? Things have cooled down a ton here. Its been in the 80s which is beautifull! Did you hear about the new Joseph Smith movie that came out? Its called Joseph Smith and the Gold Plates or something like that. I can't remember if I already told you but we got to go a couple weeks ago! President took us. It was such a blast. The guy who played joseph smith was doing a tour out here. The dvd doesn't come out until next year but they had some there so I got a copy! We will have to watch it when I get back home. How are all the kids doing? Addison? Taylor Joe? Austy and Dal? Man I miss them! They are probably so big by now!!! Well im going to try and email some pictures...Love ya guys!!!

Elder Davie

Sad News

Hows everyone doing?

It has been a good week for us. We had zone leader council on Tuesday. This is a meeting where us, all the zone leaders and President and Sister Albright come and we counsel about things that can help the mission grow and reach our goals that we set. Its fun! Next week we have zone conferences so we've been busy getting everything ready for that....making agendas, handing out assignments and all that good stuff. We have also been able to find some good investigators this week. We found one named Naana. She is from Ghana! I was so excited. She loved having us over and she loved everything we taught. We've seen her a couple times now. She will hopefully be at church in the next couple weeks. I am lucky because this area has some ghanains so its been fun.

So I received some bad news at the beginning of the week. Opal passed away. She was a lady we taught and recently baptized in the Mt Vernon ward. She was awesome! She was one of my favorite people I taught while being out here. She was about 80 years old. Her son and daughter in law are both members which is how she heard of the church. She was so sweet and funny. She has had some health problems the past 6 months or so. She wasn't able to talk very well because of a stroke she had a while back but she still understood everything and loved what we taught her. It wasn't more than a week after we baptized her that she passed away. She hung on long enough to make these special covenants. I have a testimony that this is what the lord wanted for her. She is now in a better place and she is teaching the gospel to her husband and her family. It humbled me to be able to be apart of her life for a short moment. She loved having the missionaries come teach her. We went to her funeral service yesterday. It was sad but happy to know shes at peace and shes healthy! Her son who is in the Mt Vernon ward told us after the service "I have never seen my mom so happy and seen her laugh so much when you guys would come over. Thank you so much for making her last few weeks so good! " That meant so much to me. To know you have been an instrument in the lords hands is a feeling that can't be described. These are the types of experiences I will miss dearly when I return home.

Im gratefull for everything you guys do for me ! You have helped to make these past 2 years the best. I almost didn't make it out here. I was scared to death! I still am haha but the Lord has been with me. I love you guys!!

Elder Davie

More Baptisms!

Things have been busy as ever. I can't remember if I told you about the baptism we had last week or not so I will just tell you again. We were teaching this lady for a couple months. Her son is a convert of a few years. She is about 75 and she wanted to be baptized! She was the coolest lady and I had a blast teaching her in Mt Vernon. She was baptized last Sunday. Also we received a member referral about a month or so ago in Mt Vernon. She is from Eretria in Africa. We were able to teach her and baptize her last week as well! The funny thing is the font was broken so we baptized them in the neighbors pool next door....it was crazy but one of the most spiritual things I have ever seen. I know this stinks but I gotta run...I wish I had more time to write but I will try to write more in a couple of days.....things are so busy and crazy here with transfers coming up. I am doing good though and I'm having a blast. I love my mission mom. I hope you guys all have a wonderful day! I will try to send more pics soon. Love you guys!!

Elder Davie

First Week as AP

Hello Everyone!!!

How are you all doing?! I was so excited when I heard that little Addison was born on Thursday!! I was on exchange in Ashburn and I was able to see the Mccoys so they let me know that night. Things are going well here....they are busy as you can imagine. Ive been on 3 exchanges in the last 4 days. I went down to Fredericksburg first. Then the next day we headed up to Ashburn which was fun. Then yesterday we went over to Centerville which was a blast because I was with Elder Peterson...I trained him about a year ago. Things are going great and im learning a ton. Its still pretty overwhelming and it will take some time to get my feet underneath me but it will come. Remember when I lost my book of mormon a couple months ago? I can't remember if I ever told you but I found it a few weeks ago!! It was under of the seats in the van we drove. So I have it back which is awesome. I had already bought that brand new one so I gave that one to Gabriel so he can study out of it. Thank you so much for the birthday package!!! It was awesome!!!!! I am going to go and see if I can find a new suit today.You guys are the best! I had a great birthday. I went to lunch to none other than CAFE RIO!!! They just built one here in Centerville which is awesome! They only have 2 on the east coast...centerville and maryland. Ive actually been the last two days in a row haha. Its funny because every time you go in there there are a ton of members. It must be a utah thing. I love that place though and it was fun to eat there again. Well im gonna send a bunch of pictures so I hope to hear back from you!! Love you guys!!

Picture Time!

Leaving Mt. Vernon

Hows everyone doing? Its been quite a couple days as you can imagine. We were going to have a baptism last night but it got moved to next Sunday. We will have two in my ward back in Mt Vernon next Sunday so hopefully I can make it back for that! It was a pretty good week. I was sad to leave Mt Vernon and to leave Elder Kotyk. I had an awesome time serving with him for the few weeks that I did. I LOVE Mt Vernon. The place is amazing and I hope we will have a chance to go back and visit someday. The people are great and I made memories that will last a lifetime. I am so gratefull right now that I even came on a mission. I remember there were times that I was considering just starting school and skipping out on the mission....wow what a horrible decision that would have been. Ive learned so much and have had so many different experiences that will help me forever. I love you guys!!

Assistant to the President

We received an email from Brendan on Saturday moring saying he got a call from his mission president asking him to be the new assistant to the president (AP). He's a little nervous and will be extremely busy and is sad to be leaving Mt. Vernon, but is excited for the new adventure!

I love Mt. Vernon!

Hey Everyone!
How are you guys doing? Its been another great week for us here in Mt Vernon. I love this place, I really do! Its been very busy the last few days trying to find people and get people ready for their baptisms. If all goes well we will have 3 on Sunday night! We are very excited!! I got a letter from the mission office a few days ago asking what airport I want to fly into when I go home....man that was a weird letter to get. It can't possibly be time to start thinking about that already can it??! It hasnt' been 2 years yet?! Man it has flown by to fast. I love it here. Ive met some amazing people and have had some incredible experiences that have changed my life and have helped me to learn and grow.

Baseball and Baptisms!

Hey Everyone!

How are you guys?! How was your 4th of July?! Ours was great. We went to the Washington Nationals game!! It was a blast. They were playing the cubs. The game started at 1 and its a pday so they let us head up there. The tickets were $30 so I just payed for both and my comp will pay me back today. It was 94% humidity and like 95 degrees...so I was dying at the game. It was funny cuz everyone was just sweating!! We were right in the sun the whole time. I got toasted. It was so fun though!! It was the first pro baseball game ive been to in a long time. In the evening we just did work as usual. Yesterday morning a recent convert from Garrisonville, Pat Reid, took me and elder kotyk out to breakfast! We went to ihop. He is so awesome. I was pretty close to their family when I was down there...I started teaching him and he got baptized a month after I left. It was great to see him and his family again!! Right after I left Garrisonville my comp Elder Kotyk went down there for 9 months...so we reminiss alot about it. This past week Gabriel was able to pass the sacrament for the first time! It was awesome to see him. Hes doing great!!!! We have a lot of good stuff going on right now. It's amazing to see the hand of the Lord in this work. We've seen many miracles happen and it's been an amazing experience! Love you guys!

Pictures!

I traded in my bike for this one!


Zone conference. Can you spot me?

Bapisms Galore!

How has your week been? Everything has been fine here. So we had transfers last Thursday. I ended up staying here in Mt Vernon and my new companion is Elder Kotyk (koh tick) from Tooele. Hes good. We have had a really good week. We got a member referral who is going to be baptized on July 16th! Were also teaching another lady who will hopefully be baptized on that same day! Then we just set our other investigator on date for July 30th! So things are definatly looking good. We have been teaching this new family from Ghana but it looks like their going to be moving to Atlanta this week. We have been trying to do everything we can to help them stay but its not looking like its gonna be able to happen. Last Saturday they had us over for lunch....I had the BIGGEST bowl of fufu with goat meat and tilapia. Mmmmmm!!!! I was so full afterwards. The weather has been good here...its been in the low 80's so that is nice for a change. Well I hope your all doing good! I hope to hear from you!!!! I will send some pictures now!! I love you!!!!

Hey !

How are you guys doing?! Sounds like its been a pretty good week. That is crazy that Ashley is about to move!!! I still can't believe everyone is going to be gone when I get home...who woulda though?! Did you go visit Dennis & Kim mom? Maybe thats not till later in the month. Well its been a good week for us! We have transfers on Thursday so thats always a busy time. Im pretty sure that im staying in this area but who knows. I will find out tomorrow night. So there was a guy I found and taught in Annandale named JC. I don't know if you remember me talking about him but he was sweet! He had just come from afghanistan a couple years back. It was kind of hard to teach him because his english wasn't great. Also he was of the Muslim faith. The first time we taught him though he kept saying " I believe the Christ, I believe the christ!" This was unusual because he grew up muslim but at the same time he came to know that Christ is the Son of God. We kept teaching him and he started coming to church every week. I just found out yesterday that he was baptized last night!! I was going to go but we had to much stuff going on in our area. Its sweet though. We also found a couple really sweet people! We were tracting on Monday and this Lady named Sharol Boateng let us in. She was from Ghana ofcourse. We started teaching her and she said " Come back around 1, I want you to teach my kids! " So we went back, went to the wrong building on accident and never heard from them. The next day we went back and realized we went to the wrong building so we found their door again and she let us right in and her kids were there! She was like " I was waiting for you all day yesterday! " They are so eager to learn. They are moving in a few weeks because she hasn't been able to find a job here. She said for the past few months she has been praying that God would send her some help. SHe said " If you guys would have started teaching me a while ago I would have become a member!! but Im moving... " It made me think like man....why didn't we find her earlier? Its frusterating. We had some great lessons with them and they all came to church on Sunday!! All the ghanains in our ward fellowshipped them and their trying to find a way to help her stay here!!! She loved church!!! It was great. Then we also got a sweet referral from a guy living in our mission. Hes good friends with Orrin Hatch. Anyways hope you all have a great week!! Im gonna send some pictures. Love ya!!

Last Week of the Transfer!

Hows everyone doing?

Did you get a chance to look at the video from the link I sent you? Haha its pretty funny! Its been a pretty good week for us. We have had some ups and some downs. We had one person on date for baptism but she fell off date this week. Her husband is a leader in their Ghanain church and so she isn't able to come to ours. Its sad because she loves the missionaries and the church!! We have a few people who are really close to being baptized though so that is good! We have seen alot of good things happening here this transfer. Only one more week until the transfer is over...that is So crazy!!! It has flown by. I really enjoy my companion I have right now. His name is Elder Morrill. We have some good times and are always laughing. Hopefully we will stay together one more. Gabriel got confirmed yesterday in church. It was awesome!!! He is doing SO good. Theres another guy that I found and taught in Annandale that is getting baptized next Saturday so that is pretty sweet. We got asked yesterday if we would speak in church next Sunday...ahhhh!! You guys know how much I love speaking in church!!!! Ofcourse im freaking out but oh well. I have to speak for 10 minutes on faith. Thats a hard subject because its so broad!! I started writing it this morning though so we will see how it goes...I will let ya know! Besides that everything is going well here! I think today were either going to the Pentagon City Mall or were going to go down to Old Town Alexandria and walk around the shops and maybe go to the harbor...it will be fun!! The weather has been crazy hot!!! It was in the 100's a few days last week....with the humidity the heat index was at like 110!! Man I was just sweating all day long. Some of the africans we teach dont use their air conditioner either so that makes it hard. Sounds like you guys are having some beautifull spring weather though!! I am jelous you got to hang out with emily and the girls all week!!! Lucky!! Well I love you guys !!

Elder Davie

I'm in a Movie!

Some people in the DC area made a short video about LDS missionaries, and I'm in it. Check it out!!

Zoo Day!

How are you guys doing? Man its been a long pday so far....we actually headed up to the zoo today haha. It was free so that was awesome. It was fun, just a lot of walking. After that we walked over to the National Cathedral....that thing is huge!! It was fun. Now im here emailing!!

The week was really good for us. Last night at 5 we had the baptism for Gabriel!!!! It was awesome!!!! Such a good service. President Albright was able to come down for it which was cool. I will have to send you some pictures of it next week. Besides that we have just been working to build up our teaching pool and get some more baptisms!!

I can't believe I am under 5 months now...it is to crazy to think about it. The time has gone by so fast and keeps speeding up it seems like!! I can't believe transfers are in 2 weeks already!!! Crazy. I was never able to find my scriptures....my only guess now is that I left them on the car or something and drove off...im pretty sure I didn't do that though so who knows...hopefully I will find them sometime. Well I love you guys !!!! Hope you all had a great time with emily!! IM glad the weather is getting nicer for you and not raining every day!! Thats funny that you had dinner with the randalls haha. THey are sweet. ANd thats sweet you got to meet Elder Petersons mom. He is a good friend of mine. Well I love you guys !!

Elder Davie

Pictures!

Maxwell, Elder Bates, Nanah, & Esther. Nanah & Esther were getting baptized! Maxwell has been a member for a while now and keeps giving the missionaries referrals all the time! He's awesome!


Me and Jonathan Samlar. Elder Bell and I baptized him. He's doing awesome!


FuFu for dinner


Frog Intestines for dinner!! Kidding, it's more FuFu! Yum!

Praying for Gabriel!

Hows everyone doing?!

Sorry that its Wednseday and im just now emailing. The libraries were closed on Monday because of Memorial Day and we were going to email yesterday but we got to busy, so here I am now!

Its been a pretty good week for the most part, but it didn't end so well. We were supposed to baptize Gabriel Saturday at 12:00. Well on Friday night we got a text message from him that said this : "Hey brother Morrill and brother Dave. I know it will be a surprise to you but I think it is the right decision to take. I really believe I am not ready for this baptism. I don't have the peace I needed for the baptism so I am suspsending the baptism. I love you all. Your all great. Thank you all. " It broke my heart!!! It was exactly 4 weeks before that when Freddy had to cancel his baptism the night before because of his mom. I was just like man what the heck am I doing wrong???!! We had been teaching Gabriel for so long. That was a tough on to swallow. Well we ended up going to his house the next day and sitting down with him. He explained that him and his wfie were having some problems and it just put a lot of stress on him and he didn't wanna be baptized with all these things going on in his mind. Of course its understandable. He said " I just want to feel more peace in my life, I want my mind to be eased!" We offered to give him a blessing and he accepted. We also invited him to come to a different baptism for the other ward right next to us. He came and loved it! Two ghanains got baptized so we were happy he came and saw. The next day, Sunday, he came to church. Hes been like 15 times. He told us ever since we gave him the blessing he felt a lot better! We went to his house after church with our ward mission leader and talked to him for a while. He agreed to be baptized on Sunday at 5:00! Please, please keep him in your prayers. He is awesome, he is one of the best people ive met out here. I just hope satan doesn't try and mess things up again.

On Monday we went up to the temple and did a session. It was awesome! It was my second time going through that temple so it was fun to be there again. Afterwards we went over to the bookstore which is just a couple miles down the road. I had to buy a new book of mormon. I lost mine last week. I have NO idea where it is!! I am so bummed because I had like 4 years worth of notes and studying in it thats all gone!! And I didn't know Book of Mormons cost $50!!! Thats a lot....but I had to do it. Hopefully I will find my old one somewhere.

Well I love you guys!!! I hope to hear from you today if your'e around.....Love you !!!!!

Elder Davie

It's Heating Up!

Hows everyone doing ? Things are going well here in Mt Vernon ! We had a pretty good week. When I was here 4 months ago with Elder Larochelle we found this guy from Ghana named Gabriel ! He was awesome ! We taught him for a few weeks and then I got transferred and they continued to teach him. Well now that im back I was able to go back over and teach him again ! We had a really good lesson with him on Saturday and we set him on date for baptism ! He is going to be baptized on Saturday the 28th ! We are very excited. He loves the church ! He has been coming every week and reading the book of mormon. Right now were trying to find more people who are prepared and ready for the gospel ! This area is a lot different now that the ward boundaries have changed. We are going to rely upon the members a lot more to help us find people to teach. That is really the only update here in Virginia ! We are just working hard and hoping to see success !! Its getting hot here ! Its been in the 80's all week...ughh...I would rather have the snow come back!! Love you guys!!

More Pictures!

If you look closely you can see a roach hanging out inside of our oven clock. We moved into the apartment last weekend and it was infested with roaches, so they quickly moved us out that same day and now we live in a roach-free apartment!



Me with CJ Sidener, a recent convert. He was on a mini-mission with us. He's one of the most dedicated people I've ever met when it comes to living the gospel.

Elder Bell and I with Russel. I love that guy. He's one of the funnest people I've taught.

Me with Elder Bell. He came back for a visit!

Pictures!

Me with Elder Edgington


Shaheed and Sidu with Elder Church, me, and CJ Sidener.


Elder Church and I with Konnie, Shaheed, and Sidu. They're from Sierra Leone. Awesome family!


Elder Church and I with Jose and Yesseniah. They are the sweetest family!


Me and Bill Smith. He's one of the coolest people I've met out here!

I've Been Transfered!!

Hey everyone !

Wow what an eventfull week it has been !! So as you found out from Sister Randall, I did get transferred. It was hard because we had a lot of good people we were working with in Annandale and the ward was awesome. Remember a when I left Mt Vernon how upset I was and how much I didn't like Annandale at first....that all changed very quick. Annandale was one of my favorite areas by far. I LOVED it !!! It was difficult to leave and to say goodbyes. I was able to meet some awesome people there and to make more friends. As you know I did get transferred right back to Mt Vernon !! I am in the same exact ward I just came from 3 months ago. It is called the Bellehaven ward. The only difference is that the stake made 3 new wards and all the boundaries changed . The bellehaven ward got removed and so now im really in the Mt Vernon ward. It is completely different than the ward I was in before cuz of the boundary switches. We went from having like 15 ghanains in the ward to having 1 which is an investigator that me and elder larochelle found when I was here before. Because of the boundary changes our area is alot tougher now. Alot of apartments we spent our time in are now gone and we have mainly houses to tract so its going to be interesting. I am very excited to be back here in this part of the city. I LOVE Alexandria....it is a fun place to be !! I was talking to the assistants and they told me how I got back here. They were with President albright doing transfers and president said "Who of the zone leaders loves Ghanains the most ? " They both were like Elder Davie !!! So president was like awesome hes going back to mt vernon then !!! I was so excited. I have been able to see alot of people I taught before and some of those who were baptized so its been amazing. We had bible study last thursday at the church which was a blast. Do you remember Elder Bell ? He was my companion a few transfers ago...he was back in town and brought his family to the bible study...I have pics im gonna send. He is amazing...one of the best friends ive met out here so it was so good to see him ! It was like seeing an old friend from back home...it was awesome. After bible study me and elder bell went and visited this ghanain guy we found and taught when we were comps....this guy was freaking out when he saw us haha it was hilarious !! I got a pic I will send you. So I got transferred and we came to our area. We got a new apartment on friday so we spent all day moving in. When we moved in though we noticed a few cockroaches running around. We didn't think it was a huge deal at first so we delt with it. Well Saturday came around and there were hundreds of roaches everywhere !!!! There were big ones, small ones, baby ones, giant ones...they were everywhere !!!!!!!! Me and my comp were like no way we can't do this. We went and talked to the apartment office and they got us a new apartment that same day.....so we spent all day friday and saturday moving ! Now were in a different apartment and its much better !!!! It has been a stressfull weekend though thats for sure. I am definitely excited to be back here though. I am still a zone leader. My companion is Elder Morrill from Idaho. Hes pretty cool. I woke up this morning not feeling well again...I don't know if I have allergies or what but i have a bad cough again so who knows.... Well I can't think of what else I was gonna write....I love you guys !!!

Elder Davie

Pictures!

Sunday Surprise!

How are you guys all doing ? Sounds like your still getting alot of rain and snow ?! What is up with that ? It has been like summer here....blue skies and like 90 degrees. There were some tornados down in Culpepper but thats the very bottom of our mission....no one was hurt or anything. I heard about the crazy tornados in alabama though...President showed us news clips from it at our last leadership meeting a couple days ago. Pretty crazy !!! We still weren't able to have the baptism for freddy on Saturday. He plays high school soccer and club soccer....between the both of them he is never home !!! Its so frusterating. We went and saw him last night and had a good visit with him. He wants to get baptized and everything its just hes to busy to get interviewed and stuff. So tonight at 8 he said he will be home that we can interview him...well our district leader will but keep him in your prayers today that everything will go through !! If so then he should get baptized on Saturday...I know ive said that the past 3 weeks but hopefully for real this time !! We also have a couple awesome people who were working with but man satan is doing his job and is doing it well !! He is throwing all kinds of trials and problems to those were teaching and its hard !!!! We have to always be working our hardest and doing our best or we could lose these people. I did have an awesome surprise yesterday at church !! I was at church talking to some people and waiting for investigators to show up...I walk into the chapel and I look ahead and Brad was there !!!!!!!! I was like holy crap !!!!!!!!! I wish I could have spent more time talking to him but things were crazy trying to get the investigators situated and what not. He was only able to stay for sacrament which was a bummer. It was SO good to see him....so good. Things have been so stressfull lately and were not seeing as much success as we could hope for. I don't know if he realizes how good it was to just see him for an hour and regroup. I definatly needed it. He is going to be at the Why I believe fireside which is at our stake center on may 15. Elder Hollands son is speaking so it should be good. Hopefully we will be able to go !!! Theres a family in my ward, the dutsons, who are moving to riverton this week. I am going to send a box home of junk with them....I will just have them call you mom and set up a time for them to drop it off or something....they are probably the sweetest people ever !! I love them. Thats pretty much all the new and exciting things going on here !!! Everything is going fine...I can't wait to call you guys next sunday ! I feel like I just called you on Christmas !! Crazy. Thanks for sending pics of the set mom...that looked awesome ! It would be so nice to be able to go and watch them film something. I wonder if they would let us? Well I love you guys !! I wish I had more news to say but I can't think of anything !! I love you guys !!! Congrats to Brandon for graduating !!!

Warm Weather and Baptisms!

Hello Everyone !

How are ya'll doing?! It was great to hear from you again ! Sounds like the weather is still being crazy over there ? The weather is beautifull here. Today its sunny and about 90 degrees. A little to warm if you ask me. This morning we went over to rolling valley to some turf fields with our zone and played ultimate football, baseball , and soccer. It was pretty fun but a little to warm. I got a good sunburn though so thats nice cuz im pretty white. The past week has been ok. Last Sunday I told you about that guy who randomly showed up at church. His name is Raj. We have taught him a few times and he came to church again yesterday. He is pretty sweet and will most likely be baptized in the next couple months. We were supposed to have a baptism for Freddy on Saturday but it didn't go through. We weren't able to contact him the entire week before and were wondering what was up?! Well it was spring break and he was in new jersey with his soccer team so it makes sense. We went on Saturday night and had a great lesson with him. Then on Sunday he came to church for the 3rd time and he loved it. He is being interviewed tonight for baptism and if all goes well will be baptized this coming saturday. Keep him in your prayers !! Its so difficult getting things ready for baptism. It seems like things always come in the way....very frustrating. There is a sweet couple in our ward who is moving to riverton in a couple weeks. They are moving to like 11800 and 2700 w. They told me if I have anything I want sent home they will take it for me. Im gonna get a box together and send it home with them and they said they would take it to you. I will keep you posted on that though !! I am sorry to hear about the radio in your car !! That stinks !! That is sweet that you bought a kenwood though haha. Even sweeter that you can just plug in your ipod ! Dallin cracks me up . I love all the quotes you email me of him. I am soooo anxious to see austy and taylor jo !!!!! They are both going to be so big when I see them again. You said your anxious for me to come home....So am I !! Haha. I love it out here don't get me wrong....but it will be nice to be back with you guys again. The mission is so hard.....harder than I ever imagined. Its worth it though. On Sunday we got to go and teach the priest quorum. We just talked about missionary work ofcourse and committed them all to come on exchanges with us !! It was good. Besides that I can't think of anything to crazy that has happened. Everything is pretty much the same !!! I love you guys !!!

6 More Months!!

Hello Everyone !!

It was AWESOME to hear from you guys !! I always look forward to your emails !!! Sounds like the weather there has been pretty crazy. Its been the oppossite here ! Its been sunny, about 70-75. Its definatly spring. We got a couple days of rain but not much. Its actually getting a little to warm :) I would rather have the cold. It has been a pretty good week for us, not to bad. I am glad to have the past couple weeks out of the way.....Its not not to stress and worry about zone conference and other meetings...now we can just buckle down on focus on our area. We have alot of good things happening right now. We have about 4 people on date with a few more ready to set a date so things are good. We are having a baptism on Saturday for Freddy Nsiah. He is the ghanain kid that me and Elder Buie knocked into a while back. He is awesome. Yesterday some random guy came to church. He said he was visiting the temple and they told him about the church and he wanted to come...he ended up staying all 3 hours and seemed to enjoy it so that was fun. It was depressing though because we had 9 people who had committed to come to church ! We had called them all on Saturday night/Sunday morning and they were all ready with rides and everything....only 2 ended up coming !!! So frusterating. We had our zone conference last Wednesday which was really good ! We did about a 30 min presentation but it went well so I was glad. You know how I get all nervous to do those things.....it was good though. I don't know what else is new here....were just teaching alot of people right now. Maybe a couple people that you guys could keep in your prayers every night.... Jason and Jose & Yessenia (pronounced Jesseniah). Jason is on date for baptism but still needs to start coming to church but hes hesitant. Jose & Yesseniah are married...and their both really close. Keep them in your prayers !!

So you have to call grandma hanks and tell her happy birthday !!! Im horrible...I knew it was coming but I forgot to buy a card and get it sent off.....tell her im sorry but i LOVE her so much and miss her like crazy !!! Well I love you guys so much !! Thanks for everything !!!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Wow it has been a busy day ! We went up to DC again with the Mclean zone leaders, elder stuart and elder parker. I love those guys. I came out with Elder stuart, he was my roomate in the mtc so we're good buds. They all make fun of me for being old and bald haha. It was 90 degrees here today, I think i got sunburned !! It was a good day though. Its already almost 5 and we still have to go to the cleaners and to the grocery store and to shower ...so this may be a short email, im sorry !

Last week was amazing. Elder Church is awesome. Hes only been out 9 months and he has that greenie fire to him. We have been working our butts off. Last week we had 5 investigators at sacrament and found 9 new investigators !!! We also set 4 people on date for baptism !!! It was crazy. On April 23rd Freddy is getting baptized. He is from Ghana !! He is 18 years old, a senior in high school. I tracted into him last transfer and we've been teaching him ever since. He has come to church a couple times and he LOVES it. Yesterday he had to introduce himself again and he stands up and says " My name is freddy, bruddah dave knocked on my door and now I come to church, and im here to stay !! " haha it was awesome. He is ready for baptism so it will be fun ! Also on the same day we will probably be baptising konnie. She is from sierra leone and is 18 also. She came to general conference and was kinda bored so were trying to get her to come to a normal church service !! We also found this guy named jose and his wife yesseniah. They are AWESOME ! He grew up in New York and is a huge baseball fan. He came to church yesterday and loved it ! I signed up to do service with the elders quorum on saturday haha. Him and his wife will definatly get baptized shortly. There are a ton of great things happening in this area. I can't believe I hit 18 months next week, the time is flying by. I am having a blast, but man it is tough work. I look forward to seeing you guys again !! Also I get to call you for mothers day this transfer so that will be fun !!!

I love you guys !! It was great to get all of your emails !! Hope you're all doing well !!!

It Just Keeps Getting Better!

Hello everyone ! How are you all doing? I will give you a run down of the past week or so...its been a good one !!!

Friday : We had zone leader counsel. It was really good. Starting next transfer pdays are going to be on Monday . Also transfers will be different. Now we will just show up to the transfer meeting and find out who our new comp is there....kind of like you did it in your mission I think nate? That will be good though. After the counsel we had an awesome day ! We taught 4 investigator lessons. They were all from sierra leone haha. I love those people. Their very similar to ghanains. We went to this one guys house named Ambrose. He is awesome ! We had dinner with him and his wife....what did they feed us ? Casava leaf fufu with pepper soup!!!! I thought fufu was in the past...boy was I wrong. This soup was SPICY !! It was already way hot outside...then I started eating the soup and bam !! I was sweatin haha. I couldn't finish the soup...it was just to spicy for me ! I tried. I did finish the fufu though.

Saturday : It was another good day for us ! We had this potential investigator from Ghana that we found a few weeks ago. His name is maxwell. We have tried visiting him quite a few times and had no luck. Well we were in the area so we stopped in. What a surprise we had !! Maxwell was there, his friend was there, and his roomate was there ! All ghanains. We taught them all haha. It was a blast. Then before we left maxwell says " My bruddas , have some fufu with us !! I was like sweet ! Then I was like, Maxwell can I have some amooney abamoon instead ? He was like ofcourse my bruddah haha. Amooney abamoon is rice and stew. Its not to bad. You eat it with your hands. You pick up a pile and swirl it in the soup they gave us, which was palm nut soup haha. There was some meat in there to and I ate a little then I heard maxwell from the kitchen say " I hope you like the meat ! Its cow intestine ! " you should have seen my face...i thought i was going to die !!!!! Also that night we had a solid lesson with our investigator named Freddy...hes 18 and from Ghana as well. He is awesome !!

Sunday : Freddy came to church !!! I was sooo excited !! All his family is pretty hardcore baptist so I was surprised to see him there. At the end we were talkin to him and he was like " wow this was really good, it all made sense. I am bringing my friends with me next week !!! " It was a miracle.

Monday: Oh man this was such a good day !!! We had a really good lesson with one of our investigators who is struggling alot. We taught her about the atonement and the spirit was strong. She said her husband is interested in learning more about baptism, so were going back to teach him later this week. Then we saw a former investigator in the area book from about a year ago. Its a ghanain family so I was like man we gotta check this out. We went over and had an awesome visit !! The parents aren't as interested but the three kids are. They are 14, 16, and 9. They are legit !! They had a book of mormon sitting on there table and I was like " have you guys been reading it ?! " They were like ya we read it as a family a couple times a week !!! I was like oh man that is awesome !! Were going back on thursday to start teaching them.

Yesterday : I was on exchanges with a greenie. We had another awesome day. We taught a few investigators and visited some less actives. We were tracting and ran into these sweet kids ! They are from sierra leone. They are 23, 18, 16. One is muslim but the other two are christian. We sat down and taught them the restoration and showed them the movie and they loved it !!! Were going back tonight to teach them and invite them to church !!

It has truly been a week of miracles. We are being so blessed right now. I am so gratefull for these experiences. I think alot about what I would be doing right now had I not come out here, its scary to think about. I am so gratefull for the things Ive learned and the struggles I continue to have that let me continue to grow every day ! I love this work !!!

Love you guys !!

Elder Davie

The Week of Miracles!

Hello Everyone !!

How is everyone doing ? We had a pretty good week. We had a miracle happen to us on Saturday night. So we had an appointment scheduled with Freddy at 8:00 pm. Freddy is this 18 year old Ghanain kid we found while tracting about a week ago. So we pull up to the apartments and its like 7:55....we knock on the door and Freddy isn't there !!! We were both kinda bummed and were just like what the heck. Well we decided we would tract the building right next door and then try Freddy again. God works in mysterious ways. He always has a plan in mind. We knock on this one door and this girl named Ume (oomay) answered. She is from Sierra Leonne. She is 18 year old and is a senior in high school. We were talking to her on the doorstep for a second then she was like " You guys wanna come in? " Those are the golden words ! So we went in and taught her and her family for a while. They said they have actually been looking for a new church to start going to. It was awesome. So ofcourse we committed them all to come to church the next day ! Ume ended up coming and loved it. Her family didn't make it so hopefully this week they will be there. I was thinking though, had freddy been home when we tried going there we would have never found ume and her family ! Then we ended up going to freddys after and he was home ! Not only him, but his entire family !! We taught his two sisters and his mom and his aunt. It was awesome. We taught them the restoration and showed them the restoration dvd. They loved it. We had another miracle happen to us. We were tracting the other day and we knocked on this door and this lady answered. She was on the phone so she was just like ya ya not interested and whatever. Then she was like hang on. She was talking to her husband on the phone..then she was like " My husband said he wants to meet with you guys so come back. " We ended up going back on Sunday and wow, this guy was awesome ! His mother just passed away last month and he is looking for a source of strength right now. We had an awesome lesson with him and he told us to come back and keep teaching him ! Had his wife not been on the phone when we knocked we would have never found him. It was so awesome. These are 2 experiences I had this past week that let me know, this is the lords work. He will make things happen if we have the faith ! Its been a good week.

Well I hope everyone is doing well. I got the st patricks day package you sent me !! Thank you SO much !! I loved it !!!! Love you guys !!

Elder Davie

Looking for More Ghanians!

Hey Guys !

How are all you doing? Its a little earlier than usual I know, I will be back later today to check my email again and write some more. We are going to DC today with the Ashburn zone leaders. Brother Mccoy is taking us on a tour of the capitol building ! It should be fun, I am excited !

Last Saturday I went back to Mt Vernon again for a baptism ! It was for Rachell Oku....They are a recent convert family and their daughter rachell just turned 8. She asked me if I would baptize her so I did ofcourse. It was awesome !!! It was great to be back there again and see everyone. I forgot my camera but President Albright got a couple pictures and so did my last companion so they are going to email them to me ! It was awesome though.

Besides that there really isn't a whole lot going on here. This area is tough. We tract alot and it seems like we only meet spanish people and middle eastern people. Obviously we can't talk to the spanish because of the language barrier and middle easterns are mostly hardcore muslim so we don't really get anywhere there. Its hard, but its not impossible. Last Saturday night we found some Ghanains ! I was sooo happy ! We taught this guy named Freddy. He is 18. Hes sweet ! He told us to come back this week and teach him some more. Then on Sunday we were tracting and we found another house full of Ghanains !!! It was awesome !! We are going to hopefully start teaching them as well !!

On Sunday we had to teach the gospel principles class....we taught the lesson on the word of wisdom. It went pretty good. Then that night we went to a mission home fireside which are always fun !! Overall its been a pretty good week ! I am excited for today, it will be fun. Well I look forward to hearing from all you guys !!! I hope everything is going well !!! I love you !!

Elder Davie

More Baptisms!

Hey Everyone !

How are you all doing? Sounds like its been a good week for everyone, minues your camera getting stolen em !! That totally stinks !! I lost like 200 pictures of my mission when mine got stolen. Well I definatly had an eventfull week. Elder Richards of the 70 was out here for a mission tour. We had meetings on Wed, Thursday, and Friday, then again on Sunday for Stake Conference. Wednesday was a meeting with all the bishops, ward mission leaders, and stake presidents in our mission, it was really good !! Thursday was zone conference, which I had to conduct. It wasn't as bad or scary as I thought it would have been. It went well. Friday was a leadership meeting for all zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers. It was pretty good ! After that we had a zone leader counsel which was fun. Overall it was really good ! Oh ya so Elder Richards interviewed 5 people from every zone conference. Ours had like 50-60 people there and who got picked....I did ! Ofcourse haha, I had a feeling I was gonna get picked. I was pretty scared, Elder Richards is intimidating, but I tell you what I had one of the best interviews ive ever had. It was so good. He gave me alot of awesome advice and we had a good talk. It was like 20 min long so it was really fun. There is alot of stress gone now that the week is over. Then yesterday we had interviews with President. It was such a good interview, I loved it. He is so sweet, I love him so much !

Then on Saturday I had to privilege of going back to Mt Vernon !!!! Esther Boatang was baptized !! She is the one Elder Larochelle and I found, shes the jazz fan haha !! It was amazing to not only be back in mt vernon but to see her get baptized ! She was so excited !!!!! I was so happy to be there, you have no idea. In my interview with president the first thing he said is " So do you miss mt vernon? " I was like " You have no idea ! " haha. He said well at least your being honest :) Things are going pretty good here. Im starting to get used to it a little more each day. I was just thinking, next transfer is when we do our mothers day call.....crazy !!!! time is going by way to fast.

Oh ya guess what?! The zone leaders in ashburn are 2 of my best friends out here....as a zone leader you can call other zones ( hope that makes sense) usually you cant call anybody who isn't in your district....anyways so they called me and said " Hey we had dinner with the mccoys !! They are sweet !!! There is another baptism this saturday for this girl named rachell oku. They want me to baptize her so im trying to find a ride down there !!! It would be sweet !!!

Sunday night was one of the best nights ever !! So Alex Boye did a fireside/concert at the temple visitors center. Oh man it was SO good. If you EVER have the chance to see him perform live, go to it !! He is an amazing entertainer...hes hilarious !! You would love him !! I got some videos I will send home !!!

Anyways thats all the exciting news that I have for this week !!! I love you guys !! I will send some pics

Elder Davie

New Area!

Hey guys,

I'm officially in the Annadale Zone serving in the Annadale Ward. What a crazy week we have ahead of us. Elder Kent Richards of the Seventy is touring our mission right now. Tonight we have a meeting with all bishops, stake presidents, and zone leaders at the mclean stake center. It should be interesting. Tomorrow we have a zone conference for our zone, fredericksburg, woodbridge, and spanish north. Guess who got called on to conduct....me ofcourse. Out of 8 zone leaders they just had to choose me !!! Im freaking out. It will definatly be the biggest meeting ive ever had to conduct....its scary. Then on Friday we have leadership meeting with elder richards from 9-3 then we have zone leader counsel from 3-5. Wow. Long days. Then on Saturday we are doing something AWESOME !! Remember when I told you about Esther? She was the Ghanain lady me and elder larochelle found a couple weeks ago...shes the jazz fan ! Well she is getting baptized on Saturday !!! Luckily I was able to find a ride so we are going to head down there and see it ! I can't wait !!! I will make sure to take plenty of pictures. !!!!

We had an awesome experience on Tuesday. We took one of our investigators up to the temple visitor center. He loved it. We had the sisters there take him on a tour and teach him the plan of salvation. Afterwards we were seating in front of the christus statue. We were talking about the gospel and then he just stopped for a second said " Wow I really needed this today. Thank you guys so much" It was awesome. He was able to feel and recognize the light of christ and the power of the holy ghost. Also I have some GREAT news !!! I heard from the elders in mt vernon about some news on Ohenabuh...the ghanain prince we baptized. Apparantly he has already baptized 13 members of his family....that is incredible ! The power of one !! Remember how I told you Elder Allen was gonna be my roomate...man this kid is hilarious !!!! haha. Hes sweet. He is the funniest person!

I hope you guys have an awesome week !!! I am excited to hear from all of you !!! I love you !!

Transfer Time!

Hello Everyone !

Well lets just say it hasn't been the best couple days ive ever had....... Transfer calls came in last night...Im leaving Belle Haven. Aghh man I did not want to leave....I really really didn't. I am going to be serving in the Annandal Zone. I am a Senior companion again. My companion is going to be Elder Buie from Cottonwood Heights Utah. Well I think he actually lives in the avenues. I was his Zone Leader in Ashburn a couple transfers back. Hes a good kid, it will be fun.

I am so sad that im leaving. I have gotten so close to alot of people here. I think one of my weaknesses is that I tend to really open up with people and connect to them, making it very difficult sometimes to leave. Its hard developing these friendships and then one day packing up and starting from ground zero again. Its no fun !!!! Its really, really hard for me to start at the beginning, knowing nobody in the ward, and going through that whole process again. I know nate probably knows exactly how I feel. I was really hoping to spend more time here....man it stinks. This is the best area in the mission...im convinced of that...I heard that it was before I came here but man it really is. I am going to miss the ghanains more than anything !!! They are like family away from home. They are amazing. I guess im leaving for a reason though right ? I hope so !!!

Another thing that is sad is we have a couple baptisms coming up in the next 2 weeks. Its frusterating because it seems like in every single area ive been in I will find someone and teach them but then I always get transfered right before their baptisms !!! Esther is getting baptized on February 26th. She is so funny i love her !! Shes like 60 something years old I think. I will hopefully be able to find a ride and come back to see it. She was way mad when I told her I was leaving. We have another investigator named Russel. Man this guy is something else....he is awesome !!!!!! Hes pretty ticked that im leaving....he hates change so he hates having missionaries come in and out and what not. He gave us $50 yesterday and said " Lunch is on me...go get yourselves a nice steak somewhere !!" This guy is so sweet. Im going to miss these people !! Sorry if it sounds like im venting...I kinda am :) Its just hard. Sometimes it would be nice if they would let us call home every now and again to vent haha.

So like I said im going to the Annandale zone. It should be alright. Kinda stressfull since thats where president lives and the assistants so you always have to be at your best ! Guess who my roomate is going to be ?? I will give you a hint....Emily dated his brother while we lived in temecula....yep ! Elder Allen haha. I talked to him this morning....hes a good kid it will be fun to get to know him a little better.

Well I love you guys. Keep me in your prayers...its going to be a very stressfull week. We have the MTC leaders here touring our mission and then Elder Kent. Richards of the 70 is coming to tour the mission next week.....scary. It will be nice to have that stress gone. Well I love you guys so much !!!! Thank you SOOOOO much for the valentines package !!! It was an AWESOME surprise !!!!!!!! You guys are so good to me !!!

Elder Davie