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

Another Miracle!

Hello Family !!

How is everyone doing ?! I am great ! We had another great week here in Alexandria, VA. I love this place ...I really really love this place. I want to finish my mission here....not likely it could happen though. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I got transferred next week. I hope not !!!!

Here is another miracle that happened to us this week :

It was Saturday afternoon. We had just visited a recent convert and were leaving his place. We had some extra time before our next appointment so we decided we would just tract the area where we were. We knocked this building and on one door this lady opened named Janet. She is from Ghana ofcourse. She said " Come back in five minutes, im busy." This is a typical ghanain response while tracting. So we were like alright we'll just finish the next building and we'll go back and see what happens. We go back and Janet opens the door and lets us right now. We sat down and started talking for a bit. She informed us she is Methodist but has seen the missionaries before. Then she said " I want you to meet my sister . " Her sister came out and she saw our name tags and said " Latter day saints??!! " We were like yep !! She said she had been going to the mormon church in Ghana every week before she came to the United States 8 months ago. Apparantly she was living with a boyfriend in Ghana so she wasn't able to get baptized. She said she had been looking for the church here but couldn't find it !!! And even better, she is a Utah Jazz fan hahaha :) We had an awesome lesson with her that day. We came back the next day with Maxwell, our Ghanain member and she loved it. The next morning she was at church and made so many new friends !!! She will probably be baptized here in a couple weeks. Her sister Janet also said " I will come to church in a couple weeks and maybe I will become a member too ! " It was awesome. The lord led us to someone he had been preparing for years. The best feeling in the world truly is to know you have been an instrument in the hand of the lord.

I LOVE the Ghanains here....they are so amazing. I can't wait for you guys to meet some of them. One day im gonna go to Ghana ! haha. I can't believe that transfers are next week.....these past 6 weeks have gone by crazy fast....its weird. I wish we had another 6 weeks in this transfer. So many awesome things have happened and I have loved it !!!

Not much new is going on with me...same old missionary work ! I am excited to hear from you guys !!!I have alot of pics to email so I will go do that now....love you guys !!!

Elder Davie

Miracle on the Bus!

Hello !

How is everyone doing ? I am doing good ! Last week we went up to dc for pday and had a good time. We started off at the Holocaust museum. It was crazy...kind of depressing. It was a really good museum though. Then we just kind of went to the air and space museum and hung out for a little bit then just headed back home because of the snow storm we got. We only had like 5-6 inches but ofcourse people were freaking out. That night we just headed out to route 1 which is like a 1 minute walk from our apartment. We just helped push cars up the hill all night. It was actually pretty fun. At 9:00 we stopped for some hot chocolate at Krispy Kreme. Thats when a former investigator walked in...it was someone me and elder bell found and taught....and he was like thank you guys so much for helping me get up the hill. Hes like I want you guys to come back and teach me and my family ! It was pretty awesome...the blessings of service.....it softened this guys heart.

Then on Friday we had a leadership meeting which was fun. I guess Jimmer Fredette shared a little bit of his testimony on ESPN....president showed us that clip...it was sweet. I heard BYU beat San Diego State then lost to unranked New Mexico?! Crazy.

On monday we had another little miracle. It was the end of the month and we were already past our miles allotment. We both had the idea to go and visit this recent convert and his non member sister. They actually live outside our ward boundaries and it would have taken to many miles. So Elder Larochelle said lets just go catch the bus down there ...I was like sweet lets go !! As we walked outside I got a feeling to grab a bom and my bible out of the car and hold it in my hands because someone was going to see it and ask questions. Well we get on the bus for the first time this transfer....and sure enough right when we get on elder larochelle sits next to this later and im puttin my wallet away and she says " Hey whats the difference between those two books ? " It was awesome. We were able to teach her for 15 minutes until her stop came. She gave us all her info and were going to go back and teach her this week !

Everything else has been going good ! I can't believe its already february !!! Elder Larochelle and I have seen alot of success here in this area. We are working hard and the time is flying by. I am enjoying my time here in Belle Haven. Oh ya, at leadership this missionary came up to me (Elder Gillihan) and said hey do you know the mccoys? I was like ya ! I guess he was at their house the night before or something...I don't really know. I hear that they live in Tall Cedars which is in the Ashburn Stake. Its a very nice area.

Well I love you guys !!!! I will email some pictures of the past week....this camera is awesome !! The videos are amazing !!!!!!

Elder Davie