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