Last email

Dear Mom,

Sushi would be awesome.  I haven't had any fresh sushi for a long time.

Also please respond if you want the pillow or comforter to come home.

This Sunday was awesome, the Bishops son and I sang together in sacrament meeting.  I recorded it for you to listen too, until I get home.  It isn't great, especially the beginning, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Love Elder Davidson


Did you think to pray

Weed whackers and nerf wars

Well this week has been a great one.

We did lots of pretty crazy service projects.

The big one was a huge back yard that hadn't been mowed for more than 6 months.  On top of that there were hundreds of little items that had been just thrown all around the yard.  I found three dolls that were stuck in the grass.  Their yarn hair was so full of grass that it was hard to pull them up.  After a while we got to the point were we just used a pitch fork to get all the work done.  In fact after removing everything we took two weed whackers and went at it for a good 2 hours.  By the time we were done, the yard looked pretty good, and it was ready for their 6 year-old daughter to start playing again.

Then there were a few referrals that we made contact with this week, which was a really cool miracle.  One is a couple family that moved in around November.  No one has been by for a while, so when we went by they were really happy to see us and ready to come back to church.

We have the Nerf war today, which I'm really looking forward to.

Anyway there is a lot to do this wonderful week.

To everyone that has read this blog for the last 24 months I ask for your prayers especially for these last moments that I have left to serve the Lord.

Love,

Elder Will Davidson

Notes: taking, and a short one

What is this news of speaking in church and teaching seminary?  Not that I won't completely enjoy that, but when is this happening?

So Conference was amazing.  On Saturday I took notes in the traditional style, which went well, and I enjoyed it.  Then on Saturday I tried a new way of taking notes.  I have had teachers and missionary leaders try and teach me this before, but it hasn't really clicked.  So what I did is put two small columns on the side of each note page, then I would write my thoughts in the middle, along with quotes and other things.  In the left column I would put the subject of theme, then on the right column was a place for the speaker of relevant scriptures of other talks.  It will be really easy to put these notes on the online notebook that I have. 

I also really enjoyed listening to the BYU choir.  Their first number was so good.

The new mission map came out, which is so exciting!!!

Well this week is going to be awesome.  We are hoping to have a service project planned in the coming weeks to get some exposure for the mission and it's missionaries.

Sorry this is short, it was a pretty non-exciting week.

Love,

Elder Will Davidson

PS

Mom I got a new suit, so I'll be ok.

Continuing service

Well this week we had a tremendous amount of labor.  We did 17 hours of service this week.  It started at the Temple which I already talked about last week.  Then we did a whole front yard the next day which hadn't been worked on in several years.  After that we had a number of yards to mow and weed.  And a tree to cut down.  All in all we have been very physically tired.

In other news we got to do a presentation in the Fraser ward on missionary work.  It was a great success.  We watched a little video, and then right after I was asked to bear my testimony on the power of missionary work.  I did and it was ok.  There were a few members that said the whole program was inspiring.  I'm excited to see what kind of progress can be made.

Sorry this is a short letter, I just don't have much to say.

I saw the Easter Pageant twice this week.  The last show Saturday was really good.  The whole program is recorded so parts of it can be pretty dry.  There is one part at the very end where the live cast is actually singing, and it makes all the difference.  They walk out in front of the stage and all of a suddenly the sound becomes 100% more dynamic.  I'll miss it next year.

That is about all the news in Arizona.  Where all the women are strong the men are good looking and the children are usually Mormon.

Love,
Elder Davidson

fires, lists, clean as clean

This week are area has had the refiner's fire...literally.  In less than a week there have been three major fires.  The first happened on the Corner of 6th pl and Matlock to the home of an 80 year old lady.  She was OK.  We were coming home on a Tuesday night and we could see ghetto bird (the police helicopter) just hovering over our area.  That was abnormal, because normally if they are looking for someone they circle and have the spot light all over the place.  It wasn't until later that evening that we were biking down miller, and as we came around the corner, there were 3 news vans, several fire engines, and multiple ambulances.  It was pretty crazy to see all the different crews working in unison to put out the fire.  By the time we were there, they had the blaze under control.  Two days later we heard of a trailer going up in flames just down the street from the other one.  That one we didn't see either.  Then  Sunday afternoon there was a house just south of the church building that was all in a blaze.  From the church we could tell that it was a huge fire.  It took a good 10 minutes for the blaze to get under control.  Then a few minutes later we saw the fire ladder go up with some fire fighters on it.  We biked past during the evening, and the blaze had completely destroyed the house.  Luckily no other home was damaged.  Rumor has it that meth was being produced at the house and the fire was a result of mis-handled chemicals.  Elder Martin and I noticed that there was a trailer involved in all three fires.  Apparently there were two other fires in the city of Mesa.  The police are investigating arson. 

Beyond that we haven't had a lot of exciting things going on.

We taught a lady who really connected with a member of the ward.  It just so happens that both of them have been in and out of shelters as children.  This Wednesday we are going to go see the Easter Pageant for the first and last time.

As a matter of business I got my flight Itinerary from the mission office.  I will be arriving in Seattle at 10:55 am.  I don't remember the flight number.  There are some items that I'm not planning on bringing home.

ie.
Sheets and pillow (the ones I came out with that kind of smell like smoke.)
Bike
Pants and jackets and old socks, and all my white shirts
Any other generic missionary items that are old or worn out.
My goal is to fly with one checked and one carry one bag.

Anyway

This week we taught Elders Quorum in one of the wards.  They really enjoyed the whole experience.  Preach my gospel really encourages us to treat those we teach as agents, and not objects.  Unlike traditional teaching styles, it is not common for us to conduct a long lecture of words.  So we taught the lesson with a lot of involvement.

This morning we spent three hours working in the temple.  The bishop is over the maintenance crew, so we moved stuff and threw it out etc.  We got to take the tunnel beneath the parking lot back to the shop (which was really fun) and we also got to see all the rooms, from the Temple Presidents office to the brides room.  The best part was seeing the basement.  It was completely clean with a painted and waxed floor.  The first job we did was put some boards underneath a ramp in the HVAC room.  It was amazing, I crawled under the ramp, and there was not a single peace of dirt or dust in the whole place.  The only thing that wasn't newly washed or painted was a support beam underneath.  Even then it still was not dusty or rusty.  I was allowed to take pictures of the shop space and the tunnels along with the clean air intake.

Anyway hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Davidson

Short post with Missionary Lingo

Can you believe it? Almost 50% of the mission presidents will be new come July 1st.  I can't imagine how crazy the MTC and mission department is.  There are so many new missionaries, and we will have a lot of opportunity to use them in different ways.

A LESSON IN MISSIONARY LINGO:
In some missions is is common among the missionaries to use terms like birth, death, and father to explain their missions.  For example, my mission trainer would be described as my "dad".  and I was "born" in Lehi AZ.  Then more importantly I am about to "die" or finish my mission.  Which is why Elder Martin in a recording I sent home made that comment that he was going to "kill" me.  For the most part I don't really use these terms in public for obvious reasons.

Anyway I had a rather uneventful week.  My birthday came and went with out any particular interesting experience.

I guess I'll stop writing here, because Elder Martin was kind enough to let me use his recorder.  So when you have nothing better to do, you can listen to 10 minutes of me talking.

Except it won't post on the blog.....

Ummm, new carpet

Guess what, the mission department has given missionaries permission to email friends.  Which is pretty cool. 

Right so our new apartment is amazing.  It is a one bedroom with a back entrance that we use to bring our bikes in.  So my mind is all over the place.

We spent most of the first three days looking for people who could help us move furniture.  Moving with only bikes is not a fun experience.  We had to get people from other areas to help with their trucks.
The nice thing is we have nice new carpet and an awesome vacuum (not a robot) and we are trying to remember to take our shoes off when we go into the apartment.  The bishop owns the apartment.

I am healthy.

We taught a crazy 17 year-old girl.  She doesn't get along with her mom and seems to think her life is falling apart.  It was really hard to see how we could help because she plays several instruments, has straight A's and probably is a member of several different groups.  We just encouraged her to be happy and make good choices.

J is another really cool guy we had breakfast with last night.  He is from Oregon rides motorcycles, plays several instruments, rock climbs, and is a great cook.  It was funny because when I walked into his house I felt like a true North Westerner.  His house even felt like home.  Kind of a weird experience.  The sad thing is he is going through a divorce with his wife.  I'm just impressed by how faithful he is through the whole experience.  He actually was less-active for a while, and as he was getting active that is when he started having problems with his wife.

Anyway I don't know what else to report. 

Oh ya Transfer News.

Both Elder Martin and I are staying together.  So this is my last area.  What a great opportunity to finish strong.

Love you all,

Elder Davidson