Paint and a Plan

This week was a pretty slow week.

 

Elder Ellsworth and I spent the whole week working on a Family Mission Plan in the ward.  We had the meeting yesterday and it went very well.  Sister F, a sister in the Ward Mission has spearheaded the whole program.  It involves praying for three people that you can help come closer to Christ.  It can be as easy as inviting to a family dinner, or asking them to meet with the missionaries.  I know that this will be a good success as we work with the ward.  We also got an opportunity to paint Bro. and Sis H's front room.  They are an older couple in the ward, and they wanted to paint their front room, before a work crew was coming to put shutters in their front window.  We helped them get half the room done, which I know was a big help.  They would have been up until 10 had we not been there.  It was a fun service, and they really appreciated it.  I also found out that one of their granddaughters went to BYU-Idaho while I was there, and I recognized her picture as a cashier that I saw almost everyday for lunch.

 

Well that about sums up the week.  I got to do a little tech work for the Family Mission Plan presentation.  I was trying to plug the computer audio into the organ sound system, which sounded really rich and full.  There was only a big problem with echo from the back of the room.  I tried to route the sound back into the built in system, but for some reason the output on the organ wasn't working.

 

I'm having a lot of fun in this ward, and trying to do my very best. 

 

Love you all,

Elder Will Davidson

 

 

baptism and bunnies

Hello,

 

What a great weekend.  Our investigator was finally baptized after more than a year of coming to church.  He is a single father with two daughters, and they are all so cute.  I'd send pictures if I could, but the library computers don't accept cameras.  We had a good turn out for the baptism.  Elder Ellsworth and I went around to some of the families in the ward, and gave them personalized invitations.  It was a bit of a challenge, because we only had a typewriter.  For the bottom of the invitation, we put a little hand sketched drawing of a child being baptized.  It matched the type font on printer paper very well.

 

The service was short sweet and very powerful.  A family in the ward came and they have known our W since he was in elementary school.  You could see how much he has appreciated the Gospel in his life, when he thanked all the ward for supporting him.  I've never had a new member of the church be so involved in the ward and be so influenced by it.  We are really blessed to be in a ward that has such wonderful members.

 

With this new transfer we are really trying serve the members better.  That can be really difficult when most people won't give you something to do.  We thought about it last weekend and decided that we would go help the H's.  They have some rabbits in their back yard, and we offered to help clean up their cages.  It was really fun.  We got to meet Olivia who is this huge rabbit.  Almost 2 and a half feet long.  Then they had this little chubby baby.  You could fit the baby in your hand, and when he sat down it looked like a Kung-fu Panda Rabbit (chubby).  I thought a little bit about raising rabbits, but then I realized that it takes a lot of time to take care of them.

 

This has been a great week. 

 

Elder Will Davidson

 

PS.  I printed out my family history fan.  I discovered that in 9 generations of ancestors there are 20 named William.  I thought that was pretty cooI.

late posting of last week's letter

This week was pretty interesting.  We went about doing the best we could to get ready for W's baptism.  He had his interview on Saturday which was a whole hour and ten minutes.  It went much longer than I ever expected.  I did use the time wisely.  The organ in the ward building was a little out of whack so I went about checking the speakers, which were facing the wrong way, like someone had just pushed them to the side of the loft.  Then I started reading the manual on how to adjust some of the finer settings on the organ.  On Sunday we got to hear how it sounded (much better than before).  The first counselor really liked the sound.  It was a fun little way to spend the time waiting for the interview to finish.

 

Transfers were this past week.  And now three of my companions have returned home including my trainer.    In 12 weeks that number will increase again.

 

As the weeks roll on in the ward with not many people interested in learning more about the Church, we had an amazing meeting yesterday with the ward missionaries.  We're going to have a goal that will help the members serve others outside the Church community.  Our focus is helping members bring people to Christ, which could be as simple as a letter and a how are you doing.  It is really going to unite the ward as we put our best efforts into the work.  We have the best ward missionaries.  Sis.F has taken a lot of time thinking about how we can get the whole ward moving, so she is trying to get things started.

 

It has been a very gray overcast week, with lots of showers, and lightning.  That means I've been much happier in the mornings.  Our ward mission leader , doesn't believe that I really do like the rain and the grey skies.  Little does he know that it is what keeps me alive.

 

I love being here and serving.  Have a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Will Davidson

Mailmen

Hello,

 

This week was full of interesting situations.

 

We discovered the mail box for the Church building on Friday.  That might sound wierd, but no one has checked it for months.  There were over 100 letters overflowing out the box.  My companion and I took it upon ourselves to empty the box.  Which involved using the skinniest arms (my own) to empty an old mail box that keeps getting mail.

 

On top of that we had a ward 4th of July breakfast.  It was really a great day.  Especially beacuse the day was nice and rainy.  In fact Bro.T one of the member in the ward, was outside cooking bacon on a propane stove in a cast iron pan.  In one hand he had a spatula turning the bacon, and in the other hand he held an umbrella.  I had a good oppurtunity to fix the curtains for the skit that was performed.  In addition I put a disco ball up, because they wanted it to look more like a party.

 

We had an amazing miracle this past week end.  The past three weeks, we have not had anyone come to church.  This Sunday was no different, until an investigator came to Sunday school.  We stopped teaching him on Friday, because he wouldn't stop smoking.  On Sunday he came to church, and told us that he hadn't smoked in over two days.  I hope that he'll be able to keep going and not smoke.  It is a pretty incredible thing for him to keep working on.

 

That really is the news.

 

Yesterday we had dinner at the Bishop's house.  His daughter played Claire de Lune for us and he was trying to get his son to play for us as well.  Then Bishop Bruce stood up, and said "watch me play".  He picked up a controller and pushed play.  It was a player piano.  We got a good laugh over that. 

 

I hope that the weather is treating everyone ok.  We have had a number of days over 110.  Yipee.

 

Love,

Elder Will Davidson

Low key week

Dear Family,

 

How are you all doing?

 

I can't say that this week has had anything really exciting happen.

 

This past Sunday we were looking forward to 5 people coming to sacrament meeting.  It turned out that none of them ended up coming, which was a little disheartening.  On the other hand it might have been a really good thing, because an older lady kept talking about the president and other things that didn't relate to the gospel, so the bishop politely excused her from the pulpit.  The one word to describe what happened would have to be bizarre.

 

On Saturday we ran into a really cool couple that we started teaching.  They are really nice and wanted us to come by and visit with them.  While we where there G asked some really great questions about the church.  One of the questions he asked, "what can I benefit from if I join the church?".  Elder Ellsworth and I both shared a brief testimony regarding the Savior.  After that he said that he could really see that being worth learning more about.

 

In other news two of our investigators are trying to quit smoking.  One of them has already succeeded.  We were really hoping that he would be able to do it.  It has been several years since he started going to church, and the only thing that was holding him back from being baptized was smoking.

 

That is really all that has happened this week, besides the heat that we're having to deal with.

 

Love you all,

Elder Davidson