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

News from Lake Mesa

So I have one request.  Don't tell me about the details yet.  It is actually pretty difficult to not think about it so I would appreciate silence on the subject until the last week, or two.  I'm glad you know when I'm coming home.   There are a lot of missionaries that we need to make room for.  This next transfer in March there should be over 30 missionaries coming into the mission.  It is an exciting time and the chances of me training again are higher than normal. 

Anyway, last Monday we had a fun activity.  We went to a baseball game.  It was between the Rockies and the Rangers.  The Rockies won 9 to 1 and there were two home-runs in our section.  Our little group got on the big screen about 4 times and we danced all over the place.  The new missionary Elder Hock held up a Book of Mormon, so we were doing lots of good work :). 

As far as teaching goes we haven't been able to make contact with our investigators.  One of them actually had to go to the ward were he lives.  It was really sad, because he was very prepared and ready to be baptized.  The cool thing is he was sent to the Lehi 2nd ward, which may sound familiar, because that was my first area.  It has been a small world for me these past few weeks.

Pretty much everyday I have seen someone that I knew from another area.  Elder Martin finds it very entertaining.

Well I guess that last news is last night we sang at a mission presidents fireside.  It went pretty well.  The choir was about 10 missionaries, and we sang "a poor wayfaring man of grief".  It isn't my favorite song, but the acapella portion sounded really good.

That's all from Mesa where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the temperature is above average.

Love,
Elder Davidson