Email - I Am Always Scared When I Get Fed

Well I'm done with week 3 and on to week 4!! I feel like the days are slow but the weeks fly by!  We ride bikes a lot! My bike should be in the trash can but hey it's better than nothing. My area is supposed to be a walking mission so I can't complain. And I didn't really hear from anyone about how they liked the style I wrote last time so I guess I'll just keep doing that! Let me know how I can make it better and ask me any questions you want! 

MONDAY: Well today was P Day! September 19th so exactly one month before my birthday! As always I got to email and as always I felt like I forgot to mention things but I couldn't really think of anything big... we went shopping and I loaded up on food as usual! There are 2 sodas that I have quite often here that are from Brazil. The first one is guaraná and it's super good so I got one of those and the more common one is Inca kola. It is pretty good, it kinda taste like bubble gum but it's yellow... we get it from a cool Brazilian market here! There are tons of fish in the market and it stinks but it was cool to see all the fish! Iv'e attached pictures! Anyway, I got home and put all the food away and started emailing, but it was nice because when someone emails me I just write my response in my notes so on Monday I just copy and paste all the responses. It goes super quick. After that we went to the church and played basketball and dodgeball again! That evening we had a super good lesson with a less active who said they will come to church again! After that we had family home evening at a nonmember/members house. Usually it's just the member and the nonmember but when we showed up there were 14 people! Most were members but it was super cool! After that we all had food and they had corn that each kernel was the size of a grape! It wasn't the best but it was edible! I am always scared when I get fed! 

TUESDAY: Started off the day and did language study at the church with all the Spanish missionary's in my zone. After that we had a district meeting for like an hour and a half... it was good except I'm not a huge fan of meetings! After the meeting everyone goes to the kitchen and eats the lunch that we all brought. I made chicken and corn and brought some chips and some cookies from the MTC. After lunch Elder Langi and Elder Quintero exchanged so elder Langi stayed in our apartment and he has one of the best voices I have ever heard! I told him to try out for American Idol when he gets home! When we got back to the apartment my companion and I started calling people trying to set up appointments. We then went to the park to contact and then had to leave because we had English class that we were leading... it made me feel so much better about my Spanish listening to the people here try and say easy words in English! We do English class every Tuesday and Thursday and usually have a couple people show up. After class we had a crazy member tell us to come talk to him outside... and for a certain reason we aren't allowed to have him teach with us or come to the lessons... so he was super mad about that and was yelling and getting super mad that we don't let him teach with us. So he told us to come talk to bishop with him and bishop told him he isn't allowed and that made him super mad so he walked out of the room after arguing more... I was surprised how much of the conversation I understood! 

WEDNESDAY: Elder Langi was still at our house so I made him a nice breakfast since I would want someone to do that for me if I was on an exchange! Then we went to that super long meeting again in East Brunswick! It's a little over an hour drive. We usually only have this long meeting once a transfer but they never did it last transfer so they did 2 for this 1... I learned a lot and will try to use the things I learned! We had Costco pizza and cookies for lunch which was bomb! When we got home we went straight to a meeting with Carlos. He lives in Harrison so it was like a 20 min bike ride. After that meeting we told this guy Jose we would give him food on Wednesday so we just gave him the food that a member gave us the day before! Then we went to family home evening with him and it was great! After the meeting I was told I had a couple packages... I didn't think I was getting packages till the 4th of October. But they picked some of them up early! In one of the packages my mom sent she included stuff from my sister Lacey. Lacey had sent me some goodies and when she asked what I wanted a couple weeks ago I said anything! So she got me pork rinds and wrote "you said you wanted anything!" I died laughing when I saw that! 

THURSDAY: Today I finally got to do all the studying that we are supposed to do! In my package I also got a pack of 4 books. "True to the faith, Jesus the Christ, our heritage, and our search for happiness". So I am reading our search for happiness first and so far it's been super good! After that we had weekly planning and got the next week planned. We then went to a members house for lunch. For lunch it was a piece of meat with noodles covered in this spinach sauce... it looked so nasty so I prayed I could eat it and like it and keep it down! So I ate the WHOLE thing and it wasn't too bad! It's crazy how much food people put on your plate here! If you finish quick they make you eat more so I've learned to eat slower! We then rode our bikes to the church because someone said that they wanted to meet us there... we rode 4 miles over then and when we got there she texted us and said she wasn't coming anymore... oh well it was good exercise! On the way home we taught a nice Nigerian lady a good lesson on the Book of Mormon and so we asked for her number and address so we could set up another appointment and talk more. She said she couldn't give them to us.... she did say she would go to church his Sunday so that's pretty neat! 

FRIDAY: normal morning routine. Then off to a meeting with a lady. My comp told me we should walk since she was super close so I was like ok let's go! We got there 20 min later... then we came to find out that she was already a member but needed lots of family help... she also wanted her son to be raised in this church which is super cool! He needs so be baptized asap! We talked to her for like an hour and a half and then we stopped at Seabras on the was home because my comp wanted to get this Colombian soda... I decided to get one to because he said it was so good! Well, it's not good. We came home and did some contacting on Facebook and I found someone who wants to meet with the missionary's! After that we had a little meeting on the way to the church. I told my comp I wanted to switch bikes on the way to the church so I could try the better bike and after a while he finally let me ride it! After he rode for a little the chain broke... I was telling him how to fix it since he had never fixed a chain! Then a member rode by and taught him and completely fixed the problem that the bike was having! Now the bike is like new!! It rides like normal! After that we came home and passed out a couple Books of Mormon. And as we were headed home we helped an old lady carry her groceries home.

SATURDAY: Had breakfast and showered like usual then we left because we had a meeting with the district and it was alright. I'm still learning Spanish so it's hard to understand everything! After the meeting a crazy member said he wanted to talk to us immediately. So we followed him and said keep an eye on john then he walked away... kinda weird but I'm used to weird things even though I've only been here 3 weeks... sad news we haven't seen Isidoro in over a week and either have any of his friends at the park... we don't know where he is but we had to drop his baptism. Well anyway we came home and we had a meeting with a member but she never answered her door or phone when we got there so we left... she called us like 30 min later and said where are you?! We told her we came by earlier and no one answered. She didn't believe us and said she is going to talk to bishop about this. After we got home from church we tried calling and setting up appointments. We had a little luck and found a new investigator! Also while we were there we saw a kid, I say kid but he was like 15 and he got "stuck" in a tree and he had the fire department come and get him out of the tree so that was a sight to see! The firemen were making jokes about him! For dinner we went to a members house and it was like a Brazilian BBQ and they gave me 2 giant plates of food... I think I have gained like 15 pounds... I talked a lot of Spanish with them about hunting, fishing, Mexico, and my family! I felt like my Spanish was pretty good! After the lesson I traded the tie I was wearing with one of the members ties and he gave me another one for free! Then on the way home I was riding my bike and a car was waiting to turn and there was tons of traffic so I was going in front of it because there was no time for it to go. Right before I went past it, the car must have thought it had enough room to go so it went and I was sure it would hit me but I past it and it had to be inches from hitting me! That was for sure a blessing!! 

SUNDAY: Not gunna lie, it's getting harder to write in my journal every night but it's a goal of mine to do a page per day! So we had church today and we had 4 of our investigators come which was super cool! In the month of October we have 4 baptisms planned! I hope they all happen! After church we had ward council and it was just a regular meeting. But after we didn't have a ride for like 1 hour... I hate not having a car but I also like it because I feel like a real missionary when I'm walking or riding a bike haha. So we came home and had lunch then went to the park and contacted and found a Book of Mormon on the ground that we handed out 2 days before so that was pretty depressing... it got rained on and everything. Anyway at 4:30 we went to a members house for dinner/1 year olds b day party... we brought 2 investigators and there was lots of food and it was a BBQ. I miss my dads grilled meat! Nothing will ever beat his grilling! I haven't had good fish in 2 months! After we came back and talked to more people at the park but no new investigators...

Well So many people here think I'm in my mid 20's... am I balding or something!?! I'm scared I'm gunna come home bald... if I'm balding I better get married fast! The days are slow but the week flew by! I can't believe it's been 2 months since I left home! It feels like a year ago but at the same time it feels fast... the mission has been great! Heavenly Father has really helped me through these first couple weeks and during hard days! He is always there to help us all when we ask for his help and I can promise that! It isn't on our time though and that can be hard. But he is there and WILL help you! So keep working and endure to the end! Work hard everyday and come closer to Christ and our Father in Heaven each day! Take time each day to read the scriptures and kneel down each night and thank him for your blessings and ask for help with whatever you could use help with! Pray with your family each night! Families are one of the most important things in the gospel of Jesus Christ! I just want to let you guys know that families need to be the center of our lives and as we love each other and help each other our lives will be so much better! I love you all so much and continue to endure to the end and keep your standards higher and LIVE the gospel of Jesus Christ daily!  <3 

Email: An Unconscious Guy, A Posum and Brazilian BBQ

Side Note from Dad's weekly email: "Well, this boy is growing! I am taller now (I don't know how much) and I've put on 15 more pounds. 

Out in front of my apartment

The City Streets

Weekly update:

Well this is my second week here in Ironbound New Jersey!! This week went by much faster than the first week! So I was thinking of just doing a paragraph for each day or a couple sentences so email me if you liked this email better when I go in chronological order! I'll write it like it's a journal or something... let me know if u like it!

MONDAY: Today was my first P Day!! I did the same thing I do every morning. Woke up at 6:30 and prayed. Then I get up and shower and then make breakfast! This week most of my breakfasts were eggs and hash browns mixed together! It's actually bomb! And then I have a bowl of cereal and after that I have some blueberry egos. Then at 8 I started personal study (the first 7 hours of the day are usually the same except p day and Sunday) then at like 8:30 we left to do our laundry. It was my first time doing laundry at a laundry mat... it's a lot more expensive than I thought! As the clothes washed we did comp study. After the clothes were dry we headed off to Walmart to buy groceries! (The best part of the week) I got a ton of food for the week and I also got a little George Forman grill which has been a life saver! I use that thing twice a day! Making chicken and stuff:). After Walmart we went home and emailed for like 30 min then we decided to go to the church and play some volleyball and basketball. We played till like 5:30 and then we went home. We went out contacting and set up two appointments which was pretty good! Most people we talk to don't even smile or say hi back but that's alright! That evening I saw a huge group of people so we went over and in the middle was a guy unconscious and then the cops showed up and a couple min later he woke up but didn't remember his name or what day it was or where he was... pretty crazy stuff so we left.

TUESDAY: Today I was on an exchange with Elder Trask and he was a Korean speaking elder for the first 7 months of his mission which is super cool because my dad went to Korea on his mission! He has been and English elder for the past 4 months! They don't even have the Korean speaking mission here in jersey anymore... They got rid of it right when I got here! He was super cool and I leaned a lot from him! We had tons of appointments which is different from the Spanish elders... Elder Trask said almost everyone they talk to will set up an appointment with them! We have to talk to people all day long to set up 1 appointment! Anyway it was a good day and I got to do it in English but I kinda missed the people in my area and missed speaking Spanish! Also his area we walked and rode busses everywhere! My area is supposed to be a walking area but we were given bikes by a member! 

WEDNESDAY: I was still on the exchange today and we were serving in north newark which has some pretty nice places and has some really ghetto and hood areas! We had to go to a meeting pretty early that day and it was just over an hour drive! We had to go to East Brunswick for the meeting. We left like and hour and a half before the meeting started and it was only 1 hour and 5 min drive so we planned on being early.... except we took like 3 wrong turns and ended up on toll roads and had to pay like 10 dollars in tolls... long story short we were like 15 minutes late! Which is super scary because the presidents moto is "15 minutes early is on time, being on time is late, and being late is unacceptable" any way the meeting was like 7 hours and I learned a lot but I hate meetings! Sister Taggart did make us super good BBQ sandwiches for lunch though! We had a long drive home and I needed to go back and pack up to go back to my area... it was raining super hard when we got to his house so by the time we got to the front door we were already soaked and they took forever to unlock the door! They also had NO food at their apartment which sucked! So that evening I went back home and we started street contacting and as we were headed home I saw something walk across the road. I thought it was just a cat but then It came out from under a car and it was a possum! The first one I have seen!

THURSDAY: I woke up and got ready for the day like usual and had breakfast. From 8-9 we do personal study and I have just been reading the Book of Mormon which is super good! I am almost done with 1st nephi! Then from 9-10 we do companion study then from 10-11 we do "12 week" it's what the trainers do with us and help us learn what we need to know during the first 12 weeks on a mission. Then from 11-12 we do language study which is usually on my own... I'm trying to get my comp to help me more but I'm sure he will help me more soon! Then from 12-1 we have lunch. This is pretty much how the first have of the day goes everyday! After lunch we went to the church to help with the English class. We teach people English and it's a really good way to have people become investigators! After that we contacted and that night we had an appointment with investigators who made us something pretty weird... she got egg whites and whipped it up and put it on an Icecream cone for us... and some weird oatmeal water stuff... it wasn't terrible but definitely wasn't good! 

FRIDAY: The days are going by much quicker than last week! We started the day with studies and then we went to a service project but we got there and it was supposed to be yesterday... so we came back home and I grilled some chicken and made some corn! I love cooking here on the mission! We knocked a lot of doors today! But we never really have luck knocking doors because nobody has their own door, it's a door to like 5 different houses so they can't hear it. They do have door bells but idk if they work often because very few people actually came to the door! We got hungry so we went to Elm Street BBQ! It was super good Portuguese food! It was a Brazilian BBQ! If any of you don't know what that is well it's a choice of meat, a pile of fries, and an even bigger pile of rice... it was so good! After that we went to the park and some Jehovah witnesses talked to us for a while. We just talked about the Bible and stuff. They were super surprised on how many things we had in common and they were even more surprised that we were nice to them and didn't want to argue! We went home a little early so I decided to clean my room where we study because when I got there it was so dirty and disorganized so I spent like an hour getting it all organized and it was worth it for sure! I hate being dirty and unorganized! I got that from my parents which I'm super grateful for!   

SATURDAY: today was a pretty eventful day! I started the day as usual and then we had a meeting at the church. When we got there, there was a crazy member that said "follow me" and we told him we had to go somewhere and we were about to be late but he replied and said "do you guys want to go home?! If not then follow me, this is much more important than whatever you are about to do!" So he showed us a little bit of graffiti on the top floor that said some things... anyway he told us who he thinks it was and then we walked in late to our meeting... after the meeting we rode our bikes home from the church which is like 3 miles from home. As we rode home we went through the park and we talked to someone and taught him a lesson and put him on date to be baptized! After that we had lunch and started knocking doors. Not much success with doors as usual! But we kept at it! We then went to contact at the park but nobody was interested in hearing more about the gospel. As we were riding around a man stopped us at the park and asked us if we could help him find his lost grandson so we started looking. The mom and sister were screaming and crying and were going crazy! After a while of looking the police showed up with the boy so there was a good ending to that story! Later that evening we talked to a lady who said she wanted to hear more about the religion so we sat down and started talking. She told us so many things about her life... she was really struggling with the word of wisdom so we taught her a lot about that and about repentance. She really enjoyed the talk and wanted to know more so we invited her to church and she said she would come!! (This whole time we were talking to her she kept flirting with me so that was pretty awkward) she said she wanted to be baptized so  we put her on date as well! After that we were going home and then two people started fighting so we watched for a second and then left and went home. 

SUNDAY: well I started the day as usual then we went to church. We had like 5 investigators who said they would come to church but only 2 of them came but 2 less actives also came so that was pretty neat! We were sad when we didn't see Isidoro show up but it was probably because his phone...    also when I was at church a member gave me a cool ring so that was nice!After church we got home and had lunch then went out to the park and started contacting as always! We hoped we would see Isidoro there but we never saw him... we talked to a couple people who kinda seemed interested but we only set up one appointment. I swear every single person here is Catholic! We were at the park talking to people until it got dark and set up 1 more appointment and handed out lots of cards with a picture of Jesus and our number! I also found out that they found 5 bombs like 5 min from my house! That was pretty crazy! 

Well that was my week! I feel like its way too long but just let me know what you think and if I should keep doing it like this. I love this gospel and all the blessings it provides! I know that this church is true and there is so many people here that need to know about the church! I love listening to EFY and church music! The Book of Mormon is awesome and I invite you all to read it or continue to read it! There is so much help that can come from that book! Remember who you are and don't forget to pray often, love everyone, work hard, and never forgot who you are a son or daughter of! Keep your standards high and don't let anyone let you lower them! I love you all! <3

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - "Sleep over", Foreman grill, cousins and laundry mats

Arrival to New Jersey and First P Day Letter ( conglomeration of 2 letters included in this post)

Well the last couple of days in the MTC were awesome!! Second to last night we had like 15 people move their mattresses into the main room and we had a huge sleep over I guess you could say. Also like 2 nights before that Elder Marz and I got 2 dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, soda, chocolate milk and a bunch of candy that was for a "party" from you and dad and Elder Marz parents too. We had so much, we told all the people in our house to get all the food and snacks they had left and to bring them into the main room! We had a huge feast and idk how but we ate it all! Soon I will get pics from one of the elders who got pictures! To be honest I kinda miss the MTC! Everything was handed to us there and we had set schedules. 

Here in the field it is much different! It was tough the first couple days because the house I moved into was dirty and disorganized.  So today we spent a while getting everything clean.  Also the apartment I live in is above a bunch of stinky garbage so that was a little bit of an adjustment. But I have it easy here compared to many other missionaries! I am beyond grateful for you and dad and your example.  P.S. Tell dad I also miss having a lawn.  Almost no one has one here.  We have 4 people now with baptism dates and my trainer said that is super good! My trainer is from Peru!!! So my Spanish should come really quick! We work hard all day long and we talk to tons of people in Spanish! I thought I would have a car but I'm in a walking area... Luckily a member donated this area bikes! I'm so blessed to have bikes!

The food here has been pretty good but I'm picky so I've had a couple meals I've had to work a little harder to keep down... Some people are willing to listen to us but there are also a lot who don't want to talk to us... 

There is so many people here who drive really nice cars! BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, and many other nice cars! The buildings here in some areas are super old which is pretty cool! We have a new investigator named Isidoro and he is the perfect example of someone who was made ready for us by the lord.

(Second letter)

HI MOMMA! I love you and miss you! The first couple days were really hard. I've never felt so far from home! Everything here is so different! The people here are not as nice as at home but at least some people want to listen to us which makes all the rejections worth it! We actually have 4 people on baptism dates! I'm pretty sure I got all my packages! Thank you so much for the surprise box! It honestly got me through this week! I haven't gotten the huge box you are talking about tho with my winter coat, winter boots, etc. I noticed I have taken family for granted. I am beyond grateful for all of you!! I work with people every day who haven't had a family most of their life! I miss every person individually in our family! My screen saver on my I pad is of Henlee ;). Mesa is an amazing place to live especially where we live! I haven't even had 1 person say "hi elders!" And I was thinking I would get it a lot but I'm not even worried about it! Oh yeah today we went to Wal-Mart and I got all the food that I will need and toilet paper and detergent. I had an amazing idea to buy a George Forman grill thing so I got one for like 18 bucks! It works amazing and I am making food like I would at home! I got myself some Tony's seasoning also!

Yeah it was super crazy to see my relatives here. They actually live down the same street as me.  I'm glad Taylor and David live close in case I need anything! This is the picture David took of Taylor and I when we literally bumped into each other on Thursday night at the ward building.  I attend the Spanish ward and she meets in the same building for the English speaking branch.

So many people here are Catholic! So me and my companion were on our way home and passed a big Catholic Church and we decided to go in. It was huge!! There was like 12 people in there. My companion handed out some pictures of Jesus which was fun. We didn't do anything to start an uproar tho, cause I respect all religions.

I got to do laundry in a laundry mat today! That was pretty different. It's like $2.50 per load which is quite a lot! And they don't even provide detergent... Luckily the other companionship we live with had some. They are Portuguese missionaries.

I'm super excited to get those pictures Taylor has! And about the chickens, I always loved hatching the chickens! That brings back so many memories!  I think about the family everyday and it's hard but I think of how I will be able to help other families receive the joy I have and come unto Christ. This mission will be and has been the hardest thing I have done in my life but I need to keep my head high.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - New Jersey Has Bearded Women

Finally Arrived In New Jersey!!

Hey momma! So I made it to New Jersey. The flight was kinda long but I talked to a couple people I sat by and gave out a few Book of Mormons and Mormon.org cards.  It was super fun cause when we got here we walked the streets and we placed a couple more Book of Mormons and restoration pamphlets. I only have like two min. I don't know when I will actually be able to email but they just said to email your parents and say you made it. On my next p day I will tell you what I did the first week. The culture here is crazy! Lady's with beards and tons of different nationalities! I am excited to give you a full update. This was just to tell you I am alive and at the Mission Presidents house. Dinner was the best dinner I have had in six weeks! I love you and I will write you when I can next week. Excited cause I get my comp tomorrow!