Email - There's Nothing That My Mom Would Make Now That I Wouldn't Eat

Anyone who knew Elder Mason Tanner Davis Pre-Mission would understand 

the significance of the title to this email!!

My super organized room now 
Notice my top bunk surrounded by cardboard boxes.  Apparently I roll
around alot at night and all my pillows end up on the floor.  With this invention, 
I don't loose my pillows anymore :)

MONDAY: My companion and I were picked up at 7:00 AM to go do the laundry with the Portuguese Elders. After laundry, we went and taught Winston a lesson and his grandparents drove us to Walmart after for our weekly grocery shopping! Since my journal is almost full I had to grab another one. I didn't need to get much food at all since I have so much from the package my mom sent me! But knowing me it will probably get eaten pretty quick. We played soccer with Winston because he said he was super good. But... my little sister may have been better... but hey it was fun and he liked playing! At around 2:30 when we got home and we cleaned up and emailed till 6:00 PM. My parents are in Mexico right now so they are probably having tons of fun! I can't wait to get home and see how much that place has changed! They sent tons of super cool pics! My brother in law Riley sent me an 88 page document of hundreds of questions people could ask and the scripture to answer the question. If I can learn a lot of them, or all of them I would never be stumped on a question again! I'm going to start waking up at 5:30 everyday so I can have more study time to study things like that.

 We have another person who is getting baptized on the 30th of October so we planned his baptism. 

TUESDAY: We headed to the church to do language study with the Spanish Elders in my zone, then we had a district meeting. The district leader got a bowl of syrup and put 5 mints in it and asked one sister to blindfold the other and had her get the mints out and she had syrup all over her face! After that he said "That had nothing to do with the lesson, I just figured I needed to be more fun"! After lunch at church we did this thing called the hot seat, it's is where the missionaries who are leaving have to answer the questions we have. We only had one elder leaving. So we asked him funny questions and spiritual questions then he gave his testimony and then we all sang "God be with you till we meet again" and he got all teared up. He was my street pops which means that he was my companion for the fear buster my first day here! The fear buster is where all the new Elders find an Elder and walk down Central Newark and contact people. So that's a pretty good way to get rid of the fear! After the hot seat we had a dinner appointment and we got noodles, chicken, and beans, and as always, we got jello! Then we went back over to Winston's house and taught him a lesson then asked his dad if he would give him permission to be baptized.  To everyone's surprise, he said he would! So now we have him planned for the 23rd of October! Then my comp said he felt sick and he wanted to go home and it was 7:00 so we went home sadly. While he crashed in bed I studied The 4th missionary" which is something that will change my mission and my life if I choose to do what it says. 

WEDNESDAY: I got my comp to wake up with me at 6:00 AM so that we could study some of the questions my brother in law sent me. After that we took a beautiful drive to the mission home in Morris Plains! A lot of the trees are changing color so it was super cool! 

After we got home we had two lessons and the 2nd lesson was a dinner appointment and when we got there she handed us a box of pizza and a soda and said goodnight and closed the door.... so we went home and ate. Then we had family home evening at the church and Elder Langi sang and it was just as good as ever! 

THURSDAY: today was TAC which is what they do the last THURSDAY of every transfer. They have everyone clean their house from top to bottom so that they can be clean if they get transferred. The next person would want it clean! I wish we had more time to clean but let's just say, from the day I got here to now, the house is completely different! When I got here it was like a cave and just nasty! I'm so glad my parents raised me to be a clean person! (I think he put's this in every email - ND) When I get home I will always have a clean house! I made some new rules with my comp and President told me to be strict with them but my comp wasn't happy about the rules at all but that's alright. My family told me that Mexico was super different without me there! I'm sure it will be so much different by the next time I go! One of the lessons we had tonight was a combo (Brazilian BBQ) so I'm always happy when we get that! At that house we walked the members dog for him at a park that is right by his house and it was so beautiful!! You could see this HUGE church called the basilica or something. 

FRIDAY: We had breakfast at a members house and she gave us pretty much the same thing as last week. Cheese on bread, hard boiled egg, bologna , home made fries, hot chocolate, and juice. I was happy to have it and it was pretty good! Then Elder and Sister Gherkie came and checked our house and made sure we cleaned it and they said it was a whole new house compared to what it was last time they saw it. Then I packed for the exchange with Elder Trask so I had to ride my bike with my bag of all my stuff to the church which was kinda hard, but hey, no one said a mission would be easy! Elder Trask and I made a goal to get 5 people's numbers before the end of the night and we ended up getting 6!! One of his investigators that was golden and was gunna get baptized 2 days later said she didn't believe in the Book of Mormon or in this church anymore so we tried to help her understand but she has given up on us. So, Elder Trask was super depressed about that for the rest of the day! He helped me learn how to use time wisely so that I can get the most out of each day! He is a homie and I'm super sad that he is getting transferred out of my zone! I'll miss the kid! 

SATURDAY: Well, Elder Trask and I accidentally slept in till 7:00 somehow!!  Anyway we got ready quickly and did the same stuff we do every morning. We had some appointments and contacted. We had an appointment cancel so he took me to a Venezuelan street food place called "Munchies" and it was something that I would have never eaten before my mission but I ate it and it was pretty good and he gave it to us for free!! My parents would be so proud of me for eating it ;)

  I have eaten so many things I would have never eaten before and there's nothing that my mom would make now that I wouldn't eat! Then we went to the church and studied as we waited for my comp to come back so we could exchange. Right when we got back to Ironbound a less active introduced us to a man who we taught named Patricio. He cried a lot and seems super interested! He said he would be baptized October 30th!! Now we have 4 maybe 5 people getting baptized from the 23rd to the 30th! I hope we can get them all baptized and keep them active!!

 We had a lesson with a member and they gave me a tie since they asked me how old I was and I said it's my birthday in a couple days. So they told me it was my birthday present! I can't believe I will be 19 on October 19th!! Next weekly update you read I will be 19!! 

SUNDAY: We went to church with our new investigator named Patricio who is golden! I had to anoint the oil for a blessing in Spanish which was pretty scary, since I've never done it before. A leader had to help me haha. I've come to realize how hard members are to work with here! They are just as hard to set up appointments with as investigators are! That evening my comp wanted to call people for like 3 hours so I decided to study Spanish for like 3 hours. I decided that I am going to start writing 5 words down a day and making it a goal to use them 3 times each through the day.

 I made it to the end of my first transfer! I will probably remain with Elder Rios for another 6 weeks though. 

 So our investigator Patricio told us that he didn't have a mattress so we looked around for one and our ward mission leader told us he had one but that it wasn't an extra but it was the one that he sleeps on with his wife. He told us they could sleep on the couch till they had enough money to buy a new one! Now that's amazing!!