Email - I've Acquired a Super Good Frisbee - Side - Arm - Flick

Weekly update Feb 20th- 26th

Well it was the first day of the 3rd transfer with Elder Ruiz Casas here is Short Hills, NJ. We had a good game of Frisbee and it's like one of the best sports to me now. It's so much fun! We had lunch at one of our members house and she made us some kind of lentil soup with toast. It was pretty decent, but hey food is food. We had to drive the 30 mile drive again out to Patterson to have p day with the zone. After we got back home we had a lesson with our new investigators we met knocking doors. The father is named Danilo and his son is Fernando. Fernando is 17 with a daughter and he's is super great. We taught them the restoration of the gospel and how important it is to a family. The spirit was very strong. They easily accepted a baptismal invite for the 18th of March! They really seemed to like the message. I can't wait to see how this gospel will change their lives. 

The new missionaries got here. I think there were 12 new missionaries who came in... anyway we taught Victor Solis and talk about why we set commitments as missionaries. He told us for right now he wasn't committed to make these changes. So, sadly for now we had to drop him and told him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Missionaries will pick him up at the end of the year or something and see if he has changed. We taught our new investigators Danilo and Fernando from yesterday again! This time the wife of Fernando, also 17 was there. We gave her a quick run down about what the restoration was and then we taught them all the plan of salvation. They really seemed to like it and knew that baptisms by authority is part of the plan. The wife accepted a baptismal date for the 18th of March as well!! 

We had dinner with our bishop and right after that he came out with us to teach our new investigator Emiliano. We followed up on if he read the pamphlet we gave him and he did! He's super awesome! I love when people keep their commitments! We taught him about the restoration of the gospel and how important that is to all of us and our families. He happily accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of March!! 

We helped Bridges again, so that was a good daily work out. We found a new investigator while street contacting. That was a win! Most of our appointments juked us, so we had to do quite a bit of finding. We got dinner from the Aquinos and it was good Peruvian food. I think I'm gunna have to say Peruvian food is my favorite Spanish food! 

We had a good game of Frisbee on Saturday and I figured out how to throw a super good side arm flick... whatever you call it. I can throw it a whole football field! We met up with one of our investigators by the summit train station and taught him. He's super crazy and I don't know if he will remember a word we said after we leave, but welcome to New Jersey!! Another, one of our investigators named Gerardo took us out to get super good pizza! I think it is possibly the best pizza I have ever had. 

Emiliano, his wife, and his daughter came to church! Everything went super well and all the classes were great! It was so amazing to see them as a family in church. Just thinking about them being part of the church, made me smile all day. The dad and daughter loved singing the hymns. His daughter made 2 new friends at church and she loved it so much! The fact that they came to church made my whole week so much better. 

I love this gospel so much and I can testify that this gospel blesses families. I've seen it in so many occasions. Watching families read the scriptures and pray brings them so much happiness and so much closer. I invite you all to start or continue reading and praying as a family each day. Find time for those you love. This gospel is amazing and you will find joy in living it! En el nombre de Jesus Christo amen. 

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Elder Mason Davis (Short hills New Jersey) Joshua 1:9

Email - To Find The Best Snow, You Must Dig Down

(No pictures this week)
Well it's been another week! The time is flying! 

We had lunch at the Thomas's house because it was Sister Mondragóns 31st birthday. We cooked some Asian food since she is Filipino. It was just a normal p day nothing crazy happened. I did start reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish tho! I'm gunna read each verse twice, once in English and then again in Spanish so I can have better Spanish and understanding. 

Well as you all know it was Valentine's Day! But as you know, as missionaries we don't really celebrate holidays.  After district meeting Elder Ruiz Casas and I went to Wendy's and I ordered chicken nuggets, but when my order came, I found out they gave me a chicken sandwich that I payed wayyyyy too much for.  It was literally a big chicken nugget but I wasn't gunna go back and complain so I just ate it. We exchanged and I went to Patterson with Elder Layton from AZ. He's awesome! We will definitely be friends after the mission. We will actually be flying home together.

 So we taught this one guy and in the middle of teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, he got up and said "Oh no, my dad just got here.... you guys need to go before he gets his gun out of the car, he doesn't like missionaries at all..." So, we closed with a prayer and got out of there fast haha. Welcome to Patterson NJ. We then taught this super golden family who has received so many answers to their questions and the spirit was so strong during the lesson and I made sure to point it out so they can know what that feeling is. 

We woke up at 5 AM to play some ball at the Patterson chapel with like 8 other missionaries. It was a good time, I just played terrible but that's ok. When we exchanged back, a member of ours made us a cake for Valentine's Day (It was only one day late :). We then went over to our less active's house, Ruben and played some games with his kid and it was so funny. We also taught Gerardo through FaceTime and it went really well. He read what we asked him too and everything. He's doing great. We had dinner at bishops house and had his wife's famous apple pie. It was a delicious! 

We had a solid TAC and got the apartment all cleaned up. We ate lunch that a member gave us and it was breakfast food, so we had a nice brunch. We had a great 1 hour drive out to Patterson since my comp had to do 2 baptismal interviews for the sisters investigators. 

We had Bridges as always. After that, we went to Prestige Diner with the sisters and I got their philly cheesesteak. Personally, I was expecting it to be the greatest thing ever. Don't get me wrong it was good but not as good as I had heard. It was funny because the waiter we had must have thought we were on a date or something. Because, when he found out we spoke Spanish and they didn't he said, "Buenas Chica's".
 Nelson contacted us and told us his uncle was Mormon and in the middle of our conversation he said, "Hold on" as he walked over to a big pile of snow and dug down like he was looking for something. After a second, he grabbed a handful of snow and took a bite and threw the rest. He walked back and said, "Continue"....?? We then taught our new investigator Emiliano and he seemed to understand a lot, but just said he needs time before he wants to be baptized. 

We played Frisbee and it was tons of fun until someone on my team said, "They had it" and it bounced off their hand and hit me right in the eye... I had a nice bruise right on my eyelid and eye brow for a few days.., still do. We taught Gerardo through FaceTime and taught a few of the commandments and made sure he was set for his baptisimal date for the 12th of March. He said it's a goal.

Last day of my 4th transfer! We had a few less actives at church again and we are working to get them to the temple now! We had lunch at the Alcas and they cooked us a nice Peruvian dish so that was bomb! We had a lesson with the crazy Nelson guy and it was very interesting having to answer all the crazy questions he had about Mormons. We visited our new investigators Jorge and Cecilia and when we showed up they had a giant BBQ out back for us! Grilled salmon and burgers and all sorts of grilled veggies. It was super good food and a little awkward with them drinking but we will get them to stop hopefully. We had a member come and we were able to cover some gospel principles. We met with the Rojas and shared a video about the temple and how important it is to them as a family. They seemed to like it. We also saw our investigator Karel and Diego who we haven't been able to see for weeks from work and school but she said that she might get a schedule change in 2 weeks so we can teach her all the lessons again and she can come to church and then they can get baptized. Super awesome! We had the transfer call and Elder Ruiz Casas and I will be together for our 3rd transfer here in Short Hills! We will get work done. I love you all and remember to love your family and read the scriptures.  

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Elder Mason Davis (Short hills New Jersey) Joshua 1:9

Email - Shoveling Snow Finds Investigators

Weekly update Feb 6th- 12th, 2017

We had a great lesson with the Roja family (we found them by knocking doors) and we got to know all the kids better and got them to like us more. They said they would read the Book of Mormon each day as a family. Keep them in your prayers, 

We went to the chapel and played b ball since we decided earlier that week that on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we would do that for our morning exercise. We went to Panera breads and my comp had a meeting and we saw the funniest sign in our booth!

 Pretty disturbing at the same time... pics will follow.

 We then had zone meeting at the Caldwell chapel we learned more about being productive and obedient and it was super good. We then were taught about the history of the Book of Mormon and some deeper stuff so that was fun! We then had an exchange and Elder Locke came to my area with me and since he didn't speak Spanish I was on my own... so having to teach the lessons by myself made me realize my Spanish is better than I thought!

 While knocking doors later that night we were surprised to run into one of the men who was on date in a different house! I asked what he was doing there and he said he was with his Aunt. Because he was there, we were able to get into the Aunts house.  While we were there, I asked his Aunt, "If Jesus Christ was right here with us, and you could ask him one question, what would it be"? She said she would ask him, "Where do we go after this life?" So I told her that we have a lesson that explains exactly that and more. So she told us she wants us to come back and teach her. 

New investigator... :) 

After we exchanged back, Elder Ruiz Casa and I made cookies for our member since it was his birthday and we took them over and had a great time. We then went over to Erikas house and got to know her better. We were able to gain her trust and taught her some English. We had dinner at Bilhas house again this week and she had a non member there so we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ and she told us she would come to church from now on, 

We woke up and it snowed about 8 inches overnight so we went out and did lots of shoveling! In total we were offered 115 dollars! One lady wouldn't let us clean her driveway unless we took the money she was offering.  We told her we wanted to do it for free so she got mad and told us to leave.... idk man! We also got a new investigator from shoveling. She wants to learn more about us and it was a great time. Good workout for the day.

 I made a nice snow angle so that was fun ;) sadly no pics of that.. 

We served at Bridges again and did the same old, same old but as always, it was super fun. I love service so much! During weekly planning we had a candle burning and we ended up cooking Mexican candy over it haha.

We had a nice lesson with Melania about family history and baptisms because we are getting ready for her to go to the temple.

 We had dinner at a members house and they served a vegetable casserole.  It was nasty because the rice the member put in was still rock hard. 

We woke up and played frisbee in about 4 inches of snow so that was sooo much fun. I played super well. We had breakfast at Maria Sagals house and we ended up making the breakfast again... we were supposed to have a super full day but because everyone here is getting sick, like all of our appointments got canceled... so we did some finding on Facebook. That's something the President has been pushing. So, we were adding hundreds of people on Facebook and talking to anyone who added us and it's been going well. I love sharing the gospel even if they aren't interested. I'm doing my part. 

The first half of the day was just freezing rain so everything had a layer of ice on it. We had two less actives at church so that was an accomplishment. I met a guy who knew my moms family in the English ward! We had dinner at the Farmers and he served his mission here in Jersey before.

 One of our investigators invited us to his church so we went and it was so crazy! It was literally just a concert... super loud and people just being crazy haha! Next time I email you I will know what the results of transfers are! We find out next Sunday! I love you all and remember to read your scriptures, pray with your families daily and teach them the gospel!! 

Elder Mason Davis (Short hills New Jersey) Joshua 1:9

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - Fruit Ninja and Shiny Nails

Weekly update January 30th- February 5th. 

While we were grocery shopping we got some dráno since our bathroom sink would take like 25 min to drain. We got back and I got it all fixed and now it's drains like a champ! We went bowling as a zone and I got the highest score of the day;) it was 135. We then had dinner with the Oaks and it was nice to have white people food again! After that we had a solid lesson with one of our new investigators named Steven. We put him on baptismal date and the spirit was strong. He just had a struggle with the fact about baptism since he said he was already baptized. 

Morning personal study was great. It just made me realize how close the last days must be! We are living in a world exactly what the prophets of old warned us about. We had to drive all the way out to Patterson for district meeting and afterword we had interviews with President. It all went good and it snowed about 1 or 2 inches! After lunch the people who baptized got to do "fruit ninja" so the people who got baptisms got to pick out a fruit to slice and the zone leaders brought that fruit they chose and a sword! It was funny watching them slice the fruit and get covered in juice lol.

 We had an appointment with Victor Castello who is progressing! He read from the B of M and everything! Only problem is, he  works on Sundays... but after that, the day just went to poop... we stopped by Stevens house since he said he wanted to talk. (He was the guy we taught the day before). When we got there, he pretty much said he doesn't want to hear any more about the church. He watched a bunch of anti Mormon YouTube videos and thinks we are crazy now. He didn't want to let us explain. So another one bites the dust.... pretty much all the people we met and talked to that night rejected us and the message. Nobody wanted to listen. It was a tough night.

So I decided I'm going to be better and start doing language study daily so I can keep improving my Spanish.

 After lunch we got a text from an English investigator who said he needed help moving... we got there and all he had us do was de-junk the apartment... it was so nasty. We then had dinner at Bilhas house and it was good food. Later, we talked to Miguel, a guy who is always in her house too and he seems interested. The next day we had a solid lesson with our new investigators named Shirley and Minor! 

We helped at bridges again and did the same moving boxes and bags as normal and they hooked me up with some toothpaste and a bag of snacks! That evening we taught our Portuguese investigator and we had the Portuguese Elders come with us to help us out. Sadly she lives what we do and our message but she isn't interested in making any changes in her life... 

We woke up and went to frisbee and the weather was 19 degrees with a windchill of 9 and it wasn't too bad. We all had a great time. We had burgers at an English members house which were super good! I've only had burgers like 3 times on my mission and they were all from English families! We went to visit our less active and afterward I dared Elder Ruiz Casa to get his nails painted clear and he said if he did then I had to... so I said yes... haha 10 min later we both had shiny clear nails haha idk if I'm happy to say that... mission memories I guess;). 

We had a pretty successful day at church. We had 3 less actives and an investigator at church!! Nidia has been to church for 3 weeks in a row and Camila has been for 2 weeks in a row! After church we had a mini noche de hogar and had tons of food and shared spiritual messages. Great time with the 30 people in the branch. We taught our new investigator named Gerardo at the Bernals house. We taught him about the plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon. It helped having the members to help explain his questions. Member work baby. We went to Nidias house and met a 17 year old boy who came to America when he was 15 all by himself! Man that must have been hard. He said life is tough sometimes. I know the gospel could bring joy into his life. That's why I want to teach him. 

I know this gospel blesses lives and helps people know that they aren't alone and makes people happy! Share the gospel with all those around you!! I love you all!! 

(Below are a couple random pictures I've attached that Elder Davis sent with this weeks email.  I am sure he can explain later.... :0)

mason.davis@myldsmail.net