Email - Priesthood Power Is Amazing!

Weekly update for august 14th-20th

2nd week here in Passaic! Loving every minute of it! Elder Diewald is the GOAT 

(greatest of all time).

My area here in Passaic

We have laundry right across the street so we just throw in laundry and come back home, eat breakfast and then go throw in it the dryer before getting ready for the day. So, by like 8:30 AM we are done with laundry! 

I finally got to eat at the missions famous restaurant called Noches De Colombia. For my first meal there, I got some empenadas and a pan de bono which is like cooked cheese bread. It was great!

We finished teaching Wyatt and got his baptismal interview and he passed. :) We just had to get his parents permission.  As we went over to get his moms permission she seemed ok with it until her new boyfriend came over and started arguing and didn't want him to get baptized. He was not nice at all. Wyatt was pretty upset. At the end, the mom agreed that we should teach him for 3 more weeks and if she feels that he has changed then she will let him be baptized. So pray for Wyatt. 

So, here in Passaic the ward is split between two groups of missionaries. Well we didn't get too lucky because we only have like 10 percent of the members. 

Elevator full of Elders

I've only had 2 member meals while I've been here in Passaic. Both were this week. We don't have very many members in our area.

Fried Plantains

I've been praying for opportunities to use my priesthood more lately and in the past two weeks we have been able to give 4 blessings! I love being able to have the priesthood. 

One night at like 8:15 PM we didn't have much to do so Elder Diewald felt like we should go visit a less active. We walked over there and knocked the door and no answer. I then felt we should stay in the apartment and knock some more doors so we did and two doors later we met Rosa. She let us in and we shared a mormon message and she began to cry. She told us that her father had died recently and she was looking at a picture of him when we knocked. I told her that I know that the Holy Ghost had guided us to her house. While we were reading some scriptures I felt the prompting to ask her if she wanted a blessing of comfort and explained what it was and she happily said yes! So I gave her a blessing of comfort and the spirit was so strong. She began to cry again and invited us back for the week after.

So ever since I got super sick from that mosquito bite and got that rash. My skin has not been the same. It's been really dry and bumpy and my hands and feet are peeling really bad. It is getting better tho, don't worry mom. My comp being the amazing person he is, scratches my back for a couple min each night since my back itches so bad. 

My terribly sad peeling hands

We had service at the food bank again and loaded up on food as well! I love it there. Most of our appointments after the food bank juked us, so we were able to go help the other elders with more service. 

 We helped some members who just moved in unload their U haul and that was some good work. I LOVE service!! They bought us some pizza after we finished and it was some great pizza. 

So we have a new investigator Beatrice who we just taught the restoration. She really liked the message and was excited to read the Book of Mormon and she accepted a baptismal invite! Keep her in your prayers. I love working with the Spanish people.

Orly came to church and this week was an all around great week. There's no such thing as a bad week on the mission. Yes, there are hard times but you know what they say, if your mission was easy, you didn't do it right! So what can I say? I love the mission so much and it scares me to think how fast it's going. Keep reading and praying and have a great week! ❤️❤️

Elder Mason Davis (Passaic New Jersey) Joshua 1:9

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - New Area, New Companion, Love Passaic, NJ!

Weekly update August 7th-13th

Well it's been my first week here in Passaic, New Jersey and let me tell you, this place is amazing (for missionary work, not to live)! It's nearly all Spanish and full of these great people. My new comp is Elder Diewald from Loveland, Colorado. He's is great. We get along really well! I've been blessed with great companions so far.

 (Going back earlier in the week)

Last p-day was my last in Bayonne. We picked up Elder Muir, Trask, Kim, and Stinger. We all went to the Union City Chapel, we played some ball and it was a great time! I'm so glad I was feeling good enough to do that. We ended the day with my last appointment with Carmen Ayerdis and she gave us some great food.  When we got home, we packed for the next day when I would head on over to Passaic!! 

Tuesday morning one of my best friends Dokken and his dad Sal Alcantar came and visited me. They took my comp and I out to breakfast. It was great to be able to talk to them and chat for a little bit about old times.

Then it was time to transfer to our new areas. We headed over to Short Hills and transferred! We welcomed the new missionaries and I met my new comp Elder Diewald.

 We got a ride over to my new area in Passaic. Such an awesome area! Almost completely Spanish people and it was great to come into a clean house. Usually the houses I get moved to are dirty and I have to clean them. I unloaded all my stuff and we spent the rest of the day out on the streets talking to people and trying to set up some appointments. Great first day! We put someone on date as well. We should baptize 2 people this transfer.... well that's what we have decided.

We had district meeting and I'm not district leader any more. But, my companion is.  The chapel we meet at is in Soldier Hills. Beautiful place over there. Also Elder Ruiz Casas is in my district. I was comps with him for 3 transfers and it was a great time. Nice to see him again.

 Also something crazy happened.... so ever since I got sick last week I had a rash all over my body but that finally went away but my skin feels super rough and it's so gross and I hate it! It better go away! (Sorry if that was TMI) :-)

So my comp and I started a fun game in this area. We have a game that whenever we see change on the ground we pick it up and see who can collect the most throughout the day. Whoever has the least, has to make dinner when we get home at 9:00! Haha I won every single night except for 1! ;) I still ended up helping make dinner because I love making food.

My companion Elder Diewald

Sunset in Passaic - Elder Diewald

Elder Mason Davis

 We also taught Wyatt who is on date to be baptized next week. If we can get his mom to allow him. So, we will keep her in our prayers that she will let him! We find out this Wednesday. He's an awesome 16 year old kid who is a boxer. I also had my first Mexican corn with chille (elote) and let me tell you, nacho libre is soooooo lucky to eat those all the time because they are totally worth the 2 dollars I paid on the street. Get one if you ever get the chance! 

My comp had a training he had to go to, so I had to be on a companion exchange for the first part of the day. I got a brand new missionary who had only been here for 2 days. Since his comp had to go the meeting, it was like I was training for half a day!  We got out and talked to people on the streets for hours and I was helping teach him how to contact people and even some Spanish words.  Because he was new to the field, I also taught him how to have the courage to stop people... he was pretty shy and scared to talk to people at first but by the end he was finally able to stop people and talk to them. We ended up setting up 8 appointments during that couple hours. We taught a Dominican girl who wasn't interested in our message because she had heard tons of bad rumors about us but by the end of the lesson we answered all of her questions and testified that our message was true and would change her life. Now she is a new investigator and wants us back. Score!! 

So we did service at this food bank and we spent a couple hours organizing food and setting up food cases. At the end one of the supervisors said to take lots of food. We got to go shopping for free. We loaded up on food and she made us keep taking food. Idk what we will even need to buy on p day other than eggs and milk. We seriously get everything from here. Looks like I'll get to eat from all these little shops around here. So we are teaching a nice lady named Orly and she has been coming to church for a long time.  She knows pretty much everything and she said she would be baptized soon. She just needs to find out more info about a surgery that she will soon have and we will do it based on that. So hopefully it will be soon. 

The only thing that is a bad thing about this area, is a lot of people are willing to set up appointments but when we go over, no one is home. But we will find the prepared!

 We also are in a ward. It just became a ward like 1 month ago. We still don't have a chapel but it is a decently sized church. I heard through the grape vines that we are planning on building a chapel here! Not while I'm out but someday. 

Well this email is already super long, but it was a great week and hopefully you guys got filled in with the stuff you wanted to know! If not ask me whatever else you want to know. The mission is great and time flies! I love you all and keep reading and praying daily! If you aren't, make it a habit and you will see so many daily blessings. I love you all! ️

Elder Mason Davis (Passaic New Jersey) Joshua 1:9

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - I got West Nile Fever and Boy Was I Sick

Weekly update for July 31st- august 7th 

Well last week I told you I would have a better weekly email with more interesting stories.... well I'm sorry to tell you that I've been sick since last Saturday until right now (I'm almost better) therefore I have been in bed for 7 days.  Needless to say, nothing crazy happened. I'll do my best to entertain you tho. 

Last p day we went shopping and while we had our laundry drying I went and got a nice hair cut from El Catratcho. It's pretty short but that's alright. I was pretty sick most of the day and my comp had to go to New York for an appointment, so I stayed in the Union City chapel with some other Elders. After we got home I went to bed feeling sick. 

Tuesday I woke up and felt like trash and ended up puking. So, I was officially sick. I was supposed to have district meeting but since I was sick I decided that I would call up a different Elder and send him my training and have him do district meeting for me.  He was more than happy to do it. The mission nurse was telling me that she wanted me to go to the doctor to get checked up. Also I had a super bad case of thrush... so she wanted me to get that check out too.  We took a nice long drive over to Elizabeth and went to the doctors which took a few hours. They had no idea what was wrong with me because I had all sorts of things wrong with me. One of them being I had a bad rash all over my whole body... to say the least, the past week was pretty miserable... so they just ended up taking my blood and said they would get the results back to me by this weekend. 

After we got home and I spent the rest of the day in bed with the chills and no desire to eat or drink food. (That lasted the whole week and I lost 7 pounds) 

Wednesday through Saturday was pretty much the same thing. I kept trying to be a missionary, but my body would not let me. I stayed in bed and tried to sleep and not itch myself to death. Also as of right now on MONDAY @ 8:57 AM I still do not have my blood results back. I have been told that they think that I have West Nile Fever. 😖😷😴 

Last night was transfer calls.  So, here's the movement.... I will be going to Passaic East with Elder Diewald from Colorado (that's all I know about him right now) my time here in Bayonne has come to an end. I will be going with the Dominicans and Mexicans over in Passaic! I'm sad to leave the many amazing people I have met here but excited to see what will come! I'm sure it will be amazing and tons of fun.  

I'm sure next week will be full of a lot more exciting stuff.  Talk to you next week. 

Elder Mason Tanner Davis

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - My Sad Weekly Email

Weekly email for July 24th- 31st

We played a hard core game of monopoly with the other Jersey City Elders and it got kinda intense. Good ol Monopoly never fails!! 

We got juked like 80 percent of the week so that was awesome! :/ 

Nothing crazy happened this week except I hit my 1 year mark! So the mission will start to speed up from her on out.

We got fed a lot!

 I gave my first baptismal interview so that was one for the books.

 Overall it was a great week.

 Unlike this letter... next week I'll put more interesting stories in it so you have a desire to read it... 

Love you all! Read the Book of Mormon every day this week!

Love Elder Mason Tanner Davis

mason.davis@mayldsmail.net