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

Email - Half Way Point!

Weekly update for July 17th-23rd

Well I'm sad to say that I'm officially more than half way done with my mission! On July 26th I'll hit my 1 year mark but I come home next July 11th. So on July 19th I was officially 50% of the way done. Super sad to think that I only get 1 more year. Time flies on the mission. It's just going faster and faster. 

Well now on to my weekly points. 

I had another district meeting and I'm really starting to feel comfortable with giving them and asking good questions to make sure my district learns. I like it a lot! :) 

After district meeting I was told I had a ton of packages and letters so I was super excited! My family sent me a few things to celebrate 1 year and a ton of letters! My mom called it my "Fisher of Men" package. I got tons of food, a fishing shirt, fishing hat, new cologne and jandals.

  I'm so thankful for the family and friends I have! I LOVE you all!! ❤️❤️

My new jandals in one of my packages

My comp - Yep, he's eating mayo. 😝

I had an exchange with Elder Stinger and he was in the Navy for 4 years before he came on the mission. I believe he was 26 years old. We had a pretty good day but got juked a lot! 

We have a new investigator named Cindy and she is super solid.  She read from the Book of Mormon a ton and read up to chapter 12 in 3 days. She really likes it. She doesn't speak much English so that's chill. Hopefully she will progress and come to church next Sunday.

Again we spent many hours contacting and looking hard for the prepared!! We got juked by so many appointments, It's sad when people seem so interested and you never get to see them again because they don't answer the door or phone.

A member pulled out some of the guns he had and it was super cool to see guns for the first time in a year. We talked about guns and my life before the mission.

I'm so thankful for the mission and all that it has done for me. I've grown in so many ways. Both spiritually and physically. I left at 140 pounds and now I'm 170. (A lot of it is muscle, I always say that I'm getting fat but to be honest I needed a lot of the weight that I gained and I've gotten a lot stronger and bigger with muscles! ;)

 I definitely have gotten more facial hair too, so I don't know if that's bad or good.  

I've learned so much about the Book of Mormon that I would have never learned in any other place or time! I am truly so thankful for the Book of Mormon and all those who made huge sacrifices so that we could have it today. I know so much more about the gospel that has changed my life. I know the reason for a lot of the commandments we have and how forgiving and merciful Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are to us! I've learned how to really pray and listen to the spirit. I'm still continually learning these things every day and this past year has changed eternity for me. I'm so thankful for this opportunity I've been given! I can honestly say I have no idea where I'd be without the amazing and supportive family I have. My parents did everything they could to make sure I was doing what I should. All my amazing friends I had growing up also had a big part n my life. I loved this last year so much and can't wait to see what this next year will bring. I love you all so much. Thank you for all you kind words and support. 

New Jersey Morristown Mission for life!! NJMM4life 

Random pics

Elder Mason Davis

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - Missionaries Went Missing So I Became A Detective

Weekly update for July 10th-16th

I hope you guys aren't cooking too bad back in AZ right now. You guys sent me some of the heat. It's pretty warm here too. 

Weekly bullet points:

So last p day, we woke up and soon after, the zone leaders called us and told me to drive over to Jersey City and check on the Jersey City Elders because no body had heard from them in like 20 hours. So we drove out there and went into their apartment and to our surprise nobody was there! I was a little shocked and got a little nervous for them. So we turned into detectives looking for any clue. We went into the bathroom and turns out the shower was completely dry! So that means they hadn't showered that morning. Then I saw that one of their beds was completely stripped... if your really smart you would know what's going down right now. So we called the zone leaders and told them what we found and we all decided that they must be doing laundry. So we spent the next hour walking to the closest laundry mats. Turns out they had just lost their phone and were doing laundry.  So they didn't die and everything ended well.

I went on an exchange with the new missionary Elder Kim and apparently like 30 percent of Koreans have the last name Kim... fun fact for ya. I was his first exchange ever so I made sure he would have a great time and learn a lot! We worked our bums off! It was a little weird because all the lessons we had were in Spanish and he doesn't speak that haha so I would just teach the whole time by myself. We also got fed 3 times. That's not super uncommon, but that's probably why I've gained 25 pounds in my mission... we brought a member to a lesson with us and she shared powerful testimony and we put the 4 adults that were there on date. They are super awesome! Next step, church. 

We had 27 people in English class this week which was super awesome! We brought a whole family who were members and at the end we shared a 3 minute video about the plan of salvation. At the end, the father and mother got up and bore their testimony about how this church and this gospel changes lives and families for the better. It was super awesome.  Member missionary work creates miracles.

We did lots of contacting and it rained a lot so a good majority of the time we were riding our bikes in the pouring rain. #missionarylife

We went to a big park right by our house and about 75% of the people that were there only spoke Arabic. Lots of Egyptians live here. So, since we teach all people not just the Spanish ones, we have been contacting those who speak English or Spanish.  We also met an awesome guy from Iraq and talked about what we do and how it could bless his life, he was so excited and said we were an answer to his prayers and he wanted us to come back to his house.  We told him we would bring him a Book of Mormon in Arabic. I'm super excited to see where this goes. His name is Hashim if you guys want to keep him in your prayers! 

Well I put a few long stories so I don't want to take up too much of your time and bore you too death so I'm gunna end it there. I love you all and I hope you guys have a great week. Keep working hard, keep your standards high, and know that you have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over you each and every day! Say your prayers. Until we talk again. 

Elder Mason Davis 

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - Watched Fireworks from NYC, Bayonne and Staten Island On The Tallest Building We Could Find

Weekly updates for 2 weeks June 26th- July 10th 

To begin with, I just want to say I'm so sorry for not getting a weekly email out. Since most people don't read my weekly emails, it probably won't matter, but to those few people who might read it, I'm sorry! So now to make up to you, you get 2 weeks at the same time! ;) 

(Side note from Natalie: 1/2 way point is tricky for a lot of missionaries. It feels like you have been gone forever and you still have forever to go.  Mason and I, as well as all the kids sent Elder Davis a little Amazon "pick me up" and handwritten letters.  I'm sure he would love an email or note from all his other friends and family too.)

Weekly bullet points:

We had a super spiritual lesson with some of our investigators Carol and Alex. We were reading from the Book of Mormon and the husband said that he felt so peaceful when we were reading from the Book and he wanted to read more and find out more.

After district meeting we stayed in Union City with the zone leaders and had an exchange with them. I was with Elder Dove. Union city is nearly all Spanish people so it was awesome! I love going there and I hope I serve there during my mission. 

At the zone leaders house they had tons of workout stuff so I was super excited to use it. Before the mission all I could bench was 135 lbs... yes I know that's terrible but now I made up for it because I benched 175 lbs this week! That's the same as my current weight haha. I really like working out it's just hard to do it right when we wake up at 6 am. 

There was a day that we had every hour of the day planned with a lesson... but 6 of them juked or canceled... so only 4 happened. At least 4 is a lot better than nothing.

We are still teaching Brian, Alba, and Rafael. They have such a strong desire and believe that it is all true. Alba said when she read Joseph smiths testimony, she knew it was true!. So now we are still working with the original problem... they both work on Sundays... 

I have faith that will change in the near future.

We helped do home teaching quite a bit over these past two weeks so that was a change. We also spent a lot of time knocking doors and street contacting. Before my mission I always thought it was a lie that people would actually close the door in your face. But I've come to realize that it's far from a lie and about 80 out of 100 people will open the door, look at you, and close the door before you get to say one word. Maybe it's my smile that scares them away... it's doesn't make me mad or upset when we get rejected but it makes me sad.  I'm not sad for myself but sad for the person who didn't get to hear our message that would have changed their life. They have no idea what they are turning away.

We got fed quite a few times during the week. I really like Spanish food. Many of you might think that I get lots of quesadillas, tacos, or burritos but in reality I've had like 1 quesadilla, a couple tacos, and never had a burrito on the mission. People don't eat that stuff here. What we do eat is beans for nearly every meal and some kind of queso fresco with all Mexican meals. I love the food! 

So last Monday wasn't actually a p day because the zone decided to move it to the next day so we could have p day on the 4th of July.

 So my comp and I found out some big news. We got a car! Some other elders lost their driving privileges so we got their car! It's a 2013 Subaru Legacy. It's pretty beat up but hey it's much better than biking in this weather.

So for p day, we got together as a zone out in Jersey City at a nice park. So as you can imagine, I had to check google maps to see if there was a place to fish, and there was a pond! So I found someone who wanted to go with me fishing and I went fishing! I caught 1 white bass and a carp ;) it was super fun, but hot! Everyone got super sun burned.

For the 4th of July we went and got some junk food and got to the top of the tallest building we could find with a great view of Staten Island, Bayonne, and Manhattan. It was so amazing. We saw fireworks coming from like 10 different places. It was such a great night. First time staying out "late" in a whole year! Our curfew was 11:00 that night. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Our branch president had a birthday party for his wife and there were tons of people there and it was great. We got to meet a lot of new people. Hopefully we see things come from it. 

I am sorry that this didn't include all of the cool stuff that happened but I didn't want to make this letter too long! I love you all and remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Mason Davis

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - Worst Food I've Ever Smelled!

Weekly update for June 19th- 25th 

Hola mis Amigos! Cómo están? Let me know how your week is going. I'd love to hear from you all. 

Weekly bullet points! 

 - Elder Decker went over to Plainfield with a new comp and I had Elder Kelly come over to me from Plainfield. He is from New Mexico and we were in the MTC together. Now the only person from my MTC group that I haven't been with is Elder Marz. Hopefully he will be with me soon.  Also my trainer Elder Rios is in the area really close to mine so we are in the same zone. 

Elder Evan Marz, President Taggert, Elder Mason Davis

- While contacting we met tons of cool people and knocked a lot of doors and met some cool people who set up return appointments with us Hopefully we should get lots of new people to teach now! 

- I had to give my first training in district meeting so that was super scary! I didn't realize how much more responsibilities being district leader would bring. Haha I'm sure I will learn so many more skills while doing this.  I'm sure it will even help me become a better teacher! 

- We got fed plenty of times through the week and it's not helping me with my attempt to get more muscle. I will just have to work out really hard the last 6 months of my mission so I can come home not looking fat.  Ok, so I'm not fat, I'm just used to being super skinny, so now that I look normal I feel like I'm fat.  But in reality I'm just normal sized now... just getting that out there... :) 

- We taught English class and it went well! After English class one of the student came up to us and asked if he could take a video of us explaining what we do and about the English class. So, we did. And he then put it on Facebook and it has like 6,000 views! He is a super cool guy and we are going to start working with him more. I've got a good feeling about him.

- We helped one of our members paint a room and I'd say we did a pretty great job. Not going to lie, doing manual labor and service type stuff is so much easier and relaxing than missionary work. It's so much less stressful. Haha i do love missionary work so much tho. I wish I could wear this tag forever!! :) 

 - Some lady was cooking a fish and to describe the smell I want you to close you're eyes (after you read this) and imagine walking into a fish market (those already stink to begin with right?) So now take all that fish in those freezers, unplug all the freezers, wait 1 week in the middle of the summer, and that's how this fish smelled while she was cooking it! She didn't make us eat it because we had just eaten another pile of food before that.  But, my comp being the lovely man he is, decided to try it. When we walked out I asked him if it was good. He said it taste just like it smelled.  EWWW! 

- I had to go to a new leadership meeting in Morristown and it was super long. I did learn a lot tho. It was super awesome to be at one of the last meetings with President Taggart! It was the last time I would see him in person.  He will be leaving this Thursday.  He was an amazing man who led this mission so well. I can't wait to report to you all on my new mission president next week!

- So I'm not sure if I told you guys yet but at night it's super awesome here because the sky is filled with these little bugs that blink! I've never seen them before. Some people say they are called fireflies! Haha jk but it was super cool to see fireflies for the first time. They are a lot bigger than I thought they would be. 

- It was all in all a great week! I hope you guys have a great week as well.  Don't forget to read and pray daily! Be the example to those around you. I love you all! Till we meet again! ️

(I asked this guy if he knew what his shirt said, he told me he had no idea but that he had 

just bought it from the thrift store and liked the color. LOL)

 

Elder Mason Davis 

mason.davis@myldsmail.net