Email - I Sewed My Own Tie (Hilarious)

Weekly update for may 1st-7th 

Weekly bullet points:

I put a little more effort into this weeks email so I hope you like it! 

Road Kill

Weekly bullet points:

🐟I got 3 new trout lures since they were like 50 cents. So I was able to catch one decent little trout today in the Passaic River! It was flowing like crazy and super nasty water but that doesn't stop me from hookin up ;) 

Some guy I've been talking to through Facebook finally found time to meet up with us! He is looking for a church and wants to learn more about ours. We will see where this goes. Hopefully it ends well.

We had an appointment with our solid investigator Victor Castello. We taught him a bunch and he loved the message. We had a member there to help us bear testimony and get to know people in the ward.  He seems super solid and I believe that he might be able to be baptized this Sunday if everything goes exactly as planned.

 So, pray for him please. I also hope it will happen next Sunday because it may possibly be my last Sunday here in Short Hills. That would be a great note to leave on.

We had an appointment with one of our new investigators Carlos Vera and he seems like he might have potential. He said he just wants to receive an answer about the Book of Mormon first.

At Bridges we got Victor a suit, shirt, shoes, tie and belt to make him look all fancy at church. But, when we told him that we bought it for him, he didn't look super excited. He said he isn't quite ready to start getting dressed up like that... oh well. It's the thought that counts ;) 

So in Jersey if someone doesn't want something they just put it out  in their front yard. That being said, we were out knocking doors and we saw this super old, gross floral couch and chair. My companion and I both knew what we had to do with it. We decided we were going to make matching ties out of it! So, we went to the car and looked for anything to cut off the material we would need. The only thing we could find to cut it with, was a tape dispenser.  It had the little metal part that cuts the tape.  We made it work.  We were laughing so hard at the whole situation. Two young men sitting outside cutting up a old couch with a tale dispenser #missionarylife 

We went to Walmart today and bought 4 different fabrics to make ties out of. I'll send a sneak peak pic of what the fabrics are and hopefully we will have a few more ties by next week;) 

We went to West Orange and spent a few hours visiting people we had out there. Only a few answered the door.

 We also met a couple new people and got a few return appointments. I love the mission!

So the whole mission has a goal of 52 baptisms for the month of May.  For this whole month we have commited to be as obedient as we can to do all we should to receive these blessings. The month of May is now consecration month. Now we will be even better and even more obedient with everything. Let's see what this New Jersey, Morristown mission can do! #NJMM 

I'm so excited that next Sunday is Mother's Day!!!! I'll get to talk to my family for a whole hour and see their faces live via skype! It's better than Christmas. Think about it, next time I write a weekly email I will have already talked to my family. Wowza! Also next Sunday we find out about transfers!  I may be leaving Short Hills to begin teaching people in some other part of New Jersey!! Send me your guesses on where I'll be going or if you think I'll stay! The winner will be announced next Monday :). The prize is knowing that you were right and you may brag to the others.

I want you all to know that I love you all so much and I'm the "man" who I am today because of the example of all my family and friends. Time flies on the mission and there is no place I'd rather be right now! I love waking up every day at 6:30 AM (jokes). But I really do love being able to start the first couple hours of my day planning for the rest of the day and studying and pondering the scriptures. It brings me so much peace and comfort. I have learned so much about the gospel.  It has strengthened my testimony so much. It makes me love the people so much more and desire that they may all have the joy that the gospel brings me. I invite you all to start each day with reading at least 1 page from the Book of Mormon and praying! I promise it will make your day so much better. If you don't believe me then try it. I love you all and I will talk to you next week! :) ❤️

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

Email - Edible Crickets.......Gross

Weekly update for April 24th- 30th

Weekly bullet points:

➠I ate crickets again during Spanish study. The Mexicans in our zone brought them.  FYI...they were just as gross as last time I tried them.

➠My MTC comp elder Taylor and I went on an exchange. He came to my area. We had a day full of work and trying to find people to teach. For a snack before dinner I showed him a secret cereal trick my comp showed me. We melted peanut butter and poured some of it onto the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So good!! 

➠We made a box into a super cool thing that projects the plan of salvation onto the roof when it's dark. Hopefully we will be able to use it soon. 

➠As many of you probably know, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer... it was a very scary call to receive. I was super scared and shaken up so I went to my room and knelt down and prayed. I instantly felt peace and comfort and knew that everything would be alright. I'm so glad to be able to have the Holy Ghost to comfort me! 

(It would mean a lot if you could keep my momma in your prayers each night :) 

➠New Jersey is getting so beautiful! The trees are all turning green and all the trees are covered in flowers of all different colors. This earth is amazing! 

➠We found a cool new investigator that we have taught 1 time. My comp got some funny pics of her as I was teaching her how to pray.  He couldn't stop laughing at these pics! 

➠We did quite a bit of street contacting and tried to find new people for a lot of the time! 

➠We had a good game of Frisbee and my ankle is a little sore from playing soccer every day at 6 in the morning. I'm not good at it but maybe by the time I get home I will be! 

➠Our investigator Victor Castello came to church! This is his 3rd week in a row. The only thing that is holding him back from baptism is a testimony of the Book of Mormon. So,could you add that to the list of things in your prayers? I know this gospel will change his life for the better.

I love you all and the mission is going great. I hit my 9 month mark already. That's so crazy! Best 9 months of my life and I've got like 15 more. Even though not many people want to listen or do what we ask, I've seen so many blessings with both me and my family from doing what the Lord wants me to do. 

I invite you all to make whatever sacrifices it takes to read the scriptures for at least 5 minutes a day, pray each morning and night on your knees, and try to go to the temple at least every other week.

 As a representative of Jesus Christ I can promise you that if you do these things, you will feel the love of God stronger in your life and you will see so many more blessings. God is waiting to pour down blessings upon us. I hope you all have a great week. Love you all! 

❤️

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

Extra pic of Elder Miller and I

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - I Found A Tick On My Leg!

Weekly update for April 10th- 16th 

(My new comp Elder Miller)

Weekly Bullet Points:

I caught my first fish here in New Jersey! A whopper of a whole 

9 (ish) inches. A nice rainbow trout. 

We had a beautiful zone conference and learned so many 

things as always! 

We found 10 new investigators. 7 of them came to church. We now have a total of 9 people on baptismal date. It was just a great week FULL of blessings and miracles....

1. Doors that I've knocked 5 times were opened.

 2. People who hadn't come to church, came.

 **We will continue to see so much success**

I finally beat my comp in a Rubik's cube race!! I'm down to 2 min now! ;) 

I'm sorry this weekly was super lame but I promise my week wasn't! I received so many blessing that I've been writing in my journal! I still haven't missed a day writing in my journal ;) 

The mission is so great! It's crazy to think of how fast it's going!

(Random pics)

Also while we were fishing I found a tick on my leg! So hopefully I don't get limes disease! They say over 65 percent of them here carry it. But I don't think it ever bit me... guess we will find out.

Love you all!!

Elder Mason Tanner Davis

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - Referrals From Members Are Great!

Weekly update for April 3rd- 9th

Weekly Bullet Points:

⤑We had transfer calls and I am staying in short hills for the 4th transfer and elder miller will be leaving west New York for the first time in 7 1/2 months to come here and be my companion! 

⤑For my last p day with elder Ruiz casas we went to the zoo and it was pretty lame but oh 🐋.

⤑I got my fishing license! Now I can go fishing! I actually went fishing today but didn't have any luck... I guess this is why nobody likes fishing here in New Jersey. 

⤑I met some guy on the street while we were walking to the river and she saw my tackle box with 1 pack of hooks, 1 bag of weights, and 2 lures and he felt bad and he hooked me up with a bunch of his lures. Cool guy! 

⤑We found a new family of 4 who we are teaching and they are also super interested in English class! I really hope things go well with them! Keep them in your prayers! Work is tough here in Short Hills! 

⤑We got 10 referrals from members! Now we need to teach them.  Don't worry, we got this. 👌 

⤑We put a guy named Mario Mexica on date! We are excited to work with him and see how things go! 

⤑This was a great week and I sadly don't have very many pics at all so please don't hate me... I love you all and stay gorgeous! 

Elder Mason Davis

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - TRANSFERS!!

Weekly update for March 27th- April 2nd 

Weekly bullet points

➽We played March Madness with zones 1-4 and it was tons of fun!

➽We played bingo with a less active and won all 3 times ;) 

➽Went on an exchange with Elder Sudweeks and Elder Shaw in Patterson and ended the day with a milkshake at Baskin Robbins.

  

➽We finished visiting everyone in our area book who had an address and found lots of new people in the process :)

➽We had a super busy day with 6 appointments in a row! 3 of them were meal appointments.

➽Went on an exchange with Elder Silva in Caldwell and he goes home in like 1 day! We spent a lot of the time knocking doors in the pouring rain :-)

➽We went to the zoo today for p day and it was tons of fun. 

Half of the animals at the zoo, I've either hunted or seen... haha They even had a crow exhibit! Like what in the world?! 

➽Well now for the news you have all been waiting for! Transfers!! Well..... I'm staying in Short Hills for my 4th transfer! So, by the end of this transfer I'll have been here for 6 months!

➽ My beloved companion elder Ruiz -Casas, who I have spent every minute of the past 4 1/2 months with will be leaving me to go to Union City! I'm gunna miss that guy a lot!

➽ My new companions will be Elder Miller. We came in together and we were even in the same MTC district. We will be doing lots of fishing when he gets here ;) I have faith that we will baptize this transfer and break the 10 month dry streak here in Short Hills. I'm super excited to see what comes from this next transfer.

➽I hope you all were able to watch General Conference! I loved so many quotes and stories from there and I could go on and on for hours! I testify that what they said is so true and as we listen to their teachings and act on them, we will be guided and helped in so many ways! 

💗I love this gospel and how I'm able to preach it every day. I am doing my part and will blessed for it! I love you all and can't wait to tell you about my new comp next week! 

mason.davis@myldsmail.net

Email - The Miracle Story of My Whole Mission (Who knows it could have been an angel)!

weekly update for march 20th-26th

Bullet points for this week:

➤I hit my 8 month mark in the mission!! Time flies 
when you work for the lord ;) 

➤I bought a fishing pole. Now I can go fishing again!

 Nobody likes fishing in Jersey tho... 

➤I went on an exchange to an apartment where both of the missionaries go home in 2 weeks... it was the dirties house I've ever been in and I felt disgusting haha. 
(Here's a pic of the potatoes I found in their house)!

➤We spent lots of time knocking doors and looking for new people to teach and we found quite a few new investigators!! Short Hills is waking up again!! 

➤My good old friends/neighbors, Sal and Ange Alcantar came here and took me and my comp out to lunch.

  ➤The Alcantar's had also brought some treats from home and hand delivered some of my favorite goodies sent from heaven (my mom)  

P.S. Mom I've been eating them every day and they are delicious;) 

➤We helped a member clean up her backyard and she took us out to get some Colombian food after! 

➤Now it's time for the miracle story of my whole mission 
So, during the middle of the week we were visiting people and knocking doors. We see an old Hispanic lady walking down the road so we contact her and tell her what we do as missionaries. She was very happy to meet us and told us she had recently gotten here from Guatemala. She told us her name was Maria and she gave us her address and told us to stop by on Sunday. So Sunday came along and we brought a member with us and we went to the house to find Maria. We knocked on the door and a younger lady answered the door and we introduced ourselves and asked if Maria was home. She then looked at us and said, "I'm Maria". We were so confused so we asked if her mom lived here or if there was any other Maria's but she said she was the only one... We were then invited into the home of 3 individuals living there and started with a typical first discussion. We taught about the Book of Mormon and read the intro with them and they loved it! They accepted a baptismal date for Easter!! We were so confused as to who that really old lady we met on the road was and said her name was Maria and sent us to that house to find 3 people who were ready to accept the gospel. One being Maria. I believe that this person was placed in our path for a reason and who knows, it could have been an angel who was sent to tell us we needed to find this girl Maria and teach her. 
Miracles are real and the Lord is in the details. It strengthened my testimony so much and I'm so excited to continue to teach them and see what comes from it! I love you all so much and I hope you have an awesome week. Stay strong!

 My missionay companion Elder Ruiz-Casas

Elder Mason Davis  

mason.davis@myldsmail.net 

Email - I'm Like 53% Sure He Will Be An Apostle Some Day

Weekly update for march 13th-19th

Well here we are again! Another día de preparación! Hope you guys enjoyed your heat while I was in a blizzard :-)

Bullet points for this week:

*We spent tons of time helping brother Thomas pack since he is moving to Montana! He is one of the coolest guys ever and I'm like 53% sure that he will be an apostle some day! 

*We had a flippin blizzard!The first one in my mission! They forecasted 18-24 inches of snow but I think we only got about 12 inches. Yeah I was bummed we didn't get like 6 feet.

*So we loaded up Brother Thomas' giant u haul for like 6 hours and he drove it home during the blizzard. It was weird seeing noone on the road. The saddest part was, when we got home, we opened the back and everything we packed like sardines turned into an avalanche in the back. 

*We spent lots of time knocking doors and finding more people to teach! Found quite a few potentials! :-) 

*We taught English class to a super cool guy who is being taught by the Caldwell missionaries. The only thing that keeps him from baptism is working on Sundays, but his day will come! 

*We drove out to Patterson, NJ and had our zone meeting.  It was super awesome!

Elder Marz and I at Zone Conference

* I also got a package from the best chica ever! My Momma. It was full of all sorts of goodies to help me get fat and much more. I have the best mom in the whole world! (PS Mom, I'm wearing the basketball clothes you sent me right now) 

*I went on an exchange with Elder Trash for the 4th time my mission! We had a lesson with a super golden family and had an awesome dinner! I also found a Dominican who's car was stuck in the snow and we got him out and  I shared a quick message and he accepted to have the Patterson Spanish missionaries come over! #whammy 

*I found a few more people to teach through Facebook! Having an I pad to find people and share the gospel is an awesome blessing! It's so easy! Try it out.

*We were knocking doors and found a Jamaican guy who let us in and after talking with him I saw a Book of Mormon and an Ensign on his desk. We found out his daughter is a member, Haha it was so funny because I think he has short term memory loss or something because he told us the same stories like 5 times and asked the same question. Haha #welcometojersey 

Well I love you all so much. I challenge you all to share a Mormon message with someone this week who you feel could use it! Some awesome videos to use are Mountains to Climb and Because of Him... tell me how it goes. That's missionary work. That's what Heavenly Father wants us all to do for our whole life. It will bring you so much joy I promise. Well have a great week lovely people. Until next week :) 

A couple other random shots from this week: 

Sunset

New fishing pole and license :)

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

mason.davis@myldsmail.net