week 24

Family,

Well it is so good to hear about everything that it going on. I have to say that this week just flew by. Well I will start with the big news, well at least for me. Well we started sharing a car with another set of Elders and then I got a call telling me that i am the designated driver. So only i can drive the car in Tours. Also it is a stick shift. So basically i learned to drive stick this week in crazy french streets. Don't be too worried, hahah i am doing pretty good. It was cool though because while i was learning we were out in the country side to go teach a less active and we passed 5 different castles. So i can say i learned to drive stick in the Loire Valley. Well this week was a lot of less active work. Because we had the car we could finally see a lot of less actives that live to far to get to by bus. It was really good being able to see a lot of people who have not hear from anyone in the church for a long time. It was cool to see how much some really needed the church, but also hard because we see that everyone has their free agency and sometimes all we can do it try our best to help them regain their testimony. Also this week we have found a few more people to teach. We did not get to see everyone we wanted to because Elder McQuay woke up one morning when we had three rendez-vous (appointments) and had a fever so I spent half that day taking care of him. It was cool because he had a quick recovery and that afternoon we were doing service for an elderly lady. It is amazing to see how much you are blessed each day. Well I don't know how it has been for you guys, but the last few days here have been so hot. We are glad we had the car this week because it is the only time we are not dieing of heat. This week i learn a really good lesson that i think i just lost sight of. I started this week really wanting to pick up my game in the french and half way through the week i just got discouraged because i could not always say exactly what i wanted to. But after a lot of pray and scripture study i had this comfort of all i need to do is serve with all my heart, mind and strength and God will take care of the rest. It really showed me that even when we are having a hard time in life it is only for our benefit if we look to Christ and serve others. Well I love you all and can't wait to hear what other fun things you are doing this summer. Keep it up, you are all such great examples to me and so many others. Also tell my Brothers and my Friends that i would love to hear for them. Je t'aime!!!!!

Elder Davis

Week 23

Family,

To start out i have to say Happy Fathers Day, it sounded like you had a really good Fathers Day i hope that you knew that someone in France was thinking about you. I love you! It sounds like everyone has been having a really good summer. I am glad that Bryce and Paul having a lot of fun with all the activities and trips. It was cool that you were able to talk to Josh a little bit. I miss that guy, he is going to be such a good missionary. It was sad to hear about Grandpas twin, but we are so blessed to know that he is in such a better place. Mom i am praying for you. Let me know how everything goes. Ok well this week was crazy. It started out and we had Zone Conference and it was so good. Also it was the last time to see the President Staheli and his wife before the new mission president comes next month. They both bore there testimonies and gave such good advice. I was lucky to have them even if it was only for two and a half transfers. We then started a little bit a cleansing on our area. We had tons of old investigators and a lot of names and numbers and everything was a little bit of a mess. Also some investigators that me and Elder Gardner were teaching dropped us. So we went through everything made calls passed by did a lot of finding and we have almost contacted everyone. It was so good to get everything organised and we even found three people who were still interested in the church but they had just got lost in the stack of names. And i mentioned all the English students that are studying french here, well they leave this weekend and they some referrals for us of teachers, friends they made, and families they stayed with. So things a really starting to turn to pick up here. Also i had a really cool experience while on an exchange with Elder Youngblood. We went to a Rendez-vous with a new amis and when we got there she said her place was a mess because she had just moved places. So we planed to come back another day and while we were a ways a way we thought wow we should have told her we could help her move and we were feeling very bad about it, but we just felt like we should just go contacting. So while we were walking we decided to go contact next to the big Cathedral. To start off on our way there we have three really good contacts and got there numbers and then when we got to the cathedral no one was there so we were going to leave and then Elder Youngblood found a cell phone. So we spent about 20 min calling and trying to find who this phone belonged to and finally found them and they said they would come get it. Well when they got there the man was so happy to see that we found it and returned it to him. I guess it was his Birthday and he had just had a horrible day and then he saw our name tags and said "oh ya, half my family is Mormon" So then he invited us over to meet his sister. Well to make a long story short him and his sister are half American but they have lived in France since they were younger and they speak both English and french, and they invited us over this next week for a dinner and to learn more about us. It was so cool how everything worked out and see that the lord really does have his hands in all the missionary work and leads us to whoever is ready to have they Gospel. Ok well i have to talk about they castle we say today it was so cool. It is Chateau d'Ussé, Chateau de La Belle au Bois dormant" or in English the Castle of Sleeping Beauty. It is the castle that Disney used for the movie. It is by far my favorite one so far. It had caves and a little dungeon area. Also i really liked the way it looked inside. I will send some pictures. Ok well I love you all and hope that you have having an amazing summer. JE T'AIME!!!!!!!

ELDER DAVIS

week 22

Well to start off i am so excited that so many people emailed me this week it is good to see how everyone is doing. Well it sounds like a lot has been happening with the family i love to hear all about it and i am glad that you are all having such a good time. Well for me things have been really good. My new companion ELder McQuay is really good, i am excited to see all the work that we will get done. Tours is doing really good but the work slowed down a lot because there were no missionaries here for the last month but we are already seeing things pick up and have a lot of good things in the work with the branch here. It was funny because the week started of with me and Elder McQuay coming down from Paris and when we got here we got to the apartment and he had dropped one of his bags (with his passport in in) and i could not find my planner and all the paper work for our area was a mess and We could not find some papers. SO right a way we just started laughing and said well we get all the bad luck away at the start we should have a good rest of the transfer hahahah. Well as the week went on we found everything and someone turned in his bag and nothing was missing. Oh and We finally got a hold of a less active family with two daughters that have not been baptised and they were really nice and said that they want to start seeing the Missionaries and feel the need to go back to church so we were really excited about that. Church this week was really cool because we got on the bus to head to church and a big group of college students is broken french started to talk to us then they switched to English and they were all from Utah on a study abroad. It was really cool to have them at church and after church we had a branch lunch and they were all working really hard to speak french with the members. I do have to say i felt very blessed because they are all here studying french and have taken a lot of classes on it and i was able to see how much i have learned and how i have been blessed in learning the language. Well other exciting things from the week is that a crazy man started to yell at us because he thought we were the CIA and when we told him who we were he was all like i know that is just a cover. It was funny because he was so convinced that we were and we could not change his mind. Also i had the best baguette from this little boulangerie we found. We started another Purification, were we make a list of small things that we want to get better on or that we want to stop doing to have the spirit more in our work and we have a 40 day fast. We just started and it is going to be hard because i have set some big goals but i am excited to see how much it changes me and the work in Tours. OK last thing i almost forgot one of the foreign exchange students is not a member and she came to church. During the second hour we were able to teach her with some of her friends that are members and the spirit was so strong and even though she heads back to Australia in about a week i hope that the missionaries find her there or she looks them up because i think she really felt the spirit. Ok well i love you all and want to say i love hearing about all your lives it is so cool to see how much this Gospel blesses all of you. When i read all you emails it really is amazing to see how blessed we all are. Je t'aime!

Oh a PS i forgot to say if i have a vote i am so for you buying a house on a lake with a boat and not to far from the beach hahaha Love You

Elder Davis

Change really is just a day away!

Week 21

Hey everyone,

It Sounds like it was a really eventful week. I can't believe Kylee is married WOW. Well congrates to her and i hope that she had an amazing Wedding. Hey Bryce and Paul i want to hear about EFY and Campout so send me an email or letter please. Also it is so cool that you were able to see so many Friends and Family while you were up in Utah. Oh my companion Elder Coleman said that he loves South Corolina and it is one of his favorite places to visit. This week was really exciting. Elder Wood, Elder Coleman and I have been having a lot of fun together because we all get along so well and it has also help us get a lot of work done between the two Cities. We had a little set back this week becasue we have two couples that were going to get baptised but we found out that both of them are not married so they are working on getting married and then they can be baptized. The end of the week it started to rain randomly and the last two nights it has been random storms. So we were out and got soaked right before a rendezvous so we showed us all wet and cold. But as a missionary every weather is good weather. I also found my favorite pastry this week. It is called a fruitier and it has strawberries and kiwi on top of it and i think it was just a vanilla filling, it was just really good. We got the calls for next transfer. I get to stay in tour for a third transfer so that is exciting (i kind of already knew because my comp went to the office to be Secretary but it was still really exciting). My new comps name is Elder McQuay. He comes down to Tours on Wed. Also we is going to be the new district leader for our district. Elder Wood is heading up to Compiegne with one of the Elder that i was in the MTC with and Elder Colman is staying in Blois. Well it is going to be fun heading back to Tours we have only been able to do a little bit of work there because of driving back and forth so we are going to have to work hard to get things running again. We had to clean both the apartments for Transfer cleaning this week so it was a long day cleaning the whole Tours apartment then driving to Blois and cleaning that whole apartment. One of the highlights of out week was when we went contacting for three hours and did not seem to have any luck, so as we were heading back to the apartment (kind of down on ourselves and tired) some one sitting on a bench in centre ville (in English) said hey Elders and we turned and it was two college students from Georgia. To make a long story short they were there learning French and they had met Missionaries in the states and were really excited to see us because he said he "loves the smiling faces the he always sees on latter day saints." And he wanted to know how we catch on to languages so face. Then as we were walking away he ran after us because he wanted a Book of Mormon in French (Le Livre de Mormon) so he could read it and practice his french. It was just cool to see that it does not matter where in the world someone is, but when they are ready for the Gospel God will lead you to them. Some other random this from the week. We clarified that our church does not build huge golden thrones in out temple for Christ. We went to help a member for service and every five min this older man would come reshow us how to do the job we were doing. We showed a french family how to make burritos and they were having a lot of trouble trying to eat them (i guess it is a talent to eat a burrito with out it breaking open and getting food everywhere). Last we had a really cool experience where one of the less active's non member husband had a bunch of questions and we were able to teach him the Second lesson. Well i Love you all and hope that you are continuing to be the great examples that i know you are. Je t'aime and remember to continue praying and reading your Scriptures. Attached is the pasrty i was talking about

Elder Davis