Halfway through the MTC

Hey Guys! 

So another week has gone by already! Its going good here. I am liking it a lot. The weeks and days go by faster and faster as time goes on! I am already halfway through the MTC. I will be leaving for the Philippines on October 16 or 17 sounds like. I cant wait its going to be so amazing. I am learning the language really well. I am loving it. 

I went to the temple today and did sealings for the first time. That was a great expirence. I love going to the temple. Nothing too exciting this week has happened really. Just  the same old same old. Go to class eat and study haha. I am making a lot of good friends though. I am growing to love all types of people. I have an elder that is from Kiributi and he is teaching me a little bit of his language too which is really cool. 

I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do after my mission lately and i dont think i want to become a radiologist. It doesnt seem like the right thing to me.  Its amazing how God helps us understand things though. Like for the past 2 and a half years i have wanted to be a Radiologist but after thinking about it a lot in here i realized thats not really something for me. so i have had that question of what the heck am i going to study and go into after my mish. and one day in class we were talking with one of our teachers and he said he studys linguisticts and it like hit me that that is what i think i want to do too. The study of  languages and cultures are soooooo interesting too me and i know thats a better route for me. But thats two years away, but still important to think about. But i think that is what i want to do. There are a lot of different kinds of things i could do with it too. 

I am missing everyone back home! Thats so sweet that keagan bought a little bike for 20 bucks! I wish i could be back messing around on it with them. But once Noland realizes that brayden is good at anything he does, he will be varsity soon enough for sure. Thats great that AJ is doing good with cheer. I miss you all and hope you are all doing great! 

Thanks for the package it was good. I will never run out of werthers now! :) 

Love you 

Elder Davis

Week 2

Hey guys! 

So this week has been great! Busy but great! Me and Elder Wayne were made the Zone Leaders for our branch so that was exciting, at first...haha. We are in charge of like 50 Elders and Sisters and we have one district that is kind of disobiedient so it can be challenging at times. Like the other night I had to hunt down these two elders that left the dorms at like 9:50 with two other sisters. So that was a huge red flag. We ended up finding them in front of the sisters dorms waiting for them to come back out with a bunch of snacks from the vending machines in there. It was an interesting expirience because they were two Tongan elders and sometimes they just don't understand that what they are doing is against the rules. So i just expressed my love for them and told them that what they had done was against the rules and don't do it again otherwise big consequenses come. And they were so cool about it and i could tell they were very sorry. 

The language is going good! I am picking it up pretty quick, but thats not to say there are not challenges. It is amazing to see how the Lord blesses you when you're obedient. Almost everyday i wake up and randomly know words in Cebuano that i barely studied the night before. Its pretty amazing. Elder Richard G. Scott came and talked to us this last tuesday. That was incredible. I have never been in the same room as an apostle before (from what i can remember). The spirit he brought with him into the room was amazing. He talked to us about prayer and the importance of it. I realized that it is such an amazing blessing that we are able to talk and communicate with the person who created everything we know in this life. We all should never take that blessing for granted. 

Everyone here at the MTC is sick or getting sick. This place is a breeding ground for sickness haha, but i have been putting moms med kit to good use and have avoided it for the most part. But i had the worst night i have had this whole time lastnight. I had like crazy growing pains on both my shoulders all night and i couldn't sleep at all. It was the craziest thing ever. I was just sitting in my bed really angry all night that i couldn't just fall asleep. Every position i tried made the pains worse. It was horrible but they finally went away earlier this morning.

I love you guys so much and miss you a ton. Its still weird to think that is only been like 2 weeks away from home cause it feels like i have been out for 2 years already haha 

Love 

Elder Davis

 

All missionaries going to Philippines Cebu Mission

Elder Davis and Elder Ray

1st Full Week

Hey Mom and Dad!

Thanks for writing me! i am doing well here in the MTC. I am liking it a lot. Its hard, but i like it. So my schedule everyday is as follows:

wake up go to breakfast.

Personal study for an hour

Companionship study for an hour

Language study for an hour

then gym then lunch

then usually like 2-3 hours of class room time

then dinner 

then 3 hours of class room time

then planning 

then bed :) my favorite! just kidding personal study is. 

But yeah thats my basic schedual for the day. Then on sundays we have a sacrament meeting and some more study time and then we have a devotional. So that reminds me..last Sunday they made an anouncment just before the devotional started that whenever a prophet or apostle enters the room, everyone stands and stays standing until they sit down and so on and so forth. So naturally everyone freaks out and is super excited thinking that an apostle is speaking that night! Yeah no it was some other dude. So then we all thought ok they must have an apostle coming on tuesday for tuesday night devotional. so we decided that we would show up an hour early to the devotional so we could get good seats, thinking it was an apostle. tons of others had the same idea. so Elder Germaine (the kid from queens creek) just started yelling Elder Johnson! Elder Johnson wait up!!!! 

and we started just making our way up to the front of the line. and so we made it to the very front of the line chasing "Elder Johnson" who was no one, just an excuse to get to the front. It was awesome. so they finally open up the doors to the place and it was like opening the doors to a concert. it was rediculous. people were just trying to get good spots for the apostle. so we finally make it into the chapel with great seats and were soooo excited to find out who it was going to be because we had heard rumors that the First Presidency was in provo earlier that day. And then the speaker was announced and it was not even an apostle it was some guy no one has ever heard of hahaha so it was very disappionting but it was still a great devotional. 

But to answer your question yes they still have the dork dot and its on your name tag for the first day, unless your smart like i am and decide youre sick of all the attention and put it on the back of your name tag like an hour after getting there haha. 

I have gone through the Provo temple twice now and its great! It is sooooo much bigger than the Denver one. But i still like the Denver one better (duhhhh). Everything is going good with the other Elders too. I am learning to work and cooperate with different kinds of people. In my letter i wrote home i know i was very annoyed at the point i was writing haha but i am figuring it out. 

I am still doing great with the language and loving it more and more everyday! its such a different language than spanish is. its funny because i am so trained with spanish that i always want to answer in spanish instead of Cebuano. But i am picking it up more and more everyday. I love walking up to different Elders and Sisters and bearing my testimony in Cebuano its way cool. I got pretty good at it, but need work with praying. 

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well at home. I miss everyone a lot now and its starting to feel real about now. I am super stoked to get out there though. The MTC is great on the spiritual side of things, but other than that its pretty much prison i have decided. The food makes you crap (editor's note: sensored for viewing guests, word changed to - create droppings) create droppings like 5 times a day. its horrible. haha but tell everyone HI and let them in on whats going on until i can figure out how to get everyone on the email list. 

So i will be emailing every Friday while in the MTC around 1 or 2. But it would be cool to hear from you guys during the week through some letters or something. and i would love love love it if you guys could send like a ginormus bag of those werthers hard candie things. they are pricey here. and whatever else you guys think i would like. Thanks! 

Thanks love you all soooooooooo much!

Elder Davis

MTC Groupie

MTC District??? (Elder Davis will have to start explaining the photo's)

MTC comp - Elder Wayne

1st Pday!

Hey guys!

How have the last couple days been for you all? Mine have been great. Its so busy here in the MTC but its really good. I can see how people get overwhelmed really quickly here in the first couple days of being here. But I think the pace will slow down a little bit once we make it past Sunday. They really throw you into things here, only like 20 minutes into being here I was in a Cebuano class and the teacher only spoke in Cebuano. It was crazy. We have also had a lot of classes about how to teach people and about what our purpose is as missionaries. Its crazy to think that I'm actually here in the MTC now and that I am not going to be seeing any of you for two years. It hasn't really hit me yet I don't think. Maybe i am just crazy or something...but they have had us so busy its hard to just sit and think about home. 

My companion is named Elder Wayne and he is from a Navajo reservation in Arizona. He is super cool and he knows a lot about the mission life because he spent so much time with the missionaries before he came here. But we get a long just fine and i learn a lot from him. He was asked last night to be our District Leader so its kinda cool to have him as a comp. Our district seems big to me. There are like 6 other Elders going to the Cebu mission and 4 Sisters. So i was surprised to find out that there were so many others going there as well. I am super excited to just get out to the Philippines already! I hope these 6 weeks go by fast. My expected departure date to Cebu is October 16th. 

I got all situated in our residency hall just fine and got unpacked fine. Today is our P-day so i will be writing on Fridays! We went to the Provo temple this morning and did a few names from Elder Waynes family and then did a session. The Provo temple is so much bigger than the Denver one. It took a little bit to find everything in the temple but it was a great session as usual. 

But everything is great here! I hope everything is going good at home too! Write as soon as possible! :) 

Elder Davis

P.S.      Can you guys get me Duane and Nikkis email? I am living with an Elder who went to school with Codie and knows of the family! Such a small world haha.

Oh yeah and the computers wont allow me to send pictures so you'll have to wait  till I am in the Philippines for pictures...But yeah everything else is great. I am meeting some really cool people and loving it.

And don't be afraid to send a box full of just junk food or anything like that... :) 

Elder Davis.

MTC

Entering the Missionary Training Center - September 3rd, 2014