I'm staying in Hamilton Mill, but will be getting a new companion. Also, exciting news, we will have another companionship in our tiny apartment (so much for my personal bathroom). Probably Spanish missionaries, so I may be switched to bike, I cross my fingers (and pray) that that doesn't happen in this area, where everyone lives about 10-15 miles away.
I finally had my first run in with a good ole Southern Baptist. I won't go into to too much detail, but it was quite an experience. We tried to answer his question best we could and tried to transition to teaching and testifying, but he wouldn't allow us to read from the Book of Mormon and went off as soon as we were inviting the spirit in to touch his heart. What's even funnier is that his Methodist friend, who we were actually dropping by to see (he's a Less Active member who was baptized but doesn't really have a testimony, his father is active but his wife is Methodist... maybe someday) was defending us when the Baptist guy told us we weren't praying to his God and that we were "bearing false witness." Well, maybe someday we'll go back, we'll see.
C.S.S.O.T.W.
And the award for the Crazy Southerner of the Week goes to: My black friend who works at Subway. I was on Spanish exchange with my DL Elder Brewer (who I love!) and we were with a Less Active member, we went into Subway and bought a cookie, the lady working there told me that she had been Mormon once. I enquired where she was a member, she told me the Peachtree Corner Ward (that's where my trainer, Elder Amesimeku is right now) but she was like " Yeah, I quit that, I can't believe in no 'Book of Mormon' or Latter-Day Prophets" Well, I had a decision: should enquire why she ever became a Mormon if she doesn't believe in the most foundational and distinctive points of our doctrine? Or should I let her off easy, ask her which church she goes to now and take my cookie and say goodbye.... Because I'm a good boy and KNEW she was crazy I thanked her for my cookie, asked the most popular get to know you question and returned to our table.
Crazy subway lady is rivaled only by a Spanish branch member (in fact, the one who was with us at Subway) who called me the next day and said he needed to talk about some of his "issues" I told I was busy and that I would call him back later. I'm not sure which team he swings for, but he's a nice guy, he's actually a Spanish radio announcer... so if Real is ever looking, he's actually very good. He also speaks Italian and Japanese... maybe that's why he's so crazy, he's got like 4 schizophrenic voices all trying to speak in their own language.
Well, I'm really excited to stay in this ward, I'm starting to make some great bonds... not quite where I was in Lilburn, but with more families. This ward treats us great! I have a personal chiropractor, doctor and a dry cleaner (for half off), I also have a Opthomologist... who knows what kind of stuff I may be taken care off with.
I love you like I love the scriptures: I just can't get enough!
Love,
Elder Taylor Davies
Monday, August 31, 2009
August 24, 2009
I don't know what I have done, but I seem to be attracting some Georgian Belles. This week doesn't have just one new girlfriend, but several. First there's a few little 3 year olds who keep trying to flirt with me from their pew but the real one is a little six year old, who follows Elder Hunsaker and I around after church, the only escape we had was into the Men's bathroom, and even then she waited outside for us... a little creepy. But we shake it all off and get back to missionary work.
This week we did a lot of service. Wednesday was our designated random acts of service for the members day. We went and washed a car, swept a garage and pulled some ivy ( my experience was invaluable). We even had two investigators at church, we didn't bring either of them, they came with their families. One of them a little 10 year old boy named N*****, we taught after church. His mom and brother and sister are all members but he is not. He's accepted to be baptized on September 5th or 12th, depending on whichever weekend he's not with his dad. I'm not sure how solid the family's commitment to the church is, and he's really only being baptized cuz his mom wants him to but she's giving him the choice and he says he wants to. I just hope he actually gains his own commitment and testimony. But you can't just deny someone being baptized because you don't think they'll stay in the church, if they want to be baptized and are worthy then you of course let them. Anyway, I hope it will all turn out for the best.
Well, I'm sorry I'm so short on time. I love you all and can't wait to hear from ya'll next week.
Love,
Elder Taylor Davies
P.S. I've yet to have any real good Georgian Peaches, did you know that South Carolina grows more peaches than Georgia... I feel jipped.
This week we did a lot of service. Wednesday was our designated random acts of service for the members day. We went and washed a car, swept a garage and pulled some ivy ( my experience was invaluable). We even had two investigators at church, we didn't bring either of them, they came with their families. One of them a little 10 year old boy named N*****, we taught after church. His mom and brother and sister are all members but he is not. He's accepted to be baptized on September 5th or 12th, depending on whichever weekend he's not with his dad. I'm not sure how solid the family's commitment to the church is, and he's really only being baptized cuz his mom wants him to but she's giving him the choice and he says he wants to. I just hope he actually gains his own commitment and testimony. But you can't just deny someone being baptized because you don't think they'll stay in the church, if they want to be baptized and are worthy then you of course let them. Anyway, I hope it will all turn out for the best.
Well, I'm sorry I'm so short on time. I love you all and can't wait to hear from ya'll next week.
Love,
Elder Taylor Davies
P.S. I've yet to have any real good Georgian Peaches, did you know that South Carolina grows more peaches than Georgia... I feel jipped.
August 17, 2009
To get over my great fear of bikes (which has been instilled in me ever since my many bad experiences as a young pup) we've been riding a mile and back to Wal-Mart, twice this week. Well, as we were cutting through back lots and such we can to, what for me, was a very large hill. Now, Elder Hunsaker being an extreme sports Motorcross racer easily whizzed down the hill, leaving me to start a top and conquer my fears. I said a prayer and an audible "Lord have mercy" and was on my way down. Luckily, I missed the rock. Exhilirating, yes; freightening: YES!
Thursday night we went to dinner and a members home with boys ranging from 16 to 3. Well, after a hearty dinner we had some entertainment, courtesy of the 3 and 7 year old. After batting practice there was a dance party that broke loose to the tune of 'Who Let the Dogs Out' during such dance party a highly coveted and patented move broke out much to my dismay: The Bumblebee. Where little 3 year old Manning Berrett learned such a move I know not. But it is my signature move and lucky for him I did not have the heart to show him up.
While visiting the members on our ward roster on Saturday we came to the Hales' house. She is from Centeral America and has two twin 3/4 year olds. The boy being a normal 3 year old, was pushing his sister and being a tease. But his sister, having braces on her legs could do very little about it. I appointed myself her protector and played with the little boy, while still protecting his sister from his vicious fists. Well, neither of them really spoke much but after this little girl saw me as her own personal Hercules she began to show me some of the little scrapes and bumps upon her arms, speaking is Spannish all I could pick out was Un pacito (if I'm not mistaken) which, according to my knowledge and her mother affirmed translation, means little kiss. So add her to the list, Girlfriends from 4 to 79, not exactly what I expected from a mission ;)
Well family, I wish I had more to report about the actual work. It's moving fairly slow and things are pretty tough. But the Lord is good, he loves his children and his "kindness shall not depart" from they who will humble themselves and turn to him. With all my heart I love and think of you all often.
Love,
Elder Taylor Davies
Thursday night we went to dinner and a members home with boys ranging from 16 to 3. Well, after a hearty dinner we had some entertainment, courtesy of the 3 and 7 year old. After batting practice there was a dance party that broke loose to the tune of 'Who Let the Dogs Out' during such dance party a highly coveted and patented move broke out much to my dismay: The Bumblebee. Where little 3 year old Manning Berrett learned such a move I know not. But it is my signature move and lucky for him I did not have the heart to show him up.
While visiting the members on our ward roster on Saturday we came to the Hales' house. She is from Centeral America and has two twin 3/4 year olds. The boy being a normal 3 year old, was pushing his sister and being a tease. But his sister, having braces on her legs could do very little about it. I appointed myself her protector and played with the little boy, while still protecting his sister from his vicious fists. Well, neither of them really spoke much but after this little girl saw me as her own personal Hercules she began to show me some of the little scrapes and bumps upon her arms, speaking is Spannish all I could pick out was Un pacito (if I'm not mistaken) which, according to my knowledge and her mother affirmed translation, means little kiss. So add her to the list, Girlfriends from 4 to 79, not exactly what I expected from a mission ;)
Well family, I wish I had more to report about the actual work. It's moving fairly slow and things are pretty tough. But the Lord is good, he loves his children and his "kindness shall not depart" from they who will humble themselves and turn to him. With all my heart I love and think of you all often.
Love,
Elder Taylor Davies
August 10, 2009
Ican't believe that Summer is almost over... well for you. Things have been incredibly hot here in Georgia and it just so happened to be a week that Elder Hunsaker and I decided to do some walking to 1) save miles on our car and 2) be seen more by the public, People don't really see you when you're behind the windshield of a car... So we did a lot of waving and luckily no one really yelled or threw anything at us. So all in all a good week. We didn't really do much this week in the way of tracting or finding people, we're still trying to get to know the ward, so that is pretty time consuming.
Yesterday in church we started a new type of Prelude thing. This was Sister A*******'s (an older widow in the ward) idea. She saw it done in another ward and just loved it. Well, we had dinner with her a few weeks ago and then again on Saturday. She had already asked me to 'sing the prelude'. What this meant was that about 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started I was to stand about a foot away from the pulpit, not talking to anyone, just looking out into the crowd and then when I bowed my head and raised it Sister A******* would start playing the piano and I would begin singing. Imagining this was a pretty awkward situation to me. And so I asked I thought there should be an announcement or something so that people wouldn't think it was weird that this missionary took it upon himself to entertain the crowd. Well, since it was Sister A*******'s idea and I didn't have the heart to change her idea I just kinda went up there and was talking to the youth speaker and to the Bishopric and finally after standing there for a few minutes the organist asked me if I wanted her to stop and I kindly said that I would appreciate that. So I started singing 'I Need Thee Every Hour' and it all went well, I walked off the stand and the meeting started. Afterwards I had a few ladies come up and talk to me, some people still thought that I just decided to get up there and sing. I hope that they all get the idea next week when some other poor sucker is up there singing... and it better not be me. I even had a few ladies tell me that I shouldn't be a Psychology major and I should be a music major. I smiled and thought about trying to support a family as a music major and chuckled to myself. One lady even told me that I had a beautiful but untrained voice and that with some training I could really go somewhere, she asked me if I'd ever taken lessons and to be nice I said, "yeah, a little bit ;)" All in all the humiliaton was worth making one sweet Sister A*******'s day... and probably week.
It really was a rather uneventful week though, and I'm hoping we can get the ball rolling here soon.
Love you all, (even those that haven't written for a while ;)
Elder Taylor Davies
Yesterday in church we started a new type of Prelude thing. This was Sister A*******'s (an older widow in the ward) idea. She saw it done in another ward and just loved it. Well, we had dinner with her a few weeks ago and then again on Saturday. She had already asked me to 'sing the prelude'. What this meant was that about 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started I was to stand about a foot away from the pulpit, not talking to anyone, just looking out into the crowd and then when I bowed my head and raised it Sister A******* would start playing the piano and I would begin singing. Imagining this was a pretty awkward situation to me. And so I asked I thought there should be an announcement or something so that people wouldn't think it was weird that this missionary took it upon himself to entertain the crowd. Well, since it was Sister A*******'s idea and I didn't have the heart to change her idea I just kinda went up there and was talking to the youth speaker and to the Bishopric and finally after standing there for a few minutes the organist asked me if I wanted her to stop and I kindly said that I would appreciate that. So I started singing 'I Need Thee Every Hour' and it all went well, I walked off the stand and the meeting started. Afterwards I had a few ladies come up and talk to me, some people still thought that I just decided to get up there and sing. I hope that they all get the idea next week when some other poor sucker is up there singing... and it better not be me. I even had a few ladies tell me that I shouldn't be a Psychology major and I should be a music major. I smiled and thought about trying to support a family as a music major and chuckled to myself. One lady even told me that I had a beautiful but untrained voice and that with some training I could really go somewhere, she asked me if I'd ever taken lessons and to be nice I said, "yeah, a little bit ;)" All in all the humiliaton was worth making one sweet Sister A*******'s day... and probably week.
It really was a rather uneventful week though, and I'm hoping we can get the ball rolling here soon.
Love you all, (even those that haven't written for a while ;)
Elder Taylor Davies
August 3, 2009
We've spent a lot of time in the apartment creating a Map Book for the area since it's new and we're new and our miles are limited we decided that this would be the best use of our time. Other than that we've been trying to meet new members so not to much to really report. We did have a baptism on Saturday... so kinda my first but I'm not really counting it because I didn't ever teach her a lesson and such. But nonetheless, it was very exciting. Her name is T***** A*****, her husband is a member, they got married about a month ago. In fact it's a really weird situation, the husband and his ex-wife are both in our ward. And both active, but they're very civil, so I hear. I actually haven't met the ex-wife yet so I'm not sure for myself. Anyway, T*****'s step son who just returned home from his mission baptized her (using my pants because he left his, so I guess in a sense I was in the water with them ;) not really though, because that would have been weird). So that was pretty cool.
Wednesday night we had dinner with a sweet widow in our ward, she's 79 years old and she's our ward chorister. Her name is Sister A******* and she's very sweet. Anyway, after dinner she asked if we'd sit around the piano and sing for a bit. So for the next hour and a half we sang anything from Heigh-Ho to Jesus Was No Ordinary Man. Well, Elder Hunsaker's not really a singer so he was a good sport to go along with it. But because of this instance I've now been recruited to sing in church this upcoming Sunday, and not like the special musical number, I will be singing the Prelude music (another one of Sis. A*******'s ideas) so your prayers would be much appreciated. I nearly gave her a heart attack when I hit the high note in Danny Boy, afterwards she told us that our singing turns her on (take that from a sweet innocent old widowed lady perspective though) still, for us, it was a bit awkward and weird. Needless to say, Elder Hunsaker hasn't let me live any of this down and has relentlessly teased me about my new 79 year old girlfriend.... Don't worry, my eye is still single, and I don't think Sis. A******* would be the one to pick the lock I've already set on my heart.
Well, that's really our week, not very eventful but a good ride and good learning experience all round.
Love,
Elder Tay
Wednesday night we had dinner with a sweet widow in our ward, she's 79 years old and she's our ward chorister. Her name is Sister A******* and she's very sweet. Anyway, after dinner she asked if we'd sit around the piano and sing for a bit. So for the next hour and a half we sang anything from Heigh-Ho to Jesus Was No Ordinary Man. Well, Elder Hunsaker's not really a singer so he was a good sport to go along with it. But because of this instance I've now been recruited to sing in church this upcoming Sunday, and not like the special musical number, I will be singing the Prelude music (another one of Sis. A*******'s ideas) so your prayers would be much appreciated. I nearly gave her a heart attack when I hit the high note in Danny Boy, afterwards she told us that our singing turns her on (take that from a sweet innocent old widowed lady perspective though) still, for us, it was a bit awkward and weird. Needless to say, Elder Hunsaker hasn't let me live any of this down and has relentlessly teased me about my new 79 year old girlfriend.... Don't worry, my eye is still single, and I don't think Sis. A******* would be the one to pick the lock I've already set on my heart.
Well, that's really our week, not very eventful but a good ride and good learning experience all round.
Love,
Elder Tay
July 27, 2009
I am about an hour North of Lilburn, in Hall County. I'm in a ward called the Hamilton Mill ward. You probably can't find it on any maps since, they've only been around for about a month now. In fact, Sunday was only the second Sunday in a full block. They're still trying to get all the callings filled and it's a pretty hectic place right now. To add to all of this, we're whitewashing the area. Yes, I was whitewashed and now I'm whitewashing, this means that both Elder Hunsaker and I came from different areas. Elder Hunsaker is my new companion, this is his first transfer as a senior companion and he's been out 7 months. He's from Lehi, Utah and loves racing motorcycles and dirt bikes and such. He's got a funny sense of humor, kinda reminds me of a mix between Nate Larsen and Colton Cook.
As a result of being in a new area we've spent the first few days making a map and trying to figure out where in the heck we're going. We're starting from scratch so to say. As a result we've been in our apartment making the map rather than proselyting, so it's been the strangest 3 days or so of my mission so far. On the positive side, we're in car during the August heat. On the negative side, the missionaries before us left us the car with 1174 miles on it for the month (that was on the 22nd) However, we're only allotted 910 miles a month, so we're trying to work through that too. Elder Hunsaker is really chill and so we don't stress, I really love that about him.
So a little bit about the area, Hall County is home to the training center of both the Atlanta Falcons and I believe Braves (don't quote me on that because it could just be a Minor Leauge team and it could be Gwinett County... which has a relation to Hall County and the year 1776, a prize for whoever can figure it out!) Also in Hall county is the Mall of Georgia, which is the biggest mall in all of Georgia, so we'll probably go there of these P-Days... I'll see if I can find some great southern garb to send ya'll.
Marc Johnson is in my new district, he's a Centerville native who's in our stake. His little brother Chad is my age and both are really good guys. I do love this district though and see a lot of opportunity to grow.
Well, that' really it for me. I want you all to know that I'm doing extremely well, I've been so strengthened by the Lord during this transfer and I'm so excited to be in a fresh area where we can really get the work progressing and try some new things. We're calling every ward member on their birthday to try to BRT (Build Relationship of Trust) hopefully that leads to some success. I love you all and know that the Lord has and will continue to bless our family. It does seem as though the last year or so have been a little bit of a refiners fire for the family. But I've seen us pull closer and, as strange as it seems, I feel closer to Jaman right now than I have for a long time, no doubt in my mind he's piggybacked me up a few of the hills I've come across.
Overall message: I love you, sorry if my letter became a missionary sermon, I try to stay away from that. But I do love you and think of you all often and pray for you more often.
Much Love,
-Elder Tay
As a result of being in a new area we've spent the first few days making a map and trying to figure out where in the heck we're going. We're starting from scratch so to say. As a result we've been in our apartment making the map rather than proselyting, so it's been the strangest 3 days or so of my mission so far. On the positive side, we're in car during the August heat. On the negative side, the missionaries before us left us the car with 1174 miles on it for the month (that was on the 22nd) However, we're only allotted 910 miles a month, so we're trying to work through that too. Elder Hunsaker is really chill and so we don't stress, I really love that about him.
So a little bit about the area, Hall County is home to the training center of both the Atlanta Falcons and I believe Braves (don't quote me on that because it could just be a Minor Leauge team and it could be Gwinett County... which has a relation to Hall County and the year 1776, a prize for whoever can figure it out!) Also in Hall county is the Mall of Georgia, which is the biggest mall in all of Georgia, so we'll probably go there of these P-Days... I'll see if I can find some great southern garb to send ya'll.
Marc Johnson is in my new district, he's a Centerville native who's in our stake. His little brother Chad is my age and both are really good guys. I do love this district though and see a lot of opportunity to grow.
Well, that' really it for me. I want you all to know that I'm doing extremely well, I've been so strengthened by the Lord during this transfer and I'm so excited to be in a fresh area where we can really get the work progressing and try some new things. We're calling every ward member on their birthday to try to BRT (Build Relationship of Trust) hopefully that leads to some success. I love you all and know that the Lord has and will continue to bless our family. It does seem as though the last year or so have been a little bit of a refiners fire for the family. But I've seen us pull closer and, as strange as it seems, I feel closer to Jaman right now than I have for a long time, no doubt in my mind he's piggybacked me up a few of the hills I've come across.
Overall message: I love you, sorry if my letter became a missionary sermon, I try to stay away from that. But I do love you and think of you all often and pray for you more often.
Much Love,
-Elder Tay
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