October 26, 2009

Family,

Happy Halloween, have an extra doughnut for me! And take pictures of the kids in their costumes, I'd love to have some of those!

Well, it's been a good week, learning the area and all of that. We also had Zone Conference and President King really stressed obedience and informed us that the church is beginning to move towards a 4 week transfer cycle and if they decide on it, it will be implemented in June. So we will be preparing for that and will begin to have interviews and Zone Conferences on a monthly basis. It's all very exciting and not certain yet, but it puts a lot of stress on the Mission President's, however the church feels it will increase productivity and so if that's it, then we'll go forward with it.

We had a baptism of a 10 year old Part Member boy on Saturday, they've been working with him for about a year and he's finally decided to be baptized along with his 8 year old little sister.

This week, as we were biking to go and make some visits, we stopped on the side of the road because there was a turtle! That's right, a live turtle just chillin on the sidewalk! Well, being the good missionaries we are, we took a little break and had a photo shoot (pictures to follow). It was great and Elder Mortenson was upset that I wouldn't let him take it home! Later on we saw a flattened road kill turtle on the side of the road, and even though it was a different road Elder Mortenson tried to give me a hard time and said that I killed our little turtle friend!

Well, this ward is absolutely great! We've really gained their trust and they're ready to start praying to find and invite! After all, PMG Ch. 9, Pres. Hinckley's quote reminds us that "everyone who is familiar with the work know that there is a better way" (than knocking doors). So as soon as that program is alive and well, things will start to move a little smoother here. My most spiritual experience this week was with our Bishop. He's a great man, reminds me a lot of Elder Bednar. He's extremely loving and caring and so ready to move this work along. We had a meeting with him yesterday morning with one of our ward mission leaders and he gave us a commission to have 2 more people baptized by the end of 30 days. It can and will be done! He called us later that night, right before our lights went out and just spoke some incredible words of wisdom and told us that we have a spirit about us that has gained the trust of the ward so that they will invite they're friends to learn more about this work. We have their trust, now all we have to do is work to create the miracle and acknowledge that God is the actual author of it.

So, the ward is really super affluent, I mean, most people live in gated communities and nice houses. But one man in particular who lives in our ward trumps all of the rest. His name is Hubert Humphrey. You may be familiar with the name, since he's only the richest man in Georgia AND a member of the church. Well, he has a 60,000 square foot castle that has 2 bowling lanes, a movie theater built after Fox Theater, 15 bedrooms, 60 T.V.'s, a 9 hole golf course in the back yard that can be played different ways so that it make up an 18 hole course. And a virtual golf system in the house that has 250 different courses with cameras that analyze your shot (there is only one other in the world and it belongs to Tiger Woods). 2 elevators a cafe and who knows what more! Well, I haven't been in yet and he's selling it soon (either to a Saudi prince of some corporation to use as a vacation resort), but hopefully next P-Day he'll give us a tour, and maybe let us play some golf. He and his wife want to move to a smaller home in the area and once he's done with his next business adventure he wants to serve a mission with his wife.... that's a pretty good indicator of just how well these people do.

Well, I love you all, I will think of you often during this Holiday seasons that are coming up.

Love,

Elder Davies