Week 2 (June 20)

Hola Mi Familia,

Happy Fathers Day / Pauls birthday! MTC has been awesome, I sent a letter yesterday it probably will get there soon. So Mitch going back to Texas tomorrow- crazy! Good luck with that. Thats lame that vancouver lost the NHL finals...How is everything at home? Letters help get missionaries from day to day so to get them is sweet. I've gotten all the letters you guys have sent, but a few got mixed up with the other Elder Josh Davies - but ya he left for Oklahoma recently so it wont be a problem but im really excited for him in Oklahoma, in my case I have a bit of time left - 7 weeks! haha its gonna be pretty long but ill be speaking like fluent espanol. Dad going to Paris is crazy! My district gets along really well but half of them, district leader included are leaving for Guatemala in like a week so itll be way quiet without them. Plus we'll need a new district leader. Oh this weekend we have a new mission president meeting at the MTC and the prophet, some apostles and those mission presidents will be here. Its gonna be crazy because one whole building we wont be allowed to go in. But we may be like walking down the hall and see an apostle haha. We havent had anyone crazy for a devotional yet, our last devotional was the primary president. I kind of expect better things out of missionaries so it was dissapointing when an Elder two rooms down from ours had $140 stolen from his room, so were careful to lock up alot-just hope we dont get locked out being too careful haha. Im not sure about my missionary plaque Mom, i think you may want to talk to the Ward secretary about it. They wont need a picture taken and I couldnt send one anyway haha. So i kind of wish there was an Elder MTC and a Sister MTC because some Elders are really distracted by some of the sisters. And some Sisters are just ridiculous when they are flirting with Elders. Good to hear about the car grandma! hope it works out well, it served me really well. And we had it fixed up so it should be really good for a while. So they give us gym time 5 times a week and its really fun but some Elders get hurt in basketball because it gets so rough. So i try to just stay on the upstairs part where the track is and run and do some working out. Ive seen probably 8 or 9 Elders i knew at BYU-Idaho and it almost feels more at home here when it comes to friends because at home they were all at college. That being said I miss you guys so much!! Sometimes its even hard to think about because it distracts me a bit...Well times almost up sending emails, Good luck in the real world and know that I am always missing you guys, Stay in touch. Oh ya if you send emails to dearelder.com its free and it comes to me as mail so i can read them any day of the week, but letters are still awesome!

Adios!

Elder Davies

Week 1 (June 13)

Hola Everyone!

Well the first week here is almost over and today is our pday- so our first thought is "ya! emails and laundry!" Then me and my companion got 0 emails haha...Oh and the laundry room is CRAZY! probably like 500 missionaries, Elders and Sisters all doing their wash haha. The MTC food = no bueno, i think i might just stick with cereal the rest of my 9 weeks here haha..kidding. But learning español has been tough, but our whole district has definetly learned lots! On the first day we didnt understand a thing and now sometimes our teacher will teach the whole class in spanish. We have been able to bear our testimony, prepare a talk (thankfully didnt have to give it), and now we can say prayers in spanish. My companion situation was crazy before when i had 2 companions but after having a struggling situation in which a missionary in our district was so homesick he ran off campus, climbed the fence and called home...Basically after all that he decided he needed to go home so now his old companion is paired with one of the 2 that used to be mine. So now its just me and Elder Dickinson, hes from Boise Idaho. Hes going to the Iowa, Des Moine mission. So i´ve seen 6-8 friends of mine from BYU-Idaho, its way cool they are all here in the MTC now. And its really cool running into another Elder Josh Davies on a daily basis, ive seen him a lot. And i got one of his Dearelder letters haha-so i gave it to him. We have our gym time which is really one of the very few times you get to yourself because once your in the building you dont have to be next to your companion so thats cool. I was able to play basketball and lift weights a little which really helped me de-stress from the normal 6 hours of class time a day. So its been really busy up here-so busy that its hard to find time to write letters, write in my journal or even tie all my ties haha. Well, much love everyone-stay safe and thanks Lyndsey for writing! Hopefully building the pool goes good with no more problems

Mitch- thanks for the letter bro! I wish i had time to write more but theyre really strict on the 30 minutes i get to email..Was your mission president on your mission President Heaton? because he spoke to us for our fireside and they said he used to be a mission president for the Spokane, WA mission. Is teddy still hiding in cupboards now that im gone? How is the series between Vancouver and Boston? and is Dallas going to win the NBA championship?

Elder Joshua Davies