Hiroshima (East) - Countdown, 34 weeks!

March 27, 2016
Hey everyone! Hope everyone is doing good! This last week was crazy
busy! We were finding all week, and didn't see much success honestly.
Right now we are still on the search for investigators, so this next
week we will be continuing to find every day!
One exciting thing this week! I got to go on splits with my last
companion, Elder Campos! He was clear up in a place called Hamada.
About 2 and a half hour bus ride north. It is a lot smaller of a city
then what I'm used to, but it was a blast!

Also if there are people that actually read this, can you reply? Just curious if I should actually put more time into this email or not. :) This week I am tired though, so sorry it is short. 
Anyways have a good week. Remember to pray daily.
Love,
Elder Davies

Hiroshima (East) - Countdown, 32 weeks!

April 11, 2016
Conference already?! Where is the time going?! I only have one more, and then I'm going home... WOW!

Things are going good here. This past week I got to go on splits with my first Bean Chan, Elder Barker. We had a way good time, and saw tons of miracles. I also got to go on splits with another Elder from Orem. His name is Elder Ratzlaff. He is a year younger than me, and we went to the same elementary school, and Jr. High School. So weird. We had a good time talking about a bunch of the same people we know. 

Other than that, we just watched a bunch of General Conference, and did a lot of proselyting. Good times. 

We have a couple of new investigators now. First, we have an investigator named Jimmy, who I taught when I was in Takasu, right next door. He moved into our area, and now I get to teach him again! 

Another guy we are teaching is a deaf guy named Daigo. So looks like I will be learning Japanese Sign Language! haha! Too bad it's a bit different than ASL, that would have been nice. 

And another 2 people is a couple, who a member referred us to. He isn't very respectful to her, which is a bit sad. But he will be able to change through the gospel, so no worries there. 

Umm. That's about it. Next week is transfers. Not sure if I will be staying or not in this area, but we will see! 

Love you guys!

Elder Davies

Hiroshima (East) - Countdown, 33 weeks!

...I've somehow lost week 34 email, I'll try to find it!

Alright. Looks like I will spend a little more time on this, and a bit less time in personal emails. Sorry if my personal one is short, I love reading them, and will make sure I try and reply, but yes, time is short in the mission life :)

Well to start off. This past week, on Monday, we had a Zone P-day at Miyajima, and pretty much the entire zone came. It was like 20 of us missionaries. Everyone in my apartment bought a katana from there as well. It was very fun! 

We have been meeting a lot with our recent converts, the Komarus. They are doing really well, and are planning on going to the temple on April 16th to do baptisms for the dead. And I get to go with them! Hopefully they will get a calling soon and be able to help strengthening the ward here. 

We also had many junkais (splits) this past week with missionaries from other areas. On Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Hansen, who I served with in Futenma and now he is serving in Takasu, and it was interesting to see his dendou style. He talks so everyone in English, and then switches to Japanese. Pretty funny to see some of the peoples faces. 

On Thursday I got to go on splits with Elder Lundberg, from Mihara. He is 3/4 Japanese, but didn't speak a lick of Japanese before the mission. It was fun to be with him as well. He is my district leader, and it was good to see how he goes about things as well. We saw a lot of success and were able to make about 4 potential investigators. 

And on Friday/Saturday we got to go on splits with the elders from Saijo. I got to go with an Elder Colton, who is a BEAST. He got here the same time as Elder Barker who I trained in Okinawa. But he is a solid. missionary. Probably future AP of the mission. We learned a lot from each other, and had a way deep conversation. Way cool. 

This past Friday we had a Zone Conference. Which is where the whole zone gets together along with President and the AP's, and have a big training. It was an awesome experience. I can't really explain why, hard to describe, but it was a very spiritual experience. 

On Sunday, we set a baptismal date with a guy named Shibata Yuuichi. He came to church randomly a couple of weeks ago from finding a chirashi. We hadn't seen him for awhile, so we decided to go visit him again. And yesterday he came to church, and we set a baptismal date with him for 5/14! 

So yeah. That was about our week. Any questions, please ask. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love

Elder Davies

Hiroshima (East) - Countdown, 35 weeks!

This week was the first full week of the transfer. We had some sweet miracles. 

Elder Van Alfen and I went to Fukuoka for some training from President Egan, and the AP's. It was good to see Elder Pettit again. He is doing very good, and enjoying it up there. We remade the "Standards of Excellence" for our mission. Standards of Excellence are the Hearts and Souls that an Excellent missionary can achieve. Everyone sent in what they thought the Standards should be, and they took the averages. We then talked about it, and reset them. 

Also while our companions were off doing splits with other missionaries, Elder Van Alfen and I stayed and did splits as well. We found a couple of people to meet again with. One was a really sketchy appointment. We had no contact info, but an appointment to meet at the church. We showed up, and he was already there waiting for us. His name is Azuma. Way humble guy. We taught him a little about God, and Jesus Christ. His belief in God is a bit different than our belief in God. We told him to pray about it. We also set a Baptismal Date with him for April 30th, and he came to church yesterday. Way cool miracle! 

Anyways, the mission is going well. Hope everyone else has a good week! 

Love,

Elder Davies

Hiroshima (East) - Countdown, 36 weeks!

This past week was transfers!!

As you guys know, Elder Pettit left us a few weeks ago to work in Fukuoka. He is killing it over there! So I was left in Hiroshima with 2 new missionaries, taking care of 2 areas, and a zone. Sounds like a lot, but really wasn't too bad. The only real problem was that it was very hard to focus on my area, and we just had the 2 baptisms, so now we are down to nothing. We are going to hit it hard this week. 

The new missionaries all came up this past Thursday, which was way cool to see the changes. About a third of our zone changed. The new zone leader's name is Van Alfen. We were together in the MTC. He is another Utah boy which now makes all 4 of the elders from Utah. YOSH! 

Well that's everything exciting, wish me luck on finding new people! :)

Hope everyone has a good week. 

Love,
Elder Davies

(this video is how Kyle asked me for new shoes!!...and he sent the used ones home as proof!!)