Week Thirty Nine!

Hola!

Well this week was okay. Stake Conference was great! Got to hear from the stake presidency and Pres. Cusick on Sunday. Everything was on hastening the work (because that's what everyone in the world is learning about). They announced their creating a new Spanish branch in Sarasota and a YSA branch there too. Pretty nifty! 

So! T-Calls came on Saturday. The ZL's we live with called the AP's for the transfer info and we totally just sat in the same room and didn't say anything so we could here the news earlier than everyone else. So they said everyone else and we were last, figures, and I'm totally LEAVING ARCADIA!!!!!!!!!!!............to go to Tampa on Tuesday and get my new companion and then coming back to Arcadia. Yep sir I'm staying here. The ZL's got released and now there are only 6 zones in our entire mission (1 per stake) and we combined with my old zone! So now I'm part of the same zone I was! That'll be weird. But it's spread out like a bazillion miles...We'll see how zone meetings go when the whole zone gets together! And Elder McKenna is transferring too. And the AP told us they're taking our Ford Fusion. And that only two of us would be coming back..........and they said that me and Elder Kenyon are both staying.......ruined that surprise! So I'm like 99% sure gonna be put in a zebra companionship here in Arcadia! I will probably now be teaching English and Spanish (with me being the only one that knows Spanish). So that'll be interesting! Elder James told me that back in Bradenton they just took over all of west Bradenton from Sisters and are now teaching English and Spanish as well. Zebra is the new thing I guess! Either Spanish and English elders will be put together, or the Spanish ones together will teach both English and Spanish. We'll see what that does to my progression of learning and using Spanish! That'll be tough. But fun! So we'll find out FOR SURE tomorrow. but that's most likely what will happen. 

I got to see the Santos at Stake Conference! That was way cool. I got to see basically my whole old branch! Way fun to see past families and people.

Hope you guys have fun prepping for Halloween and Ragnar! Eat a lot of candy for me! And thanks for the package! Heaven sent that was. Indeed.

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

 

 

Week Thirty Eight!

Hola! 

Hey it's stake conference for us this next week too! We're going to Sarasota on Saturday and Sunday for those meetings. Should be good! And it'll be nice to meet in like...a...regular sized meeting house.

So this last week we put off Saturday (because we didn't have like....anything else planned) as a day of complete inviting all day. So we walked around for like 6 hours (got a sick tan) and talked to every Hispanic that was visible outside their house and gave out a ton of pamphlets on Joseph Smith and Family Proclamation thingy and such. It was pretty fun. I think that's more people than we've talked to since like we've been here and we did it in one day. We met a few people that were crazy drunk or high. That was also fun. Always good conversations with them. This one guy (spoke english) asked us who mother nature was and if we work out. He straight up told us he was high and drunk but totally coherent somehow. That made my day! Funny people out here. 

We went and talked to a guy that was a referral from a member. Tano. We went to his house and he was outside cleaning a birdcage. He spoke enough English to talk to us in it. We told him what we do and if he'd ever heard or read from the BoM. He told us he'd heard of our church and how we believe a different Christ, not the one from the Bible, came to America and we receive revelations from stones to start church. So he went on to tell us we couldn't possibly be able to teach him anything about life since we're so young (he said pointing to me "what you're probably only in your late twenties"......I think correcting him would've made things a bit worse) and went on to say how we're wasting our lives and such. But the whole time I felt comfortable and I thought of my patriarchal blessing which says stuff like that will happen, a lot, and I thought of the story from some general conference where the missionaries knock on the door of the pastor and he tells them they can't tell him that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and then the greenie wants to go back and bear testimony that they can do that. So I just stood firm and told him look we don't claim that we can teach you the ways of life and we understand that we're just young still, but what I do know is we can teach you the ways of God and the Spirit can as well as you read this book. And I went on to bear my testimony, not letting him interrupt me when he tried, and then E. Lids did the same after me. After that his countenance changed a lot and he stopped bad mouthing us. He still rejected us in the end, but we left him a BoM and invited him to read it. Good stuff!

Transfer calls are this Saturday! The word is they might shut down the Spanish area here and put in a Zebra companionship as Zone Leaders. Which means an English and a Spanish together as companions. That's something that's not in this mission yet so we'll see if they do it. But yeah I'll find out if I'm staying or going this Saturday!

Yep! Nothing much else going on here in old Arcadia. We got some lessons planned for this week and a lot of inviting again. (By inviting I mean tracting) 

Hope all is well! I actually just sent you the article from the Arcadian today....so now you'll have two I guess! Oh well. Another thing to get in the mail!

Have a good week! Do some good! Serve the Lord!

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

Elder Davies (and companions) in the local news!

Adapting to life in DeSoto County involves far more than substituting “footballs” for soccer balls, Michael Liddle has discovered. Liddle, a native of Doncaster, England, has spent the last month adjusting to the cultural, culinary, political and economic environment of the United States, the country that will be his home for the next two years. Liddle arrived in Provo, UT for training as he began serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and was then was sent to Florida. Liddle will serve for two years at his own expense, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of the Tampa Mission, of which the Arcadia Branch is a part.     

Bryson Davies is Liddle’s companion while they serve in Arcadia, and they will teach in Spanish, a newly acquired language for both (one they admittedly are still working to master). Crosscountry running, exercising and staying fit were important to Davies in high school in Pleasant Grove, UT, and the discipline he learned then is helping him now. “When you ‘hit the wall,’ you have to reach in to find that motivation    – that ‘go-to thing’ to help you through difficult times. But it’s just momentary. My go-to thing now is Jesus Christ and His Atonement.”     

Arriving a few weeks earlier in Arcadia, Devon Kenyon and Layne McKenna serve members and non-members alike, giving service and teaching the gospel in English. Kenyon comes from Washington state, the eldest of eight children. He worked in a motorcycle dealership before following a mission. He said it wasn’t easy to leave that life for two years, but it became clear to him that serving a mission was what he needed to do. Now he doesn’t regret that decision at all, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. He calls Arcadia his favorite area of the five in which he has served, but don’t tell anyone he said so.     

A soft-spoken yet powerful and dedicated McKenna is from Farmington, UT, where LDS meetinghouses are in every neighborhood with several Stake Centers in every town. He finds Arcadia and the Tampa Mission far less “compact.” He is the youngest of six kids, and he watched his brothers serve missions before him. He saw the changes in them when they returned, how they had matured and had life experiences. He knew that serving a mission when the time was right would be the right thing for him, too.     

The decision to drop everything is not easy for any young man or woman in the Church. Yet more young people are deciding to do so. Since last year’s announcement that women can serve missions at age 19 and men at 18, unprecedented numbers of young people continue to fill out missionary applications. Women comprise more than half of the applicants.

Week Thirty Seven!

Hola!

Well oh well oh well! Things is all good heeuh in duh Ahcahdeeuh Citay. (spoken with a jamaican accent. Have Bryan say it for you or something.) But yep we just be chillin doing that missionary work thing on the daily. It's a lifestyle. Ya know.

SO! Since not much happens here....(and still not much has happened to change that) I can just tell you random facts! 

Random Fact #1: After my training I started to read the BoM in spanish without anything else but a dictionary. And now, after 3 and a half transfers I'm in Ether! So I'll hopefully finish reading it by the end of this transfer so that'll only be 4 transfers! Yeah...6 months...but it's in Spanish okay! I can read about as fast in Spanish than in English though so that's fun. 

#2: I gave a talk in church yesterday! It was about repentance and baptism. Pretty fun. Totally in English so not bad at all. Spirit was awesome during that meeting. The lady before me did way good about the Atonement and reaching out to others. And the Sacrament was blessed by a kid who's family was inactive (but now reactivated) and he just got the priesthood two weeks ago. Pretty cool meeting! Maybs I'll send you my talk through the mail. Not gonna do anything else with it!

#3: I went on an exchange with Elder McKenna (one of the ZL's we live with) on Saturday. It was pretty fun, he came Spanish with me. E. Lids went English. He saw how much the circumstances here are hard and he told me that they had talked with the AP's about that it would be better if there was only one companionship in Arcadia. So...area closing in two weeks? We'll see what happens there! 

#4: We were in the newspaper! The Arcadian. Maybe can find it on the internet? If this place has internet capabilities? But yeah a lady did an article about us four missionaries.

#5: I did get a haircut! Elder Kenyon took a buzzer to me. It was shorter than I'd ever seen it. Like 5 year old Elder Davies status. But now it's growing back.

#6: I have now converted from the deodorant with mixed deodorant and antiperspirant to just normal nice soft and smooth deodorant!

#7: I got a new nice journal out here for my study journal where I take all my notes. I've just been using a spiral notebook. I'm steppin up my game. Makin it so it'll last a while and I can go back and read and study my notes from conferences and meetings and studies.

#8: I totally ate fried okra out here. Probs something I'm never going to eat again. 

#9: Every time I've had real legit mexican food out here I've wanted to barf, whereas in my other area I couldn't get enough of it...."Arcadia"

So yep! Just some fun facts! We go out to eat a lot here. Wendy's, Taco Bell, Dominos, McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's, Chic-fil-a, Checkers. Needless to say.......I'm fat. 

Sounds like y'all had a boss awesome week! And are gonna have another one! Keep informing me of your missionary experiences each week! It's awesome to hear about them. 

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

Week Thirty Six!

Hola!

It was nice to go two straight days of feeling the Spirit after being put down and rejected a lot of times. Real spiritual booster right there! Even though I just found out that I have so many things to change about myself as a son of God and a missionary for Him. Lots of quotable stuff! But all in all I think it's like Elder Hales said, we come to conference to learn and we return home to live what we learned. The hardest part for people is to actually have the courage and the ability and the strength and willingness to apply the things we learned and make the necessary changes. People get "comfortable". There is no plateau in this gospel! There is never a point where you're "good" for the rest of your life! It is constant progression! The Lord does not expect immediate perfection, that is impossible, but He does expect immediate progression! We must use the Atonement, repent for not doing our best, and move on and do better! We must never dwell on the guilt of our past sins, we must learn from them and MOVE ON. SO...try to really apply that which you learned this conference. Do not let it just be like, oh that was amazing and they said a lot of great things and people need to really change...but I'm good. NO! I know I'm afraid to change, I've gotten comfortable in the groove of my mission, but I know I NEED to change to truly show my love for Him through which is it possible.

Oh! I wanted to ask! How are your missionary efforts going back home?? Since every member is basically doing the same thing we are as missionaries, what has changed that you guys do? Have you seen any miracles from helping invite others to hear and learn about the Restored Gospel? I wanna know your experiences too! 

   
Nothing else much going on here! Me and Elder Liddle are doing solid. 

Good luck this week! Enjoy every second! 

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

A Few More Pics of Elder Davies...

Both of these pics are right after a nice little rain storm...

He is drenched from head to toe!

Week Thirty Five!

Hola!

Yep. Still here! We had Stake Priesthood meeting last night. It was cool to see a ton of priesthood holders in one room! I haven't seen that many on my mission! Filled the whole chapel and overflow of a real normal sized chapel! And I got to see the Santos! And a bunch of other members of the Spanish Bradenton Branch. That was pretty cool stuff.
 
We had a zone conference this last Thursday with Elder Teh from the Seventy! He came and trained us for a few hours along with President and Sis. Cusick. It was basically one of the most spiritually edifying times of my life. Elder Teh talked to us about how any meeting we have in the church, or it could even be any study time, can be a revelatory experience (quoting Elder Bednar). We just need to do our part to invite the Spirit. So....DO THAT WITH CONFERENCE. Prepare yourself spiritually and physically for conference. Go into with questions in mind, spiritual or temporal, and if your ears are "tuned in" you will receive your answer. Take notes on what the speakers say, but not only the words said, but the things said to YOU in your heart and mind by the Spirit. We need to be attentive and listening to the words, AND the thoughts and write that revelation down and ACT upon what we receive. The words of our prophets are exactly what God and Jesus Christ desire to be said, and they are perfectly given and presented to help us in our lives physically, temporally, and spiritually.

Just some thoughts. Cool conference though!

Besides that nothing really happened this last week...Still struggling to stay busy with productive things. It's awesome to realize what I'm a part of! Behold, a royal army!

Live Hard,
Love Hard,
Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies