Week Forty Eight!

Hola!

So yeah! Christmas and stuff! Fun talkin with y'all...even though it wasn't Skype. Psh.
 
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE PRESENTS!!! It was cool to be able to still open presents and stuff. Made it seem more like a normal Christmas. And the Christmas decorations too. Because it's hot here. Actually today it's raining so that's nice! Me gusta.

Christmas night we went to an investigator's house. He's a 17 year old who is going to get baptized in like two weeks! His parents aren't members, but they're way supportive of his decision and they're encouraging everything! The parents are Dominican, but the dad was raised in NY so he has a NY accent and everything. And the last time we went over we were eating and he was telling us about all these nice restaurants in NY and pastrami sandwiches.
 
No plans for New Years here. Just the same! Teaching the gospel! It's fun stuff. We'll see if we can get a dinner somewhere.

WELL...that's about all I got! Until next week I guess!

P.S. I hear BYU got destroyed in their bowl game? Bummer.

Live Hard,
Love Hard,
Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

Week Forty Seven!

Hola!

This will probably be a short one! Why.....oh because it's Christmas in two days!! Yeah...It's still like 90 degrees here...NICE. But a ton of people still decorate their houses with lights and all the blow up things and what nots. So it feels like Christmas...kind of....Close enough!

Today is our Mission Christmas Party! Except only the north part of the mission. They did two different parties, one for north and one for south. South had theirs last Friday. Ours is on P-day...but hey it's on the beach! Everyone I know was at the south so we'll see who I know up here in the north! It'll be the Tampa, Lakeland and St. Pete Stakes/zones. Should be pretty fun!

Nate sent me a pic of him in Germany in coat and hat and snow and ice for days...

Another friend said it's -35 degrees in Russia...

WELL WE'LL TALK ON WEDNESDAY!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Live Hard,
Love Hard,
Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

P.S.! Thanks for the presents!! Can't wait to open them Wed. Morning!!

Week Forty Six!

Hola!

FROM TAMPA! So far I love it here! I love the city! So many people and so many houses and neighborhoods and streets and buildings! I'm in the Tampa 5th ward of the Tampa Stake. It's a Spanish Ward! Big and awesome and faithful members that love us! That's a nice thing to have. 

So yeah Tampa. Pretty cool. We go to church at the church building I went to on my first day in Florida! Can't remember what street it's on...But it's big and nice. The Carrollwood English Ward meets there as well. OH I'm in a trio! I'm with Elder Rodriguez and Elder Fitzner. They're way cool guys. Rod's only got two transfers left and Fitz has like 8 months so we all know Spanish well and we know how to do missionary work. So Fitz has only been here a transfer and me and Rod are new so we basically all don't know anything about this area. We just switched area boundaries with the Sisters in our Ward so we cover a big area. Again...no idea what the streets are. There's so many here! It'll take a while to get to know it. I'm just happy to be in the city!!

Oh yeah and I'm on Facebook now! It's weird. But way cool.

Hope all is well this week for y'all!

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

Me feeding a sheep at the Night in Bethlehem. (get it? "feed my sheep...") And me eating like a six layer pb and nutella sandwich.

Week Forty Five!

Hola!

WELL I'm dippin from Arcadia! Yep that's for real this time. Got the call Saturday. They did a giant conference call with all the Elders in the mission and the AP's just went through every companionship and said if they're staying or going. And I'm on the list of leaving! Maybe I'll go somewhere where I'll speak Spanish! I've come to enjoy this place. It's a nice little town with really amazing and faithful members.

Did I ever tell you that Arcadia is part of the infamous Bible Belt? Yep. It curves down into Florida, but it only goes through the middle of the state. Guess where Arcadia is? OH! Right in the middle of the state! Bible bashing for days here. Fun experiences.

So yeah I'll be going up to Tampa on Tuesday. I don't know where I'm going until Tuesday!

We had to drop the date for Joann and her kids.They didn't come to church and when we went to check up on them after, we talked with just the kids, they had bottles of sweet tea on their table.... something's not clicking and something's not right there. So the Elders here will continue trying to get them to keep commitments and follow the commandments better. Kind of really disappointing. 

Should be on Facebook this week! Moving to a new area and new companion!

Thanks for everything and all your prayers!

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies

P.S. It's 90 degrees and sunny today....

P.P.S.

Cool sunset on an exchange up in Lake Placid. OH and we were in the Christmas parade here! Literally thousands of people...the whole town was there. We rode around on our bikes while some members passed out cards and held and banner and had a lit up truck with kids in it. We got bike bells too and I wrapped my bike with tinsel stuff. So sweet! 

Week Forty Four!

Hola!

Yep. This is 20 year old Elder Davies reporting here in Arcadia.

Yeah! Birthday yesterday! It was super fun! Got the packages earlier in the week and had to make myself wait until yesterday to open them!!! Woke up and got ready and such. Then opened presents before our meetings! THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!! The Miracle Notebook from Brandon and Brooke is exactly what Pres. Cusick wants us doing! So that was perfect! And the BYU cards are great, and we used all the party stuff and hung it up! We hung up some Christmas stuff. The cupcakes....were still at least good enough to stick candles in! and have it sing to me! And the workout book!! Nice! We used it this morning and destroyed ourselves. It was awesome. That books got some nifty ideas and stuff in it how to work out crazy hard, but using the stuff you have around you or your own body! THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!

So that was a fun birthday for sure. Even in church (only in Arcadia) they announced that it was my birthday over the pulpit at the beginning of Sac. Meeting! Even the family that's progressing scarily fast and amazingly towards baptism gave me a card! It was way cool. I got a lot of Happy Birthday's yesterday from all the members. And then I made myself a cake after church! So super good. It's called the "Casey Cake" because E. Casey showed it to me. You bake cookie brownies, layer of sweetened condensed milk, layer of ice cream, layer of whipped cream, sprinkle on crushed up candy bar. SO GOOD. SO UNHEALTHY. 

For Thanksgiving we went to a lunch appointment and ate a TON and then went home and did weekly planning and then went to a dinner appointment with some less actives and ate BEYOND A TON, and then we had to drive to Lake Placid and back and that was our whole day....not the most productive day ever....eh.

Right now it is in the 60's which is actually pretty darn cold! And it's been pretty cloudy here the last couple days. No huge storms or anything though. 

So Joann and her 3 kids are progressing and taking everything incredibly easily and fast! If I get transferred....I won't be here for their baptisms.. .But that doesn't matter! What matters is they're getting baptized! And coming closer to Christ! Finally found out the purpose of coming to Arcadia in the last two weeks of being here? But yeah that's awesome.

Hope y'all have an awesome week! Transfer calls on Saturday!

Live Hard,

Love Hard,

Laugh Hard,

Elder Bryson Davies