Talofa

Talofa is tongan for hello..
Sounds like things are going pretty well there..
We had our wedding and baptism on the 29th. It was really neat. Kukama baptized her and gave a talk at her wedding. I got to say the prayer at the end of the baptism. All the investigators we invited forgot that it was all on Saturday, they thought it was on Sunday. He confirmed her yesterday too.
Something else that is pretty exciting, we set 3 people with dates to be baptized! Eliza (15 year old girl) her brother Keith (11) and her sister Michelle (10). They've been going to church for like 2 years and have listened to discussions and everything. Eliza actually gave a talk yesterday in sacrament. She had to ask Bishop Fitisemanu if it was ok if a non member gave a talk in sac. meeting. And when she did that we all found out she wasn't a member. She's an amazing girl who knows all of what she is supposed to know and more before baptism. And she does a great job of keeping her siblings involved and they are all ready. That'll happen on the 19th!

A Letter from President Cook

Elder Davenport's mission president wrote and sent a couple of pictures. He said, "I was impressed by his testimony and enthusiasm. He is a credit to his parents and we appreciate the privilege of having him here in the mission." He went on to add that Elder Cunningham, Michael's trainer, "is an excellent missionary who will set a good example and help your son adjust to mission life...I am confident they will labor diligently together to carry out the will of the Lord and that the Lord will bless them in accordance with their faithfulness."

Elder Nofoa, settling in.....

Nofoa translates to sofa, couch, davenport. So, our letters come from Elder Nofoa.

He was able to send pictures this week.

Here he is, on what I think is "One Tree Hill" where they took the Elders the first day.



In our Hawaiian ties the night before going to our assignments.


From his letter:

"Hello everyone in poky! How is everything going? Things are going pretty well here! Oh we had Zone Conference yesterday and it was good but our P-Day is switched to Monday now...We changed it to Monday because this way we can spirtually build and prepare to get investigators to church on Sunday's instead of having 2 days than a huge spiritual break/block and then 3 more days to prep. This way we'll get a whole 6 days to get ready for Sunday. President Cook is awesome. He even did a touchdown dance in the middle of zone conf."

" We had a ward baptism on Mon and our investigator who is getting baptized on the 29 was there and it was way neat! ...Tana and Cheryl are in that boat. They are partners but non members but they are engaged and have been for about a year and a half. They are progressing in the lessons very well. Keeping reading commitments and doing what they need to. We haven't gotten them to church yet but they will most likely come this week. They are such a cool couple. They brought us cupcakes and chocolates on Sunday before church. And they are really grasping what we teach and we feel that once we commit them to baptism (this Friday) and tell them that in order to do that they need to get married first, they will jump on it and get the wedding done so they can be baptized!!!

(Elder Cunningham, Elder D's companion)

"We are teaching some other people too. They are all doing pretty well. Most everyone else is in the beginning stages. We find a lot of people when we street contact. We have a daily goal of talking to 10 people a day. People walking on the street or stading in q, or just any unplanned visit we make. So we have a pretty full teaching pool and finding pool so it works out nice."The other day we were in a shop getting water and we talked to this guy and he said we could come and talk and so we got his info and everything. Well we went to "his house" and nobody by the name he'd given us lived there but the guy let us in anyway and we were able to watch the Lamb Of God with him.. WOW! It was crazy good! We found a new investigator on accident! It's something to think about but maybe the spirit prompted that guy at the shop to give the wrong address so we'd find this new guy."
"love you all and it's wonderful here.. been hard and difficult but oh well.. enjoy the pictures!"

Elder Davenport

The fern in our back yard.

Elder Davenport's First Assignment

Michael's email came this afternoon. He answered a bunch of questions his mom had asked.

What food do you eat? Heaps of new food! They have Mcdonalds and B.K. and Subway and stuff like that but they also have heaps of takeaways (drive-ins but more like walk-ins) with different types of food. But it's usually great food. They have a thing called Kumara (coo ma ra) which is like a sweet potato and it's really good. Probably my favorite so far. Other than that the food is basically the same. We've had pizza and stuff that is fairly American, it all has a different taste but it's way good.

How big is your area? It's the Henderson Stake. But we are over the Lincoln Ward which covers Lincoln, Te Atatu (ta ata two) South and the Te Atatu Penninsula.. so it's a pretty big area our address is 10 Takapu road Henderson.. check it out on google earth but don't send stuff there.

How are the missionary lessons going? Are you teaching any particular people or mostly tracting? Lessons are going great, we are teaching heeps of people. We haven't tracted once yet. We always have appointments and so your just going from lesson to lesson all the time. The other day we had appointments at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. so it was really nice. We are teaching a couple right now that are progressing and it's so sweet (Tona and Cheryl) they are such a cute couple and we feel they are going to get baptized in April sometime.. Probably late April.

Oh, Elder Nofoa is my Samoan name. It means couch or sofa because that's what a davenport is. So basically NZ is sweet! Theres so many people in our area that aren't members and our ward is awesome and they are super nice in helping out with us. The area (one ward boundary) we cover is so big and so populated that I feel it could totally make another stake if they were all members.

When we flew in it was very dark but the sun was coming up and it was so beautiful and I thought we were over the ocean and I kept looking to see it but I couldn't. It's because the whole world was covered in clouds and it looked so sweet because it was just a huge blanket of pure white and it was sweet. Then we cut through them and it was just beautiful green islands for as far as you could see. The parks here are so green. It's intense. But the parks don't have any sprinkler systems. So that just shows how humid and how much rain that they get here!

It's amazing how much you grow here while you're out. I feel I've learned so much. And teaching by the spirit is definatley a big deal. If you don't have it than you are waisting time. I've done that already. I let my mind wander a little on the first couple days and it wasn't pretty when it got to be my turn to teach. But I've learned how important it is to listen with love to the investigators and always be paying attention to the spirit.

But all is well here and it's just an amazing work and I've learned and grown so much.

I love you all so much and thanks for everything you have ever done for me!

Elder Nofoa (Davenport)

Finally in New Zealand

Today, Elder Davenport arrived in New Zealand. His email to us was very brief.

He wrote:

"Well the flight was long and no fun.. but oh well.. I'm here and all is well.. We are just setting up everything and I get to go take a nap for a couple hours too! Love ya!"

Then he sent another one:
"Hey sorry I sent the last email on the wrong computer.. and the Sister told me to just do it from there but it sent it from the office building.. but ya so my email is the same as it has been..

Peggy also got an email from Elder Jones mother, which included information from Sister MacKay in Auckland:

Sister Jones,

By now he has met President and Sister Cook at the airport and is enroute, with the other missionaries, to a NZ landmark called "One Tree Hill". It is a beautiful location where he will be able to look out as far as the eye can see and realize how vast the North Shore of New Zealand is. It is a sacred Maori landmark which used to have a huge Kauri tree growing a top. Several years ago vandals cut the tree down, but could not marr the beauty of the "hill".

After visiting "One Tree Hill" they will be here in the office - that should be in about an hour or so. They will interview with the President, be processed by our office staff, open his bank account and will be able to email home to tell you he has arrived.

There is always a table loaded with beautiful fruit, juice and muffins:)

Please don't hesitate to email me when you have any questions,

Sister Mackay

Looks like the Elders are loved and looked after.

Another Week

Elder Davenport is doing very well. He sent pictures of his district and the Provo Temple. I tried to scan them in, but they came in too blurry and big to post. I will try again to post them.

Elder D's blog

This blog was started and is maintained by Elder D's parents. We intend to post information about Elder D's mission and also add exerpts from his letters and email. This way you will be able to keep up to date with his service.

Hopefully, he will be too busy to ever visit this site until he gets home in two years. Don't let that deter you from adding comments to this blog.

I will add his postal address so you can write him if you wish.

Day at the MTC

Just to go back in time... February 20, 2008 was the day that we dropped Elder Davenport off at the MTC in Provo. It was a wonderful/awful experience.



He looked so missionary in his black, pin-striped suit. As he went into the Missionaries Only door and we entered the Family door, we watched his encounter with the senior service sister. Out came the Black Name Tag and then upon it, she placed a red dot sticker.



Then we got him again, for a while, to ourselves.

Mom cried! Dad cried! We knew that our time was short.




But Emily knew all would be okay!










We love our Elder Davenport. What a great missionary he will be.

email that came Feb 28

Hello everyone!! So I can email right now.. But not much I only get 30 minutes! haha I'm doing my laundry right now! The machines are kinda weird.. okay really weird.. But things are going so great! We went to the temple today too! I sent ya'll a letter this morning and so you should get it sometime soon! But it's crazy cuz I kinda have a north carolinaian accent and a hawaiian accent too! haha silly i know but it's all good! my district is so fun and the guys are so great! we get along so well! i know i tell ya'll that so much but it's true its;' something that helps imensley.. thanks for raising me so good and teaching me how to do stuff.. elder jones didnt really know how to write addresses on an envelope or in an address book and just little stuff like that but its all good cuz we get along well! well i'd better go
love you all
Elder Davenport!