One Amazing Week

Our week was amazing. And it ended perfectly yesterday. Couldn't have asked for anything more. We were blessed to have 5 investigators at Church. Margaret and Tessa showed up. Bishops wife took to them straightway once they got there. And Tessa went to YW and loved it.

Amelia and her daughters came. Her daughters went to primary and they loved that. And Lauryn came also. What an amazing Sunday. Well, first we taught Amelia the Plan of Salvation on Thursday and committed them to baptism and the accepted! (July 26). So on Sunday it was my turn to teach our Gospel Principles class. So I taught a 2nd (Plan of Salvation) again. To review and keep things fresh. We had 12 people in there. One was a recent convert. Two were investigators and the rest were me, Dixon, class pres and fellowship! So it was just awesome to have so many people.

When I got to the kingdoms and was explaining the Telestial Kingdom, Amelia said I know I don't want to go there! haha It was so awesome to hear her say that. Her daughters said it on Thursday when we taught then, But they said Oh We want to go live with God! We were so happy! So you could imagine how happy we were after class.

Well after that we went and taught the Primary our Mission song, Harvest. Because we are going to put on a missionary fireside where we have a slideshow of all the returned missionaries in our ward and music and stuff like that. We'll have speakers and some music items and one is the primary singing that song. It'll be cool. So that took up the last of our Sunday. It was a good thing we didn't have any male investigators or else we would've needed to be with them. But after that Margaret asked if we could give her a blessing because she has a lot of stuff to deal with and she's nervous and wants help.... So good! We were so happy.

Bishop gave her a blessing and it was awesome. Her asking for a blessing eliminated all our doubts about them being baptized on time. They are going to be baptized. It'll go through. So it was a great end to a really good week. Many other good things happened this week that I don't have time to tell you about. But it was really good! It's amazing to see people accept the gospel and see it make changes in their lives. With Amelia, after the first time we taught them we came back and she said her dad had noticed a change. A big change. It had only been 4 days. It's incredible. Some people are just so ready. Some people, it takes a while. But that's okay.

The Church is true. It's an amazing concept that all we have to do is be obedient and we'll be saved.

This week has been really pretty good! We had our last ZC with President Cook, it was amazingly good! I learned so much stuff from it! We have continued to be blessed. We met with Lauryn and Dwight and things are going really well for them. They decided that she'd be baptized the same day they get married! So the 19th! She's the one who I was talking about last week.

Dwight went to oz for the week so Lauryn is at home with the girls all week. We went to see them yesterday.. It was an amazing experience. Dwight had called from oz and asked Lauryn to call us to dedicate their house. She felt weird doing that but for some reason we always just show up to their house at the appropriate times.. Well turned out that she wanted me to do it. I've never done it before so I checked the white handbook to see what it says the order is. It's just a prayer. Nothing fancy or anything like that. So I was still way nervous considering the family and their circumstances. So I said a quick prayer for help before I started. It was amazing. I just started and from then on I can't remember me even think of what to say. All I remember is beginning it and closing it. That's all I remember that I said on my own will. Everything else was just filled in by the Spirit. It was an awesome thing I've never felt before. It didn't even feel as if I was talking. So that was really neat.

We had a new investigator show up to church too. We also had Tracy (L.A.) there too. We ended up teaching an amazing lesson that was just filled with the spirit. It was really neat. We went and taught a lesson with Bro. Hirinuki to a lady who we found by a street contact. What an awesome lesson that was too! She has 2 daughters also. As we began teaching I just got a really good feeling within 5 minutes of us being there that they'd be baptized! I found out later that Elder Dixon also had that same thought around the same time! We are gonna try to set them for baptism this Thursday! But other than that things are going really well.

Elder Dixon and I are getting along really well and really things couldn't be better. We had a really funny guy that showed us his lawn mower and it was like he was trying to sell it to us. It was really funny. It got it out and did a couple of passes on his lawn and then showed us a "really nice feature" (brian reagan) on it haha. There are heaps of other funny stories that I could just go on about. But I don't have the time. But I hope everything goes really well during this week and that everyone will be safe and all that good stuff.


Love
Elder Davenport
When you get to the bottom of the rope, tie a knot and hold on

Obedience With Exactness

... Well the week... It was amazing! Elder Dixon and I have been trying really hard to be obedient with exactness because we know that doing that will bring blessings. Man I can't express how true it is. The Lord has blessed us so much this week.

...But in focusing on that this week we were able to find 8 new investigators. Margaret and Tessa Hall, (set for July 26th), are still doing really good. They are progressing well. We've taught them the big hic-up lessons. Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity and the 10 Commandments. We felt if they were going to back down than it'd be sometime during those lessons. They were amazing through them. Committed to all of it. They are such a good example to me.

...We had an amazing night last night. We had a lesson with the Halls, Elder Roberts (area 70) and his wife came to be fellowship. We were teaching L.O.C. They were amazing fellowship for that lesson. Strong spirit. They gave the perfect input when needed. Elder Roberts is such and example. When we called to see if they could come with us he was like one second.. "Honey the missionaries want us to go with them to a lesson tomorrow, is that okay?" haha it was so awesome. When we heard that Elder Dixon and I looked at eachother and were just like... This guy's the man. He's so humble and just an amazing man! His wife can sure cook too!

After the lesson we all went to a musical fireside. President Condie was speaking. He was very good. It was a very good spiritual upliftment..

The sisters were working with a guy who just got out of jail and is waiting for parole. He's been taught everything, wants to be baptized, we just have to wait to find out the dates of his trials and probation to set him. Oh yea. He moved into our ward. So now he's our investigator.

Later that same day we went to visit a L/A, P/M family. The male is a member, his partner isn't, and they have 3 children who have been blessed but not baptized. The partner has been going to church for 10 years but just hasn't been baptized yet. She said that she just hasn't felt right about being baptized. But when went to visit them, in the first 5 minutes of us being there, they told us. "Elders we want to get married, I want to be baptized and we want to be sealed in the temple." You could imagine that our faces just lit up. We were so excited and happy. The male went on to tell us his experiences he's had in the past and why he wants to come back to church. It made me realize that the church is so true because there is nothing in the world that could make somebody totally change their lives from doing way bad things because they realized they weren't truly happy. It was amazing. The Lord has truly blessed us for our obedience and we are going to continue to try to be obedient with exactness because it has been evident to us this week.

Elder Dixon and I get along so well. There's no hitch's and things just flow. I have learned so much from him and I"m just so grateful for him. I taught my first lesson where I totally felt that I relied on the Spirit then just my own knowledge. That was awesome. It's hard though. After I did it I was amazed and thought, wow this is easy. But at the next house, I bombed. It made me realize that I can't just expect the spirit to teach. I have to qualify and do my part for each time I'm teaching.

...Oh yea, I got some funny stories. Well many funny stories about Elder Dixon and I. But the funniest is that people we talk to think he's from America and they think I'm a kiwi. That's probably the funniest thing. I catch myself saying stuff the kiwi way occasionally. It's quite funny.
But I hope all is going well. I pray for you guys and all that good stuff. I love you so much.
Elder Davenport

New companion!

My new companion is from Ozzi (Australia). He's from the Sunshine Coast! He's been out only 12 weeks longer then me and it's awesome! He served near Elder Jones too! Things are just going really great. We get along really well and I'm going to learn so much from him. We have set 2 more people to be baptised on the 26th of July. Margaret and Tessa Hall. Mother and daughter. They are absolutely amazing! It's really neat to see people change and progress. We spoke in sacrament yesterday. Elder Dixon and I and Bro. Skeen (ward mission leader). It was way cool. The other week in sacrament was really cool. Keith, the kid I baptised, passed the sacrament to me! It was so neat to get the sacrament from a kid that I baptised!


I'm doing really well. I haven't gotten sick since that time I had the flu and I'm surviving. It feels like an Idaho fall here. It's perfect autum football weather. It's really funny because Elder Dixon is always bundled up in heaps of clothes trying to stay warm. Oh yea, after I gave my talk one of the members said I don't sound American. And with the help of Elder Dixon I think that might progress quicker.


But anyways. Time is almost up. We got here late again. But that's alright. I love you all so much and I'm glad I'm here. The time is flying by! I know the church is true and every blessing is obtainable if we try.
Elder Davenport
The chains of a habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken

A Visit to Hamilton June 1, 2008

Hey I don't have much time. We had flat (apartment) inspections today and that went really well but it took a lot of time. All is going really well. We've set 2 for baptism and there are 7 others who we are gonna try to set in the next 2 weeks. The temple was awesome! I am gonna send some pictures. I love you all. The Church is true and I'm glad I'm here!

Elder Davenport's district went to the New Zealand Temple this past week.