Hola Amigos
Nothing happened this week. Talk to y'all next week.
--Elder Davis
Hahaha just kidding. This week was insane! So on Wednesday, Élder Jensen and I got up and packed the last of our things. Then we ate breakfast, said goodbye to the rest of our district, and made our way to the travel office. When we got there, we ran into a bunch of people also going to Denver. All of them were English speaking. We had about 13 people. Once we had all turned in our keys and locks, we boarded the bus. I got to know some of the people in our group and most of them were really nice. Élder Jensen and I were the only Spanish speaking missionaries. We got off the bus at Provo Central, then hopped on a train to Salt Lake. While on the train, E' Jensen and I talked to this man who had served his mission in England a long long time ago. He told us all his stories and it was really interesting. Once we got to Salt Lake, I made it through weighing and security no problem, but others had stuff confiscated, so it took a little while to get through.
The flight was uneventful for the most part. I sat next to two elders and we just chatted for a bit. The flight was super short, then we landed in Denver. It was only an hour long. We got off the plane and went up an escalator to meet President and Sister Gifford. They were super nice and took us to baggage claim. Sister Gifford and I talked a bit, and I realized that they had left from Rexburg, Idaho. I asked if President Gifford had been a professor at BYU-I and she said, "Yes, he taught Economics". Turns out she knows my uncle who also taught Economics there! Small world!
Anyway, we got to the mission home and had a nice devotional. President and Sister Gifford gave us some Thank-You Cards (For when we have dinner with members), and a spiral-bound Book of Mormon. After the devotional, President Gifford pulled some people aside for interviews, and the rest of us got to know each other and kinda just chill for a bit. Then we settled in and went to bed. The next day was "Get right to business day". We woke up at 5 and ate breakfast and went to training. The mission office is in the basement of an old church building. We did training all day, learning about our apartments, driving, finances, and so on.
Later that evening, we were thrown out onto the street. President Gifford assigned each of us to a companionship of more experienced elders to take us out, have dinner with a member, and take us tracting. I was assigned to Elders Busch and Jorgensen. They were pretty chill. We went and ate at a member's house, who is part of a PMF (Part-Member Family) She fed us some bean soup, and I shared a message about Faith. More or less, it went well. Then we hit the street. Now these elders were English speaking, so we were only talking to gringos, not the people I was called to teach, and for good reason too: We ran into every sort of person you can imagine. We talked to a guy who had just gotten out of a 10-year prison sentence for shooting somebody, who yelled at us for probably 10 minutes straight about how Joseph Smith was a false prophet yadda yadda yadda. I was done talking to him when we started. We also ran into a guy who thought that we were "Space-Cristians". Someone had told him some out-of-context stuff about Kolob and other obscure stuff. He was convinced that Angels were aliens and that "Mormons" (whatever those are) were from another planet. We promptly moved on. We had some guy yell at us to go away, which we also promptly did. And at the last door of the night, we got in. It was a family from Louisiana who had been studying the books of scripture from every religion and were looking for the truest one. We gave her a book of Mormon. Cool stuff! And that was only from a few hours of tracting!
After we got back to the mission home, we got our companion assignments. My assignment is... (drumroll please) ... DENVER FIRST WARD! (Yeehaw!) This is the area closest to Denver in our mission, but I am in the Spanish area. this means that I cover almost 13 English areas because those are the boundaries of a Spanish Ward: Denver First. My area is Huuuuuuge. Also, my companion is... ELDER GIBBY! He was just released as zone leader and has spoken English his whole mission, but is fluent in Spanish. He and I are actually opening this area. That's right. Brand Spanking New Area. The ward is only moments away from falling apart, though, and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to find anybody to teach since they were struggling so much. NOPE! We found 3 new people on day one! We just knocked doors like crazy and Elder Gibby has really good approaches to get in and teach lesson one. On Thursday and Friday, we found 2 people each day. To put this in perspective, the rest of the mission struggles to find one person a day and we have found 7 in 3 days! This is an area of miracles! Literally the whole area is packed full of apartment complexes. Like TONS. There are literally too many people for us to be able to run out of work. My confidence and skill has increased a ton since day one! I am now a lot more confident approaching people and saying stuff in Spanish. I rarely understand everything they say back, but Elder Gibby does and that works out just fine. From now on, at least for a while, I will probably be approaching people and getting them started, then Elder Gibby will throw in the juicy stuff. Yesterday, we put someone on date for baptism in the first lesson. This is the E' Gibby way and it's pretty effective. I love it out here and talking to people each evening makes all the hard parts worth it. Sunday was pretty rough for me. I had a headache from trying to translate everything, and they asked me to introduce myself in Priesthood and my mind totally went blank. I was like "Uhhh Mi nombre es Elder Davis, uhhhhmmm soy de Saratoga Springs, Utah, uhhhhhhh bien." Then I sat down. I guess I'll have a chance to redeem myself when I speak in sacrament next month. 
I'm learning and getting better at Spanish each day.
Anyway, that's about all I've got this week, it's been hard, but it's totally worth it. I love the people, they are just so nice! The mission is a life unlike any other. Not everyone gets to spend every waking moment serving the Lord. Not everyone gets to wear the name of Jesucristo on their chests. Not everyone gets to share the gospel with every person they meet and have the protection of angels while doing so. I am so lucky to be out here, and I know that this will make me a better person, husband, and father one day. I can't wait to hear from all of you this week.
Haz lo justo! (Choose the right)
-- Elder Davis
MAILING ADDRESS
Elder Samuel Davis
1990 Fenton Street #4
Lakewood, CO 80214
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