A Big Surprise!

The last couple of days have been absolutely crazy. We had an all-mission conference that Elder Scott was supposed to speak at, but he wasn't able to come because he got sick. So President Kenneth Johnson, our area president, came. He is an inspiring man. If that we all, then we would be alright, but President Jacobsen called me up on Monday and asked me if I could do
something for him. He asked me to bring my luggage with me to the all-mission conference. I thought he had found out about all of the dodgy things i had done ;) but he told me that I was moving . . . again!

After about two weeks in Birkenhead, I am now back in Manchester. This ward is just south of Stretford. It is appropriately named the Manchester South Ward. Elder Taylor is staying in Birkenhead and Elder Key is going to serve with him. I am taking Elder Key's spot in Man. South with Elder Mckenna, who has been out for two weeks. So after whitewashing into Birkenhead, I basically whitewashed into Man. South, but this time while training. However, Elder Mckenna does not need to be trained. He is training me. He is a great, enthusiastic, obedient missionary and I am excited to learn a lot from him. I feel a bit all over the place during the last couple of weeks, so give me a couple of weeks before I start to make sense again. I hope that I can fulfill the responsibilities that President has entrusted me with, and I look forward to the learning that comes from it all.

In the Manchester south ward we have the Assistants serving in the ward, two other missionaries(one who could easily be an assistant), and also the Mission President and his lovely Wife go to this ward also. Elder Mckenna sure is being trained by more missionaries than one. He is going to be able to learn a lot of great things that will allow him to go out and spread his influence, now I am just trying not to counter all of that positive influence! Things are starting to pick up again in this area.

I would tell you more about Birkenhead, but I didn't have much in the first place. Except that we taught a deaf and dumb
lady and her son the last night I was there. I love watching a member of the ward explain the gospel through sign language. I loved watching as her understanding became a little bit better. I do not know what is going to happen there, but maybe I can stick around Manchester South long enough to have an impact. I thank God for the knowledge that we all have and the comfort it brings into our lives. No other way could 19 year old boys come out and do this if it wasn't true.

We have a great opportunity coming up in General Conference. We will be having a Solemn assembly, and I am sure that Mom will be able to explain that much better than I could. I know that the spirit will be strong, so I encourage you to ask Mom about it, and prepare yourselves for it. Also do this for General Conference. Meditate over your needs and concerns in life. Write them down. Pray about them and pray for the spirit to give you revelation during conference concerning them. I know that our answers will come as the universal language is spoken by these amazing men.

I love all of you and appreciate your prayers. Thank you,

Elder Davies

March 5, 2007

I am sorry that I do not have loads of time. We had a zone activity today and it went pretty long. We are rushing to get to an appointment with a Less-Active member. That is one of our focuses of this transfer. That and finding a family. We and the Ward Mission Leader decided that if we brought a new and excited family into sacrament meeting, the ward would completely turn around. It would solve a lot of families. So right now we are searching for that family, whether it be through referrals or
tracting. This ward is a bit small, so we are also focusing on some less active members of the ward, especially priesthood members.

Birkenhead is medium big. It is much like a suburb of Liverpool, but more self-sufficient. Out in the outskirts of our area, we get some big houses and more fields. I am excited to spend some time out there.

The ward is small and has had some hard things happen over the past years. I guess some good missionaries have served here, but we are just trying to do the best we can to strengthen the ward and help make it grow. The Church in England seems to be struggling a bit at the moment. They are going to combine four ward into two in our area, so it is more than likely that our ward size will double, and we will get two more missionaries in here. That certainly will help the 10% of the members doing 90% of the work.

There is a city center to talk to people, but it is pretty tight and closes down early. We will be doing more tracting this transfer,
unless the Lord knows someone will be in the city centre and we need to talk to them. It has been interesting bringing an area out of the dust a bit, but we have the support of everyone, and Heavenly Father certainly is on our side.

Our miracle is about a less-active lady. Her name is S***** and she fed us, but that is not the miracle. Earlier that day she saw
a man asking for some change. She didn't have any, but she went back to her car to get some. Afterwards she felt good about it and thought that she would be blessed for it. Later that night, not two blocks away from where she lives, we gave her a call and boy was she excited to talk to us. She considers it her little miracle, so will I.

Elder Davies