Hey there, welcome back to today's edition of the Davis Family 2024 Year in Review!! I took a few more pictures in October, but there still isn't a lot, but I do have a good excuse for that. So, let's talk about it, shall we?
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| Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?!?!? He's getting to be an old man now. |
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| Nathan snuggling with our cute little niece. He's a baby hog by the way. |
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| Me and my buddy Grignard hanging out on the hammock. |
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| Meow meow got his green belt. |
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| It's GAMEDAY!! I believe this is the BYU vs. Arizona game. Naturally we won that game. We trounced them 41 - 19!! I had to miss two home games because of my silly surgeries, which is sad, because they were epic and awesome games. But I was happy to get to go to the games I did go to. |
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| My little yard buddies. Grignard is sitting on top of Scoot. |
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| My cute old man |
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| And this here is my excuse for why I didn't take more pictures. I am high as a kite and four sheets to the wind here, and the reason for that is because this in on the way home from PAYSON where I had my SECOND surgery of the year. This surgery is where they permanently placed my spinal cord stimulator. |
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| Help!! |
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| A lovely fall day, hanging out on the hammock, enjoying the last few days of warm weather and the beautiful wildflowers on my island |
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| Tiger Lily has been doing an internship at a fire station down in Bountiful. They were getting rid of some of their old equipment and so she snagged some. |
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| For Halloween, Jacen decided to dress up as Wolverine. |
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| His friends jokingly called him the Walmart Wolverine. We all thought it was hilarious and so we officially called him the Walmart Wolverine |
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| Meow-meow won the Whitesides Warrior award for having a positive impact on others. There was a whole huge assembly where he was given his award. He even got a metal. It was really fun. |
Well, that's it for October 2024.......for those of us in Utah anyway. We've still got to talk about our Nevada missionary........
We only got one email from Jimmy in October. That email was on October 29th.
How's it going? Well, it's been a minute. I'm so sorry about that. Things have been going off here in north Las Vegas. We've been doing a lot of the work, like a lot. Our area is huge. It's like half of north Las Vegas. There are so many humble people and so many people that need this gospel. My companion and I have been having lots of fun. He's great. He's from California and plays the guitar as well. The rest of my district is great, same with the zone. We have been going on a lot of exchanges, about 2 to 3 a week. So far, we have been with every companionship in the zone, and we have gone almost 2 times with every district leader. It's fun seeing the difference in missionaries as we go on exchanges. One of the new missionaries gave his suit jacket away to a homeless guy. There are so many unique things that have happened, and I can't remember. But at least it's sweater weather. We took a recent convert to the temple. Crashed a hatian creole birthday party by accident. They wanted us to take a picture with their kid. We've been teaching a lot of people. The general conference was great. We had our mission leadership council, powerful. Shows how much work goes into creating a mission improvement plan. That's pretty much it. Wish I had more for you all since it's been like 4 weeks, but I'll start journaling better. Have a good one, stay safe, God bless, luv ya bye!
These few weeks, I've been taking a deeper look into humility. More specifically, I've been looking into four words. Patience, penitence, peace, and prayer.
Starting with patience. Patience is a blessing to have naturally. A long with humility and faith, it is a christlike attribute. It is "cheerfully doing all things that lie in your power" as preach my gospel teaches. Patience is thinking celestial. It is trusting in God.
President Holland taught from alma 32 in his general conference talk titled "waiting on the Lord" that "Many lessons are taught in this remarkable chapter, but central to them all is the axiom that the seed has to be nourished and we must wait for it to mature; we “[look] forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof.” Our harvest, Alma says, comes “by and by.” Little wonder that he concludes his remarkable instruction by repeating three times a call for diligence and patience in nurturing the word of God in our hearts, “waiting,” as he says, with “long-suffering … for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you.”"
Patience is needed for us to grow the Word of God inside of us. It requires patience to hold on to the iron rod and to keep going. So, with patience, we can study the words of the Lord.
When I don't have patience. I have a hard time studying the word of God. When my mind is filled with anger, I struggle to be patient. When I am stressed, its as if my patience gets shattered. Now, the opposite of stress is peace. How can we get peace?
Alma 38:8
8 And it came to pass that I was three days and three nights in the most bitter pain and anguish of soul; and never, until I did cry out unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, did I receive a remission of my sins. But behold, I did cry unto him, and I did find peace to my soul.
Alma had most bitter pain and anguish of soul. But when he "cried" unto the Lord Jesus Christ, he was then filled with peace. And was able to be one of the most amazing missionaries.
Now I love the word "cried". Crying is an interesting thing to use. Most of us would say, "Ok, well, he just prayed." But no, he cried. He didn't just mutter the words. He shed forth tears. Maybe they were tears of pain. Or ... maybe they were tears of humility. Tears of being truly penitent. Praying is a huge form of humility, especially when you "cry" unto the Lord. Crying unto the Lord is humbling your emotions, not holding back. And when you kneel to pray, you are humbling your body to the ground. You are being humble physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So what's the point of praying? Why be humble? Why be patient?
Elder Holland furthermore teaches: "So while we work and wait together for the answers to some of our prayers, I offer you my apostolic promise that they are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. My beloved brothers and sisters, please understand that He who never sleeps nor slumbers cares for the happiness and ultimate exaltation of His children above all else that a divine being has to do. He is pure, love, gloriously personified, and Merciful Father is His name."
I brought this subject up with my mission president. He told me there are means and ends. A big house is the ends of a good job, the good job is the means to a big house. The means to a good job is good schooling. So on and so forth.
So prayer gives us peace, peace helps us have patience, and patience allows us to hold to the Iron Rod(studying the word of God). Prayer is humbling. humbling ourselves, and studying the word of God leads us to faith and hope. And that leads us to the rest of the gospel.
All of these things are means.
3 nephi 11:5
5 And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.
But what are the ends?
3 nephi 11: 10- 11
10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning
The Lord Jesus Christ is the end. These things point us to christ. They help us look up to him. I love my savior. For he hath redeemed my soul, and I say these things in his holy name, Jesus Christ amen.
And that brings us to the end of October 2024. Everyone had a great Halloween. Meow-meow invited some of his friends for school over to have a little party and go trick-or-treating, and I did my best to not go stir crazy and recover from my surgery. Come back tomorrow for November, Thanksgiving, and more news from our Elder Davis. And I promise that there will be more pictures.
