Good in the Hood

So I feel like so much much has happened since I last wrote like I have a whole new life. I will start with the flight so it was snowing pretty hard so we got delayed 10 min then we boarded but then we went to take off and the wings were like frozen so we sat on the plane for 2 hours while the deiced the wings. Also on the plane, i sat next to Steven Bushes chemistry teacher and his wife I talked to them a bit about the church so it that was kinda fun to talk to someone in the outside world about the church. then we landed the president and his wife picked us up there was traffic and it was about a 30 min drive to the mission house. sister cooke and president Cooke are super nice and great I wish I had them longer than I do. They seem so awesome we had dinner and a testimony meeting there then stayed the night. the next morning we went to the church and got assigned our comp and area, I was assigned to be with elder Mellon and we are in the Anacostia area, which is straight the hood it is the most ghetto part of all of Washington DC, when president said I was going there he jokingly said “good news you won’t see much someone would have to pay me to go there” haha. Fun fact this is where Kevin Durant grew up I walk down his street most days. last summer he had a pretty nice basketball court built here that’s where my tow pics are at. I really like it so far so white people don’t exist here except us like legit none which is great cuz people will come up to us and ask what we are doing in the hood so that’s a good way to share the gospel. people generally respect us here, that we would come to this area and teach them. But like when I walk down the street I feel like I’m in a movie like these 2 white kids holding books of Mormon walking down this super ghetto street, gangster music blasting out of cars, everyone staring at us and sirens in the distance haha. Starting here in Anacostia is great tho because there is so much work here its like city so everyone is out on the streets always so we always have people to talk to and people to teach so I feel like I am getting a ton of practice so that’s great and days here are super interesting just the stuff we see I have never been inside such trashed houses. We are teaching a lot of people but like everyone drinks and smokes here so that’s the biggest challenge, like after 7pm everyone is under the influence of something so sometimes I will practice on drunk or high people. Also, another big issue is no one is ever home for appts so like 85% of appt fall through and also a lot of the people we talk to don’t have homes we can visit they are on the street so they are always moving around. My comp is okay he has only been on the mission for 4 months he has served the whole time here in Anacostia so he knows the area pretty well but he’s a little too quick to give up on people and so sometimes that’s annoying. Its Bike area I should have mentioned that earlier but we mainly just walk cuz we can talk to so many people when we walk and when an appt falls through usually we can just find another person to teach we do bike if we are in a hurry. The guy I replaced left a pretty nice bike and helmet and lock so I got that all for free which was super nice except the back brakes don’t work so that’s super sketch but I think I will buy and put on the brake pads today. It’s nicer than it looks everyone covers their bikes on tap here and tries to make them look a little trashed.  Also, we ride the metro sorta often like for zone meeting and to come to this computer so that’s fun and a good place to contact. the metro here reminds me a lot of Bart there is just way more stations. Okay so yesterday was my first Sunday here and it had to be the most interesting church I have ever been too. so our ward boundaries are freaking huge so we have 3 sets of missionaries in it. But there are only 60 people in the ward and only about 40 show up pretty much everyone is a convert so they don’t know a ton of the church but everyone is so unique and odd and everyone in sacrament meeting talks back to the speaker and people will yell Amen its pretty funny also the church is super small all like maybe 5 classrooms all of my classes were in the chapel so I had my same seat all 3 hours haha. the church used to be a Baptist church so the layout is pretty weird. like everyone in our ward is pretty poor so no one signs up to feed us actually the opposite happens to 2 people called and asked us if we had food to feed them but we didn’t. My comp says that happens pretty often. another reason we don’t get fed is cuz first there is 3 different clipboard cuz we have 3 sets of missionaries and then there just aren’t many people in the ward and maybe like 3 families can afford to feed us. so they say they get like 2 dinners a month we have one white family in our ward they are super nice and they feed each set once a month. we had nowhere to go yesterday for dinner so they invited all 6 missionaries over for Easter dinner so that was super nice of them. Like i said everyone is converts so everyone in the ward is pretty close with the missionaries and likes them. a lot of them are still getting the new member lessons. So that’s fun. Also Washington DC is super beautiful the cherry blossoms are just blooming and lots of stuff is blooming. We get to be volunteers in the cherry blossom parade in like 2 weeks and that’s like a huge event and will be on tv and we get to wear our badges so that will be cool. So yesterday was Easter and we were visited this investigator Latony and she said something pretty powerful we where talking about Jesus Christ and we asked her do you know what Jesus Christ did for us, she paused for a min and with tears in her eyes said he died for me and know just crying she said i love Jesus I just want Jesus I just want him to know I love him, how can I tell him I Love him. It made me think does Jesus Christ know we love him and what on daily biases are we doing to show that love. It was just like a super powerful moment and I know the spirit was teaching her it was awesome. Also a common phrase around here that i like is If lord brought me to it he will get me through it. People are just so happy to be alive here it’s pretty humbling because I feel like they do have a lot to complain about but when we ask them to hope they are doing most people will just say I woke up today and I’m healthy I can’t complain so that’s been awesome to experience. Also i like forgot to to take photos so yesterday i remembered and took 2 on our way home from Easter dinner I love the people this area is great so far. I love you all i hope things are well. Sorry this one was so long. Love Elder Davidson