Elder Davis' Ohio Columbus Mission: He's Home Mission Accomplished

I'm Sayre Davis, you may remember me because I was here 2 years ago. I just returned from a two year mission in Ohio. I loved my experience there and I'm excited to share some experiences with you about my adventures out there.

My mission was my own walk to Emmaus. The story of the road to Emmaus is from Luke, but in short after Jesus Christ has been resurrected he appears to two disciples, but they do not recognize him. They walk all day with him and even ask him to spend the night which he agrees to but shortly after disappears. The two men realize that they were walking with the resurrected with the lord for the space of an entire day. He was there with them helping and guiding them the whole way even if we don't recognize it. I've come to love my savior on my mission. He has taught me lessons I could have never learned without it. He lead me to meet some incredible people who taught me the why's and how's of being a disciple.

I'm just going to jump in now and share what I learned from my mission with you. The first thing I've learned is to cherish what is important and that is the people around us. A general authority once said "Well, life is fleeting at best. We turn around and we’re young, turn around again and we’re old. Minutes rush past. We can’t stop them in all their rush. We’re eighteen; we’re twenty-eight; we’re forty-eight; we’re gray. Is there ever enough time to nag, scold, dig, or complain at the people we love most? We fool ourselves if we think there is. There’s only time to stop, as one has put it, to smell the flowers." The individuals around us are the thing that matters most. We do not have time to scold or complain. We must love and cherish them because that is what matters. An example of this on my mission was the Fisher family. They came to be some of my closest friends. The Fisher family were all baptized within a 5 year span, I was lucky enough to baptize there middle daughter, the last one to hold out from being a member. I was even lucky enough to be a witness to their sealing. There membership in the church is not what stuck with me though it was there love for others. I remember long nights helping Bro. Fisher dry walling a ladies entire house because she needed help, I remember giving blessings early in the morning with him, but my most favorite was the mud. My companion and I were trying to visit a new family that moved in. This new family had bought an airport and so we were driving to there house,UNTIL we hit a massive mud field. We were stuck. We tried putting boards underneath the tires to get transaction. Four well drive and pushing the car but nothing was working. Low and behold we called our friend Brother Fisher. As the kind of people they were, they left there youngest daughter who had just returned home from college, and him and Hannah showed up. 5 min later in boots and coveralls. They pushed with us and winches us out with his truck. They even paid for our car to get washed. Without a thank you they drive back home. I'm not sure if they knew the impact that had on me and my companion but they taught us a lesson that day. Never be afraid to sacrifice for those that you love. If we love each other every problem and disagreement fades. Let us please sacrifice our wants and needs to show the people that actual matter that we love them. After all it is what the savior did.

The second lesson I learned that I'd like to share is to see green. That may sound a bit weird but hear me out. To explain what it is about I need everyone to follow me as I explain a creative reality. As we start in this reality we have a master. A loving master who wants us to become masters of the color green. He wants us to live, breath, and love the color green. He could do three things to get us to live and embrace green. He could drop us into a world of green. Every building, tree, flower animal, EVERYTHING would be green. BUT if he took this route if all we know is green, nothing is green. Everything is just the way it is and we would never appreciate it if we didn't know other colors. Second option, he could explain to us that this color we are experiencing is green. He could sit us down point to the color green and tell us this is green. G R E E N-green. Yet this is how we teach primary kids and he wants us to love and embrace green on a deeper and more full level. The third option I propose is a unique option. The master could drop us into a world of BLUE. Everything in this world would be blue, and we would Love blue. It's cool and serene. We would love to be in blue. Until one day our master would pick us out of the blue world and toss us into a world of YELLOW. in this world everything is warm and new and exciting. We've never experienced yellow before so we could choose to be one of three people. We could LOVE YELLOW. We could want to ditch blue forever and stay in yellow. Second we could LOVE BLUE. We could want to leave yellow and go back to the old world of blue. But THIRD we could choose to think "what if there is something more?". What if we mesh these two colors and love in both and become MASTERS OF GREEN! Through this process of fully seeing and living through the making of the color green we would learn to appreciate and love green. We would truly become masters of green. I'll pray that made sense to you. To become a master of green is to see the trials we face and understand their purpose and what we can learn, or how we can become better. It is not easy but I met someone who had done this. Her name is Erin. This is how we met her . My companion and I were throwing a beach party for our ysa ward, side note this was approved by the mission president and everything was absolutely in line with the rules. Anyways we started adding members and inviting them to a Facebook page that was for the event. As I was going through people I saw the profile of Erin, I felt a prompting to invite and I did. 20 min we got a message that said "I'll be there, but I have a brain injury so I won't be able to stay long". Of course we said that was OK and we were excited to meet her. At the beach party a few days later she introduced herself but due to the hectic situation we didn't have a conversation. However at the end of the party we saw Erin sitting by herself on a bench and we went over. It was late around 9 o'clock and in East Cleveland, which most don't know but it's as bad as Detroit so we were weren't going to leave her. She said she was waiting for her parents to pick her up, so we waited with her. This is when we learned of Erin's story. Erin had had difficult situations all throughout her life but 2 years prior to us meeting her she suffered a terrible injury at a stake activity. She received massive headaches and sometimes was in so much pain she couldn't move. After this story had been shared we learned this was the first church function she had gone to in 2 years. We came to love Erin. She was kind, loving, and christ like, but how hard that must be when suffering. Through the trials and pain she suffered she understood how to face them head on. How to learn from them, and how to have a joyful life instead of a perfect one. To do this takes sacrifice of the less important things in life but if we can become masters of green we can become like our brother and redeemer.

The last lesson I learned that I'd like to share is that the savior is real. He lives. Although I've never seen him walking through Galilee, although I didn't see him suffer in the garden or die on the cross. Even though I didn't see that stone rolled away and see him resurrected I know he lives. When hard trials come, when we feel alone, afraid, or just as if we can't move on take courage. He is there. I met destiny a young lady in Cleveland who helped me learn this principle. Destiny had felt utterly alone. She didn't have family or friends. She was struggling with pains of prior life events and was looking for something, and she found it. Destiny found the church through her grandma and flourished. She was actively taking strides in the gospel and looking for her savior. She found him. I had the privilege to baptize destiny and I'm so thankful to be apart of the spirit on that day, because he was there. He loves her and she loves him.

As we struggle with hard things let us remember those in our lives who have found him. When we are faced with trials let us remember him, he's real isn't he? Then what else matters. He loves us, and what else matters. You are saved through him, and he wants you back with him.

I loved my mission. I have learned that he is real, we can face trials with joyful attitudes, and that what matters most is our loved ones. I love my family, and I love my savior. Bear testimony