December 26, 2016: Merry Christmas

Oi boa tarde! 

I hope your Christmas was great! I had a great week this week. I think that my letter might be a little shorter this week because I did skype. But either way there´s some good stuff to talk about.

SO one of the biggest things that happened.... was on Monday. Monday night, right before we went to sleep, me and my companion was in bed and I finally got the courage to talk to him about his problems and how he needs to change. I talked for awhile and said that he needs to be a better example for me. And that he has to think about why he is here on the mission and basically be a better missionary. I was worried he would be mad. But he just went to sleep. The next few days he changed his ways bit by bit and told me that he is going to change to be a better example for me. SO that was good! 

Really cool sunset!  Reminded me of Way of Kings a bit!

On Tuesday, we had a very very spiritual lesson. It was for our investigator Henrique. The previous appointment we left him with the commitment to read the first 16 pages of the Book of Mormon. Because the prophet promised that if we do, we will know the book is true. He hadn't read it. So, my companion looked to me to decide what to say. I paused for a bit. I was literally just talking from the promptings of the spirit. I talked about the Book of Mormon and how important it is to read it. After I said that he is invited to read the first 16 pages if he wants to. It shouldn't be just like homework for him. I told him he needs to read it with real intent. I also challenged him to start every study with a prayer. The spirit was really strong. And after my companion bore his testimony about everything too. It was really cool. After he said that he made a goal and if he keeps this goal until Friday he will be baptized. 

The next few days we taught other lessons and he wasn't home until Friday (so we werent able to visit him). Friday afternoon, we went there and talked with him. He said he will be baptized and that he wants me to baptize him. It was really cool. So then on Saturday we had the baptism and it went great. 

Baptism of Henrique

This is the same day but with the other Elders and their investigator too.

Sunday he came to church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I also gave a talk in church. It went very well the spirit was strong and a few people were crying. I hadn´t even prepared anything. But, they really liked it and said it had helped them out alot. So that was my week. 

Oh, one funny story, on Thursday we had Mutual, and we played Ninja with the members after the lesson. AND, I accidentally stepped in a bag of vomit. So it was super stinky and my shoe and sock got vomit on them. Why was the bag there? I have no idea. A lot of people just put there trash in bags on the side of the road because they don't have those big trash cans. So that really sucked. But it was funny too. Anyways, that was my week! It went by really fast and was really great. Sorry my email is a little bit shorter this week, but we are having problems with the wifi. It keeps failing. haha First world problems right? 

Here we fit 6 people in the back of a tiny car. It's basically like a taxi but a smaller crappier car. Luckily I was in the front.

Anyways I hope you all can think more about Christ this week. I think a cool principle is that we show our love for Christ through our actions and through our obedience. So reflect on what you can do better in your lives to show that love you have for Christ. Love you all!! And have a great New Year!

Love, 

Elder Davis

December 19, 2016: FAT

Hello All....

I hope everyone is doing good. I am doing great. haha This week though was for the most part pretty lame... not sure what to even write about. I will do my best though. 

SOOOO to start it off, on Monday we played more soccer... and im getting a lot better. I still suck compared to the brazillians, but I'm making improvement. haha So that's good. I think the highlight of Monday was when we got home. When I walked in, there was a tiny lizard in our house. SO naturally, I went for my blowgun. Because, who knows, it could've been poisonous. So I took a shot at it, kinda as a joke, and I actually hit it! So it kinda died. I know! I'm a terrible person. For all you vegetarians out there, I'm sorry I'm wasting good meat! But I kinda just threw him out to the rabid dogs! I did take a picture though!!! That is actually probably the highlight of the whole week... I felt like one of those naked indians I saw on the history tour!

Dead lizard that I killed with my blowgun!

 ANYWAYS, Tuesday... Tuesday was good a little weird though with Elder Ferreira. We didn't have lunch so we met up with Elder J Sousa and ELder R Santos to make food. Me and Elder R Santos bought it all because they didn't have money. After, Elder R Santos told my comp to hold the groceries and he just smiled and said no. SO I was like, dude you gotta do something, if you don't help you don't need to eat. And Elder R Santos said the same thing. AND he said, OK I won't eat then..... I thought it was a joke but we made dinner and he didn't eat. He just laid in bed. Really weird. haha But after that it was fine, the day went well. 

Drawing of my brother Hunter!

On wednesday we had splits and I went with Elder J Sousa in his area. He is such a cool guy. He's one of my best friends out here. I hope I get to be comps with him. AND then...the rest of the week was kinda lame. Because on Thursday I woke up with Huge fat lip, Diarrhea, a fever and a headache! So that sucked! So we didn't work that hard... President said to just take it easy. SO I was like that until Saturday... 

Some kind of bug bit me and gave me a fat lip!

Then Saturday, we had a baptism! It was great! I baptized Kalebe. He is a 9 year old child of a less active... so it was a quick teaching process but it was still a good baptism. I had to baptize him twice because I said the wrong words the first time.. hahaa. Then on Sunday, we went to his house to pick him up for the confirmation and he wasn't home... So we told his mom if she can make it by the 2nd hour we could still confirm him. (the second hour is our sacrament meeting) HE SHOWED UP. It was awesome. I wanted to jump with joy. hahaha But it was great. SO that was my week my friends. Pretty nifty. 

Baptism of Kalebe

Also, Christmas is coming up! I love this time out here because we testify of Christ even more! I know He lives and loves each one of us! Keep that in mind this holiday!!! AND..... MERRRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMAL!

Love,

Elder Davis

December 12, 2016: Monkey Business

Ola! Tudo bem amigos??

Esta semana foi muito bem. A gente teve uma conferencia de zona para Natal. So yeah we had a conference for Christmas with our zone. It was good! It was basically just training and stuff for the most part but it was good. That was definitely the highlight of the week. And I saw monkeys, in REAL LIFE so that was pretty freaking legit. 

But, anyways to start it off, last P day we played some more soccer and stuff. really cool. I can't even find the words about how much I love soccer. Brincadera!  It sucks! haha But it still is fun. Basically I'm just not very good at soccer but I still play and have a good time every time. haha But yeah that was pday. And I didn't feel like taking pictures of people kicking a ball around so I don't have pictures for this week..... hehe!

Tuesday I´m gonna be honest... I don't remember what happened.. OH I did share a good message of being a light of the world with an inactive family. It was great. The spirit was really strong and I think they are slowly starting to change. 

Wednesday the AP came down and did splits with us. He is an american from Texas. We still talked in Portugues but he was really cool and it was fun to talk to him and learn from him. AND we did a service project!  We cleaned 8 dogs. ONE MEMBER owns 8 DOGS! I don't understand. But yeah we cleaned all of them. It only took like an hour. 

Thursday was basically just full of training.. It was good but long. We woke up earlier and went to the center and had the zone conference. After training we had lunch and went to the history center. But I already went there. So it was kinda just a repeat. Then we went to a museum of the history of how Brasil started in Porto Seguro. All of the pictures were suuuper blown up pictures from like Wikipedia so it was pretty ghetto looking. But for some people it was probably kinda interesting. And there was a tent building about the indians and it just had a bunch of pictures of naked indians. I guess they didn't believe in clothing. So us, as missionaries, weren't really sure what to look at. Especially with the Mission President right there with us... hahaah But we got through it. lol The best part was I saw monkeys! They were trying to eat a baby bird though... so that was kinda messed up. haha Then we did a white elephant and for my gift I bought 10 packs of ramen noodles and wrapped them up. It was pretty funny. I got a rubix cube. So I'm trying to figure that thing out without throwing it against the wall.... 

Friday we did freak.. I cant even remember.... I think we taught some lessons... then we had family night and played Ninja. I taught the Brazilians Ninja and now they are obsesssed with that game. hahaa its pretty funny. 

Saturday was lame because we really didn't do much. My companion was in a bad mood. So we are working on that. Also, the guy that was supposed to be baptized didn't show so that was kinda rough. I think this next week we will have 2 baptisms though. 

Sunday we had a District conference (and it was a translation) and Elder Holland talked. At first he tried talking in Portugues but then spoke the rest in english with someone translating it all. It was good though! After that we had to go ask all the members for them to make lunch for us because we didn't have any food. Luckily, a nice lady made food for 4 starving members and we were saved. haha 

So all in all this week was good! It just went by really fast. Kinda weird. It was really cool this week testifying of Jesus Christ. Reading Jesus the Christ, I have learned sooooo much about Him. I'm so grateful for his love for all of us!

Love

Elder Davis

December 5, 2016: Boa Tarde!!

Boa Tarde!!!

How is it going everyone? I hope life is great for you guys. This week has been a crazy one. I gotta say... it´s been a little challenging with my new companion... but it´s alright. I´m learning to love him and have patience for him. 

SOOOOO Monday... we went and played a card game called President. It is pretty fun. haha And I always was the president. I just am too good I guess. Afterwards, we went to the center and played some more soccer. So nothing crazy cool. So I didn't take anymore pictures..... Sorry guys. I will take some next time... There was a freaking beautiful sunset this week and I didn't have my camera so I couldnt capture it. But maybe I will start bringing my camera around with me so I can take more pics. idk

Tuesday... This was the interesting day.... In the morning Elder Ferrera was kinda grumpy and I was kinda grumpy too. We didn't have anyone make us lunch so we went to Elder J. Sousa´s house to make Macarrao. We were there pretty long becuase we had some troubles with cooking. it was like 2:00 already so we needed to get going. So I went to get Elder Ferrera and he was trying to take a nap in a bed. I told him that we needed to go and get work done. He didn't really like that and got really mad.... I will send a voice memo describing it. But yeah so the whole day he was mad at me and I was just basically not talking to him. I wasn't rude I just kinda shut off socially. haha It was awkward. 

Luckily, Wednesday was better.... hahha we had a Zone Conference early in the morning. It was good. I got my suit finally. haha So that was sweet! After the zone conference I started talking to Elder Ferrera about the mission and his goals and my goals and stuff and kinda got him to change his views about everything. We got closer and he decided to work a little harder and help train me better. Because he's kinda a slacker... He just doesn't have the best work ethic. He has a lot of potential though. He is a really good teacher for the investigators. haha

Thursday and Friday were good. Not a ton happened. I don't even know what to write every week guys to be honest... hahaha I'm waiting for another crazy story. But with our investigators we are doing great. We have a batismo this week for an investigator named Berg. He is pretty cool. He was really easy investigator but yeah this week he will be baptized. Next week we have at least one more baptism for a young boy named Kaleb. Also, this month our investigator named Henrique will be baptized and another one named Aline. Also, it´s possible that we can help more people out too. Those are our best investigators though. So pray for them to continue to progress and to recieve the holy ghost in their lives. 

This week we have passed out Christmas promotion cards for the church. It is about being a Light to the World. I think this is a great thing to do in our lives. There is always so much each of us can do to improve the lives of the people around us. I have made it a goal to be more Christlike and to do everything I can to improve the lives of the people here in Baianão. I believe that is the most important thing we can do in our lives. Baptisms are good. But the most important is to come unto Christ and through our examples and actions others will come unto Him as well. So that is my biggest thing I am focusing on here. However, it isn't something that is exactly measurable so it's hard to report it every week for you guys. But honestly, I know that Christ lives. Every time I try to be more like him, my relationship with him grows, and everytime, I am amazed at the sacrifice Jesus did for us. So I think during this time of Christmas, all of us can do something to come unto Christ better, to be better followers of him. I know he is our Savior. He lives!

Love,

Elder Davis

November 28, 2016: Changes and Changes

SOOOO this week was pretty good!  haha Honestly...not a lot happened the first part of the week. But, let´s see....

This is how Black People smile. I tried to be black.. didn't really work

Monday, after talking with you guys, Elder Araujo and I went to the Center of Porto Seguro. It was just me and him because Elder Pedraza and Elder J. Sousa were both going to train new missionaries. So they went to Salvador for training. We decided to go to the Historical Center of Porto Seguro. This city was the first place where the Portuguese landed their ships in South America. So basically this place had a bunch of really old Catholic churches. They were pretty cool. haha 

Also, there was a HUUUUUUGE (Donald Trump) TREE! It had vines like in Tarzan and it looked like the Tree of Life... just not white... and there wasn't a great and spacious building, or an iron rod.. or Lehi. But it did have a half naked indian! He was pretty cool. We bought blow darts from him for R$10. Which is like $3! haha They work really well too! I think I´m gonna make a target and hang it up in my room. It´ll be like playing darts, but with a blowgun. AAAHHH so sick. hahaa

This is the FREAKIN AWESOME tree!

That is my blowgun!

Tuesday we dropped off Elder Araujo and Elder Pedraza and J Sousa were back so I just stayed with them. We ate some pizza too and then slept. 

Wednesday was like the same thing. We ate and then at like 4 we picked up our companions. Elder Pedraza´s companion looks EXACTLY like the boss from the incredibles. The short guy who says, PAAAAAARRRRR, and then gets punched through the wall. AND HE SOUNDS LIKE HIM TOO!!! hahahahaahahahah Its so funny.

The rest of the week was good. I dont know what else really happened. I just took Elder Ferrera around and showed him to the members and Investigators. haha He's a cool guy. He is a Brazilian and doesnt speak english. But he's really cool and funny. He´s a little impatient with me at times but it´s all good. I just got to remember to trust in the Lord, and have the Love of God with me and all will be good...I think... haha! 

These trees are pretty neat!

But another highlight this week is I have been reading quite a bit in Jesus the Christ. I just can't put that book down!! I freaking love learning about our Savior and Eldest brother. My testimony of Him has grown so much. He endured so much for us. Because of his sacrifice we all have the amazing opportunity to obtain Eternal Life and live and get to know Christ and our Father forever! I love this gospel. I know it´s true. 

Love, 

Elder Davis 

This is a member in the ward.

Oh ps. On Saturday we were fast walking back to our house because Elder Ferrera needed to go pee... and we got to the house and he ran to the bathroom and the pee came out right when he entered the bathroom... It was soooooo funny. So yeah...my companion peed himself! hahahah

November 21, 2016: TRANSFERS and MAAAGGIICC!

Howdy all!

LOL!  Did that sound like Jordan´s emails? So this week was great... I'm loving it out here. This week was probably the rainiest week I´ve ever lived through. I think it rained every single day. Two of the days it literally rained for 6 hours without stopping. There was flooding all over the place. I think it covered the whole state of Bahia. In other cities I guess people even lost their homes to the rain.. Don't know how that happens exactly but it was nuts!  haha I liked it though! It wasn't nearly as hot... still humid.. but it was good:) 

So I think the best way to start the email of this magically awesomeness is by talking about P-day last week. So on Pday it was raining really bad so we decided to just go to the apartment of Elder Pedraza and Elder J. Sousa. We played some card games there. Elder J. Sousa has a ton of "Magic the Gathering" cards. So we played that. THAT GAME IS SO FUN. haha Its a really cool strategy card game. I definitely will buy some when I get home. BUT overall, I dont think I wanna play to much more of that game. Maybe every once in a while on P-day but I wanna stay focused on my purpose here and get better at the language. So other than rain and magic not a lot happened this week. 

We had an investigator named Henrique that was supposed to get baptized last Saturday but he decided he wasnt ready even though he's been investigating the church for 7 months. So that was too bad. Also all of our other good investigators need to get married first. So they are all working on that. After marriage, we can baptize quite a few people. I guess it´s just kinda hard to get married here. Its a really big process.

Recife Brazil Temple

I think one of the coolest things was a small group in our branch did a temple trip. It´s like a 26 hour drive to the temple there. During church they had those people bear their testimony. They all said how thankful they were for the oppurtunity to have a temple so close to them. They already are planning another trip in a couple months. It made me really think about how before the mission I rarely went to the temple. I always just told myself that I was too busy. But then I would just go play video games or something. Temples are so amazing though and I invite all you guys to make a goal to go to the temple more! The work being done there is amazing. 

Another spiritual thing this week, I just wanna say how awesome the Book of Mormon is. It is the word of God. No doubt. The  more I read it and ponder about it the more sure I am about this. And honestly if you just look at the facts of how the book of mormon became available to us, theres no way you could doubt that. But, facts are never enough, especially because everyone has their different interpretation of the facts. That's why a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon is crucial. If you know the Book of Mormon is true, everything else has to be true too! The Book of Mormon is so amazing I love it. I love being out here sharing this knowledge with other people. I love you all!!! Have a great spiritual week!

Love,

Elder Davis

OHHH p.s. Transfers happened. lol I am getting a new companion on Wednesday named Elder Ferrera. I'm staying in Porto Seguro too. So that's awesome. I really love it here!

November 14, 2016: RAMEN!

Hey all,

Kinda short on time this week.. But my week was super great! It went by so fast. I did companion exchanges a lot. Best part was finding the Brazilian version of ramen noodles! It's the exact same!! So I think I'm gonna start eating that every day. It's freaking amazing. hahahaha Except we don't have a microwave so we have to make it on the oven. But either way.... sooooo good. haha Because all the other snack food here is gross.. 

This was a freakin awesome tree... decided to take a pic of it.. lol

This tree is literally in the middle of the walkway to the church in the center of Porto Seguro.

Besides that not a ton happened. Becuase of all the exchanges we weren't able to teach very many lessons so we haven't had a ton of progression with our investigators. But the lady from last week (that we taught the Plan of Salvation to) told us she didn't want to recieve any more lessons. So that was a big bummer. She was my favorite! But it's all good. 

This is the backyard of the church. It's where we usually play soccer. It's pretty awesome.

Also, at a members house, a kid was watching a youtube video about minecraft. hahaha It was just like Colton. Made me laugh. It was in Portugues though...so a little harder to understand. But yeah that was my week basically in a little email. haha It was beautiful. Anyways I hope you are all doing well!! 

And this is the chapel. We usually go to a little group home in Baianão. We don't serve by this chapel. It's pretty cool though. It's the only chapel in our zone.

I also just wanna say how awesome the Book of Mormon is. I will do a voice recording of a cool passage. But like, Captain Moroni is freaking AWESOME! He's cooler than any super hero! Whelp, love you guys! Stay fresh!

Little anatomy practice...

Love, 

Elder Davis

November 7, 2016: Plano de Salvacao

Oi!! Tudo bem?!

So this week was pretty fast. haha SOOOOO it will probably be a little shorter this week... Não sei.

(Josh's Voice Recording on FAITH)

(Faith Part 2)

So P-day. After I wrote you guys last week, we went to the center to the church. We played that soccer game for like 3 hours. It actually was super fun. I got a lot better... hahaha I was on a team with Elder Rodriguez and he was a professional soccer player before the mission so we kinda destroyed everyone else. It was sweet. 

Terça-feira

We had splits and I was will Elder R. Santos. It rained soooooooooooo much. It was freaking crazy!! there was like a river in the road. Our best investigators kinda bailed on us... so that really sucked. We will keep working on them though but Remillson and Rita might not be baptized for a little while. 

Quarta-feira

Wednesday, we only taught one lesson.... yeah it was bad. It's because we had to go to a baptismal interview because elder Araújo is the district leader here. Then at 7 we had a family night and watched Conhecer os Mórmons. haha It was good! 

Quinta-Feira

Thursday was the best because we taught an awesome plan of salvation lesson. It was sick. haha We told this lady about the spirit world and how people still have a chance to accept the gospel and she started crying and the spirit was soooooo strong. Definitely the highlight of the week. 

The other days were good. haha We had a zone conference and it was good. lol I dont even know. And yeah that was pretty much the week. We also had a Bible bash!!! It was nuts. But definitely not spiritual... But yeah!  Oh!! On the way here to email you guys I sat down to eat some food and when I sat down I bumped a table and spilled lemonade all over my pants and shoes. So we had to walk all the way back home and I changed my clothes... lol so that was fun. But yep, that was the week!!! I just wanna say the Plan of Salvation is sooooo awesome! The knowledge of it is so powerful. Love you all!!

Only one drawing this week!

Elder Davis

October 31, 2016: Pretty Much Average Awesomeness!

Hey all!

This week has been pretty great! haha I made some voice memos for you guys to listen to.

(Voice Recording story my first crazy sight!)


But yeah, so this week was pretty normal. No crazy sights.... lol

Gandalf

Soooo,

On Monday, after emailing, we went and played a game like `speed´ but with soccer. Because in Brasil, missionaries aren't allowed to play an actual soccer game because it gets too physical. lol Ummmm but yeah I figured out that I freaking suck at soccer... It was fun though. After that I finally got a haircut on the mish. My hair was getting sooo long. It was starting to curl in the back because of the humidity. 

We also had a little family night thingy with Remilson and Angelica. She is a recent member and he is an investigator. So we watched the restoration video about Joseph Smith. It was super good. But, Remilson was totally falling asleep in it. Like he would close his eyes and immediately start snoring....it was sooooo funny. I had to put my fist over my mouth to make sure I didnt laugh. 

Tuesday was good. We just taught lessons and stuff.. but it was really spiritual. I got some sick revelation during personal study and then felt the spirit really strongly when teaching about Joseph Smith. Oh, and here they can't make a ´th´sound so they say, Joseph Smeech. It's really funny. 

Let's see, so Wednesday was pretty long... it was just kinda boring but really good. We had a district meeting and then after that we just knocked all day but none of our investigators were answering... so that sucks. We met a cool old lady named Maria that we taught and committed to baptism. The spirit was really strong and she asked if we could help her stop smoking, so we made a goal with her to smoke less each day. We taught her at 4:00 and she already had smoked an entire pack...so we got some work to do. haha The other days were good but my fingers hurt because this keyboard sucks so I don't really feel like typing anymore... Nothing crazy happened though. I still have all my fingers and I´m not going bald yet. So it's all good! haha I have been doing a lot of drawing and I'm gonna send some drawings that I forgot to send in the CTM. If you guys have suggestions for what I should draw let me know and send me a pic of it. Love you All!!!

My Dad

Love Elder Davis

(Here is another voice recording from Josh!)

(Part one)

(Part two)

October 24, 2016: Many, Many Crazy Sights!

What's Up Everyone?

Okay this week I had many, many crazy sights!  Actually just one...but I'll get to that in a bit!

So this week was great. I´m loving it out here! The first week was a bit of a culture shock but this week I´m used to everything and am loving it. Weird things... they sell "Halls" here everywhere! It's candy to them. I had one and it tastes exactly like the medicine back at home.. haha   Also, the place where we live, the members that live below us have a dog that looks and sounds just like Sammy! Just not as fat... but still a little weird. Also there are dogs everywhere!  They all look like they have rabies.  In addition, there are horses everywhere. Just random horses without an owner grazing on the... trash. haha It's kinda weird. They are super skinny and look like they have rabies too. So that's fun! haha

Picture I drew of Nephi making his wooden bow!

So, after emailing you guys last week we went to a big island in the ocean and rode a boat to it!  It was so cool. It's a big tourist area.

There was a leather shop and they had the coolest stuff!  They had these wine/water bottles that the outside was a cow leg!! haha And they had these viking style hats! The coolest thing though was they had cow horns made into actual horns.. like bugles.. haha one of them looked exactly like Borimir´s horn (in Lord of the Rings) I wanted to buy it soooo bad. But I decided to wait. haha 

Me holding the COW LEG water bottle!

Tuesday was the interesting day. So I woke up with a bunch of bug bites. Then we picked up the member that we were teaching with and went to the first investigator's house. We were teaching the Restoration to a mom, her sister, baby, and kids. Anyways I started talking and was gathering my thoughts on Joseph Smith, and when I looked up, the lady had her boob out breastfeeding her baby!! I literally was so shocked I forgot all that I wanted to say. Then I just badly finished my part about Joseph Smith, while looking at the sister and just the eyes of the mom... and then when my companion was talking I just looked at him the whole time. I didn't even wanna look over at the lady. Eventually she finished up and it was all good. But then I was bearing my testimony and she had it out again!! So basically it was a bad lesson and we aren't going back there. haha After that I stepped in dog poo and stuff. And something else happened that sucked but around like 5 I was looking back at the day and just started laughing and changed my attitude about it all. So my day was good despite all that happened. (Although I´d rather not have a lady do that again. hahaha)

After that, the week was pretty calm. The language is coming along really well. It´s really clicking in my head. And when I have the spirit with me while I'm teaching I literally just start talking calmly and normally. It´s amazing! I would be teaching and would start using words that I forgot I even knew. They´d just come to me. haha  Also one of the sisters that is in our district said that one of the Brazillian elders was talking to her and said my conjugation of verbs is better  than hers (and shes been out for 10 months)! haha I didn't really know how to respond to her... I just kinda said uhhh thanks... and sorry I guess. hahaha  But she talked overall waaayyy better than me so it´s all good. 

Me and Elder Araújo

My companion is really cool! He´s kinda quiet but he's really patient and is a good trainer. Also I guess on Saturday they all want me to teach an english class! haha So hopefully that goes well. On Sunday we had the Mission President come and we had a District Conference. (Which is just like Stake conferences at home. Except, with less people.) It was really good and we had a lot of members come from neighboring cities. I started practicing the piano again. I remember quite a lot. I can play pretty much any song by ear and can still read the music well. I just need to work on my finger work. haha 

Live long and play the piano...

My area is apparently one of the poorest areas in the mission but I love it so much! The people here are soooo nice. Anyways that was my week! I love you all! and I know that this church is true. I watched the restoration video this week and man Joseph Smith is freaking awesome. I know that he was called of God and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

So I was drawing someone and it turned out to be Jordan...

(PS Let me know if you have any picture requests)

Love you all,

Elder Davis

October 17, 2016: Smelling "GREAT" in Porto Seguro!

Oi Familia!!

Tudo Bem?! Eu amo o campo. Haha The field is great. Much better than the MTC. Really different though! So yeah I didn´t die last week I just couldn't email. Okay, so I'm gonna start from the beginning as far back as I can remember... It feels like years since the MTC.

So as you guys know, I lost my camera... WHICH SUCKED!  So I talked to Elder Snyder, (an elderly elder that is in charge of things like that...) and he said that it should be fine because I lost it on the bus and that I would see it again that night. But it never came! So every single day from that Wednesday I was praying and checking with the Snyder´s and.... no luck. Friday and Saturday they were all gone so I was pretty much about to accept that it was gone. On Monday I got a hold of Sister Snyder and asked one more time and she hadn't heard anything. So that sucked but she called and left a message with the bus people. So on Tuesday at 3:00 AM we had to wake up and head down to leave the MTC. We were waiting outside the MTC and right before we left in the vans, one of the staff members walked over with a camera asking for an Elder Davis!!! AAAHHHH it was so legit. Definitely a miracle right there. I was very blessed!

How I felt after losing my camera...

So after that we got on a plane and went to Salvador, and let me tell ya, it was soooooo humid!  When I stepped out of the plane... I felt just WET... haha But anyways, we got picked up by the President and his wife, drove to his house, and had a bunch of orientation... And just so you know, I didnt shower Monday night, and I forgot to put deodorant on in the morning, so I STUNK... REALLY REALLY BAD! Anyways we sat and had people lecture us in Portuguese and then went contacting for the first time. It was pretty cool! Then we interviewed with the president and after that he announced companionships. I was with 2 other elders from my district (all the other people who were new were brasileros). So, my new companion is Elder Araújo, he´s brasilero, and he doesn't speak any english. haha 

Me and Elder Araujo

My area was a 16 hr bus ride away..... and I smelled like really bad BO already. Anyways, I hugged people goodbye with my BO soaked body, and I'm so tall that usually peoples noses are right to my armpits... so that's not good... But anyways we went on the bus ride which was pretty long and sucky but I slept a lot. Finally we got to Porto Seguro, and we took a taxi near where our apartment is. This first day was pretty overwhelming... The area in Porto Seguro that we are in charge of is really poor. COMPLETELY different lifestyles than Springville! When we arrived at our apartment I was super surprised... I was like... really?? haha It's a really poor place.. but that's okay. All the houses are made out of this redish brick, sorta like in Mexico. Everyone either makes their own houses or hires a bricklayer so it's not very organized loooking. Ill send some pictures. Our apartment is just the upstairs of a members house. (I don´t have a maid mom. haha Its just us.) The House was suuuupper messy and the bathroom was even worse. I am still trying to find gloves or something to clean it with. But yeah it sucks! 

View from my apartment window!

Anyways after that I went out and met some members and investigators. (And I don't have a lot of time because I was reading everyones emails and forgot that I have to email the mission president too.)  But every single day we just walk around and teach lessons. It's hard because NOBODY here speaks english so I am totally immersed in an only Portuguese area. It's good though, my Portuguese is getting better every day! We have 3 progressing investigators, I dont remember their names... but they have problems with chastity and Word of Wisdom, so we can't baptize them yet. They baptize a lot of people here usually, (we are trying to get at least one a week as a companionship) but this Saturday won't happen. Anyways I'll send you some pics too! I made a voice recording describing things more so I will try to send that next week. I just gotta find a cord.... hahaha alrighty love you guys!! I think about you all the time.

Love,

Elder Davis

(Voice Recording of Josh's 1st week in Brazil)