February 20, 2017: Broke!

WELL GOOD MORNING YALL!

Tudo Bem?? Well this week was great!!! It was pretty crazy because of the transfer.

SOOOO On Monday Elder Fernandes and I went around and he said goodbye to a few people and we ate some pizza. I guess for P-day we also played some ping-pong. I gotta say... I am getting pretty good. I am learning how to play like an Asian. Because it´s just better!

Picture of our District...Pretty COOL!

So then Tuesday morning at 6:00 we had to pick up my new companion at the bus station. 6:00!!!!! hahaa I LIKE SLEEP. Anyways we picked him up and went back to the house. Then Elder Fernandes (my old comp) packed up all of his stuff and said goodbye to the last few people. Then we dropped him off at the bus station. After that, we had to go to the center to get more money from the bank (because we are broke). So then we had to go to Malhado to help the other Elders pack up and leave to their new areas. Then, we went BACK to the bus station to drop off Elder Bair. THEN we went back to Malhado and helped the others with their bags. Then we went BACK to the bus station and helped the sisters leave and then we waiting for a different Elder to arrive because he was going to sleep over at our house and the leave for Unna in the morning and I know this is a run-on sentence but I don´t really care because we spent SOOOOOO much money and time going back and forth! hahaha But, it was good. 

A picture of a regular BBQ there. AND MAN Irmão Messias´s bbqs are soooo good!

After that this week was pretty basic. Nothing too crazy happened. haha I just showed my companion around the area and we taught some good lessons. Our two investigators progressing the most are Maria and Rafael. They just need to fulfill their commitments better. So pray for them that the Spirit may manifest to them that this church is true.

A picture of me because I guess people are forgetting what I look like...weird!

The highlight of my week was a talk that I read titled "A Celestial Manifestation" by Herbert Q Hale. It is very powerful. It talks about the spirit world. It touched me and opened my understanding on how vast and great the Plan of God is. I know that God Lives, that he loves us, and that The Plan of Salvation was made so that EVERYONE could have the opportunity to obtain Eternal Life. It just depends on us. Everything is set out for us. We just have to decide who we will follow. Don´t ever doubt your faith! If you have a question remember to always go to God, not to man. I love you all! Stay strong in Christ!

Love,

Elder Davis

February 13, 2017: Awhachisupee?

HELLO HELLO,

Awhachisupee? haha That´s how brazillians say What´s up? It´s the way they text each other because otherwise it´s really expensive....

ANYWHO, this week was another beautiful week. Like always. I´m living it up out here in Ilheús. First off, we got the transfer calls......................................................................................................................................................

AND I am staying here! My companion is being transfered to Itapetinga. My new companion will be Elder Cueves. Apparently he is from Chile. I am surprisingly glad I am staying here. I love the people here. It´s a great place. The only problem is the Branch. But, we are working on it. So it will get better. 

This week was a great week though. I don´t have anything too crazy to report. I was pretty sick for the first part of the week with a fever and other stuff. Wasn´t very fun. haha I started getting better and...my companion got sick. haha So he got really sick too. He is now much better. I am pretty much 100% I just still have a stuffy nose and a cough. So this week the work slowed down a bit because we were sick. On Tuesday/Wednesday I was losing my voice so nobody could understand me very well. It was pretty funny. 

Happy 16th Birthday CC!

I think the highlight was Saturday. On Saturday, we had a Mega Clean the Chapel Day. We invited all the members to come at 8:00 and we cleaned the church. We had a member make a huge lunch for everyone. So that was the prize at the end. So in the chapels, and houses, and everywhere, people just have tile floors usually. Carpet doesn´t exist. So we had to do a major mopping job for the chapel. They had the yellow mopping carts filled with soapy water, and they splashed it all over the floors. Then they scrubbed and mopped the floor with brooms.... Yes Brooms! They use brooms for everything here. It´s kinda weird. I´m not sure how effective it all was but it turned out great in the end. 

In church we have been studying and reading about President Gordon B Hinkley. He is such a great man. I also was reading the Liahona and it had an article about him. I love his attitude that he had about everything. That It will all work out. Just have faith. I have tried to apply that into my life and try to be more postitive no matter what happens. 

Also, I have studied quite a bit about repentence this week. My understanding of the principle of repentence has really grown. It is so amazing that we have the opportunity to repent. In the Worldwide missionary broadcast they said that repentence is a principle of change. It doesn´t mean we are just constantly saying sorry for things we did wrong but that we our changing our nature to become more like Christ. The gospel of Christ is so true. Make sure you are living it! It will bring joy to your lives! I love you all. Have an amazing week.

com amor,

Elder Davis

February 6, 2017: Little Boy

HELLO

How´s it going everyone? This week was another great week. I´m loving it out here. We taught a lot of great lessons, helped out many people, and had two baptisms. One baptism was Carol, a young girl whose mom is inactive, which was great, we are working on reactivating her mother and the baptism definitely helped. The other was Greice. She has been an investigator for a while and the only thing impeding her from being baptized was marriage. She had been living with a guy for 7 years and they had a kid. But, they started having problems because he wasn´t really helping in the relationship. Then one night, he came home really drunk and trouble happened, and she ended up calling the police and kicking him out. The next visit, she told us that she wants to be baptized. She has such a strong testimony of the church, it was a cool experience. 

I guess not talking english is getting to me, haha I am forgetting a lot of simple ways people usually respond to stuff. For example, my companion is  learning english with me and he asks me a lot of questions. Sometimes, I just forget.. haha I don´t know if I already told you guys but we were bearing our testimonies to each other before leaving the house. He does it in English. He stopped because he didnt know the word in english, so he said "We need to aplicar?" I said yeah that´s right. He didn´t really believe me, but I honestly believed that aplicar was a word in english. The word he was looking for was apply. We figured that out later... haha It was funny though.

Sculpt I started with some really really crappy plant/pot clay!

Alrighty on to the reason this email is named `Little Boy´ So  there is this little 3 year old in the ward that is waaay cool. AND he LOVES me. He sits up on the stand with his dad who is in the bishopric (kinda weird, a little distracting) And yesterday I was sitting down on one of the benches and he just starts calling for me and trying to get my attention. He didn´t yell super loud, he just talked quietly saying "hey.... hey...... hey...... hey...." hahah I  was trying to just focus. And other times during the meeting, he was just staring at me and smiling... then that progressed into him having a kissy face while staring at me... hehe. I don´t know if I already mentioned but a week ago he technically kissed me...hahaha. It was more like he gave me CPR than a kiss though so I wasn´t sure, but it was still SUPER AWKWARD. This little boy has a crush on me...hahaha

Well that basically sums up the week. I just gotta say, I have really realized how powerful a testimony is. Our  testimonies are our most powerful  weapon. We have to guard it close to our hearts and continue to nourish our testimonies everyday! So if your testimony is weak, make a goal to strengthen it this week. Love you all!!! Always strive to become a better disciple of Christ!

Love,

Elder Davis