Monday, May 7, 2018

April 14, 2018: THANKS FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES

HEY GUYS!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I had an awesome birthday and an awesome week.


On my birthday we had Mission Council. I woke up in the morning to my comp and the other dupla of elders singing Para Bens to me. So that was nice. It was a good surprise. Then we went to the mission house super early. Got there at 7:30ish. We only left 12 hours later. haha  We spent the time passing trainings and new emphasis on rules to the Zone leaders and Sister Leader Trainers. We ate lunch there, and had even more meetings. OH, cool thing, I was in my birthday suit the whole day! So thanks mom for making it possible for me to buy it. haha I realized it is a little short on me.... but it´s all good. It serves for the mission. Once we left the mission house that night we went to an irmã´s house because she had made some cake and stuff for my birthday. It was supposed to be a surprise... but it didn't really work. But, it still was awesome to walk in a see a cake with 20 candles on it for me to blow out. That was definitely a highlight of the week. 



Wednesday we had a normal day, we worked hard and I got to know my new area. We taught some great lessons. Thursday we had a Zone conference with Salvador and Imbuí in Amaralina. It was a good conference. Our training took forever though. Our President likes to give a lot of information and doesn't want to forget anything, so he stood up and made comments a ton in our training so it went pretty long. It was supposed to be 30 min at the maximum and it went for 2 hours.... I was just laughing though. After reading every bullet point he would stand up and say something about it. He is an awesome guy. I love our president. 



So we had the zone conference and after we went to work in our area. We got to do two cool visits to members who needed Priesthood blessings. It was a great opportunity to bless others with the priesthood. The first one was a young man who has a chronic sickness in which he slowly loses power over his body and he slowly enters into paralysis. It was really sad to see that. But, we gave him a blessing and did our best to cheer him up and be his friend. Then we gave a blessing to a irmã from the church who had a fever and cold and also was going through some hard times in life. I gave her the blessing this time and it was really cool. At the end she was crying a ton and she was already feeling better. So that was a testimony builder. We also got a referral from her! So that was exciting. 



Friday was a normal day of work too. It was a good day. We taught a guy named Josenildo and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted! So that was great. We just gotta help him go to church these next few weeks and get a strong testimony of the gospel. Also, side note, it rained a ton this week. Brazillian rain is much different than Utah rain. It rains so much in just one day. haha It´s crazy. Well, That was my week. I love you all!

ALSO, little spiritual thought, I was thinking about how our lives compare to those of the Nephites in the Book of Mormon. They almost always seem to enter into the cyle of thanking God and then quickly forgetting his goodness and falling back into sin. I´m sure we all go through this cylce either individually or as a people in whole. BUT, if we do as the faithful Lamanites did and would "Observe strictly to keep the commandments of God". Just ask yourself "Where am I spiritually" and "How can I be more like the lamanites/people of Ammon?" Love you guys!

Love
Elder Davis