HELLOWWW!
Well I hope you guys had the week of your lives. I definitely did. haha
SOOOOO I had a pretty sweet birthday on Monday. I had a great time. After writing you guys, we went and ate some food. Then we went home and cleaned out the fridge. Super awesome. Then we walked to the office and hung out with Elder Castlemain. He is awesome. He was in the CTM with me. We played some card games and I bought Ice cream. Later, I went with my comp and we taught some people. When we got home we ordered some SUPER good pizza. The crust is stuffed with cheese. AND it´s the first pizza that had pepporoni! I have missed that. Now I just gotta find pizza with tomato sauce. It´s a real tough battle.
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| Birthday Pizza! |
(I just want to let everyone know that I tried to tab my paragraphs and format this in a professional way. Unfortunately, It doesn´t work... haha)
So this week was filled with a lot of walking. We walked to Polemica every day. It is a Bairro (neighborhood) in our area. It is 30-40 minutes away though. So it kinda sucks. We have been working on an idea to help our ward be more active with the missionaries, and to give more referrals. My companion had me make some posters for the ideas. They turned out pretty sweet. I will have to take a picture when we print them. This has been our main focus this week.
The idea is to do a game with the members. When members bring nonmembers to sacrament or give referrals or teach with the missionaries they get ´points´. (I'm sure you are smiling right now mom!). The person with the most points after a time period will get a prize. The bishop liked the idea and we are working to have it very organized. We are hoping this will help the members share the gospel more.
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| Darth Vader |
So on Sunday night we had a baptism. It was very cool. Our investigator Paulo Cesar was baptized. He was so excited to be baptized. We told him that we would pick him up at 5. We went with a member who had a car to pick him up around 5:20. But, he wasn´t there..... SO we headed back to the church and found him there greeting everyone for his baptism. He said that right when it was 5:00, he didnt want to wait so he just got a ride with his friend. It was really cool though. He loves the Book of Mormon. It was such a great opportunity to teach him.
Well that was it for this week. This week was really interesting though. It was easter. All the people in Brasil are religious. They believe in God. On Good Friday they don´t have work. EVERYONE is out drinking and partying in the road. It is very sad. It was sad that they were not focusing on Jesus Christ. The very day that Jesus Christ was crucified, all the "Firm believers" were drinking and paryting. Many of the men were dressed in women´s clothing. I imagine that this is how it was in Jesus Christ´s time. There are people who don´t let themselves believe or feel the spirit because their life and party is more important. I hope that we can all take the time each day to search and ponder about all Jesus has done and is doing for us.
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| My latest drawing of Christ |
I had a spiritual experience while I was on splits with Elder Roberto. We went to an inactive visit. The Irmã (sister) started off telling us that she already knew everything and that she didn´t have the desire to go to church. I remembered about imagining the people in white. So while I taught her I imagined her as a daughter of God, all in white. I felt the Love of God for her and felt that we needed to still teach about Joseph Smith. We taught the first lesson. I taught about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. The Spirit was very strong. After I recited Joseph´s words and bore my testimony, she replied, "Isso é lindo" (this is beautiful). It was very cool to see her countenance change as she felt the Spirit. I would not have been able to teach with that power of the Spirit without picturing her in white. It truly changed the lesson and my focus on the lesson.
I love you all!
Elder Davis