BOM DIA!!!
How are you all?
Life is going great here in Brasil. I just love this country. It is awesome. I would never move to live here because of the corruption in the government... But, I love this country. hahah Hopefully they win the World Cup. Which, as missionaries we can´t watch. But, it will be really crazy during the season of the World Cup.
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| Mural of a dragon |
Anyways, like I told you guys I would last week. I travelled to Itabuna Sunday night. I arrived Monday morning. That day we had a zone conference. It went well. It was a fun conference. Our Mission President had final interviews with the missionaries in the zone. The trainings all went well. Then after that, I took a 45 min bus ride to Ilhéus to do splits with the Elders there. I arrived and took another city bus to the Elder´s area. I stayed with Elder Castlemain and his companion. We are from the same group and are great friends. So it was nice to see him again. We had a family night with his investigators and members. It was great. We were able to feel the Spirit and edify one another. FYI I forgot my camera in the Office this whole week. So I didn´t take any pictures during the trip. Bummer. But, it was a good Monday.
Tuesday, we woke up early and had the Ilhéus Zone Conference. It went really well. During these conferences, I gave the training on the Plan of Salvation. I had studied and created a way to teach about the purpose here on earth and the atonement from Preach my Gospel. At the end of teaching I would always open up 3 Nephi 27 19-22 to explain about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to invite the individuals to baptism. I had perfected it through teaching these various times during the 4 zone conferences I have attended this transfer. So, I did the same thing during this conference. It honestly went very well. At the end of my training, The Elder from the Senior Missionary Couple made a comment. He said, "Since I joined the church until today, I haven´t been able to understand or accept the fact that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth. Until that lad went up, taught that principle, and showed that scripture now I undestand. Thank you." That was really cool to hear. I really like that guy and I was cool to see how the scriptures help and it shows that you are always learning no matter how old you are and how much time you have been in the church." But, either way it was a spiritual experience.
After that I did splits with Elder Castlemain. We left the chapel late because they were one of the last companionships to be interviewed. So I just played the piano and we sang hymns. It was fun! We then visited an investigator and then went to their home. The next morning on wednesday, I went and did splits with Elder Lee and Elder Vasconcelos. Elder Lee is the other Zone Leader in the Zone. We were able to learn new things together and fix things in his area. We also invited an investigator to be baptized and she accepted. So that was great. That night we literally ran to their apartment, grabbed my suitcase, and I hopped in a taxi to the bus station, worried that I would miss my bus. But, it all worked out and I didn´t miss it at all.
I arrived in Salvador on Thursday in the morning. I rested a little bit because of the lack of sleep during the week. Then we got back to work in my area. Nothing happened in my area during the days I was travelling. Which, is pretty frustrating. My companion said that he would visit marked lessons and go with members... but it didn´t happen. But, he tried so it´s all good. I tried not to focus much on that and just got to work. So we did and found some cool new investigators. We also found some awesome investigators on Friday.
Funny story... We were teaching a member´s grandma and she was telling us how she used to drink and her late husband drank and smoked a bunch. One day he came home and ordered her to get his food for him and called her an inappropriate name. She came with a knife and told him to not say that again or she would kill him. He said it... and She knifed him 10 times in the leg!!!! She was telling us this story and out of nowhere she said that like it was the most normal thing in the world!!! I was freaking scared to be in the presence of such a powerful woman... hahah She told us that she sent her husband to the hospital and told him that he couldn´t tell the Doctor what she did or she would kill him. He told the doctor that it was their dog that did all the damage..... hahah Yeah, I guess that isn´t that funny but in the moment it was funny because it was such an odd thing to hear from a tiny ol grandma.
Anyways, that was my week! I was thinking a lot about the movie "You are special" I really liked that show. I related that to sculpting. How in a way God is sculpting us from a formless lump of clay into a beautiful masterpiece. Little by little, through trials and time we are molded to become something so much more than we can imagine!
Love you all!
Love
Elder Davis