December 18, 2017: One Touchful week!

GOOOD MYTHICAL MORNING,

This week was fantabulous. hahah We had a great time!

So this week we have been doing a little more work outs.... so that was fun. We started running to the chapel 6am to play basketball for a little bit. So that has been fun. Definitely good for our bodies. 

SOOOO this week was full of good work. We worked super hard and met some great new people. 

We have been teaching a lady called Irmã Julia. She is our convert´s mom. She is the coolest lady ever. haha She is so joyful and faithful. She told us her life story and MAAAAANNNN she has been through sooooo much stuff. BUT she just kept fighting. Now she´s like in her fifties and lives with her daughter and son. Her son is a special needs child. He is completely bed-ridden. He is 35 and needs constant attention. So for 35 years this women has stayed at home, unable to do what she wants, to take care of her son. Changing his dipers, feeding him, washing him, and so forth. Yet, she has soooo much love for her son and is always happy. I found that a miracle. We have had some great talks about all that she has went through. I think it is awesome that because of her son, she has become such an amazing woman. So that was one of the highlights of the week. TO be able to hear her testimony and learn from her example. The hard part... is that we can´t get her to church... because she can´t leave her son... ALL day she stays home and does sewing to earn money to pay for the bills and food. SO we are trying to find a way to make this all work. BUT, either way, we want to help her understand the importance of the restoration and help her testimony grow. 

ALSO, Friday was pretty fun. We had an exposition in the morning. So we did a ton of contacts, and then at night there was the ward Christmas party. That was also fun.... kinda. We kinda just greeted everyone and then ate some food and left. BUT it was awesome. 

UMMMMMMM welll what else... with the Christmas money I bought two ties, one for me and one for my companion. AND we bought some watches. I have used it to help buy some food and stuff for the Cape Verdian Elders too. So far it has been going well. 

Yeah so this week was great... I don´t have much more to report. But we are working hard and having a great time. My comp and I are getting along. He just is a little touchy.... so that is getting on my nerves. I gotta talk to him about that. hahahaha Good ol missionary life. 

WHELP, I love you all! Have an amazing week and a great CHRISTMAS... I am very excited for skype nexxt week!

LOVE YOU,

Elder Davis

December 11, 2017: Little kids and RAIIIIIIIIIN

HELLLO HELLO HELLO

Alrighty friends and fam. Well this was a great week as always.

MAN I just love the mission it is sooooo cool. It is the best experience I have ever had. I feel like I have changed soooo much and have learned many new things. It´s the best thing that has happened to me.... Other than my parents getting married..... because without that I wouldn´t be born....

Yeah so this week was good. We  played basketball last p-day and this p-day so that is awesome. Let me tell ya... I have lost all of the little skill that I had before the mission. Pretty sad. I would almost even say that CC could beat me. But that would be embarrassing so that isn´t true. 

ANYWAYS... I don´t have all the time in the world. But I have been trying to pay attention to the Sejaaluzdomundo thingy. Where we are invited to do 25 things for 25 days. Our main focus out here is to teach and help others. So we do that every day. But focusing on those little ideas is cool too. One of the days said, "Ensine uma criança a respeito de Jesus Cristo e Seu infinito amor por ela."  AND I was able to do that! ON that exact day I got the opportunity to teach an 8 year old kid with his less active mom. He was a little slower than other 8 year olds and it was hard for him to understand things. I wanted to help him understand the best way I could and at the same time bring the Spirit unto his mom. So that she could be touched by the Spirit and gain the desire to come back to church. My companion started teaching and he talked about prophets and the importance of them on the earth. The little boy didn´t understand much and didn´t really pay much attention to the lesson. But then I had the opportunity to teach. I was able to teach as if I was at a puppet show.... without the puppets.  I just taught in a super simple fun way. My companion saw that it was working so well when I was teaching him that when it was his turn to teach he just told me to keep going. So I did a drawing of Joseph Smith's life and the first vision and the kid loved it so much that he said that he would look at this drawing every day. He really understood everything and the Spirit was very strong.  We have to still work with them to help them continue to grow and change. But, it was a cool experience. I am very thankful for my mother and all the time I spent doing puppet shows and sharing time with her. AT THE MOMENT when I was doing it.... I wasn´t so thankful. But, now I can see that I was being prepared and I became a better person because of that. 

I know the Lord uses us according to each of our given gifts and developed talents to change, bless, and better the lives of those around us. I love you all! Have an amazing week and SEJA A LUZ DO MUNDO!!!  (Be the Light of the World)

Love,

Elder Davis

December 4, 2017: Leadership and Chess

Hello Family!!!

This week was great. I am loving my area. My comp is really good too. We are getting along super well. SO that is kind of a relief from the last transfer. hehe We have new goals for baptisms as a area and a mission so that put some more pressure and responsibility on my shoulders as the Senior ZL. But it is good. It is a nice pressure. I am learning a lot from the leadership opportunities I am getting. haha AND leading everyone is really cool. It is like playing a game of chess or something. You have to know how to use every piece... or elder. To get them to work hard and have success. So that is fun. ANYWAYS life is good here. I am loving the mish. So we are doing good and working hard. I am sending you a voice memo telling you about my week!

But here is a great spiritual thought that our Mission President shared during the Mission Council. He was talking about Nephi building the boat and really applied it to our lives as a missionary. He explained that we may have some missionaries that are similar to Laman and Lemuel. That they would complain at every little thing that we have to do. BUT, that we should be like Nephi. FIRST, he searched to be obedient in All the commandments of the Lord. Then, he exorted the others to do the same. It really showed that our example is really really important and especially our example as a leader. 

 

Love,

Josh

November 27, 2017: Transfer, Sewage, Dead Dog, Uh yeah.

HEY YÀLL,

Man... that is really sad... I can´t do the Yáll abreviation. IT just puts the little thingy above the 'A'. haha Man. Well...  Darn. 

How are you all doing?

Greatest DAB Ever!

I am doing great!! This was a great week. It was the last week of the transfer. SO we finished things up here and worked hard. My comp is being transferred and my new companion is Elder Semedo. He is from Cape Verde, Africa.

Anyways, this week was legit. We had some cool highlights.

Tuesday was the best day of work. We worked super hard and taught a ton of lessons. It was awesome. We were able to find some new families to teach. 

Yes, I am smiling by a dead dog!  It was like some weird witchcraft stuff was going on because next to the dead dog therewas a dead chicken, dead fox, and a dead cat..... Pretty weird.

On Wednesday, We went and ate hamburgers at night while we were on splits with the elders from Itapetinga. IT was pretty sweet. We bought the biggest, juiciest, most expensive hamburger they had. It was really tasty. BUT it wasn´t big enough. SO we were still hungry after. haha But it was fun. 

BIGGEST, Juicest, Most Expensive (But not filling) Hamburger!

Thursday was another crazy fun day. SO we had to prepare to do splits in Poçoes. So I was going to go that night with Elder Cassiano who had served there a year ago. He wanted to visit some people that he knew there. So we were planning on going that night at like 10;30. It was the last bus that would take us there. BUT things didn't go as planned. Because, I was invited to be a judge in a giant activity. It was a mock "Master Chef" for an English learning school. It was a way to celebrate Thanksgiving. So everyone was put into groups. They prepared their tables, decorated them, and brought main dishes from different countries. They wanted the judges to be people who speak English. So a friend of a member asked if I could help out. We went there and I was one of the judges. haha It was so cool. I just went around with the other judges and ate food. Dream job. Then I just gave them a score from 1-10.  It was a great time, but the activity started late and went super long. SO we finished at like 10:20. So we just went home.

"Master Chef" Activity:)

The next morning we woke up early and took a bus to Poçoes. There I went and did some baptismal interviews and did splits with the Elders. It was a lot of fun. THe worst part was when I stepped in like black POOPYmud. I got my brown shoe completely covered in this poopy sewage... It was bad. All the flies went and swarmed around my food. But at one of the investigators houses we asked for a water and I washed it all out. It took a while to come out. But now it´s all good. haha 

Sewage Shoe

THOSE were the highlights of the week. It was a great week. I also had the opportunity to give a 10 min talk in sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool. I focused on 3 Nephi when Christ appears to the people. He establishes his church and teaches many things unto the people. After in chapter 19 the people went out and preached that to all the surrounding areas and gathered up soooo many people that they had to be separated into 12 groups. I related the ward or us to the people in 3 Nephi 11.  Christ has restored his church and brought us sooo many blessings as in the times of old. Now it is our time to be like the people and spread the gospel to others! It was pretty fun. Unfortunately the pulpit didn´t rise electronically... SO I had to bend down a bit the whole talk... haha 

But, I love you all! thanks for all your letters! SHare the gospel like the Nephites! Be a Light to the World! #Sejaaluzdomundo

Love

Elder Davis

November 20, 2017: BUCKETS...and BUCKETS...and BUCKETS...

HELLOWWWWW everyone!

How are you all doing? 

This week was a great week for us. IT was the dedication week. So we woke up at 6:00 everyday and left at 8:00 everyday to work! It was pretty crazy. It went well! Loved it. We worked hard and were greatly blessed. 

Mini Cokes and District Meeting

So on Monday we had lessons marked and were gonna leave at 3:00 but, we didn´t have any more Book of Mormons.... SO we called a bunch of people and it took forever for the Book of Mormons to arrive. The Elder that had all the boxes didn´t really communicate with us very well so we ended up waiting for a super long time for the BoM's. In the end we just went to their area and got it for ourselves. haha It was rough! 

Tuesday and Wednesday were great days. We worked hard and really had a great time. We gave a blessing of comfort to a lady whose grandpa died while we were at her house eating lunch. She got the call and we gave her a blessing to help her out. 

Thursday night we were teaching Gilson and his family and they were telling us how their family relationship has improved since we started visiting them. So that was cool. To see the change that is happening with this family. Then we got a call from the bishop to meet with him. So we met up with him at a park and together we all went to a referral. It was a single mom of three kids who is getting better from cancer and didn´t have money to feed her kids. So we brought food to them and then gave her a blessing. 

Friday morning we went to do a service project. We helped put all the supports in the house so that they could lay cement on the second floor. It is really different than the american style of building houses. I think wood is more expensive here. SO they use blocks and cement. We didn´t do that much just grabbed all the stuff that the man needed. 

Service Project

Saturday morning we went on splits with the Elders from Sumaré to get everything prepared for Giuliane´s baptism. So I went  with Elder Cassiano and we gave a bath to the stake president's dog. My comp and the other Elder went and filled up the baptismal font with buckets... Because the faucet was BROKEN. Then later that day, when we went to prepare everything for the baptism, Mutual was going on. So in the baptismal room all the young men were huddled in there with a Ps4 hooked up to a TV playing FIFA. AND the baptismal font lost half the water! We had 30 minutes until the baptism.... hahah SO I filled it up with buckets while my comp organized the room and got the young men out of there! It was crazy. It took like an hour to do it all. But in the end it all worked out! So it was great. I have pictuers and will try to send it to you guys.

Baptism of Guiliane

Last thing... I have been listening to the Joseph Smith papers. IT is sooooo cool. You guys would love it! It explains the history of everything and what it was like in that time period. I listened to the one about the translating of the Book of Mormon and it blew me away. It is soooo amazing. It is a miracle that we have this book today! Love you all! Stay filé!

com amor,

Elder Davis

November 13, 2017: Monster CYST!

HELLO!

This will be super super fast because this week is the Dedication week. SO we aren´t going to stay in the lanhouse for very long. We gotta go to work! We are gonna have a shorter letter...

SO this week was good... We went to the Mission Council Tuesday Night and got there in Salvador in the morning. We were there the whole day and then left that night. 

A lot more PAINFUL than it looks!

The interesting thing, is that on Tuesday I got a big zit looking thing.... and Wednesday morning it was hurting so I tried to pop it.... It didn't work. AND THEN IT GOT BIGGER during the day. It just kept growing and growing man. Super weird. Thursday morning when I woke up in the bus ride home, I felt my face and it was huuumongous. It looked like I took my wisdom teeth out again. Don´t really know what happened with that. I called the President´s wife and she told me if it got worse I should go to the hospital. IT GOT WORSE! While we were walking it was hurting and a little bigger. SO that night we went to the hospital. When I got in there, they numbed it up and cut it open... AND THEN......

Better view?

THEY tried to pop it... The lady squeezed my cheek as hard as she could for like... forever. It hurt pretty badly. A ton of puss came out!  When she numbed it at the start, it was so full of puss that the puss started coming out and running down my face... just from that tiny hole she made!! haha After she tried she left and another guy came over to "Make sure that everything came out" In other words "KILL ME"!  HE SQUEEZED SOOOO HARD... for like 10 minutes and the numb effect had long left. SO that sucked!  But I just stayed calm and still. lol 

I really do feel as Happy as my companion...I'm just holding it in.

ANYWAYS That was the highlight of the week. Pretty crazy huh? My cheek is getting better it is still a little full and puss still comes out every once in a while. I have a few pics of it too. But it´s all good. I will get better! 

I had a cool spiritual thought but I think I forgot...I guess it wasn´t very good. hahaha  But, I am reading in 2 Nephi and I think it is so awesome and slightly confusing to read about all the prophecies. But it is so cool how it is all coming true!!! SO GO AND READ IT MAH FRIENDS!! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Davis 

PS Sorry this is a short letter but it´s dedication week so we are going to get to work and leave the house at 8am every day!!!

November 5, 2017: Eventful Week

Hello Hello Hello

Wow... I need to use the bathroom. But, there isn´t one here in the LanHouse. That´s just great. 

hahahaha This was a great week meus queridos. Things are going well here in Conquista. 

Unfortunatley my companion has been quite sick so he has been bedridden basically. We still were able to work a bit. But it is hard to have to stay home. So basically the whole start of the week was like that. Today he is still a little sick but he is getting better. hahah We went to the Hospital yesterday because President thought it might´ve been Dengue (Dang) (I don´t know how to say it in english) They did tests the whole day but the doctors told us that he doesn't have any sickness according to their tests.  But while he was sick I watched 17 miracles and MAN I just teared up at every miracle that happened.  haha I don´t know what´s happening to me. I wasn't like that at home. lol haha I love that movie! It is so powerful. I am so grateful for the pioneers. I think when I get home it would be cool to do a big Pioneer sculpt as a tribute to them. 

Friday morning I went to Poções to do splits. It was great! It was an awesome experience. I love those elders. We taught a few lessons and also I had to do the baptismal interview for them. It was great. I love doing them. It is awesome to see the testimonies that the people have gained through prayer and the Book of Mormon. We also went and cleaned up the baptismal font because it was full of dirt. haha There were a ton of toads in the city too!! There were tons in the road flattened like paper. We also found one at the Chapel! haha Then I left there at like 9:40 pm and got home around 11:00. There was a little confusion and I was locked out of the house for like 40 minutes. haha I was yelling their names to open the door down below but they didn´t hear me and their phone had died. But, in the end everything worked out beautifully. haha

Things here are going great! Our area is progressing very well. We have been able to apply the 'Dia do Senhor' in our lessons to bring people to church. I really enjoy teaching the lesson. Our investigators have really gotten the vision of the importance of living this principle. We had a great experience relating to Fasting. We decided to fast for one of our investigators that was close to baptism. She was nervous with the idea of baptism and beforehand didn´t even want to talk about it. We fasted for her this weekend and taught her on Sunday. She felt the spirit and committed to be baptized this Saturday. Honestly, without God´s help it wouldn´t have happened that smoothly. It was a testimony-strengthening experience of the power of Fasting. I know the Lord is looking out for us and helping us every step of the way.

ALSO, I got to watch the new video that the church released on the first vision. IT IS SOOOOOO AWESOME. WATCH IT. Link to First Vision Movie  You guys will love it! Super powerful. It is such an important moment and is critical for us to always remember it and strengthen our testimonies of the truthfullness of these events. Love you all! Have a great week! Watch the first vision video!!! 

Love,

Elder Davis