October 24, 2016: Many, Many Crazy Sights!

What's Up Everyone?

Okay this week I had many, many crazy sights!  Actually just one...but I'll get to that in a bit!

So this week was great. I´m loving it out here! The first week was a bit of a culture shock but this week I´m used to everything and am loving it. Weird things... they sell "Halls" here everywhere! It's candy to them. I had one and it tastes exactly like the medicine back at home.. haha   Also, the place where we live, the members that live below us have a dog that looks and sounds just like Sammy! Just not as fat... but still a little weird. Also there are dogs everywhere!  They all look like they have rabies.  In addition, there are horses everywhere. Just random horses without an owner grazing on the... trash. haha It's kinda weird. They are super skinny and look like they have rabies too. So that's fun! haha

Picture I drew of Nephi making his wooden bow!

So, after emailing you guys last week we went to a big island in the ocean and rode a boat to it!  It was so cool. It's a big tourist area.

There was a leather shop and they had the coolest stuff!  They had these wine/water bottles that the outside was a cow leg!! haha And they had these viking style hats! The coolest thing though was they had cow horns made into actual horns.. like bugles.. haha one of them looked exactly like Borimir´s horn (in Lord of the Rings) I wanted to buy it soooo bad. But I decided to wait. haha 

Me holding the COW LEG water bottle!

Tuesday was the interesting day. So I woke up with a bunch of bug bites. Then we picked up the member that we were teaching with and went to the first investigator's house. We were teaching the Restoration to a mom, her sister, baby, and kids. Anyways I started talking and was gathering my thoughts on Joseph Smith, and when I looked up, the lady had her boob out breastfeeding her baby!! I literally was so shocked I forgot all that I wanted to say. Then I just badly finished my part about Joseph Smith, while looking at the sister and just the eyes of the mom... and then when my companion was talking I just looked at him the whole time. I didn't even wanna look over at the lady. Eventually she finished up and it was all good. But then I was bearing my testimony and she had it out again!! So basically it was a bad lesson and we aren't going back there. haha After that I stepped in dog poo and stuff. And something else happened that sucked but around like 5 I was looking back at the day and just started laughing and changed my attitude about it all. So my day was good despite all that happened. (Although I´d rather not have a lady do that again. hahaha)

After that, the week was pretty calm. The language is coming along really well. It´s really clicking in my head. And when I have the spirit with me while I'm teaching I literally just start talking calmly and normally. It´s amazing! I would be teaching and would start using words that I forgot I even knew. They´d just come to me. haha  Also one of the sisters that is in our district said that one of the Brazillian elders was talking to her and said my conjugation of verbs is better  than hers (and shes been out for 10 months)! haha I didn't really know how to respond to her... I just kinda said uhhh thanks... and sorry I guess. hahaha  But she talked overall waaayyy better than me so it´s all good. 

Me and Elder Araújo

My companion is really cool! He´s kinda quiet but he's really patient and is a good trainer. Also I guess on Saturday they all want me to teach an english class! haha So hopefully that goes well. On Sunday we had the Mission President come and we had a District Conference. (Which is just like Stake conferences at home. Except, with less people.) It was really good and we had a lot of members come from neighboring cities. I started practicing the piano again. I remember quite a lot. I can play pretty much any song by ear and can still read the music well. I just need to work on my finger work. haha 

Live long and play the piano...

My area is apparently one of the poorest areas in the mission but I love it so much! The people here are soooo nice. Anyways that was my week! I love you all! and I know that this church is true. I watched the restoration video this week and man Joseph Smith is freaking awesome. I know that he was called of God and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

So I was drawing someone and it turned out to be Jordan...

(PS Let me know if you have any picture requests)

Love you all,

Elder Davis

October 17, 2016: Smelling "GREAT" in Porto Seguro!

Oi Familia!!

Tudo Bem?! Eu amo o campo. Haha The field is great. Much better than the MTC. Really different though! So yeah I didn´t die last week I just couldn't email. Okay, so I'm gonna start from the beginning as far back as I can remember... It feels like years since the MTC.

So as you guys know, I lost my camera... WHICH SUCKED!  So I talked to Elder Snyder, (an elderly elder that is in charge of things like that...) and he said that it should be fine because I lost it on the bus and that I would see it again that night. But it never came! So every single day from that Wednesday I was praying and checking with the Snyder´s and.... no luck. Friday and Saturday they were all gone so I was pretty much about to accept that it was gone. On Monday I got a hold of Sister Snyder and asked one more time and she hadn't heard anything. So that sucked but she called and left a message with the bus people. So on Tuesday at 3:00 AM we had to wake up and head down to leave the MTC. We were waiting outside the MTC and right before we left in the vans, one of the staff members walked over with a camera asking for an Elder Davis!!! AAAHHHH it was so legit. Definitely a miracle right there. I was very blessed!

How I felt after losing my camera...

So after that we got on a plane and went to Salvador, and let me tell ya, it was soooooo humid!  When I stepped out of the plane... I felt just WET... haha But anyways, we got picked up by the President and his wife, drove to his house, and had a bunch of orientation... And just so you know, I didnt shower Monday night, and I forgot to put deodorant on in the morning, so I STUNK... REALLY REALLY BAD! Anyways we sat and had people lecture us in Portuguese and then went contacting for the first time. It was pretty cool! Then we interviewed with the president and after that he announced companionships. I was with 2 other elders from my district (all the other people who were new were brasileros). So, my new companion is Elder Araújo, he´s brasilero, and he doesn't speak any english. haha 

Me and Elder Araujo

My area was a 16 hr bus ride away..... and I smelled like really bad BO already. Anyways, I hugged people goodbye with my BO soaked body, and I'm so tall that usually peoples noses are right to my armpits... so that's not good... But anyways we went on the bus ride which was pretty long and sucky but I slept a lot. Finally we got to Porto Seguro, and we took a taxi near where our apartment is. This first day was pretty overwhelming... The area in Porto Seguro that we are in charge of is really poor. COMPLETELY different lifestyles than Springville! When we arrived at our apartment I was super surprised... I was like... really?? haha It's a really poor place.. but that's okay. All the houses are made out of this redish brick, sorta like in Mexico. Everyone either makes their own houses or hires a bricklayer so it's not very organized loooking. Ill send some pictures. Our apartment is just the upstairs of a members house. (I don´t have a maid mom. haha Its just us.) The House was suuuupper messy and the bathroom was even worse. I am still trying to find gloves or something to clean it with. But yeah it sucks! 

View from my apartment window!

Anyways after that I went out and met some members and investigators. (And I don't have a lot of time because I was reading everyones emails and forgot that I have to email the mission president too.)  But every single day we just walk around and teach lessons. It's hard because NOBODY here speaks english so I am totally immersed in an only Portuguese area. It's good though, my Portuguese is getting better every day! We have 3 progressing investigators, I dont remember their names... but they have problems with chastity and Word of Wisdom, so we can't baptize them yet. They baptize a lot of people here usually, (we are trying to get at least one a week as a companionship) but this Saturday won't happen. Anyways I'll send you some pics too! I made a voice recording describing things more so I will try to send that next week. I just gotta find a cord.... hahaha alrighty love you guys!! I think about you all the time.

Love,

Elder Davis

(Voice Recording of Josh's 1st week in Brazil)

October 11, 2016: I'm Here!!!!!!

Dear Brother and Sister Davis,

We are happy to inform you of the arrival of your son to the Brazil Salvador South Mission on October 11, 2016.  In words taken from scripture: “We lift up our hearts and rejoice, for the hour of Elder Davis’ mission has come and his tongue shall be loosed, and he shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto the people of Bahia.” 

(D&C 31:3)

We enjoyed spending the day with him. We were impressed with both his physical and spiritual height.  He was helpful and attentive and we feel very blessed to have his talents in our mission.  Attached is a picture of your son with us at the mission home.

Me with Elder and Sister Bangerter

He was assigned to serve in the beautiful and historic city of Porto Seguro which is about 15 hours by bus south of the capital of Salvador.  

Picture from the road!

His companion is Elder Araújo who is from Ceará, Brazil.   You can send packages to his city, however, we recommend for security and cost reasons, that you please send packages to the mission office address which is printed above.

We are grateful for the continual influence of new missionaries with their faith, enthusiasm, and testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We look forward to serving with Elder Davis .  Thank you for sharing him with us.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Bangerter

October 5, 2016: Senioritis is REAL!

What's up guys? 

I'm so excited to leave this place... that sounds bad.. but it kinda sucks after 6 weeks! It's just super repetitive and boring. But it's also cool to be able to learn Portuguese and stuff. So thats good.. hahaa 

General Conference was Awesome!! I loved it. My favorite talk was easily the Alma and Amulek talk during priesthood session by Uchtdorf! Learn from Alma and Amulek Everyone should look it up and read it. Just read it with a purpose! A purpose to learn something new! And look for things to apply in your life! 

I also liked The Plan of Salvation Talk by Uchtdorf. O How Great the Plan of Our God! It was awesome. I think its really true how much we take things for granted. It's just human nature. I think also we take for granted our faith in the gospel and the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we haven't really ever felt the Holy Ghost but that's because we have it in our lives soooo much when we are doing what we should. And other times, we really just aren't trying to feel the Holy Ghost. I testify, that the Power of the Holy Ghost is real and I know that you all can pray for yourselves to know if it is true too. That's the best way to figure it out. 

Anyways this is the last short email:) Hopefully... I will be out of here next week! Not sure when my P day will be though... But I am super excited to go to the field. It will be super super hard at first but over time it will get better. Also, I will try to send pictures today.... but I just realized when I sat down to email you guys that I lost my camera. It must have fell out of my pocket on the bus ride back or something..... SORRY MOM!  I'm sure I'll be able to find it, so I'm not worried. But I dont know if I will have it by today or whatever:)

Oh something funny this week. The new brazilian elders that got here are on our floor. One of them smells sooooo bad. I don't even understand it!  It's just a really weird aroma that fills up the whole hall! Everytime we get to the floor we walk into the hall and just gag! Haahahah It make no sense how one man can smell that bad so strongly. Hahha But whatever.  It is how it is. 

Also, when we play volleyball every day, we aren't allowed to jump! But it's fine because I can still spike it on everyone just standing so that's pretty awesome...hahahah!   We had proselyting last Saturday too. It was good. (Really quick and easy haha)  So Saturday was a great day! Other than that not much happened. Next time I write I will be in a different area!!! Super Awesome! 

Love 

Elder Davis

September 28, 2016: Now Playing..."The Phantom Menace"

Hello Family!

This week was good. haha Its pretty boring to talk about though.. just a bunch of studying and class time. Its basically as entertaining as the Phantom Menace. haha 

So, I'm just gonna talk about some of the highlights of the week and stuff and hope that will suffice for you guys. So to start, everyday when we are in the shower, my companion and I sing The Saga Begins, by Weird Al. And somehow... I still remember every single word of the song. hahaha It's freakin awesome! I love the force. 

Me covered in the "FORCE"!

Okay.. I got your letters!! that was awesome. haha usually the only person who gets letters is Elder Scheer. He gets letters every day pretty much. But yeah that was super nice. I was a little suprised though at Colton´s handwriting in it... hahaha What grade is he in now? ;) Just kiddin Colty!

So the only bad part of the week was we kinda got chastised on Sunday. So the Sunday before last Sunday, the second counselor was in and when we were making district goals for the week he said that we need to have one of our goals be speaking portuguese for the whole day and you get one hour in the morning and night for English.  We were not ready for that and so we didn't finalize anything!  Once he left we just decided to do all Portuguese between like breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner.  Well, this Sunday, of course, he came in again.... and when he heard us go over goals he kinda roasted us for 5 minutes saying that he was disappointed in us and stuff.. It´s all good though. So this week we are trying it out. Its super hard and we aren't perfect at it but some of the people in the district are slower at learning Portuguese so its good for us. 

Ummm next, I don't think I told you guys this, but I am on the 7th floor of the MTC. Also, we cant use the elevators... so we run up the stairs multiple times a day. My calves are gonna be huuuuuuuge. haha 

Brazil from our 7th floor view

During a devotional from BYU, Elder Cook was talking and he told us "Not to make Caricatures of our mission presidents" aaannnnnd, I already have.. and I did one of Elder Holland too. hahah When he said that everyone in my district looked at me. haha He meant it in a different way but it was still pretty funny!

Caricature of Elder Holland:)

Crazy food story... They always have a dessert for us and it generally is some really weird pudding or Jello. The consistency of the food is not normal. This time, I grabbed some Jello and literally spilled the jello on my plate. Once I sat down I put my spoon in it and it was just liquid.  I think they just messed up on it or something though, haha but normally when we have jello it still is really watery and thin!

 Also, figured out my bedding problem. When our Brazilian roommates left, we didn't get any new ones, so we put the bunk beds together and it was like a giant queen bed. Pretty freakin legit... but now we are getting new roommates so we had to move it back. Ohhhhh also! Every night we get Lanche which is just a snack with like juice boxes and chocolate and stuff and we inherited a bunch that a leaving district was saving up.  So one night, we played juice pong with them! haha It was way fun! 

Okay I have a really cool thought and stuff but I think I wanna say it in the voice recorder I have... So you guys should all just read Moroni 10. SUUPer goood chapter. And follow the invitation in verses 4-5. Love you guys! You're in my prayers. 

Love

Elder Davis

Sept. 21, 2016: Wazzzup?!!?!?

Wazzzup?!?!

So this week was pretty neat.  I have been sick this entire week... I have had a bad runny nose and cough and stuff. Haha but I'm almost all the way better so it's cool. I think this letter is gonna be a little bit different because all the days here are pretty much the same, so I don't wanna talk about what I did every day. It'll probably be more entertaining that way too.

             Soooooo to start off, my sleeping situation is pretty special.. haha! We have these super small twin beds... They are probably triplets instead. Haha!  ANYWAY.... I'm on the top bunk and my feet hang off the bed by like a foot or so. So thats pretty uncomfortable. Haha! and... I literally have lost an item of bedding every single night. Everything just keeps falling down to my companions bed. For example, one night I lost a pillow, the other night my blanket, and stuff like that.. hahaha! It was pretty rough. I didn't get much sleep those nights.

What I look like when I don't get any sleep!

             Next, the hot dogs on Monday were like orange... but that was the only thing to eat, and I was hungry.. so I had three and that wasn't very good for my system... Hahaha!!! 

         Oh! Highlight of the week was Saturday, we went proselyting.. Anyways they give us each three BOMs (Books of Mormons') and drop us off at this busy place in the city. It was kinda scary at first but it definitely got better.. We talked to a dude for like 50 minutes about the gospel and the book of mormon and missions and stuff. It was crazy hard. Haha but it was fun. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he wants to talk to us again, (when we go next) so I told him we would, as long as he reads the Book of Mormon beforehand. Haha! That was cool though. 

       In the city, there is sooooo  much graffiti. It is very ugly graffiti though. It was just like weird looking letters and stuff. It is literally on every wall and building. It's kinda sad because if it weren't for all the graffiti and trash everywhere, the city could be suuuuuper pretty. 

      Also, the cars here are pretty weird... they are similar to the cars in america... but they are super small and the wheels are tiny!! The only trucks they have here are some weird chevy trucks, that looks like a car in the front...

The best part of the city:)

     Okay. Funny story.. We have TRC which is basically sharing a message with a fake member for 30 minutes. To take up time, we always start out with a hymn. We were singing, I know that my redeemer lives in Portuguese, and we started singing and I hear this super high pitched opera voice... The member is going full opera! It was really weird!!!! I was doing everything I could not to laugh, and then all of the sudden the sister teaching with us starts laughing, and then me and my companion started laughing.. I stop quickly but they had a harder time holding it in.... and we sang all four verses.. So this happened two more times during the hymn. I didn't laugh anymore but the other two did and the member just kept nervously singing.. It was suuper weird.

The member singing opera needs this mask! HaHa

      Next, Elder Vanderwerff wanted to do something crazy, so he shaved his legs, and I wanted to do something to so I just shaved one side of my leg from the sock line down.. it actually is pretty comfy.. all my leg hairs don't get that bed head feeling from sleeping in my socks. Hahahahahahaha!!!

My beautiful shaved ankle!

         So next... I found out how to use my talent! One of the brazilian dudes in our room likes to do art too and one of the nights I ended up teaching him a lot about how to draw faces and make them look realistic. It was pretty cool.

       Next, the spirit here is super strong. I think I have told you guys that before but I really love it. I heard a cool thought. Don't just read the book of mormon to read it. It's a good book but you've gotta have a better purpose for reading than just reading it because you have to. When we have a purpose and read with real intent we get sooooo much more out of it. I promise. My testimony of the gospel has grown so much. I challenge you guys to all read the Book of Mormon this week. and REALLY read it. and then pray about what you read. Oh and begin with a prayer too. It makes it so much better. Anyways, I love you all! and I'll talk to ya next week!

Kirk out

Elder Davis

September 14, 2016: Sewer Flies and Bad Unibrow's

Oi!

How´s it going? Life here is going just fine. haha It has it´s good and boring days but I´m doing great. 

So a couple of funny things.. One of my brazilian roomates is very weird. haha

I´m not sure what his deal is but he tucks his white button up shirt into his garments, then puts on a tight pair of purple boxer briefs, then puts on a pair of blue PE shorts, and then he puts on his pants.. It´s soooo weird. I am not sure why he does it and I´m too scared to ask.. hahaha. Also, I don´t think I mentioned this but there´s a ton of sewer flies that are in the showers. So when I turn it on, all the flies come flying out of the faucet. Pretty gross but they´re really small. Also, last week at the temple session, we went on a Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday so they weren´t prepared for us. So, at the end we had to speak in portuguese for everything (that´s all the detail I´m gonna give about that) but we couldn´t read off a card or anything so it was SUPER hard. haha I just mumbled and made random noises with my mouth because the guy wouldn`t slow down. Also, I don´t really love the Portuguese hymns. Quite a few of them don´t really work with the tunes so they just sound weird. For example, I Believe in Christ is different because it ends with cristo.. haha. 

Sao Paulo Brazil

So for the week, Thursday, probably one of the funniest things that has happened.. So my companion Elder Cordingly had this super bad unibrow.. the hairs went halfway down his nose.. I just assumed he knew about it and didn´t care. Because it was pretty hard to miss... Especially from the side.. But on Thursday we were in the bathroom, and he was like,(I cant find the quotation button..) Wow! did you notice I had a unibrow? I was like yeah.. hahahahaha so that night he plucked it all and looked like a different person.. kinda. 

Friday, Today was pretty good. We had a lot of free time and so I brought my sketchbook to class with me.. and during Prep time where nobody was doing anything I was just drawing. And for lessons I teach fake investigators with my companion and the only sister in our district. She got really stressed that I was just drawing, but she didn´t really tell me what else I needed to do.. so the lessons werent the best. But, I drew a freakin awesome picture of Groot!! so thats a plus for me. But she did get mad at me kinda which got me frustrated and put me in a kinda bad mood for Saturday. 

Freakin Awesome Picture of Groot!

So on Saturday I was kinda bugged and the sister and then it grew to me getting bugged with other people too. So it was a decent day. I just sat in class and didnt really do much. But it was a good experience for me to have to work on letting go of my pride and changing my attitude. Which is pretty tough even for something like that. OH! and by the way my companion is literally typing with only two fingers next to me.. I guess they never made him learn how to use all his fingers in Idaho. haha 

Sunday was really good. We had a good meeting and at the end there was a broadcasted devotional from Elder Christoffereson. It was really good. I really love the spirit here. There´s a ton of really cool pictures and stuff. 

Monday was really good too. The breakfast was actually pretty good and for american night we had some really good sloppy joes that I had 5 of. So that was awesome. Also, I was able to strengthen my relationships with everyone in my district. I had a good PokemonGO and videogame chat with Elder Vander Werff. That was nice. haha

Tuesday was good and bad. Bad, because I started getting sick. Slowly throughout the day I got a pretty bad sore throat. But, we did splits with a brazilian companion and we had to teach a lesson with them. It was really fun. My companion said we are just going to go by the spirit and just talk about the restoration lesson from memory.. That was freaky. I thought it would be super hard, but it was awesome, It was a good challenge to just speak freely in Portuguese to everyone. But, it worked really well, and we got a baptism.. from a missionary acting as an investingator but thats cool. Also, we watched an old MTC broadcast from Elder Holland at the Provo MTC. IT WAS SOOOO GOOOD. I don´t think you guys have access to those but it was the best talk I´ve ever heard. His testimony is so strong. He said some cool stuff about jesus and missionaries. At one point he was telling us how hard it was going to be and said there is never a hard mission. He said the road to Salvation always goes through Gethsemane. so cool. Also, He said I can´t Imagine losing a sheep, but I can´t concieve losing a sheperd. That struck me super hard. He said missions should mean so much to everyone. He was talking about how he could´nt imagine someone going inactive after serving a mission. The spirit was so strong it brought tears to my eyes. haha which doesn´t happen very often... haha Anyways that was my week. I´m still figuring out how to send picutres. I just have to figure out the password to their WiFi and I´ll be good. 

Scripture of the week D+C 121-122. Those chapters are so powerful. Especially if you´re going through a difficult trial.

Love you guys!

Elder Davis