Como estão todos?

Oi!
I hope everyone is doing well! Some great news this week! Elder Anderson, one of the Twelve apostles of the Church, will doing a mission tour in our mission next week. Everyone is pretty pumped! We will all be going to Piracicaba to hear him speak.

Elder Vieira

This week was pretty much the usual we spent most of it making new contacts and also contacting and teaching our current investigators. Had one of our old contacts give us a wrong address, so that was awkward when we showed up asking for someone who didn’t live there haha. Wish we could have taught him but he is just not ready I guess so you have to laugh and move on. So last week, we visited a member who is a recent convert that has been less active lately. She and her family haven’t been to church in a while so we have been visiting them often and trying to get them back to church. Last week they agreed to come to church the next Sunday and yesterday the whole family came for sacrament meeting. That was super cool. It is all about small steps and moving forward so every step makes an impact and is good! So remember the youth that I talked about a while ago that was playing soccer in the street and we kicked around with him a little but we weren’t able to teach him. Well, we saw him again but this time he was playing basketball. He’s a pretty good athlete! He plays like every sport. Anyway, he was shooting around on a basketball hoop that his family made (a full size basketball hoop too). So we went over and started talking to him. I ended up playing a 1v1 basketball game with him haha. It was cool! Then after, we shot around a little and asked if we could share a message with him and he accepted. We shared the first lesson with him and he said that he would like to learn more so we will be following up with him! That is a lesson to me that when you think that a door or opportunity might be closed or gone; think again because you never know what effect you can have through just talking and being friendly! During our contacting we also spoke with a woman that had lost her son in a car accident. He was a member of the church but he had never talked to her about it really. So we will be going to her house this week to teach her about the plan of salvation. As I listened to her speak of her son I thought “How blessed are we?”. We have the opportunity to know that there is a life after death and we are blessed with the knowledge that families are eternal. We know we'll live with them again if we live worthily. What comfort and peace that can bring.

Saturday we had a day of service. So we caught a bus to Siliba and helped out a member named Tiago. We raked leaves, leveled some ground, helped pick fruit and clean up and mow the lawn. It was fun and the family made some really good pizza after. They are a super cool family. I love the people here.

This week Elder Vieira and I also made pastels! I wasn’t so sure they would turn out but we didn’t do half bad. Actually they were pretty good. I uploaded some pictures to google drive for those of you who doubt my cooking prowess haha.

Hard at work making Pastels

The Delicious Pastels

Elder Vieira and Elder Davis 

 There are also some pictures of street art/graffiti that you see everywhere here. There is some pretty cool stuff. Also one with a young kid from our ward that wanted to take a picture with me and a family we have been visiting.

Street Art

Dinner with Sister Celano

Elder Davis and Ramon (a youth in their ward)

That is basically it for our week, but as usual I want to end by sharing a spiritual thought with you guys. In my personal study time this past week I read an article by Elder M. Russell Ballard. The title is “The Lord Needs You Now”. It is a really good talk and I hope you take a couple minutes to read it. He talks about the sin and temptations that are in the world and how we need to stand up for what we believe in now and make a difference. I especially would like to share this quote. "I know some of you worry about being misjudged, ridiculed, and even harassed if you stand up for Heavenly Father, The Lord Jesus Christ and the Church...My dearly beloved friends, don't worry about those in the large and spacious building… You are a great and important generation, and this is a great time to be alive! The future is bright. Say to yourself, “I am helping the Lord as I reach out to share my testimony and to teach the truths God has revealed in these last days.” I encourage you guys to stand up for what you believe in. Do not just be a bystander in this gospel. Don’t be afraid to let people know about your standards and about what we believe in. We made a promise at baptism to follow the example of Christ, to take upon his name. When we invite people to become baptized the question we ask is "Following the example of Jesus Christ, will you be baptized by someone holding the authority and priesthood power of God?" Those of us that have been baptized have covenanted to follow him by always remembering him and taking upon his name. We are to be a witness of Him. Let us hold to the rod of iron ALWAYS. Let us not be like those who partook of the fruit and then were ashamed because people were making fun of them and they lost their way. Let us not worry about what others may think or say about us. We need to be thinking about what our Heavenly Father thinks and what we think about ourselves. I know that I was afraid to share the gospel at times before my mission and I regret that. I would ask you to not make the same mistake I did by thinking "What if they dont want to be my friend anymore?”, “What if they think differently of me?". Have courage! You are here at this time for a reason and are part of a “great and important generation”. We all need to live up to that! I love you all and hope that you all have a good week!

Com Amor,

Elder Davis