Seek the Spirit

With Elder Passos - one of the best missionaries I have ever known. He goes home this transfer. A true brother!

Oi-
Wow, it seems that every week just goes by faster and faster! So this week we didn’t get to work in our area a lot since we had the world wide mission broadcast in Piracicaba and then Elder Vieira was sick for 2 days. But it was still an awesome week. In the meeting we were told about changes made to the missionary schedule and also to the key indicators we report on. If you haven’t heard about it you can read about it here. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865671866/Changes-in-LDS-missionaries-daily-schedules-preparation-day.html

The Americans listening to the Broadcast in English - usually we just listen in Portuguese but this time they had a room in English. It was kind of funny because it almost felt like it was our second language.

An attempt at taking an entire mission photo at the Broadcast. 

We had some awesome lessons this week and felt the spirit as we taught. We met a man named Adriano and started to teach him. He is a boyfriend of a member. He is a great guy. He is humble and really seems to have a genuine desire to learn, a perfect combination for teaching the gospel. He has been reading and praying a lot to know the truth for himself. So things are going well with him. Nelson is still traveling a lot so we only caught up with him when he was home one day last week. He is supposed to be back in town tomorrow so we will talk with him then. We are still teaching Ana and Marcos. We didn’t get the opportunity to visit them last week. They live pretty far out and the two times we went to their house they were not there but had gone into work but we are planning on catching up with them this week. One thing I have learned and am continuing to learn here in the mission is how to be “flexible”. People here are very “flexible” when it comes to schedules and appointments – it is not like at home. Not too much is set in stone. haha

With Elders Sander, Ferreria, Costa and Maia. Maia is going home this transfer.

Some of the missionaries from my old zone - Sister Silva, Sister Mendez and my trainer Elder Sander who is now a ZL in Sumaré

Elder Wilson - one of the new Elders in Elder Sander's zone

We had a few cool experiences this week and I am sure glad the Spirit is on our side. Always helping and making sure that we are going in the right direction. Sometimes these things I think we take as a coincidence or do not recognize them for what they are. Some of the experiences were very personal so I won’t share those but I do want to share one. So we were walking in the rain to lunch at a member’s house and usually that means we do not stop for anything! haha But we stopped for a few minutes because I remembered something and felt I needed to stop to write it down in the planner before I forgot. As we were stopped a woman passed by and said to us "Hi, how are you?" and we said “Good, how are you? And then she started to leave. I felt prompted to ask if she lived in Jardim Amanda (our area) and she said yes. We started to talk about our message and asked if she would be interested in us coming and sharing a message about Jesus Christ. We ended up finding out that she had been taught by the missionaries that were in this area before us. We actually had tried to go visit her a couple times when I first got here but there was a for sale sign on her house and every time we went there was no one at the house and it appeared vacant so we thought she had moved. So I think the Lord put us in each other’s path that day so we could reconnect. We are super stoked to go to her house this week to teach her. She was excited as we were that we had ran into each other. I thank the Spirit everyday for the help that He gives us in our work, to guide us to the people that are seeking Him and needing help.

Sander and I with Elder Costa - my ZL

That experience kind of leads into the thought that I wanted to share today. Hopefully my English will be good enough to not jumble it all up together with the wrong words. After baptism we are all blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost. We know that everyone can feel his influence but to have his constant companionship we need to be baptized and living worthy of his presence and help. In the worldwide broadcast last week Elder Nelson spoke about the spirit and his words touched me. I have been thinking a lot about this all week. He said that the Spirit only goes to and remains with people who truly want it and who SEEK it diligently. We may all say that is simple doctrine or that we all know that. But do we truly know and then use it? Do we SEEK to have the Spirit every day of our lives? What a great blessing the Lord has given us. The Spirit can comfort us, guide us, bring knowledge to our remembrance, help us feel the Love the Savior has for us, strengthen us and empower us with courage and purpose and so many other things. I am very thankful for the blessing of having the opportunity to have the help of the Spirit in my life. He is a Comforter, Revelator and a Teacher to me. As a missionary I have been blessed with his inspiration and guidance. I love this scripture. D&C 84:85;

“Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.”

I have a testimony of that scripture and of the truth that He will speak to your mind and heart in your moment of need. He will also let you know that the Savior knows you and your challenges. He will testify of the truth and reality of the Atonement that gives us the help we need to overcome our problems and mistakes. I am grateful for the Atonement. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have that the Lord knows each and every one of us by name and knows our challenges and is there to help us. He has felt everything we could possibly feel and knows how we feel as we pass through hard times. I know that to be true. Knowing that has given me comfort and strength in hard days and times. We can all have that great blessing. Have a wonderful week and SEEK the spirit!

Love you all-

Elder Davis