Obedience brings blessings

Multizone Meeting with President & Sis. Bangerter

Oi-

Hope everyone is doing great and had a good week. Man was this past week awesome but tiring! Elder Vasconcelos, my new companion is doing great! We worked sooooo hard this week! This past week we taught a lot of lessons! We had a multizone Conference one day but still got in a bunch of lessons for the week. He has been willing to work and work so that is great! We would come home and I would get my calls done to the companionships in the district and then we were out. We were beat! But the week was great. Where can I start? haha. I will just hit the highlights.Tuesday we had a lesson with a friend of a member named Guilharme! He is super awesome. He has a great sense of humor and is really humble. He is progressing quickly as we teach him. He came to church for the second time this past week! So that made us pretty happy! We will be talking with him tonight again, and we will be marking a baptism date with him! We also visited Ademirs family this past week (Ademir, Carol, Luciana and Gabriel/Antonio). We marked dates for baptism with them as 25th of march. Ademir and Luciana need to get married so we still have some things that have to happen before that but we are moving forward. Ademir is also striving to change some habits. He is truly ready to change and it's amazing me how much he loves his Savior and wants to change to not only help his body but also his family and do right in the sight of the Lord. We attended the baptism of a member's daughter and took one of our investigators with us so they could see what it was like. She was baptized by her dad and it was not in a font but a pool in a yard. That was a first for me. .Adriano who we baptized a few weeks ago asked me to be one of the two witnesses for his wedding. I felt honored and was super stoked about that. I am more excited to see them get sealed in the temple a year from now. It would be awesome if I could go! Campinas temple is about 15 minutes from my area now but is actually in a different mission.

Baptism of a Member's daughter

With Erico Dos Anjos and members of the ward and family that attended the Baptis

Getting set up for the Baptism

 Got to share this with you because I know Dad will get a good laugh. I didn't end up going to the Dr. for the dog bite. When I talked with Sis. Bangerter she said it would ultimatelybe a waste of time to go because unless you were showing major symptoms they would not give you any shots. There was another missionary that got bit and when he went, they would not give him a shot or anythng. They said just to watch to see if the dog died in the next ten days. haha Maybe after I graduate I need to come down here and be a PA. :)

With Elder Cifuentes (from my 1st zone), & Elder Sander at multizone mtg. (with Sis. Bangerter photobombing in the back!)

With Elder Azevedo @ multizone

At Multizone with Sister Janser (she was in my first zone)

With Elder Pontes

With Elder Soares - one of the new missionaries. Awesome guy!

With Elder Gomes (previous ZL) and Elder Sander

With Elder Waters

With Sister Dimartini and Elder Ricarte (ZL) - in life there is always reason to look up!

We had about 38 lessons this past week. We found a lot of new people to teach and that was awesome because as we all know that everything changes - we lose some and gain some so you have to always be working to find those looking for the truth. We were blessed to find a lot of good people to teach. It makes me so happy to find those people. To not only find more people so we have people to teach but to find those children of God who are just waiting for the gospel that will bless their lives and the lives of their family for eternity. I love thinking about Gods Plan. The experiences of life, even the small and simple things that happen to us, can bring us joy and make us happy. Each experience can be an opportunity to grow. Sometimes we may think why did this happen but we need to think about how we can use that experience to grow and to bless the lives of others. Life is good, we should enjoy it and make the most of the opportunities we are given. 

President taking a selfie with me and two sisters (Sis. C.Silva & Cardoso) from my district. 

Receive a missionary of excellence certificate = mandatory photo with Pres & Sis. Bangerter. Love them!

 Like I said we also had multizone this past week and it was awesome. I loved it. I always love seeing Elder Sander and all my friends but also love getting the opportunity to talk to President and give him a hug. He is literally the best mission president in the world! The assistants talked to us about a new weekly planning schedule that is "powerful". It was a great new way that we can look at weekly planning. It focuses on how we can recognize our investigators' needs and plan it all in an organized way so we can complete the will of the Lord. President also talked about obedience. It was pretty awesome.

President's object lesson about "hitting our targets"

The spiritual thought for this week is two things. First what my president talked about. "Obedience brings blessings but 100% obedience or perfect obedience brings and does miracles." Sometimes we think the small things are not of much importance but as we do the small things everyday, we will start to see the change in our vision of everyday life and we will also start to see the hand of the Lord more in our life. He is always there but if we are distracted, we will miss those tender and precious moments that will strengthen our testimonies and keep us on the path. Second, I know that God has a plan for each one of us. Sometimes I think, why did this thing happen to me or why didn't this thing happen for me. But the problem is that our thoughts or ways are not the same as Gods (Isaiah 58). His ways are perfect and glorious. He sees the whole picture. How we handle those simple and small things that happen to us affects the whole plan. I think of it like being in traffic - sometimes there is an accident or construction or something that makes you take a longer way or a different way you did not want to originally take. But by taking that way He puts someone in your path that you need to help that you wouldn't have found if it weren't for those challenges or obstacles. We should look at those small things as a blessing in our lives or as an opportunity to bless the lives of others rather than something to complain about. Our Heavenly Father lives, He loves us and watches over us. Christ lives, He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He suffered for my sins and for my difficulties. He knows what I am passing through and helps me daily. He loves each and everyone of us. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ. The one and only true church. We have the same authority (priesthood) that Christ had in his day, here on the earth again.The Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God. With the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and is a prophet in this latter days. He translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God and we have a prophet here on earth today in these latter days. His name is Thomas S. Monson. He receives revelation for each and everyone of us. He is God's mouthpiece and we should listen to everything he says and apply it in our lives. Each and everyone of us has worth in the sight of God and He will always be on our side walking with us. Remember that each and everyone is a child of God and we should follow Christ's example and help one another along the path. I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Davis