Don't Be Lukewarm!

Multi-Zone Conference

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This past week was a good one. We had two baptisms! Woohoo! Heavenly Father has really blessed us. We have been blessed with people that we can help a little along the way but they also help us through their faith and examples. We have been blessed with such great people and investigators! You can see the hand of the Lord in the work here in this area. I am so thankful for it.

We had Yasmin's baptism this past week on Friday. She came to the church all excited and invited all of her friends & their families to come see her baptized too. We are teaching some of her friends and their families also. I wish her parents would come around. It is sometimes hard to understand. They really want the gospel in the lives of their children because they see the blessings that come but sometimes they are not willing to make the changes themselves so they can enjoy the blessings together as a family. As we keep inviting I hope their hearts will change and they will see they need it too. Saturday was the baptism of Mayara. Holy cow, I have never seen a person more prepared than her. On Sunday, the day after her baptism she went to the bishop to have her temple recommend interview done. She was interviewed and this Saturday she will be going to the temple with a member family (the member that baptized her). President has decided that he would like the baptisms performed by members of the ward so they have connections with them when we get transferred. So we no longer do the baptisms. I think this has been good and has connected new converts with members in a great way. I respect and admire Mayara for her decision. She is a great example of faith and of integrity. After she was baptized she went home and some of her family began to criticize her badly and say horrible things about her and the decision she had made. Told her not to go back to the church etc...but instead she came the next day and was confirmed. She was in Relief Society and said to a member that she was feeling something way different then before and that she knew it was the Holy Ghost comforting her and confirming to her that she had made the right decision. Then she went and had her temple interview. She pushed onward. It was awesome to see her stand firm during her challenges and trials.

Baptism of Mayara

Baptism of Jasmine

Gina, Renato and Mayara & her boyfriend Vitor

We had a Multi-zone Conference this week which was awesome.  It is always great to see everybody and learn a little more about how we can serve better.

One of my Trainers - Elder Sander

Our zone with Pres. & Sis. Bangerter

With Elder Hugo at Zone PDay activity - love this guy!

The spiritual thought I wanted to share this week is from Revelations 3:15-16.

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot."
"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
As I was studying this past week I came across this scripture. Sometimes I think we get comfortable and think it is okay to be "lukewarm", or "more or less good" or "somewhat a good person". But the Lord has told us that He will not accept lukewarm. We need to choose whether we are going to be "cold or hot". Are we going to be obedient or disobedient, righteous or wicked. To Him there doesn't exist this thing of "I kept the sabbath day holy 50% of the time" or "I will obey this commandment but not this one because it doesn't make a difference for me" This isn't how the gospel works. We cannot have one foot in and one foot out. Of course we all will make mistakes and are not perfect but when we keep choosing to only obey partially or follow Him halfheartedly then we are on the wrong path that will lead to unhappiness. The Lord would love to bless us and has many blessings in store but we have to be obedient so He as a just God can bless us with them. If we have gone down the wrong path or made choices that aren't good we are never to far to come back to Him if we have a contrite heart and humble spirit and true desire to follow Him. That is what the atonement of Jesus Christ is all about. But we need to make sure our hearts and our will is one with Him. I love that video "Because of Him". I know most of you have seen it but it is so important to remember all we have been given. It reminds us of all the sacrifices He made for us and all that is possible because of Him. Because of Him, we are here and have the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father and Him one day. I love my Savior and hope to honor that sacrifice and remember Him as I choose to follow Him with my whole heart, might and mind. Here is the video link if you would like to watch it again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU (Video "Because of Him")

Hope everyone has a great week.
Elder Davis

Plant and Nourish

With Elder Araujo in Piracicaba a few weeks ago

Hey Everyone-
We had P-Day yesterday but most things were closed because it was a holiday so today I can only write a quick email to you and one to President. Sorry about that. I will try to catch up next week. We had a great Zone Pday yesterday though. We did a paintball activity, which was a lot of fun.

So this past week was good! Lots of work with the members and investigators! Yasmin, Maria, Maria Vitoria, Mayara and Igor/Eliane are doing very well! Maria Vitoria is having some people saying things to her and kind of getting in her head. This past week we did our best to be pro-active and check up with all of our investigators every day so that we can help them keep their goals of reading and doing the challenges we gave them. We have been working with some of our newer investigators to help them understand the importance of attending church and honoring the Sabbath day which went well. We also continued with our plan of having our investigators help us find new people to teach and this week one of them led us to a friend that was actually part of a less active family! It was awesome! They are also a part member family, not all of them are members so we are going to work hard with this family to reactivate those who are members and teach those that are not members yet.

Elder Silva goes home this transfer! 

Saturday was a pretty busy day but a lot of the appts we had at night fell through. And it was raining too. So we started knocking a few doors while walking through the street we were on. We knocked quite a few but were not very successful in finding people home. We were on our way to another house that was in a street close but we ended up stopping and talking to a woman at her door. She was the one that started talking to us and she talked to us for a long time. But it was good because it gave us a background of what she believes and what she is going through. We were able to relate the blessings of the gospel to her life personally and talk about the Sabbath day and invite her to go to church. It always is when you make a little more effort when things get tough that the blessings come. We had a few appointments fall through but the Lord helped us through that to find this woman. As we were talking it started to rain hard and guess what? Because it was raining so hard she asked us to come in and talk more. So we went in and continued to teach, and we were able to met her daughters and they also listened. Before we left we invited them all to go to church with us the next day. The daughters, Bruna and Barbara said that they have always wanted to come but they have never been able to because every time they passed, the church was closed. They all accepted and said they would go to church! On Sunday guess who was there? Bruna and Barbara! The members were great and they made a lot of friends. They intend on coming to church next week! What a great miracle it was that we ended up going down their street right at that time so we met their mom and we were able to teach them. One of our investigators, Mayara, who has been introducing us to her friends and helping with other investigators even commented to us that she wanted to make a group on WhatsApp with the members and the investigators that are coming to church to help them get to know the members and to be more firm!

One of my goals on the mission has been to study the Book of Mormon more closely and deeply. Elder Araujo is a good missionary and it has been great to work on this together. We study it personally but also as a companionship. Not just reading but studying it with purpose and applying what we learn to deepen our testimonies. It makes a difference for us individually and as a companionship as we teach. The promises that the prophet and apostles have given us that we will have more peace, tranquility and happiness in our lives as well as guidance and strength, we have experienced that. I testify of the truthfulness of the promise that if we study the Book of Mormon every single day we will come to a better understanding of what the Savior has done for us and feel His love for us. We will want to follow Him and do what He would have us do. It will change how we see people and how we interact with them. I have seen a lot of that in my mission as I have studied and really strived to get deeper understanding. I already had a testimony of the Book of Mormon and knew it was the Word of God but I am grateful that I have come to a better and higher understanding of the blessings that come from the Book of Mormon. Take the challenge in Alma 32 and plant and nourish that seed.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Elder Davis

Recognize His Hand

It was great to have Mayara at church! She is awesome

How's everybody? We are doing great . My new area is super awesome. My week was good. Our ward is awesome! Ward Amizade. I am also seeing many people here who are from Hortolandia where I served for 6 months. Today, I already saw 7 from Jardin Amanda ward. That was super. They are pretty close in location. Also the Leadership Pday last Monday and the meetings on Tuesday were pretty great. It was good to unite all of the leaders in the mission to discuss how we can become better leaders and disciples of Christ. I learned a lot. We had a Family home evening altogether which was super cool too. We had to do skits and got in some good laughs. I love doing the Lords' work and serving in this mission.

With Eudes Da Mata & his family, members from Jardin Amanda ward in Hortlandia

Teaching is also going well, a lot of great things happening. We have been teaching a person named Isabel who came with a friend to church. She is a youth and is super interested. Her brother is too. We have taught the Restoration lesson to her and she has already started to read the Book of Mormon. She cried when she spoke to us about reading it. She also recognizes the importance of having prophets, apostles and the authority of Jesus Christ (Ephesions 2:20). She felt the spirit really really strongly while we told her about the 1st vision. She recognized the fact that Joseph Smith as a youth was seeking truth then like she is now. She and her brother would like to be baptized but her parents will not give permission right now so we will have to be patient and pray that their hearts will be softened. That they will see the good come into Isabel's life. I know the spirit and love of the Savior can change anyone's heart. She is pretty awesome so we are going to keep inviting and working with the parents. It is a tough thing but we aren't gonna give up! We have also been teaching Yasmin, Maria and Raissa. This past week we taught them about the Word of Wisdom and Chastity. They agreed and don't have any problems with any of them. They too shared that they feel a good spirit as they read the Book of Mormon. They set a date to be ready to be baptized in the next two weeks. Friday we found some new people to teach and made initial contacts. We also got to visit Igor and Eliane which is the couple that has dates marked for the 9th of December. They will marry on this day and also be baptized! It will be awesome. I love them so much! They are a awesome couple. We are trying to do something that we haven't really tried here in Sumare before. I have done it a few times in my other areas and it always worked out, so Elder Araujo and I started to do it here. We ask our investigators to share what they are feeling and learning with our other investigators. Igor has been going to church for about a year now but has never married and so he never was baptized. But he will marry now and will be baptized so we invited him to come along and visit some of his friends to teach. It was awesome. We were able to mark a few appts with his friends and he helped teach and bear his testimony. He was able to strengthen his own testimony as well as help his friend receive the gospel! It was super awesome. We will be visiting his friends again this week.

So on Saturday, the powerful day of confirming with everyone that they will go to church the next day! hahaha. So this day was just great. We got to teach some of the people that we found in the week and invite them to church. Almost everyone said they would go. We then went and visited Yasmin & Maria again. Guess what? Yasmin had a friend with her there waiting for us! We taught them about the importance to church. We always talk about the Sabbath in every single lesson we teach and how important it is to go to worship the Lord each Sunday because that can be a challenge for some people. We also found 3 people just by stopping them in the street to talk to them and they accepted our invitations to visit so we are going to teach them during this next week. The Lord really does bless us when we "talk with everyone" so just do it! You will be blessed!

Leadership activity in Piracicaba

The Mission Leadership activity was great!

Blessed to be serving in a faithful zone.

We have a great zone!

Sunday. We were able to bring 11 people to church! So cool! They are all progressing too. That is something we are trying to focus on. Helping the investigators progress but also not depend on us. Every single investigator has a member or another investigator that is showing them around the church explaining everything. We are there to make sure that its all right but it's super awesome because they are helping each other and themselves! Yasmin brought her friend and her friend's mom too. Yasmin showed the baptismal font to them and bore her testimony to them about how important baptism is and invited them to her baptism.Our investigators are missionaries already! Hahaha! It was awesome.

I want to share with you a scripture from Alma 10:4-6.
"Now these are the words which Amulek preached unto the people who were in the land of Ammonihah, saying: I am Amulek; I am the son of Giddonah, who was the son of Ishmael, who was a descendant of Aminadi; and it was that same Aminadi who interpreted the writing which was upon the wall of the temple, which was written by the finger of God. And Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendant of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren. And behold, I am also a man of no small reputation among all those who know me; yea, and behold, I have many kindreds and friends, and I have also acquired much riches by the hand of my industry. Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people. Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know;.."

Sometimes we can be as Amulek and think we don't know the ways of the Lord or that He doesn't have a hand in our life. But I want to testify to you that He always does. We just need to take the time to recognize it. As we pay attention to all of the little things we sometimes take for granted we will see we do have a knowledge of Him. Sometimes we just don't know that we do. Harden not your hearts, open them up for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to enter in and heal you of whatever is inflicting pain, and let him lift the burden weighing down your shoulders. He is the Christ. He is the way. He is the life. He is the living bread and water. He is our Savior and our Brother. Love Him and receive His love. He is always there for us. I testify that He is the only way back to our Heavenly Father and to find joy and peace. I know that with all my heart and see it in every moment in my life as a missionary. Follow Him and focus on Him. The things of the world will pass but that which is of God is eternal. (1 John 2:15-17)

Love,
Elder Davis

Breaking Me In

With Elders McAllister, Araujo and Silva athe the Corinthians Stadium

Hey Everyone-
Hope everybody is doing great. I am in Piracicaba today. We have a leadership P-Day today and have to be at a park in about 30 minutes for some activities so this will be short. We are having leadership meetings tomorrow so we will be here in Piracicaba for a few days. My first week in Sumaré has been great but crazy. My companion is Elder Araujo and he is really cool. Elder Costa who was my zone leader when I was a district leader is now in my zone. He goes home in 5 weeks. He is the best and it is awesome to work with him again. Now we have switched roles - kind of funny.

Sumaré Zone

We are trying to build up the teaching list in this area so when I got here we visited ward leadership to try to get some referrals. The Relief Society President has helped us a lot in giving us referrals and some potential investigators. We have also been going through the area book and contacting EVERYBODY. So after a lot of work this past week we have found some great people to teach. We have marked two baptism dates for the end of the month with Raiza and Yasmine. We are also teaching this guy Vitor who is 16 and is pretty cool. He has a sister who is a member but his mom is not. He is really interested and wants to be baptized but his mom is not for it. His sister is 22 so she did not have to get permission. Hopefully the mother will see the change in her daughter and see the blessings that have come to her life by drawing closer to Christ and will want that for her son also. He is already changing alot too and you can see the blessings of the gospel making a difference for him.

With Elder Araujo

Churrasco is os sooo good!

A funny experience this past week. Araujo took me to a house, and told me that this investigator called Renato was very interested in the gospel but that he had many questions. He then told me that he likes to especially ask questions for the new elders coming in the area. So we entered the house and Renato started asking these crazy questions which were pretty tough but luckily I was able to answer them. So after I answered his questions he said he wanted to get baptized but only if he could do it that day. So in my mind I was trying to think fast of how we could make it happen and get his interview done, font filled, etc... Then Elder Araujo and Renato start laughing and told me that Renato is actually a member. They were just breaking me into the area. We all got a good laugh. I love the people here in Brazil. They are always up for a good laugh and have happiness despite tough times.

I want to share with you a bit of my testimony that I know Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer, our best friend, our brother and the Son of God.I love Him with all my heart. His grace is sufficient for all people. He will always be in our lives to support, love, cherish, safeguard, protect and strengthen but ONLY if you let Him in the door to do that. I know that no one is ever out of reach or too far from the presence of God to return. No one. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my Master and I will always serve Him. I am grateful I have this opportunity to be His disciple and be a witness of Him. Always remember the love He has for you and know He has many blessings in store for you as you choose to come to Him.

Love,
Elder Davis

Here are some additional pictures from my last zone Rio Claro that I did not get uploaded before leaving there last week.

With Robert

With the Bishop of Limeira Ward 

Love the members of Limeira!

Last P-day with Elder Cifuentes. He is the best!