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