Seek & Invite

Baptism of Igor and Eliane

This week was great as usual. The Lord is so merciful with us, always blessing us so much! The words to the hymn "How Great Thou Art" come to my mind. We are truly blessed by His hand everyday.

Transfers are today. I am staying in Sumaré with E. Araujo for another transfer. I am happy to be staying. I have only been here one transfer but you never know sometimes you leave quickly but luckily I am staying here at least one more transfer. I love working with the members here and love the people we are teaching. Elder Araujo is super cool and we work well together. This week we have been working with a few members and less actives. We were able to give a few lessons to some of them and it all went great. I love seeing them start to feel with the spirit of Christ again and remember of their testimonies and the feelings that they had! Sometimes as people we get a little off track and then we just need someone to come along to help us get started on the right path again. We all need a helping hand some time in our life. One thing a mission reminds you of is that it is important that we be Christ's hands here on earth to serve others and do His will. It is one of the greatest feelings to see someone remember about what they felt and what they know is true. I love the verse in the Bible in Matthew 18:12 "How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?" Being the Christmas season, what greater gift can we give our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ then to seek after the lost sheep. So everyone there is no better time than now, start seeking and inviting!

With Igor & Eliane and Elders Araujo and Pontes

I love this family!

Finally the day came! Igor and Eliane got married firstly in the Cartório (the government building for documents) then they got married/got the blessing of the Stake President in the church! It was super awesome! This all happened in the morning and then that night we had the baptism! I love their family and am excited for the progress they will make now with the blessings of the gospel in their lives. This is what life is all about. Something a little funny - anyone who knows me well knows how I hate to decorate or do anything like that, probably because I am horrible at it. But Araujo and I were asked to help the Relief Society do the decorations for the wedding. Haha They put great trust in us I guess. And a miracle happened it turned out super well! It was a great day seeing them married and then baptized! It was the highlight of the week.
zx

Igor and Eliane with their son at the Cartório

All set up for the ceremony at the Church

With Brizzy, one of the ward members, who helped with the decorations and Elders Araujo and Pontes

Another miracle. We were walking in the street and a boy was sitting at his doorstep. I felt prompted to talk to him. I talked with him, he said he lived there with just his mom but she was taking a shower and so we said we would come back another time. We continued going up the street, talking to a few people along the way and then we turned the corner and went up the street going to our other appt. When we got halfway up the street, there was a boy at the door of another house, we felt prompted to go talk to him even though we were trying to get to our appt on time. As we approached him we realized that he was the SAME boy that I saw in the OTHER street in the other NEIGHBORHOOD. How he got there so fast, I do not know. He said this was his cousins house and he had come to visit but that no one was home, just him and his little cousin. We set up another time to come back and we continued back on our way up the street. Then we saw a teenage girl coming down the street and we felt prompted to stop and to talk to her. We stopped and talked with her and she wanted us to come teach her so we marked her address and phone number so we could come back the next day. Would you believe it if I told you she lives in that house where we stopped and talked to that boy? The second house which was the house of his cousins, she is part of that family. It's so great how the Lord works. He had prompted me 3 times about this family, at 3 different times and 3 different places. I am glad we listened. We went there on Saturday to teach the family and she even brought her friend. We taught the first lesson and asked them to pray. They agreed to come to church and we will continue to work with them this week.

Luis and Francisco are doing well! We invited them both to be baptized. Luis also accepted and we marked a date for the 23 of Dec. Francisco is not quite ready so we are going today to see him and answer some questions. I am excited for Luis. That will be a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas and what a great gift to give the Savior!

Hope everyone is doing the #LightTheWorld challenge! What a great way to help us come closer to our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ through serving. Helps us follow His example and become more like Him one day at a time! Link: https://www.lds.org/blog/25-ways-to-lighttheworld-this-christmas?lang=eng

Have a great week!
Elder Davis