Hortolandia = Sião

Hortolandia Zone = Sião 

E aí galera-

This week was a good one. Will have to give you guys the quick lowdown because we have leadership in Piracicaba tomorrow. Don't have too much time. It has been a great week being back in Hortolandia. I saw many members from Jardim Amanda 1 - my old area where I was a year or so ago. Man did it bring back a lot of memories from the old days here in Hortolandia! Elder Torres is a great companion. He is pretty funny. We are both from the same group. So we both end in two more transfers. I am excited to continue working with him. He is awesome. I love the zone here too. We call it Sião Hortolandia (Zion Hortolandia) - it's a pretty cool zone.

With Elder Torres & Maria Diogo

We are teaching a lot of people right now. Wendrell just set his baptism date for next Saturday. Juninho is another guy we are teaching and this week we will be setting a baptismal date for him, probably the last week in March. It has been great because his cousin, Mateus just got back from the mission a month ago and has gone with us on visits. We also have Reinaldo, Sonia and Fernanda. We had some great visits with them and a really great lesson on the plan of salvation. They also committed to come to church and they have all set dates for baptism. Reinaldo and Sonia will have to get married first so it is going to be a little while but Fernanda has a baptismal date for the 25th! We are also teaching Amanda. She loves church and has been attending and loves learning about the gospel. She really really wants to be baptized. She has a few things that we have to get worked out and some hard decisions to make regarding her boyfriend but she is moving forward. We have been teaching Elaine also but she is in a difficult situation. So we will continue working with her and moving forward. On Friday we did splits with some missionaries in the zone and I went with Elder Loueriro who is in my old area. It was very crazy because we visited a lot of my investigators that I had when I was in Jardim Amanda almost a year ago. We have been able to contact many and make appointments with them. We also taught some of their current investigators and confirmed them to go to church this past Sunday. On Saturday the guy I was teaching in Sumaré , my old area, got baptized...by me! It was great. He really wanted me to baptize him so President let me go back and do it. Washington and Andrea came and got me & my comp here in Hortolandia and then we went to Sumaré did the baptism and then they brought me back to Hortlandia. The Bishop baptized Andrea. I am grateful I had the opportunity to do that. It was a privilege and blessing for me. He is awesome and I am so happy for him and Andrea.

Washington & Andrea

Baptism of Washington & Andrea in Sumaré

I have been studying Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon where it compares the gospel/ the Word to seeds that if we plant and nourish it, it will grow and bear fruit. That is a parable or analogy a lot of us have studied and know pretty well. But I also think that most of us once we have planted the seed and see the first fruit sometimes we think we are okay and have no need to worry anymore. It is easy in the beginning when the seed first starts to grow, we are excited and we nourish it and take care of it. But then once it is growing we become casual and may not fertilize or water it or care for it like we did in the beginning. We start to take it for granted and think it will be okay and it will just maintain. But as we all know it will eventually die if we neglect it. Just like the plant, our testimonies are fragile and need to have regular nourishment. We need to treat them as a living thing that needs nourishment to grow, spiritual nourishment. When we nourish the plant, we get the fruit (blessings and spiritual experiences) and then can use it to become even stronger. We need to seek spiritual moments through prayer, scripture study, fasting and living the gospel every day. Then use those experiences to become better people and disciples of Christ. I am grateful for the "fruit" of the gospel that I have been given. I cherish the spiritual feelings and experiences that I have had that have strengthened my testimony of Christ. I am thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I know we all can have those daily fruits of the spirit in our lives when we nourish our spirits and testimonies.

Have a great week.
Elder Davis