Proclamando em Piracicaba: Be Meek & Humble

With Elder Theodoro

This week was good! General Conference was inspiring and awesome! We are settling into Rio Claro 4 pretty well now. Elder Theodoro has 4 weeks here and I have a week now. It is been great to work with him. Elder Theodoro has a great desire to work and be a good missionary, he is one in fact haha. We are working so great together. He is a type of a companion that supports you in your efforts as well as helps you take on the load of the hard work daily. I am sure that he will bless a lot of lives here in Rio Claro 4. We are planning on and making the changes that the area needs to become Zion again. I am very excited to see the changes that will happen here. We are already seeing a few changes in the leadership here with being excited with the missionary work and the effort we are putting forth.

With Sister Gonzalez and Silva. Sister Gonzalez finished her mission in June and is now working in the CTM in Sao Paulo. She came to watch General Conference in Rio Claro

This week we saw a lot of miracles! When I got here there was 1 person in our teaching group and this person hadn't gone to church or even been taught the first lesson. The area could have been in better shape to be honest but my companion and I made goals this past week to change the area completely. Get to know better the members the area and to establish a great teaching group. It took a lot of work and sweat but we were able to do it!

This past week we left the house early every day on the search for new people to teach. We received some references from the sisters. We contacted them and even though these 2 references didn't work out, through them we were able to find people that we never thought we would find or teach. They are progressing well and it will be awesome to see the result of the gospel in their lives.

An example. We were walking to contact a reference called Angelica/Jose. When we were going, neither of us knew the area well, and so we ended up going down the wrong street in the wrong neighborhood and we were passing a lady that was sitting on the sidewalk. She yelled "Os Mormons" "The mormons" and that was already a key signal to do a contact right?haha Sometimes missionaries avoid those contacts because some people just wanna pick and poke at you but it is always a great chance to share the gospel and answer some doubts that some people have about the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ. We talked to her and she said she had recognized us by our clothes that we use (white shirt, tie, pants, nametag). We asked her about her and what her name was, she responded it was Margarette. We talked to her and invited her to get to know what we do, she accepted. We then told her about what we do as missionaries. Invited her to listen to our message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized like Christ was because she never had the chance to be. She accepted the chance to learn more. We marked a date to come back and came back and taught her the first lesson. During the lesson we invited her to pray and ask God if everything we said was true so she could have the certainty about the message and its truthfulness. We will be going back there this week.

Another miracle. We went to contact the other reference, Marilene. We went there and she wasn't home, but through that we entered in the wrong street AGAIN and through asking people for directions we ended up meeting a man named Tiago. He is a man that passed through a rough time as a teen and young adult. He ran into some problems with the law but through time he gained understanding that this wasn't what he wants for his life and for his kids. We explained to him how we are here to change people lives through Christ and if he would just accept our messages, he would be able to change his life in a way that he could never imagine. We invited him to come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and follow Christ's example to be baptized. He accepted them both and we marked a date for the 14th of April. He is excited and said he will take his whole family to church this week. We will keep you guys updated about him.

I will mention just one more. We always are trying to get a reference from every person. God has a purpose for everything and so if that person didnt work out, there must be someone that they know that will work out. We went around doing contacts before lunch then we ate at Websters and Marlenes house for lunch. They are Recent Converts of 11 months. They will be sealed this month in April. The whole lunch we went on talking about the sealing and their getting to know the church and the missionaries. In the family there is Webster, Marlene, Thaynara, Laura, and their other daughter Nayara that isn't baptized. The whole family was baptized besides her. We went on talking about the gospel, sparking interest and conversation with her about religion. She came to ask questions sometimes and then she asked one key question "Isnt it hard speaking about the gospel when so many may not believe?" I responded to her that its not easy but its a great experience because it is the truth, if we just be humble and accept it in our lives, we change for the better" She then responded asking how could I know it was all true. That was the door we were waiting for. We talked about the lessons and messages we share as well as how she could know for herself that it was all true. We marked a date to come back on Saturday and teach her. We taught the first lesson and had her pray about the Book of Mormon in that moment and the lesson. After the lesson she said she knew it was true and that is what she was waiting for. She said that she never had interest in the message of the missionaries the whole time that they were teaching the rest of her family and coming the past year but for some reason she had a desire to know now. It was a great opportunity to explain and bear our testimonies about the Holy Ghost/Spirit of God. He guides us and helps us understand the truth if we just but listen to His still and small voice. But we have to have a desire and be ready to listen. We have had some great lessons with her and have marked a date for baptism with her for the 14th of April.

So many miracles happened in our area this week. It changed from 0-100 in just a week. Elder Theodoro and I were talking about how this is an example of the small and simple things that really take us to understand the ways and paths of God. We cannot understand and be guided if we don't prepare ourselves to receive this guidance and then get out and do the work with faith. God blessed us so much this week. We began the week with nothing but we did our part and relied on God to guide us to His children that were ready to receive His message and He did. It was a great learning experience. I am grateful for my companion and the opportunity we had to be instruments in Gods hands.

Couple spiritual thoughts from General Conference from Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

“Meekness is a defining attribute of the redeemer and is distinguished by righteous responsiveness, willing submissiveness and strong self-restraint,” he said. “ ... The Christ-like quality of meekness often is misunderstood in our contemporary world. Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash.”

“A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others.” Elder David A. Bednar

We must be humble to accept Gods will. It is quite simple. We need to do what we need to do so that we can be blessed. Be meek, let us do our part in Gods work to bless the lives of others and God will do the rest.

“Though each of these practices may seem to be small and simple, over time they result in powerful spiritual uplift and growth,...This occurs because each of these small and simple things invites the companionship of the Holy Ghost, the Testifier who enlightens us and guides us into truth.” Pres. Dallin H.Oaks
It is through the small and simple things that the spirit can bless us, teach us, guide and protect us. We must do these things with our heart and out of love. Do them because we want the presence/spirit of God not because it's our routine or obligation.

Have a great week!
Love you all!
Elder Davis

P.S. I included a few pictures from a multizone a couple weeks ago that I was not able to upload until now.