PICS of GAMA LESTE!!

whats up ya´ll!!! OCT 21, 2008

hello everyone! so how is everything up there is salk lake? this last week has been pretty good. i hope you are all reading with me still, cuz the end of the year is pretty close. but this last week of reading was awesome. one of my favoite parts in the book of mormon is when alma and amulek are preaching and they tell all the people what they are doing wrong, so they get all mad and put them in prision, dont give them food, take away there clothes, people smite them. they go through alot of trails, but not once does either of them cry out and murmur or anything like that. its near the end of all this that the spirit touches alma and he knows the time is right and cries unto the lord for help, and the lord destorys the prision. and this all happened because of the faith that they had. thats alot of faith, to be able to shake the ground and destory a building! it says that after that everyone fell to the ground in fear that the judgements of god had come upon them. can you imagen 2 men, held in a prision and the prision falls, and they walk out unharmed. just thinking of this scene....i dont have words, its just one of those reall cool book of mormon stories. thinking of how this applies in my life, there are times that you think that everything is going agaisnt you, but the last thing we should do is murmur, we need to wade throught our afflictions and if we can do this, god will bless us more then we can imagen. anyway hope everyone is reading! :) so now about here....i am still in gama sul, living with my distrct leaders. we have been looking for somewhere to live but no luck yet. things have been great, no problems here. the 4 of us today,( the other dupla) went to subway for lunch, it was on the americans.....hahah. it has been kinda nice cuz there is another american that is living in the house so i have been working on my english too...so i dont forget. he lives in washington, close to anne...i forgot the city but its on the otherside of the puget sound. anyway hope everyone is doing well. not to much change here, we are still working with that one family to help them get maried, we are taking them into brasilia tomorrow to do the legal stuff and then mark and date and all that for the church wedding. but other then that, nothing to new. its was allot faster today to clean the house with 4 guys, but its amazing how dirty the house can get in one week...with four guys. well things are great here, not much else to say. i love ya guys tons and thanks to everyone that has been putting stuff in the suitcase....i cant wait to get it!!!! well hope everyone is haveing a great week!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
elder davis

OTISSIMO!!!! OCT 14, 2008

well to start off this week was great!!!! the lord really blessed us this week! we have had some families that we have been teaching, but the biggest problem we have down here is when we find ne families to teach the majority of them arent married, they just live together, so enable to baptise them we have to help them get married, well we have to families that we have been working with and that that family that i was talking about the weekend of conference, went to church this week too, and you could really tell a difference in their attitude. sunday night we made a division and i went to one of ou families and elder almeida went to the other, well when we arrived and were talking with them, they both told us that they are ready to get married and want to get baptized!!! its amazing to see the lord working miricles!!!! so today we took one of them to the cartorio, where you have to do all the government paper work and all that and get them ready, and now me and elder almeida are planning a wedding!!! so were gettin all the member to help us with food and decorations and what not. its awesome! and the new chapel that i sent pics of, should be ready in acouple of weeks so i am pretty sure they will be able to get married in the new chapel and get baptised there! so yes this week was awesome. we also had an investagator that we have been working with and when we visited her the other day, the only thing that was stopping her from getting batised was a few doubts about, having to serve a mission and baptisms for the dead and what not, but we had a member there with us and let him answer her questions...man the spirit was so strong! once the member got done talking my companion felt insipired to ask her if she would be interviewed for a baptism this sunday!!! and she wants to be baptised this sunday! so yes this week was amazing, me and my companion have been very blessed this week. well that was pretty much my week. the only other thing that is happening is that we are getting kicked out of our house....the pres. wants us to move in with the district leader untill we find a house in gama lest, so that the sisters can live here in gama centro, so we are mving today after we use the internet. so thats what the plan is for the rest of the day. well i hope that everyone is haveing a great week. i will kept you guys updated on the wedding plans, ha ha. well not much else to say, thats about all thats happening on here. i wont lie i am getting more and more excited for this suitcase......you gotta let me know if you dont get ahold of her this week mom, so i can figure somthing else, i think i can have her sister call her from here and work something out. let me know. well anywho....thanks again everyone, i love ya guys tons!!
hope everyone has a great week!!!
Elder Davis
Gentle push and a mild arc and the cow hide globe hits home!

otimo semana!!!! OCT 7, 2008

once again i send my greetings from BRAZIL!!! time passes all to quickly, i know that you all are dying to have me back....cough cough....but i will be honest 2 years sometimes feels like not enough time. well first i would like to know whats going on with everyones reading....? well this last weekend was awesome, in the book of mormon we got to read through the words of mormon, which is the part in the book of mormon with king benjamin! i love the part at the end of chapter one where it says that king benjamin labored with all his might and the faculty of his whole soul....thats gotta be pretty hard labor right there. i love that scripture becuase it is a perfect example of serivce, king benjamin, a king, was always laboring for his people doing all he could {laboring with all his might and faculty of his whole soul} and also it is through service that we can be the answer to someones prayer. in verse 7 it says that the lord will work through me, according to his will. alot of the times we are the answer to someone elses prayer, because the lord uses us according to his will. we need to be constantly working with all our might and faculty of our souls so that when the lord needs us, he can use us according to his will to answer prayers, comfort those that stand in need of comfort, lift those with feeble knees. king benjamin to me is a great model of service. and then to top it off we had conference this weekend!!! and yes i was wathcing it live! it was so AMAZING! all of the talks really were exactly what the church in whole needed to hear. i dont have time to talk about all of it, so i will just metion one, my favorite speaker. Jeffrey R. Holland, he talked about angels and how the lord still sends angels to help us and to comfort us. i loved the story he told about the little boy and the cows, and that there really are angels immortal and mortal. our families are angels, our spouses are angels, are leaders can be angels, the lord is always sending angels to help us becuase he loves us, and wants to help us as much as he can with out taking away our angency. i love the scripture he used in D & C 84:88 and it says something like, the lord is on our left hand and on our right hand and he will be before our face and our rearward, and he will send angels to bear us up. i know that the lord as sent angels to bear me up in the most difficult times, but he has also sent angels in time of joy to lift me up. i love to hear elder holland speak, becuase he just as this way of speaking that.....wow, its unexplainable. you guys know. anywho, conference was awesome! and i hope that all of you had the chance to watch it and to really listen to the messages that we will use to guide our lives for the next 6 months. anyway now i little about whats going on here. well as you know i did get transfered but i am still livig in gama centro, due to some problems so it kinda feels like i havent changed much. but my new area is great. and my new comp is awesome! the other day we were making some contacts and we stoped and talked with this guy, the next day we taught him and his wife, and invited them to conf. they went to the first session sat. and liked it so much that they wanted to come back on sunday. its amazing seeing the spirit touch someones life, i wish you all could have that chance sometime in your life. there is no way that i could do this work without the spirit. well thats about all the new stuff thats going on here, at least all the exciting stuff. well i hope that everyone is haveing a great week! keep me updated on all the stuff going on up there. love ya guys tons!!! thanks for all the love and support!!!
LOVE YA
elder davis

ói! bom dia, boa tarde, e boa noite! SEPT 30, 2008

como vaí todo mudo! entao eu estou aqui em gama centro ainda..... well how is everyone? i hope everyone is doing well...conf. is coming up here this week so you all gotta be pretty stoked about that. at leat i am! i am freakin out! we get the chance to hear from the prophet, and me being all the way down here in brazil get to hear it live.... how cool is that. i am way stoked. so just fyi my pdays are now on tuesdays and will stay like that for the rest of the mission so just thought you should all know, its kinda important. at least for me ha ha. well how is everyone doing with the reading in the book of mormon...

this last week we have been in 2 nephi and i dont think i have ever felt like this before while reading it. wow! i really like when nephi bears his testimony and you can really feel him talking to you...its so powerfull. i like the part that talks about prayer and that to know the truth you have to open your heart and let the holy ghost bring the truth INTO your heart. when i was reading the part we were teaching a man named bill. he is 70 or something, pretty old, but he has always been catholic. well he was telling us that god has abandon us here on earth and that becuase of all the bad things going on, god turned his back. we shared the first lesson with him, abou t how god still loves us and that god has always been with us. and i marked this part in the book of mormon for him to read, its really powerfull to me. and i just happened to be reading it on the day that we went to teach him. on our follow up visit, he was still pretty agaisnt the fact that god is still with us, but he really liked the part i marked, and said he will keep reading the book of mormon. so we have been praying from him, that the spirit will touch his heart and help him to know the truth. its amazing when you see someone really change because they found the truth, you can tell when the holy ghost really touchs their hearts. its the closet feeling i have felt that i can compare to the temple. its amazing. thats definitly one thing that i miss...you guys really need to take advantge of having a temple so close. thats one thing that i miss the most is being able to go to he temple, its amazing there. so dont take it for granted. on another note, how is the family home evenings coming? i want to invite everyone again, to really make that effort to get together one night a week and do somehting as a family, i know through seeing it here, that it really will strenghthen each one of you. doing those little things together really do help. well alittle about the area now. as you know i got transfered and i am now working in gama leste with elder almeida! man i love him, he is the funniest kid ever. we really do get along really well and i wont lie, i like him a little bit more then my other comps...(can i say that) well its been said. anyway the first week was a little tuff cuz we are both new to the area, so we didnt know any memebers or investigators or the area or anything. so its been a different experience. they call it opening an area, (kinda) the area had missionaries before but we are both new so ya its a little difficult, but i have learned there isnothing you cant do when the lord is by your side! so the missionaries that were in the area were sisters and the apartment they lived in, the nieghbors, were only women. so we cant live there, so we have been looking for another apartment in the area, but while we look for one, we still live in gama centro and the sisters still live in gama leste. but we both work in our own areas, so its kinda tiring to have to walk to your area in the morning and then walk back at night. but we found an apartment, its acutlly pretty nice, we got it checked off with the zone leaders, now we just have to get intouch with the lady that is renting it. but its been good. so thats whats been going on here. about my comp, well his parents are divorced as well, he lives with his mom, as well as his other brothers and sisters. he has 6 of them. his whole family is in the church and the biggest thing, he is lactose intollerant( thats spelled wrong) haha but ya he cant have chocolate or anything with milk. so thats my comp. he is a great guy though. i love him. anyway the other day we made cookies, the chocolate chip ones, for a family night and ya they were good, but i feel bad cuz i froze all the cookies cuz i like them frozen....and my comp broken his braces eating them, so ya, my bad. but all in all things are good. the members here in our area are awesome, we have a ward mission leader that...wow. he is to cool, he makes visits and makes contacts and passes references..ya he does it all. i love it! it really makes the difference in missionary work. when you have a good ward mission leader that works with the ward and with us really well. it really helps us out a ton!!! well i cant think of to much to say....i have kinda spilled the beans. i sent a tape with ruth this last week, and she will be in salt lake city for conf. so here in a little while you should be seeing her!!! she is a cute lady, you´ll love her. she tries to speak english...its funny. but shes awesome. and she has something for you mom.....
well i better get going, time to finish out the pday. i love ya guys tons. hope all is well up there, listen hard to conf this year, i can feel it, its going to be AWESOME!!!
love ya guys!

ps jake...where did you go, i havent talked to you inwhile.... whats up with that bro...!!!!

ELDER DAVIS

whats up! SEPT 22, 2008

well hello again from good old gama centro! so first off transfers were today and if you are all wondering...i did get transfers so dont use the address in gama centro to send letters! but anyway i got transfered too.....GAMA LESTE! ha ha same city, same ward building, pretty much the same, but it is a new area which is nice and i will still get to see the new chapel in action so thats going to be cool. lets see oh ya i ate at subway today, just thought you all should know. so i need you all to do me a favor. so you all know that mom is sending a suitcase my way, and she said that everyone wanted to help put things in it. well what ever you were going to buy dont! instead everyone put your money together becuase i need a quad set of scrips with 2 scripture cases. dont worry about sending anything else, i told mom about it so if you would mind just give your money to her and she will get them, cuz i need some names on them too. and i am talking abou tlike 10 dollars here, it doesnt need to be more then that. so if you could all do that it would be very helpfull! THANKS! anyway someone was telling mom that we dont knock doors down here, we clap. its true, it was a little strange at first but now when i knock....its weird! haha everyone here has gates and what not, there is not one house that you can just walk up to the door and knock, it doesnt exist. so you have to stand outside the gate and clap your hands till someone comes out. i dont knw why they do this becuase it is very ineffective. someone can be clapping and the houses on either side think its for them, if you clap really loud you can get 4 or 5 houses to come outside, its kinda fun to see how many house in one clap. you just got to be really loud....hahah but really its kinda lame. anyway yes we clap. mom was asking what i did all week and some things i do with investigators...well we teach them..ha ha jk well we have some meetings during the week and fri is always the planning day so we spend more time in the house to plan for the next week. but other then that we are always outside doing something. talking to some one, in someones house, walking somewhere. you just dont stop here, we do get to stop once a day...and thats at night when you sleep, other then that we are always doing something. but its great! i am having a great time, and it just seems like it is flying by. i am getting transfered and oh i was thinkin it will be good cuz i will be really close to that ladies house when she gets here with the siutcase...so it all works out. anyway things are awesome here. i am getting another brasilian companion. i know who he is but i cant spell his name at the moment so i wont even try, so you will have to wait to find out who it is. anyway today we have to go to brasilia to make the comp switch. and we will have a little fam night with all the missionaries and those that are going home, so that will be pretty sweet. elder buck if you rememebr was my comp in the ctm, he is in the office now, so now i got the hook ups in the office! as they say down here...i have a fish in the office! and no i havent been cooking anything new latly but i had a bunch of members ask me to come to there house and show them how to make the choclate chip cookies.... haha well i think i had better get going. love ya guys tons! hope all is well oh and i put some pics on fly shutter so you can check those out.
LOVE YA!
elder davis

whats up ya´ll! SEPT 15, 2008

oí yall! how’s everything in the great salt lake valley! well as for here in gama...hot and very dry. it has been really hot these past few weeks, I have been cooking. this is supposed to be the hot and rainy season but the rain hasn’t started yet....just the hot. but its good. I have coming up on 6 months in gama! ya its a long time, let me tell ya. I like gama but I am ready for a move. the only reason I want to stay is because of the new chapel. have you seen the pics of that thing! wow, it’s so nice. they will dedicate it in Oct. some time. and this transfer ends here in the next week, end of Sept. so we will see what happens but after 4 transfers here I think I will be leaving gama for sure, so heads up on the letters. don’t send them to the house this week. send them to the mission home. well in other news...how’s the reading going? I hope everyone is reading with me. I on page 70 right now so you all should be some where close. I got an email today that was talking about what someone read and it was exactly what I was thinking. it’s really comforting to know that even prophets have hard times. in 2 Nephi, Nephi talks about how he sorrows in his sins and calls himself a wretched man....if he is a wretched man...I don’t know if there is a word for me..ha ha well things are going great here in gama..today I am actually emailing you from Brasilia because we had to come here for an appointment for my comp. so we stopped in McDonalds!!!! gotta love it baby. and I bought a really cheap tie...ya its sweet. trust me when you only can change the color of your tie, you start to crave ties like no other. but other than that, nothing to big going on here, there is an elder that is going home here in Nov. and he will bring home a tape...he lives in salt lake city and went to oly high. we pretty much new the same people and I saw him alot before the miss just never knew him. anyway he will be bring home a tape so hopefully this one will make it....I have confidence in this one. ha ha well not to much else to say. I am doing great here in brazil, I am kinda looking forward to this next transfer cuz I kinda want to see some other areas. 6 months here its starting to drain me. well I hope you all are doing great! thanks for your support and prayers. they really help, trust me. well gotta go. gotta catch the bus back to gama! LOVE YOU GUYS!