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