BOA GREETINGS! March 31, 2009

hello my sweet loving family! so how is everyone? well i will just get right
into this, THIS LAST SUNDAY WE HAD A BAPTISM! tiago was baptised sunday, and
man was it awesome! We were going to baptise him right after the sacrament
meeting but he wanted to wait for his girlfriend so we ended up waiting for
about 2 hrs. but everything work out in the end.  so this has been my 3 week
here in sobradinho and its been pretty sweet, the area here is way big so
its been killing us, you can say, but what can ya do. me and the rest of my
group were supposed to go renew our visas but that didnt happen so i am
pretty close to illegal now...haha but they will be renewing them here soon
so nothing to worry bout. i am not sure whats going on with me this week but
i am drawing a big blank...and i really cant think of anything to right
down. so you will hav eto forgive the short email, but i still love ya all,
and thanks again for the letters! SO IS EVERYONE EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!!
you should all take the big oppurtunity that you all have and go to the
confernce center for at least one session, i would give anthying to go to
just one, man i would do anything to go to the temple. well i hope everyone
enjoys conference, REMEMEBER I LOVE YOU ALL BASTANTE!!! :)

ELDER DAVIS

ITS ME! SOU EU!!! March 24, 2009

hello once again my family. well how is the snow up there......it seems to
me that everyone up there is not liking the snow and wants spring....man i
could kill for some snow, well not kill but i would do some pretty
questionable stuff. haha some days the sun is great, other days you just
want to see some global warming issues so it can snow here in brazil! well
anyway i bet you are all interested to know how my week went! well it went
great! we found a guy named tiago last week that will be  BAPTISED THIS
WEEK! its way exciting, there is nothing better then a baptism. that and i
hear that you all will be going to erik´s baptism here in a few weeks, soak
it in. out side the temple the ordinance of baptism is definitly a time when
you can feel the spirit really strong. its awesome! well other then him, we
found a few new families that seem to be pretty interested, but they were
marked to visit later in the week when the dad of the family is home. but
things have been great, we have a great leader of the missionary work here,
he has been making lots of visits with us so that has been helping us out
alot. and in other big news.....looks like i will be moving once again. i
already did this back in GAMA, and now again here in sobradinho...its a pain
but it has to be done so what can ya do. and tomorrow is a big
day.....tomorrow i have to go to the airport to renew my visa, it kinda
brings that whole i rounded the corner and am ended home into reality, it
sucks i wont lie. i definitly want to see you guys again but i mean
sometimes you just dont have enough time in a day to do everything, not
enough time in a transfer to do everything, and now i feel like a dont have
enough time this year, its time to buckle down.my companion is a great guy,
he is from fortaleza, and lets just say that he is a nerd just like me, so
it all works out. haha my area is a little differnt, there arent really any
commericial things, a few really little stores but thats about it, mostly
all houses, so thats a nice thing. but then when we go to shop for food, not
always the best thing. hahaa
well i wanted to try and send you guys an a video of my last apartment and i
will try and do that today but i dont know if it will work we will see. well
love ya guys tons, thanks for everything! hope everyone has a great week!
até mais!

eu te amo!

elder davis

BOM DIA MINHA FAMILIA! March 17, 2009

hello everybody! so whats new with you guys, i am not sure if i told you
guys last week but i did get everyones letters and wrote you guys back, i
think i said something about them but i cant remember. so WHO IS EXCITED FOR
CONFERENCE!!!!........I AM!!!!! so ya conference is coming up fast and i am
way excited, it doesnt get any better the to hear a prophet of God talk to
you about what you can do to stay on the straight and narrow! well hope
everybody is doing well, i am not sure how much i said last week but i got
transfered to SOBRADINHO 2, WITH ELDER ALVES! he is a brazilian for
fortaleza, up in the north. my area is on the complete oppisite side of the
state of DF, but its a good city. i definitly miss santo antonio but i am
here now and we are working hard. the ward here is trying to divide into 2
wards and they are close so we have been workin alot from them to be able to
do that. the ward i am in is great, the members are awesome, they take care
of us alot here. the first week here was a little ruff though cuz my comp
only had one tranfer here andi was new and the area is HUGE so we had to
figure things out, plus when i got to the house, there was no map anywhere,
so that was interesting. but we got a map now and are working away here in
sobradinho! so can you believe that my companion never had a hambuger until
the mission, with his last comp, he never ate them at home, thats CRAZY!!!
so we made hamburgers today with the lawerys season salt, and i found some
barbaque sauce in brazilia, in an imported store,and we had
hamburgers.....IT WAS SO GOOD! except my house is missing alot of cookware,
so i eat my oatmeal in the morning from the saucepan...gotta LOVE THE
MISSION!!!!! well hope everyone is going well with all you people up there.
oh so you guys keep telling me about the snow an all that, well here its
like 85 to 90 and its always like that...hahah! expect now the winter season
is starting here and so at night it goes down to like 65, I LOVE IT! the
brasilians have like winter wear on and i am kickin it in my short sleeve
shirt and couldnt be happier. :) i will say one thing that just came to me,
now i am used to it but man brazil is so differnt, the food the houses and
espesically the addresses, man this last week trying to get used to the
addresses was somthing else, evcery city is differnt, its all crazy down
here. when i tell people that i didnt eat rice and beans in the untied
states, they are all suprised!!!! like...what do you eat then....and ya they
think we are weird....and i wont lie, i want to know to, what do you eat up
there? i always thought you were a weird people. well love ya guys tons,
thanks for everything!!! hope ya all have  great week.

ATÉ MAIS!!!!
elder davis

GREAT NEWS!!! March 9, 2009

well to start this off, i have some good news, and some sad news, at least
for me. well first off the good news, good news is always better
first.......VITOR WAS BAPTISED SUNDAY. it was a mircle, everything was ready
but he had a comittment that he couldnt change sunday morning, so we had his
baptism planned for next sunday, well it rained sunday morning and when it
rains down here, lots of people just stay home. so he stayed home and called
us about 8 sunday morning, asking for a ride to church!!! well we picked him
up and talked to him aobut moving his baptism up to that sunday! well we did
and he got baptised! it was the best baptism meeting ever, and its good that
we baptised him yesterday cuz...I GOT TRANSFERED TO SOBRADINHO 2!!! so i
wouldnt have been able to baptise him next week, so the good news is that we
had a baptism, sad news is that me and elder myers are getting transfered,
and i will be with another brazilian, elder alves. but good times come and
go right? well anyway things are rgreat here as you can see, we were talking
to vitor about serving a mission and he seems to be thinking about it really
hard! :) the day of his baptism he was talking about how he was going to
sign up for the liahona and intistute, ya he is a great guy! i am just glad
that the lord let me participate in his baptism!!!! there is no joy to great
then when you get to baptise somone! ITS THE BEST! well everything is going
well here, but bvecase of transfers i am really out of time, we have to be
in brasilia tonight at 4 30 and it takes awhile to get to there from here.
so i got to go, I LOVE YOU GUYS TONS, HOPE YA ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!

EU TE AMO!!!!
elder davis

otíssimo! March 3, 2009

hola everybody! well first off i think i wrote this last week but i cant
remember, so if i didnt, just wanted to thank everyone for the letters that
you all sent me. i got a bunch of letters written today so i will get them
sent today and you guys should be seeing them pretty soon! its nice to hear
what every one is up too.i seem to be telling you guys every week what i am
doing but it takes a while to hear from you guys so ya its just nice to know
whats going on back home. but sounds like everyone is doing great and moving
on with out me! jk well just to let you guys know whats going on here,
transfers are next week, another transfer come and gone! it all goes by way
to fast! but transfers are next week and with the time that i have here and
elder myers has here, someone could be going somewhere, we will see.  but
things are going great here, last night we had a family night with some
members and we brought victor, that guy we are teaching! it was great, he
really got to get to know the members and he really enjoyed the message!
things seem to be working really well with him, he ha been reading the book
of mormon and has been progressing very well. we are going to mark a date
with him this week to be baptised!! he is a really great guy. me and elders
myers have been doing great, these last 2 transfers with him have really
been fun, who knows could be mais 1!  and my english seems to be gettinga
little better, i was really ahve a hard time with my englsish so me and
elder myers have been speaking englsih in the house and portuguese outside
the house, so ya its been improving! hahah i did however give elder buck the
cookies....he really enjoyed them. :) well hope everyone is doing great, be
on the look out for those letters! and i love you all!

ps sorry its not long this week, but what do ya do...... here in brazil we
dont...hahaha

ELDER DAVIS

Fotos do Apóstolo February 24, 2009

AÍ FROM BRAZIL February 24, 2009

hello everybody! whats going on! well first off i want to thank everyone for
sending me the letters, i did get everyones letter! so thanks for that, i
will definitly write you guys back but it might take awhile to get to
everyone. but thanks! anyway so i guess everyone after having told me
everything that going on up there would want to know whati am doing down
here. well first off transfers are coming up in 2 weeks so things could
change for me here soon. anyway yesterday was zone conference and we pretty
much spent all day there. from 8 in the morning until 6 at night, that was
the first time that, that happened but it was way cool. we got there early
and the president let us all play volleyball untilll the conference started,
so that was something new but way cool. a good relief. after we had this
really cool meeting until lunch and then had a a really good lunch! after
the lunch spent the day learnig with the zone leaders and practicing and
then had a little meeting at the end with with the president, then finihsed
and started on our way home. for me and my comp, we live so long that we
didnt get home till bout 9 but ya it was a great day. the meeting that we
had with the president was about a question, whats the difference from faith
and hope. seeing how the scriptures always are talking about the 2. and i
wanted to share with you guys what i learned.
first faith....faith is a principle of action in james 2: 14-18 it talks
about faith with out works is dead.
faith is a principle of power- moroni 7 :33
faith is obtained by obedience d&c 130:21
these were the topics that describe faith, and explain really what it is and
what we can do to increase our faith,
there are 5 things we can do to increase out faith
1-study
2-prayer
3-service
4-sacrifice
5-rightenous( do whats right in the eyes of God)
but the most imporetant thing is that faith always comes before the miricle(
ether 12:12) we have to show our faith to god throught our actions and then
when we are acting on what we think is right, god will show forth his power
and give us that miricle that we need, but its not till after we do our part
and show our faith.

HOPE
hope comes through faith- alma 32:21, ether 12:9
it is an unshakable firm confidence- jacob 4:6, ether 12:32
it is an anchor for our souls- ether 12:4

its like a circle, hope is the radius and faith is the circumfrence, when
one is increasing the other increases with it, you cant increase the one
with out the other. they are both very important but also very different,
one phrase that came to my mind was this...
we need faith to act today, but hope to wait for the blessings tomorrow.


anyway thats just a quick little summary but anyway it was a great meeting,
i definitly know that my president was called of God to hold the keys to the
work here in brasilia.
things here have been going great, me and my comp found a man last week
through a member reference, victor, he is great! really interested and has
already started reading the book of mormon front to back. things have been
going great with him, but i would like it if you guys would keep him in your
prayers, to help him continue to progress and that me and my comp can help
him come unto christ. well hope everyone is haveing a great week, thanks
again for the letters, they made my week!!!

i love you all so very much, thanks for all the sacrifices you guys make for
me!!!

eu te amo!!!!
elder davis

SNOW!!!! February 17, 2009

can you believe it.....it was snowing down here the otherday!!! ok so i hope
you didnt believe that, cuz its brazil and the only thing that happens down
here is SUN AND RAIN!!! so the rainy season is starting to end. the month of
march is when the rainy season starts to die out and the `winter`here
starts. if you could call it that....its still hot and dry its just the
absence of rain. haha but ya gotta love it baby! well as for me, things are
going great, my district leader and my zone leader are going home. both of
which, were my companions. elder nunes and elder leite. my first 2 comps. so
for the last district meeting next week, our district is going to get up
extra early and meet at the chapel where we have district meetings and make
a huge american breakfast for elder nunes ( my district leader) who is going
home!! pancakes and maple and eggs and maybe some bacon, the bacon here is a
little weird so maybe not. but definitly pancakes and eggs. so me and my
comp are definitly looking forward to that. well this last week has been a
really good week! we were able to find a few new families that are really
interested and one family that we were teaching last transfer to kick things
into high gear. :) one of the families we took to church with us on sunday
and it was really great. they got to konw the ward and leadership and the
best part is they really liked it! the only problem we are having is the dad
has a addiction....to football, he is always playing futebol on sundays and
pretty much everyday of the week, so its hard to find him with his fmily.
only when we get there the same time he does from work can we catch him to
teach him. but its great, they are a great little family of 4 kids. it has
really been an humbling experience to work here in santo antonio, it really
makes you apperiate the little tihngs, like havig a place to live, haveing
good health, having a loving family behind you, and a companion that
islookig out for ya. things have definitly been going well here though. me
and elder myers have had plenty of work to keep us busy through out the
week. whats crazy is this transfer only has 3 more weeks left! thats
nothing! time seems to be going to fast, i never have enough time in a
transfer to do everything i want to do, you start to learn how precious your
time really is and that you cant waste it for nothing. you have to take
every second your givin and do your best. being here a year on the mission
has put alot of things into new light for me. my way of thinking has
definitily changed. there are all those little things that we think about,
all those worldly things that keep us busy, but what really matters is where
we end up in the end, and what we do now that can change where we go. some
times it seems like its just today and we can worry about that one thing
some other day...but in reality we have to do everything we can do today,
even those little things, cuz those little things add upto be big things in
the end. well i seem to be rambling....hope everyone is have a great week
and an awesome snow season....i miss the snow so much! :) well i love each
one of you guys, thank you so much for your love and support, it means alot.
hope everyone has a otissimo semana!!!

EU TE AMO!!!!!

elder davis

Fw: GAMA BABY! February 10, 2009

well one more week in the bag. so i am at that big point....ONE YEAR! does
anyone else think that time has just been flying by, cuz i sure do, i look
back on the time that i have spent here the places i have been and the
companions that i have had, and its all flying by way to fast. well i hope
everyone is doing well, work and all that. as for here, as i am sure that
you are all dying to hear about...:) things here have been really good,
these past few weeks in santo antonio have been really great. me and elder
myers have be able to find alot of people to teach, including lots of
families, which really seem to be progressing and excited to learn about the
gospel. its has really been able to keep me and my comp on our toes, but
very happy for lack of a better word. the thing we have been trying to work
on is the ward here, the people that live here are great people but the ward
seems to be in a slow spot you could say. so with the stake presidency and
us we have been trying to put some life back in this ward. we have some
activities planned and some other things but all is great here! the other
exciting thing thats happening this week is......I AM GOING BACK TO GAMA!!!
ok kinda, the dedication of the chapel there is going to be this week on
thrus. and i called the mission pres. to see if he would let me and my comp
go to gama and help the other missionaries there for the dedication, i mean
i was there for 10 months and never got to see the dedication and lucky
enough the president said ok. i am only like 45 min away from gama so not to
bad. but thrus night i will be in gama to be at the dedication of the
chapel. so i am way exicted!!! well anyway hope everyone is doing well. i
love you guys tons, thanks for your prayers and support! sometimes i htink
that just one year left, isnt enough time! the first year went by so fast
that i dont think i got enough done. well i love you guys, hope everyone has
a great week!

elder davis

eu vós amo!!!!

Fw: hello you dudes February 3, 2009

HELLO FAMILIA! so whats going on up there? well to up date you guys on whats
going on down here i think i had the best wed. last week! we had the
oppurtunity to hear from Elder Quintin L. Cook of the quorum of the twelve!
he came to talk to the missionaries in our mission! i have known for a
couple of weeks but we werent supposed to tell anyone, not even family. so
ya, but it was so cool. he spent like 2 hours talking to us about missionary
work and how to use preach my gospel. he talked alot about what we could do
to be better missionaries. he doesnt speak portugeuse so it was in english
with a translator, i kinda felt bad for the brazlians because i could
understand the english and the portuguese and the translator wasnt
translating very welll, it seemed like he hadnt spoken portuguese in awhile
so he had forgotten alot of words, but ya it was awesome! we have a pic of
it so i will have to try and send in home when i get it from the office.
anyway it was so cool, definitly the highlight of the week. that was just
last wed. so i still feel like i am still on a spiritual high, you could
say. :) well anyway as for things here, me and my comp are doing great,
elder myers has been doing very well with the portuguese. i really think he
is doing alot better then me when i was first in the field. he teachs very
well and he is turning out to be one heck of a missionary. lately  things
have been really good here in santo antonio, our new president is haveing us
focus alot on families and men, so thats where alot of our teaching as been
latly, and the lord as really been blessing us with people to teach. we have
been able to find people that are willing and ready to hear the gospel, and
for some reason in this area me and elder myers have been having alot of
luck with bringing alot of less actives back into the ward. this has been a
great area to work, and now me and elder myers have 5 fmore weeks here!!!
well i did want to thank everyone from sending letters, i did kinda bring it
down on you guys a few weeks agao, i was just joking but thanks! well hope
everything is going well up there in salt lake, and washington with anne and
brandon. i love all you guys so much thanks for everything!!!

EU TE AMO!!!!!!!

ELDER DAVIS

oi meu familia amado! January 26, 2009

hello you guys. what is up. i am good. k just kidding, well whats new in the
hoods of salt lake city? today was tranfers and i am staying here in santo
antonio with elder myers. so nothing new here. my district leader will be
elder nunes again. my old comp and then my old district leader, and now my
district leader again! well this week we have been workin with this guy that
has really been progressing really fast. he was a family member of that last
family that i talked to you about but lives in a different house. we have
been working with a bunch of other families but today i cant go through them
all, we have limited time because we have to be in to brasilia here shortly,
but i did get some letters and will be responding to them shortly so be
waitin. i love ya guys tons, thanks again for everything!

elder davis

short but sweet BENS LETTER January 20, 2009

HEY FAM!!! how is everyone! hope everyone is doing well. we are coming up on
the last week of the transfers so i will know here in a few days where i am
going or if i am staying. another one of those exciteing weekends. so the
new thing going on here is that i grind my teeth at night, cool uh? i guess
i have been wakin my comps up becuase i got some serious grinding going on.
so does anyone else grind there teeth, i dont wont to be the ugly duckling
ya know. well we also had a baptism this last sunday! it was awesome, i put
some pics on line, it was a 13 year old girl, she was the only on baptised
in her family, but we are now workin alot with her family! so ya sunday was
awesome. we had a member make a cake for us and man....it was so good, i
want to try and make it! we will see how that turns out. well whats going on
in your lives....i havent heard from you guys in awhile. elder buck called
me and told me ihave some letters in the office from mr cheneys, so i will
get those next week on transfers. thats if i get transfered. its a lot of
money to go into the city and to come back, so just for some letters whould
be silly....wow did i just say silly, thats a little weird, thats not like
me. ok so anyway next pday you will know where i am at and if you can start
sending letters to my house again. well not to much to say today, sorry that
i didnt write some novel, but i was never much of a novel writer anyway. i
love ya guys tons and thanks again for all the love and support...and for
your prayers! I LOVE YA GUYS!

elder davis