Two weeks worth

 Nov 26, 2018

I am going to find out later today at my foot appointment what will happen!! So I hope that they can resolve some things!! And Tell Grandpa and Grandma that I love them and to not worry about it!! Oh and our investigators are wanting to learn more!! We still are having a hard time with arthur and vitorias permission... so we are praying super hard that the lord will soften their moms heart!! But besides that things are good!!! It is raining a lot here hahaha. 

This week was really interesting but it just seemed kind of slow with the work! But I was able to help out another elder that is in contagem and we had such a spiritual lessons with their investigator! I went on divisions on wednesday with Elder Almeida and we taught their investigator Paula. She is super cool and she is catholic!! We taught her about the importance of going to church and we read Moroni 6 with her. But aparently the spirit had a different idea because what she told us had nothing to do with what we wanted to get done. But it helped us discover why she hadnt gone to church. She told us that she doesnt beleive in Gods love..... and that she doesnt beleive that God is just with everyone of us. It was such a spiritual moment because the spirit touched her heart and she decided to tell us. I told her about the time when I had felt the same way and how I had felt that God didnt care about me, and then I testified to her with all of my heart that I found a way and that God loves me and loves her more than anything in the whole world. God will always be with her and love her every step of the way. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and to do everything she could to find out why God loves her. It was such a cool lesson. Then we were able to teach Samara, Nilda, and Tatiane about tithing and fasting! They all accepted to live those commandments and they came to church yesterday to see the Primary Program. Obviously one of my favorite days when we can see how God loves the little children! It was a cool week and we are trying to teach the other people we have found but it was slow with them too! Arthur and Vitoria are doing good and we gave him a shirt and tie! This week will be his Birthday so that should be exciting!! But I love God so much and I know that he loves us. He wants us to have everything good in this life and the next, all we need to do is live to keep the commandments!!!

But I love you so much!! I missed you all a lot on thanksgiving but it was fun preaching the gospel and helping other people feel gods love!! I hope you all had a great day and I hope you have a great week!! 

Dave's email

 I am doing good and today I will find out more about my toes!!! I am glad to hear that you are doing well and that everything is ok!! I think the spirit is amazing and helps us to teach others and direct our own lives!! This week we were able to teach Samara Nilda and Tatiane about Tithing and fasting!! They accepted to keep those commandments and they came to church!! It seems like they are getting closer and closer to baptism and they are reading the Book of Mormon! Nilda is reading it on her phone so that is helping her! Sadly kenia is not reading and she is out of the house a lot. so it is harder to teach her. Arthur and Vitoria are doing good and are trying to show their mom that they are ready, but their mom is still a little hard hearted... We have been praying so much and we hope that the lord softens her heart! Vitoria is planning on moving to Portugal next year so we hope that they can get baptized soon and before she leaves so the church their can find her!!! But other than that the other investigators we have just ran from us. Raimundo doesnt want to accept our invitations to Pray to God about what we have taughten, he says he beleives that God could have inspired him but he mainly believes in another prophet that is a false prophet.... But who knows if one day the Lord will soften his heart as well! On a division that I told mom about the spirit really helped us discover an investigtors problem with going to church and she told us how she doesnt believe in Gods love.... So we told her that God really does love her and she can discover that through the Book of Mormon. But we are working super hard to help these people and we are praying that the Lord testifies to them that Baptism is the right thing to do!! I love the lord and I know for sure that this is his church and that Jospeh was a prophet of god. He really gave his life to the gospel and I want to do the same thing!!!  I love you so much and Have a great week.

Nov. 19, 2018

 Happy thanksgiving!!!! I love you so much and i think some of the best things in my life that i am most grateful for is definitely my family, my friends, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. How through the atonement we can all be saved and forgiven of our sins! I love thanksgiving and I am going to celebrate it on my own this week!! But we actually got new news and sadly i only have one hour to use the computer now... So it will be kind of tight hahaha 

So this week was super cool!! We actually were able to teach Samara and her family two times and we were able to teach Arthur and Vitoria!! The lessons that we had with them were super spiritual and we were abl to teach some of Gods commandments this week!! We taught them about The word of wisdom and about the law of chasity. Wow were those two spiritual lessons and Samara and her mom Nilda accepted to live them both! Pray for Tatiane and Kenia because they are having a hard time right now and are a little depressed. So we are hoping to help them with that!! Arthur and Vitoria went to church in another city today but they said that they loved it and that they love church so much!! It was cool to see how our investigators are progressing and learning more! This week we are hoping to help Samara to be the first one baptized. Because she is the one who is closest and the others need to resolve some things before they can get baptized. We are hoping that the spirit testifies to all of them that Baptism is the right thing to do!!

 We also found some great new people to teach!! Claudia, Tatiana, and her sister. I forgot her name right now but they are some great peolpe and have a lot of potential!! Also to our surprise, Raimundo and his wife came to church so it was definitely a spiritual experience!! I like what President shared with us on Friday. He said that we should raise our hearts and rejoice, for the time of our mission has come!!! I love the mission and I know that the lord will bless these people so much and i hope that they can use their agency to choose what is right! We also learned a lot about obedience and how exact obedience really does bring blessings!! I love the lord and I love his church!!!! 

Yes that paragraph did make sense haha but i am going to print it off just to help me through out the month when the packages come! But thanks so much, you really didnt have to do that! I love you so much for helping me and others on my mission! I am so excited to serve others this week! And for this christmas season! We were able to clean the front of the church before sacrament meeting yesterday because it was super dirty and it was so awesome!! I absolutely loved the experience chris had. Fasting really provides miracles and I love those two for doing what god wants them to do!!!! I love the gospel and I love you! Share my love with the family and Have a great week!! LOVE YOU!! Oh and i can only respond one more time after you respond and dont worry too much about the music, if you can find it and put it on a drive i will be happy either way!! 

David's email

THis week was super good dad!!! We had success in teaching a lot of our investigators and they seem to be progressing! Samara and her mom Nilda are reading the book of mormon and they came to church this last week!!! So that was cool and we were able to teach Arthur and Vitoria! They are doing good and we keep inviting them to read the book of mormon and be example for their mom so that they can be baptized! But we found some new people to teach too and they seem like they are willing to do what god wants them to do and read the book of mormon!! I learned a lot this week about how we as zone leaders  need to be examples and we need to be exactly obedient in everything that we do!! It was a great lesson learned and i am ready to do everything the lord wants me to do!!! I love the mission because of that!! The lord loves us and I know he will bless those we are teaching. I was also able to give a member a blessing with our stake president and it was such a spiritual experience as well!!! That is so awesome that you are going to Rome!!! I wish i could go to that with you but it is a couple of months before I get home... How sad is that hahah but i am glad you are going to help those people out instead of you going for your own purpose!! But I am happy for you and it will be such a great experience!

November 12, 2018

This week was good because we were able to teach Samara, Nilda, and Tatiane and it was such a powerful lesson. We had a single adult with us in the lesson who also bore testimony of his experience in the church and it was such a spiritual lesson. We taught about the plan of salvation and how amazing it is to have Jesus Christ in our lives. I mean just thinking about the Atonement makes me want to scream with joy. Because if not we could not be saved. Samara reminds me of Halli so much because in almost all of the three lessons, actually all of them, haha she has cried. It was so amazing to see her love for the savior of the world. I love Jesus Christ and it makes me happy that I can testify of him every day. They are reading the Book of Mormon and they really want to know the truth! They are progressing a lot and we are hoping to prepare them even more so that they can be baptized. They are all waiting for answers and I know that God will speak to them and has already spoken to them for sure!

 We also found some new people to teach and it was cool because they look like they have potential. Ciran and Celma is a married couple we found this week and we found a girl who has two kids and her husband is in jail so we taught her a little bit about trusting in God. It was a great week! I went on splits again with Elder Jones hahaha that guy is super funny, but it was hard those two days because for two days straight it just poored rain! So we had to walk in the rain all wet and tired ha. But it was awesome because we still were able to find people to teach and share our testimonies of the restored gospel!!!

Dave's email

 I love the gospel so much. I love the Plan of salvation as well!! This week we were able to teach Samara and her family about the plan of salvation. They definitely loved the lesson because the mom became even more excited to read the Book of Mormon and Samara started to cry during the atonement. It was such a great experience. I think members have an important role in our lessons because their testimonies are what help others have the desire to know the truth! We have challenged them to be baptized so many times and they have accepted the fact of being baptized. But they said that they want to feel really prepared to be baptized and so we are hoping they ask god if they should be baptized on november 24th, that was the date we wanted to place with them. It was cool because Samaras sister asked me about being baptized again, if it really was necessary. Her name is tatiane and I thought about Acts 19 in the moment when she asked me! I explained to her that some of the people needed to be baptized again because they had not received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and she told me that her real desire is to know if she should be baptized once again! I love the priesthood and I know that a man needs the authority to act in Gods name. It wouldnt make sense for God to create a mess here on the earth. We didnt get to teach Arthur and Vitoria this week but Arthur came to church and so did Samara! Her mom got sick and her sister was still taking the test... but this next week will be even better! Also pray for a man who came to church, his name is raimundo. He wants to create his own church so we are trying to help him know the truth. But Dad I have passed through so many hard things on the mission and I have seen so much. And there is no doubt in my mind that I can not deny the truths that I know. That Jesus Christ lives and loves us, and that his church was restored once again upon the earth. That the book of mormon is true and that Heavenly father talks to his prophets. Love you so much dad! Have a great week!! 

November 5th, 2018

 I am doing great actually!! My feet are doing ok and they arent hurting that much! But Sister Castellano said that if they dont get better then i will have to do that surgery on november 26th! Who knows but i was actually thinking a lot about my toes this week and when i heard a testimony on sunday, it made me think so much more about my toes. Something that i had already thought,but now it came clearer than ever! I will definitely try to look for a nativity, i remember last year not seeing one, but then again i was in Pirapora haha. But yesterday we got the transfer calls and we are going to stay the same! But actually both of the elderes in Gutierrez got transfered and now we are going to get two elders who are finishing their missions and have had some problems! But it should be good and we are excited to receive them tomorrow!!!


I loved what you said about the song you wrote and I loved the lyrics! It reminds me of how so many people have trusted in the Lord and he has provided for them because of their sacrifices! I love the story of Alma and Amulek. They truly were great missionaries and did everything they could. When a lady in sacrament was baring testimony about her car acident, it made me think a lot more about the trials that we have and the things we pass through... For example, in her car accident she was shocked and panicked and the doctor told her "Hey I dont know what you beleive in and i know you are not supposed to be here, but dont worry because I will take care of you." She said that imediately she felt Gods love more than anything and she knew that in that moment, it was Christ that was taking care of her. Sometimes we blame God for the bad things that happen in our lives, but we really should be thanking him. Why? Because these experiences are what bring us closer to him and how he felt in his life. Every time I have had to feel pain because of my toes, I have tried to think about the Saviors sacrifice and how he would have felt. And every time I feel the saviors love for me. So I was thinking about the surgery and I thought... what if the lord is wanting me to get closer to him and feel his love, maybe thats one of the reasons why we have these trials. Even Joseph Smith asked God why we has going through those things, but in that moment was when He became closer to God, and knew even more that God would provide a way. How amazing is that?! I love how putting a different aspect on things can help us out so much in our lives. I learned that today when all of us were arguing about something and it was so simple that I was blinded by my pride and they were blinded too. But when the savior came in and the spirit, thats when the point of view changed and we were able to resolve the problem. I think it is one of the best things we can learn in life. How to think a different way, the way that the savior of the world would think. This week was hard because of the test taking they have here and everyone was busy but this week should be easier for us to find new people and teach more! We found a couple of new investigators that have potential and thank you for praying for Samara and her family and for Arthur and Vitoria!


David's email


This week was kind of hard because it has been super busy here in Brasil... Lots of people had to take a giant test this week so that stopped us from seeing our investigators. But that doesnt mean that this week will be the same!! It was cool because Samara still came to church even if her other siblings couldnt. She came alone and it was super cool to see that. And We are doing good! We are a little worried about this next transfer but we are also excited too!! We know that the lord will bless our work!! But other than that we spent this week resolving problems, going on divisions, and finally finding new people to teach! We found a couple of new people to teach and we hope we can visit them again and share these wonderful messages! we are still teaching our investigators its just that this week was harder for us. But we will definitely do better this next week but we definitely tried our best!!


That is one of the coolest experiences i have ever heard (Dave told him an experience he had giving a blessing). It must have been one of the greatest feelings ever. That is one of my strongest desires, is to have the savior of the world by my side and I can feel his presence. What can i do to feel his presence like that? I want to do everything right so I can have an amazing experience like that. I love Jesus Christ so much and I just want to feel his spirit and know him even more. I have been trying so hard to change who I am and to be better, so that I can feel his presence in my life. Stronger than ever is what I want to say. But I would have loved that and I know it must have been such a great experience. I think I would start crying so much ha. But I am grateful for you dad. You are truly the best example I have in my life besides the Savior. I know that this gospel is true because you taught me and I asked Heavenly Father for myself. I love you so much! I love the priesthood and I know it was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I am excited to magnify my priesthood and learn how I can do that. I know that the lord will help us bring souls unto Jesus Christ and I know that he is always with me when I have to suffer the small things I have in my life. Through my toes, i can become closer to him! I can grow closer to him and through him I am made strong! Love you so much!!