Pictures are BACK!

There are some very beautiful flowers down here.

My first baptism. From left to right: Elders Carter and da Silva, Camila, Camila's father, me, Elder Galdino.

Good news! A friend in the branch down here had a USB cable that he loaned me so, PICTURES are back!

Ibiporã is pronounced: I – (as in “it”) – bee – pore – uh

The weeks are getting crazier and crazier. Portuguese is coming along smoothly. Ibiporã is pretty sweet. There are about 30,000 people here.

Okay, here’s some funny stuff:

After each of our lessons, we ask the investigator to pray about what we have discussed to receive a confirmation that it’s true, and then they can get baptized, if they want. One day, we returned to visit with a lady who we had asked to pray at the end of our previous visit. She told us that she had a vision of two big black men in white, with big white beards that told her not to get baptized. She’s a little odd, but we love her. We told her to try again, and we would come back.

At another lesson, we taught a man and a woman. After the lesson, we were walking out the door shaking hands. I shook the lady’s hand and then suddenly remembered that I needed to put away my chair, so I doubled back and took care of putting the chair away. Meanwhile, the man told my companion that I needed to, “Pedir a deus para perdaõ,” or ask God for forgiveness because I forgot to shake his hand. He was serious, too. So I quickly shook his hand and told him that I was sorry, and that I would repent.

We have been meeting some very interesting people!

Last Saturday, one of our investigators got baptized. Her name is Camila. That was really cool. My very first baptism! At least, my first one in which I took part in teaching! Her father, who is already a member of the Church, baptized her.

It’s still hot. And when it’s not hot, there’s a thunderstorm, and then after the thunderstorm it gets even more humid and hot. I got super sunburned this past week, even with loads of sunscreen slathered on. The way I see it, in about three months I’m going to look Brazilian for sure. And with luck, by then, I’ll sound like one, too.

Thank you to those who have written to me! It is so cool to get mail. Oh, and thank you Angela and Tim! The box you sent arrived safe and sound. And the goodies are awesome! American food, yippee! (OK, so maybe marshmallow Peeps are not a great example of “food,” but oh, they tasted soooo good!)

Until next week,
Tchau!
Elder Titus

Elder Nelson and me in Londrina, Brazil. He was my companion for five days!