Moving Forward into 2010

Help! Elder Carter is going to squish me!

Turtles make great front yard decorations

Hey, mom, can we have something like this in our front yard?

Oi pessoal! tudo bem? Feliz Ano Novo! English: Hey guys, all is well? Happy New Year!

This past week was great!

I never got a new companion. I was just attached to Elder Carter and Elder Galdino until January 18, when real transfers happen. I will probably stay in Ibiporã. Probably forever. BUT, at this point that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I talked to Elder Gregory who was here for 6 months before me, he was a rockin’ elder, one of the best. And he only baptized 2 people. This month in January, we are going to baptize the world. We had another baptism this week, a lady named Rita. We are teaching FAMILIES NOW, not just people. One thing that is important, no, ESSENTIAL in every companionship is the Holy Ghost. This is dependent on the relationship. I did not like Elder da Silva and he did not like me -- did we have the Spirit to direct us? No way. Hence, we didn’t baptize. However, we have the Spirit now, and we are rockin’ it here.

“Elects,” are what we call them, well, “Elect people.” They are the people who want to hear what we have to teach. “Molies,” are the people that don’t care. About 1 in 25 people are Elect. And about 1 in 10 Elects get baptized.

Family of Vanderlei and Selma have two kids. They are an amazing family that know people in the branch.

Famliy of Angelica, also knows many branch members.

Devonier, flirt-to-convert baptism. He is way good. He went to church, and is in love now. He would have gotten baptized anyway, but now its almost guaranteed.

I was just informed by Elder Galdino that Fernando and Margaret, and their 3 kids want to get baptized on the 17th.

…and some others, but that’s about it for now.

New Years was boring. We were home at 9:00 PM, and had a little barbeque, then went to bed. We were woken up by fireworks and gunshots at midnight.

I’ve been in Londrina with the AP’s (Assistants to the President) and the Zone Leaders. Elder Coca was with da Silva in Cornelio (next city over) and I was with Elder Nelson in Londrina. It was way fun. The AP’s and Zone Leaders live in a nice house, in the best area. Their ward has 180 active people. We have 50 in our little branch. Elder Nelson is a stud! He was my first companion in the field for 3 days. He is so excited around people and everyone loves him. His family are professional singers, and he is way good. I’ve never been too bad myself, so during one lesson we sang, “Lord I Would Follow Thee” to one family (in Portuguese, of course). It was awesome. Unfortunately, I can’t do this much, because I’ve only met 2 Brazilians that can hold a tune. Elder Nelson goes home in 15 days. Bummer.

On New Years we found one stalker lady. We were walking through the square and this homeless lady started asking Elder Carter questions about me. She asked these questions: how old is he, does he have a girlfriend, does he think I’m pretty, and ask him if he thinks I’m pretty, and tell him I like him. It was kind of awkward, but also kind of funny, first, because I could hear her and second, because she was quite old. We talked to her for awhile, and then I let her down gently.

Tchau,
Elder Titus