Getting the Members to Trust Us...

Some members getting together for a ward activity (Bishop is wearing white shirt and tie)

My new companion, Elder Campêlo

Opa, beleza?

Everything is good here still. Living the life of the senior companion. It’s a good life, calling the shots and all.

Unfortunately Angelica and Bruno didn’t pass the interview to be baptized. Bruno is still calling the “Book of Mormon,” the “Book of the Mormons,” (O Livro de Mormon, O Livro dos Mormons). It’s annoying (by the way, that’s NOT why he didn’t pass the interview). But we’ll work with them some more, and hopefully they will get baptized sometime during this transfer. I know that with the Lords help, we can do it!

My new companion, Elder Campêlo, is a good companion, a little strange, but good. He’s from Curitiba, Brasil, a bit further down south. He’s 21 years old, but looks super young. He’s got 4 months on the mission, and still has a bit to learn.

To change things now as a senior companion, I’m focusing a lot of our time on the members. We’re going around and visiting them. We’re not going in their houses and being slackers, but just stopping by and talking on the door step, just getting to know them better, so that they learn to trust us. At the moment we don’t have a ton of people we’re teaching, but by the end of this transfer it’s gonna be good. We’re trying to participate in a lot of Family Home Evenings with the members, too.

Tomorrow is zone conference, so I get to see my buddies from Marilia (Elder Yuma and Elder Ghormley, from the MTC). Elder Ghormley is still with Elder da Silva (haha). Elder Yuma is a trainer now -- that was a surprise for all of us (himself included), but it shouldn’t be, because he’s a great missionary. Elder Gibbons is in my zone now, in Bauru.

Nothing else in our district changed last week -- just me getting a new comp.

Got a funny story for you: At our last district meeting, Elder Hair (our zone leader) was talking about a question that we can answer with the Book of Mormon (the question being: does my child that is a baby need to be baptized?) using Moroni Chapter 8. In Portuguese the question would be: “Meu filho bebê precisa ser batizado?” but he said, “Meu filho bêbe precisa ser batizado?” Although they look the same – there is one major difference, notice the accent on bebê? The accent on the first e makes it “drinks,” so basically he said: “Does my child that drinks need to be baptized?” He got laughed at. A lot.

Até logo,
Elder Titus