Another beautiful sunset in Arapongas
The awesome family of Otavio and Nilva, who pretty much make up half the branch.
Marcos Paulo and my cool self.
Last week I hit my 18th month mark! Whoa I’m old!
So, on p-days (Mondays) if you’re going to be transferred, they call you and let you know. Then the transfer takes place on Tuesday. However, missionaries who will be training newbies know about their new calling on Sunday because they have to leave on Monday to go to Londrina. It’s always one of the “Assistants to the President” who calls on Sunday to let you know. Anyway, yesterday I got a phone call from one of the assistants (usually a bad thing), but it wasn’t bad. He called to tell me that I will be TRAINING!!! Yeah baby, 2 times in a row! There are some ups and downs to this. I was hoping that President Tavares was going to call me to be zone leader (hehehe), but he has a bad habit of calling young missionaries to be zone leaders, and instead of rotating them, keeps them in for long periods of time. So my chances are pretty much shot. BUT, in the words of President Tavares, he says that a trainer is more important than a zone leader. So while I’m disappointed that I wasn’t called to be zone leader, I’m honored to be training again. Today at 5:30 PM, I will be going to Londrina with Elder Fonseca (from my district) to pick up our greenies tomorrow. Only 3 elders and 1 sister will be arriving. Oh, and that also means I will be staying here for at least one more transfer which makes it at least 6 months in Arapongas.
In other transfer news: Elder de Jesus will be going to Marilia, and Elder Schirmer will be going to Assis, my previous area. Elder J. Lima will take Elder Schirmer’s place, and ELDER MCCOMBS will be with Elder Shaddick in Apucarana, which is MY DISTRICT!!!! (I’m still the District Leader.)
Other news: unfortunately Olivia, our sweet elderly lady, did not get baptized. On the day of her interview, her children called to tell her not to get baptized, and 2 of her sons who actually live with her told her that if she got baptized, they would abandon her, because she would be cheating on their father (passed away) because he died Catholic. I once again got super frustrated, to the point of ALMOST losing my cool. But I held it in and didn’t commit murder. Speaking of murder, we were almost witnesses to a murder, but I can’t go into details because my mom is reading this too.
On Thursday I did a division with Elder Shaddick in Apucarana. Wow, there are hills there! (As a cyclist, I loved hills -- and feared there were no really good ones to be found while on my mission. However, now that I've found them, I guess it's rather pointless since I have no bike . . .) Oh, and they're cobbled, too!
So I finally read “The Doctrine and Covenants” this past month, in Portuguese and the “The Pearl of Great Price.” I know for myself that they are true books of scripture because I could feel clearly and undeniably the Spirit while I was reading them. I had never read them cover-to-cover before and it was cool to read them quickly and get the story line. I found them to be very interesting, too. Next, I will be reading the “New Testament” and “The Book of Mormon” together (in Portuguese, of course).
Well, tchau!!!
- Elder Titus
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