The lesson was waaayyy spiritual . . .

Streets of Santa Cruz prepped for paving. Elder de Jesus dodges a bullet.

Olá!!!

My keyboard is moist . . . why is it so humid??? It has been raining non-stop for the last 4 days!!! But, in short, my complaining will have an end.

We had a very good week this week despite the rain and the lack of baptizing. However the mission has been on fire. We baptized 150 people in the month of July!!! The small zone of Cascavel baptized 10.

For many months we have been teaching a family where everyone is a member of the Church, except the dad, Josmar. He used to be really Catholic. He is not legally divorced from his past wife because she didn’t wanna sign the form. However, he called her this week and told her that he is following a new religion and wants to get baptized -- but he needs to get married first, and for that to happen she needs to sign the paper. And she agreed!!! Unfortunately it’s gonna take about another month or so for the marriage paperwork to come through. I won’t be here, but that’s fine.

With the division of the ward we got a new investigator family; Raulino and Elaine. They are what we call “eternal investigators.” They are a middle aged couple. Raulino is the husband, and wants to be baptized. However, Elaine was a little hard hearted, being a practicing Catholic, but finally, finally, she got an answer to her prayers. We did their baptismal interview Sunday after church (without them knowing) and they are both ready, but we didn’t mark a date. We went to their house in the afternoon and taught them about the atonement with the Bishop (he is their neighbor) and committed them to stop drinking coffee forever and being baptized on Saturday. The lesson was waaayyy spiritual, as we read Luke 22 about Gethsemane and what we need to do to have Christ’s sacrifice valid in our salvation. Eight months of investigating the church, having the missionaries going to their house almost weekly -- and finally making the decision to follow through now -- MIRACLE!

More good news, the neighborhood of Santa Cruz is getting un-ghettoized!!!! Another miracle! It’s getting PAVED!!!!! (Elder de Jesus in photo above, is dodging a bullet... lol.)

Holy cow, my mission is going by sooo fast.

Tchau!

Elder “while I can” Titus