Interview with the Mission President -- I passed!

My new best friend...NOT!

Bauru District: (left to right) Elder Pinheiro, Moraes, Villela, Neves, Hair (our district leader) and me

This week was even more exciting than last week…ok, not really.

We are having a difficult time finding people again.

The Adão family is playing hard-to-get, and saying that they are not prepared. When then? They feel like they have to be perfect. People, it’s called FAITH! I shared a scripture in Acts 2:38-42, where Peter gave 3 commandments: repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. In that same day, 3000 people were baptized. Now that’s faith. Unfortunately, the scripture didn’t really help them.

We had lunch with a member that told us a story about when he was a kid. He told us that he was so poor that he used to eat paper notebooks just to take the edge off the hunger. I cannot even begin to imagine hunger on that level. He did not despair, and went on to make something of himself, and is rich now. Everyone has a chance.

Our Mission President came out to Bauru and interviewed all of the missionaries in the area. When it came time for my interview, we really only talked briefly. He asked how everything was going and then asked about what I was learning out of the book “Preach My Gospel,” and to share something from my study journal. I talked about Chapter 8, using our time wisely, and how we need to leave our area stronger than we found it. He asked me how long I had been on my mission, to which I replied, “Seven months.” Then he began to compliment me. He told me that I was already speaking very well, that I know the doctrine, how to plan, and that I’m ready to grow on my mission. I feel like I’ve already progressed so much.

Elder Villela and I talked to a guy on the street who asked how we are saved. We told him through various works, like baptism and such. He told us that we need to only accept Christ through our words. We shared John 3:5 about being baptized of the water and the Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God. He told us that water means the word, or the bible. Uhhh, good luck with that one. We left him soon afterwards, but pretty sure that in Acts 8, when Phillip meets the eunuch reading the bible they didn’t go descend into the “word” to get baptized, he was already holding the word.

Pineapple is good (see pic below -- and yes, I ate the whole thing! The end. Transfers are next week...stay tuned!

My New Cycling Hero!

Yo Yo!

Check out this dude in the picture! I mentioned him in one of my earlier blogs. He rides his bike like a horse, using “reins” to steer with. And that’s all he does all day long – rides his bike around town (what a life!). I’m pretty sure he’s drunk, but wow – he’s got some mad skills!

Natalia's baptism. Hard earned, but well worth it!

Finally, after a year, we were able to baptize Natalia! Good grief, that was a struggle…so many obstacles to overcome. Baptism is such an important step in life, a huge commitment and often full of sacrifice -- but a whole lot more full of blessings from Heavenly Father. Now we’re working on the rest of the family. Next up is her brother Bruno, then the father Adão, then the mom Angelica.

Unfortunately, we had to cut Ricardo, because he didn’t want give up the Snowball Church (the name of his church). It stinks to cut people, but that’s life. It is so disappointing to teach them everything, and then have them deny it. We hope that one day he will have the desire to be baptized.

Again, not a ton happened, just little things. On Friday we did a “multirão,” where other missionaries go to one area to help out, and we went to the area of Geisel, because their ward has a frequency of 45 people. Ours has 110. So they’re struggling there.

The city of Bauru, off in the distance

Monday I went on splits, where you switch companions for a while. I went to Marechal Rondon, and Elder Hair came here. I spent the day with Elder Neves, who arrived in the mission field the same time as I did. From there, I climbed on his roof and took this picture. Finally, a picture of the city of Bauru. And there, in the midst of all the skyscrapers, way in the distance, is the area of Elder Titus.

I'll be back next week!
Elder Titus

Deep in the work of converting English to Portuguese.

Hey, mom! Can I keep him? He doesn't eat much!

A pineapple plant. Amazing!

This week has been swell!

Natural juice is really popular here, and something unique to Brazil is the flavor of pineapple-mint. It’s freaking good! Pineapple is one of the things that I have really learned to love on my mission. And speaking of pineapple, have you ever seen one growing? We have an investigator who has a pineapple plant. Interesting picture, huh?

We’ve got a couple baptisms lined up for Saturday. After much persistence and prayer, we finally were able to get Natalia’s mom to sign the baptismal form and she is set for Saturday. Hopefully, the rest of the family will follow while I’m still here (Adao, Angelica, and 14-year-old son, Bruno). I would guess Bruno will be next.

Also, Ricardo (our surfer-type guy from last week) is still progressing and is excited for baptism. But he needs to settle on one church, either “beach church,” or the Church of Jesus Christ. Which would you choose?

We got a new ward mission leader this week and he’s excited to help. We set a goal to baptize weekly. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Unfortunately, I’m a bit on the busy side today, and nothing super exciting happened this past week, so I’ll keep it short today, and close it up here.

Tchau!
Elder Titus

Happiness . . .

Attempting to teach my hair how to have a part

Two classy looking missionaries!

The edge of the downtown shopping area

Hey, hey!

This week went pretty fast for being 8 days long.

It was a good week. We had 7 investigators at church. Will has testimony problems now, and it’s not looking like he sincerely wants to fix them. He hasn’t gone to church for the last 2 weeks.

We’ve been teaching a surfer type dude, named Ricardo, who is progressing a lot and has a baptismal date for March 20th. Also Luana, the daughter of Mercia (who was inactive for 30 years), she is also progressing, may be ready for the 20th, too. We’re on a serious dry streak, but the work here is improving. A month ago when we baptized the Dos Santos family, we had to clean the dirt out of the baptismal font, so... yeah, it hadn’t been used in while before them. We don’t want to let the dirt build up again.

Everyday we have to do at least 30 street contacts, and usually we like to spice them up by asking questions. Usually, we’ll ask “What is something that is most important for you in the world?” Usually they say God, or family or health. Some say money, or “Me.” Then we expand and tell them how the Gospel can help them in those areas. One day, we made a contact with a mom and her little 5-year-old kid. While she was thinking about it, her son responded “Ser feliz,” or “be happy.” Coming from a child, that was quite profound. And I also have thought about this question and after he said that, I am going to have to say I agree, and that would be my response. Yes, family is important, but even family boils down to one being happy. Happiness, in my opinion, is what is most important in the world. At least as a foundation, and all other things are built upon happiness. Happiness is an interesting thing though; happiness is a state of mind that only you can be in charge of. You allow things to make you happy, or on the other hand, you can let bad things not make you unhappy. Happiness is a choice that you’re completely in charge of. No one can make you happy, and no one can make you unhappy. I’ve had a lot of chances to develop this attribute, and I’ve come to really appreciate being happy. And I’m constantly learning how to stay happy, even when times are rough, even during a day of rejection. Ultimately, I am the one who chooses my mood. It’s tough, but do-able. Something that I like to do after getting rejected is to smile as big as I can (in the other direction, of course). It’s ridiculous, but it makes me happy.

So, let’s all try this week to be more happy -- especially when its hard, and let our light so shine, and help lift up other people as well.

Tchau!
Elder Titus

6 Month Anniversary!

Six month celebration

My new friend, Mr. Vulture!

This is the local internet cafe where I send my emails from

Yo yo, man, I forgot to mention that I celebrated 6 months last Friday!! Times flyin!

Last p-day, we went to the zoo. It was a small zoo, so kind of lame, but still an adventure. And because I’m so smart, my camera died there, so no cool pics to show off (except for the vulture). The lions were sleeping, bummer. But, they had a lot of parrots and monkeys, which was pretty cool. Other than that, it was a typical zoo.

For the first time in my life we had zero investigators at church. Not sure why. We are working our butts off here. Will (an investigator) didn’t feel prepared, even though he’s cigarette free, so he didn’t get baptized. And as all was looking down, we had an amazing day teaching on Sunday! I’ll mention some names next week after we see who is really serious and goes to church.

Something that we really depend on here is street contacts. We stop people on the street, give a brief overview of our message and try to get their addresses. The thing that sucks though here, is that because we’re in the center of the city of Bauru, most people live outside of the center, in areas that belong to other missionaries, which is great for the other missionaries, but not for us! For example, in 2 days we wrote down 8 addresses, but only 2 were in our area, and 1 didn’t exist (so that’s fun). But yesterday, life got better as we crushed our previous record and got 7 references in our area, in one day. Let’s keep it up!

Sunday too, I gave a talk in church, about reading the scriptures daily. I used a lot from the manual “Preach My Gospel,” chapter 2, about effective study. 10 minutes. If you think giving a talk in regular church is bad, try it in another language. OK, it’s really not that bad, I’m exaggerating.

Interesting thing - in the MTC, I bought a can of pure mango juice thinking it would be good, but later found that I could only drink two gulps, it was horribly thick. This week a member gave us the same brand of juice at lunch and I downed 3 full glasses without blinking…I guess you could say I’ve become acclimated.

Transfers were yesterday. I’m staying with Elder Villela in Bauru for another 6 weeks, so that’s all good. Elder Yuma is going to Marilia; Elder Neves took his place with Elder Hair. Elder Neves arrived with me in the field, he’s cool.

So that’s kinda what’s going on for now, I think next week should be better.

Tchau,
Elder Titus

Yikes! Those are some huge spiders!

Elder Hair and I as we cross a bridge

Aren't they just sweet? NOT!

My time is short now, but that’s okay, since this week was extremely uneventful.

Last Thursday, on the borders of our area while trying to find a house, we found another family to teach. And along the way, there was a tree, full of monstrous, venomous spiders. They were bigger than my hand. We fed one an ant, and it ate the thing whole, not cool.

Will, who is part of the family of Rosi and Cida (who just got baptized), is progressing very well, and might get baptized this Saturday. We’ll see. As of now, our teaching pool is getting emptier and emptier. We are teaching people, but I can’t get too excited yet, until they go to church. I don’t know why that is so hard.

Sorry this is so short, I’m out of time. I spent part of my hour writing to my “church family” back in Covington. I’ll have mom attach the letter so you can read it, too.

Tchau,
Elder Titus

To My Dearest Crestwood Ward,

I’ve been on my mission for 6 months now. Crazy! Time flies when you’re getting sunburned.

Things are going swell here in Brazil. I’m currently in a city called Bauru. It is the northern most city of our mission, 5-1/2 hours from our mission home in Londrina, and 14 hours from the southern most city of Iguaçu Falls. So yeah, our mission isn’t small, more of less the size of Oregon. And even though its one of the southern most missions in Brazil, it’s not cold, in fact you could say its quite boiling hot, but every curse has a blessing, in this case, a sweet neck collar tan line.

My companion is Elder Villela from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He’s cool, his only downside is that he likes to iron his bed sheets, which is extremely weird to me, but me not ironing MY bed sheets is extremely weird to him, so who am I to talk?

There are 6 areas in Bauru, of which we’re in the downtown region, where all the rich people live. Nearly everyone has those stupid intercom doorbell things, where they don’t even have to get off their couch to tell us to go away. In our area the work is a little slower. We teach 20 lessons per week, whereas my last area in Londrina, we taught 30-35. Nonetheless, we’re teaching a guy named Will, who is progressing very well, and has just about stopped smoking. He should get baptized here pretty quick. The rest of his family already left him behind, and were baptized earlier this month.

I have successfully gained 2 lbs even while walking 12 miles a day. I used to think the white rice and beans thing was a big joke before the mission, but I have in reality, eaten with little variety, the same lunch for the last 6 months. The grocery stores here are very similar to the ones there, but they have a special aisle, where one side is rice and the other side is beans. And while it doesn’t sound too tasty, it's actually quite good.

So, anyway the mission is going good, an awesome experience. It has recently gotten better since I’m getting closer and closer to fluency in Portuguese. It’s so good to be understood, and to be able to understand. I had one special experience where the Lord blessed me with the gift of tongues; one day I talked fluently with a bum. We actually had a real conversation for like 2 minutes, and I have no idea what I said, but he seemed to understand. It’s real, the Lord has blessed me immensely with the language, something that confounds the wise on the streets, when they ask how long I’ve been here.

One thing that is most valuable on a mission, is the testimony that a missionary gains. During the last 6 months I’ve come to realize how perfect the gospel is. The only question I haven’t been able to answer is why we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but everything else we can answer. We like to milk the phrase, “Fullness of the Gospel” and people don’t really like that phrase, but we can back it up.

Brothers and sisters, the church is true. If you don’t know that for sure, figure it out. We have been immensely blessed to have a knowledge of this gospel, and I thank the Lord everyday that it was so easy for me to find it. Missionary work is inspired, and as hard as it is, it's more than worth it.

Until the next letter, I bid thee farewell.

With love, from the depths of my sun burnt heart,

Elder Titus.

Survived Carnaval...

Can you say "exhausted?"

So, Monday the 15th at district meeting, Elder Hair asked me if I had a special day yesterday (14th). It took me a while to realize it was Valentines Day. Wow, didn’t have a clue. That’s right ladies, I got that many letters. haha. He also told me the Olympics are going on right now. I had no idea about that, either!

We all survived “Carnival” otherwise known as “Brazilian Sin Week” (see notes below). All of the partying is in the big cites, so it was tranquilo here. Four days of partying -- for everyone but us. In some areas of Brazil, the elders are asked to stay inside their apartments and not go out. I don’t know the purpose of the celebration, but it happens every year. All of the church youth go on a campout every year, to get out of the city. That’s cool. Consequently we had like no one in church on Sunday. All of our investigators were drunk.

We taught a lady who has been inactive for more than 30 years, and she came back to church! Her husband did not want to go to church, but he passed away. She has a daughter, Luana, (19) that will probably get baptized on the 6th.

On Thursday, we taught 8 lessons. That’s good. The next 4 days (Carnaval), we taught 8 lessons combined. That sucks. Everyone was traveling.

I think we might have found the breakthrough for less active members. Usually we teach the 1st lesson for them to re-ignite their testimony, but it never works. So this time, we tried teaching lesson 3, instead (the gospel of Jesus Christ), which teaches faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This lesson helps them feel some responsibility for their choices, emphasizing repentance and enduring to the end. Quite often there is a sense of guilt, too, which is good. Guilt leads to action.

A Brazilian burger, good -- but definitely not from McDonalds!

On Monday, I went on a division with Elder Hair, our district leader, and at night we ate this burger. It was good, but lacked traditional patties. Interesting food down here.

No one scheduled for baptism this week, but ya just never know.

My companion ironing his sheets. Not kidding!

Photo is of my companion, Elder Villela, ironing his sheets. Yes, that is correct. He ironed his bed sheets. First, he attempted to iron them while still on the bed. That wasn’t too successful, so he hauled them over to the ironing board and proceeded to iron the sheets one section at a time. Insane! (Gotta love ‘im though!)

Until next week!
Tchau,
Elder Titus

(From mom: Curious about what Carnival is, I looked it up. Oh, my gosh. Read on: The origins of carnival (or Carnaval in Portuguese) dates back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans adopted the celebration with Bacchanalia (feasts in honor of Bacchus, the Roman equivalent to Dionysus), and Saturnalia, where slaves and their masters would exchange clothes in a day of drunken revelry. Saturnalia was later modified by the Roman Catholic Church into a festival leading up to Ash Wednesday. It quickly evolved into a massive celebration of indulgences - one last gasp of music, food, alcohol, and sex before Lent - before the 40 days of personal reflection, abstinence, and fasting, which lead up to Easter (not exactly what the Catholic Church probably had in mind). 40 days of purging sins, preceded by a week filled with virtually every known sin. The word itself comes from Latin, "Carne Vale" or "Farewell to the Flesh". Carnival is the most famous holiday in Brazil and has become an event of massive proportions. The country stops completely as businesses shut down for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night. The consumption of beer accounts for 80% of annual consumption and tourism receives 70% of annual visitors.