Boa Semana!‏

Bom Dia from São Paulo!
This past week has been great. First off, I received the most adorable package from the Yorges family- so thanks so much to those sweet little girls! Which reminds me- please, if you are going to send any packages from this date forward please send them to the MISSION HOME (address to the right designated by "PACKAGES" in red text), not the CTM, because by the time they get here I will be in the field (yes, scary, I know!) and the CTM will not forward on packages to the mission home. They will forward any letters that get sent here though, so don´t worry about letters. Jane and Wes Morril arrived this week and I think are in my branch now! They were there on Sunday (Dad you should get a picture sent to you from their son in the ward, I don´t remember his name). It's such a small world! I have been learning so much this past week and have felt so incredibly blessed! This past week has been a week of learning more and more about the Atonement of Jesus Cristo! We had an incredible devocional Saturday night about the Atonement, and they showed a wonderful video of a devocional that Jeffrey R. Holland gave at the MTC in June 2000 (Mom, could you please look this up and send me a copy- I don´t know the name of it). He talked about how every truth that a missionary teaches is an appendage to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the ATonement of Jesus Christ. He talked about how a mission is never easy because Salvation was never easy. How could we believe it woudl be easy for us in this life if it was never easy for our Savior Jesus Christ? He then talked about how the Atonement was an infinite and eternal price to be paid for the salvation of all men. Elder Packer said, "The Atonment has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with so simple a beginning as prayer!" oh I love that quote! I then proceeded that same night to study and read from "Jesus, The Christ" page 611-614 for those of you that have the 1981 edition. It says on page 613 "It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produced an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. . . .From the terrible conflict in Gesthemane, Christ emerged a victor" My testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ has grown so incredibly strong this week. I am so thankful for the incredible knowledge that awaits us in the teachings of this Gospel, in the scriptures and in the words of our living Prophet and his apostles! I am so thankful to know that Christ's Atonment is infinite and eternal. That we all have the ability to repent, be baptized receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end to one day be with our families again in the presence of God! Yesterday we decided as a companionship to only Speak Português. needless to say we didn´t speak as much, but it was such a good experience to apply all that we´ve learned. We were allowed to ask "How do you say. . ." but only one word, and then we had to apply that word. A Brazilian Sister put me through Baptism by Fire when she made me explain what "The Authority of God" is in Português. My goodness, I though I could get off easy but just saying that it's the power of God, but she wanted a real explanation in Portuguese. Yikes! We also did our first TRC experience this past Saturday where we went into a room and were recorded teaching a member, a Brazilian we had never met before. I think we did relatively well. I can give my entire portion of the lesson in Portuguese without notes, and I know the entire first vision in Portuguese! When it came time to pray at the end I got called on and completely forgot how to say anything and so basically prayed that our investigator would bless us with health, instead of God blessing us with health! whoops! I know that I will get better and better as the weeks come, and my goal is to be fluent by Mother´s Day! So you all better hold me to that! For great reading this week I suggest everyone read^:Chapter 5 of Jesus the ChristEther 12- a great chapter about Faith, and the attributes of Christ!Helaman 13-15, D&C 20, and the entire book of John!! Com Amor! Sister Tittelfitz