holidays are crazy!

Thanks for all your emails everyone (Nicole, Alexis, Jim and Gail, LaVerle, Becca) I did receive them and read them, so thank you for sharing what is going on in your lives!

To update on some information. To send packages, the address is still the same (ask my mom if you don't have it). To send LETTERS the NEW address is:

Sister Jenelle Tittelfitz
Caixa Postal 26504
Sao Paulo, SP- Brasil 04311-970

If you have already sent a letter to the other address, don´t worry, I will still get it, it just goes to the mission president´s home and it takes me longer to receive it. If I didn´t get a letter that was sent to the CTM, I will get it in about 4 weeks.

So this week has been a little frustrating in the work. I love each and every one of our investigators, but they are not keeping their commitments! We give them a Book of Mormon, ask them to read, and then when we come back a few days later the book has been used as a coaster on their coffee table!

Sister Franca decided that we would split the lessons 50/50 now. Yes, quite scary, and usually my 50 percent is quite butchered, requires the help of Sister Franca and has a lot of 'uh, buh buh buh´s'. While we were on the street last week a man approached us and said he knew the Bishop of our ward and would like to meet with us to get 'another book'. So we go to his house on Saturday, and Sister Franca is like 'youre going to teach the lesson and give the commitments (Read the Book of Mormon, Pray to know its true, go to church and be Baptized). Wow, so it was the craziest lesson ever. When I gave him the Bible to read James 1:5 aloud he stared at it for about 5 minutes and I didn´t know if he was reading it or thinking about it or what. I was waiting for Sister Franca to do something, but she just sat back and observed. Also when I gave him Moroni 10;3-5 to read he took about 10 minutes to stare at it as well. I was so confused and decided I would read the scriptures aloud even if I didn´t know how to pronoune words. Then when I gave him the commitments, I couldn´t even get the words out of my mouth before he answered each one with 'yes' and then I asked 'after you´ve read and prayed and know that these things are true, will you. . .' and he´s like 'yeah, I´ll go into the water and be baptized'. All I could do was laugh because, seriously? So we´re like, okay, well see you at church tomorrow, and he agreed. Sunday comes, and he´s a no show, so Sister Franca demands that we leave church, walk two blocks to his house and wake him up by ringing his doorbell repeatedly. He apologized that he had slept in and couldn´t come. Sister Franca was like 'well, we´re very sad' and then he looked at me, and I had a big goofy grin on my face because we had seriously woken this guy up at 11 a.m., and he turns to me and says 'no, you´re not, you guys are joyful, look she´s smiling!' Oh man, Sister Franca was not happy. So we´re going back tonight to teach the next lesson, we´ll see how things go!

Yesterday was also a holiday. No particular holiday, just one in general, which meant that NO ONE was at home. Not even members, so we taught one lesson, and had to come in early because there was a Gay parade on the street and lots of people were drunk. We have been praying and fasting for each one of our investigators and that we may know their needs to help them keep their commitments. We also stopped by a recent converts house the other night to meet with her husband, who is somewhat investigating the church. He was just leaving when we arrived, so we went in to talk with the wife. I had no idea what she was saying, but I felt that she was really stressed about something. Sister Franca turns to me and is like, Sister you´re sharing a lesson. So I shared Isaiah 40:31 (Really amazing scripture- look it up) and I talked about how every day in our lives is going to have challenges, for instance, I´m in Brazil and don´t speak Portuguese, but because of our Faith in Christ we can press forward through each hard day knowing that things WILL be better. Come to find out later that night Sister Franca told me her husband is an alcoholic and the wife was really worried because he is driving and is worried he´ll crash. We all have challenges, and I am so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for my faith in Christ and in His Atonement, which allows me to repent each and everyday and strive to be better.

Before I sign off I wanted to share some points from Jeffrey R. Hollands talk during Conference because it was Awesome!

His talk was about how God continues to reveal and speak His words. We respectfully and resolutely reject the idea of a closed canon of scripture. A common arguement religions have with the book of Mormon comes from the end of Revelations. However, this verse only applies to the book of Revelations, not the whole Bible. 1st, 2nd Peter and other books in the Bible were written after Revelations. The whole Bible as we know it, did not exist as a whole when that verse was written. In fact, collections of the Bible were not put together for 1,000s of years after.

God declares in Moses 1:4 'my words are without end and my words do not cease'. Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing doctrine. Living Prophets serve as additional witnesses that the Bible is true. The scriptures, the Book of Mormon included, serve as manifestations of the Living Doctrine of God. (Side note, not in Holland´s talk, but over half of the 6,000 verses in the Book of Mormon talk of Christ and His Gospel!)

Does God Speak? He does and He has. We invite all to inquire what God has said since Biblical times and what He says now. Emerson said 'Teach that God is, not was. That he Speaketh and not Spake'. Suchy a ministry is on the earth and it is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. God lives, He loves us, His work never ends and His words never cease!

Have a wonderful week everyone! I will try to send some pictures next week!
Love,
Sister Tittelfitz