July 8: Orquedario!

So today we passed our first p-day with the Elders in our Zone. We walked (because we are all too poor to take a bus) to the next city to go to the Orquedario and witness the beauty that exists within the cages of Brazil. I included a picture of the legendary "one-armed Spider Monkey" that apparently tried to run away and shocked his arm on an electric wire to the point they had to amputate. It was really nice to actually see more of my Area and pass some time with the Elders.

Later we played the game "War" at the Chapel. I totally dominated and when my competitive side shown-through I think a lot of the Elders were completely surprised. Haha, what they didn´t know is that I was trained by my brothers!!

Our new President of the mission arrived last week and we had Zone Conference with him and his wife. They are already so loving and excited to be here and working with 200 missionaries that are all new to them. President already has a goal of doubling the number of baptisms each transfer. He gave a really great talk about how each of the Principles and Doctrines of the Gospel are stepping stones for each investigator, and Baptism is the door of entry. He has really strong goals to get the members in every ward really involved as well. It was really invigorating and energizing to hear his goals and vision and I think all the missionaries got excited as well, even though I think many of the missionaries who have been here most of the mission with President Texeira got excited too and already love him and his wife.

A little bit about the new President and his Wife- they are from Redmond Washington. He formally worked for Microsoft and developed a translation program to translate up to 20 languages. She has a doctorate as well in Education and wrote a few books (I´m not sure how many) and is on the "Best Author´s who inspired LDS authors" book list. They have 12 children, 5 of whom will be arriving within the next two weeks or so. They are very educated, but so extremely humble and so willing to get to know each one of us personally. I am so excited for the next year ahead.

I continue my reading of the Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ. Moroni 3:19 talks about how we need to be submissive and become as little children in following the will of our Heavenly Father. A teaching of Christs´to His Apostles was to be as children in qualities such as lovingness, kindness, meekness and obedience, but not in qualities such as immatureness or lack of knowledge. I continued reading and in chapter 4 of Moroni it talks about the Expiaçao or Atonement of Christ and how we can all be Saved through His Everlasting Atonment. However, we need to do what all that we can to reap the benefits. This is something I´ve been thinking a lot about with our investigators (example- My heart just about broke the other day when we saw an investigator blatantly breaking the word of wisdom).We teach about Faith and just about every person says "yeah, I have faith", but what do we do with our faith is the more important question. We all know the scripture "faith without works is dead", so what are the works that we need to do? First of all have Faith that Christ is the Son of God, and that He paid the price for all of our sins, then put that faith into action by recognizing our sins and repenting each day with the intention to never repeat the sin and continually strive to do better. If we haven´t already been Baptized, then put that repentance into practice by Baptism and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The final step is not so "final" because it includes Perservering until. . . .well. . . forever. It includes continuing to exercise that faith that through our repentant behavior and willingness to draw closer to our Heavenly Father we will reap all of the Eternal Blessings that are in store for each of us! Now ask yourself- will you put into practice your faith EVERYday?

Have a wonderful week everyone!
Love,Sister Tittelfitz