This Week

Saturday was Moaci´s Baptism. We called the night before to a member from the other ward that he´s been frequenting to remind him to pick up Moaci´s mom, little brother and little sister. He said sure, he would take care of it. The baptism was marked to occur in another chapel in our Stake because there was a Youth Activity Saturday and Moaci wanted a lot of the youth to be there at his baptism. So we caught a bus and made it there around noon, an hour before the baptism. Moaci and his brother were there, but not his family. Where´s your mom? we kept asking. Uh, I think someone´s picking her up?!12:30 arrived and passed, no sign of mom. Who was supposed to pick her up? Uh Brother Fernando. Where is he? Uh, over there, talking with his wife! AHHH. He had totally forgotten to pick her up. So we shewed him out of the chapel to go pick up Moaci´s mom. The whole crew arrived at about 1:45, but everything was already to go, so we threw Moaci into the baptismal clothes and got going. Went over really well, and Moaci´s mom and sister cried and said it was a really spiritual experience, now we just have to prepare those two for baptism!! (Moaci´s mom frequents another religion and is not interested at the moment).

My talk on Sunday went pretty well. I used Jeffrey R. Holland´s talk called "Missionary Work and the Atonement" and talked about how as members we can apply the Atonement into the missionary work that occurs in our wards, i.e. have more spiritual sacrament meetings, baptisms and how bearing our testimonies brings back echos of previously heard testimonies to the ears of investigators (i.e. they have already heard the "Plan" of God in the Pre-Mortal Life).

I am officially the piano player in Sacrament Meeting now, as the Brother who has this calling became inactive since our first week in the area. However, the keyboards/pianos here are electronic and have the hymns already programmed into the piano. However, the hymns are in English on the piano, and the names in Portuguese don´t directly translate. So everyonce in awhile I figure out what hymn it is in English and "play" the hymn on the piano. Haha, I love it!!

We´re still on for the baptism of Brother Antonio. He is super excited and it will take place in the Stake Center this Saturday, right before Stake Conference so that many members who have known him for years will be able to attend and then stay for meetings!! We also got a few investigators to church this Sunday that we have been teaching since we arrived. It is so exciting to see investigators progressing, and I know that when they attend Church they progress so much more quickly before they are seeing all the lessons and principles that we teach being put into practice in the lives of members and in the other lessons in Sacrament meeting, Sunday School and RS/Priesthood meetings.

Have a wonderful week everyone, and don´t forget those cards for Christmas!!
Sister Tittelfitz