July 15: Novidades!

So this has been a slow but successful last week. Our new President and his Wife decided to do splits with the missionaries in our area last week after interviews. Sister Richardson went with Sister França and I for two hours one night to teach a family.
This family is amazing. They had investigated the church about 16 years ago when their son (then 10) was baptized. They were not baptized because they were not married. They moved away from that city and their son became inactive/uninterested. Then about a month ago an Elder gave the husband a pass-along card for the "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD. He called the number and Sister França and I delivered the DVD and talked with the family and found out more about their history.
We made a few short visits and then when we found out Sister Richardson would do splits with us, we planned on giving them the First Lesson with her. It was an amazing experience, and although Sister Richardson can´t speak Portuguese, I translated for her, and when she bore her testimony the Spirit was so strong! We made a commitment with the Husband, Wife, and the sons´girlfriend to be baptized, and they all agreed. Sister Richardson then promised that she will personally be at their baptism (I believe she will be too). Then on Sunday we took the husband and wife (Gloria and Houlder) to church (Angela, the son´s girlfriend was sleeping/didn´t want to get up "early" for church). It just so happened that their neighbor from the city they were living in when they investigated the church came to our ward that day, as she was visiting her sisters who live in the ward. It was such as joyous reunion for Gloria and her friend, and a spirit of joy and friendship was there. It was such a testimony to me of how the Lords hand is in our work, and He knows what people need to develop in their understanding of the church and of their testimony that it is true.

We are still working with Angela and Andre (the son) and will teach them this week about the Law of Chastity and about getting Andre back to church. Right now he says he doesn´t a personal desire to return.
We also have two wonderful little girls that will be baptized this week. The first is Luana, a nine year old that lives across the street from the Chapel. She and her family moved to town here about three or four months ago. She saw the chapel and wanted to attend for several months before her mom found out when Sacrament meeting is Sunday. She came to church alone two weeks ago, and absolutely loves Primary. She returned this week and begged her mom to let her be baptized. Her mother agreed on the account that she not wear makeup (she has this big suitcase of ridiculous dress-up makeup).
The other is Ireis, the neighbor of Priscilla, my first baptism. She is twelve years old and absolutely adores the Church as well. She is really excited for her baptism too. It is such a testimony to me of the strong desire that young people have to understand and except the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They really don´t have any hesitations because they don´t have as many distractions as adults do, and they truly have a wonderful ability to be so close to the Spirit! I will follow-up next week with the results!
I love this Gospel and I love being a missionary!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Love,Sister Tittelfitz

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

July 1: Festa Juninha

Happy 4th of July to the United States of America! For the third year in a row I will miss out on this Day of Independence, as I have spent the last three summers out of country. Eat lots of hotdogs, icecream and enjoy those fireworks and baseball games!

I hope my brother and Sisterinlaw are not too embarrassed, but I have exciting news, that I will be an AUNT in February, and I will have a niece/nephew of 6 months by the time I return home. I got very excited last week to hear to the news, so excited in fact Sister França accussed me of being "trunky" and told me to go ahead and name the baby, pack my bags, and sit on them for another 13 months!

We had the most wonderful activity this past weekend in the church. A "Festa Juninha". I don´t think Brazilians are absolutely certain why they have this Festa, because no one could explain to me the origin, history. But basically you dress up like a pilgrim or a hillbilly, whichever one you want, and decorate with flags, have lots of food and play games like Musical Chairs, the Go Fish game where you throw the fishing rod over a curtain and get a prize, etc. The Music is what I would describe as "Polk with a little bit of Country". Anyways, it was so much fun, and the best part is that some of our investigators came! Investigators that have shown no progress in the past three months, actually came to the activity. You should have seen Sister França and I, behaviors that we have never expressed before became extremely apparent, such as giddy laughter, skipping with our steps, and being extremely chatty (yes, I was "Chatty" in Portuguese!) with all of the members!

Activities have a wonderful ability of introducing many people to the Church in a comfortable atmosphere in which they can see the love and fun that members have! Members have such an incredible ability to share the gospel with their friends, whether they realize it or not, and are ESSENTIAL to the missionary work!

The Elders in our Zone have also shared a new idea to help the missionary work progress. Every Sunday a Member, during Sacrament Meeting, chooses a member to accept a Book of Mormon, and within that same week the member has to give it to a friend. The next Sunday they share their testimony of the experience in Sacrament Meeting, and give another Book of Mormon to another member. We think it´s a great idea, and are going to try it. We are still working with our investigators, and working on PROGRESS. It was so amazing this week to see the progress that two investigators made. They finally had gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and wanted to know more. And why they had gained a testimony? Because they had actually read, just a little of the Book, but they READ!

This is my testimony to each person that I know the power of actually Reading the Book of Mormon, and pondering the words in your heart and mind, and I know everyone has the ability to pray and ask if these words you have read are true, Heavenly FAther will answer your prayers, and you will know! Also, Missionaries are there to answer questions that you have, ask them! I have also been studying the last few chapters in the 2 book of Nephi. I was really engulfed in Chapters 27 through 29 which speak a lot about the Purpose of the Book of Mormon. I suggest these chapters for any personal study on the purpose of the Book of Mormon and how God continues to reveal His words to His children in all dispensations of time! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,Sister Tittelfitz

June 24: Third Transfer

So this week was my third transfer, and guess what???!!!........................................................I´m in the same area with the same companion! There are definitely positives and negatives to everything, but we are excited to stay together and continue to strengthen our area.

Sister França pulled a dirty trick on me after she spoke with the Elders about transfers. She said I was going to Open an Area with a Sister that only has one transfer ahead of me. When were in front of a bunch of members when this all happened and I got excited but extremely nervous. Sister França asked if I was happy and I said "I have to be happy this is my mission!" and then I asked her who her new companion was going to be. She says "someone really special" and I go off guessing all the Sisters in the mission that I know. Finally I say "I don´t know any other Sisters. . .who is it?"> "YOU". . .wow, I love being the one that get´s the joke played on. I guess now I will have to do the same thing in the future to my junior companions.

We are continuing to teach our investigators and are slowely progressing. Many of the families and people we are teaching love having us into their homes and hearing the lessons, but are not yet keeping their commitments such as attending Church and gaining a testimony for themselves of the teachings. It is hard work, and I am continuing to learn.

We made two splits this week. The first with other Sisters from another area. The junior companions together, the Seniors together. The other junior companion was with me in my area. I was extremely nervous to be "in charge" but we made it for 24 hours together. I discovered that I have a raw skill and not knowing any street names in our area, but knowing where people live based on trash cans, parks, and autobody shops.

The other split was with two members in our Ward. It was a lot of fun, but nerve-racking too because I taught all the lessons, and the member could only bare her testimony. We had one investigator answer the door and she was completely drunk, but the member understood her rambling and the "too much information" that she shared with us!

I wanted to share a scripture that we taught to investigator who is trying to quit smoking, and I believe that it applies to any difficulty we have in life:> Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

We all have weaknesses, we all have things that are difficult for us to overcome or to face in our lives. But His grace is sufficient, and if we humble ourselves and sincerely have a desire to change, and act in faith, our weak things will become strong. I love this expression that I studied the other day about prayer too, that when we pray we get on our knees and offer in prayer a plan to our Heavenly Father of those things that we need to improve upon, repent of and how we will do it. After prayer, we stand up and we get to work. Without acting on those things that we presented to our Heavenly Father after our prayers, our prayer was in vain.

Enjoy the pictures from my last Zone Conference!
Love, Sister Tittelfitz

June 20: Noticias

Happy Inverno.
Yes, it is almost Winter here, and it is quite a strange sensation. Because usually when it becomes cold and people start cooking richer foods with more butter and sauces I start to think Christmas is around the corners. Hahah, what a funny trick the weather plays when you live south of the equator. Sister França says that really hot weather and ice cream reminds her of Christmas. Wow, can´t wait until December.

So this was the last tranfer of my Mission President and His Wife. They will be moving to Utah in a couple of weeks where he will start his new calling in the Quorom of the 70. We will miss them and we will also be welcoming our new Mission President, President Richardson (from Seattle, WA) with open loving arms.

The work here continues. We are still teaching many of our investigators that we planned to "drop", i.e. we showed up at their door and they were ready to hear more and more about the gospel. The only problem is that they are still not keeping their commitments like coming to Church, but all we can do is love them pray for them, and continue to teach them more about the Gospél of Jesus Christ.

This has been a week of Remembering. Sister Teixeira talked a lot in our past Zone Conference about becoming the missionary Today that we want to be for the rest of our lives, and how important it is to keep the Day of the Lord, or the Sabbath. We have been talking a lot about always keeping our own covenants and to always remember the spiritual experiences in life when we felt really close to the Lord, and to use those experiences in our darkest times to remind ourselves of the love and peace that can be felt through the teachings of the Savior.

I´m sorry I don´t have much time to write, but I pray that all is well with each and every one of you at home. Please always remember your testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and of those things that you hold dear and sacred in your lives. I also have a strong testimony that Heavenly Father DOES hear our prayers and he DOES answer them, on his timetable, not ours. So continue to pray, and HE will continue to bless you.

Have a wonderful week.
Love,Sister Tittelfitz

"81"

Missions are full of 'Cleaning' Experiences. For instance, this week we have decided to do a clean-sweep of our investigators who are not progressing. In other words we pass by there house and give them a 'Frank Discussion' saying that we know the Book of Mormon is true, leave our Testimony, say that they are always welcome to attend Church, leave them with a pass-along card, and don´t return. It is sad sometimes to think that these might be lost opportunities, on our part and theirs. But we continue to search for the Elite, for those that are ready to hear more about the Gospel.

This week we made contact with Maria Aparecida, an 81 year old woman who lives alone. She has been practically abadoned by her only daughter, who has not talked to her in years, and three months ago stopped sending her money. She cannot walk very well or very much as she has extreme pain in her feet. She also doesn´t eat anything but bread and milk as she says she doesn´t know how to cook. We got some help from members and got a ride for her to go to Church on Sunday. It was kind of a funny experience. We got her out of the Car and a member was on her left side, Sister França on her Right. She started to shout 'Solta, Solta' (Loose, loose) in reference to the grip that the two had on her arms. I thought she said 'Assaulta' 'Assaulta' and for a moment I thought that maybe she forgot where she was and that the member and Sister França were assaulting her. I got really concerned when a bunch of members ran up to her thinking 'Oh great, now she´s really going to think she´s being assaulted by a mob of Mormons'. Fortunately everything was resolved, and she spent the next three hours softly doozing off to sleep in every class and Sacrament Meeting. We passed by yesterday and she said she needed to buy some cream for her feet. We got her out onto the street and she immediately became a screaming maniac shouting 'Move!' 'Get out of my way' and called many men who wouldn´t move 'Stupid'. It was kind of awkward and embarressing for Sister França and I as we are wearing our nametags that say 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' and are dragging a screaming woman around in the streets. I think she has had a lot of pain in her life and generally does not have a patient or loving attitude towards strangers. But each person is a child of God, and we love them all the same. Plus, she has 81 years, give the lady a break!

She is ready for baptism, but we probably won´t baptize her. She cannot stand alone, and although we were joking about it when we talked about it, she would probably scream all the way down until she started to drown in the water. Her work will be saved until later :)

This has been a week where patience and Charity have been evident nearly every day. We are learning how to be patient and how to have Charity.Charity is the purse love of Christ, and it brings so much joy to my hear to give, more than to receive. One thing I learned is how I can adapt to the culture here. We were in Maria´s home and she had a wall clock that was broken. I fixed it for her and then hung it on her wall. She said 'no, I have another one, you take this one'. My thought was 'No I fixed it for you, plus we don´t need it'. Sister França accepted her invitation and took the clock. Later Sister França made me carry the clock home, and I said 'I didn´t want to take it, it´s just a clock'. Then I got a stern tongue-lashing from Sister França that I need to give up my 'Culture' and accept the fact that people here, no matter how poor they are want to give. It is the culture in Brazil to give things, trade things and no be very unselfish. And if someone poor ever offers me a wall clock again, I will accept it.

I feel there is so much more to write, but the time has passed quickly. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I don´t have any doubts about this. I love this Gospel, I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

Have a wonderful week everyone,
Sister Tittelfitz

1 is not a lonely number!

´Twas the week of 1´s this past week.

The First, and most important One, was my FIRST Baptism! Priscilla was baptized on Friday. She is a wonderful 24 year old that the Elders contacted way back in December and taught her every lesson, she went to church a few times, but then decided that she needed to have her Cirisma (?) first in the Catholic church. So the Elders stopped contacting her. She approached me the first day that I was in the field here as she recognized our name tags. I remembered not knowing anything that she said but I remembered her name. Then I came across her form in the area book and it was very apparent that it was the same person. Nearly 6 weeks passed and one day Sister França and I decided to pass by her house. She was home, invited us in and we started to talk. She says "I´m ready to be baptized now!" Wow, it was incredible. So we retaught her all of the lessons, set a date for the Baptism, and now she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Another 1, the same day as the baptism of Priscilla was the Anniversary for Sister França of her First Year in the Field! We bought a celebratory pizza (which unfortunately was not very good. The cheese in Brazil is pretty strange!)

The Last 1. My first Temple Dedication is Brazil! The Curitiba Temple was dedicated this weekend. It was so wonderful to see the Broadcast of the Cultural Celebration the night before and then see our Wonderful Prophet, Thomas S. Monson Dedicate the Temple on Sunday. He has such a warm and incredible personality. It was a very special occassion for Sister França too, as she is from Brazil. The temple there is Gorgeous! There are these large trees that were left on the property and the temple was built around them. I don´t know the name of the trees, but they´re very tall with the leaves only at the top. I felt such a warm spirit during the dedication. It is such an incredible testimony to me that the Church exists in the same form in the whole world. Temples exist in every continent in the world, and our Prophet receives revelation for members everywhere! This is the true Church of Jesus Christ restored in Latter Days!

News on the investigators.
Unfortunately Claudia has not returned. She is most likely in the Favela lá com her friends. We pray for her return.
Otaviano continues to be stagnant. However Sister França says that often the "mole" or the "soft/lazy" investigators are the ones that need the most time, but eventually come through after months of work by the missionaries.

We have been studying a lot this week about the Expiaçao, the Atonment of Jesus Christ. This is one of the central doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ, and this plays a huge part in our purpose here on earth. Because of the Atonment of Jesus Christ, he has already suffered for all of our sins, however, our personal responsibility has not been taken away. We do sin, we do commit errors everyday. But He already knows how we feel, because he already felt the same pain in a such a greater way than we can ever realize. We therefore need to do our part by using the Atonement to our benefit. How? Repent, and invite Christ into your life. It is like the picture where Christ is standing at the door knocking, but there is no door handle. He will not force his way into your life, he will not open the door and invite himself in. WE have to be the ones to open the door and allow the powers of the Atonement to work in our lives. Our pains can be lifted, our lives can improve, and we can feel the Love of Christ greater in our lives. Alma 34:8-10. Read these scriptures and then ask yourself, Why do we need the Atonement. Pray, and through the Power of the Holy Ghost you will have a greater understanding of these things. This is a my testimony that I leave with you!

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Tittelfitz