"We have been carrying around a package of Cevada..."

We are on the verge of baptizing Lourdes. It rained a ton on Sunday morning, which means that half of the members don't go, and none of the investigators go.
But Lourdes was the exception, she went in the pouring rain and enjoyed church again. Now it is just a matter of teaching her the basics and getting her and her family to stop drinking coffee. We have been carrying around a package of Cevada with us to get to her, but she went to her daughter's house on Monday and we have not been able to get in touch with her.
But we will soon teach her again and try to help her be baptized on Sunday. If that doesn't happen, she will definitely be baptized next Saturday.
Our other investigators are also doing well, but I don't really have any notable stories.
We have been receiving training every morning on how to be guided by the Spirit, how to help investigators be guided/converted by the Spirit, and how prayer, The Book of Mormon, and church attendance are key in conversion. So that has been pretty good.
I would say the only real difficulty right now has been training. The brasilians leave the MTC after 19 days, and rarely know how to teach the first lesson. Elder Barbosa is having a really hard time teaching and communicating what he wants to say. He has improved a little bit, but it's a lot slower that with Elder Proulx (now comps with Elder Carmo, what a coincidence!), who arrived basically knowing everything. So a lot of patience will be instrumental in his development as a missionary. He has had a sore ankle, and yesterday he was not able to walk during a few hours. It seems to be doing better now, and Sister Tavares is bringing him an ankle brace today that will help even more.
Well, I don't have a lot to say today. I will make a DVD of photos to send to you today. I forgot my USB cable, so I won't be emailing any photos today, sorry.
Well, that's about it. Love you all, have a nice week!
Joseph

"But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us
They couldn't hold us
Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers"

"We had lunch, then the big moment: The Sorting Hat!!"

Logan!!

The Tavares' at their house for the trainers meeting

Well family, Elder Miranda was transferred to Bauru. I was informed on Sunday night that I would be training again. So yesterday morning I went to the trainers meeting where we learned about training and got a trainer's book (the same as the first three trainers' meetings I have been to, but the book is now formatted differently and printed in color!).
We had lunch, then the big moment: The Sorting Hat!! So President Tavares put the sorting hat on the heads of the new missionaries one by one, and it pondered little by little (The first Elder reminded me of Harry Potter when he was being sorted. Harry was like "Not Slytherin!" and this elder was like "NOT BURT!!!" LoL that was a joke... these jokes are getting less and less funny as time goes on. SORRY) and sorted the elders and sisters to their trainer.
So President Tavares went to put the hat on the head of Elder D. Barbosa, and just like Malfoy, the hat yelled "BURT!!" before it even made contact with the head of Elder. So that's basically how the sorting was. I don't really know why I wasted time making up this ridiculous story, really it was just a suspenseful slide-show where the photos and names of the trainers and trainees appeared.
But If I were a mission president, I would definitely do it in a Harry Potter style with a sorting hat and pumpkin juice and everything. Anyway, summarizing and clarifying this whole weird paragraph, I am training Elder D. Barbosa here in Semiramis. He is from São Paulo, and has a brother here in the mission, Elder Barbosa, that arrived in and will leave the mission at the same time as me. Interestingly enough, Elder C. Thrapp trained Elder Barbosa. That's pretty cool I guess.
Well, more missionaries went home than arrived. So a few areas closed, including Medianeira, which has fallen into almost total apostasy (The branch president wanted to divide the 40 member branch into an intelligent/middle-class branch and a poor/uneducated branch. Unfortunately he told the members there about this idea, and frequency fell to 30.) and Cambé, which I believe has not had a baptism since I left. So Semiramis is in danger hahaha everywhere closes behind me!
Well, we have had a lot of progress with the Natives. Lourdes will be the first one baptized. She wants to be baptized, recognized the spirit, and already committed to go to church every week, and now its just a matter of us helping her understand the gospel on a very basic level so that she can pass the interview. Her children will surely follow, and others of the tribe after that. I think Elder D. Barbosa will be great with them, he is a simple person and uses a simple form of Portuguese like the Natives. Elder Miranda was great, but spoke very correct Portuguese, and the natives understood basically nothing.
We have a lot of really good investigators right now, I have a great feeling about a lot of them. I can't believe that general conference is upon us once again! It seems like a month has passed since the last one! But I am psyched for this one, hopefully I see some people from Cambé, seeing as we are in the same stake.
My man Elder Yuma from the MTC is the new Zone Leader here with my other friend Elder Costa, who was the comp of Elder Filadélfia when I got to the field, that's going to be super rad. Also Elder Allred, my friend from College, is the new Assistant, so that's also super cool. Hopefully I get to go on a division with them one day, that would be classy.
Well, that's about all I have for now. The mission is the a man-creater, no time for children.
Question: On what date did I take the last photo/video that I sent you? I will make a new DVD and mail it out next week if you get me this info!

Love you all
Elder Joseph Burt

"But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us
They couldn't hold us
Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers"

Last day with Miranda

First day with Elder D. Barbosa

"So that's a pretty good ending considering how horrible her life got really fast."

Mom, I was so sad and amazed to see the news that you broke your wrist. Again. I know that has to be so frustrating and painful. Thinking about the small injuries I have had, like my knee last summer, they frustrated me so much because I was unable to do trivial things like play soccer and work. Not being able to type properly, work, and also having the terrible discomfort of surgery (minus the great anesthesia just before going out) must be very frustrating. I really hope it gets better fast!
This was a pretty dang good week here in the mission. We had a lot of good success with our Native Americans. Four of them went to church on Sunday, double last week's tally. They all really liked it and one of them, whose name is Lourdes, has a strong desire to be baptized in a river. So we are going to try to make that happen ASAP!
Things got smoother with my companion, he is talking again, but I have become more frank with him, telling him when he acts like a child and stuff like that. It probably sounds pretty rude, but if nobody tells him he will honestly never figure it out. So I have been doing that.
I talked to Elder Wright last week, turns out his sister is a member of the Woodruff Ward. Her name is Mary I think. He is going home next week. So you can expect Mary to not be in church next Sunday or something.
Well we have been consistently finding good new people to teach. We have been teaching this really good lady named Josi. She has really liked our messages and tells us how much she feels/recognizes the spirit when we are teaching. She was super determined to go to church on Sunday, but a problem came up in the family. Her son-in-law came home Friday night high and drunk. His wife (Josi's daughter) started yelling at him, and they ended up fighting in front of the house. As this was happening, Josi's 3 year old son and "Husband" arrived, and both of them ended up in the middle of the fray and her son got hit a few times and thrown onto the pavement. He was ok, but there was of course a lot of emotional and psychological damage.
We visited her on Monday and she told us the whole story and just unloaded a ton of held-in tension and sadness on us. She said her "Husband" pretty much disappeared because he is scared of dealing with difficult situations. But she said she is even more dedicated to go to church this Sunday and feel the spirit again. So that's a pretty good ending considering how horrible her life got really fast.
I have been reading the Old Testament a lot lately, geez the OT has a lot of really weird stuff that is completely useless! But it also has gems in the mix, and a ton of really funny things that happened.
Well, that's about all I have for now, things have been really good as far as following the spirit goes. I have also been reading a lot of teachings of the living prophets, and they always have a lot of really good advice. I hope everything continues good with all of you, Mom I will pray fervently for your wrist to make a quick and full recovery. Also I will continue praying for Barb and for the entire Burt family.
Love you all
Joseph

"But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us
They couldn't hold us
Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers"

"We will talk about the Book of Mormon on Friday, and it should be incredible..."

Family night

Well I kicked things into overdrive this week, and my companion was not really pleased about it. He basically stopped talking for the last four days because I became more serious about our work. I hope he stops this "Frescura" soon so that he doesn't suffer too much lol.

This weekend we fasted (Along with you guys, THANK YOU!) for more new investigators that would be able to understand what we teach and want to learn. (This is the most confusing keyboard I have encountered to date, please excuse my poor grammar/formatting.)
But anyway, it's safe to say that we have found a ton of really good people to teach since that fast, and we have a few new people that have great potential. I would like to talk specifically about one special family: Ronaldo, Geraci, and Leonel.

So Ronaldo and family are different from our other investigators. Why? Because they aren't Brasilians. Well, really they are, but according to the opinion of the majority of the country they are foreigners.
They are Native Americans. Quick note: the Portuguese word for Native Americans is "Indios", which quite literally translates to the racist English word "injuns". But in Portuguese it is politically correct.
Anyway, so Ronaldo, his family, and a few other families live in these wooden shacks in this little forest park in the middle of our area. Indians here have a lot of rights, so they now own the park. They have a chief named Valdir, but we have not met him yet. We taught a small group the first time we went there, and it was nothing extraordinary, but Geraci said that she would go to church with us.
So Elder and I were talking a lot about what might happen when the members realized that we were teaching the Indians that invaded the park. So we prayed a lot that they might be well integrated and accepted by the members. In the end, it went perfectly. Lots of members talked to them a lot and helped them in everything. This one lady invited them over to her house to watch a movie with us yesterday, which was a great experience.
We have tried to get people to open their homes for stuff like this in the past, with little success, but now the members have become proactive and are doing exactly what Preach my Gospel teaches them to do. We will talk about the Book of Mormon on Friday, and it should be incredible considering that the Book of Mormon was preserved primarily for them.

Other news in the district, another elder wanted to go home because of depression. Missionaries here do a lot of weird stuff. He ran from the house in nothing but garments the other night. I dunno what he was trying to do or what caused that, but in the end his companion was transferred and a new missionary will arrive sometime today to help Elder _____.

That's about all I have, I'm glad everything is good with the family. Tell Barb that I continue praying for her and wish her well. STAY IN SCHOOL!!!!!! I got letters from Philly, Zach, Bert, and Elder Ellis yesterday.

Love

Joseph

P.S. I am getting pretty strong, I can now do ten consecutive pull-ups

"But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us
They couldn't hold us
Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers"

Letter to the home ward (congregation)

Dear Woodruff Ward,
Well, time has gone by extremely fast. I have now been out for over a year, and it has been an incredible journey to this point.
I have learned innumerable things and changed dramatically. I know that going on a mission is the only thing that can bring to pass such drastic changes in the lives of young men so quickly.
Here in the Brazil Londrina mission, we are blessed with a lot of people to teach. My current area is part of the city of Londrina. We have about 150,000 people here in our area, for just my companion and I to teach. "The harvest is great, but the laborers are few." But if we have the Spirit and work with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, "We all things can do".
My companion is a 26 year old Brasilian. He has been on the mission for 7 months, and has been a member of the church for a little less than 2 years. One great blessing given to those of us born in the church is that we have 19 years of mission prep, whereas recent converts often times have just one year. We need to start preparing from the day we are born and show our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all He has done for us.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the kingdom of God, established on the earth in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and He lives. The Book of Mormon is true, and holds the secrets to entry into the celestial kingdom.
Young men, GO ON MISSIONS!!
Until 2011
---Elder Joseph Burt
P.S. Sorry for the bad English. I haven't spoken English in months.

"That would be great if you could fast for our investigators..."

Eu, Elimar, Hilda, and Miranda

Well things were pretty much normal this week. Just about all of our investigators are falling off the chart, getting scared or something. I don't know whats going on, our entire mission had been doing really badly over the last few months.
I heard that in June our entire mission had 15 baptisms. That's pretty crazy considering that we are in Brasil, but hopefully some of them will stay firm in the church. I guess this month (August) was the best of 2010 so far, that's nice.
Everyone seems to be working a lot more intelligently under President Tavares. He teaches us the "How" whereas president Leal taught us the "What" so that has been pretty good.
Elder Miranda and I have been planning a fireside for about a month, and on Sunday it happened. We had President and Sister Tavares there with us, and we had as many members there as we have in sacrament meeting (some people that don't even go to sacrament meeting went to the fireside!).
We basically talked a lot about how the members can share the gospel with their friends and strangers, especially using the Pass-along card (Thank you, Dad, for the translation). We had all of them practice, and it was really fun and spiritual for all of the members.
They all got really excited and everyone suddenly had references for us! One female was like "Oh Elders, I have this fiancé that you need to teach" and we were like OK.
A lot of people have gotten really into things, and it has been a huge help. There are these DVDs about "Preach My Gospel" that talk about how to find people through the members. We were watching that, and we decided that we also would start practicing inviting friends to come to church/meet the missionaries/accept the gospel, with the members at lunch. I would suggest that my crew does the same, it's on disk 2 of the preach my gospel DVDs, Chapter 9, I think the Bush Family.
Well, like the topic of this email says, everything is pretty normal. Things are good with Elder Miranda. He and I have been guided more and more by the spirit lately.
We are going to work with the daughter of a member that was not baptized yet, and hopefully she will be baptized next week.
That would be great if you could fast for our investigators, Miranda and I fast every Saturday (last week is was Friday and Saturday). That would definitely be a good help.
Love you all
Joseph

"But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us
They couldn't hold us
Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers"