"It is so frustrating when people teach false doctrine in church..."

Finally things worked out! We got investigators to go to church for the first time since Elder Prado got here. You asked about Jusmara...She went to church with her daughter, bore her testimony in the Relief Society, and will give us lunch on Saturday. That is dang sick. She is doubtless going to be baptized in a bit.
There is this other dude, Reinaldo, who also went to church. He visited the church once in Ireland, when he worked there. He went with a dude from Cambé, Moacir, who also worked there at the time.
I watched movies at Moacir's house many times with C. Thrapp. Anyway, he is pretty cool, he asked a lot of questions about the temple and stuff.
Also there is this girl named Aline who went to church with her mom, who was inactive for the last fourish years till we visited her with the bishop. She has a lot of potential.
The bad news of all this is that now that things are fixed, I am being transferred, I found out right now.
I will go back to my last district and work in the ward that also meets in the chapel of Semiramis. That is kinda weird, it will be my third area in that stake (Tiradentes) of seven wards, two of which are sisters. I am basically a legend in Tiradentes by now. The new Zone Leader there will be Elder Allred, so I will be able to do divisions with him, that will be ILL demais.
I got the birthday box about two weeks ago, I'm stoked to get into the stuff. But I am being patient this time and waiting till my birthday.
Elder Prado regained the faith. I'll just say it was quite the saga, hopefully I don't have to deal with that again. But in the end I know that now he will be able to be an effective missionary and member.
Speaking of members, I would like to share three points of "Doctrine" shared in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I think they are all dang funny.
1. We, as members, cannot sleep on Sunday, because it is the Sabbath.
2. Full time missionaries become part of the Quorum of Apostles while in the field, and upon their release return to the Elders Quorum
3. To go to the Celestial Kingdom, you need to be sealed in the temple (this idiotic mix-up provided by a high counselor after reading a scripture about the three degrees of glory in the Celestial and thinking it meant Telestial, Terrestrial, Celestial).
I feel bad for the bishop, and really for any member who reads the scriptures. It is so frustrating when people teach false doctrine in church, especially when we have dope investigators.
My new comp will be Elder Amaral, he is dang sick, so I am excited to work in that area. There are also two sisters and two Americans, it will be very different from my current district. We are going to play beach soccer today on a sand field close to our house, I'm dang stoked. I'll send a bunch of recent photos next week.
I passed 1.5 years...
Love you all
Joseph

Jerusalem...

"...I prayed basically nonstop in the kitchen/study room."

This week was very hectic. I divided with the elders from University Ward (which strangely enough does not have any students) on Wednesday, then on Thursday when we traded back all hell broke loose.
Elder Prado said that he didn't believe in God anymore and that nothing that happens and nothing we teach has any value. I was like, alright well you are incorrect, bore my testimony of the Godhead, and asked if he wanted to talk to president.
He called, and president told him to get a blessing from me and red some scriptures. So he did it, and spent the rest of the day and evening talking to himself in the bedroom while I prayed basically nonstop in the kitchen/study room. In the end he recovered his faith, but it is still not guaranteed that he will stay here. I hope he stays on his mission.

Well, basically that whole saga messed up the whole week. We had a great visit with Jusmara on Sunday, she is progressing well and is now basically convinced that Catholicism is false because the Book of Mormon is responding to all of her questions that she has had through the years. We are psyched abut her progress.

We had an area 70 visit us today, Elder Tobias, and I have no time to write a decent letter. I love you all, thanks for the emails and support. Everything is good here with me.

Love

Joseph

Jerusalem...

"A worse week with a better attitude"

The jungle

The fixed bed

As the title of this email suggests, the week was worse than the last. We really didn't see any progress on the part of any of our investigators. Junior stopped calling us. Erica is really busy. Catiane is just interested in Elder Prado (jajaja). Jusmara doesn't recognize the truth right in front of her eyes. and everyone else is nonexistent.
We were able to teach very little this week and found few new people. So we have dang high goals this week, hopefully we will break the Quebec teaching record.
I got one dang sick piece of news this week. I was teaching this woman named Daniele in Semiramis a few months ago. She was a sure baptism, but kinda disappeared. I got really disappointed. But I left a teaching record there hoping that the sisters could make it happen.
So last night I was talking to them (we have an investigator who we teach here but was going to go to church there) and she told me that Daniele got married to her boyfriend on Saturday so that she can be baptized this weekend! I got so dang stoked that things worked out for her, it's nuts, when there is an elect person, Heavenly Father does what it takes to get them back.
An Elder was doing a division with me in Semiramis, talked to a dude who gave us his address there, we went there and found that he had moved and Daniele lived in the house behind his. We taught her, but her boyfriend didn't like it. President took out both of us to put in Sisters, who taught her a bunch of specific lessons. So dang ill how that kind of thing works out.
Today, Valentines, marks the three year anniversary since the first Horses Concert at seminary. What a humble beginning to what has become a great legacy.
Things are good with Elder Prado, we are united and stuff, we both want to make changes in this area.
I'm dang stoked to hear about the revolution in Egypt, that is very impressive. The Arab people have enormous oppression from the governors, and I believe this uprising in Egypt can inspire the people of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other oppressively-governed countries.
It is also an enormous step to the second coming. The gospel would never be preached to the Egyptians as long as they had a theocratic dictator. Maybe things can go forward now.
You asked about how schools are here. I have never been into a school here until now, but from what I have seen on the outside they are pretty good. I believe that schools can be as good as the students let them be. I think in some areas of the city, the education is low-quality, because the students don't really want to learn. It is that way in the whole world.
I took a few good photos this week. I will attach a bunch.
Love you all very much, thanks for the support. There isn't anything more you can do, I just have to do my part to make things work out.
Loooove
Joseph

A rainy afternoon

Two Horses in the darkness

Dreidel

Jerusalem...

"I fixed my bed, that would probably be the highlight of the week."

This week, as the subject states, was pretty lame. Really there were no new developments, so this email will likely be short.
We dropped a lot of old investigators that were just not moving forward, including Rosangela. She is at a point in her life in which she just doesn't want to make a big change. I believe that in the future she will be baptized.
Our investigators are not going to church and it is dang annoying. That has been a big struggle here in this area. I don't really know what more can be done.
We marked with a bunch of members to do divisions this week, we have two men to go with us every night, so that's going to help a lot.
Sometimes missionary work is just really lame. Yesterday we passed by about ten references and knocked doors for four hours and were not able to teach anyone. I know that there are probably missions in the world where that is normal, but it is really not what we are used to in Brasil. So Basically I will have to get used to it until I get a new area.
I fixed my bed, that would probably be the highlight of the week. I was sleeping on a mattress on the ground, but now I used a bunch of obsolete church materials to make supports for the parts of the bed that were broken. So it has been nice sleeping on a bed.
Love you
Joseph

"And the story goes on
there's no glory and the worry takes a toll on
his own body but his buddies wanna roll on
It's all bloody when the car comes to a stop
the police with the big glocks pull 'em out
they say freeze but there's only one one comin out
there's two dead with a legal gun to his head
It's stupid, he shoulda played ball instead"
-K´naan