"This ward is being blessed like never before."

Kiara, Ianara, and Tainara

Well we had the baptisms of Tainara, Ianara, and Kiara on Saturday, that was pretty dang nice. I baptized Kiara and Ianara, and Barbosa baptized Tainara. They are pretty dang stoked about their baptism, and I believe they will endure to the end.
Well, once again, the Lord has poured out blessings almost beyond our capacity to receive. We taught Giovana all of the four lessons in less than an hour, which is definitely a record. She is really quiet, and has been going to church her whole life, so we just killed like eight birds with one stone.
Her teaching record sheet is pretty funny, October 31 (HAPPY HALLOWEEN!) is the date for first contact, all of the lessons, all of the commandments, and everything else. A classic record that will be an interesting thing for future missionaries to ponder.
Also we got a reference from the zone leaders for a nine year old boy who went to church in a different ward with his cousins and lives in our area.
Now, I don't look for nine year-olds to teach and baptize, and for this I will never be assistant or anything like that. But hopefully through this kid we will baptize his mom and grandma, whom he lives with.
They already know a little about the church, and his grandma said that now she will really dedicate and pray about the restoration. The mom has already decided that she wants to get baptized, but she hates her sister, who is a member, very much, and doesn't want to be baptized with hate in her heart. We will work a lot with them and see if we can help them out.
Daniele went to church again, and liked it again. Our bishop asked us "Is she a visitor?" I said "No bishop, she is just a member who has never been to church before, that we are teaching, and we put on the progress record that we give to you. OF COURSE SHE IS A VISITOR!!!"
I didn't really say that, but it would have been funny. She brought a notebook and took notes and is learning like nuts. She will be baptized on the 20th, if not sooner.
Guilherme also came again, and once again enjoyed it. We are cultivating a good friendship with him, he is a solid dude. His baptism is marked for the 14th, the day of stake conference. I have very little doubt that he will be baptized. So we will probably pull off over a month of weekly baptisms, something that President Tavares has been preaching since the day he arrived but has thus far eluded me.
I have had this enormous feeling of gratitude writing emails to you and to President. Relating all of the miracles we have seen has really helped me recognize the amount of blessings we have received lately. This ward is being blessed like never before.
I feel so sad that Bert is stuck in Provo! I sent a letter to the MTC in Lima a long time ago thinking it would reach him about the day he arrived, but they probably have it there. Tell him I support him and to SMASH LIES, even there in the MTC.
I am sending letters to a few cats around the continent today: Evan, Nick, and McKay; and Scott Rogers in Belgium. I don't know if Matt ever got my letter that I sent about eight months ago, but I will send another soon.
Good news of the week: Spencer has carried on the family tradition of being the senior elected least ready for real life! YESSSS!!!! REPRESENT! Burt for life! It's funny because they think we are immature, then we get into college and just destroy all normal people.
I was thinking about college this morning and about how I applied for Huntsman Scholars as a freshman accidentally in the category for juniors in college, but dropped a train on everyone there. Moral of the story, Spencer will drop a train on everyone in college, and maintain all momentum because he is not lazy.
Well, may the peace, grace and love of Jesus Christ be with every one of you in your individual adventures.
Love you all
Joseph

Elder D. Barbosa, Elder Reis, Elder Burt, Elder Galdino, Elder Corrêa, Elder Allred at a bus stop

"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"

"...this week was nothing short of sensational..."

Yeah, I was thinking a little bit this morning about how I have the best of both worlds, Jewish blood linking me to Judah and Mormonism in my heart, which is really the only thing that matters.
I think I will start an international organization one day called "Jewish in the flesh, Mormon in spirit" and only allow blood jews that are temple recommend holders in. I think it could be a big hit. How much Jewish blood do I have, is it just Great Grandmother Geri's mom? That's all I need, but it would be cool to have more information.
Well, President Tavares was doing a little training with the missionaries, bishops, and ward mission leaders on Sunday afternoon and he called me in for a mini interview to tell me that Barb passed away a bit ago. I already knew that she had probably died, but even so it was sad to hear.
I hope the family is doing ok, especially Grandpa and Grandma. I think it is probably toughest on them. I believe the funeral is today. I hope it is a nice service and people can feel happiness.
Well, this week was nothing short of sensational for us here in Semiramis (my comp cant figure the name of this area out, he thinks it is Semirabes). We marked baptism for Lourdes' three of-age daughters: Tainara, Ianara, and Kiara. They are good to go, Lourdes has been a really good example for them, and now the ward is starting to really help them out.
The Relief Society is going to start teaching Lourdes to read, that will be an immense help for her. The president of the relief society in this ward is really good, really dedicated to her calling and really willing to help people with their individual problems. So that has been a huge help for us.
There is this 12 year-old girl named Giovana here who for the last four years has been avoiding baptism. But after her mom went to the temple and prayed for her to be baptized, she decided that the time is now! So we will baptize her next Sunday, the 7th. When I say we will baptize her I mean we will teach the four lessons really fast, fill out her baptismal form, and watch her baptismal service. She has been going to church weekly for the last 12 years, already knows everything. So that is a huge blessing for that family.
Also we found this lady named Daniele. Her dad has been a member for a year, and apparently now is on a mission in France, where he was born. So Daniele went to church with us on Sunday, and she was planning on leaving after the first two hours to go to work. But she called her work and told them she would arrive late because she wanted to stay for sacrament meeting.
This was a very good thing, because we had the Primary Program! So everyone was just really happy, which Daniele said she was most looking for in a church, somewhere where she leaves feeling light and happy. So it went well on Sunday.
The members have kicked things into gear. Still only first gear, a step above neutral, but a gear nonetheless (is that a word, or should it be separated?). Another girl brought a friend to church on Sunday, and the members are integrating our investigators well.
Well, this week has been good. Mission life is getting better and better each week! I used to look forward to P-Day, but now it's basically just a lame day with nothing to do! Teaching is getting super good, my testimony is getting stronger every day, and we are seeing a ton of positive changes in the members and investigators here!
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 are going to a park to try to find monkeys and play soccer..."

Well, the members have stepped in and made a difference! This one girl named Milena brought three friends to church on Sunday. They all liked it, and all want to meet with us, so we are going to jump on that ASAP!
Then there is Lourdes, who was baptized two weeks ago. She has gone on the offensive in getting her children to go to church, and yesterday there were 7 Lamanites at church. Most surely her three of-age daughters will be baptized on the 30th.
Also there is this old dude whose wife and daughter are members. He has been an investigator for several years, and has read the Book of Mormon about 4 times. He was in São Paulo for the last three months because his son has been dying for a long time. He finally passed away last Saturday. So he was at church and we went to his house to share a message of comfort with the family. I talked about the experience with Barb, how Dad maintains happiness and hope because he knows about the plan of Salvation. It was a really good message, and they responded really well. Maybe the time has finally come for him to progress and get to the temple.
Even with the unexpected success, there were a few disappointments. Our dude Washington once again didn't show up. He really has no excuse: it was sunny, and we visited him on Friday to remind him.
Also there is Josi, who we have been teaching for a long time. She said the only thing that would prevent her from going to church would be rain. It was very sunny and still she didn't go. So we really can't keep teaching these people for very much longer, despite the immense interest they show when we visit.
This was a pretty normal week. I bought a futsal ball with the money you guys gave me, and the whole district had a great time playing on Wednesday. Today we are going to a park to try to find monkeys and play soccer as well.
It has been nice having a ball in the house, my skills are a little bit better than when I left, and I am stronger, but also fatter, so that will have to change a little bit before I play for RSL hahaha.
We had a meeting on Sunday with the leadership of our zone and the assistants, so I got to kick it with Jim a little bit and talk about the good old days.
How is school for everyone? Everyone stoked for Halloween? Basically Halloween doesn't exist here, nor Thanksgiving (obviously), but they have a lot of other meaningless holidays, like Childrens day, Teachers day, and other stuff. I believe that Brazil is the country that has most holidays.
How is the situation with Barb? And how is Tim? And Mom's wrist? Those are basically the only problems I remember, aside from Spencer's car. Let me know how things are. My P-Day is now on Monday, so I will always be here on Mondays to try to answer your questions.

Love you all. The Church is 100% true, represent it well.

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"

"Know that Jesus Christ...is the universal cure to all pains physical and spiritual."

Well, this has been a pretty good week. We had the confirmation of Lourdes on Sunday, which was a great moment. She felt the Gift enter her soul, and we all felt the spirit. We had a member of the bishopric do the confirmation so she will have a better connection with the permanent members of the ward. One of her daughters also came to church, and it looks like she also wants to get baptized.
We have a lot of investigators who should have gone to church on Sunday, but didn't.
One of the most awesome investigators we have is Washington. We started teaching him about a month ago and he has been super positive and interested since day one. We went and visited him on Friday, and he said "I wanted to tell you guys something about the plan (Plan of Salvation). Three weeks or a month ago I was not even at all concerned about anything. I was just like 'ah lets go eat pizza, lets have a barbecue, those were my concerns. But since I found out about the plan I look at everything different. This is serious, this life we have. Now I am concerned about if I will make it to the sun or the moon or the star. And I am making changes."
He was moved by the spirit and definitely has started his conversion, but his daughter had to go to the hospital on Sunday morning and he was not able to make it to church. But this week we have more faith that it is gonna happen.
We also have this family, Aline and Michael (which is a male name here), who are married for real, and Lena, who is Michael's mom. They are really cool/interesting people.
Lena used to mess with Voodoo and black magic and devil worship and stuff, and says that she sees messengers from the other side all the time that bring her messages. So I dunno if we will have to do an exorcism or something like that, that would be pretty interesting. Anyway, the family is not religious, and basically Aline and Michael have always disliked religious people like us.
But when we go to their house, they tell us about how much they feel the spirit and how much we have changed the atmosphere of their home. Michael is a cool dude, he has some cool hair. I believe that they too will be baptized after going to church and overcoming beer and cigarettes.
I have been able to develop a lot of love for the people here, investigators AND members.
I continue praying for Barb, Tim, and the entire Burt family, which is passing through a very difficult time. Know that Jesus Christ understands the problems, passed through them himself, and is the universal cure to all pains physical and spiritual.
P-day will be on Monday from here on out, so I will be sending my next email in just five days. I don't know why it changed, but it did.
Thanks for all the help, may God bless you all.
Love
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"

"...Lourdes got baptized on Sunday!"

Well, General Conference was sensational. We got to watch as many sessions as we wanted this time, so we watched the Saturday morning and Sunday sessions. I really liked all of them, and yes, mom, President Uchtdorf's joke was hilarious. We American elders put a tv in a classroom and were able to watch in English, which is ten times better than in portuguese.
Well, the notice of the week would be that Lourdes got baptized on Sunday! It was a great moment. She swapped Coffee for Cevada and was baptized by Elder Barbosa. It was a nice little baptismal service, and she will be confirmed next week.
Basically I'm getting more and more frustrated with my companion. I have taught him to do things I never imagined I would have to teach to anyone, things that are completely self explanatory, like taking money out of an ATM, reading and sending emails, not using my razor and eating my food...stuff that has seemed obvious to me since I was born.
Especially with President Monson's talk, I gained a greater gratitude for all the things you, Mom and Dad, taught me that I never realized were so hard for some people. He shows little to no desire to learn, refuses to study, doesn't pay attention in our training meetings, refuses to get up at 6:30, and only walks at a decent pace when we are on the way home at the end of the day.
I would be surprised if he makes it through the two years, he does not want to be a missionary.
Aside from that, things have been really good. I have been learning a ton, and have stopped seeing the hard parts of missionary work (aside from having a companion lol).
Today, we are going to play soccer with a few elders from our zone, (SOCCER IS LIBERATED)
so I'm pretty dang excited for that.
Well, that is about all I have this week, I used most of my time writing a letter to the mission president. So yeah...until next week!
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 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