"We talked to him in a bar, and our first visit with him was excellent."

Me e Elder Lopes eating this weird fruit

Well transfers happened the other day, and luckily nothing changed here in my area, Elder Miranda and I will both stay here. VERY luckily, the other elders did change, Elder ____ will stay and train a new Brasilian, so that should be a lot less terrible.
This is the second time I will be in a district as the only American, but the first time was my first transfer and I didn't get a lot of jokes. But now I know (like how Bill Nye used to say "NOW YOU KNOW!!!" Bill Nye is the man...) I can now make jokes, which is nice.
Anyway, things have been going well here. We are planning a fireside on missionary work to try to get the members more involved in things so that this ward can prosper. Hopefully we can get President Tavares in on it, that way people will take it seriously.
Some of the members are good, and give out friendship cards (that can't possibly be the real name of them, but those cards that you give to non-members, they call a number, and missionaries deliver a DVD or something. what is the name in English?) and talk about the gospel with people.
One member brought his son and daughter-in-law to church on Sunday, and they really liked it. Hopefully we can get things crackin big time with them pretty soon.
We have had a lot of success with Getulio and Lurdes and their grandson Gabriel. They are really getting to know the members, and are liking the gospel. Hopefully that will give good fruits soon.
Something that is giving us a hard time is that most of our investigators are unfindable after the first visit! We teach a lot of good people and mark a lot of baptismal dates, but people have the tendency to get nervous with any sign of commitment.
But one of the coolest people we found lately is Donizetti. He is a Tae-Kwon-Do master and has this little gym that he manages. We talked to him in a bar, and our first visit with him was excellent. He has a couple of kids but no wife. Well, he has a wife, but she lives in Spain.
I finally received a Missionary Health Guide, and have started using the elastic band to exercise. Everyone that has served a mission since this manual was created will tell you that this band is incredibly dangerous because it has a tendency to snap while being used, and often times that means getting hit in the face with the giant rubber band.
The United States and Brasil faced off last night in New york I think, how did that go? It started here at about 9:15, so I was not able to hear updates from anyone. Brasil sent all of their younglings (Neymar, Ganso, André, Ramires), and it was the first game of their new coach. Also, is Bob Bradley still in charge? I hope so, or if not him, Jurgen Klinssman. Enough soccer talk. We are still not allowed to play under President Tavares :(
Well, everything is going very well, thank you for the emails, 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"

Exercise

AMERICAN MILK!!!! YESSS!!!