Elder Joey Burt: "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"