"Baptism is essential, but it really doesn't help if the person isn't going to even try to stay firm."

A frog

We ran into a ton of pretty funny people this week. We decided to work in a wealthy area that we had never worked in before.
So we were knocking doors (pushing intercom buttons actually) and we got a few good references. Then we got to this one house and this dude named Paulo came out and opened the gate for us without saying anything. So we went and sat down and started the message like normal.
He didn't say anything until we invited him to pray about Joseph Smith. Then he was like "What will I get for that?" So we re-explained what it means to have a living prophet. Then he went into this long explanation about how he doesn't go to any church because they all have men involved.
I was like "Well yeah, what do you expect, that God himself shows up personally to build a church and teach the people? He has always used men and always will." Then he told us that he had heard that we used the pretense of a message about Christ to get in and then talk about Joseph Smith. So I was like "Well yeah, that's basically how it works. They really go hand-in-hand"
Then he got all confused as to the word anti-Christ and said that Joseph Smith was an anti-Christ, so then I told him that in our message we explain what the Restoration is.
Then he was like "Oh I meant someone who comes before Christ, not someone against Christ" (the prefixes anti and ante sound basically the same in Portuguese, but one means against and the other means before.)
To close he was like "I hope you tell your superiors that I caught you in your trick and discovered your plan" (talking about the Restoration). It was a pretty funny lesson. But we found a bunch of good investigators in that area, so it was good in the end.
I did a baptismal interview on Saturday, but the dude failed miserably. It looked like the elders really hadn't taught him anything or asked him if he would be willing to keep commandments. Baptism is essential, but it really doesn't help if the person isn't going to even try to stay firm. It's like giving a pig a bath hoping that it wont roll in the mud, basically just a Hail Mary.
This zone is the zone that generally baptizes most, so there is a lot of pressure from the zone leaders. But I decided to seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, rather than damn myself and the people we teach just to please the zone leaders.
I am going to buy a cool leather scripture case for my quad, there is this person that does drawings in leather of scripture scenes and stuff, so I'm going to order that today. I remembered some things that would be helpful for my birthday. You sent me that CD "The Master's Touch" for Christmas, but the CD didn't work. Could you burn me another copy and send that? That would be really nice. Also some ranch dressing (Kraft, just normal ranch), and some vitamins. Vitamins are extremely expensive here, like 60 dollars for 100 vitamins. some more country gravy mix would also be beneficial.
Things are going very well, we are working a ton and until now the results haven't come, but hopefully soon it will work out. Laynefer will be baptized on Saturday.
Love,
Joey

The view from the bishop's apartment

A snake smoking a pipe
The symbol of the Brazilian operation in Italy in World War II (maybe?)

"One of them got out a revolver, and the man said, "Yes, this may scare people who believe in many gods and one world, because for them this would end everything. I am a person who believes in one god, but in many worlds. So you can't scare me with that."
-Matisyahu