Day 329
Transfer instructions arrived Saturday. I'll be staying here in T. Neves for at least one more month and a half, and getting a new companion tomorrow. I heard that the Elder who'll be my companion already stayed in this area for a while and he's close to finishing his mission.
This January's my 11th month on the mission, in retrospect, it's all gone by quickly.
One more baptism and confirmation this week, Samira da Silva (another one of Paula's daughters). We taught at a member's house, we weren't able to get a ride with a member to T. Neves from the tribe so we paid a taxi instead. The taxi driver is also a member from another ward, which helps, because most taxi drivers aren't willing to take such a detour (or charge much higher).
I've noticed that the names that Paula and her family (and the Brasilian Indians in general) use aren't strictly birth names, it's more for government documents, and for people who aren't accustomed to hearing native names. Paula said that the cacique goes by "Jonathan" which I can guarantee isn't the name originally given by his parents.
About the cacique's complaint, when I said "foreign missionaries" I meant any non-indians. President Louza wants to bring a few indian missionaries (one from the Amazons here in Brasil, Elder Rossy and the other from Arizona, Elder Ranger) whenever we're able to get a meeting with Jonathan. Seems like a good idea to me, because tribal leadership seems to view suspsciously anything from outside the reserve limits.
The church is holding a youth conference in March, not sure if it's just the region or all of Brasil. It'll be happening exactly during Carneval, which isn't a coincidence; instead of being on the street, the youth will be at a church event!
This week, I found an old copy of the Liahona conference in 2009. There's a great talk by Tad R. Callister called "Joseph Smith-Prophet of the Restoration", I'm not sure if I'd ever read it before but yesterday afternoon it was like reading it the first time again (this time around in Portuguese).
It made me think of his newer talk about the Book of Mormon like a long-awaited sequel.
Two great defenses of foundational truths. After all, like James Talmage said in "Jesus the Christ", Jesus Christ was either the savior of the world or a complete madman. In the same way, Joseph Smith was either a prophet who saw God and Jesus Christ or was just another madman.
It's important to decide now, because there's no middle way. I'm happy to have decided with certainty that these things are true: Jesus Christ is the ordained saviour and Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration in our days.
Until next Monday,
Spencer
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