Wednesday, October 14, 2015

FW: week 2

Forwarded from my Sis Tayo. Hopefully, she gets this to work soon; although, I very happily do any errands she asks of me.   I can't lie. She made me cry. But this time it wasn't because I miss her to pieces but because I am so proud of her. She's is trying so hard.  I still do miss her to pieces. So many times I catch myself wanting to text her about something really  funny that *no one* would understand like she would. Or vent about something because we are two peas in a pod and feel the same way about most topics. Then I quickly realize that she's not at the end of a phone or holed up in our basement.  She's doing something far greater and our vents and laughs will have to wait for another day.  Love that girl of mine.
 
> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:48:53 -0300
> Subject: week 2
> From: taylor.steele@myldsmail.net
> To: steeleml@hotmail.com; jer_steele@hotmail.com
>
> So I talk A LOT in person so I wrote this all out beforehand so I
> wouldn't run out of time like last week but WOW I TALK A LOT. I just
> want to tell you all everything!!! I can't believe I've only been here
> 2 weeks and yet similtaniously I can't believe its already been 2
> weeks. The 1st week felt like a month oh goodness. This week the days
> were long but the week was short.
>
> SLANG IS SO HARD TO GIVE UP BY THE WAY
>
> I was in such a rush last week the email
> made no sense! If I didn't make it clear, "Yago" was our investigator
> played by our someone who would later be our teacher.
>
> So on Wednesday we taught "Yago" for the
> last time. We went in with no script, just tried to answer his
> questions about heaven and living with families forever and all that.
> It went super super well. Even Yago could tell we were in better moods
> than usual. But then he told us he'd see us the next day and we were
> like????? "Não?? We'll see Irmão Tavares tomorrow not Yago?" and he
> pretended not to understand. Classic Yago.
>
> Thursday we had to go to the police station for
> the Brazillian government to let us stay here, so we missed out on our
> personal scripture study in the morning which was SUCH A BUMMER. I
> sooooo need that time in English in the mornings, nothing goes well if
> I skip it. And surprise nothing went well and I couldnt understand
> anything and poor Irmão Oliveira had to talk to me in english because
> I was literally crying (I promised I'd be honest in these emails,
> right??) but its ok it had just been a long day.
>
> Last week from 18:00-21:00 we were
> usually taking turns teaching Yago and failing to focus because we're
> too tired at that point, but this time right at 18:00 we get a knock
> on the door and I opened it and SURPRISE (no one was surprised) it was
> Yago! Oh how the tables have turned, Yago. Now we're the ones inviting
> *you* in so you can share a message while *we* fall asleep halfway
> through! No, but it was fun. He told us how happy he is to finally get
> to know us as Irmão Tavares rather than an actor and told us "Yago"
> was someone he taught on his mission (like last year or something,
> he's practically our age). We kept trying to answer his questions in
> English and he was like eu não fallo ingles and we're all like serio??
> Yago falle ingles. he said "yago" spoke some ingles but he doesn't and
> we were all just like Irmão stop lying but he wouldn't so whatever. I
> mean, so he actually doesn't know very much english we now know but
> after Irmão Oliveria saying he knows nothing and then actually being
> COMPLETELY FLUENT in english we just dont trust anyone.
>
> The last hour thank goodness he didnt do
> more grammar, I would have died. Instead he made us all read the
> portugues book of mormon out loud, which was terrifying actually, but
> then he went inhto testimony mode saying he loves us already and is so
> excited to be able to help us and he knows we can do it and "O Senhor
> confia em você!" (the Lord trusts you) which was cute. He talked a lot
> about how much God loves us and believes in us because he wouldnt have
> sent us here if we couldnt learn portuguese and it was really really
> nice. And even with the major language barrier, he's hilarious which I
> need to keep me awake after 12 hours in that same classroom. And he
> thinks I'm hilarious because I am.
>
> On friday I maaaaaaaaaaaaaay have burst into tears
> because Irmão Tavares asked me to teach him about faith and I didn't
> know any words. Ok so yeah I did. He tried to speak some English but
> really doesn't know a lot but it was fine (dont cry! if you cry ill
> cry!) and told me to say a prayer with him in english so it would
> actually be a sincere prayer instead of memorized and then walked me
> through the words while I calmed down. It was a long week, ok?
> Portuguese is hard and my companion is literally Hermione Granger in
> portuguese while I'm Neville Longbottom. But thats ok because that
> means by the end I'll "Neville Longbottom" and become super smart and
> strong and awesome (and attractive), right?
>
> Saturday we got two new investigators, Valmir
> (Irmão Oliveira) and Rosmir (Irmão Tavares). Valmir's lesson was
> frustrating because he asked a question and my companion said we'd
> answer it later and I was like "no no! We'll answer it now!" but I
> didnt have the words to answer it so i couldnt so we left it
> unanswered which is never good! Rosmir's lesson went better because we
> learned our lesson and answered his questions immediately. Also we
> bullied Irmão Tavares into saying a prayer for us in english since he
> always makes us pray in portuguese. It was weirdly reassuring because
> even though it was half in portuguese half in english and everything
> was conjugated wrong, we knew exactly what he was saying. So people
> will understand me when I conjugate literally everything wrong. Also
> he kept apologizing for his english and we all told him stop
> apologizing that was 900000x better than our portuguese.
>
> Sunday we had a devotional about how God
> always works throught he weak and simple and thats sooooo true. Moses
> was slow of speech. Joseph of Egypt saved egypt by being a slave. Most
> of the 12 apostles were just fisherman, and many of them were probably
> quite young. Alma and the sons of Mosiah were a bunch of loser trouble
> makers and they became the greatest missionaries ever. The strippling
> warriors were 13! Joseph Smith was 14 and practically illiterate. God
> calling me to Brazil and making me speak Portuguese is hardly the
> craziest thing he's ever done
>
> Monday we had THREE lessons but one was a member so it was
> easier. We taught on the enabling power of the atonement. I used a
> favorite scripture of mine- Alma 26:12 "as to my strength I am weak
> therefore I will not boast of my self but i will boast of my God for
> in his strength I can do all things" and bore testimony that thats
> true and I know it is because I am an american living in Brazil
> learning portuguese. missions are hard. Portuguese is hard. I cannot
> do that on my own. I say I know no portuguese but I know way more than
> I could have on my own, because God is on my side.
>
> So we have that prepared and we get
> there and our member is literally Irmão Tavares again (we cant escape
> him) and I couldn't help but laugh given what our lesson was when 2
> days ago he was trying to say all of that to me. But it was easy. He
> made it easy by talking to us a lot about our interests and such
> before hand (tried to say I look like I would be a justin beiber fan
> thanks a lot). But our other lessons that day, both investigators
> threw us a curve ball question so we had to scrap the entire lesson
> and just answer their questions-something i cannot do- so I said
> literally nothing the whole time. Rough.
>
> Tuesday ONLY ONE LESSON which went reasonably ok
> because I know how to teach the plan of salvation fairly well without
> a script but its so frustrating because I cant explain it well at ALL
> and thats my favorite thing about the gospel! But its ok. The gospel
> is beautiful in English. It is also beautiful in Portuguese. Just not
> in *my* portuguese.
> LOVE YOU
> ALL. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR EMAILS. I READ THEM ALL EVEN IF I DONT HAVE
> TIME TO RESPOND!!!
> -the mtc
> makes it hard to sent to groups but after this I'll send it out
> myself! Mom, please send this to everyone (and the blog email) like
> last time :) :)

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