Re: world war 3: aracaju

Joseph!!

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On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 12:48 PM, Taylor Lynne Steele <taylor.steele@myldsmail.net> wrote:

I totally stole this title from my companion because I am unoriginal but OH MY GOODNESS SÃO JOÃO WHAT.

So when everyone told me about São João they were like "there's a ton of fireworks and bonfires and its cool" but I have since discovered that this does not mean "basically 4th of july but with more corn" it means BLAZING CAMPFIRES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET and BOMBS LIKE ACTUAL BOMBS. Well, tiny bombs. That don't damage cement. But like. Literal bombs. What.

For 2 days there was absolutely no way to get any sleep at night because every 2 seconds someone else let off a bomb which was incredibly loud and disruptive and a little annoying once it reached 4am, and these freaking bombs let off HUGE flashes of light so our house kept lighting up and I was like "hey ganuza are you asleep" and she was like "obviously not I now understand that story Uchtdorf told last conference about the bombs I am living this this is war" and I was like "chill." But basically. That was an interesting experience. And this week it'll all happen again because São Pedro (Peter). Apparently the best way to honor the apostles is by blowing things up.

Lucas told us that the fires and bombs are to "wake up João" (John) and all the corn is just because, well, there's so much corn. I dont really understand why we need to wake up the apostles. I feel like they deserve a rest.

BUT. Other than that. Well, we have 2 more sisters here in Santos Dumont. This area isnt even big enough for one group so two is interesting! Our area boundries are now 5min x 25 min walking distance. And I'm just like "wow. I have already worked on every single street. wow." not gonna lie. I'm a little burnt out of Santos Dumont. But I'm gonna keep working hard until transfers july 12th at which point I'm almost positive I'll leave since I have been here sINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. I know the streets better than the members. I no longer ask for help finding member's homes. They ask me. I'm not even kidding. I used to be so bad with directions but after 5.5 months here I am a pro.

AND JOSEPH. So. A few months back me and Sister Mazetto baptized Nycole, and about a month ago the seminary teacher was like "come talk to me RIGHT NOW" to me and Sister Ganuza, and we were a little confused until she just pointed at this kid and was like "baptize this boy right now" and we discovered that Nycole has a brother. I did not know that.

So Joseph was the perfect investigator. He started going to church with his sister because he'd been going to other churches looking for the right one and didnt feel right about any of them, so we were like "hey try this one, Joseph Smith was a thing, pray about it" and we gave him a book of mormon. This first day he was like "well, I dont like to read so I'm not making any promises. And your church wants all boys to serve a mission and I dont wanna do that so...." but when we came back 5 days later he was already in 2nd Nephi! He started reading a little every day first thing in the morning, because he prayed and said he got an answer so of course he was going to follow it!

And as we kept teaching him he just kept getting more perfect. Like. What 17 year old boy gets excited to keep the word of wisdom and the law of chastity? No one. Literally no one. But Joseph did. And he wanted to start paying tithing ASAP and we had to be like "calm down, not until after your baptism".

So Saturday was his baptism :) He had to be baptized 3 times which was hilarious because Wendell the poor kid that was baptizing him kept messing it up. so when he finally came out of the water he was just like "well I think I'm clean now!" And then he said "I got baptized! My next goal is to go on a mission." The kid changed his mind on that so quickly once he got his answer it was AMAZING.

BUT HIS INTERVIEW. Oh my gosh. So before the interview, we usually do a moch interview to go over the questions and make sure they're prepared. And one of the questions asks about serious crimes or sins-not that you cant get baptized if you've done bad stuff, just that someone else with more experience will help you fix what you did. And so we asked if he'd ever committed a serious crime and he just looks at us completely serious, like without blinking and says yes.

So we get really confused and a little scared but we hold our cool in case its real and we're just like "oh really?"

and then thank goodness his sister was there to help because she says "its not a serious crime like you call a serious crime..." and we're just like "so you mean it wasnt a crime" and she told us what it was and we were just like "child that was barely even a sin shhhhh you're good" and it all went well, but man for a second there I was really confused.

But yeah. That was my week!. 

ps. This week a competely normal news station informed Sister Ganuza and I that the US is really going down hill because Obama is interviewing UFO pilots and Hilary adopted a martian baby. Someone should really tell me whats going on in US politics because from the little information I'm hearing on the radio in taxis or from people in the ward, things are getting weirder than I thought.