look who's writing this week

Ok. I guess I owe you all an explanation as to why I havent been writing...its because I had no idea what to write about since we weren't really teaching...

Here, when your companion is going home and you're their last companion, we say you're killing them. And wow killing people is hard. I don't like killing people.

We spent the last 3 weeks in going away parties, spending time with all the members because they were all so sad that Domingues was going home, trying to figure out how to get money from her mom since she lost her debit card, making all the plans in the world to get her to the airport, and then more going away parties, interviews with president, and then STILL saying goodbye to all the members. IM TIRED. Oh gosh when I go home I don't want any of that. Like, members, if you wanna say goodbye to me, show up at church my last sunday because I imagine my companion won't have the money to take a bus to every member's house. But I'm set to stay here another 6 weeks with Sister Brito-who literally just left São Miguel so thats weird that she's already coming back.

Anyway, this was a really fun transfer, but like, not that great for missionary work. I mean, we had 3 baptisms, but all 3 were eternal investigators, not people that we found ourselves. So. Its time to get to work.

yeah so basically i have nothing else to say...I took some AWESOME pictures but it was on someone else's camera so who knows when ill be able to send them home haha

im sorry i ran out of time again i was printing photos and forgot. i am not very good at sending emails. next week i promise ill tell you all everything.

the birthday continues

the awesome thing about how horrible the mail system is here is that im getting birthday wishes for 3 weeks now, and I have no doubt that I will yet recieve more.

THANK YOU EVERYONNNEEE. I looooved all my cards. Especially the ctr5 class, I think that was the CUTEST thing ive ever seen in my whole life.

I'm sorry I keep doing this but this internet place is about to close so this week I'm basically just sending out an email to let you guys know I'm not dead (moroni 9:1)

and thats it 

i am sorry for the lack of information here

i promise. ill be better next week.

10 months, 20 years, and 3 cakes.

ok. this place is not letting me send pictures. BUT. at some point. you will recieve pictures.

 IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY also my mission aniversay (10 months down!) but IT WAS MY BIRHTDAY

and my lovely companion and roomates made me a cake THREE TIMES. I was not expecting that.

So they all woke up early and I somehow did not wake up even with all the noice they were making, and they put pillows under the blankets so it looked like they were still there, and when i woke up and opened the door and there they were with pancakes with sparkler candles and cameras and i was very much not pretty so thank you for the warning girls.

then we went about our day normally and there was going to be a broadcast at the church, cool, so like, I showed up at the church and lo and behold another cake (it was delicious.)

and then at the end of the day I came home and took a shower and as I was leaving the shower they showed up with yet another cake.

I am getting fat here in Sao Miguel.

but yeah. it was a good time. my birthday was also a BAPTISM DAY. Itamy is a recently-returned-member's husband and it was super cool to see how much he changed because when I got here, Angela talked about having an eternal family one day and he just made fun of her and was like "forevers a long time why do you want that" but now he's all about that temple sealing. He was super excited to be baptized and that his whole family can go to the temple next year and it was awesome, and Angela was sooooo happy. <3

Re: world war 3: aracaju

Joseph!!

Livre de vírus. www.avast.com.

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.

world war 3: aracaju

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.

Festa Junina!!

This week's highlight is definitely the brazillian equivalent of the harvest festival. or like, midsummer festival? wait but its winter here...i dont know. Festa Junina! 

Literaly EVERYTHING was made of corn. EVERYTHING. I sent my mother photos of things but now I cant find them on this computer...so maybe she'll post something who knows.

But yeah it was fun! There was lots of square dancing and corn so me, the midwestern child that I am, felt right at home. I didnt realize how like, corny, the midwest is until my companion was just like "this is weird, at home I never ate corn ever it doesnt exist in California" and I was just like !!!!! "but corn bread. and corn on the cob." I asked her what veggies her school lunch always included and she was like "carrots" and I got so confused. all through elementry school it was literally always corn!

But also. Sweet corn. like i mean desserts made out of corn. corn and coconut and cinnamon. That doesnt sound like it should exist.

basically thats been my week

I thought fireworks were something like, fundamentally american cuz boy do we like explosives. and then i came here. wow. EVERYONE HAS FIREWORKS ALL THE TIME. But president said it might be a little less soon because they got stricter on the rules. from now on no one under the age of 5 can buy explosives. HA. There are some parts that we're avoiding a little these days because there are random fires in the middle of the street...strange.

Basically. thats brazil right now.

Next week I'll tell you about Joseph! He's getting baptised (probably) this saturday!!