It was so fantastic to Skype with you on Christmas. It was definitely the highlight of the week. The rest of that day was just like any other day.
One funny thing though--on the computer we were using, (the Bishop of the Libia Ward); there was a picture of 4 missionaries, one was probably a relative of the Bishop. I looked closer and saw Ian Forsythe (my cousin Dallin Seguine's friend from Philadelphia) was one of the missionaries. I believe he is serving in Brazil. What a small world!
We left the bishops house and taught a few lessons and did some spiritual thoughts with members. The craziest thing though were the Christmas fireworks. We had permission to stay up until 12:30 am to watch the fireworks. Our house has an access point to the roof, so we set up our chairs on the roof (it`s flat and cement, don't worry) and watched the fireworks. For as far as we could see there were fireworks going off.
People were in the street outside dancing to loud music, catching stuff on fire in the streets, setting off hundreds upon hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks. There are now laws here to limit the amount you can set off, so everyone goes crazy. When midnight hit, I couldn't hear someone screaming in my ear next to me! It was 10 straight min of absolute deafening, smoking Christmas Spirit! I have a few pictures, but the computers at this internet café don´t work, so I´ll try next week.
It has been getting hotter and hotter by the day. I wake up, dehydrated soaked with sweat, so now the cold showers aren´t so bad, haha. Ben was telling us on his Skype call that their bathroom in their house is pretty interesting. There is a small sink, toilet and bidet. The shower is in the middle of the bathroom, so everything gets wet. If they want hot water, they have to turn on the hot water heater. It sounds like it is not an easy process. Now it sounds like a cold shower can be a good way to cool off. Maybe when he gets home, he won't use all the hot water in the mornings :)
One of the members told us that the street temperature (asphalt, humidity, lack of wind) was at 43ºC, I'm not sure what that is in ºF, but I'm pretty sure that´s over 105º. We are going to have to send Ben a chart with conversion for temperatures. 43 Celsius is 109 Fahrenheit. That does not sound fun. One blessing of the heat is more people invite us in to have a Coke or something.
We are teaching one investigator who has been attending church for the past 10 months, has accepted all the teachings, lives all the commandments, etc.... He just expressed to us a doubt as to whether or not he would really fit in with the church, so he didn't feel ready to commit to baptism. He comes from a humble background and is worried that because he doesn't have a cookie cutter family, that he doesn't fit this mold that sometimes people think of when they think of Mormon. We shared with him the talk, "Come, Join With Us," a great talk by President Uchtdorf in this last general conference. He was very touched by Pres Uchtdorf´s words. We have a chat set up for this week, so we´ll see how the spirit has directed him since we last saw each other.
One funny thing though--on the computer we were using, (the Bishop of the Libia Ward); there was a picture of 4 missionaries, one was probably a relative of the Bishop. I looked closer and saw Ian Forsythe (my cousin Dallin Seguine's friend from Philadelphia) was one of the missionaries. I believe he is serving in Brazil. What a small world!
We left the bishops house and taught a few lessons and did some spiritual thoughts with members. The craziest thing though were the Christmas fireworks. We had permission to stay up until 12:30 am to watch the fireworks. Our house has an access point to the roof, so we set up our chairs on the roof (it`s flat and cement, don't worry) and watched the fireworks. For as far as we could see there were fireworks going off.
People were in the street outside dancing to loud music, catching stuff on fire in the streets, setting off hundreds upon hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks. There are now laws here to limit the amount you can set off, so everyone goes crazy. When midnight hit, I couldn't hear someone screaming in my ear next to me! It was 10 straight min of absolute deafening, smoking Christmas Spirit! I have a few pictures, but the computers at this internet café don´t work, so I´ll try next week.
It has been getting hotter and hotter by the day. I wake up, dehydrated soaked with sweat, so now the cold showers aren´t so bad, haha. Ben was telling us on his Skype call that their bathroom in their house is pretty interesting. There is a small sink, toilet and bidet. The shower is in the middle of the bathroom, so everything gets wet. If they want hot water, they have to turn on the hot water heater. It sounds like it is not an easy process. Now it sounds like a cold shower can be a good way to cool off. Maybe when he gets home, he won't use all the hot water in the mornings :)
One of the members told us that the street temperature (asphalt, humidity, lack of wind) was at 43ºC, I'm not sure what that is in ºF, but I'm pretty sure that´s over 105º. We are going to have to send Ben a chart with conversion for temperatures. 43 Celsius is 109 Fahrenheit. That does not sound fun. One blessing of the heat is more people invite us in to have a Coke or something.
We are teaching one investigator who has been attending church for the past 10 months, has accepted all the teachings, lives all the commandments, etc.... He just expressed to us a doubt as to whether or not he would really fit in with the church, so he didn't feel ready to commit to baptism. He comes from a humble background and is worried that because he doesn't have a cookie cutter family, that he doesn't fit this mold that sometimes people think of when they think of Mormon. We shared with him the talk, "Come, Join With Us," a great talk by President Uchtdorf in this last general conference. He was very touched by Pres Uchtdorf´s words. We have a chat set up for this week, so we´ll see how the spirit has directed him since we last saw each other.
Love you guy so much. Happy New Year!!!
¡Les Amo!
Élder Taylor
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