It Was Glorious

SELFIES!!!  Elder Rutledge, Elder Jung (my MTC companion), and I looking at our own respective cameras.

Hi mommy.

We had Zone Conference this week, which was pretty legit.  We had to catch a bus at about 6:00 am to get to Maceió before the meeting started at 9:00 am.  We ended up taking this van thing that they use to ship people from the interior to the capitol and it sure was different.  Once you get into the city people can flag down the van, pay two Reais, and I think they'll drop you off anywhere in the city you ask.  I don't know, it's kind of a confusing concept.  Anyways, once it gets into the city EVERYONE decides to use this van it was PACKED! It was more packed than any other bus I've ever taken down here and it sure drove a lot faster.  It was a miracle that the van did not tip over.  I don't know how it didn't, but it survived.  After flying down the streets of Maceió (that includes the unpaved dirt shoulder or the road and sidewalk, which the driver thought was a good idea) we arrived at the Farol Chapel.

Zone Conference was over all a great experience.  President and Sister Gonzaga emphasized the importance of working with members along with improving our baptismal services to make them more spiritual.  We also talked a lot about the Restoration along with the importance of maintaining our testimony.  A jolly ole time if I do say so myself.

Getting back from Zone Conference on the other hand was less jolly.  We had to catch a bus that left at 6:15 pm and we left the chapel at about 5:50 pm and we had to walk all the way to the bus station.  We also had all of our bags, new things for our house, and packages to carry back.  The bust station is a bit of a distance away too so we started walking fast and then we started to run.  Over the Grota we ran, we sprinted up the hill, and bought our tickets just in time to catch the bus.  When we got there we learned that it was delayed for about half an hour so our epic sprint was in vain.  Nevertheless, it was glorious!!!  We ran all the way there with each of us carrying about 20 pounds of assorted packages, copies of Book of Mormons, pots, pans, and little towels.  When we got there an out of breath missionary told me, "That was epic."

And epic it was...

Also this week we had the baptism of our good friend Maciel!!!  He's 15 years old and is a really cool guy.  Elder Arajuo baptized him and it was a really good meeting.  Maciel and his cousin were talking about serving missions the other day so that made me really happy.

The work is going really well down here in good ole Viçosa Alagoas and I'm loving every minute of it.  Hope all is well back home.  I'll be down here crying repentance and riding sketchy vans.

- Elder Johnson e Johnson
(My other nickname they like to call me down here.)