The Greatest Transfer In The World

Elder Rutledge & me

Another transfer has come and gone.  I have now killed three companions and I'm on to my fifth area, which is back in Maceió.  I'm currently serving in a ward called Tabuleiro and it's pretty cool up here.  We're whitewashing into the area, which is no real surprise to me because I've whitewashed into every area that I've gone into.  It is currently only my companion and I in the ward.  They usually have two companionships in this ward, but it's just us for now.  That does make it kind of difficult to open though because it's like working in two areas at the same time.  The house we live in is very interesting though.  It's actually four houses built right next to each other that the mission has rented and all are used for the missionaries.  This means that basically, in what would be considered one house, there can be up to eight missionaries living there.  As of right now it's just four missionaries in the house, us and the missionaries in another ward.  The ward is really cool though, the members are pretty chill and they want the ward to grow.  People here are really excited, like really excited.  Here's an example.  So yesterday at church we were at Gospel Principles class and one of our investigators didn't show up.  The class went into a panic and everyone said they'd come after church to visit our investigator with us.  So after church we walked with a band of about 8 members, who were making contacts for us on the road, and we had a member present the lesson with about 8 members and 1 investigator.  It was absolutely nuts! But I loved it though.

Tabuleiro Maceió Alagoas Brazil

We have officially got a new mission presidency, Presidente and Sister Gomes.  We called Sister Gomes last night to welcome them to the mission, but other than that we haven't really met them yet.  We'll be having a meeting this next week where we'll be meeting them.  Judging off of our phone call, they seem pretty cool.

So there's this guy our ward called Joel.  He's a member and yet not at the same time, if that makes any sense.  He's been going to church for about 7 months now, gives a ton of referrals, goes to every activity, is known by all the members, calls himself a voluntary missionary, but until now hasn't had the desire to be baptized.  He tried explaining to us the reasons this last week, but it didn't make any sense.  We still love him and teach him though.  The guy has a ton of referrals and he likes taking us to go teach people.  He looks a lot like Grandpa Johnson.  The guy says some pretty interesting things though, so I think I'll start a segment in my emails called "Things Joel said this week."

Things Joel Said This Week:

1.  This church here is really tasty.

2.  I like this church, here you can speak your mind and people will let you.  In other churches, when I try to speak my mind, they try to chop my head off.

At least we're a very accepting church.

This week also marked the end of Festas Juninas.  It ended with the last saint dedicated holiday, São Pedro, and it was filled with a lot of random street fires and fireworks.

This week was also the Brazil vs. Chile World Cup game and man people got really into it.  It's a rule here that we can't leave the house during the game because it would be way too dangerous for us to go outside.  So we sat inside and waited out the game.

Making pizza during the Brazil World Cup game.

We definitely knew when Brazil scored a goal though.  The world would fall into absolute chaos and start throwing fireworks and screaming.  The game went into over time and everyone just got super tense, but when Brazil won... wow....  I didn't know humanity was capable of such a party.  Everyone went nuts! Absolutely bonkers.  I took a video of the party they were having in the road afterwards and all you can hear is explosions and sirens.  People started dancing in the streets with music and a load of alcohol soon followed behind.  People saw us up on our balcony and beckoned for us to come down and party with them.  It was a tempting offer, but I don't think a Brazilian after party would have been the best environment to teach the gospel.  The celebration continued through out the whole day, so nevertheless, nothing really got done because of it.

The view outside our house.

A rua durante Copa do Mundo.  (The street during the World Cup.)

 

This week I will have my sister missionary day, that's the day my mission would've ended if I was a sister.

Anyways, that's about it for now.  We've got some big plans this week and things should be interesting.  Oh and my new companion.  Let's just say he's my favorite companion until now, I'll send a picture.

-Élder Johnson

Riverton Boys together again in Brazil.

Look familiar?  At the MTC together 1/2/13.

My companion and I making German pancakes.