August 10, 2010 One More Week!

Hey everyone out there in "we support Elder T" world! / After this week I have one more week in the CTM! How amazing is that? I'm so excited! / This week was pretty normal, such is life in the CTM. But I guess there are some cool things of note. We got a flood of Americans this week because the Church pulled some strings with the Brasilian Govt to get hundred plus missionaries stuck in the states because of Visas down here. The place is a lot more crowded now. It's weird to have so many new kids cause I feel so much older than all of them! / Friday we went PROSELYTING! This time we went to the middle of downtown São Paulo. It was amazing! São Paulo is so interesting because it has those classic early 1900s buildings and ugly 70s buildings and amazing new buildings. It's like a time warp! But anyway we had an amazing experience. Some cool experience to tell you: one time we were talking to this girl and she was not interested, but in the middle of our conversation another woman came up and was really excited to see us and when we shook her hand she kissed ours! She handed me a tie and told me it was a present for me so I handed her a Book of Mormon and told her it was a present for her. We got her address and everything and then she got out some coconut oil or something and started messaging our hands! It was so weird! Another experience: after we had given out all of our books we were walking around and we stopped at a street vender and one of the girls working there told us one of her family members was just baptized. We asked her if she was a member and she got all timid and bashful. We left and later we got an extra book. I remembered the girl and we ran back to the street she was on and luckily she was still there so we gave it to her. She was so interested and I really think she is going to investigate more. When we were really done we went into an old Catholic Church to look around and it was pretty. I love old cathedrals! Outside the church was more interesting though cause one: there was a high dude that the cops were trying to help stand up and he couldn't, two: a naked homeless man yelling at all the people walking by, and three: a man performing voodoo. Haha! Gotta love big cities! / On Tuesday I directed the MTC choir and it went so well! I did 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' and it sounded beautiful. The woman in charge of all the music here told me she thought I was 'marvelous' and all the Brasilieros were complimenting me, I liked it. Another music event, there is a brand new Chapel in Casa Verde and the CTM is in charge of all the music. They asked me to conduct my song again for the open house. I'm also singing in a quartet for the open house. It's nice to be busy this last week because it's making the time go by quickly. / Today was our last P-day in the CTM. We went to the temple and Pres. Arnsten (our branch president) took pictures of all of us and he is going to be sending via email this week so you can all see the temple. It is an amazing temple, the inside is all solid mahogany and gold leaf and the baptismal font is covered in glass mosaic. We also went to a Rodizio for lunch with Irma Gaspar and I forgot about my diet for two hours. It was so delicious! So much meat! Oh and I ate a chicken heart, not too bad. As it is my last week y'all should start sending stuff to the mission home so I will be able to get it. The next time you hear from me I will be in the field and as green as and unripened tomato. / Thanks for all the love and support, I can truly feel it! I love you all and hope to keep hearing from you! / Yours truly, Elder MacLane W Taggart