Well, I spent an evening uploading about 8 video clips. It takes FOREVER to do that. But, when I "posted" them, something happened and I lost all of them. SO BUMMED!!!!! What a waste of alot of time. The website apologized, though - thanks!! So, I gave up for a short time. I'll get back to posting video clips soon. But, for now, I wanted to share our church experience of this past week.
Church was fairly uneventful... until Sacrament meeting.
Julio got up to lead the opening song. He and his family haven't come to church for a little while. They've been "offended" and such (very typical). But, Sunday he came and was willing to lead the music for sacrament. Well, Kaylie was playing the piano and he started leading/singing. But, there were a few people who were ahead by about 1/2 a sentence. People in this branch don't really know how to sing, and they definitely don't know how to read music. So, when there was a note that was supposed to be held, they would just keep going with the next word. I started singing a little louder in hopes that people would get back on track, Rick was laughing, Kaylie was trying to figure out what to do. Then, all of a sudden, Julio just stops and turns to our branch President and goes off. He puts down his hymnbook, and storms back to his seat. OH MY GOSH - DRAMA!!!! Kaylie's just sitting at the piano, looking at me, wondering what she should do. Rick says I should go lead, but no way - you should hear me pronounce some of the words. And to make the Portuguese translation fit the music, they sometimes squish words together, which confuses me even more. Finally I say to Kaylie to play a little louder and I'll sing a little louder from my chair, and we'll improvise. Well, our 2nd counselor jumps up and leads the rest of the song - but he doesn't know how to sing or lead either. It was hilarious. For the next 2 songs we just sang with no music leader, then for the closing song, the YW Counselor jumps up and fills in - but she doesn't know how to lead either. So funny!!
Then, Julia (the old lady who causes a lot of problems in the branch) is giving one of the sacrament talks. Our branch President had to tap her several times to tell her to end her talk because she went over time by about 15 minutes. But, she wouldn't until she'd given her whole talk. She spent so much time trying to find scriptures that she'd put in her talk, that we'd all just be waiting and waiting and waiting. Our branch Pres. was pretty ticked off. The other missionary, Elder Tavares, had the closing talk - but it was only about 5 minutes long because of Julia. After Julia ended her talk, she went back to her seat (in the congregation) and kept saying "o desculpe, Elder" - which means "sorry, Elder" during the Elder's talk.
Lastly, the missionaries had 2 investigators at church. One is a girl named Joanna (she's 20), and her stepsister Tatiana (who's a teenager). Great day to have investigators. Well, Tatiana left about 1/2 way through sacrament, then Joanna left during Elder Tavares' talk. I didn't know why until later. Turns out that one of the ladies in the branch "chastised" them and told them to be more reverent. Are you kidding me? The 2 girls were sitting with me and I never heard a peep out of them. And to tell an investigator to be reverent? Really? Wow. Hopefully the Spirit overpowers insanity, otherwise we will probably never see these girls at church again.
Well, after church ended Rick told me what Julio had said to our branch President in the middle of sacrament. It went something like this, "I cannot lead the music with people singing 2 different things" blah blah blah. Then, after church, he told the branch President that he cannot lead the music since it's not professional.
I'm very sad to be going home to my Mapleton 1st Ward. It's gonna be so boring.... hahahahahahaha
