Exciting Week!

 Sister Barbosa and I in our room with our Christmas lights.

Hello from Brasil!

It sure was an interesting week. We hardly worked in our area!

We had divisions this week with the other sisters here in Socorro. It was great to be with them!

We got to work in our area on Wednesday and we ran around trying to follow up with everyone. It was a bit hard because there were a lot of people to visit! We got ready to leave early the next morning to Maceio for our leadership meeting. Turns out that Presidente changed his mind last minute with transfers and decided to call 4 new STLs and open a new area for them because we had a lot of sisters on the mish. So it was a bit crazy. At the meeting we learned a lot about contacts and we have a new challenge to do 20 contacts every day.

I also heard about the transfers and I got transfered. I will go to Estancia and open a new area and train a new STL. I think this will be my last area! 

Our Christmas conference the next day was AMAZING. It was so much fun to see old companions, old districts and sing our mission hymn with the whole mission. Sister Barbosa and I were running around the whole day and we were pretty tired by the end. We helped a lot with the food and such...I felt like I was at work again! haha but it was really good to see my friends and old companions and say goodbye to everyone.

We got to work in our area again on Saturday and we spent the day running around trying to follow up with everyone again. We had only a bit of success because everyone is traveling for the holidays.

Sunday was crazy. I already knew I was leaving and when I told the members they almost had a revolt! This ward really is amazing and I will be sad to leave.

And here we are. I spent the morning packing and trying to organize my things. I have accumulated a lot of STUFF here on the mish. Also.....we don´t have water. YAY. So doing things like washing clothes and stuff won´t happen. 

Some funny moments this week:

1. We were eating lunch last Sunday with a member family and I taught them to make paper snowflakes! They got soooooo excited and thought it was the coolest thing ever. They were like `how did you learn to do this??!!` 

2. We were coming home late and we were trying to get home in time and so we started to run. So there we were...running like all heck had broken loose...and a member sees us. Now he says that we are the sisters that like to run. 

WELL that was my week. 

I love you all demais demais and I hope that you all read your scriptures every day this week.

wooo woo BRASIL

S. Helm

This Week

It sure was an interesting week. We hardly worked in our area!

We had divisions this week with the other sisters here in Socorro. It was great to be with them!

We got to work in our area on Wednesday and we ran around trying to follow up with everyone. It was a bit hard because there were a lot of people to visit! We got ready to leave early the next morning to Maceio for our leadership meeting. Turns out that Presidente changed his mind last minute with transfers and decided to call 4 new STLs and open a new area for them because we had a lot of sisters on the mish. So it was a bit crazy. At the meeting we learned a lot about contacts and we have a new challenge to do 20 contacts every day.

I also heard about the transfers and I got transfered. I will go to Estancia and open a new area and train a new STL. I think this will be my last area! 

Our Christmas conference the next day was AMAZING. It was so much fun to see old companions old districts and sing our mission hymn with the whole mission. Sister Barbosa and I were running around the whole day and we were pretty tired by the end. 

We got to work in our area again on Saturday and we spent the day running around trying to follow up with everyone again. We had only a bit of success because everyone is traveling for the holidays.

Sunday was crazy. I already knew I was leaving and when I told the members they almost had a revolt! This ward really is amazing and I will be sad to leave.

And here we are. I spent the morning packing and trying to organize my things. I have accumlated a lot of STUFF here on the mish. Also.....we don´t have water. YAY. So doing things like washing clothes and stuff won´t happen. 

Some funny moments this week:

1. We were eating lunch last Sunday with a member family and I taught them to make paper snowflakes! They got soooooo excited and thought it was the coolest thing ever. They were like `how did you learn to do this??!!` 

2. We were coming home late and we were trying to get home in time and so we started to run. So there we were...running like all heck had broken loose...and a member sees us. Now he says that we are the sisters that like to run. 

WELL that was my week. 

I love you all demais demais and I hope that you all read your scriptures every day this week.

wooo woo BRASIL

S. Helm

December 2015

I hope the Christmas festivities are in full swing....it´s a bit slow on my end.

We are doing our best singing Christmas songs and decorating our house! We have Christmas lights in our room so it´s pretty cool.

I would go for some snow right now.

I hope the ward party is awesome! We have Christmas conference with the whole mission that day and so I will be ´partying´ too! :) it should be pretty great and I am excited. 

 

Love 

S. Helm

Another CrAzY wEEK (yay thanksgiving and Estancia)

Well it´s another scorching hot day here in Our Lady of the Help, Sergipe.

We had a crazy week going to Estancia to do divisions and thanksgiving and
trying to actually teach people.

We left to Estancia Monday night. We were going along great, my companion
was sleeping, I was trying to sleep....and then I saw the church building
in Estancia zoom past me. I didn´t think much about it and I thought that
we would be arriving soon. But then 10 minutes passed and we still hadn´t
stopped. I woke up my companion and said....I think we passed Estancia! She
shot up and we talked with the conductor and he said that yes, we had
passed Estancia and we were now going to Umbauba and THEY COULDN´T TURN
BACK. WHAT. Then we started to freak out a bit thinking that Umbauba was in
Bahia and we were leaving the mission. The conductor said that we could get
a taxi back to Estancia but we DIDN´T HAVE ANY MONEY WITH US. So great. We
were praying and praying (remember that it´s like 10 pm). The sisters from
Estancia called us wanting to know where we were. Blessing of all blessings
there was another bus going from Salvador to Aracaju and so the nice
conductor stopped that bus and we got on and got to Estancia and it was
just too much excitement for one day.

The divisions were great! I went with Sister Ruiz from Dallas Texas and it
was great! She is super excited and ready to serve. I got to be with Sister
Saturnino again and it was all kinds of awesomeness.

We finally got back in Soccoro Thursday morning. (Thanksgiving!!!) We had
lunch with the amazing irma Alessandra and she made a thanksgiving feast.
She made green bean casserol and mashed potatoes and PUMPKIN PIE. It was
the best ever.


And so that was my week.

I loved being on the mish. I know that this church is true. I love you all!

Sister Helm

Update

So the new thing is that we only have 1 hour on the internet so this will be short.

We had a good week with a division and the primary program at church! It was a good turnout and the primary kids did a very good job. It was funny to see the parents crying and the kids so well behaved. Usually its the other way around! hahah :)

But we had another miracle with Josefa at church. We had invited a bunch of people to church because of the primary program but when we got there no one had come. But after the sacrament walks in Josefa! She loved the program and found a few of her friends that are members. We have been working for a while with her and she is super excited to follow Christ in everything she does.

We will go to Estancia this week and it will be a party! haha but it will be super fun to go to the beautiful city of Estancia and see Sister Saturnino and other great sisters!

The transfer is already ending and we are preparing ourselves for the leadership council and Christmas conference in the beginning of December! November is almost gone and it only started yesterday.

I love you all lots. Stay strong. Know that we are where we should be. 

Sister Helm

Well, the mission is flying by too fast. I am finally getting the hang of
things!

We had a great Saturday with Vitoria´s baptism! It was super spiritual and
I tried not to cry too much. It was so amazing to see the difference the
church has made in her life. Sister Lopez wasn´t there and it was a bit
sad. But the huge smile on Vitoria´s face was the best. I was talking with
her afterward and I told her that she inherited a huge family. The members
are loving her!

I am so grateful for the gospel. It sure is great to have the opportunity
to be like Christ in everything that we do. I am so grateful to represent
Him every day here in Brazil.

We have a ton of stuff to do. We are jumping right into it with a zone
conference tomorrow and a division the day after. It will be great!

Sister Barbosa and I have already gotten ready for Christmas! We decorated
the house and put up our paper tree that Aunt Wendy sent me last year
(thank you!) It has the house looking very festive.

Wooo for missions!

Sister Helm

Transfers and crazy stuff

Well, yet again I have to say goodbye to Sister Lopez. She was transfered!! :( She will go to Arapiraca and be a STL there. I am staying and I will get to help a sister learn how to be a STL. We had some good times here. 

We had a bit of a crazy week. Our p-day was changed to Tuesday because of a holiday and it messed up the whole week. Our pday was awesome! We went to the centro and had fun buying stuff and looking at the Christmas decorations in the stores and we bought amazing french fries to top it all off. 

We have been working with Vitoria for a while now. She was going to get baptized a month ago but her mom didn´t let her. This last week we went to talk with her and blessing of all blessings her mom was at home! Her mom works a lot and it is hard to find her at home. We talked with them for a bit (note: 2 hours) and her mom finally said that she could get baptized. We marked everything and it was all good until Friday when we went to visit Vitoria and turns out she went the hospital because she got super sick. It was a lot of running around and lots more craziness!

We had some great lessons with John and Rebeca this week. They are doing great and their new little baby girl is the cutest ever! We had a lesson with them and a member and we taught about ´The Family: A Proclamation to the World.` It was good and they are understanding more about the importance of the family. John is taking giant steps and is changing his life more and more everyday. What a blessing this family is.

We taught The Restoration a lot these past few weeks but this week we found some people that really, really understood the message and are willing to change. We had another Sunday miracle with one of our recent convert´s mother at church with us and she loved it!

Each transfer feels like another mission. It is interesting to see how different it was one year ago as we were getting ready to leave the MTC. Funny that here I am, saying goodbye to Sister Lopez as my companion exactly one year later. 

I love the truths that we have being members of the Lord´s church. We are a blessed people. 

I love you all! Have amazing weeks all of you!

Sister Helm

Halloween, brazilian style

Haha and so unfortunately Halloween doesn´t really exist here. Generally
the little kids have parties at school or something but that´s about it. I
spent the week answering questions about Halloween and how we celebrate it
and what we eat and why there are dress ups, and where it came from. Good
thing I had another americana with me!

Our week started out with a surprise zone meeting with Presidente. Sister
Lopez and I were supposed to get there early to have a meeting with Prez
before and so we left the house at 8am to get there at about 8:15am. But
the bus wasn´t having it. And so we waited and waited and waited for the
bus and got there just 3 minutes before 9am. So that was great. But the
meeting was great and we left all inspired and ready to work harder and be
better. The prez had everyone bear their testimony for 1 minute at the end
and the Spirit was super strong. The Presidente said that he is glad to see
our progress and used the example of me and the fact that I didn´t speak
anything when I got here and now I speak portuguese without an accent. It
was cool to see how much we have grown.

Speaking of progress, S. Lopez and I completed 13 months here on the mish.
Who would have thought I would ever get to this point?!

We had divisions in Estancia! They are in trio there and so I got to be
with both S. Saturnino and she is training S. Gonzalez. It was super fun to
be with them! S. Gonzalez is from Mexico and she is a hoot and you all know
that S. Saturnino is the best thing since sliced bread so it was a great
division! S. Lopez and I made french toast for the sisters and it was a hit!

Finally we arrived at Halloween. For the past few weeks we have been
working really hard with Lucas. He is a stellar young man and has a strong
testimony. He got baptized on Halloween! We made a cake for him and we
decorated it with spider rings that I got last Halloween in the MTC
(Shoutout to Aunt Emily and Aunt Melanie!) :)

Well it was a full week. We prayed to have an investigator in church
yesterday and out of the blue Vitoria was there. We are hoping she will get
baptized this Saturday! Prayers!

Love you all. The church is true. Read the scriptures. Pray lots.

S. Helm

week week week!

Well. We taught a lot of potential this week.

It was a good week but it didn´t end exactly how we had planned. We had a
fun time in the center of Aracaju last pday. We went looking for the post
office so I could send a letter to Wyatt (I almost sent the letter to South
Africa but that´s another story) and then we got almost too excited seeing
all the Christmas stuff in the stores and then we went to a place that is
chock full of touristy stuff.

We had an awesome lesson with John and his wife Rebeca. They are super
excited about the gospel and can´t wait to get sealed in the temple. John
has a ton of questions and it is great to see him learning.

We taught a lot of people the Restoration this week but they didn´t end up
progressing. It was pretty funny to see a few of them running into their
houses to hid when they saw us coming up the road. You´d never think they
could run so fast!

Last night we had a great FHE in a member´s house with some of our recent
converts and an investigator. It was super fun and everyone had a good
time. I learned to make acerola juice with milk and I made some today in
preparation for our lunch. (If you were wondering Sister Lopez and I we´re
going to make french toast) We also made plans to have a real Thanksgiving
Feast in this member´s house in November. And so Sister Lopez has to be my
comp for one more transfer (feel free to pray so that this happens)

Sunday mornings always have miracles. This week it was a Mayara that we
thought didn´t want to hear more about the gospel. When we walked in the
Sacrament Meeting she was there early and ready to learn more! It was
amazing.

This week we will go to Estancia again to do divisions with the sisters
there. SISTER SATURNINO is there and she is training and so I will get to
do division with them both! wooo we are a happy family!

I am doing super great here and I love this work. It is such a blessing to
get to walk around in the hot sun and talk to people about the love of the
Savior.

Love you all!
Sister Helm

My Week

It was an interesting week.

We entered in this week with a lot of hope. We had a bunch of cool people
to visit and lots more to find! But, it didn´t go exactly as we had
planned.

When we returned to teach Luiza she was totally closed off and wouldn´t
believe anything we taught. We taught about the BoM and she said she would
read and pray but that she knows that everything we need is in the Bible.
So that was sad.

But we set off looking for new people to teach and we found lots of great
ones. And then when we returned they too didn´t want anything more. So here
we are. Looking for new people to teach...again.

Yesterday we had some miracles. We had been working with a family for about
a month but they would never come to church. So we stopped teaching them
for a while. When we went there on Saturday we shared a little message with
them and invited them to go to church the next day. They said they would
and guess what....THEY ACTUALLY WENT. Wooooo!!! So that was great.

This week too one of our investigators came to church with his white shirt
and black pants and was looking spiffy! It was so great to see him
interacting with the bishop and the other men in the ward. We are super
excited to teach him tonight!

We saw some big rats and I killed a cockroach this morning. That´s about
all for the newsflash.

Boa semana a todos!
Sister Helm

Let´s talk about holidays in Brazil

Well, for one. Yes, it´s Tuesday and yet again I am using the internet
because yesterday was Children´s Day here in Brazil. And so as always with
holidays here it is the same thing......EVERYTHING CLOSES. It was a
blessing the the food store was open for a few hours and so we ran there to
buy food. Heads up because the 2nd of November is another holiday and it
will fall on a Monday and so yet again I probably won´t write.

But all´s good!

We had a crazy week last week with conferences and divisions and and our
baptism that didn´t happen. :( But I am still alive don´t worry! Yesterday
arrived and we were dead beat tired and our zone wanted to have an activity
and we ended up playing volleyball and football and so now we are even more
tired and sore to boot!

We found some pretty great people to teach in our area. We are taught a
daughter of a less active named Luiza and she is sooo awesome! We taught
her the Restoration and the Spirit was super strong and the prayer she said
at the end of the lesson was amazing. Later in the week she called us and
told us that she had talked with her pastor and she was sad and said she
wanted to talk with us personally. We will visit her today and I hope that
everything goes well.

Our baptism that fell was super sad. Vitoria is awesome. She has a super
strong testimony and really wants to get baptized. But her mom didn´t sign
the paper and it was really sad. We talked with her a bit and she is super
determined. She said she won´t give up and she will keep going to church
and everything. Her testimony is growing more each day as she reads the BoM.

Sister Lopez and I are doing well together. It´s so strange that we are
together literally 1 year after! How does this happen? But we are doing
great, learning to make brazilian food and laughing on the street and
making great contacts.

The line for this week as we do contacts has been, Wait this church has
members that are women? and we are like, yes....obviously....we are women.
hahahaah

Well I already have to go! I love you all lots and lots! Keep listening to
GC and ponderizing everything!

Beijos e cheiros
Sister Helm

what a week...and we´re going to have another one just like it!

Hello everyone!

I first want to tell everyone...I love you!

Well, I am sure everyone is feeling good after such a great conference
weekend. It sure was a great one.

I am super excited to read the ensign already. I took notes and everything
but nothing compared to the mountain of amazingness that we get the month
after GC. If you didn´t have the opportunity to watch it, make sure you
read it! We use the talks from GC in FHEs with our investigators and
members. Revelation continues!

We had Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Fernandes on Thursday. Funnily
enough, I completed one year on the mish this day too. It was a strange
feeling. It is even weirder that I am with Sister Lopez again, literally
one year back we were comps in the MTC! How different we are today than we
were one year ago. (Thank goodness right haha)

We had a miracle! yay for miracles! So we were trying to find the house of
one of our less actives. It was night and so it was a bit hard. Also all
the streets look the same. Anyways, Sister Lopez thought she had the right
house but I was looking at the address and I was like no, this isn´t it!
But, like all good missionaries do we just tried it anyway (if it isn´t the
person it just becomes a contact) When we knocked a man answered the door
and we asked if our less active was there. He said, who? she doesn´t live
here. But then he said that he knew someone who would like to meet us. He
invited us in and when we entered we saw an old woman that gave us a huge
smile and said SISTERS! HOW DID YOU KNOW I LIVED HERE?? Turns out she had
moved recently to the area and was praying to have the missionaries knock
on her door so that she could come back to church.

Let me tell you, miracles are real.

The Lord uses us to help others. We need to pay attention the the Spirit so
that he can guide us to these people.

Como Presidente Monson said yesterday, Be thou an example of the believers!

Have a great week gente!
Sister Helm

well well well

We had the most ordinary week ever here in Socorro 1A. 

I will try to think of interesting things to say to you all.....

It was Sister Lopez´s birthday! Yay! We sang parabéns to her about 6 million times and we celebrated for three days straight. And I have been singing Taylor Swift´s song,  22, to her wayyyy too much. But, one more time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER LOPEZ. We had a super fun day where we had cake after lunch, then went to another lesson and they gave us more cake and then a bit later we went to a FHE where we ate pizza and more cake and then we went to another lesson where we also ate food. We finished the day rolling home and with more cake in the fridge.

So the problem of an American comp is that we talk about food in the U.S. that they don´t have here and then we get all hungry and sad and then talk about how good it would be to have said food. 

We had an interesting experience last night. Sister Lopez and I got home before the other sisters and when we entered the house the lights weren´t working. I thought that maybe the other sisters were there hiding and waiting to scare us (they like to do that) so I started to search the house. It was super creepy and scary and it got worse when I walked to the back and saw that the back door was open. So then I got real freaked out because maybe there was some creep in our house or something and then the other sisters got home and we were all scared so we called our ZL and they came to our house with their bishop and they searched our house and fixed the lights and then all was good.

So maybe that was a story that wasn´t all that cool but I am good now. The sad thing was that we didn´t get to see the eclipse because we were all soo tired we went right to sleep and missed it. :(

Well that was my week. 

I hope you are all excited for General Conference! It will be awesome! Also we have mission tour on the first and it will be fun!

Love,

Sister Helm

Quick Week

So this week flew by! We had to go to Estancia to do divisions with the
sisters there and it was fun! I love to travel and see the other areas of
the mission. The people in Estancia are really cool. They talk a bit
differently and have a lot of slang that I have never heard. It was nice
because I slept really well because Estancia doesn´t have as many mosquitos
like Socorro has. What a blessing it was.

We had a great week with our lessons with members. Half of our lessons this
week were with members. We had a young woman that is preparing to serve a
mission next year that left with us and stayed with us the whole day! It
was a hard, long day and I think we wore her out.

As sister training leaders we get a lot of calls. from everyone. about
everything. you all know how much I love to talk on the phone so it´s been
fun...,...........yup.

People get really excited when I tell them that I hunt. They ask me what I
hunted and I try to explain because I don´t know all the names. It is
really funny! Guns are different here, only the police and the bad guys
have them. So when I tell them that we have a closet full of hunting stuff
they look at me like I am crazy. (generally people look at me like I am
crazy if you haven´t noticed)

I ate something weird!! Yay! and it was good! I ate dobradinha which is
tripe with beans and it´s really yummy. I have also discovered that liver
is tasty if done correctly. :) You all know I don´t like fish but it is a
delicacy here and so I ate fish last week. It was alright.....

Love you all soooo much!


Sister Helm

SORRY EVERYONE ABOUT LAST WEEK!

Really, I am sorry mesmo.

Well, another great here in the beautiful world of Nossa Senhora do Socorro. (If you were wondering this translates to Our Senhora of the Help.) If you couldn´t tell, this city has a lot of catholic influence. 

It was a hot week! It is officially spring here but I think that seasons don´t really exist. It´s just hot. The days of eternal sweat have returned. In Arapíraca I was far away from the coast and so it was cooler. Here I am a lot closer and the humidity is reallllly fun.

We marked a lot of baptisms this week but then Sunday came and people didn´t come to church.

But we had this couple come and they are really cool! They need to get married but they are already planning everything and they got excited when we told them they could do it in the stake center if they wanted.

So actually we don´t have a chapel here in Socorro. It is in reform and so we are meeting in a nearby school. It´s a bit weird to have church in a school and I think our investigators are thinking the same thing. woooooooooo

A funny thing is that people see that the church got demolished and people ask us if our church ´ended´ hahahaha it´s great to serve a mission.

So this ward I am in is the best. The members once in a while get sad because they haven´t given us a referral for 2 weeks or something and so they invite us over to eat dinner and then talk with us about how they can be better as member missionaries and they start to make goals and it´s just the coolest. The food is great too.

Speaking of food, this morning I made french toast. It was supposed to be something cool for the brazilians in our house but they kinda just looked at me like I was crazy when I put the bread in the stirred eggs and then I put this ´weird sugar thing´ on top (maple syrup). But on the other hand I never saw Sister Lopez soo happy! So the two americans ate all the french toast.

I love you all! Keep sharing the gospel with your friends and family. We all need the gospel.

Com amor,

Sister Helm

I am alright and alive I promise

Well it was a crazy week and I really don´t know how to explain it.

also this keyboard is all kinds of messed up and it takes an eternity to
write one sentence.

Yesterday was a holiday and so literally everything was closed.

we all dressed in the colors of Brasil.

I did divisions with Sister Caetano this last week and it was super fun

I am sorry but yes this is literally everything that I will write this week.

I love you all lots.

I promise that next week will be better.

sister Helm

What a week!

Well after everything that happened this week....I think I am still alive.

It was so surreal leaving my old area. I didn´t get to say goodbye to
hardly anyone but....

I am in a good area. It is completely flat and that is the biggest blessing
ever! Haha after almost 10 months of hills and valleys it is amazing. It is
an area really different from my other areas. But, the bishop is really
cool (he´s a cop!) and the members love the sisters and love to make food
for them. Soooooooo yup. The members give referrals almost everyday. It´s
really cool to see how much of a difference it is to have them!

I am loving being with Sister Lopez again. It has been almost a year since
we were in the MTC just chillin trying to learn how to be missionaries and
now we are here.

Also side note is that people think that I am from Brazil because they say
I talk like a Brazilian! haha

We spent the week running around trying to get everything in order and I
learned how to do divisão on the job this week! It was a blast and I am
excited to get to know the other sisters!!!

I love you all so much!

Stay strong. The Lord will help you with literally everything!

Sister Helm

....I don't have words....

Well. I really don´t have words for what happened this week and everything
that I am feeling right now. But, I know everyone will kill me if I don´t
write and so here I go....


It was an amazing week. For realz. We taught A LOT and we have some amazing
people that we are teaching. We had six people at church yesterday and some
baptisms marked for September. What a good week it was....

So imagine the shock I got when I the Presidente called me yesterday night.
Yup. Emergency transfer. I will be leaving my beautiful area and my dearest
companion. I will leave 2 hours from now. I am going to Sergipe and I will
be a Sister Training Leader there. My companion will be Sister Lopez (yup
the one from the MTC :))

I am a bit sad right now.

I know the Lord has a plan for everyone.

Sister Saturnino will stay in trio with the other sisters here. They
inherited a pretty big area and I hope that they can keep up with all the
investigators.

I love you all lots.

Have a good week.

Sister Helm

Baptisms, I almost got bitten by a dog, Ward Activity, TRANSFERS

Well. Miracle of all miracles Josefa got baptized. After a lot of time.....

We had a crazy week.

It started on Tuesday when we were running (again) to all of our lessons.
We had some pretty stellar lessons with some super cool people. We were
running back home at the end of the day when two dogs started to chase us
and barking and I maybe freaked out a little bit and I just stopped in the
middle of the road and I think we had angels watching over us because the
dogs just stopped two inches away from my calf, turned around and trotted
away.

So Josefa said she wanted to get baptized and then we had to run to get the
interview and tell the members and make cake. The enemy was working too and
put a lot of roadblocks up but Josefa is amazing and she stayed super
strong the whole week. Even though her family was saying horrible things
and trying to chase us away. It was a great experience. She was soooo
happy! Also Nenzinha´s sons got baptized and it was super cool. The boys
all want to serve missions now and so it was a great week! (crazy week)

I thought I´d just mention that Sister Saturnino and I made our famous
Maracujá cake with mousse on top and it was a hit. Josefo had asked for it
especially and I think she ate 4 pieces.

We had a ward activity and we were in charge (missionaries) and it was
good. It wasn´t the best because of some small problems with the games at
the end and who won what BUT we had a lot of members and investigators
there and our investigators made friends and we all ate food (that´s always
good right).

The week ended with the confirmations on Sunday. It was beautiful. I think
the ward had a mini shock.... 4 baptisms! Woo!

It was the last week of the transfer so I took millions of pictures with
everyone and it turns out that I am staying! Woo 6 more weeks! Also Sister
Saturnino is staying and we are super happy about everything.

It was a good week!

Shout out to Wyatt that will become part of this great work.Welcome to the
crazy life Wyatt!

Love you all tons and tons and tons,
Sister Helm

JOSEFA WENT TO CHURCH!

Yup. The most exciting thing that happened this week is that Josefa went to
church. Finally. Finally.

Really. It wasn´t a bummer of a week or anything just that nothing exciting
happened. Well, nothing that wasn´t completely abnormal.

A few things:

1) My companion is literally my best friend. How blessed I am to have a
companion that like Harry Potter, Star Wars, hamburgers, and chocolate and
is completely with me when we pass by a churros stand on the street and
then we look at each other and I say....we should totally do a contact with
that churros lady....and so we buy churros and invite her to go to church.

2) What do you do when its 8oclock at night and you walk in front of a
house with an incredibly old lady laying on the doorstep with the
grandaughter trying to wake her up? Yup, you help carry the drunk grandma
(that is super small) into the house and then do a contact.

3) What do you do when you accidentally make a contact with a man that
expulses devils and does spiritual interviews? run.

4) I don´t have anything else to say.

Oh! Yesterday we had the most delicious dessert of all time made of
pineapple and it was heavenly and I think we are going to make it today.

And sorry but I am short on time...yet again.

Shout out to my brother that will leave to Ghana, Africa next week! He is
going to totally rock it! Wooooooooo woooo missions are the best.

love you all!
Sister Helm

Woop Woop Missionary Work

What a week of running.

yup. More running everywhere trying to teach everyone this week.

We´ve been having a bit of trouble (a lot of trouble) trying to.get people
to come to church. It´s been really difficult. So this week we fasted and
prayed to have investigators in church. On Sunday morning we went around to
walk with our investigators to church and every single one had an excuse
about why they couldn´t go. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. So we went to church alone. We
walked in and talked with Tayna (who is perfect and literally amazing).
When we were there we saw two of our investigators that we had already
stopped teaching walk in and then later a member walked in and she had
brought her friend. So I can say that miracles are real.

Tayna did splits with us yesterday and it was sooooooo coool. She has been
baptized for 1 month now and yesterday she helped us teach the Plan of
Salvation! She taught about the three kingdoms perfectly and then bore her
testimony and Sister Saturnino and I were just there beaming like proud
moms and smiling from ear to ear.

We had an amazing experience with one of our investigators that we have
been teaching for a while. Actually she has been getting visisted by the
sisters for about 1 year and a half. And finally we marked her baptism.
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooo.

So the missionary work is going. We had a few FHEs marked this week with
families in the ward and its going to be great. Especially because FOOD.

Sister Saturnino and I cook a lot. Mostly cake. And other sweet brazilian
things that you guys don´t have. Don´t worry I am getting the recipes and I
will make them when I get home.

Nothing makes me feel like I am in Brasil more than when I am walking on
the street and there is a billion people and everyone is saying good
afternoon to each other and the smell of food in the air and brazilian
music playing and dogs everywhere and then we stop at a little store to buy
fresh fruit. Yup. This is the life.

I don´t know what I will do when I have to go home and I won´t have fresh
mango juice every morning with my brazilian coconut sweet bread that we buy
at the neighborhood bakery. (super good if you were wondering)

I love you all. Stay strong in the gospel.

Sister Helm

Opportunities

Something I have been trying to work on here on the mission is patience. It
is a Christ-like attribute and something that I think everyone needs.

So in light of all this I have been praying to be more patient. But
something I am constantly realizing is that Father doesn´t just rain down
patience on us. Instead He just gives us more opportunities to be patient.

I had a lot of these opportunities this week. (to say the least)

But really I don´t think I am patient yet.

With all that....

It was an interesting week. We did a lot of running around trying to teach
people and help with Hands that Help and help a family move to another
house and lots of other things.

We had a great service project that all of Brasil did on the 25th. It was
part of the Hands that Help project and so I got to don the cool yellow
shirt and help plant trees! I got my hands dirty and it was lots of fun.
(its super fun to plant trees in a skirt if you were wondering)

We also helped a less active family move. They told us that they were
moving some time back and we offered to help but they said that we didn´t
have to help (I think people don´t think sisters are strong enough to
help). But, we turned up to help anyway and turns out that no one else came
to help and so we literally moved everything with just 4 people and a
wheelbarrow. haha. (and yes this was in a skirt again) But I am super sore
right now but they were really happy we helped and we are hoping that they
will let us into their house to teach now. :) They also fed us after and as
Sister Saturnino says, the best way to pay a missionary is with food.

I am constantly in awe with the power of the Spirit. The power that we, as
missionaries, have because of him. We had an amazing lesson with Renato and
his family and it was so cool to tell the Joseph Smith story and feel like
I wasn´t saying anything. Just opening my mouth and the words came.

I love the mission soooooo much. I can hardly believe I will have 10 months
on Saturday. Time passes too fast.

Well. I love you all. Stay cool. I have to leave because we are going to
make hamburgers and play basketball with our district!

Sister Helm

Ola-July 20th

It was a good week. We had an amazing Zone Conference with all of the missionaries in the state of Alagoas and we learned a ton. The only sad thing is that Alagoas only has a few sisters. The rest are in Sergipe. :( 

We had a great start to the week with finding all of our investigators at home!!! Yay! Everyone remembered our appointments and it was amazing. 

We had to leave to Maceio on Wednesday night because the conference was going to be really early on Thursday. We were running around like crazies trying to teach as many people as possible before 6 oclock! We had a pet kitten for about 5 minutes that was following us around and we named her Kitty. Then we had to run to another appointment and then home to take a shower and pack to stay the night in Maceio and then we ran to the bus stop to buy our tickets and we hadn´t eaten anything and it was dark and we were in the centro and there were plenty of drunks and we bought truffles and bread on the side of the road. Then we got on the bus just in time and went to Maceio. It was fun until we got there and we had to walk the apartment in the dark and so we made the elders walk with us and it was like 10:30 pm and then luckily a member that was driving past saw us and stopped and took us to the apartment. And so that was my Wednesday.

The actual conference was stellar. Really. We learned so many things that we are applying with our investigators now! It was great to see some people I haven´t seen in a while. The best was that I saw Elder Zeron from my district in the MTC! We ate Subway and that topped everything. 

We had a good week with finding some great new people to teach and we ended this week spectacularly with another great lesson with Renato. He has soooo much potential. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he just kept saying, Yes, this is what I need in my life. And we were like, Yes, it is! 

This work is amazing. I love every minute I have here. 

I love you all. Thank you for everything!!!!!

Sister Helm

Whattt a week-July 13th

This week was interesting. To start off, I have a few stories.

One night we were walking to get ice cream (really fast I promise) and it
was raining and we saw what we though was a small snake on the ground. As
we approached it we saw that it was actually a MASSIVE WORM. It was the
grossest thing ever. Over a foot long!

One day we were walking to an appointment and we were passing in the front
of some houses and I looked on the ground (I really need to stop doing
this) and I saw a MASSIVE GRASSHOPPER. Literally the size of my hand. I am
not kidding. MY HAND PEOPLE. Needless to say I screamed and pointed and
then my companion saw and screamed and jumped and there was a woman in the
front of us and she saw us screaming and jumping and looked to see what it
was and then we casually did a contact with her and set up an appointment
to teach her and her family. So even the grasshoppers have meaning here on
the mission.

One more. One day I was walking and I tripped and almost biffed it hard in
the middle of the street but I got up really fast and my companion was
laughing and I said out loud at least no one saw that and then I heard from
behind me I SAW IT and so I turned around and said what is your name? Hi,
my name is Sister Helm and this is my companion and we are missionaries
from the church..... and successfully turned my embarassment into another
great contact.

So. Good week.

We had a bit of a sad week with our appointments. And no one wants to go to
church. JUST COME TO CHURCH! But the Lord answers prayers and helps us in
every situation.

We made hamburgers and watched a church movie one night this week when the
other sisters had to go to Maceio. It was super fun!!

We had a miracle this week. (we have lots but I´ll just talk about 1)

We have an investigator named Ligia. She is amazing and wants so bad to get
baptized. We´ve been working with her for a while now. 4 months or
something like that. The problem is that she needs to get married. He
doesn´t want anything to do with marriage. He was drinking A LOT. But, one
day, he just quit drinking. That was about 2 months ago. He hasn´t drunk
since. And about 3 weeks ago, when we went to teach Ligia, he didn´t leave
the house. He stayed and heard our lesson with her. After we asked if he
wanted to hear more. He accepted. He was going to church with Ligia just to
please her. But this week she was out of town and he went alone. We taught
the Restoration and he prayed about it and baptism. And when we went to
teach the Book of Mormon this week we told us he knows it is the right
path, he wants to get baptized, and he wants to be with Ligia for forever.
I was holding back tears. Then we taught the BoM and gave him one at the
end and he said it was the best present he could ever get (strangely enough
it was his birthday that day). So miracles are real.

I know the church is true. Prayer can unlock doors we never thought of
entering.

The power of the Savior´s Atonement is real.

Love you alllll!!

Sister Helm

Another Week-July 6th

Woooooo 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!

My companion and the other sisters in our house didn´t really understand my
excitement about the 4th of July this Saturday. More or less I just sang
the national anthem all day (along with other independence like songs) and
wore red, white, and blue and that was about it.

But. Don´t worry. Today we are going to eat hamburgers in the Centro to
celebrate.

Our week started out splendidly with an old woman that can talk the hair
off a horse. She talked and talked and talked and talked and literally
nothing made sense. More or less she told us about how she was raised in
the jungle like a wild animal until a hunter found her and that´s why she
doesn´t know how to read and then she told us about a dream she had about
being dropped in the River Jordan and so she considers herself baptized
because of this. We tried to cut in but it was almost impossible. When we
were about to leave she started in with a vision she had....she said `there
were 5 doors of silver...´ and I pulled my companion out the door before
the old woman could say more. Yup.

I finished 9 months this week! The other sisters and my companion almost
gave me a heart attack with jumping out at me and all with a cake and
singing loudly in portuguese but I liked it. We ate a lot of cake this
week. A LOT. And we are going to make another tonight for a FHE.

It rained SO MUCH. A few days this week all our appointments fell and we
were left to just knocking doors. In the rain. So like no one wanted to
answer the door. One good thing was that we found a less active and his
family. Only he is a member and so we are going to teach the whole family
now!!! wooooooooo knocking on doors actually works sometimes

So that was my week.

We have transfers tomorrow. Sister Guedes was transfered. Again. And she
will open a new area. Again. But this time she will train! Yay! I will have
a grandaughter... :) haha And they will still be in our district so that´s
nice. We still don´t know who is coming here to be the companion of Sister
Aguirre.

Also with this transfer all of the areas of sisters in Maceio were closed.
So there are only elders

:( Good thing I served in Maceio for one day!

Love you alll sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo muchy

Sister Helm

Week of Work-June 29th

Well it was a good week of work this week.

Our new recent convert Tayna is literally the coolest ever. She is a great
missionary and we are now teaching her sisters and she is excited to share
the gospel with her friends!

So this past week we made some goals. High ones. And we decided we were
going to attain them. And so we went to work. We have a big area and so we
were running in between appointments. Literally running. With skirt and bag
and mud and rain and sun and everything. It was fun.

We also knocked on a lot of doors. There is a part of our area that is just
house house house house house one after the other. The people stay inside
and so what did we do? Well, we need to find new people to teach and so we
went door to door to door to door for about 4 hours. I have to say I really
liked the experience and after the 30th house or so it almost became a
game. What kind of person will answer the door? It was great!

The weather is staying cool. A bit too cool for me. 23 degrees celsius and
I am freezing! What is this?????

But, the work is going.

We talked with a drunk guy this week and invited him to church and
yesterday he actually came to church! I didn´t even recognize him and turns
out he´s been a member for 13 years and now he´s returning! Miracles are
real.

I love the mission. I know the church is true. I have seen how the gospel
can change lives. I have literally seen it change these people. Every day I
am more and more thankful for this opportunity I have.


Stay cool fam bam! Happy 4th of July on Saturday and happy 9 months to me
on Wednesday!!!

Sister Helm

Week of Craziness!!

Well. It was a crazy week. We ran around so much I think I lost my legs way
back on Thursday or something like that.

It started out with splits with the Sister Training Leaders on Tuesday. It
was really great but I missed my daughter a lot. The good thing was that we
got two days in one in our area and I learned a ton!

We had a two parties this week too. During June there is a holiday here
called Sao Joao and it's more or less like a harvest sort of thing. I put
up some videos of the dances that the primary did but I don't know if they
loaded. The food is incredible and I loved the music and dancing! We got
invited to another party that a school here put on. (A member works there)
and we went and just did a million contacts! It was way fun and cool to do
contacts in a different way.

We had Stake Conference too! One Saturday we took Tayna to the session at
night and then Sunday morning and then on Sunday afternoon

SHE GOT BAPTIZED!

Yup! It was a great baptism and she was so happy and couldn't stop smiling
and I love her soooooooo much!

So it was a crazy week. But worth it in the end.

I love you all!!

Sister Helm

Week What?

It was a good week. We did a lot of contacts and talked with sooooooooo
many people that were incredibly awesome and also a few that were not.....

We had some absolutely amazing lessons this week. One was with Renato. He
is a young father and is incredible. He feels the Spirit really easily. We
taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was so cool to see the lights come
on in his eyes. He is very dedicated to his family and was worried about
how he can get the Celestial Kingdom with everyone he loves. Luckily we
have the answers! The Spirit was super strong and he almost cried and he´s
this super buff guy with piercings and stuff and so it was cool.

The best lessons are always those with the Spirit. He guides our words and
helps our investigators understand the concepts.

The people that respond to our messages are always those that don´t look
like `members´ but after time it is amazing to see them change.

Something really weird was that we taught a young man that reminds me a lot
of Nalbert from Eduardo Gomes. Also strange was that we found another
Jessica that is reallllyyyy similar to the Jessica in E.G.  Speaking of
her, she is doing well and had her baptism marked for last week.

We have water again. It likes to leave suddenly and then appear a week
later.

This last week was the first of three weeks of fireworks and firecrackers
and literally every kind of food you can think of that´s made of corn. We
had the super fun surprise of fireworks outside our apartment every day
this week at 6:00 am. We live right next to a massive store of just
fireworks, fireworks, and more fireworks. The firecrackers are a blessing
because all the little boys like to see us jump so they throw them right in
front of us or right behind us and then laugh when we get scared. Then on
Friday night everyone in the city built a massive fire in the front of
their houses and the smoke was horrible. All of this is some Catholic
holiday/tradition and it doesn´t really make sense to me but I love the
food!!

Well that was my week.

Love you all!

Sister Helm

What a Normal Week!

So, as the title of this emails says....it was a normal week. Normal as
Brasil gets (especially the northeast).

We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting yesterday. Our amazing
investigator, Ligia, bore her testimony yesterday and it was beautiful. She
is very timid and so it was a giant step forward. The members were crying
and maybe I was too. She has a very strong testimony.

We have water again! After a week without water and taking showers with
buckets it was a blessing to take a real shower this morning and wash my
hand in the sink. I was missing water so much this week I volunteered
myself to wash the dishes after our lunches with the members.... :)

My daughter is still amazing. It is amazing to see the love she has for
these people and the love she has for the work! Also she has a super cool
accent so that´s awesome. Also about a billion people asked if we were
related this week which totally doesn´t make sense.

We had three FHEs this week! The members are starting to help us more and
it really makes the work sooooo better. Investigators love activities and
stuff like that because they want to get to know the members better.

I love you all and sorry this is short.

keep being awesome!!

Sister Helm

8 months

The mission is flying. Really fast.

This week I went to Maceió to get Sister Saturnino. She´s an amazingly
awesome daughter of God from São Paulo. She is 19 and totally rad.

We had a great time trying to get back to Arapiraca. We missed the bus (it
wasn´t our fault) and so I was runnning around dragging Sister Saturnino
with me trying to talk people. Luckily there was another bus leaving only
30 minutes after the other so we got on that bus. Blessing of all
blessings.
We finally got home and then had to leave again to buy food and unpack and
visit a family before 9 oclock.

Since only I know this area and the members and everything I spent one full
day showing the other companionship around their area and showing where
people lived and walking wayyy toooo much. I was really happy the next day
to just stay in our area with only my companion.

The other sisters here are Sister Aguirre from Peru and also my other
daughter Sister Guedes! It´s great with all of us and I am loving it!

The fun thing about today was that we don´t have water!! Woo. So it´s going
to be a fun few weeks. The blessings of this
area......................................................................

One of our less actives brought a friend to church yesterday and she is
super cool! We taught her last night and the Spirit was so strong and she
was almost crying. We marked her baptism and everything and we are super
excited for her.

Ligia and Nenzinha are still awesome. Nenzinha bore her testimony yesterday
about the church and how Sister Silva, Pereira, and I were like angels sent
to her. It was pretty cool and I only cried a little bit... They just need
to get married and unfortunately their husbands don´t want to. They are
progressing really fast though! We gave Nenzinha´s sons Books of Mormon and
they were so happy and carry them around everywhere! The oldest has 11
years and is already in chapter 17 of 1 Nephi!

Love you all tons!

Sister Helm

Woooop

Sorry a bit short on time this week. Lots of things happened because we had
transfers again!

So I will stay here in Arapiraca and I will train again. My beloved
companions are both leaving... :( But all´s good in the end. I will let you
know how my daughter is next week.

This week was good. We had two families at church yesterday! It was a
blessing and also a first on the mission. The only bad thing is that
everyone here has to get married and that is always great. Not. For one, it
takes FOREVER to get married here and also the other is that usually the
people don´t want to get married in the first place. BUT.  We are working
with them!

It was fun to have splits with the Sister Training Leaders this week. It is
always fun to see how they work and learn A LOT from them.

We had a good, solid 3 days of rain. I still haven´t decided if I like the
rain or not. I like it because its sooo hot every day and it´s nice to have
a change but also its horrible because we have to walk all day and just be
soaked to the bones.

We had the added blessing of no electricity because of the rain. I think a
person doesn´t know real fear until they have to walk through unlit streets
in the dark with rain and know that there is tons of robbers everywhere.
But, I believe in the power of prayer so I was just prayin as we walked and
finally we got to our apartment that miracle of miracles had electricity.

So that was our week.

I love you all.

I love this work.

Sister Helm

So, after hearing about the craziness of my family´s week....my week was pretty boring.

Something exciting! I got DENGUE! haha not really but this week I got really really sick and I was covered in red spots and so we all thought it was dengue but it was just another sickness that has the same symptoms. So that was fun. 

We are teaching the most elect investigator of all time. She is literally the coolest person ever. She is progressing sooooo fast. We plan lessons and then we get to her house and she already read something or watched something and then just pretty much teaches us our lesson that we planned! She is incredibly smart and wants to get baptized so bad. The only problem? She has to get married because she lives with her boyfriend and he doesn´t want anything with marriage. She wants to move out but has no money or friends or family to help her. Prayers for Ligia! She is probably the most amazing person I have met on the mission so far.

I ate SUBWAY this week. Our lunch fell so we decided to eat out and it was the best thing ever after weeks and months of rice and beans. (have fun with that, Wyatt!)

I had my interview with the Presidente of our mission,....That was fun. It was good to talk with him and think about everything that I have learned on the mission so far and how far I have come in the language. My first interview I just nodded my head as he spoke and understood nothing. Haha!

We made the best chocolate cake this week. I have a cook as one of my companions and I am a good eater so we make a good team. :) Love the mission!!!!

I am trying to think of something exciting that happened....we saw a dead cow.....I successfully avoided the chicken foot in the stew we had this week with an investigator.....it rained today....I got cold on saturday and it was the weirdest thing ever.....I saw a drunk teaching a bunch of boys how to march and it was hilarious....we are trying to find an investigator here that doesn´t have to get married....it´s hard.....

So that was my week. It was a good one.

I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity. I love the mission so much and I love the gospel and my Savior even more. I am so glad that each day I can get up and share this joy with the people around me.

I love you all sooooooo much!!! Stay cool fam!

Sister Helm

A Full Week

Well it was a good week. We worked a lot and less people were running from
us so that was a blessing. I also had the amazing opportunity to talk with
my family on Sunday! It was the best birthday present ever!  It was great to
talk with you all. It was hard to say goodbye especially when I remembered that was the last time I will see Wyatt until next mothers day.....when I am home and he is on a mission.

I tried to tell a few stories yesterday that didn´t work because of my
terrible english.

One was that we had a miracle in our Zone Meeting. Our ZLs gave everyone a
challenge. Ours was that we had 30 minutes to find a family and mark a time
to teach them. WHATT? LIKE, NOW?  Yup. So we left the building and prayed
to find a family that was waiting for us in that very moment. We turned the
corner and I had the impression we needed to talk with some youth sitting
in front of  a house. We talked with them and then finally found the mother
and talked to her and she was so excited to see us and said she always
wanted to go to our church and that her son was baptized but wasn´t going
anymore. She said she never went when he was going because she didn´t feel
comfortable with the elders. WOO WE FOUND SOMEONE WAITING FOR US!! It was a
blessing/miracle and she went to church yesterday and loved it and also all
the members love her and her family. So that´s my miracle.

Also I got word from my daughter yesterday (I trained her so she´s my
daughter on the mission) that back in my old area our investigator got
baptized. He was confirmed at STAKE CONFERENCE. Ahhh I was sooooo happy and
I am so happy for him! Yay for Nalbert!

I tried to tell a funny story yesterday but that didn´t work either. I was
trying to say that one time we were teaching an old lady and she all of a
sudden decided she didn´t want to get baptized anymore because people are
always leaving the church. We tried to explain to her the importance of the
church and the restored gospel but she was firm in her decision. She said
again ``no I won´t get baptized in this church because people leave the
church`` I was a bit fed up with this so I just said ``Yes, everyone leaves
the church....at 12:30`` (That´s the time church ends here on sunday) I
think you had to be there but my companions were laughing so hard we could
hardly finish the lesson. If you are wondering...she never got the joke.

So that was a fun experience.


I miss the temple. I feel a bit strange knowing that we have a temple so
close. The people here love the temple but can only visit once or twice a
year because it´s so long and no one has cars and they can only go when
there is a bus that the stake rents. Then they have to travel for 5-9 hours
to actually get there! We sometimes take the blessings of the temple for
granted. I wish that the people that have temple so close would remember
that sometimes.

I was glad I didn´t experience the real brazilian birthday tradition of
eggs smashed on your head with a bit of flour on top. My companions were
planning I think but I cooked all the eggs and it was Sunday so they
couldn´t buy more! Yay for my smartness!

Not much more happened this week. I just want to remind everyone about the
importance of missionary work and the happiness of the gospel.

I love you all sooo much! Have a great week!

Sister Helm

What a week!

Well it certainly wasn´t the best week of my mission. Luckily with great
companions and a few miracles it gets better.

It started that we found some great people to teach. But when we returned
to teach more they hid from us in their houses. And not just one person or
one family. Everyone. People on the street that don´t know us too. The best
was when we saw the lady sitting out front and then she saw us and then ran
into the house and shut the door. When we got to the door we knocked and no
one answered. The neighbor was there and she said `oh she´s in there!` and
then opened the door as if to enter but it was a bit difficult because the
lady inside was holding the door so no one could go in. So that was fun.

The good part is that we had people in church that said they wouldn´t come
and we were going to drop them but yesterday when we walked in they were
there! They sure had a change of heart that is a blessing and a miracle! We
are working with some great people and I am praying and hoping they will
accept what we are teaching. One lady has already had dreams with Joseph
Smith and The Book of Mormon and lots of other things. So when I say it
wasn´t the best week....it really was an alright week.

I was thinking today about missions and how awesome they are. Something
that I remembered that the president of the MTC said when we were leaving:
You aren´t going to serve missions, you are becoming missionaries.

May we all apply that in our live today.

Shout out to Wyatt that will get his call sooooon! So excited!

Love you all to Brazil and back,

Sister Valente

Mission Life

Well the transfer went well. I am in Arapiraca safe in sound with my two
companions! Yup TRIO. So that´s great. I am loving my companions soooo
much. They love to laugh and work and eat. So we are all the same. Yay! It
was a bit strange to teach in the beginning but its all good now.

My new area is very different. Luckily we have water and we have huge jugs
filled with water just in case. The area is close to the center of the city
so it is less rural than my other area. Its also a lot smaller. Woo. Also
it doesn´t have hills and valleys. yay again!

The people are great. We are teaching an amazing lady named Adriana. She
WANTS to be baptized and we are working with her because she has a bit of
trouble with the commandments. But she came to church yesterday and also
last week and so she might be baptized this saturday! Prayers! I am loving
our investigators and the youth here are literally the best.

So that´s my area. Not much happened this week except that no one calls me
by my real name. Sister Helm is just too hard for them. So they say Sister
Maionese (mayonese), Sister Valente (valente means brave from the movie) or
Sister Leme (leme is helm in portugues) or just Sister Ruiva (ruiva is
redhead) I  have gotten all these names in the space of almost a week.
Haha.

I will complete 7 months this week! Yay! Haha the time is flying by and its
scaring me a bit. Also exciting is that my birthday and also mothers day is
the same day so I will get the best birthday present ever! Talk to my
family!

The only sad thing is that I have no idea what is happening with
Jessica......More prayers for her!

Love you all!

Sister Helm

Transfers!!!!

Well I was transfered. Tomorrow I will go to my new area (Arapiraca). Sorry
you have to wait a week to hear how it is. The two things my area is know
for is great members and no water. So we´ll see how this goes! :)

Jessica had her baby and she is the cutest thing ever!!! Her name is Carla
Lauane de Oliveira. It is so sad that today I will have to say goodbye to
Jessica and her cute little family. She had a C-section so it will be a
while before she can get baptized. The only problem is that my companion
got transfered too and I think they will close my area. So I am hoping all
goes well with her and the other people we have been teaching.

We found and taught a young man named Nalbert. He is such a cool kid! He
went to church yesterday and made a lot of friends and has a baptism marked
for the 2nd of May! He is great and I hope that he continues like this.

It was sad to say goodbye to the members and my investigators here in
Eduardo Gomes. I loved them all soooooo much and it was such a blessing to
help the work here. I am excited for my next area but not all the packing
and stuff I have to do today.

This week was great. I had a great last week in Eduardo Gomes and I got
burned by the sun and soaked in the rain in the same day so that was fun. I
love you all and I will let you know how my next area/companion is next
week!

Love,
Sister Helm

BABY BABY BABY

Well I was going to write that Jessica still hasn´t had her baby but we
just got a call that SHE IS GOING TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW AND WILL HAVE
THE BABY TODAY! AHHHHHHHHHH

So that´s great. I will probably be going to visit her today and I will let
you know next week how it went. Sorry you all have to wait.....

So this week was good. The weather has been great. Not.

The first part of the week it was SO HOT. I know that I said it was hot
before but it really was the worst heat I have ever experienced. Hell-fire
times two. It was weird because the air was really heavy like it was going
to rain but it never did. Until Saturday. And then the heavens broke loose
and everything came falling down. Cats dogs cows rats cockroaches.
Everything. We had some lessons in part of our area that is really low next
to the river and it was just a lake. Yay for being wet and shoes that still
haven´t dried out because it´s still raining. Right now. As I write.

Also. More fun things.....when it was terribly hot we had the blessing of
NO WATER. Luckily we have a faucet outside that is water from the reserve
and so we have been showering with buckets. fun fun fun! We have to fill
the buckets and carry them to the bathroom....4 girls....3 buckets....1
bathroom....1 faucet. yay.

But. We had an amazing lesson with Jessica this week. We taught the 3rd
lesson again and Jessica bore her testimony on how she knows this church is
true. She told us how she knows the Book of Mormon is true and the good
feelings she has when she reads it. It was amazing. Her house is completely
different now. The Spirit is there. What a miracle. The only sad thing is
that transfers are next week and I will probably be leaving. So I won´t get
to see her baptism. I am just glad I got to see the conversion.

Tomorrow we have Zone Conference for all of Sergipe so that should be
great. I will get to see Sister Lopez from the MTC!!! Yay!

We had a cool experience. We had a training from our ZL where they had the
person pray before the invitation to be baptized. We tried it this week and
marked two baptisms like pie. It was amazing!

I love you all and I love this church.

Keep being awesome!!

Sister Helm

6 Months

Yup. I hit the 6 month mark this week. It was a bit strange to think but
fun because we celebrated with pizza and soda.

This week was good. It felt short because of the two days of Conference and
we put on a ward easter party on Friday so the actual walking in the sun
and all that normal work was only three days. But. We got a lot of stuff
done. My companion and I with a woman in the ward helped prepare Jessica´s
house for the baby. Speaking of the baby. SHE STILL HASN´T COME. Jessica is
past 9 months with this baby and so we are all praying it comes soon. We
are reading the Book of Mormon with her and she is doing well.

We ran around a lot trying to find people at home. It went alright. Haha
sometimes I think the people are at home they are just hiding inside
because they don´t want to talk to us.....certainly is a possibility. To
me, a mission is a time when you talk to A LOT of people that don´t want to
talk to you.

I loved every part of General Conference. Especially the air conditioning
they have in the stake building. I was cold during conference and I loved
it! Haha but really conference was great and I learned a lot and the Spirit
was so strong. On Sunday Jessica came and watched with us and she liked it!
During the last session she started feeling some pain and I was kinda
freakin out because I didn´t know what to do. Anyways COME BABY COME
hopefully it will be today or tomorrow.

Well that was my week. It was good. I love the mission. I know this church
is true. I know Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God on the earth today.

I love you all!
Sister Helm