Monday, June 22, 2015

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

Monday, June 8, 2015

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