March 7...The End...of the Beginning!

Well. I have arrived at this day. What a weird mixture of feelings. I certainly didn´t think it would come so fast. 

Yesterday as I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting I remembered the first time I bore my testimony in portuguese, when I had 5 days in Brazil, and I had the opportunity to look back and see how far I have come.

I don´t know how to tell you all this but.....I am not the same person that I was. hahahaha At least I speak portuguese now! But really, I have changed a lot. It will be good to catch up with all of you.

We had a pretty amazing week. Claudemir got baptized! We have been working with him for a while and it was really a miracle that he got baptized. He lives really far away and we were calling him the whole week trying to help him with doubts and questions but tudo bem it all went good. WOOOOO! 

Also, we had another proud mom moment seeing Aloisio pass the sacrament this week! minha nossa he´s come soooo far! Marcos bore his testimony for the first time yesterday and he was shaking soo much! But really I don´t even think I can explain to you the amount of growth I have seen here in Sao Miguel.

The miracles just came flooding in when we saw a family we have been teaching for a loooonngg time that finally came to church! And also when one of our less active´s husband that said he didn´t want anything with the church walked into sacrament meeting! 

And we can´t forget the amazing and beautiful wonderful incredible Amanda. What an elect! She is seriously SUPER prepared to get baptized on Saturday. She got her answer about baptism from the Book of Mormon! 

And so. It hasn´t stopped yet. To top it all off, the ward is throwing a party for me on Friday

! I really am blessed to be in such a great area. Everyone wants to have FHE with us this week and everyone is volunteering themselves to do visits! haha it will be a super crazy last week! 

So many things to tell you all but.....it can wait. I hope you all have been practicing your portuguese! 

I can say without a shadow of doubt that this church is true. I KNOW this. I have learned for myself. My mission was the best. The best mesmo. I know that I needed to be here in northeast Brazil. I am so grateful for this opportunity. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He loves me, and you, and everyone else. I know that if we do the things he taught we will live with Him and Heavenly Father again.

I love you all so much.

Sister Helm

February 29...Woohoo!

It´s really coming to a close. We had a super awesome time running around doing missionary stuff and all that. 

We went to Coruripe! Ahhh literally the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my whole life. Save up your money because I am definitely going back there and I want to take you all with me!

Since it is far away we stayed in the Bishop´s house. His house is super cool and like 100 feet from the beach. temptation! But we went to see the beach and it was sooo beautiful. We also ate mango and homemade ice cream and I ATE FISH AND I LIKED IT. i know, super weird. 

We had a FHE there at night and we had a super cool lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we found new people to teach. It was great!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. 

We had a super spiritual experience teaching Aloisio about the priesthood and then we were there when he got it. What a good feeling! 

We are teaching Amanda, she is a young woman super excited about the church. She loves the BoM and I had the cool opportunity to give her my hardback BoM that i brought with me. I had been saving it all this time to give to someone special. 

I love you all so much!

Sister Helm

February 22...Crazy Week

It certainly was a crazy week. We ran around teaching everyone that we could!

We had Mission Tour on Friday. It was good but the room was super cold. hahaha We learned a lot of things to get put in practice and I will be working hard so that my mish finishes well.

Aloisio´s baptism was great! His parents were there and everyone was happy, especially Aloisio! The next day he was there in a white shirt and tie to get confirmed and he went to do visits with us after lunch! He even helped us teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so blessed to be here. Every day I have this feeling that I really needed to be here in Sao Miguel. I know that God is guiding our paths. I love to help people get to know their Savior better.

I love you all! Loves and kisses from Brazil!

Sister Helm

February 15...WooWoo

So the weeks are flying. The days are full of hundreds of things to do and the time is running out!

We had a great week. I had a hard time when I got transferred on my last transfer but I really felt this week, with certainty, that I need to be here right now, in this moment. I am so blessed to be here!

We are teaching some pretty awesome people here. One of our investigators got baptized on Saturday, Liliane. She just had this huge smile on her face the whole night. Another on of our investigators, Aloisio, was at the baptism and his baptism is this Saturday!

We had a bit of a hard time Tuesday and Wednesday because Carnaval was still going. We had to dodge the blocos and men dressed like women to get to our appointments. Luckily we are all here in one piece.

Yesterday was AWESOME. Usually Sundays are a bit hard because everyone is traveling or drinking but yesterday was great because we went to visit our investigators with Marcos, Antonio, and Aloisio. Marcos is a recent convert, Antonio is a less active that is coming back, and Aloisio is....our investigator. I had never seen anything like I saw yesterday, but all of us just felt like proud moms as our ´´Elders´´ (as they call themselves) were doing contacts and teaching with us. They have made soooo much progress!

Well. That´s about it. We have about 3.2 billion things to do, Mission Tour, and not to mention Aloisio´s baptism!

Have a week that is not as stressful as mine will be!

Sister Helm