So this week. CARNAVAL

Making cookies with the cookie cutters and mix that Aunt Wendy and Grandma sent for Christmas

Yay for holidays when no one is at home. Soo sad. So this week we walked a
lot trying to find someone at home but it was still good. We were walking
yesterday among the drunks when I saw a woman walking and I just knew I
needed to talk with her. So we did and turns out she already received all
the discussions and was going to church for a long time but then she moved
and so that all stopped. It was good to find someone who wanted to talk to
us this week.

I was thinking of how to find the people here that are actually ready.
Sister Lopez is finishing the mission and she is ready and happy and
pleased with her work and I was thinking I want to finish like that. I
don´t want to look back and wish I had done more. But we teach sooo many
people that we just end up dropping the next week because they don´t want
to progress they just like our visits.

We have one investigator named Ana. She is probably about your age and has
one son (Felipe). He is 11. Her husband passed away last year. We met her
just clapping at doors trying to find people. She is sooooo awesome but
still hasnt come to church because of prior commitments. We talked a lot in
our last lesson about the church and she was impressed with how organized
our church is and I was like (in my head) yes of course its organized its
the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. She said she wants to know our church so thats
great!

I love the mish now that I can speak the language a bit better now. It is
better when you want to get to know someone and you can actually speak
their language (well for the most part I am still learning)

We went to the center of Aracaju today and it was so cool to see all the
cool stuff I want to bring home to you guys! If you want something let me
know! haha

So my comp says that she sends a hug, a kiss, and she will celebrate
Christmas with us in 2017 eating american food!! woohoo! (sending kisses is
normal here no one freak out kay?) :)

Well this week was hard. Carnaval really isn´t a good holiday for
missionary work....I am ready for it to be over already.  

 Love you all!

Woo por esta semana!

It was a hard week. We worked really hard and found some great people to

teach.

My companion is awesome.  Sister Guedes is her name. She´s the best. 

This week was hard but we are still going to work even harder to find

 people that will actually listen to us!! I don´t think i´ll ever get the hang

 of this training/mission thing but whats a little craziness to 

make life exciting?! We get along really well and she teaches like she 

has 1 year not 1 week. This is good because

my portuguese is still a bit stunted....GROW portuguese GROW. I love her

 sooo much and I am so thankful to have her for my trainee. Sometimes

 we argue about who was late/early. Let me explain. So I said that 

she was early and that is why I am training her instead of just normal 

companions and then she says I was late on the

mission and this is why I have to train right after being trained....I hope

its ok she´s coming home with me...haha

We are working really really really hard. We found people of gold. I hope

they stay shiny and ready to learn more about the gospel! Woo!

My testimony of this work and of Jesus Christ and of this gospel is growing

soo much every day. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be here.

I don´t have any exciting stories this week. Carnaval is approaching and so

there are police EVERYWHERE and we are super careful about walking in the

dark. We´ll see how it is when it actually gets here!!

I love Brazil and the mission soooo much! You are all the best!

Sister Helm

Love you all!

Once again I am short on time so this will be short too.

This week was a whirlwind. I said goodbye to my mom and hello to my
daughter. She is great and we are ready to do work! Woo!

It was sad to say goodbye to my mom but I am glad she taught me so much. I
went to Maceio this week. 5 hours away from my area more or less to get
her. We waited all day for them and while we waited another sister and I
made a contact with an awesome family so that was great. The presidente and
his wife also fed us well so that was of course AWESOME. The food here
really rocks. :)  Well, alls well now. I made it back home fine. Luckily its not that hard
and a member picked us up. I like my greenie she is from Rio de Janeiro and
is super cool and tiny. really skinny. so again I feel like a giant but oh
well. I love training but it is very hard. I wish my portuguese was better.
haha I will probably say this until the end of the mish. Its funny that
people in the ward ask her how long shes been on the mish and she says 2
weeks and they look at me like what you are training and Im just like
yes,,yes I am.

We spent the week walking A LOT looking for people. We contacted so many
people and clapped at a lot of houses and talked to a lot of catholics.
But, yesterday was awesome because we taught some of them about the
restoration. They are so awesome. I am excited to see where they will go.
This work is the best thing ever!!

I am so blessed to be here. What an opportunity I have. I am grateful I
have all of you behind me, supporting me. You are all the best.

We have interviews with the president this week and that´s pretty much all
the news Ive got. I love you all!!!

Sister Helm

Transfers!!!

 We are guessing, but we suppose this is her Christmas present from the Mission President and his wife.

We are guessing a  Zone Conference

The whole mission at Christmas time in Maceio

So. Transfers this week. Dun dun dun...

I will be staying in Eduardo Gomes! Yay! And I will be....TRAINING?!

Yup. So it´s going to be real fun to see how this all plays out. I am
excited for what´s ahead but I don´t really know how to get there. I will
go to Maceió tomorrow to pick up my greenie.

This week, other than that, was normal. Yesterday was sad as no one we
talked to could come to church. But, it was a awesome surprise when we were
sitting in the second hour class and an old investigator we had dropped
came in! Woo! It is good to see her desire to be better rekindling.

We taught a lot of lessons this week. We walked a lot. Both are good but
sometime the walking one gets pretty tiring. :) For some reason the people
we contact on the street are getting more hostile. They want only to bash
our religion into the ground. This is strange because generally people here
are welcome to any and all religion. We will keep working!

This week I felt especially dirty. We walked on a lot of back roads (dirt
roads) and the wind was terrible and people have been burning a lot so
there is smoke. When you are sweaty and its humid and then you have dirt
and smoke....we come home every night smelling and looking beautiful.
(sarcasm)

That was my week. Not much happened. It will be strange to have a new
companion. I am very blessed to be here. This opportunity is amazing. I
love this work and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you all for everything!

Com amor,
Sister Helm

Woop for Brasil

This week was great because we found more people to teach. The members here
are awesome and help us a lot with references and all that. 

We had zone conference and it was awesome to see my comp from the MTC
again. I am getting to know more people in my mission and that is great too!

So this week was awesome when we re-found a potential investigator. We
tried her house many times and then gave up because we couldn´t get a hold
of her. Later the other sisters in our house told us they had met someone
from our area that wanted to hear from us. Turns out it was her! She had
moved and so that´s why we couldn´t find her. Woo for miracles. She is
awesome. I really really love teaching her. Yesterday we went to her house
before church to see if she was coming. She opened the door and asked if
she could go to church with us. We were like....YES. Also when we were
teaching her the first time she said that we were an answer to her prayers.
I am so lucky to be a part of this work.

Also yesterday we ate a lunch that was absolutely huuugggee and sooooo good! 

I have been eating the most best food ever in my life. (that sentence
doesn´t make sense but oh well). Its true.

One of my favorite things to do is when our appointments fall through we go
contacting and talk to people of all kinds. I love everyone here. I have
heard some of the craziest stories and seen the craziest things but its all
good. This week was a bit hard because everyone we tried to contact didn´t
want to talk to us. Generally the people here love to talk about everyone
and everything especially religion so it was a bit strange.

We have transfers next week and I am really hoping I don´t get transfered
just yet. I feel I have a lot of work yet to do here in Eduardo Gomes B. :)

I love the mission! Woo for cockroaches! Yay for sun!

I am so blessed. Thank you everyone for your prayers and love. I can feel
them all they way down here in Brasil.


Com amor,
Sister Helm

Ahhhh

So Im on the slowest computer of all time and I only have a few minutes
sorry! This week was good and really hard at the same time. We had to drop
a lot of investigators because they didn´t want to talk with us anymore.
There are few things that are sadder than that but we have hope. We found a
really really awesome man named Carlos. He is actually a reference from the
Elders in our district. He came to church yesterday and is incredibly
excited to learn more about the gospel and Jesus Christ. He is soo funny!
He has been prepared by the hand of the Lord for sure. I am glad I have the
opportunidade to see him grow and get closer to Our Savior.

It was soo hot this week. We walked a lot and seemed to teach very little.
I am grateful to be here but I would be happy if the sun would take more
breaks. Actually no because then we get rain. Lots of rain.

I hit two months in Brazil yesterday! I feel like I´ve been here a lot
longer than that. My portuguese is getting better but it is still hard to
understand sometimes because people talk realllllyyy fast.

I am grateful for everything. My testimony of the Savior grows each and
every day and I am happy to be here. I love this gospel and I love this
work.

I love you all. I pray for you everyday. Stay fiel. Stay strong. Stay
AWESOME.

Com amor,

Sister Helm

Woop for 2015

It doesn´t feel like 2015. It´s really weird to think I will spend all of
this year in Brazil! What??!! So crazy.

Anyhow. Our New Year was pretty low key. We spent it with a recent convert.
We had cachorro quente (which is awwweeesssome) and had some sparklers. She
is amazing and it was really fun. We had to go back to our house at 9:30
though. We went to bed at the normal time and then woke up for the
fireworks at 12. There were a lot of fireworks. We could see sooo many just
from the front of our house. Then we went back to bed. Yay.

We had a baptism this week! It was the daughter of a less active member. He
is coming back to church too so that is awesome. The daughter is super
amazing too. She loves the church and has a super strong testimony.

I don´t have any awesome stories this week. We helped a woman with a party
for her daughters first birthday and it was really cool to see how
Brazilians do birthdays. Lots of singing! It was really fun and of course
the food was good. My catering skills came in handy too! :)

We walked soooo much this week and it is getting hotter every day. Really
really hot.

One thing was that I was talking with a man on the street. He thought I was
from São Paulo and so that was funny. After he found out I was from the
United States all of a sudden he couldn´t understand anything I was saying.
So that was frustrating. Oh well.

I love this work. I love the gospel. I love Jesus Christ and my Heavenly
Father. I know they us. I am so thankful for this opportunity. I am
thankful for your prayers. I love you all.

Com amor,

Sister Helm