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