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