Aldeota, Brazil Week 15

Hello! I had another great week this past week. We had two zone conferences (half the mission on Wednesday and the other half the mission on Thursday). They were both great! It is always great to all get together and to see everyone in the mission. The training we received from President and Sister Souza and the Assistants was really great too. There is such an awesome spirit when there are so many missionaries all together in one place. Tuesday night we had quite the emergency in the office, we found out that the chapel we were going to use the next day for zone conference was unusable because of some repairs that were taking place. We had an emergency meeting with President and the Mission Staff to figure out our options and what needed to be done. So that night was pretty hectic as we decided to move it to another chapel and then had to call all the missionaries to inform them of the last minute change and then of course I had many missionaries calling me asking what bus they needed to use to get there. It was quite a hectic last minute change but ended up going really smoothly.

At the conference it was great to see the missionaries from my MTC district and from my past districts and zones here in Fortaleza. It was great to see Elder Allen - he and his companion stayed the night in our house because his companion had a doctor's appointment the next day here in Aldeota and they live way outside of Fortaleza in a city called Canindé. That night we also had 4 more Elders stay at our house because they missed their bus to return to Itapipoca (another city way outside Fortaleza). So that night we had 10 Elders in one house which was quite eventful and rarely never happens except during transfers.

This week at the church we had a great ward activity where they had spiritual thought about how Jesus Christ is the bread of life and then they taught us and showed us how to make homemade bread. It was fun and it was great to see Angelica there and Bruno both actively participating in the activity. It makes me so happy to see the change the gospel has brought in both of their lives and how happy they are to be members of the church and enjoy the blessings of the gospel. Angelica continues to prepare to serve a mission and it is great to see the excitement she has for missionary work.

We had Family Home Evening at the Bishop´s house with one of our investigators (Maria, mother of the Bishop´s wife). Angelica and another family from the ward were there, too. We had a great lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the simplicity of faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I bore my testimony of the importance of baptism and told about the day I was baptized by my Dad in the same chapel in Montana where he was baptized.

We also had a great visit with Michele and her family and a member family. We continue to help her understand the importance of family being a central part of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are hoping to visit her husband this week, who in the past has not wanted us to visit. But after some teaching by Elder Allen (he taught with us that night!), she said she would talk with him and we are hoping we´ll be able to visit Michele, her husband, and their two daughters this week.

We also got a new Ward Mission Leader this past week and had our first meeting with him. He is great and we are excited to work with him. We are really trying to work more with members. I watched part of the Work of Salvation broadcast from June on LDS.org yesterday and it really reminded me about how important members of the church are in this great work. Every member a missionary!

We also had Stake Conference this weekend which was great. President and Sister Souza spoke in both the Saturday night session and Sunday session and there was such a focus on missionary work in both of the meetings. Every talk had to do with missionary work and how we can all better work together to help the Lord hasten the work. I am excited and feel so lucky to be a part of this great work here with such great people in Fortaleza!

That´s it for me this week. I hope all is going well for each one of you back home. Have another great week!

Until next week.

Com Amor,

Elder Helvey

Lucas and me at Family Home Evening at the Bishop´s house. I loved his BYU shirt! 

Lucas is a ward missionary and loves visiting and teaching people with us.

This was last P-day. Elder Muniz and Elder Vallo prepared a nice lunch for all of us and we all sat on our balcony. It was a relaxing P-day and it was great to finally have a P-day where after lunch 

we didn´t have to do anything. 

 This is a picture taken at the ward activity of all the missionaries in Aldeota (8 in our ward!), Angelica (baptized on Christmas Day), Bruno (baptized December 1), and Lucas (member, Bishop´s son).

Elder Allen was helping me with something real fast in the office and he sat down at my desk (his old desk) and I started to sing "he´s back, he´s back" to the music of Michael Jackson´s song "Bad". 

It was a great moment! haha

Elder Shelton (my MTC companion) and me at Zone Conference this week! 

It was great to see him and spend a little time with him.