On Wednesday after our weekly Zone Meeting the Zone Leaders stayed with us the rest of the day to help us build our teaching pool. The problem here is that we can walk around all day trying to contacting people but all the contacts we do no one lives in our area. Aldeota is a part of the city where many people work but few people live and if they live here they live in a very tall building. It was a great experience though to go out with them and do contacting. I got to go to one of the town squares with Elder Echeimberg from São Paulo. It was great meeting people with him and talking with them. We were able to get a lot of contacts that we passed to other missionaries since the people don´t live in our area so that´s good. But spending part of the day with him really helped me to become more comfortable with doing contacts and Elder Vallo and I have been doing a lot of contacting this week. And like I said before a lot of the people we come in contact with on the streets here don´t live here but last night after one of our appointments fell through Elder Vallo and I decided to just start walking and talking to everyone we came in contact with. We started to do that and we ended up talking to quite a few people and ended up meeting to different people that live in our area and we are going to visit them on Wednesday. We are quite excited because it has been awhile since we have been able to visit a new person who is interested in the church. Most of our work has been with new members or less active members. The Lord really does bless us when we do our part even when it is as simple as opening our mouths and inviting people to learn more.
This week I got to go on a split with Elder Muniz. It was great to have him as my companion again even if it was just for a little bit. We visited Irmã Jane, Irmão Ismael, e Jorge. We work a lot with them and they are such great missionaries. We were helping them learn English so we gave them a lesson on Thursday. It´s always so great to visit them and feel of their excitement they have for missionary work. Yesterday both of them bore their testimonies and with tears in her eyes Irmã Jane pleaded with the congregation to help the missionaries. She said, "I love the missionaries in our ward. These young people leave their homes and their families to come here and share the gospel with people. Please help them. They need our help!" Irmão Ismael also shared of his experience with bringing people to the gospel such as his friend Vinícius who was baptized a couple months ago and who we have continued teaching. They are both so great! Elder Vallo and I are going to visit our new contacts on Wednesday with Ismael. It was a great church service yesterday!
And now for the big surprise of th week. Bruno called me on Tuesday asking if we could come visit him that night. When we arrived he was very excited and told us he had some great news. And then he said, "well good news for me, and bad news for you." He had been applying to work on a cruise ship and he told us that he finally got accepted as a waiter on an Italian cruise line. He is leaving tonight for Europe. He will start in the Netherlands and travel all over Europe for the next 9 months working as a waiter on a cruise. He is very excited but he says he will miss Fortaleza a lot especially going to church and having us visit him. When he was explaining all of this, one of the only things I could think of was how this was going to affect him in staying strong in the church. Before I could even say anything he said, "and don´t worry! I know people are going to say that I am going to go less active because of all the parties and stuff on cruises but I´m there for work. I’m going to stay strong in the church. I’m going to bring the scriptures and then when I come back in 9 months I´ll continue going to church!" We had a great talk about how he can continue to study the scriptures and pray during the next 9 months and stay strong spiritually. We had lunch after church yesterday at his house with his family and some members from church. It was great! I of course am sad that he will be leaving and will not be able to visit him anymore but it was has been an amazing experience with him. From the first day Elder Allen and I walked into his house in November until now it has been incredible to see the changes in his life and how he has been blessed so much because of the gospel. He bore his testimony in church yesterday and testified of the truthfulness of the gospel and the ability it has to change people’s lives. He´s awesome!
Well that’s it from me this week. Check out easter.mormon.org. The Church has an awesome new video and page to help focus on the Savior this Easter. Watch it! Read it! Share it! Have a great week! Thank you all for the love and support.
Love,
Elder Helvey
The Mission Office got new computer monitors! They are awesome. The church decided to use our old monitors somewhere else here in Fortaleza so we got new ones. They´re huge and super nice so it was like Christmas day here in the Mission Office.
Elder Muniz celebrated his year mark on his mission this week so we had a little party in our apartment with Pizza and chocolate cake.
Bruno and I after church Sunday where we stood together on December 1st when he was baptized.
Visiting with Bruno and Carlos (member) after lunch yesterday.
A group of us ate at the little food shack near the Mission Office today for P-day lunch. Always fun to spend time with other missionaries!
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