Parque das Nações, Brazil Week 7

Hey! This week was awesome. My new companion is Elder Moroni from Holladay, Utah. We had a great week with a lot of the people we are teaching and we were able to find a lot of new people, too. One thing that we did really well this week was teach with members of the church. We had a few awesome return missionaries that did some visits with us. It is so great to be able to have some great return missionaries that love teaching with us and I have really become great friends with a lot of them including our Ward Mission Leader, Marcelo, who is so awesome!

We have been teaching Anderson and Naízes, a young couple, for quite a few weeks and he finally didn´t work on Sunday so they came to church yesterday. It was awesome! Anderson is from Rio de Janeiro and Naízes is from here but was baptized in Rio about 10 years ago. She hadn´t been to church since she left Rio but we are working with them and they loved church yesterday. We are going to help them get married which means we will mark their marriage date next week and then hoepfully they will be married within a month. They are excited and so are we! They are a great couple and everyone loved having them at church yesterday.

The Stake President, Presidente Pereira, asked Elder Moroni and me to give a training to all the Ward Mission Leaders in the Stake last night. It was super cool as we read from Preach My Gospel and Moroni 6 about how we can improve missionary work here in this stake. It was great!

I am really liking Elder Moroni and we are working really well together. We are working hard to help more people come to church. Our church building is pretty far away. If they don´t have a car, the people we are teaching need to take a bus to the terminal and then another bus to the church building so that is our main difficulty for now, getting people at church.

Anyway, it was a great week and things are really going great! I hope everyone has a great week and an awesome Thanksgiving! Eat some mashed potatoes and gravy, and turkey, and pie for me because I definitely won´t be eating those things on Thursday. Just beans, rice, and chicken for me! haha. Have a great week and thank you all for the love and support!

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

I received 2 Christmas Packages this week! Thanks guys!!! 

I have been loving eating Capn´ Crunch and Golden Grahams for breakfast! 

And I look forward to enjoying all the other things I got too. 

But don´t worry I haven´t unwrapped the present yet, I will wait for Christmas.

Anderson and Naízes at church with Elder Moroni and I yesterday!

Elder Moroni and I at the home of the Stake President yesterday for lunch.

A couple from Beira Rio (my last ward) saw me on the street this morning and they pulled over 

and we had a great time visiting and catching up. 

I love this family and he was my Ward Mission Leader there. 

They are so great and it was such a great surprise!

Parque das Nações, Brazil Week 6

Hey guys! Dang, this week was suuuper busy and had a lot of different things going on but ended up being super great! We were out of our area for about 3 days this week so that made it a little harder to visit the people we needed to but we still had quite a bit success and also had a great week doing other things!

Tuesday night Elder Goff and I went and stayed the night in Aldeota with the Secretaries and the Assistants which was super fun because we are really good friends with all of them and it felt like I was just in a big group of friends. It was great! Early Wednesday we went to the Polícia Federal so that Elder Goff could get all his documents in order to leave the country. It was actually really great to go back to the Polícia Federal and not have any responsibility. The new Executive Secretary of the Mission, Elder Larkin was doing everything and had everything well under control. It was great to watch! haha. It was so great to spend some good time with Elder Larkin and Elder Zwick. They are too of my best friends on the mission.

Thursday we had Zone Conference which was awesome! Half of the mission got together which is always fun to see so many Elders that I haven´t seen in so long and to receive instruction and training from the Assistants and President and Sister Bonini. They are awesome and I really loved it on Thursday! Friday Elder Goff stayed in Aldeota all day and I stayed here with Elder Carrasco and Elder L. Lopes. It was a great day and we found SO many new people to teach in their area!

Saturday and Sunday were great and it was hard to say goodbye to Elder Goff this morning. It was a great transfer with him and I learned a ton! We had a ton of fun and a lot of success. I will miss him a ton but am excited to see him at BYU next year.

I found out today that my companion will be Elder Moroni and he is an Elder that I know pretty well and really like already so I am super pumped. It will be his first time being a Zone Leader too so that is going to be awesome! He will get here tomorrow.

Anyway, it was a great week and am really looking forward to this week. Thank you all for the support and prayers. I love you guys!!

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Adail and Cibelle took Elder Goff and I out to lunch on Tuesday to a really nice authentic food 

from Ceará (which is the state we are in). The good was great and we loved 

spending time with them to get to know them better.

Me, Elder Larkin and Elder Zwick! The family of Executive Secretaries at the apartment in Aldeota! Love these guys!!

Our visit to the Polícia Federal. Look familiar?

Eating lunch at the Zone Conference! So great to see so many old friends and companions. 

(Featuring my two buddies, Elder Bini, and Elder Tenney)

Friday I spent the day with Elder Carrasco from Lima, Peru and Elder L. Lopes 

from João Pessoa, Brazil. It was a great day!

Darcerio with Elder Goff and I, with me wearing an authentic hat from Ceará!

Last Sunday with Elder Goff!

Living the life in Brazil! Seriously, I love it here!!

Saying goodbye to Elder Goff super early this morning. He is on a plane to São Paulo 

as I am typing this right now. It was an honor to serve with such an awesome Elder!

Parque das Nações, Brazil Week 5

Hey everyone! What a terrific week we had here in Parque das Nações. It started off great when we had a Family Home Evening at a recent-converts house on Monday night. There were about 30 people from the ward and others over and we just had a great time. We sang a few hymns and read the scriptures together and then just enjoyed one another’s company as we ate a lot of food and cake. It was really just a great night and I really love the people in this ward. They are really helping us out a lot. This week we did a ton of visits with church members including almost every night doing visits with our Ward Mission Leader, Marcelo, and visiting people with Bishop and his wife after lunch yesterday. It´s the best when the members help us out and it really helps the people we are teaching.

Adail and Cibelle were confirmed members of the church yesterday and received the Holy Ghost. They are awesome and really loving everything. We visited them yesterday after lunch with the Bishop and his wife and our Ward Mission Leader. It was great! It was super special because after we visited them Elder Goff and I invited Adail and Cibelle to visit a family that we have been teaching with us. They were very excited and accepted the offer. As we taught and testified about the Plan of Salvation with this family it was so awesome to have Adail and Cibelle share their testimonies of the Gospel and how it has blessed their lives. It was so awesome so see Adail and Cibelle already helping others to know the truth the very same day they became members of the church. It was a very special experience.

I did two companion exchanges this week with two Elders in our Zone. The first was with Elder Braga from the South of Brazil and it was great, He has about 5 months on the mission and it was awesome to spend the day with him. We talked to A TON of people and found a few new people to teach. I also spent the day with Elder McDaniel that got here recently after serving quite a bit of time in the United States waiting for his visa. It was also a great day as we were able to have quite a bit of success in his area.

Saturday we spent much of the day at the church doing baptismal interviews and had a meeting with our Bishop too. It was good and we were able to do a few great visits with some of the people we are teaching that our progressing very well.

Anyway, that´s pretty much the wrap-up on the week. This week will be interesting because it is Elder Goff´s last week which means we will be going to the Polícia Federal with the Secretaries (sound familiar?), and he will have his last interview and dinner with President. We also will have a Zone Conference this week where about half of the mission will all get together, which will be awesome, as always. Should be a great week! I hope all continues to go well back home for everyone. Thank you all for the support and love!

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Me with Elder Braga in front of my apartment.

Lunch with the Young Men President and his wife and their cute new born. 

Great lunch and a great family!

This is Bito. He is the goat of a family that we are visiting. He really likes us and we like him too.

Parque das Nações Week 4 (The week the Giants won the World Series!)

Hey!!! Dang, I don´t think you can have a better week than the week I had! I will be able to sum it up in photos.

  Elder Goff and I made spaghetti with meat sauce for our P-day lunch!

 I said goodbye to my good friend Elder Souza who I have been living with for the past month. He finished his mission and it was great to be able to live with him and become friends with him over this past month.

 Elder Goff and I walking on one of the roads in our area. It´s so beautiful here!

 Elder Goff and I gave a missionary training to one of the districts in our zone. It was great and an awesome time spent with some awesome missionaries!

 . We had another great visit with Adail and Cibelle, a father and a daughter we have been teaching for about a month. They are so great! We had one last visit with them before their baptisms that were on Sunday.

  Happy Halloween from Fortaleza, Brazil! Elder Goff and I

 carved watermelons and bought some good ol´ American candy!

 We had a great visit with Ismael, a less active member that we are visiting. We walked around his property and ate some fruit from the trees (mango in the picture) and then we sat down and read from the Book of Mormon. Towards the end his two kids came out and joined us. He is awesome and we love visiting him!

 We had a HUGE BBQ at the Bishop´s house for lunch! He and his two sons our awesome and it was great to spend time with them and learn how to do a Brazilian Barbeque.

We had a great family (mother and daughter) visit church yesterday and they loved it. This is a picture of them with our Ward Mission Leader and one of our really good friends.

 Adail and Cibelle were baptized! They are so great and it was such a special experience! 

It has been so awesome to teach them and I am so excited to see 

how the Gospel will continue to bless their lives!

 We celebrated Dad´s 50th Birthday with a Brazilian Coconut Cake! 

Happy Birthday Dad!! Love you!

Elder Goff and I went to the Center of Fortaleza this morning so he could buy some stuff for his family and friends before he leaves. It was awesome and I am definitely gonna miss this guy!

Anyway, it was a way great week and I wish I could just sit here and write about all the other things that happened and explain more about all these photos but I just don´t have enough time. But I hope all continues to go well with each one of you. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Helvey

P.S.  GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2014 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!!!