Parque das Nações Week 18

Hey everyone! This week was really great and we had some awesome experiences. Anderson was confirmed a member of the church, received the Holy Ghost, and received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was so awesome to see how excited he was and also to see how happy his wife, Naizes, is. It has been such a blessing to see the change the Gospel has made in their lives. They are a very special family for me!

The best part of the week was Friday night and was definitely one of the best experiences of my mission. On Tuesday morning during our studies I received a call from Luan. As some of you may recall, I baptized Luan in May when I was serving in Aldeota with Elder Zwick. Anyway, he has been doing very well and on Tuesday he told me that he wanted to teach with us on Friday night. So on Friday, he drove here to our area after work and we ate dinner together and it was so fun to see him again and to see how happy he is. He told me that he had recently received his Patriarchal Blessing and has decided without a doubt that he is going to serve a mission! He has already talked with his Bishop and Stake President and plans to submit his papers in the next few weeks and leave as soon as he has one year as a member (May 25th). I was so excited and am so happy for him! I know he will be an awesome missionary and will bless the lives of many, many people for eternity.

We then did 3 visits with some of my recent converts and investigators here. As we taught and testified together I was overcome with such great joy to see and feel the difference the Gospel makes in people´s lives. I can´t explain everything that happened throughout the night but it was a very, very special night filled with miracles. At the end of the night after he dropped us off at our apartment I was overcome with gratitude to the Lord for blessing me with so many amazing experiences. I love being a missionary!

The rest of the week went very well and we had a few more of the people that we are visiting come to church yesterday for the very first time, which is always awesome. I really like this ward and the members here. They really help us out a lot and are really good when people come to visit for the first time.

But as we know missionaries are always moving around. This morning we received news of the transfer (every 6 weeks when missionaries are moved around throughout the mission). After a VERY successful 4 months here in Parque das Nações I have been transferred to Caucaia to be Zone Leader in the Planalto Zone. I am WAY excited! Why? Because it will be the first time I will serve outside of the Capital City of Fortaleza. Caucaia is a bordering city of Fortaleza so it´s not too out there but something that is cool is that my zone covers cities in "the interior" such as Icaraí, Paracuru, Pecém, and Itapipoca (look on google maps to see where they are). The church is VERY new in these cities. Icaraí will receive its first missionaries tomorrow and the other three cities were all opened for missionary work while I have been here on the mission. I assume this will be my last area on the mission and I am very excited for the work that is ahead and the experiences I will have!

I hope all of you have a great week and I thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and love.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Dinner with Luan.

We visited Beninha and her sister, Cibely, and their friend with Luan. Such an awesome visit!

We also visited Anderson and Naizes with Luan.

We also visited our awesome investigator, Marcio.

It was way sweet to have a car to go fast to one teaching appointment to the other. Our area is super big and usually takes a while to walk but Friday we cruised to each one of our appointments.

Preaching the Gospel!