Merry Christmas from Brazil! Man, it has been a very busy
but very good week here. Tuesday we received 43 new missionaries! It was so
awesome!!
President and Sister Souza, the two Assistants, and Elder
Muniz and I arrived at the airport to welcome the first group of 29
missionaries that were all from the Missionary Training Center in São Paulo. We
were waiting there for a while because their flight was delayed and President
bought us some little chocolates that were really good. Then, out walked the
army of 29 missionaries! It was super cool and we welcomed them and then we
loaded them all up into 3 big vans. My van had 13 new missionaries, 12
Brazilians and 1 American. It was a lot of fun and they were all so excited and
asking a ton of questions. We drove to the mission house for lunch and then to
the chapel for the training. I did my training which consists of explaining
about mail, packages, internet use, ordering materials, health insurance and
health cards, and then getting all the needed documents from all he foreigners
(passports, visas, visa applications, etc.). I went back to the Mission Office
to do some paperwork for the new missionaries and then returned to the chapel
for the announcing of trainers and new companions, and I had to hand out all
the material for the new missionaries. After I got all of them loaded up in
taxis and members' cars to head to their
new areas, I returned to the Mission Office to give my training and get all the
needed documents from all the new missionaries that arrived that were visa
waiting in the United States. It all made for a long day, but a very AWESOME
day!
With a lot of new missionaries comes a lot of work here in
the office. A lot of paperwork for the new foreigners and scheduling them to go
to the Polícia Federal with me. Lots of other things for all the missionaries
such as updating info in the church´s program and updating all our documents here in the mission. Also,
37 out of the 43 missionaries that arrived here arrived without health cards so
I have to order those and get all their health numbers but right now the church
is in the process of switching insurance companies here in Brazil so I have
spent some time on the phone this week with people in São Paulo and Salt Lake
trying to figure it all out.
Anyways, enough about all that. All that stuff isn´t too
exciting. What is exciting is it´s CHRISTMAS! The Bishop of our ward here in
Aldeota called me Saturday night and asked if I would give a talk the next day
in Sacrament Meeting. So I talked yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. I was
grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Sunday right before Christmas and
to focus on the Savior and his teachings and how we can all become better as we
use His Atonement in our lives, and as we become happier through Christ we will
want to share this great gospel with everyone! It was a great opportunity and I
was a little nervous when he first asked me but I am glad he did. It went
really well.
Last night the Fortaleza Stake had a huge Christmas
Devotional at our chapel and it was so awesome. It was just a ton of singing Christmas
songs. Throughout the whole thing I kept on having to leave and go in a classroom
because all the Zone Leaders were calling in to report numbers for their zone
and order materials. But what I did get to see of the devotional was really
awesome! They even sang some Christmas songs in English which was fun!
Also, we have been teaching this 19 year-old girl named
Angelica. She truly loves the gospel and she is going to be baptized! And guess
what day she is going to be baptized? CHRISTMAS DAY!!! It is going to be way
awesome and we are super excited! There is no better way to celebrate Christmas
on a mission than this!!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy being
with loved ones as we all celebrate the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus
Christ.
Until next week.
Love,
Elder Helvey
This is a present that Sister Souza gave everyone in the
mission for Christmas. It´s super sweet!
You can move it around and each time
the sand makes a different design.
It has become quite distracting to have at
my desk while I am trying to get work done...
My good friend from my district at the MTC and also served
in New York New York North, Elder Larkin, arrived this week! He stayed his
first night in our apartment because his new area is about 2 hours away so it
was great to see him again and spend some time with him.
Look what Santa delivered! Here is me as one of Santa´s elfs
with the 36 packages we recieved on Friday!! Dang, it was crazy, we filled the
elevator full of packages. It will be a very Merry Christmas for all the
missionaries here in Fortaleza, Brazil!
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