Aldeota, Brazil Week 8

Another week has come and gone! This week wasn´t as busy in the mission office and we were able to visit and teach some really great people. One thing I had to do this week was set up appointments at the Polícia Federal for all 13 new American missionaries. Usually I do this online but this transfer all the spots were taken up and I couldn´t schedule them until February and they need to visit the Federal Police within 30 days of arriving in the country or we have to pay heavy taxes. So I decided to visit the Polícia Federal and figure it all out. It took me 3 visits this week, including this morning, to mark appointments for all of them but I finally have appointments for all 13 new American missionaries all before they reach 30 days in the country. When I arrived there this morning the people working there were kind of irritated because I needed to change some of the appointments I had already made and they had already seen me twice last week. She was very frustrated and said that she wasn´t going to change them for me. I said they needed to be changed because the missionaries have conflicts with those days. She said I was going to have to wait until 9AM for her to help me, it was 8:10AM so wasn´t too bad. Elder Vallo (from Argentina) and I were sitting outside for about 10 minutes when she came and got us and said she would change them now but I needed to translate for her because there was this guy from Switzerland that didn´t speak Portuguese but spoke English. I figured it was a fair trade. I got all my appointments that I needed changed and she was able to communicate what she needed to to this guy from Switzerland. It will be a busy two weeks visiting the Polícia Federal with all of them but I am glad to have it all planned out now.

We spent New Year´s Eve at the Bishop´s house and that was a lot of fun. It was fun to just be able to relax and enjoy the company of the Bishop´s family and other people from the ward and stake. I really love this area and the people here. We were able to have our entire district there (8 missionaries) so that was fun. It was cool to be here in Aldeota for New Year´s. The four of us in our apartment all went to bed at the normal time but woke up about 15 minutes before midnight because of all the fireworks. I feel like everyone here in Aldeota had their own firework show. We went out on our balcony and just watched them all. We have a great view of the city and there were SO MANY fireworks and quite a few that were shot off right across the street from us so they were SO LOUD! It was great. Unfortunately our balcony points away from the beach and the ocean because Fortaleza had a huge firework show. They light off a ton of fireworks from ships in the ocean. We could hear them but only see their reflections off the buildings. Anyways, New Year´s Eve was still pretty cool here!

We had a good week implementing our plan to help the members here with missionary work and we are excited to see what happens in the coming week or so. Elder Muniz and I also had a good week visiting and teaching people. We tried visiting a few less active members but weren´t able to contact most of the ones we tried, but of course we´ll keep trying. We had a great lesson with one of our investigators, Michele, who has been taught everything and really wants to be baptized but is waiting to be officially married to her husband, and saving up for that. Elder Muniz and I are planning on helping her with that and see if we can get some help from the ward. We had a great lesson with her in the home of one of our members here which was really great! We also visited Helena who we have taught once before this time and had a good lesson with her. She loves having us over and we also taught her daughter who has a small baby. We are excited for them to learn more and Helena seems interested but was unable to attend church this week because of a family conflict, but she has visited once before and says she´ll come next week. Elder Muniz and I are also trying to help a boy named Pedro be baptized. We gave him a Book of Mormon about two weeks ago and he has been reading it. His Grandma is a member and he has been coming to church every week with her but his mom says that he needs to wait to be baptized, so we´ll see how that goes. He´s awesome though and he bore his testimony yesterday in Sacrament Meeting.

I loved being able to visit and teach people more this week. Oh, also, it is Bruno´s birthday today, I just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago and I sang happy birthday to him (in Portuguese and English). He seemed to enjoy it haha. We are all going to go to dinner with him tonight and then Elder Muniz and I are going to visit Michele again. Oh, one more thing I forgot to say, it POURED this week! Elder Muniz and I were walking to lunch, when we left the office it wasn´t raining too much and then during our walk it started to pour so we got totally drenched. Then we arrived at the member´s house for lunch and he didn´t have lunch for us but gave us money, so Elder Muniz and I decided to reward ourselves with some Burger King. We walked into Burger King as wet as if I had just jumped into a pool, it was crazy! Also, the draining system here isn´t too great so all the roads turn into rivers when it rains a lot which is fun to watch cars go through. I wish I had my camera but I didn´t, so sorry, no pictures.

Anyways, that was my week. It was a great one and I look forward to another great week this week. I hope all is going well with each of you. Love you all!

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

These were Christmas gifts from Angelica for Elder Muniz and me. 

We were quite surprised and it was super nice of her!

Last P-day Elder Muniz and I went to the Center and bought some things. Haircuts are like $R25 here 

so I decided to invest in some clippers and cut my own hair! I think it turned out alright.

Elder Vallo and me sitting on the side of the street New Year´s Eve 

waiting for our ride to the Bishop´s house.

New Year´s Eve at the Bishop´s house! It was a lot of fun to hang out with his family and other member´s from the ward and stake and we had some of the best food I have had since I got here!

Elder Muniz and me with our Elder´s Quorum President, his two daughters, and Michele.