Beira Rio, Brazil Week 16

Boa tarde! What a great week we had here in Vila Velha, Fortaleza. This week was a week full of pictures.

Me and the donkeys on the streets of Fortaleza!

Our ward has really been focusing on missionary work recently and have been helping us out a ton! Part of the Ward Mission Plan is to have every family have a Family Home Evening in their house every month where they invite friends and family who are not members of the church and invite the missionaries. We had 2 this past week and have 3 more planned for this week. It is awesome! This is a photo of one of them at the house of our new Ward Mission Leader. It was great and it is incredible to see the difference when the members are deeply involved in missionary work. We have already seen miracles and will continue to see them as we continue to work with the members.

This is Jeremias. We have been teaching him for about two weeks and he turned 89 on Wednesday! We visited him, and sang happy birthday to him and had a mini birthday party. It was fun and he is very excited to visit the church.

Me and my cow friends...

Mosiah 28:3, "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature..."

A recent-convert family that we visit every week. They are awesome! Orlando is an English teacher and helps us with our English Class every Saturday. They are a great family and I love visiting them!

To end my companion exchange with Elder Toffoletto from São Paulo I made Banana Milkshakes! It is a great way to end a hot day in Fortaleza.

We took a middle of the day trip to the Center of Fortaleza to be the witnesses of the signing of the marriage of Michael and Lidiane. We have been visiting them for about two months and they will have their wedding on Friday. It was fun to go with them and to see how happy they are to get married. They are a great couple and I am excited for them!

A view from one of the missionary apartments in my zone. I did a companion exchange with Elder Phillips from South Carolina who was in my District in the MTC so that was fun!

Yesterday Tainá was baptized! Tainá is a girl we have been teaching for a while. She and her family are awesome. Tainá was the first in the family to come to church but recently the rest of her family, Gonzaga, Francisca, and Ruan have all been coming to church. They love the church and Tainá was super excited to be baptized. She was baptized by the Elder´s Quorum President in our ward that teaches with us a lot. It was a great Sunday. The Young Women in the ward are all super excited to have a new girl in their group. It has been such a great experience seeing how the Gospel has changed the lives of this family. Gonzaga and Francisca always talk about what a difference it has made and how thankful they are. It was a great day yesterday and we are excited to see the rest of the family become members of the church,  too.

Elder Oliveira, Elder Bini, Elder Cachay, and I eating at a member´s house after the baptism yesterday. I love lunch at this member´s house! The member´s are so nice to take care of us every day for lunch.

Anyway, that´s it for the week! I am super excited for this next week. We have some awesome things planned and it should be another great week. I hope everyone has a great week too!

Love,

Elder Helvey

Beira Rio, Brazil Week 15

Hey! Checking in once again from Vila Velha, Fortaleza. What a great week it has been. It started off great Tuesday when I did a companion exchange with a brand new missionary from the MTC. His name is Elder Yaman and he is from Panama, which is pretty cool. He is adjusting to the language and culture and I always like spending time with new missionaries because it makes me remember when I first got here. I love being able to help them and make them feel comfortable. We did A TON of street contacting just so we could be active and talking the entire day and we had some great visits with some of the people we are teaching. The Ward Secretary, Tiago, spent much of the day with us so that was awesome because he is one of my best friends in the ward here.

Wednesday was definitely the most exciting day of the week. It was just a typical Wednesday with our weekly Zone Meeting and after Elder Bini and I were walking to a member´s house for lunch. Our cell phone rings. It´s my good friend Elder Zwick. He says that he had just received an email in the Mission Office from my sister saying that I have a NEW NEPHEW!!! I was so shocked and couldn´t believe it but soooo excited! (He was a month early.)  She had sent an email to the Mission email (thanks to Elder Allen), and Elder Zwick read it to me over the phone. There I was on the streets of Vila Velha finding out that my sister had had her baby! It was awesome!! The next day at the Mission Leadership Council in Aldeota, Elder Zwick gave me the photo of Cooper James Smith! Congrats Brittany and Corbin!! I am so excited for you guys!

The monthly Mission Leadership Council with President and Sister Bonini was so great! President explained a lot about how to be a leader and really motivated us to become better and to remember that the Lord trusts in us. He reminded us that we were called leaders for a reason and that we need to always follow the Savior example on how to lead. It was great and it really motivated me to work even harder as a leader and to have more of a desire to help the missionaries in my Zone.

Friday I did a companion exchange with one of our District Leaders, Elder Tenney from St. George, Utah. He is the man and we had an awesome day doing a lot of street contacting and teaching some awesome new investigators. He has the same time on the mission than I do and he plans to go to BYU after the mission. We focused on having fun as we shared the Gospel with people that day, and it truly was a blast! (And I would just like to give a shout out to Elder Tenney´s mom because he told me that she reads my weekly blog!)

The rest of the days this week Elder Bini and I really worked hard and were able to continue teaching many of our progressing investigators and also met some great new families that we have started teaching. Unfortunately, it was a little hard to have people come to church yesterday because of people traveling and celebrating Sete de Setembro (Brazil Independence). But one cool experience was when Elder Bini and I went to visit someone this week and they weren´t in their house. As we were walking away, a ton of little kids came running up to us asking me to speak English (happens about 3 times a day, everyday). But this time it was cool and one of the little kids said that he and his family had visited the church before. I asked him if his parents were home and he said yes as he led us to his house, where we met a couple who had been taught by the missionaries and had visited the church but had a few doubts so they didn´t continue going or continue receiving the missionaries. They seemed very excited to see us and welcomed us in. We spent about the next hour and half answering their questions and helping them resolve their doubts. It was a great experience and they really are excited to have us visit again and said they are excited to come to church again next week.

Anyway, a lot of other things happened this week, including an awesome visit with a less active couple as we talked about President Uchtodorf´s talk "Venham, Juntem-se a Nós" and we had a great meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader and all the Ward Missionaries. The world better watch out, because Ala Beira Rio is about to go crazy with missionary work!! I really like this ward.

I hope you all have another great week. Thanks for all the love and support.

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Elder Yaman from Panama, Central America.

Elder Tenney from St. George, Utah.

Elder Bini, Felipe (Elders Quorum President), and me

Elder Zwick, baby Cooper, and me in the Mission Office!

Beira Rio Week 14

Another great week here in Fortaleza! We had our first weekly meeting with our new Zone on Wednesday. It went really well and I really like the new missionaries that arrived in our Zone. I am excited to work with them all and get to know them all better throughout these next 6 weeks. We gave a training to our 5 District Leaders in our Zone, where we talked about reporting, giving trainings, baptismal interviews, and the way of the Lord to serve and lead. It was good and I really like them all. It´s cool, two of them are from my District in the MTC.

We had a really awesome visit with one of the couples that we our teaching and preparing to marry, Michael and Lidiane. Michael had invited one of his friends, Lucas, to come listen to us. It was awesome as we taught about the Restoration and Michael, our friend that we have been teaching for only about 3 weeks testified about the importance of living prophets. It was really awesome to see how already, Michael is wanting to share the Gospel. Michael and Lidiane´s wedding is planned for September 19th, and then they are planning to get baptized. They are a great couple and it has been awesome getting to know and teach them, and see the difference the Gospel has made in their lives.

This week we had a Mission Tour. Elder Mazzagardi from the Seventy was here. Friday we had a Conference with him and it was awesome! He said a lot but one of the things I liked the most is that he told us how sharing the gospel has to be fun and we have to have fun while doing the work of the Lord. It was great and something I am applying more and more everyday. Before the Conference he wanted a meeting with just the Zone Leaders. It was awesome receiving instruction from him as we all sat at the Stake High Council Table. He instructed us on how to lead and how to teach with the Spirit. It was awesome and an experience I will never forget!

I did a companion exchange with one of our District Leaders, Elder Flake, this week. He is from New York and it was awesome! We had a great day teaching and contacting people. He has a love for the work and it was a great day full of hard work but also a lot of fun. At the end of the day I interviewed one of the people they are teaching for baptism. It was a great interview and it is so awesome to see the happiness the Gospel brings in people´s lives.

This week we also found an awesome family that we started teaching and they came to church! The family is HUGE!! Some of them came to church yesterday and they seemed to really like it. We also had another family we are teaching, Gonzaga, Francisca, Thayna, and Ruan all at church, which was WAY awesome!

Thiongs are really going great here and Elder Bini and I are really working hard. I love this work and I feel sooooo blessed to be here serving the Lord!

Have a great week everyone! 

Love,

Elder Helvey

Elder Goff got transfered! It was an awesome 12 weeks with him here and he´ll definately be one of my bros back at BYU!

Elder Goff and I infront of the house here in Vila Velha, Fortaleza!

Elder Flake from New York!

Biera Rio Week 13

Hey! Well it was another great week here in Beira Rio!! I love this area and I love this ward. And the better news is that I found out today that I will be staying here at least 6 more weeks with Elder Bini! Transfers are going to be tomorrow and we have quite a few missionaries that will be leaving our Zone which will be fun to get other missionaries. We also found out that our Zone will be receiving two new missionaries from the MTC. It should be another great transfer!

This week was awesome and I have a lot of pictures to explain the week.

Zona Litoral! The biggest Zone is the Brazil Fortaleza Mission!! We had our last meeting with our Zone on Wednesday. It´s always fun to be together with so many missionaries. Each week our entire Zone has a meeting where we split up into two groups have trainings on how to become better missionaries. It´s great to see the progress of so many and to become good friends with so many missionaries.

I did a companion exchange this week in another area in our Zone. I stayed with Elder Calisaya from Peru. This is a picture of me in front of a big lake in their area. We had a great day doing a ton of contacts! He is a new missionary so it was great to help him feel more comfortable with talking to people on the streets and in front of their houses. We did a lot of contacting and helped their teaching pool grow a little bit. It was a long, hot day in the sun but it was good.

Friday Elder Bini and I did another companion exchange. This time we went to their house early in the morning and made breakfast with them, which was fun!

I then returned to my area and spent the day with Elder Smyth from Danville, California. It was fun to spend the day with him and talk about all the mutual friends we have back home. We  had a full day of teaching and were able to have a great lesson with Carmosita, and we visited Junior, Elizangela, Vitor Hugo, and Ryan with two of our ward missionaries and we all read the Book of Mormon together. It was a great day!

Church was awesome yesterday! This is a picture of Elder Bini and me waiting at the entrance of the church to greet people as they walk in (something we try to do every week).

Michael and Lidiane! This is a couple that we have been teaching for two weeks now. They are so great and yesterday they came to church. They really loved it. Michael had been looking for the truth in his life when we showed up at his house. He is super excited about the Gospel and we are working a lot with him and Lidiane. They are preparing to get married. I marked their marriage today at the Cartório in Centro, Fortaleza. Their marriage will be September 19th. We are super excited for them!

This is us with Junior, Elizangela, Vitor Hugo, Ryan, and two of their cousins that they brought to church yesterday. This family makes me so happy! Yesterday during Sunday School in the Gospel Principles Class the lesson was on Missionary Work. Towards the end of the lesson, Elizangela rose her hand and started talking about how important missionary work is for her and her family. She explained a little bit about her conversion story and said the first visit with Elder Pedrosa and I she knew that this was what was missing in her and her family´s life. She said that the first visit, everything we said was exactly what she needed to hear. She knew that we were sent from her Heavenly Father and she says that she feels now like the doors of heaven have been opened to her, thanks to the missionaries. It was a great experience that she shared with everyone and made me feel super grateful for the opportunity I had to come in contact with her and her family and act as an instrument in the Lord´s hands to help them on the path back to our Father in Heaven.

We had our weekly meeting with the Priesthood Executive Meeting. In this photo there is, Felipe (Elder´s Quorum President), Elder Goff and I, Tiago (Ward Secretary), Bispo Felix (Bishop), and Paulo (Second Counselor). They are all great and I love working with them and learning from them every week.

Elder Goff and I cut our hair last night! It had gotten a little too long and it feels so much better to have short hair again, especially in the hot sun of Ceará!

Me in the park right near the Cartório in the center of the city this morning.

Elder Allen has officially left... It was awesome to see him one last time in the Mission Office this morning. He was just hanging out there before his flight today. He has been my best friend on the mission and it will definately be way different without him but I will take everything I have learned from him and be sure to apply it these last 10 months of my mission! And I´ll be sure to see him again at BYU!!

Anyway, that´s my week. I am ready and excited for another great week and another great transfer here in Vila Velha, Fortaleza!!

Love,

Elder Helvey

Beira Rio Week 12

What a great week it was this week! It started out great on Tuesday and it just got better. On Tuesday, it was Elder Bini and me here in our area. We had a few planned appointments with some of the people we are teaching,  but a lot of the day was spent contacting people on the street. We visited one of the families we have been teaching, Gonzaga, Francisca, Thayna, and Ruan. They are a great family and love it when we visit them. It´s an interesting story how we got in contact with this family. We visited a boy, Vitor, that came to our English Class once, and then from him we met his cousin, Robinson, so we visited his house, and then when we were visiting him one day, Thayna was there and another day we visited her and met her family. Tuesday, we also visited Marcelo (18 years-old), who came to church last week. We met his brother, Michael, who lives with him. He was super excited because he told us that he had been searching and praying to know the truth. The next day when we visited him we shared the message of the Restoration and when we invited him to pray to know if it´s true he said he already knew it was because of the feelings he had. It was awesome! They both have baptismal dates for August 31st.

Wednesday, we had our Zone Training, so Elder Bini and I gave a training for the 26 missionaries in our Zone. It was about how we can prepare the people we are teaching for baptism and to help them gain a testimony so they will stay active in the church and prepare to enter the Temple. I thought it went really well and I always love to be together with missionaries in settings like these. Elder Allen and Elder Lopes (the Assistants) visited for the training so it was great to see them and get to spend time with them. Then after the meeting we did a companion exchange and I spent the day working in my area with Elder Toffoletto. It was a great day spent with him. He is from São Paulo and has always been one of my friends on the mission because he was trained by Elder Allen in Canindé. We did a ton of contacts and were able to meet a lot of people who were interested. We met a man named Igor who saw us in front of his house talking to his neighbor and he wanted to hear what we had to say. We taught them both and Igor has a wife and 3 kids and is SUPER excited about the Gospel and the church. He and his wife are super nice and I am super excited to see the progress of their family. It was a great day spent with Elder Toffoletto and I am also excited to see him continue to progress on the mission. He also wants to go to BYU after the mission so that would be cool.

Thursday it was Elder Bini and I back in our area and we had a normal day visiting people in their houses and talking to more people on the street.

Friday was the BOMB because guess who came to my area to do a companion exchange with me? Elder Allen! We met them at the Bus Terminal (which is pretty big, by the way, and I don´t think I have ever talked about it, but I go there about 2 times a week). Anyway, we met them there and Elder Allen and I went back to my area where we spent the day. This is Elder Allen´s last week and I can´t believe his mission is coming to an end but it was great to spend the day with him. We visited a few of the families and people we are teaching and it was so awesome to teach again with Elder Allen (it´s been quite awhile since we were companions). It was definitely one of the best days of my mission. I am sad that he will not be here on the mission any longer but 2 years is 2 years and I am excited for him to get back home and I´ll for sure see him at BYU. He has helped me a ton on my mission and I will always be grateful for the impact he had on my mission.

Saturday we taught our weekly English Class at 10 in the morning, and received money for lunch so we made hamburgers at our house. It was great! After lunch we left,  and walked the streets and visited people in the hot sun of Ceará! But it´s all good, because I am used to it and that´s what we do every day. When it hits about 5 o´clock it´s not too bad but before then it´s pretty hard to stay in the street and so we always try to plan really well to have people to teach especially during those hours. But it´s also the time that most people are sleeping so we often are waking people up. But one thing about here, is that the people are awesome. They are really so loving and kind, and since it is so hot in the streets they will always let you in and give you water to drink. I often think about how lucky and blessed I am to be serving here. If you ask me, Missão Brasil Fortaleza é o melhor missão do mundo!

Anyway, Sunday was great as always. We had one of our families visit the church and two other individuals. I really love the ward and the members here. They are so good at making the visitors feel welcomed. As soon as we arrived with visitors, each of them had a member with them that would stay with them until the end of the 3 church meetings. It is so great to receive help from them and to make the people visiting feel so welcomed. Sunday afternoon we had our weekly meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, who is a new convert, and then the meeting with the Bishop and other Priesthood Leaders. Once we got home on Sunday night I made panckaes and us four missionaries just hung out talking and eating pancakes with nutella and jam. It was a great way to end an awesome week!

This week is the last week of the transfer so it will be interesting to see if I stay or not. I hope I get to stay at least one more transfer but of course I will be happy to do whatever the Lord has planned.

Thank you all for the support and love and hope all is going well for each one of you. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Helvey

Elder Allen visited our Zone for our Zone Training!

Walking the streets in my area with Elder Allen!

Elder Bini and I in the bus on the way to Aldeota

We stopped at an ice cream shop on our walk to the Mission Office

Beira Rio Week 11

(Date for this entry is actually Aug. 11, 2014)

Checking in once again from Vila Velha, Fortaleza, Brazil. This week I actually spent a lot of time outside of my area because of Zone Conference and Mission Leadership Council. We had Zone Conference at the Stake Center of the Fortaleza Stake so it was fun to return to that church building and that area of the city. The Federal Police building is right down the street from the church building so I was in familiar territory. The Zone Conference was great! Elder Allen and Elder Lopes (the Assistants) gave a training on how we can develop Christ-like attributes as missionaries. It was an awesome training and they said many things that really made me think about how I need to improve to become more like my Savior, Jesus Chirst. It had been a great week trying to develop those attributes more. President Bonini gave an awesome training about things that are good, things that are better, and things that are best.

The next day, Friday we went to Aldeota and had the Mission Leadership Council which was awesome! It was great to get another training from President Bonini, this time on how we can be leaders like the Savior. It was great!

As for the people and families we are teaching here things continue to go well but yesterday a lot of them were not able to come to church again. A recent convert introduced us to her friend and we taught him once and he came to church yesterday. His name is Marcelo and really liked church so we are excited to return and continue teaching him. We have been doing a lot of contacts, try to talk to everyone we pass on the street. It has been good and we have started teaching some great new investigators.

My birthday on Wednesday was fun and everyone sang happy birthday to me at the ward activity. I spent the day doing a companion exchange with Elder Goff so it was fun!

Anyway, it was a great week!  Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Ward Activity Wednesday Night!

We had a birthday party in our apartment!

I waited to open my presents I got from everyone until my actual birthday! 

Thanks to everyone that sent me things. I loved everything!

American Pancake Buffet in our apartment!

Beira Rio, Brazil Week 10

Hey! This week was great. Monday night a few of our appointments fell through so we decided to pass by the house of Junior and Elizangela to see how they were doing. When we arrived at the door they were all reading the scriptures together as part as their Family Home Evening. We didn´t want to interrupt anything so we just walked in and sat on the ground as they finished their Family Home Evening. It was so awesome to see them learning and growing as a family in the Gospel the very next day after their baptisms. As I sat on the ground just watching them finish up their Family Home Evening I felt so happy and so thankful to the Lord that I have had the opportunity to get to know them and see the Gospel change their lives.

The rest of the week was filled with teaching appointments and we had some great experiences. Unfortunately, many of the people and families we are teaching were not able to come to church yesterday. But we have some awesome people we are teaching and I am excited and hopeful for next week.

This week I went on a companion exchange with an Elder in our Zone, Elder Leite, from São Paulo. I went and spent the day with him in his area and we had a great day. We met with one lady that shared with us an awesome experience while reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.

Elder Bini and I had a few baptismal interviews to do this week which is always a great experience. Things are continuing to go really well for us and our Zone. Thursday we will have a Zone Conference (with half the mission) with President and Sister Bonini and Friday we will have the Mission Leadership Council. So should be a great week and I am excited!

Thank you everyone that sent me and email or card/letter to wish me a happy birthday! Crazy how fast the time is flying by. Thanks for everything and I hope you all have a great week.

Until next week.

Love,

Elder Helvey

Roman noodles for lunch!

We ordered Pizza on the companion exchange I did this week. 

Always fun to eat some Pizza and just hang out at night.

Me with Junior, Elizangela, Vitor Hugo, and Ryan in their house.