happy fathers-day!

yep, its that time of year here- brazilian fathers day! so, i love you dad, and i REALLY appreciate the time you put into your letters, and they are not at all lame. if you want, you could add some stuff that you know well in there, like what is going on in sports... not that it really matters down here, but it is fun to talk to people about. it really is prized information; like when we found out about barry bonds and his dumb old record and that other guy... sorry i cant remember his name, who broke like 300 career wins or something. anyway, thinking of you!

now for the rest of the letter...
WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?!
you got alyce a cell phone?! well that is just plain unfair... and a razor at that. Police [Alyce's nickname], you are a lucky dog. by the way, that poster idea is not at all lame... i think that is genius: alyce, does the student body good. i am still smiling about that. so good luck on the win there. my room really wants you to win, so maybe we will pray for you to win tonight. :) oh one more "WHAT?!", .... dad fixed your car?! for years he and i punched and kicked that a/c and sweated it out through the times that it didnt work, and now he fixes it?! so now we have got 3 running cars?! a true miracle :) sorry the spelling is so bad, typing on this keyboard is like typing on a manual typewriter; the keys are SO hard and sticky. muito sinto, mas.... what can i do about it?!

anyway, this week we lost one of our professors and we are still really sad about it. irmao morais... he was the best teacher EVER, but now we have got a new one: irmão lindburg. i will tell you more about him in the letter you guys get. speaking of which, how did that work out? the whole me giving it to mr cheney cookies and them scanning and sending it [Mission Ties]? if that works well, i really would like to send the rest of my letters that way.

oh, we went proselyting again on friday! it was really awesome again, but we didnt seem to have as much success. we went to a different place, in the old downtown in sao paulo, by the metro and teatre municipal. there were TONS OF PEOPLE again and we ran around a lot trying to stop people. imagine the scene in “the best two years” where he runs all over that square, trying to talk to people, THAT is kind of how it went. except that we had success. we gave away three BoMs and 20+ cards. one person in particular i remember - it was a young man, approx. our age, and it was my companions turn to make the contact. he was doing good, although he was sort of straying from the kind of contact that we usually make. we do that sometimes, and so i wasnt really worried. He doesnt really understand the whole conjugating thing just yet and so i was listening to what he was saying, and, although i understood what he was saying and where he was going, i was praying that the man understood the idea that he was trying to bring across. then to top it off, he backed us into a corner when he started trying to quote Tiago 1:5 (james). he started to recite moroni 10:3 instead. i told him this, and he asked how the james version went. i didnt know, it was next on our list to memorize, but i hadnt yet. and so it was, that we were stuck, unable to continue because we didnt know how to get out of the hole we had created [due to limited Portuguese]. i prayed silently that my comp would be able to think of the words to say or for him to bear his testimony. he bore his testimony, because that was all we knew to do when we get stuck. it was incredible. for a minute, i couldnt hear the noise of the cars, or the sound of the tumult of people, or the crazy man with a mic and amps on the corner. it was quiet, for me at least. all i heard were the simple words my companion spoke. simple words, because that is all we knew, and it was simply and sincerely declared. all i could feel was the spirit, gently witnessing to us that these things WERE true, that we were in the right place. the man seemed to soften and we finished our message and committed him to call the number in the book, as well as to read the highlighted portion and to pray about it. i really learned a lot there; that we can only hear/feel the spirit when there is quiet, something that i have been taught all my life, but here, the spirit made it quiet, not in the physical reality, but for me, as a tender mercy, i felt the pówer of our message in the middle of the biggest crowd i have ever been in.

well, i think that our last day in the ctm is sept 4, so probably dont send any letters for the week and a half before, unless it is those mission ties letters; those seem to get here in between 4 hrs and 2 days, depending on when we check the mail. thanks again for the package, it was great; we are STILL finishing off the rest of our goods. we are savoring it. just so you know; the chocolate faired well in transfer and was greatly coveted over here. also, although i dont need it really right now, or at all for that matter, if you could, just with the next package you send, send me one or two of those fine ball pens, or whatever they are called, like those black g-force ones, or the v-something fine point ones. it would be easier to right in my planner with one. thx. sorry, no pics today, the comp. cafe with card readers is closed for some reason.

love you guys, elder helland "the hero"