things pretty much ROCK here!

first, let me share a few funny things:

my POOR, poor comp.; first off, he doesn’t have any family that are members, and they don’t send him ANYTHING, letters or email, so if you could send him a letter that would be nice. the OTHER reason i think of him as my poor, poor comp is because he has been sick for 3 weeks now. stomach sick. i mean it is funny because he has to take a shower every time he uses the b-room, which is every time that we come close enough to home to stop by. because the toilets here stink, and don’t flush nearly anything, the whole toilet paper thing is a joke- thus he showers EVERY time. well at least he is clean

this week i ate something for sobre-mesa (desert) that was called geléia de mocotó. it was pretty good, but everyone just laughed at me when i asked what flavor it was. i guess it must be something weird, because my comp wouldn’t tell me what is was.

i heard this cool song by this cool band called 'legião urbana'. alyce, you should look them up, they might be cool?! i don’t really know, i only heard a little of some of their songs.

I SAW 7 MONKEYS ! it was awesome. i will send a drawing of the little rascals home. they were just swinging on the power lines like birds!

i met a woman who has a daughter that is LDS and lives in litchfield park. this lady was inactive, but she says her daughter is active. i guess it really is a small world after all! its a small world after all; its a small world after...

heres a Q: for jay and elle- WHAT the HECK is all this macumba and voodoo, condumblei CRAP! it is everywhere. Every corner has a pot full of something or a burnt rotting animal, candles burning; it is so WIERD and kind of creepy. it you could just give me the low-down on what to watch out for, that would be great.

on segunda-feida we had splits for the first time. it was cool. i got split to another area, praça seca, with elder j ferreira. he was cool. it rained most of the day, which was great because i was wearing the only clothes that i had, and needed to wear the next day. as it started raining i thought, i guess I’ll get to see just how water proof my shoes are. Turns out, they are water proof right up to the part where you put your foot in. my socks however are NOT water proof. all in all it was a good day. their area has bigger mountains than ours, SO... they have more stairs. we work up and down these favelas, endless stairs, IN THE RAIN!. but i honestly think that less rain fell on us than it did around us. maybe angels were holding semi-permeable umbrellas. either way, we still got entirely soaked.

dad, just so you know, i am gaining weight. i think. the conversion from kilos is tough. i am working out every morning for 30 min. 50 pushups and 300 crunches. some mornings me and my comp run too. only when he feels good enough though. one thing that i would like (not need!) maybe for the next time you send a package or for christmas or something, is a jump-rope, it is hard to do cardiovascular in an apartment. i too am on a diet, of COKE. i know that the prophet said not to drink caffeine, but my mission pres says to drink it because it is better than the juice. so, all my life i have hated and abstained form coke, and now i drink it whenever it is available. because, at 6 in the evening when my garrafa (bottle) of water is empty, i am PRAYING that the next house offers soda and not juice or water. anyway, good luck with the cars dad.

i am sure that you guys have heard the analogy about the grain of sand and the oyster. that little grain of sand bothers that oyster until it becomes a pearl, or something like that. i am trying to figure this one out, to apply it to my life. i had a little, little rock in my shoe, right?, and at first it just bothered me a little while i was walking, but i guess i thought, HEY, this will turn into a pearl!. turns out that a grain of sand in the shoe, remains a grain of sand. the foot doesn’t turn into a pearl either. but that little rock DOES make something- a huge blister! i never want to hear that analogy again, because if that oyster had a foot in there, he would be better off spiting out the sand.

we have a new investigator an awesome rapaz named bruno. i am excited. i am out of time, i will send you more about our investigators in a letter.

love elder helland

ps. yes i did take a hundred reais out of my account (about 50$). i am only supposed to spend allowance on certain things, so i might use that money for other needs. YES i DID get both packages, thanks SO MUCH. i thought that i already told you that i got them. we only eat lunch at members homes. That’s just the way it is. it is harder to send pictures here, maybe next week. love you guys.