dear fam,

(sent Thurs. October 11, 2007) – Sorry – I didn’t get this out last week – Alyce and I were in Calif. all week!

so first you need to know that i wrote a dang good email yesterday, but due to problems with the internet, lost it. my companion also lost his letter, so he called president brinton and asked if we could, to comply with the rule of writing home once a week, return and venture again today to write a letter home. sorry, i didn’t bring the camera again today, so you will get the picture of the pizza restaurant and the AWESOME beach next week.
now on with the show...

i will try and relate most of the stuff that i wrote yesterday, but i may write poorly because i am just "not in the groove" that attends all p-days. i want to get the basics out of the way: yesterday we went to the doctor for most of the morning, way in downtown, because my comp has been sick, like i told you. i didn’t tell about the tests yet though, oops! he had to do several tests this last week, blood tests and poop tests! ... e agora, bom noticias- the good news- after all the tests and doctor appointments- there is nothing wrong with him. he just has diarrhea every day:( i have talked with the doctor and sister brinton, and this is really more like bad news, because if it was just worms or something, he could just take some meds and be better. so we are trying other things like not drinking any water or juice outside the house, to try and improve the "situation".

enough with the toilet talk...some quick experiences this last week :-) we ran into some kids one night this week, and like all kids, they wanted to hear some english. only, they want my comp to speak english to them. i tried to tell them i was american, but they refused to believe that i was the american and he was the brazilian. i would speak english and everything and still they thought i was joking when i would say i was american. this one boy kept pushing me and laughing, saying NO, you’re brasilian, ... he REALLY thought it was the other way around, it was one of my few ego boosts in the midst of many people that just stare at me.

we saw these guys unloading a pineapple truck, and for some reason two of them got in a fight about something. one of them was in the truck and the other on the ground. they were yelling and stuff and then one of them threw a pineapple. it missed. but the guy in the truck was angry, grabbed a pineapple and hurled it at the other guy. hard. there was this solid thud as it hit the guy. it became a pineapple fight, and the guy on the ground got pounded. 5or 6 pineapples were thrown, and i thought that those were pretty vicious projectiles. it was funny and at the same time sad because they wasted many good pineapples that i would have eaten.

yesterday i sent a story of this cool guy that we have. he is, as we call him, our best progressing non-investigator. i will send it next week, but by then i hope that we can call him an investigator. it is a COOL story.

we only have a little time today, so i will have to write a letter next week about conference. suffice it to say that i LOVED it like i don’t think i ever have before. i have always loved conference, but this was the BEST ever, and it went by so fast. i learned more in any given minute there than you can find on the back of a cereal box. (the best comparison i could think up on the fly)
right, got to go...
by the way, got the letters from jay (both for me and my comp) , gma jones and mom. thx. sorry, p-day was a mess, no letters sent.
got to go
love elder helland

Some of his Mission Ties letter from 10/30/07:

We are teaching some wonderful people right now. It is great to see people gain a testimony and make huge changes in their lives as a result. One guy, Carlos, has given up drinking, smoking, and now coffee! We are so proud of him. He is engaged too and had committed to “wait” until they get married. The only problem is that he works on Sunday and it is hard for him to come to church, but he is trying. Many people work on Sundays and it is hard to believe people are ready for baptism if they can’t come to church. Yesterday we found 4 new investigators and I am hopeful (But an investigator is anyone who sets a return appointment, so they aren’t necessarily STRONG investigators).