pooped the bridge...

dang...
sorry, we are in this tiny garage internet house, and they are all paranoid about viruses and so they wont let me download any pictures to send you guys. they are too cheap to buy some antivirus software. oh well, maybe next week. (actually, next p-day is transfer meeting...)

so i guess that we are going to get to talk this sunday, huh. hmmm, i don’t really know where we are going to eat lunch. i have got our cell number, and i guess that you guys can call that, but as we know, that didn’t work out too hot last time. the number is 8694-0329. i don’t remember all that stuff that you have to do to call Rio, but i imagine that is pretty much the same as when i was in petropolis. maybe the difference is the area code. here the area code is 21, and i think that the area code in petropolis was like 24. (it think that number is 21-8694-0329) good luck with that. i am thinking that i will call the family that we are going to have lunch with on sunday and get there number and maybe you guys can call there.

my companion is talking to the assistants right now to try and get more info about what we should do...

well, while we are waiting, let me tell you funny story about how we did a division with a district leader yesterday/today, WHO WAS NOT HAPPY WITH US!!! that guy was crabby at everything that we said. he was just plain grouchy. so then he wanted to do some things that we thought that he shouldn’t do, but i didn’t want to tell him that i thought it wasn’t a good idea, but he persisted, and i ended up saying no. so he decided that he wanted to call president for permission. i said go for it. president was mad at him. president fried him for a while and then the division was over. now we have got a grouchy DL in our zone. yahoo. some days...

NEWS UPDATE:
we have decided to have you guys call us at our lunch on sunday. the trick is that elder rhodes’ parent ALSO want to talk to him!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! WHAT A TRAVESTY!!! ...SO ... we are going to have to schedule a specific time for you guys to call. [YOUR TIME IS:] 14:30 rio standard time : ) that is to say two-thirty here, OR ... actually, i have no idea what time it will be there in phoenix, BUT since you guys have free internet access and incredible ability to find out good information like this, i am confident you will figure it out. so i am also going to give the lunch telephone number. (21-2450-1917) maybe you can try that one first and then our cell. IF WHEN YOU CALL ONE, IT IS BUSY, CALL THE OTHER. elder rhodes’ family has the time slot for 3:30, but also, as you guys know, the schedule thing didn’t work out so good last time too. if when you call and the person just speaks portuguese just say 'elder helland' a few times and they should understand. "good luck, and may the force be with you" {any questions further can be directed to the mission office... : ) }

well, this week was all over the place. we had interviews with the president about the needs of our zone. we did a division with the APs. we did another division with our grumpy DL. WE ALSO BAPTIZED BERNARDO!!!!!!!!!! and this week we are going to baptize irene. like i said , her story is COOL. her sons, cleomar and osmar, got baptized when they were young men, and her son osmar went on a mission. since that time she has given lunch to missionaries. that was 21 years ago. she says that since then she has met THOUSANDS of missionaries, and liked some, and not others. she said that she could see when there were good missionaries and when there weren’t. slowly over the years all of her other children have come to into the church and she has listened to the missionaries every time, but never wanted to be baptized. so when we got here, we didn’t know any of this. all we knew was that she was the mom of our ward mission leader and the she wasn’t a member. she loves missionaries, and so she let us set up a lesson with her. IT WAS A COOL LESSON. we taught about the restoration and the importance of following the Savior through baptism. we then challenged her to baptism. she started to make excuses, but we tried to make a baptismal date any way and told her to pray about it. the next time that we went back she had decided to be baptized on that date. she said that she decided to take it seriously this time because she saw that we took it seriously. she says that she saw in us something that she didn’t see very often in missionaries, and because of that, decided to pray to know if it was the right thing to do. she said that that night she could see that everything in her life had led her so that she could be baptized on that day. though all the years of missionaries, they had all helped prepare her to be baptized, they helped her stop smoking, they set a good foundation by baptizing all of her children. about a year ago the man she was living with died. last December, her granddaughter was killed in a terrible car accident, and she witnessed an outpouring of faith from her children, and the love of the ward. and now, two new missionaries were put here. two that didn’t know that she had told all of the other missionaries she didn’t want to be baptized. ------- that’s us. it is pretty cool to be a part of the great plan that Heavenly Father has for EVERYONE OF HIS CHILDREN. he works for everyone, individually. man, it is cool to be a missionary.

well, that is how the cookie crumbles.

alyce=- holy smokes- that is an awesome speech. pretty spunky. (elder rhodes thought it was cool too) good luck with all those gnarly tests- i know that you will rock. (ps; fiscal and monetary plans are simple for missionaries in brazil- the difference is this- I NEVER HAVE money = monetary plan, and I DONT HAVE MONEY = fiscal plan. see how the word money and monetary both start with ""mone-"". ... sheesh, that was an easy one, i guess i am still sharp as ever. i hope i made that clear.

MOM - love you and i guess that i will talk to you soon.

dad- well i have got a poopy story for you. : AHEM. so the other day we were walking over this over-pass that goes over the train tracks, and we were just talking as we walked. (it is a HUGE over-pass) well, i looked up the front and saw this bum sitting against the that little cement wall thing that guards the sidewalk from the cars. ... yep, that is right, he was talking a poo. i was like, "gross!!, elder, don’t look up." you know what happens when people say stuff like that, ... he looked up. well, we were getting closer to him all the time, until it got the point when we were about to pass him. THAT is when he decided to start wiping with the newspaper garbage on the ground. it was really gross. it smelled terrible too. and now i don’t even like crossing that part of the bridge.

gotta go now, love you guys, I’ll talk to ya sunday

love
ELDER HELLAND!!!!! (or buddy boy, but only you can call me that )