... Fearlessly Extraordinary...: Up up and away!!

Letter from 8-18-08
Eric figured out how to save these pics as jpegs - he's so smart! :-)

So this last week was awesome!! Sorry that you guys didn’t get my letter last week. Too bad, it was huge. I promise that I tried to send it but, I don’t know what happened. I put a bunch of pictures in it and I don’t know which ones to send this week… I guess that I will just send a bunch.

So yesterday we had the baptism of Washington. I told you guys about him in the letter that I sent last week, but I guess that you didn’t get that one…
He is the son of an inactive member family that we started teaching a few weeks ago. They came back to church and we taught the lessons to them and he got baptized. He is 11 years old, but he reads the BoM everyday with his family.

At his baptism the primary sang, “procure arco-iris”, then elder sidney baptized him. (twice b/c Washington’s feet came up)Then in sacrament meeting I confirmed him. Turns out I said some of the words wrong b/c the bishop said that I have to re-confirm him next week. Oh well.

Also i went the airport this week,... that was weird. My group from the CTM had to go and re-new our visas with the government so that we could stay one more year. The weird thing was that someone was like, “hey, next time that we are here together we are going home…” then there was this huge silence as everyone got really sad for a little while. The fun part was, no wait, there were TWO fun parts. The first was that while we were waiting in the federal police area, and we waited FOREVER, we got to talk to people from all over the world. We talked with them, mostly in English. I got to teach the restoration for the first time in English! It was so cool, but super hard. I found it really hard to speak in English, especially about the gospel! The words that came to my brain were Portuguese and the people there didn’t speak Portuguese. We had a blast teaching people as they waited to be interviewed by the police guys. Some Americans were there. Some French, Italian, Russian, Spanish and English too. It was a ton of fun.

The other fun part was when I ran into my life long friend, Superman. He came in on a flight from the states and asked if I was taking care of things here in brasil. I told him that I was doing a different kind of saving these days, and then I gave him a pass-along-card. It was fun to remember the good ole days with him. Flying around and saving pretty ladies that fall from helicopters. I guess white jump suits and a tiny swimming pool is just as cool. Actually it is way cooler!!

MOM- sorry you didn’t get the last letter, but that one might be gone forever. At zone conference we didn’t train on anything, and the changes were all anticipated. No more movies, p-day on Monday, no more three Sunday requirement for baptism, and a bunch of rules that involve how the missionaries get permission to do stuff. Viviane and Anderson are doing great; we had lunch with them this last week. Their daughter still is pretty distant, but she loves the YW activities. I guess that is a start. E. Sidney got your letters, but he can’t e-mail you back (against mission rules - immediate family only); he promised to write in a few weeks though…
Go ahead and send me the papers to fill out for BYU. The president is way supportive of college, so he will help too.

Dad- make sure that you help the states beat those commies! Just kidding. I guess that brasil is doing good at soccer right now, and that is all that they care about.

Alyce- whoa, that IS a red letter day, huh? I’m no expert, but I don’t think that you should make running into other people’s cars a habit. Just a heads up there…
You should come to brasil, here the car rides FEEL like coasters! Sorry that I am a slacker and didn’t mail your letter forever. Maybe next year :-)

Tchau!!
Love elder helland
Up, UP, and Away!