Transfer week...

Letter from 9-8-08 - I'm behind so I'm posting his last two letters today. :-)

This week is transfers; which is to say that elder sidney goes home in 2 days... i am really not sure how transfers are going to work out this week, but i am sure that is will be exciting. so on thursday i will have a new companion or be in a new area, i guess you will hear all about it this next week.

i am in a internet cafe shop that i have never used before, and this place stinks- i have no credits here, so i can’t write all that much, also there are a bunch of punk teenagers here yelling and each other and making a bunch of noise.. it is hard to think. (actually, i think that i always had a hard time thinking- it was never really one of my strong points :) )

this last week was so awesome, we had a bunch of really neat experiences as well as some that were pretty funny. yesterday we taught a lesson to this lady and her neighbor. they loved it and accepted all of the commitments that we left. She was a little weird, but i won’t complain as long as she goes to church. it was funny because for all of the prayers she wanted us to all stand up and hold hands to form a "chain of peace and love". we declined and told her that she could pray sitting down with out touching anyone. :) she was cool, but she liked to talk as much as we did, which usually causes problems. about halfway through that lesson she asked where i was from. i told her, and after that she treated me different. she would only talk to elder sidney and asked him to translate for me. the first couple of times elder sidney actually did, to make me laugh i think. she would say something to him and tell him to tell it to me. he doesn’t speak english, so he just would say it again in portuguese. she seemed satisfied with this, but i thought that it was ridiculous. i told her that i had been here more that a year and that i understood everything that she said. i think that she started to figure out that i was annoyed with her treating me like that, so she started saying stuff to me. but she would talk like a cave man to me. her talk like this me. it bad. hard understand. i no like. but was funny. ... it was really funny to tell the truth. but she was nice. {smile} when she found out that i was american she formally welcomed me to brasil. she stood up and took my hand and gave a speech about peace and our countries and everything. i was dying, it was so funny and weird.

on saturday we did a service project with our ward painting a school. at the same place as last time. i did a division with some missionaries in our zone and got to work in some other areas with them. i was great to be able to get to know them.

MOM- don’t worry mom, one day i will tell the story to you guys. the lady that we baptized was Irene, which was here with elder rhodes. she is strong in the church. we helped her get a job working in the house of president bezerra, and now she does EVERYTHING in the mission that has to do with food. if there is a zone conference and there is lunch after- she makes and organizes it. if missionaries get here or are going home- she makes the food. if a seventy comes to visit- she makes the food. which is cool because she as met a bunch of general authorities like that and what is more important- she loves us, and especially me bc i helped baptize her, right!? :) she cleans the presidents house so she "sees" things. for example, she always knows who my next companion will be, if i will be transferred and where, like the week before anyone else knows. it is funny. when elder rhodes was transferred, she had told us a few days before that we were both going to stay... i guess sometimes she is wrong too. so we don’t trust TOO much in her insider tips.

DAD- good luck with the vampire books. i am reading the D&C. WHOA that stuff is heavy!!! have you ever heard of the book "the doctrine and covenants of the future"? i know that is sounds like apostasy, but it is AWESOME!! it is like a doctrinal exposition of the scripture and what they could imply!!! i have read a few articles. it is really interesting and not at all apostasy. see it you guys can get it, it is fun. another one that is cool is The Great Apostasy by talmage. obviously i can’t read these books right now, but i CAN read printed our clips and chapters. i happen to have a "source " in the mission that supplies me with sweet talks from all kinds of cool people.

alyce-- you are a party animal!! anything to have fun and not work- man you are cool :) just so you know whenever other missionaries or families that we teach see pictures of you they say, " man, your girlfriend is beautiful." to which i inevitably respond, "uhh. you mean my sister?..." [insert awkward silence] take it easy skater-college-girl!!

until next week, wonder where i will be... hmm

love elder helland