hey there goonies...

Hey fam!

Sorry last week’s letter was lame. I think the problem was the fever and the meds. But i am good now. I ran a fever for a few more hours after and then i was good to go. The next day i was already chomping at the bit to find some people to baptize !! the biggest challenge this week was my comp. Let me tell you about him.

He is from são paulo, is 25 years old. He was baptized when he was 12 with a good friend of his. No one else in his family are members of the church. He is from a favela and loves to tell stories about his life before the mission :-) Believe you me, he had an interesting life, ... for an american mormon anyway it was interesting. Any way, these last weeks he has been pretty tough. I learned a lot from the other troubles that I have had with companions, and we are great friends, but he is passing through some tough times now. His mission ends in January, and he is not really wanting to work any more. I wrote an email to president today, and we have talked to pres a few times, and we’ll see if some thing gives.

I have a ton of pictures that i want to send you guys, but this lan house doesn’t let us download either. (today is a holiday, so almost all of the stores are closed.) This week is transfers. I have been in this area for 7 going on 8 months now, so it is probable that i will be moved this week. BUT, i have heard of missionaries that have stayed much longer in one area, so...

We are now working with different families. We stopped visiting a lot of the families that were getting ready to be baptized, for various reasons. This last week, we knocked a lot of doors. I mean a LOT. We found a lot of people that DONT want to here our message. It was funny. One time this lady was yelling at us that she already “knew” Jesus. I was out of patience for these people, so i asked her if she knew any one that “knew” Jesus and liked Him and would like to hear more about Him. She got angry and started talking about how she liked Jesus and a bunch of other stuff. She didn’t like that i implied that she didn’t like Jesus. It was funny. Another time, after a long day of having people yell mean stuff at us, we were knocking doors again. We came to this big gate and clapped our hands [that’s what they do in Brazil instead of knocking on the door, they clap their hands]. “who is it?” they yelled. And elder andré responded, “ the Mormons!” they didn’t answer or come to the door. :-)

Mom- sorry, didn’t carry all the Christmas stuff with me. I gave a lot of it to brazilian missionaries that think that that kind of stuff is really cool. As far as presents go, i am good. Whatever’s clever, you know.

Dad- whahoo, joe ferry. I remember visiting that guy. Holy smokes. That is awesome.

Alyce- i really like that idea about tolerance. I guess that God is intolerant of sin, but loves unconditionally, that is a tough attribute to acquire. Like Christ says, it is easy to love those that are like us and love us, it is HARD to love our enemies. I guess that we can be INTOLERANT of sin, but we have to FORGIVE all men. It is an interesting concept. I guess when i see all this stuff that i know makes our Savior sad, i just think about how i can teach them to repent. It is really hard to love those that don’t want to repent, that don’t want to do what is right. THAT is hard for me. Because i feel so sad knowing that they will not return to the presence of the father like that. There is nothing we can do about others free agency, it is after all “the most precious gift we have been give, next to life itself, the power to direct that life.. :-)”

Well, i got to go, until next week,
Love
Elder helland

ps - this week i ate pigs feet for the first time. i always thought is was just a joke of mom’s. it was gross!!! my piece had little poky hairs pointing out of it. yeeeeaaaallkkkk!!