the bigger they are, the harder they fall...

Letter 1-12-09

this is my companions LAST pday. the poor guys is super sad, as you can imagine. today we are going to an all you can eat pizza place w/ some other missionaries to try and lighten him up. so i think that this letter will have to be short again. sorry. the good news it that i got the 2nd package you guys sent - full of christmas stuff that we have being giving to everyone. we found out the problem- why stuff isn’t getting here fast: the post office opens some packages. when that happens it takes a lot longer to get here. they don’t take anything, usually, but they open it up to see what is in it. i hope that the package from gma and gpa still gets here. :-)

mom- the truth is that i have a TON of pictures on my camera. most of the coolest i sent to you. so you are going to be a pioneer, huh? pretty awesome. don’t let this trek stuff affect your grades : ) this week we are working with a lot of young men. most are less active, but we got them excited to go to church and they brought their friends. almost all of them are the only members in their families, but they are excited to bring other people to church with them. we are also teaching 2 preachers and a deacon. one of the pastors went to church last week, but not yesterday. we have been exceedingly blessed with new people to teach, but are still working hard to help some of them be baptized.

alyce- WHAT THE HECK IS SPEECH PATHOLOGY? it sounds totally awesome. i really have no idea what pathology means so i cant even guess what it is. is it kind of like "the science of cross word puzzles"?

actually, we sing a LOT! in sac meeting, other meetings, and in lessons. when i was with elder rhodes we sang everywhere. once we were invited to sing “lead kindly light” in relief society, and it was so cool. a whole bunch of the sisters were crying at the end, and the next couple of weeks after lunch with the members they would ask us to sing it again for them. it is fun. the problem is when my companion sings, it’s WORSE than me. THEN, we are sunk!

DAD- talk about an underdog story! i hope they pull it off. it is funny, because here in brazil people really love their soccer teams. making fun of someone’s team is like insulting their mom- its fighting words. the funny part is that the biggest team here in Rio is the flamingos. doesn’t sound fearsome at all, huh? but if you tell someone that the name is wussy- you run the risk of them shooting you. elder carvalho was telling me how every team has its own songs and stuff. then he sampled some of their songs for me. they were all really dumb, and i was thankful that the only songs at prof sports games in the states is 'we will rock you', 'national anthem' and the occasional 'take me out to the ball game'.

well, i still got to write an email to pres and send all of the numbers from the zone to the office, so next week i will try and write more detailed stuff.

love elder helland

well my comp is finishing up his email right now and i thought that i could send a few more thoughts...

this week one thing happened that was really funny. we visited an investigator that is the husband of a member. he wants to get baptized, but has to stop smoking first. anyway, at the end of our visit, elder carvalho asked to use the bathroom. "sure", he said. while e. carvalho was in the bathroom, i was chatting with the investigator in the living room. after about 6 or 7 min elder carvalho comes out and we said goodbye and left the house. we went down the stairs and were in the street already when elder carvalho runs and says, "dang, i forgot to flush!!" he then ran all the way to the house and up the stairs. he didn’t even knock, just went in and ran to the bathroom to flush. i was a little behind him because i was laughing so hard that I couldn’t run well. the best part is the when elder carvalho went in to flush, the man was in the bathroom already- brushing his teeth!!

well, elder carvalho, finished now, i gotta go. he is a little embarrassed that i sent this story to you guys. ha ha .

love elder helland

Sorry!

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to our family and friends who have written Adam, sent packages, and especially remembered him in your prayers! We are truly appreciative! For the Christmas phone call, he said he is anxious to work hard and remain focused for his last 6 months, finding and serving those the Lord guides him to. We hope you all have a wonderful New Year! :-)
Letter 1-5-08 and OLD pics! :-)

I am sorry to say that i wrote a really great letter to you guys and then the power went out. 3 pages of great experiences from this week, the most of which are in my journal and I will share them with you later. Problem: I am now out of time to write more.

I hope you know that I love you guys and the the letter that almost got to you was huge and awesome. But that is the way the cookie crumbles.
Love ya
Elder helland

FYI - I was catching up on Adam's Missionary Scrapbook last week and found some pics that I hadn't posted from last summer. I'll attach them here - but they are from July when he was with Elder Rhodes. :-)