ih-eh!

Hello Family and Friends - I am soooo sorry I am soooo behind on posting Adam's letters - this has to be a record for me (a bad record!). Anyway, I'm posting 4 tonight so enjoy! P.S. Adam's coming home date has changed. He flies out of Rio the evening of June 24 and arrives in Phoenix the morning of June 25. We're very excited! He will give his "homecoming" talk on July 12 if anyone is interested in coming. :-)

Letter from 4-20-09

ih-eh! is this weird colloquial saying here in tres rios. it is pronounced with the "ih" as in the "spit" and "eh" as in "any" (just the vowel sounds). it is really common for the young people to say. they use it like "no way!" our "whatever!" or "gross!". funny, huh! but they say it a LOT!

this week we had a baptism on saturday, but I didn’t get any pictures. one of the other missionaries did and we are going to print a few out today. her name is milena and she was a teenage punk. she still is a teenage punk. her mom kept asking before the baptism if her daughter might be magically different after the dunk in the water. i kindly explained to her AGAIN, that the gospel doesn’t work that way was and that it isn’t magic. just like pres uchtdorf said- continued faithfulness is the key. the gospel has the power to change, BUT only if they keep on going to church and reading the scriptures and praying everyday. maybe years, but things will get better. she believes me but still wishes that there were some more magic involved.

this week we had a great meeting with pres.! actually, all meetings are great with pres.! Even though i was totally sick and weird, i learned a ton.

we had some really stupid problems in the zone this week. one dumb missionary doesn’t like one of the other missionaries that he lives with. both sets of missionaries work in the same ward. i guess one spread a bunch of rumors about the new missionary. it was a really good experience for me because i felt the Lord lead me and help me know what to do. it is a long story that i don’t really want to tell right now. suffice it to say that things are getting better in their house and ward now.

president called a new mission counselor, a guy name Tita. he was a very famous soccer player once upon a time - won the world cup once or twice and stuff. he is pretty cool.

MOM- the bus ride was miserable. thanks for helping me remember. the big stake missionary activity happens tomorrow and i am a little nervous bc we have a dumb missionary who doesn’t want to participate. (yep, same dumb missionary as above.) just so you know, the majority of your letter was this weird proposition that you cancelled at the end. :) hey, what ever we do is fine with me. i don’t know about the cape, though. not that i have my reputation at stake or anything... :)

DAD- if you think that you have writers block- then i have family block. i block you guys out for a week and then suddenly i have to write down something to make you guys happy. some days i just feel like working and keeping the family block up.:-)

ALYCE- hey, i ended up getting the little note from you from last week. thx and sorry. tell nathan that i don’t have to get an email from him. if it is weird for me to get it, it is probably WAY weirder to write it. I want you to know that i am doing my best here, but it is still REALLY weird for me. so be patient.

TYSON- hey sweet guitar dude. i had a companion that played the guitar in some our investigators houses just to help that relax and to show that we were interested in them. on your mission you will use you musical skill ALWAYS. so be sure to learn some hymns along with all that heavy metal. (Truthfully, i have grown to like acoustics these days- they use them a lot here.)

LOVE elder helland