American Ronaldinho gets an Emergency Transfer!

Bah!! What a week! (I´m pretty sure I say that every week). How is everyone? 

This has been the hardest week so far but I´ve also been the most blessed. The story starts last Monday. P-Day! Like usual, it was a great day. We ran lots of errands. We went to the post office to send letters. I love going there for a few reasons. First of all, in Brazil, they dont have the sticky stuff on the back of their letters! Its super annoying because you have to glue it and it gets all messy and I always mannage to get glue on my fingers or tie. Luckily, I still have a little stack of American envelopes. Thats one reason why I like going. I also like going because I send letters to different countries. It makes me feel important. The third reason is because the same lady helps me every time but she is always so shocked to see letters going to the states! Than she asks why and I have to explain that im American all over again! Super fun. We went to the church and played some futeball!! I loved it. Futeball here is super hard because you play on cement. You have to work really hard to control the ball but its so fun. I think im getting better! The Brazilians like to call me American Ronaldinho.... I dont know why... but ill take it!

Monday night we went to the church and filled up the baptismal font for the morning. Ahh, what a great sound! We set everything up, ran to a quick appointment, and called it a night! It was such a beautiful day. At 10:29 pm, as I was brushing my teeth, we got a call from the Assistants to the President (Never a good thing). My companions face gets red (normal) and I knew it wasnt gonna be good! As he got off the phone I sinked into my covers to finally rest for the night and he says, ´´Elder! Wake up! Your getting transfered in the morning!´´

Bah!! Seriously? President Castro called for an emergency transfer and wanted me to leave! I got up, packed, cleaned the appartment a bit, and went to bed really late at night. It was such a shock to me. The next morning we woke up early to go to the church and prepare for the baptism. Wahoo! The baptism went really well. Our little Yuri was baptised and is now a member of the church! I loved it. The baptism went great.. even if I got no sleep.. even if  would never be able to see them for who knows how long! Right after the family left, we bolted out the door with the Zone Leaders, got my bags, and took a taxi to the bus station. When we got to the bus station the assistants called. They said there were a few problems and I wouldnt leave til the next day! Ha!! We took another taxi back home and carried my heavy bags up three flights. We spent the afternoon going to a few appointments and saying goodbye to a few people. It was really great.

On Wednesday I was off! Unfortunately, I was companionless for the 4 hour bus ride, but luckily I was able to catch a few zzz´s on the bus! Now heres a cool story. I get to the bus station in Porto Alegre and it was huge!! I have been there one time before but I had no idea where to go to find the missionaries waiting for me. I decided to walk to where we all were last time and then put it in the Lords hands! Literally two minutes after waiting, a member comes up to me and we start conversing. She asks the usual questions, where I am from, how long I have been out, then she mentions how she just talked to some other missionaries at the bus stop! I asked where she talked to them and thanked her. I went to where she said and there were 3 missionaries waiting for me!! How cool is that? I have no doubt that the friendly member was a little angel sent to help me out in a really big building where I wasnt supposed to be alone. She had no idea that she had helped me but if she never talked to me, I could have gotten lost! Its a good testimony builder on how the Lord is watching over us. No matter how alone we think we are.. were not! He is our friend and he will keep us safe.

My new companion is Elder Da Silva. He is from northern Brazil and has a huge accent! He is the hardest person to understand. My area now is São Tomé, Viamão. Its huge! I love it and I can see alot of things happening here. Im super excited. Its definitally different not being able to talk about basketball and America everyday, but its totally worth it! Im struggling because its a little more difficult but each day I see so many blessings and I am having so much fun! Wahoo!

Heres another funny thing about Brazil. The politics here are ridiculous!!! I will never think American politics will be annoying ever again! In Pelotas, every half hour a car would drive down the road blasting a catchy tune on why you should vote for someone. I love it. I always start dancing and wave at the car as it passes. They also like to have parades. The best one had a huge truck blasting music with 4 cars behind it decked out in propaganda. To top it off, there were ten guys driving motorcycles with flags and people walking the streets with flyers!! (Ya I really want to vote for him now). There are posters everywhere! I get about six flyers a day! Its really funny because I tell them Im American and cant vote in their country but they persist to give me the flyer! Than I say im a missionary and cant be involved with personal opinions and they still want to give it to me!!! It makes no sense!! I love it here.

I have plenty more to write about but I think im done for today! I want to congratulate myself. I now weigh under 180 pounds! Before the mission I was just a tiny but under 200. Yay rice and beans! Anyways. I love you all and hope everything is well for another week in our great lives!

Love,

Elder Horst 

Food, food and then some more food!

This week has been fantastic as usual! We are working hard in this area trying to get as much done as possible. I have really exciting news. We have another baptism tomorrow!! There is a family that has moved into our ward. They have a 9 year old son that hasnt been baptized yet! My companion and I were able to teach him the lessons and prepare him. They want to have his baptism tomorrow because tomorrow is his 10th aniversary. Its going to be a little difficult for us to prepare because its at 9 in the morning, but we will make it work:) I am super excited for this family and my friend Yuri. He made a great choice by wanting to be baptized!

Besides that there isnt too much to talk about. We have a few progressing investigators that will hopefully go to chuch next week! Nobody was at church yesterday because it was pouring rain and most people had to walk.

I have eaten soo much food this week and I have had some pretty amazing meals! I realized I havent really talked about food so I will do that today! At the begining of the week we received some money from a member to buy some food. Elder Casimeiro asked if he could make a meal for us. He made Baião de dois. Its a really popular meal  in the north of Brazil. He cooked a pound of Rice, a pound of Brown Beans, a pound of cheese, with onions and peppers then mixed it all up! Wow it was so good!! Apparently, they put in way too much cheese but I love meals with cheese... it was delicious!

Everytime we go to a members house we eat rice and black beans. Its really good. They usually have something to go with it like noodles, stroganoff, or a meat. Its super delicious. On thursday we went to a members house that had my second favorite meal!! It was rice with shredded chicken. It also had a bit of creamy tomato sauce. On the side were some really good potatoes. I love that meal so much. My third favorite meal here is lasagna.

More exciting news for the week, the mission recieved microwaves!!!! Wahoo!! To celebrate we went out and bought some frozen food to eat for lunch. At BIG we bought some hot pockets (pronounced hotchy pockets in portuguese:) They are not the delicious pizza snack like you would find in america. They were frozen Burgers. I got a bacon cheese burger. They were super expensive and soooo gross!! Ahh it was a horrible idea!! All the frozen food is way expensive here so I dont think we will be using that microwave too much. Its cool that we have it though!! 

We ended lunch by playing some games.

The mission has been so great. Its been getting so much more hot here, but I am not having any problems! I hope the same goes for all of you. Have a great week!

Elder Horst

Found this bat in a container on top of the fridge.....eeewww!

Saw this mother and baby turtle while out walking.

This photo is of a little boy at church.  His Dad only speaks English to him and his Mom only speaks Portuguese to him.  He never talks and is super shy of the missionaries.  I love to play with him and talk to him in English! 

Mission Newsletter

Elder Horst is in this newsletter, welcoming the new missionaries to the Porto Alegre South Mission.

Dia Do Pais

Ola meu amigos! How is everyone this week?

 For me, this week flew by faster than ever! Now that I am in my second transfer I like to think that Im all settled in and I know exactly what is going on! This is not completely true, but I like to think that way. We are working very hard on getting new investigators! When you are in a small area you have to be very creative! Sometimes I feel like I have talked to every single person that lives in my area, but I know that there are plenty more people to find and teach!!!

I love Chicao's family!  Chicao and his wife Suce Clara, Malu (black shirt), Michelle (back, left) and her boyfriend, Elder Fereira, Elder Davies, Elder Measom, and Elder Horst.

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.

Sunday was a very special day for two different reasons! First, it was Fathers Day in Brazil, (Mothers Day in Brazil is the same as the states, but for some reason Fathers Day isnt!) Everyone asked about my Dad and I was really proud to talk about him! Only one question... How do you explain what a city manager is in Portuguese?? I have a hard enough time explaining it in English!! Also on Sunday was stake Confrence! That was such a great experience. Our stake building was filled with people! There were 4 tour busses that came because some wards were as far as 3 hours away. I sat so far in the back that the conductor of the music looked like he was off beat! We were able to hear from the Area Authority and the counselor of the Porto Alegre Temple. He was raised in Utah and now lives in Virgina and is now serving a mission at the Temple. Afterwards, he came up and talked to my companion and I... Probably because we were the only Americans there!!

The language is coming along just fine! People are saying that I am doing really good for the short time i have been here. When it comes to teaching and using ´Church Vocab´´, I am really good! I still have a hard time understanding ´normal talk´´, but that will come soon! I cant wait!

One of my favorite things to do here is have fun (obviously). I love learning about the culture and doing things that are new to me but that people like to do here. For example, Chimarrão. Its a really gross drink that always burns my mouth but I love it!! I drink it all the time. One time we went to a non members house and the mom was a bit crazy! Her kids were baptized but she still needs to get married. She was eating a lime that she dipped in salt! I thought it was crazy and told her that! She wanted me to try it and I graciously did! I can promise you that it was the most sour, and disgusting thing I have ever eaten!! She died laughing when she saw my face! It was gross but worth it because now we are really good friends:)

The weather has been super weird here! Its supposed to be cold but its so hot every day! Yesterday it started pouring rain and we got soaking wet! Luckily, we were able to run to an appointment and it wasnt too bad. Its always so humid here. The walls in our appartment once dripped water cause the air was so wet! IT was really cool. If its already this hot in winter, I cant wait for summer!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and having fun!

Elder Horst

I asked Elder Horst to give me details about any dog experiences.....This is what he said:

" The dogs arent too bad. Mostly they are really annoying and bark at my face. Every now and than one will get aggressive. Sometimes we just keep walking until it ignores us. If that doesnt work, or if its a big dog all you have to do is bend over and pick up a rock. They get really scared at that. If not, you throw the rock in their direction, if that doesnt work, you throw it at them! If that doesnt work... you run!! haha. but I havent needed to throw any, but i have pretended to a few times. Its not anything scary."

District Fatima

Cute, he said it was a beautiful day!

They bought some gauchos, Elder Davies' is on the top, Elder Horst's is in the middle and Elder Measom's is at the bottom.

Elder Davies, Elder Measom, and Elder Horst sporting their new gauchos!

Elder Davies and Elder Horst bought Elder Measom a good bye gift.

  (Don't know what it is....)He is home from his mission now.

Super Great Week!

This week was super great! We had so many things to do and our nights were booked for the whole week! Thats always a great thing for a missionary. We were able to baptize Chicão on Saturday. It was such a great blessing for him and his family! There was a small road bump, but things worked out great. At 8 in the morning we went to the church to turn on the water and set up the room; Things were going great! We turned on the heater to make things more comfortable and it didnt work! Ah! We spent the next three or so hours trying to fix the problem but nothing was working. We finally stopped and went to eat lunch with a member. During lunch it started poring down rain. There was tons of lightning and everything was getting wet. We quickly got back to the church. Unfortunitally, the rain leaked into the baptismal font and the water turned a really bad dark green color!! It was not a big deal, but we didnt want that for our investigator! We found some clorine and threw it in. About an hour before the meeting started we were able to get the heater to work. At 5:30 we had a very nice Baptimal Meeting for Chicão. Many people from the ward came and it was a very spiritual experience.

The next day we were able to confirm him as a member of the church and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is one of the most important things we can receive on this earth! I was very happy for him and I hope to see more good things to come.

My favorite missionaries in front of our apartment, on our last Sunday together.

Elder Horst, Elder Pereira, Elder Measom and Elder Davies

On thursday I was invited to go to a English Class held in a community center. I went with Elder Measom. There were about ten people there and only one of them was a member, For half an hour I was able to talk in English about the language, my mission, and my life back home. It was so much fun! They asked so many questions about what life is like and what popular things people like to do in the states. I really enjoyed it! It was nice to speak english, it was even better to be able to teach people who we were and what our purpous is but it was so great that I was around people who knew exactily how I felt!! Learning a language is very overwhelming but its so worth and and there are many plus sides to knowing two languages!

I had more to talk about, but I forgot my notes... Whoops! Today is transfer day and I am not moving! I am lucky to stay here for another 6 weeks to teach the people in Pelotas. I have a few goals these next few weeks. First I want to really push my language study. After the next six weeks I want to be able to understand people way more. I want to improve my vocab so I can say more and be able to share stories with people. (Pass tense). I want another person to come unto the waters of Baptism. I want to make a close relationship with the ward and most important I want to work harder to be a better person each day.

I hope everyone is doing well. Love you all!!

Elder Horst