Transfer Day

Hello everyone! Today is transfer day. The week before transfers are always so exciting because everyone is wondering and guessing what will happen and where they will go! Well today I was blessed to be able to stay in this area! Saõ Tomè. Also, I will have the same companion. Things are great in this area! Im so excited to continue to progress and have success here.

With transfers, there are usually new goals made! One goal that my companion really wanted was to run each day in the morning! Now, Im not too excited for that one, but Im happy to do it. I think it will help us out alot and of course, will allow me to eat more chocolate here. Wahoo! I want a lot of baptisms this transfer and think we can get them if we work hard enough. Well see what happens!

So this week was great! It was funny, my companion was almost positive that he was getting transferred so he talked to everyone saying that it would be his last time with them. They will be shocked when they see him again. On Sunday we had to do a division. My companion went with a Brazilian and I went with a brand new American. All the Brazilian had to justify their vote for the elections  (Brazilians are required to vote). Its really annoying but he finally got it taken care of. We went to church in my ward and it was the primary program. The primary did so good! There was about twenty of them, which is a lot for a small branch. I tried singing the songs with them, but I only have them memorized in English... Sorry!

Sunday also brought a great experience for me. I was able to confirm Linda a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was my first time doing it and I was really nervous. I spent the whole week preparing for it. When I gave the blessing I really felt good and I spoke really good Portuguese. I felt like some of the words were put in to my mouth. I definitely know that the holy spirit helped me. I was grateful for the experience.

Its starting to get really hot here. And of course, with the heat, comes the insects and rodents! I have seen so many creatures roaming around haha. It really hasn't bothered me yet. I have seen lots and lots of snake skin on the ground but I havent seen a live snake yet. Luckily, our house is pretty clean, so it wont attract any weird bugs. Although, I like the spiders, because they eat the flies. I like the lizards, cause they eat the spiders. Its a win win situation:)

Today I went to the school in our area to talk to the English teacher there. She wants me to stop by one day and teach the kids about America and what its like there! Im so excited to do that! The teacher actually lived in San Fransisco for a year. I think she speaks pretty good English. I told her that on that day shes not allowed to speak Portuguese to me:)Tomorrow is the baptism of my good friend in the branch. She just turned 8 and is so excited for baptism! My companion and I had the opportunity to teach her the mission lessons just to help her understand the importance of baptism.

Wish me luck on my next transfer! Im so grateful and happy to be here on the mission. I want to congratulate my really really really good friend Brinkley on becoming engaged! I am really excited for her to prepare for the temple and live with a family that can be together for eternity.

Until next week,

Elder Horst

Time to Change the Toothbrush!

Well well well, it seems as though I have made it to the 6 month mark! Wahoo! Thats cause for a week of celebration dont you think?? Its been a fantastic 6 months full of experiences and opportunity. Im excited for the next 1 1/2. Before I start I want to make an announcement! Some of you might have already known, but on average, the church receives 600 applications of people that want to serve a mission each week. Last week, the church received 7,000. WOW. How exciting is that? Its so fun to see the growth in the church. I am blessed every day to be able to help out with that work. I have a few good stories for you.

On Saturday we were able to baptize Linda. Linda is 16 with the maturity of a 25 year old. It was such a special day. I was able to conduct the meeting and my companion was able to baptize her. There was an emergency that caused her to miss church this week but I will be able to confirm her a member of the church next Sunday. Linda has three brothers, 18 years, 13 years, and 12 years old. Right now we are working on teaching them and getting them a baptism date as well. It would be really nice if they were all baptized so they could grow and stick together through easy and hard times.

Our other investigator is starting to progress very rapidly. He has been to church twice with a member family. He has stopped whispering during the prayers (which was good cause it was always hard to focus when he did that!). He isnt as hesitant with us and asks really good questions. Also, last night we all went to another member family and he was able to bond with them. Everything is working out good, its just going very slowly one step at a time. We decided to push back his baptism date from the 27 to the 10 of November. I think this is best for him because he still has a lot of passion for his other religion. Im excited to see him progress.

 I am so happy with my area. We seem to be having alot of success. Transfer day is next week and my companion has a ´feeling´ that he will get transferred. I think we will stick together for one more but who knows! Last Tuesday was the conference of zones. I thought it was really good and I learned a lot! I love going to the conference because you get to meet up with your old companions and friends. I saw almost everyone from my group in the CTM and other friends as well including Elder Cox! Zone conference helps you remember your purpose. why your here, and what you need to do to have success!

This week I saw a snake and the Biggest Spider ive ever seen in my life!! Luckily It was in the road and I was in a car, but I was still freaked out. Its starting to get really hot and all the little creatures are starting to come out:) We have had a really late summer here. The people are shocked at how cool its been. I dont have a problem with that! haha, they say when its really hot in January or February you will end up taking two or three showers a day! Thats alot of laundry...

Today my companion got permission from the president to return to his first area. We are going to a members house to eat some good food! Im really excited. I want to share with you the talk that was given by the presidents wife at the conference. She talked about how to have a good attitude and animation in your life. She gave us 4 things to work on and I want to challenge you to work on these things too!

1. Attitude : Always wake up with a positive attitude and keep it throughout the day

2. Work: Always try to improve your skills and talents

3. Gratitude to the Lord: Be thankful for your blessings, your trials, your family and friends, and all the things you have in life

4. Pray with faith and ask for more faith: With faith in the Lord, all things are possible!

Do this and I promise you will be blessed and receive more happiness in your life. Thanks for all!

Elder Horst

This is Elder Horst and Elder Cox

Elder Cox is from Rocklin and Sean got to know him a little before Elder Cox left for his mission.  I think Elder Cox has been in Brazil about 4 months longer than Elder Horst.  They have a special bond knowing they are from the same city and the same Stake :)

A Week To Remember!

This week was filled with fun and good times topped off with a trip to the temple! My zone was able to attend a session at the Porto Alegre Temple. It is actually zoned in the Brazil, Porto Alegre North Mission but we got special permission to go. It was such a cool opportunity and it was all in Portuguese! That made it even more fun. For those of you who dont know, the temple is a house of the Lord. Worthy members of the church have an opportunity to go there to feel close to the spirit and make promises and covenants with God. What a blessing! Through baptism and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, every one has an opportunity to go to the temple and partake of these things! Temples are always beautiful and a good place to forget all your worries of the world.

We focused this part of the week on members, less-actives, and our progressing investigators. After two weeks of teaching, our investigator Cesah went to church! What a blessing that was! He has been so hard to teach because he is dedicated to his other religion. Little by little he has started to receive answers to his prayers and good feelings about our church. We set a baptismal date for him on the 27 of October. Through faith and perseverance, I know that he will be prepared to enter into the waters of Baptism!

One of the biggest problems Cesah has is understanding the concept of Authority from God. Only one church has true priesthood authority from God, The Church of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith received this authority from Peter, James and John and it has been passed on by the laying on of hands. Now, there are many worthy people that hold this priesthood and that is a great blessing! Without this priesthood power, men cannot perform ordinances of God.

Heres a kinda funny story. On Saturday there was a birthday party for two kids in the branch. There were to be investigators, non members and cake, so of course, my companion and I were there! We were asked to go early and help set up decorations. We finished around 12 and decided to go home for lunch and then return in time for the party. We were walking home and I stopped and remembered that I left the keys to the house at the party! Even worse, we couldnt return to the party, because everyone left for lunch and the doors were locked! We decided to get to the house and find a way in. On the way there I remembered that the window next to my bed was really easy to open from the outside. I used a credit card to jimmy the latch and open the window. We then jumped into the house and had no problem! Haha. Thats what I call creative thinking.

Brazil continues to be good for me and I hope that all is well for you too! Until more..

Elder Horst

Mother's note:  Sean has always had a terrible problem forgetting his keys!!  I have made so many trips to. his school because he was locked out of his truck.  He has had to pay for a few locksmiths because I couldn't find the spare key because he misplaced it also.  One time he even stepped on his keys that were on his bedroom floor and one of them got lodged into his heel.....a trip to the emergency room......Looks like he will always have a key problem.  LOL

A Little Under the Weather! (the weather hasn't been that great either)

Hello Friends and family? How was your week? How was conference? Its officially October! Do you know what your going to be for Halloween? Im going to be a missionary:) I have to be honest, this week has been a bit slow, but nevertheless, it was full of blessings and miracles!

Monday and Tuesday it rained. We had a service project on Wednesday that was really hard! We moved a pile of broken bricks from the road to the guys back yard. It was a lot of work but it turned out to be a real big success! This pile of bricks has been sitting on the busy road for a long time! When people passed and saw that Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ were cleaning it, it really gave us a good image! At one point, a parade passed by and someone running for mayor of the city was on top of a car talking to everyone on a mike. He looked at us and told us thanks for our service! He than went on to say that we need more people like these missionaries in the city! I thought it was really cool.

Ive been a bit sick this week... but if you know me, you know it hasnt slowed me down much. It started a bit on Tuesday. I had a headache and I felt kinda worn out! By Thursday I realized that it was another sinus infection haha. I called the mission home and I was able to get some medicine. It hasnt passed yet, but it will soon! Also, unfortunately my companion has had some really bad knees lately. In a few weeks he has an appointment to get them checked out at the doctor.

Saturday and Sunday I was able to watch conference! It was a bit different than im used to but, just like usual, I felt the spirit so strongly! Our president let us go to the Saturday sessions, but we were only able to make the second one. It was really great! The sessions were at 1 and 5 at night. Unfortunately priesthood was at 9 at night or 6 in the morning so we couldnt go to it... Its really fun to watch conference in Portuguese but its difficult too! By the end of each day I had a huge headache from trying to understand and absorb every single word! It was fun to hear the translations. In the last session, Elder Scott spoke. I wrote in my notes that the church does a really good job at finding translators because he sounds exactly the same as Elder Scott!! I also noted that this translator was particularly good because it seemed like he knew what Elder Scott would say before he actually said it! Thats when my companion told me that Elder Scott speaks Portuguese! He served a mission here when he was 19! Now, he translates all his talks into Portuguese! Thats one great way to use your talents!

Tomorrow we have the opportunity to go to the Porto Alegre Temple. I am very excited. The temple is a great place to feel the spirit and receive answers to our prayers!

When president Monson spoke Sunday morning, he told us to take an inventory of our lives. Think about all the things you have done and after write down all the blessings that the Lord has given you! I want to give you this challenge as well. We are blessed by the Lord every day but there are times when we dont really notice, or when we think that it was just a coincidence; Do this, and let me know how it goes, I will do it too!

Thats all for this week. Im glad to hear that all is well for you. Always do good and be on the Lords side, because you never know when he will call you to serve.

Love,
Elder Horst

Enjoy life and stay happy

Ola family and friends! How is everyone this week?

 For me, this week has been full of fun and opportunities to serve! First ill talk about the service. I havent lived in Brazil for too long, but im pretty sure that the only service projects they know how to do is move dirt from one side of the house to the other!! I did it in my last area, I did it this week, and we have another one planned for next week. On the bright side, I love dirt! I always seem to be the most dirty at the end of a project. So for this project in particular, we were moving a pile of dirt that is used to make cement from the road to the backyard because they were building another little house there. It was my companion and I, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. We took turns with each. We than realized at the same time that we could make a cool little cave! That gave us motivation to work hard and before you know it, we made a hole that we both could fit in! Than we pulled a good little prank. I hid in the hole and my companion ran inside the house to ask where I went. We had the member there convinced that I ran away until I popped out of the cave and scared her! It was all good fun and in the end I got the job done.

On Saturday we made a trip to Porto Alegre. There was a really big event at the church. It was kinda like a job fair with interview trainings and stuff. It was awesome. People from the whole state(some drove more than 4 hours) were there including tons of non members. Luckily I was able to be there. It was really fun. My job was to help people who had questions. I got to see some of my old friends from Pelotas too! Porto Alegre is about a 40 minute ride from my area using a public bus. I love using the buses!   I also love going to Porto Alegre because I am able to stop by the mission home and pick up my letters! Oh, that reminds me. The post office is on strike here. This apparently is a normal occurrence. I dont know whats going on. First I heard its on strike until November, then I heard that only half of the Post Office is on strike and I also heard that it already ended... I dont know. I will stop by there today to see if I can send some letters. As for you, feel free to send them:) Ill get it sooner or later!

Sunday was super great! It started, as usual, with church. We were one of the first ones at the church. When we got there, half the hallway was flooded!! Ahh! There was water pouring from one of the roofs. It was really sad to see. Luckily we were able to turn off the water, but it made a big mess. At night, we went to a members house to teach an investigator. His name is Cesah.. its a strange name.. Anyways, to our surprise, another family was there too! We were able to have a really amazing family night with them. My companion spoke on attitude and showed a few videos on his flash drive. I tied in how we need good attitudes to endure until the end! A lot of people cried and I felt the spirit so strong. Especially when one member bore her testimony. If you ever get the chance, go out with the missionaries and bear your testimony! It helps us so much and it will always invite the spirit.

Lastly, I want to talk about General Conference. Wow I am so excited! Its my first time as a missionary, first time in Portuguese, and im pretty sure its the first time going to the church to listen! We are so blessed to be able to watch conference in our own homes! I want to challenge all of you to watch general conference. We have the opportunity to listen to a prophet of God, someone who receives revelation from God! Why wouldnt you want to listen to every word? I am very excited for this opportunity and I hope you are too.

Enjoy life and stay happy,

Elder Horst