Happy One Year Mark!!!

Well this year has been a great one! Last week I sent an email about the things that I have learned over the past year. This past year truly has been the best year of my life. Even with all the difficulties, stresses, and hard work, I wouldnt trade it for anything in the world!

On the 24th I decided to have a little party to celebrate the special day. 6 missionaries lived in our appartment complex so we had a good group of people! I made brownies, bought a ton of ice cream and coke and made chocolate syrup to go with it. I also bought a candle for one year and a few cans of silly string just to get the house messy. it ended up being a really fun night! The other missionares loved the free food...

This week we have worked really hard and ended up getting five new investigators and three people came to church!!! We had a major road bump that really slowed things down but it was all okay in the end.

Saturday we had a fun service project. We went to a less actives house and cut down all the trees and wild bushes in her back yard. It was such a huge area and was alot of work but we got a good part of it done. When it was over we had a huge pile of wood. A few people wanted to burn it (which is normal to do in the backyard of a neighborhood here) and a few, including me, thought it would be a little dangerous to burn this much wood, espeicially cause the wind was really really strong. Well... we ended up burning it haha.

We were probably ten or fifteen feet away and the fire was extremely hot! IT was so high up!!! It started spreading to the neighbors yard and we were in a panic to run and put it out. hahaha...... it was a great experience. I really wanna be a forest fireman when I get home now cause it was was such a energy rush!!! Long story short, we burned all the wood without any problems!

Well, im running out of time writing today. I wish I could have written more about my area, but maybe next week. Thanks for all the support.

Love,

Elder Horst

Elder Horst's back was getting sore, so he added another mattress to his bed.

Pretty fancy bed side table!!!

This is Elder Horst's one year anniversary celebration he hosted.

It looks like a good time was had by all!!!  

Those two elders have an apartment on the next floor.  They are Elder Pires from Capetown, South Africa, and Elder Aramayo from Argentina.

Elder Henderson is from Wyoming, and Elder Aramayo from Argentina.  I don't recognize the other elder covered in silly string!  Ha ha!!

Elder Cox and Elder Horst are both from the same Stake in Rocklin :)

Elder Ferreira is from Brazil, he is Elder Horst's companion.

As the host, Elder Horst was responsible for the decorations :)

Happy One Year Mark!!!

Well well well, it seems as though I have finally passed the one year mark on the mission! (or I will on the 25th) What an amazing experience this has been! Of course, it feels like I left home last week. There have been so many changes in my life over the past year and all of them have made me become a better person. I could spend the rest of my email talking about all the things I have learned and all the experiences Ive had but I wont waist your time with that boring talk. Its been A while since I have talked about my investigators so I will start there.

First there is Marcia. She is a wonderful 15 year old girl. She has been to church 5 times already! She went to church three times before I even started teaching her! The first time I was at her house we taught about the Resturation of the Gospel and Joseph Smith. This girl was almost done finishing 2 Nephi! Shes had the Book of Mormon for two months and is halfway throgh! She already has a stronger testimony than I did when I was fifteen. She loves to read and pray. Yesterday she told me that when she reads, it seems as though the book is talking to her about her problems! She is preparing for baptism and really excited. Her parents are okay with her getting baptised but are a bit worried about it all happening so quickly which I understand. We will meet with her father this week and Im sure everything will go well! She is so ready for baptism and I am so greatful to be with her and help her out.

Marcia also has a friend named Pabla. She also has been to church many times and loves it! She is reading the Book of Mormon. The only problem is that its really hard to find her in the house so we havent been able to teach her much. But im sure one day she will be ready for baptism too!

We have an investigator named Marco Antonio(45 years old) but everyone calls him (in translation) smelly....... hahaha..... its kinda weird and he is that type of guy, but I like him! Right now he is faced with a decision. He has a girlfriend and wants to get married. The only problem is that the girlfriend wants him baptised in her church. He wants to get baptised in ours. I told him last night that he needs to pray and ask god what to do. Obviously mairage is important, but I hope he realises that baptism is more important right now! He has a lot of work to do before he gets baptised. He smokes, drinks, breaks the law of chastity, and a few other things. But he has a clean heart and with his faith and the miricles of the Lord, he can become a worthy saint of God! I am excited for his progress.

Now we have Susana and Vagner. This is a very strange situation. Vagner is excomunicated and Susana isnt a member. They live together. Vagner wants to get married, repent, and go back to church but Susana doesnt. Last week, Susana had a dream. She saw Elder Ferrera and I in front of the church waving a smiling. Than she saw the catholic church floating above water. Jesus Christ was walking on the water telling her to follow him. We shared with her lehis dream and now they are getting really serious about the gospel. They are praying and making goals to get married and I hope everything will work out!!!

Next is Maria. She is the lady that was mad at me and now likes me alot! We didnt get a chance to talk to her this week but I hope that she is reading the Book of Mormon and feeling the spirit that it brings!

Okay back to me. This week has been a very important one for me too! The last few weeks I have been really down about a few things and its been really hard to work.. harder than ever on the mission! I have been praying really hard to get answers and blessings and just waiting for God to answer. This week he answered me in a BIG way! All week long I have been recieving answeres to my prayers, some of them from reading the book of mormon, some by the still small voice, and some that were alot louder! I am really so greatfull for our God and the mercy that he has for us. Its such a comfort to be able to pray and know that he will hear and help us when we need it most. I am happy to say that things are getting alot better! I have learned so much about my and my potential this week and I am so greatful for the experience that God gave me!

So a few exciting things happened this week. Friday I went to the Doctor again for my knee. He gave me a little bit of medicine to take over the week and told me that its all better! He said that I dont need to come back to him. If it ever starts to hurt again.. I just need to ice it and it will be all better.

The exam ended at 7 and we couldnt return to our area cause its really far away. We noticed alot of exitement at the park so we went over there. It turned out that the Marine Marching Band of Brazil was there to give us a show! It was really fun and cool. Theyre from Rio de Janeiro and sounded really good. It reminded me of the good old days when I was in the Miner Marching Band. I took lots of photos and videos. After they finished we were allowed to talk to them and take photos. I was feelings pretty confident so (in my curious american accent) I asked the swat guys there for a photo... and got one! Than I went up to the police men and asked for a picture with them with the police lighs on and they said no... but they invited me to the police station to take a tour... so we are gonna do that today.. Im really excited!! That reminds me of when I worked at the police station.. good times.. Anyways Ill end this letter with a small and simplified list of some things ive learned over the past year. 

I LEARNED:

to speak portuguese FLUENTLY.. an extremely hard language to learn

The importance of reading the Book of Mormon and appliying the things that I learn from them

The happiness one can recieve from simply serving their neighbor

True Love

how truly greatful I am for my parents and their loving example they have always shown me

Responcibility, Respect, Hard Work, Obedience to the Lord

the simple principles of the Gospel

what life is like outside our amazing United States of America

how to sacrifice for others

How to survive without your mom always there to help! (That was a tough one)

And most importantly... How to be a servant and True Deciple of Jesus Christ.

This is just a list of a few things that I have learned on my first year of the mission. I am so excited for one more year to learn and grow. I know that it will pass quickly, so I know that I need to take advantage of it and do my best. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior. I know that God is our Heavenly Father. He loves us and always will look out for us. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and The Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints is the only true church with authority from God on this earth.

I love you all!
Elder Horst

My desk, clean!  So many books, so little space :)

Elder Cox and I, we are both from Rocklin.

Elder Cox got a couple of confetti bombs from home :)

My companion, Elder Ferreira, eating chocolate from the pot.

  (There must be a funny story behind this!)

Just chilling with my army friends.

Hanging out with the swat team, oh ya!

The Brazil marine marching band came to town.

Up close and personal.

Hanging out with the trumpeters.

Yes that's right, I have a rifle in my hand.

Another rifle photo.

No email this week

Hey mom. I dont really have time for an email this week. It wasnt that good of a week. Actually it was an amazing week. our area is really special, but there is a heavy influence of the Devil there. Its really brought me down alot. The devil is attacking our area cause its so special. I dont wanna get into too many details about it. I got a blessing and I gave my companion a blessing. My companion rededicated our house and we have decided to dedicate as many houses as possible in our area. That will help alot. Read dads email for a bit more information. Im doing great and Im sure because of the blessings things will start to get alot beter! I attached the email that I sent to president. I thought that you would be interested in it. Its translated so It might sound a bit weird.

On the bright side, we by far have the best numbers in the zone. 7 people came to church sunday!!!!! Now its time to baptise!!!!!!!

Happy Aniversary coming up! 

I love you!!!

Elder Horst

i sent photos too

p.s. you choose to put this on my blog or not

President,

Alright president. This week was very difficult for me and my partner, but we are still happy and cheer. Our area is very difficult now, but I know we're having problems because our area is very special and ready for baptisms! Surely, The Devil does not like this and is trying to destroy us, but I am full of spirit and nothing will stop my work! Every now and than, I think dogs have a bad spirit within them, and they attack us every day, but I'm not afraid of them. every now and than, The Devil gives me bad thoughts. I think I'm not being obedient and can not have spirit ... but this is not true. Now it is true that I am more obedient than before. Every day I'm being more obedient and getting closer to the Lord.

President I never felt the Devil stronger in my life. I do not like this feeling. How can I get rid of these feelings? I'm actually getting them because I'm not being obedient?

Also I'm worried about my partner. He has not yet received information from his mom. He has dreams every night about his mom dying.

President, I want to promise you that I will continue working hard. I will continue to be obedient to the mission rules and commandments of God. As Joseph Smith said `` no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!'' Nothing will stop me and my fellow working.

Te Amo,

Elder Horst

Faith, obedience and confidence

Faith, Obedience, and Confidence seemed to be the major topic of General Confrence for me. I loved confrence this week and thought that all the talks applied to me in one way or another. I had the opportunity to see all the sessions except for the Priesthood session. Durring the songs, the words are in English, but everyone opens the hymns and sings in Portuguese. I decided to sing it in English with the video and it was really funny. Alot of people around me tried singing it in english too which was Really funny!

Well today is transfer day. All is well and no changes were made in my area. Elder Lambrechten (my roomate and zone leader) was transfered and guess who will replace him?? Elder Cox!! Wahoo! Its gonna be so fun having him in the house. Im sure that we will get along just fine! We are really gonna represent the Rocklin Stake and baptize everyone in the ward boundaries!

I have learned so many things this last transfer. If I could sum it up I would say that I learned tons about Faith, Obedience, and Confidence. Its funny how General Confrence applied dirrectly to my life when in all reality theyre talking to millions of people around the world. It definitally was not an accident, its just a testimony that God knows us and is here to help us with all our trials and problems.

This upcoming transfer I will be passing the one year mark on my mission. Im really excited for it and its a big landmark in my mission. For me, the one year mark is am opportunity to look back at everything ive done that last year. I get to see all the things I did good and all the things I did wrong. For my second year in the mission, I will work really hard to be better, and fix the mistakes that I have made the last year. I have learned so much on the mission and I am so exicited to learn more, have more fun, and baptize all the people in Bage!

Remember the lady that was really mad at me and now were good friends? Her name is Maria. This week we were able to teach her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she reacted to it unlike any other person ive seen! When we pulled it out she had a smile from ear to ear! She quickly grabbed it and wrapped it in her arms. She kissed it and kept saying 创is it really for me??创 It was a wonderful sight to see. At the end of the night we commited her to read and pray daily and attend church this week. Maria has ALOT of work to do before she can be baptised but the Lord is full of miracles and Maria is full of happiness, peace, and the spirit when we are with her. I really have a good feeling about her. She is a very special daugter of God who has had a really rough life. Maybe its time that she recieves the special blessings of Baptism and can live the rest of her life in the arms of Christ and his church.

Okay heres a crazy story. Last sunday a girl went to church with her friend. We marked a date to see her on Tuesday. Tuesday came around and we went to her house but she wasnt there. We decieded to knock some doors in the area and come back in an hour or two. I wasnt really excited to go back to the girls house and I wasnt sure why, I just knew that I needed to go to help her out. I knocked on a random persons house and a kid answered. She explained that her parents would come home at night and would love to hear our message.

So we went back to our appointment and knocked again. This time they were home but they took forever to answer the door. Our of nowhere, a dog came running from the backyard and started barking at me. He seemed different from the other dogs, he was alot meaner and really hated me! He ran right up to me and I quickly bent down to pick up a rock. He tried biting my legs a few times but I threw the rock and the girl called him away. It was really intence! I was talking to the girl and we realised that we couldnt teach her because nobody else was home and we cant be alone with teanage girls!!

Again, out of nowhere the dog came again and started biting at my legs! This time he got my pants and ripped them! I got really really mad and kicked him in the face. It seemed to really hurt him cause he fell down and wimpered away haha. He was like the dog of satin!! So we left and I was really mad that the girl let her dog attack me and rip my pants! So for the rest of the day I had a fear of dogs attacking me (Ive never been scared of dogs on the mission). Every corner I turned their would be a group of dogs and it was really hard to work! I just wanted to go home.

So remember how we were knocking doors and someone told us to come back that night? at the end of the day we did that. When we got to their house there was a HUGE pitbull just sitting in front of their doorstep! My companion and I stopped in the middle of the road and we were too scared to get closer! The dog just stared at us. I felt that I needed to teach this family and baptise them and a fear of satin possesed dogs wouldnt scare me! I walked a little closer and the dog got really defensive! My compainon told me that we should leave and we did.

That night I was really upset and I didnt understand why all of this happened when Ive never had a problem with dogs in my whole mission!! I feel that I wasnt able to help those poor people come unto christ cause I let fear get to me! I decided to learn something from it. I started reading the Book of Mormon at page one and I read all about Nephi and how much confidence he had in the Lords work. I really want to have that kind of confidence in the Lord. Its been less than a week and im in Mosias. I have a whole page filled with scriptures that talk about confidence in the Lord. I have really learned alot from doing that.

So the moral to this extremely long story is that The Book of Mormon can answer all our questions and give us peace in our lives. If we always read the book and apply it to our lives it will give us comfort and teach us how to be better people! Oh, what a wonderful blessing from God!

So thats my week for ya! I hope that all of you will have a great week next week.

I love you all,

Elder Horst

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone! Its been another great week here in Brazil. Its been extremely hot here the last week which is kinda weird because its supposed to be getting colder here! I miss the cold weather so much! I know that in two more months im really gonna be regreting that because its gonna be sooo cold this year! Bage is the coldest area in the mission. aka the coldest area in Brazil!

This week went by extremely quickly! I dont even remember what I did at the begining of the week.... Wednesday I had the doctors exam. He let me know that my knees are messed up and i will be going back to see him this wednesday. Apparently the bone underneath my knee is crooked and its pulling my knee to the side. Im not a doctor so I dont really know the details. All I know is that when I walk my knee gets agitated and it hurts. So im gonna work with the doctor to get better! I take medicine twice a day and I have to ice both knees every night for ten minutes.

Thursday was zone confrence in Pelotas. The medical missionaries that are in charge of all the missionaries came to visit. It was good because he talked to me about the knee. He told me that I need to do exersizes and stretches every day or it will get worse! They are really annoying to do and my roomates make fun of me haha but ill do it to get better! Thats my knee update...

So confrence was great. I missed the first part because I was a translator for the doctor. That was really fun! I had to translate for the doctor all the problems of the brazilians. It made me think of becoming a doctor when I grow up... or maybe a translator!! Hmmm... I really enjoyed confrence. The president always knows exactly what to say to make us all motivated to do better.

Then Sister Castro (presidents wife) gave a talk about scripture study. She told us that when we study the scriptures we need to READ, STUDY, PONDER, than APPLY. I really liked that and want to use it more in my studies. Scripture study is more than just reading a certain amount of pages per week. It involves studying and applying the stories to your life. I know that doing this will give me alot of knowledge of the scriptures.

Well this week was pretty plain and simple. We had good sucess sunday at church. There were 8 in the primary, 6 youth, and 6 preisthood holders. Overall there were about 30 people. Thats good but our goal is 50! I know that we will get there soon!!

Love ya all!
Elder Horst