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.
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.
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