It's Cold Outside!

Well its always good to talk about the weather. My oh my has it gotten cold! Around Wednesday and Thursday it got way cold and the wind was blowing really hard, enough to wear a sweater and a jacket. It has warmed up a bit but its been raining which doesnt help the problem! Everyone in the house is getting sick with a cold. Its HORRIBLE waking up in the morning cause I cant breath at all and my head hurts (and its always cold) but it gets better as the day goes on. Im actually excited for the cold weather. I love wearing lots of layers and being confortable and seeing my breath when I talk.

Its also been really dark lately. When we wake up its pich black, and around 6 it starts to get dark again. Last night, my companion and I were knocking doors around 7:30 and I had to use a flashlight to write down my contacts. It was kinda weird haha but we didnt have anything else to do.

Tuesday night at 11pm my companion arrived from Porto Alegre. He is brand new on the mission and has lots of greenie fire! Elder Borges is from S鉶 Paulo, 19 years old, and really funny! He loves speaking english and he doesnt know that much but its really funny when he talks! I have been really enjoying his company lately and best of all.... he took a year of learning how to cook in college.. so im sure that he will be making alot of good stuff for us in the future!

This week we worked really hard and ended up having alot of sucess. We invited a new lady named Maria to be baptised. Maria is around 40 years old with 4 kids. On the first lesson, we invited her to be baptised on the 8 of June. She accepted but was a little nervous that she wouldnt have time to prepare! On saturday, we brought Marcia, (the girl who was just baptised) to come and teach her. We taught Maria and after Marcia talked about how she was able to prepare for baptism. She shared a wonderful testimony that touched my heart and made me feel so good. Marcia truly has a strong testimony.

The next day, the bishop and I went to her house to take her to church. She couldnt go because her 2 year old daughter was sick. We gave her a blessing and just talked for a bit. It turnes out that Maria is way good friends with the bishops wife! So this week we will get them to meet together.

Sunday night, we brought another member named Carmen to talk with her and it turnes out that they already new eachother! It turned out to be a great lesson. So basically, Maria already has alot of friends in the church. She is preparing to be baptised on the 8th and she has a desire and alot of support from her friends. Im really excited to see how things go from here!!!!

I had a really cool experience yesterday at church. In the morning Marcia was confirmed a member of the church. She has told me that ever since she has been baptised, she hasnt been able to get the smile off of her face! In the afternoon we went to the other church in our area and it was really great. Marcia was there too with her friend Pabla that wants to get baptised(Her mom wont let her but were trying to convince her). Marcia said the prayer in sunday school and made sooo many comments about the lesson and everything. I felt proud:)

So Sunday it was really rainy and dark. The house that we bought for sacrament is really small and humble. There are two small rooms (primary and youth) and we use the ``garage创 for the sacrament room. The garage doesnt have a light yet and yesterday it was really dark because of the rain clouds. My new companion gave a talk and had to use my flashlight to read the scriptures.

While he was reading I was thinking about light in the middle of darkness. Sometimes we can have hard times and feel that we are stuck in a dark, cold room with no way out. But by the strike of something as small as a match, it can light up the whole room and help you find the door into happiness, a way out of darkness. Light overpowers Darkness. The warmth of light always takes away the cold feelings of darkness. When we are faced with hard times, we just need to invite the light of Christ into our lives and let it show us where to go next. When we do this, our lives can be filled with warmth and the love of Christ.

Sometimes we need to be the light for others that are lost in the darkness. Through our example and testimony, we can help others find the way out and share the same life of happiness that we have.

Love you all,

Elder Horst

This is their zone before transfers last week.  What a happy looking group of Elders :)