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

Interviews with the President!

Well this week was good and bad. Lets start with the good.

On thursday, The mission president came to have interviews with us. It was a really crazy day because we had to do alot of things in such little time. We started the day after lunch. I was able to give a training to my District and I really thought it went well. I enjoy the opportunity to give these trainings each week because when I plan for them I learn so much about things I need to do better and things that would help the work! The assistents to the president were there so It was a little different but it went well! I was the very last one to be interviewed in the zone so I had to stay there from 2 til 6:30. It was really boring, but missionaries know how to have fun in boring situations.

The interview with the president went really well. We had a great talk and I really felt the spirit with him. He always knows exactly what to say to help me!  After the interview I had the great pleasure to have the mission president as a companion! We went on splits and worked together for the rest of the night. We went to teach a lesson at a nonmember/less active family and it went really well. The president knew exactly how to answer the questions and invite the spirit.

When the night ended we passed by the bishops house to say hi. They surprised us with a huge dinner! It was really funny because you could tell that the president really didnt want to eat but the bishop kept throwing food on his plate to make him stay longer. I had a great time and the food was excelent! We ended up coming home at 10:30. I made the joke ``Hey companion, do you think we should ask Sister Castro (his wife) for permission to stay out past 9:30??´´ haha.. 

So the week started to get worse on Saturday. After lunch we prepared for a  Stake activity and baptism of some other missionarys. We were at the church the whole day and I had the biggest headache! It lasted the whole day and it was painfull! My head was throbbing and I was dizzy. I finally got home at 9 and thought things would get better. It didnt! Long story short I ended up throwing up... a few times. It was a horrible night to say the least.

Sunday I woke up a little better, but I had no energy. I was able to make it through the day. Our little sacrament we had was nice as usual. Now we have sunday school at 3 and sacrament meeting at 4. It was 3:10 and the bishopric wasnt there so I decided to start the meeting alone! My companion was in charge of the primary and I was able to teach the lesson. The Bishopric walked in halfway through and they were pretty impressed that we took the initiative. Im just really glad that they showed up because I dont know the rules about holding a sacrament meeting without a member of the bishopric.....

Tuesday we had a family night in our area. Tons of people showed up and it was a great hit! One of the members owns a ``snack stand´´ that sells hotdogs and hambergurs so he made us all hotdogs. Its was a really good night and a few people went to church because of the sucess.

So I have one more announcement to make. For the last few months I have been feeling some knee pain. The president made me schedual an exam so I will be going to the doctor this Wednesday. Im sure its nothing to worry about but I need an exam so they can fix the problem without it getting worse.

Thats all for this week,

Elder Horst

if you build it.......they will come!

Haha so this week I have had alot of fun! Living with three other missionaries, two being american, is always a blast! We have been ´playing the movie quote game today so that kinda explains the subject line (field of dreams). But at the same time it also has a really good message behind it! Ill explain later

So this week passed by so quickly! I cant believe that I have 11 months in the mission. Its gone by so fast and im so scared for how fast its gonna go from here! So the areas been great. We have been working really hard and its really paying off. We dont have any baptisms yet, but those are sure to come next!

So heres a good story. Its about the importance of being a friend and an example to everyone. A few weeks ago we were heading to the bus stop to go home. We passed a home with a few people sitting outside and I started to talk with them! It seemed to be just fine when out walked a lady. When she saw us she started yelling at us and telling us to go away! I tried asking for an explination on why she didnt like us and she just kept saying that she doesnt ever want to see us again and she would never ever talk to us! I kept trying to talk to her but nothing was working. I finally said, `Why dont you like me? What did I do to you?´ Than she started telling a story about a missionary that passed by her house a long long time ago. I dont want to get into too many details but he wasnt a good missionary, and did something bad to that family. Ever since, this lady has had a hatred for us!

So I wasnt really sure what to do. I understood why she was mad at us but at the same time I wanted to explain to her that the sins of one man doesnt represent who we are as a church! I sat down with her on the side of the road and she didnt even want to look at me! I asked her if I could come back and she replied that she doesnt want to know about my church! I told her that next time I come over I wont say anything about the church, we can just have a nice conversation and be good friends.

So thats what happened. I went over there two times and, as promised, I didnt share a message. I noticed that everytime I was over she would open up to me a little more. She would even be a little sad when we left. Last night I passed there and when I walked through the door the first thing she said was, ``I want to know more about what you do!´´ I asked her why and she replied `Because Im lost and need help´´ for the rest of the night she shared her feelings and problems with me and we had a nice lesson about prayer. How cool is that? Its just one of the many examples of how we need to love everyone. Its an example of the spirit and the power he has to change people. Its proof that members of this church are examples to the world. They will see what we do. When they see how happy we are doing it, they will want it too:)

We have another investigator named Jessica and her mom Rose. They are really special. Jessica is a professional at lasso and she promised that she would teach me a few tricks so im pretty excited for that.

Remember Danielle, our baptism for this saturday? Well last week we told her that she needed to go to church this week or we would have to post pone her baptism. She was faced with a hard decision because her boyfriend came home from a 2 month trip on sunday and she wanted to be with him. Hmmm Church or Boyfriend?? Unfortunitally she picked the boyfriend and she cant get baptised this week.. Its kinda sad but I am excited to keep teaching her and preparing her for the waters of baptism.

So my companion has 4 weeks in the mission. The start of the mission is really hard for most missionaries. On Thursday night he kinda had a breakdown and on friday he just layed in bed and wouldnt talk to anyone haha. SO thats how I spent my birthday. Sitting in the house. On the bright side, I made pancakes!!!! Later that night, the bishop and his wife came over. They gave him a little pep talk and bought me a cake, some lunch, and a lot of fruit:) So it turned out good in the end:)

The bishop of this ward is awesome. He is a great example to me and a big help.

Well thats all I have to write about for this week! 

Love, 

Elder Horst 

Mother's note:

  Elder Horst sent me this announcement from his mission president:

Á From today, you are allowed to send e-mails outside the family, also friends, priesthood leaders and converts. Time internet usage will increase from 1:00 to 1:30. My only recommendation is to be wise in this important matter, sending e-mails brief and

edifying.

Elder Horst's email is    sean.horst@myldsmail.net

Another Successful Week!

Well this week has been so much fun! Im starting to get comfortable and settled  which has really helped me. This is by far the best two weeks of my mission and its just going to keep getting better!

Monday: Every Monday we have a family night at someones house in the ward. Almost thirty people show up to the event. It starts late at 8:30 but the bishop called and got permission for the missionaries to stay out late and get a ride home. A few months ago, a whole family was baptised just because of these family nights so usually theyre a real success. My first one was on Monday and it was so fun. There were tons of people to talk to, a lot of food to eat, and a nice message about the sacrament. We will have another one tonight

Me sleeping in the elevator on the way to our fifth floor apartment :)

Well my companion is suffering from.. ``im not used to the food and climate here so im getting sick disease"  that happens to alot of new missionaries. He is kinda being wimpy about it but ive convinced him that it will pass quickly and we have been able to work without too many interruptions. He is a really great companion. He is starting to adjust living in a house with three other missionaries so thats good. Hes also starting to talk alot more which is really great.

We have been spending alot of the week visiting less actives and our investigators. Its been packed with good stuff.

On our way home from one service project.

Working on a service project, didn't have time to change.

Building a fence was hard work, especially in the heat!

We are building a form to pour cement for the fence.

These were our shoes after the service project......I'm the one holding the camera.

First ill talk about my investigator Danielle. She is an 18 year old girl. We started visiting her after a reference from her cousin. She has a baptism date for 23 of March. She has recently come upon some doubts about the church but I told her that she has these doubts because she hasnt been going to church. Than I promised her that if she goes to church, she will be more than prepared for baptism. Lets see how it goes...

This week I passed a less active woman  named Adriana. She is a mother of four girls and a boy. The second time we passed there in the week, we found out that she was sent to the hospital because she was sick. The next morning we went there just to say hi but  the nurse kinda kicked us out. She was released that night and I went to her house where she asked for a blessing. It was really a great experience. She promised that on Sunday she wouldnt go to church because she was still sick but all her kids would!

Saturday I called the bishop telling him that we would need more chairs at the new church building.

Sunday was a day packed full of things to do. I prepared a talk for the SECOND sacrament meeting of the day. When I arrived at the first, they asked me to give a talk.. haha good thing I already had one prepared. Lunch was good. Then we got ready for the second sacrament meeting. Its so fun to see my friends and members walking down the street with nice clothes and a smile on their face coming to church! The building was filling up and I was getting worried about how many chairs we had. Next thing you know, a group of 15 kids started walking down the street. They were the children of Adriana with all their friends and cousins. haha luckily we had space for everyone. Last week we had 13 people from my area with the help from a few members that lived in the center of the city(Who go to the first sacrament).  This week we had 32 people!! How cool is that? Im hoping next week it will continue to grow. I gave another talk for the second meeting and I felt the spirit really strongly.

Well its been hard to type today and im kinda distracted so sorry if none of it makes sense haha.

Until next week,

Elder Horst

This is a view of our area.

Horses wander around everywhere, this one is letting me touch him.

It's Sean's birthday on Friday, March 15.  I sent him a red velvet cake mix with a can of cream cheese frosting.  He always does things ahead of time !!!

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Horst :)

Bage!

Sorry for the typos. Im writing fast!

Well, how do I begin? This week has been full of things to talk about that I dont think I can get through it all. How can so much change in such little time?? Well, Ill try to take it day by day and not forget anything.

TUESDAY: Well this was officially transfer day. I was really excited to see my new companion. We bought a taxi to the mission home and were there at 12. The new missionaries were really late so there was alot of down time but the president took us out to eat at a buffet. After everything seemed to settle down we had a little training on how to be  a good trainer. I was able to talk to a few people that will be working in my zone and got to know Bage a bit. Then the new missionaries (22 new. 6 sisters. 1 American). I was assigned to be training Elder Ferreira! (I think he will get a name change cause theres already one here.) Elder Ferreira is from Manaus. He is 20 years old and a convert to the church. Only his mom is a member and she left the church. He seems to be a good missionary who wants to work. And im excited to be with him.

President called me over to talk with him for a minute. He asked me how I was doing and gave me a big hug! Than he said Congratulations on being District Leader! I was shocked! So now, not only am I training and opening a new area, im district leader for the first time! What a huge responsibility. I am so excited for the opportunity and the chance to be an example to the other Elders.

So we were all running real late that day. We loaded up the bus to go to the bus station. I get there and a few of my favorite members from my other area were there waiting to say goodbye to me! We snapped one last photo and ran to the bus port. Bage is a 5 hour bus ride. We got there at midnight. I didnt really mind the bus. I didnt sleep much but I enjoyed it.

Sunset on the way to Bage

I live in the house with our Leaders of the Zone. Its really fun being around them and nice cause I can learn alot from their work and example. Its also really easy to pass informatino and numbers cause we sleep right next to each othe :) My roommates are Elder Lambrechtsen from Riverton High (Utah) and Elder Henderson from Colorado. Theyre really cool guys although I think my companion feels a little out of place being with three Americans! We never speak English in the house.

A good sight to see when I walked in the room!

So Wednesday was my first day of work. Let me explain a bit about our area and what I will be doing here. Im in the Castela ward. They are trying to create a new branch. My job is to work in the area where the new branch will be. I need to reactivate members and bring new people into the ward to help grow the church in the area. Once we can get enough priesthood holders, they will be able to split the ward.

The problem is that my area is really really poor. They cant afford the bus to go to church every week. A member bought a house in my area and we had church there for the first time this Sunday. I wll explain more later. But in the morning I go to regular church and the afternoon we have a sacrament meeting in my area with the members there and the leaders of the ward.

So Wednesday I was walking with the map in front of my face trying to find my area. After a while of walking a man in front of a house stopped to talk to me. It turns out that he is the Elders Quorum President! He spent the rest of the day with us. We took his car to many members houses and he gave me a tour of my area. He also explained what the ward wanted me to do there. I am so grateful for him because he truly made the day really productive and helped me get to know my new area. It was truly a miracle that the map took me to the front of his home :)

Thursday was a better day. I now had a plan and a little bit of a knowledge of my area. We went to a old investigators house who hasnt progressed since October. Her name is Daniele. She is super cool. We were able to talk about her fears and doubts about baptism and at the end of the day we marked a baptismal date for the 23! I am so excited for her to progress and be baptised. When we left her house we decided to knock on some doors. Without a warning, a horse came running full speed at us down the road! I got a little nervous and just walked to the edge of the road. I look down the street and my companion is running away as fast as he can screaming RUN!!! Ahahahahahahahahahahhahaha. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Although the horse was huge, fast, and it was kinda scary. Theres not as many dogs here but there are horses and cows on every road and they are free to roam around wherever they want. We have to be kinda careful about that I guess.... haha

Taking a quick break on the side of the road.

There are so many horses here, but theyre nice to be around..... sometimes!

I asked to take a photo with a horse and the man said it would look better if I got on top!! Unfortunately I couldnt ride him.

Oh ya.....

Well I know im skipping lots of news and information but Ill skip to Saturday. Saturday morning we had a service project to work on the new house where we will have sacrament meeting. We painted, pulled weeds, filled holes in the walls and did everything.... It was really fun. Throughout the whole week I have been inviting everyone to come to church.

Sunday came by quickly. I was lucky to get my package from my mom at church! Sacrament was really nice and I got to meet the rest of the members that dont live in my area. Then we had lunch. At three we went to the other sacrament meeting. There were about 25 people there (fifteen of them lived in my area and will be part of the new branch and ten live in the other area but were there to support) I can easily say that it was the most spiritual sacrament meeting I have EVER had. When we sung it sounded like millions of people were sitting in the seats behind me. Truly there were angels singing there with us. Almost every single person there was able to bear their testimony and they were all so grateful to be able to have sacrament so close to them. I went up to bear my testimony and I was all shaky. It was hard for my words to come out but I bore a powerful testimony about the church and its growth. I will never forget that meeting and how special it was to all of us.

The members of the very first sacrament meeting in my area. 

Definitely not to be the last :) History in the Making.

Well that was pretty much my week. Im head high in responcibility and work. I have to prepare a talk for the new sacrament in our area. The ward is really expecting alot from me and I am trying my best to work hard. Its an hour walk just to arrive in our area so thats kinda hard haha. I walk there and take the bus home at night cause its dangerous here. After my first three days here I lost 5 pounds! I Think it was just from the stress and all the walking. Its SUPER hard to open a new area. Now imagine doing it while training and being District Leader for the first time :)

Dont worry about me! Ive never been so happy and have had so much fun in my life! I love living here and I hope to stay in this area for a long time to see my new area grow!!! I love you all and pray for you often.

Love,

Elder Horst