The Work of Salvation

Well im gonna start this letter by talking about the World Wide Training held by the First Presidency and Quorum of the twelve Apostles called the Work of Salvation. That meeting was an excelent demonstration of the importance of missionary work. They shared with us some of the changes in the way we work, the responcibility of members in conversion, and how we can become better teachers by relying on the spirit. I can testify that this broadcast was pure revelation given to the prophet from the Lord. I encourage all of you to apply the things that they said and you felt. For those of you that havent watched it, I encourage you to go online and watch it. If we all work hard and apply the revelation from our prophets and apostles, the work will flourish and shall be blessed.

Well, This week for me was very good. We worked hard and had alot of sucess. Last night I got a special call from President Castro. He called to tell me that I was promoted to Zone Leader! How cool is that? I feel that I am making fast progress in the mission and doing all I can to help the people here in Brazil. Im really excited to now be able to help all the missionaries in my zone and have a closer relationship with the president. My new area will be Agronomia in the zone Partenon in Porto Alegre. Im really exicted to be serving in Porto Alegre now.

Although it is always great to be transfered and start a new journey, its hard to think about all the people that you will miss when you leave. Its really hard to leave the people that you have loved and served for so long. Its not something that I can explain. Over the last 4.5 months here in Bagé, I have seen this ward flourish. The expansion of a meeting house in our area has blessed the lives of so many and I have seen the changes in their actions and hearts. I will never forget the soon to be Branch Prado Velho. I guess it was perfect timing to leave when the ward secratary announced to me that the Stake President was working on the papers to start a new branch.

Sunday was a really great day. I was able to give a talk on Revelation and at the end of the meeting say goodbye to my good friends. I really was sad to say bye to Marcia. I have seen miraculous changes in her ever since the first day I met her at church. Her faith and testimony has built mine so much, more than she could know. I am excited to see her grow continually. I know that in a few years she will serve a mission and help thousands of people become converted!

I also want to talk about Carla. Carla is my progressing investigator. Saturday we taught them how to have a family night. We had a fun activity and than made pancakes for them! They loved it and we had a great time. Carla kept making comments like,  when we get married in the temple.. or.. when my daughter goes on a mission... or when we get baptised.... It was really nice to know that she was so excited to doo all those things. Sunday she went to church for the first time with her children. She said that an hour before she left the house a whole bunch of people came over to visit. She was worried that she wouldnt be able to make it than said... I cant miss another week of church! I gotta go! It was really sweet to see her there.

I just want to end by saying that I know this church is true. I know that missionary work is important and we all need to be involved to keep the work going. Thank you all for your support and love.

Elder Horst

P.S. Congratulations to my long time friend Katie Toolan for getting her mission call to the California Rancho Cucamonga Mission!! Im excited for her and so happy that she chose to serve a mission.

Playing around on the railroad tracks.....

Sofia and me.  Sofia is the l l/2 year old daughter of our investigator, Carla.

Sofia's sister Maria, she was really sad to hear that I was leaving Bage.

Maria loves to say prayers and go to church.  She is super shy.

Elder Borges and I taught Ricardo and Carlo how to have a family night and made pancakes.

Pedro and his wife.  Pedro is the Ward Mission Leader and is really cool!!!

This is a lady in our ward.  She is mute so I can only talk to her with hand gestures.  It's really hard to understand and talk to her but she likes me a lot because I try.

Me and my good friend, Elder Henderson

The missionaries and the youth in the ward.

This is the church in the other area.  Carmen, her daughters Luisa and Marcia.

Carmen was the one that first invited Marcia to church.

Brother Nelson, Paulo Fernandes, and Joao.  Some of the priesthood in Prado Velho.

A protest in the center of the city because of rising bus fares in Brazil.

We decided to get in on the action and do contacts.  Just kidding, we just wanted a picture.

Jared and Debora,  members of our ward who always have fabulous lunches!

Happy Father's Day!

Well first of all. Happy Fathers Day everyone! I want to thank my Dad for all the support that he has given me on the mission! He is the best Dad ever.

This week turned out to be alot of work, and it passed by quickly too. Let me just give you the highlights. Monday was kinda lame. Elder Henderson and Cox went to Porto Alegre for a meeting and we were left with nothing to do! My companion took a nap and I read the scriptures! I worked really hard on reading the scriptures this week and got through a ton! More importantly, I learned alot of stories and verses to help out my investigators. The first year of the mission I kinda stayed away from the bible because its super hard to understand and its translated horribly! But the last few weeks I have been studying the bible and using it while I teach and its been a great help! It was a testimony to me that although the bible can have errors... its still inspired words written by prophets of old. 

Tuesday was district meeting and I gave a training on Christlike attributes, It went really well. One of the companionships in our area is having a hard time but besides that all it well.

We have an investigator family. Ricardo, Carla, and their two daughters, Maria 6 and Sofia 2. They are so fun to teach and be with! Over the last few weeks they have grown so greatly! For example, all of them have learned how to pray and make it a habit every night and before every meal. Even Maria. She told all her friends at school and called her grandmother just to say that she knows how to pray! When she sees us in the road she jumps up and down and than gets shy haha. Ricardo and Carla are reading the book of mormon. This week we shared with them the video of the restoration and they lOVED It ! Especially Carla. She said that she watched it at least 5 times. I am really excited for their progress. We are trying to get them married and stop drinking coffie and they both have a desire to do that and get baptised. This week we are going over there to teach them how to have a family night.

Saturday was the anual Festa Julina... or the June Party! Its celebreated in all of brazil. Its just like a red neck party and I love it! Theres lots of traditional food drinks and candy. There were also lots of fun games. For one of the games there was a plate full of flower and we had to use our faces to find a coin that was hid at the bottom. I won the game:) There was the classic pin the tail on the donkey and fishing. Musical chairs was my companions favorite. He won that! We did a funny skit on how to make street contacts. We gave them 20 ways to do it. FOr example. Dress up like santa clause and give them the book of mormon as a present... talk to them when their using the bathroom so they cant run haha. It turned out to be a good day.

Lastly sunday was our Ward confrence. It was a very spiritual day. The whole ward worked hard to bring investigators and less actives to church and it worked well. All the priesthood in the ward sang a special hymn. I know that my redeemer lives. When it ended everyone was crying. The ground was truly shaking with the spirit. It was a great day!!

The lan house is closing... gotta go!

Love,

Elder Horst

The Fabulous Four missionaries who share a house together.

Pin the tail on the donkey

Lots of food!!!  Yuck, close your mouth elder :)

Finding the coin in the flour!

Caught off guard?

They are always ready for a laugh!

This looks like snow, but it's humidity!  Elder Horst said it looked like water in the air.

Drops of water were falling off of his eyelashes.

The area of Brazil that he is in, is the second most humid area in the world!

The other missionaries made Elder Horst's bed into a castle.  His new bed comes today :)

No more sleeping on the floor!

His shoes don't very healthy.....

Interviews with the President!

Well this week was kinda cool but speedy fast. Ill just give you the rundown on a few of the events this week.

Tuesday was fun! We spent some of the afternoon cleaning and painting the church in our area! We made a huge mess. In the end it looked alot better so it was all worth the work. On Sunday, the members really appreciated the help.

Thursday we did an activity called District Amigo.  In this activity, all the missionaries in the district go to one area and work there for a day. This week we went to an area thats really been struggling and helped them. It turned out to be a really big success. With 4 companionships we were able to teach tons of lessons, get 12 new investigators and 4 baptism marked for the other area. It was also really fun to switch companions and work in another area for a day

On Friday we had to do splits with the Zone Leaders. Elder Henderson and I worked together in my area. It was really cool. We were able to work alot with some of the non active families in the area. Its always fun to work and spend some time with Elder Henderson.

Saturday was a really busy day! We went to the church really early in the morning to clean up the rest of the painting that we did. We had a fantastic lunch with one of the members in our ward. We rushed through lunch because in the afternoon we had interviews with the president! The meeting started with a training from the president and his wife. They both gave a great training. Than I started District Meeting. I gave a training about using the scriptures in lessons and I think that it turned out really well! I enjoyed teaching them. After, I had my interview with president that was really nice. Its always nice to spend time with him.

Sister Castro, Elder Horst, Lucas and President Castro

After my interviews I had to wait there for the rest of the missionaries to be interviewed. I had a lot of time to talk with Sister Castro. We looked at the new photo book that my mom sent and she loved the ideas! She said that she is gonna make her son books when they leave on the mission. I also got to hang out with Lucas, the presidents son that has 8 years. He is really cool and funny. He knows my name which made me feel really special! But he also likes to call me Elder Cavalo (Horse in portuguese) and Papai Noel (santa clause) because of the party we had at christmas.. haha.

Elder Borges, Lucas and Elder Horst

Sunday was great but I was a bit upset because we didnt have any investigators at church. That is never good... President and Sister Castro gave the talks in church and I got to sit with their son Lucas. He is so funny. Than we went to the church in my area and that was good too but there werent as many people as I was hoping for... Oh well

Overall it was a good week. We are gonna have a good rest of the P-day and than get to work for the week.

Love,

Elder Horst

My package arrived, yeah!!!

They locked me outside on a cold day!  

Acting crazy on the elevator!

Elder Horst, Elder Borges and Elder Henderson, good friends after a long, hard day.   (including Elder Cox who is taking the photo)

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz....................

If the Lord Wants It, I'll Do It!!!

Well this week has been super fun! Its been full of surprises, service projects, and lots of good old fashioned hard work. Tuesday we had a meeting at the school of one of the members in our ward. She needed to give a presentation about her church and just decided to make the missionaries do it haha. I enjoyed talking about the church in front of a lot of annoying teenagers. I dont know if they learned anything but at least I felt a little bit of the spirit in the message. I have always dreamed of teaching a whole group of people and baptising all of them just like the prophets of old. Maybe someday ill get that chance.

Well we have a bed in our house that breaks alll of the time. Its always been the bed of my companion. Sometimes it breaks in the middle of night, sometimes when my companion wakes up, we never know when its gonna break. When it breaks my companion falls through and lands on the floor and its really really annoying for him! After fixing it over and over for 4 months, we finally lost pacience and threw it away haha. Unfortunitally, that means one of us have to go without a bed. I didnt want my greenie sleeping on the floor on his first month in the mission so I took one for the team. Haha. Its kinda fun to sleep on the floor though. It has its advantages and disadvantages. We probably will get a new bed when the president comes down this saturday to do interviews.

On Tuesday night we were walking down the road going to an appointment. There was a lady and her little baby in the front of their house and I felt prompted to speak with them. Carla, Ricardo, and their three sons live there. Carla and Ricardo accepted to be baptised on the 22 of June and we are really excited to teach them. They seem really open to accepting the gospel but they need to get married which is always a setback. My companion and I feel really good about them and I hope they will get baptised soon, Well see how it goes.

So this week I had a really fun experience. Tuesday I went to our house where we hold church service. When we got there, there was a really big tree just sitting in front of the doors. It was about 6 feet tall and really heavy. I have no idea where it came from! My companion and I decided to just throw it on the side of the road and hope that someone takes it or throws it away. When we went there on Wednesday, the tree was put back in its origional spot in front of the door! I thought it was strange but threw it in the road again. Thursday, the same thing happened!!! When we got there on Friday the tree wasnt sitting in front of the door, but was sitting in front of the house on the grass. I suddenly got the idea, ``If God wants me to plant this tree in front of our house, ill do it!!创 We went to the neighbors house and borrowed a shovel. Thanwe just dug a hole and planted a tree haha. Its actually a really pretty tree. Everyone in the neighborhood likes it and the members too. The more I think about it, the more I really think that it was Gods will to plant the tree. haha This same week I installed lights in our house so we wont have any more meetings in the dark. The members were really greatful for that. Last night I was imagining coming back to Brazil 20 years from now and seeing that tree I planted in the front of a historic house for the church in this city! IM so happy to be a part of the growth of this church.

Not too much to write about this week. We worked hard and had lots of fun.

Thanks for all your support and love,

Elder Horst

Elder Borges, Elder Horst, Elder Cox and Elder Henderson on a cold, rainy day.

Horse races!

Last of all, this is why our emails were a little late today, they were so excited for p-day!

After playing a little and writing home, they'll be cleaning their messy room :)

Faith

Well this week was absolutely wonderful! I am having so much fun with my new companion, Elder Borges, and we work together really well. He is new in the mission and has really high expectations. For example, we will be walking down the street during a normal day and he will say, ``We dont have enough lessons this week! Last week we has tons of lessons and it was so easy and this week we dont have alot!创 I just look at him and say, ``well than, lets go teach some lessons!创 Within the next hour we were able to knock on some doors, get a few lessons, and get 3 new investigators! I really like that he has high expectations because it motivates me to do better.

My companion and I are also trying to work hard on inviting the spirit into our lives and letting him inspire us to do better. Heres another example. We were knocking doors and we ended up talking to this guy thats from the 7th day Adventas. He was trying to tell us that his church was the only true church because their holy day is on Saturday (even though they have meetings every day of the week??). He was really annoying and didnt listen to us. At the end he told us that we needed to study better because we were being lied to. I asked him what priesthood ment and he didnt know, so I told him that we were representatives of Christ and had the authority from God to do his work. Than I invited him to come to church where we learn about priesthood and authority. haha.

Anyways after we talked to him we didnt feel really good. He said some really mean things to us and we felt that the spirit was gone. We decided to say a quick prayer and it really helped us. After that moment we were able to continue working. Ever since than, if we feel that we are having a bad day, if we dont know what to do next, or if we dont feel the spirit, we dont hesitate to say a prayer and ask for guidence from the spirit.

This week was really good but at the same time wasnt so great. Our baptism for the 8th fell because she is sleeping with her separated husband. Its a bad situation but I hope that through the sprit, things will get better.

Last night, we had an activity of the Stake hosted by the missionaries. The zone leaders, Elder Cox and Henderson, worked really hard to prepare and it turned out good. FIrst we had testimonys from others about missionary work and stuff. Than we watched a mormon message about sharing a Book of Mormon with a friend. After, the other district in the zone gave a training on how you can use pass along cards. My district and I gave a training on how you can use missionary pamphlets to teach your friends. Than we watched another short video about teamwork and ended it. It was a really good sucess and at the end, everyone was really excited to do missionary work and invite their friends to church. I felt the spirit really strong and think that the members will do lots to help us baptise!

Well today will be fun. We are going to the park after this to play around a bit and than do some chores in the house. I got my suit drycleaned for R$40,00! Thats 20 bucks! Its so dang expensive but I needed to get it cleaned.

Have a good week everyone!

Love,

Elder Horst

Elder Horst cleaned the kitchen

Elder Horst and his new companion, Elder Borges

Elder Borges sweeping the floor in the two room building the church bought to have Sacrament meeting, in the afternoon.  Trying to get a branch established.  

Elder Horst and Elder Henderson are pretending to be rivals :)

Their district, minus one companionship

Elder Horst made Elder Borges pancakes with homemade maple syrup.  It is Elder Borges first time eating them!

It looks like Elder Borges likes the pancakes :)  Good job Elder Horst!

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 :)