Happy New Year!

This week was really good. We are having lots of sucesso here but we are really hungry for more. This sunday we were able to have two more baptisms. Marcio is a 29 year old man with Down Syndrom. He lives with his sister because both his parents have died. All of his nephews are baptised and when I asked him if he wanted to be baptised, he was really happy! Hes been going to church all by himself for the last few weeks and is always the first one there!! He is such a special person and it was such a pleasure to help him get baptised. My companion baptised him.

Yasmin is the daughter of some investigators that we have. Her brother is already baptised and she wanted to follow his example. We taught her the lessons and were surprised to find out how much she understood! Her parents arnt baptised because they are not married and he needs to get divorced to his first wife. But they go to church every week and want to get baptised!

These baptisms sunday were alot different from the usualy. My companion noted that both of these people getting baptised were cleaner than us! The ones baptising them. A boy with down sindrom and an 8 year old girl can be some of the most clean people in the world. With this in mind, baptism is still essential in order to help people return to the fold of god one day. I was honored to be part of it.

Today we will go to the wedding of our good friend Adriana. She will be baptised on Saturday. We are so excited because she has been waiting so long for this and has been working so hard! She cant wait to get baptised. Right from the start she stopped drinking, smoking, and coffee and she has never returned, she always goes to church. She already has a talk ready to give after she is baptised. She is a perfect member of the church! Im really happy that she will finally be baptised. She asked me to baptise her. Yesterday, we gave her a priesthood blessing so that she could feel better and not get so tempted the last week before her baptism. She doesnt have good friends and they try to always get her to break some commandments that brought her down, but she didnt give in. She will be great!

In the upcoming weeks we have a few people that we hope to baptise. It looks like the field is really white and that nothing can stop the Kingdom of God from growing and getting stronger.

Love you all,

Elder Horst

Happy New Years

Well this week was really awesome. It was really cool being able to spend Christmas in 90 degree weather haha. But seriously I really enjoyed it and I am kinda sad knowing that it was my last Christmas in Brazil for a while. It was really awesome being able to talk to the Family and catching up with old times.

I would love to talk about some great things that we did for christmas but in reality, not that much went on! It was really enjoyable but we just worked hard and had a good week. We have been super busy because we are getting ready for so many baptisms. On Saturday, Paulo and Ismael were baptised. Paulo is the brother of our 1st counselor. He is great and wanted so bad to be baptised so that he could change his life for the better. He hasnt had the easiest of lives because his wife died Young and he has major health problems, but he knew that baptism would help. It was a great day and ill be sure to send some fotos next week:)

This Sunday we will be having two more baptisms! The first is of a 8 year old girl. Her brother is baptised and we are trying to help her parentes get baptised too. Her parentes are having a hard time because he needs to get a divorce and than get married so it will take some time and alot of work. The other baptism will be of a man with down sindrom. All of his nephews are baptised and we asked him if he wanted to be baptised too! HE wants really bad to be baptised so it will be cool.

Than on the 11th Adriana will be baptised. She has been waiting so long and we are all so happy that the day will finally come. She will be married on the 6th and baptised at the end of the week. Im really proud of her and happy that she has endured so long and chosen to be baptised. The Bishop already has a calling for her and she already has her first talk ready to give at church!!! haha

Anyways, we are expecting alot of success here and im excited to see how things will go from here. Thanks for all you help and support!

Love,

Elder HOrst

This Christmas!

Well the time has seemed like its flown by so fast. I can remember last christmas like it was just a few weeks ago. Its truly the best time of the year, full of love and joy for everyone. This last week we have worked really hard so that everyone can feel the real happiness of christmas. Christmas is all about Jesus Christ and.. Coca Cola! hahaha

I am really starting to like my new companion, Elder Miller. He really wants to help out and have a lot of sucess and it seems to be working:) We are having lots of investigators at church and will be having a lot of baptisms in the next few weeks. On tuesday we had the anual Mission Christmas Confrence! It was alot of fun. In the morning we had a few talks and training on the work and than we ate lunch at the usual resturant, Cheiro Verde.. or the Green Smell in english haha. In the afternoon we watched a video with photos of everything that went on the past year and all the baptisms we had. Than every zone had a presentation to do for 15 minutes, Our zone planned a really funny skit with a few good songs in it that we wrote. It wasnt as good as last year, but it seemed that everyone liked it:) As a suprise we got photos from our family and a year book sort of thing from the president.

A good part of our investigators will be at the beach for the next month so we will see how things go! Hopefully we will have lots of success finding new people to teach! Anyways id like to tell more but Im just excited for our phone call on Wednesday and ill tell you more when we call.

I hope you have a good week! Love you and merry Christmas!

Elder Horst

Our skit at the Mission Christmas party.

It's almost Christmas!

Thats almost crazy for me to think about. I had no idea that christmas was next week! Time is just flying by so fast. I thought that 2014 would be so far away but its just right around the corner. I dont know if thats a good thing or bad. I guess I will find out as i go. Luckly im at the prime of my mission. It seems like Im doing a lot more with the time that I have. Were constantly running to appointments and stuff.

Its really hot outside but im getting along. The brazilians like to make fun of me for my red face but im used to it. They say, your not White... your not brown... your just red!! haha. I put on sunblock but it doesnt make much of a difference. Also, the bugs are full blown right now. I dont remember seeing as many last summer. My feet are covered in bites that I get all night. Haha they dont bother me too much. The only thing that keeps me awake is when they buzz around my ear. It sounds like a miny airplane and crepes me out!!! The fan helps get rid of that!

My new companion is Elder Miller from Texas. Dallas I think. He is really cool and I like him a lot. he is focused and obedient. He has 1 year and 3 months on the mission and its his first time being zone leader. I like to think that he has a good companion to help teach him;) The mission kinda got a blow in the stomache because alot of missionaries were caught not being obedient. They didnt do anything really bad but it affected the whole mission. Now its my job to recooperate the success that we were having in the zone. Ive created a new ´´game´´ to get the zone motivated. Basically I buy a prize for the group that completes their goals. Its kinda fun.

Back to christmas. Were talking alot about this for our investigators. its a good way to get into peoples houses. We share with them the movie joy to the world. we bring a portable dvd player and everything. Ive gotten really sick of watching it over and over and i fight to keep awake during it (especially in the heat after lunch!) haha but the people seem to be really blessed by it. People áre alot more open to our message around christmas.

Ill call you next week! I hope that you get lots of questions ready!!! I told someone that its my third time calling home in 1 year and 8 months. I just realized now that its a rediculously long time to not talk to my Family! haha. Thats okay though, its for a good cause! Plus im okay with not speaking too much english for now!!! Im trying to get in as much portuguese as possible.

Well Restinga is pretty awesome still. Im glad that im still here. Were still planing tons of baptisms for this transfer. our goal is 9. Well see how well it goes. Last week we got to a great start getting lots of new investigators and marking baptisms every single day!!! We had 8 people at church on sunday too!

I hope that everyone is great and has an awesome holliday season..., enjoy the snow for me:)

Love,

Elder Horst

Elder Henderson and Elder Horst are welcoming Elder Henderson's parents to Porto Alegre, at the airport.

Propaganda

more propaganda

Discover the United States

like never before.

Looks like the Redwoods in California!

A Gremio soccer shirt I bought for Mom :)

Transfer Day

Well Im not gonna lie. This week was not one of the most productive weeks of the mission! We sure did get a lot done and we had a very sucessfull Ward Confrence, but we were really busy getting my companion ready to go home and the little time we had to work my companion was kinda off focus. I cant really blame him. After two years of work he lost focus on the last week. Elder Del Pino was a super awesome companion and I love him to death. It will be hard saying goodbye to him tomorrow at the bus station, but thats just how the mission works! Lots of goodbyes but lots of new experiences too.

Every day last week in the morning, my companion had interviews and meetings at the mission home so I was stuck there to do nothing. Luckly, i was able to leave for the road with Elder Reis, the assistent. It wasnt that fun taking a bus either because the busses in our area are super packed and it takes forever to get to the mission home. i get there all tired and sweaty haha.

Not having that much time to work last week, we pretty much focused on inviting people to the Ward Confrence. It turned out to be a great sucess. Our weekly average attendance is 45 but last week we got 88! It was awesome and the spirit was really strong too. We had 9 investigators at the meeting. 2 That will be baptised in January and one that needs to be baptised soon but we still have a little work to do. The stake leaders did an exelent job helping out too and the whole ward felt very loved.

We have a very special investigator named Milena. She is 15 and her parents just got separated. She is having a hard time and turned to the church for help. She will be baptised in January. Last week she participated in the Young Womens and Excelence and talked about divine value. it was really cool. She also sang with the young women at Ward Confrence. She is progressing really good and will be baptised shortly.

Today is transfer day and I got to go with Elder Henderson to the airport. It was really fun seing his parents but strange to speak english and be at the airport. Tomorrow I will say goodbye to lots of my friends.

Well thats pretty much it. I cant belive that Christmas is in a few weeks. i cant even feel the christmas spirit yet, but im sure it will arrive shortly.

 Love you all!

Elder Horst

Some of the Young Men in our ward.

Adriana, one of our investigators and Michele, our favorite member :)

I thought this was cool, the soccer stadium for the World Cup in 2014.

Our transfer on December 8.

Transfer Week

Well its the last week of the transfer and there will be transferências. I know that I will be getting a new companion obviously because my companion will be going home! We have to go to meetings every morning this week. Im not really ecited because its really far away from our house. Its about an hour on the bus and the bus is PACKED full. It gets to a point that there is no room to move your arm. Its not that great of a feeling. On the bright side, we will be going to returaunts to eat all week long:)

This week was really cool. On saturday we were able to baptise two Young men, Sonny and Marcos. They are really good guys who love when we teach them. They fight nonstop about who will be saying the prayer because they all want to do it. I was honered to baptise Sonny and a member baptised Marcos. It wasnt that great of a meeting. it started really late and none of the members showed up but all in all it was great. Marcos was so excited that he wore his baptism clothes for like two hours before it started. haha. They walked to the church (like 45 minutes away) and arrived two hours before it started haha.

We had a small Thanksgiving celebration. We bought two big pizzas and some soda. Everyone was stuffed by the end of it. Like Always, we kept the tradition and we all took turns stating why were greatful before we ate:) It was a nice dinner.

Our zone is continuing to be awesome! We have been baptising for the last 6 weeks and every área Always have investigators at church. I was able to do a division with Elder Cox on Friday. it was really fun to work with him before he goes home! We were able to prepare for his baptism and work a bit in his área. I did a contact that turned into a lesson and we invited her to be baptised. It was a really good lesson. I like being at the mission home but its really busy there! There is Always something going on.

Anyways thanks for everything and I hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Horst

Teaching the boys.

Having so much fun!

Celebrating Joao's birthday with some ward members.

The Celestial Zone of Porto Alegre :)

Sister Hodnic, Sister Birt, Sister Parks, Sister Marques, Eder Luiz, Elder Ritz, Elder Beary, Elder Olivera, Elder Roberts, Elder Moda, Elder Del Pino, Elder Marshall, Elder Triffitt

The cleanup crew:  The hose on the washing machine was kinked.  When I unkinked it, the hose exploded and flooded the house.  We didn't have the key to turn the water off.  It took me about 20 minutes to repair the hose.

The solution to the problem

BYU always saves the day!

Less active members of our ward.

This is how we celebrated American Thanksgiving!

Guess which half is mine.....the unhealthy half of course, with all the bacon ;)

At our Thanksgiving "pizza" feast, we all took turns saying what we were grateful for.

Waiting for the baptism to start.  One of the elders looked out the window to see if anyone else was on their way.

Marcos and Sonny, two great young men!

I was really happy to baptize Sonny!

I pranked Elder Roberts by throwing an empty egg at him.

I have a video and may be able to send it next week.

Family night with some investigators.

Some really nice souvenirs I bought for the chimarrao drink.

The silver utensil is a straw, with a holder for the herbs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well its been another great week here in Porto Alegre. Ive been having so much fun working here with my companion and the zone. This week didnt have quite as much action as the past few weeks, but the time still doesnt seem to stop slowing down and we are still running around trying to get as many baptisms as possible by the end of the transfer. This is the last full week of work for us because next week will will be forced to spend alot of time preparing my companion to go home! Ill give more details on that next week.

So this week we are baptising two young men that have 14 and 16 years. They both are suprisingly interested in learning more. They fight to see who will do the prayer (they all wanna do it) and they are excited to learn how to keep the commandments and are really really excited to be baptised on Saturday. Theyre names were announced at church on sunday and they both had beaming smiles! Theyre parents and family will be at the baptism so we hope to have a really spiritual experience so that they can get baptised too!

For the group of people that will be baptised on the 7th, we are working really hard that they keep their potential. Some of them have had a few problems that have shaken their faith, but I know that they are all ready to be baptised and we will do everything so that they can get baptised and reep the blessings.

Its extremely hot here and I have to put on sunblock every day (55). I forgot how many bugs are out during the summer. Its really annoying because we still dont have fans that the mission gives us and we hav to sleep with the windows open and all the bugs get in. I cant sleep with a blanket cause its so dang hot! Luckly there is lots of wind on the 5th floor.

We have some sick plans for thanksgiving. Were gonna buy some pizza and have a nice dinner together with the other missionaries that live with us.It will be fun and everyones excited for it. I hope that everyone has a great thanksgiving!

Love you guys,

Elder Horst