I had a dream for the first time today!

And so now I want to tell a story that's pretty cool :) La in the beginning of our time here we ate at a sisters house for lunch after church and she has a son who has a girlfriend who was also there at the lunch. And his girlfriend’s name is Camila. And she had a cousin who was also there visiting from another area. Neither Camila nor her friend, Pauliana, are members so we took advantage of it and taught them the first lesson. Camila was pretty distracted..her boyfriend, Geovani, wasn't helping us and she doesn't seem to have strong desire but her friend! Was paying good attention and I could see that she really wanted to know about the Book of Mormon and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the truth. The sad part, was that she doesn't live in our area :/ and so we passed her information on to the elders whose area she was in and she was baptized!!!! And she said she wants to see Elder Steele and me so I think next p-day we're going to go over there and see her! It's cool because if she hadn't been there at that time, she still wouldn't know of these truths. It wasn't us though, it was God who did all of it.

Elder Steele and I are staying together this transfer and we're both way excited about it because lately we've really started to learn a lot together and though we still don't have a baptism together I'm confident that if we keep doing what we're doing we'll have one. The hardest part, I think, is just that the people don't fulfill the compromissos or seja (in other words) they aren't at the house.. :( We're working and thinking on how we can overcome this barrier.

We planned last Sunday for about 4 hours and that was way good because we haven't had a good planning session in too long. Things kept happening on Sunday. It’s also way cool to see promised blessings of the Lord, His prophets (in both old times and today) and His apostles. I'm thinking about super studying this when I get back and making a database of it. Like "oh you want this gift? Then you have to do this and this and this."

I was talking about something with some members and being very blunt..but not blunt..like up front but not in a mean way or anything and the members said I was sem frescura which means without freshness and I was thinking..and it didn't make any sense to me but apparently sem frescura means being blunt in a way. So if someone’s being blunt la nos estados unidos, just say they're without freshness haha

The longest word in Portuguese (or close to it) inconstitucionalicimamente. It’s a mouthful. Learned it last Sunday.

Every personal study time is a treasure to me and I really enjoy that time I have to study the things of the Gospel. One of my favorite parts of the day every day.

Time to sign off!

Til next week! Or maybe a bit later today

I love all of you

The Church is true

Don't forget it

Elder Horton

Picture that Elder Steele wanted to take to show how buildings are constructed here.

Interesting.  Do they use the cinder blocks because of termites, or cost??  Or do you know?

I haven’t heard anything of termites, I think cost and the easiness and the construction...but I don’t know for sure. The base of all homes is those and cement though. Never do you see carpet or rug or coisas assim. Things like this.

Good timing!  I just got back from driving Shelem to work…  Great letter(s) this week!!!  You sound good!

Thanks! I Am good!

I'm doing research into a more effective (money wise) way of making calls. Right now we spend 30 or 40 reais a week making calls which is pretty steep.

As for Christmas, I have no strong desires for anything...except for maybe sometimes nutella. Which they have here! And the thing is, when you send something here from the US, I end up having to pay 60% of the item cost just to get it so if they have it here, I should just get it here. On that note, I'll think about things that I want that they have there in the US that they don’t have here...but I can only think about the reverse haha like things they have hear but not the US. 

I had a dream for the first time today! But it’s a different dream than Martin Luther's dream. My dream was delicious and full of cream. It was like a donut with cream inside except the cream was showing and had sugar on top. yum. It’s called a sonho which means dream :) Maybe MLK was really talking about this Brazilian food.

I'll keep thinking though! Let me know if you'd be heartbroken or have any problems with just not sending me anything though. Em vez disso. Instead of this, I could just buy stuff here that I haven't tried or that I like (nutella would be on that list). I feel like you want to send me something though even if it doesn't make sense logically...How do you feel about this?

5 minutes left so I'll probably just read and respond next week.  I hear it takes 3-4 weeks to get here more or less.  Placing pictures of Jesus and Brazilian depictions of him on the box is an idea that helps I hear as well.

Life is good!

So today is interesting. It's not really p-day but we're writing our families because still because we don't want you guys to freak out like I think you might do haha it's all good though. It's weird today because of transfers tomorrow. So we have transfers tomorrow and so we'll have a full pday tomorrow but we also wanted to right today because if one of us Did get transferred tomorrow (highly improbable) we probably wouldn't get to write families...não sei. Mas eu só tenho..but I only have 12 more minutes and so I'll read but won't respond probably to the other letters just yet. I'll get on later and respond I think.

Lots o love
Elder Horton

I don't have time to read all of it unfortunately. Elder Steele is already done with his writing and so I have to be done soon too :(

Yesterday we were present for a baptismal service in our chapel that was for a young man that had reached the age of 8. The father spoke before hand and he spoke very highly of the experience and you could see the level of respect he had for it. When he was baptizing his son you could also see how important it was too him and the spirit was strong in the room. Elder Steele and I also had the opportunity to help confirm him and give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost and this was very cool as well. The Spirit was strong there.

One of these last days, a lot of our commitments had been falling through (this seems to happen a lot) But I think All of them had fallen through except for maybe one... but it was interesting that we were able to see the hand of the Lord more in this day. Elder Steele commented that perhaps this was just so that we wouldn't be unexcited about the work haha I also know that it's after our trials that we're given success and soooo we're hoping that the success will come because we're working hard. It was on this same day that we were waiting at a bus stop and a man approached Us, which normally doesn't happen, and he was talking about how every church has errors these days and I said that yeah a lot of churches do have errors, then I asked him if he thought that the church that Jesus established had errors and he said no no of course not! And then I taught him about the restoration of the church with the apostasy, and the Joseph Smith restoring the church. We'll visit him later this week and I'm excited for that. He also said that he doesn't do everything perfectly like he smokes and drinks but that he wants to walk the path of Jesus and then I said to him, "Oh if you want to walk the path that Jesus walked you'll need to stop drinking and smoking." Elder Steele had a look of shock on his face for a couple moments that was quite enjoyable but the man, Luis, took it and agreed with it and wasn't angry because of it.

I'd love to write more and share more stories but the time is up.....sorry! Love you all! I'll talk to all of you next week!

Elder Horton

Tiago, guy that Elder Steele baptized a year ago in Jacareí that we visited last p-day!

Barrios in the US

10-21-13

Dear family,

Dad told me of the ants in the car story! Crazy!

Eh...don't know the movie Gravity...that okay I can’t watch it anyways. I'll watch a lot of movies when I return!

What kind of things did you coordinate with the sisters to do? This is pretty cool because we do the same kinds of things :)

Good you gave blood! I wish I could do the same!

It's cool how when your kids are serving missions the cars seem to just magically fix themselves haha que legal.

The obedience quote is from an apostle but it's still a great quote and very very true!

Tell Jonathan and Shelem to keep up the awesome missionary work! I'm thankful to them for the missionaries!

It's been bem calor aqui lately. Pretty hot here lately.

Did someone tag me in some photos also? That family we visited last week, I helped them find me on facebook and that way they could tag me in pictures they had taken.

That's cool about Fabio! He spoke with me this week saying he'd received the email. I'd be interested in being bcc'd on that convo :D One, just cuz I'm curious and 2 because I want to see how good google translator did.

Yes we write the mission president each week.

 

Thanks for the thoughts about not labeling yourself.  I know that in another 10 or 15 years, this age will seem YOUNG not OLD!!  It’s just that right now, I’m older than I’ve ever been (and now I’m even older….remember that song??)  I don’t want to diminish my effectiveness, so I won’t think of myself as old!!

Yeah I remember that song haha I remember you didn’t like it.

Here is the planner from BYUi - $4.99.  We can get you some for sure!  Do you think I should get some now in case they don’t have them in stock when you get home?

Yes I want it!!!! Buy at least....like...2 that should allow me to at least slowly wean off if necessary.

Gma Smith says you don’t look like you’re gaining weight.  How are your pants fitting??  I’m glad you like the food.  I remember Jonathan saying that the members just kept putting food on his plate even when he said he was full.  Do they do that there?

Yeah my pants are fitting fine! I washed them today and I'm dry cleaning meu terno. My suit coat and pants. Only 20 reais or a bit less than 10 bucks.

As for the food, they encourage but generally don't force. Sometimes the sisters will say "what elder you didn’t like my food?" To which I'd respond something like "No the food was amazing! I've just already eaten 2 full plates and if I eat more I'm afraid I'll explode" They usually laugh at that. And then give me dessert. Haha which is always good. I never leave lunch hungry. That’s for sure.

I like your quote, "If you're faithful and life sucks, be happy because you're about to have some good success."  I put it as your status on FB along with some photos.  James responded with, “In other words, it’s all downhill from here!”

Thats cool! thanks! I like James' comment haha

My companion wants you to add him to my email group, he said he'd be interested in receiving my letters as well just to see my perspective on things, pode ser? Can it be?

I'm debating working with an excel sheet on my p-days that would be bem legal, tipo, it would link to mapquest and show All the points of All the contacts and investigators and members and every reference that I would want :) I'm always happy to be thinking about things like this. I don't know if I'll ever have Time to do this though...so we'll see.

We walked in a neighborhood yesterday that reminded me a lot of bairros in the US! It had trees and a wideish paved street and each house was fairly unique and individual. Of course each house also had a portão or gate and often times electric fences but that’s beside the point!

We see medics tending to a motorcycle accident as we were passing in onibus, that was interesting

Sunday was very corrido. Busy. It appeared to me that everyone wanted to talk with us and we had an investigator there which was awesome! But we gave 3 blessings and guided our investigator to where he needed to go and talked with the members and it was busy but good.

We had interviews with the mission president last week! That was good, he gave me some training and while the interview was only supposed to last about 15 minutes we spent about 20 talking about his family and his son in particular. Way cool guy it would seem, sold Cutco too and is in sales right now and doing amazing.

If I have more time I'll probably write a bit more a bit later, I still have 33 minutes but also have to write President Ferrin still.

I’m assuming bairros is neighborhoods??  Is that kind of thing rare in what you’ve seen so far in Brazil?  It’s amazing how different countries are well, so different!! 

Bairros is neighborhoods, I just didn’t want to type all that out again haha its fun being bilingual. And yes that kind of thing is pretty rare.

Do all the missionaries have cell phones?

Every companionship has a cellphone

How far do you have to walk to get groceries?

I have to walk maybe a tenth of a mile or so, maybe a bit more, to get groceries. Well...depends, we have another store right next to our casa but they don’t have a Lot of stuff.

A note we got this week.  It says in English:

Elders

I feel a lot of gratitude for y'all being in our area.

The Lord knew how much this area was needing y'all. It's been a long time since I've seen missionaries so spiritual, my family is excited to help y'all

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Sister Ofelia - 10/20/13

Bem legal :) Gosto  muito. Sinto especial.

Pretty cool :) I like it a lot. I feel special.

Elder Horton

Cana - Sugar Cane

10-14-13

Ola!!

Então, é assim. (So, it's like this) I didn’t have the opportunity to buy what I was going to to be able to implement it (refer to last week’s letter about helping investigators keep appointments) and so I didn't implement it. Hopefully I'll find a place to do that today. Basically we just have issues with setting appointments and then people not being there and so I was going to leave some piece of paper with them reminding them of the appointment and this could also be used to remind people of their commitments as people also have problems with this.

As for conference...I think they did have a TV in one room that was showing English. But we didn’t know that.

Let me know what happens with Fabio, we tried to pass by his house again but he wasn't there. If it doesn't work, don't push it. Just see if he responds to the email. Was the email in English or did you use google translate or alguma coisa assim?

Letter to President Ferrin:
While we may yet to have a baptism in this area, our key indicators have been growing every week better and I feel a lot better about this past week than any week previous. I'm also well excited about the week and weeks to come. Elder Steele and I have been improving a lot together. He finds a lot of ways to help me and I even find some ways to help him sometimes and we're both always trying to be better. Right now we're working with a family that the mom and dad need to be married and then they can be baptized and there are some difficulties with this but I believe that we can help them come unto Christ through baptism. We're working with others as well which I think have good chances of being baptized with some more time. We're always looking for new people to teach and trying to work with members.

As for me and the language. I'm getting better every day and God is blessing me a lot. Of course I'm not fluent yet but I'm working on it.

Elder Steele is a very good companion. He and I haven't had any conflicts and we're both pretty easy going when it comes to decisions so it's a good mix for not arguing.

End Letter. So I don't have to write things twice :)

Opa thats crazy with you and dad and the hike. It’s good you guys are trying to be more active! I'm happy to hear BYU came out triumphant :D Isso é bom. This is good.

Good job with the missionary experience! Did you get her information and pass it on to the elders?

As for the references to age. I really don't think that what you guys experienced was terribly different from what anyone else would experience. I don't think you guys are getting old you're just not used to some things. I'm sure I would've been DONE too haha. Also, Irmão Belchior said "Don't label yourself" and then referred to Preach My Gospel which says that labeling yourself diminishes your effectiveness. I second what Irmão Belchior said and third what Preach My Gospel said. Don’t label yourself! You guys are amazing.

What’s something you learned this week?

Jejum. Fasting. It’s 1000 times easier when you have a purpose that you really care about. Also, if you want to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, you should fast and pray a lot and study the scriptures a lot too. It’s what Ammon and his brethren did.

How many Brazilians are there in your mission versus imports from America or other countries (like you)?

Então, we have 10 sisters and 16 elders in our zone. All our sisters are Brazilian. I think that we have 6 elders who are American so 3/13 are American mais ou menos.

Do you have your lunch meal or your dinner meal with families in the ward?

Lunch meal. I have eaten beans and rice with every meal with another Brazilian since arriving. It's way good though! And I'll probably eat lots of rice and beans when I get back because it’s nice a cheap too.

Eaten anything new or interesting lately? (Do I ask too many questions about food?)

I had spaghetti squash dessert that was interesting haha but good. That and cana, the sugar cane. That was interesting too eat haha basically just biting the outer woody layer to get access to the inner layer and then biting that off and sucking on it to get the good juices and the spitting that out. At times it tasted like sugar, soap, corn, and salt. Usually though it was very good and the salt was rare and soap was not very obvious haha.

Does your mission ever teach English classes as a way to serve the community and interact more with the people there?

Então, the missionaries in each area can do that if they want to. We've debated it and we might still do it but for now we're not worrying about it. Elder Steele said that he's done it a couple times before and usually the problem is that the members don’t bring nonmembers. We might do it though where if a member wants to come, they have to bring a nonmember haha

Do you ever feel unsafe??  Is the area you’re in a pretty safe one, or not??

Our area is pretty safe. Initially, at night it felt a bit sketchy but it's all good now. And anyways God is watching over us and we have the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us.

What is the weather like lately?

It’s been a bit hotter in the last day or 2...but before that it's been pleasant. I expect it'll continue to get hotter. We were lucky with our colder days but I think they're a thing of the past.

Do you carry a water bottle with you?

I do. I have at maximum almost 3 liters of water with me. I use my bag of water from my camelback! Very handy.

What scripture stood out to you in your study recently?

Nossa, how hard to decide! Alma 26. The whole thing. Usually used for return missionaries but I love it. I'm using it as a goal and motivational speaking and lots of stuff. I love it especially when he says "As to my strength, I am weak, but I will boast of my God! For with him I can do all things!!" Or something like that. I love it. I am weak! God does all for me. I love it haha

What is your favorite thing about the mission since getting to Brazil??

The people, the food, but especially serving the people and serving God and feeling God's blessings in my life.

I saw a man with one leg riding a bicycle. The will to survive is strong.

I learned 4:20 means marijuana in the drug world in at least this part of Brazil haha very useful I know. Random fact.

Oh! Mom! I want a planner when I get back from my mission! I heard tell of a planner that’s basically the same as a missionary planner just not for missionaries! I want it! I heard BYU-I sells them. Do you think you could research this for me?

When we have a vision of what we can become, our desire and our power to act increase enormously! I really liked this quote from something Elder Steele was reading.

Portugues: Quando nos temos uma visão de que conseguimos nos tornar, nosso desejo e nosso poder para agir aumentar enormemente!!

I think I'm gaining weight here in Brazil....The food is too good and I eat too much haha I think I'll lose it here in just a bit though with verão - summer coming.

If you want to be cool. When you just did something really hard and challenging. You should say that you just killed a lion or maybe even 2! That’s what the Brazilians say haha I learned that this week.

I also created my own quote this week based on my knowledge and experiences.

"If you're faithful and life sucks, be happy because you're about to have some good success." This is based on a couple things. 1 being Doctrine and Covenants when the Lord says, "if the very jaws of hell shall gape open after you, know thee my son, that it shall be for thy good" ou alguma coisa assim. Or something like that. And also a story of a missionary first day in the field. He crashed his bike and ruined his suit and returned back to the apartment to find that they'd been robbed and a lot of his stuff stolen and he called the mission president to tell him that he was going home and the mission president said that he can't wait to see the rest of his mission. The mission president knew what I know. That after the tribulation are we given success. And so I pray to God for tribulation. For mountains to climb and rivers to cross (https://www.lds.org/youth/music?lang=eng look for the song “Mountains to Climb”) because I know that if I endure faithfully I will be made better than I was.

We did a divisao this past week with the zone leaders so that Elder Rees could show Elder Steele an area that he thought was elect and ready to be harvested. And so I was with Elder Paul in his area and that was interesting. That’s when I found out that 4:20 meant marijuana and he also showed me the street that the drugs were sold on and told me about how the police is corrupt and so does nothing. He said that they don't bother the drug people and they don't bother them. It was good though! Learning from another elder and watching how he teaches and what not. And also the area that Elder Rees showed my companion is cool. We're teaching some people there now. One of my favorite parts about the area is the trail we take to get there. It takes us off the street and up a hill side which is way cool. Elder Steele said I probably won't get that the rest of my mission so I'm trying to take advantage of it.

I began torcando or rooting for, the Corinthians a futebol team here. Not for any particular reason... A lot of people root for them including Elder Steele and I got a little keychain thing out of deciding to root for them so that's always good.

We had some Rodizio Pizza (buffet basically) and so I got to try about 5 different pizzas from Brazil! They were all good and none were like American pizzas. One had corn, one was like pão com quejo one was a dessert pizza, the others were good but don’t remember exactly. I think bacon and one more.

We attended a wedding which was way cool! We went to get references and we ended up getting 7 good references but 5 were in other areas but we'll visit with the 2 later. It was way cool though! It was in the chapel. I sent a picture of what it was like. I also sent a picture explaining the tradition with the tie and money.

Saturday, was the day of the children here which was interesting. At about noon, a wholllle bunch of people started lighting off fireworks. It wasn’t the kind of fireworks that you could see though, it was the kind that just made a HECK ton of noise and so one started on one side of the city and then everyone started. It was interesting. Also at night we passed what I think was a catholic parade commemorating the day and that was interesting as well. I think we were in the background of some of the pictures they took preaching God's word. Photobombed :D

Last p day we visited a family in Jacareí, Elder Steele’s old area. He baptized them about a year back but it was cool to visit them! They started to like me too pretty fast and were awed by my height. A little daughter of theirs brought out a 1 real in bill form and I thought that was way cool because it’s super rare because its old and I expressed desire for one of my own. I wasn’t wanting hers at all but it turns out she had 2 of these bills and so she gave me the one that was practically falling apart. It was way cute and it was hard for me to accept it but I did. Maybe I'll serve in that area later. Who knows.

This part of Brazil is one of the richer parts I found out.

Almost everyone who rides motorcycles wears helmets!

I think that's all for now. I actually had time sufficient today to talk about everything I wanted too for the most part! Elder Steele wanted an extra half hour haha. I love all of you. Stay true on the path to Eternal Life!

Elder Horton

 Cana, or sugar cane :) Practically right out of the ground. Good stuff!

 

Elder Steele needed to make a call so we were waiting for him.

Sister M Silva is in the back sitting on the ground and Sister J Silva is in the front

with cana in hand. It took pretty much the whole day just to interview her because

she lives in another area in the roça or as we would say, the sticks :D

 

 As DL, Elder Steele does interviews (I think I already said this)

and so he interviewed her and she passed and we took pictures.

All the refrigerante (soda) for the wedding :D 

 

 This is our capela (chapel) that was the location of the wedding.  It was well transformed!

 The happy couple. Both members of the church already.

 This is our LMA or Lider de Missionario da Ala Or ward missionary leader.

And his wife. He's the man. Very nice and helpful.

Also instead of the money dance like mexicans have, they have a tradition

that is maybe a bit less exciting but also a bit more memorable.

You put money in the hat and you get a piece of the tie to remember it all by.

I put in some money and so got a piece of the tie. 

 

As we were leaving the interview, we passed a truck that was being stocked

with loads of cana! Sister J Sylva just asked for a piece and

we got a piece that was probably 5 maybe 5.5 feet long and we split it.

This was what I had when I got home. Elder Steele and I are gonna finish it off today :D

Fotos that a sister took because of the height difference

Even less time this week

Even less time this week haha sorry. We're leaving for Jacarei, Elder Steele’s old area today and so have less time.

General Conference was awesome! I'm sure! It was a bit hard to understand in Portuguese...nossa. But it was good! (Nossa is just like, man...or dang...or sometimes "wow that sucks" haha) I took some good notes on what I understood and it was a great chance for the spirit to help me feel inspired! I was only able to listen to the Sunday sessions but I’ll listen to the rest and read them later

Helping less actives is amazing! We’re working with 3 less actives right now and sure we don’t get to baptize them but hey it’s just as important! We’re helping them live happier lives with the spirit and, some of them, be sealed and live for eternity!

That’s a funny story about the prophet and the other man

Entao (then) the 2 baptisms did not happen this week. The appointments we had set fell through because they weren’t there or other things. That’s probably the hardest part of the work. People not being there. I’m going to implement a new method this week. I’ll let you know how it works next week and what it is. Ask about it.

That’s way exciting about Bonnie! I'm happy for her!

I got to help give 2 more priesthood blessings this past week. One to a sister who had a pain in her foot that wouldn’t go away and another to another Elder in our district who had been bedridden for a whole day and couldn’t work. It's amazing how the priesthood works in all languages.

Thank you for the info on the card!

Happy to hear dad is still losing weight!

I hear the US has Acai..but it’s not the same :( So go ahead and try but no guarantees

Questions:

What was your favorite message from General Conference?  I loved Richard G. Scott’s talk on the atonement and more. I also understood that one the best haha

Where did you watch it?  Jardim Paulista, where the stake center is located

Was it all in Portuguese, and were you able to understand all of it?  It was ALL in Portuguese. I understood....no. not all of it. It was hard to understand :/

What was the best part of your week? The blessings and spirit and seeing the Lord's hand in missionary work

Do you have a Ward Mission Leader that you work with?  We do, his name is Neumar and he's the man. Very helpful. His wife is the seminary teacher.

How many missionaries in your ward?  Just us 2

Do you have many sister missionaries in your zone?  We have a Heck ton of sisters in our zone! Probably just as many as we have elders. Maybe a bit less.

Did you get your washing machine fixed?  Or how are you doing your laundry now?  We did, it cost 250 reais but we'll be reimbursed.

How is Elder Steele’s foot…toe?  I hope it’s getting better!  That would HURT!!  I think it’s better now!

How is your health doing?  Any sickness or hurt body parts?? I am doing great! No more blisters besides the one the first week. The hardest part is fasting haha its sooooo hard to fast when it’s hot, and all you want to do is just drink 10 gallons of water.

What do you do for the meals you do on your own?  Lately grilled cheese sandwiches because they’re quick, easy, and delicious but also fruit and I’m going to mix it up some later. I’ve been doing potatoes too in the morning and this morning it was way good!

How are you sleeping? Great! Some nights I'll wake up in the middle of the night but usually just fall back to sleep. It is a bit difficult having a bed that’s about 6 inches too short. But I will survive!

Do you know your mother loves you and prays for you daily and thinks about you often??  She does?....Hm...haha I'm just kidding, yeah I knew that. Thank you mom, love you too and pray for you as well!

This is not a photo he sent, but a map I found that includes his mission area.

 

This is Garrett and his Cousin Bonnie (Sister Tantillo)

and their companions just before Garrett left for Brazil. 

It was special that they got to be in the MTC together

and that they got to see each other so much!

Pain is just weakness leaving the body

9-30-13

Actually I wrote wrong, its farofa, almost the same thing. But it’s some kind of floury stuff that you have on the side of your plate that you can mix in with your food. I think it’s nice sometimes but don’t go out of my way to put it on stuff. The food here is just fine without it.

Both new to the area... a good thing? I don’t know about that haha, but it’s been good. It just took us a bit longer to get rolling. Our goal for baptisms this month is 5/2 which means 5 total baptisms with 2 being men. We care about men specifically because they hold the priesthood. We also have a goal of 2 baptisms and 2 confirmations this week. For this were basically praying for a miracle and doing everything we can to make this happen. We have one eternal investigator meaning that she’s been investigating for a long time who we could baptize this week..and another man who we haven’t even taught any lessons but came to church yesterday and liked it a lot we think! Mauricio. He could also be baptized by this Sunday after church because the rules of the mission are they have to attend church twice and among other things, keep the word of wisdom by at least the terça, or Tuesday. So yeah those are our 2 baptisms were planning on, as for our confirmations, 1 would be Vivianne, the other, would be a miracle. Yep. Anddddd as I’m writing this I’m remembering that its general conference weekend so we won’t have any confirmations haha wow, I don’t know how we missed that. But we can still have the 2 baptisms and then they’d just get confirmed next week. Denilson was baptized by the previous missionaries but he was confirmed our first week here and so that’s been cool seeing him at church. He’s really into it and enjoying it and I’m happy for him.
 

Best way for me to learn the language? Talking with the natives helps a ton and then talking with Elder Steele after about some questions I had about what they said. Also if you say natives here, or as I said, nativos, they think you’re talking about native Americans, Indians. Yeah they laughed for a good 40 seconds at that one. I just call them brasileiros now. Language study is also really helpful in learning correct grammar. Likeee subjunctive. Which we don’t have in English so it’s hard to use correctly and recognize when it’s necessary. For lunch yesterday the brasileiros called Elder Steele serious and called me a brincadeiro, or joker. I had been making some puns that they thought were funny. It’s good when you can make other people laugh in another language. Not because you’re speaking horribly but because they think what you said is funny.

The 2 locks are for security. We share the outer portão, gate, with a store so we both have a key to that one and then we have another lock to our door to get inside our casa.

We have a washer...kind of. It just broke....were not sure what’s wrong...were probably going to ask an irma, sister, if we can do our laundry at her house. Still haven’t done it yet. When its working though yeah we wash it and then hang it to dry.

It isss weird to put tp in the garbage a bit but not too weird. Sometimes I forget but it flushes down fine as far as I can tell.  I don’t know about hot water. I imagine though in the summer I’ll be taking cold showers anyways.  The secretaries of the mission actually already sent us 2 tables and should be here soon!  Did I mention we have 3 microwaves that don’t function as far as we can tell?  We have windows to move air...I’ve debated about buying a fan but it hasn’t gotten too bad yet. Other people just open up windows and some have fans.

Thank you for the laughter pertaining to the pain being weakness. I appreciate it.

Khakis, I’m going to talk with the mission president about it next time I see him. Elder Steele does Not wear the sandals and in fact I haven’t seen anyone wearing the sandals but I saw a sapateira, shoe store, and might stop by there today! Elder Steele has ingrown toe apparently. We’ll also be stopping by a foot doctor later for him.

5 people from last week. Uhhhh, we had to cut one because he’s not ready yet, aka, he doesn’t want to keep commitments or progress. Another was too busy and said shed contact a member friend of hers when she had time so we’ve cut her for now too. The others are okay. We have more promising prospects this week.

So after we were done teaching one of our investigators, Fabio, he said he really wishes that he could speak English with someone. I told him that if he gave me his information I could talk with you guys about skyping with him. It’s totally up to you guys but his information is here:

fabio.frp@hotmail.com

skype:
fabio.JHS
Don’t feel obligated to do this, it’s just an option if you want.:sd

I looked up your area on google maps and found your church building!  It looks like you’re on the northwest side of Sao Paulo – is that right??

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t seen a map of where I’m at yet haha

Your carterira sounds cool.  Adding a pocket is smart!  I’m glad you get good meals from the members.  Jonathan and Shelem fed the 4 Spanish Branch missionaries yesterday.  I always love having the missionaries in our home.  They bring the Spirit with them, and I always feel that I’m doing for someone else’s son what I hope others will do for my son!!

You get blessings too for feeding the missionaries!

Sis Lucas (Kelsi) got her visa and I’m pretty sure will be traveling to Brazil today!  I hope Bonnie gets hers too!!

That’s exciting she got her visa! So she’s going to the Brazil MTC to finish up her last...2, 3 weeks?

What was the best part of your week?

Mauricio coming to sacrament!!

What was the biggest challenge of the week?

Having the spirit sometimes

How did you overcome it?

Worked harder to be worthy of it

What scripture has meant the most to you recently?

It’s hard to pick a favorite. I’ve liked a lot of scriptures in Alma lately. Alma 36:24?

How often do you have district meetings? Zone meetings?

We have them back to back and they’re both today at like 6.

How many miles do you think you walk each day?

Probably 6 or so. Depends on the day.

Do you use public transportation much, or mostly walk where you need to go?

We try to mostly week because its 3 reais one way for public transportation and 3 back so that’s a little less than 3 dollars round trip so we walk most places. When we do baptismal interviews though for the other 2 duplas in our district (because Elder Steele is DL) we have to take the onibus which is kind of annoying because it costs money and then we also miss appointments...

Do you use a backpack, or did you end up getting some other kind of tote?

I use my awesome backpack you got for me over a year ago. No problems yet! And no stitchings like the other one had!

I’m glad the water isn’t bothering you – is it possible that other areas might be different in terms of water quality?

Yeah its possible

Will you be watching general conference at the church building next weekend?  I can’t wait to hear those inspired messages!!

The Sunday sessions for sure, were not sure yet about the Saturday sessions.

Rie, I walked into a house and guess what was on the TV! Adventure Time! In Portuguese! I didn’t watch it obviously but I thought about you.

Here, Halls cough drops are candy and sold as such. Crazy huh?  I’ve also seen a surprising number of people (4 or so) wearing Argentina futebol jerseys!?! What’s up with that?? I’ve been curious about this lately.

ACAÍ is absolutely amazing. Amazing flavor and texture. It’s kind of like a Brazilian replacement for ice cream. Paçoca also is amazing with acaí. It’s kind of a sweet, powdery peanut buttery thing. lete condensado or condendsated milk is also way good with it as well as lete em pó which is just powdered milk.  pão com quejo is another thing here which is good. Bread on the outside, cheese on the inside.

Also assisted Elder Steele in giving my first blessing in Portuguese. A blessing of healing. I anointed and he sealed. It wasss difficult because I wasn’t prepared but it was good. The priesthood works in all languages.

Is the debit card set up so I could make withdrawals out here? I don’t need to do that right now but i might have to later in my mission.

I’m out of time. Still lots to say. I love all of you and wish you all the best :)

Elder Horton

This is a photo of Garrett and Chris Fore (center) from the Boiling Springs Ward. 

We just got it, but it's from the MTC days.