A kiss from a young woman?! Beijo da Moça

11-4-13

Dear mother, family, and friends :)

That was cute about Isaac with the Wallace and Grommet motions for mac and cheese!

Sounds like you guys are having fun up there and enjoying the family. I know what you mean it would be pretty cool to be up there at this exciting time in all of your lives when you're all pretty close together but I'm happy to be here and I know this is where I'm supposed to be :)

I'm sure you did great with your lesson on hastening the work! Keep up that mission spirit!

I think we'll go and visit Pauliana proxima semana. Next week. We haven't set up an appointment with her yet but we will talk with the elders in her area today about it!

Ender's Gameee....I wanted to see that haha I'll see it in 2 years. I have always kind of looked to Ender as a role model...hah I'm mostly kidding. I have always admired some of his traits and smarts.

Have you been able to teach Luis some more??  (The man from the bus stop?)

So we called him and he said "voce estava enganado" or that we were decieved when we were trying to describe how we met him. We think he was drunk at that time...but whatever the case we didn't teach him and we're not going to.

Did you get an answer from your President about drinking Coke?  I’m glad you were obedient even before you got his response.

His response to me:

YOU CAN GET A COKE IN THE LION HOUSE WHERE A LOT OF THE GENERAL AUTHORITIES EAT LUNCH. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?
Elder Steele and I got a good laugh out of this response. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

And also my letter to him this week:
This past week has been really cool as we've had the opportunity to watch 4 of our investigators really progress in the gospel and their testimonies. We're have 2 baptisms firme this week and 1 more probable for this week and 1 more probable for next. I'm super excited to finally be able to baptize and I think this is helping Elder Steele and I to be more excited about the work and also all the members in the ward. We have brethren to go with us every day of the week and we are way excited to work with them. We're also seeking very hard to find and baptize men so that way when the ward is ready to split it can have enough priesthood holders. We're thinking if we just baptize 50 more people that the ward will have to split to fit all the members so we need more men! This would be the desires of our hearts if we could be perfect instruments of the Lord. We're not perfect but we'll do our best.

What was your greatest blessing this week?

Having the opportunity to help the Lord bring his children to him.

Have you learned any new Brazillian traditions or customs lately?

Of the top of my head...I think no.

What do you do at your District Meetings?

We talk about our investigators that went to sacrament meeting and maybe a bit of how we can help them and then we receive training from the DL

Are your shoes and clothes holding up OK so far?

Yesssss, mostly. Tipo they're getting worn bit by bit but they still have a long time left.

What is the high temperature getting to now?  Is the humidity high/low??

Ummm I think it's around 95 some days. Humidity, depends but usually highish. About like South Carolina. I've never noticed humidity that much honestly. Like the difference between Utah and South Carolina. I don't really notice.

Have you had any scary experiences since you got to Brazil?

All the police Always have their hands on their guns. That's always a bit intimidating for me but I'm never really scared for my life or anything. I haven't really felt scared for my life or anything like that since arriving.

Thanksgiving is later this month – what are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for too much to write. God, scriptures, prophets, general conference, opportunity to serve, members, my planner haha, my amazing parents, supporting friends, family, shoes! The A/C that I'll have in 2 years haha

Do you think that the things you are thankful for have changed since being on the mission?

I think yes....but like the setting of the sun it's something that’s changed day by day for me and so it would be hard to say what exactly but I know that they have changed. If not what I'm thankful for, in how much I'm grateful for it.

Don't cry mom *pat pat pat*

ps: Yes I said that just to make you cry again

pps: and now you're laughing crying

ppps: I love all of you! Especially you mom, you've been an amazing mother and I couldn't have asked for better. If I could change one thing about the way you've raised me, I wouldn't change anything. I'd say you did a fine-dandy job.

pppps: I'll go ahead and send this now and then respond with how my week was a bit more.

This last week I got a kiss from a young woman!

We had a way cool experience this past week that has really strengthened my testimony of the priesthood. Eu penso tambem que eu vou escrever em portugues e então traduzir para ingles. Vai ser mais divertido :) Então estavamas la em caçapava entrevistando um pesquisador das sisteres la e estavamas voltando para a rodaviaria e uma mulher nos parou e estava perguntando "Quem são vocês?" Nos respondemos que nos somos missionarios e ela disse "Ah! Entram ai entram ai! Nos temos criancinhos que estão doente! Podem fazer uma oração?" Então nos entramos e Elder Steele e eu fizemos um bênção do Sacerdócio para eles. Fizemos 3 bênçãos de saude e um de consolo e então uma sister orou para a casa e familia. A proxima dia, nos ouvimos das Sisteres que todos os meninos naquele dia estavam sem doenete! Mesmo um daqueles meninos que não estava comendo comecou a comer quando nos saimos! Nossa que legal!!!
Translation: I think I'm going to write in Portuguese and then translate to English. It will be more fun :) So, we were in Caçapava interviewing an investigator of the Sisters there and we were returning to the bus station and a woman stopped us and was asking "who are you?" We responded that we are missionaries and she said "Ah enter there enter there! We have little children that are sick! Can you do a prayer?" So we entered and Elder Steele and I did a priesthood blessing for them. We did 3 blessings of health and 1 of comfort and then a sister prayed for the house and family. The next day, we heard from the Sisters that all the little kids that day (the day after the blessing) were without sickness! Even one of the little boys who wasn't eating, began to eat when we left! Nossa how awesome!

The priesthood really is powerful. It really is the authority to act in the name of our loving Heavenly Father. The power is dependent on our worthiness and the will of God. God blessed those kids that day through us and now that family is taking lessons and accepting the invitations and I think will be baptized with a strong testimony of the priesthood. The same priesthood that Jesus had. That He gave to his apostles. Unfortunately the priesthood power and authority to organize and lead the church and baptize was lost when Jesus died and was resurrected and also the apostles but I know that Peter James and John gave this same authority that they received from Jesus to the first prophet in these the latter days, Joseph Smith. That same priesthood I hold can be traced through my dad and his dad and so on to Joseph Smith and then to Jesus. Oh how thankful I am for the power of the priesthood in my life.

I awoke on the morning of the 31 of October. Elder Steele said happy Halloween. I said Oh yeah. We laughed for about 2 seconds. That was the extent of our Halloween festivities haha

Okay that kiss from a young woman. That was a doce or treat that’s called beijo da moça. Orrr kiss from the young woman :) Don't fret haha I'm just messing with you guys. It was a very delicious treat.

 In Caçapava also they have a part of the ward that is very distant from the building and so it’s difficult for some of the members that live there to participate and make it to church. This story is about an irmã (sister) who is the perfect example of a member missionary.

She lives in this section that is very distant and she rents a van once a month for all the members that live far from the church as well. She also holds a family night every week! And invites all the members and they all invite their nonmember friends and she teaches lessons out of the gospel principles to them, and sometimes it happens that all the missionaries have to do is give a summary of the lessons and then baptize because the people who go to the family nights already know the information. How cool is that?!?

Our Zone

Okay thanks for the words, Time is ending. Love you!

Elder Horton