Elder Garrett Horton: Wheat Harvester

2-3-14

Oi família!

And so this week has been good, better than I think any week up to this point. We didn't fight this week even once and we joked around a bit while we were working and it was good.

I'm sorry again that last week I didn't have a chance to write, I'll do my best to not let that happen again.

Thank you for the prayers, the fasts, and the thoughts. I know that you love me and really want to help me and the things you send do help me so thank you.

I'd heard of that lemonade story before, it teaches a good lesson. This past week, I've made his bed almost all of the days and he expressed his gratitude for that. I've also been seeking other ways to show that I care about him. Like giving him food, I also bought some sweets today but I didn't eat all of them and I'll give some to him. I think that this has really made a difference this week. The fact that he sees that I actually care about him and also I think he's trying to be a bit better. But with where we are in our companionship, I'm fairly happy. It's not perfect nor ideal but it's a lot better. I just hope it can continue to improve.

That's cool that the Sanders are serving another mission! And that Chase is putting in his papers, tell him to write me!

I miss snow. Here it's just hot all day every day. I'm fairly used to it but I just want to sit by a fire with a blanket and roast some smores. Here in 2 years right!?

I'm sure that the Lord sends me tender mercies but as for me recognizing that they are tender mercies, I don't recognize it in the moment usually. I'm thinking about something now that might be a tender mercy. So do you remember how Sister Spencer (Mother of Mady) asked for my mailing address? Well I got the letter that she wanted to send me. It was a letter from a Sister with which Sister Mady Spencer was living at the time! It was very unexpected but it was cool. It was handwritten and she spoke a bit about the purpose of her letter and then asked me 15 get to know you questions which I thought was random but cool, it made me feel special. She wrote the letter the 10th of December and I just sent out my response letter now and so it took a while. But last time, when she sent it, she sent it to Augusta and then it came here and then I forget about the letter when I received it for about a week and 2 days haha. But that was cool.

Oh also I had the opportunity to download church music of the young woman in Portuguese from a sister in the church! So I've been listening to that and that's been cool as well.

You're a tender mercy too mom. Probably one of the tenderest. I'm blessed to have you as my mother and I know that God chose you to be my mom and Dad to be my Dad for a good reason. Thank you both for your support and your tender mercies.

I found out recently that the hymn "I need thee every hour" is based off of 2 Nephi 4! My scripture! I've always liked this hymn and now it makes sense why. There’s also another hymn done by the men's tabernacle choir called "I love the Lord" I think that was on the site, lds.org/youth/music (where I downloaded a large majority of my music legally for free) but it was taken off before I could download it :( It's also based off 2 Nephi 4. I love it... Hey I just looked again and it's there! Yay! Already downloading :)

Isaac is very cute, I miss him. If you have any videos of him doing anything, if there's an easy way to send them to me, that'd be awesome.

That's cool there'll be another trek between the 2 stakes. Will you and dad walk it again?

Last week you asked some questions that I never responded to, here they are again with my responses:

How are the people you’re teaching progressing? It sure sounds like you have a bunch!! We do have a fair amount! We had 5 investigators go to church this week and we're planning on baptizing 3 of those 5 this week if it all goes well. We have about 13 Books of Mormon that are out and about and working with the people that we still haven't cut.

Do you ever do any sight-seeing on your P-days? Are there sights to see?? Sometimesss yeah. Since arriving, I haven't had one p-day dedicated just to sight see but there are sights to see, you just have to know where to look and go there.

What was the best part of your week? Good question....This week was good because we spent a lot of time in the houses of other people and not on the streets. So even though it's been ridiculously hot lately without any rain, I didn't feel it as bad as I would've if I'd been on the streets

Do you write in your journal a lot? Daily! Every day, I cycle a color as well. I use 4 colors, black, red, blue, and green. I have a 4 color pen and so that's very useful to record my daily events.

What advice would you have for future missionaries – ones preparing now to serve? Study preach my gospel

This week, as I already said, has been pretty good. Unfortunately, Delia and Francisco (or chico or xico) didn't stop smoking by Tuesday and weren't married this past week and so we had to delay their baptism until this Sunday but I have a good confidence that they'll be baptized

Also Maria Parecida is scheduled to be baptized this week. She's a sweet senhora. She'd had a tough life with an abusive husband who's now dead. She's a bit slow of mind but she does what we ask her too! She read the Book of Mormon and prayed and received an answer and she also stopped drinking coffee without problem! We just have to teach the commandments for her to be ready to be baptized this week. We're also working with her son who works usually out of ton so it's a bit difficult to work with him but he's interested.

So I was thinking about my spy pen. I was thinking "man this is awesome, but it only looks in one direction! And it's not always forward! What if I had Spy glasses! Now That would be something!" I had the thought soon after that "What if...I had a hard drive with a terrabyte of memory in my backpack and I recorded my whole mission!! Now THAT would be something!" But that would cost around.....300 dollars I think and yes it'd be very cool...but I think it's a bit unreasonable. Thoughts of Elder Horton under the hot sun.

Something I've noticed here that I think is kind of funny is that there's a lot of people here that when they talk on the phone, they remove the phone from their ear and talk directly into the microphone...usually. I saw one guy one time talk into the speaker as if it was the microphone haha. I don't know if it really makes much of a difference but I think it's funny that they think it makes a difference.

Someone else said that I almost don't have a foreign accent which made me feel awesome.

But then someone else didn't understand me for about 30 seconds until she got used to my foreign accent haha and sooo who knows.

A funny story. We were in a bread shop/bar thinking a bit about our investigators before lunch. I had my planner out and was writing stuff down and then we decided to leave. We got about 40 yards away and then a drunk in the bar started to yell at us, we turned to look and Elder Cosme asked "did you forget your planner?" I'd forgotten my planner! I ran back to grab it and the drunk said "Who drank alcohol, me or you??" It was pretty funny

I also shone a pair of shoes for church! That was pretty cool. I liked it.

Last zone meeting was awesome. The LZ's shared an awesome story and testified about the calling of God of our President. And another Elder who just got here in the mission shared an awesome story as well. Since he was like 4 his parents had been separated but he said that he got a letter that they're together again and happy! His first P-day in the mission. He testified about obedience and the blessings that come from obedience. It was awesome. And another Elder bore his testimony about not judging others. Also awesome (And directed at my companion.) He quoted Joseph Smith "The first step of Apostasy is talking bad about the leaders" or something like that. He said it in Portuguese.

Well this is the main bulk of my letter. I did it one of the first things. I'll write the pres. now and other people and do other things. Thank you both for your love and support. I love you both.

Elder Horton