Elder Garrett Horton: Bright Spot

3-10-14

I enjoyed reading the letter and hearing about everyone. I'm happy Matt got his mission call!

How was your week?

My week has been good. This last week wasn't as productive as it could've been with transfer and conference, we had a good amount less time but even so, we brought TEN people to church! That awesome family that we're teaching whose mom is Rosa and 3 of the friends of the kids! They're awesome! And because the friends went to church, now the Other moms are interested! And so we're going to visit with all of them this week and bring ALL of them to church this next week! I'm expecting we'll have at least 12 people at church this next week. Maybe more. We'll need at least 3 cars which is awesome but the car rides are hard to organize but we already have 2 people who are committed to helping us this week. All those that went really liked it and I think everyone pretty much knows that the church is true and so that's awesome, now it's just working out the kinks and helping them all get baptized!

Did transfers happen like you expected?

Yes they did. We're still together but he or I might train next week, in which case we'd get switched up and transferred the next week. We'll see what happens next week.

If you’re still with E Cosme, has the week gone better than the day that you talked about in the street?

As you could tell from my letter to the president, things have gotten better. No one’s perfect but we have a fairly good relationship.

Who are you teaching?

Rosa and her family and another family but that's it for now...we're lacking investigators unfortunately but we'll get a lot more this week I think.

What are you studying?

I'm studying this awesome thing called "the fourth missionary" That Elder Steele gave me at the mission conference. I'm really enjoying and it doesn't just apply to missionaries but to everyone. If I could find it in English I'd get it to you guys but I tried a bit and couldn't find it. Only Portuguese. Elder Steele might know, you can ask Austin. I'm also continuing my reading of the Book of Mormon which is really hard to read because I have so much other things to do. I'm only in 2 Né 20! Since I entered the MTC. I'm also studying the Acts of the Apostles.

What was a bright spot in your week this past week?

Going to church to have a chapel full of members and investigators and people I've helped baptize and am preparing for baptism. That’s happiness right there :) Sadly....Delia and Francisco didn't go to church yesterday..we asked them why later and Delia said that they had a lot of stuff to do, a lot of clean up, they had a cool BBQ after the wedding ceremony

Do they do daylight savings there? We just had “spring forward”.

They do

Is your church building finished being renovated yet?

Unfortunately no, not yet. Maybe here in 3 or 4 months.

How are your shoes holding up?

They're fine, they're slowly dying but I used that thing that you put in my shoe shining kit today. That thing that like staples more stuff on the shoe...I forget what i's called. But we'll see if they last a year haha I walk a lot. 40 minutes to get to where work every day and then 40 minutes to walk back at night, sometimes 55 if we walk from the house of Rosa.

How are YOU holding up??

I'm great! The Lord makes a way and is here for me.

It was really awesome to be able to hear the words of Elder Costa. I've included my notes that I took and wrote down just now. Sorry for the Portuguese, you can put in the translator! He talked a lot about some awesome methods of missionary work and included the spirit in everything he did. I won't talk a lot about what he said here because it's all in the word document.

Thank you all for all your prayers and love and support, I love all of you.

Elder Horton

Notes from Elder Costa’s conference:

Conferência da missão na Penha com Elder Claudio R. M. Costa

· Fala bem sobre a importância da expiação e se falar muito bem, as pessoas vão perceber e gostar e querer (personal thought)

· Quando Cristo vier, presidentes e leaders of the government will be released and the leaders of the church will replace them. Elder Costa will be the president of Brazil.

o The kingdom of God is already here on the earth and it is the organization of the church.

o When he’s president, he’ll have a tele-curso on TV where 2 missionaries will teach the lessons and the people will hear all the lessons and then call the church and demand to be baptized and the person representing the church will say “Let me see the next empty slot for you to be baptized….ah, in 3 months, the 4^th of July, is that okay?” “Yes yes! Sign me and my family up!”

o There will be chapels on every street and some just to baptize.

· President Ferrin foi chamado por Deus

o Como ele foi chamado (Elder Perry, Elder Eyring, one other)

· O que é “moço dos profetas?...”

· O pres. Ferrin interviews himself to go to the temple, tanta is the confidence of the first presidency in him.

· “Ensinamos pessoas para exaltar”

· Tem que continuar fazendo as coisas certas e levanter se cair

o Adaptar suas circuanstâncias

· “Vim para missão para ajudar pessoas a serem exaltadas”

· Para ganhar o apoio e ajuda do conselho do Ala e os membros

o Amar e servi-los, ensinar para encontrar (para pedir ref.)(Plano de salv.)

· “E muito importante que vocês estejam lá no conselho da ala

· Promessa por inspiração: todas as vezes que trabalharem duro e reativar alguém, vocês vão batizar alguém.

· They worked with a credit card company that shared information about members with unknown addresses to find the addresses of the members.

· “Tem que buscar conversos” D+C20:37 they have to fulfill the requirements in this scripture

· To have success, you need the spirit, need to study, need to plan

· Pague oferta de jejum

· No domingo don’t write “Church” because if just write church, what will you do? Go to church without doing anything with the obra missionary. It’s the only opportunity you have with All the members together, take advantage of it and do something with it. Talk with the members

o Noite familiars

§ Convite, bolinho, RPG, Vizinhos

o “Não Perca tempo”^

o “Não pode ter nada que não tem a ver com a obra missionária

o Bispo – envolvido com a obra missionária through Noite familiares as well!

o NF are easy, fun, cool, and eficiente!

· “A gente e os membros tem que abrir a boca”

· O Senhor nos inspira por meio de meios simples e pequenos

· Fique bondoso com tudo mo undo

________________________________2ª parte

· è possível batizar 4000?

o Mc9:23

o Não e só...(seguir?)...tem que ser guiado pelo Espírito

· Story of the missionary dupla and the 3 pastores

o “So one day I receive a call from a missionary dupla, they tell me that they’re teaching this awesome family of 8 people and that they’re preparing to be baptized. They also tell me that they’re going to talk with that family again today but that the pastor of their current church will be there and they want me to come too. I felt inspired by the Holy Ghost to go with them so I tell them I will. As I did this, I turned myself into the hands of the Lord 100% because I didn’t know anything about the situation I was entering. I was just trusting in the Lord. As I’m preparing to leave, I hear the Spirit speak plainly in my ear ‘bring the Book of Mormon in English” So I call the missionaries and I tell the American to bring his English book of Mormon. He says “But president they don’t speak English.” I told him to just do it and he asked me why and I told him that I don’t even know why. He said he’d bring it. When we got there. There wasn’t just one pastor, but 3. The leader of the local church, the leader of that city, and the church leader of All of Brazil…They said, “we’ll let you teach this family if you can answer one question” I said “alright, what is it?” They asked “Why do you praise the Lord on the Sunday when it clearly says in the bible to praise Him on the Saturday (Sábado)?” I tried to explain to him about the resurrection and all that but when the beliefs and principles are different that’s difficult. I felt inspired to ask them some questions as well with respect to their studies. It turns out that 2 of them studied in the US and speak English fluently as well as understand Hebrew and Greek. And so I ask them “In your studies, what version of the bible did you use?” “The king james version” “Wonderful! So do we! We actually have one hear as well! Elder, can you get your bible please” The elder handed me the bible with a look on his face of surprise and awe. Directing myself to the pastors again “Can you find for me please where in the bible that it says that we should worship the Lord on the Saturday?” He looked and looked but didn’t find it. I then asked him “What does “sábado” mean in Hebrew?” He responded saying “it means ‘day of rest’” “Brother (head of the house of family being taught) When is your day off?” “Sunday” “Alright there ya go, tchau.” They didn’t want to accept that they were wrong and continued to argue their point. I didn’t want to argue with them and so I was seeking help from the Spirit. I felt the spirit say to me “Do with him what Nephi did with Laban.” I was confused and even looked for the sword a bit and then the spirit said to me again “Not physically, spiritually” So I share some scriptures to ‘cut off his head’ and that was the end of that.”

· Busque a mensagem pelo Espírito

· Elder Costa orour sobre cada parágrafo sobre Joseph Smith e depois de 14 horas de ler e orar, teve conhecimento perfeito e demanded to be baptized and was taught all the lessons and baptized 3 days later after being taught by the spirit.

· Não tem que ensinar a lição todinha de uma vez

· Não mistura social com espiritual, ou nunca vai ter êxito.

· Medo é o contrário de Fé

· Pega papelzinho para planejar cada lição

o O que a pessoa precisa aprender, tem dificuldade sobre o que

· Fruitos de nossa missão = semente de maçã. Planta uma semente e tem muito mais frutos.

· Fé significa andar cego por um tempinho para receber a prova/ajuda...não lembro mais o que falou.