Elder Garrett Horton: Life Goes On

5-26-14

Eric is an inch taller than me?? That's ridiculous! Well certainly he fits in with our family huh.

I was thinking about dad's ribs this week..they're pretty savorful

So is Dad going to teach the first member lesson with the help of the missionaries or them with his help? What's the lesson that they'll give her? Temple work?

How has your week been?

Lucia and Cleber and their family gave us a scare this week. We got a message from Lucia telling us not to pass by this week because they're having some family problems. We found out that they were on the verge of separating but their member friend convinced them to stay together. They invited us in their house yesterday and we talked with both Cleber and Lucia about their individual problems and what they need to do to have a successful family. We told them that we might be young and unmarried but we know what they need to do. I even related our companionships to a marriage and they laughed at that. We felt like marriage counselors. It was difficult, but we got them both to promise to do their best to fulfill their promises for this week and to see the improvement. We'll be seeing them daily. We left them with a good spirit in their house. It was cool, we asked them about how they met and what kind of stuff they did when they were just getting to know each other and you could see that spark of initial love spark up again, they were both laughing and smiling and sharing stories. That was cool. A lot of times, missionary work is just finding good people who have good lives who are just ready to hear about the restored gospel and they get baptized and are happy. But there are sometimes where we, as missionaries, have the opportunity to really help someone in a difficult situation. It brings a satisfactory feeling as I see that they're improving. I really really want to help this family.

Tell me about getting pulled over on the way to the temple. Were you driving? Or were you riding with a bunch of missionaries??

I was Not driving, but there Was a bunch of missionaries. It was just because the driver forgot to fill out a form that he'd be travelling from one side of town to the other.

Did Maria dos Anjos get baptized this week? If so, how did that go?

No :/ She didn't...We went there one day and she just started off saying that she didn't want to be baptized again. We sat and talked with her for like an hour that day and like a sum of 3 hours on the other days trying to figure out what changed, what her problem was. We did a lot of questions and she had a couple "doubts". We took away All of her doubts with the bible and then continued to say that she just didn't want to. We think there's something she'd hiding from us but we've asked her like 5 times if she's hiding anything and she always says no. It's one of the sadder moments of missionary life...We just want to help her. But we've left her with one last commitment to read and pray and not drink coffee for 3 days straight and then pray to God. So we'll go back Wednesday and if she hasn't received an answer...then we'll just have to cut her.

Does the ward attend and support new baptisms well?

Yeah they do okay. It's not amazing but it's good.

Language mess-up of the week. Elder Mikulecky asked me some question and I responded "no, so people in the mission office can do that." Elder Horton thinks for a couple seconds....."I said that right?" "No Elder Horton, you messed up again." Said Elder Mikulecky with that smile on his face that he always gets whenever Elder Horton fails at English. That happens a lot haha it's kind of funny.

Tell Liz I'm in favor of Princess Rainicorn.

Anddd...one of the saddest news of my mission...That Mission conference with Elder Nelson....got cancelled because of protests in Brazil :/ We couldn't even leave our house until 5 pm. that was sad but life goes on.

Elder Horton