President Ferrin is leaving :-(

8-25-14

Hey mom!

Dad, I enjoyed your story, I'm happy to hear that everything came out alright if you know what I mean *nudge, nudge*  And how's your sunday school class?

Man I'm gonna have aNother little one calling me tio (uncle) this week! That's awesome!

How was your week?

My week was good, Carlinho went to the church for the second time and it was a small miracle and very cool. We were at his house Saturday at night and we were teaching him about the restoration. He had already gone to church once without us even teaching him which was very cool as well. After he went to church, Elder Rivera and I decided that we'd stop teaching people and just invite them to come to church and then they'd all come. We were joking of course. But anyways, we were finishing up the lesson and we invited him and his mom (who was there) to be baptized. He accepted as did his mom (which honestly isn't that rare of a thing, the hard part is following through) and it was cool too because his mom was like "yeah, go there, get baptized!" haha and then we set them for a date (the 7th of September) and then the mom, Geralda, said that she was already baptized. We explained it to her and she understood it so well that she said she'd be baptized again if she felt that what we said was true. But then came the invite to come to church came and he said he would have to work on his house that he's building tomorrow. Elder Rivera and I were a bit sad but we told him of the importance of the day of the Lord and to not work on this day and we promised blessings and after about 5 minutes of talking, he said he'd go to church! He's a little timid but he has a good desire to follow Christ I believe. And tonight we're going to a family night with him and another member of the ward who lives very close and this Saturday we're going to be one of the Lord's "blessings" We're going to help him build his house with some other members of the church! I'm hopeful that we'll be able to help him to come unto Christ through His church. We have some barriers that we'll have to knock down first but it's possible. He's not married and his wife doesn't want to marry right now but I know that if we can help him.

Mission conference was cool, I learned about the importance of specific prayers and specific planning. And we're excited to apply other things that we learned as well. We'll see if it makes a big difference

Any news on your mission president yet?

It's for sure now, President Ferrin and his wife will be leaving us by the end of this week and the new president will be arriving. I told them to say hi if they see you guys in Houston.

Have you had your night of integration yet?  If so, how did it go?

Yeah we did! It was cool. Everyone seemed to have liked it. It was a good start. We'll be in charge again this week and we'll have the theme of the tree of life. But next week, and the week after, 2 other organizations have already volunteered to be responsible for those nights! That's awesome! I'm happy for this :) I was thinking. I may not baptize the most or be the best missionary in a lot of aspects but I can at least organize an activity and make it so that even when I leave, the activity will continue thus blessing the lives of many others. It's become a goal of mine, to set up integration nights and other such things in all the areas that I pass in.

Well... I think that's about it. The times about up so I'm gonna send this off but thanks for your love and prayers and letters. I love you all!

  

Elder Horton

Last picture with President Ferrin on my mission.

They think that it's funny...it kinda is.  Cool backpack huh?

August 18, 2014 Best week!

Family

I loved hearing about Liz's post on facebook :) That's super cute

Wow, that's crazy about Bonnie, but at least she's in the US right and has medical help there right? Imagine if she was in Brasil. Maybe that's why she never got her visa

I was telling the branch president here about how your wedding anniversary and Chinese food saved my life and he chuckled a bit.

Have you ever heard of Doctor Ray? He was in my area, Pindamonhongaba, this last Saturday and one of the young woman of the church saw him and took a video with him. I was hoping he would show up at church but he didn't, he's a fubeca. I believe he's a member of the church.

This week, we were knocking doors to find new investigators and we knocked (or really clapped) one door and out came a man and we began to talk and he said he had a cousin that was a missionary too. We entered in the house and we began to talk and they were all very nice and receptive and we came to know that this cousin of his that served a mission came to know the church because she did a foreign exchange student type of thing and went and lived with a family in Las Vegas that was a member of the church. There, she came to know the church and decided to become a member. She came back to Brasil and then served a mission in Brasil but now she teaches in the MTC here in São Paulo and her non-member mom is "more Mormon than the other members of the church" according to the missionaries there who go there monthly to eat lunch. And her entire family now has that basic understanding and connection with the church and if it wasn't for her, maybe this other family would never have let us in. Interesting right? All because one LDS Family opened up their house :) It's a Marvelous idea :) I loved it, I think I might do something like it haha.

This week has been one of my best weeks with Elder Rivera. I've said a lot about him and complained about some things and he does have some problems but I've been really prideful as well and I recognized that this last week and a bit so I'm trying to be more humble and be a better friend of him and loving him and it's making a difference.

Any news on Pres Ferrin’s visa??  I hope he doesn’t have to be gone long!  That IS crazy!

The president was also wanting to return soon but in his weekly letter to the missionaries, he said that that was his selfish desire getting in the way of the will of the Lord so he and we are pretty well set that the Lord has a great plan in all of this and that this new president that will end up coming will be able to help in other ways that that the Lord wants the mission to be helped. We'll see what happens.

What is your bathroom of death??  I’m intrigued!

Oh it's just a really disgusting 2nd bathroom that we have.

How is the work going?  Who are you teaching?

It's good, we goign to start doing a night of integration weekly which is just like a fun activity for the whole branch to participate and for the members to bring friends and for the investigators to be integrated so I'm happy to get this going. We've got some hopeful investigators but no one that's really Ready to be baptized and time is short so I'm gonna continue. It sufficeth me to say that it goes well. and I'm excited and happy.

  

Also, in my unpacking I found a pocket size Book of Mormon.  I think it was Jonathan’s.  It’s in a special cereal box case he must have made for it.  Do you want me to send it to you?

...nah just hold onto it. I'll just stick with my regular Portuguese Book of Mormon

Also, a new debit card came for your account.  I should probably activate it and send it to you.  I’m just hesitant to send that in the mail…  What do you think?  Have you used your card recently?  I wonder if it still works…?  I should probably send it – maybe tucked in the pages of the Book of Mormon. 

Ummm...maybe you can call the bank and see if the old card will still work?

Anything else you need?

I believe that here in a couple weeks there will come some colored pencil pens (2 of them) from china that I ordered so just be waiting for that and then when it comes, you can send it to me with anything else I'm wanting/needing at that time. How much is it to send a package like that with 2 pens?

How are those shoes holding up?

They're holdin'. We'll see if they make it the whole 2 years.

Thanks for the letter and the love and the prayers.

Elder Horton