2-23-15 Helping My Neighbor

2-23-15

Hey family!

An excerpt from my letter to the president:

This past week, we had about 10 people marked for baptism in the zone, 4 were baptized. The other 6, were put off until this week because of various problems, but with the other people that went to church, it looks like every area in the zone will baptize this month, except for one, and we'll have about 12 to 15 baptisms this weekend. We're going to plan a Noite Branca (white night) and baptize everyone at once in the same place! We're really following up well with the investigators and we're really hoping and praying that this week, we'll manage to have great results.

The week was very good, one of our best weeks yet together. We're managing to fill our planners with good plans and appointments with many people, investigators, less actives, references, members and everything it's a very good feeling to have it all planned out. We're helping a family return to church which makes me super happy! And they're an Awesome source of resources because they know EVERYONE in their apartment building complex thing. And so like we're just sitting there in their house and someone comes in and we start to talk about the church with them and they're interested and become an investigator! It's awesome. We're also finding less actives and part member families, I feel like we'll have a lot of success in this area. The best part is that it's only like 10, 15 minutes from the church (walking).

Elder Rockwood is a good missionary, he's humble and forgiving and full of faith.

How is Carnival going?  How does it change your missionary work?  I would think it’s harder since people are probably in the party mode and not in the looking for something to better my life mode.  How long does it last??

It's actually already over, it's only from like Friday until Tuesday or Wednesday. There's more people drinking and partying and traveling but it wasn't That different.

How did things go with Wilson and Josi this week?

So we could've baptized Wilson but Josi wasn't 100 % on board and we want her complete support. It's difficult because they can only be visited like from 1 to 3 in the afternoon, and we usually get out of lunch at like 2 and so we're usually running there just to talk with them and Josi is already leaving to work :/ But we're confident that this Saturday, we'll be able to baptize Wilson, for him to be the example for his family. Josi is a bit reluctant to be baptized quickly, but she's interested, she's coming to church even without us going there to get them or calling them :) Which is awesome. She just needs to stop smoking and it's baptism!

What else is happening with you?

I'm reading the old testament again, I'm in Deuteronomy now, it's pretty interesting but for some things I really need the manual to help me understand.

We're helping an atheist to believe in God. There aren't many atheists in Brasil but when I find one of them, they're not atheist for much longer :) He says he's atheist but I don't believe that he believes that, he just says that he doesn't believe. He has a lot of questions, and a lot of ideas and theories that has nothing to do with anything haha but in the beginning, it seemed like he just wanted to debate, prove us wrong, but now he says his question, let's us answer, if he has a doubt, he brings it up, but if not, then he accepts our answer. It's very interesting the change that has happened. And it certainly wasn't our fault, it was all the Holy Ghost. It's amazing the influence He has. I believe that within a month, Maico (like Michael in English) will be baptized in the restored church of Jesus Christ

What is your favorite memory with each of your siblings??

The 3: BULA BULA BULA BULA BULA "stooooppp"-rie ".....BULA BULA BULA BULA"

"NONE-KNOWER NONE-KNOWER!" "YEAH, LAWNMOWER LAWNMOWER!"

Paintball

Rowing with Jon

Man, James left the house and I was 10...I was young.  But I remember when we got the xbox and he bought halo and mom and dad were like "I don't know about that" but then you ended up letting us keep it and I remember that James and I were playing Halo 1 one time and it was the part with the flood and we were listening to the Crazy Train haha, good times.

Rie "Bobby, stay away from my sister" or when I sat between her and Trevor or when Michael mysteriously and randomly appeared at our front door on his bike haha.

Rie and Jon, lifeguarding

Rie, dress up haha, I'm not gonna go into details

I wish I could remember better....I suffer from weak memory disease.

Trampoline, James would bounce us up and catch us by the head and push us down again saying something like "be healed" or something else.... that I don't remember.

When Jon and I made the wooden swords that were sick that took like 3 hours to carve! And then we fought with them and they broke after like 30 seconds :(

Or when Jon bought those gloves and we fought, and he always won >:( made me angry but it was a good memory.

Or working at Zaxby's after Jon and hearing about his stories through others

or the noodle-pvc or pvc-bottle fights

Wow that's really a lot of memories. I need to write a book of my pre-journal memories so I can always remember.

What do you wish we had done more of as a family when you were growing up?

I don't know...it was pretty awesome as it was. Perfect? Of course not but at the moment I can't think of anything that I would change or do better

I'm happy when I'm helping my neighbor.

Hey do you guys remember that prayer rock that I had beside my bed to help remind me to pray? I think one of you gave it to me...but I don't remember who. Well with one of the less active families, we were trying to help them to pray and read the scriptures and I remembered that prayer rock! So I was looking for rocks to use, but not like any rock, an ugly rock, but like a pretty rock! Like a white rock! So we were at lunch and what did I see? A tree! With what in the base? Pretty white rocks! So I asked eh sister "Hey can I ask something strange?" "Uh sure" "Can I have 2 of these rocks??" She said okay. In the house of the less actives "I have a present for you 2!" I got the rocks and put one in each hand and asked Elaene "Which hand do you want?" She chose one hand...then the other...then switched again haha and I opened up my hand and the other one too and they thought that was funny. So we gave them rocks :)

I like to talk too much. Sometimes I don't give time for my companion to talk, but it's because I'm so excited and happy!

The bishop changed recently, as I may have told you, and this new bishop is AWESOMEEEE!! He has a great understanding that for a ward to really grow, it needs to be focused on missionary work and he has many plans and ideas of how to double and triple ward attendance in 8 months! He's awesome, I want to end my mission in this area because it really has potential to become an area that baptizes every week, every day of the week :) 

To close my email a funny conversation. My companion was talking with one of the other American elders in Portuguese and he asked "hey Elder, is there anything we can do for you?" And the other American "Um...yeah, you too" "....bye elder" hahaha! He's been in Brasil like 5 months already but I think Rockwood just spoke fast or something. But that was funnny huh!

I love you all! Study the scriptures! Pray! Go to church!

Elder Horton

Geladeiras...Refridgerators!

Hey family

This weekend, until Tuesday or Wednesday Brasil is going through Carnival! It's like a small time of holidays for everyone. There are lots of parades in the bigger cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and lots of samba dancers performing as well, but here in Penha, the only real difference is that more shops are closed and more people are drunk or playing loud music on the streets.

Funny story. Elder C. Souza, who is getting trained by Elder Longi, was talking with the president last week with the 4 of us elders there and the president asked "how's the mission Elder C. Souza?" And he responded "Yeah things are going good but I just can't manage these hills (ladeiras in Portuguese) here in São Paulo! They sure are big!!" (translate to English of course) and we all laugh a bit because we know how it is. After a couple seconds, when the laughter dies off, we all hear President Andrew say "geladeiras" which means refrigerator!! So we're all laughing about the hills in São Paulo and President Andrew understood ladeira(hill) as geladeira(refrigerator) which are very similar! That was funny. Now, whenever we're laughing and the laughter dies off, we say geladeira or refrigerator and start laughing all over again :)

Yesterday, at church, one of the older men of the ward was giving a talk, and he starts talking and it's kind of a slower talk, almost without a purpose that I could tell, he starts talking about things being nonstandard or not the standard. And then he says that when a woman goes to church in pants, it's nonstandard or against the standards.....man I got really worried and a bit annoyed "Why does he have to say that?!?" my companion just leaned his head on my shoulder like "whyyyy?" as if in despair. We were sitting next to a sister who was using pants and I told her "don't worry about it, that doesn't have anything to do with it" and our investigator was there (Josi) wearing pants and the woman behind was wearing pants. About 5 seconds after he said that, the woman behind us got up and left the chapel, I saw that she had left and I went after her, I got to her after she had already left the chapel gate and managed to convince her to come back. She's a less active that hardly comes to church, I was really worried that that would be the last straw for her. And when I got back, I went and explained to Josi that she's okay and that there's nothing wrong with her or her clothes and she was fine. But man that was close, I got really worried.

I think you must have been a hungry missionary to be able to knock a door off its hinges with a couple of hits!!

The sister had already removed the pins so that made it easier

Were they able to get the broken key out of the lock?

I...don't know, I imagine that now they've fixed it all up.

Do you eat at different homes every day?

Yes, every day of the month we eat with someone different, except for p-day when we eat alone :´( It's very delicious :)

Speaking of lunch with the sisters, I had a very very strange experience yesterday.....we sat down at the table to eat right? And I sit down, I see the pasta, the chicken and the juice, but I don't see rice or beans so I think 'the sister probably just left it on the stove for us to get over there' which is totally normal here! So I asked "and the rice and beans" And the sister responded "there is none" "................." Mouth agape...more silence "that's weirddddd" and for her not to feel bad about it, I explained that it was the first time in over a year that I've been on my mission that I didn't eat rice or beans at the sisters' house....that was so weird. But I told her that I'm not Brazilian and I don't need it and ate it very happily but I felt as if my plate was missing something the whole time, it was very weird, but an interesting experience.

So I googled the sock tie.  I think Dad used to have one like that!  Cool!  It’s knit, right??  Not a literal sock??

No, it's not like a literal sock, it's just knitted awesomeness! I think it's original, and pretty, and cool :)

Dad and I heard Portuguese on the TV this week and it sounded beautiful!!  Very melodic!  Is that what you sound like?

I hope so! That'd make it easy to swue my future wife! Just kiddingg, but really, I don't know...you'll have to wait and see on mother’s day or when I get home. I don't have a Lot of accent, I speak almost like a brasiliean. I like the accent from the north of Brasil

How was your week?

Good! We had a better week this week than past weeks.  We did a division/splits with the assistants to the president and that was good because they were able to help us and our zone out. I was able to receive some nice counsels from the assistant that was with me as well. He was in the army before the mission so he was a good bit more direct and one time I said something to which he "burned" me (like I said something that wasn't right and he corrected me very bluntly) and I was like "Ouch! Eita! I just got burned! Adriele (the sister that gave us lunch that day) do you have some burn cream?" "No elder, why?" "Because I just got burneddd!!!" haha it was kinda funny, everyone laughed, even the assistant.

I met another rower in Brasil this week! The young men's president rowed before he moved to Penha! How cool is that! That's the first time I've met a rower in Brasil. And for the record, I've also never seen anyone taller than me here. I've seen some that are like 6'6" but not as tall as me.

Did you travel much?

We walked a lot but we didn't take a lot of buses

How often do you have zone meetings?

1 a month, after the leadership counsel with the mission

Do you have all Elders in your zone or some sisters?

We have 14 elders and 8 sisters, we had 12 and 10 sisters but we lost a pair :/ I love sisters, they're awesome. Some of our elders, like 4 of them, are being a bit rebellious, in our last meeting they weren't paying attention and we could tell that they were there because they had to be there and not because they wanted to learn anything. I got a bit said when I saw that but we're trying to plan on how we're going to help them out. Elder Rockwood and I think it might have to do with them just not liking us, because Elder Rockwood and I don't have the best reputations on the mission because a good amount of people talk bad about us. Not because we deserve it but just because we had some companion that didn't like us and went and told everyone how bad we were and what not. In my case, it would be Cosme, he told a lot of people. Thankfully, a Lot of people that didn't like me are dead or dying! (mission slang which means that they've gone home or are going home.) But there are still a few stragglers.

Who are you teaching?

We are going to baptize Wilson and Josi this week! I say that more with faith than with a perfect knowledge, because it'll be difficult, because she needs to stop smoking still but we believe that it's possible and we're going to do everything we can to make it happen!

What brought joy to you this week?

I like helping people, so this past week, we were able to help about 5 or 6 less actives decide to come back to church and we got many referrals in the process which always makes me happy :) I love talking with members at church and getting things done and increasing friendships and gaining trust and confidence of the members

Katie Tantillo (your cousin) got to go to Boston for a mini mission and worked with sisters (not Bonnie) but at the end of the week got to see Bonnie too.  I haven’t heard the full report yet, but I’m sure it was an amazing experience for her!

That's interesting, I hadn't even heard of this thing of mini mission before I came here to my mission. Is Katie old enough already to do a mini misison?.....it's so weird thinking of my younger cousins as old, like Jacqueline that's on her mission, that's so weird!

Well that's about it, I hope you guys like my letters, they're pretty big, I try to make them fun :) They're a lot bigger than a lot of missionary letters I've already seen!

I love you all! Don't get trunky Just yet, you guys can get trunky when I'm on the plane home. That’s when I'll get trunky.

Elder Horton