FIRE

Wow sooooo bad news first as always, right?! haha So Monday, my comp and I were doing our studies, and we were super concentrated. All of a sudden, we start seeing al of this ash that starts falling down on our shirts, and start smelling smoke! We turn around, and see our kitchen wall on fire!! hahaha I start screaming "TENEMOS FUEGO TENEMOS FUEGO" haha We run over to the kitchen to see where it was coming from, and it was shooting out of the outlet on the wall! Like a well trained fireman brigade, I run to the sink and fill up a bowl of water, and my comp runs to turn off the electricity. WHe shuts it off, and I throw water on and put it out! hahaha It was too crazy. We never were able to figure out how or why it started, put probably jsut faulty PAraguayan wiring. It was TOO funny hahaha That's something I will never forget!

So if all goes well, we will have a marriage and a baptism (Same day) in the church on Saturday! Super pumped for that. Marriage costs about 250,000 guarani, so my mistake on that one ( From what I previously said it was) Other than that our investigators are way awesome! 

So on thursday this week, all the new missionaries had to go to the migrations office and do legal papers. While we were sitting there inthe office, a few people came up the me and started talking in English! Which was super weird for me to hear haha Like other people than missionaries speaking English was just too bizarre! One of them asked me why I was here, and I tried to respond in English, but was having trouble explaining it to her! So I just switched to Spanish, and it was MUCH easier to explain why we were in Paraguay, and about our church haha It was the craziest thing! 

On our way home from the office later that same day, it rained SO hard! And this was my first time being in the city while it's raining. THe streets literally became rivers, and sitting there in the bus watching people on MOTORCYCLES wizzing past in 8 inches of swift moving water was too crazy haha 

The people here really are so amazing. I'm starting to get the feel of being a missionary here, and it's so rewarding ha Like our typical lesson geos like this: We arrive, sit down, talk for about 40 minutes, drink some juice, and then share a lesson. Everyone is super laid back! haha I can't explain it in English, but in Spanish: Tranquilo ha Everyone is SUPER tranquilo! Just like taking their time for everything, hanging out drinking matte is the PAraguayan way of life! It's so nice ha Needless to say, I feel like I'm starting to really like Paraguay.

This week, I have been focusing on using prayer! And noticing the power of prayer in all that we do. As missionaries, we pray like 20 times at least a day! And I really have noticed how much that has helped me, here in Paraguay. Whenever I jsut get absolutely so super frustrated about learning the language, or with my comp or something, I have tried taking a few deep breaths, getting on my knees, and saying a sincere prayer to help me be more pacient, or something like that haha It has make a world of difference for me, and has made the stresses of adjusting to missionary life a lot easier to handle. 

Thanks for the emails this week! I loved every single one of them. Have a great thanksgiving (Was that this week or last week?) ha! Love you guys

Elder Horton

PIQUE

My Dude (House of Larissa, new convert)

Service in the house of a new convert!  The tree my comp is sitting on is a branch that fell
from a gigantic tree hanging right over their house.  Their kitchen is underneath

Spending rainy days with some members having a tic tac toe tournament

Thanks so much for all the support and encouragement! It means the world to me that I have so many loving friends and family.

Wow, what a week it's been! Bad news first: This week something interesting happened ha Soooo I had this blister on my toe for a few weeks, you know that's jsut a normal thing, right? WRONG ha Here in paraguay, they have something called 'Pique'. This blister was hurting more than a blister usually hurts, so I told my comp about it, and he explained to me what exactly is Pique. Pique is a bug, that live on the floors of houses. It burrows inside of you and digs down to your blood, where it lays it's eggs inside of your body creating a blister looking pouch of eggs. HA! I was freaking out. Missionaries get this every once in a while, but it's not super common! We immediately went into operation, and with our zone leaders who live upstairs, needle, rubbing alcohol, and a little fire, we safely (I think) Exctracted all of the eggs and the Pique hahaha And I didn't even cry! ha Wow, so there is the adventure of the week. I now understand why they tell us to use shower sandals! ha

This week has been pretty noraml, other than that. We currently have 3 progressing investigators, and tehy all attended church this Sunday! My Spanish is coming along, every so slowly ha Our bathroom flooded this week, so we've been constantly cleaning that up. Someone is coming to repair it today! We had a district activity last MOnday, and it was TOO fun! haha We all bought matching shirts with our names imprinted on our backs. We played futbol (surprise) and had a cake fight after and made tacos! It was really relieving to finally relax and kick back for a bit. 

One thing that has really been developing spiritually for me, is my love for the scriptures. Before my mission, I read them and they were good, but now it's like I can't read enough!! Every morning, we get an hour for personal study, and I find myself always wanting more. I've been reading them in Spanish, and I'm in Alma chapter 14! I'm finally to the point where I can read about 3 or 4 chapters a day. I just love how much you can learn for just sitting down and reading a chapter or two. I have learned so many things that can help me, and help others come unto christ. I think my favorite story in the B O M for right now, is the story of Abinidi. That guy is forever going to be my hero! He went through so much, and testified so powerfully. He even ended up giving up his life to really prove his beliefs! How far are we willing to go to show what we believe in? My comp and I were in the house of an investigator on Thursday. He is a teenager, and we really wanted to get to know his parents! We went inside, to meet them, and my comp saw a bottle of acohol on the counter. He walks over to it, grabs it, and asks his parents why they would ever have this in their house. He then walked over to the garbage can and threw it away! haha I was dumbfounded. He told me after that it's something he has always done in his mission, and hopes to continue the habit after his mission as well. I thought that was so awesome! Like wow, I will for sure start doing that as well. i think he sets a great example of how we should all be. We can't afford to allow or permit ANY form of sin in our lives. We must always do our best to turn away from the things of the world. I know that if we do that, we will be eternally blessed! 

Brujeria ha

Hello Family and Friends! Love you guys tons, miss you like crazy.

So this week started off a little strange! We were eating lunch in the front yard of a members house, just having conversation and talking, when my comp needed to use the restroom. They had one of their sons guide us around back to their outhouse, so he could go. There was a random shack right next to the restroom, so I decided to explore and see what was there! I looked inside, and saw some weird stuff...  There was all of these statues and pictures of the Saints and animals, and incense and something dead (Later found out it was a chicken) in the middle of the room! Like, wow I was freaking out. ha! I Told my comp, when he came out of the bathroom, and he was equally as shocked! We were freaking out ha, we had no idea what to do! Like this was the home of a member. Sooooo We asked them about it. They told us that their grandma had recently moved in, and that's where she was living. ha! We then quickly finished our lunch, and got out of there as quickly as possible. It was one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me! haha But hey, Happy Halloween I guess?? ha Brujeria is a new vocab word for sure = Witch craft

But yeah, so lots happened this week. There was a HUGE storm this Thursday, lasted all day. We had a training as a zone, and we all met up in a church in a city about 30 minutes out of Ita. The storm hit as we left that morning, and tons of trees had fallen on the road, so we spent about 2 hours in a Bus, waiting for people to clear the debris. The road was super flooded at some points too! When we were in the church, recieving our training, the church got struck by lightning! haha Sooooo that happened, and basically couldn't hear for a few seconds ha It was insanely loud! After the meeting finsihed, we went and ate at a restaurant nearby, and took another 2 hour bus ride back. It took all day to just do that! ha 

The next day, we spent helping a family clear a tree branch from off of their house. It is the house of our recent convert from last week! (Paublina) A HUGE tree branch fell, and destroyed part of their kitchen. So my comp and I spent the day chopping it up (With axes and hatches), and clearing away parts of their destroyed house. I got very familiar with some unfriendly bugs (Tarantulas and some weird beetles) NO me gusta ha We are going to help them rebuild their house this week! It's another one of those houses in the jungle made out of wood and tin, so it shouldn't be incredibly difficult, But yeah, lot's of service opportunities, which is awesome! 

I have really enjoyed having a spanish comp. I have been picking up the language a lot faster than if  didn't have one. I am at the point where I can understand most things, and function in lessons! It's been a lot of work, but it's awesome to see it pay off. And I for sure have a lot of room to go! It's actually starting to be difficult writing in English ha I forget some words! Like my comp asked me the other day, what the word for Limpiador was (Dryer) and I couldn't remember! hahaha We also ran into my first all Guarani family this week. Nobody speaks English (Just a man and a lady with one son) in their hosue, but my comp was able to invite them to the church and beyond that, we will just bring a member with us next time we visit them (To translate) 

I got sick again this week, but honestly I've jsut gotta get used to it. Bleh! ha Thanks again for the support1 Love you guys a ton. Until next week! Sorry, photos aren't working today

Elder Horton

The Long Walk...

Thanks everyone for the emails and support! It's so awesome. So this week was too much fun! The longer I'm here, the less I start feeling like it's some foreign desert, and the more it starts feeling like home. The crazy crammed bus ride home, hanging onto the door halfway out of the bus isn't nearly as miserable as when I first arrived! haha The people are super friendly, and are so happy and willing to talk with us. It wasn't nearly as bad this week, it's been raning a lot. Whenever it rains, we lose electricity and water, but we are always (usually) prepared for that! haha The streets get crazy flooded which is cool. But this Saturday, we had 2 baptisms, and it was raining super hard that morning. When it rains, everything shuts down, and people just stay in their houses! We were worried that was going to happen, and keep the baptism from going down. We fasted starting Friday after lunch, and prayed super hard that it wouldn't rain! Aaaaaaaand it didn't rain! haha The first baptism was of David! David is 17 years old, likes to rap, and fight Karate. He is too sweet! haha I had the opportuity to baptise him. The other was of a 23 year old single mom named Paulina! She is way nice, and lives with the family in the jungle that we did the service for.
So yeah! This past week, we were walking home, and had a few minutes, so we stopped by the house of one of our investigators. They weren't home, but we ran into the sister of the mother we are teaching! We started conversing with her, and soon came to find out (PLus she sure looked like it) that she really likes to party ha She looks atleast 30, but was only 15 years old! She is pregnant, but still parties. Like every night! We began to tell her about how God loves her, and can help her change or something like that, but the didn't believe any of it. She said that the only person that she loves is herself, and that if she dies young, so be it atleast she had fun. We tried reasoning with her, but she would have none of it. She told us to leave and didn't wanna talk with us! I was SO devestated, walking away from talking with her. Like she was perfectly happy doing that! UGhhhhh man, I felt heart-broken for her. Like I just wanted her to know so bad that there is more to life than just partying and drugs! God has a purpose for us, I know that as a fact!
So earlier that week, we were out teaching, and contacted someone walking. We set up an appointment with them for yesterday! The only problem, was that she lived ccleeeaaarrrrrrr in the edge of our boundary, in the middle of no mans land. We walked around looking for her house for about an hour an a half in the rain! We finally found her house, and it was one of the craziest lessons we have had. Usually, people hardly have questions for us to answer, but she sat us down and questioned us for about an hour and a half! haha My comp rattled of answers, and I could answer a few easy ones, but you could tell she was so relieved to have these quetions answered. Like one was ¨Why babies need baptism, when they don't have sins? Where did we come from? Why don't we have prophets today? Just crazy awesome perfect questions! We set a baptism date for 3 Saturdays from now, and now we get to make the long trek to her house 3 times a week haha But hey, the Lord blesses you when you make sacrifices! I guess that's what I'm trynna say ha
What else... Oh yeah, I wwent on splits with another missionary this week! He is from Brazil, and is super crazy hahaha He is way funny though. Just super energetic about everything, it was awesome! I spent the night at their house. Oh yeah! So their house is HUGE! It's a mansion, it seriously is. It's a 5 bedroom, two bath, two story house fully furnished. They have a huge yard, and an automatic electric gate like in the movies! haha I guess the living down here is crazy cheap.
But yeah, that was kinda my week in a nutshell! haha Sorry, my thoughts are all over the place today. But atleast I wasn't crazy sick like last week! ha Thanks again for the support.
Love you guys!
Elder Horton

Learning Guarani from the best teacher out there, Angie!
(in an ice cream parlour of course)

The ward family and families of the people getting baptised

BAUTISMOS  haha Our baptisms, and another companionship in our district
 (Elder Walsh, and Elder MacFarland)