Transfer Week

Soaked from head to toe, due to torrential tropical rainstorm

Snap shot of Paraguay

This is the week of transfers... will I go or stay? I fell like I'm going to stay, but if I do, I will officially be the laughing stock of the whole mission... because I will complete one whole year in this one Ward! That hasn't happened in the history of ever ha But we will jsut have to wait and see


Learned a good lesson this week about Patience:


I. Love. Mangos. So here in Paraguay, about every house has a mango tree. As of right now, the mangos aren't quite yet ripe, but just starting to change from yellow to green, or from yellow to red ( depending on the mango) so they just all sit there taunting you as you walk by, it's really quite ironic, because there are SO many mangos, just none of them are quite ready yet. Sooooo I commented this to a member, and he told us that he knew of a tree where they were already ripe and ready to eat. Without hesitating, i told him "Vamos!" so we went, my mouth watering the whole way, ahhhhhhh i wanted a mango so bad! ha So he walks over to the tree, plucks a seemingly ripe mango, all big and red and juicy looking of the tree, and brings it over for us to enjoy. He cut off the first piece, and offered it to me, I took it in my hand but it looked a little too green for me still to be ready, but after walking so far I honestly couldn't have cared less, I just wanted to eat mango so I took a big old bite, but tasted nothing but bitterness. "Ndirachori!" (Dang!) it still wasn't ripe yet.... Little did I know that eating unripened mangos REALLY does to you. I found out later that night, when I layed down and tried to go to sleep, but my lips were burning, no stinging, no scorching hot! haha I woke up my comp up to tell him, and that's when I found out that unripened mangos are dangerous, often times so acidic that they easily burn skin, often times leaving scars. Boy do I regret eating that mango, because I have slept very little these past few days haha BUT it is getting much better, don't you worry mother


Patience: Trusting in God's time table. Satan tempts us into thinking that now is the time to kick back and relax, luring us into partaking of the juicy mango, that seems so delicious, leading us to think that sinning a little here and there is all right, but little aware are we of the often times eternally painful consequences of our actions. We must ALWAYS trust in god's time table for us, enduring patiently until the end. Patience is the test of our faith as James teaches us, so let us do as it teaches us in Hebrews 12, (rough translation) "Put off every sin that so easily both beset us, and run paciently the race that we have before us, with our eyes on Jesus, the author and Finisher of our faith" I know that doing so brings belssing both temporal and spiritual, for I have seen it in the lives of so many people, and in my personal life.


Love you guys! Have a great one


Elder Horton

Dia de Gracias

I'm not going to be eating turkey on Thursday, But I am grateful for the opportunity I will have next year to enjoy it with the fam bam :)


While teaching a Less Active guy this week whop is starting to go to church again, (Got baptised and sealed about 20 years ago in Argentina) we decided to talk about temples, and to help him put a personal goal to prepare spiritually to enter into the temple once again. He told us that here in 2 years, he would be worthy to enter into the temple, which is a long time! haha I asked him why he would wait so long to receive such great eternal blessings that the temples offer us, and he responded by saying he couldn't complete with one law: tithing and offerings. He then expolained to us how he had recently bought a Motorcycle (Pretty much a Harley Davidson Parguayn style) that costed WAY more than he could afford, and that his páyment would end here in two years, and then, and only then, could he enter into the temple once again. We tried reasoning with them, but he had obviously letten the things of this world become more valuable to him than the things of the eternity. The whole time his super sleek black chromed motorycycle was sitting behind, and seemed to be just mocking him. Sad Stuffffff


As lately I have been studying a lot out of Jesus the Christ and the Bible. It really touches me and moves me thinking about all that our Savior has done for us. His teachings truly change one's character and form of thinking. If I have learned anything out here on the mish, that's one of them


But seriously though the mission is jsut a great school, where one travels from place to place, family to family learning what to do and what not to do. Learning how to Endure paciently and enjoy it, learning from the scriptures and more than anything, how awesome it is to have the spirit with you in almost every moment. But although we learn all this in the mission, that isn't why we serve a mission. Even though we become much better people, that's not the reason why one should serve a mission, which took me a while to figure out, but I feel like the Lord is teaching the very important lesson, that we must always serve others, and do it with an attitude of "What can i give" and not "What can I get"


Well, that pretty much sums up my thoughts ha Lvoe you guys, enjoy your thanksgiving


Elder Horton

WET

The Zone

Nightly bathroom cockroach kill.  be grateful you aren't in a country where these little creatures fly...

Bout to get my hair cut!

Pigeon eggs.... Delicious!

I am constantly soaked, whether it's sweat because it's so hot, or from the rain, like I am right now hahaha Ohhhh Paraguay how I love you


And I was going to be wet from a baptism we had planned for this last week BUT it fell through.... MAN! Oh well we will get em next time


New Rules we given this week by the President, and it honestly is going to make it very difficult to work like we were before. To have a lesson with someone of the opposite sex, you HAVE to have an adult present (18 years and up). This changes everything, I mean lets be honest, 90 percent of our investigators are women, and no guy is available until about 6 o'clock at night. Like what do we do during the sacred hour of the ciesta? (National Nap time) It's been tough this past week, to say the least. Lots of walking ha


BUT we did find a cool fam to teach yesterday. A less active kid showed up to church today, and he is super awesome, gave us a bunch of references of his family. I swear, the spirit of the church here is in the youth. It is difficult to get adults involved with the missionary work,. especially the men, but hey watcha gonna do.


I almot have 10 months in this area.... I think the Lord is testing my patience. I know he is! 10 months ago was last Februrary. HA So much time in one Ward, it's been quite the challenge lately. I feel like I have already talked to everyone under the sun here. Just gotta hang in there I guess


Welllll Love you guys a ton!


Elder Horton

???

Yes Mom, Im super happy I promise!  

Well, sorry there is no Subject for the mail my mind is blank ha I can't come up with anything! Like how could I possibly sum up a week of Missionary work in paraguay in one word?

This week was fantastic. We have been finding some awesome investigators, and let me tell you how: Our President of the Branch told us his conversion story the other day, how he lived right next to the church for 7 years growing up, even went and played soccer at least once a week there, but not once was invited to go to church, or talk with the missionaries. They never stopped by or contacted his house! I feel like as missionaries, and humans we search for complicated solutions to simple problems haha SO instead of looking for people an hour walk from the church building, we focused our efforts on the people who live RIGHT next to the church, and that way we saw more investigators in the sacrament meeting

While we were contacting by the church, we ran into an old lady sitting in her chair who jsut happened to be reading her Bible when we contacted her. We started talking,a nd found out she was a missionary for some Christian church. We invited her to come to church, and started to discuss various topis of the Bible, but I felt like we were jsut losing our time. Sooooo I was jsut about to say we had to go, but then she said the most wonderful thing I have ever heard, that completely changed my mind about leaving: You guys look tired. Would you like to sit down and eat some of my cake I jsut made? hahaha It was THE BEST. We sat there eating her delicious ice cream cake as shse rambled on about who knows what. At one point she even whipped out her Hymn book and started singing hahaha But we were too focued in on eating, it didn't even bother

Love you guys!
Elder Horton

Templo

Took a temple trip this Saturday with the Jara family, what an awesome experience. We left at like 10 in the morning, and didn't get back till about 9 that night! After the session in the temple, they took us out to dinner: Empanadas and Soda. The best part about dinner was watching Nacho Libre on the televsion in the restaurant haha It is theri favorite movie, and we spent the whole dinner alughing our heads off! hahaha Best. Halloween. Ever. They are such a specail family to me... One I will NEVER forget :)


I found out why Paraguay is the happiest country in the world: They have practical joke videos playing on the televisions in about half of their public transportation (Busses)! So you can laugh your head off on the move. What a brilliant idea


We had Lidership Council this past week. the new president is changing a lot of things, I think for the best, as we focus ourselves more on the new converts and less actives and keep baptising.


We have to come up with a talent as a Zone to perform in the Christmas Party, so we got together a bunch of guitars and electris pianos this week. We are getting together everyMonday to practice! We will see what we can come up with.


I love you guys a ton! Thanks for your support :)


Elder Horton


PICS:
Familia Jara