Horse Meat Sandwiches and Ka'i

This week was.... awesome! haha It really was so much better. Lots of weird stuff happened! Escuchen un poco: Doing our contacts one day, we started talking with a guy who had killed people before, and told us he is planning on doing it again. Worked in drugs too! Went to prison, and really enjoyed it there. Yeeeahhhhh we got out of there as soon as possible! haha This week I also got my ear bitten by a monkey... Picture to follow next week! Aaaaaaand yesterday, we were in a lesson with a less active member and his wife, when their neighbor walked over, and asked us if we wanted "Carne de Caballo" I seriously laughed! haha I thought he was kidding, but nahhhhh! Soooo we bought some, and made ourselves a horse meat and mayo sandwhich mhhhhmmmm! Demasiado Rico! Delicious! haha It really was though. 

We've FINALLY got another baptism this week! Here name is Katia, she is 11 years old, and super awesome. Her dad is a less active member, who is really interesting. He was a member living in Argentina with his family, when he started getting in with the drug industry. got in trouble with the gangs down there, and they lit his house on fire, almost killing him and his family. They lost everything, and moved back up to Paraguay to live with their mom! He feels like God abandoned him in this time of his life, which we tried to explain to him that he didn't but he didn't want to listen to us! He plans on returning back to argentina to get back at the gangs for almost killing his family. He is so filled with a burning hatred for god and everyone in general! We are still working with him and teaching him some stuff, but what would you guys teach him in this situation? Him and his wife are actually really cool haha We had lunch with them and their family yesterday, and they seriously are way awesome! Really humble and funny haha 

We lost a golden investigator this week! His name is Miguel, and he is the coolest most humble and smart guy ever. He has a fmaily, but was separated from his wife! He was going to be baptised this Saturday, but called us and told us to come over and talk with him. He explained to us that he was getting back with his wife, and that his wife doesn't like the mormon missionaries. He explained to us that he knows our church is true, and really was going to get baptised, but that putting his family back together comes first. It was sad walking away from our last meeting with him, because he really was so awesome! Way friendly and always laughing. Buttttt In his situation, it felt right leaving him to put his family back together. He promised us he would get back in contact with the missionaries after he gets his life back in order! My first goodbye with someone that I got to know really well here in the mission field! It was kinda sad, but good at the same time. 

Thanks for the love and support! You guys are the best

Elder Horton

Gwada'hy (Sunny)

So this week wasss.... Honestly pretty tough. We had a few days where everything jsut went absolutely terrible! Let me tell you about one day we had: Sooooo it started off all fine, we woke up, made breakfast (Pancakes) and got dressed. Had our studies and everything, and took off bright and early (10:30) We first had to go drop off a package at a postal office, which I THOUGHT I knew where it was. We ended up walking around for 2 and a half hours in 115 degree weather, literally in circles, asking people where this place was, when it ended up being about half a block from our apartment. We then headed out to our lunch appointment we had at 12:30, which we were going to be late to because we were too busy wondering around looking for that post office haha So this family that we were going to eat lunch with lives cleeeaaarrrrr out in the middle of no where, and it took us another hour to walk to her house, again in the blazing hot sun. We luckily made it to her house, but mçby the time we made it there. it was already like 2 in the afternoon, and that had already eaten. Sooooo we decided to made the long journey back to the main road to find a food stand to get something to eat. On our way back, clouds started forming, and started to rain. And boy did it rain! haha It rained so hard, that we got turned around and got lost, clear in the middle of no where. Not only that, but we forgot we had our cell phone with us, so that got wet too! haha It wouldn't even turn on, so we literally had no way to call a member to help us find out where we were. We ended up walking in the complete opposite direccion of the main road, and by the time we figured out where we were, it was about 4 oclock, still raining hard by the way hahaha We slowly made our way back to the main road, soaking wet ha And to make matters even worse, about halfway back to the road, I was so tired, and dragging my feet with every step. I slipped, and fell, and came up half covered in mud, and my comp LAUGHING histerically at me! hahahah Now all of this sounds a lot more funny to me than it was in that moment... hahaha I was STEAMED! I was so mad hahaha We FINALLY made it to the main road, adn found a restaurant, where we stopped and gourged ourselves on cold empanadas. hahaha Aaaaaand then took a bus back to our apartment, where we had to change out of our wet and dirty clothes, for a meeting. hahaha We literally didn't do a single productive thing that day! hahahaha Aaaaaand you. Basically the worst day of my mission right there. hahaha Tough week! But this week will be a ton better, I can feel it. Love it our here! It's tough, but it's a ton of fun at the same time. Love you guys! Thanks for the love and support. Keeps me going through days like that! hahaha 

Love you guys!

Elder Horton

Ha'ku

This week... Went by too fast. It's been too much fun! It's still absolutley too hot down here, we've been at about 42 degrees Celsius all week. This past Tuesday, it was absolutely TOO hot. Like the hottest it's been all week! We left our house and started walking the our area, are within minutes we were drenched in sweat. We kept on pushing through, and made it to the house of our investigator. We had their lesson, and left to go visit our branch mission leader. On our way to his house, little dark clouds started forming, and within 10 or 15 minutes, the sky was covered with dark clouds. We kept pushing through, not thinking anything of it, when it jsut starts POURING. Like absolutely, POURING haha And then the wind picked up too... and the rain literally started falling sideways haha We started running to find some sort of shelter, when we we saw a family huddled together in a 'Dispensa' or little store. They waved us over, and we took shelter with them. I was thinking to myself "Awesome! This is like one of those stories you read about in Ensign Magazine! We are going to baptise all of them!!" haha So here we were, crammed together in this one room store, with this family that basically is already golden haha We sit down, and start talking with them, and we casually bring up religion. Thennnnn the story goes downhill hahaha The mom whips out her Bible and starts TEARING into us about everything! hahaha She went on for an hour and a half, not pausing to take a breathe, or let us say anything haha So we just had to sit there and take it from this lady, becasue there was no way we were going  to leave her house and go back into the storm hahaha As the rain started to soften up, we politely told her we had to leave, and shook their hands, thanked them for letting us stay with them, and headed back outside. as we were walking away from this little wooden Dispensa, their neighbour called us over, and asked if we had a few minutes to spare. We were thinking to ourselves "Oh crap, here's another crazy catholic about to scream at us for an hour..." haha She called us over, sat us down, and then jsut started crying... She told us how her husband had died this past Christmas in a motorcycle accident, and left her alone with 4 children. We were absolutely thrown off by this! haha We calmed her down, adn then shared with her about The Plan of Salvation. The Plan that God has for each one of us. He loves us all, and has given us his Son, so that we can all live eternally. I have developed such a testimony of this out here in Paraguay. I absolutely know, without a doubt that once we die, which we all will, it won't be the end. We ahve the privelege to spend forever with the thing that makes us all the happiest: Our families. I love you all so much! Thanks for the loving support. Go skiing for me!

Elder Horton

A bit of behind the scenes from last week

Ano Nuevo

HAPPY NEW YEARS WOOOOOO haha New Years as a missionary is spent way differently. not nearly as much partying haha

Soooooo this week! Wasssss too much fun. My new comp is really so great! He is the complete OPPOSITE of my old comp. Not that my old comp wasn't great! haha But Elder Alvarado is toooooo funny. He was way laid back and chill. He reminds me of a latin versión of myself! hahaha He has 6 months in the mish, so we have been learning a ton together. My spanish has picked up a TON this week, I have been feeling a ton more confident in it. We are both new, so neither of us knows Guarani very well, so we practice while we walk. My comp is learning English too, so we are always practicing! It´s tough to be walking, and talking in English or Guarani, and then swithc over in Spanish to contact someone haha It usually ends up with me speaking half Spanish hallk English and half Guarani and the person almost always ends up being way too confused hahaha Gossshhhhh Guarani is too tough! But I want to learn it too badly. Slow but steady it will come!

In our área, there is a random japanese house, that I have ALWAYS wanted to go and visit. It's gigantic, and sits up on htis hill looking out over Ita. Yesterday, we were teaching some people who lived by the house, and we decided to take a quick Little hike to go check it out. It ended up taking about an hour to get there, and we had to cross a few farms, hop a few fences, and walk the the jungle, but we made it to the house! haha (Pics attached hopefully)

Have you have not slept, because you have been so anxious to see if someone ends up coming to church?? Haha Welcome to my LIFE! We worked SO hard this week, and it really was too much fun. We have found a bunch of new investigadores and I'm too excited too keep teaching them. The misión is the best! I never thought I could have so much fun just teaching people. It's too exciting! Every day is a new adventure out here. I can't wait to keep working even hareder this week!

Love you guys! Hope you are enjoying that fresh Powder up there for me! Paraguay is TOO hot right now. My comp told me something that really made me laugh hahaha This week we were walking, and it was TOO hot, like 115 degrees. He turned to me, with sweat dripping down his forehead and said ¨¨I think God sent me here to Paraguay to suffer for all of my sins¨¨ HAHAHAHA I laughed TOO hard. Anyways, Love you guys!

Elder Horton

Casa Japonesa

Feliz Navidad

The baptism of Librada! (Last week)

Cocodrilo, jekar'a, whatever it is, there's a million of them and there is a lake in the middle of town where everybody goes to feed them (Similar to a duck pond) 

Play timmeeeee




Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying the nice weather up there! Hit 48 degrees celsius on christmas hahaha (about 110ish) 

The Navidad was good this year! We had to spend it in our house because it's a bit dangerous to leave during the day. Sooooo lasying on my bed, nothing to do but think about blessed christmas in the United States was not the ideal way to spend it! haha But Skyping the fam sure helped. We had the activity of christmas in Ita this year! (My town) So 250 missionaries all came here to our church and partied it up for a day. It was a blast! We played capture the flag, soccer, volleyball, and ate a bunch of food. Sooooooo yeah well spent. We played so hard in fact, that we were both sick (My comp and I) this week haha Sooooo we have had heardly any time to visit people. We did however, have a baptism this week!! WHOOOOOOO (The pic is of the chicka who got baptised 2 weeks ago) AND.... I have a new comp! We had our changes today, so my old comp left, and I had to go to Asuncion at 3 in the morning to get my new one. He is way cool! His name is Elder Alvarado, and is from Peru. He only has 6 months in the mission haha But I am so stoked to get out and work with him! My old comp was ALWAYS talking about home, and was really getting lazy there at the end. So I'm excited to get out with my new comp and work as hard as we can so I can forget about how great snow is! ha He is 19 years old, and from Peru. Doesn't speak a lick of English! But yeah, that's about all that happened this week. I hope your christmas's were a little more eventfull! 

Love you all, 

Elder Horton

Mangoes and Mandioca and..... Chicken Hearts

The mission changes people...

The field is white and ready to harvest plus your average Paraguayan house in the background  

TENEMOS FUEGO  hahaha still haven't cleaned up the scorch marks!  

Bienvenidos my friends and family! This week has been SO much better. Much hotter than before, but much more succesful and rewarding!
First of... Mangos and Mandioca! This time of year is mango season here in Paraguay. The streets are lined with Mango trees, and it's too convenient to not come home every night with a big old bag of Mangos! We've been eating em like crazy, they are TOO good haha PLUS everyone here seems to be just a bit too short to pick the good ones... haha! Finally my height has come in handy down here. Aaaaand Mandioca! We have eaten a lot this week in the houses of members, and we always eat mandioca with whatever they have prepared. It's a very traditional food down here! Evreyone eats it with everything. It's not good at all, it's a bit liek a potato, but much more dense and even less flavor haha But it fills you up so fast! Aaaand it's basically dirt cheep. The chicken hearts are a favorite of my comp! He eates them (So I end up eating them) every Monday! Yummmmm

This week has been really nice haha I feel myself starting to get lost in the work more and more every day! I taugh my fist lesson completely by myself yesterday, (With a little help from my comp haha ) But my spanish is coming along faster than I expected it to! My training ends in a week and a half... AH! Then I have the responsability of needing to know everything... AHHHH! haha NAhhhh I'm not too worried. My comp has a 90 percent chance of getting transferred this month, So I'm expecting a new comp! 

We had one day this week were all we did was walk. (And of course it was the hottest day of the week) We were searching for a family inactive that we found in our area book, and spent a solid 3 hours walking up and down dirt roads, past acres of farms looking for this person, but never fund her! After that, we had to walk another hour to reach an appointment we had set for that night, and that fell through, so we just ened up walking back to our house (Another hour) because we had interviews at the church! haha My legs hurt too bad the next day. 

This week was still pretty good! We found 3 really great families, and two of them attended church this sunday. They are too awesome! I have loved getting to know them, and they really have made me feel more at home. Aaaaaand we had a baptsim this week WOOOOOOO hahaha That was too cool. Pictures attached!.. maybe next time haha  She is way cool, 24 years old, and has 2 kids. (Not anything to rare here in Paraguay) 

Love you guys! Hope the weather cools down for you guys back home. 

Piatacopio

This week... Was tough! haha Not gonna lie. It started off great! Buttttt then went downhill. Let me back up a bit. Soooo my comp got called as Lider of our District, so we have been traveling almost everyday to do interviews the past few weeks. This, combined with my extra hours of being trained had left us with hardly any time to get out and teach our investigators. Our two baptisms that we were going to have last week BOTH didn`t end up going down. One of them disapeared haha We can`t find here for anything! The other, we aer still having to work with her on a few things, but is going it hopefully be baptised this Saturday! Soooooo it`s been a bit tough. haha Lot`s of walking too! It`s supposed to get super extremely hot this summer, and on wednesday or thursday, we were sitting at 40 degrees celsius in the shade!! It was tough for sure ha And Fast Sunday in the heat is one of the hardest things to go through haha So yeah! That was my weak.

It`s still been fun! (At times) We did some service this week and helped a member fix his motorcycle. It is really intereting how the Lord has prepared me to be exactly what some of these people need. Like the skills I learned from fixing my neighbours Motorcycle, has really been put to use! Because, welllll everyone hs a motorcycle here haha And how I used to always build forts! That has already come in handy too much while helping construct sketchy jungle homes hahaha But that`s something that I`ve noticed a lot lately. Just little things like that! ha

At first, the mission felt like a dream somehow! Like it a numb reality. But with every day, it starts feeling more and more normal, and that my life back home was all just a dream hahaha It`s weird to explain, but that`s just how it is. Honestly, it really has been super tough ha But with all of these challeges, I have learned so much! The language barrier is starting to loosen up, and I am feeling like I can now communicate pretty much everything I want to say. With that abiity has come with a LOT of work! ha There is a girl who arrived here in Paraguay in the same group as me. She is in our district, and has been struggling with her spanish. Our Zone leaders have asked if me and my comp could meet with her and her comp three times a week so I could help her out! That has been a lot of fun actually, I enjoy helping her learn.

So today! Today is December 8th, and is a day of celebration (ish) here in Paraguay. Some holy santo virgin thing for the catholic church is going down in a city next to us, and EVERYONE goes. Businesses close, and the busses are packed to get to this event. It`s loco! Haha It`s like nothing I have every seen before. And all to worship some statue! 

Well family and friends, thanks for the emails! I love you guys a ton. 

Elder Horton