Semana Mbohapy

This week... has been a rollercoaster. Wow. I could spend hours writing individually about every day, and all the crazy stuff that happened. But easily the craziest thing that happened this week was this:


We had to deal with a few missionaries who were being very disobedient. It started on Mondy when we found Movies in their house that they shoudln't have, and escalated tueday when these missionaries left their zone to go shopping downtown, and go visit one of the elders old areas, and to top things off 125 dollars went missing in a district meeting. The president called emergency interviews with the zone, and the whole day was spent investigating the situation with the missing money. Eventually I went on divisiones with an asistant, and we had to go the the disobedient missionaries house and search through all their things to find the money. As we were looking through everything, we just happend to run into a LOT of stuff missionaries shouldn't have (PS 4, etc.) The president was pissed. haha Mannnn long story short, there was emergency changes, and a few elders changed areas/or went home, I'm not too sure. What punks. ha The whole time I felt like an FBI agent. I might look into that when I get home hahaha


Also the wedding fell through... And it was postponed until next saturday!


Who's stoked for general conference? I AM


We contacted a man yesterday, and had a great lesson with him. At the end, we asked him if he would like to come to General Conference with us this week, and he just looked at us and smiled ha I though he was already a member or something! Butttt it just so happens that he is driving the bus that will take us to the stake center on Sunday, so he will for sure be there :) hahaha!


Love you guys!


Elder Horton

Springtime in Paraguay

In very short terms: It's hot! Oh hakuetere'i en guarani. This week has been so crazy busy... There is so much more to do, so much more responsability. We had our Zone Conference this past thursday, and I thought it went really well. It was a 3 hour presentation, but I felt like the missionaries all left muy excited to get out and work. Between all the calling, taking numbers and planning, there absolutely no down time. It's all the stress and work as before, but doubled ha Not to mention the activities we have planned for this week! On Saturday,we are having an activity called "Zapatos Misionales", where all the members are missionaries for a day, and they go visit all the less actives, it should be pretty good.


On top of that, this Friday, an investigator is getting married!!! Woohooo!! My first marriage of my whole mission, I'm so excited. Her name is Ruth, and her husband is a member (less active). Ruth has want to get baptised for the past few months, and always goes to church, but her husband never wanted to get married or anything... Until this past week when all of a sudden he just had a change of heart, and told her he wants to get married. It should be awesome!


Baptism of Beta this last week was great, almost didn't show up to get confirmed because she was embarrased because she didn't have a dress to go to church in, but we convinced her last second to come, and she got confirmed. Phew! ha Close call


Love you guys!

Z.L (Zone Leader)

This week... has been so crazy ha So the changes were this past wednesday! Annnndddddd well I'm a Zone Leader...! The Zone Leader here in Posta Leiva! haha So all I did was move over an area... new comp, new house, new area, but the same branch I have been in for the past 7 and a half months! haha It's such a crazy change. Like one like this has NEVER happened before to any missionary! So it must be for a reason. But yeah, so in the Mish, there are 14 zones, and starting from 1 - 14, as you go up the numbers of the zone, the farther away you get from the city (Asuncion) And me and my comp (Elder Cutera from Peru) are in charge of Zone 10! There are a total of 16 Elders, and two districts, adn covers about the area of Taylorsville and Murray put together. More details to come!


Today we had to travel to Asuncion for a Leadership Training so I am honestly so tired. Just got back not 15 minutes ago! But there are a lot of changes happening in the mission, so it will be a challenge being part of it all.


The new area is great! I had been here before on divisions, so nothing too new, and plus I know all the members. Honestly the Elders have been working half hearted here for a while, My comp doesn't even know all the active members that live in our area, so there is a lot of work to be done. We have a baptsim this week though, and a couple will be getting married and baptised the 26th, so that's good news!


This Sunday was stake conference, and one of the seventy came and talked to us (Elder Ferreira) ALL about Sabbath Day, and keeping it holy. Way cool experience. Love you guys!


Elder Horton

Eu esto fallando moitu

This week... was fantastic. Seriously one of the best weeks I have had in a while. Did divisions with a brazilero this week.... hence the title! He's been helping me out with the portuguese haha It's pretty much spanish, Just spoken really badly.


All week was spent preparing for the "Bautismo Guazu" Or "Big Baptism" we had on saturday. It takes a lot of planning to get 5 people baptised holy moly. Finishing teaching them all the lessons, interviews, getting the time set for the baptism, cooking cakes, filling the baptismal font, cleaning up the flooded church after forgetting to turn off the baptismal font, assigning talks, and not to mention the clean up! ha But I'm not about to complain... Because I was able to be an instrument, play just the smallest part, in God's hands in bringing 5 people into the waters of baptism. And it's stressful to think about how it doesn't end there, and how we are responsible to help them be nurtured, and spiritually grow. But the baptism went great! All the families invited their realtives and friends, and more than 6 new investigators ended up coming to there baptism, which is a huge blessing. the spirit was present in their baptism, so I hope they were touched.


This week is the week of changes... oh boy!! I have 7 and a half months here in this area... so it's likely I leave. BUT whatever the lord suits best. I'm super down to stay! I love it here! But 4 and a half months with the same comp... that's a lot. haha We NEED a change. haha But whatevsssss


Anyways, love you guys!


Elder Horton

Un Ano...

Family Night with a convert family

This week was fantastic, seriously one of the best weeks that I have had in my whole mission, and lemme tell you why...


First off, because we were able to all meet together as a mission, and one of the seventy (Elder Gonzalez) came and talked to us. He is so amazing man.. it was so inspiring, everything he said! He didn't even prepare a talk or anything, he jsut came, and we had a question and answer session with him. I came out completely changed, and had a greta moment where I recieved very powerful presonal revelation, that has changed my perspective on things. My teaching style has completely changed, and is more focused on helping our investigatores and less actives becoming spiritually self sufficient. He brought such a special spirit to the mission, especially when he bore his testimony at the end... Man. Very few times have I ever felt the spirit confirm something so strongly in my whole life. It inspired tme to work to have that same spirit with me, and to bring it into the homes of our investigatores and members. Just wow. ha


We also had an area conference in the stake center, where 2 of the twelve talked to Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, that was also awesome.


We've got 5 baptisms this Saturday... man, so excited! haha One of them is a mother, and two of her kids. She was the reference from the lady who died 10 years ago... she is such a golden investigor!


The others are the kids of a familoy less active that we ahve been working wiht. the father gave us permission last night to baptise his kids... YEAH so excited for this week :)


Love you guys!


Elder Horton

Noche de Hogar (Family Night) with the Hmna Reina y fam (Converts)

Week Pora

This week was filled with miracles... not too much time, so to sum it up we had 7 investigators attend church, and if all goes well (And I have the faith that it will) We will have 5 baptisms next Saturday!


One of the Seventy is coming this week to talk with us. Word.


A less active family came to church for the first time this week in 8 years! Its true that it makes you just as happy to see a family return to church than it does to see a family get baptised.


Can't sleep at night, due to none-stop worrying and planning about lessons for our investigators. Mission probs.


Doing things for the right reason was probably the biggest thing I learned this week. True missionary work starts with a true love for the people. Don't do things for the numbers! Even though we work with lot's of numbers "Each person is more than just a baptismal statistic, but a child of God" It's a lot easier said than done!


Nothing of pictures this week! Love you guys!


Elder Horton

Paraguayyyyy

This week.... was completely normal. ha Normal as in a million things happened, including almost getting eaten by a lion (Alright, it was a big dog!), and having a lesson with a bewitched 89 year old demon lady! ha Just your average trip around the block here in Paraguay

The success here has been... diminishing. I feel like for my first 4 months here in this area, it was just miracle after miracle, baptism after baptism, but it's almost like slowing down. I don't feel like I'm doing anything different, even the opposite! I feel like I am giving it more than I gave it when we were seeing success... but it's just not happening. It's been quite the frustration lately ha 

The new mission president has a completely differnet mind set than the one before. Presidente Wilson (Current president) is focusing a lot more on Retaining, and Reactivating, and less on Baptising, where as before it was the complete opposite. New rules have been added that make it more difficult to baptise, for example this week, only 8 people were baptised and comfirmed as a MISSION. That's not good!! haha But I here that the president jsut doesn't even hardly care, as long as we are having a more balanced work, with more of a focus on reactivating and retaining. Which makes sense! For example, here in my Branch, there is a total of 700 to 800 members within the limits of our branch. However, only about 140 of these are active. But at the same time... It honestly blows teaching less actives all day. It's quite depressing! Like they are just so lazy, and apathetic. It's hard to see any of our fruits from the effort we have put to help them out. We, as a mission, and me personally need to just focus on the objective, which is to get people to the temple. Anyways, so that's the jist of it all!

Love you guys,

Elder Horton