Bienvenidos a la Conferencia General....

Bautismos... Everybody...

Not the prettiest thing to wake up to in the morning!

Okay, so this week has been NOTHING but work. ha We havent done anything these past 7 days but walk, teach, eat, and plan. Ahhhh man it's so awesome too. I'm finally starting to feel the spirit of the mission. Before it was just like yeahhhh I will work, and help and teach, but my heart wasn't in it. Something has just clicked here in this last change, that has helped me truly give it my all. We had 5 baptisms this week, which was a huge blessing, of which I am truly grateful. We had it on Sunday and baptised them right after the first session of conference. I was able to watch/listen to conference in English for  most of the time, but Spanish for the priesthood session. I even got to listen to a bit in Guarani! ha We were able to bring with us to general conference a total of 11 investigators, which is HUGE (The most I have ever had at church). Especially considering the fact that we had to travel an hour in a bus to get to the nearest stake center. We then treated ourselves to a bit of pizza and a chocolate milkshake after YUMMMMM (First of either of those in 7 months) ha Elder Cronin goes home after this change, which is a bummer! Imma miss him a bunch. We have a few baptisms planned for this week. Would you please pray for Esteven, so that he can quit breaking the word of wisdom, and Augusto, so that he can get married! I really have learned so much from my comp. Especially about Faith! With faith, we can really do anything, even move mountains like the scriptures explain. And if so, why not use our Faith to help others come unto christ? My comp is constantly asking me, "Elder, que tal su Fe?" or "Elder, how's your faith?" haha At times, after getting rejected by crazy catholics, or losing a golden investigator, it's easy to lose the hope of finding that miracle of a person, who is chosen and prepared to be baptised. But the truth is, is that person is out there. You just have to maintain the faith that you can, and will find the people chosen specifically for you. ha The mission is the best. Ah, I just feel like I'm on some sort of spiritual high, especially after that awesome general conference. ha! Anyways, I hope you guys have enjoyed the easter season there in good old SLC! haha It's a bit different down here as one would imagine. LOTS of drunk people and obnoxious music! haha Anyways, have a great week everyone! Thanks for the emails of support and encouragement. 

Love you guys!

Elder Horton

30

Reunion de distrito! An all elder district.  What great luck!

Baptism of Montserrat

Cleaning up the sinny residue from the baptismal font.

Baptism of Gloria!



This week has been SO great. My old comp left, and I've got a new one.... Elder Cronin! He is from Brigham City, and is SO awesome haha He is a mission LEGEND! It is said that he will be an apostle one day. And I could totally see it! The first day he got here, we had our planning, and set a goal to baptise 30 people in this next change! At first, I doubted a bit, but now I'm convinced it's possible! We have found MIRACLES this week! His faith is contageous, it's awesome. He have been working so hard too! I really believe we can reach it. Do you? We are gonna have to see! This week, we have 5 baptisms planned. Super stoked to work hard and make sure that they do. Ahhhhhh man, it's been so crazy busy. Literally, we have no spare time if we wanna reach our goal! Read a few scriptures that really hit home this week. First, was in Alma 29, which talks about mission work (Could be 30 or 31). I also was reading in the Bible, when Jesus invites 3 men to follow him, and teach, and each has presonal affairs they want to take care of first. Jesus then taught them that "He he puts his hand to the plough and looks back is unfit for the kingdom of God." This really inspired me to give it all I had this week. Also, can't wait for conference! Ahhhhh onlay 6 more daysssss haha Love you guys! Thanks for the love and support.

Elder Horton

Cambios

Welllllll.... This week! Was a great time. ha! It very possibly could be my last week with Elder Chidester, which is a bummerrrrrr but whatevs! The Changes are this Wednesday, and I am kinda nervous, but stoked at the same time. The mission is really all about change. Like the only thing that doesn't chaneg is the fact that we have changes every 6 weeks ha This week marks 6 weeks in my new area, and it's been so much fun! I have enjoyed every second of it. This week, we had 2 baptisms, one of a 45 year old woman named "Gloria", and the other of a 20 year old girl named "Montserrat". They were both really solid baptisms, and are both way cool! Monsterrat is the granddaughter of some members, and Gloria is the mom of a recent convert.

What else, what else.... Oh yeah! The catapult that we built last Monday worked like a charm! haha We are still concentrated on the work though, don't you worry. My comp cut his head on barbed wire last night! hahaha Kinda funny, since it was the second time since he's been here in this area. The Paraguayans have a bad habit of hanging barbed wire all around their house, since that's what they use to hang their clothes up to dry them. For them, it is at just the perfect height where they won't run into them, but for us tall "Gringos" It's a completely different story! ha

Super excited to be able to watch General Conference here shortly. It's so much more awesome when you are out on the mission! Or maybe it's just because I actually watch it I dunno haha OH! Met the coolest 83 year old woman this last week. We have been searching for her house for the past month, and we finally tracked here down! She comes to church once a month to bear here testimony at testimony meeting, and it's all in Guarani so I don't understand anything haha But she basically walks a solid 4 or 5 kilomters to church, which is so dope for an old lady! She left her husband for the gospel too, 20 years ago when missionaries showed up at here door. She has 2 grandsons who have served missions too! We are baptising her son this week, so I will get back to you on that one next week. For now, take care! Love you guys a ton, thanks for the support. Sorry there aren't pics this week! I had some good ones, but my computer is ancient, and doesn't read my camera card ha. Love you guys!

-Elder Horton

Zone Conference- Meet the Mormons

Our future missionary friend who accompanies us like every day

Ants literally as big as spiders!!  AHHHH



This week was another good week. Tough in a lot of ways, but really great! We had a zone conference this last tuesday, and had to travel to Asuncion, were we missed our bus stop and ended up getting there like 30 minutes late but whatevssss ha We got to watch "Conozca a los mormones" orrr "Meet the mormons". It was such a great movie! Super inspiring, even though I had to watch it in spanish, which isn't as fun as English haha After, tehy had a few recent converts to the church get up and share their story of their conversion, and how much it has helped change their lives! There was hardly a dry eye in the room, it was so spiritual. It really just gave me that boost to get through this week!

Soooooo This week we have got three baptisms planned out! It's gonna be a busy one. Changes are next week too! Ahhhhh mannnnn.I hate changes! haha Everything... changes. ha! Butttttt yeah. So today, Elder Chidester and I are finishing our machine we have been building for the last few weeks! It's a "RUth Goldsberg" machine that we add onto every night, and basically our house is a mess, but it's about to be so legendary hahaha Our goal is to launch cigarrettes we took from one of our investigators over our neighbors house! I'm so stoked to go test it out. 

Congrats to Pops on the call! I was so excited when I first read that he is the new first councilor in our stake presidency. He's gonna kill it! Plus he is going to be working in it with Tim Taylor, so that basically makes Nate and I related, right? haha The DREAM ha 

Love you guys! Thanks for the loving support.

Elder Horton

6 Months... and 1 week

ostrich

Baptism of Carlos

This week and past 4 weeks have been so much fun here in Posta Leiva. I love this branch and just right where I'm at right now! Having an American comp is the greatest haha And all of our investigatores and recent converts are so awesome! We had a baptism this week, of Carlos! HE is like the coolest 11 year old I know, and is way excited to be able to recieve the priesthood here in a month when he turns 12. Roque, our other convert from 3 weeks ago was able to pass the sacrament this past week! That was a way cool experience. Right now we are teaching Roque's brother, Esteven. He is SO funnnnyyyyy hahaha Him and his bros literally grew up on the street, doing whatever thing they could to earn money to eat. They ended up getting into some illegal trafficking, and ended up getting stuck in Argentina for a bit. They are now living in their Aunts house, but all 3 of them (RIchardt (16), Roque(15), and Esteven(17)) Still have to work full time jobs to pay for their living expenses. But anywaysssss so we were going over baptismal questions with Esteven, and we asked him how he knows the BOM is true, andddddd then proceded to tell us this story... "So I read that part in the introduction to the BOM were it says all you have to do is ask in a prayer to see if it is true. Sooooo I asked God if it was true, and if it was true, and that if it was true to give my a sign. And not just any sign, I told him to stub my toe for me, so that way if I stub my toe I will know if it's true. 2 week later, i was getting off the bus and BAM stubbed my toe. The BOM is true. I know it!" HAHAHAHAHA I couldn't hold the laughter in, but hey, God answers our prayers!

This week, also got to help a 50 year old man who can't walk get to church. He lives in a shack about 1/4 mile from the main road, so we had to carry him in his wheelchair through the jungle, over rocks and fallen trees, slipping and falling all the way to the taxi to get him to church. He lives with his wife, and 2 kids who live on literally 3 U.S. dollars a day. He is disabled and can't work, so his wife ties lettuce together for a living. Super humbling stuff to see, but I'm glad we were abe to help him out. He was able to come to church, so him and his fam will now be able to recieve help from the bishops storehouse. Be grateful for what you've got! They stope pure Guarani, so I didn't understand anything, but I think they were grateful.

Alsoooooo 6 months in the mish, and I weighed myself for the first time! I've hit 173 lbs, 18 lbs up since I've left! Crazzzyyyyyy. This week I ate the large intestine of a cow, or "Mundungo". It tasted SO bad. We finished eating and both walked around the corner of the members hosue and I threw up. SO BAD. It tasted like how cow poop smells. I MISS AMERICAN FOOD 

Love you guys, Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Horton

THE BEST 6 MONTHS..

My converts from Ita came and visited me before they moved to Argentina! So Awesome. 

Paraguayyyyyyy

Our church partition styled door to our room.  Missionary innovation at it's finest

THE BEST SIX MONTHS...

... Of my whole life! hahaha Super tough, but so rewarding. It's been 6 months since my last greasy hamburger from McDonalds, 6 months since wrestling with my little bro, and 6 months since the last time I was out past curfew! You would think one would be completly miserable without all these things BUT it has been SO much fun! I have eaten knew foods, seen new places, and learned SO much about myself and grown so much closer to my heavenly father. It's been tough! But it's been so worth it. Can't wait to see what this next year and a half bring me! 

This week wasssss really good. They just start blending all together! I literally don't remember thte last time I felt what it was like being cold. Which reminds me, my comp and I did have an awesome snowball fight while dethawiing our refrigerator the other day! haha We also have a new pest in our house. We found a Possom eating through our garbage out back the other day! haha Like are those things dangerous, I don't even know. We have also had the pleasure of meeting some interesting peole these past few weeks. Paraguayan names are SO funny! hahaha Here's a small list followed by their english translation...

"Aparacida"... Or "Appeared" Something makes me think she was unplanned!

"Alta Gracia"... Or "High Grace"

"Restituto Coronel"... One of my all time favorites! "Coronel restitute" in English! HA

"Segunda"... "Second". Sadly she was the third child

"Juan La Bautista"... HAHAHA You gotta speak spanish to understand this one. It was an old lady. 

So yeah! haha No baptisms this week, Monserrat is gonna get baptised next Saturday for sure! This week, we have a super awesome 11 year old kid named Carlos who is serious one of my all time favorite investigators. He is super excited, and way smart! He gave a super awesome testimony this Sunday in fast and testimony meeting about when his mom got in an accident, and he prayed and asked for everything to be all right aaaand it was! Super cool, I'm way excited!

Waddup?

Waddup friends and fam. Currently sitting here writing you guys, and it just happened that there is a Beyonce song playing in this internet cafe how AWESOME is that. She kills it! Wow it's been too long since I have listened to REAL american music haha 

Anywaysss so this week! Has been way awesome. Having an american comp has been so nice. It is really interesting talking with him. We seem to have adapted our own Spanish/English/Guarani dialect, which is all together just really confusing haha For example, This is what my comp told me earlier today. Thought I would right it down to send it today "Our house is chuchi, but dormiendo without airre is the worstttttt" hahaha It makes no sense, but it really does! I dunno, It's weird. My comp is way cool though. Super obedient, and has a really kinda nerdy sense of humor but I love him anyways haha TOO many conversations about Lord of the Rings! 

So they is a lady named Rosa and her husband Mario, we are "Dry Members" Or members who still haven't gotten baptised. They have been waiting 1 year to get through a messy divorce until they can get their license to get married and then get baptised! They come to church EVERY sunday, and help out with baptisms and activities and stuff. They are about 50 years old, and super strong in the gospel! They have already been making arrangments to go on a couples mission. But yeah, they aren't even baptised yet! haha Butttt that's about to change! They are 95% positive that they will get their license this month, so I will most likely have the opportunity to baptise them. STOKED

We have also been teaching their 20 year old cousin, who is equally as awesome. Might get baptised this saturday, but if not for sure the following Saturday! We had a super spiritual lesson with her yesterday, because she has a bit of a problem... Her parents hate the church. they really don't want her to get baptised, but she really wants to! She knows the LDM is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and everything. We had SUCH a great lesson with her, and at the end she asked me to give the prayer. Halfway through my prayer. she just starts bawling! Like crying hard core. I finished, and she jsut told us thanks so much, and that she felt a super strong impression that she needs to get baptised suring that prayer. It was so cool! One of the coolest experiences I have had in my mission. 

We also had 2 baptisms this week, which we were originally just planning on having one, but it just so happened that we found a former investigator we had been taught by the missionaries about 1 year ago, and wanted to get baptised! Miracles happen, you just have to be obedient! Which frankly, I have always had a tough time with. But I'm getting a lot better out here! It's nice to have a comp who helps you out to haha Anywayyyyy here are some pics! Thanks guys love you

Elder Horton