72th Week Out, Week 3 Pacatuba, "Mission President Change"

Dear family and friends this week was ANOTHER great week, they all are! My mission President; President Fusco went home and we now have a mission President named; President Leite. I haven't had the opportunity to meet him yet, but we will be having a mission conference this week so I will be able to meet him! we had 3 baptisms this week. 1 was for a girl named Rayane she is 15 years old. she was prepared from the moment we met her! for example; This week she asked us if she had to be a member to be able to visit other people with us( because we always visited her with other young woman) our other baptism was for a woman named Isabel and her son Pedro Igor. This woman is dedicated! She lives about 40 minutes on foot from the church and normally took the bus but this week, the week of her baptism she bought a motorcycle so that she would be able to go to and from church Sunday! her son Pedro was born with a problem that he was not able to walk, his feet don't have all the muscles, so he is very ripped with only 11 years old because he for most of his life used his upper body to do everything but he did a surgery that made it possible for him to walk he doesn't walk normally and its very difficult for him to walk without someone securing his arm, so it was very special for him to be baptized this Sunday! I love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

71th Week Out, Week 2 Pacatuba, "Helping Others to feel the Spirit"

 Dear Family and Friends This week Elder Ehms and I are getting more used to the Area here as we only showed up here a week ago. We created a LIFE-SIZE map thats even divided in color for Bairro( I forget what word that is in English)  to help us and all future missionaries that will pass by in this area! We had 2 baptisms this Sunday! one was for a man named Marcos, he is 23 years old, and man this man was literally prepared for us, turns out there had been many missionaries that had passed by in his house years ago, he never was baptized.  There wasn't any record for him recorded in our are book. We found him in the house of another investigator we were leaving and he showed up and we asked for his address and that was pretty much it we passed by his house started to teach him and he decided within a week that he wanted to be baptized and he was! We even brought a member with us to his house so that he could create a friendship with a member and they became good friends and this member Jefferson baptized Marcos, it was his 1st baptism and will be serving a mission soon. Our other baptism was for a woman named Luana she is 18 years old. Her mom and sister were baptized a month ago but she didn't feel prepared to be baptized. Many people feel that 2 weeks is way to fast to baptize someone but this theory here in CEARA Brasil is false. Here people are very humble and open to everything you have to say even if they are from another religion, and all we have to do is help them have a spiritual experience to feel for themselves that our message is true and after that its BAPTISM because your not perfect before baptism and your not being baptized to be perfect, because you´ll never be perfect even after baptism so its not even worth trying to be perfect before baptism because it will never happen and its much harder to try without the help of the gift of the holy ghost, that we receive AFTER baptism. Once you have had a spiritual experience what more do you need? You will never know everything before baptism and not even after baptism you will know everything. Something my president told me is that we are not here to convert people to be baptized because conversion is a lifetime process, not even you yea YOU are completely converted yet,  SHOCKER. I love to know with a surety that I am on the right path that I don't have to think our doubt theres something bigger in life for me., I know that what I am doing is 100% the right choice, and that this TRULY IS the church of Jesus Christ, the ONLY yes ONLY COMPLETELY true church on the face of the ENTIRE earth! I love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

 Impressions of Pacatuba Brasil

-here in Brasil people don't just hit each other when they fight the cool thing to do here is take your sandal from your foot and slap someone with it or just throw your sandal. For example when a child of a parent is fighting, disruptive, Etc. the parent will just take their sandal from their foot and raise it in the air like a threat that their about to be slapped with a sandal and they keep quiet real quick.

70th Week Out, Week 1 Pacatuba, "This week I was transferred"

Dear Family and friends this week I  was transferred L I had to say goodbye to all my wonderful people in Mondubim... I truly loved serving there, I loved the people, and I loved my companion and it was VERY hard to leave… but Now I am In Pacatuba. I am Zone Leader again with Elder Ehms. The name of our zone is MARACANAU ( its like a stake), Pacatuba is the name of our ward. My companion is from Rio Grande De Sul. He has 1 year on the mission.  We are opening the Area here (WHITE WASHING, SHOTGUNING, whatever you may call it),  we both showed up here in Pacatuba Thursday morning, we didn’t know the Area or anyone or anything, we didn’t even have a map of our area, AND on top of it all the Elders here before us left us with a cellphone without credit! So we couldn’t even call the bishop or Ward Mission Leader or anything. But we were able to work very hard this week! We met 27 new investigators in 3 days and had 7 people at church Sunday! One man walked 40 minutes on foot to church with us! This week we should have 2 baptisms! Our area is HUGE finally! I am kind of in the interior again, man how I missed it! I left the city! I have mountains to see, dirt roads, forests and I love our area!  Remember in Juazeiro there was a Bairro (city) named Horto? Well here in Pacatuba there is also a Bairro named HORTO!!!! HECK YES this city has my name written all over it! I love my companion to! Elder Ehms is a lot like me we both are very firm with people, simple, organized, and we both like to walk very fast! (to anyone that didn’t know yet I don’t just walk around our here I like fast walk almost jog everywhere I go!) He is whiter than me and people here think he’s more American than me! HA my Portuguese is great now, and I can honestly say I’m Fluent in my Portuguese as I have been here in Brasil for a year now! I am so Happy with my life, to be here on a mission, I’m truly starting to know my savior better. I love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

IMPRESSIONS of Pacatuba Brasil

-Here in Brasil cellphone plans don’t exist, everyone buys these like sd cards of credit that they put in their phones and when the credit runs out, you have to buy more credit, its almost like all the phones here are a Burn Phone if anyone knows what that is? But we as missionaries receive 100 minutes of credit for every month. When you use it all you have to wait until the 20^th of every month to receive more credit.

69th Week Out, Week 17 Mondubim, "Sixteen recent converts attended church this week!"

This week Was another great week! we had a baptism for Fernanda, 16 years old. She is the sister to Yasmine who was baptized last week. Today transfer calls come and I don't know what is going to happen so stay tuned for next week and we will find out! I learned a good quote this week and it is that the best leaders in this world are followers. Jesus Christ was a perfect example of this as EVERYTHING he did was following his father. I know we are all followers of Jesus Christ and therefore good leaders are good followers. I Love my Mission, I love Mondubim there was16 Recent converts at church Sunday and to anyone in the mission or who served a mission knows that to be able to look around sacrament meeting and be able to see the fruits from your labor is just the best feeling! Truly to be able to share the gospel with someone else Is the thing that brings the most joy to me in my life! I love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

Impressions of Mondubim Brasil

I have never seen people who move houses, jobs, cars, motorcycles, etc so fast. like literally every week you teach a family and the next week they have switched cars and the next week the have moved to another house down the street and then you show up at their new house and they are no longer at home because they have moved jobs and their work hours have changed. YES

Baptism of 16-year-old Fernanda, Sister to Yasmine

68th Week Out, Week 16 Mondubim, "I'm now 20 years old!"

Elder Horton 20 Years Old

Dear family and friends, this week was another great week, well I'm now 20 years old! No longer a teenager! My birthday was June the 2^ndand it was a great day sister Andrews and my companion threw a surprise birthday lunch for me. On my Birthday, we also stopped by a girl named Yasmine, 19 years of age, who I hadn’t passed by for over 2 months ago when I was with Elder Crispim. My companion ever since he got here wanted to pass by and met her but I would always tell him “nah man she’s not interested with our message anymore…” But this day MY BIRTHDAY I felt prompted to pass by her, and basically this happened: she had been praying and praying this day for Heavenly Father to guide her with what she needs to do with her life and the EXACT moment she said “Amen” guess who was calling her at her front door? Elder Horton and Elder Anastacio!!! It answered her prayer, she told us she already knew before that this church was true but lacked courage to follow her answer, and heavenly father guided us to her. We invited her to be baptized that very night on my birthday! She was baptized that night! That was by far the very best gift I could have received on my birthday was to see the Joy of this young woman! 

We had 2 more Baptisms Sunday 1 was for a girl named Leticia 15 years of age she is the sister of Hebert and Leandro who were baptized last week! And on top of that the parents of Leticia, Leandro, and Hebert; Michel and Magna came to church this week with Leticia to be there for her baptism and they loved church and we sat down with them and the bishop @ church this Sunday and this family decided that they would like to get married and also be baptized as well! So now we have 3 families preparing to be married and baptized! Our 3^rd baptism was for a man named Jailson 29 years of age. He is the brother of Jean who was baptized 2 weeks ago. Jailson had a problem with smoking so we gave him a blessing that his desire to smoke would go away and We bought him a box of chocolate and we told him every time he has a desire to smoke a cigarette, eat a chocolate and he hasn’t smoked since! My Recent Convert Clayton who is preparing to serve a mission baptized Jailson! Miracles still happen and they happen because this TRULY is the church of our savior Jesus Christ! I get to see them EVERYDAY! I Love this work, the lords work not my work, and I’m simply an instrument in his hands. I know that the lord is blessing me truly. I love you all and I thank you for all your love and support!

Impressions of Mondubim Brasil

-Tile floor, tile bathroom, tile kitchen, tile bedroom, tile living room, tile art, tile wall, tile EVERYTHING!

67th Week Out, Week 15 Mondubim, "Our Mission Baptized 308 People This Month!"

Dear family and friends this week was super great! To start off the week we went to the Cartorio and lined up a date for Rosi and Wellington to be married legally and baptized on the 30^th of June! They brought their 2 sons to church this week, and one of their sons is just living together with his girlfriend who is pregnant so we will try helping to marry their son as well! We are still working with our other family Emanuel and Isabel to be married as well but they have had to update their documents and some other things but we will be marking a date legally with them as well here very soon! Their son was confirmed a member this Sunday. It was funny this Sunday as we were in sacrament meeting as the power went out! We had 2 baptisms this week! For 2 Brothers Leandro and Hebert. And they are ALWAYS in the street flying kites and having kite wars with all the other boys in Mondubim. Leandro is 11 and Hebert is 8 they are neighbors to Wellington and Rosi who will be married. Our mission baptized 308 people this month!! I love you all and thank you for all the love and support!

Impressions of Mondubim Brasil

- Here in Brasil there is no gas lines, no water lines, etc. everyone buys those propane tanks and has an oven fueled by propane and everyone buys 20-liter water bottles for the week. As for the sewage…. Well I just won't get started with that one… HA just let it run wild and free!

66th Week Out, Week 14 Mondubim, "I Love To Share The Gospel."

Dear family and friends, This week was one of those seeing the fruits of your labors. We worked hard all week long and we had 2 baptisms this Week one is for a man named Jeanne who is 16 years old he was prepared to be baptized before we even met him pretty much all we had to do was bring him to church and that was it.  He told us he could truly feel each of the lessons we taught him where true so I know heavenly father prepared him for us. We found him 1 day just walking in the road and I felt like I should talk with him but he was in a metal shop working so I didn’t want to disturb him but I did it anyways and it was worth it. Our other baptism was for a boy named Izequiel who is 8 and we baptized him because he is the son of one of the 2 famalies we are preparing to marry and baptize. Did I forget to mention that? well if I did we have 2 families we are preparing to baptize 1 is the parents of Gabriel who was baptized 2 weeks ago and the other is the parents of Izequiel who was baptized today! we have already been to the hosue of these 2 famalies with the bishop to set up their legal marriage. So it was wonderful this Sunday as we had 9 investigators at church, 10 Recent converts, And 3 less-actives that came in all by themselves! As I sat in sacrament meeting I felt so blessed to be an instrument in the lords hand to help bring all of these people to church. I have learned that I LOVE to share with others the gospel of Jesus Christ, I truly love to share it! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be serving a mission that is changing my life in ways I never thought possible. I love you all and thank you for all your love and support!

Impressions of Mondubim Brasil  -During summer break here EVERYONE is flying kites that they have made from parchment paper and bamboo. What they do is they have wars with them in the sky and everyone is trying to cut eachothers line. When one happens to cut the line of another kite and the kite begins to fall and land theres like 20 kids that swarm and try to win themselves a new kite! It’s the funniest thing you see, you know when you're at school and EVERYONE starts running and forming a circle because theres a fight well here everyone does that for a falling kite.