31st Week Out, Santa Rita - Paraguay Week 2, "We Now Have Bikes"

EEEYYY! TODO BOM!?

I`m in Paraguay people! You know what that means! EVERYONE IS BRAZILIAN! WHAT!? I have to learn Portuguese because everyone speaks that! Or if they are legit Paraguayans they don`t even speak Spanish! They speak Guaranì! OH MY GOSH YOU PEOPLE NEED TO LOOK UP THE GUARANÌ LANGUAGE! IT IS SO COOL!

I`m going to learn how to pray in Guaranì! OH MY GOSH!

Hey, I`m in a placed called Santa Rita, and if you didn`t already know; that`s in Paraguay. So yea. And hey! I`m with my new companion Elder Cansino! He is super fired up and wants to work really hard! We have being blowing up our area! Its like absolutely destroyed with gospel! Like every house we walk into we are able to challenge them to be baptized and they say yes. Like what the heck that does not happen.. :)

PEOPLE! I love the Gospel! What is going on right now in California? I have like 7 months now on the mission. When did that happen?

I`m in a place called Ciudad Del Este right now! AND HOLY GOODNESS! IT IS THE MOST LEGIT PLACE ON MY MISSION! It is just lleno with people, and small vending stores and Brazilians, Arabians, Chinese, Japanese! EVERYTHING HEERE IS SUPER CHEAP! LIKE I CAN BUY A SUIT FOR 45 DOLLARS WITH PANTS AND EVERYTHING!

Like legit you can buy expensive things here at 80% off... I`m talking like everything. Electronics, food, clothing, toys, shoes, shirts, socks, lots of socks...

EVERYTHING! I`m super excited to be here! We played soccer for the first time in my life. Before with President LaPierre we couldn`t play soccer! But Pres Svec came in and changed all that! It was super fun! We won twice! first to 10. I played against my own companion! And he loves soccer! SO YEA THATS RIGHT GET WRECKED ELDER CANSINO!

Friends and family I write unto thee a testimony of just one other. A man who desires to follow his Father, is a man worthy of his holy water. The fountain that never ends, the bread that cures hunger. If thou desire to be, be his seed. And WOW WHAT THE HECK I LIKE THIS! I made all of that guys.

I bear my testimony that Heavenly Father is the One Who Lives From Eternity To Eternity, and His Son is our Saviour. I am so grateful to serve under his command, and I choose to be on the right hand when he comes again.

Jacob 4 :) TREES

Impressions of Santa Rita:

WHAT THE FRICK MAN NO ONE SPEAKS SPANISH! And we have bikes! Oh my gosh I thought bikes were going to make everything easier! It just means that we work a whole lot more. But that`s ok :) I`m gonna have some nice looking legs!

LAVE YOU ALL!

30th Week Out, Ciudad Del Este Week 1 "I've Been Transferred - My Second Area - Heading to Paraguay"

HELLO! EVERYONE!

How the HECK ARE YALL!? I AM GREAT! My list has 106 people on it! I EXPECT 106 MESSAGES IN MY INBOX NEXT MONDAY!

Haha! Just kidding. My email is for you guys, and not for me.

Brothers and Sisters, I would like to take this moment to tell you all that I WILL BE TRANSFERRED THIS WEEEEKKK! YEA BOOOYYYYY! HOLY GOODNESS OF ALL THINGS ON EARTH! DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITED I AM! I am going to a place called Ciudad Del Este, in Paraguay! I´ll be in an area called Santa Rita! My compañero se llama Elder Castino! OH my gosh people thank you for enduring that exciting moment with me. ON TO MORE!

I have officially obtained a Japanese Book of Mormon, I don´t know how, don´t ask me. (My Branch President went to the temple and I asked him to conseguir me uno de esos.) I GOT IT! Although I have zero ganas to read that thing, I will try to learn some phrases in Japanese.

That´s that, I have found that my favorite hymn is Praise to the Man. Joseph Smith is like my favorite super hero. I can´t even tell you people. You just got to look at everything a lot bigger. When you do that everything just explodes in a good way. Then you find out that, literally you can stand next to him and all of the other prophets if you choose the right. And then you start to freak out because you want to shake his hand one day for allowing your generation to have the restored gospel.

Ok let me just say, I am so grateful to be in the time of the world that it is right now. What the heck did I just say? That doesn't sound like English, I´m just kinda typing really fast right now. We literally have everything, we also have like the most awesome technology ever that allows us to have a conference with the very prophet on the earth every six months.

Seriously just think of everything really really big like. ITS SO EXCITING! PLUS I´m a missionary so I´m like in the front of the boat right now, with the wind in my face! You young people need to get out here right now and just do it.

OK! Another thing I've learned is that you just have to do it. Like first you just have to make the decision to go and do, ask questions later. But don´t have the attitude that is like, ALRIGHT BUENO LETS JUST DO IT THEN! No me importa lo que pasa.. You have to be like YES! I WILL DO IT BECAUSE I WANT TO! And I will do it the best I can because the Lord has asked me to.

I´m like all over the place right now, really I´m just super de duper happy to be a missionary for the True church of Jesus Christ. My testimony is stronger than ever. I can´t share my testimony anymore, I must declare it to have it be valid enough to me. If that makes any sense. Like I feel the need to be everywhere declaring the words of God. AND ITS NOT OVERWHELMING! I love it! I know there will come a time in my mission where its going to hit me like a wrecking ball. BUT I feel so ready to do whatever the Lord wants me to do.

I have a testimony in the Savior and his infinite mercy. I also believe that he specifically chooses each and every one of us to do specific things. My time to serve a mission was chosen before the foundation of the world. My birth time was set from before the foundation of the earth! And I am not being any such prideful. Because everyone has been planned for. I MUST go and do the things the Lord has commanded. Someone out here needs my help. Specifically me, and I will look until the very last day of my mission to find these people!

And even after I will continue to look for the reasons why I have been sent here at this time! I have faith that God guides us in everything we do! We must ask for it, so he can give it to us! We all have a divine purpose here! LOOK FOR IT! Do it! Ask questions later.

Love you all! Thank you for reading my emails! HAVE A GREAT WEEK Y´ALL!

Impressions of Jardín América:

I have spent a little more than 1/4 of my mission in this area. If I am able to visit my mission again, sí o sí tengo que visitar este lugar otra vez!

29th Week Out, Jardin America Week 22, "New Mission President"

Hi everyone!

Elder Horton here again! I´m having a wonderful day! We just went and played soccer! WAIT! Ok so before.. wait.. Ok so my mission president left! We got a new one! His name is President Svec! He is from Chile! And from the quorum of the seventy!

He came in and asked that certain zones come in and meet him! I´m near the Posadas zone, like right next to it, so we got to go first! It was fun! He shared a lot about himself that I don´t remember because it was all in Spanish! But HEY! He set free some rules that we have here on the mission!

Before we couldn´t drink Maté, or play fútbol! But now we can! He said if one can drink Maté, the other can toO! And he said that fútbol is good for relieving stress! I already bought a Soccer ball! It was 200 pesos! I don´t care it was worth it! I had to be Argentinian!

Turns out I don´t like soccer... I am so bad :) But HEY I HAVE A SOCCER PELOTA! I also tried maté...

You people don´t even know. Well maybe, have you tried green tea? IT Is GREEN TEA... I was legit thinking that it was some sort of legit drink.. ok I actually had no idea. ITS GRASS AND WATER LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I have solved the mystery of Maté.. It´s not worth it.... HAHA! I have a video of me taking it, it is so funny! I unfortunately can´t send videos because they take up too much space. I´ll find a way some how.

SO! About the mission, well mainly my area. I am about to leave the best area ever. RIGHT BEFORE IT EXPLODES I GET TO LEAVE. GREAT! Woopie! I am seriously not even kidding you right now! People just walk into the church building and we ask them if they want to get baptized, and they say yes to a fecha of the 26 of July.. Wow. His name is Oscar. :)

I hope my companion takes super advantage of my beautiful area.. I´m going to miss this place. It´s literally the middle of the mission! And that place would make the best stake ever because it is in the middle of a District in El Dorado, and the stake of Posadas. It would be the bridge maker! Oh my goodness it just makes me more happy and sad because I´m leaving this area.

Well I shouldn´t say that yet, because I don´t actually know if I´m leaving. I have like a super hint because I´ve been here my whole life the mission president is going to move me! But I would love to stay here again if I can. So we´re going to wait on that one.

Next week I should get my email of where I´m going to be next transfer.

ANYWAYS! I had a very nice week. Lots of doctrinal study. I´m lovin it! McDonalds! (there is McDonald's in Paraguay. Hope I get to got there.)

Impressions of Jardín América:

I am like freaking out about Joseph Smith right now. Do you people know who he was? Like for reals? HE IS THE MOST AWESOME PROPHET I HAVE EVER ReAD ABOUT IN MY LIFE! Go and read about him people! I am mainly impressed today about how he took zion to be a very very sacred thing! I can´t wait to preach to someone´s face about Joseph Smith again.

Thank you mom for this bag, it helps a lot.

Subway.... :)

Subway.... :)

These things are actually scary!

All of the languages I have in my mission! IN the back from left to right: Portuguese, Guaraní, Castellano

Our freezer works!

When you have to walk up and down hills... :)

Teaching English to my students ;) HOw to pray!

Made lemon bars for a zone conference! 30 ish missionaries

28th Week Out, Jardin America Week 21, "First Pair of Shoes Already Done"

Hi! WHAT IS UP MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!???

HOW IS THAT CALIFORNIA STUFF GOING ON!? YEA! Alright then!

SO let´s just start with a, I DESTROYED MY SHOES! Well it took 6 months to destroy them, but I have finally accomplished it! I have supposedly been sent a new pair of Mr. Macks (or Amazon online) and they will be here in a long time! ALL of the streets in my city are pretty much dirt and big fat rocks that have been flattened in with absolute precision. I say precision because they made it almost perfect that every step you take you hurt your back because of how unleveled it is.

That is wonderful, just wonderful. I looked up what my name means in HEBREW! And its direct translation is: Malkiel! Which is a different way to say Malki! Malki is a girls name! :)

Thank you Mom and Dad. 

Anyways, it also means some cool stuff! It is used to say, "my king"

I thought about that a lot, and I applied that to a theme! I put everything that the gospel is and made it into a kingly knightly fashion! And it is actually pretty legit! Because really it is going to work like that in the next world. Kings were usually people with lots of land who gave it out to their family, and people who came! The king was the king of all, but there were mini kings called Lords. The Lords were the people who were over the smaller parts of land! The king would have armies set up to protect his giant land and have the people pay him for protection!

I don´t want to try to apply all the things I said there to the Gospel, BUT! I really thought about it! It makes me wonder how much more respect I can give my father in heaven if I treat his things like they are valiant and courageous.

I picture myself as a knight before a king, knelt down to honor him. Showing him that I am loyal and I wish to serve him with all that I am. That he can count on me to do whatsoever he wills.

And I know he is a righteous king, therefore he will stand by me if I obey him.

I thought about another theme, just in general of Fathers. I was reading in the scriptures about how if one doesn't teach his children to walk in the ways of the lord, their sins are on the heads of the parents.

I took that to another perspective, I put that very saying over the greatest Father of all time. Padre Celestial! And I realized that he literally is perfect in his words. He talks to us through the scriptures in many ways. When in the middle of smashing doctrine over mothers and fathers, he demonstrates a SINCERE love that he has.

He is literally saying that, I Heavenly Father say unto you that I will teach you to walk in the ways of righteousness. And if I fail to do that, it is my fault.

And oh how he fails not, to teach us to walk in the ways of righteousness. Even to the point of cutting us down to the dust to be humbled enough.

I LOVE THE GOSPEL! I love reading. I really hope one day I can have a little chat with Heavenly Father and have him just tell me all the things he would want me to hear!

Many of those things are right in front of me, therefore I must look!

I exhort all of you people to read! Its really really fun! Just get into it, and hit the ground running!

Impressions of Jardín América:

When contacting, and the person comes out and says, why are you here? I have my religion, I have salvation already. Go and help someone else who doesn't have Jesus. -What do you say? I would like to say a lot of things! But if someone has an idea that is really really good, I´ll try it!

When They "Know"

I didn't eat this.. Chocolate and hotdog, and mayonaise... Elder Salvatierra! WHY!?

When someone paints really good! I wonder which one is me!?

I'm here if you didn't already find me...

LONG BOAT CLOUD FORMATION GO GO GO!

We like mandarines. We also like to eat them in front of Catholic churches.

LOOK AT THAT SKY!? I MEAN, LOOK AT IT!

LOOK AT IT!

When you find the longest store in the whole world. You can´t see it, because its blocked by people 

(Elder Salvatierra... (:  ), but this actually goes back a very long ways!

THE HEADQUARTERS!

Elder Salvatierra: "HOLA MUNDO! ESTOY LISTO!"

Abstract pants, abstract tiles, abstract box. Artist photographer. <<<What?

27th Week Out, Jardin America Week 20, "I've been reading Jesus the Christ"

Ha! No one is writing to me anymore. That´s ok, I´m sure you´re all busy or something. Love you guys anyways.

How am I? I´m still doing wonderful, I don´t think that will change anytime soon! I´ve been in the same area my whole mission! And I´ve only got 2 more phone calls left, so basically I´ve already completed half of my mission no? Debo escribir en español because no one reads anyways! Haha!

I´ve been very blessed out here! It´s actually kind of fun to me now meeting new people. Like at the start of my mission I DISLIKED contacting with all my heart. But now it´s like HEY! I have a freaking cool message to give you if you want it! If not, that´s ok I´ll try another day! It´s really fun now.

We had an activity in the church this last week! We set up "Maté" cups and had the children paint them! It was so successful I ran out of 15 Maté cups and had to start giving out pages of my note book to paint on! Plus we have like a professional painter here, so that makes the level go up like 5 times.

WELL! Things go really fast out here, I have a calendar and mark off like 5 days every single time. Feels fast to me, I don´t know. I´m changing a lot too! I grow a lot more hair on my face. It´s already grown out by the end of the day! So that´s that!

I´m drawing now, if anyone wanted to know! I actually love drawing! I always get really anxious when I´m studying because I want to picture the things I see better but Its hard! So I´ve been drawing and that works out super! I´m going to have an entire notebook of drawings by the end of this year.

HEY! MUSIC! I am singing a whole heck of a lot better than before! I actually feel prideful singing. IT IS SO FUN! I wish I had done it in high school. HAHA! I remember thinking about choir back in the day, and I was like NEVER IN THIS LIFE! Now I miss it extremely. We will have to see about ward choir when I get back.

I´ve been reading Jesus the Christ! I´m on like page 250 something! It is so fun to read. Do you know that? I hope all of you young people find out the mystery of reading soon in your lives! Because I wish I had. It´s actually the most soothing, calming, inspiring moments of my life. I don´t think I´ve read so much in my life while on my mission. Like they force you to read books in school but on the mission you are not obligated to do anything really. You choose to do it because you want to. I REALLY WANT TO! I only get a hour everyday to read personally... It´s not even enough for me!

It´s like watching a movie in your head. But like beyond the boundaries of seeing it, you feel it and search it. You make it.

Anyways that´s my consejo for the day! Thanks to all who read my emails! I wish you a merry day and a happy week!

Impressions of Jardín América:

The Argentines can´t sing! Hah!! Well at least where I´m at they cannot. Their language makes it so they speak with the very front of their mouth. So It´s very hard to change tones and get high notes. ITS SO FUNNY! It´s like listening to zombies in the chapel when we sing! haha! I try my best to make it sound better. :)