Hola!!

The Entire District

Hola!!

 

Well it was really nice to hear from you guys, and all your cool stories! Wish I could hear more, but I´m glad everything is good back home! I hear the football team won 20-0 against Ben Lomond?? That´s awesome! That´s almost 20 points better this year than when we played them last year.

 

So this week has flew! It has been 2 weeks and it feels like yesterday I was just getting set apart. I really like it here, and everyday only gets a little bit better. The language is coming along really well. Yesterday my companion and I got with a new progressing investigator and spoke to him in spanish mostly without our notes, we were pretty proud of ourselves. We invited him to pray and read the BOM. Except for we forgot to invite him to be baptized haha, that´s something we could work on in spanish. We have seen alot of improvement since day 1 and our 1st lesson. The first one was a bomb cause we didn´t know a whole lot of spanish. Now it is alot better though But the gift of tongues is so amazing. It´s amazing knowing how much spanish I have learned down here. Some kids down here are in their 6th week and can speak full conversations, and are really fluent. I´m working on hopefully being fluent before I leave the MTC

 

I´m glad you guys care about me enough to want to send me american food :) but I was just kidding about that haha. The food can sometimes be scary but I´m starting to get used to it. I´ve only had diarrhea once the whole time i have been here. But everybody in our district got really sick so I wasn´t the only one haha.

 

 That´s sick that Weston scored like 3 touchdowns in the varsity black and gold game! I loved reading from his letter and how un excited he is for school haha. And I think drama fits Marleigh perfectly because... well I don´t know I can just see her being in drama. You´ll have to let me know how it goes for her.

 

I´m happy little J.T. is starting to finally get along with Charleigh. I love hearing his cute stories, and it makes me sad he still is looking out the window for me in my little white Blazer car. I miss him so much. It´s good to know he still acknowelegdes me .

 

My companion says there are lots of Colemans in Wasatch. But he can´t recall a Guy Coleman but i guess they are all over wasatch. My companion did play sports, he played football and track. He does know about the 2 Coleman boys that passed away in an avalanche. I think Guy would know them too. You´ll have to ask him about that and let me know.

 

About the Earthquakes... yeah there has been some pretty sketchy earthquakes down here. But not enough to do damage where we are. I think it was 200 miles away from us and it was a little higher than a 6.0 earthquake i think. We´ve actually been evacuated out of our buildings 3 times down here because of earthquakes. They were scared buldings would colapse on us but the earthquakes weren´t strong enough to do anything.

 

Well Family i love you all! I hope to hear from you some more. Tell everyone hi for me and that i love them. And if anybody wants to drop a short little message to me that´d be cool, usually I have lot´s of time to write.

 

P.S.+ get me Gary Nelsons number Carmen. I know he shares missionary letters with his class and i want to be able to send him letters.

 

Love Elder Horrocks

 

Da Bomb!!! Hottest hot sauce in the world!! It's disgusting don't try it haha

Statue Pose

They have Twinkies in Mexico!!

Elder Smith and his Storm Trooper

Me and Elder Nye at the Temple

 

Opening the Call

I usually like to do things in chronological order.  But being a mom with a new baby and a little sleep deprived, I'm remembering things that I want to be a part of this blog but probably should have added them beforehand... Anyhow, this is Alex's opening his call and my story behind it.

I knew his call would be coming soon and I had been trying to prepare myself for it!  Mind you I was 8 months pregnant, so I was full of emotions anyway ;) and besides feeling unprepared for the call I was also preparing myself for his graduation.  With those things combined and trying to keep up with Weston and Marleigh's activities and J.T. being a human tornado, I was (needless to say) a wreck!!!  I would cry myself to sleep during nap time thinking about Alex's growing up and being gone.  Then I'd wake up and cry some more.  I knew it was a happy and exciting occasion but I was having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that he was growing up and ready to go!!!

He received the call on May 8th.  Which to you means nothing but to me meant someone was planning on going on a mission with Alex and would be there to take care of him every step of the way!  May 8th is my Dad's birthday...  I had laid down with J.T. for his nap (cried as usual) and missed a phone call from Alex while we were sleeping.  When I woke up I saw the missed call and also had a text that said "GUESS WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL!?!?!"  I then cried again (imagine that) and quickly called him to hear what he had to say and make arrangements to open it.  I did my best to hide the fact that I was crying uncontrollably, talked to Alex, then called my mom who was out of town and cried some more!  After getting comfort from her (and a couple other friends) my Mom called me back.  As the phone was ringing, the thought came to my mind "It's your Dad's birthday today.  He did this!"  I answered the phone and my Mom said to me "It's your Dad's birthday today.  You can bet money he had something to do with this!"  And I knew without a doubt in my mind that he had his hand in him receiving it on that day!

 My Dad was and still is a missionary!  There aren't many times that I can remember my Dad not taking an opportunity to tell someone about the gospel.  Even in times when I felt it was embarrassing or inappropriate he felt the spirit guide him to teach.  It was usually done in a funny, comfortable teaching way (usually) and people responded to his love for them.  When he died he was in the process of turning in papers to go on another mission with my Mom.  We all know that Dad was called on a mission to the other side and he is taking his grandson's missions (all of them) very seriously!  He's going to take care of my biggest baby and that speaks volumes of peace to my soul!!!

The First of Many!!

After checking my email NON STOP for one week and thinking I was going to have a breakdown, I FINALLY got his letter... I'm still not sure what day he'll email on.  I'm guessing Tuesday's ;) I guess we will see!! Anyway... I LOVE how happy he sounds!  It's contagious!  And he's obviously still the same ol' Al :).  Enjoy...

 

 

 

Que paso Familia!! (What´s up family)

 

I love it down here!! It is amazing here in mexico, if only everyone could see where I am staying it's beautiful. I'm really enjoying my time here, but I am staying really busy!! Everyday is a full schedule filled with nothing but investigators, language study, and just getting to know everyone.

The language is tough! I only have so much time to learn it before I go out into the field, but I've learned more then I could ever imagine.

 

When we first arrived here it was 11:30 at night because we had a 5 hour overlay in L.A. We didn´t get to go to phoenix because there was a delay there. (There is something about me and problems with airports I guess). But thankfully we got here safely. I was a little worried we wouldn't make it. So all is well!

 

So my companion's name is Elder Nye and he got called to be district leader in our district the first 2 days we were here, and I am the senior companion so we really don't know who is in control over the other, haha. Elder Nye is hilarious!! He is such a goof! But we get along really well. I help him with the language a lot because he took japanese in highschool, and luckily i took spanish in highschool. He works really hard though, and does the best he can to help our district. He does exactly what a district leader does, and leads by example. I look up to him a lot.

 

The hardest thing here is the language, our teacher is awesome though. And being able to prepare our lessons for investigators IN SPANISH is hard too. Right now we are teaching a guy named Ulisses. Our first lesson with him was a total failure!! Hahahaha but it only got better. Our second lesson with him went well, we taught him only half of the restoration, because we ran out of time before we could finish our lesson because we had to go to our next class. Our third lesson was awesome! We taught him the rest of the restoration, and how it's important that we read and pray about the book of mormon with a sincere heart and real intent. Then we told him it's important to have a testimony of the restoration, and to ask and pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. He asked what baptism was and we told him. Then FINALLY he asked what he had to do to be baptized. Elder Nye and I felt such relief to here that. So of course we are going to teach him what he can do to be baptized.

 

We got the chance to go to the mexico city temple today!!! It is awesome there, one of the coolest temples I´ve ever seen. I'll have to send you pictures of it as soon as i can

 

Well I got to go, I have to go to another class to be to. Love you all!! Tell everyone Hi for me. Love your main Elder, Big Al

 

P.S. If you could all do me a kind favor and send me some american food, that would be very generous haha ;) The mexican food is already getting old, and one of the elders in our house had diaherra for about 3 or 4 days haha.

I'm here!!!!

wow!

it has been hectic! Our flights were changed today. Instead of going to phoenix, and then from phoenix to mexico city, we went to LA and from the there to mexico. So its been a very very long day. 

Im here safe and sound. Its amazing out here! its really a nice facility and, i have already met some cool missionaries. Elder Nye is my companion at the MTC, and he is from wasatch, so we got a good feel of eachother. And there is also 5 of us that are going to the fresno california mission.

Well i only have so much time to write, but i love you guys!! Miss you already. Let me know if you got this email and send it to Dad too. And also, if you can, put my email and lettering address on facebook, because some of my friends wanted my addresses and i forgot to give it to them.

Love Elder Horrocks

One Last Look...

We made a joke about how hard I took it and how sad Alex was the first day he had to ride the bus... I pulled his arms off from around my neck and forced him on the bus and stood outside watching and waiting for him to find a seat so I could wave goodbye and tell him I loved him. But when he sat down he put his little hands up to the window and smashed his nose against the glass and sobbed big giant tears. He had a look on his face of "What's going to happen next mom??" And I had to force myself to get in my car and not run on the bus and rescue my baby!! So I drove to my moms house and bawled all day long... we joked that putting him on the plane would be just like the bus.

All joking aside in that picture, Alex had just turned around and waved goodbye and he had the same look on his face that I saw that day on the bus with the same "What's going to happen next mom??" Only underneath was a look of "I'll be fine!! "

I missed him the whole day of school and he came home sooooooo excited and loved it... I know that's what is going to happen here also...

The Airport

Watching one of your children walk away and knowing you won't be able to physically be with them for 2 years is a hard thing to let happen!  It was a very surreal moment.  Here are some pics from that morning...

The Walk...

Dropping him off at security

Still acting like brother and sister

Giving littlest brother a kiss goodbye

And giving little brother his last hug...

He's on his own

Already making friends ;)

Farewell Pics and Dinner

His Last Suppa ;)... Go BIG or Go Home!!

Rodizo Grill. Thanks Uncle Joey!

Friends

Al and Brayd

 Brinkerhoff genes aren't kind in the height department ;)