He's just dandy!!

Monday mornings seem to be the only time that I have to post on the blog, so this is last weeks letter (he'll write me again today).  He is doing well!!  He actually asked me not to post a specific part of the letter so if it doesn't make complete sense that is why ;)  Feel free to write him also :)  He loves hearing from everyone!!

Familia!!

It's good to hear from everyone! I love hearing the stories that happen back home, it makes me miss everything back home. Right now everything out here in Hughson California is doing good. It's a tiny tiny little town, but the Lord has people waiting to hear us. It's been a week full of miracles! Whether we seem them or not, there is always a miracle happening everyday. When people say they've never talked to missionaries before is a miracle sometimes because it's so small out here haha. But I love it! It's a good area to start in. There was a pretty cool thing that happened on Friday. Elder Hall, Elder Lumberg, Elder Brower and I were on our way home from the apartment, and we saw a car broke down and a person walking on the side of the road at about 8:30 at night. It was pretty dark and we had to be back to the apartment at 9 but the spirit told Elder Brower that we needed to stop and help her and see what's going on. So we pulled over and Elder Brower and I got out to walk her back to her car. Elder Hall and Elder Lumberg went back to her car that was broke down. The person's name was Stephanie and she was so grateful that we pulled over to help, and she started cry. She was scared because walking around in California at night can get sketchy. She was from Ceres which is about 5 miles from Hughson. She ran out of gas and so Elder Brower called one of his members to bring a galon of gas. Long story short she was so grateful and wanted to know more about us, so the missionaries out in Ceres are teaching her and she has since then loved us! So the Lord prepares people to teach!

Right now we have 3 progressing investigators and it's Yanime, and two brothers named Axel and Abel and they're 9 years old. We used to have 4 progressing, but I'll explain why we only have 3 later. We have a church tour with Yanime today and she's super excited! Axel and Abel are easier to teach but they're hard to catch. They're never around at home except on the weekends. But Yanime, Axel, and Abel all have dates for the 31st, I'm way excited that we'll hopefully have 3 baptisms in one day! We ate taco truck this Sunday again, except this time we ate like 4 or 5 peppers, and the fire bum is unreal out here! You have to be careful what kind of mexican food you eat but for the most part it's pretty dang good!

So I Love hearing about stories back home! I love the pictures and silly little things that JT and charleigh do. It's hilarious. I don't have a camera chord other wise I'd be sending a few pics too but I don't have a chord. So maybe you could send me one of those? Along with some food or treats? Haha but that's really all I need. The Camera chord is like a Android charger too... I heard about Jaycee and she will always be in my prayers! Grandma told me before I left, but tell her that I hope all goes well!

But yeah! That's another update in 5 days haha.

But time is running short and I love you all! Let me how the games go even if you can't go to them. But remember to pray for our investigators. :)

Love Elder Horrocks

Week 1 Down!!

Alex's mission president said that P-Days were on Monday's so on Monday I checked my email every 20 min (literally) and didn't get anything :(  Same thing on Tuesday :(  Finally, Wednesday afternoon I got a letter from him :)  YAY!!!! (Mind you, I checked the email every 20 min. for 3 day's straight!)  Enjoy!!  I love him and miss him tons!

Hey Mom

Sorry about the late email. I came in right in as we were doing our temple day in our area. The temple in Fresno is small but it was a lot of fun, it's beautiful there too!! So our temple day was today and also our prep day so that's why I'm emailing so late. I'm adjusting to the missionary life little by little, but it gets easier and easier. I didn't want to believe how hard it was going to be when I left a second time, but I have to admit it was pretty dang hard. My new companion is Elder Hall. He's white and speaks some pretty good Spanish. He's from Orem Utah so I'm pretty familiar with where he lives. Right now he's a district leader and a trainer, and it's his first time with it too. He's getting the hang of it though! It's a lot of work. I help him along with it and stuff, things like paper work and phone calls or whatever he needs help with. Right now my area is a place called Hughson California, which is north of Cali. We cover 3 little towns like Waterford, Hughson, and Hickman. I've seen a few familiar faces since I've been back. In fact when I first showed up I went out with an elder named Elder Jensen and he was in my district in Portervile. He was pretty stoked to see me. I haven't seen Elder Nye yet though.... The Spanish is coming a long. I have a huge head start and can speak pretty well so far. I'm still learning though. 

Right now we are teaching 2 solid investigators but we have 4 or 5 with a baptism date. Right now we are teaching a girl named Yanime (Ya-neem) we taught her about the restoration and the plan of salvation and you should of seen the look on her face. She tried not to cry when told her about Jesus Christ and his atonement, and that because of him we can live with our families again. She was pretty tripped when we told her we lived with God before and that we will live with him again haha. She is super excited to hear more from us! We are going to be teaching her how we can return to God by using the Gospel of Jesus Christ... Our other investigator is Adrian and we found him knocking houses in Waterford. He said that he already talked to missionaries a couple years ago but that they quit coming back. So here we are now teaching him again. He's 16 years old and so Far we've taught him the Restoration and the importance of repentance and baptism. He trusts us a lot. The way we know that is because he's told us a lot of things he's done in the past. And he wants to change, and we told him that God sent us here to do that. The other investigators are Selena and Lupita (Lu-peeta) and they are going to be baptized eventually. Lupita signed the papers and everything but she flaked out this Sunday because her Dad is Catholic and told her to wait and not do it so fast, which is frustrating. But she knows what we taught her is True from the bottom of her heart. Selena is cousins with Lupita and she has the same mindset. They both go to church actively we just don't know why they're not committing to baptism yet.. So we need prayers that our investigators will understand the importance of the Gospel and that they'll continue to read the BOM and find out for themselves that it's true through prayer... Something crazy this week is we have Sunday dinners every week at a non members house and they run the "Taco truck" and it's like an ice cream truck except they sell tacos haha. Elder Lundberg (who's 285 pounds) ate 16 tacos, yeeee!!! Me, Elder Brower (Elder Lundbergs comp) and Elder Hall ate some dried peppers dipped in chile sauce. And it was like stupid Hot! I thought Elder Hall was going to throw up! So we drank like 6-8 cups of Horchata to take the spice away (it's a cinnamon milk that Mexicans make). So we had fire bum for like 2 days haha

Hahaha I love JT's stories they're hilarious. Thanks for the pics too by the way. I showed all my zone Charlie's picture and everyone else and they said charlie was really cute haha. I miss everyone already. It's crazy to say good bye for a second time! But everything is going good... Don't worry about the bike, just get it here when you can. Same with the pull up bar! Oh also if you can, remember that green Spanish book and CD that was by the computer that I used to study Spanish? If you could send that, that would be awesome! :) but time is short and I'll let you know more on Monday!

Love you all 

Big Al

ANNNNDDDD WE'RE BACK!!!

At the Stake Center after Alex was set apart.  Only missing Justin.  He was sad he couldn't get off work.

Haydn, Alex and Stephen

As if saying goodbye wasn't hard enough once, we got to do it twice!!  So just in case you weren't aware Alex went back to Fresno on Tuesday, August 5th.  It was exactly what he has wanted and he couldn't be happier.  I've watched Al grow and discover who he is personally and even more so spiritually during the time he was back.  He developed a very personal relationship with his savior and Heavenly Father and it showed in everything he did.  He did a semester at UVU, where I feel like he learned even more what he was capable of accomplishing on his own!!  Learning the bus schedules, riding his bike, working AND going to school.  Getting A's in the Geology and English (classes we thought he'd struggle in) and B's in PE and Music.  WHAT!?!?! (YES!! You read that right!! B's in music in P.E) ha ha ha.  He matured into a man right before my eyes!!! But most of all the spiritual journey he chose to take and set his goal as returning on his mission has been his number one priority.  Honestly the odds were not in his favor.  only 1% of missionaries who come home return.  Alex is in that 1% now.  I'm proud of him.  I'm even more proud that decision and process was ALL HIS.  He did this all on his own!!  We were just here to support and guide when he needed it, but he is responsible for where he ended up... I LOVE HIM!  I love the example he is as a son and brother!  We will miss him coming in from Mortal Combat Wars at 3 a.m.  We will miss him randomly deciding to come over after work and spending the night with us.  We will miss him Playing the Guitar.  We will miss him teasing the babies.  And we will miss his quirkiness everyday.  The people of Fresno are very blessed to have him there!!  He is prepared to spread joy and love.  Honestly I don't see how they can get away from being drawn to his countenance!

Saying goodbye at the airport.  No one ever gets a pic of Mom with him but I got my hug too!!

I waited all day Tuesday (after I got home to my internet not working and my data service in Roosevelt is HORRIBLE so connecting to my email through my phone was a bit of a joke) for an email to come that said he had arrived and it never came!  Wednesday morning the internet was fixed and on and I again started waiting.  Around 11:30 I received a phone call from Fresno.  It was President Clark (his new mission president).  He called to tell me 2 things:  1.  That Alex had arrived safely!!  They normally take time to send out a quick email letting parents know they arrived and he had just realized that they had not done so.  I admitted to him that I had been looking for the email but that I new if he hadn't arrived safe I would have received a phone call yesterday.  He laughed and said "I know you mother's like to get a return receipt!".  I laughed and told him that was EXACTLY what I needed (I'm also VERY relieved he "understands" us mothers) ;).  2.  He had spent all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday with Alex and he wanted to let me know what an amazing son I had.  He was a fine young man and that he already loved him and his spirit.  He said he was going to do great things!  I (of course) agreed with him!  I actually could have gone on and on and on about how much I loved Alex and that I knew he was going to do great and marvelous things but I didn't want him to thing I was bragging ;).  ha ha ha.  So instead I told him how special Al is to everyone here and that he had an enormous group of people cheering on his every move!  He apologized again for no email and said that P-days were Monday's and he'd send out emails then. ...He asked if I had any more questions for him and I said No and we hung up.  Then I realized I hadn't even asked where Alex was going to be.  So I guess I'll find that out on Monday. 

SOOOOOOOO... He's there!!!  Feel free to email, or write a letter and send it, or even send a package!!  He wants to hear from everyone and anyone!!  The email and mailing address are exactly the same.  If you can't find them let me know and I'll post them again :)