Happy Thanksgiving Week!!

Fun week of Turkey Bowl's!!  Sounds like he had a great time at the zone activity playing football again!  He got to take Charlie and his cousin along with :) How great is that??!!  They're looking to set some baptism dates as goals.  I had a feeling last week that things weren't going well between M. and T.  I really hope that things will look up for them soon or that they will find some peace if they go their separate ways.  Keep praying for them all!

Enjoy!!

Moro Rock. This thing is huge!!

The General sherman a.k.a. the biggest tree in the world

The trunk is big

It's all about perspective. If you zoom in on the diagram it shows you sizes of branches and gives you other perspectives, age etc. Standing next to the General Sherman is like a mouse looking up to a 6 foot tall human

The General sherman from a distance. if you zoom in you can see the little people

Familia

So this letter is going to be a little short because we just got back from a zone activity. We played turkey bowl/flag football and it was a lot of fun! There was probably 40 or 50 missionaries there. I got to catch up some old faces again and also met some new friends. Our friend Charlie came with us and his cousin Steve did too. They enjoyed it, who knows maybe Steve is going to be interested in talking to the missionaries now. I had a lot of fun for sure! I scored 4 or 5 touchdowns and we won by one just barely. There was quite a bit of athletes there too. Soccer, Rugby, Football, Runners, a lot of athletes.

This week has been great! We're focusing right now on setting a baptism date because we don't have anymore right now. We have one maybe 2 very possible investigators that we can get committed to a baptism. Their name is the Chavez family (I'm not sure if you've heard of them or if I told you of them) they have cousins in our ward. The whole family is Catholic but they like when we go by and chat with them. Their  daughter Mar. is so solid, and she's 8 years old and comes to our church all the time. It's just that when we asked her Dad for permision if she could be baptized he said no... But we passed by with a member just to maybe see if they could build a relationship with the family. We taught them about Mosiah 4:19 and being humble as a child and putting off the natural man and coming unto Christ and being baptized. We went into other discussions but we ended up inviting him to pray to know if he should let Mar. be baptized.... We could tell he was scared to do it because he knew that he would receive an answer. We haven't been able to drop by and follow up with him about it, but he told us he would :) Mar. is going to be baptized! Hopefully the rest of the family will follow her example. Hope and pray that she will be able to though... There's still hope for M. and T.! Well I should say T. The other day she told us that her and M. aren't doing so well. M. doesn't really understand the role of the father in the family and isn't very responsible, he still has issues with gangs, drugs, and various other things. We still hope they can stay together and work things out but it sounds like they're going to separate, which is still hard because they both have no where to go if they do. T. has been praying to know if she should leave him or not. If it's God's will that she should go find someone better then that's that. We just don't want her to be forced to do so. If she ends up leaving we pray that she can find something better and she still says she has the desire to listen to us and be baptized no matter what happens. M.'s just been kind of a stumbling block, we'll see what happens between them though... Si.'s doing great! We watched the Restoration video with her and she thought it was beautiful, and we were able to do it in a members home. She feeds us a lot!! No matter if we ate dinner before or not. She's awesome, and progressing well. (I asked her husband if he did fantasy football and he doesn't, but he was surprised that our family does! I think he thought we put bets during fantasy football, do we do bets in our family??) V. and I.'s marriage looks like an upside! We talked to them yesterday with Brother Cregor (who's a family therapist) and he tore it up!! He is a beast! "There's still love in the home" he said to them :)... Our other investigators either we were not able to catch up to this week or they weren't in town. Like S. and J. They're still on their drug probation so they randomly have to leave to Porterville and do drug tests, which unfortunately has taken them away from having the opportunity to come to church :( Charlie got the Priesthood this Sunday, and Jesse and Hunter will probably get it this Wednesday. They'll be going to the temple this Saturday in Fresno. Great things in store for them still! Charlie is doing good in his calling too.

Well I know it's short but that's kind of all I got! I have very little time too. This week on Thanksgiving we're doing another Turkey Bowl with our ward on Thursday morning. Then we're going to a couple family thanksgiving dinners during the day. Wish me luck because I'm gonna die! I enough food as it is. It's kind of weird not being home for the Holidays, but I still miss you guys. No worries though because our ward family here in Lindsey takes pretty good care of us.

Wish Weston good luck for me in his game against Juab. Sounds like Mar is tearing it up too.

The weather out here is getting cold!! Probably not as cold as back home though huh. It rains like once a week now. Feels wayyyy different without the snow around. When Christmas time reaches around it'll definitely be a white christmas, just with a bunch of fog instead of snow.

Well I love you all! Sorry this had to be short, but I wish a happy thanksgiving and all my love back home. Love ya

Love Elder Horrocks

Baptisms and More Baptisms!!

What an amazing week for Alex!!  They had 2 baptisms.  You can feel the spirit so strong in his letter!!  I love the friendships they have developed with their investigators.  I truly believe that those friendships are going to be what keeps them active as members of the church :)  I also love the experiences and growth that they are giving my son.  He loves them!  It's such a wonderful feeling as a mother to see my son, who is thousands of miles away from me, wholeheartedly loving and giving of himself to others!  He loves his work and what he is doing :)  P.S.  Elder Nye was Alex's first companion ever from the MTC.  He was from Heber and they bonded right away knowing that their homes were so close together and that they had several people that they knew in common.  He is now his district leader and Alex loves his example!

I also love the little blip he put in about the Mexican Culture and their visions of Christ.  How exciting and what a beautiful experience to have!  I have been to Mexico on a couple different trips and specifically went to different ruins that depicted some of the stories in the BOM.  What a huge testimony builder it was to see some of the places where you can just SEE the stories in the BOM unfolding and understand the way that they happened!  The Mexican culture truly are blessed :)

Good Luck to Charlie in his new calling!!!  It seems the Lord has BIG things in store for him!

Elder Nye and Charlie

Me, Tony (Hunter's dad), Hunter, Elder Moody, and Charlie

Baptisms and more baptisms

Yes, baptisms and more baptisms!! We had two more this past Saturday. This week has been an awesome week. We've been super busy but we got great things out of it. So Charlie and Hunter were the ones that were baptized. What a cool experience it was for them. What's crazy is that the week before ANY one get's baptized, Satan tries to make it hectic more than anything. For Hunter it wasn't as bad. He told us that his mom was a little iffy about it, saying he was to young or that he wasn't ready, but I believe she decided to just let Hunter choose for himself. His mom is super cool she just didn't quite understand the importance of baptism.   When Hunter was baptized he had to do his twice, because the first time wasn't approved. I was one of the witnesses for the baptism and I told them they had to do it again, which I kinda felt bad for saying. What's even better is that after Hunter got dunked he came up with a bloody nose hahaha poor kid! I guess the temperature of the water can cause nose bleeds sometimes, at least that's what bishop said. Good thing none of his blood got in the water. But all was well because the second time he did it, it was good and Hunter was clean!!... Charlie was confronted with all sorts of temptations and challenges. I won't go into detail of what they were but it seems like Heavenly Father had something big for Charlie, and there's more to come. After he was baptized and confirmed he said he felt this peace, like none other that he ever felt before. He then received a calling just yesterday!! He's the ward mission leader's secretary, can you believe that?? That doesn't happen often at all unless they're super prepared, which Charlie was very prepared, I guess that's what he gets for coming out on visits with us even before his baptism.

Everyone else is doing were good too! M. and T. are still being bums and won't come to church. It's only been T. that's been able to come. We saw M. yesterday with a member that was in M.s situation before, and talked to him about just coming and seeing for himself. He doesn't have to do anything, join us, be a member, or whatever just come and see! I think he wants to be stuck in the whole virgin marry thing and the old traditions. But with our members it's ten times easier to get them to come. S. and J. are doing good too. They came to Church last week but not this week unfortunately. They're both on programs for drugs which is good, at least they're not struggling. They've both been going and haven't done drugs for like a year now? That's awesome! Now the Gospel can just top it off for them. We saw Si. this week, she seems so happy every time we go by. She says to us all the time that she feels this "sensation" or some sort of feeling when we talk, teach, or anything. She wonders how the heck this is carried around by a couple of teenage kids haha. Little by little they're learning. Her husband not so much though, he drinks during our lessons which is like what the heck? Come on man! V. and I. aren't doing so well :/ they've been frustrated with their marriage like no other. They have A LOT of things to work on. The biggest thing that's holding them together is their kids. We're trying to help them realize the effect that divorce has on eternal progression and even more or just as much their kids. We're hoping and praying they can come to each others senses and just GRASP the Gospel. That's really the only thing that will keep them together. They're great people and everything and it'd be really sad to see a divorce brought about... We found a new person named M.R. She's catholic but she's not active because the congregations here aren't very nice. She's way cool and wonders the same thing as Si. Two teenage kids going around and doing this 24/7? They don't get to call or see their family very much during the year? Wow!! ;) We talked her about life and what it's really about, she looks forward to us going by again.

Well that's kind of all that's been going on for this week, not to bad at all! Something interesting I found out this week is that the members of the church in the Mexican culture have dreams and visions like no other! It's not fair!! It's so cool to hear some of the stories they have to say. Some say they saw the image of Christ, or the picture "Jesus the Christ" the one where he's plain face and has a robe on. They all said that they "know" that's how he exists because that's how they saw him. How cool and interesting is that? Just shows that God still does show visions and dreams and he always has.

Transfers were this week too. It's always a crazy Saturday on transfers and I'm always nervous about what could happen. Elder Moody and I and the two sisters in Lindsey are staying though :) which I'm really happy about. We have awesome friends here and the work is doing awesome in Lindsey. I'm excited to stick around for the holidays.

Sorry to hear about Weston. I'm sure he'll make the team, I know the coach pretty well from institute he's a good man. Weston's tough and he can make it through his one time shot of a try out. Just tell him to be careful and not break his neck. I'm still bummed about football. The championship game sounded lame!! Some teams just need to figure it out, like Judge! Because 63 to 14 is kind of uhhh... a little over the top. I'm glad Weston and the boys did good this year. That will bring a lot of good things for the team in the near future if they keep playing hard.

Marz sounds good! I got her letter today! If I don't write her today tell her I'll try and get it in next time. J.T. and Charlie sound like they're just getting bigger and bigger all the time. I miss those two little munchkins, send my love to them as always.


Well my time's up and I got things to do but I will for sure talk to you next Monday and let you know how things went. Thanks again. Love you lots

Elder Horrocks

Que Tal Mi Familia?

Alex is awesome!!!  Seriously!! Of course I'm biased towards him but how could you not be ;)  He is having great progress with his work.  Transfers are this Saturday but it sounds like he'll probably be staying in Lindsay.

Charlie sounds like an amazing person with a ton of life experiences that he can teach others from!!  It sounds like he has a tremendous trust in God.  I love to hear that!!  It is sooooo hard to put all of your trust in God and to have faith that he will provide the strength and support you will need to be sustained through life!!  Justin just had his 2 year mark of sobriety on November 6th.  It took tremendous faith and trust for him to know that Heavenly Father would sustain him through giving up his addictions.  I too have experienced those moments myself at different times in my life.  Through my own divorce, getting married again, quitting my job, adding 2 more beautiful babies to our family, sending my oldest baby on a mission (he KNOWS he will ALWAYS be my baby) ;)  I can't even begin to put into words the amount of faith you have to have that God has his hand is in everything and that things will turn out exactly the way they are supposed to turn out!!  Maybe it's to show us or even others the truth of all things??  It usually isn't the process we would choose for ourselves but it is the process that will teach us and others in our lives the most.  I hope that my faith and the faith of Alex's investigators will always grow and be strengthened with each trial and tribulation that is presented them.  My patriarchal blessing actually tells me that I have the kind of faith that will move mountains, which a little scary to me!!  When is my faith going to be made that strong!?!???  Do I really have that many more trials to strengthen my faith to that level coming???  All I can do is tell my Heavenly Father that I trust him and watch for the signs of the spirit to guide me through life...

I love my boy!!!

Jesse's Baptism

Que Tal Mi Familia?

So it's been a really crazy week, but we got great things out of it! Jesse was baptized this weekend!! He was super nervous but I know that after he was baptized he was the happiest guy ever. I'll send pics when I get the chance. I know I always say I'll send pictures but the computers in Lindsey are so slow. And time always seems to run out. Elder Moody baptized him and I got to confirm him a member this past Sunday. I hope he continues on the straight and narrow path like we all should, hopefully in no more than 2 months or so we can get him to the temple and do work for his family.

Charlie and Hunter are still on track for baptism too. Theirs will be Nov 15 of this Saturday. This past week we've been hanging out with Charlie quite a bit just to make sure he's doing ok, and every single day he always has some kind of miracle happen to him. I have to tell you about him, because never in my mission thus far have I seen an investigator progress like he does. And like I say it's not even us, it's God that does it for him... Charlie's been enrolled in the Army from 2004 untill 2012. So he just returned home two years ago. He went through so much out there, he fought, he's been shot, he's basically went through hell and back. There's some things he doesn't mention, because they're personal but we know they're kind of off the wall. When he was talking to missionaries for the first time it was kind of a casual thing instead of a daily basis. He would run from God and then God would catch up to him and this process would go on and on and on. Until finally one day God decides to take EVERYTHING from him to get his attention... Charlie wrecked his dodge challenger a little over a month ago in the mountains. He knocked down 7 trees and was going 105 and was drunk, oh and he was 3 feet from hitting a light pole. So he TOTALLED his car, and it looks all smashed like a pop can, and he came out of all of that with a bruise on his head... WHAT?!? ARE YOU KIDDING?? So that got his attention and he's been through other things too like right now he has a divorce process going on. But ever since he's been going through all these things he STILL gives his trust to God. Sometimes it's scary to do that because we don't know what will happen, but he gave ALL of it... Once he did that he started to let the missionaries teach him, he quit partying and drinking, he's quiting all of these bad habits just to do God's will. Now he's getting baptized and one day he wants to be married in the temple. There's SOOOO many things we learn about him and it never seizes to amaze me. So that's Charlie for you :). He sounds awesome huh? What's cool is that he comes out with us to do lessons and he's not even a member and he teaches his experiences with others, Charlie is a converting machine! He really does so well when he teaches. .. Hunter is doing good too. His Dad's a member and helps him out. He just ended his football season this past week too... Soooo hope and pray that these two will stay on track and that the powers of Satan will be seized!

V. and I. aren't doing so well unfortunately. They're trying everything they can to fix things between them. It's sad to see what happens when Satan is in the process of tearing marriages apart. We have faith that they'll do more of God's will and seek to have more of Christs love in their home. I think what they lack is their own self progression in the Gospel and so it takes a toll on them as a husband and wife because they're not learning and opening their eyes to what a family can become. Speaking of which M. and T. are kind of the same. We found their new house!! It was behind some alley way. We ALMOST got M. to come to church this Sunday but gosh danget he's so stubborn. He got ready and everything and then finally at last second he decides not to. AHHH stuff like that makes you crazy!... S. is doing awesome. I don't know if I mentioned already but we are teaching her husband J. now. So they're both doing great! They both came to church for the first time this week!

An eventful day happened this week. I had the chance to go on an exchange with my first companion I ever had, ELDER NYE!! It was so much fun to go out and teach and just catch up on the things. Our exchange was actually pretty successful. The highlight of that day was a less active member named Monica. The spirit was so strong during our little lesson that she cried. She loved it! We weren't able to see her again during the week after that lesson, but she's solid so we're going to do everything to re activate her... Elder Nye is my district leader so he has stewardship over me. He told me he'll give president a good word about me possibly training next transfer?? Transfer calls are on Saturday and we'll see what happens!! I think Elder Moody is leaving and I'll stay and run the area, because President emailed me and said he got a good confirmation that I could stay and do it. I'm a little nervous, but I know that if that's what God wants I'm more than willing to do it.

Man Weston sounds like he did so good! I was a little bummed to hear that game was lost, but I'm happy that they gave it their best. I know I would have been devestated, but life's all about overcoming adversity and trials right? Same with football, I think they still have a lot of potential next year. Tell West I'm a proud brotha and I think he's a stud just as everyone else has said!

Hope you're keeping everything in control with Char Char and J.T.? It sounds like they're just growing up everyday! I can't believe that time flies so fast. Give them my loves, and Marz too. Tell her I'm just as proud

I know there's a lot on my mind that I want to say but unfortunately my time is up. I'll let you know of anything else that I need next week but we'll see. Les Quero (love ya'll)

Elder Horrocks

Halloween and Rain!!!

I don't have much to say about this week.  He kind of says it all ;) He continues to grow!!  He also says they have baptism dates set :) :)  Enjoy the letter...

Halloween and some rain!

This week was pretty awesome! I really enjoyed this one because of our accomplishments we were able to see. We set for 3 baptism dates for this month. Charlie is one of them and he's definitely our most solid! He's got everything figured out and knows where he needs to be. What's crazy is that it's all HIM doing his own progress, we're simply like his friends and guides along the way. He loves hanging out with us and he says that everytime he does that he learns something new. Just yesterday he went with us to our missionary counsel meeting which in a way was awkward because, in those meetings we talk about our investigators to our ward mission leader and some of the members. Well him, being an investigator, was there to listen to us talk about his progression hahaha. Actually he explained more to the ward about his progress than Elder Moody and I did haha I can honestly say that's never happened before.
    Hunter is going to hopefully be baptized this weekend on Saturday as well. His dad is supposed to baptized him but he is in Utah until Friday. So pray that he gets back in time or earlier! Hunter's progression has been a huge thanks to the young men's quorum. I believe that one of his friends on the football team is in the young men's quorum too. This is a result of member/missionary work. It truly does hasten the Lord's work.
    Jesse is definitely set for this weekend. His mom was baptized before but she has been inactive for the longest time due to some personal issues she had with the ward. But she became super humble and apologized to the bishop for whatever reason of the past. I was very impressed! I guess Jesse had something to apologize for as well even though he isn't a member. They're both on track for better things thanks to the missionaries!
    So those are our investigators who are getting baptized and we still got plenty of other progressing investigators too. Si. is still doing good. She wasn't able to attend church but she came a ward activity for Halloween. The activity we had was trunk or treat (I thought this only existed in Utah). We had other cool things too. Elder Moody and I got to judge the chili dinner that we had and we had a maze for little kids that we built out back of the church in some old orchards. It wasn't huge or really scary but it was fun for the kids... T. came to the activity! But M. didn't danget!! Lately they've been hard to get around. T. wants to continue learning but martin probably doesn't, which is hard because in order for T. to be baptized she has to be married to M. Also they moved this Saturday and they told us their house was in an alley way but we have no idea where it's at haha, so pray for us that hopefully we can find their new house... S. is doing awesome! The ONLY thing she could use now is either a church tour or to just simply go to church! We're also teaching her husband J. He seems to be enjoying it and likes us a lot. We've taught him the restoration and told him what we're all about and he seems pretty cool with us.
     You would not believe the rain that has been pouring here!! I love it!! Except when the winds come it gets really cold. Friday night was a huge storm, and then all day Saturday it rained, and some of Sunday it rained partly. But Heavenly Father sees that we're in desperate need of it.
     Lastly there's a couple that could use all your prayers. Their names are V. and I. They've been married and baptized and married for 5 or 6 months now. They're active and everything in the church, but their marriage struggles. We've gone by their house to see what we could do and we gave them blessings. Now it's kind of just up to them to fix whatever issues they have. I think they're taking up on member that does family counsel in our ward, so that'll be awesome for them!
 
Good news at home I see?? I'm glad Weston won his game I was really hoping they'd win. And they did!! What a bunch of studs!! They go to 2nd round of playoffs before semi finals right? Tell them I continue to support and love them even though I'm not around. Marz team should do good with basketball. They're really scrappy but that's what the basin's made of right? Don't get me wrong the basin's got talent too :)

I remember the struggles that Justin has been through. I can definitely say that he's come a long ways. My mission president always says that he wants to do everything he can to make our mission a thing that will get us converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ forever. Well life is kind of like a mission, and we all have our differences with it. Justin's conversion and progression in his personal mission has been directed every step of the way by Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. What amazes me is that some people say that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is waiting for us at the finish line when really they are with us every step of the way. And he does it through his children. So tell Justin to keep it up and that I feel very blessed to see how far he's come. I'm super happy about Allen's baptism! The gospel is a beautiful thing, I'm just so happy to see so many blessings back home :)

Well I love hearing about awesome stuff at home, but my time's up and I will hear from you next monday :) I love you all. Remember to help hasten the Lord's work, sometimes we have to keep up with his pace, because it really is going super fast

Love you
Elder Horrocks