Greetings from your missionary

Alex had a bit of a rough week but his spirits are still high as usual :)  I also had no idea that the church owned vineyards!  That's kind of cool he got to work in one of them.  Wonder how it compares to working on the farm??  ;)  lol.  I must admit that when he said he lost every single picture back to the MTC my stomach was SICK!!!  UGH!!!  I'm soooooooo sooooooooo soooooooo grateful that someone knew how to "undo" that one!  ...He keeps inspiring me to look for the good in all things and him just saying I miss you mom made me cry like a baby... OF COURSE!  I'm so glad he's doing well!!

Love him <3


Greetings from your missionary

This week has been rough!! But I can't complain because there's good and bad weeks. We weren't able to see a lot of success this past week because of luck, and a few missionary responsibilities outside of teaching people. Nevertheless, there's always some kind of great experience that comes from your mission EVERY single week. I have a feeling this week is going to be a lot better though! It started off well this morning. We had a member call us and ask us to come and give a blessing to one of her friends that's a non-member, her name's O. She was going through some court issues and some hard times. When we gave her the blessing she felt tons better. We talked a little bit with her afterwards and laughed and joked because of our chicken experience this past week, she thought that was pretty funny, we basically just got to know her a little bit. Now we have a return appointment with her to come by again with our member. The Lord always puts prepared people in front of us!

So we went and did some service in the vineyard on Saturday. We put up some fence posts and rebuilt some fences. The field we worked in is actually a grape field owned by the church and a bunch of voluntary workers come and work. I guess the church owns a whole bunch of fields out here in the valley, it's kind of cool. When I took some pictures I come to find out after we finished working that all my pictures clear back from the MTC had been formatted and deleted on my camera. OHHHH I was soooo mad!! But no worries now, I luckily met member out in the field from Tulare English that he knew how to informant my pictures. Thank Goodness!! So I still got most of my pictures :) maybe I'll send a few if I have some time.

The missionary life is good as always. We've been really trying to get this area going by finding through members. Which has been successful thus far, we just got to help them be committed to coming to church before they can be baptized. Y. and K. are still coming to church like they have been. They're both so ready to be baptized but they're just being so stubborn. This past Sunday in Gospel principles class was about retaining a remission of your sins and Y. and K. were both there talking about it with baptism and everything. That just tells me right there that they're so close! It's something we'll just have leave up to the Lord... C. is doing awesome! I'm not sure if I mentioned her yet but her and her family would be great members! They've been coming over to one of our members house to have lessons there, and we can tell that they feel the spirit telling them what we say is true. I hope and pray she'll be receptive to a baptism invitation, because we haven't quite gotten there yet... Ye. and G. hmmm they're both doing good I'd say. They've both got different work schedules now and it's more difficult for them to schedule an appointment with us right now... We have one investigator right now named Os. who is a very big potential. He's super cool and loves talking with us. I've only been able to speak with him once, but he was found before I got to Tulare. Him and his whole family are very nice, and very receptive to us. I wish I knew more about him so I could tell you more but we do have an appointment with him this week I believe, I'll let you know how it goes... the new member lessons are going great! Seems slow but it's actually picking up. At first it was hard to know where to begin and now things are coming in order. Like I say, President Clark is an inspired man and if the Lord tells us through him to find investigators through members and RC/LA's then it's gonna happen. And it has been happening through this whole new member lesson process.

District leader responsibilities are good I suppose. I'm starting to adjust to certain responsibilities now. This past week I had to do stewardship papers for the first time and that was different. I basically have to write and give an explanation of every missionary, how they're doing, what they're doing, basically everything and then they're sent into President Clark so he can use them for transfers. It kind of got me scared, I hope they're accurate :) haha. I guess we'll see this Saturday when transfer calls come. Can you believe that? Transfers already?? It feels like I just got here and that I was in Lindsey not to long ago.

So I guess sports is rough too? Wow this week must have been rough here and at home haha. Well like I always say, there's room for work and improvement but just keep playing hard.

Well guess what. The zone has planned another time to go to McDermit again today how bout that! So I'm going to have to make this another short one. I love you all and miss you so much. Take care this week and I hope it's a lot better than the past one. Tell Grandma I love and miss you her too. Sorry this had to be so short!

Love Elder Horrocks

P.S Brother Garcia is a good man :) he's definitely helped me to learn some lessons out here. He showed me your letter too :) Love ya and miss ya mom