Springtime always gets a little crazy around our household! I'm not sure why because we don't do any more or any less but it seems to be even crazier!! So I apologize that I am posting 2 letters at a time again ;)
He seems to really love his new area :) He is over more missionaries now so that is more work for him also and it sounds like they have even more responsibilities too. Like delivering packages and such.
I love that he gets sooooo much knowledge out of his trainings! He always comes away from them with a greater knowledge of the gospel or God's plan. The Rev feels and listens to the spirit for sure ;)
He has one investigator in particular that could really use some blessings. I couldn't help but remember the talk from conference. (I can't remember his name right now sorry! I'm the first to admit that I don't do well with all of the church leaders names. It's like I told some friends this week. I relate it to the NFL or MLB. I know most of their names and faces and I know they're on "the team" but I'm not sure what their name is or which team they play for! I'm trying to get better!! I SWEAR!!) It was the talk that the man gave about being in church and and getting asked to pass the sacrament and he couldn't because he wasn't a member. The missionary was shocked because he went to church all the time and assumed he was a member, but he had to get permission from his dad to be baptized and hadn't yet. The story about how his dad said yes made me cry! I pray that this girl's father's heart will be softened in a similar way! :)
He also got to go on exchanges, which turns out was pretty exciting news for me! LOL! So he was telling me about Elder Winterton. Of course first thing I think is "There are a LOT of Winterton's in Roosevelt. Wonder if he's related!??" So he right away tells me that the Elder's dad is from Roosevelt and that he is also very familiar with our town. So as I'm reading I'm putting 2 and 2 together and all of the sudden it clicked whose family he belonged to!!! Elder Winterton's dad was my neighbor and lived right across the street from me for a couple of years or so! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?? His dad David, was buddies with my brother Charlie and His grandmother is a VERY dear friend of our family, that I remember having a strong love for even as a little girl!!! She would come over to our house and sit down at our piano (the piano I now own) and start playing :) I remember her playing "Music Box Dancer" in particular and she was the reason I wanted to learn to play piano (wish I had done a little better in that area ;)). She is also the reason that "Music Box Dancer" was the first song I ever requested to learn when I got to the point that I could ask :) ANYHOW!!! Elder Winterton's family was a family that I remember my family loving. I sent a message to David on facebook to confirm it really was his son and... Surprise Surprise!! IT WAS!! Such a small world! It's amazing to me the way that the Lord continues to make me feel "safe" with my missionary! It brings comfort to me to know that he is serving with part of a family that I feel a connection too and happen to really love! How awesome!
One last thing. I was asked to speak in church this following Sunday about my favorite conference talk (REALLY!!??? They were all good!) and also on my missionary and what lessons he/we have learned or blessings he/we have had having him serve. He said this to me and I've actually passed it on to more than one person this week when they asked for advice. I want to remember it always so I'm going to quote it here also... If I had to give a blessing that I've seen the most on my mission for your talk, it is that God is the master planner of our lives and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is everything :) ...He's such a great kid! LOVE HIM!
OK!! Enough of my rambling! There is a funny story that goes along with the planking picture :) (I'm not sure but I think Elder Winterton may be in that picture also) Enjoy the letters! They are full of teaching moments... as usual ;)
OH!! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRAYDEE!!! She was always his "little" partner in crime ;)
Heyyyyy everyone!!
It's kind of been a crazy week now just coming up on finishing transfer things, but the Lord has blessed us. Transfers are always hard especially since I've had to do it 5 times now haha but that's alright. By the end of my mission I'll probably have been all over the place. Madera is absolutely awesome! That's where I'm at and we are in the Fresno West stake which is about 15-20 miles away so I'm pretty close to the mission home. We're close to some great missionaries too! There is a lot more to do since how it's closer to the city as well. I love the members here! They're so missionary minded and they are the biggest Spanish WARD I've ever seen. There was about 70-80 people there at church yesterday. I think that's a lot more common to have bigger Spanish wards closer to the city. When I first walked in, about 20 mins before church, started I asked "Why is everyone here so early?" and they were like well thats not all of them! So yup, it's big.
The area Madera in general is great too! We have 5 sets of missionaries (3 spanish, 2 english) that cover the whole area. We have 5 progressing investigators. They are C. and her husband, Jo. and E., and J.. They all go to church and things but I've only had the opportunity to meet them a few times. When I find out more about them I will let you know what we're doing to help them to progress. As far as I know C. and her spouse, and Jo. and E. all need to be married is all to be able to be baptized. So the work is going great for us and the investigators. Like I said the relationships that I've made with the members has been amazing, they're some of the most loving people I've met.
So being a zone leader hasn't made to much of a difference from just being a normal missionary. The responsibilities will be sky high rocket one day and then another it's hardly anything at all. We do have meetings more regularly though, and we go to Fresno more often to pick up packages and a whole bunch of other stuff. My stewardship from watching over 3 companion ships to 12 companionships, or in other words 24 missionaries, that's definitely changed! Elder Nye and I went to a MLC meeting (which is strictly Zone Leaders) this past week which was so inspiring to hear! I think the Lord is trying to tell the mission that baptisms is not always the main focus but that it's just the missionary purpose and christ like love for others, "Serving because we love the Lord Jesus Christ." We've been a little low the first quarter of the year on reaching our baptism goal so we've received some different instruction from Heavenly Father. I wish I could tell you all of what was taught there in the meeting, but I think you'll see it more relevant through the letters that I'll send you.
So time just goes by so fast! In a month and a half I will have reached my year mark, including the time serving before I came home. I can't believe it! Who knows if I'll serve until I see the end with the companion that I started my mission with, that'd be pretty sweet! He goes home in 3 transfers. Everyone back home is growing up and just like you all say I'm growing up. It's super crazy to watch
YEAHHH! We beat Juan Diego this year in baseball, I was pretty stoked to hear that!
Who did Weston ask to Prom??
Well I know it's super short letter but I love you all so much! I just barely came into the area, so knowing so little I can only say so much.
Love you all much!
P.S. Happy birthday to Braydee Sono! I know it's a little late
Elder Horrocks
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| Planking after being late for training hahaha |
Pascua (Easter) Week
So I had a lot of different things that went on this week. I'm sure I'll be able to sum it all up in this letter. It was a little bit different because being a zone leader is a little bit different than a district leader. Other than that though we really did have a great week! There's miracles everywhere that we go, and hearts to touch with everyone we see. I love it out here! I've really enjoyed getting to know my area more and also being able to get to know our zone.
The first couple of days this week was my exchanges that I had back to back with 2 of the District leaders that are under our stewardship. I got to go into their area because I'm not to familiar with mine yet. They were both in Madera but just barely outside our area of Madera. I went with Elder Whitfield who's from Kansas on Tuesday and he speaks Spanish, and we had lots of fun! I enjoyed getting to know him. He loves talking to people which is good for our mission because there are prepared people everywhere. The following day, Wednesday, I went with Elder Winterton in his english area of Madera. He's awesome! He's from Oklahoma and his is name is Thayne and he tells me that his Dad grew up in Roosevelt and that he's been there a lot of times and his Dad knew Brad Jenkins and stuff. Small world eh? He asked me questions like, "Do you know this? Do you know that? Do you know..." and he was just having a ball asking me all sorts of questions about Roosevelt! It was almost like we went to highschool together because he knows Roosevelt so well. He's a rodeo boy so it doesn't surprise me why he likes Roosevelt so much haha. I really liked both exchanges though, I enjoy being able to watch and see missionaries on how they are doing. I get the chance to evaluate and help them become better missionaries, and they do the same for me. Most of all I enjoy developing our relationship in the Lord's work.
(On the mission blog you can see that we're planking and I'll explain why) So on Friday we were on our way to leadership meeting and we were pushing time too. I was getting a little worried for a moment and telling the missionaries to kick it in the butt so we could go and not be late. So we're driving to the meeting and we're supposed to be there at 8:45 in our seats. Well we were pushing it at 8:40. We're at least five minutes away from arriving and the worst thing happened... We took the wrong exit, and so then we were REALLY pushing it. By the time we were a mile away it was 8:44 Elder Nye looks at me and says, "60 seconds of grace would be nice right now." I laughed hard, but unfortunately we were 3 minutes late. So tradition in the mission is, however long you're late to a meeting is how long you have to plank haha. Great stuff that happened in the meeting! I hoped you enjoyed the pictures though haha.
So how about General Conference and Easter huh? We went and watched GC here at the church in Madera. The first session wasn't what I expected though. A lot of it talked about marriage, which wasn't very relevant to me, but it was to Elder Nye! Hahaha every time they'd speak about it I'd look at him like "Sucks to be you." haha but I was just kidding with him, he knows I love him. Marriage is a good thing don't get me wrong. Maybe they're trying to tell us something? ;) All of conference was great though! I loved Elder Holland's talk on the Atonement and how it all relates to Easter, and Kevin W. Pearson's on enduring conversion and the six steps we need to take to endure conversion in our lives. He talked about how the Book of Mormon and reading it everyday is the key to conversion in this gospel. There's a lot of other talks I really liked and actually had the opportunity to go to the Spanish room and listen to the Spanish speakers speak. It was pretty neat.
Our investigators are doing great! We have five of them that are progressing right now. 4 of them are at about the same pace in their progression, but one of them is fairly new that could use your prayers. Her name is M. and she's about 16-17 years old and sincerely wants to change but doesn't feel like she's good enough to do so. We taught her about the Atonement and forgiveness with a member at their home (the member is actually M.'s cousin) and the spirit was so strong. She really did feel bad for things that she's done but we assured her that the gospel is all about new beginnings and she has the opportunity to do that. If it weren't for her cousins being there I don't thing she would have hearkened as much to our words. Our members were so powerful in that lesson! M. agrees to be baptized and her mom's okay with it, but her father isn't. He threatens to beat her if she does :/ but we can only baptized her with their consent. So we will fast and pray for her in this coming week that her father's heart can be softened. We could use your prayers as well!
That's sweet to hear about the boys and their wins against Morgan! Keep on keepin on!
I'm glad to hear that all is going good at home! I love hearing from you and stories that happen. Let me know how other things are doing! Like moving, work, school, whatever. Like I said before I can't believe that it will be year for me in May. |So look out then! After that then time will just fly! I have a few things I need to send home to you all that I can't pack anymore and a few other surprises so be expecting a few things in the mail. Speaking of which I did get your packages that you sent, so that's taken care of
Well I love you all so much! I miss you lots! You're all still in my prayers, have a great week! Until next monday, Dios les Bendigas!
Love Al
P.S. If I had to give a blessing that I've seen the most on my mission for your talk, it is that God is the master planner of our lives and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is everything :) but that's kind of all I can think of right now
Elder Horrocks
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