SEMANA LOCA!!

Zone Leader is keeping him busy!  Lots more responsibility, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all :)  The spirit is still a constant companion with our family.  We're so blessed to have him serving the Lord.

Roosevelt Road

Waffle stack for breakfast just before conference sessions

This is my buddy Chucky :)

SEMANA LOCA!!

It's been such a crazzyyyy week I'm not gonna lie haha. We had to drop off our car at the shop Fresno to get it fixed and go on bike and switch between the english elders for a car. So it's been a little hectic and hard but in the while it's been fun :). I've never had to do so many different responsibilities as a Zone Leader, this leadership position can stretch you that's for sure! Thankfully we got the Lord taking care of our area while we go out of our ways to run errands and do Zone leader stuff. I'm learning to plan better from it and just go with the flow when things don't always go our way haha. Gotta love it!

I had my first Zone meeting as a Zone Leader, it was great! Our zone is so awesome! We have about 12 or 13 companionships if I haven't told you already. They're all just a bunch of great missionaries. Some of them are pretty old too. There are a couple that are going home next transfer and then like 3 more including Elder Nye that are going home after that. So this Zone here pretty soon will be gutted out and new... That same day of Zone meeting we got a call from an Ex missionary named Elder Ennis (he was my zone leader when I was in Lindsey and Tulare), and he asked if we could go to the childrens hospital that night and give a blessing to a child named B. P. who was dying. Elder Ennis knew the family really well. They're the P. family from Tulare and I actually knew them pretty well too. Later that night though it almost flew past our heads to go out and visit this family at the hospital, we felt terrible! By the time it got to about 8 p.m. we realized we needed to go out and give this kid a blessing. So we booked it to the hospital which was about 25-30 minutes away from Madera. We got there on time and found the family in the hospital and gave B. a blessing. B. looked like he was great shape! I think he was in there because he had some issue with his lungs. I'm not sure how they're doing as of right now, but I'm faithful that the Lord is taking good care of them.

Wednesday is when we had to drop off the car at the shop so we were car-less and still are till tomorrow. That same day we went on exchanges with the Assistants. I'm not really sure why President wants us going on exchanges with them but if President says to do it then we do it. It was pretty fun! I got to go with Elder Parkins is name. He's kinda famous because his grandma used to be the General Relief Societies President. He was cool though! They have a huge area to cover and they are all of full of rich people. Which is a completely different atmosphere than being a spanish missionary.

Because we don't have the car we had the great opportunity to go street contacting :) I kind of miss it to be honest! Elder Ballard told us during our mission conference to talk to 10 people a day for each companion so that's we did. We only talked to 5 people each. But found one that was interested. Talking to people is a hard skill to develop and I think is a skill that's been trying to get back in the mission but slowly and surely it is. It was a little difficult after not doing it for a while. But Elder Nye and I are working on it.

Our investigators are doing great! As of right now we have 4-5 progressing investigators. Good news is, is that 3 of them can have a baptism date right now! C. and two of her kids (I'm not sure if I mentioned them before). But they're as ready as can be. They either 1. have to get married. or 2. The boyfriend A. has to leave and they have to separate. It looks like #2 is more relevant though, because A. is being a bum. If he moves to Mexico C. and her kids are being baptized! M. is doing good. We haven't been able to contact her but she came to church this week! Her dad still won't let her be baptized, but I fasted for her this past Sunday and I pray the Lord recognized and heard my prayer. We have another investigator named J. and we were going to drop him because his intentions were to simply go to church because it's "interesting". We had a short visit with and kind of changed his thoughts about why we go to church and because we go for progression. I think he took that to thought and is currently "thinking" of being baptized. But he's progressing because he's doing everything he should.

Sooooo it sounds like the Lord is taking care of the family at home? I got your pictures and stuff, they're awesome! Looks like everyone is doing good, and growing up holy crap! Glad to hear that Wes and Mar are doing good in sports. I love hearing from you all and miss ya like crazy. Happy b day to West!! BIG 17, that's crazy to think he'll be 18 in a year, and I'll be 21 and he'll turning in his papers and i'll just be getting back.

I'm going to try and send you some pics but I'm gonna end the letter here. If there's any questions that I didn't answer you're going to have to remind me next week. Love you!

Love Al


P.s. I've seen missionaries send recorders home? Or at least make a recording of how their days or weeks went and then send it through an email. Is that something ya'll would like to start happening? I'd have to get a recorder first...

P.s.s. I looked at Elder Nye during the marriage talks of GC because he goes home soon and he's gonna get married. I was just giving him a hard time.

P.s.s.s next monday I'm going to Yosemite with the zone so I'll take lots of pics... And the monday after we're going to the zoo so it should be fun.

Elder Horrocks