Wassup Mama

Again!!  Spring and the end of the school year always proves to be so stinking crazy for me!!  Here are the last 2 weeks of letters.  I love him soooo much!  I see him mature with each additional letter.  Please pray for his investigator.  Some things arose that could have been taken offensively and the situation needs some love and understanding :)  Both of which Alex and Elder Nye have plenty of!  My heart is filled with such love just knowing how much they love the people they teach <3

The picture was sent to me by a member (I think she is a member anyway).  Alex's introduced us to her on Mother's Day.  He said that she is his Spanish teacher and she said that he is a lot of fun to be around and that he makes her laugh!  Sounds like Big Al to me!  Her words in her text were... "You have an awesome son, very sweet and with a big spirit" I think that explains him pretty well ;)  The picture cracks me up.  I forwarded it right away to my mom and sister and said "Remind you of anyone??"  I got a response back right away that said "Sheldon!" and "Grandpa"  lol  My dad had a hat similar to it that he wore gardening/camping/sitting at the kitchen table... hahaha!!  Alex obviously inherited his fine fashion sense ;)

I also got a Birthday/Mother's Day package from him :):):)  It was full of pictures and an old missionary tag.  It had a tiny little Boston Red Sox sticker on the inside of it to add his own special touch :)  I loved the whole thing very very much!!

Enjoy the letters...

May11th

Well I know I talked to you yesterday, but I'll see if there's anything else I forgot to mention about the week thus far.

Really good Sunday yesterday! I was super excited to see our investigators which is a big family of 5 come to sacrament yesterday. It's the first time for the children but the second time for the mother. I'm not completely sure if I told you or not but the mother's name is G. Our other investigator F. came to church for the first time yesterday as well. We've actually found them both through our investigator C. who's getting baptized the 23rd of May. So all together, including C. and her two kids, we had 9 investigators come to church yesterday! We're seeing good success for the month of May. Yesterday my companion and I were talking about the zone and if we stay on track, and the zone baptizes their solids we'll end up with 10 baptisms for the month of May in the Zone. Pretty exciting! Just gotta keep working hard!

J. R. is doing a lot better. He's the boxing coach we're talking to. His family has come a lot closer he says since his Dad passed away. He's just all around a really good guy and has a wonderful family that loves him so much. To my surprise, he still wants us coming to talk with him in these times of trouble. Heavenly Father is truly blessing and helping him through his challenges. We just hope we can be an influence for his life.

Our investigator Cr. continues asking us to come and teach her when the occasions arise. By the way we were invited to go and see her graduation along with J.'s graduation from medical school. It was on the corner of a christian church. It's was good to see the both of them progress in their careers. They have a good future ahead of them! As far as us teaching Cr., it's going really good. Last time we talked with her she told us that she enjoys her church but learns more talking to us and feels a lot more at peace with her life. That's just the way to Holy Ghost works! Soon we'll teach her the way the Holy Ghost works and functions in our lives. Maybe it will help her to understand what she's feeling when we teach her.

 Well there's not much else that happened that I hadn't mentioned before but I apologize if Skype was glitchy at all. It's so different to see everyone just grow! Especially J.T. and Charleigh. I can't believe it! I wish I could have heard all of J.T's questions. They were cracking me up! I'm glad to have seen Grandma and Carmen and Big Dude, Jud, Weston, Marleigh, you. It was just so great to see you all! I really do miss you. I know I've talked about having a year left but it scares me because everyone says it's the fastest one so buckle up and don't blink! Before you know I won't be Skyping or calling anymore.

Wish Weston good luck for me in St. George. Go beast mode! There's not a whole lot left for me to say but that I'll hear from you next Monday!

Love you all much!

Also. Tell everyone to shoot me an email once in a while or something! I'd love to hear from them

Elder Horrocks


May 18th

Wassup Mama

Hope you enjoyed your present! It's not much but it's the best I could think of.

Haha don't let J.T. think that everywhere you go will be Mickey Mouse Land. I know I'm mean but that's really funny what happened!

It's a bummer that baseball just got finished up. I won't lie I really miss playing. Tell Weston to give it all he's got coming up on his last year of sports, and to play with no regrets. Also tell him not to cry like a baby like a did when my last baseball season ended (though he probably will haha). I'm sure gonna be bummed not being able to watch him play his last season of sports.

We really have been blessed with some moisture up here. When it rains here that's how I know it's going to rain A LOT in Utah... Haha I remember Rube Goldberg. It's funny and makes me laugh now, but back then it really sucked when we had to make that machine!

Our week was hard but we did some good things. I'm beginning to become more accustomed to Zone Leader responsibilities and things such as that. I felt that we could have planned better though to have more time in our area but we worked with what we had. Last night Elder Nye and I talked to our investigator, C., that had a baptism date for the 23rd of May for her and her two kids, J. and S. But some situations occurred and she wanted to postpone her baptism for another day. The reason being (and this is what I understood from her, she speaks really fast spanish) has something to do with the kids.  I will explain later.

We'll be talking to the bishop this week to see if we can straighten things out and have a better understanding of how we can help. We're praying really hard that there will be an understanding with her and the bishop, and whether or not the kids need baptism we're hoping that she will soften her heart and be baptized herself so that she can enter into the temple and be sealed with her family in the future.

I apologize if I needed to put what I said into a mature filter. I hope you were able to understand what I have written as well. It's been a little bit of a challenge on us because we've worked so hard with this family, and Satan is throwing his shafts and whirlwinds. I'm so grateful that we have a Savior who understands us so perfectly. I love him so much! All I would want for this family is to know his love and what he can do for them.

For bright things that are going on, we had 7 investigators come to church this Sunday! We had 9 last week but we're on fire with investigators coming to Sacrament, we couldn't have done it without these wonderful members. F. came to church and she's doing really well, we have an appointment tonight with her and her sister G. at 6. G.'s been to church twice but she didn't come yesterday. If her and her 5 kids came yesterday that would have been 13 investigators at Sacrament meeting.

Cr.'s doing good as well. She came to church too. She says she likes her Catholic church but she's been to our church twice now. We've invited her to be baptized 3 times and she's said no 3 times :) We have lot's of investigators to set dates with and we plan to do so. When we do plan either they're gone, or they're to busy. We're hoping to set dates soon so that when we go into June we'll see fruits from our labors then.

That's the jist of this week! We could really use your prayers for C., J., and S. though. It's a tough situation to deal with but we're doing all we can to make it right.

Love you all! Tell everyone I say hi

P.S. soon to come.... the Modesto Mission and the missionaries that are going from the Fresno mission to the Modest Mission. I'll keep you updated... BTW let me know how the house thing goes!

Elder Horrocks

Familia and Skyping testimony

I got the best birthday wish from Alex last Monday!  It was a super treat to get to hear from him on my actual birthday :):)  YAY!!  And of course as an added bonus we got to Skype with him for Mother's Day <3 What an amazing day!  He introduced us to a few different people from there.  It was fun to get to see and hear them.  I love that the people he is surrounded by seem to be as full of as much love for him as I have.  He also bore his testimony to us in Spanish (I recorded it.  I will try to upload it) Of course I only recognize a couple words but It's amazing to see him growth in the language.  I LOVE HIM!!  MISS HIM TOO!!  But wouldn't change this time for anything...

Of course the kids have to Snapchat it ;)...  Don't mind the mess that needs to be filed

Marz Snapchat

Familia!

So not to much of updates here out on the mission except that we had transfers. Elder Nye and I are staying together again for another transfer! We're pretty stoked for another 6 weeks! I'm kind of grateful that he's around still, I still have adjustments to make in this leadership position as a Zone Leader and he helps me a lot. We have 12 young companionships and 9 of them changed. Our zone turned upside down! We're really excited though, it's always a pleasure to be able to get to know new missionaries.

My time is a little bit short so just to kind of give you an idea of what's happening or what happened this week... We had an awesome time finding new investigators and one's that are solid too! One of them named Cr. called us today and told us to come by today and teach her at 6. Hardly ever does investigators ask you the day of to go teach them. Woo woo!! S. and C., two sisters, are doing really good right now still! C. still has her baptism date for the 23rd of May. We set a goal to baptize 4 this month and right now we have 3 coming up, so we're on track! This past Sunday I was supposed to go down back to Tulare and watch a baptism. Remember the last baptism I had down there? The V. family? Elder Corona and I baptized the Dad and the mom and son still were unsure if they wanted to get baptized. But Elder Corona called me and said they finally made a decision for the 3rd of May! So I was invited to go... But the night before on Saturday Elder Corona calls me and says, "Did you get your ride for the baptism?" I told him yes and he says, "Great! Well guess what? It got canceled..." AHHH so close!

This morning we were supposed to have breakfast with one of our investigators, J. R., the boxer guy I was talking about last week. Well we weren't able to because his Father passed away yesterday :( so he's taking it a little bit hard right now. His daughter V. called us and told us everything. She said that he's going to be okay, it's just something unexpected. The family in general is doing good though! V. told us he'd appreciate a visit anyhow. I'm just very grateful for The Plan of Salvation, and the knowledge that we'll be able to see our loved ones again. Maybe that's what he needs. We rescheduled our breakfast instead to a lunch this Wednesday. So we'll still get to eat with him.

It's crazy to think I have a year left! I'll burn the white shirt soon :) It goes really really fast, in our Zone we have a lot of old missionaries about ready to leave, and some of them can be a little bit "trunky". Which doesn't help, sometimes it drives me nuts!

Well that's basically the gist of what happened or what's happening. I'm sorry it's a little bit short. Normally toward the end of the transfers things are little bit more mellow until transfer days actually happen.

As for skype we do have a member that is willing to do it for us. They're the Nava family. The mom is mama nava and she's awesome! She is a sweet heart. But our plans for now will be her for now. If I need to let you know of skype time or anything I'll have her let you know :)

Tell West and Mar to keep it up in sports, it's alright to struggle that just means more for improvement! Loved the pictures of J.T. hahaha super funny!

Well family I love you all Much, but my time is up!

Love Elder Horrocks

I almost forgot!!! Happy birthday Mom!!! I love you much :) Have a wonderful day! Let me know how it goes

What's Happening??

Here is last Monday's letter.  I feel just like he does...  It seems like we haven't gotten to talk in a long time!  He of course sounds like he's loving it all.  He's also right... Kenny Chesney made me cry for hours!  But in my defense I was 9 months pregnant with Charleigh!!  I'm super excited to hear from him tomorrow AND we get to Skype next Sunday!!!  CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP!!!! I can hardly stand it!!

Enjoy the letter :)...


What's happening??

I feel like I haven't talked to you all in forever! We didn't go to the zoo today but we've had a good preparation day thus far. We just didn't have enough time and we got lots of errands to run.

Our week wasn't so bad! Being a Zone leader there are a lot of meetings and errands to run. Things like Leadership trainings, stake correlations, District meetings, exchanges, and many other things I have yet to tell you about. That's kind of the majority of what happened this week. We went on some exchanges on Tuesday with some elders from Kerman. Normally when we do exchanges we go with the District Leaders. I went on an exchange with Elder Smith, and he is witty and energetic as ever! Great Elder!  He talked, and talked, and talked, and talked my ear off the whole day :) sooooo that's that! This past Friday we had what's called MLC meeting (Mission Leadership Council). It's a meeting where President and Sister Clark, the Assistants, and all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders get together and have this council on the mission and have trainings and things. We were so spiritually uplifted and edified. We've struggled these last months of 2015 to keep up on our baptism goal, but we've seen results here and there of why things aren't turning out the way we'd like them to. We've received great revelation and other things that would help us show our outermost performance, but even then we felt that something is missing. So there are a lot of things that have been inputted into our mission (and I wish I could tell you all of them) but at our MLC meeting it came down to our Exact Obedience

Apparently there have been a few issues of Integrity/Obedience in the mission and the best things that we could use from you guys at home is prayers. Prayers that we might fulfill our missionary purpose and our goal by being Exactly Obedient! Obedience is what has helped us be the most successful and has set us apart from other missions. We're working hard to gain it back as a "tradition" I guess you could call it, in our mission. We know that's exactly what we need too (D&C 82:10). So your thoughts and prayers sent our way would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't updated you all in a while on how our investigators are doing so far. They're actually doing really good! We'd like to have more people to teach, and we've been working hard to find. But those that are solid and have been solid are staying solid! We've had a few new ones come in as well. The new ones include N. and S. and her family. N. is a friend of a recent convert named J. and we found N. through her. She is super spiritual and so ready to hear the gospel. We had our first lesson with her in J.'s house and she has had a rough life. Her family has been in gang members and that's the majority of what she's been through. So we were actually getting ready to teach her the first time and we offered the first prayer and she started crying! That rarely happens at all! We taught her about God being our loving Heavenly Father and The Gospel blesses families. To me it seemed very touching for her. We haven't been able to catch her for a few days because she's been sick, but we will eventually... S. is J.'s sister and came to church for the 1st or 2nd time. The first time was forever ago though so I'm not really sure if it counts but she's been talking to us lately and it has been awesome getting to know her and her family. She's just really down to earth and is hilarious.... C.'s boyfriend hasn't come back from Los Angeles so I'm assuming he's gone for good. Which allows her to be baptized. She has a date for the 23rd of May. Speaking of which our Zone has 9 solid dates for baptisms in May so that's awesome! We also have an Investigator named J. R. He's diagnosed with some kind of cancer (I can't remember the name of it) but he's a carpenter and owns a gym and trains boxers. He was a professional back wayyyy back! It'd be sweet to get him into the church! His wife and kids are members so he currently has a part member family. He invited us to a BBQ this past Saturday at his boxing gym and we got to go and fellowship with him a little bit more, it was pretty sweet!

That's all folks! That's basically a summary of what happened this week. I always look forward to hearing from family at home :) you all sound like you're doing great. I'm sorry to hear about Weston's games, though I laughed a little bit about Coach Labrum's remarks to the ump hahaha and Coach DeCol's too. Just go out and get park city now! I saw Mar's video of her in V-ball and her sick hit! She's grown a lot too.

J.T. is getting to be a stud, though he always has been. Charleigh keeps growing and gets cuter all the time. Where'd the time go!

Anakin Guy?? Haha pfff remember that one time you played don't blink by Kenny Chesney? I'm glad to hear ya miss me :) I miss you too

By the way that surprise picture you got. Elder Winterton is the one on the left of me if you were wondering.

My time is up! I love you and miss you all! This next week should be a good one!

Love Elder Horrocks

P.s. I'm pretty sure we can skype on mother's day?? Everyone I've asked has told me yes :) I'm not sure how long though

P.s.s. did you ever send that pull up bar? I know it's been a while... I got your recorder too by the way. I'll start sending recordings soon.

Elder Horrocks