All of the missionaries he originally went into the field with are now home. He will really miss Elder Nye. I also hope Elder Nye knows how grateful I am for him! Alex was so excited that his first mission companion was from Heber. A town Alex has visited many many times and felt like he could relate to him right away... Lately I have been hearing stories about missionaries in the MTC struggling with their new companions, having differences in this or that. If Alex ever had that he never spoke of it! Not even once! In fact he's never complained about a mission companion yet! Thanks Elder Nye for setting the bar! For being the kind of companion that could lead and teach and befriend my son in this new experience in his life. I will forever hold a spot for you in my heart <3 Hope to meet him soon.
Enjoy his letter! He is doing so well :):)
August 10th
Well let's see what I can talk about from this week! I really don't have a lot of time to write but I'll see what I can do.
Sometimes time doesn't seem long enough until I have to write the next letter. I'm getting really good at typing though haha I guess that's a good thing. So I guess to start I was able to have a few new experiences. We had our new district leader give his very first district meeting for the very first time. He did awesome! He's very intelligent and very wity. After our D meeting we went to a place called Sabores de mi tierra (Flavors of the world). They have this thing there called chamangos and oh man they're super good! You guys back home may not like them but I love them! They're like these little mango shakes with pepper chille in them. It's really good!
I went on exchanges with our other District leader Elder Beltran. He's very new as well but he's been on his mission for about 14 months. He's from Colombia and is one of the best missionaries I've ever seen! We didn't have much happen for us on exchanges. So we have 2 new D. Leaders in our Zone and they are doing great!
Last Monday, and this Monday (just like 30 minutes ago) we had a watermelon eating contest! Well E. Quintana, E. Winterton and I had a watermelon eating contest last week first. I don't remember how or why we started but I got it on video and it's pretty hilarious. I'll have to show you the video when I come home, I can't figure out how to send it through the computer. Our contest we just had today was all ten of us missionaries here in Madera and it was super gnarly! Kind of weird because it was outside of the front yard of the church and I'm sure there were cars watching. Overall it was fun :) we had to eat 3 watermelons (little pieces) in like 30 seconds.
Let's see what else has happened... Well I guess nothing as far as worth sharing but I'll inform everyone on our work in Madera and how it went this week
This week was great for us! We sure stayed busy, and we actually fasted again yesterday for U. He fasted as well with us. U. had an interview last Saturday for a different job and plans on another interview sometime this week I believe. Let's just hope and pray that this other job allows him to work during the weekdays and not on Sundays. He really is putting forth his effort! Now we're just waiting for the results. Elder Quintana and I taught him yesterday and we set a date or goal for the 29th of this month for him to be baptized. We told him how much we've prayed and thought about his baptism, but as for right now that's our target which is the 29th. If he keeps putting forth his effort and we do ours, the Lord will bless him and he'll be baptized that day! All we want is that U. can be as happy as he can ever be.
C.'s baptism is going to be happening this Friday still, so it'll be on the 14th. She's super prepared! Nothing's stopping her from progressing. As far as challenges or things that she's going through there isn't really anything :) I mean that's good but we just told her to stay on her toes because Satan was going to try and stop her from progressing, he always seems to do that.
M. went to Mexico last week to get his molar tooth pulled out. He says it's too expensive in the states haha but he should be back sometime next week. We watched the Saratov Approach with him just before he left. We were able to get president's approval and he loved it! He really enjoys the movies that the church produces. I didn't think much of the movies until I came out on my mission. Ephraim Hanks, 17 Miracles, and all of those I've never seen till I came out on my mission. M. has his date for the 29th as well. We called him yesterday and he said that he just got done with church and that he was going on some visits with the home teachers! It's kind of cool to see that even though he's not a member he'll go out on a few visits with some brothers down there in Mexico! It's kind of like my buddy Charlie from Lindsay. Before he got baptized he would come out on visits with us.
Ahhh poor Charleigh that's sad! I laughed but man she pegged really hard. Looks like you all had fun at the lake, wish I could have been there!
I'm really sorry but this letter has to be short because my time is out. Just let everyone know back home that's struggling to keep the faith and stay close to our Savior. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, doesn't matter what anyone thinks other than what God thinks. So do whatever you can to stay close to him
I love ya'll
Love,
Elder Horrocks
p.s. let me know how the football stuff is going, and how the game goes
August 3rd
Que onda familia?
This week was just awesome!! I've also had some new experiences that I've had for the first time that I've never done before. I'll tell you a little bit more about them as I go through out my letter.
This Wednesday hits a year the second time being out!! Crazy right? I just want to say that I have loved every single minute of it. Through good times and hard times it just seems that I've always seen the Lord's hand in all things. I've come to recognize that this work is a spiritual work, and that anything can be done with God. Nothing can ever become impossible with God's help. There's a list of so many experiences, moments, and things that I've learned I wish I could tell you them all. Wow time flies fast and it feels like it just started.
So this Tuesday we went to the missionary farewell and it was one of the best ones I've been to thus far! The testimonies were awesome and the spirit was so strong! I saw Elder Pughe's family there and he is from Blanding Utah. I asked them if they knew Charlie and they said, "Oh yeah! The cop guy?" and I just told them that was him and they responded, "Well he hasn't pulled me over yet!" I just laughed. They were pretty humorous. One of their sons just graduated and told me that he graduated with Tanner? I told him to tell Charlie and the family that I said hi. Pretty small world right?... Elder Nye is gone! I can't believe my MTC companion is gone. He's going to do some awesome things. He's grown A LOT! Probably the most out of anyone I've seen. I'll sure miss him. There was a whole group of about 18 missionaries I believe and I came out with like half of them. I was sad to see them go but happy that they finished strong!
On Wednesday I went and did an event called "Open your mouth". It's when the new missionaries arrive in the mission and we welcome them in and we take them out right away to talk to people on the street about the gospel. I remember when I did that the first time and we got chased by a German shepherd haha it was awesome :) I had an Elder named Elder Elser come out with me. He's from Salt Lake City. At first he was very timid and shy to go talk to people, I mean it's never easy at first to just walk up to somebody and start talking to them but after doing it so many times you get used to it. The reason we do that is so that we can get their jitters out. Elder Elser was suuuuuuper shy, and turned to me a few times for help. When he'd look at me I just told him to trust himself, be himself, do whatever he had to do but to follow the spirit. He got into it after a while. We actually met a Russian guy who spoke pure Russian! No english or nothing. And he tried to explain to us that he didn't want anything to do with us. He struggled to speak English. It was at that moment when I just said man I wish Carson was here right now. It was so awkward! So yup! That's my first time doing open your mouth for the mission. I think I plan on doing it again next transfer.
Our investigators are doing really good. U., M., and C. are the ones that are progressing thus far. U.'s a smart cookie! He continues to read the scriptures and understand them. We had a lesson with him last Wednesday about the Sabbath day and he understood the importance of it and said he really wants to go so he can be baptized. We talked to him about it and he told us that his work hours is what's holding him back. We committed him to fast with us this Sunday, oh and by the way President Clark was teaching with us too and he said he'd fast for him too. So as Sunday comes around and we're fasting and we found a brother named Brother Barrel. He was in our ward council meeting yesterday. We happened to be talking about U. at the time and his work schedule, well it just so happened that Brother Barrel works at a bank and that he might have hook ups for U. He also gave him LDS employment services number and I think that and the other suggestions that Bro. Barrel gave me will just be great hook ups for U.! ...M. is doing good. Little by little but he has "real intent" probably the most intent I've seen out of investigators thus far here in Madera. He came to church again yesterday and continues doing everything he should. M. He's hilarious! On Friday night he came and played sports night with us and we were playing soccer, (and I'm terrible at soccer). His nephew came with us too. As we were playing we were just waiting to start again and his nephew kicks the ball and I turn around at the wrong time and all I saw was a FIFA soccer logo about 2 inches away from my face, and I got pegged hard!!! I won't lie I could see some stars and I was walking around pretty loopy. That kid knew how to kick hard!! M. just runs around and is laughing his butt off. Goes and gives his nephew a high five while I'm still trying to recover. After I recovered I shrugged it off and got a good laugh out of it and then kept playing... M.'s a good guy! C. is doing good. She's getting her baptism interview done today. She's getting baptized on the 15th. We went and celebrated her birthday with her last Saturday. I gave her my book mormon spanish discs for her birthday she doesn't know how to read, well now she can just listen to it!
I don't have a lot of time to make comments to everyone back home. But I keep you in my prayers night and day. Thanks for the pictures and all that you guys do back home! It really means a lot to see that everyone is doing so well.
Well I love ya'll!!
Love,
Elder Horrocks
 |
| Elder Nye's Farewell with Charlie and Elder Quintana |
 |
| C. our investigator. We were at her birthday party. |
August 10th
Well let's see what I can talk about from this week! I really don't have a lot of time to write but I'll see what I can do.
Sometimes time doesn't seem long enough until I have to write the next letter. I'm getting really good at typing though haha I guess that's a good thing. So I guess to start I was able to have a few new experiences. We had our new district leader give his very first district meeting for the very first time. He did awesome! He's very intelligent and very wity. After our D meeting we went to a place called Sabores de mi tierra (Flavors of the world). They have this thing there called chamangos and oh man they're super good! You guys back home may not like them but I love them! They're like these little mango shakes with pepper chille in them. It's really good!
I went on exchanges with our other District leader Elder Beltran. He's very new as well but he's been on his mission for about 14 months. He's from Colombia and is one of the best missionaries I've ever seen! We didn't have much happen for us on exchanges. So we have 2 new D. Leaders in our Zone and they are doing great!
Last Monday, and this Monday (just like 30 minutes ago) we had a watermelon eating contest! Well E. Quintana, E. Winterton and I had a watermelon eating contest last week first. I don't remember how or why we started but I got it on video and it's pretty hilarious. I'll have to show you the video when I come home, I can't figure out how to send it through the computer. Our contest we just had today was all ten of us missionaries here in Madera and it was super gnarly! Kind of weird because it was outside of the front yard of the church and I'm sure there were cars watching. Overall it was fun :) we had to eat 3 watermelons (little pieces) in like 30 seconds.
Let's see what else has happened... Well I guess nothing as far as worth sharing but I'll inform everyone on our work in Madera and how it went this week
This week was great for us! We sure stayed busy, and we actually fasted again yesterday for U. He fasted as well with us. U. had an interview last Saturday for a different job and plans on another interview sometime this week I believe. Let's just hope and pray that this other job allows him to work during the weekdays and not on Sundays. He really is putting forth his effort! Now we're just waiting for the results. Elder Quintana and I taught him yesterday and we set a date or goal for the 29th of this month for him to be baptized. We told him how much we've prayed and thought about his baptism, but as for right now that's our target which is the 29th. If he keeps putting forth his effort and we do ours, the Lord will bless him and he'll be baptized that day! All we want is that U. can be as happy as he can ever be.
C.'s baptism is going to be happening this Friday still, so it'll be on the 14th. She's super prepared! Nothing's stopping her from progressing. As far as challenges or things that she's going through there isn't really anything :) I mean that's good but we just told her to stay on her toes because Satan was going to try and stop her from progressing, he always seems to do that.
M. went to Mexico last week to get his molar tooth pulled out. He says it's too expensive in the states haha but he should be back sometime next week. We watched the Saratov Approach with him just before he left. We were able to get president's approval and he loved it! He really enjoys the movies that the church produces. I didn't think much of the movies until I came out on my mission. Ephraim Hanks, 17 Miracles, and all of those I've never seen till I came out on my mission. M. has his date for the 29th as well. We called him yesterday and he said that he just got done with church and that he was going on some visits with the home teachers! It's kind of cool to see that even though he's not a member he'll go out on a few visits with some brothers down there in Mexico! It's kind of like my buddy Charlie from Lindsay. Before he got baptized he would come out on visits with us.
Ahhh poor Charleigh that's sad! I laughed but man she pegged really hard. Looks like you all had fun at the lake, wish I could have been there!
I'm really sorry but this letter has to be short because my time is out. Just let everyone know back home that's struggling to keep the faith and stay close to our Savior. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, doesn't matter what anyone thinks other than what God thinks. So do whatever you can to stay close to him
I love ya'll
Love,
Elder Horrocks
p.s. let me know how the football stuff is going, and how the game goes
August 3rd
Que onda familia?
This week was just awesome!! I've also had some new experiences that I've had for the first time that I've never done before. I'll tell you a little bit more about them as I go through out my letter.
This Wednesday hits a year the second time being out!! Crazy right? I just want to say that I have loved every single minute of it. Through good times and hard times it just seems that I've always seen the Lord's hand in all things. I've come to recognize that this work is a spiritual work, and that anything can be done with God. Nothing can ever become impossible with God's help. There's a list of so many experiences, moments, and things that I've learned I wish I could tell you them all. Wow time flies fast and it feels like it just started.
So this Tuesday we went to the missionary farewell and it was one of the best ones I've been to thus far! The testimonies were awesome and the spirit was so strong! I saw Elder Pughe's family there and he is from Blanding Utah. I asked them if they knew Charlie and they said, "Oh yeah! The cop guy?" and I just told them that was him and they responded, "Well he hasn't pulled me over yet!" I just laughed. They were pretty humorous. One of their sons just graduated and told me that he graduated with Tanner? I told him to tell Charlie and the family that I said hi. Pretty small world right?... Elder Nye is gone! I can't believe my MTC companion is gone. He's going to do some awesome things. He's grown A LOT! Probably the most out of anyone I've seen. I'll sure miss him. There was a whole group of about 18 missionaries I believe and I came out with like half of them. I was sad to see them go but happy that they finished strong!
On Wednesday I went and did an event called "Open your mouth". It's when the new missionaries arrive in the mission and we welcome them in and we take them out right away to talk to people on the street about the gospel. I remember when I did that the first time and we got chased by a German shepherd haha it was awesome :) I had an Elder named Elder Elser come out with me. He's from Salt Lake City. At first he was very timid and shy to go talk to people, I mean it's never easy at first to just walk up to somebody and start talking to them but after doing it so many times you get used to it. The reason we do that is so that we can get their jitters out. Elder Elser was suuuuuuper shy, and turned to me a few times for help. When he'd look at me I just told him to trust himself, be himself, do whatever he had to do but to follow the spirit. He got into it after a while. We actually met a Russian guy who spoke pure Russian! No english or nothing. And he tried to explain to us that he didn't want anything to do with us. He struggled to speak English. It was at that moment when I just said man I wish Carson was here right now. It was so awkward! So yup! That's my first time doing open your mouth for the mission. I think I plan on doing it again next transfer.
Our investigators are doing really good. U., M., and C. are the ones that are progressing thus far. U.'s a smart cookie! He continues to read the scriptures and understand them. We had a lesson with him last Wednesday about the Sabbath day and he understood the importance of it and said he really wants to go so he can be baptized. We talked to him about it and he told us that his work hours is what's holding him back. We committed him to fast with us this Sunday, oh and by the way President Clark was teaching with us too and he said he'd fast for him too. So as Sunday comes around and we're fasting and we found a brother named Brother Barrel. He was in our ward council meeting yesterday. We happened to be talking about U. at the time and his work schedule, well it just so happened that Brother Barrel works at a bank and that he might have hook ups for U. He also gave him LDS employment services number and I think that and the other suggestions that Bro. Barrel gave me will just be great hook ups for U.! ...M. is doing good. Little by little but he has "real intent" probably the most intent I've seen out of investigators thus far here in Madera. He came to church again yesterday and continues doing everything he should. M. He's hilarious! On Friday night he came and played sports night with us and we were playing soccer, (and I'm terrible at soccer). His nephew came with us too. As we were playing we were just waiting to start again and his nephew kicks the ball and I turn around at the wrong time and all I saw was a FIFA soccer logo about 2 inches away from my face, and I got pegged hard!!! I won't lie I could see some stars and I was walking around pretty loopy. That kid knew how to kick hard!! M. just runs around and is laughing his butt off. Goes and gives his nephew a high five while I'm still trying to recover. After I recovered I shrugged it off and got a good laugh out of it and then kept playing... M.'s a good guy! C. is doing good. She's getting her baptism interview done today. She's getting baptized on the 15th. We went and celebrated her birthday with her last Saturday. I gave her my book mormon spanish discs for her birthday she doesn't know how to read, well now she can just listen to it!
I don't have a lot of time to make comments to everyone back home. But I keep you in my prayers night and day. Thanks for the pictures and all that you guys do back home! It really means a lot to see that everyone is doing so well.
Well I love ya'll!!
Love,
Elder Horrocks
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