Please be patient with me please! Not only do I have my missionary, I also have 1 husband, 2 teenagers, 2 babies, 2 more babies I babysit, sports games and practices the teenagers participate in, college applications to help fill out, family to visit, a church calling, house to clean, laundry (mountains of laundry) to fold, baths to give and showers to take and dinners to make kind of life!!! So I will do my best to get them up ASAP. Just know that life gets in the way sometimes ;)
He's still doing sooooo well! He loves loves loves it! From the sound of it he will be home May 25th. Unless the Lord changes his mind and then we'll see him in July :) We got to Skype with him on Christmas day and I had a hard time consoling myself the rest of the day. He sang us a song (I'll post it too) and played the guitar. Man I miss hearing him play! It was a GREAT day! He had a wonderful birthday also! Thank you Lupe, Sandra and Jessica for traveling to surprise him and thanks to the people of Visalia. You made his day special for him! (Do I really have a 21 year old son???? HOLY MOSES!!!) ...I also have to add that not only does he have a big family so that's why he gets lots of gifts but we also send his birthday packages at the same time. Lol.
One more thing... My brother Charlie's son Tanner is leaving the MTC today for Fresno! I'm soooo excited for them to possibly get to see each other. He said they are getting a few new trainee's in his zone so there's a good chance he'll be there, The other night when I was thinking about The Mish I was recalling all of the times that I recognized my dad getting in on it and I was like "What am I thinking!?!??" He totally was in on this one too!!" He's sneaky! He always was! That's why he was so good at cheating at Uno ;) LOL! I love him!! Here are 4 weeks of letters. They are longer than normal because he can give more detail now that he's talking. I love them. Enjoy...
Alex's song from ChristmasDay
Garcia's singing Happy Birthday
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| Surprise Happy Birthday at the church! |
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| Elder Quintana's Farewell |
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| Imprint of face... EAT IT! EAT IT!! ;) |
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| Garcia's Happy Birthday cupcake |
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| Surprise at the church |
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| They even brought him a cake! |
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| Elder Frame Keeping up on tradition :) |
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| After |
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| Uriel, Sandra, Lupe, Elder Al, Chucho and Jessica |
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| Sequoia trip: My comp and I |
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| Dang the General Sherman is huge! |
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| Zone Picture |
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| Back to the General Sherman |
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| Elder Draney's epic fall |
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| All the elders stuffed in the igloo. (Elder Frame and I are in the very back) |
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| We found and Igloo! |
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| Getting ready to plank |
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| Sequoia's! My companion buried! |
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| Planking!! |
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| Christmas Party |
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| Elder Frame's epic fall |
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| Ward Christmas Party |
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| Garcia's home on Christmas Eve |
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| Games at the Zone Conference |
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| Shooting marshmallow guns at Bro Rinkers |
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| Us and the Sisters at The Garcia's house with their kids |
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| Part of his Madera Family |
December 22nd
Hey Mom! Hey Family!! You're probably wondering why I have my recorder out already. I don't know who sent me the recorder but if it was you guys just let me explain why I took it out a little bit earlier than normal. Here in Visalia we have a situation with our computers and there is six of them all in total but the stake presidency said they are going to take out 4 and bring in 2 new ones. The reason being because 4 out of the 6 computers were given by members and the stake completely disagreed with that and said it was a big no no! So they are coming in and taking those out and bring 2 new ones in. But that totally messes up a lot of the missionaries email time. And so they're going to be having a set schedule to where they all have to come at a certain time to email. So I thought it would be a lot easier to just send a recording and I know you like to send letters and stuff and I love sending letters, although sometimes it feels like I'm writing novels every week. Don't get me wrong I love writing letters, but man!! My hands get sooo tired! So I guess just do what you will with the recordings. Let me know if you want me to go back to letters and I will, but if it's not a problem maybe you could to follow along with the recordings and put them on the blog?? Just let me know if it works out, if it's convenient, or whatever.
Just to start off, I did read your letter already and answer to responses or questions... Yeah it's CRAZY!! My birthday is next Sunday and Christmas is this Friday! It feels like just yesterday I was in Lindsay and Charlie completely stuffed my face in cake! In the spanish culture we call that "Comer La" which means "eat it" "Comer La" Comer La" and they were doing that to me last year. I didn't know what in the heck that meant but Charlie was like "put your face in there! Eat the cake it's a mexican tradition!" So I was like alright! So I stuffed my face and BOOM!! Next thing I know my teeth hit the table and we had a cake fight for a little while but, luckily and hopefully there won't be anyone to do that to me this year!
I heard you got the picture from us playing volleyball. Yeah! That was me! The studly guy in the tight black shirt! Yeah! lol. And she always calls me fashionista??? What??? I don't know where the heck she got it but, I thought it was funny. Maybe its cause I get nice clothes from my family?? hahaha. I don't know! But yeah, I thought it was really funny. And yes in response to your question about Elder Frame and I looking alike, people ask us all the time if we're related. They actually ask us if we're brothers! hahaha. And sometimes we joke around with them like "yeah we're brothers!" and they're like "NO WAY!" hahaha "How did you both get on the same mission??" and all of this other stuff, it's pretty funny!
I heard about Marz 3 pointer in the JV game and also the Freshman game. If I remember right they lost both of them tho. Bummer!! Just gotta keep goin!! Just get past that one and go on to the next one! I also heard about Weston's game against Ben Lomond. I sure miss watching those 2 play! It's been awhile. It's crazy they still play and at this point in time if I hadn't come back on my mission I'd be watching them play. It's crazy!! BUT! I'm super happy to be here and where I am at this time and to see the blessings I've received. And who knows... maybe if I hadn't of come out, maybe the football team wouldn't have gone to the semi-finals?? HAHAHA! J/K ;)
I saw the videos of J.T. and Charleigh. MAN THEY'RE HUGE!! They're BIG!! They're getting sooo big all the time! J.T. just looks like he's, I don't know, it just doesn't look and feel the same where I'd be able to pick up my little brother and just sit there and play with him! Now he's too big to even carry! That's crazy!
Paul called me yesterday. He told me Happy Birthday and all that stuff. He told me he was in Utah working! I'm really happy for him! He's in a good place. Sounds like he's doing really well and Charlie is doing great! Say hi to both of them if you see them over Christmas. I love them both! I keep them in my prayers!
Tell Grandma Taylor Happy Birthday! I love her and I wish I could be there with her on her birthday. Also I did get Grandma Janet's package. So I got everyone's packages. I think I got more packages this year than I got last year. It was funny because we were all unpacking packages for the zone and everybody's like "GEEZ!! Elder Horrocks!! What the heck???" and I get all these packages and I'm coming out with all of these boxes in my arms and everybody has all of their packages and maybe 2 or 3 lol and I have like 9 or 10. I laughed about it for a little while. They all asked me why and I said "I just have a big old family! Don't be jealous!" hahaha
By the way, President Clark has asked the whole mission to teach you on Skype so I guess I'll be teaching you guys! This is kind of cool! I've never studied for a lesson for my family before! But I'm really excited about it! Always being a missionary that's pretty awesome :)
So, going on with my week. It was alright. It was so hot, we didn't get as many investigators as we would have liked to. We got 6 the week before and 0 this week. We're just striving everyday to find new investigators because that's our focus. Especially through the members. Trying to build up our teaching pool to see who we can find, teach and baptize. To give you an update on our progressing investigators... J. is no longer going to be baptized on the 26th. I thought I was going to be baptizing on grandma's birthday, but nah :( Not this week. He was supposed to pay a fine to the courts, but he didn't end up doing that because ??? He didn't turn it in on time! He was supposed to pay $1500 for a lawsuit over an accident. He talked to the judge last week and asked if he could extend the due date. The judge was pretty nice about it and said yes. He gave him an extra week. So he went to Tulare to fix his car so he could sell it somebody, but the thing is he didn't come back! Soooooo we're not sure if he's going to be going to jail anytime soon, but that's his case. It isn't the prettiest right now. Another thing that worries us about him being in Tulare is because his brother used to give him drugs and that's where his brother lives and he's staying there right now. He's been off of drugs for a month so we're praying he can be strong and resist temptation so he can at least be living one commandment. I guess we should have taught him living and honoring the law of the land before so he could pay his stinking fine! I hope he's keeping the word of wisdom right now. Our other investigator S. hasn't come back from Mexico yet. He's still working delivering phone books. He's been working and hasn't come back. I hope he comes back for Christmas so we can see and talk with him. We'll be setting a solid date with him. He needs to be baptized. He's been taught for about a year and a half and hasn't been baptized yet. So we'll see what we can do there. As for the others. A. isn't doing so great because she's been at the hospital so much. We believe she has tumors in the side of her lower right back. She's been going to the doctor to see what's going to happen. They're they're these weird looking lumps. So pray she'll get feeling better. We gave her a blessing and she felt a lot better. She felt more energized, less lethargic. She really felt our love for her. We just hope and pray her family can be strengthened through this trial because we don't know if it's a life or death situation but it's going to be tough.
I'll send some random recordings here and there. Some funny ones and stuff. I know you're probably falling asleep to my voice but this makes my life a little easier and also the lives of the other missionaries. Hopefully this all works out.
Hope you have a great week! Merry Christmas!! I love you!! I pray that everyday you are doing well and I'll see you through Skype on Friday I guess :) Have a great week! Love you, bye!
Love,
Elder Horrocks
December 28th
Hey Family! I'm going to do things a little different so I'm not making a bunch of recordings for everyone. I will do one main one and send it to everyone and then answer questions you asked individually in emails. I will also go through day by day to make it easier to stay on track :)
So Monday... I emailed you and sent you the first recordings. We also tried to go see a few people who weren't around. S. wasn't at his house and back from Mexico yet. But preparation day was, ya know, preperation day. Not a whole lot going on. We did see B. which is J.'s cousin, our investigator who had to pay the fine and never came back to Visalia. So we talked to B. and read with her in the BOM in Alma 5 and she really gained a lot of trust in us. She really opened up to us. She's really not our member, she's in the YSA. My companion Elder Corona baptized her back in Tulare in the Spanish ward there, so we have familiarization there. She's awesome! She said she'd commit her mom to read with her and come to church and stuff. She's super solid!! But other than that there wasn't a whole lot going on during preparation day.
Tuesday I had an exchange with my DL Elder Vasbinder. It was ok for the most part. We visited a few members and got a few referrals. Elder Vasbinder are total and complete opposites, but we were able to get on good grounds and we're pretty cool with each other! He's an awesome awesome elder! I love him a lot! He is a good district leader. Anyway, throughout the week we didn't have a lot of people to visit because they were all gone for holiday's.
Wednesday was super good! We went and did a service for some of the sisters investigators. His name was J. L. and we painted for him. They're coming in pretty good! I think he has given us more referrals than he has the sisters. hahaha. And he's their investigators. He's been really cool with us! That same day we had a youth activity with Sister Garcia. A couple weeks ago she text us saying she had a missionary moment and needed to talk to us. We were like "cool!!" and went over to her house and talked to her about her neighbor. His name is Chris. We ended up meeting Chris for the first time at the Youth Activity. He's a Super Cool Kid! He has a Catholic background and he's actually talked to missionaries in the past. He said they were pretty forceful with him. We didn't end up teaching him but we did end up sharing a message for the entire youth and that turned out really well. We shared what the world would be like without a savior and we really gained the trust of our youth in our ward. They are really awesome kids!! I would say they are probably one of the most solid youth that I've been around, other than Lindsay. Lindsay had the best youth I've ever seen!
So Thursday was Christmas Eve and it was our Zone Conference and we had it at our stake center. The missionaries from Hanford, Porterville, and Visalia all gathered together and that was by far one of the funnest days we had this week. We actually had our spiritual trainings in the beginning then we went from there and ate lunch and did everything else we needed to. Then we ended up playing some games and the only way we were able to participate was... Let me back up, this is how it was set up. We were playing Bingo and whoever won Bingo (there had to be a certain amount of people that won) and Sister Clark would bring them up and the Elder's and Sister's would stand in front of the stage and she'd present a video or presentation of what they game was going to be. The first competition was putting a cookie on top of your forehead and try to move it all the way down from your forehead to your mouth and catch it in your mouth and whoever got the most cookies won. That was first and my companion Elder Frame participated in that one. He didn't win haha dang it! But hey! Elder Corona did! That was cool! There was a lot of those. A lot of different activities (like 7 or 8). I got to do one of them. It was kind of funny how I won Bingo because Sister Clark was calling out the letters and numbers and when she said "G Noel" I was so excited because I won and put my button down on the character and shouted "NOEL!!!" hahaha! I didn't say Bingo, I said Noel instead! It was pretty funny and everybody was laughing and I said "Uhhhhhh, BINGO!! I mean BINGO!!" It was really intense. A lot of fun. My competition was a rubberband shooting. I had to shoot a rubberband at a stack of cups. Me and another elder had to have a shoot off. It was really bad because neither of us could hit the stinking cups to save our lives!! We were pretty good the first round but stunk it up the second part!! So we both ended up with the same prize :) That was Zone Conference and it was super fun! I really enjoyed it! Later that day and because of lack of people to teach and everyone being gone, we went and hung out with members all Christmas Eve. One of the members we went to was the Reinker's. They are actually relatives of one of the sisters here in Visalia and she was saying, hey didn't my grandma send you this or that, and I thought it was really cool she had relatives here in Visalia. We ended up getting to know them. Elder Frame and I talked to Brother Reinker and he's actually a mountain man! He used to live in the mountains and he did a lot of that stuff so it was cool getting to know him! He reminded me of a few people back home. I felt like I was talking to someone from Neola, UT or something! It was pretty awesome! He showed us his marshmallow guns that he's going to give to his grandkids and Elder Frame and I and the sisters ended up playing with them. Elder Frame said "Hey! Shoot a marshmallow in my mouth!". So I grabbed a gun and loaded a marshmallow and he's about 8 feet away from me and the first try I got a marshmallow in his mouth!! He said it hurt! hahaha! I don't know what you call the giggly thing that's in the back of your throat but it hurt it! hahaha! Then the sisters tried it and I guess they did alright. After like their 3rd try they finally got it. So we're sitting there shooting marshmallow guns at the Reinker' house and had a great time! Later on we went to Garcia's home and we sang them the Christmas song that I sang to you guys for one of our spiritual messages. Brother and Sister Garcia really enjoyed it. We made sister Garcia cry. She's awesome! She expressed thanks for us and said that ever since they've been coming around and bringing the missionary spirit in her home she's noticed a complete difference. She also said it's been one of the better Christmas' that she's had. So we felt blessed to be able to help her. It was a really spiritual moment for her. She loves the missionaries!! I guess she wasn't really much into the missionaries before (I could be wrong). I feel like she's a lot more open to missionaries to the missionaries in Visalia right now. They just love us a lot!! The Garcia family is great!
Christmas Day was Friday, that was the day we Skyped. Way different! Way weird! hahaha. I always get really nervous to Skype because I don't know what to say or what to expect and when we don't have anything to say I'm just like "Welllllll!! What do you want to know??" lol. It was crazy! Everybody's different!! Everybody gets different every year and its weird to see how much change happens at home. But for the better right?? Anyhow, really awesome to get to see you guys! I really miss you guys a lot! It's crazy how during the Christmas season you really long to be with your family but you know you're here at the right time! I know that to be true. I am here for a specific reason and I've seen a lot of blessings. The Christmas' in the mission are actually one of the best that you'll remember! When Weston goes on his mission he'll have a blast! I've always had a blast! These members take good care of us and they do so much for us not even funny. I feel like we underestimate their service. It's unbelievable! So moving on through the day, we went to other members homes. Saw A. our investigator in the hospital. Thing about her is they're not sure if she has cancer so she has to go to a bigger hospital to check it out. So we're keeping her in our prayers making sure everything for her goes smooth so that she doesn't have to hard results. I couldn't imagine having cancer. We also went to other people's homes and did Elder Frame's Skype. The movie we watched was Big Hero 6 and you guys were right!! hahaha! As a missionary you're a lot more sentimental and watching the movie I didn't cry, but there were some parts in the movie where you wanted to cry hahaha I guess ;). That was a good movie! It's now one of my favorites! It's super funny! That basically ended our Merry Christmas day! Awesome time! I'm sad it's the last one I'll have on my mission.
Saturday I went to a baptism in Medera. I don't know if you guys remember L.B. The B. family grandson. He got permission from his mom to be baptized and he LOVES it! He wants to be a missionary so bad! I had the opportunity to speak on the holy ghost and that was awesome! I enjoyed getting to seeing everybody again! I saw Lupe and Jessica's sister Mele. She's back from Washington. Oh my gosh!! It just felt like I went back home! Like I went back to my house! Back to my family! So I was really excited to see them! It was an awesome time :)
Sunday was my birthday. It was kind of random stuff throughout the day! We went to a member's house and she fed us tamales and she gave me a pan dulce, which is sweet bread, and she put a candle in it and counted it as my cake! Remember last year when I should you I got my face shoved in cake?? Yeah! That same thing happened to me after church soooooo... hahaha! It think it's just tradition. Maybe we can carry it over to our family when I come home?? We can start shoving each other's faces in cakes! hahaha! Later on that night we taught C. at the Garcia home again. Sister Garcia was awesome and participated so well! And so did her husband, he's the man!! He's such a great help and he's definitely helped us with this process. Really C. is progressing. He just has questions about the BOM and what we do. Why we're so different than others. So we kind of got to know him, we didn't teach him any lessons really except the concept of BOM. He's going to read it. He feels a lot more calm with us which he didn't feel with the last missionaries that were forcing him into it. So right now with member support that really helps because that will make the process faster for his progression with their support. He can ask them questions. OH YEAH!! By the way!! Some members from Madera came all the way to Visalia to give me some presents and that's where I got my cake from! Lupe, Jessica, Sandra, Uriel and Chucho came! All of those guys came!! It was kind of funny cause I was sitting at church and I looked to my left and all I see is this kid and it looked like Chucho and I was like "Is that Chucho????" I just thought "that's not Chucho! Is it???" Then I saw Lupe and I was like "HOLY HECK!!! What are they doing??!!!" I was pretty excited to see them and I went out during sacrament meeting and I saw them all! They had presents and a birthday cake! I felt REALLY loved! I really love those guys! I felt really blessed and I appreciate their time to take time out of their day to come all the way to church in Visalia, all the way from Fresno and Madera. Then they give me a cake and presents?!?? I was like "WOW!!" They're awesome!! I love them to death! They're one of my favorites! Really the rest of my birthday was good. Everyone telling me happy birthday. Elder Frame, my companion, he made it even greater hahaha, he text me 79 texts messages once throughout the day saying "Happy" "Birthday" and "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "Happy Birthday!" "Hey Elder!" "Hey Elder" and I was like "OOOKKKKKKKK!!! I get it!!" hahaha! Sooooo, if it wasn't for the people that are here it wouldn't have meant as much! The people here are very loving! I'm really going to miss them! I'm going to miss Christmas' and Birthdays on the mish! I can't believe its all gone :(
Really that's my week. It was an awesome time! I hope you guys had a great Christmas :) It was so great to see your faces. It was super good to see everybody! Still I have a hard time fathoming the fact that everybody's getting so big and looking a lot different. It's crazy! Weston has a stinking beard!?!? What in the world??? Dre has curly hair!! Just everything!
That's it for the week. I love you guys! I wish you a happy new year throughout the week and I hope you stay safe. Love you bye.
Love,
Elder Horrocks
P.S.
Answers to Questions:
No we didn't find J. We actually got word that he's staying in Tulare with his brother working. I guess that was most important to him haha but hey it is what it is. I really felt like he would be baptized but by the looks of it. He'll be going to jail.
S.came back from town! He's doing good. Because of the holidays we really haven't got to sit down and talk with him about baptism or his progression. We should be this week though!
More than good on the packages and food and stuff. I think we'll last a month or two
You'll hear about the others in the recordings I sent! I hope you enjoy them!
Tell West and Mar to tear it up this week! Man I remember it like yesterday we were down in Cedar City playing games too. That was 3 years ago! I can't believe that!... Tell the rest of the family i love and miss them. Hope ya'll have a wonderful new years eve! Happy Birthday J.T.!
Love you!
January 4th
Hola Famila! This is Elder Horrocks speaking. Back here on Monday again! Oh Man the weeks fly by SUPER fast! I can't believe how fast they go! It's been a super great day today, I'll tell you all about it. We went to the sequoia's today and I'll have to show you some pictures. There was all but 4 of the elders that came with us to the sequoia's and we had a little zone activity. We went the General Sherman tree. We all took some pictures. We went to a a resort where people go and build snow huts and snowmen and sleigh riding and other kinds of stuff. I can't remember the name of it tho. This will be the second time on my mission I've seen snow and I've been super happy to see it! It's been exactly a year since I've seen snow, when I went with Paul and Charlie up to Yosemite Park. So we went up to the sequoia's today and had some fun! I'll send you some pictures. Some crazy crazy stuff happened. Well not that crazy, just we had a lot of fun you know! Missionaries who have never seen snow here on our mission. We had one Elder from Bolivia and it's his first time he's ever seen snow! You should have seen the look on his face! It was super funny! This recording for the week is going to be a little bit shorter. This week was really really tough due to New Years Eve and holiday's. We didn't do so hot this week. We hardly even taught. We probably taught 10 or 11 lessons overall. Normally we teach 20. So it was pretty tough. Going through the days as I was marking everything, that was eventful or worth sharing and there was just a few so this one will be a little shorter but here we go!
Tuesday I had an exchange with an elder named Elder Anderson. He's a pretty cool guy. He's really quiet and really laid back. He serves in the Farmersville area near Visalia. He's really funny! The highlights with him was when we got to teach C. and A. A. is still in the hospital by the way. But she got released so she's home! We don't know why they didn't send her to the bigger hospital tho. She isn't going to have anymore procedures, which is good. I'm assuming she's doing her own thing and living her normal life right now. We went and taught C. at the Garcia's home about the restoration and he understood everything! He really did! He understood everything perfectly. That there needed to be a restoration and there needed to be something in order to have Christ's church upon the earth once again. Once we got into it and then explained the BOM I think that's when he understood that we are different and that's what sets us apart from most religions. It's not like we're trying to convert him to the religion we're just trying to convert him to Jesus Christ. All these other increments and things just seem to help him come closer. So that was Tuesday's highlights. Elder Anderson and I had a good time
Wednesday isn't worth sharing much. We didn't teach hardly anybody. Don't get me wrong! Our weeks have some ups and downs. This week was definitely one of those downs but this week we're really excited because there's people home! The holiday's aren't going on! To be honest I really don't like the holiday's during my mission because you don't really feel like you're doing much. So this week will be a lot better! Anyhow, Wednesday's not worth sharing much.
Thursday was New Year's Eve. We had to be in the apartment by 8:00 because that's the rule. Actually last year we had to be in the apartment by 6 instead of 8. I guess they changed it to 8 because last year there were more opportunities to teach than they thought. So this year we did. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone home that day either. Man we just had such a rough couple days there Wednesday and Thursday. It was kind of funny, when we got home and got done planning I made Elder Frame a box case for his scriptures. His military set. Kind of a funny note... I've been making boxes for lots of people on my mission. I actually make some pretty cool boxes! I'm not gonna lie! hahaha! I made one for a memeber up in Madera with a bunch of Avengers pictures on it. Of course it wasn't missionary appropriate but it was for him. Good thing it wasn't for a missionary! I'll send you pictures of that, I'm not sure if I have or not. So we basically hung around the apartment and studied and waited till we had to go to bed. By the time we had to go to bed we were kind of sleepless because of all the racket going on outside! By the time it hit midnight it was like a whole bunch of gunshots and fireworks and all this other booming going on outside our apartment. I could NOT go to sleep!! I think I didn't fall asleep until like 12:30 or 1:00 am. Cause there was soooo much noise! It's crazy! But hey! Yeah, that was New Year's! Whoop-dee-doo! hahaha!!
Coming on Friday we actually had a meeting that next morning after New Year's Eve and OH MY GOSH!! Like I said, I was super tired and coming into the meeting everybody was just sooo tired. Sister Clark was like "Oh My Gosh!! You guys sound like a bunch of zombies!!" Cause we tried to sing a hymn at the beginning and we totally flunked it. She was joking around with us and so we all stood up and sang the song again. You could tell everyone was tired! I bet it was just the booming and clashing going on that night. But MLC was one of the best meetings I've been to. Super inspiring. The new goal or expectation of the year is that in 2016 the CFM will better keep pace with the Lord as he hastens his work. Last year we really didn't do all that well. We were going to baptize 1000 and I think we ended up baptizing 750. There was room to improve for sure. Basically President Clark introduced the expectation and then we talked about the "how" of how we're going to do that. The assistants taught us about role play, and when I say role play I mean practice what they're teaching. There are a lot of missionaries out here that know what their stuff is but don't know how to teach it because they haven't practiced it. So what they did was they gave us permission as ZL's to go and do companionship studies with the other companions to help them and see what we can do to help them and bless their lives. So that is going to help us soooo much! I'm sooo excited to see what we can do! We can role play a lot more too! Elder Frame and I need to better a lot of things. I am not a perfect role play person by any means. There is so much improvement for everybody. All you can do is go up from here! We're going to continue on with that :)
Sunday was one of the few days that we were actually able to teach a lot more! I tell you what! Teaching & finding missionaries are happy missionaries!! You can tell probably by this recording, it's not that I'm not happy but man... Yeah! I wasn't happy! I wasn't really happy when we weren't teaching because it was just hard! We strive so much to teach and you just realize it's better to be teaching & finding and then your labors come out so much more effective. We talk with people on the streets and invite them to do things, declaring repentance. Oh by the way I don't know if you watch video's or if I've sent you videos but "In the CFM We Baptize" has changed. It is now "In the CFM We Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" and that just has a greater significance to it because before we were just kind of baptizing people just to baptized people, but now it's going to more of the future perspective. We're going to start with the end in mind. These people are going to go through the temple and do other great things but the only way that's going to happen is to find them through the members. That's when real converts go and progress and they have a friend next to them. I saw some numbers and we had ten or twelve thousand member presence last year and this year (I could be wrong) but I think it was twenty thousands member presence. That's a HUGE difference! That's 8,000 more times using the the members. So that's a big push! At least for me in my perspective. Anyhow! Coming back to Sunday! After many struggles throughout the week and lots of praying and lots of thinking and it was Fast Sunday as well, we were really blessed to have M. and her boyfriend come to church. M. is J. aunt. B. mom, just so everybody knows. She came to church, she enjoyed the testimonies. She told us she almost cried! She said she felt the spirit super strong! We were really happy for her. We went and taught her and the only things she's been struggling with is smoking and getting married. Her and her boyfriend are living together. She has no confidence or faith that she can overcome these things. I know how hard it is and I've never smoked or anything. She's been through the smoking program. She went a week or two weeks without smoking and then she fell through and the other missionaries in the past would be discouraged and that was a turnoff for her. That's a no no! I know addictions and things are really tough to overcome but once you overcome them you can conquer the world! You can conquer anything! So we're working with her. We just committed her to pray as often as she can and read the BOM with her daughter B. Her daughter reads everyday and she is going to be such a great help! We're blessed to have her with us. So she's going to be helping her with that. If she continues to come to church the Lord's going to guide her. In the scriptures in D&C 82:10 it's really relevant even to investigators when they do what the Lord asks and once they do what they ask they have their promises. Just as much as it is relevant to missionaries. We're really happy with that and that was kind of a reliever. Like "Hey! The Lords trying to help us" We're still trying to be more exactly obedient in sooo many aspects. We can continue to improve and find where we're off but the atonement is real! It can change us as much as we help others to change! It's for missionaries too!
I also fasted for my future concerns about coming home on May 25th or July 6th. Right now the Lord is kind of telling me I guess to lean more toward May and I actually was surprised! I thought the Lord would want me to give more of myself. I wasn't expecting any of the answers as far as my prayers go. But that's the what the Lord's trying to tell me. Right now I believe the Lord wants me to do that and focus on that and all other future concerns would fall into place. I also prayed and fasted about school and in all honesty I was surprised on that too! I thought maybe I could go and work for a semester and maybe do night school. But I think God wants me to start school as soon as possible. So maybe that's why going home earlier might be more convenient. I don't know. These are just my thoughts and impressions, they could change anytime soon! It all just depends on what the Lord wants and I want to do the best that I can for him and not disappoint him. It's not that I want to come home or anything at all. But I want to do what he wants and I'm trying to connect maybe why I had those answers and what's going to happen. That's what I feel as of right now. So May 25th, maybe start working, go to school in August or the fall as soon as possible and I'm going to need some sort of vehicle... DANG!! I don't want to be too apprehensive in the future but right now just keeping those as a side note just so everybody knows. Just keep praying for our missionary labors! That's all that really matters at this point in life.
I think that's all I had for the week. As far as my questions, I had a question for Weston. I don't know when he wants to leave on his mission but just let him know that I'd like to hear from him and see what his thoughts and impressions are about serving the Lord and what he wants to do. I'd like to hear from him! I love you all! I'm sorry if I missed something important like birthday's or something. hahaha! There's always something that I miss! But I think that I got it all as far as my week and I love you all and I'm so happy to be where I am right now! I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you all next Monday. Love you bye!
Love,
Elder Horrocks
P.S.
Dang Weston broke his foot?? How long has it been broken before??
I don't know any Larry Cleveland but I do know of a mission president from Visalia that just returned from Mexico? Sorry he doesn't sound super familiar
Tell J.T. happy birthday!! I forgot that in my recording!
I heard about Steve! I'm super excited for him. I'll be emailing him soon!
Good luck Ma and Pa! Trek is fun! And good luck Justin with your talk! You'll do awesome!
January 11th
Hey everyone! This is Elder Horrocks speaking. Here we are with week six of the transfer and it's from January 4th-10th and we're just going to go ahead and get right jumping into things!.
I can't believe another transfer has gone by! And you'll never guess (well I guess you probably can guess lol), I've only been here for a transfer so, yeah we're staying together. Hasn't really changed much! Elder Frame and I are going to be companions for another transfer. There is 4 or 5 missionaries that are leaving. One of them is Sister Lewis. Dang! We're really sad to see her go! Elder Shep is going home. Elder Perkins. There's a whole bunch going home and it's crazy! Elder Frame has told me that every transfer that they've always changed things up so... I don't know! We're going to be getting some new missionaries too! I think there's 3 companionships maybe, that will be training new missionaries in our zone and it's a cool privilege to be able to have 3 new missionaries coming to our zone!! Who knows!? Maybe cousin Tanner will be one of them!! I don't know! But it would be super cool! I actually asked president yesterday at a meeting if he was going to have him be sent to Visalia and he doesn't know yet actually. hahaha. I guess he does the transfer boards and everything goes by so fast and he has so much to do!! Anyway, we'll find out tonight who will be coming to Visalia really.
I sent you guys pictures of the sequoia's. I hope you guys enjoyed those! That's definitely something I want to do after the mission. When I come back to visit I want to go back there! It's going to be an awesome time!! It will be a little bit different not being a missionary but I want to go back to the sequoia's soooo bad! It's beautiful!!
Tuesday was pretty good! It wasn't bad. We had our district meeting and we had our zone council meeting with our leadership in our zone. Planned for our next zone meeting. We were going throughout the day and I think President asked us to go on an emergency with Elder Draney and Elder George. Two elders who are in Visalia 3rd ward, they're English speaking. Reason being is they just needed another exchange and it was one of the funnest exchanges I've ever been on! Elder Draney is an AWESOME missionary. I actually got to ride on bikes for the first time in 9 or 10 months and I am SOOO out of shape!! hahaha! I felt like compared to last year, a complete dump! Lol. I am SOOOO out of shape! Last year about this time I was on a bike with Elder Moody in Lindsay (WOW!! I can't believe how fast that went by!). Anyway, it was raining that same day on our exchanges and I felt like Ghost Rider LOL! We were passing through all these cars and all these lights and Elder George's bike is super fast! So I'm cruising and Elder Draney is doing drifts on his bike in the rain. We're just having all sorts of fun! Nobody got hurt! Thankfully hahaha! No worries. Don't need to worry about that ;). Later that night we exchanged back with our companions, it was just something short. We had a really good day tho! We taught some people. We went finding and looking through members.
Wednesday was another pretty good day (we actually had a pretty good week if I haven't mentioned already! A lot better than last week that's for sure!) We were able to teach and do missionary work! We had a get together with C. and we talked with him and taught him. We didn't have a specific thing planned. We just asked questions and made sure he understood the restoration and he does. We actually talked to him about meeting with his parents. We're going to meet with his mom this Tuesday. Which is a big miracle! We feel like he's been a little bit apprehensive about it. He thinks his mom is going to reject us or something, but our prayers have been answered and she's softening her heart. When he told his mom we were teaching him he told her in the heat of the moment and she said No. She said he should probably investigate in his own religion, which is the Catholic religion, before he goes to anything else. But he really doesn't do anything in his Catholic religion. So he said "Hey mom. I'm doing this for real. This is something I want to do!" and I think his mom is starting to see his sincerity. That was a good day to be able to set that with him. Keep in mind, the three days between Wednesday and Saturday, almost Sunday even (It takes forever to do it) we had to do Stake Correlation... Ohhhhhhh! That's soooooooooooooooooo LONG!! Basically as ZL's we have to gather up all these papers together and sent it to the stake presidency. But we did it so THANK GOODNESS!! I think their was just a few mistakes here and there so we had to fix a LOT of things. There is just a lot of information and it can be stressful! But we did it!!
Thursday night was one of the best nights we had! Evening teaching we went with an awesome member, President Mann. He's the first or second counselor to President Clark. He's the CEO of a hospital. He's a saint! He rides his bike to church so he can talk to people on the streets about the gospel. He talks about how there's missionaries. He's super cool! One of the best people I've met here in Visalia. What he did though was helped us out with some team ups. We taught three people. One of them being M. the one we're trying to help overcome her smoking habit. His testimony such a big help! He is such a wonderful teacher. He helps a LOT with the team ups. It was kind of cool how we got his help. He just called us up and said "Hey elders! If you know anybody that needs a team up just give me a call!" and we were looking around and I said why doesn't he just come out with us?? We didn't have anybody! So he came out with us and taught someone in the hospital! It was like going back to work for him :) We had a member named Y. O. and their family has been expecting her to have a baby (Matthew) and she was in labor for 2 days!! I can't imagine how painful that was!! DANG!! She was not having fun at all hahaha! The first night we went there Matthew didn't come. Second night, the family was still waiting. Third night he finally came!! So we went and saw her and congratulated her and she was super happy!! I think she's more happy tho to just not be in labor, hahaha, than anything! The babies nice but dang!! Being in labor for 2 days?? That's a long time!
Friday Elder Frame and I had a lesson with F. But I'll tell you about the lesson he had a couple days before that. So F. was one that was hard to catch because of work and his wife's alone and we can't teach her unless he's there because of the rules. So, when Elder Frame went and taught him (I'm not sure how the subject of baptism was brought up but it was) and F. was like "Yeah! You know what?? I've actually been kind of thinking about this whole baptism thing because I was baptized as a kid but I don't remember anything about it at all and I don't even think it's valid" I can imagine the look on Elder's Frame was like, Yeah! Yeah you're right!! Yeah you're saying everything right! hahaha! Then he was said that it is something we have to learn for ourselves and God want's us to be baptized. F. said "I can see the difference that you had made in my friends life (which is J.L.). He's getting baptized soon and he's changed a lot! Maybe I'll have to think on it and talk with my wife. It's ok to get baptized again right??" And Elder Frame was like as long as you're baptized by the right authority, of course! And F. asked if it would be ok if his wife did the same thing. Hahaha! And Elder Frame was like "Yeah!" hahaha. Playing it cool. He said "yeah that's totally fine and cool". Anyway he's striving for it and when we had our lesson with him he talked a lot about his family. He loves his family! He cried because he expressed his love for his granddaughters. He loves them a lot and wants the best for them. We told him that this is the path and the way if you want true joy within your family and your own life. The gospel is the way to go and what we're teaching you is true. What you're feeling is the spirit. I think he understood that. Now we need to follow up if he talked with his wife. I think we're going to go by today. So anyway, later that evening we had activity night at the church playing volleyball. Lots of people came! A lot of less actives. C. came hahaha and he kind of plays likes a rag doll. I guess the rest of us do to?? I'm not the best volleyball player but I've seen volleyball players and they definitely don't play the way that we did! LOL! But we had a fun time! A lot of people there. A lot of investigators and less actives. It was really successful! I ended up leaving early before it ended because I had to go teach M. We told her we would go teach her so I went with a member and we talked with M. Just FYI, I found out information about her from a different missionary in Tulare that was teaching her, that her bf is already a member. We thought he was just an investigator. The night we taught him with President Mann he said the closing prayer and he said everything and had the elements of the prayer and said it correct way. So that caught us by surprise. Then later we learned that she's not able to get married to him because he's never been divorced from his wife. H. has had issues trying to divorce his ex so they aren't divorced. But by Mexican laws, you are automatically divorced after 5 years and it's been more than 5 years, but they need his signature. He doesn't have to pay or do another process they just need his signature. The other thing is and I can't remember how this works but he can't go to Mexico to sign the papers and then expect to come back to the states. Maybe it's because he's illegal??? I don't know haha. But our team up was a blessing that night because he talked to him and told him he was automatically divorced by law in Mexico, all they need is your signature. He also told him there's another way and he knows a couple lawyers that can get him and his information and send it to Mexico and get the papers signed there and he doesn't even have to travel. The lawyer could help him! The things about M. is that she doesn't WANT to get married because it's been a tradition in her family not to. Her mom, her grandma, her great and great great grandma have never been married. I can't imagine that kind of life but that;s the ways she's grown up and she's never wanted to be married. H. has wanted to tho. So we talked to her and increased her faith and said that she didn't need to think of marriage as just papers. It's something that's going to bond you and H. together and you'll have more harmony within your lives. She listened and by the end of the lesson her faith was increased. We will be following up with her tonight to see how things went. We committed her to pray to know if she should be baptized. She actually already knows that. She told us that she already knows what the answer is because she's been given it before. So she knows she needs to be baptized. Second thing was to keep reading and praying in order to avoid temptation from smoking. Third thing E. will come out with us again tonight and help us with the whole marriage aspect. So we have a plan to help her overcome her addiction. Kind of like 12 step. I'm pretty excited to see what comes out of that tonight.
So we've been seeing A. Her daughter Al. is one of our new investigators. We taught he about the restoration and what makes us different. She understood and actually the next day the entire family came to church (except for Al. Gosh dang it!!), but everybody was there. We had four investigators at church. We thought we'd have a little more but that was a family! It wasn't just individuals :) A. loves it! She loves the church. She loves what we're doing with her. I think it's more just her family connecting with her also and to get on the same boat. Speaking of church! Great day!! Learned a lot!! We had the opportunity of going to dinner at Bishop's house. Bishop Chandler is Awesome! He's a stud!! He's one of my favorite members. Especially after the dinner we had with him. We had a really fun time! Elder Frame and I cooked some cookies for bishop hahaha! It's kind of funny because you know elder's don't really cook food and stuff for the members but we just decided that HEY! We just decided to be different! Put a thank you card on it and we got the other missionaries in our ward and put their cards on it too. We had a really fun time! Bishop's place is a place you can feel the spirit really strong and you can tell that there is something special there. They were absolutely wonderful! I love those moments you become close with members. It's hard to think about the times that you have with them and then the times you have to leave them. I think about that a lot with Madera. There was a lot of people that I miss!! But I'll see them soon. Later on that day we went and say C. at the Garcia's home. Taught him the plan of salvation. This lesson was definitely one that stuck out with him more because his sincerity of knowing what is going on and where he needs to go. If it wasn't for the Garcia's I don't think it would be nearly as powerful. They help a lot and make a big difference in teaching C. C., Elder Frame and I are starting to have a closer relationship and we're starting to see a lot of really good things come from him. His parents are more sincere about meeting the missionaries. I think they didn't want to meet us before because they thought we were the same missionaries from before that were forceful. Not to say they were bad missionaries but they weren't a good match for his mom. Now they're really open to us and we're meeting them on Tuesday.
So that's basically it for the week! I hope J.T. had an awesome birthday and everyone had an awesome week! I really love you all and I'll be answering any questions or concerns in emails here in a little bit. Then I have to do some other things for preparation day.
I love ya'll!! We'll hear from you next Monday. Audios! Bye Bye.
Love,
Elder Horrocks
