He said that he didn't have a lot of time to write this week. His letter home and for the blog was about normal but I don't think he got to write back others and go into detail like he wanted to. He also must have ran out of time and couldn't send pictures so I'll cross my fingers for next week ;)
I knew he knew I'd be flipping out over the turtles! That is definitely a place I'll make him take me when we go back to visit his mission :) So cool!!!!
On track for 4 baptisms!! AWESOME!! I love the success they've had with the member/missionary program :) I can also testify that it makes such a huge difference to those who are non members, and even the less active members, to have a strong member of the church show them love and support!! It is real!! I have a very real example of that in my home today. Justin has struggled for years with addiction and other things and I have had struggles of my own. When we moved into our ward there were so many people that were willing to help and who genuinely cared about us. They didn't care if we went to church on Sunday or if we said the "right" things or if Justin smelled like cigarette smoke. They cared about us!! They were also never overbearing or never disappointed!! They'd stop by to see how we were, or if we needed anything, all of the time. The one member (I'll call him Drew, because that's his name. lol) Drew took so much time out of his own schedule and time from his own family to check on us/Justin. When Justin expressed his desire to quit smoking Drew made it happen!! He asked Justin if the missionaries could start coming and giving him their lessons on the "quit smoking" program. He came with them every week. He even brought us bags of oranges and some grapefruit juice (it's supposed to help with cravings). He offered and gave him priesthood blessings and was there for him when things/life was very stressful and hard! He was our friend! He cared! He still does! Drew was eventually given a calling in Young Men's and couldn't devote as much time to Justin, but Justin still new he was there cheering him on. Then the other ward members started coming... So, long story kind of short, Justin quit smoking, started again and then quit again, all with the love of our awesome ward members coming to our home for OVER A YEAR!! It takes time! It takes hard work! It takes dedication!! (It must smell like football!! Inside joke ;) Ask if you want to know. LOL) Last Tuesday we had a man who has been "investing" the church (for 15 years or more), who is in our ward, call and asked if he could come visit our family. He knows Justin's family very well but had never before met Justin, besides the occasional hello at church. So after a little small talk Justin asked him what was up. He said that he needed Justin's help and wanted him to baptize him. Justin was SHOCKED to say the least (why he was shocked is beyond me. Justin doesn't always do what maybe everyone else would. He listens very closely to the spirit before he decides. Even leaving me scratching my head. BUT I've learned to trust his instincts). After he explained to Justin that he's had many people, for years, come to him and ask him if they could be the one to baptize him when he finally decided to take that step, but after a lot of prayer he kept coming back to the guy he didn't even know, that sits in the middle of the church chasing his kids!! Justin of course said yes and had to take care of a couple of things, namely being ordained a Priest (We had no idea he wasn't already) and the baptism is scheduled for tonight!! After visiting with them both I've decided they're kindred spirits and probably had this planned in the pre-life ;) hahaha! The reason I tell this story is because if it weren't for the love that the members have shown our family, along side of the missionaries, we (our family) would not be where we are today. Members are a VERY important part of missionary work!!! Justin's last step is being ordained an Elder and we are so very grateful that although the missionaries are not coming to our house every Wednesday night anymore, that the members have not forgotten his goal and are still encouraging him. We love them!! I also love that Alex is seeing success on his mission with the member/missionary program :) It warms my heart!
Alex specifically asks us to pray for Martin. He needs miracles in his life ;) Please include him in your prayers.
Wassup Fam!
This week was pretty good I would say! Not a whole lot of crazy things happened, but as far as the work goes we are progressing very well. Sorry if this letter seems shorter than the other ones. I just got back from Sequoia National Park, so hopefully I have enough time to email everyone before I go out to work and I'll definitely send pictures of our little Sequoia adventure if I have enough time.
The member/missionary work is on fire in Lindsay! I don't know where our progression in the Lord's work would be without the members help. Right now we're on track for possibly 4 baptisms in November. If everything goes well and smooth we're going to see a lot of excitement from the ward. Hunter's date was changed or needs to be changed because he wasn't able to attend church this week. Investigators have to attend church twice before they're baptized. I guess he wasn't able to because he was sick and he was at his Mom's house. He's kind of a busy body. He's got football to play so when we see him we try to teach him as much as possible.
Charlie is one of the most progressing people I've ever seen in my life! What's cool about Charlie is that he's not holding back on the commitments we give him. He just lets the blessings come by doing these simple small little commitments, and he knows that it's not us that's changing him but that it's God. I guess he was talking to missionaries in the past and at some point he decided to go his own way and stopped talking to them. After that some pretty bad and unfortunate things started to come into his life. I won't go into detail but let's just say that his eyes were opened up and he realized that God was trying to tell him something. Since then he found us and we've been talking to him ever since. He's hopefully going to be baptized this upcoming month, if not then, for sure in December. (We even went to the Sequoias with him today so that was fun!). M. and T. are kind of on the same path still. They haven't come to an agreement to being married and being baptized. Teresa is on board for it and same with the rest of the kids in the family. M. is kind of being a bum and still hangs out with his gangster friends, (and not making great choices) which probably isn't the best influence for him right now. But 3 out of 4 of these investigators (Hunter, Charlie, T. and some of her kids) all came to church this Sunday!! This Sunday was a little different too. It was the primary program so they were in for a treat... If you could just get M. to come that would be an absolute miracle! Pray back home that he might soften his heart and humble himself to realize his faults.
So those are our solid and progressing investigators! As for the others they're doing awesome as well. We found some new other ones too. Mi., C., Al., and Ale. are some new ones. Mi. and Al. are really humble and willing to listen to us. They've both struggled with their choices in life and they want to change and be baptized. Mi. cried when we talked to him about the Atonement a little bit, telling him how everything he's done can be gone away. He loved it! Alvaro looks forward to us teaching him all the time now. Ale. is actually one of our members sister. So she has family to give her good feed back about us :)... C. was definitely a person that needed God's help in her life. It was kind of interesting how we found her. We had dinner with one of our members on Saturday night, and I got to share the spiritual thought at the end of dinner. I shared Either 12:4 and told them how we've been seeing a lot of people that have faith and hope for a better world, and they've been gradually led to us by God. We asked them if they knew anybody around that had faith and hope but struggled to see a better world or a better life. They immediately took us to C. When we got to her house we had a lesson about the plan of salvation, and then soon things got a little heated... C. went off on how she lost her son a year ago and she went into this huge detailed story about an investigation of her son's death and they never really got to know why her son died. All she knows is that he committed suicide :( and they weren't sure why... We couldn't answer her questions about the investigations but we talked a little more about the Atonement, and how the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes things that seem unfair understandable. Luckily our members were there to help out. They made a big impact with their testimonies. But because the spirit touched heart she invited us to come back :) and we're going back tonight hopefully.
Yeah I told the lady that my Mom is going to really jealous when she finds out that I've been hanging out with Turtles :) we go over there once in a while just to see them for fun. I love hearing that Weston and the team finally get a play off game at home! Sounds like this year has been making some big changes!... That's awesome for Justin! I would've been thrilled if someone randomly that's been an investigator for 15 years asked me to baptize them! Who knows... maybe it'll happen on my mission. But I'm happy for Justin! I think God is really seeing changes in his life. Life's all about progression and change and Justin is doing good at it.
Well I'm sorry this letter was a little shorter this week. We got back a little late. I planned on being back a little earlier than this but with traffic and few other things it didn't quite work out. But I love you all! I pray for you and I think about you all the time. Keep praying for our investigators so they might come to Christ
Love Elder Horrocks
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Hola Familia
He makes me smile!! Not a lot of change since last week tho. We've been keeping him posted on the football team. He's excited at their successes and can't wait to hear how they do this week!! Honestly neither can I ;)
He sent pictures of some HUGE turtles that were in some less active members's yard. HOLY COW!! I'M SOOOO JEALOUS!!! Most people who know me know that turtles are my favorite and have been since my mom and dad brought one home from Missouri for my birthday one year! Every time we'd go to Missouri to visit I'd go turtle hunting and find as many turtles as I could!! When I got older my mom and dad would always bring me back a statue, figurine, or some sort of stuffed turtle when they'd go on their yearly trip to Mexico. For my birthday after my dad died, my mom brought me a figurine that my dad had picked out for me when they were in Mexico the day before he died so it holds a special place in my heart (sorry got a little off the subject) Anyway!! WHO KNEW THEY HAD GINORMOUS TURTLES IN CALIFORNIA!!! I'm seriously so jealous right now... Do you think I could get him to bring one home for me??? I could send an extra suitcase ;) hahaha.
Honestly I'm not trying to focus on the turtles lol, but he has to know I'm freaking out right now ;)
He's doing great :) Super proud Momma right here!!!
Hola Familia
This week has been filled with meetings, work, and some other interesting things. The good thing is that the work is still progressing in Lindsey. We love our investigators they're so awesome. They're basically dry Mormons haha but sooner or later they'll be baptized! So not to many crazy things have happened this week except for some exchanges and a couple meetings like zone conference and stake conference.
Stake conference out here is huge! It was kind of cool because I got to go back to the old chapel/stake center in Porterville where I served before. Like I said before I got to see some old faces too. I saw the branch president that I served with in Porterville. I asked him "Do you remember when Elder Tesimale and I served together?" His face lit up and he says to me "You returned!!" It was pretty exciting for me. Zone Conference was one of the best meetings I've been to thus far. We had a member from the quorum of 70 come and speak to us. His name was Elder Brent H. Nielson. He's a very inspired guy and knows quite a bit about missionary work. Him and I talked for a little bit about the area I'm in so that he could get a feel of how every missionary is doing in their area. He came in and gave us some tips and things on how we can better ourselves as missionaries and then in turn help our investigators. There's so many things he said that could apply to all of us. But one thing that he said that really stood out to me was the biggest thing he wants a missionary to gain from his mission is to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, from beginning to end. And then to look back and see our success and see that our labors were good. He shared Alma 26: 26-31 and in those scriptures it talks about how they were mocked, spit upon, and endured every manner of affliction, but in the end they were joyful because they did everything into bringing at least one soul unto Christ. He shared many things that enlightened us. I wish I could right them all. He really was an awesome guy.
As far as our investigators are doing, they're doing really good :) Teresa and Martin are still working on being married, but Martin is just being a little stubborn and doesn't think he needs to. He's working on quitting smoking and drugs and other things like that too. But what it all comes down to is their progress in reading and praying which is so simple but yet seems so hard for them! They haven't been reading and praying as often as we want them to. So straight Elder Moody and I said if you don't read and pray about marriage you're never going to know if you need to get married or not. I'm sure they know that. We've taught them all the lessons and everything. But we show our love for them by going by and following up on their commitments. Hopefully they'll realize as often as we've went by their house, they will know we mean business haha... We have 3 other progressing investigators right now. Hunter is one of them and he came to church for the first time yesterday!! YES! He's 14 years old and is playing football right now. He's got a date for November 1st that he'll be baptized. So keep him in your prayers that he'll keep progressing because he's super solid! Our other one is Charlie and he came to church too! (I don't know what it was about yesterday, but a lot of our investigators and the sisters investigators came to church). The church here in Lindsey is set up exactly like Whiterocks. Our bishop was getting excited when we had to open up the curtains. Anyway... Charlie is an investigator that I just met. I guess he was talking to the missionaries 2 weeks ago and then he kind of fell away. But some things have happened to him since then and now he really wants to get back on track, so a couple nights ago he found us and told us he wants to talk again... The other investigator is Sandra. She's been off drugs for a year so God has her in a good spot. She's been reading and everything too. She just needs to come to church like the others and she's set!... Of course we talk to less actives and recent converts but if anything they're all progressing :) Two people we're talking to are trying to get to the temple and there are a whole bunch that we're working with. Just know that they're all doing good and to keep praying for them!
That's kind of weird that T.J. was in an area for a whole year. I know a kid that I worked with at Vivint that said he stayed in an area for 19 months!! He was going to die! Tell him I love and miss him. I haven't heard from him in forever. I remember when him, Bradyn and I were little and we would go and do the craziest little things. But that didn't change when we grew up anyway haha. Tell Tommy thanks and that I send my love to him and to everyone else as well... Tell the team to keep their heads. They're doing really good this season and they're tearing it up. Can't win them all can you? As much as I hated losing I always learned something better from it. They're going to tear it up with Grantsville though, I'm excited to hear what happens then!
Yes I did get to see Elder Nye and it was one of the most exciting moments I've had. We've caught up on lots of things. I guess that Levi Nielsen (one of my roommates in college) was his roommate too. He's serving as my district leader right now and he's doing awesome. He's definitely changed since the last time we were companions but it's been good to catch up with him.
Tell Grandma I got her letter I'll be writing her shortly today.
Well that's all I have folks! I want to end with Mathew 16:25 "and whoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it" I've found that when we serve with all our heart, might, mind, and strength we are truly converted. There are some who will give their might and their strength only and benefit little from it. When we truly give ourselves Jesus Christ will do something for us in return and give us himself.
Love you all
P.S. could you send me a book called "Barron's foreign language guides Spanish verbs 3rd edition" please? Thanks :) love you
He sent pictures of some HUGE turtles that were in some less active members's yard. HOLY COW!! I'M SOOOO JEALOUS!!! Most people who know me know that turtles are my favorite and have been since my mom and dad brought one home from Missouri for my birthday one year! Every time we'd go to Missouri to visit I'd go turtle hunting and find as many turtles as I could!! When I got older my mom and dad would always bring me back a statue, figurine, or some sort of stuffed turtle when they'd go on their yearly trip to Mexico. For my birthday after my dad died, my mom brought me a figurine that my dad had picked out for me when they were in Mexico the day before he died so it holds a special place in my heart (sorry got a little off the subject) Anyway!! WHO KNEW THEY HAD GINORMOUS TURTLES IN CALIFORNIA!!! I'm seriously so jealous right now... Do you think I could get him to bring one home for me??? I could send an extra suitcase ;) hahaha.
Honestly I'm not trying to focus on the turtles lol, but he has to know I'm freaking out right now ;)
He's doing great :) Super proud Momma right here!!!
 |
| So long story short. We went to teach a less active member and then all of a sudden there's these huge massive turtles in their front yard! You never know what to find in California |
This week has been filled with meetings, work, and some other interesting things. The good thing is that the work is still progressing in Lindsey. We love our investigators they're so awesome. They're basically dry Mormons haha but sooner or later they'll be baptized! So not to many crazy things have happened this week except for some exchanges and a couple meetings like zone conference and stake conference.
Stake conference out here is huge! It was kind of cool because I got to go back to the old chapel/stake center in Porterville where I served before. Like I said before I got to see some old faces too. I saw the branch president that I served with in Porterville. I asked him "Do you remember when Elder Tesimale and I served together?" His face lit up and he says to me "You returned!!" It was pretty exciting for me. Zone Conference was one of the best meetings I've been to thus far. We had a member from the quorum of 70 come and speak to us. His name was Elder Brent H. Nielson. He's a very inspired guy and knows quite a bit about missionary work. Him and I talked for a little bit about the area I'm in so that he could get a feel of how every missionary is doing in their area. He came in and gave us some tips and things on how we can better ourselves as missionaries and then in turn help our investigators. There's so many things he said that could apply to all of us. But one thing that he said that really stood out to me was the biggest thing he wants a missionary to gain from his mission is to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, from beginning to end. And then to look back and see our success and see that our labors were good. He shared Alma 26: 26-31 and in those scriptures it talks about how they were mocked, spit upon, and endured every manner of affliction, but in the end they were joyful because they did everything into bringing at least one soul unto Christ. He shared many things that enlightened us. I wish I could right them all. He really was an awesome guy.
As far as our investigators are doing, they're doing really good :) Teresa and Martin are still working on being married, but Martin is just being a little stubborn and doesn't think he needs to. He's working on quitting smoking and drugs and other things like that too. But what it all comes down to is their progress in reading and praying which is so simple but yet seems so hard for them! They haven't been reading and praying as often as we want them to. So straight Elder Moody and I said if you don't read and pray about marriage you're never going to know if you need to get married or not. I'm sure they know that. We've taught them all the lessons and everything. But we show our love for them by going by and following up on their commitments. Hopefully they'll realize as often as we've went by their house, they will know we mean business haha... We have 3 other progressing investigators right now. Hunter is one of them and he came to church for the first time yesterday!! YES! He's 14 years old and is playing football right now. He's got a date for November 1st that he'll be baptized. So keep him in your prayers that he'll keep progressing because he's super solid! Our other one is Charlie and he came to church too! (I don't know what it was about yesterday, but a lot of our investigators and the sisters investigators came to church). The church here in Lindsey is set up exactly like Whiterocks. Our bishop was getting excited when we had to open up the curtains. Anyway... Charlie is an investigator that I just met. I guess he was talking to the missionaries 2 weeks ago and then he kind of fell away. But some things have happened to him since then and now he really wants to get back on track, so a couple nights ago he found us and told us he wants to talk again... The other investigator is Sandra. She's been off drugs for a year so God has her in a good spot. She's been reading and everything too. She just needs to come to church like the others and she's set!... Of course we talk to less actives and recent converts but if anything they're all progressing :) Two people we're talking to are trying to get to the temple and there are a whole bunch that we're working with. Just know that they're all doing good and to keep praying for them!
That's kind of weird that T.J. was in an area for a whole year. I know a kid that I worked with at Vivint that said he stayed in an area for 19 months!! He was going to die! Tell him I love and miss him. I haven't heard from him in forever. I remember when him, Bradyn and I were little and we would go and do the craziest little things. But that didn't change when we grew up anyway haha. Tell Tommy thanks and that I send my love to him and to everyone else as well... Tell the team to keep their heads. They're doing really good this season and they're tearing it up. Can't win them all can you? As much as I hated losing I always learned something better from it. They're going to tear it up with Grantsville though, I'm excited to hear what happens then!
Yes I did get to see Elder Nye and it was one of the most exciting moments I've had. We've caught up on lots of things. I guess that Levi Nielsen (one of my roommates in college) was his roommate too. He's serving as my district leader right now and he's doing awesome. He's definitely changed since the last time we were companions but it's been good to catch up with him.
Tell Grandma I got her letter I'll be writing her shortly today.
Well that's all I have folks! I want to end with Mathew 16:25 "and whoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it" I've found that when we serve with all our heart, might, mind, and strength we are truly converted. There are some who will give their might and their strength only and benefit little from it. When we truly give ourselves Jesus Christ will do something for us in return and give us himself.
Love you all
P.S. could you send me a book called "Barron's foreign language guides Spanish verbs 3rd edition" please? Thanks :) love you
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Que Honda! (Wassup
Big Al is thriving!! He made it safely to Lindsay and he got to see his companion from the MTC for the first time since they left the MTC :) He sounded soooo happy to see him again! He also got to see some of the tallest and biggest trees ever!! I can't help but envision the trees on Lord of the Rings (The Ents). I imagine that they are these ginormous race that wake up to discuss our future in Entish and of course it takes them half the night just to say hello in their language ;) lol. Anyway! That's what came to mind when I saw the pictures!! Holy Moses they are big!!!
He also is excited for the football team and sends his love and support!! GO COUGS!!!!!
He's doing good things :) Enjoy!
Que Honda! (Wassup)
Every week that seems to go by is always something to remember! I love my mission every single day. This week was kind of different due to transfers and everything. As you all know I'm back where I started a year ago when I first came out to the mission. Well I'm at least 10 minutes away. I'm in a town called Lindsay and Elder Moody is one of the best companions every! He's white but he's basically a native because he knows Spanish really well. I've learned a lot more Spanish from him and the members here than I ever have any where else.
So we had a little Fiesta farewell on Monday before Elder Brower and I went to our new areas. The Fiesta didn't have a Pinata unfortunately haha but we had an interesting thing called Arroz con luche, it means Rice with Milk. It's like a sweet and warm taste, kind of like when you make hot chocolate but it's obviously not hot chocolate. I don't know how to explain it you'll have to look it up on youtube haha. Over all the Party was good we had lots of fun and took lots of pictures and said our last goodbyes... Wednesday was the day I came down to Lindsay and I saw one of my best friends there that I haven't seen since the MTC. I saw Elder Nye!!!! My MTC comp who knew I went home and when he saw me pull into the church his eyes got really big and I heard him say "No way!!" and I was like yes way! So he came and ran to the truck and gave me the biggest hug. All the missionaries there and the members who gave us a ride were looking at us funny but we didn't care haha. It was like a little kid waking up for Christmas. I couldn't believe it when I saw him either, I was so excited!! And of course as soon as we arrived in Lindsay we went straight to work. I love being in the south because the investigators are so humble here! They are ready to be baptized!
(These are investigators that I've taught in Lindsey thus far) We have two really progressing investigators named Teresa and Martin. They have a little family with 3 kids. We're working on getting them married so they can be baptized. It's either get married or move out, and they say they'd rather get married. So we're helping them with the Law of chastity. We're also trying to get Martin to quit drugs and smoking and maybe a few other things pertaining to the word of wisdom. I believe it was Saturday, we passed by and taught them about the plan of Salvation and how families can be together forever. They really liked that message and they asked what they had to do to accomplish that, and that's when we went into a few of the commandments and other things like the Law of Chastity and Word of wisdom. So they look forward to us every time we come over, it's awesome. We have another progressing investigator right now and his name is Hunter. Hunter's dad Tony has already been baptized and is working towards the Priesthood and his son hasn't been baptized yet but he will be! Tony is a good influence for him and reads the BOM often. I believe he was baptized in August and is in 2 Nephi 20 right now? Which is really good! It shows to Heavenly Father his efforts in working towards the Priesthood.
There's a lot of less active members in Lindsay. I don't know exactly how much but I know it's in the double digits. So we drop by them often too. Right now we have two less active members that we're really focusing on. One of them is sister Baze and she was baptized but got into smoking again. We're doing the stop smoking program with her and she really wants to quit so she can go to the temple and just be clean again. The other less active member is the Contreras Family. The daughter in the family has already been baptized so they're actually a part member family. The parents want to be baptized but they have the same issue as Teresa and Martin, they won't get married. We've been going by and reading the Book of Mormon to help them get a better feel of it, because they said they want to know the Book of moron and everything else before they can get married and be baptized. The only way they can know is if they read it themselves, but we go by and just help them to liken the scriptures to themselves, like in 1 Nephi 19:23.
Saturday was a day I'll never forget! So we were originally supposed to go up to the mountains to do a service Project for a girls camp, stuff like putting away cots, beds, chairs, and whatever else they needed. The ride up to the mountains was about an hour and a half or two hours. We left at 7 30 in the morning with some members and by the time we got there they were already finished with the service project... So just said well since we're already up here we might as well go see or do something haha. So we went to what's called "The trail of 100 giants" where there's a bunch of huge Sequoia Trees, which are the biggest trees in the world. You would not believe how big these things are!! I'll send some pictures and stuff and then you'll see how big they are. But it was one of the funnest and coolest parks I've been too. Everything in the mountains here in Cali just shows how amazing God's creations are.
It sounds like Union won again?? They haven't done this good since they 1980's from Weston said. This year the team has won twice as many games than I did my Freshman Sophomore and Junior year. Just shows you how good we were haha. Tell the team and tell Wes to keep it up! I'm glad he went to homecoming too, dats ma boy right there!
I'm really glad to hear about Justin! What's cool is that the Lord has given me opportunities to teach people how Justin's experiences with quitting smoking are working for him right now. When the people hear that they re assure themselves and think "Oh maybe I can do that!" it's awesome to see them change their attitudes.
I would like Zach's email please if you could get that for me!
I'll check the mission office and see if the pull up bar is still there. But if it's not don't worry about it, they're not to expensive and I guess you could get a new one. It takes about a week or 2 for the packages to get to me. They send it to the mission office and then the zone leaders go down to Fresno once a week to get the packages (I'm not sure what day) and they come back to our area and give us our packages.
Well my time is short but I love hearing that everything is going good back home. I'll check out the pics you sent and see how they are. Tell everyone how much I love and miss them. Until then, you'll hear from me next week
Les Extrano y Amo
He also is excited for the football team and sends his love and support!! GO COUGS!!!!!
He's doing good things :) Enjoy!
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| They got frogs out here in the desert |
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| The Ortiz family. One of my most favorite families I've met so far |
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| The fantastic four of Hughson. The day before I left |
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| Another cool pic of the tree stump |
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| One of the tallest ones out there |
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| The most massive tree in the world. It's 20 feet in diameter, 245 ft tall and 1,500 years old. |
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| This just shows you how big these suckers can get |
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| This is more of the fallen tree |
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| This tree fell in September 30, 2011 and was 282 feet tall. The fall was captured by a German tourist and I guess it's on YouTube or the sequoia national forest website. The thing I'm leaning up against is its stump! |
Que Honda! (Wassup)
Every week that seems to go by is always something to remember! I love my mission every single day. This week was kind of different due to transfers and everything. As you all know I'm back where I started a year ago when I first came out to the mission. Well I'm at least 10 minutes away. I'm in a town called Lindsay and Elder Moody is one of the best companions every! He's white but he's basically a native because he knows Spanish really well. I've learned a lot more Spanish from him and the members here than I ever have any where else.
So we had a little Fiesta farewell on Monday before Elder Brower and I went to our new areas. The Fiesta didn't have a Pinata unfortunately haha but we had an interesting thing called Arroz con luche, it means Rice with Milk. It's like a sweet and warm taste, kind of like when you make hot chocolate but it's obviously not hot chocolate. I don't know how to explain it you'll have to look it up on youtube haha. Over all the Party was good we had lots of fun and took lots of pictures and said our last goodbyes... Wednesday was the day I came down to Lindsay and I saw one of my best friends there that I haven't seen since the MTC. I saw Elder Nye!!!! My MTC comp who knew I went home and when he saw me pull into the church his eyes got really big and I heard him say "No way!!" and I was like yes way! So he came and ran to the truck and gave me the biggest hug. All the missionaries there and the members who gave us a ride were looking at us funny but we didn't care haha. It was like a little kid waking up for Christmas. I couldn't believe it when I saw him either, I was so excited!! And of course as soon as we arrived in Lindsay we went straight to work. I love being in the south because the investigators are so humble here! They are ready to be baptized!
(These are investigators that I've taught in Lindsey thus far) We have two really progressing investigators named Teresa and Martin. They have a little family with 3 kids. We're working on getting them married so they can be baptized. It's either get married or move out, and they say they'd rather get married. So we're helping them with the Law of chastity. We're also trying to get Martin to quit drugs and smoking and maybe a few other things pertaining to the word of wisdom. I believe it was Saturday, we passed by and taught them about the plan of Salvation and how families can be together forever. They really liked that message and they asked what they had to do to accomplish that, and that's when we went into a few of the commandments and other things like the Law of Chastity and Word of wisdom. So they look forward to us every time we come over, it's awesome. We have another progressing investigator right now and his name is Hunter. Hunter's dad Tony has already been baptized and is working towards the Priesthood and his son hasn't been baptized yet but he will be! Tony is a good influence for him and reads the BOM often. I believe he was baptized in August and is in 2 Nephi 20 right now? Which is really good! It shows to Heavenly Father his efforts in working towards the Priesthood.
There's a lot of less active members in Lindsay. I don't know exactly how much but I know it's in the double digits. So we drop by them often too. Right now we have two less active members that we're really focusing on. One of them is sister Baze and she was baptized but got into smoking again. We're doing the stop smoking program with her and she really wants to quit so she can go to the temple and just be clean again. The other less active member is the Contreras Family. The daughter in the family has already been baptized so they're actually a part member family. The parents want to be baptized but they have the same issue as Teresa and Martin, they won't get married. We've been going by and reading the Book of Mormon to help them get a better feel of it, because they said they want to know the Book of moron and everything else before they can get married and be baptized. The only way they can know is if they read it themselves, but we go by and just help them to liken the scriptures to themselves, like in 1 Nephi 19:23.
Saturday was a day I'll never forget! So we were originally supposed to go up to the mountains to do a service Project for a girls camp, stuff like putting away cots, beds, chairs, and whatever else they needed. The ride up to the mountains was about an hour and a half or two hours. We left at 7 30 in the morning with some members and by the time we got there they were already finished with the service project... So just said well since we're already up here we might as well go see or do something haha. So we went to what's called "The trail of 100 giants" where there's a bunch of huge Sequoia Trees, which are the biggest trees in the world. You would not believe how big these things are!! I'll send some pictures and stuff and then you'll see how big they are. But it was one of the funnest and coolest parks I've been too. Everything in the mountains here in Cali just shows how amazing God's creations are.
It sounds like Union won again?? They haven't done this good since they 1980's from Weston said. This year the team has won twice as many games than I did my Freshman Sophomore and Junior year. Just shows you how good we were haha. Tell the team and tell Wes to keep it up! I'm glad he went to homecoming too, dats ma boy right there!
I'm really glad to hear about Justin! What's cool is that the Lord has given me opportunities to teach people how Justin's experiences with quitting smoking are working for him right now. When the people hear that they re assure themselves and think "Oh maybe I can do that!" it's awesome to see them change their attitudes.
I would like Zach's email please if you could get that for me!
I'll check the mission office and see if the pull up bar is still there. But if it's not don't worry about it, they're not to expensive and I guess you could get a new one. It takes about a week or 2 for the packages to get to me. They send it to the mission office and then the zone leaders go down to Fresno once a week to get the packages (I'm not sure what day) and they come back to our area and give us our packages.
Well my time is short but I love hearing that everything is going good back home. I'll check out the pics you sent and see how they are. Tell everyone how much I love and miss them. Until then, you'll hear from me next week
Les Extrano y Amo
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Una Semana llenado con bendiciones!
This letter is from Oct 6th. So now I'll be caught up and you can know what's going on with him currently ;) Conference of course was the highlight of his week. He loves watching it now more than ever! He also got to watch Meet the Mormons and said it was awesome! He asked everyone to go watch it, either in the theater or the website (I'm not sure if it's the actually movie or if it has little trailers or what, I haven't tried it yet but he provides the link). I've heard it's awesome too and I'm excited to watch it also :) I'll probably do it tonight as a family! AND he saw his old rommie Zach Trujillo's girlfriend in a "Stop Bullying" video. He was pretty stoked about that too :)
He is being transferred to Porterville, which is where he was before he came home, and you can tell he's excited about that! He keeps progressing and he seriously inspires me to be better!!! MAN I LOVE HIM!! I hope everyone enjoys reading his letters as much as I do ;)
Una Semana llenado con bendiciones!
Do you like how I put a heading and then never translate it? This week has been awesome! Words don't describe how General Conference was. I love watching it now more than ever before, but general conf. on a mission is always the best. The beginning of the week didn't start off with too much, but by the end of this week I was pretty mind blown and I'll explain a little bit later. Our investigators are doing really good!! We're still teaching Arturo, but we haven't found him this week. If we find him and find out that he hasn't done much to progress or doesn't want to listen any more, we'll probably have to drop him :(. We've been emphasizing "Read and pray, read and pray" and he's done it a few times but hasn't acted upon it. When we find him we'll see how he's doing with his progression, but he's super busy and hard to catch. Hopefully we help him understand to "apply" the scriptures to himself. Stephanie and Erica are doing good still. We've caught Stephanie a 3 or 4 times this week and she's been progressing little by little. I think we've taught her 3 out of the 5 lessons so far. She knows we come by to only add to the faith and truths that she already knows. We invited her to conference but she wasn't able to come. Dang it! But I believe she watched 15 or 20 minutes of it on her phone? At least that's what she told us (hopefully it was during Elder Bednar's talk, that would've been perfect!) Erica is kind of a different story. She's been super busy with work and everything. The last time we talked to her was 2 weeks ago! Nothing much has happened with her yet... Miguel continues to read just like we ask him :) same with his wife Carmen. We passed by him on Thursday and taught out of those missionary pamphlets. Have you seen those things? They're so simple and easy to use! It's like teaching a little kid! We taught him The Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and it helped him to understand so much more. If you ever get the chance to take a look at them, you will see what I mean by they're simple and effective... We've got two new investigators this week that are super solid! Their names are Tony and Alex. Tony is Axel and Abel's brother. Alex is a guy that came to help set up our Light to the Nations play that we had a few weeks ago. Brother Huerta, who is a counselor in the branch presidency, brought Alex with him. Alex had no idea that Jesus Christ appeared to the Americas. Since the play he's been to the church twice and says that this church is the ONLY church that he's ever got answers from! He's not a part of any other religion so that's good that he found the right one! We taught him about the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Americas in 3 Nephi 11, and you could see the spirit enlighten his mind. It was kind of funny, because as we were teaching him he had a look on his face like he was confused so we asked him if he had any questions and he says, "Oh no! I'm just trying to picture it in my head like the play." haha. And when he read he read the scriptures like the narrator from the play, he was just so excited that he found the story in the BOM! He told us he's going to go home now and show his wife 3 Nephi 11 so that there's no more doubts about our church.
That's the update on our investigators this week! This week had a few other things happen though. Have you guys heard of the movie that's coming out called Meet the Mormons? Holy cow that movie is sweet! It talks about the lives of 6 Mormon families and what they're about. I think it's coming out October 10th. What's so cool about it is that it gives a clearer understanding of all lives of Mormons. We watched the movie this passed Friday and we loved it. President asked us to have our families watch it. It's on meetthemormons.com or it might come out in the theaters in Roosevelt? You could find it on the website for sure. What's even better is that 74% of people that we're not members that watched the movie would recommend it. It's a very touching, inspiring, entertaining movie. It might be on mormonchannel.org too. Speaking of which, we get the chance to go down to the stake center twice a week to see any updates on Mormon message, because here pretty soon they'll have iPads in the mission and we might teach out of them. When I went and watched the Mormon messages I was watching one called "Stop Bullying" My college roommate's girlfriend, Zach Truijilo, was on the video!! I had to rewind it a few times to actually see that it was her. I was pretty stoked when I saw it. Wish I had Zach's email so I could tell him..... So BIG NEWS. I am being transferred back to Porterville!!! Actually it's a little town called Lindsey but it's basically Porterville. Can you believe that?? I was super excited when President told me where I was going. My new companion will be Elder Moody. I'm pretty sad to leave Elder Hall and our members. I loved them so much and I was just getting to know them. Elder Brower is leaving to Fresno East. Our Spanish branch is throwing a Fiesta farewell for Elder Brower and I tonight so it's a bitter/sweet thing haha. I was super shocked to hear I was leaving. I thought I was staying and finishing out with Elder Hall for another Transfer, but if the Lord wants us somewhere else he'll put us there!
So conference, 2 new investigators, Meet the Mormons, and Transfer calls were the highlights of the week! Sounds like everything is going really good back home. Weston's game is super exciting to hear about! Morgan is usually a tough team too. I love how the team continues to improve. Tell them to keep it up! I got the videos and pictures. I'll make sure to watch them :) Tell mar and her team I'm proud too! I'm proud brother that she would wear a Red Sox jersey to school. Speaking of baseball I saw at members home the 18 inning game between the Giants and Nationals. HOLY!! I bet Carter was happy.
I'm glad to hear everything is going good back home! Unfortunately I have limited time and I will let you know how Porterville goes this week! Tell Grandma thank you. I pray for Justin, I pray for the family, I pray for you all! Remember to continue following the prophet because he is the man! As he always says, or as every prophet advises "Try a little harder to be a little better."
Love your son Elder Horrocks
P.S. Will you send pics of West's homecoming game and everything too? Tell him I love him and good luck
He is being transferred to Porterville, which is where he was before he came home, and you can tell he's excited about that! He keeps progressing and he seriously inspires me to be better!!! MAN I LOVE HIM!! I hope everyone enjoys reading his letters as much as I do ;)
Una Semana llenado con bendiciones!
Do you like how I put a heading and then never translate it? This week has been awesome! Words don't describe how General Conference was. I love watching it now more than ever before, but general conf. on a mission is always the best. The beginning of the week didn't start off with too much, but by the end of this week I was pretty mind blown and I'll explain a little bit later. Our investigators are doing really good!! We're still teaching Arturo, but we haven't found him this week. If we find him and find out that he hasn't done much to progress or doesn't want to listen any more, we'll probably have to drop him :(. We've been emphasizing "Read and pray, read and pray" and he's done it a few times but hasn't acted upon it. When we find him we'll see how he's doing with his progression, but he's super busy and hard to catch. Hopefully we help him understand to "apply" the scriptures to himself. Stephanie and Erica are doing good still. We've caught Stephanie a 3 or 4 times this week and she's been progressing little by little. I think we've taught her 3 out of the 5 lessons so far. She knows we come by to only add to the faith and truths that she already knows. We invited her to conference but she wasn't able to come. Dang it! But I believe she watched 15 or 20 minutes of it on her phone? At least that's what she told us (hopefully it was during Elder Bednar's talk, that would've been perfect!) Erica is kind of a different story. She's been super busy with work and everything. The last time we talked to her was 2 weeks ago! Nothing much has happened with her yet... Miguel continues to read just like we ask him :) same with his wife Carmen. We passed by him on Thursday and taught out of those missionary pamphlets. Have you seen those things? They're so simple and easy to use! It's like teaching a little kid! We taught him The Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and it helped him to understand so much more. If you ever get the chance to take a look at them, you will see what I mean by they're simple and effective... We've got two new investigators this week that are super solid! Their names are Tony and Alex. Tony is Axel and Abel's brother. Alex is a guy that came to help set up our Light to the Nations play that we had a few weeks ago. Brother Huerta, who is a counselor in the branch presidency, brought Alex with him. Alex had no idea that Jesus Christ appeared to the Americas. Since the play he's been to the church twice and says that this church is the ONLY church that he's ever got answers from! He's not a part of any other religion so that's good that he found the right one! We taught him about the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Americas in 3 Nephi 11, and you could see the spirit enlighten his mind. It was kind of funny, because as we were teaching him he had a look on his face like he was confused so we asked him if he had any questions and he says, "Oh no! I'm just trying to picture it in my head like the play." haha. And when he read he read the scriptures like the narrator from the play, he was just so excited that he found the story in the BOM! He told us he's going to go home now and show his wife 3 Nephi 11 so that there's no more doubts about our church.
That's the update on our investigators this week! This week had a few other things happen though. Have you guys heard of the movie that's coming out called Meet the Mormons? Holy cow that movie is sweet! It talks about the lives of 6 Mormon families and what they're about. I think it's coming out October 10th. What's so cool about it is that it gives a clearer understanding of all lives of Mormons. We watched the movie this passed Friday and we loved it. President asked us to have our families watch it. It's on meetthemormons.com or it might come out in the theaters in Roosevelt? You could find it on the website for sure. What's even better is that 74% of people that we're not members that watched the movie would recommend it. It's a very touching, inspiring, entertaining movie. It might be on mormonchannel.org too. Speaking of which, we get the chance to go down to the stake center twice a week to see any updates on Mormon message, because here pretty soon they'll have iPads in the mission and we might teach out of them. When I went and watched the Mormon messages I was watching one called "Stop Bullying" My college roommate's girlfriend, Zach Truijilo, was on the video!! I had to rewind it a few times to actually see that it was her. I was pretty stoked when I saw it. Wish I had Zach's email so I could tell him..... So BIG NEWS. I am being transferred back to Porterville!!! Actually it's a little town called Lindsey but it's basically Porterville. Can you believe that?? I was super excited when President told me where I was going. My new companion will be Elder Moody. I'm pretty sad to leave Elder Hall and our members. I loved them so much and I was just getting to know them. Elder Brower is leaving to Fresno East. Our Spanish branch is throwing a Fiesta farewell for Elder Brower and I tonight so it's a bitter/sweet thing haha. I was super shocked to hear I was leaving. I thought I was staying and finishing out with Elder Hall for another Transfer, but if the Lord wants us somewhere else he'll put us there!
So conference, 2 new investigators, Meet the Mormons, and Transfer calls were the highlights of the week! Sounds like everything is going really good back home. Weston's game is super exciting to hear about! Morgan is usually a tough team too. I love how the team continues to improve. Tell them to keep it up! I got the videos and pictures. I'll make sure to watch them :) Tell mar and her team I'm proud too! I'm proud brother that she would wear a Red Sox jersey to school. Speaking of baseball I saw at members home the 18 inning game between the Giants and Nationals. HOLY!! I bet Carter was happy.
I'm glad to hear everything is going good back home! Unfortunately I have limited time and I will let you know how Porterville goes this week! Tell Grandma thank you. I pray for Justin, I pray for the family, I pray for you all! Remember to continue following the prophet because he is the man! As he always says, or as every prophet advises "Try a little harder to be a little better."
Love your son Elder Horrocks
P.S. Will you send pics of West's homecoming game and everything too? Tell him I love him and good luck
The Baptisms Happened!!! They really happened!!! :)
This letter is from Sept. 29th. (I'm going to catch up letters and do 2 at once) He also sent pictures!! YAY!! He's an amazing missionary :) He really does love what he's doing! So inspiring to watch his progress :):)
I got the letter!
This week has been the craziest, busiest, most stressful week I've had thus far. We've been running back and forth from town to town, meeting to meeting. But it was a good week. This week was full of events and I couldn't be more grateful for the miracles we see every day. The highlight of the week (you're all probably wondering if Axel and Abel got baptized) well guess what... THEY DID!! It's about time! I'll send some pictures of it later today hopefully. But wow it was awesome! Everything went well and smooth and it was just a good way to end a week. They got baptized yesterday. Their dad and their uncle Baptized them.
This Thursday we had a zone meeting with our stake presidency and President Clark came and joined us too. We talked about counseling and the real importance of it. Some of us get carried away with our work and to do lists that when we go to ward council on Sunday mornings, we forget to look for referrals and activities and assignments from members so that we can use their help to bring our investigators in to the gospel. So now we focus and being a member of every council instead of just being there to say who we have for investigators. After our zone meeting we had personal interviews with President Clark, just to see how our area is doing and how we are doing individually. I love President Clark so much, and he does so much for this mission! He's truly inspired and works so hard to help and bless us.
Our investigators are doing really good! We found Giovanni this week and taught him about the plan of salvation. We followed up to see if he read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we gave him and he said he forgot :( but we used it to our advantage. We used it to teach our lesson :) once he saw the pictures and the things that we're in it he was pretty stoked to see what we had. I mean who doesn't want to be taught with pictures? When we talked about the Atonement of Christ you could see the look in his eyes that showed he was amazed. He never really thought about Jesus Christ really did until we explained. I used an example for Gio about when I cut my leg open on a scooter when I was 9 years old and how Jesus Christ knew how I felt in that moment, and he looked at me like "what?? really???" hahaha yup! Because how can our savior help us if he doesn't know perfectly how we feel?... I went on exchanges with an Elder named Elder Arroyo on Wednesday. That day we found Miguel and Arturo and they both read the BOM like we asked them to! YES! Miguel's read twice now so that's pretty awesome. Unfortunately with Arturo he didn't pray though. So AGAIN we emphasized that the only way to know is by reading and PRAYING. He was just being stubborn and wouldn't do because he feels like a "giver" and doesn't ask God for things. We told him that God was the biggest giver of all and he loves us and wants to bless us. So he's commanded us to pray to him. We told him that maybe he could ask God to bless him with opportunities to give? We went on to invite him to read 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and to pray again. Except this time we got his number so we could follow up on him. Miguel has been doing really good. He asked us how the BOM is a companion to the bible. We talked him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we are commanded to be baptized the same way he was. In Mathew 3 it talks about Jesus Christ was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. In 2 Ne. 31 it talks about what it means to fulfill all righteousness, which means to set the example for us. It's pretty cool how the BOM and bible are hand in hand! We invited him to be baptized but he said he wanted to know more before he got his answer. So we'll teach him this week a little more... Remember the two sisters Stephanie and Erica? The ones that always have questions? On Thursday after the zone meeting we went to go teach Erica instead we found Stephanie. Now Stephanie was a little more iffy than Erica but we somehow, as we were talking to her, got on the subject of our pre earth life. She thought we were crazy but just said "Yeah we lived with Heavenly Father before we came down here!" and she went and got her bible and we read Jeremiah 1:5. After that she unloaded these questions on us and wanted to know more. After we talked a little bit we invited her to read the intro to the BOM and to pray to know for herself if what we teach is true. She said that she was scared to know if it's true, because if it is she's scared that she's going to have to change. So we keep talking and this is how I know the BOM is true, because we used it to answer every question. At the end we invited her to pray but she was kind of timid, but kept telling her "You can do it!" (like that one guy always says in Adam Sandler's movies) she said no. And we were about ready to pull out the BOM! The weapon! She says "What are you going to read now?" and we just said "We got all kinds of stuff in here." She finally said "Ok I'll pray!" hahahaha... Friday wasn't much. We had a ward activity at Brother Huerta's house. Elder Hall and I gave a brief spiritual thought on how to be prepared for General Conference. My advice to you family is go to G.C. with a question that you've always had and expect it to be answered. Write it on a piece of paper and then jot down notes during their talks. After the sessions are over go over the notes and scripture reference and your mind will be opened! (D&C 42:61) I love G.C. during my mission. It's always one of the best times of the year.
Well that's all that happened for the week but I got your videos on pics :) I love em!! Makes me miss everyone! I'll see if I can send some videos too when I get the chance. I'm glad to hear about Justin. I sure do love him, tell him to keep it up! Wish I could have been at the concert that sounds super tight. One day for sure we'll all go. I love hearing from friends back home! Send Cramer, all I care for, my love to them. I'm sure they know, but just let them know again. I'm sorry I don't get much to say about what goes on back home but I love hearing stories..
Well my time is short as usual but I love you all, and it's so good to hear from you. I'll send pics today when I can. Love ya!
Elder Horrocks
 |
| After zone meeting we were chilling for a bit. Me, Elder Moosman, and Elder Checkets |
 |
| My Comp |
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| Our entire zone after zone meeting. I can't name everyone but Zone leaders are Elder Cook (far left on the end, standing up) and Elder Bozwell (Far right on the edge standing up) and President Clark in the middle |
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| Elder Arroyo and I after it rained again this week |
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| Elder Hall, Axel (left) Abel (right) and Myself before their baptism |
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| Elder Hall, Freddy (He baptized Axel, He's their uncle) Abel, President Hernandez (baptized Abel, Grandpa of both Axel and Abel) and myself |
I got the letter!
This week has been the craziest, busiest, most stressful week I've had thus far. We've been running back and forth from town to town, meeting to meeting. But it was a good week. This week was full of events and I couldn't be more grateful for the miracles we see every day. The highlight of the week (you're all probably wondering if Axel and Abel got baptized) well guess what... THEY DID!! It's about time! I'll send some pictures of it later today hopefully. But wow it was awesome! Everything went well and smooth and it was just a good way to end a week. They got baptized yesterday. Their dad and their uncle Baptized them.
This Thursday we had a zone meeting with our stake presidency and President Clark came and joined us too. We talked about counseling and the real importance of it. Some of us get carried away with our work and to do lists that when we go to ward council on Sunday mornings, we forget to look for referrals and activities and assignments from members so that we can use their help to bring our investigators in to the gospel. So now we focus and being a member of every council instead of just being there to say who we have for investigators. After our zone meeting we had personal interviews with President Clark, just to see how our area is doing and how we are doing individually. I love President Clark so much, and he does so much for this mission! He's truly inspired and works so hard to help and bless us.
Our investigators are doing really good! We found Giovanni this week and taught him about the plan of salvation. We followed up to see if he read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we gave him and he said he forgot :( but we used it to our advantage. We used it to teach our lesson :) once he saw the pictures and the things that we're in it he was pretty stoked to see what we had. I mean who doesn't want to be taught with pictures? When we talked about the Atonement of Christ you could see the look in his eyes that showed he was amazed. He never really thought about Jesus Christ really did until we explained. I used an example for Gio about when I cut my leg open on a scooter when I was 9 years old and how Jesus Christ knew how I felt in that moment, and he looked at me like "what?? really???" hahaha yup! Because how can our savior help us if he doesn't know perfectly how we feel?... I went on exchanges with an Elder named Elder Arroyo on Wednesday. That day we found Miguel and Arturo and they both read the BOM like we asked them to! YES! Miguel's read twice now so that's pretty awesome. Unfortunately with Arturo he didn't pray though. So AGAIN we emphasized that the only way to know is by reading and PRAYING. He was just being stubborn and wouldn't do because he feels like a "giver" and doesn't ask God for things. We told him that God was the biggest giver of all and he loves us and wants to bless us. So he's commanded us to pray to him. We told him that maybe he could ask God to bless him with opportunities to give? We went on to invite him to read 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and to pray again. Except this time we got his number so we could follow up on him. Miguel has been doing really good. He asked us how the BOM is a companion to the bible. We talked him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we are commanded to be baptized the same way he was. In Mathew 3 it talks about Jesus Christ was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. In 2 Ne. 31 it talks about what it means to fulfill all righteousness, which means to set the example for us. It's pretty cool how the BOM and bible are hand in hand! We invited him to be baptized but he said he wanted to know more before he got his answer. So we'll teach him this week a little more... Remember the two sisters Stephanie and Erica? The ones that always have questions? On Thursday after the zone meeting we went to go teach Erica instead we found Stephanie. Now Stephanie was a little more iffy than Erica but we somehow, as we were talking to her, got on the subject of our pre earth life. She thought we were crazy but just said "Yeah we lived with Heavenly Father before we came down here!" and she went and got her bible and we read Jeremiah 1:5. After that she unloaded these questions on us and wanted to know more. After we talked a little bit we invited her to read the intro to the BOM and to pray to know for herself if what we teach is true. She said that she was scared to know if it's true, because if it is she's scared that she's going to have to change. So we keep talking and this is how I know the BOM is true, because we used it to answer every question. At the end we invited her to pray but she was kind of timid, but kept telling her "You can do it!" (like that one guy always says in Adam Sandler's movies) she said no. And we were about ready to pull out the BOM! The weapon! She says "What are you going to read now?" and we just said "We got all kinds of stuff in here." She finally said "Ok I'll pray!" hahahaha... Friday wasn't much. We had a ward activity at Brother Huerta's house. Elder Hall and I gave a brief spiritual thought on how to be prepared for General Conference. My advice to you family is go to G.C. with a question that you've always had and expect it to be answered. Write it on a piece of paper and then jot down notes during their talks. After the sessions are over go over the notes and scripture reference and your mind will be opened! (D&C 42:61) I love G.C. during my mission. It's always one of the best times of the year.
Well that's all that happened for the week but I got your videos on pics :) I love em!! Makes me miss everyone! I'll see if I can send some videos too when I get the chance. I'm glad to hear about Justin. I sure do love him, tell him to keep it up! Wish I could have been at the concert that sounds super tight. One day for sure we'll all go. I love hearing from friends back home! Send Cramer, all I care for, my love to them. I'm sure they know, but just let them know again. I'm sorry I don't get much to say about what goes on back home but I love hearing stories..
Well my time is short as usual but I love you all, and it's so good to hear from you. I'll send pics today when I can. Love ya!
Elder Horrocks
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