Hello Family

He's getting more and more mature with every letter!!  I love hearing his thoughts and advise.  It makes me wonder if the spirit will continue to grow at this rate!?!?  I thought I knew the definition of "spiritual giant" but it's kind of taken on a whole new meaning to me now ;)...  Also, I'm considering making this blog private.  I wanted it to be public so that anyone searching for the gospel could feel of his testimony if they happened upon it.  But a couple things have been brought to my attention on privacy and I may being making it private.  I'm obviously still thinking about it ;)  I'll let you know... Still no pictures :(  I did receive some in the mail from his mission president tho!!  I will scan them and post them ASAP!!! Enjoy:

This week was pretty awesome actually! We had 3 meetings this week in a row so it was a little bit different this week. We had trainer/trainee meeting, District meeting, and Zone conference all in one week, and they were all scheduled 3 days in a row. We were really fortunate to keep our numbers up this week cause of the meetings we had, because we worked really hard. We learned so much in our meetings such as: How to recognize the spirit, the Atonement, Professionalism, How to control our thoughts, just little simple things we can do to become a better missionary. One of my favorite things about President Gelwix is that he is so inspired and is his own person. He gives us blessings every time we have the opportunity to meet with him. This week he said to us, "Don't be a prisoner of your past." Which to me is huge. I hope we can apply this to ourselves, and investigators as well. 

My love out here continues to increase for the people. I love hearing about changes that come into peoples lives, including my own... This week we have 2 progressing investigators. We'd like to have more, but these two that we have are really solid. Martin is one of them. We had a lesson with him about Joseph Smith and the BOM. We asked him to pray about it to know if it was true with us. It was a simple little prayer, but afterwards he said he felt a feeling overcome him. We knew he felt the spirit, and we knew we needed to help him gain his own testimony of Joseph Smith and the BOM to progress. And NOW we can help him quit smoking :) we love Martin, he's awesome

Our other investigator is Joel and Rosie. And he said that he is going to try and pray to know if he wants to be baptized because he feels that baptism in the Catholic Church is the wrong authority. But he knows our purpose and he knows that we are true messengers from the Father. 

Other than that we have had many miracles placed in our path. We have miracles everyday! It's truly amazing. One thing that stook out to me was that God prompts us through the Holy Ghost even when people decide to reject us or not answer their doors. The reason being that is so that we can meet someone else ready to hear the gospel at the right place at the right time. It's amazing how the Lord works. We actually met a new investigator because of this. Her name is Colypsa and she has had problems with family sickness and surgeries in the past. She said she's willing to hear our message 

Also this week we had the wonderful opportunity to teach a primary class :) which was a little different. There's only 5 or 6 kids in primary, which isn't to bad because it felt like my branch in white rocks :) our ward is actually super small.

We also had the opportunity to meet a traveling hippy. His name is Dano and he is kind of a psycho. He's traveled all over the country for... well just because I guess. He's originally from Utah and I guess he has been to Vernal. We tried teaching him about the gospel but wouldn't fully accept us but he'd be willing to talk to us. We tried giving him a card from us and said we'd give him an English card cause we have all Spanish cards, but then he started speaking Spanish to us!!! What the heck!!

I love hearing about stories back home, everyone seems to be doing awesome! Weston's Football games, Charleigh and J.T., Marleigh's volleyball games, you and Justin. Everyone seems to be doing great :) but I'll let you know if I need anything else. Love you all!

Elder Horrocks

P.S. Isaiah 41:10, read it :)

Ola!!

For some reason Alex didn't get my letter this week :(...  I don't know why it makes me so sad, but it does!!  I feel like I missed a phone call or he wasn't home when I stopped by or something!!  He knew I had written a letter because I sent some pictures in a different email and included a little part about something I forgot to put in the original email.  So he sent the same email to both his Dad & I and then sent me an email that said he didn't get my letter but he did get my pics.  Hopefully it's a fluke thing!!!  And no pictures this week still :(  He still doesn't have the USB cord to his camera.  Maybe next week ;)  ...He's such an AWESOME missionary!  LOVE HIM!


Hola Mi Familia!

So there has been a whole lot that has been going on this week. We first off had many miracles!! Especially Saturday and Sunday. Our investigator Martin finally came to church!! After we asked him about 3 times he finally decided to come. I love Martin, he has such a good heart. We are still trying to help him quit smoking. He really wants to quit but he is scared to change also. But he knows our purpose of being there a long side him. He says to us, "I know you guys are really kind, but you guys don't like to mess around." Hahaha so that just shows that he knows we love him and that we want to help him.

Elder Tesimale and I were contacting in some apartments this past Saturday. I don't think we'll be going back there again because they were not ready to hear the gospel at all (they were all white too). We got rejected plenty of times. So after that, we decided to go knock some houses instead, and we still had no luck... I told my companion that I feel inspired to pray right in the middle of the street, and we prayed and asked for help and to find someone that's ready to hear the gospel. Later on we found a Spanish house! They were a couple named Joel and Rosie. We were so relieved to find someone to teach. But when we were teaching they said they had a Book of Mormon that was given to them from some other elders in the past, but it made no sense to them. We explained the BOM to them, and the importance of it. After that they said to us that it made sooooo much more sense and they wanted to join our church!! We haven't even really fully taught these people, and they already wanted to join our church!! They're super solid, and they want us to teach them more. 

Well that's about all that happened this week. And it's been amazing. I'm sure there is more experiences I've had but I can't think of them at the moment... Tell Heather thanks for her package! I loved how she sent pink cookies and lots of candy, but mostly the pink cookies. I got Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jeff's letter too. I was sooooo excited because they are my first letter ever! I also got one from Jamie and Nate, haha Cohen draws the funniest pictures. AND last but not least I got one from my mom. I'm so happy to finally have my own shampoo now, and the nesquick and pull up bar is a plus!!

Holy cow Union beat Carbon 49 to 0!! That's awesome! Way to take it to the dinos! And Wes getting 4 touchdowns?? What a stud!

Sounds like all is well back home! Thank you for the pictures by the way. I'm glad Marleigh kicked butt in powder puff football too. And J.T. is getting huge! Looks like fun having to rake leaves. Nobody rakes leaves in Porterville haha the coldest it has ever been is probley 60. But I enjoy pictures every time you all send them. And I promise that one day when I get a USB chord you will see the parted hair :). 

Well I love ya family!! It's always so good to hear from everyone back home! And remember the Lord in all things. I'm truly so grateful to have the opportunity to help others come closer to Christ. I keep you all in my prayers everyday. Hast Luego!

Love always Elder Horrocks

P.S. tell Britton I said Happy Birthday!!

Hey Y'all

I LOVED watching conference this week!!  I knew that Alex was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time and I felt like Fievel in An American Tale when he's looking at the moon singing "Somewhere Out There". ha ha ha!  I know I'm a weirdo but that's how I felt!!  ...It literally gave me comfort to know that we were doing the same thing.  I felt like he could have been sitting next to me on the couch and I loved it!!!  He had another great week :):)  GEEZ I LOVE HIM!!!

 

Hey Y'all

This week was full of blessings and miracles! It's been pretty crazy with the work down here in Porterville. When I wrote you last week I actually had the opportunity to go on my first companionship exchange, because Elder Tesimale had to go to a training meeting in Fresno. So it was me and an Elder named Elder Hill, he's pretty cool and works really hard. When I was with him I had to speak a lot more English to him rather than Spanish. We went back and forth in our assigned areas teaching lots of different people. It's very rare when an Elder shows up in a mission, and has to go on a transfer after being out in the field for a week. So it was definitely a different experience!

The main highlight of our week was conference. Wow!! It was amazing to hear their messages! They emphasized a lot on the Atonement and on rising up and coming unto to Christ. When I would take notes I heard in almost every talk that would quote Jesus Christ, "Come unto me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." One of the biggest things our  whole mission is doing is trying to apply the Atonement into our lives as missionaries. We have loved it so much because of the blessings it brings! Anything in life that is unfair can be made fair through the Atonement of Christ. Everything can become better through the Atonement of Christ. One of my favorite talks was given by Adrian Ochoa, and he said, "When your testimony is questioned, or you need spiritual strength... Look up." and so I have been doing that or trying to apply that to myself so I can be a better missionary. But of course everything we learn in conference we can apply to our lives!

Yeah we part our hair out here :) it actually doesn't look that bad, because everybody wears it haha. But yes we are super obedient out here and we honor our mission traditions. But I'm not sure how long ago the promise of parting the hair was given. I just know that Elder L. Tom Perry gave it. I can't send pictures of my parted hair yet because I don't have a USB chord. But I'll send some as soon as I can!

Martin is doing good! We are trying to help him quit smoking still but he needs to come to church before he can be baptized as well. We invited him to Conference but unfortunately he wasn't able to show. Ha we invited lots of our investigators to come to conference or church but we haven't had much luck yet. But we still got to keep our heads up and strive for the best, and most importantly have faith! That's what runs this mission is baptisms and faith... Oh but we did get another person to commit to baptism in the first lesson!! That was awesome!

I'm glad to hear you have met two mothers of two elders that I have already met out here :) Elder Barney actually said that you emailed his mom. And Elder Connor Wright is our district leader and he lives in the same apartment complex as us. We are pretty good buddies :) He's played baseball and played at Orem High School, so we get along really well. I've met lots of Elders who I've already become great friends with.

I was so happy to hear about the Mexico City MTC!! It felt like I was looking at my old home. Mexico City MTC was one of the best things that's happened to me. I've met President Carlos Pratt there, who's the president of the MTC. And I think I listened to Elder Velenzuela while I was down there too, but I'm not quite sure.

Sounds like all is well back home :) I love hearing about good news and about how everybody's doing. Sorry to hear about football, but I know they're working hard and trying to be a better team. And I know Weston is tearing it up, he always does. Tell him to keep it up, and to continue to be a leader and a example to the team. Haha J.T. still sounds like J.T. :) I love hearing his stories. It sounds like Marleigh's team beat Uintah! Tell Marleigh that I told her she would beat them! Charleigh... It's crazy to hear how fast she is growing! It'll be different seeing here later. And I'm really happy to hear that you and Justin are applying the teachings of the prophets and apostles to your lives :) There will be so many blessings, temporal and spiritual, that will be poured from heaven from obeying the law of tithing as Elder Bednar said.

Welp... Conference is great. And I love you guys. And I am truly grateful to be serving here in Fresno! I will write you more next week, I hope I got everything in this letter. There were probably more but we are just so super busy that I can't remember all that goes on. But I love you all, and I will talk to you soon :)

Love Elder Horrocks

P.S. I haven't got the packages yet but I'm sure they are at the mission home. I'll probably get them in a week or so... Also the prophets said that Members in missionary work is important, so if you ever have the opportunity be willing to help a missionary :) President Monson said, "May we all be found doing the work of the Lord."

I'm Here!!!! & The First Week :)

I'm posting his letter from the day he got there and this weeks letter at the same time.  He's really enjoying it!!  I also subscribed to an email group of moms who have missionaries in Fresno and there are quite a few moms with missionaries in Porterville also :) It's exciting to have others to talk to who have sons right there too!!  One mother has family only 20 min away and said they are willing to help if anything is needed :)  YAY!!  They also have such fun and cool ideas for them.  Who knew??  One of the moms said that her son had funny dog stories to tell also.  I'll have to find out what the deal is with the dogs ;)...  One more thing I can't even IMAGINE what Al is going to look like with his hair parted!! lol. Cool story tho! ENJOY!!

Last Wednesday's letter:

I am here and I absolutely love it. I got here at the mission home and they had me go to straight to work. They had me working me Elder Garcia, and we went and contacted people on the streets for a couple hours, it was awesome! (we almost got chased by a dog it was awesome) He said I did pretty good for a first time, I love being able to do this work here now, and everybody is so welcoming.

Well I only have 5 minutes so love you all! Hasta Luego

Elder Horrocks

Monday's Letter:

The First Week

Well All I can say is that I am sooooo happy to finally be in Fresno! It has been pretty different from the MTC. The first night we got here I met Pres. Gelwix and he is awesome! He is an inspired man and makes me want to work hard out here. Everybody is so welcoming and loving here in this mission. Everywhere we go and talk to we tell them we love them. Its awkward at first but that's how we develop Christlike attributes. It's a super obedient mission out here as well. And a funny story is in our mission, we have to part our hair. So I am going to be parting my hair for the next 2 years. But there's a reason for it... Elder L. Tom Perry came to this mission and said, "If you will part your hair you will get twice as many baptisms." Well hey, if he says so then we do it. It also symbolizes that we "part ourselves from the world"

My Area is beautiful! It's called Porterville and it's about an 1 hour to 1 and a 1/2 from Fresno. But yeah I did get chased by a dog. It was scary because I've never been in that situation before. My new companion is Elder Tesimale. He is from Virginia and he is Samoan. He is a great trainer and is so in tune with the spirit and thankfully knows Spanish really well. I thought I knew a lot of Spanish, but no I still have a ways to go. I can still teach and stuff but it's different talking to real people and trying to hold a conversation. But really I can see myself improving already. My purpose right now is to always remember my purpose, because you can easily distracted in the field. But faith in the Lord always helps with that.

One Investigator we are teaching right now, name is Martin. He's awesome! He seems to really want to change and be a better person in life is what he says. So were trying to help him repent and quit smoking so he can be baptized by October 27th. Other than him we've talked with lots of people on the streets. That's a majority of what we do is go talk to people on the streets and bless their families with a prayer or share a scripture or anything. We call them Harvest Blessings.

It was great to hear all of you guys on Wednesday!! I loved it! I wish I would of had a little more time but there will be another time again. You guys all sounded so happy! I especially loved listening to J.T. say "cococo" haha but now your gonna have to teach him to say Fresno... I will keep praying for you guys. JT's sickness, Justin's trial, Weston, Marleigh, Mom, Charliegh, Grandma everybody back home. Tell Justin that he's okay. We all have trials, but we chose to come to earth to face challenges. The Lord said it wouldn't be easy but he said it would be worth it. And tell him I love him too.

Keep those stories coming because I love hearing from all you guys. Haha sounds like everything back home is crazy as always. But that's good I guess. But this is all I have to write because not a lot has happened yet except just preaching the Gospel and meeting new people :) Well I love you all. And God bless!

Elder Horrocks

P.S. if you could, send me that pull up bar that's in my room if Weston's not using it please, I fear that i will get fat haha so if you could send that. that'd be great

P.S.S WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE!! There's much to learn from the Prophets this coming week!


Alex's addresses are permanently on the side of the blog but I'll put it here also.  The address is the same for written letters and packages.
 Elder Alex Horrocks
California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo Ave

Fresno, CA

93704

Como estan?? (how are you all?)

  This was just for fun... This was our last district picture together at the temple taken from Sister Mills camera, I think they´re hilarious enjoy :)

I've had sick babies so I apologize for taking so long to post Alex's letter.  He's awesome (as usual)!!  I also got to talk to him today!!!!  I was so excited to hear his voice that I started to cry and forgot everything that I wanted to ask and say!!!  Luckily my Mom, Carmen, Marleigh, and Lexi were here to visit also ;)  Next time I'm going to write all my questions and make notes of everything I want to say so I don't forget :)  He's soooooo excited to get to Fresno!!  He said that he and Elder Nye talked to a man while they were on the plane and placed a B.O.M with him.  He said that they used their awesome teamwork and did great!! He doesn't know what part of the mission he'll be in yet but he said he'd let me know as soon as he could.  I will also post his addresses and they will always be available on the right side of the blog ;)

He also wanted me to tell the football team how much he loves them and to remember that they are examples to everyone and have a lot of people looking up to and watching them.  He hopes they learn a valuable lesson in character and serving others ;)

Enjoy the letter...........

Como estan?? (how are you all?)

Well my week in a nut shell isn´t nearly as crazy as yours but as usual we always have different things every week. This week was the slowest/fastest week of our lives. The reason I say that is because we are so close to the mission and it is tomorrow!! But it´s slow because we are so anxious to get out and serve! This week we taught really well. Yesterday was Elder Nye´s and I last lesson. And we did way awesome! In our lesson we truly felt the spirit. We taught an investigator named Hangel about the word of wisdom and he said we did awesome. Looking back at how we first started teaching, we´ve come a long long ways. Teaching is kind of like just being the persons friend and loving them with all your heart, and the way you love them is you invite them to Christ. Oh and we also taught our district about the apostacy this past Sunday, it was really good.

This week was of course our last week in the MTC. I can honestly say it feels like the weirdest feeling packing up my bags and leaving what was my home for six months. In these past six weeks I have made so many friends and it´s a bitter sweet taste to leave them to serve the Lord. Especially our district, I´ve come so close to them. It's amazing that the Gospel can bring so many together. We all just love each other to death. Ha and as of right now our entire district has left me and Elder Nye hanging out to dry. Right now it´s just been me and him these last couple days. It´s awkward when you look around the classroom and see just us two, it´s kind of funny though. But now it´s our time tomorrow and I can´t wait :) I´m gonna miss this place so much and it brings me tears thinking about it. But I feel ready for Fresno!

So on the mission: I will leave Mexico MTC at 4 in the morning :P and our plane leaves at 7:30 am. We go early so we don´t have any problems especially here in Mexcio City Airport, it gets congested. But then I´ll arive in Dallas at about 10:10 is the expected time, and we have an 1 hour and 40 minute overlay so we would be leaving at 11:50 (so in Utah it´ll be from 9:10 to 10:50). So I´m going to hurry and find my next plane and call you guys as soon as I can. With the time I have I´ll probley just call you and Dad and so if you can invite everyone in the family to come around when I call. After that I´ll leave to Fresno and arrive at approximately 1:15 and then get picked up, have lunch, and stay at the mission home that night :) which I don´t know where that is, I'm sure it´s the presidents house. But if I don´t get a chance to call you in Dallas, hopefully I will in Fresno, and if not there, then I promise there will be a time when I will :) But cross your fingers and keep praying!

That´s not good to hear about the football team. All I can say for them is, even though we make mistakes, don´t shy away from them. Be willing to change, and to be different. Be a positive influence for others, because they are one of the greatest examples to the school. Don´t be content, and don´t complain. Things like this are only to make you become better people, but you have to be willing to change. I love the heck out of them :) tell them to keep their heads up and keep working hard.

And also I don´t know alot about Judge game. But I wish them the best of luck this week if they play. It should be a dedication to win homecoming always, especially for those seniors!

I love hearing about the good stories back home! Haha they crack me up everytime! Keep those coming. Sounds like J.T. is a little rampant around the house. Tell him I love him and that brother Alex says be nice the sister Charleigh :).

Weston and Marleigh are doing good with sports and school it sounds like. I´m glad to hear about how well they are doing. I´ll try and write back to them and tell them I´m proud of them and i love them :) by the way I guess Marleigh´s team is so good that other teams don´t even show up? HAHA yup that´s how it´s done

I got Jonah´s letter tell him thanks! Tell everyone else back in Roosy town I´d love to hear from them as well. I can´t wait to hear from Gary and Patrick if I get the chance.

Well before I end I just want to say I can´t wait to talk to you guys! It´ll be crazy getting to hear your voices. I love you all. And a thought I want to share from a devotional we watched this week from Elder Richard G. Scott, and this stuck out to me like a sore thumb. "The Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail." I thought about that and thought wow the Lord expects so much of us but we are called of him to be successful. Of course we have to put forth effort and work hard. But we weren´t put on earth to fail. We don´t do all the things we do now to fail, because God see´s greatness in all of us.

Love you all!! Hasta Luego

Elder Horrocks a.k.a Reverand

This was just for fun... This was our last district picture together at the temple taken from Sister Mills camera, I think they´re hilarious enjoy :)

Wwwoowww!!!

He still sounds so happy!!  I love hearing his spirit grow as he relies on himself and the lord :)  What a wonderful example for our family, his friends and soon to be Fresno!!! 

Doing selfies at the temple again.

Wwwoowww this week has been pretty crazy!! The main event of the week was Mexican Night. Mexican Night is the celebration of when Mexico declared their independence from Spain September 15, 1810 or 1820 or something. It´s basically like Mexico´s 4th of July. Except here it´s a little bit crazier and sometimes a little bit cooler ;) the way we celebrated it here in the MTC was we had some dancers and singers come and perform for us. The men would throw swords up in the air and do this weird dance. It was one of the sickest things I have ever seen. Sooooo this week I´ve seen more action than I have seen in 6 weeks haha. What Mexico does for Mexican Night is just go nuts, there´s no rules you just basically go do whatever you want and go to parties and make lots of noises. We were hardly able to sleep at all during the night cause the city was hectic! Fireworks going off everywhere. Why don´t we have a go crazy american night?? You guys should have been here to see it, you would have loved it. We also were able to chant with the president of Mexico on live TV "VIVA MEXICO VIVA!!" which means live mexico! On the last night, he waves the flag and everybody in all of mexico chants what he says. It´s pretty sweet.

We also got to go to the Mexico Temple again. I loved it of course. I was kind of sad because it was my last time being there in I don´t know how long. And I took some good pictures too. Unfortunately I wont be able to send pictures this week cause i don´t have someone´s USB chord to use :( but I´ll try and send some next week. The MTC is good as always. I´m really excited to leave though so I can bless the people of Fresno. but I am also going to be really sad to leave the new friends I have made here. Everybody feels the same way as I do. But I don´t blame them. This week is going to go by soooooooooo slow! Haha Because we are all so excited.

I´m So glad to hear about Football! If we don´t beat Uintah at least beat Park city because they drive me nuts too! I´m glad to hear little brother is doing awesome as well. Tell him to keep tearing it up and that I love him and am so proud of him. Wish I played as much varsity ball at his age and got as much playing time as he does as a sophomore. Haha I love hearing about J.T. sounds like he is being himself of course. It kind of got me tearied eyed thinking about him acting the way he does. I love him to death. And it´s weird to think how fast Marleigh is growing up. She´ll be a freshman in highschool when I get back. WHAT??? Ha that´s how weird it is. She´s gonna tear it up in volleyball too. Charleigh and Marleigh growing up is definitely different not watching them grow up. but i´m really happy to hear all is well at home. And tell Justin to keep working hard and that I love him too. Tell the whole Arnold family hi for me. Sounds like Moma misses me alot haha. Just remember how fast the MTC went by and how 2 years will go and it won´t seem to bad. But I miss you guys too, so your not the only one!

The package seems awesome!! I can´t wait to get it! But if you could put some batteries with it too if you could. Other than that i think I´m pretty good :) oh wait send some shampoo and body wash too pretty please. I told Dad to send some batteries so maybe just send the shampoo and stuff. I´ll let you guys decide that. Other than that thank you for everything!!

Well I´ll talk to ya´ll later. Let weston and mar know i got their letter if i don´t get to write them back.

Me Amais! (love you all) BEAT JUDGE!

P.S. I leave next wednesday the 25th at like 3 in the morning and I will call you when I hit Dallas. Hit me up with some numbers in case I don´t get ahold of your phone or something. Or send other peoples numbers too if you´d like.

A cookie and Elder Robinson

These two elders were leaving and they´re one of my best friends. Elder Garcia and Elder Nickolson

Oh you know just more selfies

This was our close up of our district

Last time at the Mexico City temple as a district

Musc mentioned in Alex's Letter... It's a good start - Mutual 2013