Happy Thanksgiving Week!!

Fun week of Turkey Bowl's!!  Sounds like he had a great time at the zone activity playing football again!  He got to take Charlie and his cousin along with :) How great is that??!!  They're looking to set some baptism dates as goals.  I had a feeling last week that things weren't going well between M. and T.  I really hope that things will look up for them soon or that they will find some peace if they go their separate ways.  Keep praying for them all!

Enjoy!!

Moro Rock. This thing is huge!!

The General sherman a.k.a. the biggest tree in the world

The trunk is big

It's all about perspective. If you zoom in on the diagram it shows you sizes of branches and gives you other perspectives, age etc. Standing next to the General Sherman is like a mouse looking up to a 6 foot tall human

The General sherman from a distance. if you zoom in you can see the little people

Familia

So this letter is going to be a little short because we just got back from a zone activity. We played turkey bowl/flag football and it was a lot of fun! There was probably 40 or 50 missionaries there. I got to catch up some old faces again and also met some new friends. Our friend Charlie came with us and his cousin Steve did too. They enjoyed it, who knows maybe Steve is going to be interested in talking to the missionaries now. I had a lot of fun for sure! I scored 4 or 5 touchdowns and we won by one just barely. There was quite a bit of athletes there too. Soccer, Rugby, Football, Runners, a lot of athletes.

This week has been great! We're focusing right now on setting a baptism date because we don't have anymore right now. We have one maybe 2 very possible investigators that we can get committed to a baptism. Their name is the Chavez family (I'm not sure if you've heard of them or if I told you of them) they have cousins in our ward. The whole family is Catholic but they like when we go by and chat with them. Their  daughter Mar. is so solid, and she's 8 years old and comes to our church all the time. It's just that when we asked her Dad for permision if she could be baptized he said no... But we passed by with a member just to maybe see if they could build a relationship with the family. We taught them about Mosiah 4:19 and being humble as a child and putting off the natural man and coming unto Christ and being baptized. We went into other discussions but we ended up inviting him to pray to know if he should let Mar. be baptized.... We could tell he was scared to do it because he knew that he would receive an answer. We haven't been able to drop by and follow up with him about it, but he told us he would :) Mar. is going to be baptized! Hopefully the rest of the family will follow her example. Hope and pray that she will be able to though... There's still hope for M. and T.! Well I should say T. The other day she told us that her and M. aren't doing so well. M. doesn't really understand the role of the father in the family and isn't very responsible, he still has issues with gangs, drugs, and various other things. We still hope they can stay together and work things out but it sounds like they're going to separate, which is still hard because they both have no where to go if they do. T. has been praying to know if she should leave him or not. If it's God's will that she should go find someone better then that's that. We just don't want her to be forced to do so. If she ends up leaving we pray that she can find something better and she still says she has the desire to listen to us and be baptized no matter what happens. M.'s just been kind of a stumbling block, we'll see what happens between them though... Si.'s doing great! We watched the Restoration video with her and she thought it was beautiful, and we were able to do it in a members home. She feeds us a lot!! No matter if we ate dinner before or not. She's awesome, and progressing well. (I asked her husband if he did fantasy football and he doesn't, but he was surprised that our family does! I think he thought we put bets during fantasy football, do we do bets in our family??) V. and I.'s marriage looks like an upside! We talked to them yesterday with Brother Cregor (who's a family therapist) and he tore it up!! He is a beast! "There's still love in the home" he said to them :)... Our other investigators either we were not able to catch up to this week or they weren't in town. Like S. and J. They're still on their drug probation so they randomly have to leave to Porterville and do drug tests, which unfortunately has taken them away from having the opportunity to come to church :( Charlie got the Priesthood this Sunday, and Jesse and Hunter will probably get it this Wednesday. They'll be going to the temple this Saturday in Fresno. Great things in store for them still! Charlie is doing good in his calling too.

Well I know it's short but that's kind of all I got! I have very little time too. This week on Thanksgiving we're doing another Turkey Bowl with our ward on Thursday morning. Then we're going to a couple family thanksgiving dinners during the day. Wish me luck because I'm gonna die! I enough food as it is. It's kind of weird not being home for the Holidays, but I still miss you guys. No worries though because our ward family here in Lindsey takes pretty good care of us.

Wish Weston good luck for me in his game against Juab. Sounds like Mar is tearing it up too.

The weather out here is getting cold!! Probably not as cold as back home though huh. It rains like once a week now. Feels wayyyy different without the snow around. When Christmas time reaches around it'll definitely be a white christmas, just with a bunch of fog instead of snow.

Well I love you all! Sorry this had to be short, but I wish a happy thanksgiving and all my love back home. Love ya

Love Elder Horrocks

Baptisms and More Baptisms!!

What an amazing week for Alex!!  They had 2 baptisms.  You can feel the spirit so strong in his letter!!  I love the friendships they have developed with their investigators.  I truly believe that those friendships are going to be what keeps them active as members of the church :)  I also love the experiences and growth that they are giving my son.  He loves them!  It's such a wonderful feeling as a mother to see my son, who is thousands of miles away from me, wholeheartedly loving and giving of himself to others!  He loves his work and what he is doing :)  P.S.  Elder Nye was Alex's first companion ever from the MTC.  He was from Heber and they bonded right away knowing that their homes were so close together and that they had several people that they knew in common.  He is now his district leader and Alex loves his example!

I also love the little blip he put in about the Mexican Culture and their visions of Christ.  How exciting and what a beautiful experience to have!  I have been to Mexico on a couple different trips and specifically went to different ruins that depicted some of the stories in the BOM.  What a huge testimony builder it was to see some of the places where you can just SEE the stories in the BOM unfolding and understand the way that they happened!  The Mexican culture truly are blessed :)

Good Luck to Charlie in his new calling!!!  It seems the Lord has BIG things in store for him!

Elder Nye and Charlie

Me, Tony (Hunter's dad), Hunter, Elder Moody, and Charlie

Baptisms and more baptisms

Yes, baptisms and more baptisms!! We had two more this past Saturday. This week has been an awesome week. We've been super busy but we got great things out of it. So Charlie and Hunter were the ones that were baptized. What a cool experience it was for them. What's crazy is that the week before ANY one get's baptized, Satan tries to make it hectic more than anything. For Hunter it wasn't as bad. He told us that his mom was a little iffy about it, saying he was to young or that he wasn't ready, but I believe she decided to just let Hunter choose for himself. His mom is super cool she just didn't quite understand the importance of baptism.   When Hunter was baptized he had to do his twice, because the first time wasn't approved. I was one of the witnesses for the baptism and I told them they had to do it again, which I kinda felt bad for saying. What's even better is that after Hunter got dunked he came up with a bloody nose hahaha poor kid! I guess the temperature of the water can cause nose bleeds sometimes, at least that's what bishop said. Good thing none of his blood got in the water. But all was well because the second time he did it, it was good and Hunter was clean!!... Charlie was confronted with all sorts of temptations and challenges. I won't go into detail of what they were but it seems like Heavenly Father had something big for Charlie, and there's more to come. After he was baptized and confirmed he said he felt this peace, like none other that he ever felt before. He then received a calling just yesterday!! He's the ward mission leader's secretary, can you believe that?? That doesn't happen often at all unless they're super prepared, which Charlie was very prepared, I guess that's what he gets for coming out on visits with us even before his baptism.

Everyone else is doing were good too! M. and T. are still being bums and won't come to church. It's only been T. that's been able to come. We saw M. yesterday with a member that was in M.s situation before, and talked to him about just coming and seeing for himself. He doesn't have to do anything, join us, be a member, or whatever just come and see! I think he wants to be stuck in the whole virgin marry thing and the old traditions. But with our members it's ten times easier to get them to come. S. and J. are doing good too. They came to Church last week but not this week unfortunately. They're both on programs for drugs which is good, at least they're not struggling. They've both been going and haven't done drugs for like a year now? That's awesome! Now the Gospel can just top it off for them. We saw Si. this week, she seems so happy every time we go by. She says to us all the time that she feels this "sensation" or some sort of feeling when we talk, teach, or anything. She wonders how the heck this is carried around by a couple of teenage kids haha. Little by little they're learning. Her husband not so much though, he drinks during our lessons which is like what the heck? Come on man! V. and I. aren't doing so well :/ they've been frustrated with their marriage like no other. They have A LOT of things to work on. The biggest thing that's holding them together is their kids. We're trying to help them realize the effect that divorce has on eternal progression and even more or just as much their kids. We're hoping and praying they can come to each others senses and just GRASP the Gospel. That's really the only thing that will keep them together. They're great people and everything and it'd be really sad to see a divorce brought about... We found a new person named M.R. She's catholic but she's not active because the congregations here aren't very nice. She's way cool and wonders the same thing as Si. Two teenage kids going around and doing this 24/7? They don't get to call or see their family very much during the year? Wow!! ;) We talked her about life and what it's really about, she looks forward to us going by again.

Well that's kind of all that's been going on for this week, not to bad at all! Something interesting I found out this week is that the members of the church in the Mexican culture have dreams and visions like no other! It's not fair!! It's so cool to hear some of the stories they have to say. Some say they saw the image of Christ, or the picture "Jesus the Christ" the one where he's plain face and has a robe on. They all said that they "know" that's how he exists because that's how they saw him. How cool and interesting is that? Just shows that God still does show visions and dreams and he always has.

Transfers were this week too. It's always a crazy Saturday on transfers and I'm always nervous about what could happen. Elder Moody and I and the two sisters in Lindsey are staying though :) which I'm really happy about. We have awesome friends here and the work is doing awesome in Lindsey. I'm excited to stick around for the holidays.

Sorry to hear about Weston. I'm sure he'll make the team, I know the coach pretty well from institute he's a good man. Weston's tough and he can make it through his one time shot of a try out. Just tell him to be careful and not break his neck. I'm still bummed about football. The championship game sounded lame!! Some teams just need to figure it out, like Judge! Because 63 to 14 is kind of uhhh... a little over the top. I'm glad Weston and the boys did good this year. That will bring a lot of good things for the team in the near future if they keep playing hard.

Marz sounds good! I got her letter today! If I don't write her today tell her I'll try and get it in next time. J.T. and Charlie sound like they're just getting bigger and bigger all the time. I miss those two little munchkins, send my love to them as always.


Well my time's up and I got things to do but I will for sure talk to you next Monday and let you know how things went. Thanks again. Love you lots

Elder Horrocks

Que Tal Mi Familia?

Alex is awesome!!!  Seriously!! Of course I'm biased towards him but how could you not be ;)  He is having great progress with his work.  Transfers are this Saturday but it sounds like he'll probably be staying in Lindsay.

Charlie sounds like an amazing person with a ton of life experiences that he can teach others from!!  It sounds like he has a tremendous trust in God.  I love to hear that!!  It is sooooo hard to put all of your trust in God and to have faith that he will provide the strength and support you will need to be sustained through life!!  Justin just had his 2 year mark of sobriety on November 6th.  It took tremendous faith and trust for him to know that Heavenly Father would sustain him through giving up his addictions.  I too have experienced those moments myself at different times in my life.  Through my own divorce, getting married again, quitting my job, adding 2 more beautiful babies to our family, sending my oldest baby on a mission (he KNOWS he will ALWAYS be my baby) ;)  I can't even begin to put into words the amount of faith you have to have that God has his hand is in everything and that things will turn out exactly the way they are supposed to turn out!!  Maybe it's to show us or even others the truth of all things??  It usually isn't the process we would choose for ourselves but it is the process that will teach us and others in our lives the most.  I hope that my faith and the faith of Alex's investigators will always grow and be strengthened with each trial and tribulation that is presented them.  My patriarchal blessing actually tells me that I have the kind of faith that will move mountains, which a little scary to me!!  When is my faith going to be made that strong!?!???  Do I really have that many more trials to strengthen my faith to that level coming???  All I can do is tell my Heavenly Father that I trust him and watch for the signs of the spirit to guide me through life...

I love my boy!!!

Jesse's Baptism

Que Tal Mi Familia?

So it's been a really crazy week, but we got great things out of it! Jesse was baptized this weekend!! He was super nervous but I know that after he was baptized he was the happiest guy ever. I'll send pics when I get the chance. I know I always say I'll send pictures but the computers in Lindsey are so slow. And time always seems to run out. Elder Moody baptized him and I got to confirm him a member this past Sunday. I hope he continues on the straight and narrow path like we all should, hopefully in no more than 2 months or so we can get him to the temple and do work for his family.

Charlie and Hunter are still on track for baptism too. Theirs will be Nov 15 of this Saturday. This past week we've been hanging out with Charlie quite a bit just to make sure he's doing ok, and every single day he always has some kind of miracle happen to him. I have to tell you about him, because never in my mission thus far have I seen an investigator progress like he does. And like I say it's not even us, it's God that does it for him... Charlie's been enrolled in the Army from 2004 untill 2012. So he just returned home two years ago. He went through so much out there, he fought, he's been shot, he's basically went through hell and back. There's some things he doesn't mention, because they're personal but we know they're kind of off the wall. When he was talking to missionaries for the first time it was kind of a casual thing instead of a daily basis. He would run from God and then God would catch up to him and this process would go on and on and on. Until finally one day God decides to take EVERYTHING from him to get his attention... Charlie wrecked his dodge challenger a little over a month ago in the mountains. He knocked down 7 trees and was going 105 and was drunk, oh and he was 3 feet from hitting a light pole. So he TOTALLED his car, and it looks all smashed like a pop can, and he came out of all of that with a bruise on his head... WHAT?!? ARE YOU KIDDING?? So that got his attention and he's been through other things too like right now he has a divorce process going on. But ever since he's been going through all these things he STILL gives his trust to God. Sometimes it's scary to do that because we don't know what will happen, but he gave ALL of it... Once he did that he started to let the missionaries teach him, he quit partying and drinking, he's quiting all of these bad habits just to do God's will. Now he's getting baptized and one day he wants to be married in the temple. There's SOOOO many things we learn about him and it never seizes to amaze me. So that's Charlie for you :). He sounds awesome huh? What's cool is that he comes out with us to do lessons and he's not even a member and he teaches his experiences with others, Charlie is a converting machine! He really does so well when he teaches. .. Hunter is doing good too. His Dad's a member and helps him out. He just ended his football season this past week too... Soooo hope and pray that these two will stay on track and that the powers of Satan will be seized!

V. and I. aren't doing so well unfortunately. They're trying everything they can to fix things between them. It's sad to see what happens when Satan is in the process of tearing marriages apart. We have faith that they'll do more of God's will and seek to have more of Christs love in their home. I think what they lack is their own self progression in the Gospel and so it takes a toll on them as a husband and wife because they're not learning and opening their eyes to what a family can become. Speaking of which M. and T. are kind of the same. We found their new house!! It was behind some alley way. We ALMOST got M. to come to church this Sunday but gosh danget he's so stubborn. He got ready and everything and then finally at last second he decides not to. AHHH stuff like that makes you crazy!... S. is doing awesome. I don't know if I mentioned already but we are teaching her husband J. now. So they're both doing great! They both came to church for the first time this week!

An eventful day happened this week. I had the chance to go on an exchange with my first companion I ever had, ELDER NYE!! It was so much fun to go out and teach and just catch up on the things. Our exchange was actually pretty successful. The highlight of that day was a less active member named Monica. The spirit was so strong during our little lesson that she cried. She loved it! We weren't able to see her again during the week after that lesson, but she's solid so we're going to do everything to re activate her... Elder Nye is my district leader so he has stewardship over me. He told me he'll give president a good word about me possibly training next transfer?? Transfer calls are on Saturday and we'll see what happens!! I think Elder Moody is leaving and I'll stay and run the area, because President emailed me and said he got a good confirmation that I could stay and do it. I'm a little nervous, but I know that if that's what God wants I'm more than willing to do it.

Man Weston sounds like he did so good! I was a little bummed to hear that game was lost, but I'm happy that they gave it their best. I know I would have been devestated, but life's all about overcoming adversity and trials right? Same with football, I think they still have a lot of potential next year. Tell West I'm a proud brotha and I think he's a stud just as everyone else has said!

Hope you're keeping everything in control with Char Char and J.T.? It sounds like they're just growing up everyday! I can't believe that time flies so fast. Give them my loves, and Marz too. Tell her I'm just as proud

I know there's a lot on my mind that I want to say but unfortunately my time is up. I'll let you know of anything else that I need next week but we'll see. Les Quero (love ya'll)

Elder Horrocks

Halloween and Rain!!!

I don't have much to say about this week.  He kind of says it all ;) He continues to grow!!  He also says they have baptism dates set :) :)  Enjoy the letter...

Halloween and some rain!

This week was pretty awesome! I really enjoyed this one because of our accomplishments we were able to see. We set for 3 baptism dates for this month. Charlie is one of them and he's definitely our most solid! He's got everything figured out and knows where he needs to be. What's crazy is that it's all HIM doing his own progress, we're simply like his friends and guides along the way. He loves hanging out with us and he says that everytime he does that he learns something new. Just yesterday he went with us to our missionary counsel meeting which in a way was awkward because, in those meetings we talk about our investigators to our ward mission leader and some of the members. Well him, being an investigator, was there to listen to us talk about his progression hahaha. Actually he explained more to the ward about his progress than Elder Moody and I did haha I can honestly say that's never happened before.
    Hunter is going to hopefully be baptized this weekend on Saturday as well. His dad is supposed to baptized him but he is in Utah until Friday. So pray that he gets back in time or earlier! Hunter's progression has been a huge thanks to the young men's quorum. I believe that one of his friends on the football team is in the young men's quorum too. This is a result of member/missionary work. It truly does hasten the Lord's work.
    Jesse is definitely set for this weekend. His mom was baptized before but she has been inactive for the longest time due to some personal issues she had with the ward. But she became super humble and apologized to the bishop for whatever reason of the past. I was very impressed! I guess Jesse had something to apologize for as well even though he isn't a member. They're both on track for better things thanks to the missionaries!
    So those are our investigators who are getting baptized and we still got plenty of other progressing investigators too. Si. is still doing good. She wasn't able to attend church but she came a ward activity for Halloween. The activity we had was trunk or treat (I thought this only existed in Utah). We had other cool things too. Elder Moody and I got to judge the chili dinner that we had and we had a maze for little kids that we built out back of the church in some old orchards. It wasn't huge or really scary but it was fun for the kids... T. came to the activity! But M. didn't danget!! Lately they've been hard to get around. T. wants to continue learning but martin probably doesn't, which is hard because in order for T. to be baptized she has to be married to M. Also they moved this Saturday and they told us their house was in an alley way but we have no idea where it's at haha, so pray for us that hopefully we can find their new house... S. is doing awesome! The ONLY thing she could use now is either a church tour or to just simply go to church! We're also teaching her husband J. He seems to be enjoying it and likes us a lot. We've taught him the restoration and told him what we're all about and he seems pretty cool with us.
     You would not believe the rain that has been pouring here!! I love it!! Except when the winds come it gets really cold. Friday night was a huge storm, and then all day Saturday it rained, and some of Sunday it rained partly. But Heavenly Father sees that we're in desperate need of it.
     Lastly there's a couple that could use all your prayers. Their names are V. and I. They've been married and baptized and married for 5 or 6 months now. They're active and everything in the church, but their marriage struggles. We've gone by their house to see what we could do and we gave them blessings. Now it's kind of just up to them to fix whatever issues they have. I think they're taking up on member that does family counsel in our ward, so that'll be awesome for them!
 
Good news at home I see?? I'm glad Weston won his game I was really hoping they'd win. And they did!! What a bunch of studs!! They go to 2nd round of playoffs before semi finals right? Tell them I continue to support and love them even though I'm not around. Marz team should do good with basketball. They're really scrappy but that's what the basin's made of right? Don't get me wrong the basin's got talent too :)

I remember the struggles that Justin has been through. I can definitely say that he's come a long ways. My mission president always says that he wants to do everything he can to make our mission a thing that will get us converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ forever. Well life is kind of like a mission, and we all have our differences with it. Justin's conversion and progression in his personal mission has been directed every step of the way by Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. What amazes me is that some people say that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is waiting for us at the finish line when really they are with us every step of the way. And he does it through his children. So tell Justin to keep it up and that I feel very blessed to see how far he's come. I'm super happy about Allen's baptism! The gospel is a beautiful thing, I'm just so happy to see so many blessings back home :)

Well I love hearing about awesome stuff at home, but my time's up and I will hear from you next monday :) I love you all. Remember to help hasten the Lord's work, sometimes we have to keep up with his pace, because it really is going super fast

Love you
Elder Horrocks

WASSUP FAM!

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

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!!!

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

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

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!

They got frogs out here in the desert

The Ortiz family. One of my most favorite families I've met so far

The fantastic four of Hughson. The day before I left

Another cool pic of the tree stump

One of the tallest ones out there

The most massive tree in the world. It's 20 feet in diameter, 245 ft tall and 1,500 years old.

This just shows you how big these suckers can get

This is more of the fallen tree

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