HOLA como estan!?
We have six baptismal dates set for the month of April! I've been learning so much about how to succeed as a missionary. The first thing is compromisos. We invite our investigators to pray, read, and come to church with us. When they keep these commitments they are growing spiritually. Growing spiritually increases knowledge of the gospel. Increasing your knowledge in the gospel helps them to learn about the need to REPENT and to get BAPTIZED. Then after this is to endure to the end! Its really a beautiful process. I love to see our investigators as they go through these changes realizing how we can find answers, and how we can feel true peace and happiness in this life.
We got to use machetes AGAIN Haha! Im gonna be a sword swinging master when I get back so watch out. I want to bring one back with me but Im not sure if I'll get through the airport with one of those.
We have started to go on splits with the priests in our ward. I'm going on splits and teaching by myself! This is definitely a challenge but surprisingly I can do it! My Spanish is getting better each day.
This Morning (Monday) we were eating empanadas and just chilling. While chilling with our empanadas we saw two guys off in the distance fighting over something. They moves closer to us and I saw that they were fighting over dos mil pesos. But it wasn't that either of them wanted it, they were actually fighting over who would take it. The man who had the money in his hand was very angry at the fact that this man was not taking the 2 pesos. He continued his rampage by screaming to the top of his lungs and throwing the money at the guy. Crazy people live here and I love it!!
Love,
Elder Horton
Impressions of Cucuta:
1.) If you want something to eat, just walk outside your house because 9 times out of 10 there's a person selling empanadas on your street.
2.) There aren't any gas stations here, people hold up bottles on the side of the road and swing them in the air for people to know that they have gas and ready to give and sell it.
3.) Candy from the Unites States is super expensive here. For example, M&Ms in a normal small sized bag is 10 mil pesos. Thats like $3.50 in the US!
Monday, March 26, 2018
Monday, March 19, 2018
Mission Week 12, Cucuta Week 7, "Filled with the Spirit"
HELLO! This week was great! Filled with many lessons and the Spirit!
On Tuesday we taught the Jaimes family. They have a daughter named Andrea that we received as a contact from Hermano Usmi. We've been teaching her the lessons and she's been interested to learn more. For this visit with her family we taught the Plan of salvation. The most important principle that we teach in this lesson is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Andrea has many problems in her past that she's been looking to get off of her chest. I couldn't wait to share with her La Expiaciòn de Jesus Cristo. Elder Quiñonez and I taught her that since Christ suffered for our sins in the garden of Gethsemane he knows how we feel when we make a mistake. We told her that as we pray for forgiveness and strive to keep and follow Gods commandments that he will bless us will feelings of peace and happiness. That the feelings of guilt and sadness wont be with us anymore. We left the Jaime's family with an invitation to pray about the plan of salvation to know if this truly is the plan for our lives.
There was a missionary activity this week with all of the primary kids. They helped us invite people to come to church on Sunday! It was so awesome, all of the jovencitos were organized into companionships with plaques and everything. We had two companionships of sisters with us. We would start by knocking on the door and introducing everyone and then these little sisters would invite our investigators to come to church. They ended with a scripture that they all memorized in 3 Nephi 22:13 about how all of Gods Children will hear the word of the Lord. One of the sisters went the extra mile and asked for their address and telephone number haha! After we ran out of invitations we headed back to the church and thanked our Hermana's for helping us for the day!
This Sunday we had ward conference, which means the stake president and his counselors were all there. Many new assignments were given to new members. After the 3rd hour all of the people with callings in the church met in the chapel and we had a meeting with the stake president. He taught all of the parents how they could balance their time of family, work, and their callings. I don't have those right now but it was still great to learn haha. We helped the Sourdis family move to a different house today. They were moving just right down the street, but its closer to where they work so life would be a lot easier on them. What was interesting was actually moving all of the stuff into their new home. The house was a second story home with a twirling staircase to get to their door. We decided to make an assembly line which made things a lot smoother with getting items into the house. That was until they brought out the big guns. They had a refrigerator that we somehow had to get into there house. The best course of action was to get as many people under at first to keep it stabilized while moving up the stairs. This worked great until we got to the part of the stairs where it started to twirl. Unfortunately I was the one stuck in the middle right under the refrigerator. Luckily I was strong enough to grip the bottom and lift it very quickly before I got crushed haha! ENTONCES...All is well in there new house now and we celebrated with fresh bread from the bakery and Postobon soda!
Love you all and pray for you always!
Love, Elder Horton
On Tuesday we taught the Jaimes family. They have a daughter named Andrea that we received as a contact from Hermano Usmi. We've been teaching her the lessons and she's been interested to learn more. For this visit with her family we taught the Plan of salvation. The most important principle that we teach in this lesson is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Andrea has many problems in her past that she's been looking to get off of her chest. I couldn't wait to share with her La Expiaciòn de Jesus Cristo. Elder Quiñonez and I taught her that since Christ suffered for our sins in the garden of Gethsemane he knows how we feel when we make a mistake. We told her that as we pray for forgiveness and strive to keep and follow Gods commandments that he will bless us will feelings of peace and happiness. That the feelings of guilt and sadness wont be with us anymore. We left the Jaime's family with an invitation to pray about the plan of salvation to know if this truly is the plan for our lives.
There was a missionary activity this week with all of the primary kids. They helped us invite people to come to church on Sunday! It was so awesome, all of the jovencitos were organized into companionships with plaques and everything. We had two companionships of sisters with us. We would start by knocking on the door and introducing everyone and then these little sisters would invite our investigators to come to church. They ended with a scripture that they all memorized in 3 Nephi 22:13 about how all of Gods Children will hear the word of the Lord. One of the sisters went the extra mile and asked for their address and telephone number haha! After we ran out of invitations we headed back to the church and thanked our Hermana's for helping us for the day!
This Sunday we had ward conference, which means the stake president and his counselors were all there. Many new assignments were given to new members. After the 3rd hour all of the people with callings in the church met in the chapel and we had a meeting with the stake president. He taught all of the parents how they could balance their time of family, work, and their callings. I don't have those right now but it was still great to learn haha. We helped the Sourdis family move to a different house today. They were moving just right down the street, but its closer to where they work so life would be a lot easier on them. What was interesting was actually moving all of the stuff into their new home. The house was a second story home with a twirling staircase to get to their door. We decided to make an assembly line which made things a lot smoother with getting items into the house. That was until they brought out the big guns. They had a refrigerator that we somehow had to get into there house. The best course of action was to get as many people under at first to keep it stabilized while moving up the stairs. This worked great until we got to the part of the stairs where it started to twirl. Unfortunately I was the one stuck in the middle right under the refrigerator. Luckily I was strong enough to grip the bottom and lift it very quickly before I got crushed haha! ENTONCES...All is well in there new house now and we celebrated with fresh bread from the bakery and Postobon soda!
Love you all and pray for you always!
Love, Elder Horton
Monday, March 12, 2018
Mission Week 11, Cucuta Week 6, "Power in a Testimony and a Miracle"
Hola Familias!
This week was amazing! I want to start with Tuesday! We went proselyting with Luisa Angarita, Yurley Angarita, and Jose Sourdis. We had an appointment that we wanted to go with them to, but the investigator ended up not being home. We decided to go proselyting with them! The very first family we saw outside we starting to talk with them and they were interested in hearing our message. After explaining the background of our church we invited these 3 recent converts of only one month!! to share their testimonies to these people. I have never seen this in my life so this was very new to me, to see recent converts willing to come with us and share their testimonies to people they don't even know. The Spirit was so strong as each of them testified that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today. They shared their testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that it truly is the word of God. They even invited the people we were teaching to pray for themselves to find out! Because thats exactly what they did! They testified that they would receive an answer of the truthfulness of their words by the Holy Ghost. I was blown away and wanted to say amen and set some baptismal dates. The importance of sharing your testimony with people is so crucial when teaching because that is the key, the key is to get the person you're teaching to feel the spirit to testify of the truth of your words. If you don't have a testimony I want to invite you to look for one, right now! Start of with something simple, like the Book of Mormon. Make goals to read every single day. Mark scriptures that have significance in your life right now and how you can bless the lives of others. Fast, and pray pray pray everyday. Ask Heavenly Father a simple question such as Is the Book of Mormon true? If you show Heavenly Father that you care and truly want to find an answer he WILL give you one. But you have to make the effort!
We had 4 baptisms this week which was very exciting! Diana, Katherine (Linett), Camilo, and Luis. I had the opportunity to baptize Diana Poula Gonzalez Angarita. She is 8 years old and has the sweetest testimony. I have pics but cant send them this week!
(This next part came just to Dad...but I felt it was so special to share with all of you too.)
Things are moving out here and going faster every week! I made it through the first 6 weeks pretty cool huh! It was sad to see some of the missionaries go actually. My love grows for my companion and the elders and sisters we serve with everyday as we work together in service projects finding investigators and having much success! Something that bummed me out this week was I sprained my ankle again on Friday... I was just walking and my foot went forward and in the wrong direction and I heard a loud CRCKKK! When I looked down at my foot it was super fat! But something that was a miracle and a blessing for me was we were right next to a members house! I was able to hop over there and rest. Its brother Usmi`s house.(He's the big black guy in the photos I sent) He's so cool! The next miracle that happened was brother Troncoso who lives right above brother Usmis house was home from work that day! and He knows how to deal with injuries like this, so immediately when he heard about my foot he ran down and started doing some therapies on it which was super nice! Another miracle that happened was since we weren't able to go eat lunch since i was stuck in the house, our cook heard about my foot and decided to pack some lunch for me and my comp and he sent it over with E`Souza y E`Gutierrez. The last miracle was doctor Duque. He is the doctor that Ive been seeing for my foot and he came down and cracked my foot back into place. That REALLY HURT but don't worry I can walk and all is well :) I testify that the Lord looks after his missionaries, D&C 84:88 talks about how his angels will be there to bear you up. Well I had these brethren in the church, and my companion. They were the angels and I want you to know that I'm ok! and that I know that no matter how many trials we go through we can get through every single one of them with the Lords help!
Love you all!!
Elder Horton
This week was amazing! I want to start with Tuesday! We went proselyting with Luisa Angarita, Yurley Angarita, and Jose Sourdis. We had an appointment that we wanted to go with them to, but the investigator ended up not being home. We decided to go proselyting with them! The very first family we saw outside we starting to talk with them and they were interested in hearing our message. After explaining the background of our church we invited these 3 recent converts of only one month!! to share their testimonies to these people. I have never seen this in my life so this was very new to me, to see recent converts willing to come with us and share their testimonies to people they don't even know. The Spirit was so strong as each of them testified that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today. They shared their testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that it truly is the word of God. They even invited the people we were teaching to pray for themselves to find out! Because thats exactly what they did! They testified that they would receive an answer of the truthfulness of their words by the Holy Ghost. I was blown away and wanted to say amen and set some baptismal dates. The importance of sharing your testimony with people is so crucial when teaching because that is the key, the key is to get the person you're teaching to feel the spirit to testify of the truth of your words. If you don't have a testimony I want to invite you to look for one, right now! Start of with something simple, like the Book of Mormon. Make goals to read every single day. Mark scriptures that have significance in your life right now and how you can bless the lives of others. Fast, and pray pray pray everyday. Ask Heavenly Father a simple question such as Is the Book of Mormon true? If you show Heavenly Father that you care and truly want to find an answer he WILL give you one. But you have to make the effort!
We had 4 baptisms this week which was very exciting! Diana, Katherine (Linett), Camilo, and Luis. I had the opportunity to baptize Diana Poula Gonzalez Angarita. She is 8 years old and has the sweetest testimony. I have pics but cant send them this week!
(This next part came just to Dad...but I felt it was so special to share with all of you too.)
Things are moving out here and going faster every week! I made it through the first 6 weeks pretty cool huh! It was sad to see some of the missionaries go actually. My love grows for my companion and the elders and sisters we serve with everyday as we work together in service projects finding investigators and having much success! Something that bummed me out this week was I sprained my ankle again on Friday... I was just walking and my foot went forward and in the wrong direction and I heard a loud CRCKKK! When I looked down at my foot it was super fat! But something that was a miracle and a blessing for me was we were right next to a members house! I was able to hop over there and rest. Its brother Usmi`s house.(He's the big black guy in the photos I sent) He's so cool! The next miracle that happened was brother Troncoso who lives right above brother Usmis house was home from work that day! and He knows how to deal with injuries like this, so immediately when he heard about my foot he ran down and started doing some therapies on it which was super nice! Another miracle that happened was since we weren't able to go eat lunch since i was stuck in the house, our cook heard about my foot and decided to pack some lunch for me and my comp and he sent it over with E`Souza y E`Gutierrez. The last miracle was doctor Duque. He is the doctor that Ive been seeing for my foot and he came down and cracked my foot back into place. That REALLY HURT but don't worry I can walk and all is well :) I testify that the Lord looks after his missionaries, D&C 84:88 talks about how his angels will be there to bear you up. Well I had these brethren in the church, and my companion. They were the angels and I want you to know that I'm ok! and that I know that no matter how many trials we go through we can get through every single one of them with the Lords help!
Love you all!!
Elder Horton
Monday, March 5, 2018
Mission Week 11, Cucuta Week 5, "Opportunities to Give Service"
Hola Familia y amigos!
This last week we had the opportunity to give alot of service!
On Tuesday we had a service project for La Familia Daza. They needed us to rip down a wall of tires filled with dirt and replace the tires and fill them back up with dirt! I'm grateful that I worked construction before the mission thank you GREG for making me shovel all of that dirt that one day. I knew what I was in for, 3 hours of straight shoveling and listening to gospel music was great! We ended up not finishing so we had to come back the next day.
Wednesday! We went back to La Familia Dazas house to finish stacking and packing and it took us another 3 hours since we didnt have the help of the missionaries in our district this time. Nevertheless I could feel the Lord strengthening me to do the job so I went for it with Elder Quinonez and we got it done! After stacking and packing the wheels, Hermana Daza wanted us to do one last thing before we left, which was to burn all of her trash at the side of here house. This was pretty interesting for me since I didn't know where we would start the fire, but Hermana Daza had brought out a lighter and told us to just go for it and light it up! haha! So we gathered what trash we could to start the fire and when we got it going it got HUGE! It was crazy! I thought we were going to burn her house down, but she didn't seem worried. She actually brought us out cream filled bread with some soda to watch the fire! Her name is Jasmine and she's one of the coolest ladies Ive met out here haha.
Thursday was another service project at a families house not in our area so I don't know their names, but we were back to whacking dirt. We were tearing apart the side of a mountain for a family that is planning on building a house in this area. After about 4 hours of this my hands got destroyed! I should have brought gloves...
Friday!! can you guess? Thats right SERVICE, I love giving service its super fun! This time Las Hermana's needed our help with a family that needed their backyard cleared. They gave us machetes and we started going to work chopping down trees and weeds. During out rampage of swinging like mad men (its so fun to use machetes) we found a coconut tree and we climbed up and each got one. The coconuts are green here? I don't know if thats normal but they taste so good! My favorite part is the white meat inside. It reminds me of Almond Joys.
Saturday we had two Entrevistas (interviews) for Luis Sourdis, and Camilo Daza who are both going to be baptized this week!
Sunday me and my comp fasted and spent a lot of time with families in the ward. I was able to share a lot of scriptures that I learned throughout the week. One story that I really love is when Amulek is preaching about the after life and how our bodies will be reunited with our spirits again! (Alma 11:42-45) I had the opportunity to bear my testimony multiple times throughout the day sharing this wonderful message.
Missionary life is the greatest blessing ever!
Love you all!
Elder Horton
This last week we had the opportunity to give alot of service!
On Tuesday we had a service project for La Familia Daza. They needed us to rip down a wall of tires filled with dirt and replace the tires and fill them back up with dirt! I'm grateful that I worked construction before the mission thank you GREG for making me shovel all of that dirt that one day. I knew what I was in for, 3 hours of straight shoveling and listening to gospel music was great! We ended up not finishing so we had to come back the next day.
Wednesday! We went back to La Familia Dazas house to finish stacking and packing and it took us another 3 hours since we didnt have the help of the missionaries in our district this time. Nevertheless I could feel the Lord strengthening me to do the job so I went for it with Elder Quinonez and we got it done! After stacking and packing the wheels, Hermana Daza wanted us to do one last thing before we left, which was to burn all of her trash at the side of here house. This was pretty interesting for me since I didn't know where we would start the fire, but Hermana Daza had brought out a lighter and told us to just go for it and light it up! haha! So we gathered what trash we could to start the fire and when we got it going it got HUGE! It was crazy! I thought we were going to burn her house down, but she didn't seem worried. She actually brought us out cream filled bread with some soda to watch the fire! Her name is Jasmine and she's one of the coolest ladies Ive met out here haha.
Thursday was another service project at a families house not in our area so I don't know their names, but we were back to whacking dirt. We were tearing apart the side of a mountain for a family that is planning on building a house in this area. After about 4 hours of this my hands got destroyed! I should have brought gloves...
Friday!! can you guess? Thats right SERVICE, I love giving service its super fun! This time Las Hermana's needed our help with a family that needed their backyard cleared. They gave us machetes and we started going to work chopping down trees and weeds. During out rampage of swinging like mad men (its so fun to use machetes) we found a coconut tree and we climbed up and each got one. The coconuts are green here? I don't know if thats normal but they taste so good! My favorite part is the white meat inside. It reminds me of Almond Joys.
Saturday we had two Entrevistas (interviews) for Luis Sourdis, and Camilo Daza who are both going to be baptized this week!
Sunday me and my comp fasted and spent a lot of time with families in the ward. I was able to share a lot of scriptures that I learned throughout the week. One story that I really love is when Amulek is preaching about the after life and how our bodies will be reunited with our spirits again! (Alma 11:42-45) I had the opportunity to bear my testimony multiple times throughout the day sharing this wonderful message.
Missionary life is the greatest blessing ever!
Love you all!
Elder Horton
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