Mission Week 18 Bogota Area Week 1, "I'm In The City"

This new area is way cool! I'm in the city now so no more hiking mountains to get to investigators haha. My new companion Elder Arteaga is 23 years old and from Bolivia. He only has this last transfer and he's heading home. That means I have to learn things real quick because I'm going to be leading this part with my new companion. The first couple days was hard finding houses of investigators since the directions here are whack. They're calles, avenidas, carreras, interiors, torres, the whole shabang. Our apartment here is super nice though so I'm not complaining haha. It's cold here, and just about rains every day. I got a cool sweater that my trainer Elder Quiñonez gifted me. One GREAT thing that I'm loving here is eating pizza almost every single day this week! We have a dominos that delivers here!!! Its only 23 pesos for a large pizza and a coke. That is actually a lot if we were buying it, but the members here sometimes don't have time to have lunch with us, so they leave us like 20 pesos to go and buy something! We got pizza every time haha.

Something more spiritual that happened this week was meeting our investigators. The first person I met here was Juan Jose. He has a baptismal date set for the 5th of May. We taught him the Word of Wisdom, and the gospel of Jesus Christ this week. He loves to read in the Book of Mormon, and always has questions for us. He loves to learn and is looking forward to recieiving the blessing of Baptism.

Our Next Investigator with a baptismal date is Sebastian. This GUY has a rock solid testimony. The thing that shocked me was that Sebastian has little time with the missionaries, but he heard something about fasting his first time attending church. The lesson that Sunday in sacrament meeting was how we can receive personal revelation for ourselves to find out if things are true through fasting. That is exactly what Sebastian did! Sebastian received an answer that The church is true and is super excited about his date to get baptized on the 26th of May. I wish every investigator we had, had the faith of Sebastian! haha!

Thats all for this week, looking forward to learning more!

Love you all!

Elder Horton

Eating Dominos Pizza and a Liter of Coke! Only 20 mil pesos for this! ($6 dollars)

Mission Week 17 Cucuta Area Week 12, "Transferred to Bogota Today."

I'm ending my training!!! Lots of anuncios this week! First of all Elder Quiñonez and I were sick this week. We went to hear Elder Zivic speak which was super cool. Every zone in Cùcuta drove down in a bus to hear him speak in Bucaramanga. I'm getting transferred to Bogotà today! We had two baptisms for the two daughters of the Palma family. For P-day we visited this super cool river called ZULIA.

Elder Quiñonez and I had fevers this week of 38.8C. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but I know its not good haha. We think that we had this sickness called Gripa since the days following, were days of stomach problems and head aches.

Elder Zivic (Seventy) talked on how to be a successful missionary. There are 3 main things that encompass everything. Which is 1. OBEDIENCE 2. WORTHINESS 3. HEALTH. If you can accomplish and keep these three things constant, you're golden.

We got a call from Hermano Usme on Wednesday in the evening. He told us that he wanted us to call the Palma family and get permission to baptize their daughters Sirley and Yerly. The parents want to get baptized but they are having trouble getting their papers finalized in order to get married. Their daughters were more than ready for baptism, we called their parents to see if we could baptize them. They gave us permission to!!! We were able to baptize them this Saturday and confirm them that Sunday.

Since Im getting moved to Bogotà I wont be able to be there for the baptisms of their parents. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve in this City. The people here are so loving and willing to hear our message. Not only that but they understand and accept it, and apply the teachings in their lives, to read, pray, and come to church. I learned to much here! But I cant wait to get to work in Bogotà and start helping and teaching people there!

Love, Elder Horton

Elder Quiñonez and Elder Horton overlooking Cucuta

River Zulia

River Zulia

City of Cucuta

My First Area - Cucuta

Where's the Beef!?

I think this one heard me!

Monkey See Monkey Do

The Cucuta District

Elder Quiñonez Birthday!

Lessons Learned

The Palma Family - Baptized daughters Sirley and Yerly

Baptism of Palma daughters Sirley and Yerly

Baptism of Palma daughters Sirley and Yerly

Members of the ward Celebrating the Baptism

Mission Week 16, Cucuta Area Week 11, "Traveling to Bucaramanga."

Hello family and friends! 

I end my training after this week! I'm excited because of all of the experiences I will have, and all the miracles I will be able to see. I'm also very anxious because a lot of responsibility is going to be mine now. I can't wait to learn more and more everyday. Something excited that came up was the announcement that we're going the Bucaramanga this Thursday! One of the Seventy that spoke in General Conference (Êlder Claudio Zivic) is going to speak to us and give us some secret sauce to start applying in our day to day activities! We're taking a 3 hour bus ride there and going to be living with some other Elders for the next 2 days.  

Monday we were in the center of Cùcuta (El Ventura) This is a three story mall that we go to for the good stuff! I The store in the mall is called El Metro. It's pretty much like a Walmart with everything you could want! They always have my skippy peanut butter! There are always two little jars of peanut butter sitting in the snack aisle, and I always take them. Elder Quiñonez and I love to eat pizza as much as we get the chance each P-day. We went to Dominos since a new promotion came out for 20,000 pesos (about $6 U.S. dollars) we can get a decent sized pizza, enough to fill up each of us! Splitting is two ways makes it that much more worth it!

Our family night was with the Amaya family. We shared a video titled "Gracias a Êl" It was a video of his life, flashing back between life experiences of people. This life is hard, its 100% certain that each of us will go through our own challenging experiences in this life. A quote that hit me so hard was by Elder Holland, "Salvation is not a cheap experience" He continued to say (though not in his words exactly) that our Savior lived the hardest life that was ever lived, the most challenging, the most painful, the most of everything! He experienced every feeling of pain, discomfort, sickness, and sin that we will ever commit. Elder Holland went on to say that if the Saviors life wasn't easy, what makes us think that ours will be easy. I know this is true, but I also know that because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can feel true happiness, we can rid ourselves of Painful guilt through the Loving power of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. He made it possible for us to be able to live again one day. To be able to return back to our Father and Heavens presence. He went through everything because of his Eternal love for each and every single soul that has walked the earth, and will walk the earth. I know that if you will apply the power of the Atonement in your lives you will be able to feel the strength of God, giving you the energy and mentality to keep going in your most difficult of trials, and that you will be able to improve each day and become one step close to perfection.

On Friday I was reading a scripture in Alma 57:21. In this point in time the two-thousand stripling warriors (commanded by Helaman) were fighting the Lamanites since Ammoron sent a huge army to slay them. The words in this scripture filled me with the Spirit as I read, "they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness, yea, and even according to their faith it was done into them" These young men had so much faith that the Lord would deliver them if they were obedient to the commandments of God. They ended up completely obliterating the Lamanite army, and they didn't lose a single soul. Do we have faith to obey the Lords every command when we are in difficult situations. For example, tithing! If we are in economical trouble, will we stop following this commandment to pay a faithful tithe? A prophet of God, Nephi said,(1 Nephi 3:7), " for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." How much faith do we have in this scripture!? If you have faith you act! so ACT and keep the commandments! To keep the Sabbath Day Holy, to pay your tithing, to keep the WoW, to live the law of Chastity, to serve and love others, and I know I don't have all of them up here but I want you to get the point that God will bless you as you faithfully keep his commandments. He will meet every need that is necessary for you to be able to keep the commandments. I love sharing this with investigators, and less-active members. 

There is so much to learn when we faithfully keep of Covenants to God (Ether 12:6). I love this church, I love the knowledge that we can receive if we put in the time and effort.

I Love Ya!!!!

Elder Horton

Bucaramanga, Columbia

Bus ride to Bucaramanga

Me and Elder Quiñonez inside the LDS Church in Bucaramanga

Elder Monson and Elder Orr (The Elder Towers!)

Me outside the chapel in Bucaramanga

Me and Elder Quiñonez outside the chapel in Bucaramanga

Missionaries in the District

Bowling with the District!

Mission Week 15, Cucuta Area Week 10, "Seeing the Lord Bless the Lives of Our Investigators."

I'm almost done with my training! I've got two weeks left and then im leaving the nest!

This Monday we had a HUGE family night at the Sourdis Family's home. We taught a lesson about strengthening our homes and how we can keep the adversary out of our homes. In Alma 50, Moroni is fortifying all of the Nephite Cities. The Lamanites are getting ready to attack! Thanks to the preparation of the Nephite's they were able to defend their cities with ease and their enemy had no power over them. We related this to how we can keep the influences of the adversary out of our homes. Dallin H. Oaks told us this general conference that its the little things, the simple things that we do that have the most meaning. Daily prayer and scripture study, personally and as a family with strengthen your relationships, and fill you with a more Christlike love. The example we had was a house. This house had protective layers around it, and each time we did our prayer and scripture study these layers were strengthened. I know that this is true, and I hope that every family would take the time to read, pray, and spend time with their families SUCH AS FAMILY NIGHT.

Tuesday we had a service project for Hermano Camacho. The night before it had rained really hard! With thunder and lightning! The rain come down so hard that it busted through H`Camacho's roof and started flooding his house. We heard about it the next morning and ran over to go help. The roofs here are just a long sheet of metal. The first thing we did was cleaned up all the was left of the roof.Next we had to maneuver these long sheets of metal over the top of the house. since there was no place to stand, we got ladders and broom sticks and balanced the sheets of metal over our heads and placed each piece in its correct spot. That was pretty sketchy. We were able to patch his roof up and help them get a good nights rest.

Wednesday night we had a very important visit with The Palma family. Hermano Afranio, and Hermana Meyerlly are in the process of getting their papers ready to get married. We committed them to get baptized on April 21st so we've been doing anything we can to help them to get married. They have three daughters, Sierley, Yerlly, and Isabelle.

Thursday we had three teaching visits. One with Hermana Esperanza, who had a baptismal date but we had to postpone it until later because she's having problems with the word of wisdom. she lovvveees coffee. She just doesn't want to give it up. We had already taught here the Palabra de Sabiduria but we didn't focus and the importance of being obedient. We decided to teach her again and this time we bore our testimonies to her of the importance of keeping the commandments and the blessings we can receive for keeping them (Alma 38:1).

Friday we received another call from Hermano Camacho. Turns out the same problem they had their neighbors were starting to have. Their roof was starting to collapse because of the old rusty metaled roof. We ran over there as soon as possible and started to get to work breaking of the old pieces and putting on the new. This house was a lot bigger and had more sheets of metal to spread out. We were there pretty much for the majority of the day since that night it was going to ran and we didn't want to leave this family without a roof! It's a blessing to be able to serve people in need. You really can feel that pure love of Christ.

Saturday we had a bunch of new investigators! The previous week we had an activity with chocolate and bread that we went around dispersing to one of the more humble parts of the neighborhood. We handed out chocolate and bread to about 128 people and we were able to get 20 contacts that day! We went straight to work calling as many of them as we could to set up appointments. We ended up getting 4 new investigators so that was pretty sweet!

I love to serve and seeing the Lord bless the lives of our investigators as they start to live having faith in Christ, and keeping the commandments

With Love,
Elder Horton

Mission Week 14, Cucuta Area Week 9, "Powerful General Conference"

Hola Familia, Amigos, y Vecinos!

The highlight of this week was of course...General Conference!

It's so different with conference out here in the mission. It literally is like a field trip day, the day you just cant wait for. I went to the center of the city to watch conference in Qta Bosch. This was the only place where English was going to be. Me and 6 other gringos were able to watch conference in English which was a blessing!

I had a super spiritual experience when President Russell M. Nelson was sustained as a prophet. When we were all asked to raise our hands in sustaining him I was hit with a spine tingling feeling of warmth and comfort. I know in that moment the spirit was confirming to me that President Nelson truly is called of God to guide us in these latter days. I know that all of the changes that took place were inspired of God. When he announced that Home teaching was no more I could see my little brother Blake jumping up and down at home haha. Now its something much more beautiful The days of being obligated to go visit families are over. Now we have ministers called to this work and its perfect because as Elder Jeffery R. Holland said, although not quoted exactly, its driven and inspired by love now. President Nelson kept hitting us with fireballs each time he got up. Everyone of us in the room got super hyped when he got up to speak because we knew something was coming.

One talk that I loved in particular was by PRESIDENT NELSON of course! He talked of how we can receive personal revelation and the importance of it. In these times in the world we need to have these experiences to strengthen us to make the right choices and to hold fast to the iron rod. This is how our church is true! isn't it!? You know that its true because you personally received an answer in your heart from the Holy Ghost that this is the true church on the earth. If you have that witness I know that this will help bless your life with peace of happiness, and give you the strength to want to stay on the path back to our Father in Heaven. In order to be able to receive your personal witness, believe it or not you have to do the simple things!!

Dallin H Oaks talked about the importance of the little things that we do and how the shape the person we will become. Everyday when you read your scriptures you are getting spiritually fed and closer to God. Every time you pray you are strengthening your relationship with God. When you attend your church meetings you learn more about God! When you give service and love those around you have the love of God. ( Charity is the pure love of Christ Moroni 7) If you're doing all of these things, the little things, then you will have the spirit with you to testify in your heart of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ.

But Ive learned also that we need to be patient. We have to trust in the Lord and wait on his time table. Nevertheless I know that you will receive your personal revelation. I Know that this church is true. Ive felt the Holy Spirit testify to my heart that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God and that he really did see our Father in heaven and his son Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of God. I know my job now is to share that personal witness that Ive received, with others. My hope is that they will feel the spirit in their hearts to know that our message is true, and that they will have the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper authority from God. Then to continue to receive personal revelation throughout their lives to strengthen them, to help them to endure to the end and to Hold continually fast to the iron rod.

I love you all and hope you will all have the desire to keep receiving your personal witness of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ through daily scripture study, prayer, attending your church meetings, and loving and serving others!

Love, 
Elder Horton

Robert Laney
Presidente & Elder Paul Horton
Misión Colombia Bogotá Norte