Mission Week 35, Bogota City Week 18, "Great Baptism and Being Transferred!"

What a week!

When Friday came I was super duper whooper excited for Juana and Nelfi! Something funny as we were preparing for their baptism was that there wasn't any hot water in the font. The gas wasn't working so we didn't know that to do. The bishop then brought in the big guns and we went to work trying to electrically heat the water. It ended up not working...but we did try. Before entering the water with Juana she started to cry and couldn't stop smiling. Afterwards, Nelfi and Juana bore their testimonies to the ward. They expressed how happy they are to be in the true church of God on the earth. They both bore powerful testimonies.

On Saturday, I got the call from the ZL´s and I'm going to be heading out to Yopal! They say it's like the jungle there and I'm super excited! Don't have a lot of time to write sorry!

Love you all! 

Elder Horton

Juana and Nelfi Baptism

Me and Elder Rodriguez Baptizing Juana and Nelfi

Juana (Daugther) and Nelpi Mom) Baptism

I baptized Juana and Elder Rodriguez Baptized Nelfi

Juana and Nelfi with Hermana Missionaries

Cold Water Baptismal Font

Bishop trying some electrical current to warm water in font...still no go

Trying to Add Warm Water to the Baptismal Font it stayed cold!

Nelfi, Juana and Elder Horton

Juana, Nelfi and Elder Horton

Mission Week 34, Bogota City Week 17, "Don't ever stop, keep pushing forward even when it gets hard."

It's super awesome when your Mission President receives revelation for you and you see promises being fulfilled!  This Sunday was the best day of the week by far!

We were waiting for our investigators to arrive to church and we saw Nelfi and Juana walking up. They started to talk to us about baptism. They literally set their own baptismal dates for this Friday! I will be baptizing Juana and my companion will baptize Nelfi. That was a pretty awesome miracle!(Photo bellow, Juana Daughter and Nelfi Mom)

Don't ever stop, keep pushing forward even when it gets hard. I love looking at things like running a race. I love to run the mile race. The first two laps are always easy.  It's what you do in the 3 and 4th laps that shows what you're really made out of.  Especially when your coming around that corner about to reach that finish line. That's when you give it all that you've got! After many testimonies shared, and so many lessons taught Nelfi and Juana are going to be baptized and confirmed members of the church this week. I'm so PUMPED!!!

Love you all!

Elder Horton 

Here's a cool quote that I found from Elder Bednar, "Lose yourself in others, it's the only way to truly find yourself."

Juana and Nelfi

Cedros, Bogota

Cedro, Bogota

Elder Rodriguez and Elder Horton at Dinner

YUM!

Mission Week 33, Bogota City Week 16, "Put all of your faith in God and trust in him"

Our new president, President Valladares, set new goals for the mission this week. He went around to every zone in our mission. One of the goals he set for us is the "Good Contact" goal. That's when you get their number, name, address, and a time to go and visit them. He has challenged our zone to find 4 Good Contacts each day. He also promised us that if we fulfilled these goals that we would start seeing a lot of success. So each week were hoping to get at least 24 "Good Contacts" in.

This Wednesday, we had an activity with all of the recent converts in our ward in the house of the Ramirez family. One of these recent converts who just passed a year as being a member, put together this awesome program for all of them. The message was centered on how we can be closer to God. One of the recent converts here is a great example to me of humility. His name is Carlos Modesto. He was baptized about 3 months ago. His story is absolutely amazing, AND why we need to talk with everyone! Carlos Modesto, when he was about 24 years old received a Book of Mormon from a friend. He took it, but never intended on reading it. After about 25 years had passed, Carlos found the Book sitting in a box in his house. He took it and started to read! He immediately was interested to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He ended up finding the missionaries because he had walked all the way to the Temple here in Bogota. After that, he received the lessons and shortly after, was baptized. He had told me that he knew no matter what the missionaries were going to say to him during the lessons, that he knew it was truth. He had received his answer beforehand when he read the Book of Mormon!

This Sunday we also had the opportunity to visit a member who we had given a priesthood blessing to just before she was about to go into surgery. She has a tumor that needed to be taken out. Something that I'll never forget is that she told us, "If you guys tell me I'm going to be okay, I know everything is going to be okay." The only request she had made was to have a photo of Christ when he was suffering for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. She held it close to her heart.

I know God Lives, he's there for us in every moment of our lives.  He knows exactly what we need and when we need it.  Put all of your faith and trust in him!

Love you all!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 32, Bogota City Week 15, "No Purse Nor Script, just the Book of Mormon"

This week we preached like the prophets of old!

During each day of this week, our zone leaders sent us messages of things that we needed to complete. For example, on Friday our activity was to go to the freeways here, and get onto the buses that take people through  out all of Bogota. We were told to preach the gospel to the people in this area. Elder Rodriguez and I decided to get into the buses and start preaching to these people. I was like what the heck are you talking about. Sure enough, he got out his Book of Mormon, put it in his hand, raised it high in the air and this man started preaching to like 30 people sitting down in this bus. The first couple of tries we didn't get a lot of people that wanted to listen. Continuing to each bus we finally got to a bus a people that wanted to listen to what we had to say. It was great, Elder Rodriguez got people interested and wanting to learn more, and even asking questions. He then turned to me and said, "Your turn". I was so scared, I don't think I've ever been more scared to talk in my life! I then thought about a scripture that I read in D&C 24:12. The scripture states that we are to in "all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such is not known among men." After that I just opened my mouth and started talking. I was able to feel that promised strength from the Lord as I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We were able to hand out 2 Books of Mormon, a dozen pamphlets, and about 100 contacting cards in like 30 mins! We literally handed out everything we had! Next time we're going in prepared haha! The work of the Lord is real. I know that this is his kingdom on the earth in these last days.

Love you all!
Elder Horton