Mission Week 53, Sogamoso Week 6, "¡FELIZ PROSPERO AÑO NUEVO!"

Hello! This week was... AWESOME!

Celebrating Christmas was a little different here for me. I had my first Christmas in the field, but I've already passed my first Christmas in the MTC so I guess thats it haha. It was great to see everyone helping out the Venzeulan's that have been afflicted out here in one way or another. I've learned that the real spirit of Christmas is what we do to help lift the lives of others around us. GO BE THE LIGHT IN SOMEONES LIFE! SERVE THEM! LOVE THEM! PRAY FOR THEM! ACT!!

We have entered transfers as we enter into the new Year. My companion Elder Oliveira is going to Barranca! My new companion is Elder Rosales. He is from Peru.

This last week EVERYONE was out of town in our area. It almost seemed empty. We focused on trying to bring a little of this Christmas spirit to everyone here by sharing the best message/gift into their lives! The Book of Mormon!

Love you all and hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Elder Horton

Columbia Bogota North Mission 2018

The Zone in BogotáThe District in Sogamoso

Mission Week 52, Sogamoso Week 5, "Merry Christmas to All!"

This was a really fun week!

Half of the mission came down to Bogotà this Tuesday. We had a HUGE multi zone. President Valladares talked with us and gave us the energy to take this next year on as a real challenge and go find the people that are waiting for the gospel. We also had a talent show! Our zone performed a few acts haha. The best one was when all the Elders sang "Hacia Belen va una Burra rin rin". I have a video of it I'll try and send it in this email if I have time, but if not I'll get it the next week. On Thursday we all went to a place called "Jaime Duque". It's this Gigantic park/Zoo. I saw a bunch of animals that I've never seen in person before! There is also a whole lot of weird art there. Also there's this exhibit that is a hallway that goes on forever! The hallway explains the evolution of man (from the worlds standards, how we are all just apes that grew up over time). It was really funny. It makes me so grateful for the knowledge that God has given me!

One of our investigators that has been progressing very quickly is Liliana Mona. I talked about her las week. She is AWESOME. She's literally the chosen one haha. Gos has great planes for her. The most recent lesson that we taught her was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She understands so well! It makes me smile when people understand the Gospel and want to change their lives to align themselves on the path to God! Even though she can't read very well due to her eye problem, she continues to press forward, and having faith that God will help her to understand and to increase her knowledge. I've seen for myself the way she can understand the Gospel so well. It's like it comes so easy to her. God truly blesses those that put their faith in him and do all they can to follow through with what he has commanded. She's always there with us each Sunday too! Even though her life isn't easy, her work is very hard on her, she wants to show God that she has faith in him. I've learned a great lesson with her.

One year has passed by really really fast. Mission time flies by almost as fast as God's time. I've learned so much in just one short year. I can't wait to see what miracles and learning experiences this next year brings!

Love you all! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Elder Horton 

Mission Week 51, Sogamoso Week 4, "Learning New Skills as a ZL"

Hello Family and Friends!

This week we had a whole lot of companion transfers for the day. It was fun to be with all the different companionships. I learned so many new skills from each one of them. We went to Yopal as a secret this week. That means we didn't tell the missionaries there that we were coming. We showed up at the door and they were like oh shoot! haha! I got to work in my old area for the day there. It was great to be back in the old area.

Im studying a lot in Doctrine & Covenants Lately. It's such an exciting book. The Lord is literally talking through it! From reading and pondering a lot I've gained a greater and more powerful testimony that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet called of God to help restore God's true church on the earth today. Like our prophet today Russell M. Nelson it's so cool to think that he really talks with God face to face!!

We are teaching a lady names Liliana Mona. She is 52 years old. We found her contacting in the street. She's from Colombia but she was living in Venezuela. She had to come back because of all the bad things happening there. She's now working as a house maid just to make ends meet. She got really excited hearing about the Book of Mormon. She loves loves loves to read the Bible so it was something new for her that she wanted to discover. We decided to bring her with us to teach her in the house of Emperatriz Jimenez (Member). Emperatriz was so sweet through out the entire lesson. Whenever she would talk with Liliana about the church she would hype her up to get baptized haha. She kept saying, "Liliana after your BAPTISM you're going to be so happy" or "Liliana i know this BAPTISM is going to bless your families life". They were just simple little phrases, and that was all that was needed to invite the spirit in to that lesson. She has a very strong testimony. I love how almost every sentence she said was centered on Baptism. That is the door to open up all these wonderful many blessing that our Heavenly Father has in store. Liliana got very excited after talking with her and hearing her testimony. She told us that she wants to be baptized on the 5th of January! I'm so happy for her!

I love God, I love his teachings, I love his plan, and I'm so grateful to be apart of his work!

Love you all!
Elder Horton

Mission Week 50, Sogamoso Week 3, "Studying from the Scriptures"

Elder Oliveira and I started off the week by traveling to Yopal. It was fun to be able to go back to the old area. It's great to be able to help and learn from the companionships in the zone.

This week Colombia celebrated "El Dia de Velitas" Everyone buys candles and places them all over their houses and they light them all up. It's also a tradition here to drink wine and eat crackers for the rest of the night. Everyone basically gets drunk. What I've heard from a lot of the members here is that The 7th of December the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to be the mother of Jesus. It was cool though because everyone was pretty friendly that night! We also light up some candles and put them outside our window!

We've started heading towards the farm areas in our proselyting area here in Sol. Our area is filled with farms farms farms and lots of dogs that love to attack you. Them puppers are scary looking things. We Don't proselyte where the farms are in the night time because the dogs will eat us.

Something that I've recognized from this week is the importance of knowing what you're studying. Before my mission I knew a lot of the stories in the BOM but,
Something that I enjoyed this week was studying form the scriptures, but studying by using the maps that the scriptures contain. It's gives me a better view and helps me to understand the stories from them. It makes it more real for me as well. I imagine myself that I'm there with these people of old. Sitting off to the side with popcorn in my hands just watching everything go on. Read the scriptures! BUT! Make sure you understand what you're reading and what's going on, who's talking, where are the people, what year is it, everything! I promise you it will make your scripture study a much more thrilling experience! You will also gain a greater testimony of the truthfulness of the doctrine, and have a greater desire to share it with others!

One experience from studying in this way, is when my comp and I were teaching some new investigators that we had found on the street. We knocked on the door and they invited us in the share our message with them. As we explained the Book of Mormon we helped them to understand where this book came from, how old it is, what it contains (The story of Jesus Christ coming the America) etc...we wanted them to understand the importance of the gift that we brought them that day. As they understood their desire to start to read, and pray grew instantly. It was amazing to see the excitement of their faces that there are more answers to the questions we have, more blessings to receive, more knowledge to gain! Helping them understand invited the spirit into the lesson to help testify to their hearts that the message we bring is true! Their names are Yorani, Jesus, and their daughter Stefany. It's a small, but beautiful little family. I'm happy to see them grow their knowledge in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love you all! Have a great week! Go scrutinize and get more knowledge haha!

Elder Horton

Impressions of Sogamoso:
1. The dogs here are big and scary, and always want to attack you
2. The sun here burns! It's probably the first time in my life that I've made the decision myself to put on sunblock haha.
3. People here eat every part of every kind of animal. I ate Pigs feet! It was actually pretty dang good!

Lighting up my Candles to Celebrate "El Dia de Velitas"

Our Candles that we set outside the Window

Our Candles that we set outside the Window

P-day with the District in Sogamoso!

Elder Oliveira and I outside the Temple of Bogotá  

Mission Week 49, Sogamoso Week 2, "Traveled to Bogota for Zone Leader Council Meeting"

The zone-leaders in the council meeting in Bogotá this week. It was really fun being able to go back to Bogotá and see a little of my old area. One of the perks of being a Zone-Leader is going to the temple. The day before the council meeting we all get together to go through a session in the temple with the mission president. I had the special opportunity to do a couple of baptisms for the dead. The Temple president came running outside looking to see if there was anyone there that could help with the baptizing. There were two young women who had brought their own names to the temple and wanted to do their temple work. I was able to perform those baptisms! My first time ever in my life doing that! It was so dang cool! Afterwards, I got all dried off and we ran up to the session. It was a little different for me because I went through the temple listening in Spanish. I was always accustomed to grabbing the translators and listening in English during my time in the MTC when we went to the temple. It was special experience to be able to go through and understand listening in Spanish.

The next day was "presentation day." My comp and I have made a plan to help our zone see more success during this transfer. We go up in front of all of the other missionaries and we present what our plan is. The other missionaries and the mission president then give suggestions to help us improve more. What was funny is when we went up to share our plan, we shared it, and none had questions or suggestions. I hope that's a good thing. I think our plan was great though haha. What I've learned is that it will never be enough what we give until the work is done. When we baptize, it should be a continually stream of success (or that is the goal). We are here to help/Invite others to come unto Christ by making everlasting covenants with our Heavenly Father. Our goal is to analyze where our strengths and weaknesses are, and help us to get better!

When we got back to Sogamoso we had stake Conference. When we have stake conference. Lots of citis of Boyacá travel out here in buses. Literally like 7 buses loaded with people arrived in the morning, and everyone piled out to find a seat in the chapel. We learned about how to help in the missionary effort. The best gift that one can give this Christmas is a Book of Mormon! The fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Go find someone in need! And invite them to discover eternal happiness. I know that the teachings from Book of Mormon changes lives. I've seen it out here daily!

Love you all! 
Elder Horton