Mission Week 61, Sogamoso Week 14, "Always Remember that God Loves You"

This week we went to Bogota for the Conference with Presidente Valladares. Going to the temple this week boosted my energy to want to work even harder. I love to think about helping families be eternal. Our recent convert Gabriela had the chance to go to the temple this week and do baptisms for dead on behalf of some of her family members. She has the goal to be sealed in the temple. The members here love to do Family history. It's something that I wish I had done before my mission more. I didn't have a complete understanding of Family history work until I saw the look on some recently baptized converts faces. They were so happy that their family was going to receive saving ordinances to help them enter into the Kingdom of God.

Liliana Mona, one of our recent converts, brought her entire family to church this Sunday! It was so great to see them all there. This family will be baptized! We taught them about keeping the sabbath day holy. They all came with smiling faces knowing that they were doing what God has commanded us. They want to grow closer to him and are willing to do the things necessary to show their faith.

I focused my studies this week in having faith in Jesus Christ. He saved us from the fall of Adam and Eve. He showed us the way, he taught us what we need to do, and he suffered and died for us so that we could all have the chance to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I love the scripture in John 3:16-17. It tells us clearly the purpose of why our Heavenly father sent Jesus Christ into the world. God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son. Always remember that God loves you. He sent you here to be happy and to have Joy ("2 Nephi 2:25). Remember that nowhere in that verse does it say that you won't have trials or problems in your life, but he wants us to recognize our purpose of being here in this life. Trials are put into our lives to help strengthen us, but something that I've come to learn is that our disobedience to God will bring consequences.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Horton   

Mission Week 60, Sogamoso Week 13, "Every week is full of Miracles!"

A miracle that really hit me this week passed in a hospital here in Sogamoso. Hermencia Chaparra, is a member that had cancer. Her daughter Vivianna called us and told us to rush over to the hospital. As we entered the room you could her from how Hermencia was breathing that she was not doing very well at all. Every breath she attempted was forced. My companion and I gave her a priesthood blessing. Hermencia was trying to tell us something after we gave her the blessing, but I didn't understand very well what she was trying to tell us. As we were heading out I left a plan of salvation pamphlet with Vivianna to read to pass the time. We said bye to Hermencia and Vivianna. We had plans to pass by with Vivianna the next day. The next day, a man stopped us in the street and informed us that Hermencia had passed away that morning. This man turned out to be the husband of Hermencia. He invited us to the funeral service for her in the chapel here in Sogamoso later that afternoon. During the service there was so much peace left in the room. The spirit was felt as we sang the Hymn 100 "Nearer My God to The" As the Bishop talked, he mentioned that beforehand, Hermencia`s last request was to see the missionaries. She wanted to have us in the room with her. That hit me really hard. I'm really glad that we were able to go to visit there in her final moments in this earthly life. She had so much faith and realized where she was going. This is not the end here in this mortal body. Jesus rose on the third day, and since he rose again, he made it possible for each and every one of us to live again. I know we have a purpose here. Hermencia knew she had a purpose here. She completed with this part of the plan the God has for us. I know that she's on the other side of the veil now. In a state of peace and Happiness, helping others to come unto Christ, and continuing the missionary work on the other side!

This Saturday, Gabriella Contredas got baptized! It was a really special moment. I had the opportunity to perform the ordinance for her. She explained in her testimony afterwards that as she entered into the water, she felt like she fainted. As she came up out of the water she said the first thing that she recognized was a light above here head. I reflected on what she said and I started to think about the symbol of Baptism. We know that it represents dying and being spiritually reborn. I felt like in that moment that she felt that change. Maybe fainting isn't the best thing that can happen, but I could see that she was ready to make changes in her life and to start walking uprightly before God. That was another miracle from the week!

Every week is full of miracles! Always be watching and listening to recognize each miracle that the Lord Blesses you with!

I love you guys and hope your week is full of great Miracles!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 59, Sogamoso Week 12, "It's been so fun learning and helping the other missionaries to grow."

I'm starting to get the hang of things here as a leader. I had no idea how much responsibility a Zone Leader had until I got here haha. It's been so fun learning and helping the other missionaries to grow and also to learn from each and every one of them. The zone here had a LOT of changes. Almost every companionship changed! Elder Rosales and I are the only companionship that had no changes. We are super excited to work with all the new Elders and Sisters that will be arriving to the zone. Transfers are always really crazy in this mission haha!

This week we went to Yopal for a baptismal interview. I had the opportunity to do the interview. In fact that was the first interview that I've done in my mission! I was so nervous! It was so cool. Her name was Monica and she answered every question like it was nothing! She was very prepared for her baptism.

This week we taught The Family Garcia Figueredo. They are a sweet family consisting of Nieves (Mom), Duban (son), Edit (daughter). This week we were able to invite them to be baptized and they said yes! We shared 3 Nephi 27 with them. This chapter is one of my favorites because it talks about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of the things we need to do in order to return to live with our Father in Heaven again. They want to be baptized! They love to read in the Book of Mormon whenever we come over. Especially Nieves. She's very sweet.

Someone else that we have been teaching is David. He's 24 years old. We found him knocking on doors. He invited us in right away. He was curious who we were, because he's always heard about the church and The Book of Mormon. He has a Friend in the church named Angie who's leaving to go on a mission in Argentina. She's been talking with David about the Church and what we believe and little things here and there. He loved reading the story about Jesus Christ coming to the Americas. Something that really hit me is when we shared with him the Scriptures in Moroni 10 3-5. After I had explained the scriptures to him, he told me that you spoke like a Latino! He told me he couldn't tell whether I was Latino or a North American in that moment. Haha! That was a super cool experience for me that helped me to realize that the promise in 2 Nephi 32: 2-3. We're going to set a baptismal date for David this week!

The Church has started a new Program called English Connect. It's a free class that the church is offering to learn English. We started the first class this Saturday. Since I'm the only "Gringo" here I went to go help out. It was super fun! We were able to teach a class full of students of about 30 people. They all learned the alphabet, how to introduce themselves to others, and how to pray in English.

This Sunday as we were entering the door to the chapel, Brother Gutierrez (2nd counselor of the bishop) came up to me and "Reminded" me of my talk that I had in sacrament meeting. I had no idea that I had a talk that day. BUT as many missionaries have gone through this I figured it'll be a piece of cake. It turned out to be great! I talked about the importance of Knowing the doctrine and how to continue to grow your testimony. 

The week was absolutely great and I hope that yours will be even greater!

Love you all!
Elder Horton

Mission Week 58, Sogamoso Week 11, "YOU NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON."

A cool story that I forgot to tell from last week is when we were invited into a house while a Adventist Priest was preaching. The Adventist church is a branch broken off from The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Elena G de White (A former member of the church who left) is one of the very famous "Prophets" of this church because of many "Visions" that she received.  These people know the bible very well so you already know you're gonna be Bible bashing with them. It was weird sitting in the room while the Priest was going on about weird Doctrine. One lady asked a question to the preacher. She said, "What happened to the children who die before they are baptized?" The preacher Literally said that this kids are not saved in the kingdom of God and then he shared this scripture with her (1 Corinthians 4:5). I was like WHAT THE!?!?. I don't think I ever flipped open Moroni 8 faster in my life! I wanted to explode and tell her that NO! These children are living on the right hand of God! She was not convinced at all with the answer that the priest gave. I was really mad afterwards because we didn't answer the question of the Lady. We did however get a return appointment with the family of the house that we were all met in. We have been teaching them ever since and they are starting to read in the Book of Mormon. We are going to help them find all the answers to these questions from their hearts. This experience helped me to recognize that THE BOOK OF MORMON is the KEY to answer ALL of your QUESTIONS of your SOUL. All the other sects and religions don't have that! This is the true church after all! Just one thing that I would want you all to take away from reading this is that YOU NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON. There are so so so many members that truly do not know the Book of Mormon. Know it To the point where you can answer even the toughest of questions that people have in this life. AND THEN STUDY MORE! This is how you will bring others to the truth. Bearing your testimony to these people is sweet, but being able to answer the questions of those who are looking for answers in their lives and testifying of the truthfulness of these things is sweeter. The first thing that you need to do is understand for yourself and then go out and help others understand, because God will be with you. That's a scriptural Promise (D&C 11:21).

START THE JOURNEY TO GET TO KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON. SET GOALS AND PLANS TODAY TO START READING IT ON A DAILY BASIS. I CAN¨T EXPRESS TO YOU GUYS ENOUGH THROUGH EMAIL THE JOY THAT COMES FROM BEING ABLE TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS OF PEOPLE AND SEEING THEIR EYES AND HEARTS START TO OPEN. PRAY AND ASK GOD CONTINUALLY FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE WHAT YOU´VE LEARNED WITH SOMEONE TO HELP AND BRING THEM TO THE TRUTH. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER NEEDS YOUR HELP TO GO FIND HIS LOST CHILDREN. GOD WILL USE YOU AS INSTRUMENTS IN HIS HANDS! 

Love you guys! Hope you see a lot of Miracles this week! 

Love, Elder Horton

         We Went to The Sun Museum during P-day!