Mission Week 74, Duitama Week 9, "Choose to get things done rather than wait for things to happen."

The mission received a visit from Elder David A. Bednar this week. We had the privilege to go and hear him. My mission has been visited a lot haha. Super big blessings from that! One thing that I absolutely loved that is going to help me for the rest of my life is the lesson between Agents and Objects. God Gave each and everyone of us our Agency. What exactly does that mean? Well the basic Book answer would usually be the ability to choose. Elder Bednar gave us a different definition. He said that it's the ability to act and not be acted upon. On Object can't do what Agents can. An object would be for example a Hymn book. He taught me an important lesson about how we all sometimes act as Objects in our lives. An Object is something that always waits for an Agent to act upon it. We in our lives act as Objects when we pray, study, go throughout the day. Have you ever found yourself praying and asking God for example, God, please help this family come to church on Sunday, or please bless me with patience, help my friend to feel the love of God in his life. These are all examples of people who pray as objects. Now the real questions are, What are you going to do to help get that family to church on Sunday, what are you going to do to develop more patience, what are you going to do to help your friend feel of God's love in his/her life? We need to show our Heavenly Father through our Faith in Jesus Christ (our works) that we are ready to act and get things done. DO NOT be an Object that waits for things to happen and just magically pass by. After all that is the plan of the Adversary. He never wanted us to be able to exercise our Agency. I loved how he used that analogy. Be AGENTS. It's the only way that we`'l progress in this life. Choose to get things done rather to wait for things to happen out of thin air. I know that Faith without works is dead.

I Pray we can all see the ways that we are being Objects and start to be Agents! Love you all!!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 73, Duitama Week 8, "Don't let fear control your life"

We headed down to Bogotá to have our monthly leadership meeting. It was great to be able to receive a lot of the help we needed from our mission president. He explained to us the importance of not having fear. We need to recognize who we are and who we represent. Fear destroys all hope, it makes goals unachievable, and it stops our progression. Don't let fear control your life. God is with you in every moment of your life, he knows what we are capable of. Satan wants that we feel fear because he doesn't want us to be happy in this life. Show him who's boss and be CONFIDENT in yourself. Go accomplish the goals that you have in this life. Put your faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm focusing a lot on how I can become a better teacher. I'm doing a hard core study on Chapters 3 and 10 of PMG to be able to learn better how to bring Gods children to him.

It was a little sad this week since we're going to have to change the baptismal dates of Astrid and Angie. They needed to come to church this week in order to be able to reach the Goal for the 25th of May. Angie wasn't feeling good, but Astrid was able to make it to church this Sunday.

We Made French Toast!

The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders outside of the Temple.

Elder McFadden and outside of the Bogota, Columbia Temple.

The Leadership meeting with President and Sister Valladares.

Mission Week 72, Duitama Week 7, "The Work Keeps Moving Forward"

This week was a little crazy since we had all of the new missionaries coming in. All of Tuesday and Wednesday we had to be ready to go to the bus station and send missionaries off. My new comp Elder McFadden got here.

This week we went and visited Astrid and Angie. Right when we got inside to teach them, they told us that they wanted to start doing things right in their lives and that they want to make the changes necessary to be baptized. That was before we even started talking haha! So that was pretty dang cool!

We just got news that Elder Bednar will be coming to our mission on May 25th! We're all going to be traveling to Bogota to hear him.

Other than that this week was really fast and that work keeps moving forward!

See ya next week! 
Elder Horton

Mission Week 71, Duitama Week 6, "Transfers, I have a new Gringo companion"

Well the new transfers came in! My companion will be leaving for Bogota. I'll be staying here in Duitama. My new companion is from the USA! My first gringo companion haha. His name is Elder McFadden. He's from the state of Washington. Elder McFadden was on of the Elders that was living in the same house as me in Yopal.

We had to put Astrid and Angie's baptismal dates back because they weren't able to come to church this last week. But we'll help the get there! Astrid is so awesome. She understands everything that we teach her. One thing that always had worried her was being prepared to be baptized. After sharing Alma 32:21 she learned that she doesn't need to have a "Perfect Knowledge" of everything. She just needs to have faith.

Duitama is absolutely crazy here during transfers because it's the heart of where all the missionaries go to be sent to other parts of the mission. That means we're probably going to be sleeping in the terminal.

Not much to share this week but I hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Horton

Our Cook (The Alvarez Family) took us to eat Subway.

Stake Conference in Sogamoso.