Mission Week 92, Fontana Week 15, "Let the spirit do the teaching and not you!"

Today we went on a fun adventure. we decided to go up a mountain, but make our own trail! It was awesome. I'll show you guys some photos this week or next week if they can't download fast enough.

this week we had our zone conference. I learned more about the importance of using the Book of Mormon in everything we do. I loved what Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught us. He teaches us that the words of the prophets in the Book of Mormon will invite the spirit into the lessons, and that their words have MUCH more power than our own. When we teach we shouldn't be the ones talking so much. The words of the prophets and the people we are teaching need to talk MORE.

Use the Words of the book of Mormon when you share the gospel. The most important thing that we can do is share our testimonies. Let the spirit do the teaching and not you! Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Horton

Mission Week 91, Fontana Week 14, "I Love to Teach Families"

Lots of great things happened this week. Julio Mendoza introduced us to his daughters family today. I'm going to get a photo with the entire family to show you guys. They're so awesome! Every lesson is like a mini family night since they're so many of them! I can't help but see them all in white in the temple. I love to teach families. They are always really nice to us. Just yesterday we had a visit with them and they made us "arroza con leche." It's a really good dessert here. 

Rosa Guerrero is one of the people we're hoping that will get baptized. We taught her this week about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked her how she feels about baptism. The only fear that she has is that she's not going to be able to answer the baptismal interview questions! We were look whaaaaaaaat! That was the only thing that she was scared of because when her son got baptized she remembers the interview that he had. We hope to set a baptismal date with her this week!

Something really cool that happened was with a family that's named the Carmona family. They are members. The Grandmother of this family is named Lucila. She's super duper sweet. She has paralysis from the waist down. When we went to go visit the Carmona family we had just got into there house, and Lucila said that she wants to get baptized! We were like, WELL we can help you with that!

Elder Baggett and I went to Mount Monserrate (again haha). I've gone so many times now.

Something funny that Happened today was when Elder Baggett went to go get his haircut. We went to this Venezuelan Barber shop and the guy who was going to cut Elder Baggett's hair was like. "I'm going to make you look like Brad Pitt!" Then he kept trying to tell us to marry his cousins so that they can get the VISA's..haha. 

I love serving the Lord!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 90, Fontana Week 13, "Elder Gong came and visited our mission!"

Elder Baggett and I had a great first week!

Last Friday, Elder Gong came and visited our mission. I learned how to become better at talking to people and sharing the gospel with people in the street and from day to day. Elder Gong shared an experience of when he was traveling in a plane. There was a lady sitting next to him and they were on their way to Italy. Elder Gond asked the lady sitting next to him why she was heading over to Italy. She started to explain that she works with Old Italian art like Michelangelo and all those artists. With that, Elder Gong tried to remember everything he could about Italian art. He was able to remember a few things and they started to have a conversation about it. After a few minutes the lady looked at Elder Gong and said, "You want to know how my son died, don't you?" Elder Gong was surprised by that haha. After listening to her story, he then started to talk to her a little about God's plan for us and our purpose in this life. I learned a lot from this. We need to gain the trust of the people before we go throwing out gospel principles with people. We need to ask them questions to get to know them and then talk about what interests them.  They will open up to us as we show them that what's important to them is important to us too.

My Greenie...Elder Baggett

With Elder Baggett! We've been working hard here. I taught him a lot about the mission and our goals that we have. He's a super awesome guy! He always says hi to everyone that we pass by. It was really funny the first day that we got to work in our area I told Elder Baggett that we were only going to be speaking Spanish to each other. I figured that since he's only been here for about a month that we would need to focus a lot on improving our Spanish. When we got to our first teaching appointment we had planned to teach the Restoration. We get in there and sit down and in my mind I figured that I was going to have to teach a majority of the lesson. Then Elder Baggett comes out of nowhere and started speaking amazing Spanish! I was like dang what the. Turns out that he knows Spanish! His mom is from the city of Mexico and his dad served a mission in Mexico so he was raised speaking Spanish.

One of the miracles that we saw this week was with Julio Mendoza and his family. We found out that they're like 4 families living in the same house with Julio. They're all members of his family. Julio has gained a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and he shares it with his family each time we come over to teach them. The only problem is that none of these families are married! The ward is starting to help us out with this big family too so we'll see what happens!

See you guys next week!
Elder Horton

Mission Week 89, Fontana Week 12, "The Holy Ghost is a Gift that God has granted each of Us "

Transfer news came in today. My companion Elder Manning is leaving for another area and I'm going to be training. Looks like I'm going out training! WOOOOOOO! His name is Elder Bagot. He's from Utah. I can't believe that I'm going into my last 12 weeks in my mission! Time's been going by rapidito!

Julio Mendoza is really awesome! He's an investigator that we've been teaching. This last week we were able to talk to him and his future wife Marlenis! They want to get married and baptized! I'm so pumped up for this. The best thing that happened is when they came to church this Sunday. We had planned to pass by for them and some members were going to take them in their car to the chapel. When we called Julio Mendoza at 7:30 in the morning to confirm the plans he told us that he was already in the chapel. The meeting doesn't start until 8:30! What was even better is that he brought a lot of his family with him to church. They all loved the church. Now the goal is to help this family get baptized. They are really special. Julio even told us from the moment that we knocked on his door that he knew we were servants sent from God. He's gained a powerful testimony of the church. 

Were practicing in a choir that I'm going to be apart of for when The Apostle Elder Gong. He's coming to our mission next week. My mission has been full of visits from the Apostles and general authorities, even the Prophet! I feel really blessed. After singing in the Choir. Sister Valladares bought us all Dominos pizza afterwards which was super awesome!

I learned more about the Power of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is a gift that God has granted each of us to guide us in our lives. The way we can utilize this gift is when we study in the scriptures and pray always! The spirit teaches us all truth, helps us to make decisions in life and will keep us safe from sin. When the prophet came here he taught us a lot about how in these last days we won't be able to survive spiritually in this world without the guide of the Holy Ghost. The scripture that I love the talks about the spirit is 2 Nephi 32:3 "The words of God will tell ye all things that ye should do" If you want to know what you need to do in your life, then read in the scriptures prayerfully. I've received so many answers her in my mission as I've done so. The words of God have changed my life. I know they can change yours too. feast on the words of Christ everyday, and The Lord will always guide you from day to day.  

Im really pumped up to start training my new "chino"!! 

Talk to you all next week!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 88, Fontana Week 11, "Matthew 5:14-16! FOLLOW IT "

Baptism of Laura Rodriguez

Laura Rodriguez got baptized today! She's super duper awesome and loves the church and is going to be a strong member. I've got pics so don't worry.

One experience that we had this week that impacted me the most was with Julio Mendoza. He's an Investigator that we have been teaching. His wife is going through some serious depression. He wants us to help her to be happy. We taught them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The hope that it brings. The happiness that we can obtain as we repent and accept the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. As we were ending the lesson we looked to Julio and asked him who he would like to offer the last prayer. He looked at us and said, "I want to listen to a missionary of God pray for my wife and my family." That impacted me a lot. I learned more about the important calling that we have as missionaries. He recognizes clearly that we servant of the Lord. I felt the spirit a lot as we ended that lesson. He came to church this Sunday too!

Matthew 5:14-16! FOLLOW IT

Love you guys!
Elder Horton