Mission Week 12, Cucuta Week 7, "Filled with the Spirit"

HELLO! This week was great! Filled with many lessons and the Spirit!

On Tuesday we taught the Jaimes family. They have a daughter named Andrea that we received as a contact from Hermano Usmi. We've been teaching her the lessons and she's been interested to learn more. For this visit with her family we taught the Plan of salvation. The most important principle that we teach in this lesson is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Andrea has many problems in her past that she's been looking to get off of her chest. I couldn't wait to share with her La Expiaciòn de Jesus Cristo. Elder Quiñonez and I taught her that since Christ suffered for our sins in the garden of Gethsemane he knows how we feel when we make a mistake. We told her that as we pray for forgiveness and strive to keep and follow Gods commandments that he will bless us will feelings of peace and happiness. That the feelings of guilt and sadness wont be with us anymore. We left the Jaime's family with an invitation to pray about the plan of salvation to know if this truly is the plan for our lives.

There was a missionary activity this week with all of the primary kids. They helped us invite people to come to church on Sunday! It was so awesome, all of the jovencitos were organized into companionships with plaques and everything. We had two companionships of sisters with us. We would start by knocking on the door and introducing everyone and then these little sisters would invite our investigators to come to church. They ended with a scripture that they all memorized in 3 Nephi 22:13 about how all of Gods Children will hear the word of the Lord. One of the sisters went the extra mile and asked for their address and telephone number haha! After we ran out of invitations we headed back to the church and thanked our Hermana's for helping us for the day!

This Sunday we had ward conference, which means the stake president and his counselors were all there. Many new assignments were given to new members. After the 3rd hour all of the people with callings in the church met in the chapel and we had a meeting with the stake president. He taught all of the parents how they could balance their time of family, work, and their callings. I don't have those right now but it was still great to learn haha. We helped the Sourdis family move to a different house today. They were moving just right down the street, but its closer to where they work so life would be a lot easier on them. What was interesting was actually moving all of the stuff into their new home. The house was a second story home with a twirling staircase to get to their door. We decided to make an assembly line which made things a lot smoother with getting items into the house. That was until they brought out the big guns. They had a refrigerator that we somehow had to get into there house. The best course of action was to get as many people under at first to keep it stabilized while moving up the stairs. This worked great until we got to the part of the stairs where it started to twirl. Unfortunately I was the one stuck in the middle right under the refrigerator. Luckily I was strong enough to grip the bottom and lift it very quickly before I got crushed haha! ENTONCES...All is well in there new house now and we celebrated with fresh bread from the bakery and Postobon soda!

Love you all and pray for you always!

Love, Elder Horton

Mission Week 11, Cucuta Week 6, "Power in a Testimony and a Miracle"

Hola Familias!

This week was amazing! I want to start with Tuesday! We went proselyting with Luisa Angarita, Yurley Angarita, and Jose Sourdis. We had an appointment that we wanted to go with them to, but the investigator ended up not being home. We decided to go proselyting with them! The very first family we saw outside we starting to talk with them and they were interested in hearing our message. After explaining the background of our church we invited these 3 recent converts of only one month!! to share their testimonies to these people. I have never seen this in my life so this was very new to me, to see recent converts willing to come with us and share their testimonies to people they don't even know. The Spirit was so strong as each of them testified that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today. They shared their testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that it truly is the word of God. They even invited the people we were teaching to pray for themselves to find out! Because thats exactly what they did! They testified that they would receive an answer of the truthfulness of their words by the Holy Ghost. I was blown away and wanted to say amen and set some baptismal dates. The importance of sharing your testimony with people is so crucial when teaching because that is the key, the key is to get the person you're teaching to feel the spirit to testify of the truth of your words. If you don't have a testimony I want to invite you to look for one, right now! Start of with something simple, like the Book of Mormon. Make goals to read every single day. Mark scriptures that have significance in your life right now and how you can bless the lives of others. Fast, and pray pray pray everyday. Ask Heavenly Father a simple question such as Is the Book of Mormon true? If you show Heavenly Father that you care and truly want to find an answer he WILL give you one. But you have to make the effort!

We had 4 baptisms this week which was very exciting! Diana, Katherine (Linett), Camilo, and Luis. I had the opportunity to baptize Diana Poula Gonzalez Angarita. She is 8 years old and has the sweetest testimony. I have pics but cant send them this week!

(This next part came just to Dad...but I felt it was so special to share with all of you too.)
Things are moving out here and going faster every week! I made it through the first 6 weeks pretty cool huh! It was sad to see some of the missionaries go actually. My love grows for my companion and the elders and sisters we serve with everyday as we work together in service projects finding investigators and having much success! Something that bummed me out this week was I sprained my ankle again on Friday... I was just walking and my foot went forward and in the wrong direction and I heard a loud CRCKKK! When I looked down at my foot it was super fat! But something that was a miracle and a blessing for me was we were right next to a members house! I was able to hop over there and rest. Its brother Usmi`s house.(He's the big black guy in the photos I sent) He's so cool! The next miracle that happened was brother Troncoso who lives right above brother Usmis house was home from work that day! and He knows how to deal with injuries like this, so immediately when he heard about my foot he ran down and started doing some therapies on it which was super nice! Another miracle that happened was since we weren't able to go eat lunch since i was stuck in the house, our cook heard about my foot and decided to pack some lunch for me and my comp and he sent it over with E`Souza y E`Gutierrez. The last miracle was doctor Duque. He is the doctor that Ive been seeing for my foot and he came down and cracked my foot back into place. That REALLY HURT but don't worry I can walk and all is well :) I testify that the Lord looks after his missionaries, D&C 84:88 talks about how his angels will be there to bear you up. Well I had these brethren in the church, and my companion. They were the angels and I want you to know that I'm ok! and that I know that no matter how many trials we go through we can get through every single one of them with the Lords help!

Love you all!!

Elder Horton

Mission Week 11, Cucuta Week 5, "Opportunities to Give Service"

Hola Familia y amigos!

This last week we had the opportunity to give alot of service!

On Tuesday we had a service project for La Familia Daza. They needed us to rip down a wall of tires filled with dirt and replace the tires and fill them back up with dirt! I'm grateful that I worked construction before the mission thank you GREG for making me shovel all of that dirt that one day. I knew what I was in for, 3 hours of straight shoveling and listening to gospel music was great! We ended up not finishing so we had to come back the next day.

Wednesday! We went back to La Familia Dazas house to finish stacking and packing and it took us another 3 hours since we didnt have the help of the missionaries in our district this time. Nevertheless I could feel the Lord strengthening me to do the job so I went for it with Elder Quinonez and we got it done! After stacking and packing the wheels, Hermana Daza wanted us to do one last thing before we left, which was to burn all of her trash at the side of here house. This was pretty interesting for me since I didn't know where we would start the fire, but Hermana Daza had brought out a lighter and told us to just go for it and light it up! haha! So we gathered what trash we could to start the fire and when we got it going it got HUGE! It was crazy! I thought we were going to burn her house down, but she didn't seem worried. She actually brought us out cream filled bread with some soda to watch the fire! Her name is Jasmine and she's one of the coolest ladies Ive met out here haha.

Thursday was another service project at a families house not in our area so I don't know their names, but we were back to whacking dirt. We were tearing apart the side of a mountain for a family that is planning on building a house in this area. After about 4 hours of this my hands got destroyed! I should have brought gloves...

Friday!! can you guess? Thats right SERVICE, I love giving service its super fun! This time Las Hermana's needed our help with a family that needed their backyard cleared. They gave us machetes and we started going to work chopping down trees and weeds. During out rampage of swinging like mad men (its so fun to use machetes) we found a coconut tree and we climbed up and each got one. The coconuts are green here? I don't know if thats normal but they taste so good! My favorite part is the white meat inside. It reminds me of Almond Joys.

Saturday we had two Entrevistas (interviews) for Luis Sourdis, and Camilo Daza who are both going to be baptized this week! 

Sunday me and my comp fasted and spent a lot of time with families in the ward. I was able to share a lot of scriptures that I learned throughout the week. One story that I really love is when Amulek is preaching about the after life and how our bodies will be reunited with our spirits again! (Alma 11:42-45) I had the opportunity to bear my testimony multiple times throughout the day sharing this wonderful message. 

Missionary life is the greatest blessing ever!



Love you all!

Elder Horton 

Mission Week 10, Cucuta Week 4, "Working with Families"

A lot went on this week, but sadly I do not have time to explain haha SO I have lots of adventures and cool pics :).

Elder Horton and my companion Elder Quinonez

Working Hard in our District

Cucuta Family Birthday

Cucuta Family

Cucuta Members

Hanging with a Cucuta Member Family

More Family

AND MORE FAMILY!

Mission Week 9, Cucuta Week 3, "MultiZone Meetings with Mission President"

Hi Family and Friends!

Another great week! Full of the Spirit! This week we had a Multizone meeting with the President of our mission (President Laney). We had our personal interviews with him for him to see how we are doing. Intercambios were also this week. Intercambios is when you switch who your companion is for the day. Then once again we had another two baptisms!

The Multizone meeting was so cool! I was able to meet every missionary in Cucuta. We had an inspiring lesson by President Laney on how to find more people to teach. Which is through references! References come mainly through members which means! MEMBERS please please help your ward missionaries out and give them referrals for a friend or even someone you just met but you think theyre cool and would love to hear our message, and even if you think they don't want to just tell us anyway! haha. We came back the next day on Wednesday for interviews. President Laney truly has love for each and every one of his missionaries!

Having a different companion for the day made me realize how long Im actually with Elder Quinonez haha. I actually had one of the Zone Leaders as my companion for the day his name is Elder Sanchez. He is from Mexico and learned to speak English on his mission! He wanted me to help him so we spoke in English as we walked around proselyting. One experience I loved with Elder Sanchez is when we were trying to find an address and he would go up to people and ask them if they knew where the place was. This one lady stopped us just as we were about to leave and continue on after receiving directions from here, but she stopped us and asked us who we were! I was so surprised! But she looked at me and was waiting for a response so I just started using any Spanish word that would come to my head. I told her that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and that we bring a message centered on Jesus Christ. That seemed to get her attention so i kept going. I asked her if there was a time that we could stop by and share our message with her and she said yes!!!! This was my first successful contact ever! It was so simple but it worked. This just helped me to realize that the Lord has prepared people for us to find and teach.

The two baptisms we had for Wendy Sourdis and Luisa Angarita! Its so great to see people change and start their journey back to our Heavenly Father! You can see the happiness it brought these two. Wendy and Luisa are both 14 years old and received an answer that the church is true. Every day I continue to learn how the Lord works in many different ways to help us find certain people at certain times or to ask and make promises to people at specific times. I know the Holy Ghost is our guide throughout each lesson and I know that Its him that testifies that our message is true!

I love you all!

Elder Horton

Impressions of Cucuta:
There are small Churches everywhere here, its fun to see the different types of people and beliefs and even sometimes the clothes they wear :)

Multi Zone Meetings

with my first comp Elder Quinonez 

Mission Week 8, Cucuta Week 2, "My First Baptism"

¡Buenas tardes!

Days are flying here! I wanna get right into some of the highlights of the week!

First! We had two baptisms this Saturday, for Jose Sourdis and Yurley Gonzalez(you have to say her name in Spanish, its not yurrrleeeeyyy its JJJJuuurrrrlllllaaaayyyyy :)) These two were ready for this step in their lives. They have strong testimonies and truly strive to live Gods commandments.

Something that surprised me during our lesson with Jose is that he asked me if I would baptize him! I was shocked mostly because everyone (his family) started looking at me waiting for a response, and then they all started laughing because they realized I didn't understand. Once it hit me, I raised my hands in the air and shouted ¡Si!

The baptism of Jose was really special for me not just because it was my FIRST baptism ever! But because when I saw the look on his face when he came out of the water, its hard for me to describe, but there was a Heavenly Joy and the face of Jose. Seeing someone change their life and come unto Christ is one the most satisfying feelings of peace. That night I thought about the feelings I had and the feelings that Jose had, and it put a fire inside of me to want to bring more and more people to the fount!

We had the chance to give service at the Gonzalez home! They needed me, Elder Quinonez, Elder Gutierez, and Elder Souza to chop down a jungle that was growing in their backyard. When I saw Hermana Gonzalez bring out the machetes you're darn right I got pumped up. My ninja skills we're tested once again. But don't worry mom this time I didn't hurt anything :). We were able to clear it all out for the family and they gave us some lemonade to drink after.

Missionary work is the greatest work!

I love you all and pray for you always!

Love, Elder Horton

Impressions of Cucuta:
1. Everyone here owns a machete
2. Theres a bread shop on every corner of town SUPER YUMMY
3. There are police in every shop in this City guarding each door

Jose Sourdis

​Yurley Gonzalez!

Atalaya ward

​Disrtict meeting with Elderes y Hermanas

Serving at the Gonzalez house

Serving using Macehettes!

Mission Week 7, Cucuta Week 1, Serving in my First Area, "Cucuta"

I am not dead! almost, but like, not really hehe! Alright! ENTONCES my first Area is called Cucuta, and its literally right next to Venezuela. Which is actually pretty cool because Venezuela is in a really bad state right now with a corrupt government. That means everyone is trying to flee the country! and guess where they're going? Thats right, Cucuta!

My first companion is Elder Quinonez. He's a great missionary and has a strong testimony. He's from Guatemala and barley speaks English. That was a weird thing for me this week because this is my first true week where i didn't have English. It actually went pretty great!

It is so dang hot here! Literally I think its worse than my brother Brennens mission. Its super humid which means your hot and sticky allllll day. What I thought was funny is when I got in the shower to cool off. That didn't work. When you hop out of the shower you get hit with a heat wave and straight back to sticky.

The city! its so cool here! Since its so hot everyone here is always outside. There are little shops everywhere that people set up to try and sell stuff. The people here are super friendly and love to talk. Whenever my companion and I see someone we yell Buenas!! which just means hi have a good day.

Teaching is actually going pretty great! I always participate in lessons and bear my testimony as mush as possible. One of my favorite families in Patri, Jesus, and their son Daniel. They are recent converts and and love the church! My first visit with them they thought it was so cool that I was learning Spanish and that I could speak English. I decided to give them an English Book of Mormon and Patri's face lit up! She explained to me that her son was learning English and that this book would be perfect for him. Jesus makes pants for a living and sells them whenever he can. They live in a very humble house and don't have much so we offer what help we can to them.

I love you all and am always praying for you, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

With Love, Elder Horton

Impressions of Cucuta:
1. Water and milk here are in bags
2. when people drive they drive in zig zags becuase there are pot hols eveywhere
3. every fast food place here is completely decked out and looks like a five star hotel

My Trainer and First Comp: Elder Quinonez from Guatemala

We went to Domino's for P-Day!