Mission Week 65, Sogamoso Week 18, "Transferring areas on a High Note with a Baptism, going to Duitama as a ZL"

SOOOO DAVID VEGA MORALEZ GOT BAPTIZED!!

That was the best part of the week. He was so happy when he got to the chapel. After he was baptized he shared his testimony with everyone that came. He said that he felt clean as he came up out of the water. He confessed that he has done bad things in his life, but that he has the desire and want to change and to help others now. He wants to serve in the church! I hope that he has the desire to go on a mission soon. He's 23 years old and we've been talking with him about going on a mission and he's honestly considering it! David has a few friends from the Church of Jesus Christ that are leaving to go on missions as well. We'll see what happens.

Our mission President call me and informed me that I will be leaving Sogamoso and heading out to Duitama. It's literally 30 mins away from Sogamoso. I will continue being a Zone Leader there for the time being.

Sogamoso was a great learning period for me. I've been discovering a lot of insights of how to start seeing if people are progressing, who are the people in the street that really want the gospel in their lives, and how to help them understand it. It's coming little by little, but that's how it's supposed to be haha. Chapter five in Preach my Gospel is on of my favorite chapters, because it teaches you the key points to conversion. If you can help people little by little to start on their path towards conversion then you're fulfilling with your calling!

David, my comp and I in front of the church.

David Moralez Baptism

David´s Baptism Ward Support

We made spaghetti with a special sauce called "Giso"

They spelt burger wrong.

Mission Week 64, Sogamoso Week 17, "Locked in a Special Baptism Date"

This week we got to lock in the baptism with David Vega for the 23rd of March. He tells us that he's been learning so much and wants to keep growing and knowing more and more of the doctrine of Christ.

Sorry for being so short but I'll send pics this next week don't worry!

Love Elder Horton

Mission Week 63, Sogamoso Week 16, "He Showed Us His Faith..."

I had one powerful lesson this week!

David Vega is one of our investigators that we have been teaching for a while now. He's 23 years old and a super cool guy. He's been coming to church and attending institute class. He's loved every second of it. This Saturday we had the make or break it lesson. We tried to focus the lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ or BAPTISM. The one thing that touched David a lot is the gift of the Holy Ghost. He told us that here in the church that he has found more answers to his questions than an any other church he's attended. He wants to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be able to keep growing his knowledge and finding more answers to his questions. He has showed his faith as he is searching the scriptures diligently and praying or ACTING to find his answers. He has felt the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as the Word of God and he wants to keep growing his faith.  We set the baptismal date for the 23rd of March and he accepted to be baptized on that date! He told us after the lesson that when we first knocked on his door he thought we were Jehovah Witnesses and he wasn't going to open the door, but he felt something tell him to open the door. He was looking for a lot of answers in his life during this time and he told us that he was so glad that he opened his door that day. That just went to show me the none of our efforts go wasted. There are people everywhere that need the light that the Gospel brings. Please go share it with someone!

Love you all!

Elder Horton   

Mission Week 62, Sogamoso Week 15, "Miracles can't happen if you're not doing something about it!"

Everything is going good out here in good ole Colombia!

Our zone conference with President was really really good. He talked to all of us about FAITH. He started off the meeting by putting his scripture bag in the middle of the room and he said, " Move the bag to where I am with your FAITH." He was standing up at the pulpit. After about thirty seconds of nothing, one of the missionaries ran up and put the bag where President was standing. That hit me really hard. Faith is something so simple yet hard to obtain, it's called HARD WORK! You work really hard and get things done and have the hope necessary to know that God will bless your life as you are obedient to his commandments. Just WORK HARD! Miracles can't happen if you're not doing something about it! Most of the time you are the miracle in someone else's life! People always think that Gods going to wave his hand and make everything better as they have "faith" in him. That doesn't mean sit down and wait patiently for a miracle to pass by magically. If you want the situation to get better do everything you can on your part first! Then God will show you miracles.

Something else that Hit me during the Conference was how he explained Faith as working with conviction in the field. If you don't have a purpose for doing something, something that you know to be right or believe to be right, you're not going to have much success. In fact you're going to be wasting your time. I love Moroni 10:4 as he explains to us what we must do to obtain an answer from God. We must search diligently with a "Sincere Heart", and "True intentions", having "Faith in Jesus Christ" and your answers will come by the power of  the Holy Ghost. Those three things are not things that are obtained in the Blink of an eye. We have to SHOW our Father in Heaven that we are willing to ACT to receive a righteous answer to a righteous question that we really truly desire. I love to apply this to Missionary work. If you aren't ALL IN, if we're not willing to give it everything we've got searching for people with a Sincere heart, with real intentions, and having faith in Jesus Christ, we will not and cannot complete with our Purpose here as missionaries, just like we will not and cannot receive answers to our prayers if we're not willing to show God that we're willing to put a little effort in on our part. My invitation to all of those who are searching for answers/miracles in their lives would be to think. "Have I shown God the Faith necessary to receive such a Divine Answer/Miracle?"

I love you all and Hope that your Faith in Jesus Christ continues to Grow each and everyday. Remember that you can tell someone you love them and that's great, but it's better to show them that you love them!

Love, Elder Horton     

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