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.

Mission Week 70, Duitama Week 5, "In Bogotà this week for interexchanges with the Assistants."

We went to Bogotà this week for interexchanges with the Assistants. They taught us how to become better leaders. There's a story about the greatest tasting fish in the world. In Japan just off the coast, fishermen would go out in their boats and cast their nets. They always came back with much success and the people of Japan loved the fish. BUT one day there just didn't seem to be any fish, they casted their nets the entire day and caught nothing. The fishermen decided to head out farther. But still they seemed to catch nothing. Until they had traveled out about 3 days by boat. They casted their nets and finally! They seemed to find fish! They caught as many fish as they could and then headed back to Japan to show all of the people that they found fish again! But when they got there and they people tried the fish they didn't seem to like it. The fish didn't seem to have the same flavor as before. So the Fishermen started to think, ok what's going o here...One of the fishermen replied "It must be because the fish aren't moving! They seem practically dead when we get into port!" They all started to think what can we do? Another fisherman replied, "Lets put the fish in a tank and throw a shark in there and see what happens! They all agreed. When they got out to the fishing area, they again threw their nets caught a bunch of fish and put them all into a huge tank. Then they threw a shark in to see what would happen. As the shark started to swim close to the fish they started to FLIP OUT and swim like they've never swam before! That sure got them alive! When they brought the fish back to Japan the people exclaimed, "Now those are good tasting fish!" They had tasted better because those little fish where on their little fins (They were more alive) because of the shark that was constantly passing by. The Assistants related this story to us as leaders. We need to be the sharks that are constantly following up with the missionaries to help them to have success, and to keep them constantly swimming with all of their might. Thought that was a pretty fun story haha.

Hope you guys all have a great week!

In Bogota at the Mission Office with the AP's

Where else would a good American Lunch be?

Enjoying a nice cold 7up!

Elder's with a Birthday surprise...

Mission Week 69, Duitama Week 4, "A week of Celebration called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week."

Another week in Boyaca! We were able to set a baptismal date with Astrid this week for the 18th of May. We found her during a District activity. She told us straight off the bat that she wants to be a better mother for her two daughters. She is single, she got divorced from her husband a couple years back. She wants her to girls to be safe and successful in this life. We were happy to teach her the right way to walk to be able to blessed with that! We have been teaching her for about three weeks now. Astrid is really intelligent. Anything we leave her to read in the Book of Mormon, she always hits the key points of every chapter so it can bless her life. She is learning very fast!

Our zone went out to Tunja this week for an open house activity at the Church building there. It was great to be able to help many people know who we are and how the teachings of Christ can bless their lives.

This week was a celebration week in Colombia. It was called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week". All of the Catholic churches all around the world were having celebrations and meetings the entire week.

Hope y'all have a great week!
Elder Horton

Impressions of Duitama:
1.) Everyone here is Catholic
2.) There are thousands of little shops that sell for example car parts, flooring material, home items, perfumes, school supplies, internet, computers, etc! If you're looking for something just talk a walk around town and I'm sure you'll end up finding it.
3.) No matter what the price is of something, you can always bargain it down.

My comp Elder Tarazona and I

Duitama zone in Tunja for Open House activity

Elder Erickson, Elder Balmforth and I

Duitama District

Tunja district

Mission Week 68, Duitama Week 3, "The Lord is preparing the hearts of his children."

This week we had a really cool experience contacting in the street. We went realllllllly far out to the corner of our area in a neighborhood called San Luis. There we decided to start knocking on doors. For a while it seemed like we weren't getting anything. After about an hour of that we were getting ready to head out since we were not having a whole lot of success and it was getting late. One house we knocked on and a Lady answered the door. She seemed a little afraid to see us at first but then we presented ourselves. Her name is Jaime and she invited us in to share our message with her. Before we even started the opening prayer she instantly started to cry telling us a lot of problems that have been going on in her life. We focused our message on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was our hope to bring peace into her life and to help her form a relationship with God. At the end of the lesson we invited her to offer a pray asking God for peace in her life. She offered one of the most beautiful prayers that I've ever heard in my life. She started off by saying " "Oh God" She then proceeded to thank Him for everything that she has. Then, pleading with all her heart she said "Dios, con todo la fuerza que tengo en mi corazon, porfavor ayude me tener paz." (God, with all of the strength that I have in my heart, please help me to have peace.) When those words came out of her mouth, instantly a peaceful calm fell over the room. The spirit was brought into her home. As she ended her prayer, her little daughter started to scream. But she looked at her and just smiled. We set up another appointment to come back and left. Passing her window we saw her continue to sit there on her couch and just smile at her daughter. It was a miracle to be able to see the hope and light come back into her! Leaving the house I couldn't help but think about how the Lord is preparing his children to receive his gospel. Don't let moments like this pass you by as you're walking about each day. The Lord is preparing the hearts of his children Alma 16:16. My testimony of prayer has grown! It also made me remember how immediate blessings come as long as we ask with faith.

I love you all and hope that your testimony of prayer can grow like it grew with Jaime!

Elder Horton