Monday, September 13 2010

Well hello once again family!! Yet again this week has flown by! The weeks get faster as time goes on i guess. Tomorrow i complete 11 months! One more month and its all down hill. Man that weird to think. Well this week has been pretty awesome. The zone leaders have been in Resistencia all week getting trained so elder Hinostroza and i have had the apartment all to ourselves. Really it just means that i have been going to bed early because im so tired from the work. Its been super hot this week, and since we work during the siesta, or offical nap time, from 2 to 5 we are pretty much in the streets dying from the sun, its reminding me of the past summer and its not something that im looking forward to at all. Its not a feeling i like to have but im not sure how to overcome it, the fear is tremendus. But oh well. This week i have really been trying to focus on the work and the people and all of the mission. And i have seen some really cool experiances, there have been a few times that i have actually felt like the lord was using me and i have been able to help two of our investigators get to church and to overcome their doubts, we have another baptism in two weeks of a man who is 25 years old named daniel, hes a sweet guy. He will be a perfect man for the branch, since there is hardly any man in my branch. And the other person that is about to get baptised in 2 or 3 weeks is a woman named Ramona, she has been praying and praying and never could recieve and answer, we worked with her and i believe she will recieve an answer really soon. My comp is good, he just gets really discouraged really fast, its been an interesting time with him. But we work good together and never have any problems. The members have always washed my cloths, i have only washed my clothes once since i got here in Argentina. They cook for us everyday and always give us water, they are super awesome. They dont have money so they cant buy stuff for us like dad does, but they do what they can. Well sounds like life is normal and great at home, ive been having some dreams lately of home so its been pretty tuff to focus here, home is such a weakness sometimes haha, but i wouldnt change it for anything. The homesickness has never gone away, i wake up with that aweful feeling every morning, but i have learned to put it behind me, to forget about myself and try and help the people here, i have been fighting so hard to find the joy here, i feel like i havent found it yet but im trying, and thats what makes me happy, that at least im trying my best, one of my friends from the mish wrote me this week and that really helped me, i realized that i am trying. It is funny how we always recieve a letter right when we need it. OH i got the package!! Man it was sweet thanks!! Im pretty excited to film the kids here eating pop rocks, they have no idea the suprise their getting!! Hey steph thanks for the letter, just keep going and it will all go away soon, patience is a great skill to learn, and ive learned a whole bunch of it here in the mission. Wow hannah you have grown so much, 2nd grade! did you skip 1st? Thats sweet about collin, haha whatever it takes to do well in school haha, hows the team going? and hows collin, about three weeks to the blue and white meet i presume? Dad always did buy food for the missionaires, and always buys food for everyone haha, i had a dream about the christmas eve dinner and oh man that roast tasted so good in the dream haha. Well i dont have anything else to say, lifes great here, it has its ups and downs, but the heat has gone away today so i have nothing to complain about! I LOVE YOU!

Monday, September 6 2010

Well hello my dear family! I really couldnt believe that its already Monday, when i woke up this morning i didnt believe it. This week has flown by! First it rained Monday to friday, so i dont want to even explain how dirty i have been, they dont have paved streets, its all dirt, so its been muddy muddy muddy! Im walking up to my ankles in mud haha. So ive gone through all my pants this week, the sun came out saturday so the members have had a great time washing our clothes haha. Well tuesday i got to go to Resistencia, which was a fun little trip, i met Elder Bradley Foster, who is a seventy and i got to learn a bunch from him, mostly we learned from the Book of Moses the power of being a child of God, and that was amazing to sit and ponder about that stuff. They talked about the literal power of satan and it was pretty interesting stuff, his wife couldnt even give her talk she was so distressed, it was very clear that god let her feel the feelings that satan has on the wicked, all in all it was a very powerful lesson.They have totally redone how we teach as missionaires and its amazing the difference that there is! I got to see my old companion there, Elder Soclle, and it was amazing how much i missed him, we were comps for a long time and it was great to hear from him, THe gomez family in posadas who were going to get baptised got in a huge fight with the zone leaders there during their interviews and they couldnt get baptised, but they are still pushing forward to become members. The family that i baptised right before i left there are super strong! They are definatlely a chosen family, the dad has the melchesidik priesthood and everything! I got to see a few of my comps from the MTC which was so awesome! It made my whole week to be able to visit with them! Wednesday it continued to rain, and ive never felt so exhausted in my life! Because of the trip i didnt get much sleep and i totally screwed up my neck, so it was a pretty painful day haha. Thursday was even more exhausting and my comp didnt really put much effort into the work so i felt like it was all on my shoulders, and man it was tuff. I spent most of the afternoon praying in my heart for strenght and desires, because i was beat! Friday was about the same but i felt the spirit really lift me up during the afternoon and that made a night and day difference, from that moment on the week was freakin amazing!Guess what i got to eat friday night, ROOTBEER FLOATS!! Elder Hogge had rootbeer extract so we made some rootbeer and showed these latinos what a good drink is! oh man it was delicious! And i finally have found brown sugar! Its taken me since may but i finally found a little store that sells it, so now i can finally make syrup! Ive been making omlets all of the time and im getting pretty good at that! Saturday we talked with a couple from Vera, a little town, they now live here but listened to the missionaries there, well he is awesome! his name is daniel and he came to church with us and actually wants to get baptised! So he will get baptised around General Conference, also we have had a tuff time talking with the parents of the twins, the dad is super tuff and never wants to talk with us, the kids come to church every week but the dad wont give them permission to baptise, but i have felt very strongly, as has my comp and our leaders here, that the dad is about to give in, the spirit is telling me we are going to see a miralce! Also sunday afternoon, we were going to do splits with two of the recent converts here but one didnt show up, now my comp gets discouraged super easy, so when this happened he lost all hope, well we started to work and it was tuff for him to do anything but follow, well the last house of the night that we clapped i testified that familes can live forever and she let us in, we had a super spiritual experiance, she told us of her difficulties in her life and it was the same as my comp had passed through, so we testified and my comp was so excited to help her, they definitly are going to be baptised and it was pretty sweet that my comp was able to help them like that! Today on p day my comp and i chilled in front of an ice cream shop drinkin milkshakes then watched all of the new Preach My Gospel dvds which are so awesome!It sometimes makes me jealous, they have this huge support from the ward, with tons of members ready to help, air conditioning, cars and all of that stuff. But my Mission President told me something that changed how i look at these perfect missionaries, he said "They live in fancy aparments with airconditioning, and we die of heat, they have fancy airconditioned cars, and we walk through the mid day heat, they work in beautiful houses and walk down nice clean streets, and we get to work in mud houses and walk through the mud, were all missionaries of the lord but we sacrifice a bit more to spread the word." I loved that quote, it makes me feel a bit more tough! Haha well it sounds like all it good at home, thanks for the news from home and for the help that you guys give me, sounds like steph is loving it now, thats great! Man i forgot a little about the house, thanks for the pic! Mom, thanks for sending the letter! You could also send some chewy gobstoppers... yum! And did you ever recieve the letter i sent to the house? Well i love you all, and ya its flying by! The only thing bad about it flying by right now is that its getting closer to summer haha, im not looking forward to those feelings but im hoping ill be a little bit more prepared, a bit more focused, and have the spirit a bit more with me this summer, that should help alot! Well i lvoe you! BYE

Monday, August 30 2010

Wow it seems like alot has happened this week, and first of all im so glad that our prayers were answered for steph! Its too bad that stuff like that has to happen but man im glad that all is better! So I heard Camryn came home! Man time flies by! That is so sweet! Oh chunks! If only i could grow curly flowing hair down to my shoulders like he can! Haha i so would! ANd Lyndon got sent to Guatemala! Sweet! I hear that its a beautiful area! Not too hot but pretty humid! Man what a great opprotunity! And Brent Barker! Thats sweet, thats going to be such a sweet experiance for him!Ya Josh Ruckert is a cool kid, super wierd, haha, hes a great support for me in the mish, writes me every week and tells me how he wishes he was me! haha no hes a great man! Im glad hes trying to steal my family from me when i cant do anything haha. Another Chick Fillet run! Man im so freakin jealous! If chick fillet keeps making these there wont be any left for when i get back! Oh man i want to do that kind of stuff but dont worry, here in Santa Fe the work moves on. Slowly, super slowly, but surely, alot of the problems we are having here is because of me, im stil learning how to use the spirit and how to work and all of the stuff i need to remember, sometimes i feel like a robot which is not a good thing, so ive been fighting to try and become a better missionary, we just started my 7th transfer which will take me into the year mark! Thats pretty crazy!Time passes by way fast, but at the same time super slow, the key really is to stop thinking about time and just focus on what needs to get done, and im doing alot better with that. But it takes time to get over bad habits, so i have a bunch of patience and training to get doing. But man i love it here in the mission, I have a companion from Peru, we speak spanish and were in Argentina together, its just so wierd! Today we were 5000 miles from home playing monopoly! Its just so great! I really just want to improve myself, and thats what im trying to do! We are having troubles with bringing people to church but dont worry i have emergency investigators that come every week, they are twins and little brothers and sisters to Natalya, who was baptised a few weeks ago, the Investigators are not progressing that much and im having a tuff time helping them progress, im pretty much stuck, but dont fear ill get things into gear, its not so much talking with people anymore, its trying to get them to progress, to recognize that they need this, its tuff.But not impossible! Well im glad everything is great at home! Here are some photos of my life here in Santa Fe! Tell the family i miss them and thanks for the letters from Lindsay and Robin! Also from Grandma and Grandpa Horrocks! I love youall! Tell Dad, steph, collin, abbey and hannah hi! And where are some pics?! I would like one of the house and the nieghborhood with the mountains behind it so i can show people here my town! With loves!!

Monday, August 23 2010

Hey Family!! Hows life going!? Im here in Reconquista, but this week has felt like ive been on Tatooine, the desert planet on starwars, because the sky here is the color of sand, its pretty cool, i havent seen blue skys for a while. This week has been my most exhausting week of the mission i believe. Its amazing how hot it got so fast! Its really humid and super hot, like 93 degrees right now, and were still in winter!! But really it hasnt bugged me alot, im used to the head ache and the dreanched clothes, but man the people are really tuff here, everyday of the week i have just speant my time walking around, but with sacrifice comes the blessings, i have found four people that seem to really be great investigators, and they are trying to find their testimony so that makes me happy, im used to the back pains and the aching feet so i say that everything here is fine and dandy, through all of the tiredness and heat and all of the problems i have really come to find a desire to overcome everything! I really believe that god is with me all of the time because no matter how hard the day gets now i fight harder to find the happiness and to put a smile on my face, im finding joy in the scriptures like Andy said, i cherish them above all the world, and i am constantly trying to improve my knowledge. The homesickness has never left but i have learned how to over ride it haha. Im just starting to find the joy here, my biggest worry is how i will feel the spirit, because i feel like its so hard to recognize it. But im working on it. Well it sounds like one of the biggest changes back at home, collin starting 9th grade and abbey is starting 7th! And Steph went to college, and im sorry to hear that its been so tuff for her, ill definitly pray, just remember that i also had tuff roommates, i think thats just part of the Horrocks life, but ill defintily write her to help her. Thats pretty sad about the Nordahls, ill probably never get to see them again, but who knows. And wow thats really sweet about Tjs experiance, how cool is that! Well i dont have much more time this week! Thanks dad for your letter, i always love your help and consel. Next week im going to talk with Elder Foster, who is the 70 who talked about mothers know best in the last conference so im excited to learn from him! Well love you all and goodbye!

Tuesday, August 17 2010

Hey family!! So yesterday was a holiday here so we had to work so my pday was today, so the week felt way long! But really it flew by! This week has pretty tuff mostly because i felt so stressed about the lack of progress i am having, i feel like its really slow, i havent been able to visit with any of the investigators that have baptismal dates because they werent home, but i did give it my all with all of the troubles i had this week, but best of all i had a baptism!I kind of forgot to say that last week but ya, we finally got permission from the father of the three kids we are teaching to baptise the oldest girl, who is 15, so that was awesome i was pretty excited, it was a really spiritual baptism, the strongest one yet. And the father who didnt want anything with us is now listening to us and im sure that he will start to change, thats the effect the spirit has on people! So i am really seeing a difference from when i got here, there are days that we dont enter one house but somehow we are finding those that need the gospel. slowly but surely, once i start getting my planning down im sure that i will be able to see alot more blessings, we are finding the elect, but man it takes my patience, thats really been a help to live with the zone leaders because they can help me with my defects, my comp lacks alot of initiave, which we are working on, hes really gotten better and ive grown alot also, which is awesome!So i am attaching a photo of a picture that looks like its nighttime, but its really 9 in the morning, it was super sunny and it seemed like it would be a pleasant day, and as i was studying it started getting darker and darker until we couldnt even see our books of mormon! So i ran outside to see what was wrong, i kind of felt like the sun turned off! But the clouds came so fast and they were so thick that the light couldnt penetrate at all! ive never seen anyhting like it! Man! it was cool, but man it was so muddy afterwards, well i dont have much to say, its been tuff but ive grown a super lot, its starting to warm up again and my nerves from remembering the last summer are starting to jump, but i think ill be able to handle it alot better! Well i love you all! Steph have fun! its the greatest time of life if you make it! Be safe and choose the right! BYE

Monday, August 9 2010

Well first off before i forget, because its always so stressful to write home, so much is on my shoulders haha. The church that is in centro in the other missionaries, and we live three blocks south, on the road named lobato, which has a divider down the middle, we live two blocks east from the main highway. I think, if that helps let me know whats there. This week has been tuff, because i wasnt really focused on my goals, i just worked all day but not really effectivly, but i did find a few people that are way cool, i have seen a few miracles here, the people seem to be changing just a little, not everyone but less people are rejecting us, and we have a baptism this week, the first of many, because we have the goal to baptise every week, we have 7 people that have agreed to be baptised and we have 14 people who are looking forward to it, the 7 are amazing! The girlt hat is baptising this week is Natalya, a 15 year old who has waited forever to get baptised and her dad just gave here permission, so were pretty excited! Than we are working with a 21 year old named Ever, hes tight and has a huge testimony of Jesus Christ, he told us he would do anything for christ so i asked if he would get baptised for him and he said yes! Our mission president is teaching us how to help people recieve an answer from the book of mormon that is super powerful and helps the people want to read the book, its so simple but it works so well, the whole mission is changing, Preach My Gospel has changed as well, everything is so much better and im seeing a huge difference in people! HUGE! Dont worry i got to go to chruch this week, i know how to work and to have faith, the only time i dont have an investigator at church is when im unrighteous. And then ill be humbled haha. There is not many new stories, i love living with the other elders, after a super tuff day its always good to go back and laugh it off, its a huge blessing. Im now a master at omlet making, i might be a competition for dad, hehe. Ive been working out every moring a bunch so im always starving! So what better way to crave hunger than by omlets!! Today i had a strawberry milkshake for the first time in my mission! oh man i was sooooooo excited! Then i cut my hair but its lopsided so ill have to try again... hehe. Wow sounds like a way fun week!!! I really missed out! But i wont believe that you went until i see some pictures! What happened! i havent recieved any for a while now! haha. Well collin its like you read my mind, i was going to tell you to buy that game, man ive missed you kid, ive dreamed alot about you. But dont worry, im almost half way hehe. Well family i love you so much! I have been blessed so much! Oh one quick story, today we were walking from the icecream store and i saw a house that was huge! HUGE! and we stopped to look at it! and i realized that it was the size of our house, ive really forgotten that we had a house that had more than one room! Man ive gotten used to living here, and were so blessed! Well i love you!! Im so happy!

Monday, August 2 2010

Well hello family! It feels like yesterday that i wrote this letter, this week has been a fast one, and the most exhausting of my life. So i have what most people call a little bit of a gut, so everymorning i have been running stairs for a half hour to try and get that fat off of my body, because its draggin me down! haha so ive been walking with stiff and sore legs all week. And not only that, this week has definitly been the hardest week of my mission, yet there was not one time that i actually felt depressed or let down or any negative feeling, it was the wierdest thing of my life. 4 of the 6 days of work we just walked all day, and no one let us in, i had one sit down lesson where we actually taught once a day. And that just killed my back and my feet, i couldnt really walk that well this morning, i feel like i broke my foot haha. But not to worry, i really pulled out the hard worker in me, we completed with all of our goals and more, im really satisfied with this past weeks work but i know i can do better, we only have 3 progressing investigators who are kids, so im not happy that noone else is progressing, but im trying to figure things out, its been a different experiance with my new companion, if one of our teaching appointments drops, he looses all desire and falls into depression, so i think thats why i havent had a hard time here yet, because im here to help him, and its really helping, even though he is my leader ive been teaching him and stuff hehe, i kind of turned the tables. The people here are really stubborn, super closed and dont want nothing to do with us, so i have been trying many different ways to try and spark their interest and the best thing i have found is to talk about the things they need and are important to them, and i have seen a huge difference, the other religions cant satisfy the thirst of the gospel. Even though its super tuff here i am in love with the work, i am loving helping my companion, the people, the members, i love it love it love it. Sunday brought a huge wave of homesickness more powerful than i have felt since i got here but i ignored it and got to work, something that was so hard to do in Posadas! To answer your questions mom and dad, there are dogs everywhere, everywhere, more dogs than ants haha. Dead dogs, living dogs, crazy dogs, big and small. But dont worry all have a fear of shoes and stones. And no i wasnt in danger at all, thats why i was laughing! About the sacrament, i cant be in the church without an investigator. If there is not a investigator in the church i cant take the sacrament, the president is super tired of people not making progress, and like i said before he knows we can complete, since God said we could bring 4 every week. So im not worried, president says we need to take it once a month if we can never bring an investigator. And to close a branch there needs to be less than 10 members and no priesthood. And here in Reconquista there is a curse or something, they just dont have the priesthood power, every branch president goes inactive and wants nothing with the church, the same with all of the district presidents. I dont know why its like that here, we have 70s come here all the time to help, like once every 4 months, but i dont understand why the priesthood isnt strong here. Well today i played alot of soccer, and i can say that ive improved from running up and down the side lines, im not near as good as the latinos but id say i can play the sport haha. I love it, im pretty excited for this week, im hoping to find a family to baptise this week, please keep praying for this people, one day they will recognize, well i love you so much, dont forget me in your prayers! haha just kidding i know you cant forget... I LOVE YOU!
Oh and thanks for the envelope! and they didnt charge you can send those full of sweet tarts! oh man i love sweet tarts! And maybe you can send me a flag of the united states also, not too big, but not small also, just for fun! Remember i cant recieve more than 4 packages but i can recieve envelopes, so bring on the sweet tarts! haha with love again!