Monday, December 14 2015

Dang so this week was a very busy week! Throughout the week we were thinking what we can do with our free time and I couldn't even think of any free time we had this week! It's amazing how fast you can fill up a schedule! Well to start things off last week for p day we went to the French market and I was going to buy like souvenirs and gifts for Christmas and then I realized that I don't have any money for it! So when we (my family) go back to visit New Orleans we will have to go there because it is heaven for dad. Also they have a year round Christmas shop and they have some Mardi Gras nutcrackers that I want mom to see. I think she would really like them. Also most of yall know that I'm not really the sports type of guy, frankly I think they are rather boring to watch, anyways we went to a New Orleans Pelicans game that Monday night! It's NBA for those who didn't know. like i said at the beginning, this has been busy week. but frankly i cant really remember much about it. so im going to stop now. plus ill skype home in 11 days anyways. you can wait till then and ill answer all your questions and crap. love yall so much!! thanks for everything!! elder horrocks

Monday, November 30 2015

well this week was transfer week! elder glauser went home this transfer, and im here in chalmette for another 6 weeks. i love the area but im getting real tired of it pretty quick. my new companion is elder brosnahan, he has only been out for 1 transfer more than me. also elder wilson got a new companion and it is elder lehrs trainee!! i was so excited when president anounced it i jumped with joy in the middle of the chapell at transfer meeting!! it was kind of embarassing but i was too excited i couldnt control myself! thanksgiving was a lot of fun! we had 4 meal appointments! there was so much food! so much good food though. i think i gained about 1 million pounds on thursday! everything is going good here! sorry but i just dont have the motivation to write a big long letter today. love yall so much! thanks for everything!! elder horrocks

dang well this week was crazy! i honestly cannot think of anything to say but one sotry so here we go. elder glauser and i go tracting and we run into this lady named carmin. when we knocked on her door we introduce ourselves as missionaries for the church and she just says oh my goodness this is amazing. i was litterally on my knees in my bedroom praying when yall knocked on the door. apparently she has been going through some really tough times in her life and its amazing how the lord directed us to her. literally the best time to knock on the door was that time!its been pretty weird because all week we were going around telling people that we were both leaving and now im not leaving and everyone is going to be like "youre still here" yup. oh dang one more thing! we went to this crazy bible study at our neighbors howse and it was super blasphemous. but everyone there was super nice and inviting so we will probably go next week because we were invited back and it would give us a good name! plus we dont ever have anyting to do thursday nights! love yall!! thanks for all the letters and packages!!... elder horrocks!

dang well this was a crazy week. i took a lot of pics this week! alright well to start off. i dont even know where to begin! i have a lot so say but im worried i will forget it all!! anyways here we go. start it off we went on exchanges for the last time this transfer! elder peterson came to chalmette with me and we went to go check up on shelley because she didnt come to church! turns out she had the flu! so that sucks. it was a fun exchange though! elder peterson is so funny! alright ive figured out what im going to say! so on thursday elder glauser and i went to go and teach a young couple named cenia and juan, they are from honduras. so little back story about them, we tried teaching them the restoration and juan could not understand that the piresthood wasnt a human being but the power of god so we got real stressed out and kinda just left. anyways we went over another time and asked him what the priesthood was and he explained it to us perfectly! so we went over on thursday to teach the plan of salvation and while we were teaching it cenia had to go to the store to buy something before it closed. so we were teaching juan the plan of salvation and it was going well. so cenia got home and when she got back we asked juan to explain the plan to her and he explained it PERFECTLY!! he taught her better than we taught him!! it was awesome! alright this one is pretty funny. so we went to go see one of out less actives saida and when we pulled up there was a guy who was passed out drunk on her neighbors lawn and so we asked her about it and she said that was just some random guy! so after the lesson we walked to the car and he was still there but the neighbor had mowed the lawn while we were there and he mowed the lawn around the passed out guy! ha it was pretty funny!! one more thing. so yesterday elder glauser and i got a call from our investigator carmen saying that he children were kidnapped and we needed to go over and help translate for the police. so we got there and waited for the police. so the officer was a brand new guy, only been a cop for like a year! anyways, long story short he had a detective come over and the detective asked a bunch of questions, she said her ex husbands brother was the one who kidnapped the children (who happens to live next door) <-- yeah thats important. the detective asked if she has called the guy and she said she couldnt due to a restraining order. alright anyways they go over to the unlces house and knock on the door and the kids were inside... it was super awkward for all of us. ha well thats about all my brain can handle for today! sorry if its all over the place! love yall so much! thanks for all the prayers and crap yall do for me!! elder horrocks

dang now this was a crazy week! so this transfer i hav been working really hard on following the promptings of the spirit in the work to find the people that have been prepared by the LORD. and let me tell you this week was nothing but miracles!! so on tuesday elder glauser and i decided to go and try and find some more spanish people here in chalmette (most of our work is done in eastern new orleans) so we were driving down the road and we pass this trailer park and we both had a strong feeling to go down the road and knock some doors down there. we knocked the whole street and no luck! the only person who answered the door worshiped lucifer so we had no luck with that guy... so we were walking back to the car and as we were walking we ran into this lady. her name is shelly. and she is the coolest person i have ever met. she is technically from the US but she moved to mexico when she was 5. she was baptized when she was 11 and then her father forced her into a really hard life. anyways thats not important. we start to conversate and she has so much faith. she is the coolest lady in the entire world!! anyways as we were talking to her a missionary lady from the jehovas witness came over to talk to her so we sat down in a lesson with them! it was pretty interesting. i learned a lot about their church and made me realize how true our church is! it was nothing but a testimony builder! anyways after the lady left shelly looks at us and asks if we remember this, she then starts to sing book of mormon stories and does the dance moves to go with it! it was so funny! we were then talking about halloween and she showed us her costume, she got 2 prison jump suits and gave them to us! elder glauser and i had quite the fun with them this week. dang so we are teaching this lady from honduras, her name is carmin. she is so awesome! i love her! last week we invited her to be baptized and shes like thats what i want! so she came to church on sunday and that was really nice. she showed up a little late and so we were getting down because we thought she wasnt going to show up. then she walks in!! anyways we went over last night to teach her the plan of salvation and when we started talking about the 5 points of the gospel we got to baptism and she asked us when can she be baptized! so we commited her to the 21st of november!! well thats all for me this week! love you guys! thanks for all the prayers and various stuff that yall do for me!! elder horrocks

well this was such a fast week! i literally cannot believe how fast time is going. speaking of which i have officailly been a set apart missionary for 1 whole year! i hit my year out mark on the 5th. thats a thursday for all yall who are lazy. time is going by so fast i dont really know what to do with it! i went on an exchange this week with my man elder bean! oh on tuesday none of us had any money for food after district meeting so the bennions (they are a senior couple in our district) took us all to sams club and we all had pizza and crap like that! we saw a lady with like 9 inch fingernails and my first thought was that "My mom would be so jealous of this lady" anyways as the story unfolds i had weird eye contact with her as she was buying her pizza and she came up to me and asked me what we are from. told her we were the missionaries and then without any hesitation i asked her if her nails were real. they are. anyways yes, i asked her if she could scratch my back. it was great. wonderfull. that was the one thing that i needed and i got it. anyways we got pictures ill send one. not really anything else to say. im really bad at remembering what happened throught the week so i cannot really report. there was a lot of rain this week. halloween was alright, didnt get much candy. we went to the wards trunk or treat activity and we showed up 30 mins before it ended so we didnt really get much. plus we were fasting so we could enjoy any of the chili from the chili cookoff. love yall. thanks for the prayers and stuff yall do for me!

Monday, October 26 2015

well this week was crazy. elder glauser and i have made a real effort to be more spirit lead throught this transfer and so far we have been seeing some pretty nice blessings from it. we have had some really cool lessons this week with our investigators. this week we found a new family to teach. they are from mexico and they are really nice people. they have 2 daughters and they are 6 and 1 they are really fun to hang around and stuff. its raining really bad here right now, we are witnessing the storm from the huricane that is in mexico right now! last night was so scary! it was raining so bad! it reminded me of that one time when we were on the 3 week vacation when it was raining super bad! ha that doesnt make any sense. i dont want yall to think that i am trunky but i hit my one year left mark tomorrow! so we will have to do some sort of celebration. dang well thats about it for this week. its been a nice week, nothing to complain about. the heat is going away so we dont need to worry about that anymore! love yall! thanks for everything! elder horrocks

To Mom: well this week was a pretty good week. it seems like the harder you try the less work that gets done. this week we were being pretty lazy and almost broke our record high of lessons in a week. i dont understand how last week we were so dilligent and hard working and this week we were exhausted and almost doubled the lesson count from last week! i honestly cant really thnk of anything to say this week. everything is going alright, no real problems that people need to worry about. i have started to stutter when i speak so i dont know what to think about that. its pretty weird and sometimes it gets pretty bad and its pretty stressful. but otherwise im doing great! we made some sugar cookies this week! they were delicious but i dont think they will ever be as good as yours. if there is one thing i miss more than anything its moms cooking!! the weather has been pretty nice here. it rained for the first time yesterday for like this whole month!! so the humidity hasnt been bad at all! well i got my razor back and now it is super sharp! well i think ive rambled off long enough. love you mom! elder horrocks ps i really want to go to disneyland again! To Dad: i just had the greatest idea for a car shop. i was wondering what you thought about it. its something along the lines of an oil change and a shave. so its just like any regular car shop but while you are waiting for your oil to be changed or other various work that is needed on your vehicle there is a complimentary shave in the little "barber shop" that is on the showroom. i think that would be pretty apealing to the male comunity. i myslef would love to do that! love you dad. i miss you and mom so much. i cannot believe how blind i have been the 19 years growing up with yall and not seeing how much you guys actually took care of me. i will forever be in your guys' debt!!

Monday, September 21 2015

this week was a pretty normal week. l love our investigators. theya re literally the coolest people in the entire world! usually we get to see them like twice maybe even 3 times a week but this week was pretty slow. we got to see them only like once. they are all so receptive to the gospel. and they really like elder caldwell and i. so they listen to us as we struggle our way through spanish. this week for pday we went to the french market, its just a cool place with some interesting stores. anyways there is this place called pepper palace and it has the worlds hottest hot sauce and one of the sisters in our area, sister hunter, and i did the "challenge". what you do is take just a little, and i mean little, bit of the sauce on a spoon and eat it. i had like a micro dot and it was so hot. my mouth was on fire!! it was so hot it made my hands go numb!! i did get the package and let me tell you, everyone is so jealous!! i sent the razor in to get it professionaly sharpened so i can shave with it! well there isnt much left to say, nothing too crazy happened this week. we had specialized training on friday and that lasted for 7 hours!!oh man i almost forgot the biggest news!! the group that we attend wsa just made into a branch yesterday!! it was so cool! love yall. thanks for all yall do for me!! elder horrocsk

Tuesday, September 8 2015

well this was one crazy week that ranged from pulling pranks on missionaries to having a funeral for our pet cockroach. so to start off this week ill talk about transfers. we got a new missionary in the quad (if yall didnt know we live with 2 english elders) his name is elder wilson and he actually went to bingham with me. hes a real cool guy. so the sisters and us (my comp and i) decided to pull a prank on the nedw guy, he just stared his mission. so what we did was had the sisters go to goodwill and get a uniform for the local highschool and act like seniors in highschool. so when elder wilson was unpacking we heard a knock on the door and i asked him if he would go answer the door for his first "door aproach" and he went and answered the door and the sisters were there in the school uniforms without their nametags so they look like normal girls and asked if collin and chad were home. he said yes, then they asked if they were ready for the date and elder caldwell and i yelled downstairs saying that we are just getting ready. so we put on normal clothes and get ready. and right before we leave we ask elder wilson to take a picture of us for our "date" and then we told him to tell our ward mission leader that we will not be able to make it to the meeting that night. so we leave and after a couple minutes, i call our group leader and describe to him the prank that we just pulled and had him call the english elders claiming to be one of the girls father and that if they dont return home in the next 30 minutes hes going to call the cops. (now keep in mind we didnt tell any of the english elders what the prank was going to be so we hoped that elder strand would 1.realize that it was our sisters and just pretend to freak out and 2. not tell elder wilson that they are the sisters.) so after brother farrell called the english elders the english elders call us and i answer the phone and say "make this quick we are about to go into the movies" and elder wilson was like "there was this very mean guy who just called us and told us that if his daughters dont get home in 30 minutes hes going to call the cops" and after he said that i just hung up on hhim! so we then change and make our way to correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and we get there early so we could beat the english elders and when they walked in and saw us in our missionary attire elder wilsons face went bright red! it wsa so funny! id like to say that it was a pretty funny prank. alright so thursday was a pretty long day, we have a less active member who just got kicked out of her sisters house so elder caldwell and i helped her move out of her house and into her new one all day long. and it was so so so hot and if it wasnt hot it was a major downpour and we were freezing! so we spent all the day moving the stuff into our little toyota corolla to and from the other houses. needless to say it was a strange day. so we got home and were exhausted and freezing because we were soaked to the bone and our apt was like -60 degrees. so the sisters made us some chicken noodle soup to help us get warm! it was a very kind gesture for a hard day! so then on friday night we had a funeral for out pet cockroach. yup i caught it and fed it nothing but coca cola for 4 weeks straight. and then it died so i put on a funeral service for it. it was a pretty succesful night i think. we cremated it, but i spilt candle wax inside the pan where we burned it so i lost the ashes. her name was whitney houston. not much really happened on saturday but on last saturday we did a day of service to "celebrate" the 10th anniversary of katrina. it was pretty fun we just did a lot of gardening and i got a pretty bad sunburn. and not much else happened, yesterday i got tazed on the knuckle! one of the sisters in our district has a taser and she tried to tase me but i blocked it and got it on my knuckle! well thats about it. love yall. thanks for all the love and stuff that you do for me. elder horrocks

Tuesday, September 1 2015

well to start off those pictures i sent was one of our less actives sons 8th birthday party. we were driving down the road and saw that there was a big bounce house in front of their house so we decided to go see what was going on and sure enough it was manuels birthday party. so manuel is the litte boy and the two girls are kailey and ashley. the daughters of another one of our investigators who comes to karens (the less active) so we can teach them both at the same time. funny thing. they are both actually named karen! not much really happened this week. it was sister hunters birthday yesterday so we had a little party for that. that was pretty fun. makes birthdays kid of fun for the mission! this was a pretty average week. nothing really happened so not much to say. last night we went to walmart and saw one of our investigators and got to help her find all the stuff she needed so that was a pretty cool thing i guess. thanks for all the prayers and stuff that yall do for me! love yall! elder horrocks

Monday, August 24 2015

well this week was such a werid week. first off sorry for the bvad spelling, im typing with ice cubes because my hands have frozen over. the library is so cold. its not even funny. main story for the week is that we had this feeling to go to the snowball shack to go and get some free snowballs (an investigator owns it) and when we got there the sisters were there talking aboiyut the priesthood with the investigator and after the end of the lesson we were able to give her a blessing to help her prepare for her baptism, which is on sunday! and since we dont have either a church building or a font we are doing the baptism at our group leaders swimming pool! life is great though. loving the mission. dont want to reach my year mark soon but its coming too fast!! i know that what im doing ins the true work, its the loreds work. there is no denying the blessings that i have seen teaching these people. i love them they are so nice, so humble. well the spanish people at least. well sorry but im so cold i cant type any more. love yall! ill send pics next week i promise!!

Monday, August 17 2015

this week has been a fast one! so last week for pday we went to this place right outside of the levy wall and we saw a bunch of gators yes i took pictures but i forgot to bring my camera to the library to send the pictures. and then after when we went home we made a bunch of deep fried food and my favorite out of the bunch was deep fried ice cream! it was delish! sorry for the short email just cant think of anything to say. im doing great, loving the mish! cant believe how fast time is flying. i feel like summer just barely started! now all the kids are going back to school! the heat is still burning nothing will ever change with that! i hope we get some pretty big rain storms here soon! need to cool things off! love yall. have a great week! elder horrocks

Monday, August 10 2015

this week was a pretty nice week, its still going by too fast. i dont know how to slow it down! this week one of our investigators got home from a trip to puerto rico for about 6 weeks so we got to see her on sunday which was nice. we had zone transfer meeting this week and i had a fun time hanging out with the zone! i made a new goal to take lots of pictures of the mission. thats one thing i wish i did when i started was take some pictures! so hopefully ill send like one picture a week at least because its pretty cool here and the history here is so rich its amazing. Some people dont like new orleans but i love it, i think that it is a great city! there is so much to do and the people here are all so nice! yeah there are some pretty scary places in the lower ninth ward (which is in my area). but as dangerous as it is i dont feel like im in danger. the people will let you in all the time and give you some water or some purple drank. you know youre in the south when you can always smell fried chicken in the air... well guys i doing great, not really much to say though. love yall. thanks for all the prayers, i can feel the love everyday. have a great week! elder horrocsk

Monday, August 3 2015

dang this week was a pretty fast week, the more on wednesday i have been out for 9 months. i cant even believe how fast time has been flying by! this week we had all our set appointments fall through. typical week of a spanish missionary, but we still were able to teach like 13 lessons this week so it was a pretty succesful week. this week i realized to never step on a ant hill and stay there. yup, i stood on a fire and hill at night and couldnt see them climb up me. and i couldnt feel them either. so when i started walking away they all bit me at the same time and i thought i was in The Mummy with those beatles that eat you alive before they mummyfye (literally have no clue how to spell that). it is pretty painful and i had to make sure they were all off of me before i got into the car! shout out to the less actives who we visit because they always have friends over and we get to teach them and get new investigators from them, that happend like 5 times this week so it was pretty awesome. As elder casillas says "less actives are just members who like to party too much" i dont know about english people but in the hispanic community it couldnt be said any better. well sorry this one is kind of going off in a rant but now i have to go. my companions keyboard doesnt work so he keeps nagging at me to leave! love yall! sorry i say dang so much. i try to stop but instead i say dang. elder horroclks!

Monday, July 27 2015

well like always transfer weeks are the most confusing weeks in world. I went through the entire week without knowing which day was actually which. Which became quite confusing. once again I cant really remember the things that I did this week. so on Thursdays we usually go and see one of our less actives and when we went there this week she wasn't home. we thought that was strange because shes always home. but she wasn't. anyways we went to go see her yesterday and when we got there she asked us if we came over on Thursday and we told her that we did and she told us that she went to jail! it was pretty interesting, she was telling us that she left her son home alone for like 12 minutes to go to the store and get some stuff for him because he was sick. while she was gone the cable guy came over and the kid answered the door and said that his mom wasn't home. long story short, when she got home there were like 12 cops there and they took her to jail. she was there for two days. it was a pretty funny story the way she told it. I wish I could say that the weather was starting to cool down like you guys are saying but that is the exact opposite of what is going down. everyday it just gets hotter and hotter! and it gets even hotter in august. well anyways that's about it. plus we ran out of time. I forgot about this until the very last like 5 mins. love yall. talk to you next week! elder horrocks

Tuesday, July 21 2015

well another transfer has come and gone in the blink of an eye! i cant believe how fast the mission is going! you would think that six weeks would go slower than this but it sure is weird how fast time goes by. this week not very much happened so this will be a pretty short email. i guess i havent told yall where we meet for church yet. since the church building here was destroyed during katrina most of the members moved out of chalmette but we have a very small group of about 30 people who meet each week and its pretty cool, the place we meet is at a lutheran church. the church has rented out a couple of rooms from the lutheran churches primary school building and we meet there for church. its pretty cool. unique. anyways we were sitting at church on sunday and elder caldwell and i were sitting in the back row and this lady walks in a little late with two kids. a couple minutes go by and the little boy starts to get restless, now at the "pulpit" we have a member from the stake presidency talking about the importance of sacrament meeting. anywasy the little kid starts to moan and groan and says that his stomach hurts and as soon as he stands up he just lets out this bright red vomit all over the place and it was slowly creeping over to me! and in the middle of it all one of the members just looks at it and says it loooks like you drank too much juice this morning! ha it was pretty funny. but on a more serious side after that happened all of the mothers rushed to the bathroom and brought out a bunch of cleaning suppllies and stuff like that. and i was thinking to myself about all the times my mom has cleaned up those crazy messes that i would try to stay like 50 feet away from. shout out to my mom for being awesome like that! now for another story. this week we went to go and see a less active and when we walked in her husband was sitting on the couch (ive never seen him before then because he is always working) and so i went up to him to shake his hand and as i reached out my right hand for the handshake he stuck out his right arm and when i went to go shake it i noticed that he, doesnt, have, a, hand... so i shook a nub. probably the weirdest thing i have done in my life... one of these days ill remember my camera and send some pictures. but for now thats about it. im still here in chalmette for at least another six weeks. im thinking that this next transfer elder caldwell will leave and ill train. dont know how i feel about it. love yall! thanks for the prayers and crap! elder horrocks

Monday, July 6 2015

well the hardest holiday to skip for will probably be the 4th. but spending the 4th in New Orleans was a lot of fun! we went to go watch fireworks at algiers point on the other side of the river looking into the New Orleans skyline, the firework show was pretty lame actually it only lasted like 15 minutes. we expected bigger from NOLA. this week was a pretty slow week though. i went on an exchange with one of the zone leaders and that was a pretty long day. we just walked along the city and didnt do very much. it was really hot. we did find a couple new investigators this week. this next week we are going to try and find more spanish people in chalmette because most of our investigators live in new orleans east. its pretty far away and we only get a certain amount of miles a month. i think missing the 4th has to be the trunkiest moment on my mission so far! walking around in the hot weather i kept thinking to myself what i would do for a cup of 5-3's!! well love yall! talk to you next week! elder horrokcs

Monday, June 29 2015

this week was a very strange week. to start it all off we were planning on going to see everyone that we met and saw last week to follow up and see how they are doing. well, that didn't work out as well as we hoped it would have because everyone that we went to go try and see was not home. we tried them like very day at the times that we met them but no one was home! but for the most part even if you have an "unsuccessful" day you still feel like a success. i have no idea how to spell most words. there are a lot of movies being filmed down here so sometime when we are driving down the road we can see movies being filmed, and most of the time they shut down the roads that we are trying to drive on! the 4th of july is coming up this weekend and ill sure miss hanging out with the family at our parade having a lot of fun and then going to bear lake! make sure yall have fun without me! i know its pretty hard (nearly impossible) but i know yall can do it! well i cant really think of anything more to say so peace out. love yall elder horrocxsk

Monday, June 22 2015

this week was a great week! the only thing that could have made it better is if the weather wasnt 1000000 degrees. well i cant really remember what actually happened this week so this one might be a little short. we ahd a great fathers day yesterday. sunday was my first sunday in this area and i had to share my testimony and everyone was complimenting me on my spanish so apparetnly im doing pretty good! this week we were going tracting and one day was so hot i was sweating so much that it looked like i just got out of a swimming pool! dang we also went to one of the investigators for downtown (an area in our district) his name is manny and he is the funniest guy ive ever met! well i dont really know what else to say. thanks for all the support and love guys! hope yall have a great week! talk to yall later elder horrocks

Monday, June 15 2015

this week we had transfers. and i was transferred to New Orleans! or NOLA for short. it was hard to see elder page go home. we really became great friends throught these last six weeks. but im happy to be down in nola. my new comp is elder caldwell. he is from idaho and hes pretty cool. we have been out for the same amount of time and so our Spanish is the same. not very good. but when we combine our spanish we can get through a lesson with only a minimal amount of awkward moments haha. plus one of the best things that has happened this transfer is that we have recieved a car! finally got a car right before summer starts. thats a huge blessing. because when it rains here its already like 95 degrees and then after that the humidty multiplies by like 10! its been kind of embarrassing for elder caldwell because everyone that we have tried to go see hasnt been home haha. so we havetn really dont much this week as in meeting current investigators but we did go tracting and got some new ones. the blessings you recieve from tracting are amazing. right before we were getting out of the car the sun was shining bright and there was no wind but as soon as we got out there was nice shade and a cool breeze the whole time! i guess thats all i have for this week. love yall so much. thanks for all the support and prayers. elder horrocks

Wednesday, June 10 2015

hey mom i got transfered! finally. so im just writing you to let you know that i am no longer in baton rouge! i have gone down to new orleans! i am in an are called challmete. its the most dangerous area in the mission and in downtown new orleans! im super excited to be here! here is my new address. my comps name is elder caldwell. he is from idaho falls and has been out 1 transfer more than me. so we are still pretty new here. hopefully we can get by with our spanish. im excited to see how well my spanish wil improve now that i have to use it haha 3301 golden ave #b New Orleans LA 70043

Tuesday, June 9 2015

this week was one hectic week! one of those weeks where it flies by but then you look back at it and it seems like its been a year. this week we spent a lot of time with the east elders going to dinner appointments with members because elder page and elder drollinger are going home this week. we spent a lot of time eating. the food we had this week was unbelievable! sorry i dont know how to spell. anyways. we went all over our area to members house because elder pafge started his mission here and so all the members in the branch wanted to feed him before he leaves. well thats about it. i dont have any time left. love yall elder horroksc

Monday, June 1 2015

this week was a pretty hectic week! i did send my email last week though, i dont know why you didnt get it but whatever. im doing great! this week is the last full week of the transfer and so that means that it is elder pages last full week on the mission! so we have a lot of dinner appointments this week. which is not bad at all haha. because we hardly ever get fed here in baton rouge. this week consisted of a lot of service and rain. we had a couple appointments with investigators throught the week but literally every one we went to was not there! we hope that this week is a little better than the last. i was actually thinking about the time when i went and helped the allens move and how much fun it was to work and get it all done real quick. i also enjoyed the time i had to hang out with the allens children. thats one thing i miss a lot is hanging out with all the cousins! it is a great time out here. on friday elder drollinger and i went to a LSU baseball game with one of their investigators and that was a lot of fun. its crazy how big of fans the people are here for LSU. if you think BYU fans are crazy think of the craziest one and times it by 5. thats a normal LSU/saints fan here in Louisiana. we then proceded to go to her house and paint one of her bedrooms and realized that we probably shouldnt go into a house painting business. hopefully it dries out better than it looks.. well thats about it. llove yall. elder horrocks

Monday, May 18 2015

this week was a pretty disapointing week. its rained all week and the one day when it didnt rain we decided to go and see our 3 investigators with baptism dates and we walk up to marias house and there is a moving truck outside the apartment... turns out she started to move that day and she left with her family to alabama the day after that. so two of our investigators has moved!! but we still have felix and he is doing pretty good still. hopefully he can progress as fast as he has been lately. well this week has been a very slow week so ihave nothing really left to report. life is good. the weather is humid. but im loving it here. love yall elder horrocks

Monday, May 11 2015

it was such a great time being able to "see" you guys! haha the video didnt really work but it was a nice break from the missionary life for an hour or so. but like i said over the phone and for people who didnt hear. this was a great week for us. the weather has actually been pretty calm. except for the weekend, on firday it rained pretty bad and since then its been real humid but not real hot! this week we got three of our investigators to commit to a baptismal date! one of them is a single man who lives in an appartment with a member so we already have a great fellowshipper! the other two is a mother and her son and they are the nicest people ever. the sons name is emanuel and he is never not smiling! he is the happiest guy i know and he told us that he loves to read the book of mormon and that one day he wants to be like nephi! and his mom maria has been investigating the church in mexico and then she came up to louisiana and we found her a couple weeks back and are having a great time teach her and her son! we are trying to get a lesson with her hsuband but hes always at work when we come over. for p day we go to a trampoline park and i am getting in real good shape from jumping all day! my vertical has gone up like almost 6 inches since i have left from all the biking/walking! i cant believe we got a dog. mom has gone crazy. well thats it for me! love you guys thanks for all the love and support! elder horrocks

Monday, May 4 2015

this week was transfer week and i did get a new companion! his name is elder page and he is from alpine utah. and yes, he only has 5 weeks left on his mission! this was a pretty boring week nothing to really talk about. so it is going to be short. from what ive understood on my mission the hand of the lord reaches out to everyone! no matter who is struggling with what problem they have you can always help them to point out the good that is in their life! i cant wait to talk to you guys on sunday! ill call you on sunday to let you know when we are going to skype. love yall. elder horrocks

Tuesday, April 28 2015

yesterday we woke up to tornado warnings and purple skies with clouds circling over our heads! from about 9 am to 11 we were in the biggest storm ive ever been in in my entire life!! there was so much water it wasnt even funny! im sure we got more water in those 2 hours than utah gets all year! plus our power went out and we heard that it isnt coming back on until saturday! so we might go and live with the ZL's for the week. because we will have no food! but other than the torrential rain storms this has been a pretty good week! we taught some investigators that are pretty close to baptism and they were all great lessons! its really starting to heat up here. i am not excited for the summer. well i real,ly cant think of anything else. but there is a video of the storm that i was in blowing a train of the rails so here is the link to that! http://www.weather.com/news/news/train-off-bridge-near-new-orleans i love you guys! thanks for all the support! icant wait to see you on mothers day elder horrocks

Monday, April 20 2015

this week i really one have one thing to report on was a guy that we met in the street on thursday! he is the brother in law of ray and we had a really good lesson with him as well! we ent to go see ray but he wasnt home and his brother in law was there so he asked us what the word of th day was and so we told him that the word of the day is restoration! so then we went on to teach him about the restoration and our minds were constantly being blown because he was so smart! i cant believe the things coming out of this mans mouth! he was teaching us the restoration!! so we were talking about priesthood and when we told him that the priesthood has been restored and asked him to be baptized he told us he has been waiting to get into the water his whole life! so we are now teaching him and ray together and we have a 2v2 basketball game lined up at the stake center so we can give them a tour of the church! also i was on exchanges this week with elder drollinger and one night we were at an investigators house, she was making us some sort of mozzerella cheese stick but there was one big difference. they were 10 times better! but the thing is you can only get them from venezuala! and after we ate about 3/4 of the box (about 50 in the box in total) she told us that it cost a whopping $100 to get them!!! so after she told us that we got really full! apparentley she really liked us! haha but she did come to church yesterday and she really enjoyed it! oh one more thing! we were at sams club eating some pizza and this guy came up to us and we started talking about eternity. he gave us a crqazy analogy of eternity. he said "imagine you are a dove in New York city, God tells you to fly to the beach on the west coast and bring one grain of sand. you fly to california grab one grain of sand and fly back. he then tells you to do that until you have brought every single grain of sand from the west coast to the east coast. and when you are done with that you will only begin to even scratch the start of eternity." well thats about it! love you guys. thanks for all the love and support. elder horrocks

Monday, April 13 2015

this week was not the most productive week but i still feel like it was succesfull. we had a lot of return apointments lined up but they all fell through to next week so hopefully they dont drop us next week! im doing real good here though. im loving it here in louisiana! but the weather is starting to get to me, its already like 90 degrees on the average day! this week we went to a members house and we cut down the amazon rain forest! there were so many plants and stuff that we needed to remove! i cut down a tree with an axe. that has always been on my bucket list and since we arent allowed to use chainsaws i got to cut it down with an axe! one of the funnest things ive done on the mish so far! i love doing service its a lot of fun!! plus iit is a great workout and i need it!! well i guess this was a pretty lame week because i cant thnk of anything else.. love yall elder horrocks

Monday, April 6 2015

this was one of the craziest weeks on my mission! so on monday we went to walmart and on our way in we had to translate for some people who were trying to sell their car to some latinos, that was fun! tuesday we had like 6 lessons planed and english class so we were realy bisy that day! we had a new investigator who seems to be really promising! wednesday we taught like another 6 lessons! and we also went and taught ray the plan of salvation! well we tried... spent 2 hours on the first paragraph! ray askes a lot of questions! but we got a date for him! hes getting baptized on may 2nd! thursday we just went out and tried to talk to everyone we could see! we talked to a lot of people and our throats were so sore! friday i was on exchanges with the zone leaders so we went out and i had the chance to do some english work! i like spanish work more, the people dont really like to go into deep doctrine. the highlight of the week was saturday though! we went to volunteer for the color run! and since its based in salt lake city all the workers their were either return missionaries or just plain members so we got to spend like the whole day hanging out with them! we were in charge of throwing the glitter so by the end of the whole thing we were all covered! we looked like the tin man! ill send pics next week when i get them. this week we taught 16 lessons! thats a record in the area that i am in at the moment!! this was a good week! love yall!! have a great week! elder horrocks

Monday, March 30 2015

this was a crazy week! i literally cannot believe how fast time flies while you are on a mission!! really only one thing happened this week that i actually can remember! we talked to a lot of people about the gospel and it was a lot of fun! we also played a lot of ghetto ball with these kids in our apartment complex! my comp and i met a guy on the street named ray. we were walking down the street and this hardcore killer. i mean hardcore, i would never talk to him by choice. he waves us over and asks us a question. he says. if there is only one God how come there are so many churches? so we go straight into the restoration and we are talking about prayer and we ask him if he prays, then he tells us that he feels so bad for always making promises to God and not being able to keep them. and he asks us if we could help him with stuff like that and we told him this is exactly why we are out here!! we tell him that through baptism all your guilt can be washed away and we can help make and keep those promises and he tells us taht he was already baptized. my comp straight up tells him. if what we are saying is true than your baptism didnt count! he then comited to baptism!! just by talking to him on the street!! its amazing how powerfull the spirit can be! we were feeling it so strongly during our chat with ray! i hope you all have a good week! love you guys! elder horrocks

Monday, March 23 2015

this week went by so fast I cant even remember what happened!! well I got a new comp this week. it was a good time with elder joubert but now we just have new experiences and stories to create! so elder carson and I went out this week and found a total of 7 new investigators!! he has really had the motivation that we needed to go out and just talk to people! this week I got two compliments on my Spanish so I guess im learning pretty well! on Friday we went to buffalo wild wings after district meeting and there is this thing that if your food doesn't come in 15 minutes you get a coupon for a free meal next time you come and we got one! so we have a coupon for a free bww meal! I cant really remember anything and I left my planner at home so I don't have any thing to refer to. but on Saturday morning I woke up to 7 gunshots right outside of my apartment! apparently 2 people were killed in a fight over which city is better, baton rouge or new Orleans! it was a pretty big rush! oh yeah and this morning as we were getting ready to leave we had a knock on our door and we went to open it because we thought it was gong to be our ride. because we are still on bikes... but anyways. it was the jehova witnesses! haha it was pretty awkward. they didn't really know what to say so they just walked away! well I love you guys. thanks for all the support! elder horrocks

Tuesday, March 17 2015

this week was a pretty good week! I mean there was nothing really bad that happened. the good thing about my mission so far is that I really haven't found anything to complain about. I know that leading up to the mission everyone always makes fun of the state side missionaries but im telling you. there is no other place id rather be than here in America! I mean not much really happened this week. basically every door we knocked on was a no answer and the ones that did told us that they didn't have any time. when two missionaries knock on your door and told you that they were messengers sent from god to pray for you and your family would you tell them that you didn't have time!? anyways we did have exchanges this week and I was with elder drollinger not much happened but we did have a fun time just being together. we spent a lot of time helping out the office elders with a movie that they are making for the new missionaries to watch about safety and how to avoid flirting and general mission stuff. well transfers is this week actually. forgot to tell you guys. im still going to be in BR south so nothing to worry about that. but elder joubert is getting transferred so I am going to be getting a new companion this transfer. so hopefully he is a cool guy! we had fun times. im gonna miss him but good thing is that he is only four months out more than me so we will be here for a while still haha. the other elders in our district are having a baptism next week I think so that's going to be fun. two baptisms in one month!! since elder kopischke came the baptisms in our mission has tripled!!! anyways that's basically it. cant think of much else. the weeks just fly by so fast I cant remember everything! I cant believe how fast time flies on the mission. I feel like im not going to be able to get anything done! by the time I start ill be going home! but still have a while to go. love yall. thanks for the help and support. elder horrocks

Monday, March 9 2015

this week was a crazy week! so on pday we were at the stake center playing basketball. what we do every week haha. so we were just playing ball and elder drollinger and elder cunningham got a call from walter and alma saying that they are getting on married on satuday! which really means that we need to plan their wedding for saturday haha. so on monday we spent the rest of the day calling members to see if they can make some refreshments or anything like that. we were just so excited because that means that sooner or later after the wedding walter would get baptized so we couldnt get much happier! then on tuesday we were at district meeting and walter calls elder drollinger and tells him that he wants to get baptized right after the wedding!! so we were just estatic about this whole week! so we were getting everything ready for the baptism and walter asked elder joubert if he can baptize him! so saturday came and we were at the church and walter and alma come and the wedding starts! it was great, we had it in the relif society room, or our chapel, after the wedding we went and did the baptism and elder drollinger, cunningham, and i sang some hyms with a guitar. it was a great day! and then yesterday we confirmed him and ordained him to the office of a priest! throught the whole experience a story kept popping up in my head that i heard at a ztm once so i will send it as well. its called the room. its crazy how strong you can feel the spirit at a baptism. thats it for this week! love you all. have a great week elder horrocks THE ROOM By Joshua Harris In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features save for the one wall covered with small index-card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endlessly in either direction, had very different headings. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I Have Liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I Have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed At." Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger," "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived. Could it be possible that I had the time in my 20 years to write each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature. When I pulled out the file marked "Songs I Have Listened To," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of music, but more by the vast amount of time I knew that file represented. When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind: "No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In an insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw it. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand. And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him. No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me. Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished." I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.

Monday, March 2 2015

this week went by so fast i cant really remember what happened haha. but we did have exchanges this week and i was with elder cunningham. hes from northern utah, not really sure where, but he is a cool guy. hes only been out one transfer before me so we will basically be on the mish the same time. we went and taught english class and it was a neat experience because our spanish isnt the best and the family that comes english isnt the best either so even we have a little language barrier we had the chance to teach eachother. we taught them english and they taught us spanish! basically every apointment we had this week fell through and no one was home or interested if we tried to teach. we went over to debbies house on saturday to scrape off some more paint to get ready to paint. hopefully we get around to painting soon. her house is looking super ghetto haha. i guess the only thing that was a highlight this week was yesterday during church. so since we are still in the same zone we still go to the same branch which means we still see walter and alma each week and during gospel principles alma just broke down and just shared her testimony with us and she has such a strong testimony about this gospel. hopefully they get married soon because walter told elder joubert while we were on exchanges that he wants us to come to his baptism!! so he wants to get baptized, they just need to get married first haha. thats pretty much it. sorry for the short email. i love this work and the friendships that you build out here. love you guys. elder horrocks

Monday, February 23 2015

this week was a crazy week! so on tuesday we had our district meeting and that was a lot of fun. then we just went out contacting and waited until we had to go to english class, and on our way to english class elder jouberts bike tire went flat so we had to walk our bikes to the church! english class went pretty good, same people show up the same time but its still a fun time. then when english class was over we could find a ride home so we had to walk home in the freezing cold! but it wasnt that bad i guess. it could have beeen hot. wednesday was a good day. we went out with the ZL's all day doing service for debbie. after that we went out and tried to find all teh less actives in our area because we finally got a branch roster and as we went out to look for them some of them havent lived there for as high as 5 years! so we are working pretty hard this week trying to find and contact all the less actives in our area. thusrday we went to debbies again to help scrape off all the paint on her trims so we can start painting the outside of her house. that took up most of the day and at 6 we went to danham springs for a special confrence we had with elder kopichke from the 70 and it was a lot of fun. he was a really funny guy. we spent the whole time talking about contacting and re-activating less active members so it got us all pretty pumped about what we are doing! friday was a pretty slow day. nothing much happened, plus cant really remember it anyways. saturday we went over to debbies with the ZL'S again because she wanted to make us some red beans and rice. so we went and ate some red beans and rice and we were going to paint but it looked like it ws going to rain so we just sanded some other parts to prep for painting and played darts for ever! but we did that all day. my shoulder is getting sore from all teh sanding!! sunday was a good day. went to church and like half the people in sacrament meeting were new people! it was a really neat meeting. we then went to our branch mission leaders house for dinner and had lots of rice and chicken! it was pretty good! i jsut cant wait to finally have some real cajun food one day! thats pretty much it! love you guys. thanks for all the prayers and support elder horrocks

Monday, February 16 2015

this week was a pretty fun week. not much really happened but elder joubert and i teach english classes on tuesdays and we had this family come and we told them a little bit about our missions and about our church and asked them if we could come by sometime and share a message with them and they said yes, so we set it for friday of that same week. wednesday was a pretty lame day. nothing much really happend, i honestly cant even remember it haha thursday was a fun day. we went witht the ZL'S to a service project with a lady that had her house flood so we spent most of the day cleaning out all the mold. she lived on the property of one of the biggest cotton plantations in BR and her house was right behind the plantation house and so we got to get a pretty cool story about that property and about what happened when the plantation was shut down and stuff. we are gonig back to her house on wednesday to help repaint the walls and everything. friday was a great day. we had ZTM and got to meet all the new people in the zone since transfers. elder joubert and i is the only surviving companionship in the zone so that is pretty cool! and after we went to the mall for lunch. then elder joubert and i went to the lesson with the family from english class. when we got there we just talked about ourselves and got to know them some more. theya re a family from mexico, they have 8 kids but six of them are still in mexico. but they are a really nice family and they said that if we ever need a ride anywere just call them! thats going to be nice because we dont have a car yet haha. we went out to lunch way to much this week haha. i am getting fat! thats pretty much the week! love you guys. talk to you later. love, elder horrocks

Monday, February 9, 1015

this week has been a pretty slow week. nothing really happend. we found out that our new area is just the south part of baton rouge so we are still in the same branch and district so we will still be able to see walter and alma each week but will no longer be able to say we have an investigator coming to church (at least for now). we had district meeting on friday to meet the new people in our district and it seems like its going to be a pretty fund district so im excited to see how these next 6 weeks go. hopefully next transfer we wil get a car! elder joubert and I are the only biking elders in the zone!! but saturday was a pretty cool day! elder joubert and i were talking about how we never have any money for food because we eat cereal for breakfast and pb&js for lunch and dinner! so we were walking to walmart to get some food and as we were walking in this couple asks us if we wanted something to eat and of course we said yes! so they took us to the subway in the walmart and bought us a footlong combo! that was a really neat experience! and suday was a nice day. we had fast and testimony meeting and we had the most people show up to church that week since i have been here so that was really cool. and last night elder drollinger told us that he and our branch president had a lesson with walter and alma and commited them to get married so our branch president is going to go and get their marriage liscense and the sisters are going to plan the wedding! it bums me out that that couldnt have happend last week but it is still a great experience to see that thy are proggressing instead of just dropping the missionaries. lets hope next week we can get some people in our area to invite us into dinner! but ive got a good feeling about this week. love you guys, love, elder horrocks

Tuesday, February 3 2015

this last half of the week was a total rollercoaster! so ill just skip straight to the parts that are important haha! so on saturday we all had the wonderful opportunity to hear from elder quinten l cook from the 12 and we also got to have elder bluth and elder halstrom come and talk as well! it was a very spiritual experience because we had all the missionaries in our mission here and so the chapel was filled and so we thought we wouldnt have to chance to shake his hand because it was going to be a pretty short meeting. but he came in and we all had the opportunity to shake his hand! when he started it was a really neat experience because he just talked for a few minutes and we had the rest of the time for a question and answer kind of thing and it was a really spiritual experience with a couple questions that were totally out of there and when they were asked no one was expecting an answer but they all gave such great answers to them but the thing that stuck out to me the most was when elder cook was bearing his testimony. usually when people say that they heard the holy ghost its jsut about like a still small voice but when elder cook bore his testimony he said quote "i know the voice of the lord" and the whole room just went blank. haha all the missionaries were shocked and you could definitely feel the spirit in that room. then we went to lunch as a district at five guys and that was really good. havent gone to five guys in forever! then on sunday elder cook came to our stake conference again and talked about how the world make even the most disgusting things look like a million buck on the outside and how we need to see things for what they actually are. but the best part about that day is that our one and only investigator walter and alma came and after they told us that they wanted to go see elder cook. so elder joubert and i were trying to push them up into the crowd to go and shake his hadn and our branch president comes up to us and we tell him about how they want to see elder cook and so we walks up to elder bluth and says "we have a family of investigators that want to shake hands" and so elder bluth gets elder cook and brings him over and walter, alma, and their 1 1/2 year old daughter rachel get to shake his hand! it was a really neat experience! and on monday we were all waiting for a phone call to see who is getting transfered and everone in my district but two peple are getting transfered! so elder joubert and i are going to a new home so i would wait to send out anyting (if youare) until i get the address of our new appartment. thanks for everything! lvoe you guys. elder horrocks

Monday, January 26 2015

what a crazy week! so we started the week with district meeting and then i started exchanges with our DL elder casillas and that was a lot of fun! we went to the church tuesday night to teach english class and when we got done with it we went to our bikes and someone bought us some marshmellow mateys and put them on our bikes and it was awesome! tender mercy from the lord. love when things like that happen! and then on wednesday we went to LSU for a thing called free speech alley, its basically a place where you have a whiteboard with a question on it and we answer the question for people that come by and want to know what we believe. but it was a nice break away from spanish work because we were on LSU campus so it was really just a bunch of college kids! on thursday we ended exchanges and elder joubert and i did weekly planing, nothing really important happened that day. but we did have a dinner appointment with a member on the branch and that was cool. he has a really extensive collection of elephant statues, and a sweet collection of really small dictionaries! like some are as small as my thumb! friday was a crazy day though! we went to go to try and meet with rojer because we havent heard from him since our first lesson with him. so we go to his appartment and knock his door and while we are waiting the owner of the complex drives up and we thought he was going to tell us that he didnt want us tracting here or something like that and he told us that rojet wasnt there anymore because he was deported back to honduras!! how crazy! haha so i take back everything i said last week about him being so promising! because hes not even in the same country anymore! but saturday is the crazy part about this week! so if you didnt hear about it on the news (i hear it was some big nation wide thing) there was this thing that the governer of LA called for. its called the response and it was a big prayer thing at the pete maravich center at LSU. it was where everyone can come and like sit in on prayers and stuff. but anways we were asked to be ushers for it. so when we got there the guys asked us if we could take our name tags off and president hansen would not say yes to that. so long story short they kicked us off of the volunteer squad but let us stay for the activity thing. so we went in and watched for liek an hour and it was the weirdest thing. it was just a rock concert and every now and then there would be a prayer so president hansen said we should leave. so we all left and when we walked out of the building there were just thousands of protesters outside in the parking lots and everywhere! they had riot police and k9 units and everything! it was crazy! total chaos! and here is the crazy part, if we were to still be ushers then we were actually assinged to work in the parking lots and tell people where to park! and im sure if we did that we would have all been beat to death! crazy thing. major tender mercy right there! then we went to stake confrence that night. it was fun but next sunday we have elder cook from the 12 coming to give us a special devotional about missionary work so that is going to be exciting to hear from him! talk to you guys next week love, elder horrocks

Tuesday, January 20 2015

this week was a really fast week. to start it off we had a great zone confrence! elder michael jonh Teh from the quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us, it was a really spiritual experience. he talked to us about how we can become exact obedient missionaries and about how we need to be guided by the spirit and always have an inspired question throught the day. so going into the meeting i was wondering how i can be as great a missionary as ammon and how i can use the spirit to discern what i actually need to say when teaching a lesson. and about one of the first things he said was that up untill the point when ammon was cutting off the arms and stuff we were all missionaries like ammon. he explained how ammon and the sons of mosiah had left everything to go teach the gospel, even though the sons of mosiah could have been kings and rulers over the land. he then asked us what we all left behind and, at least for me, i didnt give up being a ruler over the land but there definetley was some things i did not want to leave! but it was a really neat experience to see how i can relate myself to ammon. and after he explained how even after ammon got to the field he was offered to be a king over the land many times and instead of agreeing he was jsut like "no, i want to serve you" and i thought that was really cool. i know that i havent been out that long but i do beleive that everyone on their mission will be offered something that they would really want, and when that gets offered to me i want to have a reaction like ammon. funny story about where we live haha. elder joubert and i were doing weekly planning on thursday and every weekly planning we try and get something special like a treat or somethign like that. so this week we decided that we wanted to order a pizza from pizza hut. so we call the lady and she askes for out address and we said it was along blvd de province, and as soon as we said that the lady said sorry we dont deliver there after 3:30!! thats when you know you live in the ghetto. haha anyways on friday we had a really neat experience! so elder joubert had to give a talk on sunday and so we decided to go to the library to print out some talks about the plan of salvation to study, and we got there at like 5:30, and the library closed at six so all the computers were shut off. so that was a no go. so then we decided to just go knock some doors and say hi to the old investigators. and while we were knocking doors we met this guy from honduras (lots of people from honduras here) his name was Rojer. we told him at the door that since there is only one god there should only be one church and we was like super down for it. then he told us that he wanted to get baptized into our church and so we asked him if we can teach him. so he lets us in and we teach the restoration and he was believing everything we told him! we were talking about baptism by someone holding the proper authority of god and he was like, yeah if you arent baptised by someone holding the priesthood its just like you are only taking a bath! so the lesson goes great and everything was awesome and then we invited him to be baptized and he was like " I would love to, but i need to come to church and meet the members and learn more about your church" so that was a really neat experience and we had a lot of fun getting to know him. he was telling us about how he lives and he seriously lives like all the comandments. haha but saturday was a whole different day. after friday we were on like a missionary high haha, we went to bishop storehouse again and it was fun, then a lady from the denham springs stake shared us an experience about how here daughter is in mississipi getting lessons from the missionaries and so she thanked us all for the work that we do. basically the day was a good day until we had our lesson with walter and alma. i wouldnt say it was a bad lesson but it did not go the way we wanted it to go. so we get there and they made us food and it was pretty good, we had a good time talking while we eating. we then started the lesson and shared a video called "together forever" which is about marriage because we really need them to get married. so after the video was over we tried to commit them to get their marriage license and that didnt work haha. just so many excuses as to why they couldnt get married and elder joubert was just like "you guys have a child. thats the biggest reason as to why you guys should get married." so after that we just asked if they could pray about it and read the scriptures together. thats basically it nothing else really happened. i do like riding around baton rouge, so many nice cars haha. i cant go one day without seeing a new corvette now! ill talk to you guys next week, love you

Monday, January 12 2015

this week was a pretty fun one. we always have district meeting on tuesday and at the last district meeting we all shared one tender mercy that we noticed this week, so me and elder joubert were sharing about that honduran family and about how promising the mother was and how we are going to kill the next lesson we had with her. but throught the tender mercies we all just kept thinking of more and more and what was supposed to be a 1 hour meeting went to 2 and a half hours! it was so much fun! lots of tender mercies this week. one of them was that we were all out of money so we couldnt buy groceries, so we asked the senior office elders when we get money back in our cards and they told us they didnt know. so then we were sitting at the apartment planning and the senior offic elders text us and ask if we are going to be home at five and we say yes. so five comes around and they call us and we walk out and they went and bought us groceries! it was so nice of them! they got us a roticery chicken and we ate that that night haha. but then we got money the next day so we felt kind of bad. so the next day we had the lesson with the honduran lady whos name is elsy. anywasy it was about 20 degrees and raining and extremely windy and she lived about 6 miles away. so it took us forever to ride our bikes all they way there! and when we got there we were soaking wet and freezzing and knocked on the door and a little girl answered and basically told us that elsy didnt want to meet with us! so we didnt want to go home because we had a lesson with walter in two hours so we decided to try and knock some doors. so we went around and knocked on some door and no one was there. so we saw this mexican couple drive up and go inside so we went and knocked on their door liek five minutes later and they turned off all the lights and went super quiet. so elder joubert was like "its the missionaries!" and like 30 seconds later they said who? then we said the missionaries of the church. they then opened the door and said they were eating so we couldnt come in. basically we walked in the freezing, blowing, rain for two hours with no luck! then we had our lesson with walter and we tought him about how families can be eternal and stuff but it was lame because his girlfriend alma did not come and join the lesson (if i didnt mention who alma was, she is a return missionary who is inactive now. and they have a kid) so it was just walter and their daughter rochelle. other than that it was a great lesson! then walter came to church again by himself on sunday which is good for him but then that means that there is something up with alma now. that is basically it. oh and tomorrow we have a big confrence because one of the members of the 70 is coming. his name is elder teh, its going to be pretty cool from what i have heard about it. talk to you next week. love you elder horrocks

Monday, January 5 2015

This week went by super fast! We didn’t really do much until Thursday but Thursday night we went out finding and we met a family from Honduras and we told them how families can live together forever and they were really interested and we were able to teach them the first lesson and we are going back on Tuesday to teach them about the plan of salvation! We then on Saturday we did bishop storehouse at the church and that was a lot of fun but it was really hard work, then after that we were hanging out in the gym with the English elders and one of the English members comes up to us and asks if they can give him a blessing so my comp and I go with them. When they asked who wants to give it I had to because I was brand new. So I gave my first blessing out in the mission field to a guy that I’ve never met! Now we have church at 9 o’clock and sacrament first so we were sitting in the car making bets to see who would all show up to church and we all agreed that there would be 26 people there. Because President Hansen and his family were coming and the missionaries were going to be there. We predicted that there were going to be more investigators then members there! As we were getting ready the branch presidency comes in and 3 or 4 members come in and that was it for the members, then president and his family come in, then a family that Elders Casillas and Quist are teaching came and that family alone out numbers the people in the branch that came today haha. Then one of our investigators came who only comes because his girlfriend (who is a returned missionary) makes him come. But yesterday he walks in alone and his girlfriend had to do something else so he came alone! Then during testimony meeting all the branch members went up and shared some really strong testimonies and you could really feel the spirit strongly while we were there! so after that we had to go to a meeting with the branch president so we couldn’t go to priesthood, so we thought that Walter would have just skipped out on the rest, but when we got out the meeting we saw that he was there and that he stayed the full 3 hours! He is getting married on the 17th this month and so hopefully after that we can commit him to be baptized! But we were on lockdown a lot because of tornado warnings this week so we were inside a lot this week. But this was a great week. love you guys, talk to you next week

Monday, December 29 2014

Not much really happened this week since I talked to you guys. But after we got done with skype the missionaries in our district played killer bunnies and watched Up with the mission president! We then went to this family who just moved in and they made us dinner and hot chocolate which was a lot of fun! The day after Christmas was pretty rough because like no one was home or the appointments we had with people they all dropped because they had like crazy parties and just wanted to sleep. We went on companion exchanges this week and I was with Elder Quist for a day. Elder Quist is from Idaho and he is a pretty cool guy. He is really smart and he’s only been out for 3 months but his Spanish is already really good. This week though we had two lockdowns due to bad weather and they were pretty fun to watch all the rain and lightning! We were going to go shopping today but then we all realized we are out of money on out cards so we can’t go shopping until Saturday! That’s basically all for this week. Love you guys. Talk to you next week. elder horrocks

Monday, December 22 2014

The mission life is crazy! So the day after we got here I got to meet my trainer and he is pretty cool. His name is Elder Caleb Joubert and he is from San Diego but went to BYU. That night we went out tracting and had a dinner appointment (which apparently a rare thing in my area) but we had these really spicy tamales haha. But it really hasn’t rained at all since we got here. But there is supposed to be a big storm coming up tomorrow that might put us on lockdown in our apartment! This week’s email isn’t going to be super long because I left my journal at home so I can’t really remember what to talk about, plus I left my camera home as well. But I did have to give a little introduction talk yesterday at church and it went surprisingly well. Although I can’t understand what most of the people are saying most of the time I could still feel the spirit at church pretty strongly. When we got to the stake center my first day everyone was saying that my bike was sweet and that they were all jealous of my seat haha. Our apartment is pretty trashy though. Its’ funny, I got some Christmas lights at a white elephant in the mtc so I set them up around my bed, but I don’t have any pictures for it. Sorry this email is short I know you all were expecting something big but there was a lot that happened this week and I can’t remember any of it haha. But one of the APs went to Bingham with me! His name is Tyler White, I didn’t really talk to him but it was really neat to see him at the airport when he came to pick me up. This week has been a fun week though. Haven’t really been homesick because there is no time to think about it haha. but there is no other place that I would rather be right now. te amo mucho. hasta luego. elder horrocks