You've gotta throw it

Buenos dias mi familia y amigos!

I'm doing amazing here! Time has just been flying by! It feels like I was just writing and email yesterday. Every day has been better than the last and I expect things will continue in this pattern. :) I can't decide if this is supposed to be week  3 or 4 because the weeks at the MTC start on Mondays, but we got here on a Thursday. So technically I've been here for about two and a half weeks. However, we are starting our fourth week out of the nine that we have scheduled, so I'll be half way through the MTC in a week and a half!

I want you all to know that I miss you tons and I think about you daily. Now, I don't think about you so much I get homesick, but it does make me crave more letters from people. My family has been pretty good about writing me consistently, but this last week I had about four days where I got no mail whatsoever. What's up with that?! Jesus said if ye love me, keep my commandments. Well, I say if ye love me, write me letters! I don't mean to complain, but I've only gotten three letters from friends now and two of them were from the same person. I won't die without letters, but they sure do brighten up my day and they can sometimes be that extra bit of motivation. Even dumb little messages from DearElder make me happy and it's not that hard to use, so stop being lazy and write me. ;) Neverthe less, I love all you guys!

Some of you have been wondering if we've gotten any general authorities over here for our devotionals. The answer is... not really. We haven't been visited by anyone that is a household name, but we've had some amazing speakers. My favorite speaker so far was Jenny Oaks Baker. If I remember correctly she's the grand-daughter of Dallin H. Oaks. It was awesome because she's one of the best violinists in the country and she played for us. She'd give us little bit of here talk and then she'd play a song. She played about five songs for us and they all brought the spirit as well as her messages. I loved this speaker because music has been such and important part of my life and she was able to relate a lot of spiritual topics to music. It basically made my week!

I know some of you are begging for pictures and I'm sorry but I can't attach any through my emails. The plan is to wait for my SD card to be filled then I'll mail it back home. If it isn't full by the time I leave for Mexico, I'll send it home anyways. I usually and up taking a bunch of pictures on Sundays because we take walks to the temple. Last time, we did a lot of "tagging" which is where you take a picture of something with your nametag in it. I love nature pics so I took a bunch with the gardens and trees and stuff up there. Of course I also took a few with the temple. :) Speaking of the temple, we actually haven't gottent he opportunity to go yet. :( The temple has been closed for deep cleaning or something like that. It should be open by next week though so hopefully we'll be able to go. Keep your fingers crossed!

As far as every day activities go, things are pretty much the same. Every day (except Sunday and Tuesday) we have six hours of class. Our schedule turned out so that we usually have three hours before dinner and three hours after. For the first week or so, we only had one teacher, Hermana Arroyo, and she is awesome! After that though, we found out that our "investigator" that we had been teaching was actually our second teacher! His name is Hermano Piperato. Hermana Arrroyo is from a Spanish speaking family and served a Spanish speaking mission somewhere in the states (I can't remember where exactly). She's about a head shorter than me (which is saying something) and she's really fun to be taught by. Hermano Piperato is flipping amazing! He's from California I think, and he's a convert to the church. He was baptized when he was 18 and served a mission a year later! He's the funniest guy because he'll be teaching a lesson and through in words like "naaaaasty sick". He's also got this thing where when you fist bump him, you "throw it". If you've got anything in your hand when you fist bump it, you've got to throw it. Now we're always trying to fist bump eachother and force each other to throw things... It leads to some pretty funny things happening.

Even though Hermano Piperato is now our teacher, we still teach Luis (the investigator he plays). We also started teaching Maria, Hermana Arroyo's investigator. It's challenging, but a ton of fun. We've been able to take notes in with us to help us know what we're trying to say up until now, but now we can only bring our scriptures and Preach My Gospel into the room with us and we can't even read from the Preach My Gospel! I did my first lesson without notes yesterday and I think it went fairly well considering. It's been pretty cool to see how Elder Dean and I have been growing in our abilites to plan and teach. I'm excited to see where we go from here.

Funny story for the week. We were teaching Luis and Elder Dean asked him why he thought we were here on the earth. Luis explained that we were here to grow and what he thought God did with us. He said that to God, we are all in a little box. If we're bad, He flicks us into the trashcan and if we're good, we get to sit up on His shoulder. I couldn't help but bust out laughing because Hermano Piperato was clearly messing with us. It was too funny!

I know most of my letters and emails haven't had many spiritual thoughts in them. I honestly think that is because I just don't know how to describe everything that I've been feeling and learning here. I get to feel the spirit every day here. Words can't describe what and amazing experience that is for me. What I can do, however, is bear my testimony. Sorry, but I'm going to attempt to do it in Spanish. Let's hope Google translate will understand.

Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la iglesia verdadero. Yo se que Jose Smith es un profeta y el tranducio las planchas de oro por el poder de Dios. Yo se que podemos vivir con nuestras familias en la vida eterna. Yo se que Dios ama mi. Yo soy agradecido por my familia y mis amigos y la influencia ellos hacer en mi vida. Este es el Evangelio verdadero. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

I want to to know that you're all in my thoughts and prayers. Buenos suerte!

Love,

Elder Sean Horrocks

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and tranducio the gold plates by the power of God. I know we can live with our families in eternal life. I know God loves me. I am grateful for my family and my friends and influence them to do in my life. This is the true gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.