Last week with my "Dad"

My dearest family,

Another week has gone by rather quickly. Like I've said before, every day seems to take forever, but looking back the weeks fly by! This coming week is the last one that I'll have with my "Dad". (My trainer) I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm excited to get a new companion because E. Duran is a little lazy at times, but I'm also nervous that I might get one even worse! Plus, E. Duran and I are pretty good friends and it's sad to see him go. I won't be a trainee anymore. In fact, I might even have to train someone myself because we're getting so many new missionaries lately. I guess we'll see what happens! The transfers officially happen on Tuesday of next week, but we find out a few days before. I'll let you know what happens!

As for this week, it went pretty much the same as the last week unfortunately. Our investigators aren't progressing much and it's a battle just to get them to come to church. Only our golden guy came this week. His name is Jose Manuel and he's been pretty perfect. He's accepted basically all we've taught, and read his Book of Mormon and everything. He even came to church two times in a row without us having to beg him to come! He actually had a baptismal date for this last Sunday along with another investigator, but he wants to give it another week. For him, I can be patient because he seems to be really searching for the truth. The other baptism fell through because he didn't come to church and it's a rule that they need to attend at least twice before being baptized. I'm coming to find out that that's how we can tell if they really care. If they attend church, then they're progressing. Because we have so many stagnant investigators we're trying to find new ones, but it's difficult because the members don't give us many references. Despite all this, I'm feeling much better about this week. It's been rough, but fun at the same time. The bishop and his family have really helped to keep me positive. They're always so happy, nice, and fun to be around. Any ways, I guess I'll answer questions now.

Yes, I bought my camera today. There's actually a huge sale thing going on in Mexico called the Buen Fin so I got a decent deal. Apparently Costco doesn't take American credit cards though so I had to withdraw my cash at an ATM. I hope that's ok. I wasn't sure how much I would need so I took out about $200. I ended up spending about 150 for a camera, with a 4GB SD card included and a rechargeable battery. It's a good camera and I think it was a good deal. I also bought another 8GB SD card for $15. The rest of the currency I'll save for emergencies. Thanks for the extra cash. I'm sorry that I lost my camera in the first place. :( I hope it's not too big of a deal. I promise I won't lose this one!

The language is coming a long little by little. I can understand about 70 percent of normal conversation and almost all of the conversations we have during lessons! I can really feel my Spanish improving, but I have to continue working at it every day. There's always something new to learn! Now, where we eat... we usually eat breakfast and dinner at our house. Cereal, PB and J, stuff like that. Lunch we usually have with a member so it's always different. There's one family that we eat with every Wednesday that always feed us amazingly! The parents are both chefs so they give us awesome food. They believe that having us over to eat is a blessing so they're always inviting us over if another member can't feed us. They're way cool and fun to talk to. I'll try to get a photo of them this week, just in case I end up leaving this area. Oh, about that. I may or may not stay in the 5 de Mayo area. Like I said, we won't know until Sunday or so. For thanksgiving the zone actually had a get together, but we didn't really want to go. I guess a sister was feeding all the missionaries, but we decided to go to Costco with the bishop and family. I personally don't like it when a bunch of missionaries are together. A lot of them act like knuckle-heads and it bugs me. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? Nope, we haven't had any more BBQ lately. We might this week, because it's our last chance to do so together. I haven't received the thanksgiving package yet. I figure it's sitting in the offices, but nobody's told me yet. Who knows? I'll get it eventually. I'm super excited to here about the other mission calls! Especially Lindsey Berg. I really didn't see that one coming. It's good to know that our ward is still going strong with sending out missionaries. Let me know when/if people return as well!

I loved the photos you attached to the last e-mail. They really put a smile on my face. Jeez, the boys are getting tall! And Dilly looks older too! You all need to stop growing! I love that picture that you have in the kitchen now. It's perfect. B-e-a-uuuuutiful. Dad, tells me it's been pretty stormy over there. It's been the same here, though I think the storms here are just a liiiitle different. The rain can really sneak up on you at times, but we stay pretty dry. Sometimes it mists more than rains. It's nice though because it keeps us cool. Also, it gets dark at about 6 o’clock now. I think I remember Kayla telling me about that Forgotten Carols play. It sounds good. We'll have to go see it together when I get home. I'll put it on my list. ;) I'd rather you guys didn't rush with your letters. Don't worry about making them short. I love to hear about what's going on. I especially love to hear from the boys. Encourage them to write me every week! Please and thank you!

I'm going to try writing hand-written letters to send to you guys. I wrote one today that I'm going to send as soon as possible. Let me know when it arrives so I can know how long it takes.

Now, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it someone's birthday on the 11th or was it the 12th? I feel like a horrible son because I can't remember my parent's birthdays. I know either Mom or Dad had a birthday, but I can't remember who. I'm so sorry! :( Well,  to whoever had a birthday. Happy Birthday! I hope it was good!

I want to stress the importance of missionary work in our every day lives. Just because we're not serving a full time mission, doesn't mean we can't be missionaries. This work is infinitely harder without the help of the members. If you can think of anybody who may be remotely receptive to the message, don't hesitate to tell the missionaries or the bishop. Nothing makes a missionary happier than receiving references! Also, we can be missionaries by our examples. Strive to always be an example of the believers. People will notice and eventually, this may lead to them investigating the gospel. We never know what repercussions our actions have on others. Therefore, always strive to act as Christ would. I also really want to stress to the boys how important this work is. Even if you aren't sure you want to serve a mission, start preparing now to serve one. If you are able, you have an obligation to serve. To be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to serve a mission up until I was in the MTC. Once you take the Gospel seriously, you'll realize how amazing it is. For me, I finally realized what I'd been missing out on. I mean, I tried my best to keep the commandments, but I never took the time to really study the gospel or to really "live" it. I pray that Max and Kaz will at least take the time to read the Book of Mormon. I challenge you two to read it cover to cover by next General Conference. (April 6th). Then I want you guys to try as hard as you can to pay attention to general conference. If you have the magazine with the last Conference, read it. The thing about the gospel is that we have to apply it. Don't just read the stuff then say "well that was nice." Try to apply what you read to your life. I know that you'll be much happier if you do. I love you guys and I write these things not because I'm a missionary, but because I know they're true. I love you guys and I want you to receive the blessings that I've discovered through the gospel. Set some goals to do these things, then write me and let me know how they're going. Set goals as a family in family home evening and make sure you follow up on them the next week.

Well, I need to write my mission president real quick so I better finish up. (Don't worry it's a thing we do weekly) As always, I want you all to know that I love you and pray for you daily. I pray that you'll spend more time together and draw closer together as a family. Also, I pray that you'll draw closer to the Lord. He loves you and I do too. This church is true.

My best wishes and all my love,

-Elder Sean Horrocks

Some Progress

Hola once again!

I'll get straight to answering the questions real quick. I'm feeling better, no problems. I had a migraine a couple days ago, but that's it. I don't know what mom was asking about with conferences. We haven't had any of those but we did have interviews with the president. That went well. He gave me good advice about my doubts and also pretty much told me not to worry. As far as changing companions goes, we have a transfer in two weeks. Should be the 27th or so. Most likely I'll be staying in 5 de Mayo and Elder Duran will leave. Then I'll get another companion. I'm still liking the food for the most part. Although I must admit, when I get some American food it's like heaven. :) Our ward is pretty small and about half the members are inactive, but it's a good ward. We've blessed the sacrament once and passed it once as well. The only service project we've done so far is helping the bishop clean out his parents old house. Naaaaasty, but it wasn't that bad. We don't teach at church at all. We don't fish anymore because apparently we weren't supposed to. Soooooo no more of that. We're not supposed to be near the ocean. Ooops! Well, now we know. That's pretty much it for your questions.

We took our pants to a member that can adjust them. Hopefully things will turn out well. I'll probably get a Costco card and try to find a camera. I'll let you know how much I spend for that.

Good news this week. We finally got four investigators in the chapel for church! We're hoping for some baptisms this next week. Fingers crossed! That's pretty much all the news for the week. Everything else was pretty much the same.

I'm glad to hear that Mom fasted on fast Sunday. I hope that the rest of the family follows suit. Keep up with the reading the book of mormon. I know it will bless your lives. Otherwise I wouldn't ask you to do it. Also, I hope that you're trying to have family home evening. There are blessings that we recieve from all these things. Sorry my e-mail's kinda short. We don't have much time because of stuff that elder Duran had to do. Kinda frusterating but no problem. Hope to hear from everyone soon. Especially from Kayla and the boys! I love hearing from all of you. This church is true and I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love,

-Elder Sean Horrocks

Elbow Room

Hola from Mexico!

I didn't get any questions in my e-mails this week and I'm kinda at a loss for what to write. Nothing too special happened this week. It was kinda rough though. First off, Elder Revueltas returned to his area and we kept the bunk bed so for the first time in Mexico I have space to breathe. :) With the bunk bed and only two elders our room is actually quite spacious. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the rest of the week was mostly bad news. We didn't do much this week because almost every time we went to visit investigators or less active members they weren't home. Also, we're coming to realize that we'll probably have to drop some of our investigators that aren't progressing much. Right now we've got two investigators that are sooo close, but just need to keep one commandment or other. It's tough to see them struggle with these things because personally I've grown to love these people. We hope that we'll be able to help them to come unto Christ and we hope to get a baptism this week. I'm not gonna lie, it's been pretty discouraging to see all the other elders baptize every week while we've only had the one. I'm not sure if the problem is us, this area, or a combination of the two. We're trying are best to be obedient, but something just isn't clicking right I guess.

I often find myself wondering if I'm the problem. I'm trying my best to be obedient and do what I should, but I'm far from perfect. I'm not sure if I have the right mindset right now. I can't help but think about home a lot. I've learned so much here and all I want to do is go home and apply what I've learned with my loved ones. This is probably one of the biggest personal struggles for me. Some days I just want to go home to my family. Especially on days when the work isn't exactly going smoothly. I've been trying to keep a positive attitude though. I pray for the desire to work and for charity every day. I've been trying to see the big picture and the purpose for everything that happens to me. There's probably something that the Lord wants me to learn from my experiences here. I'm trying to find what it is that I need to learn.

On another note, my Spanish is improving a ton. I can understand the average person well enough to have a small conversation with them. If they're patient with me, we can actually have some pretty good talks. I think our lessons are improving too. We've gotten better at being brief and simple so that everyone can understand. Poco a poco - little by little - I'm learning.

In other news, I lost my camera so there probably won't be any new pictures for a while. Yes, I know I'm a retard for losing it. I left it at the internet cafe that we used last week and, basically, if you leave anything anywhere here in Mexico someone's going to take it. The camera isn't the problem so much as the stuff that was with it. In my camera case I had my rechargeable batteries and three SD cards. I only have all these things together when we go to write our letters. All my pictures are backed up on dropbox or in my USB that I still have so at least the pictures aren't lost. What should I do for a new camera? Should I try to find one here or wait for you guys to send me one? Let me know what you want me to do and please forgive me for being an absent minded fool. :(

Thank you everyone for all the support you've given me. I love you all so much and hope that you're all doing well. I hope you all realize how important family is. I didn't really realize how much you all mean to me until I had to leave you all. I know we spent a lot of time together as a family and I hope that you take the time to be with each other. Simple acts of kindness and a little time spent with family members can mean a lot. Some of my favorite memories are of times with the family when we weren't even really doing anything. The just fact that we were together made it a memory.

I also want to bear you my solemn testimony that this church is true. I won't lie; I didn't always have a testimony. However, now that I do, I can't deny it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth by the prophet Joseph Smith. We are so blessed to have this knowledge. I urge you all to take the Gospel seriously in your life. Don't grow complacent. Read the scriptures and pray every day. Attend church every Sunday and don't underestimate the power of fasting. The more obedient we are, the more we are blessed. Don't get discouraged in times of trial. Sometimes we need to be tested. Stay true and everything will turn out all right.

I love every one of you. I think about you every day and you're always in my prayers. This church is true.

Love,

Elder Sean Horrocks

Happy Birthday to Kayla and Happy Halloween!

Helloooo everybody!

First off, Happy birthday Kayla! I hope you had a good one! And I still don't know if Kayla get's my e-mails so I'd love it if someone would let me know. Please and thank you :) Also, a very happy birthday to Dily last month. (It was last month right?) Also, Happy Halloween! Let me know what everyone does for the holiday! Over here they have Halloween too, but they also celebrate the Day of the Dead for November 1st and 2nd I think. That should be interesting to experience. Thanks a lot to Mom for the little Halloween decorations! They make me smile every time I look at them. :)

So this week was much better. I was able to contribute a lot more in the lessons. I'm starting to get into the swing of how the lessons go and I just start popping in whenever I can. It's a little tough at times because E. Duran likes to talk a lot sometimes, but it's all good. I'm feeling a lot better about the mission work overall. We got two new investigators this week. Now, a new investigator means that they keep a commitment and accept the baptismal invitation. So we've got two women named Siria and Veronica. We've got their dates for the 11th of Novemeber so hopefully everything will work out for them. We've also got an investigator that is sooooo close to baptism. She's living with her boyfriend though so they either have to get married or separate. We kinda hope they separate because the boyfriends kind of a lazy bum. Also, she tends to avoid talking about here occupation so we get the feeling that she may do something... how do I put it... something that she's not proud of. I won't take a guess because I have no idea. I'm really hoping she gets baptized soon because she's been an amazing investigator and I really think she's ready to make the covenant of baptism. We'll see what happens!

In other news, we became a trio this week. Yep, I've now got two companions. The new one's name is Elder Revueltas. He's got 21 months in the mission so his experience is a welcome addition. He's got a lot of enthusiasm which is usually good, but he can come off as one of those weird Mormons at times. He speaks really good English though. I guess he was introduced to the Gospel in England or something like that. The only downside is that we're staying in our same room. That's right, we now have three (count 'em, three) missionaries in our tiny room. We've got a bunk bed and another bed and that takes up most of the space. I'll try to take a picture of how our room looks. In fact, because I'm at the two month mark, I'll try to make a video. Anyways... The reason that E. Revueltas is with us is because his companion went home. Therefore, he's just with us until either the end of the transfer (a month) or until he gets a new companion in his area. I hope he gets a new companion mostly because we have no space now, but also because I don't think we're quite as efficient with three missionaries. This is because now we're spread over his area and ours, he's our district leader (which means he spends a ton of time on the phone), and he and Elder Duran... well they don't fight, but they don't exactly see eye to eye at times. Overall, things are good though. :)

Now I'll try to answer everyone's e-mails. I actually got a lot this week so bear with me. To Max and Kaz: I'm proud of you guys with your schooling. It sounds like you're both focusing. Keep working hard and enjoy your school time while you've got it. Trust me, life after school is just a liiiitle different. But that's not always a bad thing. ;) Also, that's super awesome about Max's deer. It makes me want to go hunting with you guys. If you've got some of that jerky I'd love to get some in Mom's next package. :) One last thing, I'm sorry Max for not writing directly to you. I don't have much time to write e-mails so I try to fit everything together in one e-mail. If you want though, I can write some hand written letters and send them by pouch mail. However, I hear that that takes forever. Let me know. I love the both of you. Be nice to each other and enjoy each others company! 

Ok, mom's turn. I figured that it had snowed already in Heber. The weather changed drastically over here this week. We had our first Norte which is just the wind from the North. It brings a lot of clouds and a little rain with it. It has been heavenly because it's been tremendously cooler. It's been overcast with a nice cool breeze so it's been real nice. As for Elder Dean: I haven't seen him at all since our first week in Veracruz. I'm sorry to hear that he's been sick. Also, he didn't seem to shy when we were companions. Quiet at times, but not shy. He's a good guy and I kinda miss him more than I expected. As to my health, I actually had degue as well. It only lasted for two days, but it wasn't fun. I had terrible headaches and a lot of achy pain in my bones. I still worked though and overall it wasn't too big of a deal.

Ok, now I gotta answer Dad's stuff reeeally fast. The obedience thing was mostly just a few minor things here and there. Nothing too serious but we should've been doing them none the less. This week we were much much better and I think we were as obedient as we could have been. Elder Revueltas has been a big help for that. I already mentioned that I've contributed much more in lessons. I see missionaries from the states every time we have a zone or district meeting. Some of them are a little immature, but overall they're cool. We talk a bit when we can. You asked about our baptism and why the bishop baptized him. Well, that's because it's better for the investigators to be baptized by someone in the ward. This helps create a bond with someone in the ward rather than just to the missionaries. We don't want the people to become inactive after the missionaries leave. As for trips: we went fishing again today. That's been a lot of fun. We only catch little things, but it's fun none the less. I added some pictures of our "fishing poles" on dropbox. They're pretty fun to use actually. Also, we took a trip to a wax museum and a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. Both of them we're really fun and I added some pictures of them on dropbox. The Ripley's museum would've been a bit funner if I could understand all the little descriptions though. ;P No worries though. :) 

Ok,  should finish up now. I'll try to start sharing scriptures when I have time, but right now I don't. :( Just know that the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, have become very dear to my heart and I hope you continue to strive to read them as a family. If you need to skip forward, do it! I love you all! This church is true!

Love,

Elder Sean Horrocks

Teaching a lesson 

It's already been seven weeks

My dearest family,

I'm glad you all had another good week. It's good to hear that you're all doing stuff as a family. :) Hearing about the family coming together and more about Dily makes me miss you all so much. I look forward to those pictures and more news. :) 

This week was a little rough. We tried to be obedient as possible, but we had some pretty big pitfalls. We had one investigator with a baptismal date, but he changed his mind the day before and said that he wanted to think about it more. Bummer... Also, I don't know if you remember me telling you about the investigator from Luisiana, but she and her husband were having trouble with their marriage. Well, it finally hit the fan and she's leaving him. Basically, we probably won't see her anymore, but at least Luis is still interested in receiving lessons from us. On the bright side, we have an investigator named Monse who is progressing really well. She said that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptized. We planned for her to come to church, but when we went to get her, they were sleeping or something. So we went to church, but Elder Duran went on splits for a sec with a young man from the ward and went to get her during the second hour. Basically, she got to attend the last our of church (Relief Society) and she seemed to really like it. The only thing standing in the way of her baptism now is the fact that she's not married to the boyfriend she's living with. Also, he doesn't really want to get married, probably because he's only nineteen. I'm hoping that things will work out with them. Either they need to get married or she needs to move out. :/ I guess we'll see what happens.

As a companionship we are doing much better. We're being more obedient (though at times we're not perfect :/) and we're trying to work hard. I've been taking a little bit more of an active role in things and it's been going ok. I help with the schedule and I speak more in lessons. The only reason I still don't do a ton is because I still have trouble understanding everyone. I can only understand about every other person and then I only understand about half of what they say. Sometimes there are Mexicans that are really patient with me and speak slowly and clearly for me. Other times they basically ignore me. The way I'm thinking right now is that this is the hard time. Once I can speak the language better and get used to how things work here things will be a little better.

I want to let you all know how important this Gospel is to me. I don't know if you fasted this last fast Sunday or if you have family home evening, but I would encourage you to do these things so that you may obtain the blessings that they bring. Also, I haven't heard how the reading has been going lately. I hope it's still going strong. Write me a little bit about what you all read and what you think about it. Personally, I've made a goal to read the Bible through front to back because I've never done that before. Right now I'm in 1st Kings and it's actually really interesting. I'm coming to love the Bible almost as much as I love the BOM. I'd also recommend reading Jesus the Christ. That book helped me a lot with understanding Christ and the New Testament. But... I digress... This Church really is the same church that Jesus Christ Himself established on the earth. I know that if we endure to the end, we can return to live with our family in Heavenly Father's presence.

I love you all and hope that if you are facing any challenges in your life that you'll turn to the Lord. Remember: Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. This church is true! I love you!

-Elder Sean Horrock'

Sphere of Control

Hello once again my beloved family!

I'm sorry I'm writing later than usual today. We had a long but very fun p-day. :) Today we went with the bishop to a beach. Originally we we're going to fish and eat there, but we ended up only eating at the beach. After that we went to a nearby pier and fished there. It was a ton of fun. :) Instead of normal fishing poles, we used little planks of wood with most of the fishing line wrapped around it. It was just the plank, the line, and a hook. The way you cast it was by whirling it around kind of like a sling and stones, then tossing it into the sea. We used pieces of fish as bait. All the fish we caught were just little ones, but I caught four. :) We threw a lot of them back and gave the others to some nearby fishermen. I got pretty toasted in the sun though. I forgot my sunscreen so... It'll probably fade to a nice tan at least. :)

I was still feeling a little down and troubled up until our drive over to the beach. I had a good conversation with Elders Rhodes and Soto (They're both American). They gave me some good advice about being a missionary. They said that we only have our own sphere of control. We can't control everything no matter how badly we want to. Therefore, we should simply focus on the things that we can control. Ourselves and our actions. After that, everything else will follow.

As for the week... we had one baptism named brother Regino. He's the father of a member that we've been working with for a while. The bishop baptized him and it was a nice service. I said a little about baptism during the service and afterwards we had some delicious tacos. :) I'm excited to see Regino progress in the church. Other than that, not too much has happened. Sunday was kind of a bummer because we invited six different people to attend church, but none of them showed. Oh well, that's one thing out of my sphere of control. People have their agency.

Thanks for answering my questions! I really appreciate it. :) Now I guess I'll answer the questions I got this week. The weather here is changing too, but not too much. It's generally cloudy or rainy more often which is nice because it's cooler. There are still some days where we sweat like dogs though. :P I'm pretty sure that my package wasn't opened and that I got everything you sent. I really like the little Halloween decorations and the treats. Thanks a million! :) Sorry, but I don't have any new pictures to upload on dropbox this week. I have more pictures for you to see, but the computer I'm using won't let me upload them today. Oh well... I took a couple pictures of the day fishing that I'll hopefully remember to send.

I got a random list of questions from someone who forgot to put their name in the e-mail, but I'll answer them anyway. The food is delicious for the most part. A lot of soups, tacos, and meats. A lot of the time they'll prepare chicken or pork in a plate with some sort of soupy sauce. It's different every time, but it's always good. :) As to what I'm doing: I'm basically just doing the average missionary stuff. A lot of studying, contacting and teaching. I'm pretty much used to the heat here, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I like it. :P Let's just say I miss not sweating all the time. ;) For the most part, I'm enjoying being a missionary. I have my challenges, and to be honest a lot of them seemed to have piled up these last couple weeks, but with the Lord's help I'm overcoming them. I'm trying to just calm down, take everything a piece at a time, and have fun. It's working out okay. :) The people here are generally very friendly though they don't really like to show emotion out on the street. A lot of people walk around with a scowl on their face until you say good afternoon to them or something. Then they usually smile and greet you in return. I can't really think of an instance where anybody has been intentionally rude or mean. It helps that my Spanish has been improving. I'm still far from perfect and my conversations are iffy at times, but I can generally communicate what I need to. Right now the thing I enjoy about the mission is teaching. I absolutely love it when I can teach someone and help them understand the importance of the Gospel. On the other hand, they only thing I don't really like his when I can't understand. It frustrates me to no end when I know what I want to say, but I don't know how to say it. However, that's happening less and less.

I love every single one of you and I pray for you each night. I know this church is true and that the Gospel changes and blesses lives. I love you!

Elder Sean Horrocks

Yay, General Conference!

My dearest family,

Well, week 5 in Veracruz has come and gone. It's kind of sad because I don't feel like we accomplished very much. I don't want to complain at all, but things are a little tough. I still can't contribute very much and half the time I don't know what's going on because my of my Spanish. Also, my companion is a great guy and all, but sometimes I wonder if he knows what he's doing. He doesn't seem too organized. Generally, the things that we plan go right out the window during the day. During lessons my mind often ends up wandering because I only understand about half of what is being said. And that's if I'm lucky. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be here and I know that things will improve, but I figure I'd be real with you. I've been trying to be very positive (especially in my e-mails). On the other hand, the few days where I can understand the majority of what's said are amazing! We have an investigator from Luisiana that I get to talk to now and then. I like our lessons with her because she translates things I don't understand for me. When I contribute and understand what's going on, I love it here! I'm still excited to be here and to work. I just figured I'd let you know how I feel at times. Okay, enough negativity.

This week was pretty much just like every other. We teach and contact and try our best. We didn't have any baptisms this week, but I think we've got two lined up for next weekend. They're both children of members. (Not little kids, mind you. They're parents are just members). I'm still learning a ton every day and I'm trying to speak more when I can. I love seeing how the Gospel can change people's lives!

I love hearing about what's going on at home and I love the pictures on dropbox! It seems like everyone is having a good time. :) Thanks a million for the package! It was perfect! I really appreciate all the pictures and Halloween things, especially the gospel quotes. Yes, I got to watch General Conference this week, but only the priesthood session was in English for us so I didn´t understand too much. Still, it was nice to listen to the prophet`s voice even briefly. I haven´t gained any weight here, but I haven´t lost any either. We haven´t really been exercising much, but we´re going to start doing that. (Well, at least I am.) I still get letters from Grandma and Grandpa Wortham, but I don´t get any from anyone else. I haven´t written a physical letter the entire time I´ve been here. E-mails work for me, but if you want to send a personal hand-written letter, I´d love to reply. Basically, if you want to have a more personal correspondence with me, you can write me a hand-written letter and I´ll respond with one of my own.

I´m glad the family is still trying to read the Book of Mormon together. Keep it up! If it´s boring, try to think of things to liven it up. I don´t know if you´ve been having family home evening, but I strongly encourage you to do so. Our family is already pretty close and I know we talk a lot a dinner, but I know there are tons of blessings that can come from family home evening. Dad should lead these, but everyone should take turns preparing a lesson and activity. Also, I´m assuming that fast Sunday is next week for you all as well. I want you to know how important fasting really is, it´s a way for us to receive just a little extra help. When the disciples were casting out devils and doing the Lord´s work, there was one devil that they couldn´t cast out. The Savior said that that kind of devil could only be cast out through prayer and fasting. Our sins can easily be likened unto devils. We need a little extra help to overcome some of them. Think of it this way: if we can deny ourselves the basic needs of our bodies to eat and drink, how much easier it will be to deny ourselves of sins. I promise you that anything you may be struggling with now can be overcome and fasting is often the path to do so. I know it may seem difficult, but if you fast for a reason it becomes so much easier. I challenge all of you to fast this fast Sunday and every one afterwards. Also, you can always fast for a little extra help when you need it. I hope you´ll take the opportunity and receive some added blessings.

I love you all and wish you nothing but the best! Keep moving forward in the Gospel! Don´t grow complacent! The devil doesn´t draw people away all at one time. He slowly leads them away inch by inch. Don´t allow him to do so! I know that this Gospel is true. I know that God is our Heavenly Father and that he knows and loves each and every one of us perfectly. No matter what mistakes we´ve made in the past, if we truly repent and rely on Christ´s Atonement we can return to live with Him in Celestial glory. This church is true. I write these words in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a good week! Don´t forget to spend time together and show others you love them! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Sean Horrocks

Elder Horrocks and Elder Duran