#timetogo

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good Christmas!

This week, regretfully, I do not have much time. This is the absolute worst week to not have time because I have so much to talk about.

Well first off, my birthday went well, and so did the solo. We actually didn't have a member of the 70 there to see me perform, so it took a little pressure off my shoulders, also, there were other performers too. There were a couple groups of singers, a violinist, and another soloist who performed. Nevertheless, I thought my performance went very well! I sung La Primera Navidad (the first noel) and I only messed up on the words once. Not to worry, everyone messed up a little bit at one point and no one was expecting a picture perfect performance.

Christmas went well, too. Of course, every missionary got the opportunity to skype home. 4 missionaries were invited to my bishop's home to skype, and as you can imagine that put a little strain on their wifi. So I could see and hear my family plenty well, but they struggled to see and hear me. But of course, I didn't care. I love the opportunities that I have to email and see my family and friends. I love you all and thank you for the support you send me each week.

Also on Christmas we had the district over to eat waffles and open presents before Church. It was very funny, because we have 2 Elders who go home in a week, one elder who has been out for a year, and 3 Elders who only have 4 months in the mission. All the new Elders got lots of presents and money, and the 2 Elders who are about to go home got nothing from their families because they are going to get their presents when they go home :)

That's all I have in this short time period but I wanted to just say one more thing: Christmas time is time to be around families. That was my favorite aspect of Christmas, is getting to be around my extended family. I want all of you to enjoy that time, because you don't know how long it will be until you see them again. Don't skip the opportunity to say "I love you", don't skip the opportunity to give your loved ones a hug. I love all of you and wish you stay safe in this rainy/snowy winter we are having.

Con Amor, 

Elder Horton

MTC comps with our Christmas ties

Zoomed about 100X to get this picture!

We took a hike

My face-smashed-in birthday cake

#whenit'schristmas

My Companion - Elder Ramirez

Christmas tree with all the presents

PS - From Mom - We had a nice video call with Ryan on Christmas Day.  They are allowed to call home on Christmas and Mother's Day.  He looked and sounded so good.  He did admit that it made him a little homesick.  There is wisdom in only letting the Missionaries call twice a year.  It allows them to focus on the work they are there to do and lose themselves in service.  We miss him like crazy and there may have been a tear or two shed on Christmas Day - from both sides of the camera, but he is doing great and we couldn't be more proud of him!

#Christmas

Hello family and friends!

As you are all aware, Christmas time is upon us. Though it is 6 days away, (yes I'm counting) my next p-day wont be until the 26th so now is the time I wish you Feliz Navidad!

This week seemed to go by quickly, as they all seem to do these days. However, that can be a good thing when you're looking forward to something such as Christmas.

Our Zone Conference is this Thursday, and that means my solo is Thursday as well. We have made yet another change as to what I am singing! I'm now singing La Primera Navidad (The First Noel) transposed into a lower key. We've worked long and hard on this, and I hope I don't choke!

We had a large rainstorm pass through Thursday. Unluckily, that was the day me and Elder Ramirez were going to go around and visit some referrals. Little did we know, Elder Ramirez had a hole in the bottom of his shoe and so for the first 5 minutes of walking in the rain it was fun. Fun Fact about Elder Ramirez: When he gets mad, he really gets mad. So, for the next hour of walking around it was constant complaining about his soaking foot and how no one was answering their door and whatever else... Nevertheless it was fun to use my umbrella for the first time in 10 weeks.

We continue to visit Sergio this week. However, his wife is a hardcore Christian, and twice now she has tried to Bible bash with us. Of course, we don't bash but we have a nice discussion so we can keep the spirit there. Both these times I've felt unprepared on that subject so it gives me a good incentive to study well. 

The Medina family is, as my companion puts it, "a waste of time". Time after time we visit them, and time after time they tell us they will attend church. Yesterday, we called them an hour before church and they told us they were coming. We stopped by their house 15 minutes before church to find them still in their pajamas. They will come to ward activities which gives me hope every time. But we get let down so often. Tomorrow we will have a scheduled appointment and we are going to "throw down" on them. Many missionaries know what this is. If you want to know how we throw down, go read chapter 6 of Jacob in the Book of Mormon and i'm sure you can imagine how it goes.

And of course, we had the ward Christmas party Saturday night! It's always a pleasure to sit down and talk with all the ward members and just simply have a good time. They had a pinata, as every good party should. I will include pictures.

Well I happen to be short on time. We still have a lot to accomplish today, including a hike and playing soccer! So, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. While you open your presents, be sure to keep in mind the meaning of CHRISTmas. Love you all!

Elder Horton

pictures:

The Elfders

Walking in the rain

Cool picture I took

Cool picutre I took

my watch...

#party&sing

Hello my beautiful friends and family! I hope you are doing well and the gear up for Christmas for all of you is happy and well.

First on my subject line is party! Well.. I attended a party which I thought was a birthday party. Turns out, it was no one's birthday. It was simply a party just to party. Why? Because hispanics love to party. And when they party, they party hard! It was one of the most exciting and happy nights of my life, with lots of good food, and it seemed no drama. Everyone was involved!

SING: I received a call from the sister of a senior couple who works in the mission office. She proceeded to tell me one Elder (who will remain unnamed) told her I have a "beautiful" bass voice, and that I sang in the MTC choir during general conference. She then proceeded to ask me to sing a solo of a song she chose in Zone conference. So.. yeah that happened. We got a pianist, and then practiced away! The song was low... really low. Nothing I couldn't do, but my pianist didn't like it. So we changed! We looked in the hymnbook and thought it would be cool for me to sing a Christmas hymn in Spanish. So, as for now, I am singing "Venid, Adoremos" the Spanish equivalent of "Oh, come all ye Faithful." It's the polar opposite of this other song. It's high, and I can sing it in my chest voice nice and loud. My pianist found another sheet music for another song, so we may use that one instead! We will see and I will for sure keep you all updated.

As for my week and my investigators, it was a less-than-favorable week. Not magnificent, not super bad, but kind of lukewarm. We had a lot of things to keep us sidetracked, like the song I previously mentioned, as well as Elder Shupe (not so Elder anymore) come to visit. However, we look forward to this next week.

Sergio did not attend church yesterday. He understandably didn't get much sleep after working late Saturday night.

We gave our best effort to visit the Medinas every day this week. Only one day were we able to get in. Other times, the Hermano was working or they weren't home. Sad, but hopefully we can see the fruits of our labors. Here's the deal with the Medinas: besides their flakiness, they have a 2 year old ball of energy. When we try and teach, this child is running all around the room trying to distract one of the 3/4 of us. We need to find something to do with that child. We have tried to tell them that if they attend church, their kid will see that's not how you should behave. But they dont come to church. *sigh*

Whittier had a parade on Saturday and all the Elders in our district thought it a great opportunity to go contacting. It turned out to be less of a contacting activity and more enjoying the parade. It was super cool, and I regret not going to as many parades back home.

I think that's it for this week. Everyone keep going well, and keep trying to spread the #lighttheworld initiative.

Los amo,
Elder Horton

Go Utes!

HOT CHOCOLATE

 Cool low-riders in the parade

Dramatic shot of Elder Horton

Elder Ramirez being himself

 In California, after they do tree trimming...

#idontevenknow

Hi friends and family!

So... I'm not really sure where this past week went.

However! I want everyone who's reading this to know that I'm having the time of my life out here. I'm learning so much and becoming the person I hope to become.

The first highlight of this week is that my companion got a queen sized bed! a member who is selling their house offered it and we accepted happily. He sleeps in the queen, and I sleep in the two twin beds put together. It's great. We had a little trouble finding a way to fit all 3 of those beds in one room, but we did it. It's a little tight.

We have made quite a point to share the Church's Christmas initiative with everyone we come in contact with. It's called #lighttheworld. I'm sure most of you have heard of it. Every day, the church has a challenge. Each of these challenges enables you to come close to the savior. I am trying to do each of these two. To get started, you can go to Mormon.org and watch the video. Every time I watch it I feel the spirit so strongly. I encourage you all to check it out and work with the Lord to do those things.

Elder Ramirez and I have been working super hard with Sergio. We want to baptize him this month. Every day this past week we went over and taught him. He is doing super well and he attended church this week! That's incredible! If he attends the next 2 sundays and keeps all his commitments and we teach him everything he needs to know, he can be baptized this Christmas day. That would be super cool.

We were going to go to the LA temple visitor's center this last Saturday with the part member family the Medinas, but that ended up falling through. The Medina's are very flakey people and have not kept 9 promises they gave us! But I know the Lord is just testing our patience and we will, as Dory says, "just keep swimming"

Thanks for all your prayers and love in the behalf of me, and all the other missionaries in this world. We all know the truth of the gospel and how it can bless other people's lives. We all love this work.

Elder Horton

Pictures: (from last week, too!)

The thanksgiving turkey bowl

Cool gun a member has

CHRISTMAS TREE

Family home evening with the members the Cruces

Service, helping the Cuppett's build their house!

Cool view from the hike this morning

Getting swole

Jacob Cruces got... a little excited with the Nutella

#CALIFORNIA/Thanksgiving

Whoa, did this week start out awesome!

Tuesday, we went as a district, in one car, to take an Elder to the airport. On the way back on the freeway, we pulled over to the sound of sirens. Soon as we did that, a red Honda went past us going about 40 MPH, followed by a line of cops. It was a not-so-high speed chase! However, I forgot my camera. I seem to forget my camera at the worst times.

Also, something cool I forgot to include from last week! We had the primary program in our ward. Of course, all the hymns were in Spanish and I only understood a little but it was just the best to see all the kids I know and love up there singing out their little hearts.

THANKSGIVING. That was quite the day! We began the day with the Turkey Bowl the ward put on. However, instead of football it was soccer. That was a really fun time! We played on and off for about 4 hours and ended. A lot of the fathers had to go home to their families and children but when it was done, there were about 10 of us left. We saw another group of about 10 setting up a goal and we decided to go see if they wanted to play. Well, we lost but then again they were fresh and we had all played for 4 hours and were all tired.

All in all, we played soccer for 6 hours and if that wont make you sore, you've got a problem. The next morning was not pleasing!

Well, as a companionship, me and Elder Ramirez were invited to 4 thanksgiving dinners. Back to back. At each dinner, we ate a full plate of food. Can you imagine? It almost hurt by the end of the night. But all in all, there was a lot of good company.

As far as proselyting goes, we had a pretty bad week. We found Sergio drunk twice. One of those times we committed him to a baptismal date. So... I don't think it's real. Also he committed to go to church but he didn't. So.... we're going to have a very fun lesson tonight ;) Also, with the Hernandez family we still find it hard to get into their house to teach. They say they will let us know when we can come by but never do. And every time we pass by they don't have time to talk.

This week me and Elder Ramirez are doing a "finding week". We are going to increase our pool of investigators and find more solid. How, you may ask? We are taking the Area Book and going through past teaching records and investigators who have been dropped. We are going to go by them and see if they are willing to be taught again.

Anyways, sorry for the long email. I hope all continues to be well back home and all of you had a good Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Thanks for the prayers and good wishes.

Signing off,

Elder Horton

Pictures:

Well. this is awkward. I can't get the computer to work with my SD card..

I didn't have too many pictures anyways.

I will send extra next week

PS from mom- this is a picture sent to me from Elder Calvin's mom (Elder Calvin is the other Elder in the picture)

#1transferdown

*Note from Mom - Ryan talks about transfer week, but that just means changes in his mission to different companionship's. Sometimes it will be Ryan, sometimes not. This time, Ryan stayed in the same area with the same companion.  He says "Elder Ramirez is staying with me for at least another 6 weeks. That is customary with training. The trainer stays with the trainee for their first 12 weeks."

Also, if you want to send Ryan a card of package for Christmas, he gets mail every Tuesday, so if you want him to get it before Christmas, it should be there before Dec. 20th.  Thanks for your love, support, and prayers!  Ryan feels it :)



Well! One transfer is down! This excites me since this last week was very bad. However, apparently it's a normal thing to have a bad week on your last week of the transfer. So... I'm very much looking forward to this week.

This last week we were focusing on committing people to baptismal dates. The first ones we wanted to commit were the Hernandez family. We are only teaching the mother Irma and her 16 year old son Marcos right now. However, Irma's younger kids come to church with her. Anyways, we visited them on Tuesday night and they told us they couldn't meet with us at all during the week, but that they would come to church. They have bed bugs in their apartment and they were doing some deep cleaning. Sadly, they didn't show to church.

The next one we wanted to commit was Sergio, who is an alcoholic, but nevertheless a good man. We haven't been able to visit him every day as we promised him we would, and I believe as a result he slipped up and got drunk again. Every Sundaywe walk thirty minutes to his house to make sure he is ready and going to church, and then walk 30 minutes back to the church. (We live near the church). This sunday we came by the regular time and he wasn't home. So I dunno!

I had a request to give more detail about my daily life, so here goes.

6:30 we wake up and work out. (sometimes not. Ha.)

7am we have an hour to shower, eat, and get ready for the day.

8am we have personal study. I study a variety of things, including the BOM, Our Search for Happiness, Our Heritage, etc.

9am we have companion study, where we share what we learned from PS, we read the missionary handbook 3 pages, and then plan more for the day.

10am we have language study. I have a few materials from the MTC i use, but I find the best study just proselyting!

11am we do 12 week, which is the training booklet new missionaries have for their first 12 weeks.

12pm we usually take lunch for an hour.

1-5 we go out and proselyte, which for us includes going to teaching appointments, visiting members, trying to contact referrals from other missionaries, and occasionally going on an adventure.

5pm we have dinner with a member. We are fed by the members every night except on p-day.

6-9 we do more proselyting. I find this time more productive since people tend to be home more.

9-10:30 we plan for the next day, or do whatever we need! and go to sleep

Gosh... sorry for the long email. Again, I appreciate all your love and prayers. The language continues to come along well. I'm putting my trust in God to give me the gift of tongues while I learn Spanish.

I hope you all have a fantastic time on Thanksgiving with your family. That's the most precious time of all.
--

Elder Horton

Pictures
Elder Horton for president 2020

May or may not have crashed my bike... But i'm all right

Service for a member building his house from the bottom

Sunsets for dayz

Elder Ramirez for president 2020

I dunno this was just an awesome view.

District meeting in the nursery room!!

#bacon&trump

Hello friends and family!

I'm grateful I have the opportunity to email all of you once again and read your letters. I hope you are all doing well and that the outside world isn't burning up after the election. (From what I've heard, it might be)

First of all, let me tell you about bacon! We do service every week at a place called IFC (Interfaith Food Center), who feeds the homeless. They get a lot of food donated, and when we go, it is our job to do whatever they need. Including, but not limited to: Unpackaging food, stocking fridges, making care-packages, and talking with people who share a similar belief in Christ. After each service session, the man in charge, Dave, loves to fill up a box with food and send it with the missionaries. He won't let us turn him down. Among the things in this box is a lot of bacon! Well, this bacon stocked up and up and up and we suddenly had so much bacon we couldn't handle it. So I have cooked bacon for breakfast for the last... 5 days. I'm still not sick of it.

I have had a decent week of proselyting. We had a lot of appointments dropped, and so our numbers suffered. Luckily, we have 6 more weeks together to keep going. We have found a lot more investigators since the last time I talked about our investigators. I'm grateful that God is blessing me with his children to teach them.

As for the update on Spanish! it comes slowly... I still struggle to completely understand, while being able to express myself almost completely how I want to. However, during the third hour of church yesterday, I understood the whole lesson! Yay! But when we talk to people in a normal circumstance, well you can forget about it because my conversational Spanish is just bad. haha!

I must mention the weather in my area Whittier. It has been mentioned as "the armpit of the mission" as far as the weather goes. This meaning, it's November and it's still 90 degrees and hot for most of the day. Not fun when I'm biking and walking. But hey, I'm staying tan :)

Something funny in our ward. In La Esparanza, there are 2 families named the Cuessy's. One is the bishop, and the other is the ex-bishop ward mission leader. So, both of them come up in conversation often. Of course, the ex-bishop still keeps the title of bishop. So, we say bishop Cuessy and you don't know which we are talking about. So that's been fun to figure all that out, haha.

I think that may be all I have for you all. Congrats to my buddy Conner Wheaton. Also I hope you all know I appreciate your prayers and love you send me. It means a lot.

Whittier City Hall

#Blessings

IIIIt's Elder Horton once again!

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a beautiful day, and had a beautiful weekend. For sure I did.

First off the title! I titled this blessings for two reasons: 1, I have seen firsthand the blessings from the Lord of those who are obedient and work hard. They are magnificent! When we work hard and we are obedient, we receive more blessings than if we just bum it around all the time. 2, I realized that in the 10 weeks I have been out, I have had the opportunity to participate in 5 priesthood blessings. What a blessing! Ha!

The last blessing I was able to give was yesterday in church. After sacrament meeting, one young woman came up to me and Elder Ramirez and asked if we could give her grandma a blessing.

Sidenote, in the ward I serve, there are 3 mission areas which means we have 6 Elders serving in our ward.

Back to the story. We gathered the 6 elders and the young woman, her grandma, and her grandpa. Long story short, she asked me to give the blessing. Whoaaa did I feel unqualified. I don't know how to give a blessing in Spanish! But the other Elders helped me. I began in Spanish, but finished in English when I didn't know what else I could say. It was veeerrry awesome. An incredible experience.

Also, a fun story from 2 weeks ago. I needed a haircut, and one of the Elders asked me if he could cut my hair. I responded yes, thinking for sure he knows how to cut hair. Well.... he didn't. I was his first. So he tried to cut my hair and when he failed miserably, we went to another elder in my district who knows how to cut hair. We ended up just buzzing it long because it was so bad. Ha, it was such fun.

I realized I haven't told you all much about my companion! His name is Elder Ramirez, and he was born in Argentina. He moved to Virginia in the US when he was 8. he is 11 months into his mission! We have an awesome time together. About half the time we are laughing.

Last p-day we went on a hike to the highest hill in our area and took some awesome pictures. (by the way it's nothing like Utah's mountains and hikes.)

A quick note to end my weekly email. I really love serving a mission. I love this area, the people I am serving, and I love to see the gospel change lives. I am only 2 months into my mission, and I have seen so many things that have changed my life. I know that we have a Heavenly Father on high who cares so much about us. Some people here cannot grasp that simple concept. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. Through Christ we can overcome sin, challenges, and anything we want. Pray to feel God's love in your life, and he will manifest his love in ways you can't even think of. Just watch him change your life.

-- 

Elder Horton

Pictures!(A lot, to make up for last week.)

Getting my hair cut

Golfing with my "fresh cut"

The hike

My comp made me a delicious Chicken Alfredo dinner

Our Halloween costumes

Our bishop, dressed as a bishop

Having a good time by the church

Weekly planning

I made the ward program for yesterday!

Biking on a bridge

Service at IFC(interfaith Food Center) who feed the homeless

Lunch Today