Elder Ryan Horton: #HOLA

Hola mis amigos y mi familia. How are you?

I'm just great.

First off, you all remember Kevin? How he was supposed to be baptized the 23rd, then the 30th, then the 7th? Welp. None of those came through. He's got a job that's pretty far away, and it's got some crazy hours. We will continue to work with him, hopefully setting a new baptismal date we know for sure he can keep. (and ask for work off)

In other news, my companion Elder Gutierrez goes home to Costa Rica tomorrow. He's super excited to see his family and friends, for sure! These last couple of months of his mission have clearly been rough, as he has thought about all the regrets he has and how much he misses his family. Now that it is a reality of his going home, he's very happy and that's awesome for me to see.

Since he's going home, I am getting a new companion! I'm staying here another transfer in the Long Beach East stake, Ximeno Branch. My new companion is named Elder Wallis. You know as much about him as I do! He's 3 months younger than me in the mission, which makes me senior companion. Also, he's learning Spanish. So I'm assuming my Spanish will be the better of the both of us, which worries me a little all things considering! But I know with the strength of the Lord I can do all things. This will be a difficult transfer in different ways than these last two, but through rough times we learn to rely upon the Lord and we learn the power of prayer!

Next big piece of news. The proselyting areas changed (again) here in the Ximeno district. Don't worry, this time it should be for a long time. Though I have seen 3 area changes in my time here, I know this one will stay! Our district leader counciled with the Branch president and with the mission president to make sure the areas are fair for active members, equal opportunity for work, and less-actives.

I'll leave you all with a cool experience. Last night was my companions last night for proselyting, and so I let him pick where we went, who to talk to, and everything. All according to his will as we went along. at about 7:45 we decided to go by an investigator we have, who we haven't seen or talked to for about 4 weeks. To our surprise, we found her outside in her yard! We went and talked to her on her porch and she just started talking. She shared with us that she's going through a hard time where sometimes she just doesn't want to do anything at all. She admitted that she knew if she continued to meet with us often, that she would find the strength to kick her unmarried boyfriend out and that she would want to be baptized. For that reason, she was avoiding us. She knows baptism is the correct thing to do, so I don't know if it was out of fear or whatever. Now she is sad that Elder Gutierrez is going home. However, we offered to give her a blessing! That was a spiritual impression from my companion. She accepted, we entered her house, and gave her a blessing of comfort. She appreciated it so much. To our surprise, as soon as she got out of the chair we blessed her in, her 10 year old daughter hopped in there and asked if she could have one too. Well that was awesome so I got to give her a blessing too.

Anyways that's it. Love you guys! Next Sunday is mothers day!! WOOP