Week 87 ~ Guamuchil, Sinaloa ~ Elder Sanchez

This week we really had a good week with working with members. We focused on inviting the members that we thought could help our investigators progress! And we saw some progress in our investigators. This week we invited Elizabeth and Miriam to fast with us to ask for help from God so they could be able to go to church.  So we started the fast Tuesday, and we ended it on Wednesday, and they were awesome. We explained how with Fasting we put our Faith in God and ask him for help by showing him that we are willing to make a sacrifice, through food.  They had headaches and stomach pains but they did it for the first time!  They knew that God would help them be able to go! and The miracle of the week is that God heard our prayer and helped them come to church, they were able to leave their work early (oxxo) to come to church!  They were enjoying the sacrament meeting and then another Challenge presented itself (they have had a ton of challenges and temptations) This challenge is that the daughter of Miriam got bit by a scorpion!! by a scorpion in the bathroom!!! what the heck! then they had to leave early because they took her to the hospital! But The good thing is that they were able to go to church, but we hope and pray that they DON'T take this "scorpion experience" as an answer that this isn't the Path of God... 

This week we also had a ward activity, a talent show, and we brought Elizabeth and Miriam, and they loved it! They saw a lot of funny things, and they realized even more that we are normal people! We as missionaries of the ward did a skit about missionary work. It was pretty sad because we planned it that day, but whatever right? The ward liked it & we made everyone laugh! And we had fun being part of the ward family. The more we involve ourselves with the ward, the more they want to help us with missionary work. 

I Love you all and I just want to wish an early Father's day to my dad and all the other dad's!! I love you all and I hope you all have the opportunity in participate in the work! Do all you can to help the missionaries and see the Spirit of God work through you! 

 I absolutely LOVE the sunsets here in Mexico

Elder Horlacher

SC Warrior 2014 Missionaries Coming Home (Part 2)

DJ Whitehead - Guatemala 

 Josh Parr - Belguim

 Jonathon Neilson - Chile

Week 86~ Guamuchil, Sinaloa ~ Elder Sanchez

This week we had the great opportunity to share the gospel with a lot of new people. We hardly found any of our investigators. Soo we went looking for people that would like to hear some young men share a message about Jesus Christ. And we found a lot of people, we found 2 families that are excited to hear our message but they don't want commitments.. so we are trying to help them progress and receive answers without giving them commitments.. People are funny!

We have finished teaching Elizabeth and Miriam all the lessons with pamphlets.. haha and they are really excited about everything, but they still aren't sure about baptism, because they know that they need to go to church before they can be baptized! They can't get to church because of their work schedules, so we are going to do a fast with them so everything will work out in their job so that they can come to church! They really like everything we are teaching them! They are awesome and really changing. This is when their Faith along with ours is put to work in Drawing on the Powers of Heaven.

The Guamuchil Ward went to the temple last Friday, and I just want you all to know the sacrifice they made to be able to go to the Temple. First they left Friday morning to start the trip to the Hermosillo, Sonora temple, which is a 10 hour bus ride, and to make it better it gets up to 120 degrees outside. On their trip it turned out that the buses AC stopped working and they went to the temple in a sauna! hahah Then they do temple work on Friday and Saturday to come back really really late Saturday night or Sunday morning!  I have learned a lot and I now know how big of a privilege it is to have a temple in my home city. I know that the temple work is something so important, and that is the reason these members make these huge sacrifices to go to the temple!! I invite you, like a lot of the general authorities did in the General Conference, to take time to go to the temple to receive the strength from god and feel his love and receive personal revelation! I know this to be true! I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Horlacher

SC Warrior 2014 Missionaries Coming Home (Part 1)

 Joe Empey-France

Lauren Mitchell-Peru

 Kylee Martin-Chile 

 Will Durante-Peru

Bowman Loo-Guadalajara, Mexico

 Jake Rider-Guadalajara, Mexico

Tyson Brough-Guadalajara, Mexico

Weston Esplin-Japan

Week 85~ Guamuchil, Sinaloa ~ Elder Sanchez TRANSFER DAY

Today was transfers, I am staying in Guamuchil with Elder Sanchez, but I was released from District Leader and Elder O'Driscoll was called. He is going to be a great District Leader.
This week we were really excited to start it off! We had a great start, we started very strong, having members come with us to visit our investigators and everything, but then something happened to our investigators, haha they disappeared (the joys of missionary work). But we were very happy that they came with us anyway. Well we have been teaching Elizabeth and Miriam for about 2 weeks now and we are already down to the last lesson because they read and study what we leave them, they have shown the true desire to know if it is true or not!  We have been teaching them the commandments and we talked about the word of wisdom, and the only problem they have is coffee, but they said, "ok that's going to be hard, I've been addicted since I was 10 years old but i will do it!!" They remind me a lot of the scripture in 1 nefi 3.7! It's so cool to see them progress in their testimonies! I am so proud of them each time and seeing their trust in us and their love of the Gospel growing. They weren't able to come to church this past Sunday, but they did all they could so that they could have come, but Satan didn't let them out of their work! But they always tell us, "God will make things possible for us to be able to go, I know he will!" They have been a great example for me in the Faith that they have. 

We have also been helping a less active come back to church, his name is Everardo. He has been kind of shy with coming to church because its been awhile, but we have been helping him, and we have been reading the Book of Mormon with him.  And after one time, we were explaining what we read, and he told us, "my desire to do the things correctly is growing, and I am going to go to church, EVERY WEEK!! and he kept his promise, he came to church alone and early (which is very hard here in Mexico, people arriving early). He is a champ! I love seeing these people grasp the Gospel and see it changing their lives. 

We have been playing Sports as a District every Monday, and its been pretty fun! Today we played soccer and rugby. And today our Bishop came to play with us and he knows how to play a lot of soccer! But he didn't know how to play Rugby. So I taught him how, and he started liking it, and right when he said, "this is fun", he fell on the cement and got roughed up... it was rough.. haha but he is alright now! 

I just want to say I know God prepares people for us to meet and teach! We just need to look for them through all the hardships that come. We need to preservier them and keep pushing forward, take it all, to be able to get to the Celestial glory! I Love this Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love that my testimony continues to grow through teaching these investigators. Each one teaches me something new. They think I'm in Mexico to teach them, but really I'm learning so much from them. I love all of you! Have a safe week!

Elder Horlacher

 District meeting before Transfers

Week 84~ Guamuchil, Sinaloa ~ Elder Sanchez

So this week we have a few new investigators that are awesome, their names are Elizabeth and Miriam! They are sisters that are looking for the Truth! They have been listening to us and they are reading the Book of Mormon, to know if its TRUE! When we were sharing the lesson of the restoration they started asking us questions like, "I'm worried about my dad, because he never knew the gospel, whats going to happen to him?!" I was so excited, I wanted to share all my knowledge right then about the Plan of Salvation! but we need to teach in the manner of the Lord, so I bore my testimony and I prepared them to learn and gain a testimony instead of just an answer. But we returned and they told us the Plan of Salvation from back to front, and they told us that they received the answer to their question!! Its really fun teaching them because they want to learn!!  It's so incredible when the Lord leads us to investigators like these sisters who are like sponges and soaking up everything we are teaching them and hanging on every word. 

Well I also forgot to update you all about Luis, well Luis is loving the church, he gave his first talk last week!! He talked about the Aaronic Priesthood! he did a great job, it didn't even look like he was nervous!! and last week he received the priesthood and he blessed for the first time the sacraments! It was so cool to see him do these things!! Progressing in the gospel! I felt like a proud parent again. I LOVE THAT FEELING. I can only imagine what our Heavenly Father feels like. 

Well NOBODY came to church, but we are still very animated for this week because we have a lot of investigators that are progressing in their testimonies! 

Well I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Horlacher

Week 83~ Guamuchil, Sinaloa ~ Elder Sanchez

This week was one of the coolest lessons learned. I learned to work hard until the end, it's something that I have always heard in sports, "play hard, 4th quarter is where it matters!" I am totally in the 4th quarter and I am digging deep. This week we had nothing going for us, we didn't have bikes, it was HOT, and we weren't finding anyone. I was a little frustrated with the week when my zone leaders well told me some words, then the next morning they called me again but they really helped me the second call, they gave me the hope to turn the week around, and we went out and worked! We worked and worked and worked hard. I saw a guy sitting down in his door way texting and we were talking with someone else when I felt like I need to go talk with him. So after we finished talking with this person, I went right over to him and asked him how he is and if we could share a message about Jesus Christ and he SMILED and accepted the invitation!! He invited his wife to listen to us and we learned that he has had some problems with unity in his marriage and that he wants to be closer to God. He has 3 children and one is 9, other 6, and other 3! They really loved the doctrine of  eternal family! That is one of the many things that I know to be true, and I bare my testimony to everyone that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and thanks to that we can be together as FAMILIES FOREVER! That gives me such comfort knowing that I belong to a family that is eternal and that one day when I get married my family will be eternal. 

We had one investigator come to church, her name is Nadia, she is a girl from "the Family of Girls" we are teaching, she is progressing, but something is on her mind because she told us something when she was leaving the church on Sunday, like something happened or she had an experience! We have an appointment this Friday with her so we will see whats going on! 

Well I love you all!! Have a great week, til next Monday! que Dios les bediga!

Elder Horlacher

 I bent Elder Allen's bike, I have this issue here in Mexico,

I'm too big for these bikes.

Here is me and my companion at church.