My how time flies!

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Thu 5/23/13 3:46 PM
To:	hortma@msn.com

Hola!!

Hi family! How are you all doing? I hope that all is well! Time is flying here at the MTC! I can't believe that tomorrow it will be a MONTH since I left! Wow! That is crazy! This has definitely been the fastest month of my whole entire life! I am so excited that I will be in Virginia in 2 weeks! Only one more email from the MTC and then the rest will be from good ol' Virginia!

Nothing too exciting happened since I last wrote you all an email. We had some great devotionals! The one on Sunday night was by a lady whose name was Mary Ellen Edmunds (I think). It was really awesome! She was super happy and funny. She talked about how great is it that we are missionaries and how we need to be positive every day. One thing I loved that is "You need to wake up every morning no matter what the conditions, and love your mission with everything you've got!" It was a very uplifting message that she shared. The one on Tuesday was by Marcus B. Nash of the seventy. Wow! I think everyone needed to hear the wonderful words from him and his wife. He told us "Don't waste a minute of your mission!" And "Don't hold anything back from the Lord." That reminded me of wise words of advice I got from a friend some time before I left. They said "Never hide your emotions when you're baring your testimony to an investigator." A part of not holding anything back from the Lord is telling our investigators our testimonies without holding back anything. Another thing I loved was he told a story of when he was on one of the missions with his wife and he saw this boy at church who he knew wasn't very active and he asked him if he was going on a mission. The boy told him that he wasn't really planning on it. Brother Nash said that he had the prompting to tell him "Your life will not be complete until you have returned home from an honorable mission." This is true! A mission is the absolute best thing that anyone could be doing if they are of the right age. After being here, I have realized that the saying "A mission isn't for everyone" is far from true. It IS for everyone! Unless you have some sort of health issue or a man you're going to marry, then everyone this age should be on a mission! I am so grateful for those missionaries that came to the primary activity when I was like 4 that talked about their mission to Guatemala! Little did they know, they sparked something in a 4 year old girl that affected the rest of her life. I wish I knew who they were so that I could thank them! I owe them so much!

Thank you for all of the delicious treats! I don't think it is the MTC food that makes missionaries gain weight. It's definitely the treats that their family members send them! But I am so grateful for the love!

I'm so excited to hear that Laura is having a girl!!! YAY!! I called it! That is so exciting! Start telling the baby about me know so that we can be friends by the time I get home! Poor Rushy doesn't have a boy to play with yet haha.

My companion got laryngitus (or however you spell it) over the weekend so that was interesting! She had to write everything down when she wanted to say something. Another Hermana had to help me teach the lessons, but it was actually a very good experience because I couldn't rely on my companion's amazing Spanish during the lesson. I was very grateful for it, but even more grateful when her voice was back so that we could start quoting Finding Nemo again everyday! But now we have both been affected by the germs at the MTC and are getting some nasty colds so hopefully it will pass soon.

I love you all very much!! I am grateful for you everyday!

And now, I close my epistle.

-Hermana Horton