·         Life is good!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)This sender is in your contact list.
Sent:	Mon 6/24/13 10:52 AM

My dear family!

It is so good to hear from you! One thing though, both Dad and Laura commented on how I have 4 hours of walk and talk on saturdays. That isn't the only day that we tract though. But we aren't supposed to be making any appointments or plans during that time on Saturdays so that we at least do a little tracting ever week. Just to clear things up!

 

This past week has been quite a wonderful week! The miracles just keep on coming! One day a couple weeks ago we were going to visit a less active member and we ran into this guy named Gabriel. He told us how he wants to change his life and we had our first appointment with him last Tuesday. During the lesson his roommate came out and wanted to listen. And we challenged both of them to baptism and they accepted!! Woo woo! It was so great! Gabriel is trying to get work off on Sundays so that he can go to church so we'll see how that goes. Later that day, we met with Irma and Miguel (the ones who came to church even though we didn't have a lesson with them yet) and they talked about how much they loved church and how they have such a huge desire to go to the temple! There is a sealing for someone in the ward this Saturday and they are going to try to go! They understand that they can't go in, but they want to feel the spirit that everyone bore testimony about the Sunday that they came to church. It was so awesome! They are so interested! And we were hoping and praying that we could go with them, but unfortunately we can't.

 

So my companions and I started doing something where we are praying for miracles and things like that. We have a little sticky note that has faith and miracle goals. We have seen so many little miracles here and there! We were doing a car fast one day and so we walked about started knocking doors and we ran into this cute little old lady who is already a member of the church. Her name is Grandma Sharidan. She was so cute and sweet and made all of us so grateful for eternal families. It was something all of us needed that day! Later we decided to go quickly see Corina who we haven't heard from in a while and we ran into another investigator who lives right by there. When we saw her walking and we saw her we all looked at each other and said, "There's our miracle we were praying for!" We talked briefly with her and her daughter Jane and we knew that the Lord had led us to her for whatever reason.

 

There is also another investigator who's name is Marcelo. He lives 2 doors down from us and they Spanish Elders gave him to us. He is so great! He is struggling to have faith and to quit smoking. We decided that we would all give up something for a day with him if he would give up smoking for a day. He didn't exactly have the right faith. We had a member of the bishopric come with us and he went into another room and gave him a blessing to have strength and while they were gone we knelt down and just prayed so hard for him. We went back the next day and he lowered the number of cigarettes from 14-20 to only 10 which was great! But he showed up to church the next day with his cigarettes in his shirt pocket which wasn't too promising haha. But we are praying so hard for him! He is so great and nice! And he's from Guatemala which is a plus.

 

The broadcast yesterday was great! I learned soo much and it helped me to appreciate even more that I am a missionary. I am so grateful to be a missionary! My favorite quote was, "The most effective missionaries are the ones that act out of love." That was such a comfort because I don't understand half the things these people say, but I just love them so much! So I know that the Lord understands my lack of Spanish, but he has helped me to love these people anyways!

 

Well life is wonderful in good ol' Virginia! I am so grateful for the ward I am in and for my wonderful companions and mostly, that I'm a missionary! I love you all very very very much!

 

And now I close mine epistle.

-Hermana Horton II

 

·         What a wonderful world!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net).
Sent:	Mon 6/17/13 9:02 AM
To:	hortma@msn.com; gahort@q.com

Dear family that I love very dearly,

 

First I want to start off and say that I am so grateful to be a missionary! There is no where else I'd rather be right now. As hard as it may be, I am so super happy and I know that I am supposed to be right here in beautiful Virginia!

 

Well last Tuesday we had mission conference which was really great! It was sad though because it was our mission presidents last one, but they gave lots of great advice and I am very grateful for the short time that I was able to know them. They are so nice! One of my favorite things that I learned was "Expectations of immediate perfection can be crippling." Boy did I need this with my Spanish and all! I just want to be fluent already, but that isn't exactly how it works out unfortunately. It was way good to see my cute MTC companion as well! She is in Charlottsville and she met Jordan's sister that lives there! Last Tuesday we also had our second lesson with this lady named Corina. This sweet sweet lady is so prepared for the Gospel! It blows my mind! At the beginning of the lesson she told us that she knows that our church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! Seriously?! We were so excited! A little bit into the lesson the prompting to challenge her for baptism came. My heart instantly fell out of my chest. I thought I was going to have a heart attack right there in the lesson! Then both of my companions told me at different times during the lesson that I needed to be the one to ask her. So I did! And I messed it up a little bit, but that's alright. And she said that she was already baptized and she didn't understand the whole proper authority thing, but she said that she will think about it. She is golden! She will be baptized. I'm sure of it.

 

We also had our second lesson with a lady named Gloria. She has the cutest little girl named Jane Melody. She was definitely not interested in the Restoration, but she let us come back again so we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was SO much more interested. So what happened again? I challenged her for baptism! It totally caught her off guard. She also talked about how she had already been baptized, so we tried to explain things a little more and she said she wants to learn more. Her little girl is adorable! After the first time we taught her she yelled to us as we were walking away, "I'll never forget you!" And she gave us these beads and told us all about her favorite school teacher.

 

There is this little girl named Hannah that we are teaching that reminds me of Lillie! And we get to teach her in English which is nice. She says the sweetest prayers about how we are going to help her learn more before her baptism and she is so sweet! Such a great example.

 

So on Saturdays we have this thing called Walk and Talk where we can only go tracting from 1-5 and we talked to this couple named Miguel and Irma. We only talked to them at their door and told them about church and such, but they didn't have time for an actual lesson, but they came to church! It was amazing! Except church was crazy and everyone talked about baptisms for the dead so they were probably a little freaked out, but we were just so happy that they came! Miracles are happening left and right here. I have never seen so many!

 

Well thank you for all that you do! I miss you all very very much! But I love being a missionary! I love you!!

And now I close mine epistle.

 

-Hermana Horton

 

My address: Sorry I didn't give it last week.

Hermana Callie Horton

8742 Shadymist Dr.

Richmond, VA 23235

 

 

Oh What a Wonderful World!

Sent:	Mon 6/10/13 1:29 PM
To:

Hola familia!

I'm here! I made it to the beautiful and wonderful Virginia!! Seriously, it's BEAUTIFUL! One of the most beautiful places I've ever been to! I absolutely love it! We live in this cute little blue house with an English speaking trio and they are way fun! Its fun to talk about our experiences at the end of the day with them.

 

I'm in a trio and my companions' names are Hermana Mendez and Hermana Sasser. Hermana Mendez is a native hispanic which is awesome! They are wonderful! They are so patient with me and my horrible Spanish and they have been so helpful. I am very grateful that I was put with them.

 

So much has already happened! I don't even know where to start. My first day of teaching was Friday. We went to this trailer park and were going to visit some former investigators, but we kept seeing people so we would talk to them. Well mostly my companions would because I had like no idea what was going on. After doing that for a while, we went and visited this former investigator named Margarita. She was wanting to know which church was the true church and which way was the correct way to be baptized. After talking for awhile, and me having no idea what's going on, my companions told me to teach her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, so that's what I did! Both of things are something that I feel so strongly about so I was able to bear testimony of these amazing things with my poor little broken Spanish. The Spirit was crazy strong! And it must have been completely the Spirit talking because she said that my Spanish was really good. When I told her I've been learning for 6 weeks she couldn't stop talking about it. It made me feel so good :) We teach this English class on Thursdays, and she said, "I'll come to your English class if my English can be as good as her Spanish in 6 weeks." I just felt like I was really able to connect with her even though I couldn't really understand her. I gave her a Book of Mormon and so hopefully she keeps her commitment to read it! It was soo awesome!

 

Every Saturday we do these things called "Walk and Talks" and we have to drive somewhere and then just knock doors. We went to this one trailer park we heard had lots of Hispanics. We ran into this lady named Corina who was from Guatemala. (I have met so many people from Guatemala! I got the best of both worlds!) Before we had told her anything she asked us where our church was and asked if she could come! It was amazing! We went inside and taught her about the Restoration and she thought it was so beautiful. We also taught a woman named Gloria who let us in, but didn't seem too interested. She is letting us come back though so we'll see! And she has a really cute daughter named Jane who gave us all these beads and let us play with her Barbies.

 

Later that day we went to go talk to a member and tell us if they knew any other Hispanics in their apartment complex. They weren't home, but when we were walking out we saw this Hispanic guy by his car so we went and talked to him. His name is Freddy. Once again, he asked us if he could come to our church before we had even told him anything! The people of Virginia are so prepared for the Gospel its ridiculous! We just talked to so many people!

 

It rains here so much! Its beautiful! I felt like a true missionary after Thursday was over because I had taught someone, I was drenched from head to toe, and I had bug bites all over my legs. I am now a real missionary!

 

We went to this Metro Richmond Zoo today. It was a lot of fun! I forgot to bring my stuff so that I could send pictures, but I've got some good ones. We went with the other Sisters that we live with and some other Hermanas that had to stay with us for a night.

 

Life is great here on the East Coast! I miss you all! It was great to talk to some of the fam the other day! I love you all very very much!!

 

And now I close mine epistle. I am Hermana Horton.

 

                                                        1st day in the mission field
                                            Callie with President and Sister Perry

 

 

 

We found out where Callie is serving even before her letter reached us. Thank you social media.

Dear family of Callie Horton, 90% chance of me seeing her tomorrow taking in the fact that the transfer meeting they have for the new missionaries is at my church building and virginia and I'm in the spanish ward there... soooo probably post a picture for y'all tomorrow let me know if you have any special requests.

Welcome to the Chesterfield Ward Hermana Horton! Right after we had a ward missionaries lunch of Pupusas — with Callie Horton. Kevin Matthew Dennis, a friend of Jordyn Arndt's.