Here is a picture of us this morning at the mission home! Hermana Chambers is in the yellow skirt, Hermana Stoddard is on the far left. We live with the other 3 Sisters that are on the front row. Hermana Sasser is the one on the back left and the girl that you know mom is the one on the back right. Her name is Hermana Bingham.

To my spazz of a family‏

 

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 8/26/13 9:34 AM
To:

HOLA!

How is everyone doing in beautiful Utah? Before I forget, transfer calls have now been moved to Tuesday. So if you send me anything this week, either save it until next week, or send it to the mission office. I am crossing my fingers that I don't get transferred because I would love to stay in this area with Hermana Chambers! She is amazing. She is one of those people I feel like I was supposed to know in my life and someone I hope I can be friends with for many years to come. We are pretty stressed and nervous about starting it with just us 2 this night, but we know that we will both grow a lot and that it will be good for us! 

We spent a lot of time this week getting Hermana Stoddard ready for Argentina. She is going to rock it down there! She is so strong and bold. How blessed I am to have served with her! My last companion Hermana Sasser also got her visa so they will be traveling together. We got to spend the night at the mission home last night which was a lot of fun! We had a testimony meeting which it was very refreshing to share my feelings about the gospel in English. We also played Apples to Apples which was a lot of fun! Except that now President Wilson knows that I like to cheat at that game sometimes haha. When he got the green card of "outrageous" his first reaction was "Hermana Horton's playing of Apples to Apples!" President Wilson is just so awesome. I am so grateful that I have been able to live close to him so that I could get to know him better. I am glad I get to serve my whole mission with him as president. It was very refreshing also to have been able to experience the strong spirit of a home. Its definitely something that I miss. Everything about last night was just a nice stress reliever before the interesting experiences ahead of Hermana Chambers and I!

The Matamoros family came back from North Carolina! We were so so glad! Dina called us one day asking us if we could come over soon. Gosh I am so grateful for her! She is like the rock of her family right now. We watched the Testaments with them and Dina was just balling about talking how great it was. I was so grateful for that especially considering the cheesy parts of it. We had fun making jokes about how the boys need to take dating tips from Jacob. The part where he falls over the baskets was definitely a crowd pleaser. We haven't been able to see Ana yet. We talked to her for a few minutes one day, but that's it. It sounds like she is going through some stuff right now that she needs to work out. So hopefully we will be able to meet with her soon!

Elba came to church for the first time yesterday!! We also starting teaching her daughter this week so she came to! They really enjoyed it. So at church there are 9 missionaries, so we just kind of divide and conquer, so I was the one kinda helping Elba around and that was just a great experience because I didn't know what to say to her and I asked her 'Como esta?' like 50 times haha but we made it through and they had a good time! Another one of our investigators Corina who we've been teaching for a while tried to come to church yesteryday but got lost. We just told everyone that Hermana Stoddard was leaving and that that was the last time they would get to see her and it definitely brought people to church! 

Funny story this week:Yesterday during sacrament meeting this old man came in to the chapel and just walked right up on the stand while someone was giving a talk and pointed to our bishop and said, really loudly, "Are you the bishop?" This story is even better when you could hear his voice. Just ask Spencer to do a high pitched old man voice and I'm sure it will be golden. He then sat on the stand until someone escorted him out during the intermediate hymn. He was just this cute little old veteran man. My companions and I had a good laugh about that. 

So I want to know what everyone's favorite scripture is and why! I would greatly appreciate if you would send them to me! I would also like to hear cool experiences from all you missionaries out there. 

Well I hope that this week is a good one! I love you all very very much. I am glad that I was sent to a family of spazzes just like me. I love you!

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

Mi familia!!

8/19/2013

I am really curious to know what the weather has been like in Utah this past week. The weather here has apparently been really strange for August. Everyone kept warning me about how hot and miserable August is and it has been nothing but like 70's and misty rain. It is great! 

Mom and Dad, I am so so glad that you went and found Sister Espanto!! Isn't she just the greatest ever? She cracks me up all the time. She gave me a Book of Mormon in her language that I can't even say. It is so awesome! That is so funny that she was calling me by my first name when she was talking to you! She couldn't even say Horton until like half way through last transfer so I think that's why she would call me by my first name so much haha. She is amazing! I'm so glad you got to meet her!

Well this last week was just this crazy, busy, fast blur. Marcelo randomly up and left to Guatemala.. Things had been pretty difficult with him lately and then we went to go see him one night and his nephew said that he was in Guatemala for a little while. That was kind of a bummer.

So the baptism for Ana and her family will unfortunately not be happening this Saturday. One of her sons was not going to have made the required times at church before a baptism so we were going to move it to this Sunday night, but then things haven't been going so hot with Ana these past couple weeks. She just is busy when we go or not there and has just been kinda cold to us. And then we texted her to remind her of an appointment and she said that she was in North Carolina randomly. That was a huge bummer. But her kids are doing awesome!! We had some amazing lessons this week about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. The law of chastity didn't even phase them! They were just like "Oh that makes perfect sense." And they told us about how they were so sad that they had seen so many of their friends break this law. When we asked one of the boys why he was going to keep it, he said, "Because God asked me to." Ok that was probably the best answer ever! So many people that we teach commandments to (especially the word of wisdom) sometimes don't understand, for example, why we can't drink coffee and tea. They just ask us so many questions about it and try to justify it and we just have to tell them "Its because God told us to." I am so grateful for those kids and for their faith. They are seriously some of my favorite people ever! I have loved watching their testimonies grow. 

Our investigator Elba is also doing amazing. I don't know how else to describe what is going on with her right now. The other day we went to go teach her and I just had to hold back tears because I could see how this gospel is touching her life. She was glowing! She looks like a different person since we met her. It is seriously one of the most beautiful things that I have ever witnessed. Right now we are just working on getting her to church because she works on Sundays so hopefully we will be able to get her there soon because I know that it will touch her!

So last week I was talking about this guy named Luis that we met in the cute little town of Crewe. Well things didn't exactly work out with him, but we met this girl named Brenda and she is awesome! She reminds me of Tiana from Princess and the Frog! Her parents work a lot so she spends a lot of time taking care of her siblings. And we had this fabulous lesson with her! Even though there was a dog on my lap for most of the time, dog food being chucked at me, children trying to force me to feed their dog, and restoration pamphlets being thrown around, the Spirit was definitely there. She just got it. And she wants it to change her life. 

So something really exciting! Hermana Stoddard got her visa this week!! She has been on her mission for about 8 months so she was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen, but then it came! We got the call from President Wilson and we were so excited and stuff and then I realize that it will just be me and Hermana Chambers when she leaves and we have both been out the same amount of time a.k.a. not very long. I was suddenly super stressed and so I looked at Hermana Chambers and her eyes were HUGE and I swear she was like breaking a sweat. A lot of stress was put upon us right then so we just hysterically laughed. What a great way to deal with stress! We know that Heavenly Father would not give us something that we couldn't handle so we are ready for the challenge! We might not be able to understand everything that people are saying to us, but we know that we will be blessed as we do our best. But I really am so excited for Hermana Stoddard! She is such an amazing missionary and Argentina will be so lucky to have her!

Well I hope that all is well at home! I was really craving a plate of Mom's cooking yesterday so enjoy it those of you that can!! I love you all sooo much!! Have a great week!!

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

8/12/2013
Dearest family whom I love dearly,

I hope that you all had a wonderful week! The sickness is coming to an end but it was a bummer. Definitely different having a cold when you are trying to be a missionary. I missed mom renting my sick movies for me, but no worries, my companions took very good care of me! 

A main pipe burst in our apartment yesterday so we don't have ANY water. I have never been so thirsty in my whole life! I think its because I can't have it that I want it so bad. So we all got to head over to the mission home bright and early this morning to shower. I think it will be up and running soon.

So our area is HUGE and we work in a very small part of it. And the week before last we felt really strongly about traveling out to other parts of our area to find people to teach. We just knew that there were souls out there that needed this gospel! So we choose a day, and a destination, and we were off! We first went to a city called Blackstone. Didn't see a single white person. We got some pretty weird looks for being these 3 white girls. We eventually stopped and asked about Hispanics and they said that there weren't any. So we headed to the next town which was called Crewe. Such a cute little town! So we go to Dollar General because that's where Hispanics like to go. We don't see any, so we ask the nice cashier if he knew where any were. He said, "Do you know the creepy dinosaur?" We surprisingly did. "Ok. Take a left there. Go down the street and its a 2 story house." So we were on our way and we weren't exactly sure what we were looking for, but we found it! And in it we found an awesome guy named Luis! This guy recognizes truth when he sees it! So we had an appointment yesterday with him and he wasn't there, but we knocked another door and found some more Hispanics to go teach! This little town Crewe has got some potential! And Luis called us later (which no one does, not even members) and explained why he wasn't there, so we have another appointment to go teach him and the other people we found! The only problem is that its far away. Lots and lots of miles. So pray that we make it to the end of the month! We had a car fast on Thursday and we walked A LOT. I think I slept better that night than any other night of my mission! We are probably going to have to have lots of car fasts, but its worth it for our little town Crewe! It was really fun to get out and see other parts of our area. Once we left the city it just gets so southern! It is so awesome! And Virginia is just so beautiful. The drive to Crewe is a breathtaking one. I'll have to send some pictures or something to try to capture the crazy huge amounts of trees here. I just love it a lot.

So there is an older couple in our zone and the lady told us about the new temple video. I am now even more sad that we can't go to the temple! She described some things (in too much detail) and it sounds really awesome. Have they started playing it in any of the temples out there yet? If not, it sounds like you're in for a treat! If you could put in a good word with the first presidency about how much this mission wants to go to the temple, that would be great. 

Funny story for the week: We met this guy who is a Jehovah's Witness. And we call Jehovah's Witnesses "J Dubs". So we were weekly planning and one of my companions said "Jose, our J Dub friend." And my other companion then asks, "Whose RJ Dub?" 

Well please have a wonderful week! Mom, Dad, and Lillie, I hope you had fun in Port Angeles! Or if you're still there, keep having fun! I love you all so very very much!! Thank you for being my family!

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

I'm glad they called me on a mission!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net) This sender is in your contact list.
Sent:	Mon 8/05/13 9:08 AM
To:

Hello!

 

I'm glad to hear that everyone had a great time on their little vacation! And I am sad that you guys are going to visit Lee and Lisa and Olive without me once again... Remember when you didn't take me last December? Yeah, that cut deep. Well I do still hope that you have lots of fun! And take pictures! 

 

I am now getting my first sickness out in the mission field. No bueno. Its really taking a lot out of me, so I am hoping that I will heal fast! Something exciting, they changed our email time in my mission to an hour and a half! We are all really grateful because an hour is surprisingly not enough now that we can email our friends and such. 

 

Wow I can't believe that time is flying so fast! This transfer is already half over this week! We are having such a good time and getting so much done right now so we are afraid that they will transfer us. I had my first interview with President Wilson last week and he asked me how I am liking the work and my companions and such, and I told him that I didn't want to tell him how much I was loving everything because then he would transfer me! He said he would rather keep me in the area, but I know that it is totally up to the Lord. But really though, I am loving life right now! This area really is the promised land for Spanish work. And my companions are soo amazing! We have a very nice balance of lots of fun, but also lots of hard work. It is wonderful!

 

Ana and her family are doing amazing! And another miracle with them, her daughter was living with her aunt and uncle, but she moved in with Ana last week. We found out that she was taking the missionary discussions before and she agreed to be baptized on the 24th with the rest of her family!! She is so cute and has such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith. She is so certain that this gospel is the right path for her. This family is so amazing! Seeing all of them together at church yesterday was so great. In gospel principles, we were talking about service and Ana expressed how grateful she is for the service that the missionaries are doing for her. She just expressed how much she loved us and I seriously had this out of body experience where I couldn't even believe that I was a part of this! It is so great to see how excited the Bishop of our ward is about this family. He is really stepping it up to help fellowship them. 

 

We also have our sweet investigator Elba set for baptism! I'm pretty sure that I have mentioned her before. When we asked her if she wanted to be baptized she said yes and asked if she could be baptized this Sunday! We told her that we had to get some things done and she also has to get some things worked out, but she is so excited to be baptized! Her baptism is currently set for Sept. 7. She is one of the sweetest people ever! 

 

Something funny that happened this week: We were in a lesson and my companion said that she was going to share a sinful scripture instead of a little scripture. And then my horrible curse of laughing when inappropriate came out. That was a good time. We have a lot of really funny moments so I will try to remember to share one each week!

 

I am so grateful to be a missionary! In my interview, President Wilson said that he can see a change in me just from the short time he's known me. He can tell that my love and desire for the work has grown so strong. I just realized that day how much I have grown because of my mission. This whole thing is such a huge blessing! I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time with so many of my friends. It really is a blessed time for missionary work. 

 

Well I hope that you all have a fabulous week! I love you sooo much!!!! 

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

 

 

The church is true!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/29/13 8:55 AM
To:

Aloha!!

 

How is my wonderful family?? That is fun that a lot of people are heading to a cabin in Montana! Sorry that you won't have as much fun without me. But I hope that you still have a little bit of fun! This past days of Virginia weather have been beautiful! Thursday through Saturday was the most perfect weather you could dream of which was good because we worked in this lady's yard for 4 hours so we were very thankful that it wasn't blazing hot. And then yesterday it poured rain which is also very beautiful! 

 

Wow where to begin! Ana and her family are absolutely amazing! Their baptism on August 24th couldn't come soon enough! We had been having all these amazing lessons with them and then we went to go see them on Friday and they were a little cold towards us and we didn't have our lesson with them. So we were pretty bummed about it. Then the next day we had like 20 minutes of our night left and all of us were feeling sick and plus we lost our phone and we pretty much had valid reasons to head in a little early, but then one of my companions felt like we should say a prayer to see what the Lord had in store for us for the rest of the night. After that she got the strong impression that we needed to go see Ana even though they seemed kind of annoyed with us the day before. Right when she said it, I knew it was right and I knew that we would be going there to offer her some sort of comfort. Then my other companion felt like we should ask for her son Bryan when we go there. So we went to the door having no idea what we were going to say, but we asked for Bryan and told him that we felt like we should see him and he eventually told us that his brother in Honduras had been in a motorcycle accident and they didn't know how he was doing and that Ana was pretty upset about the whole thing. So we went in and offered comfort and did whatever we could. Her other son Allen who we're having a harder time getting through to told us how grateful he was that we were there. We knew that the Lord needed us there at that moment in time. And we needed to ask for Bryan because he is the only one that would have told us what was going on. Ana has AMAZING faith. She prayed with us and it was full of only gratitude. She had every right to be asking for blessings and she only said gratitude. The whole experience was super humbling. I am so grateful that my companions are so amazing and so in tune with the Spirit. Then the next day we went to go see her and she was so happy and her son only had minor injuries and she knew that the Lord had blessed her life. And she thought that this whole thing happened because she didn't receive the missionaries one day! She is so great and she is so aware of how important this gospel is in her life. And the best part is is that she is willing to take on any challenge that Satan throws at her because we warned her that that happens. August 24th will be such a sweet and special day!

 

We also met this sweet lady named Elba who just stole all of our hearts from the start! We have only met with her a couple times, but she is so interested in this beautiful gospel. We are so excited and hope that things keep progressing with her!

 

My companions are super amazing! We are having so much fun and working hard and it is awesome! Life is just flying by so fast. This is the quote of the week said by yours truly: "Time flies when you're talking about Jesus!" And it is truer than true! I hope you all have an amazing week! The church is definitely true! I love you all!!

 

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