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.