More Pictures!

 

La Obra Misional‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 9/30/13 9:13 AM

Hiya Family!!

 

First off, got my loan deferred. But it sounds like it might only be for 12 months so I might have to call again right at the end of my mission, but I will definitley not remember so you'll have to remind me! Hopefully someone can remember. I feel like so much happened this week! I tried to write down the stuff I remembered this morning.

 

I forgot to tell you last week! Last Saturday we got to help out at a 5K called ReeseStrong and it was SO much fun! We got to help out with the kids at the giant blow up slide. They had this little kids race and it was so funny. A bunch of kids tripped right at the starting line, another kid was having a mental break down and dragging on his mom's leg, and it was just so great. Lots of good laughs. Made me miss doing 10Ks with the fam. Speaking of which before I forget, we better be doing the Butch Cassidy 10K next year! Especially because of the lack of participation from our family in recent years. It shall be done! But anyways, some lady was taking pictures and she took one of us and some other missionaries so I don't know if there is a website for it that you could look it up or something.

 

Last P day we went to this BEAUTIFUL park called Maymont Park! It was way fun! We went with the other Sister missionaries in our ward and this sweet little lady from our ward. I will send pictures! It reminded me of the Butchard Gardens. Not quite as big, but definitely beautiful!

 

I found evidence from a robbery on Saturday morning! Pretty intense stuff. We were running and as we were coming up to our house, I noticed something behind the back wheel of our tire. Turns out it was a laptop! We were super confused, so we just took it inside with us and decided we would do something with it later. A couple hours later we looked outside and saw all of these cops with gloves on and bags of evidence (I think). We kind of wondered what was going on, but we didn't think too much of it. Later I looked out the window again and there were more cops and at a different car! It then clicked in my brain where the laptop came from! So we went and gave it to one of the cops and it turns out it was one of things they were looking for! Why they put it behind our car for us to eventually run over, we are not sure of. But our finger prints are all over it so they said that they might have to take our finger prints. It was so exciting!

 

The Relief Society broadcast on Saturday was AMAZING! I loved it all! It is so different looking at the prophet after having taught and testified about him. I hadn't realized how strong my testimony of prophets was until that night. I was just tearing up when he came on the screen because I know of his power and the things that he does. He really is so amazing. I especially loved all of the things that he was saying about God's love for us. That is something that I have learned so much about lately and it just made my testimony grow even more. It was also cool to think about hearing the same words at the same time as mom, and my sisters, and my friends that are all around serving missions. Gah I can't wait for General Conference!!

 

Filiberto came to church!! It was the primary program and he was just loving it. He had to leave after sacrament meeting but it was so good to have him there if only for a part of it. He's just the greatest little amigo. He already believes that the Book of Mormon is true and we have just started teaching him.

 

Our investigator Ever is also doing really well! Last week we went over and he played his guitar while singing Guatemalan Hymns to us. I was dying! I am getting so much exposure to Guatemalan stuff and it is just so great. I do hope to one day visit Guatemala though.

 

The Matamoroses are getting baptized on Saturday!!!! Its finally happening!! Thats the family in my last area in case you don't remember. I was soooo excited when I found out!! I can't wait to go! I'll send pictures next week!

 

And I will now end with a scripture that I have come to love so much. Philippians 4:13. Short, sweet, and powerful. Nothing better. I hope you all have a great week!! I love you all so much!!

 

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

 

 

 

 

Called to serve Him!!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 9/23/13 9:00 AM

HOLA!!

 

First off I just want to say that being a missionary is so great! It is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but it is also the most rewarding and the best thing I've ever done! I'm am just so extremely blessed! Our mission president gave us all these packets at the beginning of September and its called "Our Gift to Christ" and it has been really cool! For the next 3 months we have themes. This month is Sacrifice September. He put talks from general authorites about sacrifice and he just put some good stuff in there! So I have been thinking a lot about sacrifice. A mission is a big sacrifice. But the more and more that I go, it seems so much more as a blessing than a sacrifice. Mission life is hard, but its because of the growth that is taking place. Its kinda like growing pains. And it is all so worth it! We NEED to sacrifice for Christ. He has asked us to. It is a part of our mortal lives. So my mission is one of my gifts to Christ because I love Him and I know that what I am doing right now is so important not only for others, but for me too.

 

So this week was a success!! We had our first investigator at church yesterday!!! It was so so exciting! But we were also kinda freaking out. It was our investigator Veronica, who is possibly the cutest, sweetest lady I've ever met. We called her yesterday morning to remind her about church and she said she was coming!! So after ward council we decided to wait outside for her. We were standing there and all of the sudden we see her drive by, but then we see her turn around so we thought that everything was ok. Then she passes us again and pulls into the baptist church across the street. We were not about to let that happen, so we give her a call and tell her to come to the other side, but we aren't exactly sure if we said that right in Spanish. So she starts driving the opposite way down the street! But then she turns around and starts driving towards the church and Hermana Olsen says, "I'm not letting her go home." So she runs to the corner of the entrance to the church and starts jumping up and down  and yelling, "Hermana!!!" As she drives by once again. This time she saw! We were laughing so hard for a good while. So she finally made it to church! We find out that she actually can understand most English just not speak it which was a good comfort for us since we didn't really know how we were going to translate for her. The ward was SO nice and SO amazing! They all just welcomed her and were just so nice to her. And after she was talking about how she went to another church with her friend one time and she didn't feel comfortable there, but she said she felt very comfortable at our church. Which was amazing considering she can't even speak the language of these people! The Spirit was there and she was feeling it.

 

We have starting teaching this boy named Ever who is so awesome! He seriously has a testimony already! He loves meeting with us and also has chairs and stuff set up when we come over. Its great. He has such a huge love for God and wants to learn more of Him. We have only taught him twice, but he has been keeping his commitments so hopefully things will continue to progress with him!

 

Our investigators here are SO awesome. The work here seriously progesses more and more each week. I am so grateful for be here in creating the foundation in this area! It has been one of the coolest things to watch. Opening an area is hard, but I have learned so much! My Spanish is getting better, my teaching is getting better, and I am just becoming a better missionary. This situation with my companions and everything has helped my Spanish SO much! Learning a language is SOOOO hard, but I am so glad that I can be learning Spanish.

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Remember that I love you so much!!

 

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

Nuts and Bolts of Mechanicsville‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 9/16/13 10:04 AM

Hola a todos!

 

This week was SO fast! So much happened and yet it is just one giant blur so I will do my best to fill your lives with the many wonderful experiences of last week! First off, the weather has been AMAZING these last couple days. It reminded me a lot of Utah at the beginning of fall. Probably because there was like no humidity. It was great.

 

We had a very successful walk and talk last saturday! We found a gold mine of Hispanics! We couldn't believe our eyes! We went to this place where we knew a Hispanic family lived and we started to knock. Before we knew it they were all over the place! We would be talking to one and like 5 would walk past! For this area, that was a miracle! We found lots of people and have lots of lessons set up. This was again in Ashland which is like a 20 or 25 minute drive so we have "Ashland days" which makes it hard, but we know that it will work out!

 

Also, Osbel is amazing! He told 2 of his friends about us and how we are teaching him English too. So yesterday morning we had a lesson with him and his friends and it was awesome! The coolest part about it was that one of them was this referral that they got forever ago so we have been trying to contact him since before I got here! We didn't have a number for him and he was never home and it ended up being the same guy! We couldn't believe it. We KNOW that he needs to hear the gospel. There is no way that he would have landed in our laps like that if he wasn't meant to be taught this gospel at this time. They are all really smart! One of them kept talking about how he was a Michael Jordan fan. We all super enjoyed that. The night before our lesson we went into this Mexican restaurant to hang up an english poster and we went in and started speaking spanish and the looks on peoples faces when they saw 3 white girls speaking spanish was so great! All of the workers there were Hispanic and they all just started appearing out of no where to see us speak spanish haha. And turns out that Filiberto (the one we've been trying to contact for forever) was one of those people! He was talking about how he saw us and how everyone was so amazed by the 3 white girls speaking spanish haha. We felt pretty good about ourselves.

 

We had Sisters Meeting last Tuesday which was really fun! We learned a lot about finding our strengths which was really good because sometimes it seems like my weaknesses are just shining through like none other! But we all have our strengths and we need to work at improving them. The first step though is to find them so I have been working a lot lately at finding my strengths and talents and improving them! It was a really great meeting. President Wilson was talking a lot about how we need to know that we are amazing. He said something that was really awesome. He said, "If only you could look at yourselves through Heavenly Father's mirror." Heavenly Father loves us SO much and He thinks that we are just so amazing even on our worse days. I have learned so much about what being a child of God really means. Once we have that knowledge and really think about it, I think it really effects the way we act and think about ourselves.

 

I am just so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary, but holy cow the time is going by SO fast! Someone asked me the other day how much time I had left and I like couldn't even believe it!! I know that this time is so precious and that I need to work as hard as I can so that I don't go home with any regrets.  I am so extremely grateful for the person that my mission is helping me to become. What a great time this is!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember that I love you!!

 

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

 

 

Pictures!

Hard work pays off!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 9/09/13 9:27 AM

Dear wonderful people of my life,

 

I know that it has not been long since you have recieved an email from me, but so much has happened! Since last Wednesday when I emailed you all, we now have 3 progressing investigators! This is the most up to this point that Mechanicsville has ever seen! Last week we worked HARD. We had to do a lot of ground work, which was very helpful, but we also were able to get in a lot of lessons! Our progessing investigators are Osbel, Sebastiana, and Veronica. All AMAZING people! You wanna know why? Because they are reading the most precious and wonderful Book of Mormon!

 

Last Friday, we had the most amazing restoration lesson ever. It was with Veronica and a new investigator Claudia. The Spirit was so strong, our spanish was amazing, and they just got it! Claudia basically perfectly described back to us why Joseph Smith prayed to God after he read in James 1:5. They had lots of good questions and it was just so powerful! We were like on cloud 9 after that lesson! And then we spent the long drive home from Ashland talking about how much we loved being missionaries, and how its experiences like those that make the hard times worth it. I decided that being a missionary is like having a baby (not that I would know what that's like) but it seems like nothing but painful and yet every mother says, "Oh but you don't remember the pain because having the baby is so wonderful." There is a lot about missionary work that is really hard, but the amazing experiences are just SO amazing that it overpowers the hard experiences. I'll let you know if I think the same thing after I actually have a baby.

 

So I spoke in the ward yesterday! We got a call Saturday night from a distressed bishopric counselor who was needing some speakers so all the Sisters and us spoke yesterday. It was great! I really do love speaking in front of people for some reason. Now in Spanish, that's a different story. But it was in English so it was great! Our ward is really so amazing. Especially now that I know them better! It makes me miss the amazing ward back home, because I feel love similar to the way I did there. I am very grateful for this ward and their amazingness!

 

On Saturday we were doing walk and talk around all of there stores like Target and Home Depot and places like that. When we went into Home Depot this worker came up to us and asked if we needed any help, she then preceded to ask us what church we were from. After we told her she said, "YES! JESUS ROCKS!" It pretty much completed our day after a very unsuccessful walk and talk. It wasn't completely unsuccessful though! We ran into this lady who lives in a ward that our area covers and after talking with her for a couple minutes, we find out that because of her husbands job he knows where all of the Spanish hot spots are! So we got some goods from her.

 

Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I am so lucky to have the friends and the family that I have. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow as a missionary. OH! I almost forgot! I realized the other day that I am already 1/4 of the way through my mission!! My how time flies! Take care everyone! I love you!!

 

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

 

P.S. 2 Nephi 22:2. Look it up. One of my new favorites.

 

 

Mechanicsville, here I come!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net) .
Sent:	Wed 9/04/13 1:22 PM
To:

HELLLLLOOOOO!

 

Sorry that the email is a little late! It was already sad enough that we had to wait an extra day to email and then yesterday the internet was down at all of the libraries that are around us! Twas a sad day. But never fear! The email is here!

 

So I got transferred to Mechanicsville! It was a very sad phone call when they told me that I was being transferred because I love absolutely everything about that area, but I knew it was right. And I love it here! My new companions are Hermana Olsen (Who is waiting for her visa to Argentina) and Hermana Bingham (Mom, that's the one girl that you were talking about!) They are awesome! They have both been out for 6 weeks. Yep that's right, I am training them! When I found out that I would be finishing their training I was pretty stressed out. And when I say "pretty" I mean really. But I got a blessing and I felt nothing but peace. I knew that everything would be ok. The stress was completely gone! Hermana Chambers and I had a sad parting, but I am so extremely grateful to be here in the little town of Mechanicsville! And Hermana Bingham and Hermana Olsen are AWESOME! They are WAY more advanced than I was at 6 weeks which I am so incredibly grateful for! We are really excited to learn and grow together! We are also in an english ward which is SUPER different. We got to church on Sunday and I realized that I don't know how to act around white people anymore unless they're my companions or other missionaries. But it is such an amazing ward! They are so pumped about missionary work! It really is sooo incredible. And they feed us a lot! Its delicious and brings joy and fat to my belly. It was really nice to not have a headache after church as well. I am very grateful for this ward! There are 7 missionaries in this ward and basically everyone on Sunday bore their testimony aobut how pumped they were about all of us. It was so great. There are a lot less Hispanics in this area. This area was actually only opened last transfer so we don't have a whole lot to work from, but we are excited to make it an area with lots of Spanish lessons to teach! Also, I live in a little blue town house. Looks like the cute little blue places are the way for me.

 

I am so extremely grateful for the faith of the people in Virginia! Last Monday we taught our dear sweet Elba. She told us how she lost her job because she told them that she wouldn't work on Sundays anymore, it is pretty hard for her, but she knows that the Lord will bless her and help her out. I have never seen such a change so fast in someone before! She just gets it. She knows that this gospel is important and she is willing to sacrifice for it. It is so amazing!

 

In Mechanicsville, we are teaching a man named Osbel. He is trying to learn English so we kind of teach him in Spanglish. He is awesome! We watched the Restoration DVD with him and after he asked, "How can I know for myself that this is true?" Who even asks that? He is golden! And later he asked us to bare our testimonies which was such a good experience. He just kept expressing gratitude that we were teaching him, even though it originally started out as just English Classes.

 

I am very grateful to be here in cute little Mechanicsville! I know that this is where the Lord needs me right now. As sad as it was to leave Midlothian, being here just feels so right! I love being a missionary. I love the feeling of getting lost in the work. And this is a saying that is becoming true for me, "When lose yourself in the work, that's when you truly find yourself."

 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

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