Happy Halloween!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 10/28/13 8:33 AM

HOLA A TODOS!

 

I hope that you all had a very wonderful week! This week was great! Starting getting a little chilly, but apparently its going to be back up in the 80s by like Thursday or something! I love Virginia weather. Its a gem.

 

Shout out to Mom and Dad! Good luck at your race on Saturday! Speaking of Saturday...

 

Filiberto is still doing great!! He is so excited for his baptism. I can't even believe it. I am still in awe of how perfect of an investigator he has been. He has had some challenges come his way, but he knows that through God and prayer that he will be able to make it through. He came to a baptism of an investigator of some other missionaries in our ward on Saturday. He loved it! We were asking him after how he was feeling about baptism and just about everything and he started crying. We about died. He just feels that this decision is so right for him and his excitement makes me even more excited (which is crazy because I already get overly excited about everything). Before he was saying that he wanted to have his baptism is English but he decided the other day to have it in Spanish which I think will be really good because he will understand it more and get more out of it. And one of the other cool parts is the excitement from the ward! So many people are coming that don't even speak Spanish! That's what kind of a ward this is. They are so supportive and so loving to everyone, even if they don't speak their language. This is my second favorite ward ever!! (CR1 will always be number one in my heart. Don't worry.) And the members that do speak Spanish are so supportive and willing to help wherever they can. So many of them just told us, "I'll do anything. You just tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it." If all hell doesn't break loose this week, Saturday should be a huge success.

 

Hermana Bingham is the greatest! I am so so grateful to still be her companion! We've had some pretty fun times together. Some of which were crazy in the moment and hilarious after. On Saturday we had a really great lesson about the Book of Mormon with a couple of our investigators. Short, powerful, to the point. The Spirit was strong! Our ward had their Halloween party on Saturday so we looked at our watches at the close of the lesson and were just thinking, "Sweet! Lots of time to get to the party on time!" And then before we knew it, they just started talking. And REALLY fast for really long. I think they forgot about our Spanish skills (or lack of). We understood most of it, but the whole time they would say something that I didn't really understand and then laugh and I would just laugh away because they were laughing! After, I found out that Hermana Bingham was doing the same haha. Half an hour later we had a Spanish headache, but we had some good laughs.

 

Being a missionary is great! I love how much I'm learning about myself. A mission makes you see so many things about yourself that I don't think I would have seen any other way. It is really great. I am so grateful for the blessings of this time of my life!

 

So I have something I want you all to do. I LOVE reading conference talks! So I would love if you could all send me a copy of your all time favorite conference talk. That would be grately appreciated.

 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all so much!! Adios!

 

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

 

Pictures!

 

These include:

Pictures of one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen! The pictures don't come close to doing it justice.

Filiberto!

Cute little Ashland!

And the humor of Virginia!

 

 

 

 

6 months already?!?!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 10/21/13 9:08 AM

 

Aloha!

 

Holy smokes. 6 months. 1/3. 1 year to go. HOLY COW!! I can't even believe how fast these past 6 months have gone!! But at the same time it feels like I have been doing this for forever and that I will be doing it for forever. These past 6 months have been absolutely amazing!!

 

Filiberto is AWESOME!! He is an investigador de oro!! (golden investigator) Even single lesson we have with him we just come out saying things like: "Is this really even happening right now?!" "How did we get so lucky..." "He is really getting baptized!! And he is very aware of what he's doing!" "He's the greatest." He is solid. November 2nd is going to happen as far as I can tell! He just wants to be the best he can be because he knows how important this is! He was asking us questions yesterday like: "What kind of music can I listen to?" "Do I need socks?" "Do I have to fast the day of my baptism?" And just so many golden questions! He is so excited! I just can't even describe it, but he does this thing when we talk about his baptism and its kinda of like he's super excited, but like kinda freaking out and it just brings laughter to my belly! He is doing things like marking scriptures and reading from the gospel principles book and he is telling his friends from work about it! And even though they didn't understand why he was doing this, he was just explaining about how he felt so good about this decision. And he works on weekends with our investigator Ever and he said how they talk about the muchachas (us) and he told Ever about his baptism so we are hoping that we will be able to get Ever to come! I hope that one day you will all get to meet the great and wonderful Filiberto. He just has so much faith and is trying so hard to do his best. It is so amazing and such a huge testimony builder to me!

 

We had a great miracle last night! This week was kinda weird with just like lots of appointments falling through and such, and Sunday nights are the queen of appointments falling through. So we took this lady from the ward who speaks a little Spanish with us to a couple appointments in this appartment complex. Right before one of our lessons got canceled, but we had some other people to see so we had high hopes that something would happen! We went to our first appointment and they weren't there. So we went to go try to see someone else and that was just an interesting experience. So we went to go try to see these people who we have been trying to see since I got to this area, but no one ever answers. But last night they answered! His name is Ricardo. He doesn't really have any experience with religion and is so eager to learn more about God. And when we asked him to pray at the end he prayed in his head and then excited looked up and told us about this things he prayed for. He has never prayed before in his life and we just knew that whatever he said in his prayer was so sincere. It was so great! I absolutely love those unexpected miracles. And tonight, we are going to teach him and his wife and their cute little children!

 

I can hardly believe that 1/3 of my mission is already gone. These past months have been some of the most amazing months of my life! I have learned and grown so much! Even though the mission has been hard at some moments, I would never trade these past months for anything. I don't think that I would have been able to have this growth any other way. And I have so much more to do! I know that this time will be the strong foundation for the rest of my life. I am especially grateful for my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Gah I can't even think about it without crying!! I know with all of my heart that He loves me so much. More than I can even imagine. I just can't even describe how I feel about my relationship with Him. But I do know that I want everyone to feel this way. The world would be such a happier place if they could only realize the amazing love that we have from our Heavenly Father. I can not even imagine my life without Him to be there with me every step of the way. He is my rock!

 

Well I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Remember that I love you so much! God be with you.

 

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

 

Happy birthday dadio!!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Wed 10/16/13 1:59 PM

Hello sweet family!!

Shout out to Dad on his birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I hope it’s a great one!

And shout out to Laura!!! Congrats on the new baby!! She is a gem. Can't wait to meet her and be her favorite aunt!

We are having so much success here in the Mechanicsville area! This area is prepared for this gospel! Sorry its been awhile since I have emailed. Libraries were closed on Monday and Tuesdays are our busiest days of the week so we had to wait until today! It pretty much killed me. Especially considering that I was almost positive that Laura was having her baby.

We had 2 investigators at church on Sunday!! It was so great! It was Veronica and Filiberto. They were super awkward towards each other haha. I just had a good chuckle with myself about it. We have lots of good chuckles. If we didn’t we would probably just cry all of the time because crazy and awkward stuff happens on the daily. It is great! Definitely an adventure!

Filiberto is amazing!! He is basically the perfect investigator. He keeps all of his commitments and he hasn’t had any problems with the things that we have taught so far! And we’ve taught the word of wisdom and the law of chastity! Actually, he taught us the law of chastity. We gave him a pamphlet and asked him about it in our next lesson and he just started telling us about it and how great he thinks it is and how he already teaches his children stuff like that! And he even started bringing up things like modesty. Our minds were blown!! He also talked about how he is married (such a miracle!) and loyal to his wife. He is the smartest Hispanic I have ever met. He is the biggest miracle ever!! He just landed right in our laps and has been so extremely prepared for this gospel! We are praying hard that the adversary doesn’t get a hold of him before November 2^nd. So keep your fingers crossed!

We have had some major breakthroughs with some of our investigators! Claudia (Veronica’s friend) is finally progressing! She was having a hard time keeping her commitments and yesterday when we visited her she said that she had been reading! Wahoo! Veronica is starting to change her mind about everything. Before she said that she was happy with her life but that she wanted to learn more about our church. Yesterday we watched the restoration video and she was having this like spiritual battle inside of herself! She started talking about how she wants to know which church is true and she just kept trying to rationalize her feelings, but her mind is definitely changing. And Ever said that he had a dream and that he felt comfortable with the baptism that he already had. But he agreed to try to stop drinking coffee so that he could live the word of wisdom! Don't really know what is going to happen with him and baptism and all but we will keep teaching him and praying for him and something great is sure to happen!

I just really love Virginia soo much! I can hardly believe that its almost been 6 months!! Time really does fly when you're talking about Jesus. I really love being a missionary soo much. I know that there is nothing better that I could be doing with my life right now. I have grown so much and I know that I will continue to grow. I know that my mission will one day help me to be a better mom and spouse.

AND my Spanish isn't too shabby :) I wouldn't say fluent, but its not too shabby. I have been having a lot of dreams in Spanish lately which is great! Life is just good. Missionary work is good. The church is good.

Thank you everyone for your support and love! I really love you all so so much. I hope you have a great week!!

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

 

Pictures!

HOLY COW!!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net).
Sent:	Mon 10/07/13 8:50 AM

iHOLA!

 

Wow. I do not even know where to begin! This past week may have been one of the most successful weeks of my whole mission! And just one of the best! First off, we got transfer calls last night and I'm staying in Mechanicsville with Hermana Bingham!!! But Hermana Olsen is leaving :( We are so sad to see her go. She will be very missed! Her next area is very very lucky!

 

The Matamoroses baptism was AMAZING!! It was unreal! How did my horrible Spanish help that happen?? Ok, it was the Spirit, not the Spanish, but holy cow! The Spirit was so strong and they were just so happy! They wanted me and Hermana Chambers to sing so we did haha. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself! We sang How Great Thou Art. One of my favs. After, Dina was already talking about a mission! She would be the BEST missionary. We knew that from the beginning of teaching her. She actually invited one of her teachers to come which I thought was really cool! I also had my first translating experience for Sister Wilson (Mission president's wife) which was stressful but good I guess haha. Overall, it was SO great. And it was so great to see members of that ward as well. Such a great group of people!

 

Filiberto has a baptism date!!!! We can not even believe it. Everything about him is a complete miracle, and honestly, at the beginning, he was near the bottom of the list of people that we thought would get baptized soon. Last Tuesday we taught him and asked him to be baptised and he said he was already baptized. So we kept talking a little bit more about it and then he agreed! He said in his exact words (translated into English), "How great would it be if I could go back to Mexico and tell my family, 'Hey family, I'm a Mormon! Let's go to church!'" We then showed him the font and such (because our lesson was at the church) and he then looked at us and with a huge grin and said, "So when is it going to be?" We were all pretty much in shock at that point and our member present was just dying! So he is set for November 2nd! He also came to both sessions of conference yesterday! He wanted to watch them in English because he is learning and understands pretty much all English. After the first session we had a short lesson with him and he asked about how to prepare for baptism and such. It was so great. OH! And on previous lessons he wouldn't pray at the end of the lesson. But after that lesson where he agreed to baptism, we asked if we could close with a prayer and he said, "Yes. I can!" And then offered such a sweet and sincere prayer.  

 

Ever is also changing his mind about baptism! Before he was having issues with authority because he was already baptized. But after we watched the restoration DVD his mind has started to change! He asked us if its ok to be baptized again and such. We have a member that lives in Ashland that usually comes to help teach him once a week with us. And after that lesson he was like, "What happened to him? His whole countenace has changed!" I am going to send a picture of him today. He will be the one that is holding a guitar.

 

Conference was AMAZING!! Holy smokes! I don't know if its because I'm a missionary, but that was the best conference ever! So powerful and so inspired! I was planning to tell you some of the things that I liked but I just liked so much that I don't know what to choose! Here are some of my favorite quotes: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." (Pres. Uchtdorf) "It is your relationship with Heavenly Father that should always come first." (Elder Christofferson) "Every time we take someone's hand and introduce them to Christ, we will feel the Savior's love more for us and for the person's whose hand we're holding." (Elder Ballard) "Don't forget to look up." (Brother Ochoa) "Each time you look in the mirror, think of looking at your own temple." (Elder Nelson) And those were just a few of my favs! The whole thing was absolutely amazing! Padres, will you send me a copy of the conference Ensign when it comes out?

 

This work is amazing! I am so extremely grateful for it! I can't even believe how fast time is going. Mission time is unreal! But I am loving it and learning so much. We are so lucky to have this gospel to share with everyone in so many different languages! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you so much!!!

 

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