What a blessed week

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 3/31/14 9:28 AM

Hello everybody!

 

This was a very very blessed one! The Lord really showed us His love through the success that we had. I just have to say, through obedience and faith, success comes. We didn't have like a baptism this week or anything, but we definitely saw the miracles and the tender mercies. Sometimes we miss those little things along the way if we aren't looking for them, but they were definitely seen this week.

 

There is this this ADORABLE less active lady who has been in El Salvador taking care of her mom the last couple months so last week was the first time that I met her. All of our plans had fallen through and we were near her house so we decided to stop by and see her. We had a great lesson with her about the plan of salvation. Then she came to our English class the next day. We were so happy that we were able to get her into the church building. And then the next day she called us just to tell us that she hopes that we have a great day! It was so cute. All of that in and of itself we were thinking of as a huge tender mercy. She works on Sundays and she had already told us that she wasn't going to be able to come to church that week. And then after church she comes up to us! We were so happy! She was only able to come to the last hour, but hey, that's better than nothing! Hermana McRae says that she hasn't been to church since like the beginning of January and there she was! And it all started with our plans falling through. I am completely positive that Heavenly Father made that happen so that we could go and visit her. To add on to that, another less active family that we've been teaching also came to church and they haven't been in a long time.

 

So a couple of weeks ago we found this mom and her daughter while we were knocking. We were definitely led by the Spirit to go there. So we had had a couple of lessons and they didn’t really seem like the GOLDEN investigators, but they were nice and seemed to be soaking in the stuff that we taught pretty well. We have our lessons every Friday with them, but during the week I felt like we should go and leave them a note on the door. When we were there, the daughter was just coming home from school so we just gave her the note, a hug, and told her that we loved her. And then when we were walking away she yelled, "Hey! I love you guys too!" It was so precious. So then we were to our lesson on Friday and it was just different. There was a different feeling there. They told us how since we've been coming they have been thinking more positively and have just seen a lot of blessings in their lives. The mom said that she had never thought about going to another church until we started teaching them. They expressed so much gratitude to us. And then they invited us to a fiesta the next day which is always a good sign! And they handled the Book of Mormon so carefully, just the way it should be handled. It was like they had just received the best gift ever. The Spirit was there so strongly.

 

We also have these kids we've been teaching! They're related to a member in our ward. They are so great. They have pretty much no religious background and they haven't given a lot of thought to who God is. All of our lessons have kind of been like you would think any lessons would go with teenagers that don't really know about God. But both Hermana McRae and I saw so much potential in them. We knew that if they did what they said they would do, that these things could really change their lives. So last time we gave them a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read with some questions to answer. Kind of like homework. That's what we call it. And then when we went over yesterday they had done it! And even better, they had helped each other do it. Their answers were perfect. I was so impressed with the answers they gave especially considering how little they know about God. And then they agreed to be baptized!! The smiles on their faces were priceless. They have to ask their parents before they set a date, but we kind of tentatively set it for May. It was so great. And then the girl said the prayer at the end and she asked in her prayer in the Book of Mormon was true. The Spirit just flooded into the room! I hope she felt it.

 

The women's broadcast on Saturday was amazing! I had tears in my eyes for most of it. I just felt so united with all of the women all over the world, especially with those that I love that were watching it at the same time. I realized right before that Lillie would be there and I think that's where the tears began haha. And then when they had all of the little girls stand up I just lost it haha. I'm so proud of that little human. She's a keeper.

 

Well I hope that you all have a fantastic week! I love you! The Church it true!

 

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

 

Lovely Picture

Here is just a really great picture of Hermana McRae and me haha. I hope you enjoy!

The gospel is the good news!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 3/24/14 9:02 AM

Hola familia!

 

Great news! Hermana McRae and I will be staying together in Woodbridge for the next transfer!! We were seriously so excited. I love Hermana McRae a lot. At the beginning of the transfer I was just thinking how there was no way that we would stay together another transfer because we were just having so much fun but also working so hard. Then towards the end I didn't really feel like we were going to be transferred, and we aren't! A great transfer lies ahead.

 

So last Tuesday afternoon, President Wilson calls me and tells me that there is a meeting in Richmond the following day that he would like me to go to. I had no idea what the meeting was, but that night I got in a van with some other sisters going to the meeting. We stayed at the mission home that night and then went to the meeting the next day. Holy flip. First off, only the missionaries that are leaders and then a few other missionaries were invited, and I have no idea why I was one of the missionaries that got the opportunity to go, but I am so extremely grateful that I could. There were a couple of guys from the mission department that came and talked to us. It was absolutely amazing. It definitely changed my life as a missionary. They taught us about setting goals and planning and then about some teaching skills. It was so inspiring and the Spirit there was absolutely incredible! I just felt so honored that I got to be there. After the meeting, we were driving home and one of the sisters said, "The Church is true. Something that makes you feel that good just has to be true." We had to kind of recreate that Spirit in zone meeting last Friday. Our zone leaders did a really good job. It has definitely helped Hermana McRae and me a lot. We have felt the Spirit even more in our planning sessions and our lessons. President Wilson has focused lately on having the faith to double our baptisms as a mission, and I am so sure that the things we learned will help us to accomplish that.

 

Corina is just so close. She wants to wait until her boss has for sure told her that she can have Sundays free. We're being pretty persistent to set a date, but she really wants to wait. She is there though. She will definitely be baptized. We had this cute young woman come with us to the lesson that we had with her last week. It was her very first time going out with the missionaries. She did AMAZING. She bore a powerful testimony that really touched Corina. And she also was telling her about how much she wants Corina to be baptized because of the blessings that she has received in her life because of her baptism. I am so amazed at the youth of this Church! The Lord is preparing the future missionaries so well.

 

I am so grateful for this gospel in my life. It is the strongest source of happiness on this earth. There is no other way to receive of fullness of joy except for through this gospel. How lucky are we to have this knowledge?! Nothing makes me happier. I hope you all appreciate the joy that this gospel brings. There are a lot of people that would love to feel this joy, but that don't have it yet. I hope you all have a great week! Go share the gospel like you would share your chap stick! I love you!

 

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

 

Pictures!

The best are the ones of us with the Elmo and Barney heads hahaha. We were helping a member move some stuff and she had these so we took some pictures of us wearing them haha. Enjoy!

We are NOW the Lord's missionaries!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Tue 3/18/14 11:45 AM

My dearest family and friends!!

 

Sorry my email is a day late. There was a big snow storm yesterday so all of the libraries were closed. (Because it doesn't take much to close down the city here hehe.)

 

This week was SO GREAT! So many prayers were answered and so many blessings were received! First off, our investigator Corina is on the brink of baptism! She was just bearing her testimony to us last week and was talking about how she had received answers to her prayers. She has just kept saying how she wasn't ready to set a date for baptism, but that she would be baptized. But we have a lesson with her today and we have so much faith that she will set a date. She is so ready for this. She is ready to do the things that she needs to live this gospel.

 

Side note: I found out that Josue from my last area is getting baptized this Saturday!! Keep him in your prayers!

 

So as I have been saying, we have been having a hard time finding new investigators. But last week, the Lord blessed us with 3 new ones! We have been trying real hard to find those people that the Lord has prepared for us, but we've just been having a hard time. We thought that we were doing everything that we could. Our ward mission leader has been putting an emphasis on us trying to do service lately. So for the last week or so we have been basically making people let us do service for them. Instead of asking them if there is anything that we can do for them (because they almost always say no) we have just been saying, "Hey we're looking for service. What can we do for you?" It has definitely worked! We were able to help out some people last week and it was way fun! Hermana McRae and I were talking about it the other day and we just realized that maybe that was the thing that we were missing. We weren't really doing service besides our weekly English class. Once we started to do service the Lord blessed us immensely! I felt like I already had a strong testimony on service, but that just strengthened it even more. Even as a missionary, service is something that we need to always be looking for. And the Lord ALWAYS blesses us when we serve His children.

 

These last 3 days have been especially great. We have had full days of things to do at just about every hour of the day, and all of our plans have worked out! It has been such a huge blessing. On Saturday we did a blitz with the other members of our district. A blitz is just where a bunch of missionaries go into one area and knock a bunch of doors for a while. It was way fun! The weather was so perfect, we talked to some amazing people, and we got 2 new investigators out of it. After our blitz, we went to the Saturday night session of stake conference. It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong. All of the missionaries sang a song at the beginning and one at the end. For the last song we sang "As Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth" and instead of saying "And we will be the Lord's missionaries" we sang, "And we are NOW the Lord's missionaries." That song just gets me every time and that just made it worse haha. But it was so great. That song always brings the Spirit. We really are the Lord's missionaries now, and we should strive to be for the rest of our lives.

 

Things are great. Life is great. Being a missionary is the best. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

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

 

The Church is true!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 3/10/14 9:36 AM

Hey all you out there!

 

So to start this lovely email out, I want you all to know that I ate cow stomach this week. How do I feel about it you may ask? Well, pretty gross to say the least. It tasted just how you might think that cow stomach might taste. It just tasted like stomach and I could barely even stomach it. I seriously like broke out into a sweat at one point and I was sure I was going to lose it all. I couldn't finish it. Hermana McRae finished it like a champ. I was so proud. But at least I can say that I have done it! The next day we were at a members house and she was asking us if we've eaten any food that was weird and so we started to tell her about how we ate cow stomach and how I didn't really like it and she thought it was so funny and kept joking about how she's going to make it for me again haha. And then I had a dream a couple nights ago about how we walked into someone's house and I could smell it and I just started freaking out. Haha. After that dinner I realized that this is why the Lord sent me to a states mission. He knew I couldn't stomach it if I went outside of the country.

 

This week was a good one! I have just realized even more how much members add to this amazing work. There is a girl in our ward that got home from her mission like a month ago and so she comes out with us all day on Wednesdays. So we are still having trouble finding new investigators, but on Wednesday we were knocking a couple of doors before a lesson and we were able to talk to a couple of people. One of them in particular just let us in before we even said who we were! She was just so open to what we had to say. Unfortunately we had our lesson to get to so we weren't able to stay for too long, but we scheduled another appointment with her and we're so excited because she has some real good potential! And that whole day with the member was just so good! We went to this Peruvian restaurant (PS I love Peruvian food a lot) and the waiter talked to US about religion! We were just able to talk to some really great people that day. Members add SO much to this work! A lesson is always more powerful when we have a member there with us.

 

We had a zone conference last week that was SO good. We are starting this new thing where we just really teach our investigators about how to keep their commitments. It is by giving them homework. Everything we learned about was just so cool and we are so excited to see the success that comes from putting this into action! But anyways, the whole zone conference was great. At one point, someone was giving us training about studying and people were sharing things that they do to make their studies effective. One Elder shared about how he prays every morning before his study that the Lord will witness to him during his study that this church is true or that these things are true. AKA daily conversion. So I decided to start doing that for myself. Every single personal study since then the Lord has shown me in one way or another that this church is true. It has been a truly incredible experience. This morning it was about the Book of Mormon. Man I love that book so much. Everything truly lies on that book. If that is true, then all of this is true. Another thing I realized is that we constantly need to be trying to receive a witness that it is true and constantly be feeding our testimony of it. I strongly believe that that is one of the main reasons why people go inactive. They stop feeding their testimony of the Book of Mormon. Having a testimony of that book is vital to our salvation. It is only through that book that we will truly know Jesus Christ. That book is such a powerful testimony of Him. I have come to know Him and my Heavenly Father so much through that book. What a HUGE blessing it is in our lives!

 

I hope that you all know that I love you so much! Have the best week ever! The Church is true!

 

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

                                         Woodbridge Zone Conference

                                                             (The picture in the middle is vintage Callie)

About 3 Weeks Worth of Pictures

 

Some of these are from Mechanicsville & some are from Woodbridge. 

Let it snow!‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 3/03/14 10:17 AM

Hola!!

 

Today is a very cold and snowy day! It looks pretty beautiful on the trees, but I am more than ready for the warm weather. This body doesn't like the cold very much.

 

I was thinking yesterday about what I would email to you guys. Honestly, nothing super grand or amazing happened, except the fact that the whole week itself was just so great overall! I just had so many little things that I wanted to write in my journal about. It all started with last Monday when we had a super fun family home evening with a couple of families in our ward. One of them is a recent convert family and they are just so cute! We talked with them about the temple. The recent convert couple is so excited for when they can be sealed together as a family! The other family bore such strong testimony about the temple. After we were done we were eating some arroz con leche and they all started singing this super great song about it that apparently every Hispanic child learns. Hermana McRae and I haven't been able to stop singing it since then! And after I was talking about how much I loved arroz con leche and one of the members there says, "Now you are a Hispanic." And then his wife added on, "From Guatemala." (Everyone here knows how obsessed I am with Guatemala.) That pretty much completed my life right there. The whole night just went so smoothly and perfectly!

 

We had a really fun time with this member that we are teaching English to! Every Tuesday we help her with her English. We decided it would be fun to go to Walmart and teach her how to say stuff. So we ate some Subway there and then walked around the store. She brought her little girl who is ADORABLE and now she LOVES Hermana McRae and me. But the member really warmed up to us and was just so funny. She laughs so hard about everything so it was just so great. 

 

We did a lot of knocking this week. I think I might like knocking and contacting people which I never thought I would, but I think I do! We just get to meet so many great people! But Hermana McRae and I were like magnets for strange people last week ha-ha. We had one guy who went by George Washington and he said he was going to try to fly that day and that he had become the hill. After he told us all of this, we didn't really know what to say, so I just say, "Well you seem like a pretty spiritual guy... so you should check out this website!" We just met the strangest people. It was so much fun! We're having a hard time finding new investigators right now so we are knocking a lot. There are so many Hispanics here, but we just can't seem to find the ones that are prepared, but we are being obedient and working hard and we know that the Lord will bless us when the time is right. 

 

Yesterday we ate 3 dinners. Yes, 3. Everywhere we went, they just kept feeding us! After the second one I couldn't even stand up. I even said to Hermana McRae, "I think I'm going to die if they feed us at our next appointment." Sure enough, we walk in and the kids are all excited because they made us some homemade pizza. The Lord blessed me and made it so that I was able to eat all of the food. And as a bonus, I could walk and I didn't die! There is no way I could have eaten all of that food except for the Lord's tender mercies to His missionaries ha-ha. It was honestly a lot of fun. Man, this work is so great. 

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this amazing and magnificent work! I have felt the Lord's love for me so much lately. I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I hope you all have a great week! I love you!!!

 

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