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.

Mine Epistle‏

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/22/13 9:16 AM

Hello!!

How is everyone this wonderful summer week?? Dad asked about the weather and it is definitely hot and muggy! When we wake up in the morning, we can't even see out the windows because they are just soaking wet. And today we went outside to take a picture and everyone's cameras immediately fogged up. And its hard to dry off. Its pretty crazy, but my skin has never been so soft in my whole entire life! There is a plus side to the humidity!

 

This past week was awesome! The lady Ana that I told you about? Yeah she has a baptism date and is for sure getting baptized that day! She has seen so many miracles in her life since we met her and she is so excited for her baptism! We are also teaching her sons and their friend. We teach them in English (Hallelujah!) and teach them separately from Ana but they are amazing and they also have baptism dates! Except their friend doesn't quite yet, but he just needs to work some things out and then we can set him for baptism! One time in a lesson with her sons, they weren't really sure if they wanted to pray so we all said a little prayer and prayed to give them strength to pray and their prayers were so sweet and sincere. The Spirit was just so strong. And one day we asked them if they read and their friend was just like "Oh, I only read the first 6 chapters." Umm, ok, that is amazing! They are just so strong and have so much faith. Ana was soo excited when we told her that her sons have a baptismal date. She was like "Sisters, what did you do?" (In a good way) I am so grateful for the joy that they have noticed that this gospel is bringing their lives.

 

So my new companions are Hermana Stoddard and Hermana Chambers! They are so great! I was super sad that I had to change companions because I just loved my other ones so much. But the Lord always knows what he's doing! I was so happy once I met them and it has just been so great how we have been able to bring everything that we've learned from other companionships into this one. Hermana Stoddard is training Hermana Chambers and I because we have been out the same amount of time, but she is a visa waiter so hopefully she doesn't leave us too soon! They really are so sweet and so great. I have already had so much fun with them and learned so much. It has also been interesting to be the only one that knows the area, but I have been surprised of how much I know and also some things that I don't know. But we are figuring it out together and we are so excited! 

 

I am so grateful to be a missionary! I was studying about charity a little this past week and one of my favorite things that I've learned is how charity is "the pure love of Christ" and "everlasting love". Usually you only hear about how its the pure love of Christ (not that that's a bad thing) but I love how it said "everlasting love". For a relationship with anyone to be successful and everlasting, there needs to be charity. That is something I have learned is so important in a companionship. Gah I am just so grateful for all of the time we have to study about this amazing gospel every single day! I already know that I will miss those precious study hours when I don't have them anymore.

 

Well I love you all very very very much! Have a splendid week!! The church is true!

 

And now I close mine epistle. I am Hermana Horton

 

 

The Work of the Lord by Hermana Horton‏

Callie's mission email

 

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/15/13 9:27 AM
To:

Hola familia!

This has been such an amazing week! We were so busy every single day and it was awesome! Well first to start off with something sad... My companions are being transferred this week :( But I am staying here. Which I am very happy about because the work progressed so much last week and it would have been really sad if all of us would have been transferred. But they are leaving me and I am really sad about it. I had no idea transfers were such a hard thing! We have learned so much from each other and have had an AMAZING time together. Their new areas are very lucky! And one of the sisters that we live with is staying so I'm really happy about that too! We have created a cute little family in our cute little blue house. Oh before I forget! One of the sisters we live with is going back to temple square next week! Her name is Sister Espanto and she is a little Philipeno (I have no idea how to spell that) and I love her so much and I told her that you guys would go visit her for me. So will you commit to go and see her for me? She only has a couple months of her mission left so you have to go soon! She is hilarious.

Well highlights of last week... Marcelo has a baptismal date!!! We are soooo excited!! We decided to pop by and see him one night because we hadn't seen him all week and it was the most amazing lesson ever! We asked him if he read and he said yes and then just opened his Book of Mormon and started reading to us. Hermana Mendez was able to relate one of the verses to baptism. And we asked him what he thought baptism was and he explained it back perfectly! So we extended the baptism invitation and he said he was ready!! His baptism is set for August 31st. We are praying so hard for him everyday so that we can work out those things he needs to by that date. He has so much of a desire now to change! We taught him about fast and we are fasting with him this Saturday. He is so great! We had dinner at a members house and he came and he just laughs so hard at everything. I love it. We played this way fun game called Headbands that you guys should get!

We also met this lady named Ana who is just a miracle. Most of her family is members and they were telling her how she should join the church and she wasn't really sure about it, but she was thinking a lot about it. And they go to the store when they get home from their trip and the first people they see are Mormon missionaries so it was then that she knew she needed to try it out so she asked where the nearest church was. We are now teaching her and her sons! 

Our investigator Gabriel gave us a bunch of referrals to his work so we are now teaching half of the people that work at the restaurant. Not a joke. We went there the other day to teach one of them during the break and we knew like half the people there. Our goal is to convert the whole restaurant so that they can come to church on Sundays! 

I am so grateful for everything that I am learning on my mission. I think of how everything I've learned just up to this point will effect me for the rest of my life. And there is so much more to come! I am so glad that I am here and learning all of this stuff because it has seriously made a HUGE impact on me. I will be crazy little Callie for forever, but my appreciation for God and Christ and their teachings has grown so much. I don't know where I would be without everything I've learned so far. My challenge for all of you this week is to think of Christ in all you do. Your relationships with others, the words you say, the things you do, and the service you give to others. We would be no where without Christ. 

I love you all! Have a very amazing week!! 

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

Happy Christmas in July!‏

Callie's mission email

 

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/08/13 8:57 AM

Hola familia!

This was a lovely week of course! First things first, July is definitely holding true to being the rainiest month! But it is beautiful rain! Its not like the rain that makes you sad and depressed. Its the rain that makes you want to be outside in it singing or something! It didn't rain the last couple days, but it picked right back up again today! Oh what a beautiful place Virginia is!

Happy Christmas in July!! This morning me and my companions woke up a little early and had Christmas surprise waiting for the Sisters we live with that included snowflakes hung by floss, a sticky note Christmas tree, Christmas music, crepes, and talks of our favorite Christmas memories. It was a beautiful site.

So last Tuesday was mission conference which was SO good! The new mission president and his wife are just amazing! I already feel so close to them and I am so grateful that I get to serve with them for the next year and a half. (Or however long it is now!) My most favorite thing that President Wilson said was, "Love is the great force behind all that we do." I love that so much I want to frame it and hang it up! A mission is about inviting others to come unto Christ, but we can not do that without love. One of my favorite things that Hermana Mendez said to me one of my first days is, "I love a mission because it gives you a reason to love people that you don't even know." Love really is that great force behind all that we do. We need to see someone, love them, then preach them the gospel. A mission doesn't work without it. 

Sometimes (or all the time) we feel so inadequate and why the Lord keeps giving us miracles is beyond me! Last week we were trying to visit some people in this apartment complex. We were about to leave and we saw this guy listening to Spanish music in his car. My thoughts were, "We should go talk to him. We should really go talk to him." Hermana Sasser gets back in from backing the car and she says, "I'm debating whether we should go talk to him or not." Without another word I pull the car back into the parking spot. We go over and start speaking Spanish to him. He actually doesn't speak spanish, but just likes spanish music. We start talking and he motions to his triple on the dashboard. We find out that he was a member way back when and he sometimes likes to read the BOM. We keep talking to him and he tells us how he randomly stopped drinking not too long ago. This guy was seriously so prepared to have us talk to him that day! The more he kept talking, the more of a miracle he became! He actually doesn't live in our area unfortunately and we gave him as a referral because he wants missionaries to come over! After we were just so happy and so amazed. If he wouldn't have been listening to Spanish music we probably never would have gone to talk to him. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

The 4th of July was fun! The Elders in our ward had a baptism so we went to that. The guy they baptised is amazing! He just has such a strong testimony and he seriously glows! It was such an amazing experience. That night we went to dinner at our bishops house and made s'mores. I was very grateful to be at an english dinner appointment since we never have those. Our investigator Marcelo is starting to read the BOM which is soo great! We also met this cute daughter and mom who are now progressing. They read in the BoM and we had a very spiritual lesson about families with them. They are really cute. Almost as cute as me and Mom. 

We had zone meeting on Thursday and the zone leaders asked us to teach the zone a little spanish so that they would know what to do when coming in contact with spanish people here because they all do. There are lots of Spanish people here! I'm super surprised at how many there are! So that was good and we have been getting referrals out the wazoo these last couple days! And our zone leaders are so great. They learned all this Spanish and they like to come out and knock spanish doors with us. 

I just love it so much here! My companions are amazing! I am sad that Hermana Sasser will probably get her visa soon and that Hermana Mendez goes home on Aug. 30th. But Hermana Mendez is from New Jersey so she promised to come visit. The work of a missionary is so hard, but so amazing. I have learned so much about myself, including weaknesses, but that's ok! It helps me to improve every day. 

I love you all so much! I have been very very grateful for the knowledge of eternal families this week. It really is amazing! Thanks for all you do! Have a GREAT week!

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

Virginia Is For Lovers

Virginia Is For Lovers‏

 

Hi family!

That is a saying that is basically plastered all over Virginia so I thought that I might let you know that this is true! Because I LOVE it here! This past week went SO fast that I don't even remember what happened so I will do my best to include the things that I remember. I guess I never told you all this, but I am officially in the Richmond mission. I've known since day one so sorry for not sharing haha. And my new mission president arrived last Thursday and he is so great! Him and his wife are so so sweet and I'm excited to get to know them more! We have a mission conference tomorrow which will be great! So I'm sure we'll be able to find out more about him and his plans for the mission. It was funny because when we first met him he said one thing in Spanish and my companions and I all gasped in excitement, but that was actually all the Spanish that he knew haha. 

Sounds like its HOT at home! Its probably even hotter here! But it honestly isn't too much of a bother except for the fact that we get super sticky and sweaty every day, but besides that its not too bad. Oh I also have chiggers (or however you spell them or whatever they're called) which is kinda a pain. My legs are covered with nasty chigger stuff and mosquito bites! I must have sweet blood or something because they do not attack my companions the way they attack me. I tried to take pictures to share the glory with you, but they just don't do them justice. Oh and our car also died 3 times this past week which was an adventure! Luckily 2 of those times were at home and so now we have a new car. Did I mention I'm the designated driver?

I went on an exchange with the Sister Training Leaders this week which was great! We helped this lady make Guatemalan bread! I have more Guatemalans here than anyone else! I kind of get to live my dream, but its even better! Our investigator Marcelo is from Guatemala! He is great. We helped him work in his yard this week and we are finding out lots about him that will hopefully help us to know how to help him to grow closer to Christ. He just seems like he would be a cool uncle or something. He always pats all the kids cheeks when he comes to church haha. He's just a jolly guy!

This family in our ward got baptized yesterday! Did I mention there are 9 missionaries in the ward that we are in? This family is the other Hermanas investigators, but we have gotten to know them and love them so much! It was the mom and dad and their son and daughter. They are such a strong family. They will do anything in our church just to receive the blessings. They are so excited to pay tithing because they know that that will bless their family so much. They were crying through the whole thing and so was half the people there. The Spirit was just so strong. I am so happy that they made this decision. It was kind of a rocky ride from what I heard, but they made it and they seem soo happy!  And Marcelo also came which was awesome! He asked us when you can get baptized and such so we're crossing our fingers that that's a good sign!

I think my Spanish is improving! I told the Lord that I would do my part if He would help me, and I have definitely been feeling the blessings! I can actually have some what of a relationship with people now! I don't always know what they say, but it is definitely improving! Our zone leaders want to know how we are having so much success so they wanted to do our Saturday walk and talk with us so we taught them a little Spanish which was a big help. It was really fun and it made me feel good at Spanish haha.

Well things are wonderful here on the east! I feel like a real missionary with my nasty legs and my constantly sweaty forehead! And don't forget the tan lines! Its great! I love you all so much! The church is true!!!

And I close mine epistle. I am Hermana Horton.