Anything is possible if you just believe

Anything is possible if you just believe

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/14/14 8:58 AM

My dear family and friends!

 

Well I think Hermana Chambers and I are finally getting better! My poor companion has been suffering from a headache for forever, but we went to two doctors last week and the second one gave her some medicine that we are pretty sure is working. Yay! And who knows what my problem has been, but I think it is officially going away. Its been a weird sickness. There is apparently some weird virus going around that lasts for a long time. It has honestly been a trial because I haven't felt as good as I want to. And even though I couldn't have Mom there to use her magic touch and make everything better, the Lord comforted me and I have definitely been able to feel of His love for me.

 

Juan unfortunately wasn't baptized this past Saturday, but its ok because he has made so much progress! We went to go have a lesson with him last Tuesday and at the beginning he basically had the attitude that leaving coffee is practically impossible. We were not about to let him think that because we know that he can do it. So we had a good chat about trusting in yourself and trusting in the Lord and then we made a plan with him. We made a little chart and he was going to drink less coffee every day and by the 16th, leave it completely. And we wrote down some of the things that he can do if he gets tempted to drink coffee. We went by on Thursday and he had only drank coffee once in between lessons! And then he called us Saturday and he starts out the phone call with, "Don't cry..." We were pretty confused and then he told us how he hadn't drank any coffee since our last lesson! He's such a funny little man. And then he calls us on Sunday and tells us that he still hadn't drank any coffee, but that his head hurt so bad that he couldn't come to church. We called him later to see how he was doing and he had drank a little bit of coffee. But he went 3 whole days! We're pretty proud of our little Juan. Right now he is set to be baptized this Saturday and we have so much faith in him. He CAN do it. But keep him in your prayers!

 

There has been more of a focus lately to tell people about family history work, even when we're tracting. They have changed some things in missionary work and we are now to teach lesson 5 in Preach My Gospel before baptism instead of just after baptism. So we have been teaching a lot of people about temples and family history work. It has been so cool! Even though I don't get to do much family history work here on my mission, my testimony of it has grown so much. Family history work is seriously crucial! It is just as much missionary work as knocking doors is. Even though I know that so much of our families work has been done, I'm excited to be able to try to find those haven't been found yet, or just do whatever I can with family history work. And it is so special that we get to do that sacred work in the temples. 

 

This week is going to be a good one, so make it count! I love you all so much!! 

 

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

 

We are now the Lord's missionaries

We are now the Lord's missionaries

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 7/07/14 8:46 AM

Hola hola!

 

This was a very physically hard week. I had some weird stomach thing that I just couldn't seem to get better from and Hermana Chambers has been struggling with a migraine. But we made it! And I am finally feeling better and we are going to the doctors today for her. But we definitely still worked hard. We had to take it slow, but we did our very best and pushed ourselves as much as we could. Heavenly Father really helped us. He tested us, but He also helped us. 

 

Members are seriously one of the best tools that we have in missionary work! We had this super great/awkward experience with this member the other day. She is seriously a rock star. We called her to come to a lesson and she came and she also brought her newborn baby and her teenage daughter. She just hauled around a car seat the whole time. All I was thinking the whole time was, "If she can do it than anyone can!" We went to our lesson and they weren't there. We tried a couple other people that lived around there, but no luck. We didn't want to make her knock while carrying a baby car seat so we just thought that we would get in the car and take her back to her car. But right when we get in the car she asks who else we can go visit! What a gem. So we start off to visit someone else and there is this Hispanic walking and she just says, "There's a Hispanic! Go talk to her!" So we're just kind of laughing on the inside because of how awkward it’s going to be, but we just say, "Alright!" So we pull over and get out to go talk to her and the lady is just so weirded out, but we talk to her and she gives us her address to go and stop by another day! It was a pretty awkward street contact, but we had a good laugh about it later. I am just so amazed when members do things like that though. I really want to go home and be that kind of member. We need members like those in missionary work.

 

We also have this new investigator who looked us up! He was looking up churches to go to online and our church caught his attention so he called our mission office and now we're teaching him! He has already come to church once! His name is Dimar. The only sad thing is that he might be going back to his country really soon, but he said he would find the church once he got there! 

 

Our investigator Juan will hopefully be getting baptized this Saturday! He is seriously the greatest. He's just this cute little Hispanic man who loves to crack jokes all the time. He is still struggling a little bit with coffee, but he is seriously SO close! He has started drinking this new drink to replace the coffee so hopefully that will help him. He just wants to be baptized so badly. We really have so much hope that he will be able to be baptized this Saturday. There are a lot of people cheering him on in the ward too. So keep Juan in your prayers!

 

The 4th of July was pretty fun! We were able to teach a couple of lessons which is a miracle! And then we ended the day with milkshakes and grilled hamburgers. Mmm :) And after that we went outside and tried to catch fireflies because that is the closest thing that we have to fireworks. It was a lot of fun! I hope the neighborhood parade was fun!

 

I hope you all have a fabulous week! Make it count! I love you all!

 

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

 

Life is good. Mission life is better.

Life is good. Mission life is better.

··

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 6/30/14 9:24 AM

Hey all you out there!

 

I hope you all had a great week! So it looks like my release date is going to be October 23. I just balled when I opened the email, but no big deal. It’s ok though, there's still lots of time. It just like got real for a second though. You guys are just planning on picking me up at the airport, right? 

 

This week was SO BUSY. Probably one of the busiest on my mission. It was so great! But I was so unbelievably tired yesterday. And then I got some weird bug in the middle of the night, but I'm doing a little better now. But we just had so much going on and every hour of the day. I also gave my first talk in a Spanish ward yesterday! I had given my testimony and said prayers and stuff in sacrament meeting in the Spanish ward before, but this was the first time that I gave a talk.

 

We found this awesome new investigator this week! Her name is Dinora. We taught her about the restoration in our lesson with her, and she loved it! And she agreed to be baptized! It was such a sweet experience to see how great she was for the message that we shared. She works at a bakery and she said that she's going to bring us a cake next time we come! Ha-ha. She was just the cutest thing. I always feel so blessed when we find investigators like that that are just so ready in the very first lesson.

 

And another tender mercy, I saw Veronica outside of our new investigators house! She was one of my investigators in Mechanicsville who I just adored so much. She been taught for a while now and still isn't making any baptismal commitments, but I heard that the Hermanas there made a huge breakthrough with her recently! So we will keep our fingers crossed.

 

There are just so many people here that are so ready for the gospel. A lot of people in this area live in really humble circumstances. Definitely the most humble I've seen on my mission. A lot of times when people live in such humble circumstances they accept the gospel faster in their lives.

 

We have a couple of people that are preparing for baptism right now! One is this old guy Juan. He is getting over his coffee addiction and will be baptized on July 12. The other is this way cute girl named Lizeth who will be baptized on July 26. They are both so excited and ready to accept the gospel into their lives. Seeing people embrace this gospel is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

 

I hope you all have the best week ever!! I love you all so much!!

 

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

Pictures

 

Hermana Chambers and I and the other one is of us and one of the sisters we live with!

 

 

Chambers and Horton are back together

Chambers and Horton are back together

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net
Sent:	Mon 6/23/14 11:43 AM

Dearest family!

 

GREAT news! Hermana Chambers and I are companions again!!!!!! What a huge blessing!! We were so so excited when we found out. President Wilson even got choked up when he announced our names at transfer meeting because he knew how bad we wanted to be companions again. We have been begging him to put us back together since we were companions before. The Lord must really love us. I just feel so blessed! We are serving in Chesterfield. So I am in the first ward that I served in, but just a different area. The work here is AMAZING. There is so much work here. We are so busy and it is so great! There were a couple of days last week where I was just so tired at the end of the day because we just worked so hard all day. It is so cool to see how Hermana Chambers and I have grown since we were companions. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we were companions before. There are just so many people here prepared to hear the gospel.

 

We had a really cool experience on Sunday. We were about to walk into this trailer park when this little Hispanic man pulled up and said, "Sisters!" We started asking him if he was a member and he said that he wasn't, but that he had some friends that were members. He said that his wife died 3 years ago and he has just felt so much guilt ever since and he doesn't really know what to do about it. He just said that there was always something about our church, but he wasn't sure what it was. He asked for the address to the church so of course we gave it to him! We tried to set up an appointment with him, but he said that he wants to come to church soon, but we'll see if we can change that. It was just a crazy the chain of events that led us to that moment. We weren't even planning to be arriving at that trailer park at that time, but everything worked out so perfectly so that we arrived there at that moment when he was pulling out. And it turns out he doesn't even live there. Nothing even really worked out in that trailer park, but we just knew that we were supposed to be there at that time so that we could meet him. The Lord has been so good to us!

 

I'm still trying to get to know all of the people here, but they are all really great. And it was really fun to be back in the Chesterfield Spanish ward again. Its crazy how much can change in just one year. I am really happy to be back here serving with Hermana Chambers. Lots of good times ahead! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!

 

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

 

Pictures!

 

 

Most of these pictures are from church yesterday with some of the members or after church with the members that we eat dinner with every Sunday. And we also went to a cool marine museum last week with a couple of sisters! And then there is one from Vanessa's baptism. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Adios Woodbridge

Adios Woodbridge

From:	Callie Horton (callie.horton@myldsmail.net)
Sent:	Mon 6/16/14 9:46 AM

My dear family and friends!

 

Well, that sad time has come again where I will be getting transferred. And even sadder, Hermana McBride is getting transferred too. So there will be 2 new hermanas coming into our area behind us. We have been stressing a lot since we got the calls to get everything ready for the new hermanas. This is a pretty sad transfer. I have loved my time is Woodbridge SO much. I have grown so much since I have been here. Saying goodbye to the ward yesterday was pretty hard for the both of us. I have never felt so loved so fast by so many people. And I have loved serving with Hermana McBride soo much! I love that I have been able to meet some of my bestest friends on the mission. I just feel so blessed. I will surely miss my time here. And I have also been called to be a Sister Training Leader. It’s like a sister zone leader kind of. I'm excited but nervous because I feel so inadequate for the job, but the Lord has called me so He will help me!

 

So Vanessa is baptized!! YAY!! It was such a beautiful baptism, but holy cow one of the most stressful days ever. Everything started kind of falling apart last minute, but with the help of the Lord, we got it all worked out. Satan was trying real hard to pull us down and not enjoy the day, but its ok because Vanessa was so happy and her happiness made us so happy and made the stress all worth it. Vanessa told us a couple of days before her baptism that her dad wasn't going to be able to come unless we moved the time to that evening, which was sad because we moved the baptism date just so that he could be there. We couldn't move it because there was already a baptism of another ward going on at that time and we had already planned everything for the morning. She was pretty sad about it and so were we. So we were just praying so hard that her dad would somehow be able to make it, and then we got a call from Vanessa Saturday morning and she said that he would be able to come! It was such a huge tender mercy. Everything worked out perfectly in the end. And now she is a member of the Church and nothing brings me more joy than knowing that.

 

We had another really cool experience that day too. We were fasting to know how we could help our investigator Corina because she knows it’s true and she wants to be baptized, but she has kind of lost the flame and won't set a date and we haven't been able to see her lately and she hasn't been coming to church. So we were fasting and it was seriously a trial of our faith a couple of times because of how stressful that day had been. And then that day we were eating dinner at the bishop's house and the Elders were coming to eat there after us so they showed up while we were finishing up eating. The Elders were talking to the Bishop about this one member in the ward, and they said, "Yeah, he is so great. If there is someone that won't set a baptismal date you definitely need to bring him." And then this light bulb just went off at the same time in mine and Hermana McBride's head. So we just looked at each other and starting tearing up because we knew that Heavenly Father had just answered our prayers. I have the strongest testimony of fasting. It works every time. Fasting has helped me soo much on my mission. The Lord ALWAYS blesses us when we make sacrifices.

 

I have seemed to collect a lot of stuff on my mission so I will be sending home a couple of boxes today. Just put them on my bed and I'll go through them when I get home.

 

I hope you have the best week ever! Remember that I love you! Adios amigos!

 

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