week 3

HOLA!!! another week has absolutely flown by. they weren't kidding when they said time flies while on a mission. i can't believe its Pday again! im halfway done with the MTC now and really starting to realize how important it is that we don't waste even a minute! we have lots more to learn and not much time to learn it. gotta be speaking Spanish 24/7 so we can learn a LOT.

this week was so fun! we went to the temple again for Pday... this time we just did Inititories which i absolutely LOVED because i haven't done them since i went through for myself. the words they say are amazing and the spirit was so strong. also for Pday we ate at main campus (they have so many more options! me gusta the wrap bar:) and also walked down to Brighams landing! #freedom :) 

Friday was kinda rough #postPdayprobs as we would say. hahaha we had a little melt down because we just felt like we can't learn so much Spanish AND learn to teach everything. we felt pretty overwhelmed, but one of our teachers Hermano Humbertt had me and (not my comp) Hermana Nelson sit in and have a lesson. we taught him as him, not as an investigator. the spirit filled the room before we could even say a word. everyone was in tears and it was hands down one of the best experiences i have had since being here. personal stories were shared and the Holy Ghost prompted me and Hna Nelson to say so much. so so so amazing. 

BOTH devotionals were so awesome this week, Sunday we heard from Janice Kapp Perry (she wrote like a TON of primary songs) and we got to sing all my favorites! i feel my saviors love, as sisters in zion, army of helaman, love is spoken here, a childs prayer.... yeah there was a lot and as we sang the entire room of missionarys stood, and tears along with the spirit filled the room. SO COOL. funny story, she was speaking about how her and her husband met... he said to her in a BYU class one day "you know, those lips were definitely made for more than just playing the clarinet" hahahah!!! and all the sudden her husband JUMPS out of his seat (keep in mind hes like 80 something) walks over, and gives her the biggest kiss EVER! the entire room of missionaries went CRAZY! it was the funniest thing ever. oh my goodness. also when her husband spoke he said when he went to france in the 50's for his mission, he had 2 hours of language study and that was IT. i have suddenly become very very grateful for 6 weeks in the MTC.... hahaha :)

Monday night we got to meet our mission presidents! they are awesome and we got to sit and get to know them for a bit. we are feeling very blessed to be in the MTC right now as they are here for training before they head to Toronto! we love them already :) on tuesday we heard from Elder Christofferson.... 3 weeks and counting of apostles my friends! it was so amazing :) his message was exactly what we needed to hear. all about the worth of souls. and how we are NOTHING without Jesus Christ. we also watched the Joseph Smith movie... and i am pretty sure my testimony grew 10X bigger. i can't even tell you how excited i am to meet him and Emma someday. i would write my WHOLE email about them if i could. i am SO grateful for Joseph Smith!!!!! the prophet of the restoration. shall we not join him in this great cause???

so sorry for the Troumbley family. (tell them i love them and that they are in my prayers!) it was pretty shocking news and i feel so sad for Rebecca. at least we KNOW we will see her again someday. kinda weird to talk to the fam on Sunday for a few minutes.... had to get focused again quick! miss you guys.

best story ever for you. we have somehow become BFF with the cafeteria manager at west campus... and Tuesday at lunch we mentioned how much we love cafe rio and how much we miss it already. we show up to dinner and he hands us CAFE RIO PORK SALADS. i think i could have cried. and i really almost did. it was the best moment in the whole wide world! we devoured those salads like savages in literally minutes hahahhaa oh my goodness i feel so blessed. 

the MTC is still so awesome! i am cherishing every minute i have. we got 8 more elders (AGAIN!) last night so we now have 18 elders and 4 hermanas. they treat us very well because we are so outnumbered :) haha we feel like the moms of a bunch of little boys. we have lots of fun together and i am still working hard! our teachers are still so awesome and i am trying to work my very hardest and make use of ALL of my time! i love being a missionary. the church is true. gotta perfect mi espanol so i can tell everyone :)

i love you all so much!

xoxo, love HERMANA HORTON

P.S.  2 things i failed to mention! me and my companion got the privilege of being assigned to be the Sister Training Leaders for our Zone! its awesome... even though we only have 4 of us Hermanas hahaha. and lastly, we started teaching a real... REAL TRC investigator this week. real as in she really isn't a member. ummm it's crazy how cool it is but also pretty scary becuase its literally straight Spanish. haha i gotta work hard :) her name is Mercedes, we have taught her 2 times and she wears a CTR ring :) cute!

week 2

HOLA family & friends!

this week was so awesome and i am beginning to love being a missionary more and more every single day!! being in the MTC is super fun, i especially love being at West Campus. i have met so many friends and i love everyone here! we got 6 new elders this week (all going to Argentina... just like everyone else at West Campus;) so our zone is growing, but half of them are leaving Monday! sad i love them!

so for Pday last week we went to the temple and it was so awesome! i love the temple :) we are going again today too, yay! i am loving class still, i love learning and we LOVE our teachers. we have 2, and we also teach them (they act as our investigators... and it is actually wayyyyyyy real!) Hermano Croft is so funny and awesome, hahaha but we giggle a lot in class so he makes us go outside and run, do wall sits and jumping jacks... haha! also he makes us speak a LOT of espanol. no english in the classroom! but he also says we talk like cave women because we forget to conjugate our verbs.... hahaha. they really help me to work hard and learn a LOT so i love them for it :)

we also started TRC, which is awesome. we taught 2 members and the spirit was so strong in there it was amazing! it's hard to teach in espanol when you want to say something so bad in english but don't know the words, but the spirit guides us and helps us constantly. i definitely couldn't be a missionary without the Holy Ghost and i am coming to realize that more and more and rely on the spirit 24/7! because it's the spirit teaching the people, not us. 

sunday we had 6 sets of mission presidents come visit us! (my 2 hermanas pres. + wife came) all mission presidents going to south america! they only spoke spanish pretty much so it really made us speak all day :) oh also, funny random story.... haha mom this one is for you. did laundry last week on Pday and turned some of my garments pink.... HAHA #rookiemistake

tuesday was devotional (we LOVE devotionals!) and you will never believe this... ELDER BALLARD SPOKE!!!! i was freaking out and the entire time i just wanted to jump up from the crowd and scream... "I KNOW YOU! haha and you sat at my dinner table right by me!!!! and i am going to your MISSION!!!!!" it was so amazing and me and my comp Hermana Frodsham were literally freaking out. we couldn't even believe he was there... what are the odds? his talk was amazing and we couldn't stop taking notes. he talked about how we should always remember that the first presidency + quorum of the 12 will NEVER lead us astray, and of course a LOT on missionary work. (mia his wife was there too and i just wanted to go hug her again!) the quorum of the 12 + first presidency are here for like 2 or 3 weeks for the new mission presidents training (thats why we got 2 apostles in a row! first Elder Quinten L Cook, then Ballard!) so we are hoping for 3 in a row??? fingers crossed :) 

funny story from this week, me and my comp went into the Elders room next to us (the Elders in our district) to get a pamphlet for our lesson and i saw this way cool scripture pencil and started playing with it. in a matter of seconds i heard a bunch of crackling and i had broken ALL the led in it!!!! i was freaking out and my comp was laughing her head off hahahaha i went to buy him a new one and it was $20!!!!! oh my heck.... still can't stop laughing about it :)

we have begun to teach lessons without ANY spanish notes, which is really nice and helps us to actually feel the spirit because we can look them in the eyes and just speak from our hearts. spanish is pretty hard (just cause it's a whole new language!) and i am constantly praying for el don de lenguas (the gift of tongues) but i love it here and i love learning so so much!

thank you family for so many packages, they are the best thing ever! seriously gold. also i have to give a shoutout to my boy Tyler who loves me enough to send me SO MUCH mail while in the MTC. also the voice recorder. wow i love him. and miss him like crazy.

i love the MTC, i love my comp and Hermanas, and i LOVE the gospel! it is true and i just want to tell EVERYONE so they can experience the happiness that i do. just gotta master my spanish first ;) thank you for all your prayers, i love you all so much.

xoxo, love HERMANA HORTON

Week 1

hi family and friends!!! :)

so i have been in the MTC now for a week and i can not even tell you how great it is!! today is thursday and our first p day. (my pday is every thursday ps) wow i dont even know where to start with my week!! 

so first of all my suitcase is definitely broken... the wheel wont go back on. gonna have to deal with that when i am about to leave! i got my badge on wednesday and it was made official :) (sister gilbert did it!) and we were immediately in class in like 15 minutes with nothing but espanol hahaha which was crazy at first but it helps me a LOT. everything is kinda a blur from the first night cause everyday is pretty similar... but we did meet our zone and district! my companion! she is so great :) her name is Hermana Frodsham and we get along super well! we have 2 other girls in our district/apartment/class who are going to Argentina and we pretty much spend 24/7 together! we have so much fun together :) we are all in our classroom all day long learning Spanish and how to teach which is sometimes LONNNGG but we love it and we LOVE our teachers!!!! 

we taught our first investigator the friday after we got in there (SO SOON!) and it had to be in straight espanol which was crazy hahhaa i think our investigator Patricio was like who the heck are these Hermanas... get them outta here and teach them Spanish before they teach me haha. but he is a member and so his eternal salvation is not on the line :) its just so we can practice! we teach him everyday and sometimes it is crazy hard but when we can speak in Spanish from our hearts... thats when we feel the spirit. they have all been okay lessons until Tuesday.... tuesday was the hardest because he kept asking questions that we didnt know how to answer in Spanish. its pretty frustrating when you want to tell him so much about the Gospel but dont know any of the words in Spanish to say it :( BUT. our teacher walked in on us crying and discouraged and shared an awesome scripture with us (2 cor. 12:9-10) THEN we went to devotional that night and in walks Quentin L Cook!!!! and he gave the most AMAZING talk ever. i felt like he was directly talking to me... me and Hermana Frodsham couldn't even believe what we were hearing because it applied to us so much. SO SO cool. also we sang in the choir on tuesday. DAD! brother Eggett is the director and i said hi to him! also i saw brother Maag one day hahaha

sooo Sundays devotional (this email is all over the place.... hahah) was also pretty great... and after we got to listen to the talk given by Elder Bednar called CHARACTER OF CHRIST. it was hands down one of the very best talks i have ever heard. i suggest everyone reads/listens to it!!! okay funny story for you. so our teachers can't speak English and there is only Spanish in the classroom. so sometimes it takes a LOT of guessing until we can finally know what they are saying! one day Hermano Humbertt kept saying "usted es aburrido??" and we just kept saying... you want a burrito? haha you FEEL like a burrito? SO funny cause aburrido in Spanish means bored. haha we definitely laugh a lot in class.... :):):):)

the MTC is so great and i love it so much!! the spirit is strong and i have already learned a TON of Spanish and every day i just can't wait to learn more. we speak lots of Spanish all day which is very helpful to learn the language! i have definitely become more humble and have been learning how to work with the spirit. also since i am at West Campus it is very different but i love it :) i am surviving and safe and i love and miss you all! also thank you soooooo soooo much for the packages. those are seriously like GOLD while in the MTC hahaha there is nothing better :) i have loved your letters and you should send me some pictures :) ( i hope you are getting mine!) i am off to the temple!! then to learn more espanol :) 

love you all!! xoxoxoxo

HERMANA HORTON

MTC here i come

i made it to the MTC on wednesday.  it was super hard to say good-bye to my family!!!!  but i am happy to be here.

i am leaving on a mission!

well, this is it! i am being set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and i am heading to serve an honorable mission in Toronto, Canada; speaking Spanish. i could not be more excited! i couldn't be happier about blessing so many lives and bringing many to this true gospel. the Lord is depending on me, and i can't wait to serve him in the place i know i'm supposed to be. i wouldn't be leaving everything behind and all those i love if i didn't know with 100% surety that the church is true.

for those that do read my blog, my mom will be keeping it updated weekly with my emails + pictures! so you can check up on me ;) also, you can write or email me at anytime! my address is just to the right, and my email is keena.horton@myldsmail.net

thank you for all the love and support, it means the world to me! see you all in a little bit :) xx

playing last minute catch up!

 ^^^ Marcus's 6th grade graduation! so proud of you buddy! love you so so much :) ^^^

^^^ Aydelyn's 6th grade graduation! 2 one day... i was killin it :) excited for these 2 to hit up Lakeridge Junior High together! wooo hoooo! ^^^

 ^^^ book fair for the 3 youngest for the end of school! and a day out to lunch to celebrate finishing school for the year. love these kids. ^^^

^^^ Christian's graduation! HE DID IT. i'm so proud of you kid :) him & Lauren had a little party after too with the whole peery fam... which was so so fun! love them. ^^^

^^^ the kids had their end of year dance performance too. Ky killed it of course :) such a cutie. my little mini me. ^^^

 ^^^ hiking Timp Cave with the family on Saturday! we've been doing lots of fun activities together before i leave. the hike was SO fun and so were the caves! i discovered i have a love for hiking. and man im gonna miss my family. ^^^

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yes kids, 2 DAYS. it's crazy. i still have lots to do and lots of goodbyes to say. {the WORST PART.} i've got just 48 hours left until i head to the MTC.... not only are my days numbered now but so are my HOURS! im anxious and nervous and excited. a crazy mix of emotions and its pretty hard to believe how soon ill be a missionary... in the MTC... learning to preach the gospel in an entirely new language. i really can't believe it has come this quick! am i ready for this? we'll find out! 

here's to 2 days left as just being KEENA. xx

photos with the peery girls

this past week i have spent all of my time with my fam + the peery fam. its sad i won't see any of them for 18 months so i have tried to do some fun last things with them!

 the peery girls told me they wanted to take pictures together before i leave, so me, Savanah, Aydelyn, and Ava all had their amazing photographer of a mom, Jeselyn head down to the lake with us and take some cute pictures together before i leave! 

so SO fun. i have become so close with the peery's and i love them so much! and as much as i am so excited to serve my mission, the goodbyes this week to them and my family {gahhhhh so sad} are going to absolutely kill me. 3 days!