week 20

dearest family and friends,

i don't have a ton of time today, but i am sad to say that Hermana Pilling has received her Visa for Spain, and is heading there TONIGHT :( we received the call on Thursday, and its been a crazy couple of days figuring everything out, but she will be leaving us tonight at 7! luckily we do get the amazing opportunity of eating dinner tonight at the mission home with President Clayton and his wife :) ps: (the old home of the Ballard family! pretty sweet.) so back to los dos Hermanastomorrow. crazy! i am sad to see her go, we have loved being in a trio SO much! but i am excited for her to officially start her mission.... to finally go to the MTC, and to finally learn Spanish!

other then having all the crazy visa stuff going on (we've been downtown a LOT to figure things out!), this week was a lot slower! we struggled finding new investigators and didn't teach hardly any lessons. we worked super super hard though, so maybe the Lord is just testing us :) we always have lots of time to talk to people though on buses/subways, and we never lost the faith. our investigators are doing well, we just need to actually teach them.....

the mission is amazing. i love it everyday :) i love my Savior, i love this Gospel. i LOVE the BOM!!

read Ether 12:27, it has helped me a lot this week. i know He gives me weaknesses so i can grow closer to Him. also, have i ever mentioned how much i love speaking and teaching in Spanish? :) its improving everyday, gracias a Dios.

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

ps: SHOUT OUT to my boy T-money, Elder Peery, who hits ONE YEAR this week. i am so proud!! and so happy and so excited. ill be blowing kisses all day long :) #iloveyou

week 19

family and friends! i love you :) wow this week absolutely flew by. i have a lot more time today and a lot to share!

FERNANDO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! crazy story....

Wednesday afternoon we had a lesson with just Fernando. usually his wife & son are there, but they were talking to our ward mission leader in the other room. we told Fernando that we might have to push his baptismal date back a week or 2, because we still have a lot to finish teaching him. Fernando looks at us with tears in his eyes and says, "no no no... God wants this day! God wants me to be baptized on October 19 and i am ready. YOU didn't pick that day God did! he wants me to be baptized on Sunday!" MIRACLE. we're all looking at each other like freakin out.... this man is SO prepared! from the minute we found each other on the bus i knew he was prepared. so we worked hard for the next 3 days and got him taught everything. funny though, cause every single lesson he was just like "si si si... claro claro claro" (yes, of course, clearly) hahaha so funny and awesome! even when we extended commitments.... hes like, obviously! Marta wants to wait and be baptized with Stephen and Stephanie (their children) which is awesome, even though she totally could now. their children will definitely take time, as Stephen is VERY deeply depressed, but we all have faith that everything will work out! all in God's timing.

crazy things happened leading up to the baptism (we even pulled a Tyler and had to use buckets of water to fill the font :) (our font takes at least 5 hours to fill!!!).... lots of crazy things also happened with Stephen, things are getting worse. BUT we know it was ALL satan trying to get in there and destroy Fernando for wanting to make these special covenants with Heavenly Father. but everything worked out great and the baptism was amazing :) he bore an amazing testimony after, he even had some members in tears! AND as he is testifying, he says (in Spanish of course) "i have these families now that i am giving to the missionaries so they can baptize them too.... " as he hands us a HUGE stack of over like 200 people. names, addresses, phone numbers.... we have a lot of work to do!!! :) haha i am definitely in the busiest area of the Canada Toronto Mission. i am RIGHT in the city, and they weren't kiddin when they told me its a baptizing area. HOLY.

we had exchanges this week, Hermana Pilling headed to another area while Hermana Dudley and i stayed in our area with the Sister Training Leader. we had a lesson with a family (new investigators) that a member referred us to. it was probably the scariest lesson i have ever had on my mission so far. wow, i just wanted to cry the whole time haha. we sat down... and immediately i was like, "whats Spanish? whats lesson 1?" in my head. man it was terrifying! i felt super inadequate and i knew Satan was getting to me. i couldn't remember anything in Spanish, and i couldn't even remember how to teach! or talk! i have never prayed so much and so hard throughout the lesson. forever grateful for Hermana Dudley, and SO GRATEFUL for the spirit. luckily the lesson went super well, the spirit FILLED the room as we bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. the father had tears in his eyes, as did i. those scary moments are real as a missionary, but what makes it easier is the companionship of the Holy Ghost... AND the gift of tongues :)

Saturday night was a HUGE cultural night for both the Spanish and English ward! everyone made food from their country and we had a huge talent show! i LOVE the Spanish culture so much :) and their food hahaha. SO good!!! i love our ward. we found out this week though how many less actives we have, and while we're trying to convert and baptize the multitudes, we will now also be RE converting the ward!!

you could definitely say i am busy and happy here. i love the feeling of getting on my knees  to thank my Heavenly Father for the hastening of the work here, and how grateful i am to be a part of it. annnnddd also when i hit the pillow feeling absolutely exhausted every single night.... that feels pretty good as well :)

i know this church is true!

Jesus Christ is my Savior. i know that He lives! and i am here for HIM.

XOXO HERMANA HORTON

week 18

yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving! weird to celebrate it in October. haha but since there is so much culture here in Toronto, not everyone here even celebrates it. Spanish culture doesn't even really celebrate it much. but luckily, Andrione... an awesome member who comes teaching with us ALL the time and is an amazing cook, made us a turkey :) YUM! it really doesn't matter what day it is celebrated on, but yesterday i realized how grateful i am for SO much. i am blessed. blessed to be a member of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, and blessed to be able to testify of Him and His Gospel every single day :) and blessed for being able to do it in an entire new language! i am thankful for my mission, for the way it is changing my life. i am grateful for my family and for their love and support. i am grateful for the endless love and support from Elder Peery, even from AZ. i am grateful for my amazing companions. i am grateful for the TEMPLE. i could go on for hours on how grateful i am for SO MUCH in my life.

im grateful for SIMON. who was confirmed a member of the church on Sunday. it was the biggest miracle. i am so happy for him and his confirmation blessing was life changing for him! Betty was confirmed as well on Sunday :) also we got to celebrate her 24th birthday this week! she is so cute. we had lessons every single day this week with the Basantes family. they are progressing so much! its hard, because Fernando (the dad, the man that ran up to me on the bus) and his wife Marta are progressing so much and are ready to get baptized... like tomorrow haha. but Steven is depressed and will take time. we have patience :)

i am so happy here, and while the days are crazy and exhausting and hard and long and sometimes freezing, i know God wants me here. i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. this week we got to have personal interviews with the President, he just looked at me and said... you're gonna be here for awhile. YESSSSS! haha it made me so happy! i love this area, i love being in the city. hopefully that revelation comes true :)

i love this gospel!

xoxo, Hermana Horton

week 17

wow, what a blessing it was to have general conference this weekend. i could go on and on about how much i loved it, and how many of my prayers were answered. the prophets and apostles truly are called of God, the things they say really are direct revelation! i felt that so much. conference is literally Christmas as a missionary :) haha i couldn't even write my notes fast enough. one of my very favorite talks was Elder Hollands, wow how humbled it made me. it made me want to completely turn my will to God's will, and serve Him and ALL of His children who are in need. also Elder Klebingat of the 70 gave an AMAZING talk that really was an answer to my prayers on how to be a more perfected disciple of Jesus Christ. He really is my Master! and i want to do everything i can to become more like Him. to make HIM, the center of my life. His Atonement has more power than we can even imagine. this mission is changing me ❤️ but i am so grateful for it every single day. this week was such a blessing, last night was transfer calls, but we didn't receive one, so we are staying as a trio in our area together for another 6 weeks! the Lord definitely knows we are KILLIN it together here in the city and wants us to work even harder and learn even more from each other. i am excited to be staying here because we have some awesome investigators right now and they are really starting to progress! oh... and my spanish is actually improving a lot! of course its hard because i am in Canada and not everyone speaks Spanish... but i try to speak as much as possible and its getting better everyday :) especially as we are trying to teach our new comp (i realized i know more than i thought!) its amazing being in a lesson and being guided by the spirit on what to say. oh, and yes, it is already getting cold here :) but i wouldn't want to be anywhere else of course! i love this gospel!!!

thank you for all the love and support :)

xoxo, HERMANA HORTON

ps: birthday shout out to my boy T$ down in AZ who turns the big 20 this Saturday!!! i LOVE you elder peery :)