week 24

i am beginning to realize how little of time a mission really is. before you know it time is flying! i know the Lord called me to this mission for many reasons, and i am growing so much. its crazy for me to look back on the person i was before. not because i am suddenly different, but because the Lord is changing me into who he wants me to be. and because i am in a life long commitment to continually serve Him. :) i have such a strong testimony of the Savior and His Atoning sacrifice for each and every one of us. i know one of the biggest reasons i am here on a mission is so God can convert me just as much as he is converting the people i am teaching! i know thats why he calls us on missions! and all i want is to continually serve Him. to help bring souls unto Him. i know this work is the work of Salvation. i know this church is TRUE!!!! i know it.

haha so here's an awesome story that will tell you what its like to be a missionary here in the CTM. so last night Hermana Dudley and i go visit a referral we received from a recent convert Fernando... we knock on the door and YAY the man was Spanish! he wasn't the man we were looking for but hey, if you speak Spanish we'll gladly teach you :) all the sudden another man walks up behind him. we start telling them we are missionaries, and what our purpose is when they invite us in. there's a house full of people and they announce, "guys we have missionaries here!" there ended up being 2 people from Saudi Arabia, a Turkish woman, a Brazilian woman, the Spanish man from Ecuador, and another man from India. they all live together and they were all making foods from their countries to share. so they invited us to try some of it as we were just talking to them a little about the church and inviting them to come. we were there for probably about 15 minutes and asked the Spanish guy if he was interested in us coming back and he said yes! haha WOO! As we were leaving one of the Saudi Arabians was like "those girls were so nice!"...at least we planted a seed...? hahaha welcome to every day of our lives in the most diverse city in the WORLD.

so while Hermana Dudley and i are continually working SUPER hard together, a lot of our investigators aren't progressing. none of them keep commitments and we (especially me) are struggling with that a little. its so hard when you do everything you can to help people come unto Christ, and they choose not to. #agency. the part member family, the Castros, who we have been working with since we got here and have a baptismal date didn't come to church again yesterday so they are no longer progressing. and we have still yet to get in contact with our recent convert Fernando and his family.... which continues to break my heart everyday :( i am beginning to learn what its like to feel sorrow for peoples salvation. but our ward is beginning to progress more and more, and that is amazing to watch :) our ward had their Primary Program yesterday. can you just picture cute little kids singing in SPANISH? it was so precious!! #espanol >>>

and here is a scripture that hit me HARD this week: 

D&C 18:15 " and if it so be that you should labor ALL your days... and bring, save it be ONE soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with Him in the kingdom of my Father."

Jesus Christ is my Savior, and how great is my joy to labor, and bring souls unto Him.

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

week 23

yes kids... it snowed! and it hasn't stopped. yayyyyy!! ahhh i love it. it looks so beautiful. its cold up here in good old Canada. but the spirit of Christmas is coming and i am so excited! and we are also in the negatives every day..... #sos #eskimohermana

i had the amazing opportunity to attend a leadership conference this week. only a select few from the whole mission got to go (basically it was ALL the DL's, ZL's, Sister Traning leaders, anddddd me hahaha.)  i attended with a few people from my District (my comp didn't come) and it was SO amazing! a few leaders from the MTC in Provo came and we learned how to be more effective missionaries and leaders. it was actually funny cause they kept saying "make sure to take this back to your areas and teach the junior companions." haha i just kept thinking... wait i am the junior companion! there are a lot of changes happening in our mission soon. its exciting :) but nothing happened for us Hermanas with transfer calls last night! we were shocked to not receive a call, especially after i went to the leadership meeting. but i guess the Lord really wants us to work hard together for as long as Hermana Dudley still has here :) she is leaving halfway through the transfer (in 4 weeks) so i will be receiving a new companion then!

this week was super great though. it doesn't show with our numbers but that's definitely not what matters :) obviously! we are still struggling to make our NEW investigators progressing but we're working hard at it. none of our investigators are coming to church but we know the Lord just wants us to work a little harder :) we have been working a lot with the less actives in our ward. we're trying to hard to encourage them to come back to church. it breaks my heart to see people fall away. hold to the rod! the Gospel is the most important thing in our lives. everything we have is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father. we should do all we can to serve Him. been working with our Bishop too to strengthen our ward. we can't do this work without our members...

i am sick today. throwing up this morning but luckily God gave me the strength to get things done on Pday :) miracles happen.

i love my Savior Jesus Christ.

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

ps: happy 22 years of marriage this week to the BEST PARENTS in the world!!!! i am so lucky. i love you guys so much :)

week 22

family and friends and all those i love!

id like to share a personal experience from this week that really strengthened my testimony :)

we had come home from having a dinner appointment with a member, and teaching FHE on Thursday night when i got very very discouraged about my Spanish. i get frustrated with the language barrier and sometimes feel like i could be such a better missionary if i could actually communicate everything i want to say! not only that, but i was feeling the burden of trying to learn the new language of Spanish, in an English speaking mission. we're not always speaking in Spanish, and 95% of the people we contact everyday are English speaking. during the dinner appointment i had no idea what was going on, and had no idea what to say, even while giving a spiritual thought. i had never felt so frustrated! sometimes i can i knelt down in prayer that night and asked for guidance and help from my Father in Heaven. i pleaded to have the gift of tongues made even stronger so i can be an effective instrument for the Lord. Friday was Zone training! which is always super great. it started out like usual and we were instructed on inspired ways we can hasten the work in our areas. we even did this awesome role play where in the gym, all the chairs were set up like a bus. we pretended to be the people here and practiced contacting :) haha it was awesome! we had to determine whether each person was a distract-er or an elect. really helped me to change up my contacting, especially on buses/subways. we headed into the baptism room and watched the video Because of Him. i remember when this video came out, but it has never hit me as hard as it did this time. tears filled my eyes as a few people bore testimony of the power of the Atonement and of the Saviors love for each and every one of us. i can't even explain the way i felt! the spirit spoke to me, and i knew right then that God puts hard things (like learning Spanish) all so i can grow closer to my Savior. this scripture has touched me time and time again as a missionary,

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

he gives me weaknesses so i can be made strong. long story short, we taught a lesson to a progressing investigator a day later and i had a few AWESOME street contacts where the Lord surely did bless me with the gift of tounges. as i have learned to depend on my Savior, he helps me better mi espanol every day :) we even had this really great moment where we were walking down the street on saturday and i realized we needed to contact a specific house a few streets away, and the 2 guys are new investigators! we also set a part member family on date for December 7, and we have been working with them since July!!!!! :)

its been a week full of miracles and we are working harder everyday.
i love this gospel! i love my mission!

XOXO HERMANA HORTON

ps: birthday shoutout to my little sister Quince who turns 8 today and will be getting baptized soon! I LOVE YOU little girl! and i am so proud of you :)

week 21

there isn't much to say this week, we said bye to our precious Hermana Pilling and have been adjusting to having just the 2 of us. we haven't had many lessons and we have spent every single day on the hunt to find people to teach. that, and trying to visit ALL of our members and less actives so we can continue to work to build our ward back up! lots of doors un-answered and not much luck so far but we aren't loosing the faith :) i know the Lord is testing us. our area has been on fire and He wants us to work HARD to build it back up. our ward needs help right now, and after a very spiritual and amazing dinner with our mission president, we know that needs to be our main focus! we have worked very hard this week, but we are set to work even harder to get area rolling again! we had a mission fast yesterday to really help us along with members. there was a strong spirit felt and i know the Lord will bless us with miracles!

Fernando was confirmed yesterday, the poor guy is having a LOT of teeth problems and is waiting to get surgery. he was in a TON of pain but made it to church to receive the spirit. his poor family isn't doing too well, but hopefully now that he is a member we can work together to help them be baptized as well. we haven't met with any of our other investigators this week, sadly, but like i said we are in the finding NEW mode!! which can be a struggle for us Spanish Hermanas but we're determined :) Halloween was fun, we had to be indoors by 6 (#scaryinthecity) so we did our weekly planning, but because we live in a house we actually got trick-or-treaters! it was awesome! :)

i finished the Book of Mormon this week, i want to testify of its truthfulness, because i KNOW its true! i know it was written for our day, i know that Joseph Smith translated it through the power of God. i know that the way to know the Gospel is true is by reading for yourself and praying to know its true! i know that we can feel of the Saviors love as we read the Book of Mormon, and THAT is how our relationship grows with Him. i know He lives! i want to bear this testimony to everyone i meet.... annndddd hopefully they speak Spanish so we can teach them too :):):) hehehe

"Come unto Christ. and be perfected in HIM." moroni 10:32 #BOMprophetsaremyheros

XOXO HERMANA HORTON