week 46

first things first, CONGRATS to my girl Sydni for getting called to the Australia Sydney mission, Samoan speaking! i am so happy for you! being a missionary is amazing :)

i'm gonna be really honest here! we had a pretty discouraging week. several things are happening in our area right now that make it so hard for us to keep the faith! we had some super low moments/days. i felt very frustrated all week that things weren't working out. anyone that knows me, knows i am a perfectionist... with everything! and something i have learned on my mission is that our plan, isn't God's plan. we are His instruments. we submit to His will and do what He asks. and His plan is perfect! i have just been feeling so sad though that as i am here training Hermana Flake, this is what she is being welcomed in to. rough! i try not to blame it on myself, but i do wish that we could see the fruits of our efforts. sometimes, we just plant the seeds though, right? anyways, we still saw a lot of miracles!

we had an amazing lesson on Monday night with the twins. we had dinner/FHE at the Westons with a few other families.... and the awesome, powerful, spiritual giant Hermano Argueta was there. awww yeah! his testimony is soooo super fuerte, and the power of the Holy Ghost just absolutely filled that room. he, and Kendra were such a big help. and by the end of the lesson, we were all in tears. bawling actually. it was probably one of the most spiritual experiences of my whole life! we taught them a lot of doctrine, but it was the most powerful when we were talking about how much God loves them. how He truly is their Father in Heaven. then we told them how much we love them, and are praying for them. i have never felt so much love for someone! i love those girls. praying night and day that they can KNOW this church is true. its all depending on their Catholic parents right now. please pray for them! we also took them to YW this week where we learned to Tahitian dance :) it was a party and made me miss being in Young Womens.

we have been working with Luz to get names to take to the temple soon. and she got some! 3 names :) her father, and grandparents. i am so excited for her! coolest part - we start entering a few things on familysearch, come to find out her grandma has already been baptized, someone has done all the temple work for her. she's a member! also, Jose. man, i think i have prayed and cried and studied more for him than all investigators i have ever taught, combined. we had a powerful lesson with him on Friday though. (with Hermano Argueta again! im telling you.... he is so awesome.) the Spirit was so strong! he now knows that HE has to read and pray and ask God. he is going to Peru soon for 2 weeks, so we'll see what happens. 

we had a lot of member meals again this week, i can't even tell you how much i dearly love these members in the Mississauga ward. they are so good to us! they truly feel like family to me. i can't imagine my life without them.

oh! so yesterday we had a multi stake conference for the North America North East region... which includes us. it was a broadcast from SLC, and we got to hear from Elder Kacher, Sister Reeves, Elder Neil L. Anderson, and Elder Robert D. Hales. the best part is, The Neves family, (the Brazilian family we are teaching) CAME! it was so perfect. it made me so happy to see that family walk in. we have started teaching the whole family... AND they feed us delish Brazilian food. they definitely received direct revelation from the Apostles! as did i :)

i am learning and focusing a lot right now on the laws of Sacrifice and consecration. they go hand in hand, and they are SO important, especially for a missionary. it is so special to me. this time serving the Lord is so special to me. and i want to put my whole heart and soul into it <3 and="" be="" grateful="" happy="" healthy="" here="" im="" to="" u="">

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

week 45

well we definitely had some challenging days this week, Hermana Flake and i got food poisoning from something, and we almost hit rock bottom when all of our appointments fell through yesterday and not a single investigator came to church. but then we remembered that our area is ON FIRE right now. and that everything happens for a reason :) its all in God's hands because this is HIS work! and as long as we are doing our part, He promises to do His. He has a greater plan :) you could definitely say it made us want to work even harder though! to really find the elect. i am doing all i can right now to consecrate and humble myself to do God's will, to strengthen my faith, to see miracles, and to baptize the multitudes! 

the greatest miracle this week happened just last night. after our really challenging Sunday, we felt prompted to pass by a potential investigator later that night.... about 4 hours after our scheduled appointment when she didn't answer her door. when we returned though, she let us in and told us she was so sorry that she wasn't there earlier, but that they had to go to the hospital for her daughter. we sat down with the family (her + her daughter and son) and told them our purpose as missionaries and got to know them a bit. her name is Yolanda, they are from Mexico! i love Mexicans :) they are so excited to learn more about the Gospel. we shared with them the Restoration pamphlets and we are going back this Friday. this family is solid and i know its an answer to the millions of prayers offered by Hermana Flake and i to place families in our path <3 -="" :="" a="" also="" and="" another="" answers="" appointment="" are="" area.="" blessing="" brazilian="" children="" christ.="" cleaning="" contact="" coolest="" decided="" dinner="" especially="" eternal.="" everyone="" fallen="" family="" find="" found="" garage="" get="" god="" gonna="" gospel="" had="" happy="" have="" her="" how="" husband="" i="" in="" is="" it="" jesus="" know="" lives="" make="" makes="" me="" meet.="" nbsp="" now="" of="" oh="" originally="" our="" part="" portuguese="" prayers="" restored="" s="" share="" spanish="" speak="" teach="" teaching="" that="" the="" them="" this="" through="" to="" u="" valesca="" we="" week="" what="" when="" who="" with="" wow="" yolanda="">

it started getting warm this past week! FINALLY. we were coat AND jacket free. its going to rain all this week but at least we saw the sun for a few days. i can't wait for summer :) we have been going running now every morning. gotta stay in shape when we're getting fed lots by the wonderful members here :) haha i just love them though! i love them with all my heart. the people here are so amazing.

life is GOOD! i am so happy to be here. i hope all is well at home. i love you all so much, and feel so much love for you too while being away. i know missions are a big sacrifice but really, it hasn't been a sacrifice for all that i have gained. im praying for you always. and THANK YOU for the endless amount of love and support i receive, i am truly grateful for you all. 

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

week 44

what a great week!!! my heart is full of gratitude today for the love i have for the mission, missionary work, and the Gospel. we are so blessed. i sure do love this work! i have some awesome miracle stories to tell too :)

first thing's first, JOSE ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE! do you have any idea how long i have been praying for that? day and night, for 3 1/2 months now. and he said YES! so we had a lesson with him on Friday, which was actually outside haha. it wasn't cold (finally warming up here! i am not even wearing tights today! this is a big step kids.) but it was super windy! we were on exchanges, and my companion for the day, Sister Leung (chinese) spoke no Spanish. so we would teach and i would translate, teach, testify, translate... repeat. it was quite fun! we answered a lot of questions like we normally do, he always has 100. but he felt the spirit. and he finally understands that Joseph Smith had the same question as he does - which church is true? Sis Leung extended the baptismal invitation... he didn't understand so i translated and also testified to him that if he commits to wanting to get baptized on a specific date, and prays to know its ALL true, he'll know! and he said YES! May 3 :) i cried. because prayers do get answered :) now i just gotta pray even HARDER that he receives an answer. i have come to realize though that a mission isn't about you at all, and i love praying and pleading and studying in behalf of the people here who i love so dearly. also, with Sister Leung on Friday we taught an investigator named Elena who speaks absolutely no English. so i basically taught that lesson alone. welcome to this awesome diverse multi language mission! annndddd Sister Leung fell asleep cause she didn't understand anything hahahaha i love exchanges :)

miracle round 2: NATASHA and KATHERINE. so monday night Kendra set it all up for us to teach her twin best friends from Costa Rica who she really wants to share the gospel with (she's such a little missionary! i love her.) we headed to her house after we finished pday... she even made dinner for us all! after we ate we taught them L1 - the Restoration. they LOVED it! i will never forget their faces when we told them Joseph Smith's experience. we were wrapping up, and after 5x of already bearing our testimonies again and again, Katherine said to me, wait, can you bear your testimonies again? she then asked us if she could say the closing prayer! they want to be baptized, they even want to serve MISSIONS! talk about prepared daughters of God. haha they have asked us like 100 questions about the church in the last week, they LOVE everything about it and want to be baptized so bad. we are just figuring things out with their super Catholic dad but he agreed to let us come teach him this week and said he'll come with them to church this Sunday. more prayers answered!

we had to say goodbye yesterday to our progressing investigator Carlos :( he knows the church is true (answers received through Conference! the church is true:) and is ready to be baptized!!!! he is going back to Venezuela to see his (member) wife and children. i wish we could go with him! 

oh! one more thing! this week we took Luz to to family history at some members house. it was so cool! she can't remember all the dates for the births/deaths of her family members but just absolutely lit up doing it. she is preparing to go the temple on May 2. please pray for her!

i am learning so much as a missionary and i am grateful for it everyday. we can always be better, and i love that everyday i have the opportunity to wake up and work my hardest to BE better! to be more like Christ and to be a better missionary. ill never be perfect at this, but i am grateful for Christ's infinite Atonement to know that i canbe better. i love this Gospel.

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON

ps: we went running this morning and i fell again. hahaha that is the 3rd companion i have fallen with while running. sos!

week 43

Querido Familia y Amigos, 

Conference and Easter were SO GREAT! man, i learned so much. in the words of our mission president, Pres Clayton, "every year, is the best year ever of conference." so true! because every time we receive so much revelation from our Father in Heaven for the things He would have us know and do. also, Elder Clayton from the 70 that spoke.... that's our mission president's brother! his talk was awesome. my favorite talks were from Elder Bednar, President Uchtdorf, + Elders Pearson and Renlund from the 70. so amazing! the thing that touched my heart the most was how i can become a better disciple of Christ. to ALWAYS put Him first. to continually serve Him, and to follow Him because i love Him. i truly love my Savior. Easter morning was so special, we had a conference call with the whole mission and read about the Risen Christ in John 20. probably one of the strongest times i have felt the Spirit in my whole life. i KNOW Christ lives! and i am eternally grateful for Him and His sacrifice for me and all of God's children. it has truly changed me, and i want everyone to have the kind of happiness i have received from knowing He is the Son of God, the Savior of the World. i loved that Conference was so focused on Christ because of Easter. it was also focused so much on marriage and family! oh how it made me so excited to start my own someday :) anyways, i LOVED conference & Easter!

soooooo there was a blizzard on Saturday night. a white Easter! we didn't even have snow on Christmas in Canada this past year, so may as well have it for Easter right? haha it snowed SO hard! it was great because after sitting all day for Conference, we decided to head out for the little proselyting time we had at night and just talk to EVERYONE about Easter and invite them to check out Because He Lives. it started snowing so so hard and we were just laughing and having so much fun haha :) 

Hermana Flake and i have been doing great :) we are seeing miracles everyday! people we are teaching update: Luz! another one. the girl we talked to last week while we were OYM-ing, that i talked about in my last email. we taught her this week! it was a really great lesson, and although she said "ya me fui bautizada. soy católica" #everyanswerweget haha but God has a plan for her. Jose and Carlos are our progressing investigators. we teach them both quite often. Carlos is getting baptized in 3 weeks when he goes to Venezuela (!!!!! i wish we could just go with him!!! he's awesome. im so excited for him.) and Jose.... i plead with the Lord every night that he will find answers to his questions and desire to be baptized. we've been teaching him for 3 months now. he has a lot of questions but we are hoping conference answered a lot of them! and, the other Luz (who just got baptized) is doing awesome too. we gave her a bag full of church books for her baptism and she is literally cruising through them haha. i love her.

i had an awesome interview with president this week, i felt so guided and so much love. i just feel so grateful to be on the Lords errand, working in His vineyard, with Him. time is limited and i really want to serve Him with all my heart might mind and strength. i feel so blessed to have such amazing and supportive friends and family, thank you for strengthening me and cheering me on! i love you all! read the Book of Mormon. "everyday, everyday, everyday." :) -Elder Pearson. i know it is true!

XOXO, HERMANA HORTON