The Sabbath Day

9/21/15

It's been a pretty great last couple of weeks! Lots of meetings and exchanges with other sisters but it's all been so fun! 

This week President Grant (President Mullen's new counselor) gave us a training on Keeping the Sabbath Day holy and it was so good.  He shared with us videos from a conference with the Quorum of the Twelve when they met together to discuss this topic and it was so powerful.  We discussed how our actions on the Sabbath day should reflect on our Savior and our LOVE FOR HIM.   I loved that.  It made me really think about the things I do on the Sabbath day (especially before my mission) and how I can change them to show my love for the Savior.  A.k.a. no more homework on Sundays for me! But I think that coolest thing that I learned is that we talked about how partaking of the Sacrament isn't just renewing our baptismal covenant.  Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that it's a renew of just our baptismal covenant.  But it's a renewal of ALL of our covenants.  That blew my mind! So cool. Definitely something more to think about as we're taking the Sacrament each week.

Anyways, sorry this is short, but I love you all! I hope you have a great week! 

Love,  

Hermana Horne 

The Spirit Speaks so we can Hear

w/ two "daughters" (trainees) Hm. Jordan & Visick

8/24/15

So the biggest news of this week is that I was called to be a Sister Training Leader.  And I'll still be finishing Hna.Visick's training.  So that's pretty exciting but I'm also pretty nervous.  That's a lot of responsibility.  But I was thinking a lot about what Spencer said like two weeks ago when he was called as a District Leader and a trainer... that these responsibilities give us opportunities to grow, so I know this will be a transfer of a lot of learning and growing and relying on the Lord. 

Anyways, we have several really great investigators, who are willing to be baptized, but the biggest issue is getting them to church.  So we'll probably be doing some church tours in this coming week. 

But we had a really cool experience with an investigator a couple of nights ago.  It was our first lesson with her and we were teaching her the Restoration. She stopped us right after we shared the First Vision with her.  She told us that ever since we said the opening pray she felt like there was something warm going all throughout her body and she had never felt anything like it before.  She recognized that it was a sign that our message is true. That was such a powerful experience and lesson.  It's incredible how, when people are ready and willing to accept it, the Spirit will testify to them in a way that they'll recognize. 

I'm so incredibly (<--- it just took me like a solid 45 seconds to figure out how to spell that word. Sorry mom, I'm definitely not getting smarter on my mission) grateful for the Spirit and that we have the opportunity to feel it every day.  It's so cool. 

Anyways, I'm sending love! 

Hermana Horne 

Coming to Know God

"Stormin' Mormon"  Baseball Game

(With Peeps from Lake Elsinore)

w/ Hm. Visick

w/Brittany Perez

w/ Daniela & Evelyn Ramirez

w/ Luna

w/ Hm. Visick

w/ Hm. Guzman

w/ the Perez family

8/10/15

So this week was super fun! In Lake Elsinore the minor league baseball team is the Storm and on Friday they had a "Stormin' Mormon" night. Classic.  So all the missionaries in our mission got to go to that, along with our mission president and several stake presidents.  It was a blast! It was so fun to get together with all of the missionaries and enjoy a baseball game (didn't think I'd be doing that on my mission).  But the best part was that a lot of members from Lake Elsinore that I LOVE and have missed so much were there! So it was great being able to see them again and catch up a little bit.  Since Lake Elsinore was my first area it just felt like home.

Anyways, this week I've been reading about the sons of Mosiah and their missions in the Book of Mormon.  Something that really stuck out to me was in Alma 22:18.  Here, Aaron is preaching to the father of King Lamoni, teaching him about God.  This verse is the prayer of the king and he says, 

O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

That was so powerful to me.  This man, who doesn't even fully know that there is a God yet, is willing to give away all his sins to know God.  It kind of goes with what I wrote about last week, about loving God, but that's been on my mind a lot lately.  What are we willing to give up and leave behind in order to know God? 

I'm still working on coming to know God but I know that there are so many blessings that come when we are willing to try. We have more peace and life is fuller. 

Anyways, that's all for this week, but I'm sending love! 

Les quiero mucho, 

Hermana Horne   

Becoming

Manalo's Wedding

Manalo's Baptism

8/3/15

This week was such a good one! We had an awesome Multi-Zones on Tuesday.  The highlight of it was a class that President Mullen gave on Becoming.  It had a big impact on me. He talked about becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ and what that entails. A big part of it goes along with the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go."  We need to go where the Lord wants us to go, say what the Lord wants us to say, and be who the Lord wants us to be. Therefore, align our will with God's. 

Something that we talked about with this is that the greatest TEST in life is to obey God.  The greatest TASK in life is to learn the will of God and do it.  And the greatest COMMANDMENT in life is to love God.  

I've been thinking a lot about that this past week and the idea of loving God. As Moroni 10:32 tells us, truly loving God requires all our might, mind and strength.  It's not something that we can give a half effort to. In the words of President Mullen, "It's all-consuming and all-encompassing." So what are we willing to do, what are we willing to give us to truly love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength? 

Anyways, we were also able to attend the wedding of our investigator, Manolo this week! He is absolutely awesome.  He's quite an example of making changes in order to know God, in order to truly love God. While the wedding this week was just a civil wedding, done by our bishop, their end goal is to be sealed in the temple a year from now. 

And Manolo entered into the waters of baptism on Sunday.  It was such a nice service (we had to move to the chapel because there were so many people there) and Manolo was SO HAPPY afterwards.  This is something that he's been working really hard towards and I have no doubt that he's going to be a strong leader in the church.  

I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to be a part of teaching him and that I could learn from his example. Missionary work is so great! 

I love you all! I hope you have an excellent week and are able to find ways that you can show your love for God and others.  

Les quiero mucho, 

Hermana Horne 

God Works in Mysterious Ways

All the new trainers and trainees

New trainee, Hm. Visick

7/20/15

It has truly been a week of miracles, in so many ways.  I know now, more than ever, that Heavenly Father knows each of us, individually, and He hears our prayers. I can't begin to describe the joy that I feel in having that knowledge. I'll share an experience that I had here in the mission field that was a testimony of that to me...

This last week was transfers and I was called to be a trainer, but we were also doubled-in to an area, so neither myself, nor my companion, Hermana Visick knew any investigators or really who we should work with.  We decided to try to visit some former investigators.  Before our day started, we pulled some names of former investigators out of our area book and started to look through them and find the people that we thought we should visit.  I had picked out some names that I felt good about and put the rest of the names back into the area book.  But when I came back to where I had been sitting there was one name that had been left out.  I intended to put it back in the book, but as I picked it up, I felt that we needed to visit that person, Sergio. As I read his record, nothing really stood out to me, but I still felt that we needed to visit him.  So I put his record with the rest of the names we were going to visit, figuring we'd get to it.  

We planned to visit a couple of other people first, but when we got in the car I again felt like we needed to go visit this Sergio guy.  So we went.  We pulled up and the house looked empty, but we decided to try anyways.  As we walked up, the door opened.  A man walked out and asked if we were the renters.  We explained who we were and asked if Sergio was there.  He told us that the previous tenant had moved out a couple of days ago. I was a little bummed, but we asked him if we could share a video with him about Jesus Christ and he let us right in. As we talked to him a little more we found out that he had been sober for two years, but relapsed when we went to Vegas two days ago.  He was "racked with guilt" and beating himself up about it.  We testified to him of the power of repentance and that Jesus Christ is there to help us along the way, even if we do mess up.  The whole time we were there he kept talking about how amazing it was that we were there.  We testified to him the God knows him and is aware of his needs, and that's why we were there.  And I too know that that's why we were there.  Heavenly Father was aware of this man and his feelings of defeat.  He sent us there to answer this man's prayer.  At the end of our lesson with him we knelt in prayer, but before he offered the prayer, He looked at us and said, "God works in mysterious ways." 

I know, without a doubt, that there is a God.  He knows us and loves us.  Every single one of us.  The saint, the sinner, and the in-between.  It doesn't matter who were are or what we've done.  We're all children of a loving Heavenly Father and he's there for us.  

I know that us showing up at this man's house was an answer to his prayers.  And Heavenly Father has answered my own personal prayers in ways that I never would have expected.  It's incredible how He works.... in mysterious ways. 

I love you all so much! Never forget that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and hears your prayers. 

Les querio mucho, 

Hermana Horne 

Pictures

6/29/15

Temple w/ Hm Gomez

 Pet taranchala at a member's home

Tamales!  Can't wait to make them at home!

Sista's!

Hike up Robidoux Mtn.

Dustin, a friend from "the old life" crashed the mish!

It's all in the Lord's Time

Janelly's Baptism

6/8/15

What an incredible week it has been! Man, Heavenly Father loves us.  

We had a baptism on Sunday and it was great.  Janelly, our 12 year old investigator got baptized and she was so happy.  Her mom is a member and part of her family came up from Mexico for the baptism.  And the rest of Janelly's family and friends came as well.  It was so great to see them all there, supporting her, along with all of the ward members. She's going to be a great addition to this ward! 

We also had another investigator come to church, which is really exciting because she's beginning to progress and work towards baptism.  And we found two new investigators last night. Yesterday really was a day of miracles.  We went downtown to visit a potential investigator and while we were parking there was a guy watching us.  He was outside playing with his puppies so we stopped to talked to him.  He said he'd be interested in hearing more so we got his number and planned on talking to him later and went on our way.  But then the people we were going to teach were busy and didn't let us in.  As we were walking back to our car, the man we had talked to was still there so we ended up sitting down and having a lesson with him right then.  He had a lot of really good questions and seems pretty open.  He even accepted a baptismal date, although he definitely wants to make sure he's ready to be baptized by then.

Everything that happened this week was really a testimony to me of working diligently until the end.  The beginning of this week was pretty slow for us.  We had several days where we didn't get very many lessons and we were having a hard time finding people to teach.  But we kept the faith and kept working hard. And our hard work paid off because we saw so many miracles on the last day of the week! I think sometimes I forget that it's not about what I want when I want it.  The Lord has a plan.  When we trust in the Lord and his timing, and work until the end, so many miracles come. 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve Him and learn and grow from the things He has to teach me.  I love you all! I hope you're all doing well. 

Les quiero mucho,

Hermana Horne 

Lessons Learned

5/18/15 (Oops.  Out of order)

So I definitely learned some lessons in following the Spirit this week... good and bad. But we'll start with the good...

Yesterday we went to contact a referral downtown and we knocked on the door and the people weren't home.  But in the apartment building next door I saw a little boy who was maybe 2 years old and hispanic, looking out the window at us.  Usually I would have thought nothing of it, but I felt like we should try to visit them.  My companion wasn't sure about it but I thought that we really should so we went.  We knocked on the door and a guy named Rodolfo answered.  He was the little boy's dad.  He was super nice and we explained to him that we're missionaries and had a message of Jesus Christ that helps strengthen families and we talked about that a little bit.  I told him that we felt like we needed to knock on their door and it was probably God who guided us there.  He agreed and opened the door wide and said that we could come in! We were so surprised! Unfortunately, his wife wasn't home so we couldn't go in.  But he gave us his number so we can set up an appointment and he seems pretty open.  Whether or not anything comes of it, t was definitely a testimony builder of following the spirit! 

Now for the not so good... We have a super awesome who's preparing for baptism.  Her baptismal date was set for the 31st of May.  On Saturday and Sunday morning Hna.Gomez and I both had little feelings that we should call her just to make SURE that they were coming to church.  We didn't talk about it, but I brushed those feelings off because her and her mom are super solid and were like 100% committed to coming to church when we had our last lesson with them.  And they told the member that we took with us that they'd be coming as well. But they didn't come to church:( We called and called right before church but no one answered. We went by after church and the mom said she had been working so they couldn't go. We told them that now we have to move her date to the 7th of june and her mom was super sad. She was like man! If I had known I would have dropped her off. We were super sad too because we could have gotten her a ride! If only we had followed the prompting of the Spirit to call and find out we could have made sure she'd be at church. So it's definitely our fault that we didn't make SURE they had a way to church and everything.  Lessons learned... we're repenting. But we're still stoked about the baptism on the 7th, but it's the weekend right after the transfer so Hna.Gomez and I might not be companions still.  But it's okay because we'll still be able to come back for the baptism.  And our investigator is still getting baptized so it's all good! 

But it's been a really good week! I love being here.  I love being a missionary.  There are SO MANY good things about it! Love you all! Que tengan exito a donde vayan.

Les quiero mucho, 

Hermana Horne 

According to Our Faith

5/26/15

This last week was awesome! We've been trying really hard to get this one family to come to church.  They really have sincere desires to know if it's true, but they've always been Catholic and they don't want to "play games with God." Totally understandable.  But we were able to give them a tour of the church a week and a half ago and the Spirit was so strong in the chapel.  It was really great for them to be able to go and see what the building is like and feel the Spirit that's there. 

And then they came to church on Sunday! It was so great. They weren't able to stay for the full 3 hours because the little boy didn't want to go to nursery so they took him home, but they said they're going to stay next time.  But it was just great to see them there.  That was a big step for them and I know it will help them get closer to receiving their answer as to whether this church is true. 

We've definitely seen a lot of blessings in this area and in the last week.  

I'm absolutely loving serving in Riverside, but transfers are coming up next weekend so who knows what's going to happen! They could send me anywhere.  But I'm hoping to be staying for another transfer.  I love the people here.  There's some great members and we have some great investigators. But we'll see.  I'll go where the Lord wants me to go. 

                           

I was asked to give a training in District Meeting last week on finding effort and contacting people on the streets.  Even though I work at it, it's definitely something that I need to build my faith with.  I think the Lord knew that and that's the reason why I was asked to give the training. As I studied for it I definitely felt my faith increase. I shared Alma 5:11-13 as part of the training and we talked about how there was a mighty change wrought in the heart of Alma according to his faith. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, not just for the training on finding, but also as part of life in general.  So many blessings we see, so many experiences we have, so many things happen according to our faith. And if we're praying for a particular thing to happen, we need to have the faith that it can happen, if it be the will of God. 

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to grow my faith every single day and to help others recognize the seed of faith that's already planted in their hearts.  I know that this church is true and that when we're living our life, striving to align our will with God's, we'll feel more peace and happiness in our lives. 

Love you guys.  Que tengan una buenisima semana! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Horne 

Birthday Celebrations

Birthday hike up Robidoux Mountain - April 27, 2015

More Birthday Celebrations!

Baby chicken in the kitchen!(?)

Marriachi Band at Ward Activity

Big City Lights

4-27-15

So I'm serving in Riverside now and I absolutely love it.  I'm companions with Hermana Gomez and I love her so much! We get along super well and she's such a hard worker. Having such an awesome companion has made being here so much more fun. 

And it's super fun serving in the city of Riverside! For all of my mission I've been in pretty small towns, so I am loving the city! The feel of it is just so vibrant and cultural. I think I'm a city girl at heart.

And I've heard so many good things about this area, so I'm excited to be here. I've never felt so sure that this is where I'm supposed to be at this time, which is a good feeling.

The work is going pretty well. We're working on finding solid investigators, but we have one, Miguel, who is pretty cool! He accepted a baptismal date for the end of May so we're hoping to be able to help him progress towards that.

Today I've been celebrating turning 21! Woot woot! It's been a really awesome day.  Probably one of my favorite birthdays.  We went and hiked Mt.Roubidoux (not sure how you spell it) with the elders in our zone this morning at like 7 am.  We all met at their apartment complex and before we left they brought out a cake with candles on it and sang to me, which was really nice. 

The hike was awesome and there was a great view of Riverside from the top.  I'll have to send pictures next week. Then we played a little bit of kickball afterwards.

When we got home, the sisters that we live with had decorated our apartment for me.  It looks like we're about to have a fiesta (with pin the tale of the donkey and everything!). Then we went out to Cheesecake Factory with all the hermanas who are serving around here (including Hna.Juarez and Hna.Carlson, two of my past companions).

So so far it's been a pretty awesome day! And a pretty awesome week!  I'm happy to be here.  I love being on a mission. And I'm so stoked for Spencer, who's about to enter the MTC in a couple days. What an awesome missionary he's going to be!  I love you all so much.  I love this work.  I love this gospel.  I love the Lord. Cuidense.

Les quiero mucho,

Hermana Horne

Fernandito's Baptism

4-13-15

 

 

Halfway and Still Hoppin'

4-6-15

     Mckayla is half way done!                 This is McKayla's "9 month" or "half-way" picture! 

 

                                                           Easter Sunday

 

HAPPY EASTER! And conference weekend! What could be better? Conference was the bomb.  I loved every second of it and was so sad when it ended.  But man, did I feel drained.  Spiritually and physically.  Isn't it crazy how feeling the Spirit can do that to you? But I also felt SO UPLIFTED.  So many of the talks were amazing.  I loved Wilford W. Anderson's talk about dancing to the music and helping others to hear it.  How often do we dance and just expect that others can hear the music? There's little things we can do to help others to tune into the music. I thought it was so powerful. 

Another one of my favorites was President Uchtdorf's talk on the grace of God.  God's grace is something that I've really studied, learned a lot about, and continuing seeking knowledge on as I've been on my mission.  It's a topic that's close to my heart, as I've gained such a testimony of the grace of God as I've been serving my mission.  So his talk hit home with me. Grace is such an incredible thing. It unlocks the gates and opens the windows of heaven.  How incredible! What I love the most is that "His grace refines us." As President Uchtdorf said, it's through grace that God's power and strength is poured out upon us so that we can BECOME BETTER.  We can try our hardest to become better, but it becomes so much easier when we rely on the powers of God to help get us there.  And it's so true. I have such a testimony of that and the strengthening and enabling power of Atonement. We are truly nothing without it. 

That being said, let's talk about the fact that I'm HALFWAY through my mission and man, I could not have overcome the trials or experienced the triumphs without God's help along the way. It's been an absolutely amazing 9 months.  I've really come to see the change in myself and my desires as I've been here.  Those changes have come slowly, but surely, as I've worked to align my will with God's (and I still have a long way to go). So I can't wait to apply what I've learned (as mom suggested) and continue to learn more as I go through these next 9 months. 

Also, fun fact, you know you've been a missionary for a while once you start getting callouses on your knees from praying so much.  Like what? I didn't even know that could happen. But it has! haha 

Also, shout out to my companion, Hermana Jordan, because she made me me an awesome breakfast of German pancakes and a nice little card to celebrate my halfway mark. (She also made crepes on Easter... she's basically the best).  Then we found an ice cream truck and sister Jordan bought her first ice cream bar from an ice cream truck.  It was a monumental day for both of us. :)

Anyways, love you all so much! 

Con amor,

Hermana Horne 

M I S S I O N c a l l

3-30-15

Found a lizard!

Temple Trip w/ Hma Jordan

So first and foremost... SPENCER GOT HIS MISSION CALL! I'm stoked for you, Spence! The Pocatello, Idaho mission is going to be so much better off with you there! The highlight of my week was probably being able to Skype with you guys for that short time to watch Spencer open his call. As soon as he started reading the call I definitely felt the Spirit. Mission calls come from the Lord, there's no doubt about it. 

This last week was an interesting one.  We have an investigator who came to church last Sunday and started a little bit of a stir in our Sunday school class about Christ turning water into wine. He got pretty heated.  So that, with the fact that he's a pretty built guy, led the elders to suggest to us that we always bring a priesthood holder over when we meet with him (we usually just brought another woman with us). Which I agree with, it's safer that way, plus, it's better fellowship for him.  Well, for some reason this week we had the hardest time finding priesthood holders who could come with us (and believe me, we called/ talked to A LOT of people).  So unfortunately, we weren't about to see him at all this week, which was kind of rough. But he's called to ask why we haven't come by, which is good.  And hopefully this will just give him more time to read the Book of Mormon! 

But on a brighter side, we have an awesome investigator, Maria, who is literally the most prepared person I have ever taught on my mission.  She is so ready to accept the things we teach her (and she accepted a baptismal date), and she is really working to get an answer. And when she came to church she wanted to sit in the FRONT so she could see and hear better! No one ever wants to sit in the front! Haha I was so impressed. So that is awesome.  We love her.

Other than that things are pretty normal.  We enjoyed watching the General Woman's Session of conference on Saturday, although it was sad to not be there in person with grandma Edgley like past years.  But it was just as good watching it from the stake center as it would have been from the conference center! And I am so excited about these upcoming sessions of conference! We have a whole weekend to FEAST on the words of today's prophets and apostles. I am so grateful for that. I hope all of you set aside time and make watching conference a priority.  Because it's so so good! 

Also, if you haven't seen the Because He Lives video... go watch it! And share it with all of your friends! Not just through facebook, but invite them to your home and share it with them so that they can really feel the spirit of the video.  Be member missionaries! The link for the video is HeLives.mormon.org and in spanish it'sElVive.mormon.org, for all the Spanish-speaking people you know. 

Anyways, love you all! And thank you for all the love and support! 

xoxo, 

Hermana Horne 

Training is the BOMB

3-16-15

Okay so I absolutely love training! And my trainee! She's the best! Her name's Hermana Jordan and she's so awesome! So ready to work and be obedient and learn.  It's awesome! She's definitely the right trainee for me. 

Not going to lie, there are definitely some hard parts to training, but I can feel the Lord strengthening me so much.  It's incredible. And the good parts definitely out way the hard parts.  It's so cool to see how much Hermana Jordan has learned and grown already.  And I'm learning so much from her as well.  Ah, I LOVE IT. 

This week I gained such a real testimony that the Lord answers our prayers, especially our specific prayers. I'm so grateful for that.  He loves us and he knows each one of us personally.  It's so dang cool. 

I love you all! Have an awesome week! 

Les quiero mucho! 

Hermana Horne 

It's a Girl!

Denise & David's Baptism

All the missionaries who helped teach Denise & David.

Best District Ever!

I "mustache" you a question.

A tortilla in honor of my home state!

A Welcome for my new "daughter"!

3-9-15

So big news... I'm training a new missionary!  President Mullen called me Saturday morning and asked me if I would accept the call as a trainer.  He told me that this is one of the highest signs of trust he could give a missionary.  So I'm kind of freaking out.  I don't feel like I know what I'm doing enough to be able to train someone else. But God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies those he calls, right? So hopefully that holds true! I'm really excited though. I can't wait to meet this new missionary and get to work! I'm gonna be a mission mama! Ahh she flies in tomorrow, so I'm staying in Riverside tonight and then I'm going to the mission office tomorrow afternoon for meetings and to meet/ pick up my "daughter"!

Sunday was our last day with our district.  Sister Bowen is going home, Elder Anderson is going to Riverside to be and AP (Assistant to the President) and Elder Aguilar is going to Hemet to be a zone leader! So half of us are going and half are staying.  But this has been a really fun district! 

Yesterday we were able to go up to a baptism in Riverside for a family that we taught here in Perris.  Just the two kids were baptized (the "step-dad" is a member), but the mom will be soon and the whole family is super supportive.  Their grandparents are members of our ward so it was cool to see everyone there supporting them. So David and Denise were baptized and it was so good! As soon as David stepped down into the water I felt overwhelmed with love for them.  It made me so happy to see them making this covenant. Baptism is such an awesome thing.  I love it. 

After the baptism we went to a member's house and she taught us how to make flour tortillas.  I loved it! They were so good.  Hispanics are the coolest. 

Anyways, I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week. Keep the Faith! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Horne