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