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