Buried in SNOW

Hello my droogee ( friends )!

So this was our first week with just Sister Tayco and I, taking on the very snowy valley that is Morgan County. So far.. we have survived! Haha. Although it is pretty crazy how much snow we've gotten down here! While you all Calgary folk have a nice Chinook breeze I'm sure (I got a weather app ;)) we have gotten about 3 feet of snow this past week, about 20 inches in just the weekend I think. There are giant piles of snow everywhere and the walkways to people houses are as if you're walking in a maze of snow hedges! Those are the result of the snow blowers that pretty much everyone around here has. I have had to contain myself from jumping into them quickly a few times ahaha... if only I had snow pants.. Oh well aha. The other day when it finally stopped snowing we shoveled the snow off the driveways of a couple of our neighbors. There was so much snow and the driveways here are pretty big so it took a long time for us just to do two! but it felt good to help. And I made a furry friend while shoveling, a neighbor's cat who loved me and almost followed me back into our house haha.

We had a few big conferences this week. We had a new missionary training conference for all those who came at the same time as me. Then we saw the worldwide missionary broadcast where they made a few changes to the schedule and the key indicators ( what we report back ) which was interesting to see, the changes weren't huge but the main difference with schedule is it gives us more of a chance to use our agency on when we should do things. The Lord trusts His missionaries! And one huge thing I've seen this week as I rely more on the Lord, He truly does comfort and guide and strengthens me. You see miracles when you put your trust in the Lord.
 

Also another awesome thing we got  to go to was a missionary conference with Elder Christopherson! It was an awesome experience and we ( all the mission) got to sing the EFY medley for a special number. It was hard not to laugh though when we were practicing because our conductor made us sing some parts super slow ahah. His words were very inspiring and helpful in learning how to be better missionaries and work with the ward more, one thing I loved that he said in his testimony was that the Lord is actively leading His church; He is doing a great work and sometimes He let's us help. I love that, and I know it's so true. He also said that our confidence can be in His ability to bring people unto Him. We are His hands, but it's His work.

Still waiting patiently for my visa.. this will be the last week until another transfer starts. But I love it here in Morgan and I'm happy to serve wherever the Lord needs me.

Love you all!

1. We also got to see Sis Novotny there! It was right beside the beautiful Ogden temple.

3-8 animals from last week

9 an old burned down church I found

We bought a zoo

Добрый день!

Time is going by way fast! I can't believe I've only got two more weeks of this transfer left! It's definitely been an interesting week! We had my first zone conference, which was really good! We learned more creative ways to find people and we studied Lehi's vision from the Book of Mormon. I learned that EVERYONE was enveloped in the darkness-- no matter who we are we will all have temptations and trials-- but only those who were CLINGING to the rod of iron - which is the word of God- were those who made it to the tree of life ( which is interpreted to be the love of God, or pure joy). Guys! the Book of Mormon is so amazing and reading the word of God everyday is the thing that will keep us on the narrow path that leads to true joy.

On Thursday we had exchanges;  which is where the Sister training leaders switch with companionship for 24 hours and so sister Tayco left and Sister Harris came. That day though, we got to do service for this awesome lady we know who always needs a lot of help on her farm. So I got to put some water in the horse and bulls pens. Sweep the barn and shovel manure, fun! Haha! it really was though. I love doing service. Especially when there are animals involved aha. This is the place where we petted the horses before, she has a stallion and a bunch of other horses. She also had a super puffed up cat so I picked her up and yelled "It's so FLUFFY!" Hahah. I have been very fortunate to be in an area where so many people have pets and farms with tons of different animals and I try my best to meet and pet as many as I can! Lol. Dogs, cats, bulls, horses, zebras, goats, camels... What? Zebras and camels? Hahah yup that's right! 

Another day we also got to meet some cool wild animals at a lady's house where she adopts and rescues these cool animals. She got a zebra just cause she wanted to but she also took in a donkey, a camel named Cairo, fainting goats and buffalo!  It was so cool! I got to feed the camel ( anyone who follows me on Instagram.. this would be my 4th;) ) I'll send the pictures of that next week:)

We got some sad news this week though. Sister Novotny will be leaving us tomorrow for an emergency transfer to Ogden. A sister there is going home with a medical release and so Sister Novotny will be replacing her and will stay there until the end of her mission ( march)! We have become really good friends already and I'm going to miss her a lot! 😢 Also I don't exactly know how we're going to survive without her... cause you see, now it will only be just the two of us, Sister Tayco and I, here in the Morgan County area. Sister Tayco only having been out here for 10 weeks or so and me 4, still having no clue what I'm doing some of the time to be honest.. hahah but it is what it is and I know that we can do it because we will have help all along the way from our Heavenly Father and nothing is impossible with Him on our side. I have hope. " I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Philippians 4:13. And I have definitely already been strengthened this week to the ability to not stress about this too much and be positive, I haven't had a breakdown yet!👍 But stay tuned for next week;) and definitely still keep us in your prayers!! :)

Tony is still doing great! We saw him a few times this week but not as many as last week because of exchanges and I'm sure he wanted a little break from us anyway lol but we did have a really sweet experience where one of the elders who teach with me, elder McGurt ( he's hilarious and sometimes talks pretty fast and with more complicated words) gave Tony a priesthood blessing because he was feeling kind of sick and it was a really nice blessing and elder McGurt actually spoke way slower and so I think Tony actually understood it.

God loves you!! I love you! I love the Lord and I love doing His work!  Have an awesome week!

До свидания

Сестра Horne

1. Zone conference - and I picked the funny one because I look bad in the other one

7. A giant icicle I broke off when we were knocking on doors one cold night 

8. There are huge piles of snow on the side of the road so we got on/in one!  Bye sis novotny:(

Тони week!

GUYS! So like this entire week I have been teaching our Russian investigator Tony (тони)!!! Since last Sunday and including tonight I will have taught him 7 times already! A lesson every single night except 2. It's been pretty crazy!  Doesn't give me much time to prepare for the lessons but every time it seems to end up ok. Probably because despite my very small knowledge of Russian the spirit helps to bring the message to his heart and understand it and he has received everything really well! He's been reading the Book of Mormon and says that everything we teach makes sense to Him. I definitely see his faith growing already. He went to church yesterday too! Except I couldn't go with him and he's technically not our investigator because he doesn't live in our area. :/ But oh well, I still count him as our investigator :) He went to church with the elders and the members he lives with though. We have to get a member to drive me every time though and go on splits, so it's a bummer that I have to leave my comps soo much. The members here are so nice though and always so generous with their TIME!

Something fun that we got to do this week is on p-day we went to this fun place called RUSH where we went go-carting and mini golf and laser tagging!! We had so much fun!! The go-carts were even inside and glow in the dark, I've never seen that before!  And it was funny because being my mother's daughter I was screaming a lot because sister Tayco and some elders were crazy and bumping so much and trying to pass me. Haha scary but awesome! And sorry I never got to take any pictures. But it was mostly too dark anyway lol. 

Love you guys!! 

-Cectpa Horne 

1. An angel fell in our lawn!

2. Jk it was me:) 

3. Me explaining how long the Chick-fil-A line was. People like Der chicken here! Ahaha.  ( we only got it once on p-day mom ) :P

4. Me and my lovely comps

Blizzards and Russians

So it's been a pretty busy and crazy week! Definitely pushed out my comfort zone even more. A couple of crazy stories. First is a story of us being caught in a crazy blizzard. The weather has been really cold here this week. And almost always snowing or raining. I don't know maybe I'm being a wimp compared to Calgary or Ukraine but it has definitely been freezing at times. Especially my feet and legs even when I'm wearing two pairs of socks and two leggings. Lol oh well. 

The next story is co-written by Sister Novotny (the driver) and me.

So one rainy Wednesday, we were out contacting in the bitter cold. No one was home so we went over to the bishops house across the street. When we left around 8:45 the rain was replaced with so much snow. We were surprised. This was out in Morgan so we had a long drive home. We were driving, I could not see a thing. We were in the middle of a blizzard. I was just praying that we could see the road and there are a LOT of deer in Morgan so I didn't want one to jump out in front of us. But I think the deer were smart and decided to stay hidden in the blizzard. And then I missed the exit. The only exit before the canyon of doom- We dared not drive through the canyon in that weather. There's only one exit to take to get to our house. So what would 20 and 19 year old girls do? We were backing up (don't worry she had a backer-- ME:) I was running along side the car making sure no one was coming lol it actually looked pretty funny )and that worked really well until we saw cars coming. So I pulled over and this lady pulls up behind us. And then a semi behind her. Apparently the lady missed her exit also. And the truck was going to take 20 minutes. So we didn't want to be disobedient and get home late so.. we jumped the side of the road to the exit. Good thing President gave us a 4 wheel drive car. That was inspired. Because we made it! We were still freezing cold and the snow was crazy ( I eventually just took my glasses off cause I couldn't see and I kept smearing my mascara all over my face aha).  We then went to go help the lady behind us. But we were dumb in the moment and told her that her small car could probably jump it also. Unfortunately, she didn't make it. So we tried our hardest to get her out (we were very sore after) and then we prayed and decided to take her home. 

Then another crazy thing that happened was that I taught a lesson in Russian!! Yup. So what happened was an elder called us on  Friday saying that they had a man in their area that was interested in learning more about our church but could mostly only speak Russian. Then yesterday they told us last minute that we would have a lesson a couple hours later with him. So I felt super scared and unprepared but we went and I managed to teach him the restoration, pretty briefly, with the help of the member who he lives with who speaks just a bit more English. That was nice because I could seriously not understand like anything he said, he spoke SO FAST. definitely a very interesting and different lesson with the elders there too and like two ish translators.. And even though I do get an hour a day of study.. I am so rusty and was never that good to start with so I was a little down on how it went. But over all it must of been ok because he still wants to learn more so we have another lesson today (again not any time to prepare 😑) and my companions were super supportive and said it went really well! I need to work on believing more in  myself and in my Heavenly Father. I admit that I could be way better at having faith because I know that if there is faith there is no fear but I've definitely learned more about relying on the Lord this week. And I do know that he will always pull us through. I am hopeful that this is the reason that I'm here. 😊

Anyway I hope everyone is doing well! Love you all! 

- Cectpa Horne

Pictures from my window.

Christmas-Celebrities-Ogden-Everything!!

Здравствуйте from Ogden!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

Okay so A LOT has happened since my last p-day. That actually seems like years ago.. but over all I just feel so BLESSED.

First of all I had an awesome Christmas. On Saturday night we had a devotional where some of us took part in a nativity, Sister Leuzinger and I sang Mary's lullaby and Sister Newman accompanied us. And all of us were in a mini choir. It actually went pretty well!

Christmas day was amazing, we were so blessed to have Elder Dallin H. Oaks come speak to us with his family who also did some beautiful musical numbers.
I got to call my wonderful family, the half an hour really went by too fast but I'm so grateful to have heard their voices. I am so blessed with an amazing family, And finally to end off this good day with a bang,  you will never guess who came that night... David..... Archuleta Guys!! I think it's needless to say that I freaked out. My district was laughing at me because at the beginning my mouth would not close or stop smiling for probably like a straight 10 minutes. Hahaha. It was really cool, he sang a bunch of Christmas songs, and my two favorites: "Glorious" and "My Little Prayer'. He also talked a lot about his experiences and trials on his mission and on American Idol and how they strengthened his testimony in Christ and his atonement. It was very touching, he's still so much of a missionary.  And then after I got to shake his hand!! :)

I felt very blessed that day but not just for the things that happened but most of all for my Savior. For his birth, his life and finally for His suffering and death for us. Because He came, and overcame - everything-  we can live again and be happy in this life. I hope we all continue to remember Him not just at Christmas time, but every day.

I also feel very blessed for my time at the MTC. For all the people I met. For my teachers who were great at teaching us Russian but made it their priority to make sure we were strengthening our testimonies first.( the only times  they would maybe speak in English hahah)  The amazing devotionals where I got to hear from so many wise and spiritual men and women of God and hear so many beautiful musical performances. Being in the choir was definitely a highlight. Our choir director was so cool, and he literally had a powerful back story to every composer and song we sang. Some things I learned in the MTC is that the Book the Mormon is truly the word of God and I learn from it every time I read it. Russian is hard, but possible. Heavenly Father and Jesus know me personally. I'll never understand when someone says they didn't like the MTC because I was there for 9 weeks and it was one of the best things ever.

So. OGDEN. Well so far it has been great! The people here are all so kind and welcoming, I love them! And it is so beautiful here. I'm actually in the Morgan area which is like in the mountains basically and it's a winter Wonderland. I'm so happy I get to be by mountains for that much longer. I have two new companions my trainer Sister Novotny, she's been out for 15 months and Sister Tayco who has been out for a transfer, also waiting for her visa to go to Trinidad. BTW 6 weeks is a transfer so that's how long I'll be here for sure if my visa comes anytime before then. They are super sweet and helpful and I've learned a lot already.

Missionary work is a little harder in this area since almost every one is already a member. Also it's a very rich area where we live. Super nice houses. Including the one we live in the basement of.
Hahaha so basically this mission is like the exact opposite of what my mission will be like in Ukraine. Lots of members, get fed almost every night (hallelujah), drive a car (every one is pretty spread out ), get to use a tablet (missionary work, including Facebook so I can't message friends and family on it BTW) and I have the random opportunity to meet a Mormon celebrity.


Hahaha so funny and crazy story.. guess who's coming for dinner?? JASON GRAY!! It was unreal. For those who don't know he's a main actor on the sketch comedy show studio C and he is so hilarious. So what happened was we just went to dinner at a nice couples home and they just so happened to have some friends over who they met in college Jason, his wife and adorable daughter. It was so cool to meet him but I was kinda freaking out on the inside. Kept it calm on the outside though guys! No fan girling as a missionary hahah.

New Years was fun! We had a get together with the entire mission and I saw Sister Cuckow!  Now I've seen all of us girls who have left on missions from my seminary class, on my mission. Crazy! Blessed, again.

Anyway sorry for the novel, there was just a lot to say. And that's not even the half of it really! I hope everyone has a fantastic 2017 and makes and keeps their goals! This year's goal I think I can actually accomplish for once in my life so feel free to steal it: Come closer to Christ. :) I can't wait for this awesome year. I know it's going to be a good one.

Sorry again for it being so long.

I got lots of pics too tho:)

Love -

Cectpa Horne