#BecauseHeLives

Happy Spring!

The surprise that I had for this week cancelled last minute, so hoping that we can make it happen sometime soon... 

This past week was fantastic. The weather is warming up, which means more walking and talking, and we have been so blessed, and seen so many miracles. God loves His missionaries. And, everyone else! 

The church has a new initiative for Easter! #BecauseHeLives. I would encourage everyone to check out: http://www.mormon.org/easter and watch the video "Because He Lives." There are different methods that you can share the video with friends and family, and we are trying to share it with as many people as we can!

I'm so grateful for the Resurrection of the Savior and for the time that we have to reflect on that this time of year as we look forward to Easter Sunday. I know He lives!! Because He Lives, we too will live. We can be happy, we can be filled with light, we can grow, and change, and become better. As children of God our potential is limitless, and Because He Lives we can access that. Because He Lives I have become a different person, a better person, and that would be impossible without Him. "I know that my Redeemer lives! What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives!" (Hymn 136).

Find Him!

He is Here!

Love,

Elder Horne

Team Canada!

New companion!

Elder Froc is from Canada! Yay! He has dubbed me an honorary Canadian (like I still needed that...), and we love Canada, so life is grand.

Although, despite loving Canada, I still wasn't very happy to see snow, again. When just a few days prior it was 60s and sunny. Happy first day of spring!!

Usually you take your pictures before you start driving, but you never get as great a shot...

Free Rita's for the first day of spring! It was cold! And snowy! 

But hey, it was free Rita's...

Thankfully, the weather has again warmed up and the snow is gone, again. Hopefully for good.

Surprise for week #1: new companion, and snow for spring. I know, not super grand, but next week's surprise will be fabulous!

One of my favorite scriptures this past week (I'm still on track, by the way; don't fall behind!) is found in 2 Nephi chapter 1, verse 15: "But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." Does it get any better than that?

We are having a blast. Warmer weather means more people outside, including us, which means more people to talk to, which means happy happy happy. Oh my goodness, I love talking to people about the gospel, it's the best. Seriously. So, everyone just needs to come to New Jersey as missionaries. You'll love it!

Love,
Elder Horne

Book of Mormon Challenge!

Here we go!!

The last six weeks! For the last transfer there have been some changes. Elder Lake is being transferred, so I will be getting a new companion tomorrow! I'll be sure to follow up with who my new (last) companion is and where Elder Lake has gone.

Before Elder Lake left though, I was able to take him to get his first Rita's water ice!!

It's been a lot of fun training Elder Lake, I'm excited to see where he goes next. He's a good elder.

The weather this week has been fabulous, spring is here and I am so happy! It's warmer out, the sun goes down later, and life is perfect. Seriously, things are great. The other day we were out finding some new investigators, and realized we were right next to the river, so we popped over somewhere I could get a better picture. Sadly my camera missed both the sunset, but it was pretty and I just really like water and bridges okay.

Anyway, we have so many exciting plans for these next few weeks, I AM SO EXCITED. They'll come as surprises though, so stay tuned to see the things that I post for these last few weeks. 

As I mentioned last time though, the Book of Mormon challenge! So, I will be reading the entire Book of Mormon in 6 weeks. It's not too bad, only 5-6 chapters a day. I'll attach a chart that you can print off that has each of the days marked so you will know where  you should be at. Although you'll be starting a day late (it started yesterday) I would still encourage you to go for it! The first few chapters aren't very long.

I just love the Book of Mormon and the Spirit that it brings. I stand with Joseph Smith when he said "the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by it's precepts, than by any other book" (Introduction to the Book of Mormon). 

It's true!

Love,

Elder Horne

Here's the chart I mentioned:

Snow, snow, go away

The snow continues...

We had the biggest snowfall so far this year this past Thursday. It threw everything off, so that wasn't super exciting. I'm not sure what it officially was, but I'm thinking it was around 6-9 inches in places. We couldn't drive at all, and nobody lives that close by, so we decided we would go and shovel all day! It was really neat. Just by helping them to shovel their walks or their drive ways, we met a lot of nice people, we got a lot of hot chocolate, and someone who invited us in so we could teach them about the Restoration! There were a lot of miracles, and a lot of snow.

It's warming up now, it's around 50 degrees outside and all the snow is melted or melting. Hopefully spring is finally here!

Earlier this week we also got our new iPads. I guess it's nice having a new iPad. Having to re-download and configure things hasn't been extraordinarily fun, but the training videos that they have for us are pretty neat! Different apostles and church leaders talking about digital devices, and to think we are the very first missionaries to be watching these videos, that was pretty cool.

The temple is still on the horizon! We are figuring out if we can make it some time in March, but we will certainly be going there in April!! Everyone just needs to go to the temple and be happy.

This past week we also got to go to the bishops storehouse to help out there, so that was pretty sweet. I hadn't been to a bishops storehouse since I was in high school and I went to the one in Seattle. It was awesome being able to help out there, and be involved in that aspect of the church that we don't see very much. It was also incredibly exciting because Elder Murphy was also serving there, and he's the best. A lady took a picture for us, but I still haven't been able to get my hands on it.

Something I really liked in my reading this past week (I've been just studying out of 3 Nephi, since I finished the Book of Mormon again a couple weeks ago, and will have a fun challenge/activity for you guys next week) was this: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings unto them, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings unto them of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion: Thy God reigneth." (3 Nephi 20:40, see also Isaiah 52:7, emphasis added). I loved pondering on the statement: "Thy God reigneth," but more so on the repetition of "bringeth" and "publisheth." I want you to think about that repetition, and why the Savior stated it that way.

Love you guys!
Elder Horne

Next Month...

So, there is another elder in the district who goes home the same time I do, and he has been so kind as to frequently remind me how many days we have left... It's all just numbers though, so I haven't really paid much attention to it. Until yesterday, when he said, "hey, we go home next month."

Ya. That's not okay.

March, go home.

Anyway, not a whole lot has happened since last Tuesday. We are continually battling the weird weather, we had freezing rain on Sunday. I always think freezing rain is really pretty, although it did make things more difficult for us, and the YSA ended church right after sacrament meeting. So, that wasn't the most fun.

However, I did get another plant... I know I was trying to stop, but it's so difficult! They just grow out of the earth like it's nobody's business! This one I got from a very nice member family. His name is Chai, since this family also answered my prayer and helped me out with some lemon ginger tea because my throat was trying to kill me.

We have been experiencing awesome miracles, and all the best of everything (despite the weather), and have rescheduled the temple trip for April, except this time we'll be going to the Manhattan, New York temple! If I don't get transferred, that is (fingers crossed).

And just for an awesome quote because it's awesome: "Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world." Elder Holland

Love,
Elder Horne