The Electric City

Hey guys!

I hope you're all doing great. These past few weeks have been awesome. I'm now serving up in Scranton, The Electric City, and home of The Office! I love it up here, it's incredibly beautiful and the people are great!

My new companion is Elder Wilcock, he is from Helena, MT and he's a great missionary. I love being able to serve the Lord with him here.

I'm so excited for General Conference this weekend, it's going to be amazing! I would encourage everyone to come and listen to a prophets voice. Hear from modern prophets and other church leaders. This time last year they made the announcement that Elders could serve missions starting at the age of 18, which allowed me to come on my mission earlier than expected! Modern revelation is a wonderful gift, and I'm so grateful for our church leaders and they're continued inspiration and guidance.

You can watch General Conference online here: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng

Anyways, things are great up here, love and miss you guys!

Elder Horne

So this last week I got a haircut, by Elder Solano, and they had this trash bag that I could wear, and we decided it is now the haircut dress haha. I wouldn't make a very pretty sister missionary it seems.

The other day I made cookies! But despite the awesomeness of the cookies, check out the awesome sweater that a member gave me!! It's a spaniel, and I love it.

Leaving Linwood

So the big news is: I'm being transferred!! Its crazy, I've only ever been in this ward, this area, my whole mission. It's going to be really different going somewhere else, but I'm excited for the change, it should be a lot of fun. So hopefully next week I'll be able to get you all the info on my new companion and new area and ward and all that.

 

So this week Elder Shayne Bowen came to our mission, and we had an awesome meeting with him. He talked a lot about the blessings that come from obedience. I was thinking about that, and how sometimes its easy for us to play around the gray line, because we're not doing things that are necessarily harmful or sinful, but that aren't good for us, and obeying what the prophets have said with exactness. I was thinking about how some of those things don't necessarily seem harmful, and some people have the tendency to rationalize those things, but I realized the greater harm comes from losing the blessings promised. We talked about exaltation, and how that is our end goal, but how in this life we can be happy and find joy, and that comes from obedience. I know that sometimes it may be easy to not obey with exactness, but that as we do we will receive all the blessings that the Father hath. I know that obedience is the first law of heaven, and that all blessings are predicated on that, so be obedient to the Lord!

 

Love you guys and hope you're doing great,

 

Elder Horne

S'mores, Monopoly, and Miss America

I know I haven't written a lot recently. Everything is awesome out here, the summer has been nice, and it will be interesting to see how fall missionary work is like. 

Chris is doing awesome. He has found the "pearl of great price" and has been doing everything he can to greater experience the joy that comes from fully partaking of the gospel. 

Here is a picture of us with Chris at the Ikners. We came right after our zone unity, so we're wearing normal clothes. It was really weird not being dressed as a missionary. We had a water balloon fight and played games with the zone before that though so that was fun.

Also we had zone conference this week and Elder Kim is going home so I had to get a picture with him

Also some fun facts that I learned! Atlantic City (where we go a lot) is home of the Miss America Pageant, it is about to start here in a couple weeks, so that will be weird. Monopoly, the game, was also based off of Atlantic City. It's actually kind of cool to get on the bus at the bottom, and take it up and go through the game pretty much as you go up the city. 

Love you guys and hope you're doing great!

Elder Horne

Busy, Busy, Baptism!

Hey guys! Sorry its been awhile but it's been super super busy here, lots of work and without the car we have to spend a lot more time travelling and less time to do other things, like email. I hope that you guys are doing great! It's been awesome here, Elder Stubbs and I are doing great!! 

 

I had my first baptism last week!!!!! His name is Chris and he's the best. We taught him from ground up, and it was so incredible to see him make that first step and enter into the first covenant. I love the work its so great, and I hope you are all doing awesome. Here are some pictures to keep you guys filled in.

 

Elder Tan was able to come down from Pottstown, PA for the baptism. It was awesome. My hair is super long, I cut it myself this pday, and it doesnt look half bad! I was freaking out though I'll be honest.

 

 

I decided that I wanted to serve a tropical mission, and we were doing service for some Puerto Ricans and they fed us afterwards but I took this awesome picture with my name tag, so I'm a Puerto Rican now, get over it.

 

Love you guys, talk to you next week!!

 

Elder Horne

another Elder Stubbs

So transfers were this week, fun stuff! My new companion is Elder Stubbs. I've been companions with both of the Elder Stubbs' in the mission, this is a different Elder Stubbs from the one that I was companions with in the MTC. He is from Palmdale, CA and is most definitely a country boy. I need some city slickers haha, seems like most people coming out are more country. At least they're nice, awesome people!

 

We did lose our car, and don't have bikes, which means we have been needing to walk EVERYWHERE, and it's been a very different experience. Walking miracle/lesson I learned the other day. So we were walking from the church, to the closest bus stop, which is almost an hour away, but having never walked there, we thought we could make it in half an hour. As we were walking, we realized that we were not going to make it to the bus stop in time to catch the bus home. Granted, this was the bus that was taking us home for the night, so it was already dark out and if we missed this bus than the next one wasn't scheduled to come until after curfew, and we would still have a 20 minute bus ride. With all that said, we were desperately trying to make the bus. I was saying a prayer as we hurried to get there, that we would be able to catch our bus so we could make it in time. I thought of 1 Nephi 3:7, that the Lord doesn't give us commandments excepts he provides a way that we can keep them, so I was kind of pushing that one on the Lord, and having faith that he would provide a way for us to make it on time. Then the thought came into my mind to hitch hike. Now we're walking in the boonies, which is why there weren't any bus stops close by, and it was night time, and I did NOT want to hitch hike, but then I thought if that's how the Lord is going to get me home, I have to do it. I never thought that something so simple as sticking my thumb out to the side could be so difficult, but it truly was an act of faith! As I did so, none of the cars stopped, but I knew that if I did what the Lord wanted I would be fine. We ended up at the bus stop 15 minutes late, and I was confident the Lord would send us a bus so we could make it in time. I refused to take out the bus schedule to look up the next time, I refused to call our district leader to tell him we would be in late, because I knew that I had done what the Lord wanted and that he would follow through. In lieu to my stubborn faith, the bus came!! We were able to make it home on time, and I didn't care what anyone thought, I got on that bus and said a prayer I was so grateful. 1 Nephi 3:7 is true, and I love it!!

 

Here's a picture of Elder Stubbs and me,

 

Love you guys!

 

Elder Horne

Transfer Madness

So this week has been crazy. Transfers are tomorrow, and Elder Tan is leaving and becoming a zone leader and I'm staying. We are losing our car and got bus passes and bikes, so I'm about to lose all my mission weight haha. We are really busy because Elder Tan has to pack, but exciting things are happening so I will have more to write about next week!

Lots of pictures though, enjoy!!

Our beautiful zone, love them so much. Yay for missionaries!

  

The Higbees are an awesome family, we have too much fun.

We had exchanges and had too much fun with the mirrors that the Atlantic City Elders have on their ceiling haha.

Love you guys!!

Elder Horne