#Birthday

Hola mis amigos y familiares.

I guess there's no avoiding the fact that it's my birthday on Friday. I'm playing it low-key, but there's no secret about it. Happy 20!

This week, to be honest with you all, has not been the most eventful week of my mission! Though we have had some good experiences this week.

The first was Tuesday, when we got to hear from a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. His name is Elder Patrick Kearon. He's such a happy guy, and I learned so much from him about staying happy in this work, loving and living the message we share, and not worrying too much! In this same zone conference, we heard a training from our mission president about Salt. Yep, you heard it right. We talked for 90 minutes about Salt. Who knew NaCl could be so profoundly tied into the Gospel? Of course, we learn in the sermon on the mount that Christ compares us to the Salt of the earth. I would go into depth right now, but I'm sure not everyone reading this email will want to hear it. Just take what I took from this training: being salty is good.

The rest of the week was a lot of teaching and finding more people to teach. Finding is always an important part of this work, because the Lord is preparing people to hear his restored Gospel. If we're not looking for them, we're not going to find them.

For the end of this email, I'll share with you all a story. As my companion and I were knocking potential investigators, we came across this couple. They were not who we were looking for, but they allowed us to come in and share our message with them. After talking with them for a while, they allowed us to share our message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I felt the Spirit very strongly, and I know they did too. But at the end of this lesson they ended up still saying they were Catholic. They did not want to accept a Book of Mormon from us, either. This really let me and my companion down because we thought these people were some of those elect! During that lesson, it felt as if they were accepting everything so well. They told us they respect what we do, and God bless us for our efforts. But they did not want to accept that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. Which it has, I now testify to all of you.

I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It not only makes sense factually, but the Spirit of God has told me so. There's so much opposition for the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but the truth is those arguments just don't win. God is in charge here, and I'm just happy to be part of his work. This little time I have been a missionary has helped me immensely. I can testify of the truthfulness of Matthew 16:25-26.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I hope you all know that the Lord watches over and takes care of his missionaries and his work. He's the Gardner here.

Con Amor,

Elder Horton

Fun reunion with my MTC companion