Florida-Bound!

It's three days until I head out. My travel group, composed of three English-speaking sisters, a few English-speaking elders, a few Creole-speaking elders, and some Spanish-speaking elders (I'm not sure of the composition of the group, but there will be 14 of us) is leaving from the MTC at 3am on Tuesday morning. I'm so excited! And nervous! Oh, and I'll be calling from the airport on Tuesday. It will either be before 6am Utah time, or sometime in the late morning. Which one would be better? Both?

Yesterday all of the people leaving this coming week had in-field orientation. It was great - we learned about interacting with members, finding investigators, setting goals, planning, exercising faith... I loved it. And since my district isn't leaving for another 5-6 weeks, I split and went with another district from our zone. My companions for the day were Elder Cazier and Elder Deming, and they are both awesome. I learned about how we can encourage members to be missionaries too - it really helps if you practice what you'll say to your friends, just like we do as missionaries! And all through my time at the MTC we've been told again and again that we need to work hard so that the members will entrust the teaching of their friends and family to us. It occurred to me yesterday that the same thing applies to the Lord - we as missionaries need to be working hard enough and smart enough and having enough faith that Heavenly Father knows he can entrust His children to us, and prepare them for the gospel message coming through us.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to me! One thing almost everyone mentioned was the plague. I was super lucky. Only one elder in our district got sick, and it wasn't me.

Elders Dore and Bardalez left earlier this week - Elder Dore to go to the Colombian MTC and Elder Bardalez to go to his mission in Detroit. It was sad, but we got a new elder! His name is Elder Perez, and he is fantastic. He's from southern France, and will be going to Paris speaking Spanish and French for his mission. He is really funny, and every other word out of his mouth is about his girlfriend. We're already planning to crash the wedding.

Oh, and to answer another question - my companions are not going to the same mission as I am. Hermana Nesbit is going to Salt Lake City (not Central, North, West, or Temple Square, just the City), and Hermana Hernandez is going to Arcadia, California. Elder Johnson is going to Boise, Idaho, and Elder Hart is going to New York, New York South. A few funny things about my companions - Hermana Nesbit is a geologist, and loves going to the bathroom in the Utilities building (where the barbershop, health center, copy center, bookstore, etc. are) because she loves the counters there. She's also quite impressed by the counters in the cafeteria - apparently they have Agate in them. Hermana Hernandez gets the giggles during our evening class, and it's infectious. Poor Hermana Van Vliet! She also tells Elder Johnson all the time that his eyes are pretty, and he has to marry a girl with blue eyes so their kids will have beautiful eyes. It's pretty funny.

Tonight we have TRC (Teaching Resource Center), where we meet with people who speak Spanish and just talk about the gospel with them. It's super fun and I'm excited. I also get to go the temple in just a little bit, so I'm going to head out now. If you have any questions or comments or venting or desire to do something with your evening, write me!

My address will be:

Hermana Eliza Houghton

Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission

7951 SW 6th Street Suite 110

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324

Love you all!

Hermana Houghton