Craziest Day of My Life. . .Perfectly Orchestrated By The Great Conductor!

Letter from 16 September 2013

What a Great Idea!

An even better idea!  Hermanas Houghton an Ware with J, N, and A on the day of their baptisms!

Dear Wonderful Amazing Family and Friends,

THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY. Yesterday was the craziest day of my life. But we'll go in order :)

Hermanas with N, who is looking at a
picture of Christ's baptism

Three people to talk about. N is the blonde lady who's looking at the picture instead of at the camera. She is the one whom our member invited to be baptized who is a family history fanatic. She is so funny - when we went by last Monday night she had been reading the Relief Society manual on Teachings of Lorenzo Snow and wanted to know how to pronounce all of the English words - Kirtland, Pettibone, Ohio, etc. I said "ok" at one point, and she wrote up for me the history of the word okay. Here's the story: "Un pueblito en Nueva york habia un general que se llamaba Olkinbell y se firmaba 'OK.' De ahi viene la palabra ok=okey, esta bien." Oh, and one more thing. Her maiden name is Noelia Natividad. And she was born on Christmas day :D

Hermana Houghton, A, and Hermana Ware

We met A last Saturday when R (who has been convinced by family members that he doesn't need to be baptized again) asked us to pray for her (when we teach him he always invites people to come hear about Christ, and then if they decline he tells them that Jesus loves them :). We said the prayer but A was not at all interested. Then the next day R invited her to come to church with him, and she came! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she accepted baptism for the following Sunday. We went by the next day and didn't know how to get ahold of her, so we started teaching R. Then she came out of her apartment singing, holding her Book of Mormon open under her arm. She came down the stairs, sat down, and told us "Me bautizo este domingo" (I'm getting baptized this Sunday). She had read most of 1 Nephi! She had her interview on Wednesday, with R, and while he was being interviewed we taught her Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Tithing, and Repentance. On Sunday morning she wasn't ready when her ride came and so they left. We finally got ahold of her through R, and found out she was still sitting, waiting patiently for her ride. She got baptized yesterday afternoon!

J with Hermanas Houghton & Ware

J is incredible. He gained a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel about a month ago, without any outside help from us, but at the time was almost always drinking. He's told us from the beginning that he was going to be baptized Mormon, and he was going to change his life. Well, this week he did. He had his interview and still wasn't sure about being baptized this Sunday, but during church he made the decision to not wait any more.

HOLY COW SO COOL!

So yesterday during church everything was crazy. We went by an investigator's house before church and found out she'd slept in - so we waited for her to get ready and were late for sacrament (then she decided that it was too late and she wasn't going to come anyway :( After sacrament we realized that A wasn't at church, and got a member to come with us to pick her up. Another investigator then had some questions for us before he had to leave. Then I had a low blood sugar and had nothing left to treat it with. The only thing available was butter-flavored maple syrup in the church fridge (gag). Our ward mission leader Hermano Villeta went to fill up the font and found out it was clogged. Worked on that for 1.5 hours and gave up. Then we called President Anderson to get permission to have the baptisms in a pool... following which it started storming, lightning included. Finally we talked with our zone leaders and decided to have the baptisms at the stake center, 25 minutes away. We had to fill out J's baptismal record, find baptismal suits, and make sure everybody had rides. Amazingly half the ward came for the baptisms, and our Relief Society President had arranged for lunch for everybody. Everything went over smoothly, even though we hadn't talked to any of our investigators during church at all. It was a rush. I figure that if they can make it through that then day-to-day craziness will be nothing!

After the baptisms and eating with the amazing Villeta family, we decided to stop and talk with l A. (our recent convert :) who hasn't come to church in two weeks. He wasn't there, but his brother F was. F has never even let us talk to him. He always leaves and tells us his brother isn't home. But yesterday he opened the gate and we sat down with him. We taught him about prayer and Jesus Christ, and Sister Ware persistently invited him to be baptized. He accepted it all. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pair of reading glasses (I keep a stock of cheap reading glasses in the car so our investigators don't have any excuses for not reading), and he was touched by the Spirit. He said he was going to start reading as soon as we left, then come to church next week and get baptized the following Sunday.  

Sister Ware and I went home and decided that we needed to spend most of the rest of the day finding new people, and visit a less-active recent convert, L, whom we'd been meaning to see for a while. As we prayed about where to go to harvest I got the impression that we needed to ride bikes. Rain was threatening so it sounded like a bad idea, but we prayed about it and decided that was what we were supposed to do.

We biked down to L's house, contacting people on the way. We sat down with him and he told us he kept on meaning to come back to church, but he never quite made it. So we said, ok, let's go right now. L rides his bike to church, so he was a little bit incredulous but was really excited. He told us about the first time he met with the missionaries he went to the church and had a member, K, meet with them there. So when he went inside to change shoes we texted her and asked her to meet us at the church. We biked over with him and welcomed him back to the church.

We walked around the chapel and talked about each of the paintings. L relived his memories of feeling the Spirit at church. We ended in the chapel, where I felt like I should go up to the stand and play "How Great Thou Art" on the piano. When I started playing he asked who told us that was his favorite hymn. As I kept playing he started crying.

K walked into the chapel as I finished. We went to the clerks' office and watched the new "Daily Bread" videos by Elder Christofferson, after which L and K had a heart-to-heart and figured out the root cause of his inactivity.

IT WAS AMAZING. Everything was perfectly orchestrated by the great conductor. I saw and felt the love of the Lord for His children. He has a perfect plan for each one of us, and is always watching out for us.

I love Alma 60, by the way. I think every member and missionary should read this and think about his or her personal responsibility to God and His children. Because with our knowledge of the gospel and our many blessings, aren't we sitting on thrones, surrounded by people who are spiritually dying? We can't ever give less than 100% with what we have been given.

I have been so drained by this week. But it is so incredibly worth it. I know that the Lord loves His children. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and is led and guided by a living prophet who is in turn directed by the living Christ. I am so amazing blessed to be able to be a part of this church, this great work of salvation, and this wonderful plan of God.

I love you all! Don't ever give up - this is the work of the Lord!

<3 

Hermana Houghton

Lots of Awesome People. . .And Some Other Fun Experiences. . .

Does this need explanation?
(I would be surprised if this is Eliza admitting a great love of basketball--
I think she must be talking about the weather!)

Dear Everyone,

We had an amazing week in Hialeah! Lots of awesome people whom I need to tell you about... and some other fun experiences...

 

I'll start off with the not-so-great stuff. Last week someone we will call L, whom we had dropped a month or so back (he's the one who sent us the text about "I need warrior womens of God by my side, i got big challens in my future"), came to church. We set him with a date for the next week and came by to see him Monday night. We had a somewhat awkward lesson with him, joined in by his neighbor RR. (more about him later, and I have to put the R. because you've heard about so many Rs recently!), and saw him briefly on Wednesday. We texted on Thursday telling him we wouldn't be able to come and his reply text was very awkward - he assumed it was just my phone and asked me out to dinner.. (in Spanish) Let's clarify; L is 40+. On Friday we tried to smooth things over by thanking him for inviting us to eat but told him the members fed us and we were good. After the lesson he sent us another text, saying that once I trusted him more I would accept him, and then started making all kinds of comments about us being allowed to get married, plural marriage, etc. It was very creepy. We don't answer his texts anymore.

 

So! On to RR! We think he may have had a stroke or an accident, so it's a little bit hard to understand him. But he is amazing. He came up in the middle of a lesson and wanted to join in. Then in another lesson with L (pre-creepy) he made the analogy of a road between God and the Devil; you go one way or the other. We were walking with him to a dinner appointment at the house of a member nearby where he lives, and I was giving out cards and inviting people to be baptized, as usual. We passed by a woman sitting a little bit out of our way and were going to just keep going until he asked us why we didn't give her a card too. He loves the Restoration Pamphlet that we gave him and tells us about the things he's learned from that and the Book of Mormon whenever we come by. On Sunday we arranged a ride for him and he asked if he could bring a friend - he brought two, one of whom now also wants to be baptized next Sunday. So. cool.

 

I told you last week about meeting N, whom our member invited to be baptized when we met her on the street. Well, we went and harvested the apartment building where she told our member that she lives, and we found her again! She is incredible. At our second lesson she was wondering which tribe of Israel Nephi and family were from and asked us what she would be wearing for her baptism the following week! She came to church on Sunday and fit right in - we didn't even realize she was there until someone pointed her out, because she looked like a lifetime member.

 

Foods recommended in the Word of Wisdom

We have another investigator who is amazing. He has a very strong testimony that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that he needs to get baptized. He has a lot of struggles with the Word of Wisdom though, and he's fighting to quit drinking and smoking. He didn't show up for our scheduled lesson on Friday night and so we went to get gas on our way home because we didn't have time to go to another appointment. As the gas was pumping, guess who walks out of the gas station minimart, smoking a cigar and carrying a bag of beers. We talked to him and told him that those things were from the devil, and would he commit right then to giving them up. He gave us the beers and we went to say a prayer. He stopped me as I started to pray, telling us to wait. He took one more puff of his cigar and threw it as far away as he could. Then he asked for the beers back and threw them into the trash. Finally he turned back and said we could pray.

 

Thinking of him and some other investigators led me to studying some material from the LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program this morning. There are 12 steps to quitting, and I wanted to know how they worked and how we as missionaries can help people to apply these steps. The first three are the ones that we have the most influence on:

 

1. Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.

We can help those we teach to fulfill this step by teaching them the commandments that God expects them to live and teaching them the Plan of Salvation, and our role in the grand scheme of things.

2. Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health.

We do this by teaching of God's power - using scripture stories, testimony, personal experience, and teaching the Restoration and how God helps us day by day (also, PRAYER!).

3. Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

We help to do this by inviting our investigators to commit to change, to follow the example of Jesus Christ and live His commandments.

 

SO COOL. It also follows the gospel pattern of faith, repentance, baptism...

 

One more thing :)

Depiction of Ammon teaching King Lamoni's father

From the Book of Mormon, I learned about how the Spirit works with the elect. In Alma 22:5-7, King Lamoni's father has burning questions that he needs the missionaries to answer, and he is willing to believe anything they say. He started wondering about these questions as a result of Ammon's example and simple testimony of truth. The Spirit really works with the elect, and our example makes a difference!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

 

<3

Hermana Houghton

A friend in my helmet this morning!

In God's Fan Club: Repentance, the Spirit, God's Timing. . .& Cockroaches

Dear Everyone,

 

Hermanas Ware and Houghton

This week I've been reflecting a bit on a training from my Mission President that we had a while back. It was about repentance, and how sincere repentance creates a desire to share the gospel (Note both Almas, Ammon, Aaron, Omner, Himni, Paul/Saul, Corianton, Moses, etc.). We have a ward member who was inactive for years but in the last 6 months has come back to church. He struggled with quitting smoking a lot, and is very open about it. He hadn't taken the sacrament for a long time, and this week he did. Yesterday we took him out teaching with us, and it was amazing. He shared powerful testimony in all of our lessons and taught about the importance of repentance in every one. Then, as we were rushing to our cars to get to another appointment (with our lovely baptized but not-yet-confirmed P whom we hadn't seen since her baptism the week before because she started school... and just think, if we had met her a week later who knows when she would have gotten baptized! God is great), we gave a card to an older lady.

 

He stopped to talk with her, and told her straight-up that he wanted her to get baptized and would come pick her up on Sunday morning. You could see that she felt loved and wanted. He kept talking to her, got her address, and found out that she had her genealogy for generations done, and had been working on it since she was five years old. It was a huge inspiration to me to see how the light of the gospel had really set this member on fire with missionary spirit. We were rushing and didn't give N the attention she really deserved, but he did. Because of it, when (I almost said if, but the situation was no accident on God's part!) we are able to bring her to Christ through baptism, she and her generations will be blessed. I want to have that kind of enthusiasm every day. It will always stick with me how he told her that he personally wanted her to get baptized because he wanted her to have the blessings of the Gospel like he did.

 

Another miracle experience this week came with our investigator PT. She is a member referral and has been in the hospital since we started teaching her. We've felt the Spirit a lot teaching her - she has an open heart and is very receptive to the truth. The one big roadblock (aka opportunity for the Lord to show His power) was with the Word of Wisdom. She is a former drug addict, and although she's conquered that and alcoholism through AA, she still had a serious problem with smoking. We had taught her a few times, and had talked briefly about how God didn't want her to smoke, how she needed to take care of her body to feel the Spirit, etc. But on Thursday we were planning to really teach the doctrine of the Word of Wisdom.

 

We came in just as she finished her Cuban coffee (very strong and in very tiny amounts) and told us that she needed to go out and take a smoke. We talked briefly about why she shouldn't, but she swept past us down the hall to go outside. When we got out to the little balcony, looking over the city, she was smoking. We decided to start off with a hymn, which we hadn't done at any of her previous lessons. We sang "Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide." She really felt the Spirit, and when we asked her how she felt she said she could feel the angels around her. I said the opening prayer, and it was like it wasn't even me. We had never left her with a harvest blessing, but somehow that's what the prayer ended up being. It was one of the most powerful blessings I've left on my mission. After we said amen we looked up and asked her again how she felt. She looked down at her lighter, hit it against her hand, and said, "I've got to quit this. God can't dwell in unclean temples." We told her that was exactly what God wanted and left with a closing prayer, in which she asked God to take away the desire to smoke. It was incredible.

 

I learned this week in the Book of Mormon that the nature and will of God is our endless joy and eternal life. As we live the commandments (aka blessings) we are able to receive greater happiness and progress toward eternal life. (Is it sacreligious to say that I'm in God's fan club?...)

 

I had an exchange with our Sister Training Leaders this week in which I learned a lot about having a positive attitude about rejection and the people who aren't interested in progressing. I've been thinking that trusting in God means that I can trust Him to prepare the people we meet, or that they will act. But I feel like I now have a greater trust in God's timing. The Spirit is what motivates people, and I don't need to stress so much about how much everybody needs the Gospel right now. God will work miracles to motivate the people whom He has truly prepared, and it's okay that not everyone is ready to hear the gospel immediately. As long as I am doing my best to invite and share my testimony and show them God's love, that's enough. He will prepare them! We will see miracles! I can trust that they will have the opportunity to receive these blessings, and my love will help them more than my words.

 

I'm loving the work. My wrist is doing mostly better (thank you, smashface...), and we evacuated the kitchen to kill all the cockroaches, so our food + dishes have been on the table for most of the week. Sadly this means that the cockroaches have been looking for other hiding places, and some of them really like our bedroom, but hey... Sister Ware is awesome, the Church is true, and we're going to Olive Garden for lunch! (That's my stomach speaking.) Keep me updated and I LOVE YOU ALL!

 

<3

Hermana Houghton

Florida Skies & Learning About Prayer

Email from 26 August 2013

Florida Skies

Soulsbyville Skies, with fire!

Dear Family,

I hope everything is okay in Soulsbyville! Someone told us the other day about the fires in California, but I didn't know they were that close to home. I imagine Dad has a lot on his plate dealing with all the fallout in the ward...

As usual I don't have a coherent grip on everything that has happened this week, so be ready for a jumble of short blurbs of information!

To begin with, I will explain the lovely attached pictures. This is P, notable for her amazingness and last week's "Me quiero bautizar." She is awesome! And her member friend S is fantastic too. Apparently she actually served in our mission, and near the end of her time here her family moved into the area, so she stayed, and has been here for the year+ since her mission ended :) She is the one who really overcame any concerns. We had another member-present lesson that was amazing. It was one of the first times that I have had a problem with a low blood sugar during a lesson - and it was bad. I couldn't think straight in English, let alone teach a lesson in Spanish. Happily, our member A took over the whole thing by telling about her conversion story and Sister Ware and I were just background music... So basically P was very super prepared and everything fell into place. We answered some questions, assigned some good chapters in the Book of Mormon for her to read, bore our testimonies, and that's pretty much it. She got baptized on Sunday and was just disappointed she would have to wait a week to receive the Holy Ghost. She also invited a friend to her baptism and we are going to start teaching him!

I've learned some things about prayer this week. Number one, God answers prayers. I've seen over and over again that if we pray by the Spirit, with faith, miracles happen. We have to pray specifically and be willing to act on the answer we receive (with "real intent"), and then go and do. If we do our absolute best and it is in God's will, things really happen. Second, in terms of changing ourselves. Throughout my mission I have prayed for help in developing Christlike attributes, especially humility and charity. I realized recently that in order to develop these two attributes, I need to be focused on others. So rather than praying to develop charity and humility, I'm praying more for those I teach and for those around me. Really thinking of others first is helping me to actually develop, not just think about, Christlike attributes.

Another exciting investigator we are teaching right now is named J. He is an amazing person; he is very faithful, but feels that the church he was raised in has gotten too modernistic. He is housing an old friend from Cuba who became an alcoholic and would otherwise be on the street, and wants him to come to church so that he can change his ways. J told us the first time we met him, a couple of weeks ago, that he knew we were "real Christians" by the way we felt, our mannerisms, and our dress, because we respect ourselves and others. We told him that he could know our message was true by praying and he told us that he already knew our message was true. He lives pretty far from the church and doesn't have a license, so we told him we could get him a ride, but he wouldn't accept that, saying he would rather bike than become dependent on people taking him. He came to church this week and absolutely loved it, especially Gospel Principles class. He's getting baptized this next Sunday :)

Wish all people were as anxious to see us as
these dogs!

One amazing finding experience that I want to share. We're walking down the street at 8:45 last night when Sister Ware points at a house and says, "we should go knock that door." As we walk up to the door, we see a woman in the window looking at us and going to the door. She opens it and steps out, then tells us that it isn't her house but she loves Jesus and wants to know where our church is. We're rather startled but give her the information and get hers in return and invite her to be baptized. She quickly accepts it and tells us she knows God sent us there to meet her. Sadly she doesn't live in our area, but it was amazing to see the Lord's hand in preparing her for the gospel.

Mamey, a classic Cuban fruit. Tastes like

a mixture of pear and cake batter.

Anon, aka Cuban dinosaur fruit. It kind of 

tastes like cucumber-melon smells.

I almost forgot! Mom asked about whether or not we get fed. I'll just have to say yes. Last week we had stake conference, so the list didn't get passed around in Relief Society. But some kind and loving sister in the Relief Society passed the list around at the Elders' baptism, and people signed up for every day. And then a few people throughout the week thought the list hadn't been passed and gave us food. All in all we got fed ten times throughout the week. Happily we picked up most of the meals so we could space them out over two or three actual mealtimes :) Also, last night a random lady on the street gave us a box of (old) chocolates because she appreciated our work so much.

Also, in ward council yesterday our Bishop might have said the phrase "fuera del picture." Oh Spanglish :)

Waiting for mail.

I love you all! Sorry, mail might not get sent today because we're playing smashface at the church with our district this afternoon, but I will send more next week...

Hermanas Ware & Houghton, do get
to play sometimes!

<3

HH

Another Me In the World and Warrior Womens of God

Clouds in Florida

Hello dear family and friends!

Sister Ware and Sister LeBaron switched places.
I miss that girl!

I have some disturbing news to tell you... there is another me in the world. Yep, you heard me right. My new companion Sister Ware and I are basically the same person. And let me tell you, that has boosted my self-confidence through the roof, because she is amazing! We have a ton of fun together and get a lot done. We tend to say the same things at the same time a lot though, which can be awkward when we're teaching a lesson.

 

Some highlights from this week...

 

Late on Tuesday night (okay, it was only 8:45, but by that time we're pretty much dead :) we didn't have time to go to another appointment so we went to buy gas near our house. As the gas was pumping I felt like I should go talk to a lady who had just gotten out of her car on the other side of the pump. I was going to offer her a card and invite her to be baptized, but as I talked to her the words came out of my mouth wrong. Instead of saying "Jesus Christ sent us here to give you a special invitation," I said, "Jesus Christ sent us here to give you a special blessing." We left a powerful prayer with T and her 16-year-old son A. On Wednesday night, we went to have a lesson with them. T told us that she knew that God had sent us because before we drove up she had a blinding headache. When she briefly opened her eyes and saw us, it receded so that she could think again and she got out to breathe fresh air. After the blessing it went away entirely.

 

It turns out that she and her family have been looking for a church to go to after their old Baptist church went under. She has been wanting her 13-year-old daughter E to get baptized, and she feels a need to be part of a church. Angel has been attending Catholic school and thinking seriously about joining the Catholic church. They accepted baptism whole-heartedly and were excited to learn more.

 

Fast-forward to Sunday. Amid school preparations we weren't able to see them between Wednesday and Sunday besides a drop-by to give the kids English Books of Mormon, and once when we sang a hymn with their disabled grandmother who was out on the porch while they were gone one evening. We went by the house on Sunday morning to remind them about church, and were so happy when A came into the broadcast of stake conference. Sadly the other two were busy, but he was there. All during the broadcast, which was a bit fuzzy and didn't have great sound (plus it was in translated Spanish and he prefers English), I was praying that he would feel the Spirit. Well, he did! President and Sister Anderson and Elder Craig A. Cardon of the 70 helped :) Right after it ended, I turned to him and asked how he felt (really good), and then how he felt about preparing for baptism next Sunday. He started nodding his head and kept on repeating, "Yes, I want to." I asked him why and he just continued to say that he wanted to get baptized next week. It was awesome. I love seeing that there are people out there who are really searching for the truth, who have faith in God and act on promptings of the Spirit when they hear it.

 

Speaking of which, P. She is a member referral from two members in another ward. She actually lives in yet another ward's boundaries, but she wants to attend our ward (we actually don't know why, but she's been rather insistent). She's in her 20s or early 30s, recently divorced, and fairly recently arrived from Honduras. Her friend gave her a Book of Mormon when she had been having a hard time, and she loves it. We've had amazing lessons with her, she really recognizes the Spirit (she always wants to meet in the chapel because she loves how it feels to be there), and she told us that she knows God sent us to give her this message. During stake conference she was sitting next to Sister Ware, and a few minutes into the last talk she leaned over and, after pausing for a second, told Sister Ware, "Me quiero bautizar," or "I want to get baptized" !! After the broadcast she asked us if she could get baptized next week. The women in the ward have embraced her, and we are so excited to see how much the gospel will bless and change her life as it becomes part of her.

 

We may have gotten a text from a former investigator (we stopped seeing him because he wasn't progressing) that said, "I need warrior womens of God by my side, i got big challens in my future."

 

Oh the life of a missionary. I love you all!!!

 

<3

Hermana Houghton

 

Sister Quiocho (Sister Ware's trainer) and Sister Clayton
are companions and Sister Training Leaders.
They're our mission moms.

Last Week With Sister LeBaron :(

Hermana Houghton with a huge mango!

Dear Everyone,

As usual, I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll go with Luke's English advice and start off with the weather!

We don't have a thermometer, so I don't actually know how hot it has been. I do know that it has been quite warm. Happily I have adjusted to it, so although I notice it, the heat doesn't bother me too much. You just get used to dripping with sweat all the time :) The humidity is sticky, but I've gotten accustomed to it as well. Usually it's not too big of a deal. However, it necessitates quite a lot of water consumption. We're advised to drink 6 water bottles a day, at least. I usually end up drinking seven or eight water bottles' worth of water - a change from the two to three cups of water I would drink per day at home!

Our house, with a strange person in the light!

Cockroaches are also something that I didn't experience a lot of at home. We don't see the big ones inside too much - the record was two in the house in one night. Medium cockroaches, around 1/2 inch, are pervasive (we usually find them in the cupboards with our dishes daily), and baby ones (1/4 in) are all over the kitchen as well. We use a lot of Raid. Also, all of my food is air-tight in plastic and I wash dishes before and after using them. It's a daily battle.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but apparently I'm almost Cuban. I've been told that I look very Cuban, I speak quickly, and I'm good at taking over conversations. I'm going to Cuba at some point when I get back from my mission. 4-5 people have offered to be my tour guide when I go and our recent convert J is honestly planning a trip with Sister LeBaron and I for next August :)

R with vodka and cigarettes

Okay, onto some more spiritual stuff/experiences. We had just about given up on our investigator R M (not to be confused with our recent convert R A.). He wasn't progressing, and wouldn't act other than reading in the Book of Mormon. We visited him on Thursday night and had an amazing lesson. Then on Friday night he told us he had to move. We asked him simply what time we could come over the next day to help.

He almost started crying. We started the lesson, taught with the Spirit, and were near the end. He looked at us and told us that we had convinced him that this was the true church, because of that simple question. Our offer to serve helped him to feel the Spirit, which allowed him to gain a testimony of the truthfulness of our message. Some things came up so he couldn't come to church on Sunday, but our Sunday night lesson led to the picture below.

We have another investigator, H. The Elders found her, and have actually been teaching her and her family (who live in their area, and are a big extended family), but she lives in our area so they passed her to us. She came to church on Sunday and is preparing for baptism this Sunday. We had a group lesson (four missionaries and four investigators...) yesterday that was really powerful. Near the end we asked Hailin why she wanted to be baptized. She told us simply that she knew this was right, and would help her to live a better life and be a better person. It was amazing to see how her testimony grew so quickly and strongly. She trusts in God, and it is fantastic!

Yesterday at District Training we did a "real play" instead of a role play. We were working on exercising the faith to find. So each companionship was instructed to pray about where to go, go out, and leave a harvest blessing that would find someone ready to be baptized. Sister LeBaron and I went to a street that we both felt really good about. Then we got rejected from two doors. We left a mediocre blessing with two men who just weren't interested at all, and then left another blessing that was rejected. We knew we needed to head back to the training, because everybody would be waiting, but Sister LeBaron felt really strongly that we needed to fulfill our purpose in coming out. As we were about to drive away, we saw a lady walking a dog, and decided to go up to her. As soon as we told her that we were representatives of Jesus Christ, I told us she knew that God had sent us to her, and that she really needed a prayer. She had said her first prayer in a long time that morning, because of some trials in her life, and she'd also just seen God's hand in getting a new job miraculously. She felt the Spirit strongly during the prayer and accepted baptism, church, everything! It was an amazing experience. Oh, and one more thing. She just moved into the area three days ago.

Okay, I've got to go. But I love you all a lot!! Thank you for continuing to remember me as time in the mission field goes on! (8 days until I'm halfway done with the mission, yikes!)

<3

Hermana Houghton

P.S. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this! Sister LeBaron is being transferred tomorrow :( I'm going to miss her a ton, and was hoping that we would have another transfer together in Hialeah. However, the Lord is in the work and I'm sure I will love my new companion a lot... More details next week. Love you!

 With the Cardenas family - all matching!

The banana tree in our backyard is bearing fruit!! So excited. 

 A little bit of Spanglish: "superese" = super-easy.
 The rest says roughly, "Learn English and become a citizen."

 Manatee mailbox

Pictures from the car crash! We have a ford fusion now.

Sister LeBaron after a rainy bike ride.

Road-side fruit stand

 This book was in our chapel's library.
Bonus points if you know where it's from :)
(Marta does!  She used to have this book)

The parrot that helped us with round-up
(getting people to church/waking them up)

 Pouring out beer

Florida air conditioning!

 Yes, this is for real.

Many Are Called

Dear Everyone,

This week has been crazy. I don't even know where to begin. We have dropped most of our investigators and will be starting from scratch on finding.

 

I learned something very valuable this week, applying Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-36, which reads: "Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson— That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven."

 

If you change a few of the words, you could say that "there are many who receive a testimony by the Spirit, but few are baptized. And why are they not baptized? Because... they do not learn this one lesson - that the rights of the priesthood are necessary to receive the powers of heaven unto salvation."

 

When investigators don't understand the significance of the restoration of priesthood keys - that God really does have just one church, and that His priesthood order actually has meaning; and in fact is essential - they allow the challenges of the world to overcome them and they don't accept the truth.

 

Two of our investigators who seemed the most ready for the gospel fell into this trap this week. It wasn't that we didn't teach them the Restoration, or the priesthood, or its importance. But they didn't understand it. They were unable to sustain their personal conversions, denying the witness of the Spirit and allowing opposition to keep them from receiving the ordinances of the Gospel.

 

However, this experience has really helped Sister LeBaron and me to grow as missionaries and individuals, and evaluate and strengthen ourselves. I applied what I learned from the Book of Mormon this week with these two investigators: we got to the point where we had no effective tools except "bearing down in pure testimony against them" (Alma 4:19). We did so, listening to the Spirit the best that we could and trusting in the Lord. Everything is in the Lord's hands. And we maintain our hope and faith that their hearts can be changed as we do and have done all that we can, applying something I loved in 2 Samuel 12:22 this week: "Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me (and to our investigators who have faltered)?"

 

In other news... Sister LeBaron and I have decided that we're not going to transfers. If they want one of us to leave they'll have to come get her and drag her away, kicking and screaming. We went to the flea market in Opa Locka today (similar to the ones in the CA central valley) and had a ball. We both got Cuba watches and we now have matching shirts :)

 

We have an awesome investigator, David. He should be Young Single Adult doesn't want to commute to the YSA ward. We taught him once this week and weren't able to see him the rest of the week because he picked up a new job. We had a really cool experience with him on Sunday. He had worked the night shift and gotten home just as we called him to remind him about church. He said he was too tired and couldn't come. So, being the diligent and energetic (and insistent) Sister Missionaries that we are, we went over to his house. We testified about the importance of Sacrament meeting and he said he would try to come for the first 20 minutes, just to see the Sacrament. Then he showed up and stayed for the whole meeting. He has a baptismal date for this coming Sunday, and we will be teaching him over the phone on his lunch breaks.

 

We also had some miraculous experiences with less-actives this week. We went over to visit Arturo, the one we met at the bus stop last week, on Saturday night. We taught a powerful lesson on the Sacrament, and he ended up coming to church! We also learned that he is probably has dyslexia, and so were grateful to be able to tell him that the Book of Mormon apps now have audio options. We really saw the love of the ward with a recent convert Naomi. She wants to be active but her husband doesn't. They have three kids under the age of 8, one of whom is very actively autistic. It is a struggle for her to be at church, let alone bring them there. But during sacrament meeting six or seven different people helped her - sitting next to her, taking the kids out of the room, or helping to control them. It was really amazing. On Sunday afternoon we also ran into two less-actives of many years, just talking to people on the street. One of them is coming to church next week, having felt like something is missing in his life but not having realized that it was the gospel.

 

MISSIONARY LIFE IS CRAZY! But so worth it. And I've decided that ice cream is a necessity for Sundays. Because you need it after church either for celebration or consolation. But anyway...

 

Love you all!

 

<3  HH

Ducks on the road. They wouldn't move so we had to go around

them to avoid them. They're definitely Miami ducks.

Sister LeBaron enjoying a -Florida breakfast. 

Mangos are amazing!

Sister LeBaron--I don't think this needs any explanation.