Fort Lauderdale Proper!

Sisters Merrill & Houghton--at the Fort Lauderdale Temple

Dear family,

I am finally in Fort Lauderdale proper! Fort Lauderdale ward, in the area of Ft. Laud West to be exact. My new companion is Sister Merrill, whom you can see in the baptism pic I sent. She is 20, from Farmington Utah, and has been out one transfer less than I have. We are assigned as sister training leaders, which means we have six companionships of sisters whom we are responsible for. We go on full-day exchanges once a week, hour-long exchanges twice a week, and account weekly. 

S at his baptism, with Sisters Merrill & Houghton

S is the other one in that picture. He is 17 and one of the nicest people ever. A gentleman and spiritually very self-motivated. He has member friends who introduced him to the church and he is already very involved with the youth, keeps his commitments, etc. He is so awesome! I had only met him once before his baptism, but I will get to know him better this week. 

I was happy to hear that most of the family spent the day at the temple on Saturday!  We were there too, on the last day of the open house. We got there at 6:45, and the shift ended at 8:30 pm. But we had kind of an important obligation... we had a mission conference with several general authorities starting at 2:30pm. So they drove in 18 sisters from the Tampa mission to take our spots between 12 and 5:30. They arrived at 10:30 and we were planning to gather them in the staff tent to train them. But a well-intentioned coordinator just started assigning them to tents so the sisters in each tent got to train them! It worked out all right in the end, it was just crazy. And the Tampa sisters were weird. They didn't wear cardigans, they had their tags on the wrong side, they thought that Spanish missionaries could only serve in Spanish areas... Oh, and they had IPADS. What?? I cannot imagine being a missionary and having an ipad. 

On an exchange yesterday: We were knocking doors and after 30 minutes still having no success.We needed to change something, so we made some plans (talk to everyone, no matter what), and said a prayer. We looked up and saw a lady mowing her lawn. When we started talking to her we had the most amazing experience. She hadn't been able to go to church for 3 years because her husband didn't want to her. We felt the spirit strongly and testified that the Lord had sent us to her at this time because He had softened the heart of her husband and wanted them to both get baptized into His church. She was crying even before the prayer and committed to work towards the 11th of May. The sisters should be following up to be able to pray with her husband as well. I know that the Lord sent us to her. The rest of our blessings throughout the night were from OYMs (open your mouth). Oh and interesting fact: I have never knocked on a door and had that person get baptized. But I have had many, many OYMs get baptized. The Lord is willing to put His prepared children literally in front of us!

I love you all!!!

<3

HH

P.S. I pestered various people until I finally got a copy of the video we showed in the tents at the temple, so look forward to seeing that in a few months, those of you at home!

P.P.S. The more time I spend with the sisters in our stewardship the more I am humbled. They are amazing. They have so much talent, desire, and spirit. They inspire me to be better.

P.P.P.S. Sister Olsen, the new greenie in our apartment, is diabetic too! We were comparing pump supplies the other day :) And Sister Merrill's mom is a diabetes educator :)

If People Will Just Open Their Hearts and Act, God Steps In!

Dear family, friends, and everyone,

This from President Anderson's email to us this week:

"Dear Missionaries,

Remember I said we need to keep preparing for the Prophets! We will have the blessing of a Missionary Conference on Saturday, April 19^th at the Coral Springs Chapel at 2:30 to 4:30. We will be taught by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. We will also have Bishop Gary E. Stevens of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Erich W. Kopischke of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Stephen E. Thompson of the Seventy attending as well. Prepare diligently for this blessing and I will give you additional details later this week."

Whoa!! I am excited :)

In other news, I will unbelievably be moving to a new area tomorrow! I was shocked when we heard during transfer calls. Sister Sanchez will be training a new greenie and I will let you know next week where I end up going and who my companion will be. Oh, and btw Sister Ware is staying in Hialeah until the end of her mission! That makes 7 transfers there. Crazy sauce. 

David got confirmed this week. And it was such a spiritual experience for him. He has been getting powerful spiritual witnesses of the truth of the gospel the entire time we have been teaching him, and it is so rewarding as a missionary to see how much the gospel changes lives! David has such a testimony that it is surprising to me. I know that all these things are true, but every time I see someone go from not knowing or believing it to really embracing it and believing with all of their hearts it is a huge miracle to me. If people will just open their hearts and act, God steps in. 

And from the scriptures...

We had a comp study with our district leader this week where we talked about Nephi's successes and failures. The biggest thing that Nephi attempted to do which didn't turn into a success was his effort to convert his brothers. I know about agency and personal choice, but I made a realization. My entire mission I've been thinking that if I'm better, if I'm more Christlike and converted and faithful and spiritual and a better missionary, then more people will listen and be converted. And yes, my personal conversion and my actions definitely affect those I teach and contact. But somehow it touched my heart as we talked and read about Nephi that it doesn't all rest on me. I know that, but I guess it hadn't really sunk in. I realized that even Christ, our perfect example, full of faith and charity and the Spirit, didn't convert everyone he talked to. It was a good, hope-inducing learning experience.

Sorry I'm short on details this week - not too much happened that's super-notable, and the pictures should give some details about photo-worthy moments! I love you! Send me mail please, and thanks to those of you who have!

<3

HH

Sister Sanchez and I at steak'n'shake
awaiting our Jamaican jerk burgers...

Sisters Baumann and Furner too :)

What our reception tent at the temple looks like,
 from the front. In the back are a bunch of people from
West Palm who were helping out in the Spanish tent that day :)

A very sun-streaked picture of the TV we watch the temple
intro video on - 12 minutes long and we could probably quote it!

Sister Baumann is a fabulous hairdresser and cut our hair
the other night! I like it.

She also got new pink nail polish this week from her sister
and painted all of our nails. We stopped
by walgreens the other day to get some water
and got these instead... then we realized
halfway through drinking them that they had
green tea in them. Good thing we weren't teaching
any word of wisdom lessons that day!

Fresh coconuts from a pickup on the side of the road!
The guy selling them definitely chopped them up with a machete - so cool.

When I am on the Lord's errand, I miraculously have strength and energy!

From Tuesday, 8 April 2014

D's Baptism on Sunday after Conference!

Dear family,

This week was crazy! We were in the temple two days, ran around like crazy chickens with our heads cut off the rest of the time, watched general conference, had a baptism...

Yep, D got baptized! Right after the first session of general conference. It was so happy! The plug in the font somehow got dislodged which made his baptism a bit like a very important game of limbo getting him all the way under the water, but they managed somehow! David is awesome. He was so ready to be baptized. His parents were baptized in February, and they call us (and the last few Sister missionaries who taught them) their 'sobrinas,' or nieces. So David is our 'primito.' little cousin, now :) 

So this week I've had a little bit of a cold. Thursday was a sore throat, Friday was lots of sniffles and sudafed while working in the tent at the temple, and Saturday was dead tired. I slept a little before general conference at noon but was not sure I could handle going out to work between sessions. But go we did! And I amazingly felt better. The same pattern has followed the last few days. When I am on my own time I feel sick. But when I am on the Lord's errand I miraculously have the strength and energy I need to see me through, to show His love to His children and help them progress along the path to Him.

General conference has been a blast. I particularly liked part of Elder Nelson's talk. He mentioned the importance of not compartmentalizing ourselves. I like to think of it this way: rather than just putting myself into missionary mode, I have to become a missionary. And in our lives, rather than just putting on disciple mode for a while, we need to become disciples of Jesus Christ. 

I also liked President Eyring's message that we hold in our hands the happiness of more people than we can imagine. Our smallest choices can make an impact. So we have to choose then what kind of impact they will make! Will we be an example of good? Will we make, keep, and honor and magnify covenants? Will we stand strong against all obstacles, temptations, and challenges? Or will we cave in? It matters. 

I loved Elder Rasband's comment that focusing on serving others can guide us to make divine decisions in our daily lives. Elder Corbridge's Restoration talk was masterful. Sister Reeves is a boss. Elder Walker (who we saw last week!) inspired me to learn more about my pioneer ancestors. President Uchtdorf opened my eyes to the connection between gratitude and humility and consecration. Elder Scott answered all the questions I didn't know I had about helping others to learn and grow. And President Monson tied it all together with love and the resolve to be a little better. I loved it so much!

In other news, I LOVED working in the reception tent at the temple yesterday. Sign me up for that every day! So many people who had earnest, honest questions. And the Spirit was so strong that even the one Bible basher who tried to convince me of the error of my ways had to leave defeated after only a few minutes. It was amazing how easily everything came. Everything was natural and personal. We weren't 'proselyting,' but  we were using our testimonies nonetheless. 

Anyway... I learned a lot in the Book of Mormon this week as well. One thing that struck me while reading Mosiah 2 in Spanish was the wording in verse 11. The literal translation is that King Benjamin served his people with all the might, mind, and strength which the Lord conceded unto him. It was a reminder to me that the Lord gives us all that strength which He asks us to use to serve His children. As we truly give all back to Him, we bless others, we show our gratitude to God, and we bring ourselves to salvation. It's like the widow's mite - sometimes it's not much, but if it's our all it's enough.

Well, I love you all a lot. Have a happy week!

Hermana Houghton

Working at the Temple Open House

Fort Lauderdale  Florida LDS Temple

Click here to learn why temples are so important to us!

Dear Everyone,

This week we have been working at the temple open house! We were trained on Tuesday by Elder William Walker of the temple committee, then our group of sisters was at the temple the very next day to help out with VIP tours! We are stationed in the tents before the actual tour begins and we show a short video and give them the shpiel about turning off cameras and saving questions until the hospitality tent at the end (there are also sisters stationed there; we get our turn next Monday). It's fun! 

We had a shift yesterday as well, so that's why this email is coming out a bit late, sorry (and I will be there for the next two Mondays as well). But while I was there I saw a lot of people working in the open house who are from West Palm, which was great! Hermano Davila, Cesar Canales, a few ladies from the ward whom I only knew by their faces... We were working primarily in an English tent, but we got to show the video a few times in the Spanish tent. J (Recent Convert from Hialeah) came through too but I didn't see him :( Ah well, at least he was there!

It has been so wonderful working at the temple this week! The first day was tiring because we spent most of our time waiting, but yesterday I took the chance to study my scriptures in between groups and during the video and it was great. I learned a lot, was less tired and more awake, and I had the Spirit more strongly.

One thing I realized yesterday is that although we can't proselyte with our words, we can certainly proselyte with the Spirit that we radiate, and people at the open house will feel it. So yesterday after the open house Sister Sanchez and I talked about this and made a plan to, before every group that comes through, say a prayer with all of the ushers/tour guides in our tent that the people who come will be touched by the Spirit. Anyway, hoping that will help us fulfill our purpose!

After a lesson on Sunday Sister Sanchez was talking to some of our members while waiting to back me out in the car. There was a man right next to our car waiting for his son who was riding his bike around the parking lot. We have been making an effort to get everyone in the world to the temple, so I gave him a temple open house invitation. This started the conversation of what a temple is, as opposed to a chapel. He told me he had seen a temple in Honduras, years ago, but hadn't been able to go inside because he wasn't a member. He had gone to church a few times with his friends, and he is excited to meet with us and learn more about how he can become a member! 

I loved the Women's Conference this week and greatly admired the women from our ward who came and watched it.. in English. They are amazing. We also had a RS activity this week that was great :) And we had three investigators come!

One thing that I loved this week in the Book of Mormon is the Lord's command to the prophet Samuel in Helaman 13. He tells Samuel to "prophesy whatsoever things should come into his heart." I really like how specific he is. Heart, not mind. So I've been working this week on following the Spirit by saying the things that come into my heart, not just into my mind.

Ok, I'm out of time. But I love you all!!

<3 HH

Fancy Hair with just a little coloring thanks to
Sister Bauman.

Cool braid that Sister Baumann taught me to do...
when they told us that we needed to look
our best for the open house, hair and makeup,
we all turned and looked at her.

 Beach day last P-day. Deerfield park beach! Just doesn't
have the same ring as Miami beach...

Dreds, dude!

Add caption

Kind of Crazy and Way Out of Time!

From 24 March 2014

In the car--Hermanas Houghton and Sanchez

Dear everyone,

Sorry if this email is short and ooc. I am signing up for classes and applying for housing while I do this so things are kind of crazy. 

This week was great! We kept up with our positive goals and got coconut ice cream after 5 new investigators by Friday. This coming week it's 5 people set with baptismal dates by Friday. 

Speaking of people set with baptismal dates, we are teaching an amazing guy named D. He's the son of two recent converts and is loving everything. Both of our lessons with him have been really, really powerful and Spirit-filled.  He is set for a baptismal date this coming Sunday!

The M family has hit some roadblocks but will hopefully be able to overcome them soon! On Wednesday we went over and arrived just in time to see a neighborhood guy pulling their doberman off of the M' grandma, Hermana R. Her dog (Duke) had gotten out and attacked a girl (no serious injury, but bit her a few times) and so Hermana R had tried to pull Duke off the girl. Duke had turned and bitten her arm, subsequently breaking her wrist quite badly. She went to the hospital with her daughter shortly thereafter. We were able to help with translating for animal control and getting everything under control, but I was sad that my lifeguarding skills didn't prepare me to splint a wrist when there weren't any spare sheets, handkerchiefs, or large shirts.. I was going to try with an apron but her wrist was hurting her pretty badly and her daughter was almost there to take her to the hospital anyway...

Ok, way out of time. Love you all!

<3

HH

P.S. We received notice last night via my brother's wife, Jill, that her parents had seen HH helping with tours at the Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House.  It will be fun to hear her report on that next week!  HH's Mom

Weekly planning lipstick party

Facial mask party

Some Fun. . .and Focus!

From 17 March 2014

Hermanas Houghton and Sanchez

Dear family, 

Our apartment is really fun: (see pictures to the right of the "Flying Party!"), lipstick parties every weekly planning, (I didn't get a pic my first week with all four of us but that's ok...), Sister Bauman is a hairstylist so she does fun/funny things with our hair, (french braiding lesson/party the other night had all three of them making french braids in my hair) funny English accents (we did all of our planning and accounted to our District Leader with English accents the other night. They're helping me practice for when I see Elder Houghton next :)... And this morning I made green pancakes. The other sisters were surprised to find out that the leprechauns had somehow sneaked in and put peas in the middle of each pancake, but what can you do? Leprechauns are very mischievous. Plus we had a really fun flying party last night. It was great.

This week we really focused on making and achieving our goals. Accountability is really important but it's hard to keep it positive, not just a daily drag because we do it so much in missionary work. When that happens we generally don't hold ourselves accountable for achieving our goals and don't accomplish what we had wanted to. So, to make sure we were accountable for our goals and got them done, we set up a positive accountability system. We wanted to have 5 member present lessons by Friday, and decided that if we did then we would go to Chili's and get molten chocolate lava cake on Saturday. By Friday we got 6!

Our Relief Society is singing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" (in Spanish...) for the RS anniversary the 26th and guess who their pianist is! We were asked to come to the first rehearsal on Tuesday and showed up to find about 10 ladies there, all sick and coughing but all ready and willing to sing. They are amazing, and the numbers have been increasing. We are doing verses 1-3 and 7. It will be great! 

Speaking of pianoism, I played during sacrament meeting my last Sunday in Miami Beach English and also have played at many baptisms and other meetings on my mission. I think I have practiced more playing prelude music than I had practiced in several years before my mission, when I had more time! I now have about 21 songs on tap that I can play without any practice, and a few more that I can do with a few minutes to warm up... Who knew?

This week we had a specialized training with President Anderson where we talked about the Book of Mormon pride cycle and temples! That's right, the Fort Lauderdale temple open house begins next Saturday and the dedication is May 4, following the cultural celebration May 3. You can go online to sign up for reservations to the open house starting in 30 minutes! So exciting :) We (the sister missionaries in the mission) will be taking turns helping out at the open house, showing the video in the waiting tents before the visitors go in for the tour. All of the sisters will be involved, going about every 4 days from March 29-April 19. So exciting! (Don't write this next part in the blog please, it's not supposed to get out to everyone) Also, all of the missionaries will be singing in the grand finale at the cultural event. Yay!!!

We had a wonderful experience last night in finding. We had prayed about where to harvest and headed over. The first people we contacted were not remotely interested but we were diligent and asked if they knew any Spanish-speakers in the area. They told us to try their next-door neighbors. So we started talking with R, who had been given the children's version of the Book of Mormon by a bishop of our church that she had known when her kids were young. Then her husband came in and told us he'd had a Book of Mormon before when he was younger but couldn't find it and had asked a Mormon friend he played soccer with to have the missionaries bring him one, three weeks before. We said the prayer with them and the husband told R that they needed to pray more. They told us that they were church-hopping and knew that God sent us to them. So prepared! (P.S. The husband is Romanian and speaks 6 languages, including English and Spanish. R speaks Spanish and English. They are down to coming to a Spanish ward, yay!)

This week in the Book of Mormon I studied about commitments. I was reading about the Ammonites, and Helaman's concern that breaking their oath to forsake their weapons of war would destroy their souls. I've looked at it before as Elder Scott described it last conference, that sometimes sin leaves deep wounds and you need to not even come close to it again or you will be in danger, no matter how sincere your repentance. But something that I was pondering adds an additional level of importance to the oath (or commitment, covenant, or vow) that they made. When people make righteous commitments and keep them, they generally receive more spiritual light than they would have just by performing the righteous action without committing to it. Conversely, when they make and fail to keep a righteous commitment, they are spiritually darkened perhaps more than they would have been if they had not committed. 

Our culture doesn't generally understand this, and so I have been puzzled by the many people I've met on my mission who have told us that they don't want to commit and not be able to keep their promise. But it's true! Making and keeping commitments (covenants, oaths) brings us to the next level spiritually. We can't get to the highest level of the celestial kingdom without making and keeping a number of important covenants with God, no matter how righteous we are. I continued my study in 2 Nephi 31:14, which clarified somewhat the reason behind the idea "God knows who He wants in His church," and in Numbers 30, which helped me to understand and feel better about some part-member families who would love to keep their covenants but don't have the support they need. It was so cool!

Out of time but I love you all!!

<3

HH

Sisters Bauman and Sanchez

Saint Patrick's Day Pancakes with peas in the middle. .. .

Sister Sanchez's nap place. She is tiny!

Sister Hunter, who is from Manteca

Sister Furner, looking very Irish, eating a green pancake.

Lauderhill South--Back in a Spanish Area and Loving It!

Prelim to the weekly update:  

I'm in Lauderhill South, in the Lauderhill ward, Pompano Beach Stake. Our chapel is the first place I attended church on my mission, and the location of my first baptism! (stake conference my first Sunday in West Palm, last January). My companion is Sister Sanchez, who is 4'11", from Texas, of Mexican descent (native Spanish speaker!) and awesome. Loving it!

<3

HH

Dear Everyone,

I'M BACK IN A SPANISH AREA!!! Loving it. I loved Miami Beach too, mostly for the wonderful people in our valiant little branch, but I'm out of the city and into the Spanish! I found out that I'm not really a city kind of person... Not that my area now doesn't have city, but it doesn't feel nearly so 'city' as my area in Miami did. I have part of Fort Lauderdale, Coconut Creek, North Lauderdale, Tamarac, Pompano Beach, and a few other little cities. Our area is HUGE. We have to try and find the little pockets of Spanish-speakers. Speaking of which...

My first day in the new area we had zero blessings. So we prayed about where to go and went down (and down and down) to the bottom of our area. We found a Spanish-rich area and started harvesting. Within the next 24 hours we had received 2 referrals unrelated to our harvesting who lived on the same street. One of them turned into an amazing new investigator. If we hadn't been down in the area anyway we might have just called (the number was wrong on the referral) and waited a few days before going down, to save on miles. But God knows what He is doing. Ever knows that God sent us to him, and He had a purpose. He is praying to get an answer and progressing!

As well, we were in the area and dropped by the home of some members to say hi. They were trying to figure out how to work out some immigration stuff for a friend on the phone but since they don't speak any English it was difficult to say the least. So we performed some service and Sister Sanchez made the call while I entertained the three little kids with my camera. (see pics)

We are also teaching the sweetest kids ever! L, O, and P (17, 12, and 10) just came from Arizona, where they were living with an aunt for three months after coming from Honduras. They speak very little English. Their grandparents and most of their extended family are members, and they are preparing for baptism this Sunday. Words simply can't describe how dear they are - I'll have to send a pic next week. (And one of Sister Sanchez too, sorry I don't have one yet!)

The Lauderhill ward is amazing too! The sacrament was passed entirely by young men! I have not seen that happen in any ward my entire mission. The young women filled up a sheet of paper with the girls who want to go out teaching with us. The ward teaches the new member lessons and doesn't leave them to the missionaries. The Relief Society is huge! There are about 5 Lopez families and 3 Ruiz families who are active (and the women with the last name Ruiz are Claudia and Claudina...) I simply love it so much! Plus we get fed a lot, which is nice since I lost a ton of MSF funds to towing fees :/

Out of time, but I love you!!!

<3

HH

Pics: H and R