Emails from 8/05/13 and 7/29/13

Family! (8/05/13)

First off thank you soo much for your LOVE and SUPPORT. I am one lucky Sister Missionary out here in Jersey!

Secondly I was cleared to serve in Ellis Island! My back ground check took a little longer than the other sisters here...must have been all the crazy things from my past ;)

Ellis Island is currently under construction, so we do all of the volunteer work on Liberty Island. (Hurricane Sandy flooded Ellis Island and we don't know if it will be open for a LONG Time) Our job as the Sister is to help the Liberty Island and Ellis Island foundation with Family History volunteer work. We have special badges and are allowed to drive onto Ellis Island after our car...and we are checked for bombs. It’s quite the process :) We got to the Island super early so the worker let us have a private tour through Ellis Island, last time I went through it was wall-to-wall people, soo sweet! I'm also soo happy to say that I wasn't motion sick at all! BIG STEPS

We aren't allowed to proselyte while volunteering...which is hard but we got to meet people from countries I have never heard of in my lifetime. It was an adventure trying to communicate with some people, :)

This week has been a week of stretching and learning, we have been dropped by most of our investigators...or we had to drop them. We had some days full of tracking and hardly any lessons its hard but we are praying really hard for guidance to be led to find people to teach! 

Remember how my driving was in Utah...well it's not getting any better and I'm the only one allowed to drive in our trio..... I get honked at constantly, I can't parallel park which is almost a must here. I have forgotten to turn the car off and went to an appointment with the car still running (good thing my companions noticed)....I accidentally got onto a toll road and didn't know what to do, there was a HUGE line of cars honking so I panicked and just drove through it....apparently that's not good soo I'm waiting for a ticket, but hey at least I learned my lesson! My companions think it’s really funny but I think I will laugh about it in the future. 

We found out one of our progressing investigators can't get baptized until he finishes probation....which might be a while because it hasn't started yet. But we are praying that it won’t be to long!

We also have a new investigator Tom! He's an ex-convict and has had a really rough past but loves the Book of Mormon and learned about the church from his last Dr visit! Way to Dr! That's what member missionary work is all about! There is a big movement for missionary work, so many of our brothers and sister don't have the gospel in their lives. I was thinking how much Christ loves all of his siblings; he wants us all to use the atonement so we can live with him again! He has soo much love for us, we need to share that love with others! Let us "Serve the Lord God with all of our HEART, MIGHT, MIND and STRENGTH!" (Exclamation point added) :)  

I love you all! Thank you for the letters, I am grateful for every SINGLE one of you! Have a wonderful week and remember that I love you soo much and Heavenly Father loves you even more! 

Time to get out and work! 

Sending LOVE from Joisey
Sister Houghton

 

 

 

hey Hey HEY family! (7/29/13)

 

 

This week has been an adventure...that's for sure. We had transfer conference and I had to say goodbye to Sister Dotson... it was soo hard, I know mission is all about change but Oh boy Change is hard, BUT I have a new companion! Sister Sprague, she is from Nevada and reminds me of Katniss...like off of Hunger Games, not scared of anything she was raised on a farm and is probably stronger than most men I have ever met. We are complete opposites but I love her soo much! She's waiting for her visa to Brazil, is it bad if I'm praying for her to stay here? :)

 

We had some umm....different experiences this week. We met a man who may or may not have been well not fully there?...I'm not sure, he tried to sell us a cd he made. What a great opener to share the gospel right? Weellll after we shared a brief message he kept getting closer and closer to me. And out of the blue he asked me to marry him. I was soo surprised. My companions were busting up laughing and I was just standing there really confused, it really just came out of nowhere. I told him as a representative of Jesus Christ I would not :) He asked me if he changed his life would he be worthy to have me? I told him he needed to have faith in Jesus Christ and REPENT. He said we could have a spiritual relationship?.....what does that even mean? haha let’s just say we left right after that and laughed all day long. But I'm actually super grateful that missionaries travel by two's or three's, some things are just NOT safe. :) 

 

 

We tracked all day on Saturday and everyone we offered a Book of Mormon to, rejected it. I'm fine with rejection but after door after door AFTER DOOR it gets kind of hard to swallow. It's also hard because it’s something that is soo precious to me...to all of us! IT IS THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL. and they are turning it down, breaks my heart. BUT miracle on our way home we were at Subway and the sandwich maker asked US about the church! He is interested and when I offered him a Book of Mormon he was so happy and honored! I literally almost cried, after the trial of our faith then the miracles come. IT’S TRUE. 

 

 

Adriana was confirmed yesterday and she was soo happy. On her way back to her seat she did a double fist bump in the air it was hilarious! I love the people here more than I can even describe. 

 

 

Marla CAME TO CHURCH!! and Joffre brought his family! (They remind me of a family from the district it’s a mission thing.) We were so excited to have them. I couldn't help but do a happy dance....(mission appropriate of course) 

 

 

The work is progressing! It's slow but we know that like the little motto goes "the more you give the MORE you GET...the more you SMILE the less you fret" I'm grateful for the time I have to be out here! I can't believe it's the end of July; I'm starting to see how Ammon, Aaron, and the rest of the super heroes of missionary work were on their missions for 14 years. When you love something time flies....and its addicting! I love the work!

 

 

Thank you for all of your prayers and the updates on the reunion and all of the adventures from last week. Looks like the WHOLE family is doing well. Give everyone my love and A GIANT HUG from me! I pray for you all every day. Now let’s go share the gospel! 

 

 

Sending love from the East Coast

Sister Heather Sue Houghton

 

 

P.S. I love you

P.P.S I have the best family ever

Ya'll ROCK! 

We won the shake weight for having the most investigators! Sister Sprague on the left