Sept 30 2013 Email

Hi FaMiLy!

I loved seeing all the SPUD pictures. I’m actually impressed with how that little town embraces their potato love. Gives potato's a whole new meaning out here.

Time is a weird concept; I can't believe it’s the last day of SEPTEMBER! whaa? Time is just flying. We've had miracles here! 3 INVESTIGATORS came to church! (First time in this area) Nothing makes missionaries happier! There was a baptism and some less-actives came to church!  

Hearing the bad news about Caliente I couldn't help but laugh a little....that would happen. He has been through so much. (A lot of it my doing...ooops) May it rest in peace, speaking of cars; we had a little incident this week... We had just dropped off some Sisters in Union City (traffic there is CRAZY, I'm not even kidding--Horrible).  The car in front of us started backing up. I made a goal to not honk here, because everyone and their dog does but oh man I hit the horn. The man just kept backing up and he hit us and then drove away. I didn't know what to do, there was a cop on the side of the road so I waved him down and he ran after that man. The car is only scrapped a little, but still it’s a mission car and I'm responsible for it. Side note police officers over here mean business. They are probably the most intimidating humans I have ever met on earth; their arms are the size of my thighs. Anyways the cop brought the man over and said he wasn't going to fill out an accident report...even though the man hit us and drove away? (Only in Jersey right?) The missionary in charge of cars told me to get a report no matter what. I sucked up all my courage and told him that wasn't acceptable and we needed a form. He seemed a little surprised but gave me one to fill out by myself.....Man I was scared. When we got back to our town a group of 13 year old bike bullies rode around our car for about 5 minutes. We were just stopped in the middle of an intersection. Oh I love this area, never a dull moment.

We are teaching a family! The children Edward (14) David (12) and Monique (9) they all want to get baptized! It’s been a fun new challenge for us to teach little children. They only stay focused for a minute or two, but they are the sweetest kids and I love them! We also taught primary on Sunday to the 7 year olds. One of two kids was fighting over a tie I took/wrestled the tie from them, they looked at me and said "Oh BOY, she's strong!" I seriously considered flexing my muscles for them but decided that would detract from the spirit. It was a wonderful Sunday! And so much fun to teach children and feel their love for the savior. Mosiah 3:19 We must become like a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, FULL OF LOVE all these attributes most kids have. I realized I had a lot to learn from that primary class. In a way they were teaching me.

Sister Pastores and I are doing GREAT! I just love my Filapina (not spelled like Philipina). We are working on Unity and teaching thought the spirit. He is after all our third companion. Our favorite place to talk with people is this awesome trailer park. It’s almost like our second home. We also went to Liberty Island to help volunteer with the Family search names. It’s fun to meet people from all over the world, but it also makes me feel like a failure because I only speak one language. Oh well one day I will master another.

WHO IS PUMPED FOR GENERAL CONFRENCE?!?!?!?!? It literally feels like Christmas! We have been counting down the days till we can hear the words that Heavenly Father wants us to hear! Sister Pastores and I keep hoping and maybe praying that part of the sealed portion of the BOM will be available to us....if only :) We went to the church to watch the Relief Society General Broadcast. They had satellite issues so we heard part of a talk. I was thinking only in jersey and then all of the woman starting singing hymns together and it turned out to be a very spiritual experience and a good bonding time with the woman in this branch. I was humbled and felt guilty for thinking that. I'm grateful for this gospel and the unity we have when we are living righteously! LOVE THIS CHURCH!!!

Let’s all prepare ourselves to hear the words of the prophets! I love you all!

Sending love from the beautiful state of New Jersey

Sister Houghton

September 23, 2013 email

Sakpasai?? (What’s up in Creole)

I LOVE wearing this name tag, this work and OH MAN is the church true!

Things I've learned this week:

• It’s important to clean your apartment otherwise cockroaches can evade.
• Utah seems like the holy land.... literally
• Being a mom means dealing with Throw up
• Car insurance must be really EXPENSIVE in New Jersey
• Angles surround our car when we drive, I'm not kidding
• I speak in the "we" form, even when writing in my journal at night
• Drunken people say the funniest things
• Driving in NY traffic is insane. Also a good leg workout. 
• Heavenly Father provides a way for us to find people to teach
• Miracles come from obedience

I can't believe I've been out 5 months. Where has the time gone?  It’s starting to get really chilly here; Poor Sister Pastores is cold 24/7. I think it’s the Pilipino blood.

Nydia (the referral that we had been teaching) dropped us REALLY hard; she had gotten some false information. Sister Pastores and I couldn't help but cry and cry and cry! We love her so much and want to help her. We prayed for strength and felt the spirit come over us telling us everything was going to be ok. I hope one day she will accept the gospel!

We had a special Leadership training to help us improve our teaching skills and teach with the spirit! It was powerful! President told us to use what we learned into our lessons that night...sooo we prayed really hard and saw miracles. We went to visit a LA and met Al her boyfriend! With the help of the spirit we were able to talk with him about the gospel and he asked US when he could get baptized. We have him set for the 2nd Sunday in October. Miracle!

We had a special "Passaic Day of Service" Activity on Saturday with half the mission. We wore Mormon Helping Hands clothes and cleaned up Passaic (probably my favorite city in the area, nobody speaks English) and now we have some new investigators! yay!  The link for the YouTube video they made is at the bottom, a lady from the ward gave me the link.

A lady (a new investigator) was completely drunk yesterday and kissed both Sister Pastores and I.   She’s such a sweet woman and really needs the gospel, obviously we have some word of wisdom issues to work with, but she loves Jesus and sits on the steps of her church every day. We said a prayer with her and as we were walking away she yelled at the top of her lungs "THANKS FOR PREACHING THE LORD TO ME!!!! I DRINK TO MUCH BEER.......I LOVE THE LORD. COME READ THE LORD TO ME AGAIN. YOU GIRLS ARE BUUUTIFUL." Everyone stopped and stared at us as we walked by. Well at least they know who we are now :)

We have a LOT of less actives in this area and we met one yesterday that was just attacking us, with faults he found in the church, like the Sabbath being on Sunday and people saying 'I know the church is true" trying to tell him stuff wasn't working, it was only after Sister Pastores and I bore our testimony on different elements of the gospel did his heart soften and he said we can come back and teach him like a new investigator. He said the closing prayer and asked that we would find success and help people. It was like night and day from the first part of the lesson. Testimonies have power (when combined with the spirit) I'm grateful for the 3rd member of our companionship. Without him we can't teach!

I LOVE wearing this name tag, this work and OH MAN is the church true! Lots of work to do! I love you all! Have a wonderful week! CTR. Make good choices! 

Sending love from Jersey 

Sister Houghton

 this is the link

youtu.be/jzGjAhGCcWM

Email from 9/16

Hello Familia!

Whew -- Missionary work is tiring! I love it. Every night we lay on our beds exhausted, but completely happy. I love Paterson.

Adventures that happened this week:

• Gave an impromptu talk on missionary work in sacrament meeting (...what better thing to speak on?)
• Ate Pilipino food
• Parallel Parked!
• Bore my testimony to an Atheist
• Told I was crazy for serving a mission :)
• Bore My testimony to a staunch Italian Roman Catholic
• Live on a street of straight up Italians, “bongiorno”
• Bore my testimony to Born Again Christians
• Got Juked (stood up)
• Bore my testimony to a Buddhist
• Felt the Spirit every day
• Smiled, even when people turned us down
• Learned how to be a better companion
• Life as a missionary is challenging but soo GOOD

We have been trying to talk to everyone, even the two Spanish men that couldn't understand English.  I thought Portuguese and Spanish church words are the same apparently it’s not or maybe it’s because I was saying it. We met some really good potentials street contacting and we are excited to meet them for reals!

At the end of one of our lessons we asked our investigator if we could do anything to help her, she started sobbing. She told us that she has no food and is starving. There was literally nothing in her fridge, my heart just broke for her and I couldn't hold back the tears. We ran out to our car and gave her the lunch we had, she was so grateful for anything to eat. I can't even imagine how the Savior must feel, but he has felt her pain, and then that made me want to cry even more reflecting on his suffering. Serving out here has opened my eyes to see how deeply the savior has suffered for us. He knows you! He wants you to utilize the atonement, we have the key to get back to our Savior and now we just need to use it!

Every day we are seeing miracles and meeting so many people that need the gospel. I can't even write them all. I love this work and this gospel and my companion and the scriptures and this weather and the people here!

I also LOVE YOU ALL! Keep sharing the gospel!...and when necessary use words :) D&C 84:85 I love you all!

Hurrah for the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

Sending love from Joisey

Sister Houghton

On Mon, Sept 9, 2013

Hi Family!

Oh man! I just love all of you soo much!

This last couple of weeks has been a blur; I honestly cannot even remember what day it is today? Time is flying. In the last two weeks I have been tripled out of my area, doubled into another area, and training. I had a little bit of anxiety BUT I know that this is HIS work and I'm just putting my trust in Heavenly Father, he knows what’s up, always :)

I'm training the cutest little (I mean little 4'11) Philappino. She has an adorable accent and is so EXCITED to work. How much luckier can I get? This is her first time in the United States and she is just surprised by the cultural differences, it is so different and I hope and pray that she will feel more at home soon.

We were doubled into Patterson...Patterson South to be exact. just for the record, this is the one area that I was thinking "Oh man I hope I never serve there" ha famous last thoughts right? But I love it! It reminds me a lot of New City;  lots of humble people.

Our first day out here, I forgot the phone at the apartment (sound familiar mom ;) ) we had to drive back and get it...then I forgot the ward directory....we had to drive back to get it...then I went to the wrong appointment...and had to drive home to figure out where the real address was and show up 45 minutes late...oops See a pattern? I’m hoping I will be able to figure it out soon. My poor companion!

Sister Pastres came down with a bad sickness; she was down for 3 days, on a "broth and water" only diet. I managed to call 25 of the 27pages of members on the Branch list. There are 500 members in this ward and maybe 50 active. There is a lot of work to do. I'm excited. Some of the phone calls were very...interesting. I love Jersey. Also “Jesus the Christ” is becoming one of my favorite books! Read it!

We have been living with the Passaic sisters (love them) for the past week but today we moved into our official apartment! IT IS SO CUTE! EVERYTHING in it is bran new! It feels like Christmas, I was dancing around just soaking everything up. Oh man. It is beautiful, but I’ll have to  parallel park. Oh boy.

This week we are praying really hard to find people to teach. We know there are people who are prepared; we just need to find them.

So like usual I'm a little stressed, but loving it! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. Thank you for your support and love!

LOVE YOU!

Sister Houghton

Also my last companion Sister Sprague said my spirit animal is a bunny....haha (get nervous easily...jumpy etc) I think it might be true. haha :)

August 26th 2013

Hi From Joisey!

Just so ya'll know this is the last week in the transfer and next week we won't be able to write, no libraries are open on Labor day, Next Monday we are GOING TO THE TEMPLE, one of Sister Dorneles's  investigators  was baptized a year ago and he is going to the temple, and because her old companion is home we get to go!! We literally were crying and hugging each other we were so excited. There is literally NOTHING like the temple.

I have had so many thoughts running through my head this past week, mission work is a rollar coaster, never a dull moment.

THANK YOU for sending the Prince of Egypt CD I almost cried! THANK YOU THANK YOU! I might have also run around the apartment and kissed the CD. The same music OVER and OVER makes you go crazy. We have been LOVING IT. (also thank you for the chocolates, my district says thank you!)

We met with one of our investigators (after he had dropped us) he's an ex-convict that has gone through a lot. We prayed about what we wanted to talk to him about, we all felt really strongly about teaching the restoration. We have really been working on comp unity getting everything to run smoothly and passing off more often. Everything was going great, the spirit was in the room and then the time came for Sister Sprague to share the first vision. A still peace flooded into the room, the spirit was almost palpable. When she finished we all just sat there with tears . Tom looked at us and sad, "Wow, do you feel that?" He is so excited about the gospel :) He is getting baptized the end of September! He still has some hold backs about the trinity thing. We have shared scriptures with him and told him that he just needs to ask in faith and he will get an answer. If you have any suggestions for us to use, scriptures? or something that would help him understand feel free to share :)

Walking day we had an appointment in the next town over....walking it takes about an 1 ½ hours to get there. We were soo excited to see this investigator. When we got to the apartment she wasn't home (Missionaries call it the Jersey Juke) so we just decided to walk to our dinner appointment and teach people along the way....I love walking but apparently distance in cars and on foot are A LOT different. J We ended up walking 3 hours to get there a total of 5 towns. We met lots of people. I love walking and I am hoping that one day a walking area will open for English Sisters here :)

Tracting has been a little difficult lately because of the incident that happened in Vegas. We have not been invited into a single house this past week, I'm praying the people here will open their hearts and let us in.

We are seeing a notable change with the members, they are starting to become actively engaged in missionary work, inviting their friends to meet with us and finding people for us to teach. EVERYONE can catch the wave of missionary work.

I just finished reading The Title of Liberty... (and Captain Moroni :) ) In the midst of all the confusion he stood up for his beliefs and literally WAVED his beliefs for all to see. It's my hope and prayer that we will be like Captain Moroni. That we will STAND up for the gospel of Jesus Christ and share what we know with others. :) We don't need to wave a flag but the Book of Mormon works pretty good too ;)

Hurrah for Israel. Hurrah for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Sister Houghton

PS I LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH! Thank you for your love and support! I'm sending lots of hugs from Jersey!

Now go wave your own title of liberty..... (the Houghton Title of Liberty works pretty good too ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Family! 

 

I hit my 4 month mark and I realized that time is flying by really fast. I don't want to take this name tag off! Ever. I love being a missionary, I LOVE the people. I probably shouldn't be thinking about these things, but Missionary Work is addicting. Good thing member missionaries can be full time too! 

We have been searching this week! We've talked to A LOT of people. We were street contacting on "walking day" and Sister Dorneles felt like we should knock at a specific house, when the man answered, he told us how he felt he had no purpose in life, well that's a perfect segue for the BOOK of MORMON! After we talked about it and the peace it brings into our Life, he started to cry. The spirit just poured over this little door step lesson as we talked and I could feel just some of Heavenly Fathers love for him. We are going to meet with him again this week :) We also now have a 92 year old investigator after we sang Happy Birthday to her she opened up and we were able to share the gospel. Like the saying goes "They don't care how much we know...until we SHOW how much we Care" It's true. We are trying to focus on finding more people prepared to hear the gospel. So we are kind of starting from scratch again...it’s a whole new adventure every day. 

 We had a special "Butter-fly" training meeting just for Sister today. We had an awesome Yoga session with an instructor and just learned how we can present ourselves better....my posture is really slacking lately...I look like I'm ready to hike a football when I'm teaching a lesson, so it's a nice reminder. 

 I don't know how but we ran into Jason again....the man that proposed to me. Seriously what are the odds? Turns out he's been reading the Book of Mormon and was even quoting passages to me. He twisted everything into marriage and the reasons why he's the one for me but I was very excited to hear he's been reading and praying!...so we might send the Elders over to teach him more :) 

 Thank you soo much for your emails/pictures. Holy cow, I was just blown away by HOW OLD everyone is looking. TODD...I might have teared up seeing you so Manlike, Congrats on the Eagle Scout award!  I'm so proud! Jennifer you are so BEAUTIFUL and I am blown away by your beauty! Rachel you look so MATURE and grown up and gorgeous (nice nail polish btw, matched your outfit perfectly) :) Loved the pre-school spa prep, its a must ;) Good luck with your week! Remember that you are daughters...and a Son of Heavenly Father! Look for opportunities to share the gospel in Russet land! 

 

I love you all soo much! 

Sending hugs and kisses from the East

Sister Heather Sue Houghton

 

 

 

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