July 14, 2014 Happy Birthday

Dearest Family

I hope everyone got their free Slurpee....we defiantly got ours :) Thank you for all the Birthday Wishes and letters, so wonderful! I can't believe I'm 22....I am old?

This past week has been interesting with our investigators. We went to see Marie, and she is not willing to change some beliefs right now, I bore my testimony to her and told her when she was ready to change to call us, I have learned that dropping Investigators is one of the hardest things I've had to do on my mission. It is a complete act of faith. Trusting that there is someone else we need to meet. Marie had become one of my favorite people, my heart physically broke, I'm grateful that I was able to teach her and I know someday she will be prepared. 

We have been banned from teaching Frankie due to some questionable encounters and phone calls..in the middle of the night. That literally put our number of investigators to...uno. But I have realized that this is a great opportunity for us to completely trust and ecxersize our faith. 

We were praying to know were to contact/knock and both Sister Crow and I felt prompted to knock a certain complex at the very bottom of the area. This little neck/section of our "vineyard" has some unique characteristics about it...

#1 there are over 60 Apartment buildings with close to 20 apartments in each one (missionaries dream :))

#2 99.9% of the people are from India (we call it Little India...Curry anyone?) 

#3 because of #2 most of the people don't have a Christian background (almost all of them) 

This revelation was a little of a shock to both of us, and it has been an act of faith to GO and DO. 

When we got there on Saturday we both felt like which building should we start at? Sort of overwhelming...well God is a God of Order so we headed to #1 and knocked for a couple of hours. That whole time we met 2 people who were not Indian, and had no success. I thought why are we even knocking here?...EVERYONE IS HINDU! Immediately I felt completely guilty for thinking that, Mormon said "we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith" right? so we went back yesterday and the first door we knocked we met Santosh! He opened his door with a BIG smile on his face. He said he wants to learn more and is going to have his son sit with us in our next lesson. We were speechless. It hit me, God knows us. He KNOWS who needs to hear about the gospel. We don't. If we just TRUST him he will guide us. TRUST HIM. HE TRUSTS US. And so we will continue to knock and pray and testify. 

Diego is doing better than AMAZING. He is INCREDIBLE. The Bishop and a family in the ward came with us to teach him some commandments and give Diego a blessing to help overcome some minor addictions. It was such a beautiful blessing and Diego said he felt like he wasn't even in the room. He came to church on Sunday and is just hungry for knowledge. It was a beautiful Sunday. 

Just wanted to say that we had some huge tender mercies on Friday, which happened to be my birthday. and the end of my license. we had appointments in a town a lot farther than we could walk, and thanks to prayer the assistants and you MOM AND AMBER the license arrived just in time. I can still DRIVE! such a tender mercy. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! 

I love you all! Keep sharing the gospel! 

I can't wait till another Elder joins me out here! Just a couple more weeks- Elder Houghton :) 

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Houghton

7-11 Birthday Slurpee:)

Happy Birthday (the one one the right is SISTER SMEDLEY our cousins- cousin :) 

July 7th 2014

Happy Holidays Familia!

Wow. Reading about Prep really  touched me. Wow. For some reason this past week Prep has been on my mind. I couldn't figure out why I was having thoughts about him. now I know why. I'm always learning how the spirit speaks to us. Prep is a special spirit. I am praying and thinking about him. Their whole family has been and will be in my prayers.

He is such a trooper and a fighter. Please give him a big hug from me. Alma 38:5 

 There is something about July...I don't know if its the bbq's....free 7/11 Slurpee's :) fireworks, rodeos... or my birthday that makes the month my favorite. On my mission I've learned July is a celebration month....and my favorite because there are MORE people are on the street to contact, More families are home! (Every missionaries dream) AND people don't want the AC to leave their homes sooo sometimes they will invite us in! Its a month of opportunities! I just LOVE this month.

 We've had a very busy week...dropping people or getting dropped. We are defiantly in the finding mode (pmg says we should always be finding...its just a little bit more now, ok a lot more) I'm grateful to have this opportunity to start over and find and find and find. I know God has prepared people out here. 

 For some good news.....

 Diego!

 Well Diego is simply incredible. I have never NOT IN MY ENTIRE life met someone like Diego. He absolutely loves the gospel. When we go to teach him he wants to jump right into the lesson, he asks us questions about things we haven't talked about yet, when we went over the Plan of Salvation He shared his testimony with us about the truth of the plan, I almost started crying, well he basically taught us the Plan. I wish I could bring all of you into that lesson with me so you could experience the spirit in that room. HE always talks about how happy he is now that he knows about the gospel. Gospel brings Happiness

 Still no updates on Katie yet. We haven't been able to meet with her lately.....we are still praying. 

We will find out on Tuesday what Marie's answer is.....

 Also I just want to say something more about the weather...ITS sticky sticky, sticky hot. I didn't think I could sweat so much. um gross I know. I call it Insta-sweat here. You walk outside and BAMB, kind of like instant moisturizer (sorry TMI I know, I know) so walking Day was HOT, we made it to our appointments soaked in.... well anyways it was a great day, we saw some storm clouds in the distance so the senior couple who came up on a team up with us ran us home to get umbrellas. The umbrellas were NO MATCH for the HUGE typhoon like rain that hit.  My umbrella turned inside out, and the rain pelted us. NO one answered their door. ( I don't blame them, it was crazy outside) The streets turned into moving rivers. The whole time I kept saying this is building character. right? Cars drove by and just like what happens in the movies when a car drives by a huge wall of water hits the people standing off to the side, well I testify that can really happen in real life. We WERE SOAKED. Even through all of the unfortunate events.

 

This is the beginning of the rain

 Sister Crow and I just kept laughing, and laughing and singing church songs at the top of our voice. For numbers it was not a successful night, but I learned something from sloshing around in the 6 inches of water- the trials are going to come, "The winds and the storms shall beat upon you" (and they definitely did and will) "BUT it will have NO POWER OVER YOU, because of the ROCK upon which ye are built" If we center our lives on our savior, we can survive the trials. And we CHOOSE how we are going to handle them. I realized that even though everything was going wrong, we had something to celebrate, something to shout to the world! THE GOSPEL. A RESTORED CHURCH. A SAVIOR. This is all true. I'm so grateful for this knowledge! 

 Hurrah for the TRUTH! 

I love you all! Keep sharing the gospel. CTR. 

Sending love from Jersey,

Sister Houghton

 

June 29, 2014

Hello Beautiful Family,

Congrats to everyone who ran RAGNAR! (or who helped out) I'm so proud :) sign me up!..but really. :) 

We all had to say goodbye to President Jeppson this week. I don't think any one of us here could hold in the tears. He has been our mentor, our guide and a HUGE support. He helped me through some of the toughest times in my mission. Words can't describe how grateful I am for him. 

We had a big transfer conference that the WHOLE mission was invited to :) Sister Crow and I ran in to the chapel (reverently of course...) to get front row seats and record some of the testimonies. It was a meeting I will never forget. 30 missionaries in total went home. We listened to 2 hours of testimonies. Needless to say we were spiritually fed and in the words of one of the leaving missionaries we felt so pumped we were ready to "Hit someone in the face with the Book of Mormon!" Saying Good bye to President and Sister Jeppson was hard, BUT we were ALL given Permission to HUG them, BOTH! so I got to HUG President JEPPSON! It was like hugging my own father. Like being home :) Something I have not experience in 14 months. I will treasure that memory, that meeting, and the spirit in that room, forever.

Good bye President Jeppson

President and Sister Jeppson

 We saw Diego on Walking Day, and we were sweaty. It honestly wasn't that hot, but the humidity does something to our bodies? needless to say we were one sweaty mess getting to all of our appointments. Diego (the one that has read the whole Book of Mormon Already) was our last appointment of the day, and I couldn't stop my Jaw from hitting the ground...over and over again. Seriously he is amazing. Here is just a small example He has read the whole book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and part of the Doctrine and Covenants. Ordered from Deseretbook.com "Whose on the Other Side" by Brent L. Top (which was sitting on his coffee table when we walked in) and reading the Articles of Faith by James E. Talmadge. He told us about his journey to find the true church. Looking and nothing seemed to fit, and then he remembered the Mormon Church that was by his home in the Dominican Republic and the 3 Mormons at his High School that always seemed so happy. The spirit was palpable and I was blown away by his faith and love for this gospel. He told us he knows the information and now he just wants to learn how to recognize the spirit.  We taught him on Saturday and in the middle of the lesson he asked where the closest temple was. He is know preparing for baptism in the next couple of weeks. 

Update on other Investigators:

Bill- we stopped teaching him,  we each bore our testimony to him, he's simply not reading and praying to know. we told him to call us when he reads 2 Nephi 31.   He ended up coming to church and told us he's going to read? maybe we just needed to step away from him so he would have motivation? 

Katie, Donna and Joey- they've been avoiding us. This one hurts. They won't answer the door or call us back. We are praying really hard for them.

Marie: We went to have a lesson with her and she bore her testimony to us about Joseph Smith. She's passed her baptismal interview but we don't know whats holding her back. We are praying for guidance with this one. 

The last couple of weeks were challenging, and it became apparent to me to TRUST in God's plan. Even when we are rejected, over and over, and simply feel overwhelmed. From one of my favorite songs it says "You will never stand alone You were never called to bear the burdens on your own, where there is fear, love will take control and lead you on" Christ will never leave us. 

I know Diego is not the only one on this journey to find the true church. There are many. Heavenly Father IS preparing people to hear the message. I know as we rely on him, we will be guided to those ready to find the truth. READY to make changes. DON'T GIVE UP. We must never back down, the Standard of Truth has been ERECTED. Let us keep fighting for Him. HE lives! 

I'm excited to go out and "Hit some people with the Book of Mormon" ;)

I love you all! Have a fun 4th! Keep sharing the good news. 

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Houghton

Fun Fact-the 27th was the 170 year anniversary of Joseph Smiths martyrdom...maybe not such a fun fact? 

Beat Joe Cicon in chess.  A huge accomplishment, he's a chess pro and super smart. The family is amazing and feeds us every other week 

Teaching a group of amazing women

June 22, 2014

Hello Familia,

This past week was the biggest roller coaster I have ever been on...spiritually speaking. 

We are not alone. 

We've experienced some of the most heart breaking situations with our investigators. Sister Crow and I were kicked out of our investigators home, and found out that Joe is in Jail for 4 years now?....Bill doesn't want to be baptized and neither does Marie, AND Donna, Joey right now, and Katie is no longer answering us. All 6 them. We were heart broken, President was going to come to our baptism, (his very last as a Mission President) and we felt we had let him down. 

This may not seem like a lot, but as a missionary this is our life. We have been praying and dreaming and thinking about each of these people to help them progress, and it is heart wrenching. Before sacrament meeting yesterday I couldn't control the tears. I love these people here, we felt we had done everything we could to help them progress. I said a prayer asking for strength to help this area grow, I felt completely beat.  

All of a sudden a member came out of the chapel and said "Sisters, there is a young man sitting in the back row of the chapel, he has read the whole Book of Mormon and read all about the church on the internet, he wants to be baptized." I looked at Sister Crow and started to cry. I was overcome by this HUGE tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father. He never said this work would be easy, BUT that it would be worth it. At that very moment I remembered we are not alone. Heavenly Father requires that we do everything we can and when we CANNOT go on any longer THEN he will provide help for us. 

We had a linger longer after church and Diego said that he wants to serve a mission. He is simply incredible and prepared. 

We went to the temple. I love the city and it was a tender mercy to be able to travel there, we take the subways and the path, which means there is A LOT of people to talk to. :) what a great thing for missionaries, right? The subways trap the heat and humidity, its hotter down there than outside, we spent three hours trying to find our way to the temple, we all arrived sticky and sweaty but So HAPPY to be able to enter into the House of the Lord. It was a tender mercy and all of us left with a renewed desire to be better. 

 Sister Crow and I also went to Ellis Island to help with family history. We mostly help people look at ship manifests and get the people in charge to answer the real questions...:) People from ALL over the world are turning their hearts to Elijah literally ALL over. I love watching people find their ancestors there, sometimes I can't understand what their saying, but I can see their reaction. (hand signs are a must) everywhere more and more people want to become involved with their history. It is amazing. I met a WHOLE family of Mormons from Logan Utah. I wanted to shout "Your of the covenant too!" but I contained it, they were so kind and took a picture of me with their cute kids to send to you, so sweet. I was touched by their kindness.

This work is not easy. I've never experienced the adversary working so hard to stop the work from progressing. I have realized that we will NOT appreciate what our Savior has done for us until we experience pain, trials and temptations. I know this work is not easy, BUT it is worth it. This is simply the truth. I love these scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants" And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice of the heavens bore record unto us- that HE CAME into the world....that ALL might be saved by him" (D&C 76:40-42) and we ALL can be, make the decision now to turn to him, He has already paid the price! In the tough weeks we can still continue moving forward. 

I am grateful for his love. 

I simply love all of you! Have an incredible week, and good luck with the Ragnar! Keep spreading the truth!

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Houghton

Fun Fact: Takes 20 min to get to NYC from we're we live...unless your following missionaries then it takes 3 hours

love you! 

xox

Jun 16, 2014

June 16

Hello Family :) 

I hope ya'll had an Incredible Fathers Day....Dad I'm happy Your an official Idahoan with all your fishing gear now, I will try to embrace my new roots by eating some kind of potato's tonight. 

We've been blessed this week spiritually and physically. First of all we somehow avoided a major car accident and hitting about 30 of God's creatures this past week. (they are literally everywhere) I started my robe on fire making Cream of Wheat for breakfast this morning. woops, luckily we took the battery out of the fire alarm due to some our past burning experiences. We also had a wedding AND Marie passed her baptism Interview!  

Yes a Wedding, This ward has been unbelievably helpful in helping provide for and help us prepare this big Day for Katie and Joe. Bishop Woll provided all the food, and it was incredible. Sister Slaugh brought the decorations for us, (I know you don't know these members, but I just wanted to include them in the letter because they are simply incredible!) Sister Goff provided the music, Sister Righetti and Ashley Smith helped set up and Sister Cicon played the piano, I am SO blessed to be here. 

But the room honestly looked so beautiful, I was even impressed, we hung white sheets up over the white boards and put Ivy around it, we also commandeered all the flowers and shrubbery from around the chapel to fill the room. We even had fresh flowers to work with, Katie was so happy and Joe told me that he almost fell over because she was so beautiful walking down the aisle. 

What I learned from this experience....Weddings are STRESSFUL but with God’s help we can do anything. The lord provides a way to KEEP his commandments and now Katie and Joe can both be baptized! Katie's baptism is planned for this Sunday and Joe's should be in a couple of weeks. If you could pray for Katie we would be so grateful!

Marie's baptism was supposed to be yesterday, but we ran into some complications, she couldn't get work off, and we were devastated. Literally. But we are praying that things will change in a couple of weeks. 

We had an All mission conference and President and Sister Jeppson spoke to us, they are INCREDIBLE people, and have been through so much. President opened up to all 250 of us and shared the most difficult times in his life, he spoke about the confusion and hurt he felt when his brother was kidnapped and murdered, and then when his father died, and the pain when he entered the MTC when the Dr's discovered cancer in his leg and had to cut it off, (one of the reasons President is such an amazing man, his an Amputee and you would never know, he plays sports with us and is never EVER complains) and then 2 years later STILL went on a mission. All of these experiences and stories were some of the most spiritual and sacred stories I have ever heard about trusting in the Lords plan. I cannot even do it justice, but the very last trial he shared with us, was the most powerful and touching. His 7 year old son was killed from bee stings, President tried to save him, but couldn't. In the hardest time in his life, he said he held the body of his son and cried to God for help, and heard God say "TRUST in me, I will never leave you, but I require you to TRUST me" And that is why Presidents theme is "TRUST" To trust in His plan, this work and in our Savior.  Every meeting we have he carries a wooden plaque around with the words "TRUST" It has become a motto for all of our lives.

Our Heavenly Father requires this of us because HE CAN see the BIG picture. He knows the plan perfectly. If we rely on him, and continue we WILL be saved. "Trust in the Lord with ALL thine Heart....in all thy ways acknowledge him and HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS" and I'm so grateful for it.

This is His work, I am so blessed to be a part of this huge force. Nothing is greater. Keep fighting, Keep pushing, and KEEP trusting in HIM! I love all of you soo much! 

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Ho-Ho-Houghton 

Fun Fact #1 Pizza is actually called a "Pie" here 

June 2, 2014

Hi Family
 

It has been a week of miracles and SUPRISES. Mosers, thank you for the surprise package. Aww you know the way to my heart is anything with sugar in it. Mom, thank you for the package, you are so great. AND that letter, it was wonderful :) inspiring, and I am one lucky chicka to call myself a Houghton. So blessed anyways (Houghton pride?) sorry I digress

We've had a week full of spirit led and spirit filled lessons, Ice cream runs (they save lives) and one Emergency Transfer.... Two weeks ago Sister Andrus had a dream she was emergency transferred. I told her to not say that because you just never know...well NEVER say NEVER--. surprise, we found out Wednesday that my companiara, Sister Andrus, was being" Emergency transferred"  and Sister Crow (MY MTC COMPANION!!!) was coming here due to a questionable creeper following after her. She's a beaut what can I say? Well that was hard having Sister Andrus leave. I love her a lot, But I am so thankful we got to be together for 9 weeks.  I am also so excited for her to move to her first next area and experience a change. I felt like a proud momma. She is going to tear it up. And Sister Crow?? my first companion- EVER. I have a lot of love for this sister, she is the epitome of quiet dignity and I am excited for all that I will learn from her. We never know what the Lord has in store for us. Before the mission, I hated change. You know that, but after moving 6 areas in 12 months and many wonderful companions I have learned to love change. (ok just a little more) It's never easy but It's how we grow, and GROW is not an option on a mission. Its inevitable. "I will Go and Do" what He asks of me.

That might not sound like big news, but on a mission that means packing and saying goodbye and lots AND lots of trust in God. Through all of that we have been able to see the hand of the Lord in our work, and had a wonderful week. The WHOLE Rankin family came to church again. They are incredible, I feel like they are my aunts and uncles, I want to run over and hug all of them every time I see them. But I will wait till that is legal, of course :) They are incredible.

My first lesson with Sister Crow was teaching the Law of Chastity with Donna, Katie, Joe and Joey. Sometimes that lesson can get to be a little uncomfortable/awkward. Its not what you say, but its HOW YOU SAY IT. Well we had been praying and praying for guidance to know what to do, Katie is pregnant, and we could see a clear direction of what to do, we presented them the options, and it JUST so happens that the day before their baptism is JUNE 21. This is a special day for me. Ya'll know why. Wellll it wasn't to hard to talk about a wedding that day, we asked them to pray about it, and let me tell you WE PRAYED AND FASTED for them. On Fast Sunday they called and said......"THE WEDDINGS ON!!" lots of jumping and hugging and praying for gratitude. We are trying to get things worked out and might need to have the wedding or baptism on a different day but God has defiantly been guiding us with this amazing wonderful family. They are making Incredible steps in their lives and the feeling of peace in their home is so apparent. The Gospel Blesses our Families and MOLDS us into better people. They weren't able to come to church but things are going well with them.

We are not alone is this work. In every trial, challenge and obstical we have someone to guide us. I read about the faith of the Stripling Warriors, they faced one challenge after the other but "did not DOUBT" and had "no FEAR" They were taught by their mothers (and fathers) how to live the gospel and TRUST in God. I feel the same way. I am forever grateful to my parents. Now is the time to put FAITH instead of Fear and trust in God in every aspect of the word. As missionaries we have to remember "Ye have not chosen me, but I have Chosen you" We were all chosen to work together to bring about this great work. How lucky are we?      

I had my last interview with President Jeppson, we talked about having the faith to Stay active Forever. It is a choice we must make now. When the challenges come, leaving the church will never be an option. His theme has been Love-Faith-Effort: TRUST. Trust in Him, doubt not, fear not. I'm grateful to have served with such an incredible mission president.

I love this work. I love you! Thank you for your love and support!

 Bill our investigator.... we just love him.

 

Sending love from Joisey

Sister Houghton

P.S I got a hot dawg from a hot Dog stand. I'm an official jersian :)

P.P.S TODD leaves in less than 2 months! :)

Memorial Day 2014

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY Family!

This has been such an incredible week. Its starting to get warm, humid warm, sweating from every pore kind of warm and I am so happy. :) This week we were attacked by flying silk worms, (I want to gag every time I see one) I can't describe how nasty these things are, they fly from trees and latch onto your clothes, I'm scared out of my mind. I really try to control the fear in lessons, sometimes I can't help myself. But I really am trying. On the positive side we were given dingle hoppers! (new Fin-Fun product?) from our investigator Frankie, they can be used to brush your hair or scratch your back, pretty nifty, huh? and then at church we had 12 people come, huge tender mercy and we were running around like crazy. It has been such an exciting week. 

Dingle hoppers! 

Also I think the Lord heard your prayers, we were fed almost everyday last week, and sometimes more than twice a day. Feel free to pray for less dinner appointments ;) 

All last week we have been feeling prompted to see two specific less-active sisters, when we showed up both of them said that they had been praying for someone to come. These two specific tender mercies have shown me just how simply our Heavenly Father is aware of EVERY single one of his children. He wants them to feel his love. Romans 8:16-17. We are the HEIRS of God. How lucky are we? 

We had a miracle lesson with Frankie and Franklin, we used the cups (plastic cups to build up the church, its a great visual...and maybe a sister thing?) to teach the restoration. Frankie told us that he needed to be baptized and he was going to pray about it! We almost jumped up and shouted for joy... but that might have ruined the spirit of the lesson. It was a powerful moment and we feel he is ready for this step. :) 

....Donna, Katie, Joe and Joey have been doing wonderful! We taught the plan of salvation and they loved it. There has been a change happening with them, they are becoming happier, it has been incredible to watch. At the end of the lesson we asked them what they needed to do to get to the Celestial Kingdom. Both Joe and Joey said they needed to be baptized......and now the whole family is preparing for their baptism date at the end of June. They all came to church and Joey said he felt the spirit extra when we were singing the closing hymn. Such a tender mercy and confirmation that this is true for him.  Its really hard to describe how Sister Andrus and I feel about them, Love isn't a deep enough word. They are wonderful and we are blessed to watch this transformation take place in their lives. 

Memorial Day is a really big holiday here, there was a parade out of our window this morning, and I love, LOVE, LOVE parades, at the beginning of the parade they started playing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as the background music..... Sister Andrus and I looked at each other in awe. I had to make sure we weren't still in Utah? nope we were in New Jersey and they were playing the Mo Tab. It was a miracle! Little by little everyone will be exposed to the truth. 

 

Its been a great week. Thank you for your love and support and help and encouragement and letters and prayers. I AM SO BLESSED. I hope you have an incredible Memorial Day and an even better week! Hurrah for the truth. 

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Houghton