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

 

May 19, 2014

Hello beautiful family,

WOW. CONGRATULATIONS TO TODD, on Graduating AND on getting your call to NEW YORK!! what? We will have served in the same state! God works in mysterious ways and I cried reading your call, I'm so excited to be able to serve with you for a few months. Hurrah for Israel Brother!

This week we went from teaching a Baptist, to an Evangelist  to lots Catholics, a Born Again, a Jew, and even a Muslim. I love New Jersey. We walked and walked and ran into a lot of Spanish people, which is pretty rare in this area. Every time we contacted one I would think to myself I should have paid more attention in Spanish Class.... but thanks to some previous companions and exchanges in Spanish areas we can successfully contact someone in Spanish and get the message across, well sort of :) Our very last contact last night was in Spanish to a man by the name of Louis, at first he told us he was a "MORMUN" then he told us he was still an "investigator" in Peru but had moved here and couldn't find the church. We testified that the EL Libro de Mormon is verdidero (The Book of Mormon is true) and he said Si! He left so happy he had found the true church in america, and we walked away saying a prayer of gratitude, Heavenly Father had been preparing us ALL week to help us remember and practice our Spanish so we could effectively communicate with Louis. Heavenly Father always helps us accomplish what we need to do. 

Church was incredible, Marie was able to come while Sister Andrus was giving a talk (which was so great) she kept saying "Amen" and giving her thumbs up, I simply love her. AND Donna and Katie came to church, AND so did Bill. It was a very busy Sunday and I am so grateful for the ward here. The members are incredible and always supporting us, introducing themselves to the investigators and simply so loving. 

This past week has been a new experience for contacting. I have felt like the group of people pressing forward to the Tree of Life, while the people in the Great and Spacious building are pointing fingers and mocking us. We have been laughed at, hollered at, fingers pointed at, but we KEEP smiling and pressing forward. I feel so blessed to be here serving a mission at this time. There are many prepared. We just need to keep pressing forward and we will find the ones who are ready. So very blessed to be here. I love this gospel and I love this calling. Thank you for your love and support!. 

Sending love from New Joisey

Sister Houghton

May 12, 2014

Hello Family! 

I loved seeing all of your faces yesterday and hearing your voices, feels like I just called home for Mother’s Day last year? OH boy, time is really flying. 

TODD I am ECSTATIC for you to get your call, remember it doesn't matter where you serve....it matters WHO you serve. :) Give the lord your whole heart and you will love every second of your mission. (Even the hard ones) Also...when people have a hard time pronouncing Elder Houghton just say it's like Santa Clause "Ho-Ho-Houghton" trust me it helps. But getting called "Hot-en" isn't too bad either ;) 

My whole mission my jaw has been giving me some issues, and as time has gone on it's becoming more and more swollen. Just call me Chipmunk. It really is just pay back for when I used to laugh at Amber's cute wisdom teeth checks, she got pretty swollen...The mission nurse sent us to Dr. Thomas, he is a member and has helped the mission in many ways. They took my blood in the office, I was so nervous, Sister Andrus held my hand and I didn't pass out. victory! After that I got pretty slap happy, and did some embarrassing things, becoming a Dr is definitely not in my near future. A masseuse came in and gave me a massage, wow. I think all Dr's visits should end in one of those. :) We came out to our car to see a parking ticket stuck to our window, got to love parking police. Lesson learned ALWAYS put extra quarters in the meter. 

We had been praying for Heavenly Father to guide us with our plans, we felt prompted to put a less-active who has NEVER been home the 8 times we've tried. By the time we got back from the Dr's, paying the ticket it seemed almost silly to drive the extra 30 minutes just to try one more time. We decided to just knock somewhere closer and save the miles. But as we were driving to our new spot both Sister Andrus and I felt like we needed to stick with what we had told Heavenly Father we would do the night before. When we pulled up...(we were holding our breaths) and there in the driveway was a car! Miracles. We knocked and  met Sister Angel. She is a special woman and told us that she has desires to come back to church. .After we left we said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the guidance and that tender mercy. It was an incredible night. I learned that Heavenly Father ALWAYS does his part, the rest is up to us, we must exercise our faith and stick to the plans we've made (unless prompted by the spirit) :)

Sunday Pat was confirmed a member of the church. She was feeling pretty sick and tired but she came and I've never seen her so happy. She is a faithful woman and I've been blessed to  know her. After everyone raised their hands to welcome her she said "THANK YOU" I just wanted to go over and hug her, (but that definitely was not appropriate) Also saw one of my friends Sean from the Y at church, I'm serving in his home ward. Such a small world! 

I love you all lots and lots! Thank you for your love and support and just being you. You’re all incredible examples. Keep being missionaries!  Mom- So proud of you for Studying PMG. Maybe we can have comp studies when I get home? 

Sending love from Jersey

Sister Houghton

P.S Dad- loved seeing your face and hearing your voice. I'm positive you have some calming therapy in your voice.

Mom- you looked so pretty! :) so exited for you to start your new job today. "Hello this is Fin Fun" :)

Amber and JT- your still the cute newlywed couple, can't believe its been 2 years

Todd-Mr Shelley? so happy your loving it and graduating!

Jenn-umm cute! cute nails, and loved getting your dance pictures!

Rach- Thanks for the dance move, you better believe we are having dance parties!!

Taking a Bunny Rabbit for a walk.

I love you all!!! xox

May 5, 2014

Hello Family!

Wow, this week has been better than my words can explain! God has been guiding us and directing us.

Last Wednesday we were hit with a huge storm, I like to refer to it as a typhoon--and all of our appointments cancelled. We prayed and prayed for guidance to know where to go, we went to our backups and knocked for 2 hours, we prayed again asking Heavenly Father to put prepared people in our path...according to our faith, and then door after door we knocked we found prepared people, lots of potentials and 4 new investigators, Maria started crying when we shared our message, she said she had been praying for God to send her someone to show her the way back and to feel his love. Heavenly Father knows our needs, and he will answer them. That night we made a special dinner to take to Pats house to go over her baptism interview questions. We took Sister Andrus's famous Pizza pockets to her house and turned the oven on to cook them right up. After a couple minutes we started to hear a strange sizzling/bubbling noise coming from the oven....turns out the oven was turned into extra storage space, that Pat had forgotten about and we were about to cause a huge electrical fire...not safe, we ran back to our apartment cooked them and took them back to Pats. We ate dinner on Cat plates and forks with Cat hair stuck in between, we might have coughed up some hair balls later on.

We volunteered at Ellis Island this week. It recently opened up since Hurricane Sandy. The exhibits are still pretty devastated right now. Our job is to walk around the family history center and "pretend" we know what we are doing...pretend is the key word here because it was some advanced family history work. We are not allowed to proselyte but if they ask questions we can answer :) We met people from all over the world, mostly French "wee wee" lots of Irish, and of course Italians :) They all were so happy to find their ancestors names, and I can see why family history is a BIG part of missionary work. "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" people are having greater desires to know about their families, all part of our Heavenly Fathers plan to Hasten the Work.

Eye spy....

Sunday we had Stake Conference, The stake Patriarch spoke on the three key elements of a Patriarchal blessing. 1. God KNOWS YOU, He LOVES you. 2. He wants you to RETURN to Him again 3. He wants you to experience the blessings of the Temple. It was an incredible meeting and made me want to look and focus on the specific promises in my blessing, they are given to us, from our Father in Heaven, with promises that apply to the now....and the eternities. It was an incredible meeting. Pat loved it and was excited to get baptized. We decorated her stall, (it’s a Sister thing) and after she got in whites she said "Ok....now throw me in there" It was hilarious because Pat is a soft spoken person and then every once and a while she says the funniest things. She told us she's not a lost sheep anymore and then started to Bahh like a sheep.I almost fell to the ground laughing, I love that woman.

President and Sister Jeppson came to the baptism, it went smoothly, (thanks to a lot of help from this ward) Pat picked out all the speakers and songs for the program, and asked Sister Andrus and I to sing, oh boy, I almost had a heart attack, I was so nervous, but with Sister Andrus's help (she has a heavenly voice) we sang "Teach me to Walk in the Light" we pulled through and I didn't pass out- a success. We had two priesthood holders help her into the font, and assist her going down gently into the water.  She's still too weak from the cancer to climb up and down steps by herself. It was a special moment, after the baptism, when she looked up, smiled and said "I'm a new WOMAN!" She turned her jacked around to even symbolize starting new. It was a special moment. After the service she turned into a speedy demon we could barely keep up with her. We stopped by her home later and told us that this is the best decision that she has ever made. Reminded me of the promise of Joy in Doctrine and Covenants 18: How great is our joy now?

 I'm so grateful for this work and the love and joy and happiness it brings. It's not easy, but it is WORTH it.

 President and Sister Jeppson came :)

TODD. Your mission papers are in!! :) My guess is Chile or....NEW JERSEY MORRISTOWN either way, I can barely sit down because I'm so excited for you!

I love you, I love this work, and I love my Savior! Let's spread the good news!

Sending love from Joisey

Sister Houghton

 

CTR power 

Our first baptism together!