Camping on the Mission

From 5 June 2017

Allatoona Lake from the campground :)

Hello everybody!

Allatoona has seen some pretty amazing things this week, and I am excited to tell y'all about them!

First of all, we have an amazing new investigator! Amy (not her real name for the sake of anonymity) is the wife of an inactive member of the church who recently turned his life around. She has come to church for 3 weeks in a row now and told us on Wednesday night that she wants to learn more about the church and find out for herself if it is true! Although we haven't been able to meet with Amy very many times yet, she has been keeping in touch with us each day (daily contact can be difficult with most people) and asking us questions, which makes our part much, much easier!

The same night we first met with Amy, we also met M&C, who were referred to us by the Hermanas (Spanish Sister missionaries) in our area. At first, we were afraid that M would never let us get a word in to actually teach him, and for that initial meeting, it was difficult. However, we left him with a cliff hanger that there are prophets on the earth today, and told him we would come back the next evening to tell him more. When we showed up at their door on Thursday night, M was surprised that we kept our word and then let us teach him the whole Restoration lesson (we kept it pretty short, just in case). We were just so glad that he was interested enough to listen. Sister Evans has been teaching me this week that you can tell if somebody really wants to learn by how often they will just listen to you! I had never thought about it before, but it was easy to see the difference between M&C and some of our other investigators right now, which means we have our work cut out for us!

Now I will explain my title. On Saturday, we had an appointment with an investigator we've been teaching for a while, and when we got there, nobody was home. We had just made the appointment the day before, so we tried calling them but didn't get an answer. Fast forward past several other disappointments that afternoon and we get a text that said investigator totally forgot and took a spontaneous camping trip with her family, just 10 minutes up the road from their home. She told us that we could come visit her there if we would like. Since all of our other plans had fallen through for the day, we went to see her at her campsite. Mostly, it was just really wonderful to be able to feel the peace that comes from sitting at a picnic table next to a campfire with a lake less than 20 feet away. I hadn't realized how little nature I have been able to enjoy since getting here. Civilization seemed so far away and it was a blessing that I was able to recover for a bit from a hard day while working with an investigator who seemed happier than she has been in years. Heavenly Father definitely knew that I needed some peace, and "going camping" (even for just a short while) fit the bill pretty well. :)

I hope all is well with all of you and that you will take a moment to stop and enjoy the beautiful world around you!

Love,
Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane
Apt. 333
Woodstock, GA
30189