Women in the South Don't Sweat, They Glisten

From 24 July 2017

I found a hill tall enough to see a horizon while we were out tracting one night!

Well hello there!

This week, I did not sweat, I glistened! In fact, I am getting very used to glistening pretty much whenever I am outside. Sadly, I don't have any good pictures to show you, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Especially on the days we have been biking. I don't know how all the oncoming traffic is able to see when we are riding past! That is how bright we glisten in the humid heat! ;)

One morning, we walked out the door to
find a rather large moth sitting on our
 door frame, so Sister Evans decided to remove it.

Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is that I finally figured out who gave the talk that was a major catalyst in getting me on my mission! It is called "Turn to Him and Answers Will Come" (October 2015 General Conference) and was given by Elder James B. Martino, who just so happens to be the brother of the MTC President, President David C. Martino (who just started as President a few weeks before I got there)! That was pretty cool to figure out, and I am looking forward to recommending that talk to anyone who ever has any questions about any major life decision.

Missionary work has been slow but pretty good here in the Allatoona Ward. Not a whole lot has happened, but Sister Evans and I are working hard to find people to teach and, in the meantime, to practice teaching with members so that we can help people once we find them! Although we haven't been able to teach any investigators, we had a lot of opportunities to do some community service this week, and that really helped me realize the value of serving our fellow man. If there is any single thing that will help you feel better in whatever situation you may be in, it is serving those around you, in whatever small way you can think of. Sometimes giving service is as simple as talking to somebody or even just smiling, but it really does make a HUGE difference in their life and in your own! My initial reaction when I am feeling down has never been to turn outward, but I have come to realize that looking to help others really puts things in perspective for me. Accordingly, I challenge anybody and everybody who reads this to find some small way to serve others this week. You might live with them or they might be a complete stranger, but, trust me, it will brighten your day and theirs! Let me know how it goes. :)

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Zaxby's (a Southern, chicken-focused restaurant)
has really good water, and the ice left some
cool condensation, so now you get to see a picture of it!

Hibatchi: Tilapia, Shrimp, and Zucchini!

From 16 July 2017

Sister Evans and I had our first trip to Pep Boys for our car to get one of the tires fixed (no good story behind that one) 

Hello everybody! I hope you have all had a stellar week!

Plenty of exciting things have been happening this week, and it seems to have flown by! You may be wondering about my title, so I will explain that first. On Saturday evening, we were having a member drive us around to appointments and be our team-up, and she offered to take us to a Japanese restaurant called Kani House. We didn't have dinner plans, so we went! We got to see our food cooked hibatchi-style, which was pretty neat! There was lots of fire involved and now I have some ideas as to how stir fry is really done. I decided to step out of my food-zone and try fish! (My dad will be smiling as he is reading this). That's right, I had tilapia and shrimp in one meal! (And here is where my mom will smile) Plus, the stir fry had zucchini in it and it was pretty good! I have never been one for adventurous eating, but I survived this encounter and may be trying more new things in the near future!

Because of interviews this week, I got to get to know President and Sister Marsh a bit better, which was AWESOME! I am so excited to start working with them more and more! President Marsh is hilarious and had some good counsel to answer questions I had about my area and my work as a missionary. It is going to be a fun year with these two in charge!

Being a missionary this week has been stressful but good. Because the weather has been so unpredictable for the past few weeks, we haven't been able to use our bikes much, which leaves us dependent upon our feet and members! That adds a little bit of complication to planning and getting places, but it has been really good to get the members more involved in the work, which is awesome! Our district decided to set a stricter definition for "contacts" this week, which has been interesting to experiment with. The bar is now much higher than it was, which means that our contacts have been much more worthwhile, but it is a lot harder to hit our goal of "contacting" 70 people each week. It will certainly be interesting to be able to talk with the rest of thre district tomorrow and see what their experiences were with our new definition.

Our one investigator, Amber, has officially moved out of our area, so we will be referring her to other missionaries this week. In the meantime, we did find one new investigator! Rosa was a referral from her daughter over 2 months ago, who we have been trying to contact, but has been out of the country for the past month! On Friday we were finally able to meet and teach her, which was awesome, and we are looking forward to our appointment with her tomorrow!

Kani house

The spiritual highlight of my week has been hymns! Music can bring the Spirit so strongly into a room, and I have recently realized how applicable so many hymns are to my life as a missionary. One in particular that has been helping me through this transger is "Come, Come Ye Saints." On the first day of the transfer, the first line hit me really strongly and has been suck in my head ever since. It goes, "Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy, wend your way." That line has helped me refocus on all the joyful things happening in my life and in the world around me. It reminded me that I am in charge of how my day goes and that every day can be a joyful one, even if it is full of hard, disappointing things. There is always joy to be had, and "men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25)! I would invite you all to have a more joyful week this week and to share that joy with those around you!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Free Lemonade!

From 10 July 2017

Sister Evans and I at the ward breakfast on the 4th

Hello world!

the lemonade stand crew

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July this past week! Missionaries do their very best to take advantage of holidays so that we can talk to as many people as possible! Accordingly, on Tuesday, we passed  out about 40 gallons of lemonade, for FREE! Yep! We set up a lemonade stand with 10 missionaries outside of the big festival happening in downtown Woodstock, and it was awesome! By 3:00 when a storm rolled in, each companionship could legitimately claim about 150 contacts! (That is A LOT!). By 7:00, the storm had pretty well cleared up and we were back at it. Except this time, our lemonade stands moved. In order to accommodate the crowds of people gathered in a Target parking lot waiting for a fireworks show to begin, we wedged coolers full of lemonade between our bike racks and the backs of our cars so that we could slowly drive down the aisles of the parking lot talking to even more people and passing out even more lemonade! By the time we got home that night, Sister Evans and I had 214 contacts! Happy 4th!

The next morning, we drove to Roswell with the Woodstock Sisters to meet our new mission president, President Scott Marsh, and his wife. They are awesome, and I am so excited to see what happens in the GANM! The thing I am most excited about is that our mission is going to be running a pilot program for using family history and familysearch.org in missionary work! The Spirit of Elijah is real, and over the past few weeks, I have felt more and more like I need to be paying closer attention to my ancestors and what I can do for them, so I am beyond excited to see how things go! I don't know a whole lot else about what is going on, but tomorrow I will get to talk to President Marsh one on one in my interview with him, so I will have more details next week!

one of this week's rainbows!

The weather here has been all over the place, but this week we were able to see some beautiful rainbows, so that was pretty great. In fact, one rainbow led into a 75 minute gospel discussion with 6 teenage girls during another lemonade stand in Woodstock on Friday night. "I like to look for rainbows, whenever there is rain...". :)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week wherever you happen to be and that you have a chance to appreciate your ancestors this week!

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Happy 4th of July!

 A patriotic goose/duck we met while tracting one day!)

Hi everybody! I have lots of little things to tell you about this week, but nothing too huge. Sister Evans and I have been having all sorts of adventures!

First of all, I am sure you are all wondering whether or not we have survived not having a car for half the week. Well, it has been easier than I expected. Due to some exciting weather patterns this week, we either stayed within walking distance of our apartment (1-2 miles) or got a ride to wherever we needed to go (from members and nonmembers!) We'll see how things go as it gets hotter and more humid, but so far, we have survived!

Our top investigator, Amber, may be moving in the near future, so we may or may not get to keep working with her, but in the meantime, she is visiting family, so we don't get to work with her too much this week anyway. We'll keep checking up on her and seeing how she is doing, don't worry. :)

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to see downtown Woodstock for the first time. It isn't technically in our area, but we got permission to go street contacting with the new Sisters who are in that area. It was pretty neat and reminded me in many ways of the town I grew up in!

President and Sister Bennion went home on Saturday and aren't allowed to visit Georgia for the next 2 years (just enough time for all the missionaries they know to go home). On Wednesday, we'll get to meet President and Sister Marsh to welcome them to the mission! (They arrived on Saturday, but due to the holiday, we have to wait a few days to meet them).

Today, Sister Evans and I had a super-preparation day. You might ask what made it a "super-preparation" day. Well, we are now super-prepared for summer, because we got haircuts! Bring on the heat! (Although I wouldn't mind if it didn't get any hotter this summer).

By the way, all of the missionaries in the USA are really excited for tomorrow, because the 4th of July presents a lot of opportunities to participate in the community! Tomorrow morning our ward is having a pancake breakfast which we have been encouraging members to invite friends to and we will be putting on a lemonade stand during a parade and festival in downtown Woodstock! Hopefully we will be able to meet a lot of neat people!

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July and that you are all able to spend some time reflecting on what a blessing it is to live in a land where we are free to choose! I count it a huge blessing to be able to not only practice what I believe, but to have the freedom to share it with others. 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Haircut fun! 

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189