Hiking the Appalachian!

The one picture I took today at Amicalola Falls State Park 

Hello world!

This week has been pretty great! The flowers here in Georgia are in full bloom, the birds are singing, and we are working hard! In terms of missionary work, nothing really spectacular has happened this week. We see lots of little blessings/miracles each day, and it is truly amazing to be a servant of the Lord.

One highlight of this past week was that we had Zone Conference! Yep! On Thursday, we got to drive to the Roswell Stake Center to have a combined Zone Conference with the Roswell Zone. I got to see several of the people I came to Georgia with, including my MTC companion, Sister Willey! The conference itself was wonderful, although it was our last one with President and Sister Bennion. I have learned a lot from them, and we are all sad to be seeing them go, but we are also excited that we get to break in our new Mission President, President Marsh, in the beginning of July!

some flowers we saw while tracting this week!

My spiritual highlight of the week was a fireside put on my our ward missionaries on Saturday evening. A previous member of the ward who works for the Church Education System led an awesome discussion on the Book of Mormon and all the things we gain from it. My favorite part of the event was hearing the testimonies of various ward members as they contributed their thoughts and ideas. I have come to really love the ward here!

The other highlight of this week was today! We went on an adventure! One of the laurels in our ward offered to drive us to go on a hike, so we got permission to leave our zone to go to Amicalola Falls, where the Appalachian Trail starts! Sadly, all the pictures I took are on my camera, so I won't be able to email them today, but I will try to get some to y'all in the next few weeks! The hike was only a mile each way, but included several hundred stairs. At the top was a beautiful view of the landscape, so it was well worth it! I also got my first taste of what it may feel like in a month or so when summer is in full force as we hiked through the humidity that accompanies all the greenery we were hiking through!

I hope you are all enjoying your summers and that you all have an opportunity to share your testimony this week! Love y'all! :)

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Happy with a package. . .finally!

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

Short Week

From 30 May 2017

Hello everybody!

Well, it seems like it hasn't been that long since I last emailed you, and I don't think I have a whole lot to tell you about. Also, I haven't taken any pictures since last Thursday. Sorry. :/

There is one thing I want to tell you all about, so here it is: On Sunday night Sister Evans and I were able to see several miracles during the last few hours of the day. After a quick visit with some recent converts who are moving away for the summer, we drove to  a street we had picked during planning to go tracting. When we arrived, we didn't quite feel like that was where we needed to be. We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father what He wanted us to do with the last 2 hours of the evening. We felt prompted to try a less-active who we had met a few weeks prior, even though she hadn't responded to our text. As we drove to her house, we devised a plan to avoid spending the whole evening there (this particular lady can talk and talk) because we still needed 4 more contacts to reach our goal of 70 for the week. We were able to not only say hello to the less-active, but also provide a small bit of service for her. By the time we left her house, we only had 15 or so minutes to go finding if we were going to be home at 9. We pulled into a neighborhood that turned out to be townhomes (hooray!) and knocked on two doors. The first one didn't answer, but the second one did. Lori was friendly and let us in to talk to her for a bit, which was great, but we still needed 3 more contacts. After briefly teaching Lori and setting up a return appointment for the next morning, we only had about 2 minutes, but we decided to go talk to a group of 3 boys who were playing basketball down the street in order to reach our contacting goal for the week. When we got back in the car to go home, we only had about 10 minutes to make the 15-minute drive home. We prayed that we would be able to make it home quickly and safely so that we could be obedient, and at 9:00pm we were in the door of our apartment (Tiwi didn't even have to get on our case) after catching almost every light green. Heavenly Father definitely helped us reach both of our goals, for 70 contacts and to be home on time.

Really the only other exciting thing that has happened is that yesterday was Memorial Day and I got a free waffle! In honor of Memorial Day, Sister Evans and I decided to have Ether 2:12 on hand all day while we were trying to talk to people. It reads, "Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written." Neat, right? Heavenly Father has been preparing this land for thousands of years, and I am so blessed to be able to live here and enjoy the freedoms I do! Sister Evans and I celebrated Memorial Day by going to Waffle House for lunch. For those of you who don't know, Waffle House is a little diner-type place that is all over the place here in Georgia. It was my first time going there, so our waitress brought me a free waffle, and I have to say, it was pretty good!

I apologize for not having more to tell, but the Lord's work goes forth here in Allatoona and it certainly is keeping us missionaries busy!

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

A Number Two

From 25 May 2017

 Sister Evans and me outside the Temple

Well. This week. Has been. A busy week. First of all, a week for a missionary is the amount of time between preparation days, so this week has been 10 days long. Secondly, a lot has happened, so, as my family would say, it has been a #2. That is Houghton code for "it has been a busy week!"

I met my new companion, Sister Evans, on Tuesday morning last week. She is an awesome missionary! Heavenly Father obviously had a lot He wanted me to learn, so He put Sister Evans with me to teach me all of it! The big thing I started noticing during our first couple of days together is that Sister Evans is very, very diligent, which is SO important in the mission field. I am very excited for this transfer (at least) that I have to work with her!

the Temple

You may be wondering why my week was so much longer than normal. Let me tell you. Even though it is outside the mission, this morning, my zone got to go to the Georgia Atlanta Temple! The Temple is a beautiful place where we can feel God's love ever so strongly while we do service! For a better explanation, feel free to look at mormon.org. There are a couple good videos about temples on there. :)

 Hermana Solis, me, Hermana Rhoton, and Sister Evans
between interviews yesterday

The big lesson I learned this week is that, as a missionary, my efforts and returns won't always match up/balance out, but that is OK. Heavenly Father expects me to do my best to invite others to learn more about the restored gospel because He wants them to experience the blessings of living it. Therefore, my effort should always be pretty intense. However, the results I may or may not see are gifts from Heavenly Father as He sees my work. Basically, my job is to do my very best at scattering sunshine, and I don't have to worry about what comes of it as long as I am trying. You know why? Because "every little thing, is gonna' be alright!" This is God's work and He'll take care of things! :)

I hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA 30189

 same crew with President and Sister Bennion! :)

Catching Waves!

Hey y'all! 

First things first, don't panic when I don't email next Monday. The whole mission is taking turns going to the Temple by zone in the next couple of weeks, so my next preparation day will be next Thursday!

Transfers! Yep! Those are happening! I am no longer a greenie and my trainer, Sister Thorn, will be leaving me tomorrow! She is going clear across the mission to the University of Georgia Young Single Adult Ward! My new companion will be Sister Evans, who I will get to meet tomorrow morning. It should be a pretty fun time here in Allatoona!

There are two big things I want to tell you that I learned about this week.

#1  You meet all sorts of interesting people in Georgia! On Tuesday we found 2 new investigators. One from Kenya and one from Persia! On Thursday, we found another new investigator, who is opting to go homeless for a bit (although he owns and rents out a house). As missionaries, we knock on doors, and most doors look very similar. However, the people behind the doors and each unique! We never know exactly who we are going to meet, and that is the fun part!

#2  The moment you have all been waiting for, where I tell you about what my title means! So, missionaries aren't allowed to go surfing, but on Saturday, I was catching all the waves! We were putting on an open house with 5 sets of missionaries, and nobody was there, so we decided to take turns standing outside holding bright yellow signs and waving at every car that drove past. Plus, it was raining! So the waves were even wet! Even though nobody came, we waved to a lot of people who drove past, so our efforts weren't completely wasted, right? That's right! "No effort is wasted." (PMG) :)

On Sunday for Mother's Day I got to see/talk to my family for 45 minutes, which was awesome! I love my family, and I love that we get to be together for eternity through the sealing power of the Priesthood. That is part of why I am on a mission- to let people know that their families can be eternal and to let them feel that joy.

I love you all and want to wish a late Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers who work so hard each day!

Love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Pics: The open house crew was my district plus the Spanish missionaries in the zone!

Exchange, Ill, Exchange, Car!

From 9 May 2017

Us with the Hermanas in the new car!

What a week it has been!

The week started off really well on Tuesday with District Meeting and then an exchange! Once again, I was in the Hickory Flat area with Sister Nickels. Sister Nickels is an Amazing missionary! She has taught me a lot about how to "Talk with Everyone," which is a valuable skill as a missionary. Working with her gave me a lot of ideas about how to contact more people without spending quite so much time knocking on doors (which is great to do, but not super effective). Going on exchange is great, especially when you know the area really well from going there 4 or 5 times before!

The low point of the week was that I got sick so nothing terribly exciting happened on Wednesday or Thursday except that I slept A LOT. Sister Thorn was a trooper getting things done and helping me feel okay about staying inside during proselyting time (the mission nurse told me to stay in and get some rest). By Thursday night we were able to get some medicine and now I am back to being fully functional!

On Friday I got to go on another exchange to Collins Hill with Sister Pierre while Sister Thorn went to Mission Leadership Conference. We met and taught some really interesting people during our time tracting in the rain (Fun GA Fact: The weather goes from hot, humid sunshine one day to cold wind and rain the next, even in May). The highlight of the exchange was that they found out their investigator (whom I have met on previous exchanges there) was actually able to be married and baptized the next day! Hooray for him! When Sister Thorn came back to pick me up (and drop off Sister Pierre's companion) she came in a new car! Our little VW Jetta hit 50,000 miles on Wednesday, so we got a brand new Chevy Malibu! It was exciting, but we are now really scared of anything happening to our car (which may not be such a bad thing as we are now taking especially good care of it!)...

Sister Thorn and I at a Recent Convert's house. 

Sister Thorn really loves the new car!

Since then we've been back to normal missionary work! Nothing terribly exciting has happened, but we are looking forward to an open house this week with lots of hope and excitement!

This is my last week of being a "greenie" (new missionary), so I am trying to learn as much as I can while I've still got my trainer around! (I've learned a lot, but there is still so much more!)

Have a wonderful week! 

With lots of love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Apt. 333

Woodstock, GA

30189

Pics: (1)  (2) (3)

Miracles in Finding

From 1 May 2017

Kudzoo! ...is a huge vine-plant that grows all over the place here in Georgia

Hello y'all!

Every time I say "y'all" I feel like an imposter, but it is slowly becoming more comfortable! :)

What an exciting week it has been! It's been missionary work as usual, but this week has been especially great. We have had lots and lots of service opportunities and have met lots of interesting people!

(1) Vacuum+Hand

Remember how last week Sister Thorn tried to break my finger (not really)? Well, this week, I decided to continue the trend by doing an even better number on my hand/thumb. With a vacuum. I know. How? Well, it turns out that if you pull on the hose too hard, the vacuum tips over with some speed and if it hits your hand just right, it can paint some pretty bruises! This time, I thought to take a picture to show you all (nothing gross, just colorful). My hand is still fully functional, so all is well. (Don't worry, Mom. :) ).

On Thursday we had Zone Conference! We had Elder and Sister Alba join us from the Area Seventy and President Bennion had a lot to tell us about a big long conference he had last week with Elders Ballard and Rasband from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I learned too much to explain, so I'll just tell you some of the things all of us missionaries committed to do by the end of the meeting. (1) Mighty prayer for finding, (2) Invite boldly, (3) Talk with people about families, (4) Intensify Studies and Planning, (5) Leave with love, (6) Repent Daily, (7) Testify every Fast Sunday, (8) Check understanding with questions, and (9) Use the Book of Mormon as much as possible! Sister Thorn and I are trying hard to keep all of those things in mind and do each one and it has made such a difference in our missionary work already!

Ever since zone conference on Thursday, I have been working really hard on having "mighty prayers to find" along with the faith necessary to find those who have been prepared. Before daily planning and during every prayer we said, Sister Thorn and I have been asking Heavenly Father to place us where we need to be in order to be the answer to a prayer and also to let us feel the guidance of the spirit. Every single time we have gone tracting since we've started focusing on those things, I have seen a miracle! On Thursday night, when we had enough time to knock on one more door, we met a lady named Joan. She told us that she had met the Elders not too long ago at her daughter's house and that she had completely forgotten about it! By the time we were finished talking to her, she told us that we could come back and that she would read the Book of Mormon!  On Friday night, the first miracle was that we were eventually able to leave a door at which the man really wanted to bash and got mad at us for refusing to bash with him. The second miracle was that as we continued walking along his street, we ran into a lady who had randomly asked us for a copy of the Book of Mormon last week. She told us what she thought of it (she is all the way to 1 Nephi 14!) and we were able to clarify a few things for her and get to know her a little bit better. Just after our Book of Mormon lady walked away, we were trying to decide which way to go at an intersection and a teenage boy came up to us as he was walkig his dog and asked us if we were the same people who had talked to his friend a few weeks previously (on the same street)! The overall miracle of the evening was that Heavenly Father knew exactly what would pick us back up after that painful first contact of the evening (the basher). Fast forward to Saturday evening. In order to reach 70 contacts for the week, we needed to talk to a lot of people in not very much time. We drove to the street we had planned on tracting and found a family having a front-yard gathering. At that one house, we were able to contact 4 people in not very long (since they were politely not interested), and a few houses down, we had an amazing contact with a young father and two of his children. Each time we had to decide which direction to go at an intersection or which house to start on, we tried really hard to let the Spirit guide us, and each time, we met somebody who we were able to have an engaging, gospel conversation with. On Sunday night,we still needed to contact 19 more people to reach our goal of 70 for the week. Since we only had 3 or so hours to go finding, we were worried that we wouldn't quite make it. Accordingly, we prayed very mightily! By the end of the day, we had 20 contacts, 2 new potential investigators, 2 return appointments, and a lot of gratitude to the Lord for helping us achieve our goal. I have personally felt guided by the spirit more in the last 4 days than I ever have before. I have learned for myself that the Holy Ghost really is a very still, small voice, but that if I listen for and to it, the Lord will be able to direct His work, which will make it so I am using my time that much more effectively. I know that this is the Lord's work and that if I earnestly desire to do it the way he would have me do it, then I will be a million times more successful as a missionary. :)

The other exciting bit of the week was working with a man named Jon (that's not his real name). We found him about a month ago and have only been able to meet with him once since. Until this week that is. On Wednesday evening, we were in his neighborhood, walking along the street when he poked his head out his door and asked if we would like to meet his wife and one year-old daughter. Of course we would! We were able to not only meet and talk with them that night, but on Saturday, we got to help them pack up their moving truck! (This, by the way, is the double-edged sword of missionary work. We always want to help our investigators, but we also never want them to move in case they move outside of our area boundaries.) Sadly, Jon and his family no longer reside in our area, but they are still in the mission and they promised to come back and meet with us one more time. Their family is amazing!

Happy May to everybody! Here in Georgia it is getting to be hot and humid, but "no unhallowed [heat] can stop the work from progressing" (Standard of Truth)! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

With lots of love,

Sister Houghton

701 Downsby Lane

Woodstock, GA 30189

Sister Thorn caught a frog before figuring out what she would do with it once she caught it. :)