FIRST WEEK IN ROGERS ARKANSAS

Elder Houston's email

September 24, 2012

 

haha hey family!!

     wow so this week was a crazy one!!!! so as you know i got transfered on thursday. i am now in the rogers 1st ward in rogers arkansas. our last days in springfield were wonderful!!! i got some more pictures. not as much as i hoped for because i was not planning on getting shipped out so soon. ha but im so happy i did. my new area is so awesome!!! im so excited to get to work here.

   so, me and my comp were shotgunned in here, meaning that we are both new to the area haha. so we are starting from complete scratch! so if that was not over whelming enough there were a couple other things that added to the crazyness haha.

   so on thursday, i got asked to drive the loop again. so i got to drive into arkansas. it was fun!! got to see some old friends i had not seen in forever.  since i first came out.

   oh and my comp. he is the MAN!!! we like hit off way good ! we bffs already ahaha. we both have been out for the same amount of time. like i came out three transfers before him or two maybe anyway. so we both are at the same point in our missions so we know what we are doing and he is so funny. haha.... like with in the first few seconds we were together, i had already cried  from laughing. hahaha.... there was a huge spider in our apartment and we both were like... dude.... i hate spiders kill it!! haha it was awesome.... to funny.!!!! he is from cedar city utah, which is alot like arizona. one of his best friends is on a mission from back  home and they own a trucking company like us so he worked with them a lot. but we just are doing great!!! im sooo pumped to get to work together. we are going to do soooo much work and have already got the ball rolling! even with all the crazyness thats going on ha.

    so like the very first dinner we had was awesome! the ward was told ahead of time by someone that i was gluten free. the whole relief society knows already! its sweet!! but that night my eye just went crazy and it got so big! haha i got a sty.... i have no idea how to spell it... which  then caused an infection.... ya it was no good. and so i had to take my contacts out and i had just lost my glasses a couple weeks before.... so i was now blind ha...... oh! and before that we just had got done unpacking. we were eating some choclate popcorn for lunch because there was no food in our apartment haha... but my tooth  broke!! haha... i was in missouri for too long ! my teeth are starting to fall out hahah ! im starting to really look like the natives haha.

so i had a big fat eye and a half a tooth on my first day in arkansas hahah... too awesome!!!

 

    but the week went on. oh so friday our bike were not working. so we went to the bike shop and found out that there was a big prob with my bike and this is a full bike area, so that is not a good thing haha. but the owner is a member and he helped us with what he could. i then got a call after i just spent 40 bucks fixing the bike so i can ride it, that i have to give it back to the elder that let me borrow it. and the mission office doesnt have anymore bikes! haha so thats a working progress. ill let you know more on that subject later. the bishop is looking for a member to lend me one for the time being. i think im going to be here for a while so that with help a ton.

   so we had stake conference this week. so saturday we went to the meeting and this guy came up to us and shook our hand and said "hey elder houston nice to meet ya im elder bowen.". and i was like elder?? with no tag? he was another 70! ha i forgot what area he is over but it was awesome!! i told him to say hey to elder choi for me. he was the 70 that did our mission tour just a couple weeks ago.

    stake conference was so awesome!! he did an open question session at night and there was sooooo much stuff said that i will never forget. It was sooooo cool. the spirit was so strong too! i loved ever second of it.

 

so even tho all this craziness was going on. it was all so wonderful and an awesome way to start my journey  here in rogers. the members are soo amazing! we have already gotten sooo many referrals to go see and people to visit. there is so much to be done here and im so blessed to be a part of it ! im running out of time. i was wanting to share some of the stuff i learned from stake conference but i will have to do it another time sorry.

 tell hunter i didnt forget him. i just late as usual ha... ive got him a letter coming today. i love him and hope he had an awesome 19th birthday!! i cant beleive i been out for two of his b days. it kinda scares me, because that means im coming to an end in my mission service.:/  but i am so excited to see hunter and all of you again!

    life is so great!!! even with all the troubles that can come, there is always things in the gospel and families that turn that frown upside down! ha just a matter of turning it around ourselves and doing our part.

 

 i love you all and know that all is going perfectly here and im doing great! love you all soo much and will talk to you next week !

love elder houston

IT WOULDN'T BE A TRANSFER WITHOUT..........

Looks like Mitchell is on to another area....He should get to Rogers, Arkansas on Thurs Sept 20th... I hope to hear from him soon to get the new address... watch for it!!!

Elder Houston's email:

September 17, 2012

transfers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha

    hey family so whats up??? as you can tell, yes.. we had the calls and man i thought for sure i knew what was going to happen, but i guess it wouldnt be transfer calls if i knew what was going to happen haha.

        so what i thought would happen since i just got here was that elder taggart was going to be leaving and since we had just taken over chesterfield, i thought that he would go there, because he now knew the people we were teaching. and i thought they would open it back up. And i would stay in southernhills and get a new guy and taggart would go to chesterfield and get a new guy. well that didnt happen not even close haha..... i should probably just stop guessing. we both got transferred out!! so now two new elders are coming into the area!

     it is really exercising my faith in the Lord that no one will slip through the cracks. i am really sad too because i finally thought for sure i would see a baptism finally! this girl we were teaching, ronnie, is getting baptized on the weekend after conference!! and she was wanting me to perform the ordinace! i was sooo excited!! we got to be really close with her family too and were getting them to become more active again. we also had a few more people that were getting ready too!. i was really upset at first, but the Lord reminded me that it does not matter what we get to see, just that we keep the work going. im doing alot better now and am happy to go and start my new journey in ...

........Rogers Arkansas! i will now have served in all four states haha woo hoo. that was were elder treasure got sent to after we were split. im in first ward tho. i dont know my address yet, but i will let you know asap. cuz i might need my winter gear sent back to me soon ha... its been in the 60s all this week. its been awesome!! but im scared its going to get cold real fast. who knows with these places ha. well that is what has been going on here. 

 now just saying bye and get everything ready for the new elders.

    

so now for my spiritual part of my letter. it is kinda random, but its something that played a huge part this week. so we had a zone training this week and i was ask to give the spiritual thought for it.

   **so this week i had a pretty neat experience that i feel was revelation from the Spirit and feel compelled to share it with you. i got to share it in this weeks zone training meeting and i was able to bare truthful witness to the other elders and sisters. so the zone leaders called me on thursday to give a spiritual thought in the meeting. as i studied that morning, i prayed and asked that the Lord would use me as a tool to portray the message He would have me give, that would best help the elders and sisters in our zone. i received an answer to my prayer that i would receive an answer but not yet.!!!! as the day went on i started to become worried on what it is that i should share to help. when the answer finally came as i was sitting on a lawn mower haha. we were doing some service for an investigator. i was just sitting there and felt, ok now i need to pray and ask again. almost right after i began to, i became very observant to the bees that were around me landing on the little flowers growing in this mans lawn. i noticed that as i was going a few would land in front of me and seemed not to care that i was coming closer and as i ran them over! haha..... at first i thought wow bees are not too bright haha..... but as i continued i saw that the butterflies would land, but as i came closer they wouldnt stay long, they would fly away.

  it was then the Spirit placed a scripture into my mind... it was matthew 10:39 which says " he that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." the spirit was so strong with that message. as i sat there my mind began to race. i began to liken bees to missionary work! bees are known to be hard workers. all they care about is getting the nectar, or helping the people come to the gospel through baptism. they are true and faithful to there queen (The Lord our king). I NEED TO BE A BEE! and not a butterfly, which wants the nectar but as things begin to scare them or worry them or even distract them they fly away. the bee stands fast and works its self even to death. not worrying about anything but the work. such dedication!!

 i was talking to a member who owns a bee farm and he told us that the bees would work them selfs so hard and to death that if you walk away from the hive and look at the grown you will even see bees crawling on the ground to get back because there wings can no longer carry them.

 i have gained a new love for bees and there powerful characteristics of work and dedication. i pray that i might be a "BEE" in all i do.

 the Holy Ghost is so amazing and i know all these things were not from me, but a divine messenger to help the missionaries of the OTM. im just so grateful i was able to be the one to receive the message. i know i needed to hear it.

oh and while i was eating my  gluten free cereal, called kixs. It had this fact written on the box at the same time all this was going on. ( i know that was not by chance either)..... bees must collect from 2 million flowers to make only one pound of honey!

  i hope you enjoy it

 love you all !!!!

elder Houston

MISSION TOUR...THE BOMB

Elder Houston's email

September 10, 2012

 

hey family !

ha so wow alot happend this week!!! i am really tired right now. we got up pretty early the past two days to move a family and we have meetings on sunday so have to get up at 5 on sundays. so lil pooped... but ya so i will try to put it all together and i forgot my notes that i took for mission tour so ill have to tell you more about that another time.

   so starting off.... so monday we went to branson with most of our zone and played some black light mini golf and lazer tag!! it was soooo fun. i got some pictures, but i wish i would have taken more, but im lazy haha ....and all my pictures turn out fuzzy so ya haha sorry mom.

   tuesday was a pretty good day too. we got to do alot of service. we mowed this brothers lawn and helped him out around the house. then we had to get ready for mission tour the next day.

    oh! and elder treasure and elder davies i dont think i ever mentioned him, but he was in my district in the mtc. he is way cool! he is the assistants with elder treasure. but they came and stayed the night with us that night cuz they needed a place to stay for the tour. but it was so fun haha we got to reminisce old times and tell all our great stories haha..... so sweet. oh and elder davies is like the nephew of mitt romney so we got to talk about him alot too haha.... it was way fun. then wednesday was the bomb, high light of the week!! mission tour!!!!!

   so mission tour... if you dont know, is when a general authority comes to the mission and gives lessons and teaches and all that good stuff. the elder that came and his wife was, elder choi and sister choi. (it sounds like "che" like cherry.) he was sooooo funny!! he is a member of the seventy. he gave a talk a while back in conference about the nine roudy boys and i just remember when me and hunter saw the picture that popped up in his talk, we started laughing haha cuz it was funny. you should look it up on youtube or whereever else you can get it. but it was so awesome. he was talking  to every zone in the mission and at each one he changed the talk completely. he went straight with the spirit! i took soooo many notes and learned sooo much. more than i can even remember ha (i need my notes). it was so cool to know both there talks where straight from the spirit, because it made it special and more specific for our group and each of us individually. and after all the talks he let us ask him any questions that we wanted! i know crazy right! and i totally choked! i couldnt think of anything!! ha like even to ask him anything ! like did adam have a belly button! haha nadda nothing ..... but the few questions that were asked were good for me. he told some powerful stories about pres. monson and i felt the spirit so strong and the love that elder choi has for him.. it was so awesome, unlike anything i have felt before. it strengthened my testimony in pres. monson to a point i have never known i knew,, even more now that he is a prophet then i did before which i thought impossible! but it was awesome!!!! a sister that was about to go home and she asked him what was the advice he had for her and then said it was for all of us was to GET MARRIED! haha... it was perfect for me because i really dont want to get married when i get home. not right away at least. i had this big list of stuff i wanted to do. but he made sure that it was clear and i know it was revelation from God and i fully sustain elder Choi with all my heart. so some of my priorities changed haha...

   he told us this funny story about his mission pres and that was his council to him at his departing interview. He had a list of girls for him to marry!!! hahah and he read off the names to elder choi and when he got to the 7th one the lucky number 7 he said... he knew she was the one and he married her and that is sister choi haha... so awesome.

   lots of cool stories and awesome things i needed to learn here. i have a new love and respect for the general authorities of the church now. i love them with all my heart. they put all the Lords priorities before there own and always strive to do His will no matter what and there testimonies are so powerful and strong. it was such an amazing experence. wouldnt trade it for the world. i know the things he taught i will use throughout my life to guide me and i truely thank him for that and his wife she was wonderful as well!

  

 the rest of the week was pretty great too... but i am excited about  ronnie, the girl i was teaching before i left chesterfield, is gettting baptized!!!! wooooo on the 29th or the 6th im sooo excited for her. im not sure what happened all of the sudden. she just started keeping all the commitments that we gave her. she comes to church all three hours its awesome!! and the spirit or the Lord allowed me to prophesy about her and her family! it was so crazy!!! i just felt so strong to tell her something and then it just started flowing. i told her she would be a leader in her family that she would bring them, with her choices back to the church and bless their lives. her family is all less actives. but like just these past two visits, her mom and brother sat in on lessons and her mom who would never come to church said she wants to come back and she told ronnie that she wanted to ask us for a blessing to stop smoking!! so awesome !!!  i love it!! they are soo awesome and im so happy i was able to come back to help them get back on track. ronnie wants me to baptize her too but i have a feeling that this transfer i will be leaving :( that i will be coming back to southernhills ward and chesterfield will be getting new missionaries again. i still have yet to get to see a baptism, but im just happy she is going all the way and who knows, if i stay in southern hills maybe i will be able to still baptize her. i just down the street after all ha.

    well i do love this work and the people i have been able to grow to love so much. i know what ever happens is the will of the Lord and i am striving to be one with him so that i might be one with the Father.

  

well this was my week! oh we also as you know had a crazy storm the other day 70 mph winds ha and really scary, but we servived. I got stuck in the libary for lil over an hour. but thats about it. all in all was a wonderful week and am ready for another great one. so glad all is going well in AZ with work. anthony sounds so great! he going to be a bomb leader and missionary i can tell already. ya go a head and send me his emails but in letters if you could i want to read them. thanks so much.

 i love you all and cant wait to hear back :)! love you !!

love elder houston