I LOVE Seeing Things Like That Happen in My Life!!!!!!!!

Email received 1/20/14

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I have changes but I won`t know where I`m going until Wednesday. But yeah, things here are going pretty good. It`s been cool. We`ve been able to leave and work with the young men in the ward everyday this week so that`s been SUPER helpful!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah things are going good. The bishop is doing good. He`s still SUPER sick but we were able to meet with him last week and he`s improving a lot which is good!!!!!!!

But yeah, like I said this week has been good. It was pretty normal but good. Something cool that did happen was I gave a baptismal interview to a guy who went to church for the first time 3 weeks ago. It was cool because he told me after the interview that he feels a little weird because he`s only known about the church for 3 weeks but he`s going to get baptized. He said that he doesn`t quite understand what`s going on but he said that he`s going to get baptized because he knows it`s true and the spirit is telling him to do it. It was really cool!!!!!!!!!! I instantly remembered the scripture in 1st Nephi when Nephi is going in to get the plates from Laban and he says that he went in following the spirit without knowing beforehand what he needed to do. It`s REALLY cool to see people exercise their faith to do what the Lord wants them to do. Sometimes we feel like we need to know all the answers before we do something. But that`s not the case. More times than not, we just need to go for it having Faith in Christ and knowing that he`s going to help us out and guide us to do the good. 

Another cool experience was that my comp and I were visiting some people with a lady in our ward that lives SUPER far from our house. And other then the fact that her son peed on my shoe it was a SUPER cool experience!!!!!!!! We visited a lot of her neighbors teaching them little lessons and inviting them to church. It was really cool!!!!!!! But anyway, after we finished, my comp and I went to go wait for the bus. But it was already 9 in the PM and there were no more buses so we were going to have to take a taxi. Like I said, we were SUPER far from the house so a taxi ride was going to cost us at least 6 bucks. So we were a little frustrated with that but we took a taxi anyway. But the cool thing is, when we reached our house, I asked the taxi driver how much it was going to be she told us that she wasn`t going to charge us anything because we are missionaries serving God and serving others. And she told us that if she could serve us and help us serve others that`s good enough payment for her. So we thanked her and invited her to church. IT WAS SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE seeing things like that happen in my life!!!!!!!! I love seeing people being good people and helping others. It really animates me!!!!!!!!!! And it`s animated me more to be constantly looking for ways to serve people. Because like it says in the scriptures, when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God. That is 100% true!!!!!!!!!!! And we recieve TONS of blessings from helping others!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But yeah, like I said things are going good here!!!!!!!!!!! Next week I`ll be in a new area. Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


P.S.
Oh, one more thing. In my interview with President Carmack he told me my exact date for when I go home. It looks like I`ll be going home the 3rd of July!!!!!!!!! Anyway, LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Lord Looks Out for Us

Email received 1/13/14

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things are going pretty good here. Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church yesterday...But it´s all good. Hopefully they´ll start progressing here pretty soon. I haven´t heard anything from President Carmack specifically but we have interviews with him tomorrow. This will be my first interview with him so it should be pretty sweet. We have changes next week. I´ll probably be leaving this area. It´s not certain yet but this is my 3rd change here and you usually don´t have more than 3 changes in an area. Elder Polio is doing good. Yesterday at church he set up 5 different family home evenings with members from the ward and set it up so we are going to leave and visit our investigators with a different kid from our ward everyday. So that´s pretty good!!!  The ward is doing alright. The bishop is SUPER sick!!!!!!! He´s been in the hospital all week long and will probably be there this week too. So hopefully he gets better soon.

It sounds like you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s SUPER COOL that so many people from the ward are going on missions and stuff!!!!!!!!!!! Also, I didn´t even know that Elle was going on a mission. Where´s she going?!?!?!?!?! That´s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Something SUPER COOL happened the other day!!!!!!!!! My comp and I were planning Saturday night and after we finished my comp said the prayer and during the prayer he asked God to give us 2 young men in the ward that can help us with our lessons yesterday (we had a lot of lessons yesterday and we needed to go on divisions with some members to get them all done) And when we got to church almost all of the young men in our ward and some of the members came up to us and asked us when they could leave with us to help us with the work. It was really cool!!!!!!!!!! It really shows how the Lord looks out for us and helps us whenever we need his help!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah like I said everything is going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things are Going Pretty Good Here in Good Old Panama!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 1/6/14

Oh hey!!!!!!!!!

Elder Houghton and Elder Polio at the Panama Canal

Things are going pretty good here in good old Panama!!!!!!!!!!! Today we went to the canal and saw some members from Canada there. They were pretty cool. :) But yeah it was pretty sweet!!!!!!! My investigators are doing pretty good. They haven`t been progressing all change long but now that the holidays are over we FINALLY had an investigator in church!!!!!!!!!!  His wife and his daughter are SUPER strong members but he`s never wanted to be a member. The missionaries have been trying to baptize him for years now but it was just never his time. But he FINALLY came to church for the first time yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SUPER STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we`re hoping that he continues to progress!!!!!!!!!! New years was pretty cool!!!!!!!!! Yeah New Years is pretty big here. Everyone and their dog sets off fireworks from midnight until about 2 in the morning. It was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!! 

But yeah like I said things are going good here!!!!!!!! Something SUPER CRAZY happened yesterday!!!!!!!!!! We eat dinner with the family Caldaron Sunday nights and when we were their Hermana Caldaron was finishing cooking the food and we heard a HUGE explosion and we saw a ton of fire. We were SUPER worried that the gas tank for the stove exploded but what happened was...Well I`m not really sure what happened. All I know is that there was a huge explosion. And Hermana Caldaron told us that when it first exploded she said that she saw the flames going up towards her face but then all of the sudden she said that it looked like somebody pushed the flames back down and instead of burning off her face she just burned her legs a little bit. it was pretty crazy!!!!!!!! DEFINITELY a miracle!!!!!!!!!! 

But yeah I`m glad that you guys are all doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have fun in school and have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S.

I also made Muddy Buddies for New Years. The only thing is I couldn`t find chex so I had to use Corn Flakes. But it still turned out pretty good. Anyways LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Muddy Buddys

New Year's Feast

It`s Cool to See How the Lord has Everything Planned

Email received 12/30/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So things here are going pretty good. Things calmed down a little bit and we were able to get a little bit of work done this week but it`s going to pick up again tomorrow for the 31st. But it`s all good after that there`s nothing too crazy until Carnivales in February. 

But yeah it was SUPER COOL to talk to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SUPER GLAD that it all worked out and we were all able to talk together!!!!!!!! 

But yeah like I said things are going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!! We had an interesting experience the other day. My comp and I walked into a Chino (it`s like a little store) And the owner of the chino was looking at us really weird and then he said, ¨Hey this is yours!!!!¨ And he handed us a scripture case. We were kind of confused about it but I looked at the scriptures and they were from a family that lives SUPER far away from that Chino so we were confused what the scriptures were doing there. But anyways we brought them to church yesterday and the family was SUPER HAPPY!!!!!!!!!! They told us that they didn`t know where they had left the scriptures and they were worried about it. It was a pretty cool experience. It`s cool to see how the Lord has everything planned. The Lord made it so we happened to walk by that specific chino and that specific time so the chino could recognize us so we could eventually give the Scriptures back to the family Rojas. It was a pretty cool experience.

But yeah like I said things are going GREAT!!!!!! I attached some pictures from Christmas. The food that we ate with the familia Montoya and also a picture of the fireworks. Yeah that`s right I`m basically a professional photographer :) 

Anyways I`m SUPER GLAD that you guys are all doing well!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!