"Everyday Isn't a Good Day, But There is Good in Every Day."

I am obviously behind on posting but I wanted to continue on.  I will try to catch up as soon as I can.

Here is what's going on with him right now with excerpts from his email sent today,  June 17, 2013.

Elder Houghton with his companion, Elder Montero.  

The Branch he is serving in had an activity for Father's day and he was really happy to see some of the recent converts helping and participating and enjoying being with the other members. He said, "This week was also cool because we had a branch activity for Father`s day and it was put on by the relief society and it was SUPER AWESOME to see Hermana V there helping out and talking with all the sisters and participating in everything. Also the jovenes (the youth) in the branch helped out and it was SUPER COOL to see S and C (Hermana C`s kids) there helping out and participating too. And then yesterday at church, S gave a talk and it was SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She bore a VERY powerful testimony!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man I was SUPER excited to see all of my converts progressing so well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man it`s GREAT!!!!!!"

 He's really hoping he gets to stay in his area for one more change. 

He loves the people there! 

Things are well but he still has struggles. He has had a little bit of a difficult time lately but he always has a good attitude and carries on. He said, "There's a quote (I think it is by President Monson) that says,

 'Everyday isn't a good day, 

but 

there is good in every day.' 

So, I've been putting that to use in my life and it's REALLY helped me through the hard times!!!!!!!!!! Also there's a talk that I read the other day by President Uchtdorf from the last Young Women's conference in April that I HIGHLY suggest to everyone because it is SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's called Your Wonderful Journey Home . Also, his talk from the priesthood session called Four Titles is SUPER GOOD too, and I HIGHLY suggest that you guys read them because they seriously are a good help when things are hard." 

Because of all the changes in the mission field, his homecoming date is going to be changed.  He was asked whether he wanted to come home 4 weeks early or stay 2 weeks later.  He said, "Yeah, I was thinking that if i went home early, I would have more time to work to save up for school but then I realized that if I stayed longer the Lord will help me WAY MORE than the few extra weeks of working so I`m going to stay longer." So, he will be getting home the first part of July 2014.  This Thursday, June 20th, is his one year mark.  I can't believe it's already been a year!  It's been so incredible to see the change in him and to see all that he has accomplished in just a year! 

He closed his email with this:

"Anyway, like I said, things here are pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still ABSOLUTELY LOVING Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SUPER GLAD that you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whenever I talk to the other missionaries about my family, I always remind them that my family is WAY BETTER than their's!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D 

Anyway, keep up the good work and I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We sure do love and miss him but we know he is where he needs to be!

Here's a quote that helps me remember this when I am missing him:

"A missionary leaves his family for two years so that those he teaches may be with their families forever."

So thankful for his service!  

We´ve Been Praying

Email received 6/10/13

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Goodson told me that President´s probably going to keep me out here in Bocas for another change!!!!!!!!! I´m going to have 6 months out here in Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m pretty dang excited about that!!!!!!!!!!!  Angelith hasn´t received permission yet but she told us that her aunt told her that she would give her an answer on Tuesday. But I´m pretty sure that she´ll receive her permission because Angelith has a TON of faith!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we´ve been praying for her so I know she´ll get baptized this weekend. 

So it was pretty nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got another boil. Ha ha I haven´t had a boil for like 2 months and this boil was  the biggest one that I´ve ever had!!!!!!! It was RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha also it turns out that Hermana Vielka is like a boil popping legend here in Changuinola. Whenever people have boils they all go to her to pop them. And she has a reputation that everyone that she popped boils for have never gotten a boil ever again. So needless to say I went over to Hermana Vielka to have her pop my boil. Ha ha anyways it hurt SUPER BAD and blood squirted all over the place!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty dang gross!!!!!!!!!!! But hopefully now I will never get another boil.

 Also today was pretty sweet. Elder Goodson and I went golfing this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep I have now officially gone golfing in Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty dang COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We`ve Been Getting a lot of Good Work Done

Email received 6/3/13

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah that is SO COOL that Cole is going to Argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I`m so proud of that kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyway, things are going pretty good here. I`ve also been going on a lot of divisions with Elder Goodson (one of my ZLs) so we`ve been getting a lot of good work done. For example I have a cool story about one of our investigators named Angelith. We`ve been teaching Angelith for a LONG time!!!!!!!!!!! She`s one of Hermana Vielka`s grand-daughters (and yeah we see her at least 2 or 3 times per week. She`s pretty dang cool!!!!!!!!!) But anyways Angilth could have been baptized with Vielka, Laylanis, and Dadiana but she always for some reason felt like she wasn`t ready. But FINALLY after 3 months we were teaching her and we taught her that you don`t need to be perfect to be baptized. And FINALLY after like the 50th time teaching her this, she understood!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now she has a baptismal date set for the 15 of this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing we`re waiting on right now is permission from her mom. But between Angelith and her grandma, they DEFINITELY have enough faith to see a miracle pass and I know that Angelith will receive permission in time before her baptism. So I`m pretty stoked about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But other than that everything`s going pretty good. All my clothes are holding up fine and other than the family pictures I don`t need anything else. Just prayers :) 

Anyway, thank you all SO MUCH for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God Guides Us Places Without Us Even Realizing That We´re Being Guided

Email received 5/27/13

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

 

Yeah I didn´t know what happened but I didn´t recieve your email last week. But anyways things are going pretty good. I´m still here in Changuinola which I was SUPER excited about . I´ve been going on divisions with one of my ZL´s, Elder Goodson, and we´ve been working pretty good.

I have a pretty cool story. The other day I was with my Elder Goodson and we had about an hour left before we needed to be in the house. So we were thinking of who we could go visit. And then randomly I got the thought that we should go visit a less-active lady named Hermana Estrada. So we went over to her house without knowing why. But when we got there we found out that she had been having a rough few days because her daughter had a stroke. So she talked to us about it and we tried to help her the best we could. And then after we left we realized that sometimes God guides us places without us even realizing that we´re being guided. It was a REALLY cool testimony builder about how God knows each and everyone of us and helps us out when we need it.

That´s SUPER COOL that Cole is going to get his call this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m SUPER STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hey tell Emma ¡Feliz cumpliaños! ¡Espero que tenías un día MUY ESPECIAL! ¡Ya tienes 9 años entonces estás BIEN VIEJA! Ja ja ja ja ja ja es broma. ¡Bueno de verdad te extraño MUCHO cada día! SIEMPRE requedas que El Señor está aquí para ayudarte con todas las cosas que necasitas en tú vida. ¡Te quiero MUCHO y tenga una semana BIEN PRITTY!

 

Anyway, things are going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I Get to Stay Another Change Here

Email received 5/13/13

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

Yeah that was SUPER COOL to talk to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, things are still pretty good. I just found out that I don`t have changes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I get to stay another change here in Changuinola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m SUPER STOKED about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not too much has happened since Saturday. It`s been raining pretty crazy today. Seriously it`s been raining harder than I`ve ever seen it rain all day long. Ha ha seriously there`s a lake behind our house now. Ha ha but yeah it`s all still pretty good here!!!!!!

Anyways, things are still going pretty good here!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Work Here is Going Pretty Dang Good!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 5/6/13

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!! The baptism when pretty good. We baptized a guy named Alchamedez. It was pretty sweet. He´s a SUPER quiet person but even though he didn´t say much about it afterwards you can tell that he felt the spirit strongly and that he was happy. So that was pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha guess what? So we were sitting at Hermana Claribell (a recent Convert) and her niece who´s been to church TONS of times but has never wanted to get baptized came up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized this weekend. Ha ha so we´re going to have another baptism this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also we have another investigator named Angelith that is SUPER prepared for baptism. Seriously she was telling us that she reads a chapter in the book of mormon, the bible, and doctrina y convenios every night. And she also told us that the other night she woke up in the middle of the night and she felt like she was missing something. Then she remembered that she didn´t say here prayers. So she got out of her bed and knelt down and prayed. This girl is RIDICULOUSLY prepared for baptism. The only problem is she says that she´s still missing something. So we´re going to try to help her realize how ready she is and she also might be baptized this weekend too. So yeah the work here is going pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!! 

So about calling home. It turns out that they changed the rule and we can only call home on Christmas now...Ha ha just kidding. Ha ha but anyways here´s the dealio. We can still skype and everything but the thing is there´s not very many places that we can skype here. And since there´s 6 missionaries in my branch we have to spread it out. So Montero and I need to call Saturday afternoon. If that works for all of you. I´ll be calling at 3pm here so it will be 2pm there in Utah. So let me know if that time works. But yeah I´m SUPER STOKED to hear all of your voices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha that´s pretty nuts that we´re going to have ANOTHER missionary from our ward go to California. Ha ha that´s like the 67th person from our ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;) And that´s nuts that we´re going to have tons of missionaries out from our ward at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyways, I´m SUPER GLAD you all are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Lord is ALWAYS There to Help You

Email received 4/30/13

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

Hey SO SORRY that this is late!!!!!!!!!!!! So Bocas is WAY far  from the city and every once in a while we lose power here. So yesterday we lost power and it didn´t come back on until like 30 minutes ago. Anyways, it´s still going pretty dang good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last week was a little crazy but it´s still good. Last Friday, we went to David (a 5 hour bus ride) for a training. It was pretty cool. I learned a ton of cool stuff and I think I finally convinced President Ward to let me stay here longer than 2 changes ;) Ha ha but we´ll see what happens. But yeah it was a pretty good training. President was really happy with our zone because we had a total of 7 baptisms last month and 6 the month before that (Bocas usually only gets 1 or 2  per month) The only bad thing about the training was we had to leave at 3 in the morning to get there on time and then we left that same day and got back at 10 pm. So It was pretty tiring!!!!!!!! Yeah I got the birthday cards and I was SUPER HAPPY to hear all of your voices!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, my investigators are doing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re going to have another baptism this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We´re baptizing a guy named Alchamedez. He´s SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!! He´s been coming to church pretty much every week for like 2 years but just now made the decision to get baptized. It´s going to be pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana Claribell and her family are doing GREAT too!!!!!!!!!! They´re reading the Book of Mormon and praying and doing everything they´re supposed to do. It´s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!! Our other investigators are doing pretty well too. They´re all progressing pretty fast.

Spiritual experience of the week... It was pretty sweet, a lot of our investigators keep telling us that they need more time to prepare to get baptized but pretty much all of them are ready. So it got me thinking about how a lot of times we don´t give ourselves enough credit. EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this world is capable of doing ANYTHING they put there minds to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is something that you and daddy have taught us all throughout our lives and I REALLY STRONGLY believe in this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that´s stopping us from reaching our potential is ourselves. We think that we´re not good enough, smart enough, or whatever other stupid reason. We just need to rely in the Lord and when we do that, we can accomplish ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Montero´s doing pretty good. Ha ha yesterday for P-day we got permission to go to Costa Rica so he was SUPER EXCITED about that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha but yeah it was pretty dang fun!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to a beach and played soccer and I got some Costa Rican money. And now I can say that I´ve officially been in 3 countries!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha yeah it was a pretty sweet p-day.

Yeah I get A TON more chances to teach now. Montero is SUPER GOOD at that!!!!!!!!!! So my Spanish is progressing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m also proud to say that I gained the respect from the Latins. Ha ha yep, so I´m basically a Latin now ;)

The members here are pretty sweet. They help out whenever they can. And It´s cool because I´m pretty good friends with a lot of them now so yeah this branch I´m in has definately been my favorite!!!!!!!!!!

It sounds like you guys are all doing pretty dang good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s SWEET that Max is the Publicity chair!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell him that, that´s the BEST job!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you know marketing is pretty much they best part of business and Publicity is part of marketing :) And no, I haven´t heard anything about Mother´s day. But I´m pretty sure that we can skype here in Bocas. But I might be in another area during Mother´s day so we´ll have to see.

Anyways, I´m glad you guys are doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep having fun and ALWAYS remember that the Lord is ALWAYS there to help you WHENEVER you need him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m SUPER PROUD of all of you and I love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!