Dearest Family/everyone

From 2 May 2016

Olivos in all of its glory!

How is it going!?  No really, I would love to hear what´s happening in your lives, and if you´d like to send me some mail, my address should be located somewhere nearby... hrrmmm... I hope.

This is how to get a quick letter to Mexico:  Take an 8x11 piece of paper (not lightweight notebook paper), write your message on one side of it, fold it in thirds like you're putting it in a larger envelope, but don't put it in an envelope.  Use two pieces of tape to tape it to itself, but don't tape the ends closed and don't include anything in the letter.  Address it, place a regular U.S. postage stamp in the upper right hand corner, and pop it in the mail.  If it gets to SLC by Thursday, it'll make it into the "pouch" and be delivered in Mexico on Friday.

Hermana Houghton

Mexico Mexico City East Mission

P.O. Box 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Post-cards and one-page only mail, without envelopes and no light/weight notebook paper. Otherwise, my mail address in Mexico City is:

Sister Marta Irene Houghton

Mexico Mexico City East Missio

 Party with piñatas

Here in Mexico, we are truly having a party, while also working very hard to preach the gospel to all of the Mexican world (that is in our direct vicinity).  Fun news from the week: 1) yesterday a bird pooped on my companion´s head 2) Mother´s day (Skype call) is a week away!  3) It´s yellow mango season (we just buy like 5 pounds for a dollar and we feast on them all week) 4) For P Day we went and ate Alambre (delicious Mexican meat, bacon, cheese, chile combination) in a fancy Mexican Restaurant in another part of the mission, and 5) Remember a couple of weeks ago when I said the weather was nice?  yeah, that only lasted for a week... (But we´re just fine, and we just have to put on sunblock and carry a lot of water!)

 Some lovely niños that we are currently teaching :)

Also, one thing I really learned about this week is a lovely attribute of Jesús Christ called (drumroll please...) humility.  Yep.  It turns out that life is actually a lot harder when we have a lot of pride, and when we can throw selfishness out the window and focus on the needs of other people, we are a lot happier.  But humility brings more than happiness, it also brings learning and growth and helps us to become more loving and obedient servants of our Heavenly FAther.  The beautiful thing about serving Heavenly FAther is that He is the smartest, most loving and merciful, but also just and strict boss that anyone could ever ask for.  He takes care of the people who obediently and humbly follow His instructions and the example of His son.

Anyway, life continues to be a grand adventure here, and there´s a lot of learning and growth each and every day!  I invite you all to think about the Christ-like attributes that you may be missing in your life and your attitude, and maybe pick one to work on.  Mine (for this week) is humility, and we will see how the progress goes!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

P Day adventures with Mexican food

P.S. pictures

Combi selfie