HELLO EVERYONE!

From 22 August 2016

Baptism of Zaira

Wow.

Hermana Beck and I just hit one cycle in Hidalgo together, and I CANNOT believe that 6 weeks have already flown by.  Wow.  This past week was a bit crazy. We taught the gospel, knocked on a lot of doors, learned  A LOT in our 7-hour-long zone conference, and helped a really wonderful person get baptized (see pictures).  It was an adventure!  

One of the biggest lessons this week is this: we need to have Faith, Hope, and Charity. In this mission, we are putting our faith to work in ways I never would have thought of before.  From here on out, each month all of the missionaries in our mission are going to announce a baptismal service in their ward.  It doesn´t matter if we have 100 progressing investigators, or 0, we announce a baptism, and then (in the words of President Naumann) we are going to "work like crazy people" to find the people the Lord has prepared for that date.  In simpler terms, it is "an exercise of faith".  Some people think we are crazy, but really, we just have faith, and we are putting it into action.  I invite you all to think of the ways you can put your faith into action this week, and then you an write me and tell me about it!  

In other news, this week we got out-run by a 71-year old Hermana who came with us to an appointment, borrowed umbrellas from an investigator when it started hailing and pouring rain, and we went on adventures to a big giant Mercado near where we live.  So it was a pretty average week in Mexico City.  

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

 filling the baptismal font

Dearest Everyone! (#2)

From 15 August 2016

Baptism of Marisol, Alejandra, and Casandra :)  With the help and support of several members of the Branch!

When it comes to baptismal clothing, the important
 thing is that it´s white.  Whether it fits or not,
 is a whole other question!

We match, found a moving train, and a little tiny forest. 
All at the same time, in the middle of Mexico City :)

This week went by really fast, and was full of lots of craziness.  We taught the Relief Society how to make chocolate chip cookies (they were quite impressed!), put on a baptism for a wonderful little family, and avoided getting wet and/or pummelled by hail!  

We also learned a lot about Faith, Hope, and Charity, and we walked in a LOT of circles in our (relatively tiny) area.  It was lovely!  I really like Hidalgo, it´s a beautiful little place full of kind people and lots of opportunities to serve and preach the gospel.

As for other news, we´re learning about using our study time better, and this week we´re going to have a 7-hour-long zone conference!  7 HOURS!  I will tell you about it in "8 days"  (in Mexico, everyone says "in 8 days" instead of "in a week")  ...  Yep.  They say there are 8 days in a week...

Anyway, all is well, and here comes the spiritual thought:  Sometimes we get so caught up asking Heavenly Father for things that we forget to be grateful.  So every now and then we can just take a break from asking and give a prayer of thanks for all that He has given us.  (yes, I know I´m jumping the Thanksgiving gun...)

Be safe and happy, and GIVE THANKS!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

My lds login got a little bit confused this morning...

pday lunch!  (tortillas of chipotle, cheese-and-ham-filled
chicken, and vegetables...)  (Vegetables!!!)

1) 

2) 

Dearest EVERYONE! (#1)

Divisions

So.  It´s been another exciting week, and 7 VERY fast days!  

Starting the day with adventure:
these are "tunas" (cactus fruit)
and this was my breakfast on Friday :) 

When one is on the mission, one must go on adventures.  So.  Each day, we look for adventures.  Sometimes we eat weird things.  Sometimes we see weird things. And sometimes we do weird things, but we ALWAYS do something!

We got soaked

This week we preached the gospel!  We spent a lot of time looking for new people to teach, and we saw a few fruits from that.  Right now, we´re working a LOT with the branch and the less-active members because we need to grow from the roots and the branches as well.  It´s really cool to see that some of the strongest members right now (Relief Society President, Ward Mission Leader) are recent converts, and even though they don´t know everything, their conversion is strong enough to help them overcome their dificulties and dedicate their time and talents to serving the Lord in their callings.  They are an example of the "wild branches" grafted into the tress (see Jacob 5!).  Other than that, we´ve been having a LOT of schedule/habit/culture changes in the mission due to the new President, and those have been exciting/stressful (only occasionally stressful) to put into practice.  We have seen a lot of interesting changes in the spirit of the work since he got here, and it´s really cool to see how the power of revelation REALLY works!

Our adventure
at the Basilica de Guadalupe

Also, today we went on an adventure to the "Basilica de la Virgen de Guadalupe"!  It was an adventure, and a good cultural experience!  The Basilica plays a BIG part in the culture of Mexico City, and the Catholic Church in general in Mexico  Also, it´s about 20 minutes away from our house walking, so we thought we should probably visit.  I think it was the most touristy place I´ve been since getting here :)

At the Basilica

Amazing Basilica Architecture

Other part of the Basilica

Thankyou SO much for your prayers, emails, and thoughts!  I love you all and hope you have wonderful experiences this week!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

HOLY COW. IT´S AUGUST.

Why yes.  We do have matching rain jackets!

Wow.  That was a fast month!  Soooooo... Welcome to August! It´s been an exciting little week, indeed, and life continues to be a really interesting roller-coaster of events!  Here´s a brief run-down of our recent efforts to serve the good people of the Hidalgo area:

Service Adventures:

1) This week, we tried to help a man in a wheel chair navigate the uneven pavement of our area.  We pushed him for about 10 seconds, and then he decided he was better off on his own.. and left us in the dust... But we tried! 

2) We were just about to send the Hermanas who came for divisions off on their bus, when a taxi stopped working in front of us.  So the 4 of us helped push the taxi across the intersection and a ways down the street.  We got a LOT of weird looks, and then the couple felt bad and told us that they were going to take it the rest of the way home :(  But we tried!

3) We visited an elderly couple in our ward, who are both in wheel chairs.  A nurse attends them every day, but it´s hard for her to help one of them get up to practice walking each day, because it´s a 2-person job.  So we went by to help out, but the patient was really tired, so instead of helping him walk, they gave us a ton of food and we took shelter in their house while it poured rain for about 20 minutes!  We tried!

The moral of the story is:  Always serve (see Mosiah 2:17).  Even if it doesn´t work out just the way you planned it, it´s a good and important part of being disciples and representatives of Jesus Christ.  And you get to see a lot of special little miracles as you do it!

Anyway, we continue to search actively for people prepared by God to receive the gospel, and we´ve had a lot of fun doing it.  We have eaten a LOT of pastries and other bread-type sweets in the process, and that is what keeps us going (along with a LOT of prayers, faith, and blessings)!  I love you all and hope you have fantastic service advntures (and then write to me about them) this week!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

We went to a fancy Brasilian barbeque restaraunt today and ate...
A TON!  (but not nearly as much as the Elders!)