HELLO EVERYONE!

From 11 October 2016

adventures in the cold

HELLO EVERYONE!

This week.  We went on SO MANY adventures.  It was great!

the park is called "crocodiles"

Hermana Bracamonte and I are working all kinds of hard here in Hidalgo, and we are determined to preach the gospel to ALL of the people.  We´ve been knocking on doors, talking to people in the street, making apointments, teaching the gospel, praying, fasting, smiling, waving, studying, aaaaannnnnddddd laughing.  Lots and lots of laughing.  You see, if you take life too seriously (even as a missionary) you will go CRAZY.  So it´s better to laugh.

how we feel about apostasy

Then, on Pday, after working hard all week, we PLAY hard (aka, go sight-seeing and visit all the places we can).  This week we visited the Basilica, and we ate at a tasty restaurant named "Huarachín Huarachón".  MMMmmmmmmmm good.  We´also celebrated Hermana Bracamonte´s year-mark by buying ice cream!  Anyway, you can check out the pictures for more details!

 ice creaaaammmmm....

Ok. Spiritual thought today comes from the book of Luke, chapter 2.  This is a pretty famous chapter, where Christ is born, and wise men and shepherds come to see him, etc.  One of my very favorite parts of this whole thing is a little line about Mary, who "kept all these things in her heart and pondered them".  I think that sometimes when big, wonderful things (or little things) happen in our lives, we get excited, they happen, they´re over, and then we forget them.  But I think with things like General Conference, or other experiences during the week, we can remember this very important lesson from Mary, and keep these things in our heart to meditate.  I invite you all to do it, and to have a fantastic week meditating!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

goodbye to Hermana Beck

welcome back Hermana Bracamonte!

please notice the man in the back of this picture who has tied his child up with a blanket.

hmmmm... the park was empty

camel ride, anyone?

#signsofthesecondcoming...

we contacted in a park as a district!

SSSsooooooo...

From 4 October 2016

SSSsooooooooommmething WONDERFUL happened this week!  President Naumann sent me an early birthday present named: HERMANA BRACAMONTE! Yeah.  In case you didn´t already know, she was my companion LAST October-January.  And now WE´RE TOGETHER AGAIN!  YAY!!!  Hermana Beck shall be missed very much, but the Lord called her to Balbuena, and off she faithfully went.

So this past week we went crazy getting ready for General conference, and it was COMPLETELY worth it!  The messages shared in this conference were VERY powerful, and I especially enjoyed the musical numbers that acompanied all of the powerful talks.  As you can probably imagine, I LOVED the focus on member missionary work, and the added power of a choir of missionaries in the Saturday session of conference was really special.  Honestly, I can testify of the enormous blessings Heavenly Father has for His children who want to share the gospel.  He worries about all of us, and send His gospel to help.  I hope that you all thought seriously about the invitation that Heavenly Father made for each one of us to share the restored gospel with those around us.  We should do it with a spirit of prayer and love, but the point is mainly that WE DO IT!

Here in Mexico, we will continue working, with joy in our hearts and smiles on our faces! I love you all and hope you have a great week, with lots of joy ! (my other favorite part was President Nelson´s talk) :D

Love,

Hermana Houghton

P.S.... I will send pictures next week... sorryy!!!

Hello to EVERYONE!

From 27 September 2016

templo mayor

Eating quesadillas in the Tiangies today

Hello to EVERYONE! 

Life is good.  Today we went on an adventure to the Tiangis, ("tee-ang-ees"--outdoor street-market where they sell... everything: sea food, tacos, hand-made tortillas, tlacollos, cleaning supplies, fruits and vegetables, clothes, accessories, phones, plants, shoes, kitchen stuff, etc.), where we wandered around for a couple of hours bargaining for trinkets and eating strange foods. Now, we´re going to go clean... And that abour wraps up our pday (other than buying groceries, emailing, and doing laundry)  Anyway, it´s been a fun little time :)

bike-taxi, and the Cathedral

Also, last week we went to the Zocalo, where we saw the "Templo Mayor" or the ruins and museum of ancient temple from the times of the Mexicas. We also saw a really old cathedral, and we took a ride in a bike-taxi :D  (see pictures, attached)

As far as the work is concerned, we continue to preach the gospel.  One important lesson we learned (which some of you have also learned this week from the General Women´s session of the world-wide Conference) is that there are 2 things that faith CANNOT do.  #1 Force the agency of another person, and #2 Put our will above God´s will.  Even with ALL of the faith in the world, we cannot do these two things.  Which is good.  Everybody gets to make their own decisions.  I also learned more about how to receive revelation.  When we need divine help to make decisions or do things, we need to put our brains to work FIRST (before we just ask Heavenly Father for the answer) and we need to come up with some plans/ideas.  Then, when we´ve "studied it out in our minds" we need to ask the Lord if those plans are good, and if He will bless them.  And that´s how we can receive the divine help we´re looking for.  If we never think to make our own plans, the Lord won´t usually just reveal it all to us.  We have to do our part! (LIGHT BULB!)  

So, as you can see, I´m still learning A LOT here in Mexico, and it will continue to be that way because I am determined to keep working as hard as I can here in the Lord´s Vineyard.  Thank you for all of your support!

Love,

  

Hermana Houghton

DID YOU HEAR THAT MY BROTHER IS ENGAGED?
HOLY ENCHILADA, GUACAMOLE, TOSTADA. 
¡FELICIDADES A LUKE Y LARA!

Dearest Everyone

From 21 September 2016

"the district" ... we´re a pretty big district...

Today we went on adventures!!!  Unfortunately, I can´t send you the pictures, because I don´t have any time left!  so you will have to wait 7 more days to see all that we saw today. :/

In other news, this week was the "15 de Septiembre" (Mexico´s Independence Day), so on thursday night there were fireworks, pozole, little carnivals in the street, and Mexican flags, and red, white, and green decorations ALL OVER THE PLACE!  Naturally, we went home early and did weekly planning during the "pachanga" (party), and when we got up the next morning EVERYTHING was closed.  But we did get to see some cool plane formations fly overhead.  

Anyway... I promise to send a better email next week!  Be very safe and happy and PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

HELLO EVERYONE!

From 13 September 2016

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!  Really, we go to the temple all of the time, but we only get to go INSIDE every now and then!  So it was a special day :)

SSSsoooooo.

This week we made a LOT of good plans, and a LOT of them got really quite complicated as various events and issues presented themselves!  But we continue to learn and grow each and every day, and preach the gospel in every way that we can!

UUUummm... yessssss... Life lessons learned: Trust in the Lord and everything will work out.  He may not give us the answers we want when we want them, but He will send what we need, WHEN we need it.

Have a LOVELY week!

Love,

Hermana Houghton

Anyone who can name the 3 big important church leaders

 in this picture wins a cool souvenir from Mexico!

A visit with these three important church leaders
(including Sister Bonnie Oscarson, Young Women General President)

Dearest Everyone!

From 6 September 2016

Do you ever get to the end of the week and just feel exhausted?  That´s okay.  That feeling is pretty normal!  Because if you´re exhausted it means you worked hard :) and you´re alive.

So. This week I learned about the importance of planning. Really, planning your life is the key to having an EFFECTIVE life.  Our mission president has taught us that deciding to "work harder" doesn´t actually change very much if we REALLY want to see different results.  So he taught us how we have to plan, and execute plans to be able to use our time better. Anyway, we´re doing that :)  Of course, there are a lot of parts of life that you CAN´T plan, so we do what we can, and then we trust that the Lord will do the rest. That´s what faith is called!

Anyway, this week was interesting.  We have officially begun the Patriotic Month in Mexico, so we are seeing a lot of flags, hearing a lot of fireworks, and people keep talking about delicious foods like pozole, chiles enogadas, and pampazos.  MMMMMMMmmmmm...  (the 15th of September is Independence Day).  Also, the weather is getting a little bit colder, and the rain carries on.  I hope you are all doing GREAT!  Hermana Beck and I keep cracking jokes and eating chocolate, and we´re as happy as can be! 

Lots of love,

Hermana Houghton

the weather today :O

We rearranged the house :D

With a HILARIOUS dog named Nena :D 

She looks like a little bear

 zone activity: Centenario-- volleyball

Elías, an 88-year-old man that we´ve been teaching,
but who is now moving to Oaxaca... :(

yep... it´s eating paper... :(

I thought you might appreciate the amount of chocolate we have in the house right now...
It wasn´t on purpose... just turned out this way...

Love your favorite chocoholic,

Hermana Houghton

Hello from Hidalgo!

From 29 August 2016

Dearest Everyone,

Life is good! Each and every day we get a chance to wake up and breathe in fresh air and go out and do lots of good things that change the world "poco a poco" (little by little)! This week we have been doing just that!  We´ve been knocking on doors, looking for less-active members of our branch, talking with everyone we find in our path, and trying to follow the Holy Ghost!  I´ve been learning patience, charity, faith, and hope each and every day :)

Also, one of our leaders this week taught us an important message about missionary work when he shared a quote which I will attempt to share now: "the missionary field is Heavenly Father´s individual training ground for the entire life of a person".  So basically, when you´re on your mission and you go through a hard time, it´s because Heavenly Father wants you to be better prepared for hard times that are going to come in the future.  He´s just getting us ready and turning us into better instruments. I think that is SO applicable to missioanies, but also to all of us in our normal lives. We can learn and grow from our smaller trials, to be stronger one day for the bigger ones that will surely come.

Anyway, you get the general idea.  I hope that you all have a fantastic week and continue to overcome the trials you have, with a smile on your face!

Love,

Hermana Houghton

P.S. sorry... we didn´t really take any pictures this week...