Still in Bosques

From 11 January 2016

Alvaro's baptism

Dear family, 

Rosca with Hermana Bracamonte

This was a pretty good week!  We ate Rosca (a mini, that sadly didn´t have a baby hidden inside of it) and had a baptism (of Alvaro, a civil engineer who works on the airplanes at the airport and owns 8 German Shepherds), and we had Zone class (sorry, no picture)!  I did eat another Rosco later in the week, and I DID find a baby (but apparently the tamale-making tradition isn´t a must-do).  Also, Alvaro´s baptism was a bit of a miracle and I will tell you just why: a few months ago we were knocking on a door waiting for an investigator to answer, and a man walked by walking two dogs.  I said hi, and asked him if he liked dogs, and he told me he had 9!  A couple of months later, we were in the same street looking for a miracle, and we knocked on the door where we heard/saw/felt 9 German shepherds!  And just a month-or-so later, he´s a bonafide member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  So in case you were wondering, missionaries are not actually that powerful or cool, but sometimes if the timing is right, Heavenly Father blesses them with miracles.  

In other news, I was reading this week in the Book of Mormon about a group of dreadfully wicked people called the Zoramites.  The most powerful missionaries in all the land went to preach to them, and were shocked by how "stiff-necked" they were.  These people spent their Sundays in a shortish meeting telling Heavenly Father why they were so special and better than everyone else.  They are not the greatest examples, but I worry that as members of the church it´s easy to fall into patterns of being "Sunday Mormons" or thinking that because we have an incredibly important, true message, we´re more loved than other people.  Well, I´m here to testify that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of His many many many children just the same.  He can only bless us when we obey his commandments, but he WANTS to bless us all, and bring us safely back into His arms.  That´s why He gave us His son (see John 3:16 please).

Anyway, I hope you´re all having a fantasmical January, and 2016!  I love you all and am SUPER-excited when I get to hear how things are going in your lives!

Lots of Love,

Hermana Houghton

These are kind-of random, but it´s pretty fun.

What missionaries look like in Mexico (except usually

 the white guys are taller than their Latin companions...) 

These are the two other Elders in our district right now 

(Jensen and Delgado)

The power randomly went out on Monday for a day,
so we tried to do Daily Planning by the light of a burning crayon...

How missionaries feel at the end of the day
 (BTW, I made the rice-bag that Hermana Bracamonte
 is using on her back, out of a scarf that an old Hermana left behind...)

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