Fabulous Friday in Ohio!!

We got an email from Tori this week, let's just say it's priceless. Too funny to not share. Hope you all enjoy! She is doing great!!

Email from Tori:

Thank you so much for all the goodies! The pj's are so cute and the perfume smells yummy. Popcorn, peanuts, cookies, fruit snacks, gold fish, CARMEL CAKE....oh my you guys know me so well!!! and all the note pads and envelopes, perfect!! You seriously have know idea how much you made my day! I don't even know how to describe this week. I should probably start with Friday. I'm sure after I explain every thing that happened it will sum up how tiring and frantic my days are here.....hmmmm....maybe I wont tell you....idk....its so embarrassing.....

ok so prepare to laugh really hard....mom you might even pee a little......

Ok so Friday, I get up at 6, we go running at the track, come home, get ready and then start personal study. We study for an hour and then have companion study for another hour finishing at 10. Ok so im completely dressed I just needed to brush my teeth, put my shoes on and make a lunch to bring with us. We had an appointment at 10:30 with a less active out in our area, which is like 20 minutes away. So Im trying to hurry, run into the room keeping the lights off and put my shoes on, run get my lunch and out the door we went.

Ok so we have a great lesson with Jackie, the less active, and when we get in the car Sister Stewart points out that I don't have my name tag on. Oh great!! I don't have the most important thing and we are getting ready to go tracting for an hour!! I'm so embarrassed but its ok right thats why i have long hair to cover it up, no one will notice.

So we start tracting, go to a few of homes and while walking I look down and see that I have TWO DIFFERENT SHOES ON!!!! Sister Stewart here's me gasp so loud and turns around! Seriously we just sat there laughing hysterically FOREVER!!! All morning I've been walking around with out my name tag and with two completely different shoes on! Who does that???? How in the world did I not notice that my shoes didn't match?? The worst part was that we still had like 30 minutes of tracting to do before we could take a lunch and remember that our house is 20 minutes away!! Sister Stewart was not going to let me go back and change but eventually she did, thank goodness!! So for lunch we head back out to the house, have lunch, take a picture of my poor self and head back out to continue tracting.

We tracted for an hour and a half Friday, it was so hot and no one wanted to listen to us. I still haven't met the investigators that Sister Stewart and her last companion are working on, everyone has been cancelling. So its safe to say that by Friday, I was pretty worn out and discouraged.

After tracting we headed to sites and where I got all my wonderful mail!!! I got like six letters and your package!! It couldn't of come on a more perfect day. It made me smile and so happy to hear how everyone is doing back home and to hear from a few who I haven't heard from yet! Amber sent me a t-shirt and Candice sent a CD! More perfectly, everyone said the exact words I needed to hear to remind me again why I'm here and to keep my chin up!!

So that is just a quick sum of this week. Its crazy here as you can tell but I'm growing to love it. Everyday I recognize something I need to work on better and as I do this I know I will be better prepare to help those in my path.

Thank you all so much for your letters. You have know idea how much they help and strengthen me.

Oh and dont worry I took a picture of my self with no tag and different shoes. I'm going to send home my SD card so you all can see :)

Well I better go. I hope everyone is doing well! I'm going to write you guys letters later today to answer more of your questions you've been asking me because I don't have time to email everyone back today so look for them.

I love you all!!

Sis. Houston

Seriously, how did she not know that she had two different shoes on! Especially Tori!! We just can't figure it out. Ha, ha, ha.

Bus ride at 4am to head to OHIO

Finally there!!

Her companion, Sis. Stewart

Lake Erie

First Package from home, yay!!

Strawberry Festival

Kirtland Visitor Sites

Playing Ultimate Frisbee

Yay for Tori!! We love and miss her, but she is doing so awesome. Keep the letter coming to her she really enjoys hearing from everyone.

MTC Pictures!!

Tori at the MTC !!
I just recieved a few pictures from Tori at the MTC.
She is in Ohio already so I am a little backwards
But enjoy them!!
Tori is doing Great!! She loves Ohio and the people
she has been teaching! The picture with Tori and
the two other Sister went with her to Ohio!
She really hit it off with Sister Hill. I think it was
because they were the two smallest in the bunch!
and they both look like they are 12 years old!!
We miss her but are so happy she is doing fantastic
as a missionary!!

Finally in Ohio!!!!

Tori finally made it to Ohio! We were able to talk to her the day she left from the MTC on Tues., June 8th!!! She is doing great and we finally got an email from her today so that she could let us know how her first week went. We also received some pictures from her at the MTC so pictures will be coming soon.


Letter from Tori:

Hi family!

Oh how I've been waiting for this day to come!!! I miss you guys so much. It made me so happy to talk to all of you (minus Chase but he better say hi when I call next time)! It sounds like all of you are doing great! Well where do i even start....this week has been quite the experience. To be honest it's been going by so slow and the first couple of day's were tough for me to get through. It's been overwhelming and i miss home so much but alot of things have happened that have reminded me why I made the decision to be here in the first place.

On my flight to Cleveland, we sat next to a lady named Jessica who was visiting a clinic in Ohio. She's been suffering from alot of medical issues and was going to get checked out. She was young, maybe a little older than Shalyse and had a husband and two little kids back home in Washington state. She wasn't a member but she was asking us a little about who we were and what we do. She was the sweetest lady. She kept talking alot about how much she loved her family and wanted so badly to get better so she could be the best mom to here kids. All throughout the flight I kept thinking that I should do something for her but being the big chicken I am I just kept the thought to my self. FINALLY after a while, I told Sis. Hill who was sitting next to me and she said she had a Book of Mormon so we decided to mark a few verses and then give her a pass along card. I was in the middle of writing my testimony in the front of the Book of Mormon when Jessica tapped on my arm and asked me why I think God is making her go through all of this. I had no idea what to say but I shared my testimony with her and gave her the Book of Mormon promising her if she read it and turned to God through these trials she would be given the strength to get through them. By the end of the flight she was in tears and so was I. This experience made me realize more fully how the Lord works with us as missionaries. He really does place these people in our paths and we need to listen to the promptings of the Spirit and act on them. So that was my first missionary experience!!

After the flight our mission president and his wife met us at the airport. We drove to the mission home and spend all day doing interviews, orientations, dinner and pictures. Wednesday we woke up bright and early to head to Kirtland where we took a short tour at the Kirtland Temple, went back to the visitor center to watch the Kirtland video and then off we went to meet our trainers. Sister Stewart is from Ceder, Uath. She is number 9 out of 14 kids!! Crazy! She's great though, really nice. As a visitor center sister I am called to serve, as they say "half and half", so half the day I'm at the sites giving tours and the rest I'm out in my area, Willowick, tracting or giving lessons. Tours have been going go. I have so much to learn and no time to study but I know the Lord will help me if I just do my best! Yesterday me and Sis. Stewart took a family from Salt Lake out on tour. The mom was telling me she had a son serving a mission in the Ukraine and if I wanted she could text you mom and say hello! I was so tempted to tell her yes but then I chickened out! I didn't know if it was against the rules!! After I told her no I was so sad so next time someone offers I will jump on the chance! So prewarning you if you get a random text message from someone don't be alarmed hee hee!!

Ok so tracting is the scariest thing ever!!! I went for the first time on Thursday and Sis. Stewart made me do all the talking for a few of them!! We went again yesterday and yup its still scary!! It went better though, no one wanted to listen but we didn't let it discourage us.

Friday we traveled two and a half hours to mission conference where we spent all day. Elder Foster of the seventy was there. He spoke in this last conference. He actually talked at a devotional in the MTC before I left so it was awesome to here him speak again. I've been feeling discourage and have been praying really hard for help. I went to the conference with a prayer in my heart hoping that Heavenly Father would help me to want to do this and want to be here. Everything that was said was exactly what I needed. I know what I need to do and why I am here. I made a covenant with the Lord to do this and I will do it! I'm setting lots of goals and working my bum off! I'm so excited to met people who are ready to hear this amazing gospel! We are so blessed to have it in our lives. I know our Heavenly Father knows us as individuals and hears our prayers!

I love you all so much!


PS here is my address please write i haven't heard from you guys in over a week!!!! I better get on this week our I will kick your butts!

7800 Kirtland Chardon Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094