CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE

Sister Houston was able to attend a Christmas Conference in the Kirtland Temple with her mission President and the other missionaries from her district!! We were asked as a family to send a Christmas letter from home so the missionaries would be able to open them up at the Conference!! She has truly been touched by the Christmas spirit this year!!

Winter Wonderland brrrrr!!!
Beautiful Kirtland Temple

Sister Houston and Sister Lee

Lots of Snow!!!

and this is just the beginning!!

Sister Houston's email

December 8, 2010

Well hello again my wonderful family!
It sounds like everyone had a nice fun filled week full of lots of yummy food, late nights, and lots and lots of laughter i'm sure!!! Im jealous!!! Sunday there were two baby blessings in the Solon Ward and so yes my mind was on home and cute baby Claire! I so happy the family was able to make it and that everyone had a good time! Oh and fun fact about the Solon Ward....there is a member of the seventy!!! He isn't there every week. His name is....Elder Seldon. Cool huh? Also another fun fact....a few months back Extreme Makeover was here and remodeled a home in my area! Its suppose to air i believe in December so you'll have to keep an eye out for it!
Anyways....its snowing. Its been snowing for THREE days non stop. I didnt know the sky could produce so much snow in so little time. In fact, on Monday we had to stay in doors ALL day because of how bad the storm was!!!! Its been crazy!! and cold.....We were so worried that we weren't going to be able to make it to our Christmas Mission Conference yesterday but thankfully everything worked out. We left extra early.
Oh my goodness!! Christmas Conference was such an awesome awesome experience!! It was held in the Kirtland Temple and in preparation, President asked us all to come fasting. To start the conference off, the sacrament was prepared and we were all able to partake of it! The spirit was there so strongly. Such a neat experience to be able to do that in such a sacred building where Jesus Christ himself appeared. I probably wont ever get that opportunity again. After the sacrament, we heard from different speakers. Then we all split off into groups to gather in the four corners of the temple where everyone was given the chance to share there testimony. We then drove down the street to the Kirtland Stake Center, had a delicious feast, took a group picture (bad thing about being short is that you are ALWAYS in the front, ALWAYS) and then gathered in the chapel. Ok so the experience so far had been quite fabulous but to top off all this amazingness they concluded the conference by passing out our Christmas Letters from our families!!!! Made the day even that much better!!! Thanks for being so proud of me and for loving me as much as you all do! Thank you for all the sacrifices you are all making so that I can have this experience!
I know I definitely don't fully comprehend the honor it is to serve in such a sacred, historic place but I did leave this conference with a greater love and appreciation for the opportunity given to me to serve here in Kirtland. It renewed and strengthened my desire to be a missionary for the Lord and increased the love I have for the wonderful family that I've been blessed with! Im excited and look forward for whats ahead of me.
Im doing great family! Working hard to share the gospel! I'm excited for you Mitchell to have this experience. You wont ever regret it so keep working hard to get your self out there!!
Well I love you all so very very much. Im so excited to talk to you on Christmas!!! Only a couple weeks away!! Yay!
I hope everyone has a great week!!

Love,
Sister Houston

A beautiful quote sent from Sister Houston:
"May this area become a great gathering place for Thy people from over the earth. May they come here, walk about with reverence and memories, feel the power of Thy Holy Spirit, and grow in faith and testimony concerning Thy work and Thy kingdom. May it be a place of spiritual refreshment, where hearts and minds will be touched by the power of the Holy Ghost to lead them to knowledge of Thee and their Redeemer, Thy Beloved Son. May it be a place where the stranger will be touched by Thy Spirit and come to know something of the wondrous workings of Thy cause and kingdom. May men and women from over the earth experience here a sure and solemn witness of the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph smith and of the divinity of Thy work established through him."
--Gordon B. Hinckley, Historic Kirtland Dedicatory Prayer, May 18, 2003

PICTURES!!!!

Tori finally set a bunch of pictures home!! The Fall pictures are beautiful! This is one thing Tori is excited to see, "Real Season's" Don't think winter will be her favorite one!!

Fall in Ohio

Just in case she forgets her name!!

Sister Stewart and Sister Houston making friends with a tree??

This Sister Houston's first baptism in Norwalk Ohio
This is Jocelyn and Sister Stewart

Jocelyn and Sister Eversen on her Baptism Day!

TRANSFER TO SOLON

This email is a good explanation of where she is now serving and what she will be doing for the next six weeks!! She has another super funny story to tell!! Funny Girl!!! gotta love her!!

Sister Houston's email
December 1, 2010

Hi my wonderful family!!!
It feels like its been forever since I've emailed you. Really its only been a week and a day but still......its been quite a forever long week and a day. Lets see where do i begin....
Well transfers were Wednesday. I am now serving in Solon with Sista Lee! Yup thats right Sista Lee! How do I describe my Sista Lee....she is from Louisiana, has big, beautiful, long curly, dark brown hair, extra long finger nails and....has a little Louisiana Sass to her. She's been out since February of last year so almost a year and was actually companions with Sister Everson in the MTC! We live in a big beautiful home with the Norton family! Brother and Sister Norton have six kids, all grown and away except their youngest Rachel. She is 17, a senior in high school, and working on going on a mission when the time arrives of course. She's amazing and quite cute too mitch heehee. Its been fun living in a members home.
Our area is about an hour away from Kirtland so we get to go in for full days at the Kirtland Sites two times a week, Mondays and Thursdays and then on Tuesday mornings we go for a training meeting with all the K-Land Sisters. There are still tours going on, not alot though. They also have the Christmas Nativity Exhibit out. The entire visitor center is full of nativities from all over the world. Monday was my first day back. Sister Lee and I only gave one tour of the Historic Sites, helped direct people through the nativities, and then made phone calls the rest of the time. Kirtland gives me anxiety family!!!! I really wonder why Heavenly Father wanted me to serve in a visitor center with all these people and be on the phones calling people????? I'll let ya know when I find out :)
Anyways, well thanksgiving didn't turn out to be a relaxing day as I hoped but it was fun. We had a yummy big breakfast with the Nortons and another set of Sisters who serve close to our area and are in the same ward as us, Sister Schwanke and Morrell. So after pumpkin pancakes with carmel, banana, nut syrup we headed to Kirtland to play games with the K-Land sisters. After we had a nice yummy big Thanksgiving lunch with all the thanksgiving deliciousness even dessert of course. Then...yes i'm not done....we headed back to our area a couple hours later to have a Thanksgiving dinner with a family in the ward all jam pack with some more thanksgiving deliciousness even dessert...MORE dessert. It was a crazy day and by the end of the night my tummy felt like it was going to explode! They definitely take good care of the missionaries out here!!!
I'm excited to be serving in Solon. Its a huge area consisting with a few cities surrounding solon. Basically we have the really rich people and then the not so rich people which has a huge population of blacks. Its a lot different then my first two areas thats for sure but Im excited to see whats ahead for me. Right now the area is pretty dead. We are working with Brenda and Lakeisha who have been investigating the church for years...there what we call "internigators." Other than that we are just trying to find!!!! My first experience tracting was pretty eventful actually! We met a reverend...a lady reverend. She invited us in, had us listen to some gospel music, sang to us and right before we left she asked if we could pray with her. lol so funny. So Me, Sister Lee, the Reverend and one of her daughters all held hands and prayed. Like those hallelujah prayers. The daughter next to me kept grunting and saying "YES YES"!! It was crazy!!!!
Well I better get going family! I love you so much!! I will keep you all updated on whats happening! Im glad to hear everyone had a good thanksgiving! I can't wait until I can talk to you all on chirstmas!

Love, Sister Houston

PS My p-days are now Wednesdays and send my mail to the Kirtland Visitor Center address: 7800 Kirtland Chardon Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well of course i have gotten so far behind that i don't know where to begin and end!!! Dang it!!
In the next couple days i hope to get caught up!! So please bare with me!! thanks
Tori was transfered the day before Thanksgiving! She is now serving in Solon which is about an hour from Kirtland! So she will be serving at the Sites again a couple days a week!!

Sister Houston's email
November 23, 2010

Hi family!!!

Well......where do i even begin. Its been quite an eventful week. Jocelyn is out of the hospital and doing better. We finally were able to teach her last Saturday and she came to church on Sunday. She looks alot better. I guess this all happened because the many many medicines she had been taking for both her physical and mental problems caused her body to just kind of shut down in a way....Sad. She was hearing voices again but all is well. They went away....hopefully...

We also were able to teach Bob again. Twice actually. Our second appointment with him was crazy!!!! We brought Sister Billiard along this time....another talkaholic unfortunately. How can people talk so much????? Its definately a talent thats for sure!!! Bob decided to invite a "friend" to come over as well.....a female "friend". heehee who knew Bob was dating??? Well it turned out that Sister Billiard and this female "friend" of Bob's, Mary Kay, knew each other! Sister Billiard has been around Norwalk for quite some time. She grew up here, graduated high school (same year as Bob even just different states) and adventually moved back with Brother Billiard at some point to raise their two kids. Mary Kay has been working at the local Walmart for a long long time and apparently Brother and Sister Billiard have been crossing paths with her for years!!! Anyways...the fellowship from Sister Billiard was awesome and she was able to share her conversion story with them. It was just really hard at times to take control of the conversation....heehee
Last night we were able to meet with Bob again this time with Brother and Sister Perdue. It went well! We talked about how God is his Father and that he can grow closer to him through prayer. He is so open to everything and even said he would work on having personal prayers. The next step will be to get him to be comfortable praying with us!!! Im excited for Bob!!!
Unfortunately I wont be around to see where it will go with him.....yes sad sad news. Im getting transferred :(
Im really sad to leave Norwalk especially to leave Sister Everson. I only got to serve with her for 6 weeks!! No fair!!!! She will actually be training a brand new missionary!!!! So that means my time as a full proselyting missionary is over.....back to Kirtland. Im so scared!!!!!! Its going to be like my first day all over again!!! Man!!!
Well thats kind of my week in a nut shell....sorry i don't have alot of time today. We were only given from 10-12 to email, pack and clean and then tomorrow is transfers. Thursday we have a all day Thanksgiving P-day....not sure where I will be spending it but Im sure there will be lots of yummy food and hopefully time to write letters and sleep.....i need some sleep.....:)
I love you family!!!!! I hope you all have a fabulous thanksgiving!!! I will be thinking about you!!!

Love,
Sister Houston

Sister Houston's email
November 16, 2010

Hello family!
What an eventful day for you guys yesterday!!!!! Mitchell you got your blessing!!!!! YES!!!!! Dang I wish I could of been there! I so happy for you. Seriously my blessing is what keeps me going and working hard. I love it! I wouldn't been where I am at in my life with out it. I cant wait for you to get it back so you can read it over again. Ahhhh i so happy :) I hope it was a great experience for you and the family!!!And how awesome to be able to be apart of the ground breaking for the Gilbert Temple! So cool!! Im loving Arizona more and more. Its a huge blessing to be able to be in a state where you have multiple temples close by. Plus its nice and warm there :) heehee Is there one more being build after this one??? I know they finished the Gila Valley right before I left but I thought there was three...maybe not. I hope so!!! I love temples!!! I can't wait to go back!!!!So I glad you got to talk with Bro. Showalter yesterday!!! What a turd. He wasn't suppose to tell ya i get discouraged. Thanks for being proud of me! This is one of the hardest most difficult things I will do in this life and its a huge blessing to have a family behind me giving me all the support I need! Thank you!! Thanks for calling him! Did I ever tell you both him and his wife Glenda lived in Arizona? Maybe he told you. So cool huh? Well I hope all is well with the family! I love you guys! Christmas is just around the corner. Crazy!! I wonder if I will stay in Norwalk for one more transfer after this or if I will go back to Kirtland for the holidays???? Hmmmmm.....I'll find out next week! We have from 10-12 to email on Tuesday and pack for those who are getting transferred and then on Thursday being Thanksgiving we will have an ALL DAY P-day!!! Awesome! So you'll find out Tuesday whats happening to me!!
Over all its been a good week. Im not to sure if Im ready for the snow! They say its coming soon!!! Alrighty well I love you all very much!!!!! Hope everyone has a great week!!!!
Love, Sister Houston