Wednesday, November 10, 2010

6 MONTHS!!!!

WOW!!! really 6 months already?? doesn't seem possible!! somedays it feels like Tori just left and others it seems forever since i saw her smiling face waking up in the mornings eating her cream of wheat!! Oh she will need lots of hot cereal this winter!! I highlighted Tori's little lesson in her email this week! She always seems to know just what to say each week to make me stop and think about what life is all about!! Enjoy!!!

Sister Houston email
Nov 8, 2010

Hello wonderful family,
Its me again. I realized just a few days ago when Sister Everson asked me how long I've been on my mission that on November 12th I will have been out for 6 months!!!! Can you believe it? I already a quarter of the way done. Kind of scary to think about! I keep asking my self what I have accomplished so far.....hopefully Im accomplishing something even if its hard for me to see it! Time is going by faster than I thought. I think the winter will slow it down a little. I have a feeling its going to be a long one. Its been freezing and they say it got really cold this year earlier then normal!! On Friday it tried to snow, just flurried though. Nothing stuck to the ground and this week its suppose to be in the 60s so I will get to enjoy a little more warmth before the long winter hits. Yay! On Sunday the time changed so now I am only two hours ahead of you instead of three! I have to say it was definitely nice to sleep in an extra hour! Anyways over all its been a good week.
On Tuesday we got a text from Jocelyn's mom saying that she was admitted to the hospital. Not good I know. I guess when Dayle went in to check on Jocelyn that morning she was having a hard time breathing and was really weak. She was taken to the ER and they admitted her with possible pneumonia. She was then life flighted to the Cleveland Clinic where she usually goes to get all her medical things done for her health problems. Jocelyn was scheduled to get surgery this week to get a pacemaker out of her stomach that was causing her problems. They think possibly that she has an infection of some kind or its the medication she is taking. I dont know alot of details. I just keep hearing bits and pieces from different people. She is now in a different health clinic in Cleveland somewhere getting treated. I guess she is not only health wise unstable but she isn't doing to good mentally either. I know she was on medication for severe depression but other than that I don't know much. We talked to Dayle on Thursday and she said she is doing ok. We havent heard anything since. I am very grateful for the wards involvement in all of this and that Dayles heart is opening up alot! Maybe something good will come out of it. Anyways thats the latest with Jocelyn. Keep her in your prayers.
As for everything else...
Donny cancelled his appointment again this week. He text us and said something came up with his daughter and he would give us a call later. We still havent heard anything. Its heart breaking to watch someone that is so prepared not progress!! Sister Everson and I had to come home a say a heart felt prayer to Heavenly Father for strength and support. It was good to feel the spirit and to be reminded that he has a plan for everything. Donny will be ready on the Lords time. For now we'll just give him his space.
Im learning a lot about love these days; Love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, Love for family, Love for all people. Do you realize that it all started with love? The plan of our Heavenly Father revolves around his love for us and the way we choose to live our life here all depends on our love for him and for Jesus Christ. Its neat to think about huh....
I'm lucky to have you guys! I love and miss you all very much!
Thanks for letting me know about my grandmas. Im glad to here they are doing better and will keep them in my prayers.
I hope everything is going well for you guys back home. Sorry I haven't written anyone lately. I can't seem to find the time these days. Mitch you not going crazy promise....I bad and havent written you back yet BUT I will today!
I glad you got my pictures! and thanks for looking for warmer clothes for me! I definitely will need warmer things! I have zero time to look for anything so i really do appreciate all your help! Can't wait for thermals!

I love you guys and can't wait until next week to write again!!

Lots of Love,
Sister Houston

P.S. SEND ME PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!
mom - yes you can send me the Nov Ensign. I would love that!! Thanks for you letters this week!

WINTER~~Ready or Not?

Well it appears that WINTER is arriving in Norwalk Ohio! I am so thankful for Bro and Sis Showalters for taking Tori shopping for a warm coat!! They were so sweet to spend there day helping a poor freezing Arizona girl to find a warm coat!! i have been looking for warmer things to send Tori these last couple of weeks so hopefully she will come home with all her toes and fingers next year!!
I am also hoping to get some fall pictures soon from her!! Enjoy her email this week she has some great stories to tell!!

Sister Houston's email
Nov 1, 2010

Hi family!

Emailing during the afternoon, a little different then usually i know but the Showalters took Sister Everson and I out shopping for a winter coat! We just got back into town. I found one!! Its a long down coat. I honestly had know idea what to look for in a coat so it was good I had them and Sister Everson to help me. It was expensive :( not really sure how much but they wouldn't let me even pay for half. I am thinking about sending them a thank you card with a gift card to go out to eat or something....not sure. I want to do something to thank them! Any ideas?????? Maybe you could call and say hello even!! I think they would love that! Bro. Showalter is the ward misson leader. He is so great! He's always coming out teaching with us and his wife Glenda, she isn't a member but i love her so much!!! She is the best baker ever too. Made us pumpkin cookies that were to die for. Yeah I definately ate 3!!! A couple months ago she was making homemade apple pies. I told her I've never had a homemade apple pie before and of course she sent one home with sister stewart and I! It was delicious!!!
Anyways then after coat shopping i went and bought a few warmer sweater shirts. I can't find any skirts any where!!! Im going to need warmer skirts. I will keep looking. She said what kept her warm was her layers under her clothing. She would get wool socks, silk socks or even wool tights and then have thermals. I hate to ask for you to send me more things since you just sent me a nice big halloween package. Thank you for it!!! I loved everything!!!! I definately needed some warmer pj's and those shirts will be perfect for layering!!!

Anyways on to my week......It was a good week, crazy as usually but good. I rolled my ankle tracting by the way. Everything always happens when we are tracting....old man in undies, getting yelled at by old ladies, dog chasing us, trip and fall in the middle of the day for all to see.....heehee. There are leaves everywhere and we were walking up to a porch to knock on someones door, no one answers so we start walking away. There were a bunch of leaves covering a step so not really paying attention i missed the step and kind of rolled my ankle in a weird way falling flat on my face. We thought it was pretty funny! Thankfully all i did was bruise it. Its been a little swollen the last couple days but its going down fine. Dang leaves!!!! Lets just say I watch my step very carfully now.

I was so excited about telling you all about Jocelyn last week that I failed to mention that Sister Everson and I got pulled over!! Funny story actually.

Well, Sister Stewart and I tracted into Donny a couple weeks before the transfer ended. He is 21 years old single guy but has two kids, Madison she is 4 and then his son Anthony who is 2. He grew up going to church with his Grandma. Fell away for a little while but found his way back to church a few years ago.
Sister Stewart and I met with him a two times before she left. The lessons went awesome! He just gets it. He understands the purpose of the Book of Mormon, a need for a prophet and that it will require him to actually act and do something if he really wants to know if this is all true!!
Well things kind of went haywire after that of course. The week that sister everson got here, so almost 3 weeks ago, he cancelled his appointment. He said that after our last lesson with him that night before he went to bed he read the book of mormon and prayed about it and then the next day everything in his life just kind of fell apart. So Last week we stopped by again, set up another appointment for the next day and then got a text the day of the appointment that he just wasn't feeling up for it because he was fighting with his kids mother. AHHHHHH!!!!
We decided we needed to do something nice for him to show that we didn't just want to teach him but that we cared!!
On our way back from an appointment, it was about 8:30pm we hurry and run into a Walgreens to pick up somethings. Start driving to Donny's to drop it off and we realize we need tape, it wont work with out tape! Ok so yeah we are suppose to be in at 9:00 but we decide its ok we'll just hurry run home grab the tape we'll just be a few minutes late home. So we drive home get the tape and start driving back to Donny's. Well we were in such a hurry that we failed to see a stop sign....oops. A cop pulls us over. Lucky us we only get a warning. We are cracking up by this point because we know we are suppose to be inside by now. Its what we get for being disobedient! heehee eventually we drop the card off at donny's and head home.
We stopped by and met with Donny yesterday. We have another appointment with him on Thursday so hopefully it goes through. It always seems to happen this way. When we start getting close to doing something that will change our life the adversary does everything he can to get us to pull away from it.
There is even a family in the ward who was baptized a little over a year ago that we are working with and helping get to the temple. They are so close SO CLOSE but everything just seems to keep going wrong from financial things to medical things!
I don't really know why this happens. We just have to endure through them having faith that everything will work out for our benefit and that Heavenly Father will bless us. My heart breaks when you see someone so close and fall away :(

Well I better go. Things are going good here in Norwalk. Just trying to find those elect!! I don't think I will have time to write letters this week I will try to though. Last week I decided to catch up on my journal writing so that is way no one got letters. sorry!! Next week I will do better.

I love you family! Miss you a ton! WRITE ME!!!!

Love,
Sister Houston