HAPPY EASTER

Here are a few pictures that Tori took when she went to Hiram and the John Johnson Farm before she was transfered there. Now that she has transfered there hopefully she will take alot more pictures!

Sisters at the Johnson Farm
Sister Houston in front of the John Johnson Home

A room in the Johnson Home

Sister Houston and Sister Andersen

(dont know the tall sister's name)

Sisters on a tour at the Johnson Farm

Sister Houston's email:

April 25, 2011

Hey family!
Happy Easter!! It was a fabulous day for me and from the sounds of it, it seems it was a great day for you as well. Elder and Sister Edman and all the senior couples put together a nice Easter dinner down in Kirtland. We even had ham! For dessert, Mitch's favorite...strawberry shortcake! Thank you so much for my Easter box! I got it last Tuesday. Perfect timing. My family is so good to me :) Sister Andersen says so too. She says thank you!
Well, this week we walked A LOT. The weather was yucky minus one day of nice warm sun shine....no tornados though hee hee sorry Mitch. No worries though apparently May and June are the season for the tornados! Sister Andersen and I are trying really hard to be diligent in all that we are doing. We need people to teach. Like i always say there out there we just have to exercise our faith and find.
We had a pretty amazing experience with Bro. Gibson. Yes another one! Awesome huh...
On Wednesday we finally set a baptismal date with him!!!! This is another huge step. A step in the right direction. We have done soft baptismal commitments up to this point just inviting him to follow the example of Christ and to be baptized but haven't been able to set a date. He's been very very hesitant and always kind of just laughed and joked that we are determined to get him into that water! Well duh of course, right!! Silly man. Sister Andersen and I both knew that we needed to set a date with him and every time we would have a lesson we never felt right about it. We always went into the lesson planning on setting one but things just never worked out....either because we had a member that liked to talk alot or we just didnt feel like we should. We never could figure out why it never worked out but after Wednesday i knew it was because the Lord knew he wasn't quite ready. All week Sister Andersen and I had tried to find members to come with us. After we did everything we could think of at the last minute we found two, Bro. Marra and Bro. Garcia who both are converts to the church. They were perfect for Bro. Gibson. They shared with him there experiences and reasons for being baptized. Bro. Gibson has had some crazy experiences in the past with baptism...crazy experiences! Because the spirit was there and because of the members, after the lesson he had soften up a ton. We set the date for June 12th! I know that Bro. Gibson is gaining a testimony of the Gospel because of the Book of Mormon. Sister Andersen and I have seen people gain testimonies but slowly start to loose them because they became lazy in there Book of Mormon reading. There is a powerful spirit and protection that comes from reading this book! Bro. Gibson is awesome! Now we just have to get him to stop smoking....I'll let ya know how that goes next week :)
Well family, Im grateful for this opportunity to be on a mission this Easter. What a perfect chance to come to know Jesus Christ better! Its become one of my favorite holidays. I know who my Savior is more then i ever did. I love him for being willing to make possible the plan of our Heavenly Father. Its through him we can become spiritually alive again! Its tough work trying to represent him in all that I do, 24/7 but its changing me to who I need to be for the Lord. I hope I can accomplish everything he needs me to!

I love you family! I can't wait to talk with you in a few weeks! I hope everyone is doing well and being safe!

Love,
Sister Houston

WEEK FULL OF EMOTIONS

Sister Houston's email:
April 18, 2011

Hello wonderful family,
Where to even start....
Its been a week full of emotions. Some great, others...well not any ones favorite feelings. You wouldn't think this since I'm literally swimming in the gospel, but its so easy to get discourage and loose focus.
All in all its been a great week. Lets start with Bro. Carl Gibson...he's the investigator I've been telling you about. Bro. Gibson has this thing with coming to church. He's been seeing missionaries for a couple months and has never given a sure definite yes that he will come (as far as i know anyway). Its always been this "maybe" answer followed by his Bro. Gibson laugh. We have been determined to get him to come! He's been praying more and being consistent with his Book of Mormon reading. The next step is to get him out to church!!! Sister Andersen and her last companion had everything set up to give him a tour of the church a while back but things fell through. We decided we wanted to give it a try again. We had it all set up for Wednesday, even drove out to Hiram. He never showed. Said he forgot! Little stinker. We were determined to get him there so we set it up again for Friday!! Satan of course was determined not to allow this and things kept popping up for Bro. Gibson right before it was time to head out there but He came!!
We took him around and showed him the building and talked about what would happen in each class. We then shared a short message with him in the chapel about the sacrament. Ok so at one point Bro. Gibson turned to us and asked "so with new people do they still have to walk up to the front and confess there sins to the man in charge??" He was dead serious! Poor guy! No wonder he didnt want to come to church! When we told him no way he just had this look of shock on his face. The spirit was there in the chapel with us. I could see Bro. Gibson feeling something different...something he's not familiar feeling especially after he said the closing prayer. You could tell by the look on his face. and Guess what??? He came to sacrament meeting yesterday! A member and his wife drove to his house and Bro. Gibson followed them out to Hiram. He loved it! After Sacrament meeting ended he said "so is this how it is every week? No one standing up there preaching?" As he left he had this huge excited smile on his face wondering when the next time we were going to come over and teach him! I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with love. This is why I'm here. Bro. Gibson is being converted. The gospel changes people. Not only does it change there lives for the better it changes them. Pretty exciting huh
I love how Colten put it....we are living in a challenge that will push us to our limit when we think we cant go any more. We can be exhausted and overwhelmed. The power of prayer is real! I have to constantly be on my knees pleading with the Lord for help because i literally can't do anything with out him. And when you feel the power of angels around you bearing you up and you see the sweetness the spirit brings in peoples lives it feels you with this overwhelming sense of love and joy....it keeps you going. The life of a missionary is something special.
I'm so happy for the things happening back at home. So many good things! Its just as exciting as the things happening out here in Ohio. I hope you all have a wonderful week and especially enjoy Easter. I'll be think of you!
I love you!!!!!

Love,
Sister Houston

Strengthening My Testimony!!

Sister Houston's email:
April 11, 2011

Hello my wonderful family,
Its the sweetest missionary ever, according to mom any way :)
I'm doing wonderfully. I love this area and I love the opportunity to be with Sister Andersen.
Its been another good week. The Lord taught me a couple of much needed lessons. First i have to say how grateful i am to be serving in a visitor center. There is something so powerful about a group of sisters who have been set apart to represent the Lord getting together, teaching, being edified by the spirit, sharing and hearing testimony. I realized that this week at our training meeting with all the kirtland sisters and the site directors, the Edmans. I loved the way Sister Edman put it....I'm rubbing shoulders with some of the most righteous women! I really am. My testimony has strengthened so much because of the people im around, because of the testimonies they have, there diligence and love for the lord.
Remember Carl Gibson who I told you about last week? Well, we had an awesome lesson with him yesterday! The member we brought with us was perfect for Bro. Gibson. He really showed that he cared about his life, about his job, his family. It helped him so much!! It was the most comfortable, smooth sailing lesson i've been apart of. Nothing that we did of course. The spirit was with us all. It guided the lesson to where it needed to be. We taught about the plan of salvation and at the end we had asked him how he was feeling with all of this, about the plan, the book of mormon, praying. Bro. Gibson said that he's noticing that he's been thinking about his life in a different way and thinking about things that he's never really thought about before. He also said that he sees a change in him self...a subtle change but a change! That is so huge for him! Usually when he's been asked how he's felt or if he is seeing a difference he always says no. Yay!! Bro. Gibson is continuing to read the book of mormon despite the challenges in his life and although he hasnt been doing personal prayers he's been "thinking" about it through out the day which is good! Its a step in the right direction. Now its just getting him to do it! I'm beginning to understand the concept of learning line upon line :)
Well I hope you are all doing wonderfully and hope that when i head to sites tomorrow my mail box will be full of letters from you!! :)
i love you!! I know this is the gospel of jesus christ!!!
Have a great week and be safe. Have fun in Vegas too and tell everyone hello for me!!!

Love, Sister Houston

TRANSFER TO HIRAM OHIO

This is in Hiram Ohio where Sister Houston will be serving for the next six weeks

Sister Andersen and Sister Houston

They were companions in the MTC and now they get to be companions almost a year later!!!

so as you can see i am way way behind again!!!!! It seems that when Mitchell recieved his mission call i have been in a whirlwind of trying to get him ready in the 8 weeks before he was to leave.......he left on the 25th of may so now i will sit down and get her blog updated. sorry and hope you enjoy the next few emails from her. This is a transfer email and she has moved to Hiram from Solon and has a new companion!!

Sister Houston email:

April 4, 2011

Hey family,
My heart is so full....
What a great week its been! Yes, thats right. I'm in Hiram. Hiram, Ohio! Hiram is usually an area where we would be serving at just the Johnson Farm, not Kirtland, but over the slow months its only the senior couples that serve there. Its a bummer that its still not open for sisters, but i'm hoping i can stay next transfer to! It will definitely be open then. As of right now i'm still serving in Kirtland. I went from two days a week being in Solon to now only one! I'm kind of sad about that and worried. I still need A LOT of help giving these tours especially since the busy season is coming! I'm grateful for the this opportunity to be in Hiram though and know everything will work out for the better. Not every sister or senior couple in this mission gets the opportunity to serve at the Johnson Farm. Heavenly Father is being so good to me. Not only have i had the privilege to go full pros AND serve in Kirtland, I get this great privilege to serve in Hiram! And guess who my companion is????? Sister Andersen!!! Yes! My MTC companion, well one of them any way. Crazy Crazy I know! We were not expecting this at all. I love her. She has already taught me so much that i'm so grateful for. She is diligent and hard working. She's constantly thinking about others and what she can do for them. The person she is inspires me to be better! And we get to hit our year mark together!!! Not that I want the year to come but it will be awesome to spend it with her.
Wasn't conference amazing??? I loved it! and I get to take this message to Ohio!!!
This last week we met with a couple investigators sister andersen and sister carver found tracting.

One is Carl Gibson. Carl is probably in his mid 50's, lives alone, is very private about his family and past. They have been teaching him for about a month. Carl has been searching for a church for years but He's had bad experiences. He works in construction and his clothes are kind of beat up and grungy. When he would show up to a church like that they would complain so finally he went out and bought a nice white shirt and tie. The church he showed up to in that complained that he was to done up! So he stopped trying...
When the sisters showed up he was willing to listen and now is almost done with the first book of Nephi! He reads every night and really loves it. He doesnt always comprehend what he is reading but he always asks questions!
Our experience with Carl on Thursday broke my heart. It was my first time meeting him. We watched the restoration dvd and talked about prayer and how to recognize answers to our prayers. We tried to explain the feelings that come to us through the spirit and we really wanted him to recognize them. At the end of the lesson we all knelt down and he said the prayer asking Heavenly Father if this was true. It was a really sincere prayer you could tell by his tone of voice and the things he had said. We sat there in silence for a couple minutes. The spirt was there. Sister Andersen and I both felt it! He was honestly searching to feel something. Sister Andersen asked him what he felt and he said....nothing!!! I was hoping for him to say he felt Somthing but nope he didn't feel anything. it was so hard to leave on that note but we promised if he kept praying like that and searching to feel the spirit he would feel it and he would know it with out a doubt.

This work is so hard! Its hard to see people not know how great this is and to see them not accept it but its even harder to see when they are sincerely searching like carl that they can't recognize it. I know he'll find an answer. The Lord has his timing for everything.
I love that I have this opportunity to search and ask God how to help these specific people we are teaching! It's brought me so much closer to him and the savior.
This church is true family! Its the best thing we can ever have so share it with those around you!
I miss you all
Have a fabulous week!!!
Write soon.
I love you!!!!

Love, Sister Houston