Sister Houston's email:
August 15, 2011
HELLO!!
How are you??
I sure do love all of you soooooooooo much.
Your perfect. God knew i would need you in my life!! Thanks for everything you always do for me.
I'm doing great!! Oh my what a challenging week though.
It seems that these Ohioans have become very very rude in the last couple weeks. What a struggle its been to get people to even talk to us and then to be nice when they do choose to talk to us. Oh my goodness what a struggle we have had!!
BUT, in all the struggle and hardships so many good things have come out of this week.
We had our last lesson with Jim on Thursday before he headed off to college. I think I told you last week that we've been having a hard time knowing how to help him recognize the Holy Ghost. Well....through A LOT of prayer and study, God prepared us in the ways we needed to be so we could help Jim. The spirit was there as we all, including the members present, shared scriptures, personal experience and testimony with him. His countenance changed by the end of the lesson. I knew he understood better. I knew that even though he doesn't understand everything, that good feeling was keeping him motivated to want to learn more and to want to make changes in his life. He is building Faith in Jesus Christ and becoming converted through the power of the spirit even though he might not recognize it fully just yet. God's love is the greatest thing we can ever feel in this life!!!! Jim is such a great kid! We had dinner with the members and him right after the lesson. While they were preparing it, Sister Gamble and I got to know him better and asked about his family. Then we invited him to ask his mom if she would learn about the Gospel and his face lite up! Gosh this Gospel is the greatest thing ever! It will change their lives! Hopefully his mom will be open :)
Now he is off at college and in the Elders hands. Hopefully we will see him again soon! He'll be back to visit once football slows down.
We also had a great experience that strengthened my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. There is a lady in the ward named Sylvia Barker. Sister Barker has had a very very rough life. She joined the church in 1988, was active for a while and then fell away. She's been active now for a couple years and went through the Temple a little less then a year ago. Sister Barker lives by her self in a scary neighborhood, has no car or job, and her family is not very supportive. She has been searching for a job for a really really long time. Sister Gamble and I had the great opportunity to go do service for her and have dinner. She was telling us how she is feeling so down and just doesn't understand why Heavenly Father wont help her out. She feels she's doing everything she can. Well...we shared a message about the book of mormon and felt prompted to ask her how she gained a testimony of it. She did what Moroni invites us to do...read, ponder the message and ask God if its true. An overwhelming feeling came over her and she knew! We felt prompted to re-invite her to do Moroni's invitation and promised if she did she would find the answer she needs. Yesterday at church she came up to us so happy and said she did it! She felt comforted by the Holy Ghost and was reassured that God's aware of her and loves her! Amazing huh? The Book of Mormon is true.
I love my life. I'm so blessed. God's aware of us and wants us to know of his great love! This life is a time to prepare ourselves for eternity. Our eternal destiny depends on our willingness to follow Jesus Christ! We are here to become perfected through His Atonement. I love that I've had this opportunity to share this with Ohio because as I've done so I've come to know for a surety the truthfulness of this gospel. It makes me happy to serve others. It makes me happy to know that all the unfair things of life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My testimony was strengthened this week.
I love you and hope you all have a fabulous week!!!!
LOVE,
Sister Houston
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