Loves it Already

The future Sister Goodrich is so excited to go to the TX Houston mission!  She has already met  a couple of young ladies going to the same mission on Facebook. Now the preparing to pack adventure begins. We are making lists and looking for all of the items she will need. I'll need to watch for good luggage sales, and keep my eyes open for fabulous D.I. finds. ( Deseret Industries is a thrift store). We've got the shoes picked, just waiting for a sale, it's kind of nice having four solid shopping months. 

Have Questions ?

 This part of a talk given by Russel M Ballard, whom I know to be a man of God. The LDS Church is known to  be great at planning times to meet and having things to eat. We love to come together and share with each other and anyone who would like to come. We gather twice a year in a general conference which is broadcast all over the world. This talk is from part of April 2013 conference.

-We follow the Lord Jesus Christ and teach of Him. We know that after His glorious triumph over death, the resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples on numerous occasions. He ate with them. He walked with them. Before His final Ascension, He commissioned them to “go … and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”⁵ The Apostles heeded that instruction. They also called upon others to help them fulfill the Lord’s command.

Today, under the direction of modern apostles and prophets, that same charge has been extended to missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These missionaries serve in more than 150 nations. As representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, they strive to fulfill that divine command—renewed in our day by the Lord Himself—to take the fulness of the gospel abroad and bless the lives of people everywhere.⁶

Missionaries in their late teens or early 20s are young in ways of the world. But they are blessed with gifts—such as the power of the Holy Spirit, the love of God, and testimonies of the truth—that make them powerful ambassadors of the Lord. They share the good news of the gospel that will bring true joy and everlasting happiness to all who heed their message. And in many instances they do so in a country and a language foreign to them.

Missionaries strive to follow Jesus Christ in both word and deed. They preach of Jesus Christ and of His Atonement.⁷ They teach of the literal Restoration of Christ’s ancient Church through the Lord’s first latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith.

You may have previously encountered, or even ignored, our missionaries. My hope is that you will not fear them but learn from them. They can be a heaven-sent resource to you.

Elder or Sister

Sons and Daughters Called to serve! I am posting the lyrics to this fun missionary song. It is amazing to hear this song in full voices, and this is one of those songs that alway a pew rattler.

Lyrics

1. 1. Called to serve Him, heav'nly King of glory,
   Chosen e'er to witness for his name,
   Far and wide we tell the Father's story,
   Far and wide his love proclaim.
2. 2. Called to know the richness of his blessing--
   Sons and daughters, children of a King--
   Glad of heart, his holy name confessing,
   Praises unto him we bring.
3. Chorus
   Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;
   Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;
   Forward, pressing forward, as a triumph song we sing.
   God our strength will be; press forward ever,
   Called to serve our King.
4. Words: Grace Gordon, alt.
   Music: Adam Geibel, 1855-1933

Elder Brett Simmons update:

While at Walmart Brett and his comp were waiting outside for the other group of Elders to finish shopping and one of the men who ambushed them at McDonalds last month walked up to them and started bashing with them again. After a few minutes Brett’s companion stood up and got in the man’s face and said “Sir, I have a testimony of this church, I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that he did in fact translate the Book of Mormon so deal with it” then Brett got up and said to the man “you should pray about it” and they both walked away.

After District meeting Brett and a few other Elders were able to experience Dumpster Diving. I guess one Elder left his retainer in a napkin at a Chinese buffet. Brett mentioned digging through day old Chinese food pretty much ruined him for life. He mentioned words can’t even come close to describe the smell and what it looked like. After all of that they didn’t find the retainer.

This past week Brett reached his 9 month mark!!! During the past few weeks Brett has learned some really important life lessons #1 People can be really cruel, most of the time the best thing to do is to just walk away. #2 Day old Chinese food is bad, especially when you are viewing it from the inside of a garbage dumpster #3 People are not honest, they really do steal things so always lock up your bike … if not, it WILL get stolen and it takes money to replace it …. $500.00 to be exact. #3 When your car axel starts making a clicking noise, beware ... the price tag to repair it will be around $1,000.00! Brett mentioned he can’t believe how expensive things are these days and that he doesn’t think he is going to survive when he gets home so he is just going to stay on his mission forever, he asked if that was ok? HaHaHa I love the life lessons missionaries get to learn!!!

Brett shared an amazing conversion story of Bill Carpenter. For anyone that is on the fence about serving a mission I invite you to listen to thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f_-kE9YQrg. It is long but I promise, it will be an hour that will change your life.

Kaylee is Called to Serve :)

The call has come. Our sweet mail lady called us this morning and let us know that it was here. We planned a big opening party for tonight at 8 p.m.. Talk about excited, we are all just counting the minutes. We had about 40 folks come, and I don't even know how many Facebook comments. In all of the fun I forgot to take a single picture, I will work on trying to find one.  Here is the video, enjoy!

Joseph Smith Memorial

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! Things are going great here! It just keeps getting greener out here! It's been raining quite a bit but it's still been pretty nice. We've done a lot of tracting this week and not too many people have been interested but we've had a few say that we can come back some other time. So we got a call on Wednesday and we were in District Meeting so we didn't get it til after but we listened to the voice mail and this guy named Jose who was a former investigator who we contacted the week before but he wasn't interested called and was wondering what scripture we had shared with him. We had shared 2 Nephi 4:20 with him and when we called him back, he said that scripture really helped him and I told him if he was ever interested to definitely let us know and then he said that actually he was interested! We haven't met with him yet because this week doesn't work for him but we will as soon as we can! It's amazing how just one scripture can touch someone!  Anyway I'm out of time but that was a really great experience for my companion and I. Also we had a fireside where Kim Smith who is a great great granddaughter of Joseph and Emma Smith came and spoke and it was really great! She told us her conversion story which was way cool and she sang a couple of songs that she wrote which were amazing as well. Well got to go! Hope you all have a Wonderful week! Love you!

Love, Sister Houston

The Map

Waiting, waiting, waiting, it's almost here! The Bishop said the call has been made, so we should find out this Wednesday where she is  going. We are all so excited, nervous, excited! Feeling a little nervous about all of the change on the horizon, but so excited for the opportunity to serve the Lord.  We have posted on Facebook that the call is coming, and opened up an event for guessing where she will go. We pulled out our map to start marking the guesses. We will give a little prize the the winner(s). It's just fun to feel the excitement of everyone, and to get everyone involved. We have marked about 30 guesses so far and they just keep coming. It is especially fun to get the guesses from many of our family who are not familiar with any other missionaries. It's just wonderful that this fall she could be anywhere in the world sharing Gods love, and humbling that the God has made known where He wants her to share it.

What Launguage are We Speaking?

Have you ever joined a conversation where word are flying you aren't familiar with? I have that feeling alot during the T.V. shoe Shark Tank. Well I do my best to be clear in my post, but I don't always re-explain every term in every post. I thought I would make this post so it will show up in the labels list for reference. Here is where you can help me out. Point out my slang and give me hints on where I can clear things up. I'll just keep adding to this list, hey it could be fun. So, next time you see a cluster of letters like CTR or a half word like p-day let's define it. If I see it in a letter from a missionary and don't know what it means I'll post and leave blank, check back and help me out.

CTR= choose the right
p-day= preparation day, the set apart for laundry, hair cuts, bike maintenance, letters home, etc.
JSM= Joseph Smith Memorial Birth Place
MTC= Missionary Training Center