Happy Holidays!! December 14th 2015

Hello everyone!

 I hope you are all getting into the Christmas spirit! I have been
loving it. We may have been having a Christmas season but it feels more like
a cool summer day outside right now, not what I would normally expect
in the winter!

We have been having so much fun this past week it is almost hard to
consider this work!

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I love the new satchel
bag! I am feeling very classy now! Wednesday was a really good day I
got to go on an exchange with Elder Littlefield, he is a great
missionary that goes home this week. We had an awesome day, we got to go to UB
and did our booth and we had a big sign that said "A Savior is born!" It looked pretty legit!
We do the booth with the sisters so before we left we found our truck
had been plastered with balloons and confetti, and candy, it was a
nice surprise and not one I expected to get out on the mission. :)
 Elder Littlefield is going home so he took us elders out for
dinner at the Cheesecake Factory it was phenomenal! We also went
caroling to our investigators.  The first family we went to was the
sisters investigators who are the parents of a member that lives in
Utah.  We sang one song then they invited us in, and we're just so
happy. Then, they were so funny they called their son and told him
that they had a bunch of Mormon missionaries  in their home.  It was pretty funny. They
ended up being the only family we were able to Carol to! But it was
all worth it!

Saturday was awesome! We got to see Mercedes again! She is the one we
had taught on Thanksgiving. We were going to
teach the Plan of Salvation but when we got there  the thing we
were going to show her wasn't with us and then also it just didn't
feel right so we ended up having an awesome lesson on Christmas and
showed the video, "what would the world be like if there wasn't a
 Savior!" It's the one the church made! And I love it! If you haven't
seen it go to Christmas.mormon.org and watch it! We had a great lesson
with her and the Spirit was really strong. She is going back home to
Spain for a month. But I am excited to see her when she gets back!
Saturday night was also our branch Christmas party! We had it at a
member of the stake presidencies home and it was really nice! Like mom
you would want to see this house! They had all the members of the YSA
branch come and it was so much fun! We got to give the devotional on
Christmas! So much fun!
Also I have done more singing this week then I have my whole mission!
We, the missionaries, did a musical number for the sacrament meeting. We sang
"Brightly Beams" with "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" two of my favorites
in one and it sounded pretty Good! Then our stake had its Christmas
music concert and our branch had to pull together a musical number. We
switched what we were going to sing about four times. We pulled it
together at the last minute.

 We have been seeing lots of really cool miracles! Several people we
have been meeting with, have been progressing really well!  I just love
it!

 Sadly, the transfer calls have come again and they are taking my companion
away.  I am so sad. Elder Tomlinson is going off  to train a
new missionary.   I am getting Elder Glenn! Which I am also excited
for! We were in the MTC together so I am excited to be companions with
him!

 I love you all so much and hope you all have a great week!

Love

Elder Todd Houghton

The Buffalo zones with Elder Schwitzer!

 Our branch Christmas party

Wearing our super cool Christmas sweaters

 

3 Attachments

"We just love to see you in white" December 8th 2015

Hello family!

This week my P-day was switched to today instead because yesterday we
had several meetings we had to go to! We literally were at the church
from 8:30 in the Morning to 8:45 at night. But it was just an
incredible day.  Elder Schwitzer, of the quorum of the Seventy, came and
spoke to our mission! It was incredible! I felt like I learned so
much! My understanding was just expanded! I loved it! He talked to us
a lot about repentance and conversion and just so many things! One of
my favorite lines was when he talked about the protesters at  Temple
Square,  He said, " I don't think Jesus had a sandwich sign and a blow horn
marching up and down declaring repentance."

We really had such an amazing week this week! Saturday was awesome
because Ireland was baptized! It was so cool getting to work with her
because she literally fell out of the sky! We met her for the first
time a month ago! And then boom she was baptized! She is so sweet!
Elder Tomlinson got to perform the baptism.  A special moment for me was
that she asked me to do the confirmation!  I was really nervous before but It was awesome!
Then yesterday after FHE she showed us that she got a temple recommend and is going to the
temple this Saturday for the baptisms! It is amazing to see the
changes in these people! And I love it! I love the mission life!

Ireland's Baptism

We have had several great lessons this week as well! We were able to
meet with one young woman named Brittany! She was way cool! We had such
a good restoration lesson with her! Like it was really good and she is
planning on going to the sights with us this next Saturday! I am
so excited!

We are just seeing lots of miracles! And it sounds like you are all
having great missionary experience back at home and that makes me so
happy!

Just 2 and 1/2 weeks till Christmas!!!! And I will get to see all
of your beautiful faces! :)

Love you all so much!

Elder Todd Houghton

Rocking with the UB Bull!

3 Attachments

Oh there is no place like a mission for the holidays November 30,2015

Literally this has been such an interesting and a spiritually packed
week!

First off I am so excited for Amber and JT I was so excited when
I got an email on Thanksgiving! I am so excited to be an uncle!
OK, so we had some pretty amazing experiences this week! I went on
exchanges in Eggert Buffalo this week and I had many interesting and
new experiences while I was there.

One -- I road my first subway! 
That was so cool! I felt like I was in a movie. We also had a cop pull up to
us and asked us what we were doing?   We just told him "oh we're
missionaries and we are going around talking to people about Jesus!"
The cop said, "Are you serious" we were like "yup" and he said "OK be
careful"! :)  haha it was awesome!

I also got a foot massage from one of their investigators! That was interesting. 
But my feet felt heavenly afterwards.:) It was a fun exchange!

On Tuesday morning at our UB booth, there were not as many
people as there are normally in the student union building because most
people had left for Thanksgiving break. However, there were still a good amount of
people. The cool thing was that we got to give out 5 Book of Mormons
in just the 2 hours we were there. The cool miracle was  a
girl walked up to me and said that she wanted to learn want we were
all about, and when that happened I just didn't know what to say at
first because normally we try to talk to people and get them
interested, but when their interested I was at a loss for words -- at first.  
Then I got to testifying of the restoration! We gave her a Book of
Mormon! We set up an appointment with her for the next day but she had to cancel 
so we met with her on Thanksgiving.  Meeting with her was probably one of 
the most spiritual lessons I have ever had on the mission. She 
is from Spain and we meet her at the UB booth, and she couldn't go
home for Thanksgiving, and I felt so sad for her. We brought with us a
pumpkin pie so she could have a taste of Thanksgiving. She was talking
to us about how the past few months have been really difficult for
her.  She has a roommate who is from India and they are both on the UB
tennis team.  The roommate came down and she at first wasn't going to stay but we
offered her some pie and then she sat and listened in on the lesson,
which was awesome. The lesson was kind of all over the place but as we
taught them the spirit came and was so strong, She looked so
peaceful and happy and told us how this was the first time in three
months that she felt peace!  Her roommate told us she was Hindu but she
told us how she felt like her faith was strengthened by our discussion.  We gave her 3
Nephi 11 to read. She said she would read it. When we talked about God and
Jesus Christ being separate beings she said she always believed that.  
Then we talked about prayer about how it is more of a conversation
with God and she said that is what she does. She is just incredible,
we invited her to pray at the end, and she offered such an amazing
prayer! And when we asked her when she would like us to meet with her
again she said tomorrow!  She is so Awesome!  As we were driving away
both Elder Tomlinson and I were on a spiritual high!

During  that lesson on Thanksgiving I realized just how
grateful I am to be a missionary and sharing this message. It was a
simple Thanksgiving but it has probably been one of my favorites I
have ever had.   Mosiah 2:17 is so true! When we are in the service of
your fellow beings we are only in the service of our God! I know that
is true! I know this gospel is real!  And it truly can bring happiness
into our lives!

So many great things are happening! I love this area so much! I
really hope you all had a wonderful Thanks giving!

Love,
Elder Todd Houghton

PS. I don't know about you guys but the weather here has been pretty
nice here in Buffalo!

Happy Thanksgiving November 23rd 2015

Hi family,

The leaves are falling, the air is chilling.
Winter is coming, and so is Thanksgiving!

We have had quite the week full of great experience! I still love this
area so much! We have seen so many good things and I just love making
all of these new friends! It's great! I just love the mission life
there is never a dull moment because it is always go go go! And I love
it!

Also it's almost Thanksgiving :) Which I am so excited for! But this
week I have also realized how grateful I really am, This past week I
have seen some situations, where I look at what some of the people
have gone through and I just could not be me more thankful for what
you have all done for me.  For example we went to meet with some of our
investigators, and when I looked at their living situation it just
made me sad because they don't know how to take care of themselves.
They sit and watch tv and play video games all day, they also had very
little food in their apartment, and their dishes were all in the sink.
One of them asked if we could help them out so I washed all the dishes
and then Elder Tomlinson taught them how to cook pancakes because
they had never been taught!  I really just want to help them learn these
important thing, so we talked with branch council about starting a
self reliance class.  I kept reflecting on how much you  taught me
growing up so many things which have helped me on my own.  I am so thankful for
all that you have taught me!

Biggest highlight for the week was on Saturday morning. We drove up to
Palmyra with the branch for their temple trip, but for us instead of
going to the temple we went and took Ireland to the Joseph Smith farm!
And it was awesome!!!  We got the tour of the log home, and then we
went and walked to the sacred grove and there we read from Joseph
Smith's history; i.e. his experience of the first vision and after we did
that we bore our testimonies and then we gave her the opportunity to
pray in the grove by herself.  She told us after that she cried and
didn't know why.  It was just awesome!  We also went to the Hill Cumorah
and there we watched the hour long Joseph Smith movie!  It was so good!
I think Ireland enjoyed it and is so ready for her baptism on the 5th
of December!

I got to speak in sacrament meeting this week.  I was pretty
nervous but I had a really good subject and that is Christ's Atonement!
It was based on Dallin H. Oak's talk this last conference.  But really
that is one of the things I am most thankful for and that is what our
Savior did for us and how he made it possible for us to return to live
with our Heavenly Father again!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great thanksgiving!

Love
Elder Todd Houghton

Got to do some raking this week! Took us three hours!
At the sights with Ireland! So Awesome!

Just doing a little raking:)

I found our park

Shelleyites are still together November 16th 2015

Hello from beautiful Buffalo!

Lets just say that this past week has been one of the most spiritually
draining weeks so far from my mission. It has also been one of the
most successful weeks I have seen. And once again it all happened in
the blink of an eye. We had transfer calls this morning and we are
both staying which we were very excited about! The Shelleyites are
just tearing Buffalo apart! :)

So we have had so many cool things happen this week, and we have had
some interesting experiences.  We went to meet with Justin and Nicole
again this week and before we went there we got a text from one of
their friends saying she wanted to learn more as well.  Justin is a
returning member and he told us how he really wants to receive the
Aaronic Priesthood so he can baptize Nicole.  He also called us before
and said he wanted one of us to go over some scriptures and answer
some questions for him, while the other one of us would teach Nicole
and and her friend the gospel of Jesus Christ.  When we got there they made us
lunch of minion macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and kool aid then we got
to teach them. Elder Tomlinson sat on the couch and taught Justin, and 
I sat on the floor and went over the gospel of Jesus Christ with
Nicole and Noni and now Noni wants to be baptized as well!  It was so
awesome!  And what made me even happier was when Nicole asked me what
she needs to do to become a sister missionary?  It made me so
happy!

We also met with this one girl from our UB ( University of Buffalo) booth. She is so
Great!  We went over the restoration with her.  It was cool she told us
how she believed that all churches had a piece of the truth as if they
were all just a different windows from different places that you could
look out and get a different perspective, and then she said but what
your tell me is that your church is at the core and looks through all
the windows!  We were like exactly, the fullness has been restored
which was awesome!  We set a baptismal date with her for December 19th
as well!  So We are pretty excited about it!

Thursday night there was an inter faith dinner at UB where they had
different religious groups from UB come and have a Thanksgiving
dinner.  At the beginning they had a some one stand and represent
the different organizations and they would talk on how their church shows how
they are grateful.  Can I just say that our church is true!  When Laruen
stood for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was
just power with her words!  It was awesome!  I love being able to just
talk to people of other faiths in that comfortable setting!  It is
awesome!

Mom Dad and all my sisters you will appreciate this. So remember how
my whole life I never really cared at all for tunafish sandwiches,
well we went and taught a member the plan of salvation and he made us
lunch and can you guess what he made?  Tunafish sandwiches!  I said a
silent prayer that I could eat those sandwiches, and when I had them
they actually weren't bad, it was a great tender mercy!

We dropped by Marsha's place yesterday, sister Medsker's aunt, and she
was super nice and let us right in and we talked to her for good
little while!  And I found out that SYDNEY IS GETTING MARRIED!  That is
way exciting!  Congrats!

We also had stake conference this week, and I loved one of the talks.  It
was on the tree of life and how the tree of life is the love of God
and how we need to be like those who partake of that fruit but heed
not the distractions of the world.  That we need to keep our Eye on the
fruit!  That is so true when we keep our eye on the love of our Savior
we will never be lead us astray!

Well I sure love you all!  I hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Todd Houghton

November 9th, Many miracles

Hello everyone!

What a week this has been! In a way this week has been one of the
busiest weeks yet miracle-ful weeks I have had!
It has been weird because we have had a lot of meetings,
like both Wednesday and Friday were just gone because we had
interviews and other meetings that we had to go to so we had to make
the most of what time we had left,  I believe the Lord was helping us us
the time .

So the first cool Miracle was on Thursday.  We went to meet with Justin and
Nicole, Justin is a returning member and is  on fire! Nicole is his
girlfriend and we went over and taught the plan of salvation this week!
The lesson was awesome and after we asked if she would be baptized
and she said she would but that she wanted Justin to do it for her. So
now Justin is preparing for the Aaronic priesthood and Nicole is
preparing to be baptized. They have been coming to all the
activities! I absolutely love them!

Friday night at institute we got a text from a random number asking
about the YSA branch and told us that her daughter had moved to
buffalo and wanted to be involved.  We called her and she told us
the details and to be short she told us that their family had been
less active when their daughter was younger so she had never been
baptized! Elder Tomlinson and I just looked at each other and just
couldn't believe it! So we went the next day and met with her, her
name is Ireland and she also said she would be baptized! It was so
cool!

Then that night was Anthony's baptism which was just such a great
experience! The branch showed so much support for him and it was
wonderful experience! The Spirit was so strong! I asked Anthony what
he was thinking after the baptismal service and he said I am thinking
that this is where I am supposed to be. That was a powerful moment for
me! And also Ireland came to the baptism so it was just great!

Sunday at church was awesome! Our branch has nearly doubled, We had 5
investigators that came to church! It was awesome! And the members are
on fire with inviting there friends! So we are just seeing so many
great things.
I just don't know how to right them down. But I love the opportunity I
have to be on this mission. There really is no place I would rather be
right now.
Love you lots!

Elder Todd Houghton

Anthony's baptism

November 2nd 2015

Happy Halloween!

We have had a great, fast, full, crazy, and busy week.
And can I just say that I love the YSA! This branch is just incredible
and I love the members and they are all around my age, so it is just
so much fun serving with them cuz they are all my friends all people I
will totally hang out with them all when I get home!

Wednesday it just rained all night and
into the morning and all day it was just so wet. Water was everywhere!
Well we had parked in the worst part of our parking lot! There was a
good three inch puddle around our truck and when we backed out it
looked like a boat going through a wake. It was crazy. Well we went to
University of Buffalo for our UB booth. So we were there trying to talk to people, and
this one girl stepped in and was standing in front of
our booth putting her umbrella away. So I just started talking to her
about how wet it was and just told her about that experience getting
into our car. She just looked at me and said,  "ok so I am going
through a hard break up with my boyfriend right now and my friend told
me to pray and I haven't, and I am just taking this as a sign so tell
me what your all about!" I was like ok, so told her about the restored
gospel and she is interested in learning more it was so cool! And the
miracle about it was before I was really praying that the Lord would
help lead those who are prepared to us and that we would be able to
recognize them. It was really funny and it was awesome!

 We have had a huge miracle happen here and it is kind of a long
story because I haven't said anything about him. So about 3 weeks ago
the elders serving in the another ward had gotten a referral from a
young man. He had investigated the church a little bit
in Montana and he wanted to come to our YSA branch, but the Sunday he
came he came early and went to the family ward. It looked like people
were fellowshipping him pretty well and said he wanted to come to our
sacrament meeting but before church started we saw him walk outside
so we ran out and let's just it was a very interesting experience. He
had told us he didn't feel comfortable in the ward and how he didn't
know if this was the church for him. So we just talked to him for a
good twenty minutes we boldly testified that this was Christ true
church, of the Book of Mormon and how much we loved him. And then we
said a prayer with him and told him that we would love him to come again.
And then he left. Later that night we got a call from Anthony
Saying he wanted to give it another try. So he came to our sports
night, he came to Institute, he went to the YSA dance they had, he
came to church again, and in that short time he told us how he had
gained a witness of the Book of Mormon, and he felt so much love from
the members of the branch. It was amazing to see the change in this
young man, and he really has had it very hard these past weeks as well
he has been falsely accused of things and was kicked out of the place
he was living and had to move and live on his own. 

This last week he met with those elders again and said he wanted to set a baptismal
date. So he will be baptized this next Saturday! And I am so excited
for him! It has been such a miracle! Also from this experience I have
grown to appreciate the members of the branch so much! They have been
so willing to help give of there time to help give him rides because
it has made such a difference! It has just inspired me for when I go
home I just want to be the best member missionary I can be!

Also it sounds like you had a great Halloween! We got to go to the
temple with our branch, let just say it was a great way to spend
Halloween! We had to be inside after 6 so we had our district meeting.
It was a really fun meeting.

Sunday the whole stake presidency came and reorganized our branch
presidency, it was quite the surprise and it was a pretty emotional
meeting but I am exited for our new branch presidency! We are going to
see some great things happen!
Miracles are happening!
Love

Elder Todd Houghton

Where the buffalo wild wings originated! 

Sunrise at Hill Cumorah October 26th 2015

Hello my family!

Shout out to my sister Rachel for she is now 16 years of age!

Our week has been crazy! I have been able to cross a couple things off
my bucket list.
Well to just start the week-- for FHE last Monday night we had a camp
fire and roasted marshmallows. It made me so happy.

Second I got to go on an exchange in the ghetto of Buffalo. It was so
much fun! It's a bus/walking area and I just loved it. We met so many
different types of people I could just people watch all day there
because the people of Buffalo are very unique! There is just always
something happening or someone to talk to there I was loving it! At
the very end of the day just as started to head back to the bus to get
to our apartment. We met this young man who was standing on his lawn
with a big German Shepard, and saw us and asked if we were college
students. We went over and got to start talking to him about how we
are missionaries and what we do. And he thought that was one of the
coolest things. He was like so basically you're servants of God! Ryan is
my age we graduated the same year which was super cool, I could see
myself being good friends with him. It started to rain while we were
talking with him and we didn't have an umbrella. We said we were fine
but Ryan told us that we were going to stay there while he ran inside
and came out with an umbrella and a hand full of snacks. It was just a
really nice thing.  I am a Young Single Adult missionary so I also got to tell
him about our branch and he said he would  come to church.

 On Saturday all of the zone leaders had to go to a service meeting in
Palmyra. The Buffalo south elders wanted to go  early so they
could go to the temple. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning to head
up to Palmyra. We are going this next Saturday with the branch and we
can only go once a transfer, so we just got to spend the morning in
Palmyra! We went and ran straight up the Hill Cumorah! And watched the
sunrise! It was so cool! Then when the other elders came out we
went and walked around the sacred grove and sang Joseph's first prayer!
It was absolutely beautiful! Loved it! Also  service is so exciting!
We are going to "go Ammon" on the people here in New York!

We are seeing so many crazy things. Last Sunday I think we had twice as
many people come to church! It was a miracle.
Great things are happening here and we are continuing to look forward
to all the miracles!
Also thanks so much for the package you sent it literally made my week!
Have a great Halloween!

Love Elder Todd Houghton

Hill Cumorah

My Pumpkin

Ps.I will miss the witches fingers.

October 19, 2015

Hello family!

What a week! This week flew by so fast!  Being in the YSA is making
things go even faster than I am used too.
Well we have had some amazing experiences that I have been so blessed
to be a part of this week!

First experience--The Amherst elders received a call from a lady
named Anna that needed help moving a bunch of stuff from one of her
storage units to another storage unit. Anna had missionaries help a
year ago but fell out of contact with the church. Then when she needed
help she called over 20 churches to  look for help or just someone to pray
for her. And then she remembered the Mormons and boom we were there!
Her storage unit was literally filed up to the top with just tons of

cloths. As we were helping she told us how she felt that the
Lord was pushing her towards this church and that she needed to change
her life. And also she was testifying to Tammy who was a lady that
worked at the storage unit place and was helping out.  Anna was
telling her how she felt, that this was God's true church. It was super
cool! As we were helping out we found like 8 bottles of wine and Anna
told us that she was done drinking and that we could get ride of it,
and Tammy said we could just dump it right there on the pavement and we were
just have  a blast while doing it too! Tammy thought that was on of
the most refreshing things she had seen in a while, seeing a bunch of
young men dumping alcohol on the ground!  We
also got ride of so many cloths, we took two huge truck loads of
cloths to Goodwill. It was a lot! But the best part was seeing how
appreciative Anna was. 

The elders are going to meet with her again and
will start teaching her the lessons. Tammy was also really intrigued
so we got to give her a Book of Mormon, and she wanted to learn more!
Service really softens hearts! I am a firm believer of that!

We have our sports night and for it we played glow in
the dark capture the flag! YSA is awesome! Something I didn't expect I
would do on the mish. But we are always up for new adventures.

We were walking near Delaware park in Buffalo, and we saw this
group of about two young men and 6 young women playing football.  So
we went up started talking to them and  apparently these two young
men were coaching this girl's team for the powder-puff game they had
coming up. Luckily I have a two time state champion for a companion so
we got to help out.  It was fun just playing in my shirt and tie. After that 
we just got to talk to them and answer questions.
It was a fun experience.

We met and had an awesome lesson with this young man named
Brad. We met at a McDonald's before church. And it was great! We told
him what we believed God to be. And just as we were telling him he got
this big grin and we asked him how he felt when he heard those things
and he told us that he felt happy! The rest of the lesson went very
well and he committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon!
And he would be baptized if he finds out it is true! Such a great
start to the day!
It has been a great week! Things are going very well for us Shellyites
in New York! I couldn't be happier! Right now, I love you all so much.
Love
Elder Todd Houghton

Back in Buffalo October 12th 2015

Hello My Name is Elder Houghton and I would like to share with you this most amazing Book!

It's so good hearing from all of you! It sure sounds like you are having some amazing missionary experience back at home! That is so awesome!

This week has been weird for me. That is the best way to describe the  feelings I have had. A lot of it has to do with going back to an area that I served in literally a year ago. I feel like I never left except now I have a lot more experience under my belt. It has also been weird because I am serving with Elder Tomlinson who I  graduated with from back at home! We have, some nights, talked about everyone we know from back at home and we know everyone we are talking about. Elder Tomlinson is such a solid missionary and I am learning so much from him-- it is great. Third reason as to why this week has been "Weird" is because I am now serving in the Young Single Adult Branch for all of Buffalo, and it is a completely new world! First night I was here we went to the UB campus (University of Buffalo) to have our ward correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. He is super cool and is like only a few years older than us. I get to work with a bunch of people my own age and it is extremely different for me but I am so excited because we have so many great things lined up! 

So cool experiences, Wednesday we do what we call the UB Booth where we got to go to the The College and in one of their main buildings got to set up a information desk. There was so many people just going in and out, and I felt like a fish out of water, but It was so much fun we would have people come up and we could tell them all about Mormon's.

I have had an investigator take us out for Donuts.

I have been able to participate in the branches sport's night.

I have gone apple picking for a branch activity, that was really fun.

I have gone to institute.

I have gone and had Duff's Buffalo Chicken wings, so good! 

We made a ham. and had mashed potatoes with it was so good. 

We also made a chili for our branches,"break the fast"  after church, we called it Hamtastic Elders Chili. We put ham in it and anything else we could find. It surprisingly turned out pretty good!

Church during sacrament meeting was the quietest meeting I have ever attended.

Its just weird because I feel like I am doing many things that I would do back at home.

Really this week has just been awesome! 

I hope everything is going great for all of you! And I love you all!

Love 

Elder Houghton

1 Ne 8:10-12

Sharing the donuts with the district

Making a ham dinner!!

 Apple Picking with the branch!

da Homies

Moving to Buffalo NY October 5th 2015

Hello family!!!

I miss spud harvest! It looks like you all had a blast! And wasn't
conference the best!!!!! Talk about a Spiritual reboot! I feel so
pumped and ready to go!  Our leaders really are inspired because I had
some questions answered.

Today we got our transfer calls, and I have to pack up my bags
because I am going back to Buffalo! I am going to be in the Buffalo
YSA ward! And guess who is my companion! Elder Tomilson! My fellow
Shellyite!!! I am so excited! But then I am also really sad that I am
leaving Pittsford.  I have grown to love this area, the members, our
investigators, everything. But I am happy with what we have been able
to accomplish here. It has been a great experience and a part of my
heart will always be here in Pittsford. But it will be fun because I
am going back to be in my first district! So I am super excited!

We have seen so many really cool miracles this past week and I have
loved it! It has probably been on of the busiest times of my mission.
First cool miracle.- so remember Kristarlo from the previous week. We
went back with a member, and when we got there Kristarlo told us that
it wasn't a good time because her son in law was doing a project 
to put in some shelves in her home or something like that. Well Eric came
over to say hello and basically said that there will never be a good
time. . . So come on in!  It was a great lesson Eric told us that he
is searching to educate himself on our religion and so we taught him
the restoration! It was such a good lesson and it was perfect because
the member that came with us was a perfect fellowshiper! There really
was a reason that we were lead back to this family.

So we had met this lady name Elanor the previous week because she
moved In to where one of our older investigators lived.   Well, she
answered and said she was of a certain faith and that she wasn't
interested. So we asked if she needed any help moving because we knew
she was new to the home  and she did. She was rather surprised by the
fact that we were willing to help, so we set up a time to come today
and help her.  We brought the service elders with us and it was just
really cool.  She sat us down in her living room. she had baked a
beautiful plate of cookies and said she wanted to get to know us
before she put us to work. And so we talked to her a little bit about
where we were from and things like that. Then she told us how we had
completed our mission, because after we had dropped by and had offered
service she was so blown away that she went and looked up what
Mormon's believed, and she was amazed at how Christ centered we
actually were. She told us often when she would think of these great
missions she would think of going to Africa and South America or third
world countries but she realized that there really is a mission that
is just right here at home. And then she told us how she really needed
the help because she just doesn't have that kind of support. She didn't
know what she was going to do and then she said that when we had
dropped by she said we were like angles showing up at her door to help and
to serve just as Christ would do. It was really touching.  We
got to help her move a ton of her stuff to the attic or the basement.
It was really good and after we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited
her to come to a service which she said she would in her own time! It
was a really neat experience. Mosiah 2:17 is becoming more and more
special to me because when we really are in the service of our fellow
beings we are only in the service of our God!

Then we had a great lesson with a young man name Tucker who desired to
take the lessons!  It was such a good lesson we taught the
restoration, and we invited him to pray and I think it was one of the
first times that he prayed out loud but it was really cool! He texted us
later and told us that he felt that a whole week in between visits
was two long so we will be seeing him now twice a week! He is so
prepared! I love it!

I loved the message from General conference! Really the gospel is
simple and doesn't need to be complicated, as we keep the
commandments, and keep the sabbath holy or make it a delight it will
help us take the steps that we need to return to our Heavenly Father,
We aren't perfect but by simply trying to be the best we can the Lord
will magnify our calling! What a blessing to have living prophets and
apostles!
Love you all!
Have a great week!
Elder Todd Houghton

Working together and having fun