July 20th 2015

Hello hello!

"Come my sons there is work for all of you"

"Touch me Not" ... " "Oh Nephi"

"50 Nephites can stand against tho-ow-usands of Lamanites!"

"Baptize me Alma"

"And when he shall receive these things I would exhort you to ask God
the eternal father in the name of Christ if these things are not
true!"

All of these are quotes  from probably one of the coolest shows you
will ever see. It's called the Hill Cumorah pageant! And it is
awesome! We got to go several times this past week! And it is like the
best thing as a missionary, you see people that you know, tons of
people that have worked with. Members from past areas. Plus as a
missionary everyone seems so happy to talk to us! I kind of felt like
a celebrity! It was awesome!

Probably my favorite part of pageant is when Christ come to the
Americas! It is so Cool! I get chills just thinking about it! One day
you will see it!

This past week we have been so busy! I got my new companion! Elder
Labar.  He is a hard worker, obedient, and he is
a blast, we sometimes just can't stop laughing as we go. It is
awesome!

We helped 3 people move this past week! One we thought would just be a
little move, a member asked us to help load a truck and move some
boxes. It was only me and elder Labar, and the member and we moved for 
4 hours straight moving countless boxes of books, let's just say we got our
work out in for the day!

The last one we got to help a investigator move to a new apartment and
because we were able to help out. She was able to come to pageant!
After it was over she was just speechless! And so touched by the
spirit it was awesome!

We also had a cool experience, we were walking down a neighborhood and
we talked to one lady in her drive way, and she was nice, and we
invited her to come to pageant, but then we were walking down the rest
of the neighborhood and two girls came out and started talking to us,
they were like "oh my gosh they are real Elders!" They had heard a
 lot about the Book of Mormon musical, and they said that they wanted to
hear what Mormons believe from a Mormon. We were like sweet so we
told them all about the Book of Mormon and the restoration! And good
stuff like that. We gave both of them a Book of Mormon and invited 
them to read it and to come to the pageant! They were super nice and asked
a lot of questions. It was awesome they said that they drove by when
we were talking to the one lady who was one of their

school teachers
and said oh now we have to talk to them! It was pretty cool. Now we
will just see what happens!

I loved the countless messages I received this week! One example was
some missionaries told me that my aunt from Hawaii said hello! It was
pretty great to have my family so close! I hope you enjoyed it!

Well I sure love you all! God bless! And the church is true!

Love
Elder Todd Houghton

 Got to see Lake Ontario for the first time! It's huge!

 I would like you to meet one of the members from my ward, brother Smith!

July 13th 2015S

Hello Hello! 

Once again the transfers have come and I have now received news as to what is happening!

I Get to stay!!!! I am so excited this will be the first time I will take over an area and now this will be the longest I will have been in an area! haha But Elder Garland is moving on to greater things and is going to Buffalo. So my new Companion is  Elder Labar, And I am really excited about it.  He has trained twice in a row and is a great missionary so I am excited to serve with him!

This week really has been incredible! I have had so many cool experiences this past week, and I hope and pray that my joy does not bring me to boasting, for I do not glory in my own strength but in the glory of my God, and also that we have the coolest mission ever.

Sherri's Baptism

Sherri Got Baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!! :) :) :) It was awesome! On Wednesday we went to the Sacred Grove and got to have her baptismal interview there. The Spirit was so strong and it went so well, she showed up and had her scriptures and everything that we have given her. She asked us if it was going to be an open book interview. after the the interview we got to go walk around the temple with her and she is so excited to go there! It was just an awesome experience. After that we elders went to the Chill and Grill in Palmyra for Ice Cream, I got the Kiddie cone which gave me three scoops of Delicious ice cream, and Elder Garland and Elder Winkler got the large, which happens to be 8 scoops!!! I will send a picture so that you can admire the beautiful picture, they were barely able to finish. it was a good day!

Eight scoops of ice-cream

Then on Friday morning we received a call from the other elders asking if we could help with a service project that day. To help a family who asked us missionaries to help out. All we knew was that there were some bushes we needed to trim and so we assumed it would take like an hour or so. Little did we know what we got our selves into. we got there and they weren't bushes they were HUGE HEDGES, it took all day to finish! but we saw, we came, and we Conquered! I was then nice and red for Pageant that night!!! 

Doing a little trimming 

 The Pageant was incredible! It is Huge! and we saw  tons of people you knew from past areas and even from home! It seriously was the best seeing Josh and Madison there! it seriously made my week, if that is even possible!

Saturday was such a special day! For one it is someone's Birthday! It's John Quincy Adams Birthday! and I guess Heather's birthday! :) It was also the day that Sherri got Baptized! It was a great baptism! She had asked  President Clark ( he is the stake president for Palmyra)  to do it for her. It was great and she was just glowing after! Right after the baptism we got to the pageant with her. it was great! We got to stay up past curfew and everything! Pagaent is just one big Righteous party!

That night one set of missionaries came up to us and congratulated us on the baptism we had that day, and then told us that earlier on they had had a fast that if not in their area but somewhere in the mission there would be a baptism on July 11th. It was amazing to me to see that the Lord answered their prayers.  Seeing all prayers and fast that went into this one thing it, is just awesome! I am grateful again for all of your prayers. They really do perform miracles!

I love you all! and hope things are still just going fantastic out West it looks like your having a blast! 

Love 

Elder Todd Houghton

Ps. Go listen to "John's Song" by the Nashville tribute band, we were jamming out to that on the way to the baptism!

July 6th 2015

Hello family! And Happy Independence Day! And Happy Canada day! 

It was just my luck that I got to be with one of the two Canadian elders in this mission.

Let's just say that we both have a lot of Patriotism for our own county! It was fun for three days in a row we had a meeting where we sang America the Beautiful! It was fun watching my fellow Canadian.  It has been a Fun week!
So apparently all fireworks used to be illegal here! ALL OF THEM! Including sparklers and poppers! But this year they legalized  some fireworks,-- not the big ones or Roman candles, you have to go to Pennsylvania for those. So everyone was so excited that they could have sparklers.  It was different. But it doesn't change anything for us because we can't use them anyways. 

New York doesn't really know how to do fireworks! But it was fun anyways! I got to give a Book of Mormon to someone that was drunk and someone that was high! Haha so that was great!  I hope they will be able to read it when things get a little clearer for themJ

We had tons of miracles this week! And so many more miracles to come! Probably the coolest thing this week was on Wednesday. So we had an appointment with Sherry at about 1:30 but when we got there Sister Kennedy, (she had been her fellowshipper and she works in the mission office) well she told us that Sherry was buying a house in our ward. She didn't use to live in this ward but she really likes it and so she is moving in to it! Well because of that the appointment was moved to 5:00. This is also when the mission office closes.  We got there and we were going to have dinner and then we were  going to cover the rest of the principles to make sure she has been taught everything! When at about 5:30 we heard someone enter the office.  We were expecting someone like President Francis or a missionary, and then low and behold it was Brother and Nate Medsker, my initial thought was "hey! I know him" it seriously made my week getting to see them! They all looked so good and Nate, Brandon, and Josh all looked so tall! It blew my mind! I was just so happy to see them, and if our appointment wasn't moved to 5, it wouldn't have worked out! So that was just a wonderful tender mercy seeing probably one of my favorite families from the Mount Lewis 6th ward!

The Medsker Family!

The rest of this week has been really good! We were able to go to the temple again! We got to go just a little early so we went and walked the loop in the Grove! It is so cool being a missionary here! I love it! The temple and the grove are awesome!

We got to meet with Matt again, he has read the whole Book of Mormon, but I am not sure how much he got out of it.  We invited him to pray about it, and so we will see what happens.  The promise in Moroni 10 is real! We also are going to try and get him and his family to the pageant.
Well I sure love you all!
God bless America!

Palmyra Temple

Love
Elder Houghton

June 29th 2015

Hello, hello

My goodness as always it so good to hear from you all, my most favorite part of the week is getting to hear from you! And then you have to bare with much patience for me to try and expound in one small letter the many miracle so far the week! It is a difficult task but non the less I shall commence!

Things here in the beautiful Pittsford are great---fantastic! We have had some pretty fun experiences this past week. For one I got to be in my first trio for a day, there was an elder that is from here and had just had a three month trial mission, and he past so he was getting ready to go to the MTC to prep him for the rest of his two years! It is crasy to think he went straight into the mission field with out first going to the MTC. It was kind of fun being able to go with him, he was baptized into the church two years ago and now he is going on a mission, most of his family isn't very supportive of him going out, but he, despite it all,  was willing to go and serve. It was amazing to see the  faith of this young man. It also made me very grateful for the great family I have and  for all the support you have all shown me. It has been such a blessing!

We also have been going all around hanging up posters for the Hill Cumorah pageant! I am so excited for it! And I just want everyone to come see it!! There are couple members in the ward that I know are going to be in it! It is so excitingly! Maybe one day we can do it as a family or something :) it would be awesome! Definitely something to consider! 

On Saturday I had the great opportunity to help move 2 families, one that was moving into the ward. They reminded me of Amber and JT moving to one of my fellow states out here in the east. And we helped move in one of my neighbors. . . From Bath. Elder Gibby called me up in the morning and said that our neighbor in Bath was moving to Pittsford . It rained the whole time but it was a great opportunity to help them out and give them some great exposure to missionaries! They were so grateful for the help, and I was grateful to do it! Hopefully they can come to the pageant, and then it's all up hill to the Celestial kingdom from there! :)

Sherry is doing awesome! We meet with her twice this week, and we are just flying through all the material. And she is just soaking everything up! Sunday during Sunday school we taught the big 3! Word of wisdom, tithes and offerings, and the law of chastity, I was only a little nervous about it ( just because people tend to have issues with those doctrines) but then we had the lesson and she had no issues with anything.  She doesn't drink coffee or tea, or do any drugs,she was fine on the law of chastity, fine with tithing! She is so golden! We only have to meet with her one more time and then we are going to have the baptismal interview at the grove ;)  And then when she gets baptized we plan to go to the pageant with her! :) and the interesting thing is I have nothing to do with it! I just feel honored that the Lord is willing to give me this opportunity to teach this woman who is so prepared! It's just a privilege to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. And it sounds like your doing it back at home for your coworker. I know she will forever be blessed from your example! Oh and also to just put the cherry on top, after church there was going to be a baptism in the ward, so we got to have Sherry go to a baptismal service right after church! It was awesome!

Oh for the forth of July we get to go watch the community  fireworks show in proselyting clothes. Sound familiar? It should be fun! 

Good things are happening here!

 And it sounds like great things are happening back at Home! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Todd Houghton