February 2nd, 2014

Hello again from the wonderful little snowy town of Bath New York! We
got about a foot of snow last night!

So much has happened this week and it has been crazy!!! Tuesday
morning I had no idea what to think like It just didn't sink in that I
was leaving Rochester so soon to go train a new missionary in an area
that I knew next to nothing about. Needless to say I was just little
bit nervous. OK, maybe I was freaking out a little bit on the inside.
But I contained myself!
This transfer meeting was crazy! We had 13 missionaries go home. And
we had 23 new missionaries come in! I was so excited to find out who
would be my trainee! And I was called to work with Elder Gibby! He is
from Burley Idaho and grew up on a pig farm!  I
don't know how I got to be so lucky to be working with him! He knows
how to work so I am super excited!


Bath is absolutely Gorgeous! The rolling hills and trees in the snow
are just very beautiful! I am loving it so much here! It’s funny
how Elder Walker “Flush” trained me,(training when you have never served in the area.)  and he was trained in Bath. And now
I am flush training in Bath!

Ok, so we got here to Bath, and let's just say that the previous elders
kept very poor records so we got here and we had next to nothing to
work with from our area book. So this week has been pretty
interesting. Luckily we have an amazing senior couple Elder and Sister
Jones in our branch that meet with us. They have helped show us around the
area, and pointed us in the right direction of where to go. So for the
past week we have been organizing our area book, we called everyone in
it! ( which wasn't Much) and we had one appointment set from it. Then we have
been driving around to meet all the members in our branch! The members
we have met with are just wonderful! But it is kind of sad this branch
is struggling. Many members just stopped coming and many have moved
out. On Sunday we had about 30 people at church but the great part
about it all was I felt like the members are getting fired up about
missionary work. Having two new missionaries seems to have helped.

I feel like there is so much potential around here we just have to go
out and find it! It also has been a huge difference coming from down
town Rochester to small town Bath. Bath kind of feels little like
Shelley so I feel right at home! We really have focused a lot of work
on serving everyone around us. We have shoveled a ton now. We went to
a funeral to support on of the members of our Ward. We also got to go
to a Methodist church on Sunday and helped serve food to those in
need! Every opportunity has been wonderful to try and help out and I
hope this will help open some doors.

It has been a bit of a rough start but I know that with God's help and
a lot of diligence, patience and love for the people around us we will
be able to do what God wants us to get done!
Plus
We are going to translate Bath by the time we are done here!

Hurrah for Israel

Love you all so much!

Elder Gibby

Elder Houghton