March 16th 2014 Though our Sins be as Scarlet they can be as White as Snow

Hello Hello again! 

This week has been quite the week we have had many interesting things happen, and they are keeping us very busy! 

This whole week has been so nice! people are finally emerging from there cocoons! people actually live here! It's great now they are just that much easier to catch! :) 

Tuesday we practiced a special musical number that Elder Gibby and I are planning on doing next Sunday with one of the members in our branch! and I am so excited about it! This brother is quite the character.  He has this deep gravely voice and can totally be a movie trailer announcer! and he can just belt out when he sings I absolutely love this man! He also has slight Tourette syndrome so he randomly says yes and no, all the time! So we are going to be able to sing "I Need the Every Hour". It is going to be so good! After practice was really weird, I got the three hour cold and just felt terrible, So realizing that I could hardly move I figured It was more important to get feeling better so we just went back to the apartment to sleep for a little while because we had a lesson with Ron in the evening and I wanted to be ready for that. Elder Gibby had a some extra time and decked out our wall, we found a Book of Mormon that was just super beat up and we could never give it to anyone so we made a book of Mormon wall! :) our wall is awesome now!

Out lesson with Ron went well, I was able feel almost back to normal which I know the Lord was helping me with that! Ron is doing well he loved the sights so much and he was telling us how he is seriously praying to know if it is true. So we are excited for him. He has a hard time in the mornings so getting him to church has been a struggle but we are just going to keep working with him.

Thursday we went up to Penn Yen for district meeting. They reorganized our districts so now we are up with the zone leaders of our district which I am so excited about. These elders are awesome! We have there sets of elders and all of us our training, so that is pretty fun! Penn Yen has a large population of Mennonites( Mennonites are very similar to the Amish) as we were going up to our meeting I saw a horse and buggy and just going down the road, It was so legit! 

Friday Elder and Sister Ray came to do an AMO( Apartment Make Over) so we just did a deep clean all day! it was kind of fun I never thought I would enjoy cleaning, so needless to say our apartment looks super good now, it  is basically spotless! :)

I tell you this because then on Saturday I had a very different experience! Saturday morning, we went to go help one of the member in our branch move to Hornell which is just out of our branch. We got there and I have moved a lot of people since I have come out but the difference was this family were Hoarders. . . we walked in to the house and It was just filthy!!! There was garbage everywhere! the house smelt of cat and dog pee, and I don't think they cleaned ANTHING for the entire time they lived there! It was kind of a nightmare-- really! Like you look and there just looked like and inch layer of dust and filth on the entire floor. It was probably the dirtiest place I have ever been. I just couldn't actually believe that someone could live there! It was a huge Eye opener! I am so grateful the way I was raised! I might of hated it but I so glad that I learned to clean! I know that you( MOM and DAD) are just saying "We told you so" --but I really am grateful!

We got home, we washed our clothes, and I took a deep shower, and then walked around our freshly cleaned spotless apartment! It was a huge contrast! But It is interesting that for us, spiritually, no matter how dirty we might become, covered by garbage and filth, through our Savior, we can become as clean as our apartment! We can become white as snow! What a wonderful promise that is! 

Sunday was great! Our investigator came to church!!!!!!! We were a little nervous because she missed sacrament because she slept in but she made it for the other two hours! We were so happy and she really enjoyed it! she came in and she already knew a couple of the people there which was a huge blessing! We were also able to teach Gospel principles and young mens! 

Good things are happening here and I feel so privileged to be able to witness it every day! its the best!

Hurrah For Israel! 

Love Elder Houghton!

Do you want to build a Snowman?

Do you want to break a snowman?