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

January 17th, 2015

Hello Again My most Wonderful! Family!

I absolutely Love hearing from you all! This is one of my favorite things is getting to hear from my most favorite people in the world!

Rochester is still Awesome! We had some exciting things happen this week! One was that our area boundaries changed! So instead of having the smallest Elder’s area in the mission our area pretty much doubled in size! So with that we got several of ASL's investigators to teach.  I am super excited about all that!

Something I love about being a missionary is being able to connect with people that I never would of imaged becoming friends with.  We get a lot of rejection, but there is something amazing about being a missionary and being able to meet with complete strangers just once and then by the time we leave I feel like we have a special bond of friendship-- that only could happen as a missionary! I love it! I believe that it is through this gospel that this is even possible. I love being able to share it each and every day! There truly is no better work!

We had a really cool lesson last Saturday. We meet with a Lady (Nancy) that is from Mexico in an awesome little coffee shop. I felt like I was in a movie, and the Hot Chocolate there was Divine!  It was really interesting how she came to meet with us! She was raised as a Catholic but while she was in Mexico she saw the temple there and thought it was nice.  She kind of set it aside in the back of her mind. Then later she visited Salt Lake City and had a tour of Temple Square and she thought it was nice. Then she came here for school and as she was at the bus stop she happened to meet two sister missionaries who shared with her the restoration! She told us how she never even thought of actually trying to find out for herself if another religion would be right for her. But now she wants to know and we get to be the ones to teach her! It blows my mind sometimes how many influences some people have before they are converted. We never know how or who we are affecting but people are watching and we just might be another step, for them, towards true conversion!

Ok so another crazy thing! We have been having a several theft problems at our church building. Two weeks ago Chantal, a resent convert to the church, had her coat stolen and then last week one of the ladies in the ward had her Car stolen! It is crazy! Sadly they still haven't been able to find it for them! So now last Sunday the bishop was emphasizing a lot about reporting any suspicions acts in the church and to keep an eye on everyone around ya! Crazy!

Also we ended up moving 3 different people between Saturday and Sunday! So that has been pretty fun I never realized how much missionaries help people move! That's something they should teach in the MTC!

Well I love you a ton!

Hurrah for Israel

te Amo

Elder Houghton

January 12th, 2015

Hola! To mí favorito familia!

It looks like you had a great time on your Cruise Mom and Dad, I will admit I was a little jealous when I saw you parasailing over the beautiful blue waters, I looked outside and saw snow and gray skies. But I am so glad you had good time! I hope it was your most wonderful birthday yet!

Happy Birthday Jenn! It is blowing my mind that your 17 already!

It has been another interesting week here in good old Rochester! Don't worry we have been surviving the cold. I am just super grateful that we have a car and that we don't have to bike around right now. 

Ok, so remember how back in Ogden how one time a missionary used a can to slam his finger but because he had it on a firm foundation (the Counter) it didn't hurt him, and then how I let him do it to me!  So I got to do that for the first time! We were having dinner with a less active family, that has feed the missionaries for a while now, but they don't really want to do anything with the church. Anyways I remembered that experience and told them about it-- and of course I had to give them the real experiences, so I quoted Helaman 5:12 and slammed my finger! It was Exhilarating! everyone in the room screamed.  I lifted the dented can and showed them that my finger came off conquer! That was my first time doing it since that first time in Ogden so I was freaking out a little on the inside. It went really well and I think I got the message across! :)

Ok so one of our investigators and members of our ward are Free Masons, and they have been filling us in a little on the social group and it is really interesting. We told Bill (our investigator) how Joseph Smith was a Mason, and he found it very interesting and wants to do a talk on Joseph Smith for one of his meetings. We then told him that we have a member who is a Mason and that we could bring him to the sites and see the real thing!  We are super excited about that!

This past week I have had 6 people ask us for money: three were super Drunk ( taught two of them the Restoration, probably won’t remember anything), and one of them Begged from us twice on different days! It breaks my heart to see these people and I just want to share with them this message that will help their lives.

Saturday I got to go to the Palmyra Temple!!! I was so excited it is the first time I have been able to go since I have gotten here! I shined my shoes, I Ironed my shirt, my pants and even my tie, I was that excited! and it was such a wonderful experience! We went with Bro. Kelley, a resent convert in our ward, to receive his endowment! There was such a wonderful feeling being there and being able to witness the fruits of this marvelous work. I was so excited for him! It was great! The Palmyra temple is really small but it is Beautiful! and one of the best parts is looking out of the window in the temple and seeing the Sacred Grove. It is a wonderful place to be and I am so happy I get to be here serving were it all started!

I am loving the NYRM!

This is the best work!

Love 
 Elder Todd Houghton

January 5th, 2015

Happy New Year!!!! My most wonderful family! I hope you all set some good attainable resolutions! 

Happy Birthday to the most incredible woman, My Mother! You are the best! I love you more than a Fat Kid loves Cake! 

Second thing this has been quite the week! I feel like 1/2 of the lessons we went to I could hardly understand what was being said, and it is quite the challenge but it is also kind of fun! Some examples are: Spanish lessons, Sign language lessons, lessons with someone with a super thick Jamaican accent! However, the Gift of Tongues-- or should I say ears, is real!  For example, I went on Exchanges this week to an ASL area, and we had three lessons that day that were in sign language, luckily Elder Longherst is really good at it so I could just talk and he would translate for me. I even got to say the prayer is sign language one of the times. :) Also on that exchange (remember how I told you we had a guy (Bugsy) who was "as drunk as a Skunk" came over on Christmas eve and told us how he wants to change his life and we got his info and everything.) ok, so we called him in the morning and he couldn't remember us, But he still wanted to change his life and so he invite us over to the homeless shelter that he Volunteers at so we could meet with him. It was Awesome! He introduced us to pretty much every one there! One lady said she had meet with missionaries before and told Elder Longherst to read her the 10 commandments! She wants the missionaries to come by her place! Kind of cool. Bugsy is such a nice guy. He gave us a tour of the building and then told us how he wants to change his life around. Just before we were about to leave he admitted to us how he was really nervous but happy that we were there. I felt weird that this 40 year old man was nervous to have two 19 year old boys meet with him, I know that there is something behind this name tag that others can see and feel and it is such a privilege to be one who gets to wear it on my chest. I am super excited to see where he goes!  There is something amazing about being able to connect with just random strangers and then be able to come to grow to love them! It real is amazing!

We have had lots of Spanish appointments as well his week. New Year’s Eve we went over to Brother Cruz’s family who were all none members, it was pretty fun, Puerto Rican food is so Good! But that night was short lived because we went to bed at 10:30 just like we do every night! It was kind of nice really. 

So right before we went to meet with Luis for his Baptismal interview, he told us that his wife really wasn't his wife and that they have been living together for the past 45 Years! So he knew that he would not be able to be baptized the next day.  He told us that he is going to use this time to prepare himself spiritually. So I just hope that his wife will be ok with them getting married! Luis then came to church on Sunday which made me super happy!

 Once again I can't believe that it is already 2015! This mission is flying by and it is freaking me out a little! I have learned so much since I have come out! It is wonderful to see the miracles happen each day and to be a part of it is a huge blessing! My testimony in the message we share each day has grown! I know this is true and love being able to share it! 

You guys are the best! 

Hurrah for Israel!

And

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2014

Hello Ho Ho Houghtons! And everyone else!

Thank you all so much for the Christmas cards, gifts, stockings and for the wonderful chance to see my most favorite people in this world!  It has been such a wonderful Christmas week, one that I will remember for the rest of my life!

Christmas Eve was so much fun! We had our mission Christmas party! So all of the missionaries in our mission came.  We have such great elders and sisters here! We had a talent show which was great! Missionaries sang Christmas songs, played the piano/ violin, one sister in our district danced point,(I thought about you Rach) some did some missionary raps, others sang about orange juice, and Elder Walker did a Hoop dance-I was so proud! It was so much fun! I was so happy I got to see elder Walker again because he leaves on New Year's Eve, I am going to miss him a ton! ( he was my trainer BTW) Then we had a fun white elephant gift! We had all types of things from cheap family
dollar gifts to full TV's! :) while I was there I got to see Elder Gammon!!! This made me so happy but it blew my mind, I mean I was baptized on the same day as this kid-- we even talked about serving together when we were younger so yeah a little crazy. Not to mention having Elder Tomilson there.  We graduated together, we were in seminary together,and we went to mission prep classes together! It is kind of nice having a familiar face from home here in the mission! :) just awesome!

Celebrating their 9th birthday together best friends--Sean Gammon and Todd Houghton

Elder Sean Gammon

After the incredible party we then went caroling with a bunch of families from the ward.  We had a huge caravan going around and it was super warm like over 50 degrees! So all we needed was a light jacket.  We had the windows rolled down and everyone we saw on the street we wished/yelled a Merry Christmas to them! We went to several places like an old folks home and the lobbies of apartment buildings where some members lived, and after we sang all of us missionaries just dispersed and handed out a ton of those "He is The Gift" cards! I loved it so much and we ate a lot! Then after all that we had dinner with members. It was a full day!

Christmas morning I woke up and the Santa/postman came! Bearing packages,boxes and bags. We had the ASL elders come over in the morning to open all of our packages. I got to make breakfast for them as well. Mom you would be proud my cooking, just saying. It was so much fun, then I made some cookies that we could take to some of our investigators, and because of it one lady we have been trying meet with let us in! She was really impressed that even on Christmas we went out
trying to help people. So hopefully this will let us get in next time to teach her! We did that for awhile! Then I got to talk to you guys! And that made me so happy! It made you feel a lot closer! I just loved
it!  We spent the rest of the day at the Pulleys and had dinner with them.  We also got to watch one G rated movie! So we watched Monsters University! That felt weird. It was a great Christmas!

The next day elder and sister Ray- a senior couple from Becky and Dan's Ward in Kaysville came to do deep clean of our apartment! By the way they think the world of the Bryan family! Kind of a cool
connection and I still can't believe that the Bryan's are moving to Idaho! I am super excited for all of them! Idaho is going to love them! Anyways we did a deep clean from 11 to 5 and now our apartment
is super clean! It makes me super happy!

The rest of the week was great, we have a baptism set with Luis! So I am so excited for him!

I love you all and I love this work and I am so grateful for the chance to be here in the Lord's vineyard!

Love Elder Todd Houghton

Skyping with Elder Houghton!

The best part of Christmas :)

When you are in the service of your fellow men you are in the service of your God.

December 22nd, 2014

HO HO HO

Can You Believe it-- Christmas is in 4 days!!!! Crazy!
And The Thing I am most excited for is getting to see all of Your
beautiful faces! :)
Well lets see I am going to have to give a quick recap of the events
this week because I have to save some stories for Christmas! ;)

Well a missionary broke his nose last Monday while we were playing
basketball, that was exciting.

Tuesday we had the awesomest Spanish referral! His name is Luis!
We dropped by his place and he Let us in! (That is always surprising
as a missionary.) He is from the Dominican Republic and Apparently he
used to meet with missionaries there. He doesn't remember to much from
all  they taught except the Word of Wisdom which he is keeping!
So we got to teach him the Restoration and the Word of Wisdom! I still
don't understand anything being said but I am able to at least follow
along and get the base of where the conversation is at.  It is kind of
cool. Then he invited us back Friday! When we got there he was ready
for us. He changed his sweat shirt and beanie for a button up shirt and
combed his hair back. :) then he told us how he wants us to go through
every thing slow so that poco by poco,  little by little he can become
fully converted to this gospel! He wants to be converted! It made me
so happy! Then he came to church last Sunday as well! it was awesome!
We now have two Luis's coming to church and they are both Spanish
investigators! and they are both Solid! The other Luis has a baptismal
date set for the 3rd! :)

Last Friday we had an interesting dinner with a member, basically
during the ward Christmas party a less active lady that let's just
say has a some kind of disability.  She invited us over for dinner.

 She lives in an apartment building and on her front door was an interesting sign. 

We didn't know what to expect haha, We were happy to say she was 

really nice! She went all out and made turkey and something else that I didn't recognize. 

It was ok I just don't want to know how she made it.

Talk to you soon love you all!!

Elder Houghton

December 15, 2014

Hello Again From Rochester!

It really is Christmas time in the City Here! They have put up
Christmas lights and every Thing! (But it doesn't even Compare to
Temple Square, witch is super awesome that You got to go! I absolutely
love that place!
Also Thank you So much for all Birthday wishes and packages! It made
me so happy getting packages on my Birthday! Elder Scott even took me
to Moe's For lunch and I got me a delicious Quesadilla! It was
awesome! and a great day for missionary work! a miracles happened that
day as well. so Cassie is one of the people with a baptismal date, but
we just haven't been able to get in contact with her like at all! she
would cancel appointments then we couldn't even get ahold of her on
the Phone. So Tuesday the ASL elders went to Starbucks to do Online
Proselyting (we get one Hour online each day) But the WiFi wasn't
working so they went to the restaurant next dour were the Wifi worked
so as they were doing there thing one of the workers came over and
started to talk to them and basically testified that she knew that the
church was true and is the only correct church in front of like every
one there and that it was a sign that they were there! and Guess Who
that was! It was CASSIE! She then told them that she would call us
that night so we could come over! It was awesome! I love it when
things like this happen and they happen all the time!

Wednesday really was an Eye Opener, we got to go to One of our
investigators Grandson's funeral. I am pretty sure it was a Baptist
funeral and we were 2 of the 3 only White People there. It was
probably One of the most different, and depressing things I have ever
experienced in my life. For example they had an Organ, drums, and an
electric Guitar, and during the Opening prayer the lady progressively
got louder till the point of Yelling, the Guitar and organ was playing
along and people were Shouting out! "AMEN" and "PRAISE JESUS"! and that
was just the opening Prayer! During the opening Number It was Chaotic!
Lets just say there was a lot of Weeping, wailing and Gnashing of
teeth from the mother of the son who passed away, and everyone around
her was trying to comfort her! all during the song! it was so sad.
Also I don't think I have ever heard the Word "Amen" so much in my
life. It was a really interesting, and It makes me so grateful to have
this Gospel and for the Wonderful plan that Our Father has made for
us-- to be able to live with our loved ones again! That truly is one of
the greatest blessings. And then to hear what happened to Jonathan
broke my heart, life is so fragile and it so hard to hear that some
one I knew and graduated with and has now passed away. My thoughts and
prayers go with his family!

And Then Saturday we were at the church like all day! We went to a
baptism in the morning and then we had a went to a single adult ward
lunch talked to an investigator there! And then we went and set up for
the ward Christmas party! It seriously was one of the best ward
Christmas parties I have been too! It was gorgeous the food was
incredible we had over 250 people there many were friends that people
had invited! President France's came and Spoke and we had fabulous
musical numbers and then the best part was I got to be Santa's little
helper! Yes I was an Elf! You got to love what you get to do as a
missionary!!!!! I will have to get some pictures to show you cause it
was incredible! But that was basically my week!

Oh! This is transfers week! And Elder Scott and I are staying
companions! Which is crazy because he has been in this area for 6
months already! Haha the work is going really well here still! And I
am loving it!

Hurrah for Israel

Merry Christmas!

 Feliz Navidad

Making ginger bread houses

 Downtown Rochester