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

June 22, 2015

Hello once again my most fantastic family! 

Happy Father's Day my old man! This is for my old gaffer! I don't know where I would be without you! 

As always we had a really busy and fast week full of the good stuff! 

We started the week with zone conference which is always fantastic! We had a the great opportunity to do a training on the Book of Mormon! Our mission has set the goal to flood 1000 Book of Mormons in 3 months! And then each zone has set their own personal goals and the total is 5000 Book of Mormon! So this past week the Book of Mormon has been at the fore front of my mind as we have gone contacting or working with our investigators, I have been focusing on the converting power of the Book of Mormon! Because the Book of Mormon and the Spirit are our most powerful tools in conversion! So with the flooding of the mission our mission is reading through the Book of Mormon in 43 days! So we are just Embracing the Book Of Mormon and I love it!

We were also trained on using Pageant effectively! We are so spoiled in this mission! We have some of the coolest things in this mission! I sometimes have to remind myself where I am and how significant this place is and the wonderful things that have happened here! Pageant is coming up really soon and it is a perfect lead into the Book of Mormon! So far things have just gone so well and we have been able to give out 7 Book of Mormons! I seriously love the Book of Mormon it holds everything together and helps makes everything make sense! It's Fantastic! 

Also at zone conference we won the gold plates! We had the cleanest car in the zone so we won the gold plates! I will attach a picture! :)

We, after one of our first exchange this week, got to do exchanges back in Palmyra, but the other elders we were exchanging back with were late so we got to go walk in the Sacred grove while we waited! It was awesome!

We also exchanged with the AP's this week and that was a miracle exchange! They are in the young single adult branch, so their area covers all of Rochester and Palmyra! We got to go contact people in my old area in downtown Rochester! It was so fun getting to go back to an old area! We met some really cool young adults. It was a great experience!

Sunday we had a sweet couple, brother and sister Wilson from Oregon, come and visit at church. We started talking to them and they asked where I was from. I said Shelley Idaho! They immediately lit up! They lived there 3 or 2 years ago! They started listing some names that could relate to and they mentioned the Cather's, who are pretty much our neighbors! Brother Wilson is sister Cather’s brother! It was really cool seeing them. It made me feel a lot closer to home. And then the other weird part is there was another family that was visiting and guess where they were from!!! ---Ogden! The two visitors that came were from my two homes! It was pretty cool!

That night we had a musical devotional at the Palmyra stake center! We had musical numbers from people from all over the stake from solo's, guitar solos, amazing piano arrangements, a piano saxophone duet ( that was our ward mission leader he is incredible) an Acapella men's choir ( I was in that one) and they had all the missionaries in the stake sing “I am a Child of God!" It was Powerful!  All in all it was a powerful devotional full of the Spirit! 

So good things are happening here in the Pitts!

I sure love you all! 

Elder Todd Houghton 

Ps. Happy Father's Day father! Your seriously are the most studdliest stud muffins I will ever Know! I am so grateful for your example! But dad really you are the best dad any son could hope for. You are the bomb.com, The number 1, the hope diamond, the whole slice of pizza, the chosen one, my old gaffer, Mai's  maravilhoso,  The real deal,The one that's got the moves, the host with the most, and much more! I love you dad!

PPs, Also I am glad that Amber is ok; she will definitely will be in my thoughts and prayers! She has to feel good because they have a big move coming up! New Hampshire is a waiting!

June 15, 2015 "Please Bless That Man that He may Call"-- Best Two Years

Hello familia!

We have had such a crazy miracle week full of miracles! (Can you imagine that?) as I look back at what has happened this past week I kind of get this weird feeling inside that makes me just want to start jumping up and down like a little kid on a sugar high holding a massive chocolate bar. That's how I feel looking back on this week.

Let me explain. . .No there is too much let me sum up! (Princess Bride reference btw)

First one! So there is this on lady that has been investigating the church for a long time she started out in Victor was taught by the sisters there for a while, then she moved to Canidagua, and was taught be the sisters there for a while, then she moved again into our area! She moved to our area in March and we have been trying to set an appointment with her. Well appointments have been canceled every way you can imagine, because she was always too busy.  We set an appointment with her for this week, and then we prayed and a prayed that it would hold! And it did! We had a great lesson with her, and got to read the Book of Mormon with her .She told us that she loves the Book of Mormon and has seen it really help her in her life. So it's a pretty good start. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it, and we all know what happens if she will do that! ;) It was a miracle!

Second one so I don't know if you remember but from my last letter i might of talked about this a little, but not this past Saturday but the last we met this awesome family on the canal we talked to them about the Book of Mormon, and they were golden! We gave them a Book of Mormon and everything the seemed super interested and then when we asked for their information so we could set an appointment. Instead they asked for our email, saying they would contact us. :( and pretty much nobody gets back to us. But we left them saying there was a still a chance! . .) Well Tuesday morning we were at the library putting training together when we see an email! And it's from him.--This is what it said!

Hello Elder Houghton & Garland,

I am not sure if you remember me.  We met on Saturday morning walking along the canal in Pittsford.  I was walking with my wife and daughter.  I enjoyed meeting you.  I feel in this day and age people rarely even say hello to each other in passing.  We either have our faces staring at our phones or our pride causes us not to speak to complete strangers.  I have been challenged by this myself and found it refreshing to take time to talk with you and Elder Garland that day.  I would love to catch up with you for lunch if you are available this week.  I live in Fairport and work in Greece so I pretty much cover the entire city.  We could grab breakfast as well.  Please let me know what works best for you. I am reading through the Book of Mormon you graciously gave me and would love to discuss that as well but most importantly I think it would be nice to extend some Rochester hospitality to some visitors.

 Talk to you soon.

We were so stoked! Literally answered some prayers! Remember that sugar high?! Yes, that was pretty much me the rest of the day! So we went and met with him last Friday for lunch. It was awesome! We had a great discussion. He had already read about 100 pages for the Book of Mormon. It was really good and the best part is he has committed to read and pray about it and he wants to keep in contact! It was super exciting! Such a miracle!

Third one! Elder Garland and I have also been really trying to exercise our faith. So at the beginning of the month we decided we were going to set a date for someone to be baptized and that we would find teach and baptize someone, by July 11th! We have been praying and fasting a lot to find someone who would be ready to be baptized. We have been working really hard to find people to teach. And then on Friday we were at the mission office and Sister Kennedy( she is part of the mission office staff she is from the Bronx, so funny)  well she told us that one of her friends has been coming to church for the past couple of months and said that she was thinking about baptism! So on Sunday for Sunday school we got to meet up with her. Her name is sherry. She asked what she has to do to be baptized. So we told her about the discussion and also went through the baptismal interview questions. We then taught the restoration and we set a baptismal date for July 11! My mind was blown! We are so excited for her and plan to meet with her again on Wednesday! It was such a miracle!

Thank you so much for all the prayers, I really have been feeling them this week, and have been seeing the power behind them! It such a privilege to see the hand of the Lord in the work!

I sure love you all! 

Miracles happen on a daily basis!

Love,

Elder Houghton

Playing golf for P-day

JUNE 8TH 2015

My dear family and friends,

I am much pleased with this grand opportunity to write once again to thee! And my soul has been filled with great joy at the tidings that I have received from the land out west. Truly there is no greater gift then should a man lay down an email for his fellow man.

So really this week has just flown by. I look back on this week and I feel like everything has just happened so fast that I can hardly even remember what we did. In the manner of a few words. I guess you could say, I have been about my Father’s business. 

Just like you, we have had a lot of rain here. And when it rains it pores! We were outside for literally less than 30 seconds and every inch of us was soaked! It has just been a blast!

Elder Garland has had a full recovery thank goodness! So we have had a busy week full of walking around, and just talking to every one! And the Lord is definitely helping us begin to find the prepared in this area! The only hard thing is most of the prepared don't quite realize how awesome what we are giving them is. The hard thing is they tell us they will call us when they have a question. many of my prayers have been much like the best two years. “Please bless that man that he may call.  . .”  But we are still waiting as of right now.

We had a fun experience on Friday, so we have been going around to different churches looking for opportunities to serve. So we were walking around and past a church and there were a couple people out front so we asked if there was any service opportunities we could help with. And they said that they were setting up for a funeral. So we just jumped right  in! It felt so good to follow Ammon's example, because we saw it really soften the hearts of the people there. Everyone was so appreciative and thankful for us being able to help out. Then we were able to come back to help take it down! It was just great opportunity to meet many new people, and planting seeds. 

We sure love you family! Great things beginning to happen here! 

Love Elder Houghton

ToddMan