Sunday 6 July 2014

Thank you for your prayers and your goodness!

Dear Everyone,
Thank you so much for your prayers and your goodness. I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting yesterday (for what could or could not have been my last Sunday in Gloucester) and it just hit me that there was so much good done by the members of the ward. It's quite different when you first get to a ward and you have no idea who anyone is and it's all just a blur of what's going on and me not understanding compared to after you've been somewhere for a while and you know and love the people. You have an idea of what their challenges and struggles are. You see the Light of Christ in their smiles and their hellos and their lessons and their conversations. It's wonderful. It just overwhelmed me in church how wonderful all these people are and how grateful our Heavenly Father must be for every act of service that they have done for His precious Sons and Daughters. So, I hope that everyone everywhere gets a chance to feel Heavenly Father's love from some of those kinds of remarkable people.
So, some funny things:
Being missionaries, we have a signature at the bottom of our texts (it just says Elder Houghton & Elder Hunter). Elder Hunter pointed out to me though that people often, when responding to our texts then add their names on the bottom just to copy us. A few weeks after we've first started texting them our daily scripture text and they've been responding with their names at the bottom of the texts, they often ask us (now that they're comfortable with us) about it and it's really funny because they've been copying us. It is hilarious but maybe doesn't seem all that funny the way I told it.

 



Last week, I had my first Fish and Chips. You can get it anywhere and I've had chips before (quite different from fries btw-in fact you can in many places choose chips or fries). The chips at this Chippy weren't that good really and the fish was just kind of ok-didn't taste nearly as fishy as I'd imagined it would and was just kind of bland overall (it is English right, so maybe I should have known!)





The week has been good. G is going to be baptised on Saturday almost certainly (There are always last minute hiccups to worry about hence the almost) and will be more than a little devastated if Elder Hunter leaves on Wednesday (as he invited Elder Hunter to baptise him). It will be fantastic! It will be a great step forward for the ward because S and G represent many miracles that resulted from the prayers and work of missionaries and members working together (President Monson-esque). It's really exciting!
On transfers, as always, though I can guess, I really have no idea what will happen. Elder Hunter and I will likely split up which I am sad about as it's been awesome serving with him... eh. I'm sure though that the Lord has things all figured out and as long as I can trust in His plan, things will be for the best (easier said than done).
We got to give service to the Bishop in Newent (a small town way out there but in the ward boundaries (small but still bigger than Sonora I've been told in population...)) which was fantastic and fun. The only issue is that I've been a bit sunburnt with that big yellow thing in the sky from 4:15 a.m. to 10:40 p.m. lately and so I got a bit pink working on redoing a shed roof. They were fantastic though and treated us to some South African Barbecue (which actually was done in the oven because despite it being a nice day, there were two random downpours). That's the other thing about the weather in England. Not only does it rain a lot but there's no way of knowing when it will randomly start pouring with rain despite being sunny ten minutes prior to the rain. So, we have to carry both face sunscreen (it's bad because the sun right in your face from about 7-9) and a waterproof layer wherever we go! It's not been to bad this last week though.
I have no pictures as the new camera doesn't like to charge on the USB wall adaptor thing I've got and is charging now on the computer (hopefully).
I love you all lots and hope everything is going well. I'll let you know about transfers once they happen (so next Monday).
Lots of Love,
Elder Houghton

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