Miracles via Post!

Dear Family and Friends,

This is going to be a particularly short one. Sorry again.

England is awesome as usual. It's been really hot and muggy and the people are complaining about the weather as usual-regardless of the fact that it's the opposite of the weather that English people most often complain about and the fact that it's not nearly as bad here as elsewhere around the world.

Shout out to my cousin Macklin Riffel who got his mission call to Ecuador! I'm so excited for him. He's going to be great!

This week, I saw a miracle! I was having a slow hot day and we hadn't left the flat and it was late and I saw the postman down the road. I thought to myself that it would just be so nice to get some mail. Then I realized, there was no reason that I ought not to get some mail. I decided to pray about it. I just prayed simply that I would please get a letter, that it wouldn't affect my faith or anything but that it would just be so nice to get a letter, could I please get a letter. I envisioned an envelope addressed from Soulsbyville (especially because I have most people mail to the mission home). The postman came and delivered not one, not two, but three letters for me. One was from a friend who got her mission call to El Salvador (woot woot!), another was from a sister of a friend in Virginia, and the third was sent to all the missionaries in the Birmingham mission and included President Uchtdorf's talk "Waiting on the Road to Damascus" which was the vehicle for some much needed personal revelation. It was wonderful. None of those letters were expected at all, they just showed up. After the fact, I realized that my faith had changed. I have gained a greater testimony of the fact that I have a Heavenly Father who hears and answers the prayers of his children. He really cares for us and wants us to be happy. We just need to reach out and accept the blessings that he's waiting to give us.

That ties in to some other experiences I've had this week where I've come to see that Heavenly Father really wants us to be successful. He's doing everything he can to help us be the best we can be, we just need to act and we will receive. The Saviour's atonement is real. As we accept and live the gospel, we accept his sacrifice in our lives and show our desire to become more like him.  He is reaching out to help us with whatever challenges we may face!

Out of time,

Elder Houghton