Happy Cinco De Mayo! (from England)

5 May 2014

Dear Family,

Sorry again for no pictures. The Camera is still out of functioning order and probably will be permanently. I should probably work out a solution for that...

First of all, I added two conspicuously similar country names to my list of countries that I've met people from. One is Zambia and the other is Gambia. Both are English speaking I think so it's weird that it's taken this long to find them and that it's in Gloucester and not Coventry which is way more diverse. I'll have to check but I think there are more than 60 countries on the list at this point. Also, we are teaching no English people right now. Not many others either to be fair. Also, this isn't weird at all. I can count easily the people we've taught who are English and it's not very many.

We're half way through the transfer and time is flying. I hit the completion of 1 year on Friday (2 May). It's odd though because the day where I had a year left, the day that is the actual half-way mark, the day of being in England for a year/being out on my mission for a year, and the day of being in the field for a year are not the same day so I'm actually quite a bit more than half done (as the actual time as a missionary is a few weeks short of two years). Maybe that's just weird to me. I may yet take the opportunity to burn the trousers that have been making my legs itch (I think it's the teflon coating on the cotton) as a commemoration of being in the field for a year (Friday after this upcoming one) but we shall see.

Did I mention that Elder Bergquist is awesome? He has lots of spontaneous giggle fits and awkward weird things that he says which just brighten my day. Also, he loves doing dishes! It's great. I cook and he cleans and we're all happy. He's the first companion with whom I've lived the law of consecration (buying food together-a risky business but working so far). I will finish training him in just over two weeks time and I think at that point we will probably split but it is definitely fun in Gloucester C these days.

Mom just had to add this. . .she is happy to 
deprive herself of the mother's day call to 
facilitate sibling communication.  Really!

I just got permission from President Rasmussen to skype my family in June after Hermana Houghton has gone home rather than for actual Mothers' day so that should be great. I love my family so much. It's really strange that Hermana Houghton will now be off her mission for like a year while I continue on. I guess she'll just have that much more time to write me letters! (hint hint)

This week we had some cool things happen. Our investigator O, who is an old Jamaican ma,n said he would come to church on Sunday but just for Sacrament meeting (the last hour here). Then he came an hour early and got to sit in on the Sunday School lesson that we had been assigned to teach (shake up with Ward Mission Leader and Sunday School Teacher callings so missionaries are teaching it temporarily). It was great! He enjoyed church and said he would come back. He can't really hear very well so we're sure it wasn't what was said that touched him and we hope he felt the spirit strongly during the testimonies.

We've been teaching this awesome South African Family in the ward to review the gospel with the husband who was baptised a few years ago but never taught the after-baptism lessons. They're wonderful and I hope that our teaching has brought the spirit into their home. They're moving out to Newent in a couple of weeks which is still in our area but quite far away. Hopefully we still get to see them regularly!

The new Ward Mission Leader in Gloucester is great! The last one was great as well and I was a bit aprehensive when the new one was called because I hadn't met him before. Then he was sick and we didn't end up having coordination until this last week but it was great! We had planned on talking with him about a few things that we wanted to bring up but then he had already planned to talk about those things without us mentioning them. We are definitely on the same page! I'm really excited.

The Gloucester District is great. There's been a lot of drama with investigators lately in Gloucester but the missionaries here are still working hard and doing their best to invite others to come unto Christ. They are wonderful!

The Weather has been fantastic. I don't think it really rained last week. It probably did but it wasn't bad enough to notice. It has been a bit cloudy rather than being totally sunny but it's nice enough just not to have rain that no one is complaining.

Love you lots and have a fantastic week!

Elder Houghton