July 29th, 2013

So first things first here. -- IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! he said YES (usually its maybe, or not right now but the time is coming) and we committed him to pray about a date with his wife and they are going to give us a date on wednesday! The Lord really is working so many miracles here. 

-- came to church yesterday, he is the 15 year old boy from the -- family that we are teaching. He wants to get a tour of the church and walk around the temple this week. He is seriously just soaking it all in its crazy. -- read the BOM in a week. She has a solid testimony of joseph smith, and said she is going to make it to church this week. her work schedule is hard, but the lord always provides a way! 

other than that, all of our other investigators are doing well and still progressing! 

We went to sushi the other night with one of our part member families. Oh my, I almost died hahaha. Quite the experience. I dont know how, but he got us to eat eel, and then since that wasnt enough, he pulled out the octopus. oh man haha its a miracle in itself that I got it all down. 

Missions are so great! Its so true that when you put 110% in it all the time and love everyone, its impossible to not just LOVE your mission. Seriously, lose yourself in serving others, and you will truly know what happiness is. You will notice a huge change in your life the second you start focusing on others and forgetting about yourself. 

I love you all!! And Jaden, I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!! Detroit doesn't know whats about to hit them! You will NEVER regret the decision to go on a mission. The best 2 years of your life are right ahead of you!!! Lose yourself in the work, and you will be amazed what can happen! 

Everyone have a great week! LOVE YOU!!! 

Love,

sister huber 

Sister Lockhart and Sister Huber

July 22nd, 2013

I cant believe that another week has gone by. the weeks seriously get shorter and shorter I swear! its crazy! 

last monday we had to get a new car. but dont worry! it wasnt my fault! hahaha. the elders made a slip and slide out of our car on pday last week when it started pouring rain, and of course they chose our car to do it on. and one of them slammed right into the windshield and shattered the whole thing haha. so we had to get a ride back to our apartment and had to stay there the rest of the night til they could get us a new one on tuesday. moral of the story is boys will be boys. even while they are on missions hahaha. 

we taught -- the first 2 lessons this week. and he also came to another baptism and he couldnt stop talking about the spirit that was there. he is SO prepared! he is just loving all of it! we also met with --, the excommunicated sister. we got her to open up about everything which is a huge step for her. she is thinking about having her baby get blessed in her home sometime. We visited a good amount of less actives this week too. --, an older lady who hasnt been to church in years. We read the book of mormon with her. And the -- sisters. They are 3 sisters who all live together. They have a strong desire to come back to church, but they all have bad habits like with smoking and drinking that they are working on fixing. They are too embarrassed to come to church, but love having us over. they are reading the book of mormon everynight, and their testimonies are so strong! its just a matter of getting past the addictions and getting them to church again. 

We taught the -- family the third lesson! The oldest son came to a youth activity this week and they are still wanting to keep learning more! they want to go to a baptism and see what that is like. they are reading the bom too. They are progressing slowly but surely! All of the kids are so curious about everything, and same with the mom, but the dad wants nothing to do with it. he is a very strong catholic and has no interest at all. So all of the lessons we teach are when the dad is at work. 

We saw the -- a couple times this week. Another part member family. We talked a lot about temples which they actually really really liked! We are meeting with them again this week. We are working on getting them to come to church. The dad wants to, but the mom is more hesitant. They are both members, and their oldest daughter is, but they have a 10 year old who isnt baptized. 

We got in to meet with the -- family, a less active family who the bishop has been trying to get in with but no one has ever been able to get in to talk with them. we FINALLY met them and they let us in and we had a really good lesson with them. They actually asked us if we would read the bom with them, so we started at the very front page and just started reading. we have an appointment with them this week to go back and teach them. 

the biggest miracle this week.. sister lockhart and I ran into this lady at our apartment complex, and we just started talking to her. her entire face was bruised and swollen, and she was embarrassed to even talk to us. but we started talking to her, and asked her if she was okay and if there was anything that we could do for her, and she just broke down in tears and told us how she is going through a divorce, and has no money. there are a lot of other things going on, but those are the main things I guess. so anyways we met with her back in her apartment, and brought her some food and stuff to get her through the week. She has no family to talk to, and is just really going through a lot of hard things. She asked us how she can be happy again, and it was seriously the most perfect opportunity to share the gospel with her. So of course we did! and she soaked it all in. The elders gave her a blessing, and she is coming to church. Its so amazing though because we didnt even work to find her. she literally just walked into us, and she even said that she knew that god put us in her path for a reason. talk about a miracle here!! She needed the gospel so badly in her life, and she has already found so much happiness in it. oh, her name is -- haha. 

I will end here with a confession. I told myself from day one that I was never gonna get in the habit of saying y'all. All of the missionaries here even say it and I never understood it. But like the people here make fun of you for saying 'you guys' and stuff like that haha. So the other day we were out and about and I guess it slipped cause sister lockhart was like you said it! oh my gosh you totally just said y'all! hahaha I like to pretend I didnt but unfortunately its gotten to me. its seriously like not controllable. I've tried to not but its just a thing you acquire down here i guess and sometimes you cant do anything about it. as long as I dont start typing my letters saying yall I will be fine with that hahaha. 

Keep the faith! Miracles happen every single day if you let god in your life. I have seen them every single day on my mission. He really does answer your prayers!! I love you all so much! 

sister huber 

The above mentioned Elders before the accident

Studying in the closet to stay focused after not being able to leave after the above mentioned accident

Sister (with her comp) who took them home after the accident
(Kim, she should look familiar to you from BYU foods class)

Rain...

...and the shattered windshield!

Yes we are in a house. Sleeping on the floor. I will not explain why because it's
probably better you all don't know. Let's just say Houston is not a safe haven like
good old Utah County!!

July 15th, 2013

just another week here in texas! there is so much going on that things that happened last monday and tuesday seems like they were a month ago haha. I will try to focus on the important stuff here.

---!!! he is going so great! we had dinner with his fam last week and had the best lesson ever. And I am in love with their little boy --- haha. He is my little buddy. He is obsessed with soccer and every time I see him he is wearing a houston dynamo jersey hahaha. thats the pro soccer team here I guess. So he got me to play with him and we played for like an hour I swear. I was like out of breath keeping up with that little boy. But anyways back to rob. He agreed to starting the discussions! Here is the thing with ---. He has gotten all of the lessons taught to him. He just never knew it. He didnt want to commit to the discussions cause by doing that, he says baptism is right after that. So in his mind, once he starts getting the discussions, he is committed to baptism. But we explained to him that he has already heard all of the lessons and he could seriously teach them to us because he knows all of the stuff so well. We also got him to stop procrastinating everything haha cause he keeps saying in a couple months he is gonna want to get baptized. He knows he is going to, and it is a goal of his, but he is scared because he doesnt wanna mess up once he is baptized. sooooo we talked to him about all that and we got him to let us start moving this process along! He is coming to a baptism on saturday with us again. And we are assigning him BOM chapters each night. He finally has that testimony of the bom and joseph smith, and that is the main thing that was holding him back. He already pays tithing even. And he isnt a member. Like he is so amazing! 

We had zone meeting this week, and we got a senior couple put into our district so that is kind of a new experience haha. Its funny cause now everything is much more reverent. We have a wild district so I'm sure the lord put this senior couple in it for a reason hahaha. 

We taught the --- family this week as well! We taught them the third lesson, and it went really good! They all had a bunch of questions about it and are still wanting to learn more and more! They came to a ward party that we had last week, and are all coming to the baptism this week as well. 

We taught --- again. A little rough with him. I dont know what it was but the spirit was not there at all and the lesson was just disappointing. Him and his wife never communicate with each other. So when we sit down for each of our lessons they both have something to say to each other that is not very nice! So it definitely kind of takes the spirit away and they both kind of get on edge with each other. So we committed them to read the bom together every night. --- texted us and said that it has been going well, and it has been helping them a lot. We will see what happens with them this week. --- is getting her patriarchal blessing and getting a temple reccommend this week so that she can go and do baptisms for the dead for her first time! They are getting there slowly but surely.

Transfers are this week! The assistants kinda hinted to us that we are both staying so that is good :) I think I will be here for a while hahaha. 

We are staying positive and putting all of our faith and trust in the lord! I think I kinda stressed myself out at the beginning of all this. But once I really put all my faith in the lord and realized all of these people are in His hands, it made everything a lot more simple. All our job is as missionaries is to work hard and listen to the promptings of the spirit and let Him guide us! He tells us everything that we need to do! 

You all are so great! Lots of love from the great city of houston!

sister huber 

Raining... sudden downpour!  Never dry out after that in Houston!

Decided to walk and got lost... even with a map!

Elders playing another prank on the Sisters!

Abandoned house they were told to check.  Last known address of a member of the Ward.

July 8th, 2013

wellll another busy week! 

Last monday we had a zone picnic for the 4th and that was a lot of fun! we played games and enjoyed the crazy heat thats here. The 4th of july here is huge haha. Like all of the fireworks that are illegal in utah, are legal here. and everyone makes a huge deal out of it haha like people were doing fireworks until the sun started to come up the next day. You couldnt even see anything outside cause of all the smoke!

we visited a lot of less actives and are actually starting to learn about family history so that we can help our investigators get involved with that. I have never once been interested in doing family history work and I was always so confused why people liked doing it so much! But it is seriously the coolest thing ever. We have seen SO many reactivations just by getting them involved in it, and also a ton of people who have no interest in the gospel want to come and do family history work, and the spirit of elijah comes in and they all of a sudden have a desire to know more about the gospel! it is so crazy but so amazing to see. 

on thursday we had specialized training with president. the focus was on the statement "is anything too hard for the lord?". We talked a lot about goal setting and how if we prayerfully make goals each day, they can be accomplished! So sister lockhart and I made some crazy goals that definitely stretched us, but we prayed to heavenly father and told him what we were going to do in order to make these goals possible, and then asked for Him to place those people in our paths who were ready. So we had the goal on friday to get 10 lessons that day. We are supposed to get 20 lessons each week, so getting 10 in one day is kinda a lot haha. But we felt good about it so we just went with it! We decided to go street contacting that afternoon since we only had 3 set appointments for the day. We prayed before we got started and said that we were going to street contact for 2 hours straight, and that we would talk to everyone that we saw, and asked Him to place people in our path that would be willing to hear our message. Within seconds after getting out of the car, we saw a man working on his truck so we went over to talk to him, and right when he found out we were mormon missionaries he got so excited and jumped right up to talk to us! We had a really good discussion with him, and taught him the whole first lesson. It was so cool! Then after him we kept going and finding people, and almost everyone that we apporached to talk to, they were very open to our message and wanted to know more. That has never happened before! Like most people here want nothing to do with the LDS church, and dont wanna hear a thing about it. So it was seriously such a miracle how many people we got to talk to us and let us teach them. Anyways to make a long story short, we reached our goal that day, and ended up with 10 lessons and 2 new potential investigators. 

On saturday we taught -- and -- at the temple in the waiting room there. Probably the best lesson we have ever had. They were so excited to actually be inside and they said they didnt want to leave because of how strong the spirit is and how peaceful it is in there! -- told us at church on sunday that we are the first missionaries that -- has ever let past the front door, let alone get him to read the book of mormon and go to baptisms and the temple! He keeps telling us that if we leave, he isnt sure how well he is going to do after that. which is kinda scary cause he is doing SO good and we arent always gonna be here! but he just keeps telling us how grateful he is for us and is glad that we are being so patient with him! he doesnt want to rush into it because he says once he makes the decision to be baptized, he wants to put 100% of himself into the church. He knows it is a big lifestyle change and he just wants to make sure that he is ready for it. so he keeps asking for committments that he can make each time we meet with him, and he keeps saying the time is almost here. so we will have to just wait and see! I refuse to get transferred until he gets baptized hahaha. He is going to I know he is!

We are meeting with -- and -- this week, and im so excited about that! 

other than that I think it was just a typical week! trying to find the tens of thousands! (president always tells us the story of when he was first called as a mission president here, he went to the temple to figure out what his main purpose I guess was for the texas houston mission, and he got the answer that there are tens of thousands who the lord has prepared for us and our mission. so we always say when we go tracting or whatever that we are just finding the tens of thousands!)

I hope life back at home is great! I love hearing about all thats going on! Love you all more than you know!

sister huber 

4th of July Picnic

Training

Training

Texas Houston Mission

July 1st, 2013

okay first of all my mission is probably the best in the ENTIRE WORLD! not even kidding. all of the missionaries are so great and I feel way too blessed to be here. it was temple week this week! we are SO blessed to be able to have the houston temple in our mission and we get to go each transfer! oh my goodness. it was such a cool experience. we all went as a zone, and we fasted all that day for our areas and specifically for an area that doesnt have any investigators. its amazing the impact it had on all of us.

we are teaching a 13 year old girl named --. her dad is a member but has been inactive for years now. her mom is methodist I think? she and her little brother live with their dad cause the parents are divorced. she first learned about the church because all of her friends are actually in our ward! so we started teaching her this week and she is so excited about it. the problem with this is since she isnt 18, we have to have both of her parents permission to continue the discussions. she wants to get baptized so bad and she loves going to church! she also goes to mutual every week and is reading the book of mormon and she gets so so excited about it. she told us that she has been searching for answers how to get closer to god and she knows that this gospel is what makes her the happiest. her dad is very happy about it and said that some of the best times in his life was when he was a youth in the church. the mom on the other hand isnt as excited. she agreed to let -- take the discussions, but isnt agreeing to her getting baptized yet. we think it is just a matter of time! I love this girl so much and can see the happiness that this gospel is bringing her.

now.. here is the exciting part of the week.. yesterday the assistants had a baptism and they told us about it so that we could invite some of our investigators to come. we are struggling with getting -- to church, and when we met with him on saturday he said that he isnt going to committ to anything yet but that the time is getting close. he didnt come to church again yesterday, so we were really bummed about that. but -- was there! im not sure if I have said anything about --. his wife is a member, and they have a 5 year old son named --. he grew up lutheran and when they got married, she fell away from the church for a little bit. he recently has had a huge interest in the church, and they have all been coming each week as a family! we told him about the baptism and he and -- were both so excited about it and so we went with them. so we get to the church last night with -- and his family, and --- SHOWS UP!! --- CAME TO THE BAPTISM!  his wife told us that he randomly put his church clothes on and was like lets go to this baptism! he told us that he wanted to surprise us hahaha. oh my goodness you have NO IDEA how happy that made us. probably the best day ever. so I sat with -- and -- and sister lockhart sat with -- and his family. After the baptism, sister lockhart said that she turned to -- and was like "does this make you excited for your baptism?" kind of joking around. and he started talking about how he cant wait to get baptized and how badly he wants to go to the temple with his wife and how he is going to baptize -- when he is 8. is that not the coolest thing ever?! -- turned to me after and was asking about the temple and asked if our next lesson we could go there and have it in the waiting room because he wants to feel the spirit there. he said now he knows why we are so bubbly and excited about things like this hahaha. it was such a good experience and I know the spirit was there working on those men! prayer works guys! haha we prayed all week for --- to come to church or the baptism. we were happy with either one and it worked!! sister lockhart and I were saying how funny it is the things we get excited about here. haha they are such little things but they seriously make us so happy!

I love you all so much and I feel your prayers each day! you all are such great examples to me and I love hearing about your cool experiences you are having back at home! you dont have to be on a mission to experience the miracles of this work! its gonna be another great week!

love,

sister huber

Everything is in Spanish

Sister Huber's first day driving... flat tire!

Plus humidity!

Twins!

Sister's in her District

Temple Day

Houston Temple

Temple Day

Sister Huber's Zone