July 28th, 2014

Team #LooHuber Round 3

Y'all-

Transfer calls came in last night. And it turns out that these 2 sisters still have yet to accomplish their purposes here in the Sam Houston 2nd YSA ward because we are going to stay here for our 3rd transfer together! Totally unexpected because President has been making TONS of changes, but SO exciting for us!!! 

We had an amazing week which consisted of a baptism, the temple, and 3 new golden investigators- 1 who extra, EXTRA prepared :) 

Her name is A..., and she is friends with a member of the family ward. We taught her the restoration and she just broke down in tears saying that her whole life she has felt something missing and she has been waiting for this void to be filled, and that this gospel is what she's been searching for. It was such a powerful lesson, and she is so ready to take everything in! That next day she sent us a text saying "So I was reading the book today. And I couldn't help but cry for happiness!! I love it!" The Book of Mormon is AMAZING and we have really found that its the key to finding those who are prepared! 

M... is moving back to Ohio on the 10th :( We were really sad to hear it because he has made so much progress and was looking forward to being able to come to church and set a date for his baptism, but we know its what The Lord has planned for him. He said he will for sure be able make it to church right before he goes back, and he wants to go with the missionaries in Ohio! He is from a tiny little town, and he said that he knew he needed to come here to find the church, and now he will have it to take back with him :) He truly is so amazing! He is going to join the church one of these days :) 

After going down into the water 2 times, our dear friend Viet became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints :) Yesterday he got confirmed and also received the prisethood!!

Kp was the cutest ever practicing how to baptize him. We went over the baptism prayer with him, and he was SO FUNNY practicing it over and over again. Haha so proud of that guy. It was such a neat experience for everyone that was there :) All of the guys have been so great for Kp and Viet, and its going to be really sad to see them leave for school in the next few weeks :( The ward is going to shrink by like 100, but we have got some solid recent converts to keep everything going! :)

 

Something to think about

 

Yesterday in Gospel Principles, we taught a lesson on charity & someone had some really good insights on why in the scriptures it talks about charity never failing :)

We read in Moroni 7 about faith, hope, and charity. And with an eternal perspective, we learn why charity is the only one of those attributes that doesn't fail, or in other words, have an end.

 

-Faith: Things that we can't see, but that we hope for & know are true. One day, all of these things that we now have faith in (HF, Jesus Christ, etc.) are going to be shown to us, and that faith is going to turn into aperfect knowledge.

-Hope: What do we ultimately hope for? Salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, we are going to be able to attain those things that we hope for. "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." That hope is going to be a reality!

-Charity: CHARITY NEVER FAILETH! Charity is never ending! Thats why it is so important, because the love of Christ that we attain in this life, is going to be apart of us forever :) "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

 

I have recently starting reading the BOM over again, and I have been reading it specifically looking for examples of charity&love. Its amazing the power and inspiration that has come already just in the first few chapters! I have learned that "we cannot truly love God, if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey", and that as we strengthen our personal relationships with our HF and Savior Jesus Christ, then that christlike love for all of our brothers and sisters follows :)

 

I love you all so much and miss y'all tons! Thanks for your examples to me :)

 

with <3 from houston,

sister huber

July 21st, 2014

um okay so lets just take a second here and talk about how I feel like it was just last month when I became a missionary! and now we are here, exactly 14 months from that day. I really don't know how I feel about it. for some reason the most common phrase said to me this week was, "you go home SO soon!". It really hit me hard. So now when people ask me, I may or may not just try to cover up how much time I REALLY have left hahaha. people always said that on the mission 'days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days', and I have to say that is 100% true! Its just not okay! There is still SO much I have to do here!! Houston is my home now <3

The most beautiful day you could ever imagine- being in the temple with those who you have watched grow in their conversion to this gospel since day 1. Being able to watch them get baptized for others who have passed on and feeling their presence was such an incredible experience. Each one of those recent converts have blessed my life in ways I can't even begin to tell you! And now they are blessing the lives of so many others, on both sides of the veil. The temple is where we look towards :)

The Articles of Faith:

So we had a lesson with M... this week, and we had planned to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We brought Amanda, a member of the ward along with us. So we meet him at the church building, and we start the lesson by asking him if he has any questions for us or if he had any questions on the BOM chapter we gave him to read. He asked some really strange question about God, and to be honest I really didn't even understand the question haha. Sister Loo and I both just looked at each other and we were at a complete loss. He asked it again and neither her or I was getting any guidance from the spirit on how to answer it and Amanda all of a sudden brings up the 11th article of faith. She reads it to M... and he pondered it for a second, and then asked her to read it again. Sister Loo and I were getting a little nervous about what was going to come next, but then he goes, "Yes! That has been my beliefs all along!". So we felt like we needed to go through all of the articles of faith with him. After we read and discussed each one, he kept getting more and more excited, and the spirit kept getting stronger and stronger. When we finished, he just sat there and started to cry. He said that for the past 13 years, he has had all of these ideas in his mind on what he believes in, and how there wasn't a church that matched each of his beliefs. As we were discussing the articles of faith, the spirit kept testifying to him of its truthfulness, and everything that he had believed in and felt to be true, matched up with each one. He then held up the book of mormon and said "if there is as much truth in this book as there is on this card (the articles of faith card), then I'm in. I've received my answer." It was an amazing opportunity for us to then bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and let him know that we knew it was true. Who even knew that he would receive his answer from 13 simple articles of faith?! We usually don't teach those to investigators for some reason but it was a perfect example to me of the importance of members!! The spirit gives us ALL the answers on how to best help those we teach. Everything we teach comes from the spirit. And the spirit touched Amanda's heart and told her what he needed to hear. He accepted a baptism commitment, and closed the lesson with the sweetest prayer thanking heavenly father for bringing him to texas to receive this gospel :)

Southern Baptist M... has officially been dunked a Mormon! Out of all the baptisms we've had here up to this point, his had the most amazing spirit by far. As he came up out of the water, I could feel that he truly had been cleansed and forgiven of all of his past sins. He was a completely different person :) Danielle gave a powerful talk on the Holy Ghost that touched everyone that was there. Her testimony makes me cry every time! You could definitely say my spiritual bucket was overflowing that day :)

And since Heavenly Father doesn't feel like He has blessed us enough, He blessed us even more with MORE PEOPLE to teach! Its been pretty overwhelming for Sister Loo and I this week haha. How many missionaries can say that they have way more work to do than they can handle themselves?! Cause when we think its going to slow down a little, it doesnt haha. Such a big blessing!! But so exhausting as well. We went on an exchange this week & I went with Sister Sheldon, my good old MTC buddy :) We were walking around some apartments and there was a YSA standing on the sidewalk with his headphones in. We both kept walking, and the spirit basically yelled at me to go talk to him. His name is R..., taught him about the Book of Mormon and invited him to come to church. And guess who came to church?! Our newest investigator R... :) T... came for the first time as well and just loved it! 

V... gets baptized this week and we are so excited!! KP is baptizing him :):) too cool. 

I love you all so much! Miss you tons!!

xoxo

sister huber

July 14th, 2014

the quest for the T E N S

what. a. week.

last night when we were driving home, I literally felt a huge load lifted from my shoulders haha. I'm exhausted. I think thats the only word to describe what I'm feeling right now! But it was SO worth it! And there is so much to tell you!

So like I said last week, Sister Loo and I set a goal to pass out 70 BOMs in one week- 10 each day. The week started out really rough. Monday we didnt have any, and Tueday we only had 5. So we kinda started to freak out a little bit and really had to just put every ounce of faith we had in the Lord in order to make this goal happen. Let me tell ya- when you prayerfully set a goal in faith, the Lord ALWAYS provides a way to accomplish it! Last night we successfully passed out our 71st Book of Mormon for the week :) We passed them out in just about every way possible! In the car, through fences, in parking lots, knocking doors, the college campus, all in this nice Houston weather! Lots of sun but it was all part of the adventure! Looking back we have no idea how that was even possible, but the Lord literally put people right in our path who were prepared to hear the gospel and accept the Book of Mormon. Along with that, we taught 54 lessons this week :) I'm still so amazed! We walked more than I probably ever have in my whole life, and just talked to every single person we saw. We got lots of referrals for other missionaries in the family wards, but we know that we will see the blessings in our own area and receive more YSA's in lots of other ways! 

Joseph got baptized on Saturday! So he had been going back and forth with being baptized on the12th. And he had a few hang ups, so we just assumed that we were going to push it back a little bit until he was more confident and had a stronger testimony of the gospel. So on Wednesday we went over to teach him, and he said that he still wasnt completely sure about it and that he needed more time. We taught him ALL of the commandments in one lessons, which was a lot haha. But for some reason we felt that we needed to! At the end of the lesson we all knelt down and told Joseph to pray about the things that he is struggling with in his testimony, and to pray and ask HF the date that he should be baptized. So he ends the prayer, and we all stayed on our knees and asked him what he was feeling. He was like, "Well, the first thought that came into my head was July 12th...  Yep. The 12th. Thats what God is telling me right now.. soooo... I guess I'm getting baptized on Saturday! This Saturday.. Wow. Alright!" hahaha. He had to coach himself into the whole thing. But it was really cool because right then he received an answer to his prayers, and he couldnt doubt the answer that he receieved. He said he just had to put all of his faith in God and go forward with it! We threw a baptism together in just a couple days and it all went great! He really feels at peace with himself and the decision that he made, and his testimony has already grown so much since then! Yesterday at church he was just so happy and said that he felt so good about it all :) 

M.. is gettting baptized this saturday, and V.. is the Saturday after that! And then we set a date with Bejamin for August 3rd :) So many miracles!!!

All 5 of our recent converts got their temple recommends yesterday and tomorrow we get to go to watch them all go do baptisms for their first times! I can't think of anything in this world that is better than this! We are so excited :):) They're seriously the best :) I really don't think things could be better here! :)

Interviews with President Mortensen to top off the week! He committed us to extend 25 ITL's (invitations to learn) every day. Talk about a stretch right there! I think the most we've ever had in a day is 30. And that was a crazy day haha. So to do 25 every single day is really going to push us! But we gave him our word so The Lord is going to provide a way! I know its just another way that He is going to bless us :) I've learned to never put limits on the lord!! Everything in life is all dependent on our faith and on our obedience! 

I want you all to know that I love this gospel with all of my heart. I know that our Savior lives and that He loves each of His children! Over the past couple months I have really been studying the Atonement and trying to understand it better & it has changed my outlook on everything. The Atonement is everything. My love for my Heavenly Father and savior Jesus Christ has grown so much, and as I have come to know them better, I have felt my relationship with them turn into something that I have never experienced before. They have become my closest friends <3  I read a talk this week by Elder Holland called Missionary Work and The Atonement (you all should look it up and read it :) and this is just a part I really liked:

I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. 

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.  For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul. If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” ¹⁶ then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way. The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Missionary or not, I think this applies to everyone. Christ performed the Atonement for each of us, personally. And when you let him into your life, and you submit to the Father's will just as Christ did, your life will be filled with a joy that you have never experienced before! Christ is the way :) & I am so grateful for him.

I love you all so much and am so grateful for each of you! Have a great week! :)

xoxo sister huber

Joseph's baptism

The 71 Books of Mormon

& sometimes people aren't as interested in the gospel as they seemed to be.... #sistermissionaryprobs

July 7th, 2014

A Texas summer is one thing, but a Texas summer with no AC is another...

Sister Loo and I had a great little surprise one night walking into our 90 degree apartment to find that our AC was BROKEN. and it still is hahaha. But I have to say I wasn't even upset about it! We kinda just sat there at laughed. HF has been spoling me wayyyy too much out here. I think when I first decided to go on a mission I had this horrible idea in mind that I was going to be living on dirt floors for 18 months. So I think a little discomfort has been good for us :) We made the mistake of opening our windows hoping to get some cooler air in.. because who knew that a whole swarm of roaches would get in?! Not us. hahaha. I've become real good at catching those things. Last night we received one of the Lord's tender mercies by a member 'just happening' to have an extra fan sitting in their garage! The Lord is watching over us :)

Another AMAZING week here in the THM. I think I always say that. But really every week seems to be the best week ever! I never even know where to start! 

We had some really good lessons with our southern baptist friend Mike. When we taught him the word of wisdom I think we were put on his hit list haha. We read from D&C 89 with him and we asked him what The Lord is asking us to refrain from and he goes "EVERYTHING THAT I LIKE TO DRINK!!!" he then went into his trailer and brought out an entire thing of sweet tea that he had just barely bought the day before haha. He didn't even question it though! Right away he knew what he needed to give up and he did! #goldeninvestigator

He is supposed to get baptized this saturday, but we still have all of the 5th lesson to teach him since they just made that a requirement for before baptism! He has a lot going on this week so it might have to be pushed back until next weekend. He has his interview on Thursday with President Chappell! 

J-- said that he has been praying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and that he knows that he needs to be baptized! He had a date for the 12th, and he said that he feels good about it! So we just might have a baptism on Saturday! He has been reading lots of conference talks by President Monson and absolutely LOVES them. He's just amazing. He always says that it definitely wasn't a coincidence that James knocked on his door that one day. Always a testimony to me that The Lord leads us to those that are prepared!! 

Meeting the Mortensens-

So pretty much I feel like President Mortensen is President Pingree in a different body haha. Its really crazy actually. We had a big intro conference this week and we met the whole fam! They brought 5 kids out with them, and their oldest daughter just left on a mission in NJ! Their youngest is a little boy who is 5 and I couldn't help but think of little Matthew. Made me miss him so much! Lets see. They came from orange county, and they are your typical OC family to say the least haha. Sister Mortensen comes walking in rocking her Michael Kors dress and Kate Spade bag and looks like the farthest thing from your every day mission presidents wife, but she can definitely work it! She probably has the sweetest heart of anyone I know. Like really, they are so sweet and so fun and so loving. I think we laughed the entire time we were with them. Dont get me wrong though, President knows how to lay it down, but its a good thing haha. Nothing much has really changed! They are going to be really good for this mission :) 

We taught the first lesson to 2 of our newest investigators this week! M-- and T--. Both are SO prepared and so awesome. I have come to know that HF gives us such big miracles in such little amounts of time. Once again, we had about 15 minutes in between appointments. We decided to go into Target and walk around and find someone to talk to. Target has been an amazing finding tool for us haha. YSA's love Target. Anyways, we walk in and found T-- within like 5 minutes. Talked to her and she said how she has been needing Jesus in her life! We met up with her again yesterday and after teaching her the restoration she said she knows that the Book of Mormon is true!! I shouldnt be so amazed whenever things like that happen but I always am! Heavenly Father is the too good to us :)

Our 4th of July was a little different this year than it is most. There is a less active girl who is working on becoming active again. Her name is A--, and she recently lost custody of her 1 year old son, and her husband left her. So she technically is still married and shouldn't be in a YSA ward, but she said that she can't go to her family ward because seeing couples and families is too much for her to handle so our bishop gave her special permission to come to our ward. Shes definitely hit rock bottom at this point in her life. She had us over for dinner one night and for 2 hours straight she just poured out her whole life story to us. She just started crying and it was so sad to watch her fall apart like that. Long story short- her house was a complete disaster because she has been in depression and cant ever get the motivation to do anything and its totally heartbreaking :( so we went over on the 4th and deep cleaned that place! :) I can honestly say that true happiness comes when we completely forget about ourselves and serve others! It was such a good experience being able to truly help someone who needs it, on the biggest holiday in the state of texas :) 

V-- came to church yesterday! White shirt and all :) He loved it. And the whole ward loved seeing him there! Such a good Sunday yesterday! Not to mention the wedding proposal we witnessed after sacrament meeting behind the sacrament table... Yes that really did happen hahaha. Followed by them being all over each other in gospel principles. Welcome to the singles ward :) 

Pray for Sister Loo and I! We are having a week of finding the tens of thousands :) We set a goal to pass out 10 BOMs per day!! Its definitely a stretch, but we know it is possible!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

xoxo

sister huber

spreading the word at the gas station!

4th of July!

there is rain... and then there is Texas rain!

our investigator invited us to his sisters engagement party... it was all in vietnamese so it was a little bit of a struggle!