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!

June 30th, 2014

even mission families are forever <3

Who knew a mission would bring so many wild emotions...

Its been one of those weeks where I think I have felt every single emotion in the entire world. But it has also been one of the most amazing weeks in such a unique way.

We were SO blessed to be able to have the opportunity to attend the temple this week with President and Sister Pingree and also the temple president and his wife. If I were to list the top moments of my entire life- this would probably up there at #1.

It. Was. Incredible. Words cant even begin to describe it. It was a once in a life time experience that I will never forget.

It was a little bit of what Heaven is going to be like. The Pingrees welcomed each missionary into the Celestial room one by one, and wrapped their arms around us. In that moment, president whispered into my ear "I love you. And I am so proud of you and who you've become" I couldn't help but think of leaving this life, and being welcomed into Heaven by our Heavenly Father and Mother and them just wrapping their arms around each one of their children and telling them how much they love them. Being able to watch other missionaries have that same experience, and seeing the love that was radiating from everyone was something I can't even describe. It literally felt like we were in Heaven. I will never forget the spirit that was there. We are all one big family here in the THM <3 and it was bittersweet knowing that things would never be the same. Having to say goodbye to the Pingrees brought lots of tears. That might even be an understatement haha. I don't think any of us thought that it would be so hard! It was really, really hard. 

They are 2 of the most amazing people I have ever met. Being able to serve with them for the past 13 months has been the biggest blessing of my entire life. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father knew I needed each of them in my life. President not only helped me to become a missionary, but he helped me to become the daughter of God that I have the potential to be. Through his loving guidance and example, I have received a whole new perspective on life. President Pingree changed my life, and I will eternally be grateful to him and his sweet family <3 They definitely left their mark here in Houston & served with absolutely everything that they have, and they are going to be missed way more than they will ever know! 

I'm trying to be okay with this whole change thing. I hate change sometimes haha. President and Sister Mortensen and their family get here tonight and the Pingree's fly out & leave in the morning! Things are crazy. So sad. So exciting. Lots of crazy emotions flying around here but its all gonna work out cause it always does!

Heavenly Father has a plan. And this is just part of it :) My heart is so full and I am way too blessed!!

We had a really cool lesson with V-- this week.

He began by saying that his boss asked him to stay and work a couple more weekends because they have an event coming up and need the help. He asked us if it was okay if he held off coming to church for couple more weeks. We told him that it was completely up to him and it was whatever he felt like he needed to do! So he said that he would pray about it and see. So we watched a conference talk by President Monson on prayer and receiving answers to prayer, and afterwards we were all talking about the thoughts and feelings we had as he was speaking. Viet just looked at us and said "Sister Loo & Sister Huber, I received my answer, and I need to be at church on Sunday. I am going to call my boss after this and tell him that I can't work anymore". :) it was one of those proud parent moments I feel like haha. Do we not have the best investigators in the entire world?!

Another highlight of the week was our lesson with B--. He is with the summer sales group! He was a pretty big punk at first hahaha. But boy has he softened up! The spirit is literally changing this boy completely. It has been so neat to see. We have to get creative with our lessons to keep things exciting for him so we related the whole restoration lesson to longboarding. And yes, we were very proud of it haha. He accepted baptism!! So exciting!

Everyone else is still doing really well! Lots of investigators progressing so we can't complain! :) Kp received the priesthood yesterday so that was really special. He just continues to amaze us every single day! Rumor is, he is going to baptize V-- :) How cool is that?!?! They make us so happy haha.

Heavenly Father is hastening his work here big time!! We are too blessed!

I hope everyone has another amazing week OUTSIDE of this Houston humidity! Enjoy it for me :):) haha LOVE YOU!!!!! 

xoxo

sister huber

the greatest people you will ever meet <3

Sister Loo and Sister Huber

painting mike's house with Isaaclyn!

the greatest gospel principles class ever! 

our people > your people :)

Sister Loo's Birthday

Temple Training

June 23rd, 2014

You know you're in Texas when you have your investigator read Moroni 10 3-5 and he starts out like this- "Behold, I would exhort you that when y'all shall read these things..." hahahaha. Yes that did happen. Have to put the southern language into the Book of Mormon to be able to understand it! I about DIED but prayed to HF to help me keep a straight face. I LOVE TEXANS :)

So first things first here. Remember m---? The southern baptist who was SO STUBBORN and had to be taught everything from the bible and nothing else?! We haven't been able to meet with him for a couple weeks now because he's been ignoring us. We were super sad about it and we had this lesson planned to teach him that we really felt would help him in his conversion and resolve his concerns but we were never able to get in contact with him! So we were being hopeful and thought maybe he just needed some time to think and to figure out his answer so we stopped trying to reach out to him for a bit. Saturday night we sent him a text inviting him to come to church again and you will NEVER believe the response we got. Sister Loo and I can't even believe it still! He texted us saying that he would be at church and that HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!! He said he realized what we have been teaching him is true and that he wants what we have. We kinda started freaking out a little bit and thought we might have been getting punked haha. But no this is for real!!!! We were talking to him before church started and he said that he just needed some time to ponder on some things and recognize his answer. He asked when the soonest he could be baptized was and so we set a date with him for July 5th!!! The bible bashing M--- is becoming a Mormon!! My work here is officially done & I've accomplished what I've been sent to the south to do :) hahaha jk. But really its still like a dream to us. Its a miracle!!! 

We taught J--- the Plan of Salvation and extended a baptism date for July 12th with him. His grandpa who was a preacher baptized him so he felt like that was good enough. We resolved some concerns that he had and he said that he is open to asking God and receiving an answer! He came to church for the third time yesterday and his testimony keeps getting stronger! We have a lot of hope for him :) 

Danielle is becoming quite the missionary! She came out with us this week and bore her testimony to one of our investigators and she started tearing up so then we started tearing up and it was just so powerful! She is getting her temple recommend this week to go and do baptisms!! I am just so happy for her. There has been a huge change in her since she was baptized, and she was already so amazing before! She just needs a missionary tag and she's good to go haha. We were getting out of the car to go to an appointment and we were getting ready to pray so Sister Loo told danielle that we always pray before we get out of the car, and danielle goes "Oh I know! I saw that on The District!" hahaha. She sits at home and watches the mormon channel instead of normal TV. I told her I hope I can be like her when I go home haha. Shes amazing! 

The most rewarding moment of the week- 

We were over at KP's house talking to him about the priesthood, and right before the lesson was over he asked if he could share his testimony with us. The spirit was so strong right as he started, and he looks up at us and said, "Sister Loo & Sister Huber, you changed my life." He then went on and bore one of the sweetest, most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. This gospel changed his life the moment he first heard it. He has given it everything he has, and he has become a completely different person in such a short amount of time. I can't even wait for him to get the priesthood on Sunday and see the change that brings in him. This gospel does things to people that nothing else can! My testimony has grown so much recently from hearing the testimonies of our recent converts. I am amazed at their faith and conviction when sharing what they know to be true. They carry a spirit about them that just brings so much joy to everyone around them! I love them more and more every time we get to be around their sweet spirits. I didn't know it was possible to love people so much! They truly have become my brothers and sisters and I am so grateful that the Lord put us all in each other's lives. They have become one of my biggest blessings! 

V--- has his last weekend of work this week and then he gets to come to church!!! It is going to be the best day EVER. He and KP are bffs now and they told us that they are planning to start a business together hahaha. One of our recent converts and one of our investigators are going into a business together. How great is that?! Now if thats not some brotherly unity I dont know what is! They call each other big brother and little brother haha. And they just met like a couple weeks ago. We have THE GREATEST people on the whole earth right here in this ward :) Sam Houston 2nd for the win :)

I love you all so much! & I love this gospel with all of my heart! You all are such great blessings to me and I wouldn't be here without ya!

Keep on keepin on! Have the best week ever!

xoxo

sister huber

The "snow cone" church as Danielle calls it

We had an impromptu game night for an investigator who asked if there was an activity Wednesday night. And without hesitation, we said "of course!" And there wasn't a game night... so we planned one!

Face mask fun!

Postcard of the Week

June 16th, 2014

Texas Summer Round 2

here is so much to say I dont even know where to start!!!

Sister Loo and I are both staying in the singles ward for another transfer together! yay! We are just getting started :) Her and I seriously work so great together- I don't think I have worked and pushed myself so hard in my entire life. AND we never fail to have SO MUCH FUN!! We are super excited :):) We just have Bishop and the stake president asking us when the next baptism is now haha. We've created some high expectations for ourselves it seems like!

And thats not even the best news! So we had specialized training with President Pingree this week (which is a whole other story), and at the end of it he asked to meet with Sister Loo. Since she hit her halfway mark out here, he gave her the option of choosing to stay here in Texas for the rest of her mission, or choosing to still wait for her visa to Brazil. He told her that by Sunday night she needed to make her decision. So we have been having a lot of late night chats and prayers, and she felt really strongly about staying here and making this her mission for good! SISTER LOO IS STAYING IN TEXAS!!!! It was a really cool experience for the both of us. As some of you know, recently I made a pretty big decision in my life that was really hard for me to make. So about a week ago Sister Loo helped me a ton in realizing my answer that the Lord was giving me, and giving me the encouragement I needed to make the decision that I knew I needed to make even though it wasn't necessarily the answer that I wanted!! And then right after, she was faced with this huge decision that she didn't see coming, and we went through the exact same process, with the exact same results. She wanted so badly to make it to Brazil, but in her heart she knew that The Lord had a different plan for her. It was so cool for us last night to look back on these experiences we've had, both individually and as a companionship, and see how The Lord's plan just fell into place. We both faced these decisions, where both of our options we faced were good! And I think that was the hardest thing about it. Not one choice was better than the other. They both were very good options we each had to choose from! But The Lord was able to lead us to what He wants for us. And even though both of our answers to our decisions wasn't exactly what we wanted at first, after making these decisions, we both felt so much peace and joy and excitement about them! I know that we have been placed with each other for a reason. I feel like I have grown more in these past 6 weeks than I have my entire mission. And I know it's because The Lord is in complete control!

So during specialized training, President went into depth with the restoration. You'd think after teaching it multiple times a day for 13 months now that I'd know just about all there is to know about it, but holy cow!! We learned SO MUCH!!!! I seriously got so much out of it. And then he had sister loo and I do a practice teach with him in front of everyone, and he was playing the part of one of our investigators, and the revelation was just flowin. It was SO powerful. I think it was so powerful too because we didnt even have time to really pull our thoughts together before we taught. We just went for it and the spirit guided us 100% in what we said! None of what we said was from us! Even afterwards president was like, I felt the spirit so strongly as you were teaching me, and as you were asking me those inspired questions, I really feel that those answers that came to my mind were exactly what this man is thinking. I know that this is his concern and what is holding him back. IT WAS SO CRAZY!!!! The spirit is the single most important tool in missionary work!! Sister Loo and I are stoked to go and teach him now :) I love experiences like those!!!

DANIELLE GOT BAPTIZED!!! She's the cutest ever. She's like our BFF. haha.  Her boyfriend's dad, brother nunez, baptized her so that was really neat! Sister nunez was talking to us and said that before jared (the bf) left for his mission, Danielle never showed any interest in the church and they never ever thought that she would take the missionary lessons, and then actually join the church! Danielle said she didn't even know what changed in her but once he left, she wanted to meet with us and try it out without him here. She is so strong in her testimony, and she is already a huge example to her family and friends. We are just so happy for her :)

The only downside to having your investigators get baptized, is then you know its REALLY time to find some new ones. Its seriously crazy how busy we've been with teaching people. Never before have we not had time to actually go finding! But this whole past transfer was just teaching and baptizing, & more teaching and more baptizing haha. So on wednesday we had about 3 hours of time to fill- so we decided to spend all 3 of those hours finding! We were kinda really dreading it. So we had to make it into a game for us to have the motivation to actually do it hahaha. I feel so pathetic even writing this right now haha. So we made a goal that in those 3 hours, we were going to pass out 6 BOMs. We prayed and told HF that we had the faith to reach this goal and asked him to guide us in where we needed to go! And to help us embrace this humidity. So we came to terms that we were going to sweat and feel really, REALLY gross, got out of our car and started finding! It was super cool because we actually really didn't even knock that many doors. People just started walking out of their apartments and on the streets and so it was really easy for us to just go up and start talking to them! Within 2 1/2 hours, we had passed out 6 BOMs, 5 of which were to YSA's!! We were able to teach all of them and set up times to come back to teach them again! It was the best feeling ever. Whenever we set a goal with faith, The Lord ALWAYS provides a way to accomplish it!! 

So we took a trip to the projects this week. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were still in the US. But really we pretty much crossed the border into mexico. Not one person spoke english, every sign was in spanish, and I think I was the only white person in sight haha. We were visiting a referral that was given to us, of a girl named A--. Her apartment was the scariest thing I have ever been into in my whole entire life. Cement floors. Bugs EVERYWHERE. The smell was something I cant even begin to describe. It was so bad. I feel like it was equivalent to being in a jail cell. She had all these cuts on her and stitches everywhere so we asked her what happened and she goes on to tell us this story about how just the other day she was walking back from outside into her apartment, and this man yelled for her to come and she didnt, so he came and basically started attacking her. She started fighting back and he ended up pushing her into a window and she got up and was just covered in blood. She was telling us this story like it was no big deal and that its something that just happens all the time or something! We both were like freaking out. The whole place is just sketch. On the plus side- I did have my pepper spray with me! hahaha. I don't know if we will be back. I do know that we are protected though. We met this man outside of his apartment (not those ones haha) and we got talking with him and he just looked at us and told us that he knows we aren't alone. He had seen us walking around and at first he said he was concerned about 2 young girls walking around Houston like that, but then he said that he saw and felt the angels that were with us. It was like 100 degrees outside and I got chills as he was saying that. He started getting choked up and just said that he knows that we are God's servants and that we are doing His work because he saw the protection and help that God sent us. How amazing is that?! It was such a neat experience talking to him. 

Okay so another HUGE MIRACLE- V-- got the job!!!!!!! It was the one job that he could find that wasn't on Sundays. He is doing door to door sales for comcast. Not exactly what he was wanting to do haha but he said that he is going to try it out because he wants to be able to come to church on Sundays!! He will be done with his current job at the end of this month, so we have his date set for July 26 right now. He was telling us all about it and he goes "i'm really sad though. because now I wont be able to go to FHE or Institute anymore". haha but he knows he is making the right decision :) We are just so excited!!

Yesterday after church, we went with a couple members, KP, David, and V-- to the temple grounds to have a little lesson. We ended up doing a little testimony meeting kinda thing and it was actually really neat! KP almost had me in tears bearing his sweet testimony. I am amazed at how solid they all are in their testimonies, especially after just joining the church. The spirit of the temple even on the grounds is just amazing too! We are way too blessed to have it right by us. This is what this work is all about! It doesn't just end at baptism! The real reward is being able to watch them prepare & then make it inside the temple :) Nothing in this world is greater than this <3

Its been a really great week here and they are going to just keep getting better and better! I couldn't do any of this without y'all! Love and miss each of you so much!! 

xoxo from houston

sister huber

we stole the wheatstone sisters bikes cause we were a little jealous :)

No this is not Mexico...

Our weekly planning board! Heavenly Father is blessing us so much!

6 Books of Mormon Miracle

Buc-Ees Trip!

With "the boys" at the temple... KP and V-- first time, and David's first time after being baptized.

Sooo many mosquito bites...

danielles baptism! isnt she just the cutest?!

Specialized Training

SISTER HUBER'S TESTIMONY TO OUR FAMILY FOR OUR REUNION THIS PAST WEEKEND:

Goodness gracious where do I even begin?!

I first want to say that EVERYBODY NEEDS TO SERVE A MISSION. It is the GREATEST thing that has ever happened to me. I cant even begin to say how grateful I am that The Lord had it in His plans for me, even when I didn't have it in my plans for myself. It has blessed my life in so many ways that only a mission could! Everyone needs to experience it because it really is THAT AMAZING. Its kinda scary to think of my life not having served a mission! I say all the time how I cant even picture what my life would be like without it. Going on a mission is the #1 best thing that anyone could ever do in their entire life. Its been hard. Actually really hard at times. It pushes you and pulls you in ways that you didnt even think was possible. But it brings you the most happiness that I think is ever possible for anyone to experience! It has been the highlight of my life :) I wish I could even begin to describe it! 

I want y'all to know how much I love this gospel. I have come to know with all of my heart that it is true. I was raised by amazing parents and had the influence of many of my role models who showed me what was right throughout my life. Over time I gained my own testimony of my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. Never until my mission could I say that I was completely converted to that testimony that I always had deep down! 

I always thought I knew what true happiness and joy was, and I chased after the things that I thought at the time would bring me that 'incomprehensible joy' that everyone always talked about. 

Not until I came out here on my mission did I realize what I really wanted in life. More importantly what my Heavenly Father wanted for me in my life. As I have developed and strengthened my own testimony of this gospel, I have also put what I know to be true into action. I can say for the first time in my life, I am converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know it because my one and only desire is to share this amazing truth with my brothers and sisters here in Houston. I know it because when I share it with others, and watch them become converted to it, I experience THE MOST joy that I have EVER experienced in my entire life. Its something I can't even begin to explain or put into words. Never until my mission have I experienced TRUE joy and happiness.

I can testify to each of you, that the second you give yourself to the Lord- not just a part of you, but ALL of you, 110% of yourself- you will feel of a joy that you have never felt before. 

It took me a long time to get to that point. I will be the first to admit that I am a stubborn girl! I knew what I wanted and it didn't matter to me what anybody else thought, even the Lord for that matter. I had my own plans and desires for myself and I thought I knew what was best. But something has changed in me. It was a process, and it took a lot of prayer. A lot of fasting. I had to create a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father, and with my Savior. I had to learn humility. I had to learn how to trust. But the moment I gave my whole self up to The Lord, the day I completely surrendered myself to Him- was the day that changed my life. It changed my life for eternity. And I will never go back. 

Heavenly Father has a plan for every single one of His children. A plan that will help them to reach their full potential to become even as He is! A plan that will bring them through trials and tribulations at times- but also endless blessings and TRUE, ETERNAL HAPPINESS. He wants each of His children to feel of His love, and to be let into their lives. He is always there, waiting with open arms. He wants us so badly to be able to return back home to Him. I have learned that it really is so simple. Give your will up, and give it to your Father in Heaven. Let Him be the guide in your life. Do those things that you know to be true. Pray, Read the Scriptures, go to church, and keep the commandments. If we are consistently doing these things, we will not fail. We will not fall off the path. He promises us all that He has, and all we have to do is follow His Son Jesus Christ! 

Some of the greatest moments in my life have been in His holy temple, receiving His guidance and direction for me as His daughter. A lot of times it doesnt really make sense to me! I cant see the whole picture. But I know that He can. And so I simply put all of my trust in Him. He always reassures me of His love, and I can tell you that His love is real. It is the most amazing thing that I have ever felt or received. His love changes people. It changes lives. I have the most amazing calling in the world because I get to see this infinite love work through people every single day and watch it change their lives. 

This gospel is true. I feel so blessed every single day to know that I have it. There are people out there who need it. They need what we have. Let Christ's light and love shine through you, and be a witness of him at all times, in all things, and in all places! 

Let this gospel become a part of who you are. It will change your life- as long as you let it! 

I love each one of you so much and know that I wouldnt be where I am right now if it werent for your examples to me! Keep touching lives like you have touched mine! 

I will see you in a VERY short 5 months! 

lots of love from houston <3

sister huber