Week #35

Hola! Buenos Dias!

Very good week this week! I'm up in Kerman! It's a massive area and covers a bunch of little towns! Kerman itself is a strange little place and has a wierd mix of Mexicans, Rednecks, Sikhs, and a few normal Californians mixed in! (For those who follow football, we cover a town called Firebaugh where the top NFL draft pick is from!) My new companion is Elder Okolowitz and he's an awesome companion! We have really similar personalities and both love to work super hard! The area is really solid too! We cover a Spanish branch and English ward so we always got a lot to do! The work in the Branch is booming! We have a really awesome investigator named Veronica and she came to church and loved it! We also have another investigator name Aida who is the sweetest lady and also came to church and said she felt the spirit super strong! We had 6 non-members their in the branch alone and the room was packed! I also had to give the opening prayer and bless the sacrament! 

We had the privilege to have Presidente Mackay come teach with us and he's a super awesome teacher and the spirit was super strong that lesson!

We also have this awesome but crazy ward mission leader named Brother Boyd who basically owns half the city. We had a ward Easter egg hunt at the church and had a bunch of less active come and an investigator family! Brother Boyd came and said we wanted to spice up the hunt a bit so we pulled a 100$ out of his wallet and put it in an egg! A 4 year old ended up finding it and tossed the money aside and started eating the candy instead! 

My favorite scripture form this week comes from 2nd Nephi 9:7-10 7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the firstjudgment which came upon man must needs haveremained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

These verses talk about what would've happened if Christ didn't do what he did! All hope would be lost, guilt would be permanent, our sufferings would be everlasting, and we would have no purpose in life! That is why Christ's role was vital and all he asks in return is to follow him and his gospel! 

That's about all new this week, take care! 

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian

Week #34

Hola Hola!!!

Super solid week this week! It was the last week of the transfer so Elder Hoffmann and I got to work!!! We had a marvelously successful week in finding new people to teach with a bunch of new families including a family of 6!!! We found a total of 20 super awesome new people that are ready to hear the gospel! The father of the family of 6 moved form mexico to Idaho and lived there for a bit and his cousins is a bishop, about two years ago moved here and we had a super awesome lesson with them over the restoration! 

We also got to see Juliette this week she came down from Bakersfield so we had a great lesson and shes super ready to be baptized once she moves back in! We also got to visit Felipe Chavez out in Ducor and had lunch and a great lesson with him! He has made some very good progress with the word of wisdom and the only thing left is smoking to get over! He's also really excited to be baptized! 

This week I received news that I will be getting transferred. I'm a bit sad cause I love Porterville and the branch here but know the Lord needs me elsewhere! I'll be going to Kerman! A little town west of Fresno with Elder Okolowitz (Went to CCM at the same time)! On Sunday they asked me to shared my testimony before I left and then Monday the Garcia's had us over for a goodbye breakfast!!!

My favorite scripture from this week is 2nd Thessalonians 3:   10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

Simple but true! Life is a time to perform our labors! Whether the laboring to bring souls unto Christ, or caring for our families, labor first and then eat! Especially Mexican food!!!

Have a great week mis amigos!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian

Week #33

Buenas Tardes!!!

Another great week here in Porterville! 

We saw some great progress in the work! We found some great new people to teach who seem to have a great desire to learn! We have also had a lot of opportunities to teach people about and give them the Book of Mormon! It truly is the tool of the harvest! Our current investigators are also seeing a lot of progress! Things finally are seeming to click!

With Felipe we had two very very good lessons and the spirit was very strong! He also has been doing a great job reading and with the word of wisdom! 

We also had a very good zone conference and had an awesome training over the new Smart phones the mission will be using! The Lord is truly hastening his work!!!

We also had the chance to go up the Sequoias and there was a TON of snow! First time I'd seen snow for 6 years! Very awesome trip!

My favorite scripture from this week is in 1 Nephi 22:31 Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the acommandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day. And thus it is. Amen.

These last words Nephi speaks in first Nephi contain two of the most important things obedience and enduring!!! If we can do these to things to the best of our abilities, we shall one day return and live with a fullness of joy in God's kingdom!!!

A lot of good things coming up this last week of the transfer! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian

Week #32

Hola!!!

Very good week this week! Winter finally seemed to come and we got a bunch of rain and cold weather! Quite abnormal weather for this area during March! But it was good for us because no one works in the field when it rains so all of our investigators were home!  We saw a lot of progress with Felipe Chavez (our investigator in Ducor), We finished the plan of salvation and taught the word of wisdom and found out he has problems with 4 of the 5 things but we set a goal for him to stop in 1 months and he's excitingly accepted! He really wants a change for his life and see the power the gospel can bring! We did a lot of contacting this week to find new people to teach and the lord placed some awesome people in our path! One lady moved in from Mexico not long ago and said she had been wanting to draw closer to god and her family had been telling her to get closer god too, the next day we showed up after being prompted to knock on her door and she was so happy and said she knew god had sent us! That night she was going back to Mexico to visit her mom and so we gave her a book of Mormon to read on the plane! 

A lot of the people we talked to didn't want to listen to a message but wanted to feed us so 5 out of the 7 days this week we had 2 dinners!

My favorite scripture from this week is in 1 Nefi 15 

23 And they said unto me: What meaneth the rod of ironwhich our father saw, that led to the tree?

24 And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

This world has a lot of temptation and distraction that the adversary sends, but if we hold fast to the word of God, we will not be over powered and will partake of the fruit of the tree of life which is gods love! 

Have an excellent week! Espero que los frijoles salgan bien! 

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian

Week #31

Buenos Dias!!! 

Very good week again here in Porterville! The work is building momentum here in Porterville! We took a trip up to Ducor again to teach Felipe again and had a fire lesson! We invited him to be baptized on the 17th and he was pumped! He feels the spirit so strong when we teach him and we downloaded the gospel library app on his phone and he's super excited to listen to the Book of Mormon! We made another trip again out there on Saturday with the branch mission leader and had another solid lesson on the plan of salvation! We also found a new family to teach who has 7 kids!

Tuesday we got to go to the Temple as a zone and had an awesome temple trip! I love the Temple so much! We also had some cold weather blow in again and it dropped into the 20s and froze a bunch of stuff!

Thursday we were on Exchanges and Elder Cragun and I took the bus up to Springville, the only little town we hadn't been to yet. Spanish missionaries hadn't been there for years and we found out why, cause it's puro gringos! We contacted the whole town riding all over on our bikes and found only 3 mexicanos! (Who also spoke English perfectly so we gave them to the English Elders). We even went to the two Mexican restaurants there and everyone was gringos! 

Friday night I got a call and was told I had to give a 15 min talk! So during personal study I wrote it up, practiced it, then gave the talk Sunday Morning and I think it went pretty well! They said they could understand perfectly and learned a lot! I guess the gift of tongues helped out a bit there! I also ate a super spicy chili before to help my fluency! 

One of the key parts to testimony is Pondering! We must have faith that the Lord will answer first, then ponder the things we learn in our hearts and if we do so the Lord will reveal unto us the knowledge we seek if it is his will!   

This week my favorite scripture comes from 1 Nefi 11 1 For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord

One of the key parts to testimony is Pondering! We must have faith that the Lord will answer first, then ponder the things we learn in our hearts and if we do so the Lord will reveal unto us the knowledge we seek!

Have a solid week!

Con Amor y Frijoles,

Elder Houssian

Week #30

Buenos Dias! 

Esta semana ha sido muy buena! We got a lot of good work done! Wednesday I finished El Libro de Mormon en Espanol! Started on El Nuevo Testamento and have been reading a chapter a night! 

On Wednesday we went up to Ducor again and Terrabella and found a solid investigator out in Ducor named Felipe Chavez! Shared the restoration, beared our testimony, then invited him to be baptized and he said "Amen! Lets do it Hermanos!"! We've also found another lady to teach out in Woodville and one here in Porterville so we've been teaching all over! We also have been working a lot to get to know all the members of the branch better and found two really good part member families to work with! Lot's of good stuff happening here! 

Last Monday we went up on a hike and I got to do some fun flips and taught Elder Cragun how to do a sideflip! We got some sweet photos! 

In my studies this week I've been reading two really good talks about missionary work along with my study in the Book of Mormon! I really liked the reference used in one of the talks to 1 Samuel 16:7 a solid scripture mastery I learned back in my seminary days  7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

We often look at others and say "I don't think they are ready for the gospel" or "maybe they'll be ready someday" but in reality we are doing what the lord councils us not to do! If we don't invite them then we are making this eternal decision for them! "Open you mouth and it shall be filled" we must invite without fear! 

Have a solid week!

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian

Week #29

Hola! 

Very good week again here in Porterville! We got transfer calls and I will be staying another transfer here with Elder Hoffmann!!! I'm glad I get to stay cause we have a lot of investigators that are finally starting to become really solid! We sadly had to move Juliette's baptism date cause I bunch of crazy things happened with her but she made it to church again and absolutely loved it!

This week we went to the way south part of are area which is actually the most south part of the mission named Ducor! There are 3 small towns outside of Porterville we cover and they are like 99% Spanish speaking so we found of potentials out there and a new investigator! 

I bought my own little juicer and we get TONS of fresh oranges so I 've been making fresh OJ for us every morning and it's the best!!!

This week one of my favorite scriptures comes from 1st Nephi 6: 4 For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

The whole purpose of the Book of Mormon is to draw us unto the savior of the world Jesus Christ! It can bring so much peace into our lives and testifies of Christ like no other Book in the world!!! 

That's about all new! Have a solid week!

Con Amor,

Elder Houssian