Called To Serve...in Houston, Texas: Week Eight Transfer Day!

Hi fam!

Sooooo where to begin...I feel like it has been a lifetime since I got to email! My last few days with Sister Schellhous were so great, I didn't want to lose her! We kept praying that we'd get to trio train but we both knew that she was going to leave. We got a call from President on Tuesday morning and he asked how I was doing. I told him that I was nervous to be a trainer alone and he said, "Well Sister Seymour, I'd like to tell you that you are in fact going to be training someone by yourself. But I'm happy to tell you that Sister Schellhous isn't going very far, she's going to Memorial Springs (the neighboring area)." I was so relieved and knew that the Lord was looking out for me. I told Shelly and she felt the same peace. But then he called us back that night and told us that we both were going to be on bikes. My stomach dropped..Well, there goes the wind out of my sails! The Lord sure has an interesting sense of humor..For our last night together, we went around saying goodbye to our favorite families and our investigators. We wanted to stop by Susan's (disabled woman). She hadn't been returning our calls and texts, and keeping appointments..We were a worried that she wasn't interested any more..We got out of the car, saw her through the window and knocked. She opened and let us in. I guess she had been deathly sick with the flu for the past five days and couldn't find her phone.....Anyways we talked to her about baptism and how this is the right path for her. She said that now that her boys are off to college, she really wants to learn more and come to church. We were able to extend an invitation to be baptized!!! So, she's set for September 28th yay! At first, she was like, oh I can't do that, I don't know enough! We reassured her that you don't need to know everything about the gospel in order to get baptized. You just have to have faith and believe that the church is true. We told her that we could meet three times a week to help prepare her and she readily agreed to it! So far, we're seeing her almost every other day! What a miracle! AND. she has also been reading the chapters we gave her! She is understanding what she's learning and she really enjoys it. When shelly and I were at her house on the last night, we got her to pray in front of us! And man, it was one of the most heartfelt prayers that I've ever heard. MIRACLES. MIRACLES.

On Thursday, we woke up earlier than usual to get ready for transfers...We said goodbye to our car

and went into the church building to be trained on how to train :p My heart was racing and I felt sooo nervous to get my greenie. President called me up to the front and had me give a little intro about the Parkway Ward. He then announced my new companion....sister hudgens!

She hails from Southern California as well...from the town right next to shelly! We're both 19 and 19 days apart (i'm older for once). I will say that this transition has not been easy. Being on bike, it's like being in an entirely different area because it totally changes the way we plan our days and work. It has also been an adjustment with the companionship. It's so hard to be with someone for 24/7 for six weeks and then get someone who is completely different from shelly. Every day is a challenge but I know that the Lord wants me to be with Sister Hudgens. The mission isn't always a fluffy experience! The Lord gives us trials to help us learn. Our trials enable us to learn things that we wouldn't be able to learn otherwise. Before we left the transfer meeting, I got a blessing from Elder Myers and Elder Frandsen (the APs)..I felt my Savior's love and I know that this is what He wants.

Friday was a little difficult because we didn't have bikes yet so we had to walk and tract everywhere...Needless to say, I was sweating from every pore in the 105 degree heat...I wonder what the heat index was...But hey, it'll be a good story to tell my children! Yall cant complain about the heat until you experience Houston heat! The members say that it won't cool down until october...GREATTTT. but I love it. I've learned to embrace the sweat, it means I'm working hard! Oh...I love our ward! Sister Gorgueiro (relief society president) sent out a mass email explaining our new biking situation and I guess she received many angry phone calls haha...the ward isn't happy about it! The reason being, there are two main roads that connect all of the neighborhoods and they're both very dangerous (don't worry mom, the bishop has forbade us from biking on them). So the ward has complied a list of everyone who is available to drive whenever and wherever! wahooo! so we can call anyone up and they'll just take us anywhere in the blink of an eye. President told us that this would happen and that it'll be hard to bike but the ward is going to get more involved in missionary work. We don't get any referrals...ever..so we feel like this is how it's going to change! Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven right?

Sorry this email is short but my mind is blanking! Oh! Yesterday was so much fun with our zone! We had a zone breakfast at 11 and then we hung out at the stakecenter unitl 5! So we had plenty of time to play basketball and dodgeball. Elder Myers told me that if I made a three during the game, he'd buy me a milkshake. bad idea elder myers! Swooooosh, I drained a deep three and ran around screaming, "Wahoooo! Milkshake!!!!"yeah..i'm crazy..

We just ate lunch with a less active, Sister Loredo. We go over to her house every tuesday and she cooks authentic mexican food mmmmmmm. and I get to practice my spanish so it's a win win situation :) We found a way to get her back...family history work! she loves it and she wants to continue doing it but she's stuck. We offered to take her to the family history center and her face just lit up! She would love to go! We're going to try so hard to get that family to the temple! We think we found the problem..They both had a bad experience with a new bishop..that bishop told them they couldn't go to the temple and they were totally turned off. So, our bishop needs to build trust with the both of them and hopefully they'll come back. She says that she has a very strong testimony.... But she isn't truly converted..Prayers would be great family! I have my up and down moments and I'm trying my best! The Church is true otherwise, there wouldn't be 75,000 teenagers around the world telling people about it. TRUTH.