Called To Serve...in Houston, Texas: December 3, 2013:Week Twenty: Happy December Y'All Its 75!

What am I grateful for? Y'ALL! The Gospel! My Mission! My Savior!

Well my friends and family, I was pleased to wake up and go on a run in shorts and a tshirt today..It's currently 75 out and sunny :D sorry...i don't mean to rub it in :)

This week was terrific! Let me start off my announcing the most exciting news....Kyrstin Ulassin was baptized yesterday on her 18th birthday wahooooo!!! Sacrament meeting was one of the most spiritual church meetings I've ever been to. The Spirit was just pouring into the room! A lot of people spoke about gratitude and Elder Smith and Hermana G got up to give their last testimony as a missionary..Agh...it was heartbreaking to watch! I don't want to do that! Luckily, I've got a year left :)

We were greatly blessed with many miracles at church..Less active after less active kept walking through the doors! Our companionship split up so we could sit with everyone during the meeting. One of the less active families, the Waldo's, came! They fed us one of our Thanksgiving meals (we had three....where's the stretcher when you need one...) and they expressed their love for the missionaries. They used to have them over all of the time and they were a great strength..So, the Waldo's signed up to feed us some more..It was a win-win scenario..They come to church and we get fed...wahoo! just kidding :)

Thanksgiving was wonderful! I'll be a little honest, it was hard to be away from home but the families made it feel like home. I've eaten wayyy too much pie and cobbler..But I love me some Southern Thanksgiving dinner! People here call stuffing "dressings" instead haha...I don't know why..

After our zone meeting on Friday, we did exchanges. I went with the Bryan Sisters (Sister Davis and Sister Funk) and Sister Gregson came to Huntsville. The Bryan Area has been having a hard time finding new investigators so we decided to go and knock on some doors..Believe or not, I missed tracting..I hadn't done it in two months and it felt good to do it! To begin, we said a prayer and then picked out three streets on a map that stood out to us. Sister Funk and Sister Davis had one street in common so we drove over to it and said another prayer. We knocked on every single house but to our dismay no one was interested. We were walking back to the car and noticed that we had missed a house..We go up to it and knock..A young woman in her late 20s comes to the door and invites us in! We had our dinner appointment in a few minutes so we told her that we'd be back later that evening. So we returned and she let us back in..She opened up and said that her best friend in high school was LDS and is now married and lives in Utah..So, she's been exposed to the Church before...She said that she's Catholic and she's engaged..She had a baby girl born three months early and the family experienced really bad complications with it..But the entire time, she has been relying on the Lord. She has incredible faith! We shared with her President Monson's recent conference talk, "I Will Not Fail Thee, Nor Forsake Thee"..She loved it and we left her with a copy of that and a BOM..We set a return appointment with her and we were all astonished by this amazing miracle that had taken place.

I cannot believe that it's December! And Christmas is just around the corner! We're going to the temple tomorrow and I'm so so excited!

On Saturday night, we ate with the Dickinson family...They have like 8 kids and all but one came home for thanksgiving (she's in china)..The dad works in Nevada so they hadn't seen him in nearly a year! They are a family of Marines so it was fun to talk about that with them..After dinner, Brother Dickinson pulled out his bagpipes and a huge bass drum for Elder Field to play! Brother Dickinson proceeded to play Praise To The Man! It was so cool!!

Another random side note...While driving to dinner (it was out in the country..), we saw a man riding his horse on the side of the road....while talking on the phone...Only in Texas, right?

I love this place so much!

We've been working really hard with Cady Hopkins..It's going to be a challenging road for her..Her less active boyfriend isn't exactly excited about her decision to move out..So we've been praying that his heart will be softened ..His mother is awesome! She's a convert and a nurse and her stories remind me so much of you mommy! She also was a clinical instructor..She's a strong woman...she worked in the prisons during Hurricane Ike so she was locked in with all of the inmates for FIVE DAYS..And she had to run from building to building outside while the hurricane was right over her! I love love love her stories!

Before dinner, we stopped by Jo Ann's home (70 year old recent convert who was a minister with Joel Osteen's dad..have I mentioned that before?). Jo Ann has been recovering from heart surgery...she had a pacemaker put in..Two of her daughter, Mia and Regina were there, helping her out...When they found out we hadn't eaten all day (because we were fasting)..They sat us down and shoved sandwiches in our faces haha...I love Jo Ann and her kids..Whenever I go there, I feel like I'm coming home..Sweet Southern Hospitality!

Well fam...life is great deep in the heart of Texas! I love you all!!

Everyday I'm constantly reminded by how TRUE this gospel is. There's no way on earth that this isn't the Lord's Church. I know that my Redeemer lives and He loves each of you so much! Don't ever ask, "where are you?" because HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE and He will always be there.

Con to do mi amor,

Hermana Seymour