Week #41

Hello everyone! Hoppy Easter! I hope y'all had a wonderful Easter Sunday! This week has been another awesome week, and it went by so fast!

Before I start off, I would first like to make a shout out a wonderful young man who I love so much, my brother Tyler. I had the privilege of skyping my family on Saturday to watch him open his mission call, which I am so grateful for that opportunity. My brother will be serving in the...... California, Fresno Mission!! He will be speaking Spanish and reports to the Mexico City MTC July 18th, 12 days after my year mark! I watched him open it and cried like a baby haha. I'm so proud of my little brother and for the big things he's going to go do in Fresno. Cali isn't ready!! I love you bud, you'll kill it out there!

I had my first District Meeting as a DL and it was awesome! Not much to report on other than our district motto is #BeastMode. For those of you who don't know who Beast Mode is, it's Marshawn Lynch, the recently retired NFL running back. There was an E:60 documentary on him that I watched before the mission and he had some inspirational things to say, so I pulled a couple quotes from him and used them to get my district hyped haha it was fun!

So this week was full of miracles, one of which happened on Tuesday! We have a trailer park in out area, and in the area book we have a ton of potential investigators who live there, so we set out to make contact with them! We went thru the list with little success, and realized we had one more trailer left to visit on our list. We were walking to it, and right next door was a woman named Elizabeth sitting in her driveway. We went and talked to her, and came to find out that her and her family were looking for a church to join, and haven't found one yet. She was really interested in our message and asked us if we had any study material before we even brought it up! Haha so we have her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on the Restoration and she told us she wanted us to come back on Thursday and that she'd read the whole Book of Mormon by then! We've had 3 appointments since and her and her family are progressing very well!

Another came this past Friday when I was on exchanges in the Zone Leader's area. I wasn't there for this miracle, but it was still awesome! Elder Pitcher and my comp Elder Bannagao were in our area and were talking to people all day and not getting anything out of them. Then that night they went to go talk to a few potentials in the town houses we have in our area. They came to this potential's house, and the people who they were trying to contact weren't living there anymore, but the family of 4 that was in there listened to the two Elders testify and teach about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and set a return appointment! They were one of the last houses on the list that night as well! It was great!

Easter was awesome! We had some wonderful programs, and then that night went to the Robbins' for dinner! Now the Robbins have about 50-60 family members living within 20 minutes of them, plus they had some family from out of town over as well, so the house was packed! But we had a feast which was awesome haha and then the kids 12 and up (I was still considered a kid) got to hunt for Easter eggs inside, and let me tell you, that was hard! Haha but it was fun and we had a lot of fun! This family is wonderful haha.

My thought this week comes from D&C 18:10 and it reads:

10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God

Short and sweet. The worth of EVERY soul is great in the sight of God. No matter what we have done, where we have gone, or how many times we've messed up, God STILL loves us with all of His heart. And despite what we do, there is always a way back. That way is through Jesus Christ. Because of Him and His atoning sacrifice, we can be cleansed from sin. In celebration of Easter, we celebrate Christ's resurrection and continued ministry on the Earth. May we all recognize and reflect on our Savior and His hand in our lives, as well as what blessings have personally come to us because of the Atonement. I know this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God preserved until these Latter Days for us! I know we have a loving Father in Heaven. I say these things in the name of my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y'all have a blessed week this week! I look forward to hearing about it next week! Until then! God speed!

Elder Houssian