Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Week #45 & 46

Hello everyone! This week has been an awesome week here in the desert, and I hope it has been great for y'all wherever you are!

So first off, I got transferred to be a DL in the Carnegie, St. Rose, and Paseo Verde wards in the Carnegie Stake! We are covering 3 wards, and one of them is actually my aunt's ward! I'm super excited to serve in this area! This is my 5th zone that I've served in out of 7 in our mission (fyi they split up the mission into zones, and each zone has 2-3 stakes in it)! There are missionaries who don't serve in all 7 their entire mission! I'm excited, and I get to have one of my good friends from the MTC, Elder Stucki, be another DL with me in this zone, and another Elder from our MTC district, Elder Smith, is one of our Zone Leaders!

My new companion is Elder Fowkes. He's from Colorado, he has 2 siblings, and like the outdoors. He's been out for about 22 months, but (thankfully) still works very hard! He's a great guy and we are really enjoying being together!

This week has been a blast! We saw many miracles and have seen some great progression in our investigators! We have 4 people set to be baptized this Saturday, the Pogorzelski family, and Melissa Hopkins. Melissa and the Pogorzelski's are progressing very well. Melissa is living the Word of Wisdom, which is a struggle for her,  but she is doing well and knows it is what she needs to do! Chris and Desiree are living the Word of Wisdom as well, Chris even said we could throw away his beer! Then we have the Tso family, Ginger, Kyler, and Kaleb. Ginger's sister was baptized a few weeks ago in the Paseo Verde ward, and Ginger saw the change that the gospel brought into the life of her sister and her family, and she wanted that same thing for her own family. They are doing very well also. We also have this wonderful couple, Randall and Kelly Morris who are progressing so fast and are looking forward to their baptismal date next month!

This past Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity of attending the baptism of the sweetest little girl Alexa. In one of my previous areas we baptized her and her mom, and I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost after she was baptized! So she was baptized and we move into the next room where I would give my talk and then she would be confirmed, and one of the counselors in the bishopric comes over and asks me what I'm doing in the program and I said "I'm giving a talk on the Holy Ghost" and he said ok and then walked over to Bishop, then came back and said "Ok you're also confirming her" and I was floored haha. I had no idea I was confirming Alexa until about 5 minutes before! But I did it and it was a wonderful and spiritual experience. I enjoyed every moment of it and it definitely strengthened my testimony of the power of the Spirit and the Priesthood.

My spiritual thought this week comes from the April 2017 Ensign, a talk given by Larry R. Lawrence titled The War Goes On. In this talk, Elder Lawrence identifies four of Satan's strategies used to try and bring us down, and how we can defend ourselves against them. The four strategies are Temptation, Lies and Deception, Contention, and Discouragement. These are all four very common tactics Satan uses, but there is a common theme between the ways we can resist these four different strategies. The common theme is doing the things the Lord asks us to do. Follow the commandments, read our scriptures, pray, and do things to invite the Spirit in our lives. The Spirit only teaches truth and can help us better understand the commandments of the Lord. The Spirit can give us light to dispel darkness. The Spirit can help us and aid us in resisting temptation and the influence of Satan. When temptations come, when the devil tries to bring you down, don't be afraid. Respond with confidence. We have the right to tell Satan to leave when confronted with temptation. The Lord will stand with us and help us through those trials, all we have to do is ask for His help, and then act on it. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y'all have a wonderful week! Stay strong! God speed!

Elder Houssian

This lambo is one of MANY nice cars in my new area. 


Alexa's baptism


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