Week #73

Howdy howdy! This week has been a blast and has flown by! Like I said before, today is our pday because we went to the temple today! It was such a blessing to be in the house of the Lord. The Spirit was incredibly strong, and it was wonderful to spend some time with my District!

Things are going great! We went to 6 houses for Thanksgiving, it was great! It was nice to spend some time with some members and share the wealth of food

This week has been a pretty good week. We have been able to see some miracles in our work and the Lord is helping move the work forward!

Our investigators are doing very well, especially Tyler! He is getting ready to be baptized on the 16th and is progressing very well! We are about to have some make or break lessons with a few of our investigators. Elder Smith and I are in the process of weeding out people who aren’t as interested and are more wanting us over just to hang out. We have been being bold and forward with our investigators and so far it has been effective.

We had a miracle Sunday night. We were visiting with some of our investigators who are getting ready to move, and as we were with them, one of their friends asked us to come outside and talk with him, so we did. He wants to change his life around and wants our help to do it. We are starting to teach him and he definitely has some potential!

My thought this week comes from the Bible. It is Psalm 27:1, and it reads

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

As we align our will with the Lord’s, what do we have to fear? We can find strength, happiness, and joy that can only be found in the Lord. The purpose of the Savior and His Atonement is not to make us perfect in this life, but to help us learn right from wrong, be forgiven of our sins, and be prepared to be perfected in the life to come. Perfection is not possible in this life, but through the Savior, who is our light and our salvation, and the strength of our life, we can one day stand before God and be judged, have the Savior stand as our advocate, and then be perfected and live in the presence of the Savior and our Heavenly Father, and be with our families for eternity. I know these things to be true and I am so grateful for my family and the blessing it truly is to have them forever. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

I hope y’all have a wonderful week! Until next week! God speed!

Elder Houssian

 Coyotes!!  

Week #72

Howdy y’all! Sorry it’s been another crazy busy day! We’ve been doing a lot of service and took some of our pday to do some servicing as well! We have seen so many miracles this week. It has been wonderful to see the hand of the Lord in our work.

We found two awesome families this week! One was a referral and did the other was a miracle we had! It was 8:40 and we were being cold-shouldered left and right. So we decided to knock on one door and then drive home. We picked the house of a former investigator and knocked on the door, and he answered! His name is Scott and he is so awesome. Five minutes into talking to him, and his wife came out and talked to us too. They asked us to come back and teach their 3 kids later that week! So we went over Saturday and had a get-to-know-you lesson, and Sunday the mom came to church and loved it! There is lots of potential for this family!

We have been given the green light to use Facebook and Facebook Messenger now for our proselyting! It will be creating a new Facebook account and using it to post messages and thoughts on it, so feel free to add me! I’ll send out some requests next week also! My new account is Kyle C. Houssian!

I wanted to leave y’all with a short and sweet scripture that I love! It says

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

I absolutely love this verse. No matter what someone does to us or what we think of them, and no matter what people think of us, everyone has individual worth, and it is GREAT in God’s eyes. You are worth everything to our Heavenly Father, never forget that! I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y’all have a great week! Until next week! God speed!

Elder Houssian

Week #71

Howdy y’all! I hope y’all had a great week! This week has been a crazy busy week for us! So this week we have seen a lot of progress in our investigators and in our mission! 

There are some advances being made in our use of our technology on the mission! We had a special meeting with President and Sister Youngblood, where we received some awesome trainings. Sister Youngblood talked about some housekeeping stuff (don’t worry mom, my apartment is clean!) and then President Youngblood talked about some much needed things! He talked about discouragement and how we can face it head on on our missions, and then talked about repentance, which is always good to be refreshed on. Then he gave some training on Facebook. We are getting ready to become an Online Proselyting Mission, so you might see some changes on my Facebook account because we have been given the green light to clean up our accounts and get ready to get the ball rolling! I believe it will be a great tool in the mission if used properly. The Lord’s work is moving forward!

We received a super awesome referral from some elders for a family of four! It’s the Rousseau family, Nathan, Tasha, Alexis, and Talon! They are so solid and are such a cute younger family. 

The Redd’s are doing great! They had their baby this week, which was huge! They named him Lemuel. This will be interesting haha! 

Tyler is doing great! We have a solid date set for him and he is motivated and ready to be baptized!

Everyone else is doing well also. Elder Smith has been doing great and is adjusting so well! I have loved serving with him so far! 

This week I came across this quote from President Hinckley which I loved. It says;

“Never forget who you are. … You are in very deed a child of God. … He is your Eternal Father. He loves you. … He wants His sons and daughters to be happy. Sin never was happiness. Transgression never was happiness. Disobedience never was happiness. The way of happiness is found in the plan of our Father in Heaven and in obedience to the commandments of His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are all children of God. He loves us and wants us all to be happy. The way to be happy in this life is through obeying god the commandments of the Savior and through the Plan of Salvation (a.k.a. The Plan of Happiness). I double to testify what President Hinckley said. God loves us and wants us back home. I promise that as we follow the commandments and build our faith in the Savior, and Heavenly Father’s Plan for us, we will find the most joy and happiness in this life, and eternal joy in the life to come. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week y’all! Love y’all! Until next week! God speed!

Elder Houssian

Sent from my iPad

Week #70

Hey y’all!  This week has been crazy busy, and today flew by so I don’t have much time to write! First off, Happy Birthday to my brother Nathan! Love you buddy!

I got my new trainee this week, and I love him! His name is Elder Smith and he’s from Adelaide, Australia! We have been loving serving together and have seen some miracles in the work!

All of our investigators are doing great! This month is looking great for a lot of our investigators! Tyler is doing great and is loving the lessons! The Redds are doing great great also, they are really learning and growing as a family, and Holly is going to have her baby any day now!

Besides that, all is great! I wanted to leave you with this scripture I came across this week in my studies. It comes from Alma, chapter 34, verse 32. It reads

32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

I love this scripture. It is a great reminder that we are only on this earth temporarily, and that after we pass on, we will eventually be in the presence of God again. The decisions and choices we make now will affect us in the life to come. God knew we wouldn’t be perfect and we would sin, so to over come sin and death He sent our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is through Him that we can be forgiven of our wrong choices and be made clean again, and one day live with our loving Heavenly Father again. Those blessings are dependent upon our humility and willingness to allow the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ’s enter into our lives. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y’all have a wonderful week! Talk soon! God speed!

Elder Houssian

Week #69

Hey y’all! Another week and another transfer are in the bag! This transfer went by so fast! We got our transfer calls this morning and found out that I am staying in my area for a 3rd transfer and I am training again! I am super excited to be able to train another missionary! Elder P is going to a new area in Henderson and he will be training as well. This is a first for me, as it’s the first area that I’ve had where I’ve been there longer than 2 transfers! I love this area so I’m excited to continue serving here!

Our week this week has been busy! We’ve had a lot going on and have been teaching a ton, which is always nice. This week we were able to set one of our investigators with a baptismal date! Her name is Deborah. She is such a nice lady and is really taking the time to study and learn about the Book of Mormon. She comes from a Christian background and knows the Bible very well, and knows how to study it, so she is really loving the Book of Mormon. 

Our investigator Tyler is doing very well! He is on track to being baptized on the 11th, and is so solid. He wants to be a member of the Church so bad. We are going to be seeing him tonight and continuing to tech him and prepare him to be baptized.

The Redd family is doing very well also. Momma Redd is about to have her baby any day now, so we may or may not have to put stuff on hold for a little bit! The kids want to get baptized and are so eager for their baptism on December 9th. 

Everyone else is doing well! We have lots to do today so I’m going to close with a quote this week! It comes from Erastus Snow, an early General Authority, who said it in a discourse given on October 8th, 1879. It says “He (God) will work in his own wondrous way his purposes to perform. It becomes us to be very humble, that we may be worthy to be his instruments in accomplishing his designs.” Humility is a Christ-like attribute, and one that we as humans always are improving on. As we are humble and align our will with God’s, we will be made effective instruments in His hands to accomplish the things He Needs is to accomplish. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week! Talk soon! God speed!

Elder Houssian

#vegasstrong

The Squad

 Still working on their musical talent . . .

 Everyone needs the gospel, right?

 Deer sausage and eggs!

The bros!  Elder Owens and Elder P are being transfered.  :(

Week #68

Howdy y’all! Another week is in the bag! Time just keeps moving, it’s already week 6 of the transfer! We were blessed to see miracles in the work this week, and the Lord’s hand was definitely active in the work. 

We went on exchanges this week and I was privileged to be with Elder Owens, a fellow MTC District member, and we had a blast! We were able to meet an awesome family of 5 that was taught by missionaries before, but then lost contact. They are such a fun family and love having us come over and teach their kids! I played basketball with some of the kids while the others and their friends tried to sword fight Elder Owens with plastic swords. Haha all in all they loved us coming over and wanted us to come back!

We were also able to set two more of our investigators to be baptized in November! Their names are Rayne and Sarai. They’re really cool and humble kids that want to learn more and build t their relationship with God. 

All of our other investigators with dates are progressing very well! We had a great week with most of them, and things are looking up to have a great November!

For my spiritual thought this week, I wanted to share a scripture that I came across this week. It is a very common scripture, but it really stuck out to me. It comes from the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:27. It reads;

“27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

As a missionary, you feel like there’s an endless list of things you can improve on, which there is. The Lord helps us learn and grow on our mission, and in life. As I have seen my many weaknesses start to surface, I have learned that turning to the Lord for help and strength makes is SO much easier to work through the weaknesses than by my own strength. The Lord has shown us our weaknesses, and has promised that if we humbly turn to Him, He will make our weaknesses become strengths. This is all because of Jesus Christ and the Atonement which He performed. Through Him, we can become stronger, and we can be an instrument in God’s hands to lift up those around us and bring them the joys of the gospel. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week y’all! Until next week! God speed!

Elder Houssian

 Handyman Houssian working on a hammock

Slaying this service project!

Week #67

Howdy y'all! Man what a good week. I hope y'all had a great week this week! The weather here has been so nice, I think it's here to stay now! There have been a lot of big things that have happened this week, and it seems like time just keeps getting faster and faster!

So this week we were privileged to hear from President and Sister Youngblood. They gave some great trainings, and I was able to learn a lot from them! We also learned how to change a tire and change the oil in a car, which was fun. Thanks Grandpa Tracy and Dad for teaching me that when I was younger, it came in handy!

This week we had the opportunity to do some service for an elderly lady in our ward and her roommate, Deborah. Deborah is a solid investigator we have! We had to move about a ton of rocks from one side of their property to the other. They rented a truck, and Elder Paulukaitis, the Zone Leaders, and I shoveled it into the truck, which Deborah drove to the other side of the house, and then we unloaded it. It only took 1 1/2 - 2 hours, and we had a lot of fun doing it! Deborah is progressing well and is reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church! She's doing great.

The Redd family is still going strong. Their only hold up is attending church, but Holly and the girls Gracie and Vannah are all reading and praying as well. They are such a wonderful family and are loving the lessons we are teaching!

Tyler is doing great! Jakob has helped us with the lessons so far, and we are going to see him again later today. He wants to get baptized so bad, it's great! On that note, Jakob also received the Priesthood yesterday. It was such a wonderful moment to witness. Now he can baptize his brother if Tyler wants him to.

We have a few more people we are working with, but we have not been able to meet with them too much this past week. We will definitely be picking it back up with them this upcoming week!

The spiritual thought I wanted to share this week comes from 3 Nephi 11:39, which reads;

39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

I love this verse. In this part of the Book of Mormon, Jesus visits the people and teaches them His gospel. At the end of this chapter, after He teaches more principles, He leaves this promise. If we build our faith and our testimony on the Savior and on His teachings, we will have a strong foundation, a foundation that is unshakable when the winds of the adversary try to beat us down. The Savior gave us these teachings so that we can find the most peace, happiness, and joy possible in this life. Life will not magically be perfect as we live the gospel, but we will be able to bear with patience our afflictions, and we will be able to find joy in the things that matter most. I know that to be true. Our Savior willingly gave His life for each of us. He knows us personally. He loves us. He knows exactly what we are feeling and what we are going through, because He felt all of that first. I challenge each of you to turn to Him a little more this week. Thank our Heavenly Father for the endless blessings He has given you, and seek guidance from Him through the Holy Ghost. Allow the Atonement of Jesus Christ to carry you, because that is what it is there to do. They are all waiting to help us. I promise you that as you do so, the Lord's hand will be implemented in your life, and you'll find greater happiness and joy in your lives while turning to the Savior. I say these things humbly in the name of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

I love y'all so much! I hope you have a marvelous week! Until next week! God speed!!

Elder Houssian

 Zone Conference!

  My new favorite Halloween decoration!

 I hugged Hermione Granger.  Hermione is and will always be my favorite.  #magical

Shout out to my boy Q.  Do work on the other side, make us proud.  See you soon brother 10/1/17