Another Great Email from Elder Houston!!!

Family and friends,


Here's another great email from Elder Houston! He is still in Ogden but loving every minute of it. He still types horribly and I apologize for that, but something that might help you understand why his typing is so bad, is that he types with his index finger of each hand ONLY! So frustrating! I tried to teach him, but obviously I failed ha ha! Anyway, enjoy deciphering it!!!

hey OK mom swet email hahaha listen to me right now and this is very hard for moms to do i know hahahaha but just like the scripture on my plack..... our heavenly fathers is watching over us as long as we are keeping the commandments and the whole moving out they are going out into the world again hahaha and its part of life to struggle its why we are here to fight through our struggles to learn and to become like our brother jesus hahaha so stop worring so much hahaha you need to have a dad out look hahha make a friend with a cockroach hahaha so lets see right now i dont really have any object lessons i am sorry but i have some updates for you..... we got a new investigator with a baptismal date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! october 2 whooohoooooo finally hahahahaha his name is frederico avila and his wife is a memeber and i guess that missionaries have been going over there for years and elder guthrie was on exchanges with casillas and passed by on wednesday and he said listen you guys want to come over and talk with my wife that is fine but i will not sit in on your lessons and listen to you guys so they said ok and then on saturday we had dinner with them on sunday but on saturday we call dinner a day before to confirm and elder guthrie accidently callled the wrong number and we looked around and we were right in front of there house so we knocked the ddor to confirm in person hahaha dn he said that he has been praying and i guess that he saw jesus and god in his dream and he said he has been thinking about baptism a lot lately and wants to change because he is dying he is old and then on sunday his wife was going to give a talk and he wanted to suprise he so he showed up then throughout the meeting he said he feels happy at the church and then that night we had dinner and the home teachers showed up and they were talking and before they left they asked if he had any questions and he said well yes i have a ton but a basic one i have is what do i have to do to get baptised hahaha and everyone lit up hahaha the home teachers pointed to us and said there are missionary angels tight there that will answer everythying so we gave him a date and we are teaching him tomorrow i think oh man it was great of course its all in spanish other then that i have no other crazy stories or anything hahaha yea you shoudl ask dannette to look in az i dont have anymore time to email but i am going to write mitchell a letter today i promise he needs to go on a mission just from being i here this is the singl most thing that will bless his life more then anything in the world i promise as liong as everyone keeps the commandments and does missionary work you will always be super happy i love you guys a ton!!!!! mosiah 2:41

ps the bag thing good idea

Do not support AZ in Mexico!!!

Colten Houston to me

ok yeah that was a super long one haha but thats ok quite the stories im happy dad is happy hahaha it really just makes me gald ok so you didnt answer my question about these bags from guatamala hahah so i have a ton to tell you ok so i was talking with this mexican family and i was wearing my arizona shirt and they kinda pulled me aside and this is what they said well it was translated cxause idk what they said really hahaha ok so they said.... elder DO NOT WEAR THAT SHIRT IN MEXICO!!! and when they ask where your from say you are from texas because mexico hates az cause of the law and they said that they will literally kill me haha oh man thats awesoem right hahah just because of that stupid law in az so thats crazy ok so another thing so there is this family here that is from mexico there in our branch and the husbands grandma or mom is from Tuxtla and he gave me a referal for all his family there hahaha he said there is like 30 hahaha thats sweet haha so they love to talk to me and tell me about tuxtla and yesterday we had dinner with them a few things from this night ok so they pull out this map with mexico on in and above it has the same map but its of the book of mormon and guess what hahaha tuxtla well really that whole state of chiapas down there is like the nephites and all that history tuxtla is like Zarahemla hahaha and like the valley of gideon and all those awesome things ok second thing hahaha about this night ok in nacho libre Estephen always gets corn with that white stuff and like a powder well guess what i ate that its corn with manaise and chile powder i am now commiting you to eating this go to walmart and get this powder its called el mexicano wnd the flavor is pico limon me and elder guthrie are getting some today and you just spread on the manaise and sprinkle on the powder and it is so good i can see why he likes it so much hahahaha oh man its great i cant wait to eat it again ok so another thing we got a investigator!!!!!!!!!! whoooohoooooooooooo yeah its sweet but he is weird he talks really wierd and he is cotholic and when we door contacted him before we left we asked if there was anything we could do for him and he asked for a example and we old him if he needs anything and he goes well i just moved in and i dont have a micro wave and so we found him one hahaha and now he is asking us for everything omg hahaha he asked for a tv and a dvd player hahaha whats next haha and then his first question is if we dont have cars because its against our religion hahaha well i have to go righjt now our ride is here and he is ready to go so i love you guys a ton i am also commmiting you to read rthe whole book of mormon in spanish hahaha love you guys!!!! i will send a package soon

elder houston oh yea i want you guys to get the ward involved in missionary work the missionaries need your help!!!! d&c 123:12-14 bear your testimony on it alma 31:34-35

This kid makes my week!

oh yeah one more story hahaha so theres this really buff portarican man who lives next to me hahaha he looks really mean but he is actually really nice and we asked him how he got so buff and he said welll lets say prison hahaha he is really nice haha love yeah!!!
Elder Houston

Got 2 Emails this week!!!

ok i logged back on hahaha hat is awesome so theres this lady in the ward tha sells guatamalan bags i need to know if dad or justin wants one ut let me know i need you guiys to send me a black light flashlight i didnt think of it but theres scorpians in mexico that like to go in our beds hahaha so i idk hahaha i love you all i wish i could send all my adventures to you right now but yea i am in boutiful hhaaha slash woods cross hahaha i love working a ton and stinkin elder guthrie is making me do things hahaha ike talking to members on the phone when i cant understand them hahahha calling in for dinner hahaha but its a good thing we work really hard oh yea i hav a song i want yo0u guys to listen to its like my favorite song ever hahaha these elders in my apartment play it all the time its calld the WAKAWAKA by Shakira hahahah we listen to spanish music and its actually awseom i quite enjoy it hahaha im am trying to read the book of mormon in spanish ll the way through it really helps me with the language make sure you guys ae studying spanish hahaha its important and very usefull hahah especially in texas hahaha well i  gotta get goign listen to that song and send me a black light and blacket please!!!! love you
Elder Houston

Best Email Ever!!!

so everything is good i am timed today we went to the library kinda sucks cause i have a lot to say so lets see we got bikes finally and the first day we are heading to this members house and elder guthrie decides that he can ride with no hands and we are going down this huge hill and he started to wiggle so he grabs the handle bars and all he thinks is break and he grabs the front break and goes over th front landing on his stomache and face hahaha i was behind him and watched the whole thing hahaha and i couldnt stop laughing for seriously 4 hours we finally got to this members house and we tell her the story and i am still laughing but she doesnt notcice and then she looks at me to see what i think and she loses it and cant stop laughing herself all i could get out of my mouth was esta muy chistoso hahaha that means it is really funny so i met this man named martin and right when we talked to him i could tell something was wrong he is innactive and his wife is heavey catholic and he was so sad to see us cause he knew that he needed to come to church but because of the cercumstance he couldnt which was bad but we sang to him and he offered a prayer and was crying a lil bit so lets see on more story iwe were walking and threres this small fence and elder guthrie is def in his right ear and all of a sudden thhis huge dog nearly jumps over the fence and nearly bites elder guthries head off hahaha well i got to go i love you guys!!!
elder houston

Real Email of the Week

Hi family and friends!


This is an email that was forwarded to me from Elder Houston's new companion's mom! Turns out that Elder Guthrie is in the mesa south stake in az and his dad is in the stake presidency, and his brother is in the ward in mesa also! Great family! Anyway, he talks about Colten's time with him and the success they are having! Its great!

Cynthia
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Guthrie Family
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 10:20 AM
To: Cynthia Houston
Dear Cynthia,
My daughter-in-law Stacy gave me your e-mail address. I thought you would like to hear what our son tells us about "Elder Houston". You can be proud of your son. All ready he is an amazing missionary. Good job missionary Mom!
Enjoy!
Elaine Guthrie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott Lee Guthrie
Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 9:43 AM
Dear Family,
Last week was our first week being together in this new area. As you know I am here with wonderful Elder Houston and we are just doing amazingly together. So this area for some reason has been suffering for a little while according to what the members in the branch have told me, and it hasn't really been worked very recently. So our major efforts are to find people we can teach, and to get the members excited and involved in the missionary work in the branch here in Woods Cross. As it turns out this branch is really amazing, I don't know why the missionaries didn't work here before. I can tell that the members have lost trust in the missionaries, and so Elder Houston and I are working our hardest to get it back, and I think it's working. For example: we really don't know anybody so we thought the first week we would go and visit the branch presidency, and the first counselor invited us to branch counsel on Sunday, so we went. We met all the important leaders, and the branch president asked us if we could give the prayers I said yes for the both of us Elder Houston was a little hesitant, but accepted as well. So we go to church and everything is going well until we go to the secretary's office to get a new branch list before sacrament meeting starts(which is the last hour). The branch president comes up to us again and says, "elders could you be able to give a talk today because the brother that was supposed to give it hasn't shown up yet, so could you have something to share just in case?" Ha ha! another opportunity to meet people I don't know and share with them a little about myself. Of course we wanted to, Elder Houston didn't know what was going on so I explained it to him, and he turned a little more pale, but he still accepted the invitation. I told him some good scriptures he could use if he wanted to, and I think that helped settle his stomach a little. Anyway I am so proud of Elder Houston he faced the crowd fearlessly, I must say this young lad has a mind to do whatever it takes to get the job done no matter what! He did amazingly for only having 6 days out in the mission field, he talked for like nearly 10 minutes, bien hecho Elder Houston! So kudos to Elder Houston for his unwavering faith. I remember the first time I spoke at sacrament meeting in Preston, I think I only talked for about 3-5 minutes and I had a whole week to prepare something to say! Hah, amazing how the lord is preparing the missionaries. It was so funny because the other day, on Saturday it was, we went to this appointment we had, but we went way early like an hour early, usually this never happens, but our lesson fell through. So we went and the lady wasn't there, but her husband was, and he was even more receptive than she was. Apparently he had been out of work for some while previously, but just found some work with a former employer in landscaping. As it turns out his patron, boss, is a member, Utah Mormon for ya, and has been sharing a little about the gospel with him, and it has really caught his attention. So we visited a while, then his wife came back and we shared a little message with them and we got a return appointment! Hooray, only thing is that they are moving to Salt Lake to a new apartment closer to work the 30th of this month, bummer! They are super amazing, the wife has a few Catholic doubts, but that's okay. So after the lesson Elder Houston exclaimed:"We got into a house and taught a lesson!!" It was fun, we have been just scrounging to find anyone to teach, and this small opportunity to share our testimonies was enough to give us the excitement to keep going even though the going is rough. But It's getting better now that we know a few members, life is getting better. So Elder Houston and I are trying something that I've never done before, and that I always hated when the missionaries did whenever they came over to our house. We are trying to go and visit every member of our branch give them a book of Mormon to give to a friend and invite them to church. Then, this is the best part that nobody knows about, we take a picture with them and their book of Mormon, and we're going to send them the picture with a note of gratitude for helping the lord bring more of his children back into his fold. It's always funny because las Hermanas always are like, "you want to take a picture right now! with me looking like this! Let me go put some makeup or something on!" It's pretty funny. So family everything is going good. We're having a great time here in Woods Cross and we're not giving up on this branch like the other missionaries might have in the past. Oh real quick last night we had dinner with a Peruvian family. They might invite us over to eat Guinea pig with them, we just have to find a Guinea pig to eat first. It is interesting because in this branch there are a lot of members form various parts of the world, and not that many from Mexico, so it will be interesting to see what kinds of food we get to eat. So far nothing out of the ordinary, just spaghetti, carne asada, enchiladas, rice, and chicken, but we're working on it. We'll get Elder Houston Culturalized before he heads off to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas Mexico.

I love you!

Elder Scott Guthrie

Doing Great in Ogden Utah

Awesome email!!!! I am a bit prejudice, but I love this kid!!!

ok mom i love it here well i mean just being on my mission finally.... yes elder guthrie is those guthries lil brother hahaha super crazy so let me give you a lil update.... we are whitewashing this area.. that means there are no old investigators and no potentials hahaha there is nothing we are starting from the ground up and i guess missionaries havent been coming around to the branch at all so no one has really been doing and missionary work but me and elder guthrie have a plan we have been visiting the members everynight after 7-8 ish because no one wants to talk to the missionaries after those times hahaha we knock a lot of doors and we get turned down at night so what we do is we are building relationship with the members in the ward hahah we are branch 16 oooor la rama de diez y seis haha but it is awesome i never though i would ever say this mom but seriously i love mexicans hahha well most of the people here are from peru guatamala paraguay argentina places lile that not to many from mexico but they are all really excited for me to get my visa and they are all really happy we are in there brianch .. there is only one spanish branch and the area is huge and we dont have a car so we walk everywhere it was hard for a few days but now i love it walking doesnt bother me ummm we are taken care of everynight the members really care about there missionaries so we are in a members home for dinner everynight it was sweet in peru they only eat with there hands oh my gosh i was pumped hahaha no knife and fork needed for carne asada i loved it hahaha so there is this family well just a wife and husband hermana diez and hemano diez they are awesome i ate with her like my first meal and she cooked enchaladas and it was really good but i couldnt eat it all i got to the point that i was going to throw up if i keep eating i felt so bad and she kept teasing me hahaha but the husband has parkensens disease and it was the sadest thing ever we gave him a blessing and sang him his faverite song GRANDE ERES TU hahah it was good but in the song Hna diez started to cry a lil and in the blessing i started to cry because just love this man and feel so sarry for him but he is enduring it well she says yes he hurts but she has tranquility and peace in his heart which is so conforting to know that our father in heaven loves us and will do that for us theres some other families that i just love to visit cause there kids they are so funny we walked into a house and sat down and the kids all came running in and one was just like i am so happy to meet you i want you to know that i know everything and shook our hands and left hahaha that was the suarez family and then last night we had spagetti it was so good reminded me of home hahaha but the lil girl they had was like really scared of at first and by the time it was time to leave she was cryinmg cause she wanted us to stay and play with here the parents had to pick her up cause she was following us out the door it was really tender hahaha ummm so we got one investigater that is so awesome its funny everybodys excuse is we are cotholic so its ok hahaha and so then we just talk to them and then say hey can we come back and talk some more and we havent really taught o real lesson yet but this family is awesome the father is really nice he invited us n and really was listening to us it was great and we told him a lil about the temple and how families can be together forever and he just says that is so beutiful but the wife is a lil stubborn they are moving this next week but we have an appointment with them saturday so hopefully we can sink in a message hahah we talk to everyone it is so awesome mom i love it i love working it is the greatest thing ever i am really happy and this time i have in bountiful i am preparing for mexico i love it though i really do ahhh ok so the house in mesa thats sad but i think thats a good thing now we dont have to worry about it and can just move forward but i know that heavenly father loves us and is watching of all of us everyday and you were called to teach seminary for a reallon hahha so dont worry 1nephi 3;7 is a really good way to look at it so dont worry about it cause its all taken care of just keep the kids acctive and moving so they dont fall asleep ..... so did maggy come back or what you sent me a picture and i really wasnt sure ahahah so anyways whenever someone tells you to aim low? are you kidding me you tell them to be quiet we are workers of the lord and our job is to bring all people unto christ even if they are already baptised it doesnt matter cause everyone need thats love a few scriptures i really like d&c 123:12-14 and my favorite part is verse 13 when it says we must waste and wear out our lives in the service of the lord i kinda parafrazed but thats ok andanother is alma 31 :34-35 this one is great to the ward needs to be pumped about missionary work hahaha thats what we are doing right now .... so i wrote a letter last week explaining everything but i couldnt find my stamps hahaha sorry so the adress to send packages to 2133 washington blvd ogden utah 84401 and send it through us postal services and the office forwards it to me for free hahaha i guess thats all you need to worry about right now since i can email you for right now well mom i gotta go i have like 10 emails but you got my longest one hahaha for sure i love you guys so much i miss you but i am working hard and i am loving every bit of it our heavenly father is close to us always remeber that hahaha acts:17 :27 i think hahaha ok love you mom !!!!! and family!!!!!!!!!