My Heart is in Texas: Oi Ya'll! (A mix of Portuguese and Texan for you!)

I am out of the MTC!!!! That's all that is really needed to say. But I am loving Houston and the diversity of people here. There are plenty of trees so I feel somewhat at home. It's just flat. The mission president was joking that the overpasses on the freeway was about the highest that you will get in Houston and it is so true. There are no hills here just completely flat. When we were about to land the pilot got on the intercom and said that it was 81 degrees currently and I got even more excited to be here. It has been really humid and around 90 degrees everyday here which is wonderful! I feel like I'm in Hawaii most of the time and it will be good preparation for Brazil I hope! :)

I am/was so anxious to get to Houston I was so excited to get out of the MTC. I had about a 2 hour nap before I needed to report to the travel office at 3:30. There was a handful of missionaries who were shuttled by bus to the Salt Lake International Airport. It was the weirdest mix of emotions being tired, anxious, excited, nervous, and emotional. It was a good mix of emotions though and an exciting time. One of the Elders in our district even missed the flight to Phoenix that would eventually connect us to Houston. It is funny how the Lord works though because he met 2 people on each of his flights that he had great talks about the gospel and even got one of their email addresses to get in contact with.

I, however did not have much luck in being able to talk to people at the airports. I sat next to missionaries on my flight to Phoenix and on the flight to Houston I sat next to another missionary and a lady who wasn't very friendly and slept most of the flight. So I was blessed in being able to take 2 naps on Wednesday and it was definitely needed. We landed in Houston and were immediately greeted by President and Sister Pingree. They were so energetic and so nice. I love them already. There was about 35 missionaries that were coming in that day just to the Texas Houston Mission, 7 being Brazil Visa waiters and a mix of Spanish and English speaking Elders and Sisters.

We were shuttled to a chapel where we had orientation and the best part of the whole day... A home cooked meal of baked potatoes, brisket, coleslaw, and beans! It was delicious and I was trying not to just shove all the food in my mouth. But I did have 2 plates. I'm so excited to have home cooked meals, the MTC was killing me.

I stayed at a members house with Sister Hansen the first night and we would have transfers the following day. Sister Hansen and I were secretly hoping that the President would still assign us to the same area or that we would be able to stay companions. We hoped, but deep down we knew we were going to be split up. I was sad to leave her but we were both ready to get to work and put what we learned in the MTC to use. To actually talk to REAL people!

I met my new companion Sister King and she is the cutest thing. I am lucking out with older sister missionaries and I love it. She is from Salt Lake City and graduated from the U in Speech and Hearing Science. She is 23 and is so outgoing and friendly. After we met, while we were sitting next to each other for a little bit she turns to me and says we are the "Looking Sisters". Get it? It was pretty funny but also creative. I definitely have the best trainer and I am learning so much from her. We were assigned to the Sam Houston 1st YSA ward. Yes the young single adult ward. You can laugh its ok. We cover 3 stakes and so we are assigned a car because we cover so much area and have to drive 30 minutes just to get to church.

It has been quite interesting serving in this area because it covers Houston, Spring, Klein, and Magnolia Texas. It is a new area for sisters and so Sister King and I are what they call "white washing" the area. We have a new area and have to start from scratch in finding investigators and figuring out what our responsibilities will be in the ward. We do share the ward with the Assistants to the President so it has been nice working alongside them as well. We take over their investigators whenever there is zone conferences or transfers. The president is wanting our companionships to be the example for the mission on how a Sister companionship and Elder Companionship can work together.

It has been a little difficult to find investigators this last week because we don't do as much tracting because our main concern is finding young single adults. If we did find a family to teach we would pass them off to the missionaries in the family ward boundries they are in. The YSA ward we are in is so awesome at missionary work though. They have had 12 baptisms in the last year and are wanting to improve upon that number. So Sister King and I are eager to work with the members and brainstorm activity ideas that would be fun for members to invite their friends to. We have realized that a lot of the work that we are going to be doing in this ward will be with member reactivation and transitioning members from the family ward to the young single adult wards. We are planning on doing a lot of member visits this week, visiting recent converts, and working with the YSA reps in the home wards to get in contact with those YSA's that are inactive. I realize that missionary work is not all about finding new investigators but is also about strengthing members and getting those members that are inactive to church. A lot of the members currently in the ward have recently been reactivated within the last 6 months and their testimonies are so strong. It's so awesome!

We did however get to teach 2 lessons on Friday. We taught a girl named Rebecca Morse who the Hermanas were teaching and now she will be transferred over to us. She is a really sweet girl and is eager to get baptized the only thing is that she is still living with her boyfriend. We are trying to find her a new living situation but she doesn't have the money to pay rent. So we have to help her find a job first and we are trying not to do it for her. We have to let her do it herself but continue to encourage her. She has a really rough past with family and so she doesn't really have any options in staying with them. It made me so grateful for the wonderful family I have been raised in and the examples and support they continue to show me.

We also taught for the AP's their investigator Jorge Reca. He is also such a great young man and has a baptismal date set for Saturday which he is really excited for. We taught him about Repentance and why the Savior was baptized. The spirit was so strong during the lesson. At the end he gave such a powerful prayer that was also a mini testimony at the same time. We told him that we were proud of him and that Heavenly Father was so proud of him as well. When we said that he laughed and we asked him why. He said it was because he felt a "whoosh" right after we said that. It was so cool that he felt the spirit from that. We just recently found out that his car was stolen and so he was a little down at church. It's crazy the opposition these investigators face right when they are about to make such an important step in the right direction. We are praying for him to not get down in this moment and to keep with his commitment on Saturday. It will be such a great day!

We are eager to continue working and brainstorming activities with for this ward. It is definitely going to take a lot of effort from both the members of the ward and us as missionaries. We are going to start to work on trying to build an LDSSA on the Lonestar Community College campuses here so that we will be able to set up a table and tract on campus. I hope that this will work out because it will be the best way to find new Young Single Adults in the area.

This mission is great and is continuing to teach me patience, patience, patience!

Love ya'll

Sister Loo