Texans love their doughnuts...

Wow, what a week!  I am surprised and exhausted that so much can happen in just a short week.

First off, Texans love their doughnuts.  I mean I have seen more doughnut shops here than McDonalds.  They are everywhere.  One thing Texans also love is their big and elaborate churches.  They have churches that sit on large pieces of land that you swear they are bigger than schools.  People here think our temple is our church, because our churches are really in the neighborhoods, so to describe where we go to church is often fund.

Well, I don’t know where to start this week.  We have had so many good and interesting experiences.  One thing I can say about serving a mission is its hard work.  But it is totally awesome.  Seriously, it is the best thing ever…I learn so much each day.  It is such a great experience but you have to be truly dedicated because it is soooo hard.  It’s insanely hard but so worth it.  I think I write every day in my journal about the ups and downs of missionary work.  It can be a roller coaster of emotions from discouragement to excitement so quickly.  Some days, I just have to smile; because the experiences we have that make us really appreciate the work we are doing.

I have noticed that being a missionary, my nametag seems to also mean “therapist”.  I meet people for the first time and they seem to just open up to us and share things you probably shouldn’t share with someone the first time you meet them.  It’s nice that they trust you so quickly.

So this week, Sister King and I have been focused on really having fun with the missionary work and listening to the promptings of The Spirit and then acting on those promptings.

The fun part this week was that when we were coming home one night, it was pouring down rain, I mean like Samoa rain.  So Sister King and I decided we would just have some fun and play in the rain.  We had a great time and it was nice to just help us relax.

We had two great experiences this week.  Frist, Jorge was baptized on Saturday.  He was so excited to be baptized.  It was so nice to see him take this step because you can tell he is truly converted.  He shared with us that after he was baptized and came up out of the water, that when he wiped his face he just felt “light”.  He had such a big smile on his face and a Spirit about him that was so contagious.  It lasted throughout the week.  He was beaming and is so excited to be a member of the church.

On Sunday, while we were at the church looking for the ward mission leader and the Assistants and while there we noticed a girl who walked in with Jeans on.  I was impressed to go and talk to her and we soon found out that she walked in to the church hoping to get a Book of Mormon.  She is 20 and her name is Julie.  She grew up Catholic but had a bunch of Mormon friends.  We shared with her that at 1pm the YSA ward would begin and to come back for that meeting which she did.  It was awesome because the speakers were fantastic and I had the chance to sit next to her and explain everything about our meeting and our congregations.  She even wanted to come back to church next week.  We have an appointment with her on Tuesday to share a discussion.  It has been such a blessing, and simple miracle, because Sister King and I have been praying for a new investigator that we could start teaching from the beginning.  Finding her, getting to know her, and sharing the gospel with her has been such a huge blessing.

We also had a great experience this week as we were driving.  We noticed some kids selling punch and stuff on the side of the road.  We stopped and bought something from them.  As we were leaving, Sister King and I felt impressed that we should have shared a message with them.  We thought it was a bit awkward to go back, but when we got back to our apartment, we grabbed a Jesus the Chris DVD and some pass along cards of Christ and went back to where they were.  When we got back, we shared these with the kids and the father & mother came up to talk to us.  They said that our timing couldn’t have been better.  Their grandpa had died and it has been a very hard time for the family.  The pictures of Christ and DVD we shared about Christ was very thoughtful.  Both Sister King and I realized the importance of following the promptings of the Spirit.

I’m doing soooo great and can’t imagine doing anything else.

Love, Sister Loo

Playing in the rain.  Its raining miracles in Houston, TX

After our "Baptist" encounter, we had to treat ourselves to gelato

Jorge's baptism.  He was so excited and the Spirit was so strong.

In memory of Oregon...I had to visit one of the many taco food carts.
It was sooooo good!