Letter From the Mission President

Dear Parents,

We are pleased to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely in the Texas Houston South Mission, the best mission in the world!!  They are happy and absolutely wonderful. President Ashton and I are thrilled to welcome them. This is the largest group of new missionaries we have welcomed—43 in all.  The Lord is certainly hastening his work and it is a very exciting time to be involved in missionary work.  We had a terrific afternoon and evening together on Tuesday. They received some training and practiced contacting.  We also had dinner together and then we enjoyed a beautiful testimony meeting. Wednesday they received more training, met their trainers as well as many other missionaries, and then left to their areas to meet and teach the wonderful people of Houston.  They come with such courage and strength.   You should be very proud of them.  We enjoyed getting to know them.

I have attached a photo from our gathering in the mission home. As you can see, there are many smiles.  We have seven children.  Spencer (14), Braeden (12), Jacob (10), Elisabeth Kate (8), Ethan (6), Daniel (3), and Wesley (10 months).  Wesley is not in the picture because he was asleep. They are so excited to be a part of your missionary's life!

Again, thank you for the opportunity you have given us to serve with these fine missionaries. We love them already and promise to take good care of them. May you find great joy and blessings as you continue to support them in bringing souls to Christ through His restored gospel. This is His work and these missionaries are on His errand. More joy awaits them than they have ever experienced!

With love,
President and Sister Ashton, Spencer, Braeden, Jacob, Elisabeth Kate, Ethan, Daniel, and Wesley

PS.  P-days are on Monday which is the day they will write/receive email. If they are assigned to Galveston Island, however, their email day will be Tuesday. I know they will love hearing from you each week and need to know you are loving and supporting them.  Please send at least a short note each week.  Thanks for everything.

My New Address!!!

Sister Rebecca Dorian

Texas-Houston South Mission

602 Eldridge Rd

Sugar Land, TX 77478

Write Me!!!

I will love you forever!

Me oh my.. how does the Time Fly!! "Hey wanna hear a funny story? k sooo (Que-sooooo) CHEESE! hahahahahaha

I'm such a poet. HA! Not. But seriously! This is insane!! I can not believe that I leave the MTC TOMORROW! at 4 in the morning!! I am kinda freaking out. It still doesnt seem that real. The whole time at the MTC, and since I have been here so long, it was like oh okay we go to the MTC then go home. Noooooo... I am going on a mission. No more fake investigators, no more learning "about" the field. Now it's time for real investigators and learning "in" the field. I cant believe this is finally happening. I really am so excited. The MTC has changed my life though. I can only imagine how serving in Texas will change my life even more. My testimony has grown so much. And it's been on a completely different level. It's changed my perspective of everything. And one thing that I have come to realize by being here is that I only have 18 months to serve the Lord. Only 18 months to give EVERYTHING that I have to my Savior who gave his life for me. I wont ever have this chance ever again, to serve a mission the way that I am right now. As a teenager who doesn't even have that many life experiences under her belt, striving to rely on the Lord and the Holy Ghost to help her through, along with her hard work. So I am going to work as hard as I can. I will be dragging my sorry behind to bed every night, knowing I gave my all. Each and every day. The call of a missionary is so divine and sacred. There is nothing like it. We are the only people other than the Prophet with the authority to promise specific blessings and invite others to be baptized. I am so excited to go and meet people and bring them the HAPPY message of the gospel. Because it is so happy! :) And by the spirit, it can change peoples lives in ways they didnt even think were possible! I just want everyone to know that I know my Savior, Jesus Christ, lives. I know that this is the only true church on the earth with the proper priesthood authority to make covenants with God. I am so grateful that I get to give a little part of my life to the Lord. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Jospeh Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. And I know that God answers every one of our prayers. Maybe not in the way we expect, but He does answer them. I love being a missionary!!!

Alright so here's whats been going on this past week! So.. we finished with our investigatorson Friday! And we ended it with a perfect lesson. Stefan is sooo close to baptism! In a hypothetical way of course, since "Stefan" is our teacher ;) but... the spirit was so strong in the lesson. So so so strong. And I was able to say exactly what I wanted to say. Oh and can I just testify that the Gift of Tongues is real? Its as real as a tomato. true story. but if we work as hard as we can to have the gift of tongues, we will have it! :) Anyways, so also! all the Elders in my district are going to Argentina but they all didnt get their visas and were reassigned! 3 OF THE ELDERS GOT ASSIGNED TO TEXAS HOUSTON SOUTH!!! of all the missions they could have been sent to, it was mine!!! I am soooo happy!!! Elder Truman, Elder Flake, and Elder Craven! yayy!! And Elder Flake.. the FUNNIEST person in the world. I am so excited! It's going to be so fun!! There are like 40 + missionaries on our flight. Definitely going to have everyone else on the flight converted by the time we land. PERFECT. Love it. Oh! so we had in-field orientation on Thursday and it got me so pumped up and excited to leave! I am really excited for the airport. I just want to talk to everyone. I have become so interested in people and their stories. Everyone has a different story and I cant wait to hear EVERYONES. okay not everyones... but a lot. I am just so ready to work! 

Alright, times up. But the next time you hear from me, I will have a week down in the mission field!! :) YAY!! Keep writing me! dont forget me even though I wont be in the MTC anymore! But I love this gospel so much and I love missionary work! Thank you for all your support and love! :) I love you all so much!! Have a great week! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Dorian :)

6th Week on the Island: One left on the 'Empty Sea.'

Holy cow where has the time gone!? I leave the MTC in exactly one week!!! I am sooo excited. I am sad though because I love the MTC so much. I have learned sooo much while I've been here and I have been so blessed with the most amazing District, Zone, Teachers, Investigators, EVERYTHING. I have seen the Lords hand in my life so much and the spirit here is so so strong. It's amazing. But I am so excited to get to work! And work hard! And apply everything that i have learned here. 6 weeks flys. And it got me thinking last week that my mission is going to fly. It's gonna go by sooo fast!! So I am going to cherish every moment that I have to be a missionary and be the best missionary that i can be because this opportunity wont come again! Well.. until i serve 50 missions with my future husband ;) haha cant wait!! missions are amazing.

So this past week had been so spiritually uplifting and I have learned tons. Just like every week! On Tuesday Eduardo Gavarrett of the Seventy spoke to us and talked about how we need to focus on learning, working, being happy, and enjoying our time, and looking for the blessings that missionaries recieve! We watched a video at the end and it was so powerful and one thought really hit me. The thought I had was "Jesus Christ died for me and he died for our investigators because He loves them SO much! And he wants them to know that!" And that is the job of a missionary. To help people realize how much God and Jesus Christ love them and bring them the joy of the gospel. Being a missionary brings so much joy and happiness into my life and I dont know where I would be without this gospel. And its an honor to be able to help others realize that and accept our message. Its a great and wonderful message!! :)

Then I had a really cool experience this week. I taught another missionary as an investigator! His name was Marco and he was the father of 4 sons. His oldest son was really sick and he wanted to help him. He was born into the Catholic church but never felt right about it. So I shared the scripture Alma 7:11-13 with him and it was so powerful. The spirit was so strong. Especially since I really tried to find his needs and listen to the spirit as to what I should teach him. Then I taught him about the Book of Mormon and how reading it will increase his faith and help his testimony grow. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I cant wait to have those experiences in the field. :)

GET THIS. So on sunday in relief society, Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us. AMAZING. She is an amazing woman! I was bawling through the entire meeting. I think everyone was. She spoke, but the majority of the meeting we were singing. We sang a medley of a bunch of different songs that she has written and the spirit was so strong. The songs we sang and the things she said to us were an DIRECT answer to my prayers this past week. I know that if we pray with a sincere heart, God will answer our prayers. He is there and he wants to talk to each and every one of us! Because we are His children and he loves us so much!!! But then we were the first sister missionaries to sing her new version of "As Sisters in Zion". She changed it to "The Sisters of Zion". It is an amazing song and when it comes out, you all just remember that I was one of the first sister missionaries to sing it. soooooooooo cool. the gospel is true. Oh and I had to give a talk in sacrament on sunday. IN SPANISH. my golly. so nerveracking!! ;)

I just want to bear my testimony to all of you reading this that I know without a doubt this is the true church of God. Read Mosiah 26:22. So great. I just want to read that to all my investigators and be like alright who wants to be baptized. But really, I love this gospel so much and it makes me so happy. I have such a strong testimony of missionary work and its amazing. And its growing so much and its so awesome!! I know this is true and I dont want to be anywhere else! I love you all so much and thank you so much for your love and support!! Hope everyone is doing well! :)

 

Adios!

 

Hermana Dorian :)

The Church is True!!

Thats all I gotta say. Just kidding! But really. The church is sooooo true!!! And everyday I think my Father in Heaven for the opportunity I have to serve a mission, especially at my age!! Its truly amazing! Humbling, rewarding, and amazing! I cant believe another week has already gone by. Its true what they say about the MTC... the days are long but the weeks are short. P.S. They changed our P-Day to Tuesday.. as I am sure you can already tell ;) Kinda lame. They changed around our whole schedule and its worse. Except for Tuesday P-days. NO CLASS! Yayyyy! i mean.... sad....hehe But the schedule is alright :) Just as I was getting used to the other one... of course. haha OH WELL.

 

Sooo... this week. You know, these weeks are so crazy that I forget what happens. But that's good right? Here are some significant things that happened. Last Tuesday we had a devotional about repentance and it was wonderful!! The one thing that he said though that stood out to me was how I have been called by the Lord to serve in Houston, Texas and I will go and do anything that they Lord would have me do. Jesus died for us and atoned for our sins and it would be a waste of my life if I didnt give 18 months of it back to the Lord. A complete waste. And yesterday for the last hour of class we went outside to a couple tables that were at the back of the MTC. It was our own "sacred grove". And it was amazing. Our teacher read a few verses from 2 Nephi 3 about how Lehi had a vision that Jospeh Smith would be chosen to restore the church once again here on the earth today. Then she recited the first vision and the spirit there was incredible. While she was bearing her testimony I thought about how cool it would have been to be in Jospeh Smith's postition. But I know that this gospel is true and has been restorded by a prophet Joseph Smith. I don't know how anyone could deny that he was a prophet. How in the world could a 14 year old boy translate the Book of Mormon and restore the gospel on the earth.. on his own. It's impossible. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in the Sacred Grove. I know it. And I have a testimony of it. And I will continue to become more converted as I spend these next 18 months of my life teaching others about the restoration and helping them become converted to Christ, as I am being more converted each and every day!

 

So we have 2 new investigators. Stefan and Candi. They are great! We love them! Stefan's family are members but he isnt. But he loves the missionaries and we are so excited to teach him about the restoration and the book of mormon. And then Candi is a single mother with 4 daughters. our first lesson was rough but our last one was better because we showed her that we cared about her and we werent just there to give her a lesson and leave. I dont have much more time but I want you all to know that I have a testimony of this gospel and I am LOVING being a missionary!! It is the greatest calling EVER. Send me letters!! Thank you for all your support and love!!

Have a great week!!

 

Adios! Con amor,

Hermana Dorian