Letters from Lauren: Buenas Cosas en Baytown.

There are good things happening in this little place. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are connected in some form or way to the church. Just a roundup for this week.

Julia C.: Julia was found by English elders during the Hour of Power. She didn't necessarily have a connection with the church, but her Sister-in-law, Claudia, had met with missionaries in the past. Julia gave us Claudia's information and we paid her a visit. Unfortunately, Claudia's husband isn't too keen on her meeting with missionaries, but we put her name in the area book so that missionaries in the future can give her a try.

Violeta G.: Has a son who is actually currently serving a mission in Peru right now! Violeta doesn't have a strong religious background and so we are using the building blocks to teach her, object lessons, pictures, one-verse scriptures. The works.

Rumaldas.: The Rumalda's randomly came to church last week with their family who are members in Cypress, TX. We haven't had a chance to teach them yet because of work schedules, buthow wonderful is that? Their family drove all the way to Baytown just to show them where the local church was and to attend with them.

Katie A.: We found Katie during Hour of Power. (We've since passed her on to the English Elders) Katie's grandfather passed away earlier this year and he was a member of the church. Katie was really close to him and was commenting on how it was going to be strange to have celebrate her first birthday and holiday season without her grandfather.

Mirna?: The reason for the question mark is we contacted Mirna? through the phone. Our district leader has developed the habit of calling us whenever he and his companion come into contact with a Spanish speaker. Mirna? actually has an uncle that is LDS and has a copy of the Book of Mormon because her uncle has spoken to her about it before.

Katrina.: Katrina is another interesting story. Katrina's friend living in Pennsylvania found our branch President's number and called him. Our branch President has been inviting Katrina to church and this week she came to our Branch's thanksgiving party as well as church. Hna St. John and I are hoping to meet with her today.

We had zone conference this week and President Crawford counseled us to , "be lights not judges." Light has actually been my study topic for the year. We are counseled to be lights in the scriptures so that others may recognize our good works and glorify our father in Heaven. There are so many people that we can be "lights" too. I had kind of a neat experience this week.

I've decided when I go home I just want to volunteer and help kids with their homework, seriously, no greater joy. I was working on my grad school application at the library when I heard a mother whispering to her son, "Luchador de derechos hermanos." Her son was trying to translate the phrase but semi-unsuccessfully. I made my way over and spent an hour helping Rodolfo translate his Mexican Revolution project from Spanish to English. No greater joy. Rodolfo's mom, noticed my tag and we chatted for a bit about missionary work, the church, and just what exactly I was doing in Texas and left her with a pass-along card. Just a simple act. It doesn't take a missionary badge to go about doing good.

I feel so blessed to be a missionary, so blessed to be able to serve the people of Baytown. I feel spoiled sometimes by all the goodness my life has, and I know that it is all attributed to the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I love love love being a missionary, especially of the Texas Houston East variety. :]

With love,

Hna Flores