Baytown the Bountiful.

Baytown is a land of milk and honey. Every hermana would be blessed to come and serve in the branch. I went on an exchange Mon-Tues in Liberty and I could just notice the difference as soon as I came back. Maybe it's my attitude? most of my exchange was spent knocking. When I came back to Baytown we still had 30 min, so we knocked a few doors. At the first door the woman home said she wasn't going to answer. We next contacted a woman who said she had met with missionaries in Brownsville, TX. Her next door neighbor claimed to be athiest, but had researched the church for a class project--He knew a lot. Not so much seeds planted, more like sprouts nourished.

Wednesday evening we had a lesson with Eduardo & Esmeralda. Eduardo is a less active son of a family in our ward. We had met Eduardo before when we had been at this family's home. One day, it was a Sunday, we had scheduled an appointment with another of abovementioned family's sons. We were starting a lesson with him when Eduardo and Esmeralda came to the living room and sat down. When you sit in on a missionary lesson, well, it's all downhill from there. :) It was just a brief lesson on the first two points of the restoration, but we asked for a return appointment and got it.

We first taught Eduardo & Esmeralda last Wed after the leadership meeting we had in Liberty. We taught the lesson in Hna's "Celestial" room (she hates when it's called that). The Celestial or Holy room has a paino, is painetd white and just has all these paintings of the Savior and super large print versions of the scriptures. I told Hna Morales that we should teach the lessons there because it just felt more conducive to the spirit. In the living room people were just walking in and out.

Our lesson this week was wonderful. Esmeralda was listening and a lot of family members were there participating. At the end of the lesson, I invited Esmeralda to be baptized. She started shaking her head yes and said, "I know my mother-in-law has been waiting a long time to hear this, but it's time. Me and Eduardo have been talking and we want to do things differently. I'm ready to change." Esmeralda was crying, Hna was crying, Eduardo was crying, Hna Morales was crying, and I was just beaming for joy. It was so funny though, at the end of it all, Eduardo says, "they don't call this the Holy room for nothing!"

Baytown really is an abundant place. Tejas is sacred ground. I can feel here that the field is white already to harvest. We had an awesome Hour of Power this week as well. We had given our member a list of 4 streets we had chosen a week prior and had her pray about them. She chose Mckinney Rd. Mckinney ended up not having any homes, but we knocked and of course, the LAST home we met a couple who had gone to church before and had been taught by elders in the past. We have a return appt.

In my LDM reading this week, I came across such an interesting phrase. I was reading in Moroni 3 and loved the following, Moroni 3:3 "In the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest (or if he be a teacher, I ordain you to be a teacher) to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. Amen." I loved that phrase, "By the endurance of faith." Hna Morales and I definitely had our share of "endurance of faith" days. We are constantly trying to find people to teach so this week we walked. We made a list of potentials, went walking to try and contact them. We wanted to be able to talk to all those we saw on the way. Almost no one answered, almost no one was interested, but we were so happy! We felt so happy to be missionaries. Our feet were sore, but our hearts were full. Baytown is a beautiful place, and I love it!

Te amo times a millz,

Hna Flores

The Assistants truck now belongs to the Liberty Hnas! :) Exchanges with Hna Shannon!

Hna Morales SUPER wanted to go to Panera bread, so we did. She ordered a bagel. A bagel! P.s. Paner's autumn squash soup. THE BEST.

One big happy family! We were invited to Eddie Hndz's birthday party. Party hats and Pin the tail on the donkey game provided by Hna Flores' madre! Thanks mom. :)