Meet Sister Knox May 26, 2019

The end of April we said goodbye to Sister Carol Owens who served faithfully as our mission nurse specialist and returned home to Bountiful Utah.  She was responsible to take calls from missionaries who had physical health concerns, help them with knowing about self care or if needed refer them to a doctor or urgent care, she served 18 months and we miss her.

Sister Sharon Knox was called as a Church Service missionary, lives locally in the Bear Creek Stake and is a native to Houston Texas.  She retired from nursing a year ago, is a convert of 5 years and loves the missionaries.  She has a southern twang and we all love to hear her talk!  She is a widow, has a son who lives in Austin and she has a dog.  We have all grown to quickly love her and are grateful she is serving with all of us in the Texas Houston Mission!

Hailey meets President Nelson!

Our daughter Hailey was blessed to meet President and Sister Nelson and Elder and Sister Gong when they came to visit Auckland New Zealand where Hailey is serving her mission.  She and all the missionaries were told to only say hi and shake hands.  She told us President Nelson looked her in the eye and said her name, Sister Peterson.  We are so blessed we have a prophet who loves the Lord and all the Saints and people of the world.

Hailey is the sister missionary with the lighter 

colored hair.  Her current companion is 

Sister Langi from Tonga.

May Baptisms 2019

Please enjoy these beautiful pictures of a few of our wonderful converts who began the covenant path starting with baptism.  We love hearing of their conversion and love of the missionaries who taught them.  

Memorial Day at the Mission Office

We enjoyed an afternoon BBQ at the mission office with some of our senior missionaries and the Assistants to the President.  We each brought meat to BBQ and a side dish to share.  We often forget it is a holiday because each day is a missionary work day for us!

Faith Meets Family May 24, 2019

Elder Watt and Elder Urban

We sure love everyone that we get to meet!

Ruby and Chris with missionaries

from the Melbourne Ward

This wonderful young man is a recent convert.  He was able 

to do baptisms for ancestors and to help his wife do 

baptisms!

Sister Mullings and Sister Fleming 

College Station YSA

President and Sister Peterson

Ruby and Chris

Outside temple doors

We meet in the ancillary building next to the temple.  

 Elder Larsen takes

small groups over and talks about the temple

before entering.

Sister Hickenlooper and Sister Foote with
Celeste and Lindsey

Family Home Evening with our Senior Missionaries

We love getting together each 3rd Monday of the month with our senior missionaries for a family home evening.  This month Elder and Sister Barnes gave the lesson.  They had asked each of us to review the talks from General Conference and pick one that stood out to us and choose an object that relates to the talk.  We had wonderful mini lessons of 3 and a half minutes.  Some of our missionaries are quite the actors! We sure love all of them and the opportunity we have to serve in this wonderful mission together.

President Broadbent and Elder Larsen

Elder and Sister Barnes

Sister and Elder Fellows

 

President and Sister Peterson

Sister and President Broadbent

Peanut Butter Cannery and the Houston Temple

Thursday after our meeting we took Elder and Sister Ochoa to see the mission office and peanut butter cannery.  The peanut butter was in production and we were able to see it in action!  Elder and Sister Blanch who are in our mission and assigned to serve in the peanut butter cannery, gave us a great tour and after gave Elder and Sister Ochoa 2 jars of peanut butter to take home.

Friday morning before our meeting we drove to the Houston temple to see it and take a few pictures.

MLC With Elder Ochoa (Pictures)

Elder Karren and Elder Garcia

Sister Fleming and Sister Mullings

Elder Garcia, Elder Ochoa and Sister Ochoa

Elder and Sister Ochoa, Herman Gutierrez

Hermana Salgado, Hermana Tuia and 

Hermana Guzman

Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Ochoa May 15-17, 2019

We were blessed to have Elder Ochoa of the 70 and his wife Nancy Ochoa come to our mission for a mission tour!  They arrived Wednesday evening and went to dinner with President and Sister Peterson and stayed at their home.  On the morning of May 16 we arrived at the Spring stake center for our first day with 1/2 the mission.  All the missionaries were in the cultural hall standing with their zones and ready to have their picture taken.  After they all were personally greeted by Elder and Sister Ochoa and President and Sister Peterson before going into the chapel for training. We enjoyed a musical number by Sister Rogers.  Sister Peterson taught about a mighty change of heart and her experience with the building of the Philadelphia temple and Cookie Wednesday, that softened the hearts of the construction workers.  President Peterson talked about baptism and the importance of inviting when moved upon by the Holy Ghost.  Sister Ochoa talked about scriptures and asked the missionaries to share a favorite scripture of the Atonement.  Next Elder Ochoa trained on being better and repentance then asked the missionaries to ask questions which was a great opportunity for us all to learn and help one another.  After we ate a great lunch made by the local relief society then back in the chapel to hear 2 missionaries share a 5 minute talk they had prepared with the topic of Faith unto Repentance.  All missionaries were asked to prepare and only 2 were chosen.  The assistants each shared their testimonies and also President and Sister Peterson.  Elder Ochoa ended the meeting after which he interviewed 6 missionaries.
We then took them to the Mission office and a tour of the peanut butter factory which was in production.  Elder and Sister Blanch were great tour guides!  We came back to the mission home for dinner, conversation and sleep.
Friday May 17 we went to the Cypress building and greeted the other 1/2 half of the mission. We enjoyed a musical number by Hermana Larson, Sister Fleming, Elder Greer and Elder Williams with Sister Glissmeyer on piano.
  Elder Ochoa's message Friday  to the missionaries was to go over what President  Peterson trained on about baptism.
We held MLC after the meeting  for 2 hours to talk about what we learned and are going to do.  We all committed to follow up.
  After the mission tour we took Elder and Sister Ochoa to a hotel where they stayed as they attended the Tomball Stake Conference.
We are so grateful for Elder and Sister Ochoa and their love for us and all they taught us.

Daily Dose Graduation

Daily Dose is a program that teaches English to non native speakers.  It began a few years ago when  Trina Morford was in a school meeting and our church was brought up as a possibility to help teach English to parents of students.  She began teaching the curriculum from the church known as Daily Dose and it soon grew to other schools asking for missionaries to come teach adults during the school year.  Missionaries teach 2 days a week for an hour each class.  At the end of the school year all classes are brought together within the Bear Creek and Katy areas and they have a graduation.  Each adult student is recognized and given a certificate and one class member from each class gives a short talk in English.  Missionaries also teach in libraries and church buildings throughout the year.  Classes in church buildings have transitioned to a new curriculum called English Connect and in the fall of 2019 all classes held in the schools and libraries will also teach English Connect.  We are excited to continue these classes for our communities here in the Texas Houston Mission!