Florida

Hello, world! I (Eliza) have pretty much been offline for the past six months or so, and that isn't about to end. However, I thought I would lend my fabulous blogging talents to writing a post on the family blog for the first time in, well, forever.

The exciting news for this week is my mission call!

I've been called to serve in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission, speaking Spanish. I report to the Provo MTC on December 19.

A few fun things about the mission:
-In July there were 140 baptisms (for about the same number of missionaries)
-The mission includes Miami and the Florida Keys
-There are a lot of Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants in Florida... and a lot of rich white retirees
-Manatees live in Florida!
-Alligators and cockroaches do too, darn
-The climate is semi-tropical
-Hurricanes hit Florida
-It is humid in Florida
-All the missions in Florida are bicycle-riding missions (this is hearsay from a guy at my YSA branch who served in Tampa)
-My mission president will be Donald E. Anderson. His wife is Janet Anderson. They are from El Paso, Texas.

There are a lot of rules that I'll have to follow in the mission, and some friends and co-workers have thought they weren't fair, or they were too strict. But let it be known that I am willingly giving up the chance to swim, wade at the beach, watch TV, surf the web, read fiction, listen to non-LDS music, do my laundry whenever I choose, stay up past 10 pm, and go to Harry Potter world while I'm in Florida.

I am going on a mission simply because the gospel is true. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and the Plan of Salvation is real. Through the Atonement, we will all have the chance to become all that we can be. I have found no greater joy than in feeling the Holy Ghost and knowing that I'm doing what is right. I believe that a knowledge and understanding of the gospel is the greatest gift that I can give to anybody, and so I am choosing to go teach the gospel to the people of Southern Florida. I can hardly wait!





I wasn't here yesterday when the rest of the family was tearing apart the floor - instead, Marta and I were working as lifeguards at Twain Harte Lake. Tomorrow is my last day, and I find myself surprisingly nostalgic after six summers there. I never even dreamed I would be working at my high school job, but in this economy a job that gives me 40 hours a week with a raise every year is hard to find. Especially one where only about 5% of the time at work is actually *work*.... Okay, sitting on stand is fairly high-pressure sometimes, but most days you're sitting in the guardhouse, waiting for something to happen for at least 50% of your day. Mostly we're insurance and a morale boost for all the worried parents out there. It's awesome.

The lake is also beautiful, as you can see.

I will miss it! But hopefully next year we'll have a new crop of Houghtons at Twain Harte Lake...

These pictures were taken at 10:40 this morning. The girls are going to school (with many hard classes), going to water polo, going to seminary, and doing homework every day. They're tired out enough at the end of the week that they will sleep for a good eleven hours!

These pictures are from our trip to Six Flags Discover Kingdom earlier this year. I thought they were appropriate as Luke is starting his second official week of school at "the Zoo" tomorrow. He's one of the smarter mammals at the zoo, and he's even learning to feed himself! We hope he's not eating insects, though...



Well, that's another week at the Houghton house! Upcoming we have:
-Eliza starting to work as a music teacher at Belleview Elementary
-Marta and Tess beginning the official water polo game season
-Luke passing the add/drop deadline - scary!
-Levi walking up the hill from the bus stop for the first time this year (this may just be a dream...)
-New flooring in the kitchen
-More cake and ice cream!
-The peach tree being harvested - yumyumyum

<3
Eliza