Holiday News from Seattle

It was GREAT to be able to talk with you all on Sunday. Too bad it could only be 40 min, because I think that I could have talked a little longer.

 

Well, Sunday night was transfer calls, and today was the transfer.  Turns out that both Elder Wilkins and Elder Haro were both transferred, and I am still in Renton.  I think that that news surprised us all a little bit because we were sure that all three of us would be staying together for at least another six weeks.  My new companion is Elder Michell.  I have only been companions with him for about 40 min and really don't know much about him, other then he is from AZ.  He was serving in Renton about 4 months ago and so already knows the members and it should be an easy adjustment for him. One great bonus is he likes to get out and run!!! I guess that he used to play soccer in high school.  Hopefully, several mornings a week we will be able to get out.

 

As for the Christmas packages, I opened them this morning.  After the little mix up with them being delivered to the Seattle zone I got them last night, but it was too late for me to open them.  Thank you family, Alecia, and Daniel, and friends.  I am sure with the stash of holiday candy that I have, it will last me until sometime in the middle of June.  The photo book was a genius idea mom, and I love it.  I also have your birthday present which I am waiting to open. As for my birthday I think that the Hermanas leaked the word out when my birthday was to the relief society president and I will most likely be getting a cake in the face this weekend.  Not even joking. Spanish culture, or at least spanish people up here, have this thing where they literally put a cake in the face of whoever is having the birthday. It doesn't help that we have a branch party scheduled for that night.

 

Christmas eve was great!!!  We Elders and the Hermanas went to nearly every family in the branch and caroled and passed out a Christmas card.  After about 6-7 hours of this, I was super tired, but so happy.  It was amazing to see the faces of the members as we caroled to them.  They don't do Christmas caroling in the spanish culture, and everyone was surprised to see us.  I will never forget one lady in the branch who started to cry as we sang to her.  She had been missing her family in Venezuela and loved that someone remembered her on Christmas.  It was a Christmas that I don't think I will ever forget, one that truly made an impression on me.  After the caroling, we had multiple parties/dinners that we had been invited to and made a short appearance at each of them.  For some reason Spanish people don't understand when you say that you already ate and are full, and I had 4 full dinners and many desserts that night.  Spanish people are party people!!!!  :)

 

Love ya,

Elder B.

 

 

Merry Christmas from SC

Hey all!

It was wonderful speaking with the family yesterday - definitely the best Christmas present!  (Sorry it had to be so short; 40 minutes goes by fast.) Having a baptismal service at 8:30 Christmas morning was pretty spectacular too!  To be honest, I think that Christmas here on the mission was much more meaningful than any other Christmas I've experienced.  We met with a lot of people (even a bunch of non-members) and were able to share in their celebration of Jesus' birth, share conversion stories, miracles, etc.  I wish everyone could have the same; it would probably eliminate the so-called "consumerism" of Christmas entirely!

Jessica -- a convert baptism

I was transferred Wednesday to Beaufort, South Carolina, making this the 3rd state that I have served in!  This place is wonderful though - it has a small town feel that makes me feel right at home.  Beaufort has only about 9,000 people and I think Port Royal (a neighboring city where I live) is about the same.  Both towns are located on the same island in the southern corner of the state and I absolutely love it!  The coastal areas are amazing and have really grown on me.  I may have to live near an ocean forever. For those I did not speak with yesterday, my new address is:
2205 Southside Blvd, APT 11B
Port Royal, SC  29935

The Midgleys

This place is one of the most interesting areas I have yet served in.  We cover two bases for the U.S. Marine Corp and one for the U.S. Air Force so there are a LOT of military people in this town.  In fact, I think the entire Beaufort county survives because of the military - it doesn't seem like there is much else in the way of occupations here.  Anyway, I'm working on learning military lingo so I can understand what everyone is talking about!   =P  We already had to go through one military checkpoint to see someone and I'd forgotten my ID that day....it was rather interesting to have guys in full body armor carrying M16s asking for proof of residency, etc.  Finally had to turn around and go home to get my driver's license.  Then the military police decided to stalk us the entire time we were on base....  Lol, ah, the stories that we'll have from the time spent in this area!

Well, I'll go now, but I decided to attach pictures of some of my favorite people from the last area.  Sister Crawford was pretty much my second mother - she loves the elders and we had some great experiences teaching people at her home. The Midgley boys were also pretty fun; I got to beat on them like they were my little brothers. And I got to see Jessica again before leaving town.  I took a bunch of others too, but not enough room to attach them all.

Sister Crawford

Love ya!
Elder M.

Elder Ben

Feliz Navidad

OK, so first off Mom, you should be getting a letter from me most likely today.  Also, if you do have any interesting ancestor stories, I would love to still receive them.

Also, I am not sure if Alecia will ever see Elder Lanier at the Mesa temple.  He was called to the Tempe mission and I think the temple down there may have a calling all to itself.  Because one of the hermanas here has a friend that was called to it.  Maybe they are pulling other missionaries just for the Christmas season though, so keep your eyes open for him.

We just got news today from the assistants to the president that we will in fact be able to skype.  The details are really fuzzy right now and I really have no idea exactly what is going on.  I guess we will have certain computers that we can use.  So I have no extra details on that at all.  I guess I will try my best to make it in the afternoon though so I can talk to everyone.  Since I can't give out my number, I will most likely be calling you right before to make sure the time is good.

Yes, missionaries still can't get together and play sports.  So basically all I do is sit-ups and push-ups.  I was using a jump rope that Alecia and Jaclyn sent me at my last apartment, but then I moved and the ceilings that I have here are a little low to allow it.

The work this week was a little slow for us but ended with a pretty big highlight.  We had the branch Christmas party and there was a huge attendance.  Seriously we had about 140 people show up and around 40 of those were not members.  Thanks to all the members inviting friends to come out, we think that several people are pretty interested in learning about the church, and we should start teaching a couple of them.  One even like the party so much the he decided to come to church on Sunday!  We were asked to do another skit for the party, we had two hours of practice to come up with ideas and put it together the night before.  Day of the branch party I was thinking that the skit was going to be a disaster.  Luckily, a miracle happened and it came together pretty well.  For this skit I didn't have nearly as big a part of actually speaking on stage (not that that is a bad thing), but helped out with some of the ideas and plot of the skit.  After we did the skit, we were cleaning up the props and I was looking for Elder Wilkins . . . all of a sudden he comes into the gym wearing a very cheap and very tight (on him) Santa costume.  I guess they had planned on a Santa coming but the member couldn't fit into the costume.  I don't think I have laughed so hard, the whole experience was pretty epic.  After he was done handing out presents to the kids he started to do a crazy dance in the middle of the gym floor.  Seriously, my companion is crazy . . . but don't worry, I got it all on camera.  I think it is going to be a youtube hit when I get home. :)

Oh ya, also for the skit we needed to have a Christmas tree.  Luckily we found some trees for cheap in someone's front lawn.  (OK now, I know what everyone is thinking right now . . . that we went and cut someone's tree down that they were growing.)  It was actually a potential investigator of our that happened to be selling trees.  We went back to the house and borrowed rope and a tarp from the member we live with and went back and lashed it to the mission car.  Elder Haro and Elder Wilkins had never done that before and I was surprised at that.

Spanish culture is a little bit different in how they celebrate Christmas.  I guess all of their partying happens on Christmas eve and then not much goes on Christmas day.  We have already been asked to come to numerous parties Christmas eve that I think we will just be visiting members and party hopping the whole day.

Have to go but will talk to you all on Sunday!!!
Elder Benjamin Howell

Elder McKay

Merry Christmas!

This week was rather fun.  On Thursday we had a mission conference and had a talent show, dinner, and devotional with everyone in the mission.  It was good to see a lot of faces, but especially Brother Trowell who brought the Brunswick missionaries down.  (He was the one that we read the Book of Mormon with every single morning for a month until he had an unshakeable testimony.)  Elder Fuller and I both sang in the choir that Sister Barry put together for the devotional and we did this incredible piece called "Who is He in Yonder Stall?"  I'd never heard it before, but my companion had sung it when we was in the BYU Men's Chorus.  For some reason, everyone thought my falsetto was pretty good, so they set me in as first tenor; oh gosh, that song has some high notes!  I think we were deep into Soprano territory with that one.  Maybe yo can find a BYU version on YouTube to see what it was all about.  One of the Stake Presidents also put together a slideshow of FJM 2011 that was pretty funny - I thing I'll send the DVD home so you can see it this weekend.  Unfortunately, I forgot to submit pictures before the deadline, so there is only one or two photos on the entire disc that have me in them, but you can still get a good feel for what "the South" is like.

For some reason, people must think missionaries starve around the holidays though, because I have never been so full all the time in my life.  Urgh.  Lol, it doesn't help that I'm still skinny and everyone we visit thinks they need to fatten me up.

So we were playing sports today during our P-day downtime and the Spanish elders showed up with a group of people from their branch.  Our games quickly changed from football and frisbee to soccer and it got wild!  One of the funniest moments of the day was seeing Katie (one of the latino members who is probably less that 5 feet tall) literally run underneath the legs of Elder Evans who is at least 6'6" as she was trying to steal the ball from him!  He was definitely surprised and everyone else was laughing hysterically.

Another miracle, I got to see Jessica (my other recent convert) yesterday afternoon even though she moved from our area.  That was a definite Christmas gift to me getting to see both John and Jessica on the same weekend and catching up with both of them.  Happily, they are still both solid and having a lot of joy out of the gospel.

Well, I'll call Sunday and we can chat then.  Hopefully, there will be a member wherever I'm going who will be willing to let us use a computer to Skype.

Love ya!
Elder M.

Elder Ben

OK, so I am writing a day late because we had our temple trip today, and whenever a temple trip comes we have to also take our Pday on that day.  So Pday was today.  Temple was amazing!  I was able to go with my whole district (including and English companionship and the Hermanas).  Really great.  We got a photo of the whole group outside, unfortunately my camera does not have the time setting on it.  I have to have one of the others print off a copy so I can send it to you.

It is hard to believe that Colton King is back, or that Joey Call is leaving for a mission.  Time keeps on ticking.  Tell everyone in the ward "hi" for me.  It is also good to hear that the Thomas family was warmly welcomed into the ward.  It is weird to think that they are in our ward.

This week was pretty uneventful as far as the investigators go.  We had several people drop us or just not progress at all.  The guy that asked a bunch of questions -- well, we went back for a second appointment and his daughter came outside and said that they were having family problems and couldn't talk then.  We are not going to give up on him though and we are already planning on going by again.

We have a couple that is the only investigators that are truly progressing.  They definitely have a desire to change their lives and start to follow Christ.  Only problem is they have a lot of challenges to overcome in their lives, and it seems to just be little baby steps that we can do at a time while working with them.

Last Friday we had a big Christmas party for the mission.  We had a big meal, had talents from all of the zones, and even watched the movie "17 Miracles."  It was a bit surprising to hear that we were going to be watching a movie, but everyone loved it.  Has the family watched that movie?  Mom, I know that you have a lot of stories about our ancestors.  Can you send me any info/stories about family in the handcart companies?

Sunday night we ate dinner at a members house.  I guess the thing in this family is to feed a jabanero to every incoming missionary to the branch.  It turned out not to be as bad as I was thinking it was going to be.  The key word is "AS" bad.

I will only have about 40 minutes to talk on Christmas and so it will be a very short time talking with everyone.

Elder Howell

Elder McKay

Well, things are shaking up again.  It seems like we just barely went through this, but Elder Fuller got the call last night to be a trainer this upcoming transfer which means that I will be moving here in another week - destination unknown.  You may want to hold off on sending that Christmas package unless you know that it will get here before Wednesday (the 21st).  This week had some very good things happen, so I'm not entirely thrilled about leaving the area, but I have been here for 3 transfers and I think that  that is kind of an average time to spend in one place in this mission.

So, on Saturday, the mission office called and told Elder Fuller and I to pack up and be out of the apartment that we've been staying in with the other elders.  They are terminating the lease and found a member for us to move in with, so we spent all of Saturday morning blitz packing all of our stuff and then got everything moved in two loads - beds, mattresses, desks, and all!  I love being a missionary, there's not a lot of extraneous stuffage to haul around.  I'm thinking this is where Dad picked up his trait of traveling lightly. =)

My new address (for the next 10 days):
3607 Peach Dr.
Jacksonville, FL  32246

Which is a much nicer address to type/write on an envelope than the previous one if you ask me!  =)

This Haitian couple that we found has turned out to be really something special!  We left them with French and English copies of the Book of Mormon and then had a couple of appointments drop and figured they were the usual.  However, we finally reconnected on Saturday and it turns out the she's be devouring the book and is already through Mosiah - loves it and feels like "every word is true"!  She anticipates being done by the end of this week and wants to be baptized.  After months of struggling to get people to read, this was very refreshing!  Sometimes the Lord definitely throws happy little surprises in our paths.

I don't know if you remember me mentioning Chris a few months ago, but we reconnected with him after he came through a crazy section of life.  Unfortunately, his girlfriend had moved in with him again and he'd picked up smoking/drinking again and had cooled off a bit, so we were thinking that this would be another dud, especially when his girlfriend, Nicole, seemed hostile the first time we met.  We talked simply of the Atonement though and she became way more interested than he was.  Set an appointment and came back last Friday and talked about the principles of faith, repentance, baptism, and Holy Ghost and the Spirit was there very powerfully.  We hadn't even tried to commit her yet and she asked when se could be baptized!  Chris jumped in and was like "whoa whoa, let them tell you what the requirements are first" and so we explained some of the commandments - chastity, word of wisdom, scripture study, and prayer - and she took it all in and then said, "Is that it?  I'm all in!  We'll get married as soon as we can."  SWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEETTTTT!!  Lol, Fuller and I practically floated on the clouds home that night.  She sent us a text later on telling us that as we talked about the commandments, she felt an overwhelming feeling of security and love and knew that God was telling her this is what she needs.  So, yeah, now Chris and Nicole are back on the top as our Numero Uno familia!

I guess to sum it up, I have definitely found joy in watching others come to repentance (Alma 29:9-10)

I'm glad to hear that the Fife's are doing well - they are a wonderful family!  Perhaps I'll send them a Christmas card as well.  Thanks for the quote, Mom, that was a good one!  Let me know if you reach a conclusion in your studies.

Lovies!
Elder M.

Elder McKay

Kippa seems to be a good looking dog.  I think having Dad as an owner is probably pretty ideal for a new pooch -- who else takes their puppies to the mountains on a weekly basis?

To be honest . . . not much has happened this week.  We worked like crazy.  Got members to just more than two-thirds of our lessons.  Found a handful of new investigators.  Came in late nearly every night.  But for some reason, nothing really changed.  We have recently picked upa couple of students from the local colleges/universities, but they are in the middle of pre-finals crunch time and don't have much spare time to meet with us or read from the scriptures.  Our most promising investigator that had a date for this next week and had finally stopped smoking had his house broken into and decided to move back to Miami to be near family, so he's out of the picture now.

I think I found the reason why in our morning studies today with a whole stack of scriptures and have included just a couple of those below:


And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.  1 Nephi 14:12

But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were a innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore.  D&C 76:109


Nephi was talking about the condition of the church of God just before the second coming, so my conclusion is that the "elect" are few upon the face of the earth and that I can teach/testify all I want, but that large majority of the world will choose telestial ways regardless of what I do.  My purpose then is to help find the elect, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and then be that warning voice to all the rest so that they will have had the opportunity to choose something higher.

The four of us missionaries in our apartment helped a member neighbor move from upstairs and they gave us this fake potted palm tree.  We decorated it and now have an epic missionary Christmas palm!  Lol, yeah, people laugh at us -- every one else get normal fir trees here from huge tree farms.

Love ya,
Elder M.

Elder Ben

Familia y Amigos,

Tienen un nuevo perro?  Se llama Kippa?  Me encanta y ella as muy linda.  I have yet to receive your letter so this was the first word of it.  It actually really surprised me.  I thought after Sandy died that that would be the end of the Howell pets.  So how old is she?  Where did you get her from?  It sounds like she may get a little overwhelmed when everyone is at the house for Christmas.

I am not at all jealous of your snow.  It is still green here (well actually it always does, but I mean we don't have snow).  This morning was actually the first time that we had frost or ice.  Although I wouldn't mind testing out an ATV with a snow plow at all either.


Not too much new to report this week.  A lot of meeting new people in the branch and the investigators that we do have.  We did find one really cool investigator this week though.  He actually learned a little bit about the church all the way back in 2001 when he lived in Mexico and his neighbors were members.  It turns out that he even attended church several times in the past.  He has never read The Book of Mormon though so we gave him the callenge to start reading it.  He is a man with a lot of questions though and that is good.  He started to read the title page with the brief explanation of where The Book of Mormon came from.  He didn't get more than a sentence into it before he was asking who Nephi was and what the Lamanites did.  Really great!  We explained briefly and then said that if he wanted to learn all about it, he would need to start reading it for himself.

OK, so there is a big benefit for staying in the States and learning Spanish.  Sure we are not surrounded  by the language 24/7 and may not learn it as fast, but we have the huge benefit of meeting people from all of the countries in Central America and most in South America and thus get to hear a bunch of different accents and dialects.  I met a family from the branch last night that is from Chile.  They were talking so fast and with a thick accent that I couldn't even understand them at first and needed their daughter to translate.  By the end of the appointment I had adjusted a little and was picking up most of what they said.  It is definitely interesting to see all of the different ways Spanish can be spoken.

Love you all,
Elder Ben Howell

Photos from Benjamin

Elder Ben

WHAT?!?!? E.T.'ed????? Yep that's right I was just emergency transferred out of the area that I was born into and have stayed for the past 4 and a half months! It was Thanksgiving night when I got the call at around 10:15 p.m. and was told that I would be moving out at 9 in the morning the next day. Not much time to pack or get things in order before I was off....I didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone in the branch.

So right now I am in Renton, but still in a trio (just two different Elders then the last trio). So turns out that last transfer (two weeks ago) President Larkin had put the two Spanish Elders that couldn't drive together in an area. Well that doesn't go over to well because the areas that the Spanish missionaries have are just huge and there was no way that they could bike the whole thing. I am with Elder Wilkins (haha yep my trainer) and Elder Haro. It is really crazy to be in a new are and new branch. Just when I had everything figured out with roads and branch members and all they switch it up and I am back to square one with not knowing anything. Should be great though.

So in the first two days of being here I have made some crazy connections with Manti.   First off, I live in the house of an older member couple, and the lady asked me where I was from. Turns out that her niece is the wife of Fred ( Fred that owns "Freds sports grill" on main...his last name isn't coming to mind).   Really crazy, but she says that they love going to Manti and visiting. Second, I met an Elder in my new zone (Elder Allred) that is from Redmond and wrestled in High School.  Turns out that he is friends with Kip Denton and Tanner Denton and that would have put him I'm my weight class....maybe I wrestled him.  He also knows the Carters because Sargent Carter is the one that recruited him into military service.  Maybe this coming week I will meet other people that have connections to Manti somehow.

So I'm not sure if the Brothers were able to make it to church this past week, because I wasn't there. Hopefully, because they seemed to be interested in coming

McKay hit it right on when he said you don't have to worry about going hungry on Thanksgiving.  I had multiple Thanksgiving meals the night before I left Seattle.  And then when I got to Renton they had a Thanksgiving meal for the branch.   I think I have had more Thanksgiving than at any other time in my life.  It is a bit different than the normal American dinner though  had Mexican beans, macaroni salad, and deer soup at one appointment so not what any of you ate I am sure.  The other one was pretty normal with mashed potatoes, turkey, and dressing.   I took several pictures at both of the appointments (Jaclyn will be happy)

On Saturday night we had the branch Thanksgiving here in Renton.  Turns out that the branch mission leader wanted to do a skit with the missionaries (Elders and Hermanas  we quickly in one hour put together a 10 minute skit and performed it.   It surprisingly went well and was really funny. So now I can say that I performed in Spanish!  I think one of the members may have recorded it so it is just a matter of tracking it down so everyone can watch it. hahah

So Friday on I have just been trying to get used to things in the new area.  There is a lot of people to meet and a lot of roads to memorize.  Just trying to memorize the members and investigators and get things organized

With Love,

Elder Howell

Elder McKay

Hola Madre!

This week has been very positive for our work here. Little miracles are happening all over the place. We've been working our tails into the ground and I think the Lord is finally letting us see the upcoming harvest (crossing fingers). We finished this week with 5 people on baptismal dates and 3 people at church.

One of my favorite little things that happened this week was similar to what happened with the Albanian woman from a couple weeks ago. This weekend, we tracted into this couple that had just moved here from Haiti. They had seen missionaries walking around in Haiti before, but never talked with them, so they were very open. Unfortunately, English wasn't their primary language, so we asked what language we should order from the mission office and they said either French or Haitian Creole. Wonder of wonders - we got back to the apartment that night and we have a single copy of the BofM in French among all the English and Spanish copies. This weekend, we finally connected with a less active/part member family that we've been trying to meet for a while. It turns out she's from the Philippines with the native language of Tagalog. Once again, back at the apartment, we found a single copy of the BofM in Tagalog! This is nuts! Lol, all we really have are English or Spanish books, but for some reason in the past two weeks we have just happened to find people who need them in Albanian, French, and Tagalog and we have had every single one of those already at the apartment! Random... Thank you, God! The only other languages we have left are a Russian and a Hindi copy, so I'm expecting minor miracles with those two as well. :)

Well, Thanksgiving was rather odd. We ate a lot, met a lot of people, etc, but otherwise it wasn't quite the same without playing football/frisbee with the Howell clan. Christmas will probably be just as weird.

Lovies!

Elder M.

Elder McKay

Mom,

You're right; there is no need to worry about us going hungry on Thanksgiving. I think we're up to 5 or 6 different appointments on that day with members already. Urgh....I'll have to keep myself to a single green bean at once place, maybe a roll at another appointment, a salad at another, and then a piece of pie or something so that it all turns out to be a well rounded meal instead of physically exploding. =P

Unfortunately, the gal who smunched my companion ended up avoiding us once we tried to setup an appointment. Lol, she did try to get a date with Elder Fuller though, so he had to explain our restrictions and tell her what we as missionaries are all about. Oh well, there are elect and prepared people in this pond of tens of thousands that he and I have stewardship over -- now we just need to rely on God to help us cross paths with them.

I've learned a great truth: 1) the Spirit speaks better than I do. 2) the scriptures are written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 3) reading selections of the scriptures with people is giving them those words from the Spirit which is equivalent to teaching with the Spirit. Or at least, that's what I've determined after this week. We've been able to see several miracles and set 3 people on baptismal dates after simply listening to them and then reading selections of the Book of Mormon with them that felt right. What do you know - it works!

I saw an alligator for the first time since coming to Florida in April! It probably took so long since I've been in the city the whole time, but we spotted one in a swampy creek that we were biking over. He was only about three feet long, but it was still pretty cool. I dunno, it's just very different here. Instead of the usual deer on the side of the road, we have squished armadillos and dead possums everywhere with the occasional raccoon and turtle thrown in. Swamp Life.

It's hard to believe that Jesse Richardson is home, Preston Coburn is getting married, and Peter Olsen is over the hump. I still remember back when those kids were all in middle school! Gah! I'm old....

I'll close with these choice words that you can give to the family: Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll!

Your Southern Son,
"Elda Mac"

Elder Ben

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Well this week has been a little bit slower just because we have been transitioning with my two new companions. Elder Wagner has served in this branch before and all I had to really do is take over all the planning for our investigators until he caught on to who we were teaching. It is a blast in a trio though. It basically seems like time flies by faster with having 2 companions, lessons, tracting and everything in between just seem to be a lot more fun. Not that we are looking for the fun aspect, but it is true. We have transitioned to doing a little bit more tracting. Elder Wilkins was a less active members guy, while Elder Wagner is a tracting and finding new investigators guy. Both are fine with me, just a different style of work. It has already paid off though. We found several investigators this last week that we are starting to teach.

Not to much that really stood out to me this week. A lot of getting my companions introduced to the investigators and starting to work for there.

Mom, it is so true. A lot of people when they see us think that we work for the government and are a little scarred/suspicious of what we are doing. It doesn't help that it starts to get dark at 4 in the afternoon so half of the proselyting time we are in the dark with dark clothes on....not very conducive to have people open their doors to you.

Last night I had this thought to visit two people that Elder Wilkins and I had been teaching before. They are brothers and after about the 3rd visit with them Elder Wilkins and I dropped them because it seemed like they only wanted to learn about the church because they were interested in what a mormon was more then the actually investigation of the truthfulness. Thinking that is was going to be a disaster and wondering if I was making a bad choice going to their house, we went and had a lesson with them. And it actually turned out REALLY well. Surprised me, but they asked a lot of good questions about the Book of Mormon and said that they wanted to come to church on Sunday. Big change to anything that we had seen before.

Well I have to go. Happy thanksgiving to all.

Elder Benjamin Howell

Elder Ben

Family and Friends,

What Manti won the football championship! This is just crazy! I think Manti sports have been moving up. Way to go.

Nice to hear that Daniel had a pretty good support group to watch him run. It sounds like his team still did pretty good even if they didn't go to nationals

Has it already been a year since Teyah was born? I guess that would make since because it is November.....that means that Peter Olsen has been on his mission for a year also....time is just flying by.

Well today was transfer day so that is why I'm emailing a day later. Turns out that I go from my first companion for over 4 months to getting my 2nd and 3rd companion all in on day! That's right I'm in a trio. Every single companionship of Spanish elders was switched up this transfer (not that that is a lot only 4 companionship's) but this is the first move that we have made since I have been out here. Elders were even taken out of one area and had Hermanas white washed into it, just a huge mix up. We have 9 Spanish elders, so last transfer one guy was with an English elder, turns out this time President wanted to try having a trio instead. I am still in the same area that I have been. one of my new companions was here in this area right before I came out so he already knows the area and most of the members. My companions are now Elder Wagner from Salt Lake City, and Elder Henderson from Ogden. I have only been with them for about 2 hours so don't know to much else about them. My zone has been in the past like what McKay's is now, with not many people leaving. Today I think about half of them left though so we will be seeing a lot of new missionaries.

We had a Spanish Conference last week that was pretty great. Every other transfer everyone in the Spanish program gets together for training and then we have a lunch after. Since there are only about 24 of us it is easy to organize and get together. Elder Wilkins went all out for the lunch and bought over 6 pounds of carne asada, everyone seemed to love it though and he wants to continue it as a tradition

This week we had to take both of our on dates off date. One of them is moving out of our area, but still staying in the mission. The other one has to get married before her baptism (and wants to get married), but it just wasn't going to happen in the next couple of weeks. We plan to continue to work with her for a baptismal date later on

Last week was great weather! We were seeing about a week of temperatures in the 60's then last Saturday we had a cold snap and I think winter is finally upon us. I am finally just having to bring out my coat for the winter

Well I have to go

Elder Howell

Elder McKay

This week has been interesting....

So last Monday was probably the most wild one ever. Four of us elders went fishing in the St. John's river behind an investigator's house. We missed the prime time, but decided to stick around anyway. The other elders were using poles, but I wasn't actually in the mood for fishing or catching anything, so I just decided just to learn how to toss this net that is used for catching bait shrimp. On my second cast, I caught a small fish, and by the end of the evening, I was getting good enough with it, that I had caught three decent size sea trout while none of the other elders had caught anything. Hahaha! Take that! The vegetarian guy who hasn't fished in 12 years is the only one who catches any fish! Elder Day ended up chopping up one of my fish for bait and caught a very large blue crab with it. He was reeling it in and was pretty surprised, "I think I caught something, but it's not fighting very much......What on earth is that?!" Lol, the crab wouldn't let go though, so he reeled it in and put it in a bucket to give to someone who could use it.

Now that daylight savings time is over, it gets dark really early here and we have to flick on our bike lights every evening. That same night after we were done with P-day, we were biking on a sidewalk down near the end of our area and were making good time. This car came to pull out of a gas station that we were passing and then stopped before pulling out onto the road, so I figured it had seen me and continued through. Two seconds later I hear a screech and then a loud crunch. Turns out, the gal had not been paying much attention and smunched Elder Fuller pretty good, but thankfully didn't actually run him over. His bike and her car were both pretty messed up though. Lol, you have to know Elder Fuller, but this was so like him - he pulled himself up on her hood and gave her the thumbs up while she was still freaking out behind the wheel. Turns out she's a college student about our age, and had some interest that she'd just hit two ministers, and we may end up teaching her in the near future. I figure God works in mysterious ways to bring people into our path. =)

Hmmm, ah yes, this inactive member was piddling around in his shop when we dropped by to see him and he was in the middle of creating a collection of handmade wood/gold pens. He saw our pens (my 20 cent Bic variety) and said, "You boys need new pens" and gave us both these very glassy pens made of gold and dark wood. I must admit, it looks a lot better than a black and white plastic one. :) It writes about the same though.

On the serious side of things, we are still praying for miracles and doing all we can to find new people. We did see one occur with an Albanian family. We met them while leaving the apartment of a part member and had a really positive interaction. We got back home and told our roommate about it and wonder of wonders, he just happened to have a single, hardcover copy of the Book of Mormon in Albanian at home. We were able to place that with them this past weekend and are have high hopes with them.

Well, the computer is going to oust me off in 35 seconds, so I'd better send this. I love you all!

Elder M.

Elder McKay

Good Morning, Family!

I agree with Benj, the mission is absolutely the best way to ensure that you are never bored! Not only do we have all sorts of exciting, scary, spiritual, and funny experiences, but just about every day has a fair supply of awkward moments! I've never had someone in the house almost die on me during a lesson though, so I think my younger brother has topped me....for now. =)

So guess what - miracles do happen! The day after Elder Fuller got the call to be a trainer this next transfer, I asked God if He knew what He was doing, and told Him I'd really like to keep this companion for a while, if it was ok with Him. Wonder of wonders, that very evening President Barry called up Elder Fuller in the middle of a dinner with a member and told him to scrap that. Some elder here was going home for some emergency, and the new elder will be shuffled in with someone else. Tadaa! Needless to say, I was fairly happy. Transfer calls came around again Saturday night and oddly enough, almost our entire zone is staying - one sister is going home and one being transferred out - but I have heard of a zone being that poorly represented at a transfer.

Well, I have a confession to make. That goal of 4x4 that I told you about last week is extremely lofty and there is no chance we can do it without some serious miracles occurring and a lot of help from the members. I have so far had 2 baptisms and 3 reactivations during my entire stay in this work and so expecting twice that in the next two months is pretty bold and right now we don't really have any investigators to put behind that goal. However, we presented it in ward council yesterday and got the elders quorum, high priests, relief society, and bishop on board with it and they threw out a bunch of ideas and names for us to follow up on. We also have 3 member families that have friends that they want us to start teaching in their homes in the next week or two, so we're praying hard for some Spiritual Power to sweep these people into the gospel.

I look forward to seeing those pictures from Benji's Halloween getup; make sure those get forwarded to me! =D Our ward had a massive chili cook off, bonfire, and trunk or treat that people came out of the woodwork to attend. I don't think I knew half the people there, but it was a lot of fun and we got a couple of investigators to attend as well. We've been eating various chili's for the past week though since the members always pawn their extra food off on us. I don't think I've eaten this well on a regular basis since I left home 5 years ago.... Hopefully you won't need to send me larger pants for Christmas or anything. =P

Your stories surrounding the Sawtelle wedding were quite amusing. I can't believe Mike split his pants out twice! Lol, who does that? But it sounds like a marvelous occasion all around and a wonderful vacation for the Howell crew. I'll catch those Facebook videos someday.

This week has been cold; at least, relatively speaking. We started wearing jackets for the first time on Wednesday night. The thermometer says it is still 55-60 degrees, but it feels a lot cooler than that. I'm not sure if it's just the humidity factor or if I've just adjusted to living in a sweltering sauna through the summer, but I'm going to have to find some gloves or something soon.

Well, wish me luck as we work into this next week - we're gonna need it!

Love,

Elder M.

Elder Benjamin

Hello Family!

Well sounds like this last week was pretty packed with a bunch of family things going on in Phoenix. Everything sounds like it was great at the wedding (minus the splitting out of the pants) and everyone had a great time. Weather sounds amazing in comparison to Manti's 15 degrees. It makes it even more exciting to have had Corey get his mission call the same week. Tell him congrats for me.

Ummm.....ya I haven't even given much thought to Christmas but I guess it is just around the corner. The arrangements that you have right now sound good and I should be able to participate (maybe I will send a bottle of some great Mexican hot sauce that I found :) jk)

This week wasn't transfer week, but that is coming up next week. We should find out this Sunday if we are getting transferred. The zone that I am in right now will be shaken up a little bit because we have 3 district leaders leaving and then both zone leaders leave next transfer. I am thinking that I will most likely be moved, but you never know because I was thinking the same thing last transfer.

The baby incident actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After that episode that we had they are all about learning the gospel. The father is already a member but is dedicated to returning to church and just a couple of days ago we put the mother on date (for baptism) for the 26th of November. God works in mysterious ways to get people to listen.

Not to much to report this week. We are working with several individuals and a couple that are really close to accepting baptismal dates, but there is just little stuff that we have to overcome with them. I have a feeling that in the next 2 months of so there could be 4 baptisms.

Working with the kid that is being adopted by a family in the branch has been great. He knows little to nothing about anything gospel related so we have taken baby steps from who God is to who Jesucristo is to the basics of a prayer. We made some flashcards for him so that he can go through pictures of gospel related people and things and get familiar with them. The great thing is he is catching on and loves to go to church....even after 3 hours he asks to go back to the church.

Well got to run
Thank you for everything

Elder B

Elder Ben

Hello Family!

Well this week we have had some crazy experiences! No joke I think the mission can be the best way to never be bored in your life. There seems to always be something going on. First off to answer your questions: No the guy from Montana still isn't here. He doesn't have any cell phone reception where he is now so we only get to talk to him when he calls us. He said that he would be here in 10 days and that was 2 weeks ago. We are expecting him to show up anytime though. Teaching the adopted kids is going great. The one that is over 8 should be baptized in November, but it looks like it will be after transfers so I am not to sure if I will still be here to see it. The guy from Guatemala we haven't been able to see recently but hopefully soon. Oh, and "improve" in Spanish is ''mejorar".....ya not very close so it was just a mess up on my part. :(


OK so on Saturday we had a SWEET lesson with a couple that we just recently tracted into. This was our second time teaching them and we were going over the gospel of Jesus Christ. The great thing is the women is the most humble investigator we have ever had here. When we were teaching she said that she felt good about everything we taught. She said that she has been taught by other religions but has never found what she is looking for and she has been praying for someone to come to them and teach them. After the lesson we invited one of them to pray and she was really fast to say she would (this in itself is a huge miracle for us, most people would rather not say a prayer or have never said a prayer in their life so are reluctant to do it) she got about two sentences (just thanking God for things in her life and the opportunity to learn about the gospel) into her prayer when she suddenly stopped. We waited in silence for about 10 seconds and then heard that she was crying. Her husband was a bit concerned for a minute and asked her if she was sad. She then said "no, I feel really good it is something so strong and I have never felt it before." Right as she said that the spirit just swept into the room really strong. After talking about the Holy Ghost and bearing testimony of it she was able to finish her prayer. So neat to have this lesson. I can't even explain the feeling that was in that room, but it was incredible. This is what makes the mission worth it!


Saturday night we also had a Halloween party at the church. We decided that we needed to wear some kind of costume so we went to a local thrift store and Elder Wilkins bought some crazy wig and I got a cowboy hat and just wore the aviator glasses that I have out here. When I walked into the church building all of the people in the Spanish branch thought that I was a Texas immigration officer, and I had a couple from the English ward say that I looked exactly like the main character for the T.V. show "Dallas."  (Maybe you will know what that was mom I guess it was like in the 80's or something when it was playing.) Anyways I got a couple of pictures with the costume and will send them to you guys so you can see it.


Sunday night (last night) I had the worst moment of my life. We went over to a part members house to have a lesson. The young couple has a kid and are living with the guys parents who are also members. We were teaching the young couple and everyone else was in the backroom. We were just about to finish up the lesson when the grandpa comes running in with his one year old granddaughter in his arms (baby of the people we are teaching) and screaming the whole time. In about 1 second we realize that the baby has stopped breathing. The whole family started freaking out. Elder Wilkins and I most likely weren't the most calm about everything but comparison we were cool as a cucumber. Elder Wilkins tosses me the cell phone to call 911 as he and the other guy give the baby a very fast blessing. Mean while I have one of the worst connections with 911 and the operator can hardly hear me and I'm running out side to see the address on the apartment complex, because I have no idea what it is. Latter I hear that while I was on the phone the baby gasped and started to breath again. Everyone tended to the baby. And I waited out side praying so hard that everything will be ok, and then helped direct the firefighter paramedics to the right apartment number. Turns out for all you people that are nurses in the family that the baby has been having a fever. The paramedic said that sometimes when the temperature of the body gets to hot it will go into a seizure of something which gets it to cool down. I cant remember all the nice medical terms he used but that was about the just of it. They took the baby to the hospital quickly after the incident to make sure that was it. Everything is fine, but it was sure scary when it was going on. It is good to know that we are in places in the right time to be able to help out.

These are just the things that really made the weekend memorable, so much more that I don't have time to write.

With love

Elder Howell

Elder McKay

Hi Mom!

Thanks for the updates! It sounds like everyone is doing well with various races, weddings, scouts, etc. When I read your letters it sounds like I'm missing quite a bit, but then again, I also know that I'm accomplishing a lot more personally than I ever did before the mission.

I do not envy you the 17 degree weather. The one benefit I have of being 80 feet above sea level is that the temperature doesn't fluctuate a whole lot. We have gotten down as low as 45 one night, but that was only once. It's still short sleeves weather and we are loving it! Fall is a lot different here though, the leaves just go straight to brown if they change colors at all; no splendid fall colors for us. :(

Well, to be perfectly honest, this week was a big downer. Yesterday afternoon alone, we were dropped by 3 of our investigators who said they didn't want to read anymore or have us come back and we had more of the same earlier in the week. I'm not sure what's happening, but our teaching selection is very slim now. I've tried to keep a positive attitude about it all and think of it as God weeding out the non-elect so that we don't waste our time, but it is still pretty hard to have these people that you know and love tell you not to come around anymore.

Elder Fuller and I have started working with a lot more of the members trying to strengthen them, reactivate quite a few, and encourage them to invite/share the gospel with their friends, but it feels like getting cold molasses to flow out of a jar. Don't get me wrong, there are several gung ho families here that absolutely love missionaries/missionary work, but there are others that get the deer in the headlights look whenever they see the name tag. =P We do have some strong goals and plans that will carry us through the rest of the year though and we are thinking we will have 4 families baptized and 4 reactivated in the next 8 weeks. Woot!

So, more sad news. President Barry called Elder Fuller last night and told him he would be training at the start of this next transfer. Sigh. I have had an absolute blast with Elder Fuller - we are very similar and have a lot of fun, but at the same time, I have never felt more motivated to work urgently than with him. We get a lot done and his love for people just shines through. Lol, he even wanted to have his mom call you and set me up with one of his sisters for after the mission. We've become really good friends which hadn't happened with any of my previous companions - I think he's one of those people that I knew in the pre-existence or something. Anyway, so in another week he'll be gone and I'll have a new companion - my 10th in 7 months! People were already remarking when he came in that I was cycling through companions awfully fast, so if I stay in this same area, our members and investigators will have seen faces of 4 companions with me (not to mention district leaders that come with me on trade offs) within a period of 6-7 weeks!

Thanks for the scripture, Mom. It was well timed, needful, and also reminds me of Jacob 1:19 about answering the sins of the people on our own heads if we do not teach them with all diligence.

Gah! Time's up.

Lovies!

Elder M.

Elder McKay

Helllllllllllllllllloooooooooo FAMILY!

This week has been somewhat of a blur. Elder Whitby finally got his visa to Brazil cleared and he packed his bags in a rush. President screeched into the parking lot with the mission van, threw out my new companion, loaded up Elder Whitby and sped off to the airport to get him there on time. Lol, so now I'm with Elder Fuller, my 9th companion of this mission experience. He's from Sandy, UT and has been out just over a year, but is a really solid missionary and just from the past few days I can already tell that we are going to do wonderful things here in Jacksonville together. And have a blast doing it! He's also like 6'3", so he towers over everyone and makes me look like a dwarf.

Well, I attached a picture from Jessica's baptism and then one of Elder Whitby and I about 3 minutes before he left. His head is actually covering most of the area that we work in and I'm pointing to the area that some sisters in our zone are assigned to.

I would have to say the highlight of the week was yesterday afternoon when this prickly old military man that we've been visiting for several months finally expressed interest in reading the Book of Mormon. We gave him a large print edition and he started devouring it - by the time we left he was already through the introduction and the witnesses. We're hoping for a miracle and I know it's possible! There really isn't any other book like that one to change hearts.

Benji, I know exactly what you mean with the poor families. That trailer park that we are thinking of starting a branch in is loaded with them. Only one person in the entire park has a car and most are struggling to feed their families and don't have any electricity, etc. We've been able to help out a couple of them, but not nearly as much as we would like since many members of the ward are also relying on the bishop's storehouse for aid. Sigh, so we just try and teach them as best we can. Sometimes though, you need to meet their physical needs before they are open enough to allow their spiritual needs to be fed. Good luck.

Love ya!


Elder M.

Elder Ben

Greetings from Seattle!

OK this week has flown by and honestly I don't remember part of it. The weeks and months are blurring together to much. From what I remember though we have had a kind of roller coaster week. First off the women that was on date for baptism isn't on date anymore. It is an interesting situation in that she loves the church and I think she knows it is what she needs to do in her life. She just doesn't want to change her life to form to it. She has investigated the church for 2 and a half years now.....and will continue to be that (I hate to use these words but in this context it is true) "eternal investigator". Elder Wilkins and I are convinced that sometime in her life (maybe a couple of years) she will realize that wickedness never was happiness and be baptized.

As far as the mom and her 8 kids that we were teaching we really have no idea where they are right now. All we know is they moved out, and other then that we don't have any info. So if they want to continue investigating the church they will have to get in contact with us somehow. Really nice family though. I hope that they found a good place.

On the happy side of things we have a guy that is moving here from Montana this week or early next week that wants to be baptized. He has already had all of the lessons and has been attending church in Montana for the past 4 months. He says that he loves the church, and the only reason why he has waited to be baptized is he wanted to be baptized in a Spanish branch and they don't have that were he is now. We found him a place to rent with a member here, and he is excited to move. We have known about him for about a month and a half now but it seems like he is finally coming to Seattle.

Also a member family is adopting a couple of kids and they have been coming to church for about a month now. All of them love the church and the kids have even asked to go back to church later on Sunday evening. I think that we will be starting to give the lessons to one of the kids that is 9 years old.

Another good thing. We were in a really sketchy part of town Friday night checking up on a referral that we received from some other missionaries. Turns out the guy wasn't home even though we had set up an appointment. We decided to walk around and see if we couldn't find anyone to teach. I'm sure that it was the spirit telling us to do it because no person in their right mind would walk around this place at night. We ended up walking for a bit and seeing a Guatemalan bakery. We have driven by this place many times and have never seen it. It is a tiny shop stuck in between two other shops.  Literally only about 10-12 feet wide. Anyways we decided to check it out end ended up meeting the owner and his family. Turns out he had heard of the church before because his cousin that still lives in Guatemala is a member. We ended up talking to him for an hour and a half about the church and he really seemed to like it. We will see what happens with him.

Other than that, not to much to report.

Thank you for the support,

Elder Howell

Sorry Folks!

Sorry folks! I hadn't realized that I spaced posting the boys emails from last week...so you get this weeks and last weeks at the same time!:)

-Jaclyn

Elder Ben

What both the girls and boys took region cross country!?!? This is crazy new. How did Gabe do? Does it look like either of them could be a state winning team? To be honest I don't even know who is in the region now, but it sounds like everyone did great. Four in the top ten usually makes you win.

As far as the Spanish goes it is a serious roller coaster. Some days I feel like I'm doing great and catching on to most everything and then other days I feel like I cant understand anyone. As far as dreaming in Spanish I don't know, I seriously don't remember falling asleep most nights and then I just wake up and start another day. If I ever remember a dream I will tell you if it is in Spanish or English.

This week we had a sharp increase in lessons taught, but the only thing is they were mostly to members and less actives. We are trying to help this branch from slowly dissolving away and keeping people active. Over the last year there has been a huge decrease in the branch membership. Alot of people have moved because the economy is bad and they are looking for jobs. Also with only having one church building for the Spanish people to meet at it is hard for them to get to it, not many of these people have cars of means to get to church. Elder Wilkins and I look at a pretty large In-active list every week and decide who we can work on to get to church.

Good news is our on date is still on date! We are headed over there tonight to have a lesson and see if she has been able to pray about the Book of Mormon. Her baptism is coming up in two weeks...
So this week ended up on a really depressing note. Saturday we go over to an investigating family only to find out that they are in a really hard spot (we haven't had a lesson with them for about a month just because they aren't to interested in the church). This is a single mom and her eight kids, and we find out that they are being evicted from their apartment and will be out on the streets. They have no money at all and the kids haven't eaten in a day. Elder Wilkins and I along with two other elders in our zone were able round up a little food for them for the night. It was a very humbling experience to see the kids hold out their hands for the food right as we walked in the house. This family literally has nothing. Luckily I think they might have found a shelter to go Sunday night. I have seen alot of families with not very much to go around on my mission, but this definitely tops it.

We still have a couple of investigators progressing slowly and so we are continuing to work with them. We have this saying that the person most likely for baptism is the person you haven't found yet.....Elder Wilkins and I are still looking for that person/family.

Not to much new this week. Love you family and friends thank you for the support

Elder Howell

Elder Mckay

WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We finally conquered that Satan fellow and Jessica was baptized last night! She was so excited and was absolutely beaming when she came up out of the water. Ah, happiness! There's nothing quite like watching people change and start a REAL relationship with God. It is a very refreshing change to have God place people in your path that are truly "hungering and thirsting" after righteousness instead of just taking the gospel as a curiosity or a given. Thankfully, Bishop decided she'd waited long enough after having it postponed three times, so he confirmed her there a few minutes later. I almost forgot to take my camera since it has been sitting dormant on my shelf for so long, but luckily I remembered and we got a couple of photos after the service was over. However, I did forget to bring my camera to the library today so a picture may have to wait until next week. No worries; this forgetfullness is normal, if you recall. =P Oddly enough, I have gotten a lot better at remembering people's names now that we meet scores of them every day. You get some really unique ones here in the inner city.... TeShawn, Shenika, Dantonio, Tavarius...the list goes on.

Anyway, now we're back to square one. Chris still wants to be baptized, but is swamped with work, kid, and caring for his mom until the beginning of November so he's kind of on hold at the moment. After we discussed the Word of Wisdom, he quit his daily coffee, but after a couple days of going dry he resorted to drinking three or four Red Bull energy drinks every day. Lol, I'm not sure how much of an improvement that is, but at least he's willing to live the letter of the law. =) At least he's not alone - a bunch of the elders out here are addicted to caffeine or energy drinks of some sort. I just use peanut butter and jelly as my energy food.

So this week was interesting. Jessica texted us from the hospital on Tuesday to let us know that they had found brain tumors (yikes!) but thankfully they were not cancerous. By Friday she was feeling well enough to meet with us again and told us she was staying positive through it all. Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference and Elder Oaks of the Twelve was present. Sunday morning was actually a very good session where the stake presidency all spoke on the atonement, living consecrated/holy lives, reaching out to others, etc. It was a good thing the talks were powerful and well presented because Jessica's perfume was providing an alternative distraction that only the whole string of fascinating talks was able to pull me out of. Grrr. My companion said the same thing, so maybe I'm not the only one that is developing missionary goggles. It's weird approaching women sometimes now. We totally have a "brotherhood" thing going on which is totally opposite of my past 5 years on the college scene.

Well, I have a bunch more to write, but the computer is telling me I have a few short seconds before it will explode and erase all my work, so that's my signal to get off.

Adios!

Elder M.

Elder Ben- Oct. 10th

Hi Family,

What?!? Brent Simmons died this last week! Man, I hate to hear that. I will agree with Mckay in saying that is is good that she has so much family around her in Manti. I don't even know what to say...

This week has been a pretty tough one. Not to much visible success with investigators. One actually dropped herself and our on date (Rosalynda) says she doesn't feel to good about November 5th as her baptism date. She says that she hasn't got that confirming witness that it is that right thing for her to do. It is a weird situation because she thinks it is true, but does very little to KNOW if it is true. We are continuing to work with her though and will see how she feels about it later on. The most success that we have actually been seeing is in the branch with members and non-actives. We have been able to re-activate a couple of people and have worked with members alot lately. The branch is small and has actually lost people over the last year (due to moving and inactivity) so there isn't to much solid leadership that people can depend on. Great thing is that the members like us, and say that we are some of the hardest working missionaries to come through this area. So we are seeing some success, but not on the baptismal side of things.

Once again McKay hit it on the head. Tracting is NOT the best way to find investigators. We figure with the 8-12% Spanish speaking population here and out of that percent only about 5% (generous right there) will actually be interested in what we have to say...ya, we have to knock on alot of doors to find someone to teach. :) We have been trying to switch over to working trough the members to find others to teach. We have yet to see if this way will yield more results.

So something pretty sweet happened this week. We started to teach a new investigator the first lesson (he has already had the lessons but it was about 6 years ago) and he asked us to teach in English. He has been in the states awhile and knows pretty good English, but still wants to improve. So we started to teach in English....anyways...what happened is while I was talking a couple of Spanish words came to my mind and I said them before the English ones. YES!!! Maybe my brain is starting to switch to Spanish!!! :)

Yes, sports were banned. After two people went home within a week of each other last year (one being my companion) the MP decided that it wasn't wise to allow sports. At least we have personal workouts in the morning. Alecia and Jacklyn sent me a jump rope so that should help out as well. The only sporty thing that I have done is toss a football around with one of the kids in the branch....

Sounds like a fun weekend with having Jacob and Daniel down. Not sure about the snow though...hopefully it warms up again so you can finish off the cross country and soccer meets with nice weather. It has been a little bit colder here and has rained everyday recently but still not cold enough to use a jacket.

Well not to much crazy exciting stuff to report this week. Thank you for your letters! The work continues.

Elder B

Elder McKay-Oct. 10th

Message body

Hi Mom,

Brent Simmons is gone, huh? Somehow, I always pictured him as the more adventurous sort and he did love planes so maybe this was a better way for him to go than any other. It's probably a good thing that Cindy has all of her family living close by in Manti to rally around her at a time like this though. Now Gabe and Joe won't have anyone to go pester on Sundays...

Well, Satan was definitely hindering the work this week. Jessica was super excited and pumped for her baptism, passed the interview with flying colors on Friday and then yesterday came and we get a text during sunday school that she is feeling super ill and had to go to the hospital just a few hours before her baptism. Elder Whitby and I immediately jumped in the car and headed over to her place to give her a blessing, but she was not available, so we returned to the church only to find that we had gotten a screw through a tire. We found ourselves missing priesthood class to change a tire in the rain. Once again, her baptism has been postponed for a week. She was super bummed that it didn't happen this weekend and asked us to set it up again as soon as possible, so at least we know she's not avoiding it or something.

Elder Whitby and I also worked diligently all week, but our bad luck from last weekend continued with us and we ended up with a guestimated 2/70 (2 successes out of 70 appointments) for the entire week. We've become master appointment setters, but we haven't actually had any teaching experience this week which isn't helping my new companion any with getting into the missionary groove. I've also decided that tracting and "talking with everyone" are the least effective ways of finding new people. We'll definitely be looking into different methods this next week.

Jacob, thanks for the photo of Eli's wedding! He didn't look too nervous in that one so perhaps those wound up nerves that mom told me about had calmed down by then. Somehow that seems really odd to me - I can understand nervousness, but if you are wanting to marry a gal, should you really be scared to death? Reminds me of Sam Brown... =P

A softball to the face also does not sound like a good way to prep for a wedding! Grandma was saying that the bruises, etc should be disappeared by the time the wedding rolls around, but that does sound like it's only a short time away. Hopefully everything will turn out well.

Well, time is short once again. The other elders are bugging me to go to zone p-day where the elders play rugby and ultimate frisbee. I really can't believe Benji's MP has banned sports. ???? Lol, maybe you should point out that section in the white handbook regarding playing sports on p-day.... ;)

Love ya'll!

Elder M.

Elder Ben Photos