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