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