Wedding and Inspiration in Seattle

First off a HAPPY BITRTHDAY to Grandpa Kimzey! Yes, I know it is a little late, but I totally missed putting it in my last email. I hope the day was great for you. It looks like it was with a lot of family celebrating with you.

I am still waiting for any signs of spring here in Seattle.  It is still pretty cold and rains everyday. Maybe by the end of next transfer I am hoping to see some warm weather.

Wow, weird of you to mention Judy Gubler in your email, Mom, because I was going to write her a quick note today. I think it would be fantastic if Vlada came back to finish up college in Utah. Last I heard from her, she was going to try but hadn't really started to save money or anything. Writing a letter to Ukraine and then receiving a response can sometimes be a long time.

Mom, I loved the photos that you sent. I was very surprised to see the picture of Daniel. I'm not sure what was more impressive -- the fact that you got a picture of him or the fact that there was a girl in the photo with him :) haha  Wish you luck down in AZ this next week, brother.  I guess I only saw you run once in college also...and that was because I lived 5 minutes away from the track in Logan.

Mom, how are you planning on transporting a wedding cake up to Washington?  It sounds like a hard task.  I received your letter with all the tax stuff on Saturday. I will put them in the mail today. I will think about the knee thing mom.

Gabe and Joe, I am all for McKay's idea of a week backpacking trip next year.  The thing is that I have no idea if I will be able to do a week long trip when I get back.  Gabe, maybe you can whip me back into shape when I get home.  I loved the story about the mountain lion around the house and how Gabe pulled a prank on Joe.  Sure, it may have been a little bit exaggerated, but it was great.  I LOVE the Howell pranking.  It seems like there isn't a day that goes by (or did when I was living at home and with the 3 other brothers) that something absolutely crazy/funny would happen.  I think it may have carried to the mission.  The Hermanas here have a quote wall of crazy things me and my companion say.  I think they may remember more things that I say than I do. hahah

So this week several interesting things happened.  First off, the wedding was great on Saturday!!!  We were there on Friday night helping set up. I guess being a wedding decorator comes with being a missionary.  I actually really enjoyed decorating, which included streaming lights from the ceiling and tying bows around chairs.  For some odd reason I was pretty good at tying bows (not sure how because I have no practice at all) and the women at the end were asking me to tie them all.  We are not sure if the baptism will be this week as planned, but we think in the near future.  We will have to wait and see.

This past week and the week before that we had a great lessons with Santos (another investigator).  He has been coming to church and all the activities for a long time but still wants to be better in his life before baptism.  Three weeks ago, I had the impression in a lesson with him that he could be ready for baptism, but needed to let the atonement take affect in his life. I even had the words put into my mind of what I could say to him to make him understand.  I pushed it aside (really dumb as a missionary) thinking that he himself would know when he was ready and we ended the lesson and left his house.  A week later (two weeks ago) we had splits, so I was with a member and we went to his house.  Had a great lesson and once again I was prompted to share with him what was put in my mind the week before (thank goodness for second chances). I did so this time and almost immediately noticed something different about him. Like something clicked with in him.  We left shortly after, and I wasn't able to see the whole effect of what had happened until this week when we went back.  I started a lesson about faith and was no more then 3 sentences into the lesson when he stopped me and told me he knew about faith and baptism and wanted to be baptized on April 13th!  He put himself on date for baptism! A couple minutes later he thanked me for serving a mission and the words that I spoke last lesson and said there was power in them. It had nothing to do with me at all, but I don't think he understood that. I was given almost word for word what to tell him and how he could really change his life. The experience was absolutely amazing!

McKay, I loved how you brought up the King Benjamin talk in Mosiah in your email this week. Those have become some of my favorite chapters and I actually have been reading them that last couple of days.

Mom, Eliza can only meet with us once a week because she is so busy. We have a lesson with her tonight and I will let you know how it goes next week.  The bad thing is she in moving out of our zone to be closer to college, and we may have to stop teaching her and pass her to other missionaries.

 Well that was my week.

  Love ya,

  Elder B. Howell