Well Mom, you're right, we've been celebrating spring for several
weeks now, and the gnats are certainly back in force. There are a few
good things to be said for cold weather (ie. no bugs), but biking
around these Lowcountry islands is very pleasant right now. It almost
makes me want to live here someday...
Wow! Kariann, Leisl, and Cami all home within a week?! I'd forgotten
that they all left that close to each other. Thanks for the
addresses. I'll see if I can jot in a few quick notes to them today.
Hahaha, and yes, Eli, I have only been gone a year. Don't make time
fly faster than it already is! I'm glad to hear that Corey got his
mission underway! How long will he spend in the MTC? 8 weeks?
I had not yet seen a photo of Daniel with his new flame, so I'm glad
you sent one, Mom! I got a chuckle when I opened the file - the first
thing I noticed was a very large belt buckle! Yep! Definitely a girl
for Daniel! Way to go, little brother! (Hmmm, I suppose I can't
really call you 'little' anymore....) By the way, I loved your
inspired idea of writing "USU" somewhere on Alyssa's cake! It would
have been genius! True Blue, all the way! None of this BYU stuff!
=P Good luck in Tuscon this week. I regret only having seen you run
once in your entire collegiate career. Say hello to the Milnes for me
when you see them this week! Congrats to Brady!
Gabe and Joe, it sounds like I need to teach you what camping is all
about next spring! Be prepared for a week-long backpacking trip!!!
And no bringing the gameboy and iPod with you! ....perhaps we can
even track some mountain lions while we're out on the mountain.... =D
Hahaha, thanks for sharing, Mom, I loved the tale!
Well, this week marks halfway through the 12 week training process. A
new transfer begins, and I've just realized that I have now spent more
time here in Beaufort than in any other area of my mission. I'm
suspecting that President will leave me here one more transfer after
Elder Cancel is finished training, so that would make 6 months in one
place. Unheard of for me! I really love it here though, so I don't
mind at all. I'm afraid I don't have any miracle stories for you this
week. It was very quiet compared to the last few weeks with a lot of
dropped appointments and people not home, but we continue to work
hard. We did discover a whole colony of people that live on the very
southern tip of St. Helena island and I keep Elder Cancel on his toes
by threatening a day where we bike out and back - a round trip of 40
miles or so. Lol, he's got a lot more endurance now than a few weeks
ago and we can go over the bridges and things now without walking -
I'm proud of him.
God humbled me this weekend by opening my eyes to a lot of my own
weaknesses. King Benjamin speaks of our "nothingness, and your
worthless and fallen state" and calls us "unworthy creatures" (Mosiah
4:5,11) - I think I felt somewhat of the reality of those verses over
the past few days. Moses said something similar (Moses 1:10) after
being confronted with the glory and perfection of God. Hopefully now,
I'll be able to use this understanding of my own in-sufficiency to use
the Atonement more fully and become more of what He would have me be.
Elder Bishop and I were privileged to give a disabled man a blessing
this week at his request. We both felt very strongly that it is the
Lord's will to heal him in the near future and we are uniting our
faith to hopefully see that miracle happen during our ministry here.
I love you all. Seek the Lord.
Elder M.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Two Baptism Dates in Seattle
Hey Fam,
Well, I was also surprised to see Brady's wedding invitation. I guess it is that time of year again. I just received Alyssa's in the mail today.
I am emailing super late because we had our temple trip today! When that happens, pday gets switched to Tuesdays. We woke up this morning to snow on the ground, and it snowing pretty heavily. We were thinking that the cars were going to have to be parked for the day, but after about an hour and half of snowing, it all of a sudden stopped. Not too much snow was on the roads, so we were allowed to drive to Bellevue (where the temple is). By the time we got out of the temple, is was way sunny and all the snow had melted. It was great to see the sun though. I think that was the second time in 2 months that we have seen it.
So something pretty cool happened this week. A guy in our branch just got his mission call this week. He is going to Salt Lake City (Spanish speaking) in April. He has been out with us doing mission work when he can and is very excited to start. This makes the second guy from the branch to ever serve a mission, with the other one serving right now in Portland, OR. The branch is pretty pumped.
Yes, we still have a wedding that will be happening this Saturday! They just passed out all of the invitations this last week. He is still on date for baptism on the , we are looking forward to that as well.
So I think the highlight of our week happened yesterday night. We had our first lesson with Eliza (pronounced Alyssa), a member referral in the house of the member. She has attended church several times in the past and the most recent time two weeks ago. We actually meet her in January when the snow storm came through here and we went to shovel snow at this member's house. Last night we decided to watch the movie Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and then go over The Book of Mormon after. The movie was powerful, and when we talked of The Book of Mormon, the spirit was definitely in the room. She ended up accepting a baptismal date for the 6th of April! Unfortunately, she is really busy with work and college so we can only see her once a week, so we are hoping that she can be ready by then.
Well I think that is about it for this week! Chow.
Elder Howell
Funeral and Baptism in SC
Brady's getting married?! Wow, that did kind of catch me off guard.
Lol, I suppose I've been out of the loop for quite some time
though....
Daniel, like Benji said: you're a stud. A second and a half away
from the record. You're the man!
Well, we had a funeral this weekend for Justin. Chris was completely
unharmed and doesn't have so much as a scratch from the whole incident
even though they were walking right next to each other. I think I
have been to more funerals and hospitals in the last 12 months than I
ever bargained for. It's almost like death and injury are a natural
part of life.... =P
On the bright side, we had an amazing baptism out on Parris Island
yesterday! Cheyanne (can't use last names) was baptized right after
Sunday School while the rest of the platoon waited outside with the
drill instructors yelling at them. She was super happy though and
graduates from boot camp this Friday.
We had another recruit that had a very tragic injury this week. She
had 16 hours left in the Crucible, which is the last/worst part of
boot camp here at Parris Is, and she broke her arm. Under military
policy, they can't go home unless they finish boot camp or quit, so if
she wants to be a Marine she has to stay in boot camp for another 3
months while her arm heals before she can finish and graduate. Yikes!
Hopefully there is a reason for it though - she was the one who
brought Cheyanne to church with her a few weeks ago and now we see the
results of that.
This week, Elder Cancel and I had a miracle experience that definitely
made it to our journals. We were out knocking doors and decided at
the end of the night to drop by the home of Sister Washington, an
inactive member that we'd never met before. We knock on her door and
her jaw just drops in surprise when she sees us. It turns out, she
had been praying for guidance that evening and had just finished her
prayer when here we are at the doorstep. We pulled up some chairs and
started talking with her and the Spirit came down very strongly on all
of us. By the time we left, she was crying and said "I know this is
what God wants for me". It turns out she has been with the Jehovah's
Witnesses for 20+ years and had only had a short stint of a few weeks
with the LDS church years ago, before returning to the JW. However,
she's not satisfied or fulfilled with anything they are doing anymore
and that's why she was praying for guidance. We directed her to the
Book of Mormon and we're confident the Spirit will teach her the rest
- like He always does. However, my faith was built that the Lord does
use us and that He does place the people in our paths that we're meant
to see.
I hope ya'll are doing well. Much love!
--
Elder M. Howell
http://mormon.org/me/4DS5/
www.facebook.com/elderhowell
Lol, I suppose I've been out of the loop for quite some time
though....
Daniel, like Benji said: you're a stud. A second and a half away
from the record. You're the man!
Well, we had a funeral this weekend for Justin. Chris was completely
unharmed and doesn't have so much as a scratch from the whole incident
even though they were walking right next to each other. I think I
have been to more funerals and hospitals in the last 12 months than I
ever bargained for. It's almost like death and injury are a natural
part of life.... =P
On the bright side, we had an amazing baptism out on Parris Island
yesterday! Cheyanne (can't use last names) was baptized right after
Sunday School while the rest of the platoon waited outside with the
drill instructors yelling at them. She was super happy though and
graduates from boot camp this Friday.
We had another recruit that had a very tragic injury this week. She
had 16 hours left in the Crucible, which is the last/worst part of
boot camp here at Parris Is, and she broke her arm. Under military
policy, they can't go home unless they finish boot camp or quit, so if
she wants to be a Marine she has to stay in boot camp for another 3
months while her arm heals before she can finish and graduate. Yikes!
Hopefully there is a reason for it though - she was the one who
brought Cheyanne to church with her a few weeks ago and now we see the
results of that.
This week, Elder Cancel and I had a miracle experience that definitely
made it to our journals. We were out knocking doors and decided at
the end of the night to drop by the home of Sister Washington, an
inactive member that we'd never met before. We knock on her door and
her jaw just drops in surprise when she sees us. It turns out, she
had been praying for guidance that evening and had just finished her
prayer when here we are at the doorstep. We pulled up some chairs and
started talking with her and the Spirit came down very strongly on all
of us. By the time we left, she was crying and said "I know this is
what God wants for me". It turns out she has been with the Jehovah's
Witnesses for 20+ years and had only had a short stint of a few weeks
with the LDS church years ago, before returning to the JW. However,
she's not satisfied or fulfilled with anything they are doing anymore
and that's why she was praying for guidance. We directed her to the
Book of Mormon and we're confident the Spirit will teach her the rest
- like He always does. However, my faith was built that the Lord does
use us and that He does place the people in our paths that we're meant
to see.
I hope ya'll are doing well. Much love!
--
Elder M. Howell
http://mormon.org/me/4DS5/
www.facebook.com/elderhowell
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wedding and Baptism Dates
This week we were able to put the fiance of a member on date. He has been investigating the church for several years, but just in the last 5 months or so decided to really learn and find out for himself what the church really teaches. Since they live way up in North Seattle and are halfway across the mission from us, we are only able to see them once a week. (She --the member-- has her records in our branch, so mission rules permit us to go out of our area to see them). A little hard to monitor if he progresses or anything with only one visit a week. About a month ago we put them on date for marriage for the 10th of March, and then this last week he accepted a baptismal date of the 16th of March. It was a little weird to put someone on date for marriage, and that usually isn't what you think of missionary work as, but what we are doing is teaching God's commandments and inviting people to live them. Marriage falls under that, so we teach it.
One of our other investigators, Santos, we were able to teach this past week. He has been attending church EVERY week for the past 3 months, going to all the branch activities (one or two a week), and going to the English classes for our branch that are 3 times a week. Very dedicated in what he does. He doesn't have a car, and so he walks from his house to the church (2 and a half miles) for everything through rain or snow. He had brought up that he has been thinking about being baptized but still needs more time. This man already meets all the requirements for baptism and isn't breaking any commandments, but feels the need to be basically perfect. I guess this is ok with me. It is better for him to be over prepared than under prepared for baptism. I actually love how serious and dedicated he is about it, because baptism is a very serious thing. I'm just not sure what we as missionaries can do to help him achieve where he wants to be. I guess just keep on teaching him, and he will know when he is ready.
Believe it or not, that is basically all the serious investigators that we have right now. This next week we are going to be out trying to find more people to teach. Thank you for your story Mom, because it will most likely come in handy this next week. I think most of the time while tracting, we run into about 30-40% of people that don't speak English or Spanish. I guess the lesson to learn is just speak to them and bear testimony. May I ask why Yolanda had a Book of Mormon? The story is very neat, but hard to understand. I know we moved away from Halfway when I was young, but as I remember, the Browns were never Latter day saints. How can you bear testimony of something you don't even believe in? I loved the story, but it kind of boggled my mind.
Well I have to go....
Les Quiero Mucho. Gracias por su amor y sus oraciones.
El Elder Howell
El Elder Howell
Singing and Seagull Attack
This week has been full of interesting little quirks. On Wednesday,
President and Sister Barry were with our district to do interviews and
some additional Trainers training. During my interview, President
asked how Elder Cancel was getting along and then told me to be
patient with him - apparently he has a mild form of autism. Well, that
changed my outlook quite a bit on some of the things he's been doing,
so I was internally rebuked for judging. (1 Sam 16:7)
Elder Cancel and I have been studying the Plan of Salvation all week
as part of the training program, and on Friday we found the reason
why. We were biking up to the library to use the computers for
Facebook and met the Miller brothers (twins?) walking home. They are
recent convert members, and we chatted with them for a few minutes
before moving on. An hour or so later, we were biking back in the rain
and found traffic backed up for a good half mile and probably every
cop in the country blocking off about a mile of Ribaut Rd. We didn't
know what had happened, but found out a few hours later that we'd been
the last ones to talk with Justin Miller. A man had stolen a firetruck
while the firefighters were inside and had gone on a rampage, totaling
about 15 cars before running off the road and hitting Justin, killing
him instantly. The whole ward is still kind of shocked over that one,
but I think he could not have been more ready. He and his brother had
been so excited to go to the temple to do baptisms and they just
barely went for the first time on Monday. I guess this tragedy just
put it in perspective how we need to be prepared at all times (Alma
5:26-27). Elder Bishop, had also driven by soon after the accident
and was scared to death that something had happened to Elder Cancel
and I since we'd just left the house a few minutes before; he still
wasn't sure until we finally checked in with him later that night.
In other news, I was attacked by a seagull - face to face - also while
biking. Moral of the story, never challenge a seagull for airspace.
Well, Tamika seems to be kind of flaky, but it seems God led us to her
just to get us into her neighborhood. She lives in a hard to find
trailer park that is buried in the forest that we probably never would
have contacted if she hadn't given us the location. We found some
incredible new investigators there, both from Mexico. Our translation
abilities are minimal, but both Luis and Roberto seem to have a
sincere desire to hear what we have to share with them.
We took Bonita on a church tour Saturday with a couple of
members and she also brought a friend who purchased the Book of Mormon
at a garage sale and has read the entire thing! We were in the chapel
when Bonita asked if we do music at all; we told her yes, and asked if
she sang and she proceeded to sing a beautiful gospel song. She has a
voice! Wow! She then started tickling the ivory keys and brought out
"We all need somebody to lean on" before we transitioned over and all
sang "Nearer My God to Thee" with her. It was an excellent experience
and she is excited to be baptized. She did have a date, but wound up
in the ER early Sunday morning, so things will have to be postponed
for a little while.
Parris Island continues to be a wonderful treat! We have a young
woman, Recruit Richert, who has been soaking in the gospel and was
telling us of some of the experiences that she's had with prayer and
scripture study ever since she's been coming to services with us at
boot camp. God is really working in her life and she feels like a new
person already. She'll be baptized next week before heading back out
to drill. We also have had a recruit coming to our sunday school class
who's never been much on religion. This week, he happened to be the
only one in class (along with his member buddy), so we modified our
planned lesson and talked about leaning on the Lord and trusting in
inspiration and he prayed for the first time at the end of class. When
he stood up, he just looked at us and said, "that feels really good."
Waaahoooo! We're pretty excited for him too.
Just yesterday, one of our part member families came to church. It was
her birthday, so I had gotten a hard cover, triple combo and written a
little message in the front cover that wished her a happy birthday and
said that the only thing we had to give was these words of Christ, but
we hope she enjoyed them. I'm not sure why, but she teared up and
couldn't talk and then, after church was through, thanked us again
with watery eyes. I'm not quite sure what impact that had, but we
hope her heart is being softened. The Book of Mormon has power!
Well, my email time is pretty brief today. We're heading out to the
marine base to play racquetball with a few of the soldiers in a little
bit and we have a lot to get done.
Lovies!
Elder M. Howell
President and Sister Barry were with our district to do interviews and
some additional Trainers training. During my interview, President
asked how Elder Cancel was getting along and then told me to be
patient with him - apparently he has a mild form of autism. Well, that
changed my outlook quite a bit on some of the things he's been doing,
so I was internally rebuked for judging. (1 Sam 16:7)
Elder Cancel and I have been studying the Plan of Salvation all week
as part of the training program, and on Friday we found the reason
why. We were biking up to the library to use the computers for
Facebook and met the Miller brothers (twins?) walking home. They are
recent convert members, and we chatted with them for a few minutes
before moving on. An hour or so later, we were biking back in the rain
and found traffic backed up for a good half mile and probably every
cop in the country blocking off about a mile of Ribaut Rd. We didn't
know what had happened, but found out a few hours later that we'd been
the last ones to talk with Justin Miller. A man had stolen a firetruck
while the firefighters were inside and had gone on a rampage, totaling
about 15 cars before running off the road and hitting Justin, killing
him instantly. The whole ward is still kind of shocked over that one,
but I think he could not have been more ready. He and his brother had
been so excited to go to the temple to do baptisms and they just
barely went for the first time on Monday. I guess this tragedy just
put it in perspective how we need to be prepared at all times (Alma
5:26-27). Elder Bishop, had also driven by soon after the accident
and was scared to death that something had happened to Elder Cancel
and I since we'd just left the house a few minutes before; he still
wasn't sure until we finally checked in with him later that night.
In other news, I was attacked by a seagull - face to face - also while
biking. Moral of the story, never challenge a seagull for airspace.
Well, Tamika seems to be kind of flaky, but it seems God led us to her
just to get us into her neighborhood. She lives in a hard to find
trailer park that is buried in the forest that we probably never would
have contacted if she hadn't given us the location. We found some
incredible new investigators there, both from Mexico. Our translation
abilities are minimal, but both Luis and Roberto seem to have a
sincere desire to hear what we have to share with them.
We took Bonita on a church tour Saturday with a couple of
members and she also brought a friend who purchased the Book of Mormon
at a garage sale and has read the entire thing! We were in the chapel
when Bonita asked if we do music at all; we told her yes, and asked if
she sang and she proceeded to sing a beautiful gospel song. She has a
voice! Wow! She then started tickling the ivory keys and brought out
"We all need somebody to lean on" before we transitioned over and all
sang "Nearer My God to Thee" with her. It was an excellent experience
and she is excited to be baptized. She did have a date, but wound up
in the ER early Sunday morning, so things will have to be postponed
for a little while.
Parris Island continues to be a wonderful treat! We have a young
woman, Recruit Richert, who has been soaking in the gospel and was
telling us of some of the experiences that she's had with prayer and
scripture study ever since she's been coming to services with us at
boot camp. God is really working in her life and she feels like a new
person already. She'll be baptized next week before heading back out
to drill. We also have had a recruit coming to our sunday school class
who's never been much on religion. This week, he happened to be the
only one in class (along with his member buddy), so we modified our
planned lesson and talked about leaning on the Lord and trusting in
inspiration and he prayed for the first time at the end of class. When
he stood up, he just looked at us and said, "that feels really good."
Waaahoooo! We're pretty excited for him too.
Just yesterday, one of our part member families came to church. It was
her birthday, so I had gotten a hard cover, triple combo and written a
little message in the front cover that wished her a happy birthday and
said that the only thing we had to give was these words of Christ, but
we hope she enjoyed them. I'm not sure why, but she teared up and
couldn't talk and then, after church was through, thanked us again
with watery eyes. I'm not quite sure what impact that had, but we
hope her heart is being softened. The Book of Mormon has power!
Well, my email time is pretty brief today. We're heading out to the
marine base to play racquetball with a few of the soldiers in a little
bit and we have a lot to get done.
Lovies!
Elder M. Howell
Monday, February 20, 2012
Baptism in Seattle
Familia-
Mom, much like you, I usually think that I am going to not have much to say, but then I sit down and the words just seem to come.
I forgot to tell you last week, but two weeks ago (Sunday) I gave my first ever sacrament talk in Spanish! I guess there was some kind of mix up in the branch presidency on who was going to call speakers for the week, and so my companion and I received a call on Saturday asking if we would give a talk the next day. I guess they thought that out of anyone a missionary should be able to throw a talk together the fastest. A little bit stressful at first trying to find time in a missionary schedule to write a talk in a day, but somehow it came together in the end. :)
Yes, Marco did get baptized this past weekend!!!!!!! We had the baptism Friday night, and he was confirmed on Sunday. His friend (the one that introduced him to the church) did the confirmation. It literally was amazing to see the changes in Marco's life. There was something different about him right after his baptism; you could see the change that had come into him. I will have to send you pictures. The members were a huge part in the spiritual progression and support of Marco. What was great is another member brought his friends to the baptism, so how they were introduced to the church is at a baptismal service. They also came to church and now want to start taking the lessons!!! MEMBER WORK IS LEGIT!!!!
For service this week, we went and helped our branch mission leader with the building of an addition to his house. Luckily, both Elder Mitchell and I had had a little bit of experience working construction. It felt great to use a saw and hammer again. I really didn't know the words in Spanish for all of the equipment, but by the end of it I had learned a couple more words. Well those were the biggest highlights I think of the week.
Mom, my knee is still not 100%. I cant really bend all of the way on it, but at least I can walk all right now. I think I will have it looked at after my mission. I know exactly were it hurts, and if I had a detailed picture of a knee, I bet I could diagnose my own injury. I was playing basketball with members after a baptism of one of the Hermana's investigators. So what I was doing it totally legal. Also the rule is a hair relaxed. We can now play sports in between the missionaries in our district (6 elders). The problem is 2 of them live way across the zone, and the only time we see them is at district meeting (we were all very surprised when they were called to be in our district) So usually if we want to do anything, it is with 4 of us.
Elder B. Howell
Mom, much like you, I usually think that I am going to not have much to say, but then I sit down and the words just seem to come.
I forgot to tell you last week, but two weeks ago (Sunday) I gave my first ever sacrament talk in Spanish! I guess there was some kind of mix up in the branch presidency on who was going to call speakers for the week, and so my companion and I received a call on Saturday asking if we would give a talk the next day. I guess they thought that out of anyone a missionary should be able to throw a talk together the fastest. A little bit stressful at first trying to find time in a missionary schedule to write a talk in a day, but somehow it came together in the end. :)
Yes, Marco did get baptized this past weekend!!!!!!! We had the baptism Friday night, and he was confirmed on Sunday. His friend (the one that introduced him to the church) did the confirmation. It literally was amazing to see the changes in Marco's life. There was something different about him right after his baptism; you could see the change that had come into him. I will have to send you pictures. The members were a huge part in the spiritual progression and support of Marco. What was great is another member brought his friends to the baptism, so how they were introduced to the church is at a baptismal service. They also came to church and now want to start taking the lessons!!! MEMBER WORK IS LEGIT!!!!
For service this week, we went and helped our branch mission leader with the building of an addition to his house. Luckily, both Elder Mitchell and I had had a little bit of experience working construction. It felt great to use a saw and hammer again. I really didn't know the words in Spanish for all of the equipment, but by the end of it I had learned a couple more words. Well those were the biggest highlights I think of the week.
Mom, my knee is still not 100%. I cant really bend all of the way on it, but at least I can walk all right now. I think I will have it looked at after my mission. I know exactly were it hurts, and if I had a detailed picture of a knee, I bet I could diagnose my own injury. I was playing basketball with members after a baptism of one of the Hermana's investigators. So what I was doing it totally legal. Also the rule is a hair relaxed. We can now play sports in between the missionaries in our district (6 elders). The problem is 2 of them live way across the zone, and the only time we see them is at district meeting (we were all very surprised when they were called to be in our district) So usually if we want to do anything, it is with 4 of us.
Elder B. Howell
Southern Update
Hello Family!
I don't have a whole lot of time to write this - we're at a library with a 30 minute rule and I have to write President as well,but I wanted to let you know that I'm doing well.
A few of our more promising investigators told us not to come back this week and that was somewhat depressing. It's hard to hear that when you've come to really love someone, but I'm confident that the seeds we planted will grow and sprout someday.
On Saturday, Elder Cancel and I had a really cool experience. We were biking out to an appointment on Lady's Island and met a woman on the highway that was several miles out of town. It turns out she lived in a nearby trailer village, but as we started talking with her, the Spirit just came in really strong. We'd only been talking for about 30 seconds with her, when she started crying and admitted that her relationship with God had been suffering for a long time due to various choices and sins she'd gotten into and that she wasn't spiritually where she wants to be. We were already late for our appointment, so we probably only spent 3-4 minutes with her, but she was crying and thanking us for stopping by the time we left. It just really built my testimony of talking with everyone; most people blow us off, but you never know when you'll find that golden nugget!
Elder Cancel met his first born again Christian who told him he wasn't saved because he believed in something more than the Bible. It's kinda fun sometimes to watch new missionaries react to situations they've never been in before. =P
This week was somewhat of a trial though. Elder Bishop (district leader who lives in the same apartment) got sick with strep throat. Two days later I was feeling lousy and couldn't swallow from a severe sore throat and lost my voice the day before I was supposed to give a 25 minute talk in the Parris Island sacrament meeting. Thankfully, God pulled us through and Elder Bishop was miraculously feeling better the next day and took my place. Today, I still have a mild sore throat, but I can talk again! Huzzah!
By the way, mac and cheese is huge in the south. Not the regular boxed junk, but real mac and cheese baked and all yummy scrumptious. It's almost as common as green jello and funeral potatoes are in Utah. Anyway, a part member took an interesting spin on the stuff and made some smoked mac and cheese for us yesterday; most interesting stuff I've ever eaten. Not bad though.
Lou, that's a good looking Valentine's photo that Mom forwarded to us! From what Mom tells us, it sounds like Mr. Joe is a good catch. Good luck!
I thought there wasn't enough snow this year to do Klondike? Did they just camp in the snow, or did they actually get to dig snow caves? Haha, yeah, there were always interesting experiences on that campout. I'm still glad I went though even though it wasn't the best sleep ever.=D
Gotta go; love ya'll!
Elder M.
P.S. This is the photo I sent to Mom and Chantel for Valentine's day.
I don't have a whole lot of time to write this - we're at a library with a 30 minute rule and I have to write President as well,but I wanted to let you know that I'm doing well.
A few of our more promising investigators told us not to come back this week and that was somewhat depressing. It's hard to hear that when you've come to really love someone, but I'm confident that the seeds we planted will grow and sprout someday.
On Saturday, Elder Cancel and I had a really cool experience. We were biking out to an appointment on Lady's Island and met a woman on the highway that was several miles out of town. It turns out she lived in a nearby trailer village, but as we started talking with her, the Spirit just came in really strong. We'd only been talking for about 30 seconds with her, when she started crying and admitted that her relationship with God had been suffering for a long time due to various choices and sins she'd gotten into and that she wasn't spiritually where she wants to be. We were already late for our appointment, so we probably only spent 3-4 minutes with her, but she was crying and thanking us for stopping by the time we left. It just really built my testimony of talking with everyone; most people blow us off, but you never know when you'll find that golden nugget!
Elder Cancel met his first born again Christian who told him he wasn't saved because he believed in something more than the Bible. It's kinda fun sometimes to watch new missionaries react to situations they've never been in before. =P
This week was somewhat of a trial though. Elder Bishop (district leader who lives in the same apartment) got sick with strep throat. Two days later I was feeling lousy and couldn't swallow from a severe sore throat and lost my voice the day before I was supposed to give a 25 minute talk in the Parris Island sacrament meeting. Thankfully, God pulled us through and Elder Bishop was miraculously feeling better the next day and took my place. Today, I still have a mild sore throat, but I can talk again! Huzzah!
By the way, mac and cheese is huge in the south. Not the regular boxed junk, but real mac and cheese baked and all yummy scrumptious. It's almost as common as green jello and funeral potatoes are in Utah. Anyway, a part member took an interesting spin on the stuff and made some smoked mac and cheese for us yesterday; most interesting stuff I've ever eaten. Not bad though.
Lou, that's a good looking Valentine's photo that Mom forwarded to us! From what Mom tells us, it sounds like Mr. Joe is a good catch. Good luck!
I thought there wasn't enough snow this year to do Klondike? Did they just camp in the snow, or did they actually get to dig snow caves? Haha, yeah, there were always interesting experiences on that campout. I'm still glad I went though even though it wasn't the best sleep ever.=D
Gotta go; love ya'll!
Elder M.
P.S. This is the photo I sent to Mom and Chantel for Valentine's day.
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