Florida Report

Hey Mom!

We do get to write on this lovely rainy Memorial Day because we have a key to the church family history library here in Gainesville and can use the computers any time! This is going to be a slow P-day though because there's a tropical storm blowing over and we've got lots of wind and rain outside.  No sports today.  =(  On the up side, I guess this means we get to deep clean our house over the next few hours...

Well thank you for the package!  I have already started munching on the pistachios and the cherry pastry things. I think I've had a larger supply of Werther's hard candies on the mission than my entire life -- I just finished the ones from Christmas! Haha.

So, since the cousins are technically family, do you think they would mind forwarding their emails to us as well? I would love to hear Corey's exotic stories from proselyting on the other side of the world.

I'm proud to hear of Gabe, Jake, and Daniel all having solid events this week with running! Sanpete county won't be able to fill the Howell shoes once Gabe and Joe are moved out.  =)  It sounds like a rough environment for Daniel in Texas though. I have a hard enough time running when it's 75 degrees in the morning here with all the humidity - I don't even want to imagine what it was like at 90. Good luck, brother, on transitioning from the college competition scene to finding a job.

Well, this week was much better for working in our own area. Other than three district meetings that we attended in the mornings, we were able to spend every day here in the 2nd ward and get a lot accomplished. We're laying the ground work for a successful month of June and we have a growing teaching pool again. No real miracles this week, but just a bunch of finding and talking with everyone. The assistants came down from Jacksonville to do a trade off in our area on Wednesday and it was fun to split up and get twice as much done as usual. We do have one baptism scheduled for a week and a half away and he seems really solid for it - has read the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants all through and is going through them again.

Next week, there is going to be a modification to the usual schedule because of transfers and P-day will be on Tuesday instead, so I'll write then.

Love ya'll muchly!

Elder M.

Baptism in Washington

Hello Family,

Well, this past week we were able to have a baptism!!!  It ended up being pretty last minute on the preparations for it.  We had an interview earlier during the week, and it turned out that he needed another one.  We got the call at 8 pm the night before saying that we could have the baptism (next day at 11am). We called all of the Spanish speakers in the ward that we could think of to give talks and to conduct  but everyone was going to be out of town. We had 4 people from the ward that showed up  and only one of them spoke Spanish. Lucky for us the kid spoke English also (he is 14) and so the bishop and young men's president could talk, but his parents can't speak English, so last moment I said that I would conduct in Spanish and Elder Dickinson gave a talk in Spanish.

Right now that lady with the 3 kids is interested in learning but is super busy with her 2 jobs that we can only see her one time a week (and she was sick this last week at that time). We are still going to teach her, but I imagine that it will be a slow process with only one lesson a week.  We are on the search right now for investigators who will really progress and keep commitments. We did find several people tracting this last week who seem to have potential--people that have family already that are members or who have talked with missionaries before.

Love ya,

Elder B

 

Albino Alligators and Converts

Huzzah!  Another missionary in the family!  Wisconsin though...yikes!  Yes, I am certainly glad I didn't get called there.  I would have frozen to death and lost several appendages during the winter.  Haha, good luck to Logan though. It will be somewhat of a drastic change from St. George - kinda like the South was for me.

"Tis the season to get married!  Fa la la la laaa la la la laaa!"  Haha, that was quite the list of engagements/marriages/pregnancies that you mentioned. At the current rate of matrimony, the terms "single" and "bachelor" are going to be removed from the dictionary.  Sigh, these kids are way too young. 40 or 50 would probably be a safe age to figure all that stuff out.  Lol, good thing a mission makes it easy to stay away from all that.  Ignorance truly is bliss in some matters!  =D

It looks like an exciting week for the family though!  Alecia moving to a new apartment with awesome roommates, Daniel speeding to legendary Howellism in the Lone Star State, and Gabe declaring war and decimating the county weed population! Epic!  Mom, I hope you are writing all this into a book, because someday your autobiography of the Howell family is going to sell for millions.  (BTW: I still have not forgotten about your "book for the boys" that you always promised to write...)

Ok, so get this....(Drum roll please!!!)...Elder Mecham and I had a grand total of 1 day and 2 evenings to work in our own area this week and we're still seeing phenomenal success!  God is so good to us. Praise Him daily!  But, yes, we were blessed with a score of referrals and some very successful contacting.  There are so many people in the world who haven't heard about the Book of Mormon yet!!  It's my personal goal to contact ALL of them!  This work is so exciting - lives changing left and right.  Do you think a petition to President Monson would get me an extension?  Maybe if the whole family signed it saying they didn't want me back, then the church missionary department would let me stay out here!  =D

We got to work in Ocala this last Monday and Tuesday after going to the zoo there and watching the alligators be fed. Have ya'll ever seen a flamingo?  OR an albino alligator?  Yeah, it was fun.  The world famous glass bottom boats were closed due to rain though.  :(  Wednesday and Thursday was a leadership training meeting in Jacksonville and Flemming Island. and Then Thursday night and Friday were some baptismal interviews in Chiefland, so we pretty much had Saturday and then Friday and Sunday evenings here in this ward. We have a really solid family that has caught a vision of "faith" and are regularly coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon with us now.  We're hoping to set baptismal dates with them this upcoming week.

Shelley, who was baptized last week, went to get a cup of coffee this week, took one sip and was horrendously ill. She put it down and came back later - same thing. Then she remembered the Word of Wisdom and dumped it out and felt the illness leave immediately!  Hahaha, thank you Holy Ghost for keeping our recent converts doing what they know is right!

Photos of this week:  Flamingos!  Albino gator.  I don't think he wanted a kiss...  Beautiful Florida where I live!

Lovies to all ya'll!

Elder M.

Several More Prospects in WA

Family,

First off mom, I got both the pencil lead and the book. Thank you it is just what I needed.

Sounds like every one is doing great. Gabe in his soccer playing, Alecia in the move, Daniel and Jacob in Logan, and Joe with whatever he does.

It is weird to think that May is already here and that it is Mother's Day. I will see if I can call the siblings in Logan. I think it won't be a problem. I have no idea when I will be calling because we usually have a lot of meetings on Sundays.  Mom, don't try and rob me of my mission time left. I may call home once more on a Mother's Day. Literally 2 days left in my mission will be a Mother's Day!

This week went pretty well. We were able to find several people that seem solid in their commitments.  One of them, a single mother with 3 kids, had talked to missionaries about a year ago.  We looked and she wasn't in the area book so we are just going to start as if she hasn't been taught. She already believes the message though and has read in the Book of Mormon a little before we even met her. Really cool family and we are excited to teach them.

We had a member of the seventy come (Elder Golden Jr.) and do a mission tour. We were able to have an all day meeting with him yesterday. That is why I am emailing today. It was a very good experience, and I learned a lot of things to apply into the missionary work and into my own life.

Things are going pretty well. Talk to you all this weekend.

Elder B.

Miracles in Gator Country

Hi family!

Well, Mom, it's probably a good thing you reminded me that next week is Mother's Day because I may have forgotten otherwise.  Lol, I kinda spaced it on that one.  Wow, it's very weird to think that the last 5 months have already disappeared and it's time to call home again.  It seems like Christmas was just yesterday!  I don't think I'll need the calling card info - we can either Skype or use our cell phone (unlimited minutes), so we should be fine there.

Benj, it sounds like you had a phenomenal week!  Way to find!  Keep it up at this rate and you'll have a branch established in no time!

This week disappeared - I think I only spent two days in my own area in between all the trade-offs with other elders, going to Jacksonville for zone leader council, and doing baptismal interviews. It felt so good to come back to my own bed on Friday night! The Lord is blessing us with miracles in the short time that we do have here though and we have four baptisms lined up for this weekend!  Woot!  We also have another super solid family that we plan to set dates with tomorrow.

So I think this opportunity to work with so many other missionaries has allowed me to see what is really happening with the Lord's work here in the mission and some realizations of Mark 16:17 - "these signs shall follow them that believe."  This week while we were at a district meeting in Ocala, one of the Spanish elders shared an experience he'd had a few days ago when they tracted into a man. This man had become very angry and aggressive to the point that his companion thought that they would be attacked, but he had the unmistakable impression that this man had an unclean spirit that he should command to depart. As he invoked the name of Christ and commanded whatever was in this man to depart, this person's demeanor immediately changed and he thanked the elders profusely before going back into his home.  Another experience an english missionary shared was how he'd been on splits with a spanish speaking member who was translating back and forth as they taught this latino person.  The lesson was apparently going really poorly, but then the Spirit came upon this elder and he finished the lesson speaking in perfect spanish until they walked out of the house. God is very much a God of miracles in this day and age!

There's too much going on to even tell it all.  Suffice it to say that I love being here!

Photo of the Day: an armadillo near our apartment; second in ugliness only to the possums!  These things are squished all over the roads around here since apparently they can't see well enough to know when cars are coming.

Good luck with your runs this week, Daniel!  I'm rootin' for ya from deep in Gator territory!  (will you ever get to come running out this way?  =P  )  Lou, have fun in Logan; good luck on the job search.  Have your older brothers take you to Casper's ice cream or Charlie's Shakes - those were the two best ice cream places in the valley.  I know; I tested them all!  =D

I love you all!

Elder M.

Great Week in Washington

Family!!!!!!!!

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GOD IS A GOD OF MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This week has just been full of meeting new people that are prepared to listen to us. I think we came across about 8 people who really wanted to learn and even accepted baptism.  Most of them were found just in crazy awesome ways. The first of the week we ran into a kid that we actually have been trying to get ahold of for a long time. We tracted into his friend's house, and he just happened to be there.  He is 13 but is always so busy with sports and school things that we can never seem to teach him.  He has been taught a little in the past, but then moved, and we just recently found him again. We had a great lesson with him, and he said he wanted to work towards baptism.  Unfortunately, his parents are pretty against it and usually don't even like to talk to us. We are planning on going by his house to get permission to continue teaching him. Not sure what will be the outcome. This kid is full of faith though, and I am sure the parents' hearts will be softened.  What is also amazing is we kept on seeing him at random times during the week. Usually we never see him, but this week he was put in our path multiple times.

When we were tracting, we met a really great guy and his family.  He has been with a lot of churches in the past but hasn't really quite felt right in any of them. He has a brother that is a member and just recently they have been talking about the church.  Then we knocked on the door.  He has some really good questions and truly wants to learn.  Read a little in the Book of Mormon and plans to continue reading.  After we left the trailer complex, I had a feeling there was someone else there that needed to be found and taught. It was really late, and we had to get home though.  The next day the spirit was still prompting me to return. I told my companion we needed to go back. Later that day, we returned and the second door we knocked on a girl of about 16 answered.  She was prepared!  We taught her, and she said that she had been looking for something like this.  She has had a pretty hard time recently in school and such.  The Lord knows where you need to be and who you need to talk to.

A kid of 14 that we have been teaching for awhile asked us when he was being baptized.  He missed a baptismal date once because he has a hard time getting a ride to church (something we are trying to work out to be solid this week).  He really wants to be baptized and is always excited to see us. His prayers changed also I noticed from "help me know if I should be baptized" to "help me prepare for my baptism."

A bunch of other really neat experiences happened that I can't even write about because of time. Literally, we were just finding people like crazy this week. We were so blessed.

We did make it down to the other zone this past week.  I got a map and some general directions to a couple places that would be good for us to go, and we headed down there. We couldn't spent to much time down there, but in the short time we did have we found many people we may start teaching.  Our best experience was actually with an English speaker.  We tracted into him, and he let us right in. He has had an up and down life with different addictions and being able to stop them.  He has a strong desire to change though, and I could sense that in the lesson that we had.  A very open man though, so it was really easy to teach to his needs. Really a powerful lesson with him.

Well, sorry I don't have time to write more.  Got to go.

Elder Howell

McKay Now a Florida Gator

Hola familia!

This week has been rather exciting. Last week I heard that I was being transferred and nothing else, so I figured this would be a routing change up with a new companion. Surprise!  I am now a Zone Leader over the Gainesville Zone!  I live just a couple miles away from the University of Florida "Home of the Gators".  Perhaps I'll get to head up to their football stadium sometime and take some pictures in the Swamp.  Supposedly, this is also the hottest area in the mission since we are right in a little bowl and the ocean breezes don't touch us.  Being transferred here just before the summer months could be deadly.  =P

I'm actually pretty excited to be here.  I had two things I wanted to do on the mission: 1) serve in Georgia and 2) work with a college student my age to "pay it forward" and hopefully put someone new into these white shirts and ties. I got number one 4 weeks into the mission and now it looks like this is my chance to work on number two with some UF students! Woot!

I'm now serving with Elder Brandon Mecham from California.  He has been a Zone Leader here for the last two transfers and is helping me get oriented with everything. He seems like a great companion though and we should get along fine. With all of the things going on this month with trade-offs, district meetings, leadership trainings, zone leader councils, etc, it seems the time actually spent in my own area will be a lot more limited than I'm used to.

My new address is

1505 Fort Clarke Blvd, Apt 15-207

Gainesville, FL 32606

Parting photos with my favorite family in Beaufort and our old district: Elder Bishop, myself, Elder Craynor, and Elder Cancel.

Gotta run. Love ya!

Elder M.