McKay Back on the Bike

Hello Family!

This has been a great week!  We ran out of miles on the car and were out and about biking full time.  I guess it doesn't take long to get out of shape because I was a wee bit saddle sore after pounding it for 7 days straight after not being on a bike in 4.5 months.

On Saturday, Elder Chadwick and I decided to bike out to Archer to see an investigator named Adrian that we had set a baptismal date with.  Archer is about 15 miles out, so we took a sack lunch and plenty of water and started off. By the time we got there, we were both entirely drenched and drained.  Thankfully, the AC was working at his place.  =D  We weren't entirely sure how serious he was, so this was a bit of a probing-for-real-intent lesson, but before we could even begin, he started excitedly talking about his baptism, asked what he needed to do to be prepared, and insisted that we teach him "everything"!  Wow, that was unexpected!  Apparently, he had been reading from the Book of Mormon and had a few powerful experiences with it. He also met the bishop and a few other members at church and was very impressed that the gospel was what he needs in life right now.  After months of struggling, God finally just dropped a live one in our laps!

General Conference is this upcoming week!  We're gearing up for that as well and have some high goals of bringing people to see at least one session in either a member's home or here at the church.  I realized that this will be my last General Conference on the mission.  Kinda sad to think of;  I started off my mission with  General Conference in the MTC.

Good luck with the house search!  It sounds like Cache Valley is an exciting place for the Howell clan to be - Homecoming games, community band, tearing it up in cross country, and an epic bird hunting season.  Keep it up!  Enjoy the beautiful colors and fall weather while you can.  Send a few pictures.  Oddly enough, I kind of miss the seasons.  It's green here all year round, except for the Spanish Moss....Spanish Moss is always gray and it's everywhere!  =D

Happy Birthday, Gabe! I think I missed Joe's birthday as well in there somewhere, so happy birthday to him too.  I'll have to box up some of my famous funfetti cookies and ship them your way. 

Love ya muchly!

Elder M

WA Report

Hey Family,

McKay, I had a similar experience that you did with going back to your greenie area this last week.  Since my companion is the Spanish trainer of the mission he has to do all of the Spanish baptismal interviews for the whole mission and go on a bunch of exchanges. This past week I went back to Seattle for a day.  It was pretty weird, but at the same time I felt right at home. There is just something different about going to the place that you started your mission.
 

I can't believe that the family will be moving already!  I hope you are able to find something close because it sounds like you like the area. 

Well, this week was a pretty good week.  It ended on a good note and kind of a bad note though.  On Saturday we had a district blitz.  The district leader decided to have it in a very Spanishy apartment complex.  We all split up, and I was with my district leader while tracting.  Elder Wilkins and I have been tracting this apartment complex recently, but last time we were here we didn't see to much success and felt like we should leave.  It must have been a prompting from the Lord.  On Saturday, we decided to start were Elder Wilkins had left off.  On the third door we met a member of the English ward.  Her records are not in the ward because the area is covered by my district leader, and he had never heard of the person.  He called his bishop and he had never heard of her either. It was perfect timing for us to get there though because she had just taken a bunch of pills (two different kinds) and drunk some beer.  She told us that she had never drunk before but decided today that God didn't love her and that she was going to commit suicide.  Luckily, she had called her brother-in-law several minutes before and he called an ambulance.  She asked for a priesthood blessing and a Book of Mormon, and we stayed with her until the ambulance was there.  She kept on saying that she thought that God had sent us there at that specific time.  There is no doubt in my mind that that is true.  If Elder Wilkins had tracted anymore before then, we would have missed her on Saturday. It was perfect timing to help her.  The Lord knows where he needs you to be at what time.  I think I have had more things with ambulances and emergencies on my mission then any other time of my life.

 We also met a Spanish lady who had just moved into these apartments.  In all my time here I have been through these apartments multiple times and have talked to everyone..or so I thought.  I shared briefly with her the restoration, and she said she and her three kids would be interested in learning!  She asked great questions and was very sincere in learning.  The only bad part is that I was without a Spanish Book of Mormon.  We have an appointment to go back though.

The man that walked into church a couple of weeks ago is really learning a lot and loving it.  He also came to a branch party that we had on Friday and was able to meet more of the members.  The problem is he works on some Sundays and can't make it to church all of the time.  We are going to teach him about keeping the sabbath day holy this week and see if he can work something out with his boss.  He meets with us multiple times a week and even drives himself to the church building for all the lessons!
 

I am doing well.  This area means a lot to me because I have spent the longest time here.  It is just a good place to be.  Fall is in the air now and it is getting a little nippy in the mornings, although it continues to be pretty sunny here.  I have a feeling that will change at anytime so we are enjoying the last few rays of sun while we have them.

Love ya,

Elder Ben

 

Atheists and Teens in WA

Family,

I have also noticed the fall in the air.  Elder Wilkins and I have woken up every morning and gone to the high school that is just in our back yard to run on the track.  I have noticed a drop in temperature here as well.  We are still running in shorts so it can't be that cold yet though.

Sounds like Jaclyn and Zach are doing well.  I am not sure how I would feel about 5 minutes to decide about a job position though.  It seems like a heavy responsibility, but one that he can take on.

What?!  You might be moving again!  You just got to that house a month ago.  If the house sells, will you be looking for a house in the same town/ area? 

 

This week we continued to see miracles. The man that showed up to church last week was able to come to a dinner at a member's house and was instantly fellowshipped really well.  We taught him two times last week and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would read and pray about it. That is a miracle in itself.  He also said he loves reading which is also another miracle.  We find that reading in a dying hobby/ past time and that hardly anyone picks up a book anymore -- let alone a religious book.  We are very excited to continue working with him and we think that he has a lot of potential.

This week we also started to teach a young 13 year old.  He has some member friends that live close to him and has been to church several times.  The member mom says that this young man is usually at her house or just wandering the streets because both his parents work all day until late, and so he has nobody at home to watch him.  He is basically growing up by himself with his 11 year old brother.  He is a smart kid though and told us that he had liked the church the two times he has gone.  He said he likes when they split up into classes, and he likes learning things that can help him with life's challenges.  I thought that was a good answer from a 13 year old.

We had an interesting experience where we taught an atheist that the Hermanas referred us to.  He is only 19 and has lived a hard life.  In his early years his dad left them, his grandpa died, and he got addicted to some heavy illegal drugs.  Although we couldn't really relate to any of that in our own lives, the spirit was strong in that lesson, and both Elder Wilkins and I felt like we knew what questions to ask to this man and how to respond to him.  We got down to the bottom on his concerns really fast, and it was one of the most open people I have met on my mission.  He said that he knew some people from the church when he lived in California and that he did notice that they were happier than most people.  He said he was happy in his life, but noticed a distinct level of happiness more than his, and he was a little curious to know what it was.  We had a lesson on what the church really was and why it would make people happy.  Although we left the lesson with this man saying he may not change right now and that maybe in 5-10 years down the road he would look into the church.  He did have a change during the lesson and admitted that it seemed like "something" created the earth.  Maybe a start of him believing in a God. Elder Wilkins said after the lesson that I answered some questions or asked some questions the exact way he was thinking in his mind. The Holy Ghost is real and will tell you what to say in any moment.  It was an amazing experience!

Well I got to go. Love you all.

Elder Ben Howell

Basketball Dad in FL

Greetings to the Howell Household, from thy most Sunburned and Sweaty Son,

Elder Chadwick got his bicycle this week, so we started off the weekend by putting a multitude of miles on our legs!  I can definitely tell that it has been three transfers without a bike because I was a wee bit sore the next day!  It's the perfect time of year to be out though, 80-85 degrees most days lots of cloud cover.  I love Florida!

So guess what!  I don't know how big they are into basketball, but Gabe and Joe might appreciate this one.  Elder Chadwick and I were out knocking doors in Newberry on Saturday evening and weren't finding much success.  We reached the last cul-de-sac that we hadn't covered in the area and at the first door we meet a ginormous black man; probably 55 years old but still very muscular and very tall.  We have a great conversation for about 15 minutes and then he invites us in; we see pictures of the family and start asking about them.  He asks us if we know a Marquis Daniels.....we look at each other, "no."  He gives us a look of disbelief and whips out an iPad to show us a young man with dread locks in the green uniform of the Celtics - "oh, THAT Marquis Daniels!"  Yep, we just tracted into the father of an NBA basketball player.  Anyway, he was very receptive and was excited about the Book of Mormon, recognized the verses we read immediately as scripture and the Spirit told him it was truth.

This last Wednesday, we had a Zone Conference in Jacksonville with Elder Craig Cardon of the Seventy.  Due to a funeral being held in the chapel near the mission office, the meeting was moved last minute and I returned to my "birthplace" in St John's county.  Ah, it felt like I was at home!  It was great.  There is nothing quite like getting together with 75 other missionaries/best friends/brothers for a spiritual feast.  We had 8 hours of discussion on the Spirit and fulfilling our purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the holy ghost.

Life continues to be good.  We're making it through on rice and bread and billions of cans of beans.  Humble diet but happy hearts.  The simple life can be the best life.
"But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."  1 Timothy 6:6-8

Much love!

Elder M.

Mini Miracles in WA

To the Howell House,

Well, another week has cruised by.  It sounds like everyone in Wellsville has been staying busy with all of the Labor Day activities.  I am pretty sure that Washington doesn't celebrate anything.  It is kind of weird.  Or maybe it is just that I am a missionary and am not informed about what happens.  I think the only thing that happened for Labor Day here was a good-sized service project that multiple churches and other organizations took part of.  We as missionaries weren't able to go, but I heard there was a pretty good turn out.

This will definitely be the last time that I serve with Elder Wilkins, because this happens to be his last transfer of his mission, so he only has 5 weeks left.  So I will be "killing him off."  With all the time added up, I will have spent over 1/3 of my mission with him.  This week we seriously went insane tracting and trying to find anyone who would be interested.  We actually had a pretty neat experience. About last Thursday, I felt prompted to go and tract an apartment complex that I had never been to before.  The thought really didn't make any sense in my head because this place isn't Spanishy at all.  We decided to go and tract it though, and about 15 minutes into tracting it, we met a young Spanish man.  I recognized his name, and he told us that he had talked to a couple other missionaries just a couple weeks ago.  Then it suddenly dawned on me this young man had been a referral from some English missionaries.  The only problem is, he didn't know his address when he talked to the other missionaries, so he gave them what he thought was his address.  It turned out that that address didn't even exist, so we gave up the search for him.  It was a miracle to find him!  God truly lead us to his apartment complex!  He is interested to learn also. His grandpa recently died, and he has been giving a lot of thought on spiritual things.

We also are going to start working with a part member family this next week because they have a friend that has been to the church in the past and who they feel is really interested in learning.  Most of the week was just tracting without much success.  We did have an amazing lesson with a man from Egypt though, and he was interested in getting a Book of Mormon in Arabic.  We will have to pass him off to the English missionaries in the area.

The Lord truly blessed us with an unexpected surprise on Sunday.  We were sitting in church when in walked a man that had been to church once in the past with a less active member about 3 months ago.  When he came the first time, he was interested in learning more and gave us his phone number and everything to contact him.  He was also working about 16 hours a day, and it was impossible to contact him.  When he walked in today, he talked to me and said that his number had been changed only a few days after he gave it to me the last time and that is why we haven't been able to get ahold of him.  He also quit his job and now doesn't have work, but he says that he is ready to learn.  What a miracle!  This man remembered what time church started, came to church by himself, and then referred himself to us!!!  He stayed for all 3 hours of church and even a baptismal service after. He is also going to be with us at a dinner appointment at a members house tonight. 

 

Love ya lots,

Elder B. Howell

 

Epistle From Gainesville

McKay, a missionary for Jesus Christ by the will of God, unto the Howell Household which is at Wellsville, with all the others that are out West.  Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit has not yet taken over in writing my weekly letters home, so I guess we can't count them as scripture, but all the same, I am so happy to be a missionary right now.

There are definitely more people in Gainesville now that school is back in.  On the other hand, it seems several of our investigators who showed a lot of interest before now simply don't have enough time to ever meet.  Our ward is on the west side of town and most of the professionals, doctors, lawers, and lots of medical students live where we are at.  Elder Chadwick has brought a lot of optimism and hope though, so we continue to work hard every day and strive to not succumb to heat exhaustion.

We tracted into a man who knew a member years back when he worked at the hospital and she would always listen to him explain his spiritual views that he had essentially figured out on his own (he gave up on organized religion long ago). She told him, "you're closer than you think," and gave him a copy of the triple combination, but he had only skimmed it and then put it on a shelf.  Now, ten years later, we show up at his door and almost everything that he believes is right in line with what we are teaching.  We had him pull out the Book of Mormon and read from Joseph Smith History with him and he was blown away.  Loves it!  Isn't the Spirit great when it does what it does?

Elder Chadwick and I did some service for another older man we tracted into and he is now opened up quite a bit.  I guess it just takes a helping hand and demonstrating love for some people to want to talk with you.  We're going back tonight to teach him again.

We've also got a couple of foreign exchange students living with a member family in our ward.  One is from Ecuador and the other is from Poland.  We had Spanish and Polish copies of the Book of Mormon for them by their second Sunday here!  Baha!  I love it.  They're both Catholic, but they love learning and hopefully we'll be able to introduce them to what this marvelous book contains.

As for the hurricane passing, I don't think we would have even noticed on this one if the mission office hadn't told us to have emergency food/water ready.  It was just really rainy for a couple of days; nothing extraordinary though.  Rumor has it that there are a couple more storms brewing, so we'll see what the future brings.

Jacob's experience with the cannon in Wellsville reminds me of my experience with the 9 o'clock cannon in Vancouver when we were there a couple years ago.  Was totally not expecting it and was out for an evening stroll when a cannon goes off right across the way.  My natural instinct was to levitate off the ground a couple of feet and then the breeze almost blew me off the dock into the bay while I was re-entering the atmosphere.

Good luck to you, Elder Ben!  I've never served with a companion longer than 2 transfers, let alone 3 different times, so I hope you "kill him off" on a high note. I've also been studying the "Fourth Missionary" talk lately and have gotten quite a bit out of it.  I think I change every time I read it.  Then again, that's essentially the purpose of life, change to be more like the Savior; can't ever be stagnant.

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen

Elder M. Howell

Third Round with Elder Wilkins!

Family,

Well today was transfers.  After spending the last 12 weeks with Elder Henderson he was transferred out of Renton, and I stayed.  I will now be serving with....you will never guess....ELDER WILKINS!!!!  That's right, I am now serving with my trainer...again!  This is now the 3rd time that we have been companions. I think the Lord really wants to keep us together.  This is his last transfer of his mission so I will be "killing him off."  This is also his 3rd time serving in Renton and so it should be an easy change of things. We don't have very many Spanish elders, so it isn't a surprise when people serve more then once together.  We actually did get a new Spanish elder in the mission as well today, so I officially get to resign my title as youngest now.

This past week we actually saw a large increase in success.  We did a large amount of tracting and were able to find many potentials, taught lessons, and even got some return appointments.  We met a man whose friend was actually married in the Seattle Temple and was taught a little by the missionaries in Mexico when he was younger.  That was now about 20 years ago, but he remembers how kind they were and that they had English classes.  I am not sure how much he remembers about the church but it is a good start.  On August 31 we ran out of our mile limit in our car that we could drive.  We quickly called the members that we used to live with and they were more then willing to let us use their bikes.  We spent the day biking around to all of the people that we had to visit.  Luckily our plans were in the general area of our house and we only ended up biking about 10 miles that day.  We biked down towards the center of Renton and met with a lady that we had a lesson set up with.  She is friends with a member, and her little boy has actually attended scouting activities.  She has the desire to learn but is working a lot due to the fact that her husband was deported.  We hope that she will have work off on a Sunday to be able to come to church, but it looks like it will be hard for her to have much free time on her hands.  She wants to read the Book of Mormon though.  Elder Henderson said that it was a miracle and that it was because we were on bikes. The same day we also had an amazing lesson with a referral, and by the end of the night Elder Henderson wanted to call President Larkin and tell him to make us a bike area. :)

Our branch was a little shaken up this weekend when two of our members got taken by immigration officers. The lady whose husband and brother were taken was only left because she has two small children.  Not too much that we can do besides make sure that the family is taken care of here. The lady isn't a member but is a woman with a huge amount of faith.  She was able to bear her testimony in sacrament meeting this past week, and she knows that whatever happens that is it the Lords will.  She said if they have to go to Mexico or if they are together here again it doesn't matter because that will be where the Lord wants them. A huge example for all that heard her testimony.

Sounds like the family is doing will.  I don't know how I feel about waking up at 6:15 for school every morning either, but it will get easier as Gabe and Joe get used to it.  Keep up with the cross country.  It sounds pretty hectic to have 175 people on a cross country team, but I know you two will do great.  Dad is finally pulling out the old trumpet huh?  Sounds like fun to be in the band.  Where do they perform at?  Mom, let us know what job sounds like you. Are you going to look into using your college degree and going into a the business side of things?

Gracias por todo lo que hacen.

Elder Ben