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

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

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

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.

Seattle Update

Mom,

I was excited to hear that Daniel did so well at his race.  It is kind of hard to think that he was so close and I couldn't see him. Haha, he was literally about 8 miles away from me...

It is nice to hear that Corey is having his farewell on Sunday.  It is going to be 100% different in Africa, and I am excited to hear of his experiences.

Hey, could you send me Mike's home address? It would be nice to write him one of these days. I can't believe that they got into a wreck on the highway and everyone walked away with only minor injuries.

It seems like the church is coming out with a lot of new approaches to contact people.  The mormon.org experience was pretty good for us in this mission. Although we didn't see the full impact of it because it wasn't in Spanish, the mission in total had a good use of it.  We were able to see the results of it and compare it to other places in the states, and Seattle, Washington has seen the most success!  A lot of good members referring their friends and people being interested about the billboards.  It is cool to hear about the Facebook approach.  We heard that it was being piloted in several missions and it was cool to hear that McKay is getting a chance to use it.

 As far as Renton is concerned, the branch is doing well.  The Hermanas had 2 baptisms this past week, and Marco is looking forward to his own baptism this next Friday!  He was able to attend both of the baptisms this past week and one up in Bellevue the weekend before that.  He is progressing well, and we are excited for him.  I can't help but think that we almost lost him this past week though.  We made a mess up of not seeing him about 5 days in a row because he lives out of our area and other things came up. Totally not supposed to happen, and it was our fault. One day we were eating lunch, and both Elder Mitchell and I got the same feeling that we needed to go and see him.  We left right after to go to his house, and we found him in a very down and depressed attitude.  He isn't in very good situations right now, and he was really questioning what God was doing.  Using scriptures and the gospel, we were able to give him excitement for the future, but more then anything, he just needed us to be there at that moment for someone to talk to.  It was a huge testimony builder for me on why you have daily contact with investigators...yes, Satan is real and will seriously get in the way of any spiritual progression anyone tries to make.

I think Marco is the only investigator right now that is really putting the effort forth to learn the gospel.  Others have interest in learning but don't really make it anything of a priority.  Other things seem to always come up to distract them in their lives and make it very difficult to get them on any progression.  We seem to get a lot of referrals from other missionaries that are tracting though and run into Spanish speaking people, so I know that there is the potential in this area to be great.

Well got to run.  Love ya Family,

Elder Ben Howell

Marine Recruits on Parris Island

Hi Mom!

I'm glad you enjoyed the Valentine's photo - it took about 15 tries to get it right!  No worries on not remembering Valentine's day; I probably wouldn't have either if I didn't have a cool bike light toy to play with and make fun pictures!  =D

Is Bro. Bingham teaching the Old Testament class outside of regular school hours or is this for his usual students as well?  I remember he used to be an institute instructor, so maybe he wants to have another class with a bit more mature student body?  =P

This past week, Elder Bishop and I had to be down in Jacksonville (again) for all day Wednesday and Thursday, so we decided to take a gamble and leave our two new missionaries alone to work here in Beaufort after a week in the field. I know Elder Cancel was pretty stressed about it, but Elder Craynor loved the challenge and overall, I think they had a good experience.

The devil has distracted Judy.....she still wants to be baptized, but a lot of things suddenly cropped up over the past two weeks that have kept her from reading, coming to church, seeing us, etc, so we'll see if she's really determined to get there or not. We have found a couple of incredible new investigators though!  One is a man named Howard. We tracted into him last Sunday, and he told us he was busy, but to come back sometime.  We didn't think much of it, but a few days later when we were in the same area, we swung by and he invited us in and started peppering us with questions. Long story short, he's known members here in Beaufort all his life, but never has known what a "mormon" is and is exceedingly curious! He even fed us dinner that night so that we wouldn't have to leave and could tell him more!  We saw him two days later and he apologized for "only" getting as far as halfway through 1 Nephi!  The Philippino/Catholic lady has been coming to church the past two weeks and really enjoys the ward so far...it helps that she's practically surrounded by members in her neighborhood too!  She has worked into the word social scheme very well, but we'll see how well the actual BofM and gospel reach her.

Aha! I nearly forgot!  I have also been assigned as the new Parris Island group leader for all of the LDS marine recruits!  Yesterday was my first Sunday out there and it was fantastic!  The recruits love church (it's the only time away from drill instructors) and we have loads of non-members that come to sacrament meeting and sunday school. One who has come two weeks in a row and started reading the Book of Mormon already says she has her answer and wants to be baptized before she graduates. It's kinda like being back in a single's ward - all the people are my age, and they are so easy to identify with and teach.  These next few months out there should be a lot of fun.

Well, I haven't had much time at all to be on Facebook this last week, so I've not yet perfected its use (especially since I didn't use it too frequently before the mission), but the idea is pretty much the same as regular missionary work:  go where the people are.  I'm expected to work with the members online to get referrals, teach their friends, spark interest in the gospel, etc.  Right now, Elder Cancel and I have found several of our current investigators and part members online and use it as just another tool to stay in daily contact with them, see how their reading has gone, what questions they've encountered, etc.  So, yeah, I keep track of lessons taught, referrals received and contacted, new online investigators....all the usual numbers that they ask us to keep track of in regular face-to-face missionary work as well. The scriptures are all online at http://scriptures.lds.org/ so often I send links to people with particular passages highlighted. There are also a bunch of videos on Mormon.org, conference talks, and other things that I can direct people to if I think it will help meet their needs and spark a desire to learn more. It is meant to always lead to contact in the real world though.

Well, my time is up.  I love you all!

Elder M.

Seattle Update

Hey Family!!!

This week has been beautiful up in Washington!!!  A total change from the other week that we had of snow.  This whole week we have had weather of high 50s or even 60s and not even rain for about a week now!  Totally wonderful weather!

Well, I have definitely never seen a turtle crossing sign, and I am not even sure if I have seen a deer crossing sign in my mission.  Being in the city, I haven't seen any deer at all my whole mission.  Although for some reason, there seem to be a lot of racoons where I live. We heard some strange sounds outside our apartment the other night and went out to check it out to find 3 racoons about 15 feet from our door. We also see a lot while driving at night.

Hahah, I don't even think I know were Pullman is, Mom.  People may think that I will know Washington after the mission, but that wont be true. I will only know about 20 or 30 miles of it.  I heard that Daniel will be up this weekend at the University of Washington to run, and that is in my mission.  I have been past that campus several times and really love it!

Speaking of missionaries that we may know, I meet an elder that was from Manti here.  It was while I was serving in Seattle.  The English missionaries lived in the same apartment complex that we did.  He was literally trained 50 feet away from where I was. For some reason, his name escapes me right now.

I have never even heard of using cement for a counter top, but if you can make it look like granite, that would be cool.  Maybe that will come in handy when you build your dream house, Mom!

McKay, way to go on training!!!  Way cool. One new companion a month has got to be crazy though. We don't even have 11 Spanish elders out in my mission that I could be companions with. I have to say that I love Puerto Rican people! Not too many in Washington, but we actually have a family that we are teaching, and the dad is from there. That would be the family that you mentioned in your letter, Mom.  They are wonderful, and we are still teaching them. They are super busy though, so we don't get many opportunities to get over to their house.  They did start to read that Book of Mormon last week though, and we are going to go by and see what their thoughts have been.

We did have a new transfer start for us as well, but nothing is going to change for me right now. I will still be serving in Renton with Elder Mitchell, which I am thankful for. We have some good things happening and a lot of potential in Renton but have to somehow tap into it better.  As I said before, I am still the youngest Spanish missionary here, but we got news that a cousin of my old companion (Elder Haro) has been assigned to serve here Spanish speaking as well and should be here in 6 weeks!   Marco (the man who is trying to quit smoking) is still on date.  He has been doing really great at not smoking, and we put him on a program that should help him.  He has not missed a single week at church since he first found it either.  Really loves the church and learning about it.

Well my time is up and I have to go.  Love you family!

Elder B. Howell