Handwritten letter from Landon dated 9/13/2012

Photos from Brazil!

Mean muggin'!

The view from my room.

Landon and his companion, Elder Naugle

Huh?

Our Brazilian roommates. Such cool kids. I call the one on my right Kung Fu Panda and I poke his belly.

Letter from Landon

FAMILY!!!! 

I miss you guys like crazy!! I love all the stories from this week.  I can't believe Austin is going to Homecoming!  Haha I feel like he isn't old enough yet.  And Austin, CONGRATS ON THE HEADER GOAL!!! That is so cool my man!  WIsh I could have been there for it!  HAYDEN congrats on being in first place!! That is so cool bro!  Keep playin aggressive and kickin' butt!  Sorry I don't have much time to reply to everyone.  I love you all.

This week went by pretty fast.  The days feel sooo long from studying all day, but the weeks go by fast.  Portugues is tough, but I know more than I think.  We have to teach fake investigators almost every single day in Portugues.  It gets tough, but I was able to teach hinm about faith and repentance without looking at a script.  It was very bad portugues but I got my point across! hahah

Yesterday, my teacher was sick.  He has been sick with a pretty bad cold for the last few days.  He asked my district for a blessing.  There are 8 elders in my district, so I didn't know who would do it.  But Elder Huxford said, "The district leader should do it!"  Hahah I had a feeling it would be me.  I was really nervous, but turns out I gave a really good blessing.  The spirit was there with me guiding me what to say.  Everyone in my district complemented me on how good it was.  I love the power of the Priesthood and I can't wait to use it more throughout my mission.

Today we went to the temple again.  I love going to the temple weekly.  When we got there, a temple worker asked for three elders to do initiatories, so me and two friends volunteered.  It was super cool cuz it was all in Portugues!  I couldn't understand it, but I could feel the Spirit there.  I love that feeling.  After, we got to go into the Celestial room.  I prayed to my Heavenly Father and felt his love so strong.  I know that he is there and he is proud of me.  I felt such peace and joy from being in his house and serving him.  Whenever you guys need anything at all, pray about it.  I know he is there for you.  I have also been craving to read the Book of Mormon so much out here, so I always turn to it.  It has answers to every question in life.  My BOM is so marked up now it is awesome.  There are so many verses that I turn to whenever I need help.  I also turn to my Patriarchal Blessing.  I love it because it is a blessing just for me.  It is so cool.

Mom about packages, it should be pretty safe to send.  Since I'll be in Florianopolis for Christmas, be sure to send it to the mission home, NOT THE MTC.  They won't forward it to me from the MTC cuz it costs too mkuch.  So just send it to my mission home.  Mom I got your letter this week.  I loved it!  If you guys have time, write me more!  Lauren and Cody, sorry I didn't have time to reply to your email, but I got it and I loved it!

I love you family and I'm doing great!  You are in my prayers every night!!!

Love, Elder Howard

Letter from Landon!

FAMILY!!!  Holy cow I miss you guys like crazy!  I am so glad that you are all doing so well.  It brings me a lot of comfort to get so many emails from you guys.  I love it so keep it up!  Sorry I can't reply to all of them I only have 30 minutes on the email.  It sucks.

This week was ten times better than my first week!  I like it here a lot!  I have made a lot of new friends.  Mostly Brasilian Elders! haha they are the coolest ones here.  Our Brasilian roommates left today for there mission.  It was super sad.  I'm going to miss singing American songs with them. 

My Portuguese is coming slow, but its coming along.  It is pretty difficult, but I am studying hard.  I know that I can't learn this language without my Heavenly Father's help, so I'm putting all the work into it that I can.  I can understand a little bit, and talk a little bit.  I practice on the Brasilian Elders here cuz they like learning English as well.  One of my favorite one's here looks just like Chancho off of Nacho Libre.  haha so I call him chancho and he has no idea why.  They love saying random English words so I helped them pronounce "Michael Jordan" "Statue of Liberty" and "Stretchy Pants"! hahah it is so funny!!  I love talking to the Brasilians here.

Today we went to the temple again and did another session.  Mom and Lauren would be obsessed with the celestial room in the Sao Paulo temple.  It is beautiful!!  The session is cool too cuz some parts of it are in Portuguese.  I felt the spirit strong there today.  It was great!  I was so happy to hear that Lauren went and did baptisms.  I know you are all so busy, but maybe find a day within the next month where you can all go do baptisms as a family.  And invite Morgan! haha

I am so glad to hear that Morgan came and visited you guys! That makes me super happy.  I'm also glad that the boys are kickin butt in their soccer games.  Keep workin hard boys!  It will pay off!  And Hayden, Be more aggressive.  Me and Austin taught you better than that! haha. but serious.  Austin you would love Sao Paulo.  It is the perfect place to ParCore (I dono how to spell that).  My teacher loves to parcore.  The city is crazy!  I don't see how people live here.  I had a spiritual experience the other night and it was great!  I wrote in a letter to you guys that I sent out today with some pictures.  You should be getting them in about a week.  I got your letter this week mom.  It meant the world to me!  But I'm doing great out here, just studyin hard.  I can't wait to get to Florianopolis and actually be a missionary!  Lauren and Cody, that would be awesome if you guys did an intern in D.C.!  You guys totally should. Haha I love that you invited Morgan on the family vacations.  Wish I could go to D.C. with you guys if you end up going.  You should all come pick me up from Brazil (with Morgan) in two years and we'll tour the place.  You guys would love it.  Well I've got to go now.  My enter bar just broke so sorry this paragraph is so long.  I love you all and I'll write you again next Tuesday!  Love you guys!!!

Landon's Companion

Just as a quick note, Landon mentioned in his email that his companion is Elder Nougle. If you look at the photo of the missionaries, Elder Nougle is the one with the yellow tie on the back row.

Landon's Mailing Address

You can write Landon at:

Elder Landon Derek Howard
Box #24 District #36-A Brazil MTC
Brazil Florianopolis Mission
Rua Padre Antonio D'Angelo, 121
Casa Verde, Sao Paulo, SP
Brazil 02516-040

Please note: Letters take about one week to arrive in Brazil from the United States. After about eight weeks, I will post a new address to mail to.

Our first email from Elder Howard!!

Our first email finally arrived today. It is so good to finally hear from him!

From: Landon Howard
Date: Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: Hello

FAMILY!!!!!!!

I`m just sending out one mass email to you all because I don't have a lot of time! They only give you 30 minutes for email which is definitely not enough.  So I'll do my best to share all that I can.  Mom make sure you forward this to everyone and forward it to Morgan too.

I can't believe I'm in BRASIL!!!!  It is insane here and is super cool! The MTC feels like a prison sometimes!! haha cuz we only get to go out of it on p-days.  Today is our first p-day, so my p-days will always be on Tuesdays while i'm at the MTC or CTM in Portugues.  I have met a lot of cool kids here.  A couple of weird ones too.  The food here is so crappy!! haha but It is getting better.  I think the only reason it is getting better is because we are getting used to it.  It is always mystery meat here.  But I just eat it because I am always super hungry.  My companheiro (companion) is Elder Nougle.  Dad met him at the airport.  He is a super cool kid!  He is a little quiet, but he is super cool about everything and goes with the flow.  I like him a lot tho.

We have 6 elders total in our room.  2 are Brasilians!! they are hilarious! haha they keep me sane when it gets crazy here.  They like to sing American songs so the other night we sang some Miley Cyrus and Simple Plan together!  They are super funny!  I've been practicing my Portugues a lot with them.  Portugues is pretty tough, but I know through Heavenly Father and the Gift of Toungues I will be able to learn it!

It's been a rough adjustment!  I miss you all like crazy.  It is super weird just not talking to you guys everyday, but I know that you are doing great and that you are in the Lord's hands, as am I.  I was having a rough night the other night so I turned to my patriarchal blessing.  It is crazy how more of it relates to me right now in my life that I have always just read over.  It brought me so much comfort and I could feel Heavenly Father's love for me and I knew I was doing the right thing by coming on a mission.

Today we went to the Sao Paulo temple.  It is about an hour away.  The drive was crazy!! It is such a big city!! the drivers are crazy and there are tons of bikers swerving through everyone.  There are huge buildings and so many people walking around.  We did a session and it was in English.  It was a cool experience to do it in another country.  We just got back from walking around the streets of Sao Paulo by the MTC.  It is so cool out there!! Brazil is awesome!  You guys definitely need to come over here and pick me up when my two years is up.  And bring Morgan with you.  The boys would love it here.  It is all about soccer!

Well I don't have much time here which is pretty crappy.  But I love you all!  You will be getting a letter from me.  In it it talks about this thing called missionties.com, you guys can just disregard that.  I went over to the place and it is super  comlicated and not as cool as I thought it would be.  So just disregard that and tell Morgan too as well.  I loved all the personal letters you guys wrote me.  It brought me a lot of strength and encouragement.  I also got a letter from Morgan today and that made me so happy.  All your emails and letters have been so helpful!  Sorry I don't have much time to reply.  I love you guys a lot!  Tell the boys I love them and to kick some butt in soccer this week!  Let me know how their games and stuff go and I will email you next Tuesday.  Alos, stoked that USU beat Utah!!  Wish I could have seen it.  Tell dad SCISSORS.

Love you!

Elder Landon Howard

P.s.  I forgot to mention, I was made the district leader on sunday over my district.  Ask Cody, He will tell you what that means.  Tell Morgan too!  Love you all!!!!!

Landon is in Brazil!

We received word form the MTC in Sao Paulo this morning that Landon made it safely to Brazil. They even sent a photo.