January 21, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are all of you doing??  I miss you guys like crazy!!!  This week was pretty good!  On Monday, right after we got done emailing, we got a call from a lady at the hospital.  Her son had just had surgery.  Her name is Adriana and her sons name is Leonardo and they arent members.  We got there and Leonardo was doing great.  Adriana called us to talk about being baptized!!!  We talked to her all about it.  She is dating a former bishop who has been less active for the last 6 years.  They are getting married next month.  He has a desire to get back to church, and now Adriana and Leonardo have the desire to be baptized.  We marked to meet with them Saturday, and when we got there, we taught them the first lesson.  They had already heard most of it cuz they have been to church many times.  After, we set a baptismal date for February 9th!  Two weeks from Saturday!  We cant do it any earlier cuz Leonardo is going out of town.  I really hope that I am here for it, cuz the transfer is next Tuesday so I should find out this weekend if I get transfered.  I really dont wanna leave here yet.  I would love to stay one more transfer and be here for their baptism.  They all came to church yesterday and enjoyed it.  They have known about the church for a while and are all ready to be baptized.  So cool!!!

On Friday, we headed to Marcelo's house to meet with him, Leblum and Ajona.  We had planned to invite Marcelo to be baptized.  We got there and nobody came to the door.  It sucked so bad!  He has already been to church twice, and seemed to be doing great.  I dono if they were just busy, but we called them and nobody answered.  Sunday rolled around and I was hopin that he would come to church again, but he never showed up.  We are gonna try to get ahold of him this week.  It just sucks cuz he seemed to be doing so good!  I hope that he is still doing well and is just busy.

We also got a couple new investigators this week.  One lady is named Tanya.  We were teaching her the first lesson and talking about baptism, and she stopped us and said, "but I cant be baptized cuz I smoke."  So right now with her, it is important to focus on her smoking problem.  I want to do all that I can to help her stop.  Me and Elder Val have some ideas this week to help her out.  She is a sweet lady!

Yesterday at church, we were sitting in our second class, and Irmão Anderson, the second counselor, came in and told us we needed to give a talk in church.  haha I was so nervous!  But I instantly thought of speaking on the Book of Mormon.  I have grown so close to this book out here, and I want others to realize the importance of this book too.  I got up and gave my talk and it went really well.  I started by telling everyone to be patient with me and my Português! haha cuz I was super nervous!  But it went really well and I was able to give a good little talk.

I am glad that everyone is all doing well at home!  I am sorry about all the sickness tho.  That is rough!  I am glad you guys had a blast in Vegas as well, and that the boys played great!  I love you all and tell Morg that I love her too!!!  Thanks for sending the package.  I will be waiting for it!  Also, I will let you know next week whether I am gonna stay in Itajai or not.  Love you all!!!

Elder Howard