Monday, September 30, 2013

September 30, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  Sounds like you guys had a good week!  My weeek was freakin awesome!!!  We have been meeting with Anderson and Maiara a lot this week!!  They are so great!  We have grown a love for them in such a small amount of time.  We taught them the plan of salvation, about eternal marriage, and the ten commandments.  It went really well.  They know that they need to be baptized, they are just nervous of how their family will react to it all.  Anderson is a sick guy and is just like me when it comes to being hard on myself.  He beats himself up a lot too and worries about perfection.  We talked to him a lot about how God doesnt expect us to be perfect in this life and that the Savior paid for our sins.  I felt like I was teaching myself when I was teaching him! haha.  I have prayed and hoped so bad that I could find someone just like me on my mission.  I found him and it is great!  They have been coming to church regularly and they always ask for more parts in the BOM to read.  It is great!  Mayara brings here little brother Leonardo with them as well.  Today we went and had lunch with the just for fun.  This week we will meet with them and try to get them lined up for marriage and then mark a baptism date.

We are still teaching Antonio and Sirlei.  Sirlei knows that everything is true, she is still just hesitant on the baptism.  This week we decided to do a fast with them, specifically for her, whether she should be baptized on the 12th of this mmonth or not.  We will meet with them again this week to see how the fast went and if she got an answer.  They are great people.

We are still teachin Eduarda and Elaina.  They are twins and we are going to have a family night with them tomorrow.  They werent able to come to church yesterday, but have been coming to most of the activites.  They have both commented that they want to be baptized.  We need to get their moms permission cuz they are only 15, but we will try to mark a date with them tomorrow.

We met with Stefania and Jhonne, a couple we met last week knocking doors.  We taught them the first lesson and it went really well.  They understood it really well and enjoyed the message.  They were supposed to go to church yesterday, but they had family come visit them so they werent able to make it.  We are going to go visit them later tonight.

Last week was awesome and we are stoked for the work this week! I am lovin Joacaba and me and Burton are havin a great time together!  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!  Joseph saw.

Elder Howard

Monday, September 23, 2013

September 23, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  I hope that you all had a great week!!!  My week was a really good one!  We have some awesome investigators and we are stoked for the next transfer.  The transfer is today and me and Burton will be staying together for another transfer!  I am stoked about it!!!

So last Sunday this couple randomly went to church.  They used to go a lot a few months ago, then stopped, but then decided they wanted to come back.  There names are Anderson and Maiara.  Well they invited us to eat lunch with them yesterday and so we went.  Also, Alex and his family from the ward went.  We had a churrasco (Brasilian BBQ) and it was fantastic!  Then we taught them the first lesson and invited them to be baptized.  They really want to be baptized and they kept asking what they need to do to be baptized.  We told them that they will have to get married, cuz they are living together.  I really think they will get married and get baptized.  They are great people.  After lunch, we all went to church together.  Anderson went in a freakin suit!  haha it was awesome!  I think that is the first time on my mission that my investigator has gone to church in a suit.

We are also teaching these two twins named Eduarda and Elaina. They are 15 years old.  They came to church for the second time yesterday.  They really enjoyed it.  They have both commented multiple times that they want to be baptized, so we will probably plan it for October 12th.  We are hoping that everything goes as planned.

We are still teaching Antonio and Sirlei.  We will go visit them again this week and teach them the rest of the commandments.  I am hopin that we will be able to baptize Sirlei this transfer too.  She said that she knows the BOM is true, but wants to learn more before being baptized.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!  Conference is coming up and you all better make time to watch some of it!!!  I love you!!!

Elder Howard

Monday, September 9, 2013

September 9, 2013

FAMILY!!!  How are you doin??  This week was a good one!!!  We got some pizza for my one year mark which was fantastic!!!  I cant believe that one year is down and there is one to go!  Pretty dang crazy!!!

So this week we taught Antonio and Sirlei again.  We taught them the plan of salvation and also some of the commandments.  It went great!  There was a great spirit with us through the whole lesson and they accepted to keep these commandments.  Sirlei has been reading the BOM and had a lot of questions for us.  We are still pushin here for the baptism this month so I hope that works out.  We will go back and visit them this week.

So there was another random couple that came to the church this week.  Marcos, less active member, and Valeria, non-member.  They are living together and dating.  We are going to go visit them this week.  We are hopin to help them get married and get a baptism marked as well.

We taught Leandro, Jandira and their family this week.  That went good as well.  We taught them the plan of salvation and they had a lot of questions about it all.  It went really well.  They are a great family, we just need to get them to come to church.  They read part of the BOM that we left for them, but they havent prayed about it yet.  I dont think we will be able to go back and visit them this week, but next week we will.

I hope that you all have a great week!!!  I love you all and tell Morg that I love her too!  I hope that everyone is doing great and that school started off good.  Have a great week!!!

Elder Howard

Sunday, September 8, 2013

September 2, 2013

FAMILY!!!  How the heck are you guys doin??  Sounds like you all had a good week!!!  My week was great too, other than almost being kissed by an old gay guy!! hahah that was pretty dang weird.  But I was quick enough to react and he didnt kiss me on the cheek.  hahah freakin weird!!!

Last Monday we taught a super cool family.  The dad is Leandro, the mom Jandira and they have two kids: João who is 14 and Julia who is 7.  I told the little girl that she had the same name as my mom that I missed so bad.  We taught them the first lesson and there was a great spirit there with us.  They opened up a lot and told us that they felt good throughout the message and it made them think about things that they had never thought of before.  It was a great lesson and we will go back and visit them today!

We are also teaching this guy named Bruno.  He didnt make it to church which sucked, but he came to an activity at the church.  We taught him this week about faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and endure to the end.  It went really well.  He has been reading the BOM but said he doesnt feel like he has gotten an answer that the book is true.  We will visit him this week again too.

Two weeks ago, this less active named Antonio came back to church and he brought his girlfriend named Sirlei.  We visited them last week and taught them the first lesson.  It was great!  Antonio bore his testimony many times and Sirlei accepted baptism this month if she gets an answer that the church is true.  They went to church again on Sunday which was great and we will visit them tomorrow night.

We did lots of contacts this week again.  I did two more bus contacts, which was almost 70 more people in total.  I lost fear of getting in front of them, so I decided that each time we use a bus that is full, I will get up in front of everyone.  We also started our English Class and only had a few people.  But we will put a banner in front of the church and keep talking to everyone about it.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!  Tell Morg that I love her as well!  1 year this week!!!  How crazy is that?!?!  LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Howard